Chương 19: Apparently, Management Has Four Arms

Matt was already awake when the morning alarm went off inside his trailer at Ironvale. He had spent the last several minutes staring at the ceiling and thinking about the sword resting beside his equipment rack. Eventually, he sat up. The weapon was still there. That was reassuring. RARE FOUNDRY LONGSWORD Required Level: 9 Implicit: Accuracy Rating +45 Physical Damage: 10–25 Modifiers Adds 1 to 3 Physical Damage Physical Damage increased by 48% Attack Speed increased by 7% A real weapon. A properly built weapon.

Not the Level One training tool he had somehow dragged through Black Hollow, two Boss fights, Ashfield Orchard, and his first day in Ironvale. Matt rubbed his face.

"Still embarrassing." The old sword was retired beneath the bed. It had earned that much. Matt got dressed and started coffee. He briefly slotted Perfect Temperature, corrected the mug exactly where he wanted it, then switched directly into his morning Crafting pair. Vital Imprint. Elemental Ward. Both had reset to ten daily uses overnight. Weighted Edge and Quickened Temper had reset too. Matt was deliberately leaving those untouched.

He was still learning Ironvale's weapon market, and Quickened Temper might soon have a job on his own Gloves. Burning useful weapon-Crafting capacity just because the counter said ten would be exactly the kind of optimization mistake he had spent the last several days learning not to make. The Life-and-Resistance batch was different. That process he understood.

The evening before, Matt had purchased ten cheap clean beginner Bases from Ironvale's commodity market along with the common Currency required to process them. No premium Implicits. No valuable Base Types. No convenient infinite Boss leftovers. Raw materials in. Finished Gear out. Matt took a sip of coffee.

"Factory open." By now, the actual production was almost mundane. Prepare Base. Guarantee Maximum Life. Guarantee an appropriate Elemental Resistance. Record the rolls. Move on. Some results were mediocre. Some were strong. One Life roll made him briefly consider keeping the piece. Matt compared it with his own Gear.

"No." Market batch. By the time breakfast was finished, ten beginner Rare items were ready for sale. Vital Imprint and Elemental Ward were exhausted for the day. Weighted Edge and Quickened Temper remained completely unused. Defensive production was done. Weapon-Crafting capacity was being reserved. Matt checked the economics once. His previous four-item test batch had sold for an average a little above four hundred dollars per piece.

If today's ten items behaved similarly, gross sales would land somewhere around four to four-and-a-half thousand dollars. Gross. Not profit. The Bases had cost money. The Currency had cost money. Marketplace fees existed. Taxes would exist. Matt had been trained by WhiteBase. He knew better now. Still, the value added looked excellent.

"Breakfast should pay for Indiana." That remained a deeply strange sentence. Matt packed the ten finished items into padded containers. On the way to the Gate, he stopped at Ironvale's Marketplace Dispatch Counter. The clerk scanned each piece, verified the Item IDs and modifiers, confirmed Matt's ownership, and sealed the Gear into insured consignment. Only then did the listings go live. 10 LISTINGS ACTIVE The physical equipment disappeared into the Marketplace logistics system.

If one sold while Matt was inside the Dungeon, the buyer would receive it through warehouses, regional hubs, and insured couriers. Not magic. Just logistics. Matt approved. Professionally. Then he headed for the Gate. Morning armor production was finished. The rest of the day involved management. ◆ Matt opened the Ironvale Works Dungeon Guide while walking. Yesterday's field test had settled the weapon problem. The new sword had brought his kill times back where they belonged.

Ironvale remained tougher than Ashfield. It simply felt correctly tougher now. That left the obvious next target. THE SHIFT SUPERVISOR Ironvale Works — Boss Recommended Range: Level 8–12 Primary Threats Heavy Physical attacks Forced movement / magnetic displacement Moving conveyor hazards Rivet Drone reinforcements Overclock phase Matt read the name.

"Management." A pause.

