While he waited for the sixty-second timer to count down, Thomas examined his gains and shook his head at the title. It wasn't exactly all that useful. He didn't plan to, or even want to, run through dungeons alone all the time. Thomas worked much better on a team where he could support better fighters with great gear and items. Just thinking about fighting even stronger nightmare difficulty bosses alone made Thomas rub his still aching chest. Feeling something sticky he looked down and noticed that his leather armor was coated in a splatter of the goblin generals black blood. It had been deposited there when the goblin general had backhanded him with its wounded arm.

This was a little surprising to Thomas because every time he'd defeated a dungeon monster it had dissolved into dust. Yet, even though the goblin general was dead and dusted, its blood was still coating his armor. As he was still contemplating that, the timer finished counting down and he was teleported to the entrance of the dungeon. He got an odd look from the official when he noticed the black blood covering Thomas's chest. After checking out of the dungeon he made his way to the adventurers guild. It was time to turn in a massive number of quests!

He garnered fewer looks than he expected while he walked through the streets with black blood splattered all over his chest. He supposed it was a common sight to see blood covered adventurers. When he stepped into the guild building no one paid any attention to him at all. Thomas ended up standing in line for nearly forty minutes before he finally stepped up to the receptionist. He spotted her eye twitching a bit when she was his appearance, but she maintained a professional smile as she asked, "How can I help you this evening?"

Thomas retrieved his guild card and held it out towards the receptionist, "I've got several requests to fulfill. I've got nineteen sets of goblin mana crystals, twenty-five sets of elite goblin mana crystals, and the goblin generals helmet to turn in."

The receptionist accepted his card while her eyes very clearly widened this time, "You have...", she did some mental math real quick, "... 315 mana crystals to turn in?"

Thomas nodded his head with a smile, "That's correct."

He actually had over 440 mana crystals but had decided to keep six of the smaller goblin crystals and 136 of the slightly bigger elite goblin crystals. The receptionist stood from her seat and straightened her skirt with her hands, "Please follow me into one of the rooms we use for larger transactions."

Thomas followed her to one side of the guild building where she stepped out from behind the service counter and opened a door leading into a short hallway lined with more doors. She opened one of them and led him into a small room with a wooden table and two chairs. She gestured towards the chairs, "Please have a seat while I fetch a cashier and appraiser to check your materials."

Thomas sat down while the receptionist left the room. Just as he was beginning to relax the door opened and a middle-aged man with a short dark beard peeked into the room, "You Thomas?"

Thomas nodded to the man so the man stepped into the room, "I'm John and I'm here to check the mana crystals you want to turn in. Please place them on the table."

Thomas stood up and started dropping mana crystals onto the table. Fortunately, he could somewhat organize things inside of the storage ring. Not perfectly, but he could place the goblin crystals on one side and the elite goblin crystals on the other. He'd used his crossbow bolts as a divider between them as well. Before long, Thomas has set out 190 goblin mana crystals, 125 elite goblin mana crystals, and the goblin generals helmet.

John got to work right away and quickly checked over each mana crystal. They only took about five seconds each, but with so many of them, it still took John nearly half-an-hour to check over all of them. By the time he was done, he looked tired, "Alright. I've confirmed all 315 mana crystals and the goblin generals helmet. You have completed the basic goblin hunt quest nineteen times, the elite goblin hunt quest twenty-fives time, and the goblin general hunt quest once." John looked incredulously at Thomas, "Give me a moment to gather your reward."

John left and returned just a few minutes later with a large bag of gold in hand. He set the sack of coins on the table with a loud thud and smiled at Thomas, "Your total reward comes to 4,900 gold."

System Notice: Repeatable Quest, Quest Complete! (x19) Bring 10 Mana Crystals procured from Goblins within the dungeon to the Adventurers Guild.

Rewards: 250 Exp and 100 Gold for each batch of 10 Mana Crystals turned in

System Notice: You have gained 4,750 experience.

System Notice: Repeatable Quest, Quest Complete! (x25) Bring 5 Mana Crystals procured from Elite Goblins within the dungeon to the Adventurers Guild.

Rewards: 250 Exp and 100 gold for each batch of 5 Mana Crystals turned in

System Notice: You have gained 6,250 experience.

System Notice: Quest Complete! Defeat the Goblin General at the bottom of the dungeon and bring his helmet to the guild as proof of your conquest.

Rewards: 1,000 Exp, 500 gold

System Notice: You have gained 1,000 experience.

Thomas had, amazingly, gained exactly 12,000 experience from turning in the massive number of quests. Thomas stored his sack of gold within the storage ring and shook John's hand, "Thanks for everything!"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

John returned the handshake and handed Thomas back his guild card after that, "Congrats on your rank increase, Thomas."

Thomas glanced at his guild card and noted his rank had increased from two all the way up to eleven in a single go. With his increased rank he could take on more difficult quests and gain better rewards. However, he was irked to be reminded of the herb gathering quest he'd taken on a whim and still hadn't completed. He decided to go back to ignoring it again since he didn't want to take the time to leave the city and find them. He planned to book passage to the capital tomorrow.

Thomas left the adventurers guild and made his way to The Swans Nest. After he sat down at one of the dining tables, Martha came over and gave him the stink eye as she exclaimed, "You're not eating here covered in that filth!"

