Chapter 12

  Ben and Eve walked out of the cave with stunned expressions. The sun was still high in the sky, shining down on the forest below.

  Despite all that had happened, they hadn’t actually been in the cave for very long. An hour at most. Yet they felt immensely changed.

  “I think I need to hunt something just to clear my head,” Ben said.

  Eve gave a dumbfounded nod. They were both in shock.

  Ben still had plenty of notifications to review, but he didn’t think his brain could handle it. His mind was racing with the events of all that had happened in the cave. The best he could do was allocate his stat points. That was easy at least. He just put everything in faith as usual.

  When he entered the cave, he was level 4 with a faith score of 27. Now at level 8, his faith score jumped to 43.

  As he looked at his Faith score, something stood out to him.

  “Oh, the Attribute Crystal,” he said.

  Ben took it out of his inventory and marveled at it. He was still hesitant to use it. The value of the crystal was so much that he could pay rent for a year if he sold it.

  He didn’t know how long he just stared at it indecisively. Ben was snapped out of his stupor by a light tap to his shoulder. He looked over to Eve. She smiled warmly at him.

  “Ready?” She texted.

  He must have been standing there for a while. He finally nodded and used the orb. It was time for them to get going.

  [You have absorbed the Minor Attribute Crystal]

  [You have chosen the Faith Attribute]

  [Your Faith attribute proficiency has gone from Apprentice to Intermediate]

  [Attribute points have been added to your Faith attribute retroactively]

  What that meant was that Ben would receive 3 Faith attribute points anytime his faith would be increased in the future, instead of 2. And because it was retroactive, he received an additional 16 points to his faith score.

  Every level, his faith score automatically increased by 2 instead of 1, because faith was one of his focus attributes, which set it at the apprentice level of proficiency from the start.

  Each time he leveled up, Ben always put his free attribute point in Faith. Since his Faith attribute was at the Apprentice proficiency, that free attribute point into faith was worth 2. Now, at Intermediate proficiency, Each point was worth 3.

  Finally, Ben relieved a flat 5 additional points to faith which represented the higher base starting attribute value of an Intermediate attribute proficiency.

  Novice attribute proficiencies started at 10.

  Apprentice started at 15.

  Intermediate started at 20.

  Ben’s faith score rose to 64. This was monstrously high, even for a level 8 player. Going forward, his faith would rise by 6 with each level up, instead of 4, as long as he put his free attribute point into faith, which he definitely would.

  That was why the orb was so expensive. It was extremely rare and extraordinarily powerful. There were very few opportunities to raise the proficiency of attributes in the game of Eternity. Most never got their attribute proficiency past the proficiency they started with. The few that found an attribute crystal typically used it on themselves, or gave it to their friends or guildmates, so there were never any on the market. Outside of attribute crystals, there were no other known ways to raise attribute proficiency.

  Ben knew some additional ways, given his experience as a regressor, but no one else knew because no one else played the game long enough to find out. Not even the beta player. The beta players only had access to the game for a few months. That wasn’t enough time to learn anywhere near the amount of secrets that Ben knew.

  Ben knew that he had become far more powerful than players of his same level. He was eager to try out his new strength.

  He nodded towards Eve and jumped down from the ledge without another word. He landed with a dexterous roll. He looked back at Eve. She was a little more hesitant to follow in the same manner, so she didn’t.

  She carefully let herself down and landed softly on her feet in a low, careful squat.

  ”Cute,” he thought.

  He had to remember that she was a faith-based class, and she wasn’t as dexterous as him, even with similar physical attributes. She didn’t have the experience of a past life of combat expertise like he did. She smiled sheepishly at him. He chuckled and lead them into the forest.

  Almost as soon as they entered the tree line, Ben and Eve both received a global announcement.

  [Zhang Yi and their party from Zone 23, within the Chinese Server, is the first to defeat the Dire Wolf Cavern Dungeon Boss. They will receive the following reward. 50 Gold coins. 1 Silver Chest, 1 Silver key, and 25,000 experience point]

  The Regional and Global chat erupted in chatter. Ben ignored the chat but smiled.

  The game of Eternity was divided into regions and servers based on location. China, Korea, Japan, and America, had most of the top players on the global leaderboard during the beta.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  There were also a few top players from Europe, Russia, India and Africa that were notable. Ben was familiar with many of them from his past life. Once the game became real, global travel became much easier. There were dungeons that required international unity to conquer.

  Of course, there was national rivalry, and even international strife, but Ben didn’t engage in that kind of drama. He knew and befriended people from across the world, including China. In fact, he knew the person who the announcement was about. Zhang Yi. A powerful Martial Artist, and somewhat of a mentor to him in the past. Zhang Yi helped Ben improve his mana manipulation.

  That was a big reason he could so easily cast two spells at once when that sort of mastery should have been impossible for players at such an early point in the game.

  Zhang Yi was also not one of the allies who betrayed him. Those allies mostly came from his own countrymen in America.

  Ben didn’t reminisce too much. The announcement gave him important information about his progress. What the announcement signified was the progress of his peers in America, and in his own zone.

  If someone from his zone completed a dungeon or beat a regional boss, or world boss for the first time, it will be announced. Either as a Global announcement, or lesser regional announcement.

  The fact that Zhang Yi was the first in the entire world to clear the wolf dungeon meant that no Americans had cleared it yet. That meant that he knew pretty much exactly how far those in the American server, and his zone, had progressed.

  He immediately chose a direction based on that information. He headed towards the Lizardman dungeon.

  The lizardman dungeon was a level 3 dungeon. Most people wouldn't attempt it until the level 2 Wolf dungeon was cleared. Ben’s plan was to skip the line and be the first to complete the Lizardman dungeon.

