Mathew had been hiking for maybe ten minutes before his first opponent showed itself. It was a large boar. He didn’t know if it was normal sized, but its tusks were not to be ignored. They were deadly looking with dried blood already on them.

Knowing the novice tiered creature wouldn’t be much of an issue for him, Mathew killed it with a single [Mana Bolt] empowered with his Axiom right through its head. He noticed his spell had much more problems going through the thick bone than the velociraptor-like creatures. Yet the slow creature was much easier to hit.

As expected, the boar’s body remained. Mathew decided to keep it inside his ‘body bag’ in case he decided to cook it up. “We should look around for those challenges. These boars and other creatures are probably too weak for us.”

“Want me to scout out?” Agnox asked, ready to fly off.

“No, let’s stay together. You forget, there are other people out and about. Someone will take one look and decide that an imp would be enough experience to level up. You aren't exactly ‘friendly’ looking.”

Agnox gulped. “Right…”

Mathew was curious as to what other people he would run into. If the majority of the world was participating, then this place should be crawling. “Unless it’s far larger than I expect it to be. Even if it’s a Novice floor, this is smaller than any Novice Dungeon. Even with a thousand people, I would have run into someone by now, let alone heard some fighting.”

An hour went by quickly. Mathew so far had only ran into a dozen weak beasts. So far there were only boars, wolves, and a single panther. Surprisingly, Mathew actually heard the beast sneaking up on him. It was only a few moments before it pounced.

Instinfully, Mathew summoned a dagger to his hand and killed it quickly in a scuffle. Mathew’s armor was purchased by Di, and rated at an Uncommon rarity. If given a proper ranking, it would be Novice tier.

Mathew soon realized he was defensively underequipped. His Rod and a few other items were all Uncommon and Rare rated. But three of his items were Beginner tier. His Rod pushed that limit to almost Apprentice.

He thought back to his class quests. One of the rewards was the ability [Mana Shield]. He once thought to try and create it himself. He’s just been too busy on other projects to go back to it. He glanced around the area, ignoring the blood from the panther.

“Agnox. Jeffery. Keep on scouting duty. While we are walking, I'm going to be slightly distracted.”

Agnox gave a half attempted salute. “Got it Boss.”

While traveling, Mathew started to experiment with his Mana Weapon upgrade for [Conjure Weapon]. His biggest hurdle was having whatever he created keep its form. The longest a simple straight blade remained was for only two seconds. Not even long enough to fight with.

Mathew slowly created a shorter blade, trying to find something that sticks. The blade solidified for a moment. Then two. “Yes!”

“Boss! Check this out!”

His concentration was ruined. Mathew turned toward Agnox, “What!” His voice was edged by anger that he lost his concentration.

Agnox flinched back. “Uhh, I think there is a Dungeon inside this Dungeon.”

Mathew raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean a Dungeon inside a Dungeon?” His voice was no longer harsh. “Is it one of the challenges?”

“Show me.”

Agnox led Mathew through the trees until they came across a large hill. At the base of the hill was a portal. It was a faded red color with spots of green mixed in. Mathew peered closer at the portal until…

Challenge of Might

Complete the challenge within and be rewarded

Reward: Fruit of Might [Common]

“Well well well. I guess this is one of those challenges The System mentioned.. Let’s go check it out.” Mathew walked into the portal without a moment of waiting. He was still cautious as he entered.

Once inside, Mathew found himself underground. Old stonework surrounded him, all illuminated by orange torches. A long hallway presented itself in front of him. The ground looked uneven. Yet, no enemies were seen. At the end of the hallway there was a door.

“What do you think Agnox?”

“Looks like a hallway.”

Mathew’s face deadpanned. “I meant with the challenge. It’s a Challenge of Might. Yet, I see nothing to fight.”

Agnox just shrugged.

“Ugh, go down the hall and scout it out for me. See if anything is hiding from us.”

“No Please?”

Mathew glared at his familiar. “Agnox, this isn’t a game. Just do as you're told.” Agnox shrugged and floated down with his sword at the ready. Mathew didn’t need him to question his requests. This is life and death.

Once Agnox was over the uneven textured hallway he plummeted to the ground. He let out a gasp of both surprise and pain as he connected with the rubble. Parts of the ground fell away, and he scrambled back to his feet before he fell down any further.

“What the fuck was that! I just fell down!” Agnox took several steps away from the hole in the ground.

Mathew pursed his lips and looked down through the hole. He saw pitch blackness all the way down. He reached into one of his bags until he found what he was looking for. A long clear plastic with some liquid inside.

He snapped the stick, and shook it as it started to glow neon green. He dropped the light stick down the hole and watched it fall for several minutes until it was no longer in view. Mathew let out a whistle. “Do me a favor and don’t fall down there. I don’t think we will be coming back up.”

“No shit. But I can’t fly here. Something prevents me from doing so.”

Mathew poked the ground with his foot around the hole. More rubble fell, but he found a solid area.

“I think this isn’t Might as in fighting. I think it’s physical prowess. One has to reach the other side without falling through the ground.” Mathew turned to his two summons. He then realized Jeffery was nowhere to be seen.

“Jeffery?” Mathew asked as he looked around for his red furred companion. “Where the hell is that mutt?”

