“Hey, no level?”

  Cyrus spoke up. “That was a great fight, Lucas. Every day we grow is a good day. Every day we do something new or overcome a previous failure is a day in which we can build our future.”

  “This is not the time for meaningless platitudes, Cyrus,” I growled. “I just killed another of the secret bosses along with all its minions. The Maze Fiend alone was almost as strong as Bristleback and way stronger than those stupid mammoths. How can that not give me a level?”

  Cyrus sighed. “Lucas, you’re not limited to the same mundane path as everyone else. You’re on the road to greatness, but with that potential comes additional requirements.”

  “Fridge you,” I spat. “You’re supposed to be administering the game. How can you change the rules whenever you want? How is it possible you can deny me the experience I rightfully earned?”

  “You know the reason. We entered into a pact when you stepped into that first secret pocket space. I warned you there would be consequences, and you chose to accept them.”

  “You never said you’d prevent me from leveling up and surviving this stage!”

  “I gave you the tools to thrive. You’ve accomplished remarkable things, Lucas. Just think back at all you’ve survived this week.”

  “More than enough to level up way above level 10.”

  “Under normal circumstances, yes, but your situation is not normal. I hate to see you so upset, but you need to understand that I’m guiding you through some short-term difficulties that will win you rewards that far surpass anything that any other contestant might hope to achieve.”

  “Why?” I growled.

  “Because you’re the one with the best chance at surviving long enough for the experiment to pay both of us dividends. I’m taking an awful risk with you, Lucas. We both need you to succeed.”

  “Then stop blocking me!” I shouted.

  “I am guiding, and you will come to see the reasons behind my actions soon enough.”

  I doubted it. With a major effort, I fought down my rage. Venting that much had helped some, but what else could I do? I was still way too weak to fight Cyrus directly.

  So through gritted teeth, I asked, “What do I need to do?”

  “I’ve already given you all the hints you need to succeed. If I do more, it could draw unwelcome attention onto both of us.”

  That line was getting old. Could there be a higher power than Cyrus? How had he kept the insane shenanigans he was doing with me from drawing their attention. If they existed, why did they let him play fast and loose with the rules?

  “Just leave me alone for a minute,” I said, then forced myself to trigger Harvest. I didn’t have enough time to waste pouting. I fully expecting the spell to fail again. That would be the perfect way for Cyrus to screw me over yet again.

  “You have successfully harvested Shadow Portal from Shadow Maze Fiend.”

  “Shadow Portal. Spell. Create a portal to anywhere in the current area you have previously explored. Transport up to 4 people. Uses remaining: 1.”

  “That’s more like it,” I whistled. I’d wanted another teleport spell. If I could save it, I’d definitely make that my next permanent. Maybe Cyrus at least gave me some good loot boxes.

  “Congratulations, Lucas. You are the first human to defeat one of the rare, unique secret bosses. You receive a diamond Hercules loot box.”

  That was promising. I bet my Musketeer title had helped me get a diamond-level loot box. I was still fuming at Cyrus for not giving me that last level, but a rare diamond loot box definitely helped ease my anger a little.

  The loot box appeared in the air in front of me, glittering like a diamond the size of a steamer trunk. When I willed it open, the box exploded into shards of shining light that faded, leaving behind 2 items. The first was a beautifully crafted short sword with a silvery sheen that reminded me of an elven blade from the fantastic Lord of the Rings movies.

  “Roundhouse Fang. Legendary short sword. Delivers moderate poison damage. Plus 3 to Stick and Knife Fighting skill.”

  I plucked the sword from the air with a reverent hand. The pommel fit my hand like it was crafted for me, which I guess it had been. The blade was light and perfectly balanced. As soon as I touched it, a sheath made of fine black leather appeared strapped to my hip.

  “This is incredible,” I whispered as I resisted the urge to test the blade with my thumb. That would be a stupid way to poison myself.

  Cyrus did not respond that time, which was odd, but I was too distracted to care.

  I’d needed a good blade to deal with purely physical obstacles or enemies, and Roundhouse Fang fit the bill perfectly. The name clearly referenced Ruby Roundhouse’s weakness to poison. I didn’t want to think of a poisoned blade every time I thought of Ruby, so I decided to think of the blade as Fang.

  The second item was a scroll.

  “Title Scroll. New title: Hercules. You’ve proven yourself a fearless adventurer with the will and might to defeat even the boss monsters others are wise enough to flee.

