The rain started falling again. The frozen drops crashed down to the wet pavement all at once. The loud noise of the city came rushing back into Donald’s ears, but he barely noticed it.
He stayed on his hands and knees, breathing hard. The sharp pain in his chest was gone. In its place, a warm, heavy energy flowed through his veins. For his whole life, his body had felt weak and empty. Now, it felt full. It felt like his muscles were packed with solid iron.
"Kid?" a rough voice asked.
Donald blinked and looked up. Evelyn Vance was leaning forward away from the dirty brick wall. Her cloudy blue eyes were wide, staring right at him.
"What just happened to you?" she asked. Her voice was still scratchy, but she wasn’t coughing up blood anymore. "Your magic aura... it just spiked. Hard."
Donald slowly stood up. He didn’t feel the normal ache in his knees. He felt perfectly balanced. He looked at the golden text floating in the air. Evelyn didn’t seem to see the screens.
[Command Prompt: Say ’Status’ to view your current stats.]
"Status," Donald whispered.
A new window popped up.
Name: Donald
Class: Investor (SSS+)
Level: 1
Strength: 12
Speed: 14
Stamina: 13
Mana: 15
[Skills:]
[Lesser Mana Perception (F-Rank): Sense the natural magical energy around near vicinity.]
[Valuation Eye (EX-Rank): See the hidden value, needs, and weak points of targets.]
[Aura of the Vanguard (F-Rank): Creates a thin, invisible shield over your skin that reduces physical damage.]
Donald’s jaw dropped. The average F-Rank Awakener had stats around 8 or 9. With just a single reward of +5 to everything, he was already stronger than most E-Ranks. All because he bought a cheap potion for a broken woman.
He looked at Evelyn and focused on his new skill. [Valuation Eye.]
Instantly, text floated above her head.
Target: Evelyn Vance
Class: Vanguard (A-Rank)
Current Deficit: Shattered Mana Core. Betrayal Trauma.
Required Investment (Next Step): Clean, safe housing and 500 Mana Crystals to start core repair.
Donald gulped. Five hundred mana crystals would cost a fortune. But the potential reward... if a cheap potion gave him five stat points and two skills, what would happen if he actually fixed an S-Rank fighter?
Before he could think more about it, a low, wet growl echoed from the dark end of the alley.
Evelyn’s eyes went wide. She grabbed the wall and tried to pull herself up, but her legs gave out. "Sludge Hound," she hissed. "It smelled my leaking mana. Kid, run. Now!"
Out of the shadows stepped a monster. It looked like a giant hairless dog with gray skin that dripped with toxic slime. Its jaws were packed with three rows of sharp teeth. It was an F-Rank monster that usually stayed in the sewers, feeding on trash and weak prey.
In the past, Donald would have run away screaming. A Sludge Hound could tear a normal human in half.
But as the beast dug its claws into the concrete floor, Donald didn’t run. He felt his new strength buzzing in his arms. He stepped in front of Evelyn, putting himself between her and the monster.
"I said run, you idiot!" Evelyn yelled.
"I just invested in you," Donald said, keeping his eyes on the hound. "I can’t let my investment dip on the first day."
The hound roared and jumped at him. It covered the distance in a second, jaws snapping open to bite his neck.
Donald’s mind worked incredibly fast. He triggered his other new skill: [Aura of the Vanguard]. A faint, solid light wrapped around his forearms like glass armor.
He didn’t just swing his fists wildly. He dropped low to the ground. Using the slick, rainy pavement, he slid right under the leaping hound. The beast’s jaws snapped shut on Donald’s raised left arm. The Aura of the Vanguard flashed bright, blocking the sharp teeth from tearing his skin. The invisible shield cracked, but it held.
Using the hound’s own forward speed, Donald planted his heavy boots right into the monster’s soft belly. He kicked upward with all his new Strength.
The hound yelped as it was launched up and over Donald, crashing hard into the brick wall behind them.
Donald spun around and grabbed a heavy iron pipe from a nearby trash pile. The hound shook its head and tried to stand up. Donald quickly used his [Valuation Eye] on the monster. A glowing red circle appeared just behind the beast’s ear, its weak point.
Donald rushed forward. He didn’t smash the pipe down like a club like you would expect from a novice. He gripped it with two hands like a spear. Using his quick momentum, he thrust the heavy iron pipe straight into the glowing red circle behind the hound’s ear.
SPISSHHH-CRACK.
The iron broke through the thin bone. The hound went stiff, then dropped completely dead in the wet trash.
Donald stood over the monster, breathing heavily. He pulled the pipe out and dropped it. He checked his left arm. His jacket was torn, but his skin was only slightly bruised. The fight was over in less than ten seconds.
He turned around. Evelyn was sitting on the ground, staring at him with her mouth slightly open. The rain washed the dirt from her pale face.
"You moved like a trained fighter," Evelyn said, her voice full of shock. "You used my old Vanguard defensive block. I saw it. But you.... aren’t you just a classless F-Rank!?"
Donald looked at his hands, then at the dead monster, and finally at Evelyn. He walked over and offered her his hand.
"I was," Donald said quietly, pulling the older woman to her feet. "But things just changed. Do you have a place to stay?"
Evelyn dusted off her ruined leather armor and shook her head. "No. The Guild took my apartment."
"Okay," Donald said. He didn’t have much money left, but he had to figure something out. The System had chosen his path. "You’re coming with me."