The armor was exactly what he was looking for. It had an unfortunate demerit to Dexterity, but it was minimal compared to the rest of his stats. The boost that it gave overall was greater than any piece of equipment that Jonathan had possessed before. In addition, it had an even higher growth potential than the other items in here.

Jonathan took off his chainmail armor, and put on the new suit, watching as it tightened to fit his body. The suit was quite heavy, much heavier than any normal person could hope to wear, but to Jonathan it merely felt like he was wearing a few layers of clothes. The Dexterity penalty was likely from the fact that moving while in it was a bit clumsier than normal given that it was quite thick, rather than from the weight.

Jonathan put his old suit of armor into his storage device, marveling at how it just vanished into there, despite being many times larger than the pouch. Jonathan left the suits of armor behind, and moved onto the final part of the rewards room, where a random assortment of items were displayed. It was filled with all sorts of things, from rings to brooches, to even more storage devices. This was a section where one could find almost anything, and there were easily thousands of items on display here.

Jonathan started to walk around the circle, inspecting everything that he could set his eyes on. The overall quality of work here was a bit worse than with the armor and the weapons, but it was still some good stuff overall. Many of the rings gave stat bonuses, as opposed to the ones that he had received earlier in the dungeon. Eventually, he decided to go with a small band of silver that gave a 12 point boost to Dexterity, which would cancel out the effects of his armor, and give him a boost as well. Sliding the ring on, Jonathan watched as the room began to shake, and soon it vanished before his eyes. Jonathan blinked once, and found himself standing outside of the cave, back in the Ash Heaps. He quickly climbed up the side of the cave entrance, wanting to get a look at something other than gray rock for once.

The heat of the land was the first thing that he noticed, quite different from the coolness of the caves. The second thing that he noticed was the large army surrounding the dungeon, with all of their weapons pointed towards him. There were what looked like hundreds of grim-faced men and women facing him, all of whom were seemingly ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

Their ranks were uniformly spaced, in a way that allowed them to surround the entire dungeon entrance with their numbers. They all wielded a mix of various melee weapons, and strangely enough, there did not seem to be any mages or even ranged fighters. It seemed like they had made some assumptions about Jonathan’s fighting style, based on his magical unbinding skill, and his durability. Most ranged weapons at this level would be useless against him, unless they were overwhelmingly powerful.

They were staring directly at him, and Jonathan regarded them with a stony glare, wondering if they were actually there for him or not, given that none of them had moved a muscle. Jonathan moved to the side, and when their eyes followed him, he realized that he had been spotted.

A heavily armored figure stepped forward from amid the ranks, his strides shaking the ground. The man’s size and the form of his armor marked him to clearly be such. He was dressed in a suit of red and black plate armor, and seemed to be a similar fighter to Jonathan. His fists were covered in giant metal gauntlets that were designed for brutal crushing attacks, rather than the quick and efficient punches of Jonathan’s gauntlets. They were covered in banded metal, and were a lot more unwieldy than his own weapons. However, the gauntlets looked just as deadly. In addition, a concentrated aura of power surrounded the man, promising bloodshed.

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“Jonathan Harlowe,” he said, his voice deep and resonant. “I am Dalnar, Ninety-Fifth captain of the legions of Granath. You have been found in violation of the laws of this land, and your punishment is death.”

Jonathan did not respond, instead looking for a way out. He quickly scanned the army, his eyes glossing over the individuals. His heart sank as he saw their levels. All of them were at least level fifty, and the leader himself was level 75. Individually, they were not too much of a threat, and the captain was the only one of concern, but together, Jonathan did not have a chance in hell of winning, which was apt, considering his situation. However, there was something that was bothering him, something that did not make sense. He had clearly become enough of a nuisance to the forces of Granath to be known to them by name, yet they did not simply send some Tier 2 after him to deal with him. That did not make sense, unless…

“So that’s why I haven’t died yet,” Jonathan said. “Something is preventing Granath from sending his strongest fighters after me.” Jonathan smirked beneath his helm. “And, given the way that the Hells are set up, it must be because of my power. He can send as many fighters of my level as he wants, but he cannot simply send someone who will obliterate me outright, isn’t that right?”

“You misbegotten fool,” Dalnar blustered, his voice a bit on edge. “You know nothing about the workings of the Hells!”

Jonathan smiled. He had gotten all the confirmation that he needed. He knew a bit more about the world around him now. He would use that information to great effect later on. As he faced off against the enemy army, he received a notification from the System.

You have discovered a universal law, keyed to the Infinite Hells!

The Law of Honest Battle

Any circle lord, or their immediate subordinates, cannot use their power to directly assault any being that is less than three times weaker than them, with the exception of assault onto their personages, or on their direct possessions. However, if this restriction is broken, it is broken permanently. This is to prevent the complete hegemony of circle lords over their circles, and to preserve the sanctity of the Universal Struggle.

There was a lot of unfamiliar nomenclature in there, but it seemed to make sense to Jonathan. As far as he could tell, this was not done out of the goodness of the System’s heart, but in order to preserve its juicy share of the essence stock available within its purview. Seeing as the Hells contained a large portion of all of this universe’s dead, that was a lot of essence being earned by people fighting within it. An amount of essence that was apparently too precious for the System to lose out on. Because of the fact that killing someone much weaker than you granted almost no essence, the System was losing out. However, it only applied to the circle lords, and anything else was fair game.

Jonathan closed the notification, noting that the enemy had not taken a single step forward. Jonathan strode towards the edge of the cliff, and jumped down, landing on the ground with a loud thump. He eyed up the enemy leader, and spoke.

“I have a proposal for you. I challenge you to a duel here and now, with the stakes being my life. If I win, then your army will retreat. If you win, well, I’ll be dead.”

“No,” the enemy captain replied, before signaling for his men to attack. Jonathan sighed. It had been worth a try.