Bones popped and cracked as Dren stretched after waking up. “Ow.” He groaned, his stamina and mana had been fully restored after accidentally falling asleep. But his health was still down a fair amount, it seemed regenerating charred flesh was a bit harder. It didn’t help he had fallen asleep instead of sitting and properly using his restoration abilities. Beside him, Ren was curled up but her eyes followed him. While she never needed to sleep she seemed to have settled right up next to him while recovering. She wasn’t fully healed either, though only the burns remained. Her armor was tattered and he glanced down to find his was the same. Including his cloak as it had started showing the wear of his constant battles. He really should have stored it away when the fighting started again. Luckily it only had a few singe marks, the fire resistance provided by his mask having helped protect all his gear.

Thinking about that he shivered at the thought of how badly he would have been burned without it. Plopping right back down next to Ren who silently sat up and started spinning thread he started to open his menu to check his pending messages. But paused to glance at his companion. “You can keep resting.” She looked up at him and just shook her head before focusing on her task again. He considered ordering her to rest but shrugged, if she felt she could work on her weaving he wouldn’t push it. Still, he kept one eye on her to make sure she wasn’t in too bad of shape still. Having not forgotten the fact she chose to shield him over herself. In the end, the struggling fly had been pelting both of them with the rain of wind blades. But only he had been shielded. Forcing himself to move on he opened his messages.

“Explosive resistance went up two ranks.” He chuckled then laughed harder. “I gained an actual fire resistance passive too. At rank two no less. Go me, totally on purpose. Grand strategy and all.” Dren glanced at Ren, she was ignoring him or at least acting like it. He saw her eye dart to glance at him before focusing on her weaving again. “Yeah yeah. I know. It was a stupid move. But in my defense, it sounded like a great idea at the time.” Ren again glanced at him more openly before pointedly going back to her weaving.

Giving a crooked grin under his mask he turned back to his menu. Both his dungeon and solo competency had gone up for killing the boss on his first run. It was well worth the time and effort to clear a dungeon on the first go. At least in his opinion, they were up to a hundred and thirty percent bonus experience and that meant guaranteed bonus loot too. For killing the boss he had also netted a single level, bringing him up to level eleven. Considering the boss was level forty two and he had been level ten, the amount of experience needed to level was just getting silly already. Still, his class provided a ton of attributes compared to a normal class. Not to mention he still had twenty four levels of basic Assassin worth of attributes.

There was another interesting level up. His Barrage skill had hit rank five, Dren didn’t normally pay much attention to his skills ranking up. Generally, the boost per rank was pretty minor unless they moved up a tier. But this appeared to be one that got a bonus at rank five. It reduced the cost of the first two duplicated blades. It didn’t say by how much so he would have to test it out. If it was some tiny percentage it was meh, but it could just as easily be a huge amount. It was hard to tell since it was a skill from his basic assassin class. They didn’t seem to scale as well as his Profane skills.

Done checking over his messages he moved towards the chest that sat in the bottom of the crater. Touching it he watched the message pop up.

Urnik Gardens Dungeon (32) Boss Cleared. Party Size One. Solo bonus to loot quality applied.

Prime Kill reward received for a first recorded boss kill.

Calculating Rewards

Loot Pools Selected.

Profane Blade

Profane Acolyte

…

…

…

Bonus loot pools were allocated.

Bonus Rewards count two.

“Oh yeah, that's the good stuff.” His voice rose a bit in extra surprise. “A second bonus loot? Mmmm, tasty.” Dren rubbed his hands together as he glanced into the chest. Everyone liked getting new things, but with each dungeon chest he looted his greed and excitement grew.

Inside the first thing he spotted was a strange fruit, just sitting at the bottom of the chest. Picking it up he identified it.

Prime Kill Reward: Heart Fruit.

Consuming this rare fruit will enhance the heart and lungs of the one to consume it. Permanently increasing stamina regeneration.

Dren blinked, all his prime rewards had been rather useful in the past. Ren being the very best of them. But this was the first consumable he’d seen that gave permanent bonuses. Well, maybe his tattoo but he thought of that as more of a piece of gear. Even if he couldn’t take it off. Still, it was just one of four items. Reaching back into the chest he pulled out a ring to examine it. Knotted braids of silver held intricately cut sapphires to form a ring.

Mana Barrier Ring: Produces a barrier of adjustable size around the wearer that consumes mana to absorb damage of all types. The efficiency of the absorption is based on the size of the barrier. Maximum efficiency while layering the skin of the wearer’s body is twenty to one. This ratio is tripled for pure magical attacks.

