What is he thinking? He must move now.

Kai watched as the final intact vine swept through the air towards Jack, who just continued to furiously attack the blackened stalk.

Just before the impact, he received the notification that the boss was dead, but that did not stop the already in motion attack. It hit Jack on the right side, sending him flying. Before he made it too far, Ava swooped in and snatched him out of the sky.

The spider on his shoulder began panicking as Ava came closer with the limp body of Jack. “Do not fret, he is not dead, the system tells if a party member has died. Focus on your connection to him. If you can feel it still, that means he is still alive. Remember, no matter what, even if you are separated and can no longer feel his location or communicate, you will always feel that connection if he is alive.”

She seemed to understand and calmed a little. It was amazing how a translation ability worked with someone who does not yet understand language. The amount of communication she had at such a young age was extraordinary. She was truly fortunate that it was an ability that applied to both someone and their bonded.

**Alert** Your party has defeated the boss of a dungeon For the next 100 hours the denizens of ‘The Bloodied Woodlands’, will not be naturally hostile to your party. The boss of this dungeon has been defeated. All denizens will promptly return. Dungeon will close in 100 hours, any extra parties within will be expelled.

Kai dismissed the notifications and went to check on Jack as Ava laid him on the ground.

“That was quite the hit the chick took. Will he be alright?” Ava did not seem to care to mask her concern.

“He has a broken leg and arm, as well as several cracked ribs.” The left side of his body seemed to be largely undamaged except for a large cut on his leg that seemed to have come from his own sword. Kai was surprised to find the cut was not bleeding much, a layer of his slime was coating the wound acting as a natural bandage.

“Good, we…” She paused and Kai could feel her glare at him, “don’t give me that look.“

Kai gave his reply while setting Jack’s bones so they would heal faster. “I have no idea what you mean, I am looking at his wounds, not you.”

With an annoyed click, she took off.

He knew she would not leave the dungeon until they destroyed its heart, not if she wanted her partial skill token.

Kai just finished setting the arm and went into his pouch to grab some cloth to bind it, when Lucy hopped off his shoulder and landed next to the arm. Curious, he stopped and observed her actions.

She began weaving her silk directly onto his arm, creating a binding to hold his arm in place. The little spider didn’t know exactly what she was doing, so Kai directed her when necessary. She was even able to make a sling for him.

Kai collected some sturdy sticks and had her attach them to keep him from twisting his arm. She was keen to help and seemed happy to have some direction. He had her repeat the process for the leg and his chest.

After covering Jack in a blanket he asked, “Would you like to help me search for anything useful in the boss?”

She bounced up and down and followed him to the slowly rotting remains of the Corpse Titan. Watching something that large lose its vitality was certainly interesting. In the end, it practically destroyed itself trying to get rid of its attacker.

Just goes to show no matter your power, even a mouse can kill a bear if given the right chance.

No matter how hard he fought, he could not resist as the beast swallowed him whole. He tried to climb out but his arms just sunk into its flesh, not allowing him to grip anything. His body sunk deeper into the black void. The last thing he saw before his head disappeared was a blue flash.

Jack woke with a start. Pain rippled through his entire body. His entire right side felt tight, as if something was lightly squeezing him.

Ignoring his notifications, he brought up his head and saw that he was covered in white bandages. Very slowly he sat up, feeling spikes of pain in his ribs as he did.

Glancing around, he saw remains of the boss everywhere. Large chunks of the blackened plant looked like they had rained across the field. Splatterings of yellow ichor soaked into the ground. The head was laying off to the side with the face pointing up.

On top of the head was Kai, holding what looked to be a bowling ball-sized black orb. On the ground next to it was a small pile of nearly identical orbs.

Reaching out with his connection to Lucy, he checked that she was alright. He saw a blue flash from atop of the head and then the little spider jump off of it towards him. He was about to warn her not to jump on him when she suddenly stopped a few feet away from him and slowly approached.

“Thanks for not tackling me while I’m hurt again,” Jack said with a grin, as he picked her up with his undamaged arm and gave her a small hug.

He felt the anxiety she had been holding on to the entire time he was inside the boss melt way. “I’m sorry I worried you. Next time I'll figure out a different way.”

She sent him a picture of a large blue spider tearing a small flower apart.

Releasing her from the hug, he held her out and looked into her eyes. “Oh, so you’ll just take out the next one? I don’t think you’re big enough for that yet.”

She responded by lifting up her front legs and baring her fangs.

Chuckling, he said, “yeah, you’re growing fast. Soon nothing will stand in your way and you won’t even need me to help you.”

Lucy curled up in his hand and let out a soft glow.

“And I’ll need you. Thanks.” After a few moments of sitting there, he asked, “so what were you helping Kai with?”

