I woke up gasping and clutching at my throat, and I coughed up what felt like a gallon of mana water. My stomach burned like I drank bleach. Confusion set in. I was pretty sure that we were doing something important. Then I began to panic, frantically looking in every direction for the Caustic King. I didn't see him at all. That's when I was flooded with memories from falling in the river and telling Dia I was going to sleep. I looked at my arm and chest, and I was supposed to have damage from the acid, but miraculously, I didn't have a scratch. I looked at my character page and noticed that my HP, MP, and Stamina were maxed out. How long had I been lying there? I opened the notification that I saw flashing in the top right corner. A flood of messages came in.

  Congratulations on defeating a floor miniboss, additional experience gained for defeating an enemy 16 levels above your level

  "Hey Dia, we did it," I said with an excitement similar to a child's on Christmas day. I heard nothing in response. Usually, when I spoke to Dia, I felt like a warm blanket was wrapped around me. However, today, it was cold. This was the first time I felt alone since we made our bond. A silent tear began to well up in my left eye. I refused to let go of it; I am sure Dia is resting after our hard battle.

  New title earned: The bigger they are

  Error: Redacted @^%$#^%$&#%^$

  Error: Redacted !@#%$^%@^*@@^*

  Contacting administrator

  Resolution: You have received the spell:Redacted @!@#%$%!$#^$

  Level 25 reached

  Please select your new skill unlocked by reaching level 21; five selections are available.

  Titanium skin: Your skin will become slightly imbued with the properties of titanium -50% damage taken from physical attacks, 50% resistance to heat and corrosive attacks. Be careful, though, as titanium is weak when shrinkage is induced by cold and is conductive to electricity. -50% resistance to cold and electricity.

  Meteorite: This is a direct upgrade to the skill Dash. You call upon all the energies from the cosmos. Your movement speed is increased. Who said that your space affinity was only for portals? Uses 50 MP and has a duration of 2 minutes.

  True Strike: The rock beneath you crumbles under the might of your pickaxe. Now you don't need as many blows for the same result because the edge always goes where you want it.

  Analyze: You have spent much time figuring out your surroundings, which will become more manageable with this skill. This is a direct upgrade to identify.

  Exodus: With authority comes a choice, will you free your people or use them? With this ability, you can release slave collars and also bind people to you. Limit two bound to you at a time.

  I stared at my list long and hard. Each option was something I wanted, but I had to take Exodus. I couldn't just turn my back on my people, who were toiling above me day after day. Even the others that treated me like shit for getting them an extra beating or two didn't deserve what was happening to them.

  Distributing my points evenly again. I set off for the platform, where I met Khronos. Traversing the flowing tunnels this time was much easier because of my mana vision. I couldn't be sure, but it also seemed that the monsters were traveling in more miniature packs that were sparser than I had seen when stalking the water hole. My theory was that the monster spread into the territory of the slimes and therefore was more scarce in their home territory. I must have lost my wolf pelt in the river because I couldn't remember the last time I had it. If the wolves weren't as spread out, I would be in trouble, unable to mask my scent. I heard more of the clacking I had grown used to when hearing the little dogs coming and going. These wolves were anywhere from 5 to 15 levels higher than me. Trying to fight them would be foolish, so I stayed my bloodlust and slid past them like a stealth game, timing when I moved, ducking from cover to cover. I was on the home stretch, and when I thought I could let up, I saw a sleeping wolf that looked closer to a bear than a canine. He was massive.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  King of the Abyss, Level 50, HP 1000, MP 0, Threat level: It's a good day to die

  He was all alone, and I couldn't help myself. I knew this was real life, and I had already gotten more chances than I probably should have, but I had to see if it would work. I created a portal and placed it around the sleeping beast's neck like a hula dancer places those flowers around tourists. I quickly closed the portal and watched in horror as the body of the level 50 wolf stood up. My portal was not closing the neck of the monster, stronger than steel. I was about to be in full panic mode. My mana hit zero, and with no more mana to channel, the portal snapped shut, beheading the boss. I heard what sounded like hundreds of wolves howling.

  Congratulations on killing a Boss twice your level, additional experience awarded

  Level 30 reached

  Condition Mana starved

  Title upgraded from The bigger they are to Kingslayer

  Description: You have spent time under the heel of rulers. Now you have stolen a shard of control. With this sliver of authority, you may exert control over others. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

  You have unlocked the system's noble title of Baron. You may now challenge the domain on any land a titled ruler holds. Caution: Once a challenge is issued, you must pacify or kill any champions the ruler sets.

  You are only allowed to issue one challenge each fortnight and must upgrade your royalty level before owning more than one city's land.

  New options are unlocked at the system platforms.

  I felt overwhelmed by the new information. What did this new royalty system even mean? Could I just waltz into my old town, throw down the gauntlet, and kill everyone that showed up to own the city? That seemed a little far-fetched, but I would have to test how it worked after I made it out of this godforsaken darkness. This cave had almost taken my life so many times and now I was fucking mana starved again. I lay there, slowly building my mana backup. A few times, I heard the clacking of paws hitting the cave floor; however, no wolf was brave enough to approach what they thought was the sleeping King.

  ...

  My three days went by quickly. I practised more of my mana control and remembered how it felt when Doctor Green healed my hand. I tried to mimic the feeling.

  Error: User does not have the light magic affinity. Further attempts to wield this type of magic will lead to negative consequences for the user.

  I guess I won't be mixing and matching magic anytime soon. I began to ponder what the space affinity meant. My last skill selection suggested that I could use the energy of the cosmos, so I started to brainstorm all the stuff I knew about outer space. Which, honestly, was not much. I had taken an interest when I was younger, but it would be hard; my only experience was pretending to be on the moon's surface when we played astronauts.

  That's it. I wonder if I could alter gravity. I knew it was a stretch with gravity being a force caused by mass and not necessarily cosmic energies, but wasn't that what willpower was for? To force my will on the world, if that's how I said space magic worked and shaped it, who could tell me no? I began to picture the force of gravity. I looked at a rock and saw ten golden chains on top of it, shackling it to the floor. I tried to pull at the chains with mana rope, and they would not budge. I channelled half of my mana into the chains, trying to reinforce them, and began to hear the earth under the rock snap, fracture, and fissure from the force. I added a little more, and the fist-sized pebble shot through the floor, hurdling downwards.

  Congratulations on defeating a monster more than twice your level; additional experience awarded.

  Holy shit, that little pebble killed something on a lower floor.