"Well, damn..." Lucius slumped over as if his body had been deflated after defeating the large bug and the rest of the juveniles that had slipped in with it. He stood over the mess of corpses shirtless, sweating, and struggling to regain his breath.

  "This isn't going to work." He huffed, "It’s too dangerous if these things have magic abilities. We got lucky this time. I was able to kill it before it could use that acid to break out of the cage, but if we want to finish off the whole swarm we need a new strategy."

  "Don’t look at me, you’ve clearly been the brains of this operation so far. That really sucks though. If we had a way to make sure only the little ones got in everything would be fine."

  Lucius' eyes lit up, Jack’s words had sparked an idea. "You're a genius..."

  Jack squinted as he glanced over at Lucius, "Are you, making fun of me?"

  Grinning wide, Lucius responded, "Nope. You said it would be fine if we could just let the little ones in. Why can’t we? Just make sure you only open the window wide enough for the small ones to squeeze inside."

  Jack looked down at the window as he scratched the back of his head, "That... is so stupidly simple, it might work."

  "It will! We can kill all the small ones to get stronger! Hopefully we can get strong enough to deal with the bigger ones..."

  "Okay, if we're doing this I need to make sure I don’t screw it up." Jack said as he put down his bloodied spear and headed out of the bathroom. A few minutes later he returned with a handful of nails, a hammer, and a tape measure. Jack used the tape measure to measure the juvenile Abyss creatures. The bodies of the smaller bugs were just over five inches tall, from their bellies to the tip of their heads. Like the crabs they resembled, the Abyss bugs were much longer than they were tall, reaching a little over a foot long without even counting wings, legs, or their long mouths.

  Jack pulled the tape measure up above the top of the window to make a measurement, then hammered a few nails into the windowsill above, so the window could only be open to exactly 5 inches before hitting the nails. "There. Now I can’t screw it up" Jack smiled as he explained he work to Lucius. "Oh, I wanted to do one more thing." Jack pried two handles off the nearby cabinets, then pulled one of the cabinet doors off its hinges and nailed the handles to the center of it. Now someone could slip their arm through one handle and grab the other, like a makeshift shield. It wasn’t comfortable, but it would work. "This should block a few acid shots, when the time comes."

  Those few simple actions had gained Jack more than he was expecting, "I just unlocked a talent... Craftsmanship - Level 1.", he grinned wide as he told Lucius about his new talent.

  Lucius tilted his head as he tapped one finger on the counter beside him, "The way talents are unlocked doesn’t make much sense. You got that talent for hammering a few nails, but I built a whole cage and didn’t get it." He said curiously.

  "Yeah, but you got that amazing damage-buffing skill for attacking the bugs, exactly like I was doing, and I didn’t." Jack replied. "I think it has to do with a person’s character, or maybe alignment. This shop you are standing in always needs something fixed, and my family is not rich, so me and dad always did it all ourselves. He didn't exactly teach me how to do things right, but he taught me how to make it work somehow. Fixing things is second nature to me."

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "That would explain why I unlocked Sense Danger, right after the system showed up," Lucius mused. "Living on the street makes you paranoid, always expecting something to go wrong. I've always though of it as a curse, its not a fun thing to deal with. But now, it's saved my life more than once.", he paused for a moment in contemplation, rubbing his chin as he continued, "I wonder why I unlocked Assassination, though. I don’t see how that fits my character."

  "Really?" Jack smirked. "Five minutes into the apocalypse, and you were already setting up a trap to lure monsters to their deaths. You didn’t even flinch when it came time to slaughter them. For most people, killing would be traumatic, at least at first, like it was for me. Face it, you’re good at killing things."

  Lucius glanced at the floor, furrowing his brows at the revelation about himself. "That's… disturbing. I always knew I was messed up, but I didn’t know I was that messed up."

  "Hey, at least you care that you don’t care. That means you’ve still got a heart in there, right?" Jack said, trying to lighten the mood. "Forget about that for now. Let’s test our upgraded window, and see if this plan works!"

  "OK, but I want to try something with the next batch. Don't let in a lot this time, actually, just let in one if you can, then leave the room for me." Lucius instructed, crouching low to stay out of the cage’s line of sight. "I’m going to see if my other characteristic can be useful."

  "Sure, just be careful," Jack replied, pulling the window up until it bumped against the nails. Almost immediately, the creatures swarmed, and Jack started to push the window down. He ended up catching a bug's back legs in the window, trapping it with buzzing wings. "Oops, did I mess up?"

  "No that's perfect, go!" whispered Lucius, as he waved Jack out of the room. With the bugs legs jammed in the window its field of view was massively restricted, that was perfect for what Lucius wanted to try. After Jack left the room, Lucius settled into his crouched position. It was surprising comfortable, his upgraded strength and dexterity showing him new ways that he was different from before. He felt like he could stay crouched like this, forever, without getting sore.

  After a few minutes, the bugs angry buzzing and scrambling to gain its freedom calmed down. It was still trying to free itself, but not in such a panicked frenzy, like before. Lucius took that as his signal to start moving. He gently lifted his front leg, and stretched it out in front of his body, placing his foot back on the floor from heel to toe in a manner that made the movement perfectly silent.

  Lucius was well practiced in making himself invisible. When your parents were alcoholics, not being seen was absolutely essential to your wellbeing. Even after Lucius had long fled that terrible home, he still felt constant anxiety. He lived in a state of hypervigilance, from the trauma he had gone through. So, even when he didn't need to hide anymore, he kept doing it.

  Lucius moved across the room in this manner, remaining absolutely silent. When he reached the side of the cage, he made sure that he was positioned directly opposite of the creatures eyes, then, he rose up from the floor. Lucius aimed his spear for that one certain weak spot, that exists on every creatures backside, the one that resembles a bullseye.

  Without warning he exploded forward with as much force as his muscles could generate, squeezing every ounce of power out of his newly upgraded attributes. With a whoosh like a thin stick being swung through the air, the spear struck true. Lucius's eyes opened wide when he saw the spear drive entirely through the unsuspecting creature in a single attack.

  You have defeated Juvenile Abyssal Insectum level 3.

  Congratulations! You have developed a unique aspect! “Feet of the Thief”