Dren checked his status menu in annoyance the moment the boss died. Missing was the expected and almost demanded level up message showing he had finally hit level fifteen. His eye twitched in annoyance even if the fight had gone impossibly smooth. Knowing what the boss would do had made a big difference. He was certain that the fight would have been easy, even if the witch hadn’t been there to help. The ring he had acquired last time was the perfect counter. Not only did it allow him to easily shield them all from the rain of wind blades. Once he realized he could shape the barrier to enclose the fly and more importantly his own explosive daggers. Well, it was a foregone conclusion.

That said, they probably hadn’t needed the barrier to protect them from the windblade rain. At level twenty Meg had gained the spell Curse of Weakness which seemed to halve the damage output of a target. Combined with her other curses and Ren wrapping the boss in her shredding cocoon to wear away at its own barrier the boss was already in a bad spot. Then he had enclosed it in a barrier made with his ring, along with half a dozen explosive knives. It hadn’t killed the thing outright but it did disrupt its massive spells and set it up for the perfect finishing blow. Curses apparently made a perfect combination to his own skill set. He was tough enough to play the tank role while having extremely high damage. His own real issue was his lack of debuffs and controls for enemies he couldn’t just outright kill. His enchants offered him some of this, but they required him to land attacks with them. Another issue was one that had defenses that prevented him from dealing damage at all. Even the wide area blasts of his daggers were of little use against a target able to avoid them with sheer speed. Or possessed defensive abilities like the invisible sphere of wind that protected the boss from direct attacks.

Apparently, a witch’s curse had no problems with these issues. They weren’t avoidable projectiles or blockable by barriers. They could only be resisted by the target’s intelligence. Similarly, his mana fueled Blood Drenched Aura’s effects. Her killing curse was resisted by Spirit and to some extent Toughness similar to his health fueled aura effect. Both weren’t really primary attributes for many classes, making her particularly strong against physical focused classes. Whereas most of those she would be weak against were the type of targets Dren was particularly strong against. Making them a good combination.

Which had allowed them to crush the dungeon in the span of a little over a day, a terrifyingly good pace. Bringing him up to level fourteen. With so little time spent crafting he had only managed to get his enchanting to level eight and no more gains to his leatherworking. Most of that enchanting experience had been from using his available rune selection to pick the Rune of Agony and start imbuing materials for Meg’s fetish crafting. It meant she had to start over but it appeared as if she would be able to create a particularly powerful fetish even before he enchanted it. Once enchanted, it sounded to Dren like it would be a real terror, literally.

It turned out that Meg had never done a single dungeon. She didn’t go into details but apparently, she had about as good of an outcome with her first attempt at partying as he had. However, he got the feeling the system hadn’t demanded the outcome. As for the monster surges she had done much as Dren did for the first one. She stayed safe in a dungeon even though she was unable to clear it alone. As for her leveling up to this point, she made it bluntly clear that almost all her levels were from killing other natives. Ones she claimed deserved to die. Dren almost asked what gave her the right to make that judgment, but a haunted look in her eyes made him think he didn’t want to know.

Dren wasn’t too surprised by the degradation of civilization on a planet after integration. Particularly as he learned a bit more about Earth from the Witch. She described it as a world that pretended to have evolved past open violence and was filled with the illusion of peace. Where acts of cruelty against each other were persecuted in public but still committed behind closed doors. While he got the feeling her views were badly skewed, it sounded like the type of world that when it got suddenly pushed into an extreme case of might makes right and survival of the fittest, would devolve. The system bred conflict and created a world where the strong got stronger while the weak were crushed underfoot as stepping stones after all. She talked as if for every person attempting to hold on to their mask of humanity, there were two others basking in their own power and depravity. Again, he felt she might be a little biased, but they had met while she was being attacked by a group of murderers, or Reds as she called them.

Pushing away his meandering thoughts on the effect the system’s introduction had on the natives he checked Ren’s status and sighed disappointed again. She had reached level twenty four between the dungeon kill experience and her skill gains. Falling just short of a potential evolution. Grumbling he moved over to open the dungeon chest. Meg hadn’t moved towards it but just seemed to mill around waiting for orders from him. It really was like having a second Ren around, even if she would talk when questioned. It kind of annoyed him.

Checking the message he wasn’t surprised to see it list Meg’s profession and class being added to the pool. They did get a bonus loot but only one as he didn’t have more than a hundred percent chance without his solo bonus. Something he grumbled about while the loot was calculated. He then wondered if their dungeon competency was added together. Meg had confirmed she had gained the ten percent bonus for clearing a dungeon on her first attempt. He asked her if she had known about it beforehand but she hadn’t. He wasn’t sure if her antisocial nature meant she just hadn’t gotten the chance or if people were keeping it secret. He felt it might be the second, as his few bits of interaction with the natives about dungeons had revealed that it still seemed common for people to push to a boss and then leave. Or make small attempts at them before retreating, thus being locked out of the boss fight for that run. At the very least it was unusual for a group to clear a dungeon on the first run. The idea of spending days inside a dungeon while clearing it seemed like a strange idea to the natives, as if it was necessary to leave a dungeon to rest. Considering Dren considered dungeons his safe space, their beliefs had seemed crazy to him. Most likely, it was a secret being kept by the elites to keep an edge over the rabble so to speak.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Peeking into the chest he found the rewards rather, disappointing. There was a tool for Fetish crafting that was obviously meant for Meg. A new pot for cooking that would go to Ren. It didn’t do much, just would keep food warm in it indefinitely. Which was of little use with their storage pouches. Finally, a thousand credits were divided between the party members. Since he got five hundred, it appeared just like for solo bonus, Ren didn’t count. He was grumbling about the shitty rewards as his avarice had him eager to get something useful for himself when he paused staring at his credit count.

