Sitting back on the ground of the grassy clearing, clad in his new breastplate, Magnus expanded the two Skills he would choose from to upgrade [Vicious Blow].

[Please choose the Upgrade]

[Heavy Blows]

Passively empowers the user’s every attack at no additional stamina cost.

[Devastating Blow]

Use stamina to greatly empower your next attack.

The descriptions were much shorter than he expected. Well, it was probably better than if the Skills were needlessly complicated. There was beauty in simplicity after all. Reading the descriptions again, he already knew which of the Skills he was leaning more into. The Skills seemed like complete opposites. While [Heavy Blows] looked more suited to people who didn’t specialize in Endurance as much as him, [Devastating Blow] which was a much more direct upgrade to [Vicious Blow] was almost suited for Magnus who had yet to find the limits of his stamina in a fight. He could easily see why someone would pick [Heavy Blows] over his choice. For example, someone who specialized more in Agility and didn’t have as much stamina as Magnus at their disposal would find [Heavy Blows] much more desirable. Nevertheless, his mind was already set and he mentally confirmed his selection of [Devastating Blow].

[Selection confirmed]

[Commencing Skill upgrade]

Most of the time, when receiving new Skills, Magnus didn’t feel anything happening. Upgrading Skills turned out to be different. A feeling. As if someone was writing with a pen on his Soul. No, not writing. Rewriting, changing, refining. He wouldn’t describe the feeling as very pleasant. Having the stuff of your Soul itself rewritten. But what was a little discomfort in the face of the upgrade it would provide. The feeling didn’t last very long. Only a few seconds at most. Whoever, whatever directed his upgrade was a master of their craft. After what he suspected to be the System or someone associated with, retracted their pen and the metaphysical ink started setting in, another unfamiliar sensation blossomed inside Magnus’ chest. Responding to the modifications to his Soul the upgrade brought with it, something changed inside his core, but try as he might Magnus couldn’t make out any changes. Even activating [Mana Perception] proved no help and after a minute of searching for something, he gave up. Maybe the answers would make themselves clear with time when he upgraded [Mana Perception] or gained another Skill.

With that done it was time to go. He was getting quite annoyed with looking at this clearing where Curt’s wooden corpse still laid. Even if Magnus logically knew he shouldn’t be getting sad over a spawn’s death, it was still hard not to think about his sacrifice. Still, who knew? Maybe Cardys could bring him back. The Ents were just pieces of her Soul after all.

Deciding to kill two birds with one stone Magnus set off into the middle of the underground forest where the small lake sat beneath the ever-glowing crystal. Cardys’ tree wasn’t too far from the lake after all and he was getting thirsty to boot. The long trek through the forest had Magnus thinking. Should he stay and clear the dungeon or should he leave now and return to the surface? On one hand the loot he received from the first boss seemed very useful but on the other, he was starting to miss the sun. And not having to slaughter his way through a forest to survive. But he had no idea if the surface even was safer than down here. Better the enemy you know after all. He could decide after resting for a bit and clearing his head. With thoughts about his future pushed to the sidelines his mind quickly turned to thoughts about the surface and what was going on. Hostyr mentioned that Earth apparently got fused with a bunch of planets. Frankly, Magnus couldn’t even imagine how that worked and what it brought. Hopefully the people up there didn’t have to contend with the kind of monsters he had to down there. Not everyone could adapt to this situation as well as him. Even he surprised himself how well he switched from wandering the streets to bashing in tree people’s heads.

When Magnus finally arrived at the lake and knelt down at the shore he looked down at the perfectly still water, his reflection clear on the surface. He looked even more disheveled than when he came here. His black hair past shoulder length, it was a wonder it had to yet get in the way of fighting. His beard was getting quite long as well. Oh, what he would do for a razor. Ultimately, it didn’t really matter now. It wasn’t as if he was going to a job interview. Were those even a thing anymore?

Not really caring about job interviews and such he bent down to drink from the lake. Drinking from running water would be better, but he was too lazy and pretty sure that diseases got covered by [Poison Resistance]. And if not, better to get something like disease resistance now than when it could do actual damage. The water tasted normal. What wasn’t normal was the subtle green glow at the bottom of the lake. He was pretty sure that wasn’t there before, but Magnus already had an inkling of where it came from. It was pretty hard to forget the vision of that dragon. Even now, just thinking about it brought goosebumps onto his skin. The green glow was probably the drop of blood the mysterious man sealed under the lake. And it was waking up. No wonder the Dryads got corrupted when the only source of water in this forest was contaminated with that. At least it felt like it lost most of its potency. If that wasn’t the case, Magnus doubted that anything would be left alive in the cave. Either way, there wasn’t anything he could do about that now. He could use the vial he still had stoved away in his pocket, but he suspected that getting closer to the source of corruption would be a lot more effective in cleansing it.