"Of course." The accompanying image showed a huge four-armed Construct standing inside an assembly hall. Matt was Level Nine. His armor had been rebuilt. His weapon finally matched his progression. His elemental Resistances were strong for the bracket. He was comfortably inside Ironvale's recommended range. But he still had two unspent Passive Points from Levels Eight and Nine. He had held them while figuring out his equipment. Yesterday had repaired his offense.

There was no reason to push even harder into damage immediately before an unfamiliar Boss. Matt opened Rook's beginner Passive path. The defensive branch continued from the nodes he had already taken. MAXIMUM LIFE +5% Matt stared.

"Boring." He selected it. The next node was more interesting. BRAVE Armor increased by 24% Evasion increased by 24% Maximum Life increased by 8% Matt sat slightly straighter.

"…That's less boring." Second Point spent. The System recalculated. His cumulative percentage bonuses to Armor and Evasion rose substantially, while his Maximum Life scaling increased again. That also strengthened Master of the Arena indirectly. One percent of a larger Life pool meant more absolute Life regenerated every second. Matt smiled.

"Still like that interaction." Weapon fixed. Life buffer larger. Armor better. Evasion better. Boss time. ◆ Ironvale was already busy when Matt reached the Gate plaza. The Camp had a different morning rhythm from Ashfield. Heavy vehicles moved between warehouses, equipment buyers opened their doors, Crafters received material deliveries, and Delvers carried weapon cases toward the terminals. Matt checked his Gear. Flasks. Portal Scrolls. New sword.

His old defensive Boots were packed in the equipment bag as an emergency option. Windrunners stayed on. For COPY, he kept Anchored Step and Quick Frame. Overmuscle was tempting. Very tempting. Another twenty Strength was not subtle. But the Boss guide explicitly warned about forced movement, while Overclock sounded like exactly the kind of mechanic where extra reaction speed mattered. Anchored Step answered one. Quick Frame helped answer the other. The new sword had already solved the immediate damage problem.

"More damage isn't useful if management drags me into industrial machinery." Loadout decided. Matt searched the active Instances. Instance 117 — 52/64 — Boss Defeated No. Instance 121 — 46/64 — Boss Defeated No. Then: Instance 124 — 37/64 — Boss Alive Matt smiled.

"There." Thirty-seven Delvers were already inside. Most had probably settled into normal farming routes. Anyone interested in the Boss would already be moving. Matt entered. ◆ CLANG. HISS. THUNK. Ironvale greeted him with its usual industrial violence. Matt started moving immediately. He knew enough of the early layout now to recognize which corridors generally pushed toward the central assembly sectors. The exact map changed, but the routing principles did not. Move inward. Avoid dead-end maintenance wings.

Use major conveyor halls as landmarks. Ignore ordinary loot during a Boss Rush. The Windrunner Boots helped. Eight percent still felt good. A few dozen yards ahead, another Delver emerged from a connecting corridor. Male. Roughly Matt's age. Lightweight dark-blue Gear. Short staff with a glowing blue crystal at the tip. Mage. The two men looked at each other. Then toward the same central route. The Mage smiled.

"Supervisor?"

"Yeah."

"See you there." Before he moved, faint blue Mana settled around his body. Matt's interface reacted. UNIQUE SKILL OBSERVED ARCANE ECONOMY — C Active / Toggle Effect While active, the Mana Cost of Skills with the Magic tag is reduced by 25%. Does not reduce non-Magic Skill costs. Flavor Text Power is rarely lost in the casting. It is lost in the waste. Matt immediately understood the logic.

If the man had come here for a Boss Rush built around repeated Magic movement, there was no reason not to run the discount from the beginning. Useful. Not to Matt's current Physical toolkit. Possibly useful someday. Unlimited Archive meant he didn't need to solve that question now. Matt copied it. Then the Mage vanished. CRACK. He reappeared farther down the corridor. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Matt stared.

