[ Dia used Spin Kick. ]

The log listed her use of her limited ability, which was followed by the weird sound of something hard hitting stone, which in turn was followed by the crumbling sound of the Golem, it was the same sound as the other golems, just ‘bigger’.

“Holy fuck...” Sam exhaled all his collective fear into the air, as he sat down on a thigh-high stone next to him.

Dia ran over to him, even in this dim light Sam could see her panicked expression, becoming even more so as she saw the wounds on him that he hadn’t properly noticed before.

Looking over himself, that shotgun of sharp rocks had opened a copious amount of wounds on his body, most were small surface cuts but some were surprisingly deep. The Player vitality kept him from bleeding out, weirdly enough, but it still looked, and more importantly, now that adrenaline was slowly leaving his body; felt painful.

“Sa krarn, krin?” She looked worried.

Sam had no idea what she asked.

“Calm down, it’s fine.” Sam tried to calm her down with a head pat, but she grabbed his hand and changed her tone to a more aggressive one.

“Sa kram!” Almost pulling his hand like she was scolding him. “Sa, no fine!”

For a brief moment, Sam didn’t consider the pain as he noticed her learning had made significant progress in just the short time she had been working on it. Sure, it was lacking in grammar and proper structure, but that didn’t matter. He couldn’t help himself from smiling in a strange pride. Which just ended up confusing her.

“Vrana grira?” She first asked as she tilted her head to the side, pondering for a second she continued. “Why... smile?” Using a second between the words to plan out the next word.

“I’m happy that you’re getting better in English.” Sam kept smiling and finally landed his head pat on her.

Before she could react, or their moment could continue, Sam was interrupted by the System.

[ Dungeon clear conditions:

Kill the Large Golem: 1/1

Optional: Kill all monsters

Monsters: 20/20

Rewards:

500 000 xp

1x Random mid-level crafting material

Bonus rewards for optional step:

500 000 xp

Random Box - X. ]

Without waiting, the rewards were manifested in front of them. Janik was prepared so it landed in his hand, Sam wasn’t so it manifested on the ground in front of him. Both got an Aether crystal as well as a Random Box.

This didn’t exactly startle Dia, but she still almost reacted as if it did. Not like the things just spawn from nowhere.

“Yeah boi!” Janik exclaimed at the same time. Based on his earlier statements, Sam assumed that Janik levelled up. “I like this new place, at least the XP speed at it.” He smiled, looking happy with himself as he stared out into nothing for a few seconds.

Elara also levelled from this, and as per the norm, he put the point into Vitality. However, he did take a mental note that he needed to talk to her about this. Her base health was very low meaning that besides Venom boost, there wasn’t a massive change to her build. Each point into Vit only gave her +2 HP, but it increased the power of her venom a surprising amount, so in that way, it was worth it, but it didn’t do much for her outside of that...

Sam took out his cell phone and used the flashlight on it as a light source as both Janik and he chose to open their Random box right away.

Janik’s opened and flashed out of existence, leaving an Aether crystal as well as a Health potion. Sam’s placed an Aether Crystal, a mana potion, but also a suit of armour!

Sam wasted no time in inspecting the newfound armour. Lifting it, the folded piece of fabric unfurled into a flowing cloak. It looked to be made of a blend of shadowy fabrics that almost rippled in the darkness, only barely noticeable due to the light on it. It had intricate silver patterns along the edges, almost looking like tendrils of mist. It had a hood hanging from its shoulders. It was surprisingly soft and almost velvety to the touch.

[ Wraith’s Shroud - Low C-Rank.

Defence: 50

- +20% Stealth

- +20% Enhancement to speed when sneaking.

- Chameleon: 1/day, make the user transparent when standing still, movement will break this effect. ]

“Oh, dude...” Sam commented surprised, he was very happy with this. Not only was it a cooler-looking piece of gear, but it was enhanced compared to the one he already had. Sure, he lost the 10% chance for total evasion, but it hadn’t proven too practical so far... So a higher flat bonus in addition to an active ability was great!

“God damn it...” Janik’s voice echoed after he had taken a look at Sam’s loot. “I... am glad for you but... I can’t help but be a bit envious here...” He came closer with his better flashlight, having already twisted it back to wide-angle as there was no more need for far-reach lighting, sounding honest in his statement he also sounded a bit sulky.

“Perhaps it’s my haxx?” Sam commented as he worked on getting his armour off, he wanted to put on the new thing before they left. Also using the poor code word for the Ascendant thing as it made it easier to talk about.

“Perhaps... but can you get me some nice stuff next time?” Janik smiled, his envy hadn’t disappeared but he looked like he focused on being happy for his friend instead.

“I don’t know if that’s how it works, but... I’ll try?” Sam forced a smile at Janik. He didn’t know if there was anything he had control over, but, according to the Entity he... might be able to do something?

He tried to make a mental note about wanting something for Janik the next time... perhaps that’s how it worked?

