I headed back toward my castle house, deep in thought, planning the upcoming dungeon dive when my thoughts were abruptly interrupted.

  As I passed an alley between a couple of the Base Camp tents, light flashed and the air around me suddenly hardened like it turned to concrete, freezing me in place. I also received a notification.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! Mimic has captured Freeze Frame. Area of effect trap. Time remaining to re-cast the spell: 15 seconds.”

  Who would trap me in town? I was so surprised, I didn’t even bother trying to break free as I tried to understand what was going on. A couple of familiar figures raced out of the alley, and realization dawned as my thoughts caught up with reality. No doubt a third person was poised right behind me, ready to strike.

  Team Shackleton, the losers who tried stealing from me when I invited everyone into my castle, were making their move. Ernest, the burly leader of the three stooges, grinned at me, pointing a sword at my throat.

  “You shouldn’t have disrespected us. Now it’s going to cost you.”

  I could sort of mumble talk through my frozen lips. “Seriously? Listen, if you start running right now, I won’t hurt you.”

  “Brave words,” Ernest chuckled, pressing his sword closer. “We could kill you, but all we want is the money we’re due.”

  The towering entitlement boggled the mind. I didn’t have patience for it. My Magical Defense had captured a bit of mana from the spell, and a new orange power bar grew under my empty mana bar. It didn’t contain much mana, but I sensed it would be enough.

  So I cast their own Freeze Frame trap back onto the two men, who conveniently stood shoulder to shoulder. With a flash of light, the two froze, eyes wide with shock.

  “Hey, Electra, stop it!” Tim, the smaller of the two, hissed through frozen teeth.

  “I don’t. It wasn’t me,” she stammered, actually walking around me to see what happened. Thanks for confirming your incompetence. They definitely should have been assigned team Three Stooges.

  With a heave, I shattered the glowing prison restraining me. A level 10 baby human’s starter spell wasn’t nearly strong enough to stop me with tier-1 effective Strength of 22.

  Electra shrieked and slashed at me with a dagger she clutched in one hand. I slipped into my hand-to-hand fighting techniques and easily disarmed her, then extracted my fuzzy shorts and slapped her across the face. She crashed to the ground with a scream of pain.

  Five minutes later, I shoved my shackled prisoners into the council chamber, much to the annoyance of Elizabeth Maberly.

  “What’s going on?” Paul asked before she could berate me too much for wasting their time.

  “The three stooges here tried to rob me. Not sure what the rules are for dealing with petty crimes.”

  Burns and Crystal both laughed, Elizabeth glowered at the poor sods from team Shackleford, and Tony said, “I’m surprised you didn’t kill them.”

  “This has all been a big misunderstanding,” Tim cried, visibly shaking.

  Ernest added, “Yeah. Lucas owes us money.”

  “Shut up, you,” I growled, flicking him on the head lightly enough that he only winced as the loud thunk echoed beautifully across the big room.

  It took about 20 seconds to sort out the story, but unfortunately a lot longer for the council to decide what to do. They hadn’t dealt with much petty crime. Any robbers too stupid to succeed usually ended up dead.

  They debated punishment ideas from kicking them out of town for good to chopping off a hand and charging them an exorbitant fee for a regeneration potion, to execution. The more they talked, the more terrified the three stooges became. Even Ernest realized he’d gone way too far, although I still sensed a boiling rage under his meek facade. The idiot truly believed he deserved some kind of major payout.

  I didn’t have time to wait around so I said, “I’ll leave you all to finalize a plan. I agree to whatever punishment you deem appropriate.”

  “Even if we choose to just let them go with a warning?” Elizabeth prodded.

  “More likely we’ll assign them to scout the forest,” Tony said.

  I shrugged, then turned to face my prisoners. “Work hard and maybe you’ll survive a while. I’ve shown mercy twice now when I didn’t have to, but this is your final warning. Cross me again and you won’t get another chance.”

