Something hinky was at work. Many times, he'd puzzled over his Cursed Rope. The rope was clearly alive, and yet in its inert form, the System considered it 'dead' and allowed him to will it inside of his spatial storage. And yet Logan was holding something that for all intents and purposes looked like a dagger, with no signs of sentience whatsoever, and yet the System considered it alive.

Logan held the dagger in one hand and then brought it closer to his eyes, studying it. The blade was black, but it looked just like the System sourced chains. Nothing shouted 'life' to him. The handle was dirty as hell, but underneath the dirt… was that carved bone? Bone that was just large enough to be…

Logan's mouth went dry, and he held back a shudder. If it were a bone from this long lost 'Destroyer' ruler, at this point, he wouldn't be surprised. Based on what the System allowed people to do to sapient animals, turning their souls into skill rings, a weapon made from the weapon's owner seemed tame in comparison. And yet, a bone was just a bone. How could the System consider this thing 'alive'?

Unlike the Cursed Rope, Logan got no sense of emotions from the thing; it wasn't emitting glee or anything at all. It was a lifeless dagger.

And worst of all, if the System wouldn't let him store it inside of his spatial storage, he'd have to leave it behind at the cabin. Logan needed portability, versatility with his weapons. That was the value of his S grade spatial storage. And if the dagger did nothing special, why go to the trouble of carting it around? It would be inconvenient to say the least.

It was yet another case of unfairness he'd experienced from this shitty System. And yes, it could read his mind, and Logan had no illusions that it wasn't doing it right now, but at this point, Logan didn't give a crap. Whoever programmed this thing must have a twisted, sadistic sense of humour. Nothing was at face value; nothing could be trusted. And worst of all, he was hesitant to store the dagger at the cabin and leave without it, since knowing the System, there was something colossal about this sword that he just hadn't figured out yet.

Logan's hand tightened on the handle, his fingers growing white-knuckled.

His anger was like a living thing, simmering in his stomach with no outlet. A vein on his forehead throbbed, and he thrusted up his chin and bared his teeth, searching for a monster, any monster to pummel to death.

Then he took a deep breath, a breath so deep it rattled his lungs. Logan had a tendency to go off the handle, to become so frustrated that he swam in his emotions. And by now, he could recognize when the emotion was externally sourced.

With a scowl, Logan willed out the Cursed Rope.

Too much put away, too much put away, it complained as it jumped in Logan's hand, inflating with a crackle of blue electricity.

"Rope." Logan gave it a severe frown. "You need to keep yourself under control. I know you don't like being inside my collar, but getting a rise out of me to get yourself out of it isn't the answer. I just killed a moose and a squirrel. It's not like we've been stationary these last two days doing nothing."

The rope wiggled, struggling to get away and to jump through the air. Logan tightened his grip on its tail.

Not enough, not enough, the rope sent, sending a feeling of glumness Logan's way. It was like Ernie burrowing his face in the sand underwater after being on a slaughter deficit. Or like an outdoor cat stuck inside, pouting as it watched the birds flying out of its reach.

Falling behind, falling behind, the rope whined.

"We're not falling behind…"

Were they?

Logan scrunched his eyebrows and brought up the Leaderboard.

Leaderboard:

Rank 1: Charon: Level 235 --> 255

Rank 2: Idiot: Level 162 -->186

Rank 3: Damsel Fuck You: 128 -->145

Rank 4: Mictlantecuhtli: Level 114 -->139

Rank 5: Sarah Ellison: Level 110 -->136

Rank 6: Yogi Bear: 121 -->135

Rank 7: Xuanwu: Level 112 -->130

Rank 8: The General: Level 112 -->129

Rank 9: Slayer: Level 128

Rank 10: Cillian: Level 128

…He was falling behind. The Man in Black continued to climb like crazy; Logan didn't like to think about why. If he were up to what he'd seen with his [Foresight] skill, it couldn't be good for the people around him.

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Mia's defeat against Logan must have lit a fire under her ass. She'd climbed 17 levels, getting closer to catching up to Logan.

Two users had fallen off the list entirely—Thor and Scott. Either they'd been killed or the others on the list had outpaced them. Logan's eyes tended to linger on the top five, the true powerhouses, but he couldn't ignore the massive growth of the others. Mictlantecuhtli and Sarah Ellison had jumped over 20 levels. The General was still on the list, although with slower growth than the rest. That name alone reminded him of Hawthorne and made Logan dislike him just on principle.

Based on Pied's description of the Integration Tournament, these people might join the competition. Logan had a voracious competitive streak that rivaled the Cursed Rope's, and he didn't like to see that others had outpaced his growth. Although he'd climbed 24 levels since the last time he'd viewed this in New York Stadium, it wasn't enough.

The Cursed Rope was right.

"Okay, you have a point," said Logan as he released his grip on the rope.

