The First Archmage

After five more days of grinding, I reach Level 25 of Magus of Kar, thought opt not to advance that, because, uh, I’d rather not ask Kar to do that again so soon. Not sure if he’d approve or not. It takes me another ten days to bring Mystic Ranger and Mystic Adept, combined, to Level 25.

I decide to take on Elemental Novice for my fourth Secondary Class.

Elemental Novice:

+1 INT, MNA every third Level, +5% to learning new magics, +5% to learning and Leveling elemental magics

It locks me out of all of the element-specific Novice Classes, but those boosted a specific element by the same amount, rather than all.

Another two days, pushing hard, and I bring it up to Level 25. I only have to master a Tier I or above elemental spell, so I decide to tackle Ice Lance, since I won’t be gaining Experience until I Advance a Class, anyway.

I reach Ice Lance (III) five minutes before remembering that Magus of Kar unlocked for me another Secondary Class slot when it reached Level 15… and another Primary Class slot when it reached Tier II.

I think my ability to gain Classes is broken. Because I’m using magic – which is related to nearly all of my Classes, now – and because of my two thousand percent boost to gaining Experience in Dungeons, combined with my strong dedication to what I’m fighting to gain Experience for, and…

It takes me two or three days to master a Tier I Class, and five to master a Tier II.

What should take people decades or more than a century is taking me days.

So what do I do?

I bring Elemental Adept up to Level 25 in five days.

Elemental Adept and Mystic Adept both go to their respective Magus Classes… but it looks like having both at Level 25 unlocks an additional Class: True Magus.

True Magus (Legendary): Someone with not just a Mana Pool far higher than what others believe possible and learned several spells of regular magic, but someone who has mastered the elements and what lays beyond. +3 INT, MNA, MNP every second Level, +20% to learning new magics, Leveling Magics

I pull up the requirements for it.

True Magus: Mystic Adept (II) Level 25, Elemental Adept (II) Level 25, Minimum of 3 School of Magic Spells mastered, minimum of 3 Mastered Magical Manipulations, plus Mana Manipulation Mastered, minimum of 5 Mastered Elemental Spells of differing Elements.

The Quest requires me to master a Tier III or higher Spell. I have two at Tier IV that I could bring up to Tier V, I suppose. I should pick another Secondary Class or another Primary Class, though. That way, I can actually gain Experience and power.

What should I take, though?

In the end, I decide on Leader for my third Primary Class. It can apparently only be a Primary Class, and the moment I take it, it moves itself to the front of the list. Priority Class, I should’ve seen that coming just by the name.

Leader 1 (Rare): Someone who leads a group of others, you’ve shown strength and wisdom in your choices, and have learned from past mistakes. +1 INT, CHA every third Level, +5% to learning and Leveling all leadership Skills

It takes me two days bring Firebolt Chain to Tier V, and pushing hard, Leader to Level 25.

I almost laugh at the fact that my first Tier III Class is a Secondary Class. They take 100 Experience per Level, so it’ll probably take me ten days to bring it up to Level 25 again. However, I could probably increase my training each day. I’ve been stopping a little sooner than I actually need to. Instead of three thousand or so Experience, I could probably push for four or five thousand Experience per day, which would actually speed things up a bit.

I am so ridiculously overpowered…

I manage to bring True Magus to Level 25 in six days. I can hit around 5,000 Experience before I need to head back.

The sad part about only having one spatial ring is the inability to bring my loot back with me. I focus on the larger monster crystals and whatever actual loot drops. I’ve gotten pretty good at estimating their values, because of that.

I wonder if O thinks I would’ve broken the economy, with my massive influx of loot from here. I can only manage about five hundred thousand or so krat per trip, and have to use the city’s banking system just to store it, because then I’d have no room in my ring.

“Hey, Bethany,” I approach the Guild lady who registered me and my team for the Guild. “I know y’all have been letting me go down to the 30th Floor without a problem, but I was wondering if you could increase that for me, so I don’t have to break the rules to Advance Archwizard to Mage? I have to kill a Scaled Wyvern as part of the Quest.”

“I’m not sure if you’d be able to do that,” she holds out the tablet. “Unless you grouped up with some other strong Adventurers. Even then, odds are that you’d fail. No one’s ever passed Floor 47 because of that thing.”

