After leaving the Dungeon they decided to continue on their journey with Michael noting down the Dungeons location on his map. Even though the dungeon only gave out Sprite Blessings as a reward it was well worth revisiting. Returning to the swamp Michael was once again swarmed by insects as they trekked through the swampy wetlands. Hazel had flown ahead using her earring, leaving Michael literally mired in the mud.

Still, despite the mud and the bugs and the occasional leech the size of his leg Michael wasn’t actually having too much of an issue. Most of the bugs were taken out by his aura before they even got to him and the leeches were more surprising than dangerous. In a swamp filled with monsters the mud was Michaels biggest issue. Still, after several hours of squelching, splashing and the occasional shriek as a leech tried to nibble his gonads, Michael finally managed to get out onto dry ground once again, a trail of partially frozen corpses marking his journey.

As much as he wanted to, Michael did not immediately leave the accursed swamp. As mildly traumatic as the place had been, it had done wonders for his quest. Thanks to the hordes of bugs, along with the hordes of monsters in the dungeon, he was now only 183 kills away from completing the quest and ending his seemingly eternal exile from Towns.

So, with a seemingly inexhaustible source of kills sitting right in front of him, Michael chose to reciprocate and sat down in front of the swamp. At this range the bugs still kept coming but the larger, more annoying monsters stayed where they were. With his ill count steadily increasing Michael decided to get lunch going. Quickly putting together a rudimentary campfire he took out some meat from his inventory and cut it up into large cubes before fastening them onto several skewers. While the meat was roasting over the flames Michael noticed that the amount of insects approaching him was starting to dwindle so he took out his knife and made a small cut on his arm.

As his blood hit the air the bugs began to frenzy. The bugs of the swamp could smell blood like a shark and would swarm like piranhas. When he was in the wetlands it was a nightmare, the sheer numbers of bugs overwhelming his aura, but here at the edge the deluge of winged insects was less like a monsoon and more like a light summer shower.

With meat cooking over an open fire and a constant trickle of experience coming in Michael wondered, for a very, very brief moment, if he should spend a week or two just soaking up the experience. Sadly though, whilst the bugs were great for his kill count they were terrible for his experience bar. Each group of ten only gave a single point of experience, meaning he’d need to kill hundreds of thousands just to get a single level. Sure, it was doable, and he’d probably get a few skill levels, but it was also boring. Sitting here for days on end with a constant stream of low level enemies hurling themselves at the wall of blades that was his aura seemed both monotonous and low efficiency. He’d seen during the Vitr Heimr Dungeon how constant fights against high level enemies had made his skills level like crazy. He’d rather spend his time searching for more opportunities like that than spend it grinding out experience in a swamp.

Michael was on his eighth kebab, narrowly beaten by Hazel who was on her twenty third, when the quest was finally completed.

Quest Complete

You have completed the Prove Your Worth quest!

Rewards:

- Maglavin Archery skill unlocked!

- Maglavin Badge (Unique) (Soul Bound)

- Maglavin Arrow (Magic Blueprint)

- 50,000 Ranger Experience

Reward for speedy completion (Over 50% time limit remaining):

- Maglavin Bow Wrap (Rare)

- 63,000 Ranger Experience

The quest gave a lot of rewards, and a heck of a lot of experience, so Michael went through them one by one. The skill unlock explained why his archery skill hadn’t been levelling. Quickly pulling up his skills he saw that the skill had already reached level 2 so at least the skill xp hadn’t been lost, merely delayed. The description still didn’t give any sort of specifics so he had no idea what the level up did, or even if it did anything.

Michael had always been a big believer in leaving the best for last so he skipped over the badge, the ‘soul bound’ and ‘unique’ tags marking the item as special in giant neon letters. Pulling out the magic blueprint, a slightly glowing thin blue book with Maglavin Arrow written on it, he was confronted with a prompt.

Would you like to learn how to craft Maglavin Arrow?

Yes No

Requirements:

Ranger Class, Maglavin Archery lvl 1

Michael immediately pressed yes, the blueprint dissolving into motes of Mana before flowing into Michael.

New Magic Blueprint learnt!

Maglavin Arrow

Utilizing the unique Mana signature of the Maglavin Rangers, mold an existing arrow into a Maglavin Arrow.

Mana cost: 500 Channeling time: 1 Minute

Looking over the details for the arrow Michael was surprised. He had been wondering what the difference between Magic Blueprints and normal blueprints were and apparently it revolved around the use of Mana to create rather than skills. The blueprint was perfect for him as he had neither the time nor the skills to make proper arrows. Of course, the downside was that the blueprint offered no flexibility, nor would using it raise any skill levels since he wasn’t actually using any, but that wasn’t really a problem for Michael.

As time went on Michael began to realize how unfocused he had been. Each skill required increasing amounts of time and energy to level which narrowed down the amount of skills that he could train. As he continued fighting and exploring his way across what used to be America he found that his various crafting skills were starting to decline from lack of use. Ergo, a blueprint that required no skill and a butt load of Mana was perfect for him.

