"Gnome, can you weaken the concrete in the wall?" Ashton asked, looking at the small mole sitting on his hand. The elemental pressed its head against the wall and poured mana inside. There were multiple layers of materials here, of course. Some of them could be manipulated by the elementals Ashton had contracted, others could not.

  But that was fine. It wasn't necessary to open up a path cleanly. All they needed to do was make this wall as weak as possible.

  When Ashton constructed the large area for the 'silence' spell, he specifically made sure that it would cover beyond this wall, too. It wouldn't be perfect, of course.

  What the silence spell did was basically neutralise vibrations passing through its boundary. But there was a limit to that, at least with the level of magic that Ashton could currently produce. Vibrations moved a lot faster through solid matter than air, so breaking through the wall that Ashton was planning might draw some attention here. Especially considering that lizardmen were extremely sensitive to vibrations.

  They wouldn't think that someone blew a hole in the wall, but someone would come and check out what the captives were doing and realise that they escaped.

  "Oh my god, that one is so cute..." Clementine leaned over and took a closer look at the lesser gnome. "You said they're a 'Gnome'? I expected that to be more like..."

  "A little guy with a red hat? Yeah, I know. There're probably some gnomes that take a form like that, though a lot of them like animalistic forms," Ashton explained. "I'll introduce you to everyone properly later, but for now, please make sure that everyone is ready to go."

  Clementine turned and looked around. "I think they're all okay, but... are you sure we'll be fine? I mean, almost none of us have classes, what if the lizardmen chase us?"

  "Oh, they'll chase you. Definitely. Or at least, they'll try." Ashton looked over at the Backpacker. "But we're going to make sure they can't."

  The spirit gave him the items that Ashton just tagged. Some herbs, a few magic stones, and a bottle filled with fine ashes from inside that basement room at the elementary school.

  First things first, Ashton pulled out his newest feather pen out of his pocket and dipped it into a small pot of ink. He drew an enchanting circle onto some paper, and quickly placed the bottle of Ashes on top of it.

  "What are you doing? Ooh, are you summoning something?" Clementine asked, but Ashton quickly shook his head.

  "No, I'm enchanting these ashes. Since I burnt them using the salamander's flames, they're stock-full of mana ready to be tampered with."

  "Wait, enchanting? What's that? And how do you know how to do that?"

  Ashton thought about how to explain it best, and then shrugged. "I'll explain it later."

  "You keep saying that, but why can't you just explain it now?"

  "... Because I can't, not with all those eyes on us." Ashton looked up, glancing at the messages from the constellations popping up here and there. Clementine was still confused and looked around. None of the other captives were nearby or trying to listen in. "I don't know what you mean?"

  "Any of you, could you maybe..?" Ashton sighed, and a moment later, Clementine flinched as she saw a message appear in front of her. Or at least, that's what Ashton figured was happening.

  "Wait, are these those constellations? I was wondering what that meant after the tutorial, but these guys are why you can't tell me right now?"

  "Mm-hmm. More importantly, tell me about you, you don't have a class yet, right? Did you fulfil the requirements to any?"

  Clementine hesitated to reply. "I mean, there's one..."

  Ashton quickly turned his head. "And you haven't taken it yet? What's the class?"

  "It's called 'Runner'?"

  "Really? How did you get the 'Runner' class offered to you? You've been in here for a couple days now."

  Clementine let out a long sigh. "Well, you know that I've always liked running. Especially when I'm stressed. And I did a lot of running to avoid the monsters, and then when I came here, I just... started running back and forth to keep my mind off things."

  "Hm, I guess that makes sense. But I remember you not just running, but like, uh... freerunning. Right? Parkour?"

  "Well, yeah..."

  "I think you should take that class. I think it suits you. Makes for a good base. Plus, with how much time you've lost in here, just don't take any risks."

  Stolen story; please report.

  Clementine sighed. "Really? Runner, for the apocalypse? What, do you want me to just learn how to run away from all the monsters? How am I supposed to defend myself? What if there's another quest where we need to kill monsters and I'm not strong enough?"

  "That won't happen. It's a good fit."

  "But why, I don't think it's smart to-"

  "Just pick the class without thinking about your combat prowess, Clem. Trust me."

  Clementine pressed her lips together while inhaling sharply. She pressed her hands into white-knuckled fists. "You always do this. You never explain things to me, you just decide for yourself and tell me what to because you think I'm too stupid to understand."

  Surprised, Ashton looked up at Clementine. "What? No, I don't think you're stupid at all. You're one of the smartest people I've ever met, and most likely will ever meet. I mean, unless Einstein suddenly comes back to life and wants to be my friend."

  "Can you stop making jokes? Ashton, why do you want me to pick this class? Explain it to me. Now."

