After the Boss fell, silence descended the three companions. Michael had gained so much from that last fight; a level in both his Profession and his class as well as an extremely useful recipe. Despite all that, he failed to feel any happiness, only apprehension. With the death of the Vitr Einvaldskonungr came the deadline for Jellys choice, a subject they had very specifically not talked about.

Within moments of the Boss’s death Hel’s angel made her appearance, the being approaching with a semblance of respect rather than trying to scare Michael like she would normally. Whether this was because the angel was genuinely being respectful of the solemnity of the group or simply because she had gotten bored of the prank, Michael had no idea.

“Greetings once again.” The angel said, again ignoring Michael and Hazel and focusing solely on Jelly. “When I stated you had until the Vitr Einvaldskonungrs death I had believed I was giving you several days to decide, but it seems you have exceeded my expectations.”

“Hazel and I helped.” Michael supplied from the sidelines, only to be ignored completely.

“Tell me, young one, what have you chosen? Will you travel to the Isaz Sect and fulfil your glorious destiny under the guidance of my mistress Hel, or will you stay here with these mewling man apes and forever be treated as little more than a pet?”

“Hey!” Michael shouted angrily. “Jelly is not a pet nor do I tre-”

“Michael!” Jelly cut off Michaels indignant protests with a sharp bark before turning to the angel. “I have some questions, if I may?”

The angel nodded her assent.

“If I were to go to this sect and complete the training but fail to pass the trial, what will become of me?” Jelly asked, his face neutral.

The waved her hand, as if dismissing any fears the Demi-Human might have. “You need not worry, with your natural talents and the prowess you have already shown the likelihood that you fail is almost nil.”

“Please, humor me.”

“Very well, if you should fail then you will either be placed somewhere in the sect depending on the level of expertise you display in the trial or, in the absolute worst case, you will be returned here to this backwater planet.”

Jelly nodded. “Thank you for answering my questions. I have made my decision, I will be going with you to the Isaz Sect.” The angel smiled and snuck a gloating glance at Michael, right up until Jelly continued “And after the training I will be return here.”

The angels head snapped to Jelly in disbelief. “What? Return here? Why?”

Jellys face finally lost its impassiveness, a small smile breaking out. “Without this mewling man ape-” “Hey!” “-I would never have gained a soul, nor would I have gained the Source of Frost. To say that he has given me everything would be an understatement. I will not pay that back by abandoning him.” Jellys eyes were firm with resolve. “Besides, he needs all the help he can get so he doesn’t die doing something stupid.”

“Oh, come on! I’m not that bad, right?” Michael looked to Hazel for support, but the bear was suddenly very interested in studying the roof. The betrayal stung.

The angel studied the three for a moment, her expression as cold as ice. “Very well. If that is your decision, then I cannot force you to be smart but know this; you will never get this chance again. Is this human worth it?”

Jelly looked at the angel, his face as serious as the grave. “It doesn’t matter if he’s worth it, this decision is not about him. I owe him, and I will repay my debt.”

The angel stared at Jelly for a moment before turning towards Michael for the first time. “Did you have any part in swaying his decision?”

Michael shook his head like a dog shaking off the rain. “Not even a little. I swear on my bow.”

The angel stared at him briefly, as if trying to see into his soul, before she sighed and turned to Jelly. “Very well, I will respect your decision, even if it is the wrong one. At the very least I can respect your loyalty, however misplaced it may be. Go through the portal, receive your treasure and proceed through the exit portal. I’ve altered it to transport you to the Isaz Sect, where someone will be waiting for you.”

Jelly nodded. “Thank you. Despite what I have said I am grateful for this opportunity.”

The angel looked at Jelly, her gaze carrying unspoken thoughts. With a final shake of her head, Hel’s angel disappeared like a thief on a hacked security camera, leaving the trio standing around awkwardly.

Michael broke the silence. “Thank you, Jelly, for what you said, but you’re wrong; you don’t owe me anything. You gaining a soul was pure luck, in no way my intention. Thanking me would be like thanking a sword for helping you kill something.”

Jelly looked at him confusedly “You would not be grateful to your weapons for aiding you in battle?”

“No.” he paused. “Well, I probably would-”

“It does not matter. As I told the angel, this is not about you. Whether there is a debt or not, I feel indebted towards you and I will repay my debts. That is the kind of being I choose to be. From the very moment of conception, I have had no choice in what I would do, in what kind of being I would be. Now that I have the choice, this is what I choose. Please accept that.”

Michael stayed silent for a moment, thinking over what Jelly had said. He’d been worried that Jelly had been making him out as some sort of savior when in reality he was not, he was just a guy with a bow.