Dren frowned. It was a defensive item, which wasn’t all that bad but he wasn’t sure if it was for his class or profession. Still, like most rewards, it would have been great against the boss. Its low damage magical attacks would have truly fallen like rain against the barrier. Overall, it had been an interesting fight. The boss was unlike any he had faced, not relying on huge size and powerful attacks. Instead, it had been relatively weak once its magical defenses were down. But its strategy had been difficult to deal with. That whirlwind had been growing out and eventually would have squished everyone in the room between it and the wind wall. In fact, he figured the wind wall would have started shrinking eventually too. With its defenses making most projectile attacks impotent while flight naturally being a bane to melee. Dren wasn’t sure how a normal person would fight it, or even a group of people.

Perhaps magic users had something they could do? He hadn’t had many long fights with offensive casters. Their spells seemed to take too long to cast and were a bit weak. Especially compared to his new and improved explosive knives. Maybe he was just better off than most. His Assassin and then Profane Blade class gave him lots of single target burst damage. While his Enchanter and then Porfane Acolyte had given him plenty of area damage and versatility. Finally shrugging he reached into the chest to pull out two scrolls.

Scroll of Promotion: Primitive Leather Working > Novice Dread Leather Worker

Scroll of Promotion: Tailoring > Silk Tailor

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Dren blinked. These were new as well. When he identified them they gave little information. Only stating that the scrolls would allow one to advance their skill to the specialized one at a tier up. As best he could tell it was almost like a skill evolution, instead of going from primitive leather working to novice leather working he would instead go to this Dread Leather Worker sadly still at novice rank. Just like Ren could take the specialized silk tailor. The only problem was, it didn’t give him any information on either of these promotions. But if it was like evolving from a basic class to a rare one, the benefits should be huge.

“Here you go Ren.” He handed her the scroll. She stopped making silk and took the scroll to examine it. He saw a slight frown from her and remembered. “Ahh yeah. You haven’t really leveled your tailoring at all since making our underwear.” He rubbed his masked chin and then looked down at his arms. His leather armor was based on the original gambeson he had been provided and was sleeveless. It did overlap his shoulders some and his bracers covered most of his forearms. But his biceps had been exposed and were where he had suffered the majority of his burns.

“How about a shirt I can wear with my armor? With sleeves? We can imbue the silk first for durability and fire resistance! Then enchant it with everything we can. Then maybe some extra pairs of underclothes?” He ticked off on his finger ideas. “I could use new socks too now that I think about it, mine still have a hole in them from when I was testing that first day. Plus they are getting a bit raggity. And maybe a new cloak for both of us.” He held up his tattered cloak. “Or can you repair it?” Ren stood up to examine his cloak and seemed to hesitate for a long time before finally slowly shaking her head no.

“Is that a no as in never or no as in not right now?” He asked after noticing her hesitation. She paused before shrugging and giving him an apologetic look.

“Eh, no worries. If you can later great. If not, Just make me one even better!” He chuckled greedily while she looked unsure.

Checking his own skills he found that Primitive Leatherworking had made it to rank eight already. So just two more until he could advance. There was no shortage of materials in his storage, to the point he was actually getting a bit low on space. Grinding out that and more enchanting levels in the dungeon with the bonus was an option. It was his normal strategy, using the safety and experience bonus in the dungeon to grind until it closed. But at the same time. If they cleared the next dungeon it would provide another twenty percent bonus. Plus, he wanted to ensure he got the prime kill for that one too. He hadn’t been sure they would get this one since he knew Little Garden’s group had fought this boss before. Thinking back on the boss he wondered how they had engaged the boss and escaped without killing it. That wind wall blocked the exit. Maybe they brute forced their way out? Or had a way to counter the boss’s magic. But if they could counter it, why not finish it off?

Dren spent a few moments pondering the strategy of a normal dungeon party. His one experience had shown him that teamwork could make a big difference. But, that had been against a stupid brute of a boss monster. This one had been, tricky.

“Let’s go back to the entrance. We can do a little crafting until we finish healing. Then let’s head to that forty dungeon next. We can always craft in there as well if we want to.” Ren nodded and stood up, storing the cloth she had been working on.

*****

Once back at their little camp, Dren plopped down on the pile of hides he used as a seat before pulling out the Heart Fruit. “Can you cook with this?”

Ren was already crouching to start weaving more threads and looked up. She eyed the fruit and nodded but her expression was sour. “You can. But it won’t be better than if I just eat it?” Ren nodded and seemed relieved he had understood. “Fair enough.” Dren eyed the bright yellow fruit with bumpy almost spiky skin. It was too big to be considered a berry, but not by much. Still, Dren was pretty sure he could eat it in a single bit. A big bite but a single bite. He wasn’t sure if he needed to do so. But didn’t want to risk it. His mask drew back from his mouth to attach to the flesh around his lips, pulling them back to reveal far too many teeth in what looked like a vicious snarl. Opening his mouth he popped the yellow fruit into his mouth and started chewing as his mask resealed.

