The Spell Steve cast is the first dual element spell he had created. He had made it specifically to exploit the gremlins' natural elemental weakness to fire. The spell used a combination of air and fire magic, the wind portion of the spell strengthened the fire making it burn hotter while also having blades of wind like his wind tornado spell cut the gremlins apart. It was most certainly a powerful spell, but it was also this spell that led to the discovery about how vengeful the gremlins were and how carefree they were with their lives. This fact manifested when they tried to set Daniel on fire with their own flaming bodies.

Once the spell was fully cast Steve was forced to leave the crawl space above the kill box to avoid the rising smoke and flames while also continuing to channel his spell. Because of the spell's dual element nature it also cost double the mana to channel the spell per second, and with the Steve's mana pool only being half full he would only be able to channel it for around one minute.

The gremlins quickly started to catch on fire and once on fire they began to spread it to their allies as they continued to rush into the cave. All too quickly Smoke began to fill the cave. John had managed to make some ventilation tubes for the smoke after the last time they had used the spell, but it only slightly helped the problem since they couldn't make them too wide for fear of giving the gremlins another way to enter the cave. Smoke quickly began to fill the cave and sting his eyes as he continued to fight against the gremlin tide, the only saving grace being that the gremlins had lost their swam buff as soon as Steve had finished casting his spell. Though the skin of his arm pressed up against the stone of his shield he began to feel the heat around him drastically increase. All too soon flaming gremlins also started to attack him, and he did his best not to let any of them touch him, but it was a battle of futility. Daniel started to accumulate burns on his arms, face , hands and legs as flaming chunks of gremlin made it past his shield and landed on his body. Any exposed skin was burned and his hair and beard which were already singed from the previous time was completely burned away this time. The burns hurt like hell, but a combination of ‘Troll Regeneration’ and ‘Death Blows’ were able to quickly heal any burns he received.

Corpses of gremlins were still burning, but Steve had stopped channeling the spell around five minutes ago. It had taken that long for the fire to stop burning and for gremlins to begin making their way back into the cave. The spell had done its job and prevented the gremlins from gaining their swarm buff, but soon more gremlins would enter the cave again. Daniel didn't know how much of the wave Steve had managed to kill with the spell, the gremlins would either begin to pour into the cave again or wait for more reinforcements. Daniel was getting impatient and was about to ask John for a progress update when John spoke first.

“I have the tunnel exit finished. I am in the process of expanding it now.”

“That's great, but you need to hurry. Steve managed to clear the cave, and they could be swarming us again any second now.” as he spoke his words were proven true. The gremlins which were hesitantly standing at the entrance of the cave once again swarming into the cave. “Scratch that John they are coming in for a second charge it's now or never!”

“Okay, I just need one minute to get to safety first.”

“Well, hurry, with Steve out of mana I won't be able to hold forever.” His words continue to hold true as an extra heavy blow from a gremlin broke off one corner of his shield. Daniel did all he could even going so far as activating ‘Heavy Charge’ only ‘charging’ forward a handful of feet, but it was enough to knock the gremlins back to give him some breathing room. Even with their increased strength they still did not weigh much so he was able to easily push them back with his skill.

The space he gained himself only lasted for a couple of seconds before the gremlins were back on him even more savage than before. After thirty more seconds his shield was almost entirely a pile of stone on the ground. Daniel was considering what he should do next when the entire cave began to rumble ominously.

‘Finally John has shown up to the fight.’

One entire side of the floor of the cave fell away only to reveal an incredibly steep tunnel that led into blackness. All of the gremlins in the cave that were in the kill box lost their footing and began to slide into the tunnel tumbling over each other as they did so. Even the gremlins in front of Daniel were not spared from this fate as Daniel was positioned right at the edge of the trap John had been constructing with his earth magic.

“You Couldn’t have made that any closer if you had wanted John. Things were starting to get desperate for me there.” Daniel spoke over telepathy, but Daniel heard John's reply from behind him.”

“I am just concerned that the last bit of the tunnel isn't wide enough. Especially with the number of bodies there had been they could easily clog the tunnel making the trap less than useful. At Least it will make clearing a whole room easier. All we will have to do is use the trap and the tunnel will take them away.”

“I agree, but would you mind making me a new shield? With the trap active the gremlins don't look like they want to enter, but they will start trying to find a different way soon. By the way, where does the tunnel lead to? I know you wanted it to be high enough that the gremlins would fall to their deaths.”

“It is not quite high enough for them to fall to their deaths like I would have liked, but it does drop them into a lake. With these temperatures and the fur covering their bodies they will likely freeze to death if they even manage to exit the water. Who knows if they can even swim.” As John had been talking he had formed Daniel a new shield and handed it to him. “That should be good to use. I'll make you a spare as well just in case I’m not around to make you another when you really need it.

“Well, we will take what we can get. What will you do next when you finish expanding the tunnel?”

“Well first, I want to make sure they aren't plugging it up, then I will finish expanding it. After that I’m not too sure. I have an idea on how to make a spike trap, but I am still trying to work out the details. Also do you mind if I take Kota with me in case I run into any gremlins that are still alive down there?”

