When I woke up, I was surrounded by golden light, and I felt a familiar presence in my aura.

“Hey bro, you got seriously fucked up you know?” I rolled over on my side and pushed myself to my feet.

“How am I not dead Apollo?” I said and he scowled slightly.

“Well, you’re alive 'cause you ruined my plan! I was gonna do your second body tempering!” The congressman pouted like a child and crossed his arms. He didn’t stay like that for long though. Within just a couple of seconds, his face broke into his usual smile. “It’s fine yours was better than the one I was going to pay for. Can’t believe you did it on accident!” He then started laughing slightly, and my confusion only grew.

“What do you mean? What is body tempering?” I asked. Apollo paused and tilted his head acting as if he were listening to something, then he answered.

“Body tempering is basically different techniques that improve your body. There are literally millions of ways to do it, but you caught a good one! Haven’t seen it in a long time.” He finished his explanation, but I still wasn’t sure what he was talking about.

“So, what did I do?” My questioning was tiring him out I could tell by the way he face-palmed and groaned.

“You know I hate these restrictions at times like this? I could have just showered you in my personal library and you’d have known all this already.” I looked up and gave a small prayer to no one in particular for patience in dealing with this guy. Not being a subtle action, when I opened my eyes again Apollo was looking at me with one eyebrow raised. “Are you done?” He asked me. I nodded my head and motioned for him to continue.

“Ok, so I told you last time that the bronze rank was all about the body and the aura. Body Tempering is the steps that you take to prepare your body for the next rank. The first one happened when you built your core by expelling all the impurities in your body by forcing essence through your entire body. This was just air essence and that’s why your body changed to take on aspects of that concept.” Apollo stopped and looked at me making sure that I understood what he was talking about so far. Giving him a thumbs up he took a breath and continued.

“Alright so you just did your second, body tempering and you used an old technique called Veins of Venomous Sound, essentially you took in a deadly amount of venom essence but instead of letting it go wild in your body you cycled it through your core, and your core disseminated the excess sound and venom essence through your veins. The venom essence attacked your veins, and the sound essence protected them at the same time. Through this process, your veins took just enough damage to just barely keep you from dying and improved the functionality of your entire vascular system.” He finished his explanation, but I was already looking at my arms with my essence sight.

Looking into myself, but not at my core was an odd feeling, but sure enough, my vascular system had the light green essence of sound, and a sickly yellow essence flowing through me.

“What’s it do?” I asked in curious wonder.

“Well, any vascular tempering will improve blood flow which will, in turn, help you heal from wounds faster, and probably increase speed and strength, the venom aspect will probably help you process venoms and poisons easier. I’ve heard of some cultivators developing poisonous blood, but that’s usually if they are already on a venom or poison path so I don’t think that’s going to be for you.” It all sounded positive to me, so I was relatively happy.

“So, this was my second racial upgrade?” I received a nod in response. “And since I did my second tempering on my own, you’re going to pay for my third?” I asked hopefully. Apollo huffed irritably before agreeing to it.

“So, what am I doing here now?” The congressman beamed at me.

” So, I need kind of a big favor, but you’re already trying to do it anyway so I shouldn’t have to pay you for it!” He said hopefully making me scowl at him and set my jaw in defiance. “Fine, just something small though. I need you to rip the core out of that dream cultivator who’s got your friends.” My shock rippled across my face. “Yeah, I know about it, anyway that guy's core will help me with my advancement. So, you know it’d really help me out.”

“I don’t know how to do that though.” Apollo wiggled his little finger and I felt something click inside me.

“There you’ll find it in your manual section. Just do your best and try not to die, this little solo dungeon-delving thing you’re doing is making me so much! There’s even talk about a bidding war to grab you from me. Anyway, here is payment for you helping me with this.” Another click. “Just a small upgrade to your map.” I tried to open my system screens but found that I couldn’t. Had I ever tried to use my system in here? I couldn’t remember. Apollo bid me goodbye, and my vision went dark again. I woke up in the same cave I’d passed out in and there was a much smaller Tatzelwurm Giant, but for now, it was only the size of an elephant. It hissed at me but didn’t attack as I walked out of the boss's chamber.

Once I was out of the dungeon, I opened up my system screens and checked what the changes were. In my manual section was a Basic Aura Combat manual which I scrolled through finding that I already knew most of it. “Must be why he was able to give it to me.” The only section that I didn’t know about was Core Removal and Crippling, and I paled as I read through it. The process of either sounded painful and brutal. “He expects me to do this to someone else?”

