We enter the boss room, immediately we know which boss it is. A giant slime rests in the center of the room. We're not fucking around with this boss though. I tell everyone to take out their knife cannons. I made them previously for all my generals. We aim together and fire at the same time. The slime explodes into smaller versions of itself. We need to kill the bulk before they combine. 

The time slime we're fighting has a regenerative effect like the knights. If you can't kill the boss fast enough the parts you've sliced off or bashed down will just regenerate. Gargarz starts casting fireball and I cast flare and take care of the bulk. To stop them from fusing, I impaled the rest with spikes. Everyone else needs to stop them from reforming or this boss would be a pain in the ass to kill. 

I've heard stories of adventurers fighting against a time slime for so long that they eventually ran out of food and left. They're that difficult to kill. If we didn't have such a strong weapon to use against it, we could have spent days fighting against it. While it is slow it never stops moving, meaning you'd have to have someone be a distraction while the rest slept. It would get very exhausting if we did it fighting normally. We came prepared though. My cannons are too strong when used that way. The boss is easily defeated because we didn't hold back. 

 Blue mage skill learned Absorb- able to eat enemies and can gain skills, buffs and stat boosts you wouldn't be able to get any other way

 Achievement gained Crushing Victory- Kill a boss far faster than the average time it would take, skill gained Quick return- Able to quickly return to the entrance of the dungeon after beating it 

 Master of learning 23 to 24

Pretty anticlimactic but we're all exhausted from the dungeon and just want to get out of here. The dungeon would have been much harder than the boss anyways. He is just very annoying to kill. He dropped some nice rares. A helmet for Gobber, a pair of boots that managed to fit Hilda well and some others. While I wanted them, I forced myself to not make a big deal out of it. We managed to get four altogether but a few will need to be sold. We're about to head towards the exit with our new skill, quick return but I'm stopped by Gobber. 

“Kite, I leveled to one hundred with knight.” 

Wow! I guess it's about time for him to start reaching those levels with classes. He puts in more effort than anyone else I know… Besides myself. In comparison, I train around four hours a day while he trains around two. Not including schooling or fighting monsters which are similar time. If I didn't pick this class I would have easily broken the one hundred barrier for my main class. I would be around thirty or forty with my upgraded class. The way I level I realize I'll never be the strongest person in the party. 

We exit the dungeon. Everyone was waiting patiently for us but Zergnar. Apparently he left when we did and hasn't been back… Should we leave without him? We stay for a few hours before he finally returns. What! His dread wolf is twice the size it was before, it looks far more dangerous and strong. 

So did Zergnar, he was easily ten levels higher… What did he do since we've been gone? Training non stop probably wouldn't show those results but that is what he did. He also had a hell bat with him. Compared to the other hell bats it was actually smaller, but more intelligent and agile. He was also holding two spears, one in each hand. Which would have been very difficult to do, if he wasn't twice the size he was before we left… What the hell happened to him? He speaks up.

“Welcome back everyone.” 

He cried out happily, I wasn't the only one shocked by his new appearance. 

“Zergnar… what exactly happened?” 

“Ah, I was training until now for two days straight.” 

Saying that he fell off his dread wolf passing out from exhaustion. Wow I didn't realize how determined he was to get stronger. I though what he said was going to amount to him gaining a few levels while we were gone. I honestly don't know if Gobber's stronger than him right now. I hope they never have to fight to see which one is though. More than just those two would end up being injured or even killed in their fight.

We're leaving and I hear someone ask again. 

“Feed me!” 

Where's it coming from though? I feel all my resources draining again. Shit! This time it's twice as strong, once again the gauntlet can't be removed! Dammit what did that demigod put on this thing!? It stopped drinking twice the normal amount, I'm almost passing out from loss of health and fatigue points. I ask Pokodo for a heal. Starting to feel better, I wonder what is wrong with this gauntlet. I try to remove it, the gauntlet wont let me. I hear a voice in my head again. 

“Sorry about that. You just haven't fed me yet so I'm starving. By the way my name is Aegis.” 

I think my gauntlet is talking to me… 

“Yep I also can read your thoughts too. Read the effects again, you should be able to tell now.” 

I do just that, the names the same. Everything is the sam- WHAT THE HELL!? He become a relic! I read the mystery effect and it says. “Symbiotic Relationship” What does that even mean? 

“It means that I'll help you out as long as you feed me.” 

I ask. “So what do you eat then?” 

“Metal mostly, I can eat all forms of everything though and grow from it. Right now can you spare a piece of that armor? My mouths been watering, figuratively of course, since I seen such a rare metal. I just want to eat it all... One piece will do for now” 

I take off a metal plate from my armor and feed it to my gauntlet… This all feels extremely weird. We're still heading towards home but I continue to talk to my gauntlet in my head. 

“So symbiotic relationship, doesn't that mean you have to help me when I feed you?” 

“Well that depends what you want from me. If you want information, I could settle on some lower quality metals. I've lived for around a thousand years. While the past hundred years I've been stuck in that dungeon. I still know much about the world. If it is something more, like power spikes. I can siphon your power while not in combat and give you a portion of it back. We can discuss the particulars of that later. Feed me one of those rings or wands please.” 

I feed the time magic ring to him. 

“Ah that hits the spot, I can break down one of these rares every few weeks so remember that and check my effects again.” 

I look at his stats and... What!? He now has time magic boost as an effect on him. So he can hold all kinds of enchanting magic without causing mana explosions it seems. Well this is good for removing some of the clutter from myself. I wont have to wear so many rings and switch between so many wands.

