Jean was escaping in the direction of the skeleton when whispers announced the completion of the trade. Five new items arrived. Surprised, Jean opened the inventory and found: a pair of gloves, a pair of boots and a wide belt.

  “Let's see what you bought me... Wait a minute! ... You have spent all the essence coins? I told you... Shit! I hope it was worth it!”

  All manufactured in black leather with steel reinforcements of a dark tone. Overall, not very pleasing to the eye and similar to the weapons the whispers had bought her so far. Flexible, but somewhat heavy. It seemed that the whispers had a favorite blacksmith.

  With no time to slow down, she opened the inventory to equip them directly. As soon as she did, she felt different. Improved. Looking at her right hand, Identify did its thing.

  ?Khaor's Glove?

  Category: Magical item of Expert rank.

  Details: Khaor Cursed Set (1/5)

  ? 2 items: +2 to all attributes.

  ? 3 items: -25% to mana and stamina consumption.

  ? 4 items: +3 to all attributes.

  ? 5 items: +1% damage for every 1% of health missing.

  ? Having any part of this set equipped causes a temporary curse of -0.3% HP/sec.

  Prize: 8 green essence coins or 880 white essence coins.

  “Are you kidding me?! This shit will kill me in 6 minutes if I get careless!”

  “I'm the one who’s going to kill you, you sneaky bitch!!”, shouted Bear as he chased her like crazy.

  The five new points in her attributes allowed her to regain the distance she had lost with the inventory. It didn't take her long to see the soul of the skeleton in the distant darkness. He seemed oblivious to them. His senses weren’t his strong point. He hadn't noticed her the other time either until she was very close.

  Several meters back, Bear was panting, trying to keep up. He was undoubtedly strong, but the approximately 150 kilos of pure muscle and two and a half meters in height were working against him in the narrow corridor.

  Still far away from the skeleton, a mischievous smile formed on Jean's mouth. She slowed down and let Bear think he could catch up with her. Of course, keeping the relevant distance to avoid being attacked. She was sure his blows would be devastating.

  “Stop running, bitch!!”

  Less than 15 meters from the skeleton, Jean equipped one of the stones and began to shout. From that precise moment on, she needed to measure every point of mana. If she wasted the potions she had left, she would be at the mercy of luck.

  The skeleton turned around, she could see his glowing eyes floating in the darkness.

  “You had some hidden allies, bitch?! It doesn’t matter how many of you there are! I'm going to kill you all!!” At the shout of “Die!!!”, he charged as if he were a human battering ram empowered with a red aura that released tongues of flame from all over his body.

  Jean threw the stone in his face with a special Perception effect. One she hadn't tried until now. An explosion of light blinded Bear as the undead charged Mist Slash without deciding who to focus on.

  Jean smiled and boosted her Dexterity and Agility. The instant the skeleton made the horizontal attack, she slid across the ground just as she had seen Red Eyes do. Feet first she slipped between the undead's legs.

  His powerful attack impacted squarely on Bear's left shoulder, partially hitting him in the chest. Blood spurted moments before he slammed into the skeleton like a train. Jean knew she wouldn't have time to get up and run again, so she rolled to her right until she hit the wall. She wasn't spared from Bear stepping on her leg. He was also not spared from losing his balance and falling on top of the undead.

  Jean gritted her teeth and without wasting a second, she rushed to her feet to equip her greatsword. She began to charge Mist Slash. Although it was only on Advanced Rank, it felt like an action a thousand times performed and perfectly memorized.

  She closed her eyes and tensed her muscles to the maximum. She needed her body to withstand the pressure of stamina flowing through every muscle fiber until it passed into the weapon and built up in an almost transparent coating of energy on the blade that culminated in a fluid vertical slash.

  When the attack landed on Bear's back, no sparks flew. A lot of blood came out. Jean didn't hesitate. She performed another slash right to the same spot. This time the organs gave way to the cut until it went all the way through.

  Panting, Jean did not risk performing another Mist Slash. She knew she might fall exhausted. She raised her sword and aimed for his head as if nothing else mattered. Not even the skeleton trying to crawl out from under his massive body.