“I suppose that’s good enough.” Janik sighed in response, it seemed he accepted Sam’s vague attempt if nothing else.

As Sam was putting on the new armour, which was just a coat that took a few seconds, he helped Dia swap armours. There was no reason for her to not use the Shadowleather Vest now that it was available, it was slightly worse for Janik anyway so it was much better for Dia. Not only did this dramatically increase her survivability, but it gave her a slight Stealth boon, given how much better she was at that than Sam, this should probably either be a substantial boost to how things worked, or just a drop in the ocean, in either case, it wasn’t a bad idea.

“Well... We might as well leave.” Janik commented as he took out his phone and found a video that he showed to Sam. “I have no idea how we’re going to get that core out of the boss without proper tools.”

The video showed a man explaining how to get the cores out of the Golems, which seemed to be done with a solid hammer and some pitons, cracking it as one would do with large rocks. It split nicely in the video which revealed the core within, easily pryable out with a small crowbar.

“I suppose we’ll go to the village and get some tools, then.” Sam replied and started looking around for the exit portal when he was done putting the armour on Dia. Finding the portal wasn’t easy in the dark, but Janik noticed what Sam was doing and helped with his better light source.

“Over here!” Janik shouted once he found it, having the others go to him and finally exiting the Dungeon.

Finding themselves back outside, the weather had changed to heavy rain, almost instantly drenching them to the bone.”Ah... Lovely mountain weather.” Janik commented surprisingly dryly.

“We can dry up in the village... I kind of want to run this place a few more times today, it might feel hard now but I think now that we know what to expect it should be easier. And if we all get flashlights and tools, it should be much easier as well as actually getting the cores.” Sam smiled, not only loving the XP, but getting some more loot from it, both in the sense of Random boxes and also the Cores, was very interesting!

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Dia looked at the two confused but seemed more interested in stretching and getting used to this new piece of clothing she was given. Her dress was drenched and made moving a bit heavier but it wasn’t the tightest part around her torso.

Sam did some simple math, there were 20 targets in there, plus the boss. Based on the XP log the kills alone would give him 450k XP, that was his 50% share. Dia got a bit but only once he had leveled due to the cap. On top of this, there was the 1mill XP clear bonus, meaning that he could get almost 1.5 million per complete run. This meant that three more runs would level him, and after that, he’d need about 7 more runs to get another level. So for about 10 runs.

Now that they had the experience of this run, and would get better as time went, it wasn’t hard to guess why people often farmed dungeons like these. But this raised the question; why hadn’t they seen that many people around?

“A question.” Sam commented out into the air, mainly aimed at Janik. “If farming the ‘easy’ Dungeons like these are so effective... why aren’t there more people around?”

“Most people need to find a party to do this with. And not all of those feel comfortable with multiple runs. Or people like us who have a stable group, race through it and are already higher on the list than us. You also need to understand that... You’re cheating a lot, more than you think. I think you might have an inflated, or weird look on things based on your luck with gear and how you can almost abuse your Telekinesis.” Janik faced Sam, continuing to explain as they walked.

“Consider me, if I had better Swords, let’s say I didn’t have my kids and sprung for some good swords, I would need two Low-D-rank weapons, which would set me back around $150 000 each. I might get lucky to get some in some boxes or something, but I am also then in reach of things, and forget flying enemies. With D-rank weapons, since I can use two, I’m also specialized for that, most people with that kind of focus usually only do half that damage... But no matter how you look at it, it’s still a matter of safety, or worse; resources.”

Dia kept stretching her body as they walked, trying to work out things, Sam pondered what Janik explained as he went on.

“Most people, myself included, get tired fast. Don’t underestimate how much stamina it takes to properly fight for your life. You move around, you swing a weapon, sometimes a heavy one. Rangers need to pull their bow, again and again, working their muscles. Mages run out of mana, need time to cast their spells and... Then there is you. You might have it expensive in how you use gear but... Not considering your luck you can be at a safe distance, don’t get tired except dodging or moving around, you have alternative attacks which also don’t make you tired or use any resources... You might take some hits, yes but... You’re kind of cheating.” Janik ended his explanation with a wide smile. He seemed to be fine explaining this but at the same time looked like he liked, in a weird way, putting Sam in his place.

And Sam had nothing to counter with. It made a lot of sense.

Ignoring the group thing, which explained itself more as Janik detailed it, but the combat thing. Sam could in theory stand still and just lawnmower down anything around him in range. He had a good range and could do surprising damage for a single person, without any proper cost. Yes, he was lucky with his gear, but comparing that to someone else with the same gear, he was pretty well off. Though Janik didn’t comment on it, there were also the allies he had gained, Dia and Elara did their thing in their way, which directly affected him positively. For example; Dia only consumed a tiny bit of the XP they shared, and Elara didn’t take any of it. Now that Sam had been through this Dungeon once, he felt oddly confident that he could clear it alone, or at least with just him and Dia if he wanted to.

