The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 58: Rewards

1 antidote, 1 Normal Healing potion, 1 drop of Victor’s blood, and 3 drops of 100% synthetic food coloring. Those were the components of the “water of life” that Tom drank.

Victor didn’t force Tom to drink it, He let the potion integrate with his body without a shred of resistance. Fulfilling the conditions to make The blood seal skill trigger successfully.

The seal was hidden on Tom's soul, marking him as a blood slave. It can only be removed by someone with higher strength and higher Authority than Victor.

It was all within Victor’s plan. He used the dungeon's Map to locate the chamber closest to the reward room. Then, all he had to do was to dig through the wall to get in. Like a heist movie.

Digging a dungeon wall is impossible as the players didn’t have the authority to override the rules of the system. But Victor had the authority to do whatever he wanted. And those restrictions didn’t affect him at all. Although he hired a team of goon goblins to assist, he had to do the digging part himself while they were tasked with transporting the debris.

Sadly the pickaxe was with lily on the other side of the dungeon, so he had to manage with his poor dagger and some stone tools he took from the goblins.

It took him 8 hours to dig through that thick cave wall. Although he suffered some minor accidents along the way, as he had no experience digging, He was able to enter the room in the end. Then, he replace the real dungeon’s reward with the chalice he got from the antique store, filling it with the blood-antidote mixture. He was lucky, this dungeon offered 3 rewards so after stuffing the treasures, he had to take the two additional pedestals outside the room and bury them in the hole.

Using his dagger he engraved a few words in the system’s script on the remaining pedestal. Although everyone can read it. No one could write it before the Reckoning.

But he came from the future where its secrets were unveiled and it was the universal script of the world.

After finishing his business, he closed the hole on his way back and used his disguise skill to make it look like a normal marble slab. It was not perfect, but if you didn’t know its location you would not find it. And when he just re-entered the room, he threw his bag in front of it for an additional cover.

Tom was still laughing not realizing that he had just become a toy in his nemesis’ hands.

Now, Victor didn’t intend to use Tom as a regular slave. Because Tom would never truly submit to him. He may reveal his secrets or deliberately create problems when doing missions. So Victor had to arrange a better way to control Tom.

“Laugh now and cry later,” thought Victor who was laying in Lily’s lap.

He slowly opened his eyes to look at her worried face.

“Don’t worry. I am fine. Just let me lie down for a bit and take a nap.” He said, making the girls feel relieved. He was not fine though, that backlash was dangerous.

The other didn’t see it. But the moment Tom drank from the chalice. A thunder formed and instantaneously discharged inside his heart. So he could only spit blood and collapse.

Tom didn’t look him, but turned to his friends in a gentlemanly way,

“Everyone, I am sorry about my rude behavior earlier.” He said with a shiny smile.

But no one was looking at him, as everyone was occupied inspecting Lily. Only now did they notice that she didn’t wear her veil.

“Damn, how beautiful can someone get?” Aria and Anna thought with envy.

“No wonder he didn’t care about my confession, He already had such a girl beside him.” Margret pondered with a frown. “But that lily is too pretty, I don’t mind being her lover too.”

Peter was the most shocked one. He was standing there with his mouth wide open drooling without care.

Only the twins who have already seen her face were not shocked.

Lily who felt something was wrong quickly searched her bag for another veil and put it on. But didn’t deter her admirers, only making them look harder.

“Ahm, Ahm… ” Mina coughed a little, waking everyone from their trance, as she turned to Tom and responded to his apology that no one seemed to have heard.

“It’s OK Tom, we understand, You were in pain. We are all glad that you have been cured,” said Mina. she sounded as usual, but in her heart, Tom is not in that high position anymore. Being in pain was no excuse for being a selfish jerk. In addition to that, she clearly saw that perverted look in his eyes earlier. It was the same one Nick used to inspect Mana and her.

“Aren’t there any other rewards?” Asked Peter who woke up from his trance and began to thoroughly check the empty room. Turning his head to look at Lily every now and then.

“Usually, there would be one to three rewards in a dungeon. It seems this chalice was the only one here. But that can be expected as this was only an F rank dungeon.” Said Tom as he inspected the chalice in his hand. It looked strange. Could it be an artifact? He will keep it and find a shop to appraise it later.

“Then how do we leave now?” Asked Margret as she inspected Victor who was peacefully napping with Lily playing with his hair. She wanted to be in her place.

