Book 2: Chapter 9
Appearing back in front of the portal, everyone other than Ian was blinking the light out of their eyes. His new skill that protected him from light changes may seem like a small thing, but it meant the world to him. He was standing right next to his sister when their vision finally cleared.
"Ian, I'm going to be a ranker on my first day!" she exclaimed. "Though I haven't received a notification saying I completed my challenge yet."
"That's because it won't happen until you leave the dungeon. You'll get it right before you get your skills."
"We should head outside so I can tell you what my new skills are. Let's go!"
"Let's maybe hold up for a second on that," Claire said, reaching out and grabbing Ashlyn's arm. "Your new skills could be really powerful, so we might want to only talk about them in a secure area. Imagine if they're something as crazy as Ian's?"
"She's right," Tram said, looking around. "There is a lot of speculation being tossed around in the media about what Ian's inherent skills can actually do. With the known fact that he provides an experience bonus, he is probably one of the single most sought-after adventurers in the world. I wouldn't be surprised if he got offers from the top clans of other countries."
"You have no idea," Claire said with a sigh. "There are still thousands of unopened correspondences from nearly every influential clan in the world. Peerless may have been this country's media darling, but that is only because they were the first ones to popularize turning dungeon diving into reality television and soap operas."
"Yeah," Lana said. "Unfortunately, their choices are going to leave a lot of weak adventurers around the middle range of the low-tier. As much as I want to feel dirty for being a part of it, I'm actually just ashamed that I fell for so many of the things they told me."
"Eh, it got us here, and we both actually understand what we want out of our adventuring now. So, I won't consider it a waste of time," Tram said, nudging Lana with his elbow, who just smirked and pushed him back.
"Alright, so we keep our skills a secret," Ashlyn agreed.
"I'm already looking at the skills, and there are multiple skills that will give me a human appearance. How do I know which one to choose?" asked Nia.
"That's actually a pretty good question," Claire said when everyone looked at her. "What are the skills called?"
"Well, they are all names with the word human after them in parentheses. The first is Mareki, then there is Nommi. There is also a few more, like Terran and—"
"That one," everyone quickly said, cutting her off.
"Terran? What does that mean?"
"It means 'of the Earth' or something," Ian said with a chuckle. "It is a pretty common thing in our science fiction novels for other worldly races to call us that. It might be a good idea to purchase it really quick and activate it. It's entirely possible there will be members of the media outside."
"That's a pretty good bet," Claire agreed with a nod. "If anyone reported that you came in here, it wouldn't surprise me that they would show up to see what you are doing. Especially seeing as we haven't been streaming."
As everyone watched, Selenia, a very lithe and petite woman who didn't come up to Ian's chin, suddenly blurred and grew in every way possible. Her skin took on a less alien hue as her ears shrank down as they lost their points, allowing her hair to fall over them.
"Thank the curator your clothes adjusted sizes, or everything would have burst right open," Ashlyn said, coming over to look at Selenia's human face.
"Are you all seeing this?" asked Ian, getting a nod from his shocked companions. Ashlyn and Selenia looked at him questioningly, and he blinked a couple of times before shaking his head. "If we get you skills to give you blue eyes and black hair, you could be Jen's twin."
Ashlyn took a step back to really look at the former Faeorcen over, "Yup, no doubt about it. You and Jen are sisters."
"Who is this…Jen?" Nia asked, eyes squinting. "She isn't a horrible person, is she?"
"Nah, she's pretty awesome," Ashlyn said before getting a smirk. "Though, I think she wants to make my bro into her baby daddy."
"God damn it, Ash," Ian said, sighing. "She's one of my best friends. She's also…actually…I won't spoil the surprise. I look forward to you meeting her."
"Alright, let's go outside really quick and see what everyone got!" Ashlyn said, inching towards the portal.
"Just remember, Ash, karma sneaks up on people in the strangest ways…" Ian said, giving her a knowing smile as he walked up next to her.
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"Aww, you know you love me and would never do anything to me. Besides, it's not like you don't realize she is interested."
"Yeah, but it is one thing to know and another thing to say it out loud to a bunch of people," Ian said, giving her a small smile as he reached out and grabbed her arm. "Now, make sure not to bite your tongue."
"Wha—"
Ashlyn's reply was cut off as Ian chucked her over the threshold of the portal. As she disappeared, he turned back to see shocked looks on everyone's face.
"What?" Ian asked.
"Why did you toss her out like that?" asked Lana.
"Oh, don't worry. She's probably in incredible agony right now, we should probably get out there to watch."
"Oh shit!" Claire said, sprinting through the portal.
"Let's go," Ian said with a smile as he followed after her.
As he cleared the threshold, he saw a bunch of people rushing towards his sister, who was lying on the ground, screaming in pain while coughing up blood.
"Don't touch her!" Ian shouted loud enough for everyone in the area to freeze.
"What the hell is going on here?" came the panicked female voice of the AO representative on duty, standing a few steps away from Ashlyn.
