After Olivia shared the skill description there was a unanimous agreement, the skill was a game changer. The Elementals represented a constant source of replaceable team members, ones that didn't take experience points, that couldn't feel pain or fear. It meant that the team had an extra tank, damage dealer or healer depending on the element they were summoned with. A combat, utility, defensive, healing and scouting skill all in one. If Olivia could get her hands on some summon supporting skills, her power would easily double or even triple. They still had no idea what tying peoples fates together meant but unless Olivia died she felt it would be worth it.

With the Boons sorted, the only thing left was the Mysterious Egg, which Michael took out of his Inventory. The Egg looked perfectly normal, for a spherical egg a foot wide. The swirling mixture of greens browns blues and pretty much every other colour you could imagine that covered the surface also stood out somewhat. So, in summary, the egg looked completely abnormal, and somewhat like a rainbow had laid it.

As Michael held the majestic egg, something amazing did not happen, and continued to not happen. Identify showed the eggs name as 'Egg', very descriptive, with a small percentage bar currently showing 0% and zero other details. After a few minutes trying to get the egg to do literally anything, Michael admitted defeat and put the egg back in the inventory, or rather, he tried to. No matter what he, or anyone else did, the egg would not go back into the inventory, which made zero sense, since it had just come from there. The best the team could come up with is that the egg wasn't considered alive until it came out since the Inventory couldn't contain living beings.

Once Michael was done fiddling around with the egg, Olivia got everyone's attention. "Now that we've sorted that out, let's pack up and move out. There's a dungeon a couple miles north of here and I'd like to get there before noon so we can hit at least once today."

Whilst Michael equipped his bow and quiver, the rest of the team got moving quickly, packing up the tent and various equipment they had laying around. The existence of the Inventory, and plenty of previous practice, meant the whole process lasted all of 5 minutes. The team, now including a slightly exasperated Michael carrying an egg bigger than a football, began to make the trek through the jungle, only to stop ten minutes later as Damien discovered a monster up ahead. The monster was a Tier 2 lvl 13 Vine Wolf, a pretty standard type for the area, that looked similar to a regular wolf but made out of vines. There was some debate over whether the monster started as a plant or an animal, but that didn't really concern the group.

Michael had experience with this monster before, though the one he had faced was only Tier 2 lvl 1 and a far cry from the current. Even that beast had been a pain, the monster was fast, flexible and had the ability to control the plants surrounding it. In a forest, this could be quite deadly, so Michael was grateful to have a team of high level people to back me up.

Rather than fight the monster on it's terms, Damien lured it over, once the team was ready. As soon as the creature came into sight, Sam used an Enraging Taunt to attract it's attention, before using a Relentless Charge to close the distance and giving the monster a powerful blow to the head using his shield. The image of a four foot tall dwarf sending a 6 foot tall wolf flying was shocking, and it took Olivia nudging him to snap Michael out of it. Remembering the battle plan they had discussed earlier, he quickly fired an arrow at the wolf, trying out the attached skill of his new bow.

The arrow Michael had nocked glowed a pale blue.

The bowstring thrummed, flying from his fingers faster than his eyes could see.

The arrow disappeared from the string, a blue line appearing in the air between the bow and the wolf.

A crack of thunder sounded right next Michael's ear.

These events might take some entirely hypothetical writer several seconds to write out but they occurred in less time than it would take an equally hypothetical reader to read it.

Michael grimaced, the sound painfully loud right next to his ear, but kept his attention on the fight. The arrow slammed into the wolf center mass, the impact sending the wolf flying backwards into a tree. The arrow wasn't quite enough to kill the monster and Michael was currently using one hand to hold his injured ear, so he shot Magic Missiles at the Vine Wolf until it died.

Tier 2 Lvl 13 Vine Wolf Killed!

Participation: 83%

Experience Gained: 540

Tier Jump Bonus: 200%

Total Experience Gained: 1620

"Well done Michael but we need to move in case the noise attracted a tier three." Olivia said.

