The scouting party had left a few hours after Liz and Katie’s conversation, and to Katie’s great relief they had been given a couple packs of rations just in case they got lost out in the wilderness whilst searching for the dungeon’s monster population.

Katie almost found it funny that after weeks of the monster population willingly rushing towards them, it was now the raid party – and her in particular – who was now going out in search of them.

She honestly had no idea what had changed in the last few days that that had made all the monsters disappear and she was honestly curious to find out.

As the party that she was travelling with were all peak [Copper] rank experts, they covered ground quickly, and if they had encountered any monsters, she was pretty sure they could’ve killed a wave of thousands of monsters all by their lonesome.

So, the fact they had yet to encounter a single bird after 3 hours of searching was honestly starting to make her jittery as she had anticipated an epic battle to the death with the boss and its wave of minions, and she was being severely disappointed with every passing second of running through an empty desert of boring black sand.

Then, after a further 2 hours of running, they came upon it – an oasis, where a familiar giant bird stood on guard on the shore.

And, just like that, all party cohesion broke down and every member of the group simply began surging towards the [Bronze] rank with an eagerness in their eyes – even Katie was not immune to wanting to snipe this particular [Bronze] rank, surprising herself.

The giant monster, showing itself far superior to its minion, detected all of their approaches and it let out a hideous screech and it surged towards them in turn, and a mighty battle between man and man and man and beast began.

The first to fall dead was the adventurer whom Katie was pretty sure was called Joe – courtesy of a dagger that had mysteriously appeared in his back, probably from the person whom Katie was pretty sure was called Frank.

However, the first to hit the [Bronze] rank, that was Katie.

Every single one of her stats was at a ridiculous level for her current rank and so she was an incomparable in terms of her raw power to those within or around her current rank.

Plus, she had decades of combat experience from having lived her former life and combined with her OP starting stats, she could with all modesty say that she was currently a monster among monsters.

So, when her fist smashed into the skull of the beast, and she heard the cracking of bone – the last thing she had expected that sound to mean was that HER FIST had been broken by the monster’s metallic feathers. However, the pain that throbbed from her broken fists confirmed what she thought impossible, and her failure quickly led to her being unable to avoid being smashed by the [Bronze] rank monster’s beak sideways – flying for a few seconds before crashing hard against searing hot sand.

She recovered quickly, her body healing at a speed others could only dream of in the [Copper] rank, but now her fighting spirit had been fully activated – she lost control of herself, embracing the thrill of sheer, unadulterated violence.

With her in her battle mode, she no longer cared whether her enemy was human or monster, she delivered an uncompromising barrage of attacks on anything or anyone that even slightly hinted at wanting to battle or kill her.

She cast powerful magical spells that each hit the monstrous boss monster like meteors did planets – causing the giant tremendous pain and inflicting a heavy amount of damage.

Katie vaguely saw the other members of her party trying their best to inflict damage, but failing due to the monster’s unbelievable defences, and so she doubled her efforts in killing the beast.

Seeing that the [Bronze] rank was close to death thanks to her attacks, Katie unleashed her most powerful spell, and an explosion whose destructive power should not have been possible from a [Copper] ranked warrior barely old enough to wield the system was let loose, and it sent body parts, both human and monstrous, flying everywhere.

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Katie felt her mind relax as the dust cleared, and she saw the dead body of the [Bronze] rank laying in pieces not too far away.

Then, she felt killing intent from beside her, and swiftly dispatched of her would-be assassin with a punch to the head that sent their head flying away from their body.

However, almost immediately upon the man’s death, her mind was beset by poison and as she had let down her guard, the poison began to seep into every crack it could find, and her world began to swirl like a whirlpool and then all turned green, then red, then… cyan?

She swore she heard a man’s voice droning on and on about something nearby, but she was too busy trying to resist the poison that was trying to destroy her mind – but it seemed that the poison was no simple one and she cursed her bad luck.

