I opened my eyes when the disorientation went away, finding myself in a very large room.

It was completely barren, no enemies were present on the ground, yet.

The floor was made of dirt, the walls’ surfaces bumpy and the ceiling was at least thirty meters high.

I noticed that many tombstones could be seen around me. Graves, resources to replenish the undead army, I thought.

In the distant wall, a semi-circular platform could be seen. It had a diameter of about ten meters.

It was close to the ceiling, the difference being merely five meters. It looked natural, as it had the same rough feel as the walls, and it didn’t sit on top of any pillars.

There were many large statues on top of it, each of them resembled a formidable creature.

On its surface stood a figure, it wore a hooded, baggy robe. Its skeletal arms held a very long staff firmly.

I’ve seen that Staff before, I thought. It seemed like a regular wooden stick, but one of its ends had many branches. A white gem was floating between them.

The majority of its head was hidden, except its skeletal face and a pair of large horns stemming from the sides of its head.

One of them seems to have been chopped off cleanly, I thought. A large part of it seemed missing.

It was a lich, a regular examination brought up this screen.

{Dungeon Boss}

[Lich] (Common)

Level: ???

I realized that it must have been at least 10 levels higher than me, as the regular examination didn’t show the levels of foes much stronger than the host.

Regardless, I bought information on its level from the shop for five points, its level was 22 according to the system.

A fourteen-level gap, huh? I thought. I was reconsidering my plans, but I shook my head as I remembered having a trump card of my own.

The lich let out a loud screech and waved its staff. Suddenly, ten skeletons and five zombies crawled out of what I recognized to be graves.

Each of them was level 1, and beating them would be rather easy.

This dungeon tested people’s endurance. There would be a total of a thousand undead creatures throughout the run, the hosts got the clear when they managed to defeat each and every regular undead.

But I didn’t have time for that, so my attention was naturally on the necromancer.

“[Burn that invader!]” I shouted, my target being the lich’s forehead. A cylindrical blast with a diameter of one millimeter escaped my pointing finger, its temperature reaching 1000° K.

The attack instantly reached its goal, the lich caught fire. The blast penetrated its forehead and escaped from the rear of its head; it even penetrated the wall of the dungeon.

That’s a powerful attack, I thought. It took five hundred mana, though!

The 1000° K fire still engulfed the monster, draining its mana continuously, four hundred and ten mana points were drained each second.

I waited for a while, running around the battlefield to level up [Light steps]. Wasting mana on level 1 monsters didn’t seem worthwhile, so their numbers kept increasing.

I looked back at the lich; the fire hadn’t been extinguished yet. At least half an hour had passed, so the flames must have drained at least seven hundred thousand mana.

It was impossible for a creature of this level to have this much mana, but I suspected that the Lich was using the dungeon’s ambient mana as its own.

Such a feat requires extensive knowledge of Magic Circuitry, I thought. It must be a countermeasure by the one who designed the dungeon, to dissuade hosts from trying to beat the dungeon quickly.

The dungeon’s notice wasn’t joking when it advised the hosts to leave the [Boss] alone.

However, I knew a critical detail about liches.

They were among the strongest (Common) monsters, virtually immortal unless the host could directly cripple its soul. However, a well-informed person could deal with them, as their immortality relied on having a phylactery, which stored their soul.

I need to find it, I thought. The lich must be keeping it close by.

I took off my cape, and put my crown on the ground.

“[It’s fine!]” I shouted; my body instantly started burning. The flame was 1000°K and it kept burning through the consumption of ambient mana.

It boosted each of my physical stats by one hundred points, but the pain was agonizing. I endured it and jumped high enough to reach the lich’s platform. I got closer to my enemy, in order to extinguish the flame burning him.

“[Flame-N-Go]” I shouted. I extinguished the flames burning the Lich. It seemed to be mostly unaffected by the flames, save for its robe, which completely disappeared.

The lich started attacking me ruthlessly, using its staff as a rod. The creature seemed to be formidable even in close combat, as I had to rely on the increase in stats from the [It’s fine!] skill to easily avoid the blows.

He managed to wound me in a couple of places due to my carelessness, but the increased regeneration rate healed me fast enough.

I kept staring at different parts of its body as it attacked me, trying to find any accessories.

Nothing seemed out of place, so I switched to looking around the platform.

Suddenly, something grabbed my attention.

One of the statues on the platform resembled the lich I was fighting, except that it was all in gray. Its left horn being the only part with the same color as the lich’s bones.

I immediately rushed towards the statue, I put my hand on the horn and ignited it. Seeing that it had mana, my suspicions were confirmed and I opted for the flames to use that mana as their fuel.

As soon as the flames stopped burning the horn, the Lich dropped on the ground. It screamed loudly with a hoarse voice, and then disintegrated.

[Lich] (Common) (Level: 22) defeated! Host earned 180000 EXP.

-Host levelled up x3!

-Host reached Level 11! 12 MAG, 12 END and 24 free stat points acquired.

[It’s Fine] levelled up x1! It reached level 3.

[Flame-N-Go] levelled up x1! It reached level 3.

[Light Steps] levelled up x1! It reached level 3.

Its staff didn’t disappear, and a chest appeared.

Hidden conditions fulfilled! Corresponding rewards appeared!

A basic examination called it a [Branch of the Unholy]. I decided not to waste information on identifying it, as Petra should be able to see its description.

I opened the chest and grabbed the monetary reward, twenty lesser mana stones.

It’s sad that subsequent clearings of these dungeons will only give two mana stones each, I thought.

