The contents of the chest turned out to be a little lackluster than Magnus first expected. A small wooden badge and a corked vial of a light gray liquid which seemed to radiate a white light. He was hoping for a weapon or a piece of armor. Something that would give him an edge in battle. Not whatever these were. Even a seemingly useless breastplate seemed to save his life in this fight. Without big expectations he identified the piece of wooden badge first.

[Armor Upgrade Token] – Tier 0

Crafted by the True Ents unrelated to the Ents that are spawned by Dryads, this token fully repairs and upgrades any one piece of Tier 0 armor to Uncommon rarity. Due to the token’s origin the upgraded item may gain a property related to Nature. This item is consumed upon use.

Pleasantly surprised by the average looking item Magnus smiled. Just what he needed. It was kind of eerie that he received something he needed so much. Was the System watching and interacting with him? That was a terrifying thing to think about. Moving on a lot more content, he identified the second and last item in the chest.

[Diluted Essence of the Moon]

Distilled from the moonlight of the Prime Moon ?!?&!!#!# during its last quarter. While heavily diluted, the content of this vial still nevertheless possesses extreme purifying properties, able to cleanse even the most deep-rooted corruption. This particular vial will disappear if brought out of the dungeon Rotten Grove.

[Identify is now Level 3]

The vial turned out to be not so simple indeed. Reading over the description again, Magnus tried focusing on the piece of jumbled text. It was as if his Mind kept slipping when trying to read what was probably the moon’s name. Was it a property of the Prime Moon itself or the System’s doing? And what even was a Prime Moon? The questions only keep piling on. Never mind that, the answers would come themselves if he climbed high enough. At least Magnus hoped.

What really troubled him though, was the fact that the vial would disappear once it got taken out of the dungeon he was in right now. It must have a purpose in this dungeon then. What the purpose was, Magnus would learn soon enough. But the Level in [Identify] was quite welcome. The Skill was the slowest to level out of all his Skills. Slower than even his Uncommon Skills. Very peculiar indeed.

He tried to read the rest of his notifications when suddenly, the slowly depleting adrenaline let the numerous wounds covering his Body cry out in protest of Magnus’ continued existence as it trickled out. Letting out a groan of pain, he examined himself. And pretty unsurprisingly he didn’t look so swell. Thankfully, it didn’t look like he would bleed out today. Whatever day today was. He couldn’t quite remember what day it was anymore. Or how long he was here for that matter. The ever-shining crystal wasn’t very good for timekeeping.

Most of his wounds were concentrated on his abdomen, thanks to the breastplate blocking most of the fragments going for his chest. If he didn’t have that that in the fight, he would most likely be dead now. He was excited to use the Upgrade Token on the breastplate considering that it helped him so much even in all of its rusty glory.

The arrows were quite a different story. The archer aimed at Magnus’ head at first but it soon realized that it couldn’t hit him no matter how much it tried, so it switched its tactic, aiming for a bigger part of his body. Most of them missed, but with Magnus preoccupied with cutting the troublesome tree down some of them still managed to hit him even with [Danger Sense] warning him seconds before they hit. In fact, [Danger Sense] seemed to get better at anticipating the archer’s shots the more it shot at Magnus. Despite that, two arrows now sprouted from Magnus’ back and one from the side of his left thigh.

With his improved healing abilities, he was worried what would happen if he left them sticking out of him for too long. He would have to pull them out sooner than later. Grasping the thin arrow shaft stuck in his leg with both of his arms, he hesitated. He couldn’t do it. His unconscious mind wouldn’t let him do this even if he himself knew that it was the best thing to do. Getting an idea, Magnus let a specific notification flow into his Mind.

[You are now Level 9]

[You have gained 2 Stat Points]

Just as he expected. Somewhat reluctantly, he put the two Stat Points into Will. He hoped he wouldn’t come to regret this. But it was good to start branching out a bit with his Stats or he would become an Endurance junkie, wasting those precious Stat Points on Endurance. Without enough power he would just be a punching bag unable to retaliate in a meaningful way. Besides, he was satisfied with his current durability. Or so he told himself.

Those 2 Points in Will ended up being just what he needed for him to jump over the edge and he pulled out the arrow. It was as bad as he expected. Even with the increased Will probably dulling the pain it hurt like hell. The only positive was that he wouldn’t need to use one of his precious bandages for a wound like this. The arrow didn’t seem to hit any major artery so thanks to his pretty high Vitality the blood stopped flowing out after a minute or two. He was getting a little lightheaded though. While waiting for his lifeblood to stop trickling out Magnus examined the arrow he now held in one of his hands while his other one pushed down on the bleeding hole. The tip instead of being made out of metal or stone was instead made out of the same wood as the shaft. Touching the green fletching it felt like wood. So, it wasn’t from some bizarre green bird. That fact combined with the seamless look of the arrow made it seem almost like it was grown from a treed instead of made. He probably hit the nail on the head with that thought considering that the one what shot the arrow at him was a walking tree.

