The Last Experience Point

"Gods, Jimmy," said Ophelia Graven, leader of the adventuring guild, Boss Rush. She knelt down into the wide, open flooring here on F20 of The Grandest Library, where, like many dungeons, an arena-like area existed to allow for some maneuverability during the boss fight. "This buckler shield is Epic Rare! It's better than the one I'm using. How much do you want for it?"

"Nothing," Jimmy said curtly. "Just take it and let's go already."

"I can't believe how much loot's here," Frederick Britethorn added with a gasp, picking up a sword. "Jimmy, did you loot anything from this boss?"

What a dumb question. Of course he hadn't. This was all vendor trash. Jimmy had no time for it. "Guys, let's keep moving," he said impatiently. "I can't believe we keep having to stop over crap-loot."

"Crap?" Lienne asked, her mouth falling open as she found herself a new staff, also Epic-Rare. "Jimmy, this staff is level 57 and has an amazing ability on it." As if to prove her point, she held up her new weapon, which contained a ring on both the top and bottom that continuously changed colors, and she cast a buff of some kind on herself. "Wow, it buffs my intelligence by 25 and gives me stun immunity."

"Nice," Jimmy said robotically and without any passion. "Now let's go."

Jimmy had waited all damn day to come back here with the others. He'd been tapping his feet eagerly in Angelica's, becoming anxious as he watched all the adventurers drink despite knowing he couldn't. And not even just because he wasn't biologically 21 years old yet, but also because Angelica had banned him for life due to having a tiny, barely noticeable drinking problem—if it could even be called that. But anyway, so yeah, he'd been stuck sitting around all day waiting for everybody to get ready, only to finally get here and be held up by his own loot.

Now, Jimmy watched as, like scavengers, the adventurers picked through every single last piece of loot along the way, often stopping to discuss among themselves who should get it, with Donovan either making a decision in the event of arguments or otherwise demanding they roll. And although the loot in this place was kind of mid at best, the bosses dropped a whole lot of it, especially the Manticore boss right by the entrance, which Jimmy had killed twice now, solo, as it had reset two days ago.

"Jimmy, you're one sick son of a bitch," Donovan said. "How do you leave this much loot on the floor?"

He shrugged. "I don't need it and got no room for it."

"And we can seriously just have it?" Rian asked. "You don't want anything for it?"

"No, dude, just take it. I was gonna let all this shit vanish on next week's reset anyways."

"Gods." Rian laughed. "I can't imagine Zach doing that."

Not a single item or piece of equipment was left behind as the adventurers looted everything after ensuring Jimmy was fine with it—which of course he was. He could solo these bosses a hundred times over. There was nothing here that he found to be valuable. In fact, the only thing he kept for himself was the gold, of which about a million dropped per boss, likely intended to be divided 65 ways—or about 15k a person.

For many—but certainly not all things—in Galterra, one gold was more or less around one dollar in US currency in terms of purchasing power, which meant Jimmy, who now had 11.5 million gold in Bank and Storage, was pretty damn rich. He didn't even really need any more money. The hell was he going to buy, anyway? No offense to Zach, but some people cared way too much about shit like money and loot or whatever.

The way Jimmy saw it, the adventurers had given him Inn Room 20 for free despite his failing as a leader in the Trials of Nolak raid, so why would he ask for anything in return? All he wanted was to get a move on. But not all of them were quite as enthusiastic to speed things up and take on the next boss. In fact, one of them in particular was as unenthusiastic as it was possible for a person to be.

"Everyone, please, take your time," Tyson said, his knees vibrating and his skin becoming pale as a ghost. "There's n-no rush." He looked to Donovan. "There's some stuff over there I think you might have missed." He pointed to someplace all the way across the room where ten bookshelves had been knocked over yesterday while Jimmy had kited the boss, leaving an absolute mess behind.

"There's nothing over there," Donovan growled. "Stop being chickenshit."

He whimpered. "Please, don't make me fight a boss. I'm not ready yet. I need more training and time."

"You're fighting it. And our whole strategy is gonna revolve around you, so you better kick some ass in there, you bastard."

"No!" Tyson cried out in a way that made Jimmy stifle a laugh. It wasn't that he wanted to laugh at Tyson, but rather, it was just the way he dramatically yelled it out. It was a drawn-out "no" at a really high pitch, so it sounded more like "nooooooooooo." It reminded Jimmy of that one Dr. Phil episode where that spoiled-ass bitch got told she needed to work. It sounded just like that.

