Soderberg
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Book 2: Chapter 79
🕑 Added 2025-12-19 19:00:06 +0000 UTC"Can't you sleep in?" Luke asked, stretching his arms toward the ceiling, still in bed as Dot dressed.
She gave him a mischievous grin before pulling yesterday's dress over her head. "Some of us have to work for a living." As she buttoned the few buttons on the front, she gave him a wink. "Maybe I'll let you take me out for that date tonight instead."
"I'll wine and dine you, treat you like a proper lady. Don't you worry." He got up to sit. "Breakfast before you go, at least? A coffee? Promise I'll keep my hands to myself."
Her laugh was like a small explosion of joy in his chest. "Maybe I like wandering hands?"
"Then I promise I'll paw at you."
Dot wriggled her eyebrows as she stepped into her shoes. "Got patients waiting. Like I said, some of us have jobs to do."
"Gaining any levels?"
She splayed her left hand and made a thumbs-up with her right.
"Six?"
"Yup!"
"Nice," Luke said, nodding in approval. "Keep at it, and you'll get The Healer's Moment in no time."
Dot walked up to the bed and leaned over, planting her lips on his for a quick kiss before standing back up. "It's a lot of work, I'm not going to lie, but the guild keeps me supplied with mana potions so I can keep the pace up."
"Don't forget to take breaks sometimes."
"I will," she said with another smile. "Tonight. At dinner."
"Sounds good. Hey, Dot. About Leslie."
Her face fell a little. "Yeah. We need to talk about that, but let's leave it for tonight, yeah?"
"Yeah," he agreed. "See you then."
With that, he was alone again. This time, though, the solitude didn't feel like a burden. That'd been quite the quick reversal of fortune. Luke smiled to himself and got dressed before letting Smudge back out.
"Smudge. You're getting pretty big. What exactly are you?"
The day before, he'd been the size of a small dog. Now, Smudge reached up over the side of the bed. Perhaps it would be a good idea to find more information about the pet before feeding it more monster cores, but who could resist those two patches of void where Smudge's eyes should be? Also, where the hell would he find information about whatever Smudge was? He considered that as he threw another low-level monster core to his pet without looking. Perhaps some pet classes would be able to tell him something, at least?
Said and done, he put up a post in the guild chat, asking for someone with Integrated pet experience, then fixed himself breakfast. When no replies came in, Luke settled in to continue what he'd been doing the night before, when Dot so rudely interrupted him.
Keeping his mind in a state of meditation proved easier now that he'd done it a few times, and the rate of failure seemed to be lower, even if it was too early to tell. Jotting down the result each time was a time-consuming endeavor, but if he wanted to know for sure, there were no alternatives to some good old proper counting. Like before, getting higher numbers on the enchanted items was still a thing, and he'd soon enchanted himself a set of clothes to wear for the day.
White T-shirt of The Mind: A slight increase in mana regeneration.
Black Slacks of Improved Wisdom: +3 Wisdom.
Dark Gray Boxers of Speed: Provides a minor speed boost when wearing an item with this enchantment.
White Ankle Sock of Improved Wisdom: +4 Wisdom.
Worn Sneakers of Health: A slight boost in maximum health.
With those five, he'd get a decent boost in mana regeneration, a little extra health, and some speed while leaving room for donning the robe without risking it being torn to shreds and not repairing.
Not wanting to just sit around all day, Luke left the apartment and went for a run. It didn't take long for him to realize he'd grown fast enough for the speed to become a problem. Running on the sidewalk meant a constant stream of obstacles to dodge, with people, bicycles, dogs, and more in the way, not to mention cars whenever he needed to cross the street. While his high Agility allowed for quicker reaction times and improved dodging, it wasn't enough with how erratic the movement of pedestrians was.
Needing to get some space to breathe, Luke headed northeast, toward the water, where he knew he'd find the Lakefront Trail. It was long and wide enough that he wouldn't need to perform acrobatics just to get anywhere. Slowing down to a more manageable pace, he got there in thirty minutes and set to running. The breeze coming on from over the water made the warmth of the day a little more bearable as he ran, ignoring the strange looks he got from other runners as he passed them by at a pace they wouldn't be able to match even sprinting at full tilt.
