Anti-Mage

Anton held up the bow he'd created and inspected it one more time. He'd finished recharging all of the wands, taken a nap, and decided to finish the bow before continuing to the next level of the Labyrinth. He stood, stored the bow in his Portable Exchange; His skill Jack-of-All-Trades was turning out to be extremely useful.

Anton pulled two hand axes from his Portable Exchange and prepared to head into the next room. He'd have much preferred to have used a shortsword, because of the new skills he'd picked up specific to that weapon. Still, his agility, dexterity, and strength should allow him to overcome any negative modifier that wielding two axes might cause. Besides, the common shortswords he had would be ineffective against rare monsters, so he pulled out two hand axes and decided to rely on his Jack-of-All-Trades to give him the ability to use them.

Anton stepped through the portal and appeared in a short hallway, with 20 red eyes staring at him from about 50 feet away. He only had a moment to consider what to do when two of the ten man-sized creatures that looked like a cross between a possum and a bear rushed down the tight hallway toward him as the others quickly followed.

If these were rare monsters, they probably had multiple attacks. If he wasn't going to cast a Fireball, the only thing he hadn't tried doing was releasing his aura. If his attributes were 95% higher than the average monster at Rare Rank like the Notification had indicated, it might have an effect. Anton released the control he used to keep his Aura in check and let it explode outward.

Aura Attack Successful

Aura Strength of 1,028 has overwhelmed ten creatures by more than three times.

Creatures are stunned for three full turns.

Additionally, while within the active suppression of your Aura, (Radius of effect equals the square root of the average of Intelligence, Wisdom, Willpower, and Charisma: 103 Feet), the number of attacks is reduced by half.

Anton immediately took advantage of this newly discovered quirk of his Aura and launched himself into an attack on the giant possum bears. Once within 10 feet, he used Identify on the closest one.

Rare Giant Delphia (Rapid)

Monster Level 20

With no more information, he alternated his attacks between the two Giant Delphia in front of him. With the Monsters frozen in place, Anton brought the handaxe in his right hand down on the back of the creature's neck and quickly turned and brought the handaxe in his left hand up through the throat of the second Delphia, beheading both. Within five seconds, he had struck and decapitated all 10 of the Delphia.

While he had decapitated the first two, the last eight were not so cleanly killed, though each strike almost cut their heads off.

Congratulations! You have killed a level 20 Rare Giant Delphia

20,000 Experience Awarded

80 silver Awarded

Common Class: Mimiker has reached Level 46

Congratulations….

Anton paused and adjusted the settings of his Combat Log and Summary. He set his Combat Log only to inform him when he defeated a creature, and then set his Notification Log to summarize experience and treasure gains when combat had ended.

You have defeated 10 Rare Giant Delphia

200,000 Experience Earned

800 Silver Awarded

Common Class: Mimiker has reached Level 46

You have received one Rare Generic Class Primary Shard

You have received One Rare Generic Evolutionary Shard

Congratulations, you have defeated Labyrinth Scenario 2.

Treasure: 100 Silver plus one Random Rare Drop.

Experience Reward: 100,000

Common Class: Mimiker has reached Level 47

Anton looked at the Notification again. The monsters had leveled him, and then the award for the room had leveled him, too? Awesome! He must not have used the hand axes enough to earn skills with them, so no new skills. He could live with that. Anton closed his notifications and looked down at the chest that had appeared near the body of the last monster he killed, walked over, and opened it. It was nice how no mater how small the chest was, the item appeared because, well, there was no way a halberd could have fit into a small three by two by two chest.

Anton picked up the halberd and checked its stats.

Halberd +2

Rank: Rare

Durability: 10,000

Durability Regeneration Rate: 2 Per Turn

Base Damage: 1,400 ((Base 1,200) plus (Magical Bonus x 100))

Anton stored both of his Hand Axes and gripped the Halberd. It wasn't a question of being a better weapon. It was the fact that it could inflict 1,400 points of damage, then withstand up to 1,400 more points of damage from his strength bonus. His bonus of 857 wouldn't damage the weapon, and he could use it to its full capability.

