For now, Caesar stuffed the Awakening potion into the pouch with the healing potion and went to bed. The next day, he played with his wolf and sparred with his skeleton. Another uneventful day passed.

Early next morning, Caesar attempted to slide a pleased grin onto his face. He walked to school, holding the grin in place, like a happy little fool. His peers stood in two groups, separated by rank. The teacher, Renzo, stood at the head of the group.

Renzo was a skinny old man, but his age and temperament still commanded respect. Caesar sauntered into the group happily, then nodded at his teacher, whose eyebrows quirked in response. Understanding dawned on the old man as his eyes flickered over to Caesar and Mary.

“What ability did you get?” asked Mary.

“Dominate. A-tier.”

She smiled in apparent joy. “That means we can group up together. I met someone when I was visiting university and he said he found something for us. A dungeon!”

“Near here?”

She nodded. He couldn’t help but feel surprised. Unless another dungeon existed nearby, the place she mentioned had to be the Undead Swamp. If so, it seemed Arnold, and perhaps Lily too, would be close connections in the future. He patted himself on the back for preserving the potion. With their help, he could breeze through the dungeon, accumulating some early levels and materials for feeding his pets.

As the last few students walked into class, their teacher clapped his hands and said, “Alright everyone. I’m sure you all know how I do things, so let’s get to it. Congratulations on your graduation!”

He pointed toward the group of Awakened students whose parents had bought a common Awakening potion. “We’ll start off with you guys. Ask your questions.”

Three men and two women clustered around. One raised his hand and asked, “What do you recommend we do next?”

Renzo appraised them. “From the looks of it, you all didn’t awaken anything particularly good, right? Then you should make a choice. You have an advantage over your parents and can level up, earning you more pay from hunting.” He paced around. “Work like your parents for the next few years and you might give your children an even better head start. Or you could try to purchase materials to improve your strength and slot in for a dungeon to see where your luck takes you.”

The student nodded. The other four chattered for a while, then one asked, “How many materials can I expect to get from a dungeon?”

“If you’re not a core dungeon team, expect less loot. If you’re not an important member, expect even less loot. Get used to getting nothing for a few years until you rack up some levels.”

Another asked, “How do we get to rank two?”

“Don’t strive for it. The catalysts used for that are extremely scarce and kept for those in power. Just focus on leveling up to twenty and paving a path for your children to secure a better power from the start. Even if you find one by chance, you might be forced to give it up for money or lose your life.”

The final two students instead asked their teacher for tips on how to use their abilities. Renzo quickly wrote them a visual guide each describing their powers and reliable methods to use them. Then, he turned to Caesar.

He asked for a map of the area. Since he couldn’t go to a university, he might as well spend his time exploring the wilderness instead. Renzo grimaced. “What’s your ability?”

“Dominate.”

The old man nodded in surprise. “A good ability. I recommend you take the toughest monster you can and work with it to stay alive. Wilderness survival is very rough and there’s a much higher chance of an accident happening. Dungeons will be a better bet, but don’t you dare go to a dungeon a rank above!” Renzo handed over a detailed map of the forest. Places to avoid were marked in red, presumably rank two zones. “Ask your friend for more information if you need it.”

He then turned toward three other wealthy students. They shrugged and continued to talk, ignoring the old man for many seconds. Finally, Renzo looked over at Mary and tilted his head downward. He handed her some papers, to which she nodded and accepted them.

“Alright. Class dismissed. Goodbye, all.”

------------

Mary led Caesar to a small shack outside the city. Inside sat a circular wooden table and four seats, two of which seated Arnold and Lily who wore turquoise pendants around their necks. Arnold wore light leather armor while Lily still wore the same dress back in the carriage. Their eyes widened as he sat down.

“It’s a surprise to see you here,” Arnold said.

Mary blinked her eyes. “You’ve met?”

“Yes – he said he was hunting for wolves. He also said he didn’t have a power.” Arnold half-smiled at him, his eyes knowing.

“He didn’t though. I gave him a potion last night.” Mary giggled and then gave a deadpan look at Caesar as if to say, ‘I knew it.’

He shrugged.

