Once they were out of the Ruin Michael received three notifications one after the other.

Treasure Gained!

Treasure Hunter Experience Gained: 50

Step Achieved!

You have discovered and (kind of) completed a Mysterious Ruin

Bonus:

Vaguely Mysterious: Gain very basic information on a Mysterious Ruin when in one.

Step Achieved!

You have completed a Tier 2 Mysterious Ruin. Well, not really, but we're going to count it.

Bonus:

1 x Mysterious Package

As soon as Michael absorbed the information from the notifications he checked his inventory and discovered the Mysterious Package within. Pulling it out he was amused to find that it was simply an ordinary box wrapped in question mark wrapping paper. Shrugging, Michael tore open the wrapping paper and opened the box, finding a potion bottle inside. The potion as even more mysterious than the package it came from, the liquid inside swirling and constantly changing colors. Curious, Michael identified the potion.

Anything Potion

A potion that will produce a completely random effect.

Michaels face deadpanned, this was not a good potion. If the potion contained a completely random effect there was absolutely no knowing what could happen. He could gain a dozen levels or die instantly, and the two were equally likely. Granted, his Luck would com into effect so it wasn't completely random. That being said, he wasn't going to rely on 16 luck to not kill him. He really needed to work on his Treasure Hunter Profession, both to get more Luck and to get the Analyse Treasure skill which might give him some more information on the potion. He was still a bit miffed that he couldn't spend AP on Luck, it was like the System thought he was more amusing with terrible Luck.

To illustrate the point, a branch fell on his head.

Whilst Hazel was laughing her head off Michael put the Ring of the Elements on. As he did so a list of options appeared, asking which effect he wanted. Choosing the Wind effect he grimaced as his Agility was suddenly boosted by ten points. His grimace was replaced by a grin as he pulled up the information for the Wind Steps spell.

Wind Blade

Tier 2, Level 10, Wind Elemental Spell, Temporary.

100 Meter Range, 25 Mana Cost.

Unleash a blade of wind, dealing 100 Damage.

Michael smiled, he couldn't wait to see what the infused version would do. Figuratively speaking though, Michael and Hazel had an appointment to meet first. Now that he had the Mana it was finally time to try his Portal ability. Activating the skill Michael was asked for a destination. Michael tried to bring up Michigan but it didn't work, just as Michael had expected. Shrugging, Michael put in Benneton, picturing the square just in front of the mayors house, and activate the skill.

Normally when Michael activated a spell or a skill he felt a pull, originating from deep within his soul. This time it didn't feel like a pull, it felt like the Mana was ripped from him, as if his soul was hollowed out in the space of a second. As a glowing circle of pure blue light formed from thin air Michael collapsed to his knees, the unusual and quite uncomfortable pain being a tricky one to get a hold on.

Michael blinked away the pain and stood back up, smiling as he saw the portal. He moved to enter it but a notification popped up.

Warning!

The action you are about to take will violate the restrictions of your Quest.

Michael was dumbfounded. He pulled up his notifications and stared at the warning and got dumbfounded-er.

"What Quest?!"

As if answering his cry, a loud chime rolled through the sky.

Congratulations Humanity!

Thanks to the tireless efforts of your entire race you have fulfilled the criteria for a Tier 2 Civilisation!

As a Tier 2 Civilisation you have unlocked the following:

The Party System

The Quest System

Town Dungeons

Keep working hard to advance your civilisation and unlock even more!

P.s. Due to the unsatisfactory reaction to the Cursing Filter a modification has been made.

Michael's jaw was currently on the floor, but he picked it up long enough to ask a stupid question. "Was that because of me?"

700 miles away on the in the middle of a Dungeon a Paladin named Rando had just succeeded in killing the Dungeon Boss, single-handedly, and gained enough experience to level and had finally reached the third Tier. That, along with the loud notification, should have had him over the moon. Yet for some reason he had an irrepressible urge to smack an idiot. He had no idea why, or even who the idiot was but dismissed it when the feeling faded as soon as it came.

The idiot in question wasn't paying attention and was currently looking at a Quest. As soon as he heard about the Quest system he remembered the incident that had come about when he upgraded his Archery skill. Three voices had apparently discussed his fate and the fate of his skill and they had mentioned that they would be giving him a quest. When nothing came of it he had thought nothing further on it, but the warning about violating the quest along with the notification about unlocking the Quest system had made him check immediately.

And now he was staring at this quest.

Prove Your Worth!

Skill Quest.

Prove that you are worthy of wielding the Maglavin Way of the Bow.

Clear Conditions:

Kill 1000 Monsters (267/1000)

Kill 10 Higher Tier Monsters (0/10)

Complete a Third Tier Dungeon Solo(0/1)

Time Limit: 99 Days (81 Days Remaining)

Rewards:

???