“Sure It's not like he has much to do anyways. I’ll call him back so he can help you out.” Daniel turned back to the entrance of the tunnel and saw the gremlins at the edge of the trap looking for a way in. “And raise the trap door before they start trying to dig through the roof again.” Daniel called after John as he left. Steve was still in meditation, but Daniel should be able to clear the remaining gremlins in this wave by himself.

~~~~~

“Push!” Daniel yelled out loud. And as one Daniel surged forward with all of his strength as well as twenty of Johns’ stone constructs who all wielded tower shields. Daniel was the tip of the spear tip formation as they tried to force their way through the gremlin army that was arrayed against them. They had decided to try and make a push out of their cave on the fifth day they had been in the dungeon once they had finally managed to locate where the gremlins were coming from.

They managed to force themselves another foot forward, but it just wasn't enough but they were just so close. “COME ON, WE ARE CLOSE WE CAN MAKE IT! THRUST! WITHDRAW! PUSH! STEP!” as one all of the constructs stabbed forward with their stone spears as Daniel stabbed with a short sword. They withdrew their weapons, pushed their shields forward then stepped forward. With all of that they had gained another foot of advancement. They released this several more times before a new change happened. A series of stone spikes came surging out of the ground impaling ten or maybe even a few hundred gremlins which all faded into a blue light that shot off towards the opening of a cave they were struggling towards. Once Steve and Johns combined earth spell was over Daniel and the constructs which were forming a defensive wall to keep the mages safe were able to surge forward to take over the space the gremlins had previously occupied. The wall of spikes acted as a sort of defensive barricade that helped keep some of the gremlins back.

This was a new strategy they had worked out. John had a limited amount of combat spells but could manipulate stone, so if Steve being an elementalist cast a spell summoning earth spikes to impale their enemies John would be able to assist with the magic using his own earth magic to improve the aim and quantity of the spike summoned. However John could only help so often since most of his mana was tied up in keeping his constructs summoned and repaired with the constant damage they were taking from the gremlins.

‘Yes we can do it. We are so close I can see the cave. We just need to make it a little farther and we are there.’

Of course just when Daniel had that thought his hopes came crashing down. Their destination was what they thought was the source of the gremlins. They had also discovered that the cave was also where the new waves of gremlins came from. Which is what happened now. A new swarm of gremlins came swarming out of the cave reinforcing their brothers and causing Daniel and the constructs to be pushed back. Daniel called out in telepathy as the new wave crashed into his shield. “I thought we still had another five minutes before the next wave.”

“We did, something must have happened or we must have reached another threshold that caused this wave to come sooner than expected.” John mentally shouted back.

“Okay, well we can still do this. This wave is only a minor setback.” Daniel shot back as he continued to call out the chant of thrust, withdraw, push step that had become second nature to him.

“Daniel, we can't. I just used my last mana potion to cast that spell with the last of my mana. We just don’t have the resources to keep pushing forward. Who knows when the next wave will come and overwhelm us. We were already barely holding on this whole time. With the unknown of when new waves will spawn we can't keep pushing forward like this.” Steve said.

Daniel shook his head. “We are so close. I can just activate ‘Heavy charge’ and reach the cave mouth. From there I can hold any gremlin that comes out with Ice Fang.

“Daniel if you leave the spear tip we won’t last long with only the constructs.” John said, “And with Steve out of mana he won't be able to help kill the gremlins. Besides, they will soon gain their buff.”

Daniel was about to continue to refute John's words when he played his last card. “Daniel, we can always come back and try again. With your and Steve's title there's no reason we can't attempt this dungeon again when we are better prepared.”

Daniel gritted his teeth, but he knew they were right he was just being stubborn because deep down he knew that if he didn't have the others that needed his protection he could push his way through this swarm like it was water. “Fine. Steve, since you are out of mana, start summoning the portal back to the training room. We will hold the line until it opens then we will fall back into starting with you, John Kota and then finally myself coming in last.”

“Okay, I am starting now.”

“Good.” shouting out loud Daniel ordered the constructs to make a tight defensive ring that was two constructs deep to protect Steve from any angle as he summoned the portal to safety. John did an admirable job keeping the constructs healed, but with them no longer pushing forward the gremlins were able to get in more hits than before that shattered shields and cracked the constructs.

It wasn't long before the first few constructs fell and others had to step forward and take their places. When the portal was finally summoned Daniel finally came to a decision. He had been mulling things over in his mind, and he had a new plan on what he would do. Speaking over telepathy he spoke to John and Steve. “Change of plans I am going to continue to push forward with the help of John's constructs. I should be fine with my skills and now the portal is open close to the cave. I want to find out where all of these little nightmares are coming from.”

“Daniel you can’t. It's not safe.”

“Don’t worry I have a plan and every second we stand here talking the more time the gremlins have to kill another golem.”

“I really do hope you have a good plan, and don’t take any crazy risks. You will have to tell me if you manage to find anything.”

Daniel nodded and looked down at Kota. for his part Kota just looked back at him keeping eye contact. He seemed to understand what Daniel was thinking because after a second Kota broke eye contact and walked into the portal back to the training room quickly followed by Steve and John who gave him a quick pat on the back.

After the last man left it was time to get down to business. Concentrating for a few seconds he took out a spare stone tower shield john had made as a back up for Daniel in case the one he was using ever broke. With that done he needed to get to work. Now that John was gone he had no way to heal up the constructs and he would need as many of them as possible to have his plan work. He quickly ordered them to get into a line two abreast with their shields pointing outward to protect from the gremlins. Daniel took his position at the front of the line with his two tower shields in hand facing towards the opening to the cave where the gremlins came from. With all of the dominos in place it was time to knock them down.

He ordered the constructs to charge forward and at the same time activated ‘Heavy Charge’ targeting the farthest distance he could travel with the skill while holding both of the shields out as wide as possible to give his body as wide of a surface area as he reasonably could not bothering to protect his own body with the shields.

His charge sent a wave of gremlins flying to the side as his skill accelerated his body forward at ludicrous speeds going from completely stationary to faster than he could sprint on his own in a flash. His charge created a clear lane forward that was about six feet wide for the construct to pass through. He charged into the mouth of the cave. Once all of his momentum suddenly and instantly vanished he dropped both of his shields and quickly withdrew Ice Fang from his equipment menu. He quickly turned and watched the constructs swinging at a few gremlins that had managed to not be hit by his charge, killing them instantly with the casual swipe of his maul.

The construct had flawlessly followed his orders and were using the gape he had created to charge though the tide of gremlins. For the gremlins' part they were slow in trying to refill the gap. His charge had caused more mayhem than he had expected and the gremlins that had been knocked away by his charge had also ran into their allies knocking them over as well. Many of the gremlins were tangled up in a ball of limbs and fur unable to get up and refill the gap he had made. The constructs were quickly able to enter the cave with Daniel, they only needed to kill a few gremlins on the way but it was nothing they couldn't handle.

All things said in done he was down to fourteen constructs after John, Steve and Kota had left and many of them had hairline fractures covering their bodies, but that didn't matter to Daniel he just need them to make sure no gremlins managed to attack him from behind as he went further into the cave. The cave wasn't very large and was oddly smooth and symmetrical. He ordered the constructs to form into three lines five wide and three deep though the last line only had four constructs it would just have to do. He told them to give as much ground as they need to not get overwhelmed and hoped they would be able to hold out long enough for Daniel to discover whatever was at the end of this tunnel like cave.

With the constructs in place he began sprinting down the cave which continued to remain completely smooth and straight with zero deviations. The farther the light made it in and he was forced to briefly stop and take out his light stone from its slot on his adaptive belt. He activated the light before he stuck it into a new holder on the front of the belt that would keep his hands free to fight while continuing to provide illumination to anything in front of him before he continued to run forward. The more he thought that this cave was made by some intelligent species. He couldn't imagine the gremlins making something like this in such perfect dimensions. They were savages and they didn't even wield pointy sticks; they had only ever fought with their natural weapons.

Daniel ran for two minute straight before he encountered more gremlins. A small wave coming down the tunnel would be forced to fight off this wave, he couldn't let any past him to make it to the constructs that were defending the rear. Daniel still didn’t have ‘Heavy charge’ up so he instead started the fight by activating the enchantment on Ice Fang and shooting an explosive icicle forward to explode in the middle of the pack of gremlins. The ice or cold normally wouldn't affect the gremlins because of their natural constitutions, but ice shrapnel that carved through their body's like a frag grenade was another story. One the ice bomb was detonated Daniel was on the gremlins.

The tunnel was thankfully large enough that he could swing his maul with wild abandon. He swung his maul in looping arcs, never letting the momentum of the weapon stop. This was a trick he had learned on the first day before they had managed to erect their defensive position. He needed to keep this rhythm up otherwise the delay caused when his weapon stopped would give the little monster an opportunity to close the distance with him and get inside his guard. Though that wasn't as much a concern anymore. Individually gremlins couldn't hurt him until their swarm buff stacked to a certain point. He had always been more concerned about gremlins getting past him and to his friends now however without that fear constantly in the back of his mind Daniel waded into the gremlins swinging with wild abandon. He cut a bloody swath through the gremlins and like every time before when he had killed a gremlin they were dispersed into blue light that shot down the tunnel and out of his sight, but now he was also close to discovering the where the gremlins were drawn back to when they were killed.

After cutting his way all the way through the gremlins he turned back around and cleaned up any survivors that he had missed. It took two more sweeps to finally deal with all of them, but when he was done there were no bodies left to show that there had even been a battle here. Turning Daniel continued down the tunnel making sure he was going the right way by the blue light made by the last gremlin he killed. It quickly out passed him, but that was fine he just wanted to make sure he didn't get turned around during the fighting since everything in this tunnel looked the same.

He continued his run. Running into a few more small warms of gremlins that he managed to take care of with little trouble. It wasn't until after he finished off a small swarm that the problem started. As he stood there the last of the blue lights fading he began to feel the ground began to vibrate under his feet. Daniel paused what he was doing to listen, it took him only a second to realize what he was feeling and hearing as the sound of thousands of feet slapping the ground rang out farther down the tunnel, each slap echoing down the tunnel. His demeanor turned grim when he knew that running into a real wave was a real threat when he decided to take on this risk alone, so he was mentally prepared for the possibility, but knowing and experiencing were two different things.

He had already faced an unknown number of gremlins during his time in the dungeon, but now he was facing this threat alone though his own stubbornness in believing that he could make it by himself. And maybe he could, but there were no certainties. When I make it out of this I need to apologize to John and Steve. We are supposed to be a team and we have accomplished some great things together while in this dungeon, and none of it would have been possible if they each supported one another.

Daniel readied himself both physically and mentally. The slapping of feet only grew louder as he waited and when the first gremlin entered his ring of light he acted. Running forward to meet the vanguard of the swarm. Just before he made contact with them he activated ‘Heavy Charge.’ he knew that he probably couldn't destroy the entire swarm by himself, so he had a different plan. After his max range charge ended he continued to rush forward with his momentum from before he had started his charge. Bringing Ice Fang across his body in an arch he activated ‘Heavy Blow’ to clear the path in front of him to allow him to continue to move forward, and give him just enough space to do the next part of his plan.

As long as he kept moving they wouldn't be able to swarm him forget any empowered hits off on him, but if he ever lost his initial momentum he would be trapped in the middle of an army of angry gremlins and he would be forced to fight his way out which was a prospect he was not looking forward to. Using all of the power in his legs Daniel leapt forward using his ‘Jumping’ skill to make a record breaking long jump. Daniel seemed to float forward over the head of the short gremlins as they all looked up at him with a mix of emotions in their savage eyes, gravity seeming to not affect his body until it did. Daniel had jumped at least fifty feet though he could say for sure how far he really went. Daniel came crashing down on top of a gremlin crushing its small body underneath his feet, but before any gremlins could comprehend what had just happened Daniel kept his momentum by jumping again. It took four jumps to finally clear the gremlin swarm, each one going a little shorter with each jump as he lost some momentum. Each landing also hurt like hell. He could feel his muscles and tendons struggling to absorb the impact of each jump only for him to jump again, but Daniel wasn't concerned about his body failing him.

Once he was finally clear of the gremlins Daniel continued to sprint forward not worrying that he was leaving his back exposed to gremlins if they managed to catch up to him, but he had little worry that their short bodies would be able to outrun him. He was more concerned about getting sandwiched between the swarm he had just evaded and another one coming down the tunnel. He needn't have worried however because another five minutes of running without spotting another gremlin finally got him to his destination, and the first sight that greeted him was almost awe inspiring in its beauty. Inside the cavern was a radiant blue glow emanating from an absolutely massive blue crystal that floated in the middle of the massive sphere shaped cavern that the glow of the crystal illuminated. It was the shape of a three dimensional diamond like two pyramids that had been flipped then stacked on top of each other giving the diamond eight facets two on each of its sides. The cavern itself was obviously not natural. It was a missive sphere that was perfectly smooth with absolutely no tool makers that could hint at how it was constructed. The tunnel Daniel had exited from was in the center of the sphere and led out onto a pathway straight to the crystal right where the two pyramids met there were three other such pathways one coming from each cardinal direction each with their own corresponding tunnel that Daniel assumed would eventually exit the mountain. Each of the pathways that led to the crystal were floating with no supports in sight, floating just like the crystal was.

As he continued to watch a couple of blue lights that he recognized as dead gremlins streamed past him. He hadn't been paying attention to them before because of how frequently they came by. The gremlin had most likely been killed by the constructs that he had left behind to guard his back which was of little comfort to him now. But as he watched the blue lights rapidly approach the blue crystal they seemed to speed up as they approached before they were finally absorbed into it.

The crystal began to rapidly pulse, letting off more and more light. As he watched Daniel began to notice that something was wrong. In various parts of the crystal the light was a deeper shade of blue and letting off a more intense light. As he watched he was able to pick out more and more of the line before he finally realized what he was seeing. The crystal had cracks all over it that were letting out whatever the crystal was supposed to store out. Then all of the pieces in Daniel's mind clicked.

The crystal is damaged and letting gremlins escape, or is it making the gremlins and it just damaged. Either way this crystal being damaged seemed like a bad thing. As he continued to watch the pulsing continued to come faster and faster before a wave of mana? Daniel wasn't entirely sure what it was. The wave came from the crystal. Blue fog began to leak from the crystal, and as Daniel watched he noticed that he was not alone on the platform. He hadn't noticed before since he had been so focused on the crystal, but there was a veritable army of gremlins surrounding the crystal on all sides. He only noticed them now because the fog leaking from the crystal approached the gremlins before solidifying into more of the monster that he had been facing over the last five days.

Daniel silently watched on as new gremlins were being made right before his eyes. However his silent contemplation was interrupted when two system messages decided to make themselves known

Congratulations, you have discovered a secret objective in this dungeon instance

Dungeon Quest Survive: Good luck.

Objective: Survive the endless waves of gremlins for as long as possible

Secret Objective: Stop the gremlins who are controlling a damaged Crystal of Creation from endlessly making and reviving more of their kind by either killing all of the gremlins or destroying the already damaged Crystal of Creation preventing it from being used again.

Reward: Based on number of gremlins killed and total time survived before returning back to the Training Room. Unknown rewards dependent on completion of secret objective