But anyway, as the adventurers finally finished scavenging all of Jimmy's unwanted trash, Jimmy was eager to get going, but Tyson was now hounding him nonstop. The man was pleading and begging with him to reconsider. He even tried to use guilt as a weapon, claiming that Jimmy was supposed to be his friend, but that he was yet again putting him in harm's way. Eventually, Jimmy just started tuning him out, as did the other adventurers.

Once he gets a few takedowns under his belt, he'll calm his ass down.

"Okay, we done here?" Jimmy asked. "You guys looted everything. Let's go!"

"Yeah, yeah," Maric said. "So impatient."

Having picked F20 clean, Jimmy made his way with the rest of the medium-sized raid through the next ten floors towards F30, stopping only to wait for the others to scavenge whatever regular, non-boss loot Jimmy had left behind during his solo romp through here. Thankfully, mobs in this dungeon only reset weekly, which meant there was nothing else to slow them down.

Finally, as they approached the two elegant, wooden doors with the swan-shaped handles, Jimmy felt himself perking up. He stopped, turned around, and gave Tyson a Donovan-like pat on the shoulder. "You ready to fuck some shit up, Ty?"

"Jimmy, please," he whispered back to him. "Don't make me do this."

"Trust me, you need this."

"But I don't want to die."

"We're not gonna let ya," Donovan said, speaking up. Now, he gave Tyson a real Donovan-like pat, and Tyson yelped. Jimmy knew firsthand just how badly those hurt. For this reason, he began backing away as Donovan looked like he wanted to give Jimmy one as well.

"Okay," Zephyr said, walking to the front of their formation and turning around to face the others. There were only around fifty of them, as this was not a typical raid—which Zephyr now made a point of reminding them.

"We're here to see what Tyson can do," he began. "By now, all of you should be very familiar with Tyson's passive. What we're gonna attempt is to see just how far we can push it and how much of a difference it can make. In other words, me and Don want to find out if we can plan an entire raid around it."

"Isn't that just a bit risky, though?" Frenk asked. "Planning an entire raid strategy around one person?"

Donovan opened his mouth to reply, but Ishina cut him off, groaning as though she had a bad stomachache. "Dad!" she hissed. "You're being so embarrassing!"

"Why?" he asked, sounding genuinely confused. "I didn't say anything wrong."

"She's just at that age," Alixa whispered to him, causing Ishina to send murderous, hate-filled glares her way as the book-wielding wind mage grabbed Frenk's hand.

I still can't believe those two are a thing now, Jimmy thought. Dude's like fifteen years older than her. Alixa's got a thing for dads.

Donovan cleared his throat. "To answer your question," he began, "it's obviously not a good fuckin' idea to put everything on one guy. That's not what this is for. This is to find out if we could use this strategy to deal with bosses."

"I don't understand," Frenk said. Other adventurers also murmured in agreement.

"In other words," Zephyr continued, picking up where Donovan left off, "we just want to know if this is another tool we can put in the belt so that if a situation arises where it's needed, we can resort to it. It certainly isn't gonna be our default strategy when tackling new bosses. Even Jimmy agrees that would be a bad idea."

"Yeah," Jimmy said, nodding, "it would be. Cheese strategies are not the first in line you wanna go to on a raid. But knowing if Tyson can actually pull this off? That's worth these experiments. Okay, everyone ready?"

"Wait, one second," an adventurer said. "Tyson, can you show us the ability again?"

"Yeah," another agreed. "I gotta see that again. Show us!"

"Yeah, show us!" others called.

Tyson, appearing even more nervous, nodded his head and obliged.

There was hollering along with plenty of cheering as the adventurers read over the ability. Tyson did not seem to gain any kind of satisfaction from it, however; in fact, it seemed like people having hope in him somehow made everything worse, probably because he expected to let everyone down.

"Now, can we go?" Jimmy asked, annoyed.

"Yep," Zephyr said.

With that, Jimmy turned around and moved towards the door, grabbing the swan-shaped handles. "Okay, let's see what we got."

Like a cartoon character, Jimmy could actually hear Tyson's teeth chattering as he pushed open the doors. Actually, he didn't just "push them open," but he did it with a grand gesture. He released the handles and instead placed his palms flat and extended to both sides of him, and then he gave a forceful shove, causing them both to slide open.