"… Oh, come on." Blink. Skill Gem. Instantaneous short-range teleportation. The other Delver was obviously here for the same reason Matt was. Boss Runner. Matt gathered Mana. Leap Slam. He launched. The difference between the two Movement Skills became obvious immediately. Blink was instant. The Mage disappeared here and existed there, with no travel time, but the jump itself was relatively short and clearly constrained by a cooldown. Leap Slam actually moved Matt through space.

It required a clear arc and landing point, but each use covered substantially more ground, and he could chain activations as long as his Mana held. Matt landed and kept running. A ninety-degree corner appeared ahead. The Mage hit it first. CRACK. Gone. Matt arrived a moment later.

"…That's bullshit." Leap Slam could not turn midway through the jump. He sprinted around the corner and found the Mage already well ahead. Then the corridor opened into a huge straight conveyor hall. Perfect. The Mage Blinked once. Then had to run while the Skill recovered. Matt chained Leap Slam. One jump. Landing. Several strides. Another jump. He sailed past the Mage. Matt glanced sideways.

"Morning."

"Oh, come on!"

"You can teleport!"

"It has a cooldown!" Matt grinned and jumped again. ◆ The lead did not last. A collapsed maintenance structure blocked most of the next route. Steel beams crisscrossed the corridor, leaving only awkward gaps. Matt slowed to find a viable line. The Mage didn't. CRACK. Blink. Gone through the obstruction. Matt stopped.

"You suck." A distant voice answered.

"I heard that!" Matt found enough clearance and used Leap Slam to clear most of the wreckage. He landed behind the Mage again. The competition had become stupid. Matt was enjoying it. A Scrap Hound dropped from a gantry ahead. The Mage didn't slow. One gesture sent blue kinetic force through the Construct. Destroyed. Another Hound intercepted Matt. Cleave. Gone. A Mana Stone rolled toward the edge of the grating. Matt looked at it. Then toward the Mage.

"Later." He ran. ◆ The next straightaway brought them nearly even. Terrain kept changing who held the advantage. Blink dominated corners and obstructions. Leap Slam devoured long lanes and open production halls. Arcane Economy stayed active around the Mage the entire time, letting him use Blink far more aggressively than Matt would have expected from a Magic movement Skill. Matt stored that observation away. A narrow moving conveyor cut across the route. The Mage teleported directly onto the opposite side.

Matt jumped over the entire belt and another one behind it. He landed well ahead. The Mage appeared behind him a moment later.

"I hate Leap Slam."

"You teleport."

"Yes."

"That seems more unfair."

"It isn't."

"How?"

"Mine has a cooldown!"

"Mine costs Mana."

"So does mine!" Matt considered that.

"Fair." They ran another stretch. Matt added:"Still teleporting."

"Go to hell." Matt laughed. ◆ A Rivet Drone descended ahead. The Mage raised his staff. Matt was faster. Blade Projection. The Mana-formed copy of the Foundry Longsword shot upward and destroyed the Drone. The Mage looked at him.

"That a sword Skill?"

"Yeah."

"Warriors get ranged attacks now?"

"Apparently."

"Terrible."

"You teleport."

"Stop bringing that up." They hit another straightaway. The Mage was breathing harder now. Not exhausted. Boss Rush pace. Matt wasn't comfortable either. Repeated Leap Slams consumed Mana, repeated sprinting consumed ordinary stamina, and even Windrunner Boots did not make distance free. They reached the next intersection almost together. The Mage glanced sideways.

"Ryan."

"Matt."

"Do you do this often?"

"Boss Rush?"

"Yeah."

"Second one." Ryan nearly missed a step.

"…Seriously?" Matt gathered Mana. Leap Slam. He landed several yards ahead. Ryan stared after him.

"Oh, screw you." ◆ The central factory sectors grew denser. More Constructs. More machinery. More Delvers. A pair of people crossed another route but turned away from the center. Not Boss runners. Matt and Ryan kept going. A Press Walker blocked a narrow doorway. Ryan started casting. Matt arrived first. Heavy Strike. CRUNCH. The Construct collapsed. Ryan stared.

