Back in the land near the dungeon, Jonathan had finally landed, and he was lying on the ground, almost comatose. He could barely see, and his retinas were scorched, making even shifting his gaze a torment. Compared to the agony that the rest of his body was in, however, it was nothing. He could only see about ten feet away from him, and his ears were so damaged to the point that he could barely hear even his own breaths. And of course, the fiery pain that his body was in made sensing anything with his skin nigh impossible. At least it seemed that the attack had taken Dalnar out of the equation as well.

Jonathan slowly started to heal over, but it took entire minutes for him to even be able to get to his feet again, and by that time, some of the soldiers were within a mile of him. Jonathan was in no condition to run, and he desperately searched for a way to avoid the soldiers. However, he could see nothing there. Then he spotted a blackened shape on the ground next to him, the corpse of Talnar. However, it shifted slightly, and Jonathan smiled, the motion intensely painful. He knew how to escape now.

Jonathan hobbled over towards the other man, and reached his side a few seconds later, preparing a powerful strike with his right fist. Well, it was barely more than a wheeze compared to the roar of his normal attacks, but it was enough to finish the job with how injured Dalnar was. His fist crunched the now brittle armor into pieces, driving them deep into Dalnar’s brain. Essence rushed into Jonathan, and he breathed in relief as he healed. Some of his skin was still tender, but he was in good shape compared to before. Sending one last look back at his pursuers, he took off, back at his full capacity.

Jonathan spent the time checking over his notifications, finding that he had managed to improve quite a few of his skills since entering the dungeon.

You have reached Apprentice Rank 1 with Martial Arts!

You have continued to develop and refine your fighting style, testing it against monsters and men alike. In doing so, you have compressed insights into the nature of unarmed combat into a cohesive unit that you can draw upon in battle. Your skill in this field is still quite lacking, but at least you show a small level of competency now.

+10 to Strength, +5 to Dexterity

You have access to a martial skill!

Impact:Rare

You know precisely where to send your strikes to do the maximum amount of damage, whether breaking bones or rending flesh, your strikes always inflict the maximum damage possible.

Accept?

Y/N

Jonathan closed the first notification and quickly accepted the new skill. It seemed to have no downside, and the description was quite promising. According to it, it would allow him to refine his strikes, and make it so that every last bit of prowess was eked out of it. He doubted that it meant that all of his strikes would instantly kill his enemies, but rather that it would increase his power to the greatest amount possible in the situation that he was in. In any case, he would be able to test it out soon enough once he got away from the soldiers and found a fitting monster. Jonathan opened up his next notification, which was almost as good as the first one.

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You have reached Student Rank 1 with Flowing Hurricane!

Your unique battle style is beginning to come together now into one efficient whole, but you have only scratched the surface of the true meaning of unarmed combat. You have refined this skill against all manner of opponents, which has given you a wide base to build up from.

+3 to Dexterity, +2 to Strength

It was almost a mirror image of his Martial Arts skill rank up, except it was a bit weaker. Still, he was glad for the upgrade. Such things always gave more power than just the stat boosts. He could feel that he had a greater connection to his martial skill now, and that he would be able to use it more effectively.

There were a few more notifications as well, but he only briefly read over them as they ran. His other pathway skills had gone up as well, by two points into each. It seemed as if his connection to the Void element had led to a marked increase within his mana manipulation abilities, as he had not been expecting for it to rank up so quickly now that it was in Apprentice Rank. Now that he had finished with his inspection however a sense of disappointment began to rise over him like a dark tide. He had almost died back there, and if not for his incredible bonuses, he would never have made it out of there. All of it had hinged on luck, and it could have gone either way. Had Dalnar not been too powerful to die immediately, Jonathan would have been left without a way to gain essence, and would have died to the soldiers. If he had been a bit less durable, he probably would have died to the explosion. In fact, there were very few ways that could have gone in his favor, which made the fact that it did all the more frightening.

Jonathan kept running, but inside his mind was in a turmoil. He began to take out his frustration on his body, without even noticing it, speeding up as he ran. Jonathan roared in rage and frustration as he took out his fury on the ground in front of him, and with his full strength unleashed, he left small craters in his wake as he ran, clouding his passage with drifts of black ash. He was far enough away from the soldiers that they were no longer a threat, but he continued running, until eventually his stamina bar ran out, and he collapsed to the ground, utterly exhausted.

Jonathan’s chest heaved in and out as he breathed, trying to recapture the lost air from his stamina expenditure. He gritted his teeth as he lay there, frustrated at how weak he still was. The simple truth was that no matter how strong he got, there would always be someone above him. That was, unless he became the strongest. Jonathan clenched his fists as he thought this, and conviction welled up within him. He could no longer be satisfied with daydreams of escaping the Infinite Hells. Even if he escaped into the outside world, there was no way that the gods would let a being like him survive. No, he would have to transcend every boundary that there was to become a force that could not be stopped. It might take an eternity to do so, but Jonathan had all the time in the world. A notification popped up in his vision, which he already knew the subject of. It was a new quest.

You have gained a new quest!

The Strongest:???

You have begun to embark upon the same metaphysical and egotistical journey as so many other warriors in history. Your goal is simple, to be the very strongest being in the universe. However, such a task is impossible, to the point that nobody has ever completed it. How do you dare to think that you will be the first to do so? The obstacles in your path are legion, and the trials that you will have to go through could break gods. You are a fool and a genius all in one. You are a man fated for an early demise.

Reward:???

Jonathan had not been expecting a quest, but it seemed like the System enjoyed handing out quests when there was a sufficient reason. The difficulty rating was simply a line of question marks, which likely meant that the quest was truly impossible, to the point that there was no name, no hyperbolic designation, that the System could come up with to describe it. Jonathan sighed, and closed the quest. At least some of his angst had dissipated now, and all that he felt was a profound emptiness, with a tiny spark of hope in the middle.