As he picked up the weapon, he noticed that the bottom end, opposite the axe head, had been weighted and balanced so that it matched the weight of the axe head. Anton held it up and put it flat on his palm at the hallway mark and wasn't surprised when it balanced evenly.

While he'd never used a Halberd before, he quickly put it through a few spinning swings like it was a baton. He also liked the fact that while he might not affect the durability of the weapon with his regular strikes, even if he somehow did, it had an auto-repair function. He was sure that eventually, that would come in handy, especially when he improved his rank to Uncommon and then Rare.

With his new magical Halberd in hand, Anton made his way through the hallway into a small, fifty-foot-diameter room with a single exit. As he stepped through, he noticed the monster behind him dissolving into smoke, which quickly evaporated.

The exit led to one of the Secondary nodes, which in turn led back to Node Kalcifer-001. Opposite the portal he'd just exited, another portal led to the next encounter in this Labyrinth Series, if that's what it was called. Well, he was going to call the rooms leading deeper into the labyrinth from a planet a series, it made sense to him, especially if there were going to be ten of them.

Encounter three was sad, just sad. It ended up being a natural cave with five level 30 Fire Imps flying around the room between the stalagmites. When he entered the room, one had seen and fired a bolt of fire at him, which he'd negated by covering himself in void energy. Once he was sure their attacks could do nothing to him, he released his aura, which caused all five Fire Imps to fall to the ground. A simple walk around the room with a single strike from his halberd bisected each Fire Imp and ended the encounter within five seconds.

You have defeated 5 Rare Fire Imps

150,000 Experience Earned

600 Silver Awarded

Common Class: Mimiker has reached Level 47

You have received one Rare Sorcerer Class Primary Shard

You have received one Rare Fire Imp Evolutionary Shard.

Congratulations, you have defeated Labyrinth Scenario 3.

Treasure: 100 Silver plus one Random Rare Drop.

Experience Reward: 100,000

Congratulations! You have discovered a Wand of Fire Bolts.

Wand of Fire Bolts

Rank: Rare

Durability 5,000

Range: 5,000 feet

Damage: 600

Charges: 100 of 100

Charge: Regeneration Rate: None

Note: This magical item does not regenerate charges naturally but may be recharged.

The Wand of Firebolts shoots a Firebolt in a straight line up to its range. Accuracy is completely dependent on the caster.

Upon Impact, the Firebolt will explode and inflict 600 points of damage on anything within 10 feet of the impact site. Any combustible items out to 20 feet will ignite. Creatures and Monsters will take 300 points of damage.

As wands went, it wasn't as powerful as all the wands he'd already recovered, but it wasn't nothing. A wand that had a small AOE in comparison to a Fireball, which he could recharge, could come in handy. Again, no new skills were offered, so he ensured that everything was included in his Portable Exchange and stepped into the next transitory node room. Again, it was just a single room with a secondary portal node that led back to Portal Node: Kalcifer-001.

Room four was actually the surface of a planet somewhere, or at least the area that was considered the room was on a planet somewhere. It had been filled with a lot of lush, animal-eating plants that had attempted to capture Anton. He'd ignored them, followed the path and exited the area through a portal in a cliffside, which led to the next Secondary Portal Node. No treasure, but killing carnivorous plants just sounded boring to Anton.

The fifth encounter contained some armored lizard people. The Armor mitigated half of his damage. He'd thought to overcome this by placing a layer of void over the blade. That had been a bad idea. He'd immediately dispelled the void when his magical weapon started taking two points of durability damage per second. He'd stored the halberd, pulled out a couple of his Wand of Magical Bolts, and proceeded to light up the pack of eight lizard men while they were stunned by his Aura.

You have defeated Eight Level 50 Rare Agrato

400,000 Experience Earned

1,600 Silver Awarded

Common Class: Mimiker has reached Level 49

You have received one Rare Warrior Class Primary Shard

You have received one Rare Reptilian Evolutionary Shard.

