My family arrived early, and we were seated in the front row. It was surprising how many people came after us. This was going to be a crowded service! Behind the altar, where the pastor usually stood, another individual was present. He was dressed in a robe that was made of obviously fake scales, with fake wings glued behind. If it was a different setting, I would have thought of him as pretending to be a kid during Halloween.

"Pleased to meet you, everyone. I am Administrator Adams."

My father quickly explained that the administrators are above pastors in the religious order. I didn't even think that the religion was larger than our town!

"I am here to deliver an important message. Recently, some of our pastors and administrators have been reading through our holy archives, and we have uncovered some references to a great catastrophe."

When Administrator Adams said such, everyone began to clamor about, trying to guess what was going on. Bella and I were surprised for a different reason—this sounded like what the stone in the dungeon was talking about!

"We do not know the exact date, but rest assured, we are communicating with the government to prepare for what is to soon come to our humble planet. Please, prepare yourselves for the magic that will soon befall us. Friends, we must be ready. We must become powerful enough to defeat our enemies and make it to our dragon god. It is close enough that we will begin giving out treasures to our devout followers. Before we begin service, please come up and take your treasure. Once the catastrophe arrives, you will know what to do. We wish you luck."

While some in this room, and most of the population outside of it, may think him crazy for his ramblings about some catastrophe befalling the earth and rising up to fight it, Bella and I knew a little of what would happen in the future.

I was even more surprised when I received my "treasure!" It was a small, black cube just like everyone else received. Only I could open it, though—it required mana to operate. The cube, according to appraisal, would transform into a dagger that could be telepathically controlled by the owner to fly up to one meter away. It was a very fragile dagger, though—it was rated as F-. I knew, at this point, that there must be some connection between the dungeon and my religion. What the connection was, or how the government was involved, I had no idea. I had no reason, at this point in time, to inquire further.

After the service, Bella and I went to brunch with my parents and some others from the congregation. The conversation during the meal was mainly about the differing opinions everyone had over the events that would soon come to pass. Some thought it was just a scare tactic to get more believers. Others believed they were not prepared enough to survive. Some even believed the message was directly from the dragon we worshipped, and that it would kill everyone who was unfaithful towards it. My parents were in the camp that thought the world was going to go through a drastic change and needed protection. They joined some other parishioners to begin working out at gyms and to start training in martial arts. Knowing I was a black belt, my mom even asked me to help teach them. I responded that I was too busy with all of my school work and my own practice. I was busy, but it was with the dungeon and not school. Additionally, I didn't think I could teach these out-of-shape adults martial arts so easily. It wasn't a challenge I was ready to take on. I gave them Richard's contact details and told them they could contact him for further training.

When we finished the meal, Bella and I returned to the dungeon while my parents returned home. We were finally able to enter the fifth floor! All around us were pink and purple mists. My curse absorption activated, and I learned a new curse: misty confusion curse. By using either 300MP or 50DE, I could activate this curse on a person to shroud them in mist and force them to lose their sense of direction. Unlike other curses, this one didn't work on an object.

Surprisingly, after it activated and absorbed the curse, the mist didn't disappear. Instead, I saw my poison resistance increased by two levels! This mist must be poisonous! Luckily, my resistance was high already, and my HP decrease resistance was likewise helping me to combat the atmosphere.

After walking through a few rooms, I saw a giant wooden door.

"Why is this floor so different?" I asked Bella.

"It's the first boss floor," she responded.

"What does that mean?"

"Beyond this room is the boss monster, which must be defeated."

"So, is it more powerful?"

"It's more powerful than regular monsters, but it's nowhere near as powerful as the lich we went up against previously. It is meant to be defeated by those who arrive on this floor—it's the first major trial of the dungeon."

"Trial?"

"Bosses appear roughly every five floors. They are increasingly harder to defeat. In addition, they become stronger than the mobs previously fought. For example, this boss may have double the vitality of monsters on floor four, but the floor ten boss may have four times the vitality of monsters on floor nine!"

