Once Jane and I arrived at the inn, I decided to check my status. I leveled up a couple times, so I placed all my stat points into strength.

Name: Michael Adkins Class: Controlled Berserker of the Greatsword Arts Race: Human, Male Level: 31 Titles: Greatsword Enthusiast, Gifted by God, Controlled Berserker Class Effects: +30 to Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Vitality, Control; Doubles at level milestones; Going into a controlled berserker state increases your stats by a factor of 2x; Blind rage increases stats by a factor of 4x Attack: 602 Defense: 286 Health: 700/700(750) Mana: 400/400 Health Regen: 0.385/sec Mana Regen: 0.2/sec Strength: 150(+180) Agility: 35(+65) Dexterity: 40(+90) Vitality: 45(+30) Intelligence: 50 Wisdom: 40 Luck: 13 Leadership: 13 Control: 10(+30) Rage: 5 Skills: Greatsword Mastery, Throwing Mastery, Heavy Armor Mastery, Pain Tolerance, Sneak Attack, Cooking, Danger Sense, Deflect, Controlled Berserking, Blind Rage, Bartering, Persuasion Title Effects:

Greatsword Enthusiast: 1.2x Attack with Greatswords, 1.3x Durability with Greatswords, 1.1x Attack Speed with Greatswords

Gifted By God: 2x modifier to Strength, Dexterity, and Agility; Maximum Greatsword Mastery; 2.5x Experience Modifier

Controlled Berserker: Allows you to control your anger and direct it onto one enemy, creating an intimidating aura; Controlled Berserking bonus increased to 2.5x from 2x

Satisfied, Jane and I grabbed a meal before heading back to the Guild to find more requests to complete. When we arrived at the building, we immediately went straight to the request board.

I let Jane pick a quest this time and she picked out a D-ranked quest involving clearing out a crypt. The crypt apparently had five levels. Its interior had one large hall on each level. You had to traverse the crypt's narrow hallways to get to the hall. I thought it was interesting since the hallways would be a challenging restriction for me. I brought the request over to Adaline, who promptly filed it.

"The crypt is located in the Northern District of the city. The entrance is directly in the center of the Royal Cemetery."

"Wait, it's a Royal crypt?" I was intimidated a little by this fact.

"Don't worry, the Guild will inform the guards that a pair of people will be allowed to enter to clear out the crypt." Adaline said with a smile.

Once that was done, Jane and I went out to the Northern District. The Northern district was elevated above the other districts. As you traveled farther up north, the higher your elevation. Nobles lived up here, allowing them to look down upon the commoners of the city. As Jane and I walked to the Royal Cemetery, we received quite a couple stares from the nobles.

The cemetery wasn't very far off, and we were smoothly allowed passage once we arrived. The crypt itself was conspicuous since its entrance was the size of a small building.

"Geez. I know it's a royal tomb and all, but they could've cut back at least a little bit." I said wearily.

"Maybe he wanted to flaunt his status, even if he was dead." Jane gave a light-hearted answer to my remark.

"Let's head inside now." I said while lighting a lamp and strapping it to my belt.

We entered cautiously, looking around for any movement or traps. Once again, I was envious of Jane's natural night vision. I eventually decided to increase the pace and we walked along the halls. I heard a clacking sound. It was the sound of bones hitting each other. The sound got closer until Jane and I both saw it.

Skeleton Level: 23 Health: 535

A skeleton appeared and swung a rusty blade at me. I dodged the blade and punched it in the ribs, breaking almost the entire ribcage and knocking it down. Promptly finishing off the downed skeleton, I was starting to appreciate investing an absurd amount of points into strength. Luckily, the hallway was wide enough for me to be able to dodge. I wouldn't be able to swing a greatsword here though.

More clacking echoed through the halls, with a larger group of skeletons appearing. They all carried rusted blades which I didn't want to get cut by. I charged and let out a flurry of unarmed attacks. The skeletons responded in kind. I either dodged the blows or let them glance off my armor at an angle.

When the fight was finished, I had gained a new skill.

