"Here." Sam walked up to Ashton and held out something toward him. "A metal bar, as you've requested."

  "Ooh, awesome, where'd you get it?" Ashton asked as he quickly took it. It was pretty heavy, heavier than any of the other staffs he had used here until now, but it was pleasant.

  "There's a gym nearby. I rushed over there and took out the monsters inside, and grabbed a barbell bar for you."

  "Nice. Did you-"

  "Yes, I also grabbed a few weights. Just not too much, because they were... you know, heavy."

  Ashton started spinning around his temporary new staff to give it a go. "This will work well for now. If you think you can find anything heavier, let me know."

  With a scoff, Sam turned around. "Sure, I'll tell you when I find an osmium staff."

  "Awesome, thank you~!" Ashton smiled happily. "Oh, by the way, if you pick up some rings, also tell me please. Any rare metal will work. Gold, titanium, silver, whatever. Though preferably, silver."

  "Are you trying to propose to someone?" Clementine walked up to Ashton from the side. He inwardly flinched slightly, though tried his best not to show it. Right now, Ashton wasn't channelling the elementals, so that he could get used to being blind. The better his baseline, the better things would be when he got any additional information through his summons. That was the idea at least.

  "If it counts as a proposal to use a bunch of rings to make an offering for a new spirit, then yes." Ashton slightly leaned onto the metal bar. "I'll try to form a contract with a spirit called 'Helping Hands' soon. My levelling speed is pretty good so I've got the space for a couple more contracts."

  "Ooh, so are you getting yourself a couple more hands to do some cool hand-signs or whatever?"

  Ashton raised a brow at Clementine's question. "Surprisingly, that's part of it, yes. I can channel all my magic through the Helping Hands directly, as if they're directly connected to my body. So, I can use them for spellcasting and keep using this super cool magic staff while I'm fighting with my super cool head-bashing staff."

  "Speaking of... Where'd you get this? The cloak, too. You didn't have them when you headed out earlier today." Sam pointed out with a raised brow, and Ashton grinned. He turned his head toward where he thought his friend was standing.

  "Well, my dear friend, that's the wonderful part of completing the 'Path of Power' sub-quest. While the main quest's reward was utter garbage, this one is amazing. So do your best to level up as fast as you can." Ashton explained. "Also, I'm actually level 11 already."

  "... Braggart."

  "Yup."

  Clementine still seemed confused. "Are you talking about the beginner gear? I got some for the Runner class, but it seemed kind of..."

  "Disgusting?" Ashton started.

  Sam continued. "Kind of trash?"

  "Like something that should rather be burnt?"

  With a sigh, Clementine nodded. "Essentially. Kind of trashy shoes, some kind of ripped-up cloak, and a messenger bag. The bag is fine, but almost falling apart." She held the bag forward. "Do these have any sort of special abilities?"

  Ashton shook his head immediately. "Nope. They're just mundane, so non-magical items. These beginner gear kits give the bare minimum you may need. The only 'magical' item that I got was a really basic, barebones ink with a little bit of mana."

  "... Unfair. So what do I need to do to reach level 10?"

  "Use your skills as much as you can, keep running, that's about it. I'll prepare some stamina and speed potions for you that should help you keep levelling more consistently."

  With a happy smile, Ashton assumed from the tone of her voice, Clementine patted his back. "Thanks, let's do that!"

  "But... you've started pretty late. You just have a couple of days left to reach level 10, and that would be an incredible levelling speed. I'm guessing you might be able to reach level 6, maybe 8 if you're really fast about it and are some kind of genius." Ashton started walking out toward the area where all the others are waiting. "But don't worry, the quest reward is set up that you'll get a reward either way. It scales with the final level you end up reaching."

  "Hm, that sounds shockingly fair... Honestly, I have no idea what to think about this 'Interdimensional Council' or whatever. In one moment, they're the ones forcing all this on us, and in the next, they're trying to save us?"

  Sam groaned loudly. "Seriously? Did you really have to say that? You're just going to get him riled up!"

  "Hm?"

  Ashton turned around to where his friends were standing. His smile had disappeared, and instead, he wore nothing but a scowl on his face. "The council is a fucking farce. Even though they're the ones doing all this shit to us, they suddenly start acting like they're our saviours. It's fucking disgusting. I've literally got that disgusting taste in my mouth just from talking about them."

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  He grimaced annoyed and pushed his hand under his cloak, quickly grabbing his pack of cigarettes. But when he opened it, he realised a crucial mistake.

  Ashton had marked the cigarettes with different colours and shapes. Something that he, surprisingly, was not able to see anymore. With a long sigh, Ashton held the pack out to his friends.

  "Can one of you tell me which one has three blue dots on it?" He asked, and Clementine quickly took a step toward him.

  "Why, what is that?"

  "A cigarette with healing and detoxing factors. I'm still feeling a bit sluggish," Ashton explained. His friends were quiet for a moment.

  "Don't look at me like that," Sam said. "I also thought he already quit."

  "Yeah and you also know exactly why I started again. So just tell me already before I just pick one and accidentally smoke the one with the powerful neurotoxin."

  "Mate, why do you have a cigarette with neurotoxins mixed in?"

  "Because if I don't inhale it fully, it barely even gives me a slight buzz while I can knock out weaker enemies. So just tell me, please."

  Sam sighed and picked a cigarette out of the pack and held it forward. "Thank you!"

  Ashton put it onto his lips and quickly pulled out his lighter. But the moment the sparks flew and the flame was lit, Sam inhaled sharply.