Then, a flash of light appeared and then an explosion was unleashed right in front of her sending her flying backwards, and as she turned her head to look in the direction that the explosion had come from, she noticed a strange boy exiting the lake.

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Peter scrambled onto land as quickly as possible as he saw that though his [Mana Bolt] had charred Sadi’s body tremendously, he was still alive, and he was pretty sure that the man wanted to kill Peter like 5 seconds ago.

Peter forced himself to hold his ground as the man who had beaten him relentlessly all those times surged towards him at a speed that Peter could barely follow with his eyes, killing intent radiating off every pore of the man’s body.

However, unfortunately for Sadi, Peter’s [Combat Foresight] skill revealed the man’s feint for what it was, and before the man could quickly stab his knife into Peter’s throat – time froze all around Peter.

Then, after getting out of the way of the man’s attack, Peter released his time spell, and instantly readied a [Mana Bolt] and shot it directly ahead of the man’s path – subsequently hitting him directly in the face, exploding the man’s head on impact.

Peter dropped to his knees clutching his chest with his hands – otherwise he felt his chest might explode as his heart thundered away due to the adrenaline flooding his body.

He had just killed Sadi! His mind was racing as he realised what he had just done.

However, his minor heart attack was overshadowed almost instantly, as Katie began to radiate an aura that no [Copper] rank could – she had ascended, but Peter had already experienced far too much excitement immediately after waking up and he had to focus to keep himself breathing steadily.

Peter was aided a second or so later as a hand gripped his shoulder gently and soothing energy trickled into his soul. He looked around him, and upon looking up, he saw the androgynous face of Frank smiling down at him.

“Fancy seeing you here, kid.” The teen said, his gallows humour not in the least bit funny to Peter as of right now.

“It seems your friend has just ascended passed us plebs, huh?” The teen continued, and Peter was now starting to get the distinct impression the teen was using Peter as an excuse just to speak to himself.

That impression was confirmed when the teen said, in a low and not quite jokey tone, “Pat is really dead, huh?”

“First the rest of them, now Pat too. I guess I am all alone again.” Frank said, and Peter knew tears were streaming down the young man’s face.

Peter remained totally silent as he shakily got back up on to his feet and upon successfully doing so, he felt stable enough to read the ginormous system prompt that he, and every other member of the raid party, had just received.

DUNGEON CLEARED!

Cleared Dungeon Name: Hell’s Porch

Rank: [Copper+]

Type: [Apocalypse] [RAID]

Difficulty: [C+]

All Objectives Completed:

* Defeat [Bronze] ranked [Boss]: [1/1]

* Hidden Objectives/Treasures Claimed: [1/1]

Specific User Reward Generated:

3 x [1-Month Upgrade Time Reducer]

4 x [1-Week Upgrade Time Reducer]

10 x [6-hour Upgrade Time Reducer]

(Note: User Rewards are generated based on your contribution to the completion of the dungeon’s objectives.)

Would you like to exit the dungeon:

YES / NO

Peter almost couldn’t stop himself from laughing as he selected yes and a smile appeared on his face as he zipped out of the dungeon and appeared back standing alone in the outside world – standing right where the door to the dungeon had been but no longer was.

His smile didn’t fade, even as he saw everyone else pop out right next to him, and even as he realised that those who had tried to bury him alive were probably among those who had made it out of the dungeon safe and sound.

Regardless, he had left the dungeon fundamentally different from how he had gone in. He had changed dramatically, and in his view, it was all for the better.

He had gone in a slave afraid of his master but exited a liberated boy who’d slain their cruel and despicable master in direct combat, saving a useful ally.

He’d entered weak and afraid of pain, and through misery had tasted the first morsels of the true power that awaited him if only he reaches out and takes it for himself.

In short, he had entered Hell’s porch shackled and afraid, and came out free and powerful. And no one would ever take his freedom away from him again, and in time, those who had tried to do just that would get their dues paid to them.

His wrath was inevitable, and it would it come; All in good time.