As much as he wanted to immediately craft one of the new arrows he still had other rewards to go over. Pulling out the Bow Wrap he inspected the item.

Maglavin Bow Wrap

Tier 2, Rare Quality, 100/100 Durability

Effects:

Passive effect 1: Increase Bow Durability by 50 and Bow Damage by 15.

Passive effect 2: Increase the effective level of the Maglavin Archery skill by 1.

Attached Skill – Bow Empowerment: Increase the damage and speed of one arrow by a factor of 5 or five arrows by a factor of 1. 100 Mana Cost, 30 Minute Cooldown

Michael loved it. The passive effects were enough to get a thumbs up from him but the attached skill was absolutely 100 percent without a shadow of a doubt and put a cherry on top perfect for him. If he combined the skill with Power Draw and Power Shot then the resulting damage might actually one shot a Tier 3 Boss. If it wasn’t such a ridiculously long dungeon he would already have hopped in a portal and been back in the Vitr Heimr dungeon by now. Without further ado he slapped the wrap around his bow, the mottled green strip attaching itself to the bows limbs as if magnetized.

As eager as he was to test out his newly improved bow, there was one final item on his agenda. Pulling out the Maglavin Badge he found the object to be surprisingly simple. The badge was about three centimeters in size, more of a pin than a badge, and consisted of a golden bow and arrow in full draw resting on a dark green leaf.

Maglavin Badge

Tier-less, Unique Quality, Soul Bound

Effects:

Passive Effect 1: Grants Maglavin Authority

Passive Effect 2: When facing a lethal attack the wearer is instantly teleported (Agility) meters away and healed for 50% of their health over 10 seconds. 12 Hour Cooldown

Passive Effect 3: Increase Perception and Magic by 10%

Michael was both over the moon and somewhat confused with the item effects. The second and third made him ecstatic, obviously, but the first effect was absolutely confusing. Even after equipping the item and scouring his various Status screens he failed to find any trace or explanation of what it did. After a final check Michael shrugged and gave up. Even if he never learned what it did the rest of the effects more than made up for it.

Michael shared the info on the rewards with Hazel, the bear oohing and aahing at the appropriate places but mostly focusing on trying to cook the kebabs, right up until Michael mentioned that they could return to town.

[Finally, I thought I was never going to eat proper food again.]

“Yeah.” Michael agreed. Then her words fully registered in his brain. “Wait, what do you mean ‘proper food’? Is my cooking really that bad?” Michael asked, doubt creeping into his voice.

Hazel gave him a quizzical look and said [Do you really want to know?]

Michael thought for a moment. “No, probably not. Alright let’s get this over with.”

[Get what over with?] Hazel asked, curious as to what Michael meant.

Michael sighed. ”We haven’t been back or even opened a portal since we were in the giants dungeon and that was a week ago. Two weeks spent not knowing if we were dead or alive, Olivia’s gonna be _______.”

[She’s going to be what?]

Michael groaned. “You know what I mean.”

[Yes] Hazel replied. Soul Bond had many uses, including letting her know what Michael said despite the censoring. [I just don’t understand what urinating has to do with it.]

“Oh, that’s just a word we use to describe someone who’s really angry.”

Hazel stare at him until the smugness faltered [Just open the portal and get your beating]

Michaels face dropped, a hint of fear entering his eyes. He could stare down creatures the size of buildings without blinking but he was utterly powerless in the face of mans immortal enemy: woman.

Feeling like an inmate on deaths row, Michael activated his ability, a swirling portal springing up, and went forth to his doom.

Contrary to what he believed; Olivia handled everything remarkably calmly. Both Olivia and Anne did spend half an hour berating him, Sam standing nearby with a stopwatch timing it, but afterwards they sat down and had a meal while swapping stories. The team were very intrigued by the dungeons Michael had come across, especially the Vitr Heimr dungeon.

As it turned out, the so called ‘Town Dungeon’ was a bit of a bust. Rather than a dungeon it could be more accurately described as a training dungeon. The Dungeon was fully customizable by the Mayor who could choose the layout of the dungeon, the types, numbers and levels of the Monsters and even what loot they would drop. On the flip side, the town had to supply everything. If they wanted the dungeon to have any type of Monster other than slimes they first had to drag a living ‘sample’ into the dungeon. All the loot had to come straight from the town's coffers and any experience people earned from the dungeon came from the Towns experience Pool.

The Town experience Pool was something that only came into play when they reached the second Civilization Tier. The Pool was similar to taxes; every action that earned the townspeople experience had 5% go into the Pool. Said Pool could then be used in various ways such as the town dungeon or as quest rewards.

After the meal Michael decided to visit the bath house. Cleansing Soap was an extremely handy tool for keeping clean on the go but it just couldn’t beat a hot bath after a day of slogging through mud. Bennetons Bath House were communal, favoring efficiency over luxury since the town still hadn’t gotten proper plumbing sorted. The last Field boss raid had failed to produce a Town token so for now the town was stockpiling enough metal to install plumbing. Without a nearby Mine or any reliable way of producing metal the blacksmiths of the town had taken to disassembling any junk items they could get their hands on but the progress was slow.

