Gabriel and Dustille reached the portion of the map where Dustille was expecting to find the cave. There was nothing.

"So… we're trapped?" Gabriel asked.

"We were already trapped, no we're… lost," Dustille answered.

Gabriel frowned, "What do you mean we were already trapped?"

"You didn't know…"

Though she had roughly explained to Gabriel what had happened, expecting him to do the same thing, which didn't happen. She recounted to him about the Dungeon war, but she had failed to describe that they were effectively trapped inside it. She did it now.

"So… I'm not strong enough to tear a hole in the Manashield. You are not strong enough to tear a hole in the Manashield… is she?" He asked, pointing at the sleeping Gaia.

"She's strong, yeah. But I don't think she has the power for that... "Dustille shook her head. Then sat on a boulder, laying the bloodied girl on the ground by her. She started fiddling with her satchel, took out a rag, and started cleaning her.

Gabriel crossed his leg and let himself slide on the ground.

Still not out of the fucking nightmare, he sighed.

His eyes fell on the now cleaner face of the sleeping girl. So this is Gaia Waterfront. I hope she's still capable of sending me home. I mean. I should be strong enough to reach Rapids of Mana by myself now, no? Gabriel chuckled. Yet way cuter than I thought.

Dustille threw the rage away. She had barely managed to clean her face and part of her hair, and the rag was already useless by then.

"She must have lost a lot of blood. I mean, can you even lose all that blood and still live? This Anchor system is crazy." Gabriel shook his head, "If I had Mana, I could clean her up in a matter of minutes anyway."

"You're short on Mana?" Dustille asked. Gabriel nodded.

"Here," she took something out of her satchel. "Tier 3 Mana pot. Restore up to 100 points," she said, holding it to him.

"What? Really?" Gabriel took it in his hand, and as he brought it to his lips, he was stopped by Dustille.

"Wait!" She said, "You don't have to drink it in one go. You can use it more than once. Just its total potential is 100."

Gabriel nodded but then stopped, his eyes bullying out of his sockets.

"What!? I could do that!?" He screamed.

"Yeah… of course, why wouldn't you?" she asked, a little taken aback by the outburst. "You can do that with all restoring medicines. Balms too."

At that, Gabriel started raging toward himself, cursing quite a lot.

"You're god is gonna get mad at you for that. Especially that thing about the table leg…" said Dustille after he had finished, "that was rather nasty," she admitted, twitching her nose.

Gabriel couldn't believe how he had wasted the maximum potential of his Energy potions and balms. Sipping his potion, he could see it descend and perceived its power as an intense light descending down his thorax, up to his stomach, where it quickly started dissolving. There was still roughly one-third of the bottle when he felt he had reached the limit for its use.

Handing the rest back to Dustille, he asked. "By any chance have you got a-"

"Energy potions? Yes, last one, though. Keep something from me." She said, preceding him.

"No can do, sorry. Tier 3?" Gabriel asked, taking the syrupy yellow potion.

Dustille, surprised, laughed but nodded.

Gabe downed half the bottle. Then started pouring his Energy into his Meridians. They had almost doubled in carrying ability. He could feel it as if his stomach had grown larger. Once he felt Meridians were choke-full with Energy, he downed the rest of the bottle then gave it back to her.

"Oh, this feels nice…Thank you very much, Dustille. I owe you one."

"Sure," she answered, looking at him weirdly.

The young man didn't give it much thought. Instead, he recalled his Anchor page.

Gabriel Walker

Race

Human

Level

31 (69.21%)

Class

Lost Dark Arts Jack-Magician

Class Level

27 (57.46%)

Spirit

Spirit of The Shiny-Lizard

Spirit Level

29 (25.85%)

Pools

Life

Energy

Mana

Spirit

10/10

50/50

75/75

24/50

Attributes

Body

Spirit

Final

Affinity

38 (19)

5

43

Alacrity

18

10

28

Power

13

22.5 (15)

35.5

Recovery

47.6 (17)

5

44.6

Resilience

22 (20)

50 (20)

72

Stamina

20.4 (12)

10

30.4

Yeah, that name sucks… Liz's one is kinda cute, though. Rather unfair. If only I found some more monsters, I might upgrade Class level and Liz all the way to 30 too. I've still to receive the hidden rewards and use that Skill token I just rec-

"Didn't you say you could clean her?" Dustille asked.

"Oh, yes. Of course," Gabriel answered, drawing near.