“I’m sure I can handle it,” I place my hand on the crystal, and it glows. I release it, and she pulls it back to read my new stats, and I think I shocked her a little too much, since I haven’t updated in over a month, and this last month has earned quite the amount of Levels and stats. “Bethany? You there?”

“Wh-wh-wh-wha?” She finally says. “How in the Dungeon did you get so strong so fast? A combined Level of 371? 385 INT? All of your stats are over 200!”

“So can I?”

“Can you?” She asks. “You could probably kill the Scaled Wyvern by yourself! I’ve never even heard of a Subspecies before, but it says you have one! Jeez, Gavin – you having Wizard is one hell of a Class!”

“Oh,” I smile at her. “Wizard has pretty much nothing to do with this, actually. Something else enabled me to do this. Do I have permission?”

“Yes,” she answers. “According to the logs, you should be able to handle up until the twelfth Boss on your own.”

In other words, I can make it to Floor 76, but will probably run into trouble on Floor 77, against the thirteenth Boss. That’s nice to know.

“Thanks,” I smile at her. “I’ll run down to Floor 47 tomorrow, then, and kill the Scaled Wyvern so I can get this Class up to the Third Tier.”

“According to this,” she waves the tablet. “You already have a Tier III Class.”

“Yup,” I smile at her. “A Legendary Class.”

I turn and leave, concealing my humor at the reactions of everyone who overheard her squealing. A lot of them know I’m powerful, because of my haul and my practicing at the Guild (which I stopped doing because I don’t really need more magics). This, however, is showing it to them. Killing the Scaled Wyvern will only further that proof for them.

I wonder what loot I’ll get from that thing.

The fourth, eighth, and final Bosses are all harder than other Bosses of the equivalent difficulty levels, and they each drop good loot.

I can’t wait until the Final Boss fight, and whatever loot it grants me. It must be pretty good.

I make my way to a restaurant for dinner, then back to my inn to sleep. In the morning, I shop around town for houses, until I find one that I think is actually decent. Has a decent-sized yard, nine bedrooms, four bathrooms, three potty rooms, a nice, stone kitchen, and a cellar. I can easily afford to have it enchanted for privacy and anti-magic.

I pay the owner the fee upfront, then seek out the best Enchanters’ Guild in the city that I can trust (as much as anyone can be trusted), and pay them the fee to enchant the house. I think they give me a discount, and the leader promises to get to work on it as soon as possible.

An hour later, I think the entire Guild shows up. I watch as they enchant, bringing Magic Sight up to Level 10 as I observe the enchantments being placed.

They finish by the end of the day, and I think they put a rush on the job. Not rushed the work itself, but there’s no way they normally have thirty Enchanters to do a single house. I made sure to pay a little bit more than he told me was the agreed price, after they finish.

That done, I track down my team and introduce them to our new home, and Michael looks at me, a little confused.

“Yes?”

“You got it enchanted all in a day?”

“Four hours,” I nod. “I think he had the entire Guild come out to enchant it.”

“You’re a lot more powerful, now,” Eli comments, and I look at him. “We can sense Magic and Mana, remember? Your Mana Pool has grown immense this last month, and the pure magic just radiating off of you… I think even Dad would find you a tough foe to fight.”

Though with him stealing people’s Stats and Resources, that’s probably not entirely true. He’s probably going to be more powerful than me, now, just from whatever he managed to get in the months between when he started that and when they showed up here.

That’s part of why I want to Advance Archwizard – it will be at least twenty-four to all stats. I’m not sure how the scaling works for Classes and Tiers, so it’s possible I’ll only get plus three to all stats each Level, or I might get four or five.

Once everyone moves their stuff to our residence in this town, we go our for dinner to celebrate, then meet back up at the house and pick out our rooms. I get the only room with an attached bathroom and attached potty room, because the rest of the team says it should belong to the leader.

The Leader Class Advancement Quest…

Leader Advancement Quest:

???

“Nies?” I say as I lie on my bed.

Yes?

“Do you know what the Leader Advancement Quest is?” I ask. “It’s not showing me anything.”

What a bother.