Congratulations, you have defeated Labyrinth Scenario 5.

Treasure: 100 Silver plus one Random Rare Drop.

Experience Reward: 100,000

Congratulations! You have discovered a Necklace of Water Breathing.

Necklace of Water Breathing

Rank: Rare

Durability 100,000

This necklace allows the wearer to breathe normally underwater and move around at their normal walking and running speeds.

Still, no new skills. Maybe he had to kill a lot more monsters? Anton entered the next Secondary Node room for the Kalcifer series of encounters and moved into room six.

You have died!

When Anton's body reconstituted next to a stone statue that looked exactly like him with an "oh shit" look on its face, Anton jumped back through the portal into the Secondary Node room before the monster could hit him with its breath weapon again.

Note to self, A Rare Basilisk's breath weapon, not a gaze in this case, which was two ranks higher than his Primary Core, did in fact overcome his resistances and petrified him without an issue. Additionally, being turned to stone counted as being disintegrated, requiring him to regenerate his entire body from scratch before he was allowed to reform. The only good thing about the way his immortality worked now was that he didn't have to sit around bored. His Soul went into a null state, probably within his Void Core, while his body reformed.

The other good news was that it was a relatively small room on the other side of the portal, it was only about 100 feet across and 70 feet wide. The bad thing was that as soon as he stepped through again, that breath weapon would have him. Anton thought about how to proceed and then laughed. Well, if the Labyrinth or the SYSTEM hadn't closed this loophole before, they were probably going to do so after this stunt.

Anton stepped through the portal and surrounded himself in void energy as soon as he was through. This time, he completely covered himself with a void barrier. He was sure the basilisk had released its attack, but there was no way for it to affect him while he held his breath within the confines of the void. Within the void shell, Anton modified his body with Malleable Body so that he had a body with four arms and hands, and then cast his Master Rank Fireball through his extra lower hand, as he removed the void from it.

To the Basilisk, it would look like a hand appeared out of nowhere and began to turn to stone as a red orb dropped into the room. He tried to adjust the fireball he was going to release and found out that it was no longer adjustable. He could cast it at Master Rank for 100,000 Psychic Energy, which he had in his Psychic Reservoir, but he would still burn out his Primary core, even if it was effectively six times stronger than a normal Common Primary Core. He wasn't too worried; he'd done this before, sort of. As he tried to figure out how to do it again, he had to ponder what he'd done and try to recreate the conditions that had allowed him to cast a spell two ranks higher than his Primary Core. He hoped that the SYSTEM hadn't nerfed his ability to do what he was going to try to do. Anton reconfigured the void energy from his Void Core to surround his mana channels again and placed what were effectively cut-off switches near his Primary Core, and then opened switches into his Void Core. He hadn't done that before. He planned to release the energy from his Psychic Energy Reservoir through his energy channels, which his psychic energy did utilize, and then, as it circulated, divert the excess energy as it tried to burn him out into his Void Core, If he was right, this should allow him to cast the spell without vaporizing himself. Yes, it would still burn out the channels, hurt like hell, and was probably a very stupid idea, but he should be able to cast the Master Ranked Fireball once.

Once everything was ready, Anton removed the void from his hands and dropped the fireball at his feet, even as he separated the extra arms from his body and stood next to the epicenter of the fireball going off. Outside his Void shell, everything in the room was vaporized as if the Basilisk, which only had 6,000 hit Points, took 100,000 points of damage.

Inside the Void shell, the energy Anton had called forth and released through his energy channels all at once. He burned out every nerve ending and piece of flesh in a spiderweb of void conduits in his body. Amazingly, the energy didn't spread and set him off like a firecracker. The overflow of energy followed the lines back to his void core and vanished as it was sucked in.

While he stood there trying to come to terms with the pain, Notifications filled his vision.

You have defeated a level 60 Stone Wyvern

60,000 Experience Earned

240 Silver Awarded

Congratulations, you have defeated Labyrinth Scenario 6

Treasure: Hoard, located in the chamber.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Experience Reward: 100,000

Common Class: Mimiker has reached Level 50

The Treasure was a Hoard, which was in the chamber? Oh, you sons of ….