New Skill! Unarmed Mastery The ability to fight unarmed. Higher mastery increases speed and lethality of attacks. Mastery: Beginner 1 Effect: 2%

I was happy for a skill like this as it would be exceedingly useful when I couldn't use my greatsword. I motioned for Jane to keep moving and we slowly explored the first level bit by bit.

We reached the large hall for the first level and I quickly pulled my greatsword off my back. Jane and I stayed close together since being too far away was a prime recipe for being separated by monsters in this darkness. Soon, we came upon a skeleton, only this time he was taller, wore armor, and had a larger blade. I used Wind Enchant and swung my greatsword with as much force as I could.

I cleaved straight through his blade and many bones with one swing. The skeleton didn't go down with the one swing, but it was basically half-dead. I expected this since it looked like a miniboss. He got back up and swung at me with his half broken blade, which I promptly deflected. It staggered and fell to the ground again. I finished it off by stomping its skull, which shattered it.

"Brutal." Jane cringed a little while saying that.

"I mean, it got the job done." I shrugged.

"I guess... just don't do that to humans. It's a pretty terrible way to die." Jane said concerningly.

"Alright, I won't." I followed up with a nod.

The staircase leading downwards was located at the end of the hall. I sheathed my greatsword and motioned for Jane to come over. Jane and I descended while checking for any traps. When we reached the end of the staircase, another hallway was before us. This time, Jane and I walked briskly while staying on guard. I stopped suddenly and Jane bumped into me.

"Ow! Hey, why'd you stop?" Jane covered her now sore nose.

My danger sense went off right before I stepped on a tile. I went over to the wall and looked for anything suspicious. After about half a minute, I spotted a couple bricks that were out of place and removed them from the wall. There was a system of pulleys behind the wall and I used a throwing knife to cut the ropes. I gained a new skill from disarming the trap.

New Skill! Trap Disarming The ability to disarm traps. Higher mastery increases the success rate of a disarming attempt. Mastery: Beginner 1 Effect: 2%

I was elated as the skill would be useful in almost any place that would contain traps. We pressed on and didn't encounter anything, and I was on edge from the lack of enemies. When we reached the hall, an object flew at my head. I raised my arm and barely blocked the object from embedding itself in my eye.

The object was a throwing dagger, and it clattered harmlessly on the ground once it collided with my steel covered arm. I didn't have to fight this unknown enemy, however. I knew Jane could. She already had an arrow nocked and I could hear ice shattering from impacts a little distance away. I blocked a few knives from reaching Jane, as they easily distinguished themselves in range of my lantern.

Jane fired her arrow and it landed. It killed whatever was throwing knives at us as I heard a thud echo from a certain away from me.

"How's that?" Jane said to me smugly.

"Nice job. It's great to travel with you." I gave her a wide smile and a thumbs up.

I saw Jane's expression light up once I said that. I went over to the corpse of whatever Jane killed. I walked up to it and saw a corpse-like body wearing light leather armor. It had a set of throwing knives strapped to its chest, with about five missing from its bandolier. I had a few suspicions but shrugged them off.

The both of us pushed on, descending the staircase at the end of the hall. Once again, another hallway was before us. It didn't take us long to find enemies, and they were disgusting ones.

Spider Hatchling Level: 19 Health: 250

Their level and health were low, but they made up for it in numbers. There were 30 of them in this part of the hallway. It was only one group of spiders, which made me shudder imagining the hall. I let Jane take care of it the hatchlings. She launched ice spears that pierced multiple spiders in a line. I stomped any stragglers that made it past the spears. We kept going, taking occasional breaks for Jane to restore her mana.

When we finally made it to the hall, there were about 140 spiders surrounding a large one. Preparing for a long fight, I stood guarding Jane.

"Jane, I'll take care of the spiders that assault us. Use your magic and arrows to kill that big motherfucker in the back." I said through gritted teeth.

"Alright, don't get too cocky. You'll die from these disgusting things if you aren't careful." Jane had a frown on her face.

