Finding my way home was going to be a massive pain in the ass. I don't know how far I had traveled, but I was most likely several thousand miles away. The worst part is that the inside of my suit felt crusty. It's not like I could take it off either. Not until I land anyway.

  "System, are there any achievement windows or options? How was my performance compared to other species?" I was super curious if I had placed in the top half. I knew I did well by the rewards I received, but was there a direct numbered ranking system? I got my answer in the form of a different window.

  It felt good to have that Universal First at the end. It doesn't say it comes with rewards or bonuses. Though, I guess they were included for the quest. The second one said minimal and not no assistance. Probably due to my EA skill keeping me alive. There was something bothering me with the last one. '... survive without vital organs?'

  "System, How badly was I injured during the recording?" I ask with a bit of nervousness. 'How close was I to dying?'

  "Your organs liquified, your bones snapped and pierced your skin, your eyes popped, your nervous system disintegrated, and your brain was compressed to a third of it's size against the back of your skull." The voice responded like it was no big deal. Hardly a scratch.

  "How... How did I even survive? I was conscious for like half of the trip, and there wasn't any pain. When did all that happen?" I was mortified by that.

  "Most of the ascension was a slow continuous incline of damage. Your body was adapting to the forces being applied to it but not fast enough to completely stop them. When you used 876 points of Energy all at once, that's when your body got the worst of the effects. The only reason you survived was because of your Mana Core. It has evolved from the exposure to the Energy surge and your Environmental Adaptation skill assisting it. The main change to the Core is that it has a strong grasp on your soul. Similar to a liches phylactery, as long as your Mana Core is intact you will regenerate."

  "When I woke up... I was still liquified wasn't I?" My regeneration was working but it was struggling to stay above zero at the time.

  "Yep."

  I just stared off at nothing as I fell from near orbit. There was a lot to unpack there. A whole lot of things to think about and have a mental breakdown over. I focused on the most important one, of course.

  'The fuck do you mean "yep"?!' The system had never used that word before. It was being so casual about my near death experience. When I thought about it more, the whole situation was stupid. I was stupid.

  "Why didn't I just cast my Dimensional Gate skill to use the Energy?! GOD... DAMN, I'M FUCKING DUMB!" I screamed within my helmet. The spell was extremely expensive to cast. I could have cleared up the Energy in minutes.

  'But then I wouldn't have gotten all the rewards either... Was my luck stat doing more than I thought? I had survived and even got an insane amount of rewards, and that was before I boosted it above 300 points.' I had a new worry. What kind of opportunity will I get with my luck now? My luck was in the 60's when I nearly died, so what dangers could I face later? What kind of rewards could I get?

  While I had nearly died, it wasn't painful. If I didn't ask, I wouldn't have known how bad I had hurt myself. I did live in the end, so does it even matter? Couldn't I just upgrade my EA skill a bunch so it's even stronger? I could now. I had 20 points to spend. Would it have been different if my body could adapt to the G-forces instantly? What if my body could have evolved to hold the Energy instead of being burned by it?

  I knew what I had to do now. I needed to upgrade my most broken skill. So I dumped 10 points into EA.

  I didn't feel anything. Which, I guess is normal since I'm not in a harsh environment. Well, not harsh enough. I was currently falling from an absurd height but it's not the fall that gets you. It's the landing.

  Feeling bored from the free fall after 10 minutes, I decide to put some flair into it. I did flips, spun, and all kinds of stupid shit. Then I realized, that despite the impressive speed I flew earlier, I hadn't actually seen how fast I could go with my own eyes. Now that my body could handle the forces, I smirked as I pushed all 120 points into flying. And I flew.

  I felt like a god. Not capital G, because the big man upstairs get's that, but a god. I had no idea how fast I was going, but if the cone of air forming around me was any indicator, I was most likely close to or already broke the sound barrier. It was hard to tell with the helmet on. I was still flying how I usually do, since I can't look up well enough to pull a Superman. I was standing vertically. A mental hand holding me up while supporting my weight.

  I turned to blast through a cloud, to see if I could estimate my speed. After popping out the other side with a trail of water vapor following me, I flew backwards so I could keep an eye on it while keeping my speed. The cloud was massive, but it was still shrinking quickly.

  3 seconds. Nothing.

  7 seconds. Nothing.

  11 seconds. Not- The cloud burst as a massive cone of displaced air drilled through it.