~~~~~

Quest The Origins of the System: You have borne witness to an ancient tool used in ages long past to be used as a weapon by creatures regarded as less than animals by more enlightened races. By finding an artifact thought to be a myth by many scholars you have gained a reward to further aid you on your quest. To earn more rewards learn more about Crystals of Creation and discover other ancient items whose use and creation have also been lost to time

Reward: A book containing written accounts of when Crystals of Creation were thought to have been used. Warning most of the recountings in this book are second or third hand reports, and some sources are considered questionable.

After Daniel finished reading the prompts a book appeared in his hand that he quickly put away in his storage ring. He hadn't expected to progress the Origins of the System quest any time soon, so it was a surprise to say the least. Now that he had finally seen what they were facing Daniel decided it was finally time to make a hasty retreat. There was no way he would be able to deal with the sheer number of gremlins that surrounded the crystal. He had originally planned to see the threat they were dealing with and then retreated back to the portal Steve had opened, but now that he was between two gremlin swarms he started to summon a new portal against one of the tunnel walls.

Halfway through the summoning he began to hear the rumble and slapping of feet of the gremlins coming from the way he had come. The swarm he had gone through had finally caught up with him. Daniel gritted his teeth and tried to will the portal to open faster. The vibrations and sounds of the gremlins grew louder and louder, but he couldn't break his concentration for fear of the portal failing to open. The sounds eventually grew near deafening to his ears as he continued to concentrate.

Finally the portal opened and he was finally able to look and see how close the gremlins were only to see a ball of fur inches in front of his face. It collided with him and he fell backwards in shock only to fall into the portal. Reappearing in the training room sputtering with fur in his mouth.

“So, how was your solo adventure Daniel?” Daniel wasn't too sure who had spoken, but there was a clear note of humor to the voice.

Before he could respond, new system messages entered his vision, cutting off any witty response he was going to make.

Congratulations! You and your party have survived the Trial of Endless Foes. You and your companion have gained 4,218 (8,436 split) experience for surviving for five days, twelve hours and sixteen minutes. You have received 13,101 (26,202 split) experience for killing twenty six thousand, two hundred and two level 3 gremlins. You have received 42,180 coins (75,924 experience and 126,540 coins split between party members).

