Chapter five! Been about two weeks and I'm starting to get used to juggling four stories at once again. I know it isn't the smartest idea in the world, but it's better than juggling more than four stories. I would get overstimulated if I did. So as a result I've put a couple of stories on the back burner. If you read those stories, I'll put out a PSA about them after I publish this.

Speaking of PSAs… Look, I know that me saying stuff here doesn't really do much, and idk if I'll get banned for saying this (if I do then damn) but I think it should be said. I don't have that big of a reach, but I stand with Palestine and its people. The Israeli government can suck my nob, and anyone who doesn't support Palestine is just plain in the wrong and are complicit in the current Genocide that's being committed by Netanyahu and his cabinet of fascist ghouls.

Also, know that if you comment some Pro-Zionist/Pro-Israeli Government garbage after seeing this, know that you'll be getting blocked and muted on Ao3, and if I can do it on Fanfiction, I will :) So if you're smart, you'll keep your mouth shut.

I know this is very Keyboard Warrior speak, and I know it's cringy, but that's all I can really do aside from going out and spreading the word. Fanfiction and Ao3 are my biggest platforms, and I want to use them for good aside from posting my fanfics. I will not allow hate to be on my page or on my fics, no matter what kind of hate it is. Free Palestine and all that jazz.

Now, with that said, let's get back to something less dark and depressing: This fic. This chapter is going to be another slight time skip. I just want to cut to the plot and I don't want to mess around and drag out the story. So, with that in mind, let's get into my responses to reviews/comments.

[My Response to Reviews/Comments]

(Ao3) AidenJacksonSmithDSBB: I sorta am and sorta not. I'm using the grading system (scaling from F to SSS) but it won't be a complete slog. Grinding will be mostly off-page because that shit's boring, so you won't have to worry about that. The only time I'll include grinding is if it's relevant to the plot. Also, no problem! I'm glad they help you through stress and stuff like that! Have a great evening/day/afternoon or whatever.

(Ao3) Okamichann: Thank you for the five stars!

(Ao3) Tymaddux: If I do kill off any named characters with massive plot significance, it would only be if I deem it necessary. In other words, Inosuke may or may not die, but if he does, it won't be off the page. As for my opinion on Black Clover. Personally, out of the new gen of anime, It's my least favourite. Not to say I dislike it, but if I were to rank them in order, it'd go My Hero Academia as number one, Chainsaw Man as number two, Demon Slayer as number three, Jujutsu Kaisen as number four (still salty about Chapter 265), and Black Clover as number five. Still a top 5, but not my favourite.

Now, if I were to rank it in my favourite anime list as a whole, it would be slapped into like, the 20th spot. But if we're strictly talking new gen, it's top-five material. There are just better anime out there than Black Clover in my opinion. Hopefully, this means no offence!

(Ao3) Kolt: Douma is kind of being set up as the first real villain of this arc, i.e. the pre-time skip arc as I'm calling it. And by pre-time skip, I mean pre-muzan attack. So, of course, he's got to act like a generic villain. Always underestimating the protag and assuming that they're going to be weak. But then again, what cliché villain doesn't do that?

And yes, Gamers getting fast travel. Honestly, I hate it when fics pad out unnecessarily about walking to a location unless it's important. Fast Travel is just so damn convenient, especially for the vibe I'm going with here. Jessica is going to be using it a lot.

The whole "we don't negotiate with [blank]" is stupid. Like, flat out. No real opinions other than that. Bombing something, someplace or someone else is unnecessary when discussion saves a lot more than people think. Blowing up someone, someplace, or something won't help but escalate things. It's how most (read as all) wars start, regardless of intentions. Especially with what's currently happening in Palestine.

That stuff aside, I hope you have a wonderful day Kolt!

(Guest) Guest: Thank you!