Credits:32,698

When had he gotten so many credits again? Then it dawned on him. He got all the credits from the natives he killed. It seemed that just shy of a dozen natives had netted him a little over twenty five thousand credits. Dren grinned excited at seeing the number. It then morphed into a look of annoyance. “But I can’t use the credits without accessing a Haven.” Still, grumbling he reminded himself he would soon be back in the Necropolis for some business. He could nip by the pylon and do a bit of shopping again before he left. If it was still standing when he was done.

All three of them had just started to settle down when a notification popped up. It announced the next Monster Surge would be happening in fourty eight hours. Dren’s eyes lit up as an idea flooded him. A Monster Surge would be the perfect time to attack the Necropolis and deal with the Seer once and for all. They could make it to the Necropolis with plenty of time to do some basic scouting and infiltration before the big events started. Sadly, he would have to cut his grinding session short, again. But he didn’t want to wait another two weeks for the next one. He wanted to have the cloud that was the Seer’s meddling gone from over his head.

Packing up quickly they exited the dungeon, Dren and Ren going first in stealth in case there was an ambush waiting. Yet, just like the last time, there was no one waiting for them. Sending Ren ahead to scout they started making their way straight for the Necropolis. Dren went over everything he knew of the city and found out that Meg had never even been inside it. She had only seen it from outside before going around the town as her status had already been red then. It seemed it would eventually go away if she refrained from attacking or killing another native unprovoked. But she had nearly two weeks left to go.

Night fell and they continued along, the faint starlight providing more than enough light for their system enhanced eyesight. Ren appeared like a ghost several times with nothing to report and the travel was easy. Until the night was more than half over and the silent darkness was ripped apart by a thunderous boom. Flames flashed and flooded the night with enough light that it left glowing splotches in Dren’s vision. A second and then a third explosion detonated, each feeling as powerful as one of his best explosive throwing knives. Dren let out a snarl, as the blasts were coming from the direction they had been headed and just about the distance Ren scouted ahead. Activating his Battle Focus he rushed ahead leaving Meg behind without a care, she already knew her role. Between his raw speed and teleportation, he covered a tremendous distance in what seemed like an instant.

Appearing out of nowhere near the sight of the blast, he took a single step forward before he had to twist his body to avoid an attack. A projectile flew past him so fast he barely had time to react and hadn’t been able to even identify it. As he dodged the night lit up as the top of an entire tree was torn apart in an explosion of force and fire. He caught a glimpse of Ren as she leapt from the tree, avoiding the explosion by a tiny margin. The source was a man holding a strange metal weapon to his shoulder. The round metal barrel end glowed and smoke rose from it as they let out a loud curse before pumping part of it with a distinctive loud mechanical sound.

Dren's hand was already moving even as his boosted focus processed the other figures revealed in that burst of light. Some had clearly seen him as if the attack before hadn’t confirmed it. Not caring one bit he flung a dagger from his bandolier, the shiny burnished copper looking blade already tingling beneath his fingers. As it shot forth he started rapidly multiplying it. The night became day as trees burst into flame from the heat given off by his attack before they were blasted apart by the shockwave. Dren hadn’t held back, enraged at someone attacking his Ren.

Yet, as the blast cleared leaving only the smoldering light of the burning forest around him, he could see figures standing unharmed. A translucent shield shimmered in the air between them. Narrowing his eyes Dren used identify to confirm what he already knew.

Human (N)

Class: Aegies Level Six

Profession: Stone Carver Level twenty six

“I remember you.” Dren spoke, his voice carrying a growl so low it almost sounded like a purr. “You are on my list.”

The shield being projected from the evolved defender retracted and they gave him a fierce glare back. “I be remembering you too.” They spoke before charging while others made moves of their own.

Despite feeling a wave of pressure crash against him as the hostile attention of the natives in front of him settled fully on himself, he pushed his Battle Focus skill harder. Force feeding it mana instead of just letting the small trickle that flowed into it normally continue. This was something he had continued experimenting with. Not only did doing so allow him to push the strength of an ability, particularly ones that ran continuously like Battle Focus, to greater heights. It had rapidly increased the rate of his skills ranking up.

His perception of time slowed slightly as his eyes darted from the defender to the six other natives with him. To his surprise, his identify revealed that each of them had a rare class. Most of them were roughly the same level as the Aegis. But there was a single stand out, a level twenty native. Despite being faced with more than half a dozen rare or evolved class holders, Dren just smirked and his mask changed to turn that confident smirk into something terrifying. “Really, you couldn’t have brought two more rare class holders? I do have a quest to complete you know.”