Reward for surviving for one hour: 1,000 experience and 1,000 coins

Reward for surviving for one day: one Scarce rarity class item

Reward for surviving for five days: random rarity general skill gem

Reward for collectively killing 500 gremlins: 1,000 experience and 1,000 coins

Reward for collectively killing 5,000 gremlins: one Scarce rarity class item

Reward for collectively killing 25,000 gremlins: random rarity general skill gem

~~~~~

Your class juggernaut has reached level 9 (7 -> 9) you gain +8 points to strength, +8 points to constitution, +4 willpower, +10 free attribute points and +10 Skill points.

Your companion Kota has reached level 9 (7 -> 9) He gains +4 points to strength, +2 attribute points and +2 Mutation points.

Daniel was honestly surprised at how many gremlins they had killed. John's boulder attack that he had made to allow them to push out of the cave must have killed a lot more than he had assumed, or their constant killing of gremlins had just added up. As Daniel thought about this two gems appeared in the air above him before landing on his chest. Two small chests also appeared, but thankfully they didn't land on him. The same thing happened in front of John and Steve as well.

Daniel looked down at the skill gems he held and examined them. This first was a spherical crystal with polished facets with an internal golden light. The second was an ordinary looking quartz crystal that had a pale white light which was the exact opposite of the polished and refined look of the first crystal. Daniel cast identify on the golden crystal.

Skill Gem: Blood Empowerment

Quality: Masterwork

Rarity: Legendary

Features: Learn the general skill Blood Empowerment

Skill Gem: Dark Vision

Quality: Basic

Rarity: Common

Features: Learn the general skill Dark Vision

Daniel was shocked at the rarity of the first gem, and wanted to learn the skill immediately, but held himself back. He knew nothing of the skill or if there was another way for him to learn the skill. He could only use a skill gem four more times before he would no longer be able to. The Same went for the ‘Dark Vision’ skill. If it was the same as in video games it would be an invaluable skill, but would it be worth it to learn a common rarity skill from a skill gem. He would have to see if there was another way to learn that skill as well.

Next were the two chests that were on the ground in front of Daniel. Those should contain the items related to his class which he had to admit greatly interested him. The last time he had got a reward like this he had given it to Kota, so he had no idea what kind of items would be of use to his class.

Kneeling down he touched the chest first. As soon as he did a new prompt entered his vision asking him whether he wanted this item for himself or for his companion. He decided the first item would be for him. Depending on what he got he might give the next item to Kota.

After he selected himself as the recipient the chest began to glow light leaking out of the closed lid of the chest. A second later it began to open by itself revealing the item inside.

Item Name: Ring of Psionic Efficiency

Quality: Good

Rarity: Scarce

Features: decrease the cost of all psionic related skill and spells by 5%

The ring was a pale purple in color and when he picked it up it was oddly cold. It was obviously related to the new specialization he had chosen for his class. He slipped it onto his left index finger, as he slipped it on the ring resized itself to fit perfectly onto his finger. He felt no change when putting the ring on but he honestly hadn't expected to, so he wasn't surprised.

Turning to the last chest wasn't sure what he wanted to do with it. He thought back to when he had first been given a similar option. Back then he had given the item to Kota since it would most likely be harder to find good items for him to use. He now knew that line of thinking was slightly flawed. With access to the shop he had found that there were items in there designed for animal companions. Also based on what Ulgatha had told him he possessed a very rare class and he had to assume that gear specifically for his class would be invaluable and he might be unable to find such items. Though a ring that reduced the cost of psionic skill and spells didn't seem very unique to his class, any psionic oriented person should be able to make use of the ring he had just received. After thinking about it a bit longer he decided he would also give himself the second item. He could use the coins he had gained from the dungeon to buy Kota some new items. Decision made he opened up the second chest. Light once again flooded out of the chest before he was finally able to make out what was in the chest.

Item Name: Juggernauts Rebuke

Quality: Superb

Rarity: Scarce

Description: When an attack hits you or an item you are holding you may absorb part of the strength of the blow into the bracers. At any point you may release the stored up energy in combination of one of your attacks to further increase the force behind the attack.

Now this was the type of item Daniel was hoping for. It had obvious synergy with ‘Heavy Blow.’ Daniel would have to test it out before using it in combat the description didn't give many specifics like how much of a attack against him was absorbed or how much “force” he could store at one time, or even if he was able to release a select about of the stored energy of if it was a all for one kind of deal. These were all things he would have to test out later

After looking over all of the items he had gained. He quickly slipped on the bracers replacing the previous one he had purchased from the shop. He also put the skill gems in his storage ring. They would need to talk about all they had gained in a bit.

Daniel looked over to Steve and John who were each also holding their own items gained from the dungeon. Steve had a purple and green colored gems in his hand while also putting on a new multi colored robe he was also wearing a new gold chain necklace with some kind of diamond crest on it as well.

John held two blue crystals that were currently sitting on the ground as he played with some kind of cube. He also sported some new boots as well that were a muddy brown in color.

Daniel was about to ask what they had received as rewards when Steve spoke first. “Hey did either of you guys hit level 11 cause I am able to select a new specialization and it is giving me a weird prompt.”

“I did, here give me a second let me take a look.” John said as he put down the cube he had been messing with. A second later John responded, “uh yeah its telling me ‘to prepare myself’ whatever that means.” John made air quotes when he spoke. “It's quite weird if I’m being honest.”

Both of the men looked at Daniel prompting him to respond. “No Kota and I just hit level 9 quite close to level 10 though.”

“Ah yeah you have to share your experience with Kota. You know it's a shame that Kota doesn't gain any of our quests. If he did, you would be double dipping with the rewards.” Steve said.

“Yeah I wish it worked because currently I am at a disadvantage compared to you guys. I read in the wiki that how a bond normally works is that the bond can hunt beast or monster while the other holder, me for example, can do other things like craft and we both get xp, however that isn't possible yet since there are no monsters on the planet. At least not yet.”

“That is unfortunate, but going back to the previous topic. I can see my specialization options yet because of this prompt, and I don't know what I am supposed to be preparing for.

“Oh, come on Steve, it's probably just something to do with gaining your first real specialization that the system did not give you.”

“That could be true, the thing that worries me is the unknown. We just don't know enough about how the system works to know whether or not this is anything serious. Daniel, could you ask Ulgatha if she should know more than us.”

“Sure I can ask, just give me a second.” Daniel entered a kind of half lucid state where he was neither completely in his mindscape and not fully in his body. It was kind of like when he entered meditation, but still different at the same time.

‘Ulgatha were you paying attention to our conversation just now.’ It took only a moment for her to respond to his question. This was somethin Daniel had learned how to do while fighting the gremlins since he never had the time to really fully enter his mindscape to talk to her.

‘I was not but let me quickly replay it.” Literally one second later she spoke again, but this time the calm tone of her voice was gone and she spoke in a rush. ‘You need to quickly tell your friend exactly what I am telling you now and fast. They have just reached a moderate threshold and to pass it they are put into a trial. Normally this wouldn't happen after many many years of using and experimenting with their classes, but since you are new to the system you have started at a higher tier. They only have a couple of minutes by my guess until they are transported to a different realm to undergo their trail. There is no way to know what form this trial will take, but it will be related to their class, the skill they have taken and how they have used their skill and spell up to this point. Now quickly tell them they have to prepare themselves.’

Daniel quickly relayed what Ulgatha had told him to John and Steve. As he relayed what he knew he concentrated on removing items from his storage ring and handed the items to John. He didn't carry any of his own supplies since he hadn't purchased a storage ring yet so Daniel had to make sure he was ready.

They quickly theorized what the trial might entail for John and Steve based on what they had done with their class and skills. They hadn't been in the system for that long and they had spent a not insignificant portion of that time fighting against swarms of gremlins. Especially John, he hadn't been in the system nearly as long as Daniel had. He had spent a lot of time killing gremlins and building traps to kill gremlins, so Daniel thought he might face a similar trail as what they had just left. Daniel also told them about what he had discovered, but found out that they two had received the quest update when he had discovered the crystal. He also let them know about the system quest that had also been updated and the book he had received as a reward. This they found much more interesting and they discussed what such an ancient and mostly powerful object was doing at the hands of gremlins.

After talking for a little while longer John turned to Daniel in the middle of their planning and theorizing and spoke, “Tell Miranda what's going on okay. We were in the dungeon for a lot longer than we originally planned. Even with the time dilation over a day has passed outside she is probably worried sick.” With those final words both Steve and John both vanished right in front of Daniel's eyes.

Daniel was at a loss for what to do next. Should he wait for them? But he didn't know how long this ‘trial’ would take them. ‘Ulgatha how long does this ‘trial’ take.’

‘Days or weeks for them. The trial works on an even faster time dilation as the training room, but it will still be many hours before either of them will return. I would recommend doing what John has asked of you and go talk to his daughter. Also after you finish talking to her we need to have a conversation of our own.’

Daniel nodded and exited the training room to enter the living room of his house. Looking out the back door Daniel saw that it was getting dark outside. Kota also left the training room with him laid down in his favorite spot before seemingly falling asleep. Daniel looked at Kota who was still in his armor which had cuts and dried blood all over it and wondered if Kota had access to his own equipment system since otherwise the dog would never be able to remove or put on any of his own equipment without his or someone else's help. Daniel shook away the stray thoughts right now he needed to find Miranda.

“Miranda?! Are you here?!” Daniel called out.” If she was here he didn't want to go bargain into the room he was lending her, that could be taken many wrong ways especially since he was still in his full battle gear.

He heard a faint response coming from her room, once again confirming that it was a good idea not to go bargain into someone's room even if this was his house. “Is that you Daniel. Give me one minute, I just got out of the shower.” another bullet dodged Daniel thought. Walking in on a girl who was changing was a good way to get slapped.

About one minute later she walked out of the room. Hair wet and wearing clothes that didn't leave much to the imagination. She wore a tank top and a pair of short shorts. She must have been getting ready to go to bed. Daniel had seen several of his own girlfriends wear similar outfits to bed.

“What happened Daniel? I wasn't expecting you guys to be gone so long I was starting to get worried. Based on the time dilation you told me about, you guys have been in there for around five days if I don't miss the mark.”

“Yeah, the dungeon we entered wasn't the traditional kind. It was survival based, holding off swarms of enemies.”

“So, you're telling me you, my father and Steve have been in a survival dungeon for the last five days. Why isn't my father here to tell me this himself did something happen.” her voice was deadly serious.

Daniel took a deep breath. “Something did happen.” Miranda opened her mouth probably to demand answers, but Daniel held up a hand and continued to talk. “It's probably nothing bad. I talked to Ulgatha about it and apparently both John and Steve have surpassed something called a moderate threshold which will have them undergo some kind of trial before they are able to take their next specialization option. I don't know much more about it than you do.”

“Are they in danger?”

“Maybe? Look I’m not sure based on what Ulgatha told me there is no way to know what form the trial took. It's supposed to be a test on their class and how they have used it up to tell this point. My biggest concern is that your father kind of got power leveled and spent most of the time in the system gaining experience in the dungeon we just left. I think he might face a similar trial as what we just left. Though I am not concerned about it, his skills were invaluable in the dungeon, and we wouldn't have lasted nearly as long as we had without his help.”

This seemed to calm her down a little. “How long does this trial take?”

“Days or weeks, but it operates on an even higher time dilation than the training room so it shouldn't take them more than a day your time to return.”

She got very quiet and seemed to slump in on herself before she sat heavily on the couch. “I just don't know what I would have done if I had lost him. He's the only family I have ever known.” She looked up at him for the first time showing Daniel unshed tears in her eyes. “Can you tell me what happened while you were gone? I could put your experience into the guide book I am writing.”

Daniel nodded and sat down in his fathers old recliner across from her, and over the next half hour he spoke about what had happened while they had been in the training room.

After talking for a while Miranda wrinkled her nose. “You know you stink. I have been trying to ignore it but you're really starting to stink up the whole house. You to Kota, you need a bath.” Kota for his part looked up when his name was called and seemed to look hurt by her words.

“Fine, we will go get cleaned up. I have stuff I need to do. I am not sure when ill be back though if I find any more interesting books in the shop I will be sure to pick them up for you.”

Miranda nodded and without any further delay he re entered the training room