(Guest) Fire Turtle: Jessica cannot slow down her thought process to make it so everything seems to be in slow motion. That's not a function of Gamers Mind or Gamers Body. You're thinking of Sparten Time from Halo, which she doesn't have. She can Grind pretty much anything in Dungeons, and speaking of those, I have not expressly stated that, but you'll find out in this chapter. Also, Jessica will learn spells relating to Wisteria sooner rather than later. Finally, The System doesn't have any glitches, because why would it? Plus I don't think I've read a fic where that happens.

Now, that should be all in terms of comments and reviews. So, with that in mind, onto the chapter!

xxXXxxXXxx

[Jessica]

I narrowed my eyes, staring down a torch-lit hallway, darkness ebbing and flowing around the lit parts of the gothic hall. The windows on either side of the hall hardly helped with the lighting situation, but I could still make out the black quartz pillars and the bright red carpet I stood upon. I was in a level three dungeon, which didn't sound all that bad until one considers the fact that the last time I tackled one I nearly died. In other words, I found my current limit.

My chest heaved up and down, my breathing harsh as I stared down at the beast I had killed. Black matted fur, outstretched limbs beyond reason, small pinprick eyes, and a maw filled with monstrous jaws. It looked like something ripped straight out of BloodBorne. Those wolf enemies, at least. I never got all that far into that game, but I can recognize them because of how ingrained into my memory they were.

Why was it here? Moreover, why was this a BloodBorne-inspired Dungeon? This wasn't the first of these things I've killed in this place. I've run this particular dungeon once before at a lower level before I reached my current status, and even now it was difficult. For the last month or so I've balanced dungeon crawling and doing outside tasks, namely killing Demons near Okutama village—none of them remarkable in detail. Just standard Demons without Blood Demon Arts. And if I'm not doing that, I'm building my home and making the area around it less empty and more filled with stuff to do.

It wasn't all that important right now, though. My current objective was to get to The Boss at the end, which if I remember correctly was a Cleric Beast. My sword was still in its sheath, as I had been strictly using Razor Leaf to kill The Beasts that roamed the place. But with that thing at the end, I'd known I'd need to use my Sword. After all, it was what I used to increase my sword skills.

This first time I fought it, I barely won. But after tackling other dungeons, I'm pretty sure I should be more than capable of beating it. But before that, there were three more Beasts in front of me. All with their lips pulled back into a snarl. Each of the beasts had 150 health to their name. It didn't sound like a lot, but when faced with a squad of these monsters, 150 health seems like a lot more than it sounded. Especially when my sword only did 20 damage per swing.

Oh well, at least it had Deep Poison build-up. That was the only upside to it, that and the skills I learned by increasing my Swordsman skill.

The middle beast charged at me. When it did, it leapt up in the air and went to dive on top of me. My response was to stomp the ground and create a massive vine as thick as the tree, slamming it into the beast and drilling it into the ground. 34 damage. It wasn't enough to even bring the bastard beast down to half health.

From my left, the second beast took advantage of my uncovered flank and went to slash at me. A burst of five Razor Leaves was more than enough to stagger it. I would've capitalized on that had it not been for the beast behind me, the one that had been on the right of the center beast, had snuck up on me. By the time I noticed, it was already on top of me. I felt its jaws bite down into my shoulder, causing an indescribable amount of pain as blood sprayed from my wound. It had taken a massive chunk out of my total health pool, easily 50 points of health.

I was able to throw the beast off of me, and as it flung toward the wall, I drew my sword, sucking in a breath, and as I did, the first of my two unlocked skills under swordswoman activated. Total Concentration Breathing. I thought it would've been locked behind being a part of The Demon Slayer Corp, but it turned out that it wasn't the case. So yippee for me, I guess.

It gave me a boost in my physical stats by 5%. At first, it didn't seem that much, but considering it temporally bumped by stats up by that small margin, it was more of a help than one would think. Not only that, but it tied into something else that I had learned.

