A month had gone by since Leon had gotten Regeneration added to his Trait. Apparently, he’d gotten Fear Resistance as well as Pain Management when he’d gotten Regen because there was no way he wouldn’t have been freaking out when he’d had to put his hand in a pot of bubbling acid otherwise. The acquisition of the skills was actually rather fast. It was making sure that they got stronger that took a little while. He could tell immediately when he got Acid Resistance because his regeneration started to outpace the damage he was being dealt by the acid and the Acid seemed to be having a hard time reacting with his skin.

The same thing had happened with Fire Resistance training. Water Resistance had been odd. He’d had to place his hand in a bowl of apparently diluted Abyssal Water. The Abyssal Water looked exactly like normal water, but it had felt like his hand was being crushed the moment he’d submerged it in the water.

Ice Resistance had followed, then Earth Resistance and Crystal Resistance. His latest resistance was Lightning Resistance and he still had nearly a hundred different resistances to go. Someday Leon would basically be immune any form of damage if this kept going. Honestly Leon wasn’t sure if he would ever need any of these resistances for anything other than his mandatory ten years of work for the Guild after his training was over. He didn’t really like the idea of battling powerful creatures and traipsing about into the unknown to hunt abominations down.

But there was one thing that Leon was definitely excited about. His magic. He was on the cusp of finishing the Bone Lore book and he could practically taste the possibilities. He’d never known that there was so much to know about bones in general. The different types, the different densities, structures, and composition of bone both magical and mundane were all now ingrained in his head. He only had a few more pages to go to finish off the series. Then he would start in on flesh.

Finishing the last page of the Lore book Leon closed it and looked at the notification that popped up in his vision.

Congratulations!

You have been awarded the (Magical and Mundane Bone Lore) Title.

Effect: You may now learn and use magical skills through the use of Bone Affinity mana. All knowledge gained pertaining to bones whether magical or mundane will be permanently retained. New knowledge of bones and bone related things are 10 times easier to pick up for you and will be retained permanently.

Leon still had six hours before it was time to start the next day, so he immediately jumped into reading the Magic Missile skill book. Reading the skill book was rather illuminating. First, he learned that Magic Missile wasn’t a skill at all it was a spell. Not like the other skills he’d gained so far. No, this skill book was telling him how to actually use his mana to create a missile using his bone affinity mana. Once he figured out how to do it without the systems help, he would end up being rewarded with whatever version of the skill that he came up with which would then be counted as a skill. The skill book was more of a DIY cookbook for how to create you own skills. In fact, from just what he was reading in the book he could probably experiment and create magical effects that differ from it to extremes. This was why Malorie had said that it was dangerous. If he tried experimenting there was no telling what certain alterations to what the skill book was saying would actually do.

“Best that I ask for some advice before fuhtsing around with this stuff.” He muttered to himself as he committed the pages of the book to memory.

He had an idea of the skill he would like to create but he would definitely need to speak with Malorie about it first he would also need to finish reading the other two Lore book series’ if he wanted it to work how he was envisioning it. It only took Leon about three hours to commit the book to memory, then he decided to move on to the flesh Lore books.

Turns out, there’s a lot more information about flesh than there is about bone. But because there was a lot of crossover, Leon figured that he could finish the flesh Lore books in about the same amount of time it took him to read the bone Lore books.

When the time to go to his ‘classes’ arrived Leon couldn’t help but feel like he was missing out on an actual schooling experience. His classes so far had consisted of a lot of torture and self-mutilation. Sure, he was healing from it all super quickly, and in fact his healing was getting faster and faster. But it was still strange.

Malorie had said that he would join the combat instruction classes once he got all of the resistances that the Guild could provide him out of the way. Quite a few of the resistance skills required someone who had access to a specific kind of magic to use skills on him because there were too few natural ways to gain a resistance to them. Most of things used to gain a resistance were enchantment based. And some of the things seemed ridiculous. Why in the world would he require Divination Resistance? Space Resistance seemed like it might be useful, and Curse Resistance was a given, but Holy Resistance seemed kind of stupid. From what he’d gathered Holy magics were 99% healing and buffs and almost all their damaging effects had specific requirements. But Leon knew that getting everything he could feed to his Trait was a must. And so, Leon got back to the grind of letting himself be hurt and healing from the damage over and over again.

