'You have leveled up to level 25.'
With the familiar sound of leveling up all of the strength in Marcus' body left him as he fell onto the ground completely spent after beating the giant octopus and winning the monster festival.
'Ah, it has been one hard fought battle after the other but now I can finally rest awhile.'
Laying down on the cold floor of the dungeon, Marcus looked over his status applying his new skill points and reading his log. In his log he found a message awarding him a level up for successfully completing and winning a monster festival. After he was finished reading, he closed his status and began to close his eyes until the room was suddenly enveloped by a bright light and right in front of Marcus a chest full of items appeared.
Immediately Marcus noticed the sweetest scent he had ever smelt coming from the chest, and almost in a trance he lifted himself up and moved towards the chest. Looking inside he discovered the source of the smell was a fruit that looked like a pear but was golden in color and the size of a melon.
Picking it up Marcus nearly shoved the thing into his mouth before he shook his head breaking out of his stupor.
'Control yourself Marcus sure it smells good but do not go shoving random fruits into your mouth. I think that it is a natural treasure of some kind but for all I know this is some sick trap meant to poison me.'
As he let the paranoid side of his mind get the better of him, Marcus looked over the rest of the contents of the chest finding five white potions, one green one, and four different skill orbs. Realizing that the other items in the chest seemed to all be positive Marcus gave in and started eating the fruit he was still holding in his hands.
Munching down on the fruit after the first bite and the richest flavor he had ever experienced entered his mouth Marcus did not let up until he had eaten the entire thing.
When he was done, he let out a satisfied sigh before he felt a throbbing in his head, for a moment Marcus thought that he had been tricked until information flooded his head and Marcus knew the entire contents of the chest.
'So that is what is going on, the fruit I just ate is called a fruit of cognizance and is meant to give normally unaware monsters the ability to think. Unfortunately for me, it only gave a plus ten to my intelligence, but I will take it. Now it is these other items that are the real winners, five potions that boost all of my stats by ten, an experience potion, and four different skill orbs.'
Marcus the checked over the skill orbs and found that there was one magic, combat, profession, and unique skill orb. Except the magic and combat orbs were useless to Marcus as they only gave the user their most compatible skill in each respective field and Marcus already had found his.
'Oh well, these rewards are definitely tailored for previously unintelligent monsters so it make sense that some of them would not work for me. Luckily, the profession skill orb worked, and I managed to obtain the forge skill, but the unique skill orb was even better.'
Looking over his new unique skill Marcus was happy with its incredible power. The new unique skill he had received was called soul burst and allowed him to double his stats for three minutes. It did however, come with a few down sides. The ability could only be used once every two months and after the three minutes were over the users stats would be quartered for a week.
'Still even with its down sides it is an extraordinary trump card, with it I can probably beat people that are even ten levels higher than me.'
Very pleased with the new skills he had managed to acquire Marcus moved to the potions and first downed the experience one. He immediately felt a rush of energy in his body and soon heard the familiar level up notification.
'You have leveled up to level 26.'
After finishing off the experience potion Marcus grabbed the five stat boosting potions and began consuming them. Drinking their contents, he could feel a rush of strength filling his body with ever sip but when Marcus was drinking his last sip of the third bottle, he no longer felt anything.
Checking his status, he noticed that all of his stats were one lower than they should have been after finishing the third bottle.
'I guess I must have reached my limit, this is not the first time I have raised my stats outside of leveling up so I must have reached the peak for my current level. I suppose it is not all bad I may be able to use the other two later or maybe I can sell them for a huge chuck of cash.'
Marcus then stored the remaining skill orbs and stat boosting potions into his item box, and when he did the western wall of the room began to shake before opening up.
Sunlight then rushed into the previously dark room and created a way for the winner to escape the dungeon.
'Hm, so is the actual purpose of dungeons, are they meant to strengthen monsters and then release them out into the world. No that can't be it since people also get valuable rewards for beating the floor bosses. For people that were born on this world this would all seem natural, but I know better. Their was no system on my original world and I know that there is some deity like being that manages this world. What is their goal for this system and brining people from Earth here? Is it all just some type of entertainment for them or do they have a greater objective?'
Realizing that he could sit and contemplate about the purposes of Mirrion for an eternity he soon slapped himself back to reality and got back to work.
While he had collected the obvious rewards there was actually still a treasure trove left in the massive room that had contained the monster festival. There were thousands of corpses of monster laying around and most of them still had cores that were ripe for the taking.
Using thirty of his skill points Marcus upgraded his small item box to medium increasing his dimensional storage from one hundred cubic feet to one thousand cubic feet. With his storage space having gone from the size of a small room to the size of a shipping container, Marcus went around collecting all of the magic cores he could find. After hours of painstakingly cutting through monster bodies Marcus had managed to collect two thousand seven hundred thirty-seven monster cores.
'That should do it, the low-grade cores are only worth about two copper each, but I also got plenty of higher-grade cores as well. The total price I can get for all of these cores should be in the hundreds of gold so I can refill my coffers. Now a quick look at my status and I can head out of here.'
'Status'
Name: Marcus Ferrous
Age: 28
Race: Unbound Ghost
Level: 26
HP: 1620/1620 (True Value 1710) – 1520/1520
MP: 1710/1710
Status Condition: Soul Damage
STR: 152
AGL: 152
VIT: 152
INT: 171
SPR: 171 (-9)
Stat Points: 0
Skill Points: 14
Unique Skills: Personal Status, #######, Solid Soul, Soul Burst
Skills: Medium Item Box, Lesser Regeneration Lvl 1, Digging Lvl 1, Fighting Lvl 4, Magic Circulation Lvl 4, Iron Magic Lvl 4, Disassembly Lvl 4, Stealth Lvl 2, Lightning Magic Lvl 4, Creature Appraisal Lvl 3, Fire Magic Lvl 1, Danger Sense Lvl 3, Darkvision Lvl 3, Scythemanship, Superior Lvl 4, Healing Magic Lvl 1, Mana Regeneration Lvl 3, Speed Burst Lvl 3, Mana Body Lvl 3, Powerful Slash Lvl 3, Physical Resistance Lvl 3, Heighten Spells Lvl 4, Forge Lvl 1
Blessing of Iron
Race Abilities: Invisible, Ethereal, Chill Zone, Float, Possession (Limited), Undying
Possessed Race abilities:
Specter Powers: Ghost Sounds, Spectral Arm
Looking over his status Marcus was surprised to see how many of his skills had leveled up during his fight with the octopus and that his mass core collection had increased his disassembly skill level.
'With this I am more than strong enough to take my revenge on Poulsen.'
With that though Marcus moved towards the exit of the dungeon and walked out back into the open world just as the sun was setting.