Using the bear traps as practice targets for my bone spikes, I activated all the traps down the long tunnel. Once activated and closed, the traps were easy to walk around.

As we were walking, the earth shook and quaked for a moment. Once it had settled, we continued on. We came out into a wide-open mining area. There was a mine cart full of crystals.

There was even someone still mining. He was muttering to himself and with his back turned to us as he continued to pick away at a wall of crystals with his pickaxe.

There were dead miners all around him with puncture wounds in their chests. He had clearly killed them for some unknown reason.

"I'm not crazy!" He said. "Your mom is crazy! She's so crazy, she drinks tea on a Tuesday! Who does that?"

Instead of doing the dumb thing and calling out to this clearly insane man who doesn't believe in drinking tea on Tuesdays, I summoned three bone spikes and shot them at his back.

They stuck into him pretty deep but he seemed unfazed. He turned around and I could see crystals growing all over his face and the front of his body. He had a bunch of those yellow speed crystals and purple amplification crystals growing on him.

One moment he was across the room and the next, he was standing right in front of me. He pulled his pickaxe back and Abby and I dove out of the way. He brought the pickaxe down and when it hit the ground, a purple beam shot out of it in front of him, blasting a chunk out of a wall.

[You have discovered the Mini-Boss "Corrupted Miner Carl"]

His health bar shot across the bottom of my vision. I got up and began shooting spikes at him in threes. His health bar was slowly getting chipped away, but it wasn't fast enough.

He shot across the room again activating the speed crystals on his body and slammed the pickaxe down in front of me. A purple beam came out and slammed into me, sending me flying across the room into a wall. The front of my bone armor cracked and broke and then reformed.

'How am I not critting on this guy? How is he not evil?'

[He isn't evil. He's crazy. There's a difference]

'Great.'

Carl was pulling back his pickaxe to attack me again when a bubble went over his head. It shrunk to the size of his head, and he began to struggle to breathe.

I saw his health bar dropping but it was still quite slow, so I walked up to Carl who was just suffocating, and continuously fired spikes into his face over and over until he died.

That was the annoying thing about mini-bosses and bosses. You couldn't one-shot them. You had to whittle down their health to nothing.

"Thanks, Abby," I said.

"You're welcome," she said.

[You have leveled up! You are level 4!]

[You have gained the ability Giant Spike!]

[Giant Spike: It's a giant spike obviously, but it's also armor piercing]

[You have also gained the ability Bone Arsenal!]

[Bone Arsenal: Allows you to make high quality versions of any known melee weapon. You can reshape the weapon in your hand for quick switching between weapon types]

We looked around the area before moving on. Despite being crazy, Carl had mined the crap out of this area and there were a lot of valuable crystals to be had. I stuffed my packs with crystals and Abigail continued to load up her now giant bubble full of crystals.

Carl wouldn't have a core inside him, even if I had the stomach to cut him open. Which currently, I didn't. Henry said that only monsters, beasts, and other such creatures had cores. Humans did not. Even if they were in dungeons.

Once we were satisfied, we made our way down a mined tunnel this time that opened up into a massive cavern full of crystals all over the walls. There was a giant mound of crystals in the center of the room that was rising up and down. It appeared to be breathing.

Once we got a certain distance into the room, the crystal mound woke up and revealed itself to be a giant wolf infested with crystal growths all over its body. It howled loudly and its HP bar filled the lower part of my vision.

[You have awakened the Boss, "Crystal Canine"]

"Ok, here we go, I guess," I said.

I summoned a giant spike above one of the canine's front feet and slammed it down through its foot into the ground. I did the same to its other front foot, and then I did its back feet.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

It struggled to move but its feet were immobilized. That didn't prevent it from trying to bite me. It was a massive creature and it took up a large portion of the cavern so it was able to get close to biting me at first.

Bubbles got stuck in its open mouth and it couldn't pop them. It shook its head to get the bubbles out, but by the time it had done that, I had already run to the other side of the room, behind it. Abigail ran with me.

Now it had no way to get to us. So I shot giant spikes through its back legs and along the side of its body. Then I ripped them out one by one. Not because I was trying to be cruel. Just because I could only control one giant spike at a time.

This opened huge holes in its body and it quickly bled out. It slowly lowered its body to the floor and died. No dramatic falling over onto us or anything. It physically couldn't do that.

[You have defeated the boss! Congratulations! Appropriate experience will be rewarded]

'That's it? No treasure chest or rewards?'

[Look around the room for appropriate looting opportunities]

'Right.'

"Abby, you check over there, and I'll check over here. There's probably loot around somewhere," I said.

"Ok," she said.

[You have leveled up! You are now level 5!]

[You have gained the ability Break Bones!]

[Break Bones: The ability to fracture individual bones in a target's body]

[You have gained the ability Bone Platform!]

[Bone Platform: Create a column of bone beneath your feet that you can grow taller and shorter and move around horizontally]

Nice! These were some awesome abilities. I always wanted to be able to go places without having to move my legs. Also breaking bones, while limited, would be very useful.

"I found it!" Abigail said.

I rushed over to her to see what she found.

I came over to where Abigail was staring at an open chest full of clearly magic crystals. They were obviously the most powerful things in this entire dungeon, because they had power just radiating off them.

Sparks of different colored lightning arced back and forth across the trove and lights pulsed and glowed.

"Holy shit!" I said. "I don't know whether to take this or destroy it."

"Why would we destroy it?" Abigail said.

"You saw what these crystals did to that miner and the giant canine. I wonder what they would do to other people," I said.

"Yeah, but this is a dungeon. Logic doesn't always follow between enemies and rewards. The crystals might have no actual negative effects," she said.

"Yeah, but how would we know for sure?" I said. "Wait, a second. I'm an evil wizard. Maybe there's some kind of magic I can do to detect if they have negative effects."

