We Did Go Camping After All

Punisher looked at the mountain in the distance. "Fuck, that's kind of far."

I nodded. "Yeah, it kind of is. What's your agility stat right now?"

"Let me check; I forgot. I think that it's mid-tier. Status window." Punisher checked his stats. "It's at 66 right now."

"That's not bad. If we got there at your full speed, we should be able to get there before the night falls."

"And what if we went at your full speed?" Punisher raised one eyebrow at me. "What is your agility stat?"

I looked off into the distance and said, "Oh, it's nothing special. Just 142 right now."

"Holy fuck, man, you have to be cheating!"

I burst out laughing. "Dude, you would lose it if you knew how high I could boost it. Let's start running."

Punisher started to run at his maximum pace. "What can you max it out at?"

I looked at him with an overly serious face. "284."

Punisher shook his head and didn't say a word in response. I could tell that he was jealous of all the advantages I had but also happy that I could get them. I had a few surprises for Punisher that would make him just as broken as I was, but I decided that it would be best if I kept them to myself for now. Not everything in the future was guaranteed, and I don't want to get Punisher's hopes up.

We ran for the rest of the day and eventually made it to the base of the mountain that was to the south of the Verdant Sanctuary. It was two and a half kilometers in height and covered in dense vegetation from the base all the way to its peak.

"Alright, Pun, it's getting dark; what do you say we look for a spot to set up camp?"

Punisher nodded. "Sure, let's do that for now."

"Hey, Pun."

"Yo." 

"We did go camping after all." 

Punisher ignored me for the next ten minutes. 

We looked around for a sizable clearing and couldn't find one, so I ended up using sword energy to clear out a good ten-meter area for us. We set up camp and started to relax ourselves as we watched this world's sun set over the horizon. The moment the sun disappeared from the sky, I remembered a very important detail about my new life here in the Verdant Abyss.

Notification

Congratulations! You are at the top of the leaderboard! Your location is being revealed and is accessible to players on their system maps. Your location will be accessible for one hour.

Punisher looked at me, noticing that I had a grim expression on my face. "Hey Ronan, what's up, bud? You look like something bad just happened."

I turned and looked over at Punisher. "Hey man, things are about to get a bit rough for you and me. We got some Alorae coming."

Punisher looked confused. "How do you know that?"

"It's because I'm worth a lot of points right now. I'm at the top of the leaderboard, and I forgot about the server announcement. Every six hours, everyone knows my location."

"Shit, but you're a fucking strong man; there's no way they can kill you, right?"

I shook my head. "You don't know this yet, but there are some Alorae and some Veldans who were already juiced before they came to this world. The power I have right now is massive, but some of these guys were already at this level before they arrived here."

"Then should we run?"

I shook my head again. "I don't think so. The Alorae don't know everything about how strong I am yet, so I don't think they'll send their strongest fighters right away. There's a good chance we'll have an easy fight tonight. We'll just need to find a new campsite after the hour is up."

"Okay, how long will it take before they get here? What do you think?"

"I'd estimate that they already had a pursuit squad that would have been following our trail from the Verdant Sanctuary. They were probably already nearby. I'd say we have about five minutes."

I sensed the presence of three bodies approaching from the east, three bodies approaching from the south, and three bodies approaching from the west. I sensed that their levels averaged out at five, so I knew that Punisher and I could take them.

"Fuck, scratch that. Five seconds was more like it. There are nine bodies nearby; I'm assuming that they're all Alorae."

Punisher readied his pistol, and I felt him build up firearm energy in his gun. It was such a familiar feeling, fighting side by side again. The Alorae began to converge on our location, and the fighting started.

The three Alorae from the east and the three Alorae from the west arrived at the same time, sandwiching Punisher and me between a barrage of ranged magic attacks. As the first attacks started to rain down on us, Tim the mimic expanded into a giant metal box that protected both of us from the attack.

From the inside of the box, Tim's tiny face appeared. "Hey Ron, these barely tickle. I'm sure you won't have any trouble killing these guys. Use the opening from the top and get the jump on them; I'll open some holes for your friend."

"Thanks Tim."

I looked up and watched as a small square opening appeared at the top of the metal box. Small slits opened up all around the walls, just big enough for Punisher to look through and fire from. I looked over at Punisher and nodded right before jumping straight up into the air. With the sun having set, the darkness paired with the mass of magical energy blasts raining on Tim were more than enough to hide my presence from the Alorae. I could only hope that they wouldn't check their maps to track my location.

I looked down and saw that Punisher had already started firing back at the ones shooting magic blasts from the east and west, so I turned my attention to the remaining group that was yet to arrive. I activated my telekinesis and used it to push myself south, but there was a problem.

Without me sensing it, a focused spike of dagger energy cut into my side, sending me spiraling to the ground. I had changed my telekinesis to soften my fall. The moment I hit the ground, I dove into a roll and got into a defensive position at the side of Tim.

Tim's tiny face appeared on the side of the giant metal box I was leaning against. "Hey Ron, what…"

Tim was cut off as the dagger energy cut into the giant metal box he turned into. I watched as his body collapsed into energy and dissipated into nothing.

"Shit! Punisher run!"