“Are you crazy, Gabriel?”

The Orc looked aghast. In front of the party lay a dark cave whose walls shone of like a starry sky. The cave had a small entrance and did not connect to any other room, it did not offer any chance for surprise attacks, but on the farthest wall on a rock platform, lids a massive bluish salamander, it had an ice armor on her most vital parts. Her limbs had been turned into claws thanks to the cuirass, and her head was protected by a helm with two huge horns pointing forward. It was sleeping like a log, but Gabriel knew she was faking it. The speed of her breath had increased the moment they had entered her hearing range.

Liz looked at the salamander, marveling, and with twinkling eyes.

Do you like the look? Do you want a similar armor too? Liz nodded vigorously. I guess we’ll need to evolve your Resilience Skill for something like that; time will tell. I guess.

“Why would I be? Let me Analyze her first.”

“No!” Whispered William, he looked terrified, “You’ll wake her up!”

“Oh, she’s already up. Anyway, guys, don’t worry. I’m gonna deal with her on my own; you just stay close to reaping the benefit when it dies, okay?”

Elly, for the first time, didn’t know what to do; she held her hair and didn’t know what to say. The only one who did not speak was Robert, the hipster. Then he too added something, “I guess it’s been nice knowing you, Herald.”

Gabriel laughed. “See you in a while, and if you want to look, don’t stand too close. By the way, there’s another wave of monsters coming from that tunnel over there,” Gabriel said, pointing at their right.

As they turned, he was inside the cave.

Let’s see what you’re made of.

Armored Icemander (Champion)

Race

Reptile

Level 23

Class

Ice Tank Salamander

Level 20

Element

Ice

Ice - 3

Pools

Life

Energy

Mana

5200/5200

1687/1687

1822/1822

Attributes

Affinity

198

Bound

Alacrity

257

Bound

Power

201

Bound

Recovery

327

Bound

Resilience

361

Bound

Stamina

189

Unbound

Damn, you were almost complete. However, I guess you have gone untouched for a long time, given your level.

"Are you ready to test ourselves, Liz? It's Fusion time."

When he raised his voice, the salamander opened her massive eyes. They revealed to be as icy as her armor.

It emitted a low growl as it stood up. Challenging Gabriel to attack first. A Champion had sixteen times the stat of a regular monster; it was effectively sixteen times the monsters' concentrated power. Those stats were already something Gabriel might never even reach. However, what sentient had was the power of massively more powerful Skills.

Here we go .

Spirit Fusion did not feel different from Spirit Assimilation at all. However, what didn't change on the inside, changed on the outside. Liz was drawn inside of Gabriel, and his form started changing.

On his skin, Liz's scales started sprouting, his fingers turned into clawed hands, then his face made a radical change, elongating into a muzzle, and finally, a long tail grew from his coccyx. All in all, he didn't look that bad, but then Liz's frills opened up on their own, forming a sort of crown around his head.

It had been Liz doing it, not him.

Come, that's not cute at all; I look like a damn sunflower; keep those things down. But Liz didn't even listen to him; she yapped inside of him happily.

Gabriel sighed, but in the end, let it go. They couldn't really joke around, not before testing their true prowess in this form.

Obviously, their Affinity and Alacrity did not receive a massive boost. However, almost 43 points of Power instead of the regular 17 that Gabriel could boast would make a huge difference.

If Gabriel played his cards right, he could hit the salamander with an attack that taking into consideration Meridians, which doubled his Power, bringing it to 86, Burst of Fury, which made it soar to 131, and Kata of the Tempest that would increase it by a total of 431 percent, reached the massive Power of almost 564. It did already surpass the creature's Resilience, but that was only his Power; his Alacrity would play a big role in it too.

"I guess it's time to test it out. Based on our total Affinity, we've got forty-five minutes to deal with that. I guess five will suffice. You ready, baby?"

Gabriel's voice was hoarse, and he loved the lack of his high-pitched tone right away.

"My gosh, I feel so manly! I guess-" Wait!

Gabriel started feeling for his package, down there.

There was nothing.

"Where is my damn cock!? Liz!?"

Liz yapped in glee. Thank God it's temporary…

He did not have any more time to joke around as the creature launched at him.

Gabriel exploded forward, with a great release of lightning, the effect of tunnel vision brought forth by Warp Speed was more intense, given the fact that with Assimilation, Liz protected him and the world around him from aftereffects; at the same time, he could feel lightning have a harder initial time to damage him, by it did indeed hurt him. Still, Gabriel didn't care, he summoned Burst of Rage all the same, and with a cast of Toughen, Gabriel whipped the creature's muzzle; it shattered its mouth and horn in just one attack.

The creature was launched with a tremendous boom on the other side of the small arena, which was the cave, then it got up and looked bewildered.