  Ashton let out a slight sigh and stopped what he was doing. "One, the reason why I'm not explaining it to you right now is because I really need to concentrate on this. Two, there's not going to be another quest like before. The reason I know is also something I can't tell you right here. Three, the reason why 'Runner' is a good class for you is because for as long as I've known you, you've loved running more than anything else in the world, and the only reason you didn't end up at the Olympics is because you preferred to spend your time at the pub or playing videogames with a fuckup like me. That's why, okay? That's why I turned you down, Clem, because I always just dragged you down to my level and I hated myself for it. Now, please, can you stop questioning me, pick the class that was practically tailor-made for you, and let me finish making the bomb that will save everyone here?"

  There was just a moment of tense silence in the air between them, before Ashton turned back to what he was doing. He was in the middle of enchanting a magic stone, but messed up and had to completely redo it.

  But Clementine was just left staring down at him. She was confused and surprised and angry and was feeling a dozen other emotions at the same time. Combined, they just left her in a stunned silence.

  Once he regained his composure, Ashton slowly continued. "Just choose the class. There are ways to get rid of your class later. I can help you with that. For now, just take the Runner class so that you're safe. You can have more than one. The Runner class's skills and stat growth synergise well with a lot of combat classes. You can talk to the guys at Calibur, a bunch of the game devs came together and tried to figure out good potential class synergies, and they're playing around with the Runner class a lot after I told them the details. Okay? I would never tell you to do something that would put you in danger. Well, more danger than the baseline right now."

  Clementine held her arm, "... Fine. Just... tell me how you know all of this later, okay? Seriously."

  "I promise, I'll tell you everything. Now hold this." Ashton grabbed the plastic bottle with the ashes and handed it to Clementine. She took it, a little startled, as Ashton picked out the right herb mixture. He grabbed some alcohol, isopropyl instead of drinkable, and doused the herbs in it. Once the dried herbs were essentially re-hydrated with the alcohol.

  "Backpacker, hold the bag open."

  The spirit was nervous, but slowly nodded their head. This wasn't exactly normal, but Ashton was about to stick his hands inside the bag. The space within there wasn't made for physical beings like Ashton, so this wasn't safe, but this was too dangerous to do otherwise. If something went wrong, the space within the bag could burn up.

  After a last deep breath, Ashton pushed his arms into the bag. It felt like a cold void, but somehow... slimy. Like something was pressing up against every part of his arms.

  He focused and moved his arms into the space of one of the item chests, rather than the main bag, where he quickly emptied out both the plastic bottle and the bag with the alcohol-soaked herbs. Ashton pressed everything together and slowly placed the magic stone in its centre, and then poured just a tiny bit of mana into that stone.

  In an instant, mana spread throughout the ten-litre space inside that chest. Each tiny bit of ash lit up and turned bright red, lighting up the herbs. Meanwhile, the magic stone made sure that the smoke released from those herbs, was turned into an even, thick cloud.

  Ashton pulled his hands out of the bag again, still feeling the heat on his fingertips. They were covered in soot and the pain of tiny, hot needles pushing under his nails.

  "... Ouch," Ashton groaned, channelling the Backpacker to try and keep control of that space. He couldn't let up, or else the blazing cloud of ash in there would spread to the rest of the bag. But a minute or two later, once that cloud had gotten thick enough, Ashton closed the item chest.

  [The Backpacker has created a [Chest of Deadly Firestorms]]

  "Deadly Firestorms. I like that," Ashton smiled. He watched as the Backpacker gave him the final item chest. "There we go. I'll attach something else to this chest in a second, and then later when you guys run away, once you start being pursued, I want you to throw this chest a little bit ahead of the lizardmen. Okay?"

  "Huh? Why, what is this? Didn't you say you would make a bomb?"

  "I did."

  Clementine stared at Ashton, still not satisfied, and he let out a sigh. "The moment the chest opens, an extremely hot cloud of ashes will explode out. Each particle of ash is red hot and radiating its own heat. Since these lizardmen are resistant or even immune to a lot of poisons, I've created a mixture that, when it makes contact with them and is activated by heat, will crystalise their blood. They'll be extremely injured, maybe even die."

  "Uh... don't we need to hurry, then? Won't that burn through this extremely wooden chest?"

  Ashton laughed and shook his head. "No, no, they're inside a small subspace. Plus, time is essentially frozen in these chests. Not in the main bag, though, so this is extremely useful, trust me. It's also why I had to stick my hands in there to make sure everything was ready to go for when the chest opens later."

  Ashton handed the chest over to Clementine. She slowly reached out, but Ashton pulled it back before she could touch it. "And whatever you do, do not inject mana into this chest or try to open it in any way, or it will explode literally in your face."

  Clementine took the chest, a little more hesitantly this time. "Okay... what now?"

  With a smile, Ashton stood up, patted the Backpacker on the head, and looked at the wall that the gnome finished weakening. "Now I'm going to create the way out for you guys."