“Me? I’m a hero of course!” He boy said, smiling brightly at him.

“Hero? Stop joking with me and die!”

“I don’t think you can do that though.”

They exchanged dozens of blows in the short time they were talking before breaking away at the same time. The leader was already breathing heavily but the teenager didn’t even break a sweat. It gave him a bit of time to also check out the person who just saved him.

She had long raven hair reaching her waist left untied, her body was definitely curvy but it seemed like she was still growing. Her skin was just as glossy as her hair, with a pair of large purple eyes and small lips. There was no doubt that she would grow up to become a beautiful woman.

Noticing his gaze she turned towards him, staring back at him coldly until he looked away. The teenager was still juking it out with the 3 other guys but it was clear that even with the extra help, they couldn’t bring him down.

Though they didn’t look like they were intending to stop anytime, the other girl in their squad was performing some hand signs at the back.

“Greater Lighting bolt!”

“Physical boost, Magic shield, Magic shield.”

“Aegis, Greater Dispel.”

Three sets of spells fell right on top of the battlefield, one of them was instantly destroyed by a greater dispel. The lightning spell landing onto a almost transparent dome covering the teenager before bouncing off completely unharmed.

“Haha, round 2 it is.” The boy said happily, charging back into the fray.

“Who are you guys?” Ad asked the woman beside him.

Instead of answering him, she merely turned her eyes to his in awkward silence. This went on for a couple minutes with Ad trying his best to ignore the piercing stares she was giving.

“... Just another victim.” She said softly.

“Huh, sorry I didn’t catch what you just sadi.” Ad asked, surprised.

“I’m Ilena and he’s Eren, my husband. Now keep quiet for a bit.” She said as she gestured a few times in the air.

“Glacius Everto.” She intoned, causing a cold mist to cling to her purple robes while a giant glacier appeared in front of her hand.

She then threw the spell into the middle of the frag without warning. The only ones that noticed the glacier was the 2 girls on the other side and surprisingly, Eren. As soon as he say the glacier, he traded a few more blows before breaking away from the fight.

“After him!” The leader shouted furiously, still unaware of the incoming danger.

“NOO! Above you!” Tiffany finally managed to cry out in fear.

Everyone’s eyes shifted towards the sky due to her cries watching as it drew a perfect arc, crashing down onto them. A cloud of mist and ice sharpnel exploded from the point of impact, bringing an uneasy silence to the battle.

The remaining 2 girls starting to become paler and paler by the minutes without any movement from their party members.

“Hmm, looks like they’re dead huh.” Eren said nonchalantly.

Crack...Boom!

The white mist hanging around the area was blown away, showing the sorry figures of 3 bleeding adventurers.The leader had an arm around both his party member, helping them stay afloat. But his eyes were spewing fire as he stared vehemently at Eren.

“What? You still want more.” Eren mocked.

“Damn It! We’re leaving!” The leader growled angrily before dragging his teammates back towards the 2 girls at the back.

“Well that was easy, right Ilena?” He grinned at her.

“You could’ve ended the fight much earlier couldn’t you.”

“And who’s this guy?” He asked.

“Fertilizer.”

“What?... Really? ”

“Oi what’s that supposed to mean!”

“Basically, all the strength you gained from now on would eventually become someone else's, therefore fertilizer. But shouldn’t this place a new discovery? How did they get here so fast.” Eren replied.

‘Doesn’t matter, you’re the one that saved him, now it's your responsibility to make him stronger.” Ilena said.

“That true, well the dungeon isn’t a good place to talk, let’s go back first.” Eren threw him over his shoulder before running towards the dungeon portal, ignoring his screams of terror completely.

*****

“So all the strength I have is stored inside this evolution crystal, and when I’ve stored enough, someone will come and take it from me. Is that right?”

“Pretty much, oh, you also become a Heretic since they ripped everything out of you including the system. The system you’re using will deem you as a dangerous subject since it would then think your strength doesn’t come from it’s powers.” Eren said nonchalantly.

“I have no way out?”

“Nope!”

