[Tuesday, September 15]

When Zachary woke up, there were only two things on the news. One was the local weather. The second was the unfolding story in China.

Much of the story was about recently taken headcam footage from the perspective of a soldier. Of course, it was heavily edited, so he only saw clips, but he did see a glorious scene of the dungeon obelisk and a soldier launching a rocket at it. Beyond that, there was nothing though.

Zachary finished his breakfast and bid farewell to his mother before walking out the door earlier than usual. He picked up his bike and started pedaling.

Instead of taking the direct route to school, he made a sharp turn and started using his [Dungeon Detection] skill at regular intervals. Since leveling up this skill would add extra points to his Consumption stat, he used it sparingly.

Zachary got onto Main Street. The neighborhood houses were rapidly replaced by shops and restaurants. He flew past the supermarket, Cooper’s Pawn Shop, and the jewelry store until he had cut Burlington in half. He found himself outside a scrapyard. An out-of-place delicious smell assaulted his nose.

His skill worked.

He traced the smell to a concealed location in the scrap yard and pushed through some rusty car parts. A familiar black orb was sandwiched between two decommissioned busses. It was well hidden.

[You have discovered a dungeon]

[8:26:45]

[Dry Plains of Strength (level 4)]

Luckily, Zachary was there, otherwise no one would have found it until it was too late. Plus, eight hours was barely enough time for him to get finished with school and be back in time.

He turned his bike and went back to school.

“I found one.”

Saya and Jacob stared at Zachary.

“Really?”

“Yep.”

“I can’t believe we are actually doing this.”

Zachary nodded. “It will open on its own some time after school, but I’m not forcing anyone to come. If you don’t want to take the risk, that’s fine. Just keep your promise to not say anything. I can take care of it on my own.”

“And I keep asking you,” Saya said, “How are you so confident?”

Zachary didn’t respond. He flipped some papers.

In front of him was the entire game wikipedia in printed format. Since he couldn’t access the internet while he was on Vera, this was the next best thing.

“What’s this?” Jacob took the stack, which weighed several pounds.

“Hey!” Zachary grabbed the papers forcefully and shoved it all in his backpack. “It’s all the stuff I have on my situation, including the portal that is about to open up.”

In fact, Zachary was able to research the entire contents, layout, and monsters inside the dungeon by using the game wiki. The name of the instance dungeon was descriptive of its nature, and the wiki had a convenient table for reference. With ‘this’ name, the monsters would be from ‘these’ lists. At ‘this’ level, the treasures would be found in “such-and-such” places with “so-and-so” tiers. The tiers have randomized loot from “these” lists.

“That’s why I’m so confident,” Zachary reassured Saya for the thousandth time. “I know what I’m doing.”

Jacob stared at the backpack with curiosity. He really wanted to read those papers now.

When Zachary turned around, Jacob made a dash and unzipped it, but then he frowned. Rubbing his eyes, he unzipped the other pockets but couldn’t find them. The backpack was completely empty.

“How long have you been researching this stuff?” Saya asked, wondering how long it took to gather, type, and print so many pages.

“Not long enough,” Zachary said vaguely, “but in this case, I’m over-prepared.”

Time passed as the three of them tried to focus on their surroundings unsuccessfully. Saya couldn’t focus during her classes as she was understandably terrified of facing monsters. Zachary spent his lunch and study hall to flip through the game wiki and strategize. Jacob was also similarly distracted during football practice.

Zachary and Saya went to culinary class as usual, and they discussed the upcoming dungeon raid while working. As the class was coming to a close, while Zachary was eating his dish, Saya packed hers into a container for some reason.

They left the building and waited for Jacob to get done with practice. When he came back from the locker room, the three of them left.

In the scrapyard, they approached the portal.

“Uh. Why does it smell so good?” Jacob salivated.

Zachary shrugged, checking the timer.

Saya also sniffed the air and found an aroma like citrus. “It kinda smells like fermented oranges or lemons.”

“What?” Jacob said. “Obviously it smells like rotisserie chicken.”

“You guys are crazy. Smells like a hot fudge sundae to me,” Zachary frowned. “Anyway. Five seconds left. You guys might want to cover your ears... and close your eyes.”

“Okay.”

Jacob and Saya did as instructed.

A lightning bolt struck the orb. Startled, the two of them watched with amazed expressions as the dungeon opened up.

“Okay. As agreed, I’m only taking one at a time since that’s the most I’m confident in protecting. Who wants to go first?”

