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"Just get out of here!" Avan thought to himself, even if he didn't know exactly what to make of the weeks he had been through, since it had hardened him noticeably. Anger, sadness, hate, fear, or other feelings had easily moved into the background.

He walked with firm and determined steps through the billowing darkness towards a similar purple glowing portal, which was located a few meters in front of him in the nothingness.

Unlike before, when he would have hesitated and walked cautiously towards the unknown, Avan simply stepped through the portal without further thought.

What can I do about it? What good would it do me to weigh things up first and proceed cautiously? The situation is what it is. What I have left are decisions. And to carry them through to the bitter end and to stand up for them. he murmured inwardly, as he became aware of how much exactly the past time had really changed him.

With his right foot, he stepped inside the purple black portal, and the familiar cool feeling passed through his body again as he stepped all the way through.

Already, Avan noticed a warmth through his closed eyelids and flicked them open, causing him to blink briefly several times to acclimate his eyes from pure darkness to the midday sun.

For a brief moment, he looked around a bit startled with his eyelids still squeezed shut, as he first perceived the surroundings to be the same from which he had just come through the portal. With a second glance around, however, he noticed the clear and distinct differences, which he had not been able to perceive at first glance and under acclimatization of his eyes. He was standing, as he had been on the previous seventh level of the dungeon, on a small grassy hill surrounded by a variety of trees, and instead of a steeply rising mountain behind him, he was facing a steep cliff that ended ten meters below in a shallow and small river.

"Okay, but definitely not the same environment. Whew..." He groaned in relief as he grabbed the back of his neck with both hands and turned to look around.

The forest around it consisted mostly of many different deciduous trees, which Avan, as a layman, could not identify at first and his sphere of influence could also not tell him anything more precise without background knowledge, and the hill was just enough to be able to look over the five meter smaller trees of the forest.

In clear contrast to the previous level, if the illusion of the past level could be called real at all, here again various birds were twittering out of the forest, a light breeze was blowing over and through the deciduous trees and, which was remarkable since Avan had never really noticed it, it smelled much fresher here and he could smell the most diverse forest and meadow scents.

"Well then... Let's take a closer look at these Perks..." He said aloud, when he had relaxed a bit more inside and out after a few minutes.

 

Perk: Cycle of Death and Life

With the collection of 1000 souls, it is possible for you to defy death once completely with full life by sacrificing these souls to the god of death! This happens automatically at an approaching death, if you have enough souls at that time. If not, you die as usual.

 

There I ask myself directly, if I read it in such a way, which souls are meant by it? Probably not plants... But what about dungeon monsters? And are larger or more powerful beings, whether humanoid or monster, worth more souls, or do we all possess only one soul at a time? Or is it more to be understood as soul energy? He asked himself the obvious questions in his head first, and shook his head while sighing softly. A little introduction or explanation, especially after all the shit I've been through, wouldn't have been too much to ask...

Anyway now. It's over, and at least this "perk" seems to be pretty overly powerful. Or almost useless, for example, if I really have to kill a whole thousand people or creatures from other races for it, if dungeon monsters don't count. Well, whatever. I'll find out for sure with the next monster. That should be... dungeon level eight, if I remember correctly. Then let's see what I'm up against here...

Finally finished with his monotonous self-dialogue, Avan looked out over the forest and tried to find some clue, as he had on the previous level. The trees, however, in conjunction with the far too flat hill, did not offer him a clear view over the treetops, and he sighed out once again in frustration.

"Then I guess it's just a matter of walking. Let's go." And with those words, he trudged over to the edge of the forest. And where the heck did Horny go...? I hope the little rascal is alright... Otherwise, I swear, I'll find a way to get even with this god of death. He threw the all-important thought after his loud musings because he was still missing his dungeon companion.

When Avan entered the forest here between a wide variety of deciduous trees, it became darker directly under the forest canopy. The trees here were much closer together and the root system on the forest floor overturned here and there, crashing out of the earth in wave forms and harboring countless grasses, mushrooms, beetles, spiders and all kinds of other small animals between all the root systems.