“Don’t worry, when the count down finished, the dungeon’s door would open to the outside world and we would be ejected to the place we entered from,” Tom said with his usual confident smile. But he was not looking at her but at Lily and Victor. He was feeling a little jealous. He wanted to be in his place.

His smile suddenly stagnated as his facial expression changed from that of delight to a confused look. The others didn’t know what happened. Before they could inquire, Tom’s face turned white in fright as he suddenly turned around and ran back into the dungeon leaving just a few words.

“Sorry guys. I forgot my keys back there.” He said disappearing into the tunnel without looking back.

“What keys?” Shouted Margret after him, but got no response as Tom was already far away.

“What is wrong with him?” She asked as she looked at the others who shook their heads in confusion.

“Let’s not care about him.” Said Peter dejectedly, he didn’t like the way Tom was behaving today. He seemed a little possessed.

“Maybe he doesn’t need us as friends anymore. We are going to attend different schools anyway.” He lamented as he found a place to sit down.

“Ah, didn’t Tom tell you about the elite school?” Asked Anna.

“What about it? Why would I want to hear him bragging about it in front of me?” he asked dejectedly.

“It’s not that, You are a Player now, so you can enroll too. The special class they offer is meant for Players. Victor told us earlier.” Margret said, making Peter stand up again in surprise.

“Really?” He asked Victor, who frowned a little but responded after a minute, “Ah, yes. Just one moment. Yes, No, very hot, …..” He said absentmindedly.

“Was he too absorbed in his filthy fantasias to be able to answer?” That is what Margret thought with her dirty little mind. Not realizing that Victor was now busy scamming Tom.

Victor opened his eyes after a minute or two, then looked at everyone and began to speak without raising his head from Lily's lap.

“Ah sorry about that, I was fantasizing about a hot girl I know once. What was it? About the school, yes what they said is true. It will cost you 100 COINs though, so exchange some with Aria or borrow it from the others. And you don’t have to be dejected about the rewards. In about half an hour the dungeon would close and we would be kicked out. During that process, we would be awarded experience points depending on our contribution to the dungeon’s clearing. With enough experience points, you would level up and gain attributes and skills.” He said with a relaxed voice.

“Ah, and take some of that glowing alga growing in the caves and spread it on your wounds. It would let them heal without leaving scars. I saw a pretty goblin girl use it, Trust me.” He added to the girls making all of them except Aria look at each other wanting to laugh, before scrambling to find some of it.

Aria shook her head slowly. Those girls trusted Victor too much. She thought, but after a moment of hesitation, she decided to try it too, there was nothing to lose, and she didn’t want those healing wounds to leave any scars.

Peter shook his head and followed the girls, he didn’t care about the algae, he just wanted to peak at them treating their wounds. Mina seemed to have a wound on her thigh.

“Lily, you too. There is a jar in my bag full of that stuff take some and put it on your shoulder’s wound.”He said as he saw everyone leave. “Take all the boxed stuff and treasures in my bag and put it in yours and leave all the camping equipment in mine.” He added to Lily in a soft voice. Making her nod in understanding.

“Now I have to continue my dream about you, so don’t disturb me again.” He said as he closed his eyes and returned to his nap with a broad smile.

Lily, whose face was blushing, slowly grabbed the bag and opened it, took the jar, and began to apply the glowing algae on her wound. It was really miraculous. The damaged skin slowly began to heal, it would take a while though.

After that, she quickly rearranged the stuff in the backpacks as Victor told her. While making sure not to disturb Victor who still napping on her lap.

About half an hour later an Alarm sounded in everyone's head.

Everyone looked at the shimmering dialog as their vision went black.

Another reward screen appeared.

Victor looked at his screen with a smile. It was worth it.

The first 5 levels cost 10000 Exp each while the next 10 would cost double that. Leveling up gets more difficult the more you level up.

As for the Authority, he was not afraid. The bug he triggered back then was fixed by the system. So no such bugs are possible anymore, and his Authority would not overflow back to 0.

Victor smiled as he split the 10 points between the order and the luck Those two were the most troublesome to increase. And it seemed the skills he used most have leveled up.

This was the problem that caused many player to stagnate. Before the Reckoning, one needed specific conditions to level up.

Clearing a dungeon was one of the cheapest ways to level up. Although it tended to be a little dangerous some times.

“Now, let’s see the results.” Victor thought as inspected his new info screen.

“Not bad,” he thought as he felt his weightless body becoming heavy again and hitting the forest ground outside the dungeon.

“This was a very rewarding trip. Many problems were solved. Now comes the real trouble.” He thought as he opened his eyes.