"The hell was that about?" Rian asked him.

Jimmy laughed. "I opened it like it's Dark Souls."

"Okay, that answers my question," Rian said dryly. "Thanks, Jimmy."

"You're welcome."

Together, the raid stepped inside. Immediately, Jimmy found himself off balance, as the floor was now made of nothing but sand. He was also in a very narrow, corridor-like environment with a chain fence to both his left and right sides respectively. However, up ahead, there was an open gate, and through it, there was a very large, square-shaped arena, which was likely where the boss fight would take place.

Tyson stopped short. He was breathing very heavily, bordering on hyperventilating. "I can't do it," he said, shaking his head. "I just can't."

"You don't have a choice," Donovan said with a harsh-sounding grunt. "Keep moving."

"This is so unfair, Sir Donovan. I was promised Jascaila would be here to talk me through this."

"Honestly, Tyson? I thought she'd come. I really did. But she says she's got some kind of emergency she's dealing with."

"Emergency?" Jimmy asked, becoming worried. "Is everybody on Elendroth okay?"

"Kiddo, I have no idea. I'm just telling you what sis told me."

"Everyone okay so far," Fluffles said out of nowhere, meowing. "Fluffles there before to play with Chumpkenwiffles." He meowed a second time. "Jimmy banned."

"I'm what?" Jimmy asked, confused by what the cat was saying.

"Jimmy banned forever," the cat said.

"Banned? Banned from what?"

"Jimmy banned from Kalana island for not giving Fluffles enough snacks."

"No fucking way," Jimmy growled, waving his hand dismissively. "That's literally impossible."

"No! Not impossible. But if Jimmy gives more snacks…Fluffles say to Kalana and mean Elf lady to let Jimmy not ban again."

Jimmy opened his mouth to argue with the cat, but he stopped as Tena softly touched his cheek. "Don't get worked up over it," she said. "It's not that big of a deal. It's nothing you did wrong."

Jimmy, shocked, looked at her. "Wait, you know about this?"

"Yeah, Kalana called me and told me to tell you. But I wanted to wait until after the raid."

"Wait, wait, hold up. So it's actually true?" he asked, immediately feeling outraged. "I'm banned from the whole island over cat snacks? What kinda ratchet-ass bullshit is that?"

"That's not why," Tena said. She looked around nervously. Now, Jimmy realized that everyone had fallen very, very, very quiet, as literally all the other adventurers were eavesdropping and chasing after gossip. Jimmy almost wanted to tell Tena to wait just to deprive them, but he himself was getting so agitated that he felt like he needed to know right now.

"Just tell me what happened. What'd I do?"

"Kalana told me you didn't do anything wrong, baby," she explained. "Kalana said that Adamus showed up and said he didn't want you around his wife anymore. And that—"

Whatever she had to say next was drowned out as nearly fifty voices, including Ishina's, all chimed in and went "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" loud enough to create an echo.

"Jimmy is banging Eilea!" Rian cried out, laughing. "Tena, you knew about this? How dare he do that to you!"

Tena glared at him. "Rian, that's not funny! And that's…that's not what I was implying!"

Donovan and Zephyr began laughing as the entire raid started giving Jimmy shit over something they all clearly knew wasn't true. They were just taking the opportunity to rib him over Tena's wording. And this went on for way too long. Finally, however, they settled down, and Tena was able to finish what she was saying.

"So anyway," she continued, "Adamus showed up and said you have to be banned. You're not allowed within fifty miles of Eilea."

Perplexed, angry, and confused all in one, Jimmy asked, "Man, fuck that dude! Who cares what he says? I'm just gonna show up later. I don't give a shit."

"Please don't do that," Olivir said, actual alarm in his words. "You do not want to get on Queen Vayra's bad side. I've gone down that road, Jimmy. You have no idea how cruel she can be to those who cross her."

He was right. Jimmy didn't. But what was he supposed to do? They couldn't just ban his ass for no reason. He didn't do a damn thing. He was just about to vent about it, too, then Tena said something else that changed everything.

"It's not all bad news, though," she continued, now looking relieved of all things. "In return, you're not gonna be hunted anymore."

"Wait, seriously?" Jimmy exclaimed as the adventurers began demanding answers, wanting to know who was messing with Jimmy. Tena ignored them.

