Matt didn’t know why four mana signatures, belonging to what he assumed were wolves, had decided to wait instead of pouncing on him. His guess was they’d arrived after the fight was over and decided to ambush him when he dropped his guard or walked through the gate.

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  Running into an ambush, even the ones you knew about beforehand, didn’t sound like the smartest of ideas. He might’ve rushed in if the previous fight had been similar to the ones against the golems. Unfortunately, the wolves were fast, and that howl of theirs was incredibly dangerous, which made them a lot trickier to deal with than their sandy counterparts.

  “Cautious approach it is,” he sighed, circling around the main resort entrance in search of another way inside, all while scanning for more mana signatures.

  Luckily for him, it hadn’t taken long. One of the hotel restaurants was near the entrance, with a seating area that had a direct view of the lagoon. Going through it and into the staff hallway lead him to the reception with no issues, which was how he now had eyes on the four wolves waiting on ambush, two to each side of the revolving door.

  Desert Wolf (level 16)

  Desert Wolf (level 16)

  Desert Wolf (level 16)

  Desert Wolf (level 17)

  While taking on all four at the same time sounded like an unnecessary risk, the previous fight had given him good insight into how the wolves fought and their general level of power, giving him enough confidence in his ability to deal with the large monsters. The only skill he needed to really watch out for was the howl, and for that he still had his ears blocked.

  Matt quickly double-checked his resources. The wolves were getting antsy, and one of them was even starting to move around, which didn’t give him that much time.

  With a thought, he started charging his scepter while channeling mana into his palm. This time, it wasn’t a serious look on his face, but a manic grin that adorned his features. The grin of the battle-crazed. It was a 4-on-1, and he really liked those odds.

  Matt jumped over the reception desk, firing an orb at the two wolves on his right and a mana wave at the other two.

  The wolves, upon hearing Matt’s battle-cry, immediately turned, rushing towards him, ready to pounce, only for a mana orb to explode in the faces of two of them, killing one and severely injuring the other.

  The other wolves did pounce, only for a flood of mana to slam into them and push them back into the wall, leaving them pinned and unable to move.

  The injured wolf tried to get back up to its feet, only for a punt kick to find its stomach.

  Matt felt bone shatter and organs rupture under the force of his kick, which was powerful enough to break the poor canine in half, killing it instantly.

  He immediately turned towards the two wolves pinned a few feet away from him, not slowing down in the slightest, scepter clutched tightly in his hand.

  He fired the orb he had been charging towards one while lunging with his scepter towards the other.

  The scepter landed on the wolf’s head with a satisfying crunch, two more following in quick succession, shattering its skull and crushing its brain, putting it down for good.

  Keeping the momentum going, Matt spun around, swinging his scepter like a golf club with all his might at the other wolf’s exposed abdomen, watching as it carved a path, tearing a hole through the underbelly of the canine.

  Silence fell once more as only Matt’s ragged breathing could be heard.

  He opened his notifications, confirming that all four were indeed dead.

  You have defeated 3x Desert Wolf (level 16)

  You have defeated Desert Wolf (level 17)

  Matt breathed out in relief. While the fight wasn’t long or difficult, and had more or less gone as one would’ve hoped, he still had his apprehensions.

  He had never killed anything before the system, and while his family had tried long and hard to hammer every bit of empathy out of him, he still held on to what he could. It was part of being human after all, and that was a part he planned on carrying on with him, because what was the point of getting stronger if he lost his humanity along the way. Which also happened to be one of his biggest fears. Not losing his humanity, but the hesitation that could come with it.

  He knew he would end up fighting other people at some point, and not just because he’d be hunted down, but because historically, when consequences stopped mattering, gloves tended to come off fairly quickly, and hesitating in a decisive moment was something he couldn’t afford to do.

  “Am I just being naive?” he muttered to himself as he looked out the slightly dusty window of the resort and onto the blue lagoon surrounding it.

