It was another very low Grade Gate, and it came with an extremely, insultingly shitty pay.
The pay this time is a measly 3,500 yen, but I had at least two good reasons to accept these kinds of crappy, high-risk gigs now.
Firstly, I couldn't afford to be fuckin' picky, because I desperately need to make some moola, and fast.
And the other, equally important reason, is to Level up, to get stronger.
I just have to make absolutely fuckin' sure that I don't completely exhaust myself again, like I did that last fuckin' time.
I was hired by some kind of private military organization this time around, a PMC.
When we were on our way to the designated Gate, crammed uncomfortably into the back of a stuffy, rattling cargo truck, we were finally told what the actual mission was.
It was to clear out all hostile Aggressors from a newly opened Swarm-Gate that had unfortunately occupied a series of old, interconnected subway stations and their connecting tunnels.
The Aggressors inside were said to be primarily two rival tribes of goblins that are currently at war with each other, deep within the confines of this Swarm Gate.
They had apparently extended the bloody area of their ongoing tribal fight out into the nearby subway stations, with some unfortunate, terrified civilians still reportedly trapped down there in those dark, dangerous stations.
The subways stations were infested with multiple elongated openings the same Gate.
We Mercenary-Guards were primarily employed to aid their own private contractors in steadily, methodically clearing out all the occupied subway stations and their connecting tunnels of any goblin presence.
While they, the PMC, would simultaneously send another, better-equipped squad to try and rescue any civilians that may have indeed been trapped down there in those dark, dangerous stations.
Goblins, we were reminded, are said to be very petty, vindictive creatures that can hold serious, long-lasting grudges.
And we were also told that these two particular tribes are currently far more focused on savagely killing each other than on joining forces to try and face them - the PMC forces.
So, our job should be relatively easy to complete, since the goblins will likely be too damn busy killin' themselves off to pay us much attention.
The low pay for this particular quest will, therefore, naturally, also be correspondingly, pitifully low.
We soon arrived at our designated destination, an abandoned subway entrance, and then immediately entered the dark, descending subway.
We then promptly joined up with the PMC's main force of contractors already down there, in the grim, ongoing task of systematically cleansing the dark, echoing subway lines of any and all goblin presence.
After we had successfully, bloodily, cleared out the first main subway station, another message suddenly popped up again in my vision, with that now-familiar, yet still slightly jarring, my mother robot-like voice simultaneously stating what the new message contained.
'[Arcane Energy is critically low]'
'[Level up!]
[Reward: 5 Status points]
[Skills and Weapons are now available for purchase in Codex]'
I quickly, without hesitation this time, threw all 5 of those new points directly into Stamina, and then immediately continued onward with the others towards the next dark, dangerous subway station, movin' cautiously through the debris-strewn rail-tracks.
By the time we had methodically gone through a total of 4 interconnected subway stations, and killed every single goblin we found there, while some of the PMC's private contractors took back any dazed, surviving civilians they'd found back to the relative safety of the first subway station we had originally come through, several hours had passed.
In those roughly 3 intense hours of constantly goin' through the dark, dangerous, winding subway tunnels, I had already managed to level up twice more.
And I had immediately distributed 5 of those new points to Stamina, and the other 5 points to Energy, just as I'd planned.
Which now makes my total ArcaneEnergy a much healthier 26 points.
I currently have approximately 1 hour and 4 minutes of active, sustained combat time available to me now, before I risk seein' any serious signs of that debilitating exhaustion again.
I decided then to temporarily halt increasin' my ArcaneEnergy pool for a little while, and instead start focusin' on increasin' my Strength next, and then probably my Speed after that.
When we finally reached the fifth, and supposedly final, main subway station, the ongoing fight between the two rival goblin tribes was clearly much more serious, much more intense and widespread, than it had been in any of the other, previous stations we'd cleared.
There were even a few of those damn tough Hobgoblins actively involved in this particular battle, their presence escalating the violence significantly.
And seein' them all fightin' so savagely amongst themselves, without even seemin' to notice our arrival at first, made me instinctively sprint forward into the fray, without even waitin' for a proper command to do so from the current head of this particular PMC operation.
I threw one of my axes hard at a surprised Hobgoblin that was a bit far away in front of me as I ran, and then tore right through a pack of regular goblins, usin' my other axe to brutally hack apart the other, smaller goblins that stupidly stood in my direct path.
I hacked down many, many goblins and even a couple of those tougher hobgoblins in that initial, chaotic rush.
Which, frankly, wouldn't have been nearly as fuckin' possible if they weren't all already so damn busy tryin' to rip each other's' throats out at that exact moment.
It was a golden, unmissable opportunity for me to level up much faster than usual, and I sure as hell didn't miss a single goddamn beat.
By the time that particular, bloody battle was finally over, my own Arcane-Energy was already down to a dangerously low 3 points.
