System Change

Derek took a quick look at his kill notification while waiting for his group.

You have killed level 65 Canis Cyclonis

1728 Experience Gained

1986/4900 Experience to Next Level

The others soon came out of the cabin and he dismissed the window.

“Woah! Was that the final boss?” Brandi yelled.

“Hmm… Oh, yeah. I figured it would be fun for you to make something out of a hide so big.” Derek looked at Mal. “You want to Dismantle? Or should I?”

She shook her head. “I think it’s better for you to do it. My skill isn’t very high yet.”

Derek made short work of the task and soon had the hide in his storage bracelet. He also went ahead and kept all the other hides that had been accumulated.

“Okay. Let’s get to the orb. I really want to make sure Brandi gets the rewards even though she never left the safe zone.” With that, he led the group over to the dungeon orb.

They all arrived at the orb and placed their hands on it. A notification popped up for Derek.

Dungeon Complete…

Assigning Rewards….

Congratulations, you have received a Scroll of Restoration.

Derek identified the scroll.

Scroll of Restoration

Upon activation, this scroll will fully restore any being to its previous perfect state.

Note: Does not work on those in ‘Dying’ state.

Derek sighed. He was disappointed in his reward, but he had not expected much in the first place. He looked around and found that everyone, including Brandi, was holding their own scrolls. Oddly, Malorie seemed to be staring at her scroll with tears in her eyes.

“What wrong?” He asked.

She sniffed, but kept her voice from breaking. “I got a Scroll of Resurrection.” She shook her head. “If only I’d had this before…” She trailed off.

Derek checked on the scroll she was holding.

Scroll of Resurrection

Upon activation, this scroll will pull a being out of the ‘Dying’ state and fully heal them.

Damn. This system really likes to fuck with people. He sighed. He asked the others what scrolls they received.

Rayna was the first to speak. “I got a Skill Scroll for a skill called ‘Chain Strike.’” She held the scroll out for him to see.

Skill Scroll: Chain Strike

Upon activation, the user will learn the sword skill, ‘Chain Strike.’ As this is a skill from a scroll, no skill points are required and it will not be forgotten upon class change.

Derek was impressed with Rayna’s luck. He assumed that Skill Scrolls were quite rare in lower-level dungeons like the current one.

Next was Thomas’s turn. The boy sighed after hearing about Rayna’s scroll. “I got a Scroll of Restoration.” He said.

Derek nodded at that. He looked at Brandi. “What about you, kid? Anything good?”

“I don’t know.” She said. “It said it was a beast type Contract Scroll.”

That caught Derek’s attention. He identified the scroll.

Contract Scroll: Beast

Upon activation, the user will be able to bind a beast to themselves. As this is a contract, the beast must also agree to the contract.

Note: This is not a skill. Once bound, the beast will become soul bound to the user and will grow accordingly.

The first thing Derek thought about after reading the window was Silvi. He had hoped for some type of Beast Tamer skill in the first dungeon, but came out of it with the Cure Toxin

skill. He had never expected there to be a scroll like this in this dungeon.

Now, he was in a predicament. He really wanted the scroll, but was having a hard time bringing himself to ask the child to give it to him. Finally, he decided to be shameless. “Uh… Brandi. Do you mind if I take that scroll? I… Uh… Have a use for it.”

“Of course. Here you go.” Brandi handed the scroll over with no hesitation.

Derek held the scroll in stunned silence.

Seeing his awkwardness in asking for the scroll, everyone in the group laughed. Malorie spoke. “There’s no need to be embarrassed. All you have done is give to us. Of course we want to find a way to pay you back.”

Derek just shook his head and put the scroll away. I guess I was just overthinking things. I hope Silvi is still close to where I left her. It has been a while. He looked over the group. “Alright everybody, put your masks on.” He focused on Mal. “Or in your case, the hood on the robe.” The group did as told. “Time to leave.” He focused on the ‘Leave Dungeon’ tab and the countdown began. Five seconds later, the bright light flashed, and they were out of the dungeon.

They all appeared standing around the dungeon orb. Derek scanned the area. This time, there was no one outside waiting to enter the dungeon. He wanted to immediately go and look for Silvi, but, knowing that her level was in the 60s, he worried that she would not be able to enter the dungeons, and he did not want to find out if that meant he would not be able to enter too.

Instead, he pulled out his map and looked it over. Upon coming to a decision, he put it away and picked Brandi up. He motioned to his group. “This way, let’s go.”

This time, the group lasted a lot longer before they had to take a rest. Actually, while they were running, he could feel Brandi’s stomach rumbling. He had not thought about it, since he really did not have to eat much, but they had been in the dungeon for hours, and it had taken some time to reach it too. Of course everyone would be tired and hungry. He made the decision to stop and set up camp. It was almost sundown anyway.

“Here is good for now. Let’s set up camp. We can continue our dungeon runs tomorrow.” He said. Everyone agreed that it was a good idea, and they all broke off to do different tasks. Not long after, there was a fire built and Malorie was cooking up something delicious in some of the cookware she borrowed from him.

The meal, as expected, was delicious. Even if it was only meat. With the group full, they all talked a bit before night fell. Finally, they all turned in. Derek let them know that he would keep watch so they could have a good night’s sleep.