With Total Concentration Breathing activated, not only were my physical stats increased, but my hearing, smell, and observation skills were also increased. It was like forcing my body to make constant adrenaline, giving me an otherwise impossible edge. I could hear the beast that had ambushed me's breath, and as soon as I could, I grabbed the hilt of my blade, dragged my right foot back, and got into a dashing stance.

As soon as I did that, I unsheathed my blade and launched forward. In the time it took for my opponent to finish its breath, I had sheathed my blade. As soon as that click was made, the beast was split in half from the head to its small nub of a tail, ichor and blood spraying all over the place.

This was One Sword Style: Lion Song. Something from One Piece of all anime. I wasn't expecting to be able to use One Piece Sword styles. I was in the world of Demon Slayer, so I was expecting to be tapping into Breathing Styles from, well, Demon Slayer. But I guess Xeno wanted to give me an even more unfair edge.

What was next, Armament Haki? That would've been hilarious.

Whatever. As funny as that was, I needed to focus. I was able to take that beast out in about a second after I stunned the one with my Razor Leaves, which one beast down, one immobilized by the massive vine I created, and one more to kill.

I turned my attention to said beast, the one that was just recovering from being stunned and lunged at it, sword in hand and ready to impale it on the tip of my blade. The beast saw that and charged at me. My wound from the other beast was still healing, and I was nearly back up to full health. But even so, I had to be cautious. These things were dangerously strong. While my health had gone up by 45 points, that still didn't make me any less squishy here.

At the same time that I thrust my blade forward, the beast took a swipe at me with its right oversized claw. It caused me to move just barely out of the way and to the left, but still able to impale the beast through the snout. I carved upward, cleaving through the beast's skull and landing a critical hit, allowing me to deal double damage to the beast—over 200 damage—taking it out in one go.

As the beast slumped to the ground, I looked down at the last remaining beast, which was still pawing at the vine that had been drilling it into the ground. It only had 20 health left, as I had the vine constantly slam into it for the last few seconds. I put the damned thing out of its misery and stabbed it in the head, killing it, before sheathing my blade.

As soon as I sheathed my blade, I dismissed the massive vine and slumped myself against the wall. My shoulder still stung, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was when I had gotten the wound a few seconds ago. I barely beat the boss the last time I had fought it, now I had to do it again. Granted, I was ten levels lower than what I was before, but now that I'm level 28, I should be more than able to do it.

I pulled up my stats screen and frowned as I looked it over.

HP: 195 [2.5 Hp regen per second] (Rank: F+)

MP: 195 [2.5 Mp regen per second] (Rank: F+)

Atk: 34 (Rank: F+)

Def: 39 (Rank: F+)

End: 36 (Rank: F+)

Mg Atk: 39 (Rank: F+)

Mg Def: 44 (Rank: D-)

Crit: 11 (Rank: F+)

Mg Crit: 11 (Rank: F+)

My current Stats weren't bad. But they also weren't great. Although now I knew what constituted a D-. I needed that particular stat to be 40 or higher. Which honestly made sense. If F was 0 to 20, D- being 40 to whatever was appropriate. My guess is that I'd get to a flat D would be around 60, and D+ would be at 80. Meaning that I'd reach C in any of my stats once one of them got to 100.

Now, I could be wrong, which isn't a first. For all I know I could be closer to getting to a C grade than I thought I was. But considering I was already two levels away from level 30, with not even a single stat over 50, that meant that I was probably closer to the truth than I wanted to be. And that wasn't good. Especially because Douma was in my area, and was quintuple the level of current me.

I knew I was going to have to fight him. He had made it apparent that I was his next major target. So not only did I need to be strong enough to fight him, but also Muzan. I don't know how back-to-back that would be, but I needed to prepare no more than ever.

So if I could beat this Cleric Beast handedly, then I knew I had zero chance against either of them, because it was level 50, and Douma was 150 levels higher than it. Muzan, if I were to guess, probably was around level 300, to perhaps 400. And that was if I was working on level scaling from Upper Moon Two to Progenitor Demon.