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

Not being so lazy anymore, Magnus shuffled over to one of the streams flowing into the lake. While, the water from the lake tasted normal enough, who knew what insidious things the blood exuded? Magnus still had to wash his wounds. Risking infection, even with [Poison Resistance] wasn’t something he should risk. The breastplate almost as if sensing his goal opened up its back and fell on the ground. Was he supposed to praise it or something? At the end, he just settled on a slight pat on its chest part. Magnus wasn’t sure if it felt that, but better have a happy piece of armor than an angry one. Getting out of his jacket and ratty T-shirt, he once again looked at his reflections. The wounds were already looking quite a lot better, but not healed by a long shot. His Vitality wasn’t yet high enough to heal severe wounds in minutes. If that was even possible. The scar collection he started was growing quite rapidly. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be a case anymore with how high he was pushing Endurance. He should probably start investing in other Stats as well soon.

Time to stop just sitting around and to go. Cardys was probably waiting for him to show up anytime now. She would start getting worried and Magnus couldn’t let that happen. Magnus was looking into the forest and preparing to go, when all hell broke loose. A clattering sounded out from the forest as if something was barreling through the forest. He knew that sound, he realized. From the time he got chased through the forest by the Broodmother’s guards. From where he stood, he could see the very treetops shake by the guards’ charge. There was only one place where the spiders would want to go. They probably sensed something change and were rushing to finish the job. After hurriedly putting on the breastplate he took off. What a coincidence that the second time he would meet Cardys would be violent again. To be frank, he was itching to get revenge on the annoying spider. He was a lot more powerful than the last time they met. It wouldn’t be just him running away this time.

Running faster than ever before, it wasn’t long in his run before he got a notification.

[Common Skill gained – Dash]

Continuously consume a small portion of stamina to run faster.

It seemed there was even a Skill for running. Neat.

By the time he arrived, he must have been running for only three minutes but the battle was already fully underway. Thankfully, even with his new Skill sucking out his stamina faster than he was useful, he arrived barely winded. The Ent spearman Caridus was singlehandedly holding off the giant guard while the rest of the Ents battled with the rest of the spiders. The spiders outnumbered the Ents three to one but with them being trees and all they were probably immune to their poison. Still, the battle wasn’t looking very good for the Ents. Perhaps if Cardys could empower one more Ent they would stand a chance but with the cooldown from Curt’s death. Thankfully, Magnus managed to arrive early.

Positioning himself so he could have a clear way to the oblivious guard spider locked in combat with Caridus, Magnus took off, pushing his newly gained Skill to the limit.

[Dash is now Level 2]

Ignoring the notification, Magnus clutched his trusty knife in his right hand. He wasn’t fighting against tough wood anymore, the spiders had soft flesh after all. Try as he might, some spiders still managed to notice his mad dash, but with them locked in a ferocious combat they could only hope in their cold hearts that their leader would survive this. Unfortunately for them, Magnus wouldn’t let that happen and readied his freshly upgraded [Devastating Blow]. Excited to witness its new power, he grasped the knife in both of his hands and jumped. The guard spider, distracted by a stab from Caridus didn’t manage to notice anything suspicious. Eight eyes and still oblivious. Boosted by his running start, Magnus managed to perfectly jump at the bike sized spider and with the momentum from the jump he plunged the knife deep into its neck, right between its thick armor plates. The power of [Devastating Blow] was… well, devastating. Even if he could feel its inefficiency with bladed weapons, it still managed to penetrate the knife up to its hilt. And with how thick even the spider’s normal skin was. Tearing the knife out, preparing for some resistance only a quiet stillness followed. Then a spray of blue-green blood hit him right in the face. He should have closed his mouth. The almost forgotten taste of spider flesh permeated in his mouth. Nevertheless, even the most disgusting flavor couldn’t distract him from what he had done. A monster the same Level as him laid dead in one hit under him. Even the Spearman looked at him like he was a monster. That was one powerful Skill.

With the spiders’ leader dead, the weaker spiders lost their cool and went into a frenzy. Considering they were already lousy fighters while calm, being stupid arachnids or whatever, they only opened themselves up to attacks from the Ents. Now that Caridus was free from keeping the armored guard busy, it took no more than two minutes to clear the last of the spiders out. Magnus himself managed to snag three more kills. Apparently, that was enough for a Level-up. Even more unexpected was the notification that followed.

[You are now Level 10. 2 Stat Points gained.]

[Every 10 Levels, except Level 50 you receive an Attribute. Choose wisely for it will stay with you until you stand at the top.]

A list of what must be thousands if not tens of thousands of choices streamed into Magnus’ mind. How his Mind could handle such a load he had no idea. Cardys tried speaking to him thanking him for saving her yet again but Magnus sent her a mental shush.

“Very rude Magnus,” Cardys pouted.

The sassy tree would have to wait. There were some juicy options in here and Magnus didn’t need any distractions.