Jacob stepped forward. “I’ll go. If I can’t handle myself, Saya won’t be able to either.”

Saya held up a hand. “Absolutely not. You just came from your three-hour football practice. There’s no way you aren’t exhausted. I even hear your stomach rumbling.” She approached Jacob with the same container Zachary saw her preparing earlier, and handed it to him.

Jacob opened it up. Inside was a delicious looking meal from the culinary club. His stomach gurgled. Even Zachary stared at the food with longing even though he recently ate a similar dish. Somehow the creation looked incomparably tastier than his own.

As Jacob was reaching for the fork, however, the container was taken away.

“Either you go in first, and eat later, or I go in first, and you eat now,” Saya said. “The second option is smarter from my perspective. You need to recover your energy.”

Jacob couldn’t resist. He accepted the box and went to find a seat.

Saya turned around and stared expectantly at Zachary.

“Oh, uh…” Zachary didn’t know how to react at first, but remembered his plan.

He searched around the scrapyard until he found a long and straight metal pole. He gave it to Saya and proceeded to a rusty car, smashing the window and leveraging his weight to break the door off the hinge.

“Spear and a shield,” he explained. “Since I’m strengthened by my magical abilities, I’ll take the brunt of the enemy attacks while you guys deal damage. If any of us get hurt, I have a power for that too, so I’ll be saving my energy for emergency situations and for healing. Is that okay?”

Jacob and Saya nodded.

“So… What are we going to be facing?” Saya asked nervously.

Zachary reluctantly said, “Uh, bulls.”

...

Inside the dungeon, Zachary led them through a strange set of directions as he avoided most of the creatures between him and the closest treasure. Finally he stopped and pointed at a brown shape grazing ahead. It was a cow-like monster eating grass. They hid behind a bush.

“That is called a Fortec Bull,” He explained to Saya. “It’s big, but don’t worry. The ones here are only calves. They are much smaller than the adult versions. They don’t have huge horns yet, and are less aggressive.”

At higher levels, the Fortec Bulls had stronger abilities and more variety of attacks. However, for a low level dungeon, only calves would be found inside. Logically, they are herbivores, baby ones too, and should run away from everything, but the dungeon monolith is in control of their minds, forcing them to defend the area.

Saya asked. “Are there any weaknesses?”

“Yeah.” Zachary nodded. “They have a small stone embedded on their back. Hit that and it will confuse them for long enough to do real damage.”

“Okay...”

Despite the countless reassurances, Saya was feeling more and more unsure about the situation. She gripped her spear a little tighter.

Zachary nodded and stood up. He started approaching the bull confidently. There wasn’t enough cover to perform a sneak attack anyway.

The bull saw him and charged, but Zachary held up the car door and braced. He staggered backward but held strong and stopped the bull.

Saya flanked and swung the metal pole like a bat, hitting the stone.

Had it been any other monster, one that wasn’t as familiar looking as the bull in front of her, she wouldn’t have attacked at all due to her nervousness.

The Fortec Bull bellowed and fumbled backward, disoriented.

However, it wasn’t in Saya’s nature to kill things and she hesitated.

Eventually the bull recovered. Identifying her as the bigger threat to its life, it charged at her instead.

‘Oh no!’ she thought before flinching.

Thankfully Zachary was there. He took the blow again.

“Saya, I know it’s tough,” he said sympathetically. “But this monster will hurt other people if we don’t stop it.”

The bull bellowed again and pulled away, before circling them.

“It’s either kill or be killed,” he said.

The bull hit his shield again. He struggled with it while Saya was still hesitating to move.

He waited patiently for Saya.

The bull charged again and collided with Zachary’s car door.

Saya flinched at the collision.

After a long moment, she spoke.

“I… I’m sorry, Zach,” Her mouth quivered. “I can’t do it.”

Zachary sighed and shook the bull off. It backed up a little and prepared for another attack.

“Seriously, it’s okay. Go back behind the bush. There’s no reason for you to see this.”

Saya nodded and ran away, retracing her steps back to cover.

When she was hidden, Zachary transferred his new baseball bat to his backpack and brought it out. He dropped the car door and contemplated his next actions.

It was unfortunate that Saya couldn’t help him. He really wanted a bull carcass, but he also didn’t want to traumatize her, or force her to do anything she didn’t want to do. Thankfully he had a backup plan.

In irritation, the bull charged. Zachary sidestepped and activated a skill.