"Then how do they ever get defeated?"

"Usually, after the first few bosses, people form parties to defeat the bosses. You, though, are different. Like me, you are a fairy."

"So, I can't form a party."

"You have me."

"I know. I love you."

"I love you, too, husband."

After our short exchange, I walked up to the door.

Words appeared on the door that were similar to when I was killing goblins during the tutorial, although, this time, there was more description.

「Boss #1. Recommended level: 5. Warning: cannot leave once entered unless boss or you are defeated. Boss: 0/1 Subordinate: 0/unknown」

Bella explained that the boss monsters usually had weaker subordinate monsters with them and that these monsters would also attack.

"Do you think we can do it? I'm only level four, but the door says I should be level five before I can try the room."

"It's only a guideline. Husband, you are very strong. I believe in you."

"Thank you. Your confidence helps."

Looking around, I saw there was a small passageway on the adjoining wall.

"What's the passageway for?"

"It's to practice before the boss. The monsters there drop rare items instead of EXP, but it can only be entered once and must be entered before the boss fight. Usually, it is very hidden and difficult to find."

It was because my demon eyes were activated that I was able to see it! Bella followed me in, and, soon, we arrived in another small room. On the wall in front of us was an illusion concealing a spawner. When we entered, the system also responded.

[Welcome, weary traveler. You are currently in training session for boss one. As a prize for finding the hidden room, your poison resistance shall increase four levels. Error. Poison resistance maximum level. Poison nullification level 1 learned.]

It wasn't a normal achievement, but I still got something just from finding this room.

Immediately, numerous small snakes started popping up. I easily used the vortex fireball to scoop them up. Easily, they were defeated. The first round granted me a few items. The first was a gray powder that had the effect of undoing an invisibility skill or spell. There was also a small bead that, once expanded, would become a very hard cage.

The second round was also full of snakes. While slightly stronger, it was still no threat for my spell. I got a few ingredients!

[You have obtained ingredient: slime]

[You have obtained rare ingredient: rank up]

[You have obtained ingredient: lava forest]

[You have obtained ingredient: mystification]

[Slime has combined with gust forth. Gust forth can now pull objects forcefully.]

[Level up! Gust forth level two!]

[Lava forest has combined with elementary bow technique arrow shoot. The power of lava is now infused with each shot of a bow]

[Mystification has combined with appraisal blocking. Level up! Appraisal blocking level six!]

"These ingredients are interesting. I'm glad I got some more, even though I can't choose where they go," I said.

"At least it helps your spells," Bella responded.

"Interesting. I could sense the powers combining, but I can't tell the full effect that these ingredients have," Seere responded.

We couldn't talk for too long, though, as the third wave spawned. These snakes didn't die with just >, and appraisal showed that they had high resistance to fire. As such, I needed to use another method to get through them.

It took a long time, and I was slightly damaged by their bites, but, with Blackmail, I defeated the round.

[Final spawn round is beginning]

With that announcement, the room expanded. The new snakes were much larger, and just cutting with my sword wasn't enough. If I imbued it with an element or SF, I could easily get through, but I thought of trying something else. I used >, selecting the large snakes as the targets. The snakes took about 180 each, so I chanted the spell a few more times. After the eighth time, the final ingredient was used: rank up. The new spiritual bombardment, now rank S-, used one thousand orbs, and each had the power of one hundred of the original orbs! It was a giant power-up!

Satisfied with the increased power, I sat down and waited to see what would happen next.

A small altar appeared while the room reverted to its original state. On the altar, there was a glass of pale blue crystals. Half of each crystal, though, seemed translucent.

High-tier MP recovery potion

Description: restores one thousand MP

There were ten crystals, so I could restore ten thousand MP total! I used one to restore the MP I spent during the fights. Once I took the crystals into my warehouse, another item came up.