  Jean stopped in her tracks when she realized that Bear was clenching his fist with all his might. So much so that the air around it began to oscillate, vibrant and vaporous. Like the one waving over the asphalt on a hot day.

  He spat some blood. “Where did you scum come from?! Oblivion?!”

  “Holy shit! This guy is tough as nails!”

  Seconds later, he punched the skeleton. Jean thought it would crack the floor. Even the walls shook. The undead now lay inert with only a few of his bones broken and scattered along the corridor. She couldn't believe he hadn't been reduced to dust.

  Jean took the opportunity to strike at his neck, but he interposed his right fist in time as he charged the powerful blow with his other hand. It was at that moment that he noticed paw-shaped gloves and a bearskin protecting his head. They emitted a strange magical halo.

  Identify surprised her by confirming her suspicions. The protection looked like a simple bear paw, but it hid much more.

  ?Urthir Bear Gauntlet?

  Details: Urthir Set (1/6)

  ? 2 items: +15 to Strength.

  ? 3 items: +15 to Toughness.

  ? 4 items: +50% to Hand to Hand combat damage.

  ? 5 items: 10% of the damage you inflict is converted into healing.

  ? 6 items: You postpone pain and damage to avoid death for up to 30 minutes.

  Prize: 120 green essence coins

  “Shit! That makes this bastard immortal!”

  Jean prepared Mist Slash again, putting her soul into the attack despite feeling insignificant against him. This was no time to waver. She aimed for the neck. She knew he would try to block it and she wasn't wrong. Unfortunately, she did not succeed in decapitating him. He sacrificed his arm in order not to lose his head.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Jean charged Mist Slash again, but lifting the greatsword proved uncomfortable. If she kept attacking she would be at his mercy. She stored the weapon away and ran towards the bandits. It didn't take her long to find three of the bandits who had entered to help their boss.

  “You cowardly bitch!!!” shouted Bear as he struggled to his feet.

  The bandits remained unalarmed by the heavy footsteps, thinking it was Bear and his bad temper. They paid the price for their carelessness. The first died after being hit squarely in the heart with a thrown spear. Panic ensued.

  “Fuck! He killed the Boss!!!”

  “Impossible! Only a real demon could...!”

  “Run, run!!!”

  Jean retrieved the spear and attacked them, leaving a red, yellow, orange and white trail. Accurate strikes to the head that their skulls couldn't withstand.

  She touched the one that was already dead from the previous detonations and devoured him. Stamina and mana largely recovered. However, before she finished devouring the second one, Bear began to advance from the depths of the corridor.

  “You're dead!!!!”

  Jean emerged from the corridor long before he arrived. Without the shield to defend herself, three arrows flew across the room straight at her. Two hit her for trying to protect her face. One in the left shoulder and the other in the arm on the same side.

  Furious, she stored each arrow in the inventory and cast Nimireth's Toughness, also adding the brown to the collection of trails. It didn't stop the arrows completely, but subtracted enough piercing power so that they barely managed to embed a finger. Nothing she couldn't withstand with more healing.

  She weakened her gravity and jumped to the second floor. Encouraged by hearing Bear's screams of rage, one of the archers thought he could stop her with a direct arrow to her face. She pierced his face with the spear long before the fool's last arrow hit the back wall. However, another arrow arrived to do its work from behind. In the end, all the new archer managed to do was to be next on the list.

  One by one, they fell at breakneck speed. She devoured only one more, strategically leaving a snack in each corner.

  [You have learned Sniper — Basic Rank.

  Increases your Dexterity by 25 but reduces your Agility by 15.]

  Only two bandits remained when Bear arrived, plus the unusually calm Zath and the young Erish. All watched dumbfounded as Bear panted and bled like a pig in a slaughterhouse.

  “Boss... are you okay?!”, asked one of the two remaining bandits.

  Bear stared at his decimated men while Zath barely concealed his passivity. “Why the hell don't you shoot that bitch?”

  Zath shrugged. “You think I'd get anything other than death if I shot you? You are both too powerful for me!”

  Bear was dumbfounded. “Are you stupid?! Move! You're strong too!”

  Zath snorted and pointed at Jean. She was panting as well, but only still she regained her strength behind the railing leading to the upper level.

  “I'm sorry, beautiful! But I'm not going to die for you! I hope you understand…!”

