It is not often that a fight leaves me totally exhausted. This one did. It had me completely drained. Thankfully, the fights were over for the time being. And I could rest.

The chamber I was in was special, for not only was it empty of everything dangerous, but also rich in mana. However, the most valuable commodity this and other chambers of its kind provided to those injured and dying was none other than time; time to heal, to regenerate mana, equip skills or do anything to help increase their chance against the dungeon.

Yet, instead of rushing my preparations, I fell asleep like a newborn baby under the warm regenerating current filling the empty chamber.

Nothing had changed when I woke up. I was still hungry but also happy to find all three of my pools brimming with vitality. It was another specialty of these neutral zones: enhanced regeneration.

I wasn’t entirely alone though, for the ominous black sphere had taken perch near the wall to my left. The system had been forever calling it a three-floor dungeon, of which two I had already passed through and cleared. It is no mystery what my plan was to be; I was going, that was for sure.

Melancholy governed me for the next few minutes as I looked around. The last time I was in one such space, my friends were there with me. David had been injured and Dark had told me of his past. Pyro had ignited our resolve and Genma had shown me his care. There was a dull ache pulsating in my chest which I believed to be related to David’s last words. Last time it was I who had abandoned my team, this time I was being abandoned.

“The responsibility of a Hero…” I remembered the words I had heard once and couldn’t help chide myself for self obsessing. “Now I’m mocking myself.”

There was another Notification log hovering in the upper-left corner of my sight, glowing in soft blue light. Breathing deeply, I let the cold current shiver my body into wakefulness and moved on with my preparation.

The notification log detailed me a list of all the skill which had leveled during my enraged fight with the caterpillars. It was plenty long but smaller than the one I had read after repelling the farm invasion. I decided to star with it.

Spoiler: Notification log

Notification Log

Rage has risen to level 5.

High Blunt resistance has risen to level 11.

Pain resistance has risen to level 20.

High Poison resistance has risen to level 7.

Battle sense has risen to level 7.

Vengeance has risen to level 13.

Tenacity has risen to level 10.

Health regeneration has risen to level 18.

Mana regeneration has risen to level 11.

Stamina regeneration has risen to level 20.

Ricochet has risen to level 3.

Novice ant strength has risen to level 10.

3-D maneuver has risen to level 9.

Acute sense has risen to level 5.

Foresight has risen to level 22.

Dissolve has risen to level 22.

Tackle has risen to level 20.

Sturdy has risen to level 8.

Intermediate bare handed mastery has risen to level 20.

Intermediate Mandible mastery has risen to level 18.

Sharp weapon mastery has risen to level 15.

Reckless courage has risen to level 8.

Your Rage has passed.

Title: Berserker gained.

Done with the list, I started memorizing wind cannonballs. I memorized three more of them, bringing their slotted number to ten; then slotted four instances of Cancel, afraid that the smaller ones among the caterpillars might wake up with that suction skill in the next level; and finally used a hundred points in mana to slot a heal, then stopped memorizing skills in order to let my mana regenerate. I didn’t manically go forward with memorizing falling stars in fear of being dragged into the hassle without being given time to regenerate the mana used. I hoped to eventually get it in the slots once my mana had regenerated.

Next, I checked my skills. I had leveled up twice thanks to the completion reward and knew what waited for me. The skills to evolve were: Reckless courage, map, Poison augmentation, poison ball, Hawkeye, Appraisal, Equilibrium, Projection, Battery, Decider, Pull resistance, and Mandible cut. There were also a good amount of tier-2 skills which had recently reached level 10, unlocking their special abilities; mainly: Exploding kick and exploding Punch, Cross Slash, Sturdy & Tenacity, Acid wave, and Novice ant strength; making it a grand total of 15 skills to get through.

I started with the first tier skills, like always, because they are the easier of the bunch to get through with reveal working its magic.

Reckless courage has reached its maximum level and has revealed its evolution pathways: Confidence or Maniacal tendency

*****

[Confidence][Passive][Tier-2][Lv-1/25]

It decreases the Penalty suffered when fighting against a foe of one tier higher according to the skill level, with complete removal of any such penalties at maximum level.

Reward: You gain .2 points in vitality every time the skill gains a level.

[Maniacal Tendency][Active][Tier-2][Lv-1/25]

Improving upon the effects of reckless courage, this skill increases your strength and Endurance by 2% for every level your foe is higher than you.

I learned Confidence as quickly as I could; afraid the skill would get erased or get overtaken by something else. This was it. This was the skill that I had truly needed but wasn’t wise enough to demand. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined about there being a penalty for fighting against beings of the higher tier! I had always thought their strengths being a manifestation of their skills, not a trick of the system to keep the little guys humble!

Everything made sense. The hopper's wildness, the caterpillar poison’s sharpness, the ladybugs defense; it all made sense! I had been in the dark for so long. For so long I had called our difference natural, but as it turns out, there was more to it. It blew me.