"Can I take one of the candies?" Bella asked before I could even appraise the item.

"Sure. Do you know what this is?" I asked, with the new item, small golden spheres, in my hand.

"It's candy we fairies eat all the time. Each candy restores 2500 SF."

I didn't even need to appraise it. I ate four candies and gave Bella two. That left nine for me to store for later.

A new rune appeared on the altar. I learned that this rune was condensation. It could condense something from the surrounding air and make it into substance. A bottle also appeared. Finally, the poison in the air condensed into the bottle—a bottle of poison was my reward, but I thought the rune was more important than the little bit of poison.

[Skill: poison eminence learned]

Surprisingly, I got a skill from this as well. I wondered what would happen if I combined the condensation and space runes, but I was not knowledgeable enough to attempt that. As such, I decided to check out my new skill.

Poison eminence

Level: 1

Requirements: poison nullification level one

Description: After consuming poison, be able to emit it from body. Poison emitted becomes stronger as level increases. Passive, amount dispersed can be controlled at will.

While not immediately useful in the upcoming boss fight, it may prove very useful to slightly poison enemies without strong poison resistance. As I was worried about Bella getting poisoned when I used this skill for the first time, I was prepared to never use it again; however, I realized that Bella wasn't affected by the poison on this floor anyway.

"Bella, what's your poison resistance at?"

"20N. Why?"

"I just noticed you weren't affected by the poison around here, so I thought it must be high."

"Mom helped me, so it is maximum."

"I see. I'm glad, as my new skill won't hurt you."

"K."

Without having to worry about Bella getting poisoned, I drank the poison from the bottle and turned on my new skill. Neither of us noticed a difference, but my demons seemed to have noticed such.

"Interesting. Not every demon can control poison. You aren't a demon, yet I sense very weak poison from you," Seere stated first.

"You must learn to strengthen your new power; it can help you often," Amon chimed in.

"I'll upgrade it to the next level," Amdusias stated while raising the skill to level two.

Once that was over, Bella and I left the small room. We were now ready to enter the boss room.

In front of the door, a silver key appeared.

"What's this?" I asked.

"You insert this key at the inner door to challenge the boss."

"The inner door?"

"There is a small challenge you must pass in order to reach the boss. The dungeon doesn't want anyone to go at their peak condition."

"So, I just have to win the small challenge and not lose this key?"

"Yep."

After pushing open the door, I saw a giant cliff. There were no monsters around, but it was going to be difficult to climb. It was especially difficult since there were restrictions preventing flying.

Bella went into my soul so that she didn't have to climb, and I spent the next few hours climbing. As a small recompense, my skill level increased by two. I took a break to recover my stamina before continuing. Once I was well-rested, I continued scaling the remainder. Atop the cliff was an ornate door.

There was a silver keyhole on the door, so I inserted and turned my key. Hearing a click, I pushed the door. Slowly, it creaked open. On the other side, there was a giant serpent, at least thirty meters tall. Surrounding it were numerous smaller snakes. Some were weak to fire, and others were resistant. Some were also cut-resistant—it was similar to the training room.

"Bella, Samantha, please take care of the subordinate monsters. I'll deal with the boss."

"K," Bella responded while I summoned Samantha.

I could tell, looking around, that there were numerous spawners, meaning they would both be busy with the lesser monsters for a while.

As soon as we all stepped past the threshold, the door we came through disappeared.

Luckily, I didn't have to deal with them. I began my assault with Blackmail. Using spiritual force, I > > the body of the boss. It seemed to have damaged it, but it slowly recovered.

I backed away and > its next attack, where it tried both using its tongue and biting me. It began to lift its tail, but I didn't let it. I used > and > to distract it while I retreated.

I next tried to use my > with decompose. While the decomposition was still going on, the monster's regeneration was almost faster. > and > did a good amount of damage, but it was still hanging on by just a little.

