As Cyrus liked to say, excellent question. Immolation was the first of my two harvested spells, so that one would be replaced with whatever new spell I harvested. Immolation had saved my life twice, but it was super dangerous too.

  I was lying in a totally devastated area. The mountain seemed to sag above me, the stone face having melted under Ashkaroth’s intense heat. The forest fire fighter in me cringed to think of so much devastation.

  Did I want to rely on that kind of burning destruction as part of my build? The spells I used a lot tended to affect me more and more over time. Besides, were there more Fire Lord monsters who might attack if I used Immolation again?

  I couldn’t pretend I might pull off another miracle win against another level 82 monster. Still, I definitely didn’t want to perm Immolation, but would I get a better spell to replace it?

  Maybe. I triggered Harvest.

  “Congratulations, Lucas! You have successfully harvested Mana Beam.”

  “Mana Beam. Rare. Unleash a focused beam of convergence mana to interrupt a target’s mana.

  50% base chance to overwhelm a target’s mana pool.

  40% chance to transform that pool to convergence mana you can control.

  30% chance to detonate that mana pool. Chance of success adjusted based on difference in mana pool sizes. Remaining uses: 1”

  “Due to your class benefit, remaining uses increased to 4.”

  Whoa. That was both awesome and terrifying. I’d expected to get some kind of fire mastery, maybe even a fire flight spell. Summoning a giant raptor of flames I could lounge in as it flew me across the stage would have been totally boss. The last bit about the chance of success caught my attention.

  “My mana pool is tier-1, but enemies are tier-0.”

  “That will prove an enormous benefit for you in this case, as your mana size will be converted to tier-0 equivalent.”

  Nice. My final percentage for success should be super high then. Only Alpha or Noctarus might have enough mana to challenge me. I rolled over so my arms and legs could snap back into their normal shape. That allowed my ribs to finish popping back together too, and I gritted my newly-reformed teeth against the fresh flashes of pain.

  I triggered Loot and willed my loot boxes to appear. The sight of two emerald epic loot boxes and three more diamond legendary loot boxes all hovering together in a glittering row definitely raised my spirits. My Musketeer and Trailblazer titles must have worked overtime together to get me so many upgraded loot boxes. I’d take every one I could get.

  The Batman loot box for not quite killing Alpha opened first, leaving three items hanging in the air.

  “Ring of Fernand’s Mercy. Rare. When Mercy needs to become Justice, tap into the energy of the Tesla Coil bracelet to deliver a jolt of pure damage on physical contact. You choose the percentage of available energy to include.”

  “This is . . . Wow.” My Tesla Coil bracelet was one of my favorite items. All the life force it absorbed from damage I dealt while fighting had saved my life more times than I could count. Now I could tap into that energy offensively? Wow.

  “Fernand’s Mercy?”

  “You know, Fernand. The Count of Monte Cristo? The final scene when he refuses to show mercy and dies as a result?”

  “I never watched that one. Thanks for the spoiler.”

  “How could you?” Cyrus exclaimed. “It’s on the Ten Thousand Movies Experience.”

  I’d totally forgotten about that weird gag gift. Maybe not a gag gift after all. “Sorry, but I haven’t had time. Still waiting for that upgrade to stop time while I watch movies.”

  “Be patient.”

  I almost asked who was being impatient? I did actually want that upgrade. Watching a movie without losing 2 hours would be amazing.

  “When I use this ring to deal direct damage, will my Tesla Coil bracelet then absorb that energy again since I’m damaging the target?”

  “Nice try. Unfortunately, no. The energy you sacrifice through the ring was already absorbed once. The ring will bypass normal defenses to deal direct damage at the cost of not absorbing it again.”

  “Okay. It’ll be worth the cost.” It sounded fantastic, and could prove game changing in some fights. Hitting a monster with direct damage through their defenses was as good in its own way as my old blade, Soulrend.

  The other two items were related.

  “Upgrade scroll. Upgrade Stiletto Quiver. Add a second quiver to the base capacity, with the ability to cycle through the two quivers.”

  “Pack of 500 exploding crystal throwing darts.”

  “I love this.” I slipped the ring on my finger, read the scroll, then dumped the pack of new darts into my inventory. In seconds, I applied 100 of them into the second quiver, topped off my first quiver, and applied a dose of Stygian Ichor to those. Now my Stiletto Quiver held 200 darts, half poisoned and half exploding. For the first time, my ranged attack options looked pretty good.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  The emerald Die Hard loot box contained two scrolls.

  “Upgrade Scroll. Upgrade Wolf Blood by two levels.”

  “Stat Scroll. Plus 20 to Constitution.”

  “Twenty?” I gasped, then read it instantly, closed my eyes, and savored the flood of new power thundering into me. It poured through my body and I could feel my bones hardening and my muscles growing denser. Then the power floated up to my skin, setting it tingling as it hardened.

  “So incredible,” I muttered as I poked at the recently regrown skin of my face. It felt as flexible as ever, but I sensed it would take a lot more force to even scratch the surface.

  That huge stat increase bumped my Constitution by another 50%, and I felt like I could walk through a hail of arrows unconcerned. And when I took damage, the new levels in Wolf Blood meant I’d regenerate another 20% faster than I had before. Still not as fast as a werewolf, but my regeneration was getting seriously good.

  While I was checking that out, I dumped the 4 free points I got from the levels into Dexterity. That was some fantastic loot, and I still had the diamond boxes to open. The Frodo box for defeating an enemy more than 50 levels higher flared with dazzling light before disappearing, leaving behind 2 scrolls.

  “Upgrade Scroll. Upgrade Spell Weaver ability one level.”

