The entire gigantic body groaned and sagged, life draining away as I literally ripped its heart free. I got my first good look at its gem heart, a giant faceted blue crystal that cracked and splintered under the onslaught of pure damage.

Returning to the physical world, I collapsed, but dragged the gem heart with me to the floor. My limbs weren't working properly, either stretched so far tendons had snapped, or pulled totally out of their sockets. It took a few seconds, but with fresh jolts of pain, my leg and arms popped back into place.

Panting from the mental exhaustion, I groaned as I weakly wiped sweat from my eyes. That had been close. So I bared my teeth in a triumphal grin as I opened my hand to stare at the gem heart. The outer layer had disintegrated, but an inner core remained. Like a plum-sized sapphire, it blazed with even more light than the outer gem ever had.

A flood of messages coursed down my vision.

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have defeated the Ironwood Colossus unique boss guardian, level 65. Bonus experience earned for defeating a much higher leveled secret boss. Experience doubled for defeating the Colossus in its own domain."

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have reached level 27!"

"Yes!" I exulted. Three levels? Cyrus had stacked the deck against me, but for once he'd delivered enough experience to make it worth it. That one fight won me as much experience as the entire last 2 days and nights of fighting non-stop? Whoa.

"Upon reaching level 25, you may select a spell to permanent. Note, permanent spells cannot be changed and will affect your class evolution."

I sighed with relief and joy as Identify kicked in.

"Gem heart of the Ironwood Colossus. Epic. This extremely valuable artifact of a fallen titan grants a unique upgrade based on the class and skills of whoever consumes it."

"Wow. That sounds amazing."

"Indeed it is, Lucas! Congratulations on yet another epic, creative duel to the death. Your insights into creating dramatic tension before pulling off a surprise win has grown to . . . Yes, you do deserve an ability."

Eva piped up. "Congratulations, Lucas! You have gained the level 2 ability The Show Must Go On."

"The Show Must Go On. Ability. Rare. You gain insights into creative ways to best your foes. Insights grow with the difference in levels between you and your enemy."

"Is that a thing?"

"Of course it is. I told you before, all of your abilities are recorded in your secondary abilities menu. Once you develop them far enough, they can make the jump to primary abilities where the benefits really grow."

Eva interjected again. "Congratulations, Lucas! For reaching the milestone level of 25, your utility spell Mystic Looter gains 10 levels and the following upgrades:"

"Inventory increases to 500 x 500 slots, but hotlist still capped at 50.

Large items now compress to fit in a single slot.

The item limit for smaller items increased from 99 to 999 per slot.

15% chance for loot to instantly upgrade to a higher rarity when first dropped, and a 20% chance of loot improving in rarity or quantity over time while in the inventory.

May now transfer to and from party members up to 100 feet away."

I whistled. "Wow. Where did this come from?"

"Every milestone level can trigger upgrades to spells and abilities, remember? Since you're still growing into your full tier-1 evolution, it also has the potential to trigger a spell or ability evolution. Unfortunately, you don't have good candidates for evolution at the moment. This upgrade in essence combines your upgrade options to push one spell to the point it could become a candidate for evolution much sooner."

"Why not let me evolve one of my high-leveled mana abilities? I need an evolution, Cyrus. I need that higher efficiency."

"Your mana abilities are quite high, but they are also very new. You need a little more time to master what you've got before evolving them, or you'd risk a poor evolution."

I took a deep breath. "Okay. The upgrade is pretty awesome."

It was, and hopefully I could evolve the spell soon. The ability to store more loot, more easily transfer it, and maybe even get some of it to upgrade to higher rarity did sound awesome.

"Indeed it is." Cyrus's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "I'd save that Gem Heart until after you choose your next permanent spell."

"Right. Thanks." I decided to trust his opinion, despite worrying he might be playing another one of his manipulating games. I dumped the gem into my inventory. With everything that just got shoved in my face, it was a lot to process. So I focused on the wonderful fact that I'd reached the all-important level 25.

