Barry charged forward down the mountain with efficiency yet care so as not to be caught off guard again. He battered his way past various flocks of vulture-like bird beasts that tried to pin him down with some sort of magical gravity amplifying ability that was easily countered by using his duplication skill and clone transfer. He then passed through a large section of water at the base of the mountain where he had to jump across between fallen logs and giant lily pads to avoid falling in. Some of these lily pads turned out to be camouflaged aquatic beasts that would try to bite down on him as soon as he stepped onto their leafy disguise. Thankfully, his vitality was so high that they couldn’t cause him too much damage, and he was able to retaliate with his chains until they either died or fled back under the water. Once he crossed through this aquatic section, he found himself within a thick vertical bamboo forest. In here, there were large creeping lizard beasts that had long tongues that shot forward and ricocheted off the various bamboo stalks until they collided with his body. Barry simply tanked the shots and grasped the tongues of the creatures, pulling them towards himself for a battering, or tying the tongue to one of the larger, sturdier bamboo plants.

For days Barry repeated the process of marching up and down the various mountain ranges, through the variable forest areas, and bashing his way through all sorts of eclectic creatures. He refused to allow himself to be distracted or pause for any longer than was necessary. He completed one large roast of an entire bovine beast and placed the meat in his newly acquired food storage bag to save having to stop for multiple cook ups. The purple glow in the sky was growing in vibrancy as he got closer to the centre of the forest, and Barry could tell he was closing in on end of this god forsaken forest. He had managed to progress to level eighteen for both his soul magic and soul item levels through his many battles. By now all of his abilities were feeling more natural, and the speed and ease of which he could utilise them had greatly improved. He invested a few free points into dexterity, strength and stamina to make him better able to deal with faster, tougher, or more endurance based foes, and the benefits were obvious. His body could now more easily keep up with his lightning quick thoughts and clever tactics that he felt were boosted by his willpower. After felling a giant, level seventeen ostrich beast called a steel talon roadrunner, Barry decided to do a quick check of his status screen.

Status Screen:

General stats:

* Race: Human

* Power level: 18

* Class: Phantom protector (rare)

Magic stats:

* Magic level: 18

* Primary affinity: Illusion

* Secondary affinity: Earth

Item stats:

* Item level: 18

* Item name: Aura chain

Soul stats:

Physical stats:

* Vitality: (66 + 10) + 10% = 83

* Strength: (14 + 1) = 15

* Stamina: (15 + 1) + 10% = 17

* Dexterity: (14 + 1) = 15

Mental stats:

* Mana: (27 + 5) + 10% = 35

* Perception: 2

* Manipulation: 1

* Willpower: (56 + 5) + 10% = 67

Titles:

* Early specialist (vitality)

* Early specialist (wisdom)

Other:

* Free points: 0

Skills:

* Expert linguist

* Inspection

* Item duplication

* Rapid recovery

* Retraction

* Heavy fortification

* Duplication

* Remote chain

* Barrier

* Null magic skin

Barry was impressed with his numbers, but what excited him the most was the additional title He had gained which indicated that he was now the rank one for wisdom in addition to vitality. As it was on his mind, he also took a quick look at the ladder rankings for the four stats that he cared about most. For power level he saw that ‘Pinnacle’ was still at number one, being level twenty‘ and ‘The boss’ was in second at level nineteen. ‘Supercool’ now sat in third place, followed closely by ‘Gha-rhi’ and now Barry joined them in the top five as they all sat at level eighteen. Pleasingly, he had actually overtaken Arr0w who sat at sixth, being level sixteen, which Barry found incredibly satisfying.

For total stat points both ‘Pinnacle’ and ‘The boss’ still had commanding leads over the rest, with total levels of two hundred and twenty-three, and two hundred and seventeen respectively. ‘Gha-rhi’ was third with a total level of two hundred and three, whilst Barry was a respectable forth with a total of one hundred and ninety-five, just in front of ‘Supercool’ at one hundred and ninety-three. The rest of the top ten all had totals ranging between one hundred and seventy and on hundred and eighty five.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Regarding the vitality ladder, Barry had a ten point lead over the second ranked initiate ‘Rock’, while everyone else was comfortably behind the pair. And finally, for willpower, Barry found that he had a lead of three points over the one known as ‘Saint Kay’ which he was immensely proud to see.

“The hard work is paying off,” Barry reassured himself as he wiped the sweat off his brow, closed his status screen, and restarted his march forward.

He had made it to the tree filled valley just below what he assumed was the final mountain range, as it seemed to tower above all others that he had crossed.

