After recovering from the small shock [Sacrificial lifespan] gave me, I thought a little deeper about the implications of the options I was given.

[Expanded lifespan] was just a straightforward upgrade, that relied on all of my stats, rather than just my constitution. For someone with a well-rounded physical build, it was the perfect skill. I never intended or wanted to have to put free stat points into constitution alone, just to extend my lifespan, after all. If I chose this skill, I wouldn't have to. On top of that, the skill's 'efficacy' was larger than its predecessor, giving me more than 300 years of life the moment I would choose the skill. By the end of the next tier, that would increase to more than a thousand, doubling what the tier 2 skill [Growing lifespan] had been capable of. All of this culminated in a reliable skill with more growth potential.

The next option was a little more confusing. [Transfer lifespan] would allow me to give my lifespan to others. It kept the tier 2 effect, so I would continue to gain years of life as my constitution grew, but it didn't say anything about the consistency. If I gave someone 1 of my years of life, would they receive the full year, or only a part of it?

The skill seemed a little too limited and vague to choose, though it had interesting growth potential. Being able to keep my parents alive for centuries was an appealing option to me, but something told me they would never want to live that long, especially if it came at my expense. Furthermore, my milestone skills were about to reach tier 3. The time to focus on growth potential rather than current, immediate benefits was starting to pass. Typically, you wanted to have a set path for each of your skills by tier 3, at least. Though a skill like [Weak mana sense] could make me ignore this general rule out of sheer versatility, [Transfer lifespan] seemed like too big of a risk to take, especially considering its limited usefulness.

Finally, [Sacrificial lifespan]. What was there to even say about this skill? It was worded vaguely, almost as vague as that one time I was offered [Abyssal sight] skill. The thing was, no matter how good of a skill it was, I wouldn't pick it. My principle of 'be free, as long as you don't hurt others unnecessarily' came into play here. The fact that it said 'innocents', meant that it would be completely unusable on the people I tended to kill anyway.

Still, it was a little strange that I was offered this skill. Last time, I was offered a similar skill that would allow me to sap lifespan from anything and anyone, yet this time it was limited to just innocent beings. It felt like a downgrade in every way, unless [Sacrificial lifespan] gave like fifty years for every ant I killed or something. Still, the implications it had for my class evolution made it far too dangerous of a skill to accept, even if it wasn't as cruel as it sounded.

I took note of the strange theme my options had taken. One skill a direct upgrade, the other is the first example of an altruistic skill and the last is the exact opposite. Was the system trying to make me choose between good and evil? Too bad it had to offer me three choices, instead of two.

With all of my skills looked at, I decided to meditate for a few hours to settle my mind. I would make a decision afterward.

I spent a few hours in the forest in my mind, growing my trees a little more with each blink, adding some moss on the shady patches of the white underground and laying in the grass that had started to spread slowly. My cabin was still a little dilapidated, but it was holding up strong.

After exploring the perimeter of my little forest, I watched in awe as the white expanse beyond it reached the horizon, no sign of life anywhere. Once again, I realised that I had a lot left to do before I could truly start to heal.

I opened my eyes in the real world, ready to make a decision.

First, I picked [Expanded lifespan], simply because it was the most solid and reliable option. The other two skills were both risks I wasn't willing to take, in their own way.

As I chose the skill, I saw the system prompt update.

[Expanding lifespan](N/A)

Tier 3 skill.

Gain 1 year of life for every 3 points in any physical skill you possess.

Increase constitution to the next milestone to increase skill tier.

With a satisfied smile, I moved to the next choice, settling on [Weak mana sense]. All living creatures had mana in one way or another. Those that weren't lucky enough to get cores also had mana flow through their veins, though they couldn't control it without specific skills, nor could they generate more of it. They were forced to absorb it out of the environment, a task that required several skills to function, limiting most without cores to mediocrity. That being said, the point still stands. If [Weak mana sense] grew into a more detailed and sensitive skill, I would have the perfect reconnaissance skill. That possibility was just too useful to pass up.

The other two options were both decent, making this a harder choice than the last, but neither fit exactly what I needed or wanted. [Reactionary senses] would forever be limited to the mundane senses that most organisms had in some way, and would therefore be easily fooled by the truly powerful and resourceful, while the other option, [Mana refracting senses], was a powerful skill, but not very useful to me at this moment. Because of that, my mind was set.

As I chose the skill, the system prompt changed once again, revealing my new skill and my new status screen with it.

[Weak mana sense](N/A)

Tier 3 skill.

All of your body parts become flexible.

Awaken a sixth sense that can pick up large shifts in mana or dense areas of mana from a distance.

Increase dexterity to the next milestone to increase skill tier.