It was a good minute before Anton calmed down enough to come to the conclusion that had he not just cast a fireball that scoured the room he was in clean, he probably could have recovered the treasure. Anton laughed, Easy Come, Easy Go.

When he could move again, Anton walked through the room and entered the next Secondary Portal Node chamber.

Encounter Seven was ten level 70 Rare Orcs. He used his aura to stun each orc and decapitated each with a single strike.

You have defeated ten Level 70 Rare Orcs

700,000 Experience Earned

2,800 Silver Awarded

You have received one Rare Soldier Class Primary Shard

You have received one Rare Generic Evolutionary Shard.

Common Class: Mimiker has reached Level 52

Congratulations, you have defeated Labyrinth Scenario 7.

Treasure: 100 Silver plus one Random Rare Drop.

Experience Reward: 100,000

Congratulations! You have found a Rare Backpack of Holding

Backpack of Holding

Rank: Rare

Durability 100,000

You have been granted a dimensional storage area that may hold up to 1,000 slots worth of equipment.

Each slot may hold up to 5 pounds of a single hand-sized item. Multiple Slots may be required for larger items. The number of slots required for any specific item is based on its weight.

Items summoned from the Backpack of Holding will appear either in your hand or on the ground in front of you, as you desire.

Regardless of the weight of the items you carry, they do not increase your weight.

Another dimensional bag, this one a backpack that looked like a regular backpack, that could come in handy. Anton quickly transferred some of his gear from his Portable Exchange into the Backpack, just in case he lost access to it at some point. 3 Casual Shirts, 3 Pairs of Pants, 7 Days' worth of Jerky, 1 Canteen full of water, 2 Mana Crystals, 10 Rare Daggers, 6 Rare Hand Axes, 4 Rare Bows, 10 Rare Wands, and 1,000 Rare Arrows. Anything else he might need, he could conjure with the spells he'd picked up.

The eighth encounter reminded him of the encounter with the kobolds, except they were orcs. This time, instead of ten orcs, there was a village inside a medium-sized cavern that his aura was able to reach out and fill; it contained 78. In the first turn, he made sure that each strike was precise and decapitated the orcs that had been stunned by his Aura. The first turn, he was able to take down twenty of them: the second turn, another twenty. The third turn, he was expecting to take down another twenty when the last thirty-eight broke free from his aura. Their movements were sluggish, but there were thirty-eight of them.

With Echo Location, he was able to keep track of every one of the orcs within 60 feet. His ability to move swiftly and decisively allowed him to appear behind unsuspecting orcs who found themselves decapitated. While he had to work harder at it, twenty more Orcs fell in the third turn as well. He made sure only to take a number of actions or make a number of attacks that would not overtax his stamina. It was a good thing to, as he'd lost track of the one caster he'd noticed until he detected a beam of dark energy closing on him. He didn't have time to dodge, so he activated Spell Absorption and took the spell into himself. While his attention was drawn to the attack, he detected movement behind himself as a rogue orc plunged his dagger into Anton's back.

Anton checked his Combat Log as he leaped forward off the dagger, which ripped it out of his back.

Surprise Attack,

A rogue has backstabbed you.

Critical Damage is doubled.

Total Damage inflicted: 3,696 (((400 + 313) x 2 Critical) x2 Surprise)

Physical Damage Resistance negated by Skill

Total Damage inflicted: 3,696

Hit Points: 13,457 ( 17,153 – 3,696)

You are BLEEDING

You are losing 184.8 hit points per second

The Dagger in your back has widened the wound already inflicted.

You take an additional 369 points of damage, and your BLEEDING status has been doubled.

You are now losing 368 hit points per second.

The first thing on Anton's mind was that he wanted that dagger. The second thing on his mind was the fact that the rogue had disappeared again. Anton activated Malleable Body and sealed the wounds before he could lose any more hit points. Even so, he was down to 12,720 hit points. He would regain 15 hit points per second with his normal regeneration, but it would still be five minutes before he was fully healed again; An eternity during physical combat when he was making two attacks every second.

