Dungeon cleared!

Now that the Undead Giant Ent is vanquished, the tree will be named Yasargil, Tree Of Life, creating fruit that will increase all regen and boost Life Force effectiveness. Depending on how the Tree Of Life is fed, if at all, these bonuses and its fruits may alter.

All the Life Force it had been seeping from Holden’s Breach will begin to fall into the soil, boosting the growth and quality of plant life by 25% for the next five years.

Near Yasargil overgrown roots grow a variety of herbs, flowers, and potent poisons. Now named Garden of Blossoms, any plants grown within its territory will gain an additional 25% success rate of blooming, disease immunity, and an increased chance of evolving into new species.

Check your inbox for your appropriate reward!

The rank of those that have perished will be given to the next ranker.

Kara’s head spun, a vicious ringing blinding her vision.

The pain brought her senses back.

She was on fire, and it hurt. She quickly doused the flame by rolling on the ground, her dirty clothes doing little but feeding the flames. She tried to use The Sixth Movement: Desolation to absorb the Mana, but it failed too.

The Fifth Movement was not active.

Once Kara fully regained her senses, she leaped up from the ground, casting a Kinetic Burst to blow away the flames. Most of her clothes and burned off, leaving her skin scorched black. Anything that was not burned was riddled with bruises.

Off a few meters away was the Ent Core’s body up in flames. The sword was truly a well-condensed bomb. Anyone close was blasted away.

Kara, who was mare feet away from it, took the full impact.

It destroyed the full 100 Kinetic Shield points, the 40 Life Shield points, and most of her HP, leaving her at a meager 42 HP. Nilbog immediately began using their last 2 Souls Souls to recover their HP. In a few seconds her HP went back up to 142.

Taking Sai’s weapon to use as her own wasn’t as much as a gamble as it seemed. Kara was just familiar enough with mana to know exactly how much damage it would deal.

A bunch of notifications were at the corner of her vision, and while Kara was hungry to open them, she kept an eye out for the others. Clearing the Dungeon didn’t mean it was safe. Her body was in tatters, her mana and STM were near nil, and she only 50 Life Force and a single Equilibrium left. Smoke and dust were in the air, though she could sense that most people began to exist the Ent lair.

A quick check from the long list of notifications confirmed that Kara had indeed gained the first rank in his Dungeon, in addition to a glorious amount of 5 whole freaking levels. In addition to the 2 levels she got from killing Sai, Nilbog reached level 35. The absurd amount of experience was a welcome surprise, so much that Kara felt giddy at the prospect of gaining 15 levels in less than 20 minutes. She was right—Nilbog must have had a respawn token. Those type of things were converted into experience, points, skills, or even items if unused by the end of the Dungeon. That would explain Nilbog’ fearlessness, and the gigantic amount of experience they gained at the end of the Dungeon.

As happy as Kara was about this gain of power, Nilbog still needed several, no, dozens of different things to make him into a decent ranker. Equipment, skills, a perk, a title, and levels were important things that Nilbog needed, but they were hardly all of it. A list of the surrounding Dungeons and Raids, plus information about this version of The Game were vital. Not all Games were identical—sometimes skills, monsters, and even new mechanics were added. She can't be complacent about such things.

Most important of all, however, were party mates. There were very few ways for a solo ranker to succeed, and while Kara did reach that in her previous, it would not have been possible if it weren’t for the support of her sisters and brothers.

Nilbog would be no different. She would have to find him a decent group as soon as possible.

That archer was a fine lad, not only having a decent technique but also possessing remarkable battle sense. He played this round too safely, however. He should have gone for the kill, but had instead hesitated. Another potential ally was that rouge, Iris. As talented as she was, though, she was far too reckless. Both of those youth had a bright future if guided correctly.

The sole unfortunate loss was that spell-sword. Mages had the second greatest firepower out of all archetypes; the first were spell-swords. The firepower of skills that required point-blank range was in a whole separate class than the typical Mana skills. The death rate for them, however, was the highest out of any archetype.

The basic variant of 5th Life Enhancement provided a 50% increase to Strength and Agility. Being at melee range and no having that put them at a severe disadvantage, not just physically, but mentally. Agility not only increased physical speed, but reaction speed, time perception, and dexterity.

One that can dodge and move so well even at that disadvantage was rare even among gems. That talent would have made him a formidable ranker in the future, but alas, his true fault was that he decided to compete with her.

“You killed him.”

“Yeah idiot, he would have probably killed me if I didn’t, boss or no boss. Even without Sixth Sense I could feel his kill intent aimed at me.”

That wasn’t me yo-

Yelling an incoherent combination of curses, Kara crouched and dashed to the side, pulling on one of the weapons she had attached. A spear flew into her palms.

Iris stood close, twin daggers in hands with her teeth bared.

How the hell did I not notice her? No matter—she would regret not taking that chance. Kara had an Equablraim to use and a minor amount of Life Force. Iris was in similar if not worse circumstances. Sentient Killer will help even the stat difference, though it was more than likely she was over level 50. The girl probably used her strongest skills on the Ent Boss. No Shield or Enhancement was obvious to Kara, though there was remanence of red aura. A berserker passive skill might still be up.

“I liked him,” Iris whispered, stepping forward. “He was annoying and a jerk, but he took care of me.”

The tree was beginning to fall apart. Parts of the lair disintegrated, letting the bright sunshine in through. The smoke and smell of burning wood were beginning to be replaced with fresh air.

Don’t kill her, Nilbog said. We can use her!

I thought we were over this naïve nonsense, Kara said, letting her spear lead as she walked forward. She had the range advantage—daggers were only useful against monsters. A single Deviation was all she needed. She could easily use it to alter the direction of the spear when Iris dodges, and Kara really did need to end this in a single strike. She had twelve seconds before Duel Duet ran out.

Kara, please. Let me talk to her. I can make this work!

“Lady Olivia told me to fight for my teammates,” she said, lowering her center of gravity. She was ready to pounce. “I will fight.”

Kara was within striking range. She planted her feet firmly against the ground, took a deep breath, and dashed forward, going in for the kill.

Fucking hell, I said stop!

Nilbog’s voice cracked her skull. She could barely push back before it crashed into her. The only thing that dashed forward was Kara’s bare Soul. She went through Iris and struck the ground hard, leaving a splatter of white liquid on each bounce. Her Notes finally caught up to her before she transformed into a Shade, enveloping what remained of her Soul in black. She laid on the ground staring blankly at Nilbog as he dropped his spear.

Her mind was in tatters. She could barely think, much less curse.

“Ah,” Nilbog said, as Iris’s daggers were pressed against his neck. She saw him swallow as something similar to a smile crept on his face. “Can we talk about this?” he said, chuckling nervously. “Pretty please?”

That was all she saw before her body yanked back at her Soul. Encapsulated within her Notes, Kara saw everything course by as she was dragged across the skies.