“It’s 9AM. Why are you still sleeping?” the modified voice asked in the burner. Nestra almost asked if it was Gorge before — miracle of miracles — her brain caught up with her mouth for once. “I was busy. What’s up?” “What do you mean, what’s up? You asked me to call you.” “Ah yes. Wasn’t sure if using keywords in a text was a good idea or not.” “Our conversations are encrypted. Only Central could decode it and then we’d be fucked anyway. What do you have?” Nestra heard a noise, something like a clatter. It took two seconds for Gorge to reply. Nestra kept going, encountering another smaller pond. When a shrimp appeared, she used momentum to jump over the water, catching it off guard. Sadly, she couldn’t recover that one without going into the water. Weaker D-rank worlds were often like that, linear with a first major battle then a few skirmishes until a final conflict. Nestra took her time to explore more and found the first ‘loot’, red stones that burnt to the touch. Ever-fires. Those were really prized outside the walls as an endless source of heating but inside of the city, they were made redundant by multiple fusion reactors. She still pocketed one for later use. The next pond saw another shrimp cut mid-air, but when it fell, the body was swallowed by some sort of salamander. The beast refused to resurface, even with electricity, and Nestra couldn’t be arsed trying to lure it out so she let it be. Less shrimp for poor Nestra. “I don’t deserve this. I killed the shrimp. Why am I being robbed of my justly deserved bounty by some bottom feeder that doesn’t even really need it?” she asked the green heavens, but they ignored her. The world was cold and uncaring and shrimpless. Maybe the salamander could be provoked… “No, enough time wasted. I have to pick my battles.” Nestra walked some more, finding one last pond and one more crustacean to add to her growing collection. It was clearly a world where range fighters would shine. It would also test their ability to shoot twice in quick succession which most raiders were trained to do anyway. Once more, Nestra wondered how she would compare with D-class raiders. She was not eager to try, however. She was still getting used to everything, including her abilities. She was having a good run. She had no reason to rush it right now. Nestra stopped, her feet sinking in the muck. She was just considering murder for the sake of progress. Well, not really murder. There were plenty of gleams who deserved to die but didn’t because they were covered by their guilds. Immorality and impunity led to some pretty fucked up situations she’d heard of while in the force. But no, at least not now. There was a step between selling illegally acquired artifacts and killing for power and she was unwilling to take it. Where would it stop? It’s not because she looked like a demon she had to act like one. Nestra shook her head. A portal world was no place for introspection. The lack of difficulty was making her complacent. As she went on, the ground grew drier and rose at a gentle slope. The pillars grew wider and sparser. Larger growths formed tufts of dense vegetation between the rocks. The place was strangely deserted. A part of her felt like there should be life among the tall ferns but portal ecosystems were often stunted. Vines clung to the pillars, producing huge leaves that reduced the available light. A yellow bolt streaked through the cloud cover, followed by the powerful roar of thunder. Something shifted in the distance. Nestra frowned. There was a clearing ahead with the usual altar. This was it. Something was stalking her, she was sure of it. She walked to the center of the open ground with slow steps, making sure to keep her guard up. It happened very fast. Another bolt flashed over her. In that background of light was a dark shape falling towards her. She used momentum to get out of the way and an instant later, her foe dug four talons where she used to be. Another flash. Humanoid shape, dark beady eyes. No neck. Long arms ending in twin curved talons. Short white fur. Powerful, lean muscles. It jumped and swung at her as she anticipated. She dove and struck, coated blade biting into a biceps. Despite the coating, it failed to sever the arm. The power sent her reeling but the creature’s screeches gave her a moment. Fast, almost too fast for her. Very wide attacks. Lots of power but telegraphed motions. It charged again. Nestra moved up then stepped back, avoiding the tip of claws trying to gut her by a few fingers. The next strike came as she predicted. The beast’s attacks were relentless. Using precision, she attacked the claws. Her blade slid between the talons and hit the bone of its hand, eliciting a crack but the tips still hit her side, the upper rib cage. Winded. Lots of power. Shouldn't try to block head on. Deflect instead. Dance better. The beast screamed again, revealing a wide maw covered in layers of inward-curving fangs. The sound was disturbingly close to human. She used momentum to close in which surprised it. Her blade slid against the thick fur of its chest and dug deep, much deeper than the cut on its arm. Red blood flowed and the creature did as expected. It kept swinging. Nestra stepped into and under the attack, hitting the knee which cracked ominously. She jumped over the second attack and hit the shoulder, discharging electricity this time. The beast roared and did something she didn’t expect. It grabbed her with its two arms. Trapped. Two furry arms around her. No time to dodge. She lifted her