~~~~~

One hour later both he and Kota were clean. “You know we would have finished a lot sooner if you didn't insist on making the whole process harder than it had to be. Getting all of that matted blood out of your fur was a pain in my ass, you know that.” Kota for his part did look slightly sorry, his ears were down and tail sagging “I’m glad you learned your lesson because next time if you don't cooperate I won't be as nice, I’ll get the training room AI to me a nice big pool of water that I can throw you into and be done with it.”

Now that he was finally clean and felt like a real person it was time to enter his mindscape for the first time in five day. Sitting cross legged on his bed and entering the second stage of meditation he went into his mindscape. In the second stage of meditation his body would be able to get some sleep while he and Ulgatha worked and had a conversation.

Daniel appeared on the first floor of his tower in his panic room. He quickly left and decided he would first check the outside of the tower to see if there had been many changes since he had last been in his mindscape.

Walking outside he saw the foundations of a new external wall being built. It looked like Ulgatha was in the process of making an outline of what he wanted. He would see not only the wall, but also a few circular tower foundations, a gate house it he had to guess as well as a moat that was currently being dug by the humanoid shaped worker constructs. The moat was currently close to four feet, and circled the entirety of the new wall which seemed like great progress to him.

Daniel walked around for a bit and saw five different squads of ten legionnaires paroling around the outline of the new wall. From Daniel's mental count he should have made well over one-hundred soldier constructs in total, so there were at least double to number that he hadn't seen yet. Since he also couldn't find Ulgatha he assumed that at least some of them were with her defending the library. After walking another loop around the wall looking at all the progress that had been made Daniel decided to finally enter the library to find Ulgatha.

When he entered the library he saw row upon row of shelves. He had only created the exterior wall shelves so it seemed that Ulgatha had finished his work. Not knowing which part of the library she was in, Daniel mentally called out to her. A minute later one of the legionnaires approached him from the rows of shelves and directed Daniel to follow him deeper into the library. They walked down one of the large central pathways. Upon reaching the far wall of the library they took a sharp left and continued their walk. After a minute they reached a random empty bookshelf where the legionnaire stopped and pulled the sconce that held one of the many light stones that Daniel had made. Part of the book case pushed away leading into a hidden hallway that Daniel had not made. The halfway led forward about twenty feet then was cut off by a steel door. The door opened at their approach and another legionnaire directed them inside before he shut the door. Once inside there was another steel door making a sort of airlock. A third legionnaire opened this door and Daniel and the legionnaire that had originally led him here walked inside with the second legionnaire who had opened the first steel door staying in the airlock.

Daniel didn't know why Ulgatha had made this place, but he guessed it had to be important if she had put this much security into its construction. Inside was a smaller library only about twenty by twenty feet with only around a dozen shelves. There were only a handful of books on the shelves, but when Daniel looked at the books he could not recall any of the books information with his skill which he found odd. In the center of the room sitting at a deck was Ulgatha. “Hello there Ulgatha. I must say this whole setup you have made is very… interesting to say the least.”

“Ah, Daniel, thank you. Glad you could finally join me.”

“Well, I would have come sooner if Kota had not delayed me.”

“Understandable, what did you think of the progress being made on the surface.”