  Plus 5 to Strength. Plus 5 to Constitution.

  New aura: Indomitable.

  Indomitable. Aura. Protect your mind and those of nearby party members with plus 50% mental defense for the duration of the aura. Mana cost: Moderate. Area: 5 feet for every point in Wisdom.”

  “Another new title so soon?” That made me smile. Titles were hard to get.

  The new stats were always welcome, but the new aura seemed even better. Not only would I get a whopping 50% boost to mental defense while it was active, but I could share it with party members within about 70 feet. That should be enough to cover most battlefields.

  “You seem to have a knack for being the first to accomplish important things. That gives you access to way more titles than most. Keep it up.” Again Cyrus spoke in his cheery persona, as if our last conversation hadn’t happened.

  I accepted the prompt to loot all the defeated monsters and blinked when I looked in my inventory at the new loot. I received 10 tier-4 mana crystals, each worth 10,000 tier-0 crystals, plus 20 full poison resist potions, 8 poison-imbued claws, 3 serrated blade whips imbued with temporary paralysis, and 10 gallons of something only referred to as “Toxic sludge. Has many crafting uses.”

  All that paled to nothing when I noticed the 5 new rings.

  “Bone ring. Epic. Grants immunity to poison.”

  “Bone ring. Epic. Plus 3 to all stealth-based abilities.”

  “Bone ring. Epic. Plus 3 to all mind abilities.”

  “Bone ring. Epic. Plus 3 to all fire elemental spells.”

  “Bone ring. Epic. Plus 3 to all ranged weapon skills.”

  Secret bosses might be a lot tougher than regular monsters, but they also dropped much better loot. I’d never gotten nearly such a haul from anything else. I would have preferred a level.

  I thought about the fight as I dumped the rings into my inventory. The Maze Fiend had been really tough, but the threat Bristleback represented was a full magnitude higher. The only reason I could think was that my suspicion was right. Not only did monsters get a big power boost at level 25, but an even bigger one at level 50.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Humans got classes and a big boost at level 25. Did that mean we’d also get a larger boost at 50? I hoped so. We’d need it to survive the third stage and prepare to face Queen Marisara. Assuming I could get to level 10 in time.

  My musings were cut short when I reached Tomas and the others. They looked battered and bloody, even though they’d already taken healing potions.

  Tomas gave me a hug as soon as I jumped off Switchblade. Thumping me hard on the back, he laughed. “You got here just short of too late, little brother. Thanks.”

  “Couldn’t let you take all the experience and loot.”

  “I did get two levels somehow,” Lana said with a happy grin as she finger-combed drying blood from her long, black hair.

  “Me too,” Scott said.

  I sighed. It had been too much to hope the system wouldn’t lump us all together as a team for experience sharing. If not for that and whatever number twisting Cyrus was doing, I might have gotten my 10th level. No, even that excuse wasn’t good enough. Cyrus was definitely blocking my advancement.

  Jane fist-bumped, then gave me a fierce hug. “Good to see you, Lucas. You wrecked them all.”

  “Yeah, made us look like noobs,” Scott added.

  “You gave me the idea of using fire against the fiend. Worked like a charm. Are you guys okay?”

  “We are now,” Tomas said.

  His face was bloody and 4 thin white lines across one cheek marked the spot where one of the fiend’s claws had nearly ripped his face off. “The poison was rough. Had to use 3 full healing potions.”

  “Glad we traded so much with Ruby,” Jane added.

  “Me too. Here. These will help.”

  I withdrew 4 Laundry Day potions and handed them over. That was nearly half my stash of the amazing potions, but every one of their team looked horrible. They needed them way more than I did.

  “I saw one of these once!” Lana exclaimed. “Bueno! Gracias.”

  In moments, the miraculous potions left them all sparkling clean and fresh. “I need to find more of those,” Jane said with a happy smile.

  “If any of the crafters get a chance to start manufacturing them, they’ll make bank,” Tomas agreed.

  “Speaking of bank. Here’s your share of the loot.”

  I transferred 1 tier-4 mana crystal to each of them. Lana and Scott just gaped. Tomas laughed and Jane exclaimed, “My first tier-4! Sweet.”

  “That’s not all. Now we get to the good stuff.”

