Dren made it back to the boss's room not long after. Not as quickly as he had left it. But he was still in a hurry. While Jen’s body wasn’t going anywhere he didn’t want to leave it sitting right at the dungeon entrance too long. What if someone else came by or exited the dungeon to find it? Snatching up the backpack full of animal parts he went to Mike first. He found the defender’s pouch mostly empty of potions. Having only a single stamina potion left. But it did have half a dozen survival biscuits. Dren took them and considered the defender's gear. The armor would be too heavy for him, giving him more penalties than it would be worth. Same for the shield. But his sword was more akin to a wide-bladed short sword than a long sword. He worked the buckle of the sheath from the fighter's belt and put the sheathed weapon in the backpack.

Next, he went to the troll and leveraging all his strength attributes managed to shift it enough to retrieve his dagger. Only to find that the handle had cracked down the middle leaving it basically useless. Angry at wasting time to retrieve a broken weapon he kicked the thing before moving to loot the mage. Her wand was tossed into his backpack and her pouch emptied. This time she had four of her original stamina potions but none of the others. But another half a dozen survival biscuits were added to his others.

Finally, he looked at the blood-splattered chest. Dungeon loot had been mentioned but only briefly. That items would be provided to the party once the boss was cleared. Touching the chest a message popped up.

Forest Lair Dungeon (3) Cleared. Party Size Four. Four Reward Items Allotted.

Calculating Rewards

Loot Pools Selected.

Assassin

Enchanter

…

…

…

No other loot pools were allocated.

With that final message. The chest opened up. Inside were four items.

A set of dark leather bracers.

A dagger.

A small mostly flat stone with something carved on it.

Then finally a scroll.

While Dren felt a sense of urgency, there was always time for loot, right?

Picking up the bracers he used identify.

Troll Hide Bracers.

Provides a minor amount of defense to the forearms of the wielders. Passively enhances regeneration. Allows critical wounds to begin healing instantly instead of healing only after fully healed. Critical wounds take additional health points to heal but slowly recover as health increases. They are fully healed when health is completely restored as normal.

Dren nodded. That would mean a broken arm could begin healing even if his health wasn’t fully topped off. In a long fight, as long as he continued to gain health he could recover a critical injury without needing to wait until fully healed. Very similar to how the wounded troll continued to restore vital organs such as its eyes. Dren didn’t even hesitate to put them on before grabbing the dagger.

Dagger of Life Bane

Wounds inflicted by this dagger are harder to heal.

The description was much shorter on this one but it didn’t need more. Its effects were quite clear and were the kind of reward that was annoying. As its best use would be on the very enemy they had to defeat to gain it. Still, Dren remembered one could run this dungeon daily. So, it might still be good in the future.

Next, he picked up the odd flat stone.

Lesser Rune of Explosion.

Can be consumed by an enchanter to learn the lesser rune of explosion.

Dren just activated it and let it crumble to dust in his hand. There was no reason not to learn it. Finally, he picked up the scroll and used identity.

Skill Scroll: Enchanter (Item Refinement)

Can be consumed by an enchanter to gain the Item Refinement skill. Allows the enchanter to refine an item prior to enchanting. Increasing the item's mana capacity by refining the mana network within it.

Dren raised his eyebrows at that. It sounded amazing for sure and crumbled to dust in his hands as he activated it. With everything taken care of, he turned to leave the boss's room. Going thru his notifications as he jogged down the tunnel. Starting with the most recent.

Skill gained: Enchanter (Item Refinement)

New rune acquired: Lesser Rune of Explosion

Congratulations! You are now level six.

Quest complete: A Betrayal Most Foul

Unique Skill Acquired: Betrayer

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Dungeon Boss Slain. Dungeon completed during first run bonus given.

Dungeon competency increased by ten percent.

Life Surge activated. Eight hundred health restored. You gained the Deathless trait.

Dren frowned at that one. He was tempted to check his status as he had a number of things to review but continued on to the other notices.

Your health has been reduced to zero. You have died.

“Shit. That is right. My Life Surge ability auto activates at zero health. I guess that still counts as dying.”

Of the notifications that was the last one. He started to open his status screen but stopped as the exit was in sight. As he stepped into the line marking the exit he was instantly teleported outside. Glancing around he expected to find Jen’s body but instead found nothing. With a frown and a sinking feeling, he looked around finding no one else.

“Shit. Someone must have found her body. Fuck Fuck FUUUUCK.” He screamed as he stomped his foot. Now he was going to have an even harder time explaining what happened.

“Maybe they won’t suspect anything. I’ll just go with my original idea and tell them the others all died fighting the boss.” With a final sigh, he started moving back toward town.

*****

Your health has been reduced to zero. You have died.

Life Surge activated. Eight hundred forty health restored. You gained the Deathless trait.