First things first, He needed to take that mage down, while continuing to stay on the move to make things complicated for the rogue because he couldn't see him until just before he attacked. Anton covered everything of his body, except for his eyes, ears, and hands, with the void before he moved in for the attack, which had the side effect of negating the spell he'd absorbed. The mage tried to hit him with a fireball, which Anton intercepted with his shoulder, where the spell winked out. Before the mage could recover, his halberd took the mage's head off with his second strike. His first strike shattered a defensive magical shield. He needed to find a weapon that could channel his void, then he could have just reached through the shield without an issue.

During the rest of the third turn, Anton tracked down all the other orcs, save the rogue. Anton had a feeling he was waiting, and as fewer and fewer targets presented themselves, it would become easier for the rogue to set up an ambush for Anton. While he wouldn't have the extra attacks he always saved in reserve until his stamina had time to catch up, he could still make 20 attacks per turn, and he'd only made 18 so far, two for the mage and one a piece for the other sixteen.

The look of surprise when Anton shifted his halberd to block the backstab attack without even looking, followed by a sudden reach with his right hand, which wrapped around the orc's neck and drew him close and held him against the void energy that surrounded him, and started breaking down the orcs clothing and physical body where he touched Anton was priceless.

Anton felt the orc shift and try to stab him again and again, but the void that surrounded him was both a film and a portal, physical and energetic. The orc's attacks with his daggers sank into the void without resistance and damaged the durability of the weapons and gloves he was wearing. The void wasn't acting like antimatter and annihilating things that came into contact with it, it was more that the fundamental laws of nature that held matter together were being undermined, and anything touching his energy field was being unraveled at the molecular level, slowly. There were a lot of reasons this could be happening, but the one that made the most sense to Antoo, probably because the orc's soul was trying to protect them.

The overall effect, Anton could hold onto the Orc, defend against any attacks against his eyes, ears, and hands, and ignore any other attacks against his body. With his hand wrapped around the rogue's neck, his aura suppressing him and reducing his number of attacks to only seven, Anton was able to attack the orc thirteen times, which turned into an absolute belittling of the rogue's ability, as Anton belittled the orc, his native Language one word at a time with a slap after each word to make sure he got the point. It would have been fourteen, but Anton decided to go old school and willed the halberd into his Portable Exchange

"You"

<SLAP>

"Should"

<SLAP>

"Not"

<SLAP>

"Have"

<SLAP>

"Stabbed"

<SLAP>

"Me"

<SLAP>

"In"

<SLAP. CRACK>

Anton was brought out of his monologue when he noticed that he'd broke the orc's neck.

"Well, Damn!"

A quick check of his combat log revealed that at 857 points of damage per slap, it was good to know that he had somewhere around 6,000 hit points. Anton dropped the corpse and looked over to the chest that appeared by the mage's body. He'd done it, he'd cleared the room of all 78 Orcs, and it hadn't even been that hard.

You have defeated 78 Level 80 Rare Orcs

6,240,000 Experience Earned

24,960 Silver Awarded

You have received five Rare Warrior Class Primary Shards

You have received one Rare Mage Class Primary Shard

You have received one Rare Rogue Class Primary Shard.

You have received two Rare Orc Evolutionary Shard.

You have received five Rare Generic Evolutionary Shards.

Common Class: Mimiker has reached Level 69

Congratulations, you have defeated Labyrinth Scenario 8.

Treasure: 100 Silver plus seven Random Rare Drops.

Experience Reward: 100,000

Congratulations! You have found seven Spell Scrolls.

Each spell may be cast from the scroll once, or these Rare Ranked spells may be added to your Personal Grimoire for three Spell Slots each.

Magical Bolt

Rank: Rare

Mana To Cast:1,000

Range: 1,000 Feet

Damage: 600

Create an Arcane bolt of energy that inflicts 600 points of damage on any target within 1,000 feet. The spell "Shield" will not block this attack. The spell "Armor" does reduce the damage of this attack. This spell does not miss its intended target.