“Better than I expected to find. It seems the constructs I have been making are showing their worth, though I do have to ask what is this place anyways?”

“This is my office where I have been working up to this point.”

“Why have so much security if it's just your office?”

“Well, it's more than just an ordinary office. I also work on delving into your mind here. We have not discussed this yet, but my real ‘body’ for lack of a better term lives in your mindscape. When I delve into the deeper parts of your mind it leaves this form vulnerable which is why I required a safe place to conduct my work. If this body is destroyed I will truly die. Like your physical body on the outside world this is my true body as a psionic elemental.”

“Makes sense as to why you want to stay safe, but what about these books? I can’t recall their contents even though they are shelved.”

“This place is not connected to your library at the moment, and the knowledge contained in these books is too valuable and sensitive to be shelved in the regular library. You will need to make a vault that is connected to your library that protects this kind of information from casual perusal, so for now it stays here until you have a safe enough location for me to shelve them.”

“Why wouldn't it be safe enough to shelve in the main library? It's not like anyone else could read them besides us.”

“While that is true for now it won't always be. When you eventually make the officer constructs which you need to make a priority now that you have more than one hundred of the basic solder constructs, they will be smart enough and have enough self awareness to read any of the books in the main library. They will be able to learn, grow smarter with time and eventually develop their own personalities. This will also be true for my daughters, and while you will eventually give them access to the vault it could be harmful to their development in the beginning to absorb such knowledge when they are so young.”

“You may also receive visitors if you become a strong enough psionic. There are many beings that exist in the psionic web that makes up the universe, and should you grow strong enough your mind would become a beacon to such beings. Many of these beings will have good-intentions, and it would be advantageous to you to give them hospitality in your mind for a time. You must be aware that most of these beings feast on knowledge and information so a library like this will be like a feast for them. You will want to separate important information from your normal library into places that are more secure from idle perusal. It is better to do things in a proper order to avoid mistakes like forgetting to put an important book back into the vault and someone less trustworthy to find it.”

“You make good points and do you expect to receive any such visitors any time soon?”

“No, I do not. You will need to psionically awaken at least a couple more times before you become noticeable to such beings.”

Daniel nodded. “Though back to a previous question, what are the contents of these books?” Daniel gestured to the scattered books that were shelved . “You said they were important.”

“These contain some of the information I was able to retrieve from your mind from your feat. you may have noticed some changes or remembering knowledge you never learned while in the gremlin dungeon?”

“I have. I must say it is a weird feeling to know something I never learned.”

“You will get used to it.” she replied sagely, “some knowledge I was able to extract from your mind are incomplete or missing important information, but a couple are complete and are ready to be read.”

Daniel was excited. “Which ones? I will read them now since I have a bit of time.” Ulgatha gestured to two thin red leather bound books on her desk. Daniel quickly picked them and read their front covers. “Those two are, but you can read them later. We aren't done with our conversation yet. We still need to discuss those skill gems you gained as well as what you will do with your new level ups.”

“Right. I forgot about that.”

“I’m sure you did.” Ulgatha responded sardonically. “First things first the skill gems. I think you should learn both of them, but at a bare minimum you should learn ‘Dark Vision.’”

“Really why? In all honesty I thought you would recommend me learning ‘Blood Enhancement’ considering the rarity of the skill.”

“Dark vision is a skill impossible to learn or be taught if your race doesn't already have naturally good night vision. This is a skill I would recommend everyone in your party to purchase from the system shop. The skill is low rarity, but always in high demand similar to the ‘Party Interface’ skill you and the others have already learned.”

“Okay, that makes sense, but what about the other skill you basically implied that I may not want to learn the skill how come?”

“Well, for starters I have no information about the exact skill you obtained but I do know of similar skills, and they can be very strong. The skill you obtained is an empowerment skill. Which basically means that you will be able to strengthen yourself in some way that will make you stronger for a limited amount of time for the trade off that you will be in a weakened state once the skill runs out. This empowerment usually takes the form of buffing one or more stats with the optional effect of enhancing some other part of your body. My guess is that this skill, when activated, will strengthen all of your physical stats because of its rarity and also do something to your blood as well.”

“Empowerment skills sound great and with the rarity of this skill it seems like it could be a great addition to my kit.”

“There is one major problem that makes me hesitant to have you learn the skill. The first is that you may already have an empowerment skill in your skill trees as a juggernaut. Your class is regarded to be very powerful, so there is a high chance your class already has one you just haven't revealed it yet.”

“What happens when you stack empowerment skills? Is it even possible to do?”

“Oh, it is. Some of the most feared classes in existence are ones where people purposely try and get as many empowerment skills as possible and supplemental skills to reduce their negative effects. People with these types of classes can fight much higher than their level would indicate, but most die an early and painful death from the backlash of their skills ending all at once. Many powerful classes train up such individuals to act as suicided assassins to kill powerful targets without risking any of their true elites.”

“So then what's the problem about learning multiple empowerment skills if I can just stack them?”

“The problem that all people with multiple empowerment skills have to deal with is overlap. For example if two empowerment skills try to enhance your strength attribute at the same time the skill won't work together. Instead their energies will clash with one another. They won't just cancel each other out causing nothing to be increased either the energies will actively try and destroy the other basically ripping your body apart in the process. It is something you have to be extremely careful of.”

“I see, so does that mean I should wait to learn the skill until I find out if I do have an empowerment skill?”

“Oh, quite the opposite, I think that you should learn the skill. You just have to be aware of the risk.”

“Okay.” Daniel said stretching out the word, but what makes this skill good compared to others? You said you don't know this skill specifically right?”

“Well for starters it's a general skill which means you will eventually be able to improve it with time and through use which is a big boon. Every skill point is an important resource. Now a fringe benefit that doesn't affect you would be that since such general skills are in very high demand since they can be learned by any class, so if you for whatever reason decided to sell the skill gem you could make a fortune taking it to auction.”

“Okay, I think I will learn both of these skills. Anything else we need to go over before I place my new skill points.”

“You need to make sure you upgrade your Psionic legion skill so that you can make a Centurion construct now that you have enough legionnaires. Other than that the choice is up to you.”

Daniel nodded and before he looked at his status page up, placed first the ‘Dark Vision’ skill to his forehead and after the flood trickle of information entered his mind. He placed the gold glowing skill gem that contained the ‘Blood Empowerment’ skill gem on his forehead. This time the flood of information was a bit stronger ,but still nothing compared to the flood of information from his crafting legacy.

Dark Vision ( 1/5 ): When you looked into the darkness it looked back and for the first time in your life you truly saw. Passive. Cost to increase 2 Skill Points.

Level 1 (Passive): can see 60 feet in near total blackness

Level 2 (Passive): can see 120 feet in near total blackness

Blood Empowerment ( 1/5 ): Your Blood boils is the source of all power within your body and when you fight it boils over with endurance and vitality. Active. Cost to increase 2 Skill Points.

Level 1 (Active): Once activated, sacrifice 90% of your vitality to create a layer of blood armor that covers your whole body that will act as your health pool. All your attacks will leach the life from your victim. All life leaching damage is increased by 50% effectiveness (max amount of vitality able to be stolen from a single target is 50% of their total health and max vitality obtainable is 500% of your max vitality) any creature killed while this skill is active will also recover a portion of your endurance. All vitality leached in this way will be added to the blood armor increasing its vitality. All healing energy received will only affect your blood armor and is reduced by 99% effectiveness (Beside life leach) until the blood armor is destroyed or dismissed. Once banished all healing will continue to be reduced by 99% until health has fully recovered. Skill may be activated again when your health has reached its maximum value.