I looked to my left and saw the bloodstained hallway I had come from, with corpses of Beasts littering the ground and their blood staining the walls, mixed with my own. I looked to my right, and I saw a massive wall of white mist. The Cleric Beast was right there. I just had to kill it, and then I'd be done with this dungeon.

Getting up, I marched toward the white mist, hand on the hilt of my blade, as I crossed over. As soon as I did, in a massive church-like building with an empty hall, the only thing in the damnable place being a chandelier that dangled 30 feet in the air, and paintings of paster of old, shattered windows and turned-over pews, I was met with the hulking 12-foot-tall monstrosity. One arm was covered in steel-like white fur, the other bony and barren. Its ribcage was able to be seen through its skin, its legs constantly crouched like it was always ready to pounce at a moment's notice, and its disgustingly large maw.

Its bloodshot abyssal eyes bore holes into my very being, before roaring loudly. It didn't know who I was, because the monsters here never remembered who had killed them, but if it did, this would most certainly be a shriek of revenge.

The massive beast leapt up into the air with the nimbleness of a wild cat, lingering in the sky for about a second as I dodged to the right, a moment away from it landing on my otherwise frail body. I drew my blade, and slashed its lower leg, drawing blood, and dealing a measly 34 damage out of its 2000 HP health pool.

I was able to get a few more slashes in, totalling 90 damage, before making it stagger and fall. I rushed to its head, it being its weak spot, and thrust my blade into the side of its face. The beast rumbled in pain, as I yanked my blade out from its snout, making the beast tremble backward. 590 damage in total now, nearing half health.

The frecious beast let out a roar, as it swung its matted fur arm in my direction. I couldn't dodge in time, as it slammed into me, draining me to half health. I felt one of my ribs break, but it wasn't enough to deter me. I was going to kill this hulking beast, regardless of what happened to me.

I ducked out of the way of its barren arm punching me, gliding my blade up to its elbow, which made it recoil. I closed the distance between myself and its waist, thrusting my blade into its stomach, dealing a collective total of 80 damage. 1,330 HP remained on the bastard, and I only needed two more swings till Deep Poison took effect.

The monster leapt back, before charging at me. I turned out of the way, feeling a sharp pain in my chest that I otherwise ignored. I activated Total Concentration Breathing, giving myself a bit of a boost, before turning around and slashing at its closest hind leg. 28 damage, then another 28, and finally Deep Poison was inflicted.

As soon as that happened, its HP began to tick down by 3 damage per half a second. 30 seconds and the thing would be dead. That was how long Deep Poison lasted, but I figured I'd take more potshots at it so that it wouldn't take nearly that long.

The beast rumbled in agony, trying to take another swipe at me. I smirked, jumping back. My broken rib was already back to being healed. To think that before that would've rendered me unmovable before. Heh, bastard. My endurance stat was higher than before, and I could take more punishment than normal.

When the beast landed forward to rebalance itself around the half HP mark, I dove in, and slashed at its arm as much as I could, rebuilding up Deep Poison as much as I could, while doing another 150 damage to it in succession. The beast roared, pushing me back and doing 30 damage to me. That was bullshit, but not as much bullshit as it punched me a second later, hitting me for another 40. Down to 105 HP I went after just being fully healed, and with a dizzying headache.

Though, thankfully, I was still able to dodge out of the way of another arm swipe, while at the same time, it leapt up in the air. The massive beast tried to flatten me again, to no avail. I threw some Razor Leaves at its back, up to 10, taking away 50 Mana from myself. The Razor Leaves did 200 damage to it, bringing it down to 500 health with the help of Deep Poison.