[Penny Drop]

The bat hummed as it whisked through the air and into the bull’s front leg. A brilliant snap was heard.

MOO!

The beast staggered backward, as if it was trying to flee, but Zachary used his bat again.

[Penny Drop]

The bat came down again, this time towards the bull’s head. Another crack was heard as something small and white went flying off. It was one of the bull’s tiny horns!

[Penny Drop]

[Penny Drop]

[Penny Drop]

Zachary used the skill repeatedly, attacking the other three legs, breaking the other horn, and even some teeth before stopping.

The bull lay on the ground, whimpering from pain while all of it’s limbs were broken and it’s face was deformed. It wasn’t bleeding externally, so it shouldn’t die yet.

Satisfied, Zachary collected the teeth and horns before walking back to where Saya was hiding.

There were two ways to avoid collecting experience. First, he could let someone else do all the damage, playing the support role and meat-shield, or, if he had to act, all he would have to do is leave the area before the monster he damaged died. Usually that distance was quite far, but with his fast-travel abilities, and the fact that the instance dungeon would disappear, that wasn’t an issue. The challenge was holding himself back, especially against a more powerful opponent where the situation could easily turn into a life-or-death battle.

“Hey. Let’s head back,” He told Saya.

“Zach, I’m sorry,” she sobbed while wiping her tears.

“Like I said earlier, it’s okay. So let’s head back. I’m sure Jacob is waiting.”

…

Outside, Jacob rushed over to the approaching Zachary and Saya with a worried expression.

“How did it go? Saya, are you okay?”

Saya nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“We ran into a bull,” Zachary explained briefly, “but Saya couldn’t finish it off, so I took care of it.”

Jacob gave a look of understanding and traded Saya the empty container for the metal pole in her hands.

“Here,” he said with a reassuring smile. “It was very delicious, but I’ll take care of everything now. I won’t let either of us get hurt.”

Saya nodded.

“They’re easy enough to beat. You just have to have a little confidence,” she admitted. “I’m sure you’ll do better than me.”

Jacob nodded. “You know, Saya… Just by being here, you are proving you are stronger than most people.”

The boys turned and left, disappearing into the portal’s maw.

When they were out of sight Saya leaned against a decommissioned bus and cried.

…

The dungeon entrance was relatively safe in the hours following it’s opening. The monsters inside, and the dungeon monolith itself needed to discover it, and with the bulls’ low intelligence, that would take a while. For the time being, it was safe to leave Saya there.

As Jacob and Zachary explored away from the dungeon entrance, they came across another bull.

Just like before, Zachary pointed out their weaknesses, explained the plan one more time, and hefted the car door.

The bull collided with the door, and Jacob made his move.

He swung the pole with speed and force, hitting the bull’s back with an exciting slap that struck the control stone.

The bull fumbled backward, and Jacob used the kickback from the strike to swing the pole into the beast’s underbelly. It bellowed and retreated away, preparing for another charge.

“Zach, I don’t think this rusty thing is sharp enough to be used as a spear. So I’m going to try breaking its bones.”

“Okay.”

When the bull charged again, Zachary caught it with the shield, and Jacob circled behind him to the other flank. He swung the pole at the stone, hitting it again, and while the bull was confused, he took a shot at the rear leg.

Snap.

Just like what Zachary had done to the last bull, the leg broke.

The bull staggered backward and huffed with pain and fury. Driven by the control device, it charged again, but much slower this time.

Jacob struck the stone again, and aimed for the bull’s neck.

After a few unsuccessful tries to break it, and a long minute of back-and-forth between Zachary and the bull, a sound was heard.

Snap.

The bull dropped like a sack of potatoes as it’s spine was fractured from the repeated hits. It stopped breathing, yet no experience was rewarded.

Zachary set the shield down, gave Jacob a pat on the back, and examined the bull’s corpse, specifically, the stone on it’s back.

“What is that?” Jacob asked.

“Their brains’ are being hijacked by something called the dungeon monolith. This is the control device, so striking it can temporarily disrupt the signal and confuse the bull for a few seconds.” The Zerean Wolves and Glabian Serpents had one too. Zachary just didn’t notice because it was hidden beneath fur or camouflage by scales. “Of course, I don’t know how it works, so I think I’ll study it later.”

Zachary pulled out his military knife and cut the stone out. It was a little bloody, but he put it in his backpack anyway. He extracted the horns and teeth similarly, and stood up.

