Thirty minutes of rest, and Colin felt like he still wanted to go to bed, though his body did feel much better.

Rielle agreed when he vocalized this, but Larry and Paladin were much better off than them, apparently. Larry was just resummoned, so he was as fresh as he could be. Paladin, being an Outworlder and not of this world, like Colin, didn't feel the fatigue the same way. It really was unfair, but that was the way it went.

Colin walked onto the worked stone passage with all four ready and smiled. This would be much easier to fight on than the rough-hewn stone they were sprinting along to get here.

"Shall I?" Larry asked, a grin plastered across his face. He summoned a HellRime Shield as tall as him in his main hand and created a javelin in his other hand. From there, plates of HellRime started to cover his body, but not like a full suit of armor, which defended him while giving him room to move in it.

"Sure, you deserve to go first. Go ahead, we'll be right behind you," Colin said, waving Larry towards the tunnel.

Rolling his eyes, the Demon turned and stepped into the tunnel, shield held in front of him and javelin ready at his side.

Stepping behind Larry, Colin was about to step in line after him when an electric buzzing hiss reached his ears. A moment passed, then another of those weird sounds occurred again, the sound followed by a short burst of obscenities in the Infernal Tongue that Colin got as distress.

Ready to go after his Familiar, Colin took in a breath through his nose and to a step forward. Only to have the Demon hurry past him, shield almost entirely sheared in half.

"Larry?" Rielle asked, concerned.

"What happened?" Colin inquired.

"I don't know," the Demon answered. "A beam of red light tried to bisect me, but I caught it on my shield." he looked at the shield with a glare, as if the HellRime protection had betrayed him, "and you see how well it held up."

"Red light? Was it a mage Golem or something else?" Paladin asked.

"No, something else," he clarified. "Some kind of glowing tube with a box on the end aimed for me the second I stepped inside. Luckily, I saw them turn the emplacement as I entered, or you'd probably be resummoning me," he said to Colin.

"Great," Colin groaned.

"What?" Paladin asked.

"ALAN is even more dangerous than I realized. The golems are bad enough, especially how he keeps updating them. But it sounds like he made laser turrets in his facility," Colin rubbed at his eyes. "Luckily, I have something for this."

"Really?" Paladin stated, a question in his voice.

Colin nodded, "come on, I guess I will go first."

He got no complaints as he took a deep breath and readied his action. Then he started walking around the bend of the tunnel, enjoying a proper floor under his feet. A few more feet and a light ignited along the wall, his dark vision dimming to uselessness as his natural vision took over.

Looking around, Colin could only describe the area as bustling. This room looked like a weird foundry of some kind; large machines sat all around this space with conveyors moving various pieces around. A large metal pot with flames burning beneath it glowed with the heat of the liquid metal within. Colin looked around the space from the ground level of the area. There were two other layers of walkways above them, connected by stairs and ladders. One would allow everyone to look into the giant crucibles. The additional layer led to a big grinder that separated the ore from the non-metal materials.

Golems of all shapes moved around the place, all performing some kind of task. Some carried what looked like ore chunks to a grinder on the other half of the room; another operated valves that poured red hot metal into ready molds for specific parts. Even as he watched for a moment, another golem was cleaning and oiling the machines to keep them running smoothly.

But then the danger made itself evident. Heavy clicking accompanied the turning of a heavy-looking device mounted to a pole on a walkway above them. Two Basic Warrior Golems controlled and moved it, one working to move it and the other aiming it. Colin recognized the device from smaller, unmanned versions that he'd contended within the real world. Acting as fast as he could, Colin announced, "Black Mirror!" and made it as large as it would go.

A split second after the rectangular mirror made of unreflective shadow appeared, a beam of red light hissed through the air. It cut a line through the Black Mirror spell, which absorbed it before not only shattering but bursting.

Colin was knocked back a step, and his next move was made off-balance. While altering his weight to avoid falling on his ass, Colin had raised his hand and pointed a finger at the laser turret, announcing, "Shadow Bolt!"

His spell went wide, the obscured black shaft flying to the right and impacting the Basic Warrior Golem moving the whole thing. It didn't die or break. Instead, he hit it mid-bicep and sheared it off.