With the reveal came the question: How much penalty was I suffering? And what was the penalty? I was more pissed off than started, but it was only the first skill and I had a time limit. Perhaps, was I outside, I would have gone out in search of a hopper to fight, but such wasn’t the case; hence I stopped worrying about it for the time being. I decided to get answers, however, and answers I would get.

The next skill in line was map, and it too had a surprise waiting for me.

Map has reached its maximum level and has evolved into the Tier-3 map.

Exclusive skill: Return is available.

*****

[Return][Exclusive]

It allows you to mark a place on your map as home to work as a guide to instantly teleport you from anywhere, when not under any status effect.

This upgrade left me speechless. I instantly used the skill to return back home, but it failed for I hadn’t marked anyplace as home. It was an extraordinary find. Not a solution to all my problems, but a fine-fine settlement for sure.

Projection has reached its maximum level and has awarded you with 1 point in Intelligence.

Projection has evolved into Illusions.

Skill: Illusions gained.

*****

[Illusions][Active][Tier-2][Lv-1/25]

The illusions you create will depend upon your knowledge.

Decider has reached its maximum level and has awarded you with 1 point in Wisdom.

Decider has evolved into arbiter.

Skill: Arbiter gained.

*****

[Arbiter][Active][Tier-2][Lv-1/25]

[It gives you authority over the lives of defeated foes.]

[Effect: Plant a death seal which can be instigated from anywhere.]

Although I would have liked to be given the chance to choose the paths to evolve projection and decider, their autonomous evolution didn’t faze me, for the result came out great.

The next skill up was Poison augmentation. I hadn’t had anything related to my poison evolve in a long time. Although my poison, as it was, was already doing a great job of keeping my enemies in check, it still had me high spirits to be able to find something which could bridge the gap that was widening between my racial and other skills.

Poison augmentation has reached its maximum level and has revealed its evolution pathways: Poison shaping or Poison engineering.

[Poison Shaping][Active][Tier-2][Lv-1/25]

[It allows you to mould your poison into various permanent shapes.]

[Effect: Shaping takes mana according to the construct.]

*****

[Poison Engineering][Passive][Tier-2][Lv-1/25]

It allows you to create various types of lethal or non-lethal poisons.

[Reward: You earn .1 points in Endurance and Vitality every time the skill gains a level.]

I could have opted to go with Poison shaping because it was very close to what I had wanted at the time, but to do so I would have had to lose the opportunity to create poison of any kind. Until then I had only known of a single kind of poison, a poison to kill. I hadn’t yet tasted poison which could cure.

Afterward it was time to evolve poison ball and those tiny spheres which had me grumpy during my last fight came over its predecessor with a gift and gave me the weapon I had wanted.

Poison ball has reached its maximum level. You have been awarded 1 point in Vitality.

Because of Poison engineering’s interference, Poison ball has evolved into Poison bot.

*****

[Poison bot][Active][Tier-2][Lv-1/25]

[It is the most ingenious and stealthiest method of poisoning someone. The bots in questions are constructs of mana which can be triggered into action from a distance.]

[Effect: Takes a minimum of 10 points of mana to create a construct that can remain inactive for up ten minutes.]

I wasted 10 points of mana to create a bot. I was excited and forgot the time crunch for a second. Although I did regret wasting mana on the experiment afterward, by then the construct, or should I say, a tiny blue ant had already formed. I felt mana being sucked out of my body. I stopped the flow before the skill could take more than the minimum amount and then said mana condensed, giving shape to the thing. My sight showed the construct as lifeless, but it could move. I had to personally control its movements though, which was slightly discomforting.

I had nothing for it to do and it evaporated into dust shortly, but I had already moved onto the next skill in line by then.

Hawkeye has reached its maximum level and has awarded you 1 point in Dexterity.

Hawkeye has revealed its evolution pathways: Piercing gaze or Micro sight.

*****

[Piercing gaze][Active][Tier-2][Lv-1/25]

[It allows you to see through objects. The Intensity of the piercing gaze depends upon the skill level.]

[Effect: Consumes a point of mana/sec for a minimum radius of 25 centimeters.]

[Micro sight][Passive][Tier-2][Lv-1/25]

[It allows you to look at the world through a magnifying lens and view the micro world.]

[Reward: You earn .2 points in Wisdom every time the skill gains a level.]

I learned piercing gaze simply because of the raw potential the skill held.

Battery has reached its maximum level and has awarded you 1 point in Constitution.

Battery is revealing its evolution pathways: Transformer or Condenser

*****

[Transformer][Active][Tier-2][Lv-1/25]

[Transforms the energy stored in the battery to be used to improve upon your strengths. It also increases your battery capacity by 10% with your level.]

