Mathew stood at the base of the mountain. At the top was the boss of this Dungeon. Far weaker than the one he and the others battled together the first time they entered this place. Yet, he was alone. It will be the perfect environment to acquire his new ability.

An hour ago, he acquired two of the last three things he needed to progress to the Apprentice rank. Now, he just needed the last one.

The entire time, Mathew would keep the boss alive, slowly whittling it down. Yes, he recently discovered an explosive means to win a fight, but that wasn’t his goal. An overwhelmingly powerful attack was a great asset to have. It would be a great opening or closer to a fight.

Mathew needed something for those long fights. Just like the giant undead he battled. A way to further restrict movement to keep enemies away from him so his summons can fight for him.

The climb up was unsurprisingly boring. Nearly all the Volakar creatures were killed by him or his summons. Mathew spent the last hour working on just his melee skills since he already upgraded his skill and spell. He had a sneaking suspicion that the World Quest won’t be kind to those who only specialized in one way to fight.

Once he reached near the top, Mathew paused. Nodding at Agnox, Mathew used an ability he rarely used. [Share Sense] was the least needed skill for him. Since Agnox can just describe what is seen. Yet, Mathew wanted to see what was coming with his own eyes. Second hand information won’t cut it here. There was no holding back. Mathew was going to take this fight as seriously as he could.

Sinking into his imp’s senses, Mathew saw a similar area to the last time he was here. A lone dinosaur with a wooden staff sat by a giant boulder. The area between the boss and where Mathew would reach the top was sparsely empty. He was currently cultivating. That, or taking a nap.

Mathew doubted that, since he has slowly been whittling down his forces over the past four hours. There was zero reason to be that blatantly not worried. Unless this creature didn’t fear Mathew.

He did take far longer than normal to clear out this Dungeon. Did previous bosses pass along their memories? Mathew didn’t care enough to give it any more thought. Plus, he doubted the boss would, let alone could, answer such questions.

The area around the boss had very few scaled beasts left. Mathew took a steadying breath, and put on a false bravado. Agnox came back. “Whatcha think Boss?”

“It will do. We focus on the smaller ones first, take them out. Then I will whittle down the boss, reaching for a new ability. Once that happens, we kill it, leave, and reap in the rewards. How close are you to a level up by the way?”

“This fight might do it for me if I actually fought. Won’t matter too much, I’m too far away from 25. My Level 20 system given power probably won’t matter in the World Quest. Who knows, maybe there will be Hearth Crystals within. Be stupid not to have one, in my opinion.”

“Hence why I am getting 25 before going in. I don’t like to take chances like that. I don’t know much about The System, but it sure does love conflict. What better way to force people to fight, than to make them fight with only what they have? All for the chance of some magical fruits, powerful weapons, or more.”

Mathew walked forward with his summons from his hiding spot. He didn’t give any of the beasts a moment to react before he sent bolt after bolt of attacks through his staff and two whisps. He chose the Mana Barrage upgrade. Improving the two paths he destined for them drastically.

He almost picked to double the number again. Almost. The problem was splitting his focus. He had a hard enough time focusing on the two. If he doubled the number, then finding a way to specialize the two new ones would be a headache.

His other upgrade was an easy choice. Having extra mana was something he needed. The ability to infuse mana into any staff? That was a no brainer. He can just buy staves, and keep a backlog of spare mana ready to be withdrawn. An hour wasn’t enough time to fill anything, so that was something he will test out later. Just how much mana a staff can hold.

The smaller velociraptor creatures died easily. Mathew infused his Axiom into each shot, just to save on the extra mana. It was also good practice for the mental energy he used. He could only use it on every third shot. He needed a few minutes to reapply the piercing power to each bolt of mana.

Each shot that was infused, didn’t dissipate after killing one beast, so Mathew controlled it to pierce through another. Soon, only three and the boss remain.

At this point, the boss was fully aware of his presence. Mathew didn’t give him any attention…yet. The last three were taken out by combined fire bolt, mana bolt, and barrage from the wisps.