Level 2 (Active): 60% increased life life leaching effectiveness, 60% vitality stolen from a single target, max vitality obtainable 600% of your max vitality, all healing is reduced by 95% until this skill has ended and your health has reached its maximum value.

Daniel finished reading the skill and before he could comment on it Ulgatha spoke first. “That is an absolutely amazing empowerment skill.”

Daniel looked up at her. “How so?”

“Well for starters it's basically a stacking buff. If you knew a fight was going to happen you could max out the skill before the battle to get the max 500% health. There are two main concerns that I can see that you will need to be careful of. First the only reliable amount of healing you will get in a fight will be from your life leaching while the skill is active. The second is that once the skill is deactivated you will still be at 10% health since all healing you receive will go to your blood armor and once the skill is canceled you won't even have the life leaching to heal up faster so if it gets destroyed while in the middle of combat you will be in a great amount of danger. Ideally you would manage to keep it active for the entire fight and be able to cancel it once you are in a safe place.”

“Also this is one of the most unique empowerment skills I have ever seen especially since it doesn't directly affect your stats while active. I doubt you will have any problems with conflicts resulting from any other empowerment skill you gain in the future.”

“I must say I do like the skill though the drawback will be a pain, though I guess that is kind of the point.”

“Troll regeneration should get you back in fighting shape soon though which should help mitigate some of the drawbacks though not by much.”

“Well, I guess I should get to assign my skill and stat points.” Daniel pulled up his character sheet and looked at what he had to work with. He had ten available points to increase his skill. Three of which were already distended to raise his psionic legion skill so he went ahead and put the points into that skill first leaving him with seven. Once he used the skill he read what the next upgrade for the skill would do at level 4.

Level 3 (Active): Expend psionic energy to create a Centurion (Officer) construct. Can only be created in a mindscape. Once you have created ten squads of Contubernium (one squad of eight men) you may form these squads Centuria (ten squads of eight men) led by a Centurion. Able to form six centuries of eighty men into a Cohort of 480 men. Once created the construct sustains itself and will exist until destroyed or dismissed. These constructs have moderate intelligence and are able to carry out complex tasks and direct other constructs to perform tasks that are under their command. Psionic energy cost to create: Moderate.

Level 4 (Active): Expend psionic energy to create a wider variety and higher tier officer constructs and specialist constructs like archers, slingers or javelin-men. Can only be created in a mindscape. Restrictions apply to what you can create. Once created the construct sustains itself and will exist until destroyed or dismissed. Variable psionic energy cost depending on the creation.

Primus pilus – commanding centurion for the first cohort – the senior centurion of the entire legion. Boon you may grant to the oldest centurion further increasing its strength and intelligence. Limited one per legion. Major psionic energy cost to grant

Decurio: Mounted commander of the cavalry unit or turma. Moderately intelligent. Limited one per turma. High psionic energy cost.

Mounted Legionnaires: Mounted soldier. Once thirty have been made you can form them into a Turma led by a Decurio. Ten squads of Turma can be formed together to make a Equites (Ten squads of thirty men: 300 men) an unit designed to support a legion. Low intelligence. Psionic energy cost to create moderation.

Optio: Equivalent to a sergeant, second in command for the centurion. More intelligent than basic legionnaires, and has a limited capacity for independent action. Minor psionic energy cost to create

Cornicen: Horn blower or signaler. Moderate intelligence. Moderate psionic energy cost to create

Now he had decisions to make so he could upgrade the skill again or more onto other skills. He couldn't even use the upgraded skill until he made more constructs so he decided to wait for now. Next he decided to put two points into ‘Heavy blow’ and ‘Heavy Charge’ respectively. These were by far his most used skills, and Daniel wanted to know what skills might be revealed in their respective skill trees. First he looked at the changes for ‘Heavy Blows.’

Heavy Blow ( 2/5 ): None can stand against the strength of your blows. Active 50-second cooldown. Cost to increase 3 Skill Points.

Level 1 (Active): Expend stamina to double the strength of your next attack. 60 second cooldown

Level 2 (Active): 50 second cooldown

Level 3 (Active): 40 second cooldown. Expend stamina to double the strength of your next two attacks

The skill had a very interesting change at level 3. As he thought about it Daniel remembered that Steve had said some skills get big changes at the third and fifth levels. He was tempted, but he had still yet to look at the changes of heavy charge as well either of the new skills that were revealed from upgrading his skills to the second level.

Heavy charge ( 1/5 ): charge an enemy stopping for nothing that gets in your way. Active. Cost to increase 3 Skill Points.

Level 1 (Active): Select an enemy. Charge forward up to eighty feet until you reach the targeted enemy Stamina expended for each foot traveled. 5 minute cooldown

Level 2 (Active): Able to charge up to 120 feet. 4 minute cooldown

Level 3 (Active): Take 50% damage while in your charge. Able to charge up to 160 feet. 3 minute cooldown

Another interesting change. If the pattern Steve talked about remained true then he might become immune to damage while changing at max level which could be a great ability. Next were the two new skills he first looked at, the one revealed by ‘Heavy Blow.’

Quickened Blow ( 0/5 ): The speed of your attacks if whispered in legends. Active. Cost to increase 1 Skill Point.

Level 1 (Active): Expend stamina to double the speed of your next attack. 60 second cooldown

The skill was very similar to ‘Heavy Blow,’ but was focused on speed instead of strength, but Daniel could easily see how these skills could be used with each other to devastating effect. Next was the next skill revealed by ‘Heavy charge,’ but this time there were two skill options.

Siege Breaker ( 0/5 ): With all of the contained power in your body you are able to end a siege in a single blow. Active. Cost Increase 1 Skill Point.

Level 1 (Active): Expend a minimum of 10% of your Stamina (Max 50% all additionally expended stamina increases damage dealt) into one powerful attack. Channel time to use this skill is 1 minute (10% increase damage to buildings and structures per 1% of stamina expended). You can not use this skill again until your stamina has reached its maximum value

Strongholds protector ( 0/5 ): You are a mighty defender; a beacon that all of your allies rally around. Active. Cost to increase 1 Skill Point.

Level 1 (Active): Reserve a minimum of 10% of your Stamina (Max 50% all additionally expended stamina increases the range and effectiveness of your aura) to create an empowering aura. You and all allies, objects and structures in the area of effect of your aura will have their sturdiness increased depending on how much of your stamina has been reserved (1% increased sturdiness per 1% of stamina reserved). While this skill is active there will be a drain on your non reserved stamina when any friendly allies, objects and structures take damage within your aura area of effect. You can not use this skill again until your stamina has reached its maximum value

The skills were similar to each other in several ways, but still very different to one another. It was also very obvious what this branching path meant for this skill tree. Daniel was deciding if he was a siege breaker or a defender/protector. With a choice like this Daniel doubted that he would ever be able to gain any of the skill from the path that he didn't choose. While the skills did seem good he also wasn't sure he needed either of them at the moment. So he looked back at ‘Heavy Blow’ and ‘Quickened Blow;’ he could either upgrade ‘Heavy Blow’ to get additional attacks per activation. Or he could put the three points into ‘Quickened Blow’ bringing the skill to level two and revealing the next skill in the skill tree. Of course he could also put the points elsewhere but he really did like the idea of ‘Quickened Blow.’ Decision made he put one point into ‘Quickened Blow,’ but before he could upgrade the skill again Ulgatha stopped him.

“Daniel, can I make a recommendation? You are free to reject it for it is not my place to tell you how to upgrade your skills.”

She was oddly serious. More so than he had ever heard from her before. “Of course you should never feel not be able to tell me what you are thinking.”

