《Exponential Mana Regeneration》


 Chapter One - One Mans Trash

    Kyle was hoping something would feel different now that he was eighteen. He was excited when he went to bed last night. He was slightly less excited when he woke up this morning, and now, after spending a few hours on the practice field, he was thoroughly disillusioned.


    It didn¡¯t help that he had to face the reality of Sarah missing his birthday. There were not many kids around his age in the Guild complex, and Sarah was the only one he was close to. He was sure his aunt and uncle would throw him some sort of party, but without Sarah, it just wouldn¡¯t be the same.


    With a large sigh Kyle got back up to cast five more Mana Bolts down the practice field. He was hoping to level it up to ten before school started so he could have at least one enhancement point, but with only two weeks left the odds were looking increasingly slim. It would help if his mana regeneration skill could be leveled to ten, but of course such a useless skill would have an equally useless leveling time.


    For a skill that should be rare at the very least it sure doesn¡¯t act like it.


    When the Change swept the world everyone who had gone through puberty had awoken a skill. It seemed to be truly random when it came to what skill people manifested, as active, passive, magic, or physical seemed to be truly random. Kyle had manifested a rare active mana regeneration skill, which theoretically should be one of the best skills to have.


    The reality was far from it though. Kyle¡¯s skill was called Exponential Mana Regeneration. Regeneration skills were separated between active and passive ones. Passive ones worked all the time, while active ones were more like meditation and needed to be concentrated on to work.


    The most common mana regeneration skill was passive and was possessed by more than half of all mages as it was very common to find it in dungeons. It leveled easily, and most mages could passively fill their mana pool back up in around ten minutes. All the active regeneration skills Kyle had heard of took less than five minutes to fill their owner¡¯s mana pool up, and often worked better the less mana their owner had.


    Kyle¡¯s on the other hand worked better the more mana he had. The skill scaled off of how much mana he had left in his mana pool, so he regenerated his mana faster if he started off half full instead of empty. If Kyle had a bajillion mana then the skill would most likely be without equal. Unfortunately, he still had the starting mana pool of twenty, so currently his mana regeneration was about twice as slow as the average mage and took active meditation to boot.


    And every time Kyle came to the practice field he was reminded of that. It was an unfortunate fact that there were certain skills you could only have one of, and regeneration skills fell under that category. There were other ways to boost your regeneration and ways to forget skills but those were all incredibly expensive. It would be cheaper to buy mana crystals to refill his mana.


    What this boiled down to was that not only did Kyle miss out on the enhancement point from getting mana regeneration to level ten, but because his regeneration was slower than others he was also slower in leveling his spells. Thomas, who was one of the other kids around his age in the Guild compound, had already gotten his mana regeneration skill and his Mana Bolt skill past level ten and his special skill, some sort of chain lightning, was already level nine.


    So before Kyle¡¯s mana pool grew in size he was basically boned. Sarah had even suggested that despite starting out with a magic skill he should try and go the physical route since his growth was so slow. Kyle had thought it over, but decided to stick it out with his regeneration as the skills future looked bright.


    But the road to get there was dark indeed, and after a few more times of firing off five Mana Bolts, Kyle decided to call it a day. It was his birthday so he felt he could slack off a little and there was a show he wanted to catch up on.


    A few hours later Kyle was in his room watching TV when he heard his aunt calling him.


    ¡°Kyle, dinner is ready!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be right there!¡±


    Kyle shut down his computer and headed downstairs to the dining room.


    Awaiting him at the table was his Aunt Lisa, Uncle Carl, and his two-year-old Cousin Mickey. As Kyle approached the table he couldn¡¯t help being surprised by the food his aunt had cooked. She had really outdone herself.


    ¡°Aunt Lisa did your cooking skill level up again? The food looks amazing,¡± asked Kyle as he pulled out a chair and sat down at the table.


    ¡°It just hit level six,¡± Lisa said. ¡°There are still no effects other than the increase in taste and smell though. It will add something else at level ten.¡±


    ¡°If you can find someone to watch Mickey you should cook more in the cafeteria,¡± Carl said around the mouthful of food that had already found its way into his mouth. ¡°Cooking with food from the dungeons should also give the skill more experience.¡±


    ¡°I did ask them about that. They said they will let me know next time they need help preparing a dungeon meal.¡±


    It was a common occurrence for Kyle and his aunt and uncle to share a meal together so the meal proceeded smoothly with the conversation soon turning to Carl¡¯s most recent dungeon expedition.


    Kyle and his dad had moved in with his aunt and uncle many years ago when Kyle¡¯s dad had joined the bounty hunting group that his uncle was a part of. When the Change occurred, the group had formed a guild centered around the dungeon that had sprung up on the group¡¯s compound. Kyle had always been close with his aunt and uncle, but they became even closer when his father died in the dungeon. It was soon after the Change when not much was known and Kyle¡¯s dad ended up sacrificing his life so Carl and the rest of their team could escape from an ambush in the dungeon.


    Once the meal was finished and everyone had eaten their fill of the cake that Lisa had baked, Carl cleared his throat to get the other Kyle¡¯s attention.


    ¡°Since it is your eighteenth birthday, Lisa and I wanted to get you something special. That¡¯s part of the reason why I traveled to that other dungeon this past week. We know you have been frustrated by your skills lack of progress, and while I don¡¯t make enough in the dungeon trips to give you enhancement crystals or many mana crystals, we wanted to get you a useful skill before you leave for the dungeon school in two weeks.¡±


    Carl then slowly took a skill crystal out of his pocket and handed it over to Kyle.


    ¡°This skill crystal has already been identified and it contains a skill called Mana Pool Extension. You said that your mana regeneration skill would be more useful with more mana, so this skill should be perfect for you. Normally skills like this are incredibly expensive, but this one has a few flaws so I was able to get my hands on it. You are only able to fill the pool up with an active regeneration skill and you also can¡¯t fill it up with mana crystals so much of the skill¡¯s value is diminished. You also need to use the mana in the extended pool before you use the mana in your normal pool, so you can¡¯t save it for emergencies either. The base stats on the skill look good though, so it should be worth learning.¡±The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Kyle was speechless as he stared at the skill crystal in his hands. He had imagined that his aunt and uncle would get him something for his birthday, but he thought it would maybe be a generic shield spell or an enhancement crystal or something. Not something like this. He had looked into all the different ways of increasing his mana pool, and skills that did so were generally the most expensive. Even more so than artifacts.


    Before Kyle¡¯s dad had died, he had wanted Kyle to get stronger. In a world that now had dungeons and super humans, personal power was even more important than ever. Maybe his dad was a bit paranoid from his time in the army on tour, but Kyle still took what his dad said to heart. Now he finally had a path forward. His uncle was steadily increasing his strength but Kyle couldn¡¯t depend on him forever. Sarah was already even going into the Guilds level two dungeon while Kyle was twiddling his thumbs with under-leveled skills.


    As Kyle sat there in shock trying to digest the windfall he held in his hands, his aunt finally had enough of staring at his open mouth and exclaimed, ¡°Well what are you waiting for? Learn the skill already!¡±


    Finally coming out of his stupor, Kyle crushed the crystal in his hand as information flowed into his head.


    Skill: Mana Pool Extension


    Effect: You are able to extend your mana pool beyond what it would normally be capable of. By using an active mana regeneration skill, you are able to fill an additional pool of mana equal to your current pool times two times the level of this skill. This additional pool cannot be filled by mana crystals. This additional pool must be used before your regular pool of mana. This additional pool cannot be used to transfer mana either to or from the user.


    Since the skill is level one, the additional mana pool is my current mana pool times two. That means I now have an effective mana pool of sixty! A single level one skill tripled my mana pool. It makes me envious of those rich bastards who can buy lots of enhancement and skill crystals.


    Lisa laughed at the goofy smile that was spread across Kyle¡¯s face.


    ¡°I know you must be itching to test the new skill out so we won¡¯t keep you. Just remember not to stay up too late since you have to watch over Mickey tomorrow.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry I didn¡¯t forget.¡±


    With those parting words Kyle practically ran out to the practice field to test out the new skill. Since it was later at night, not as many people were using the field so he had no trouble finding a quite spot to practice.


    Okay, so normally it takes me a little over ten minutes to go from ten mana up to twenty. Let¡¯s see how fast I can go from twenty to sixty.


    Kyle sat down and activated his mana regeneration skill. When he felt that the extended mana pool was full he opened his eyes and checked the time. Under twenty minutes! It took him under twenty minutes to regenerate forty mana. That would mean if he used up all that forty mana, which he had already made up his mind to do to level the skill, he would be generating mana at twice his previous rate. It may not be better than others who had a more generic mana regeneration skill, but it was at least closer to equal now!


    Kyle spent the next four hours casting Mana Bolts and emptying and refilling his extended pool. By the time he decided to go to bed his Mana Bolt skill had already gained a level and was now level seven.


    The next two days passed in a flash. Other than the time spent watching Mickey, Kyle spent almost every waking moment on the practice field. Where before he had been losing interest in the repetitive grinding, now he was full of energy. It was on the morning of the third day when it finally happened. Mana Pool Extension reached level two and made his effective mana pool a hundred!


    Kyle quickly tested it out, and it took him less than ten minutes for his mana to regenerate from sixty to one hundred. While before it had taken around twenty minutes to regenerate forty mana, now he could do it in under ten!


    That means I should definitely be regenerating mana faster than people with a regular regeneration skill. And it will only go up from here. I can¡¯t believe I ever thought this skill was trash, it¡¯s practically a cheat!


    About an hour later as he was casting his mana bolts a familiar voice called out to him.


    ¡°If I hadn¡¯t heard that you got a new skill I would definitely be able to tell by the goofy smile you have on your face. You look like you just stole candy from a baby.¡± Sarah paused for a second with a frown, ¡°You didn¡¯t take Mickey¡¯s candy, did you?¡±


    ¡°Hardy har har. Anyone would be happy if they more than quadrupled their mana efficiency rate. I now have a hundred effective mana and I can regenerate forty mana in less than ten minutes! How¡¯s that for efficiency?¡±


    Sarah¡¯s eyes widened briefly upon hearing how much Kyle¡¯s mana regeneration rate went up. She had been used to it being ten mana in over twenty minutes. Now it was forty mana in under ten minutes? She was only in the dungeon for five days but it was like she came out into an alternate universe.


    Reaching into her pocket, Sarah then adopted what could only be called a coy smile.


    ¡°Since all your mana problems have been solved I guess you don¡¯t need my present any more then?¡±


    Kyle narrowed his eyes at her expression.


    ¡°Present? You said you weren¡¯t going to get me anything for my birthday. You always say it¡¯s too much of a hassle and just give me a handmade card or something.¡±


    ¡°Well maybe I changed my mind. Of course, if you are going to complain maybe you don¡¯t want your present and I can keep it.¡±


    ¡°Okay, Okay I want my present. No complaining here.¡±


    A small part of Kyle just wanted to just get back to grinding his skills, but after not seeing Sarah for the five days she was in the dungeon the larger part was glad to be able to talk to her again. They hadn¡¯t been spending as much time together after the Change. Now it was all about grinding your skills. At least they were both going to the same dungeon school so they could enter a dungeon together once Kyle got his skills up to snuff, which with his new skill seemed like just a matter of time.


    Reaching into her pocket Sarah took out a small gift wrapped box.


    ¡°Happy Birthday! Sorry I am a bit late, but I think my present will be worth the wait.¡±


    Kyle took the small box out of Sarah¡¯s hands. It looked kind of like a jewelry box, but he was pretty sure Sarah wouldn¡¯t get him any jewelry as he likely wouldn¡¯t wear it or would lose it.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t a ring is it?¡± Kyle joked. ¡°Are you proposing to me? This isn¡¯t very romantic for a proposal. It smells like you haven¡¯t even showered after coming out of the dungeon.¡±


    ¡°Just open the box and you¡¯ll find out.¡±


    Kyle was mighty suspicious of the smile that adorned Sarah¡¯s face. He didn¡¯t think she would pull something like when he turned twelve and she got him a box full of dog poop, but he didn¡¯t trust that smile.


    With some minor trepidation, Kyle unwrapped and opened the box Sarah had given him.


    It wasn¡¯t a ring inside. It was a small gem that Kyle had only seen in pictures before.


    ¡°This, this is an enhancement crystal. If you have one of these you should use it yourself. Why would you give it to me?¡±


    Everyone had four stats. Health, mana, physical power, and magic power. They all started at twenty for health and mana and two for physical and magic power. An enhancement gem could increase health or mana by ten points, or physical or magic power by one point. It was the same as when you leveled a skill up to level ten.


    Kyle looked at the gem in awe.


    ¡°I can¡¯t accept this. You risked your life going into the dungeon for this. You should use it.¡±


    Sarah just shook her head.


    ¡°Dungeon diving is not nearly as dangerous now. There is little risk if you have an experienced team. If you really want to pay me back for that, my birthday is in two months. You can give me one then.¡±


    With another radiant smile, and without leaving Kyle time to answer, Sarah skipped off towards the main building.


    ¡°See you! I¡¯m off to take a shower. I look forward to hearing how much that crystal will help you.¡±


    Despite him being older, he was always the one being swept up in her pace. It only took Kyle a moment to decide. He would get her two enhancement crystals for her birthday. With that resolution in mind, Kyle crushed the crystal in his hand increasing his base mana from twenty, to thirty, and his effective mana pool all the way up to one hundred fifty.

 Chapter Two - Assembling the Squad

    The rest of the two weeks until the dungeon school opened passed by in a flash. Kyle¡¯s time was mostly spent grinding his skills, but he also found time to spend with his family before he left and even found some time to hang out with Sarah. His efficiency soared, and if previously he was behind the curve in regards to stats and skill levels, he was most certainly above the curve now. As soon as he got his Mana Bolt skill to level ten and gained another ten base mana his progress practically exploded. The day before school started this is what his status was.


    Name: Kyle Anders


    Health: 20


    Mana: 50


    Physical Power: 2


    Magic Power: 2


    Skills:


    Exponential Mana Regeneration, level 5: Actively meditate to regenerate mana equal to .25 of the user¡¯s current mana with an additional .025 per skill level every five minutes.


    Mana Bolt, level 18: Fires a small bolt of mana that deals magic power plus one per odd level of this skill in damage. One second cast time. Costs two mana.


    Small Fireball, level 10: Fires a small fireball that explodes on impact. This fireball deals two times the user¡¯s magic power plus two per skill level in damage. Three second cast time. Costs five mana.


    Mana Pool Extension, level 3: Creates an extended mana pool that is attached to the user¡¯s original one. This extended Mana pool is equal to two times the original mana pool times this skills level. The extended mana pool can only be filled by active regeneration skills. The extended mana pool cannot be filled by mana crystals. The extended mana pool must be drawn from before the regular mana pool. The extended mana pool cannot have mana transferred to it or from it by any outside source and can only be channeled by the user.


    Kyle obviously put both the points he gained from his skills reaching level ten into his mana, as that synergized the best with his skills. With the increases he received, his effective mana was now 350! He could almost regenerate a hundred mana in five minutes. That was about twenty times as fast as when he only had twenty mana!


    While his skill levels and magic power were not particularly impressive, the fact that he could access 350 mana put him way above the average mage. His spells may not do as much damage as someone with a high magic power or a powerful spell, but he would be able to use many more spells over the course of a fight.


    I can just get more powerful skills later on anyway. There has to be some skills that no one wants because of their high mana cost.


    It was now the morning of their departure date, and Kyle and Sarah were busy getting their last minute packing done. Sarah¡¯s dad was driving them the hour and a half drive to the school while the other three kids who were also going were taking a separate car.


    The school they were going to was not really a school per se, and was more like a training camp sponsored by the government. When the Change occurred, all the worlds governments knew about it beforehand and made an announcement. Even the Pope made his own announcement. Because of that, and the fact that nothing really changed (if you discount dungeons appearing and people becoming super human), the world generally continued functioning normally.


    The biggest surprise was that most governments actually stopped being unable to finds their own ass with both hands and got something done. In the USA, that was the Office of Dungeon Expeditions, or ODE. It was a semi-autonomous organization that shared information about dungeons and created a common market to sell what was found inside. It was also vaguely associated with the armed forces, as if you had enough stat points or the right skills people were able to fly and lift cars which was obviously attractive to the military.


    If a dungeon spawned on a property you owned, you could join ODE and file for control over that dungeon. You were then given primary access to that dungeon and various other benefits, while having to share information and pay a small fee. The advantages to doing this far outweighed the disadvantages, as ODE was the biggest source of information and information is power.


    By joining you could also send young adults aged 16-25 to what ODE called ¡°dungeon schools¡±. They were basically training camps set up around a group of dungeons that were suitable to train people in. While you could grind your skills outside of a dungeon, doing so inside one gave you a much higher growth rate and monsters from dungeons also dropped things like skill and enhancement crystals and even artifacts.


    The school that Kyle and Sarah were going to was located in the national park closest to where they lived. There were five dungeons there. Dungeons had different levels depending on how dangerous they were, and the dungeons located at this national park were perfect for farming. They even had the requisite ¡°level zero¡± dungeon. Dungeons typically had a levels ranging from one to five, but there were two exceptions to this. First, level zero dungeons. These dungeons had almost no danger to them such that you could survive on only the base stats without any skills. They rarely dropped anything of value though except for some mana crystals. Then there were unleveled dungeons. These dungeons were deemed too dangerous to go into, and had a mortality rate of at least thirty percent.


    Kyle was now in the middle of a flurry of packing. Despite knowing the date was coming for a while, he had been too caught up in grinding his skills to adequately pack. That is how he found himself in his current situation: running around his room and making sure he had everything packed while Sarah stood around making disparaging comments and generally being more of a nuisance than a help. Kyle really wanted to fire back, but since Sarah had been packed over an hour ago, he didn¡¯t have any grounds to respond.


    Half an hour later they were in the car on their way. Most of the car ride was spent with Sarah¡¯s dad quizzing them on the different monsters that could be found in dungeons. His special skill enabled him to learn detailed information about monsters just by seeing them, so his knowledge was within the top echelons of humanity regarding dungeon fauna.


    When they finally arrived at the national park, Kyle was blown away by the changes that had been made. While he hadn¡¯t been there in a while, he was quite sure there was not what looked like a small subsection of a city in the middle of the park before. Kyle guessed that the reason they built up so much was so they didn¡¯t have to build out so they could preserve as much of the land as possible. It was still a national park after all. Some of the building were over twenty stories tall. Kyle had heard that there was supposed to be some four thousand people arriving this month, and next month there were supposed to be another four thousand or so.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    The traffic flow actually seemed intelligently designed, so despite the traffic, they found a spot in a parking garage in under five minutes. Just as Kyle was about to get out of the car, he felt someone grab hold of his hand. By the time he looked over, Sarah had already finished squeezing his hand and was getting out of the car.


    Kyle sat in the car for another few seconds, but once he got out he quickly caught up to Sarah and her dad, who knew where they were going as he had been here before to use his ability on the creatures in the dungeons. The general flow of pedestrians all seemed to be going the same way along the clearly marked route, but it was still nice to have someone along who knew the lay of the land.


    The check in was fast and painless. Sarah already had an ID card from when she visited another dungeon, but Kyle needed to make one. They were made by combining someone¡¯s skill and an artifact found in a dungeon. Once Kyle input his mana into the card, it showed his name, dorm, and his base stats. It would also update in real time and worked as a key to get into the various buildings.


    The housing was apartment style, with four bedrooms, two bathroom, a small kitchen area, and a communal lounge area. You could make requests for the housing, but otherwise they matched you based on a questionnaire about what position you would fill when entering a dungeon to form four person teams. Each four person apartment would have at least one frontline position, at least one ranged position, and when possible, someone with a crowd control or disable ability and someone with a healing ability. Those last two were rather rare though, so not every group contained them. Skill crystals with disables and healing abilities were some of the most expensive, even above passive enhancement skills which could be stacked.


    Kyle and Sarah had requested to be put in the same group, and the staff member who had checked them in said the other two people in their apartment had already arrived. For some strange reason, Sarah seemed impatient to meet their dorm mates and constantly nagged the other two to walk faster when going back to the car to get their luggage.


    After picking up their luggage, Kyle and Sarah headed off to their dorm while Sarah¡¯s father went off to take care of some business elsewhere since he was an associate professor because of his skill.


    Kyle finally found out the reason for Sarah¡¯s impatience when they reached their dorm. As soon as they opened the door Sarah jumped on one of the two people in the room and tackled her onto the couch. It took Kyle a few seconds to recognize her, but he soon realized it was Sarah¡¯s best friend Li who had moved away a few years ago. She had gone to the same school as Kyle and Sarah, but moved away during middle school. Kyle knew her, but he had not been as close to Sarah then, so despite Li being very close with Sarah, Li and Kyle were not more than acquaintances.


    Kyle and the other guy in the room stood there awkwardly for a few seconds witnessing the touching reunion before the other guy broke the ice.


    ¡°Erm, I take it those two know each other? Oh, my names Walt by the way,¡± said Walt as he held out his hand.


    Kyle shook his hand.


    ¡°Kyle. Nice to meet you. Yes, they do know each other. Li used to go to our school a while ago.¡±


    ¡°Guess I¡¯m the odd man out huh,¡± said Walt. ¡°So what are you two¡¯s specialties? Li said she has some sort of CC skill and I am a tank.¡±


    ¡°Right now my build is more of a traditional DPS mage,¡± Kyle responded. ¡°I have a lot of mana so I can machine gun out spells. Sarah is a frontline fighter but I think she is more DPS than tank.¡±


    ¡°How much mana is a lot? My special skill allows others to heal me with their mana, but it¡¯s not that efficient. Right now, it only heals me by three health for every ten mana put in.¡±


    ¡°Currently I only have an effective mana pool of three fifty,¡± Kyle said trying to be modest. ¡°But I should be able to raise that a lot more once I get some grinding in. I only got the skill recently.¡±


    ¡°Only three fifty!? Most mages have mana pools under one hundred! You must have a really good skill.¡±


    Walt was impressed. He started to drool in his mind thinking about how much he could level his skill up if Kyle healed him with that much mana.


    ¡°But how is your mana regeneration? With a pool that big it must take a while to fill it back up. It would suck if you had to invest a lot of mana healing me and then didn¡¯t have any to use for spells.¡±


    ¡°Actually, it¡¯s only because of my regen skill that my mana pool skill is any good,¡± Kyle said. ¡°My mana pool is only fifty normally, and because of the skills restrictions the three hundred pool I get from it can only be filled up by an active mana regen skill, can¡¯t be filled up by mana crystals, and needs to be drained before my normal mana pool. My mana regen skill combines well with the additional pool size though because it makes me regen mana faster the more I have in my pool. If I start with two fifty I can be back up to full in a little over five minutes.¡±


    Walt¡¯s jaw hit the floor. What kind of skill was it that could regenerate a hundred mana in five minutes? He quickly started doing some mental math.


    My skill heals one health for every ten mana invested per level of the skill. It seems to level based of off how much I am healed for, and has been hard to level based on the mana requirements. It took healing over five hundred health to get the skill to level three so, let¡¯s see. A hundred mana every five minutes. That¡¯s thirty health every five minutes, so every hour I could be healed for three hundred and sixty health. At that ratio it shouldn¡¯t be hard for my skill to hit level ten and get the ratio of health to mana even and get a stat point!


    In Walt¡¯s head, ¡®Kyle¡¯ had already been replaced by ¡®healbot¡¯.


    While Walt was having a mental orgasm thinking how much he could grow his skill, Li, who was eavesdropping on Kyle and Walt¡¯s conversation while having her own with Sarah, interjected with surprise; ¡°Wait! That means you can regenerate about a hundred mana in five minutes. What kind of crazy rate is that!? I have good mana regeneration skill, but I can only regenerate about thirty five mana in five minutes!¡±


    Li had reason to be surprised. As far as the internet knew, the best mana regeneration skill that anyone had was called Godlike Mana Regeneration, and it passively regenerated twenty mana per level of the skill in five minutes. Since it was fairly easy to get passive mana regeneration skills up to level ten, that skill should be generating at least a two hundred mana every five minutes. But that was the best mana regeneration skill in existence. Kyle¡¯s skill couldn¡¯t compare, right?


    Li advanced threateningly while Kyle was pressured into retreating, which was impressive since Li was a small Asian girl only a little over five feet while Kyle was almost six.


    ¡°Spill it,¡± she said.


    ¡°Now that I think about it, you never told me the specifics of your skills,¡± Sarah said.


    She looked expectantly at Kyle while cracking her knuckles. The message was clear.


    Kyle gulped.


    Even Walt came out of his skillgasm to stare intently at his healbot, demanding answers.


    Kyle instantly folded under the pressure of the three people before him.


    ¡°Okay, okay, I¡¯ll tell you guys. Just, please no violence.¡±


    That last part was mostly directed at Sarah. While she had calmed down a bit now that they were older, in the past Kyle had occasion to be part of numerous ¡°headlock training sessions¡±.


    Even though Sarah and Li had not seen each other in years, they were obviously still in sync as at the same time they both backed off and made puppy dog eyes, eagerly awaiting the scoop.


    Once it was clear Kyle would have time to talk, he continued.


    ¡°So I have two mana skills. My special skill is called Exponential Mana Regeneration, and I recently got a skill called Mana Pool Expansion. Exponential Mana Regeneration regenerates mana based of off how much mana I have in my pool. Currently, in five minutes it regenerates about thirty five percent of what is left in my pool. So when I only had twenty mana, it would take me over twenty minutes to go from ten to twenty mana. With me so far?¡±


    He got three nods in response. Kyle then continued.


    ¡°That is where Mana Pool Expansion comes in. It has a lot of limits on it that make it undesirable for others, but it is perfect for me. It increases my mana pool by two times my original pool times the level of the skill. So currently it is like my base mana pool is multiplied by seven.¡±


    Kyle watched nervously as the three in front of him digested what he just told them.


    Sarah was the first to react.


    ¡°I take it you all know about the tournament that is going to happen in three weeks and what the prizes are?¡±


    Seeing looks of confirmation in the other¡¯s eyes, Sarah continued.


    ¡°Well, I have a plan¡­¡±

 Chapter Three - Grinding

    Three weeks after the dungeon school¡¯s opening they were going to host a tournament for all the four person teams. The grand prize was ten thousand points. Points were used to buy things from ODE¡¯s market, which included things like mana crystals, enhancement crystals, and skill crystals. For instance, if you found a skill crystal in a dungeon that was not useful to you, you could trade it in at the market place and use those points to buy a different skill that was useful. The points were based off of mana crystals, which were the most common thing found in dungeons. Small mana crystals were worth one point, medium ones were worth five points, and large ones were worth twenty points.


    Even useless skills cost at least a hundred points, but expensive ones could cost thousands. Once they went above a thousand they were put up for auction, and the current record for the most expensive skill sold was over twenty thousand points.


    The grand prize of ten thousand points was a large sum, even when split between four people. Prizes went all the way down to the top five hundred teams, so there was no reason not to participate with a total prize pool of thirty thousand points.


    It was only within the last month or so that people had felt they had enough information and were strong enough to challenge dungeons consistently. This meant that most people¡¯s starting point in regard to their skills and stats was fairly even. Most of the students had three or four skills and not many had ones that had reached level twenty. Most also had not used more than a few enhancement crystals.


    After hearing from Kyle, Li, and Walt exactly what their skills and stats were, Sarah had spent a minute or so in thought and then started laughing maniacally. She then explained the details of her grinding plan.


    There were five dungeons that they had access to. One of them was level zero, and therefor was only really useful for grinding skills more efficiently and not for farming anything. One was level four and too dangerous, which left two level ones and a level two.


    While they might be safe running the level two, Sarah had concluded the rewards were not worth the risk. Most of the other students had the same thought, and so for now almost all the teams had decided on running the level one or zero dungeons.


    Dungeons were called dungeons because they took after dungeons in RPG¡¯s, not because they were underground or had skeletons hanging from the walls. They appeared as small piles of stone with a magical doorway in them that lead to an instanced area where you fought monsters. That area could be any sort of terrain and be any size. Because each group that entered was teleported to a different copy of the same area, multiple teams of people could use a dungeon at once, although not infinitely. About ten different instances of dungeons could be created on average, but that could be increased.


    That is where mana crystals came in. Mana crystals could be used to refill you mana pool, but they were also used in magitech crafting, enchanting, and growing dungeons. By feeding dungeons mana crystals you could increase the number of instances that were able to be formed.


    That was one thing that set apart the two level one dungeons, as one was vastly more popular than the other, and therefor needed more mana crystals. This caused the more popular one to have an entrance fee four time higher than the other one.


    The more popular one involved fighting nature wolves in a forest with a final boss battle against a giant nature wolf. The wolves gave decent drops and were weak to fire magic, so as long as you had a mage that knew fire spells that boss battle was not that hard. The giant wolf only had five hundred health and took double fire damage so it was quick and painless to take down if you could control his aggro adequately.


    The other level one dungeon involved fighting a giant ogre. There was no build up, you immediately spawned in a mountainous region and fought an ogre boss. Bosses gave better drops than regular monsters, so the giant ogre would be more efficient if not for the giant time sink involved.


    Unlike the wolf, the ogre had two thousand health and took half damage from all magic. He was big and slow though, so if that was the only thing then he would still be more efficient than the wolves. What made the ogre so inefficient, and even dangerous, was when he dropped to twenty percent health.


    When the ogre dropped to twenty percent health he became enraged, upping his magic resistance to eighty percent and giving him fifty percent physical damage resistance in addition to being generally faster, stronger, and more aggressive.


    With most boss monsters that had an enraged state, you just nuked them with magic to finish them off. But this was impossible with the ogre thanks to his massive resistances, so most teams that fought him ended up kiting him to whittle him down, which could take over an hour. Running an instance of the wolf dungeon would take around a half an hour so there was no comparison.


    That was what had Sarah so excited about. She had determined that it would actually be more efficient for them to run the ogre dungeon, so not only would they get better drops, they would also have to only pay a ten points to create an instance instead of a forty to create one. Granted, this wasn¡¯t huge as once you had formed an instance you could reset it and run it as many times as you wanted, but any advantage they would have over their competition would be helpful.


    Once Sarah had finished explaining her plan and everyone had agreed to it, they were all given half an hour to unpack and suit up. The dungeon school provided all the students basic armor to wear to enter the dungeon since most people didn¡¯t have their own. It was basic stuff, but even five armor was better than no armor.


    The ogre dungeon was only a ten minute walk from their dorm, and less than forty minutes later the four of them stood in from of the entrance. Part of the reason they all went with Sarah¡¯s plan was the fact that she was the only one among them who had been in a dungeon before. The other three were complete noobs, and despite level one dungeons not being dangerous and Sarah¡¯s plan seeming sound, they couldn¡¯t help but be a bit nervous.


    Once Sarah, who had become the defacto leader, paid the entrance fee for the dungeon, the party entered the portal. Kyle was not quite able to describe what it was like going through the portal. It felt both incredibly disconcerting, like being in two places at once, but at the same time as mundane as walking through a doorway.


    What awaited them on the other side was the waiting room. Every time you entered a dungeon, you would first enter a twenty, by twenty, by twenty foot room that acted as a sort of waiting area. This limited the amount of people who could enter and instance at once to how many could fit into this room.


    It was completely bare and had stone walls that as far as people could tell were unbreakable. In level one and level zero dungeons you could come back to the waiting room at any time, while in higher level dungeons you had to use an escape crystal to make a portal back. In all dungeons you came back here to wait for the instance to reset, but in higher level dungeons you generally left right away since it could take days to complete them, as opposed to level one dungeons which never took longer than a few hours.


    Sarah turned to address the other three.


    ¡°Okay team, if we stick to the plan there should be no problems. Remember, Li you save fifty mana to use your CC, Walt only take the first attack and then Kyle will heal you with fifty mana. Kyle, spend a hundred more mana on spells to whittle it down. I will pull its aggro and finish it off when it goes enraged and Li CCs it.¡±Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    The plan was rather simple, but it had taken Sarah showing the others her stats and skills to convince them that it would work.


    Name: Sarah Bailer


    Health: 50


    Mana: 40


    Physical power: 13


    Magic power: 2


    Skills:


    Improved Physical Speed, level 8: Doubles the effective speed of physical power and increases physical power by one per skill level.


    Basic Slash, level 23: Deals damage equal to your physical power plus one per skill level. No cooldown or cost. Cannot be combined with other active attack skills.


    Basic Health Regeneration, level 10: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Basic Mana Regeneration, level 12: Passively regenerates mana equal to ten plus the level of the skill every five minutes.


    Mana Blade, level 11: For ten mana you can form a blade made out of mana. This blade lasts for ten minutes. Any attacks made with the blade deal an additional one damage per skill level. It takes five seconds to summon a blade.


    Sarah¡¯s special skill, Improved Physical Speed, was well and truly broken. Any skill that improved a stat for every skill level was considered OP and was highly sought after, but that was not the part of the skill that was broken. Each person¡¯s physical power dictated the state of their body. In addition to physical power being used in many skills to determine physical damage, it also determined things like strength, reflexes, running speed, and jumping ability. What doubling Sarah¡¯s effective speed meant, was that instead of her having the speed of someone with thirteen physical power, she had the speed of someone with twenty-six physical power!


    Sarah¡¯s other skills combined were no slouches either. When she fought, she used two swords summoned with Mana Blade. Since she was so fast, it was trivial to control and attack with both of them. Anything she lacked in technique she could make up for with speed. If you added up all her skills together and assumed each blade was making one attack each second, it came out to to ninety-four damage per second!


    Of course, in reality her DPS was not nearly that high. Unlike firing spells from the backline, while fighting on the frontline you had to block and dodge, and if your weapon did not get a good strike in you would not deal maximum damage. Her damage was still ridiculous though and she could most likely out damage the other three members of the party combined.


    Once the party had regrouped, they stepped through another doorway in the stone wall to go to the actual dungeon.


    Despite Sarah having been in a dungeon before, she had never been in this dungeon, so when the party members entered the instance they were all treated to a spectacular view. They were up on a ledge slightly above a craggy valley In between towering mountains. The peaks towering above them combined with the twelve foot tall ogre walking in the valley below truly made the scene deserving of the descriptor fantastical.


    The four party members quickly got down to business though. They were here to grind, not sightsee.


    The battle went according to plan and was actually very anticlimactic. Walt went in first to tank a few hits so he could be healed, and after that Sarah took over the aggro with her DPS. Despite Kyle throwing mana bolt after mana bolt at it, he felt like the gap between their DPS was only widening. Even if the ogre took regular magic damage Sarah still would have been out damaging him.


    Walt was stuck chasing the ogre as it chased Sarah and hacking at its ankles and Li, because of her small mana pool, basically stood around and waited to use her skill.


    Sarah gave plenty of notice when the giant ogre entered its enraged state, so Li had plenty of time to cast her skill, Shadow Suppression.


    Shadow Suppression, level 4: Shadows prevent an enemy from taking any actions for a number of seconds equal to twice the user¡¯s magic power plus one per skill level. Cannot be used on the same target within 120 seconds. Costs 50 mana. Five second cast time. Can target anything within sixty feet of the user.


    Li had four magic power, so the ogre was suppressed for a total of twelve seconds. Sarah didn¡¯t even need half that time to kill it though since she could focus purely on offense.


    The four of them came and stood around the ogre¡¯s corpse.


    ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± Walt said. ¡°How is this thing even a boss? That took like, what, five minutes?¡±


    ¡°I make the best plans,¡± said Sarah with a smile on her face that could only be called smug. ¡°Just stick with me and I can power level you noobs.¡±


    Kyle didn¡¯t want to admit it, but Sarah had certainly carried them. Whether it be the plan, the tanking, or the DPS, Sarah had done it all.


    Li started jumping around impatiently.


    ¡°So what did it drop? A skill crystal? An enhancement crystal?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s find out,¡± Sarah said.


    Sarah placed her hand on the corpse and concentrated for a second. The corpse then shimmered briefly, before disappearing and leaving a large mana crystal in its place.


    The disappointment they felt was palpable.


    ¡°Eh, it could have been a medium crystal,¡± Sarah said.


    As expected of a veteran of dungeon expeditions, she was used to the monster drops while the other three only had skills and enhancements in their eyes.


    ¡°C¡¯mon, back to the waiting room we go!¡± Sarah commanded. ¡°If it only takes that long to run we can do it a bunch more times before dinner. The faster we regen our mana the faster we can run this again!¡±


    They ended up running the dungeon eleven more times before deciding to head to dinner before coming back, with each run taking about fifteen minutes total with fighting time and resting time. The drops they got were two skill crystals, one of which Sarah insisted was a regeneration skill, two enhancement crystals, and a little under a hundred points in mana crystals if you factor in the ten points of crystals they had to pay to enter the dungeon.


    When the party got out of the dungeon they all excitedly went to get the skill crystals identified. Just by holding them you could get a feeling for what their skill did, like if it was magical or physical, but for specifics you needed to get them identified with a skill or artifact. Sarah, as the one with the most experience, had bet on a mana regeneration skill and some sort of defense skill. Since no one else had held very many skill crystals they were not knowledgeable enough to disagree with her.


    When they arrived to get their crystals identified there was only one group ahead of them so the wait wasn¡¯t too long. They all excitedly stepped up to the window while Sarah handed the skill crystals over to the woman behind the counter. If you were experienced you could often tell what kind a skill it was by holding the crystal, but it was impossible to determine the power level with anything other than a proper identification or absorbing the skill.


    The woman behind the counter took both the crystals to examine.


    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s see what you have here.¡±


    The crystal in her hand was briefly enveloped in a blue glow.


    ¡°This is a Basic Mana Regeneration skill. I trust you all know what it does?¡±


    The four before her nodded, a bit gloomy. They all had mana regeneration skills so the crystal was useless to them.


    The woman smiled.


    ¡°Judging by your expressions this crystal is useless for you. You can trade it in for a hundred points if you don¡¯t need it.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, just do that,¡± Sarah said. ¡°Also while you¡¯re at it, we would like you to convert these mana crystals to points.¡±


    Sarah put the mana crystals on the counter. It had been decided beforehand that Sarah would be the one to hold the groups shared earnings.


    ¡°Certainly,¡± the woman replied with a smile. ¡°Wait just a minute while I put this is.¡±


    After she finished some typing on her computer she turned to the other skill crystal.


    ¡°Oh! This one is more uncommon,¡± she said. ¡°It is called Basic Blocking Damage Reflection. And, let¡¯s see¡­ It looks like you can trade it in for three hundred points. Let me print out a skill description for you.¡±


    The woman relatively quickly printed out a piece of paper and handed it to Sarah. Everyone crowded around her to read the skill description.


    Skill name: Basic Blocking Damage Reflection


    Effect: When using an active blocking skill, you return damage equal this skills level as reflected damage. The reflected damage ignores all armor and resistances. This effect cannot be stacked with another passive blocking damage reflection skill.


    After reading the skill, everyone turned to Walt. Even though he didn¡¯t have a blocking skill yet, they were not uncommon and since he was the tank, he would most likely be the one to get a blocking skill first, if the others got one at all.


    ¡°What do you think Walt? Sarah said. ¡°The skill is basic and you don¡¯t have a blocking skill yet, but skills like these are great for tanks.¡±


    Walt went into the tank. He wanted the skill, but currently it would be useless to him, and if they had another three hundred points they could buy a different skill.


    After thinking for a bit, Walt said, ¡°Why don¡¯t we hold on to it for the moment. There is no reason for me to learn it yet anyway. That way, if we need to trade it in for some reason we still can.¡±


    The woman had been listening to their conversation so she quickly finished their transactions. The team was then left with a skill crystal that was currently useless, 197 points, and two enhancement crystals.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go eat dinner and while we eat we can talk about what to do with the enhancement crystals,¡± Kyle said.


    Everyone agreed, and after asking directions from the woman behind the counter, they headed off to eat dinner.

 Chapter Four - Powering Up

    The group of four made their way over to the cafeteria. It was located in the building they were in, so it was close by. On the walk over, Kyle did all he could to stop himself from calculating how much mana he would have if he used the two enhancement crystals. Watching his mana increase was like an addiction, and he kept having to slap himself mentally to stop feeding that addiction.


    Unfortunately for him, others had different plans.


    While they were walking over Sarah sidled up to him.


    ¡°Oh man, look at these lovely enhancement crystals,¡± Sarah said as she admired the two crystals she was holding. ¡°Imagine all the things you could do with them. You could increase your health, you could increase your physical power, you could increase your magic power, you could even *gasp* increase your mana.¡±


    Kyle was trying his hardest not to look at the crystals Sarah was holding, so of course his eyes were completely focused on them.


    In the background Li and Walt were snickering uncontrollably, although Kyle was oblivious to this. He was practically being led by the nose as Sarah held the two crystals in front of him.


    Kyle swallowed. He must have been really hungry because he seemed to be salivating quite a bit.


    ¡°Let¡¯s not be hasty here,¡± Kyle said. ¡°We still *gulp* need to discuss what to do with these crystals.¡±


    At this point Li had collapsed against the wall and was desperately trying to contain her laughter. Walt was making that awkward twitching face where you are trying to hold your laughter in, because it is polite to do so, but everyone knows you¡¯re laughing anyway.


    Luckily no one else was in the hallway with them to witness Kyle¡¯s misery. But if there had been anyone else, they would have seen Kyle¡¯s eyes going back and forth as Sarah tossed the crystals between her two hands.


    ¡°I don¡¯t really need these enhancement crystals, since I am so much better than you scrubs,¡± Sarah said, holding in laughter. ¡°But you three could all use them. Hmmm. Having a good tank is very important. If the tank isn¡¯t there to draw aggro, then the party would definitely be in trouble. But it¡¯s also important to have good CC. After all, if the tank is floundering, someone can just CC the enemies and save the situation.¡±


    By this point they had all stopped walking and Li was on the floor gasping for breath. Walt appeared to by trying to calm down by taking long deep breaths, but instead it looked like he had a bad case of the hiccups.


    Sarah¡¯s lips continued to twitch upwards.


    ¡°Actually, those two things seem to be the only things we are lacking. I can¡¯t think of anyone else that¡­¡±


    This was the point that Sarah lost it.


    Kyle had the same look on his face that Mickey had on his when Sarah put him down after running around with him held over her head. The undisguisable yearning was all too apparent.


    Kyle finally realized that the other three were rolling on the floor with laughter and he flushed a deep, dark red.


    By the time the other three had stopped laughing Kyle had almost fully calmed down. You couldn¡¯t be friends with Sarah and not get used to stuff like this after all.


    Once she got up, Li finally took pity on Kyle.


    ¡°Oh boy, I haven¡¯t laughed that hard in ages. But seriously, I think we are all in agreement that you should get the enhancement crystals. We have all done the math. I am claiming dibs on a good magic skill if we get one though.¡±


    Sarah nodded while Walt said, ¡°Yeah, if you (translation: healbot) have more mana it also helps out the rest of us too (translation: helps me level my skill).¡±


    Sarah brought the enhancement crystals over to Kyle.


    ¡°While we will need to increase Li¡¯s mana to at least a hundred, but in the short term giving the enhancement crystals to you helps the party the most,¡± Sarah said.


    Suspecting a trap, Kyle cautiously reached out to take the crystals. No trap was forthcoming though, and Sarah gave Kyle the crystals. Under the expectant gazes of the group, Kyle absorbed both crystals, putting both points into mana and raising his maximum effective mana up to 490.


    Before I could regenerate about a hundred and fifty mana during our ten minute rest times in the dungeon. Now I should be able to regenerate over two hundred!


    It took until the cafeteria for Kyle to get the goofy grin off of his face. He had completely forgotten about how Sarah had made fun of him. The joy of increasing his stats vastly outweighed any embarrassment he had felt.


    The cafeteria more than satisfied the group¡¯s expectations. After eating his aunt¡¯s cooking, Kyle suspected that the cafeteria here had someone with some sort of cooking skill. Lasagna just didn¡¯t taste that ungodly good.


    While in the cafeteria, Thomas and the two from back home came to say hello. Out of the three of them, Derrick had been the only one to have gone into a dungeon before coming here since he had a rare healing skill. They quickly left to get back to farming though. They were all over twenty, so a bit older than Kyle and Sarah which is partly why they did not interact that much.


    After finishing dinner, Kyle and his group set off back to go ogre farming. On the walk over, Sarah and Li sectioned themselves off and started whispering to each other. Kyle knew that they had been in touch over social media, but talking to someone in person is very different than chatting online. Kyle suspected they were talking about boys based on how Sarah was acting. While Kyle and Sarah were very close, that was one thing that she would never talk to him about for some strange reason.


    Kyle and Walt quickly fell into talking about video games after discovering they both played a popular online fighter. Unsurprising, really, given its popularity. They started comparing their abilities to characters in the game. Kyle thought he was most like a blue skinned mage character who had lots of mana, and Walt insisted he was like a gemstone paladin character. Kyle was skeptic, but Walt¡¯s healing ability even had crystal in its name, so Kyle eventually relented.


    They quickly reached the dungeon and started farming the ogre again. Since Kyle had more mana, he was able to heal Walt with eighty mana instead of fifty, and it seemed to make a difference as Walt¡¯s skill gained a level before the night was out.


    Kyle was hoping his Mana Pool Extension would level up, but only his Mana Bolt leveled up to nineteen. That was still exciting, as getting a skill to level twenty gave you two skill points, unlike the one you got for level ten. With all the mana Kyle had now, he might even be able to quickly level Mana Bolt to level thirty and get three skill points.


    The four of them ended up defeating the ogre another ten times before calling it a night.


    They only got one skill crystal and one enhancement crystal from the runs. The skill crystal ended up being Basic Health Regeneration, which Walt ended up learning since he did not have a health regeneration skill even though he was a tank.


    Kyle insisted Li get the enhancement crystal, as he had received the previous two and he would have felt guilty if she did not get anything despite being a lynchpin of their ogre fighting strategy.


    It had been a long day, so after coming back they all just wanted to shower and go to bed.


    Kyle normally had trouble falling asleep anywhere other than in his own bed, but he was so tired he fell asleep before he could finish calculating how much mana he would have when he leveled up his Mana Bolt and Mana Pool Extension.


    They decided the next day would be a rest day. Li and Walt did not have the advantage of living with Sarah¡¯s dad, so their knowledge of dungeons was lacking compared to Kyle and Sarah. There were a few lectures today about dungeons that the two wanted to attend, so dungeon diving was called off for the day.


    Sarah decided she was going to solo the ogre a few times, since even though it would take longer she could still handle it by herself.


    Kyle decided to go grind his skills in the level zero dungeon. He felt like Mana Pool Extension was close to leveling up. For anyone else, it would truly be a junk skill and would take them forever to level up, since it seemed to level based on mana regenerated in the extended pool. Mana Pool Extension and Exponential Mana Regeneration truly were a match made in heaven.


    The level zero dungeon was a bit farther away, so Kyle had to wait for a trolley to take him there. The level one ogre dungeon and the level two dungeon were closest to the cluster of buildings, but the other three needed a trolley system in place to take dungeon divers there expediently.


    There were more people in line to enter the level zero dungeon than the ogre dungeon, but the line moved quickly and there was no entrance fee. Kyle soon entered the stone room and then entered the dungeon proper.


    This level zero dungeon was a slime dungeon. When entering it you spawned on a hill overlooking a field full of colorful slimes. It was truly reminiscent of a noob starting zone.


