Two days later, Ian was feeling incredibly weak compared to his companions. The party had spent nearly thirty hours in Mortis Clutch over the past two days. They had discovered barrows that were absolutely filled with ghouls. When they had attempted to enter, they were swarmed by giant waves of ghouls.

Instead of the monsters they fought on the surface, which were around level 1700, these ones were around level 1900, and they would pull everything in the barrow with their shrill cries. They had ended up fighting their way back to the entrance and fought off the horde while Mara, Spot, and Socks protected their rear and flank from the greenskin patrols that were in the area.

By funneling them through an exit, just a few at a time, they managed to be able to control the chaos the battle should have erupted into. With over 230 monsters in each barrow, it was a terrifying accident that had turned into a giant opportunity for advancement, which is exactly what they spent the next few hours perfecting.

They discovered they could reset the barrows three hours after the last monster was killed, the time they needed after the first couple of attempts to help recover from the fifteen minutes of constant struggle. After the first two, the fights became easier to handle as their levels had rapidly increased, and they grew comfortable with the way the monsters moved and attacked. Ultimately, they had managed to jump to level 1,705, though now they were only getting around nine levels per barrow. If they were closer together, it would be worth it, but the closest two were over an hour and a half walk from each other, leaving the party to ponder their next move.

"Hey Ian, can we slow down and walk for a moment?" Lana asked, breaking him from his thoughts.

He slowed down and looked around the park. He had been lost in his thoughts since the start of the run and hadn't realized were already a third of the way to the coffee shop.

"What's up?" Ian asked, glancing towards Lana.

"I was going to ask that," she gave him a wry smile. "It isn't like you to zone out and halfway sprint for nearly five minutes. Some of the folks we've been passing have been giving us crazy looks."

Ian blinked and checked his watch. They had covered almost two miles in the past ten minutes.

"Sorry," he said with a shake of his head. "I guess I'm just a little bit out of it."

"Want to talk about it?"

His initial reaction was to brush it off and change the subject, but he looked over and found real concern in her eyes. His throat caught for a second when he recognized it as something he had only seen on a few people's faces over the past couple of years. He realized he was still holding himself back from trusting his friends like they did with him, but he didn't have to handle everything on his own anymore.

"I'd actually like that," Ian said after a moment, getting a warm smile from Lana in return. "I'm just concerned that I am falling behind everyone now—even if I know it sounds silly coming from the guy who could one-shot everything up until a little bit ago. I'm seeing everyone's growth, but I'm not feeling it myself.

"Tram was able to lock down the entire front of the barrow this morning with his ground stomp and blade wall. Against a mass charge of monsters, he's turning into a powerhouse who is probably unequaled for a tank at our level range.

"Then there's everyone else's growth," he said with a smile at the crazy things he saw earlier. "Nia's used her ability to double cast the ice walls from both sides of the tunnel at once, managing to kill dozens of ghouls at a time. Ash would activate mirror shot and shoot her OP laser arrow thing—"

"Spirit arrow," Lana said with a giggle.

"Spirit arrow," he amended before moving on. "Claire's daggers mowed down entire waves, like when you were able to lock down the adds Mara's pack found. You just identified what needed to be done, and you were able to use your ability to create vines that can crush monsters by themselves if given enough time. You also keep a passive heal over time on everyone—which is nothing compared to your ability to completely heal major wounds in the blink of an eye with your new healing spell."

"You're doing a lot of the lifting as well, Ian," she said quietly as they walked. "You are still in there, killing monsters every wave. You are making tactical decisions on the fly that Claire just doesn't have the ability to do. She can set our strategy, and even explain how everything should go. You see what is actually happening and give us the orders to adjust to emerging threats.

"I don't think your problem is that you're not getting stronger. I think the real problem is that you don't really see the impact of what you do for us. Intellectually, you understand that we are stronger and have more power because of you, but you can't feel the difference like we can. When your buff could only be on six people at a time, it felt like the world was slowly crushing me without it."

Ian's eyebrows went up as he recognized some of the painful emotions that flickered across her face as she thought about it.

"Sorry, I didn't realize it was like that for you," he whispered.

She just took a deep breath and waved the concern away. "Doesn't matter, because we don't have to worry about it anymore.

"Besides, the real reason you are feeling like you are stagnating is because you've spent everything to max out that new skill that doesn't have anything to do with your own power. What did it end up being at the end?"

"A 35% bonus with 3 allied parties," he whispered, earning a look that all but announced she was right, and he should know it. "Alright, alright. I admit I'm being silly."