  He couldn’t predict the future or know what decisions he’d end up making in a life and death situation. He just knew what kind of person he wanted to be when the curtains fell, and he’d do his best to stay true to that person, even if it meant having to make some tough decisions.

  With renewed resolve, he gave the wall next to the window a light jab, amping himself up, before heading out of the reception area. There was still more cleaning left to do after all.

  What concerned him though, was again, his stamina. The fight was quick and lasted only a few seconds, yet even in that short amount of time he had used up 30% of the resource. There was no struggle nor anything strenuous occurring during the fight, and this time there was no howl to blame it on, proving it wasn’t the underlying cause.

  Another explanation could be the gloves’ ability draining stamina along with health, but if that was the case, he felt that certain cats would’ve mentioned it. In truth though, he hadn’t asked since he never thought a hidden cost would be a possibility. He also knew from games that skill descriptions omitted details quite often to incentivize experimenting, but between this not being a game and a hidden cost not being a simple omission, it was starting to sound more and more unlikely.

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  It was concerning. His stamina had never dropped low enough before, but judging by health and mana, something very unpleasant was bound to happen when it did.

  Shivering at the thought, Matt decided to move on. He’d look into it once this place had its occupants reduced to one, preferably that one being him.

  Matt made his way out of the reception room and into the central pool area, finding himself being greeted by the, well, pool. It was rectangular, with cream-colored porcelain tiles covering the surrounding ground. Sun loungers filled the area, with most of them occupied, having towels, bags and even clothes strewn around on them, again showing how busy the place had been prior to the integration.

  The image of someone swimming in the pool, enjoying a well-deserved vacation, only for their entire world to collapse on them as they got pulled into the tutorial, struck him. Everyone had been doing their own thing at the time, and some were left more exposed than others. The short warning provided by the system was a dick move of the highest caliber. He just hoped that joining the tutorial didn’t mean being thrown into action right away, and for maybe the first time, he found himself glad that they had chosen to spend that day in the desert, instead of in the pool. If not for him, then at least for his friends.

  The pool itself looked like it had seen better days, judging by how unsanitary it looked. Being ignored in the desert had certainly done it no favors, as dust, leaves, and random objects riddled its waters. There was even a floating slipper and a few shirts.

  The surprising part was there were no wolves anywhere in the vicinity, and the resort itself wasn’t that large, which meant scanning the rooms with his [Sense Mana] didn’t take long either. Odd, since he had half expected another ambush, but it did leave him with one more place to check, and it was an obvious one too.

  It took Matt a few minutes of walking until he reached his destination, the beach. His suspicions were soon confirmed once his eyes fell on the sleeping forms of what he hoped was the remainder of the pack as they lay resting on the golden sand.

  There were six in total. Five chose to lie under different beach umbrellas that had the resort logo embroidered on them, while one anomaly out of the bunch chose the shade of two giant palm trees as an umbrella was too small for it.

  Desert Wolf (level 17)

  Desert Wolf (level 17)

  Desert Wolf (level 17)

  Desert Wolf (level 18)

  Desert Wolf (level 18)

  Alpha Desert Wolf (level 20)

  “Well, fuck…”

  The alpha was… enormous. Easily the size of an elephant, with its fur taking on a sandy sheen resembling desert sand. Other than that, it looked like any other wolf. They all appeared to be sleeping, enjoying a peaceful beach day, and he had to remind himself they were monsters due to how inconspicuous the entire scene looked. Even if they appeared calm and peaceful now, he was sure they would be less than welcoming once they were aware of his presence.

  It did bring up a bigger issue, though. Five wolves and an alpha sounded like a really bad time. Even if he managed to kill two with his opening salvo, fighting three wolves and what he believed was the equivalent of a dungeon boss didn’t strike him as favorable odds, and no matter how he looked at it, there was no easy way to even things out.

  But then again, Matt wasn’t really a melee fighter, so why was he approaching the situation like one?

  Kicking and punching was easier than aiming orbs of mana, true, but it wasn’t really the smartest nor the safest choice, which was why he started scanning the resort, looking for a place to enact his plan, which, luckily, hadn’t taken all that long.