“He went in before I did. I haven't a clue.”

Mathew panicked slightly. Afraid that one of his few summons was dead. He tried to resummon Jeffery and nothing happened. Then he tried to summon his two whisps and noted nothing happened either with them.

“I think whatever is preventing you from flying is preventing me from summoning.” Mathew admitted.

“Wait. If Jeffery was unsummoned, then why am I still here?”

“Because, you are special. Our bond isn’t normal.” Mathew reminded him.

“Still, this is weird.”

Mathew turned to the hallway. “I agree. Now, the only way out of here is to run across. Are you ready?”

“Can you do it and just unsummon me? Then resummon me outside?” Agnox half pleaded.

“Nope. Already tried to do it while you were talking. I can’t even summon items from my personal storage.”

Agnox groaned. “Really? This is going to suck…”

“You go first. You are lighter than I am, and might not trigger spots to fall through.”

Agnox and Mathew both stretched before they were ready. Agnox took off first, running through the hallway. As pieces of the ground started to fall, he would jump forward, not letting both his feet remain on the ground at the same time.

By the time he was a quarter of the way down the hallway, Mathew took off running next. He noted where Agnox stepped and didn’t fall through the ground. The two of them were halfway across before Mathew caught up to his familiar.

He didn’t realize how fast he really was in comparison to Agnox. The two of them were safely on the other side breathing somewhat heavily. Mathew glanced back to the hall they ran down. “That wasn’t very difficult. I never felt the ground move under my feet before I was already taking my next step.”

Mathew looked over at the door and walked over to it. Upon placing his hand around the knob, he appeared back outside. In his hand was a green and bumpy piece of fruit. “That was easy…too easy.”

Agnox floated into the air and looked at his own personal fruit. “Looks tasty. Want to keep yours?”

Mathew shook his head. “They are our rewards. Last fruits we ate boosted our stats. Let’s eat these.”

Quickly, he opened his menu to double check his stats. Then he started to eat. They both finished the sweet fleshy fruits in a few bites. Mathew didn't feel as drawn to this one as he did the last one. Taking a glance at his menu, Mathew felt insulted.

Name: Mathew McGonald

Race: Human [Apprentice]

Class: Summoner

Profession: Leader

Level: 25

Universal Currency: 242,820

Titles: Big 100, Child of Axiom, Classy, Dungeoneer III, False Life, Forerunner, Hearth Crystal Owner, Lawyer, Pack Leader, Solo Delver, Soloist, Survivor II, Willful Power

Axioms:

Glint of Bolster [Novice], Glint of Enforce [Novice], Glint of Piercing [Novice], Glint of Resistance [Beginner]

Strength:

114

Vitality:

155

Dexterity:

128

Endurance:

107

Intelligence:

288

Wisdom:

303

Unallotted Stat Points: 0

“Only +2 to my Strenght, Vitality, and Dexterity? That’s it?” Mathew was insulted.

“Wait, yours did +2? Mine only increased mine by +1 to each.” Agnox half shouted. Also insulted that Mathew’s fruit did more.

“Only +1 to each? Why would the same fruit give different stat totals?” Mathew asked.

“Seems a bit speciesist to me. The System playing favorites with humans?” Agnox looked up at the sky. “I’ll have you know I’m better than most of those pink fleshed idiots. The top percentage of them even! My Master is one of the top 20 in the world!”

“Agnox, hush. You are making a fool of me.”

“Nobody is around to hear me, Boss.”

Mathew groaned, but something Agnox said made him curious. He reopened his screen, and opened a few of the titles to look at their rewards. He pulled out some paper and started to do basic math.

“Agnox, you are right. The fruit does only give +1 to those stats. My bonuses from titles gave me enough to round my stats to give me +2 instead.”

“What!? How the hell is that possible?”

Mathew couldn’t help but grin slightly. “Want to know my base Wisdom and its improved version after all the increased totals?”

“No!...okay fine what is it?”

“My base Wisdom is 245. That’s from fruits, all the points from my Class and Profession, and any base points from titles. I have a 24% boost to all my stats. So that 245 is now a 303.”

“Mathew, you are killing me here. You have nearly a 25% boost to all your stats! That’s unheard of!”

He smirked, enjoying the subtle praise. “Damn right that’s amazing. Now hush and don’t keep blabbering about it. It’s also why I think that challenge was so easy for us. We are overleveled by it. It’s the Novice dungeon. Back when I was Level 10, my highest stat was around 50. Now that I’m Level 25. My highest stat is over 300. Just think at something like 100, or even 500 will look for us in terms of Levels.”

Mathew resummoned Jeffery after his conversation with Agnox. He was glad the giant wolf was still around and didn't’ just run off. They continued to travel. Mathew did note the sun was appearing to set. He would need to set up a camp for the night unless he found somewhere to stay and sleep.

The thought of sleeping outside didn’t seem like a good one to him. Yet, he had two summons to help rotate watch shifts. Just in case anything tried to sneak up on him.

Mathew continued his practice on creating a mana weapon for another hour when Agnox tapped him on the shoulder. He had the universal sign of ‘hush’ with a finger pressed to his lips.

With a whisper, Agnox explained things. “I hear some people up ahead.”