Mathew glanced at his two infernal summons. “You know what to do.”

Jeffery left forward. In only four gallops, he was on top of the lizard. Mathew’s canine summon was to distract the boss. Meanwhile Mathew fired low powered [Mana Bolts]. Focusing on the slowing aspect of each of them.

He was careful to control the mana of each shot, and aiming for its limbs. He didn’t want to kill the thing. He wanted to whittle it down slowly.

The boss swung it’s staff at Jeffery, but the tanky wolf took it without a wince. Jeffery was careful to not outright damage the boss. Even if he did, it wouldn’t kill it with a single attack. Even for a Novice Dungeon, it was a boss.

Privy to additional stats, powers, and items. Boss creatures of a conquered dungeon are copies of its original state. Last time, the boss had a metal staff, and could control lightning to a strong degree.

This version? Compared to human stats, it is within the levels of 13-15. With a few abilities, skills, and spells.

Mathew watched as it used those spells. Slamming the staff down, the boss brought down a lightning bolt from the sky. Its focus so far was on Jeffery. Thus the bolt struck him in the middle of his back.

“Thankfully I gave him an upgrade that helps against this kind of fight.” Mathew thought as he continued to pepper the boss.

Mana continued to circulate through his body and out his rod. The boss jumped forward and left a rake of claw marks on Jeffery’s side. Then it rushed toward Mathew.

Sadly, it wasn’t faster than Jeffery. Not after being slowed down so much. It made it halfway to Mathew before its tail was firmly grasped between a set of jagged teeth.

“Good job Jeffery!” Mathew shouted and pushed more mana forward. Not to empower the attacks, but to reach for something.

Every power he has so far came from a System given reward. All but four. [Knives], originally [Negotiation], [Staves], and [Channel Mana]. Out of the three categories, Abilities fell into two sub categories. Low mana passive abilities, or Spell-Like high mana cost abilities.

The best comparison is Agnox’s own [Ignite Blade] ability. He can enhance any bladed weapon with a sheathe of flames. The cost was nearly 15% of his current mana capacity.

Mathew wanted something like that. To cover an enemy in ice. To slow them down. Mathew pushed mana out. Raw, uncontrolled, and with only a single idea of a thought. To restrain movement.

To his bemusement, nothing happened. He expected it, but wanted something to happen. Yet, he wasn’t turned away. He had all day. There was no time limit on how long he can be in the Dungeon.

Minutes continued to tick by. The Boss creature all but had given up. Mathew found this intriguing. He kept swinging his claws, or calling down lightning. It was obvious Mathew and his summons clearly overpowered it. Even so, the boss fought till the end.

Mathew was close. He could feel it. Throwing another depleted mana core to the side, Mathew refocused himself.

“I’m not leaving here until I get a new ability. You won’t die until I get one either. Now, stop moving!” Mathew pushed raw mana forward. He put his all into this attempt. He was growing irritated and tired of this game.

He stopped only using mana, and put his willpower into it. His soul strained, and Mathew nearly blacked out from the pain. Hidden in that pain, was the movement of mana. A familiar feeling when he casted a spell.

Latching onto the motions, Mathew followed instinct. Magic flew forward between him and the Boss. Midair, it changed into chains of ice. The chains wrapped around the Volakar Boss, causing it to fall to the ground, completely imobile.

Mathew blinked, then his face burst into giddiness. “I did it!”

Stepping forward, Mathew bent down to the boss. “A shame really. If you could talk, I might have tried to negotiate. Let you live. You're no longer useful to me now.” With a single movement, Mathew summoned his bleeding dagger and sliced the throat open of the boss.

Dungeon Complete

Rewards:

Title: Solo Delver I

50 Volkar Hides

20 Sets of Vollkar Claws

Lightning Staff

25,000 UC

Mathew’s eyebrows rose. “Curiouser and curiouser. I didn’t think you could get a reward for clearing a conquered dungeon.”

Glancing around, Mathew sat by the rock where the boss had been previously sitting. He opened his menu to reflect over the series of blue boxes. Starting with the newest title.

