Alexia

I cross my arms after entering another cavern nearly half a day after the Architect’s last words to me. And finally, finally, I find a massive castle in the cavern. One that isn’t connected to the other end of the cavern and instead spans for over half of the cavern.

It’s about fucking time… I was beginning to think I’d end up dreaming about these damned foxes if this continued for much longer…

The castle itself is massive and is both gray, pink, and red in color, with a massive symbol at the top of it. Some sort of fox head with nine tails spewed out around the head. Meanwhile the castle is surrounded by tall walls, a gate at the front and center of said walls, an army of foxkin outside of said walls, and a very powerful energy source within the castle. One stronger than any I’ve sensed before since the Reset.

Looks like I’m finally at the dungeon boss.

After I deal with this army, which may actually be too large even for me to deal with.

I look at the army for a few seconds before opening my status and glancing at my level, only to purse my lips.

My level right now is 491, so I shouldn’t have any issue with the dungeon boss. But my soul right now is down to about half, and that is… a lot of foxkin. Thousands even.

Even I don’t think I can take one that… many…

A smirk spreads across my face when an idea comes to mind.

Yeah, that should work.

That should work very well.

I quickly begin teleporting up high into the air above the foxkin, each one of them noticing me right away and attempting to use illusions on me with no success. And without hesitation, I activate my wave form before moving even further and releasing everything in Observation Effect Absorption.

All at once, every last bit of energy I’ve built up over the last few months bursts out of my body in a massive pulse of purple and blue quantum energy that rushes straight through everything in its path. And since the attack is enhanced by both my Wave form from Wave-Particle Cascade and Quantum Synergy, it blasts straight through every last one of the foxkin, shooting my EXP up to the peak of Tier 3 in the process and pretty much erasing their existence from the cavern.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Then I just casually teleport back down to the ground with my hands on my hips and a triumphant grin on my face.

Worked perfectly.

And as if on cue, a ding echoes in my head followed by the usual System Message for reaching the level cap of a Tier.

{Congratulations! You have leveled up to the level cap of Tier 3! In order to break into Tier 4, you must complete the following requirements based on your class: Kill twenty-five Cataclysm Class monsters. Raise a single skill to Tier 4. Kill one user at the cap of Tier 3. Raise Energy Manipulation to Tier 3.}

Oh.

Uh…

Oh.

I stare at the rapidly fading words for several seconds.

Well… this is going to be annoying. Even moreso than the last Tier advancement.

I purse my lips, briefly glancing at the castle which is still standing with that very same powerful energy source inside of it. Then I look down at my hand, followed by a quick glance at a Safe Zone nearby that I saw on the mini map.

Huh. Well this is awkward.

Other than the reward this boss will give me for completing the dungeon, I really don’t have any real reason to fight it. Since it won’t be giving me any EXP, and it won’t fit one of the requirements of my Tier advancement…

Just very awkward.

Then again, there’s no reason not to kill it. I’ve gotten this far after all, and I haven’t gotten a single damned item from this dungeon yet. So getting one from the boss that’s got its tier increased thanks to my Legendary Feat Bonus would be rather nice.

The higher the Tier the dungeon, the fewer items are given out in it after all. Also the fewer hidden areas, fewer hidden bosses, and fewer anything that can actually benefit you other than possible death.

Then there’s the fact that the dungeons themselves are all rarer, and starting at Tier 4, not even set in a certain place. Instead moving with new ones spawning at random.

So there may not even be a single Tier 4 dungeon in existence right now.

I’m very glad I checked with the Architect about all that before he went mute.

Not really sure what I should do right now though. Because I know I don’t have the soul currently needed to safely fight the boss…

After a few seconds, I decide to just go over to the Safe Zone and take a nap. A short one, but a nap.

Thankfully Quantum Regeneration is very useful in situations like this. Raises my regeneration speed by a decent chunk, and is a skill that’s always active, and always passively boosting my regeneration.

So it’s always getting training to level the skill.

After entering the Safe Zone, I take a moment to look through the new skills I got during this little dungeon crawl. But none of them are a better fit than my current skills. So I leave it be and close out of the list.

I purse my lips as I glance at the ground before deciding against my original plan of napping.

If I want to reach Tier 4, I’m gonna need to work on my Energy Manipulation.

But… to bring it up to Tier 3? Just how long is that going to take me…

I only have the skill at level four right now. I’d have to level it seventeen times to bring it to Tier 3.

After staring at the energy particles around me for a few seconds, sulking to myself, I let out a sigh and get to work practicing my energy manipulation.