“Bro, look. There’s a loot box.” Magnus said with some excitement.

I raised my weary head and looked at where magnus pointed. An old time, domed wooden chest, banded in metal, was rising out of the dungeon floor.

Getting his second wind, Magnus launched himself to his feet and was about to dart over to the chest.

“HOLD” I shouted, before he could just go open it.

“What? It’s bound to be our dungeon rewards,” he said with a perplexed look on his face.

I replied with just one word. “Mimics”

With the light of realization in his eyes, he nodded sagely and asked, “How do you want to test it?”

I pulled out my spear and gestured with it. “First, we poke it, then we open it at a distance. Everyone, stand ready just in case.”

I held my spear by its butt end and carefully stabbed at the chest once it stopped rising from the floor. We waited a minute, but nothing happened. I poked it again, harder. Again, nothing happened.

The chest did not have any latches that I could see holding it closed, so I used my spear to push back the lid. Right as I began pushing the lid back…

“BOOM” Magnus shouted right behind me.

I jumped up, heart beating a mile a minute, and swung around with my spear. Fortunately, Magnus Blocked it with his shield. “Gods damned it, don’t pull that shit, I might put my spear through you for real next time,” I yelled at him.

Magnus chuckled before saying, “Sorry, bro. I couldn’t help it.”

I took a deep breath and pushed the lid open with my spear. As the lid fell open, a brilliant white light shone out of it.

Before I could blink the spots of light from my eyes, a new system prompt filled my vision.

Congratulations Sapients. You have cleared the Hell Beast Dungeon Rank: E

First Clear Bonus: x2 System credits. x2 Crafting Materials.

Loot upgraded from Uncommon to Rare.

First Dungeon Cleared on Earth Bonus: x2 System Credits. x2 Crafting Materials

Loot upgraded from Rare to Epic

Calculating Loot for Party of Four Sapients

Calculating…

Calculating…

Congratulations

You have received:

Embershard x20

Embersteel Ingot x20

Embersteel Summoner’s Staff

Embersteel “Burning Retribution” Shield

Embershard Beast Master’s Collar

Alpha Beast Collar

c20,000

You have received

c5,000

After I cleared the prompt, I saw the four pieces of equipment laying where the chest was a moment ago. Nest to it was a pile of red crystals and a stack of red streaked grey ingots. They looked a bit like layered Damascus, or that Valyrian steel from that Game of Thrones tv show.

I took a moment to use Identify on each item.

Embersteel Summoner’s Staff

Quality: Masterwork

Rarity: Epic

Durability: 70/70

Damage: 14

Weight: 5lbs

Traits: Fire Element Aeons summoned with this staff deal +30% fire damage from special abilities or Spell effects.

Magic effects: Spells channeled through staff +25% summoning duration, -10% mana cost, -25% casting time for summoning spells.

Embersteel “Burning Retribution” Shield

Quality: Masterwork

Rarity: Epic

Durability: 70/70

Defense: 35

Weight: 3lbs

Traits: If the Shield holds absorbed Fire, Shield bashes deal +30 fire damage.

Magic effects: Fire resistance +50%, Fire damage resisted is stored. Stored fire damage can be released in one burst in a 15 ft long, 15 ft wide cone. Max Fire stored = 100 + Shield Skill Rank.

Embershard Beast Master’s Collar

Quality: Masterwork

Rarity: Epic

Durability: 70/70

Weight: 8oz

Magic effects: Place on any animal or beast, automatically brings Beast to Friendly status while equipped, +30% Taming Progression speed. Warning, removing collar before raising actual Taming Progression to Friendly will cause all Taming progress to reset to original state.

Alpha Beast Collar

Quality: Masterwork

Rarity: Epic

Durability: 70/70

Weight: 8oz.

Traits:

Magic effects: this Collar Imbues Tamed beast with the Traits of an Alpha. +4 Strength, +4 Agility, +4 Constitution, +4 Endurance, +20 Defense.

