After his laughter wore off, Michael decided to identify the soap. He really hoped it would have some sort of special effect, and the dungeon didn't use up his entire reward on soap simply because he needed it that much.

Cleansing Soap

Tier 2, Unique Quality

Effect 1 : Spend 10 Mana to clean any object.

Effect 2 : Spend 100 Mana to cleanse any object.

Effect 3 : Spend 1000 Mana to purify any object.

Michael was lost, he had no idea whether this was a good item or not. He therefore had no idea whether to feel insulted over his personal hygiene or not. The three effects seemed to do the same thing, with only a slight deviation on wording, but the Mana cost went up with each one, implying that they had some sort of ridiculous effect. He had no idea what though. Shrugging, he decided to ask the team for any ideas, and leave cursing the dungeon until later. Taking the Cleansing Soap he left the reward room, though not before using the soap to come out sparkling clean. Funnily enough, the soap actually did make him sparkle as it worked it's magic and made him cleaner than he'd ever been.

Taking stock, Michael decided to apply the AP from his level ups, both Ranger and Treasure Hunter. Pulling up his Attributes, he planted three into Strength, bringing it up to 25 and the remaining three into Magic bringing it up to 49. As he did so he felt some pain from the increase and joy from the notifications that popped up.

Congratulations!

By reaching 25 in Strength you have gained the following Trait.

Resonance : Melee strikes have a 5% chance to gain the Resonance effect, completely bypassing armor.

Congratulations!

By reaching 25 in all Base Attributes your race will evolve to : Mana Attuned Human

Evolution will now commence.

Michael would have been surprised by the last line, if he hadn't lost consciousness almost immediately. This wasn't because he was in immense pain, though he would have been, if he were conscious. The lack of consciousness was a protective measure enacted by the System to ease the evolution process. The process wasn't pretty, as Mana restructured the cells of Michaels body it also expunged the impurities within, creating a putrid mess around his body.

As Michael came to a minute later, he almost lost consciousness, again, from the sheer smell. Feeling faint and fighting a desire to regurgitate his last meal, which might be an improvement over the smell, he grabbed the Soap and activated the first effect, again and again. First on himself, then on his armor, clothes, himself, floor, the air around him and finally himself again. Deciding it wasn't enough, Michael ran up to the portal out and dove through it, completely ignoring the fact that it shouldn't work like that.

Once outside and breathing fresh air he slumped to the floor and started crying tears of relief whilst staring at the sky.

"Umm, are you alright?"

Tilting his head, Michael spied the rest of the team staring at him, concerned looks on their faces. Returning his gaze to the sky, he replied "Found out what happens when you get to 25 in each of the base stats, I'd suggest getting rid of your sense of smell first." After a few moments of enjoying the fresh air Michael checked what his new Race did.

Mana Attuned Human - Tier 2 Race

A human who has gone through the first major stage of Mana refinement, altering their body to become more in tune with Mana.

10% less food/water needed, Mana Regen Increased/Decreased depending on Ambient Mana levels, Healing effects on self are increased by 25%, further abilities restricted due to low Civilisation Tier

Michael looked at the information, slowly processing it. Less food and water was nice but not really useful, there was always something he could hunt and his dungeon perk made it obsolete. The Regen modifier sounded nice, he had asked the AI about all the Mana and apparently ambient Mana levels would be anywhere between two and five times higher for a while in the wake of the Mana Wave. It meant that Dungeons would refresh within a day rather than a week, and apparently Mana Attuned humans would have massive increases in Mana Regen. Checking his Mana Regen it had doubled. At this rate he was wondering if he shouldn't have become a Mage, with his Mana Regen he could have been a gatling gun with spells instead of bullets. Buty no, he loved his bow too much to do so. Besides, he was already ridiculously overpowered for his level.

After spending a few more moments recovering he explained what had happened to his teammates and shared a copy of the Race description. They were suitably impressed by the description, and decided to try and get there as quick as possible. Olivia was closest, just lacking Agility and Strength. Even everyone was a higher level than Michael, the sheer magnitude of his free AP from his Path had put him ahead on this aspect. The Attributes they favored however, were much higher than his. Olivia and Anne had Magic at over 60, Same had Vitality at nearly 70 thanks to his racial advantage and Damien had both his Dexterity and Agility at 50+. Michael was essentially a jack of all trades compared to their specialized experts, he was a little good at everything but they beat him, easily, in the areas they specialized in. He was catching up though, now that he was levelling. It seemed that the System tended towards attribute specialisation, which made the Racial Evolution confusing.

