As they walked down the stairs, Thomas had to admit he was a little curious about the mana crystal Selena wanted. Only a little though. He didn't really know what it was exactly so he wasn't plagued with ideas on how to use it. As they stepped into the safe room on the fortieth floor, they sat down to take a break. Selena was still bleeding slightly from the wound the Faerie boss gave her. Still, her Endurance was at a decent level so she was healing at a good rate. While they rested, each of them pulled out food and drinks to enjoy. Snowlily enjoyed her snack with Thomas since it consisted mostly of meat in either skewer or sandwich form with minimal vegetables.

To speed up her recovery, Selena drank a health potion before eating a snack with everyone else. After she recovered from her wound, the group moved into the next room by picking a random pathway. They planned to map the rooms they entered so they could find their way back to the saferoom and leave the dungeon when night fell in a couple of hours. As they passed through the first tunnel they got their first look at the monsters they would be facing, Gargoyles.

The Gargoyles were about half the size of a normal human with wings and a long tail on their back. Their faces were sharp and angular with no hair and sharp horns above their eyebrows. Their last major feature was their skin, it was dark gray with a stone-like surface that enhanced their Endurance against physical attacks. They were all fast, strong, could fly and came equipped with sharp claws on their hands and feet to rend people limb from limb. As soon as the group entered the room the Gargoyles screeched loudly and flapped their wings to take to the air and charge them.

Minerva charged to the front and tried to gather as much attention as she could. Selena, Thomas, and Lexiana focused on disabling the Gargoyle's wings and dropping them to the ground where Lexiana and Aria could get in attacks at high speed. The tough hide of the Gargoyle's proved a bit difficult for the three melee fighters to get through with their blades still, they managed to deal significant damage and cut the monsters down with a little help from the backline fighters. Snowlily would use her Ice magic to trap and disable the monsters, Selena would use sharp compressed blades of Wind magic, and Thomas focused on using Lightning magic.

They used their teamwork to slaughter their way through rooms for hours until it was time to call it a night. They left the dungeon and returned to the inn to relax and enjoy their dinner. As they were finishing up, Thomas spoke, "Tomorrow morning I'm going to pick up my rewards at the Guild, after that we'll see about heading to the dungeon. If it's even necessary after that. If not, we'll take the day off and head to Kafla the day after."

The girls nodded their heads. While they appreciated growing stronger at such a nice rate, they were not used to going into dungeons daily and cutting down thousands upon thousands of monsters. With dinner finished, Thomas retired to his room with Snowlily to spend his accumulated experience points and see how much closer he was to his goal. He had gained over half a million experience, he almost started to spend it but stopped. He planned to sleep after spending the points so he focused on expanding his Inventory first. Only after that did he spend all of his experience and increase his attributes from four hundred and thirty-six to four hundred ninety-four.

Seeing how close he was he groaned and hung his head. Just a few more points and he would have reached his goal and entered the King class. He let out a sigh and lay on his back to stare at the ceiling. On the bright side, the amount of experience he should get tomorrow for turning in all those mana crystals should push him over the edge. He confirmed the changes to his attributes and let the soothing energy of his growth lull him to sleep.

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After breakfast the following morning, he went with Snowlily and Lexiana to the guild to check on their rewards. Lexiana would just be getting gold while Thomas had the advantage of gaining both gold and experience. With there being a bit of a morning rush, they had to wait in line for a bit. Once he got to a receptionist, Thomas presented his guild card to the receptionist. As soon as she saw it she stood up, "Please follow me."

The receptionist led Thomas and Snowlily into a back room, "Please wait here, someone will come to help you shortly."

Thomas nodded and didn't have to wait for very long before a young man walked into the room with his guild card and a large sack. When the sack was set on the table in the room, there was the distinct clatter of coins shifting around. The young man smiled at Thomas and held his guild card out to him, "All taken care of. I have to say, you and your friend have turned in more than anyone else at a single time. All of your rewards have been tallied and added together. Your total is 336,875 gold."

Thomas accepted his card and picked up the sack of gold. The moment he did there was a constant ringing sound as quests completed constantly for well over five minutes. By the time the notices finished ringing, he'd gained two point eight million experience. His eyes widened at just how much he'd gained. He'd expected a fair amount but still thought it would be less than a million. He grinned broadly, his attributes would hit the King realm and then some! After thanking the young man for helping him, Thomas left the guild and went back to the inn.

As he stepped inside he spotted the others, minus Lexiana, sitting at a table waiting for the verdict. Thomas sat down and smiled, "Looks like we have the day off. You can all do whatever you want. Tomorrow we'll head to Kafla. Just a fair warning, I have no idea how long we'll be there."

Selena crossed her arms under her chest and let out a sigh, "Is it really necessary to go there?"

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Thomas shrugged his shoulders, "Not for the rest of you. You're the ones following me, not the other way around. I'm going to Kafla and staying there as long as I need to. You're welcome to go do whatever you feel like while I'm there."

Selena flinched while Minerva and Aria glared at him for the attitude he had. Thomas ignored them and ordered some snacks for himself and Snowlily. As they were snacking, Lexiana walked into the inn with a dazed look on her face. After she sat down she ordered a large ale. Only after taking a long drink from her mug did she speak, "I've... never had so much gold before... I actually had to open a bank account to store it all."