blade above her head just as the appendages closed around her to crush her spine. She grabbed the blade with one hand, the handle with the other. Precision guided her strike. Her sword’s edge slammed into the beast’s left eye, then she moved it to the side. The gray, coated surface sliced cleanly. Blood and vitreous spilled over Nestra. The creature dropped her, grabbing its wounded face. Nestra landed nimble on her feet and used one last coated attack for an upward strike. This one was devastating and she finally understood what was going on. The simian being used mana like humans did, reinforcing its body. It was either running out of it or losing focus. In any case, the beast was wounded and covered in blood. It wailed and jumped away. Nestra knew it would attack again because portal monsters only regrouped for long enough to resume their attack. She wasn’t going to give it satisfaction. Using momentum, she jumped after it just as it reached the nearest pillar. She felt the flesh give in under her. The sword pinned the simian creature against it like a butterfly, blade easily stabbing into flesh and the stone beneath it. More blood gushed from every wound. The creature shuddered one last time, then it collapsed, only kept upright by the blade slammed into its heart. Nestra shivered when power rushed into her, confirming her victory. Strength. A lot of it. Maybe something more. Nestra quickly checked her only wound to find it sealed close. Even her ‘skin’ looked unharmed though she felt a little tender. It was as if she’d never been hurt. It had been a great battle, really fun. And now for the loot. Nestra went over her database and found absolutely nothing, which didn’t mean much. If Gorge gave it to her for free then it was probably kind of shit, so there was still a high chance this type of world was well known and the guild that had produced the compendium just never had access to it. Fortunately, there were always safe bets when it came to creatures like that. The first was talons. Those could be used in special gauntlets designed to help subclasses of brawlers punch people in the face harder. The second was the skin which she did her best to remove correctly and failed miserably. The third were special organs. Nestra basically emptied the creature only to find disappointingly mundane organs. Well, they were different of course but none felt like they were soaked with mana or shining or of a vivid color. It also smelled atrocious even though she was sure she hadn’t pierced an intestine. Vile thing. She still decided to cut a haunch, just in case. Primates were a little… difficult to eat considering they looked a little human but this one was too weird to hurt her sensibilities. Thus loaded with food, Nestra approached the altar. On top of two crystals, she also found a bar of some sort of metal that was dark and cold to the touch. After that, she moved back. Threshold’s abandoned swimming pool welcomed her back. There were no packages this time, just as the benefactor had warned her. It felt a little disappointing but she’d live. Nestra shoved the garlic soy sauce strand of shrimp into her molars and bit down. Those were not molars anymore, of course, since all her teeth were serrated. The shrimps had turned out to have a real name and it was much less cool than Shrimpus Floatus Deliciosa so fuck those scientists. She frowned when her phone vibrated. It was Gorge. “Sold your spear, your share’s 63k.” Nestra shuffled in her couch. That was an enormous sum for her. It was also pocket change for a good raider. “It was worth three times that amount but I had to compromise for safety.” “What did it do?” Nestra typed back. “Some sort of berzerker effect. Can’t say more than that and can’t tell you who bought it. I’ll buy the crystals at the usual rate and I’ll auction the new goodies. You want the chit?” Nestra thought about it. Sitting on money could be useful. Spending that money was better. The problem was that she had no idea what she should get in terms of gear. She had potions, a ranged option, and a nice sword. Armor sets would only fit her for a little while. Survival gear wouldn’t become relevant for a while. What should she get? Wait, she knew exactly what she could get. “Send me 30k in a chit and for the rest, I want food. Specifically, mana food.” There was a delay in the answer this time. “Food? Are you serious?” “Enclave goodies, fishery surplus, corpo special reserves. Whatever.” There was a longer pause and this time, Nestra enjoyed a small miracle. After almost half a shrimp (and some rice), she had achieved a state of zen contentment. “Holy Riel I never thought the day would come again.” A quick check revealed she’d grown by another centimeter. It was likely she was heavier as well but her scale had some issue when she stepped on it in demon form. Not that she cared. Just had to make sure her stairs wouldn’t collapse by just stepping on them. A girl was growing so a girl had to eat. “I can get you food but it’s ‘fallen off the truck’ as one of my cousins used to say. That means they ain’t cheap. I can get you up to four dozen fresh oysters for two hundred credits each, ten mana squid tentacles for a hundred and twenty apiece, wagyu at six hundred a slide…” Nestra’s smile bloomed. She had the perfect answer. “You want everything?” “Yes. Spread over the next three days. Do you have any veggies with that?” “Veggies are cheap and even us dregs can buy them, why do you need me?” “Because I’m going to order a lot and I’d love a discount.”