???

???

Variable Class Experience

Failure Conditions:

Use any other Weapon other than a Bow

Enter a Town or City

Enter into a Party

Finally Michael slumped. "____"

He frowned. "What the ____ ?" His frown deepened but his eyes rose, until he was looking to the sky. "Oh come on! You're really going to do this to us? You _____"

Hazel looked at Michael confused. He looked like he was trying to say something but nothing came out, he just ended up mouthing the words. He did seem upset about something. She was about to say something when a dwarf popped out of the Portal, making her jump. She leapt to her paws, and was about to leap onto the dwarf, when she realized she knew this one. A quick sniff confirmed a familiar scent, at which point she naturally leapt onto the dwarf, as she had planned, but refrained from biting him. Friends don't bite. A silly human custom but one she would follow as people seemed to get awfully flustered when she gave them playful nips.

She was busy pondering on the silliness of humans, and dwarves, when she realised the dwarf seemed to be saying something, or trying to anyways. She lifted one of her forelegs from his face only to find that he wasn't actually saying anything, just mouthing a bunch of words. Shrugging, Hazel put her paw back.

Then a human popped out of the portal, this time catching the attention of Michael. "Damien?"

Damien sheathed the shortsword he was holding and frowned. "Michael? What are you doing in the Town Dungeon?"

Michael looked confused. "What do you mean, Town Dungeon?"

Now it was Damien's turn to look confused. "That Town Dungeon?" he said, pointing at the portal. "It opened when the Notification went up mentioning Town Dungeons. How did you get here? Actually, scratch that. Where's Sam?"

"No idea where Sam is but that's not the Town Dungeon, it's my portal ability. I actually opened it just before the Notification." Michael answered.

Damien looked at the Portal. "Oh, that makes sense. So you finally got off your lazy ass and got around to getting a portal sorted. Olivia's been ______ that you've been avoiding her." Damien frowned. "Wait, what the? ____. _____. ____ ____ ____. Oh, that's what that meant."

Michael sighed. "Yeah, I figured that out just before you got here. I'm guessing a lot of people were having fun with it, like us, and Gaia didn't like it."

The two shared a moment, feeling the loss of a shared hobby. Then Michael asked "Why did you ask about Sam? I haven't seen him since I left."

Damien looked around. "The little idjit came a few seconds before I did. You sure that portal is just between here and Benneton?"

Michael nodded. "Yeah, the description would mention if it was a three way portal." He looked around and finally noticed Hazel lying on the ground a few feet from the portal. Looking closer he spotted the tips of boots sticking out from under her. "Hazel, are you playing 'hide the dwarf' again?"

Hazel gave the most innocent look a bear could, not very, and shook her head.

Michael folded his arms. "Hazel" he said, trying to project as much authority into his voice as possible.

It wasn't a lot but Hazel didn't have the heart to tell him that, so she stood up revealing a very annoyed dwarf.

"____ ____, you great big _____ _____ bear, I told you not to do that. _______________________________________."

Michael and Damien were standing side by side, watching the sometimes mute dwarf. Michael leaned over to Damien and said "You know, I kind of get Gaia's sense of humor." Damien just nodded.

The dwarf finished his tirade and looked around, spotting Michael and Damien. He then looked over at the portal before looking back at Michael and Damien. They could practically see the gears in his head working. "Aha." He pointed a finger at the Rogue. "I told you it wasn't the ____ Town Dungeon."

"You look like a bearded goldfish when you swear." Damien said.

Sam was struck speechless by the response, so he turned to Michael. Before he could say anything Michael said "It's true."

Sam deflated and, without saying another word, left through the Portal.

Damien grinned and turned to Michael. "You coming?"

Michael sighed. "No. I've got a quest that stops me from going into Towns."

Damien stared at him for a moment before walking back towards the portal, muttering about crazy chosen ones. Before he could go through he was bowled over by a bundle of fury, in the shape of a _____ off Olivia, coming the other way.

Michael saw Olivia charging towards him and he tried to say something but had a hard time talking when she buried a fist in his face. Olivia was a Mage, her speciality was Magic rather than Strength, but a woman's anger was a powerful weapon and Michael was sent flying head first into a tree.

Michael stood up, a feeling of intense pain radiating from his jaw. "Ai twiwd twoo, han ownn. winow wheaw." The spell healed him, fixing his jaw. "Ow. I see you've been increasing your Strength. Sorry I haven't been able to get back, I literally just got the Mana to do it."

Olivia stared at hm for a second before turning around and walking over to Hazel to give her a hug. "Hey Hazel, how've you been, I've missed you. Did you play 'hide the dwarf'? Sam was looking upset over something when he came through but he wouldn't say what it was. I know you like the game but I don't think he does."