Imbuing his hands in corruption-tainted Mana, Gabriel started passing them over her body. The blood covering her started drying up right away. Most of it turned into filthiness in the form of dust, crumbling away. Once he reached her hair, he lowered the input even more, and passing his hand swiftly through them; he brushed the residues off.

Dustille looked at him, surprised.

"You learned a Magic Skill? And are you using it at that efficiency level? In two weeks? How?" Each question increased the tone of her voice by a notch. She was indeed surprised.

"Long story, I can recount to you the short version if you want, but if we want to keep her clean, you need to undress her completely," he answered, stern.

Dustille was pensive. "I don't know if I should do that, but… all this blood can bring forth bad things."

Bad things?

"Alright, it's for her own good, help me up. My hands are too big for those shoelaces."

After undressing her entirely, Gabriel, appreciating the view but not making any useless comments, started cleaning her still covered in blood parts, thoroughly but fast enough to not look like a pervert.

Once he finished with her skin, he started with her clothes, then helped Dustille put them back on the sleeping, now definitely, beauty.

"So," Dustille said, asking for her leather armor to be cleansed too; "what's the story, I'm up for the long one too if you wish."

Dustille remained seated on the boulder to allow him to reach all the parts that needed cleaning.

Blushing, but just for a little, Gabriel accepted.

"Well, I'm not up for the long story, not right now at least. But the short story is… I find myself in a Dungeon Challenge, I lose. The boss monster comes, mentally tortures the shit out of me, tricks me into helping him. I-" he nodded at Liz, "we, fuck him up good and get the hell out of that place."

Dustille took him by the arms. "You entered Turtle Island's Dungeon Challenge!? Are you fucking crazy!"

Gabriel was surprised by her reaction. His first instinct had been that of creating a Mana-blade of corruption to shove through her neck, but he managed to rein it in.

"It's not like I knew that, didn't I?" He answered, wiggling his arms out of her grasp to continue purifying her.

"But… how? Are you here? That Challenge had been tested and classified for an Energy of level 122. How did you come out of that?"

"Mind tricks," he answered, touching for her temples as he finished with her.

"He opened his mind for me to train into. And I fucked him up pretty good, sealed his powers, and dealt with a weakened version of him. Yet even like that, he was still a terrible problem. I would have died many times over if it wasn't for the potions you guys had me carry." Gabe ended, shrugging and plopping down on the floor again.

Liz, by his side, looked annoyed. Thus she had curled up and played at biting her own tail. He looked at her, chuckling.

"That is… unreal. But my senses tell me you are not lying… You are indeed the Herald, are you not?" She asked him.

Hearing that term, the girl on the floor bubbled something in her sleep.

She looked cute, thought Gabriel.

"Herald here, Herald there. Kinda getting sick of it. But yes, it seems so," he answered Dustille with a mocking smile.

Dustille grew silent for a while, thinking while looking at the sleeping beauty.

"We need to go. Let's meet Olivia," she said, getting up.

"Olivia's here!? Is she alright?" Asked Gabriel, standing up straight, eyes shining with joy.

Finally!

Olivia was somebody he could trust, though weird, and surely with her own secrets. The girl had done nothing but help him, up until that point. He thought she would have left already, but she did not. It meant a lot of things for him.

"Yes, I only hope they're still waiting for us there," follow me.

***

"Do you have any movement techniques?" Gabriel asked Dustille as they started heading toward where once stood the jungle.

"I don't," she admitted.

"Then, we're going to get there, uncomfortably, but we will. This place is getting way too hot for it to be any good. And I hate heat."

"What do you plant to-"

But Gabriel did not let her finish. He cast Built to fly on her, meeting a resistance that wasn't letting the Skill take hold.

"Don't fight it!" he asked a surprised Giantess.

When the spell took hold, Gabriel based his strategy on the same principles he had used to save them from falling once again into that precipice. Gabriel bolstered himself with Meridians, Burst Attack and Built to Fly, and scooping the Giantess, which was holding onto Gaia, into a tackle, he propelled themselves toward the jungle, trying to stay as low ground as it was possible.

"What are you doing!" The Giantess shouted.

Though the carry was rather unceremonious and indeed uncomfortable for all three of them, it was effective.

Gabriel screamed at her in response, mainly to cover the wind. "My mom always said, 'Make it with what you have!' She referred to food! But I think it applies to every kind of situation!"

"I can hear you! Don't shout in my ears!" She shouted back.

"Then, why are you screaming?" He retorted.

"Because! Now shut up!"

Cute, he thought, giggling. Liz, climbing tight on his back, giggled with him.

