It was days like this that he loved his job. Peaceful, calm, and only the occasional threat of death.

  Luke calmly strolled through the dense alien forest. The branches above swayed back and forth, dancing to music only they heard. The soft loam below his armored feet made the walk quiet and peaceful. A green and earthy smell filled the air, occasionally interspersed with pepper and citrus.

  A gray furry monster leapt from the tree to his left, claws extended to slice into his armor. It was a Hive Wolf, six feet tall at the shoulder, weighing hundreds of pounds. It looked like a dire wolf, with foot long claws for feet.

  He raised his left hand and fired without looking. He was wearing a standard issue Monster Jaeger power armor, which meant his left arm held a spring powered spell rifle. The trigger activated an ice spell rune and flung a magnet forward at subsonic speeds. The ice spell wrapped around the magnet ball and impacted the monster milliseconds later.

  Ice mana froze a spot on the Hive Wolf’s chest, slowly spreading across its chest, expanding as the spell ran rampant along the tier one monster. Luke stepped out of the way as the monster fell to the ground with a pained yelp. It wasn’t dead yet, but it would be soon.

  “Ok, recruits, finish off the Hive Wolf and harvest its core,” Luke said to the people standing behind him.

  They wore identical suits of armor, mechs Luke made himself. Over the last month or so, he had really perfected the design, something that provided strength, protection, and ease of repair. Luke was going to be traveling soon, so he wanted his employees to be able to carry on without him.

  One of them, former military, was moving even before Luke finished talking. The other three shook themselves, still getting over the shock of the ambush. They hurried over and used their Lightning Hammers and Fire Spears to finish off the beast.

  Once it was down, the oldest among them turned to Luke and said, “How did you do that? You didn’t even look.”

  Luke chuckled softly. “I’m always looking now. My Perception is over twice as good as yours, and that’s before the buff my class gives me.”

  “I wouldn’t mind a class of my own, even if it did give me eyes on the back of my head,” he grumbled.

  Luke shook his head. “People get classes after they risk their lives. The System of the World picks people who are about to go through some shit and tells them they are being observed and they'll get magic powers if they survive. Plenty of people die in their assessment period. Don’t wish for a class until you are trained up and used to fighting monsters.”

  He nodded and went back to harvesting. They still sucked at it, but they were getting better.

  Despite what Luke said, he couldn’t be happier that he had risked his life and gotten a class. He ran out and fought a high-tiered spider monster with his self made mech, but without any training. It was a desperate situation. He was very lucky he didn’t die. But the result was a platinum class and amazing stats whenever he was wearing a mech. Which was always because he had convinced the system that his prosthetic leg counted.

  Every time he saw his stat screen these days he was happy. His stats were better than anyone else at his level, and his skills were devastatingly powerful.

  So beautiful. Particularly the two new skills he had gotten after he hit the third threshold, Vortex Door and Armor Adjunct. He had gotten the skills after a literal duel to the death. The former lord of the estate village to the north, Lord Edobar, had dueled Lord Momoh to settle a legal matter. Edobar was the better fighter between the two, but Luke had been on Momoh’s side. Luke killed the other second and distracted Edobar long enough to get him killed too. He had leveled up to eighteen from the fight and now he loved looking at the beautiful numbers.

  Reviewing his stat screen hadn’t always been so enjoyable. He had been stuck at level eighteen for a month and a half. At his last threshold, he had sacrificed his two highest leveled skills and that had halted his advancement until he had a skill over eighteen again.

  Endless hours of training and sessions with a mana diffuser had helped him level up all of his skills to a respectable level once more. Each one had evolved slightly when they hit level twelve, so he was excited to see how Vortex Door would evolve when he hit that threshold soon.

  Luke interrupted his musings when he heard a sound in the bushes behind them. It was the barest rustle, less than the sound of a leaf falling. It was still enough for him to isolate. There was something behind the redwood-like tree behind them. He turned and fired off a Phantom Shot directly into the tree.

  A foot long ethereal bullet appeared and shot forward, almost as fast as a gunshot. The gray and violet spell phased through the tree and out the other side. There was the sound of a body thumping to the ground.

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  Luke wandered around the tree to see a second Hive Wolf dead on the forest floor. He ordered the recruits to collect its core too and tsked to himself. If the monster was smart enough to attempt to sneak up on them, it meant that it was smarter than average. Normally the wolves attacked recklessly, only when they had enough of their brethren forming a hive mind would they have enough intelligence to use tactics. He made a mental note to have patrols reduce their numbers before the hive grew too smart.