"Oh, she just went from level zero to one hundred in a single day," Ian said with a smirk as he leaned down and laid a hand on his sister. "She's going through the entire body purification process in a single go."
"What are we gonna do?" Claire said, coming to take Ashlyn's hand as the woman suddenly passed out.
"She'll wake up in a moment," Ian replied, already verifying that there was nothing to heal.
"You're Zero!" said the AO representative before turning to look at Claire. "And you're Keeper Withers! Everyone is trying to figure out what happened to you two. The media is reporting that you both may have died."
"Died?" both of them said in unison.
"Yeah, died. You disappeared from the top of the low-tier ranker leaderboard and never appeared on the mid-tier. Just vanished, and the Guild Master didn't have any statement other than she was 'looking into the matter.'" The woman looked around for a second before lowering her voice. "I was told that she went absolutely ballistic when you disappeared from the list, Keeper Withers. It's rumored that she even called Vision and Prophet to help figure out what happened to you two."
"Oh, for the curator's sake," Claire swore, scowling as she tried to clean some of the blood from Ashlyn's face with a napkin. "At least we know we aren't being followed around, or they would have known even if there isn't a sign in for level one dungeons."
"Is she going to be alright?" Lana asked, sitting down and touching Ashlyn. A green glow erupted out of her hand as she sighed in relief. "She's perfectly healthy."
Ian looked up to see Selenia's panicked expression relax at Lana's words.
"Et tu…bro-ski?" Ashlyn said in a raspy voice as her eyes slowly opened.
"Yeah, I was gonna warn you, but you were being a brat and kinda deserved a bit of payback," Ian said with a smirk.
"Hey, she's covered with a lot less blood than when it happened to you," Claire said.
"Thankfully, most of it didn't get on her clothes," Ian agreed.
"Guess our old argument can be put to sleep now," Ashlyn said, slowly pushing herself to a sitting position.
"Yeah, what argument is that?" he asked, wiping her face and neck with a towel from his item box.
"I really was more perfect than you growing up."
Ian snorted and began to laugh. Everyone else joined in, happy that their friend was feeling good enough to be her usual self.
"Now, how about we all walk back inside the dungeon for a moment, get our additional bonus levels, and head back home?" Claire asked. "It should stop everyone from freaking out, and then I don't have to call and deal with…people."
"Yeah, sounds good," Ian said, standing up and offering his sister a hand.
When Ashlyn got to her feet, he saw that she had grown an extra inch or so. However, most of her looked the same. Maybe she really had been more perfect than he, or maybe his malnourished lifestyle had messed him up more than he had thought.
Quickly walking back into the portal, Ian let out a chuckle as everyone got the notification.
Congratulations! You have achieved level 102. You have been awarded 60 skill points! You have mastered the novice-tier and are now moving on! Strive to reach the pinnacle!
"Hell yeah!" Ashlyn said. "We are first on the party leader boards, baby!"
"Well, you and Nia are first," Ian said, only to see both of them turn to him in confusion. It seemed to be a common occurrence today. "The rest of us have already done the climb once. As this is both of your first times, you are eligible to be evaluated."
"I am not going to lie, that makes this victory a little less sweet," Selenia said, lips pursed in a pout.
"Ian," Ashlyn said, looking at her friend. "Does Jen pout like that? If she does, I'm so disappointed in you for not going after her. The things she could--"
"Fuck it! I'm going home," Ian said, tossing his arms into the air and walking out of the portal.
Appearing back out of the portal, he pulled up his notifications to check on the skill he had received from the capstone.
New skill granted: Squeaky Clean (Inherent): Dust, grime, and gore will be magically removed from the user and their belongings when not in combat.
Remembering being covered in bug guts, Ian just smiled. He wouldn't have to wait until they vanished on leaving the dungeon anymore. He had only been running for a short period of time, but the grime during a dungeon run really bogged a person down. Especially when it was on his weapons. And honestly, with how good his primary inherent skills were, quality of life things like this were amazing.
"Lana is going to be so jealous," Ian muttered to himself.
He smiled and waved as everyone else came out of the portal a couple of moments later. Ashlyn walked towards him with a worried expression. Seeing it, he snorted and stuck his tongue out at her before going back to look at his status screen.
"I thought you were mad at me?"
"Psh, I've been dealing with you since you were born. You should know better."
Ashlyn gave him a quick side hug. "Thanks, bro. I'll lay off. I know the subject is hard for you."
Ian returned the hug, "You're the best, Ash."
"We really should get out of here while there aren't any cameras," Claire said, just loud enough for them to hear. "Let's go get in the car and high-tail it to my office. Our domination as rankers starts now!"
"Domination is such a strong word," Tram said, removing his helmet. "Maybe we should set our sights a bit lower. It might be hard to catch up to some of the higher and more experienced groups."
"I'm not sure it will be," Ashlyn said, her usual playful manner nowhere on her features as she looked at a screen only she could see.