"Are you sure it is okay to bring us with you and not take Ash and Nia?" Ruth asked for the third time.

Ian looked back from the portal and gave their new enchanter a smile, "I'm fairly certain they won't stop running that dungeon until they get their full sets of armor—even if they hit the level cap and end up running the boss ten or twenty times per drop."

"Sorry," Ruth said. "I just feel like we are getting so much, and we haven't done anything to deserve it."

"Don't worry about that at all," Claire said, giving the other woman a smile. "I have the feeling you will be enchanting all sorts of crazy things before you know it. Today though, we are gonna level! Remember, stick next to one of us, and we will be pushing towards the village after the first loop."

"Alright, we trust you all," Jimmy said, giving everyone a smile.

Heading through the portal, Ian was happy to see the sun was out.

"I hate that change," Tram grumbled. "At least it isn't dark in here. I remember that stream of yours, Ian."

"Yeah, though I wouldn't mind getting another drop off of the rare spawn," he replied, waiting for everyone to get their bearings. "Alright, lots of them are out in the fields. I told Ash that we would try to be done by noon, so we have about seven hours of leveling today. Remember, safety first."

Getting a nod, he started leading everyone off towards the closest worker. With only a few minutes of jogging, they came to the first field.

"Let me handle this one," Tram said. "I want to try out a couple of my new skills."

Getting a thumbs up, Tram ran ahead of the group. When he got to the edge of the field, he suddenly blurred the thirty yards to the worker and brought his shield across his body to smack the startled creature in the face. Ian could hear the thunk of the shield hitting the horker's snout. The second after the shield struck, Tram brought his sword forward and slashed across the creature's neck, causing a spray of blood to spatter his shield.

Congratulations! You have defeated an enemy more than 100 levels higher than you. Experience rewards are quadrupled. You have earned 2 levels. You have achieved level 380. You have been awarded 60 skill points!

"Wow, we just gained nine levels from that one kill," Ruth said, eyes going wide.

"It will slow down quite a bit here in a moment," Ian said, flashing her a smile. "We are getting two levels or so a kill out here, and three or four from the ones in town now. The feat multiplier will drop from a ten multiplier to a four multiplier for monsters that are one hundred levels higher than you. Since you are about to hit three hundred, you probably only have a couple more kills until it drops down quite a bit."

Jimmy started laughing as Ruth snorted and looked at Ian like he was crazy. "Listen, Ian, we've gotten more levels in the last fourteen hours than we have gotten in the last six years we have been diving," she said. "If it takes a hundred of these little piggies to get a level, it is still far better than anything we've been able to accomplish."

"Fair point," Ian admitted as Tram returned.

"You'll have to forgive him," Claire said, giving Ian a smirk. "He wasn't trying to make light of your leveling pace. He was in a similar situation during the course of reaching his first milestone. You'll actually be able to read about it when we finish today if you want."

"Oh?" Jimmy asked.

"I gave the Guild Master a bunch of reports from the Faeorcen about hard mode awakening challenges, similar to what I went through," Ian said, as they were coming up on the next field. "She promised to release them today, along with a transcript of my own awakening challenge.

"Give me a moment, I'm gonna take this one."

Getting a nod, Ian stepped out onto the field. Charging forward, the worker saw him and raised its spade to chop it down at him. Side-stepping at the last moment, Ian activated Magic Soul just as the spade whooshed down on his left. He slammed the mana imbued spearhead into the monster's chest, twisted, and yanked it back out.

The creature looked stunned for a moment before it dropped to the ground, not even squealing in pain.

Congratulations! You have defeated an enemy more than 100 levels higher than you. Experience rewards are quadrupled. You have earned 2 levels. You have achieved level 382. You have been awarded 60 skill points!

The blood that had splashed all over him was pushed away from his armor and weapons by his skill, Squeaky Clean, as he looted the body.

"I love this skill so much," he murmured to himself, as he looked around to see if there were any other workers on the other end of the long field. Not seeing any, he walked back to his party.

"—have made millions from that information. Any clan, and quite a few countries, would have given him enough to retire on for the type of information he just gave away," Ruth said, obviously shocked.

"Think about it, Ruth," Lana said. "Ian has the ability to go as far as he wants, as long as he is careful about it. He already has the potential to make thousands of dollars a day. Hell, Nia and Ash easily pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars in gear out of the dungeon yesterday. Money is only a temporary issue for him."

"And not much of one," Ian added, stopping next to Claire. "The AO is providing me with everything I need right now. I was a single accident away from homelessness for nearly a year and a half before I finally completed my challenge. Since then, I've met a lot of good people who have helped me, and I plan on returning that kindness by following in their footsteps. Besides, once you've hit rock bottom, it becomes really easy to see what's important in life," Ian said, looking around between his friends. "You don't need lots of money to be happy, just good people to spend your time with."