Everywhere Michael looked there were problems that needed attention but even so he felt helpless. If the problem had been a den of Monsters or a band of bandits he could do something but a problem like basic infrastructure wasn’t something that could be solved by shooting an arrow at it. After his bath Michael decided to head towards the System Store. One way he could help was by expanding the towns reach. Thanks to his portals he could easily explore far off places but the portals were woefully inefficient for the towns needs. What he really needed was some sort of permanent portal system. That way he could find resources, slap down teleport pad (or whatever it was) and give the town instant access.

Scrolling through the Store Michael was disappointed. There were two options he could pick from, either a pair of Portal Gates or blueprints for the same. The problem came in the cost, a single pair of Portal Gates cost ten thousand credits and the blueprints cost one million credits. While the town might be able to pool together enough credits for two or three pairs of portal gates those same credits could be used for other, more immediate needs like food or equipment.

While Michael was a bit disappointed by the exorbitant prices he was happy to finally learn what ‘Maglavin Authority’ meant. When looking through the store Michael found a new tab available labeled ‘Maglavin’. Looking through it he found a wide assortment of items that were not available in the other parts of the store such as specialty arrows and Ranger only support items. There were even things like blueprints and recipes, magic and normal. The real gems though, were the Skill Books. Skills such as Venom Strike and Animal Guide stare out at him from the Store, begging to be purchased.

The best part of all of it was that while the more normal items still cost credits, the rarer items like the skill books cost Monster Trophies. Each item required Michael to track down and kill one or more dangerous Monsters and bring parts of their bodies back. This would be incredibly annoying if he was trying to get a specific skill but it also meant that Michael could collect trophies off of pretty much any dangerous Monster and get some sort of skill from it. Even if he didn’t want said skill he was sure he could sell it to others for a large amount of credits. Looking through the list he even found a listing requiring the head of a Vitr Jötunn, the item requiring it being a pair of warm fluffy socks with the overly simple name of Warm Fluffy Socks. Michael didn’t really feel like going back just for some socks, but it was a good example of what was available.

Michael left the Store having not spent a single credit but gaining plenty of ideas for the future.

“Okay, what? What on earth am I looking at? Michael asked Hazel, the duo having just crested a hill. They had continued their journey the day previously, having rested for a grand total of a day before Michaels wanderlust got the better of him.

[What do you mean, is it not obvious? It’s a fight.] Hazel replied, taking a moment to glance at Michael, wondering if he was maybe talking about something else.

“Yeah, I see it’s a fight. What I meant is, are they actually fighting giant teddy bears? Also, I thought you were practicing speaking out loud?” Michael asked, turning towards Hazel. Although she was physically capable of it, Hazel still needed practice in order to pronounce words properly.

“Youl know ah ont ike it” Hazel said, her mouth tripping over the words.

“Fine, but if you don’t practice then you’ll never get better. Do you really want to sound like a drunk cat every time you speak to someone other than me?”

[Since when do you know what a drunk cat sounds like?]

“I had a life before you, just so you know”

[Did, did you get a cat drunk? Why?]

“Not on purpose.”

[Is that supposed to make it better?]

“Well, yeah. Forcing a cat to drink Irish cream has to be worse than spilling some and forgetting to clean it up right?”

Hazel looked at him, her face deadpanned. [You are very fortunate I came along. You may be good with a bow, but your common sense is clearly a bit stunted.]

Michael took offense at the accusation. “Hey! It’s not stunted. It’s just different.”

Hazel snorted. [How?]

Michael looked thoughtful for a second. “I think it was how I was raised. My parents were always really supportive of my curiosity but not so great at being around, so I developed differently to most.”

Hazel rolled her eyes. [No, dummy. Not how did it get different, how is it different?]

“Oh, that’s simple. Most people think its common sense that you shouldn’t eat random stuff in case its poisonous. I say that you should eat at least a little of everything to see if it is poisonous. That way, in an emergency you know what’s safe to eat and what isn’t.”

Hazel stared at him for several seconds before replying. [That does make a certain amount of sense, but let me ask you, how many times have you been seriously ill because you ate something you shouldn’t have?]

Michael took a few seconds, thinking it through and counting up all the various times. “Well, it depends on what you mean by seriously ill. I’ve only been in hospital twice, but I've been ill about 94 times, not including what happened when the I arrived in the tutorial.”

[Looking after you is going to be exhausting, isn’t it?]

“That’s what Sarah always said, though I like to think that I spice up people's lives.”

[That’s one way of looking at it. Wait, what happened when you entered the tutorial?]

“Oh look, they’ve slaughtered all the teddies, want to go introduce ourselves?” Michael asked, thankful of the opportunity to change the subject. Without waiting for a reply, he started walking over to the group of people. Hazel sighed, shook her head, and followed her father.