The next day, Derek drew upon his connection to the Fast Travel System and, in a single step, moved from his apartment in Seoul to the surface of Mars.

  He once again found himself in the massive living room he’d teleported to upon getting [System]-access, though he was the only one, with Tanja not being there yet.

  Derek shrugged and got himself a soda from the fridge, grabbed the most interesting-looking book from the library, and headed towards the balcony, where he sat on a lawn chair.

  Beneath him, the crater of Olympus Mons spread, its floor covered in various buildings and gardens that had been set up as a grand … well, grand something.

  In a way, it was like the private residence of some medieval Calif, or perhaps the forbidden city of the Emperor of China, a world in miniature purely for the enjoyment of the one who was in residence.

  Some places held large lakes, the rust-red sands of the planet visible only in the beaches, others were covered in tropical plantlife, creating city-sized vistas, and beautiful, almost magical forests invited him to go strolling through them.

  And somewhere down there, both Tanja and Viktoria had their own houses, though they were more like mansions than anything else.

  Though Derek knew everything only seemed close and approachable because he was so high up. Even with an elevator to take him down to the surface, skipping that part of the distance, the crater was still eighty kilometers across at the slimmest point. Nothing he could reach on foot, and since this place had been built with people with Levels in the triple digits in mind, things like “cars,” and extra modes of transport in general had been the furthest from anyone’s mind.

  He read the book, which was a treatise on various melee weapons, while drinking the soda for a while.

  It covered a lot of weapons, ranging from the standard arming sword, which was the technical name of the regular medieval knight’s blade, what most people thought of when they just said “sword,” to something as exotic as the urumi, a literal whip sword originating from southern India, which came with the clear warning of “get instructions before using this, you will cut yourself.”

  All told, there were a lot of interesting options, but none that really made him want to put down his rapier.

  It was also glazing the kabar as both a utility and fighting knife, to what he felt was excess, but Derek already had one, so he skimmed that section.

  There was also a long section describing the different traits a sword could have, and why these were and were not an issue. For example, katanas were generally much more rigid than European-style swords, but also tended to be less flexible, whereas European blades simply regained their original shape when the pressure was released, while katanas were much harder to bend but tended to stay that way once deformed.

  Also, there was a whole separate part containing quotes from the Book of Five Rings, all about how, in Miyamoto Musashi’s opinion, picking a weapon with superior reach or weight might give you an advantage in the moment but also hamper your growth as a swordsman.

  Of course, with that quote being hundreds of years old, it could in no way be aimed at him … but Derek still felt like it eerylie echoed the “figuring out an easy win strategy undermines the lesson” line that he’d had to be reminded of so many times.

  Either way, he was happy with his rapier. A weapon’s weight would grow to be less and less of an issue as he leveled, as even the least physically inclined should put at least some points into Strength, but even so, a heavy weapon would always have some kind of impact, on his balance, if nothing else.

  Besides, thrusting weapons made for wonderful improptu handholds if rammed into a monster’s hide, and there were certain tricks where one could use a blade planted in such a manner to channel spells directly into a tough opponent’s insides.

  Easy enough to do with hellfire, proper spells would require extra practice and maybe even a new rapier designed for the process.

  But either way, he’d keep the weapon type … even if stabbing past an opponent’s guard using his weapon’s superior reach was likely the exact kind of thing Musashi had been condemning.

  Anywho … Derek rose to his feet, book under one arm, can loosely clutched in the other, about to put them back on the shelf and the trashcan, respectively, when his phone rang.

  Oh, shoot!

  Twenty seconds and one comedy routine of running after the dropped can, then dropping his book on his big toe while leaning over to grab the former, and hopping around on his uninjured foot later, he answered the phone.

  “Hey Tanja, I was just wondering where you are.”

  “Where the hell are you?” his sister replied archly.

  “At the house?” he replied, then clarified. “You know, the one on Mars?”

  A loud sigh echoed from the other end of the call.

  “That’s not where the training room is.”

  Oops.

  “Yeah, it’s in the basement,” Derek replied. “Sorry, have you been down there the entire time?”

  Another sigh, louder, this time.

  “I’m at the big one.”

  “Oh, I don’t know where that one is, can you tell where to …”

  “I’ll fetch you,” Tanja cut him off. “I’m too far away, and you need the fast travel to get back to Earth.”

  Yep, that made sense. Proper spaceship-based transportation between the two planets existed, but it wasn’t exactly fast in the grand scheme of things. Better spend a few minutes to get to the room and teleport home than to get stuck on a passenger ship for days on end to save those scant minutes.

  “Sure, I’ll wait on the balcony,” Derek agreed and hung up.

