As the notification appeared in front of me, a certain breeze of air seemed to surround us. For a moment, I felt like every breath I drew was fresh, in stark contrast to the dungeon’s damp, musky air. My mana sense became slightly sharper, turning the ambient mana’s ‘feeling’ from a distant hum to a slow drone.

I saw Cerion look intently at the air in front of him, signaling that he, too, had received the notification.

“Huh.”, I began, “Did you get a necklace too?”

Cerion nodded.

“I did indeed. The [Miniature tear of skill] increases my skill progression for skills under or at tier 3.”

I raised my brows in surprise, somewhat jealous of his reward. Tier 3 skill progression was tedious and slow, not to mention that some skills were far more annoying to train than others and therefore tended to lag behind the other ones. It wasn’t particularly a life-saver, but it would be incredibly convenient, especially for younger people that just set out on their journey.

For Cerion, it fell into the ‘convenient’ category, since the path to tier 4 would be a long one anyway, but I had no doubt he was quite satisfied with his reward.

Would I trade my necklace for his? Absolutely not. The power core was a perfect fit for my current weakness, and it would serve to help me gather rare mana even when I outscaled the item itself.

Still, the advantage the skill core gave Cerion in the future wasn’t lost on me. There were many different skills in this world. Undoubtedly, there would be a few low-tier skills that were notoriously difficult to progress by their very nature. Knowing the system, an item like the skill core could have immense potential when used creatively. Succeeding in this world was all about finding whatever exploit you could, after all.

Waving away my thoughts, I turned my focus back to the conversation.

“I got a similar item, the [Miniature power core]. It allows me to store mana of any kind, with a maximum amount similar to a tier 3 mana crystal. It seems my reward is a set with yours, though for some reason the set effect activated without either of us wearing both at once.”

Cerion’s grin grew.

“What’s your item’s set effect? Take a look.”

I frowned, because apparently, Cerion knew something I didn’t. Opening the item description again, I found out why Cerion was looking at me the way he was.

[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].

Set activated.

Set effect: Increase maximum amount of mana that can be dedicated towards skills by a small amount, for the holder(s) of either of the set’s necklaces.

Reading the extra effect, I grinned.

“Rejoice!”, I said bombastically, “Thanks to me, you’re currently enjoying a 5% increase in skill… power?” I ended lamely.

“What do you mean?”, Cerion replied, chuckling at my confusion.

“The description says ‘Increase maximum amount of mana that can be dedicated towards skills by a small amount, for the holder(s) of either of the set’s necklaces.’ I get what it means, but does ‘more mana’ really directly translate into ‘more power’?”

Cerion hummed for a moment, tapping his chin.

“With straightforward skills like your dark orbs and slash-extensions, yes, I believe so. Your movement skill might become slightly more hazardous, though. Or should I say ‘even more hazardous’...” Cerion replied drolly.

“Well, my set effect improves the power of passive skills by a ‘tiny’ amount. I think you might have noticed that effect when the set first activated. Speaking of activation, how about we do some tests. We now know we don’t need to wear both of the pieces for the effect to activate, but how far do we need to be from one another for it to deactivate?”

I nodded along to his explanation and started to make some distance between the two of us.

After about thirty paces, I felt the strength of my passive skills decrease a bit. The most notable difference happened to my [Weak mana sense], which lost some detail, I guess. Maybe that’s because the skill itself is still rather weak. Time would tell, I concluded.

After approaching each other once again, the set effect reactivated.

A few small experiments later, we came to the conclusion that to activate the set, we had to be a few paces away from each other, though it would only deactivate once we strayed about fifty meters apart, leaving us some wiggle room. Whether the set effects were worth the trouble of sticking together would depend on our environment and our opponent, though I was confident the effects would serve us well in the upcoming doubles tournament.

With that out of the way, Cerion and I decided to return to the dungeon entrance. All in all, We had finished the dungeon on the seventh day, leaving some time to rest before Michael’s exam tomorrow. At least, that would be the case if Cerion’s clock was correct. Considering its expensive appearance, I was confident my estimation was right.

About three hours later, Cerion and I stepped onto the circular platform that served as the way in and out of the dungeon, activating it by pulling the lever.

As the platform levitated up the cavern roof, I gave the city of tears one last look. It was unlikely that I would ever return here, which was somewhat sad. The dungeon had been a welcome reprieve from brain-dead monsters, instead throwing bosses at us that each took some quick thinking to defeat. Perhaps more importantly, the environment was beautiful. Now that it no longer threatened to kill Cerion and me, we could appreciate the efforts the dungeon had gone to to make a truly unique environment.