Jen gasped as her severed throat instantly healed. Even the dagger in her back was expelled by the sudden explosive burst of healing. She had taken the Life affinity thinking it would help her heal better. Instead, she got two vitality every level for both her class and profession. Combined with the starting ten she had forty-two and with her one hundred percent modifier gave her a staggering eight hundred and forty health. Almost as much as the pure vitality-stacked defender Mike had. Although she lacked his toughness to help reduce damage.

More importantly, the active and semi-passive ability it came with seemed to have saved her life from that traitorous bastard Jeremy. Remembering the deadly assassin she rolled over and scrambled to her feet. She faced the dungeon exit and found she was holding the dagger that had been stabbed into her back. For several long seconds, she waited, intent on at least landing one blow on them when they emerged. But no one came. Realizing she had a chance to escape she turned and ran. She needed to get back to the town and warn them about the assassin. She was certain he would return and while she might be higher level. There was no way she could defeat that monster alone.

*****

Dren was taking his time on the way back. Partially because he still needed to finish recovering his stamina. Partially because he was trying to come up with a solid plan for what to tell the town. His original plan had been to kill them all. Declare that the party had wiped against the dungeon boss. Then hope he could repeat the process at least once more. His native killer quest was only at five of ten. One more party would get him to eight of ten at least.

While he walked he went ahead and checked a few of the other rewards he had gotten.

His betrayer skill turned out to be a passive skill that gave him twenty-five percent more experience from killing natives. Dren wasn’t exactly happy with it. But considering killing the three of them had taken him from five to six in a single go. Without the bonus, it was probably good in the long run.

Dungeon competency was a previously hidden stat. It increased experience gains and loot within a dungeon by ten percent. It seemed implied that if he continued to clear dungeons on the first try, he could increase it. Dren wondered if some of the natives had it. He figured there must be some that did. But Jen hadn’t mentioned it. Were those that did hiding it to keep their advantage over others? Dren figured that was the case. It sounded like something people would do.

Deathless turned out to be another percentile experience booster.

Trait: Deathless

You have died, yet still live. Learn from your failures and make the most of this second life.

All experience gains increased by ten percent.

Dren blinked in shock. That was a pretty massive bonus. He wondered idly how else one might get such a trait other than the life affinity. It definitely made that one affinity exceptionally strong.

By hitting level five he had unlocked a skill.

Active: Battle Focus

Hone all your senses and push your focus to the limit. Greatly increases perception, reaction time, and heightens mental skills such as Assassin’s eyes. Mana drain moderate.

When he tested it out it seemed to push him into that almost tunnel-visioned state that he had been in during the last bit of the troll fight. It was an instant switch instead of needing to ramp up to that stage. Dren thought it a powerful ability even if he did get the feeling it scaled with intelligence. Then he shrugged. He would get plenty from enchanting. When he tested it out, it did just as he expected. Instantly putting him into that strange state. The mana consumption was labeled moderate but he figured even at full mana he would only last a few minutes at very most right now.

The final thing he gained was the upgrade to his wolf in sheep’s clothing skill. The upgrade allowed him to mask his status or by spending some additional mana he could alter what it showed. So instead of just giving back question marks. It would give whatever class and profession as well as levels that he wanted. While just not being identifiable could in some cases be useful. The idea of basically being able to give people a completely false set of classes and levels could be far better. He really wished he hadn’t traded away his bow now.

He had also gotten three levels while in that dungeon. One before the boss. One for the boss. And finally one for killing the three natives. Overall it had been a very profitable run. He almost looked forward to the next one.

Closing his menu he looked around. His stamina had fully filled long ago. After hitting level six he now had twenty-eight in spirit and all his resources seemed to regenerate much faster out of combat. Movement caught his attention as up ahead someone moved into view. No, not just one person but a small group. There seemed to be five of them and considering the direction they moved. Dren assumed they were moving toward the dungeon. Moving forward he started to shift into acting out his preplanned panicked state when he froze. One of the five he recognized, and it was clear they recognized him. Jen’s angry hate-filled glare burned into him.

“Charles. That is him!” The woman practically shouted while pointing Dren’s own dagger at him.

Turning to identify the large man in a defender’s chain hauberk that Dren assumed was Charles he frowned.

Human (N)

Defender (10)

Stone Cutter (5)

Dren blanched some. He had thought his level six class and level five profession were decent. But this guy had four class levels on him. More importantly, it seemed they weren’t going to be caught off guard nor were they alone. A quick glance showed that the other three he didn’t know were all similarly leveled.

Human(N)

Mage (9)

Tailor (6)

Human (N)

Healer (10)

Alchemist (2)

Human (N)

Archer (9)

Wood Carver (3)

“You fucking psycho. You killed my cousin.” The defender Charles roared and charged forward.