Title: Solo Delver I - For clearing out at most a Novice Dungeon alone, you are awarded +1% to all stats.

The wording was curious to Mathew. Immediately he knew that clearing out another Novice Dungeon alone wouldn’t upgrade it. Which meant he needed to clear a higher tiered Dungeon alone to upgrade it.

“The question is, does it scale like the Dungeoneer one, or does it scale harder? Double? Triple?” It was a feat of power to clear out a dungeon alone. If not for his superior stats and powers, Mathew wouldn’t have been able to use this dungeon as a training ground.

If someone like Lucas attempted this feat, Mathew would bet money on Lucas failing, and probably dying.

Moving on to three notifications that popped up while he was battling. Mathew’s jaw fell open.

Ability Acquired:

Slow | Novice 1

You can slow down one enemy at a time at a cost of mana. The stronger the enemy, the more mana required to slow them.

Synergy Detected between Title [Willful Power], Bloodline, and Ability [Slow]: 100%

Ability Upgrade: Slow -> Frostrim Chains

Frostrim Chains | Novice 1

Chains of ice wrap around a target of your choosing. The ice wears on the target, slowly draining their health until they succumb to death.

Mathew had nearly forgotten about Synergy upgrades. It had only happened once to him, and always considered it pure luck. Yet here he was again. With another upgrade, thanks to a title he received only a few days ago.

Then there was the other part that helped with the Synergy. “What the hell is a bloodline?”

Mathew stood up and marched out of the Dungeon. Agnox floated up next to him. “What was that you said, Boss?”

“Agnox. Do you know anything about Bloodlines?”

“Bloodlines? I’ve heard of them. It’s power due to your racial background. It’s how Infernals are really good at fire and necrotic magic. Why do you ask?”

“Apparently I have one. And it just upgraded an Ability I acquired. It went from [Slow] to [Frostrim Chains].”

“Odd. Why would a human be related to something icy or chains? You don’t happen to have a powerful ancestor you never told me about do you? Perhaps a just as powerful sister?” Agnox asked jokingly.

“No.” Mathew said, glossing over the joke. He was hyper focused on the bloodline. The McGonald family has been in power for generations. There was no doubt it was a pure and powerful family lineage.

To be related to magic? To The System? That meant one of his ancestors came to earth with all that knowledge.

“Can someone go to a planet before it’s introduced to The System?”

“I don’t see why not. Makes sense to me that someone could.”

Mathew nodded, and said nothing more. Leaving the unasked questions to be figured out later.

After trekking through the forest, Mathew exited the Dungeon. Henderson was waiting there with Dr. Gloria nearby. The two seemed to have been mid conversation when he walked out. “Don’t bother. I’m uninjured. I need to get back and rank up.”

Henderson seemed surprised. “Uninjured? Shit, I was about to go in there and rescue your ass. I thought you were hurt since it took you nearly five hours to complete that dungeon!”

“Don’t bother. It was easy for me.” Mathew said with a smugness. “Also, spread word. Clearing out Dungeons alone gives a title.”

The ride back to base was filled with idle chatter. Gloria asked to go with Mathew to see if she can watch what happens when a body ranks up. Mathew was more than happy to indulge her interest. He was curious what she could learn as well.

As their truck entered the base, Mathew lazily glanced at all the progress Blue Oaks had gone under. A few new buildings caught his interest, primarily one larger one.

“Hey, when did that one get put up?” Mathew asked while pointing.

“Oh, you didn’t know about that project? I assumed you requested it yourself.” Gloria said. “It’s a church I heard. I haven’t visited it yet. Mr. Melton announced it was completed this morning.”

“A Church? To what God?” Mathew turned the vehicle toward it. A mix of curiosity and a subtle anger filled him. “I swear, if it’s to that bitchy assassin god, I’m tearing it down personally!”

Mathew climbed out and several onlookers gave him a friendly wave. “Mathew! I am so glad you decided to build this church. I didn’t even know the Gods were real!” A random woman said to him. She seemed enthralled by the structure.

