"Urgh..." Kiki groaned in pain as her eyes fluttered open.

  She was in a small room with barely any light. And what little did manage to get inside through a row of small windows right beneath the ceiling was barely enough to make shapes visible.

  The walls were covered in shelves, stocked with countless small items Kiki could not make out in the dark, and several much larger shapes stood all around the room.

  It was the smell of earth, compost and plants that finally clued Kiki's tired brain into where she was. Inside one of the many small gardening sheds dotted around the estate.

  Slowly, the memories from the previous day returned to her conscious mind.

  The Monsters, her first fight, and the gardener.

  The bunker and getting her Class, the changes that it brought.

  Searching the house before trying to rescue the Beckers.

  Jack's erratic behaviour, and being surrounded by Monsters.

  Her mental breakdown, and her prayer.

  It was a strange thing to think about. Both, the fact that she prayed at all, and that she got an answer.

  Putting her hand on her heart, Kiki directed her thoughts at the goddess whose blessing she carried.

  Thanks for your help. I don't think I would be alive without it.

  This time, Kiki didn't get an answer, only a feeling of smug satisfaction, just like someone whose answer would be: "I know."

  And of course, Kiki remembered how she ran, and how she fought.

  Even with the sudden boost in power she had gotten from her new Skill and Stats, she had been on the brink of exhaustion from the moment the fight started. She had no clue how she had managed to not just fight back, but actually win the fight.

  No, I know exactly how. She thought. 'Less is more' is more powerful than I thought. Though I think I was exactly right regarding its downsides...

  More than once, the monsters had managed to get their maws on her, even going so far as to rip off her right gauntlet and vambrace. But not once had their teeth or claws broken through her skin.

  Sure, her entire body felt like a giant bruise, and it seemed like pure luck that she hadn't broken anything. But that was the full extent of it. Not even her hair had been damaged, as far as she could tell, despite the fact that it had been chewed on more than once. That was one thing she would have to reconsider in the future.

  She didn't think wearing a helmet would be a good idea, since a Skull with the durability of steel felt like a much better option than an actual steel helmet. But with her hair free, she would have to either wear it shorter, or in a bun. She wasn't much of a fan of either option if she was honest. But it was still better than dying because some monster got a hold of her hair.

  And just like her body, her armor hadn't come out of the fight unscathed either. Her right gauntlet and vambrace were lost, and pretty much all other pieces had a collection of dings and dents. One of the leather belts keeping the front of her chest armor together had snapped.

  But the most annoying thing of all was one particularly unlucky stab with her sword, resulting in bending its blade. She could still bend it back since at least it wasn't broken, but she wasn't sure how good that would be in the long run.

  As much as she loved the weapon, she might have to try and find an alternative. Maybe something like a sledgehammer could work?

  But as good as her Armor Skill was, there was one thing that had been even more important in keeping her alive. Her Charm.

  After her initial success at attracting the Monster's attention towards her, and her accidental use in getting one of the earlier biters off her arm, she had slowly come to understand how to use it in combat.

  Essentially, her Charm, her Presence, determined how others perceived her. Whether she wanted to attract their attention towards her, or intimidate them, she could. There were limits to it. The more she used it on the same target, the less they would be affected, even more so if she did it in quick succession. She also wasn't able to intimidate any of the monsters after they had just managed to throw her to the ground since she would appear like less of a threat as a baseline.

  On the flip side, when she tried just after killing one of the creatures, the effect was much better, and when she tried to enhance what they seemed to think already anyways, like making herself appear like a good target to a monster that was charging her already the effect was much greater.

  Ultimately, it was through the use of her Charm and Presence that Kiki had managed to make Monsters charge in when convenient, and buy herself the moments she needed to not get completely overwhelmed. Without it, Kiki had no doubt she would have simply gotten body-piled without being able to do anything.

  There had surely been more than fifty of the monsters, and whenever more than four had come at her at the same time, she was a single misstep away from death. Even her armor Skill, as great as it was, would not be able to do anything about suffocation, or getting buried under a pile of monsters, or getting mauled until so much of her armor is lost that the Skill no longer covers her entire body.

  By the end of the fight... That was actually the point at which Kiki had trouble remembering. No doubt a result of exhaustion. Clearly, she must have still had enough strength left to carry herself into this shed. But even that wasn’t something she knew for sure. Merely a result of deduction.

  I should probably get up and try to get back to the manor, right?

  Despite that thought, Kiki wasn't sure how long it took her before she got enough energy to do anything at all. And even then, she delayed.

  But let's check my Stats first...

