The kraken screeched and followed Jack beyond the borders of the pond.

  “Is that really all you’ve got? What kind of guardian were you that you can’t even deal with a runt like me?!” Jack shouted, baiting it to follow his voice.

  He honestly wasn’t sure if the creature understood him at all, but it honestly felt good to yell. Rage was practically bursting out of his veins at this point, and so any outlet he gave it was amazing.

  Within a few more exchanges and narrow dodges, Jack had tricked it entirely out of the water.

  “Now you’re mine,” Jack vowed, and rushed forward.

  Every muscle in his body begged him to stop, but he couldn’t. He was going to die, and that meant that he needed to finish this. He wasn’t about to go out on a failure. Some part of him, devoid of the all-consuming defiant rage, knew that he wasn’t some berserking warrior.

  But all his life, he’d known he wasn’t really making a difference. He couldn’t keep his sister out of the hospital or horrible relationships. He hadn’t been able to keep most jobs for longer than a year.

  He hadn’t been much of anything.

  And despite his casual fantasies of one day making it big from some innovation or invention or even just winning the lottery, he’d known it was all for naught.

  Even now that he’d been chosen as an entire planet’s hero, those same worries plagued him. And he knew in his innermost heart that he was about to fail not because of all the injustice and unfairness stacked against him, but simply because he wasn’t good enough.

  That’s not true.

  The thought came from everywhere and nowhere. And it certainly hadn’t come from him.

  He instantly wondered where the foreign thought had come from, but didn’t have the chance to investigate. Still, with it came a surge of power similar to when he raised one of his attributes, but instead of increasing his power, it simply drove away all distractions in a single, insurmountable wave of serenity.

  Clarity slammed into him, and he nearly faltered in the final steps remaining between him and the corrupted guardian.

  Nearly.

  Still, with that newfound clarity, the blind rage dissipated and left him with a desperate need to survive. Anything to survive.

  And the first thing that has to go is this horrible calamari impersonator, Jack concluded.

  He jumped over a low swing, but timed it so that he landed directly on the offending limb. Without missing a beat, he used the flailing arm as extra momentum to fuel his next leap. Water trailed behind Jack as he arced through the air to land directly on top of the creature.

  With a ferocious yell, he stabbed once! Twice! Three times!

  On his fourth swing, the bleeding monster groaned low and deep in its throat. It lurched back, and Jack had to roll off its shifting form to avoid getting squashed. With lethargic movements, it dragged itself backward, one tentacle raised protectively over its face.

  It was going to retreat. To live.

  Jack couldn’t let that happen.

  Hating every bit of it, Jack started to wade through the water after it. It seemed to spot where he disrupted the water and threw pitiful attacks in his direction. But with Relentless Spirit still raising his energy reserves, he had just enough for one final push. He easily dodged most of the lethargic swings. And those he couldn’t, he simply shoved aside.

  Waist deep, he reached the kraken’s retreating body. He shoved past its single remaining defensive leg and stabbed deep into its green and brown skin. It hissed and clicked its lamprey teeth, but Jack simply stabbed again.

  The limb came back to cover where Jack was stabbing it, but he shoved it aside with his right arm and stabbed one final time with his left. Already having punctured the slimy skin of the creature, his impromptu blade sank effortlessly through its flesh until he was up to his shoulder in it. It reeked of death and rot, but Jack didn’t let up.

  He twisted the stone one last time.

  Jack met its glassy white eye.

  “It’s okay. Just let it go,” he whispered. “I’ll make sure your crystal is safe. Just let go.”

  It groaned, then the milky orb rolled back. With a final clicking moan, the once-great guardian of this lake turned pond died. Its body lingered in the water it once protected, while its spirit moved onward.

  Jack received a slew of notifications.

  [Level 16 Corrupted River Kraken slain - 20,000 EXP gained]

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  [Congratulations! You have reached Level 5! 5 AP gained.]

  [Congratulations! You have reached Level 6! 5 AP gained.]

  [Congratulations! You have reached Level 7! 5 AP gained.]

  [Congratulations! You have reached Level 8! 5 AP gained.]

  [Total unspent AP: 20]

  Jack didn’t hesitate.

  He pulled up his character sheet even as he felt the darkness take him. Jack trusted his instincts, and so he poured all his points into Constitution, Resilience, and Strength, pouring the most into Constitution this time around. It didn’t matter how hard it was to hurt him at this moment. He was dying, and he needed his body to fight off the collage of injuries he was now dying from.

  As before, the power flooded him the moment he accepted his attribute investments. But where it was a trickle of energy before, it was now a torrent. Lightning traveled up and down his body, knitting some injuries while merely scabbing over others. His back arched, and he fell to his knees, unaware of how close the pond scum was to his mouth.

  His Constitution had more than doubled, now sitting at a hefty 17 points, and it was making all the difference. It continued to heal his wounds and yank him from off the edge of death’s door.