He ignored her, marching up the stone stairs into the tall structure. After taking two steps in, a sudden pressure filled the air. It was overwhelming. Mathew had no idea why, but he flexed his [Resistance] Axiom.

Doing so eased the pressure off of him. He turned to see nine statues standing in a semicircle. Various people were kneeling in front of them, or reading a plaque. Mathew ignored the fact he recognized one of them.

Instead he walked to the closest one, reading the plaque.

‘Statue of Chadkix, God of Business’

Mathew turned around, looking for Melton. “Where is he?” Mathew asked out loud to nobody.

A nearby guard assumed he was the one being asked. “Who sir?”

“Melton. Where is he?”

“He left just half an hour ago. Probably returned to the command building.”

Mathew marched out of the building. Feeling as if nine pairs of eyes watched him leave. “This isn’t something I approve of. This is beyond acceptable. Statues of gods!? If there is a statue of anybody allowed here, it’s me! What have any of the damned Gods done for this place? Hell, one fucked me over. Another helped me, but in turn made me annoyed. At least Gaia was reasonable, but I still don’t want a fucking statue of her here in MY land!”

Jumping back into the vehicle, Mathew zoomed over to the headquarters. After entering the building, he threw open Melton's office door.

“Explain that horrendous structure in the middle of this base. Now!”

Mr. Melton apparently was half asleep. He half jumped out of his chair. “Mathew! Gods, son, you scared the life out of me. What building are you referencing now?”

“Funny you mention Gods. The one with the statues!”

“Oh that! It was a quest I received! You see, I just had to build a structure dedicated to the nine first gods! It’s just a simple quest. The reward was what intrigued me. It’s called [Divine History]. I was using it before you barged in. I have access to the history of those nine gods! Start off with Chadkix, before he was even Student ranked he-”

Mathew cut him off, “I don’t care. I want it torn down.”

“Mathew. Let’s be reasonable here. These are the Gods. I doubt you really want to piss them off. What God do you even follow? We can get a statue of him or her if you want.”

“I don’t follow a God. Gods are stuck up people, who became too powerful to care about us smaller people. The gods before didn’t care about us, what makes you think the new ones care either?”

“You don’t follow…Mathew you should! The warm feeling of belonging to a higher order gives you purpose! My God thrives on serving the stronger Gods. Appeasing them. Ensuring their history is taught to all! Think of the power you receive! I’m sure even those nine would be willing to have you as one of their disciples. I’m sure you could even be like Leo! Be a Chosen!”

Matthew took a steading breath. “I don’t want to serve a God. I don’t serve anyone but myself Mr. Melton. And you serve me. We agreed to be partners. I keep your family safe, you work in the interest of myself and this base. What made you think this was okay?”

“It was a quest!” Melton exclaimed, as if that answered everything.

“So we are doing any quest The System gives us?” Mathew said, knowing he had yet to deny or fail a quest other than what was given by Gaia or the other gods.

“Uhhh…yes? Isn’t that the point of things now?”

Mathew sat down in a seat and rubbed at his face. “Fuck. Maybe? I don’t know. I just don’t like selling myself to a fucking God. Sure. Whatever. Keep the damn building. But no more statues! You hear me?”

“What if other people want them?”

“See, that’s the problem. Religious conflict will start to stir up. We’ve been great since we have a common enemy, all the Dungeons and stuff. Now, with Gods involved, people will pick sides. How do you think we resolve those issues Mr. Melton?”

He was about to respond, but Mathew cut him off before he could speak. “No wait, I have a better idea. You are in charge of any religious shit going on with Blue Oaks. If people start to bicker, bitch, fight, or worse, that’s on you to resolve. I am keeping myself away from that mess. Very far away.”

“You can’t expect to avoid that responsibility as leader can you?”

Mathew stood up, “That’s why I am leader Melton. I can delegate issues without flaw. Now if you excuse me. I have a giant red crystal to visit. Power to gain. And final preparations for the World Quest to attend to.”