The aiming Golem and the now one-armed Golem started to re-aim at him. Before Colin could react, Rielle spoke from behind him, the sound of a bowstring being pulled taut reaching him as he aimed towards the Golems. "Oh no, you don't," she growled as she released the arrow with a heavy twang.

The arrow flew true, impacting the Golem adjusting the weapon's aim in its center of mass.

"Hey, Rielle? Tell your bow, Burn," Colin told her, smiling.

Without waiting another moment, she said, "Burn."

Immediately, the arrow impaled in the Golem reacted to the magic Colin had put in it. The Golem had been about to re-man the Laser Turret when the arrowhead burst in a blaze of condensed flames. Overall, the effect wasn't powerful, but that didn't matter to the Golem that was just destroyed by it. Its entire chest cavity was demolished, with orange and white flames visible.

"Oh," she said in awe.

Colin threw out another Shadow Bolt with his right hand; he moved his other hand and used his Force Bolt Spell, destroying the other. But before he could relax, a metal shaft tumbled through the air from above, impacting him before he could even dodge.

You have taken 11 points of damage and now have 614/625 Health remaining.

Colin took the blow on his torso, grunting as he looked up to see the workers arming themselves with anything in arms reach. Standing near them were several different Golems that were definitely Class Golems that he'd fought on the surface. Hell, there were even some Corpse Golems in the mix with heavy crossbows in the process of getting loaded.

"Why is there another fight? Can't we just find ALAN, unplug him, and plug him back in? See if that fixes the problem," he groaned, readying the Mythic Xiphos and Lesser Infernal Edge.

He ignited the Infernal sword as several crossbows fired, seven bolts flying towards him at that exact moment. This type of coordination is nearly impossible for humans without a lot of practice.

"Intercepting Shield!" Larry proclaimed, his body moving in a blur. A moment later, he appeared in front of Colin, his shield held in front of the two of them, and a cocky smile cared onto his smug face. "You got this, Master?"

Colin nodded, "yeah, but I think I better kick this into second gear."

"Second gear?" Larry asked.

It was with a deep breath that COlin flexed his grip on the swords in his hands and triggered his Kinetic Vigor. A familiar sense of his entire body vibrating was as unusual as when he first got the Skill. The difference was that he knew what to expect when activating the Kinetic Magic Subskill now, so he sprinted the second it took hold.

Reaching the first stairs was the work of only a few seconds as Rielle started firing her freshly enchanted bow. If the first and second hit didn't render a Golem unable to work, she used the 'Burn' trigger. After the second kill, her firing paused as she realized the downside of the trigger; it used her own mana to power the effect. It was reasonably cheap, but not enough to make it usable often.

As he reached the second layer of the platforms around the massive crucibles, Colin saw something huge fly up from below him. It landed with a metal shifting thud that Colin felt through the platform he stood on, and he paused for a moment in shock at what he saw. It was Paladin, the Sumo landing above him and practically slamming into the Golems that he didn't immediately land on.

Looking down for a second, Colin found a ferociously grinning Larry in a heap on the ground, looking up at Paladin as he slowly got back up. A shattered HellRime Shield laid on the ground around him, evaporating rapidly as the Demon laughed. The image it painted was prominent. Somehow, the Incubus had thrown the Sumo up to a set of scaffolding higher than he was now.

"Yeah!" Larry screamed, raising a fist into the air as Paladin fought. Using his weight advantage and superior skills to dominate the Golems that got near him.

"Keep moving!" Colin called out, jogging towards the nearest Golems and ripping into them. A crossbow bolt whizzed past Colin as he swung into the nearest one, holding a pickaxe in both hands and swinging. With a flick of the wrist, he made quick work of the offending tool, breaking through its metal handle and attacking its wielder. Kinetic Vigor and his superior weapons made the job reasonably uncomplicated. The Golems only need two or three hits to go down.

In those few seconds, the Crossbow Golem had reloaded its weapon and aimed for Colin again as the next Worker Golem attacked. It swung a metal pole that was cherry red at the end, and Colin caught the weapon on his Mythic Xiphos and swung at its torso with his Lesser Infernal Edge.

"Damn it," Colin spat, readying himself and announcing, "Shadow Strike!"