  =====

  Name: Kindra Koch

  Class: [Warrior blessed by Luxuria]

  [Level]: 4

  [Applied Achievements]: 12

  [Available Achievements]: 2

  [Available Free Stats]: 12

  Stats:

  Skills:

  [Luxurias Blessing] (epic)

  [The Bigger the better] (uncommon)

  [Less is more] (rare)

  [Equipment swap] (uncommon)

  [Endless Stamina] (common +1)

  =====

  The first thing Kiki noticed was that she had completely missed investing her Free Stats. If she had died because of that, she would have absolutely kicked her own ass for that in the afterlife.

  Yup, that wisdom is definitely deserved...

  Ultimately, it was only twelve points, which she put all into Charm without thinking too much about it. For her Charm Stat, that were over thirty points worth in the effective Stat, putting her at a pretty ridiculous three hundred eighty three. Close to double what she would have had before she got her Class. For her other Stats, that addition put her over the edge to the next full point for all of them, except for Dexterity where it was enough for two.

  But it wasn't just her Charm that had gone up. It was everything. It took only some calculations to figure out what would have been her original Stats, and comparing them to what they were now... In around a day, she had gotten stronger by degrees she had no doubt would have taken months, if not years of pure, focused training at the detriment of everything else to achieve.

  Then again, that meant that she was still very well within the realms of what humans might be able to achieve naturally. Only her Charm had reached what she was certain were superhuman levels. But that was fine. She was feeling amazing, if she ignored the current battered state of her body.

  There was one last thing she had to check, and then she would have to get going.

  =====

  Endless Stamina (common +1)

  Gain 10 points of Vitality, applied after personal Stats, for each individual directly targeting you.

  This effect only applies for the purpose of Stamina recovery.

  For each target that you finish, gain the equivalent effect of 10 seconds of rest over the next 10 seconds.

  =====

  Trying her best to ignore the other uses this Skills implied, she couldn't help but be amazed by the Skill.

  With how many enemies she had been fighting, all of them undoubtedly targeting her, her effective Vitality, and thus the rate at which she recovered from exhaustion, must have been several times higher than normal.

  But what had carried her the most had undoubtedly been the second part of the Skill, a part that upon closer inspection had been added with the rarity upgrade.

  Then again, as great as the Skill looked, it was only ever really useful if she fought a large number of enemies, all focused on her. And unless she could kill them fast enough, they would still slowly tire her out.

  Ultimately, Kiki concluded, It's a Skill that kept me alive once. And so long as that's the case, it can't be a bad Skill. And if I ever get into another situation like this? I will no doubt be happy to have it.

  "Anyways~"

  With a groan of pain, Kiki finally pushed herself off the floor, leaning back down to pick up her still bent weapon once she stood.

  Then she went ahead and inspected the damage more closely, carefully putting pressure on every part of her body. Overall, the response her body gave her was pain, and even in the dim light of the shed she could make out several shades of purple just on her right arm alone, but none of the pain was actually debilitating. No twisted ankles, no dislocated joints, and no broken bones.

  With her sword on her shoulder, Kiki made her way to the door and carefully peeked outside. Her eyes teared up, and she had to blink several times as she took a moment to adjust to the sunshine outside. Clearly, the shed wasn't dim because it was especially early or late, but because the sun was shining from straight above, the eves casting the small windows in shadow.

  With the path outside the shed seeming free of any monsters, at least as far as Kiki could tell, she stepped outside and took her time to orient herself. The estate was massive and not intended for the public, so there weren't any obvious street signs or 'You are here' maps.

  That didn't mean there were no signs at all though, you just had to know where to look. On a path like the one she found herself on currently, all one had to do was to look for the little green pegs in the ground next to the path. They blended in with the surroundings, so you wouldn't notice them when you didn't know they were there, but if you knew, you only had to keep them to your right, and sooner or later you would reach back to the estate. Or as it would be in Kiki's case, she would recognize something sooner or later and could find her way back from there.

  For the next five minutes, Kiki walked among the paths of the park that was her backyard until she recognized a particular fountain. A horrifically ugly piece, at least in her opinion. She never understood the appeal of cherub fountains, seeing as they essentially depicted close to naked children. And this one in particular didn't see said child carry some kind of bowl to pour the water from. No, the cherub was straight up pissing into the fountain base. It really made her wonder who thought this was a good idea.

  At least she now knew where she was, and could get back to the manor in less than ten minutes.

  It took another five before she came across the first monster, at which point Kiki decided to use all of her charm to blast her surroundings with intimidation and a self-confidence born from killing more of them than she could count in a head-on confrontation.

  Whether they were too scared, or simply took too long to gather enough of their buddies to go for a second round, Kiki didn't know. And before she could find out she was already at the front door of her home.

  *****

  "Young Lady! What did you THINK you were doing!?" Margret screeched hysterically, hands on Kiki's shoulders and shaking her back and forth.

