Xavier stepped up to his loot box.

“Loot boxes at the end of a dungeon,” Siobhan muttered. “I thought this might happen.”

“This is feeling more and more like the Tower of Champions,” Howard said.

“That’s a good thing, right?” Justin asked.

“It’s definitely good for our progression,” Siobhan said. “Though I’m worried we’ll lose our focus.”

Xavier’s focus was entirely on the box in front of him, though something told him he wouldn’t find all that much interesting inside of it.

He knelt in front of the chest. The loot box looked a little different to the ones that he was used to, as though it was made from different materials—but it functioned in the same way as the Tower of Champion’s loot boxes did. The moment he flipped open the lid, a notification appeared.

For completing The Crystal Dungeon, you have gained 25 Mastery Points (E Grade).

A dungeon loot box can only be claimed once per dungeon per user.

Xavier blinked. Twenty-five E Grade Mastery Points? His initial reaction was disappointment, then his eyes widened as he realised just how valuable this could be.

His mind had been thoroughly stuck in the vast amounts of Mastery Points he’d needed to gain back when he was F Grade. But his requirements were different now. He no longer needed thousands upon thousands of points to reach his next level, he only needed a total of 100.

And now he had forty-six. He was almost halfway there.

This dungeon has given me 25 percent of my entire level!

Xavier was honestly surprised there hadn’t been any spirit coins in the loot box, but he wondered just how valuable spirit coins would even be right now. What exactly was he going to buy on Earth, when he didn’t have access to the System Shop?

“You guys should open your loot boxes,” Xavier said, a hint of excitement in his voice.

“Why, what did you get?” Siobhan asked.

Justin and Howard simply knelt by their boxes and flipped open their lids. When Xavier didn’t reply to Siobhan, she let out a small sigh and did the same.

If he got this many points, as an E Grade, just how many points would they gain?

They’re going to gain so many levels from this…

Except the reactions from his party members were lacklustre at best.

“Mastery Points? That’s not bad, I guess. Though it wasn’t even enough to gain a level.” Howard stood and shrugged. “Why were you so excited about that?”

Xavier frowned. “Not enough to gain a level? I just gained twenty-five E Grade Mastery points!”

The others looked at each other, then proceeded to tell him how many points they’d gained.

Siobhan and Justin, who were both now Level 23 after clearing the floor and being powerlevelled, had gained less than Howard, who was Level 24.

This baffled them each for a moment, before Siobhan raised her finger. “Oh!”

“Oh?” Xavier raised an eyebrow at the woman. “Oh what?”

“Oh, I just figured this out. That’s what. We each gained a quarter of the Mastery Points we need for our respective levels.”

“What?” Xavier paused for a moment, lowering his head. “But that means…”

“Dungeons, or at least this one, are incredibly valuable for earning levels!” Siobhan looked more excited than he’d seen her in a while.

“Wait…” Justin ran a hand through his hair. “So if we were a higher level, we would have gotten way more points? Doesn’t that mean the lower level you are when you complete a dungeon, the less rewards you get?” His eyes darted back and forth, as though he were puzzling that out, a finger drifting in the air. “That doesn’t incentivise rushing to clear a dungeon at all—at least not from a levelling perspective.”

“And they can only be claimed once.” Siobhan tapped her chin a few times. “You know what this does promote, however?”

“What’s that?” Howard asked, and Xavier was sure he knew what the redhead was about to say next.

“Exploration. The System returned us to Earth, gave us a mini-map, and pointed us straight toward the nearest dungeons. It wants us to explore. Not only that, this means that dungeons on every world are valuable not just for their first-clears or their titles, but for the Mastery Points they offer at the end. That is, of course, assuming other dungeons offer the same.”

“This is how I’m going to get to Level 150,” Xavier said. “Clearing dungeons.”

He had a lot to do while back on Earth. Getting to Level 150 was just one item on his agenda. He wanted to bring Sam to Earth, for one, not that he knew if the man’s boss—the most powerful Denizen in the entire sector—was actually going to allow that.

Siobhan looked over at him. “Do you think this is why Adranial wants to come here, and bring her party?”