  From what I knew of each of their abilities, each of the 5 rings were tailor-made for one of us. I kept the ring of poison immunity, handed the ring with the boost to stealth abilities to Tomas, and the ring boosting mind abilities to Jane.

  Lana had abilities in disguises, but I didn’t know the details. More importantly, she also had crossbow abilities, so I gave her the ring boosting ranged weapons. That left the ring boosting fire elemental spells to Scott and his Cyclops eye beam.

  As one, they gasped when they read the descriptions of the rings.

  “How?” Tomas breathed as Lana laughed and lifted me off the ground in an enthusiastic hug. She kissed me on the cheek, then retreated, blushing.

  Scott pounded my back so hard he nearly cracked a rib. Jane beamed and high-fived me.

  “Secret boss. Better loot, I guess.”

  “This crazy misadventure turned out good after all,” Jane said.

  “I’d love to explore more, but we’re short on time. Shall we head back to the entrance?”

  They’d traversed much of the maze in their running battle, so with their maps fully populated, we traversed the maze pretty fast. Problem was, when we got back to the entrance room, nothing happened.

  “Ah, do you know how the teleport thing works?” Lana asked.

  I shrugged, as did Tomas and Jane.

  Scott swore under his breath. “Maybe it was just a one-way ticket.”

  “Or maybe the portal died with the Maze Fiend,” Tomas said.

  Jane perked up. “I did see another exit, but we never got a chance to explore it.”

  “Lead the way.” With any luck, we could navigate back to familiar landmarks pretty fast. The fight had surely helped push me close to level 10, but I was still short and needed to get back to hunting.

  The exit turned out to be a tunnel that punched through the outer wall of the maze cavern, leading onto a flat promontory high on the flank of one of the taller mountains. Peaks reared tens of thousands of feet above us and lower mountains spread in ranked tiers below, running north in ever-diminishing waves.

  Tomas whistled softly. “That fiend teleported us a lot farther south than I’d realized. That might be the mountain we started at. Look.”

  He pointed to a jagged, rocky peak, tiny in the distance. With Sight of the Explorer, I zoomed my vision onto the peak.

  “Yeah, that’s the one.”

  “That’s got to be 30 or 40 miles from here,” Scott exclaimed.

  “Too far to hike back in time,” Lana confirmed. “What are we going to do?”

  They all turned to me by some unspoken consent. I hesitated, mind racing as I considered our options.

  “Lucas? Any ideas?” Tomas prodded.

  “Yeah, one, but it’s not ideal.”

  “Is it better than all of us trapped in these mountains so long we wave goodbye to stage 1 this afternoon?” Jane asked.

  “For most of us, yes. I got a single-use teleport spell from the fiend. I can transport up to 4 people anywhere I want in this stage.”

  “Yes!” Scott laughed, then his face fell as he did the math. “Oh. So one of us is screwed.”

  Lana’s face had gone pale. “This sucks. You have the spell, so you get to go. Tomas is family, so he and Jane go. So it’s down to Scott or me to decide who takes one for the team.”

  Scott paced away, cursing softly before rushing back, as if afraid he’d miss negotiations and get chosen to stay by default. Tomas and Jane studied my expression.

  “Maybe not,” I said finally. “On Switchblade, I might be able to make it back through the mountains anyway.”

  I said it, but deep inside, I knew it would never work. Riding full-speed downhill would not find me the monsters I needed to kill to win my next level.

  Where were they, then? I’d hunted all over the southern mountains and even killed a secret boss. What could I find stronger?

  Then the clues snapped into place and with a sinking feeling of cold dread, I realized what I needed to do. Cyrus had been manipulating me. He’d hinted at what he wanted me to do before, and now after the Maze Fiend, he’d given me the last clue. He hadn’t been just waxing poetic earlier, he’d been telling me exactly what I needed to do.

  My mind raced so fast as I tried to think of a way out of the trap I’d just realized Cyrus had neatly maneuvered me into that I barely paid attention to the conversation. Lana and Scott had visibly sagged with relief from my words, but paused when they noticed Tomas and Jane scowling.

  “What?” Lana asked.

  Tomas shook his head slowly. “No, Lucas. You might make it back, but only barely, and you need time to hunt.”

  “So we’re screwed again,” Lana sighed to Scott.

  “No,” Jane exclaimed suddenly, her eyes bright. “The solution is simple, isn’t it? You loan Switchblade to me.”