  “You don’t make the laws,” Ernest hissed.

  “Test me again and you’ll see.”

  With that, I left and put the fate of the three stooges out of my mind. It was amazing how some people clung to stupidity. Not my problem. I’d found a good group of friends and like-minded people willing to help me win this death game and save Earth. If some people lacked the vision or courage or common sense to help, they were on their own.

  Half an hour later, I led a big group out of town. Ruby and Steve flanked me, and it felt good to be hunting as a team again. Tomas, Jane, and their remaining team members followed.

  Lana, the petite Latina crossbow archer and Andy, the dual-sword-wielding fighter were with Tomas, while Scott Terrell, the guy with the fiery ocular beam followed Jane.

  They’d all upgraded their gear since I’d last seen them. Lana wore a set of leather armor, accented in blue, while Andy wore a mix of leather and plate and bristled with several swords. Scott had a full breastplate, with a mace at his belt and a shield strapped across his back.

  I’d invited Edmund to join us for the excursion, but he was still helping finish the city wall and the castle with his earth elemental powers. There hadn’t been any sign of werewolves since Alpha led the pack after me last night, but no one was taking any chances. Edmund assured me the construction teams had layered powerful defensive barriers with weapons that could reach out and touch any werewolves prowling around town.

  Tomas and Jane had already visited the store, but thankfully they didn’t buy a ton. Tomas picked up a temporary spell called MacGyver and shared the description with me.

  “MacGyver. Spell. Uncommon. Passive. Inspires you with ideas for impromptu constructs you need to solve problems or defeat monsters. By devoting a large amount of extra mana, you can summon materials up to uncommon grade needed to complete planned constructs.”

  “Wow. That spell is named perfectly.”

  Tomas was thrilled with it since it helped build on his Steel Thumb ability that allowed him to quickly fabricate or repair machines or mechanical constructs.

  I promised to take them with me to the store when we got back to get my better rates. Everyone was excited to explore a dungeon. Ruby, Steve, and Jane had unlocked their classes, and the rest of the group were very close.

  “This is sweet,” Lana gushed as we trotted down a forest path toward the grasslands leading up to the mountains. “Most people haven’t set foot outside of town yet and you’ve already found a dungeon!”

  “Hopefully it’ll be worth it. There’ll be at least one more level to explore.”

  “Bring on the monsters,” Scott said, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

  They had no concept of how dangerous this stage could be, but with such a big group, we should be able to survive most monsters. As long as we avoided running into packs of werewolves.

  We traveled for an hour with no issues, passing out of the forest, crossing the grasslands, and taking a different canyon up toward the long plateau. I kept an eye out for Puppetmasters, but we encountered nothing. The early morning air was cool and fresh with the scent of trees and ripe berries. I made a mental note to check those out on the way back down.

  While we traveled, I got everyone to push the limits of their stats with some sprinting and tumbling challenges. My stats had grown more than anyone’s, but I’d also pushed myself constantly and learned to maximize the amazing abilities I now possessed as much as my Efficiency allowed. As I feared, some of the others still hadn’t totally processed what our elevated stats meant.

  Lana barely sprinted faster than back on Earth until I told her she’d have to pay me mana crystals if I could catch her. When she finally let herself really run, she’d almost immediately tripped from shock.

  Tomas showed off by leaping into a double somersault. He looked super proud until Jane did a double backflip, landing with perfect form.

  “Showoff.”

  She grinned, her eyes flashing with her x-men phoenix power. “Told you, class upgrades are awesome.”

  “Even without classes, all of us can do way more than any human. We need to break that mental barrier,” I urged.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  After another half hour of intense training, sprinting faster than the best Olympic athletes, jumping through trees like ninja monkeys on speed, and pushing every stat to the limits, they finally started to get it.

  “I feel like I’ve already leveled up, and we haven’t even fought any monsters,” Lana laughed as we crossed a large open field, close to where the forested canyon emptied onto the high plateau.

