There were plenty of times when Janet was at the end of her rope, either in real life or in her games. She was once an avid gamer, but when real life hit her, she had to jump through hoops to make a decent living.

But if there was one thing she was good at, it's that when chips were down, she goes all in with no regrets. What other choice is there?

Run away? Then her online teammates would lose trust in her. Her mother would be depressed and perhaps even in danger.

Either in her raiding times with her guild, or trying to get away from the actual threats in real life, her mind always focused on charging through one step at a time.

So even in this world where she was left alone with a stranger, she did everything she could to survive. Because there was just no other option.

And she was not a quitter. Her mother made it so. That's why…

As if by pure instinct, Janet backed her head away, avoiding a sharp swing of a bear's clawed paw before slicing its arm with her dagger, cutting its limb off. She stepped one, two, three times before jumping with both feet up, avoiding a cascade of flames that covered the ground beneath her. Her mana flared as multiple spells were launched outward at once, not realizing that some of her spells were fire-based and did nothing to the enemies around her.

Left to right, she saw nothing but several monsters all coming after her, but she made it very clear to them that if they wanted to reach the camp, they had to go after her.

She killed every single monster that dared tried to go past her with no remorse. Due to that, they learned a lesson and ensured to kill her at every chance possible.

She stepped two times behind, and three steps to the left to avoid a stag's charge and a boar's tackle. With one slice for each second step, she took off their heads in a flash with a twinge of air mana in her blade.

Her head was pounding, the constant mana usage hurting her insides. And she couldn't avoid their hits forever, some of them grazing and cutting up the layer of her skin. But she didn't stop. She couldn't stop.

If she did, she would die. That single thought kept moving her, ignoring every single possible mistake. But there were just too many.

Still, she kept going, ignoring every single notification that came across. They weren't any bad like debuffs, but increases in her skills and stat points. It was nice, but she knew that those little improvements didn't matter right now.

But she noticed a shift in the atmosphere, freezing her in place and looking over to find many other creatures running away. Not from her and to the camp, but just away from the battlefiled entirely.

She furrowed her brows when she saw the reason why. A larger than life monster approached her, possibly from the dense trees that could cover entire buildings from view, standing over 10 feet tall and opening its wide maw.

It looked like a lizard, having red and brown scales covering its entire body, and its claws were sharp enough to make her dagger look like a toothpick. Opening its maw, fangs protruded like miniature daggers themselves while flames burst from its throat as it roared.

Great Salamander, Level ???

About 10 feet long, few feet wide and thick. Claws look sharp, and those scales look tough. Possible weakpoints are its eyes, brain, in-between the claw tips…

Rather than staring at the creature in abject horror, something that the otherworlders are doing right now and screaming to show exactly their fear–Janet remained focused on her task.

She pretended she was staring at the creature behind the comfort of her PC screen. Normally, visuals wouldn't be trusted in some games, as some developers can just make up a random reason why the weakpoint is behind the sturdiest shield in some golem or some crap.

But this 'game' was different. There needs to be a weakpoint, no matter how high someone's level is. Their Vitality and Endurance can easily change the weakpoints, but it all remained the same in the end.

Take out a critical spot, and they die. Her experiences as an assassin proved that much to her.

Her fingers clasped onto the dagger's hilt harder, her bones creaking in the sheer force. She ran at the creature, not giving the Salamander an inch.

Just as she predicted, the Salamander started the fight with a gout of crimson fire that bathed the land beneath her. She swept past the giant creature, testing its scales with a swipe of her dagger aided with air and water mana. Sharp sparks of metal flew out, burning her fingers.

Her Pain Resistance, thanks to Zeke and Mikella, helped in ignoring the pain. The scales are tough as she expected. There was no inbetween the scales either, so going between the tips was wasted.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

That meant she had to change her strategy. The Salamander whipped its head back too fast for its giant size, seizing her movements by opening its maw to bite her life away.

She called wind and flew above the creature's maw, twisting her body with grace that could beat a parkour veteran as she stabbed one eye with her dagger.

Blood flowed easily as she predicted, causing the creature to lash out with its tail, which she only just found out that it was barbed with sharp fiery spikes.

The tail hit her leg, causing it to gouge out the meat of her limbs as she grunted silently in pain. The hit deteriorated her landing, so she crouched and rolled on the ground. Before the creature could recover from its lost eye, Janet gritted her teeth as she dug in her pack for two specialized potion canisters.

