44. The More Limits, the Stronger the Effect

The More Limits, the Stronger the Effect

For the first time in more than a week, Cheng Rui began to wonder whether choosing Engineer as his second class at level five, instead of continuing to focus on being a wizard, had been a mistake.

Sure, he could build cool magitech weapons and armor. Those creations could easily crush a small squad of monsters or withstand artillery fire, and when he went all out, he could make them in a cave from a box of scraps within minutes.

But when he was not wearing armor, and when he had no technological equipment at hand, all his superpowers were almost indistinguishable from those of an ordinary kid.

And to his horror, he kept finding himself in exactly that situation.

A fireball nearly struck him in the face, but was absorbed by the red-haired witch.

Meanwhile, the blonde big sister was fighting enemy undead knights, and fragments of shattered armor and weapons occasionally flew toward his harness.

Fortunately, the light exoskeletal protection was enough to resist such attacks. So as long as he stayed out of the main line of fire, maybe—just maybe—he could survive a few minutes in this bombed-out, cratered, ruin-strewn hellscape.

A sudden cough reminded him that even if the monsters did not kill him first, he was not sure whether the greasy, choking smoke rising from all the burning buildings, or the concrete dust still drifting down after the latest bombardment, would get him first.

His armor was still damaged and buried at the bottom of the collapsed tunnel.

His mana was almost empty.

His chest—actually, most of his body—hurt as if he had fallen down several flights of stairs.

For now, all he could do was hide in a corner and let the girls deal with the monsters.

A younger, more naive Cheng Rui would have hated this. He would have insisted on clinging to the fantasy that he was the chosen hero, the one who saved everyone and then had girls throwing themselves at him.

The now more experienced monster hunter gave a self-mocking smile and shook his head.

He had seen how Chi Li grasped magic intuitively and manipulated it as easily as she influenced people. He had seen how Sister Lin ignored wounds that would have left most people curled up on the ground crying.

The more mature and less childish Cheng Rui could admit—if only privately—that he lacked Chi Li’s empathy and did not have Sister Lin’s nerve.

But that did not mean he was useless, no matter how much easier it might be to pretend he was.

Since beauty and brute physique were off the table, it was time to make his brain work again.

Why go against type?

Name: Cheng RuiHealth: 67/130Stamina: 74/208Mana: 9/182Class: Level 26 Arcane Engineer

Skills [15 available points / 130 total]Academics lv4Analysis lv14Deception lv2Charging lv13Energy Weapons lv11Enhanced Armorer lv16Enhanced Electrical Engineer lv14Enhanced Roboticist lv14Manufacturing lv16Ancient Martial Arts lv12Instant Repair lv15Language: English lv3Language: French lv1Persuasion lv5Ceramic Creation lv3Fuel Creation lv2Metal Creation lv9Piloting: Combat Suit lv10Programming lv7

Attributes [15 available points / 130 total]Strength 14, Agility 26, Constitution 20, Intelligence 80, Perception 24, Charisma 14

Before the black-haired boy had time to examine the changes in his character sheet, he suddenly found himself forty meters from where he had just been standing.

The left half of a fireball-throwing demon alien slammed into the spot he had occupied a moment earlier. Green-black blood sprayed everywhere, and a few drops splashed into his eyes, stinging like chlorine.

“Watch where you throw things!” he shouted, blinking hard as he tried to restore his vision. “Do not throw chunks of damn alien life-form at me! They are disgusting and corrosive!”

“Sorry, Cheng Rui,” an unusually pleasant voice called from somewhere above him, “but everything is a mess right now. It’s hard to track all of it!”

“Just don’t do it again,” he said with a sigh, then groaned when he…