Eve popped a healing pill as she sat down on one of the larger roots of the ruined tree. She’d had to completely expend her mana to use her biggest skill, Heavy Impact, twice. Once against the shield that had seemed near impervious to everything she threw against it, and again against the tree itself.

She winced as she looked at her side where one of that lunatic’s magical projectiles had struck her from his last desperate barrage. The wound from the single projectile had done an immense amount of damage, and she was certain that if she’d taken a second it may well have been the end of her.

Dammit, is this due to my arcane stat being so low?

Arcane was a measure of not only one’s ability to wield magic, but also their resistance to it. She hadn’t yet found any beasts that could use magic, so she hadn’t bothered putting a single free point into the stat. Her class didn’t give her any bonuses either, so her arcane was a mere 40 while her strength was a bit above 300.

This is going to be a problem going forward…

The beasts she hunted didn’t use magic, but she was certain there would be at least a few casters among the ranks of the overseers, and she could find herself in a disastrously bad spot if she didn’t have a solution to this problem by the end of the 30 day protection period.

She looked back towards Devon, honestly expecting him to be dead. Fighting a monster several levels above your own was one thing, fighting something that could think rationally and had built up its own unique path was another.

So when she saw the man standing above the decimated corpse of the brewmaster she was shocked. Not only at the fact that he’d survived, but how horrific his condition was. Green veins spread across his face like rivers in the Amazon, covering it in a disgusting network of slowly receding green lines. But that was only the start.

Both of his eyes looked like the eyes of a dead fish, dark green glass marbles that didn’t truly see the world. His body too was covered in terrible burns. It looked like he’d taken at least six of the brewmaster’s magical blasts.

How the hell… I thought he was a physical fighter like me, but his arcane must be at least double what mine is if not more to have survived those magical attacks.

Eve didn’t understand how he could still be breathing, yet he was. She could hear his raspy breaths as the healing pill did its work. The lines of venom slowly disappeared from his face and one of his eyes returned to normal.

Eve looked over to see Phil, still sitting at the crafting station, also staring at Devon in wonder. She rushed over to him and embraced him in a big hug, “I’m so glad you’re okay! I was so worried when I couldn’t find you after we got separated. Did that freak hurt you at all?”

Phil patted her on the back, “It’s all right, I’m perfectly fine. I was a bit worried about you at first as well, but then I remembered who I was dealing with. Still… I never expected this of him…” Phil trailed off, looking toward Devon.

“Yeah, I didn’t either honestly. Also, mind if I ask how you know him? I met him briefly before we all wound up here, but I didn’t think you were the sort to consult with such a shady person.”

Phil gave a boisterous laugh, “Is that how you see him? Dear, I’m sure he’s just doing his best to adapt like everyone else. He was a regular, then I started giving him a discount after he helped me sort out my finances and some other affairs. I really didn’t expect such a brainiac to adapt this well to this place, but I guess you can never tell a book by its cover, eh?”

“No, I guess you can’t…” Eve muttered. Despite Phil’s praise of the man, Eve still couldn’t shake this feeling she had about Devon. It constantly felt like he viewed everything and everyone around him as pieces to be used, and she hated the sort of people who viewed the world with that mentality. She wasn’t someone’s toy to be used, period.

There was also the matter of his abnormal strength. Trey had informed her that Devon had a mere common class, so there was no way he should even have a chance of being anywhere near her level of power, and yet he was.

But the way he allocated his stats was extremely weird. Everybody she’d met, including herself, had chosen to specialize in something, to find their own niche that could draw out their own special talents. But Devon was… a generalist. It felt like he had no specialty, instead building himself to be adaptable to any situation.

It was a valid path to strength, but Eve wondered how far it could truly take him.

As the final burns left behind by the brewmaster’s magical barrage faded from Devon's body the realm around them seemed to destabilize, and Eve felt herself ripped from that place.