She didn't care how hard she pierced the skin of her arms with both canisters, forcing the contents to spread throughout her body like a conflicting wave.

You have drunk Lyle's Special Dose.

You have gained a buff: Hammer Time.

Your regeneration has been increased by 50% for the next two minutes. Your attributes Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance have been increased by 10% for the next two minutes. Your overall senses have been increased by 15% for the next two minutes.

…..

You have drunk Lyle's Intense Health Potion.

She breathed heavily through her nose, feeling the pain bypassing her resistance as her mutilated leg forcibly healed itself back together, gaining back her motor control faster than any usual health potion an alchemist can make.

On top of that, her body tensed and tightened, her sight magnifying like she just drank the atomic version of an energy drink.

It was raiding time, and she needed the ultimate strat for this.

She searched deep into her core. Zeke's words fell to her mind as he told her everything he could to control her attunement.

High-realm attunements aren't to be messed with. While it was possible they were different from each other, each one carried a vast amount of power from how dense their mana is.

Rather than taking a large chunk of her attunement by force, she made a small string of connection to her power buried deep within her. Her heart beat faster and faster as she tried to experiment a power that could easily destroy everything around her. All the while, the creature was finally ready for an attack as it dove right at her.

A small trickle of that intense power filtered through the string, and little by little, she could feel each momentous 'mana point' Zeke described.

She hated to say it, but this power felt even more intense than Lyle's 'Hammer Time' buff. She still hated how he called it like that.

Power flowed through her like nothing ever had before. At the same time, her chest felt that it could burst from the sheer power, fearing that she could lose control at any time.

But she refrained from panicking. Zeke helped her through the process over and over through the weeks training at the gym, and Lyle's dose was able to help a little in that regard thanks to the extra power from her heightened senses. Her eyes widened, not realizing that her irises were now starting to glow a bright azure blue, followed by an intense black and white on each iris.

She hung her dagger into the air, and she could feel her attunement coating her weapon. Then, in that solid moment of tranquility, a thought passed through her mind.

This creature was aiming to kill her and the innocent people that had nothing to do with this dungeon. In her mind, this creature is evil, having no self-aware for its preservation and only intended to be a burden on them.

And so, she deemed this creature guilty.

The salamander charged in, creating a torrent of fire around itself while simultaneously calling forth fireballs that seemingly shot out from the coat of flames. Each one were powerful with a density capable of creating craters, but she easily sliced them apart with her dagger charged with intense magical energy.

The fireballs were sliced and the energy from the dagger stopped them from exploding. She used Elemental Resonance with the power of The Justice, forcing the fireballs to be under her control. It created a passage for Janet as she dashed with the wind coiling around her body, boosting her speed. Her black/white eyes were set on the fiery salamander, roaring its defiance and pure hatred towards her.

She chose the one spot remaining that could easily deal the finishing blow thanks to one of her assassin class skills, and swiped her dagger with a hop and spin across the salamander's cranium.

A powerful surge of energy flashed, creating two bluish lines of black and white in a single second.

In the next instant, Janet found herself on her feet at the other side, the embers cascading all around her and covering the ground with hints of smoke and ash.

Her dagger, once bright silvery steel, was smoking with heat beyond normal temperature. They were even beginning to melt in the small nicks, but it wasn't just from the fiery creature, but from the intensity of her own mana.

Behind her lay a creature that stood several feet over her, standing perfectly still. Janet swung her dagger to the side, wiping off the melting, molten-like blood off of them.

The salamander soon dropped to the ground, its tongue lagging out of its mouth as its head had one wide slash imprint, dealing the final blow.

Level up! You are now Level 60.

Several notifications about her reaching the maxed level for her stage cascaded down her vision. She breathed slowly, then she deepened her breaths as the energy that once filled her was drained in multitudes. Her head started aching worse than it ever felt, even during her worst Mana Deprivation. A sense of cold, mixed with powerful surges of heat from random parts of her body, caused her to grit her teeth in pain and agony.

But she still carried a sense of pride stronger than any feeling of pain or discomfort. When she turned around, finding that the entire campsite was safe as they all watched at her in awe, she realized that there was another group staring at her the same way.

She was startled to find her entire party was standing there, watching in awe as not only Mikella, but Saang, Kote, Zeke, and even Lyle watched with gaping jaws.

Suddenly being the target of such attention, her cheeks blared, and that only made her headache worse as Saang finally spoke up.

"Damn."

That's all she said, and somehow that got everyone around her to nod slowly in approval.

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