  “Not screwed!” Scott exulted.

  Tomas shook his head harder. “That’s insane.”

  Jane took his hands in hers. “Not as insane as letting Lucas sacrifice himself, or choosing between Lana and Scott.”

  “She’s right,” I interjected a bit more forcefully than I’d intended. The need to get moving was clawing at me. I couldn’t waste half an hour hemming and hawing. We needed to make a decision, and fast.

  Tomas rounded on me, looking betrayed, but I held up a had to calm both of us. “She is. Jane’s a better rider than any of us. She’s already proven she’s got a knack with Switchblade that even I haven’t quite matched yet. If anyone can make it back through the mountains in time, it’s Jane.”

  “We don’t know how many monsters are between us and the plain,” Tomas protested.

  “Switchblade’s got magic and I’ve got my telekinesis,” Jane said, not fazed in the least. Instead, she looked thrilled by the chance to test herself against the mountains, just like she had back on Earth. Only this time she had a hover bike with powerful spells and superhuman strength and agility.

  “We need to decide now. I have to get back to my hunt, so unless Lana or Scott want to start running now, it’s our best option.”

  Tomas paced away, fists clenched. I forced myself to wait. I knew his habits. He didn’t like seeing others take risks. He’d been a surgeon after all. He was the one who saved people and put things right. Sending Jane into danger would tear at him, but he was smart enough to see the necessity of it.

  Besides, he loved Jane’s adventurous spirit. It was what attracted him to her in the first place. Taking risks was nothing new for her.

  Finally he blew out a breath. “Fine. I don’t like it, but you’re right.”

  He pulled Jane into a fierce embrace and kissed her deeply. She cupped his face in her hands and said, “I’ll be fine. Don’t party too hard while I’m gone.”

  Lana and Scott wished her luck, then she turned to me, looking so eager she nearly hopped in place. I gestured to Switchblade.

  “Shield Dome isn’t quite regenerated, but it won’t take too long.”

  “You should wait,” Tomas said immediately.

  “Not this time, gramps,” Jane teased, vaulting onto Switchblade. “One ballista shot per minute, right?”

  I nodded and handed over my goggles. She flashed a grin and a thumbs up, then hit the throttle. Switchblade roared off the edge of the promontory and plunged down the steep slope. Her delighted laugh trailed her all the way down, echoing from the nearest cliffs.

  Tomas shook his head slowly. “God, I love that woman.”

  My Shadow Teleport spell worked like a dream, dropping us back in Stepstone right on the spot where Tomas’s Base Camp tent had stood.

  “Yes!” Lana shouted, jumping up and wrapping her arms and legs around Scott in a full-body embrace. He froze in shock as she planted a big kiss on his lips.

  “Sorry,” she said in a not sorry tone when she dropped back to the ground.

  “Don’t be. You’re right. We should celebrate,” Scott said, reaching for her again.

  “You wish. That was a one-off.”

  He shrugged, grinning. “Until the next time we survive a certain death match with an alien. I’ll be ready for you.”

  She winked.

  The town was still bustling, although fewer people raced past. Lots had already started the long march for the slope up to the second stage.

  Tomas gripped my shoulder. "Lucas, what are you going to do? How can you still be level 9, even after taking out the Maze Fiend?”

  "I told you I level up slower.”

  “Slower, yes, but this is crazy.” He didn’t hide his worry.

  “It is crazy, but I have a plan."

  I tried to keep my voice confident to hide the fear that was chilling my guts. It was a plan, but it was insane. I knew what I had to do to get that level. I’d never had a choice. Cyrus had been maneuvering me toward this decision all along.

  I wanted to rage against the AI who pretended to be my friend even as he set us all up to die, but I understood his logic. This fight would make an incredible death battle. How many times had he said I needed to think about making great entertainment.

  "What?" he prodded.

  "Take care. I'll see you later." I clapped him on the shoulder, then took off running.

  “Good hunting!” he called after me.

  If only he knew.

  I had miles to go and barely enough time to reach my target, let alone defeat the one enemy strong enough to give me that level. The one enemy strong enough that fighting it would most likely just get me killed. After all, he’d one-shotted me the last time we met.

  Like Cyrus had told me in the cave of the Maze Fiend, I needed to overcome my past mistakes. In particular, I needed to defeat the monster that had nearly killed me.

  I had to defeat Bristleback, the boar-taur sacred boss.