“Let’s go,” Zachary said. “Up ahead, there’s a far more valuable creature we need to catch.”

“Wait. Catch?”

…

After fighting a few more bulls (one at a time, of course), they came across an open field with hardly any plants. The ground was covered in bare dirt, as if someone uprooted every individual blade of grass.

“There,” Zachary pointed.

A little blob that was dark blue wiggled and rolled. It was slightly transparent as it had a gelatinous consistency. It was munching on grass.

Zachary licked his lips. “Slime.” This was the treasure he was looking for.

Jacob raised an eyebrow.

They stood up and approached the slime, which acknowledged their presence by trying to roll away. Maybe roll wasn’t the right word. It sort of… hopped and jiggled. It wasn’t very fast.

Zachary picked it up and held it in his hand. It oozed between his fingers, but before it could slip out, he squeezed it into an empty plastic bottle.

[Bestowal Slime (Night Vision), Rarity B]

- {Attribute(s): Unlocks the Night Vision ability upon consumption.}

Zachary summarized what he was seeing to Jacob.

“So you have to eat it to get night vision?” Jacob asked, looking with disgust at the pulsating blob inside the water bottle.

“Shut up and look for more!”

Together, they searched the area, looking for more slimes.

After searching for ten minutes, they finally stopped and counted how many they had.

“Four,” Jacob blinked.

“Four,” Zachary nodded. “Bottoms up, I guess.”

He took the water bottle and tiled it upward. The slime slowly fell through the bottle and into his mouth. He swallowed.

[New Ability: Night Vision (Level 1)]

As Zachary looked around, he noticed that all the dark areas and shadowy places had become more visible, somehow. It was as if they were illuminated but his brain knew they were still dark, so it wasn’t confusing.

“It worked,” he said.

Jacob looked at him skeptically, but shrugged and drank his own slime.

He also started looking around but didn’t notice anything yet.

“Ugh.” Suddenly, he clutched his stomach. “Ah!” He collapsed to his knees and then grabbed his face. “My eyes!”

Panicked, Zachary quickly used his [Observation] skill.

[Jacob Langer, (level null)]

- {Status condition(s): body reconstruction (pain), meridian formation (pain), dantian microbiome evolution (nausea), type three alveoli generation (pain), telogen effluvium and hair follicle restimulation (itchiness), neural network reconfiguration (paralysis)}

Jacob continued screaming and writhing as he felt pain all over his body, not just his eyes and stomach anymore.

Zachary eyebrows shot up. He switched to the light element and drew a few healing spells. The blobs of golden light hit Jacob and went into his body, but nothing changed.

‘This isn’t good.’ Zachary thought while picking him up and carrying him to safety.

…

“What happened?” Saya called.

She rushed over to Zachary who was putting a stick in Jacob’s mouth for him to bite.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Jacob and I found a bestowal slime, which grants a magical power. I drank mine just fine, but Jacob suddenly collapsed. I think his body is evolving to handle magical power.”

Jacob groaned and writhed.

“What do we do?” Saya asked worriedly.

“Let me check,” Zachary said as he frantically flipped through the pages of the game wiki.

‘There’s nothing in here,’ he thought. ‘There’s nothing about these status conditions. There’s nothing about how to cure them, or how to acquire them. He has so many of them too. At this point, if I was in the same predicament, I would try for that title… wait!’

Zachary flipped open to the page containing the earnable titles again. His focus narrowed down on one in particular.

{The Tempered: decreases the chance of getting negative status debuffs and status effects by 90%. Awarded for holding 7 status debuffs simultaneously.}

He flipped a few pages, finding the list of status debuffs. Normally, the only way to achieve this feat was to be inflicted with burns, poisons, coldness, dehydration, hunger, and a few more status conditions simultaneously. However, this was dangerous, even for a player. But in this situation, Jacob only needed one more.

Zachary brought out a bone dagger coated in a yellow fluid.

“What’s that for?” Saya asked.

Zachary ignored her and pricked Jacob’s finger.

His hand stopped trembling, then his arm. As his whole body went numb, he stopped screaming. Finally, another status condition for paralysis appeared.

“The venom of a Glabian Gorgon causes paralysis but nothing more,” he explained.

“You poisoned him?!”

Suddenly a new status condition appeared.

{Status condition(s): … Title-gain evolution (null)}

Then it disappeared in the next second.

“It’s not a high enough amount to kill him. Instead it’ll cause a beneficial change in addition to what he’s undergoing. He’ll be way stronger now. As for his condition, we can only wait and see,” Zachary stood up.