  Strangely, none of them saw an Efficiency column in their stats pages. Hopefully that meant they all got a base 100% efficiency for their tier-0 spells and abilities. Training them hard should help ensure they didn’t lose anything.

  Ruby suddenly pointed and exclaimed, “Oh, look! A bunny!”

  I’d noticed it too. Unlike most creatures similar to Earth animals, the bunny wasn’t enormous or obviously transformed. It just looked like a big, white fluffy jackrabbit.

  A second bunny appeared next to the first. Like literally appeared, as if teleported. Then a third. They all sat there, watching us approach. When a fourth bunny popped into view, I held up a hand for the group to stop.

  “They’re just bunnies,” Lana said. We’d crossed half the field and now stood about 50 yards away from the big bunnies, who were sitting on their haunches near the tree line.

  “Teleporting bunnies,” Tomas said. “What do you think, Lucas?”

  “I’ve learned not to underestimate anything until we know what it is. Be on your guard while I Identify them.”

  I almost triggered Spellseer’s Gaze to zoom my view onto the distant bunnies, but remembered Cyrus’s warning not to use active abilities until my mana channels finished healing. Crap. So I squinted and focused really hard.

  Amazingly, it worked and Identify triggered. “Blinking Jackrabbit, level 22. These aren’t your grandpa’s bunnies. These suicidal jackrabbits reproduce so fast, they’ve developed a unique approach to hunting. They teleport to their prey and self-destruct like living dynamite so the warren can continue to grow.”

  “Oh, Handel. I don’t think so.” I turned to warn my team just as a jackrabbit appeared right behind Jane and blew itself up in a disgusting eruption of blood and gore and splintered bone.

  Somehow it focused the blast of its self-destruction. The impact smashed Jane forward to the ground with dozens of bone shards piercing her back like shrapnel.

  “Jane!” Tomas shouted, but Ruby hurled herself to her knees beside Jane’s bloody, unconscious form and leaned over her just as a second bunny appeared in the air above them.

  The bunny detonated and the explosion of bloody gore blasted down over Ruby but mostly deflected away. Her new Bastion ability massively improved defense while healing, and it had already kicked in.

  Shouting with rage, Tomas teleported across the clearing, sword slashing at the ranks of bunnies there. They were multiplying super fast now. Where there had been 3, now there were 20. The bunnies all blinked away, then 2 blinked back behind him and detonated. Tomas was already gone, teleporting away.

  That was a super-cool teleport ability. I squashed a sudden doubt that maybe I should have permed that scroll of minor teleport instead of Tether Slide. Some day I’d get a full teleport ability, but I loved Tether Slide.

  Bunnies gave chase, chittering with anger that Tomas had escaped their kamikaze attacks. He crossed the clearing, teleporting 20 feet at a time, waiting for about 2 seconds, then teleporting away again just as another bunny appeared next to him and detonated. He was winnowing them down, but it was a crazy dangerous game of tag. One misstep and he’d get blasted.

  Lana, Steve, and Scott formed a firing line above Ruby, who had summoned her Med Kit and was pouring a potion into Jane’s mouth. Andy placed himself between them and the bunnies, two swords out. Scott unleashed a blistering death ray from his eyes, scorching the distant forest and setting half a dozen bunnies on fire. They all detonated, but even more were still appearing.

  Suddenly Steve seemed to flicker, and 10 clones spread out to each side, many with bows, each firing independently. His Echoing Doom spell multiplied our firepower immensely as clones fired ice and fire arrows. Others leaped high into the air, floating for a second to rain down destruction across the meadow. Still other clones started throwing molotov cocktails that exploded in geysers of whooshing flames. Heat radiated all the way back to us.

  My first instinct was to trigger Immolation again, and I only barely caught myself before trying it. I didn’t have a mana pool. I couldn’t use my class spells or most of my temporary spells.