  Jean laughed at the compliment. “Don't worry! But do yourself a favor! Try not to hit me if you want to get out alive along with the girl.”

  Zath couldn’t help but look at Bear out of the corner of his eye. He didn't understand anything. “What the hell is going on here?! Are you motherfuckers in cahoots?!”

  Zath sounded offended, but not overly so. “How can you say that, Boss…?”

  Jean equipped herself with a bow and some arrows that she had saved in her inventory from when she devoured the other archers.

  “Bear!”, Jean shouted. Everyone listened silently. “Look…! I understand that you can be the boss of a shitty group like this. Luck sometimes does those things when you surround yourself with the same trash as you. But I have a hell of a hard time believing you are the leader of a clan called Black Bear. You look like a fucking ass arguing with your men in front of me... You're pathetic!”

  “I'm going to kill you!!!”

  Jean sighed. “I'm sick of hearing you say that! The reason your niece's protector is still in one piece is that he was kind enough to warn me where I was getting off by attacking a bunch of rapists, traitors and cowards. At no time was he stupid enough to do anything that would force me to end his life.”

  The moronic bandit who had crapped himself and rushed to alert Bear shouted from a side corridor, hiding. “You attacked us without provocation!”

  Jean burst out in anger. “Shut up, you retard! You prevented me from saving my… partner! Now she's being held by some undead... You signed your death warrant that very instant!”

  Jean stopped hiding and aimed at the bandits who were still standing. After increasing her Dexterity by 30 points with Nimireth's Rage and Sniper, and adding the advanced Dexterity effects, they both ended up with an ugly antenna on their heads.

  Bear shouted madly as he ran up the ladder. Before she could reach the second floor, Jean had already jumped over the railing. She deconjured any magic and switched to the greatsword.

  Being so close to Zath, and thanks to the many torches lying on the ground, she finally got a good look at his face. The young man was handsome. Turquoise eyes, serious face, long brown hair tied in a ponytail. Dressed only in old clothes and no protective gear.

  Erish, on the other hand, was a little girl with beautiful blue eyes, cute dimples and brown hair with strange orange highlights. Her clothes were those of an outlaw. Dirty and old. She also had a short bow with which she had never aimed at Jean.

  Zath lowered the bow, letting Jean escape. That drove Bear crazy. “Shoot, you useless motherfucker! I'm going to kill you too!”

  Zath could think of no better way to annoy Bear than to encourage Jean. He came close to winking at her. “You think you can defeat him?”

  Jean tried to hide it, but she was slightly trembling. She knew that if she made one wrong move in her plan, it could be the end of her. “Of course I can!!!”

  Bear smashed the stone railing with a kick and jumped, charging power in his left fist. Jean only had to increase her speed and step into the darkness of the corridor through which she got there for him to desist.

  “Damn coward!!!”

  Bear stopped in front of Zath with his fist still clenched. Zath didn't even flinch. Erish was trembling, but calmed down when the young man raised his hand reassuringly. “You promised you wouldn't hurt her. You swore it!”

  “And you swore…!!”

  Zath interrupted him briskly. “... to never attack you!”

  Bear nodded. “But I didn't promise anything abb… Aaaaaahh!!”

  A Mist Slash hit the back of his neck with great piercing force despite its small size. Blood gushed out as he put his hands to his head. Not from the damage. The shock and pain weren't postponed for an instant. His nearly falling bear hood was pulled off without his consent. Regardless of the injuries, he put it back in place.

  Jean stopped casting Chameleon with the broadest of smiles; she had confirmed something promising. She attacked again with her dagger while pulling the hood with Nimireth's Rage. She increased her Strength, Dexterity and Agility while adding advanced effects to her slashes.

  Once, twice, even three times she slashed the back of his neck as he tried to hit Jean, who was glued to his back. He was too busy keeping his hood from being pulled off with his healthy arm to think clearly, and in a desperate attempt to turn and hit her with his charged fist, he lost several of his fingers. His eyes rolled back in his head as he fell to his knees. His nose and mouth couldn’t stop leaking his scarlet vital essence.

  He turned to Zath trying to utter his last words. His look of resentment said it all. Finally, he collapsed on his face after she removed his hood.