He started walking toward the portal again.

“Wait! Where are you going now?”

Zachary stopped. “If it stays open any longer, even those stupid bulls will find it eventually. We took out the nearest ones, but more will come. However…” he bit his lip.

A Fortec Minotaur.

It was a boss monster that wields a weapon and absorbs hits like a tank. It was going to be like fighting the snake lady and Elmarud at the same time. There was no way Zachary could hold back. He might accidentally kill it, but he didn’t have a choice. Jacob was going to be the perfect side-kick, but he was busy digesting slime.

Zachary could wait, but there was no telling how long it would take. When the bulls found the entrance, he would have to deal with them too.

He would have to go in quickly, and risk a fight with the boss.

“Let me come too.”

Saya picked up the metal pole.

“There’s no need for that.”

“No. I’m ready now,” Saya shook her head. “Earlier I didn’t have the resolve, but when you two left me out here, I had a lot of time to think about my priorities, to pull my hair out worrying about you, and stare at this impossible sight.” She pointed at the instance dungeon itself.

“Saya...”

“I may not be super athletic, like Jacob. I may not be outgoing, and overachieving. I’ve never been very confident in myself, but right now that doesn’t matter. You need help, so let’s go in and close that portal together.”

Zachary studied Saya’s expression. She was still nervous, but it was a different kind of nervousness than earlier.

He nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Up ahead was the dungeon monolith. Standing next to it was a huge creature.

It’s fur was like liquid copper. It’s horns glistened like metal, and on it’s back was a sword. It also had a long tail, which whipped side-to-side and made the same sound a ring of keys would make.

[Fortec Minotaur, Level 15]

- {Status condition(s): none}

“They have no weaknesses,” Zachary explained. “Their skin and fur are like metal. They can use their horns, hooves, sword, and tail to attack. Plus, it’s not feasible to try poisoning them. That’s why I didn’t give you my dagger.”

“How on Earth are we supposed to beat them?”

“Well, there are two ways. The first is by sheer brute force, fire, and blunt damage. The other is by deactivating the monolith.”

“Great! How do we do that?”

“Um. You can either destroy it or figure out the pattern…”

“Okay. So after I figure out the pattern?”

“Then you need to use magic to deactivate the runes.”

“Oh,” Saya said with a complicated expression. “So what should I do?”

“I’ll distract the minotaur while you study the monolith. When you figure it out, I’ll rush over and deactivate it. When it turns off it will knock out the minotaur too.”

“What if I can’t figure out the pattern?”

Zachary was about to make a snarky remark, but frowned. He pulled out the game wiki, skimmed through it, and pulled out a few pages.

“What the heck!?”

The pages contained hundreds of different patterns and paragraphs of explanations.

Usually, most players that chose not to beat the boss first would trod up to the monolith and push the pause button. Obviously, Saya and Zachary didn’t have that luxury.

“Read it once up here, then we’re going in,” Zachary said ruthlessly. “We can’t waste any more time.”

Saya nodded.

When she was finished, Zachary stood up and approached the minotaur while holding his car door. Saya flanked. When the minotaur inevitably went to challenge Zachary, she rushed to the monolith and began studying the runes.

A huge sword hurtled downward on Zachary, who tilted the car door to deflect it into the ground. Using its own momentum, the minotaur lowered its head and body, aiming its horns and pushed forward. However, Zachary used [Quick Cast] on a spell he used earlier. A light spell detonated, the force separating them quickly. Unfortunately, now he couldn’t use [Fast-travel] to escape.

The minotaur bellowed with irritation and lifted its sword. Zachary readied his car door again.

“Saya! What’s the hold up?”

“It’s barely been two seconds, Zach! And there are four faces on this thing!”

The minotaur swung it’s sword horizontally, then stabbed.

Zachary hefted the car door, blocking both strikes.

The minotaur’s metallic tail flicked forward, creating a gash in his torso that started to bleed.

“Ah, damnit.”

“Are you okay?!” she called.

“No! That was my favorite shirt!” Zachary yelled. “Just solve the puzzle already!”

Saya identified the rune on the first face. Moving to the second, she referenced the game wiki until she found the same pattern and the corresponding solution. She moved to the third face, doing the same thing, and moved to the fourth.

She stole a glance at Zachary.

Crash. Bang. Boom.

Zachary looked amazing as always. The car door, not so much. It was dented so badly it was a miracle it was still usable.