    The slimes were not at all violent and only had ten health. There were about two hundred of them scattered around the field, so if Kyle could fire one Mana Bolt per second and hit his target one hundred percent of the time, it should only take him less than four minutes to clear them all.


    He didn¡¯t have that much mana though, so in actuality it took him more than twenty minutes to clear all the slimes with his regen time factored in. It was still a phenomenal clear time. The slimes really only dropped mana crystals though, and from his first clear of the two hundred slimes, Kyle only got four small mana crystals.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Still, grinding was grinding, and the allure of what lay ahead when his skills leveled up overcame any disappointment Kyle had over the abysmal drops.


    A little over four hours later, when Kyle really should have left already to go get lunch, he finally had some progress. First his Mana Pool Extension reached level four, and shortly after with the extra mana he had to work with, Mana Bolt reached level twenty.


    Kyle now had 810 mana. And with that, a potential mana regeneration rate of over two hundred in five minutes.


    Since Kyle was late to lunch, he missed the others. He ended up just wolfing down the ungodly good food and heading back to the dungeon.


    He didn¡¯t level up anything else before dinner, but during his final run before he had to leave, he found a skill crystal. He figured it was probably some junk skill so his expectations weren¡¯t high when he went to get it identified.


    Except it wasn¡¯t a junk skill. It was anything but.


    He stared at the paper the woman behind the desk had given him.


    Li is going to be very happy.


    Skill: Dual Target


    Effect: When the user activates a skill with only a single target, this skill allows the user to select an additional target. If two target are selected, the skill used costs three times as much mana. If Dual Target is used to select an additional target, the skill used to target cannot use Dual Target¡¯s effect for ten minutes. This cooldown time is reduced by ten seconds for every level of this skill.


    Dual Target had never been sold in the market, so it could be put up for auction starting at a thousand points. Kyle figured the skill would be put to better use in Li¡¯s hands though. If she used it during the tournament, she could put two people out of commission for over ten seconds! Granted, unless she had over a hundred fifty mana, she would then be out of commission too, but that was a small price to pay.


    By the time Kyle got to the cafeteria, the other three were already at a table. Before Kyle even had a chance to start eating, even before he had sat down really, Sarah picked up on the fact that something was up.


    ¡°Looks like level zero dungeons are not useless after all,¡± Sarah said. ¡°What did you get? I¡¯m guessing a skill crystal, right?¡±


    Once Kyle fully sat down he wordlessly took out the skill crystal and the printed description before setting it in front of Li. It then took them a bit to fully read and digest the skill, especially Walt who had to read it upside-down.


    Li was stunned, while Sarah had a shit-eating grin on her face as she sang under her breath, ¡°gonna stomp some noobs, yeah, gonna stomp stomp some noobs.¡±


    Walt just let out a long, slow whistle.


    ¡°I think the skill would be better in your hands than if I sold it,¡± said Kyle. ¡°And now you owe me so I can take all the good spell skills we find.¡±


    Li very slowly reached out and absorbed the skill crystal. For a minute it looked like she was going to take the situation seriously, but then with a yell of ¡°thank you!¡± she almost jumped across the table to give Kyle a hug, drawing more attention to them than Kyle was comfortable with.


    It turned out that Sarah¡¯s run had not been fruitless either, as while she didn¡¯t get any enhancement crystals, she did get a skill crystal that Walt had already used. It was called Firm Mana Shield, and allowed the user to create a shield made out of mana much like Sarah¡¯s Mana Blade skill.


    After dinner, the group killed the giant ogre ten more times, although as if to make up for their good luck before the best thing it dropped was another Basic Mana Regeneration skill.


    The next three days were spent grinding the ogre dungeon. Since Li acquired Dual Target, Sarah, who was by this point the actual group leader and their planner, had decided they could up the date of trying the level two dungeon. The rewards for level one and level two dungeons were completely different, so the sooner they could safely and efficiently farm the level two dungeon, the better chances they would have in the tournament.


    While level one dungeons only really gave basic skills and more generic skills, level two dungeons were where you could start finding skills like passive enhancements that stacked and rare skills that could increase your stats. Artifacts could only be found in level four and up dungeons, but artifacts were banned in the tournament because of how overpowered they were.


    Enchanted gear was good, and highly sought after since it was so rare for enchanting skills to drop, but artifacts were in a whole other league. Someone found a necklace artifact that doubled the wearer¡¯s regeneration. That meant both health and mana regeneration, not just one.


    On their fifth day at the dungeon school, Sarah had the group stop grinding and instead rent a regeneration room and work on their teamwork and pure skill grinding. Regeneration rooms could be rented for ten points an hour, and while you were in them, you regenerated an extra ten health and mana every five minutes.


    When they had been fighting the ogre, they didn¡¯t really need any teamwork. Sarah basically did everything. That wouldn¡¯t work for the level two dungeon though. Not only would it take at least two days to run it, but they could not leave without completing it or using an escape crystal. They would also be facing intelligent enemies.


    The level two dungeon was a kobold dungeon. That may not sound that scary, but the kobolds used magic. So instead of kobolds mindlessly charging at you in a small horde, it would be kobolds firing spells at you from a cliff while they were protected by mana shields.


    So Sarah set aside this day to make sure their teamwork was up to snuff and their skills were usable. In addition to utilizing the regeneration room, everyone but Kyle was going to use mana crystals to constantly refresh their mana so they could spam skills.


    Small mana crystals restored fifty mana, medium ones restored two hundred, and large ones restored a full six hundred mana. Unfortunately, if a mana crystal restored more mana than your mana pool could fit, the extra mana went to waste. So they made sure to have a lot of small mana crystals to use since no one had a pool big enough to make use of the medium crystals, let alone the large ones.


    Everyone had made major gains the past few days, and by the end of their training, Sarah was confident they could easily handle the dungeon. There were two reasons for this.


    The first was one of the hardest things about this particular level two dungeon was the boss fight. You had to fight a pair of kobold shamans that buffed up two kobold warriors and let them do the fighting. They were both able to heal, and were both able to cleanse CC, so Li having Dual Target was the main reason Sarah felt so confident of their success. If you did not take them both the shamans out at the same time, the one you did not target could heal and buff the other one.


    The second reason was the shielding skills they bought for Kyle. They both cost the party a pretty penny, but the skills should make the run much safer than it would be otherwise. The first skill was one that allowed Kyle to invest more mana into a shielding skill to shield for more. This was an obvious combo with his large mana pool. The second skill was one that allowed him to use a shielding skill that normally he could only use on himself, on allies instead.


    The combination of those two things made Sarah sure of their success when she looked over their stats and skills that night.


    Tomorrow they would no longer challenge a safe dungeon they could easily farm.


    No, tomorrow, they challenged a real dungeon.


    Name: Kyle Anders


    Health: 20


    Mana: 140


    Physical Power: 2


    Magic Power: 2


    Skills:


    Exponential Mana Regeneration, level 9: Actively meditate to regenerate mana equal to .25 of the user¡¯s current mana with an additional .025 per skill level every five minutes.


    Mana Bolt, level 26: Fires a small bolt of mana that deals magic power plus one per odd level of this skill in damage. One second cast time. Costs two mana.


    Small Fireball, level 20: Fires a small fireball that explodes on impact. This fireball deals two times the user¡¯s magic power plus two per skill level in damage. Three second cast time. Costs five mana.


    Mana Pool Extension, level 5: Creates an extended mana pool that is attached to the user¡¯s original one. This extended Mana pool is equal to two times the original mana pool times this skills level. The extended mana pool can only be filled by active regeneration skills. The extended mana pool cannot be filled by mana crystals. The extended mana pool must be drawn from before the regular mana pool. The extended mana pool cannot have mana transferred to it or from it by any outside source and can only be channeled by the user.


    Basic Health Regeneration, level 6: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Fortified Mana Shield, level 14: Creates a shield around the user that blocks magic power plus X plus one per skill level damage, with X being the mana spent to cast this skill minus ten. Costs ten plus X mana. One second cast time. Expires in five minutes.


    Ally Shielding, level 7: Instead of shielding the user, you may instead use a shield skill to shield a target less than ten feet per skill level away. The shield costs an additional twenty mana to cast and shields the ally for an additional two damage per skill level.


    Name: Sarah Bailer


    Health: 80


    Mana: 50


    Physical power: 16


    Magic power: 2


    Skills:


    Improved Physical Speed, level 10: Doubles the effective speed of physical power and increases physical power by one per skill level.


    Basic Slash, level 27: Deals damage equal to your physical power plus one per skill level. No cooldown or cost. Cannot be combined with other active attack skills.


    Basic Health Regeneration, level 12: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Basic Mana Regeneration, level 15: Passively regenerates mana equal to ten plus the level of the skill every five minutes.


    Mana Blade, level 16: For ten mana you can form a blade made out of mana. This blade lasts for ten minutes. Any attacks made with the blade deal an additional one damage per skill level. It takes five seconds to summon a blade.


    Extended Mana Blade, level 10: Creates an extended blade of mana from the user¡¯s weapon. The extension length is up to one foot per level of this skill. Costs five mana per one second duration. This skill is passive and can be combined with other active and passive skills.


    Name: Li Chang


    Health: 20


    Mana: 150


    Physical power: 2


    Magic power: 4


    Skills:


    Shadow Suppression, level 7: Shadows prevent an enemy from taking any actions for a number of seconds equal to twice the user¡¯s magic power plus one per skill level. Cannot be used on the same target within 120 seconds. Costs 50 mana. Five second cast time. Can target anything within sixty feet of the user.


    Mana Regeneration, level 18: Passively regenerates mana equal to 20 plus the level of the skill every five minutes.


    Mana Bolt, level 12: Fires a small bolt of mana that deals magic power plus one per odd level of this skill in damage. One second cast time. Costs two mana.


    Basic Mana Shield, Level 14: Creates a shield around the user that blocks two times magic power plus one per skill level damage. Costs ten mana. One second cast time. Expires in five minutes.


    Dual Target, level 1: When the user activates a skill with only a single target, this skill allows the user to select an additional target. If two target are selected, the skill used costs three times as much mana. If Dual Target is used to select an additional target, the skill used to target cannot use Dual Target¡¯s effect for ten minutes. This cooldown time is reduced by ten seconds for every level of this skill.


    Basic Health Regeneration, level 4: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Name: Walter Drussel


    Health: 120


    Mana: 50


    Physical power: 2


    Magic power: 2


    Skills:


    Self-Healing Crystal, level 11: Creates a crystal above the user¡¯s head that after five seconds heals the user for one health per skill level per ten mana channeled into the crystal. The user or others are able to channel mana into the crystal. Spawn time, instantaneous. Cannot be reactivated for 30 seconds once activated. No cost.


    Basic Mana Regeneration, level 14: Passively regenerates mana equal to ten plus the level of the skill every five minutes.


    Basic Health Gain, level 8: Gain ten health for every odd level of this skill.


    Basic Health Regeneration, level 12: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Firm Mana Shield, level 8: Creates a shield made of mana that can be used to block. When blocking, prevents an additional ten plus one per skill level damage. Costs ten mana to summon. The shield lasts for ten minutes. It takes five seconds to summon the shield.


    Basic Shield block, level 5: Block an attack with your shield. When blocking an attack this way, you prevent an additional ten plus skill level damage. No cost.


    Basic Blocking Damage Reflection, level 3: When using an active blocking skill, you return damage equal this skills level as reflected damage. The reflected damage ignores all armor and resistances. This effect cannot be stacked with another passive blocking damage reflection skill.

 Chapter Five - Counting Sheep and Counting Kobolds

    Kyle lay awake in the early hours of the morning. He had fallen asleep soon after he went to bed, but woke up around 2:00 AM and had been tossing and turning ever since. It was now almost 5:00, and he still showed no signs of falling back to sleep. At this point it might not even be worth it, since they were supposed to be ready to leave by 8:00.


    Every time Kyle tried closing his eyes he kept remembering the last time he saw his dad.


    Right before he went into a level two dungeon.


    At the time, Kyle hadn¡¯t been worried. After all, if anyone would come out, it would be his dad.


    Instead, his dad was the only one who didn¡¯t come out.


    So Kyle lay awake in bed, eyes wide open.


    It didn¡¯t help that is wasn¡¯t his bed. This bed belonged to someone else. It belonged to the person who had been living his life as Kyle Anders.


    Kyle¡¯s mom had disappeared when he was younger. She left him with Carl and Lisa while she said she was going to do some shopping and never returned.


    Kyle was three.


    Kyle¡¯s aunt and uncle raised him until he was five while his dad was still on tour with the army. When his dad came back, he raised Kyle by himself until Kyle turned eleven when they then moved in with his aunt and uncle and Kyle¡¯s dad joined the bounty hunting group his uncle was part of.


    Kyle loved his aunt and uncle and Cousin Mickey, but his dad was a superman in his mind. With him gone¡­ The world felt a lot grayer.


    But Kyle did still have family, and Kyle¡¯s dad didn¡¯t raise someone who couldn¡¯t go on without him.


    It was just so much harder.


    So Kyle lay awake in bed, sure in his conviction of entering the level two dungeon and growing stronger. Strong enough where he didn¡¯t have to worry that someone wouldn¡¯t come back.


    Kyle eventually got up and started to work out. It didn¡¯t make much of a difference when just one more point of physical power could make him able to life fifty more pounds, but the repetition was comforting. Kyle did the workout routine that his dad had designed. It hadn¡¯t made his dad go bald, but Kyle was sure there was no better set of exercises.


    Kyle worked out without rest until around 7:00, when he hopped in the shower. He always jumped in when it was still cold, and then let it warm him up.


    By the time Kyle got out of the shower there was no trace of another sleepless night. The only sign something was amiss was when Sarah came out of her room, Kyle grabbed her hand and squeezed it for a good five seconds before letting go.


    Sarah squeezed his hand back before she let go continued to get ready.


    Walt nearly made them miss their scheduled departure date, which didn¡¯t really need to be a set time, but Sarah insisted, and the leader¡¯s word was law.


    And so, three perfectly awake people and one half asleep one set out to have breakfast at the perfectly normal time of 8:00 AM.


    Walt quickly woke up after eating only a bite of the ungodly good breakfast. The meal passed relatively quickly, with Li regaling the other of her last high school play. It didn¡¯t end well.


    On the last night, one of the tech crew was sick. The director had a heart smaller than the Grinch and wouldn¡¯t hear any excuses. It just so happened that the sick crew member was responsible for being on the catwalk and manipulating the props during an important scene. Apparently he got dizzy, and instead of birds flying across the stage, he spewed vomit down onto the female lead. Her scream nearly shattered the windows according to Li.


    After breakfast was finished the group went over to check in for the level two dungeon and pick up the gear they needed. To enter the level two dungeon you needed to pass certain requirement and show that you understood the dangers yada yada yada. The process went much smoother since Sarah was with them and she had been in a level two dungeon before.


    There were rumors that there were enchanting skills that could create fantasy style bags of holding, but Kyle and his group did not have access to any if they existed. Sarah¡¯s plan for the transportation of gear involved Kyle and Li, the backline, carrying large packs while Sarah and Walt, the frontline, were unencumbered. Sarah¡¯s basic formation revolved around Walt protecting the two mages while they attacked from the backline while Sarah went forward to deal with any front line the enemy had and potentially reach their backline.


    This was made possible by Kyle¡¯s shielding ability. Kyle could easily give Sarah a four hundred health shield and she could then ignore defense and, in her own words, ¡°crush my enemies while I drive them before me and hear the lamentations of their women¡±.


    Kyle did not want to think about what the lamentations of kobold women would sound like.


    The kobold dungeon was actually the closest one to the main area of buildings, so once they had filled out all the paperwork, paid the admission fee, and suited Kyle and Li up with hundred pound bags of camping equipment, they were ready to go.


    It was kind of comical to see the five foot tall Li carrying a bag almost as big as she was. If it wasn¡¯t for the physical power stat, physics would have made her fall over based on distribution of mass.


    While mana and magic power were, well, magic, it was health and physical power that were really the stranger of the stats. As Kyle understood it, health and physical power did not only manifest themselves in your body.


    Instead, they acted more as a sort of invisible power armor of sorts. Like how Li, who was carrying more than her weight, was not over balanced despite being top heavy. Even if she was the strongest human alive physics should have made her fall over as she had no leverage to keep herself upright.


    Yet, somehow she was standing upright. Her own mass and weight were the same, but outside mass and weight interacted with her differently.


    It was the same for health. When Walt took a hit form the ogre they fought, the difference in mass should have dictated that he go flying. In reality, he only lost some health and didn¡¯t even bruise, let alone move from where his feet were planted.


    The same mystical force allowed Sarah to move at speeds that really should not be possible when calculating air resistance. She was also able to stop on a dime, too, which also made zero sense.


    Kyle had long given up on questioning things like that. He was just happy that he could shoot glowing blue bolts from his hands.


    A little over five minutes later the group was in front of the kobold dungeon entrance. Sarah showed the people monitoring the entrance their entrance permit, and into the dungeon they went.


    Kyle was the last one in, and he took a long deep breath before following his teammates through the portal.


    Sarah called a huddle in the stone room before they entered the dungeon proper.


    ¡°Okay team,¡± Sarah said with a rare serious expression on her face. ¡°This is not like the level one dungeons. Level two dungeons are different every time you enter them, so we are entering an unknown situation in enemy territory. While individually the kobolds are not a threat, if they manage to separate us or surprise us we could be in serious trouble. Remember, I will be in front scouting, Walt behind me, then Li, then Kyle. Kyle, at the first sign of trouble or when I engage hit me or whoever is in trouble with a two hundred mana shield. I will tell you if I need more and use your own judgment for others, but always try and save at least five hundred mana for true emergencies.¡±If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Kyle now had an effective mana pool of 1,540, so saving at least five hundred mana wasn¡¯t an issue.


    Pep talk done, the four members put their hands together and with a shout of ¡°go team¡± they entered the dungeon proper.


    You always spawned in a safe zone when entering a level two dungeon. Safe zones were areas where monsters wouldn¡¯t normally go unless you directly lured them there. There were various safe zones scattered around the dungeon, which was important since sleeping outside a safe zone left you vulnerable to attack.


    So while Kyle was aware that there would be no monsters in sight right after entering the dungeon, he was still on full alert.


    Or he tried to be, but ended up following the rest of his party in gaping at their surroundings.


    None of the four had ever been to a rainforest, but even if they had it still might not have prepared them for this. They were in a small clearing in what could only be called a rainforest, but only because there was no grander name to call it by.


    The first thing they noticed were the sounds. While modern life could be noisy, what with traffic and the like, that noise was nothing like this noise.


    Omnipresent was the slow fall of rain through the mist. It created an almost magical fog that echoed the sounds of numerous bird and insects, blending them together to create a sound that had more pure life in it than anything the four of them had ever heard before.


    The second thing the noticed were the colors.


    Deserving of being someplace not on earth, the colors of the giant trees and large ferns and flowers were generally those you could find on earth, except they weren¡¯t. The browns, instead of being just brown, had some mystical shade of their own that almost reminded Kyle of a chromatic tint. The pinks, purples, blues, and greens were just so much more.


    Li slowly walked over to a purple and blue flower adorning a fern type plant that had fronts taller than she was.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t tell me it was going to look like this,¡± Li said in a voice suffused with wonder.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know,¡± Sarah replied.


    They all knew it was going to be a rainforest type terrain inside the dungeon, but they hadn¡¯t known just what that meant. Since most technology did not work in dungeons, there were no pictures. And how could they have known? Each of them didn¡¯t know how they would use words to describe what was in front of them to someone who hadn¡¯t seen it themselves.


    Sure you could describe the Redwoods to people, but even if you had seen pictures, it wasn¡¯t the same as the real thing.


    Walt was the first one to break out of their nature induced reverie. They were not here to sightsee after all, even if the fauna was breathtaking. They were here to kill some kobolds.


    It took Sarah mentioning growing his mana pool for Kyle to snap out of his wonder induced haze. By this point, Li and Walt had already given up on Kyle zoning out while focusing on something. Sarah had already known about that trait of his, seeing as she used it to tease him mercilessly.


    It was time to focus on the dungeon though, and losing focus could easily mean your life here, as Kyle was all too aware of.


    Once everyone was settled in and focused, the group moved off in their prearranged formation. The rainforest made it so that despite being in the middle of a forest, the area was actually rather open. The forest floor had very little plant life most likely due to the large trees creating the forest canopy far above.


    Their goal in defeating the dungeon involved finding and crushing a large stone that the two kobold shamans and their guards were protecting. While other monsters could still drop crystals, the real treasure lay in crushing the stone, as not only did clearing a dungeons win condition offer considerably superior rewards, but the kobold shamans themselves were likely to have good drops.


    The trouble lay in finding the win condition. While a level one dungeon like the giant ogre one was a sprint, higher level dungeons were more of an endurance race. You had to search through a forest that changed for each team entering it, all while avoiding monster ambushes. While the average clear time for this kobold dungeon was two days, that didn¡¯t mean you couldn¡¯t take a shorter or longer time. The shortest recorded time was only three hours, the group spawned with the boss right outside the safe zone, while the longest was over five days.


    As the group made their way through the trees in search of kobolds, generally if you followed the kobolds you could find the shamans, they encountered their first monster. Sarah moved, and it was over before the others even noticed it had started.


    A panther the size of a horse had jumped down from the trees above them towards Li. Sarah had moved and intercepted it midair and beheaded it.


    While the attack most likely would not have killed Li, it was still a wakeup call. Dungeons were dangerous. Most of the higher level dungeons had a set amount of health and physical power you needed to enter them, even for mages, as you needed to be able to survive or avoid surprise attacks from enemies or traps.


    Kyle had over 1,500 mana, which meant he could shield himself for over 1,500 damage with his shield skill. That was all useless if he couldn¡¯t see the attack coming though.


    ¡°I told you attacks often come from above,¡± Sarah admonished. ¡°People have even been ambushed by kobolds in the trees raining magic down on them.¡±


    They continued on, this time with more than one member keeping an eye up above.


    The next panther that attempted an ambush was met by glowing blue bolts of death.


    It took another two hours of searching the forest with multiple ambushes by monsters other than kobolds, including a pack of crazily aggressive clawed monkeys that threw Walt into a fit by reminding him of The Wizard of Oz, before they found their first kobold.


    It was by itself, and was harvesting some sort of berry from a large yellowish fern. The berries looked vaguely like apple sized blueberries.


    Sarah snuck around behind it with a shield from Kyle, and once she was in position, Kyle and Li blasted it with magic while Sarah pincer attacked it. Or she tried to, as the kobold didn¡¯t have enough time to put up a shield so Kyle and Li¡¯s magic put it out of its misery.


    Now that they knew there were kobolds around, the group was even more cautious.


    Their caution seemed unwarranted though, as the only other kobolds they found were a small group of three that they took care of using the same method, although this time Sarah got a chance to join in on the action.


    After a short lunch break they still seemed unable to find any large groups of kobolds, with only two more groups of four or less appearing and numerous attacks by animals, including what looked like a giant chinchilla.


    Li at first wanted to try and befriend it when Sarah said she saw a giant chinchilla. But by giant, Sarah actually meant over fifteen feet tall, so Li had to put her chinchilla cuddling plans on hold when the giant ball of fluff and very sharp teeth quickly turned violent. It dropped a skill crystal though, so the group was very happy with the encounter.


    They found a safe area to have dinner in, and Sarah made the executive decision that they should spend the night there rather than risk wandering around in the dark. While it was easy to tell if you were in a safe zone from the feeling it gave, there were no visual cues it existed so finding them was a matter of luck. They could have picked up a light spell for their mages to explore in the dark, but Sarah admitted she forgot about one as they didn¡¯t actually need to move around in the dark, and using a light spell at night only drew monster to you.


    After dinner, the group did some skill grinding which payed off for Kyle as Mana Pool Extension leveled up bringing his total mana up to 1,820. Despite it being more difficult to level at higher levels, it actually seemed to be leveling faster since the higher leveled it was, the more mana Kyle could regenerate.


    It eventually got late enough that the group turned in for the night. They had to two large two person tents, one for the girls and one for the boys.


    Kyle lay awake listening to Walt¡¯s snoring. He tried imagining he was in a tent somewhere on earth, just out on a regular camping trip. It didn¡¯t help his visualization that Kyle had never actually been overnight camping before.


    After a while he quietly left the tent and sat outside with his back to a tree, just listening to the sound of the forest.


    Not even five minutes later, Sarah came out of her tent. She immediately saw Kyle sitting against the tree and came over to stand in front of him.


    She stood there a few second while the two looked at each other before she sat down next to him and held his hand.


    They sat like that for a long time, blanketed by the quiet hum of raindrops through the mist.


    Kyle woke up to a scant few rays of morning light piercing the canopy above. Sarah was already up and preparing breakfast. Kyle must have eventually fallen asleep last night without knowing it.


    He slowly got up and went to help Sarah prepare breakfast. Not a word was said between them.


    Their mutual understanding only needed silence.


    Li got up a few minutes later and then Kyle had to go and wake Walt up, which involved a long drawn out process that ended with Sarah coming into the tent and kicking Walt¡¯s stomach, shaving off a few HP in the process.


    After a quick breakfast, the group set off.


    Three panther attacks later, and Sarah called for a halt.


    ¡°Kyle, can you give me a 200 point shield?¡± Sarah said. ¡°I think I hear something ahead and I want to check it out.¡±


    Kyle complied, and Sarah stealthily moved forward through the trees to check out the noise that the other couldn¡¯t hear with their lower physical power stat, which passively boosted your senses.


    A few minutes later Sarah came back.


    ¡°You¡¯re going to want to see this for yourselves. Follow me quietly. We are going to move forward and then scale a tree,¡± Sarah told the group.


    The other three slowly followed Sarah until they reached her designatedtree. By this point the other three could hear what sounded like shouts and yells coming from the forest ahead of them.


    Sarah took some rope out of Li¡¯s pack and effortlessly scaled the tree in front of them. To Kyle it looked like she almost ran up it she went up so fast.


    Sarah secured the rope and the other three then followed her up, though not nearly as quickly.


    She then lead them through the lower canopy sixty feet from the forest floor while they advanced towards what now sounded like a celebration ahead of them.


    They eventually reached a good vantage point for what Sarah wanted them to see.


    Below them in a large clearing was the corpse of a giant chinchilla monster. This one looked like it was at least twice the size of the one they fought previously though. Surrounding it were legions of kobolds who appeared to be having some sort of celebration and were feasting on the monsters flesh.


    ¡°I counted,¡± Sarah said. ¡°And there are over three hundred kobolds down there.¡±


    And beyond the corpse of the giant chinchilla, guarded by two kobold shamans and their beefy guards, lay an altar with a large glowing blue stone sitting right in the center.

 Chapter Six - One Woman Army

    Kyle stared blankly at the kobolds.


    Over three hundred? How are we supposed to fight that many at once? I listened to Sarah when she said to focus on getting a shielding spell, but it feels like in this situation I need some AOE (area of effect) skills instead.


    While the kobolds individually were fairly weak, they were powerful in groups. They only had about fifty health and their spells only dealt around twenty damage on average, but 300 kobolds firing at once could deal 6,000 damage. Now not all the kobolds down there could use magic, but there were still the two kobold shamans to consider.


    Walt spoke up in a small voice, ¡°I don¡¯t think I can tank that many kobolds.¡±


    ¡°Of course you can¡¯t,¡± Li responded. ¡°It would be suicide for us to fight them head on. You have a plan though, don¡¯t you Sarah?¡±


    ¡°Indeed I do,¡± Sarah answered Li with a devilish smile on her face. ¡°Numbers are only effective if you can use them. The only real problem is the kobold shamans, since you need to be within sixty feet to use your CC.¡±


    Sarah then outlined her plan.


    ¡°First we need to get rid of the small fry. It will be troublesome to fight the shamans with the other kobolds attacking us. The small fry aren¡¯t a problem though, as I can take care of them myself. The plan is simple. Kyle shields me for his maximum amount and I rush into the kobolds so I am surrounded by them. That way they can¡¯t all use their magic for fear of hitting the other kobolds. I will slaughter my way through them, avoiding the shamans and their minions, while you three follow after I have gotten rid of most of them. You two will need to use mana crystals to refresh your mana whenever you run out. Walt, you need to shield the other two once all the small fry are killed and get Li close enough to the boss so she can use her skill. Once she does that, I can easily kill the two shamans and then we can mop up the two guards. Easy peazy.¡±


    ¡°Absolutely not!¡± shouted Kyle. ¡°That plan is crazy! You will get yourself killed!¡±


    Li and Walt were shocked. They had never seen Kyle get upset, let alone contradict Sarah. At this point they basically assumed he would listen to whatever she said. Sure, he had his own opinions, but they had never seen him flat out reject something Sarah said without suggesting an improvement or asking for clarification.


    The two looked on wide eyed at Kyle and Sarah who were currently having a staring contest. At first it looked like Kyle was winning, but it quickly became apparent that he was gradually wilting under Sarah¡¯s stare that only seemed to get more intense as time went on. It was like they were having an argument with their eyes alone, and Sarah was clearly winning.


    Kyle eventually caved, and in a very small voice, barely above a whisper, said, ¡°We can use your plan.¡±


    Li and Walt exchanged a look. There was clearly more going on than what was on the surface, but they kept their noses out.


    Sarah then coordinated exactly what was going to happen, like when the other three should enter the fight and from where. Kyle was very quiet throughout the whole discussion. Once they had finalized the plans and everyone was in position, the assault on the Kobold horde began.


    Kyle, Li, and Walt watched from the canopy as Sarah quickly penetrated the kobold ranks. Only the ones directly around her knew what was going on, but they were quickly silenced by her blades.


    Once she was in far enough, Sarah turned her attention from covering distance and keeping a low profile, to slaughter.


    And a slaughter it was.


    Kyle had never got a chance to see Sarah¡¯s new skill Extended Mana Blade in action. None of them had as they had never fought enough enemies to warrant its use. That had changed now.


    Instead of Sarah using short swords like she normally did, now Sarah¡¯s blades randomly extended up to ten feet and sliced through multiple kobolds at the same time. It was a massacre.


    Thanks to Kyle¡¯s large shield she did not have to worry about taking damage, and she kept using mana crystals to replenish her mana so she could continue using her skill. As the only one who had been in a dungeon before coming to the dungeon school, Sarah was the only one not using the dungeon school¡¯s basic armor that they provided for everyone. Sarah¡¯s armor has special slots in it to store mana crystals that she could then absorb mid battle without taking them out, which had looked awkward when Kyle had seen her putting them in, but in practice allowed her to abuse her skills without worrying about her mana pool.


    Kyle knew that Sarah was fast. He was not incredibly knowledge about everyone current power levels or how strong was strong, but he did know that doubling your speed sounded like a lot.


    And it was.


    In all the battles they had done so far, there had not been a real need for Sarah to go all out. Sure she could use her increased speed to attack more quickly, but that was not its best use.


    Her speed¡¯s best use was mobility, and Sarah used it to the fullest.


    It seemed as soon as the kobolds around her fell dead she was already somewhere else, killing other kobolds. By this time the kobold shamans had noticed someone was slaughtering their brethren, but the spells they fired at Sarah were almost entirely ineffective. The spells ended up hitting other kobolds instead of their intended target who had since moved on.


    A few dozen dead kobolds later and the kobolds had started to mount a resistance and were more organized and shielding themselves as well as shooting spells at Sarah constantly. It looked like a scene straight out of an anime where you could see the line of bullets, or in this case spells that trailed behind the action hero as they systematically dismantled the incompetent opposition by running circles around them. Once the kobolds started shielding themselves it took Sarah a bit longer to kill them, but that longer was more like two hits instead of the instakill it was before.


    The other three were supposed to join in the fray once a little over half the kobolds were killed, but they ended up joining when there were barely any kobolds left since they could not take their eyes off the goddess of the battlefield before them.


    Her prowess came at a cost though. She was still taking damage, and were it not for Kyle¡¯s shield she would have long been dead. Kyle was able to feel how much strength the shield had left, and when it had lost about two thirds of its original strength, Kyle snapped out of watching the dance of death and dragged the other two with him to join the fray.


    Once the full party started fighting the kobolds started to be routed. Monsters would never retreat, but there were so few kobolds left that they could no longer utilize their strength of numbers and were slowly but surely picked off.


    This part of the plan called for Walt, Li, and Kyle to make their way towards the two kobold shamans so that Li would be in range to use Shadow Suppression. Unfortunately, this attracted the ire of the shaman¡¯s beefy guards, who were about two feet taller than the other four foot kobolds, and the guards moved to intercept Kyle¡¯s group.


    This is where the tank started to shine. So far, Walt had felt pretty useless in their dungeon runs. He dealt almost no damage and there were no monsters for him to tank since he was not able, or needed, to tank the giant ogre so he was basically being carried by the other three.


    But their current situation clearly demonstrated why tanks were vital to team¡¯s success. Kyle and Li were unable to protect themselves unless they constantly used shield skills on themselves, but that was fighting a losing battle. Walt on the other hand was able to use his basic armor and blocking skills to absorb a great deal of the damage that was being directed his way.


    When a shield spell took an attack, it lost health equal to the attack amount. Someone¡¯s armor was only calculated in when they themselves were taking the attack, not the shield spell.


    The same was not true when you were using an active blocking skill though. This meant that Kyle could shield Walt for his full regular mana pool of 140, and then use the mana he filled back up with mana crystals on attacks. This was because instead of the shield taking the full amount of about forty damage from the two kobold guard¡¯s attacks, it took that damage minus the current active blocking amount of thirty-three.


    Walt was not able to block every single attack, as he had to block the spells of the two shamans in addition to the attacks of the two guards, but the damage his blocking skill was preventing was massive.


    Walt might have been fine if all he had to do was block the two guards, but he had to push forwards so Li would be within sixty feet of the shamans. Walt was not that good at eyeballing distance, but based on the general area Sarah said they needed to be in, they were about ten feet away.


    That ten feet was at the same time very close, and oh so far.


    To push the guards back Walt, needed to take extra damage that he could have normally blocked. It was not like the guards could be killed either, as the kobold shamans were healing and buffing them if they got into a rough spot. At this point Li and Kyle didn¡¯t even direct any of their skills at the guards and just targeted the last of the remaining kobolds, as attacking the guards was an exercise in futility.


    Kyle almost ended up running out of mana crystals to shield Walt. To get the last few feet, Kyle and Li needed to team up where Kyle was focused on shielding him and Li put mana into Walt¡¯s Self-Healing Crystal skill.


    They finally manage to get close enough though, and Li shouted ¡°Now¡± at Sarah, who then started running straight at the two shamans in preparation to kill them when they were suppressed.


    Recognizing the incoming threat, the two kobold shamans changed the target of their spells to Sarah. In the five seconds it took Li to cast her spell, the remainder of Kyle¡¯s shield on Sarah went from a little over five hundred, to less than one hundred.


    At that point Li¡¯s skill went off and the shamans were toast under Sarah¡¯s DPS. The kobold guards followed soon after with no shamans to help them and Sarah free to introduce her blades to their faces.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    It was the group¡¯s most intense fight so far and it was also by far their closest. Had Li not been able to get in range to target the kobold shamans in time the best case scenario would have been them running away. The worst case scenario was a party wipe.


    When the last guard finally fell, everyone basically collapsed where they stood. It was exhilarating and tiring knowing you were incredibly close to defeat yet still managing to pull through.


    Once Kyle recollected himself, he stood up and marched over to stand in front of Sarah with his arms crossed.


    ¡°Too close,¡± he said.


    Sarah slowly nodded.


    ¡°We will train up our skills a bit before we do this again,¡± Sarah responded.


    It was indeed a close battle, but they had persevered and emerged victorious, and as they say, to the victor go the spoils.


    And spoils there were indeed. To see if a monster dropped anything, you had to touch it and will the corpse to fade away. This process obviously took time with over three hundred corpses strewn across the large clearing. The party¡¯s biggest surprise was they were able to loot the giant chinchilla corpse, which gave them a whole two enhancement crystals.


    Once they finished looting the corpses, they shattered the glowing stone and returned to the stone room to take stock of their swag.


    There was a basic wooden treasure chest in the stone room that held their rewards for completing the dungeon, and despite having picked up three skill crystals, two enhancement crystals, and numerous mana crystals in the dungeon, the chest contained the true valuables.


    It had three escape crystals, which were sold in the market for about four hundred points. They had needed to buy one before entering the dungeon in case they had to run away and could not complete it. It also had twenty-seven enhancement crystals. Twenty-seven! Sarah ended up needing to slap Kyle as he almost started to hyperventilate looking at them, although Li and Walt weren¡¯t much better. It also had four skill crystals, but without getting them identified, they could not be sure if they were any good.


    After counting everything up they left the dungeon and headed over to get the skill crystals identified. They had decided that they were most likely to distribute the enhancement crystals fairly evenly, but that anyone who got shortchanged on the skill crystals would get more.


    Walt ended up needing to carry the two tents in his hands so they could make room for all the mana crystals in the backpacks. Mana Crystals were fairly small, about the size of a large strawberry, but they had over six hundred points worth of them.


    The plan was to turn all their gear in, eat an early lunch, and then figure out the distribution of the loot back in their room. Sarah was the one who was going to take the skill crystals to be identified, and the other three would not know what they were until they all looked at the descriptions in their room.


    Kyle was skeptical of Sarah¡¯s ability to keep silent throughout the ungodly good lunch, but she uttered not one peep. She was smiling a good deal more than usual, but other than that nothing was said.


    Kyle was mostly silent during the meal. He was ruminating on their recent dungeon experience. Sure, they had come out alive, but it had been a close thing. Much closer than Kyle was comfortable with.


    I need to get stronger. A lot stronger. If I had more mana Sarah¡¯s shield wouldn¡¯t have fallen that low.


    Kyle avoided thinking any further. They had come out alive, and he would get stronger. End of story. Further down that train of thought lay demons, and Kyle had enough demons already.


    It was with mounting tension and excitement that they made their way back to their room. Sarah insisted that she was going to take a shower before the big reveal, so everyone else ended up taking one as well.


    Freshly clean and with full stomachs, Kyle, Li, and Walt all gathered around the table in the main area and waited for Sarah to slowly lay out the skill descriptions for them to read.


    ¡°Two of the skills were useless to us,¡± Sarah said. ¡°But I think you will like these other five.¡±


    Name: Basic Magic Power Gain


    Effect: Gain one magic power for every odd level of this skill.


    Name: Improved Blocking Passive


    Effect: Whenever you activate a blocking skill, you block an additional damage per skill level. This skill is passive and can stack with all other skills, including ones with the same name.


    Name: Rapid Air Bullet


    Effect: Fires a condensed bullet of air that deals magic power plus one per skill level in damage. Costs five mana. No cast time.


    Name: Vitality Enforced Strike


    Effect: Empower a strike with your own vitality to deal an additional ten plus one per skill level damage. This skill can be stacked with other non-health sacrificial skills. Costs twenty health.


    Name: Basic Health Gain


    Effect: Gain ten health for every odd level of this skill.


    Once Kyle read over all the skills it was obvious which one he wanted the most.


    There are only two magic related skills, so if I give Li Basic Magic Power Gain she should be fine with me getting Rapid Air Bullet. I can make better use of it anyway. Let¡¯s see, that leaves three skills. Walt already has Basic Health Gain, so that should probably go to Sarah. I think the last two are most suited for Walt.


    It ended up working out just as Kyle thought it would. They had a total of twenty-nine enhancement crystals from the dungeon, so Kyle ended up with eight and everyone else got seven. They also decided that they would spend some of their points on getting some utility skills, like a light skill, in case they needed them.


    Kyle insisted they spend the next three days skill grinding before entering the level two dungeon again, and Sarah and the others agreed. Sarah admitted that she may have been a little optimistic about their strength before.


    The next three days were profitable. They were more than profitable in fact. The group alternated time between grinding their skills against the ogre and the slimes and grinding them in the regeneration room. It was almost trivial to take down the ogre now, but other groups had started entering the dungeon so the entrance fee was a lot higher.


    On the third night any reservations Kyle had about going back into the kobold dungeon were assuaged by the growth the grinding session had gained the party. If they had been able to survive in there before, then they were certainly able to now.


    Name: Kyle Anders


    Health: 100


    Mana: 210


    Physical Power: 2


    Magic Power: 2


    Skills:


    Exponential Mana Regeneration, level 12: Actively meditate to regenerate mana equal to .25 of the user¡¯s current mana with an additional .025 per skill level every five minutes.


    Mana Bolt, level 30: Fires a small bolt of mana that deals magic power plus one per odd level of this skill in damage. One second cast time. Costs two mana.


    Small Fireball, level 20: Fires a small fireball that explodes on impact. This fireball deals two times the user¡¯s magic power plus two per skill level in damage. Three second cast time. Costs five mana.


    Mana Pool Extension, level 7: Creates an extended mana pool that is attached to the user¡¯s original one. This extended Mana pool is equal to two times the original mana pool times this skills level. The extended mana pool can only be filled by active regeneration skills. The extended mana pool cannot be filled by mana crystals. The extended mana pool must be drawn from before the regular mana pool. The extended mana pool cannot have mana transferred to it or from it by any outside source and can only be channeled by the user.


    Basic Health Regeneration, level 10: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Fortified Mana Shield, level 23: Creates a shield around the user that blocks magic power plus X plus one per skill level damage, with X being the mana spent to cast this skill. Costs ten plus X mana. One second cast time. Expires in five minutes.


    Ally Shielding, level 12: Instead of shielding the user, you may instead use a shield skill to shield a target less than ten feet per skill level away. The shield costs an additional twenty mana to cast and shields the ally for an additional two damage per skill level.


    Rapid Air Bullet, level 30: Fires a condensed bullet of air that deals magic power plus one per skill level in damage. Costs five mana. No cast time.


    Basic Ball of Light, level 20: Creates a small ball of light that hovers above the user¡¯s head. The ball of light lasts for five minutes plus one minute per skill level. Costs five mana. Two second cast time.


    Name: Sarah Bailer


    Health: 120


    Mana: 80


    Physical power: 27


    Magic power: 2


    Skills:


    Improved Physical Speed, level 12: Doubles the effective speed of physical power and increases physical power by one per skill level.


    Basic Slash, level 31: Deals damage equal to your physical power plus one per skill level. No cooldown or cost. Cannot be combined with other active attack skills.


    Basic Health Regeneration, level 15: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Basic Mana Regeneration, level 18: Passively regenerates mana equal to ten plus the level of the skill every five minutes.


    Mana Blade, level 20: For ten mana you can form a blade made out of mana. This blade lasts for ten minutes. Any attacks made with the blade deal an additional one damage per skill level. It takes five seconds to summon a blade.


    Extended Mana Blade, level 16: Creates an extended blade of mana from the user¡¯s weapon. The extension length is up to one foot per level of this skill. Costs five mana per one second duration. This skill is passive and can be combined with other active and passive skills.


    Basic Health Gain, level 4: Gain ten health for every odd level of this skill.


    Basic Awareness, level 3: Improves your ability to notice things you may not have otherwise. Each level of the skill increases your passive perception by a very small amount.


    Name: Li Chang


    Health: 60


    Mana: 200


    Physical power: 2


    Magic power: 13


    Skills:


    Shadow Suppression, level 10: Shadows prevent an enemy from taking any actions for a number of seconds equal to twice the user¡¯s magic power plus one per skill level. Cannot be used on the same target within 120 seconds. Costs 50 mana. Five second cast time. Can target anything within sixty feet of the user.


    Mana Regeneration, level 21: Passively regenerates mana equal to 20 plus the level of the skill every five minutes.


    Mana Bolt, level 15: Fires a small bolt of mana that deals magic power plus one per odd level of this skill in damage. One second cast time. Costs two mana.


    Basic Mana Shield, Level 20: Creates a shield around the user that blocks two times magic power plus one per skill level damage. Costs ten mana. One second cast time. Expires in five minutes.


    Dual Target, level 2: When the user activates a skill with only a single target, this skill allows the user to select an additional target. If two target are selected, the skill used costs three times as much mana. If Dual Target is used to select an additional target, the skill used to target cannot use Dual Target¡¯s effect for ten minutes. This cooldown time is reduced by ten seconds for every level of this skill.


    Basic Health Regeneration, level 10: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Basic Magic Power Gain, level 4: Gain one magic power for every odd level of this skill.


    Basic Ball of Light, level 10: Creates a small ball of light that hovers above the user¡¯s head. The ball of light lasts for five minutes plus one minute per skill level. Costs five mana. Two second cast time.


    Name: Walter Drussel


    Health: 220


    Mana: 60


    Physical power: 6


    Magic power: 2


    Skills:


    Self-Healing Crystal, level 20: Creates a crystal above the user¡¯s head that after five seconds heals the user for one health per skill level per ten mana channeled into the crystal. The user or others are able to channel mana into the crystal. Spawn time, instantaneous. Cannot be reactivated for 30 seconds once activated. No cost.


    Basic Mana Regeneration, level 17: Passively regenerates mana equal to ten plus the level of the skill every five minutes.


    Basic Health Gain, level 9: Gain ten health for every odd level of this skill.


    Basic Health Regeneration, level 15: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Firm Mana Shield, level 12: Creates a shield made of mana that can be used to block. When blocking, prevents an additional ten plus one per skill level damage. Costs ten mana to summon. The shield lasts for ten minutes. It takes five seconds to summon the shield.


    Basic Shield block, level 13: Block an attack with your shield. When blocking an attack this way, you prevent an additional ten plus skill level damage. No cost.


    Basic Blocking Damage Reflection, level 6: When using an active blocking skill, you return damage equal this skills level as reflected damage. The reflected damage ignores all armor and resistances. This effect cannot be stacked with another passive blocking damage reflection skill.


    Improved Blocking Passive, level 6: Whenever you activate a blocking skill, you block an additional damage per skill level. This skill is passive and can stack with all other skills, including ones with the same name.


    Vitality Enforced Strike, level 10: Empower a strike with your own vitality to deal an additional ten plus one per skill level damage. This skill can be stacked with other non-health sacrificial skills. Costs twenty health.

 Chapter Seven - What Money Can Buy

    With the advent of magic, technology had taken a back seat. People still used it of course, but if you used a magic skill while holding your phone, chances are it would fry the phone unless it was a Nokia or something. The internet was still a prime place to share information though, and so when Kyle checked his social media by habit when he woke up, he saw the news story that was plastering headlines.


    The government had released an announcement regarding skills. Someone had learned fifty skills, and when they tried to learn another one, they were unable to. Fifty skills was apparently the limit. It was not all bad news though, as you could still learn new skills once you had fifty, you just had to replace and forget an old skill to learn the new one. All progress would be lost on the old skill and you could never relearn it, so you could not mix and match skills whenever you wanted to.


    Most of the comments were surprised about the fact that someone had fifty skills, after all the average person still only had their starting skill. Kyle was a little bit surprised about the person reaching fifty skills, but it was not completely unreasonable. He was not at all surprised about the skill limit though. After all, there were passive skills that you could stack indefinitely, so if you could have infinite skills it would get kind of silly. Walt could be running around with five hundred passives that gave him a bonus to block which didn¡¯t seem to fit in with the effectiveness of leveling skills and most skills not stacking.


    Kyle finally got out of bed as today was the day he and his group were going to try challenging the kobold dungeon after their three days of training and, once again, Kyle had slept poorly the night before a second level dungeon run.