Embershard

Quality: Masterwork

Rarity: Epic

Durability: 14/14

Weight: 5oz

Traits: Mana Crystals Imbued with the Essence of Fire

Embersteel Ingot

Quality: Masterwork

Rarity: Epic

Durability: 56/56

Weight: 1 lb.

Traits: Steel Ingots imbued with the Essence of Fire

Since my Identify was the highest in the group, I shared my results with everyone so I wouldn’t have to describe each item, even though every item was amazing to behold.

I clapped my hands together. “Ok, it looks pretty clear who should get the staff,” I said as I picked it up and handed it to Rowan. “Not only are you the only one of us on the Path of Mana, but you are a Summoner. Any objections?” there were none, so I continued.

“According to the System, they consider Rukia as a tamed beast, and since I’m the only one with a tamed beast, I’ll take the Alpha Collar for her,” I looked around and everyone nodded. I picked it up and put it in my inventory for the moment.

“That leaves the Beast tamer Collar and the shield. Both of you,” I said to Magnus and Cody, “Use the shield. It’s up to you two to sort it out, or you can roll for it,” I pulled out my D20.

“Actually, if you don’t mind Cody, I would like the Collar. I was kinda hoping to come across a boar or, even better, a bear I could tame for a companion pet,” Magnus said.

Cody nodded in thought for a moment before replying. “I’ve never been that great with pets, and I’m happy with Malakai here. So go ahead, that shield looks awesome. It would have been really handy against just about every monster in here, especially that demon.”

I looked around, just remembering that we didn’t loot the Boss yet. My eyes fell on the disintegrating corpse of the demonic boss across the room. “Um… did any one loot the boss?”

Everyone looked at me in confusion before following my gaze and I heard a chorus of “Oh no”, “Shit” and “Shoot” all spoken at the same time. We rushed over to the corpse and, being the fastest except for Rukia, I reached it first and quickly touched it. And got no prompt asking me if I wanted to loot. “Mother fucker” I said.

We missed out on getting dungeon boss loot. Maybe opening the loot chest first was a mistake.

“Damn, that whip, crown, and armor might have been good loot. I wouldn’t have minded turning his horns into drinking horns either as trophies.” Magnus said, sounding dejected at the lost opportunity.

“What’s done is done. Let’s focus on what we already have. Y’all want to go ahead and divide up the loot before we finish up in here?” I suggested.

“But didn’t we already do… that… oh right the loot for the rest of the dungeon” Cody said, then gave himself a facepalm when he realized what I was talking about.

With everyone’s agreement, I pulled out my notebook.

“First off, we have a tome that teaches the fire magic school. Rowan, do you want to learn that, or should we sell it later?” I asked.

Rowan paused and thought about it. “I don’t think I can learn it right now. If what I’m getting from my arcane knowledge skill is right, I can only know one school of magic plus one for every ten points of Intelligence I have. Mine is at twenty-three, so I was lucky to learn the Arcane Magic when I did. Maybe keep it until my intelligence gets to thirty? This is totally harsh realm.”

I looked around and got everyone’s opinion. Magnus gave me a shrug before going back to fiddling with his new collar. Cody gave a thumbs up with a grin at his brother. “Well, we got plenty of credits from all this and have a bunch of crafting components we should probably sell off, anyway. So sure.” I pulled the tome out of my storage ring and handed it over. “You can hold on to it then and use it when you are ready.”

I looked at the list again and went through it, looking for anything that stood out as useful for anyone in particular. “You might as well take the firebolt spell book too, and you already have the flame shield scroll.” I said to rowan as I handed the items over. He was making out like a bandit in this Mana based dungeon.

“We have sixty-three magic beast cores ranging from level five to level nine” I divided up the cores four ways, leaving the two-level nines and a level 7 that I gave to Rowan since as an enchanter and mage, he could get the most use out of.

“The rest of what we have is a bunch of crafting materials. If one of you wants to take on a crafting skill, I’ll happily dump the relevant materials into your storage ring. We have a whole mess of hides, mostly Hellhound and Hellcats, but a few Imp hides. Over a hundred total square yards. Fangs and claws, we have out the wazoo. About two hundred fifty between claws, fangs and horns. Not counting the Manticore materials.”

