Matthew was at home, it was the weekend just after he returned form the dungeon. He decided just to rest and take it easy. Faralynn and Erin were talking with Eric and Vanessa about throwing a party for him and Faynn at Eric's house. But most likely it would be only in the next day. That day he was free.

He was still reeling with the memories of the night he spent with Faralynn. He didn't knew how much he actually liked her until he returned from the dungeon and heard her voice on the phone.

He was just laying in bed looking at the ceiling and remembering every detail he possibly could.

Sarah came in and out his room. She was taking Ffyr shopping. His mother and father came in as well to check on him, but soon left for a cinema date on the afternoon.

He was alone in the house.

It was only then that he decided to check his new level. He knew he leveled up after the fight with Enkidu, but he decided to let it aside and just relax. He didn't want to think about adventuring for a while.

But now, since he was alone with his thoughts, his curiosity made him look.

He would've fell down from the shock if he wasn't laying down on his bed.

Matthew was at level 35. He got 10 levels from conquering the dungeon. More if he considered he entered the dungeon at level 14. He leveled up 21 levels in a week. That must be some kind of record, he thought.

Lancer, Warrior, Thief, Merchant, Dancer, Merchant, Priest, Shadow, Hydromancer and Healer. Those were the 10 levels Matthew gained for defeating Enkidu. He wondered if that wasn't too much since he needed Matil's help to defeat the ancient warrior, but he reminded himself of the old saying: the mana knows.

Lancer, a tier 3 class that Matthew already got last time. He took Stand Magic again since he still didn't have any kind of mount to use the Heart of the Centaur skill.

Warrior, a third time, made him ponder in picking Weapon Focus on swords or guns. But he decided to pick Imbue Mana that worked for both weapons and had similar effect.

Thief was the tier 2 class Vanessa got. He decided to pick Sense Others skill to avoid being taken by surprise. He saw how both Vanessa and Faynn used that skill and was really impressed by its possibilities.

He got Merchant again, 2 times. Identify was a great skill, but he also wanted Secrecy to hide his huge level boost from others. Specially since he felt very violated by Claudio's constant peeking. He decided to get Secrecy and improve his Identify by one level.

Dancer was a lucky draw. A tier 4 class that gave a huge boost to Agility and that had the skill Entice. A skill that allowed to force people to obey the user. Matthew, however, didn't have the Mage's Project Mana skill making him need to touch his target to make use of that skill making it really hard to use as the usage of his Whichcraft skill showed to be.

Another Priest class. Matthew decided to pick the Bless skill that created a barrier against the influence of demonic and unholy mana. He knew that with it, and the Lingering Mana he got earlier, he could protect Ffyr and his other allies from his miasma if he used the Unholy Mana skill. But the main reason he got this skill was to try to control the demonic mana inside him.

Shadow was his second lucky draw. A tier 4 skill that would allow him to blend into shadows the same way Faynn did because of its Shadow Form skill. He'd need to ask her for orientation on how to use the skill properly, but it seemed like a great addition to his already big skill pool.

Hydromancer, as the name implied, was a tier 2 Mage tree class that controlled and created water. It had 3 skills, Create Water, that converted mana into water and other liquids creating a simulacrum of the liquid, Water Form, that allowed the user to turn into water much like the Shadow Form skill, and Control Water, that allowed the user to control liquids and move them at his will.

Matthew decided that Create Water was the most useful skill reminding of his fight with Yuki, the Howling Spear's Vice Leader. He had a lot of trouble dealing with the fire. Also, saving Vanessa from the fire when she was attacked would be easier if he could creater water to fight the flames. He was really lucky Paula and Lumi were nearby.

And the last class he got, was Healer. A tier 1 class and perhaps the most useful tier 1 class for people. He thought if he should pick the Heal skill or one of the Healer's other skills, since he already had the Healing Totem skill.

But since Healing Totem required the help of a spirit, he preferred to pick the Heal skill than picking one of the Healer's other skills. Even though Remove Disease, Neutralize Poison and Vaccine were great skills to have, Heal was the most useful for him since he got hurt a lot while adventuring.