"That sword hits hard."

"New."

"Good purchase?"

"Crafted."

"Nice." Matt did not elaborate. Another corridor. Warning markings. A reinforced door. Open space beyond it. Ryan smiled.

"There." Boss arena. Both accelerated. Ryan Blinked near the entrance. Matt already had Leap Slam prepared. He launched, sailed past Ryan, and landed inside the assembly hall. Half a second later: CRACK. Ryan appeared beside him. Matt looked over.

"Got it." Ryan swore.

"I hate Leap Slam."

"You teleport."

"I hate you too." Matt looked toward the center of the arena. Then back at Ryan.

"Both fighting?" Ryan nodded.

"I'm not running all this way to watch."

"Equal split if we both contribute?"

"Works." Simple. They had both reached the Boss. They would both fight. Anything indivisible could be handled afterward. Hopefully like adults. Heavy machinery began moving beneath them. Ryan looked toward the center.

"Here we go." ◆ The Boss arena was a gigantic circular assembly floor. Conveyor belts entered from six directions. Overhead cranes hung from the darkness, heavy machinery surrounded the perimeter, and the central floor looked reinforced enough to support something deeply unpleasant. A warning siren sounded. Then the floor opened. Hydraulics groaned. Something enormous rose from below. Nearly twelve feet tall. Soot-darkened boiler plating. Thick industrial legs. Four arms. Two ended in massive hydraulic fists.

A third terminated in an oversized pincer clamp. The fourth carried a heavy industrial cutting blade. Its head was little more than an armored square with one yellow spotlight burning in the center. THE SHIFT SUPERVISOR Ironvale Works — Boss Life: 100% Matt stared.

"Management has four arms." Ryan raised his staff.

"Apparently." The Supervisor finished rising. Matt charged. Heavy Strike drove the Foundry Longsword into the Boss's lower plating. CRACK. Metal bent. The Boss's Life moved. Not dramatically. Enough.

"Good." The Supervisor rotated and raised one hydraulic fist. Fast for something that large. Matt moved clear of the direct strike. BOOM. The fist hit the floor and sent a shockwave across the arena. The outer edge caught Matt. His Life dipped, but his reinforced Armor absorbed much of the Physical damage, the enlarged Life pool gave him margin, and Master of the Arena immediately began repairing the rest. Blue light flashed from the other side. Ryan's kinetic attack struck the Supervisor's upper chassis.

The Boss turned slightly. Ryan grinned.

"You've got aggro!"

"There isn't an aggro system!"

"It likes you more!" The Supervisor swung at Matt.

"…Fair." Matt stepped back into range. The fight settled into a pattern. Ryan attacked from distance while Matt worked around the four arms, using Quick Frame to read the overlapping motions and Heavy Strike whenever the huge mechanical swings created a recovery window. The pincer snapped past him. The cutter swept horizontally. Matt ducked the blade, stepped inside, and struck. Boss Life fell into the high eighties. Ryan shouted from across the arena.

"Not bad!"

"New sword!"

"You mentioned that!"

"I like it!" Then the Supervisor's headlight shifted from yellow to red. A low magnetic hum rolled across the arena. Matt felt his sword pull first. Then his belt. Armor. Every piece of metal on his body suddenly wanted to travel in one direction. Toward the Boss. MAGNETIC PULL"Oh." Ryan, wearing far less metal, still slid several steps. Matt was nearly ripped off his feet. The pincer opened. Waiting. Anchored Step. Resistance flooded his stance. His Boots scraped across the reinforced floor, but held.

Matt wasn't universally immovable. The Supervisor simply wasn't overcoming Anchored Step cleanly. The pincer snapped shut several feet short. Matt smiled.

"…Huh." The magnetic field was already pulling him toward the Boss. He leaned into it. Heavy Strike. CRACK.