"Not silly," she replied immediately. "You do things for those you wish to help and protect, and you sacrifice your own power gains to do so. What did Claire say you could do if you focused all of your SP into your own development instead of your party skills? I know she gave you a breakdown for that option."

"She's always so thorough when it comes to her Keeper duties," he agreed. "But she didn't give me one—she gave me dozens. I had and still have a lot of different possible skill paths available to me. I think the most terrifying one was becoming a walking patch of death. There is a skill that allows me to cast it on a monster and drain its vitality and magic. Combine that with a skill that can be sync'd up to any other skill effect to create an aura around the caster, and I could literally be a walking death machine by level 5000, sucking the vitality everything within ten yards of me dry within moments."

"Holy shit, Ian," she replied. "Why don't you go for that now? Think of how fast you would level just by standing in front of those barrow entrances!"

"It wouldn't work on the undead or elementals," Ian admitted. "It would also require me to spend nearly every skill point I receive on mana regeneration and supplemental aura skills, or I wouldn't be able to keep up with the mana draw of the aura as I move up in levels unless I had a perfect affinity for the skill, which I don't."

"Speaking of which, I noticed you still don't have the ability to constantly use magic soul."

"I think that is next on my progression path," Ian said, smiling as he realized how deftly Lana pushed him into focusing on what comes next. "I have around 4700 points to play with right now. I just really need to look for a new spear, and decide if I am going to get resistances next or start collecting the rare tier of stat bonuses after that."

"Well, I think I can help you with the spear," she said. "I actually wanted to ask you a couple of days ago about arranging a hunting session before the tournament. I found a monster in a level 2,450 dungeon that is similar in setup to the horker workers. They are called thorn wraiths, and they are solo monsters that are…well, the best way I can describe them is a nature-based wendigo made of vines and bones.

"They have a nature-based breath attack that causes paralysis if you don't have enough nature resistances, while also using bone and vine weapons as their primary method of attack. They drop those weapons occasionally when killed, one of which is a nature wand that would let me attack without rapidly draining the mana I need for healing everyone."

"Huh," he said, thinking about the enemy type. "We could definitely get everyone together and give it a try."

"We don't want to bring an entire party," she said, catching him off guard. "The more people within a hundred yards of the creature, the more power it draws in from its surroundings and the stronger it becomes. Solo, they would be around level 2500, but with two of us, they would only be around level 2700. Claire said you would be able to kill them if you took the uncommon nature resistance skill, but would want me to be with you just in case.

"If we brought one more person, they would jump up to level 3400, then 4600 after that and so forth. It becomes exponential, and they gain new abilities with each person, such as summoning wild thorn beasts in the middle of the fight and creating patches of poison gas."

"Fuck that," Ian said scowling. "So, do you want to head over there tonight while everyone else is busy?"

"I'm down if you are," she said, smiling at him. "Claire is with her parents tonight, and the dynamic duo are both attending the AO's introduction to skill instruction course this afternoon. Tram is playing basketball right now, then he's got a date with someone."

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"Oh really?" he said, chuckling.

"I think he actually kinda likes this one…mainly because he won't tell me who she is."

"Fair. I probably wouldn't want to tell my sister who I am dating right away either. Though that is more due to the fact that Ashlyn can't be trusted," Ian said, earning an immediate nod of understanding from Lana.

"He just doesn't want me to give him a hard time," she said with a laugh. "And Ashlyn doesn't want you to get hurt again, so she wants to be a gatekeeper. You should see how many women she's shut down already."

Ian stopped walking and turned to Lana. "What do you mean she is shutting women down?"

"Don't get upset," she said quietly. Glancing around to make sure nobody was close enough before she continued. "You said that you aren't interested in dating anyone right now, so Ashlyn plays a little defense for you because she doesn't want people bothering you about dating while you are still dealing with your other stuff. Both Claire and I also help out in our own ways."

Ian gave her an unamused look. "You aren't telling me everything."

"I'm not, and I really don't want to, but I also don't want to lie to you," she said before sighing. "Ashlyn said a few things she knew would be taken out of context. The comments helped the media double down on one of the more popular theories being tossed around right now, and it has been enough to keep most people away."

Ian just stared at her, waiting for her to say more. After a few uncomfortable seconds of him staring at her expectantly as she chewed on her lip, she finally caved.

"Ashlyn may have said things to a couple of the more persistent fangirls that kept coming around that implied you and I might be an item."