“Sorry for bothering you.”

The System’s too lazy to put in the full explanation. Basically: you have to prove worth as a leader. You probably unlocked the Class because of your stupidly powerful Bloodline’s stupidly powerful bonuses and having people willingly join your Order without you having to convince them to. You’ll probably need to grow your Order more in order to advance it. That, or perform some great feat of leadership.

“Ah, okay,” I say. “Enjoy your nap at Ekre’s.”

I’m actually at my own place, he pouts. Ekre blocked me from entering his domain. It’s such a bother, closing the doors. So I only closed the front and back doors. And made sure to close the windows, after the incident last week. Now, the tigers can’t get in. I have to keep adjusting the temperature, though. Leaving the windows open made it feel nice in here. Ekre’s so mean.

“Enjoy your nap, then,” I say.

I’ll do my best to try.

I get some sleep, and in the morning, make my way back to the Dungeon, noticing an increase in the amount of Tier II Adventurers hanging around the lobby. They all follow me – at a distance – as I make my way down into the depths of the Dungeon. I collect the last-needed Experience for Archwizard with mundane skills on my way into the Dungeon’s depths.

I stop walking at the entrance to Floor 47, turning and watching as they all approach as they think I’ve already gone down to the next Floor.

“Alright,” I say once the three teams have arrived and are staring at me. “So the thirty-seven of you know, I have to kill the Scaled Wyvern without any help, to Advance one of my Classes. No one buff me, no one attack the beast, no one distract it. Nothing. I must do it on my own.”

“What about healing?” A priest asks.

“You’re assuming I’ll be injured,” I turn and begin walking down the tunnel to the next Floor. “I really don’t want to have to wait however long it takes me to regenerate Mana, if needed, or an hour, whichever is what I’ll end up doing if one of you interferes, so stay the hell back. I don’t get it on the first kill, I’ll probably be in a foul enough mood to kill whoever interfered.”

Entering the cavern, I find a beast standing twice my height with dark grey scales walking on its legs and foreclaws. It screeches the moment it sees me, and I unleash a wave of Firebolts at it. They slide it back a little bit from the force, and burn the scales where they struck.

It screeches again, and I send another wave of Firebolts at it, this time, breaking through its scales. It takes off in the air, its wings circulating the air in here and sending gusts my way, and my next wave shreds its wings, sending the beast crashing to the ground, back to where I can hit it with more accuracy. My fourth and final wave bursts through the skin under the destroyed scales, exploding inside the beast, killing it.

“Well,” I realize after I finish. “I just realized… but I probably would’ve gotten through its scales faster with Lightning Bolt or Firebolt Chain. Oh, well.”

I walk over to where the beast one, where scales dropped down, and send them into my ring.

“Alright,” I turn around after collecting the ‘Scaled Wyvern Scales’.“Time to head back up. That was surprisingly easier than I expected.”

It really was. I thought it’d be just a tad bit harder, since Christopher couldn’t kill one when his stats were about half of what mine are, now.

Wait…

How were his stats so high?

He’d been stealing stats for awhile, hadn’t he?

+0 INT!

Damn. I wonder how no one noticed that.

I walk past the Adventurers, who are staring in shock, though can hear them following behind me after a moment. When I reach the surface, Bethany raises an eyebrow.

“He hit it with fifty Firebolts,” one of the Adventurers says. “Launched them rapidly, without a single utterance of its name, and killed it, just like that. It was over in seconds.”

“Anyway,” I say. “Now I need to go complete the other portion of the Quest. See you.”

I leave the Guild, then make my way out of town. The Tier II Dungeon is a four-hour walk away. According to Nies’s information, it’s just caverns filled with goblins and mazes, but he (probably accidentally) gave me a map of the Dungeon.

The goblins in the Dungeon are stronger than regular Goblins, but with how powerful I am now, that’s probably not a problem. I did, after all, just kill a Scaled Wyvern on my own, with relative easy. It takes me longer to reach the Dungeon than it does for me to recover the spent Mana.

Taking a deep breath, I enter the Dungeon, putting on some speed as I do, flying past most monsters and killing any that are too close to me or in my way. The bosses die quickly.

