Ant Maze!

'Quest Completed: Eliminate the Rat King in the second room 1 / 1'

'Reward : (1000 $ / 1000 xp)'

'To next level : 1060 / 2000 ... CASH : (2398.37 $ $)'

'(Rat King meat / 2 Giant Bones / Life Stone) Looted'

'Achievement Unlocked : First Boss Monster!'

"System updated."

'Reward : Alchemy / 40 xp'

"Alchemy?, Leave Dungeon.... where is it? System Commands..." red commands.

'Inventory / Status / Skills / Shop / Map / Quests / Alchemy'

"Alchemy..." said red. a window with three slots where they were located at each corner of an invisible triangle with a circle in their middle where a transparent elixir was drawn. The slots had light red color with black&white sides and at the bottom of the window another slot colored black. when red pressed on the circle messages popped up.

'Top two red slots require ingredients'

'Bottom red slot requires a vial'

Vials can be purchased from the alchemy store. Alchemy of magical elixirs was common, scientists discovered the abilities of Life stones and other types of energy stones, being the main ingredients of elixir brewing or equipment modification making it jump in quality and adding magical properties to the item, with a stones embedded to it, generating energy for it. when a stone runs out of power a ranker has to change it, time and power differs with the quality of the stone and so do the elixirs, from healing elixirs, mana elixirs all the way to boosting and shape shifting elixirs. red was not quite understanding of how powerful this new command is but it can be dangerous as well. if others knew of his powers red will be used or even disposed of.

After some research done by red on alchemy he understood some things.

First, for good quality ingredients, expensive was an understatement.

Second, the lesser life stones red possessed were of no use for now, for a low quality health elixir to be made, red needed to at the very least have 5 lesser life stones, the amount of energy in them is very low so multiple stones are needed. a low quality health elixir crafted by the stones can be sold for 1500$.

Third, a lot of people do alchemy but few can craft good quality elixirs, it depends on the resources and the facilities available which is costly. Most elixirs sold are made by big companies or strong and wealthy rankers.

Fourth, the recipes for elixirs are rare, most alchemists would keep it a secret as to decrees its availability in the market. only basic recipes are available. red managed to find some sold online. (Low quality health elixir / Low quality mana elixir) were both for 5000 $. Which is understandable, with time that amount can be earned again but a lot of money is needed to invest in such a project before being able to earn any money.

vials were cheap, ranging from 100$ to 2000$ depending on size, decoration and quality, some vials can improve the effects of the elixirs. Red knew how lucky he was with this ability and how fast it would be for him to earn money but he can't do anything right now, he only has 2368.37$ for now.

"Create Dungeon..." red yelled, he has so much to do and he needs to get stronger quickly.

'Choose dungeon level.' a message popped up, red was confused it usually automatically sent him to the level 1 dungeon but not this time.

"level 1 Dungeon." red spoke

'Level 1 dungeon Boss killed, Unavailable.' the message answered. when a boss is eliminated the dungeon ceases to exist, he has no choice.

"level 2 Dungeon." red spoke

'Level 2 dungeon found, Transporting user.'

And it happened again, red was suddenly teleported, but the place he found himself was at the end of a hallway, golden brown walls stood as tall as a building, he walked forward after he reached the end and looked at both ways at each turn he can see many other collection of paths existed. he didn't want to just walk randomly, waste time and get lost. This place was like a maze.

"I'm such an idiot," I yelled. He remembered the map command, and informed him that day it could only be used in dungeons. "Map.." red commanded.

The same familiar circle he saw that day came up again but this time it was not all black. with a small red dot in the bottom middle with some areas shown around the dot. It reminded him of a game he played before, the dot was himself and the areas shown were the ones he's been to, the more he explores this thing takes notes and with time he'll be able to have the map filled.

Red looked to his left, another hallway-like path with two other turns located on the left side and in the end a wall stood. He wasn't planning on exploring everything and he wasn't scared, with the map skill all he had to do was just walk and everything would be drawn.

"Quest received : Eliminate all the Giant ants 0 / 10" The female voice spoke.

He walked for a while now and no monster was found but some weird red mushrooms with one white dot at the middle of its head were growing at the corners and sides, there were not many, he would find a few in every turn but after using the appraisal skill on it, he started collecting all of them.

'Racaom mushroom : restores mana and is an ingredient in magic-restoring elixirs. restores 10MP when eaten raw. (Price : 30$)'

Red managed to collect 23 of them before he saw the monsters of this maze. After more turns and twists he managed to find a long hallway with a dead end, but the thing at the other side looked weird, a big, black in color with a layer of green moss on its back, an ant-like monster. it was feeding on the mushrooms in the corner, no wonder these things grew here, they were food for them. red summoned the skeleton soldier and ordered it to sneak his way to it while red got closer as well.

The skeleton soldier was a hair away from it, the monster did not notice any of them at all. Those mushrooms must be pretty delicious to get all their attention. The skeleton soldier was named Sol by Red, he called its name and ordered it to strike. pulling its elbow back and stabbing it at the bottom of its body, it did not kill it but the attack did a lot of damage, green blood can be seen on the skeleton's sword and flowing from the wound. the skeleton started slashing at it nonstop taking out a leg and its antennas, a blue bolt came flying hitting under the monster but with the explosive power of the skill it still did some damage, two other Mana Bolts striking it in the body and face, the monster dropped some of its shell, it can be seen falling off of it, green blood was everywhere the scene was disgusting and red can smell whatever it is from his spot.