[Effect: Can only transform 4% of the energy at level 1.]

[Condenser][Passive][Tier-2][Lv-1/25]

[Condenses the energy stored in battery, increasing its destructive ability and saving space.]

[Reward: It gives you .2 points in Constitution every time the skill gains a level.]

I opted to evolve battery into Transformer, just because it could further increase my capacity to store physical forces and with my level at that.

This was it for the first tier skills. I have to say, there were many surprises among them. But what I had eaten had only been the crust, the cream I was yet to taste. First up was the appraisal. I still remember deeply the craziness that was analyze. Never had it given me a straight answer. It had remained a moody child with the wit of a sage until it finally evolved into appraisal and entered adulthood. I didn’t know what to expect. The skill could already reveal all there was to reveal the status of the others. Although the result depended on the level difference between my target and me, I would take a new direction from here. And that had me excited.

Appraisal has reached its maximum level and has presented you with the option to: Assess or Confute

*****

[Judgment][Active][Tier-3][Lv-1/50]

It allows you to judge the flaws of your active skills.

I opted to assess and it resulted in Judgment —not mine, but of my skills. Had I more time I would have liked to experiment with the skill a little, but I was on the clock so I moved on to the next skill that was equilibrium.

Equilibrium has reached its maximum level and is presenting you with the option to: Stabilize or destabilize

*****

[Control][Passive][Tier-3][Lv-1/50]

Your control over the explosive forces working against you increases with the skill level.

Effect: Allows you to control explosive forces.

Reward: Your status gains .4 points in Constitution every time the skill gains a level.

With that, I was done evolving my skills. Yes, I know a few skills still remained, but those ones had decided to play dirty, refusing to evolve, saying, I didn’t meet the required conditions.

Pull resistance wanted Push resistance to evolve; while Mandible cut had far too many demands. Not only did it want mend wave to evolve, but also Mandible mastery at tier 3 and Mana manipulation at tier 2.

Anyways, with the skills looked at, all that remained of my preparation were the special abilities, so they are what I went for next. Checking my mana pool for signs of quantity, I felt better finding it almost filled. Making my mind, I quickly sifted through the list.

Meditation has reached level 10.

Special ability: Calmness unlocked.

[Calmness][Special]

It cleanses the mind of harmful afflictions.

*****

Stable mind has reached level 25.

Special ability: Alarm unlocked.

[Alarm][Special]

It wakes you up when in danger.

*****

Exploding kick and Exploding Punch have reached level 10.

Special ability: Splash damage unlocked.

[Splash damage][Special]

[The explosion grows and hurt nearby foes.]

*****

Cross Slash has reached level 10.

Special ability: Drill unlocked.

[Drill][Special]

[Cross slash gains penetrating ability]

*****

Sturdy has reached level 10. Tenacity has reached level 10.

Special ability: Battle Junkie Unlocked.

[Battle Junkie][Special]

[Your agility increases the more damage you take and pain dissolves into numbness.]

*****

Novice ant strength has risen to level 10.

Special ability: Adrenaline unlocked.

[Adrenaline][Special]

[Quadruples your strength for a brief period of time when certain conditions are met.]

*****

Acid wave has risen to level 10.

Special ability: Poisonous acid unlocked.

[Poisonous Acid][Special]

Has a chance to poison your foes.

Calmness and Alarm, the two reasons I was still alive. Tenacity, Sturdy, and Novice ant strength had taken me for a maniac after my last fight. They wouldn’t have given me such deranged tools otherwise.

Finally, thinking myself free of the hassle, I thought of making a plan of sorts but found three more notifications blaring blue in front of my eyes.

Groaning, I looked at them, too. The first one was about a title I had earned after raging out on the caterpillars, called berserker.

[Berserker][Title]

It increases the chance of you going berserk.

Effect: It increases your endurance and health regeneration by 1% for every opponent killed during this state. Also increases your Strength and stamina regeneration by 1% for every percentage drop in your health. Mana regenerates to full every 25% drop in health.

The second one was about a skill I had gained while fighting. It was an obvious one -- Acid resistance.

[Acid resistance][Passive][Tier-1][Lv-3/25]

It increases your body resistance against attacks of acidic nature.

The last and the final one, however, stiffened me to the core, for I had finally met the condition to progress my cultivation! The third level of cultivation had audacious requirements. Not only did it require me to possess 300 points of mana, but also five levels in both mana control and mana channel. The skill part of the condition I had fulfilled a long time ago, but my mana pool had been slow at increasing. But finally, it was here. I could cultivate once again. It was an occasion of joy. The last stage of body cultivation alone had improved my status by 25 points whole. I was excited to find how my status would look after cultivating this time. Yet, right when I thought things were finally going my way, the system rang in my head, informing me I had only a minute left to decide whether I wanted to go further into the dungeon or leave.

My time was up.