"It's true. Kalana said you're off the hook. You're allowed to be here now. No one's ever gonna come after you again."

"Yes!" Jimmy cried out. He couldn't stop himself. He had to dance. He had to dance right then and there. "I'm free! Oh, shit. I don't gotta worry about that dude coming after me anymore. Yes! Fuck Elendroth! I don't even care if I'm banned. Yeeahhhhhh!" After he finished dancing, he calmed down and said. "Okay, let's go fight the boss."

Ignoring the other adventurers, who were demanding that he explain himself, Jimmy made his way through the gate and into the enclosed, fenced-off arena. Then he stopped immediately, realizing right away what they were up against. Tyson, who practically had to be dragged inside, was shaking and quivering.

"Jimmy, are you sure you didn't kill this one?" Donovan asked. "There's no boss in here."

Rather than answer him, Jimmy reached forward and grabbed Lienne's elbow. "Stop!" he shouted at her as she began to stroll past him. Thankfully, she stopped immediately and backed up.

"What'd I do?"

"You almost pulled the boss."

"But…there's no boss here."

"Yeah, there is." Jimmy pointed to the center of the sandy arena, where numerous large boulders were scattered all over the place. "It's right there."

"Huh?"

Jimmy sighed, then raised his voice so everyone could hear him. "This is gonna be one of those things where I say something and ya'll go crazy wondering how I know it. But I swear to you people, anyone from my…my colony would recognize right away what this is."

"Go on," Zephyr said.

Jimmy took just a few cautious steps over the sand so that he was frontmost to them all, and then he extended his staff towards the middle of the arena. "As soon as we walk a certain distance—and I got no idea how much that is—those boulders are all gonna come together and form a giant rock monster boss. This is a really common RPG thing. It's also gonna be really resistant to melee, so this might not actually be a good one to test Tyson's ability."

As nearly fifty adventurers all looked around at one another in awe, Tyson spoke immediately without sparing even a second to process Jimmy's words. "That's absolutely right, Jimmy," he said. "That was my thought as well. It would be wise for me to sit this one out and wait for the next boss."

Donovan chuckled, though there was a dark, ominous sound to it. "Not happening, Tyson. You're getting your ass in there. If it's resistant to melee, that just means you're working even harder."

"Actually, that's not a bad point," Jimmy said, agreeing. "We could use this to see if Tyson can stack high enough to rip apart a boss that's strong to melee."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Or…or we could wait for the next boss!" Tyson said, his voice becoming high-pitched and squeaky.

"Nah, I like Donovan's idea." Jimmy gave him a thumbs-up. "We're agreeing on a lot today."

Donovan slapped him over the shoulder hard enough to make Jimmy feel like he needed to use a red stone. "Damn right we are." Then, more loudly, he shouted, "Okay! Everyone, get in position. Maric, get ready to pull the boss!"

The adventurers all began spreading out around the square-shaped arena, hugging the fence so as not to accidentally start the boss before they were ready. The tanks on the raid then split in two, with half designated to tank the boss itself and the other half dedicated solely to protecting Tyson. Yet, even with his own personal guard, Tyson continued to tremble and beg.

Jimmy, hurrying over to him, leaned forward and whispered, "I know you're scared, my dude, but please don't let us down."

"Worst possible words you could say to me, Jimmy!" he whispered back, his voice nearly rising loudly enough to be overheard. "All I've done in my entire life is let people down."

"Okay, so? Let this be the first time you don't."

"You say that like it's so easy."

"It is. Just trust me, okay? This is your chance to finally be a hero."

"I'll never be a hero."

"Yeah you will!" Jimmy gave him a confident nod. "I trust you, Tyson."

"You…do?"

"Yup."

"But no one trusts me. No one believes in me."

"Now we do," Donovan said, appearing from behind him, his tone unusually warm. But it turned rough a second later. "So don't fuck up, you prick!"

Tyson was still trembling, but Jimmy thought he spotted something resembling strength in his eyes. "All right, I'll give it a try."

And at this, Jimmy could not resist. He just couldn't. Who could? Honestly, who could resist? Doing his best Yoda impression, he said, "No! Try not! Do—or do not. There is no try."

The moment he'd finished speaking, Tena rushed over to him, Zephyr spun around, and dozens of adventurers began asking him if he was okay. "Jimmy, your voice!" Tena shouted. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Jimmy groaned. "Words cannot express how much I hate ya'll for not knowing who Yoda is. That should be a crime punishable by death."