“Fine, I’ll accept it, but let’s up the ante. Since you feel you owe me some sort of life debt and I feel you owe me nothing, how about I give you a skill awakening. That way I can acknowledge the debt and you just add it to the tab, deal?”

Jelly looked confused. “I agree to the proposal, but what is a skill awakening?”

With a smile, Michael activates the ability he had gained from the Advanced System Boon weeks prior. Skill Awakening let him ‘awaken’ a skill in another person, giving that person a unique skill that perfectly suited their needs. Olivia had gotten a summoning skill, one that let her defeat the corrupt Mark Turk with relative ease.

Activating the ability, a golden cascade of lights emerged from his body and flooded Jellys, the golden motes of light slipping into the Demi-Human like rain in the desert. When the light show finished Jelly was left with a brand new skill.

Jelly was slightly freaked out. He trusted Michael but the sudden explosion of gold lights was a surprise to say the least. When he saw the skill however, he completely forgot all that. Ice Manipulation did exactly what it said on the box, it let Jelly manipulate ice.

It sounded simple yet contained a lot of power. For someone like Jelly, who had dozens of ice spells at his beck and call, the skill was impossibly practical. For instance, the Swirling Snowstorm spell that had been useful in the last fight could be altered to encompass a smaller area with enhanced damage or spread out or, with a high enough skill level, Jelly could even take manual control of the spell and bend it to his will like a true mage.

Once he was done looking over the skill Michael had given him, Jelly looked at the man in question. “I, uh … thank you, Michael. You did not need to do that but thank you anyways.”

Michael smiled. “Don’t thank me just yet, the gift comes with strings attached. After I go and make sure my big sister is okay, I’m planning on getting together a team, with the idea to someday make a guild. Specifically, an Adventurers Guild. I want to explore the world, see everything it has to offer, and then travel the universe. To do that, I’ll need more than just me and Hazel. So, to repay me for the skill, and the soul, I’d like you to go, take all the training the sect has to offer and, six months from now, come back and join me in kicking ass and taking names. Sound good?” Michael held his hand out, ready to seal the deal.

Jelly stared at his hand for a second, then looked up at him. “That does sound agreeable, though I’m not quite sure why we would take names, or what we would do with them. Do you have some sort of skill that gives you power when taking another's name? Is that why you are so powerful?”

Michael cringed, dropping his hand. “No, it’s a metaphor. It means, ah never mind, moments gone. Just know that when you get back here there will be a whole lot of adventures ahead of us, I guarantee it.”

Jelly smiled. “I am looking forward to taking the names of those whose asses we kick.”

When Michael entered the treasure room he was on his own, as was usual for dungeons. He was a little sad, Jelly had only been with them for a few days but he had gotten used to his quite presence.

Still, it would only be another six months before he got to see him again, and Michael had a lot to do before then. Well, he really only had the one thing, finding his sister, but considering his journey up until now he was probably going to get massively waylaid. Of course, he still had the annoying quest to finish but that was almost finished already. The cross tier kills had been done days ago, the dungeon he was about to finish, and the 1000 kills were just a matter of time.

Thinking about the possibility of a decent meal and a proper bed on the horizon buoyed his spirits and, with a bit of excitement, Michael approached the rewards chest. The chest was made of Ice this time, crystal clear ice that Michael would have sworn was glass if not for the cold frosting the air around it.

Placing is hand on the chest a notification appeared.

Congratulations!

100% Dungeon Completion - Reward upgraded

First time Completion - Reward upgraded

Highest amount of Damage Dealt - Reward upgraded

Most Monsters killed - Reward upgraded

Dungeon Quest Completed - Reward upgraded

Optional Dungeon Quest Complete – Reward Upgraded

The chest, which still looked absolutely empty from the outside, popped open to reveal an ordinary skill book. The book, despite the inherent wonderfulness surrounding all skill books, was so plain it was boring. The book was plain brown leather, and not even magical leather, with the title written in small yet easy to read letters. There were no flourishes, no glowing letters or sparkles when Michael picked it up. Even his Mana Sense failed to determine anything about this skill book. If it wasn’t that Identify confirmed that it was a skill book it could have easily been the sort of book that gathers dust in a library somewhere, the cover practically screaming the books boring nature.

Michael was so excited. He knew better than most that often a boring exterior masked a wild, exciting and quite possible insane interior, like Mrs. Kreminski. When Michael was ten, he had been quite shocked to find out that the 83 year old local librarian was spending her nights in a hardcore punk band called Murder Society. On the bright side, he had learnt never to judge a book by its cover.

The sheer fact that the skill book was so unassuming despite the six reward upgrades meant the skill was likely going to be a jaw dropping one. Picking it up he ignored the prompt asking him if he would like to learn the skill and focused on the name of the skill. Gletser Aura.