The spell created a shadowy projection of himself that ran out of his body and rushed the armed Golem. The silhouette of himself swung at the Golem, the attack connecting and sending it back a step with a fresh tear in its frame. Even as his silhouette faded after a moment, Colin had lifted the Golem onto his shoulder and threw it at the Crossbowman Golem before it fired. It caught the Golem but was cut into by Colin's weapons before firing the weapon again.

Once he finished off this group of Golems, Colin started towards the next armed group approaching him. Colin went over to the Laser turret with a fun thought and gave it a three-second look over. "Trigger, sights, and… yes! Independent power source!" Colin hissed, putting away his Lesser Infernal Edge. Grabbing at it with his free hand, Colin swung with the Mythic Xiphos at the pole that mounted the Turret to the floor and severed it with the extra attribute points from Kinetic Vigor.

He sheathed the Mythic Xiphos with a smile and tried to carry the weapon like a minigun, hanging from one arm and steadied with the other. The trigger mechanism made that awkward, but the enemy was getting too close for him to adjust. So he just leveled out the weapon and fired.

The red beam took a moment to start, but then it hissed and fired a little too far to the right. The beam continued as he held the trigger, so Colin turned to the left and gritted his teeth as the weapon resisted his move. But move it did, and the Laser immediately sliced through the four oncoming workers carrying improvised weapons and two more crossbow wielders.

"Damn," Colin said, smiling at the Laser in his hand. Six killed with the first held attack, and according to the gauge he could see on the top, the weapon was still seventy-eight percent full.

Helping the large weapon onto the rail next to him, Colin used the Mythic Xiphos to cleave off the rest of the turret pole. He resheathed it and reached into his dimensional bag, and retrieved a short piece of rope. A few moments later, the weapon had a rope lashed around it and was made into a makeshift strap to hang about his torso to assist with its weight. Using Appraisal, Colin looked into the weapon.

Un-fixed manual targeting Beam Laser Turret. Weight: 68 kg. Item Quality: 6.

An advancement in emplaced turrets, this weapon was designed to be the first line of defense in the Foundries of ALAN. Since no ammunition needs to be inserted, only the battery needs replacement; this weapon is considered superior to the other laser weapons previously designed.

This weapon has been modified to be carried with a shoulder strap but suffers from a higher miss chance and user knockback when fired. This weapon is based around the light element synthesized through machines creating a device with multiple properties centered around a singular attack. This weapon has the Piercing, Artificial Channeling(forced), Knockback, Punch Through, Igniting, and Minor Energy Efficiency.

"Interesting, but-" Colin started before a pair of Prompts interrupted him.

Your Improvised Crafting Skill is now level 2. The chance for improvised Projects to succeed has increased by a small margin. The chance to notice an unorthodox tool has increased by a small margin. General Crafting Speed has increased by a small margin. Your Appraisal Skill is now level 6.

Well, any increase is good. Though, the boost to Improvised Crafting was rather intriguing. Given the circumstances, it was easy to see why it went up here. Still, it was yet another avenue for crafting later. Who knows.

For now, Colin added something else to his list of things activated from his vast repertoire of abilities and skills.

With a thought, he activated Empowering Mana and channeled Kinetic Magic through his body, bolstering his Strength Attribute. The increase made it easy to carry the heavy Laser Turret, and Colin grimaced at the mana loss per second. It wasn't obvious how fast it was going, but it was going fast enough that Colin needed to get moving.

Holding the barrel forward, Colin jogged ahead and fired the weapon. The red line burned through the air, going wide of his target and forcing him to twist with all his might to turn the Laser. Two more Golems were destroyed in a matter of a moment as Colin released the trigger and kept moving. Another Golem stepped out of another tunnel path that he hadn't seen until he both got closer and the Golem had used it.

"Interesting!" the Golem stated, its yellow eyes broadcasting what was controlling this one. This Golem was one of the standard workers that they'd been killing, except this one had cooling metal over its fists and up its forearms. "It's a little crude, but I would love to see how this holds up."

Obliging, he pulled and held the trigger. The beam went above the Golem's right shoulder, and Colin gritted his teeth to force it down. The ALAN possessed Golem charged when he pulled the trigger, so Colin had to compensate for its charge.