The adventurers were all glaring at him—all except for Olivir, who was laughing giddily. "I got the joke, Jimmy," he said.

Jimmy whipped his head in Olivir's direction. "No way. Impossible."

"Nope. I definitely got the joke. Star Wars, right?"

"You know Star Wars?" Jimmy asked him, gasping.

"Not that well. Only what survived ancient history. I saw a few clips from the one where that Yoda character turns level 95 and finds a rare lightsaber drop."

"Okay, that's fake," Jimmy said.

"No, I assure you, it's real. It's from Episode 27."

"Yeah, like I said: that's fake. Just so you know, nothing after 6 counts. But still, it's fine. We can work with that. In fact, we're putting this whole raid on pause. Olivir, we have so much to talk about."

Donovan, clearly having absolutely no idea just how significant and momentous an event this was, began shouting at Jimmy to "cut the shit" and then glaring at Olivir, who Kolona was also glaring at.

"What?" Olivir asked innocently.

"Don't rile Jimmy up about Earth," Kolona said to him. "You know not to do that on a raid. Save it for later."

Olivir made a good-natured laugh. "Of course."

Despite wanting to know exactly what Olivir knew—no matter how distorted—Jimmy could tell the other adventurers were going to lose their patience if he didn't get this thing started, which was actually funny in a way, because when they wanted to take their time with bullshit, Jimmy was expected to sit around for hours while they had their dumb little meetings. Real fair, huh?

Whatever. Might as well get this going.

"Okay, I'm ready," Jimmy said, raising his staff. "I'll slow it as soon as the encounter starts."

"So, how do we start it?" Maric asked.

"You just walk closer to the center of the room."

"Like this?" Maric asked, doing exactly that.

"Yep."

Jimmy watched as he took one, then two, then ten careful steps towards the center of the sand-filled arena. Frederick Britethorn and Ophelia Graven took up positions on both sides of him, the three of them having been delegated as main tanks by Donovan, who was "technically" leading this raid.

Maric looked over his shoulder at Jimmy. "Nothing's happening."

"Just keep going."

"If you say so."

He continued to move, nearly at the center of the arena. And that was when it happened. The various boulders scattered all over the place began to shake and vibrate, and then, as though lifted by a magical force, they started floating in the air. "Duck!" Ophelia called out as she dropped to her knees, joined by Maric and Mr. Britethorn.

The three of them stayed low as the huge boulders flew across the room at dangerous speeds and began slamming into one another. But rather than shatter, they fused together, forming a larger and larger singular rock: one that had limbs, hands, legs, toes, and a crude imitation of a face—or at least Jimmy thought it was a face. It could've just been a simulacrum of one.

It was large, too. About thirty feet in height, with boulder-sized fists that looked perfect for smashing someone to bits. Tyson, standing to Jimmy's right, made a shriek and began to back away. The horror in his expression was such that Jimmy worried he might pass out unconscious. He was so terrified to such an extent that Jimmy actually felt guilty for making him do this.

"I've got aggro!" Maric called out as a giant fist slammed down upon him. "Oh, damn!" he shouted as he absorbed it on his shield. "Oh, man. This thing hits really, really hard."

That wasn't all it did. Even as it slammed its fist down on Maric a second time, it was already lifting its foot for a massive stomp. Maric, clearly reeling from having absorbed the shock of two consecutive punches, wisely chose to jump back instead of guarding against the stomp; the result was a geyser-like spray of sand, some of it reaching so far that Jimmy had to raise his elbow to protect his eyes as it poured back down.

"Okay, you're up, Tyson," he said. "Get in there."

"Please!" Tyson begged, tears falling down his face. "P-p-please. I'm so scared. Jimmy, I'm begging you."

"No, Tyson, I'm begging you. Please try. Just try."

Tyson gave him such a feeble look of desperation that, for a moment, Jimmy was sure he wouldn't be able to go through with this—he became certain that Tyson just wasn't ready. But then, to his utter shock, even with tears in his eyes, Tyson nodded, sniffled, and began moving with the tanks protecting him towards the giant monster. The tanks formed a protective circle around him, their shields raised.

"Keep your stats up!" Donovan shouted. "Like we told you!"

Looking nervous and disoriented, Tyson nodded and brought forward his stats. Then he continued to slowly trek his way to the boss.