  A bunny appeared next to me and I dove aside just before it detonated. Luckily the focused blast only ripped through grass, angling away from the rest of the group. Stinking Cyrus! I needed those spells.

  Rolling to my feet, I forced calm over my racing thoughts. Whining about what I didn’t have wouldn’t help. I needed to change the situation, or we’d get overrun and blown to smithereens.

  So I summoned Switchblade. It was mostly repaired, although the front faring was still sheared off in places. That was fine for what I needed. I leaped into the saddle and triggered Shield Dome.

  The energy barrier appeared, extending just far enough to cover the team. Scott had already chugged a mana potion, fired a few more blasts, then switched to his mace and shield. His eye beam was powerful, but it looked like he didn’t have enough mana to fire it too many times.

  Lana was firing with steady consistency, each exploding bolt destroying a bunny, but Steve and his clones were truly impressive. They unleashed a constant barrage of arrows and exploding bottles. Some arrows glowed blue with elemental water that inundated any bunnies they hit with enough water to drown them. Others glowed bright white with ice. Bunnies struck with those froze instantly, then shattered into a rain of icy chunks.

  Still others burned with intense heat and fire, instantly detonating bunnies they hit. The molotov cocktails were like artillery raining down over the clearing, scorching entire sections, but despite the explosions of fire and heat, they didn’t seem to hit a lot of bunnies. They were just too slow.

  Speaking of slow, Tomas was starting to run out of mana. I wasn’t sure how many teleports he could do back to back. He’d already done more than I had expected. He was leading a constant stream of bunnies back and forth across the field for Steve’s clone cohort and Lana to shoot. More bunnies were detonating against Shield Dome in a constant suicide barrage. The shield’s power was dropping fast.

  So I accessed the bike’s menu, selected defensive spells, and made a quick choice.

  “You have added one defensive spell to Switchblade: Elemental storage cubes adjusted to become Elemental Chain Lightning. Add more storage cubes to add uses.

  “Elemental Chain Lightning. Unleash a devastating chain lightning barrage to circle 10 yards around you. Will automatically target up to 10 enemies before expiring. One storage cube spent for each barrage. Uses remaining: 10.”

  Perfect. I’d dumped 10 of the cubes in to start, and as soon as I got the notification, I triggered the spell. Crackling lightning shot out of the bike and instantly slammed into an arriving bunny, detonating it. The explosion still struck Shield Dome, but with far less force since the bunny died farther out and hadn’t focused the blast.

  “Scott, get over here.” I jumped off and pointed at the seat. Scott eagerly jumped on and reached for the handlebars.

  “Don’t touch anything. Don’t drive anywhere. Just watch the screen.” I pointed to the display that showed the remaining charge of Shield Dome and Chain Lightning. “When the lightning spell ends, trigger it again.”

  “Sweet!”

  I equipped my Phantomstep Breeches, willing them to switch with my Silkspinner Leggings. I’d managed a direct switch once, so it should be easy.

  My leggings disappeared an my new pants popped into existence right next to me and dropped to the ground, leaving me standing in my boxers. Cursing, I willed my boots into my inventory, hopped into the pants, and willed my boots back on.

  That time it worked. I glanced up to see Scott chuckling. At my look, he raised both hands and said, “I didn’t see anything.”

  “Good answer.” I was going to practice when I returned to my castle all night if I had to. Wardrobe malfunctions would not happen again.

  Tomas was slowing, but hadn’t retreated to the protection of Shield Dome yet. The bunnies were getting closer and closer. I had to help. So I sprinted out of the protection of Shield Dome, angling to intercept where I expected him to appear next.

  Three bunnies appeared all around me almost instantly.

  “Stockhausen!” I shouted and dove into a twisting somersault as the bunnies all detonated. The blasts smacked me down so hard into the ground, I sank 6 inches.

