The sun felt obscene against my skin.
I stood at the forest's edge, drinking in details I couldn't have processed five minutes ago. Warmth soaking into my shoulders. Pine sap, rich and sticky, carried on wind that whispered through leaves overhead. A beetle crawled across bark ten meters away, and I could count its legs.
For half a second, walking away seemed smart. Find a town. Find clothes. Find someone who could explain what the hell this world was.
Then my brain kicked back in.
Out here? I was a naked vagrant with zero local knowledge and a voice in my head. Best case, I'd get arrested for public indecency. Worst case, something bigger than a goblin would eat me before I found the first road.
Back in that cave? Mapped territory. Known enemies. A consistent supply of experience points and whatever those crystal fragments did. A private gym that happened to be infested with things that wanted to kill me.
Which honestly just made the cardio more interesting.
"Arcan." I kept my eyes on the treeline. "If I go back in, can I get out again? Can you mark this spot?"
The pixelated eye in my peripheral vision blinked once.
『Analyzing request... Yes. The System can register spatial coordinates as a navigational Waypoint. You currently have one available slot. Registration would allow instantaneous map recall to this location.』
"Do it."
Text scrolled across my vision.
► Waypoint Registered: [Goblin Hunting Ground]
I grinned. Perfect. Now I had an escape route if things went sideways. Which meant the smart move was squeezing every drop of value out of that dungeon before some other Hunter stumbled across it.
"Alright." I cracked my knuckles, feeling the joints pop. "Time to stop being broke."
I pulled up my Status. Two hundred fifty Attribute Points sat there, glowing faintly in the interface. My stats were still pathetic F-rank zeros across the board, just with little arrows showing I'd made progress through violence.
『A reminder,』 Arcan's voice cut in. 『Specialization is statistically more effective than balanced distribution. Focusing on Strength or Agility would maximize your combat potential.』
"Specialization is for people who know what they're doing," I said. "I'm building a foundation."
『That's a terrible justification.』
"Your objection is noted and ignored." I started allocating points mentally. Fifty into Strength. Fifty into Agility. Fifty into Vitality. Fifty into Intelligence. Fifty into Sense.
The change hit like a drug.
Heat bloomed in my core and spread outward in waves. My muscles didn't grow larger, but they felt denser. Like someone had replaced the tissue with something heavier and more responsive. Every nerve ending lit up at once. The forest sharpened around me. Individual leaves became visible where before there'd been green blur. I could smell dirt composition, track a bird's path by sound alone, feel the temperature difference between sunlit ground and shadowed earth.
I clenched my fists. The power coiling in my forearms was real. Undeniable. A low chuckle escaped my throat.
"Heh." I glanced down at myself, still very naked, and the grin turned wicked. "Feeling this strong? It's enough to get a guy hard."
My body apparently agreed.
"With this kind of size, I could probably use it as a weapon. Bludgeon a goblin to death with my—"
『CEASE.』
The pixelated eye in my vision actually glitched, flickering like a corrupted file.
『I am immediately retracting my earlier assessment of your tactical intelligence. You are a degenerate. My processing power is allocated for combat analysis, threat assessment, and survival optimization. NOT for... for that. Stop having lewd thoughts this instant or I will mute your internal monologue feed.』
"You can do that?"
『No, but I'm researching the functionality right now because this is unbearable.』
I laughed outright, the sound echoing off trees. "Relax. I'm just appreciating my new stats."
『You are appreciating your own genitalia.』
"Can't it be both?"
Arcan's response was a long, suffering silence that somehow conveyed profound regret about her existence. I dismissed the banter and pulled up my Quest log instead. The daily quest still sat there, incomplete and mocking.
「Stop Being So Pathetic」
I read the objectives again. Ten kilometer run. One hundred push-ups. One hundred sit-ups. Completion within two hours earned a bonus Gacha token.
I looked at the dark cave entrance. Then back at the quest. Then at the entrance again.
"Why run laps out here like some kind of track star," I said slowly, "when I have a perfectly good circuit in there?"
The idea crystallized. I'd do my daily run inside the dungeon. Explore the ruins, complete my cardio requirement, and murder anything stupid enough to cross my path. Triple the productivity.
"Arcan. Overlay the quest tracker with the dungeon map. We're multitasking."
There was a pause. When she spoke again, I could almost hear grudging respect buried under the irritation.
『...Combining mandatory physical training with hostile environment extermination. It's functional. Overlaying data now. Don't trip over your own arrogance.』
A new display appeared in the corner of my vision. Distance: 0.0km / 10.0km. A glowing trail marked a route through the chamber I'd already crossed, extending deeper into unexplored sections of the ruin.
I rolled my shoulders, testing the new strength in my frame. Everything moved smoother. Faster. My body responded to thought with zero lag. Like I'd upgraded from dial-up to fiber optic.
I pulled the bone shiv from inventory. The crude weapon felt different now. Lighter. Easier to control. An extension of my hand rather than a tool I was borrowing.
The forest stretched behind me. All sunlight and safety and civilization somewhere beyond the horizon. Ahead was darkness, violence, and a steady supply of experience points.
Not really a choice at all.
"Let's go kill some goblins."