“Fuck, then what am I supposed to do!”

“There isn’t much you can do excpt quit now, get stronger than them or kill the one who’s supposed to inherit your powers.” Ilena said.

“I don’t think any of them can be done in such a short time, you said they could always kill me anytime they want if i wasn’t getting stronger.”

“You can always sit here and just wait for death.” She offered.

“Like hell I will.” Shooting her down instantly.

“Just it’s easy right, you’ll follow us and we’ll make you as strong as possible while you’re with us. In return, you’ll help us defeat the people that gave you the crystal in the first place.” Eren said excitedly.

“... You guys don’t see to think of this as anything rare, have you done this before?” Ad asked cautiously.

“We did., but everyone we tried to help either died or went over the the other side.”

“And you think I can help you?”

“No. But since I saved you once, I should take responsibility and help you all the way. Besides, I’m a Hero, how can I not help others in need.” He said as pride literally oozed out of him.

With everything he just heard, he wasn’t so sure if he wanted to continue climbing anymore.They might be lying of course but he still had so many things to do even with this massive threat looming over him. He couldn’t just back down because he would die, he wasn’t born that way.

He might be betrayed by them later on or they could have just been totally lying to him so he would join their team. But he doubted that they would do that as he didn't have any grudges with them.

He had also noticed that without a party, he couldn’t continue forward unless he paid off his debts soon. There was also no way he would let others pay the loan for him because he would owe them something then.

“Fine, I’ll join.”

“That’s right you will!”

“But on one condition.”

“Ehh...well let’s hear it first.” Eren replied, visibly annoyed.

Well he wouldn’t blame him, he was getting a free ride already but he still wanted more.

“If you want me to get any skills, you must help me pay for them until I pay off my debt.”

“That’s it? Oh well that’s easy to do, I never intended for you to pay up anywhere haha!” Eren laughed, relieved that it wasn’t some over the top request he had gotten the past few times.

“Wait you have a debt?” Eren asked, surprised.

“Why did you think I was alone then? I have a 5 million debt on my hand and a history with one of the greats. Which normal human would one me in their party.” He said, belittling himself.

“I see… Well it doesn’t matter now right! You have us now haha.”

“Let’s hope so.” Ad mumbled quietly to himself, but nodded at Eren.

“If you guys are done negotiating, then we should start immediately. We don’t have much time to make him stronger as usual.” Ilena said, bringing them back to reality.

“That right, well first, let’s take a look at your status shall we.” Eren declared loudly.

He had already promised to work with them, if he couldn’t even show them his stats, he shouldn’t have accepted their offer. Which was why he had no hesitation in displaying his status for them to see.

Name: Aiden Smith (17)

Skills 2/5 (3)

Race: Awakened Human (M)

Level: 4 (8 / 100)

Hp: 182/200 (4.5/hr + 30/hr)

Mp: 192/232 (-38) (13.15/hr + 30/hr)

Class: Sealmaster(2), Blademaster(1), CoW (1)

Stats: [AP: 0] [SP: 0]

STR: 21(+3) DEX: 25(+4) SPI: 25(+2) CON: 20(+3)

INT: 27(+3) LCK: 4/10 WILL: 17

+20% xp to double handed longswords.

Skills:

Mana Construct 1/10 (40/100)

Summons: Worker Cost: 50 Dura: - CD: -

Create Seal 2/10 (84/100)

Seals: Blast, Boost Cost: 19, 5 Dura: - CD: -

Magic Circuits 4/10 (22/100)

Passive

Survival Mastery 1/1

Passive

“As expected of a awakened being huh. Those are some decent stats you got despite being a pleb. This is easy to solve, you need lots of skills and stats, I’ve had a friend with this sealmater class before.

And she was very good at what she did, but you probably won’t have the time to get that strong. First we’ll focus on your physical abilities first, I can always give you the spells you need with the notes my friend gave me.” Ilena appraised.

“Then what do I need?”