Leaving the conflicting facts behind, Olivia began a debrief. They discussed everything that had happened in the Dungeon, from Michaels performance to potential ways their skills could synergise with his. The discussion wasn't a long one, Michael didn't really have skills that synergized well with the rest. His most directly dangerous skill, Poison Spores, was a friendly fire hazard. Other than that, the rest of his skills had no real effect, good or bad, on the team. It made sense, Rangers were often depicted as singular agents, rarely teaming up with anyone except perhaps an animal companion. Until Michaels egg hatched, it was currently at 43%, that meant his class didn't really play well with others.

Anne was surprisingly quite astute with her observations. Despite looking, and sometimes acting, like a bit of an airhead, she was apparently something of a tactics genius. After giving her a run down of his skills she came up with a few ideas that left Michael stumped, like combining Healing Sap and Spell Arrow to create a ranged version of the spell. Granted, the target would have to get hit by an arrow for it to work but any damage would be healed by the spell anyways. She even suggested using blunted arrows to deliver the heal with minimal damage. The whole conversation had really made Michael look at her in a new light.

Having finished the debrief they went on to compare loot. The team had a tradition, weirdest loot bought drinks. In the past they'd had everything from a suspicious looking yellow potion that gave a Mana Regen buff, and that no one wanted to drink for fear of the origin, to a pair of bunny slippers that ensured peaceful sleep. Michael agreed to the game, though he already knew he would end up buying drinks, nothing beat a bar of soap. They each revealed their loot, with Michael asking to go last. Damien, Anne and Olivia had relatively normal items, a half-decent dagger, a pair of gloves and a set of five healing potions respectively. The items were actually quite decent, though not as good as their current gear. Sam actually gave him a run for his money, his item being a gambeson with decent stats and an incredible effect that increased the potency of healing spells on the wearer. Neither the item nor the effect was particularly weird, but the name sure as shift was. Puppy Love.

When the team everyone heard the name they burst out laughing, Puppy Love catching even Olivia off guard. They were still laughing when Michael pulled out Cleansing Soap. Rather than laughs he got confused looks.

"Hey Michael, I know you stink, but do you really need to start washing right here and now?"

Michael shot Damien a dirty look. "No, it's my loot"

"Hah, even the dungeon thinks you stink!" Damien once again burst into laughter, but the rest of them shot him looks.

"Is there anything special about the soap?" Olivia asked curiously. With the first clear and full clear bonuses she didn't believe the dungeon would give out a normal bar of soap.

Rather than answering, Michael shared the items description. This got quite the reaction, both Sam and Anne almost simultaneously asking if they could borrow it. Damien went stony faced, grumbling about broken people.

Olivia gave Michael a questioning stare, before asking him "Do you know what these effects do?"

"Apart from the first one, not really. I was hoping you would have some ideas."

Olivia looked back at the description thoughtfully. "As you say, first ones obvious. The Cleanse effect should have to do with poisons right Anne? Right. It might be useful against any debuffs though that's a bit too strong if it's true. As for the Purify effect, I'm not sure but I have a few ideas I'd like to test when we're somewhere safe, if that's okay with you?" Michael nodded "Great, thanks. Now, who wins weirdest loot? Puppy Love or a bar of soap?" They argued for a while, but eventually Puppy Love won out. The name was just too hilarious.

With everything from the Dungeon sorted they moved on, after a quick clean thanks to Michael new item. The next Dungeon was seven miles to the North, though it was more like ten with the circuitous route they took. Even a year after the Manapocalypse, there were still areas too dangerous to venture into. They were halfway there when Damien appeared in front of the Group with an excited look on his face.

"Boss, I found it. The Bösegroot" He said excitedly.

"Seriously? Any of Marks guys in the area?" Olivia asked.

"Nope, completely clear."

"Perfect, let's go. Hopefully we can get the boss before they get wind of it." The team immediately hurried up, following Damien.

Along the way Olivia explained. The Bösegroot was a local Field Boss, similar to the Alpha Wolf they had just faced but roaming around outside. Like a Dungeon boss they respawned regularly, though only once a week. The spot the spawned was always random, though usually somewhere nearby. Since its discovery it had mostly been monopolized by Mark and his men. When he asked what was so important about it, Olivia explained that the field boss not only gave out multiple items but there was about a 10% chance of it giving out a Town Token. The token was the exact same one that founded Turkton, and whilst another town couldn't be founded within 20 miles of it (System rules), it could be traded in to the System store to build any single building without spending any resources.

Thanks to his monopoly Mark had already built a Mayor's Mansion, a Tavern, a Restaurant and a Bathhouse. Mark and his men controlled those establishments and charged everyone exorbitant prices to use them. This sort of dictatorship really should have been penalised by the System, but unless Mark directly harmed one of his citizens or denied them access to infrastructure then he could get away with metaphorical murder. If Olivia could get her hands on a token however, then she'd be able to build an actually useful building, like an Crafters Hall for the Professionals, which was what they called those who preferred their Professions over fighting.

