I woke up groggily, hearing the birds chirping and the wind wafting through the trees. I heard a small stream trickle along in the background and noticed several figures standing nearby, as I blinked slowly while my eyesight sharpened.

"Looks like the kid is finally awake."

I saw a woman walk up to me. Melinda, I remembered. The memories from the day before came flooding in and a moment later it dawned on me what had happened. I realised the amount of trouble I was in and, for once, I worried about my situation.

The witch hunters' guild didn't take kindly to being misled, even more so by a person with a dark aligned class.

Garrett briskly walked up to me. "Seems like you've returned to your senses. So, mind explaining yourself? This time you won't be able to mislead us with a rare class, so don't even think about it."

I sat up and rested my back against a tree, closing my eyes and gathering my thoughts. Keeping secrets now wouldn't do me any good and since the truth was no cause for guilt, I had nothing to hide, technically speaking. Of course, the real question was 'Could I trust these people with my secrets?' On one hand, I didn't owe the truth to anybody but the executives of my soon to be guild, if all went well. On the other hand, I had fought side by side with these people, putting my life into their hands, saving their lives in the process. If I couldn't trust these people, then would I ever gather up the courage to trust people again?

I'd never been much for caution, but I still knew to weigh my options. If I didn't want to beat the boss and earn a free ticket into the guild yesterday, I would have never walked up to the group in the first place. Similarly, if I told the truth right now, I might retain my previous trustworthiness, or be seen as an enemy, depending on how they took the news. If I lied, the truth would come out later and whatever trust I had built would be gone. Refusing to answer would immediately turn me into an enemy no matter what. In other words, there was only one option. To tell the truth. I hoped I would never come to regret this decision.

"As you probably noticed yesterday, I have a dark aligned class."

Garrett started to draw his blade, but was held back by Barnold. "I knew it, you slimy, lying cur, I should..."

Melinda intervened. "Shut up Garrett, he wouldn't have helped us if he wanted to hide that fact. Let him explain himself, at least. He's earned that much."

"I agree with that line of reasoning. We owe him our lives, no matter the circumstances." Nestor agreed.

Barnold chimed in. "Hrrmpfff."

I took that to mean an assent and continued my story.

"This was actually my first ever dungeon. A royal appraiser passed by Rolla, the town nearby, last week. I got a dark aligned class due to a system error. Apparently it's a legal one, because I didn't receive any mind affecting skills, preventing me from going insane. At least, the appraiser said so."

Garrett calmed down upon hearing this, but still glared at me with suspicion. "No mind altering skill? Are you willing to swear on that?"

"Absolutely. I swear that I do not have any mind altering skill currently, nor do I expect to receive one in the future due to tiering up."

"How come you're so sure of that?" Melinda frowned.

"Because I received the [Death Knight] class, an undead servant class, none of which have any use for mind skills, considering they're mindless in the first place."

Nestor guffawed. "How did you get that class?! It's tier 4!"

"It was scaled down for tier 1, of course. Supposedly, it's the only physically-focused dark aligned class that a living person can receive. The circumstances didn't really give the system another choice."

Garrett seemed pensive upon hearing this. He had calmed down and seemed ready to make a decision.

"Yesterday, you said you've always wanted to join the guild. Was that true, or also a lie by omission? Do you still want to join?"

"Well... originally I wanted to join the royal academy, but with my class, that's no longer a possibility. I figured the witch hunter's guild was the perfect place for me and hoped they would be more accepting. And yes, I still believe that and I still want to join."

Garrett smirked. "Well, that makes things rather simple, then. You will be escorted by us back to Reito city, where the nearest guild branch is located. There, you'll be fully appraised. If everything you've said checks out, you'll join the guild with no problems. If not.... Well some things are better left unsaid, but I'm sure you can imagine. Don't misunderstand, on our way there, you'll be our prisoner. Try to run away and we'll hunt you down. Don't think your class will allow you to run away from people 2 tiers higher. We'll give you the courtesy of not putting you in handcuffs, at least."

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"I...understand. All I ask is that you give me a fair chance."

"Well, you've got your fair chance. But you'll only ever get one. Don't waste it."

With that final comment, Garrett went back to sharpening his sword. Barnold and Melinda gave me a sympathetic look and then headed off to clean up the small encampment they had made.

Nestor, however, still had some questions to ask. "So, how does your class work exactly? How many stat points do you get per level? What did you receive as your boss clear award?"

