Congratulations, you are now level 19 … 35

Requirements met: 9325 XP

Awarded: 85 Stat points – 17 Skill points – 2 Job points

Allen let his head roll back on the cavern floor as the condensed level-up message revealed itself in his mind.

“Nice,” he muttered under his breath.

He didn’t miss Amelia’s calm smile deepen as she sat over him. The Healer was getting quicker at treating the corrupting black ooze, but Allen could already feel Dead Calm slipping away. Having Amelia cut the corrupted flesh out of his body without the skill active was only a few steps away from torture.

Of course, Dead Calm didn’t actually nullify his sense of pain, it only helped him manage it via cold emotional detachment and increasing his stability. It was pain tolerance, nothing more.

Still, despite the pain, Allen started chuckling to himself. “I hate it when this happens…”

“I’m almost done with the corruption, um, then I’ll move onto fixing your broken ribs and arm,” Amelia said, then her expression shifted when she noticed Allen giggling. “W-wait, what’s so funny?”

The question made Allen laugh even more. “It’s… Heheh, it’s just Dead Calm wearing off,” he managed to say.

“Uh… okay.”

“Feels bad,” Ty said, walking up to the two. He was carrying Camila over his shoulder. “I don’t know who’s got it worse: you or her,” he continued, shaking the woman a little.

Camila groaned as she hung limply over the Defender’s shoulder like a wet noodle. “I wanna fucking dieee,” she mumbled.

Ty sighed. “It’s okay Cam, we’re gonna take a break now.”

“Hnnnn… Shut up!” Camila started, banging on Ty’s chest plate. “Only my mom calls me that,” she mumbled. Then she went limp again.

Allen laughed uncontrollably. “Yikes, haha!” Allen couldn’t stop giggling even though the pain from his injuries was quite severe. He noticed Christopher and Kenneth approaching from behind Amelia’s knelt form. He also noticed the Healer’s expression suddenly sour.

“Hey! Hold still,” Amelia said, raising her voice and scolding him as she tried to hold him down.

“Ow OW! You’re hurting me hahaha!” Allen tried to roll away from the girl but a sudden pain in his side made his stop.

“Allen, your ribs are broken, stop moving!”

Allen let out a breath and flopped onto his back again. Absently, he noticed Kenneth glance down at him with a perturbed look. It was the face one makes when they see a child cancer patient or something of the like.

Intellectually, Allen knew his body was a mess and his deranged laughing wasn’t helping, but he couldn’t keep himself from lashing out at the young Mage. “The fuck’re you looking at bitch boy!?” he shouted, trailing off into laughter again.

Kenneth jumped and quickly looked away, much to Allen’s amusement.

Ty shook his head and Camila groaned from his shoulder.

Christopher cleared his throat. “Well then, we can rest somewhere on this floor. I need to sort out all my new points and I need some sleep.”

Ty nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

Thus, after Amelia finished healing Allen and checking up on everyone else, the group made their way off to the side of the dungeon. It didn’t take long to find a nice spot to set up a camp between some rock formations.

They would be safe from monsters anywhere since the floor wouldn’t reset until it was completely empty. However, others might still come through, and they would be more hidden somewhere off the main path through the middle.

Allen quickly jumped up on a shelf formation near the edge of the spot they had chosen. “I call top bunk!” he exclaimed, giggling to himself.

Camila wasn’t the only one to groan in response.

Ignoring the naysayers, Allen unfurled his mat that he had bought in the town. He grimaced when he noticed that it wasn’t level at all. Even in the flattest spot, shelf formation still wasn’t even close to level.

“Yo, Kenneth,” Ty began as he set up his mat on the ground. He continued as soon as he got the young man’s attention, “So, was this your first time in this dungeon?”

“Um, no.” Kenneth seemed to think for a moment. “My friends and I are from around here. We used to come in here when we were all just Workers, but we never went past the second floor.”

“Hmm,” Christopher started, “You get bonus experience for killing anything with a non-combat class like Worker. I suppose that’s one way to quickly level.”

“Um, yeah.” Kenneth looked down. “I still got killed by a monster while working out in the fields though,” he said, finally letting out a cynical chuckle. “I got… I got so fed up with being helpless against any monster more than thirty levels above mine. When I respawned, I changed to a Fire Elementalist because everyone told me it’s the strongest Mage job with the most raw power.”

Christopher hummed again, but there was a hint of amusement that time.

Allen, like Amelia and Camila, was ignoring the conversation, though for a different reason. The Healer was already laying down on her mat and Camila was curled up on a rock formation clutching a bottle of whiskey.

Allen had points to go through. He evenly distributed his stat points first, then pulled up his status and the list of available jobs.

Status:

Jeremiah Allen Durand

Human – Rogue – Level 35

XP: 6122/9602 (171773)

Stat Points: 0, Skill Points: 17, Job Points: 2

Jobs:

Assassin

Basic – Tier 1

Striker

Basic – Tier 1

Stats:

HP: 750/750

Regen: 58/min

SP: 1354/1740

Regen: 25/min

MP: 524/750

Regen: 45/min

Primary:

STR: 58

INT: 30

VIT: 22 (25)

WIS: 27 (25)

END: 24 (30)

FCS: 45

Secondary:

DEX: 68 (104)

PER: 20

RES: 15

STB: 36

SPD: 40 (87)

LCK: 13

---

Jobs available to class: Rogue

All…

Assassin:

Basic – Tier 2: Elite Assassin – An assassin with more than just skill in killing.