Disintegrate

Rank: Rare

Mana To Cast: 1,000

Range: 1,000 Feet

Damage: 1,000

This Spell fires a beam of dark energy that will eradicate 1,000 hit points or durability from anything it comes into contact with. Should the hit points of the creature or the durability of the object reach zero, the creature is killed or the object is destroyed completely.

Camp

Rank: Rare

Mana To Cast:1,000

Range: 10-foot radius

This Spell creates a small camp area, complete with an Outhouse, a Tent, and a cooking fire that will remain for up to one full day.

Fly

Rank: Rare

Mana To Cast:1,000

Upkeep: 1,000 Mana per turn

Range: Self

This Spell allows the caster to fly at a rate up to 1,000 feet per turn, 68 MP hour.

Shield

Rank: Rare

Mana To Cast:1,000

Range: 10 Feet

This Spell allows the caster to create an invisible shield around themselves that will take 1,000 points of damage before expiring.

The Shield will reduce by one point per turn until it disappears completely or until the caster dispels it.

Should a second Shield be cast over the first shield, the damage the shield can block is increased back to 1,000 points. This spell may not be stacked upon itself.

Invisibility

Rank: Rare

Mana to Cast:1,000

Upkeep: 100 Mana per turn

Range: Self

This Spell allows the caster to become invisible until they take an action to draw attention to themselves or attack another creature.

Summon Dark-Based Creature

Rank: Rare

Mana to Cast: 1,000 + 1,000 per minute the summoned creature is to remain.

Range: Self

This spell summons a Rare-Ranked Level 1 Monster to do the caster's bidding. Specific Named creatures may be summoned with this spell, which includes monsters that were unnamed but then named by the caster.

Summon monsters return to the ether when they are killed, the duration of the spell ends, or the caster releases them.

Anton checked his available Spell Slots and noted that he had 808 left. He could pick up all seven spells for 21 spell slots, which he quickly did. Once that was done, he stored the Class and Evolutionary shards. He'd gained 19 levels, even with his class experience multiplier he was paying. That had been a lot of Experience.

Also, the spells he'd just learned were game-changers. Even those with an upkeep of 1,000 per turn. His mana regeneration was only 857 per turn, but he had 16,618 Mana, so if he had no choice, he could fly for 18 minutes before he ran out of mana.

Anton exited the room and entered the secondary Portal Node area, where he allowed himself to heal. With nothing better to do, he created a meal and drinks and sat down to eat. He'd just add the mana cost to what he needed to replace before moving on. As he munched, he had to admit that the last room hadn't been too bad, but he didn't see how a small party would ever be able to take on that many orcs, unless there was a way to get through the room by speaking to the orcs. Nah, that would have been stupid.

When he was done, he pulled his Halberd out of storage and stepped through to the ninth encounter. This room was underground and large. Very large. When a small hill near the entrance shifted, Anton immediately knew he was under attack and teleported straight up as he activated Fly. It was a good thing he did. While the room he was in had to be at least a half mile in diameter with a ceiling that reached up at least 2,000 feet to a sphere that provided artificial lighting, he hadn't expected to run into a Giant Cobra that had to be eight feet in diameter and at least 150 feet long. Where he had just been, a head had come down from above the entrance. The damn snake had been spawn camping.

Once Anton saw the snake's head, he sped forward until he was 100 feet from it and then pushed his aura into the Giant Cobra. In the end, it was a level 90 rare monster that was carved up and shredded over the next two turns.

You have defeated a Level 90 Rare Giant Cobra

90,000 Experience Earned

360 Silver Awarded

You have received a Rare Ambusher Class Primary Shard.

You have received a Rare Giant Reptile Evolutionary Shard.

Common Class: Mimiker has reached Level 70

Congratulations, you have defeated Labyrinth Scenario 9.

Treasure: 100 Silver plus one Random Rare Drop.

