Zogarth

Chapter 106 - Horde Leader

Jake looked directly into the eyes of the Horde Leader. They both paused for a moment as they considered each other. On one side, a small human down on one knee with a bow in his hand, and on the other, a boar the size of a huge truck.

Yet the boar was the one to avert its gaze first. Jake felt the weakness in its eyes. Exhaustion in its look. He quickly noticed that its wounds weren’t healing as he would have expected them to begin to. The poison in its body was also barely being sup...

Chapter 105 - Falling rocks

Packing up, Jake looked over his potions one last time. A dozen health potions, twenty-two stamina potions, and a good nine bottles of Necrotic Poison. Every single one of the potions and poison the most potent iterations he had ever made.

If he had more time, he would have attempted common-rarity health potions, but that was a big if. He didn’t have time. He had four days left to clear the rest of this dungeon, and very likely one more dungeon, the one with the King of the F...

Chapter 104 - Limit Break

Submerging his consciousness in meditation, he didn’t enter the heightened state of focus like he had done last time. There was virtually no change from any other time he had used the skill, despite the recent upgrade.

This was honestly a relief to Jake. In the back of his mind, he did briefly have a fear that his usual relaxing meditation would now always result in him suddenly being incredibly focused. And while focusing is good, it doesn’t exactly help the mind relax. The whole �...

Side Story 6 - Think of the children!

Katelynn took off her uniform in the changing room and quickly took out her phone from her locker. She checked her phone to find a good podcast to listen to while driving home, wondering if a new episode was out of that true crime one she really liked.

She had just gotten off work from a 12-hour shift at the maternity ward, where she worked as a pediatric nurse. It had been another long day of taking care of the newborn while trying to explain to the parents that no vaccines do not caus...

Chapter 103 - Pigs for slaughter

Jake had long gotten used to not really having to eat or drink anything. Whatever he chugged down here and there appeared to be enough to keep him going. He could barely remember the feeling of hunger or thirst anymore.

However, what he had kept doing was breathing. It just felt far too natural to do. All living beings he had seen did it. Yet, he had now been submerged underwater for nearly an entire day, and he hadn’t even thought about having to breathe before mere moments ago.

Chapter 102 - A thoughtful touch

Affinities, mana, magic as a whole, actually, was still a new concept to Jake and everyone else going through the tutorials. Books in the Challenge Dungeon had all been very unspecific about how mana and magic worked and only described possible methods of using it.

Jake’s most significant source of information had been the Viper himself, and even that had been broad and nonspecific. Jake had no concept of what he could do with his mana, nor what he couldn’t do.

Alchemy had giv...

Chapter 101 - Mana 101

Jake awoke and felt well-rested and relieved. He had feared a nightmare when he closed his eyes, but instead, he got a pleasant dream. Like the last one, this one was also weirdly lucid throughout. Of course, this one didn’t have some bastard god but was of his own making.

From the very beginning, some part of him knew it was a dream. Yet, he went through the motions as if he wasn’t even in charge of his own body. He was just a ride-along, experiencing the memory as it had been. Eve...

Chapter 100 - The right way forward

The family sat gathered around the table, enjoying their breakfast. The rays of sunlight hit the table, highlighting the vast selection to choose from. Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, bread, whatever one wanted. Caleb had even convinced their dad to make pancakes that morning. Mom had objected, but Caleb had gotten his will. It was only his birthday once a year, after all.

Jake was enjoying one of the aforementioned pancakes, with perhaps a bit too much honey on. Which, of course, resu...

Chapter 99 - Going with the flow

Jake tended to be rather good at predicting what the response to his attacks would be. He had expected the closest boars to rush towards their now dead comrade, or perhaps to all start searching frantically for the killer.

It turns out that this time Jake had predicted a bit wrong. Just a tiny bit. While the big piggies didn’t react much to him channeling mana, they apparently really didn’t like it when someone made the ground explode and killed one of their pals.

In fact, the...