Though he didn’t feel safe doing that, he felt that he could if needed, which was kind of the point Janik seemed to be making. It wasn’t that others weren’t trying hard enough or didn’t want to, it was that it was just harder for them as that’s how the System was designed, Sam was lucky in more ways than one.

“I suppose that makes a lot of sense... I didn’t think about it that way...” Sam had to admit that he was more considering things from his angle than the ones he was passively referring to.

“Don’t get me wrong.” Janik added, bringing Sam out of his thought bubble. “I’m very happy about this, just means I can do what I do much safer. But I’ll admit that I think there will be a point in the near future where you might leave me behind, and it won’t be safe for me to continue with you anymore.” The smile Janik had, saying that, was not entirely honest.

It had tones of honesty and pride in it, but it also looked surprisingly pained, something Sam could understand.

Sam hadn’t considered that either, he was so focused on everything going on that he didn’t look ahead, something Janik seemed to specialize in. Getting more gear, getting more powerful, continuing as he was. Ignoring the bonus levels he had gotten through the Island, just the speed that he was increasing in power with, was exponentially faster than a normal Player.

At every other level, Sam could get another point of Energy, giving him two new arms, even without doing the math it was easy to see the potential this gave him. In his case, especially now with everything important in his class calculating of Spirit, he could focus entirely on that. Which alone was a major boon, and having so many things scale of that, giving him range, reach, touch, crowd control, offensive and so on, Janik had a good point; he was kind of cheating.

All of this pooled together validated Janik’s statement, that they might end up going their separate ways at some point, which wasn’t something that Sam liked to consider. Dia would scale in her way so she would always be with him, Elara was another question but Janik couldn’t take big risks. If he suddenly died, it didn’t ‘only affect him’ like it would Sam. Though Janik would probably be sad if Sam died, it wasn’t the same, Janik didn’t rely on Sam on the same level as his kids relied on him.

The answer was simple!

He would do his best to boost and bring Janik with him. Sam wanted power for himself, naturally, for a variety of reasons. But it would become much easier to do as a group, so all he needed to do was make sure that Janik got the XP and gear her needs. Which in Sam’s mind could be worth it, even though it might be considered a bad idea to ‘give’ that much to someone, this could be mended by forming a Contract. Though, rather than saying that not to make a pity thing out of it, he decided to keep that in mind for when, and if, it would be needed.

After all, Sam would prefer a few days of zero-XP grinding to keep his ally with him.

“Well, I don’t intend to abandon you, the only way you’re leaving me is if you choose to do so. Which, I can understand with your kids, but don’t think I’ll leave you behind.” Sam faked a threatening tone to make it into a joke. Not considering it at the time this was an uncomfortably real talk, something he didn’t feel entirely right for, so his subconscious forced the horrible humour to compensate.

“That’s good to hear!” Janik either didn’t realise, or totally realised. In either case, the response changed the subject as they were nearing the little town.

“I say we go in, get something to eat, rest, sell off the few things we don’t want and set off when the rain lets up. I want those levels!”

Sam’s mind changed from the earlier uncomfortable topic and went into grind mode, this was going to be great. Instead of waiting 80 hours to recharge his health, he decided that it was probably going to be better to just get a 50% potion and use that, get back into it faster.

Since they were currently in Aetheria, Dia’s presence wasn’t questioned or even looked at weirdly, at least that’s what Sam assumed was the reason. Many of the buildings of the village were inside the mountain, cave-like structures and been cleaned and made into housing, and flooring added here and there, all in all, it looked surprisingly pleasant. Outside of the cave houses, there were other buildings, mainly constructed of stone, which made a lot of sense given the area.

Being somewhat eager to get back into it, they didn’t spend more time than needed in the village, finding the needed tools for Core gathering was hardly an issue, all sorts of mining tools were available, at bleeding prices, naturally. There was a restaurant of sorts there, Sam decided not to question where the meat came from, it tasted a bit... strange, not bad, actually pretty good just not something he had tasted before. They decided to sit close to the fire used to heat the area as they ate, making the drying a bit faster.

Selling the simple armour Dia used, as well as the Aether crystals gave them back more than they used on the tools, luckily enough, but it was still at horrible prices when a decent hammer cost several hundreds. Strangely it felt better just getting that here than spending time going back to Earth and finding a better place... This just confirmed that Sam had been affected by the value of things vs how ‘easy’ it was to earn money as a Player.

Naturally, Janik decided that since Sam had got his new fancy armour, and that they didn’t need two sets of tools, it was plenty enough that Sam got them. Sam decided to agree with it, he felt a bit sorry for Janik, not having the same, potential cheating luck as Sam had.

“Well, I suppose we have everything?” Janik asked rhetorically as the rain was letting up. Not waiting for a response he set off back to the Dungeon, they were going to grind this place a bit!