Owen hurt everywhere, he wasn't sure how long he had been asleep, he tried to remember what he had been doing before sleeping. "Oh yeah, we were going to go fight the hidden boss." He thought to himself. Thinking of the boss he then remembered that they had gone to fight it. Remembering that he had been in the middle of a fight, he tried to force himself into a standing position, but his body didn't want to work. It felt like someone was lying on top of him to keep him from moving.

Opening his eyes, he tried to blink the sleep from them and was surprised to see it was already getting late into the evening. He began to panic when he couldn't see either Peggy or Myra and forced his body to listen. Forcing himself into a standing position, he only got more panicked when he saw the state the roof was in. One of the bosses legs was just lying in the middle of the roof and the other was lying up against the roof's ledge. He pulled up his status menu and sighed in relief.

*You have 762 out of 1000 health points. You have 1430 out of 1430 mana points.*

He began to move much more fluidly as he started pumping his health points through his body. Reaching the end of the roof, he peeked over the side and saw the boss that had given him so much trouble lying dead on the ground close by the buildings entrance. The pressure that had been building up drastically lessened, but he was still worried about Peggy and Myra. He slowly made his way back to where he had been lying down and then past it towards where the boss had originally been protecting it's loot.

He barely made it down the stairs, before he realized he had been tackled. "Owen, you're okay!" Owen immediately prepared to fight only to realize that Peggy was hugging him. A warm feeling entered his chest and he couldn't help but smile and hug her back. "You know I think this is the first time I think I've been hugged by someone in a long time." As he looked down at the person hugging him, he felt himself freeze in place. Peggy didn't have blonde hair, she had black hair. "Myra? Are you okay?" She pulled away from the hug slightly, her face a deep flush of pink.

Peggy moved around the corner and smiled at the two of them. "She has been talking about how you're always so nice to her, despite her always being mean to you. I guess you finally broke through to her." Myra quickly pulled away from the hug and all embarrassment on her face was replaced with indifference. "I just was glad to see that my friend didn't die, don't embellish anything I said." Peggy was still smiling from ear to ear and Owen was now feeling a little embarrassed himself.

"I'm pretty sure it's my fault any of us got into this situation. If I hadn't pushed for us to fight the boss, then none of us would've been in any real danger." Peggy had started nodding, but Myra was shaking her head. "If we hadn't fought it, we would have had the same issue when trying to leave and fighting the main boss instead." Owen understood the logic, but was still feeling awkward, so to make it so he wasn't the only one feeling awkward, he pulled both Peggy and Myra into a group hug.

Peggy started laughing and hugged all the tighter as Myra immediately began trying to wriggle free. Letting them both go, he smiled as Myra was looking embarrassed again, though Peggy didn't seem fazed in the slightest. Feeling a bit better himself, he asked the question he felt he needed to ask. "So, what's the loot looking like?" Peggy shook her head, "We should wait on that until you see the notification from the boss kill." Only remembering it now, Owen pulled up the kill notification and felt like his eyes were bugging out.

*You have slain Level 30 Superior Roseborn Amalgamation. Congratulations, you have defeated the hidden boss of the Wasteland of the Overgrowth!*

*Gain an additional reward upon completion of the gate.*

*1215 experience gained. 608 experience has been consumed by your 2nd grade soul.*

*You have gained 2 levels, you have 2 unallocated stat point(s)*

"This is total bullshit," Owen cursed. "What do you mean?" Peggy asked. "Did you have to use one of your skills?" Owen shook his head, "No, they didn't work at all, which I don't know why they wouldn't, but I supposed it saved me some experience." Owen just sighed as he continued. "My soul temper absorbed half of my experience earned so I only gained..." He paused to tally up the experience in his head. "607 experience from that fight, instead of the 1500 I should've earned if my math was right."