Sitting in the dead husk of a giant Colossus slowly filling with lava felt fitting for me to review my loot, but I decided to move out anyway. So I triggered Soul Feed, then hesitated. I'd taken to casting Harvest at every chance, and I'd harvested a ton of great spells. The Colossus had shown exceptional mastery over mana, along with some advanced spells. I could get a good one.

I still didn't want to lose Mana Beam, though. It had helped a bit against the Colossus, and I still felt it would be great against Alpha and Noctarus. My other harvested spell, Ravening Bite, seemed awesome too, but could I pass up trying to Harvest a spell from such a boss monster?

No. I couldn't. So I cast Ravening Bite.

"Ravening Bite. Unleash an invisible swarm of teeth against a single target. All organic tissue is consumed, resulting in double experience gains."

A dark gray whirlwind filled with what looked like actual shark teeth appeared, whipping around the small, enclosed circular chamber of the Colossus's heart. The wind growled like a really big dog, a low, threatening sound, followed by a shrill screeching as the teeth ripped along the ironwood walls.

The description said all organic tissue would be consumed, but apparently ironwood was more iron than not because the tornado of magical teeth barely scratched the surface. I grinned to think what they'd do to a normal flesh-and-blood monster. Maybe I should wait and try it on Alpha.

No, I'd made my choice. I quickly re-cast Ravening Bite over and over until I spent all the remaining uses. Hopefully I wasn't making a stupid mistake. Then I cast Harvest.

"Congratulations, Lucas! You have successfully harvested Soul Ravage."

"Soul Ravage. Spell. Rare. Spear through an enemy's mind to deal mental and spiritual damage. Amount of damage increased with the difference in mana pool size. Uses remaining: 3."

"Due to your class ability, uses remaining increased to 6."

Nice. That was the same spell that had hurt me, despite my high resistance. Given my huge mana pool, it could likely kill most monsters, and should hopefully help disrupt Alpha or Noctarus long enough for me to drive my blades through their hearts.

With that done, I climbed up to the broken top of the monster, then triggered Loot as I jumped across to my Observation Platform. It shot into the air above an ocean of stinking black smoke.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

When I scanned my inventory, I smiled. "That's more like it."

I hadn't gotten much good loot from the other giants, trolls, and ogres. The Colossus was another matter. Maybe he'd looted all his minions. I didn't get mana crystals, but I got six 5-gallon buckets bursting with huge cut gemstones of every variety, from glittering diamonds as big as my head, to sapphires, rubies, and more.

I also got a dozen 10-gallon buckets full of even bigger uncut gemstones. The haul was better than the gems we'd gotten in that plateau dungeon, and I'd sold those for 5 million mana crystals. On top of that, I got 33 6-foot square pallets piled high with large ingots of assorted precious metals. When I drilled deeper on one pallet in the inventory, I got a breakdown of how many bars of gold, platinum, and other metals not found on earth the pallet contained.

That was a ton of loot associated with mining. Could the Colossus sense minerals and gems within the nearby mountains and have a skill to pull what it wanted straight out of the stone? Probably, since it had accumulated such a vast hoard in time to hand it over to me. That was a lot of metal, but how much was it worth?

Another pile of loot made me smile. I got 72 8-foot planks of ironwood, then another 3000 planks of more ironwood. I had to check the descriptions to understand the difference.

"Living Ironwood plank. Legendary quality. Sought by the best crafters in the multiverse, this semi-sentient wood, taken from an Ironwood Colossus Guardian of an Ironwood Grove requires only the touch of a master's hand to mold it into a work of unrivaled art."

"Ironwood Plank. Epic Quality. Wood from a rare Ironwood Grove tended by an Ironwood Colossus Guardian, these planks are sought by the multiverse's elites and reserved for only the highest-quality building projects."

So I got 72 planks from the Colossus itself, and another 3000 planks from all the trees. Nice. Each round plank was more like a log, 8 feet long and a full 3 feet in diameter. That was a lot of wood.

