Nathan flew backwards and slammed into the rock wall.

  He groaned. His shoulder—the part that had been fried by a laser beam, beat and pulsed with pain.

  He pressed a finger to it, then hissed and drew his finger away.

  There was a high pitched ring. Nathan rolled to the side and a laser beam struck the wall where he'd just been embedded in.

  “I take it back!” he shouted. “You're not useless! And I'm sorry for kicking your buddy's corpse that one time!”

  It beeped and another laser beam shot out. Nathan screamed and ducked his head. The laser soared above him and the tips of his hair singed black from the heat.

  He reached into his inventory, pulled out his fishing rod and cast a line toward the turret in a jerky motion. The hook crashed into it, then flipped it onto its side. The spider legs underneath it shifted and turned the body sideways, then righted itself in a second. It locked back onto Nathan. Another laser shot out.

  Nathan dived to the right and locked his eyes onto the creature. He activated [Basic Inspect] and read over it as fast as he could.

  [Protector]—LV. 112

  An artificial automaton designed to defend key areas of interest from foreign intrusion. (aka: you). Sadly, this particular robot model is fundamentally flawed. Despite having extensive weaponry, it doesn't have a body capable of using it. All attempts to fire its weapons will result in self-termination.

  Unless you're unlucky enough to accidentally summon the upgraded model, in which case, it will attempt to get revenge for all of the brethren its felt die by your hand.

  You might object and say that you had nothing to do with those deaths, but from its perspective, all it saw was that they mysteriously exploded after coming in contact with a person. If you were unlucky enough to be one of those people, it receives a plus 20 percent bonus to all targeting and all tracking and a plus 10 percent bonus to all attacks. It's being empowered by the rage an automaton can feel. Not that an automaton can really feel, but you get my point.

  A loud beep.

  Nathan jumped into the air and a laser shot just below his family jewels. The fear of God passed over him in that moment.

  The burn on his shoulder stung, reminding him of the potshot that tin can had managed to nab.

  This would be a good opportunity to test something—do injuries carry over into my water elemental form?

  Halfway into the air, he disintegrated into fine mist. The mist repooled into several floating thin streams of water.

  Nathan felt exhausted.

  Well and truly fatigued.

  He wouldn't be falling asleep mid-fight, but every movement was a Herculean task.

  So injuries are converted over into fatigue in this form.

  What would happen if he was near dying and he switched into water? Would he just fall asleep forever?

  Note to self, Nathan thought. Don't test that particular theory.

  The turret spun around in circles, making several high pitched beeps. Nathan rushed the streams of water forward and attempted to flood the creature from the inside. He anticipated that there would be a loud sizzling sound as he shorted out the entire thing...

  But nothing happened.

  The turret spun around at higher speeds.

  If Nathan didn't know any better, he'd say that the beeps sounded alarmed.

  Nathan tried to expand inward. The metal creaked in response.

  That seemed promising.

  Nathan prepared to do the same motion, when—

  The turret spun at ridiculous speeds like a top. Heat built up along all of the metal parts from the friction.

  And it burned.

  Nathan pulled his body out of it, but he felt even more fatigued than before.

  It looked like Nathan had just discovered this form's first weakness.

  Heat.

  Seriously? It's not some kind of cryptonite? It has to be something that any old joe can get their hands on?

  But there was no time to think on that further. He had to make do with what he had and take care of this thing before it became any more of a threat.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  A laser beam shot out and hit one of Nathan's watery tendrils. Another small wave of fatigue hit Nathan in response.

  I am not going to die to a freaking robot miniboss! he thought.

  Ok. He'd tried expanding into the creature to pop it in one go and that didn't work. But he didn't have to do that the wires were exposed. A few clean slices would probably deal significant damage.

  Nathan compressed his form into a thin disc. He applied velocity to the edges and spun like a sawblade.

  He could feel his energy going down the longer he kept it up.

  He shot forward. A spinning sawblade of death versus a laser beam robot.

  The saw blade whirred.

  Water screeched against metal like chalk, like nails on a chalkboard. The friction burned at Nathan and he felt his consciousness flutter away.

  The robot turned and spun and tried to back up—but Nathan trailed behind it, always with that incessant screech.

  The lights on the robot dimmed right as Nathan cut to the middle of the automaton.

  [You have leveled up!]

  [You have leveled up!]

  [You have leveled up!]

  Nathan reassembled his body and collapsed to the ground. He'd had just enough awareness to slip his clothes back on before his transformation.

  The glass floor shuddered.

  The celestial laser beam generator gun thing moved fully out of the hill and unfolded like a coiled spring. It pointed roughly in the direction of the Dark Lord's castle and hummed to life with blue, wire-like lights accompanying it.