    The reason was slightly different this time around. Kyle was salty. Kyle liked spamming his Mana Bolt skill, but he had not been able to stop thinking about what it would be like if it did not have a cast time. When he saw Rapid Air Bullet, he got his wish.


    Except he didn¡¯t. When Rapid Air Bullet said it didn¡¯t have a cast time, Kyle was picturing instantly materializing a wave of hundreds of bullets to strafe his enemies with. Instead, he had to actively cast the skill to use it, and he could only do that ten times in a second.


    He had immediately gone online to do some research and found that this problem was not limited to him. Rapid Air Bullet seemed to be the most common no cast time skill and others had already taken to the internet to post their ire.


    Among people who had the spell, ten seemed to be the soft limit for casting skills in one second. Some people were able to able to go up to thirteen, and some could only reach eight. Someone had posted a comment that said once they had increased their physical power they were able to cast one more per second. They believed physical power also increased things like brain processing power by a slight amount, and this had enabled them to cast the skill and additional time.


    That was currently no use to Kyle, but he did come across one piece of helpful advice. When most people used a skill, especially one to fire a projectile, they used some sort of physical visualization aid. When Kyle shot his skills, he held out his arm and made a finger gun. Sarah thought he looked dumb, but it helped Kyle to aims his skills better.


    The post that Kyle read was about someone who had the same experience, but then had an interesting thought. ¡®If I can fire ten skills from one of my arms, why can¡¯t I do it from both of my arms at the same time?¡¯ It turned out that you could indeed fire skills off with both arms. People had theorized that it was more of a mental block that stopped you from firing off more skills than an actual one, and this just seemed to confirm that hypothesis.


    This method doubled the rate of fire for no cast time skills. Of course, Kyle had then taken it a step further.


    He had taken his shoes and socks off, laid on the ground on his back with both his hands and feet in the air, and tried to fire skills from both his hands and feet at the same time. It didn¡¯t work.


    Kyle was extremely glad that people no longer carried their phones with them. Sarah was rolling on the floor with laughter at Kyle¡¯s attempt, which she thought made him look like a constipated turtle, and she kept lamenting that she had not gotten a recording of it.


    Kyle decided to put off seeing if he could fire skills from his dick until Sarah was on another continent.


    While Rapid Air Bullet was still Kyle¡¯s most powerful spell for DPS, he was still hoping for more from it. It didn¡¯t help that he had wasted three hours last night trying to level it from level thirty to thirty-one with no success. A quick internet search later revealed that level thirty seemed to be a soft cap for skills. They went above that, but you needed to do more than just use the skill on repeat to make them do so.


    The party was vastly more powerful than their first level two dungeon dive so Kyle decided to focus on more important things than lacking some extra power with his skill. The dungeon was still dangerous, and they needed to focus.


    The main reason Kyle felt a lot safer now was because of the party¡¯s increased health. Thinking back on the dungeon run, the most dangerous spot was not actually the boss battle. It was the first ambush where Li almost got jumped on by a panther.


    Neither Kyle, nor Walt, nor Li had been able to react to the panther, and had Sarah not intercepted it midair, Li could have been toast. While the panther only dealt an average of twenty damage with its attacks so theoretically Li¡¯s five armor she had been wearing would have kept her safe, it likely would have done more with its pouncing damage factored in. And even if she had not died from one attack, who is to say Sarah could have killed it before it could get a second attack off?


    We should be much safer with our increased health now. Not even the kobold shamans can one hit Li, and she has the least health amongst all of us. I was complacent with my shield skill. Carl always used to talk about all the ambushes he ran into in the dungeon. We were probably lucky we ran into all the kobolds gathered in one spot. Otherwise they might have ambushed us from the trees and caught us off guard.


    That was then, and this was now, and Kyle was someone who refused to make the same mistake twice. He was just hoping that the next time he made a mistake in the future it would not be quite so life threatening.


    As had become normal when they needed to wake up by a certain time, once Kyle failed at waking Walt up Sarah stepped in and a few kicks later Walt was up and they were on their way.


    During breakfast Li and Kyle were discussing whether having more magic power made your skill level faster, when Walt suddenly slammed his hand on the table and said in a loud voice, ¡°What is up with this ungodly good food!?¡±


    One of the people at the table behind theirs turned around to answer Walt.


    ¡°You don¡¯t know man?¡± the guy said. ¡°The head cook in the cafeteria had the Ungodly Good Cooking skill. As long as she is involved with making the food it is ungodly good.¡±


    Walt just stared dumbfounded at the guy who answered him. Seeing Walt¡¯s expression, Kyle, Li, and Sarah all burst out laughing.


    ¡°Ungodly Good Cooking skill,¡± Walt mumbled under his breath. ¡°Of course it is. It¡¯s obvious. Stupid me for asking.¡±


    ¡°We all didn¡¯t know,¡± Kyle reassured Walt. ¡°I was starting to wonder myself why the food was always so ungodly good.¡±


    ¡°I knew,¡± Sarah replied. ¡°My dad told me. I was hoping Kyle would break first and ask about it, but alas, the fates are cruel.¡±


    Kyle was thankful that whatever Sarah¡¯s plot was, it was now ruined. While Kyle and Sarah got along great, Kyle was not a masochist without any self-esteem, and sometimes Sarah¡¯s practical jokes went a little too far.


    After breakfast on their way over to pick up their gear for the kobold dungeon, Li started lamenting over not knowing what kind of skills she wanted to get.


    ¡°You guys have it easy,¡± Li said. ¡°Walt is clearly a tank, and the two of you can DPS fairly well, while Kyle¡¯s shield skill also makes him good at buffing people.¡±


    After considering her statement regarding Sarah, Li amended her thoughts.


    ¡°Actually saying you can only DPS fairly well doesn¡¯t do it justice. You¡¯re like a goddess of the battlefield, a winged harbinger of victory, a seraph of unvanquished authority! And here I am stuck as a CC bot.¡±


    ¡°Well our ¡®I¡¯m just a CC bot¡¯ is going to win us the tournament,¡± Sarah confidently said. ¡°Taking two people out of the action at once will practically guarantee us the win. Then you can just ride my wings of ¡®unvanquished authority¡¯ to victory.¡±Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you try and get some sort of chain lightning spell?¡± Kyle said offhandedly. ¡°I think Thomas¡¯s chain lightning spell is only single target. You could then use that to abuse Dual Target. Anything with a single target would work really. I don¡¯t have a high damage spell right now and there are some monsters that I could barely even scratch because my individual spell damage is not enough. You are also already increasing your magic power so maybe any nuke would work.¡±


    Li adopted the thinker pose and very obviously thought it over. She then came over and attempted to put her arm around Kyle¡¯s shoulder, but because of the height difference ended up kind of awkwardly patting his back.


    Not perturbed in the slightest, Li said, ¡°You just might have something there, Kyle, ol¡¯ buddy, ol¡¯ pal. You have now graduated from a turtle to a tortoise,¡± referring to Kyle¡¯s attempt at four limbed casting.


    ¡°Um, what¡¯s the difference?¡± Kyle nervously asked.


    ¡°It means you have successfully evolved from an ocean dwelling crustacean,¡± Sarah chimed in with a smirk.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Walt, joining the fun. ¡°We might be giving him too much credit. I heard the Galapagos tortoises have been repopulating at a fantastic rate. A tortoise might be too raised up if you know what I mean.¡±


    Walt waggled his eyebrows suggestively while Sarah and Li failed to keep a straight face.


    Kyle just ignored them all.


    Ten minutes later they were once more in front of the kobold dungeon, although this time hopefully more prepared. Kyle felt more prepared at least.


    The process of entering a dungeon had long become rote, and while Kyle was still impressed by the rainforest around him when he entered, it was time to get hunting.


    The group adopted the same formation they had used their first time entering the dungeon, with Sarah, Walt, Li, and then Kyle.


    Kyle made sure to keep an eye above right from the start. But while looking at the canopy above them was incredibly beautiful, what with its branches covered in twisting flowering vines, it seemed to be all for naught. No attacks came their way, and instead their only company was the omnipresent slow fall of rain through the mist.


    When they stumbled upon a safe zone Sarah called for an early lunch.


    They slowly gathered into a circle while Kyle distributed the food in his pack.


    ¡°Is it just me,¡± Kyle said, ¡°Or is it more eerie when we are not being attacked?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, the silence is kind of oppressing,¡± Walt added. ¡°It¡¯s kind of like a ghost town.¡±


    ¡°Then we just have to make some noise,¡± Li as she then burst into song. ¡°The hills are alive...¡±


    Sarah quickly joined Li in song much to Kyle¡¯s chagrin. Li¡¯s singing was actually quite good. Maybe not professional level, but Kyle was impressed none the less. Sarah¡¯s singing on the other hand was¡­ questionable. It did not help that she attempted to eat and sing at the same time.


    The two of them eventually convinced Walt to join in. They all tried to convince Kyle to join too, but he was having none of it. Kyle remembered when Sarah had convinced him to sing a song about all the unmarried women. That was one online video the world could do without.


    The singing did do its job to liven up the mood, and a little while later the group made its way out of the safe zone to continue their search for kobolds.


    The pressure the group was feeling slowly came back as they continued their search. Kyle was silently praying for something to attack them. He wanted to break the silence, but was almost too afraid to do so for fear of raising flags. Kyle had heard about some horror movie-esk dungeons, and if he came across a well in the middle of the forest he was high tailing it out of there.


    An attack eventually came, but not in the way the group was expecting.


    They were mostly keeping their attention focused upwards, so they all noticed when they saw a flash of what looked like magic somewhere out of sight in the canopy above. Perhaps their attention was focused a bit too much upwards, as the magic they saw activated a trap and our plucky group of four heroes soon found themselves falling twenty feet or so into a hole.


    That falling distance was nothing to them so they weren¡¯t injured, but it did cause quite a shock.


    Kyle qualified this as an unexpected and potentially dangerous situation so as soon as he recovered he started casting a two hundred mana shield on himself, then Sarah, then Li, and just as he was about to cast one on Walt, he received a fireball to the face.


    ¡°It¡¯s an ambush!¡± Sarah shouted. ¡°They are up above us in the trees!¡±


    No shit Sherlock, Kyle thought. I thought that fireball was just their way of saying hi based on cultural differences. Good thing that¡¯s all cleared up now.


    Up above them Kyle could make out three groups of four kobolds and another group of three to make a total of fifteen kobolds. Not a large number but their largest DPS source was also currently in a pit while the enemies with eighty of so feet above them.


    Wait a second, why is my shield at so low? I was only hit once. I should not be below a hundred shield strength.


    Deciding that now was the time for action, not thought, Kyle raised his hands and started pumping out Rapid Air Bullets to strafe his enemies.


    Except instead of all the kobolds now being corpses, none of their shields had even broken. And before Kyle was able to continue his strafing fire, he was knocked over by another fireball.


    What the fuck, where did my shield go?


    Kyle¡¯s shield had disappeared and his health had dropped by six points.


    ¡°Li and Kyle get behind Walt,¡± Sarah shouted. ¡°It looks like the kobolds set up joint casting, so their skills will be much stronger!¡±


    By this time Sarah¡¯s Mana Blades had appeared and she prepared to engage the enemy. She ran, jumped off one wall of the pit, jumped off the other side, and was soon above the lip as if she was some Kung Fu action hero.


    And then she wasn¡¯t above the pit when a fireball caught her midair and blew her back down.


    Kyle recast a mana shield on himself and moved with Li where Walt could cover them.


    Sarah quickly got up.


    ¡°Okay, new plan,¡± she said. ¡°It looks like the kobolds have two people shielding and two people casting a fireball. The group of three most likely contains their leader. Li, you go through one by one and CC one of the kobolds using a shield to disable it and then Kyle with kill them with his air bullets. Start with the group of three.¡±


    Once everyone calmed down and got into position everything went smoothly. Li used her Shadow Suppression on one of the kobolds maintaining a shield and then Kyle filled them full of bullet holes. It seemed that without their leader they were not willing to change their strategy, so one by one the groups were eliminated.


    Kyle was reminded once more of the fact that despite them having abilities and stats like a game, this was real life. It didn¡¯t matter if you had the most OP skills ever if you didn¡¯t have the presence of mind to use them while fireballs were hitting your face. Sarah¡¯s dad had told them that the kobolds had the ability to combine their skills and create more powerful synergistic effects, but Kyle had forgotten after their run last time when it was their group doing the ambushing.


    Without fireballs flying from above it was trivial to escape the pit. They commiserated after looting the kobolds corpses as no skill or enhancement crystals had dropped. The groups mood was generally lighter now that they knew that they were not the only ones in the forest, and they soon moved on to look for more ambushes to spring, this time keeping an eye both above and below.


    They finally met other monsters in the form of a giant chinchilla family, with a mother and four babies. Kyle finally made the connection that there might not have been many kobolds around because of the giant chinchillas, who seemed to be enemies of the kobolds rather than just prey.


    After that battle they found nothing else until Sarah called a halt at a safe zone for dinner. The night passed peacefully and Kyle had managed to fall asleep fairly soon, although he still woke up early.


    The next day passed in much the same manner as the first. There were no battles before lunch, but after lunch they seemed to finally find where most of the kobolds were hiding as they sprung five ambushes before they called it a day.


    The group finally had a lead for the start of their third day in the dungeon and that lead soon produced results. A few hours into the morning and two ambushes and a giant chinchilla attack later they found themselves in the canopy scouting out the kobold shamans and their guards.


    Last time the kobold shamans had been protected by the fact that they had their own kobold horde. Now, the shamans, and the glowing stone they guarded, were protected by numerous traps.


    Seemingly as a bait to lure and catch giant chinchillas, the two shamans and their guards had set up camp in a clearing in the forest. The kobolds were capable of setting up two kinds of traps. One was the pitfall trap that they had first encountered, and the second was an explosive fire trap that acted as a sort of landmine, although the trap would not go off automatically and had to be activated.


    The traps surrounding the shamans were of the latter variety.


    Li was actually the one who came up with their plan of attack.


    Walt and Kyle would approach the clearing from one side and attract the attention of the shamans and their guards. Kyle would bombard the shamans with his Rapid Air Bullets and hopefully draw their focus onto him, while Walt would block their magic and the attacks of the guards if they came over.


    The traps could not activate by themselves so without the shamans to activate them the path forward should be safe and Sarah would carry Li on her back while using her ridiculous speed to get Li in range of the shamans. Then Li would CC them, Sarah and Kyle would kill them, and they would mop up the guards.


    The plan worked almost too well. It took less than a minute to pull off and left no one in any real danger.


    ¡°I vote we use Li¡¯s plans from now on,¡± Kyle said after they finished off the guards.


    ¡°Seconded,¡± agreed Walt. ¡°Sarah¡¯s plans all seem to revolve around her blindly running in and killing the enemies.¡±


    ¡°But I like my plans,¡± Sarah pouted as Li patted her on the back in a ¡®there there¡¯ manner. ¡°There is nothing wrong with running in and killing things.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Kyle said. ¡°Nothing wrong until you can¡¯t kill the things and instead the things kill you.¡±


    The mood was much lighter than their win last time, and they all decided to eat and early lunch in the dungeon before leaving. Now that they had completed their goal they could relax a little, as if they needed to make a quick escape they could just smash the glowing blue stone.


    They decided to go with the same plan as last time with Sarah identifying the skill crystals and them then distributing the loot in their dorm. They had acquired a total of five skill crystals, thirty-five enhancement crystals, one escape crystal, and a little over three hundred points in mana crystals.


    Just as they were assembling to divide up the loot and start the skill crystal big reveal, Walt brought his phone over with a serious expression on his face.


    ¡°You guys might want to see this,¡± Walt said. ¡°Someone started a ranking for the school where people can post their stats and see whose is highest. Look at the stats of the guy in first.¡±


    Name: Gray Merrill


    Health: 600


    Mana: 420


    Physical power: 20


    Magic power: 38

 Chapter Eight - Conviction

    Kyle had known that others were stronger than he was. He had seen his uncle¡¯s stats and skills and they were way ahead of Kyle and his group. His uncle had even told him recently when they talked on the phone that the bounty hunter group might join another group to challenge their level four dungeon.


    But seeing someone in his same situation be ahead by so far hurt Kyle¡¯s ego far more than he thought it would.


    ¡°By Merrill, does that mean he is one of those Merrills?¡± Kyle asked.


    Walt nodded. ¡°Yeah. He is the youngest son. I checked.¡±


    Kyle supposed it made sense on some level. While most people were unwilling to sell crystals for money, having money also meant having a higher likelihood of owning a property that had a dungeon appear on it. And the Merrill family certainly had money and property to spare.


    The bounty hunter group that formed the guild that Kyle¡¯s uncle was part of only had a level two dungeon, which was good and bad. It was good because it meant they were able to enter it sooner to farm it, and bad because level two dungeons only dropped so many crystals. The fee for students to come to the dungeon school was not cheap, and the guild had to pay for five people which they could not have done without Sarah¡¯s dad going and teaching there.


    The Merrill family likely had multiple dungeons including some higher level ones. It would be trivial to send some extra crystals over Gray¡¯s way.


    ¡°This is no time to get depressed,¡± Sarah said. ¡°I¡¯m sure we can take him. There are many skills that money just can¡¯t buy after all, and we just need to have Li CC him and then I can carve him up like a stuck pig.¡±


    ¡°Besides,¡± Sarah continued. ¡°We still have these new skills you guys haven¡¯t looked at yet.¡±


    Sarah then laid out the four skill descriptions on the table. She had already gotten rid of the one that was useless.


    Name: Dual Wielding


    Effect: When fighting with two weapons your damage is increased by one per skill level. Dual wielding mastery is also slightly increased. This skill is passive and cannot stack with any other passive skills that give a bonus to dual wielding.


    Name: Pillar of Light


    Effect: Designate a target area within ten feet per skill level of the user. After ten seconds, a beam of light falls from the sky in the center of the target area with a diameter of six inches per skill level dealing ten times magic power plus two per skill level in damage. Costs 100 mana. Takes ten seconds to cast. Cannot be used twice in five minutes.


    Name: Basic Magic Attraction.


    Effect: Within an area of six inches per every odd level of this skill, low leveled magic attacks targeting or fired towards the user¡¯s allies will instead target or fly towards the user. Costs five mana per second to keep active. This skill cannot be activated for 30 seconds after it is deactivated.


    Name: Basic Physical Power Gain


    Effect: Gain one physical power for every odd level of this skill.


    I want it, Kyle thought. But there is only one spell skill so I can¡¯t exactly give Li some other skill to make up for it. And it even works with her Dual Target too. Damnit! Maybe I should have kept that for myself.


    While the skills they received for their run were very powerful, there was only one magic skill to split between two mages.


    Realizing his distress Sarah tried to pacify Kyle.


    ¡°I know we only got one magic skill, but since it targets Li should really have it. We can get you a few skills at the market that you can grind up using your ridiculous regeneration so you can get some more enhancement points.¡±


    Kyle collected himself with a firm, quick shake of his head. Improving the team¡¯s efficiency would not only get them a better result in the tournament, but would also improve their safety and hunting speed in dungeons. Kyle taking a spell that would be better suited for Li at the cost of an increase in hunting speed would hurt him in the long run.


    ¡°Yeah, I know Li should get it,¡± Kyle said with a sigh. ¡°It is addicting watching your stats and skills increase though, so I can¡¯t help but want it for myself.¡±


    ¡°Your generosity has been noted and your class has increased from reptile to mammal,¡± Li replied with a large smile on her face as she took the skill crystal.


    It was a fairly easy decision to give Walt the tank skill and Sarah the other two. Dual Wielding in particular was a good fit for her as while it only said it increased her damage by one per skill level that effect would apply to both of her weapons so it was really double that.


    The group decided to grind their skills for two days as there was a presentation tomorrow that they wanted to attend.


    The school¡¯s offered classes leaned more towards lectures regarding common sense in regards to dungeon diving and information about what was inside an individual dungeon. Classes did exist for training things like swordsmanship and archery, but there was only so much that could be trained as old fighting techniques were just not meant for super humans. Most people though it was more efficient to just get a skill that could help you improve you fighting ability, as leveling up a skill also gave you a better idea of how to use it. It was basically only special content presentations that had students attending after the first week.


    After their skill distribution meeting, Walt and Li went off to grind while Sarah and Kyle went to buy some skills from the market.


    Kyle did not have high hopes for finding a good skill and was resigned to just getting a few crappy skills to grind some stat points off of. He ended up being pleasantly surprised by what they found when he found a skill he generally wanted for a little over four hundred points. Most skills that were at all powerful were at least six hundred.


    Name: Compressed Mana Explosion


    Effect: Creates a ball of compressed mana that can then be fired and then explodes causing wide area destruction. The explosion deals 200 plus five times magic power plus five per skill level in damage. Costs 500 mana. Takes twenty seconds to cast. This skill cannot be used twice within five minutes.


    Kyle thought that the skill was so cheap because of its high mana cost. While the skill did a huge amount of damage, it would be impossible to cast let alone level up for anyone without access to a ton of mana. Most mages would immediately need to use a mana crystal to recover their mana or be useless for the rest of a fight if they cast the spell, and being low on mana in a dungeon could be incredibly dangerous if you did not have other means to protect yourself.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    The mana cost was not a problem for Kyle as he could cast the skill on cooldown with his current mana pool and regeneration rate. He also picked up two crappy skills that he could level just for the stat points since he now knew he could always get rid of them later.


    They each spent the rest of the day until dinner grinding skills in the ogre or slime dungeons. It was important to have lots of skills and high stats, but it was commonly acknowledged that having one skill at a high level was better than having two skills at low levels. This was not true for supportive skills and passive ones, but anyone who could stack skills like those was either already powerful or was very rich.


    The group had made plans to take the night off for some rest and relaxation. They ended up playing three rounds of Dungeon Settlers. It was a board game where you compete with the other players to conquer a dungeon before your allies can by taking control of resources like monster spawning grounds and enhancement crystal mines. The first one to successfully defeat the boss and escape the dungeon was the winner.


    Sarah ended up winning all three games which threw Walt into fits as it was his game and he thought he was quite good at it. Kyle had long gotten used to losing to Sarah so losing no longer bothered him. The game was still fun even though he lost. Playing the game was a bastion of normalcy in a world that was otherwise unrecognizable from the past.


    They did some more grinding the next day before eating lunch and heading over to the event they wanted to attend. Sarah¡¯s dad said it was not something they would want to miss.


    The event was basically a movie screening of a team of professors fighting the level four dungeon¡¯s final boss. Technology did not function inside dungeons, so the only footage that could be taken inside was with rare video recording skills. They did exist, but there could not have been more than a few hundred or so in existence.


    The screening took place in a large lecture hall. When Kyle and the rest of the gang arrived it looked like around a fourth of the student body was in attendance with some time still before the event started. The lecture hall had plenty more seats (it was really more of a full-blown auditorium) so they found some good ones and sat down to enjoy the show.


    The level four dungeon was commonly called the dragon dungeon as it was populated by large fire breathing lizards. The monsters looked like large, red iguanas and could breathe fire from their mouths in addition to having tails that could shoot spikes. The dungeon¡¯s boss was a two headed lizard that was over seventy feet from its noses to its tail and easily reached twelve feet at the shoulder. While normal lizards in the dungeon breathed fire in a steady stream that was limited in range, both the heads of the boss could shoot full blown fireballs that exploded on impact.


    Walt, who was not as well versed in dungeon ecology as Sarah and Kyle, had asked when they would start running the level four dungeon. They had both emphatically told him that is was off limits until they were much stronger. Walt had wanted to know just what was so scary about the dungeon, and he was about to find out.


    Sarah¡¯s dad came over to say hi before the start of the movie. Walt had not met him personally, but had taken one of his lectures when he attended some classes a week or so ago. Li of course knew him from when she was younger and had lived by Sarah. Sarah¡¯s dad was very tight lipped about the content of the movie. It was clear he knew more than he was telling, but even Sarah was not able to work him over enough to get him to spill the beans.


    When the movie finally started the audience fell into a hush. Movies and CGI had made incredible strides in special effects, but nothing could have prepared them for what they saw onscreen.


    First, it was all real. Everyone there had fought monsters before, so movies featuring fake ones had lost their appeal. The newest Dinosaur movie in a popular series had been a spectacular flop.


    Secondly, there was only so much you could do with CGI. You were still working with real actors and actresses so stunts were only human by nature.


    There was nothing natural about the movement that were seen onscreen.


    The dungeon was being challenged by a party of twelve, with one person recording the fight with their skill and someone protecting them. The party of ten that was fighting the boss had three tanks. Two to each block a head and one to block the tail. The rest of the party was made up of one close range physical damage dealer, one ranged physical damage dealer, two DPS focus mages, and three that were more focused on healing and supportive skills.


    The entire audience watched spellbound at the scene unfolding on the screen before them.


    The tanks were all using rare taunting skills to draw the aggro of the boss. You could almost feel the power radiating off of its attacks through the screen. The force from its claw swipes would have to be measured in tons. The close ranged DPS fighter¡¯s movements were elusive and ethereal with how she dodged the lizard¡¯s attacks and weaved in her own. The ranged physical DPS was not quite so impressive, but his arrows were clearly finding their mark.


    The real draw was the mages.


    There were millions of videos online of people using their skills. They often were rather far away to avoid frying the camera, but some of the skills shown were impressive none the less. Kyle had certainly thought so at least. He even though his rain of Rapid Air Bullets and his new Compressed Mana Explosion were rather cool. Not anymore.


    Lightning falling from the sky, pillars of blue fire, chains of stone that sprung from the ground restrained their prey. All those and more were thrown at the lizard. But it did not go down easily, and it took the party well over twenty minutes to finally wear it down.


    The finale was like watching professional sports after watching amateurs all your life. The two DPS mages gathered together and spent a good minute casting a skill. When they were done, the close ranged fighters leapt away from the lizard as it suddenly stopped all movement.


    Ever so slowly, the lizard started turning blue. Kyle was not sure what was happening at first. He finally figured it out. The lizard was freezing from the inside out.


    Ice formed along the ground surrounding the lizard as it emitted mist like dry ice. Once it was done turning into an ice sculpture, even time seemed to freeze for a second before the stature of the once proud boss shattered into millions of pieces.


    The movie then cut off rather abruptly, not having any credits or ending scene. The audience sat in silence, floored by what they had been privileged to witness. Ever so slowly, applause started up, ending in a standing ovation.


    The group of four slowly made their way back towards their dorm, each one lost in their own thoughts.


    Kyle kept thinking about what he saw. It had been a transcendent experience. The skills, the monster, the teamwork, everything about the movie was truly mind-blowing.


    ¡°We need to get stronger,¡± Kyle muttered.


    The other three could only nod.


    Kyle had been complacent. He knew that others were stronger than him. Of course they were. Whether they had started sooner, had more money or resources, or even had a stronger skill, it would be pure arrogance to think he was at the top of the food chain.


    Kyle thought back on something his dad had told him a long time ago.


    ¡°I was not the best shot, not the strongest, and not the smartest. There were even others who put in more work than I did. I had the will to fight though. Maybe my all wasn¡¯t as much as someone else¡¯s all. I still put it in. If I had fallen, then my all would not have been enough. Sometimes that¡¯s just how life works Kyle. That fear was not going to stop me from trying. One of the strongest and most courageous men I have ever known fell right next to me. None of that mattered once he had a bullet in his brain. I saw the look his eyes as he fell. He had not given up even after it was clear his life was over. I learned a valuable lesson that day. Even with all the advantages life gives you it can all end in an instant. You can face that head on, or cower in fear. I am still cowering in fear, but I keep charging ahead hoping that one day I will finally be brave enough to make a difference. I am charging ahead so that when I finally have that chance and that bravery, I won¡¯t falter. And I¡¯m going to make damn sure that until I feel that way, I do everything I can to prepare myself so I will be able to take that chance and make a difference in this shitty world we live in.¡±


    Kyle had not really understood what it all meant, but for some reason his dad¡¯s words had stuck with him. He was still not sure he knew what it meant, but he felt those words had more meaning now than ever before. Ever since the Change had come with its game like system and killed his father he had felt lost.


    Maybe he meant that it was okay to feel lost sometimes. It feels like he wanted to tell me that there would be times when I would feel down and out, but I would have to persevere for the times when I felt better and had a direction. I guess I might not have a direction now, but I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll have one in the future. I guess if I can count on Sarah to make sure of that.


    Kyle was not strong now, but he was sure there would come a time in the future when he needed to be, and when that time came, he would be ready.

 Chapter Nine - Predator and Prey

    The days leading up to the tournament saw a flurry of activity from the students. Kyle was not the only one whom the boss battle movie made an impact on. There were some days when there were not enough regeneration rooms to go around and Kyle¡¯s group had to run dungeons instead.


    Li seemed like the only one who was slacking off. The other three never discussed it, but it was evident they each had their own reasons for getting stronger. Perhaps it was good that Li was able to relax. She made the other three take a day off before the start of the tournament, and in retrospect it would have been a pure folly to try and do otherwise. Super humans were still humans, and all humans needed rest.


    Li¡¯s insistence on taking a break was not her only contribution to the party. One day they were practicing their team work when Li made an offhand comment about wishing they had people to practice with. Firing skills at imaginary opponents and pretending you were being attacked could only get you so far.


    Kyle thought about what Li said, and they next day brought up with the group the idea of asking to practice against the other group from their Guild. Li and Walt did not have anyone they knew at the school, so if the group wanted to keep their cards close to their chest for the tournament it would be a good idea to practice with people who were a known quantity.


    It was quickly approved and the next day Kyle¡¯s group had found themselves sparring partners.


    The other group consisted of Thomas, Derrick, and Carlos from the Guild compound with Vihaan as the fourth person who joined their group. Thomas was their main magical DPS with his rare chain lightning starting skill while Derrick supported the group with heals and the occasional damage skill. Carlos had taken the tank position and Vihaan fought with a bow.


    Not even five minutes into their first practice session it was immediately evident that both groups had no clue about team combat. Kyle¡¯s group ended up winning the spar, but it was a complete mess.


    The tournament used a special artifact and some enchantments to allow the students to project spiritual avatars to fight in a dreamlike space. This way they would be able to go all out without actually killing each other. For training purposes, Kyle just shielded everyone with a two hundred power shield and when that ran out you were KO¡¯ed. The purpose was teamwork and tactics not a raw power fight.


    Raw power ended up being king as tactics took a back seat. Kyle¡¯s group¡¯s plan was simple. Sarah would run at the enemies with supporting fire from Kyle while Li cast a two target Shadow Suppression. Walt would block for the two backliners so they would be protected.


    Kyle¡¯s group had two things going for them. The first was Li¡¯s powerful CC and the second was Sarah¡¯s insane speed. Sarah ran towards the enemy team and was able to dodge all of their skills and arrows. Her speed almost made it trivial and it was clear that Thomas and Vihaan were not used to firing at a target moving that fast. That part worked well.


    The backline, not so much.


    Kyle started by firing off Rapid Air Bullets. He should have known better as there was no reason to assume Carlos would not be at least as good a tank as Walt was. The rain of spells had the same result as if Kyle had attacked Walt. The spells were all absorbed and the reflection damage helped put Kyle out of the fight before it had even really started.


    Thomas had a slightly better result when he attacked the enemy backline. He attempted to target Li with his chain lightning skill, but the bolt was redirected to Walt. The spell was a chain lighting spell though, and it jumped from Walt, interrupted Li¡¯s casting of Shadow Suppression, and put the nail in the coffin for Kyle by draining the rest of his shield before he could finish doing so himself by attacking Carlos.


    Li had never been attacked while she was casting a skill before and her concentration broke causing the skill to fail to activate. Another cast of the chain lightning skill put Li out for good leaving only Walt and Sarah.


    Walt¡¯s main purpose was to block the back line. With no backline he was almost useless. He would most likely get some more damaging skills eventually, but currently if he tried to attack Carlos it would end up as a wet noodle fight. Even if he could twist his way around Carlos and advance to the backline he would not do much damage. That only left Sarah.


    While Carlos had a skill to absorb ranged attacks flying at his backline, he did not have a rare taunt skill so he was limited to physically blocking Sarah¡¯s way. That was impossible with her speed and much higher physical power stat. Sarah easily avoided the skills and arrows flying her way while lunging past the tank and then eviscerating the backline before finally turning and finishing Carlos off.


    Both teams had a lot to work on after their first spar.


    The biggest things were Thomas and Vihaan¡¯s ability to hit a target like Sarah and Li and Kyle¡¯s ability to cast skills while receiving damage. Even if the battle might have had a different result if they could go all out without fear of killing each other, everyone agreed the training was still immensely valuable and once the first session was finished they scheduled a few more before the tournament started.


    The day before the tournament was Li¡¯s insisted resting day. They played some video games, played a few more rounds of Dungeon Settlers, and watched a few TV shows. Not having to get up early Walt stayed in bed until noon.


    The tournament was a double elimination bracket, so if you lost once you would fall down to the loser¡¯s bracket and eventually the undefeated team would face off with the winner of the loser¡¯s bracket in the finals.


    The group figured they might get unlucky and go out early, but with double elimination they could hopefully get into the top twenty. Obviously winning was the final goal, but they purposefully set their expectations low. While people revealed their stats online almost no one revealed their skills so the team had very little info for a litmus test.


    Their stats and skills had certainly increased, and while there were quite a few people ahead of them on the leaderboard, Kyle in particular was not far behind especially when factoring in his mana pool.


    Name: Kyle Anders


    Health: 200


    Mana: 520


    Physical Power: 2


    Magic Power: 26


    Skills:


    Exponential Mana Regeneration, level 23: Actively meditate to regenerate mana equal to .25 of the user¡¯s current mana with an additional .025 per skill level every five minutes.


    Mana Bolt, level 31: Fires a small bolt of mana that deals magic power plus one per odd level of this skill in damage. One second cast time. Costs two mana.


    Small Fireball, level 30: Fires a small fireball that explodes on impact. This fireball deals two times the user¡¯s magic power plus two per skill level in damage. Three second cast time. Costs five mana.


    Mana Pool Extension, level 11: Creates an extended mana pool that is attached to the user¡¯s original one. This extended Mana pool is equal to two times the original mana pool times this skills level. The extended mana pool can only be filled by active regeneration skills. The extended mana pool cannot be filled by mana crystals. The extended mana pool must be drawn from before the regular mana pool. The extended mana pool cannot have mana transferred to it or from it by any outside source and can only be channeled by the user.


    Basic Health Regeneration, level 12: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Fortified Mana Shield, level 30: Creates a shield around the user that blocks magic power plus X plus one per skill level damage, with X being the mana spent to cast this skill. Costs ten plus X mana. One second cast time. Expires in five minutes.


    Ally Shielding, level 24: Instead of shielding the user, you may instead use a shield skill to shield a target less than ten feet per skill level away. The shield costs an additional twenty mana to cast and shields the ally for an additional two damage per skill level.


    Rapid Air Bullet, level 31: Fires a condensed bullet of air that deals magic power plus one per skill level in damage. Costs five mana. No cast time.


    Basic Ball of Light, level 30: Creates a small ball of light that hovers above the user¡¯s head. The ball of light lasts for five minutes plus one minute per skill level. Costs five mana. Two second cast time.


    Compressed Mana Explosion, level 18: Creates a ball of compressed mana that can then be fired and then explodes causing wide area destruction. The explosion deals 200 plus five times magic power plus five per skill level in damage. Costs 500 mana. Takes twenty seconds to cast. This skill cannot be used twice within five minutes.


    Water Purification, level 30: Channel mana to cleanse water of impurities. The user can cleanse water faster at higher levels of this skill. Costs two mana per second.


    Basic Earth Shaping, level 30: Channel mana to slowly sculpt the earth to form rudimentary shapes. Greater precision and faster speed is possible at higher levels of this skill. Costs twenty mana per second.


    Basic Mana Gain, level 13: Gain ten mana for every odd level of this skill.


    Compressed Mana Bolt, level 31: Fires a bolt of compressed mana that has great penetration power. This bolt deals 20 plus two times magic power plus two per skill level in damage. Deals double damage to mana shields. Costs 100 mana. Takes one second to cast.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Basic Magic Power Gain, level 6: Gain one magic power for every odd level of this skill.


    Name: Sarah Bailer


    Health: 240


    Mana: 220


    Physical power: 42


    Magic power: 2


    Skills:


    Improved Physical Speed, level 15: Doubles the effective speed of physical power and increases physical power by one per skill level.


    Basic Slash, level 32: Deals damage equal to your physical power plus one per skill level. No cooldown or cost. Cannot be combined with other active attack skills.


    Basic Health Regeneration, level 19: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Basic Mana Regeneration, level 23: Passively regenerates mana equal to ten plus the level of the skill every five minutes.


    Mana Blade, level 24: For ten mana you can form a blade made out of mana. This blade lasts for ten minutes. Any attacks made with the blade deal an additional one damage per skill level. It takes five seconds to summon a blade.


    Extended Mana Blade, level 20: Creates an extended blade of mana from the user¡¯s weapon. The extension length is up to one foot per level of this skill. Costs five mana per one second duration. This skill is passive and can be combined with other active and passive skills.


    Basic Health Gain, level 6: Gain ten health for every odd level of this skill.


    Basic Awareness, level 8: Improves your ability to notice things you may not have otherwise. Each level of the skill increases your passive perception by a very small amount.


    Dual Wielding, level 17: When fighting with two weapons your damage is increased by one per skill level. Dual wielding mastery is also slightly increased. This skill is passive and cannot stack with any other passive skills that give a bonus to dual wielding.


    Basic Physical Power Gain, level 5: Gain one physical power for every odd level of this skill.


    Whirlwind Strike, level 8: Spin your weapon(s) around in a circle to deal damage to everything in your immediate surroundings. This skill deals three times your physical power plus three per skill level damage. Costs 60 mana. Spin time is two seconds. This skill cannot be used twice within 120 seconds.


    Basic Parry, level 14: Swing your weapon to deflect an incoming attack. This skill can deflect damage equal to your attack amount. At higher skill levels the chance of completely nullifying damage increases.


    Name: Li Chang


    Health: 100


    Mana: 400


    Physical power: 2


    Magic power: 31


    Skills:


    Shadow Suppression, level 12: Shadows prevent an enemy from taking any actions for a number of seconds equal to twice the user¡¯s magic power plus one per skill level. Cannot be used on the same target within 120 seconds. Costs 50 mana. Five second cast time. Can target anything within sixty feet of the user.


    Mana Regeneration, level 30: Passively regenerates mana equal to 20 plus the level of the skill every five minutes.


    Mana Bolt, level 22: Fires a small bolt of mana that deals magic power plus one per odd level of this skill in damage. One second cast time. Costs two mana.


    Basic Mana Shield, Level 20: Creates a shield around the user that blocks two times magic power plus one per skill level damage. Costs ten mana. One second cast time. Expires in five minutes.


    Dual Target, level 3: When the user activates a skill with only a single target, this skill allows the user to select an additional target. If two target are selected, the skill used costs three times as much mana. If Dual Target is used to select an additional target, the skill used to target cannot use Dual Target¡¯s effect for ten minutes. This cooldown time is reduced by ten seconds for every level of this skill.


    Basic Health Regeneration, level 10: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Basic Magic Power Gain, level 7: Gain one magic power for every odd level of this skill.


    Basic Ball of Light, level 20: Creates a small ball of light that hovers above the user¡¯s head. The ball of light lasts for five minutes plus one minute per skill level. Costs five mana. Two second cast time.


    Pillar of Light, level 7: Designate a target area within ten feet per skill level of the user. After ten seconds, a beam of light falls from the sky in the center of the target area with a diameter of six inches per skill level dealing ten times magic power plus two per skill level in damage. Costs 100 mana. Takes ten seconds to cast. Cannot be used twice in five minutes.


    Name: Walter Drussel


    Health: 450


    Mana: 160


    Physical power: 10


    Magic power: 2


    Skills:


    Self-Healing Crystal, level 30: Creates a crystal above the user¡¯s head that after five seconds heals the user for one health per skill level per ten mana channeled into the crystal. The user or others are able to channel mana into the crystal. Spawn time, instantaneous. Cannot be reactivated for 30 seconds once activated. No cost.


    Basic Mana Regeneration, level 22: Passively regenerates mana equal to ten plus the level of the skill every five minutes.


    Basic Health Gain, level 12: Gain ten health for every odd level of this skill.


    Basic Health Regeneration, level 21: Passively regenerates health equal to ten plus one per skill level every five minutes. Does not work if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Firm Mana Shield, level 17: Creates a shield made of mana that can be used to block. When blocking, prevents an additional ten plus one per skill level damage. Costs ten mana to summon. The shield lasts for ten minutes. It takes five seconds to summon the shield.


    Basic Shield block, level 24: Block an attack with your shield. When blocking an attack this way, you prevent an additional ten plus skill level damage. No cost.


    Basic Blocking Damage Reflection, level 10: When using an active blocking skill, you return damage equal this skills level as reflected damage. The reflected damage ignores all armor and resistances. This effect cannot be stacked with another passive blocking damage reflection skill.


    Improved Blocking Passive, level 12: Whenever you activate a blocking skill, you block an additional damage per skill level. This skill is passive and can stack with all other skills, including ones with the same name.


    Vitality Enforced Strike, level 16: Empower a strike with your own vitality to deal an additional ten plus one per skill level damage. This skill can be stacked with other non-health sacrificial skills. Costs twenty health.


    Magic Attraction, level 10: Within an area of six inches per every odd level of this skill, low leveled magic attacks targeting or fired towards the user¡¯s allies will instead target or fly towards the user. Costs five mana per second to keep active. This skill cannot be activated for 30 seconds after it is deactivated.


    Basic Natural Armor, level 15: The user takes one per skill level less damage from attacks.


    Skills leveled up slower the higher in level they got. But thanks to the synergy between Exponential Mana Regeneration and Mana Pool Extension the two skills almost seemed to be increasing in leveling speed as they reached higher levels. Kyle was no longer gated by mana and was now gated by time and resources.


    The morning of the tournament Sarah was called in to wake Walt up and the party excitedly set off.


    The tournament brackets were not announced so you would not know who you were fighting until the start of the battle. To avoid giving too many unfair advantages by revealing skills, the students were not allowed to watch any matches until the end of the tournament when word of mouth would have spread people¡¯s skills anyway. There were only two battles that could happen simultaneously, so the tournament was separated into two days. Generally you needed to make it to the second day if you wanted to earn a prize.


    Kyle felt he was prepared to fight. He was confident in their success and ready for battle.


    He was not ready for the waiting.


    Because there were only two battles able to happen simultaneously, despite the battles generally being over within a minute or two most of the group¡¯s time was spent waiting around.


    The people waiting for their turn to fight were waiting in various class rooms surrounding the main auditorium where the fights would take place. Only the teachers were allowed in to watch currently, so everyone else was twiddling their thumbs waiting for their number to be called.


    Kyle resolved to bring a deck of cards if they made it to day two. The wait was killing him. It had been an hour and they were still waiting for their first fight. Walt and Sarah had been stuck in a silent game of rock-paper-scissors for a good half hour or so and Li seemed to be meditating. Kyle didn¡¯t know anyone else in the room and didn¡¯t really want to try and start up a conversation. Thankfully their number was called a few minutes later.


    The group of four headed to an area behind the auditorium. This was where the students created their spiritual avatars that they would fight with. It worked in three parts. First, someone would sit in a circle and channel mana through the circle. The circle would allow them to create a spiritual avatar. Second, a virtual room was created in which a spiritual avatar could take pseudo physical form. And third, all of the spiritual avatars were then drawn into the same created space so the teams could fight each other.


    It was akin to lucid dreaming. Whoever had thought it up and designed the magitech was truly a genius.


    Kyle took a deep breath as he sat down in his circle. All the confidence he had before didn¡¯t disappear, but it just might have wavered a little.


    Kyle closed his eyes and seconds later opened them in a large open space. Fitting a dream, the edges of the space were rather fuzzy. It was rather disconcerting looking into the distance and seeing literal nothing, as if whatever was past the boundary was a void that nothing could penetrate.


    A transparent wall divided the two teams. The match would start as soon as it fell. Their skills other than ones that summoned weapons or lasted at least ten minutes were inhibited until then to prevent cheating. Kyle took his position in the backline behind Walt as he observed the enemy team.


    Based on their formation, it looked like they had a rare three frontline composition. Most likely the person in the back was some sort of healer, while there was what looked like a tank in the front along with a spear user and some sort of rogue wielding two daggers.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to target the person in the back and the person with two daggers,¡± Li said after thinking over the enemy¡¯s formation. ¡°Any objections?¡±


    Kyle and Walt shook their heads.


    ¡°I agree,¡± Sarah said. ¡°It looks like those two would have the highest utility and mobility. I think those things are our biggest worries other than sheer power.¡±


    ¡°I think we should assume taking out the backline is key,¡± Kyle said turning to address Sarah. ¡°Once I give you a shield you should be able to take care of the other three if they don¡¯t have any big surprises. Hopefully you can reach the backline even if Li is interrupted.¡±


    ¡°They don¡¯t look prepared to be flanked so it should be a cake walk,¡± Sarah replied confidently.


    ¡°Get ready guys,¡± Walt said. ¡°It looks like the barrier is about to fall.¡±


    The barrier soon fell, and as it did eight people immediately took action.


    Li¡¯s job was Shadow Suppression. The group was assuming that if that worked they would win so she didn¡¯t have any particular actions planned after that point. Walt was standing in front of Li and Kyle blocking with Basic Magic Attraction active. Kyle was first on shielding duty, and then on shooting covering fire for Sarah with a skill like Compressed Mana Bolt. Sarah was going to receive a 4,000 mana shield from Kyle and then would move to flank the enemies.


    The plan was for her to control her speed, and then rush in with a surprise burst of speed to reach the enemy team and finish off their backline either when they were CC¡¯ed by Li, or when they were focused on interrupting her skill casting.


    The enemy team seemed to be using a juggernaut strategy. They all advanced as one in a rough diamond pattern, with the tank in the front, the presumed healer in the back, and the spear and dagger wielder taking the sides. Their idea was most likely to have the tank allow them to get into close range to make use of their close range specialty.


    Kyle and his group never got to see their enemies in action. Once Li succeeded in casting Shadow Suppression the battle was over. At her current power, Shadow Suppression locked down someone for seventy-four seconds. While that may not sound like a lot, in battle it was a lifetime. The suppressed backliner and dagger wielder fell almost immediately under Sarah¡¯s vicious assault before she turned her attention to the spearman. Without any support the tank fell after ten or so of Kyle¡¯s Compressed Mana Bolts and he switched targets and helped Sarah finish off the spearman. The entire battle took less than thirty seconds from start to finish.


    The group was soon back in the waiting room, but after their first victory Kyle no longer felt that same tension he had felt before. Where before he felt a bit like he was the rabbit, skulking around to avoid being seen, he now felt like the wolf.


    And this was one wolf hungry for victory.

 Chapter Ten - Of Tournaments and Talks

    The next battle passed in a similar manner as the first. Once Li used her Shadow Suppression it was all over. The third battle was a real challenge though.


    Walt had read up on the people who were posting their stats on the online leaderboard and was able to recognize them from pictures. One of the people on the enemy team was number four on the leaderboard, with over a thousand mana and over fifty magic power. At the beginning of the fight she used all of her mana on a skill that nuked Kyle, Li and Walt and immediately took them all out of the fight.


