I have no idea what I’m about to do, it was a step I wasn’t exactly sure of taking as the ensuing consequences was not one I had any guarantee of facing. Even now, in an age where magic prevails, humanity was still looking for the secret to long life, or at least to immortality. If it was possible to save Tobias, to resurrect him, even I was smart enough to know the target on my back would be the size of mountain Everest. But even in that regard, there would probably be too much of a gain to come from it, I just had to get stronger and be able to protect myself. Salma walked towards me with the battle suit she had lent me, I took it back with a soft whisper of gratitude and proceeded to wear it, at this stage I really couldn’t give a shit about my modesty. Besides we’ve all shared the showers at some point during out stint at the academy, and they’ve all seen me naked enough times by now, there was nothing left to hide.

I got dressed and walked towards Tobias’s body, I ignored his eyes, the vacant look they had in them was extremely unsettling, and it was all the more enhanced when I placed my hand on his chest and felt the cold from his body. It wasn’t the normal sort of cold you would feel from a recently deceased person, but rather the cold you would noticed if said person had been placed in a morgue. It forced me to pull my hand back for a moment in hesitation, given the way he died, this was probably an after effect of the Arachne Brood mother’s (Soul Shriek) skill. Though given the significant amount of skills she had, I was pretty sure there were some she never had the chance to use, but then again it didn’t matter.

My eyes locked with that of Nguyen and I quickly shifted it away. The hope and pleas hidden within them were somewhat sickening to me, and it was in a manner I absolutely could not understand. Something was definitely wrong with me, and as it stood I need to take some time back to unwind and articulate just exactly what has changed in me. I placed my hand back on Tobias’s body, ignoring the biting cold as I took a deep breath. I really had no idea what to do, and then something just seemed to click and a screen popped up in front of me.

[This Individual Can Be Lent One Of Your Lives And Be Resurrected. In Return You Will Gain 25% Of His Highest Stat, And A Passive Accumulation Of 25% of all Class And Skill Exp To Be Allocated At Your Behest. You Can Retrieve The Life Given At Any Time, or Have It Returned When The Person It Was Given To Dies]

Holy Shit! I couldn’t help myself, the look of shock on my face completely spoke of the turmoil that was in my head. And this was just the benefits on the surface, at least for me anyways. Tobias will live, but he would be given up a lot in order to do so, and for however long he lives, every experience he gains, I’ll be getting twenty-five percent of it, both for class and skills. And I would be able to allocate it however I wanted. But even with all this there was the sheer fact that he might lose something of himself, just as I’ve lost these few times that I’ve died and come back. I looked up at Nguyen, I needed to be transparent with her about a couple of things, possibly everything except the fact that I could take back the life just as easily as I’ve given it. The idea that I would have someone’s life in the palm of my hand would probably drive someone to do crazy things.

And. Beyond that perhaps it wouldn’t be wise to let them know about the siphoning of exp from Tobias. I would literally be living off his hard work, taking a part of his strength and having to make him at least 30% harder to keep up with his peers. Even I have no idea how I would react to such a news, much less Tobias himself or the Terran Coalition. This would be too much power in the hands of one man, heck in the hands of a kid that’s not even out of his teens yet.

“I can bring him back, but he’ll lose 25 percent of his highest stats, and it would probably by 50% harder or longer for him to level up his skills and class from now on. However he would be alive, but still I’m not so sure what it would cost mentally or emotionally… even I have lost some things. And I’ve yet to figure it out, whether it’s emotions, or memories or empathy, I’m not sure. But are you really sure you want me to go on with this.”

At this point there was fire in her eyes, the others just crowded around us, watching, not at all saying anything as this was territory we all had no experience in. And in the end it was Nguyen who had the highest authority over Tobias’s life here. She was his lover, and the few of us here who have experienced a tiny bit of that fleeting emotion knew just how valuable it is. Especially so when you consider just how strong they both have it for each other. “Stop wasting time Samson, do it!” and do I did.

[You Have Given Life To Tobias Johnson, Chosen Of Hercules! You have Received 30 Physique stat Points, and will receive 25% of all exp gain from Tobias Johnson to the Leveling Up Of Skills and Classes.]

30 Physique hit me like a punch in the gut, this was different. I felt my muscles spasm and my bones crack and mend themselves as the pain threw me back. I felt heavier, bigger. As a soldier I was already incredibly fit, but I was still considered skinny. But this gave me girth, and then just as quickly as the bulk had come, it was compressed. All the muscles and physical strength i had just gained from the stats were repackaged into a lithe form with skin getting to be a lot more tougher than I expected.