  Soon enough, he found himself standing right back where he’d been, waiting, looking around to see if he could see her coming, but nothing of the sort happened.

  Instead, a pair of strong arms grasped him around the waist, and he suddenly found himself yanked into the sky with an extremely unmanly yelp.

  “Situational awareness could use some work,” Tanja commented dryly, her voice somehow perfectly audible despite the noise of the wind screaming past.

  “Fuck off,” he told her without heat.

  A couple of seconds after that, she banked to the side, and the two of them began to plummet, though this wasn’t the first time one of Derek’s sisters had taken him flying. He knew they’d stop in time. And they did, Tanja’s wings beginning to beat almost a hundred meters above the ground, slowing their speed at a rate that was uncomfortable but not actually dangerous, until she dropped him when his feet were a few centimeters off the dusty ground.

  “Let’s go,” she announced, practically dragging him along as she hurried towards a rather nondescript house he either hadn’t seen or hadn’t noticed from above, then through the door, and into an elevator that had been mostly hidden in a bare section of wall.

  Hardly “entrance to a supervillain’s lair” hidden, but unobstrusive to the extreme.

  “What’s the rush?” he asked.

  “I prepared a few surprises and can’t keep them contained if I’m not there,” Tanja shrugged. “So, what would you like to fight? Lesser Hydra, Specter, Least Demon Lord, or something else?”

  Basic monster, higher Level but compensated for by his innate powers, same for the Specter, but that last one … the name might make it sound small and weak, but that was only compared to others of its kind. It was a [Raid Boss], one that was way, way, way outside of his ability to beat, but seeing as Tanja had provided it for him? Actually, had she provided it?

  “Did you actually summon the lord already?” Derek asked.

  “Sure, if you don’t want it, I’ll take care of it,” she said, casually talking about a monster that had, once upon a time, been enough of a threat that nuking it out hand if its summoners failed to bring it down had been the method of choice for anyone who could.

  He was about to agree … and then he realized something.

  “How the hell did you have the mana for that?”

  “I had help,” she shrugged, which told him said ‘help’ was probably already gone. “So, you want it?”

  “I mean, if it’s already here … sure,” Derek nodded. “You’ll stop it, right?”

  Tanja nodded, and a couple of seconds later, the elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened, revealing … well, revealing a rather large mess.

  What looked like a collection of snakes lay coiled in one corner, pinned down with a series of blades, in the opposite, a glowing, blue, transparent form seemed stuck in a similar position, and in the center of the room stood it. The demon.

  Tall, almost capable of reaching the ceiling of the cavernous room, last embers of black hellfire from a previous attack still floating around it, the beast roaring and lashing out as it struggled to break free from a cloud of floating blades that was starting to take a proper shape, the guard most likely (re)gaining strength now that Tanja was back.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The [Raid Boss] was a full fifty meters tall, every centimeter of its body covered in dense muscle and deadly potential, though Derek only knew about its size because he’d learned it in school, looking up at it, it felt like it might as well be a skyscraper.

  It wasn’t something he could fight; he should fight … but this was an opportunity he was being given, so he’d damn well make use of it. Besides, that monster’s hellflame was what had eventually wound up a part of the Thoma bloodline; he’d be immune to it … though for that reason, it was also capable of ignoring his strongest offensive weapon, leaving him with just the rapier.

  Either way, he stepped forward, ready to engage, deciding he’d better keep walking before he could talk himself out of this …

  Suddenly, in a blur, Tanja appeared next to him, right hand flashing forward, a glint briefly visible before disappearing … along with the [Raid Boss’] skull and a decent chunk of its upper torso.

  Simultaneously, her other hand smacked him in the back of the head. Gently, but it had come sufficiently out of left field that he yelped and stumbled several steps forward.

  “Derek, you’re my brother, and I love you, but you’re insane,” Tanja giggled, suddenly sounding far younger than usual.

  “You told me to go for it,” Derek protested, earning himself another smack.

  “And that means you can turn off your brain? That thing is meant for fifty people at the third Evolution, minimum,” she said, with him mentally translating “third Evolution” into “Level 51 and above, with the starter [Class] and three Evolutions worth of extra [Skills].”

  “Hrmph,” Derek sighed, turning to stare at the corpse of the Demon Lord. “I know you’re right about needing to think … but I thought I could trust you.”

  “Excuse me!” Tanja exclaimed with the most overacted outrage he’d ever seen. “Have you met me? I mean, you could probably blindly trust Isaac like that, but anyone else? Seriously, it’s a [Raid Boss]! The ‘record’ is a solo kill at Level 50, and that was after like a hundred tries.”

  “Wait, someone actually soloed one?” Derek asked, once more looking at the pile of gore and ofal that had, once upon a time, been a borderline existential threat to humanity, had anyone been stupid enough to summon them.