    Luckily Kyle had been able to shield Sarah before he died, so with her 4,000 mana shield she was able to finish off the four members by herself. You could not use mana crystals in the tournament to refill your mana so when Sarah had escaped from the range of the enemy¡¯s nuke she only really had three people to deal with. It was a close thing though, and reminded them that they were far from the biggest fish in the pond.


    But a win was a win, and after a short break for lunch the tournament continued.


    When Kyle¡¯s spiritual avatar appeared in the arena for their fourth battle, he immediately noticed that the enemy team all had custom armor on.


    ¡°That is the team I was talking about,¡± Walt said. ¡°We need to be extra careful.¡±


    When Walt did his research on the leaderboard members, there were a few people in particular to watch out for. At the top of the list was Gray Merrill, who was way ahead in stats, but right below that was a set of people. A team that had the people in fifth, seventh, and eighth place on it.


    The team consisted of someone who was a clear tank, what looked like two backline casters, and someone who fought with a sword and shield and whose stats were more DPS than tank. The only one not on the ranking list was one of the casters, but that could also have been because they did not post their stats and not because they were low.


    ¡°Mages first?¡± Sarah asked the group. They had decided that unless they had a reason to do otherwise, taking out magic users would be their first priority.


    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s go with that,¡± Walt said. ¡°I know that one of the mages is not actually on the list, but if the other three are I feel like that person should be at least as dangerous as the others, if not more so.¡±


    ¡°Got it,¡± Said Li. ¡°One two caster combo control skill coming up.¡±


    The battle started well. Sarah ran to flank the enemies with a 4,000 mana shield and Li successfully cast her Shadow Suppression.


    For a fight that started so well Kyle would later wonder how it had gone downhill so quickly.


    It turned out that Walt¡¯s prediction was spot on, and the person who did not have their name and stats listed on the leaderboard turned out to be the most dangerous one.


    When Li¡¯s skill went off, it was redirected to the tank, presumably with some magic retargeting skill. The skill seemed to be a high level one too as both targets were redirected, not just one. That would have been fine if that was the end of it. Immediately taking out the tank was still considered a success, as now Kyle and Sarah should be able to finish off the rest without any tank to stop them.


    The tank was not out of the fight though. As per Walt¡¯s fear, the unknown mage used some sort of cleansing spell and removed Li¡¯s Shadow Suppression only a second after it took effect. The tank was then able to block the skills Kyle was sending his way. Kyle was confident of being able to overwhelm one tank with his DPS if there were not a healer on the team. He never saw a healing skill used, but his assumption of there being one tank was incorrect.


    The frontline fighter with the sword and shield was also blocking Kyle¡¯s attacks. She seemed to have a skill similar to Sarah¡¯s Basic Parry as she was slicing Kyle¡¯s Compressed Mana Bolts apart with her sword.


    The final nail in the coffin was when Sarah was taken out. Based on stats alone, no one should have a higher effective speed than she did. Sarah was sure of her close combat superiority. But that only worked if she could enter striking range. She couldn¡¯t.


    Sarah did successfully flank the enemies and close in, but ten feet was as close as she ever got.


    The mage that was on the leaderboard used a skill that froze Sarah in place. The skill seemed nothing like Li¡¯s skill, and Sarah had almost broken out three seconds later. That three seconds was too long, and it had given her enemies time to prepare.


    Sarah was hit by a two skill combo. The second skill was a giant pillar of fire. It was an impressive skill, but would have been useless without the first skill. The first one came from the unnamed mage and dispelled the shield that Kyle had cast. Just like that the 4,000 mana shield was gone. So too was Sarah¡¯s health as she was hit by the full force of the pillar of fire.


    Now down a member, Kyle¡¯s group was in a rough spot. From there on the match turned into a grind. Luckily Kyle realized the using a large shield was useless as it would just be dispelled, so he was able to conserve his mana and only used smaller shields. This meant that Walt had to take almost the full brunt of the enemies spells with his health. Kyle with his mana pool would have been advantaged in a longer grindy match barring anything unforeseen. He still had over half his mana left over and could continue firing skills for a few minutes at least while also being able to heal Walt. The enemy team was not able to burst Walt down in the time it took for his Self-Healing Crystal to come off cooldown so he was nigh unkillable.


    Walt was not able to block every spell aimed at him and their team did not have any sort of dispel skill so the enemy team¡¯s shields were able to block Li¡¯s Pillar of Light and the Compressed Mana Explosion Kyle fired was sliced apart. This was where the status quo was altered. The enemy mages finally realized they could not kill Walt if Kyle was there to heal him, and switched their strategy.


    The leaderboard mage channeled a skill for a minute, and right before it was used the unnamed mage used his dispel skill to get rid of Kyle¡¯s shield. The other mage¡¯s skill then fired and lightning fell from the sky, killing Kyle instantly and shortly wearing through Li¡¯s shield and killing her as well. Walt fell soon after.


    They were forced to admit it, they got stomped. The group was completely silent on their walk back to the waiting room. They still had one more match scheduled before the day¡¯s matches were over, and after ten minutes they pulled themselves together and discussed their loss.


    Numerous plans were suggested, and numerous plans were shot down. They eventually decided to use Kyle¡¯s plan if they ever faced that team again. Their new plan was for Kyle and Li to time a Dual Target Pillar of Light and a Compressed Mana Explosion to fire at the same time, and then for Sarah to run in right after. They had no confidence in their new plan actually working, but at least they had a plan now.


    Their last match of the day was easily won. They were now in the loser¡¯s bracket, but successfully getting to day two had at least guaranteed them a good prize.


    That night sleep once again eluded Kyle. He had been in bed for over three hours but his mind refused to calm down. He had even tried activating his mana regeneration skill to meditate, but it only served to highlight his racing thoughts once he stopped.


    Kyle had died. He hadn¡¯t literally died, but his spiritual avatar had experienced death. The experience had left its mark.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    What had it felt like when his dad died? Unless there was a skill that could talk to the dead Kyle would never know. When his spiritual avatar had died it was more akin to waking up from a bad dream. First Kyle was in the dreamlike arena, then he was back in reality in the magic circle. The experience shouldn¡¯t have been disturbing, yet Kyle couldn¡¯t get it out of his head.


    The worst part was the similarity to waking up. Now Kyle was afraid that when he woke up, he would experience that feeling again. And you can¡¯t wake up if you never fall asleep his subconscious kept saying. So awake he stayed.


    Kyle had tried taking sleeping pills before, but thanks to his new superhuman constitution they, like most other medicines and toxins, just passed through his system and had no effect. Even something as natural as melatonin did not work.


    After another hour Kyle just decided to meditate through the night. His conjecture ended up being confirmed in the morning. He had hoped that his body would now be able to go a night without sleep without any consequences, and so far that seemed to be true. Kyle felt just as awake as if he had slept soundly the whole night.


    The second day of the tournament consisted of two rounds before lunch and then the semi-finals and finals after lunch, which were open for the students to watch.


    The first round of the second day they had a rematch with their third round opponents. Instead of firing off the spell she had used before, the leaderboard rank four mage this time saved her mana and tried to take out Sarah, but that just gave Li time to use her Shadow Suppression which sealed the enemy team¡¯s fate. Winning that match guaranteed the group a top eight spot and a prize of at least 4,000 points. The school had realized that their prize pool needed to be increased to keep up with inflation, and had boosted the lower parts of the prize pool bringing the total prize pool up from 30,000 points to 60,000 points, which no longer seemed like the prize it once was. Dungeon looting had seen almost exponential growth and the value of a single point was worth less than half of what it was just three weeks ago.


    In their last battle before lunch, and one they would need to win to get into the semi-finals, they once more were faced with someone from the leaderboard.


    ¡°That¡¯s Paul Tranchet,¡± Walt said, pointing out the person taking the tank role on the enemy team. ¡°He is currently number two on the leaderboard and has 1,600 health which is the current highest.¡±


    ¡°Once we take care of the rest of them it won¡¯t matter how much health he has,¡± Sarah said, grinning in anticipation of the violence she was going to inflect on the enemy team. ¡°Unless he has some skill that is completely busted he will fall eventually.¡±


    Kyle nervously crossed his fingers hoping Sarah hadn¡¯t jinxed them.


    The teams both took their starting positions. In addition to having a leaderboard tank, the enemy team had someone wielding two scimitars, someone with a bow, and another backliner who was most likely a caster of some sort.


    As soon as the screen dropped and the battle began Paul let out a yell that seemed to reverberate more than it should in the dreamlike arena. Kyle had enough time to cast a shield spell on Sarah and himself before he was overwhelmingly overcome with anger. How DARE that Paul yell like that? How DARE he stand there mocking them? How DARE he hide behind that yellow shield? He had touched what he should not, and he would pay.


    Kyle focused all of his effort into firing spells and taking down the yellow shield that was protecting his prey. It consumed more and more of his mind, bringing him to a singular focus. Kyle never noticed the scimitar wielder that calmly walked up to him and proceeded to hack away at his neck, the same way you would hack away at a tree.


    Kyle was the first to wake up in the magic circle. The others soon followed.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Kyle asked, still groggy and disoriented. ¡°I just remember being really angry for some reason, and then attacking some yellow shield.¡±


    None of the other three could answer him, and it took seeing the semi-finals to realize what had happened. Paul had used a rare and powerful taunting skill that caused his enemies to fly into a rage induced haze and attack him with everything they had.


    While the skill was powerful, it did nothing to inhibit the attacks of Paul¡¯s enemies. That is where another skill came in. This one seemed to create a yellow shield that basically made him invulnerable for sixty seconds, more than enough time for his allies to finish off the other team. It appeared the downside of this skill was that it worked both ways. Nothing could get in, but Paul could also not get out for sixty seconds.


    This downside came into play in the semi-finals. Paul¡¯s team went up against the team with three people in the leaderboards top ten and the unnamed mage, who Kyle later found out was named Curtis. Curtis was able to use his skill that he had used to get rid of Li¡¯s Shadow Suppression to also get rid of the taunting skill Paul used on his team. Without a tank, Paul¡¯s team was quickly eliminated and Paul followed once his shield¡¯s sixty seconds was up.


    Curtis¡¯s team met Gray Merrill¡¯s team in the finals. Gray¡¯s team had dominated their finals mostly off of Gray¡¯s strength. He seemed to function as a sort of Paladin, and took the position of his team¡¯s tank while also buffing and healing his allies. He also did a substantial amount of damage to the enemy team with his ¡°holy smite¡± that he yelled out whenever he attacked.


    The finals were a close. The amount of resources that had been funneled into Gray must have been truly staggering. It seemed every time he was in a tight spot he would activate yet another powerful skill.


    The deciding factor came down to numbers. While Gray was incredibly powerful, he was still only one person. He would have mopped the floor with any one or even two of Curtis¡¯s team, but the match was not four sets of one versus one. It was four versus four, and that is where having four powerful members over one super member showed its worth.


    Gray¡¯s teammates were slowly but surely sectioned off one by one and killed. He was eventually left alone, and while he had managed to kill the sword and shield user, he eventually fell fighting in a one versus three.


    Kyle and his team ended up in sixth place and received 4,000 points. 4,000 points had seemed like a treasure trove in the past, but it now felt rather lack luster. As the market got flooded by more and more skill crystals, the lower level ones dropped down in value while the more powerful ones stopped being sold. Most people who had access to powerful skill crystals would save them for friends and family or to trade for other very powerful skills.


    It was announced that there would be another tournament next month. The prize was to be determined as announcing the prize pool early for this tournament had backfired.


    The school received another 4,000 or so students the week after the tournament. Because of all the hubbub, Kyle and Sarah ended up going home to their Guild compound during that time. Li, who did not have a great relationship with her parents, ended up joining them while Walt went home to see his family.


    Li squealed with delight when she saw Mickey. She had always wanted a younger sibling, but her parents barely had time for her and Li sometimes felt that they would have been better off with her not around. She had lived with her grandparents when she was younger and went to the same school as Sarah, and it was only after her grandparents had died that she moved in with her parents.


    Kyle had talked to his aunt and uncle over the phone a few times about how the school was going and how much his skills had increased, but it was different talking to them in person. Sarah¡¯s dad was still at the dungeon school doing some work, so Sarah and Li had dinner with Kyle and his family. Li insisted on sitting next to Mickey and feeding him, to his great delight.


    Later that night Kyle was in his room getting ready for bed. He wanted to go take a shower, but at the moment he was enjoying lying on top of his bed too much to get up. It was his bed, and that meant a lot more to Kyle than he could ever explain in words.


    Someone knocked on his door. Kyle waited a second for them to come in, but the door stayed shut. Most people who knocked on his door came in right after without waiting for a response, so it took Kyle a minute to respond to the knocking.


    ¡°You can come in, it¡¯s open.¡±


    Sarah slowly opened the door and came into Kyle¡¯s room. It was rare for Sarah to even knock before she opened his door, so Kyle knew that she came with a serious purpose whenever she waited for his okay to come in.


    She slowly went over and sat down backwards on the chair at his desk. Kyle sat up on his bed and waited for her to speak. They sat that way for a good ten minutes before Sarah opened her mouth.


    She slowly closed it again and it took her another ten minutes or so before she eventually spoke.


    ¡°Have you been able to sleep alright?¡±


    Kyle took some time to think it over before slowly nodding.


    ¡°I guess so. The night before the second day of the tournament I didn¡¯t sleep and meditated all night, but I felt fine the next day.¡±


    Sarah nodded, ¡°That¡¯s good.¡±


    They lapsed into silence again. It was not an uncomfortable silence. They knew each far too well for that. It was a companionable silence, one that needs no words and only the sound of the others breathing.


    Sarah eventually got up and sat down next to Kyle on his bed. She took hold of his hand and lay down, staring at the ceiling. Kyle slowly lay down as well. The rest of their bodies were a good foot apart and only their hands were touching. Despite lying so close, neither of their gazes ever strayed from the ceiling to acknowledge the other. They were both not ready for what would follow.


    After a time that seemed to stretch forever yet also lasted but a moment Sarah got up and left the room with only a ¡°Goodnight¡±.


    Kyle lay in bed for a few more moment before getting up and taking a shower. There was a government announcement scheduled for early in the morning and Kyle did not want to miss it.

 Chapter Eleven - Change

    The next morning Kyle, his family, Sarah, and Li were gathered around the TV in Kyle¡¯s living room. The head of ODE was scheduled to make an announcement in a few minutes. He was not the only one. Various government leaders, world leaders, and people like the Pope and the Dali Lama were also set to make an announcement. The last time an announcement of this scale was made it was to announce the Change. Kyle knew he was not the only one on the edge of his seat waiting to see what it would be about.


    Mickey was sitting on Kyle¡¯s lap, much to Li¡¯s disappointment. They were playing I spy. Mickey really liked the game, but he had not quite gotten the hang of how to play it yet. He always said the same thing, ¡°I spy wif my widdwle eye somefing nice!¡± Kyle then had to guess which of the people in the room Mickey was talking about.


    The camera finally cut from the newscaster to ODE¡¯s director and everyone¡¯s eyes focused on the screen. After a few words about everyone working together and standing firm the director finally got to the point.


    ¡°We, just like many other leaders and governments, have recently come across some information that we deem vital not just to the American people, but people worldwide. When the Change came, we were able to warn of its existence and prepare. We have recently found out that the Change was not a singular event, and will be ongoing. There is no cause for alarm as the changes will be rather mundane compared to the previous changes, and we have already successfully weather that storm together, just like we will continue to do. Within the next twenty-four hours we will be receiving an upgrade of sorts to our statuses. Right now, when you check your condition you hear information about two things in your head, your stats and your skills. It seems another piece of information will be added to that. We do not know the full details of what it will entail, but we do know that it will be some sort of title system. We ask that you please be patient and keep calm and ODE will make a further announcement within twenty-four hours of the title system being implemented. If you have worries about your personal safety remember that you can always call ODE¡¯s main number to receive help. Thank you.¡±


    Mickey was the first to break the silence after the announcement.


    ¡°What¡¯s a titwle Kywle?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s like I¡¯m your big brother Kyle and you''re my little brother Mickey,¡± Kyle told him.


    ¡°Wike big sis Sawah too?¡± Mickey asked


    ¡°Yeah, like big sis Sarah.¡±


    ¡°This change shouldn¡¯t be huge,¡± Carl said, ¡°But all the same it might be good to hunker down and be prepared if it¡¯s not. I¡¯m going to go talk to the other people in the Guild just to make some backup plans if everything goes sideways.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a good idea dear,¡± Lisa replied. ¡°Come Mickey, let¡¯s go see your friend Mateo.¡±


    Carl, Lisa, and Mickey left the room leaving Kyle and his two friends to discuss this newest ¡°update¡± and its potential consequences or gains.


    Li turned out to be the most helpful one when it came to brainstorming ideas. Kyle used to play a lot of video games, but he had not played as many RPGs and mostly played games with online PvP that weren¡¯t MMORPGs. Sarah was almost useless as she had spent most of her time doing physical activities like sports and martial arts before the Change.


    Li¡¯s ¡°expertise¡± in the matter came from reading. It apparently was a common theme in books with game like elements for there to be titles that the characters got that increased the character¡¯s status in some way. In video games, titles seemed to be more innocuous and showy, but according to Li the titles in these books could be OP and would often stack for large benefits. She said they often gave passive bonuses, which were currently the hardest type to obtain.


    Kyle thought that the titles would be based on what people had achieved so far, while Sarah thought they would be random like the starting skills. Li was in the middle, and thought there would be some reason for the title but that you could still get the title dragon slayer from killing a small lizard. Sarah, wanting to have all her bases covered, was about to run out the door to go find a lizard to kill before Kyle told her that kobolds were thought to be descended from dragons, so she should be fine.


    As the hours went by the tension kept mounting. The practice field at the Guild compound was nearly empty, when Kyle had tried to play some video games on his computer his concentration was atrocious. He died over twice as many times as he killed the enemy. He eventually drifted back down to the living room to watch a random show on TV. Sarah and Li came over from Sarah¡¯s house and joined him an hour or so later.


    Kyle had just gotten up to go to the bathroom when it finally happened. When you checked your stats and skills or absorbed a new skill crystal, the information transmitted into your head was a mix of someone reading the information to you and you recalling it from memory. Kyle knew this was what they were waiting for because the information was heard the same way.


    ¡°The title system has now been implemented. Each person will have their highest ranked title activated. Qualifications for titles can be earned by completing special actions outside and above the norm. Titles are only able to be activated by special events such as an awakening or by using rare title crystals.¡±


    The title Exponential Growth has been activated.


    Title: Exponential Growth


    Effect: A person with this title receives additional stat points equal to the base stat point amount of a skill when that skill reaches an increment of ten. When any skill reaches its maximum level the title holder obtains a combination point.


    Kyle slowly sat back down. It took a few seconds for his brain to catch up and process the information that was unceremoniously shoved into it. Kyle then tried to make sense of what he had just learned.


    Okay, so it seems everyone got one title just like everyone got one skill before. That most likely means all titles are not created equal, especially since it did say it was based on your actions. It seems like earning a title has two parts, first unlocking the title qualifications and then activating the title. I get the feeling that activating a title is very rare. And what the hell does my title even do? I guess I now know that skills have a max level, but what is a combination point? The stat point part doesn¡¯t make any sense either.


    It was at this point that Kyle checked his stat points and realized that he had an extra thirty-two stat points to distribute. Seeing a connection, he looked over his skills and realized what exactly his title must do.


    If he rounded down his skills to increments of ten and then added them all up, he got three hundred twenty, which would indicate that he gained an additional stat point for leveling up a skill to an increment of ten. After reviewing his title Kyle realized that was what it said. Sort of. There was a whole lot of other information in there and he still did not know what combination points were. His title also made it sound like you could get multiple stat points, but if his math was correct Kyle clearly only got one for the skill levels.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    ¡°Umm, do you guys know what your titles do?¡± Kyle asked Sarah and Li. ¡°I think I know what mine does, but it is kind of confusing.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I think so,¡± Sarah said, scrunching up her face in confusion. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure it increases my physical power based on my speed. It sounds like it means that my physical power stat is now effectively doubled, and not just the speed I get from it.¡±


    ¡°Guess I shouldn¡¯t be surprised you got a broken title,¡± Kyle said. ¡°It seems like the titles are based on what qualifications we unlocked so it is probably related to your skill. Mine seems to be at least. It gives me more stat points when I level up my skills and has exponential in its name.¡±


    ¡°My skill makes my Shadow Suppression better,¡± Li chimed in. ¡°It seems fairly straight forward to me. It makes the skill harder to resist. You know how Curtis got rid of it with his skill? My title says that now he would only have a fifty percent chance to get rid of it.¡±


    ¡°I guess we haven¡¯t done anything special other than have good skills,¡± Kyle said, before turning to Sarah and joking, ¡°You will have to kill an actual dragon before you get your next skill if you want a title for it.¡±


    ¡°By the way,¡± He continued. ¡°Have either of you heard of combination points? My titles says I can get them for getting a skill to max level. Of course my title doesn¡¯t helpfully specify which level that is. Skills could have a level cap of 5,000 for all we know.¡±


    ¡°Never heard of them,¡± Sarah replied. ¡°Any hints in the title? What exactly does it say?¡±


    ¡°Just that I get a combination point for getting a skill to max level.¡±


    ¡°Maybe God had to meet a deadline for the title patch and scrapped the user¡¯s manual,¡± Li joked. ¡°He was probably like, who cares about those mortals, they don¡¯t even read the holy texts that I gave them so why would they read a user¡¯s manual?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, maybe. The government seems to be in on it so hopefully they say something in their announcement,¡± Kyle said.


    The government¡¯s second announcement contained no new information and was just them rehashing the title announcement. It seemed other people also had titles that mentioned skills getting to max level, as the information quickly came out online, but Kyle saw no mention of combination points.


    Kyle, Sarah, and Li went back to the dungeon school after two days had passed. There was no level three dungeon on campus, but Li¡¯s family owned one. Li decided to suck it up and ask her parents if the group could enter the dungeon. Li and her parents didn¡¯t have the best relationship, but hopefully all they could do was say no to her request. The group had outgrown the level two dungeon while the level four would still be too dangerous so going into a level three would be preferable.


    But events were moving forward, and Change had finally come.


    Before they heard back from Li¡¯s parents the group decided to do a few runs of the most profitable dungeon they had access to, in this case the kobold dungeon. It happened when they were inside walking through the rainforest.


    Sarah noticed it first. Her basic awareness afforded her a few precious extra second to react.


    ¡°Guys group up,¡± Sarah said, moving back towards the rest of the team. ¡°I feel something strange.¡±


    ¡°Strange how?¡± Walt asked.


    He got his answer a few seconds later.


    It would have felt like wind, if wind didn¡¯t actually exist. Kyle thought it sort of felt like mana wind. Whatever it was, it formed a sort of invisible formless pulsing wave that moved through the group. It pulled at parts of them they didn¡¯t even know existed, stretching their awareness in new ways. The feeling slowly settled down, and just when they were about to relax, the feeling came back stronger.


    This happened a total of ten times, and each time Kyle and the group could feel themselves being stretched. Sometimes it felt like they had an extra arm and sometimes it felt like they were simultaneously standing on the ground and also ten feet above floating in the air. Each wave was different.


    They had slowly moved closer together, the remnants of some ancient response to danger and the unknown. When the final wave came, it was accompanied by a purple glow. Again, Sarah was the first to react.


    ¡°Grab hold of each other,¡± Sarah said, hurriedly grabbing hold of Kyle and Li. ¡°This looks like the light that accompanies a teleport skill. I saw Clarrissa use her teleport skill in the Guild¡¯s dungeon and she said that she could not teleport if other people were touching her. Hopefully we will either not teleport or go together.¡±


    The purple glow increased in its intensity, finally blinding the group of four who had managed to grab hold of each other¡¯s hands and were holding on for dear life. The final wave pulsed, pulsed and finally reached its crescendo. Kyle could see the purple glow through his closed eyelids, and with a final pulse he felt everything that made him him shift, as it first was one place, and was then another.


    Kyle stood still. He could feel Sarah and Walt¡¯s hands, so at least whatever happened hadn¡¯t separated them.


    ¡°Is it over? Walt asked in a small voice.


    Kyle slowly opened his eyes.


    It was clear they were no longer in the kobold dungeon. The surroundings were underground, but beyond that Kyle couldn¡¯t say. They had appeared in a large round chamber. The ceiling was over twenty feet high and the room seemed big enough to fit multiple tractor trailers. There appeared to be only one exit.


    ¡°Your dad didn¡¯t tell you about this and you forgot to mention it, right?¡± Walt asked Sarah.


    ¡°No. I think I would remember if he had told me about something like this.¡± Sarah turned to Kyle for confirmation, recent events causing her to doubt her memory. ¡°He didn¡¯t say anything, did he?¡±


    ¡°Not that I recall,¡± Kyle answered. ¡°Do we have any way of determining where we are?¡±


    ¡°What about the walls,¡± Li said, finally calming down enough to think critically. ¡°The walls don¡¯t look like they¡¯re sandstone or something. Caves are only made out of certain types of rock. If it¡¯s a different type, we are most likely in a dungeon.¡±


    ¡°Good idea,¡± Kyle said, and promptly fired a Compressed Mana Bolt at one of the walls.


    It didn¡¯t even leave a mark.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s a dungeon,¡± Sarah said rhetorically.


    Kyle mutely nodded. He had not expected to cause a large hole with his skill, but not leaving a mark clearly demonstrated this was a non-earthly location.


    As Kyle took a closer look at the wall, he noticed it looked like something was written on it. He walked over to take a closer look and once he was only a few feet away realized what it was.


    ¡°You guys might want to come over and see this,¡± Kyle called to the others. ¡°I don¡¯t think we are in Kansas anymore.¡±


    The other three came over to see what had drawn Kyle¡¯s attention.


    There was a message left on the wall. And as Kyle read it, he couldn¡¯t help but wonder if this was what Moses had felt when he received the Ten Commandments.


    ¡°To all of Humanity who is reading this, I am sorry. I have left this message for all of you to find to help explain the situation you will find yourselves in. You can think of me as God, but I am not like the image of God you have built for yourselves. I am merely a flawed being with incredible power that happens to have had a hand in your creation. You can call me God or whatever else you please, but the rest of existence knows me as Earth or Gaia.


    ¡°You find yourselves in your current situation because I have failed. I had wanted to create a small world, a world filled with life that would not know the perils that plague the greater existence. To that end I tried keeping it a secret, withholding mana from the world to help avoid the presence of prying eyes.


    ¡°But my enemies are equally powerful, and what I can do, so can they. I have grown to love the flawed existence that is Humanity, and so instead of letting them come and find you, I decided to give you the chance to fight. All of existence is embroiled in conflict, and enemies abound. You must become stronger and join my other children, the Titans, in fighting for your right to exist.


    ¡°I have sealed you all inside a giant dungeon. You must grow stronger, and eventually break free and find the Titans before those who seek to destroy you can find where I have hidden you and break in. I tried to prepare you as best I could. I controlled your leaders to ease you into the introduction of mana and influenced Humanity as a whole to want to work together and grow stronger. I can only hope my efforts were not in vain.


    ¡°Everyone with an unawakened child was transported to a giant city area. It is protected by golems I have created to protect you from the monsters you must defeat to grow in strength. For everyone else, I have placed you in groups of four in various areas around the first level of the dungeon. Find your way to Humanity¡¯s first city and grow strong enough to make this dungeon your fortress and training ground, so when the eventual time of conflict comes, you will be ready.


    ¡°My final gift is a title, Part of Humanity. Hopefully it will aid you and help you survive in the desolate land I have been forced to place you in. May your race be strong enough to stand firm against all who would erase you, and may we one day meet in the great Beyond.¡±

 Chapter Twelve - The Trouble with Change

    Walt was the first person to finish reading. ¡°Guess god does exist. How poetic,¡± He mumbled, only loud enough for Kyle to barely make out what he said.


    After another few moments of silence Sarah turned to Kyle.


    ¡°What now?¡±


    Kyle only had to think for a few seconds.


    ¡°That¡¯s obvious. We head for the city. If this message is true, that¡¯s where Carl, Lisa, and Mickey should be.¡±


    Kyle turned to the other two.


    ¡°Do either of you have any younger siblings?¡±


    ¡°Nope, it¡¯s just me,¡± Li said.


    Walt paused for a half second before shaking his head.


    ¡°Then we have no reason to go anywhere else,¡± Kyle continued. ¡°The city should be protected, and if it has a large number of people in it there must also be a way for them to feed themselves. We still have some food left over in Li¡¯s pack, but that won¡¯t last forever.¡±


    Sarah took a long deep breath before slapping herself and regaining her energy.


    ¡°Okay! So it¡¯s decided. We aim for the city.¡±


    The group decided to use the same formation as they used in the Kobold dungeon, with Sarah, then Walt, then Li, then Kyle.


    Everyone in the group had a four hundred health shield, courtesy of Kyle, that he refreshed every five minutes. They had to stop every ten minutes for Kyle to regenerate his mana back up to full, but not knowing what dangers they could face, safety was the first concern.


    It was slow going. The group was well aware of the dangers that dungeons held, and they had even lost the peace of mind from having the escape crystals as backup. They had tried using them, but there was no effect.


    As they walked along Walt was constantly reviewing the message on the wall in his head and finally noticed something.


    ¡°You guys might want to check out the new title that we got. That so called ¡®god¡¯ wasn¡¯t kidding when he said it might be useful.¡±


    The group came to a halt while everyone read over their new title.


    Title: Part of Humanity


    Effect: Those with this title are part of Humanity. This title gives the owner the ability to identify crystals. This title gives the owner the rudimentary ability to identify monsters. This title allows for communication through mana. This title makes the owner more likely to have a positive reaction and work together with others with the same title. This title allows the Titan race to recognize the owner as part of a race created by Gaia. This title increases the overall knowledge of the system put in place by Gaia to help humanity.


    Li reached into her pack and took out a skill crystal they had picked up in the kobold dungeon.


    ¡°It works. The title says this is a Basic Health Regeneration skill.¡±


    Everyone else tried identifying the crystal before Li put it away.


    ¡°This should help us a lot,¡± Sarah said. ¡°We haven¡¯t run into any monsters yet, but now we won¡¯t need to go in blind.¡±


    As they continued on, the first obstacle they ran into was not a monster, but a trap. Sarah and Walt suddenly found themselves falling into a thirty foot hole with spikes at the bottom. Sarah managed to twist herself in such a way that she only took a little over two hundred damage, but Walt took almost five hundred. Sarah would have survived, but Walt would have died without the shield Kyle had on him.


    Kyle had to cast more shields on them so they wouldn¡¯t die from the spikes before Sarah was able to jump her way out of the pit. Walt needed them to drop down a rope so he could get out.


    ¡°Those spikes weren¡¯t normal,¡± Sarah said after she and Walt were safely out of the pit. ¡°They dealt way too much damage to be regular spikes.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure there is a normal anymore,¡± Kyle worriedly replied.


    The group eventually took a meal break for what should have been dinner. Time had lost most of its meaning since they were in a strange glowing dungeon. There was no daylight and the sun could have blown up for all they knew.


    The meal was a solemn affair. Each person was lost in their own thoughts. Walt eventually opened his mouth and broke the silence.


    ¡°Why now? Why us? Surely if that ¡®god¡¯ is actually so powerful he could have waited a few hundred years.¡±


    The volume of Walt¡¯s voice continued to grow, his anger increasing.


    ¡°Things were just starting to recover and look up. Or if that ¡®god¡¯ couldn¡¯t have done it later he could have done it at least two months sooner. Then my sister wouldn¡¯t have had to die. I saw the stories online. People who had cancer only had to eat some food from a dungeon when they were full health and they were cured.¡±


    Kyle listened silently. Walt always seemed so bright and happy. Kyle only now realized that they had only known each other for a short time and he didn¡¯t actually know him at all.


    Walt continued, ¡°My parents were closer than ever and my girlfriend and I were going to get back together. Then the Change comes and she gets in bed with someone who can lift cars with his dick. It¡¯s all so fucking messed up. Now we are trapped in this fucking dungeon and there could be a fucking dragon around the next fucking corner. I could have died to that stupid fucking trap! A fucking pitfall trap!¡±


    Walt seemed to deflate, all his anger draining out of him.


    ¡°I thought that magic powers were supposed to fix people¡¯s problems. Guess the same thing could be said about the existence of god though. It seems like he has only caused problems, not fixed them. I never asked to be part of his godly dick measuring contest. Now everyone is trapped in some dungeon. Who even knows where my parents are. They could be dead already for all I know.¡±


    Sarah reached out and grabbed hold of Kyle¡¯s hand.


    The group sat there in silence, digesting what Walt had said. Kyle finally turned to Walt.


    ¡°You know, I guess we have not known each other for that long, but I want you to know that I consider you a friend. We are all in this together and our first plan should be surviving and making it to the city where other people are. But once we are there I¡¯m sure we can find some sort of divination skill to look for everyone¡¯s family and try and rescue them if they haven¡¯t made it to the city yet. We don¡¯t know that they are dead so we should do all that we can in case they are still alive. I¡¯m sure your parents would be devastated if they made it to the city and you didn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Thanks man. That means a lot.¡±Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Walt took a deep breath and collected himself.


    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right and we just need to do what we can. This new dungeon world doesn¡¯t seem to be any more unfair than our world used to be. At least here you are rewarded for your efforts.¡±


    The group sat in silence for a little while longer before Li spoke up.


    ¡°I doubt my parents would look for me and I don¡¯t really want to look for them but I will stick with you guys until the end. Count me in as a member of our party.¡±


    Li then turned to Kyle and Sarah with a very grave expression.


    ¡°There is a bigger issue here though. If we are all going to work together than we need to resolve all of our problems, and I think it is time that we addressed the biggest one. It¡¯s obvious that the two of you have a problem, but luckily you both obviously want to fix this problem. The solution is simple. You two just need to get in each other¡¯s pants.¡±


    Kyle and Sarah immediately dropped the other one¡¯s hand and religiously directed their gaze anywhere but the other person.


    ¡°It¡¯s so true though,¡± Walt said as he busted out laughing, the heavy atmosphere from earlier forgotten.


    Kyle could feel his ears turning bright red. He wanted to look at Sarah and see her reaction, but was too afraid of being hit to do so.


    The group eventually started moving again after Sarah made Li retract her statement, insisting that she wanted nothing to do with Kyle or his pants. Everyone knew they were empty words, but it was clear to the other two that Kyle and Sarah had some unspoken accord and that it involved keeping their pants on despite how they both obviously wanted to do otherwise.


    An hour or so after they had started moving again they ran into their first monster. Not figuratively, but literally.


    Sarah turned a corner and found herself face to face with a giant blue blob.


    After backing up, she utilized her new title to check out the giant slime¡¯s info.


    Name: Large blue slime


    Description: A large slime that is mostly immune to physical damage. It is not violent unless it feels itself threatened. It has a large amount of health and attacks its enemies by shooting parts of itself towards them at high speeds.


    ¡°It says it¡¯s not violent,¡± Sarah told the other three after they had moved a fair distance back down the tunnel. ¡°But I think it might be blocking the way forward.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we just nuke it?¡± Li asked. ¡°If we can¡¯t get by we are trapped anyway. Besides, it might drop some sweet loot!¡±


    ¡°Sounds like as good a plan as any,¡± Kyle said. ¡°And if we can¡¯t even kill one slime we are probably boned if we face anything tougher.¡±


    After moved as far away from the slime as they could, Li and Kyle prepared their spells. Li used a Dual Targeted Pillar of Light while Kyle fired off a Compressed Mana Explosion. The spells didn¡¯t kill it, but the group was able to kite backwards down the tunnel and allow Li and Kyle to finish it off. Thankfully it moved slowly and they were in no real danger of the slime catching them.


    The group ran into more slimes as they continued down the tunnel. There was almost a sticky situation when they ran into a pitfall trap that had a slime in it, but luckily Sarah was getting better at catching those so no one fell in.


    The first slime to drop something other than an enhancement crystal gave them a shock. The first ten or so slimes had all dropped one or two enhancement crystals, so when a skill crystal finally dropped everyone crowded around to see what it did.


    Name: Mana Regeneration


    Effect: Passively regenerates mana equal to 50 plus three times the level of the skill every five minutes.


    Li was the first to comment.


    ¡°It has the same name as my mana regeneration skill, so why is it so much better?¡±


    No one had an answer.


    They continued on, defeating more slimes and avoiding, or falling into, more traps. The tunnel had no branching paths so they were stuck on their current trajectory. It had grown fairly monotonous when Sarah found something out of the ordinary.


    They were on the lookout for any place where they could rest other than the passage they were currently in. The slimes might not have been dangerous, but they did move around and sleeping only to have a slime roll over you didn¡¯t sound like a viable plan to any of the group. They were hoping they could find a safe zone to make their base while they got their bearings.


    Sarah noticed something out of the ordinary when they were skirting a particularly nasty pitfall trap. It looked at least twice as deep as most of the other ones and had downward sloping spikes on the walls to make it harder to get out. Luckily this was one of the ones Sarah was able to notice. The party was inching along a narrow ledge to get around the trap since it took up the whole passageway when Sarah¡¯s enhanced senses told her something was not right about the wall behind her. To the others, it looked like one moment Sarah was strangely groping the wall, and then the wall ate her.


    Seconds later she stuck her head out of what looked like solid rock.


    ¡°Guys, check this out. I found a secret passageway. The rock seems to be some sort of semi-solid illusion.¡±


    The other three followed Sarah inside. Kyle shivered when it was his turn to pass through the illusory rock. It felt like he was bathing is some slimy substance that covered every nook and cranny of his body, except nothing was actually there.


    Once inside, it did indeed look like a secret passageway. The tunnel was somehow smoother, looking more man made, and the light was also more consistent. The whole dungeon was suffused by a slight blue glow, but Kyle thought this glow was gentler then the more inconsistent glow of the main tunnel. He would never have noticed had it not been for the contrast between the two.


    Finding a secret tunnel didn¡¯t put the group any less off guard. They still proceeded with safety first. Everyone had shields on and Sarah was checking the ground for pitfall traps and potentially any other traps they could run across.


    The tunnel was not that long and they soon reached the end. The tunnel, which was much smaller than the previous one with the ceiling only a foot or so above Kyle¡¯s head, ended in a small chamber that was big enough to fit a four door sedan but would have trouble fitting a pickup truck.


    Before entering, Kyle regenerated his mana and then cast a 4,000 mana shield on Sarah before she cautiously explored the chamber and checked it for traps. The reason the group was so cautious was the chamber only had one notable thing about it, a chest sitting next to the far wall. It practically screamed trap. But nothing happened as Sarah checked the entire room, poked the chest, and eventually lifted the lid with her sword. No pits opened up, no boulders fell down, and no poison coated arrows shot out from hidden holes in the wall.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s all clear,¡± Sarah said. ¡°At least if there are traps, I can¡¯t find them. It looks like the treasure chest has some sweet loot too.¡±


    Everyone went over to see the contents of the chest. Not waiting for the other three, Sarah fully opened the chest to see what it held.


    ¡°It looks like there are some large mana crystals and three skill crystals. There also is some sort...¡±


    Sarah was interrupted before she could finish her sentence.


    The walls and floor of the room they were in were not completely smooth. There were many bumps and dips littering the floor. So when Sarah checked for traps, she didn¡¯t check a small bump in the floor that happened to be in the exact center of the room. Kyle was still in the back, so Walt and Li were walking ahead of him when the three walked over to the chest. Walt and Li both avoided the small bump in the floor. But Kyle, hurrying to not miss out on the loot, wasn¡¯t watching where he was walking and his foot ended up hitting the small bump.


    Sarah whipped her head around when Kyle was enveloped in a bright purple light and, not even a second later, disappeared. The light was so bright Sarah could still see an afterglow in her vision of a circle that had appeared on the floor where Kyle had been standing. Walt and Li could not turn around quickly enough and had only seen a bright purple glow that originated from behind them. It took them a second to connect it to the light from teleportation magic when they turned around and found Kyle had disappeared.


    Sarah robotically walked over to the center of the room. She stiffly bent down and put her hand on the bump in the floor that she had missed in her previous examination of the room.


    No. No,no,no,no,no,no,no. This must be an illusion. Kyle can¡¯t be gone. It must be like the rocks covering the entrance. Fake. It¡¯s all fake. Calm down. Gotta calm down. Be calm. It¡¯s fake. He¡¯s still here. Definitely still here.


    Walt and Li watched as Sarah¡¯s breathing slowly got faster and faster. Walt was trying and failing to process what had happened. Kyle was gone. Li seemed to possess more presence of mind and hesitantly tried to go up to Sarah who was now lying on the floor in a ball having a full blown panic attack.


    There¡¯s no way Kyle would leave. It must be a joke. He¡¯s just getting me back for all the times I made fun of him. That¡¯s it. He still here. Definitely here. He wouldn¡¯t go. He definitely didn¡¯t teleport somewhere. Nope, still here. Oh god, what if he died? No. he wouldn¡¯t die. He wouldn¡¯t leave me. He promised. He wouldn¡¯t. He needs me. There¡¯s no way he would leave. He couldn¡¯t leave. How would he sleep at night? He must be still here. He promised.


    Sarah was now rocking back and forth on the ground. Walt, who could have kept it together had Sarah not been freaking out, now started to lose it as well. It seemed like everything was hitting him at once. Kyle was gone, and now Sarah was losing it. What would they do without shields? He would have died without that shield. And now Sarah was going crazy. They were all going to die.


    Li almost failed at keeping it together watching her two remaining teammates have mental breakdowns. Taking drastic measures, she cast a Dual Targeted Shadow Suppression on both of them. Once her skill had stopped Sarah from continuing to hyperventilate and Walt from starting to do so, Li was able to calm down. Well, calm down enough to not start hyperventilating herself. She had to try and face their current situation as the only person not losing it. Kyle had been teleported away by some sort of trap and, now without their main source of magic DPS and shielding, the other three were in deep, deep trouble.

 Chapter Thirteen - The Bonds Between Them

    It was times like these when Carl Anders found himself reflecting his choices in life. Times like these being running for his life from giant flesh-eating bats. He still didn¡¯t need two hands to count the number of times he had to run back to the city like this, but it was getting close.


    This time he had a small amount of breathing room as he passed by the boundary where the golems patrolled. Carl took a long, deep breath as the bats were slaughtered by the golems protecting the borders of the city. These monsters still had not learned that crossing a certain point would enable the golems to attack them, but there was no guarantee that they would not realize it tomorrow.


    Once the golems had done their duty and killed or scared the bats off Carl left their protection to collect the loot. The bats gave good drops and Carl easily filled up his sack with valuable crystals.


    It¡¯s just like trapping animals for food. Except I¡¯m the bait and the animals are man eating monsters. Yep, exactly the same.


    Carl then headed back to the city with his spoils.


    The First City, as Humanity was calling it, was more of six cities in one. There were a total of five cities surrounding a giant city in the middle. This mega city was situated in what appeared to be the hollowed out inside of a mountain with the top cut off, except that the mountain would need to be about as wide as the whole of Australia to fit the mega city inside of it.


    Each of the individual ¡°cities¡± were connected by teleportation gates. Almost half of the population of kids and their caretakers were in the middle city, while the rest were evenly distributed in the remaining five. What demarcated where one city ended and another began was the farmland in between. There were huge hordes of golems that managed food production on large swathes of land in between each of the cities. It was almost a paradise, as people merely had to go out and collect food from specific drop points where the golems deposited it and there were plenty of pre-furnished houses to go around. The problem was, they were trapped.


    The basic necessities were taken care of, the houses even had modern luxuries like running water and stoves and refrigerators, all courtesy of magic of course. But no matter how luxurious the cities were, the residents were still trapped inside.


    Surrounding the city on all sides were herds of stone cattle. They were hard as rocks, were fiercely territorial, and seemed to know enough not to get close to the golems protecting the city. They were not impossible to defeat individually and dropped fairly good loot, but because of their numbers they were currently an impossible enemy.


    While it would be possible to hunt the other monsters surrounding the city, it was close to impossible to get a party past the stone cattle not to mention then getting back again. The only thing the residents could do was to send out people like Carl who could use a stealth skill to sneak past the cattle and then lure monsters for the golems to kill. The stone cattle seemed to not interfere with a train of monsters chasing an individual person.


    The central city was called, perhaps obviously, central city. Each of the other cities were named after the five elements, fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. Carl lived in metal city. There were quite a few more children than adults in the various cities, and it was quickly established that central city would be the main child rearing city while the other five would focus on getting stronger and killing monsters. Each of the five cities had a council of people who were chosen to help jumpstart the process of collecting crystals. Carl ended up being chosen for the council of metal city, mostly because of his rare stealth ability which he could use to pull monsters for the golems to kill.


    The title Part of Humanity was really what made all this possible. In such a short time, some millions of people had gotten themselves organized and formed a coherent plan. It also helped that the title got rid of language barriers since it enabled them to use mana to communicate. Unawakened children were also able to do so too, proving they still had at least partial access to their title and stats, but they needed to learn to do so while the adults did it automatically.


    Each city had appointed a council representative to interface and coordinate with the other city¡¯s councils and organize a plan to kill off the stone cattle. It was decided that was their number one priority, as not only were the stone cattle inhibiting their ability to safely farm monsters, but it was likely that the rest of humanity would have trouble getting to the city if they had to fight past thousands of herds of monsters.


    Carl was taking all the crystals that he had gathered to add to a central depository. Since their number one priority was killing off the cattle, they had decided to invest the skill crystals they gained into doing just that. As opposed to people randomly using skill crystals, certain people would be chosen to be herdsman. The herdsman would utilize all of the skill crystals that were collected in a three day period and choose the ones that not only were powerful, but that would also synergize with the skills they already had. This way the cities could clear away the cattle as quickly as possible.


    Creating a team of powerful people also had the advantage of allowing them to farm crystals for everyone else. While they were on earth, Humanity had no real reason to grow in strength other than Gaia¡¯s influence and their own greed and lust for power. Now, it was a matter of survival, and thanks to the influence of Part of Humanity, people banded together like never before to ensure their species wasn¡¯t killed off. Once someone brought it up, it was quickly prioritized as an end goal to create a skill crystal library so that when the children awakened they would be able to choose skill crystals that would not only be powerful, but would complement each other and help Humanity grow as a whole and increase in strength.


    But that was a bit farther down the line. The more immediate goal after killing the stone cattle was sending out search parties to try and find some of the people who Gaia had strewn across the dungeon they now called home. This was certainly something that weighed heavily on Carl¡¯s mind as he ran back towards the city. Humanity may have lost their technology in the presence of mana, but Carl covered the long distance quite quickly thanks to his increased stats allowing him easily maintain a pace equal to the maximum speed of a cheetah. Magic had now become an integral part of how Humanity functioned.


    I really hope Kyle is all right. He said he would be dungeon diving with Sarah so they should have been transported together. Gaia forbid they were separated. Although they refuse to admit it, they are both too reliant on the other for their own good. Not without good reason I suppose. If only I had been stronger and Chuck didn¡¯t have to sacrifice himself¡­


    Carl was worried, and with good reason. He trusted in Kyle to have the strength to kill monsters and get stronger. If he had Sarah, that is. She was the only reason he didn¡¯t have a complete breakdown when his dad died. Chuck had been more than a father to Kyle, and Carl could never forget Kyle¡¯s face when his dad didn¡¯t come out from the dungeon.


