Elias's vision returned to the Trial of Defiance's arena, he was still led on the grassy plains and—still had only one leg. Along with his missing limb, he had a gaping hole in his stomach from where he'd embedded the thorn, the thorn seemed to have been expunged by the Systems revival and the bleeding had ceased—it wasn't a pretty sight.

  The journey through the strange visions had certainly achieved one thing, all of his previous pent-up emotions and frustrations had fallen away with the surge of his curiosity, and well, He was still curious. Vostus and Wendy were certainly interesting people and he had found the connection between the two of them quite endearing. They even reminded him of his relationship with Tess had she not of—well, had she still been here.

  He quickly cut-off the melancholic trail of thought and focussed on the puzzle in his mind. Why did the System show him either of them? Were they important somehow? And, more importantly, how had Wendy's dad summoned one of the corruption portals with a casual flick of his wrist? No one had even questioned it. Where were they from?

  A myriad more questions filled his mind as he pondered for a number of minutes, before he spoke, concentrating his gaze to the dark void above the plateau, "So… gonna tell me?"

  A few seconds passed.

  "I guess not. Can't blame me for asking right?" He said, "Now… reality…"

  He looked down at the stump at the mid-way point of his right thigh, his detached leg off somewhere in the arena. It had completely healed over. As he looked at his thigh he felt a range of emotions—dismay, confusion, hilarity and surprisingly, a level of acceptance.

  Ultimately, he knew that healers in the capital cities could regrow limbs, especially ones associated with the Order, if he could reunite with Uthred, he was sure that they could sort the situation out. The problem that he had was that he needed to get back to Uthred.

  A small portal had appeared in the centre of the three regions which he had guessed would back to where he had entered the dungeon, or at least that was the assumption he was going to work with.

  Getting through the portal would not do him any good by itself however, he had absolutely no way of reaching Uthred, even if he was still waiting for him. Even if Uthred had entered the Catacombs, unless he was waiting in the exact room that he had been teleported from, he'd never make it up the stairs to the upper levels.

  The dismay and confusion however was something he couldn't supress at having lost a limb that he'd spent the last seventeen years with, it was surreal. He could feel it—almost. It was, strange. The pain and shock that throbbed across his entire body also served as a distraction from the otherwise devastating injury.

  [Life Force: 2 / 261]

  "Hah!" he let out as he read the notification of his current Life pool. He was going to be here for a while.

  He decided that if he was going to be here for a while, he may as well try to distract himself with the only thing available to him—contemplating his rewards and going through the many notifications that awaited him.

  First, the skill crystal. A Custom Skill Crystal, it's rarity couldn't even be described by the System, with a simple N/A replacing the usual rarity tag, and the description?

  [You have been given a reward reserved for existences at the pinnacle, the forerunners of the expanse and the explorers of new frontier. With this Crystal you may create a skill recognised by the System and with perfect synergy with your own Path.]

  What did that even mean? The pinnacle, forerunners, explorers of the new frontier—He couldn't even begin to fathom who the System referred to, he just knew this item was special. The problem with the reward however, was that… well, he couldn't use it.

  He was already at the maximum number of skills for his Tier, well, above his Tier. At Tier One, people could learn up to a maximum of five skills and even acquiring those was renowned to be difficult. He had managed to acquire all of these in less than five months of partially awakening.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  At each Tier past Tier One, their available skills would increase by five. Tier Two's could have ten skills and Tier Three's could have fifteen and so on.

  This meant that he would have to wait until Tier Two—if he ever got there—to utilise the reward. If he ever made it that far, well. Then this would be one of the greatest rewards he'd ever heard of someone receiving.

  Second, the array of notifications that sat in his periphery. He called them forward one at a time.

  [You have acquired the title: Dungeon of Orus: True Potential

  For being the first to truly complete the Dungeon of Orus and to be the first to have shown enough innate power to trigger the Trial of Defiance, and complete it. — +5% to all stats, +5% to Life, Mana and Essence]

  He read over the title a couple of times, the first to 'truly' complete the Dungeon? That meant that he wasn't the only one to have entered it? How long had the Dungeon been accessible? The reward of the title just opened up more questions.