  “Leon did, with Isaac’s help. Well, with Isaac stepping in anytime it looked like he’d lose, then he’d get healed up and go right back into the fray until he eventually won,” Tanja said.

  “Leon?” Derek asked.

  “Oh, you know Leon, he replaced Isaac as dean of Akashic Academy,” she said. “Yay high, always wears some combination of dark grey, darker blue, and black, runs around with a shapeshifting billhook that looks like a scythe anytime he won’t need it to fight?”

  “The Reaper?” he asked, and she nodded.

  “Oh,” was the only thing he could add to that. That part, he hadn’t known.

  Leon Schmidt, known as “Der Schnitter,” or “The Reaper,” to use the English translation, was one of Germany’s S-Rankers, and the first bearer of one of the only two legendary [Classes] with set, defined, and most importantly known requirements, and that being the [Reaper], which was built around endlessly punching above one’s weightclass and gaining new powers for every [Raid Boss] that was soloed.

  It also had variations for the third, fourth, and fifth Evolutions, and there were many who’d walked that path from the fourth onwards, but he was the only one known to have gotten it at the third.

  In the end, everything came down to the requirements to earn it.

  All you had to do to get it was kill a [Raid Boss] on your own, except the [Raid Boss] could not be more than twenty Levels beneath you, which was enough of a pain in the ass on its own.

  But there was an additional issue with trying to earn it at the third Evolution. To get the kill before then, you’d have to stop leveling at 50. And the weakest summonable [Raid Boss], the very same kind Tanja had just killed, started out at 45, meaning anyone going for it that early could only have an infinitesimal Level advantage, that amounted to nothing, less than nothing, in fact, in the face of the monster they’d decided to try and solo.

  Clearly, it was possible … with functionally infinite attempts and what was most likely a series of tailor-made [Class] and [Skill]-choices to maximize one’s ability to beat that specific opponent.

  Anything of the sort would have to wait a while, though. Years, most likely.

  “So, if I ask to fight the Lesser Hydra, are you going to hit me again?” he asked. “I do know how to fight those: decapitate and cauterize, destroy the point where the necks meet, mangle all heads to the point where they stop working before the first one is finished healing.”

  Tanya laughed. “Yeah, you can fight the hydra.”

  A wave of her hand made the barrier vanish, and the serpent-ball launched itself in their direction, now revealing itself as actually just being a single serpent whose body split in three about a third of the way down.

  Derek slowly walked towards it, rapier by his side rather than at the ready, leaving the first attack to it. A quick sidestep carried him out of the direct path of the charging serpent, then he ducked under a snapping head and, torso still low to the ground, he lunged, rapier leading, hellfire already blasting up along the blade and tearing clean through the hydra’s flesh a mere split second before its continued motion would have torn the weapon from Derek’s hands.

  And then the monster collapsed, heads flying off from the connection point that had been turned into ash, and the tail end simply twitched and spasmed for a couple of seconds before stilling.

  The destruction of that point would have been a lethal attack even without the hellfire obliterating everything around it and cauterizing the wound edges to boot.

  “Not bad,” Tanja commented. “Now, time for the Specter!”

  The screaming ghost launched itself across the hall at … well, let’s just say the damn thing probably thought it was fast, but it was actually quite slow in the grand scheme of things.

  Once again, his classes had provided some more information, namely, the fact that it was pretty quick when attacking, its limbs able to attack across shockingly long distances, but moving speedily in general wasn’t exactly something it excelled at.

  A flick of his wrist burned the remainder of his mana to unleash a ray of black flame, which punched cleanly through the spectral form, everything that wasn’t outright erased catching fire and quickly burning away.

  “That was cool,” Derek announced. “Thanks for doing this with me, but …”

  Okay, how the hell would he phrase that without sounding ungrateful?

  “… can I try something that isn’t hard-countered by hellfire?”

  “Pick something,” Tanja offered. “Unless it’s like Tier 10, or an event summon, we should have the materials.”

  “Wait, there’s an Event on?” Derek asked. Those happened a few times a way, unique summoning tables available for a day only. It was apparently pretty “cool” nowadays, but on the very first one to ever happen, on that single day, more people had died from greed and sheer stupidity, often other people’s, than had in the entirety of the four years of the First World War.

  Even now, those PSAs about how one should avoid letting the transient nature of the summoning tables entice one into summoning something one could not handle were playing quite often, and there hadn’t been any big incidents in at least half a century.

  “No,” she shook her head. “But if there were, we wouldn’t necessarily have the materials here anyway. So, what do you want to fight?”