"Thanks." Ryan stopped casting for half a second.

"What was that?"

"Unique."

"What does it do?"

"Anchored Step." Ryan stared.

"That is annoyingly specific." The magnetic field ended. Matt released the Skill.

"Today it isn't." ◆ As the Boss moved through eighty percent, warning lights began flashing beneath sections of the arena floor. Matt looked down.

"That seems bad." Ryan moved immediately. The conveyors activated. Sections of the reinforced floor split into moving bands, each carrying anything standing on them toward different industrial machinery along the perimeter. CONVEYOR SWEEP The floor started transporting Matt sideways without his permission while the Supervisor raised its cutting arm.

"Oh, come on." Ryan Blinked instantly onto a stationary platform. Matt had no teleport. He had distance. Leap Slam. He launched from the moving belt as the cutting blade swept beneath him, crossed two conveyor lanes, and landed on stable flooring farther away than Ryan. Ryan stared. Matt smiled.

"Longer."

"Shut up." The conveyors reversed. Ryan Blinked. Matt took three running steps and jumped again. The two Movement Skills solved the same problem in completely different ways. Ryan ignored terrain instantly. Matt cleared more terrain at once. The Supervisor stepped onto one of the moving belts and shifted sideways despite its enormous weight. Matt laughed.

"Even management has conveyor problems."

"Hit it!"

"Right." He went back in. ◆ At seventy-five percent Life, the Supervisor slammed all four arms into the floor. Metal doors opened overhead. Rivet Drones descended. Ryan looked up.

"Adds."

"Got them." Blade Projection removed the first Drone immediately. The second followed. A third descended into melee height beside the Supervisor's leg. Matt changed answers. Cleave. The red arc crossed both targets. The Drone vanished and the Boss took damage with it. Adds cleared before they could accumulate. Ryan whistled.

"That was fast." Matt glanced at the sword.

"New weapon."

"I know!" Matt grinned. ◆ The Boss continued through seventy percent, then sixty. Ryan maintained distance, repeatedly firing Magic while Arcane Economy stretched his Mana farther across the fight. Matt stored the observation mentally. Useful Skill. Wrong build. For now. At fifty percent, the arena sirens changed pitch. The Supervisor's headlight turned crimson. Internal machinery screamed. OVERCLOCK"Oh." The difference was immediate. Four arms began attacking almost independently while the entire Boss accelerated.

Hydraulic fist. Pincer. Cutter. Second fist. Ryan Blinked away.

"Move!" Matt activated Quick Frame. The Boss did not slow. Matt's perception sharpened enough to separate the attacks. He stepped around the first fist, ducked the cutter, backed out of the pincer, then used Leap Slam to clear the second hydraulic strike entirely. He landed behind the Supervisor. Heavy Strike. CRACK. The Boss spun faster than Matt expected. The cutting blade clipped his armor. Life dropped significantly. Matt retreated.

"There it is." That was not Rabbit damage. He used a Life Flask while Ryan hammered the exposed side with Magic. The Flask restored his safety margin while Master of the Arena continued working underneath it. Then Matt went back in. Magnetic Pull returned. Anchored Step caught it. His Boots slid several inches this time. Overclock made the mechanic nastier. Still manageable. The pincer missed. Matt released Anchored Step and Leap Slammed sideways as the conveyor beneath him activated.

Ryan Blinked across the opposite lane.

"Still like your jump?"

"Yes!"

"Terrible taste!"

"Teleporting isn't a personality!" Ryan fired another kinetic bolt.

"That sounded jealous!"

"It is!" ◆ The Overclock phase was harder. Not catastrophic. Harder. More importantly, it was the first fight that demanded nearly every layer Matt had built at once. Movement handled the floor hazards and large attacks. Anchored Step answered forced displacement. Quick Frame kept the overlapping four-arm patterns readable. Blade Projection handled Drones. Heavy Strike punished the Boss. Armor, Life, regeneration, and Flasks covered the mistakes between clean mechanics.