  [Flames of Orus - Level 1 has increased to -> Flames of Orus - Level 4]

  [Mana Barrier - Level 9 has increased to -> Mana Barrier - Level 11]

  [Corrupted Core - Innate - Level 4 has increased to -> Corrupted Core - Innate - Level 7]

  [Enhancement - Spirit - Level 6 has increased to -> Enhancement - Spirit - Level 8]

  He read of the notifications with both satisfaction and deservedness, he knew that he'd earnt every increase that the System notifications displayed, the battle had been more than just a little intense and he had thrown everything he'd learned into the fight—other than mana manipulation, but with his current mana consumption during a fight, it had seemed pointless to have wasted it so inefficiently, there was time to practice it.

  Finally, the last item on his list, recognition.

  What had the System meant by recognition and what did it mean by uninhibited?

  [Corrupted Core — Tier: 0 - Level: 7 - Rarity: Unique]

  [The corruption of the cosmos flows within your body, utilise the power that swells within you]

  [Passively absorb a small amount of essence, up to a maximum amount; the stored essence enhances attributes by the same amount stored - Essence Storage Amount: 3 of 37 — (Essence per hour: 1.85)

  Essence can be spent along with mana to infuse learned skills and alter or modify their effects..

  Increased resistance to the effects of corruption on the Mind and Body - Note that resistance is not immunity; due to the passive absorption of corruption, you are likely to experience adverse effects after prolonged exposure]

  He noticed a few key differences as he examined the skill. Firstly, the description—'utilise the power that swells within you', "At least it's not telling me to bottle it all up, it's a bit late to do any differently," he said

  Passive absorption, that was new, and he wasn't so sure how to process that. His total current Essence store would regenerate within twenty hours if completely empty, which seemed… fine, it would take much longer to regenerate his Life and Mana Pools. As well as that, having a reliable way to generate Essence meant that should he choose to, he could implement its use into a combat routine, which would significantly increase his power.

  The negative, well, he had already experienced adverse effects after prolonged corruption exposure, he thought back to his clawed feet—which, unfortunately sparked an idea. One he saved for now, deciding to process the changes in his innate ability first.

  Finally, the skill stated that Essence can be spent along with mana to infuse learned skills and alter or modify their effects, this was a significant change from its previous description. Whilst he had already worked out how to utilise Essence in his skills, he had the suspicion that how he did it was… inefficient. The infusion into skills sounded interesting.

  As he focussed on how he might infuse each of his skills, notifications appeared in his vision. His eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped. "That's—That's incredible?!" he said as he examined each of the windows.

  The windows displayed each of his skills, Enhancement - Spirit, Flames of Orus, Mana Barrier, Mana Manipulation and Scan. Along with those skills it displayed a second window, each with the title of his skills and a tag: Infused.

  He would have giggled with glee at the possibilities that had opened to him, had the thought of such an action not sent a surge of pain through his body. It didn't matter how injured he was, the intense curiosity that swam through his mind balanced his complete fear of what lay ahead with excited hope.

  "This is how adventurers must feel…" He said.

  By the time he had finished reading all of the changes to his skills, around thirty minutes had passed.

  He pulled up his Statistics:

  [Name: Elias Grey

  Race: Human, Male

  Age: 17

  Disabled Functionality: N/A

  Disabled Functionality: N/A

  Life Points: 2 / 261

  Mana Points: 2 / 231

  Essence: 3 / 37

  Strength: 29

  Endurance: 46

  Vitality: 46

  Willpower: 97

  Intelligence: 67

  Perception: 55

  Agility: 29

  Luck: 64

  Available Attributes for distribution: 0

  Titles:

  Brave Antagonist,

  Potential Prodigy,

  Survivor,

  Seedling,

  Aberration Slayer,

  Skilled,

  Dungeon Delver

  [REDACTED] Baptism

  Dungeon of Orus: True Potential

  Innate Abilities: 1 / 1

  Corrupted Core - Unique - Tier 0, Level 7

  Skills: 5 / 5

  Mana Manipulation - Basic - Tier 0, Level 7

  Mana Barrier - Basic - Tier 0, Level 11

  Scan - Basic - Tier 0, Level 5

  Enhancement - Spirit - Tier 0, Level 8

  Flames of Orus - Tier 0, Level 4]

  Looking at his Life and Mana, he knew it was going to be a long wait. He sighed and turned his head to the side, glancing at his torn, charred and battered backpack that lay on the ground a hundred or meters or so in the distance, it had finally been outdone by the Dungeon.

  "Lasted way too long, If I'm honest" he finished as he closed his eyes.