  Another small scrape sounded above him, but Luke didn’t turn to shoot. Instead, he looked up and said, “Jinx. You were supposed to help keep watch for us. You need to at least warn us if something is coming that close.”

  His cat gave him an imperious look and then turned away contemptuously. Luke sighed. He had been expecting too much of her. She had continued to level up and get bigger over the last few months, becoming a little bit smarter with every level. He knew she understood his tone and intent most of the time. She had helped out culling teams in the past, sniffing out hidden monsters and spoiling ambushes. But she was still a cat. She did what she wanted.

  Luke expected that to change slightly after they visited the capital. One of the things he wanted to buy there was a way to bond with Jinx. Once they are bound they should be able to understand each other completely. That should improve their ability to work together.

  Either that or she would ask for treats nonstop.

  When the newbies were done harvesting the cores and claws, Jinx jumped down from the tree. Ten feet above the forest floor, she stepped lightly on air to slow herself down. That was her new skill after she passed her level twelve threshold. She could take a single step on air now, letting her redirect herself in the middle of battle. It made her already formidable combat prowess even stronger. She usually used the new skill to get into places she wasn’t supposed to be.

  Jinx threaded through Luke’s legs, her five foot tall frame rubbing up against his calves. She had perfected the move of phasing just through his armor and touching the skin below. Luke reached down to pet her. He knew what she was doing, buttering him up so he would give her one of the cores they just harvested.

  It worked. Luke just couldn’t say no to that cute murder kitty face. He gave Jinx both cores and she gobbled them up.

  He didn’t mind too much. He wasn’t here for tier one cores anyway. Luke had led the recruits northwest of the estate village to tackle a much larger monster. His magic drone had spotted the last component for his personal mech. He mentally ordered his drone’s Machine Soul to do a sweep of the area to make sure there were no surprises. He didn’t want his new employees to be at risk as they watched the fight.

  When the camera didn’t show him anything concerning, Luke said, “Alright newbies. Time for a show. Follow me.” He quickly led them to a nearby hill. “Stay here and watch. You too, Jinx. You aren’t eating this core even if you do help me kill it.”

  Jinx immediately turned to the new hires, asking them for pets instead. Maybe she smelled their lunches. Once everyone was settled in, Luke jogged into the valley south of the hill. He looked around for his target, unable to see anything amiss. It was a wide valley, with sparse trees, most of them only a hundred feet tall. A shallow creek ran through the center and bulbous bushes dotted its banks. If it wasn’t for his magic drone’s infrared cameras, he would have no idea what was waiting for him.

  Activating Armor Adjunct, Luke gave the valley another look. With the magical protection the skill gave him, he was able to pierce the monster’s obscuring magic. Up until now, his eyes had slid off the monster’s huge shadow. Target identified, Luke grinned and dashed forward, drawing his ice hammer.

  A dark shadow detached itself from the tree, revealing itself to be a sixty foot tall Umbral Mantis. The monster had six huge legs, two of which ended in long scythes. Its insect chitin was covered by a thick layer of black fur, one that seemed to suck in the light around it. Even in the middle of the day, it was hard to make out details, like it had been dipped in vantablack paint.

  The Umbral Mantis didn’t give him time to react to its sudden appearance and slashed down with its scythes. The attacks sliced down in a flash. Luke was already in the air. He had jumped forward, confusing the monster who had expected his prey to attempt to run.

  Luke swung twice before he landed, hitting the upper joints of its middle legs. The huge hammer moved the joints slightly, but it was mostly uninjured. As expected. The real purpose of the attack was to transfer the ice spell and have the creeping frost lock it down. He just had to survive until then.

  The instant he landed, Luke jumped to the side to avoid the inevitable counterattack. He slammed his ice hammer on the joint of its rearmost leg on the way. He positioned himself near the huge tree so he could use it as cover. The Umbral Mantis was huge and had enormous scythes, but it couldn’t cut through a seven foot wide tree. Not with a single slice anyway.

  Luke ducked behind the tree to avoid two more scythe attacks. Bark flew and the tree shuddered as its scythes deflected off the trunk. The monster made its first sound of the fight, an agonized roar as it finally felt the ice growing on three of its joints.