***

Devon finally felt the effects of amplified adrenaline wear off as the rain of the world outside the spirit dungeon pattered onto his face. He opened his eyes and reveled in the clarity he could once again view the world in. He tried to look down at the damage his clothing had taken, but a muscle spasm caused him to cry out in pain.

“Hey, are you all right?” A voice called out. Even before registering the voice as male Devon knew it wasn’t Eve simply because the voice wasn’t stained in a thinly veiled layer of distaste.

“Oh, hey Phil,” Devon said weakly as he gingerly turned his head to look at the old man.

“Are you okay? Here, take a healing pill!”

“Already took one, and I don’t feel like passing out right now. It’s okay, I think all of my external injuries are gone, and I don’t feel the poison in my system anymore.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“I used a skill that had a lot more of a kick than I anticipated is all. I think the healing item’s effects ran out before they could heal my physical condition completely.”

Ah, what a horrible experience that was.

Even more than the excruciating pain of the poison he’d been infected with, the feeling of fighting under the effects of amplified Adrenaline was disturbing. Amplified boost had left him feeling sore after the stat increases faded away, but Adrenaline was a different beast entirely.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Where Boost directly increased his stats, amplified Adrenaline instead allowed him to ignore the warning signs that he was pushing his body far past its limits. Only now after the fight did he realize that he had been pushing himself hard enough that he’d literally been tearing his muscles apart to push beyond the limits of his strength.

Once again he looked down, and winced when he saw how damaged his nice new outfit was. The outer layer of leather defense was shot in three places where the magic missiles had struck his torso, but the metal defenses underneath had held true, preventing any damage to his chest or upper back. The same couldn’t be said for two spots around his midsection and one on his leg and another on his arm, where the projectiles had obliterated the outfit.

He sighed, realizing that he’d have to go and have it fixed. It had only taken half a day for him to become attached to the outfit, but it already felt like a piece of essential equipment.

“Aw, the pretty boy’s sad that his nice clothes got ruined,” Eve said mockingly from the side.

“Eve-!” Phil tried to shush her, but Devon's response was faster.

“At least I have the decency to wear clothes, instead of walking around looking like a stripper or a madwoman.”

Phil shook his head in exasperation at the two of them as they shared daggers at each other, “Why can’t you two just get along?”

“Ask her,” Devon said before turning his attention to the system prompts that were flashing before his vision.

[Ascension Quest Complete]

[Level up. Level 31 obtained.]

[Level up. Level 32 obtained.]

Clear – Class E Spirit Dungeon [Brewmaster’s Dream]

Calculating performance… Done.

Applying performance reduction for only meeting alternate clear conditions… Done.

Dual clear conditions achieved, boosting performance... Done.

Performance Rating: B

Contribution: 45%

Tailoring B-Grade Reward based on Contribution… Done.

Reward added to Inventory.

Devon quickly switched over to his inventory tab to see what the system had given him this time. Unlike before, when he had cleared the memory dungeon alone, he had a contribution score this time. The system also said that both clear conditions had been achieved, which must mean that the final shockwave he had felt within the spirit dungeon had been Eve breaking the tree.

It was good to know that the system penalized clearing spirit dungeons using alternate win conditions and that if a dungeon had two different clear conditions they could be done together to boost the reward.

Devon smiled when he saw what the system had given him. It was almost as good as the amplification gem it had given him last time.

[Spell Enhancement Token]

Select F-Grade spell will be permanently boosted to E-Grade.

So it’s making me follow along the pattern of upgrading all of the basics, huh?

Despite the token’s extreme value, Devon still knew it was definitely not as good as the amplification gem. Even if the effect was permanent, the gem's value still exceeded it by a lot.

The first drawback was the type limitation. The amplification gem could be used on either skills or magics, while this token could only be used on magic.

The gem also had the advantage of being extremely tailored to Devon's style of adapting to the situation because he could amp what he needed for any given scenario. Once he used the token he’d be locking his choice in permanently, and he’d have to live with the results of that choice, even if he didn’t always need that spell.