The Cleric Beast slammed the ground, causing a slight earthquake around it, though I was just out of range of its lashing out. I threw another set of ten Razor Leaves at it from a distance as it swiped at the air, another 200 damage dealt. I was down to 105 Mana, whilst my health was back up to 150 out of 195. The massive beast punched at me, but I dodged.

It was getting slower. I was close to killing it without going into the double-digit health points. That was amazing progress if you asked me.

The monster, in one last hail mary, lunged toward me, massive hand open to grab me. I leapt up at the same time it charged. Deep Poison had brought it down to 150 health. I could hear its breath, and while in mid-air, I sheathed my blade as I was close to its face. It opened its maw to consume me, but it would never get the chance.

I used Razor Leaf to create a small platform underneath me, and as soon as I felt its breath on my body, I unsheathed my sword, propelled myself off of the makeshift platform, and glided my crimson scale blade through its thick tree stump of a neck, a gust of wind following suit as I narrowly avoided it's snapping crocodilian-like jaws. I landed on the ground behind it and sheathed my blade, the click echoing throughout the ruined church and as soon as I did, The Cleric Beast's head came tumbling to the ground with a loud thud, crimson ichor raining down from the stump as its body followed suit, landing just a few feet next to me.

My heart was pounding in my chest. I beat it, and this time not by the skin of my teeth! I wasn't expecting to have done that well, but I guess the second time's the charm or something like that. When I was still alive, I hadn't even beaten the first boss in BloodBorne, but here, I did! Granted, it wasn't actually Bloodborne, it was just a dungeon meant to replicate it. But still, the point stands! I beat the Cleric Beast without fumbling!

[Dungeon – Level 3, Floor 1 – Completed!]

[Base Objective: Clear out all enemies – 1 Star]

[Second Objective: Defeat Cleric Beast – 1 Star]

[Third Objective: Defeat Cleric Beast without dropping below 50% HP – 1 Star]

[Congratulations, you have unlocked Floor 2 of Level 3]

[Rewards Distributed for getting 3 stars!]

[Rewards: 10,000 Yen, 24,500 Exp, 1 Epic Armour Gacha Token]

.

Level up x2!

[HP/MP 195 – 205]

[Plus 2 to every stat]

[Plus 1 to every crit stat]

[Congratulations! HP, MP, and Mg Atk, are now D-]

I smiled. That was more like it! Although, my HP and MP being D- now was a shock. So what, every 100 HP and MP my stat goes up a grade? That seems to be the case. Or, do the requirements increase along with my level? I'm level 30 now, so does that mean once my HP is at 400 it'll become a flat D? Does that mean I was wrong about the other stats?

Ugh, I don't want to think about it anymore. On a better note, I've already unlocked the light and dark magic paths ten levels ago, adding them to the paths that I can choose once I finish Nature Magic, which caps at level 50 from what Xeno told me last week. I wonder if I unlocked—

[New Spell Unlocked: Wistera Poison Gas, Lvl MAX]

[Description: The User summons a strand of bloomed Wisteria, and shakes it in the air, covering an area of 30 meters around the user in toxic Wisteria gas. When any enemy of the undead variety finds themselves in this gaseous cloud, their regeneration tanks by 75%, and they will take 50% more damage from any kind of attack. On non-undead enemies, they will take 25% more damage from any kind of attack – 75 Mana to Cost, Cooldown of 20 seconds]

Well, that answers my question. A new support spell, something I didn't have yet. Would've been amazing for The Cleric Beast or that Demon I fought a month back. It would also prove extremely helpful against Douma should we come to blows, which is almost guaranteed to happen.

I looked over past the corpse of The Cleric Beast, which was slowly beginning to disappear. There were two gates, one I was familiar with, and the other I was not. There was the gate that took me back home and another gate. A red one. I guess that the red one would take me to Floor 2. This was the first time I've seen something like this. Dungeon Levels 1 and 2 didn't have Floors, but Dungeon Level 3 did. It made sense. The higher the difficulty the more there was to do.