'Quest : Eliminate all the Giant ants 1 / 10'

'(2 Giant Ant broken shells) Looted'

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Red continued collecting all the mushrooms he can find on his way while exploring the maze, finding random ants. keeping his distance and sneaking up on them taking each one of them out, he managed to complete exploring the place. when the map was completed he was able to see everything. Red succeeded in collecting 57 mushrooms in total.

'Quest : Eliminate all the Giant ants 10 / 10'

'(11 Giant Ant broken shells / 4 Life stones) Looted'

'Reward : (2500 $ / 2500 xp)'

'Level Up'

'INT+5(35 -> 40) .... To the next level : 1560 / 5000 ... CASH : (4898.37 $) ... Level 8'

Red left the dungeon. going back to the unfinished building. he left heading home, when he got there red gave his mother 398 $. she questioned him about where he got them.. he said he left early to help his ranker friend with moving things to the rankers guild for him to sell so he gave him a hefty sum and that he used 2 $ from the money to buy some food for himself.

Red went into his room, he has been busy with all of this so he rarely studied, he had very high INT and he's mental capabilities were extremely abnormal, it was not just strong memory but he was able to understand and comprehend things extremely fast. Red studied every subject, he ate his lunch in his room to not waste time, he understood his speed and wanted to get things done faster. it was the end of the year and exams were coming, he managed to finish everything by the end of the day... red was more prepared than anyone.

He was planning on getting his ranker licence after all the exams. everyday he completed a dungeon before going to sleep, repeating the dungeon 5 more times. it did not allow him to repeat it anymore. the number of repeats is different from the last one.

'Quest : Eliminate all the Giant ants 10 / 10'*5

'(34 Giant Ant broken shells / 21 Life stones) Looted'

'Reward : (12500 $ / 12500 xp)'

'Level Up'

'INT+5(40 -> 45) .... To the next level : 9060 / 10000 ... CASH : (17398.37 $) ... Level 9'

'Mana Bolt Level Up'

'Mana Bolt Level Up'

'Blunt Weapons Mastery Level Up'

'Summon Skeleton Level Up'

'Summon Skeleton Level Up'

'Summon Skeleton Level Up'

Mana Bolt : A skill that attacks by emitting mana. Attack power increases by INT. Range is 20m. mana consumed -%15. (Level 4 / Active).

Blunt Weapons Mastery : Allows the user to freely handle blunt weapons. 25% increase in attack damage with blunt weapons. 20% increase in attack speed with blunt weapons. (Level 4 / Passive).

Summon Skeleton : an apprentice-level Conjuration spell. It summons a Skeleton Soldier that will fight as the caster's ally. (+20% damage dealt / +10% defense) (Level 5 / Active).

After returning home, Red could not believe how much money he had saved up. After giving his mom 398$ he went straight into the store and purchased the Defensive Posture skill. it was a very good skill that after casting on himself he won't be in danger as much as before. CASH : (15000.37 $).

Defensive posture : You remove the next harmful Direct Damage cast at you. This effect can occur once per cast. (Level 'Max' / Active).

"Max level? i thought maybe there was a chance to improve it but i guess not." said red.

Red was not planning on moving to the next dungeon just yet. exams are close, he didn't need to pass it since being a ranker only requires awakened powers but he wanted to.

A week passed, red lived his life like normal while using Body Tempering as well. after reaching tier 3 red grew taller. his stats increased and his body looked more refined while his face appeared better looking, the cultivation technique he acquired was focused on the body, giving him the best possible outcome physically.

Unfortunately red needed to start practicing martial arts to continue advancing.

'Body tempering : 1 / 1000 (Martial art skills : 0 / 1)'

It was very easy for him to learn one, he only had to buy it from the store, but martial art skills were available at the level 10 store and priced more than ten thousand dollars. he didn't think much about it tho. he made that money just from a level 2 dungeon, he couldn't imagine how much he'll be making after he advances more.

"Status..." red stated.

Name : Red Max Hp : 600 / 600 Max Mp : 450 / 450

Level : 9 To next level : 9060 / 10000

Class : Unknown Title : RatSlayer

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STR : 6(+11) VIT : 5(+10) AGI : 3(+13) INT : 45 WIS : 6(+4) LUCK : 5

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LP : 0 CASH : 15000.37 $

red was surprised. His stats were amazing, he was as strong as an F rank now. He continued to cultivate little every time he could, he thought when the time came, learning the skill won't be hard to do and wanted to get some of the work out of the way.

'Body tempering : 237 / 1000 (Martian art skills : 0 / 1)'

Exams came, students were nervous. time flew extremely slow while passing the exams, the days were stressful for a lot of students.

"Hey, how did you do?" asks sams

"Great, what about you man you said you didn't have enough time to revise properly?" asks red with a worried expression.

"I'm fine, the stuff I did revise were the right ones. i got lucky" sam smiles.

It ended. Some students were happy and others had a sad expression. sometimes it depended on luck, and not everyone got lucky.

After a while the results came out....