As he hiked forward, Barry came across something that caught his attention. To his right was an abnormal looking tree, not because of the height or size of the plant, but because of its shape. The strikingly odd tree was the same height, colour and width as the other blue gums around it, but its branches were all curled strangely upwards toward its trunk. Each branch seemed to be pointing inwards, almost like a series of arrows that were inviting Barry to come and discover what secrets were hidden beneath the leaves. Barry had found many a concealed loot box in places like this by now, and he didn’t hesitate to start climbing up the strange branches. Within moments he found himself high up in the tree, searching for the reward that he knew must be waiting for him. Sure enough, just when he was starting to lose faith in his theory, Barry caught a glimpse of something glowing below him. As he moved down from his current high branch vantage point, he saw that the central tree trunk was in fact hollow. As he climbed down and got a better look at the strange opening into the centre of the tree, Barry saw something. However, it wasn’t a loot box like he’d expected to find, but instead a glowing door indicating the presence of a hidden dungeon. Dropping down into the trunk, Barry landed on the horizontally positioned door and a quick inspection led to a message entering his mind.

Inspection:

Hidden dungeon discovered: Foresters duty

For a moment Barry considered whether it was smarter to attempt the dungeon, or to just push on and try to reach the supposed end of this forest, below the glowing purple section of sky. But when he thought back to the many levels he’d gained and loot he’d been rewarded with from his previous dungeon experiences, the decision was made easy for him, and he immediately turned the door handle and dropped down into the dungeon below.

Barry fell through the air for just too long for it to be enjoyable, but thankfully he was uninjured as he landed safely within a conveniently positioned, soft hay bale. As he clambered out of the straw pile, Barry plucked the itchy hay from within his clothes until he had cleared it all. Then he took a look around at his surroundings. The entire area was quite dark, like he’d just been dropped into a room where all the windows were covered in curtains. He could still see, but there was no vibrancy to the world. The space he was in must have been around a hundred metres in diameter, with a tall wall leading upwards at the perimeters of the area. On further inspection he could see four evenly spaced-out corridors that exited the area. Each corridor had a slightly different hue emanating out from within. There was one yellow corridor, one white, one blue and one brown. Right in front of him there was a twenty-metre wide, circular, and lightly glowing region of dirt that had a single small, green sprout of some plant growing from its very centre. Even stranger, was that the exit door to the dungeon was hovering horizontally about one metre above the plant, as if frozen in place. Barry frowned at the weirdness of this place, then he refocused. As he studied the budding plant further, he started to sense a strong, magical pull from it despite its size, and he decided to inspect it.

Inspection:

Tree of life (sprout): The tree of life is a physical representation of the struggles of all beings. Born small, fragile and struggling, the tree could easily perish. But should it overcome the challenges of life, through a combination of will, love and luck, it has the potential to become something spectacular.

“That’s a bit of an odd message,” thought Barry as he stared at the modest and basic looking sprout that was just barely able to pierce through the dirt beneath it. “So, what has this tree got to do with the rest of the dungeon?” he asked himself as he kept looking around.

There were a few more hay bales scattered about but other than that there wasn’t much to see, at ground level that was, for the moment he tilted his head upwards he began to smile. Up above him, at a height of at least twenty metres, he could see a shimmering wall lying horizontally across the sky, and resting atop it he could see the familiar shine of a bronze loot box, and it looked like there might have even been a silver, and maybe a gold loot box above that one.

“Ok, so somehow I need to get up there, and I bet it’s got something to do with this tree,” thought Barry as he tried to decipher the mysteries of the dungeon.

As he stood in thought, Barry started to notice the small sprout of the tree starting to wilt. Panicking, he rushed over to the plant.

“Oh no you don’t. You’re meant to be the tree of life, a representation of the struggles we all face. You can’t die at the first hurdle!” he said as he looked around for anything that he could do to help the sickly sprout.

Barry was no horticulturalist; he once had a cactus in a pot in his hospital room that had done quite well, but that thing could literally survive in a desert. He had no idea how to care for a normal plant apart from a few gardening shows he’d stumbled across when flicking through television channels in the past. One thing he did remember was seeing some gardens with straw scattered over the dirt for some reason that he didn’t understand. So, with no better ideas, he ran over to the hay bales and ripped off piles of straw, before carefully laying it out across the entirety of the dirt platform. To his surprise, the sprout responded quickly to his actions, standing up a little taller with its new, insulated surroundings.

“I can’t believe that actually worked,” exclaimed Barry as he pondered what he should do next.

He must have sat staring at the mesmerising little bud for over ten minutes with nothing happening before he decided to just get up and move towards the entrance to one of the corridors.

When he got to the yellow glowing corridor, he could feel a distinct heat coming from its depths that instantly made Barry start to sweat.

“What the hell is going on in there?” he said to himself before quickly moving on to the next corridor.

The white corridor had a strong breeze flowing out from it that blew through his hair and fluttered his clothes. The blue corridor felt, cold and damp, while the brown corridor had a terrible stench to it.

“Just what exactly is this all about?” thought Barry as he moved away from the stinky hallway. “I guess it’s a matter of picking your poison,” Barry shrugged, as he decided to bite the bullet and get the smelly corridor out of the road first, figuring he’d probably have to do them all eventually anyway.

With that, he pushed forward and into the brown, steaming, putrid hall.