For a couple of moments Marcus continue staring at the notification, his mind reeling, “Well fuck, what do I do now!? Leave? Leave! I can’t leave, there’s a giant pile of rubble blocking the exit you pricks!” Recovering he noticed something curious about the notification, advanced was another color than usual text; mentally focusing on it provided further information.

White – Common Dungeon

Green - Advanced Dungeon

Blue – Superior Dungeon

Turquoise – Elite Dungeon

Purple - Epic Dungeon

Red - Ascended Dungeon

Gold - Legendary Dungeon

Black - Ancient Dungeon

All the notification expanded on were what grades existed for dungeons but gave no specifics on what to expect. Marcus could only shrug, adding another question to the pile and moving on.

With his only egress blocked there wasn’t much choice as to he proceeded. Marcus would need to trek through an advanced dungeon, alone, and to make matters worse, he had no provisions.

His internal dialog was interrupted by the sound of limbs striking stone. Marcus rose to his feet, preparing for whatever was on its way. As the clatters neared, he channeled several copies of the Mage Light spell, after having discovered he could have multiple, and pocketed them. Coming around the corner were five creatures that resembled kobolds, but tumorous crystalline growths covered portions of their bodies.

Crystal-Infested Kobalt – Level 3 | Type: Humanoid/Lizard | Kobolds are known for their trapmaking, mining and being distantly related to other draconic races. These specimens are infected by a type of living crystal that hardens the body. As the infection spreads begins to negatively affect intellectual capacity. Other functions of the crystal are unknown. Assumed to be deadly for native Earth species.

Information was power, but the information shown had done nothing to allay his concerns; if anything, this crystal infection sounded horrible. Marcus hoped these kobolds retained some of the cliché weakness that subterranean species were known for.

As the five of them slowly shambled in his direction they finally entered range ten seconds later, prompting him to toss Mage Light spheres into the air towards them. The kobolds reacted instinctively by covering their eyes, but even after a responding immediately, ended up temporarily blind.

Marcus would’ve loved nothing more than to just run around the monsters. Taking advantage of their lack of sight would’ve been the smart move, but as luck would have it the tunnel was only several meters in diameter. He gathered mana for several seconds, Marcus released his spells - directing several scorching rays at two kobolds furthest from the others. He’d assumed that with these creatures being a similar level to the chimeras that his attacks would dispatch them easily. After making contact damage on their bodies began to appear, but rather than pierce skin the crystalline growths grew white hot - sloughing off. The pair paused momentarily before turning beginning to savage the closest target to them as if they were wild animals.

Advancing, Marcus waited until a scrum enveloped four of the semi-blind monsters, casting several copies of Tendrils of Earth – aiming to incapacitate them all. During seconds it took to finish his preparation the rabid kobolds had killed one of their brethren and maimed another. With only three of the original five left his, chances were starting to look better; he hadn’t even done anything yet. Before the struggle could conclude of earthen strands burst from the ground and began to constrict his foes.

In the chaos, Marcus had lost track of the last kobold, at the beginning of combat it had disappeared, and now it chose now to make its reappearance. Bursting out of the gloom his unseen enemy raked razor-like claws over his back leaving deep gouges through the skin. Staggering from the blow, he dived to the left - effectively dodging the kobolds next attack. Marcus had surprised even himself with his reaction, causing the kobolds forward momentum to carry it further, entering range of its companions.

Fortunately for the kobolds, the berserk pair had been heavily injured. One was clearly out of the fight, hardly moving - its chest rising and falling slowly. The other had seen better days and was too preoccupied to notice its coup de grace come from behind in the form of Marcus’s attacker. Two foes remained, but he’d seen better days too; bleeding and almost out of mana the battle was turning dire. While one foe freed itself from stone bindings the other charged – eager to cause more damage.