By the time they reached the outskirts of where the forest had been, Gabriel had expended almost half of his newfound resources through repeating the process. He wasn't planning on spending more of them. They would have to walk toward the place.

The forest had become a wasteland. Though structures made out of rock had seemingly sprouted from the ground, and judging by the slowly shifting terrain, were still growing from it. Did it look like some sort of… military encampment? Or maybe a village. Gabriel couldn't say.

"So, where do you think we should look for first?" Gabriel asked the Giantess.

She closed her eyes, then pointed to the west, near the edges of a rock barrier that separated the huge fortress from this portion of the Dungeon.

Just as she did, they felt the sound of an explosion in the distance. A piece of rock fell from a mountain, like a shattering iceberg, which came falling on the ground, raising a massive display of dust.

"Yeah, I get. Must definitely be the place," Gabriel admitted. "Just hope she survived that. Didn't recall her being that powerful, you know?"

Dustille chuckled, "Oh, I think you are bound for some surprises then."

"What should that mean?"

"Just let's go meet her."

Gabe shrugged, following.

Though the place was deserted, they were really bound for some surprises, probably not the kind Dustille was talking about. But surprises still.

Slender Armored Tyrants. It could be seen in the distance. There even was one on a horse. Squinting though, they realized that the horse and the body of the Tyrant were fused together.

"That's new," Gabriel said.

"Dungeon shift for you." Dustille acknowledged, a bit cranky.

"That's bad for business, isn't it?" He asked her.

"It depends. We surely must shift our main focus of exports, but I see potential there," she added. "Those weapons are definitely unbound."

"You can say? Analyze?"

"Scan, Fifth Tier Active Perk," she said.

"What does it do?" Gabriel was really interested.

"Take it as a deeper Analyze. It shows equip, Skills, Perks, and such."

"Not bad! Not bad at all. Though, Fifth Tier? That's like level forty-five," Gabriel nodded. "Good to know."

"Their levels?" He asked.

"Why?" Dustille turned toward him, surprised.

"I've got a few levels to go before the next reward, wouldn't want to miss it. I feel troubles abound, once again."

Dustille shook her head, "Those three on foot are forty-five. The centaur is fifty. At least they are regular monsters, though."

"Alright, can you attract the centaur attention then? I'll make quick work of it. Of course, if you want to join in, it'd be much appreciated."

"Gabriel… that's a level fifty monster. What level are you?" She asked.

"Oh, not scanning me without consent? What a precious woman you are Dustille, there should be more people like you. Anyway, feel free to. I'm thirty. But I'm confident I can take the bastard on." As Dustille decided to scan him, he proceeded to Analyze the monster in question.

Armored Centaur Tyrant

Race

Armorid

Level 50

Class

Doom Knight

?

Element

Dark

Dark - 2

Pools

Life

Energy

Mana

465/465

?

?

Attributes

Affinity

?

Bound

Alacrity

82

Bound

Power

?

Bound

Recovery

?

Bound

Resilience

129

Bound

Stamina

?

Bound

"Yes, doable."

"That's… absurd…" she said. "How can you have all those basic Skil- doesn't say it…"

But Gabriel interrupted her all the same, "Yeah, Herald shit."

"Gabriel-"

"You can call me Gabe, sweetie."

"...Gabe," she said, sighing, "your Power is trash, can your Affinity push through his defenses? That thing has a Skill that makes it resistant to Magic. Especially the Dark element."

"Oh, I'll be fine. Just bring it to me. Pretty please?"

Dustille shook her head in disbelief, "I'll be waiting over there if it turns too rough. I'll join in. Okay?"

Gabriel smiled and headed to a more secluded place to keep out of the Tyrant's sight. The monsters did not have Enhanced Senses like them and could thus not pick them up from far away like they had been doing, but it was better to hide, just in case.

Gabriel and Liz hid behind a large rock sprouting from the drylands. Soon later, Dustille was running toward them. Following close behind her was the monster.

She jumped on the rock to get out of range, placed the still unconscious girl by her feet, and took out her bow and arrow. "If you're gonna attack, do it now! This thing's lance can shoot beams of energy!" She said to Gabriel.

The man, though, was studying the creature in front of him. It resembled the slim form he had battled not even four hours before, but instead of legs, it had the lower body of a horse, while his tail was a thick piece of stone with curved spikes here and there. Like the mayor, this one had a spear and a shield in place of hands, and though its size was not like that of a giant, it was bigger and taller than a horse could ever be.

Though he had recovered from it, his mind felt still crippled by the intensity of the fight. But he had gotten used to that while in The Memory, so he pushed through it.