  Derek was at a slight disadvantage here because he couldn’t pull those up the way she could, but just as with the monsters he’d already fought today, he had learned about a whole lot of other “early” monsters not just at the academy but also even in his regular school.

  Hm, what do I want to fight? So many options … but it’s obvious, isn’t it?

  With a massive grin on his face, Derek announced, “I want to fight a dinosaur!”

  Because amidst all the critters and beasties and abominations the summoning portion of the [System] offered, all the nasty shit, there were also some of the coolest creatures to ever walk the surface of the Earth!

  … sort of. Summoned dinosaurs, while visually identical to their prehistoric kin, were magically enhanced to actually be a challenge to their summoners, with their Tier determined by their size, and the degree of enhancement depending on their Tier, obviously, for a total of … well, a shitton of power that grew exponentially as they did.

  “I think I have one you’ll like,” Tanja decided, turning into a blur he could barely follow with his eyes before “reappearing” at the far wall, pulling open an unobstrusive drawer set into the enchanted stone and began to dig through it, only to shove it back closed with visible irritation and proceeded to search through a second one, then even a third one before she returned to him, a bundle of feathers in one hand, and a bone in the other.

  She stepped upon the relevant summoning circle, dropped the items in, and it began to glow as she poured mana into it, though Derek couldn’t see that, only tracked the results.

  Then, she suddenly ran behind him, once again doing her best to negate the issue of monsters normally making a beeline for their summoner. But with him between her and whatever beastie she’d called upon … well, it couldn’t be that powerful, seeing as she’d gone for the Tier 2 circle, and it also couldn’t be longer than five meters long, but still, what was it?

  That question was answered a moment later when a bipedal something manifested above the circle laid into the ground, a lean bipedal creature that looked like a serpent that had sprouted legs and then chosen to become a sprinter.

  It let out a hissing squawk as it caught sight of him, revealing a mouth full of razor-sharp fangs, glinting viciously.

  “Coelophysis,” Tanja told him without prompting.

  The dinosaur launched itself forward, feet blurring beneath it and Derek threw himself sideways, swearing internally, managing to turn his tumble into a roll and come back up into something somewhat resembling a proper stance, only to find himself face to face with a creature that had whirled around far too quickly for his taste, already snapping at his face, already too close to easily employ his rapier.

  So he smacked it, his other hand slamming into the side of its face and causing the creature to miss, its jaws snapping together right next to his ear, but before it could try again, he sidestepped, out of range of its fangs, and slashed at its neck with the rapier, making the dinosaur rear back, but not back off.

  It lunged again and he stabbed at it, making it weave sideways but not abort the attack, so be thrust forward again, the two of them circling around each other, making futile but dangerous attacks that the other sidestepped or blocked, the creature having several shallow cuts on its head and neck that had barely made it past the scales, while Derek’s ribs were aching from him where it had headbutted him. Not on purpose, mind you, it had tried to bite him and wound up dodging in an unfortunate way, but it was still preferable to getting bit.

  And he’d suppressed his healing, finally having gotten a handle on it, triggering automatically, saving his mana for when something serious happened.

  His hellfire had become available once again as well, but by now, his stubbornness had kicked in, and he wanted to win this without resorting to what was an “I win” button in this situation.

  And then the rapier wavered, tip drifting towards the ground, a slight opening that would likely only exist for a handful of seconds, revealing itself.

  The dino spotted it in an instant and lunged, fangs bared and aiming for his throat … and then Derek swayed to the side, just barely enough to redirect its attack to his shoulder, and then his left hand snapped up, clutching his kabar, driving the blade into the bottom of the creature’s jaw, letting its forward motion tear the knife down its neck.

  By the time the dinosaur’s head smacked into his shoulder, the kabar had reached its torso, and his entire left side was covered in its blood.

  A strangled, gurgling hiss rang out right next to his shoulder, and the creature tried to bite him, but before it could, before he could react, it crumpled, falling to the ground, his knife catching on something and being ripped out of his hand.

  “Not bad,” Tanja announced, looking him up and down. “But if you keep this up, I’m getting the fire hose before you’re allowed upstairs.”

  Derek looked down at himself. Yeah, fair.

  ***

  The next few days were … well, it was chaos, but it was fun. Tanja still pulled several more “is he stupid enough to want to pick this fight” tests, but after the first time, he did make sure to think things through himself before jumping on dumb ideas just because they came from someone else.

  And even after she’d left, all the low-Level Dungeons in Seoul were currently open, and there were only a few people who wanted to go diving throuhg them, most of them other students who did not feel they needed a break just yet.

  He didn’t feel like he’d gained anything in particular by the end of the break, and overall, a lot of the things he’d learned wound up being what not to do … but in the grand scheme of things, in his opinion, it had been two months well spent.