Rearing back its fist, the Golem threw it as the Laser hit the top of its shoulder. The furious red energy of the weapon immediately began to push the Golem back and away from the charge. Even as it fought against it, Colin kept forcing the barrel down and the beam across its body.

Laughing, the Golem managed to get one of its fists in front of the beam, and the knockback effect stopped dead in its tracks. It then twisted to get out of the red line while his fist held it back. It charged again, shouting, "Laborer's Force!"

And it was like the Golem moved with the force of three separate Golems that it charged and swung its still hands and wrists towards Colin. Due to Kinetic Vigor, Colin's Speed and Dexterity was up to snuff for the Golem's attack. Turning off the beam, he turned the weapon around and swung its bulky back at it.

The weight knocked the fists out of the way for Colin to announce his spell, "Burning Breath!"

Magic moved up his throat, heat filled his mouth without pain, and he opened up to spew the breath over the Golem. He only used the spell for a moment to create an opening for the Laser again. A moment later, even while ALAN attempted to bring his fists up to defend, the Laser cut through the Golem's chassis, burning a hole through its torso that Colin tore to the left.

Without a word from ALAN, the lights in its eyes faded out as the power faded from its body.

Throwing out a quick Appraise, Colin considered taking what little time he had to cut through its elbows to take the metal.

Red Adamant Alloy (Crude Mitten Gauntlets). Item Weight: 3.6 kg(1.8 kg each). Item Quality:4.

Fashioned by dipping A Golem's clenched fists into a vat of Red Adamant, an Alloy of Scarletite and Adamant, a pair of impromptu Gauntlets was formed. The mix of the two materials in different ratios creates different effects. Only study and observation can discover what this ratio is and what the qualities are.

Great, something else to fiddle with later. Ignoring the Golem, Colin moved into a jog with the Laser at the ready. Turning down the path he'd just seen, Colin had the Laser ready and pulled the trigger, slicing through five more Golems with a swipe of the beam.

He looked at the battery power and grimaced. It read that the weapon had forty-seven percent power left. Only a few minutes ago, it had seventy-eight percent left.

Casting his gaze around the room, Colin found himself in another foundry area. This one also had a few of those large crucibles, but these had a single Golem standing on a catwalk above him between four of them.

This one Golem had a robe wrapped around it and wielded a staff tipped with a green gem in one hand and a metal wand wrapped with gold in the other. It was chanting in a language that Colin didn't understand but didn't have to. As it chanted, the items in its hands began to glow and shine as the power built around it.

"Nope, having none of that," Colin said, nodding to himself. He raised the Laser and fired, adjusting to hit the Golem but found out what it was doing a moment later. The material in all four of the large crucibles began to flow and shift, moving up and coalescing into several tendrils of burning hot liquid metal.

The metal moved too fast for him to kill the Golem first, So he shut off the beam and sprinted forward on his part of the catwalk, the liquid splashing behind him. He turned to aim the Laser again but smiled as the Golem burst into the green-gold blaze of Heavenly Blight.

Letting Rielle take over, Colin hurried down past the hot crucibles and towards the next room.

As soon as he entered, three Golems wielding large tower shields slammed the bottom of them into the ground below them and, in unison, yelled, "Force Shields, Link up!"

A translucent wall formed in front of their shields and connected with each other to maximize their size. This Barrier defended them and the Golems behind them, all of whom wielded Bows and Crossbows.

Leveling the Laser at the Barrier, Colin pulled the trigger and held it down. Instead of punching through it, the shield held fast against the beam. Seconds passed, and the protection started to warp as the ranged weapon wielders behind the translucent shields began to aim at him.

"Damn it!" Colin announced, turning off the beam and casting his Obscuring Black spell at the group. To his surprise, the Barrier held back the spell, the effect splashing against it and releasing a cloud of Darkness in front of them.

Turning off his Empowering Mana and Kinetic Vigor, Colin took out one of his mana potions and swallowed it while looking at the weapon. He knew of one thing he could do without referencing his notes, only wishing he could do this out of combat.

There was a reason he got several things done over the few short hours between when they left the Dungeon and when they left the Hotel. His newest Ability was to thank for that.