Still, between the levels gained and the token the dungeon definitely hadn’t been a waste of time. Not that it would have been a waste of time even without those things.

Task [Clear Spirit Dungeon] complete.

No other immediate tasks auto-generated, but the plot didn’t resolve itself immediately. Most likely the system was waiting to be absolutely sure that the main objective had been achieved before resolving.

“Hey, what did the system give you?” Eve asked, eyeing him.

“I dunno, what’d it give you?” He shot back.

“Oh, would you two knock it off?” Phil said, annoyed, “Come on, the both of you, let’s get back to town before we all get hypothermia standing out in the blasted rain.”

Phil started leading them back in the direction of the camp. His annoyance at their bickering seemed to have completely outweighed any stress the dungeon might have caused him, which was good. Eve and Devon wordlessly fell in behind him.

Eve eyed him from the side, seeming like she wanted to accuse him of something else, but not enough that she wanted to get on Phil’s nerves any more than she already had.

After a few minutes of the uncomfortable staring Devon finally asked, “What?”

Eve visibly recoiled, and Devon shot her a bewildered glance. She looked away and scowled before saying, “Thanks.”

“Huh?”

“I said thanks, you insufferable twat.”

Devon looked at her like she’d lost her mind. Never in his life had he heard a less sincere thank you, and it was made worse by the fact that she insulted and scowled at him as she did it.

“Look,” She said, “I don’t like you, and working with you makes me feel like I’m working with a villain, but if it wasn’t for you then I never would have been able to find that place or get Phil back. So, thanks.”

“Sure. But-“

“I know. You want me to be useful or whatever, right? You’re not the type of person who’d do anything for free. So what do you want me to do, go help out your busy boy playing leader or something?”

Devon was about to say yes and launch into the ways he wanted her to act as someone to inspire more people to work harder on growing stronger back at Plainstown, but a thought stopped him from saying anything.

His conversation with Nix had taught him a lot about the situation of all the people within the tutorial. Was prodding the people of Plainstown to grow stronger really going to have the desired effect? It seemed almost as likely that it would just make them burrow into their old-world mentality and try to shut everything else out now that their basic needs for survival had been met.

He still didn’t think it would be a good idea to tell anyone about the threat of the overseers in case a mass panic broke out. He could even see some people losing hope entirely in the face of the threat they presented.

No, he needed a way to make them work toward the end result he desired without them realizing they were working toward it.

“For now just go back to getting stronger,” Devon said after a minute.

“That’s it? I figured you were going to try to make me your lackey.”

“What’s the point of hiring a bucking bronco when you need a plow horse? It’ll just mess everything up.”

“Heh.”

He had expected her to take it as an insult, but she seemed amused instead. Truly, he would likely never understand what went on inside this woman’s head.

“I still think the idea that you can do everything on your own is foolish in the extreme, but I can’t deny that we need a powerhouse to rely on when things go down. If I distract you with things you aren’t good at then it’ll just be detrimental in the end.”

“Sounds good to me. Just don’t go calling on me for something stupid whenever you need something trivial done.”

“Yeah yeah, I know.”

Plot [Refocus a Powerful Warrior] complete.

Calculating resulting Karmic Influence… Done.

Minimal Karmic Influence.

Calculating difficulty… Done.

Complexity set at Normal+.

Factoring Plot Karmic Influence and Difficulty into reward… Done.

[Refocus a Powerful Warrior] added to Completed plots.

[Cursed Schemer] has reached Level 3.

Skill [Jammer] learned.

Jammer? No, before that I want to see the bonus it gave me.

[Refocus a Powerful Warrior] - Cleared

Karmic Influence: Minimal.

Complexity: Normal+

Time investment: 7 Hours

Reward: All stats +5

Five points in all his stats was starting to not seem like a ton, but it was at least like an additional level he’d gained out of the endeavor.

Now then…