Basic – Tier 2: Assassin Hunter – A hunter never loses their mark. An assassin never misses their kill.

Basic – Tier 3: Silent Assassin – One who lurks in the shadows, unseen, unheard, and unknown.

Striker:

Basic – Tier 2: Heavy Striker – Many times, one strike is all it takes.

Basic – Tier 2: Poison Striker – There are many ways to kill a man; some are more subtle than others.

Basic – Tier 2: Quick Striker – A Quick Striker strikes first, and the first strike is the deadliest.

Allen glanced over the list of available jobs after collapsing the list that showed all of them. Just like with skills, he could add a new job or replace one of his existing jobs. Obviously, the most logical course of action would be to replace a job with another that was further along in that particular job tree. Adding one of the new jobs separately instead of replacing its predecessor wouldn’t make much sense.

It only took a moment before Allen chose Silent Assassin to replace Assassin. It was an easy choice since it was his only tier three option.

Job: Silent Assassin

One who lurks in the shadows, unseen, unheard, and unknown.

Class: Rogue/Ranger – Type: Basic – Tier 3

Description:

The Silent Assassin is difficult to spot, difficult to hear, and almost impossible to avoid. Sneak up on unsuspecting victims and eliminate them from the shadows.

Requirements: None

Modifiers: None

Skill: Silent Step, has become Skill: Silence

Skill: Silence

Stalk quietly, unheard until it’s too late.

Category: Martial Arts – Type: Passive – Tier 1

Effects: Reduces the sound that is caused by movement and attacks.

Cost: 1SP/s while in use.

Skill: Surge of Pain, has become Skill: Suppression

Skill: Suppression

Channel mana into an enemy to daze and confuse them.

Category: Channeling Magic – Type: Active – Tier 1

Effects: Send a burst of mana directly into the target on contact. Dazed enemies may be startled or numbed; duration proportional to the difference in level between you and the target. Max of 5s

Cost: 10MP.

Allen read through the new descriptions of what had previously been his two most useless skills. Of course, they wouldn’t be so useless on a person; it was against the brainless monsters that their effects hadn’t really mattered.

Silence was far more versatile than Silent Step, so he was happy about that. Suppression, on the other hand, seemed like a downgrade if all it did was stun. Allen was sure its effects would change for the better as he upgraded it, if not then he would just replace it later.

Satisfied with Silent Assassin, Allen moved on to upgrading his Striker class. His options were all the same tier, so it came down to preference.

“I don’t really like poison…” Allen thought. “Quick Striker sounds more like what I would normally go for, but… Heavy Striker would probably work better with Assassinate, and that’s the whole reason I got the Striker job in the first place.”

After a moment of hesitation, Allen picked Heavy Striker.

Job: Heavy Striker

Many times, one strike is all it takes.

Class: Rogue/Warrior – Type: Basic – Tier 2

Description:

A Heavy Striker is fast and hard-hitting at the same time. Such a combination comes with a price, however. Remain vigilant, be sure to kill your enemies and not yourself.

Requirements: None

Modifiers: None

Skill: Strike, has become Skill: Heavy Strike

Skill: Heavy Strike

Channel mana into a single strike to deal devastating damage.

Category: Channeling Magic – Type: Active – Tier 3

Effects: Charge an attack with mana and discharge it all at once through contact to deal heavy damage; proportional to strength, intelligence, and the tier of this skill. Overcharge to deal more damage; a portion of the damage is absorbed by you.

Cost: 20MP/min – 100MP Base – 200MP Max

“So, I hurt myself if the skill charges over one hundred MP?” Allen stared at the skill card for a few seconds. “That’s pretty cool,” he thought and laughed to himself.

Then conversation from earlier butted into Allen’s thoughts. He glanced down at Ty, Christopher, and Kenneth while trying to hide a smirk.

“This is the deepest you’ve been in this dungeon then?” Ty asked.

Kenneth hummed affirmatively. “Yeah, we weren’t ready for what was past floor four, but we kept going anyway,” he huffed to himself. “This dungeon supposedly has seven floors and a boss room. At least, that’s what I’ve heard. They’re going to be so mad when I tell them I cleared it with another group.”

Allen mentally snorted. “So, bitch boy has opened up a little bit, huh?”

“Damn. seven floors?” Ty began with, chuckling. “Hell, we’re almost done… Hear that Cam!? We’re almost done!”

Camila shifted and shot a glare back at Ty. “Svhuft th fvuck up!” she slurred. Just before it seemed like she would start sobbing, the Berserker filled her mouth with more whiskey.

Allen shook his head. After taking a moment to get focused again, he turned his attention back to his status. He was about to start with his skill points when his stomach rumbled audibly.

“Oh shit… Eating… I forgot about that.”