Heretic Scribe Ability. You have been blessed by an Entity of Great Infernal origin that has seen your potential and wants it to grow. To that end, Baal Steward of the Hells, has given you a faction-based ability that is usually bestowed based upon immense contribution. You may thank the ArchDevil himself when you see him.

This Ability has different effects based on your current skill set, and you do not get to see what the other effects are until you get the skills.

Enchanting - You no longer need to use external objects to place the required runes to create enchantments in things. This still makes the runes on the object in question; you just do not need to put it there yourself. You either need to have the necessary runes memorized or written down for transfer to the target. This costs nothing extra, a positive effect of the Ability. The power gets drawn directly from the magical network of the Hells themselves. Also, your control over the energies needed to enchant objects increases whenever you include Infernal Magic.

Rituals - You can use the power of the Hells themselves to forge the structure of power needed for Ritual Magic to work, the underlying symbols. You can trigger this Ability to generate a circle of potent magic onto the ground at a designated position. To do this, you need the symbols to be drawn on a transportable medium, like paper or even slate, so the Ability can accurately transfer it. Any circle that is drawn with this Ability that also requires Infernal Magic gains extra potency with a straight percentage chance equal to your Infernal Magic Manipulation Skill.

This Ability was the linchpin to his whole plan for ALAN, but he needed to get there first. Closing his eyes, Colin envisioned the two runes he wanted to place upon the Laser and put his hand upon the weapon.

He could feel the Kinetic and Infernal Magic in his body begin to flow down his arm and towards the Laser. With Heretic Scribe, the symbols burned into the barrel, ready for Enchanting. It still required the mana to trigger the Enchantment, So Colin kept feeding it and pushed it to fill up as fast as possible.

It had only been a few seconds, and already, Colin could hear the Golems advancing through the cloud of Darkness. Seconds ticked by incredibly fast as he loaded the Laser with more and more mana until he felt the item become full. Tying off the magic, he finished the enchantment and raised the weapon towards the Shadow Magic Cloud.

Another second passed, and they appeared, the cloud parting as the shieldbearers stepped through and the various ranged Golems after them. Though, he didn't give them much of a chance. With the Infernal Magic symbol for amplification and the Kinetic Magic symbol for Increase Force connected, the magic should create an exciting effect.

Aiming for the wall of opaque force, nowhere precisely, he just needed to hit it. He pulled and held the trigger, the weapon powering up and sizzling through the air with an electric hiss as it hit the Barrier. There was an audible 'whump' as the beam hit the projected Barrier and immediately started to push through it. The Barrier warped as the Laser-focused on it, and after several seconds, the Laser punched through.

Not only that, when it breached the magical shield, the whole thing shattered like glass and evaporated into multicolor particles. The shattering sent magic in all directions, the invisible force knocking the entire group of Golems back. Colin remained standing by the heavy weapon he was holding.

Unfortunately for them, the Laser was still firing. With a full-body twist, the Laser sliced through the whole lot of them. He even cut through the new one that appeared behind them, this one carrying a glaive.

Colin was enjoying himself with this Laser; he may not need his plan to defeat ALAN. He imagined that this thing could defeat most foes with reasonable ease as long as they didn't have some resistance to it. He looked down at the percent of power remaining and threw his visions of an easy win out the window. With six percent remaining, he'd probably get another shot or two off before it became dead weight.

Moving forward was slower without those Attribute Buffs, but he needed to let his mana recharge, so on he went. The Laser ended up losing the rest of its power in the next room as Colin entered an assembly area.

This room was as big as some factories he'd been in on Earth, and the entire space was cramped with steel tables and tools. Golem bits and pieces were practically assembling themselves on the tables as they hovered just above the table and went into their place. Even over the few seconds he watched, a half dozen Golems stood from the table, and the red lights in their eyes turned on.

"Well, this explains partially why there are so many Golems," Colin said as he adjusted his Laser's aim. The last four percent went away too fast, but he didn't regret its use. The whole room and most of its components were severed in two pieces, including the Golems and the building mechanisms.

"I guess I can add saboteur to your list of deeds," came ALAN's smooth voice. "You know, it's almost too bad that you are coming to me. Last night, I finally got my maker back, and I've been putting him to work. I've got something special in mind for you before I finish my work in the city above."