“I think it’s one of the reasons.” Xavier frowned. “But the contract said she couldn’t take away our resources. Not without my permission.” The last thing he wanted was otherworlders—whether they were invaders, people he invited to come to Earth, or people who forced an invitation to come to Earth—getting the first-clears on his dungeons.

My dungeons?

Xavier examined the word choice he’d used. Was he really going to claim every dungeon on Earth as his? That seemed a little… entitled.

If I’m going to keep being the best, I can’t help but be entitled. Besides, if I’m the first to claim them, then they become mine.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Xavier clapped his hands together, startling the others out of what they were doing—their eyes had been glazed over, no doubt checking their attributes. They’d all gained a good number of levels from this dungeon. He wondered if he should clear it again, fast, just on his own.

He was pretty confident there would be a solo-clear title, and there might even be a first solo-clear title.

These dungeons are absolute gold mines.

“All right!” Xavier said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Do we have to walk all the way—” Justin cut himself off as he looked at something behind Xavier.

Xavier turned to find that a door had appeared, out of nowhere. It didn’t look like the door they’d come in through, but it was clearly the exit. On tower floors, there was always a countdown timer for when the System teleported them away. He wondered why this was different.

He gripped the door handle, opened the door, and stepped right through. A moment later, he found himself back in the clearing where he’d found the dungeon’s door in the first place.

The others appeared a moment after he did, one at a time. When they arrived, he checked in on John back at the camp.

[All is quiet here, sir,] John said through the Communication Stone. [You guys haven’t been gone that long. I’ve got four people on watch, rotating them every two hours, and I haven’t had to rotate them yet.]

Xavier was momentarily baffled by the man’s use of the word “sir” when referring to him, but he supposed considering who he was and what he was capable of these days, it might be something he needed to get used to.

Part of him actually liked it.

[Good to know, John,] Xavier replied. [We’re here if you need us—only contact us if there's an emergency.]

[Understood.]

Early on in their time in the dungeon, Xavier had checked whether the Communication Stone worked down there and had been pleasantly surprised to find that it did.

“John says all is quiet at the camp,” Xavier said. He jutted his thumb back at the crystal handle on the tree. “I’m going to pop back into the dungeon and do a quick solo clear.”

Siobhan stepped forward. “Doesn’t that mean we’ll lose the record holder title?”

Xavier blinked. “Right. I hadn’t thought about that.” Did he really want to deprive them of twelve points in each of their attributes? It wasn’t as though he needed it more than them. And that certainly wasn’t his goal…

He could do the dungeon solo, then repeat it with the others for an even faster time to restore their record title—but that would have them running through the dungeon three times in a row, when they should really be moving forward.

This dungeon is close to where we’ll settle our camp. There will be time, after we’re established and we’ve figured out what’s going on in the wider vicinity, to come back here.

“All right.” Xavier inclined his head. “We move forward.”

The next dungeon Xavier led them to was The Deathly Dungeon. This dungeon, unlike the other one, had what appeared to be a trapdoor entrance—but actually turned out to be a coffin.

A coffin, placed in a hole just deep enough for only its lid to be seen. They had to clear the dirt and grass that had somehow ended up covering it until it was revealed.

“A… coffin?” Justin asked. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“I’d be surprised if coffins gave you a warm-and-fuzzy feeling.” Siobhan seemed to ponder this for a moment. “Scratch that, I’d be worried. Surprised doesn’t quite have enough weight.”

Justin scoffed and shook his head.

Perhaps Xavier was the odd one out. He was eager to see what this Deathly Dungeon had to offer. He was imagining skeletons, zombies, or ghosts, and honestly wasn’t sure which one they would find.

It also begged an interesting question—did soul damage do anything to the undead? Didn’t they… lack souls?

He’d been lucky to find that the crystal golems had souls—honestly, they were beasts in his eyes, not constructs like Siobhan’s Divine Guardian, so he hadn’t even blinked when they did.

But undead? He’d never encountered the undead before.

He touched the dungeon’s handle—a small gap in the side of the lid where one would open the coffin—and a notification appeared.

{The Deathly Dungeon}

Level Restriction: None

Level Recommendation: 30+

Active instances possible: 1

Only 1-4 Denizens are allowed to enter this dungeon at once.