Michael felt lost but translated for Hazel, the bear not being able to speak to others yet. "Hazel says she missed you too. She also says humans and dwarves have too many rules, but she'll stop playing 'hide the dwarf' if Sam tells her to stop. She also says she has no idea why he was upset but it had nothing to do with us." Hazel swatted at him. "Fine, it has nothing to do with her."

Olivia gave Michael a look, before turning back to Hazel and pointedly ignoring him and giving Hazel a good scratch. Michael sighed, "If it helps, I got a quest about four days after leaving that meant I couldn't go back into Towns anyways."

That got Olivia's attention. "You have a Quest already? And you got it over two weeks before the Quest system even unlocked." She sighed. "If it was anyone else I'd call ________- argh!. I mean I'd call you a liar, but knowing you it's probably true."

Michael gave a hapless shrug. "I'm sorry for not getting the portal skill worked out sooner, I didn't -" Michael stopped in mid-sentence. While he had been talking Damien had left through the Portal which had snapped shut behind him (A/N Portal Transfer lasts 24 hrs or until the Mana is used up. With Sam using it twice, Damien once, Olivia once and then Damien again, all the Mana ha been used up). "Ummm, whoops?" Michael said hastily, having already started running. Olivia's angry face had come back.

Olivia eventually calmed down, after smacking Michael several times. The two were currently sat around a campfire, Michael busy roasting some meat from a surprisingly tasty Monster named Manglethrunt. The monster looked like a hideous cross between a Boar and a Cockroach but the meat was surprisingly tasty once you got past the purple color of it. He had come across a whole nest of them a week earlier and had almost a hundred kilos in his inventory.

The delicious food, along with a bottle of wine he had been saving, had mollified Olivia somewhat and Hazel had done the rest. No one was immune to her puppy dog looks. They started chatting, catching up on what had happened during the last three weeks. Olivia spent a solid five minutes complaining about the bureaucratic mess Mark had left behind, Michael timed it, and Michael explained about the origins of the quest he had received. He also talked about what had happened in the Mysterious Ruin, which had disappeared after Michael completed it, and the two of them speculated what it meant. They figured most of the stuff out, that at some point in the future people would get the opportunity to hire people and that somehow Michael would be able to hire Strumen. They disagreed on the specifics though. Michael thought they would get hiring capabilities when the civilisation hit a higher Tier, likely Tier three or four, but Olivia argued that it made more sense for it to be when an individual gets to a higher Tier, similar to how Classes and Professions were only unlocked when they got to Tier two.

They also argued about how Strumen was supposed to be hirable. Olivia argued that since all Dungeon Monsters respawned then it made sense that Mysterious Ruin Monsters did as well so obviously he'd still be alive at that point. Michael thought differently. Even though Strumen had identified as a Monster he didn't feel like one. Michael had the idea that Strumen wasn't Strumen, that the Strumen the Elemental Warmonger he'd met was more like a puppet or an avatar and the person controlling Strumen was who he might hire.

Other than arguments that weren't going anywhere the two simply enjoyed the company. Since Michaels ability had a 24 hr cooldown there was nothing either could do but wait. They decided to set up camp there for the night, the presence of the Mysterious Ruin had apparently kept the nearby area relatively free of Monsters so it was peaceful. As afternoon turned into night Olivia retired to her tent, which she had fortunately never taken out of her Inventory. Michael stayed up, both to keep watch and simply because he didn't really need to sleep. The higher his Vitality became the less he needed sleep, by the time he reached 25 points he needed less than five hours.

Michael was sitting, leaning against Hazels warm side as he often did, when she started a conversation.

[Dad?]

[Yes my self appointed daughter?] Michael said.

[Are you going to mate with her?] Hazel asked.

It was a sad thing that Michael hadn't been drinking at that moment, the spit-take would have been amazing. [What? Why would you say that?]

[You want her as a mate don't you?] She asked. [She clearly wants you, so why not mate with her? I'll leave for a while if you want privacy.]

Michael stared in horror at his daughter/bear companion. Then he pushed past the sheer awkwardness of the conversation and actually gave it some thought. Yes, he did find Olivia attractive, and according to Hazel the attraction was two way, but he wasn't sure. He could give a thousand reasons not to, like his constant travel and the fact that he had actually spent very little time with her, but he could also give reasons for it. In the end he decided he'd leave it, at least for now.

[You don't have to go anywhere Hazel, I'm not going to be 'mating' with Olivia]

[Why not?] Hazel asked.

Michael sighed. [It's complicated]

Hazel shook her head. [Humans are silly, aren't they]

Michael shrugged. [Yeah, we kind of are.]