  Since he knew exactly where Zhang Yi was, he knew that he had a headstart on conquering the Lizardman dungeon and getting the reward. The Wolf Dungeon was miles away, in a completely different region, so even if Zhang Yi was powerful, he and other top players would still have to take time to travel and fight their way to the Lizardman dungeon.

  They would also have to find the dungeon. Ben had no intention of giving others time to catch up to him.

  Ben picked up his pace. He didn’t bother sneaking. His focus was on speed.

  With his newfound strength, he didn’t think he needed to sneak anymore. He burst into a sprint. Eve went wide-eyed and did her best to match him.

  Ben was noticeably faster than her. She had to chug a stamina potion to maintain her maximum speed. Even then, Ben’s figure grew further and further away as time passed.

  Ben was so focused on moving forward, that he honestly forgot that Eve was following him.

  Thankfully, Ben ran into enemies before he could leave Eve’s sight for long. By the time she caught up, the battle was almost over. She looked upon the scene in awe.

  They were at the entrance to the Lizardman dungeon. Ben was finishing off the last few enemies in the battle. Though, it was more of a slaughter than a battle.

  There were at least twenty Lizardmen around the entrance, and even more Lizardman corpses. Ben had aggroed every Lizardman in the area and chose to fight them all at the same time.

  What shocked Eve the most was the sheer amount of creatures that Ben had summoned.

  Previously, he could only summon four at a time. Now there were twelve cherubs of different kinds flying around and destroying the Lizardmen.

  Eve noted four different types of cherubs. There were three Cherub Warriors, three Cherub Archers, and two other kinds of cherubs she had never seen before.

  One set of cherubs wielded a two-handed long spear.

  [Level 8 Cherub Spear Master]

  Each Cherub Spear Master was paired with a Cherub Warrior. They operated as a deadly duo. The warrior acted as a tank, allowing the spear master to attack from a distance.

  Lastly, there was a set of three cherubs that wielded gigantic great hammers.

  [Level 8 Cherub Hammer Master]

  The hammers were way too big for the cherub’s small bodies. However, the cherubs had no problem wielding the oversized weapons. It seemed like the hammers were as light as a feather in the hands of the cherubs, but when the cherub landed a hit on a LIzardman, the Lizardman was completely flattened.

  Their fighting style was a flashy spectacle. They spun and summersaulted in the air, allowing for even more power in their blows. They were like little tornadoes of death.

  It was extreme overkill for the level of challenge they faced.

  Ben admired the work of his cherubs with a satisfied smile. Eve approached him tentatively.

  “You’ve gotten like…a lot stronger,” she typed.

  Ben nodded.

  “Yea, it seems so. My class scales twice as fast as a regular summoner. And this new summoning necklace is a huge boon. My summons also scale directly with my faith score. Since my faith score has skyrocketed from the Attribute Crystal, my summons have gotten way stronger as well,” Ben said.

  Eve noticed that Ben didn’t even seem winded. She had to drink a stamina potion yet she was still panting from the excursion of trying to keep up with him. Ben noticed how ragged Eve looked.

  “Speaking of strength, I wanted to talk for a bit about our dungeon clearing strategy. I noticed that, well, you have a problem keeping up.”

  Eve went pale when Ben brought up her speed. Ben shook his head and raised his hands defensively.

  “I don’t mean it in a negative way. Eternity has a complex attribute modifier system. Your performance is more than just the attributes you can see. I suspect that we have similar dexterity, agility, and constitution, but I think I am getting a boost. Maybe it has something to do with one of my notifications. I haven’t checked them all.

  You are a faith-based support class. I don’t expect you to keep up, but I need to know how we can best work together. I need to know exactly how your ability works, so I can decide how to determine our pace.”

  Eve let out a relieved breath and nodded in understanding. Ben watched her type.

  “You don’t have to worry about leaving me behind. My Soul Link works from a really long distance. As long as we are in the same instance, it will boost you and your summons. I can even track where you are and how much health you have, which will allow me to heal you and your summons from far away, even if I can’t see you.”

  Ben raised a brow at her explanation.

  “Do you realize how strong that ability is?” Ben asked.

  Eve formed a coy smile and swayed gently from side to side in a manner that Ben couldn't help but find cute, not that he would tell her that.

  “Maybe,” she texted.

  Ben chuckled.

  “Alright. Well, if that is the case, here is the plan. I am going to rush this dungeon. Now that I am level 8, and I have this many summons, I will be able to clear this place pretty quickly. My summons individually are much stronger than they were when I was level 4. I am going to clear it so fast that you might not be able to keep up. Maybe you can collect all the loot drops. We can divide it up at the end.”

  Eve bit into her bottom lip.

  “You aren’t afraid I’ll steal the loot?” She texted.

  Ben realized in that moment that he did trust the woman, at least with the minor task of item collection. She’d proven herself at least that much when she put herself in harm's way for him, and how she interacted with the Need or Greed loot system, and the fact that she gave him the priceless Attribute Crystal without charge. He smiled warmly at her.

  “Not even a little bit. So, sounds like a plan?”

  Eve felt a fluttering in her chest from Ben’s answer, but she did her best to hide her reaction. She nodded.

  “Good. See you on the other side,” Ben said.

  Ben chugged a stamina regeneration potion and sprinted into the dungeon. He left a field of dust and bodies in his wake.

  Eve huffed in exasperation and began to leisurely collect all the fallen gear. Once she was done, she entered the cave at a casual pace with a hop to her step.

  She could already see her experience bar rising. She couldn’t have been more pleased.