Malorie FleshShaper

Leon’s rate of skill acquisition was nothing short of astonishing to Malorie. And to the Headmaster of the school Silvia. Malorie had thought that by the time that he reached fifty skills acquired that Leon would have come close to his limits and asked to get a few more skills that were useful for combat. He hadn’t even created any spells yet because he refused to do so until he finished getting the Blood Lore Title. Malorie had been worried that Leon would run out of space for skills enough that she’d sat him down and asked him about it.

What he had told her was incredibly surprising. So much so that she had decided to not even report it to the Guild. He’d told her that he could see inside his core already and had been able to for some time. To top that off, he said that he had room for possibly thousands of skills if they only took up as much space as the ones he’d gained so far. Malorie was incredibly curious as to what skills the boy already had but even as a mentor it was highly impolite to ask about such things.

Leon had surprised her when he’d then revealed a list of the skills he already had before he’d arrived at the school to her. The list had left her flabbergasted to say the least. With those skills he could be a top tier Rogue specialized as an Assassin easily. But he could still learn so many skills that it didn’t really matter what he already had. He could be molded into one of the most powerful beings that has ever existed if she did it right. Then he had revealed what she felt was the most ridiculous of all things he'd said so far. His Hero title gave him a perfect affinity for all Wretched and Divine magics.

Now the Wretched and Divine magics encompassed a lot of different forms of magic. But they were all in the more… esoteric category of magics. Holy, Unholy, Demonic, Celestial, Sin, Purity, Piety, Soul, Mind, Life, Death, Curse, Divination, and many more kinds of magics all came from the Wretched and Divine schools of magic. She would need to make some discreet acquisitions and inquiries to get him a few of those Lore books when she could. She could just tell people that he was collecting Lore titles but there were people who could tell when lies were spoken, and to top it off there were people who could tell when the lies were by omission, or they could tell that they were only receiving a half truth. Discretion seemed to be exactly what was needed here. Leon could easily end up becoming the most powerful individual in all of the Heavenly Spheres if he had time to grow and train. And Malorie intended to give him that time.

The first and most important Lore Book she needed to get him was the Mind Lore book. Malorie knew one of the hidden benefits of that specific Lore Title was enhanced defense against Mind magics. Even with his Mind Resistance skill already acquired, doubling up on that particular effect would help if Leon ever came up against a Tier Three or Four Mind Mage. After that would be Curse Lore and then possibly Soul if she could get a hold of it.

If Malorie had fifty years to train Leon, she could make him into someone with all the power of a natural disaster. She would have to settle for the allotted ten years. Well, nine now that a year had passed by already. Honestly, Malorie had been so caught up in getting Leon as many skills as possible that she hadn’t even really taught him much yet. There was quite a bit about the Guild and its duties and Responsibilities that she needed to convey to him, but she hadn’t had the time yet. She would need to make time for it on her schedule.

Ameillia Crumbl

It had now been a little over a year since her little boy Leon had gone to the Dungeoneers Guild School. Ameillia often found herself wondering how he was doing and what things he must be learning. Lilly was growing up quickly. Ameillia couldn’t be more proud of her two children. Communications between the cities were very, very expensive so they didn’t expect to hear from Leon or be able to send word to him for a long while.

Right now, they were packing for an extended vacation in Cracked Stone Keep. A mainly Gnomish city where most of Gerald’s family lived. They were going there for the celebration of Gerald’s Uncle’s 450th birthday. It was going to be a massive venue that would more than likely last for more than a month. To get there on time though they would have to leave a year ahead of time. The journey would take at least ten months and up to fourteen months if they were unlucky. Unlike when Leon was whisked away by a teleportation network which was an ungodly expensive way to transport people. They would be traveling by caravan.

Gerald and Ameillia had decided to splurge a bit and get themselves an artificed carriage to make the trip in. It would be a luxurious trip by most people’s standards, and they would be safe as could be on the long journey surrounded by the caravan guards.

The only real issue was that they had no way to contact Leon and let him know that they wouldn’t be in the city for a while. Getting a message to him would be fairly easy using the guild, though the letter wouldn’t reach him for at least a few months because it would be entirely dependent on the guild’s teleportation schedule. But at the very least if he came looking for them, he’d be able to pinpoint where they were. Ameillia had dropped the letter off with the guild the day before. And the Caravan was leaving this afternoon. Ameillia had to admit that she was looking forward to seeing her family again after such a long time.

