[You leveled up.]

[10% EXP boost to stats.]

...

[You leveled up.]

[10% EXP boost to stats.]

...

[You leveled up.]

[10% EXP boost to stats.]

Tony’s teeth sunk into the doughnut he held in his hand, biting chunks out of it as he rested against the wall to chew.

While his stomach was being refilled, his attention remained on the hovering purple, translucent screen before him.

He had earned ten percent EXP boosts to his stats? If his assumption on the basis of how many times the notification appeared was correct, then that would mean 10% of the required limits he needed to level up.

With a single thought, the level-up boost notification disappeared, replaced by another.

[ ... ]

[Level]: 3

[Exp]: 105/400

[HP]: 18,480/18,650

[MP]: 1,650

[Stamina]: 9,653

... {Stats} ...

[Strength]: 534

[Agility]: 489

[Vitality]: 561

[Intelligence]: 255

[Fate Gacha Point (FGP)]: 1,010

[Gacha Pulls]: 1

Going through the stats he supposed mattered, he couldn’t help but praise himself for a correct guess. He did the math, and eventually, ten percent from all the exp limits needed to break through had been what was used to boost his points.

However, he couldn’t help but have that tinge of worry cross his mind.

His [HP] and his [MP] were decreasing. And while the [HP] wasn’t much of a concern to him, he couldn’t help but worry about the latter.

It was decreasing so much that even completing the quest now seemed somewhat not within his reach.

’My [MP] is recovering at a much more sluggish rate.’

While it was true that his mana power recovered its digits on its own, Tony couldn’t help but try to predict what would happen in the near future of this dungeon raid.

To avoid getting his health point drained, he had needed to apply some of his skills to defeat the goblins. This is something he guessed would have to be the case as he advanced — more monsters even fiercer than the goblins would be bound to surface.

But was that really an issue?

Honestly, Tony didn’t see it much as a threat considering the fact Kratos was around. Even though the latter might not seem interested in taking out chicken lives, he was sure he wouldn’t just sit by and watch his "little brother’s" life wither away in the hands of the claimed chickens.

Also — thanks to his overpowered stats for his level and the fact Kratos had drilled him into learning to wield the sword without the application of his skills — he won’t have to be using his [Blade Awakening] skill unless in a dire situation.

That skill sucked his mana at an increasing speed. It was even the reason he was in the current redundant mana condition.

Plus, if he should consider himself on the same level as other newbies—

Should he even be thinking about it now?

If there was one thing he should have thought out from what had happened so far, it was the understanding that belied his current situation.

He now understood the reason the Guilds always advised its newbies to clear the tutorial ground one at a time. He now understood the reason, even at Rain Indigo’s level, she had obeyed this instruction strictly. He now understood why newbies always took extra weeks off after registering with a guild to actually prepare for the tutorial grounds.

Ultimately, Tony understood the massive gap in power existing between him and other newbies.

While his stats were a huge boost to his ability to keep up, would he say the same for the others?

Rain Indigo is already a prodigy, even a genius of a kind, for being able to face the Normal-tier F-rank dungeon in just a few days after their awakening and actually clear it.

And then, there was Aaron. Would he make it?

That said, was this also the end of the Normal-tier dungeon for him? Would he be advancing to the Survivor-tier next?

Presumably not, or so he thought.

Considering the fact that there were three stone passages, it probably meant that there was more to this cave than met the eye.

Once again, Tony let these thoughts quaver and then were dismissed.

’I shouldn’t be thinking about this,’ he reminded himself.

Tony waved, and the screen hovering before his eyes vanished.

Then, he brought forward the doughnut in his hand and bit out chunks from it once again.

This quest...

He was going to complete it no matter what.

"Little brother, did you also notice it?" Kratos asked, putting down the manhwa he had been engaged in so far and pulling out his smartphone.

Tony’s eyes were set on the smartphone. For a moment, he wondered if it was actually going to work in this environment. Why had they even brought it along with them?

But then again...

"What? Did I notice what?"

Kratos sighed. It became clear to him now that his "little brother" had been lost in thought. If not, how could he not possibly notice the subtle but clear changes that came from consuming the doughnut in his hand?

"It seems that every food we purchased is induced to recover and reproduce our mana."

Tony almost coughed out the "chew" in his mouth, covering his lips just in time to prevent such a disgusting disaster.

He called up his system immediately.

[MP]: 1,971

Kratos was indeed very correct. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he almost missed out on such a crucial change.

While he was perplexed, he was not so very surprised considering his current understanding of the world they were in. The world he had transmigrated into. This game-like tower world of Elarion.

He had recently come to understand two things from his life so far in this world, plus the second set of inherited memories he gained from the previous Tony.

No matter how simple and common they seemed, it was an understanding nonetheless.

The first is the common fact that the world is fully made of Players. Whether potential, prospective, or even active ones.

The second thing he came to understand was even the broader part of it all.

In this world, every Player awakened a unique power in most cases, known as Class. But not all powers were valued equally.

Clear evidence of this could already be seen in the way some of these Classes are classified. But that would be looking at it in a one-sided direction.

’If I should, I would divide the powers of this world into three paths,’ Tony mused, indifferently calm in the looking but already swimming in an ocean of thoughts.

Broadly, players should be divided into Combat, Support, and Commerce Players.

Combat players were people like him, whose abilities were inevitably tied to battle. They were those who ventured into this tower’s floors, defeated and conquered the dungeons in each one, and stood as humanity’s shield against horrors of this world.

There were secondly those who are called Support Players.

It was very rare to find such a player on the battlefield, not to talk of on the frontlines. But they were those who accompanied the combat players as rear guard supporters — the healers.

Not wanting to stress on a common topic, Tony had to remind himself that there were also support players known as the alchemists who brewed potions and produced some magic-induced stuff, and for what led him to make these deductions, there were seemingly mundane classes like Chefs and Farmers.

They ultimately produced food capable of restoring mana or enhancing a Player’s attributes.

In a city like the Monarch City, finding such players shouldn’t be a hassle.

Then there was the last group. Those who awakened Merchant classes like Brian — the commerce and production players. They were inevitably the group that ensured that the Guild’s, and hence, the city’s resources were running rich, especially in the financial aspect and technicalities as well.

In the end, every citizen and so, every player, has a place in which they belong.

Tony couldn’t say the same for the inhabitants of the Commoner’s City where he had come from, but one thing was certain for sure.

...

"A portal?"

The next thoughts that were about to brew in Tony’s mind were completely shut down by Kratos’ voice.

He looked in the direction Kratos was pointing at and frowned.

A low, resonant hum spread through the air of the cave as countless motes of azure light gathered mid-section on each of the three stone paths ahead of them. They swirled together like streams converging into a whirlpool, growing brighter with every passing second.

Then, all at once—

FWOOM!

Three towering blue portals burst into existence, one in the middle of each stone passageway. Their surfaces rippled like liquid glass, emitting an eerie glow that bathed the surroundings in a cool sapphire light.

They pulsed rhythmically, releasing waves of mana so dense that the air itself felt heavier to inhale.

"It is indeed a portal," Kratos concluded.

He was indeed correct, but a portal to where exactly?