Shovels In Spades

Daz had immediately checked the system to see if he could afford this 'automated Defense system' for his base, but he was out of luck. It required base points, of which, he had none remaining.

Seeing no other options, he had to return to Fort Skip immediately. "Crusher, you have more strength than me. Would you mind running as fast as possible back to Fort Skip? I don't have the time to explain, but the base might be under attack."

Crusher's eyebrow inched up in response. She could see that Daz was being completely serious, so without answering her Lord, she broke out into a heavy sprint and was quickly running away from Daz and Rose towards Fort Skip.

"Trouble in paradise?" Rose asked curiously.

"Something like that. I'm going to have to carry you back. I hope you don't mind," Daz replied before gently scooping his sister out from her wheelchair. He stored the chair and her laptop in two of his free inventory slots.

"Grabbing a lady without her consent... I should sue you for sexual harassment, Daz," Rose laughed lightly.

Daz didn't look impressed. "I'm in a bit of a hurry and I don't have the time to ask for 'consent'. I'm going to start going as fast as I can, so hold on tight, okay?" he said somewhat sarcastically.

"Well, since you asked so nicely, I'll have to agree." With that being said, Rose wrapped her arms around Daz's neck and accepted the princess hold from her elder brother. Daz then began running at his full speed.

Naturally, he wasn't even close to Crusher's speed despite his higher agility and dexterity.

After having asked many questions to the system, he had found out that dexterity affected reaction speed and one's senses, while agility changed the host's flexibility and nimbleness. Strength was a far more suitable stat to invest in if speed was your goal.

While not inhumanely fast, Daz's speed shocked Rose. "So you've invested a lot of your merit points into stats, I see? What a waste. You do know that the stats are superficial, yes? There's a reason I didn't increase my stats or buy any new ones."

'Despite all of her intellect, Rose is definitely still a child,' Daz thought upon hearing what his sister had to say. "I couldn't disagree any more. Stats are similar to a foundation. The better my stats, the more options I have available for me in the future, especially in cases like this, no?" Daz refuted while jumping over a crashed car.

"But wouldn't spending the same amount of points from, for example, a Defense based stat, be more efficiently used on, let's say, a passive defensive skill that can always assist you? From my understanding, it is possible to get debuffed by certain skills and that could impede your stats," came Rose's response.

Daz thought on this for a moment. Even though the siblings were travelling through Waterford at a fast pace, they were just the kind of people that could have such a civil and relaxed conversation despite the unknown crisis they were heading towards and completely ignore the fact that they were moving so quickly.

The two continued to debate back and forth without reaching a solid conclusion, and it took them no time at all to reach Fort Skip. What lay before Daz and Rose was absolutely shocking. There were three men in military uniforms dead on the ground outside of the outer gate with various body parts smashed completely and Crusher was slumped against the wall with bullet holes riddling her torso.

Daz quickly took out Rose's wheelchair and sat her on it before rushing towards Crusher.

"Crusher! What on Earth happened? I know we got attacked, but for you to end up like this..." Daz asked with panic quite evident in his voice.

Crusher weakly tried opening her eyes but was met with failure. "That you, Lord?"

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"System! Give Crusher a full body heal right this instant!" Daz shouted.

Rose who was sat nearby looked very alarmed and frightened by Daz's change in attitude. 'What the...? When did Darenzo gain emotions? This... this isn't possible... unless he's faking it? But no, I can always tell when he's being insincere. Right now, he genuinely cares about Crusher's life... well, mama, papa, it looks maybe he was a success after all...'

What Rose was thinking about would forever remain her own knowledge, and right now, the pressing concern was Crusher's life.