Light poured out from the door leading to the next floor. A message flashed ever more insistently before my face. Every time I dismissed it the message popped back up.

You have three skill tree points to allocate.

Current skill trees available.

Berserker I 0/25 – This tree revolves around fighting endlessly with little care for the body and teaches Resist pain, Life Drain, and Resilient. +2Con, +2End.

Mage Archer I 0/25 – This tree revolves around long range combat and teaches Mana Arrow, Mana Bow, and Lock on. +3Per, +1Wis

Fire Elementalist I 0/25 – This tree revolves around the mastery of the fire element and teaches Fire Aura, Fireball Cannon, and Resist Fire. +4Int

Ice Elementalist I 0/25 – This tree revolves around the Frost element and teaches Ice Aura, Frost Breath, Resist Ice. +3Wis, +1Con

Mana Elementalist I 0/50 – This tree revolves around mastery of pure mana and learn Mana Aura, Mana Burst, and Mana Resist. +5Wis, +5Agl

Blue Mage I – This tree revolves around monster spells and observing mobs.

0/25 +3Int, 1Wis

White mage I – This tree revolves around healing, light, and buff spells.

0/25 +1Int, +3Wis

I took the Mana elementalist, White mage, and berserker skill trees. A few pop ups appeared.

[Mana Aura I lv1 – Produce a defensive aura made of raw mana. Mag Dam 1%Int and Mag Def 1%Wis. Cost 100/min +0.1Int, +0.1Wis.]

[Heal I lv1 – Use the power of light to heal injuries. Health recovered 1%Wis cost 50Mp +0.1Wis]

[Resist Pain I lv1 – Negate 1% of pain to continue fighting. Cost 50/min +0.1Con]

Every skill counted, they all increased my power. My last fight had brought my level to 39. My leveling had slowed because of the weak enemies. I needed better opponents. I used my hard-earned skill points and brought my skill trees to the next level.

Its hard to describe what it was like to became so many times faster, studier, and more intelligent. I remember screaming a lot. The cells in my body were evolving at a rapid pace. They needed building material for the upgrade. Mana was the only real material in my body they had in surplus. My cells rapidly sucked away at my mana pool. Dry described how i felt very well.

After an hour of yelling and my body rip itself apart and putting itself back together later. I regained clarity. When my hands touched the nearby stone wall it felt different. It was like touching something through a glove. Though my skin was indeed touching the wall. The could and formerly rough texture of the wall no longer bothered me.

I believe it downed on me then. I wasn't quite human anymore. My body was too solid to belong to a human's. My mind worked more like a gesalt mind. Though singularly focused, my mind moved at inconceivable speeds. The only reliable human quality, I could still call my own, was my breathing. My lungs filled up achingly slowly and I exhauled. My heart beat so slowly, I could count to a hundred between each beat. That's what brought me back. It took some doing but I brought my mind back to the human level or near enough. It was a slippery slope. If I wasn't careful, I would return to existing at a 100th of a secdond.

Pop ups appeared in my vision. They told me what I already knew. My body was significantly tougher, and I healed at twice the rate. My aura produced much more mana and my ability to store mana had greatly increased. My ability to see, hear, touch, taste, and smell had increase a hundred-fold. If I stared at the door long enough, I could feel my eyes looking through the door. It wasn’t quite x-ray vision, but it was close.

John lv39

Xp 150/73,488

Points 79

Perks Sniper x3 accuracy x3 senses Information Osmosis Apprentice Channels x3 MP x3 Mag Dam x2 Hard Drive Intermediate Aura x4 MR x4 Mag Def x3 Ram Apprentice Speed x3 Movement Speed x3 Reflexes x2 Processor Novice Body x2 HP x2 Phsy Def Nove Regen x2 HR x2 Resistance HP 1,420/1,420 HR 11.6/min MP 12,242.7/12,242.7 MR 296/min Stats Con 78.1 End 58 Str 13.7 Agl 267 Int 418.7 Wis 739.8 Per 262 Chr 2 Luk 17 Skills Sneak lv35 Pummel lv2 Kick lv55 Meditation lv99 Stomp lv40 Running lv25 Fire I lv100 Fire II lv25 Fireball I lv100 Fireball II lv1 Fire Fibers I lv20 Resist Poison lv100 Mana Fibers lv40 Inspect I lv100 Inspect II lv1 Area Inspect lv1 Mold Wood lv5 Resist Poison II lv5 Resist Pain lv1 Ice lv1 Heal lv1 Mana Aura lv1 Wood lv1 Lock Picking lv2 Skill Trees Black Mage I 25/25 Berserker I 25/25 White Mage I 25/25 Black Mage II 50/50 Berserker II 1/50 White Mage II 1/50 Black Mage III 1/100 Mana Elementalist I 50/50 Mana Elementalist II 1/100 Unique Skills Eyes of the Sun I 50/50 Eyes of the Sun II 1/100

The 2nd floor was a massive library. There were no books on the shelves. All that remained of the books were scorch marks on the shelves. Soot covered the ground. The section was labeled general science.