With each step along the sand that Tyson took, Jimmy found himself growing a genuine respect for him. Not because he was doing the same thing anyone else here would do in his position, but because Jimmy truly knew how much this scared him yet he was somehow finding the nerve to do it anyway. That deserved respect. Jimmy stood by that.

"I've got aggro!" Maric shouted. "Start hitting it, Tyson!"

Jimmy fully expected Tyson to hesitate, but he didn't. Sure, he whimpered and groaned, but he acted. He drew the sword they'd found for him in that Karnzon dungeon, and with his lips pulled back and his pupils dilated with fear, he slashed at the boss's back leg. Unsurprisingly, his sword not only failed to deal any damage, but it failed to even "slash" the creature. The blade came to a direct halt upon impact with the boulder-built monster, making it look more like he'd struck the boss with a hammer made of plastic as opposed to a sword.

0

Although he'd done zero damage, it didn't matter—because it was good enough to give him a stack.

"Faster!" Maric shouted as he had to drop his weapon, reinforce his shield with both hands, squat down, and howl out with the exertion of stopping such a massive fist. "Fred, take over!"

"On it!" the oldest known adventurer called out, stepping in and presumably taunting.

Tyson, who looked so nervous he'd begun to profusely sweat, raised his sword and then crashed it down a second time, and then a third, and then a fourth and fifth.

0

0

0

0

"Keep it up!" Donovan shouted at him. "You're doing good, Tyson! Alixa, get in there and shield Frederick."

"On it!"

The raid continued. For the moment, the melee and ranged DPS were standing back and doing nothing, something that would continue as long as everything remained under control. They were here just in case things did not work out. But for the purpose of their experiment, everyone agreed that Tyson should be the only meaningful source of damage on this raid.

Is he changing a bit, or is that just me? Jimmy wondered.

It was very, very hard to tell, but it sort of looked like a very faint, almost unnoticeable reddish aura was surrounding Tyson's body. And as the terrified man swung his sword another five times in a row, Jimmy became certain of it, for after each swing, the aura became just a bit brighter in color and more pronounced.

"They need relief," one of the tanks protecting Tyson said. "You two got this?"

"We're good."

Tyson paused a moment, glancing worriedly at the tank who rushed over to assist Maric, Frederick, and Ophelia. "Focus!" Zephyr called to him. "You're good, Tyson."

"But…"

"Tyson, focus!"

Uh oh.

The fear was finally starting to get the better of him. He was once again hesitating, his knees shaking, his grip on his blade looking tenuous. But this lasted only until Donovan shouted, "What will I tell my sister when I see her? Should I tell Jasc you fought like a man? Or should I tell her you cried like a bitch?"

Now this did the trick. Tyson gritted his teeth and again started slashing away at the T6 boss. And the funniest part of all was that, having had a few sessions with Jascaila himself, Jimmy knew that that was not how she viewed things. If anything, she'd chide Donovan for using the word "bitch" to refer to a lack of bravery.

But it looks like it worked, Jimmy thought, nodding with satisfaction as Tyson sent out one attack after the next until he'd struck five more times, with each attack doing 0 damage. The way in which he attacked, striking from high to low, and the fact that his blade was halted immediately upon impact, caused him to now look like a miner in a video game trying to extract ore for weapon smithing or something.

And yet, with even more sweat dripping down his face, he continued to lash out at the Guardian of the Library until eventually striking it ten more times. Now, as he reached 20 total stacks, it was here that things started to become very interesting.

"Whoa!" many of the adventurers, including Donovan, shouted out as, upon reaching his 20th stack, Tyson's reddish aura doubled in size and became twice as bright.

"Don't slow down!" Jimmy shouted, hoping to encourage Tyson. "You got this, man. Keep that sword moving."

"Okay!" he called back, nodding. Jimmy noticed that he swallowed as though frightened, but he did seem just a bit braver now. And with that, he raised his blade and struck down. And it was here, now, on this 21st strike, that he finally damaged the boss: twice.

First, his blade crashed down and managed to leave the tiniest, barest little scratch in the rock while dealing 3 damage. But immediately after, a massive gust of visible wind ripped across the arena, coalesced around the boss, and briefly wrapped its entire body in a tornado-like vortex before vanishing and dealing 912 damage, proving the boss to be weak to magic.