“I wouldn’t mind learning to make stuff,” Cody said, “But I don’t even know where to start.”

“I think it’d be pretty fire to do some wood carving or something. Make stuff I could enchant once I learned some schema and enchanting glyphs.” Rowan added.

“Hey, Cody. Maybe you can take up leatherworking. John has tools you could use if he doesn’t mind. Most of us are wearing leather armor, and being able to make more that either Rowan can enchant, or John could… um... what do you call it? inscribing, put a formation in or something like that? Doesn’t matter,” Magnus said with a wave of his hand. “It can be enhanced with mana or Ki.”

Cody perked up a bit with the suggested direction. “I could try that. Maybe once we reach another town, I could get a primer or something? Some kind of guide to show me what to do?”

I nodded. “That sounds like a wonderful investment instead of just selling all the mats. Magnus, what about you? You want to learn to craft something?”

Magnus nodded. “I know you have the whole smithing side of things handled, but I wouldn’t mind learning to do some armor smithing, especially if you are focusing on weapon smithing.”

“Sure, if you get a primer or something, I can share the forge with you. What helps one of us, helps all of us. Oh, and before I forget.” I said, while looking back at my list. “Not counting the clearing bonus, we earned four thousand forty credits from the mobs. That’s an easy thousand ten each.” I reached out and shook each of their hands, transferring their share to them.

That left me with just over eight thousand credits, not the most I’ve had in the last week or so, but not too shabby either. “Now since that’s over with, why don’t we finish this quest thing and get out of here? Any objections?”

Rowan actually raised his hand for permission to speak.

“You don’t need to raise your hand. Just speak up.” I said, while suppressing a chuckle.

“Well, you see…” his face dropped in what looked like embarrassment. “I still need to pick my Advanced Class, and wanted to get everyone’s thoughts first.”

Before I could ask what the options were, a window popped up in front of each of us.

Congratulation Mage

You have breached the first threshold level and now have access to your advanced class.

Every sapient on the Path of Mana will receive a minimum of three options to choose from. These options are primarily based on Skill development, but can also be influenced by choices and events since Initialization.

Your Advanced Class options are:

Arcane Researcher (apprentice)

Arcanist (apprentice)

Enchanter (apprentice)

Magus

Summoner (novice)

“They all give lit bonuses and I don’t know which one to pick. What if I pick one and it’s the totally wrong choice?” Rowan asked, anxiety filling his voice.

“It’s ok Rowan. Let’s just take a minute to go over the options, and we can act as a sounding board. I’m sure there is no really bad or wrong choice to make here. Just which ever one feels right to you.” I said.

Rowan nodded, and I selected the first option in bold.

Arcane Researcher (apprentice)

Arcane researchers focus on understanding Magic itself. What it is, how it works and why it does what it does.

Requirements: Knowledge (Arcane) Apprentice tier

Bonuses: + 30% Learning Speed and Retention, -20% Mana cost for Spells from any School of Magic, bonus Percentage to Mana Control equal to Knowledge (Arcane) Skill (gain Mana Control Skill if you do not already possess it), +7 Intelligence.

“Arcane researcher isn’t bad, learning thirty percent faster, that probably translates to increased skill growth, at least with knowledge-based skills. Cheaper spell casting is good too. The plus seven to your intelligence is nothing to sneeze at. That makes your spells hit harder and gives you a bigger mana pool, right?” I asked when I was done with my assessment of the first choice.

“Yes, it would increase my mana pool by almost a hundred, maybe more if the advanced class gives more mana per point.” Rowan answered.

I pulled up the next one, which looked very similar.

Arcanist (apprentice)

Arcanists are specialized mages who focus on the Arcane spell school. Specializing like this grants greater bonuses in this spell school, but gives no bonuses to any other.