Avan was able to detect all of this with a little concentration thanks to a sphere of influence, and after identifying so many new creatures and things, a familiar tone sounded in the back of his head.

 

*Chime*

You have gained another level in Identify!

Identify: [Bronze] 9

Since you have reached your current maximum level, you cannot level up any further. To break through to the next rank, it is first necessary to increase your own personal level!

 

Um... Okay? Right, I had been wondering about that the whole time with all the skills that hadn't progressed a single step at bronze nine... Well, that explains it then. I probably could have just asked Yue or Elisa or someone else in the guild. Great.

Once again, Avan ran his right palm over his eyes, taking the news for what it was.

Another mystery solved, he continued thoughtfully, lifting his feet carefully to step over all the weave on the ground, cautious not to get caught anywhere. At the same time, he was attentive to take full advantage of his dungeon influence and not allow any surprises within his ten meter radius. Avan continued on his way, and after some time, he summoned some of his food supplies to calm his slightly growling stomach. Fortunately, he had picked up some apples, more dried berries, candied fruits, and meat skewers in town before he left, and he took turns tasting and devouring them with relish. He also drank from one of the three water hoses, which fortunately were still almost completely filled with fresh and clean water, at least before Avan drank an entire hose on the march through the forest.

So Avan trotted through the forest for several hours, during which he could neither sense nor see anything dangerous except for a few small animals like rabbits and a fox. When the sun in the sky, which sparsely sent a few rays of sunlight through the dense forest canopy, slowly rose and seemed to be setting.

Suddenly, Avan stopped and stared upward, following a single ray of sunlight.

Why didn't I notice that right away? He asked himself the only relevant question at this point. How is it possible that a sun is shining on what is supposed to be the eighth dungeon level? On the previous one, it was somehow within the realm of the impossible, but am I no longer in the dungeon?

Shocked and looking up, he tried to understand what this meant.

"Either I'm still in the dungeon, but it's some kind of illusion again, or... I am no longer in the dungeon. And have come out somewhere else entirely. THAT would also explain why my backpack and Horny were nowhere to be seen!" He said the only two possibilities out loud, his two hands clenched into fists at his sides in frustration, and staring upward in confusion and anger, as if he wanted to blame someone or something.

His fists closed and opened several times, and his anger subsided as quickly as it had come. And I'm more quick-tempered.... or more quickly angry than before! Get a grip, Avan... The whole death thing is still not digested it seems.

Avan raised both his hands and rubbed both palms over his cheeks and the sides of his nose, massaging his temples shortly after.

After a deep and long sigh, he decided without further ado not to be surprised again and used his brief pause to conjure up an Akkalons form in less than two minutes. Unlike the spear or the sphere, this was a new construction he had found through some of his experiments with all these different forms.

Both of his hands now surrounded a thin sheet of celestial energy, which ran up his arm with several thin threads and over his shoulders and along his back down the other side of his arm, ending there around his other hand in exactly the same sheathing.

Still excited about his crazy idea and success, he grinned slightly as he tilted his head and examined his new gloves and weapons alike, which flexed around his hands and even kept their shape as he playfully moved his fingers and closed and opened his hands into fists.

The spear, Avan had decided, was more suited to defeating the crow monster, while this new construction and form was more suited to his martial arts fighting style. Through the development of his skills, he had had unimagined new possibilities, and was more than certain that he had not even begun to grasp the depth behind the forms and capabilities. Or the entire skill system, which could apparently be reshaped and changed with creativity and enough willpower, as he had discovered with this one skill.

He had also made sure, especially after all the destruction in front of his eyes, that this form of combat gloves did not harm him, or only slightly, if they took too much damage. Unlike his spheres or more condensed forms, it only burned briefly on his skin when the construction disintegrated. But nothing more than red marks, which were quickly taken over by his Akkalons touch passive healing, came out of it.

Now better armed, and with a hint that he must be outside the dungeon, Avan marched on, now equipped with midnight black gauntlets.