"You hurt it!" Zephyr cheered. And then his cheer was followed by an even bigger roar of approval from all the adventurers watching on the sidelines. "Keep going, Tyson! Keep going!"

Tyson narrowed his eyes as though finally finding his focus. He struck. And again. And again. Each time he struck, another tornado would appear around the boss's rocky form, and it would be hit for far more than the damage put out by the blade itself.

3

917

4

916

8

970

15

1,011

"Over a thousand! Whoo!" Lienne cheered. "Keep going, Tyson!"

Jimmy, crossing his arms, concentrated on the increase in stats. He was pleased to see that the damage was increasing in tandem, but for the moment, it was linear in scale. However, that was likely just because of the boss's level. The higher Jimmy's stats rose, the more of a difference each point should begin to make; of this, he was certain.

Now, with nearly thirty stacks, Tyson was beginning to swing his blade faster and faster and faster. And his attacks were starting to leave slightly more noticeable streaks in the rock, some almost a centimeter deep. His aura also continued to brighten and increase in size until it ran from several inches in front of him to several inches behind him. But what Jimmy was really interested in was seeing how things changed at 40 stacks. At that point, he highly suspected that Tyson would begin to "snowball."

And that point was right now, as he hit 40 stacks.

The exact moment in time that Tyson hit 40 stacks, his entire aura changed. And even Jimmy felt surprised. Seemingly out of nowhere, Tyson lit up like a firework. The red aura turned abruptly blue, and it now perfectly resembled flame: a fire that surrounded Tyson and was even larger and brighter than it'd been before.

"Whoahhh!" Rian, Lienne, Olivir, Kolona, and a whole bunch of other adventurers, including Eldora, called out.

"So cool!" Tena said.

"You guys!" Tyson called to them, seemingly oblivious to the reason they were cheering. "I actually feel pretty strong. I think I'm changing color!"

"This ain't nothing yet," Donovan said with a laugh. "Hit that son of a bitch with all you got!"

Maric, back to holding aggro, groaned as he absorbed a one-two punch on his shield. Yet even amid his struggles, he grinned as though in appreciation of the evolution he was watching play out before his eyes. "Z-Zach really knows how to pick 'em!" he said between groans, causing the adventurers to cheer.

Tyson raised his blade and swung it down with what looked like all his might. Now, his sword scratched the rock for 19 damage, and immediately following this, the tornado returned, hitting for 1,111. But that wasn't the end. No, because right after the tornado, a Fluffles-like bolt of lightning appeared from above and zapped the boss over the head for another 1,051. And these two magical effects, Jimmy knew, would activate after each and every slice.

As though feeling confident in himself for the first time in his life, Tyson did something that once again filled Jimmy with surprise. "You guys can go help your friends," he said to the tanks. "I'm okay. I promise."

"You sure?"

"I'm fine!"

They nodded and moved to the front of the boss, where they each took a turn holding aggro to let the exhausted tanks rest. Tyson began nodding his head a moment and then, all on his own, he launched into a series of five quick, but efficient slashes. And unlike all his other attacks to this point, which had been simply overhead, downward swipes, Tyson began using combinations Zephyr and Donovan had taught him, moving his sword left to right, right to left, and then finishing with a top-to-bottom strike. This, he repeated yet again, taking him all the way to 50 stacks. And each time, the wind and lightning would follow.

But now, 50 stacks in, the color of the blue flames changed, turning black, ominous, and incredibly cool-looking. Tyson was now submerged inside black flame, which caused a round of cheering and applause from the others.

Tyson attacked again, hitting for 65 and causing a tornado for 1,355, a bolt of lightning for 1,356, and something else now, too. Above the boss, a perfectly black ball of energy materialized near the ceiling and then raced down towards the T6, striking it in its back and dealing 1,561.

Upon seeing this, Tyson made a strange sort of facial expression. Having raised his blade and seeming ready to strike yet again, he halted, took a full step back, and then tilted his head to the side as though in thought. This continued for around five seconds when, suddenly, his eyebrows raised, a look of delight crossed his features, and in what came as a confusion to everyone except Jimmy, he tossed his sword to the side and onto the sand, simply letting it hit the floor.

Zephyr frowned. "Tyson! What are you doing?"

Jimmy held out his staff, pointing it at Zephyr. "Chill," he said. "Let him cook."

"Huh?"

"He figured it out."

"What did he figure out?"