At first, I wanted to say that I wouldn’t, but then I remembered what Samael had said about Santiago, and the look in his eyes when he looked at me. “Maybe.” The next thing I checked was the upgrade to my map. It really was a small upgrade, but it made all the difference. The main problem with my plan had been solved every dot that showed a dungeon now had a small number under it. It showed the level of each nearby dungeon so now I wouldn’t have to stumble around searching for ones I felt I could handle.

I did feel grateful for this, but I also wondered how much I’d been making Apollo and if I was getting paid properly. “I doubt it.” I thought scowling. Not wanting to think about it anymore I checked for the closest level 50 dungeon and flew toward it. I spent three full days on level 50 to level 60 dungeons I almost died several times, but I finally made it to level 55 taking over the number one spot on the leaderboard. Samael was in the number 5 spot at level 49.

He'd almost made it to level 50, and he’d be much harder to kill at that point. I still didn’t feel ready though, Damien can summon an army of shadow creatures, Autumn can heal hundreds of people at a time, and Santiago can help direct their entire army. Then there was my team, even without me the buffs they can place on their entire army made me wonder if I could take them all on even if I went full out not caring about killing people.

I’d watched the leaderboards, and I recognized several names from the camp had been leveling up as well. “So, it’s symbiotic then, he’s like a parasite.” I couldn’t see a man like that standing out on a battlefield fighting for himself, so I assumed he was just gleaning excess from the others. “Like the congress, except he doesn’t ask.” I couldn’t see what the others really gained from being under his control either, except now everyone had an aura to fight with. It didn’t matter much though I opened my stat screen to apply my points.

Nathan Schute: Bard of War

LEVEL 55

STRENGTH: 42

CONSTITUTION:39

AGILITY:55

DEXTERITY:229

INTELLIGENCE:51

WISDOM:73

CHARISMA:210

PERCEPTION:38

0 Free Stat Points

I added 4 points to perception and moved on to my skills and placed the newest skill point into the Armory skill tree.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

BARD OF WAR SKILL TREE

0 SKILL POINT

ORCHESTRA ARMY ARMORY

AMPLIFY STEADY SPATIAL ARMORY (SOUL)

RITARDANDO SCOPE SPATIAL ARMORY (POLEARM)

UP THE OCTAVE CONCUSSIVE SHOT

TONAL TORTURE HUMMING STRING

12 MAJOR SCALES

GIFT OF GAB

I’d been right about my skills reflecting my recent actions, but I didn’t know why it had chosen polearm over the sword. It could have been because I’d used the glaive most recently, or it could have been because I killed higher level monsters with it, either way at least I wouldn’t have to reach into my spatial bag every time I wanted to switch weapons now. The spatial bag had been good for carrying everything around, but as far as during combat it was clumsy and not nearly as fast as retrieving my bow. I’d had to drop weapons on the ground during combat or try to put it back in the bag quickly and switch them out. It was doable, but I was happy with my new skill. Opening the new portal, it looked the same as the old one, but when I tried to put the glaive inside it easily sank inside. Now that I was level 55, I decided to go ahead and put on one of the new sets of armor I’d bought.

The hoodie and sweatpants had been fine as far as self-repairing clothing goes, but its defensive stats weren’t great. My new armor included the requisite undergarments, a very fine lightweight chainmail, a simple tabard with the orange and grey colors I liked, a set of tall leather boots with a hardening enchantment, a small breastplate, and two leather spaulders with the same enchantments they all had a strength and constitution requirement that I finally reached. I hadn’t really checked what my new strength could do yet, aside from the extra damage I did with melee damage.

I went over to a large rock. It wasn’t a boulder, but it would have been hard to carry around before the system. I pulled my foot back and the hardening enchantment activated on my boots, then I kicked it. The rock flew at least fifty feet away. While I wouldn’t call it incredibly impressive since Susan could literally rip monsters in half with her bare hands, it was still superhuman which was exciting. I’d also put on quite a bit of muscle recently, which did a lot of good for my vanity.

I checked my map looking for the ant hill dungeon one more time. Knowing I was still under-leveled didn’t dissuade me from my goal. My stats were far better than they would have been without my titles and If I didn’t start hitting above my weight class, I wouldn’t have the power I needed to do what I needed to do. Reading the number underneath the dungeon I breathed a calming breath. It read level 100. I gathered myself and headed in that direction.

When the ant hill came into sight, I lowered myself to the ground. Opening my spatial armory my bow settled into my hand as the portal moved through me. I took another calming breath and my scope moved forward into my line of sight, enhancing my vision. Pulling an arrow out of my quiver, I pulled back on the string, and with a twang I my test shot.