  "Wait, did you say the three blue dots, or the red square?"

  "... What?"

  "Wait actually, no, you said something about a green cross?"

  Slowly lowering the cigarette, Ashton stared at his friends. Or rather, he faced them the way he did if he were staring at them. "Please, don't play with me like this. Just tell me which one you picked out."

  Sam laughed as he walked past Ashton, hitting his shoulder slightly. "Don't worry, it was the three blue dots." Relieved, Ashton put the cigarette back into his mouth, when Sam followed up. "I think."

  "Okay, now that's just mean!" Ashton groaned. "Clementine, please! Which one is this?"

  She stayed quiet for a few moments, and then leaned forward. "Yeah, no, Sam's just messing with you. It's the three blue dots."

  "Thank you! Finally!"

  "I think."

  "Oh, fuck you two!" annoyed, Ashton put the cigarette away again. "This is ableist! Ableist, I say!"

  "Mm-hm, whatever you say, bud," Sam laughed slightly, and then faced away from Ashton.

  Without further ado, Sam clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention, and then started talking to them about what the plan was at the moment. And then, just a few minutes later, the group started to get moving. For now, Ashton put away his new temporary staff, the metal bar. Most of the people here with fighting capabilities were physical, close-range dealers, so Ashton figured he'd just act as the support for now while they were on the way back.

  Especially once they linked up with Jacky's group, things would be smooth-sailing even if Ashton wasn't able to see anything. Which he could, for the record. It was still raining right now, so just using the wisp and the undine, Ashton's sight was actually relatively well-balanced. Plus, he didn't have any blind-spots. If it was within his channelling range, Ashton was able to notice it all equally well, whether it was in front, behind, above, or below him.

  That being the case, that didn't mean that this sight was perfect, not in the slightest. Especially because there was so much information for Ashton to process, his reaction speed was pretty slow. Then again, with his current speed stat at 31 points after that last level-up, his reaction speed was still solidly above superhuman levels, so there was no need for him to really worry too much.

  Just a few minutes after the group started moving, the first batch of monsters started attacking them. Most of them were taken care of by the people from Calibur, but a few stragglers did come through. The important part was that, the moment they entered Ashton's range, rainwater gathered around their mouths and noses.

  Like that, while the monsters struggled, they could be dispatched of pretty fast by the Calibur folk.

  They were moving forward at an actually pretty good pace, to the point where they were able to meet up with Jacky's party pretty fast, just an hour or so after they started moving.

  It was a good opportunity for the group to take a short breather. People here were still injured, after all, so they needed to take it at least a little bit easy until they were able to have a proper night's sleep. And then tomorrow, they could start working toward a class, if they didn't have one already. There was still time for everyone here to survive the quest.

  Really, in this quest, the only ones that died were those that were killed by monsters in the pursuit of their class, which was still quite the large amount, or those that were too stubborn or scared to pick something. Though, that second group was pretty small, all things considered.

  "Yo! Ashton, how did it go? Did you manage to take out the lizardmen?" Oliver came running over with a wave, though he slowed down pretty fast when he saw the man in front of him. Rather, when he saw the way that Ashton was dressed. "... Are you trying out a new concept or something?"

  "Ha-ha. No, this has its reasons. And yes, I've taken out all the monsters in the area over there," Ashton explained, smiling. "And hey, listen, Oliver, could you give me a hand? I'll explain it to you later, but I can't really see anything right now. Can you point out the cigarette with the three blue dots in here?"

  Ashton held forward his pack, and Oliver seemed to happily want to help Ashton out. That was, until Sam cleared his throat from a few steps away, and Oliver pulled his hand away. "Uhm... I don't think I should..?"

  With a loud cry, Ashton turned around to his friend. "Let me feed my addiction already!"

  Dejected, Ashton turned back to where the rest of that party was, as they had all approached him now.

  "Wait, what's going on?" Jacky asked immediately. "Why can't you see? Did you get hurt?"

  "You could say that. But it's complicated, I'll fill you guys in later when we get back to Calibur. For now, just now that I could still easily kick all of your asses. That's a Sam-proven fact."

  "Hm..." Jacky let out quietly. "Well, if you say so. I mean, you look fine, for the most part?"

  "That's because I am fine. For the most part. What about you guys, is anyone hurt? Did you encounter anything weird along the way?" The group was silent for a few moments. Ashton's smile slowly dropped, and he instead showed his curiosity. "You did?"

  Jacky let out a long sigh. "... Kind of. We think there was... one of those 'Marked' that you spoke about? He seemed pretty strong, but he didn't look like a regular monster. I mean, he was muttering something, too."

  "Oh?" Ashton let out surprised. "That's perfect. Is that guy on the way?"

  "Well, if we go straight, yeah... I was going to suggest that we take a slightly different route to circumvent him, but... I mean, if you think we can take him, then..."

  Ashton smiled brightly. "Don't worry. I'll take care of him on my own. Just let me know when we're a little bit away and I'll go ahead."

  John quickly intervened, "Dude, I get it, but that guy looked really strong. Plus... isn't he still, you know... a human?"

  "Nope. Not anymore," Ashton replied without hesitation. Sure, he was a bit hopeful that marked humans might be a little different from the marked he had encountered in Lumia, but that didn't seem to be the case. And after seeing what kind of chaos a single marked was able to create at the primary school, there was no way he would just let a marked run free.

  "I'll take care of him, I promise."