Boon of Potential grants you an attribute point (+1 Endurance).
The slow gain of attribute points from the boon was starting to feel faster rather than slower. While the base levels slowed down a lot when he didn't have nukes available, the gain from Boon of Potential held steady. More and more, he'd come to realize that the choice of boon was what would set him apart in the long run. He'd gained a lot from it already, and there was so much more to come. Using this, he wouldn't need to sacrifice physicality for mental gains, or vice versa.
Running past an outdoor gym, he stopped and jumped up to grab a bar to do chin-ups. One, two, five, ten, twenty, fifty. The attributes made such an amazing difference, and the more Luke could do, the more it counted toward the boon, almost like the effects were compounding.
Boon of Potential grants you an attribute point (+1 Strength).
Bringing out the Tempered Staff, he whirled from stance to stance with a grace that would have been impossible before raising Agility, and within the hour, he saw another gain.
Boon of Potential grants you an attribute point (+1 Agility).
At that point, he'd been going for hours, but still felt fresh enough to continue the run. This time, he pushed himself to go faster, ever faster. When he reached the end of the trail, he doubled back, then doubled back again. As he settled into the comfortable daze of endurance training, Luke found his mind slipping into the same meditative state he'd used when enchanting.
Smiling to himself, he got to work.
Goblin Monster Core of Improved Intelligence: The core of a monster (+3 Intelligence).
Goblin Monster Core of Improved Intelligence: The core of a monster (+3 Intelligence).
Goblin Monster Core of Improved Intelligence: The core of a monster (+3 Intelligence).
His inventory was full of stuff he hadn't sold or used yet, and by the time Luke stopped running, most of it was enchanted. To his surprise, even corpses could be enchanted, and when he ran out of items, Luke had picked up stones and branches, creating system items out of the mundane.
Just for shits and giggles, Luke tested to see if he could sell a Pebble of Intelligence to the Integrated shop and found that he could, but all he got was a single credit. It required quite a bit of mana to enchant an item, but mana was an infinite resource, given enough time. While time was a precious commodity, there had to be an exploit in there somewhere, but his mind was too tired at that point to think of anything.
Boon of Potential grants you an attribute point (+1 Endurance).
With that second attribute point in Endurance, Luke came to a stop. That was enough running for a single day. He considered heading over to Vasilij's gym as he emptied a couple of water bottles. But no, best not. By then, it was past lunchtime, and Luke needed a rest. Even with his improved physical aspect, overall energy was still a factor. Perhaps he'd go to the gym on another day and focus on nothing but strength, but for now, it was time to rest.
Rest in this case meant going back to the apartment, showering, eating, feeding Smudge, and then settling in for another enchantment session.
Mateo: "Luke!"
Luke: "Mateo!"
Mateo: "I heard from Penny that you intend to abandon us."
Luke: "Uh."
Mateo: "Haha, kidding. I'm kidding. But you are leaving, yes?"
Luke: "In two weeks, yeah. Seems that way. New York. Hannah will come too. I'd ask you, but with your family."
Mateo: "No, no. I understand. Leaving them is not an option, but I was hoping to see you again before you leave. Perhaps we could fight alongside one another before you go?"
Luke: "I'd like that."
Mateo: "So you will tell me when the next portal descends?"
Luke: "There's one open now, but I think it's been open for a while. I'll message you when the next one comes, yeah?"
Mateo: "Yes, my friend! Penny will join too! It will be a glorious farewell!"
Luke: "It's not like I'll be gone forever."
Mateo: "Ah, but I'm afraid it is soon time for me to hang up my spear."
Mateo: "The danger, you understand. Fear cannot nest in my heart, but I could not leave my wife and children to fend for themselves in this cruel world."
Luke: "That's too bad, but I understand. We'll see if we can get some more people together and be careful, so nothing happens to you."
Mateo: "I am always careful, my friend. Let me know when it's time!"
Luke shook his head, bemused. That man was throwing death flags all over the place. One last dungeon before retiring? Waxing poetic about his family? Talk about jinxing himself. If Mateo showed up in a red shirt, that would just be the end of it.