The arrow flew forward at a speed that I had never managed before, and when it hit the first ant monster it didn’t stop. Instead, it blew through the ant’s abdomen leaving a sucking vacuum of a wound through it and not stopping until it hit the tenth ant. That was without my buffs active. When I took the time to activate them, I tried again.

For the next fifteen minutes, I devastated the army of ants with arrow after arrow. I attempted to hit the dungeon itself trying to take it down, but it bounced off some kind of barrier like I’d done nothing more than throw a twig at it. With my last test over I strode into the dungeon. Drawing my sword as I walked through the tunnel. Ant monsters threw rocks at me and I sliced through them or just flat-out punched through them. When the ants realized that it wasn’t working though they started using their telekinesis directly on me. They slammed me into the walls and floors, not letting me get any leverage to walk forward. I didn’t need leverage though, I let out a pulse from my feet and flew toward them before they were able to stop me.

Using that technique, I continued to dominate the ant hill. My sword danced in the darkness as my sonar showed me any enemy within the range of my aura. My essence climbed as I continued to fight my way through monsters that were between 5 and 20 levels above me. A level 75 ant caught my ankle with its pincers causing me to stop once. The jaws were so strong I felt like they would cut through my boots and my legs, but the enchantment activated, and I felt some relief. I reached for Ballads Bow and at point-blank range I fired destroying its head.

I started using my bow in earnest, level 75 ants becoming more and more common. Falling into a trance-like state as I kept my breathing technique active my bow began humming in my hand. My mind fell empty of anything except the bow in my hand, my breathing, and the battle in front of me. When I stopped to buff myself with my other skills the humming didn’t stop, instead, it harmonized with every note I played.

I began accruing more wounds, the higher-level monsters breaking through my armor. The armor was self-repairing, but it was slow. Blood poured out of me, but between my constitution, and my Venomous Sound veins, I healed quickly. As the humming reached a crescendo suddenly a pair of white-green fairy wings spread out from each side of the bow, and I felt a marker settle on my soul connected to it. A notification popped up, but I ignored it. The bow flew out of my hands and began firing itself with less power than I got from it but still enough to damage the ants. I didn’t stop to think about it, instead pulling my sword.

I fought through thousands of level 75 ants as I got closer to the bosses room. “At least I hope the boss room is close. I don’t know how long I can keep this up.” I thought to myself, breathing heavily. The new configuration of my bow would occasionally turn into a guitar and play songs that I’d played before to buff me. It still pulled from my mana, but I didn’t have to stop to do it myself anymore which was a relief. My body was tired and sore, and I wanted to stop but I kept going.

For hours I fought, never stopping. I didn’t have any sword skills, so my mana was completely free for my bow to use. I, however, was reaching the end of my rope. Just as I thought about giving up and trying to escape, I reached the boss’s room. Standing outside the large chamber I took a break. I opened my armory, and my bow flew straight inside. Finally having a chance to breathe I checked over the notifications I’d missed.

“Congratulations you have unlocked your soul weapon Ballads Bow: Puck configuration.” I was extremely happy that I hadn’t chosen the Bard of String and Bow class. It might have been easier to unlock the configuration if I had, but if I could do it anyway with a little more effort then it was not as good of a class as I thought it had been. Continuing, I checked my other notifications. I’d gained another two levels after fighting through thousands of monsters 20 levels above me, so I looked forward to and feared fighting the ant boss.

Once I felt fully rested, I pushed myself to my feet. It was time for me to clear this dungeon. I straightened my shoulders and headed inside. At first, I didn’t see the boss, instead, I was greeted by the sight of several hundred pure white eggs. I focused on them and the status of them popped up. “Level 100 Swarm (Mini Boss).” My heart thundered in my chest, and I felt as if I’d made a terrible mistake coming here. Even so, my armory opened on both sides of me. The portals passed over me and my glaive appeared in my right hand and Ballads Bow in my left.

With a thought the wings sprouted from the bow again and it took off out of my hand. It swiftly changed shape and laid all of the buffs on me. An egg began to crack open, when the first monster popped out it had the same tag above its head. It was a tall ant with humanoid appendages and large claws, its face had three sets of pincers, and on its back were two thin wings. My bow fired and the arrow sped towards the monster.