"Yeah, baby. That's what you get if you try and fuck with me."

He heard Pollark whistle at him while Elly snorted.

"That's cheesy, Herald."

"It was, wasn't it?" Damn!

"Oh, well, I guess she's going to… taste my lightning!" He said, shooting forward.

The next attack was immediately evaded from the monster, it retaliated, spinning and whipping its tail at him, but Liz moved their tail and smacked it down.

You could do that?

Liz yapped happily.

Damn girl, that's amazing!

Followed a fast-paced exchange of ground shattering blows. The salamander decided to attack from afar, launching powerful icicles at Gabriel. The man didn't even care to move around, he actually yawned as the icicles crashed one after the other on the ground, but he moved from side to side.

"Those attacks are slow, icy, you better attack physically. I could even tank them with my boosted Resilience, you know?"

A cheer came from the little crowd.

Good!

Lightning crackled in the air, the thunders echoed through the whole Dungeon in the cave as he rotated his spear in front of the creature and smashed it on the ground for a display of power. He was taunting the salamander and making a good work of it.

The salamander growled, then glowing threw herself at him.

Toughen.

Gabriel switched to Kata of the Foam as he intercepted its charge. It had thrown itself at Gabe horns, well, horn first.

Gabriel placed his legs firm on the ground with a smooth movement, lowering his posture; he intercepted the charge, and swiftly grabbing the creature from the armor under her muzzle, he threw it aside. The creature quickly rolled on the floor then got up for another assault.

Gabriel had half an intention of feeding his spear with corruption-tainted Mana, but he was afraid of creating something even worse than poison since what happened the previous time. Dark element and Lightning, a Higher element. He hadn't asked; he would need to before committing another suicide.

Well, since it's getting monotonous, I guess we need to end this here.

Burst of Fury had long since ended, but he didn't care; drinking a little bit of an emergency Mana potion bottle, he summoned it anew, then drank the rest. His Life was already full thanks to Life Tank and regenerating with Helping Hand, and now was his Mana too.

"Gran finale, guys."

Gabriel raised his spear high in a stab toward the ground, the salamander had no idea what was going, but she halted her charge in fear and studied him. Gabriel grinned.

"Say bye, sally. It's time to leave this Dungeon, fore- well, for a few days at least."

Gabriel disappeared completely.

Then with a boom, he was on top of the creature; he had used Teleport. Then the spear came down with the full Power of the heavens.

It passed through its armor like a hot knife through butter, digging inside of the creature's back, toward its heart. Then screaming, from the pain of the aftereffect and giving in to Burst of Fury's emotions not to faint from the pain, Gabriel extracted his spear and kept stabbing the monster with the full might he was capable of. It took him four other thundering stabs to kill the already writhing creature, then he got his notification. He knew it was dead.

He was almost burned to a crisp because of the lightning, but so was the creature. It was clear then that the power of the Ambient Mana the Flowing Disciplines used, scaled with Power other than Affinity.

This is going to be troublesome, he realized. The stronger he became, the more he would suffer the aftereffects, and there was only so much he could fight the paralysis that the electricity brought forth. He needed to learn Flowing Disciplines of Air; it was of utmost importance.

Gabriel changed into a pair of new clothes he was holding in his Dimensional Bag before separating from Liz, his had been entirely evaporated.

"So," he said, after inserting a Mana Gobbler he had kept for himself since he had gone in LL Dungeon into the creature's crisply cooked mouth, "how did I go?"

The party had already killed all the monsters that had come their way. The tight tunnel offered them enough cover for the many ranged attacks and the fiery shield, getting rid of most of them before they even reached the party.

William and Pollark were gaping, Elly had her eyebrows arched, and the hipster was pleasantly surprised.

"Do I pass?"

They all nodded in a stupor. Man, if I had a Basic Skill that increased Power… But he could not change his Skill, once bound, only evolve it.

Until four the party farmed the Dungeon, the Salamander had dropped a massive Essence of Ice which alone was worth five hundred units of Mana, or so Robert said. They decided to let Gabriel take that while they shared the rest of the loot.

After Gabriel offered them something to drink at The Rockbed, he left them saying that he had to follow his lesson; they concurred on partying together again, the following day, and the one after. William and Pollark were so excited by it that they started jumping up and down; Gabriel couldn't help but chuckle and keep chuckling even once on the road back to Yggdrasil.

Alone in the plains, Gabriel recalled his notifications.

You have gained:

Level + 36.87%

Class Level + 32.25%

Spirit Level + 47.2%

It was not a bad haul for the day. However, he knew the salamander had given more than ninety percent of the experience. The rest had been accumulated by killing the monster. And they had killed a lot; Gabriel had used the rest of his Spirit Fusion minutes to lay waste to as many monsters as he could.