Michael frowned, the name didn’t really give him anything, other than the type of skill. Since the skill book didn’t give a description of the skill, other than its name, the only way he would know what it did would be to learn it. Still, the fact that it had aura in the name made Michael ecstatic.

Michael finally stopped ignoring the poor maligned prompt and mentally acquiesced to learning the skill. The last time Michael had learnt a skill through a skill book it had taken a full minute and caused quite the commotion.

The process wasn’t at all like video games where a character clicked learn and instantly gained the skill. Skill books are items made purely from Mana which is encoded with the information for the skill, essentially a Mana made code that tells the System which skill is being learnt. The more powerful the skill, the more complex the code and the longer it would take to ‘learn’ the skill.

Michael knew absolutely none of this, simply guessing that the more powerful the skill the longer it would take to learn it. The skill book slowly started glowing before dissolving bit by bit into a swirl of bright lights. The lights, motes of pure Mana, swirled around like a cascade of fireflies before descending on to Michael and settling on his skin. The motes seemed to rest on his skin for a moment before passing through and merging with his own internal Mana.

The whole process took over five minutes to complete, hundreds of tiny motes of Mana being produced by the one skill book. Even with only Boulder Toss to compare it to Michael knew that was a lot; Boulder Toss had only produce a dozen motes of Mana.

Gletser Aura

Tier 3, Level 1, Epic Aura Skill

10 Meter Range, -25 Mana Regen

The Aura of the Eternal Ice Peak flows in and through you. Increases Defense by 10%. Increases Ice Spell Power by 10%. Decreases enemy Movement Speed by 10%. Enemies take 10 Ice damage per second. All effects increase per level. Range Increases per Level.

“Holy _____ _____ _____ with a side of _____!” Michael was effectively struck speechless, thanks to the profanity filter. He’d expected a lot from the skill, but his high expectations were not only blown from the water, they were blown clear off the planet. The nature of the dungeon coupled with the multiple reward increases had led to a truly amazing skill being dropped, Michaels very first Epic rated skill.

The skill was exceptional in multiple aspects. Every one of its effects could be considered a decent spell/buff on their own but the combined effects made the skill amazingly useful. With both the range and the effects increasing per level the skill would be amazing at later levels, even if the increases only came at 1 per level.

As soon as he finished reading the description, and doing a little dance of happiness, Michael rushed outside eager to share the skill description with Hazel and Jelly.

It was only after he got outside and saw an annoyed Hazel waiting for him that he remembered that Jelly was no longer with them. The realization tripped him up a bit, a small sharp sadness piercing him for a moment before receding into the depths of his mind.

With his mood somewhat dampened, he gave his adopted bear daughter a hug. He didn’t need to say anything, Hazel knew what he was feeling.

After a few moments of comforting silence Michael felt much better. They shared what they had gotten from the dungeon. Hazel was suitably impressed by Michaels skill but Michael was even more impressed by Hazels reward, a specially fitted suit of armor, perfect for Hazel. The armor covered most of her body, from her fluffy tail to the base of her skull, as well as each of her limbs down to her paws. The armor bore a striking resemblance to the Vitr Einvaldskonungrs, cold blue metal with various flowing glyphs covering Hazel. The absolute best part of the armor was that it was a growth item.

Frozen Fortress

Tier 3, Unique Quality, Soul Bound, Growth Item

150 Defense

Effects:

Effect 1 – Vitality is increased by 10%

Effect 2 – Defense is increased by (Ice Affinity) percent

Effect 3 – Each time an enemy attacks they gain the Deathly Chill debuff, reducing their speed by 5% and taking (Magic / 10) Ice Damage per second. Stacks up to 10.

Growth Requirements: 1 Heart of the Glacier, 20 Kgs Tier 4 Ice Attribute Metal, 20 Ice Attribute Monster Cores.

The armor almost mad Michael jealous of Hazel. His skill was nice, but the armor was beyond amazing. Still, Michael felt only happiness for Hazel, which was in no way helped by the thought that the armor would be ridiculously hard to grow, unlike his skill.

Even now Michael had yet to meet the growth requirements of any of his items. Even His quiver was still a few Mana cores short. The Mana cores were apparently an exceedingly rare drop. Just thinking about the 30 cores his bow needed made Michael want to cry, not to mention that he needed specific types of cores.

Still, the armor elevated Hazels Tanking ability to a whole new level. The synergy between Michaels skill and Hazels armor wasn’t lost on him either. Both had excellent slowing effects and the combination would make tying down most enemies a breeze.

After they finished arguing which reward was the best, they moved out. Neither of them really wanted to stay in this kingdom of ice and snow any longer. With Michael having less than 500 monsters left on his quest he was eager to finish it off and finally get back to civilization.