The conversation continued with their plans about what to do inside the dungeon. He acted intrigued but made no suggestions. Occasionally, Lily would interject whenever something important came up. They discussed how they’d fight, detailing how they commonly used their abilities. The group settled on having Arnold and Lily positioned in the front, Mary in the middle, and Caesar guarding the back with a minion.

---------------

It was late afternoon when the group arrived at the Undead Swamp. Caesar wanted to scout the area with Max before heading in but could not find a time alone to activate his power. To prevent suspicion from having a much higher level than expected, he didn’t put his free stat points into anything yet.

The four walked toward a bone pillar in the distance. That’d be the third one. The surroundings are different. To the left of the pillar stood a group of five skeletons visibly sturdier and better equipped than the ones Caesar had killed. Three held rusty iron greatswords and wore leather armor. Two others held rusty iron swords and shields and wore tattered iron armor.

Skeleton Warrior – Rank 0

[Rarity]: Common

Arnold rushed forward and conjured gauntlets of yellow light around his fists. Two smashes sent the arms of the warriors flying. A kick shattered the shield of another. He ducked and weaved around sword slices and dismantled the skeletons’ limbs. After disabling them, he stood off to the side and deactivated his ability, waiting for Caesar to execute them.

Caesar finished off the five skeletons but delayed casting his mark to simulate the randomness of Dominate. He shook his head, and the group forged onward. Further away from the pillar held more groups of skeletons. Arnold easily finished them, letting him execute a marked skeleton warrior. It seemed his powers were invisible to others; they didn’t say anything.

Skeleton Warrior

Level 0

Ability: None

Strength: 5

Agility: 6

Endurance: 5

Magic: 2

Willpower: 2

Spirit: 2

Caesar summoned his skeleton warrior and gave it a dropped spear. The group journeyed toward the first goal of their trip – a miniboss. A massive crocodile, thrice as large as the ones outside, came charging out of the lake. Arnold lunged forward without fear and slammed a glowing kick into the crocodile’s jaw. The concussive blow prevented it from defending itself against his blows. Arnold forced its mouth open, and Lily shot what looked like a large wooden thorn into it. They continued after it stopped struggling.

The three nobles walked ahead, not even caring about the loot. Sometimes, a slain rank one beast would contain materials inside their body, eaten for extra stats. But this increase wasn’t guaranteed. He guessed they either didn’t want to waste their time or had stats too high for the material to increase.

The second miniboss lived in a circular open mound where dozens of skeletal bodies lay scattered around a coffin. As soon as the four approached the mound, bones began reanimating.

Skeleton Squire – Rank 1

[Rarity]: Uncommon

Arnold took the lead. “The plan is for me to confront the miniboss. Lily and Mary will shoot the minions while Caesar defends.”

He charged in and conjured a bright glowing greatsword, which the skeleton squire met with a sturdy shield. But it could hardly defend against Arnold’s quick strikes. As skeletons fell in droves, it kept getting pushed back until its shield shattered under Arnold’s onslaught. The greatsword grew brighter as it bisected the miniboss horizontally. Caesar itched to steal the kill for the experience or a possible summon but tried to stay relaxed. Mixed feelings rose within him, and he fidgeted.

“Let’s take a rest here,” Arnold said. The rest of the group nodded in assent and took out their lunches.

“So, what next?” Mary asked.

“I brought you guys here to fight the boss. I scouted the area a little while back and it was a pack of skeleton adventurers. A mage, a squire, an archer, and a brute.”

“Sounds easy,” she said.

“Not quite. They’re accompanied by a group of drowned zombies – slow but sturdy. Expect them to get in the way of your attacks. I’ll take down the mage and Caesar will distract the archer.”

“Okay. I’ll support Caesar and Lily will support you.” Mary nodded, her eyes bright and eager.

The group finished their meals and went all around the dungeon field, killing anything in their path. Three different minibosses fell one after another: a gorilla, a skeletal brute, and a python. Along the way, they passed by a fourth bone pillar towering into the sky. Their steps sloshed in the mire as they drew closer to the boss’ area, a large patch of wet earth filled with plants and trees. Within the forest of weeds, grass, and corpses stood four skeletons surrounding a solitary tree. A dark brown fruit speckled with spots of gold and green grew on its largest branch.

The four of them stopped and looked at each other. Arnold nodded twice and the others once. They strode in.