    Kyle had shut himself in his room and refused to talk to anyone. Only Sarah had been able to get a response out of him, and after staying with him for over twenty-four hours she finally got him to leave his room. Considering the history between them it made sense.


    It had all started when Kyle had just turned fourteen.


    Sarah¡¯s parents were part of the founding members of the bounty hunting group that Carl and Chuck later joined. Sarah¡¯s older brother also joined the group as an active member when he turned twenty-one. Bounty hunting was not without risk, but the group were professionals and had never had more than minor injuries despite being fired on multiple times.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Sarah had a history of getting Kyle wacky presents for his birthday. For his fourteenth birthday, she had wanted to build a miniature Trojan horse after learning about it in school. She ended up procrastinating and then didn¡¯t have the materials the day before Kyle¡¯s birthday to finish the project. After being pestered nonstop, Sarah¡¯s mom agreed to make a stop on the way back from the gun show she and Sarah¡¯s brother were attending.


    They never made it back home. In what could only be called a freak accident of timing, a natural gas pipeline exploded right in front of their car while they were driving causing the car to crash and killing both of them on impact. Sarah blamed herself. If she had not asked them to stop and pick up her supplies they would have long been past that part of the road when the pipeline burst.


    Sarah¡¯s dad was devastated, and could not deal with his own grief well enough to comfort his daughter. When Sarah heard the news she broke down and ended up barricading herself in Kyle¡¯s room. Kyle guarded his room and wouldn¡¯t let anyone else in for three days, even going so far as to fight people off who tried to enter. Sarah only left to use the bathroom and Kyle brought her food and water. After three days Sarah came out and both of them refused to acknowledge the incident ever happened. Sarah wouldn¡¯t talk to anyone about her family member¡¯s deaths and eventually everyone moved on with their life.


    It was obvious that the trauma never went away though. Two years later Kyle had a bike accident and broke his leg. It was a clean break and nothing to worry about, but Sarah refused to leave him while he was in the hospital. She was only able to be convinced to go back to school once Kyle was released and back home. Any conversation with either of them failed at making any headway, so everyone involved just left the two of them as they were. Their level of codependence was unhealthy, but they functioned normally on a daily basis so there was no need for an immediate solution.


    Until now that is. Carl knew that the only thing he could do was get stronger and then go look for them. Hopefully Sarah¡¯s dad would make it out okay too. Sarah might not be able to deal with any more loss, even with Kyle for support. And if one of them had a breakdown, the other was likely to follow.


    <hr>


    Kyle stared at his new surroundings. It wasn¡¯t actually that different from his old surroundings. In fact, it looked exactly the same except there was no chest in the room. And no Li, Walt or Sarah.


    Kyle¡¯s pupils dilated as he looked around the room. No Sarah.


    Instead he received some information the same way he did when titles were activated.


    ¡°Congratulations. You have found a secret training area. There are many secret training areas set up throughout Gaia¡¯s dungeon. These training areas come with high risk, but also high reward. There is a special reward for the first person to clear each secret training area. Only one person is allowed in each training area at once. The only way to leave the training area is to find the portal out. It will be easily recognized as a large glowing blue stone. Gaia prays for your success.¡±


    Kyle only vaguely comprehended the information that he just learned. One important thing stuck out to him. Only one person. He was one person. That meant he was alone. That meant no Sarah here with him. That meant he wasn¡¯t there with her.


    He was alone in a dungeon.


    Alone¡­


    Kyle collapsed. He didn¡¯t have either the strength or the presence of mind to take his backpack off and instead fell on top of it. He just lay there on the floor, barely breathing, trying to think. His short shallow breaths eventually turned into faster shallow breaths. His faster shallow breaths eventually turned into full blown shaking and hyperventilating.


    Alone. One person. No Sarah. Sarah¡¯s not here. I¡¯m not there. Where is here? Sarah¡¯s not here. Where is she? She needs me. I need her. Only one person. Alone in a dungeon. Dad¡­ I miss you. I don¡¯t want to be alone. Sarah¡­


    Kyle eventually sunk into unconsciousness.


    An unknown amount of time later Kyle found himself waking up on the stone floor of a cave. It all came rushing back. Sarah wasn¡¯t here. He was alone. Sarah was alone.


    Kyle lay on the floor, tears and snot pouring down his face.


    This was it. The end. It had to be.


    Kyle thought of his dad once more.


    He then ever so slowly sat up. That¡¯s right. His dad was dead. He was gone. Truly gone. Sarah wasn¡¯t. She couldn¡¯t be. And if she wasn¡¯t dead, she was alone. That meant Kyle had to find her. Then she wouldn¡¯t be alone. Then he wouldn¡¯t be alone.


    Kyle used his water purification to cleanse the tears and snot from him. As long as he thought of them as dirty water, he could use his skill to make them pure water again.


    That¡¯s right. He had to find Sarah. He had to. She was alone. He promised. She should never be alone.


    Once Kyle was sitting upright he recalled the information he had learned before.


    ¡°Congratulations. You have found a secret training area. There are many secret training areas set up throughout Gaia¡¯s dungeon. These training areas come with high risk, but also high reward. There is a special reward for the first person to clear each secret training area. Only one person is allowed in each training area at once. The only way to leave the training area is to find the portal out. It will be easily recognized as a large glowing blue stone. Gaia prays for your success.¡±


    This time Kyle analyzed it carefully. It didn¡¯t take a genius to spot the information he needed.


    It says I need find the stone. I can¡¯t leave until I find the stone, and I can¡¯t find Sarah until I can leave. Find the stone, leave, find Sarah, never leave. You can do this Kyle. You have to. You promised.


    ¡°I promised,¡± Kyle whispered.


    The first thing he did was take stock of his situation. His backpack only had the tents and some supplies like rope in it. It didn¡¯t have any food or water. It was possible to eat monsters, so he should be able to find food. Monster meat was actually better than regular food since it had mana in it. To eat a monster you usually had to give up on looting its corpse though, so only specific dungeons back on earth had harvest monsters for food.


    This isn¡¯t earth anymore. I need to focus. I need to find Sarah.


    Kyle took a few minutes to meditate and try and collect himself before slowly standing up. It was time to find the way out. The message said that this area was dangerous, but that didn¡¯t matter. All that mattered was escaping here and finding Sarah. No matter if he needed to kill ten monsters or a thousand, Kyle was ready.


    He left his backpack in the circular chamber as it would only get in the way. He no longer had a tank to block for him, so he would have to rely on his own ability if he needed to dodge monsters. Luckily, Kyle had put some of his stat points into physical power when he gained his title. Having the extra mobility could mean the difference between life and death, and death was not an option. Sarah was still alone, and he had promised.


    Kyle made his way down the corridor. His mind was firm, but his body betrayed him. Every breath was unnaturally short and his staccato breathing echoed in the tunnel ahead of him. One step, two steps, three steps. The tunnel seemed to stretch into infinity.


    Have to find Sarah. Need to escape. You can do this. You can do this. You promised.


    It felt like hours later that Kyle reached the end of the tunnel. He expected to see a tunnel similar to the one that he and the party originally came from, one filled with traps and slimes. The tunnel instead opened onto a cliff face.


    Kyle found himself tens of stories up in the air. Below him was a river that soon disappeared underground. Far off in the distance he could see a waterfall, seeming to fall from the clouds into the valley below. Actually, it was falling from the clouds. The waterfall was falling in what looked like the center of a valley straight out of a fairy tale. It fell straight into a large lake, which then formed a river that came under the cliff that Kyle was currently on. Surrounding the river was an enchanted forest.


    Saying an enchanted forest sounded a bit clich¨¦, but Kyle had no other way to describe it. Even from here he could see mist snaking its way through the trees, reflecting the light from the sun high in the sky. The trees themselves seemed to shimmer, and Kyle could practically see the mana flowing in their veins. There were even flocks of beautifully colored carnivorous man-eating macaws flying above the trees.


    Gotta find Sarah. I prommiswhatthefuckisthat?


    Perhaps had Kyle been in his right state of mind he would have noticed the human sized macaws that were radiating undisguised bloodlust. He was not, and was taken in by the beauty of the scene below him. So much so that he failed to recognize the threat of the giant bird swooping down on him.


    OhshitohgodohfuckholyballsfuckshitgottaescapefucknoIcan¡¯tdie.


    Kyle almost fainted straight away. The shock seemed to snap him out of the hazy half-hyperventilating state he had been in and he managed to flee back into the cave. He had to find Sarah, but he couldn¡¯t do that if he was dead. The bird seemed disinclined to follow him into the cave so Kyle succeeded in his getaway.


    But now was not the time for him to flee. Now was the time to fight. He promised, and that was one promise that Kyle had to keep. Kyle took a deep breath and turned around. He needed power and he needed food to make sure he found Sarah, and those monsters would provide him with one or the other.

 Chapter Fourteen - Real Life

    The temptation was there to just turn around and cower in a corner. But he promised, so Kyle pressed on. He crept slowly back to the cave entrance. He would need to take out the birds first before he could descend from the cave. They were in the way, and anything in the way had to go.


    Taking a new look at the idyllic valley offered Kyle a fresh prospective. The valley wasn¡¯t some mystical place where fairies played. It was an obstacle, and one he needed to overcome.


    Think Kyle. What would your dad do? The first step would be to observe the scenario. Small mountain cave, check. Large cliff face, check. Flying enemies, check. Not flying Kyle, check.


    He closed his eyes and calmed down his breathing. He could do this. He had to.


    The macaws were large enough to fit into the opening of the cave, but not large enough to pursue him further inside. The obvious solution was to lure the macaws into the cave and then retreat further inside before bombarding them with skills.


    That plan worked well in that Kyle didn¡¯t get killed, but he also wasn¡¯t able to kill any of the birds. When Kyle attacked one of the birds from the cave entrance he succeeded in drawing its aggro. He also succeeded in retreating back into the cave where it narrowed and the bird could not reach with its wingspan. Unwilling to fold in its wings to give chase, it ended up retreating.


    This was an unexpected result. In the dungeons on earth the monsters had basically never retreated, even the intelligent ones. Either these birds were more intelligent than any of the monsters in the explored dungeons on earth, or something had changed. Hoping for a different result, Kyle tried the same tactic once more. He drew in a different bird, but was met with the same result. His DPS was just not high enough to kill them before they ran away.


    Okay, gotta think Kyle. Plan, you need a plan. A good plan. What other options do I have? Tie it up with rope? Trap it in a tent? Think, Kyle. I don¡¯t have any skills other than damaging ones, except¡­


    Kyle retreated back to the chamber he first appeared in. He then double checked his skill list. Something was strange. He had somehow used his Water Purification skill to clear up his snot and tears. His mind was kind of hazy, but he remembered crying, and crying produces two things. If he had in fact bawled his eyes out, there should be some evidence of that.


    He suddenly had an idea to test his theory out. He went to the edge of the chamber, dropped his drawers, and took a leak.


    Once he was finished with his business and had a pool of pee on the floor in front of him Kyle activated his skill. At first it didn¡¯t work. Kyle knew it could, so he kept trying. It took a while, but he seemed to eventually will his skill to see the pee in front of him as merely dirty water. Once he was able to have that mental shift, the pee quickly lost it yellow color and turned into regular water. Kyle nervously dipped his finger in the water and brought it to his mouth. It tasted exactly like water.


    Kyle had an epiphany. Perhaps everyone had been thinking about skills all wrong. People generally treated them like they were the same as in a game, but this wasn¡¯t a game. It was real life. An example was his skill Rapid Air Bullet. There was no real reason for him to be able to shoot twice as many bullets if he used both his hands to fire them. It was more of a mental block.


    This, this is it! The answer was right here all along. Of course the world wouldn¡¯t be turned into a game. That¡¯s just dumb. Real life isn¡¯t fair or balanced, so why would skills be fair or balanced? That means that skills are not nearly as limited as was previously thought. I always treated them as if they did exactly what they said, but what if they only showed you how to manipulate mana in a certain way? Wait! Maybe that has to do with the soft skill cap of level thirty?


    Quickly checking his skill list, Kyle had to consciously stop his mouth from catching flies. His Water Purification skill, which was previously at level thirty, was now thirty-seven. He had gained seven levels of the skill with almost no effort on his part. It made his grind to get the skill to level thirty seem meaningless.


    A wave of relief washed through Kyle. He could do this. He had promised, and dying was not part of that promise. So what if there were giant man eating macaws in his way? Sarah was waiting for him. He could do this.


    Kyle meditated for a few minutes to focus his mind and then moved on to the real test, Basic Earth Shaping. If he could purify liquid that wasn¡¯t actually water than he should be able to shape rock even though it wasn¡¯t technically earth. Kyle focused on activating his skill with the cave floor as his target. The first ten minutes saw no success. Neither did the next ten. It was only what must have been over an hour later of him constantly visualizing rock as earth that his skill finally worked.


    A wide grin split his face as he checked as saw his skill level had risen by four. His earlier panic was gone. He would find Sarah. Nothing would get in his way. He would find her and never leave. He had promised. She would never lose anyone ever again.


    Kyle went back to the cave entrance. It was time to implement a new plan. The plan was simple, while the macaws could get into the opening of the cave entrance, they could not and would not follow him deeper inside. To get around this Kyle only had to modify the cave entrance so he could bombard the birds with skills while they were unable to reach him.


    It took longer than he thought. Kyle had no real way of keeping track of time, but he had to take four bathroom breaks before he finished. That was okay though. It only have him something to practice Water Purification on and something to slake his thirst.


    By the time he finished Kyle had raised Basic Earth manipulation to level forty-two. If he could keep raising it this easily he might be able to make it reach max level, whatever that was. But right now he needed to focus on hunting. His stomach was not screaming at him yet, but it had been keeping up a low growl since his last bathroom break.


    Kyle snuck out to the edge of the cliff and observed the macaws. Their description didn¡¯t say anything about magic, so he was hoping they didn¡¯t have any. Targeting one that was a little bit away from the others Kyle charged up a Compressed Mana Explosion. He fired off a few more Compressed Mana Bolts before retreating to into his murder hole.


    The plan worked to perfection. The bird was dumb enough to continue to futilely attack Kyle when he was close to it, ensuring its demise. He was hidden inside an extended portion of the wall that had holes big enough for him to fire spells from, but small enough that the human sized monster was unable to reach him. Kyle¡¯s original plan had involved firing spells through holes from outside the cliff face, but doing that would have made him unable to retrieve the body. Luring it inside the cave entrance meant that when the macaw died Kyle had easy access to its corpse.


    It took a few minutes for the bird to finally die, but die it did. After another few skills to ensure it was dead, Kyle crept out of his hidey hole to collect the body and drag it farther into the tunnel. Once he had the body past his unnatural partition, it was time to eat. Changing the way his skills worked had given Kyle an idea. He had no spell to easily make fire and no wood to burn, but he did have a fire spell, and Kyle did not particularly fancy eating raw meat.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    It took a few tries. Well, more than a few tries, but Kyle eventually succeeded in keeping a Small Fireball in his hand without firing it. The next problem was actually cutting up the monster corpse, but some Basic Earth Manipulation later and Kyle had a rough stone knife.


    The macaw tasted heavenly, but part of that may have had to do with its seasoning of hunger. Once he had eaten his fill and roasted some meat for later, Kyle tried looting the corpse. It didn¡¯t leave anything, but it did get rid of the body which was an acceptable result in Kyle¡¯s mind. Having a dead corpse in his cave would get old fast.


    The next birds proved just as easy to hunt as the first one. The first two only dropped mana crystals, the third dropped three enhancement crystals, and the sixth finally dropped a skill crystal. The drop rate seemed rather high to Kyle, and only enforced that these were monsters that he couldn¡¯t fight with regular methods. The quality of the skill crystal was another factor in that analysis.


    Name: Weapon Shaping


    Effect: The user is able to form weapons created out of pure mana. Higher levels of this skill will allow more diversity and detail in the weapons able to be formed. Any weapons formed deal an additional physical power plus two per skill level in damage. Costs 50 mana to summon a weapon. The weapons last for ten minutes. It takes five seconds to summon a weapon.


    The skill was way better than Sarah¡¯s Mana Blade skill. It took Kyle only a few seconds before he decided to absorb it. He could always forget it later, but being able to create weapons would be incredibly useful, if only for cutting up monster meat. And knowing that skills could potentially do more than what they said they could gave him all kinds of ideas of what he could actually use the skill for.


    The sun in the sky had not changed position since Kyle had first seen it, but by this point Kyle ignored the dungeons quirks. The only effect it had was to make him unable to determine when it was day and night. Kyle was beginning to suspect the changes to Humanity were bigger than anyone realized, as he thought he hadn¡¯t slept in at least a few days or so but he still felt he could stay awake if necessary. The urge to sleep was still there though, and when he lay down to see if his body needed rest, he went out like a light.


    After waking up from an apparently much needed nap Kyle felt refreshed. He had somehow managed to calm down and was now fully focused on his goal. If Sarah couldn¡¯t come to him, he had to go to her. It was time to farm. Kyle could see many of the colorful macaws flying over the jungle in the fairy tale valley below him. It looked like there quite a few of them that he would not be able to lure over into a trap as they were too far away. There were still a few score or so he could kill, so that was what he did. The macaws continued to drop unreasonably powerful skill crystals, but it was not until the fourth one that Kyle found a skill that was truly useful to him.


    Name: Supercharged Lightning Bolt


    Effect: Fires a supercharged lightning bolt at a single enemy. This bolt deals 1,000 plus ten times magic power plus twenty per skill level in damage. Costs 3,000 mana. Takes three seconds to cast.


    It only took four Supercharged Lightning Bolts to kill one of the Macaws which greatly sped up Kyle¡¯s hunting speed. After hunting over fifty more macaws Kyle found a skill which, while not incredibly powerful, was undoubtedly useful.


    Name: Meat Harvesting


    Effect: When looting an edible monster the user is able to harvest some of the edible meat. More meat can be harvested at higher levels of this skill.


    Kyle considered himself extremely lucky to get such a skill. It would make it much easier to find food and would help even more when he found Sarah and had to feed more people.


    I can do it. I promised. At this rate I should be out of here in no time. I just have to focus.


    It was easy to hunt the macaws using his current setup, but Kyle had no illusions about what the result would be if he had to face them in an open area. He could maybe deal with one, but two or three would be his downfall. He had cracked the code for leveling up his skills though, so he had an easy way to get some more stat points.


    After killing all the macaws that he could reach, Kyle went back down the tunnel to take a break and try and level his skills. Basic Earth Manipulation was steadily leveling up and Kyle wanted to cash in on the stat points gained from it reaching level fifty. It took him at least a few hours, but getting the skill to level fifty payed off in more ways than one.


    By this point Kyle had forgotten about the second part of his Exponential Growth title. He was never going to forget again. It turned out that level fifty was the maximum level for a skill so as per Kyle¡¯s title he got a combination point. It was painfully obvious in hindsight what a combination point did. It combined skills. Using one would combine two random skills that Kyle had and would create a new more powerful skill. You could also save up ten combination points to choose which skills were combined.


    I don¡¯t know how rare combination points are, but if I can level my skills up to max level isn¡¯t this unfair? I mean, other people would have to worry about not having enough skill slots while I can just combine the skills ad infinitum. Combining skills also seems to make them more powerful. It looks like ideally I should save up the points until all my skills are at max level, but I don¡¯t have that kind of time now. If combining skills can grant me immediate power I should take it. I can plan ahead once I have found Sarah.


    Kyle used the combination point and was not disappointed by the result. His Basic Mana Gain and Basic Magic Power Gain had combined to make a new skill.


    Name: Mana and Magic Power Gain


    Effect: Gain ten mana and one magic power for every level of this skill.


    It even started off at level four! It seemed like some of the experience from the combined skills carried over.


    It took Kyle a few more times of clearing out any macaws in the area before he felt comfortable leaving the cliff. Water Purification was almost level fifty as well, and getting it there would give him another combination point to boost his power. He was not sure he needed it at this point though. He had picked up some defensive skills from the macaws he killed and his stats had grown a fair amount from the enhancement crystals they dropped and from him leveling up his skills.


    Health: 500


    Mana: 740


    Physical Power: 10


    Magic Power: 50


    After descending the cliff Kyle was prepared to face fierce opposition from whatever monsters lay in wait in the forest below. There were none. No matter where Kyle went, the macaws appeared to be the only monsters anywhere in the valley. There were still dangerous, so instead of fighting them head-on he used the same strategy of forming small crevices in the walls of the valley to shoot skills from. Once he had killed enough of the birds to feel safe it was time to start searching for the way out.


    This took longer than it should have. Kyle ended up killing all of the macaws in his search for the exit from the secret training area. He still had no luck, and he was growing increasingly frustrated. The forest was beautiful, but that was it. No glowing stone. Climbing the cliffs would have been the wet dream of any mountain climber back before the Change. Still no stone. Kyle even dove into the lake, experiencing an underwater landscape like none he had ever seen. But still no stone. It eventually took finding a skill crystal in a treasure chest before Kyle finally found what was under his nose.


    He had been exploring the mountains surrounding he valley when he noticed a small hole in the cliff face. It was too small for him to fit in, but some Basic Earth Manipulation later and he was inside. The small cave only had a small treasure chest. That was more than enough for Kyle once he saw the skill inside.


    Name: General Item Dowsing


    Effect: Activating this skill shows the user the direction of a known item. The user must have knowledge of what the item looks like, as well as its intended usage. Increased precision is possible at higher levels of this skill. Costs 50 mana per second.


    Using the skill led Kyle to the lake once more. It only took diving into the lake a single time to realize what he had missed. It was a common theme for things to be hidden behind waterfalls in stories. The waterfall that fell into the lake didn¡¯t have anything behind it though. So instead of something being hidden behind the waterfall, that something was hidden inside the waterfall. The glowing blue stone was floating in the waterfall just at it hit the lake. He had been unable to see it because of the churning waters.


    It took some doing, but Kyle finally ended up using Compressed Mana Explosion to briefly interrupt the waterfall and allow him to reach the stone and finally escape and find Sarah. But when he opened his eyes he was not in the cave where he had first started. He opened his eyes to see sand, sand, and more sand. Kyle blankly looked around in confusion as information flowed into his head.


    ¡°Congratulations on clearing the first stage of the secret training area. You have received a skill crystal for the skill Calm Mind as a prize. Each stage increases in difficulty, so please take due precautions. Gaia prays for your continued success.¡±

 Chapter Fifteen - Anger and Consequences

    It had only been a few days since earth had seen its last sentient race, but things in general were still functioning normally. Eventually electricity and other such amenities would fail, but for now were someone to be left on earth they could get by quite comfortably on cup noodles and binge watching shows on their computer. But no one was there, and so no one would witness the eventual destruction of all that Humanity had built. Buildings would fall, roads would be overgrown, and the law of the jungle would rule once more as nature reclaimed her bounty.


    No one was there. Or they shouldn¡¯t have been. Humanity had all been transported far, far away. But it was not a member of Humanity that stepped out of a swirling dimensional portal on the previously unoccupied world.


    The creature was humanoid in appearance. Mostly. It had a head, two arms, two legs, and no other appendages in places they shouldn¡¯t be. But mistaking it for a human was not a mistake you could accuse someone of making. The first clue was its attire, or the lack thereof. Instead of wearing any sort of clothing, it was wearing water. A greenish colored coating of water encased its entire body, obviously held in place by some supernatural force.


    Its body in general was smooth and rubbery, more reminiscent of some amphibian than any proper mammal, perhaps signifying the presence of the water surrounding it. Its lower half as well seemed more suited to underwater movement, with large webbed feet and legs similar to a frog. The torso and arms were more human, again in line with water dwelling ancestors there were clear gills on its neck. Its head was lacking any sort of hair, as was the rest of its body, and could be mistaken for an aliens in some sci-fi thriller.


    The creature, who was part of the Poaoloaoia race, took a good look around after it stepped out of the glowing purple dimensional portal. It had appeared in what used to be flourishing city, but which city was meaningless to the creature. It looked around, and after reaching the conclusion that there were no sentient lifeforms in its immediate vicinity, it quickly set off to search the rest of the world. It did so by flying at supersonic speeds that, strangely enough, barely disturbed the air with its passing and didn¡¯t cause sonic booms.


    It only took a few hours for the creature to circle the earth a few times and be certain of its findings. It had found out two things, one being that this was certainly the planet it was looking for that had Gaia¡¯s children on it, and two being ¡°had¡± Gaia¡¯s children, as they were clearly not there anymore.


    ¡°Something must have alerted Gaia to our movements,¡± The creature croaked to itself in a watery voice. ¡°Based on the mana residue this planet was occupied until a few days ago. Truly a shame, we were so close too.¡±


    In a fit of pique the creature stomped its foot on the ground, which made a rather large hole in the road it had been standing on. It paused, and suddenly smiled in a way to most often ascribed to movie villains. The creature¡¯s first step was moving its portal. It dragged the portal high into the sky before once more anchoring it in place. Now it could begin.


    It raised its arms and let the mana flow. At first nothing happened. All was calm. Then came the storm.


    The seas below the creature heaved. If you have ever tried to make waves in a bathtub you would understand. First they start out small, then grow, and grow, until finally they crash in on themselves, spilling over the sides of the tub. Earth was nothing more than a tub to the Poaoloaoia floating high in the sky.


    First went the beaches. Rising sea level had already made many beaches untenable except for human intervention. Then went the small islands. They were swamped by waves, once, twice, and eventually were eroded into oblivion. It didn¡¯t stop there. The seas buckled and swayed, heaving themselves onto the land that no longer was safe from their watery grasp.


    Hours later when the worst was over earth was unrecognizable. All but the highest elevation landmasses had been at least swept over and sown with salt water. Coast lines were demolished, and islands like England and Japan were no more.


    The sky was now empty once again, and the dimensional interloper had long vanished, satisfied with leaving Humanity¡¯s home in shambles. It had been too slow to catch Gaia sleeping, but Gaia had made its move, and now it was time for the counterattack. Humanity couldn¡¯t hide forever, and when they were found, the Poaoloaia would be far from alone in making sure they faced the same fate as their home planet.


    <hr>


    Sarah lay on the floor. She had been there for the past hour. It was long since time to get up, but getting up was hard. Sarah felt like it was the hardest thing she had to do in her entire life. But she did have to do it. Li and Walt had spent the last hour trying to convince her to get up and press onward. Li made a very persuasive argument. She said that if Kyle needed help, the quickest way to find him would be to go to the city Gaia mentioned and find someone who could track him with a skill somehow.


    It made sense. She needed to find Kyle. To find Kyle she had to reach the city. To reach the city she had to get up off of the floor. She had to.


    You can do it. You have to find Kyle. He¡¯s probably fine. Definitely fine. Just need to get up and find him. Easy. It¡¯s easy. Just get up. Easy.


    It wasn¡¯t easy. It took another hour of Sarah lying on the floor before Li finally was able to get her up.


    ¡°That¡¯s it Sarah,¡± Li said with a sigh of relief. ¡°Kyle wouldn¡¯t want you to die before we find him. We have to keep going. Take this skill crystal. Walt can¡¯t use it so you should.¡±


    Sarah wordlessly took the crystal. It contained some sort of natural armor skill, which Walt most likely couldn¡¯t learn because he had one already. Sarah had seen Li and Walt absorb the other two skill crystals, but all the excitement she had over them previously was gone. The only thing that had caught her attention from their conversation was about the combination crystal that was in the treasure chest. She remembered that Kyle had asked about them.


    Kyle¡­


    The next few days passed in a blur for Sarah. Li seemed to take charge, and they slowly made their way down the passage with her guidance. It was slow going. They advanced at a snail¡¯s pace to check for traps and it took Li over twenty minutes to kill a slime by herself. But they progressed, and after four rest periods to sleep, so what should have been at least the fifth day, the group of three finally made it out of the tunnel they had been in.


    They knew they had entered another area by the smell. It even roused Sarah¡¯s consciousness from her haze for a brief moment. Fire and brimstone can do that to you. Ahead of the group was what could have very easily been a generic video game jumping level, complete with lava and all. It wasn¡¯t a video game though, and the lava seemed confined to certain areas and the path across the large room could easily be traversed without any jumping necessary. Easily traversed if you didn¡¯t take into account the lava golems strewn across the cavern.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    ¡°Do you think you can tank those lava golems Walt?¡± Li asked, expecting the obvious answer. She got it.


    ¡°Not happening,¡± Walt replied with a shake of his head. ¡°I could maybe block one briefly, but there are way too many for us to fight. We would have to somehow section one off from the rest.¡±


    The tunnel the party came from ended on a small cliff about fifteen feet up from the floor below that was filled with lava golems and pools of bubbling lava. The only exit from the cavern below them appeared to be another tunnel about the same height directly across from them. After counting them, there were over fifty golems between them and the path forward.


    Li and Walt teamed up for a strategy meeting. Sarah sat against the wall, staring blankly ahead and generally tuning out the world. She was going forward, right? She would find Kyle eventually. Li and Walt would help her.


    Kyle¡­ I¡¯m coming.


    Of course she wasn¡¯t really coming. If she was, she would have been right there with Li and Walt, planning a way through their most recent obstacle. Instead she was taking the position of deadweight, not even being able to fight any of the monsters they came across. Although to be fair they had only encountered slimes so far which she was useless against.


    The party also needed to advance because their food stores were running low. Without Kyle it would last a bit longer, but they only had food for a week more max if they really stretched it out. Their water would be gone in less than four days. Slimes did not have edible body parts and neither did the golems in front of them, so finding edible monsters was a priority. Monster meat could even substitute for water, as the mana in the meat compensated and nourished the body.


    Li and Walt finally came up with a plan they thought might work. There were three golems in a bunch close to the ledge they were on. Li would lock up two of them with a double dose of CC while Walt would then block the other one and Li would attempt to burst it down. They were both stronger than in the past from the few skill crystals and enhancement crystals they had picked up, so while the plan was no surefire success, they were confident they could escape if something went wrong.


    Sarah watched as they implemented their plan. Walt seemed to be able to block the golem attacking him better than expected and remained at relatively high health without the need for massive heals from his skill. Li¡¯s damage output was not huge, but was high enough that it seemed to be damaging the golem at a reasonable rate. They could not actually see its health bar or anything and didn¡¯t have specific information to work with so when the two CC¡¯ed golems were about to be freed the plan called for Walt to back off.


    Li¡¯s Shadow Suppression should have lasted well over a minute. Sarah watched from atop the ledge next to Li as the two golems stirred, the skill lasting not nearly as long as it should have. Walt and Li were shouting at each other, but it sounded very far away to Sarah as she watched Walt get swatted back by multiple tons of force from the ten foot tall lava golems. She couldn¡¯t see his health, but his condition clearly wasn¡¯t good.


    Sarah watched in horror as the golems closed in on Walt. They had corralled him in and were preventing him from climbing back up to the ledge above. Li was shouting, but Sarah heard only silence. It all wasn¡¯t real. First Kyle, now Walt. Her life had been shitty enough before all this happened. Sarah wondered where it all went wrong.


    What did I do wrong? I only wanted to surprise Kyle. And then they were dead. Now he¡¯s gone. He promised, but he¡¯s gone. Why? Kyle¡­ I need you. Please come back. Walt he, he needs you too. Please, Kyle.


    No one was there to answer her prayers. Tears streamed down Sarah¡¯s cheeks as she watched Walt be battered aside like a ragdoll, coming to rest a scant few feet from a pool of lava. Another golem had come over at this point, and now instead of a cave wall behind him, Walt was stuck between a lava pool, and lava golems.


    Li was crying and screaming at Sarah to do something. She herself was almost helpless. She had used her CC on the two golems that she could, but there were still two that could not be immediately suppressed again, and trying to CC them all like that was a losing battle, even if Li could use mana crystals to compensate for the mana cost involved.


    Finally having enough, Li let out a high pitched scream of frustration and smacked Sarah across the face. It dealt no damage given Sarah¡¯s defensive skills and the massive difference in physical power, but it succeeded where everything else had failed.


    It kindled a small spark of anger deep within Sarah.


    That small spark would have been quickly overwhelmed by her helplessness and fear, but it was just enough to jump start a skill that Li and Walt had made Sarah absorb earlier to try and get her to fight.


    The skill was called Perilous Rage. It made the user fly into a rage driven frenzy to do all they could to escape whatever perilous situation they found themselves in. The skill also increased in potency the higher perceived danger the user was in. The key being here ¡°perceived danger¡±. The skill didn¡¯t work off of actual danger, whatever that would mean, but how much fear the user felt for their life. Sarah currently felt a lot of fear.


    The skill took that little spark of anger and slowly transformed it into a boiling hot rage. That rage then fed off of the all-encompassing fear that Sarah felt. Without Kyle, Sarah¡¯s life was practically over. The skill took those feeling and channeled them, until only fury and rage remained. Rage at the world for making her feel this way, rage at those who caused her to feel helpless and afraid, rage at the enemies who threatened her life and those of her allies. The only valid target for that rage was the lava golems before her.


    Li watched in shock as Sarah¡¯s face changed from one tear streaked and ridden with fear and anxiety to one clearly showing barely suppressed anger. Sarah rocketed her way off of the ledge and attacked the golems in a frenzy. The golems, now under attack by another source, switched their focus from Walt to Sarah as she danced between them, her blades slicing into their lava exterior.


    Li collapsed, her legs finally gave out as she sunk to the floor in relief. Sarah was back. Hopefully for good. They needed her if they were going to make it through the dungeon to the city where Humanity dwelled. The change in Sarah¡¯s expression of fear to anger was rather dramatic though, and Li laughed to herself as she hoped the progression would not continue. They needed Sarah to help them get to the city, but not to have her get them there and then slaughter all the children.


    Walt eventually made his way back up to the ledge with Li. Sarah was on a rampage, and he would only get in her way.


    Sarah practically flew between the golems, shaving them down with each pass. While big and strong, they didn¡¯t seem to have the reaction time to keep up with her speed. Her two short swords whipped around her in a frenzy, drawing lava with each swipe. Sarah was not paying any attention to her wellbeing so it was imperative that she didn¡¯t get hit. But she seemed unlikely to at this point, and only continued with her whirlwind frenzy of devastation.


    She was lucky her hair was short, as if it hadn¡¯t been before it would have been now. Sarah¡¯s blades swept within inches of her head and her rapid movements would have knocked out all but the tightest of hairstyles. Her rapid frenzy of rage induced killing continued unabated for several minutes until the last golem had been killed. Li and Walt watched in mute awe as Sarah stood there, before her swords disappeared and she seemed to fall in slow motion until she lay on the ground, passed out from her exertion.


    When Sarah came to she was lying in on the floor in a small nook in a corridor. Walt had carried her unconscious body to a safer location as resting in a lava filled room was deemed less than smart by Walt and Li.


    The other two quickly noticed her stirring and looked over at Sarah expectantly. Sarah slowly recalled the events since Kyle disappeared and her reaction to them. She had been¡­ useless. A deadweight, and a clear drain on their resources and no use in finding Kyle, which should have been their eventual goal after rescuing themselves first.


    I¡­ What happened to me? Kyle could be in trouble and I was moping around, trying to get us all killed. When his dad died I swore that I would be there for Kyle. I can¡¯t fall apart like this. I have to be strong. Kyle IS alive, and I have to find him. No excuses. It¡¯s time to forge ahead and fight. Mom wouldn¡¯t have backed down if Dad was trapped in a dungeon somewhere. She would have fought until she had saved him. Now he and Kyle could both be trapped somewhere. Dad didn¡¯t have that many combat skills. He might need my help. Kyle will know what to do. First I¡¯ll save Kyle, then with his help save my dad.


    Sarah slowly got up and joined the other two at the fire they had made. She had to be strong. It wasn¡¯t just her now. She had other people depending on her. She couldn¡¯t rely on Kyle forever. It was time for the princess to kick some ass and save the day.

 Chapter Sixteen - All Fifty Stages

    A bright purple glow briefly illuminated an empty cave. When the glow faded, the cave was empty no more. In the center now stood a young man, clothed in leather and fur. He was just under six feet tall, with short light brown hair and an untrimmed beard. He stood there in silence, listening to a voice in his head that only he could hear.


    ¡°Congratulations on completing all fifty stages of the secret training area! Gaia is thrilled with your success! As your final reward and for being the first to complete this secret training area you have awakened the title Gaia¡¯s Blessing. This title increases all stats by twenty-five percent. Gaia prays for your continued success and the success of Humanity. This secret training area will no longer be accessible from this location.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m finally back¡­,¡± Kyle softly murmured. It had taken fifty stages and over two years, but he had done it. Gaia¡¯s secret training area was complete.


    Sarah, I¡¯m finally back. Everyone¡­ I¡¯m coming home.


    Kyle would have been worried about his friends and family¡¯s safety if it wasn¡¯t for a skill he had combined, called Advanced Dowsing. The skill allowed him to find out general information about his target so he knew that Sarah was still alive and that she was okay. Having that skill had done wonders for Kyle¡¯s peace of mind and let him fully concentrate on getting stronger and finishing the secret training area.


    It had been on the seventh stage that Kyle had come to the realization that he wasn¡¯t getting out any time soon. The stage was set on a snow covered mountain top, and Kyle had to somehow reach the summit whist simultaneously fighting off the cold, the freezing hurricane force winds, and the packs of yetis that could shoot icicles and breathe cones of cold. One of the yetis had knocked him off the side of a cliff and it had only been because of his mental enhancement skills that he had the presence of mind to shield himself, preventing him becoming a meat pancake on impact.


    That experience had made him finally acknowledge that getting out at all was more important than getting out ASAP. The secret training area truly was a training paradise so long as death could be avoided, but avoiding death needed to be higher up on Kyle¡¯s list of priorities. But once he devoted the proper effort to staying alive there was not a huge amount of danger. There were some close calls, but Kyle¡¯s skills and title were only enhanced by the resources he gained, and his growth skyrocketed.


    The last few levels of the training area, despite being the hardest by far, actually held the least danger. When Kyle had reached the halfway point he was rewarded with a title crystal and the title he awakened, Forced Mana Skill Leveling, allowed him to level up his skills a lot faster, which in turn made him even more powerful and created an exponential growth loop.


    Kyle closed his eyes and activated Advanced Dowsing. Finally it showed a proper direction. When Kyle had activated the skill in the training area he had gotten the impression that everyone he targeted was in a different dimension. No matter where he went he would never be able to find them. When he activated the skill now he not only got an impression of Sarah¡¯s wellbeing, but also where he needed to go to find her. She didn¡¯t seem to be in any immediate danger so Kyle reactivated his skill with Mickey as the target, figuring that Mickey would be in Humanity¡¯s city so he was a good target to use as a reference to get there.


    Kyle put a large shield on himself and made his way back to the main tunnel. Once there, he started to run. His stats were incomparable to before, and his shield was powerful enough that he didn¡¯t need to worry about anything he came across. He simply ran right through the slimes and the pitfall traps only activated once he was long gone.


    Kyle ran through the tunnel with the slimes. He jumped straight over a room full of lava elementals. He breezed past a corridor full of arrow traps. He zoomed straight through a large cavern that seemed to hold thousands of goblin like creatures, ignoring all of their pitiful attacks. He only took a break from his running when the cavern opened up into a deep, narrow valley that appeared to be the home of ten story tall frost giants.


    There seemed to be a way to reach the other end of the valley by traversing its sides, which is what Kyle presumed Sarah, Li, and Walt had done to bypass the twenty or so giants below. Kyle guessed that if he had tried to kill them in the past he would have run out of mana before even killing one of them. Large monsters typically had high regeneration, so attacking them without high enough DPS was suicide.


    Kyle had ignored the monsters up to this point, not even bothering to loot the ones he had killed. It simple wasn¡¯t worth it in his mind. He had tons of extra skill crystals and enhancement crystals in his extradimensional storage, so he was not really in need of the few more that weak monsters would drop. These front giants on the other hand didn¡¯t seem weak, as this challenge was most likely about passing through the valley without them noticing then fighting them. Kyle decided to quickly kill them and see if they dropped anything worthwhile.


    It may seem strange that Kyle was so cavalier about enhancement crystals, but currently they were not all that useful to him. While enhancement crystals could increase his stats, it turned out that there was a limit. Once his stats passed the equivalent of 500 enhancement crystals, so 500 for physical and magic power and 5,000 for health and mana, the crystals no longer always worked. When his stats passed the equivalent of 1,000 enhancement crystals they only worked less than ten percent of the time. The stat points gained from leveling up skills always worked though, which was the main way Kyle ended up raising his stats.


    He also found out that there were tiers of crystals and skills. So far he had managed to combine five tier two skills. When those skills reached level ten, instead of giving one stat point, they gave ten points. Kyle finally knew why his title was worded the way it was, as when the tier two skills reached an increment of ten, they gave him an additional ten stat points. His Exponential Growth title truly was a huge boon.


    Just like tier two skills, tier two enhancement crystals gave ten stat points, although sometime you would get less if you stats were above a certain amount. Once Kyle got his extradimensional storage skill he no longer bothered trying to use enhancement crystals and just stored them for when he would eventually leave the training area.


    So while Kyle had a truly absurd number of crystals stored with his Pocket Dimension skill, there was always the chance of a monster dropping a skill that he really needed, and he would finally have a use for all the extra crystals once he reached the rest of Humanity so there was no real harm in picking up more. He should at least be able to trade them for something if nothing else.


    There were a total of twenty-two frost giants below him. They were big enough that Kyle doubted there were more hiding out somewhere, so twenty-two should be all of them. Kyle first aimed at a group of five. Currently, Kyle¡¯s most powerful attack skill was his tier two Advanced Various Mana Bolts. He was able to charge up an extremely powerful bolt of mana, which ended up being so powerful that it instantly killed the five giants that Kyle targeted in one hit. The rest followed soon after and Kyle was left as the sole resident of the entire valley.


    The frost giants didn¡¯t drop anything amazing, but Kyle did end up finding something worthwhile in a treasure chest he sniffed out with his Advanced Dowsing skill. The chest contained two combination crystals, which were always useful. Kyle could essentially farm combination points by making sure his skills were all max level before using a point to free up space, but having more points was always better. He had only managed to get one tier two skill by using just one point and the other four had all been him using ten combination points to combine specific skills.


    Even travelling at a ridiculous speed it took Kyle over a week until he finally reached a place that gave him more than one direction to travel. He imagined that it would have taken Sarah and the other two at least a few months to get where he was currently. In particular there had been a nasty patch where you had to navigate an underwater maze. If you took the wrong turn you could get stuck and run out of air. But he was past all that now, and in the distance Kyle spotted what looked like his first glimpse of civilization.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    The tunnel Kyle just came out of opened up to a giant cavern. The ceiling looked tall enough to fit the Burj Khalifa with room to spare. There were huge columns of stone and large stalactites and stalagmites, although Kyle could never remember which was which. The cavern could have fit multiple football fields, and had a myriad of tunnels leading in and out, some big enough for a small dragon to fit inside and others that looked barely large enough for a human. There were no monsters as far as Kyle could see, but there did look to be some sort of outpost building in the distance. His dowsing skill only confirmed that was where he wanted to go.


    Kyle got a better look at the out post as he got closer. It appeared to be a smallish stone fortress which only looked big enough to house a hundred or so people at most. It was built up over the entrance to a tunnel, and had a medium sized wall surrounding some sort of inner compound. As Kyle approached, he was quite literally hailed by someone standing over medieval style portcullis.


    ¡°Hail traveler, and well met. I am the gatekeeper of the Flintstone Fortress. Doth thou seek passage within?¡±


    The guard, who looked to be a few years younger than Kyle, then blushed a bit, obviously embarrassed by what he had said.


    ¡°Err, sorry about that. I always wanted to try greeting someone like that. My name¡¯s Ryan by the way. Let me go down and open the portcullis for you.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no need,¡± Kyle replied, as he jumped up on top of the wall next to Ryan. The wall was only thirty or so feet high, which was a trivial distance to jump with Kyle¡¯s stats.


    ¡°My name¡¯s Kyle,¡± he said, holding out his hand.


    Ryan shook his hand.


    It was at this point that Ryan took notice of what Kyle was wearing. While Ryan was wearing metal armor overtop of leather, Kyle was wearing what clearly looked like handmade leather armor, complete with furs and all. There was not a scrap of woven fabric to be seen. Ryan immediately grabbed onto this detail with interest.


    ¡°What¡¯s up with your clothes? It looks like you only have leather on. Did something happen to your other clothes and you had to make those? Or maybe you like cosplaying and wearing leather? Are you advertising for a shop back in the city?¡±


    Now that he was closer, Kyle revised his opinion of Ryan¡¯s age as closer to fourteen or fifteen. He was staring at Kyle¡¯s clothing with the blatant enthusiasm only a kid could have.


    ¡°I¡¯ve actually never been to the city. I was trapped in a certain area soon after everyone was transported here from Earth and now I am making my way to Humanity¡¯s city.¡±


    ¡°You mean like a secret training area? I heard that there were people who were trapped in secret areas and when they came out they were super strong! Where were you trapped? Did you become super powerful?¡±


    Ryan¡¯s eyes were shining as he looked at Kyle as if he was some sort of hero personified. Kyle wasn¡¯t really sure what to make of it. He had no clue how common secret training areas were, but from the sound of it people knew about them already. If it had not been for the title part of humanity then Kyle would probably have kept quiet, but with the title he saw no harm in humoring the kid in from of him.


    ¡°Yeah, it was a secret training area. I don¡¯t know about super powerful, but I am definitely a lot stronger now than when I was first trapped in there.¡±


    ¡°Really!? I wish I could go try and find a secret training area. My parents only let me work out here at a guard post though. Actually if you don¡¯t have an ID card then I need to take you to see the commander. Follow me!¡±


    Ryan then ran off towards some stairs, with Kyle following shortly. Ryan kept up a string of question on the walk through the fortress that Kyle did his best to answer. From what he said, Kyle was getting the picture that Humanity seemed to be doing pretty well. They seemed to be working with a sort of merit based system and working at a guard post was one of the ways to earn points to trade in for crystals. Points earned by working various jobs or trading in crystals seemed to by the main currency, and Ryan made it sound like basic amenities like food and shelter were basically free.


    Ryan finally led Kyle to a door that had Commander Jessen written on it. Ryan opened the door without knocking and entered. Kyle followed him inside to greet the commander.


    He was met by the sight of a neat office with a large desk that had a striking middle aged woman sitting behind it. She had quite a presence, and Kyle could feel a fairly large mana pool from her. She was wearing shining armor that was clearly enchanted based on the patterns engraved in it, and Kyle couldn¡¯t help but appreciate its beauty. She reprimanded Ryan as soon as they entered the room.


    ¡°Ryan, what have I told you about knocking? I could be in the middle of an important meeting.¡±


    Ryan at least had the grace to look abashed before his enthusiasm came back. ¡°Sorry commander, but you told me to immediately bring anyone here who had yet to reach the First City. Kyle said not only has he never been to the city, but he was trapped in a secret training area!¡±


    Commander Jessen raised her eyebrows at that information. ¡°I¡¯m sure Kyle is perfectly capable of telling me his situation himself. You did the right thing by bringing him here, but now you should get back to you post. Dismissed.¡±


    ¡°Aye aye commander.¡±


    Ryan did a sloppy impression of a salute before rushing back out the door. The commander then turned her attention to Kyle.