The group moved out, putting distance between them and the battlefield as quickly as possible. Once they were a good distance away, Olivia turned Michael. "Okay, we should be safe. Now, what was that back there?"

"The attached skill of my bow, it speeds up my arrow to lightning speeds." Michael answered. "It failed to mention the sonic boom."

"That's unfortunate." Olivia said. "The forest contains mostly low level tier 2's but there are occasional tier 3's that wander in from neighboring regions. If one of those is attracted by one of those sonic booms then we're in some serious trouble. The four of us are close to tier three but we would be hard pressed to escape without a fight and as OP as you might be you likely wouldn't survive a fight like that. The gap between tiers 2 and 3 is much greater than the gap between tiers 1 and 2, so don't use that outside until you're at least mid tier 2, okay?"

"Yeah, sure" Michael said.

"Good. Did you level from that fight?" Olivia asked. Michael nodded "Four times". "Great, apply the AP, the attribute points, and we'll get going." Olivia said.

A quick bit of focus Michael pulled up his Attributes, which gave him a wonderful and wholly unexpected surprise. "Um, I'm going to need quite a bit of time for this" he said.

Olivia looked at him quizzically, "Why?"

"Well, I may have forgotten that I got 20 unassigned AP when I completed the trial."

Everyone froze, before simultaneously turning their heads towards Michael. The stares made him want to apologize, so he did. "I'm sorry, between getting knocked out, the stuff in my inventory and this egg-" Michael held up the egg, attracting their stares for a second, "-I completely forgot about it."

The stares continued for a few seconds before they looked away, each with their own reactions. Sam just gave me a wry grin before shaking his head. Both Damien and Anne pointedly ignored Michael, Damien muttering that he must be cheating and Anne just calling him a 'bloody idiot' under her breath.

Olivia just put her head in her hands for a moment, before removing them with a sigh. "Just add as many as you can for now and leave the rest for when we get there."

Feeling a little guilty, Michael pulled his attribute screen back up and put four points in Magic, bringing it up to 24. The pain was excruciating, and drove him to one knee for a few seconds. The perfect genes achievement, along with the ease brought by higher Attributes, may have made it less painful, but 4 points was still extremely painful. Less painful than having a foot melted by acid, though, so Michael could take it.

Once Michael was up again, they got moving. Another two hours of walking brought them to a hill overlooking the entrance of the dungeon. The dungeon was quite obvious, a vertical circle of stones surrounding a white hazy portal. The giant wolf pack in front of the portal was another good indication of the dungeons presence.

"Relax" Olivia said "This is where mages like myself shine. A field of enemies and no danger of friendly fire, perfect for a magical bombardment. Okay Sam, Firefall set up." Sam groaned "Oh, come on, you know it's the best way to deal with them. Plus, I'll have the elemental help, should go a lot faster than normal."

With that, Sam and the Elemental started casting multiple Earthen Walls around the area, forming a circular wall with one opening facing the Wolves. Olivia's Earth Elemental then used it's Earth Shape and Harden skills to increase the height and strength of the walls.

"Michael, while Sam's busy I want you to finish inputting AP. The stronger you become the faster you can level and the quicker we can get all of this over."

"Oh canter, this is going to suck."

It did. 17 Attribute points took a whole hour to assign and left Michael feeling weak, which was ironic as he had actually/ put a point in Strength. One point in Strength, another six in Magic to get him closer to using portals, five in Vitality to keep him healthy and finally three each in Agility and Perception left Michaels Attributes looking halfway decent.

Attributes

Unassigned Attribute points : 0

Strength 18 Agility 23 Vitality 25 Dexterity 22 Perception 22 Magic 32

It also brought about two new notifications from getting Vitality and Magic to 25.

Congratulations

By raising your Vitality to 25 you have gained the following Trait.

Extra Healthy : Maximum Health is increased by 50% and Health Regen is increased by 25%.

Congratulations

By raising your Magic to 25 you have gained the following Trait.