"How pointless it is to put effort into swinging that sword."

"I don't under—"

Zephyr's words ended in a croak as Tyson bent his knees, gripped his hands into fists, and exploded—absolutely exploded—into a series of alternating jabs as though he were punching a speed bag. And what happened next was the sort of thing that brought such utter satisfaction into Jimmy that, from the perspective of a raid leader, he actually felt glad for the moment that he'd crossed time and space to come to Galterra.

"Here comes the snowball!" he shouted out, drawing the attention of the others. "Here it comes! Everybody, make sure you watch this shit. Watch what my boy Tyson does now. Here it comes. Right…now!"

And holy shit was this one of the best fucking things Jimmy had ever seen in his life.

Now using speed and completely ignoring power, Tyson's fists appeared as a blur as he struck out over and over and over so fast that, within just two seconds, he'd gained ten more stacks, causing his fists to move even faster and gaining him even more stacks. And then he moved even faster, gaining even more stacks.

While this was happening, an actual backlog of tornadoes, lightning bolts, and dark balls of energy began taking up more and more space and appearing more frequently as numbers began popping up faster and faster until they were almost impossible to follow. And his stats! His stats started to shoot up. He'd now officially hit the point where he was snowballing and was unable to be stopped. And it was just the most incredible thing Jimmy had ever seen since coming to Galterra.

"NO FUCKING WAY!" Rian screamed like a fan at a concert.

"OH GODS!" Lienne added.

It wasn't just those two. Adventurers were screaming in disbelief as the numbers came in faster and faster, which only had the result of speeding things up even further. Within twenty seconds, it became impossible for Jimmy to tell anymore how many stacks Tyson had, as things were just going by too quickly.

The mob's HP, which began to very, very slowly decrease, started decreasing incredibly fast. And then unbelievably fast, as in mere seconds, Tyson went from hitting with his fists for around 5 damage to hitting for around 8000 per strike, all while his various magical procs were going off for around 30,000 damage, and there were so damn many at once.

But this still was nothing.

Because now that he'd hit a hundred stacks, he was getting two points per additional stack, and now his stats were flying up so damn insanely fast that Jimmy himself was screaming his lungs out and in sheer joy and shock. Even he didn't expect it to be like this. Not to this extent.

The growth became exponential. It was miraculous. It was beautiful! Tyson's black-flamed aura grew in size and intensity, but his body began to glow with an almost ethereal shine. And then it just ended so quickly. The growth was too fast. Tyson was just becoming too damn strong too fast. Right around the 300-strength mark, everything changed. Tyson was now throwing light jabs for 55,211 damage. With jabs! We're not even talking full-on cross punches. No, just little baby jabs for over 50k!

The boss's HP was decreasing by a million a second. It even tried to turn around and attack Tyson, having lost aggro. But it wasn't going to make it. And it wouldn't matter if it did, because Tyson's stats were way too high now for a boss of this level to harm him.

As Tyson punched and his magic proc'd, the boss was being blasted into pieces, with rocks flying everywhere and all the way across the room. Tyson had already punched numerous holes in the thing, and it was amazing that it was even able to continue standing. Yet still, it continued to turn itself around in an attempt to face him.

"Tyson!" Jimmy called. "Finish it off with Dark Explosion! I wanna see what that does!" But Tyson did not reply, making Jimmy wonder if he'd even heard him.

He did.

About one second after Jimmy's request, the boss had dropped down to less than 5,000 HP—barely alive. Yet nevertheless, Tyson activated the Dark Explosion, an ability that he only had access to once he'd reached 50 stacks, though clearly, he had way more right now.

And it was a scary one.

Jimmy, the tanks, and all the other adventurers ran back and away from Tyson as a ridiculously huge paraboloid-shaped mass of black-bluish energy, one large enough to take up half the space in the arena, began spinning around and around and around beneath the boss's feet, literally disintegrating the rock and turning the entire boss's body into nothing but a fine-grained dust as it struck for 19,422,681 damage.

The cheers were so loud that Jimmy had to cover his ears. And they went on for so long that it would be several minutes before he was able to remove his hands.

"Tyson!" they cried. They began chanting his name. "Tyson! Tyson! Tyson! Tyson! Tyson! Tyson!"

Twenty seconds went by, his stacks faded, the aura cut off, and Tyson, sweating and looking exhausted, asked, "So, did I do good?"