I took out an apple from my inventory. This was no ordinary apple—it contained the death hex. With the snake so weakened, it was easy for me to force-feed it. It swallowed the apple after losing the fight and realizing its poison didn't work, and its teeth couldn't bite me.

At the same time, my curse techniques advanced in level, with curse application that allowed me to apply curses to objects for less MP than using the curse directly.

While the snake was withering in pain, being cursed and decomposed simultaneously, I helped my partner and familiar clean up the rest of the little snakes. I used > to reduce the spawn rate as much as possible.

I shouldn't have ignored the large one, though. It seemed to use its trump card, which was a giant energy ball surrounded by teeth. It was so destructive that both my armors failed to protect me. My mana shield barely faired any better. I was glad I had the forethought to activate it before this fight, but I didn't think an attack would get past the two armors.

Finally, with its last attack useless, the snake fell! We won the battle and could advance to the next floor.

[Boss defeated. Authority updated. Reward calculated]

I gained one hundred points of experience, but I expected a lot more from a boss monster. It dropped a sword, which was useless to me, as well as a bracelet that allowed the power of lightning to be summoned once before breaking. Finally, there was a bottle of poison. Like previously, I drank the poison to increase my new skill.

Once done, a door formed on the other side of the room, similar to the one we entered through. On the other side of the door was a small circle emitting a pale light. I was able to tell this led to the next floor. There was no orb, so I couldn't even get a new demon out of this floor!

Before going through, I saw another two altars. Bella and I went up to one each. I got a spell book, and she got a spiritual skill book. The text above said, "Class: Skill Lord reward."

Spatial fold

Rank: SS+

Level: 1

Mana use: 1000

Requirements: air affinity 10% (human)

Description: creates a small fold in space, linking two locations together when in a separate space location, can make a door between sub-dimensional space and outside space

Flame dagger

Rank: D

Level: 1

Mana use: 30

Requirements: fire affinity 20% (human)

Descriptions: creates a small dagger of flame that can be shot towards an enemy

Bella gave me her reward, as she said she already had the skill. I was happy, and, to make it up for her, I used the skill after learning it.

Spiritual beading

Level:

SF use: 35

Description: On jewelry or other accessories, add special effects through the use of SF. SF use increases depending on effect.

I had a necklace I was planning to give her later, so I used the skill to add the effect of "refreshing."

She seemed to really like the gift.

The altars disappeared, and we finally went through the teleportation circle, only it didn't work. We arrived on a circle platform, with the same door from the void emitting its fog. A single piece of paper appeared from the door before it disappeared.

"Choose the flames of death."

I didn't know what it meant, but I knew I would soon find out. We arrived back where we were before, except an altar with a computer atop was now in front. Before I could access the computer, a Spiritual Titan appeared.

"You, again?" it asked after seeing us.

"Hello," I said back.

"What did you do this time?"

"Husband and I defeated the boss," Bella proudly boasted.

"Do you know why I'm here?" the titan asked, not seeming to expect an answer, "I'm here because another door opened to the void. And it was in this location. Now tell me why."

The fairy queen and Isaac soon appeared as well.

"Olga, there's no reason to treat them like this. I doubt they know anything," the queen said.

"Enough of this. We should celebrate them. They finished the first boss! They're going to the next floor! It's the dungeon's fault, anyway."

"I'll report this!" Olga exclaimed before disappearing.

"Bella, Roberto, Congratulations on clearing the first boss!"

"Thanks, mom!"

"Thank you," I responded as well.

Isaac said, "If anything happened, tell us. We won't force you back to the conference room with Craig and Olga."

"A piece of paper came out before spontaneously combusting. That's all," I stated

"Yep," Bella confirmed.

After they left, I could finally go up to the remaining altar. The computer-like interface was telling me to choose a reward for the ??? class. There were numerous names I've never heard of. This must have been what the letter was talking about! I knew what to choose, but I didn't know which one would be "flames of death."