Saya turned her gaze back and rapidly flipped the pages. Finally she was done.

“Okay! I’ve got all the solutions!”

Zachary rushed in her direction, the minotaur following closely behind.

“This one!”

Zachary manifested a dot on his finger and pushed it into the rune. When it burst, the whole face went dark.

“Now this one!”

Zachary blocked a giant sword swing and created another manifestation. The second face went dark.

“Here!”

The third face went dark.

“And lastly!”

Before Zachary could deactivate the last rune, he took a hit that shattered the car door. He was knocked off his feet and sent rolling away. “Ah!”

Saya swung her metal pole, striking the minotaur’s outstretched hand holding the sword.

Thud.

It fell to the ground and the minotaur turned its attention to face her instead.

Saya gulped. She retreated quickly.

A pair of horns bulldozed the space next to her. A deadly tail flickered across her vision, inches from her face. It’s rear legs, which were hooves, rumbled the ground and threatened to trample her next.

Suddenly the minotaur froze.

Seizing the opportunity, Saya leveled the metal pole like a spear and thrust it into the minotaurs eye, driving deep, without regret or hesitation. She pushed until it broke through the skull at the back of the eye socket and yanked.

The minotaur went limp.

Saya breathed, and breathed, and breathed. She looked over and noticed Zachary’s hand on the last face of the monolith, the runes completely dark.

His eyes went wide as he rushed over with a worried expression.

“Saya! Are you okay?”

He checked her face and gently held her hands as he examined her clothes for blood, gashes, or injuries. Just in case, he drew a spell. There was no need, though. There was nothing to heal.

“I… I’m fine.”

Zachary sighed with relief.

Saya hugged him.

He was surprised for a moment, but wrapped his arms around her comfortingly.

Ba-thump.

Saya backed up with a rosy expression, full of relief. A strong sense of pride welled up inside of her.

Actually, the sheer amount of pride was strangely strong. Then everything started to hurt.

She collapsed!

“Ow! Ow! What?!”

Zachary’s face flared with worry again, but suddenly he stopped and merely smiled. “Oh. It’s the same thing that’s happening to Jacob.”

[Saya Park, (level null)]

- {Status condition(s): Title-gain evolution (null), body reconstruction (pain), meridian formation (pain), dantian microbiome evolution (nausea), type three alveoli generation (pain), telogen effluvium and hair follicle restimulation (itchiness), neural network reconfiguration (paralysis), Title-gain evolution (null)}

Zachary gave Saya a stick to bite on before referencing his game wiki.

Jacob had triggered his magical awakening after eating a slime. However, Saya must have triggered hers after gaining a title.

{The Prideful. Effect: provides a flat boost of 20 points to power and constitution. Awarded for pummelling a monster that is 10 levels higher.}

Thankfully, with the addition of the title gain, Saya already had seven status conditions, so he didn’t need to prick her with the venom dagger. She had gained those two titles on her own!

While Saya was incapacitated, Zachary butchered the boss as quickly as he could and transferred the whole carcass to his inventory. Then he picked Saya up in a princess-carry.

When he got back to the entrance, Jacob was awake again.

“What happened? What’s wrong with Saya?” he asked.

He appeared completely fine.

Upon seeing him, Zachary let go of all his worries.

“Nothing’s wrong. It’s just the same thing that happened to you.”

Jacob frowned. “And what happened to me? I drank the slime thingy and woke up here.”

“I’ll tell you later,” Zachary’s head swerved to the dungeon entrance. “For now, we’ve got company.”

Bulls started trying to leave the portal like rats deserting a sinking ship. Once again, Zachary used another car door while Jacob dealt the physical damage. When it finally closed, Saya woke up too.

With nothing better to do, the three of them went to a restaurant, ate dinner, and talked.

Zachary explained what had happened when they gained their titles, and explained his theory on why Saya and Jacob had undergone a magical awakening. Of course, it was just a theory until he could ask Agatha about it.

Now that they were all attuned for magic, they were all at the same risk of being dissected by the government. They were all in the same boat and he didn’t have to worry as much about them revealing their secret. Zachary felt relieved, but the other two had some complaints.

They must’ve talked for hours, and none of them felt finished. However, the time was already close to nine o’clock so everyone had to go home.

As Zachary prepared for bed, he found out, to his pleasant surprise, that he could transfer the two remaining bestowal slimes to his inventory.

At ten o’clock he fell asleep.

[End Chapter 30]