The sun was halfway down the horizon, painting the sky in shades of deep orange and red, creating a beautiful backdrop to the current battle.
The scorpion's tail snapped forward, but Lukas had been watching for it. He moved anyway, twisting hard to the left, but the tail still caught him across the torso.
The tip scraped along his [Blood Armor], a small crack running through the shell as the force transferred into it.
He felt the impact register in his chest, but the shell still held. It felt like being shoved lightly by something heavy. Fortunately, the stinger wasn't able to penetrate the shell.
He exhaled.
The armor had been taking hits all afternoon, and he could feel the shell thinning in places where it had absorbed too much without enough fresh blood to repair it.
His mana was burning down to the last of its reserves after continuous hours of cycling between combat and recovery. He needed to finish this fast.
Fortunately, he was already past the scorpion's tail range. He was inside its guard.
He brought his sword down in a powerful chop, severing the tail at its base. The scorpion lurched, the loss of its primary weapon throwing off its balance.
Its pincers snapped forward in desperation, but Lukas was already in the air, clearing them with a single jump.
He came down hard, driving his sword through the scorpion's back with both hands behind it, pinning the creature to the ground.
It struggled for a moment, legs scraping uselessly against the soot-covered earth. Then it went quiet.
[You have killed a C-rank Deathstalker Scorpion.]
He straightened, pulling his sword free, and that was when the second notification replaced the first.
Ding!
[Congratulations! You have advanced to D-Rank!]
[Thief: +20 Agility, +20 Constitution]
[Hexblade: +50 Mana, +50 Strength, +50 Constitution]
Lukas stared at the screen, eyes wide.
He'd known it was coming. His experience had been creeping towards the threshold for the last hour, but seeing it written out in front of him still made him stop entirely.
He also hadn't considered the double class bonus.
Advancement stat rewards were a known mechanic. Every class gave its holder a fixed set of stats when they ranked up. What he hadn't thought through was that he had two classes. Which meant two sets of advancement rewards deposited at once.
"You just leveled up, didn't you?" Melody was standing a few meters away, a knowing smirk on her face.
"I'm D-rank," he said quietly, staring at the notification.
Then it actually sank in.
"I'm D-rank!" He turned and grabbed Melody around the waist, sweeping her off her feet before she could react.
She let out a surprised sound that turned into a laugh as he spun her in a full circle, her feet leaving the ground entirely.
"Lukas!" She was laughing properly now, her hands gripping his shoulders.
He set her down, still grinning, and she shook her head, the smile still on her face.
Two days. He turned that number over in his head as he stood there, the smile refusing to leave his face.
He had started yesterday morning as an E-rank [Thief] with no money, no party, and a broken-down house.
Now he was standing in the Scorched Forest as a D-rank Awakener with a B-rank wife, five skills, and more gold in his pouch than the original Lukas had seen in his entire life.
And all it had taken to achieve this was two days. Two fucking days.
He pulled up his stats.
[Lukas]
[Race: Human]
[Rank: D-Rank Awakener]
[Class: Thief, Hexblade]
[EXP: 0.17%]
[Stats:]
[Strength: 1116]
[Agility: 1287]
[Constitution: 1626]
[Mana: 2114]
[Skills: Pickpocket, Lockpick, Cursed Blade, Hex Shield, Blood Armor]
He stared at his new rank for a long moment before dismissing the screen.
"Next goal," he said quietly. "C-rank."
Melody tilted her head. "Don't get ahead of yourself. Advancing gets harder at each step. The gap between D-rank and C-rank is wider than the one you just crossed."
She looked at him evenly. "If we keep the same pace, you're probably looking at a week."
A week. He turned that over in his head without saying anything.
It was more than enough time. All he needed to do was advance as fast as he could because he knew what was coming.
In one month, the graduation tournament for his class year would take place.
Every genius from their cohort, every child of privilege, and every [Spellblade], [Paladin], or [Elementalist] who had walked off that podium with a crowd cheering their name would be there.
And so would he.
He didn't care about the recognition, he cared about the prize.
The reward for winning the tournament was significant enough that it would be instrumental to the career of the winner, and he had every intention of standing at the top of the tournament.
So, one week to reach C-rank was more than workable.
He was still running through the math in his head when Melody glanced up at the sky. The orange had deepened to purple at the edges, the first hints of dark creeping in from the east.
"Time to stop," she said.
"Agreed." He sheathed his sword. "Nighttime hunting is a different kind of dangerous. The beasts that come out after dark aren't the same as what we've been dealing with."
They quickly made their way back to Havenhart, but once they were in the city, Lukas took a detour.
Fortunately, the butcher's shop was still open. He pushed through the door, scanned the cuts on display, and chose what he wanted.
He also stopped at a spice stall on the way back, picking up what he needed. He definitely wasn't going to cook unseasoned steak. He wasn't a barbarian.
Melody had been quiet on the walk, but the moment the butcher wrapped the meat and handed it over, she woke up.
"Steak," she said.
"Yes."
"Actual steak."
"That's what I just bought."
She fell into step beside him, and after about thirty seconds of silence, started saying it under her breath like a chant. "Steak. Steak. Steak."
He looked at her sideways. She didn't stop.
He shook his head and kept walking, smiling in spite of himself.
At home, Melody headed straight for the bath, which was becoming their routine after a day of fighting in the soot and heat of the Scorched Forest.
Lukas tied his apron, laid out the ingredients, and started cooking.
He had the steaks searing in the pan, the smell filling the house, when Melody appeared in the doorway in her nightgown, her hair still damp.
He gave her specific instructions, then handed her a task and went to take his shower.
He returned to find the task completed and Melody sitting at the table with her hands folded, watching the pan with the focused attention of a predator.
He plated the food, set it down in front of her, and sat across from her.
He picked up his knife and fork, looked at the table, and stopped.
"Damn," he said.
Melody looked up. "What?"
"Wine." He said. "I forgot to buy wine."
A pause.
"Damn," Melody said.
They ate it anyway.
The steak was good, better than good, and the absence of wine didn't stop either of them from finishing everything on their plates and sitting back afterwards.
They talked for a while after, getting to know each other better and deepening their relationship, until Melody yawned and they made their way to bed.
Lukas lay in the dark with her settled against his side, her breathing already evening out towards sleep.
He stared at the ceiling, feeling the specific kind of tired that came from a day that had gone well.
He closed his eyes.
Ding!
[New Quest: Don't Get Too Comfortable, Bro]
[Time Limit: 24 hours]
[Objective: Advance to C-Rank]
[Reward: +1,000 Gacha Points]
[Penalty for failure: All stats reset to zero]
Lukas was immediately wide awake.
He stared at the notification hovering in the dark above him. He read it again from the top, noting the time limit and the objective, before coming to rest on the penalty.
All stats reset to zero.
He was fucked.