    ¡°You name is Kyle? I¡¯m Commander Agnes Jessen. A pleasure to meet you. Please sit down.¡±


    Kyle sat down in one of the chairs in front of desk before she continued.


    ¡°If you really survived a secret training area then you must be quite powerful. It would explain why you haven¡¯t reached the First City yet. Most people who have not been trapped somewhere have long been found already by rescue missions.¡±


    Commander Jessen then got up and brought out a large array of some sort that almost looked like a magical computer.


    ¡°Could you please tell me your full name and if anyone might have filed a report asking about your whereabouts?¡±


    ¡°Kyle Anders. I guess my aunt and uncle, Lisa and Carl Anders might have filed one and my friend Sarah Bailer also did one I¡¯m sure.¡±


    Commander Jessen seemed to be staring at something that only she could see as she manipulated the computer-like array in front or her with mana.


    ¡°It looks like Carl Anders put out a first level alert for you. Sarah¡¯s name is on there as well. It says here that Carl Anders is on the council for Metal City, which would explain the first level alert.¡±


    The commander then put away her magical computer and turned back to Kyle.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure you have a lot of questions, and since you have a first level alert out it is my duty to help you to the best of my abilities. Why don¡¯t you tell me what you¡¯ve been through and what you know and I can then fill you in from there.¡±


    Kyle spent the next three hours telling his story to the commander and listening to her tell him about what had happened with Humanity. Humanity in general seemed to be doing quite well, with the only people who hadn¡¯t made it to the city yet being people like him who were in extradimensional spaces. They had even made it to the second tier of the dungeon Gaia had trapped them in and established a small city. The dungeon seemed to be divided into tiers, and the second tier had much stronger monsters and would more often drop second tier crystals and combination crystals.


    Kyle learned about the First City and the sub cities within it. Apparently his uncle being on the council for one was a big deal. The commander also told him about how the golems provided plenty of food and there were still large unoccupied sections of the cities so housing wasn¡¯t a problem. In general with the title Part of Humanity people were working together for the common good.


    After explaining a lot of the information that Kyle needed to know, the commander, who was really only a commander in name as this was a very out of the way outpost, then took Kyle to get an ID made. It was similar to the one that he had gotten at the dungeon school, except that it would only show his personal information if he wanted it to. It also functioned as a credit card where he could store the merit points he earned and trade them in for various things, like favors or skill crystals.


    As someone with a level one alert out for them, Kyle was authorized to use the teleport formation in the fortress to travel to a larger fortress and then go to the city from there. Commander Jessen was shocked when Kyle offered to charge the teleport formation. It required a million mana, and she thought it would take her a little while to charge it up for him to use.


    Kyle didn¡¯t waste any time once he had the go ahead and quickly filled the teleport formation with mana and, after a quick goodbye to the commander, left for a larger fortress. His alert level allowed him to then easily teleport to Metal City, and someone even offered to guide him to where his aunt and uncle were staying, although Kyle could have found it by himself with his skill.


    He was dropped off before a rather large housing complex by his guide. Kyle could tell with his skill that only Lisa and Mickey were inside, while it appeared that his uncle and friends were outside the city.


    I¡¯m finally back. I did it. I finally made it. Carl, Lisa, Mickey, Sarah¡­


    Kyle felt more emotional than he had in a long time. He slowly walked up to the door, his door, and rang the magical doorbell. He was finally home.

 Kyles Stats for Chapter Sixteen

    Name: Kyle Anders


    Titles:


    Exponential Growth: A person with this title receives additional stat points equal to the base stat point amount of a skill when that skill reaches an increment of ten. When any skill reaches its maximum level the title holder obtains a combination point.


    Part of Humanity: Those with this title are part of Humanity. This title gives the owner the ability to identify crystals. This title gives the owner the rudimentary ability to identify monsters. This title allows for communication through mana. This title makes the owner more likely to have a positive reaction and work together with others with the same title. This title allows the Titan race to recognize the owner as part of a race created by Gaia. This title increases the overall knowledge of the system put in place by Gaia to help humanity.


    Forced Mana Skill Leveling: A person with this title has learned that there is nothing that the mystical power of mana cannot solve. By forcefully channeling incredibly large amounts of mana into skills the title holder is able to forcefully level up said skills. Leveling up skills this way takes increasingly larger amounts of mana the higher level the skill and the more powerful the skill.


    Gaia¡¯s Blessing: A person with this title has their base stats increased by twenty-five percent. This increase applies after any additive bonuses and before any multiplicative bonuses to stats from titles or skills.


    Health: 12,630 (15,787)


    Mana: 20,000 (6,275,000)


    Physical Power: 1,073 (1,341)


    Magic Power: 1,487 (1,858)


    Points currently available:


    Combination points: 12


    Skills:


    Exponential Mana Regeneration and Pool Extension, tier 2, level 50: Actively meditate to regenerate mana equal to the current mana in the user¡¯s mana pool every five minutes. The user¡¯s mana pool is extended by an amount equal to five times the original mana pool times the level of this skill.


    Advanced Mana Shielding, tier 2, level 50: Can create a mana shield on any target in the user¡¯s range of vision. This shield can attempt to withstand piercing abilities. This shield can attempt to withstand dispelling abilities. This shield can reflect damage back at anyone who attacks it. This shield can attempt to prevent anything it is covering from being targeted with negative effects. This shield can be formed according to the users will. This shield prevents five damage for every additional mana spent to cast it. This shield lasts for an hour. Requires an initial casting cost of 500 mana. Takes one second to cast. Greater control and enhancement of shields are possible at higher levels of this skill.


    Advanced Various Mana Bolts, tier 2, level 50: The user is able to fire various types of mana bolts. The bolts can be compressed to increase their power. These bolts can be enhanced to pierce armor or shields. These bolts can be enhanced to explode on impact. These bolts can deal up to 1,000 base damage, and can reach a twenty times magical power modifier for damage. Mana cost varies. Casting time can range from instantaneous to a twenty second channel time. Greater control and enhancement of mana bolts are possible at higher levels of this skill.


    Advanced Dowsing, tier 2, level 50: Allows the user to search up information about their target. More information can be gained the more knowledge of the target it known. Knowledge of the target can be gained such as status, location, surroundings, and distance and direction from the user. More information can be gained at higher levels of this skill. Costs 5,000 mana per second to channel.


    Improved Stats and Frame of Mind, tier 2, level 50: This skill increases the user¡¯s mental state. The user is more likely to think calmly and rationally. The user is more likely to respond quickly to new information and stimuli. The user¡¯s overall thinking is generally enhanced. The user¡¯s health and mana increase by 100 and physical and magic power increase by 10 for every level of this skill.


    Improved Health and Regeneration, level 50: Increases health by an additional 50 times the level of this skill. The user regenerates ten times the level of this skill in health every five minutes. Does not regenerate health if you have taken damage in the last sixty seconds.


    Small Fireball, level 50: Fires a small fireball that explodes on impact. This fireball deals two times the user¡¯s magic power plus two per skill level in damage. Three second cast time. Costs five mana.


    Rapid Air Bullet, level 50: Fires a condensed bullet of air that deals magic power plus one per skill level in damage. Costs five mana. No cast time.


    Basic Ball of Light, level 50: Creates a small ball of light that hovers above the user¡¯s head. The ball of light lasts for five minutes plus one minute per skill level. Costs five mana. Two second cast time.


    Water Purification, level 50: Channel mana to cleanse water of impurities. The user can cleanse water faster at higher levels of this skill. Costs two mana per second.


    Basic Earth Shaping, level 50: Channel mana to slowly sculpt the earth to form rudimentary shapes. Greater precision and faster speed is possible at higher levels of this skill. Costs twenty mana per second.


    Weapon Shaping, level 50: The user is able to form weapons created out of pure mana. Higher levels of this skill will allow more diversity and detail in the weapons able to be formed. Any weapons formed deal an additional physical power plus two per skill level in damage. Costs 50 mana to summon a weapon. The weapons last for ten minutes. It takes five seconds to summon a weapon.


    Supercharged Lightning Bolt, level 50: Fires a supercharged lightning bolt at a single enemy. This bolt deals 1,000 plus ten times magic power plus twenty per skill level in damage. Costs 3,000 mana. Takes three seconds to cast.


    Increased Looting, level 50: When looting monsters, the user is more likely to loot additional crystals and can also loot parts of the body such as the meat, bones, and leather to eat or use for crafting. This skill has an increased effect at higher skill levels.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Good Natural armor, level 50: The user takes four per skill level less damage from attacks.


    Sprint, level 50: Increase the user¡¯s movement speed by twenty-five percent for five minutes. Costs 100 mana. Cannot be used twice within an hour.


    Basic Magic Resistance, level 50: For every ten levels of this skill rounded down the user takes three percent less magic damage from attacks. This effect applies before armor.


    Basic Physical Resistance, level 50: For every ten levels of this skill rounded down the user takes three percent less damage from physical attacks. This effect applies before armor.


    Healing Burst, level 50: Uses a healing burst on the user or a target within ten feet per level of this skill that heals for 100 plus five times magic power health. Costs 200 mana. Takes one second to cast.


    Temperature Resistance, level 50: The user is able to better withstand extreme temperatures. For every ten levels of this skill rounded down the user receives one percent damage resistance to damage from either extreme cold or extreme heat.


    Second Wind, level 50: When the user drops below twenty percent health the user receives a twenty percent increase in physical power and takes twenty percent less damage for five seconds. Cannot be used twice within six hours.


    Basic Item creation, level 50: Allows the user to more easily craft basic items. The user can substitute mana when lacking small amounts of crafting reagents. An increase of effectiveness is possible at higher skill levels. The mana cost varies.


    Hide Presence, level 50: The user is able to passively lower their presence and make themselves harder to detect. This effect increases at higher levels of the skill.


    Mana Influx, level 50: The user rapidly pulls in mana from their surroundings to fill their mana pool up by twenty percent of their missing mana. Cannot be used twice within twenty-four hours.


    Increased Awareness, level 50: Improves and increases your ability to notice things you may not have otherwise. Each level of the skill increases your passive perception.


    Improved Trap Sensing, level 50: Improves your ability to notice traps that you would not otherwise with each level of this skill.


    Mind Lock, level 50: Freezes the targets mind for a brief period of time. This skill can only work on targets with lower magic power than the user. This skill can target anything within eyesight of the user. The target¡¯s mind is frozen anywhere from half a second to permanently based on the discrepancy in magic power. Costs 2,000 mana. Takes five seconds to cast.


    Supplemental Mana Regeneration, level 50: Increases passive mana regeneration by two times the level of this skill every five minutes. Can stack with other regeneration skills.


    Cleanse, level 50: Clears negative status afflictions on the user or a target within five feet per skill level. Has a higher chance of removing negative status afflictions at higher levels of the skill. Costs 500 mana. Takes five seconds to cast.


    Poison Resistance, level 50: Has a chance to fully resist weak poisons and blunts the effect of higher level ones. All poisons are at least twenty-five percent less effective on the user. The chance to resist poisons increases at higher skill levels.


    Stone tomb, level 50: Earth or Stone surges from the ground to encase a target less than five feet per skill level away. The casing increases in toughness at higher levels of this skill. The casing lasts for 120 seconds unless broken sooner. Costs 600 mana. Takes two seconds to cast.


    Ice Storm, level 50: Creates an area of hail and ice in a frozen zone less than twenty feet per skill level away from the user. The area can increase in size up to ten square feet per level of this skill. Creatures in the zone take two times magic power damage per second. Movement is hampered in the frozen zone. Creatures stuck in the zone for over ten seconds have a chance to be frozen solid and take increased damage. The zone lasts for one minute. Costs 10,000 mana to cast. The skill takes twenty seconds to cast, and an additional twenty seconds to activate. Cannot be used twice in four hours.


    Enhanced Aim, level 50: The user is better able to aim their projectiles and attacks. Higher levels of this skill allow for increased effectiveness.


    Air Pulse, level 50: Creates a pulse of air around the user that knocks away anything close by. The pulse increases in strength at higher levels of this skill. Costs 300 mana. No cast time. Cannot be used twice in five minutes.


    Increased Power, level 50: The next skill cast by the user costs three times the mana, takes an additional thirty seconds to cast, and increases in effectiveness up to one percent per level of this skill. This effect cannot be used on the same skill twice within twenty-four hours.


    Powerful Mental Defense, level 50: It is difficult to influence the user with mind altering abilities. It is more difficult to fool the user with illusions. The effects of this skill increase at higher levels.


    Invisibility, level 50: Light travels through the user and all objects on their person as if they did not exist. This effect lasts for one minute per level of this skill. Costs 1,000 mana. Takes thirty seconds to cast.


    Combat Sense, level 50: The user is more adept at combat. The effects of this skill increase at higher skill levels.


    Flaming Fireball, level 50: Fires a fireball that creates a small explosion on impact and deals 12 times magic power in damage. For each level of this skill there is a one percent chance of anything hit by this skill to light on fire and take burning damage over time. Costs 700 mana. Takes two seconds to cast.


    Magical Vision, level 50: The user is able to see using magic, and has a chance to ignore the effects of magical darkness or blindness. The user is able to see regardless of the level of lighting. The user has an increased chance to see through illusions. The user has an increased chance to notice passive enchantments and active magic. The effects of this skill increase at higher skill levels.


    Pocket Dimension, level 50: Creates a small pocket dimension that can store items. Living matter is not able to be stored in the pocket dimension. The pocket dimension is a square with each side equal to one foot per skill level. It takes three seconds to store or withdraw something from the pocket dimension. Multiple items can be stored or withdrawn at once. Requires an upkeep of 50 mana every five minutes to keep the dimension in existence.


    Sustained Light Beam, level 50: Fires a sustained beam of light that deals three times magic power damage per second. Can be sustained for one second per skill level. Costs 400 mana per second. No start up time.


    Read Intentions, level 50: Allows the user to read the intentions of others such as but not limited to, bloodlust, fear, anger, respect, lust, wariness, and adoration. Each level of this skill allows for increased perception of the intentions of others.


    Mana Osmosis, level 50: The user passively absorbs mana to sustain themselves. The user can subsist for a longer time without food or water. The effects of this skill increase at higher levels.


    Blind, level 50: Causes a target to be unable to see for one second per level of this skill. The target can channel three times the level of this skill mana over two seconds to dispel this effect. Costs 350 mana. Takes one second to cast. Cannot be used on the same target twice within 120 seconds.


    Basic Imbuing, level 50: The user can imbue materials with mana to provide basic enchantments and small buffs. An increase in effectiveness is possible at higher skill levels. The mana cost varies.


    Increased Constitution, level 50: The user¡¯s body has an increased constitution and can go for longer periods without things like food, water, air, and sleep. The user also gains small resistances to diseases and poisons. This effect increases at higher levels of this skill.


    Mana Interrupt, level 50: Sends a slight burst of mana to interrupt an ability and stop it from activating. Can target any ability with at least a five second cast time that can be seen. Takes three seconds to cast and must finish before the target ability to work. Costs 250 mana.


    Forced Activation, level 47: Allows another skill to forcefully overcome any cooldown restrictions on activation for one use. Any skill forcefully activated this way is not able to be activated again for an additional 48 hours after the skill¡¯s regular cooldown time. This skill cannot be reset or used in any way within 72 hours of use.


    Mana Crafting, level 43: The user is able to inject their mana into objects and help reform them into items. This skill enhances item creation skills and enchanting skills. Higher levels of this skill are more likely to positively influence crafting or enchanting.

 Chapter Seventeen - Coming Home

    Lisa Anders was currently at work in her study. Mickey had fallen asleep after a playdate he had earlier in the day, and was currently sleeping in his room. This gave her some time to plan. Lisa was never really a combat type, and while she had picked up some combat skills here and there for safety, she decided to focus on more utility with her skills. Thanks to Carl being on Metal City¡¯s council she had access to plenty of skill crystals so it wasn¡¯t hard for her to pick up some useful ones.


    Lisa decided to devote her skills to theory crafting. She loved puzzles, and what she was working on now was one giant, convoluted puzzle. She was working on planning out skill builds for people by planning out which skills they should learn to synergize with each other and give them the best use of combination points.


    People were limited to only having fifty skills, so they immediately realized that having skills that worked well together was paramount. There was a reason that RPG video games had parties with specialized people. With only fifty slots it was much more efficient to have a team of highly specialized people who could complement and cover for each other rather than having a bunch of jack of all trades.


    This is where people like Lisa came in. They would pour over the lists of known skills and theory craft to figure out which ones worked together best. There was a lot of data to go through. Not only was there practically unlimited skills, but their names were often misleading and they often had to be judged solely on their effects. There was a skill called Fire Blast that only deep fried meat. Then the combination data had to be factored in. Combination crystals were exceedingly rare, and most people would be lucky to use three or four of them. Only the true powerhouses could afford to use ten points to choose which skills they combined.


    It took a real penchant for number crunching and problem solving to go through all this data, but luckily Lisa had some skills to help her with that. She was currently going over all the data on resistance type skill combinations. Having at least a small damage resistance was hugely beneficial for someone¡¯s survivability, but all around resistance type skills were rare and even tanks often didn¡¯t have the skill slots available to get every single type of resistance skill.


    Lisa was focusing on pain resistance and mental resistance type skills and how much they overlapped when the doorbell rang. She was brought out of her data induced reverie and got up to answer the door. Since magical communication technology was rather rare, if someone was at your door it was best to see who it was, as it could easily be a visitor or someone bearing important time-sensitive news.


    Most people who came to the house had something for Carl about council business, and that was Lisa¡¯s expectation as she went to open the door. When she opened the door the first thing she noticed was the attire of the person standing outside. While not rare, it was not common to see people wearing only leather, especially with fur on it. There were enough people with tailoring skills that cloth was more common. It was then that she looked at the person standing there, really looked at him. Kyle had changed a lot in the two years he had been gone, but she could never mistake that goofy grin he had on his face.


    ¡°I¡¯m back,¡± was all he managed to say before he found himself embraced in a tight hug.


    It took a while before Lisa was able to speak. Kyle was like a son to her and Carl, as they had watched over him when he was a toddler and he and his dad had then moved in with them when he was still a kid. She had feared the worst when Sarah showed up without him. Luckily he was found to be alive using divination skills, but his whereabouts could not be located. When knowledge about the secret training areas was discovered, Lisa had known that must be where he was. She could only pray to Gaia that he would come out alive.


    ¡°I knew you would come back safely,¡± Lisa said as she wiped tears from her eyes. ¡°Carl and Sarah are out of the city right now, but they should be back in a few days. Carl is making a trip to the dungeons second level. Oh but you probably don¡¯t know about all that. Come in and I can catch you up, but be quiet because Mickey is taking a nap. And you obviously need to eat more, just look at you! I¡¯ll have to prepare something right away.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay Aunt Lisa, I¡¯m fine. There¡¯s no need to rush.¡±


    Kyle was ushered into the kitchen as Lisa quickly got busy making some berry pancakes. Soon Kyle was wearing some of his uncle¡¯s clothes and chowing down on the first real food he had eaten in ages. All he needed now was a real shower and he would feel like he was back in civilization again. Monster meat tasted pretty good but it had nothing on his aunts cooking, and while leather looks cool and all, it chafes something fierce when you don¡¯t have anything to wear under it. Kyle may have had a superhuman constitution but he would never go without proper underwear again.


    Mickey must have smelled the food as he came out while Kyle was still eating. He paused for a second, and then with a shout of ¡°Kyle!¡± ran over and jumped on his cousin who was more like a big brother. Kyle thought he would be able to take coming home calmly. He knew everyone was okay and he even had skills that increased his ability to stay calm. That all went out the window when he heard Mickey say ¡°Kyle¡± instead of ¡°Kywle¡±. Kyle hugged Mickey as he bawled his eyes out. He had missed his family, but he was finally home.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong Kyle? Do you have a boo-boo?¡± Mickey Patted Kyle¡¯s cheek as he held him. Mickey was still a kid, and didn¡¯t quite understand why Kyle was crying.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay Mickey. I¡¯m fine now that I¡¯m home and I have my cute younger brother Mickey with me.¡±


    Kyle eventually calmed down. They ended up with Mickey sitting on Kyle¡¯s lap and eating the rest of the pancakes while Lisa filled him in on what had happened with everyone while he was gone. The house that Carl and Lisa were living in was really more of a villa, but it wasn¡¯t just them there. Sarah, Li, Walt, and Sarah¡¯s dad were also living there, although he spend most of the time elsewhere.


    After Kyle had disappeared it took the other three about seven months to make it to the city. They had been met by a search party a few weeks out to guide them the rest of the way there or it could have taken them even longer. Sarah¡¯s dad had been lucky, and was transported fairly close to the city and the group of people he was with, despite not being very strong, were able to hold out long enough for people to find and rescue them.


    Li¡¯s parents had made it to the city, but had not even bothered filing a report on Li¡¯s whereabouts. They were currently living somewhere in water city and Li had not talked to them at all since she came back. It was determined that Walt¡¯s parents had been in a group together but they had been transported to a dangerous location and somehow been wiped out. If it had not been for him becoming closer friends with Sarah and Li on the way back to the city and having them for moral support Walt would have broken down. He kept it together though, and the three of them were currently in a monster hunting team with three other people.


    Kyle had heard something about Carl being on the council for Metal City, but he didn¡¯t really understand what that meant until his aunt explained it to him. When Humanity was first transported, most of the adults in the city were not suited to combat, as they had small children and so were not dungeon diving. Carl was one of the few people that was crucial in the early stages because he could use his stealth skill to pull monsters for the golems to kill. Thanks to that, he was able to quickly increase his personal strength and now occupied the head of the monster hunting force for Metal City.


    Each of the five outer cities had five major council positions. The head of the monster hunting force, the person who organized the logistics of the city, like making sure everyone had housing and food, the treasurer, who organized the loot and also oversaw the information network for each city, and two council members who interfaced with the other outer cities and were part of the council that met in the main inner city. The outer cities were more focused on fighting monsters while the central city was more focused on child rearing and the development of the younger generations. It was filled with hundreds of schools and academies. Cultivating the children and making sure they had optimal skill builds was currently one of Humanity¡¯s top five priorities.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    Once Lisa had given Kyle a rough run down of what he had missed, Mickey made Kyle play hide-and-seek with him. It was Mickey¡¯s new favorite game, and he would ask people to play whenever he could. The dungeon had a high mana density where earth had almost none, and this caused unawakened kids to start showing some signs of supernatural powers even before puberty, and the children who were awakening were starting to do so with two or three skills instead of just one.


    Mickey seemed to have some sort of sensing ability, and despite him being only four years old he always managed to find people when he played hide-and-seek. The only person who he couldn¡¯t immediately find was Carl, who had to use a skill to hide. After ten rounds of immediately being found Lisa finally caved and told Kyle about Mickey¡¯s skill. The game then changed. Kyle had both an invisibility skill and a hide presence skill, and soon Mickey was searching all over the house for Kyle who would then appear as if from thin air from behind Mickey and surprise him, causing him to laugh uproariously before demanding to play again.


    Sarah¡¯s dad stopped by later that day and Carl came back late the next. The mood in the house was incredibly festive. Kyle told some interesting stories from when he was trapped, like when he drank his own pee, but for the most part left out his life-threatening encounters.


    It was three days after Kyle came back that Sarah, Li, and Walt were done with their dungeon diving expedition. No one told them anything before they got back, and when Sarah saw Kyle standing there she tackle-hugged him with enough force that he likely would have gone through the wall if he didn¡¯t have a Combat Sense skill and inflated stats. Li and Walt were happy Kyle was back, but they had really only known him for a relatively short time and did not feel like their life depended on his safe return like Sarah did.


    After their hug ended and despite their embarrassment, by tacit agreement they both refused to let go of the other¡¯s hand for the next few hours. When Sarah found out the Kyle had his own room she insisted with a red face that Kyle was staying in her room, and practically dragged him to move his few possessions in, only stopping when he agreed to move his stuff in later.


    It took another few days before the festive atmosphere died down. Those days were spent showing Kyle around the city and relaxing and having a good time. Li was focused on the fact that Kyle and Sarah were sleeping in the same room, and kept trying to get the inside scoop. Kyle kept deferring to Sarah who refused to answer Li¡¯s questions about exactly what their relationship was and what was ¡®going on¡¯ nudge nudge wink wink.


    Sarah eventually had enough and blew up at Li saying things like ¡°there¡¯s nothing going on¡±, and ¡°It¡¯s none of your damn business¡±, and ¡°Kyle is never leaving my sight ever again¡±. At the last one, Li kept on asking, ¡°he will never leave your sight even if/when¡± kinds of questions. Sarah continued saying she would never leave his side, ¡°even if Kyle was secretly a tentacle monster from mars intent on world domination¡±. It devolved into Li rapid-fire suggesting scenarios and Sarah saying no to them, when Li finally asked if they would never separate even in the bathroom. Sarah only realized what she said no to after she said it, but didn¡¯t take it back despite her obvious embarrassment over the statement.


    Sarah did let Kyle use the bathroom without her, but only after an anti-teleportation array was installed in it. She wasn¡¯t taking any chances. Kyle didn¡¯t want to leave her side either, but was happy he could finally poop in peace.


    It was a week after he was back when it was finally time to get down to business. Carl had a duty to do as one of the leaders of Metal City, and he had to submit a report about Kyle¡¯s circumstances. The first thing on the agenda was the secret training area. Secret training areas could never be accessed from the same spot twice, but usually moved around in the same general area. As far as they could tell they also stayed the same for each person who entered them. Mickey was taken to a daycare while everyone else gathered around the kitchen table to listen to Kyle¡¯s story, this time the unadulterated version. Lisa was in charge of taking note of the information and Carl was in charge of asking questions, while Sarah, Walt, and Li just listened.


    The story took five hours to tell, and there had to be a meal break in between. After he was finished, the topic naturally turned to Kyle¡¯s stats. Carl had been dying to ask Kyle about them, both as his uncle and as a council member, but had held off to give him some time to settle in.


    Lisa was actually the best person to judge Kyle¡¯s stats, and once everyone had finished looking them over they turned to her for analysis. She took a good while thinking the information over before she spoke.


    ¡°Honestly, your stats are very high, but there are many people currently in the second tier of the dungeon with higher stats. The same thing for your skills. The real thing of note is your titles. Exponential Growth is flat out ridiculous. Combination points are one of the most valuable commodities, and anyone who can save up enough to choose which skills to combine has a huge advantage. Having three titles in general is considered excellent, even if they were all subpar, which they are not.¡±


    Lisa took a short pause to think for a bit.


    ¡°Overall, you seem to be mostly focused on ranged magical DPS, but the width and breadth of your skillset is astounding. Mostly because it does not negatively impact you in the slightest, and because you do not need to worry about combination points you could theoretically learn every single skill in existence. Most people tend to focus on doing one thing, and doing that to perfection. Your skills allow you to practically solo a dungeon expedition, which I suppose is exactly what you had to do.¡±


    ¡°So what do you think I should do from here?¡± Kyle agreed with his aunt¡¯s analysis. He had been focusing more on survivability than specializing in any one thing.


    ¡°Hmmm. I think you should focus on mana, and then branch out from there. You already have one of the largest mana pools and highest regeneration rates I have seen, so it would make sense to expand on that, be it with high DPS skills, expensive buffing skills, or mana intensive enchanting skills. That would also synergize with your skill leveling title.¡±


    ¡°How would I do that though?¡± Kyle asked, confused. ¡°I have tried a bunch of different mana pool skills and I can¡¯t seem to learn any more.¡±


    Carl reached over and gave Kyle a pat on the shoulder. ¡°You are underestimating Humanity. Someone came up with the saying, ¡®if there¡¯s a will, there¡¯s a skill¡¯. We managed to combine a skill that searches the known skill database for certain types of skills, and then cross references that with the ones someone can actually learn from among those types.¡±


    Kyle sat there is stupefaction. He had tons of skills that he wanted to learn but was not able to because the system deemed that he already had a skill of that type. If he could actually find skills that he could learn, the future was truly limitless.


    That means I should easily be able to double my mana pool. Heck, why not triple it! Quadruple it! I knew saving those combination points was the right idea. I could even upgrade my enchanting skills now. I bet I could make a suite of power armor! I could add rockets, and machine guns and¡­


    Sarah had to hit Kyle to wake him up from his daydreaming.


    ¡°Just because you can learn a million skills doesn¡¯t mean they are free. You can join our team next week to get some crystals to trade in for some merit points,¡± Sarah said. ¡°Good skills don¡¯t come cheap and your millions of mana can¡¯t conjure up merit points.¡±


    Kyle started laughing, before turning to Sarah with a wide grin on his face, inwardly gloating about getting one over on her. He had told them about his Pocket Dimension skill, yet none of them had asked him what was inside.


    ¡°Wanna bet?¡±


    Kyle extended both his arms over the table, as if in supplication.


    ¡°Oh Gaia, our creator, I beseech thee to grant this one your blessing one more time and turn my mana into skill crystals!¡±


    He then activated his Pocket Dimension skill. Skill crystals started to bubble up from Kyle¡¯s cupped hands and spill out onto the table. There was no limit to how much he could take out of his pocket dimension at once, so all the over two hundred skill crystals he had no interest in formed a mound before him, leaving his audience stunned.


    Some of them had suspected he had some crystals stored in his pocket dimension, but no one had suspected he had this many.


    ¡°I have a bunch of enhancement crystals too, but if I took all those out now we would be trapped in crystals.¡±


    Kyle then took out a medium sized jewelry box from his storage. He had forgotten about it until just now. It was made of stone, and beautifully decorated with rough unpolished gems. Kyle then presented it to Sarah before anyone had recovered enough to comment on the mountain of crystals in front of them.


    ¡°I¡¯ve missed at least two of your birthdays, and I never repaid you back for when you gave me a present for my eighteenth birthday. Here¡¯s a late birthday present!¡±


    Sarah mutely took the box, still stunned at Kyle¡¯s previous display of wealth. She slowly opened it, and then froze, mouth wide open.


    ¡°What did you get?¡± Li asked as she peeked over Sarah¡¯s shoulder. She also froze with her mouth open.


    Everyone else turned to look at Kyle¡¯s newest surprise as Sarah cleared some crystals off the table to make room for the box so everyone could see.


    Nestled inside were ten combination crystals, slightly glowing within the mirror insides of the box.


    ¡°I don¡¯t really need combination crystals, but I hear other people want them.¡± Kyle was really enjoying the looks on everyone¡¯s faces. Only Carl had ever actually seen ten combination crystals in one place before, but even he could feel the allure they represented.


    Before anyone could recover someone came bursting through the kitchen door.


    ¡°Commander! We have a problem! The...¡±


    The man who came through the door momentarily froze when he saw the mountain of crystals in front of everyone.


    ¡°Well don¡¯t just stand there Ori, what¡¯s so important?¡± Carl barked, quickly recovering from his previous shock.


    ¡°Sorry, Commander. The second tier city is under attack! The minotaurs are launching a coordinated assault with the spelled lemurs!¡±

 Chapter Eighteen - Battle

    There was a brief silence following the explosive announcement. Kyle stared at the faces of those surrounding him. He wasn¡¯t really sure what was going on. Monster didn¡¯t gather and attack people, right? They only guarded their territory or maybe ambushed you. Kyle watched as his uncle quickly shifted from the amicable laidback person he knew him to be into a rough, drill sergeant type persona.


    ¡°What¡¯s the status report? Do we need full mobilization or just supporting fire? What¡¯s the threat level?¡±


    ¡°They said it would be a level four, but Nadia¡¯s team had just came back from scouting. With them there it¡¯s only a level three.¡±


    Carl thought for a minute before issuing instructions.


    ¡°Sarah, Li, and Walt I want you three to suit up and make your way to the on-call barracks. If they don¡¯t already know what the situation is, tell them it¡¯s a level three alert in the second tier city and to be ready for deployment if the situation changes. Ori, I want you to stop by the dispatch area and let them know the situation and pick up anyone with AOE long range bombardment skills. And take Kyle here with you, he should fit the criteria. Dismissed!¡±


    Kyle suddenly found himself wrapped up in a whirlwind of activity. His aunt briefly filled him in while assuring him she would catalogue his skill crystals while he was gone. Ori relayed a few more details on the situation to Carl before taking Kyle with him on a run through the city. He went slowly at first, assuming Kyle as a mage type would not be able to keep up, but soon found himself running at full speed. They quickly transitioned to a special rooftop road designed for quickly getting from one place to another without pedestrians getting in the way.


    Kyle soon found himself following Ori into a building called ¡®The Monster Subjugation Dispatch Area¡¯, although most people just called it dispatch for short. Less than five minutes later the two of them were joined by fourteen more people and they then ran off, at a much slower speed, to the teleportation area to get to the second tier city.


    There were individual teleportation areas throughout various points of the city, but mass teleports, which typically referred to groups of five or more, were almost all done in the Teleportation Station, or just the station for short. Kyle had never been there before, and was awed by the giant structure and the mass of Humanity moving in and out. Ori quickly talked to someone in charge and the group was ushered to a higher floor where the departure points to get to second tier city were located.


    The Teleportation Station was basically one giant battery array with teleportation arrays and formations that drew on the battery¡¯s power. The battery array could be charged by mana crystals, or by people directly inputting their mana into it. Teleports often used millions and even billions of mana, so it was necessary for the formations to have a large power source if they wanted to be used in a timely manner. There were people with abnormally large mana pools and high regeneration rates that had no interest in combat whose job it was to dump all their mana into the battery array.


    Kyle watched with interest as someone led them into a largish room, before they quickly activated the teleportation formation. Kyle was awed by the flow of mana throughout the building and continued to watch it until they vanished, and then he was hurried out of what had to be the station of the second tier city.


    Kyle hadn¡¯t really thought about what to expect, but coming out of the second tier city¡¯s teleportation station to daylight was not it. The First City was built underground with only a little sunlight filtering in from an opening far above, so Kyle had unconsciously assumed that the second city would be somehow underground too. He was very much mistaken. After a run through the city, Kyle and the group finally reached their destination atop the outer wall of the city and he had a chance to look around.


    The view was breathtaking. Kyle had seen some amazing sights during his trip through the secret training area, but the scale of this was on another level. The city was made up of multiple parts. It seemed like Humanity had originally built a stronghold here, and then kept expanding it. The city was divided into walled sections that got progressively bigger surrounding what had to be the original fortifications. Kyle currently found himself on the outer most wall of what had to be the biggest section of the city, which must have made it the newest. But while the city itself was awe inspiring, even if parts of it appeared to still be under construction, it was what surrounded it that truly took his breath away.


    A windswept prairie surrounded the second tier city. The wall Kyle was standing on was hundreds of feet high, and it gave him an unparalleled view of the surrounding fauna. Fields of long grasses, flowering plants, and small shrubs stretched into the distance, where the fields eventually gave way to a savannah. All that would have been enough to awaken Kyle¡¯s awe for nature, but what truly made the scene before him spectacular was the army in the distance.


    What had to be hundreds of thousands of minotaurs and spelled lemurs were camped a few miles away. The minotaurs looked as you would expect, with bovine looking bodies that stood on two legs, human looking arms, cloven hooves, and a bull¡¯s head. The spelled lemurs looked like regular lemurs, although perhaps a bit larger, with strange looking tribal patterns inscribed on them that glowed and pulsed with mana. It was hard to tell from here, but it looked like the lemurs were drawing symbols on the minotaurs, which Kyle guessed were some sort of monster enchantments.


    Ori led everyone to a command post for assignment. Kyle could see groups similar to his streaming onto the wall at various locations. There must have been people coming from all over the First City, not just Metal City, which Kyle thought made sense. When he got to the front of the line he had to show his relevant stats and skills using his ID card to someone in charge, and was then guided to his post on the wall.


    He ended up grouped with five other people. Kyle¡¯s only real AOE skill was his Ice Storm. It created an area of hail and sleet that damaged those caught in it over time and could potentially freeze them solid. The others in his group also had AOE ice skills, and the idea was to combine their effects to create something more powerful than the sum of its parts. The leader of the group explained to everyone that they should save their most powerful skills for when the monsters got close to the walls. They could bombard them from range in the meantime if they had the mana to do so while still holding mana for their ice AOE.


    There were thousands of people spread across the wall ready to repel the incoming monster assault. But even with that much raw firepower it still was not enough to stop the minotaur and spelled lemur horde. The sheer number of monsters, and their magical nature, would enable them to close in and start a direct assault on the city. If that situation came to pass it would be deemed a level four threat, which meant that monsters had the potential of actually making it inside the city.


    Kyle had asked the person next to him about what was going on and why everyone seemed assured of a positive outcome and why the threat level was three and not four. His neighbor seemed to only know as much as he did, but the leader of the group was able to explain.


    ¡°It¡¯s because Nadia Rahal and her team are here. Actually, really only because of Nadia herself. You see that tower in the center of the city? That¡¯s actually a giant enchanted magic cannon. It can be powered up with a battery array like the teleportation stations are, and can then be activated to fire supercharged skills. The problem is almost no one can use it. It takes an insane amount of mana control, and most people can only use it to output the same damage as around the six of us combined. Nadia has a skill that gives her unparalleled mana control, and she is able to constantly fire of barrages of magic equal to the combined might of at least a thousand people.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    While this information was shocking, it only confirmed Kyle¡¯s suspicions about needing a mana control skill. He had skills that should be able to do things that he wasn¡¯t able to make them do, and he thought more control was the answer. A good example was his Rapid Air Bullet skill. He had actually managed to fire twenty bullets from one hand now, and was able to fire forty per second using both hands. But when he did that, their power was about a fourth of what it should be. It was actually more efficient to fire off less bullets as he could make sure they were full power.


    Kyle stood there in thought while Humanity assembled their defenses. When Ori had barged into his house, he thought the second tier city was in the midst of fending of waves of monsters from crashing into its walls, not that he would come to help out and end up standing around. Someone asked why people didn¡¯t sally forth and engage the monster horde from range, to which their group leader replied that the spelled lemurs could also attack from range, and it was better to engage from the safety of the walls. The city walls also were enchanted to passively buff their defenders with increased damage and mana regeneration in addition to providing a magical shield.


    The flow of people coming to man the walls eventually trickled off, but it was another two hours or so of waiting before anything happened. The first thing Kyle noticed was the shaking, as the minotaurs began a war dance in preparation for battle.


    The shaking continued to grow, until it bloomed into a tsunami of sound and force as the minotaurs let out bellowing shouts and started their charge, with the spelled lemurs right behind them. Kyle had fought large groups of monsters during his stint in the secret training area, but he had to admit he was a little intimidated by the sheer noise coming from the teeming mass of monsters before him. The bellows of the minotaurs and the screeches of the lemurs combined to create a cacophony so immense that Kyle wondered if it couldn¡¯t be heard in the First City.


    The first blow came from the giant magic cannon, presumably operated by Nadia. The monsters started their charge from multiple miles away, and despite the powerful momentous charge it still took some time for them to get in range. Kyle remembered seeing a movie by a famous Japanese director that had giant titans in it that could shoot laser beams that exploded. That was what the magic cannon shot looked like. A large beam of light streamed into the monster horde, and then seconds later a large explosion followed, originating where the beam had hit.


    Soon the defenders with super long range skills joined in, and fire, lightning, and ice rained down on the on the charging horde. Kyle also fired some mana bolts, but it was hard to tell if it had any effect amidst the veritable confluence of skills impacting the enemy.


    The horde pressed on, and soon magic was flying back at the defenders from the spelled lemurs. But the shield on the wall protected them from harm, and the defenders were able to focus purely on offense without worry for their personal safety. Kyle had to turn off his Magical Vision skill, as it allowed him to see magic and there was an information overload from all the skills and spells flying around. All the raw mana in the atmosphere created its own kind of pressure, and he found himself sweating despite not being under any real threat.


    After a few minutes of charging through the magical bombardment the monsters were finally closing in on the city wall. This meant it was time for the closer range, and often more powerful, AOE skills to take effect. Kyle used his Increased Power skill to supercharge the effects of his Ice Storm, and then used Forced Activation to overwrite Ice Storm¡¯s cooldown period and overlap its effect. All along the wall surges of earth and fields of fire and lightning joined giant meteors and frozen wastelands. The once peaceful prairie was turned in a monster meat grinder of gigantic proportions.


    Kyle was riding an adrenaline high when the monster wave finally broke and retreated over ten minutes later. Over half of the horde must have been killed in their initial charge through the barrage of skills, but they had kept on coming. There were only two places where they actually reached the wall, but even then they never came close to breaching or scaling it.


    There was still a lot of work to be done, and a large part of that involved looting the monster corpses. The dungeon was very resilient to damage, and if left alone the prairie would be back to its former state within the week. The monster corpses needed to be taken care of though, and Kyle¡¯s help with the looting was welcomed with open arms, especially when he said that he had a skill that could increase his loot drops.


    It was gruesome work, and some places, like the areas hit by the explosion from the magic cannon, were only filled with charred body parts and piles of meat paste. Kyle kept at it for over three hours before he couldn¡¯t take it anymore and had to call it quits. He took his final batch of loot and dropped it off at one of the many collection points. The merit points were still being calculated based on the spoils, and Kyle had a chance to make a note of what part of the spoils he wanted to receive. Much of it was going to go towards the future generations and Humanity¡¯s stockpile of skill crystals, but the defenders were allowed to put in a request if they wanted a particular kind of skill.


    Kyle put one in for a skill that he was compatible with and would grant him the biggest addition to his mana pool, despite any other restrictions the skill might have. His idea was to combine it with the mana pool skill he already had to enhance it further. Generally when skills were combined they lost many of the restrictions that might have once made them undesirable, but most people couldn¡¯t level undesirable skills as easily as Kyle could thanks to his skill leveling title. That wasn¡¯t even taking into account having access to the ten combination points needed to combine the skills to get a more powerful one without the defects.


    After reporting for duty and teleporting to Metal City, Kyle stumbled back home, bleary eyed from the long day. As soon as he walked in the door he was tackled by Sarah, and would have been knocked over if she didn¡¯t catch him.


    ¡°What took you so long!? I was worried sick! The battle was over a long time ago. Carl has been back for over an hour already! I wanted to go find you, but I didn¡¯t want to miss you coming back. You should have come right back. What if something happened to you? I was really worried!¡±


    Kyle was overwhelmed by Sarah¡¯s barrage of questions, and his aunt luckily rescued him before Sarah could continue to badger him.


    ¡°Let the poor boy rest. He¡¯s obviously exhausted. He probably stayed behind to help loot since he has the skill Increased Looting. Kyle, there is some food for you in the kitchen and then you can take a rest afterwards.¡±


    Kyle thanked his aunt, and then moved into the kitchen and started eating the lasagna his aunt had cooked for him while Sarah watched over him like a mother hen. Li came into the kitchen shortly after he got back to say hi. Walt didn¡¯t stop by as he had already fallen asleep, since it was technically nighttime in the First City. Seeing Sarah hovering, Li decided to cause some trouble.


    ¡°Oh my Kyle, you look incredibly pale. You really should get those wounds under your clothes looked at before you bleed out.¡±


    Although she really should have known better as it was almost impossible to receive actual wounds after the Change as it was all converted to damage, Sarah immediately seized on Li¡¯s words.


    ¡°What!? Why didn¡¯t you tell me you were hurt?¡±


    Kyle rolled his eyes at Sarah¡¯s response to Li¡¯s remark.


    ¡°Sarah, relax. I¡¯m fine. You can¡¯t even get wounds anymore.¡±


    Li sat back to watch the fun, having easily set off Sarah¡¯s protective instincts.


    Sarah started examining Kyle more closely.


    ¡°How do I know you aren¡¯t just saying that? You do look pale. Li¡¯s right, you must be injured. What happened? Let me see.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine. C¡¯mon Sarah, can I please just eat and then go to bed. Just look at Li, it¡¯s clear she only said that to start trouble.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t believe you. You¡¯re trying to deflect attention away from yourself and it won¡¯t work. If you won¡¯t tell me where you are hurt I¡¯ll just have to figure it out myself.¡±


    Sarah then jumped on Kyle and started to try and forcefully strip him, looking for non-existent wounds, which if there were any would only have made them worse. Li eventually fell off of her chair in laughter as Sarah only stopped when Lisa came in and yelled at them all for making noise while Mickey was sleeping. Kyle¡¯s protests of innocence fell on deaf ears, and he had to finish dinner while listening to his aunt¡¯s lecture on proper table manners and how his time in the dungeon must have turned him into a wild man, as there was no excuse to eat at the table without a shirt on.


    After eating, Kyle went up and collapsed in his bed, although only after Sarah had made sure he truly wasn¡¯t injured. Kyle actually thought he was lucky Sarah let him out of her sight in the first place. She must have been worried sick while he had been gone. Maybe he should have come right back after the battle, despite the looting giving him more merit points. Kyle was too tired to worry over it though, and soon fell asleep, dreaming about what kinds of mana skills he could get with his merit points.

 Chapter Nineteen - Rewards

    Kyle woke up the next morning to Sarah hugging him from behind. They actually had two beds in the room, but they always ended up sleeping together. Sarah had her arms around Kyle¡¯s stomach, and seemed to notice him stirring as she gave him a light squeeze. Kyle grabbed her hands as they lay there, neither one talking.


    Them lying in bed together had become a normal occurrence in the mornings. Sarah and Kyle had been sleeping together every night since Kyle had gotten back, and while it was new that they started the night in the same bed, them ending the night in the same one had started a long time ago.


    Kyle and Sarah had actually been dating before Sarah¡¯s mom and brother died. Sarah had never called it that, but she never corrected Kyle when he told people she was his girlfriend. They were fairly young then, and had fooled around with kissing and even made it to second base. Their relationship dramatically shifted with Sarah losing her family members. They still often held hands in public, but while they were closer than ever and Sarah heavily depended on Kyle for support there was also a line between them that neither one talked about or crossed.


    Sarah was not really one to talk about her feelings, and Kyle realized that what Sarah needed was someone she could rely on no matter what, so all talk of dating and kissing and the like was never brought up. She had turned to Kyle for support, and he would support her no matter what. In the three days after the accident when Sarah wouldn¡¯t leave Kyle¡¯s room she spent most of the time physically clinging to him for support. He was able to convince her to leave and start going back to school after three days, but for months after that whenever Sarah couldn¡¯t sleep she would sneak into Kyle room and into his bed.


    She stopped doing it as much as she started to heal, but neither one was willing to change their relationship and it only got worse when the Change happened. Kyle had been working up his courage to ask Sarah to go to a school dance, not as a friend, but as his date. He had everything planned out, from how he would ask her to what he would wear while doing so. He had vowed that nothing short of divine intervention would stop him, and then the world Changed and his dad died.


    Then Kyle was the one seeking support from Sarah. Sarah had basically moved into Kyle¡¯s room the week after his dad¡¯s death as he couldn¡¯t sleep without her there. But that was a long time ago, and Kyle had been forced to sleep on his own for two years now. He had long accepted past events, and was ready to move forward.


    Kyle knew he would have to be the one to initiate that change, but it was hard to imagine anything other than just lying in bed like this, deriving solace from each other¡¯s presence. He had made plans while he was away. He knew they couldn¡¯t pretend their relationship would stay the same forever. Kyle wanted more, and he was pretty sure Sarah did as well based on the lascivious looks she would sometimes give him.