Gabriel slapped himself a couple of times. Then jump-started his fighting engine, appearing from behind the rock.

Wanting to test his new Sub-Skills, Gabriel cast Necrosis, Sickness, and Spirit Chain in short order. Soon after that, he cast Helping Hand on himself.

Almost every cast received a notification.

Necrosis fails to take hold. Armored Centaur Tyrant cannot suffer from it.

Target Affinity-Resilience confluence too high for Sickness to take hold.

Spirit Chain fails to take hold. Armored Centaur Tyrant cannot suffer from it.

Well. Good to know, I guess… Time for direct bashing, then. Liz, devastate it.

The lizard that had circled around the other side prepared to assault the monsters, but not before Gabriel cast Toughen to stop the monster's attack with his spear, but receiving it on his arm and pushing it aside.

He felt the hit but did not receive any damage.

Liz hit it from behind as the centaur prepared another hit, making it almost trip with her full-on Burst Attack. Gabriel swiftly responded to the situation by getting close and placing his hand on one of the monster's legs.

Battle Seal!

He received no notification from the Anchor. The Skill had taken hold.

The centaur's leg stiffened, and with Liz's consecutive assault, this time, the creature fell to the ground. From that, it was an easy victory for Gabriel.

The monster activated his shroud of Darkness for defense, a Skill it shared with the Tyrant he already knew but did not teleport away. It had probably sacrificed the Skill for this kind of mobility.

Gabriel moved to the monster's head, aiming his attacks at it. Liz's job turned to that of focusing on the monster's shield. Headbutt after headbutt, she pushed the guard away, as Gabe brought down his spear over the beast, and with Toughen kept pushing away the monster's tentative lance stabs.

Once the head armor started cracking, the monster was ready to use his dark ray. Gabriel could see it from the darkness gathering around its mouth.

"Affinity?" he shouted at Dustille.

"72!" she screamed.

Doable. Gabriel thought.

As the Tyrant's mouth opened wide, Gabriel used Toughen once more and placed himself right in front of the beam, letting it wash over him but having easy access to the monster's mouth. He shoved his Empowered spear inside of it. As a result, the monster's skull cracked, its mouth shut during the beam's execution, exploding its jawbone.

Soon after, Gabriel dealt one last blow on the monster's head, ending it.

A barrage of communications sprouted forth.

You have killed (1) Level 50 - Armored Centaur Tyrant

You have gained:

Level + 172%

Class Level + 97.92%

Spirit Level + 174%

Helping Hand Tier 8 + 2%

Toughen Tier 1 + 48%

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

You have reached Level 33.

You have 4 unspent Body Attribute points.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

You have reached Class level 28.

You can increase your Pools by 10 points.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

You have reached Spirit level 30.

You have 2 unspent Spirit Attribute points.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

You reached Spirit Level 30.

Choose a Spirit Perk.

Spirit Assimilation;

Spirit Form;

Spirit Fusion.

Spirit Assimilation allows you to assimilate your Bond Spirit inside your body and release it at will. During Spirit Assimilation you may pay your Skills with Spirit points instead of Life, Energy, and Mana at will.

Spirit is shielded from each and all physical effects, storing itself in your Core.

Spirit presence can be used to alleviate negative effects placed on you or shield the physical world from negative effects coming from you.

Requires Spirit Hiding.

Duration: 1 minute per Affinity for every Night-Day Cycle.

Cooldown: None.

Cost: None.

Warning. Spirit must be in touch with your body for the Assimilation to take effect.

Spirit Form empowers your Spirit by joining him in his form.

While in Spirit form, your Total Attributes for Recovery, Resilience, and Stamina are taken into consideration.

You are shielded from each and all physical effects, storing yourself in your Core.

Body maneuverability is shared between you and your Bond Spirit.

Requires Spirit Bulk.

Duration: 1 minute per Affinity for every Night-Day Cycle.

Cooldown: None.

Cost: None.

Warning. Spirit must be in touch with your body for the Form to take effect.

Spirit Fusion allows you and your Spirit to fuse into a half-sentient, half-spirit form.

While in half-spirit form, Total Attributes for Affinity, Alacrity, and Power are taken into consideration.

Everything applicable to Spirit and non-spirit can be applied to you in that form.

Requires Spirit Fade.

Duration: 1 minute per Affinity for every Night-Day Cycle.

Cooldown: None.

Cost: None.

Warning. Spirit must be in touch with your body for the Fusion to take effect.

You have previously chosen Spirit Hiding.

Spirit Assimilation automatically chosen as the only viable Perk.

Son of a…!