"Yeah, 1500 is as much as I earned from the boss kill." Myra added. Peggy nodded as well, and Owen couldn't help but groan. "I'm supposed to technically be super strong because of the soul temper, but so far all it's done is held me back by several levels. I only barely got 2 levels from that fight, when I probably could've gotten four." Owen said moping. "Or you could've died," Myra added in helpfully from the sidelines, but Owen saw her hide her face when she said it.

"Nah, I'd have won anyways," Owen said cheekily and both Myra and Peggy gave him a look that time. "But yeah, the fact that there is an additional reward for having beaten the hidden boss is pretty sweet and I think we should probably save the actual boss for last. This one was only a couple levels higher than the main boss, but the main boss can speak. I'd rather try and kill all of those elites first, before risking a fight with her."

Myra nodded and begin smiling, "Which is why, Peggy we should check out the loot now." Owen nodded and quickly threw his stats points into strength and agility. As they walked towards where the boss had been protecting. Seeing the three chests, Owen had a brief moment of déjà vu, but pushed the memory of the hidden glade aside.

Using Keen eye on the chests, he felt his excitement grow.

*Uncommon Rarity Chest. Gives a list of of up to ten uncommon rarity items to choose from.*

*Rare Rarity Chest. Gives a list of up to five rare rarity items to choose from.*

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

*Epic Rarity Chest. Gives a list of up to three epic rarity items to choose from.*

"Oh thank god," He said as he shared the chest descriptions with his friends. "Wow, so we each get about three items? That's pretty sweet." Myra said. "Well, ladies first," Owen teased, before jumping back to dodge a jab from Myra. Giving both his friends a chance to look first, he quickly took a more in depth look at his stats.

Owen: Level 13

Vitality = 10

Mana = 13 plus 10%

Strength = 13

Perception = 10

Agility = 15

Resilience = 12 + 2

Dexterity = 10

Luck = 6 + 1

He had grown quite a bit. He still wasn't sure exactly how beneficial his 2nd grade soul temper had been for him. He was barely keeping up in the damage department with both Myra and Peggy and yet he was surely going to fall behind even more, unless he could figure out some benefits it gives. Regardless, he was still satisfied with the progress, turning to his friends, he saw they were still selecting their items from the chests. Seeing that the epic one hadn't been looked at yet, he shrugged and when he stood in front of the chest a screen popped up.

*Roseborn Seed. Requires level 10 or higher to use. This item lets the user grow a roseborn familiar.

*Celestial Pauldron. Requires level 12 or higher to use. This item increases the mana stat by 3 and resilience 2 *

*Amulet of Power, Requires level 12 or higher to use. This item increases 5 stats of your choosing by 1, cannot increase each stat by more than 1.*

"Guys these items are pretty insane, I'm not sure about the first one, but the other 2 are crazy powerful." Owen mentioned for both Myra and Peggy to check it out and Myra's eyes also opened in surprise. "You mind if I take the Amulet?" Myra asked. Owen shook his head and Myra threw the amulet on over her head. Peggy threw the items a look before looking at Owen with a puzzled expression on her face. "Which one of the items would you like?" Owen shook his head, "As of right now, I don't have any preferences, go ahead and take what you like."

Still looking somewhat uncertain, Peggy had a pauldron appear in her hands and had Myra help her strap it on. Owen walked over and selected the last item and an additional system panel appeared when the seed appeared in his hand.

*Roseborn Seed, plant this seed inside of any monster carcass and it will take that carcasses original form as it grows. This monster familiar only levels through the consumption of monster corpses*

Checking the other chests, the results were mostly disappointing, but he did manage to find a new weapon that seemed like it was super good. With the last thing he selected being a storage bracelet in the uncommon chest.

