Rey looked up at the dark, craggy 'sky' veined with rivulets of lava, and nearly wept. He hated this place, and he was literally standing on the doorstep. Streams of lava snaked through the ceiling above, making it unbearably hot in some areas. Thanks to the heat, the ground was scorched and dry, as if someone had torched the entire place. There were hardly any dead trees with decayed limbs for branches in this kingdom. Finding a place to sleep here was tougher than finding a tick on a rat's ass.

  He took a sip from his waterskin and realized that was all he had left. His waterskin was nearly empty. He could squeeze out one more drop if he really tried. His stomach grumbled loud enough to put a Hippo's fart to shame.

  Maya's tits, I'm starving.

  He saw a demon hobbling away from him. That was a first. He figured since he was at Rank 5 now, demons finally had the sense to run away from him, instead of to him. That was a long time coming, but he needed those demons to create an outfit for his escapade in Narzroth, the city of bones.

  Well, it wasn't like he needed to chase after demons. He thrust his hand out and did his best Scorpion impression.

  "Get over here!"

  The demon was dragged across the dark, craggy ground, struggling uselessly against Rey's Gravitational Attraction skill. When the crooked-shaped monster got closer, Rey slammed his scythe into the creature's chest, killing it on the spot.

  [You killed a Demon (Exiled) - E+2]

  Dark blood dripped onto the ground as Rey pulled his scythe out of the demon's body. As he did, the blade on his scythe quivered in such a manner that Rey felt his balls shrivel a little.

  I need to get this repaired ASAP, or my kneecaps, ribs, and other major organs are going to be screaming worse than Mrunis when I tortured him. He shook his head. Man, that guy could scream.

  Giving his injured scythe another look, he looked to his dinner, the only problem was how to cook it. There were no trees in sight. That was the other issue with this place. Without his succubus-loving pyromaniac to light a flame, it would be harder to light a fire here than hiding a boner in gym shorts.

  That wasn't the only problem—he had no water, which meant that he had no choice but to head for the Hypresal river. That was the closest body of freshwater around here. He sighed as he hefted the dead demon onto his shoulder and started his trek towards the river.

  ***

  It took him an entire day to get to the river. He was crawling on his hands and knees by the time he got there. Not because he was injured in a fight with some demon, but his throat felt as dry as the ground beneath him. He wanted water so badly that he didn't even bother to check for any demon lying in wait in the tall grass around the river's bank. He ran and splashed in the water and gulped down all he could.

  [+1 Endurance]

  The water wasn't cool like he expected. The permanent summer-like weather of this shitty kingdom made it so that even the water was lukewarm at best. When he was done gulping down water like a guy who thought water was going extinct tomorrow, he sighed in contentment. Then he just floated in the water for a little bit before finally getting out of the river. After all, there might be some demon lurking in the dark waters. He couldn't risk losing his soul in this place.

  He got out of the river, filled his waterskin, and walked to the only tree that stood on this side of the river. He put his back to the tree trunk and slid down. He extended a hand towards his scythe, and it flew into his hands.

  Hey, what do you know, my weapon does fly into my hand as well. Take that, Meera!

  He extended his scythe towards the demon that he'd dropped earlier and activated the Runic skill embedded in his scythe. The demon carcass flew to him. He caught the body and started the process of cleaning the meat. It took longer than expected, followed by hacking off some branches from the tree, and lighting a fire.

  Then he was off to cook the meat. After an hour, he had a nice, charred demon. As he enjoyed the roasted meat, he pondered what his next move should be.

  So far, he had followed what he'd done last time. After killing Tekymal and leaving the dungeon, their group had wandered around until they finally arrived here. It was hard to remember whether they’d gone upriver or downriver, but as far as he remembered, it was something like this. He couldn't be expected to remember everything. After all, it had happened five years ago.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  He enjoyed his meat and let his thoughts wander. He now had some time, and there was no major threat lingering close to the river. Unlike their full tiger counterparts, the tigermen—or Baaghror, as they called themselves—didn't really like to hang around in the river as much. So, he had time to stop and think about what he wanted to do next.

  The first item on the list was what to do with his free stat point. His Mana had been steadily growing, which was great, even if everything else was lacking, aside from Dexterity. Since he was already at Rank 5, he had all the time in the world. He wasn't even close to Rank 4 by this time in his last playthrough.

  Holy fuck, I was weak. No wonder Kassi…

  He didn't even let that thought finish, as he was done thinking about her. The more he thought about her, the more he wanted to go back and find her. He should've just left them right at the beginning; then he would never have gotten close to her, and it would have been easier for him to leave.

