She tried to keep herself positive, Filoria did, but deep down she had known there was a chance. Could she truly land a hit even on a somewhat weakened Collab?

A few questions to Hestus had had the gnomish merchant confessing he'd skimped on the stat dampeners. Rafael had known this, and he'd apparently encouraged Hestus in his thievery. These dampeners reduced an E grade's stats by half. Half the stats of a peak E grade did not equal to the stats of a peak F grade. Not even close.

Uncertainty had creeped in after she'd discovered the possibility that Rafael had been fighting an E grade as an F grade, and not losing outright. He always lost, but only due to the sheer difference in strength. Anyone who watched the fights could tell Rafael had better developed technical skills.

Still, Filoria had beaten him once. He didn't have any techniques except one he had butchered on that occasion. She supposed it was possible he had botched it on purpose, but she doubted that.

He had no techniques, and his skills surely were aimed toward crafting, she hoped. She couldn't remember him using any skills in their last fight. He was a beatable opponent. He had to be. She did not want him to leave.

He was not a beatable opponent. He was going to leave the planet.

Filoria's muscles trembled, her breath hissed out of her lungs in uncontrolled puffs. She was on her knees on the sand floored sparring ring, staring blank eyed at the winner.

He won, although not as decisively as all that. He moved so fast, so gracefully, hitting him was nigh impossible.

Instinct drove Filoria, forcing her to amp the pressure in order to swat him like the big he was. She decided to bring techniques into the fray, and almost immediately regretted it.

The moves Rafael had been training during his impressive duels with Collab made their appearances.

The first thing she realised was that the moves were for a technique. The second was that he was yet to unlock the technique to its beginner level. Well, before their fight, that was.

He had been fighting with Collab and refining the basics of a technique that allowed him to fight with almost anything in the vicinity. His large wooden soled boots worked as shields sometimes, and random rocks worked as throwing weapons or as punching aids. It was this kind of violent brawl.

And then there was the time her sword landed and bounced off a reinforced shoulder.

She wondered why he let it land.

She knew there was a part of his technique that made him adept at defense, but she didn't know he was also doing body reinforcement. Could it be he was using her as a practice dummy for two whole techniques?

He was, it turned out. And he got quite adept at using them as their fight went longer.

It was absurd though. There must have been a skill involved. Newly learned, or even possibly, created techniques could not compete with her techniques at the advanced level, could they?

But what kind of skill was he using? An ancient brawling type skill? Was that why he didn't use swords? Because they required more finesse than he could muster with his totally wild brawling skill?

But what if it was only the technique that was designed for brawling? Even when she made the ground wet with her water magic, he slid and fell on his ass but still used the mud against her.

He used the environment to fight. He used everything, even his own body.

After a very long bout during which she thought Rafael got close to pushing both his techniques to the intermediate tier, he beat her.

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And she was sure the only reason his techniques hadn't reached the intermediate was because he prevented them.

His philosophy was all about mastering the lower stages. His training method had helped him blitz through the beginning realm of two techniques at once, so perhaps it had some merit to it.

What was she saying? Of course it had merit. He had beaten her, and it hadn't been close. The only reason it had lasted this long was…

Filoria tried to think of a reason, but she could not. Sure, she had never been any close to getting through his defense unless he let her, but there were times he felt truly weak. She remembered those moments and she couldn't quite understand it.

But she didn't promise him anything, Filoria remembered. He tried to force a condition of her staying out of his business if he won, but she hadn't said anything. In fact, she needed him to stay even more now. She needed him to stay so she could reach him and beat his ass. When was he planning to leave anyway? She would do everything in her power to make sure he never left.

****

Rafe never got to speak to Helare on the day he fought Filoria. He did not see her at her usual stalking desk the next morning. It was for the best though. That was probably the last day he was going to stay on Primus.

She had claimed such a soft spot in his heart, he didn't know if he would still be excited about leaving if he saw her smile at him one more time.

He was lucky she was mad at him. He was lucky she had not come to ask about whatever Filoria had been talking about the day before.

And speaking of Filoria and the day before, his time on Primus had been such a successful one. He had created a technique he could feel resonating with his Skyholm's fighting Proficiency skill.

The skill had even leveled a few times over the past week of training with an E grade user.

Your skill Skyholm's Fighting Proficiency has grown to level 54.(48>>54)

And it wasn't the only skill that had seen growth, or even the most growth.

Your skill Unarmed combat has grown to level 46.(32>>46)

Your skill Puppeteer's Rubber Body has grown to level 72. (63>>72)

He consciously tried to prevent his other passive skills from affecting his bouts with Collab. By forcing them out of the fights, he hoped to push his techniques even further into the crucible, to refine them further. And his hard work paid off, with his self created technique feeling more powerful than any of his other techniques.

It wasn't aimed at the sword, but he could use it with a sword. He was not ready to push it into the intermediate stage just yet. He still wanted to master his vision of its basics. It was his own baby and he was going to raise it right.

Rafe was once again trying his best to distract himself from his current predicament. As usual, he knew the more he thought about it, the more he anticipated it, the more devastating it would be if something went wrong.

So he tried to pretend he was still staying on Primus a little longer. He went about his daily activities. In fact, on this particular day he made a lot more products than usual. He worked at his forge until he was so tired his iron control of his insights almost slipped.

After he was unable to continue with that, Rafe went to his tent to try and rest. Of course idleness brought the worries and fear close to the forefront, and no body wanted that.

Rafe focused on his soul cultivation until he did not have the energy to manipulate Essence anymore. He slumped on his sleeping bag. There was nothing more to do. There was less than thirty minutes to his training with Collab and the others.

The minutes ticked by. He waited. He hoped he didn't have to wait until after his training with Collab and the others.

And indeed he did not. It wasn't very long until the normal training time, maybe five minutes in his estimation, when the system notification came. He was glad he had kept track of the days since the system had told him about the withdrawal of the tutorial system.

It was a rare day when the universe was on his side, so with bated breath he waited for the news of what was happening in the tutorial.

'Ding' The first stage of the tutorial is complete.

Congratulations, people of Earth-3079. Yours was such an exemplary performance. Seventy-five percent of the initial population survived the first week of the Apocalypse. Over eighty percent of that is still alive to this day and creating stable communities. Wandering dungeons were dealt with very decisively. It's like you had people already prepared for this eventuality somehow.

You have chosen a model where those who were awakened protect the rest. An exemplary goal, though not very common. Good luck, and protecting others is a challenging feat that will help the strongest among you grow even stronger. Bonus points awarded.

A citizen of Earth-3079 is in the middle of a special tutorial quest chain.

Shit! Rafe thought. Anything but what he suspected the system was about to do.

Bonus points awarded. A special reward shall be awarded to await his eventual return.

A deep quiet spread through his tent. Rafe looked away from the screen slowly. He did not know what to think.

But he tried, he really tried to think.

But there was darkness, an abyss born by the great disappointment he was unable to clear from his head. It was pulsing and alive and deadly, and it came to swallow his mind.

Despair flooded Rafael Kingsley's mind, and he could not think.

"...shit," he said one last time, his voice shaky. He could not feel his body anymore.

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