"Well said, you sappy bastard," Tram said, giving off overly dramatic sniffles from beneath his helmet. "Now go find the next group before I actually start crying."

Laughing, Ian smacked him in the back of the armor, "Just over the ridge, buddy. It's your turn again."

Congratulations! You have defeated an enemy more than 50 levels higher than you. Experience rewards are doubled. You have earned 1 level. You have achieved level 436. You have been awarded 30 skill points!

"Honestly, Ian, this is getting absurd," Tram said, watching Ruth and Jimmy loot the worker. "We're going into the town. Even without any combat skills, they just smacked that thing around like it was a blowup doll at a frat house."

"God damn it, Tram," Lana said, jaw clenched. "We have hundreds of millions of people watching right now. Could you keep your weird comparisons to yourself?"

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"I mean…I could, but why would I do that?"

"I hate you so much sometimes," she said, sighing as she turned to Ian. "As much as it pains me to agree with him about anything right now, he's right about us moving into town. I also just picked up a new crowd control skill and an attack spell, so we should go in there and slaughter the village."

"Dang," Tram said, nudging Ian. "Can't believe she said that with a straight face. Such evil, violent tendencies from such a pure-hearted young lady."

Ian chuckled, looking down the road to the gate, "I think you two are right. Let's wait for Claire, Ruth, and Jimmy. We have another few hours before I told Ash we would be out, and I'm sure that she will forgive us if we take a little extra time."

"She'll definitely give you shit for it, though," Tram responded with a chuckle.

"Of course! What type of little sister would she be if she didn't take every opportunity to remind me of my shortcomings?"

"Claire, come save me!" Lana called out. "We need to go into the village so these two don't have enough time to talk."

"Yeah, we do," Claire said, walking up alongside of the crafting couple. "Did you see these two? Ruth accidentally cut that poor boar in half."

"I'm not used to having any real strength," the woman said, unable to keep the excitement off her face. "These mobs are easier than the ratkin we've been fighting up to this point. Though I never expected my status screen to look like this."

"Yeah, I needed to spend my points," Ian said. "And I'm very pleased with the results."

Name: Ian Spelling (Hidden)

Alias: Zero

LVL: 436

Status:

STR: 10817

END: 7065

AGI: 7426

WIL: 9697

INT: 9841

Skills: Prestige Mode (Inherent), Prestige War Leader (Inherent), Statistical Synchronization (Inherent), Everything the Light Touches (Inherent), Squeaky Clean (Inherent)

Common: Enhanced Body (M), Enhanced Mind (M),

Uncommon: Conceal Identity, Analyze 1/5, Poison Resistance 1/5, Basic Item Storage (M), Strength (M), Agility 7/10, Endurance 6/10, Willpower (M), Intelligence (M), Basic Mana Regeneration 4/5, Soothing Touch 1/5

Rare: Magic Soul

Available SP: 30

"You're pleased with the results?" Jimmy said with a snort. "I can't wait to get back and hear what your actual status is now. All I know is that I feel I could take on the world now."

"We still need to be careful," Claire said. "When we go in, we stick near Tram. His tanking skills should help keep enemies off of us. Ian will be killing as many monsters as possible while flexing to help protect us when needed. Lana will help with crowd control and ranged attacks, while the rest of us protect her and flank anything on Tram.

"If it looks like we are being overrun, we knock down a door and head inside. Honestly, we'll probably end up doing that anyways and just loot the mobs as they fall."

"Definitely," Ian said. "They come at us like ants in there. It is pretty easy to pull twenty or more in a go. Especially if we create noise."

"Alright, everyone ready?" Claire asked, getting a nod from everyone. "Cool, let's head on in."

Lana's hands began to glow as a handful of leaves suddenly appeared in front of them before shooting towards the gate guard. They rapidly spun as they hit the horker and cut deep gashes across its body.

Ian sprinted at the now severely wounded monster as Tram used his charge ability to appear in front of the other one and stun it. He finished it off just as Ian drove his spear into the chest of the first guard.

Ignoring the notifications, he stuck his head inside the gate and saw patrols heading in different directions away from them.

"Alright, to the first house. Tram, knock the door in so we can head in there. I think this is gonna be a big one." Ian motioned for the others to catch up as he pointed at the house Tram was running towards. "Let's go. Everyone inside. We're about to have a party."

As Tram rammed the door, all three of the patrols were alerted to the noise. Ian smiled as his friends ran into the building behind Tram.

"Here piggy, piggy, piggy!" Ian screamed as he ran towards the door. Moving inside, he took up the position to the left as Tram took the right, putting his heater shield right in the middle of the doorway.

The angry squeals and growls coming from all over made him realize that he may have pulled more than he thought. As the first moved to cross the threshold, both Tram and he lashed out. As it went down, two more tried to rush through.