A part of me was curious about what Floor 2 was like, but I knew it was going to be twice as difficult as this floor was. Unfortunately, I would have to do this floor again if I wanted to get to Floor 2, but seeing as I had an easier time this time around, it would be easier than this time for when I come back to do it.

Besides, I was able to get 12 levels out of this, which is far better than what I had thought possible. But still, a month to get only twelve levels was a chore and then some. But, at least it wasn't all me doing that. Which was probably why it was only twelve levels. I had other things to do at that time, most of which made my ability to live better.

Exiting the dungeon and heading home, I stepped out and breathed in the crisp air of nature, just a step or two away from the pathway that I had connected from near the entrance of the town, to my house. The path was made of gravel I had purchased in town with the money that I got from doing side quests Xeno gave me. All of it was money-based, and not a single drop of Exp. Which, in hindsight, was kind of stupid, but then again I guess Xeno didn't want me to become insanely overpowered too early into this universe's canon.

Which… honestly was kind of stupid. Like, why not? Isn't the whole point of being a Gamer to be as overpowered as possible to defeat one's enemies single-handedly? That was the whole idea behind this power fantasy. But for whatever reason Xeno wasn't all too particularly fond of me doing that. I didn't bother to ask why, but if I had to guess it was because of the relative weakness of this universe.

As I walked back to my place, because even though I had fast Travel I wanted to walk the path from the entrance to the village to my house, I remembered a key point about this world. I hate to be a power scaler nerd, but most characters in this universe have a hard time getting past Multi-City Block and Massively Hypersonic. Still insanely powerful, but I've read fanfics before I died where the Gamer MC gets to that point rather early on and only gets stronger from there.

If I were to grade myself, I probably was only at somewhere around Wall Level, while putting myself at Super Human levels of speed. Durability-wise I'd say I'm at Wall Level, so the same as my strength, but aside from that, I wasn't even close to being able to go toe to toe with some of the named characters yet. But, to put that into perspective, I've only been in this world for a month and some change. So my growth from standard human to this has been kind of crazy.

Still, I've expected more by now.

Once I got to my house, I looked at it with a smile. When I wasn't training, I was working on my shoddy little cabin. It now had a proper slanted roof made of woof, a proper working door on a sliding rail that I installed all by myself, two proper windows that I got as a rare drop from a Sand Golem on Dungeon Level 2, and I even got a few potted plants I purchased from a nice old lady in town.

Speaking of Okutama town, the residents have been warming up to me. Granted, I would still get odd looks from time to time, but after saving a child from a Demon who had been moments away from eating the poor kid, my reputation had increased by 10 points. At least I wasn't at zero anymore, and that child, whose name I found out was Himiko, even got me a discount at the stand that her father ran because I saved her life from the "scary monster" as she called it.

I also noticed that my Demon killing was giving me an extra reputation among The Demon Slayer Corp. Last time, it was at 10. Now, it was at 15. Right now I was still unknown, but I assumed that would change sooner rather than later. The Demons I had killed weren't worth a lot of Exp, only around 100 Exp at a time. I was mostly focused on increasing my Swordsmanship Skill rather than levelling up at the time.

That aside, the plants I had purchased were Red Spider Lilies. They stayed by my side-view window, standing on a small shelf I installed underneath said window. I had another one at the back of my house, but aside from that, there wasn't much else.

Near the entrance of my house, there were a few lanterns, which were what I had used Tanjiro's Charcoal to light, to keep the area around my home lit. I had decided to start trying to make Charcoal myself, but it wasn't turning out any good. So, instead, I decided to grow food from the seeds I had purchased from the village. Mostly carrots. All I had to do was water them from time to time and they'd grow on their own.

The land around my house was surprisingly fertile. While none of the carrots had fully grown yet—some were a week away while others were another two weeks away from being fully grown—my progress had been remarkable. The harvest was looking to be about 30 carrots if things went well. I could use those to trade Charcoal with the Kamados. After all, food was food, and I needed the charcoal to keep my lanterns going.