Experience Reward: 100,000

Congratulations! You have discovered a Vial of Endless Cobra Poison

Vial of Endless Cobra Poison

Durability 5,000

This small vial contains an enchantment that constantly replenishes the contents at a rate of one dose per day.

The Vial only holds one dose and will only create a new dose when empty.

The Rare venom, when applied to a weapon, will poison the target when the weapon successfully pierces the target's skin.

Rare Venom Damage is 10 points of damage per second for 100 seconds, or 1,000 points of damage after one minute, forty seconds.

A new dose of poison will be available 24 hours after the dose is removed from the vial. The does used to coat a weapon will remain viable for one minute after removal. Items placed in dimensional storage prevent the deterioration of the venom.

Really? Anton pulled out one of his Rare Daggers, opened the vial, which had a little brush built into the cap, and brushed it on the blade before putting it back in his Portable Exchange in a storage location all by itself. He put the vial in his Backpack of holding in one of the side pockets that wasn't part of the dimensional space, just in case it needed to be outside of a dimensional storage area to generate the poison.

Even with the Vial of Endless Cobra Venom, Anton was a bit disappointed. A single Giant Cobra? Sure, against even a normal team of five, it might have been a struggle, especially since the Giant Cobra had been level 90, but for him, with that halberd. Not even a contest. Anton exited the room and made his way to the tenth encounter.

As Anton exited what he hoped was the final Secondary Node room, he found himself in a mountainous area overlooking a valley with a castle at the opposite end of the valley. If he didn't know better, he'd think he was on the set of one of the Dracula movies. So, probably a Vampire or a Lich, if the setting was any indicator.

Anton placed all of his magical gear into his Portable Exchange, pulled out two of the non-magical Hand axes, and then allowed his body to go back to its natural state before he acquired the Void Core. It wasn't the same as surrounding himself in void energy, though it was similar. His body became immune to magic, the way it had been before. He made sure he could still use Psychic Energy by casting Create Food to create an apple and then he headed down the path.

The only problem with being completely immune to magic was that he wouldn't feel when spells that had no visual cues were cast at him, but that was okay. If a lich or vampire was trying to take him over, it was much better to prevent that completely than count on his resistances, especially since he'd seen that his resistances could be overcome by rare monsters already.

Half a day later, he walked into the courtyard of a barren castle with broken-down walls, broken timber, and an overall feeling that nothing had been there in a very long time. As his eyes came back to the giant double door in front of him, a skeleton in an elaborate red robe stepped into view. From the location of its throat, a deep, rich voice rang out, even though there wasn't a throat to harbor such a pleasant voice.

"Welcome, Traveler, Partake of my…"

Anton raised his voice and interrupted the skeleton, "Yeah, you can stop that right there. This is a broken-down castle, and you're a skeleton, most likely a lich. State your intentions!"

The skeleton looked at Anton with a shocked expression on his bony face, which for a skeleton should be hard to do. Before he could recover, Anton crossed the distance between the two and began striking the skeleton over and over. A quick check of his Combat Log indicated that he was only inflicting half his normal damage. Even so, after ten attacks in five seconds, the skeleton had taken 7,300 points of damage and shattered as the red robe it wore was torn to shreds.

The voice came from directly in front of Anton as he watched the bones rise into the air and begin to reform.

"Five seconds. Not bad, now you will feel my wrath…What?"

As soon as the skeleton began to reform, Anton pushed out the destructive portion of his Authority of the Void and began breaking down every bone within range, starting with the skeleton he'd just broken into small pieces. Anton watched as wisps of black mana tried to bring the bones together, only to have the void energy he was controlling wrap around and destroy the various bones it was reaching for. Watching the tendrils of dark mana allowed him to get the general location from which the energy was coming; just inside the door, in one of the larger vases.

Anton directed the destructive energy to the vase and smiled when a desiccated heart became visible.

"What, how did you find my….

"Anton never heard what the skeleton or lich was going to say because all of the skeletons it was trying to raise fell to dust when Anton bisected the dried-out heart with a single strike. As soon as it was hit, it also turned to dust, and he received the notifications he'd been waiting for.