Ryan's build answered the same fight differently. Distance. Blink. Mana efficiency. Repeated ranged Magic. Same Boss. Different solutions. Matt liked that. ◆ The Supervisor reached thirty percent. Ryan took a glancing shockwave and recovered. Matt absorbed one pincer impact through his Armor. Neither was in serious trouble. Neither became careless. At twenty-five percent, another group of Rivet Drones descended. Ryan destroyed one before Matt even turned. Matt handled two. Ryan removed the last.

"Nice." Ryan nodded.

"Don't sound surprised."

"Didn't."

"You did." The Supervisor attacked. Both moved. At eighteen percent, Conveyor Sweep returned while Overclock remained active. The entire arena became motion. Belts carried Matt one direction. The Supervisor approached from another. The cutting arm swept. Matt used Leap Slam and landed on what looked like stable floor. The belt beneath him immediately reversed.

"Oh, that's rude." Ryan Blinked onto a safe segment.

"Skill issue!" Matt looked at him.

"You've known me for twenty minutes."

"Long enough!" Matt jumped again. Ryan laughed. The Boss almost hit him for it. ◆ Ten percent. The Supervisor's chest began emitting the magnetic hum again. Matt knew the sequence. Magnetic Pull. Stronger under Overclock. Anchored Step. His Boots scraped. Held. Ryan Blinked clear. Then the Supervisor's chest plating opened. Inside: Orange-white heat. Pressure. A venting system charging. Ryan's expression changed.

"That's new."

"Yeah." The Boss was preparing something point-blank. Steam. Heat. Probably both. Boss Life: 8% Matt had two options. Back away. Or kill it. Ryan already raised his staff. Matt dropped Anchored Step. The magnetic field dragged him several feet forward. He used the momentum. One step. Sword back. Heavy Strike. At the same instant, Ryan's staff flashed.

"Mana Lance!" A long blue spear of condensed Magic crossed the arena. Sword and spell hit together. CRUNCH. The Supervisor's internal core shattered. The orange-white pressure vanished. Four arms stopped. The red spotlight flickered. Once. Twice. Dark. The enormous Construct swayed and collapsed backward. Metal struck the floor hard enough to shake the entire assembly hall. THE SHIFT SUPERVISOR DEFEATED Matt remained ready for several seconds. Nothing moved. Ryan lowered his staff and leaned against it.

"…That went well." Matt checked himself. Life. Mana. Flasks. All fine. Not untouched. Not flawless. Clean.

"Yeah." That had been a comfortable first clear. Not because the Boss was weak. Because both builds had arrived with answers. Matt smiled. Then remembered the important part. Loot. ◆ The first System glow appeared inside the wreckage. Matt waited. Black Hollow had given him Vein's Echo. Ashfield had given him valuable Mana Stones, Bases, and Crafting Currency. Matt knew intellectually that Bosses did not owe him jackpots. Still. Boss. Four arms. Management. Come on. The wreckage dissolved.

Mana Stones appeared first. Several. Then a large rusted mechanical component. SUPERVISOR CONTROL GEAR Type: Crafting Material"Okay." Next: A completely Normal Level Ten Hammer Base. Then Normal Gloves. Level Ten. Matt became cautiously interested in those. Then one Rare Belt appeared. Yellow. And— nothing else. The glow stopped. Matt stared. Ryan stared. They waited another second. Nothing.

"…That's it?" Ryan exhaled.

"Welcome to Boss farming." Matt looked at the modest pile.

"Seriously?"

"Last week I got a Unique here."

"That doesn't help."

"Yesterday I got about six hundred dollars of metal and Stones."

"That helps less." Ryan crouched beside the drops.

