"Level 10 is where one is considered an adult in most cultures, as that is when one has full access to the system and is generally a more reliable indicator of capability and maturity than age, especially when you consider different races with different lifespans and growth rates."

-Arthur Dane, Representative of The Guild

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But the most notable change upon reaching level 10, and the one I was most anticipating was the ability to use the skill points that I had been accumulating, although my options for such were very limited currently as it seemed that you had to unlock the various skills and traits in order to buy them. At least that is what I assumed as everything in the store had prerequisites and I highly doubted that the three I had unlocked were all the ones that existed. Which meant that common classes had an advantage, as they could compare unlocks to get more skills while I doubted that I would find another elementalist anytime soon, though it may be worth it to compare with other elemental classes as the prerequisites were likely similar or the same for at least some skills or traits. I only had 10 skill points, so I needed to be careful about spending them.

Name: Category: Description Prerequisites Cost [Elemental Manipulation 1/10] Skill, Passive, General, elemental Passively makes the control of elemental energies easier Elementalist class 10 SP [Elemental Shield 1/10) Skill, active, defense, elemental Creates a shield of elemental energy or mana, specific effect varies with element Elemental class 5 SP [Field Advantage] Trait, conditional, terrain Amplifies the benefits from being surrounded by compatible high density energy Spend 10 hours in an area with high energy density of an element you are attuned to or energy you are compatible with 5 SP

Looking closely at the menu there were a few things of note. Namely that the skills lacked specific descriptions, had several subtypes that I could sort or search them by, and only one of my options said elementalist class with the other two just saying elemental class. This could mean one of two things, either the system made a mistake or only the first was specific to my class and elemental class was a category similar to what the skills and traits had, and since I very much doubt that the system capable of transporting people to other worlds and giving them superpowers would make a recurring spelling error, I was leaning towards the latter option. Talking with the others in the group revealed that their menus looked much the same as mine just with different skills, and since unfortunately none of us asked any in-depth questions about the system store, all we had to go off of was our own theories. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to hold off on buying any skills for now just in case I unlock anything good before the tutorial ends or if I learn any of them naturally, though I was almost definitely going to get [Elemental Manipulation] if nothing else was unlocked since it would be an overall boost to everything I could do.

After everyone went over their new skills and other changes that level 10 brought, we moved on to discussing what we were going to do about the miniboss now that we had hit the level we had agreed to fight it at. Though discussion may be an overstatement as even Jackson didn't try to convince us to delay any longer, so we instead talked about what we thought the miniboss would be as we ran through the dungeon, making short work of the enemies that were now far below our levels and gaining a pittance of experience reflective of the difficulty.

"My money is on just a bigger crab."(Jason)

"No way, dungeons always have something special for bosses, its gotta be like a cave bear or something with an added crystal theme."(Mason)

"I don't know, even in the higher levelled path the enemies were the same so it's not impossible that the boss is just a stronger version of that."(Leo)

"I hope its another crab, then we'll know how to fight it properly."(Jackson)

With our idle conversation and guesses at the boss and its mechanics if any, we quickly reached the gate with our resources mostly full. Still not losing all of our caution despite all of us being confident in our odds for the fight we waited for about half an hour for everyone to regenerate their stamina as none of us used any mana in the previous fights. Once everyone was topped up we proceeded through the purple gate and walked down the notably inclined pathway for a solid few minutes until it opened up into a large circular cavern about 30 feet in diameter. Laying down in the other center of the cavern was a large bright orange salamander the size of a bear with deep shimmering black crystals lining its hide like polka dots, and after eying us it let out a large chuff before leisurely getting to its feet giving us plenty of time to observe it with the system.

Onyx Cave Salamander - Level 7

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I also took this opportunity to flick on my [Elemental Sight] which did nothing but make me slightly dizzy as the energy in the dungeon was dense enough to make it look like I was looking through a kaleidoscope so I was unable to even see the salamander much less if it affected the flow of energy at all. While I was wasting my time, the others got into position with Leo charging the monster with Jackson close behind while Jason skirted the edge of the cavern to get as clear of a line of sight as possible. Thankfully it only took me a few seconds to snap out of it and focus back on the fight just in time for Leo and the Salamander to collide, Leo with his shield up and the salamander turning its head aside to do the closest thing to a shoulder check that it biologically could.