  "Holy shit, I gotta be going like mach 5! HA~!" I started laughing to myself as I flew around, popping clouds like they were bubbles. I could feel the G-forces pressing against me but it wasn't doing anything to harm me or even affect me that much. I was giggling as I turned a gargantuian cloud into swiss cheese since it was too big to explode. Making tunnels in the cloud was a lot of fun.

  As I examined my handiwork, I saw something in one of the tunnels. It looked like some kind of structure. As I flew closer, I got a good idea for what it could be. In the side of one of the tunnels I made in the cloud, was a stone brick wall. Perfect rectangles interlocked together, smooth to the touch, and almost the same color as the cloud. They were just a bit darker than the white vapor around it. It had to be a Dungeon. That meant there was loot to steal and things to explore.

  Feeling pretty excited, I flew along the edge and used my Telekinesis to kind of just swat the clouds away with a big mental hand. It took a while but I eventually found something like an entrance. I didn't completely uncover the structure, but from what I could see it looked like a castle. Just with no openings above or below the walls. Every gap that a normal castle would have, was filled in with stone.

  The entrance had a small platform that I could stand on, so I landed there while trying to look into the opening. There was some kind of magical barrier in the doorway, but I could see through it. Not very far, as the there was no light inside. I walked up to the door and placed a hand onto the barrier. My expectations were confirmed when my hand rested against it like it was perfectly solid. I couldn't feel it through the glove, but my hand didn't snag onto anything. My guess is that it's a sheer surface like glass or plastic. After a few seconds, a window popped up.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "140? That seems kinda high... System, what is the average level of this world?"

  "60. The current highest level being on the planet Gahlora is 93." The voice in my head kindly answered the question I was about to ask.

  "What? But then this is way too high. Does anything happen if no one clears it?"

  "No. It just remains an unused resource. Dungeons do increase in level and the ambient Mana in an area the longer it is left alone, making the nearby monsters stronger, but that's all it does."

  "What would I get if I cleared it?" I could probably use my Dimensional Gate to get through the barrier. This might be a good test to see if it has a limitation with magic barriers.

  "Unknown. Theoritically you would get rewards for someone level 140, but as it is impossible for anything lower level than that it is not known what happens. If you somehow enter the Dungeon, you will likely die."

  "Hmmm yeah, probably." Did I really want to throw myself into some other unknown? I probably found this place thanks to my high luck stat, so I should be able to survive it right? 'No. Don't be stupid. Going inside at my level is suicide.'

  With a sigh I backed away from the Dungeon's entrance and let myself fall off the edge. 'It would have been so much fun though... A different dungeon then.' I was trying to avoid the boring as hell search for my house. I could build another one, but then I'd have to find another town and start doing my gaslighting stuff from the begining.

  "Damn this sucks."

  --------- Keji ---------

  Today might not as bad as I thought. The Human hasn't shown up and it's a quiet day. It'd be better if I was allowed to take my rightful day off, but oh well. There was a strange weather phenomenon earlier but nothing else has happened. The clouds looked like they had a hole form in them. Just a weird formation.

  That was a while ago now, so I was just doing what I do normally. Staring out into the forest while semi aware of my surroundings. If today had some luck, then the Human won't show up at all. That left me with a small smile.

  ...

  It's been a few hours and still nothing. My shift ends when the sun sets and it's getting close. 'Just 3 more hours.' I thought to myself.

  Then something felt... off. Something was wrong but I couldn't tell what it was. Looking around, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. My partner for the day also had the same feeling since they were looking around too. 'It felt like...'

  A monster half my height jumped out of the treeline and booked it right for the gate. It didn't get very far as I sunk the tip of my spear into it's neck, and my partner finished it off. It was bipedal. Green skinned and long triangle ears. Another variant of a feline life form. Just a regular level 12 monster. This planet had a whole thing with cats. Everything was somewhat based on the base principle of what a cat is.

  "A monster wave is coming. The forest has gone silent." My partner said while withdrawing their spear from it's skull. It wasn't someone I really knew, never bothered to really learn his name.

  "I thought so. Any Jipio signals in the sky?" I looked around as I asked. The Jipio were a tribes people. Using smoke signals and horns for long distance communication. They really didn't like to ask for help. Especially from the "demonic system". Some did ask though, so there might be hope for this species yet. Not like the system would let them die out anyway.

  "None that I can see. Probably on the other side of town. We only fought one monster."

  That was true. When a monster swarm begins, it has a low number of monsters storm the town walls. The number increases as the waves increase. Since it's a natural occurance and there's no leaders, the level and general power in each wave is random. The first wave could have 5 level 20's and the third could have 30 level 4's. That's an extreme on both ends. It's usually somewhere in the middle in terms of levels.

