Max’s vision slowly returned. The odor of burnt flesh was the only thing he could smell.

Blinking his eyes, Max saw Batrire, Tanila, and Fowl standing over him.

“Hey…” he said, his voice croaking.

A sigh came from Batrire, and he saw the relief on the other two's faces.

“We thought we lost you. That was…” Batrire stopped talking, her face twisted with whatever she wanted to say but didn’t.

Smacking his lips, Max tasted something familiar.

“A healing potion?”

Batrire nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Max groaned and tried to sit up, watching their dwarven healer eye him as he struggled to move.

“The boss?”

No one said anything, waiting for him to finish getting settled.

Fowl pointed to his left.

Turning to see where Fowl had pointed, Max spotted a gold chest with black and purple letters and drawings etched all over it, waiting to be opened.

“Why are you three still looking at me like that?”

“You were burned to a crisp, Max,” Tanila whispered, her voice cracking as she spoke. “Those screams… how you looked…”

As she trailed off, Max noticed Fowl bobbing his head at what Tanila had just said.

“Seth… look at me,” Batrire said, snapping her fingers near his head.

After she had his full attention, she reached out slowly with her hand, gently grabbed his face between her fingers, and moved it from side to side.

“I used every heal I had on you. The only way you can be alive is because of your skill. Just how much did you heal?”

Max saw a notification waiting to be read. When he looked at it, a wall of information scrolled by.

[ 4 Intelligence Consumed ]

[ 2 Strength Consumed ]

[ 213 Hit Points Consumed ]

[ 57 Mana Points Consumed ]

[ Consume has Consumed a Higher Rank Skill ]

[ Fire Magic - Common has been upgraded to Fire Magic - Uncommon ]

He felt the stares from his team as he read over the notifications.

Four Intelligence… that’s the highest number ever consumed…

“Just tell us already,” Fowl blurted out, frustrated at how long Max was taking.

“I got four intelligence and two strength. My fire magic also upgraded to uncommon.” Pausing, he turned and looked at Batrire. “I also consumed two hundred and thirteen hit points.”

She shook her head at him and gave a forced smile. “That’s the only way you survived. Your hit points plummeted so fast that I couldn't keep up even using my normal heal and my special one. You healed more in that moment than I had with both heals.”

“It was stupid and brave!” Tanila shouted, glaring at him momentarily before letting the tension in her face melt away. “We couldn’t have saved you no matter what, and I doubt you could have gotten away. Stopping the boss the first time it tried to cast it saved Fowl… had you not then–”

“There would be smoked dwarf on the menu,” Fowl said, trying to joke and ease some of the tension in the room. “Truth is that was all you, Seth. Without you, we wouldn’t have even tried.”

Max nodded, accepting Fowl's hand, and smiled as he stood up.

Once upright, he spotted his weapons collected on the floor near him.

“Thanks for getting these. I would have hated to think they disappeared when the boss died.”

Fowl smiled and nodded as Max picked up and stored his stuff.

“Are we going to stand here watching me, or do you three want to check out what is in the box?”

“Hell yeah!” Fowl bellowed, pushing Max from behind toward the chest. “You get to open it since you are the one who defeated it!”

Letting Fowl push him, Max ended up next to the chest as the others gathered around him.

“This one feels different. Like it's more powerful.”

Tanila and Batrire both nodded in agreement.

“Am I the only one that can’t feel some special magical aura?” Fowl asked, crossing his arms and frowning.

Ignoring Fowl, Max put his hands on the lid and lifted it.

“Holy elf tits,” they all said in unison.

The swirling, black and purple, glowing dimensional storage area inside the gold chest had five items and four boss tokens. A massive black shield with a pair of crossed purple hammers, a black chain tunic, a purple robe with a design etched in black, a wooden staff with black and purple lines running the length of it, and a ring that kept changing color, waiting for a winner.

“That shield,” Fowl mumbled as he reached in, pulling it out and stepping back. The massive shield appeared to protect three-fourths of his body. He moved it as if it was as light as a feather.

Tanila pulled her robe out, the purple matching the dark color of the sky from the previous zone.

Max saw her face go white as she held it in her hands, and her mouth froze in the Oh word.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“Tanila, what is it?”

“The stats…” she fumbled for words, still in shock. “I can see its stats. I don’t have to get it identified.”

Fowl didn’t waste a moment after he heard Tanila’s words.

“By Ockrim’s beard!”

Unable to wait, Batrire pulled out the staff, the purple lines almost glowing in the room's light. Her hands began to shake as she gripped it. Max thought her eyes would pop out with how wide they became.

“Never could I imagine this,” she whispered, slowly rotating the staff.

Max reached into the chest and retrieved the black chain chest piece as the other three admired their new items, like mothers doting on their newborn babies. Holding it in his hand, he admired how light it felt, the black chain links almost shimmering.

[ Inspect Tunic ]

*****

Ogre’s Black Tunic

+3 STR/CON/DEX

% Resistance to Magical Attacks

% Increased Melee Attack Damage

Bonded

*****

“This is pretty nice.”

A cough came from Fowl after Max spoke, making him look at the other three staring at him as if something was wrong with him.