    But change was scary. They had both lost people, and despite their closeness that fear of losing the other kept them that last small distance apart. Neither one could even think about what would happen if they were to close that remaining distance only to end up alone. They would be broken beyond repair. But those were worries for another day, and for now they both lay there, too scared to do anything more and usher in the change those actions would bring.


    ¡°We should get up. It¡¯s probably mid-morning already. If we wait too much longer breakfast will be cold.¡±


    Kyle made no move to follow his own advice.


    ¡°Just ten more minutes,¡± Sarah murmured, as she buried her face in the nape of Kyle¡¯s neck and squeezed him tighter.


    Ten minutes turned into half an hour, and when they finally got up, showered, and came down Lisa was already making lunch.


    ¡°The two of you sure took your time. Walt was even up before you. He and Li left to go train over an hour ago.¡±


    Sarah didn¡¯t hesitate to throw Kyle under the bus.


    ¡°I blame Kyle. He shouldn¡¯t even need to sleep with all his survival skills. But he goes off and fights one measly little battle and then sleeps like the dead and I just didn¡¯t have the heart to wake him.¡±


    Truthfully Kyle didn¡¯t really need to sleep last night, as with his skills staying awake for a week straight was no problem. It was hard to break old habits though, and most people who had skills that allowed them to get less sleep still rested most of the night if their situation allowed it. Humanity was slowly learning that they were still human, and it took a lot of adjusting to fully utilize skills that went against their base instincts.


    Kyle staunchly ignored Sarah. ¡°Aunt Lisa what did you do with all the skill crystals I left here?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m still looking them over. There are a few in there that might be good for people to use instead of you trading them in for merit points. Are you sure you don¡¯t want any of them? There are some pretty good skills in there.¡±


    Kyle just shook his head. ¡°I either have better ones or I already tried to learn the skill and it wasn¡¯t compatible with the ones I already have.¡±


    Lisa raised her eyebrows at the fact the Kyle had more skill crystals stored away. There had been some really good ones in the pile he dumped out before, including a taunting skill that Lisa was hoping Walt would be able to learn.


    ¡°If you think those skill crystals are only the dregs I¡¯ll be interested to see what else you have.¡± Lisa then turned to address Sarah. ¡°Have you thought about what you want to do with the ten combination crystals Kyle gave you?


    Sarah stopped her failing attempts at braiding Kyle¡¯s hair, which was really too short, and put on a serious expression.


    ¡°I have. I think you¡¯re right and I should use them all to combine my original skill with my tier two one. I think the potential power gain from combining the skills is worth losing out on getting some random combinations.¡±


    Sarah only had one tier two skill, but it was extremely powerful and suited her perfectly. She was mostly focused on speed and her tier two skill gave her that in spades. It had two parts. First, it passively allowed the air surrounding her to increase her movement speed up to one percent per skill level. Secondly, it allowed her to spend mana to increase her speed. It even had two options to do so. One being increasing her speed by a static additional ten percent for two hundred mana per minute with no cooldown time and the other a sustained gain with an increasing mana cost. Once she activated it she would gain ten percent more speed every thirty seconds with the mana cost doubling every thirty seconds, starting at two hundred mana. So two hundred mana for thirty seconds of another ten percent speed, then four hundred mana for thirty seconds of another twenty percent speed etc. That second option had a few hour cooldown time though.


    ¡°Well then what are you waiting for,¡± Lisa said. ¡°The sooner you combine the skills the sooner you can start leveling the new one. They are both at max level right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah they are. I¡¯ll go get the crystals now.¡±


    Sarah gave Kyle¡¯s hand a quick squeeze before dashing back upstairs and coming down with the jewelry box containing the crystals. Kyle watched as Sarah reverently took out the crystals and absorbed them one by one. He was aware his view on combination points was quite skewed, but it was still kind of funny to see Sarah so in awe of a resource that Kyle found rather plentiful.


    Part of that was also had to do with his time in the secret training area. There were two main gains from secret training areas. The main one was the titles. Most of the secret training areas gave at least one title crystal, and the first person to clear it would receive Gaia¡¯s Blessing. Titles were incredibly rare and powerful, and greed over a title crystals was even enough to overcome the effects of Part of Humanity and cause conflict. The second main gain was combination crystals, which were much more common and often given as rewards for clearing certain areas. Kyle actually had a few more in his dimensional pocket that he hadn¡¯t decided what to do with yet.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    There was a drawback other than the danger though. There simply wasn¡¯t a huge variety of skill crystals, and they often were not incredibly powerful unless given as rewards for clearing stages, and even then they might be incompatible or useless to whoever received them. And to clear a secret training area you often had to learn a wide variety of skills as well, which could negatively impact someone¡¯s growth.


    It was a huge advantage to be able to trade for skills using merit points, as you could make sure you got a useful skill and one that you could actually learn. Kyle only had access to the skills that were dropped in the secret training area, and he was excited to finally be able to learn new skills without worrying about whether they were compatible or not. One of the rewards he had received for clearing a stage was a skill that could multiply his mana pool by one hundred. But it was incompatible with him, so he couldn¡¯t learn it to combine with his other skills.


    Sarah seemed to stare off into space for a thirty seconds or so after absorbing the crystals. Kyle and Lisa waited on the results. Combining skills never gave a result that was worse than the two skills by themselves, but by combining skills with inherent synergy you could get much better results. When Sarah¡¯s eyes regained focus she immediately jumped up and picked Kyle up off of his chair and spun him around.


    ¡°Thank you so so much! I was worried that choosing to use all ten points at once was wrong, but now I understand why people do it. You can get some super OP kickass skills!¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you put Kyle down and tell us what you got,¡± Lisa said as she took a second to step away from her cooking.


    Sarah spun Kyle around one more time before she set him down and showed them her new skill.


    Name: Greater Air Assisted Physical Speed, tier two


    Effect: The very air around the user bends to their will in increasing their physical speed. The user is treated as having an effective speed from their physical power equal to three times their physical power. The user gains three physical power per level of this skill. The user is able to spend two hundred mana to increase their speed by ten percent for one minute. Each consecutive use of that speed increase buff can cost double the mana and add another ten percent to the speed increase.


    Kyle thought the skill looked fantastic, especially for Sarah. With the title she had the skill basically tripled her physical power. Sarah only had less than eight hundred base physical power, so before she had only been slightly above Kyle¡¯s hugely inflated stats. Now she was way above the curve, with an effective physical power over two thousand.


    Lisa took a few seconds to think it over before she gave her verdict.


    ¡°The skill is definitely powerful. I think it was the right choice. Going from a time two to a times three modifier for your physical power is huge, and this way you are also assured of getting more stat points from leveling another tier two skill.¡±


    Sarah and Lisa then launched into a discussion about skill builds that went way over Kyle¡¯s head. He was very out of the loop regarding skills, and it seemed that Humanity had really done some number crunching while he was gone. Kyle couldn¡¯t even remember the last time he had done any real math, and was not sure he could figure out how to either with the internet gone.


    Lisa then asked Kyle and Sarah to go pick Mickey up from his play date while she finished up lunch. It was a short walk over, but it was immensely pleasurable for Kyle to just walk hand in hand with Sarah and pretend that they were a normal couple with normal problems. Luckily the mental skills he had picked up had made him able to survive his time alone in the dungeon, but he had still yearned for a heartwarming scene like this where he could just relax and pretend everything was fine. Walking next to Sarah could make him forget he was an orphan and Humanity was trapped in a giant dungeon with hordes of monsters hungering for their flesh and enemies of Gaia potentially out to get them.


    When they picked Mickey up his friend¡¯s mom said that he seemed a little tired, so they should let Lisa know that he might want to take a nap after lunch. It was only about a fifteen minute walk back home, but less than five minutes into the walk Mickey was too tired to walk anymore.


    ¡°Kyle I don¡¯t wanna walk. Carry me! Up! Up!¡±


    ¡°Okay little buddy, up you go.¡±


    ¡°Yaaaaaaaaaay!¡±


    Kyle lifted Mickey onto his shoulders. Seeing this, Sarah made a joking remark, ¡°Why are you only carrying Mickey? What about me?¡±


    Kyle knew Sarah was joking, but Mickey didn¡¯t.


    ¡°Yeah Kyle, why don¡¯t you carry Sarah too?¡±


    Not one to miss an opportunity, Sarah quickly latched on to Mickey¡¯s thoughtless words.


    ¡°Yeah Kyle, even Mickey thinks you should carry me. Are you going to let us both down?¡±


    Kyle was at a loss, how exactly would he carry both of them? He eventually caved under the pressure, and he ended up walking the rest of the way back carrying Sarah piggyback style, with Mickey then perched on her shoulders, which he enjoyed immensely. What would have once been considered a feat of balance and strength was thankfully made trivial with Kyle¡¯s new constitution.


    The lunch cooked by his aunt was superb as always, and Kyle once more swore off going solo ever again unless he picked up a gourmet cooking skill. Eating food with loved ones just made it all that much better. Kyle was going to go and check his rewards for the battle in the afternoon, but his aunt wanted to come along and Mickey had to take a nap first, so the trip was delayed.


    Kyle, Sarah, and Lisa ended up playing a few rounds of Bananagrams while Mickey took his nap. It was a game where you used letter tiles to create words like in Scrabble, but each player had their own board and the words could be switched around whenever you got new tiles. This was one of the few games that Kyle could consistently beat Sarah at, which was why he liked playing it. Unfortunately it was not just the two of them playing, and Lisa ended up winning most of the rounds. Kyle did win more than Sarah though, much to her annoyance. It took a lot for her to admit Kyle was better than her at anything.


    After Mickey woke up the four of them left to go to the main trade center, which was the building where most of the skill crystal trading was done. It was the only place where people could search for not only certain types of skills but also ones they were able to learn. Kyle also took some of the skill crystals his aunt had already sorted to sell if he needed more merit points.


    There wasn¡¯t a huge line when the group got to the trade center, and after less than twenty minutes of waiting, which was a fairly average wait time, Kyle and co approached a counter.


    ¡°Hi, how can I assist you today?¡± The man behind the counter was a middle-aged man with Larry on his nametag.


    ¡°Hi, I was hoping to check my merit points after the battle yesterday at the second tier city and process my request,¡± Kyle replied.


    ¡°Certainly sir, let me just see your ID.¡±


    Larry took Kyle¡¯s ID and did a quick search on a computer-like piece of magitech.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see, it looks like you have over 20,000 merit points. Seems like you contributed quite a bit to the defense of the second tier city. Now, you said you wanted a mana pool enhancing skill, correct?¡±


    Seeing Kyle¡¯s nod, Larry then made a quick list of the mana skills Kyle could learn. Lisa and Sarah helped Kyle with looking over the skills. Mickey liked the one called Super Really Big Mana Pool, even though the skill wasn¡¯t actually that great as it only increased his pool by a static amount.


    While the group thought it over, Kyle asked if Larry could process some skill crystals and enhancement crystals. Getting confirmation that it was possible, Kyle then dumped a huge number of skill crystals and enhancement crystals behind the counter, which almost buried poor Larry. He had to request assistance to deal with the sheer volume.


    They ended up taking over two hours, as Kyle also shopped around for a few other kinds of skills since he had so many points. He ended up getting a few other skills to learn later, like some better AOE ones, and two mana pool enhancing skills. One of the mana pool skills wasn¡¯t super amazing, as it only multiplied his mana pool by five, but the other one he had high hopes for.


    It was called Extradimensional Mana Regeneration, and wasn¡¯t technically even a mana pool enhancing skill. It allowed the user to store mana in an extradimensional pool with a conversion rate of 1,000 to 1, and that mana could then supplement your regular regeneration when you wanted it to at a rate of ten times the level of the skill per five minutes. The skill was kind of crappy, but Kyle was hoping he could combine it with the mana pool enhancing skill he already had for an amazing result. Lisa had theorized that since you could use the skill to theoretically store infinite mana, it should work well when combined to increase his mana pool.


    Kyle felt a bit sorry for Larry at this point, as they had taken up a fair bit of his time. They had to pay for it with merit points though, and it was Larry¡¯s job to help people so Kyle didn¡¯t dwell on it. There was still one more thing that he wanted to take care of while he was still here, and that was the skill crystals he had saved up for his own use. They were all powerful or useful in some way, but most of them were probably not compatible with him and Kyle wanted to get the ones he could not use sorted out.


    There were over seventy skill crystals Kyle had saved, and he ended up being able to learn twenty-nine of them, including one he forgot he had stashed away. Kyle was eternally grateful he only had Larry make a list of which one he could use and not their effects. At first he was confused when Larry checked a skill, winked at him, and put it into the pile he could learn. Kyle then flushed a deep red as he remembered what skill it must have been.


    Sarah was a little ways off playing with Mickey, which Kyle was extremely grateful for as she would definitely have asked about his reaction, which Lisa thankfully ignored. The skill that Larry had identified was called Enhanced Sexual Pleasing Technique. Kyle had stashed it away when he was feeling particularly lonely in the secret training area. Despite his embarrassment over the skill, he still stored it back away in his pocket dimension. He wasn¡¯t planning on staying celibate forever, and even if that was a line he and Sarah weren¡¯t willing to cross yet, he was confident it would be crossed eventually.

 Chapter Nineteen and a Half - A Mans Romance

    After finishing up his skill crystal business at the main trade center, Kyle wanted to look at the surrounding stores. The trade center only really dealt with skill crystals, but that wasn¡¯t true for the surrounding buildings. Since the trade center saw a lot of traffic it became the hub of a large cluster of shops that sprung up around it, kind of like an outdoor mall.


    The trade center itself was over fifteen stories tall and the surrounding buildings ranged up to ten making the number of individual shops enormous. The sheer size and number of shops made it more of a whole district than an individual mall. There were even special kiosks that gave people directions, as it could be next to impossible to find the type of store you were looking for if you didn¡¯t know its exact location or had a searching skill.


    Kyle had been here before with Sarah but he hadn¡¯t had any merit points then. Many stores worked on bartering so he could still have purchased things, but it wasn¡¯t the same as going shopping with access to cold hard cash. And the goal of those outing was to spend time with Sarah. This time Kyle wanted to actually do more than window shop, although he didn¡¯t really have anything in particular he wanted to buy.


    The group wandered around the shopping area mostly dictated by Mickey¡¯s whims, as he was perched on Kyle¡¯s shoulders directing him which way to go. The group was walking around eating some ice cream that Mickey made them buy when Kyle finally noticed a store he wanted to go into.


    What first caught his eye was the giant statue outside. It was a mech suit statue over ten feet tall. It was clearly a statue, but that didn¡¯t stop Kyle from admiring the work done to add enchantments that seemed to simulate glowing lights and LEDs. Kyle stopped in his tracks when he noticed the statue, and then slowly moved towards it.


    Kyle loved mech suits, and had a whole collection of handmade figurines in his room. Well, he used to have them. Obviously they were in his room on Earth, which now didn¡¯t exist. Kyle had forgotten about his wish to create his very own mech suit now that it was possible. He had asked his uncle in passing about it, and Carl had said that people had created them, but they were not all that efficient as the mana it took to run them could be better used for other things.


    That didn¡¯t matter to Kyle. So what if the mech suit he created was inefficient? He had boatloads of mana anyway. It would be worth it even if he couldn¡¯t use it in battle. It was a man¡¯s romance to drive a mech suit. He had tried convincing Sarah of this in the past, but she just didn¡¯t understand. Once Mickey noticed the giant statue he wanted a closer look.


    ¡°Kyle! That way, that way! I wanna see the giant robot!¡±


    ¡°Okay buddy. It doesn¡¯t look like we can touch it though, so you can only look.¡±


    Kyle led the group over to the statue and the store behind it, which was called Mecha Madness. He and Mickey took some time to admire the statue. It was even more impressive up close, and if not for it clearly being attached to the mannequin underneath it could pass for a functioning mech suit. The detail was incredible, and Kyle could only praise the futuristic design.


    ¡°I thought we were going to walk around more?¡± Sarah said, crossing her arms. She wasn¡¯t a huge fan of robots, and didn¡¯t really see what all the fuss was about. She had secretly been trying to steer Kyle in the direction of a certain store, but thanks to Mickey hadn¡¯t had any luck.


    Kyle was too busy admiring the statue to respond, and Lisa was the one who eventually answered Sarah¡¯s question.


    ¡°Let the boy look around. He said he might want to buy something, and you know how he likes his giant robots. Mickey seems to like them too. If you really want to go somewhere special, the two of you can go by yourselves another day.¡±


    Lisa knew where Sarah wanted to take Kyle, and didn¡¯t really want to be involved.


    The group eventually moved into the store, although Sarah did her best to showcase her displeasure. She loved Kyle, but once he got started on his ¡°robot rants¡± as she called them he could end up talking for hours. Sarah didn¡¯t really want to hear it, but Kyle didn¡¯t have many other people to talk to about his passion so she ended up on the receiving end of his long gushing monologues. Sarah began scheming how she could get Kyle to talk to Walt or Li instead. Who knows, maybe they would even find it interesting?


    The inside of the shop was fairly spacious. The first floor seemed to be mainly devoted to individual displays, where the second floor, accessible from a set of stairs, seemed to focus mainly on parts and kits to build your own models. The second floor had an opening in the middle with a railing that overlooked the first floor.


    Kyle spent about a half an hour looking at all the models displayed on the first floor, before handing Mickey off to Lisa while he went to ask a few questions to the woman at the counter. Sarah tried to follow Kyle over, but Mickey wanted to show her his favorite robots, and she didn¡¯t have the heart to resist him. No matter how cute Sarah thought Kyle was, there was a difference hearing about robots from Mickey. Their cuteness levels just weren¡¯t the same.


    Kyle waited in line behind someone who was buying a few weapons for their mech suit figurines before he approached the counter.


    ¡°Hi, I couldn¡¯t help but notice the intricate detail on the statue in front of the store. While many of the figurines here are detailed, none of them have the same lights and enchantments on them as the statue does. I was wondering why that is?¡±


    The woman behind the counter chuckled. ¡°You¡¯re not he first person to ask that question. That stature was actually specially made by the owner in collaboration with another shop. While the owner has a few skills to help him make the mech suit figurines, he doesn¡¯t actually have any substantial enchanting skills. He borrowed the help of one of his friends who has an artifact that helps shape and enchant things to create the statue out there.¡±


    Kyle zeroed in on the words ¡®other shop¡¯ and ¡®artifact¡¯.


    ¡°Does the other shop actually make mech suits?¡±


    He really wanted to create his own mech suit, but he didn¡¯t have the skills for it right now. He had picked up another enchanting skill, but it wasn¡¯t super high on his list of skills to learn.


    ¡°No, the other shop actually specializes in artifacts. The artifact that the owner used to create the statue out there is part of their collection. I don¡¯t know of any shops that actually make mech suits. There might be some out there though. Someone at an information kiosk could tell you more.¡±


    Kyle chatted with the woman a bit more, and she even showed him which figurine she had designed herself. She had heard about people making their own mech suits, but didn¡¯t know any other details. Without the internet it seemed the spread of information was much slower than back on Earth. Kyle did ask about the artifact store to see if he could use the artifact that made the statue and found out its location and name. It was called True Loot, and Kyle decided to check it out later.


    Once they left Mecha Madness and Kyle mentioned what the woman told him about the artifact store Sarah and Lisa both expressed interest in checking it out. Artifacts were still rather rare, and neither of them had ever been to a store dedicated to selling them. Most artifacts that people found were not traded for merit points, as they were more useful to barter with other people for other artifacts or rare skill crystals.


    When the group reached True Loot they quickly found out that it wasn¡¯t a store so much as an artifact trading center. It made sense, as no one could possibly own enough artifacts to open up a store full of them. True Loot functioned as an artifact exchange. People would put the artifacts they didn¡¯t want on display and then people who wanted them could try and set up a trade. Most of the artifacts in the store had some guidelines as to what the owner wanted in trade so that people wouldn¡¯t waste their time offering something like an artifact weapon to someone who wanted combination crystals.


    The store was rather out of the way and hard to find and most people who found the store did so through word of mouth or through an information kiosk. From the store¡¯s outside appearance you would never know the value contained within. When Kyle and the others first entered they were greeted by an attendant. The attendant offered to show them around or direct them if they were looking for anything in particular, but the group elected to just browse. The shop was three floors, and they started on the first floor before making their way up.


    Artifacts that were highly sought after were traded right away, so most of the artifacts on display either had strange effects that were of dubious value or specific and very high asking prices. There was an artifact that seemed to be able to produce different kinds of liquids, like water or alcohol, that the artifact¡¯s owner would only trade for an artifact that granted invisibility. There was also a rapier that listed twenty combination crystals as its only trade option. Artifact weapons were incredibly powerful, but twenty combination crystals were a huge amount and most people would rather invest in their own strength via skills than artifacts, which only granted temporary strength.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Kyle was hoping to find an artifact that would be useful, but he didn¡¯t have any luck. He had no interest in any of the weapon artifacts, which made up about half of them, and the other ones seemed mostly focused on out of battle utility, which he didn¡¯t really need. He would have been interested in an artifact that created a pocket dimension if he didn¡¯t already have a skill for it, but everything else was kind of lackluster. Sure, owning an artifact that could create different kinds of confectionary desserts from pure mana would be awesome, but not five combination crystals awesome.


    Sarah spent most of the time drooling over the weapons. While summoning weapons from thin air was cool and all, some of the weapons on display were truly spectacular. The one she wanted most was a scimitar that could create five clones which could be controlled at will to fly around and attack enemies. It was a powerful weapon, and the only reason someone hadn¡¯t snatched it up already was that it was only up for trade for a mana pool increasing artifact. While weapons artifacts were powerful, they couldn¡¯t compare to artifacts that increased overall power, like ones increasing mana, health, or attack power.


    The whole reason Kyle was here was information from Mecha Madness but he didn¡¯t see the artifact that the person there had talked about. He decided to ask one of the attendants to see if they knew anything. It was possible the artifact was sold already.


    ¡°Excuse me, someone told me that there was an artifact here that was used to create an incredibly realistic mecha sculpture. I didn¡¯t notice it on display and was wondering if it had been traded already.¡±


    Kyle thought the attendant might not know what he was talking about, but his worries turned out to be groundless.


    ¡°Oh, you mean the Gauntlet of Creation? It¡¯s not out on the floor. We have another section with a few artifacts that we loan out for people to use. I can take you to see them if you¡¯d like?¡±


    ¡°That would be great.¡±


    The attendant led Kyle down to the first floor and through a door he had not noticed previously. Inside was a whole other room with five artifacts inside.


    ¡°As you can see there are five artifacts that we loan out on a temporary basis,¡± the attendant said. ¡°The owners couldn¡¯t find someone to fulfil their trading conditions, so they are loaned out in the meantime for 3,000 points per day. Feel free to take a look around and let me know if you¡¯d like to rent any of them.¡±


    Kyle slowly read through the five artifact descriptions. He quickly found the one he was looking for. The Gauntlet of Creation as it was called could do two things. The first was to actually create materials out of nothing, although that apparently cost incredible amounts of mana, and the second was to channel certain types of skills to increase their effects, like item forming and enchanting ones.


    Kyle briefly looked over the other four artifacts. Two didn¡¯t really interest him, as one dealt with food and the other with looting. The last two were quite interesting though. Similar to the Gauntlet of Creation, one of them was able to freely form stone. By channeling mana the user could manipulate any type of stone or metal into any shape they desired. It was limited in its ability though, and Kyle was more interested in the last one.


    The last one was called the Inscription Wand. Any inscriptions or formations made with it would have their power increased by threefold. Kyle couldn¡¯t personally make any formations as of yet, but it was a very powerful effect. He was mentally drooling over what he could do with it later on, as with his ability to combine skills learning an inscription skill was only a matter of time.


    The attendant had been nice enough to wait around while Kyle looked at the five artifacts on display and he now approached her with some questions. Some of the artifacts, like the Inscription Wand, specified they were only for rent. Kyle wasn¡¯t that interested in renting anything though and was more keen on the ¡°make an offer¡± sign on the Gauntlet of Creation.


    ¡°I noticed that the Gauntlet of Creation is also for sale,¡± Kyle said. ¡°It doesn¡¯t list a price though, and only say make an offer. Do you know what the owner would want in trade for it?¡±


    ¡°Actually the gauntlet¡¯s owner is also my boss, the owner of this store. He had never specified exactly what he wants for it, but he has declined all previous offers, including ones like ten combination crystals. I think he is most interested in trading it for other artifacts but because of the gain from renting it out he is in no hurry to sell it.¡±


    Kyle took a moment to think over whether he really wanted the gauntlet or not. It sounded like he would have to make a truly substantial offer to get the gauntlet, which would probably mean he would take a big loss. While Kyle had wanted to come to the shop to look around and see the gauntlet, that was not his only reason he was interested in the shop after hearing about it.


    Secret training areas gave phenomenal rewards, so it was only as expected that Kyle had received some artifacts from completing one. In fact he had received two. One was a spear that had increased piercing power and could grow in length and the other was a crystal that could be set up in an area and would warn the user if a hostile lifeform was nearby.


    Kyle didn¡¯t really have any use for the spear and he was thinking of selling it. The alarm crystal was useful to him, but not really a true necessity. The question now was whether he wanted to trade both of them for the gauntlet. Together the artifacts were unquestionably more valuable than the gauntlet alone, but pure value was useless to him. The only consideration would be if he could get something more valuable by trading the two artifacts for something else instead of trading them for the gauntlet.


    ¡°Would it be possible to talk to the owner about trading for the gauntlet?¡±


    Kyle decided that either way the first step would be to see if he even could trade for the gauntlet. He could hem and haw all he wanted, but it would all be useless if the owner only wanted something specific for the gauntlet.


    ¡°Let me see if he is available to talk.¡±


    The attendant then excused herself and went off to a different part of the building, presumably to check if the owner was there and if he wanted to talk business. Kyle took the time to admire the Gauntlet of Creation again. The more he looked at it, the more he wanted it.


    I don¡¯t know exactly how much this enhances my skills, but using it to create a suit of power armor shouldn¡¯t be too far off. At the very least I can make detailed figurines. Maybe I can make a set for Mickey. He always wanted to play with my figurines when he was little, but I was always afraid he would break them.


    Kyle was interrupted from his thoughts as the attendant returned.


    ¡°George said he is free to discuss trading the Gauntlet of Creation. If you would please follow me.¡±


    Kyle followed the attendant as she led him to another door on the first floor and into a series of hallways before knocking on a door that had two plaques on it. One said owner, and below that the other one said George Stevenson. A shout of ¡°come in¡± was heard, and the attendant opened the door and motioned for Kyle to head inside.


    Kyle wasn¡¯t sure what he expected the owner of True Loot to look like, but it certainly wasn¡¯t someone who looked like he was a steampunk college professor. George Stevenson was more than two full heads shorter than Kyle, and had a balding head and brilliant white mustache. He was wearing a tweed jacket and had some sort of multi-lens monocle contraption sitting on his head.


    He stood up and extended his hand when Kyle entered the room.


    ¡°Hello there. My name¡¯s George. A pleasure to meet you. I heard you were inquiring about my Gauntlet of Creation?¡±


    It took Kyle a second to recover from his shock, but he eventually shook the extended hand before sitting down in front of George¡¯s desk.


    ¡°My name¡¯s Kyle. It¡¯s nice to meet you too. Yes, I was wondering what you wanted for the gauntlet, as it isn¡¯t out on the floor with the other artifacts up for trade and the sign doesn¡¯t specify a trading price or preference.¡±


    George pondered for a moment before replying.


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t really fancy selling the gauntlet and renting it out has been making me a pretty penny, but I am a businessman after all, and I don¡¯t really have a use for the gauntlet myself. Excuse me for being upfront, but I don¡¯t really have a need to trade for anything in particular so I would want to make a gain when trading it. Unfortunately, that would mean anyone buying it would have to take a loss. If you are okay with that kind of trade, I would be willing to accept anything I deem as more valuable than the gauntlet.¡±


    At this point Kyle had basically decided to try and get the gauntlet. It was a quality item, and he felt it was a worthwhile investment. He took out his two artifacts he had from his pocket dimension and laid them on the deck in front on him.


    ¡°I would be willing to trade these two artifacts for the gauntlet. The spear looks like it has fairly good stats, and the alarm crystal you should be able to rent out at the very least if you don¡¯t want to lose a steady revenue stream. I would imagine people would be willing to pay to take it with them on trips in the dungeon.¡±


    George adjusted his multi-lens monocle headgear as he examined the two artifacts. It was quite surreal for Kyle to watch George cycle through the different lenses on his contraption. Kyle thought they must have given George some special ability to examine the artifacts, as he was making hrmming noises and exclaiming as he looked the artifacts over.


    He finally put them down after a thorough examination.


    ¡°These both seem to be quality artifacts and I would be a fool to turn down your offer. Are you sure you want to make this trade though? You would be taking a stiff loss, as you could probably trade for some combination crystals or rare skills with the two of these.¡±


    The allure of the Gauntlet of Creation was too much, and Kyle had already made up his mind.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure. I have some abilities that combine well with the gauntlet and those two artifacts don¡¯t really do that much for me. While I could always use some rare skills, I don¡¯t really need combination crystals that much. I think the gauntlet is a good long term investment, as who knows when I will have the chance to get such an artifact again.¡±


    ¡°Well if you''re sure then I won¡¯t be polite. It¡¯s a pleasure doing business with you.¡±


    They shook hands to seal the deal before George went off to get the gauntlet. George then gave Kyle his card and insisted he come visit the shop in the future if he had anything he wanted to buy or sell. Kyle then went back to meet the others on the third floor. Sarah pestered him on where he had disappeared to, and after Lisa joined in Kyle relented and showed them his shiny new artifact. The four of them eventually left True Loot and spent some more time walking around the shopping district, but all Kyle could think about was what he would build with his new gauntlet when he got home.

 Chapter Twenty - Allies and Enemies

    A tense silence engulfed the council table. The last person to try and speak had faltered under the pressure, and so the silence remained. Everyone was waiting for the same thing: the representative from the Titans.


    The Titans were a strange race. Almost immortal, they operated on a different wavelength than the other races in the Fold. It was not uncommon for them to sleep for years at a time and the meetings between the various races of the Fold were often conducted without them. Of course, that was only possible if the entire reason for the council gathering wasn¡¯t meeting with the Titan¡¯s representative in the first place.


    When Packan took over as the council representative for the Ak¡¯ckaban, he had big shoes to fill. While the previous councilor had been beloved by all and had led their race with impeccable leadership, Packan was more of a compromise between their race¡¯s different political factions. Being on the Council of the Fold was a huge honor, and one that he felt he wasn¡¯t worthy of. But it was his duty to represent his race, and the Ak¡¯ckaban did their duty.


    There were a total of eight different races in the Fold, although the Titans were really only nominal members. The Fold was not a gathering of choice, but a gathering of necessity, and the Titans could fend for themselves.


    A long time ago, longer than even the longest lived Titans had been around, the Gods had an argument. None of the mortal races knew the details, but the Gods were split between two sides, with a few Gods managing to stay neutral.


    At first, the Gods kept the argument between themselves. But it eventually reached their children, and that was when the Fold and the Hammer had been formed. The Hammer was a gathering of races representing one side of the Godly argument, while the Fold represented the other. There were twelve gods total, with four representing the Fold, five representing the Hammer, and the other three remaining neutral. Although truthfully Gaia was mostly neutral among the mortal races, as the only children he had were the Titans. They mostly ignored matters of the other mortal races and the Hammer was too wary of them to force the issue despite Gaia being the God the Hammer hated most.


    But now the Titans WERE his only children. As in they weren¡¯t anymore, and the news had swept through the mortal races like wildfire. A council meeting was quickly called to decide the Fold¡¯s official response.


    Apparently Gaia had created another race, the Humans, in secret, wanting to keep them separated from the struggles and wars of the other races. But what he could hide, others could find. Gaia was the God the Hammer wanted to punish the most, and now they finally had a way to do so.


    The current balance of power had both the Hammer and the Fold in a bit of a stalemate, with both sides fearing a counterattack should any offensive end poorly. Truthfully, it wasn¡¯t really a true stalemate, as the Hammer was substantially stronger than the Fold. But when armies fight the defending side always has an advantage, so while the Hammer might be stronger, it wasn¡¯t nearly enough to offset the power of entrenched magic fortifications.


    And so the stalemate held, and there had been nothing bigger than a skirmish for the last thousand years or so. But that was all about to change, and this council meeting was only the beginning.


    Packan nervously shifted in his chair, worrying about the changes the news had set in motion.


    Surely they don¡¯t expect us to go out and fight, right? I hope the Talalli don¡¯t immediately push for an offensive. Fighting may be their strong suit but we would be decimated outside our fortifications. The Titans should know where the Humans are. Hopefully it¡¯s right in the middle of our territory. If the Human¡¯s link is within the Hammer¡¯s side they are done for.


    The tension never let off and the silence was never broken, and after a long wait the representative from the Titans finally walked in the door. This specimen seemed to take on a female form, and was actually rather small. She was barely taller than the council table. Most people who had never seen a Titan and had only heard stories thought of them as giants. While that was true for their combat form, most of the time they appeared as rather small humanoid shaped moving sculptures. This one was no different, and looked to be formed from some sort of blue granite.


    Packan sighed internally as the pressure dissipated and the other six members around the table leaned in as the Titan woman took her seat. She paused for just a moment before speaking in a beautiful voice unbefitting of a moving stone statue.


    ¡°As you may have heard, we are no longer alone as the children of Gaia. The Humans, a relatively young race, have recently joined us, and joined us in our struggle against the Hammer, whether they want to or not.¡±


    Here the Titan¡¯s representative paused, meeting the eyes of everyone around the table. Packan barely avoided flinching under her stare. For someone with only stone sockets for eyes her gaze seemed to see right through him.


    ¡°But for them to join us, we first have to secure their connecting portal. Gaia was only able to influence its location so much, and it has appeared on the other side of Thorrer valley. Unfortunately, as a result of influencing its location, the Hammer has been made aware of the connecting portal¡¯s location and should already be on their way there. We must immediately move to intercept them, and if that is not possible, reclaim the land and secure the portal.¡±


    Packan felt sick as the council dissolved into discussion. This would mean war. Of course, some of the more militant races had been in favor of outright war for years, but thankfully cooler heads had prevailed. Now there was no choice. Packan listened as the representative of the Aveninitie somehow managed to calm the council enough to ask a question of the Titan.


    ¡°But what exactly are these Humans? The Aveninitie are all for their rescue, but what exactly are we rescuing? There is a huge difference rescuing a race like the Talalli, who are naturally adept at combat, and a race like the Ak¡¯ckaban, who are practically useless in a direct confrontation. Our plans could differ drastically if we have to support a deadweight race after their rescue.¡±


    Packan inwardly winced at how his race was described, but he couldn¡¯t exactly disagree. The Ak¡¯ckaban were almost useless in direct combat. Luckily they held their weight as crafters, and almost all the enchanted fortifications were built by the Ak¡¯ckaban.


    The Titan pondered for a second before answering the Aveninitie¡¯s question.


    ¡°Gaia has described the Humans as adaptable. They are rather bland in form, with only a humanoid appearance and almost no distinguishing features. If they wore wings and claws they could even pass as a Talalli from far away. But while they are rather bland and appear useless at first glance, that is also where Gaia said their strength lies. They originally were on a world without magic, but Gaia has since thrown them into a harsh environment for them to grow their strength. When Gaia heard out fears that they would cave under the pressure, we were told that they had the capability to adapt to become more powerful than even us Titans, although we suspect Gaia was slightly exaggerating.¡±This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    The council paused to mull that over before the Aveninitie spoke once more.


    ¡°If they truly have such potential, what are their numbers? I am sure everyone would be happy to welcome a race with even half your power with open arms, but if they only number in the thousands like the Titans we may lose more combat power than we would gain by rescuing them, especially if they have low reproductive rates.¡±


    The Titan smiled, obviously waiting for this exact question.


    ¡°Although many have died in the transition from their birth planet to their new home on the other side of the connecting portal, when they were allowed unchecked growth their population was counted in billions.¡±


    The council was stunned. Packan desperately tried to wrap his head around the concept. It was billions, not millions. Even their most numerous race, the Deghol, only numbered in the hundreds of millions, and they were rather weak individually, only showing their might with numbers and a high reproductive rate.


    Billions. And they have the potential to match the Titans? This, this could change everything!


    It was rare for the Ak¡¯ckaban representative to speak, but Packan was the first to break the silence after the bomb that the Titan just dropped.


    ¡°The Ak¡¯ckaban move for immediately rescuing the Humans with a level eight motion of importance.¡±


    The other council members were only surprised for a moment at Packen¡¯s declaration before they understood his reasoning. Unlike all the other races in the Fold, the Ak¡¯ckaban did not have control over their own connecting portal. It was controlled by the Hammer. The only Ak¡¯ckaban that were on the major plane were the descendants of those that originally came through the portal, before the territories were so clearly established.


    So while races like the Talalli that were well suited to combat were constantly clamoring to go on the offensive, no race wanted to smash the Hammer as much as the Ak¡¯ckaban. And it only took the council members a moment to realize that Packan thought the Humans were their ticket to do so.


    A few seconds later, unsurprisingly, the Talalli representative raised their hand.


    ¡°I second the motion, and move for immediate implementation.¡±


    Packan thought that it would take some more deliberation before anything more happened. All the other races generally took some time before they warmed up to the idea of any sort of offensive, even the more militant ones. Packan couldn¡¯t blame them. He had been the same way until a minute ago. It would only take one bad offensive for it all to crumble. But before any discussion could happen, his motion was fast tracked in an unexpected way.


    ¡°The Titans move to implement the New Birth clause in favor of the motion.¡±


    At first Packan only thought the Titans had supported his motion, as he knew they would. It was a given that any race would support rescuing another race made by their god. He was distracted from his inner thoughts when the council table went silent. It was only then that he thought over what exactly the Titan represtentative has said.


    But wait, New Birth clause? I don¡¯t remember any¡­ oh.


    Back when Packan was training for his seat on the council, one of the things he had to do was read over all the rules and regulations. Every, single, damn, one. It took him over thirty days. He murkily recalled that one of those piles of documents was titled ¡°Important rules that will never be used¡±. Since they were important he had made sure to actually have them memorized. And one of them was the New Birth clause.


    It actually was not that hard to memorize because of its content. There wasn¡¯t anything else like it. It also was the only clause to be added in without ever being used. Most rules were added in to solve a problem retroactively, not proactively. But The New Birth clause was different.


    Packan nervously cleared his throat before speaking.


    ¡°As per the New Birth clause, any motion made regarding the good of a new race can be given level nine priority by another race under the same god. Following the clause, the Ak¡¯ckaban move to accept the Titans support and finalize the nominated motion, with the final details to be discussed immediately, delaying any recess that would normally be taken until the results are finalized. Speak now or by the will of the Gods it shall be done.¡±


    The minute of waiting felt like forever to Packan, and he let out an internal sigh of relief once the motion was confirmed as passed. Despite proposing the motion, Packan didn¡¯t have much to add once it was finalized and discussion began. War was not his forte after all. But Building actual forts was, and he already had some plans to extend the Fold¡¯s battle lines to encompass Thorrer valley. The Ak¡¯ckaban had been homeless for long enough. Soon, with the Human¡¯s help, they would have the power to fight. The drums of war were beating, and for once Packan welcomed their coming. Home was an ethereal concept to the Ak¡¯ckaban, but now, now it finally felt within reach.


    It was time to go home.


    <hr>


    Ienchth was giddy with excitement. He couldn¡¯t hold it in, and the feral grin that had snuck its way onto his face had his officers walking on a tightrope. He wasn¡¯t quite sure why, as he hadn¡¯t eaten any of them in a few days. Well, he had only eaten one or two.


    I knew that those old crustaceans were too lax. Always saying to wait, take it easy. I doubt they could have foreseen this opportunity, but I couldn¡¯t have taken it if I hadn¡¯t been in position with my army. Now all the glory will be mine. If I had followed those dumb boundary lines I would have been days away, not hours. Now no one can beat me to the prize.


    Ienchth was salivating at the thought of all they lovely prey he was about to have access to. The first breakers had already arrived at the portal, and they should have it open by the time the rest of the army was in position. Then it would be time to feast.


    This will show them that the Ctheicthu can¡¯t be underestimated. Always calling us small fry. Now all the glory will be ours! The matrons will grow fat on fresh meat and slaves once we return victorious. Then we can shut those Aileela up. Let¡¯s see what they can say in the face of a real swarm!


    Ienchth had to hold himself back from eating another of his officers. It was bad habit to get into. He might need them soon after all, even that particularly tasty looking one¡­ No, he had to wait. Soon he could have all the fresh meat he wanted. Soon.


    The army moved slower than he would have liked, but it was still in place by the time the portal breakers had finished their job. Ienchth double checked everything before their entry. He didn¡¯t really know what to expect on the other side after all, and it wouldn¡¯t do to get caught in a trap like some amateur. He was just about to order the army to move forward when his assigned matron interrupted him.


    ¡°Ienchth my dear, you wouldn¡¯t be thinking about moving forward without a secure retreat would you? You know that the breakers need time to fully secure the portal. We will need to leave with our bounty after all. The elders wouldn¡¯t want you to just lose an entire army, even in pursuit of a noble cause.


    Ienchth cursed in his head. She was right of course. He had forgotten all about their glorious return.


    ¡°My dear matron, I wouldn¡¯t think about advancing without securing a way for us to transport the food back. Everything is for the glory of the hive.¡±


    The matron smiled, her predatory grin even more ferocious than his own.


    ¡°Of course. The hive will grow fat once we return, laden with meat and slaves. I always knew you had our best interests at heart. I think a day should be enough for the breakers to secure the portal. We should only need to secure it for a softshell¡¯s legs worth or so.¡±


    ¡°Of course matron,¡± Ienchth replied, cursing internally at his need to follow the instructions. ¡°Your will be done and the may the hive grow fat at your command.¡±


    He quickly bowed and scurried away to see to the new instructions. The matrons always made him nervous. Nothing could impact his mood for long though, and he soon was back to salivating at the thought of what was to come.


    It ended up taking longer than a day before the matron was satisfied with the state of the portal. They were lucky it had never been used before, or it would have taken even longer to secure it properly. Ienchth had been waiting for her command, and as soon as she gave the go ahead he gave the order to enter. While she could give him orders, he was the only one the army listened to.


    It was truly a glorious sight watching the army slowly disappearing into the portal. Ienchth had waited too long for this. Too long to draw blood, to suck on succulent soft flesh. To crush bones between his mandibles as he reveled in the screams of his prey, savoring their agony until they were nothing but food for his increased power.


    Too long have we been at peace. The hive has grown complacent. The elders like softshells. We have forgotten the true taste of flesh, sweetened by the scent of fear. But no longer. I will show the hive the path to glory. We will grow fat on the flesh of our enemies. Too long have we gone without proper prey, holed up in our burrows like the soft races. The hunt will begin once more, and these Humans shall soon know what fear truly is. The hive is coming, and the Ctheicthu will grow fat once again.

 Chapter Twenty-One - Shopping?

    Kyle had been planning to spend a few days experimenting with his new artifact before doing anything else. He was still reveling in the freedom of being home after all. It was a stark contrast to how he had spent the last two years in the secret training area. But he only got one night to play around with his new toy as other plans were brought up during breakfast the next day.


    Kyle, Sarah, and Mickey were eating pancakes at the kitchen table while Lisa continued cooking up more for the people who were yet to come down for breakfast. They had been having pancakes a lot recently. Mickey had somehow learned that Pancakes were Kyle¡¯s favorite breakfast food, and consequently refused to eat anything else. While the breakfast scene was eminently ordinary, Kyle still found himself basking in that normalcy.


    I would have considered this kind of thing a bother before, Kyle thought. I mean, I used to think Mickey was cute, but taking care of him was never my number one priority. Far from it. I remember I used to make all kinds of excuses to not have him sit on my lap. Although to be fair he spills a lot less food on you now than he used to.


    Kyle was just finishing up his pancakes, which were drowned in nearly twice their mass in syrup thanks to Mickey, when Carl came into the kitchen in a rush.


    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, dear?¡± said Lisa. ¡°Did you forget the time again?¡±


    Carl quickly sat down at the table and helped himself to some of the already made pancakes.


    ¡°Yeah, I thought I could bust through some paperwork before I left. You know how it is.¡±


    ¡°Are you still working on the aftermath of the battle in the second city?¡± Sarah chimed in.


    ¡°Yep,¡± Carl grunted in between mouthfuls. ¡°Alyona somehow roped me into dealing with the ranking information. I knew I never should have asked for a favor from her back then.¡±


    After finishing his current pancake Carl then turned to Kyle.


    ¡°Speaking of, you should really get out for some hunting soon. You¡¯ve been back for long enough, and despite your wealth and power you still shouldn¡¯t get into the habit of slacking off.¡±


    Sarah had been waiting for this moment for days and excitedly jumped in.


    ¡°Yeah, you have been slacking off long enough. Slow and steady wins the race after all, and even a constipated turtle is better than a lazy hare.¡± [Referencing events of chapter seven]


    Kyle groaned internally. It had been over two years ago and Sarah still didn¡¯t forget about it. He was profusely grateful that he had not shown off the skill firing prowess he had obtained in the secret training area. Some things were better kept to himself.


    ¡°You can join the team that Li, Walt and I are on,¡± Sarah continued enthusiastically. ¡°You need to get some experience in the normal dungeon, and joining our team will let you learn the ropes. Teamwork is important after all.¡±


    Kyle had a feeling that he was not winning this one based on Sarah¡¯s expectant stare. He knew his aunt and uncle would never force him into going dungeon diving in so many words, but their gazes made their thoughts clear. And, truthfully, Kyle wasn¡¯t actually so against the idea himself. He never would have escaped the secret training area if he had decided to take any breaks, and while he was in a much safer spot currently, Humanity was not.


    ¡°Okay, okay, there¡¯s no need to look at me like that,¡± Kyle replied to Sarah. ¡°We can go dungeoneering.¡±


    ¡°Me too! Me too! Take me too Kyle!¡± Mickey almost knocked Kyle¡¯s plate off the table in his enthusiasm.


    ¡°Sorry Mickey, you need to wait until you¡¯re a big boy. Exploring the dungeon is dangerous¡±


    ¡°Mickey is a big boy! Take me too!¡±


    ¡°Alright Mickey,¡± Lisa said, momentarily stopping her cooking and coming over to the table. ¡°I know you¡¯re happy to have Kyle back, but you remember our conversation about the dungeon, right?¡±


    Mickey slowly and unwillingly nodded his head.


    ¡°What did I say?¡±


    ¡°That if Mickey works hard I can go on an adventure with Kyle, but I have to finish basic training.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right. Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll start basic training soon enough. And Kyle will be back in a few days. He won¡¯t be gone forever.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Kyle said. ¡°And when I come back we can go to the park to play, okay Mickey?¡±


    ¡°Okay!¡±


    Carl soon rushed out the door while Sarah gave Kyle a brief rundown of the various area that their group usually farmed in. Li soon came down and joined the conversation, and Sarah eventually ended up waking Walt up because he was ¡°taking too damn long keeping his lazy ass in bed¡±.