Thomas smiled at her while Selena chuckled. Thomas pat her on the shoulder, "Good job, you earned it. Tomorrow we'll be heading up to Kafla so make sure you have everything you need before we leave."

Lexiana absentmindedly nodded her head before drinking more of her ale. Thomas left the table and went back outside into the city. He planned to pick up some more supplies to stuff inside of his newly expanded inventory. He kept his shopping spree short as he didn't want stuff his inventory completely. He wanted to save some space for shopping in Kafla. He focused on picking up some alchemy supplies to make more powerful healing and mana potions. Especially healing potions. He tended to avoid damage but having some just in case would be a good idea.

He only spent a few hours shopping before calling it. It wasn't even lunchtime and he wasn't sure what to do with the rest of his day. He let Snowlily pick where they would eat lunch while he tried to decide what to do with his free time. After lunch, he decided to pass the rest of the day making extra ammunition for The Destroyer. By the time he made an additional one hundred rounds for the rifle, it was becoming night.

The group gathered up for dinner and made their plans for heading to Kafla. Thomas started, "If we can find a convoy heading to Kafla tomorrow morning, we'll take it. If not, we'll be leaving anyway."

Selena nodded, "Alright. Though, if we go on foot it'll take two to three days to get there. The terrain isn't exactly comfortable to travel on."

Thomas nodded, "Pretty standard for terrain to get rough close to mountains. Anyone know anything about the local wildlife?"

Minerva spoke up, "Harpy's will become an issue closer to the mountain. They roost in the caves higher up on the sides of them. On the ground, we'll have to keep an eye out for Beast Monsters. There's also rumors of a Behemoth living somewhere in the area. With the increase in demonic activity, there's a chance it may appear. And of course, demons. They're becoming more and more active each day."

Thomas nodded, "Anything else we need to know?"

Everyone looked at each other to see if anything else needed to be said. When everyone shook their head, Thomas nodded, "Alright. We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning."

After saying goodnight, he made his way to their room with Snowlily walking behind him. After closing the door, he got ready for bed and the final moment. He opened his character sheet and looked at the massive pile of experience waiting for him. He started spending it as fast as he could. His attributes rose higher and higher. They easily passed the five hundred mark and kept rising even further. He kept going and passed the six hundred mark as well. He didn't run out of experience until all four of his attributes hit six hundred and twenty-three.

He looked at the final totals and smiled, "Even more than I  expected."

He made sure to get comfortable on the bed before he finally hit the confirmation button. Energy surged through every fiber of his being. The surge was so strong it ripped his cells to shreds before immediately reconstructing them to be even stronger than before. He grit his teeth as a mixture of pain and pleasure worked its way through his entire body. Every aspect of his body was increased drastically. Strength, speed, stamina, and his mana all grew by leaps and bounds. When the surge began to fade from his body, he immediately passed out soaked in his own sweat.

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The next morning, Thomas woke up and groaned. He disliked the process of increasing his class but the benefits made up for it. He sat up and clenched his fist hard enough for his knuckles to crack. His physical strength was significantly improved. At the same time, he could feel his mana pool had increased in size and would allow him to do even more than he could before. More mana meant more Transmutation and faster crafting. He climbed out of the bed and dressed for the day while Snowlily looked at him curiously from the bed.

Once dressed he moved downstairs and smiled at the sight of the women sitting at the table waiting for him. He'd slept in a little bit more than usual due to his change to King class. He sat down at the table with a bright smile on his face, "Everyone have everything they need for the trip?"

Everyone nodded. They'd all gotten everything they needed for the trip yesterday. Thomas had everything he needed for camping a couple of days out in the wilderness. He was looking forward to it. He thought about maybe heading out into the forest for a while and just enjoying himself... Maybe after the demonic threat was dealt with. The group enjoyed their breakfast together before leaving the inn for the final time. They might stay here again after leaving Kafla.

Thinking about what he would do after leaving Kafla, Thomas sighed. He still needed to head to practically the other side of the world to keep his promise with Lexiana. He wasn't looking forward to that at all. Still, he was a man of his word and he would keep it, even if he didn't like it.

The group moved together to the guild to check for any guard positions on caravans leaving for their destination. There were several but all of them were fully stocked and didn't need additional guards. If they wanted to they could have waited until tomorrow but none of them wanted to. Traveling with a caravan was more about convenience for them than for money. Riding with a caravan was like getting paid to ride to the destination. Though, there were responsibilities of course. He didn't really count the guard duty as a responsibility, it was a necessity. Even more so when traveling in a smaller group.

With no caravan to join, everyone just walked to the northern gate leading out of the city together. Lexiana took the lead as their scout to keep an eye out for monsters on the way. Selena was flanked by Minerva and Aria who would give their lives to protect her. Thomas and Snowlily took up the rear, ready to throw out magic attacks if necessary.

They walked through the peaceful forest for a while before Thomas called out, "We need to stop for a bit."

Everyone stopped and looked at Thomas curiously. He didn't say anything and just gave a smile as he walked into the woods with Snowlily following him closely. Everyone but Lexiana would get a nice surprise when the two of them returned!