Looking around the room, he found the voice's origin being a mostly built Golem Mage that had yellow light streaming from its eyes.

"Your work? So what, you're going to have AidenBrand build another one of those Soul Bound Golems? You know that most of those have been defeated, right?" Colin said, picking up the head.

The head chuckled, "I guess you'll have to keep going to find out what I did. Trust me, it will be rather… unique. I guess that would be the least of which I would use to describe it."

"Well, I guess you'll just have to wait and see what I have for you too. We have mostly dismantled your Golems," Colin said. A boom sounded from somewhere around him as one of his three-party members probably trashed something. "Or we're getting there."

"While that is true, I think you should be aware that most of my higher-end troops are coming towards me now. It's hard to say how long you have, especially since that Laser is now out of power and your comrades have destroyed the other ones in the Foundries. Let's just say that you better get to me quick. You haven't got long before my new Monster Class Golems make their way here," ALAN's tone changed suddenly. It became dark and steady, "you better hurry."

Without a second thought, Colin dropped the head on the ground and, after making sure that his laser cannon was empty, dropped it on the head, smashing it.

Using Tremorsensing, he found no Golems within a short distance around him. Drawing his Mythic Xiphos, he moved towards the door to the left for no other reason than he heard something from that way.

"Hey, Nox," Colin said, getting the Goblin's attention. "Is there any way I can get you to find out which way I need to go without me owing you something?"

"No," came the answer from his shadow. "But I can make you a deal."

"What?" Colin asked.

He could hear the smile in Nox's voice when he responded, "I wasn't around when you came up and solidified your plan. If you make it entertaining, I will waive this debt. How confident are you in this plan?"

Colin watched as Nox stepped out of another shadow and looked up; his trenchcoat fluttered as he straightened it out. "Will you take that bet?"

Thinking over his plan for a moment, Colin nodded at the Goblin, "I will, and I think you'll be impressed."

"Well, well well, DevilWalker. You are really confident in this, are you? Well, you have me excited to see the culmination of your efforts and some of Speaker Fahtagin's advice, right?" the Goblin grinned. "Well, if you don't entertain me, I just want you to know what you are getting in for. It isn't much, but I want three measures of powdered Infernal Magic. Fair deal?"

"Uh, Nox… I don't know how to do that," Colin told him seriously.

"Then let's hope you do a good job then," the Goblin cackled. Starting to sink into his own shadow, "by the way, go right then just… follow the shadows."

Nodding, Colin turned and started towards the right passage. It didn't take long for him to find the next room, which was already decimated by Larry. The Demon was wielding a pair of thin curved swords and was having a hardy fight with a couple of Rogue Class Golems. The Incubus snapped his fingers around the hilt of his right-hand sword casting his Cold Snap spell.

Both Golems detonated in a burst of icy slurry, and Larry howled in triumph, the words in the Demonic Tongue. While he wasn't exactly sure of his Translation due to his Demonology Skill, he thought Larry shouted, "Honor to the Frost Guard! And another soul for the Lord of Hoarfrost!"

The Demon looked back to see Colin watching him and simply grinned a moment later. "There you are, Master. I'm afraid that I have no idea where I'm going. Do you know?"

Rolling his eyes, he found a shadow on the ground that had no source and was shaped like an arrow. Colin pointed down that path and said, "that way."

Larry immediately started following Colin, and they were quickly set upon by three massive Golems. They moved to attack, and Paladin landed on top of the middle one, falling from a higher place. As he landed, both of his hands slammed down on the other two Golems, a single hand each. That fight was quick; Paladin's level and skills made this reasonably easy. Especially with the hand wraps that Colin made, slowing their movements with each hit.

"Having fun?" Colin asked him after he finished wrecking his way through them.

"Oh yeah, I am," Paladin said, grinning as he wiped debris from his hands. "So, do you know where we're going?"

"You got lost too?" Larry asked Paladin.

Paladin nodded, and Larry raised a fist towards the Sumo. The man immediately fist bumped him back.

"Have any of you seen Rielle?" Colin asked.

"I haven't," Larry shrugged.