"Yeah, that's a great idea. Do magic about it," she said.

"Ok, here I go," I said. I put my hands out over the crystals like I was going to perform a spell, but then I just asked the system a question.

'Can you detect if these crystals have negative effects?'

[Yes. They do, but it's temporary. As long as you give proper recovery time between uses or after multiple uses, you will be fine]

'Ok. Give me exact figures. Explain it in numbers so I can understand it better.'

[Ok. Common crystals give 0.1% corruption per use. Uncommon, 0.2%, rare, 0.3%, epic 0.5%, and legendary 1%. The average person, meaning someone with C-rank potential, can recover 1% corruption per day, but the corruption is cumulative. The higher your cumulative corruption, the more side effects you will have. When you reach 100% you lose control of your mind and become a mindless enemy NPC. Like Carl]

'I'm assuming that means the potential rank multiplier applies the same to corruption recovery as it does to core absorption?'

[Yes. The N-rank potential multiplier of 10x applies the same to cores and corruption recovery. Meaning, an N-rank potential can recover 10% corruption per day]

'Ok, good. What are the side effects and when do they happen?'

[25% corruption: Mild behavioral changes such as increased aggression, and reduced impulse control]

[50% corruption: Moderate behavioral changes such as significantly increased aggression, violent tendencies, and periodic confusion. Mild physical changes such as increased muscle tension, muscle spasms, and twitching]

[75% corruption: Severe behavioral and physical changes. Severe uncontrollable aggression, constant violence, and delirium. Crystal body growths, asymmetrical muscle growth, and dark bulging veins]

[100% corruption: Full loss of control and personality wipe]

'Good to know. I'll make sure to be careful about their use if I use them at all.'

[While I'm not condoning their use, you'll find that some of the crystals' effects are almost too good to pass up. For example, the intelligence and learning boosting crystals allow a mage like you to perform magic at a significantly higher level and learn new magic at a much faster rate. If you are smart about it, you could walk away with no negative effects and significant developmental rewards]

'Thank you for the advice. I will take it into consideration. Can you tell me what rarity the crystals in the chest are?'

[They are all of the rare quality]

'Only rare? Almost doesn't seem worth the effort.'

[Anything higher than rare quality would be a disproportionate reward. This was only a blue dungeon. There are still yellow, orange, red, purple, and black difficulty dungeons above that]

'With that many difficulty tiers, are there rewards above legendary?'

[There are, but you aren't supposed to know that yet. I will not explain or identify those higher rarities until you encounter them]

'Ok. Like a game.'

[Like a game]

'Ok, I'm out. I'm going to talk to Abigail now.'

[Affirmative]

I told Abigail what I learned but said that I learned it through a magic detection spell rather than through my system. It was only logical to keep the system a secret, unless I absolutely had to reveal it for a very important reason, and only to someone I trusted with my life.

"I think we should sell all the crystals except for the ones we think we really need. I only plan to keep intelligence and learning boosting crystals. I figure we could split those down the middle and then sell the rest since we're both magic types. What do you think?" I said.

"I don't want any of the learning boosting crystals. I'll take as many of the intelligence ones you're willing to give up though," Abigail said.

"Ok. How about you just take all the intelligence crystals and I'll take all the learning ones," I said.

"Ok! Sounds good to me!" She said.

"Alright, let's separate out all the intelligence and learning crystals and then put the rest into the chest," I said.

"Deal. You'll have to show me what the intelligence and learning crystals look like first though," she said.

I showed Abby what the crystals looked like and then we separated them out. All the intelligence and learning crystals fit into one of the packs I was carrying. I gave her the intelligence pack and I took the learning pack.

Then we poured all the common and uncommon crystals we had gathered on the way down the dungeon into the treasure chest, closed it, and put it in one of Abby's carrying bubbles.

I dug out the core of the Crystal Canine. "Who do you think should pop it?" I said. "The power hungry guy in me wants to take it myself, but if you really think you need it, I'll give it to you."

"What's his name?" Abigail said, smiling and struggling not to giggle.

"What's whose name?" I said.

"The guy who's inside you. What's his name?" Abigail said, bursting into laughter.

"Haha, very funny," I said. "His name is Steve if you must know."

"Ooo Steve. I like that name!" She said.

"I'm glad you like Steve, but who is going to take this core?" I said.

"You have higher potential, so you'll get more out of it. And I like the idea of my man being stronger than me and protecting me, rather than the other way around," she said.

"Oh, I'm your man now, am I?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"B-but, you kissed me. I kissed you. We kissed. Doesn't that mean we're together now?" She said.

"Exclusively?" I said.

"Well, yeah. Isn't that how everyone gets together? Exclusively?" She said.

"Not necessarily. I've never been in a relationship myself, but I've met people who have dated multiple people at the same time. I'm not saying that's what I want or don't want. I'm not sure what I want yet, and don't want to jump into a commitment without thinking about it first," I said, holding my hands up.

"Hmm. Well, with the knowledge that exclusive isn't the only option, I don't know which one I'd prefer. I just know I want to be with you and only you. Whether I want to prevent you from being with other people is something my mind hasn't decided yet," she said.

"Ok. Well, I'm happy to commit to being with you in an ambiguously non exclusive way. I like you," I said.

"Good, because I like you too," she said.

"Good. I'll just pop this core real quick, and we can go find that teleportation platform, and meet up with Henry and Stu," I said.

"Ok!" She said.

I popped the huge red core in my hand.

[You have absorbed a +25 Strength core. N-Tier 10x multiplier applied. +25 Strength (165)]

We wandered around until we found the teleportation platform in the corner of the room behind some equipment and used it. We appeared about 20 feet away from the dungeon entrance. Henry and Stu were waiting for us.