Chapter 15: Reward

Mar is glad that he laid down on the ground. The searing pain of having used his maximum speed twice in a day made him almost regret doing so, but the rewards looked worth it. In the small cave under the center arena, that the ice golem came from, there is a golden chest that Mar can see from where he is recovering. Mar grins as he waits for his legs to recover while using the circulation technique. It only takes 20 minutes to be able to stand and another 10 to walk properly. Mar slowly climbs down the big pile of ice and snow that fell into the cave and arrives in front of the treasure chest.

This chest was unlocked and Mar pushes the lid open to look at his rewards. Inside the golden rimmed chest with a iron body, there is a bow, a scroll and a book. Mar takes the bow out of the chest first, marveling at its beauty. The bow, looks smaller than most, it's a short-bow. Short-bows are primarily used for quick firing. When mar infuses the bow with magic he can faintly tell that it has something to do with the air element. Mar places the bow on the ground beside him and takes the scroll into his hands. Before infusing his magic into it, he opens the scroll and sees a picture of a dagger at the center of the scroll, with the still confusing glyphs surrounding it. Mar infuses his magic into the scroll, and as he thought, a martial art comes into his mind, one that utilizes a dagger, A 'dagger art'. He can picture himself doing the movements of the dagger art and he sees that every swing of the dagger brings out more magic into to the environment. Once enough magic is in the surrounding environment, spectral daggers made of magic appear and slash into the opponent. This was a technique to utilize the excess magic that gets wasted when one imbues their weapon and body with magic.

The last treasure, the book, looks oddly regal as it sits at the bottom of the hard metal chest. Mar picks the book up and reads the title, "The Key to the New World". "That's a weird name for a book", Mar says. He imbues mana into the book and nothing happens. Mar opens the front cover and where a normal book would say, 'dedicated to my family, ___, ___, and ___.' This book says, 'Dedicated to the savior of the human race, I wish you good luck.' Mar says out loud, "is this some sort of joke?" He flips through the pages and he sees different years go by 2043, 2044, 45, 46, 47, 48... and so on. After every year, the book goes through the wars that were waged, the treaties that were signed and many other tactical references. Above all, every year states the strength of each of the known races on earth. In 2042, the number of demons on earth went as follows, 0 F tier, 250 D tier, 150 C tier, 100 B tier, 50 A tier, 5 S tier. Mar speaks, "This, if it is true, is the key for me to not only save humanity, but to become the strongest being on earth. I am going to show the world, why knowledge is power."

Mar flips back to the first page, right after the 'dedicated to...' page. He sees the words, 'whatever you have to do, make sure we don't get eradicated, former king of humans, Ryne. This book contains the forces of every species that has invaded earth and small segments about the home planets of each of these species. The book also talks about what to do to save humanity, while there are many things that could be done to minimize losses and save people, there is only one thing I, ask of you. Make sure that the kids going through Elgen academy stay safe, they are our best bets to winning the multitude of wars humanity will be forced to face. We need strong soldiers and leaders, destroy attempts of sabotage and nurture the young kids. The academy starts in the year 2046, please be there to help them.' "What... is this?", Mar says quietly.

Mar's blood starts to seep from his right hand as he squeezes his hands into fists and breaks his own skin. Mar's blood makes contact with the book and a burning pain makes a mark on his right palm. Mar looks at his palm suspiciously and imbued magic into the weird tattoo looking mark, the book suddenly pops into his right hand. When the book is imbued with magic, it is stored back into the tattoo. "That's really coo— ", Mar is interrupted by an earthquake, or so he thought. Mar hears a faint crumbing noise as if something is being destroyed. Mar's eyes suddenly go wide, "The dungeon! It's getting destroyed because the boss has been defeated. Mar looks up at the purple portal that spawned above the ice golem's body. Mar grabs his new and old bow from the ground and runs to the portal. Mar trips and falls, his legs had nowhere near recovered.

*CRRRRRKK*

The dungeon keeps falling apart around the portal and Mar is forced to pick the bows up and trudge on. Mar keeps running slowly, and his legs scream in agony. He jumps through the portal as the last of the dungeon remains.

"Silly boy, I can't believe he waited so long before jumping in, it's as if he was toying with his life, though it would be interesting to see what happened. I theorize that he may have been torn to shreds by the rampant magic of the portal as it destabilized but I may never know." The dungeon stood still as an eerie gray color surrounded the whole of the collapsing dungeon. It looks as if time had stopped but in actuality it had slowed down so infinitesimally slow that it might as well have. Ivarion the 3rd teleported away and the dungeon continued consuming itself, until nothing was remaining.

End of Arc 1