Pouring every ounce of his compressed chi into a final, skull-cracking strike, Alric brings down the corrupted beast and witnesses its grateful spirit ascend to the River of Souls. With Runa and Valer critically gored and Angen completely drained of vim, a freshly leveled Alric must master a new pace of survival—jogging and healing simultaneously—to chase down their cold-hearted sponsor before time runs out for his friends.

Keywords: Progression Fantasy, LitRPG, Underdog, Soul Manifestation, Magical Healing, Level Up, Batons, Sarcastic Protagonist.

Note on Production: This episode features an AI Voice Clone of the author, Michael Taggart, created with ElevenLabs. Every word was written by the author.