Judging that the experience had been divided by five, he judged that doing a lone Dungeon run would be a really nice idea; however, did he have what it took to complete it? That would mean using a lot of potions, and not only were potions costly, but they also hurt him in the long run.

We need to hunt bigger games by ourselves, Liz. Maybe hunting is more suited for us than Dungeon Delving.

***

Phreviel paced inside of the Sanctum; his mind couldn't find rest.

"It almost seems they are fine with this. It's incredible. I know they were heartless creatures, but it's their brethren we're talking about. It's inconceivable."

However, he was talking mostly to himself, his longtime life companion Throden always stood by his side, but he had long since stopped commenting. There was something else on his mind, instead.

"What's got on your mind, Throden?"

"I don't know, Phrev. It's them. They are all so different from before. Look at how calm they are," he said, nodding to the captives.

"They are meditating. It's the best way they have to remain calm. I think that one, the powerful archer, indoctrinated them into it. Let them do whatever they want; they are going to die one by one if the Druids don't give us the Herald anyway."

"If you say so, Phrev."

***

Prisha couldn't believe how well her sense of Life element was expanding. It was outrageous how quickly she was mastering the art. Sato had started way sooner, but she had already caught up to him.

Well, the Seer did invite me because she said I had talent in Magic, but I never trusted her judgment.

What the captives had been subjected to, was a process that had imposed an enormously complex sealing on their soul. It had gone so far as to modify part of their beings and allow them to develop what was defined as an irregular Perk.

They were rare and few. However, this type of Perks could range from being completely crippling to being a life-changing blessing. In Prisha and the other captives' case, it would be the difference between surviving and dying, which was a lot.

The girl had been gifted with the ability to temporarily become one with plant Life. They had been bestowed with that to enter the Sanctum and reach the Boss's internal body, where the Bastards hid themselves. Without that, they would have never passed through the solid earth, nor would the Bastards discover the location of their Boss' hidden location. They had never done so and wouldn't do it now.

However, that form of control took a lot out of her; it took a lot out of anybody, actually. They had to take frequent breaks and rest to let the Ambient Mana, saturated with the Boss's Mana, which they could now successfully absorb. It was so much, and it regenerated so quickly that it was absurd.

In a Dungeon there always were three Bosses, the one in power, the secondary Boss, responsible for the insurgencies, and the Dungeon Wars, and the Hidden Boss. Forever entrapped inside of his Challenge Chamber. Sato had his idea that the Boss who had raped their souls and inside of which they were being held prisoners, had absorbed both the secondary Boss and the Hidden Boss.

"I have no idea how it was done," he had whispered to them, "But if I Scan him, it comes back with three question marks for his level. How would a Boss of a level 20 Dungeon have levels that exceed the hundred if not by unifying with the other Bosses?"

No one could answer his question, so they accepted his point as the truth. And just kept doing the only thing worthy of their time: train their new Life element disposition.

Sato had started working on an idea with her help, something close to the Yggdrasilians secret speech. They would need to create a closed circuit of roots, from which information would pass in the form of inputs; a sort of morse code but based on Life-tainted Mana impulses. As long as they mastered it in a short amount of time, it would be difficult for the Bastards or their Boss to crack their code even if they managed to discover their system of feeble Mana impulses.

Only he could come up with something like that, thought Prisha.

Another thing that was messing them up, the prisoners, was their Spirit's absence. It got heavier with the passing of days. Some people had actually already abandoned the idea of seeing them again. A couple had collapsed, and in one particular instance, a Druid lacking a specific Perk had seen his soul be finally torn asunder for the distance and the prolonged absence of his Spirit. He laid now comatose on the ground. The Bastard did not care, nor could they help him. The man would probably never recover.

Dividing a Druid and his Spirit for too long or putting too much distance between them was an effective way to render them harmless, crazy, or outright kill them. Especially those that lacked a certain Spirit Perk were very vulnerable to the tactic.

Prisha was kept meditating on this topic and many others as she trained her control over the Life element. Whatever they had done to them had gifted them with the ability to have full control of all shades of Life element. Although feebly, she could taint her Mana with ideas of healing, growth, modification, renewal, and even death. Usually, these abilities were divided into different Magic Skills. For example, Yggdrasil's Teaching gave access to the growth shades of Life element; the Great Mother's Truths brought forth the shades of renewal and modification; Lymph of the Ancient gave access to healing abilities, and Hades' Decree ordained over death. These few Skills were all very powerful Skills that could grow up to Legendary Tier; however, not one could control more Magic shades than the one they bestowed.

What they were using now had no limitations. And it didn't even belong to a Skill but an irregular Perk. If they could master such a power, they could effectively become Legends both in Rank and in name. That was if they managed to get out of the place, something which was still very uncertain.