Side story 5: Bloodlines: Nature's Attendant

Tonken worked the field like any other day. To grow the crops was hard work, but it was necessary to keep the mana rich plants healthy. Tonken had always been good at it, and he loved to live among the plants and trees.

They were just a normal family of seven. His mom and pa owning the farm and living off the land. His dad has even reached the middle of E-grade, making him one of the strongest in the village!

Tonken was only 19 but would soon be able to upgrade his class, too, wit...

Side Story 4 - Bloodlines: A cursed blessing

”To possess a bloodline is to be a chosen of the system itself. Power only the privileged few can ever hope to grasp.”

Learutit sat cross-legged as she expelled the mana from her body. She didn’t meditate, as that would be… suicidal. Her excess mana took a while to safely discharge as she finally managed to nearly empty her reserves.

With a sigh, she got up and walked out of the chamber.

Outside she met the caretaker of the tower, who looked...

Chapter 98 -Valley of Tusks

As he jumped up the cliff and began running the final stretch to the dungeon, he checked through his full status.

Status

Name: Jake Thayne

Race: [Human (E) – lvl 58]

Class: [Ambitious Hunter – lvl 65]

Profession: [Prodigious Alchemist of the Malefic Viper – lvl 51]

Health Points (HP): 5429/5460

Mana Points (MP): 5111/5320

Stamina: 3629/3820

Stats

Strength: 403

Agility: 534

Endurance...

Chapter 97 - Spring cleaning = Loot 3.0

Jake practically flew through the terrain as he ran across the valley, scanning it with his sphere wherever he went. He didn’t really encounter any enemies on the way, something he very much appreciated.

William had done an outstanding job of clearing out a lot of beasts in the inner area. Not that it particularly mattered as all the beasts he came across avoided him like the plague - all except for a single buffalo that had chosen to stand up to him, which netted it a quick Infused P...

Chapter 96 - William & Jake

The smiling white-haired man appeared in what appeared to be an ordinary western suburban house. But outside the windows was 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 syst...

Chapter 95 - Of Fate & Destiny

“Okay… no talking about bloodlines…” Jake said, a bit hesitant but not arguing back.

They both sat in silence for a while before the Viper spoke again. “But… it does explain quite a few things…”

“What do you mean?”

“About this entire tutorial of yours. This tutorial was more than a little… unique. Eversmile said that it was ‘ruined’, but I think ‘changed’ would be a better word.”

“… again, what do you mean?”

The Malefic smi...

Chapter 94 - Beers & Exposition

At the edge of a crater in the middle of the forest, two figures 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 the two people drinking 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.<...

Chapter 93 - The Balance Broken

Jake didn’t have a lot of close friends growing up, but he did have some. One of them was Patrick or Pat for short. Pat and Jake went to daycare together and even entered the same school. They were in different classes, but they still met up during recess and went to each other’s places after school nearly every day.

They had the same hobbies. If one got a new cool comic book or movie, they just had to watch or read it together. Everything was idyllic and pleasant until one small th...

Side Stories: Reading Guide

Reading guide for the side stories to avoid potential spoilers:

Side Story 1: Read after around chapter 70 - IN BOOK 2 ON KU

Side Story 2: Read after chapter 76

Side Story 3: Read after around chapter 90 - IN BOOK 2 ON KU

Side Story 4: Read after chapter 96

Side Story 5: Read after chapter 96

Side Story 6: Read after chapter 103

Side Story 7: After chapter 103

Side Story 8: After around chapter 125 (After tutorial conclusion)

Side Story 9:...

Chapter 92 - Willful Ignorance

“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 covered in wounds as 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 as his mana pool was far closer to empt...

Side Story 3: Life after Death (Casper)

Casper stood silently as he looked at himself in the mirror before him. He still found it hard to recognize that this was truly him even after so many days has passed. His ashen skin, gray eyes with black pupils, and black hair that looked to be graying was all so unfamiliar.