I ignited myself on fire and jumped to the ground, as the exit portal was there and my regular stats weren’t enough to protect me from the fall. I grabbed all my equipment and took my leave.

As soon as I left the dungeon, the same voice from before started talking to me.

[Host participated in the first clearing of this dungeon! 10000 tutorial points awarded.

Host is the first to clear this dungeon alone in his group! 100000 tutorial points awarded.

Host is the first to clear this dungeon in the whole tutorial! 100000 tutorial points awarded

Host is the first to clear this dungeon alone in the whole tutorial! 150000 points awarded.

Host clears a (Common) dungeon! 500 points awarded

Host clears a (Common) dungeon alone! 1000 points awarded.

As I thought, there was no way they’d clear the dungeon before me. There was a special group of people in the tutorial, three of the people in it had (Legendary) classes. They even decided to cooperate!

Beating them to the chase felt rather sweet.

I opened the status screen.

Host: Jason Stubbs

HP 200/200 (1 HP/580 seconds)

Class: The Burned Man!

Mana 800/800 (1.3 mana/1 second)

Level 11: 63500/67000

Stat Points: 27

STR: 15

VIT: 30

DEX: 15

AGI: 17

MAG: 88 (+10)

END:64 (+10)

Class Skills:

General Skills:

[Flame-n-Go]: Level 3

[Zoom]: Level 1

[It’s fine!]: Level 3

[Shut-Down]: Level 1

[Burn That Invader!]: Level 1

[Light Steps]: Level 3

[Kill Them Before They Spread!]: Level 1

[Shadow Assimilation]: Level 2

I felt rather pleased at my growth rate. I levelled up way faster than most people in the tutorial, because I was doing dungeons on my own.

I put 16 points in END, to better endure the pain of the flames.

I used [Zoom] to go back to the area close to the safe room, as there were some things that I needed to do.

*

I opened my eyes, finding myself close to the safe room’s entrance. My private parts were covered this time, as the cape wasn’t being used to hold the mana stones.

“Attempting it may be a suicide!” said a voice “I know you’re strong, but there is nothing to do about their immunity to physical damage”.

There was no response, as if her conversation partner decided to ignore her. I recognized the speaker to be Marla, she was talking to Chris.

I could hear many others talking in the background, but they seemed to lower their voices when they noticed my arrival.

Suddenly, a voice called to me.

“Jason!” shouted Petra. She jogged towards my direction.

“I need you to [Identify] this.” I said, giving her the Staff which I got from the previous dungeon.

She looked startled when I didn’t greet her, but nodded nonetheless.

She transferred the description screen that appeared after she used the skill.

Petra Lehmann is sharing a system screen with the Host.

[Open]

[Close]

I chose to [Open] it, another screen swiftly appeared after that.

[Branch of the Unholy]

(Common)

Many users of the Deadly arts have appeared over the ages, none of them coming even close to Jessica the Unholy!

In a society controlled by the church, she stood up against the madness and lit the path for those who were lost! She was a protector, yet she was the Unholy.

-Increases MAG by 20 points.

-Mana Recovery Rate x2.

I remembered this item! A guy named Wilhelm used a copy of this Staff in my past life.

He had an (Uncommon) class and lacked the blessing of a god, yet he was always among the top rankers around the world.

He never said anything about his staff being special. I remembered that he was a huge fan of necromancers despite being a [Lightning Mage] himself.

I realized the true value of this staff. Another plan started brewing inside my head, but it had to wait until I was done with my current scheme.

I hid my pleasure, and thanked Petra for her help, “Did anything interesting happen during my absence?” I spoke.

“Once you left the dungeon, those guys were finally able to examine its description. They were distraught by the physical immunity of slimes, but Chris still wanted to attempt it anyway. I was able to convince to wait, saying that you had magic spells that could help them” she summarized, and then lowered her voice “I believe we should let them try the dungeon, they’ll give up due to the difficulty and we’ll be able to monopolize it!”.

I shook my head, that was a short-sighted decision.

“You have the [Contract] skill” I said, grinning “thus I’ll be using this chance to get rich!”.

“You mean ‘We’ will get rich.” She squinted her eyes.

“Sure.” I said “Just watch me, and play along”.

I took my cape off, and put my crown and staff aside.

I applauded for some seconds, trying to grab those people’s attention.

“Hello everyone!” I said “This is Jason, the Classless guy! I have a bargain for you”.

I instantly ignited myself on fire. The sight must’ve been terrifying, as everyone’s eyes were wide open.

“Don’t worry! This is an ability of mine. I am able to use many forms of fire magic, and my current level is eleven. This fact could be confirmed both by Petra and Marla, as they have the Identify skill.”

I waited for Marla to [Identify] me, she seemed genuinely terrified as she told the others that I had a (Legendary) class, [The Burned Man!].

“Alright! Now that we’re done with introductions, I’d like to offer you a very enticing deal!” I raised both my arms in the air from excitement.

The others still looked puzzled.

“What I’m saying is, I’ll be power-levelling those who agree to the contract I propose!” I added.

You have received messages! (1) from System Admin.

[Open]

[Close]

The unexpected notice interrupted my passionate speech and startled me; I’ve never seen anything like it before.

The only thing I knew about the system admin was from personal experience, when ‘they’ intervened to fix my system’s bugs.

I had a suspicion that it was just a bug, but I opened the message just in case.

[System Admin]:

Hahaha! You’re so entertaining! Keep it up, former [Dismantler].