"Bosses don't know they're supposed to be profitable." Matt looked at the loot. Fair. They scanned everything. Total estimated value landed around two thousand dollars. Not bad for one fight. Just unimpressive relative to Matt's recent luck. Ryan identified the Rare Belt. His face immediately fell. RARE INDUSTRIAL BELT Maximum Life +11 Intelligence +4 Cold Resistance +5% Additional minor modifier Matt stared.

"That's impressively mediocre."

"Want it?"

"No."

"Neither do I." They had agreed to split the haul equally, so they divided it manually. Ryan took the Belt, several Mana Stones, and enough material to balance the estimate. Matt took the Supervisor Control Gear, the clean Level Ten Gloves Base, several Stones, and part of the common Crafting Currency. They adjusted until both sides landed close to equal value. Matt's share came in just under a thousand dollars. Then the System chimed. LEVEL UP Matthew Hayes has reached Level 10. Matt smiled.

"There." One Passive Point appeared. Ryan looked over.

"Ten?"

"Yeah."

"Nice."

"Thanks." Then another chime sounded. Different. Not the normal Level notification. Matt froze. A new window opened directly in his vision. Golden edges. COPY. UNIQUE SKILL DEVELOPMENT CONDITION MET COPY — SSS User Level Threshold Reached: 10 Matt stopped breathing for a moment. Ryan was still organizing his pack.

"You good?"

"Yeah." Immediate answer. Normal voice. Nothing to see here. Matt focused on the notification. FUNCTION UNLOCKED Active COPY Slots: 2 → 3 Matt stared.

"…Three." The Rank ceiling had not changed. Maximum copyable rank remained C. Tempered Edge was still out of reach. But the active slots— two to three. One extra number. One enormous change. Ryan glanced over.

"Level Up doing something weird?" Matt kept his expression neutral.

"Unique thing." Ryan nodded once.

"Nice." No interrogation. Good man. ◆ The walk back toward the Gate was much slower than the Boss Rush. No competition now. No reason to burn Mana across empty corridors. Ryan picked up one of the Mana Stones they had skipped during the race. Matt grabbed a small metal material drop. Normal pace. Matt's thoughts remained on one number. Three. Two COPY slots had shaped practically every combat decision since Black Hollow. Anchored Step and Quick Frame together meant no Overmuscle.

Overmuscle meant giving up one of the answers he already trusted. That opportunity cost was why +20 Strength had spent so much time sitting unused in the Archive. Now the constraint had changed. Not vanished. Changed. Matt smiled. Ryan glanced sideways.

"You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Smiling at invisible numbers."

"You're a Mage."

"So?"

"You definitely smile at invisible numbers." Ryan considered.

"Fair." Matt also remembered Arcane Economy. The Skill was stored now. It did nothing useful for his current Physical setup. That didn't matter. Maybe someday he would use Magic-tagged Skills. Maybe some future copied ability would interact with it. Maybe it would remain irrelevant forever. Unlimited Archive meant Matt did not need to know yet. Store first. Decide later. That was the point. Ryan sighed.

"Still smiling."

"Level Ten."

"Good Level?" Matt thought about the third slot.

"Apparently." ◆ They reached the Gate. Ryan stopped.

"Same Instance tomorrow?"

"Maybe."

"I'll beat you next time." Matt looked at the staff. Then at Ryan.

"Get a longer teleport." Ryan grinned.

"Get a cooldown."

"That doesn't even make sense."

"It would make me feel better."

"Fair." Ryan started toward the Gate, then turned back.

"Oh."

"What?"

"That Anchor Skill."

"Anchored Step."

"Yeah. Good pull counter."

"Apparently."

"If you're farming Supervisor, keep it." Matt nodded.

"I noticed." Ryan disappeared through the Gate. Matt followed. ◆ The first thing Matt did back at his trailer was not sort the loot. It was not sell the Mana Stones. It was not price the Level Ten Gloves. He sat at the table and opened COPY. The new third active slot waited empty. Matt opened the Archive. Overmuscle. C-rank. Strength +20 while active. He had copied it days ago. It had always been good. The problem had never been the Skill. The problem had been slots. Matt selected it. The third slot filled.