A while later, the platform disappeared into the cavern’s roof, finally taking us back to safety.

~scene transition~

The next morning, I got out of bed early. From the grandfather clock in our lodge’s living room, I could tell that it was eight o’clock, if my clock reading skills weren’t failing me. Doran had had enough of my limited knowledge on some topics and had taken the time to educate me a little on our journey to the capital. His efforts had borne fruit, allowing me to read a clock now. At least, most of the time.

Michael’s exam would begin at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, in a government building not far from the nearest exit of the underground network we found ourselves in.

Currently, he was hard at work studying at a little desk nearby, so focused on his reading material that he hadn't even noticed me walk in.

The start of the tournament was a few days away, so I decided to have a talk with the guild head first, mostly about meeting my uncle, as well as advice regarding my intelligence stat.

Putting on most of my equipment, bar my broken armour, which I stored in my spatial pouch, I headed out the door.

First, I visited one of the guild’s blacksmiths, who agreed to repair my armour with materials he had on hand for a fair price. He assured me he would be able to save its ‘auto equip’ property, so I decided to trust him with it, since I was never really that attached to it in the first place.

With that done, I headed down the familiar path that lead to a small cabin in the middle of an otherwise empty cavern.

With no actual door to knock on, I instead knocked on the doorframe and waited for slow footsteps to approach.

A bald, hunched-over old man that I recognised as the guild head appeared, opening the tarp that covered the entrance. The grumpy look on his face turned into a smile when he noticed me.

“Ah! It’s just you, Arthur! I thought those unimarks had come to settle the score…” he greeted me ominously. We talked while we walked to the couches around his fireplace. A few minutes later, we were both seated with a sweet lemon tea in our hands.

“Unimarks?”, I said nervously, “well, if you’re expecting guests, I should probably just go…”

After a moment of tense silence, he started to cackle madly.

“Oh, don’t worry about them! They’ve had several hundred years to come by, yet they still haven’t found me! Nasty buggers, those unimarks…” he finished conspiratorially.

“Who are they?” I asked, curious to know who could scare a tear six almost senseless.

“Rabbits with horns, that’s what they are! One of the worst creatures in existence, a rabbit, mutated to grow horns!”

I sighed. So it was just another one of his mad ravings. After nearly a week, I had forgotten this old man loved to joke around. With a frown, I changed the topic.

“Actually, I didn’t come here to ask about rabbits. I had a question about my stat distribution and about my uncle.”

Realization seemed to dawn on the guild head’s face as he pulled out an enveloppe.

“Here! Another letter from your uncle! Read it first!” he said jovially, pushing the piece of paper into my hands impatiently.

Putting my cup of lemon tea on a small wooden night stand next to my chair, I picked up the enveloppe and opened it, unfurling the letter inside.

Dear Arthur

If you are reading this letter, that must mean that you managed to conquer the [City of tears] dungeon. I have no doubt you wish to curse my name at this time, due to the dungeon’s strange difficulty. I ran it myself several times when I was in the third tear, usually in a large group and even then we had difficulty with some of the bosses inside of the city proper, so trust me when I say I understand your pain.

That being said, I was confident you would succeed when I received your tier 2 status from your guild head, who I have been in contact with. With skills like that, few threats in the dungeon could keep you down permanently, especially with the protective items your partner undoubtedly carries on him. I could have granted you the opportunity to raid an easier dungeon, but I felt it necessary to challenge you two, so that neither of you rests on your laurels before the tournament. Trust me when I say that even the weakest seeded participant can provide a real challenge. We can discuss your success in more detail when next we meet.

Speaking of meeting, a date has been arranged. Your friend’s father will arrive in the city soon, so we have arranged a meeting with him, your guild head and the both of you all at once, to occur two days after your departure from the dungeon, at 2 in the afternoon. The meeting will be held in the palace, where you will be escorted by my subordinates. I hope to see you there, to clear up any misunderstanding that might still exist between the two of us.

Best regards,

Captain of the Royal Guard, Royal Savior, your uncle,

Robart

After finishing my reading, I folded the letter closed again and put it away. The old man next to me leaned in curiously, like a housewife trying to pick up on the newest gossip.

“So? What did it say?” he asked excitedly.

I sighed.

“Shouldn’t you know by now? Apparently, all five of us are meeting tomorrow afternoon in the palace.”

“Ah, right! I almost forgot! Thanks for reminding me, young man!” the insane old codger replied jovially.

I rubbed my temples, feeling another headache coming.