It takes me all of an hour to reach the Final Boss, a giant Goblin that dies with two Firebolts to the face.

Would you like to Access the Dungeon Core: Y/N?

Archwizard is now Mage!

For advancing a Class to the next Tier, you have gained +5 to all stats!

Mage (III): A true master of magic, your boundaries are few and slim, and your power greater than any other. +4 to all stats each Level, +40% to learning and Leveling new skills, +40% to learning and Leveling all magics.

Title Earned!

First Mage: The first person to ever attain the Class of Mage

A First Title? For reaching Mage?

I knew they existed for being the first to reach a Class, but gaining them is difficult. I didn’t even get one for Magus of Kar, which should have been incredibly difficult to obtain. But for Mage?

Isn’t there a Mage going around the universe, granting partial or full access to different worlds, realms, and planes?

If I’m the first Mage…

There’s no one doing that.

Is the System just randomly granting access?

+0 INT!

Bored, much?

+0 INT!

Sadistic bastard.

+0 CHA!

He finds that endearing… oh, dear.

Sighing, I accept access to the Dungeon Core and remove Archer as a Class. It looks like I can take on a total of six Secondary Classes, with slots for two Tier II Secondary Classes. How?

Primary Class at Level 15, Nies’s voice echoes in my head. Why is he echoing? You can take on a Secondary Class at that Tier or Lower. I don’t know why the System never explains this somewhere. Most people don’t know about this, though, because of how difficult it is to get a Class to the next Tier, and bringing it up to Level 15 again is difficult as well. That’s the equivalent of reaching Level 21 in Tier I. Or almost reaching it. Either way, it’s difficult. Also, don’t forget that you have a new Primary Class slot available now, too, and will be able to take on a Secondary Class of Tier III or lower once Mage reaches Level 15.

That’s right… I can take on two more Primary Classes.

I wonder how strong I’ll have to be to defeat the dragon.

Honestly? Not much stronger than you are now. Get your INT up to 500, and it’d be a piece of cake to kill. Cake… I want cake. Now I’m hungry.

“You’re always hungry,” I say. “I didn’t realize you could read my thoughts, like the System can.”

You’re my Hero, of course I can read your thoughts, and that came out worded weird, it did? I just don’t normally do it because it’s too much effort.

“Then why were you doing it?”

I honestly have no idea. I’m not doing it now, though, because it’s too much effort. Since you haven’t taken advantage of that free slot for a Tier II Class, you still technically have them available, even though you have Tier II and III Classes. It only counts starting.

Get out of my realm, this sounds like an adult god. So I guess an ‘old god’. Not Aulor, though. Nies, don’t make me sic the council on you again.

All they did was give me food and tuck me in for a nap. Anyway, as I was saying, you can take on up to two Tier II Classes from start because of having slots open from the Tier II Primary Classes at Level 15 or above. This is good cake.

Yes, and it was supposed to be my dessert.

It’s a delicious dessert, Nies responds without a trace of emotion in his voice. Do you have any other questions, Gavin?

“What Classes do you recommend I take on?”

Martial artist, Squire. Mystic for Tier II. Once you’ve gotten enough Classes up to Tier III, Level 25, you’ll have access to not just Dragon Knight, but Dragon Mage. It’s a pretty OP Class, sort of like Wizard. It’s a Legendary Class, so it gains stats every even Level.

Get off my couch, Nies.

I want to take a nap.

Go back to your realm, then.

Anything else, Gavin? If not, I’m going to take a nap.

“Nope,” I say. “Thanks.”

You’re welcome.

The image of a wolf pup forms in my mind, and I can’t help but wonder why he sent that to me.

Deciding that it’s probably something to do with Michael, I close the interface for the Dungeon Core, then allow the Dungeon to warp me out. Out of the Dungeon, I run back to town and locate Michael, who’s napping on his bed. He’s curled up in a ball, his tail tucked between his legs, his arms around his legs as he sleeps. He looks so peaceful. He’s kicking a foot a little bit, making small yipping noises, and it reminds me of when dogs are dreaming about hunting.

Nies… did you really send me an image of a wolf pup just because Michael was napping?

No response. Of course not.

Shaking my head, I make my way to a restaurant, to find something to eat.