"I'm guessing these planks are worth a lot."

"Not in the hands of any local crafters. They lack the decades required to master their skill and unlock abilities powerful enough to mold living ironwood. Sold at the system store, you'll get more than you imagine possible."

"I'll take it. That thing was a nightmare." It seemed like those planks were the real loot from defeating such an insanely powerful monster. I couldn't wait to see how much they sold for.

Slowing my platform, I leaned over the edge, scanning the shattered remains of the once-majestic ironwood grove. Most of the trees had been consumed by the lava or shattered by the explosion, but a few remained at least partially visible. If the wood was so valuable, should I harvest more?

As if reading my mind, Cyrus said, "You won't get any more useful wood out of those trees."

"Why not?"

"Because it's the interaction between the Colossus and the trees that makes them special. The Colossus is dead, so the connection is broken. The wood is still among the best you'll find on this world, but will sell for a pittance compared to the planks you already looted."

I sighed. So much for more easy money. Still, I had a ton of planks already filling my inventory, so I had a feeling I was about to get a huge payday.

Then I cursed. "Schumann! I lost my naginata in the lava explosion." That was two of my best heavy-hitting weapons gone in a single fight. I had a bunch of other big weapons from the trolls and ogres, but most were pretty useless. I'd have to visit the store and trade some of my newfound wealth for a good one.

As I rose above the devastation of the valley, a glint of light from the cliff face caught my attention. The smooth, sheer face had been rent with cracks, and entire sections had fallen free. Nestled at the edge of a hidden glade that had been concealed by the cliff floated a platinum loot box.

"Hidden loot!" I'd just won a ton from the Colossus, but the sight of a hidden loot box still thrilled me, and I shot over on Switchblade to snag it, getting a single item.

"Upgrade scroll. Upgrade a random ability 2 levels."

Free upgrades were always welcome. I read it as I returned to my platform.

"Your ability Fire Hand is now level 3."

Nice. Not the one I'd hoped for, but I'd take it. I'd run into a couple fire-based giants in the past couple days, but hadn't really thought about how that ability might have helped me defeat them so easily. It was a new ability and I'd forgotten all about it. Now at level 3, I would deal 150% more damage to any monster who used fire-based mana. Since I was already immune to fire and heat, fire monsters should just run away when they saw me.

Calling forth the feather-soft hammock, which had indeed self-repaired after getting singed in the lava cavern, I reclined with a sigh, consumed a donut, then munched on a big chicken club sandwich as I checked my other achievements.

"Congratulations, Lucas! For discovering a deeper truth and hidden synergy between runes, mana, and spells, you receive 2 levels in all mana and rune abilities. You also unlock the hidden ability Mana String, level 1."

"Mana String. Uncommon. Plus 20% easier crafting of mana strings, with 15% added physical power and 10% reduced mental effort per level."

"Note. Due to the benefit of your Merlin title, you start Mana String at level 5."

I whistled softly. That was a huge upgrade, and I welcomed the new ability. Mana strings offered tons of potential, but only if I got good enough at making them to use them real-time. With the new ability helping, I'd get there way faster.

"Congratulations, Lucas! For using a rune script to win a battle to the death for the first time, you receive a gold Einstein loot box."

I knew better than to discount a gold box when it came to rune items. Sure enough, when the shiny box flashed and disappeared, it left behind another thick leather tome.

"Varrik's Beginner Runes Part Two. Common. The second installment in Eldira Varrik's popular rune course, this tome expands upon the basic concepts taught in the introductory level. Mastery of the information in this tome marks a novice runesmith as a promising talent."

Without hesitation, I focused on the tome and drank in the flood of information that stabbed into my eyes from the gold letters pouring off every page. I sagged back against the hammock for a long moment, savoring the influx of pure information and feeling how it percolated down through my current understanding, filling in gaps and granting new insights.

"Congratulations, Lucas! For detonating an entire mountain to gain the upper hand against an otherwise unstoppable boss monster in its own domain, you receive a diamond Mount St Helens loot box!"

