The clattering got louder as Jake felt tensions rise. He summoned his bow and nocked an arrow, prepared for whatever may appear. He could hear the sound coming from the far end of the basin below. Whatever it was, it was coming from there.The barrier of mana felt completely impassable when he touched it, and it had also cut off his strings of mana. With even those strings cut off, he seriously doubted he had any way of getting through it even with Shadow Vault, which meant he was stuck with whatever was coming towards him.As the sound echoed, he saw the first sign of movement in his sphere. Dozens of small rats entered his sphere at once, heading towards the stairs leading up to him.Jake didn’t even hesitate as he released a Splitting Arrow. He multitasked and identified one as he nocked another arrow.[Molerat Swarmer – lvl 46]His first arrow gave him several kills, but it barely made a difference. Hundreds of the things inhabited the basin below and were all now swarming towards

The tunnel opened up once more as Jake found himself in a small circular cistern. Water was stored below and a cross-shaped bridge allowed one to get across without getting wet. The road straight ahead led to another hallway while the path to either side led into pipes.Jake had just entered the area when a rat appeared directly opposite him. He was prepared to take it down when it took the path to the left and entered the pipe. And that was when something truly interesting happened.The pipe disappeared for just a few seconds before a new, perfectly identical one appeared. Jake couldn’t be sure if it was the same pipe; all he knew was that some dungeon-fuckery was going on. Was this perhaps where all the rats in the dungeon came from?He knew that he was looking for a nest of some sort. His objective was to kill the Nest Watcher, after all, and to watch a nest, there needed to be one. And for the nest to be where the rats came from also seemed rather logical. I’m a genius, he joked t

Fucking die already!" William yelled as the huge beast in front of him refused to submit. It was far from the first time he had fought the damn thing, and this had to be the time he would win.The Den Mother was already covered in wounds when the huge sawblade cut into its side, managing to cut into its guts until its dense muscles stopped it. The damage from the blow was far from lethal, but it was starting to build up.William heaved for breath; his mana pool was far closer to empty than he felt comfortable with. It was barely enough for one more spear. It had to be enough.Spear of FerrorasHe summoned the ornate spear and pushed himself forward with Metal Manipulation. The beast was one step too late, exhaustion making it slow and sloppy, as the spear penetrated it through one of its eyes.With every last point of mana, he pushed himself and the spear forward, forcing it into the brain of the damn dungeon boss.*You have slain [Den Mother – lvl 82] – Bonus experience earned for ki

At the edge of a crater in the middle of the forest, they sat drinking. The crater’s epicenter still carried the outline of what had once been a person with small smidgens of blood here and there.Around them were several empty bottles. They chatted as they drank down the familiar liquid that Jake hadn’t tasted for over two months. It was oddly nostalgic despite it not even being that long. It took him back to simpler days with way less fighting and death.Of course, he was still thoroughly grounded in his new reality by the scaled man he was drinking with.They had chatted about useless stuff for the most part. Jake had asked a few questions about the system, though, and gotten some useful pieces of information.Halfway through the conversation, Jake took out a small notebook he had kept with many questions he had built up surrounding the system. It took a bit of convincing, but he managed to get the Viper to spill the beans on some details. They both knew that it was just Jake’s att

The smiling white-haired man stepped through the void, into what appeared to be an ordinary western suburban house. But outside the windows were not the streets of the suburb, but a vast void of nothingness.He waved his hand and summoned a broken, nearly body-shaped mess of metal, blood, and gore. With another wave, time itself reversed, and the armor returned to pristine condition once more. Everything returned to normal, except for the life of the person inside the armor.Death, even with the system, was not that easily circumvented. To restore a broken body was simple. But to truly revive someone who has died… difficult. Difficult and costly. Even to the gods of the highest order.Even if one managed to revive the dead, it often came with several drawbacks—mental issues, inability to utilize their stats, missing skills, et cetera. But perhaps most crippling was the loss of a future. The inability for the revived to progress properly further on their own path.There were ways to tr