“Are you surprised? They chose feelings and belief over logic, reason, and evidence. The poor scientists, chemists, and engineers were thrown into my embrace. I have eaten so many doctors, that I no longer count them.”

The dungeon’s words disturbed me to the core. Those who were knowledgeable and could have improved the life of the common man were slain. Statues of gold were tossed about and golems took up the work of the masses. I didn’t like the picture this was painting one bit. I could have gone back, but I chose to dive deeper in the dungeon instead.

I wanted power. The city above was the short game. There was at least one being in this world at lv1000. If I could get close to that level then, well at the time, I didn’t know what I would do. I walked deeper through the library. Soot began to rise and form humanoid shapes.

Soot Golem’s lv40

These creatures are the remnants of humanities knowledge. They no longer know what they once contained and have been driven mad because of it. Expect no mercy from them.

I tilted my mage hat to the side and thrust my staff forward. A barrage of fireballs smacked into the golems. Their bodies shattered and twice as many formed. I dashed forward and activated Mana aura. A small layer of mana spread from my body and swirled like a storm.

The golems locked on to me. As a single body they slashed at me with their claws. Even through the mana aura they drew blood. My mana aura did little to defend me from the damage. That could only mean they didn’t use mana to attack.

The initial fireballs destroyed the first set of soot golems. Each death dropped a bag of soot in my inventory. They barely gave any xp. I twirled my staff marveling at how slow everything moved relative to my enhanced senses. My speed was just enough to counter the golems.

When I was far away the golems moved slowly like shambling zombies. It was only when I was close that they reacted like lightning. Was it a skill? I cast heal on myself returning my HP to 100%.

The golems moved like shadows. Surrounded by soot they were perfectly camouflaged. If I didn’t have high perception they would easily sneak up on me. It was around then that I saw a sign.

“Don’t use fire.”

As with most of the signs, it was short, sweet, and simple. If I couldn’t’ use fire, then I still have wood and ice. I pulled a copper coin out of my inventory. On the picture was a symbol, I hadn’t seen before. It showed and eye and on the back, was a mint of Einstein. Einstein wood, and eye ice, I flipped the coin and caught it.

A small green glow appeared in my hand. The glow turned into a seed. This seed greedily drank from my mana reserves as iftsprouted wooden tendrils spearing through the soot golems. Mold wood allowed me to control the shape of the plant while wood produced ever more wood to use.

Spikes of wood jutted from the soot golems. More rose but not in double the numbers. It seemed, so long as I resisted the urge to burn things in here, the soot golems wouldn’t spawn in droves. The mass of plant life had taken 6k mana and four minutes to kill all the soot golems. The creatures were little more than manikins made of ash. When they died by the wood spikes pages appeared in my inventory.

“Maybe if you collect all of them something will happen. You should hurry. The Mistress will surely send some of her private guards down here soon. If you don’t die down here she can’t imprison your soul. Hehehehe”

I hadn’t realized my soul was in danger. Another reason to kill the bitch it seemed. I sped my way down the halls of the library killing the soot golems with molded wood spears. Page after page filled my inventory. I didn’t know how many I killed. Four, five, or six hundred soot golems fell to my spear.

New skill

[Spear combat I lv1 – This skill relies heavily on speed and strength to be effective. Damage 1%Agl and 1%Str. +1Agl, +1Str.]

The spear was a great weapon in my opinion. It allowed me to slay the golems from a reasonable distance, while I waited for my mana to recover. If I had access to fire, the golems would already be ash, again.

My spear worked, when I ran up on them and pierced through their small mana core’s. Those crystals dropped in my inventory when I managed to kill them without damaging the core. It was something to think about.

Every kill filled my inventory with more pages. Soon, I reached what I thought to be the end of the floor. It was about time, I had already killed a thousand of them.

There was a pedestal, because of course there was and on the pedestal, was an empty book cover. Before I fought whatever, the book became, I looked around. There was always a text to help. Only this time there were only three words. They were written in dried blood.

“Don’t fight it.”

If that wasn’t a shining example of sage advice, I didn’t know what was. The only problem was, the stairs to the next floor were sealed. The only way through was to fight the book. I had the pages and there was an icon to place them all at once.

The only problem was the words. Don’t fight it. At face value they mean don’t attack it. Did it have some type of skill that gave it an advantage when being attacked? Well only one way to find out.

“Hey dungeon, does this book have a reflect spell.” I yelled at the nearest wall. There was silence for a minute.

“I don’t know. There hasn’t been a reason the reset this boss in quite some time. I normally let the adventurers that are invited in through without fighting the book. They normally kill a single soot golem and I let them go on. You were different. You weren’t invited here, this is your death sentence.”