Kai hopped off of the head and added two orbs to the pile. “I am collecting the needle pods, they seem to be stable and not rotting like the rest of the body. I hoped we could transport them in your inventory.”

Jack smiled, “Sure, where’s Ava? Did she take off as soon as the boss was dead?”

“Yes.”

Lucy sent a few pictures showing Ava diving through the sky to catch him.

“Oh, I’ll have to make sure to thank her.”

Kai let out a loud click that he didn’t quite understand. “Best not. Just grow stronger and she’ll be happy.”

“Noted, do you need any help? I’m kinda banged up, but I could probably do a little.” As he spoke, he moved slightly and had to hold back a wince of pain.”

“Yes, open your inventory and send the little one back. She is good at disconnecting the pods without breaking them.”

Lucy hopped out of his hand and went back to work while Jack opened his inventory.

Taking the hint from Kai, he laid back down and decided to go through his notifications.

Your party has slain a Blooming Corpse Titan Level: 30

Your contribution 100%

You are awarded 288 Experience. **Level Up** You are awarded 5 attribute points **Skill Up** The Long Game Level 2

1 attribute point awarded.

He dismissed the ones about killing the boss and took note that he must have been out for three hours because there was ninety-seven hours remaining until the new boss appeared. Would a drone be transformed into the new boss? Maybe it would be a leech. He’d have to ask Kai if he knew how bosses work.

**Perk Acquired** Jack and the Beanstalk Requirement Contribute 100% to defeating a creature 20 levels higher than you. Gain +2 to all unlocked attributes.

That was an unexpected, but very welcomed bonus. It’s about equal to three levels, even more so if it still applies when he unlocks new attributes. What was up with the name, though? Jack and the Beanstalk is a little too close to this scenario to be just a coincidence.

“Hey Kai, I have a question about perk names.”

“Yes?” His eyes lit up with a realization. “You must have gotten the first tier of Titans Bane.”

Tilting his head in confusion, “No, I got something called Jack and the Beanstalk. It was for killing something over twenty levels higher than me.”

“Yes, Titans Bane. Perk names are usually different from person to person. The requirements are the same, though. Titans Bane is what most people call that perk. It gives a bonus to all known attributes, correct? The second tier will give you more.”

“So, if I kill something thirty or forty levels higher, I get an even higher bonus?” Depending on how much more, that really incentivized killing higher-level creatures.

“Yes. Though I do not know how much.” After making sure Jack didn’t have a follow-up question, he went back to his harvesting.

Even with the extra incentive, he probably would not go after anything that strong for a long time. Not if he could help it.

With all of his notifications taken care of, he figured it was a good time to level up.

That perk put his Endurance up to a nice even number of twenty. He put three into Dexterity to make them even.

With his last three, he contemplated putting them into Vitality, but his new skill would do that for him.

Being stronger would have helped a lot when trying to cut the stalk, and with the new feature of his staff, it wouldn’t hurt him to be able to lift more. The three points brought his Strength up to fifteen.

Name Jackson Calder Race Human Class Adaptable Dungeoneer Age 5000 Level 9 Health 49/80 Stamina 80/80 Mana 1.5/0 Experience 52/900 Strength 15 (9) Dexterity 20 (14) Endurance 20 (16) Vitality 16 Convalescence 7 Perception 12 Intelligence 23 Available Points 0 Skills (Class) Mimicry 12 (Class) The Long Game 2 Hair Manipulation 11 Hydraulic Leap 9 Impact Resistance 9 Poison Resistance 8 Mucus Shield 8 Researching 7 Identify 6(24) The Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod 5 Focused Senses 5 Medicine 4 Empowered Howl 3 Blooddrain 3 (Class) Vitality Absorption 3 (Class) Mana Absorption 1 Unlocked Skills Baking, Cleaning, Fear Resistance, Burrow, Wanderer, Reckless Charge, Swim, Bite Mastery, Sneak Perks Pioneer Dungeoneer Dedicated Dungeoneer Dedicated Pioneer Slow Learner Slow and steady wins the race How are you still alive? The Wizened Sage At your age, you must have aches and pains The Wizard's Origin Jack and the Beanstalk Buffs Human Resilience Afflictions Broken Bone- Right Leg, Right Arm, Multiple Ribs.

Not such a weakling now. A pit in his stomach formed as he remembered hiking up that hill with his friends looking for a dungeon. If he was this strong back then, things might have- no, they would have turned out differently.

You can’t go back though. It happened and you have to keep moving forward. Even thinking that he felt much more tired than he did before.

He quickly checked his broken bone affliction, which just gave him several negatives to his attributes and made healing in the areas take four times as long. Which, by his math, meant his bones should heal in around eighty hours or a little under three days.

