Chapter 66

  Keith was so exhausted he was on the verge of passing out.

  Before he did, he withdrew some divine grade medicinal tree sap from his inventory and applied it to the spot where his arm was cut off to stem the bleeding. Soon after, his vision turned black, and he collapsed onto the arena floor.

  Several hours later, he awoke, starving.

  Sitting up, Keith took out a premade meal and promptly dug in.

  With his hunger satiated, Keith finally noticed three radiant golden chests placed on the ground not far from him. Above them was a notification.

  Congratulations!

  You’ve passed all three challenges and acquired a new title ‘Celestial Dungeon Conquerer’!

  You can choose to leave whenever.

  (Title) Celestial Dungeon Conquerer

  Description: Slightly increases comprehension ability.

  “Huh,” Keith clicked his tongue in wonder. He’d never seen or heard of an effect like that. Though it was hard to quantify, he was happy to have it nonetheless.

  Swiping away the notification, Keith looked at the glowing chests and licked his lips in anticipation. All his previous efforts were for this moment.

  Grunting, Keith climbed to his feet and approached the golden chest on the left.

  He rubbed his hand across its surface, then opened it.

  Inside lay a dazzling skill gem.

  (Celestial, Skill) Freedom

  Description: Erect an intangible sphere in the surrounding area. While inside the sphere, all of your short-ranged teleport skills have no cooldown, no mana cost, and unlimited charges.

  Keith gasped, amazed by the skill’s effect.

  He currently had one short-range teleport skill: Blink.

  It had 5 charges, with each charge taking 30 seconds to regenerate.

  All of those restrictions didn’t matter when he used Freedom.

  Amazing as it was, Keith’s only regret was that the sphere Freedom created didn’t move.

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  However, would that change when Mana Body upgraded it to transcendent grade?

  Wanting to find out, Keith absorbed the skill gem to acquire the skill.

  Then, he looked at the transcendent grade version of Freedom.

  (Transcendent, Skill) Freedom

  Description: For a brief period, all of your short-ranged teleport skills have no cooldown, no mana cost, and unlimited charges.

  Keith burst into laughter.

  Instead of creating a sphere, Freedom directly turned into a buff skill.

  How awesome!

  Keith wanted to cast it on the spot to get a feel for its effects when he recalled how mana-hungry the transcendent grade version of Arsenal of the Desert was. The odds that a buff would cost even more were high. He guessed a transcendent grade Freedom would consume at least a few hundred thousand mana.

  I need to form Mana Cores first, Keith decided.

  He had used up all his Mana Cores during the fight with the doppelganger.

  They were his trump card, and now that he had none, Keith felt vulnerable.

  Of course, he could still draw mana from Mana Battery, but that was a last resort.

  Ever since acquiring the method to form Mana Cores, Keith wanted to avoid using Mana Battery as much as possible. Besides putting him out of commission, getting Mana Sickness was an unpleasant experience.

  Keith moved on to the next treasure chest.

  Opening it, he found a large silver coin.

  (Celestial) Skill Upgrade Token

  Description: Upon use, raises a skills grade to celestial.

  “Great!” Keith exclaimed, delighted.

  It was just as he expected.

  The System wouldn’t reward him with something useless.

  Picking up the token, Keith wanted to use it on Mana Barrier right away when a thought occurred to him. If he leveled the rare grade Mana Barrier to 1,000 before upgrading it, would the level stay the same, or would it drop?

  Briefly weighing the heavy silver token in his hand, Keith stored it in his inventory, having decided to level Mana Barrier first. There was no rush to use it.

  Finally, Keith turned to the last treasure chest, his eyes sparkling like stars.

  The third challenge was by far the hardest.

  Very few could pass it.

  Since it was so difficult, the reward would surely be the best.

  The System hadn’t even told him what it was, as if it was teasing him.

  Taking a breath, Keith opened the lid and saw a luxurious cyan robe folded within.

  Keith froze, awed by its beauty.

  Pulsing with mana, the robe had a golden phoenix stitched across the front. It was so lifelike it almost seemed as if it would jump out of the cloth and appear in the flesh. The edges of the robe, like the cuffs and color, were also golden, complementing the soothing cyan color.

  Keith carefully picked up the robe, finding it cool to the touch, and cast Inspect.

  (Rare, Growth-type equipment) Robes of the Manaborne – Level 1

  Description: An equipment that takes up the chest and pants slot. By absorbing experience, it can grow in level and grade. Acquires new skills and stats with every grade. Stats, skills, and defenses scale accordingly.

  +5 Physical Defense

  +15 Spell Defense

  +3 Agility

  +6 Intelligence

  +10 Health

  +20 Mana

  Skill 1: Tethered Mana. 1% of mana consumed by skills returns to the user.

  Skill 2: Unification of Mana and Mind. Raises mana affinity by 1.

  “Oh my slimeball!” Keith shouted in unprecedented glee.

  Before opening the chest, there was a small part of him that hoped the reward would be a transcendent grade item. Never did he expect it to be a growth-type item, something he’d never heard of until now. He was over the moon with excitement.

  Outside of special circumstances, equipment couldn’t level up.

  A level 800 transcendent grade item would forever remain at level 800.

  But the Robes of the Manaborne had the potential to grow to both level 1,000 and become transcendent grade. It could become the number one piece of equipment in the entire Grandsky Realm, so long as Keith let it absorb enough experience.

  Keith carefully stored the Robes of the Manaborne in his inventory.

  Glancing down at his hand, he found himself shaking from the joy of acquiring such precious loot. It was for moments like this that he loved adventuring.

  Sighing, Keith looked around the arena, nodded, then turned and walked out the way he came. He had arrived to face several challenges, overcame each one, and left victorious!