A few seconds later they found themselves at the edge of a large clearing, with an incredibly odd shaped 30 foot tree in the middle of it. Then the massive tree moved. Michael jumped, surprised by the movement, and equally surprised to find the Field Boss was plant based rather than animal like he was used to. Now that he realised what it was, the weird shape made sense. The split trunk was it's legs, all three of them, and the twisted together branches were its four arms.

Olivia ran through how the battle would go. The Boss had a passive ability to control the plants in a massive area around it. This meant that in the clearing everyone would be slowed down as the grass gripped their feet. It also meant they had to be in the clearing or else the trees around them would start attacking them, which was essentially a death sentence to all but the toughest of them.

The bosses two other skills were Root Spear and Regrowth. Root Spear was a ranged skill that repeated every thirty seconds and targeted one person at random if they were more than five meters away. Regrowth was a ridiculous healing skill that occured when the Bosses health reached 10%. The Skill took 30 seconds to channel, during which it was immune to debuffs, and would heal it back up to 100% as soon as it finished. As soon as the Bösegroot started channeling Regrowth they needed to do as much damage as quickly as possible to try and kill it before the channelling finished.

The team moved out, Sam taking the lead with a Charge. The dwarf slammed into the Bösegroot shield first, staggering it, as the rest of the team started preparing their opening skills. Damien dropped into stealth, Anne hit Sam with a Solar Blessing, a HoT (A/N heal over time) that also enhanced Vitality when in the sun. Olivia hit the Bösegroot with Heartburn, a DoT (A/N Damage over Time) that reduced Health Regen. As for Michael he decided to try out imbuing Poison Spores into an arrow. He wasn't sure what it would do, or if the Bösegroot would take much damage, but it was worth a shot.

As he imbued the spell the arrow turned a sickly green. He fired the arrow at the Boss, which was currently attacking Sam. The arrow struck true, but didn't seem to actually do anything, leaving Michael confused. Using Identify Michael got lucky and got the Bosses information first time.

Bösegroot

Tier 2, Level 15, Field Boss

4546/4600 Health, 345 (460) Health Regen

Current Debuffs : Heartburn, Poison Spores Arrow

Focusing on the Poison Spores Arrow brought up its information, which left Michael literally flabbergasted. Using the Poison Spores spell with Spell Arrow had been expensive, costing 300 Mana, but the effects were completely worth it.

Poison Spores Arrow

Gain 1 stack of Mildly Poisoned per second for 1 Minute. Does not stack.

Michael tried to figure out how much damage it would eventually cause but lost track pretty quickly. He knew it would be hundreds, if not thousands of points of damage though (A/N 2,370). If it had been able to stack then he would have simply kept firing Poison Spores Arrows and let the overwhelming cumulative damage destroy it. Then again, even with his rediculeous Mana Regen he would still need to wait between shots for his Mana to build up enough. While he waited for his Mana he kept firing arrows, doing whatever he could to chip the Bosses Health down.

During all this the rest of the team hadn't been idle. Olivia had summoned a Fire Elemental and the two of them had been literally laying down fire on the Boss, making Sams job hell. As the Tank he had several skills designed to draw aggro but he had to use all of them constantly to keep the Boss' attention. He had slipped up a few times, but managed to regain aggro quickly. Damien had been popping in and out every now and then, popping his skills in a quick burst before disengaging back into stealth. Anne had been keeping up the healing with incredible ease, incredible since the Bösegroot was dealing over a hundred damage with each hit and it's attack speed was not slow.

The damage output of the group was insane, the boss had already lost 2000 Health after thirty seconds had passed. At the thirty second mark the Bösegroot slammed its arm into the ground and pulled out a massive root, seven feet in length and a foot thick. As it lifted it, the root molded itself, straightening out and forming a needle thin point. Taking aim at Olivia it threw the Root Spear at blinding speeds, but Olivia had long since dodged out of the way, its movements foreshadowing its intent clearly. The rest of the fight didn't even last long enough for a second Root Spear. As Michaels Poison Spores Arrow started to really ramp up in damage the Bösegroots Health started dropping even faster.

When it reached ten percent the Boss slammed its four arms into the ground, releasing a shockwave that knocked Sam and Damien backwards ten feet, before it started glowing a light green. The Regrowth skill removed all the debuffs on the Bösegroot, slowing Michaels damage output immensely but also removing any need to conserve Mana. Michael immediately started pelting the boss with Magic Missile infused arrows, dealing considerable damage. His damage was nothing compared to Olivia's though. Activating a buff that increased her Fire Elemental damage she started chain casting fireballs, the barrage absolutely battering the Boss. The sheer firepower pouring out of the woman even started a few spontaneous fires on the ground around her.

The poor tree lasted 12 miserable seconds.