Ian's eyes widened as he looked around to check if anyone was listening. With the path still clear, he glanced back to see Lana looking at him in embarrassment.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier? I could have set the record straight, so you didn't get pulled into her craziness."

Lana took a deep breath before looking up at the sky. "Because life has been so much easier with people believing it to be true."

Ian blinked in shock. "What?"

"I'm truly sorry, Ian," Lana said in a hushed tone. "But it wasn't her craziness that put me in this position, but rather that day at the coffee shop when we ran into Avra."

"Damnit, this is my fault for making a scene, isn't it?" Ian asked, already certain of the answer. He knew he had taken it too far to annoy his ex. He should have thought about the second and third-order effects of his actions.

"Not quite," she replied, surprising him. "I purposefully avoided saying anything to correct the narrative. It was hard to go to places alone in the AO because many of the younger adventurers flocked to me, trying to get my attention or to hit on me. Once that story broke, all the guys suddenly treated me like I was off limits, which was incredibly refreshing."

"This is all so weird," Ian said, rubbing his temples before internal panic set in. "Wait, has Tram heard about this? Have you told him the truth?"

"Tram's reaction honestly surprised me," she said, a fond smile creeping onto her features. "He came to my room and asked me if you made me happy, assuming it was all true." She laughed for a second at the memory. "It took me about half an hour to convince him we weren't actually a couple. To be perfectly honest, I think he was a little disappointed with me by the end, and I'm not entirely sure how I should feel about that."

Ian couldn't help but chuckle. "That sounds like him."

"Yeah, he's awesome," she said before steering the conversation back to the original subject. "The others are also all aware. But that isn't really important. Do you want me to make a public statement to clear the air? You never asked for this, and we never asked to see if it was what you wanted. So, I'll fix this in a heartbeat if you say the word."

Ian looked over and saw that his friend's smile didn't quite reach her eyes. "No, it isn't really a problem, especially if it's making your life easier. I just wish you all had told me about it. I'm not some fragile damsel who needs to be kept in a castle for their own safety."

"I don't know, Ash acts like you are sometimes," she teased.

"No kidding," Ian replied with a smile. "She and I were always close growing up, and I think she is secretly worried that I'll disappear if something bad happens. Historically speaking, I'm batting zero for selecting decent partners, but I'll need to get back into the dating world eventually.

"There isn't any reason to rush, though," Ian added after a slight pause. "I'm not even sure if I remember how to properly date someone, or if I will have the time to dedicate to someone else. I don't want to rush into something serious just to be in a relationship, you know? That feels like I'd be setting things up for failure."

"We're young and have the potential to live forever," Lana said with a shrug. "There isn't any need to hurry."

Ian nodded before looking at his watch. "Actually, we might want to start jogging again if we want to hit that dungeon you were talking about today."

*~*~*

Analyze Results - Tormented Soul of the Forest

LVL: 2,691

Lana had undersold the monsters they were hunting. It was similar to a wendigo in the fact that it had giant antlers coming out of the top of its head and an oversized deer skull for a face. It also had bones and dried leathery flesh being held together by thick silver vines with blood-colored thorns all over the creature. It was humanoid, but it didn't have normal hands. Instead, the vines wrapped around the handles of two clubs made out of what looked like a black femur with a clump of shiny metal on the top.

Ian shuddered as the vines in the creature undulated every time the creature moved. It made him feel better knowing the creatures were weak to pure magical attacks, even if his spear wasn't going to do much damage on its own. They were heavily resistant to both nature magic and physical damage, making them an unpopular monster to fight even without their ability to scale by group size.

"At least they are territorial, so we will only face one at a time," Ian muttered, earning a nod of agreement from Lana. "Alright, I'm going to purchase the nature resistance skill before we give it a shot. Just make sure to stay far enough back, so it doesn't target you."

He opened up his status screen and purchased his first elemental resistance skill and immediately dropped the 500 SP per level to max it out.

Nature Magic Resistance 5/5 (Passive): Decreases the status effect of common and uncommon nature spell effects by 75%. Increases resistance to nature spells by 12.5%.

"Alright," Ian said, giving Lana a nervous smile. "For the record, that thing looks like the unintended consequences of a weekend where Mother Nature went on a bender and got knocked up by a rage demon, and now she makes it play in the back yard when people come over because it embarrasses her in front of the other moms."

"Yeah, it's definitely nightmare fuel," she agreed with a small smirk. "Just go have fun with your play date. I've got band-aids if you end up getting a boo-boo."