Long in terms of his normal healing, but it was honestly crazy that he could mend bones in just a few days.

Jack looked up from his compass to see a familiar-looking archway with a frame of stone and runes along the edge. The smooth stone tunnel on the other side should lead straight to the heart. It was definitely out of place, nestled in the middle of a wall of branches.

Contrary to his initial belief, the compass did not point to the center of the dungeon, but straight to this archway in the very back. “Wait, if the boss isn’t guarding the archway, can we just skip them and go straight to the heart?”

Kai clicked in annoyance. The last three days had been very tiring for him since Jack was healing and had nothing better to do than bug him with unending questions. “No, the archway is sealed until the boss has been defeated.”

“I guess that makes sense. Onward we go.” As he walked up to the archway, he paused when he saw something strange. The runes began to shift and change shape, forming letters.

The worthy may enter and claim their reward, leave in peace we pray, else will be all’s doom.

“Well, that’s fucking ominous.” Jack read the sentence a few more times then repeated it to Kai. “You’re sure nothing bad will happen if we destroy this dungeon?”

Kai looked at the runes and shook his head. “I have never met someone who could personally read it, but the warning is known by many. It is just the dungeon’s last attempt along with the bounty to make us leave.”

“Ok, but if we die, I will haunt you.”

Kai made a weird clicking sound he didn’t quite recognize. “How would I be able to tell the difference?” He then walked through the archway and into the tunnel.

Jack’s eyes widened. “Did you just make a joke?”

Kai made the same click sound and kept walking.

After the shock of Kai making a joke wore off, Jack realized what he actually said. “Rude.” He ran after the birdman to show him what haunting could really be like.

When they finally made it to the pulsating flesh wall that was the entrance to the heart, Jack was fully prepared for the horrible smell that he remembered. Or so he thought, his lunch on the side of the tunnel disagreed.

Dungeon Heart Level: 15 The literal heart of a dungeon and source of its magical power. For defeating the boss of its dungeon this creature is currently not hostile to you

“So what does the level of the heart mean?” Jack asked after wiping his mouth.

“I do not actually know. Typically, the boss is around twice its level. The highest I have seen is a level twenty-five dungeon. It also gives twice the experience of a normal monster to each member of a party. For Ava and I, that is still zero.”

Jack twisted his mouth in sympathy “That sucks. So how do we kill it?”

“First, we claim the bounty, then you will cut the veins to gain your skill level. I will be outside to defend.”

Kai had warned him that when you attack a dungeon heart, every creature that lives there and is inside the dungeon will be teleported into the tunnel. Most will go into a frenzy trying to defend the heart, or at least kill the one who destroyed it. Some more intelligent ones may try to escape before the dungeon collapses.

They left Lucy back at the dungeon entrance with Ava so that she wouldn’t get hurt. Kai was planning on doing most of the fighting while Jack defended himself, and he didn’t want to endanger Lucy as well for no good reason.

Hopefully, the horde wouldn’t be too large since Ava and Lucy had spent the last couple of days killing random drones.

Jack touched the flesh-wall, and it opened up, dropping a large layer of mucus on the floor. Still not a fan of slime.

The walls were pulsating with thousands of veins. Around the room were the thick tubes that attached from floor to ceiling. They still reminded him of two giant worms, connected in the middle, forming an X. After he collected the bounty, he’d have to cut all six of them.

In the center was a large round boil with the words ‘Dungeon Bounty’ floating over it.

**Alert** You have discovered the bounty of this dungeon. Warning attempting to interact with anything besides the bounty will revoke your current protections.

He rolled his eyes, “Yeah, I know.” He reached out to touch the boil, but stopped and used one hand to plug his nose before continuing. As soon as he touched it, the boil popped, covering the floor with more mucus.

Laying in the small crater that was the boil were five items. He threw them into a bag. They planned to go through them later, but he caught a glimpse of each of their names as he put them away.

A leather-bound book with the symbol of a mountain in the middle, called ‘The Adventurers Almanac’.

A key that looked like it had formed of intertwined branches, called ‘The Dryad’s Key’.

A small sack that’s contents clacked when he moved it called the ‘The Dice of Need’.

A pale gnarled branch the size of his arm. It had pulsing black veins all over it and it felt like there was some sort of liquid inside. This couldn’t fit in his bag, so he had to hold it even if it made him uncomfortable. It was named ‘Cane of Consuming Corruption’.

Lastly, was an obsidian wedding ring with red lines engraved on the surface. There was a line going down the center and it looked like it could split in two.

As he put it away he saw the name, ‘Ring of Marital Aid’.

“Ew, gross!”