  He brought up his stats to shove the love of his life out of his mind. After all, he had a stat point to spend and eight stats that were itching to be impregnated by it.

  Stats: 1

  [Vitality: 50 > 54]

  [Strength: 38 > 42]

  [Dexterity: 99 > 108]

  [Endurance: 48 > 56]

  [Magic Affinity: 29 > 33]

  [Magic Power: 42 > 51]

  [Willpower: 39 > 41]

  [Perception: 51 > 56]

  It wasn't as though he had made no progress, but after killing everything in the dungeon, he was expecting something a little better than this. But then, he had been a fair deal stronger than most of the demons that littered the Temu version of Ancient Greece.

  Seeing his stats made it obvious where he would stick his free stat point—Magic Affinity. He hated how this System worked. It made it so that some people were more attuned to certain stats. For him, it was Dexterity, Magic Power, and Endurance. He wasn't complaining about any of the three, but not having Magic Affinity just toned his magical skills to a tease. He had to watch his Mana constantly, or he would run out mid-fight and then be reduced to whacking them with his stick.

  He also had a free Talent point, so he brought up his Talent menu and went straight to the skills section, and unfortunately, there were no new Gravity-based skills that he could acquire. He almost opened the other sub-menus, but didn't know exactly how he wanted to proceed with his build.

  He could easily acquire more magical skills that worked in conjunction with his gravity skill, but that wouldn't resolve the problem. His eyes fell on his scythe, more specifically, the silver orb that contained the runic skill. He needed more of those, as they didn't rely on Mana at all, but only on his Magic Power. He didn't know the ins and outs of these skills, but if it worked without fail, then he had no issues with it.

  He decided to hold off on using his Talent point for now, in case he found something better. There were only so many he could earn, and he didn't want to waste one and then have no way to go back. Hell had no respec potions because apparently 'git gud' was written into the mainframe of the System.

  He rested his head on the tree trunk and decided to do something that had been running in the back of his head for a while now.

  He drew a heavy breath and activated Gravity's Domain under him. Immediately, he felt himself being dragged to the ground, but since he had only increased the gravity by ten percent, it wasn't as bad as the first time he had stepped into it.

  The branches above him creaked as they were pulled slightly downward from the sudden increase of their weight. Raising his arms alone was a chore, but he somehow managed to lift them above his head. He let them fall and tried a couple more times, and doing just that, he felt like he was doing shoulder presses with fifty-pound dumbbells.

  [+1 Strength]

  This gave Rey pause. Strength was one of those stats that didn't come to him so easily. With difficulty, he managed to get his feet under him, and using the tree as support, he managed to stand. Just that effort was enough to make him feel like he had been squatting a hundred pounds. So, he had that a few more times, and again, a notification popped up.

  [+1 Strength]

  Then something popped up in his head. Something he hadn't thought of in a long time. An image of a spiky-haired alien training in a round training chamber, where he could alter the state of gravity to push himself beyond his limits.

  Rey grinned. This'll be fun, but let's not be hasty, my precious.

  To see if he could actually train in increased gravity, there was one more thing he needed to verify, and this thing was of the utmost importance—how much Mana Gravity's Domain used to sustain these increased gravity areas.

  He shut off the domain under his feet and nearly lurched forward. He found that he could breathe easier, for one, now that there wasn't an invisible hand trying to smash him into the ground. He moved away from the tree, as it was his only source of shade, and he didn't want his increased gravity to damage his only source of wood, as far as he could see.

  He quickly checked his Mana.

  [Mana: 323/340]

  Then he activated Gravity's Domain again, with only ten percent gravity. He struggled to stand upright, and after bumbling for a minute or two, he finally managed to stand on his own, without the support of his scythe.

  [+1 Endurance]

  Rey grinned at that. But that was not what he was looking for. He checked his Mana again.

  [Mana: 302/340]

  He kept an eye on his Mana for a little while as he stayed rooted to the spot. He didn't move as that would cause too much strain on his body. Not to mention, it would also deplete his Stamina faster, but he wasn't worried about that at the moment.

  Rey was sure he must've been standing there for more than ten minutes, and his Stamina didn't deplete at all. This meant that maintaining these increased gravity circles didn't need Stamina, but it depleted his Mana at a rate slower than he had expected. That was one of the best things about this skill. In essence, he could eat, sleep, shit, and train in this circle until gravity stopped trying to crush his spine for fun. However, with additional people in the cirlce would it require more Mana? That would need to be tested.

  A wicked grin split his face. Time to power level the shit out of the stats.