The battle started once Jane let loose an arrow which lodged itself into the large spider's thorax. A wave of hatchlings descended upon us and I obliterated many of them with once swing. Another wave replaced that one and I swung again. I kept swinging to keep them at bay while Jane hammered the giant spider with spells and arrows.

After what seemed like an eternity, the giant spider collapsed and I took care of any straggler hatchlings. I was extremely tired since I had been fighting non-stop to keep them off Jane. I sat down and placed my sword next to me while greedily gulping lungfuls of air. Jane sat down next to me.

"I wonder what we'll get at the end of this crypt." Jane said expectantly.

"I'm also thinking about that. Maybe we'll get a mountain of gold." I chuckled after saying that.

I looked over at Jane to see what she was doing and a pair of soft lips pressed themselves onto mine. The kiss lasted for about twenty seconds. Once Jane was done, I asked her a question I had wanted to ask before.

"Jane, can I touch your ears and tail?"

"W-when we get back..." Jane said, a little flustered.

'Maybe they're sensitive.' I thought as I got up and dusted myself off. I helped Jane up and we continued to the staircase where we descended down to the fourth floor of this dark crypt. The hallway stretched on. Jane and I met skeletons again, except these were stronger than the others. It took about three hits for me to take down one, and they appeared in groups of around five or six. The time it took for us to make it through the hall was about twice as long as the previous level.

Once we arrived in the hall, a dagger pressed into a gap in my armor but got stopped by the chainmail underneath. I was shocked, and so was Jane. I immediately grabbed the figure that tried to stab me and slammed it into the ground. Drawing my greatsword, I cleaved it in two with one swift motion while it was still on the floor. I felt pangs of danger as another dagger flew out from the dark. I deflected it but missed my counterattack since the figure was quicker than my swing.

Jane nocked an arrow and shot it into the darkness, where it landed and I heard a thud. She had nailed one of the figures. She then cast her area ice spell and it caught another of those figures. I didn't hear anymore movement and decided to check the corpses. There were three, and they wore black clothing. Daggers were in their hands and they had corpse-like features. 'Were these previous adventurers that tried to clear the crypt?' I thought with a bit of anxiety.

I shook my head to get rid of the thought and walked over to the staircase with Jane. Once we descended, we were surprised. There was no hallway for the fifth level, just a hall twice as large as the previous ones. We carefully traversed the hall, each of our steps echoing throughout the place. Then, a large rusty greatsword aimed at me came out of the darkness. I swiftly jumped to the side which caused the blade to miss. A skeleton warrior wearing plate armor appeared in my vision along with a person in a black robe.

Kanex the Necromancer Level: 42 Health: 620

The black robed person was a necromancer. I guess he was the one that created the skeletons in here. The plate armored skeleton rushed at me with a speed unbefitting of his appearance. The rusty blade came down again, which I cleanly deflected. I counterattacked the skeleton by cleaving through his armor. This came at a price. The resistance from his bones slowed me down and gave the skeleton an opportunity.

He punched me in the side, which knocked the air out of me and pushed me back a few meters. I quickly went back to keeping the skeleton busy since I heard arrows and magic flying around me.

After a few intense minutes of fighting the skeleton, I heard a scream as Kanex was cleanly hit by an ice spear through the chest. The skeleton faltered since Kanex couldn't keep his concentration on controlling it. I used the opportunity to finish the job by quickly sheathing my sword and throwing a dagger into his throat. The light faded from his eyes and the skeleton went back to being a pile of bones.

Kanex was dead now and the crypt was officially cleared. Jane and I sat down to rest again.

"Now that was one tough fight. I didn't think he would be able to move while casting spells too." Jane said to me, exhausted.

"Yeah, I'm not much better. That skeleton was way too fast. I was mostly just defending." I said to her just as wearily.

We sat there for a while and looked around for anything we could loot, but found nothing. Slightly unsatisfied, I helped Jane up and refueled my lamp to start backtracking to the surface again.

The walk took about an hour and it was nighttime when we arrived back at the surface. As we walked out, the guards gave us nods and a simple 'Good job'. I gave them quick nods and continued walking back to the Guild with Jane in tow.