Chapter 522: Level 250

Chapter 522: Level 250

As the message notifying Derek that the wave was beginning disappeared from his vision, he held his arm out and summoned Harbinger into his hand. For the most part, he’d let Silvi sweep through all the previous dungeons during their mini adventure. Now, however, with his anxiety high—hoping that reaching level 250 would do something for him—he felt like fighting would be a good way to occupy his mind until then.

With a grin forming on his face, he saw the first wave of giant bears begin to spawn in. It wasn’t hard to tell what the first bears’ elements were, as the bears that he saw were all so deeply crimson colored that they almost looked black. Derek snorted as the fire elemental bears charged. Of all the possibilities, users of fire magic were his easiest opponents, as not only did he already have Magic Resistance maxed out, but he also had Fire Resistance, too. Though, Other than his face, every other part of his body was well protected either by his armor or his boots, so it really didn’t matter all that much that he had those resistance skills at the moment.

For the fight, Derek chose to only use skills that were not yet level twenty. Which meant that most of his fighting was purely physical while he waited for his skills like Spatial Rend and Whirlwind Slash to come off of cooldown, then used them as soon as they did. This allowed the fights to last a little longer.

Though… the first wave of bears didn’t last much longer than a couple of minutes. They only lasted that long because of the way that Derek and Silvi were fighting. On top of what he was doing, Silvi was doing her best to slay the beasts with as little damage to their ‘ingredients’ as possible. It was a habit that began during her Void Beast hunting, and had stayed with her throughout the dungeons. He only hoped that when the time came that Silvi actually had a true opponent, that she would forgo her obsession for unblemished ingredients.

Derek chuckled as the second wave began. This time, the dungeon sent out water affinity bears, and, just as they had done with the fire bears, they made quick work of the water ones. After Silvi cut the head off the last bear and was waiting for the third wave to begin, Derek thought to himself, It may not hurt to look for some other resistance skills, too. Especially with the possibility of heading to a more dangerous system.

He knew that it probably wouldn’t be too hard for him to obtain Water Resistance and Earth Resistance, and maybe even Wind Resistance, but he wasn’t sure about the other elemental resistances. He’d have to check in with Malorie about it since Alanah was no longer there to help and answer his questions.

The third wave came and went just as quickly as the previous two. Derek took a quick glance at his stats before the next wave came, and he let out a sigh. This wave should do it… he thought. His current experience points were on the cusp of reaching the required amount for his next level. He was so excited that he even started shaking.

Back on Earth, when the Universal System came, reaching level 250 was only a pipe dream for him and the other humans. Actually, because they were all busy trying to survive invaders, monsters, and other humans, maxing out their level wasn’t really something that anyone talked about, or probably even thought about—he knew he didn’t. He wasn’t even sure of the cap back then.

I wonder if any of the others have made it to level 250 yet, Derek thought. Surely someone like Jace… that battle maniac… would have reached it already. That guy was practically made to be a part of that kind of world. There was the time that he was stuck inside the void that would have allowed everyone on Earth to surpass his level, but since breaking out and landing in Cydaria, he’d grown rapidly with his only real setback being the time distortion he had to put up with in the raid dungeon.

Derek sighed and methodically cleaved through one earth affinity bear after another. He would use Powerstride or Void Shift to get into the middle of a group, then, when it was ready, he would use Whirlwind Slash to hit them all at once. The earthen bears were, however, a little more defensive than the others, and since he wasn’t using void, they did end up lasting a bit longer. Still, one group after another fell to his lower-level abilities.

After around halfway through the battle, Derek received a notification, and his heart leapt. However, he took a calming breath and continued on—choosing to wait until the dungeon was finished before taking a look. He saw Silvi stutter in her fight when the last level came through, too. However, he wasn’t sure if she would get the same notifications as he did, since she was only considered his beast companion.

Mechanically, Derek slaughtered bear after bear until the final wave came. The wave wasn’t very different from the previous—the only differences being that it was a combination of bears instead of a single element. There were the normal fire, water, earth, and wind, but a few other elements—such as lightning, light, and darkness—were there, too.

None of that mattered, though, as Derek barely registered the elements of the beasts before they were hit with a rend or slash. He was way too focused on completing the wave, getting his meager reward, then viewing the notifications. So, when the last bear fell, and the dungeon orb appeared, Derek quickly ran to it to receive the reward—a few hundred gold coins.

Derek snorted as he stored the gold in one of his storage rings, then backed away from the dungeon orb.

“Did it do it?” Silvi asked as she floated close to him on her pot lid. “Did we advance?”

“I don’t know,” Derek said. “I’ve been putting off looking. If this doesn’t work, then we’re going to have a rough time trying to level all the skills to see if any push us to advancement. And if that doesn’t work, I won’t know what to do.”