In the next moment, the monster looked directly at the arrow, and it stopped in midair. “Shit telekinesis.” I thought as I watched the creature turn the arrow around and shoot it straight back at me. I wanted to dodge it, but the mark on my soul said not to bother. It was right as soon as the arrow touched me it disappeared. The monster clicked its mandibles together and let out a scream then it flew at me. I raised my polearm to block its claws. They struck at my glaive, and I was thrown back, but while it was distracted my bow placed two arrows in its back.

I didn’t want to pass up this opportunity, so I pulsed forward and flashed the blade through its torso. Its top half separated from its bottom half, and it slid to the floor dead. “Maybe this won’t be so bad?” I thought. But within another second, I already regretted that thought. Two more of the creatures hatched fully grown. They immediately attacked. One attacked me and the other stopped the arrows. But with another thought the bow changed again and began playing Tonal Torture.

I quickly bisected those two as well. Another four hatched, then eight, and sixteen. Every time I managed to cut down a group of them, they would double. A claw had raked across one of my eyes blinding me on that side. Then I took a crushing bite to the leg which tore a large chunk of meat out of me. Still, I continued to fight I slashed in all directions, spinning my glaive in my hands the swarm was slowly cutting me to pieces. I took another slash to the shoulder, and suddenly my arm couldn’t move. I continued to fight, my regeneration doing its best to keep me alive. Another slash to the ribs made me cry out but Ballads Bow took that one out. I grabbed the bow and flew up as fast as I could. The bow never once played The Song of Healing and I had to assume that it couldn’t. Plucking the strings as fast as I could I played, but my agility and dexterity had only allowed me to cut the song down to a minute. When surrounded by enemies that long felt like forever.

Still, I managed to barely get it out while dodging and weaving through the swarm of monsters only taking a few more wounds. My body still wasn’t at 100% yet though. With all of the wounds I’d taken none of them had fully closed themselves, but I could still fight. My blood painted the floor as I kept up my flight. I’d taken back to firing the bow myself, adding my strength to its attack.

Now I was taking down five or six of them at a time, but I was still accumulating wounds. My body was about to give out, I was so tired. I felt myself fall and hit the floor, but I was so exhausted I didn’t care. My eyes were barely open, but I saw the emptiness of the chamber. “No more eggs.” I struggled to look around and all I saw was a single monster. In a far corner, one extremely fat ant lay on its back trying to squeeze out another egg. “Level 100 Ant Queen.”

Seeing the egg coming out of her was too much for me. A surge of adrenaline flowed through my body, and I pulled another arrow. “No more fucking eggs,” I said then fired straight through the egg into the queen’s body which exploded in a shower of guts and half-gestated eggs. I crumpled to the floor and fell into the darkness of sleep.

Pain was the subject of my dreams. I was chained down while bugs swarmed over my entire body, eating me alive. Waking up screaming was not my favorite way of waking up, but it was better than not waking up at all. Dried blood covered my armor which meant that the self-cleaning enchantment hadn’t finished its job. The Ant Queen hadn’t re-formed yet either, so I knew that I hadn’t been unconscious for that long.

I rolled over on my side and coughed, every breath sent pain shooting through my entire body. Curling up into the fetal position I shivered. My wounds had stopped bleeding, but the pain still wracked my entire body. I couldn’t even move to play the song of healing this time. Instead, I tried to cycle, to distract myself from the pain. My core was about the only part of me that didn’t hurt.

I stayed in that position for a long time while my body slowly regenerated itself. I could feel the scar that had formed from the wound on my leg, and three long jagged scars overlapped my eye on the right side. That was fine with me though. “At least I still have my eye.” When I could finally sit up, I applied my new points.

Nathan Schute: Bard of War

LEVEL 61

STRENGTH: 54

CONSTITUTION:58

AGILITY:69

DEXTERITY:265

INTELLIGENCE:64

WISDOM:89

CHARISMA:244

PERCEPTION:50

0 Free Stat Points

I’d placed all 6 of my new points into constitution, tired of getting hurt and knowing that I’d have to do this one more time in order to get that stacking title. Next, I placed my skill point gaining the “Spatial Armory (Armor)” skill. I scoffed at the fact that I still hadn’t gotten the sword one, but then again, I’d used my armor more than my sword in this dungeon. Part of me wanted to immediately head to the next dungeon. “Absolutely fucking not!” My inner voice screamed at me. I was right and decided to listen to myself. It was time to start rescuing my friends and for another shopping spree.

Every dungeon I’d completed awarded me a good amount of credits; it was much less when I was in a party but clearing them alone, I was flush with cash right now. Leaving the dungeon, I flew back toward the school ready to lighten my pockets by a good amount. “And this time I’m buying a light.” I thought while grinning.