As Ian was getting ready to stab a third, giant vines grew from the ground and began wrapping the legs of the creatures, slowing them down as the thorns dug into their prey as they struggled, further wrapping them tighter.

"Hurry up and kill them. It will only last for sixty seconds," Lana screamed over the squealing.

Not needing to be told twice, Ian attacked.

Thirty minutes later, and Tram was chuckling to himself as Claire was looting the dead horkers still held in Lana's vines.

Lana was glaring at Ian, who was the only one of them not absolutely covered in blood.

"Listen, this isn't my fault," Ian said, trying to hold back his laughter as he handed her a towel.

He had been absolutely furious when his spear had bent, followed quickly by his sword at the beginning of the fight. Diana had warned him that they were only good for the low and early mid-tiers, but he hadn't realized that he was actually going to break them with his newly developed strength.

Angry at the loss of both his weapons, he had taken it out on the horkers as they came through the door. Activating magic soul on his leather gloves, he had been able to hit them hard enough to pulp their heads with a couple of solid punches. Unknown to him, the blood was splattering everywhere as he pulled back and punched over and over again. Lana, having been directly behind him, had been the unfortunate soul to receive the worst of it.

"We're leaving now!" Lana stated, nearly in tears as she wiped off her face. "I feel like I'm absolutely covered in blood. It's in my clothes and my shoes even squish when I walk. It's between my toes!" She put her head into the towel and screamed for a moment. Finally pulling her head out of it she glared at Ian. "This is all your fault."

"You should make Ian carry you back to the portal," Ruth said, as she and her husband finished looting the bodies with Claire.

"That's a fantastic idea," Claire said, also covered in a liberal amount of horker blood. "That way he can understand how annoying it is to be covered in gore."

"Hurry up and grab her," Tram said, flashing Ian a grin. "We are leaving before these little piggies respawn."

Shrugging, Ian went over to Lana, "How do you want to be carried? I can put you on my back or princess carry you."

She just glared at him.

"Hurry up and decide, or I am just tossing you over my shoulder."

"Princess carry me," she grumbled. "Hopefully, some will get inside your armor that way."

Picking her up, she made an extra effort to wipe some extra blood onto his neck and cheeks as she put her arms around his neck. Which, he realized, just made her angrier when it was pushed off of him and fell to the ground.

"I hate you so much right now," she said with a sigh, blood dripping out of her boots as she lifted her feet up.

"We're getting you a new weapon as soon as we get back to the AO," Claire said, coming up next to him. "You should have moved back and let one of us take your spot when your weapon broke. We were all more than capable of filling that role, and we wouldn't have made such a mess of things."

"Come on, Claire," Ian said, glancing over at her stony face. "I didn't realize it would make such a mess. Don't be so upset. We mass pulled and killed every horker in that stupid village, and you're level 511 now. We even found you a ring that increases the storage capacity of your basic item storage and dimensional space skills. This was a huge win for us."

"Pssst," Tram said. "I think she's jealo—"

"Shut up, Tram," Claire cut him off, turning her glare on him. "Keep your damn opinions to yourself."

Tram chuckled and shrugged at Ian, who nodded back letting him know he understood. They both knew it wasn't a good time to even consider broaching the subject—for more reasons than one.

"Do I have the money to purchase the ones we talked about?" Ian asked after a moment.

"Yes," Claire said with a sigh, her cold expression fading. "Though they've offered to supply your weapons for free if you'd be willing to agree to their logo being a sponsor on your streams for two months. I should reach out to see if they're willing to extend it to our entire party."

"Which company is it?" asked Jimmy.

"Sacred Arms," Claire responded, causing Jimmy's face to light up.

"They are at the forefront of weapon research and development," he said, rubbing his chin. "It's said they even have a few crafters on their payrolls for special orders."

"I've heard those rumors myself," Claire said with a smile. "Hopefully, that becomes a lot more common when you two start making pieces that the mass producers can't replicate."

"From your lips to the curator's ears," Ruth said.

They stepped out of the dungeon a little bit later, and the blood and gore from all the monsters disappeared like it was never been there.

"Thank the heavens," Lana said, as Ian put her down. "Thank you for carrying me."

"No problem," Ian said, before pulling out his phone.

The second it left his item box, it began ringing. Looking at the caller listed, Ian sighed.

"What do you want, oh sister of mine?" Ian said.

"For you to hurry up and get over here! We need our buffs so we can gooooo!" Ashlyn's excited voice came through the phone. "But seriously, you had Lana in a princess carry, and you didn't try to cop a feel the entire time? What kind of man are you? With an ass like that, I would have tried to get at least a handful, if you know what I—"

"We'll be there in about half an hour," Ian said, chuckling as he hung up. Looking over, he realized from the looks he was getting, as well as the smirk on Tram's face, Ashlyn's voice had been loud enough to carry.

Ruth began to cackle. "I love your sister. She's great!"

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