  It didn’t hurt a lot through my good armor, but my Magical Resistance didn’t capture any of the blasts for me to use to trigger Phantom Step next time either. The bunnies had used their magic to detonate themselves, so the resulting blasts must have only hit with natural force, not magical power.

  Growling with annoyance, I activated Mirror Cloak and the world turned monochrome. With my new breeches adding 30% to Stealth and self-camouflaging as I moved, I didn’t need to worry much about becoming visible if I moved too fast.

  Accelerating into a sprint, I launched into the fray. I’d love to use Cascading Force with my new blade Echo, but couldn’t even do that. Individual bunnies were weak and easy to kill, but there seemed to be a never-ending wave of them. Cascading Force’s extra powerful attacks could have helped turn the tide.

  Without my spells, I had to get creative. Identify said the little buggers could reproduce at a ridiculous rate. Time to see if I could kill them faster. With Mirror Cloak and Phantomstep Breeches, I was basically invisible. The biggest challenge was catching the little devils. They blinked around constantly, rarely staying in one place more than a few seconds.

  Lana and Steve’s clones were picking off the ones chasing Tomas and the chain lightning was destroying the ones trying to kamikaze Shield Dome. So I raced across the field to the pack of bunnies lurking at the edge of the trees. No matter how many had blinked over to detonate themselves, that group never seemed to get smaller.

  I tore into them like an invisible whirlwind of destruction, slashing with both blades. Echo flashed in silver blurs, while the single-edged Scalebiter was like a living shadow. In the first 3 seconds, I killed 8 bunnies. They had basically zero defense.

  The entire pack blinked away, leaving 2 behind to explode, but I’d expected that and dove aside, rolling along the ground as the twin blasts tore past, rattling me, but not hurting. I rolled back to my feet just as 10 bunnies blinked back to the same spot they’d been in a second ago. I killed 6 more before they blinked away again, repeating the process. That time, the blasts hit me harder, but the minimal damage was worth killing so many of the annoying little buggers.

  Then the larger pack reappeared, but moved about 10 yards away. So they weren’t totally stupid. This time, I pulled an acid grenade and tossed it into the middle of their pack. They all blinked away except for 1, who self-destructed. That explosion triggered the acid grenade, which covered a big area with nasty acid, but didn’t catch any of the annoying bunnies in it.

  When the larger group appeared close together on my other side, I hurled one of my Sphere of Darkness potions at them. It shattered against one of the bunnies, killing the thing and cloaking an area 10 yards across in absolute darkness.

  I figured the bunnies would just blink out, but none of them appeared. More interesting, by the amount of excited chittering coming out of that sphere, the bunnies hadn’t moved at all. Did they need to see in order to blink?

  Huh. I tossed another acid grenade. This time, the bunnies didn’t see it plop into the middle of their pack and when the grenade burst, showering them all with powerful acid, a string of bloody explosions sounded inside. I got a bunch of kill notifications, confirming that had worked.

  Nice. I scanned the tree line and found another pack of bunnies clustered close together. Even as I watched, several tiny, adorably murderous baby bunnies popped into existence among them. They weren’t even actively breeding, but were still popping out new death bunnies.

  So I threw another potion of darkness, captured them all in it, and wiped them out with another acid grenade.

  That was enough to get through to the other bunnies. The entire pack rapidly blinked away, disappearing into the trees, leaving the field covered in exploding bunny gore.

  “Nasty little things,” I muttered. They were each weak, with low levels, but they’d represented a real threat. It was a great reminder that levels weren’t everything we had to pay attention to.

  Tomas appeared next to the rest of the team and collapsed to the ground just as Jane sat up and looked around. I deactivated Mirror Cloak and ran back to join them. Lana was high-fiving each of Steve’s clones, and Scott was laughing with relief.

  “Those things were insane!” Lana exclaimed.

  “Yeah, but I got a level!” Steve shouted.

  “Me too! Unlocked my class,” Tomas exclaimed.

  “So did I!” Scott laughed.