Thomas blanked for a moment, then glanced down at his blood covered chest. The blood had dried mostly and was beginning to flake off a little bit and leave pieces of dried black blood in his wake. Thomas smiled sheepishly and climbed to his feet, "Right, sorry Martha. I forgot about it."

Martha huffed at him and pointed towards the stairs. Thomas felt a mixture of happiness and melancholy as Martha's action reminded him of his own deceased mother. Thomas went up to his room and changed into something clean after he wiped the grime of the dungeon off of his body. He checked out his body while he was naked and didn't notice any real significant changes from his attribute changes. It seemed that after hitting superhuman it took a decent gap in attributes to really see a physical change.

After handing over his dirty clothing and armor to be cleaned, along with a generous tip, he made his way back down to the dining room to enjoy his dinner. As he was eating an extra large helping of minotaur steak, Martha came over to speak to him, "While you were in the dungeon Rock stopped by looking for you. He said to head over to his place tomorrow morning."

Thomas smiled at Martha and nodded, "Thank you, Martha. I'm really going to miss you and The Swans Nest when I head to the capital tomorrow or the day after."

Martha sighed and nodded, "I'm going to miss you as well. You've been living here for over a month now. It feels like I'm sending my own child out into the world to seek their fortune."

Thomas smiled warmly at her, "Don't worry. I'll be coming back after I learn what I need to at the academy. I'll be sure to stay here whenever I visit. This place really feels like home to me."

Martha gave him a warm, motherly smile, "There will always be a room here for you. Even if I have to boot someone else out!"

Thomas laughed at that. After a little chatting, Thomas finished his meal and retired to his room for the evening. He lay down in his bed and opened his character sheet. He had an astounding 13,848 experience he could spend on his attributes right now. Immediately he spent 3,800 experience to increase both his Power and Endurance attributes from 35 to 40. Thomas, briefly, felt better with all of his stats nearing perfect balance again. However, he immediately blew that feeling away as he dumped as much of his remaining experience as he could into his Magic attribute. He'd previously thought having at 50 might be enough, but now he wanted it to be even higher just to be safe.

For a massive 10,030 experience points, Thomas increased his Magic attribute from 50 all the way up to 67. This was the most he'd ever increased an attribute at a single time. Thomas took a deep breath and confirmed his decisions. The moment he did he felt a huge influx of energy infuse into his body. It felt downright amazing. The energy flowed into every cell of his body and nourished them while simultaneously filling them with power. He could feel the mana inside of his body swelling as his mana pool grew by a significant amount. The sensation was so comfortable and soothing that it sent him into a deep sleep. 

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When he awoke the following morning, Thomas noticed that his body had thinned down a bit. His muscles were still prominent and well defined, but they weren't as thick as they had been the day before. He felt like he had lost a little weight, but after gripping his hand into a fist and punching out with it he knew that nothing had changed as far as his Power went.

After getting dressed, he collected his cleaned armor and clothing to store them inside of his storage ring with the rest of his items. He wasn't sure if he would be sleeping in The Swans Nest tonight or not. After a breakfast that Martha had overloaded with orc bacon, Thomas left The Swans Nest and made his way towards Rock's Armory. After stepping inside he greeted Belle, who gave him the cold shoulder, and made his way to the backroom to find Rock.

Stepping into the smithy, Thomas felt the urge to grab a hammer and make something. Rock looked up from his work and gave Thomas a broad grin, "Hey there! Went looking for you yesterday but Martha said you were already in the dungeon. Have some fun down there?"

Thomas walked over to Rock and gave him a firm handshake, "I had a bit of fun. Mostly went there because Hekrin told me I needed more experience before making my way to the magic academy."

Rock had a look of realization and nodded, "Yeah, he would. The people that get to attend there are all young powerful individuals from around the entire kingdom. Without a recommendation letter or a Magic attribute of at least 75, it's impossible to get into the academy."

Thomas grimaced, those were some steep requirements. Even after all the work he'd done, he didn't meet the requirement of having 75 in his magic attribute. Fortunately, he had the recommendation letter from Hekrin. That begged the question though, just who was Hekrin to be able to write him a recommendation letter to enter the academy? There was also the incident with Selena wanting him to convince Hekrin to return to the capital. She was clearly someone with connections since she had said she would be at the mayor's place until she left. All of this just made Hekrin all the more interesting and mysterious.

After exchanging some more pleasantries, Rock took Thomas to a small office and pulled out a sack of gold coins, "I've got a total of 15,500 gold for you this week. We took far more custom orders this week and charged a significant amount more for them so we had a much larger profit."

Thomas eyed the bag packed to the brim with gold coins and swallowed, loudly. That was an enormous amount of gold to him. Thomas accepted the sack of gold and quickly stored it inside of his storage ring. He would need to deposit that immediately, "Rock, I wanted to ask, is it possible for you to make a deposit directly into my bank account? Since I'm leaving the city soon I won't be here to collect the money in person anymore."

Rock nodded, "It's possible. We'll need to head to the bank together though."

"Got some time to spare this morning?"

Rock shrugged, "Ever since we started selling the magical gear I've been working myself to the bone. Technically, I should go back into the smithy and work." Rock looked around the empty room in a conspiratorial manner and then grinned at Thomas, "So I don't mind ducking out for a bit!"

Laughing together, the two men left the shop and headed towards the center of the city to visit the bank and get things set up for the future.