Silvester GreenStone

The reports from the Dungeon had been getting even more troubling as of late. Something was moving around down there that didn’t seem to be bound to specific floors. Whatever it was came and went as it pleased and seemed like it could just annihilate even Tier three teams of people. A team of such individuals had actually disappeared just this morning on only the fifteenth floor. A floor that didn’t even have monsters capable of hurting the team. Silvester had heard of monsters sometimes coming out of a Dungeon and attacking people. But that was normally only in dungeons that were not routinely cleared like this one was. An overflow shouldn’t be happening right now. But he was seeing all of the signs that one was currently happening.

Once he realized that this was an overflow Silvester immediately grabbed his communications crystal and began making a call, only to realize that the crystals weren’t working. That was weird. The array that handled the communications magics wasn’t scheduled for maintenance for at least another two months. Nonplussed Silvester turned to call for someone to go and check the array when the ground shuddered.

Screams echoed in the distance and Silvester heard the sounds of fighting, dying, and powerful skills being used in the city. Then Silvester heard a sound that he’d prayed to never hear in all his life again. A slurping sucking sound that could only come from one type of creature. Possibly the most feared and reviled kind of creature ever to have been found by the Guild in the depths of the Dungeons they curated and contained. It was the sound of a Slime moving. But Silvester had never heard one that sounded quite like this one. And he knew why the second he looked out of his window overlooking the Dungeon entrance.

The slime was of the dark purple color variants, and even as Silvester watched, it was still streaming out of the Dungeon like a dark river. Pooling itself around the entrance in an ever-expanding bubble. Monsters had been chased out of the Dungeon by the massive thing and were rampaging through the streets as the slime continued to pour into the city.

Silvester was shocked out of his stupor when the Slime began forming massive tentacles that lashed out and began shattering buildings and snatching up people, animals, and monsters alike. Even as it continued to pour out of the Dungeon entrance in a never-ending stream.

Sprinting as quickly as he could, Silvester left his office and began calling all Guild members to action. The slime needed to be contained before it fully exited the dungeon. A behemoth purple slime was not something that could be let loose on the city. Unlike other types of slime, they were very fast and adaptive. They contained a brain within them that allowed them to be very good predators, but it was also their weakness. If they could kill it, they would be perfectly capable of keeping the noncombatants safe and free of harm from the rest of the monsters that had just broken out.

Silvester should have known better than to think that his forces could deal with a Behemoth purple slime. They had started out strong. Cutting away massive chunks of the creature and fending off the tentacles that reached out of it to grab at them. But everything changed as soon as it stopped flowing out of the Dungeon. Freed of its tie down point, the thing started flooding through the city and no one could stop it. And it was too fast for anyone to get away. The last thing that Silvester ever saw was a tentacle of purple fluid wrapping itself around his ankle as he was dragged into the main mass of goo.

Leon Crumbl

Leon hadn’t really lost track of how many Resistances he’d gained over the last year and a half. He couldn’t really lose track anymore as it seemed like his brain had turned into blackhole for knowledge, everything went in, and nothing left. And honestly it was hard to forget because people had made a big deal about how he was the first person ever in the guild to have actually gone through every resistance training they knew of and could provide. He just avoided thinking about it. Especially because he’d been given a new title for doing it that made him slightly uncomfortable.

Glutton for Punishment

(Note: This Title is awarded to any person who has essentially replaced their own body 10 times over in the amount of damage they have willingly taken and healed from. (Usually awarded to masochists who enjoy being tortured.)

Effect: Pain and Pleasure have their lines blurred together further than is normal. Damage willingly received is reduced by a significant amount and significantly canted in favor of pleasure.

Yeah, Leon was not a masochist. But the system seemed to want him to be. Because after he’d gotten the title training his resistances had become an exercise in willpower of a different kind. Because he was willingly taking the damage it had actually started to feel good. Several times he’d had to control himself to prevent things from getting really weird. Yeah so, he avoided thinking about that.

