Chương 55: Speeding up some more

Every second that he wasn't getting new exp was a second that the void aura used to nibble a tiny bit more out of Lily's existence, undoing his work. Therefore, speed was of the essence. With no reliable means of healing Lily and no known way out of this world, the only thing he could do was survive until a new opportunity presented itself, and to survive meant being ahead of the aura that ate people unless they had extra exp.

It meant killing the Arms and spending as little time as possible outside of skill places. He had to think in the long run. It was genuinely possible that they would spend some freakishly long time in this world. It could be years, for all that he knew. He had to be efficient. Being efficient meant being quick. It might've not made that much of a difference, but the mindset was important.

Dennis' sole goal was to survive as long as possible until he found a solution while trying to be a hero in the process, no matter how limited his capacity for the last one was. All of that was to say that Dennis was killing the Arms really fucking fast. He was a speedster hero on a quest, and the monsters were what he was after. He was a machine of efficiency. Not to lie, he was also enjoying the process. A lot.

Finally being able to beat the shit out of those Arms was very fucking cathartic, especially after feeling lost and dodging the despair-spirals for so long. Just running towards the unknown far-away target with a corpse on his back and a vague, diminishing hope of it all somehow working out was doing some bad things to him. He was trying not to dwell on that too much. Another Arm fell dead, gifting him the present of that sweet exp. In just five minutes he killed seven of them. He wasn't stopping.

The rush back towards Lily took just a moment since the skill still counted her as 'savable target' every time he took a few steps away from the girl. Picking her up was a practiced routine but still took most of the time, no superspeed for that. After that? He ran towards the next Arm. With the buff. It took him half a minute on average to reach the new monster. He placed the girl in a safe spot, took out his weapons and killed the thing in five seconds. Rinse, repeat.

Heroic Dash counted killing an Arm in order to give the girl some exp as 'saving' her. The obvious consequence of that was that Dennis could now fight the monsters freely without worrying about losing his speed. It meant that he could approach them while moving away from Lily. The less obvious application of that was that he could now simply pick up the girl and run towards the next Arm with the buff.

Heroic Senses didn't tell him where they were, but his knowledge about their position was enough for his buff to turn on, even if the target stayed on Lily. It felt like he found a loophole, like he was somehow cheating, but Heroic Dash didn't grumble even once about Dennis using his skill like that. He was, after all, doing exactly what he was supposed to do. Decimating the Arm population of Las Vegas. Heroically. In superspeed.

Constitution hummed in approval as he pushed himself more, running towards Lily again and picking her up before another Arm's head hit the ground. The only problem with the mad Arm-slaying sprint was that he was getting hella tired. Sure, a fight with an Arm wasn't that exhausting, but repeatedly putting down the girl and then picking her up and running like crazy towards the next fight only to repeat it all over was a bit too intense even for his now average Con.

As the eighth Arm died, he was losing the momentum, simply incapable of maintaining the pace. As the ninth Arm died, he was basically walking in superspeed instead of running. Thankfully, even while tired like that the monster still couldn't do shit against him. He was just that fast, even if he had to rely on his fighting talent a bit more as his movements slowed down. What kept him going was the sense of progression. He was getting crazy exp, and he was getting it really fucking fast.

More than that, it was the feeling of finally doing something simple and meaningful. There was no ambiguity to his actions, no 'what-ifs' or hoping for something unknown. Killing an Arm gave him and Lily exp, and he was becoming a better speedster, and his actions were clearly heroic, and all that he had to do was find a monster and slay a monster. The simplicity of it tickled something fiercely in his mind. Sometimes, he loved the grind. The tenth Arm died after almost fifteen seconds of sloppy chopping.

Dennis was exhausted like hell, yet he couldn't stop grinning. Level up. Free points +6 After more than a month of being stuck with no real knowledge on how to achieve any of his goals, Dennis was finally feeling the progression. He was feeling the progression very much. After all, he gained a whole ass level in just about ten minutes of fighting.

"You know, you're gonna be freakishly stronger once you wake up," he said quietly to the girl as he sat beside her to catch his breath.

"Like you weren't overpowered enough before you got yourself killed in an idiotic move that I still don't know why the hell you did that. It's like you have all the luck. Some of us have to work for it, you know? I'm doing the running, the killing, the… the running. There's lots of running. I never ever thought that I would run that much in my life. And you're just… chilling there, being kinda dead, and getting the levels. It's unfair, is what it is. You should be grateful."

'I am very grateful," the corpse replied.

'Please kill more of those monsters for me so I can have the points to invest in Mind and not be such an idiot in the future.' This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"That I can do," he nodded.

"Though I dunno if the Mind would help you. Some things just can't be fixed by the stats, I think."

'Then I'm doomed,' she said.

'I bet I'll get killed by my own dumb choices again the moment you resurrect me.'

"Gotta get faster to prevent that," Dennis mused.

"I bet I can get fast enough that you'll just have no chance to do anything stupid before I come in a blaze of lightning and save you."

'I feel like you have a grudge against me for getting killed by the Arm like that.'

"Oh, I totally do. You're fucking heavy. Like, seriously, you should lose some weight."

'What are you going to do when you'll have to save a big adult man by carrying him somewhere?'

"That's not gonna happen."

'That's totally gonna happen.'

"Why would that happen?"

'As long as you try to be a hero, you will find people to save. Some of them will be adults, and some of them will be overweight. You should raise your Strength. Or carry a cart.'