I laughed. "That's probably the most appropriate loot box name so far."

"You don't think Mt Vesuvius would have been better?" Cyrus asked. "The name ended up being a toss-up between the two."

Good question. I considered it for a moment as I rested and ate another donut. "No, I think you made the right choice. Vesuvius caused a lot of damage and killed a lot of people, but today I only hit the Colossus. Mt St Helens was explosive too, but didn't kill as many."

"I knew it was the right choice!" Cyrus chortled, sounding immensely relieved. I'd never imagined the AI might have any self doubts.

With great anticipation, I willed the glittering diamond loot box to open. It dropped 2 items. The first was a golden scepter, like a king might carry, except it was badly bent, the globe at the top dented. It looked like it had gotten run over by a tank.

"Breaker of Thrones. Legendary. A boss's domain is their final sanctum, where they enjoy the very best advantages. Until now. This single-use item will turn a boss's domain against them, just like you turned the volcano against the Ironwood Colossus. The boss's greatest domain-based advantage will become a weakness, and you will gain a new permanent ability designed to leverage that weakness even more."

I whistled softly as I studied the misshapen scepter. "This is awesome!"

"One victory often leads to another," Cyrus said, then his voice changed to a distinct Chinese accent. "Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."

"Are you using Jackie Chan's voice?"

"Seemed appropriate," Cyrus said. "I love Jackie Chan, and the quote was from Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Brilliant leader, deep thinker, despite his obvious foot fetish."

"What foot fetish?"

"Have you ever read The Art of War?"

"Actually, I have."

"Great," Cyrus said. "Then you no doubt noticed the sub-text too. He talked so much about marching and walking, he had to have a thing for feet."

I laughed. The absurdity of it was exactly what I needed after that death battle. "Cyrus, he was a general in a time when they had to walk everywhere. Of course he thought about feet, or his army wouldn't have been able to move."

"Pretty convenient excuse."

Still laughing, I tossed the scepter into my inventory. "Anyway, thanks for the prize. It'll come in handy." I had definite plans on how I hoped to use it.

When I checked out the second item, I had to laugh again. It was a black t-shirt embroidered with an exploding mountain, and words in bright white letters that said, "I Blew My Top at Mount St Helens!"

"T-shirt. Uncommon. This soft Earth garment is useless against armor, but will help the wearer sense any lava within a 1 mile radius and grants the single-use ability Lava Whisperer."

"Lava Whisperer. Rare. Control with your mind up to 1 cubic foot of lava per tier-0 point in Perception that is within the range of your senses."

Huh. That was actually a better gag gift than it seemed at first. I definitely might find a good use for it. Still smiling, I moved on.

"Congratulations, Lucas! For purging Giant Valley of every monster and defeating the Ironwood Colossus boss in your dashing, daring, and death-defying style, you receive an emerald Atilla loot box."

Emerald! Sweet. I willed the brightly shining emerald to open. It contained a single scroll.

"Title scroll. New title: Goliath."

"You have faced giants and defeated their champion, so his power has become yours.

Plus 1 level to all martial abilities.

Plus 5% to final calculation of Strength.

Plus 5% to final calculation of Constitution.

For 30 seconds you may double your Strength, Constitution or physical size. Cooldown: 1 hour."

I sighed and leaned back in the hammock to savor the influx of power coursing through me, washing away fatigue and making me feel like I could go arm wrestle an ogre. My early titles had granted set amounts of stats, but getting percentage boosts resulted in far greater benefits that would keep scaling as I advanced.

The possibility to short-term double attributes or even size felt perfect. My ability to multi-stack damage had helped, but against bosses or extremely high-leveled enemies sometimes I just needed more raw power. This new title would help a ton with that.

I set my platform to hover at 20,000 feet, finished my sandwich, then munched on a bucket of waffle fries. With ketchup! And turned my attention to the all important question of which spell to permanent next.

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