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

Carefully, he removed the rest of the arrows, set them down on the ground next to him, and brought out his trusty knife from his pocket. It was a minor miracle that he still hasn’t lost it in the many fights he has been in. Time to tackle the smaller fragments still hurting in his abdomen. Removing all the splinters cost him half an hour and what must have been a gallon of blood but he felt much better at the end. Relatively better.

After resting for another half hour, he shuffled over to where he dropped the ruined breastplate with the token and the vial in his pocket. It didn’t feel particularly safe to have it in his pocket but what could he do. Kneeling next to the breastplate, he realized the shield fragment that was stuck in it was already gone unlike the ones that were stuck in his torso. Maybe they fed on the mana in his Body. Who knows? He supposed that it only made his job easier. Reaching in the pocket of his tattered jacket, he pulled out the Upgrade Token and slowly brought it above the breastplate.

“Here goes nothing,” Magnus said aloud and let the Token touch the breastplate.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND….

Nothing. Did he get scammed by the item’s description?

Magnus tried again and again to no avail. Maybe he needed to do something to activate it. After sitting there and fruitlessly trying to upgrade the breastplate he remembered one of his new Skills. [Internal Mana Manipulation]. He didn’t have many opportunities to use this Skill yet but he knew it was the key to activating the Token. Calling on the Skill, it felt like a locked door opening a first time. A cool energy slowly trickled out of the middle of his chest. Instinctual knowledge that the Skill probably gave him let him know it was not a good idea to let the mana sit in one place for too long. So, he called on the Skill again, closed the metaphorical doors so he wouldn’t overwhelm himself with too much, and tried moving the mana still sitting next to what he suspected was next to his core. When his consciousness brushed against the mana it responded by exploding with movement. Surprised, he clamped down on the mana. It didn’t like that. Knowing what would come next, Magnus tried to guide it as far away from his chest but only managed to move it into his abdomen.

Unluckily, or maybe luckily for his life it arrived at the biggest of his wounds and rushed into it and out into the environment, aggravating the injury even more. Most of the mana touched the outside air and dissipated but some of it he could feel still stuck near his injury. Visually examining the injury, he saw as blue veins crisscrossing the area surrounding the wound. They were starting to itch pretty bad. Hopefully, they wouldn’t stay there for too long and wouldn’t escalate into something worse. The Skill didn’t seem to have the knowledge of how to fix them. Only time would tell what happened with them

Well. Time to try again. The Token still was still yet to be activated and the breastplate wouldn’t upgrade itself. On his second try, Magnus used as little mana as he could and carefully guided it without forcing it into his hand and out of his fingers holding the Token. The mana, as if a shark smelling a drop of blood in the ocean all flooded into the Token.

[Internal Mana Manipulation is now Level 2]

That would probably make it easier the next time he tried something like that. With the Token finally activated he brought the Token down on the breastplate for what was hopefully the last time. The Token, now touching the breastplate sprouted what looked like roots. Slowly expanding, they soon grew to cover the whole breastplate in wood, the Token disappearing into the bark. It was not the most beautiful thing. Frankly, Magnus hoped that it wasn’t as fragile as it looked. Identifying it, his worries alleviated somewhat.

[Living Breastplate - Uncommon] – Tier 0

Originally, an old but nevertheless trusty breastplate, this piece of armor has been upgraded by an Upgrade Token made by the True Ents. Infused by nature mana, this breastplate is more durable than many metals and gains the ability to regenerate when fed by mana.

By far the most intriguing part was the fact that this breastplate apparently regenerated when fed by mana. It also seemed to have grown in size a little, now covering even the top of his abdomen as well as his back. How did someone put the armor on though? Much like the arrows it seemed to be made of one piece of wood instead of interconnected parts, leaving seemingly no way to put the armor on. He nearly dropped it when it shuddered while he was picking it up. When Magnus thought things couldn’t get any weirder the armor opened up its back, inviting him to equip it. The breastplate was alive, which was obvious in hindsight, being in its name and all. Guess, he shouldn’t be surprised by the System anymore. There are walking tree-men why can’t armor be alive?

It fit him like a glove, but it was light. Lighter than even his previous breastplate. That was good. With his low Strength, he suspected it wouldn’t be ideal to have very heavy armor. If he couldn’t move it wouldn’t be any good. He hoped that it was more durable than its weight would indicate though. Satisfied with the armor and with his injuries tended to, he opened the rest of his notifications. There weren’t many left as it turned out, but they were juicy.

[Toughen is now Level 2]

[Vicious Blow is now Level 10]

[Vicious Blow has reached the max Level]

[As you are Tier 0. Assistance will be provided with the Skill upgrade. Please choose the upgrade.]

[Heavy Blows - Uncommon]

[Devastating Blow - Uncommon]

Raring to finally leave the clearing, he sighed and sat down. He had a choice to make.