Magical Storage : Maximum Mana is increased by 50% and Mana Regen is increased by 25%.

Michael grinned, at least the new stats, as well as the boosted Mana capacity, was worth the gruelling Attribute increases.

"Okay, now that Michaels ready and the walls are set up, I'm going to begin. Sam, Damien, get in position. Michael, once the spell starts, feel free to fire at any wolves you can, might get you a level."

Sam and Damien, the first holding two shields and the latter holding a spear, took up position at the gap in the walls, Sam in front and Damien right behind him.

Olivia swigged a blue potion before beginning to chant "Ignair Ostrum Extralus Benath, Ognarum Emani Aramus Manoem". Michael's Perception alerted him to massive amounts of Mana flowing from Olivia and rising into the sky. As The Mana left her, Olivia staggered, only to be caught by Anne. Turning, Michael focused on the massive wolf pack currently occupying the land in front of the Dungeon. The wolves were all Razorclaw Wolves, a species he had met before that had extremely sharp claws capable of cutting through nearly anything.

Michael was focused on the wolves when he noticed the red glow coming from the clouds above the wolves. The wolves also noticed, but it was already too late as a barrage of what looked like fireballs came flooding down through the clouds. The few wolves who had looked up barely had the time to yelp before furious destruction rained down upon them. Each fireball, of which there was about twenty smashed into the ground, or the wolves, like a meteor and burst apart, splashing everything nearby in searing flames. The sheer destruction the spell wrought upon the poor unsuspecting wolves stunned me, so much Michael forgot to even try and fire a magic missile.

Not that it would have made a difference, the wolves were destroyed without a doubt. A few near the edge managed to survive the initial destruction but quickly succumbed to the hellish flames. The whole scene looked like hell had descended on Earth. It also smelled somewhat delicious, but Michael tried not to think about that.

Looking at the source of the destruction, a beautiful woman in her mid-twenties, Michael was suddenly very thankful he wasn't a sexist kind of person. The sudden realisation of his place in this world in relation to this somewhat frail looking woman would have broken Michael if he was.

After a few minutes the team left the temporary encampment they had created, for apparently no reason, and approached ground zero. A few small fires still burned here and there but the majority of the ground was blackened and smoking. The Dungeon Portal was unscathed, apparently immune to damage. Charred corpses dotted the landscape but no-one was going to bother with them, Monster corpses always disintegrated after a while, and these were already halfway there.

"Okay" Olivia broke the silence "Let's go in."

Status Name Michael Volker Age 33 Level 2 Experience 520 / 800 Class None Profession None Path Boundless Adventure Race Human System Credits 10,437 Tier 1 Health 387 / 387 Mana 496 / 496 Health Regen 35 per min Mana Regen 44.8 per min

Attributes

Unassigned Attribute points : 0

Strength 18 Agility 23 Vitality 25 Dexterity 22 Perception 22 Magic 32 Skills General

Basic Alchemy lvl 5

Novice Archery lvl 10

Beginner Camping lvl 7

Beginner Cleaning lvl 3

Beginner Climbing lvl 5

Basic Construction lvl 4

Basic Cooking lvl 6

Novice Dodge lvl 5

Beginner Exploration lvl 8

Basic Farming lvl 2

First Aid lvl 7

Basic Fishing lvl 5

Beginner Herbalism lvl 4

Novice Heal lvl 7

Identify lvl 3

Basic Leatherworking lvl 4

Magic Missile lvl 9

Beginner Mana Manipulation lvl 6

Limb Regeneration lvl 3

Basic Skinning lvl 7

Novice Stealth lvl 9

Beginner Taming lvl 1

Novice Throwing Weapons lvl 7

Beginner Tracking lvl 8

Beginner Trading lvl 3

Basic Trap Making lvl 5

Novice Unarmed Combat lvl 5

Basic Woodworking lvl 7

Affinities Nature 49% Water 32% Light 23% Fire 21% Earth 18% Metal 7% Life 6% Death 5%