*Thunder God's Bastard Sword. Infuse this weapon with mana, to coat the blade in electricity. Uses 100 mana a minute to keep effect active. This item increases the mana stat by 1*

*Storage Bracelet. Has a storage space of 3 x 3 x 3 meters.*

"Guys, this may sound a little bit crazy, but I think we have to go back to where we threw all of those roseborn off of the building." Owen said sheepishly. "Why's that?" Peggy asked. Laughing slightly, Owen shared the description of the seed item. "I'm thinking if we can grab the hidden bosses body then I can plant the seed inside of it then feed it all of those roseborn corpses." Myra gagged slightly and Peggy looked queasy. "I suppose we could do that, we need to clear out those giant enemies anyways."

It didn't take much time after that for everyone to gather their things and head back down to the ground floor of the building. When they began approaching the body of the hidden boss, Owen started fidgeting, rolling the seed around in the palm of his hand. It calmed him slightly, but looking at the body of the boss, he wasn't sure if it would work anymore. The body was shattered apart in many places and while the main part of the body was still intact, Owen was worried that it wouldn't work since the body wasn't intact.

Despite his worry, his group had been doing fine thus far, so it wasn't the biggest loss if it didn't work how he had been hoping it would. Getting close to the main body mass, Owen gently pushed the seed towards the body, the plant matter, thorns and vines felt like they turned to jelly as he pushed the seed as close to the center of the body as possible. Nothing happened for several moments and Owen pushed some mana towards the seed.

An explosion of red light burst out of the amalgamation's chest and Owen flinched away. Breaking like a shell, the body of the hidden boss slowly chipped in large chunks away from where he had placed the seed. Getting worried, Owen tried to fish the seed out from the inside of the body and had to yanked his hand back. "Something just fucking bit me!" Owen cursed. Even more focused, he reached his hand back inside of the chest and pulled out a tiny ball of plant matter.

It didn't have any discernable features that Owen noticed, but when he brought it up closer to his face, a status panel popped up.

*Would you like to name your new familiar, inferior roseborn infant level 0? Y/N?*

The prompt barely had enough time to show him the option before he had selected yes. "Guys, what do we want to name it?" Owen asked excitedly, as he brought it up close to Peggy and Myra. Neither looked very impressed, but both looked like they had started to give it some thought. "You could name it Peduncle." Myra offered though she herself didn't seem very convinced by the name. "Where'd you get that name from?" Owen asked incredulously. "It's the part of the stem that connects to the flower." Myra said defensively. "We should name it Briar," Peggy interrupted. "Like a briar patch, since it's mostly thorns."

Her saying that made Owen looked down at the seedling with a puzzled expression on his face. "That is not a bad name, but right now, it mostly just looks like a brussels sprout." It did, it was mostly a leaf green coloring, but it could shift the plant life on its form, that would intermittently cause thorns to break through the foliage, only for it to heal moments later. When he looked back at the panel and saw he could think any name he wanted for it, he looked back at Myra who looked disinterested and at Peggy who looked somewhat hopeful.

*You have named, Inferior Roseborn Infant level 0, Briar. Congratulations, you have gained a familiar. 100 experience gained. 50 experience has been consumed by your 2nd grade soul.*

Both Myra and Peggy seemed to have identified it at the same time, Peggy seemed to vibrate with excitement for a moment, before running up and scooping Briar out of his hands. "I guess let's head towards the roseborn corpses then?" As Myra said this, Briar looked like it had tried to jump out of Peggy's hands. Looking surprised, she set Briar down, who then immediately began to munch on the corpse of the boss. Each bite it took with it's thorn teeth seemed to make it grow slightly larger.

They didn't have to wait long before the entire main body of the hidden boss had been consumed, slightly curious, Owen used keen eye on his new friend and began to laugh as he shared the message with Peggy and Myra.

*Briar Level 5

Vitality = 5

Strength = 1

Resilience = 5

Agility = 1

Perception = 1*

"Looks like while Briar is busy eating the mountain of corpses we left, we should be hunting down the rest of the roseborn giants for it too eat." Owen laughed. Picking Briar up carefully, they ran as quickly as their legs would carry them back to the waiting army of roseborn giants.

*Number of Monsters remaining - Unknown. 34:17:56 Time left until monsters escape.*