  If he wanted to, Luke could draw the fight out until all of the Umbral Mantis’ joints were frozen solid. But he had plans today and he decided to cut things short. He pointed at the tree trunk and activated Vortex Door. A white doorway spread on the surface, just big enough to accommodate Luke’s nine foot mech frame. He fired a second shot of the skill towards the top of the tree, and a second doorway opened up, facing the monster. The doorways swirled and connected to each other.

  Luke fired off a pair of Phantom Shots, mostly to keep the monster’s attention on the ground. The gray and violet slugs shot the Mantis’s shoulders, damaging them enough to slow the monster’s attacks.

  He turned and dashed through the doorway, reappearing above the monster. He resisted the urge to give a warcry as he arced through the air directly at the monster’s head. The Ice Hammer was charged up, white wisps trailing like a comet. Acuity sped up his mind and made it seem like the world was slowing down. He held the hammer above his head, bringing it down at the last moment to slam into the mantis’ compound eye.

  The enchanted hammer crunched into the monster, penetrating deep and splattering dark blue blood everywhere. Luke’s momentum didn’t stop, and he levered out of the wound and tumbled the remaining fifty feet to the ground. His Acuity and Dexterity combined to help him orient his feet towards the ground. As his mech impacted the dirt, it activated a complex rune on his back, flickering power into the Master Inertia rune. Over a hundred points of mana were pulled from the mech’s core and used up in an instant to halt his momentum completely.

  The Umbral Mantis shrieked in pain and stumbled about, gouts of blood spurting from his huge wound. The cry of pain was loud enough to trigger the ear protection in his helmet, protecting his hearing. It was one of the dozens of small improvements he had made to the standard mech.

  Luke went to work, slamming his Ice Hammer into its joints over and over again. The monster flailed about, but he was easily able to avoid its claw swipes since the monster couldn’t see or focus well. He kept working on the joints and in less than sixty seconds later, they snapped and the huge monster fell over.

  With its head in range again, Luke slammed his hammer down on the injury he had created earlier. This time the huge weapon broke through its skull and pulped the brain beneath. Luke smashed it a few more times, just to be sure.

  He stopped fighting, and the only sound was blue blood dripping to the dirt. He laughed and threw his hands up in the air, shouting his victory to the world. An Umbral Mantis of this size had a tier six monster core at least. On the open market it would be a half million dollars, but Luke was going to use it himself. His newest mech was bigger and designed to last longer and it needed a big core.

  “Time to get to work, come on down,” Luke yelled.

  The four new hires walked down the hill. The youngest among them walked over to the corpse and ran his gauntlet across the fur covered chitin. “So wild. I thought you were fighting a shadow for most of the fight. It wasn’t until it died that I could really see it.”

  The oldest recruit said, “Yeah, it looked like you were tilting at windmills. How are we supposed to fight against something we can’t see?”

  “You aren’t. If you see a big shadow moving, run. Higher classed Jaegers like Angela or Sandwich will take on the big scary monsters. It’s important you never bite off more than you can chew,” Luke said.

  One of them kicked the body and said, “Do you want us to collect this one’s core too?”

  Luke nodded. “Yes, but there’s a reason I didn’t touch its torso. I want you to carefully harvest large swaths of chitin. You can grab the core after we have some good crafting materials. Don’t let Jinx near it. But don’t dawdle. I’ve got a meeting to get to. I need to finish prep for my big trip.”

  Three of them got right to work, but the youngest looked up and asked, “Are you worried about your trip at all? You heard what they’re saying about the Empire, right?”

  Luke waffled his hand back and forth, “Eh. I think it’ll be fine. It was concerning when they killed the president of China, but they haven’t done anything else. I think they were just punishing him for invading that town. They don’t want a war any more than we do.”

  The recruit shook his head. “That’s not what Theo Von says. I was listening to his podcast yesterday and he said the knife ears are increasing soldier count around twelve of the fifty-one portals. He says it looks like they are gearing up for invasion part two.”

  “I don’t know who Theo Von is, but I do know there isn’t any Kalibutan military around here. There is only a corpse that needs processing. Maybe you should do something about it?” Luke said and raised an eyebrow.

  The new guy hopped to it while Luke thought about what he said. There had been reports of military buildup in the news and not just from podcasters. He was a bit concerned about it, but so far he had decided to still go on the trip. The rewards were too good to pass up.

  The chapter title is a quote from Avatar (2009)