You have defeated a Level 100 Rare Lich

100,000 Experience Earned

400 Silver Awarded

You have received a Rare Mage Class Primary Shard.

You have received a Rare undead Evolutionary Shard.

Congratulations, you have defeated 9 of 10 Kalcifer Scenarios.

Treasure: 100 Gold plus one Random Rare Drop and one Epic Drop tailored to you.

Experience Reward: 1,000,000

Common Class: Mimiker has reached Level 72

Congratulations! You have discovered a Headband of True Sight.

Headband of True Sight.

Rank: Rare

Durability: 5,000

While worn, Abilities, Perks, Skills, and Spells that alter perception lower than Epic Rank will not work on the wearer. The Wearer is immune to Invisibility, and will recognize illusions as what they are of Rare Rank or lower.

Congratulations! You have found an Epic Shortsword +1

Shortsword +1

Rank: Epic

Durability: 100,000

Base Damage: 7,000 (Base 6,000 + 1,000 at Epic Rank)

Damage that exceeds the Durability Damage Rating reduces the durability on a one-for-one basis.

Anton now had a short sword he could use without worrying about breaking it, which was awesome. His mind was drawn to his surroundings when he heard a feminine voice call out from somewhere deeper in the Castle, "Now that that bony prick is dead, would whoever is here help a girl out!"

Anton adjusted his vision to be able to see in the dark better as he made his way deeper into the castle. As the woman called out, he followed her voice down a stairway and into the basement, into what could only be termed as a sadistic dungeon where bodies were held in shackles, pillories, and the like. The woman who had called out was chained to the wall, with only a very flimsy piece of cloth offering her almost no dignity. Everyone else in the room was dead except for her.

"You there, could you get me down. These manacles have to be made of Adamantium, I can't break free,"

Anton looked around until he saw a key ring on the wall near the entrance. He walked over, looked over the keys, and then moved over to the rack. First things first, he put on the Headband of True Sight after he withdrew his Antimagic field back into his Void Core. Then he looked over the room to make sure everything was as it seemed. Once he was satisfied, he worked on finding the key that would remove her shackles.

First, he unlocked the suppression collar on the woman's neck, which should allow her to use magic, if she had any.

"Yeah, I don't have any magic. By the Way, the name's Maggie, I'm a Barbarian. Could you please unlock me now? I want to get out of here. I know this is a dead end in the Labyrinth, and I want to get back onto the normal trail and back to Traverse.

"Traverse?" Anton asked as he started with the shackles on her legs and then her arms.

"Traverse. Traverse is a city in the labyrinth, a kind of crossroads. From there, you can go in a lot of different directions. Best of all, though, you can take a break. It's actually the place we entered this trail from. I was planning on the first to make it to a new world until the Labyrinth and SYSTEM locked it down."

As he unlocked the last shackle and stepped back, Maggie stepped off the rack and stretched. "Much Better," Maggie said with a smile. "By chance, do you have any basic weapons I can borrow until we get back to Traverse? I can hit the bank up there and pay you for them."

"No need, do you like daggers or hand axes?" Anton asked.

"A battle axe would be nice, but if not, two-handed axes if you have them."

"I do, and don't worry about it, Anton said as he pulled out two Rare Hand Axes and handed them over.

"Thanks," Maggie said as she gave each hand axe a swing. I'm sure that I'm the last one alive down here, and there was nothing in or around the castle when we arrived three days ago, so if you're game, I'll lead you to the exit, and then we'll head to Traverse.

"Sounds Good," Anton agreed.

Maggie led the way out of the castle and down a path opposite the one he'd followed into the castle. The exit was at the end of a dark gorge, inside a Portal opened onto a cobblestone street with two-story buildings as far as he could see. Maggie stepped through with Anton close behind. When he stepped out he realized he'd stepped from the door of a store behind him. No, it was an alcove with a portal that led to the gorge they'd just left.

"Welcome to Traverse," Maggie said. I need a shower, and a Drink in that order."