“I would recommend that you gain the ‘Strongholds Protector’ skill. As you have already surmised, choosing that path will most likely cut off the other branch, but I don't think you have realized the hidden benefits of the skill for you.”

“How so?”

“The skill not only increases your sturdiness, but objects in your vicinity as well. That might not sound like much, but that will also include weapons and armor in your area making weapons less prone to chipping and armor stronger and better at reducing damage. A benefit of your new empowerment skill that I did not talk about was that when it is activated it summons blood Armor not to mention the benefits for your allies. This skill would greatly improve how strong John’s constructs are.”

She emphasized the word Armor and the pieces started to click together in Daniel's mind. “Are you saying that I summon actual armor made of my own blood and the aura skill would increase its durability and allow me to talk less damage?”

“Not only that. When the skill is active anything you kill will give you stamina. Do you know what else gives you stamina?”

“‘Troll regeneration’ and ‘Death Blows.’”

“Exactly right, the increased drain when taking damage will mean nothing when you can just steal all of the stamina back.”

“Well Ulgatha I am glad you decided to speak to me. This will be a powerful combo. I hope you talk to me about such things that come up in the future. We might also want you to talk to Steve and John to see if any of their skills and spells have any hidden synergies.”

“I am glad I could be of assistance.”

She spoke in a subservient voice which Daniel was having none of, “none of that Ulgatha you are quite literally living in my mind and have access to all of my inner thoughts and memories. I would rather you be my friend than a servant considering that you will be with me for the foreseeable future.”

She seemed to struggle with what to say for several seconds, conflict clearly on her face before she seemed to make up her mind. “I think that is something I can manage. A friend.” she chuckled, “Yeah, that's something I can manage.”

“Good. now, I have to see if there is somewhere I can put this last point one I chose ‘Strongholds Protector.’” Daniel quickly gained the new skills and looked at what had changed when gaining ‘Quickened Blow’ and ‘Strongholds Protector.’

Level 1 (Active): Expend stamina to double the speed of your next attack. 60 second cooldown

Level 2 (Active): 50 second cooldown

The skill progression for ‘Quickened Blow’ was just like ‘Heavy Blow’ which came at no surprise to Daniel.

Level 1 (Active): Reserve a minimum of 10% of your Stamina (Max 50% all additionally expended stamina increases the range and effectiveness of your aura) to create an empowering aura. You and all allies, objects and structures in the area of effect of your aura will have their sturdiness increased depending on how much of your stamina has been reserved (1% increased sturdiness per 1% of stamina reserved). While this skill is active there will be a drain on your non reserved stamina when any friendly allies, objects and structures take damage within your aura area of effect. You can not use this skill again until your stamina has reached its maximum value

Level 2 (Active): Minimum stamina reserved 9% max 55%. 1.25% increased sturdiness per 1% of stamina reserved

The skill change for ‘Strongholds Protector’ was very interesting. If he gained .25% increased sturdiness for every level he increased the skill then at max level he would gain 2% for every 1% of stamina which would be quite the boost. Daniel also looked back at the skills associated with the skill tree and confirmed that the branching path that had contained the ‘Siege Breaker’ skill was completely gray. Well it was confirmed he had made his choice and the other path was lost to him.

Daniel looked over his other various skill trees to see if there were any skills he had revealed, but yet to gain that he could spend his last skill point on. After a quick search he confirmed that yes he had one such skill. ‘Dense Tendons and Efficient veins’ was a part of his body reinforcement skill tree. He had kind of put the tree on the back burner once he had gained the ‘Powerful Organs’ skill, and once he had gained Ulgatha he was less worried about the threat of his feat killing him so it had been a while since he had put any points into the skill tree. He decided he would put his last point into the skill and also once again read over that the skill did.

Dense Tendons and Efficient veins ( 1/5 ): Your Tendons are strong like corded rope and your veins are a perfect vessel for blood. Passive. Cost to increase 1 Skill points.

Level 1 (Passive): Your tendons are stronger and able to better absorb shock and decrease the effectiveness of all impacts to your body by 5%. Your veins are more efficient at carrying oxygenated blood nutrients and water decreasing all stamina drain from skills and actions by 1%

Level 2 (Passive): decrease the effectiveness of all impacts to your body by 10% and decreasing all stamina drain from skills and actions by 2%

The skill was nothing like Daniel remembered, and he to say it was a good skill. Unlike sprinting that only applied to only running, jogging and such it was a flat decease to everything which was a nice bonus. The shock factor would also be of help. That was something he had discovered when jumping over all of those gremlins in the cave. Finally it was time to look at his stats.

Strength: 48 -> 56

Endurance: 16

Constitution: 58 -> 66

Dexterity: 23

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Willpower: 35 -> 39

Charisma: 10

He had ten available points to work with. With his new skill it could be a good idea to increase constitution and endurance. He saw little need to increase dexterity now that he had ‘Quickened Blow’ his original concern had been not being able to land hits on mast moving targets since most of his points were in strength, but with the skill that was not less of a concern not to mention ‘Death’s Chilling Touch’ as long as he survived long enough targets would eventually succumb to his skills. Also thinking of ‘Death’s Chilling Touch’ he really needed to upgrade that skill at first level it almost never activated he would need to use the 5 points he would gain next level to increase the skill to level 3 though that would use all of his points for the level. It was something to think about for sure. Back to the problem at hand his endurance was also quite behind the curve of his other physical stats, so he decided he would fix that by putting all ten of his points into endurance.

Strength: 56

Endurance: 16 -> 26

Constitution: 66

Dexterity: 23

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Willpower: 39

Charisma: 10

With everything in his static page taken care of it was time to make changes to Kota's status page. First off he had 2 Evolution points though he would only be able to use one of them because he would have enough left to upgrade another skill. So he put on point into ‘Shadow of Death’ which was an evolution Daniel had been looking forward to for Kota.

Shadow of Death ( 0/5 ): People fear the dark and you are just another reason that proves their fear right. Passive/Active. Cost to increase 1 Evolution Point.

Level 1 (Passive/Active): While immersed in darkness tendrils of shadow will rise up and actively try and conceal your presence making you harder to see. You may actively expend stamina and mana to further improve this concealment.

Level 2 (Passive/Active): Shadows will more actively try and conceal you without your influence. You are more efficient at actively controlling shadows to conceal yourself.

This was a skill that would vastly improve Kota’s kit. Daniel was also jealous that Kota already had his mana unlocked because he was a beast. Looking at Kota’s stat points he had 5 available points that could be spent. So far he had only used them to improve Kota's intelligence, and he had noticed a stark difference in how Kota had been before compared to now. So he decided to put two points into intelligence to bring it up to 10. He was also concerned about how lopsided Kota’s stats were becoming so he decided to use the rest of the points to improve his constitution bringing it up to 14.

Strength: 31 -> 35

Endurance: 12

Constitution: 11 -> 14

Dexterity: 15

Intelligence: 8 -> 10

Wisdom: 4

Willpower: 6

Charisma: 6

With all of that Taken care of Daniel made a mental list of all of the tasks he had left to do. He needed to make some of the new officer constructs and to form the soldiers into Centuria now that he had over the required eighty required to do so. He needed to make a library vault for some of his new books and also read over the information Ulgatha had managed to extract from his mind courtesy of his crafting legacy. Tasks laid out Daniel was about to dismiss himself so that he could get to work when something new stopped him in his tracks. A voice he had never heard before called out.

“Mom, I finished giving all of the constructs their new orders, so I can go read now.”

Turning Daniel saw a purple skinned child or maybe a teenager enter Ulgatha's office. Turning back to Ulgatha, Daniel gave her a look.

For Ulgatha’s part she just let out a defeated sigh suddenly looking very tired.