"I-Is there something you can't do?!" Noen stammered, his socks skidding on the hardwood floor as he scrambled around the room, desperately grabbing a heavy metal floor lamp and a thick decorative vase.
Kaelin sighed, leaning back against the headboard and rubbing his temples. "Why do i have to explain everything 50 times to you? I've enhanced your scent—the kind only magical beasts can pick up—by a massive multiplier. I'm an Enhancer, get it now?"
He reached down, grabbed the bag of chips from the floor, and crunched on one with agonizing slowness. "But... the way you are now, you'll die against the first thing that breathes on you. I mean, your new Affinity allows you to gain points, but your stats are still garbage. Even if I would boost all your other stats to your limit, 0 is still trash."
"I know that already, you idiot!" Noen barked, his knuckles white as he gripped the lamp.
"That's why you're going to fight them one by one. I'll make sure of it."
"Does running away count as fighting?" Noen asked, his eyes darting toward the window.
Kaelin grinned. "As long as you get the LP. And if something way too strong shows up, I'll handle it. I am the strongest, after all."
Noen paused, looking at the casual teenager in the hoodie. "The strongest? What's your System Rank, anyway?"
Kaelin hesitated, his smirk twitching for a split second. "I have—"
RUMPS!
The entire hotel shuddered. The sound of splintering wood and a high-pitched, terrifying screech erupted from the floor below.
"Oh," Kaelin said, tilting his head. "Looks like they're already through the main entrance. Hang on, let me settle this."
From the floor below, the receptionist's scream pierced through the vents. "Aghhh! Stay back! Someone help!"
"Enhance: Gravitational Pull."
Suddenly, a dense, violet aura exploded around Khaelin. With a violent CRACK, the floor beneath him cracked open. He shot downward like a localized meteor, tearing through layers of wood, drywall, and concrete in a straight vertical line until he slammed into the lobby floor.
Noen stared down through the jagged, smoking hole in his floor. "Could you not have just taken the stairs?!"
Down in the lobby, the dust was still settling. The receptionist was cowering behind her marble desk, her eyes wide with terror as a swarm of green-skinned Goblins and pulsating, translucent Oozes poured through the shattered front doors.
"Don't worry, Miss," Kaelin said, dusting a stray chip crumb off his hoodie. "I'll make this quick."
Then, Kaelin vanished.
Noen leaned over the edge of the hole, his eyes straining to follow the action, but his brain couldn't process the speed. He didn't see Kaelin move; he only saw the results.
SNAP. A Goblin's head suddenly twisted 180 degrees before it could even raise its dagger. THUD. A massive Ooze was hit by a force so concentrated it didn't just splatter—it evaporated into a fine mist.
Kaelin was a ghost. To Noen, it looked like the monsters were simply exploding or collapsing on their own. One moment, a pack of five Goblins was leaping forward; in the next "frame" of Noen's vision, they were all pinned to the walls by their own broken limbs, and Kaelin was standing five meters away, casually reaching into his chip bag.
He grabbed the final, trembling beast by its throat. He didn't even look at it. He looked straight up through the three holes in the ceiling, locking eyes with Noen.
"Noen, would you come outside, please?" Kaelin's voice drifted up, casual and light, as if he were asking Noen to join him for a stroll in the park.
Noen stared down at the carnage in the lobby, his face turning a ghostly white. "Outside? With those things? Absolutely not!" he shouted, instinctively backing away from the jagged edge of the hole.
Kaelin sighed, while ripping off the head of the final magical beast. "Either you come down here in front of the entrance right now, or I'll just let them in. I mean, they're still coming for you, after all."
Noen broke into a cold sweat. The logic was undeniable—if he stayed in the room, he was a trapped rat in a cage that was about to be overrun. "Fine, fine! I'm coming!"
He bolted for the door, his heart hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs. He sprinted down the stairs, nearly tripping over his own feet as he bypassed the elevator, and burst into the lobby. He rushed past Kaelin and out through the shattered front entrance, skidding to a halt in the mud.
His breath hitched. Emerging from the dark treeline were hundreds of beasts—Goblins, Frost-Wolves, and twisted, magical chimeras—all charging toward the hotel with a single-minded, terrifying hunger. They were a wall of teeth and claws, and he was the bullseye.
"Wait a sec," Kaelin said calmly.
Before Noen could even blink, Kaelin shot past him, blurring into a streak of impossible motion. He leaped several meters into the air, silhouetted against the pale Canadian moon. In mid-air, he pressed his fingers together with surgical precision.
"Enhance: Gravitational Pull 2."
A dense, brown orb manifested between his hands, pulsing with heavy, suffocating energy. With a flick of his wrist, Kaelin sailed the ball into the center of the oncoming horde.
The effect was instantaneous. A massive, invisible weight slammed down on the forest floor. The charging beasts were flattened instantly, their bellies pressed into the dirt and snow. The ground groaned under the sudden atmospheric pressure. It was a masterpiece of control—enough force to pin them all down in an agonizing paralysis, but calculated perfectly so it wouldn't crush them to death.
Kaelin drifted back down, landing softly in the snow beside Noen without a single hair out of place. The silence of the forest was now filled only with the strained whines and muffled growls of hundreds of pinned monsters.
"Sooooo..." Kaelin said, casually rubbing his hands together. He looked like a chef about to present a feast. As he spoke, the empty chip bag he had let go of in the air seconds ago drifted slowly back down into his wating hand.
He gestured toward the field of helpless, twitching monsters. "Who do you want to start with?"