  He cried. He didn’t care. It felt so good to be alive.

  Jack felt Relentless Spirit turn off, and weariness flooded his bones. He instantly felt hollow and drained down to his core. A numbness of the mind and heart began to spread through his bones, and it took all his willpower not to pass out then and there.

  He wasn’t fully healed, but now at level 8, his upgraded stats appeared to be slowly, painfully helping him recover.

  Sorry, he said to his bruised and bloodied body. We’ve got a few more things we need to do.

  He waded past the floating corpse of the kraken, whose rot was now accelerating at a visible rate. He took in a deep breath and plunged back into the water.

  It was revolting how dark the pond was now with the monster’s deteriorating… everything.

  Still, he pushed through it, determined to see his efforts pay off.

  With 15 points in Strength now, his limbs were more than up for the task to reach the basin of the pond again, and even through the muck, he could see the lone crystal. He reached it without too much difficulty and noticed that it was partially submerged in the mud here.

  Straining, he swam to the base of the uneven gemstone and planted his feet against the muddy floor. He pulled. Every fiber of his back, arms, and legs screamed in protest as he reopened several wounds, but he gritted his teeth and pulled even harder.

  He’d nearly died for this stupid stone, so he wasn’t about to let his quest go unfinished over something as insignificant as sore muscles.

  Jack felt his joints cry out and his lungs begin to burn with exhaustion. He gave one final pull, and there was a satisfying squelch as the mud finally released its titanic hold on the crystal. The moment it was unearthed, it BLAZED with blue energy, and a torrent of cerulean water gushed out of it. Jack was swept upward in the geyser of power, and for the second time that day, he was thrown up and out of this stupid pond.

  He fell onto his stomach, too tired to land more gracefully. The wind—and water—were knocked out of his lungs, but he just groaned and let his body recover.

  The mechanic lay there for what could’ve been years, drifting in and out of blissful unconsciousness. What woke him up wasn’t the barrage of notifications, but the gentle caress of rain trickling down his face. Then, more rain started sprinkling across him. Then a good deal more than that. Within a few scant heartbeats, Jack bore witness to a downpour the likes of which he’d never seen in Oregon, or anywhere else for that matter.

  The phrase, ‘the rain came down in sheets,’ couldn’t do what he was experiencing justice. It was a primal force—a waterfall extending for miles in almost every direction.

  And he loved every second of it.

  The rain infused and invigorated him, breathing fresh life into his wearied limbs. It wasn’t until he saw the floating orb of magic water that he started to suspect that the healing rain perhaps had a secondary source of power.

  Hovering over the trembling water of the pond rose the blue crystal. Clean, pure water danced and eddied around it. The same hue was mirrored in the rain that crashed over and across Jack’s prone form. He slowly leaned upward and got to a fairly comfortable seated position. It was only then that he noticed two stacks of five fish. He grinned and the crystal pulsed slightly.

  Jack studied the floating orb. He honestly wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. So, hesitantly, he lifted up a single hand and waved.

  “Hey. Thanks for all the fish.”

  It seemed to be the right thing to do, as the crystal flared with blue light once, then dove into the river.

  Bubbles began to appear. First a few, then a dozen, then thousands, as more and more energy rose from the depths of the ponds. They swept through the rot of the kraken, destroying it utterly. The force of the crystal continued forward, and soon a shining path lit up the stormy horizon as the entirety of the river that Jack could see was consumed by this new illumination.

  It was beautiful.

  It was right.

  [Congratulations! You have completed the world quest: Release the River. Intrinsic rewards dispensed. Extrinsic rewards on standby. Please confirm for dispensation.]

  [Congratulations! You have completed the sidequest: It’s Just a Pond. Intrinsic rewards dispensed. Extrinsic rewards on standby. Please confirm for dispensation.]

  Jack felt EXP flood his body for the second time that day, and his grin was so wide it hurt.

  [Congratulations! You have reached Level 9! 5 AP gained.]

  [Congratulations! You have reached Level 10! 5 AP gained.]

  [Total unspent AP: 10]

  Another notification popped up, different from the others. This one was rimmed with gold filigree and pulsed with excited energy.

  [Congratulations! Through effort and combat, you are now eligible for Class Selection. Please confirm, and the Class Selection will begin.]

  Jack had no idea what was in store for him with the Class Selection, so he decided to hold off for now. He glanced down at the fish. He thought it odd how he’d completed this sidequest without actually giving Felix the fish, but when he pulled up the wording on the quest, it did just say that he had to catch them.

  Maybe the System just assumed he’d hand them over, or perhaps it didn’t want to force his generosity, making his choice matter. Whatever the case was, the nice river crystal had clearly known why he was there, and he wasn’t about to get on a mystical artifact’s bad side.

  It was time to give a man some fish.