"I'm not a–" Dennis stopped himself mid-sentence, a sudden pang of guilt punching him in the gut. He learned to dodge the dangerous thoughts well enough, but he couldn't control what other people said. It was a dick move from Lily to touch a sore subject like that.

"Whatever. I'll get myself a stash of carts, and if there's some fatass who I'll need to carry somewhere, I'll just run to that stash and get the cart."

'That would only work if you're really fast. Wouldn't it make more sense to carry the tools with you? Like actual rope, at least? Or maybe investing a little bit into Strength? You don't need much, you know. You have the points right now. If you invest all six of them, you'll have 13 Strength, and that should be more than enough to carry anyone but the fattest of people.'

"Then I'll get–" he snapped." Really fast. It's dumb to increase the Strength. I'm pretty sure that I can just lift weights and get a few points like that."

'Constitution, then? You really need it. And it'll take you months to get another point naturally, with the pace it's growing at.'

"That's… let me think." Lily gave him some space, remaining silent. His leveling speed was ridiculous. Dennis was sitting on free points and a blank sheet of metaphysical paper in case he raised Heroic Dash again, which he probably would, but… It was important to not brick his build in a rush. It was highly likely that he would get another level. Maybe even today. Or, like, in an hour. It was probable that he would get another one after that. Possible for even another one later. Maybe even…

Fuck, he had to be smart about it. As long as Lily needed the exp, he could grind the Arms. With every level he was getting faster, which meant getting to the monsters quicker and killing them quicker. In other words, if he played his cards right, there was a possibility of entering a self-reinforcing leveling loop. A fucking exp singularity. Kill the Arms, get faster, kill even more faster, get faster, kill even fucking more– When would it end?

At some point the Arms would be like goblins, just drops in the bucket in terms of exp, but even then so what? If he would be fast enough to kill thousands in a span of seconds, he could get his bucket one droplet at a time. Of course, that was the best case scenario.

He would probably hit a new soft-cap sooner or later, or find a way to heal Lily, or have enough speed to reach the far-away target and it would somehow change his plans–he couldn't carry two people after all, for example–or he would get a new skill and it would change the math. Where was his new skill? He was level seven already. Ugh.

"Okay, so…" he tried to collect his thoughts.

"I think we should aim for that leveling loophole. Is it a loophole? If the world is like a game, this feels like cheating. Perks of being a speedster, I guess. Totally unbalanced. Anyway, getting really fucking overpowered sounds like a good idea, right? I'm not just… missing anything?"

'It does, yes,' Lily agreed.

'Becoming a god among men feels like a good thing to be aiming for. But…'

"But?"

'You shouldn't forget your priorities. What kind of hero gets power hungry instead of, you know, being a hero? Tuning your build for maximizing the efficiency of leveling instead of helping people would kill you.'

"You're being dramatic."

'As a person, I mean. Would kill you as a person,' Lily corrected herself.

'If you let the power get to your head, then the moment you stop avoiding thinking about what it means for you to be a hero you will break. Important things must come first, god-like power second. As a hero, you mustn't forget that.'

"I'm not…" Dennis sighed.

"What is it with you and telling me about me being a hero? It's not– I'm not– Can't we talk about the overwhelming power instead?"

'You are.' Lily smiled.

'Or you will be. Someone has to tell you that, might as well be me. Though I'd also recommend finding a real person to talk about it. Can't be that healthy, talking to a corpse.' Dennis drew a squiggle on the ground with his broken sword. It wasn't a dick.

"Whatever part of my psyche you are, I think you're way too optimistic," he mumbled.

"But fine. It's not like I don't enjoy the reassurance. And you do make sense. Heroism first, overwhelming power second. Where does it leave us?"

'You need to get some god-like power,' the girl said confidently.

'And figure out how to level up fast enough to outpace the soft-cap and vacuum clean the whole planet and kill all the Arms.'

"The fuck? Didn't you just say–"'That was that, and this is this,' Lily explained, as if her explanation somehow made sense.

'As long as you don't forget what's really important, there's nothing wrong with getting a few levels out of it. Or a few dozen levels. Or a–'"Yeah, okay, I get the idea," Dennis muttered.

"Could've just said that without bringing up my personal issues."

'Uhuh.'

"You're such an ass."

'You're probably projecting.' Dennis leaned back, his gaze wandering across the floating people in the sky.

"To keep up the momentum, I need to keep getting faster," he said.

'Mhm.'

"That means I should keep raising the skill. What are my bottlenecks?"

'You tire too quickly,' Lily said, somehow knowing Dennis' circumstances perfectly.

'More speed would mitigate that somewhat, but just a few points in Constitution will raise the overall efficiency a lot. There's a difference between being able to sprint for a few minutes, and for hours.'

"You kinda talk like me," Dennis noticed absentmindedly.

"Okay, what else?"

'Arms aren't endless,' the girl pointed out.

'How many are left in this city?'

"Thirty seven that I know of."

'Not endless at all, and finding new ones will be a pain in the ass. When we're outside the cities there's no landmarks, we just kinda have to hope to stumble on a new place. And small towns barely have a dozen monsters in them. Outside of Vegas, you can't really grind because you don't know where to find more Arms.'

"I mean, Los Angeles should be nearby," he pointed out.

"And it's hella big."

'A few hundred miles is not nearby. Without a road you'll probably miss it.' Dennis nodded, agreeing with the point.

"More endurance, and a way to find more Arms," he summarized.

"If I have that, there's a chance to get the leveling singularity."

'Seems like it. You think you can make the skill give you some endurance?'

"We can always ask."