    As it turned out, the three other members of the group that Sarah, Li, and Walt partied with were scheduled to meet up today for a dungeon excursion. Originally Sarah was planning to stay home with Kyle, but now the plan was for Kyle to join the regular six person team to give him a taste of what dungeon diving now entailed in its standardized form. While everyone was confident in Kyle¡¯s strength after coming out of the secret training area, exploring the dungeon was still dangerous and teamwork trumped individual power every single time.


    The group¡¯s normal meeting time accounted for Walt¡¯s sleeping habits, so the prearranged meetup time wasn¡¯t until one o¡¯ clock. Kyle and the others left a good bit before that though to make sure they had everything they needed for the dungeon exploration and to educate Kyle on exactly what those things were. Almost immediately they ran into problems.


    ¡°What do you mean you don¡¯t need food!?¡± Sarah yelled, attracting more attention to their group of four than Kyle was comfortable with.


    ¡°I mean exactly what I said: I don¡¯t need food,¡± Kyle exasperatingly replied. ¡°I showed you my skills. I can absorb mana directly to sustain myself. Eating is really only superfluous, although it¡¯s still enjoyable.¡±


    ¡°But, but¡­¡± Sarah eventually threw her hands up. ¡°Fine. Have it your way. Just know that normal people need food, and the more the better. Not everyone can eat monsters all the time or subsist off of mana.¡±


    This wasn¡¯t the only problems they ran into. In fact, for almost everything they tried to tell Kyle he needed to bring, he had a reason why he didn¡¯t need it or already had it in his storage space. It didn¡¯t help that, unlike other people, he had a storage space that wasn¡¯t a wearable item, so therefore he couldn¡¯t ever lose it or break it.


    Part of the common reasoning for stocking up on certain things was the rational that something could always happen to your storage device so everyone needed everything. Sarah was incredibly frustrated that this argument didn¡¯t apply to Kyle, as he literally couldn¡¯t lose his storage space and, based on his explanations, could practically create what he needed from thin air. She WAS happy that it technically made him safer, but not being able to tell him I told you so was ruining any satisfaction she would have gained from his increased safety.


    The whole supplies run, which was supposed to educate Kyle on what he needed for a dungeon exploration, instead served to demonstrate exactly why he didn¡¯t need those supplies.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    The final stop on their supplies run was an armory. Sarah, Li, and Walt all had on specific dungeoneering armor while Kyle had on the clothes he had arrived in.


    ¡°Okay,¡± Sarah said. ¡°I know Tom¡¯s Tinnery doesn¡¯t sound like a reputable store, but Tom sells some of the best armor around. He sold us all of the armor that we are currently wearing.¡±


    Kyle went to open his mouth but was overridden.


    ¡°No excuses,¡± Sarah said as she practically dragged Kyle into the shop much to the amusement of Li and Walt, who were having fun laughing at Kyle¡¯s discomfort.


    The other three had clearly been to the shop multiple times, but it was a first for Kyle and it took his breath away as soon as he entered.


    The first thing that stood out was the size. This was the first store that Kyle had been in that was clearly larger on the inside than the outside. While spatial magic wasn¡¯t uncommon, seeing it in action like this was truly spectacular. But while the size was impressive, it had nothing on what filled the humongous space.


    Damn, Kyle thought. I thought I had a lot of stuff in my storage. How many reagents did it take to make all this? There has to be at least a hundred thousand suits of armor in here. I think I might have been underestimating the industrial process once Humanity applied it to the dungeon.


    Kyle looked around in wonder at the myriad armors that adorned the walls and racks as Sarah led him by the hand through the store. From the name, he had assumed the store would be primarily full plate, but armors of all shapes, sizes, and materials filled his view.


    This looks like a cosplayer¡¯s wet dream. And is that an honest to god furry suit? How could anyone actually make all of these?


    Kyle personally thought that Li and Walt should have better things to do in a store this size than follow him and Sarah around, but based on their expectant gazes he assumed they must be waiting for Sarah to inevitably start henpecking him. He would have been more annoyed if he wasn¡¯t actually glad Sarah acted the way she did. So much had changed since the Change, but Sarah still remained the same: overly critical, obnoxiously loud and attention grabbing, and firmly focused on pointing out every single one of Kyle¡¯s faults and flaws.


    It took them a few minutes to get where they were going thanks to the sheer size of the store. But after weaving in and out of a plethora of clothing racks they finally arrived at a door that read ¡°Tom¡¯s Fitting Room¡±.


    ¡°Tom will get you fitted right up with the right suit of armor,¡± Sarah said, as she led Kyle into the room. ¡°The store is named after him not because he made all of these armors, but because of his unique skill in recommending the best armor for his clients.¡±


    Kyle wasn¡¯t sure just ¡®armor¡¯ covered what was sold in the shop, but wasn¡¯t about to argue with Sarah and just resigned himself for what was sure to be a pain in the ass dress-up session.


    Through the doorway was a rather standard looking waiting room, and after taking a number the group sat down to wait. It didn¡¯t take long and soon enough their number was called and the four of them traipsed through another doorway into the fitting room proper.


    It was a fairly large room, all things considered, and it was occupied but a rather overweight man, what appeared to be a moving dais of some sort, and a large, and empty, cloths rack.


    ¡°Ah Sarah,¡± Said the person who Kyle presumed was Tom, ¡°it¡¯s good to have you back. Did you need anything in particular? Or actually it looks like you have a new party member there.¡±


    ¡°Hi Tom. This is Kyle who I mentioned to you before. He partied with us before we entered the Dungeon and just recently escaped from a secret training area.¡±


    ¡°I see. It¡¯s nice to meet you Kyle. The name¡¯s Tom Armon. It¡¯s a pleasure,¡± Tom said as he held out his hand for Kyle to shake.


    ¡°Er, Kyle Anders. Likewise,¡± Kyle said, a bit overwhelmed by the presence Tom emitted. It had been a long time since he had been in a clothing store with Sarah, and the memories weren¡¯t exactly pleasant.


    ¡°So what¡¯ll it be?¡± Tom said, turning to Sarah. He clearly didn¡¯t need to be told that she was in charge.


    ¡°Let¡¯s start out with the top twenty matches,¡± Sarah replied after thinking for a bit. ¡°We can then go from there. Price isn¡¯t a concern¡±


    Tom¡¯s eyes clearly took on a new light at the mention of price. While he enjoyed outfitting people with the perfect set of armor for their needs, he was still a businessman at heart.


    He then turned to Kyle. ¡°Step right over here and we can get started.¡±


    Kyle followed the instructions and stepped onto the dais in the middle of the room, fully prepared for what would follow. He had been clothes shopping with Sarah before, and it was never a quick experience.


    The other three stepped out of the way while Tom moved forward, clearly preparing to activate some type of skill. His whole body glowed briefly, followed by a period of stillness, the whole room seemingly waiting on the results of his skill.


    After about thirty seconds of nothing happening Li was the first one to break the silence.


    ¡°Well? What¡¯s wrong? Shouldn¡¯t the armors have appeared by now?¡±


    Tom was facing him, so Kyle had a clear view of Tom¡¯s confused face. He didn¡¯t think anything of it though, as it was his first time experiencing whatever skill this was. The other three had been through this multiple times though, and generally it only took a few seconds before Tom had results.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± Tom said, turning away from Kyle to face the other three. ¡°Normally I get a list of armors that fit my specified criteria, but now? Nothing. I can¡¯t think of anything that could cause¡­ Unless¡­¡±


    He then turned back to Kyle with an almost predatory gleam in his eyes.


    ¡°Excuse me, but would you mind if I take a closer look at the clothing you are wearing?¡±


    Despite it being his first time here, Kyle started to have an inkling of what was going on. He had tried to say something to Sarah earlier on, but had ended up humoring her in coming here. Dissuading her wasn¡¯t a realistic option anyway.


    ¡°Sure,¡± Kyle said, taking off his jacket and handing it over to Tom for him to inspect.


    Tom took Kyle¡¯s jacket and hung it up on the clothes rack before proceeding to thoroughly examine it. Kyle suspected that the only way Tom could have looked at it more closely was if he had actually taken it apart. The other three had no clue what was going on and were patiently, or impatiently, waiting on Tom for more information.


    You could practically cut the tension in the room when Tom finished inspecting the jacket. Before he spoke, he turned and gave Kyle a thorough look over, or rather, the rest of Kyle¡¯s outfit, which clearly matched the jacket Tom had just inspected.


    ¡°Did you know?¡± Tom asked Kyle.


    Kyle nodded. ¡°I suspected, but Sarah insisted I come to get some armor anyway.¡±


    Tom gave Kyle¡¯s clothes another look before turning to the other three, all of which were dying to get in on the secret. Tom gave a brief cough before launching into an explanation.


    ¡°Ahem, well there is a first time for everything, although I had suspected that something like this would happen eventually. I could go into a more in-depth explanation, but that¡¯s not really necessary. The short of it is this. The armor Kyle is currently wearing is better suited for him and more powerful than anything I have in my store.¡±


    Sarah, Li, and Walt just stared at him, before Walt busted out laughing, soon joined by Li. Sarah couldn¡¯t seem to process what she had just heard, and it took her a minute to respond.


    ¡°So you¡¯re saying that those clothes that he¡¯s wearing are better than anything in the shop? How is that even possible!? I refuse to believe that there isn¡¯t anything better here!¡±


    Kyle snorted internally. Of course you don¡¯t believe it. I tried to tell you earlier that my clothes were sufficient. But nooooo, we had to go and have Kyle play dress up. Well not this time!


    ¡°Calm down Sarah,¡± Li said, overcoming her giggles. ¡°I¡¯m sure Tom has an explanation. Let¡¯s let him explain.¡±


    Walt had almost doubled over and had a harder time getting over his laughter than Li did. ¡°I knew it would be good, but better than the whole store, ha!¡± Walt had been enjoying Kyle¡¯s rebuttals to their supply run the whole trip, but this one really took the cake.


    Sarah took a deep breath, slowly letting it out before turning to her gaze on Tom, clearly asking him for further explanation.


    ¡°Let me explain further,¡± Tom continued. ¡°While Kyle¡¯s set of armor is certainly powerful, it is not unreasonably so. From my brief examination, not only do the materials seem to be top notch, but its synergy with the wearer makes it far more suitable than anything my store has in stock. I suspect you would need to have a suit specifically crafted for him with high end materials to beat what he has on.¡±


    Tom then turned to Kyle.


    ¡°That all being said, it is still the first time this has happened. Where exactly did you get the armor? It clearly is a set.¡±


    ¡°I made it,¡± Kyle replied.


    Tom was shocked. The other three knew that Kyle had item creation skills and had made his armor, so it wasn¡¯t as big a shock to them. Tom on the other hand had no clue exactly what Kyle was capable of. He was immensely interested though.


    ¡°Would you care to elaborate? For instance what did you make it out of?¡±


    Kyle thought for a moment. ¡°I don¡¯t remember everything I used, but the base for everything was the hide of an elder sphinx.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ and elder sphinx?¡± Tom mumbled to himself ¡°Not a regular sphinx? No wonder it¡¯s such high quality¡­¡± Tom had heard of regular sphinx hide, and it was already a very powerful reagent. He could only imagine what elder sphinx hide was like.


    Tom had more questions for Kyle, and Kyle eventually had to promise to come back and talk to Tom later, as it was nearing their prearranged meetup time with their other team members.


    The whole way over Sarah did nothing but pout, annoyed that her plan to educate Kyle and prepare him for dungeoneering has failed so spectacularly. She had planned to tell him about the three people they were going to meet, but Walt ended up with that job which Kyle was actually grateful for, as Sarah¡¯s explanations almost always came with color commentary, most of which Kyle could do without.


    As they neared their destination, Kyle couldn¡¯t help feel a sense of anticipation. For the last two years he had been pressured to succeed. It was that or die. Now, it was finally time to explore the dungeon at large, and the idea of doing so not under the threat of death had Kyle looking forward to the experience. It was time to dungeon dive.

 Chapter Twenty-Two - Normal Dungeoneering

    In the two years since they were transported into the dungeon, Humanity¡¯s modus operandi for conquering it had evolved to run like a well-oiled machine. One of those conventions was people forming parties or teams which had at least four people in them for safety and efficiency, although higher numbers like six or eight were more common. Even ten was not unusual, although people generally liked even numbered teams for some reason.


    These teams were then registered with the Bureau of Dungeon Exploration, or BODE for short. Naturally these teams would need names, and when the group of six had first formed, Li¡¯s suggestion ended up winning the naming contest. ¡°¡­and that¡¯s how we ended up named Hex Sages,¡± Walt said.


    ¡°Like Six Sages? I guess it could be worse,¡± Kyle said.


    ¡°Yeah, well, we certainly weren¡¯t choosing any of Sarah¡¯s names, that¡¯s for sure.¡± Walt pretended to shiver at the thought of Sarah¡¯s names. Kyle didn¡¯t need to pretend. He had experienced it enough as a kid.


    ¡°Anyway,¡± Walt continued, ¡°The other three members will most likely introduce themselves when we arrive. Just remember: Simon is the mage, Sabina is the ranger, and Lee is the healer. It should be obvious based on their attire who is who.¡±


    ¡°Got it,¡± Kyle said, making a mental checkbox for each member. It would probably be best to make a good first impression if they were to be teammates in the future.


    While thinking over what Walt had said, Kyle realized that he had never really properly looked at what the other three were wearing. He would have to get used to worrying about that, as when he had been alone in the secret training area aesthetic was far behind performance in clothing priority.


    I am rather lucky my clothes are fairly fashionable. I can only imagine the reaction if my clothes were lime green or something. Thankfully I didn¡¯t run into any strangely colored monsters. ¡®And here¡¯s our new teammate, Kyle. He is the one in the magenta pantsuit.¡¯ Yeah, there¡¯s no need to give Sarah anymore ammunition. She somehow manages to find enough as it is.


    Once Kyle actually took the time to inspect what the others were wearing it was immediately obvious why Walt said he would be able to tell who the three new teammates were by their positions and attire. Perhaps it was influenced by some older fantasy stereotypes, but each person¡¯s armor fit with their chosen battlefield position.


    Sarah had on some sort of half plate that clearly denoted her as some warrior hybrid type. If Kyle had to guess, he would say berserker, which was probably pretty spot on. Walt had gone full on paladin and he even had a cross on the back of his full plate armor. Li on the other hand screamed dark mage with stylish robes that Kyle was honestly kind of jealous of.


    Yeah, I understand why they thought I needed armor. My current gear looks more like regular clothing than real armor. I guess if I was typecasting myself based on my clothing I would say I look like some sort of tribal shaman and rogue mix? It certainly doesn¡¯t seem like the average mage getup, that¡¯s for sure.


    Kyle was brought out of his inner musings when the party finally arrived at their destination. Like many parties and teams, the Hex Sages had chosen their meeting place to be close to the teleport hub, as reaching most of the good farming areas in the dungeon required teleporting if teams didn¡¯t want month long travel times.


    The meeting place was a small tea shop on the third floor of a building just down the street from the teleport hub. Apparently they specialized in bubble tea, which Kyle only vaguely remembered hearing about a long time ago, and Lee, who was an ardent fan of bubble tea, wouldn¡¯t relent until the tea shop, Tea Sweet by name, was chosen as their meeting place.


    The tea shop was fairly empty at this time of day and when they walked in Kyle could immediately pick out the people they were meeting. He really should have been used to it by now, but the image of a mage, presumably specializing in lightning based on his robes, a ranger, and a healer sitting in a modern looking tea shop drinking tea still threw Kyle off. It was one thing to see people in fantasy style clothing buying scimitars from street stalls, but the tea shop just looked too modern for Kyle to think the trio truly fit in.


    They three of them clearly noticed Kyle and his group as well, as the mage got up to great them.


    ¡°Sarah! I didn¡¯t think you would be joining us today. And you must be Kyle. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Simon. The other two here are Sabina and Lee.¡±


    Sabina just gave Kyle a nod while Lee waved with a friendly ¡°hi¡±.


    ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you too,¡± Kyle replied as he shook Simon¡¯s hand.


    ¡°So Kyle, I don¡¯t believe Li or Walt mentioned your specialty?¡± Simon said, diving right into business. ¡°As you can see I am a mage specializing in lightning based skills.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m also a mage, and I, uh, guess I specialize in survival?¡±


    Kyle really wasn¡¯t sure what to say what he specialized in. From what he had heard, people generally chose a specific thing to specialize in which would then complement their other party members when they explored the dungeon. Unfortunately, Kyle was not given that luxury. His main task had been survival, and that was what he tailored his skill set towards.


    He could easily imagine what kind of skills Simon had. He had seen various passive skills that boosted elemental damage and the like. There clearly was an advantage to be gained from specializing. But while Kyle was clearly a mage, many of his skills had nothing at all to do with magic.


    I mean, who ever heard of a mage with trap finding and armor skills? Although, to be fair, I would be boned if I didn¡¯t have that broken title. From what I have heard combination points are normally incredibly rare. Without access to them I would be left as an underpowered generalist.


    Simon laughed at Kyle¡¯s response. ¡°I guess you would need to be, having survived in a secret training area for such a long time.¡±


    He then turned to the other three. ¡°But now that we have the full party plus one we need to figure out where we are going. It was originally going to be the Blue Ice Caves, but now with¡­¡±


    Kyle kind of tuned the next part out. Most of the discussion revolved around dungeon geography and choosing a hunting ground, both of which were subjects Kyle was woefully lacking in. The discussion seemed to eventually devolve into an argument that, from what Kyle could tell, had Sarah on one side advocating for some dangerous hunting area and Simon and Walt on the other trying to reason with her.


    Everyone else seemed to accept this as a common occurrence, so Kyle ended up sitting down at the table to wait it out.


    ¡°So you were trapped in a secret training area, right?¡± Lee said, starting up a conversation. ¡°What was that like? Sarah said you disappeared almost as soon as Humanity was transported into the dungeon, so you would have been in there for over two years, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it was over two years,¡± Kyle confirmed. ¡°As for what it was like¡­I guess it was lonely. I mean, I never felt like I was ever truly trapped. It always felt like there was something I could do to get stronger, something I could do to overcome my current challenges and move forwards.¡±


    Kyle paused for a brief moment before shooting a glance over a Sarah. ¡°But finding the will to do all that was harder than I would have ever thought. While I had the confidence to eventually escape, what would I find once I got out? And when would that be? For all I knew everyone I loved was dead. Hell, all of Humanity could have been dead for all I knew. The whole dungeon could have been a deathtrap. Luckily I eventually got a skill that allowed me to pseudo check on the well-being others which really helped my resolve.¡±


    ¡°Damn, that¡¯s harsh bro.¡± Lee said. ¡°I guess I can¡¯t really imagine being trapped like that. I was transported with some of my family members really close to the city and we were quickly able to enter once they got rid of the monster hordes that used to surround it. At least you made it back and you now have the opportunity to join an awesome team.¡±The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°An awesome team when our healer doesn¡¯t use his special stink bomb skill,¡± Sabina interjected.


    ¡°Hey!¡± Lee said. ¡°That happened one time. How was I supposed to know that those fruits would give me gas? All you guys were fine when you ate them.¡±


    Kyle felt himself relaxing ever so slightly, his shoulders releasing some tension that he hadn¡¯t been aware they were holding. He had been a little nervous at the prospect of meeting new people. Well, more than just a little nervous, he had been almost petrified. It was hard interacting with people after spending two years alone. His family and Sarah were easy. He just fell into the patterns of their previous interactions. Everyone else though¡­


    I¡¯m really glad things feel so normal. It feels like everyone else is already used to this living in a dungeon business while it is all new to me. I guess I was doing it too, but that was almost a dungeon within a dungeon. I think some part of me felt like I would escape the secret training area and go back to Earth, back to the way things were before.


    But Earth was no longer home, and despite the weird clothing and weapons, sitting in the tea shop Kyle could almost imagine himself back on Earth hanging out with his friends. The scene before him overlapping with a half imagined half-forgotten memory from his adolescence.


    He was drawn out of his reverie when Simon clapped his hands to get everyone attention.


    ¡°Okay guys! It¡¯s decided that we are going to go the Pit of Despair for this run. The plan is to go out for three to five days and then come back. The next trip is planned for the Giant¡¯s Den, with a three day break in between the two. Any questions?¡±


    Sabina raised her hand. ¡°Is there any change to our strategy from last time?¡±


    Simon looked at Kyle before then looking at Sarah.


    ¡°No,¡± Sarah said, shaking her head. ¡°The plan is for Kyle to observe this time and then join in for the Giant¡¯s Den. While he has a lot of firepower to offer, I think he needs to observe the team first. Going solo and working with a team are very different, so for now he will be relegated to a reserve force for any unexpected contingencies. After he has observed how we fight we can try and add him in towards the end of the run.¡±


    Kyle and Sarah had actually discussed this very thing before. It had been a rare moment of seriousness for Sarah, and she had almost seemed like a different person. It had really hammered in for Kyle the fact that he was gone for over two years. While Sarah had been able to be serious before, she had never been able to radiate the mature aura she did during that conversation. An aura that she was emitting now.


    Kyle supposed he should have been thrown off by it. It really showed the difference between the Sarah now and the one from two years ago, and he didn¡¯t know the new Sarah. But despite all that, Kyle instead found it incredibly hot. The Sarah he used to know was a kid. Impulsive, reckless, and not willing to show restraint. While Kyle had loved the old Sarah, this new maturity added a whole new dimension to her.


    Gotta focus Kyle. We are preparing to explore the dungeon, not explore¡­ other things. Sarah is Sarah, and now she is leading this party. She is definitely not acting like a dom. Nope, definitely not. Oh god, why did I ever think that?


    There was more to what Sarah and Simon said, but Kyle couldn¡¯t remember any of it when they finally made their way out of the tea shop and toward the teleportation hub. Some things seemed to be exactly the same as before he left, while other things were clearly different. It didn¡¯t help that Kyle had no one to talk to for the last two years. His social skills were a bit rusty.


    And I thought teenagers had a hard time controlling their libido. Maybe I should just say something? But she never said anything to me even when we shower. You know what? Fuck it. I just got back. This can wait. It should be Valentine¡¯s Day soon. I will ask her then.


    Decision made, Kyle put his feelings on the back burner. This would need to be a conversation that needed to happen eventually, it had been building for a while, but some things were better not rushed. It was clear from some of the actions that Sarah had taken so far that, while she was obviously ecstatic to have him back, she also wanted him to feel comfortable acclimating back into society. To that aim Kyle guessed she had acted more like her previous persona to make him feel comfortable. And that was only becoming more and more apparent to him as he regained some of his former social acumen.


    The trip through the teleport hub and through the dungeon to get to the Pit of Despair was rather fast and, funnily enough, perfectly devoid of social tension. Kyle wasn¡¯t sure if it was from prior discussion or from tacit agreement, but the others all managed to make him feel included in their group dynamic without making him feel pressured to contribute. It was a far cry from Kyle¡¯s previous experience with group dynamics, which mostly came from his high school experiences. It made him wonder how he had even survived those dances.


    A short hour and a half later and the group came out of a tunnel and stood on the edge of what Kyle could only describe as a very large quarry or maybe as some secret government bomb testing area. The ground fell away to reveal a landscape defined by rising ledges and sculpted indents, each area appearing more blasted and craggy than the next.


    Everyone else had been here before so Kyle was the only one who stopped to take in the view while Simon addressed the group.


    ¡°Alright, so we are going with the same strategy as before. Walt in front, with Sarah standing by to perform the execution. The rest of us will be grouped around Lee, with Walt around forty feet away to still be in range of Lee¡¯s Inspire. Remember, pacing is key. As soon as it starts to turn we need to nuke it.¡±


    On the way over Kyle had been given the run down on what to expect from their dungeon run. The area referred to as the Pit of Despair was home to only one kind of monster: despair imps. They looked vaguely imp-like, but they were the same size as the average adult and didn¡¯t throw fireballs. In fact, the only magic they used came from their name.


    The imps had an ability that was apply named as ¡®despair aura¡¯. Its effects were twofold. The first thing it did was make any sentient nearby creatures feel despair and an incredible sense of impending doom. Conversely, or maybe complementarily, the imps were incredibly hard to damage when they weren¡¯t actively effecting nearby creatures with their aura. It was ridiculously time consuming to kill them from range, which led to melee range engagements being the primarily employed fighting strategy.


    Kyle stood next to Lee, Sabina, Simon and Li, with Sarah standing a little ways in between them and Walt, who, once everyone was in position, used a taunting skill to draw a despair imp over.


    It was a surreal experience for Kyle. Not just that fighting solo was miles away from fighting with a team, but that the general feel of the dungeon was not the same as the secret training area. Kyle watched in fascination, not just at how each individual member seemed to know their role forwards and backwards, but because everyone was completely focused on the battle.


    It was a stark difference in focus, and Kyle was honestly surprised that everyone else seemed to genuinely believe that their battle wasn¡¯t going to be interrupted. They still kept up their vigilance, sure, but Kyle couldn¡¯t help but recall the words of a certain professor with a magical eye, and how that slogan had saved his life more than once when he was trapped.


    Meanwhile, the fight was proceeding smoothly and it soon reached its climax. While fighting the despair imps did require one to counteract their aura, that wasn¡¯t the most dangerous element. Kyle¡¯s attention was drawn back to the fight by Sarah¡¯s words.


    ¡°Get ready, it¡¯s about to blow! Move on my signal!¡±


    The group had not been steadily pecking away at the imp¡¯s health for a reason. That reason involved the imp¡¯s other special ability. Whenever they died, they exploded, and the explosion radius and power was directly influenced by the amount of damage they had taken in the last thirty seconds. This meant that trying to spike an imp in under thirty seconds was usually a one-way ticket to a terrain changing explosion, as evidenced by the surrounding scenery.


    There was also an inverse relationship between the size of the explosion and how long it took them to explode. Meaning that large explosions happened faster while small explosions made the imps take time to charge them up. If you killed the imps during this charge up time they wouldn¡¯t explode, so the common fighting method was a slow build up to a quick finish. Which is exactly what the Hex Sages did with almost clockwork precision. The whole thing was rather anticlimactic.


    And rinse and repeat.


    Kyle never thought that fighting was boring. There was too much variance for that. No fight or scenario was exactly the same, and you constantly had to be on your toes. Or, he used to think that way.


    Was the secret training area really that different? This feels¡­ boring. Simple. Easy. Where¡¯s the edge? The knowledge that you are only one mistake away from an early demise? Is dungeoneering always like this?


    The group eventually called a halt to their hunting and retreat to make camp and eat dinner. On the walk back to their preplanned campsite, Sarah moved back from her position near the front of the formation to talk to Kyle.


    ¡°So what did you think? How does this compare to the secret training area?¡±


    ¡°Umm, well, is, uh, this it?¡± Kyle asked rather lamely. He wasn¡¯t really sure what to say. This whole hunting expedition had felt more like some sort of picnic excursion rather than a true dungeon experience.


    ¡°What do you mean is this it?¡± Sarah asked, confused. ¡°What else would there be?¡±


    Kyle took a few seconds to formulate his reply.


    ¡°I mean, like, don¡¯t you worry about the ground randomly exploding? Or about other imps coming to help each other? Or maybe a boss imp disguised as a regular imp? Everything seems too regimented. Too routine.¡±


    The look Sarah was giving him clearly told him she in fact didn¡¯t worry about any of those things.


    ¡°Why would the ground randomly explode? That seems like a pretty random thing to worry about. And of course it is routine. The dungeon is pretty consistent you know. As long as you have sufficient strength and plan for contingencies there isn¡¯t much to worry about.¡±


    Kyle suspected that Sarah¡¯s contingencies and his own differed a fair amount. And, judging by her changing facial expression, he was starting to think she was coming to that conclusion as well. While he had told stories about his time in the secret training area, they were mostly about highlights and exotic happenings. He specifically didn¡¯t talk about how he almost died when a volcano seemed to randomly erupt in the middle of his boss fight in a formerly serene meadow and, from the looks of it, it looked like he had tipped Sarah off that he had held some things back.


    ¡°You know, Kyle, I think we might have some things to discuss once we make camp,¡± Sarah said. Her eyes promised it would not be a pleasant or short conversation.

 Chapter Twenty-Three - Feeling Trapped

    The teams chosen campsite was located a little ways away from the Pit of Despair. There was a small alcove that someone had carved out of the tunnel wall that had things like a fire pit and even ledges dug into the wall for people to put their tents in. On the way over Kyle desperately tried to think of what he was going to say once Sarah started her questioning. It¡¯s not that he left stuff out when he told people about his time in the secret training area before, exactly, he was just¡­ more selective about it.


    Okay, Kyle, there has to be a way to do this. No one actually knows what is was like, so you hold all the cards here, right? The problem is that I don¡¯t actually know what¡¯s normal out here. Is it normal to purposefully get eaten by a beast to kill it from the inside? Maybe I should keep that part to myself¡­


    From everything he had heard and experienced, Kyle was beginning to suspect that while the hunting in the regular part of the dungeon had become standardized, that standardization, which seemed to be overly focused on safety, had lulled Humanity into a false sense of security. That feeling was only reinforced when the group reached their campsite.


    Kyle watched, nonplussed, as everyone moved about setting up camp, each person executing their assigned task with precision. While he found their speed and accuracy impressive, there was a major problem with their campsite. Namely, that it did almost nothing to protect them.


    There was always a need to set up a secure camp in the secret training area, and that was true even before Kyle had found the alarm crystal artifact. Part of the reason he had traded it away was he didn¡¯t really need it. He had plenty of experience setting up a secure camp without it.


    ¡°Hey Sarah, do you mind if I add some stuff to the camp?¡± Kyle said. While the surroundings seemed safe, Kyle had learned you could never be too cautious.


    Sarah shot him a slightly questioning look.


    ¡°Sure? What do you want to add though? We already set up the cooking area and established the perimeter.¡±


    Kyle nearly snorted. Their ¡®perimeter¡¯ was a long rope that was strung around the campsite. Whenever a monster crossed over the rope it would scream an alarm. While he conceded this may, may, work for normal monsters, Kyle could think of quite a few scenarios where their measly ¡®perimeter¡¯ was far from sufficient.


    Instead of answering Sarah¡¯s questions Kyle set to work creating an actual perimeter. Their first mistake was they created a clearly demarcated perimeter line, as this could tip off any slightly intelligent monsters there was something there, but he would let it slide for now.


    The first thing Kyle did was to take some mana crystals out from his pocket dimension for enchanting. Were he planning to make a more permanent campsite he would use a different material, but for only three days mana crystals should suffice. They made fantastic enchantment holders except for the fact that they only lasted for five days tops. Setting up the wards for a campsite was so routine that Kyle almost forgot about his fancy new artifact. That was easily fixed though, and soon he had the Gauntlet of Creation equipped and was ready to go.


    It seemed Sarah was not the only one interested in what he was doing, as Simon, Walt, and Li joined her in followed Kyle around as he ¡®fixed¡¯ (created) the perimeter. The process was completed fairly quickly, and from outside it only looked like Kyle walked around the outside of the campsite, crushing mana crystals all along the way. Well, the mana crystals weren¡¯t being crushed so much as they were disintegrating. The dust they created was then suspended briefly in the air before becoming invisible.


    Protection, Alarm, illusion, dispersal, and intention. That should be fine for now. It¡¯s probably overkill to put phasing and teleportation in, but I guess I should just to be safe. And a sanctuary to finish it off. The gauntlet really makes this a lot easier. Oh, and I guess I shouldn¡¯t forget to key it to everyone else as well. Wouldn¡¯t want them wandering outside and then not being able to get back in.


    Once he was finished Kyle stepped back to study his handiwork. Now he felt like he could actually relax a bit. Before there was the constant tension between the idea of being in a campsite and the fact that it wasn¡¯t actually safe. No matter what mental skills he had Kyle still didn¡¯t appreciate cognitive dissonance.


    ¡°So what did you do?¡± Sarah asked. Her tone conveyed her lack of appreciation for Kyle¡¯s work.


    ¡°I added some wards to the campsite. You can never be too safe in the dungeon.¡±


    Sarah didn¡¯t look convinced.


    ¡°You mentioned something about that before. It sounded like there might be some things you haven¡¯t told us.¡±


    Kyle really hoped he wasn¡¯t actually sweating under Sarah¡¯s gaze. It sure felt like it though.


    ¡°Uh, yeah, about that. Let¡¯s go sit down and, uh, I can tell you what I mean.¡±


    Okay, keep it cool. Cool and calm. Sarah doesn¡¯t actually know what you held back. Yep, she doesn¡¯t know. I just need to follow the plan and only tell her some other things I didn¡¯t mention before. No need to worry her. It would be useless worry anyway.


    Whether by unspoken or spoken agreement it seemed like the news about Kyle¡¯s story time had spread around and the whole group ended up congregating around Kyle by the firecrystal near the center of the campsite. That, or they wanted to inspect the mysterious stone couches and chairs that Kyle created in the hopes of softening the mood for his big reveal.


    Kyle waited until everyone was seated to start. Then he had to wait for them to get settled in the stone furniture, which, thanks to his enchanting skills and his new artifact, felt more like real furniture than stone constructs. Everyone eventually was settled in though, and Kyle took a long, deep breath before starting his story.


    ¡°Okay, so while the dungeon out here seems rather safe, the secret training area was anything but. It wasn¡¯t the monsters themselves that were super dangerous, as the danger came from the dungeon¡¯s traps and surprises. The first and most memorable time this happened was on floor six¡­¡±


    Once Kyle had finished the fifth floor of the secret training area he thought he had it figured out. The fifth floor had been hell, taking him longer than the first four floors combined, but he had completed it. In comparison, the sixth floor could be considered a cake walk. The only thing the sixth floor seemed to need was time and the right amount of caution.


    The sixth floor was one giant field, one filled to the brim with nature¡¯s bounty. That bounty even included animals. Nice, furry, cute, bloodsucking animals. When he had first arrived, Kyle had assumed the incredibly cute and fluffy looking bunnies were enemies, as there wasn¡¯t anything else that looked like it could be a monster anywhere in sight. But thinking they were enemies and seeing their eyes turn red and their claws grow three feet as they sacrificed their live to try and maul him were two very different things.


    But once Kyle figured out their fighting style they weren¡¯t really dangerous. If he stayed the correct distance away he could even spike them before they got into melee range. The only problem was their numbers. Kyle suspected it wasn¡¯t quite in the five digits, but it was close. And while he could deal with one easily, and two fairly safely, aggroing anything above that would spell trouble.


    The real kicker came two weeks into the sixth floor. Kyle had been steadily clearing away the bunnies and estimated that is would take another week or so to clear them all out before he could make his way to the center area, where he presumed the boss would be. That was when he realized that while the bunnies were bloodthirsty monsters, they were still rabbits. And they still did what rabbits do best: fuck.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    While Kyle had been clearing the monsters out, they had been steadily repopulating behind him. Kyle had estimated it would take about a month tops to clear out the bunnies. It took two. At the end of that two months though, the rabbits were cleared out and Kyle was ready to face the boss, a giant chinchilla that Kyle suspected has some sort of charm ability based on how fluffy it looked.


    At this point Kyle paused in his story, thinking over how best to tell this next part.


    ¡°So what happened next?¡± Sarah said, her impatience showing. ¡°So far it sounds pretty tame. Is there something you aren¡¯t telling us?¡±


    ¡°Did you at least get some bunny fur?¡± Li chimed in. ¡°I would love to kill some fluffy bunnies. Imagine the pillow you could make from them!¡±


    ¡°Just a minute, guys,¡± Kyle said. ¡°I¡¯m thinking.¡± This was the meat of the story, and he wanted to get it right. He just needed some thought on how exactly to describe what happened.


    ¡°Okay, so by this point all the bunnies were dead and I was ready to move onto the boss. I had scoped it out and¡­¡±


    Kyle had learned from the previous floor and took his time preparing for the boss fight. He even made some hidey holes in case it had some large, unavoidable AOE attacks. His preparation took three days, and on the fourth day, it was time to fight.


    Unless given a reason to do otherwise, Kyle always started off his fights from range. He was a mage after all, and mages did their best work when they were bombarding their opponents from far away. The battle started off smoothly, with Kyle firing skills at it while kiting in a circle. At the time, Kyle thought he was lucky. The chinchilla seemed similar to the rabbits in its behavior, and a few minutes passed by uneventfully with Kyle successfully kiting the boss monsters around, never letting it near him.


    That was when the trouble started. The chinchilla, like a lot of other monsters, had a rage bar. This was nothing new. Once the monsters health reached a certain point or it got enraged enough it would enter another stage. Most monsters typically got stronger or faster, or maybe gained more defense. The chinchilla though, summoned a volcano. Literally.


    One moment Kyle was kiting the boss around in a circle. The next, it stops, roars (it was more of a cute cry of anger befitting chinchilla), and then a volcano literally erupted from the center of the once peaceful meadow.


    Kyle had no doubt that had he not been cautious enough to constantly have a shield up he would have died. The lava would have been much more damaging had it been affecting him directly as opposed to the shield blocking it. The main thing was at that point he had no healing skills, and getting the lava off would have been nigh impossible. He would have become a brimstone statue, slowing being cooked to death in molten stone.


    Kyle then had the pleasure to experience an extreme surge of adrenaline brought on by fear. For over half an hour. That was how long it took for him to wear the chinchilla down since it seemed just fine swimming in the lava. Kyle was not though, and had he not been able to sculpt it with his Basic Earth Shaping that would have been that, game over. But, somehow, he persevered through the intense heat and managed to keep a somewhat stable frame of mind to finish off the boss.


    ¡°¡­and that¡¯s when I decided I needed to focus my skills on survivability. It was my first real taste of what the dungeon had to offer. Monsters are dangerous, but traps and environmental hazards are more so. It doesn¡¯t matter how high your health is or how much damage your skills can deal if you are stranded in a wasteland of poison gas, pits of acid, and random geysers of flame.¡±


    The six people before him sat in silence, mulling over Kyle¡¯s story. From their various expressions Kyle guessed they had never heard of anything like it before. Kyle had never really thought about it, but perhaps his experience wasn¡¯t typical. It would seem a stable farming environment was more common.


    Could the dungeon as a whole really be that safe? I guess I didn¡¯t really run into anything on my way to the city, but is that really it? Tunnels that lead to areas where monsters spawn? It seems so¡­ pedestrian. In comparison I kind of got the feeling that the secret training area was preparing me for something. Like I needed a certain set of skills to pass it. I guess I¡¯ll be prepared if my daughter is ever kidnapped.


    The group was shrouded in silence during dinner, each person lost in their own thoughts, likely thinking on the question Simon posed earlier. After asking Kyle for some common traps and things that interrupted him during fights, Simon then asked the group to think on them and devise countermeasure that fit into their strategy.


    During the meal Kyle felt stifled. It had been a long since he felt this much social pressure, even if it wasn¡¯t directed at him. Being around a group of people lost in their own thoughts was harder than he remembered.


    The general introspective mood continued after dinner until people began to turn in for the night. Kyle offered to take the first watch and soon he found himself alone, sitting next to the firecrystal that made up their campfire. It wasn¡¯t long after everyone left that Sarah emerged from her tent to join him around the firecrystal campfire.


    Usually when the two of them were up at night they sat in silence. But Kyle found his expectations broken as Sarah spoke.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about what you said. In particular the way you said it. That wasn¡¯t the worst of it, was it?¡±


    Kyle shifted in his seat. Sarah¡¯s question could have been very pointed, accusing him of leaving things out. Instead it felt¡­ comforting. Like she understood why he was holding back. Kyle felt compelled to answer honestly.


    ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t,¡± Kyle replied softly. ¡°The things I had to endure¡­ I¡¯m glad I found the dowsing skill when I did. I don¡¯t know if I could have made it if I didn¡¯t know everyone was alive.¡±


    Sarah reached out to squeeze his hand.


    ¡°You know I¡¯m here, right? You did make it out and we are all alive. You can relax. You¡¯re safe.¡±


    Safe. What a foreign word, Kyle thought. Did I ever feel safe in the secret training area? How could I have? One slip. All it would have taken was one slip. One step closer to that edge, the jaw closing a second earlier, my skills just not being enough. It wouldn¡¯t matter how careful I was if it was only 99% of the time. That 1% would have been the end.


    ¡°But now what?¡± Kyle hadn¡¯t quite meant to speak out loud, but, almost unbidden, the words kept coming.


    ¡°Now what? I made it out. Whoopee. I did it. But what¡¯s next? I spent two years in that goddamned hellhole. Two whole fucking years. More than two years. And now I¡¯m out. And what, I¡¯m just supposed to pretend it never happened, that I don¡¯t jump at shadows? That I can ever walk across a floor without checking for pitfall traps? I feel like I don¡¯t even know how to talk to people anymore. What am I supposed to say? That they are talking too loudly? That it might attract monsters? Wow, what a conversation starter. Hi, my name¡¯s Kyle, and based on how loudly you talk you would be dead to a swarm of miasmic bats ten minutes ago.¡±


    He wasn¡¯t sure when it started, but Kyle felt tears rolling down his cheeks. Yeah, he made it out, but what did he get except a hefty dose of paranoia and the skills and the outlook of a fugitive? He would be great in an apocalypse, but the apocalypse already happened. Life moved on. People moved on. And now Kyle was regurgitated from the crazy delusions of a paranoid schizophrenic into the calm, boring reality that Humanity had carved for themselves inside the dungeon.


    ¡°When we were walking through the marketplace I had to stop myself from breaking my thin veneer or normalcy and doing something every time someone activated a skill. I felt naked without a shield on, bare before any potential danger. Every little shift of mana felt like a loaded bullet, aimed right at my exposed back. What do I do now? Where do I go? I thought there was a point to all this, that I would be prepared, prepared to face whatever came my way. But now¡­¡±


    It was all too much. The dungeon might have prepared him to deal with monsters and traps, but not social situations. It hurt, physically hurt seeing how Sarah interacted with everyone else. She was different, no longer the same person who had to put of a boisterous front for others but cried into his chest at night. Kyle spent two years stranded in time, fighting for his life, while everyone else had grown up and moved on. The dungeon was their home now, while Kyle could only see its dangers, see the sharp blades it kept hidden away, waiting to strike.


    Sarah guided Kyle over onto her lap, hugging him tightly while he cried.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, you aren¡¯t alone now. Two years may seem like a long time now, but I will be here with you for the next two years, and the two years after that, and the two years after that, until this past two years is like a memory, overwritten and forgotten. I¡¯ll make sure you aren¡¯t alone ever again. And if we are ever separated, you will always know that I will be looking, searching, waiting until we are together again and the time of separation passes like a bad dream.¡±


    Sarah gently brought her face next to Kyle¡¯s and gave his tear-stained lips a long, slow kiss.


    ¡°Whatever you need, whatever it takes for you to feel safe again, I¡¯m here for you. You can take as long as you need to figure this all out. Just remember you don¡¯t have to do it alone anymore. You might be able to use a skill to slay real demons, but not even mental skills can easily slay demons of the mind. Only love can do that. Love, peace, and human connection. And if you ever find yourself running low on love, find yourself caged in, trapped by those demons of the mind, know that you can always draw on my love, that I will always be here, supporting you and helping you overcome those challenges, those demons, whatever they may be.¡±


    Kyle eventually cried himself to sleep in Sarah¡¯s arms. The sleep wasn¡¯t peaceful. Even being held by Sarah couldn¡¯t stop those fears, those monsters of the mind. He was finally able to admit that. But admitting that was an important step, and, just like it took time to level up skills and slay real demons, maybe it was okay for him to take time to slay his mental demons.


    He had all the time in the world now, after all. Time to spend readjusting to life with Humanity, time to spend with his family, and, most importantly, time to spend with Sarah.

 ANNOUNCEMENT: Author found still living, buried underneath real life responsibilities and stresses

    Hey everyone, did you miss me?


    Sorry this isn''t a chapter, but I haven''t posted in such a long time that I wanted to let my loyal readers know that I haven''t croaked yet and am still alive and kicking. I think I mentioned this in an earlier chapter''s authors note, but I am in the midst of preparing to go to college in Japan, and just today I finally got the stuff I needed back from Japan to get my visa.


    The whole process was incredibely stressful and made it difficult to concentrate on writing. I still have more stuff to do, like actually go to Japan, but the end is in sight. I do still plan to finish the first book of my outlined three book series, so you aren''t rid of me yet. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    I can''t promise another chapter in the immediate immediate future, but I should be able to put one out in a month or two at the latest once I get settled into life in Japan. I have also been working on a story that I think I want to try writing after I get the last few chapters of the first book of this story out, so if you think you might like other stuff I write you can look forward to that.


    If you really can''t bear to not read the ending for this story, in the distant future I do want to finish the three books I have outlined, with the eventual goal of a polished project for publication (I will post the story here first, even if I have to take it down later). So if you keep this story on your reading list or favorites I will post an announcement here in the future that you can check when I continue with this project.


    -Root Greevil

 Good News, Everyone!

    Hello! It''s been a long time, hasn''t it? Unfortunately, this isn''t a new chapter. I thought about waiting and doing a big release for this story, but ultimately decided that it was better to give my readers something sooner, rather than waiting for an indeterminate later. What I have to offer that is (hopefully) exciting is a new story!


    A Place to Belong</a>


    I''m sure many of you would prefer that I continue with this story instead of working on another, and I do apologize for the long wait. I never meant to leave everyone hanging, especially after so many people have been so kind to me and my story, despite all its flaws. I want to once again reiterate that I will be continuing this story, which is the other part of the good news, my health has finally improved!


    During my break between semesters I went back home and my doctor did some very comprehensive bloodwork. The result is I now know I have a rather severe hormonal imbalance of what''s basically a type of steroid. Normal people range from about 50-350, and my levels are over 700, so yeah. I was also electrically charged, which might have been messing with my brain and potentially zapping my electronics.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    What all this means is I feel much better, and consequently am able to start writing again. My doctor said it should take 2-3 months to completely fix my problems, but even a few weeks into my treatment I feel like a new person. I''m now back in Japan, and I now feel confident that I can write at least a few thousand words a week on a consistent basis, if not a lot more.


    I have another 40 or so pages of my new story already written which I will be releasing shortly, maybe in a week or so. While I plan to focus more on that one for the moment, I do plan to continue with Exponential Mana Regeneration, with my plan being to at least finish the first book in the (hopefully) nearish future.


    I really can''t state enough how much better I feel, and I look forward to continuing to write things on RRL for people to read. Thank you all for the continued support during my absence. All those comments asking about my health really mean a lot to me. I never would have written as much as I have without the support of the people on this site.


    With all that said, thank you all, and now back to doing what you all want me to do: more writing.


    -Root Greevil

 Update and new story

    Hey everyone, I''m still alive. For those who are unaware, I have a new story up, To Conquer Fate</a>. For the moment I will be putting most of my energy into that, although I still plan to come back to my other projects. I know there are still people who love this story, and I do plan to finish it. Right now my plan is to tentatively come back to this sometime in 2020. I can''t say how things will work out, but I know how I feel when stories I follow end up dropped, and I don''t want to do that to my loyal readers. It''s been incredibly unfair how long I''ve made you all wait, and I apologize for that, but as an amateur author who is still learning his craft I hope you can put up with my learning process.  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    While you wait I hope my other works of writing can tide you over. Knock on wood my health has been very good recently, so hopefully I can continue my writing proclivity. Thank you to everyone who is still following me and checking for updates. I''ve been very unfair to all of you, especially considering how kind you all were to me and this story. Hopefully in the future I can do a better job following through on my projects in a timely manner.


    -Root Greevil