Glee glee glee. Its electricity and acid had gone up in intensity, the surge so strong it would stun the naked eye. Its face resembled a reptile, complete with eye sockets and eyebrow ridges. Although its tongue looked like frayed rope, the anaconda-sized body had taken on girth, and the rope fibres glinted with a hint of developing scales.

The Cursed Rope jumped over Logan, circling the willow tree, looping down and then up. No prey, no prey, it sent, its voice glum. Then with a crackle of electricity, it jumped back to Logan and hovered around his other arm, its face pointed towards the dagger. It sent a feeling Logan's way that smarted of bitterness, of jealousy.

The user is strong, it purred inside of Logan's head. Why must the user use an abomination?

Logan's gaze snapped to the rope. "You know what this thing is?"

He got the sense that it wanted to hide something. With a pulse of electricity, it deflated and dropped to the floor, taking on its inert, fibre form. The rope never wanted to be inside the collar; to go back to its inert form on its own spoke for itself.

Logan eyed the dagger with renewed consideration.

***

For now, he placed the dagger on top of one of the protruding willow tree roots, returned the Cursed Rope to his collar and then approached his last item. It was inside another pouch, but this one was slightly larger than the one that held the pen. It had a heftiness to it, a weight. Whatever was inside of it wasn't normal nail clippers.

Logan opened the pouch and peered inside.

Tilting his head to the side, he pursed his lips in confusion.

They looked like thimbles. Those metal cups his grandmother had used for knitting that went on the end of her fingers. Four in total, they were black and glinting with an aura that reminded him of the black chains.

The hell? In what world were these toenail clippers?

[Toe gloves. B grade. Intended for agility focused users, these toe gloves will mold with the user's toes and form clipping weapons.]

Logan frowned. At this point, every little thing was useful, but he didn't see how this would be advantageous for Logan. He already had [Mimicry Armour] which let him form talons. Hell, if he wanted to form toe talons, he could do that with the skill. Not to mention that to use this thing, he had to wear them on his frigging toes. What, was this for a circus performer?

And yet, he had never been greedy. What couldn't work for Logan could work for someone else.

Logan ran his fingers over his stubble, pacing as he faced the willow tree, his eyes faraway. All in all, out of all the items, he couldn't believe he was going to admit this, but the damn swim trunks might be the most valuable. Logan valued a boost in attributes, and although two percent wasn't a game changer, as he increased his attributes, it could be the difference between life and death. Even better, he'd received the cheap version of the item. An 'enhanced' version was available in the E grade menu when he raised more KarmaCoin.

The next most valuable item was a trade off between the renewable flexible crafting metal or the pen. Right now, the pen was the most versatile since it would allow him to lure monsters, but it was possible that once he experimented with the metal, it could increase the strength of his exoskeleton. As far as the companion helm, Ernie would get a thrill out of it, and helping to protect Ernie was invaluable.

Lastly, the looped skill ring holder and the dagger had possibilities, but he wouldn't know what they were until he figured out the items.

And truly in last place were the stinky knit cap and toe gloves.

Logan willed the toe gloves inside of his spatial collar, picked up the Sabáktes dagger, and then deployed [Threshold Shift] to take him back to Jack's cabin.

***

Logan had one more thing to take care of before he could get back to leveling up and making sure that he stayed number two on the leaderboard. By this point, unless Charon had a serious setback, Logan doubted he would overtake him before the Integration Tournament, but that wasn't to say that he couldn't decrease the spread between rank one and two.

Ever since he'd taken care of the Matt problem, Logan had the other Pink Sock sitting inside of his spatial storage collar. One sock gave him the ability to jump, but owning the other made that jumping ability into a floating ability.

Matt had been a squirrely kid, sweaty as hell, and putting on a sock that had just been on his foot had made his stomach slosh. In addition, it was an item that took practice. He couldn't do it in the middle of battle, since Logan knew that he would have just as likely flown headfirst into a cliff. Now, in addition to reviewing his Tree Fridge items and deploying his [Dominion Building] skill, he could master the other Pink Sock and truly become a superhero.

Logan made his way back to the beach and then peered inside of the bucket full of water he'd left near one of the beach chairs. One of Ernie's undead octopi was guarding it, its pink head bobbing in the water. Logan gave it a nod in thanks.

With a plop, the octopus disappeared underneath the surface.

Logan had figured that letting the sock soak in the bucket was enough to disinfect it. Washing it hadn't been an option; who knew if soap would ruin a System sourced item? Grabbing a handful of the bright thing, Logan took it out of the bucket and twisted it, letting the water drain.

Deploying [Idiot's Inspect], he scanned it to make sure he wasn't missing anything.

[1 Pink Sock. B grade. Leaping, jumping, you have it all! The Pink Sock allows you to jump like the idiot you truly are. Gravity won't get you down! The Pink Sock is part of an attribute set. Upon ownership of both socks, the jumping ability will turn into a floating ability.]

Although the System's description of the item didn't state 'flying,' he had to assume that floating was the equivalent version.

It was time to turn into Superman.

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