[You Have Absorbed a Wisp Of Hercules’s Divine Blessings/Miracle: Unbreakable. The active skill: Nemean Fur has been generated.]

[Nemean Fur: grow a covering of impenetrable fur to defend against all physical based attacks for 3 seconds. Magical base soul, and mental attacks can not be defended against]

And then just as quickly Tobias was up on his feet, his eyes wide as he looked around himself, a shocked look on his face as his brain struggled to catch up, and the rest of his body start to remember that he was still alive. Nguyen jumped at him, her tears rushing and she sobbed with terrible happiness. The others crowded around him, with Andrej and Malkova keeping behind, but even I was able to catch the look of relief on their faces. All in all it seems things had turned out well and he was fully okay, that is until he took one look at Nguyen and asked.

“Who are you?”

>>>>>

It’s been over two hours, and while we had all used that time to focus on Tobias and the obvious side effects of his resurrection, in the end we’ve a come to the conclusion that there was nothing we could do, not unless we got the help of a professional. Tobias was brought back to life with all of his memories and emotions intact ....well all of them except for those of Nguyen. And it was to her desperate pleas and tears as she showed him the engagement ring he had given her just before we deployed , that I realized that all memories and the emotions that went with it, everything he had of Nguyen was gone. The woman he loves, the woman he wanted to marry, gone, erased from his mind like she never existed in the first place.

It was crazy really, but I didn’t feel guilt or particularly sorry about the current state of things. I know I had warned her about what could happen, that there was a cost to dying and coming back to life, a cost to cheating death or becoming a master of it. This seems like quite a big price to pay, loosing love; but at least we can all look on the bright side, Tobias was still alive and definitely an important tool in the hands of the Terran Coalition… … and also in my hands too.

I moved away, gathering as much cores that were left behind by the dead Cymerian spiders, before heading straight for the brood mother’s body. I had pending notifications, but those can come later after taking care of the most important act in any dungeon; looting the boss.

[Forging Blueprints: Cymerian Arachnid Exo-Skeletal Limbs/ Requirements: C+ Engineering/C+ Enchantment/C+ Mana Manipulation]

[B+ Passive Skill Book: Soul Shriek/ Requirements: Magic 350/Soul Affinity 5/ E+ Soul Manipulation]

[Cymerian Brood Mother Core]

[Durkenholm Dungeon Master Key]

[D+ Realm Stone]

Sweet fuck! Skill books on their own were rare, and definitely the core of the brood mother would be valuable beyond all measure. And the blueprints were of an upgraded version of the Charlotte Legs spider limbs I had previously gained. The blueprint would probably outfit a special division in the army giving increased maneuverability and more attacking options. But nothing, nothing was more valuable that the Realm Stone, and the fact that it was D+ in rank was saying something. These stones were so important and so rare the odds of coming across one was 1 in a million. I’ve heard rumors that most soldiers go through their entire service without even catching a glimpse of one, not even those hard core adventurers and dungeon delvers.

A realm stone once attuned created a pocket dimension, and it was one you could access from any universe. It was what served as the basic foundation for any dungeon, in fact dungeon cores were pretty much realm stones themselves. With it you could create a world, a land, or a storage space cut off from space and time and accessible only to you and those you choose. None the less this was a good haul, it’s just such a shame I would have to turn this over to the army once we meet up with them. Never the less the only thing that could possibly be of use to us right now, was the master key. With it we can finally get into the temple and find our way out of here. It was progress, but I still had pending notifications to look through.

[Quest Cleared! Quest Giver: Quest Reward: 20 Random Stats, Special Blueprints]

[+5 To Magic, +7 Movement, +8 Physique]

[Construction Blueprint: Druid Fortress/ Requirements: D+ Architecture/ D+ Construction/ C+ Mana Manipulation/ D+ Mana Scribing/ 4 D+ Boss Monster Cores]

[Construction Blueprint: Protection Ward: Mark Of The Passover/ Requirements: Lv3 Holy Element/ D+ Mana Scribing/ D+ Sheep Monster Core and Blood/ Bless Level 10]

The rewards for the quest were generous to the say the least, and that was putting it nicely. This was rewards from my very first quest, so the rewards were mine and could not be taken away. And they were lucrative enough that even if I was a person in power, I would do everything in my power to have it, but regardless, what’s mine is mine, and I’ll just go ahead and see the other notifications.