Leon hadn’t stopped progressing his other skills, but his main focus had been finishing his main Lore books. And trying his darndest to do his whole cultivation ring thing inside of his core for at least an hour every night. No matter how hard he tried, Leon was never able to leave the ring that he created unattended without it falling apart and all of his mana turning back into a cloud that clung to the walls of his core. He had discovered something interesting about his core though. One day in frustration after he’d failed to hold his spinning ring of mana together, he’d reached out with utility pocket and pulled a cup of juice into his core. It had just floated there in front of him like gravity had no effect there. But the implications of what brining a solid object into his core meant were staggering. One, this place had to be an actually physically real place within his soul. And Two, he was like a T.A.R.D.I.S. Leon was bigger on the inside than he was on the outside. Three, Leon could potentially bring things inside of his soul that would help him accomplish what he’d been trying to do for years now. If he could somehow get a hold of a mana gathering array or something like that, then he could without a doubt get his own mana pumping around inside of his core without needing to interfere consciously.

But right now Leon was more focused on the fact that he’d finally finished. Now he’d finally finished with the three Lore book series’ of Flesh, Bone, And Blood. Now Leon would finish reading every magical skill book he’d been given and then he could start making skills based off of what he wanted to achieve. Starting off with Mage Armor, and Magic Missile. Leon’s idea for his first Magic Missile was, in his opinion, a bit scary. He would use his mana to literally create a whole lifeform that would be launched at an opponent. A small critter that would be shaped like a bullet with a needle thin tip that would secrete a tetra toxin into the victim. Its exterior would be made of a magical enamel that would have micro barbs to make it as hard to remove as possible. Leon was pretty sure what he was planning would violate many of his old world’s conventions about humane weapons.

Mage Armor was a bit of a mystery for him so far. Mage Armor seemed like it was a skill that could be used in a dozen different ways. It could be used to create a suit of armor, a shield, or a spherical barrier around the individual. It was definitely more free form than the Missile skill. More about creating mass and solidity than anything else.

Malorie, his mentor and friend, had said that she could help him with all of this. She had been helping him with Mana Manipulation and Control exercises that would supposedly help him in leveling those skills. And Malorie had confirmed to Leon that it was very odd for a person to have two skills that essentially did the same exact thing but that it could only help him and would make things easier for him.

Leon was about to start reading the Mage Armor book when Malorie knocked at his door. She didn’t wait for a response though, she just opened the door and walked in.

“I have news.” She spoke as she sat next to him on the bed. “And I have a new Lore series for you to read. Mind Lore, I want you to finish it before you start practicing magic and incorporate mind magic into all of your skills when you do start there will be a lot of benefits to it. The news I have is… well it’s bad. Dungeon City #1-39928 had an overflow… Some kind of variant creature was born on their Dungeon’s lower levels and managed to push all of the creatures within the dungeon out onto the surface. The city is gone. No one present in the city when it happened survived.”

Leon starred at Malorie uncomprehending for several moments. Before the realization of what she was saying seeped into his mind. Dungeon City #1-39928 was his birth city, it was where his family was. A family that he actually liked, loved even. Before Leon could really register what was happening Malorie was holding him close in a bear hug as he sobbed. All thoughts of the future and how he might get more powerful forgotten as his reality seemed to crash in around him.

Leon didn’t know how long he cried for. Only that the grief came and went in waves. Images of his parents and little sister playing in his mind over and over on repeat. Playing stupid games with his dad, helping his mother brew some alchemical solution, taking care of little Lilly. They had been his world. His everything really. For over ten years now. They had been a constant. Now they were gone.

“What is an overflow?” He asked through gritted teeth and the throbbing lump in his throat.

“Usually it happens to wild Dungeons, Dungeons that haven’t been found yet by the guild. Normally its just that a Dungeon produces too many creatures, and they begin coming out of the dungeon and into the surrounding area. But sometimes, it happens because a rare variant of monster is born deep within the dungeon and has enough time to grow to the point that it begins pushing the other monsters out of the Dungeon. And then that monster chases after them because they are its food source. Usually that creature is well beyond the normal Tier that the Dungeon is capable of producing. So, when it emerges it usually wipes out everything around it.” Malorie explained, “it is one of the duties of the Dungeoneer Guild to clear out dungeons completely at least once every five years to prevent just that. The Dungeon in your home city had been cleared out only a few years ago so it was not within expectations that it would have this happen. It is exceedingly rare.”

Leon felt deeply troubled by this. He hadn’t realized that the Guild did anything other than monopolize the use of Dungeons which essentially gave them infinite resources. He didn’t really know what to think about it. The Dungeon back home was continuously farmed. It wasn’t like the guild was at fault for this. Something about it didn’t add up. But Leon wasn’t in the frame of mind to be thinking about things like this right now. Right now, he just needed time.