  "Alright, let's close up the gate and keep watch for a little longer. If the others need help they'll send someone to get us." I told my partner for the day and we closed the gate. While we were inside the walls, it became more difficult to handle the outside monsters since we had to look through a slit in the gate and also stab through another. It was much safer though, so I wasn't going to complain. Plus the swarms are good for XP.

  Now it's just a waiting game...

  ...

  About an hour later and this swarm was proving to be difficult. We had been summoned to the other side of town, as the waves were coming from the west instead of the east. No one has died, yet, and the Jipio were trying to stand their ground. The Jipio, were a cat based species. Like everything else on this planet. Bipedal, some fur and some scales. Their height is around my waist, some shorter and some taller. A mix of reptillian and feline features. The ones that do ask for help are pretty nice, and also have more feline features. While the ones who despise the system for some reason have more reptillian features.

  I'm not sure if there's some kind of race war but it's certainly about religion. Both sides worship the land, and the animals, but one side worships the monsters too. Believing them to be their ancestors or something. The other side thinks that the monsters are the corruption of their ancestors. It's pretty black and white with them really. One side seems to be cold, and the other warm.

  That's not important though as several different types of monster cats are trying to eat me, along with everyone else fighting them back. The gate had fallen but the wall was still strong. Forcing them into a choke point. It wouldn't be that bad, if there wasn't hundreds of them. They were smaller than I would like, as they kept slipping past my attacks. Thankfully they were low level so we weren't taking any serious damage.

  But if we take any longer to deal with them, the next wave will start. Adding even more monsters to the mix. Possibly ones with higher levels. Even without the Human around, today sucked.

  We kept fighting. Any of the monsters that slipped past us got dealt with by the Jipio. The sound of battle and war cries from the Jipio filled the air. Then there was a loud booming CRACK that came with strong winds. Knocking many of the Jipio and monsters over. A few of my people fell too since they weren't able to brace themselves properly. Everything was silent as everyone looked around. No one was attacking or moving anymore. Not even the monsters. That was worrying.

  There was also this vague sense of wrongness. Stronger than the feeling when the waves started. I noticed a few people and monsters looking up. Some in awe, but most with a deep fear. I slowly turned to look at what they were. The first thing I saw was some black and off white colored boots in the air and my heart sank into my stomach. I knew who it was instantly. Though they never made me feel such dread before. It was bad sure, but something was different now. Somehow, the Human had become even more unnerving.

  And as my gaze followed up their form, my heart beat harder and faster. The feeling turning into an unknown horror. I don't know why I was scared. I just felt like my very essence was in danger. That's not the only thing that startled me. The human had become level 4. It was level 1 yesterday. That shouldn't even be possible.

  Then to my absolute horror. It singled me out.

  "Hey Keji~! Mind if I help?"

  --------- Greg ---------

  Finding any place near my house was a huge pain. Finding the house even harder. But, my luck proved to be very helpful as it turned out I could sense the residue from the hole I opened earlier. I did have to be relatively close to it though. Around 50 miles. That's a long way, but since I had traveled possibly thousands of miles it was very lucky to stumble upon it. Once I got closer, I noticed the town was in between me and the vague sense of rightness beyond.

  From this height I noticed many little dots trying to make it's way inside. Deciding to check it out, I flew down. Not nearly as fast as before, but fast enough to break the sound barrier. 'I should get a speedometer put into my helmet. Or get a skill for it from the system.'

  A thought for another time. I of course had to make a sick ass entrance, so I stopped almost instantly. Just so the wind would announce my presence. And announce it did!

  I took a disturbing amount of pleasure watching a bunch of things flinch from the sound and several more fall over from the wind. I looked around to see if I knew anyone here, and I saw what must have been the Jipio for the first time. They looked like someone had mashed the Kahjit and Argonians from Elder Scrolls together. It looked... kinda gross actually. The clothes they were wearing were similar to what the Native Americans or Aztecs wore. Tribal leathers with painted or dyed patterns. Some also had wat paint on their furred and scaled faces. Then my eyes spotted Keji. Who ended up being right in front of me. 'Lucky~!'

  As he looked up at me, I waited for him to meet my helmets visor before speaking.

  "Hey Keji~! Mind if I help?" I couldn't keep the smile off my face. This was seriously lucky. I would be able to complete 3 quests in a single day! With the hundreds of monsters before me, I could easily get a massive reward. 'Luck really is the best stat! I'm putting at least 50% of all future points into it.'

  Now, How do I feel like slaughtering a bunch of monsters?