But what was eerier was now he couldn’t feel himself. He didn’t feel the faint response from his muscles when he moved his arms; he didn’t hear or feel his own heartbeat, and his senses, in general, felt dull...

Chapter 91 - A final gift

Jake felt like he was suddenly submerged in oil. Everything went completely black, and his entire body felt like he was deep underwater. Even sound seemed to disappear as he was left with nearly no external stimulus. He said nearly as two things still worked - his sphere and his roaring sense of danger at what was heading towards him.

He tried jumping back fast enough but took a deep cut across his chest as he jumped backward. It was followed up by another strike that sought to...

Chapter 90 - Nest Watcher

The tunnel opened up once more as Jake found himself in a small circular cistern. Water was stored below as a cross-shaped bridge allowed one to avoid getting wet. The road straight ahead led to another hallway while the two paths to the sides led directly 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.

Chapter 89 - Dark Attunement

Jake was two levels above the required one for choosing a new skill, but luckily, it didn’t seem to have any adverse effect. He had feared that delaying it for too long would lead to complications, but then again, the restrictions about skills-gain in combat were system-imposed, so it would be kind of bullshit if it punished him.

Before checking the skills available, he quickly made a small prayer to finally get some kind of area of effect skill. If he could shoot exploding arrows or ...

Chapter 88 - Many Rats! Handle it!

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...

Chapter 87 - Dark Mana & Dark Tunnels

The darkness permeated his entire being as he sat in meditation. His regeneration was far higher than it had ever been before as the mana poured into him. Meanwhile, tendrils of dark mana spread throughout the hallway, making him look like some eldritch octopus with tiny arms.

Occasionally his entire body would turn into a shadowy ethereal figure for a few moments until it returned to being flesh and blood once more.

Three whole days had passed without Jake moving a single finger....

Chapter 86 - The right way

Jake walked through the shithole that dared call itself a dungeon with sloppy steps. Once in a while, a damn rat jumped out at him before swiftly being executed. He had stopped caring about elaborate tactics many hours ago.

The first few hours went fine and all. Shoot a burning arrow, kill rats, repeat. It got a bit tedious after the tenth time, sure, but Jake kept it up. The experience was frankly shit compared to what he had gotten in both of the other two dungeons.

He had kept ...

Chapter 85 - Into the dark

The first thing that struck him was the smell - an all-encompassing stench that seemed to mask any other scent. Jake was happy that perception didn’t just straight-up make his sense of smell more potent, or he may have just fallen over and died there and then. At least he would have wished that he was dead.

The second thing he noticed was that the unnatural darkness persisted even within the dungeon. Jake couldn’t see a single thing, no matter what he tried or did. It was clearly ma...

Side Story 2 - The Primordials

Jelamel studied the tome meticulously as his teacher had commanded him to. One of the ancient tomes that, according to legend, had been written by the Eternal Servant himself. He had studied this book many times before, but he felt like it was never enough.

Of course, his copy wasn’t the original. Goodness no, that tome was stored in the sacred temple where the Servant himself resided. At least that is what the rumors said. For Jelamel, all of that was way above him. He was still just...

Chapter 84 - True Protagonist

His entire body ached with pain. Pain, unlike any he had ever felt before.

But he could only smile at the sensation because pain meant that he was still alive.

When he had regained consciousness, he didn’t know. But he did know that it had been several days since he had nearly fallen. His entire body cooked inside his armor, his skin cauterized, the blood in his veins boiling, and his eyes popping out from the heat.

But despite all that, he had lived. Held on to his last s...

Chapter 83 - Loot & Healing

Jake opened his eyes when he saw the countdown for the dungeon shutdown reach 13 minutes. He had initially decided to get up at 15, but two more minutes shouldn’t hurt, right?

During his meditation, he did have time to go over his notifications.

*’DING!’ Class: [Ambitious Hunter] has reached level 55 - Stat points allocated, +4 free points*

*’DING!’ Profession: [Prodigious Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 51 - ...