For his points, he decided to spread them evenly as he was doing from the beginning. It proved to be the correct choice since he got a wide variety of skills each that required different stats to be used effectively.

He looked at his level. 35. It was incredible and perhaps unheard of to grow so fast in less than a year adventuring. He was already stronger than Eric. As strong as Helen's parents. Adventurers who had been in the business for 10 or more years.

He felt a bit bad, as if he was cheating somehow. He only got that far by sacrificing himself and by being saved by others. He would be dead if it wasn't for the constant help he got every step of the way. Being that strong didn't feel right.

The mana knows.

He thought to himself as a way to console himself. The mana wouldn't make him that strong if he didn't deserve it. A lot of people tried to gain levels by using stronger adventurers to defeat enemies for them, but the mana never rewarded them, no matter how they tried to deceive it.

Therefore, he thought to himself, he was that strong because he did deserve it. The mana knew.

He touched his left eye.

And he did sacrifice a lot. He did put himself in the line of danger a lot. And he did help a lot of people. He fought like hell. He even fought in hell. And he survived. He conquered.

He deserved it, Matthew convinced himself.

He looked at his stats now with confidence.

"Matthew Lordstone – Level 35

Doctor (T2) – Level 1

Warrior (T1) – Level 3

Gunner (T2) – Level 1

Plague Doctor (T3) – Level 1

Ranger (T4) – Level 1

Summoner (T2) – Level 3

Priest (T1) – Level 2

Necromancer (T3) – Level 1

Witch (T3) – Level 1

Witch Doctor (T3) – Level 1

Caller (T1) – Level 2

Assassin (T3) – Level 1

Berserker (T4) – Level 1

Tautomancer (T3) – Level 1

Mage (T1) – Level 1

Miko (T4) – Level 1

Lancer (T3) – Level 2

Swordsman (T2) – Level 1

Scout (T1) – Level 1

Merchant (T1) – Level 3

Defender (T1) – Level 1

Thief (T2) – Level 1

Dancer (T4) – Level 1

Shadow (T4) – Level 1

Hydromancer (T2) – Level 1

Healer (T1) – Level 1

Stats

HP = 56/ VIT = 56

MP = 86/ MAG = 56

STR = 56/ AGI = 60

MIN = 55/ CHA = 57

Skills: Anesthesia (E), Imbue Mana (C), Boost Gunpowder (E), Resist Disease (E), Animal Companion (E), Purification (E), Unholy Mana (E), Witchcraft (E), Healing Totem (E), Summon Spirit (D), Pact (E), Spirit Magic (E), Reckless Agility (E), Berserk (E), Copy (E), Lingering Mana (E), Summon Lesser God (E), Stand Magic (D), Summon Pact (E), Sharpen (E), Sense Traps (E), Identify (D), Vitality Boost (E), Sense Others (E), Secrecy (E), Entice (E), Bless (E), Shadow Form (E), Create Water (E), Heal (E)."

Matthew then looked at his phone. No messages yet about the party.

He opened a picture of Faralynn and stared at her for a while. Just reveling at the feeling of knowing such a beautiful woman was his girlfriend.

It didn't take long before he got hungry and got down to the kitchen. He grabbed an ice cream from the fridge and, since there wasn't much left in the container, he decided to eat it all just grabbing a spoon and feeding himself directly from the carton.

When he sat down, he started to hear odd sounds coming from outside. First he thought it was some kind of party. Then some kind of traffic accident. But then he looked outside a window and saw something he thought he would never see again.

It looked like a goblin, but had yellow skin instead of green. On its back it had a pair of small wings and a pair of very short horns on its forehead.

Matthew could hear the dreadful song he kept hearing in his dreams. The song he sang sometimes when he was too overwhelmed by the demonic mana. He swallowed dry and froze remembering the horrors he saw in hell.

It was an imp, right there outside his house. Like Matthew feared it would happen.

Matthew sweated feeling impotent, but was then wake up from his fears by Ffyr's telepathic scream.

"Help!"

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