After seeing everyone else get stronger I feel a bit lost... Gobber reaching one hundred. Zergnar evolving and gaining so much strength in such a short time... Putting so much effort for so little to show is starting to be a drain on me. Even more than Aegis. I need to get stronger, faster. There's no way to cheat to get stronger though. I just need to keep putting more and more effort into it. 

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I know from experience killing humanoids gives more than average experience... Maybe I should kill a few to boost my levels? NO! GET OUT OF MY HEAD! I've always been a good person, helping the needy, doing my best for everyone else... 

"And where has it gotten you? It's gotten both of your parents killed, it's made you weaker than everyone around you. If you horde your strength you can still be the strongest!"

All of this was my in thoughts fighting with each other... Aegis speaks up.

"Oh great! I'm in a relationship with a crazy person. Can you keep it down I was trying to sleep."

I didn't realize Aegis was eavesdropping... I feel slightly embarrassed he caught me fighting with myself...

I often think about where I would be if I was a different class. Would I have left home that early? Would I have managed to recruit the gnolls? Would I have managed to do the things I've done in this life?… If I chose a boring class, I probably would have had a boring life. I might have ended up dead or a bandit or so many other things could have happened. The one thing I'm sure of is, there is no way I would have been able to avenge my parents. Any other path than this one, so I'll take that positive.

We make it back to the fortress. Nothing exciting happened while we were gone. Starting school again tomorrow. I need to try to befriend Rock this year. Knowing and having a golem indebted to me would be a big advantage later. I might be able to convince him to move to the fortress if I can help him enough. 

Aegis has eaten another one of my rings, eventually he'll eat all of my rare rings and wands. He also told me to feed him a bag with void storage on it. I'm in the process of making that. I'll start doubling my training once school starts back up. I need to get stronger while I'm still in school for what I plan to do afterwords. I also disassembled the illusion ring.

Alteration tree learned

Enchant weapon visual distortion learned 

Enchant armor visual distortion learned

Enchant ring illusion magic boost learned

Enchant helm alter face learned

Enchant helm control mind learned

Enchant boot gravity manipulation learned 

School started again, I picked tier three time magic as my main lesson and a few other fill lessons. I'm going to focus my lessons around support magic over offensive or healing magic this final quarter. Having higher illusion magic might come in handy. Boot camp also started again, the few that I was better than dropped out. I'm now the worst second year in the school. It doesn't phase me much though. I went there to get stronger anyways. 

Most of the first years wanted to challenge me to a fight because of how weak I am. I managed to beat around half of them but soon, anyone with any willingness to get stronger will surpass me. It felt good to actually win some fights though, I wont get used to it. One of the new first years beat me into the ground though. He managed to break my arm before I conceded. If I didn't have regenerate I would have been in trouble but I'll wait to use it until I'm making my way home to heal myself.

The next day the student who had beaten me was wide eyed. He seen me returning to boot camp uninjured from our previous fight. I sparred against him again and was badly injured and almost knocked unconscious. If I didn't have a years worth of training at the boot camp I might have been injured much worse. I found out his name was Burke afterwords, he reminds me of people I knew in my previous lives... He might become a problem later on.

A few weeks have passed, like expected most of the first years have improved to the point where they can beat me now. I get laughed and mocked by some of them but I don't care. Using magic I could probably beat most of the first years at school. Using my trump cards I could probably beat everyone in the city one on one. How do you counter six knives that come out so fast they explode? I can't let it go to my head though, they're trump cards for a reason. If I have to use them it means my opponent is stronger than me and it's my last resort. 

I've started meditating for two hours every night instead of one to increase my chi. I haven't been filling it back up as much recently since I've been dungeoning. Aegis draining some of it also wasn't good. Aegis spends most of his time sleeping, which is fine. A few times he was awake and eavesdropping on my conversations. Butting in and almost scaring me. I probably look funny sometimes when I'm talking to him in my head because I tend to stop what I'm doing... I'll have to work on talking mentally and continuing what I was doing. I ask him a question.

“Aegis, you said something about lending me power.” 

He must have been sleeping because it takes longer to respond, meaning he wasn't reading my thoughts. He speaks to me mentally.

“Yea, depending on how much you want to sacrifice, I can give a portion back in times of crisis. I get part of it for storing it for you though. How much do you want to store?” 

“Well can you store all my mana, energy and rage for now since I'm not using them. Having a storage of those resources would be helpful later on.” 

“Rage is only generated through fighting but I can make rage with your fatigue if you want.” 

“That's fine you can use half of my fatigue for that everyday.”

“Also can you siphon stats? Sacrificing some of my stats now for a boost when it's needed, might come in handy later on.” 

“I've never tried give me a sec.” 

Aegis tries sucking my stats out. I feel myself get weaker, slower and stupider. Guess it was a success. He asks another question.

“How much do you want to store of these?” 

“Can you deactivate it to see if I get my stats come back. If the damage to my stats isn't permanent, I'd like to sacrifice 20% of each.” 

“20%! You know that you'll become extremely weak while it's activated. To the point of losing 5 to 10 levels in everything.” 

“That's fine for now, I'm in no real danger of dying.” 

It takes around three hours for my stats to reset back to normal. With that I'll start storing my resources and stats for later use... I wonder how much Aegis is going to take for himself...

On another note I need to get rid of this negative trait... I have something planned for it. I'm not sure if it's going to work though...