Dungeon Record Holder: None

Dungeon Repeats: Unlimited

Would you like to enter The Deathly Dungeon?

Xavier recalled the last dungeon’s info, and found this was exactly the same but for the name. With thoughts of how his powers might affect the dungeon’s no doubt undead inhabitants still on his mind, he turned to the others.

“I’m not sure if this dungeon will be the same as the last,” Xavier said.

Siobhan nodded. “You’ve been thinking about it too?”

Howard crossed his arms. The big man remained silent.

Justin looked between them. “Thinking about what?”

“The name of the dungeon implies there will be undead inside,” Siobhan said. “Xavier’s soul reaping skills might not work on beings without souls.”

“Not to mention your Willpower Infusion,” Howard grumbled. “If there are zombies inside, they’ll be controlled by a necromancer or something. Or maybe they’re just regular zombies.”

Justin muttered, “regular zombies” with an incredulous shake of the head.

Xavier smirked at the strangeness of the phrase. “Do regular zombies, or skeletons for that matter, even have willpower?”

“What if they’re ghosts?” Justin asked. “Wraiths and the like?” He held up his hands and wiggled his fingers, making a woouoouooo sound. “Can mist enter incorporeal beings?”

Xavier chuckled. “I guess we’re about to find out.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I hope so, otherwise this might be a difficult dungeon for powerlevelling.” He looked down at the coffin. “Either way, we need to clear it if we’re going to get a base established.”

The others nodded their readiness, then Xavier entered the dungeon. Once again, he wasn’t worried for himself, only his party members. And still, he doubted any harm would come to them with him there.

Xavier appeared in a large stone room. Fortunately, he wasn’t stuck inside a coffin—something he’d worried might happen, considering how they were entering.

The air in the room was still. Not a hint of wind. It was also cold. Deathly cold. Flames burned in braziers along the walls with no sign of who lit them, or how long they’d been burning for. The others slowly arrived, arrayed beside him. There were no enemies in the immediate vicinity—Xavier could not see any auras, but he imagined whatever stone made up these walls was able to block his Aura Sight.

“Is this… a mausoleum?” Howard asked.

Xavier took in those walls, looking at them in a new light. There were squares of stone interspaced evenly along the walls. At first, Xavier had simply thought it was some kind of decorative choice, but the former cop was right. There were even markings in the stone. Runes of a sort he couldn’t identify.

“That doesn’t bode well,” Justin said. “Do you think something’s going to—”

One of the square stones broke, bursting open in a spray of dust and shrapnel. Skeletal legs wriggled out of the crypt surprisingly smoothly. The skeleton slid out and landed on the ground. It held an axe in one hand, and a shield in the other.

The skeleton was eerily silent except for the clack of its bones.

“I guess they bury their dead with weapons in hand,” Siobhan muttered.

Justin held his sword before him. “To be fair, it’s the way I’d wanna go. If I ever had to die.”

Other crypts about the mausoleum began to burst open. There were perhaps a hundred of them in the expansive stone room. At the end of the room was an archway, leading out to the rest of the dungeon.

“Time to test a theory,” Xavier said. He activated Willpower Infusion.

Behind him, Howard and the others were gathering behind the man’s Bulwark. They were getting stronger, and Xaiver had no doubt they could handle a few of these skeletons easily enough on their own—he noticed the enemies weren’t escaping their resting places at the same time, as though they could only come out at spaced intervals—but he was glad they were taking precautions until they better assessed the area.

Purple mist flowed from Xavier and seeped toward the nearest walking skeletons—or rather, running skeletons, as they were swiftly making their way toward the party.

The mist didn’t enter the skeletons. It didn’t find a mind to control.

It didn’t find anything.

Xavier stepped back. That’s when he noticed these skeletons didn’t possess an aura.

They can’t be hiding their aura. They wouldn’t be high enough level to manage something like that.

He flourished Charon’s Scythe, casting Soul Strike as he did. A single large apparition of a crystal golem appeared. It bounded along the stone ground toward the enemy and ran right through, doing…

Nothing.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Xavier swore under his breath.

Apparently, his class had a weakness after all.