  A few minutes later, Matt found himself enjoying the cool ocean breeze from the balcony of one of the resort’s suites, with an added bonus of a view of the local wildlife as they lay there, unaware, unassuming, and entirely exposed.

  His first plan, divide and conquer—as he astutely chose to name it—was to fight from a range, throwing mana orbs and waves to thin them out, hopefully resulting in a more favorable fight once they finally reached him. The problem with that idea, was he’d be alerting them of his existence, so even if he tried to remain hidden after his opening salvo, they would be on their guard the entire time, at least until he was found, making it more difficult to land any more decisive hits after the initial surprise attack.

  This meant one thing: he had to come out with a bang, and a big one at that.

  Which brought him to the altered plan: raining hell.

  The plan was also simple, he’d fire the largest and most powerful mana orb he could summon, then immediately duck back inside and use [Sense Mana] to keep track of the wolves’ locations and numbers. If they figured where he was, he’d come out and continue raining hell. If not, then he’d recover with [Revitalize] before charging another gargantuan orb supported by mana wave. Hopefully that would be enough to avoid a direct confrontation with the remainder of the pack, at least until only he and the alpha wolf remained.

  It sounded good on paper, with little to no downsides. A prolonged fight worked to his favor, and so did a hit-and-run, so all he had to do was stick to either of those.

  With his mind made up, he took out his scepter and started slowly charging it with mana, trying to keep the resource as topped up as possible, all while monitoring the wolves for any changes.

  Firing the initial orb at the alpha had crossed his mind, but he feared if it missed or failed to take it out for any reason, he’d lose the element of surprise, and be stuck against all six wolves, heavily reducing his chances of success. So, instead, he decided to play it safe and blast the fodder.

  Sadly, the wolves were too spread out for his orb to effectively damage more than two. The two closest together were under umbrellas a few feet away from the water, while also happening to be the closest to the alpha, so he set those as his initial targets, hoping the largest of the wolves would suffer some damage, giving him an indication of how resilient it was.

  [Revitalize] had remained on the entire time, keeping his mana topped up. Also, surprisingly, the added stats seemed to have had a major impact on his only offensive ability, as he had now charged the orb with 50% of his total mana, with no signs of slowing down.

  After another minute, the orb was starting to lose stability, indicating it had reached, or was nearing, its limit, which was just when Matt had charged it with 70% of his mana. A big improvement, and something he was incredibly happy to see.

  It’s time, he thought as he got up from behind the stone balustrade while immediately firing his orb at his intended targets.

  The mana orb was his most powerful by far. It was double the one he had fired during his fight with the Dune Guardian, and that had been aimed at sand. This time its aim was to kill, which meant the carnage would be a spectacle worth seeing. He had wanted to see it with his own eyes, but he couldn’t expose his exact location if he could afford not to. That’s why he had jumped back into the room and closed his eyes, waiting for it.

  The entire town shook as if a seismic shift had caused a devastating earthquake. Glass shattered and random objects fell all around him, but Matt simply held on to the bed as the mana explosion was what he had been waiting for.

  Without a second thought, Matt cast [Sense Mana]. The pulse of mana left his chest only to immediately be enveloped in a sea of blinding white, like a star going supernova, overwhelming his senses and overloading the skill, shattering it completely.

  A startled Matt opened his eyes in alarm only for a splitting headache, the likes he had never felt before, to hit him. It was as if a whole construction site was happening in his brain, with drills, excavators and wrecking balls destroying anything in their path. He grabbed his hair and pulled as he let out a guttural scream, trying to do anything to take away from the pain. Strands of hair tore away in his hand, giving him enough clarity to realize what to do.

  He gritted his teeth and started casting both [Repair] and [Revitalize] in hopes of alleviating the headache. Unfortunately, that only made it worse, as now a two-handed axe chopping his brain to pieces was added to the mix.

  He opened his eyes, looking around frantically, trying to at least discern the damage or see the aftermath of his attack, but as he did, the only thing he saw… was white.