As Nestor prattled on, I remembered to take a look at my system notifications from yesterday. I already knew that this overall power increase would be enough on its own to enter the guild when we reached Reito.

Congratulations! You have dealt the killing blow and 100% of all damage to a member of the tier 3 duo boss [Dark Goblin Shaman] and [Enraged Undead Pseudo-Drake].

Extra experience awarded for level difference. Extra experience awarded for tier difference.

Ding! Combat finished. Congratulations on reaching [Death Knight] level 23!

Reach level 25 to advance to tier 2.

Stat points allocated. 3 free stat points per level up awarded.

Name: Arthur Titles [Dark prodigy] Class: [Death Knight] LVL 23 Strength 89 Constitution 92 Dexterity 87 Intelligence 22 Wisdom 10 Affinity 223 Free stat points 69

Skills:

Passive: [Simple dark core](45%), [Elementary dark sight](36%), [Novice Swordsmanship](29%),

[Novice lifespan](N/A), [Perfect physique](N/A), [Flexibility](N/A)

Active: [Dark augment](56%), [Shadow apparation](12%), [Meditation](46%)

Calculating dungeon clear award....Awarded the [Undead Komodo talisman].

I looked over my status and felt a profound feeling of satisfaction. My stats had almost doubled since I last looked at them. My skills were also coming along nicely. I supposed that the immense growth in my core, augment and meditation skill came from that last stunt with the barrier. Sometimes taking risks pays off after all. What intrigued me was the final notification.

I knew about dungeon clear awards. If a party cleared a dungeon, every party member would receive an enchanted item depending on their performance and the strength of the boss.

The dead boss would then be replaced by a dungeon monster, which would receive a boost in strength. The dungeon we cleared would probably choose a goblin brute or rogue as its next boss, by elevating it in strength and placing it in the boss chamber.

"Say, Nestor, how do you think a tier 3 duo boss appeared in a tier 1 dungeon?"

"Hmmm, our current hypothesis is that a rare monster wandered into the dungeon and was chosen as its boss. It's also possible that a dungeon monster evolved on its own, eventually gaining enough experience to tier up twice. The dungeon environment would certainly allow for a single goblin to hide away, slowly gaining more and more affinity for dark mana, allowing it to kill adventurers with ease after some time. We'll report to the guild and they'll send out personnel to find out with certainty and to prevent this from happening again. If they determine it's necessary, this dungeon might be destroyed entirely."

I hummed and focused on my reward this time.

[Undead Komodo talisman]

Tier 1 talisman.

(Growth item)

This talisman allows the holder to summon an [Undead komodo] using dark aligned mana.

This is a growth item and that will tier up each time the holder bound to it tiers up. The tier of the holder and the item must be the same for this to function.

[Soulbound]

A soulbound item! These were as rare as a phoenix's feather! A soulbound item couldn't be used by people other than its holder and would return to the holder upon a mental command. Something about the description seemed off to me, however.

"Nestor, can I ask you something?"

"Ask away, young fellow. I'm always prepared to pass on wisdom and knowledge to the younger generation."

"When an item says 'summon this creature' and nothing more, will the summoned creature be tame?"

"No. If a summoned creature is tame upon summoning, the item will say something along the lines off 'summon this tame creature'. The distinction is always made by the system. Why, did you receive a summoning item? What does it summon? What materials does the summoning require? How many uses does it have? Does it summon one particular creature, or just any random member of its species each time? Does..."

"Slow down, slow down! To answer your questions in order, it summons a komodo, whatever that is. It says it uses dark mana to summon and doesn't mention uses. I don't know about that last question either. It just says 'summon a komodo'."

"Aha! Should I call you insanely lucky or unlucky? A summoning item that only requires mana is worth a castle! Truly, you must have impressed the system with your feat in the dungeon! As for that last question, the system is very particular about how it words things. If your description says 'summon a komodo' rather than 'summon komodos', that means that it will summon the same creature each time, meaning that if you can convince it or tame it, you would have a stalwart ally. If not, It will just have to serve as a training dummy. Summoned creatures can't really die anyway."

"Thanks for your help, Nestor."

"No problem. Now then, I believe our compatriots have finished packing away the camp into our cart. Let's hop on and set off into the sunrise!"

Smiling at his enthusiasm, I answered mirthfully. "Sure thing, old man. Save me a spot."

I stood up, checked over my equipment one last time, and prepared myself mentally for a week long journey inside of a rickety cart.