The next morning, they were packing up the camp. “Too bad none of you were able to get some kind of Water Mage class.” Derek joked. “It would be nice to have as much fresh water as we could use at all times.” He said as he poured some water from a flask into his hand and rubbed it on his face.

Soon, the camp was packed up, and they were all ready to go. “Which one are we going to now? I never asked.” Rayna asked.

“I figured it would be a good idea to do the skill point dungeon. They seem pretty common, but, as we have learned, it’s always a good idea to have as many skill points as possible.” He replied.

Everyone nodded. Malorie and Brandi had been happy to get the extra skill points from the Award they received after running their first dungeon. Malorie was especially happy. She had no clue how many skill points her next skills would cost, and just the skill points from the class upgrade would most likely not cover them.

Finally, the group of five took off toward their next conquest.

It was not long before they arrived at the dungeon orb. Again, the area was vacant, so there was no worry over being discovered.

Soon, all the members placed their hands on the orb and they were transported into the dungeon.

The new dungeon was a fire affinity dungeon. When the group got their bearings, they were able to look around and see the cavern walls around them. It was not unlike the first dungeon that Derek and Thomas completed, with the only real difference in the spawn room being the red veins flowing through the rock. The glow of the veins was enough to light up the room.

“Okay, same plan as before. I’m going to go check it out first.” Derek said. He then opened the cavern door and stepped out. The surrounding cave was enormous. There were pools of lava scattered around the area, along with a few different kinds of beasts. The most prevalent was a large black lizard with red stripes. There were also groups of crab-like creatures in shells that wandered around the lava pools, and there was what Derek could only assume were fish in the small lava pools.

After Derek surveyed the area and formulated his game plan, he went back to the safe zone and brought back Rayna. The lizards should be easily taken out by her Wind Blade, and if Derek could get the crabs to chase him, they could dispose of them just like the wolves from the previous dungeon.

Derek told Rayna the plan, and they set off. The same strategy worked like a charm, and everything went without a hitch. They settled into a rhythm and began clearing the dungeon at a rapid pace. Thomas and Mal would pop out and get their kills when needed, and Rayna would take care of the majority of the rest. She was also able to solo kill the fish in the lava pools.

Before long, the first cave was clear. Everybody moved up, Derek and Rayna moving to the second cave, and the rest staying safely in the first. Other than the higher levels, there were not many differences from the first cave to the second. It fell like the first.

Derek went alone to the third monster cave. After the last two boss monsters, he decided to not even risk having someone with him. The boss turned out to be a rock giant, which died even faster than the previous boss. For the fight, Derek channeled the void into his hands and struck the giant in what he guessed to be its vitals. He still did not know if his guess was right, but the boss died nonetheless.

After the fight, everyone received their dungeon reward and exited. Soon, they were on their way to the next dungeon.

Like this, the group spent the next week and a half clearing the surrounding level 50 dungeons, even the ones with bad rewards. Rayna had hit level 49 during the fourth dungeon run. As she leveled and gained combat experience, she was able to kill more and more enemies without the aid of Derek. But when she leveled to 49, she stopped her progress as to not level to 50 and begin the class upgrade.

Not only did she want to have more accomplishments before the class upgrade, but she did not want to accidentally out level the dungeons. One could not enter a dungeon with a class upgrade available, so she decided that it was best to stay at level 49.

Still, this was an opportunity for both Thomas and Malorie. With Rayna no longer fighting, they were able to take her place and soak up all the XP, other than the boss, in the remaining fourth dungeon and the fifth, and last, level 50 dungeon.

After finishing the fifth dungeon, Derek looked at his new stats.

Status

Name

Derek Hunt

Age

29

Level

41

Experience

4458/10,500

Class

Champion of the Void (Epic)

Race

Human (Modified)

Health

5250

Mana

2150

Stamina

5150

Defense

51 (Armor + 0)

Attack

49 (Weapon + 0)

Stats

Strength

360

Dexterity

260

Endurance

515

Vitality

525

Intelligence

220

Wisdom

215

Stat Points Remaining

618

Skills

Channel Void

Level 6

Channel the Void through your body, into attacks or defenses.

Cure Toxin

Level 4

Removes poisons and toxins.

Dismantle

Level 12

Increase ability to dismantle deceased organic life forms.

Greater Meditation

Level 2

Enter meditative state to increase recovery.

Heavy Weapons Mastery

Level 18

Increase damage with heavy weapons.

Identify

Level 14

Appraise objects or entities.

Magic Resistance

Level 8

Increase natural magic resistance by 1.5% per level.

Rejuvenation

Level 9

Restores 45% HP over 30 seconds.

Void Call

Level 2

Call out to the Void.

Void Sense

Level 2

Sense the void.

Void Shift

Level 3

Become one with and move within the void.

Skill Points Remaining

11

Skill Upgrade Points Remaining

4

Awards

Greater Giant Slayer, Jack of All, Lesser Dungeon Explorer, Lesser Slayer of the Unknown, Meat Shield, Lesser Explorer

Not bad. Now, all that’s left is to spend some stat points before going to the Undying Dungeon. After collecting the dungeon rewards, which were just various different potions, Derek decided it was best for him and his group to stay in the freshly cleared dungeon while he prepared for the level 100 dungeon dive.