Diving back, he bought just enough time, about 1.5 seconds, to fire off another Scorching Ray. A bolt of fire raced across the cavern, further blinding the kobolds, before impacting the chest of the last healthy foe. Luckily, Marcus has noticed a patch of scales that weren’t covered in shards of crystal and unerringly guided his attack into that spot. Likely due to his increased perception and frankly, practice, it turned out not to be as difficult as expected to guide the deadly attack. Without the crystal to act as a heat sink the ray quickly burned through soft tissues before exiting its back and hitting the floor dead.

The final enemy broke free soon thereafter, but it was in no better shape than he himself. The kobolds had worse combat standards than even him. After ducking under a wild slash, he managed score a fatal wound by stabbing into the soft pallet and with another shove, into the brain; at the cost of several additional cuts on his arms.

Losing the adrenaline high didn’t take long after combat ended. Collapsing against the wall he opened his status checking to check health totals; he was well below half and falling. Marcus waited patiently for the bleeding to stop, but it wasn’t. Searching through his status for why, he discovered a new tab that hadn’t been there before – reading the notice he immediately blanched.

You have been infected by an unknown material that is crystalline in nature. Effects are unpredictable on native life forms and more data is required for accurate diagnosis. Initial analysis has uncovered several symptoms that are listed below:

Prevents normal regeneration from coming into effect. Duration: Unknown Biological framework of host is unstable – blood, tissue, and bone undergoing unknown alteration Brain and nervous system unaffected Percentage of organism affected: 10%

Disease had not been how he expected to die, and if his bleeding didn’t stop it still wouldn’t be. Marcus hoped that by channeling fire mana through himself he could accomplish two things, close his wounds, and burn out the infection. Gritting his teeth, he pulled on his mana once again, raw mana poured out of his body into the air where it transformed into its fire aspected form. To complete the cycle, he reabsorbed the energy, taking it back into himself. He’d accidently done this once before, but it was an interesting experience performing the same feat of his own free will. Heat flooded his limbs and he could feel the wounds being cauterized – which wasn’t pleasant – then blessedly closing. After repeating the cycle for another five minutes his health was back to full. Crossing his fingers, he reopened his status.

The damned infection was still in his blood, oh something did happen, but it wasn’t what he wanted.

Percentage of organism effected: 20%

Cursing at his stupidity, he had forgotten in his rush that the crystals had been highly resistant to his flames, and now he had made himself worse. Marcus dreaded what would happen if that percentage reached 100%. For now, it wasn’t touching his brain or nerves, but who knew if that would change. He could only hope that there was a cure somewhere in the dungeon or that it was possible with some testing to figure out how to use magic to cure himself; clearly using fire mana wouldn’t work. With everything else taken care of several other notifications awaited him.

[Level Up + 2]

[(U)Scorching Ray + 3]

[©Tendrils of Earth +2]

[(U)Mana Manipulation +5]

[(U)Elemental Manipulation +5]

New ability learned – ® Pyrrhic Cleansing – Level. 1| Only the mad would channel unfiltered fire mana into themselves. Pyrrhic Healing will cleanse most infections, and poisons while healing minor wounds at the cost of intensive pain. Losing control of the spell during use will cause severe internal injuries and possible death – Nearly impossible to use during stressful situations., e.g. Combat.

After processing his level ups, it was time to assign more free attributes. When Marcus went to do so he noticed something strange- his constitution had increased seemingly randomly by two. A couple of moments later he finally put it together; the infection was indeed causing recordable change and appeared to correspond with how much of him was affected. What this meant for the future was still unknown, but he had to move on – currently his Rite was keeping his offensive stats ahead of the general curve, so he would continue to build his foundation in other attributes. Marcus assigned six points into constitution raising it to twenty as more health was never bad, an additional two into agility to hit fourteen, because he was barely able to keep up with these low-level foes, and finally, two into luck, by the gods he needed it. Locking in his choices he took one last look over them before moving on to another mysterious addition to his menu’s.

Basic Statistics Total Strength 10 Constitution

20 Agility

12 Perception

36 Intelligence

34 Wisdom 35 Charisma

9

Luck

6

The new page bloomed into existence, and at first, he was elated - he had finally earned his first path, but after reading what it was, Marcus couldn’t help but curse.

New Paths Available: Crystal Lord (0/100)