"Nope," Paladin said.

"Come on, we better keep going," Colin said, keeping the mythic Xiphos drawn and ready. "With any luck, we'll find her in the next room."

Larry and Paladin looked at each other with confusion before they followed along.

A few minutes later and a handful more fights later, they reached an area that looked like the definition of an antechamber. The room had a pair of pillars just to the side of a couple of double doors with a single large word carved into it with large letters.

'ALAN.'

,

"Of course you managed to beat us," Colin moaned upon seeing Rielle. The woman in question was reading a book, looking up only as they approached.

"I guess I got lucky," she said, looking up at the doors. "Are we ready?"

"Hold on, I'm getting the prompts for the fight here," Colin said, the plethora of prompts appearing.

You and your party have defeated 162 various Golem types and have gained 141,455 EXP. You now have 343,496/321,142 experience until level 22. Level up! You are now level 22 and have 5 new attribute points to spend. You now have 22,354 /401,428 until level 23. Your Ravenous Mythic Xiphos is now level 15. It now can gain a boon to enhance it further. Also, The minimum and maximum damage has increased. Your Short Blades Skill is now Level 14. Your damage, attack speed, and reaction time with short blades has increased by a small margin Your Kinetic Magic Manipulation is now level 12. Your Kinetic Vigor Subskill is now level 12. All increases done by Skill are now marginally larger. Your Summoning Magic skill is now level 8. The available options for free and directed summons have increased. Your Summon Familiar Skill is now level 8. The capabilities of your familiar have increased by a small margin. Your Demonology Skill is now Level 5. The Demonic Lore and Knowledge in your head has been expanded due to use. You have gained the Skill; Exotic Heavy Lasers level 1. You now have an easier time handling and using heavy laser weapons. Heavy Laser Handling is improved by a small margin, Heavy Laser Accuracy is increased by a small margin, and Heavy Laser Weight is easier to handle by a small margin.

The Level up was a surprise, but not something he hadn't planned for. He quickly allocated the free Attribute points by putting two into Strength, two into Build, and the last point into Charisma. He then looked up the finished point totals.

Strength: 22 Dexterity: 23 Speed: 28 Build: 22 Intellect: 25 Wisdom: 31 Charisma:18 Luck: 16

He then looked up the boons to enhance his Ravenous Mythic Xiphos and saw a familiar list. The last time he saw this list, it had just grown to level five. He guessed that he got it between major upgrades to the weapon.

Keen edge 1

Increase critical hit chance of this weapon by 5% Potential 2 Increase all additional magical damage this weapon deals by 2.5% Physical Defense 1 Increase defensive movements when wielding this weapon by 10% Shear 1 Increase the physical damage of this weapon by 5%

Now, this required a little thought, but luckily, he'd still had some idea about this, and the decision did not take more than a few seconds.

Congratulations! Your Ravenous Mythic Xiphos has gained the Ability; Potential 2. All skills, abilities, and spells that can be channeled through this weapon now deal a total of 5% more damage.

Taking a moment after all that, he made sure everything he needed was in its place and ready for the main event. He had to do some readjusts to his gear and move a few sheets of paper from his Dimensional Bag to his pants pocket, ready to go.

He looked up to see Rielle's happy expression, "Walker, I leveled up!" she said happily.

"I actually did, too," Paladin said, raising a hand and waving.

"Same," Colin responded. "Level 22."

"18," Rielle said, looking over her prompts that were invisible to him.

"I'm now 39," Paladin responded.

Colin smiled at his companions, "this is great. I'm very happy for all of you, but we better get going. There is a chance that ALAN was bluffing, but it talked to me and told me that its advanced Golems were coming back here. So, as much as I'd like to celebrate our advancing in level, we need to get this done before they get here."

"Well, then let's do this," Paladin said, flexing his fingers. "I'm topped up on Health and Ki."

"Me too," Rielle responded.

"Larry?" Colin asked.

"I'm good to go," he responded with a shrug. "I'm almost full; I need a few more seconds to finish up."

Nodding, Colin wished he could get a short break from all this fighting. Not much of one, just a day or three, but that was not in the cards right now. Now, he walked up to the double door and took a deep breath before opening the doors.