*THUMP*

With the sound of flesh colliding with metal echoing out through the cavern, and a quick look towards Leo's face that had a heavy grimace, I focused on the sturdier energy within me as I pushed it through the ground and focused on pooling it under the center of the salamander as Leo held its attention and Jackson went for a stab on its left while Jason threw a volley of cards at its right. Jackson's stab was the first to land, the glowing tip signifying his use of a skill and the loud roar of the salamander being cut short as it whipped its head to the other side where there was now three cards lodged and a spike of crystal shot up from the ground and pierced its torso.

Seeing all of our attacks land, we all felt our tension drop at the sorry sight of the salamander that looked like it would drop at any moment and we all relaxed our posture as Leo lifted his sword to finish it off. As if to mock us for our dismissal of it the head of the salamander twitchily shot at Leo's arm and clamped around his bracer with an audible crunch as it used its hind leg to shatter my crystal spike while releasing a glow from the onyx gems imbedded in its body as its wounds visibly closed, pushing out Jason's cards and making them clatter to the floor.

"FUCK!"(Leo)

With Leo's shout snapping us out of our shock we all quickly threw everything we could at it, no longer trying to conserve resources as Jackson thrust a glowing spear that seemed to split into two while Jason threw out three cards with each hand, about half of them glowing blue with electricity and I abandoned using the crystal element to focus on the much faster, if less efficient, lightning element putting as much energy as I could handle into a single bolt as I shot the salamander. This cavalcade of blows had a much more visible and gory effect than our previous more controlled attacks as one side of the beast was repeatedly punctured while the other was cut to ribbons as the entire thing was convulsing and burned to a crisp.

Congratulations, you have defeated the Sub-boss of the first floor of the Crystal Caverns dungeon, the Onyx Cave Salamander and gained 30 EXP

With the system message assuring me and the others of the salamanders death and I quickly rushed to a still pale Leo who had freed his arm sometime during our panic and was sitting on the ground and staring at his arm while breathing heavily, but not quite to the point of hyperventilation. With adrenaline still in my veins and keeping me focused I saw his arm covered in enough cracks that it looked like it was covered in webbing, and after another brief moment of panic I realized that there was a lack of red in those cracks and finally remembered the crystal bracers that we had given to Leo a few days ago.

With that realization my panic quickly drained from my body, along with my energy as the strain from using more mana at once than usual as well as just the tiredness from being so tense saw me joining Leo on the floor, with two more thumps telling me that I wasn't alone in my relief and subsequent exhaustion.

"Well, thank god for armor, though I think I'll be needing a new bracer after this."(Leo)

"Bracer? after this I need new underwear."(Jason)

With Leo and Jason lightening the mood Jackson and I let out a wheezing laugh each before we all just lied on the floor panting as we gathered ourselves and replayed the events of the fight in our minds and mentally kicked ourselves for how badly we dropped the ball at the end and what it almost cost us, or more specifically what it almost cost Leo. After about ten minutes of catching our breath we pulled ourselves off the ground one after another as we all stood around where there was once a corpse but now only had a small collection of three items. None of us wanting to have the conversation we needed to have at this moment, we came to the unspoken agreement to focus on the loot to distract ourselves for a few more minutes.

Examining the items without the aid of the system first, there was a leathery orange chestplate, a baseball sized pitch black crystal, and a slab of meat that looked like it came out of an anime, minus the dirt covering it from sitting on the floor. Using the system gave these results-

Name: Salamander Hide Chestplate Rarity: Rare Requirements: Level 5 Effect: +3 END, 5% faster healing, minor self repair

Name: Lesser Onyx of Healing Rarity: Uncommon Requirements: N/A Effect: Applies minor healing effect on use then disintegrates

Name: Salamander Steak Rarity: Uncommon

Ignoring the dirt covered and odd smelling piece of meat, the other loot was by far the best that we had gotten so far and was quickly distributed, with the chestplate going to Leo and the gem going to Jason with the understanding that he would use it on anyone that got injured if they were incapable of doing it themself or hand it to them otherwise. We elected to leave the meat behind as none of us wanted to clean it and our lack of spices meant that it was unlikely to taste better than turkey anyway.

With loot distributed and all of us too tired to even consider trying out the main boss or even checking if the door was open we silently trudged back, with even the excitement of cool new gear wearing off quickly and replaced with tiredness and the need for rest. Although, even with us being far more tired than usual we were more cautious than ever as we walked back, our newest lesson on relaxing our guard firmly carved into our minds and Leo's body and overriding the now accepted fact of mobs not respawning. Despite our increased level of caution, the way back remained unmarred by enemies and we made it back to our familiar cave, all collapsing onto our usual sleeping spots, all of us falling asleep instantly as both physical and emotional exhaustion hit us and left no room for any thoughts or even dreams, just the comforting blackness of sleep.