Another hour's walk later, and following some clearings and streams, the forest slowly thinned, and Avan could suddenly make out, despite the further distance, a collection of decayed ruins a few hundred meters to his right.

Finally seeing something other than the forest and its few animal inhabitants, Avan changed his direction of march and headed toward the ruins, now over more meadow than forest floor.

A few minutes later, he reached the ruins and immediately noticed the white marble stone that had made up the temple ruins at the beginning of his journey on Eos. This leaves little doubt that it must belong to the Healing Order of Akkalon. But if this is out here, does that mean that this village was part of the dungeon? Or is it all just a big coincidence that I end up here instead of the next level?

Stepping cautiously closer, Avan let his gaze wander over the long-decayed houses and settlement. Definitely decayed for a VERY long time... I don't know how fast this stone, or stone in general, is decaying, but from all the historical documentation, I would say that no one has lived here for several hundreds or thousands of years...

Gently, he stretched out his left arm and ran his hand over the white marble, confirming its texture. Likewise, after a brief mental prodding, his identification skill had also verified the stone as [White Marble].

So definitely the same stone. All the more likely that this place here had also belonged to the order. And it is no wonder that the Order of Akkalon is represented in the Akkalon Dungeon. Avan chuckled to himself when the obvious occurred to him. Especially since even Mister Please-don't-steal-books Bookworm already lived in the dungeon and a library of the Order.

At the thought of the bookworm, his thoughts also briefly drifted to the fox girl, and Elisa, the diligent archivist. How much time might have passed in total? And how the situation with the bookworm and the two of them might have gone?

With short and light strokes on both his cheeks, in order to concentrate again, brought him out of his digressive thoughts. The sooner I get through here, the sooner I can check on them. Let's go!

Avan, still wary of falling or wandering monsters, circled the first collapsed house and entered the former village via what also appeared to be a previous majestically paved side street.

To the left and right, countless collapsed white marble houses lined the street, and with a quick glance inside and a confirmation from his dungeon sphere of influence, he knew that nothing in the houses had survived the ravages of time either.

After more than ten houses on the left and right side of the side street, Avan arrived at a former surely crowded marketplace and main meeting place. The center was adorned with a fountain he already knew, but without the dungeon sphere that had hovered in front of the temple's entrance, but still crafted by a master stonemason.

The order of healers must have had a lot of talented people, just thinking about all the constructions, runes, stone carvings and all the subtleties that I have seen so far... Remarkable, really.

Scratching his chin with his right hand, Avan shuffled thoughtfully across the thirty by thirty meter round square, from which two major streets and several smaller ones led off. It almost looks as if they have even arranged and built their settlement in an almost perfect symmetrical circle... Everything had to do with the worship of the dungeon sphere. The perfect round object of their god, Akkalon. You definitely have to hand it to them for the devotion they had. AND they knew how to fight. But then where did they all go? he asked himself as he walked across the dusty white square and looked around the place. All the houses seemed to be built the same size, and there was no sign of where the more important members of the order had lived.

Apparently, it had been a community of equality... I must admit, I like the idea...

The only building that was really only slightly different from the others, and that only because it seemed to be made of thicker walls and thus seemed less sunken than any other building he could see, was on his left side and exactly in the middle of the two main streets perfectly facing each other.

With growing interest as to why this community of the Order of Healers had built exactly one place differently with so much apparent sameness, he walked closer to this one building until his dungeon senses could grasp the interior. Oh... Interesting!

Now certain that no nasty surprises awaited him inside, Avan ducked under the collapsed doorframe and entered the white building.

Inside, he was greeted by a completely different sight than the village had previously suggested. In the center of the building was a raised circular pedestal two meters in diameter, on which a shimmering golden yellow portal made of Celestial mana swirled. Well, who would have thought that... Celestial mana in Akkalon's celestial dungeon. He chuckled again as he turned his attention to the more interesting part of the building, the countless masterfully rendered murals and stone carvings.

Before Avan made his way through the portal to the ninth level, he stepped closer to the half-crumbled piece of wall on his left. Let's see what story you have to tell...

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