  "I... I'm sor..."

  "Do you have any idea how worried we were!?" the old woman didn't let her finish her apology, instead drawing her in for a crushing hug.

  "Zzzzzzz!" suppressed a scream, but still hissed in pain. Her everything still hurt, and as nice as the hug was, it didn't help. Still, when Margret seemed to notice and tried to let go of her, it was Kiki instead who got a hold of her and didn't let go.

  "Never do something like that again," This time it was her Gramps turn to berate her, his voice containing anger and disappointment in equal measure. Though Kiki wasn't sure whether it was directed at her, or at himself.

  Knowing him, it's both in equal measure...

  "We have lived our life already." He continued. "God forbid, should you ever have to choose between us or yourself again, choose yourself. You still have an entire life in front of you."

  With little hesitation Kiki answered.

  "Don't worry. I will make sure." She said, and added in her thoughts: That you two survive.

  And wasn't this a surprise?

  Kiki knew herself, or at least she thought she did. Had someone asked her just two days ago if she could sacrifice herself so someone else could live, whether it's for those like family, like the Beckers or Purity, or her actual family, her answer would have been a resounding: "No."

  Not necessarily because she thought herself especially egoistic, though she knew that she could be. No, she would have been "realistic", and assumed she would be too scared to do it, that she would hesitate and lose her chance, that she simply wouldn't know what to do.

  But now? She had seen death in the face and survived. She didn't think that hesitation would be a problem any longer.

  And whether she knew what to do or not, her last fight had taught her that what mattered most was to try something, anything, and when nothing else works, try punching your problem in the face.

  It takes Kiki a while longer to calm the old couple down. Only when she asks them if she could at least take a shower do they finally leave her alone for a bit.

  "You looking like shit." Purity declares, or at least the one of her helping Kiki out of her armor does.

  "You try getting out any better after getting chewed on by twenty different monsters..." Kiki grumbles, wincing in pain as the woman took off her boots for her.

  At least with Purity Kiki knew she didn't have to pretend. While the Beckers were an old couple who had lived a life of gardening and physical labor, they had never truly suffered. And neither had Kiki.

  But from the few things Kiki knew about Purity's past, the woman had seen some shit.

  She didn't tell Kiki to never do something like that again.

  She didn't tell Kiki to promise not to die.

  She didn't ask Kiki to not risk her life.

  All she said was: "Would be shame if died. Would be sad."

  And Kiki answered: "I'm not planning to. Now get out, I need a bath. Very hot, and very long."

  Kiki didn't know what the public electric and water networks looked like. She didn't think they had been completely destroyed. Even with monsters about, it wasn't like all public facilities had spontaneously exploded, or at least she didn't think so. But she had no doubt that they weren't being maintained any longer, so she didn't doubt that things would stop working as intended sooner or later.

  To Kiki, this mattered little, since the manor was too remote to be connected to the public water network in the first place. And the electric network was not an absolute necessity thanks to the manors generators. At least not right now. Or in any close future she could imagine.

  With a relieved sigh, Kiki slowly lowered herself into the steaming bath, the pain from the heat momentarily overpowering the pain from her injuries before the heat began to slowly seep into her muscles and make her body relax.

  For now, she would stay here. Then she would eat something.

  Then? Then she would deal with everything else.

  *****

  "Miss Kiki" Elias decided to bother her. "There is something important we have to talk about."

  "Urgh!" Kiki groaned over her mouth full of pancake's. She swallowed and said: "Don't they say that you don't even bother a dog when it's eating?"

  "I... don't know where they say that, but since you aren't a dog, you should be able to eat and listen at the same time, I assume." Elias decided.

  She rolled her eyes, but still gestured for him to continue while she took another bite. The pancakes were just too good to ignore, buttery and fluffy, topped with lots of whipped cream and fresh fruits.

  Her Gran had made them in her quest to use up all of the perishable ingredients. Once those were used up, they would be able to turn off the refrigerators, saving on a lot of electricity, and prolonging their use of the generators.

  "So," Elias started, "I think we found a Dungeon on the way back to the manor, yesterday."

  Savoring the piece with the blueberries, Kiki chewed slowly. When she finally swallowed, she asked: "What is so important about your sex fantasies?"

  "What?" he seemed confused, before realization hit. "No! Not that kind of Dungeon! Ehmmm... So, essentially, on the way back to the manor I saw something. It looked like some kind of strange cloud or portal floating in the air. And I'm pretty sure I saw one of the Hedge Hounds coming out of it. So, when we came back here, I decided to do some searching on the internet. Now, large parts of it are already gone, but some websites are still left. And there were a few things that I managed to find out..."