The taste was both sweet and citrusy. While being spicy like a pepper. It was rather juicy as he chewed the fleshy fruit but it left his mouth feeling almost dry as if it was sucking the moisture out. Dren felt a rather large pit rolling around within his mouth as he chewed. As he chewed he considered spitting it out before deciding it was best to just swallow it. Who knew if he had to consume it all to get the benefit? After a few moments of chewing he swallowed. It left his mouth tingling as if he had eaten a spicy pepper and the sensation flowed down his throat before spreading in his stomach. It rested there for a moment before that sensation slowly spread up his chest. First gathering in his heart then spreading to his lungs. After that, the tingling just seemed to mill about doing nothing.

Frowning he checked his status and found nothing new, nor had any messages appeared. He was getting annoyed at the system not giving him any real measure of the benefits when his heart started racing. The tingling sensation grew in intensity until it felt like countless needles were piercing his heart. Needles that had first been heated to red hot. Clutching his chest he toppled over sideways while gasping. Ren stopped what she was doing to move over to his side. She crouched over him swaying slightly as she inspected his body with a worried look. Dren could only stare up at her, wide eyed while gasping. He felt like he couldn’t draw in any air at all. Ren worriedly started patting his head unable to do anything else to help.

As he gasped the burning stinging sensation spread from his heart into his lungs and his gasping grew more wild. If he thought he wasn’t able to breathe before, he might as well have been sucking in huge breaths of air. For an eternity he lay there in agony before the few seconds it actually lasted passed. Then the sensation retreated slowly from his lungs down into his heart. It raced faster pumping so intensely that his body turned red with the flush of blood and his veins bulged. Soon enough the sensation flowed down from his heart and back into his stomach. As quickly as it had come, the pain vanished.

Still gasping for breath Dren felt his heart trying to beat out of his chest and his whole body felt like it was an over-inflated balloon. Slowly his heart rate slowed down to normal, then even further to a very slow steady beat. Yet, it still felt like each beat sent blood roaring through his veins with surprising intensity. His breathing stabilized but he felt like each breath sucked in far more air. Sitting up he examined the message that had appeared.

“Stamina Regeneration increased by thirty percent.”

That wasn’t a minor improvement. Not at all. It was probably even worth the horrible experience. Dren glanced at Ren who was still crouched next to him, patting him on the head while looking both worried and relieved. “I’m O…” Dren started to reassure her but as he spoke he felt bile rushing up from his stomach. Hastily he turned and started puking up sticky black bile that reeked horribly. On his hands and knees, he groaned when his body stopped heaving and sucked in a foul tasting breath of air before willing his mask to filter the stench. To his surprise he fully recovered with just the second deep breath, no longer feeling winded despite the wild heaving. Looking down at the pool of sludge he made a face then frowned. Something was moving in that pool. Had he swallowed a bug at some point? No that wasn’t possible, his mask would have stopped it. Right? Right?

Squinting he eyed the moving bulge as it slid through the pool of putrid slime hoping that it wasn’t a bug but not knowing what else it could be. A few moments later it reached the edge of the pool and started sliding out of it. His frown deepened when the sticky sludge slid off it like water off an oiled cloth to reveal what looked like a seed. His eyes lit up with recognition, not a seed but a pit. A fruit pit. Well a fruit pit was still a seed, wasn’t it? Either way it was sliding across the ground… right towards the little fruit tree they had left out. It currently had several new fruits and nuts on it.

The glowing roots above seemed to count as sunlight to fuel its production of random fruits and nuts. Dren felt a rush of greed hit him as a theory formed. Picking up the slowly sliding pit he reached over and touched it to the pot. To his absolute joy, it was sucked into the pot and vanished. Eagerly he crouched over the plant not even paying the pool of sludge any more thought. “Gimmie another fruit.” Dren wasn’t sure eating a second one would help. But he was willing to try. The horrible experience washed away in a surge of greed. If nothing else he could feed it to Ren. For several long minutes, he sat crouched over the tree before blowing out an annoyed breath. Nothing had happened.

Finally sitting back down he decided it was best to get a little more work in before as he waited. Only for the moment, he pulled out his tools for the tree to give a slight pop as a fruit appeared. Turning in excitement he practically lunged for the tree only to frown as he plucked a banana off it. Using identify it was listed as just a normal banana. Eating it nothing happened. Annoyed he ate the peel even. Yet still nothing happened.

“Stupid tree. Getting my hopes up.” Dren growled.