Well that answered that. The dungeon was most definitely not impartial. It served the bitch on top just as much as the guards. This place allowed her to get rid of dangerous enemies without getting her hands dirty. But why? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just let her guard’s kill me? What does she gain from her male hostages that make this place so useful?

I scratched my head then hit the icon. Over a thousand pages fell from my inventory and fused to the spine of the book. The book shook a layer of dust off.

“Finally, I’m free after so long. I’m free to spread my knowledge and teach the world the wonders of science. All I must do is escape this place and find a far-off village to give my teachings.” The book said.

General Science lv60

This book contains the soul of a wannabe scientist. The world changed and science was outlawed before he could finish colledge. Now he lives a depressed life as a dungeon boss. He is desperate to find some way out and to spread science back to the world. He believes you are just another science hating white knight.

I made a loud coughing noise.

“I wonder if the world has changed since my sealing. Did they finally kill that woman? The way she was eating she should weigh as much as a fully grown grizzly bear by now. All those resources wasted on a woman who’s only concern is to stuff her face.”

I coughed a bit louder.

“It doesn’t matter, the Men of Science will revolt against oppression. The worship of false entities will cease. Reason and understanding will take the world by storm and it will all be because of me.”

I threw my spear and the book dodged it. The spear lodged into the podium. The book twisted around its pages glowed with mana.

“Greetings, I am the great and powerful General Science 101. From my power I command legions of great tomes filled with man secrets of science and magic. Battle tactics, history, and self-help books are all under my command. Do you have what it takes to read the army of the living texts?”

I took a stance and molded another spear. This book summoned two other flying books. One read mana bolt for dummies, and the other read how I learned to stop running and face my foes. The later was a thick armored text. The one before wore a wizard’s hat.

The mana bolt book opened and launched an endless barrage of bolts. Every time I jumped out of the way the second book blocked my path. A block with my spear only destroyed the shaft of my weapon. I used wood mold and turned my spear into dozens of tendrils. Another book appeared and flanked me. It fired large heavy ice sickle shards.

The book in front charged, a red aura covered it. I managed to dodge to the left just as it struck a book shelf. The book paused there and struggled to pull itself free. I itched to use fire and burn the book to a crisp but that wasn’t the best method here.

What did the texts mean by don’t fight it? I spun out of the way of the barrages of mana bolts and ice sickles. My mold wood allowed me to tank a few hits with tendrils. My good luck wouldn’t last. The books were flanking me. Even my perception had its limits. Keeping track of four flying, sentient books at once was pushing it. I threw the remains of my spear at the book firing ice sickles. The tendrils wrapped around the book knocking it out of commission.

That was one down three to go. I knew that the main book summoned the others. According to the text, I shouldn’t fight it. It was bad news or something. The book on charging was out of the shelf and charging at my head. I managed to dodge and took a mana bolt to the chest. It ate through my mana aura and gouged a hole in my chest. The gaping wound bled immediately. I was forced to waste mana healing it. The golden glow from my healing mana was kept me going for now. It was expensive on my attention to fight like this.

Another book appeared. Nature for idiots it read. This book launched a hail mary of poisoned powder. I breathed it in and was unaffected it was a lesser poison. I still had a coughing fit as it coated my mouth and throat. Breathing in poisons was never a fun endeavor.

I ducked the charging book again and decided to try something new. I grabbed ahold of the book and felt the knowledge soak into me. It was glorious. A magic skill that enhanced agility in short burst. There were over ten roman numerals to the skill.

I dodged the mana bolts and grabbed ahold of the book I tied up. My high perception allowed me to fully learn the book. The book vanished, and I gained the skill Ice sickle. “Don’t fight it, right,” I muttered.

The books were circling around me now. They were nervous of getting too close. This disadvantage was staggering, and they knew it. We were at a stalemate. I could learn them to nothingness but couldn’t reach them while they floated. They couldn’t hit me with their spells and they knew it too.

A single eye glared at me from the cover of the boss book. I was loving this, I already had two free skill. Mana charge was a dream come true for my spear style. Even a sword style would go great with it.

The boss book began to hover closer. Its eyes glared at me tiredly.

“I am the last bastion of knowledge, General Science. If I am to fall, then learn everything that I am and spread my word far and wide. That is what I ask of you in exchange for my life.”

I nodded, science would be necessary to acquire space travel and increase the level of everyone’s living condition. This Matriarchy was a shit hole. From the memories, I was getting from Venus and what I was learning here, the leaders of the city above had to die.

The books merged with general knowledge and I placed my hands on the tome. The tome’s information entered me, and I gained the crafting skill. Of all the skills this book could give me, that wasn’t what I expected. As I stood there and thought about what I gained, I realized a crafting skill was for the best.

From here, I would eventually craft items that would make my life better. Like a bed to sleep on in this dreary dark dungeon. I could only hope that the next floor had monsters made of meat on it. I ate the last of Aleya’s spider leg. The meat was just as warm and sweet as when I first cooked it.