Speaking of Tanjiro, he had come by the visit earlier in the month. He had noticed the path I was making and had helped me out. I felt bad for using him like that, but Tanjiro was a good-hearted kid, and he didn't see it like that. He saw it as helping out a community member, and I couldn't have been more grateful.

He had shown up from time to time, even sometimes bringing his siblings to meet me. Hanako had been by far my favourite of the siblings. She was just so energetic and willing to help like her big brother. Nezuko was, well, Nezuko. Basically a carbon copy of Tanjiro, though she notably had a sassier attitude and knew how to joke about stupid things.

I hadn't met Takeo yet, or Rokuta or Shigeru. But I didn't need to. I could already guess what they'd be like if Hanako and Nezuko were anything to measure. It made me all the more determined to stop Muzan from killing the Kamados three months from now. I refused to let them fall victim to that Michael Jackson wannabe.

I still had no idea how much time I had left for when Douma was going to show his ugly mug, but I guess that I had at least a month left. And that was being generous. If I was unlucky, he could be here in the next week or so. I needed to keep my guard up for when that monster showed his ugly face. I knew that I had to kill him, but I didn't know if that was possible given the time frame. I might just settle with rendering him unconscious. How I'd do that beats me, but I'll figure it out.

That is, of course, if I'm not given enough time.

I looked up at the sky. It was sundown, meaning the moon was about to come up. Which meant Demons were going to be afoot. Which meant more grinding for my Swordsmanship skill.

"Yo, Xeno, are there any Quests I can do?"

[There is one. It is recommended for level 25 and higher. Do you wish to accept?]

"I wouldn't be asking if I wasn't looking for one."

[Very well. Loading Quest….]

[Quest: The Demon Of Kumotori Mountain]

[Description: Deep in the forest of Kumotori Mountain, about a mile away from Okutama Town, there lurks a powerful Demon well on its way to becoming a potential member of The Twelve Kizuki. Rumours say that it has already killed several Demon Slayers, with two more on the way to go investigate. Now is your chance to put your name out there. Go and kill The Wind Demon, Kazebaku, and earn yourself a true reputation among The Demon Slayers]

[Rewards: 30,000 Exp, Plus 30 Reputation with Demon Slayer Corp – The Wild Slayer]

I smirked. Now that was useful. Plus, I'd get at least another level from it. I was given a mini-map from where I was to where the Quest was going to be. It would be about an hour-long run, even shorter with Total Concentration Breathing. Before I left though, I grabbed the epic armor token, and I hummed.

Do I save this for after, or do I use it now? If I used it now, it could aid me in the fight against this Demon I was about to go up against. And considering it was supposedly almost on par with a member of the Twelve Kizuki, so a Lower Moon, it was probably a good idea to use.

And so, I did. I cracked open the token, a purple light briefly flooding my vision before it tapered away. What I got was pretty good, all things considered. It was a pair of vambraces, rusted with a golden sheen to them. I was a little upset that they were rusted, but it wasn't that bad. It wasn't brittle, and I could probably get the local blacksmith to repair them for cheap. It was then that I got the item description.

[Rusted Knight's Vambraces (Epic) – Quality: Bad (needs to be reforged)]

[Durability: 250/250]

[Description: gives a temporary bonus of 25 to Def stat, and a bonus of 10 to Mg Def stat so long as it is equipped.]

I equipped them immediately. They weren't the best but they were the best I had at the moment, and also the only thing I had at the moment. Weak armour was better than no armour. Even if it was rusted and had low durability. That just meant I needed to increase my parrying skills with my sword. Which… I was absolutely abysmal at doing. But, there was no practice like panicked practice.

I just got home too… oh well, I can rest later.

And so with that in mind, I began my run to the location where I was going to be needed. This could either go really well or really bad.

-To Be Continued-