Name: Arthur Titles [Dark prodigy] Class: [Overloading Death Knight] LVL 50 Strength 304 Constitution 300 Dexterity 300 Intelligence 75 Wisdom 263 Affinity 528 Free stat points 25

Skills:

Passive:

[Dark radiance core](46%), [Dark sight](84%), [Berserker Swordsmanship](88%),

[Expanded lifespan](N/A), [Mental palace](N/A), [Fast processing](N/A), [Dark Form](35%), [Overload Aura](49%), [Weak mana sense](N/A), [Overload-reliant physique](N/A)

Active:

[Ghost apparation](17%), [Curse mark(guide)](92%), [Overloaded orb](87%), [Overloaded sword](68%), [Dark Blade Maelstrom](56%), [Aura step](29%)

With flexible senses re-evolving into a passive skill, all of my milestone skills were once again passive. As the new skill settled in, I immediately felt the difference.

All around me, I felt a light shimmer. Like it was raining around me, yet the rain wasn't necessarily falling down, just moving through the air. Of course, it was raining, that just wasn't what I was feeling. No, I was pretty sure the dense water mana of the dungeon was being picked up by my mana sense. I tried to focus a little on the mana, but it didn't become any 'clearer'. Even as I tried to feel the mana leftover in the city itself, I only picked up more light 'buzzing' of water mana. With all of the bosses gone, this wasn't a major surprise. I supposed I would be able to explore my new skill more in the capital on the surface, since that place was filled with strong people.

With my stats and skills taken care of, I looked at the final system notification. The one that I had kept for last. The dungeon reward! Last time, I had gotten the talisman to summon Revan. Of course, at the time I had achieved an incredible feat, killing a tier 3 as a tier 1. This time, the reward would no doubt be more in line with what other people tended to receive as a reward, though I still felt Cerion and I had performed exemplary, for a pair of tier 2s, so I held out some hope for a great reward.

After some hesitation, I opened the notification that floated in the air.

Calculating dungeon clear award....Awarded the [Miniature tear of power].

As the system prompt finished, a small necklace with a transparent marble attached to the end fell into my hands. The necklace itself seemed to be made out of gold, with small interlinking shackles forming a thin chain. This was in turn attached to the transparent marble, which had a hole carved in the middle for the small gold chain to pass through.

[Miniature tear of power]

Tier 3 necklace.

(Set item)

This necklace allows the holder to store any kind of mana into the orb, though the amount is limited to a tier 3 mana crystal.

Mana can be absorbed from the holder's surroundings or their core itself.

Stored mana can be released or transferred freely, whether that be into an item, the holder's surroundings, or their core.

This is a set item that unlocks a new function when paired with the [Miniature tear of skill].

As I held the necklace out in front of me, staring at its ornate appearance in wonder, I pondered the implications of its description.

Since it stored any kind of mana, that meant that overloaded mana was also free game. For the past little while, I had been having trouble making use of my skills right when a battle started or after apparations because I needed time to charge the air around me with mana. This created lulls in battle where I would be virtually defenceless. I had counteracted this issue by retreating to a safe location before reengaging each time, but in the tournament that wouldn't be possible. With this new item, however, I would be able to charge and discharge overloaded mana in between apparations, giving me more mobility and making my mana source more reliable.

Unfortunately, the item was limited in amount, similar to a tier 3 mana crystal that alchemists and mages used to craft. Mana crystals grew in mana-dense areas, underground.

When pulled out, they could slowly release the mana they were made out of, growing smaller and smaller until they broke. That meant they were hardly useful in battle, like my necklace was. Still, I knew that a tier 3 crystal could only store so much mana. My skills were decently mana-efficient, so a single discharge could give me enough overloaded mana to use my skills for a few seconds, before my core saturated the air with enough mana on its own. In the future, however, that would not be the case.

In other words, the necklace was damn useful currently, but would be out scaled by my skills halfway through tier 3. That meant that I would still have to keep a lookout for a different way to create a bunch of overloaded mana after apparating. For now, though, it would do.

Even after the necklace was out scaled, I could use it for different purposes. Imagine if I came across a mana-dense area filled with a very rare mana type! There were hundreds of elements, affinities and types of mana. It was even said that Helios had his own personal mana type, godly mana. If I came across such a rare type of mana, I could then store it and sell it to a crafter for top coin, or keep it for my own purposes. All in all, it was a good item, and I could imagine several situations where storing some mana would come in handy, especially if there wasn't a limitation on its kind.

Still, I had to wonder about this whole 'set item' business. I had only received one item. Did we need to clear this dungeon again to get the other piece?

As I pondered this, I felt Cerion pat my shoulder, trying to get my attention. I turned around, only to see him stand there, holding another necklace with a grin. This necklace had an orb attached to it as well. It slowly started to glow.

A system notification popped up, causing us both to chuckle conspiratorially.

Set gathered! Set item functions activated.