Then he activated Overmuscle. A heavy surge ran through his body as the System reinforced his physical output. STR: 43 → 63 Matt stared.

"Oh." Twenty Strength was not subtle. More importantly, it no longer required removing Anchored Step or Quick Frame. Yesterday, using Overmuscle against the Shift Supervisor would have meant sacrificing either the direct answer to Magnetic Pull or the Skill helping Matt read Overclock. Today, he could keep both and add raw Strength on top. Matt reached for the Foundry Longsword and tested the weight in one hand. The difference in physical control was immediately obvious.

He stopped before discovering what STR 63 could do to the inside of a travel trailer.

"… Yeah." Three slots were not unlimited. Matt's Archive would keep growing. Eventually three would feel restrictive too. But right now? This was enormous. He added a note: DEFAULT COMBAT COPY Anchored Step Quick Frame Overmuscle Then immediately added: Subject to Dungeon / Boss mechanics. Good. No universal loadout. No pretending three strong choices would remain correct everywhere. But as a default? Extremely good. ◆ Only then did Matt turn toward the Boss haul.

With the COPY excitement settled, the pile looked even less impressive. Mana Stones. Supervisor Control Gear. Crafting Currency. Clean Level Ten Gloves. Matt checked the morning Marketplace batch. Several pieces had already sold. Others remained in consignment. He compared the sales total with the Boss haul. Then laughed.

"My trailer made more money than management." He considered that.

"Actually, that tracks." Corporate experience had prepared him for this moment. The Level Ten Gloves were more interesting than the rest. Clean Base. Potentially useful. Especially now that Quickened Temper existed in the Archive. Attack Speed. Matt stared at the Gloves. Then toward his current pair. Then away.

"No." Not tonight. He had a new Gloves Base. A new Passive Point. A third COPY slot. Arcane Economy stored in the Archive. More Supervisor runs available. Plenty to think about tomorrow. One problem at a time. The Gloves went with the other promising Bases. Supervisor Control Gear went into the Crafting-material crate. Mana Stones joined the sale pile. Matt updated the financial ledger once. Boss loot: Fine. Not exciting. That was important too. Black Hollow had given him a huge early Unique sale.

Ashfield had produced strong Boss value. Ironvale had given him— Tuesday. Sometimes a Boss died and dropped ordinary stuff. Matt thought about the Rare Belt Ryan had taken.

"Eleven Life." Terrible. He smiled. Loot hunting required bad loot. Otherwise there was no good loot. ◆ Matt opened the Passive Tree. One Point. Level Ten. He hovered over several nearby options. Damage. Life. Armor. Other branches. Then closed it.

"No." Rook first. Or at least research. Holding Points until he understood the next problem had worked perfectly well so far. There was no reason to click something just because the number existed. Progress. Matt was becoming less stupid. Slowly. His phone buzzed. Ryan. Apparently they had exchanged contact information somewhere between the Boss arena and the Gate. Matt barely remembered doing it. Ryan: next boss alive in #132 Matt stared. Then: Ryan: race? Matt looked at the clock. Then at the unsorted loot.

Then at the still-active Overmuscle boost. STR: 63 He considered it. Matt: tomorrow Immediate response. Ryan: coward Matt: get a longer teleport Three dots. Ryan: blocked Matt smiled. Fair. ◆ Ironvale never became truly quiet in the evening. Heavy industrial infrastructure kept humming. Trucks moved between warehouses. Metal clanged somewhere outside. Beyond the Camp, the Dungeon Gate glowed beneath old steel beams. Matt sat inside his trailer with COPY open above the table.

Yesterday, two active slots had forced a compromise every time he wanted a third answer. Today, three didn't eliminate choices. But it changed what those choices cost. Anchored Step. Quick Frame. Overmuscle. For the first time, all three fit. Matt looked toward Ironvale's distant Gate. Level Ten felt good.

"Okay."