“Will be fine,” Silvi said. “Plenty of time. Not old like very nice, non-tasty goblin elf or little old sparky man.”

“I know,” Derek said. “We would be perfectly fine taking our time, but Alanah…”

“Mhm…” Silvi nodded her head. “Beautiful Delicious Restaurant Owner might have more recipes. Will need to find her soon.”

“Yeah…” Derek half chuckled. “Well… here we go,” he finally said, then opened his notifications.

After reading the notification, Derek frowned. Okay… there are other notifications, too. With a little hope left, Derek began flipping through all the other notifications he’d received that he’d been ignoring. “Fuck!” he said aloud. All the remaining messages were just there to notify him that he or Silvi had slain a bear and received experience points. The final one was just the message that he’d killed a bear, and it had the normal level up.

“No advance?” Silvi asked.

“No…” Derek clenched his fists. Was he really going to have to max out his Void Call and Void Shift skills? What about his spatial skills that were given to him by Dave? Would he need to level those as well? He’d really put most of his eggs in the leveling basket, and was now at a bit of a loss on what to do.

“Oh well,” Silvi said. “We explore, kill more, cook more.”

“I guess,” Derek said. There were still things that he wanted to do, after all. Other than an extremely quick visit that didn’t include any sightseeing, he’d never explored Vallum. He definitely wanted to check out the Kingdom of the Dwarves. Maybe he’d even go pick up Braxton and have the assassin show him around—he certainly seemed like he knew the place well enough.

There was also the other continent. When he and Alanah went there, they were on a mission, and didn’t do much exploring. There were a bunch of dungeons there that he could go into, and he did kind of want to meet Alanah’s old friend. Hell, Marrick was already over there, so he could go have some fun with the old elf. He’d bet that adventuring with him would be a blast.

Not to mention, he had more time with his friends. It would be nice seeing the twins grow a bit and seeing Clare and Avery’s boys get into and kick ass in the Academy.

Derek thought about all these things, and, though it calmed him down, he couldn’t help but still feel a sense of loss. Was it because he was out of ideas? Or was it the thought that seeing Alanah again might be much further away than he imagined? Was he really looking forward to a real date with the woman so much? Yeah… Derek inwardly chuckled. He kind of was. He was also inwardly cursing the siren for waiting so long to say anything. Not to mention, the more he thought about, the more he cursed himself for the same thing.

Derek swiped the final notification away, then pulled up his status sheet.

Derek’s eyes fell on his Personal Information, and he couldn’t help but laugh. He didn’t know when, but at some point over the last few months, he’d turned 31 years old. It was one of those things that he rarely bothered looking at, so he hadn’t noticed it before. Didn’t even get a cake, he chuckled. It really didn’t mean anything to him anymore. Really, it only went as far as to help him know that, physically, he’d been out of the void that he’d been stuck in for just over a year.

His Experience Points he needed to gain to reach the next level had changed to question marks. He’d seen those before in his stats before he evolved, so it wasn’t a big surprise to him that he was seeing them again.

He also had a nice handful of stat points to spend, and he would, eventually. He wasn’t all too worried about them for the time being. As for his skills, he’d had some gains. Nothing to write home about, but he’d gotten a level or two in a lot of the skills that he hadn’t already maxed out. If nothing else, it was good to see.

His eyes finally fell on Void Call and Void Shift—his last good idea on how to advance. That was what did it for Alanah, after all. She finally used her transformation skill and accepted it, and that’s how she got her final advancement.

Void Shift and Void Call were two of the earlier void skills that he’d received, so he felt that it was natural that they were what was holding him back. Derek shrugged and closed his status sheet. He had a bunch of skill potions left, and he felt that it was about time to properly focus on Void Shift. Besides, Silvi had already managed to level her Active Void Shift to level 20, and he had fallen way behind. He couldn’t let her get so far ahead of him, could he?

With a sigh, he said, “Well… are you ready to go hunt some more?”

“Always!” Silvi said.

“Let’s go… I guess,” he sighed. Finally, he took a step forward and placed his hand on the dungeon orb and selected ‘Leave Dungeon.’

The light washed over the duo and they disappeared. Derek’s feet found the ground, and he blinked. Looking around, he saw an oh so familiar empty room with gray walls. Well, it was almost empty. There were a couple of very comfortable-looking recliners in front of him.

Derek grinned and let out a breath. I’ve been waiting for a chance to talk to Dave again… this can’t be a coincidence.

“Took you long enough,” a voice traveled through the air, echoing off the walls. “I was beginning to think you would never reach level 250.”

“A lot of good it did,” Derek said, looking around to try to find Dave.

“Yes… a lot of good,” Dave’s voice echoed again. “We have much to discuss before you ascend. Remember… you owe me a favor.”