Which was a pretty fuckin' close one, all things considered.
Maybe fifteen more minutes of that intense fightin', and I would have likely been a helpless, temporary cripple once again.
I had actually received two more level up notifications during that last, frantic fight, so while all the others were now either busy checkin' for any more survivors, or just cleanin' their gore-caked melee weapons, I quickly sat down on a cracked, plastic bench in the deserted waitin' area of the station and immediately summoned my Profile.
**Profile
Name: None
Nature: Evolve Human
Level: 7
Title: Ratty
Hit point: 76/100
Arcane Energy: 3/26
Arcane Skills (None)
Arcane Physiology (None)
*Power Status
Strength: 8 Heart: 1
Speed: 5 Vitality: 1
Stamina: 17 Energy: 9
Construct: 10 Cognition: 2
Available Status Points: 5
Trophy
Seein' that critically low ArcaneEnergy number again made me immediately fuckin' anxious.
I urgently needed to recover it, and fast.
Thankfully, the 'team' leader, the PMC commander, then informed all of us that this was indeed the last station on their list, so we could all finally go back up to the surface now.
I relaxed considerably after hearin' that good news, and then quickly distributed 4 of my new points to Strength, and the remaining 1 point to Speed.
Then, I quickly summoned the Codex screen, eager to see what new skills and weapons I could finally, hopefully, spend my accumulated Coins on.
**Codex
*Buy *Exchange
[Shape-shift Lv.1]: [10 Coins] [15 Status Points]
[Goblin crude club]: [3 Coins] [3 Gold]
[Goblin urine Lv. 1]: [2 Coins] [3 Status Points]
*Sell
[Acquired Arcane Skills and Weapons can be sold here]
I then mentally demanded more details on the three new items I could now apparently buy from the Codex.
[Shape-shift Lv. 1]
Category: Arcane Skill
Acquisition: Vestige of Loki
[The ability to change into any human or Evolve upon seeing. Consumes 2 Arcane Energy points per minute]
[Goblin crude club]
Item: Club
Grade: E
Category: Arcane club
Damage: 10
Mana: 90
Endurance: 120
[A club made of igneous rock that is bathed in the blood of goblins].
[Goblin urine Lv.1]
Category: Arcane Skill
Acquisition: Goblin
[Urine turns into poisonous liquid that causes 1 Damage every 3 seconds]
The first item listed is a skill, and it looked pretty fuckin' interesting, I had to admit.
I could apparently change my appearance into that of anyone - human or Evolve, just by seein' them, or maybe even just from my memory of them.
It definitely sounded as cool as fuck, with a lot of potential uses.
The second one is just a weapon, a crude club, that is actually a bit less powerful than the axes I am currently usin', so I don't really see any immediate need to buy that piece of shit.
The third item is also a skill, but it sounded kinda dangerous, and frankly, pretty disgustin'; my own urine turns into some kind of poison.
'How the hell can I even fight with that? And won't it also fuckin' affect me too, by accident? I mean, even snakes can sometimes be killed with its own venom, right?' I pondered for a moment, and then quickly crossed that particular skill off my mental list as a probably bad, impractical skill, one with at least two major fuckin' cons.
Then, without further hesitation, I bought the Shape-shift skill.
And another message immediately popped up.
[Skill: Shape-shift Lv.1 acquired!]
[Path to an Old Norse Vestige has been accepted]
These cryptic fuckin' puzzles, in the form of these short, unhelpful messages from the System, are already seriously gettin' on my last fuckin' nerve.
The precise meaning behind that second line of text is a complete, bloody unknown to me right now.
And mentally demandin' any more detailed information about it was only met with total, frustrating silence from the System.
I had no real choice but to reluctantly let it slide for the time being, at least until I could figure more shit out.
At least I now had a potentially useful new Skill, my first one.
But I didn't dare try it out here, not right now, not while the PMC's Cleaning crew were still busy collectin' all the dead bodies of the goblins and carefully placin' the corpses of any dead civilians they found onto stretchers for transport back to the surface.
The company is only going to pay us Mercs when their own contractors go back up and officially report on how the entire operation in these subway stations and tunnels actually went.
And, for some unexplained reason, all us Mercenary-Guards were specifically told to just wait around down here until those same contractors were completely done with their current duties – which apparently now included guardin' the newly arrived, non-combatant cleanin' crew as they worked.
So, we, the Mercenary-Guards, just mostly hanged around idly, doin' nothin', while the PMC contractors diligently watched over their company's cleanin' crew as they went about their grim, methodical work.
Some of us, the more impatient or money-hungry ones, who wanted to get back to the mall as fast as possible to try and get another paying gig before the night was over, actually volunteered to join in with the cleanin' crew, just to try and make their overall work go a bit faster.