Ian chuckled as he brought his spear around to the ready position. Taking a deep breath, he slowly let it out to center himself. It was standing less than fifty yards away in the clearing, with its back turned to them, seemingly oblivious to their presence.

Launching himself out of the shrubs he had been hiding in, Ian entered the clearing and started sprinting towards the creature. Almost immediately, it turned towards him and let out a blood-curdling scream that sounded like dozens of people crying out in pain all at once. He grunted away the initial spike of fear and continued to close the distance as the creature began to wave its arms in front of it.

A greenish-yellow cloud suddenly rushed out to hit Ian. As he tried to adjust his approach and outrun it, the cloud adjusted its direction and came at him faster than he could move to escape.

"Fuck," he swore just before it hit him. He felt his muscles tense for a second before he fully regained control of his body. Whatever it was caused his muscles to feel like he had just finished a high-intensity workout, but he pushed through it as he came out of the cloud towards the creature.

It took a step back in surprise, but Ian was close enough to activate magic soul and swing the blade of his spear across the creature's chest. It let out another bone-chilling screech as a few of the vines were severed, allowing Ian to see the taunt, leathery flesh pulled tight over its ribcage.

A sense of calm came over Ian as he felt his muscles begin to heal with a familiar warming sensation. He didn't have time to check where Lana was as he jumped back to dodge one of the creature's clubs, but he smiled, knowing she had his back with her heals.

As he moved forward to attack again, it kicked out with one of its vine-covered legs, almost catching him. As he dodged to the side, the creature spun and brought its second club down towards Ian, forcing him to jump back again.

One of Lana's vines suddenly burst from under the creature and grabbed its legs before jerking to the side, pulling it off balance. Not giving up an opportunity, Ian lunged forward while activating magic soul. The creature let out a soul-piercing cry as the magic blade bit into the shoulder joint of its left arm. Twisting the spear, the bones popped out of the shoulder with a cracking noise, causing the arm to hang uselessly with only a single silver vine holding it onto the creature's body.

Ian tisked to himself when he saw the half-cut vine on the creature's shoulder beginning to heal as it tried to push itself up. Lunging in again, he managed to finish the vine as the creature got to its knees. The arm fell, but Ian barely got the haft of his spear up in time to slow the remaining arm's club as it hit him in the upper, outer thigh, knocking him back.

He felt his entire leg light up in a sharp pain. It still held his weight, but he knew the attack would have broken his leg if he hadn't blocked part of the hit.

Falling into a defensive stance, Ian watched as the now one-armed creature brought his club down on the vine wrapped around its leg. When it did it for the second time, Ian moved in on its weak side and hit it again with the magic blade, severing another batch of vines from across its back.

"Ian, the legs are turning black as you cut more of the vines away from its core," Lana yelled. "As they turn dark, the movements of that limb slow down."

Ian looked over at the detached arm and saw that the vines on it were now completely black. Smiling, he moved in and severed four more of the vines from the creature's back, causing it to cry out again. As it brought its head up, he hit its good arm where the bicep should have been, cutting half the vine and causing the creature's attacks to slow down drastically.

Dodging another attack, he stepped forward and jabbed his spearhead into the creature's bare chest cavity where its heart should have been. The magic blade sheared four of the ribs away from the sternum, and it tried to cry out one last time before the noise died off as the green orbs of energy that made up the eyes slowly dimmed until they were gone.

Congratulations! You have defeated an enemy more than 500 levels higher than yourself. Experience rewards are quadrupled. You have earned 32 levels. You have achieved level 1737. You have been awarded 960 skill points!

Ian whistled at the notification as he reached down and looted the creature.

"What the hell?" he muttered as he looked at the bow he was holding, made from bone and silver vines. Turning to Lana, he held it up.

"But it was using maces?" she said with a disturbed look.

"Right?" Ian replied before he shook his head. "We also received three lesser essence stones, two units of steel vine, three demon bone fragments, and a magic opal. Looks like we can get stuff for our crafting friends while we're here."

"I bet Jimmy is already looking up what he can do with these things," Lana said with a giggle. "And I bet your sister is going to lose her mind when she sees that bow."

Ian just nodded as he stored it in his item storage. "Well, as long as you're alright with it, I was thinking we could see if we can get stuff for as many of our teammates as possible."

"I only wish we could surprise them," Lana laughed, giving Ian a bright smile as she finished healing him up.

"Not much chance of that," he returned her smile, looking at his screen to find over a hundred million people watching the two of them.

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