Requirements: Arcane Magic School Apprentice tier

Bonuses: +40% spell effect for Arcane Spells, -20% Mana cost for Arcane Spells, Learn Counter Spell, +4 Intelligence, +3 Wisdom

“Looks like every advanced class give seven attribute points, and three bonuses so far. It’s a solid specialization, especially since its your primary direct damage ability.” I said before continuing.

Enchanter (apprentice)

Enchanters are an artisan specialization that specializes in permanent magical enhancements on items instead of the crafting of the item itself.

Requirements: Enchanting Skill Apprentice Tier

Bonuses: +2 Glyphs per item enchanted, +30% enchanting effects, -50% Glyph Mana Cost, +4 Intelligence, +3 Wisdom

“Ok, for a crafting option, this one is solid. But you’ve enchanted nothing and don’t even know any enchantments yet.” I shook my head at this option. “I would love to say go for it, but who would take the enchantment profession when they’ve never even enchanted a single item?” I paused for a moment and thought back to the audiobook I was listening to when the Initialization began. Well, there was one person who would do that.

Magus

The Magus are Mages who, instead of specializing in one school of magic, specialize in gaining as many schools of magic as they can. They are the Jack of all, master of none mages.

Requirements: At least three Schools of Magic known

Bonuses: +1 Maximum Spell school known, +20% spell effects, +10% conductivity of Mana Tools, +5 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom.

I nodded at the Magus class, “This one would let you learn the fire magic right away, all your spells would get a boost, but I have no idea what Mana Tools are,” I shrugged. “it’s a good generalist class. Now for the last but not least, the Summoner Class.”

Summoner (Novice)

Summoners are Mage specialists who focus on creating and Summoning Aeons. A summoner’s Aeon is typically stronger, costs less mana to create, and summon them faster than any other specialist class.

Requirements: Summoning Magic School Rank 10

Bonuses: x2 Duration of Summoned Aeons, -50% casting time, x2 creation points, +3 Intelligence, +4 Wisdom

“What were creation points again? Something to do with creating your Aeons, right?” I asked.

“It is. I never mentioned it before, since it’s always been equal to the Mana. I put into the creation spell. But with this class, ill get double.” He answered.

“So, you can create and upgrade them faster then, right?”

“Faster, yes. But more importantly, it shouldn’t take so much concentration to channel my Mana into the Creation Spell. There have been a few times I almost lost control and barely avoided the backlash.“

“And that one time you were interrupted and got hit with the backlash,” I said, remembering the incident. Rowan’s nose, eyes, and ears all bled from it.

Rowan nodded and shuddered a bit from the memory.

“Well, let’s try to narrow down the choices. Are there any that you don’t like?”

“I always sucked at research projects in school. Studying was never my forte.” Rowan said.

“No problem. We can knock that one off the list. Would you rather focus on one thing or generalize more?” I asked.

“I think getting a bigger bonus would help us live longer than a smaller one that’s more widespread. So not Magus.” He said.

“Now that we have it down to three, which one calls to you more. Ignoring all other factors, which one resonates with you the most?”

Rowan chewed on his bottom lip as he thought for a while. In times like this, it was always my philosophy that the decision was already made. It was fear of the outcome that caused people to be indecisive. I would rather analyze the options, make my choice and act. Deal with whatever consequences that come. Basically, shit or get off the pot. It’s how I got into truck driving. It’s how I’ve lived the latter half of my life and it actually worked out far better than being indecisive ever did, at least until the world ended. Then nothing has really worked out well for anyone.

I looked into Rowan’s eyes and saw the light of realization flash, then the hard look of determination. He made his choice. Then the determination flickered and anxiety tried to rear its ugly head again.

“I like my summoning… but…”

“Then choose Summoner,” I said, cutting him off.

“But what if…”

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is making the choice that feels right. The choice doesn’t have to be the best, it just matters that you choose. Choose your path, then walk it. Deal with whatever lies down that path, good or ill.”

With a resolute thrust of a finger into the window I couldn’t see, Rowan chose his path. And we would walk it together, all of us.