  Nathan's stared up at the clear symbol of quest progression.

  And then a fish fell out of the railgun and hit him on the head.

  [Hilly Biome Fish Caught: 327 out of 327]

  A small crowd had gathered at the base of the hill.

  Because of course they had.

  Because nothing Nathan did could ever be passed or glossed over—no, everybody, their grandmother, their cat, and their cat's nephew needed to hear about it.

  Nathan had been pleasantly surprised to see that the glass roof had disappeared after his fight. He'd been able to fly out of the top of the hill and land off to the side.

  He went around the side in order to see what all the hubbub was about. Bad mistake.

  A woman looked up and pointed at the top. "It had to be him! The mysterious stranger!"

  "My cousin in the plains told me that the prophecies from the Holy Patch Notes are finally coming true."

  "You mean—?"

  "We're finally getting out of here!"

  Nathan stuck to the back of the crowd. His knees wobbled—not from nervousness related to those people talking, but because of his exhaustion. He'd hoped that the effects of the heat would pass in time, but he was wrong. It had nearly been a good ten minutes after the fight and he felt more exhausted than before.

  Next time, Nathan thought, I don't care what I have to do or how much I have to ignore—I am not activating the third one of these. This is getting ridiculous.

  A familiar voice rang out. Nathan's ears perked up.

  "Footsteps," the voice said.

  "That definitely wasn't there the last time we were here," a second voice said.

  "Something is afoot."

  "Afoot?" the second voice scoffed. "Holy cow, I don't think I've ever heard anybody use that word, like, ever."

  "Is it not standard English?"

  "What've you been reading? 18th century Victorian novels?"

  "No."

  Nathan glanced from left to right. It was hard to make out the individuals in question due to how many other people were talking.

  He caught a quick glance of fiery red hair. Next to the figure with red hair, there was a man about the thickness of a brick wall with a shield on his right arm.

  "Do you think it's actually him?" the second voice said. "Or do you think everybody's right and it's an impostor?"

  "You've asked me this question five times."

  "Yeah, yeah. And you never give me a straight answer, so—"

  "I have no opinion on this matter, Mara. I follow the judgment of the others."

  "For a top tenner, you're super boring, Grigor."

  Nathan's breath caught in his throat.

  Mara and Grigor? What were they doing here?

  Nathan knew he should have walked away. But he had to find out what it was they were talking about. An impostor?

  He crept over to them from behind, making sure to keep plenty of bodies in between him and his two targets.

  "Yeah,Bree is pretty well convinced that the guy was a fake," Mara said. "I have to be honest, I kind of agree? I feel like Nathan wouldn't just up and abandon us."

  Nathan bit into his bottom lip.

  "I mean, it's just not in character for him," she said. "Either that, or something really screwed up must have happened that Emi and Bjorn aren't telling us about. At least, that's what Chad says."

  "Potentially."

  "If I'm honest, I think he's just dead."

  At that, both Nathan and Grigor turned and looked at her.

  Mara threw her hands up in the air. "Don't give me that look. I'm just being straight about things. The way those two are acting—I half think one of them had something to do with it. Maybe both."

  Nathan furrowed his eyebrows together. Why were Bjorn and Emi refusing to explain what had happened? Were they just leaving everybody else in the dark?

  "What do you intend to do about it?" Grigor asked.

  She tilted her head. From behind, Nathan couldn't make out her expression. But if he could, he was certain that a cold smile would be on her face.

  "I'd blow both their brains out, obviously."

  At that, Grigor turned back and looked at the top of the hill. "You were rather close with him, weren't you?"

  "Something like that."

  Her tone changed to something a little more happy-go-lucky and she bounced on her feet. "Hey, Grigor, did I ever tell you what my class is?"

  Nathan perked up. He remembered that she'd been a [Certified Gunslinger] during the fourth circle, but it had been several months since then. She'd almost certainly gotten an upgrade.

  "See, I recently managed to upgrade my class," she said. "And I decided to go for something a little different. Most of my skills have to do with targeting and long distance shots. But I eventually realized the limitations of that approach. I needed a way to track where my target was, even when they're out of sight. I decided to change my path to a [Mechanical Assassin]."

  "Assassination doesn't seem to be your style."

  "Oh yeah? Tell that to Gabriel Creed."

  "Point taken."

  "Whatever the case, one of the skills I got allowed me to get a sort of counter against other assassins. I can sense when I'm being tailed."

  "Is that so?"

  "Yeah. Not only that, but I can place the exact direction where I'm being tailed from."

  Nathan's heart leaped into his throat.

  Fast as lightning, Mara pulled a shimmering blood-red revolver out of her inventory and did a perfect heel-face turn.

  She pointed the gun at Nathan's head, then pulled the trigger.