“Pretty nice? What do you mean, pretty nice?! I’ve never had something with a plus three to a stat, let alone three!” Fowl shouted, waving his shield around in the air.

“Do you know how much something like this might cost if you could even find a seller?” Tanila asked, shaking her robe in her hand. “Even a hundred gold wouldn’t be enough to buy something like this.”

“My bad… I didn’t mean it like that. I guess I was…” Seeing their expressions, Max stopped talking and just smiled. “I wasn’t sure what to expect.”

Fowl snorted, putting his shield in storage, and motioned to the chest. “Are we ready to deal with the ring?”

They came together at the edge of the chest, looking at the ring they still needed to see who would win.

“I won the last one,” Tanila said, crossing her arms. “I won’t try for this one.”

Batrire started to say something and then stopped. She was looking at Tanila and her face and then grunted.

“I’ll pass as well. This staff is more than I could have hoped to acquire in years.”

Fowl glanced at the two women and then at Max. He smirked and then let out a sigh. “Looks like this one is yours, Seth.”

“What? Why?”

“Without you, none of us would be alive, let alone have these items,” Batrire replied. “I honestly would give both of Fowl’s nuts for this staff. Just take the win.”

Everyone else nodded, and Max sighed before cracking a smile. “I won’t argue.”

“Just don’t tell me what it is,” Fowl said with a groan. “I don’t want to know.”

Max reached into the chest and touched the ring. A floating blue timer appeared above the ring, and thirty seconds counted down. When it ran out, the ring materialized in his hand. A solid black metal band with a single purple line running along the middle of it.

Sliding it on his index finger, it fit perfectly. The moment it settled, he felt power and strength surging through him.

Max smiled, looking at it before showing it to the others, waiting to see how he would react.

[ Identify Ring ]

*****

Black Boss Band

% Increase in all stats

Bonded

*****

“Holy elf tits…”

Not wanting to wait, Max began undoing his leather tunic, pulling the strings on the side to loosen it. It took a moment, and everyone watched, wondering what he was doing. Once it was off, Max pulled out his new black chain tunic and began putting it on. It began to shrink after he put it on, fitting snugly against him.

“That’s incredible,” Fowl muttered, amazed at how the armor had changed.

Still not done, Max pulled his shield and spear out, smiling like an idiot prepared for war.

“What?! Tell us what we are missing!”

Winking at Tanila, Max held up one finger.

[Simple Stats Check]

*****

Max Hoste

-Year-old Human Male

Level 1

Exp 1/1000

HP: 440/440

MP: 95/95

Stamina: 220/220

STR: 29+16

DEX: 18+9

CON: 28+16

INT: 16+3

WIS: 9+2

*****

Staring at his stats, Max realized what the ring had done. Four levels worth of stats had just been added. Simple math told him the ring only worked off his base stats rather than the items he wore.

“Uh… I’m not sure what I should do,” Max stated, glancing at the three watching him and then at his stats. “Not knowing what the ring would have been for you three, I don’t want anyone upset with passing on it.”

Tanila nodded first, and Batrire smiled and began to bob her head as well.

“I agree. Don’t tell us. It's better to know you think it is a great item. That’s good enough for me.”

Max nodded at Batrire and then pointed at the chest after he stored his shield and spear.

“Ready to collect those and leave this place?”

Everyone nodded, and as they took the black and purple glowing bands with the words Three Headed Ogre etched on them, a blue timer appeared above the chest.

“Goblin shite,” Fowl muttered as he saw that. “I just realized we can’t do this dungeon anymore. That means we will have to consider the ones outside the walls.”

“Who cares,” Batrire said, shaking her staff. “Let’s turn in the stuff to the guild and call it a day. I, for one, need a drink.”

Max stopped walking twenty yards from the portal, and everyone turned to see what was wrong.

“I just realized something. We must be careful when we turn in these rings for the boss.”

The others' heads began to nod slowly, and Max could see the realization of that truth hitting them.

“Seth’s right. If we turn those in out in the open, it will attract some attention we would rather not have.”

“I can’t risk turning it in either. Doing so would undoubtedly attract attention I don’t want. If this dungeon is as rare as you say, even one of us turning the band in will gain the attention that you might not want either.”

“What about the things we harvested?” Fowl asked as he looked at Batrire. “Don’t tell me you endured everything you did for nothing; we can’t sell them.”

“I think I can handle that side with my apothecary connection. The rest, though…”

The mood shifted sour for a moment as they realized the points they would miss out on not being able to turn in the token.

Reaching into his storage, Max pulled it out and smiled. He was about to toss it away when Tanila’s hand caught his arm.

“Wait… what if we hold onto them a while? See how far we can progress and maybe one day turn them in?”

Max looked at the others and saw the two of them nodding slowly in agreement with Tanila.

“I’m not saying we turn in a week from now, a month from now or even a year, but one day surely we can and when we do…”

“We will be strong enough to handle whatever comes our way,” Max replied.

She nodded.

Grinning, Max gave a small shrug and put the token into his storage.

“Well if anything goes wrong when we do turn these in, at least we will know who to blame.”

Batrire and Fowl both howled in laughter as Talina let out a groan.