[Lesser Spider Stride has Leveled Up to 3! +4 To Movement]

[Wind Blast Has Leveled Up To 7! +5 to Magic, +3 to Movement]

[Lion Stomp Has Leveled Up To 7! +7 Physique, +5 Movement]

[Lion Strike Has Leveled Up To 8! +5 Physique, +7 Movement]

[Entangle Has Leveled Up To 5! +10 Magic]

[Holy Element Has Leveled Up To 2, +10 To Magic,]

[Wind Element Has Leveled Up To 3, +10 To Movement, +5 To Magic]

[Blessed Body Has Leveled Up to 3! +4 to Magic, +2 to Physique]

[Charge Shot Has Leveled Up To 10! Max! +10 Magic, +15 Movement, +5 Physique! Would You Like To Evolve This Skill? ]

[Charge Shot Has Evolved To Elemental Charge Shot! +5 Physique]

[Resilience Has Ranked Up To D+, +15 to Physique]

[Leo’s Instinct Has Ranked Up To D-, +20 to Physique, +20 to Movement]

[Class Druid Has Leveled Up To 11! +15 To Movement, +17 to Magic]

[Class Cleric Has Leveled Up To 4! +7 to Magic]

NAME

Samson Michaels

AGE

19

MIRACLE

Resurrection(46)/????

Gods

Jesus Christ/????

CLASS

Combat Officer

MANA CLASS

Druid (Lv11) 6%

Cleric (Lv4)

80%

RANK

Battle Acolyte

ATTRIBUTES

Wind (Lv3) Light (Lv5) Water (Lv1) Holy (Lv2)

STATISTICS

Physique 358

Movement 472

Magic 720

PASSIVE SKILLS

Firearms Mastery (D+)

Blades Mastery (C+)

Terran Combat Series: Lion Fist (C-)

Resilience (D+)

Leo's Instinct (E-)

Mana Control (D-)

Eye of Divinity (E+)

Druid Photosynthesis (E+)

Nature's Tongue (E-)

Soul Series: Aegis Mentis (D-)

ACTIVE SKILLS

Elemental Charge Shot (Lv0)

Quick Draw (Lv6)

Swift Thrust (Lv4)

Lion Stomp (lvl 6)

Lion Strike (Lv8))

Lion Claw (Lv5)

Lesser Spider Stride (Lv3)

Nemean Fur (Lv1)

Wind Blast (Lv7)

Wind Drag (Lv2)

Light Heal (Lv10MAX)

Morph:(Wolf Cub) (Lv5)

Aurora (Lv13)

Entangle (Lv2)

Blessed Body (Lv3)

Power seemed to thrum and hum beneath my skin, my senses were a bit sharper and I felt even more attuned and connected to my magic. But all in all it was a dull feeling, like it was expected and all I could do was observe it from the side rather than experience it myself. Truly something is wrong with me, perhaps Tobias lost his love, but me? Perhaps I have lost my ability to love, and that sacred me. And it was not a feeling I would easily admit to feeling.

I turned away from the body of the brood mother and began making my way towards the temple. Salma and Kaixuan ran to catch up to me. I’m sure they were surprised by how disconnected I was with the whole thing with Tobias, but I was not ready to address the questioning looks on their faces, perhaps it wasn’t fair, but I just didn’t care, not even if I wanted to. And in that regard the others followed behind, with a distraught Nguyen taking up the rear whilst being comforted by Kimberly.

Andrej and Malkova were already waiting for us at the temple, for a moment I wondered if perhaps they were up to something once more, but I just ignored it. We could all deal with that as soon as we got out of here, so I marched past them, went up the stars and straight to the doors that had kept us locked out and with no other choice but to battle the brood mother. I placed the master seal on it, and with a loud click, it opened. There was a grating sounds as gears seemed to shift and the entire hill the temple was placed upon seemed to shudder, and then with a whirl and few distinct clicks the door slid to the side, opening up to a small room with a massive test tube, control stations and a ladder at the other end that seemingly led outside.

“What the hell is that?” Laurent called out in shock as we turned to notice the test tube, we all took a deep breath as Amina opened her mouth to answer.

“That’s a dwarf.” But it was more than just that, the dwarf in the giant test tube had a head the size of a military Jeep’s tires. And even more so the fact that his skull was cracked in a lot of places as it seemed as if his brain was struggling to push through, and then there were numerous cords plugged into metal outlets indented directly into his brain, heart and neck, with his chest having a massive grey crystal embedded or rather growing out from it.

“That’s just not a dwarf my dear humans… hehehehe that’s the Durkenholm dungeon core, and I thank you all soon to be dead abominations for your help. Now which one amongst you bastards killed my brother and set my fucking camp on fire?”

I felt my heart drop to my chest as I turned quickly. The elves had found us… and not just them… it was Rodal.

“Fuck!”