“With the skill slots you have, let’s see…hmm, this can work. You’ll be sealing Blessing of the Wind, Quicken and Lightning speed into Accel. You need a shield too, I can provide that for you. We can have Astral bind, Entangling Roots and Slow sealed into Bind. That’ll solve your control skills for now.

Melee skill, let’s go with Slash, Counter and Fury. Finally for passives, you’ll get Mana control, One-handed Longsword Mastery and Katana Mastery. Yes, that sounds about right.” Ilena said.

“Wait wait wait, I won’t be able to fight properly if you dump all these new skills onto me.” Ad panicked.

“I see, you always do it your way and end up dead before long.” Ilena replied coldly.

“Ugh... I get alright, I’ll do it!” He grumbled.

“Haha, I’ll get the skill crystals in a few minutes kay, don’t run off while I’m gone.” Eren said in the same upbeat tone he always had.

When he said a few minutes, he had really meant a few minutes. It hasn't even been 10 minutes before Eren was back with a bag full of skill crystals.

“Well then, eat up!” Eren smiled, pushing the entire sack of crystals at him.

He stared at the bag in his hands for a minute or two before finally gathering all his courage to scoop the crystals out for consumption. A series of text boxes barraged his view as soon as the skill crystals did their work.

But he had to turn two of them into seals first before checking them which was pretty easy.

“I’m done.”

“Aegis, Protection, Shield. Now seal the 3 spells, it’s the same thing as sealing a skill.” Ilena said.

“Oh.” He replied, somewhat lost.

But he did get it done just a few minutes before the spells would collapse naturally and the results were pretty spectacular.

Bind Seal (Unique)

Rank -

3/3

A seal that sends a tendril of energy to hold the target in place.

Can be set on any surface in contact with your body or at a very close range around you. Can be used alongside other Seals.

Cost: 5 mana

Duration: Until dispelled/Cast

Seal trigger: Bind

Accel Seal (Unique)

Rank -

3/3

A seal that doubles the speed of the target for 5 minutes. Duration can be compressed into 3 seconds for stronger effects.

Can be used alongside other Seals.

Cost: 5 mana

Duration: 5 minutes/ 3 seconds

Seal trigger: Accel

Slash (Common)

Rank 2

1/10 (0 / 100)

Doubles the range of your sword for a single second and deal 2x the damage.

Will dismember limbs.

+2 Range

+2 Attack

Cost: 30 mana

Duration: 1 second

Cooldown: 9 seconds

Counter (Uncommon)

Rank 2

1/10 (0 / 100)

Deflect a single attack perfectly, breaking the opponent’s guard and return a attack back at the target.

Cost: 20 mana

Duration: 1 seconds

Cooldown: 15 seconds

Fury (Uncommon)

Rank 2

1/10 (0 / 100)

Gains 300% attack speed for a short duration, all melee skills also receive 50% reduction to cooldown and cost.

Cost: 50 mana

Duration: 30 seconds

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Mana control (Rare)

Rank 1

1/10 (0 / 100)

Grants a greater control over the flow of mana around you, allowing you to do what many others may not.

+20% Control

One-handed sword Mastery (Common)

Rank 1

1/10 (0 / 100)

Grants a basic understanding of how to use a 1H-sword with proficiency.

+20% xp gain when using 1H-sword

+10% damage when using 1H-sword

Katana Mastery (Common)

Rank 1

1/10 (0 / 100)

Grants a basic understanding of how to use a katana with proficiency

+20% xp gain when using katana’s

+10% damage when using katana’s

Shield Seal (Unique)

Rank -

3/3

Creates a 0.5m2 energy field in front of the seal, can be expanded into a 3m2 dome.

Can be used alongside other Seals.

Cost: 10 mana

Duration: Until dispelled/Cast

Seal Trigger: Shield

“See, it wasn’t that hard right.” Eren said.

“Easy for you to say.” He breathed out a sigh of relief.

There were records of people combusting spontaneously because they took too many skill crystals at one sitting. Luckily it didn’t come down to that.

“If you are done we’re diving back again as soon as the dungeon timer resets. You don’t have time anymore.”

“I know.”

“You do? I guess we’ll see then.”