  “Upgrade Scroll. Upgrade title Spartacus.”

  “Spartacus. Plus 10 to Luck. Plus 10 to CHA.

  "Gain an additional 5% experience for each monster level higher than your current level plus 15.”

  I whistled softly as I read the upgrade. “So that means if a monster is 16 levels higher than mine, I get an extra 5% experience?”

  “Indeed, and an extra 25% experience for a monster that’s 20 levels above yours.”

  “Ashkaroth was 65 levels above mine. So I would have gotten extra experience for 50 of those levels. That would have been another 250%!”

  Maybe not having finished off Alpha wasn’t so bad. Now when I killed him, I’d get a bunch of additional experience. That benefit was like a ray of hope. I ended up fighting a lot of monsters at way higher levels. Now I could get enough experience from them to level up a lot faster.

  The Gladiator loot box came next. It dropped a single scroll.

  “Title Scroll. New title: Mephistoles.”

  “Unlock Shadow Channels. Unique. You discovered a unique synergy between several spells, your class, and abilities to unlock a moment of pure chaos. Shadow mana channels act like secondary channels that form a mighty extra layer around your existing channels, fueled by a usually-latent pool of power. Both pool and channels remain inert except for moments of extreme danger fighting stronger monsters where your health drops more than 50% and you need to unleash a bit of chaos.”

  I re-read the new title several times, thoughts churning through everything Cyrus had explained earlier. On the surface, the title offered a potentially life-saving boost of extra power in desperate situations. In essence, it formalized the process I’d accidentally stumbled upon to finally get some use from that unlocked CHA stat. And yet . . .

  “You said using locked stats could be dangerous.”

  “Absolutely,” Cyrus said.

  I nodded slowly as a couple things made more sense. “So you gave me a title to prevent me from accessing that huge extra power source outside of true life and death situations.”

  “I suppose that’s one way to look at it.”

  “You also gave me a gigantic boost to Constitution to make it less likely I’ll need to use those CHA stat points ever again.”

  “Not at all. You earned that Constitution buff by surviving when you should have died.”

  “Sure,” I said, but he wasn’t fooling me. I loved the huge Constitution boost and honestly, I really appreciated the title. It was just weird that Cyrus was arranging my loot so carefully to prevent me from tapping into that CHA stat. Was it really that dangerous, or was something else going on?

  More questions to probe him with in a moment where I might get more information. For now, I’d take the extra stat boost and the potential to use that second mana pool if I really needed it. Not dying had to be worth whatever price it cost me, right?

  “One more question. Who was Mephistoles? I don’t understand the reference in the title name.” Most of them seemed pretty obvious.

  “He was a demon from German folklore. Since you got the title from a demon lord, it seemed appropriate.”

  It did, but I sensed there was more he wasn’t telling me. As usual. Maybe Tomas knew more about Mephistoles. He was an old mythology nut.

  “Ashkaroth was an actual demon lord, then?”

  “Indeed, a viscount.”

  “From Queen Marisara’s court?”

  “Yes again. I should have given you another loot box for killing the first minor noble from her court all the way down on stage 2.”

  “I’m not stopping you. Go ahead.” I’d always take another loot box.

  “Maybe next time. You’ve hit your limit of high-tiered loot boxes from one fight.”

  “There’s no such thing,” I protested.

  “No, but it sounded good.”

  I chose not to push it. Hopefully he’d remember to give me a good loot box next time I killed one of Marisara’s court. Other questions were more important.

  “Is a viscount a really low-ranked noble here like it was on Earth?”

  “Yes it is, but don’t say that around actual viscounts. They get touchy about the hierarchy.”

  I didn’t care about that. What worried me was that Ashkaroth had been insanely powerful and he was but a low-tiered noble. What level was Queen Marisara if her viscounts were over level 80?

  “Hey, I thought you said Queen Marisara and her forces couldn’t come down this far yet.”

  “Most of them cannot, but Ashkaroth is a purist when it comes to the sanctity of fire. You were unlucky twice over tonight. First, he saw your corrupted black tornado. Second, he was already angry over a recent slight from a more powerful duke and needed to vent his anger. He applied for a limited-use waiver to drop down here and dish out some smiting on the offender, with the promise to immediately return.”

  “Limited-use waiver?”

  “Indeed. It was quite expensive, but Ashkaroth was very wealthy, even for a low-ranked nobleman.”

  “Great,” I said sarcastically. How many other nobles could buy waivers to come down and attack us?

  “It might be,” Cyrus said.

  “So, Queen Marisara could just buy another waiver and come down here to slaughter us all?”

  “No. Stage bosses cannot descend ever, or Alpha would have come down and killed you the first time you met. Waivers are not also expensive, but also limited use, so she can’t just pay for a bunch of her strongest fighters to come down and wipe you out. That wouldn’t be fun or fair.”

  Since when did Cyrus care about fair? More likely, his viewers wouldn’t be happy with a one-sided fight. Still, I believed him. It wasn’t in his best interest to kill us all off early. So I turned back to my loot. The last box was the diamond Ender box. It contained two scrolls.

  “Ability scroll. Gain the new ability: Fire Hand. Level 1. Rare. Deal 50% more damage per level to monsters who use fire mana.”

  That was awesome, but the second scroll eclipsed it.

  “Title Scroll. New title: Alexander.”

  “You destroy all who challenge you and win against all odds. You are a bringer of death, and the world will know your name.

  Plus 5% to your maximum damage for each of your titles.

  Once per day, you may unleash Eminent Domain.

  Eminent Domain. Add 25% maximum damage per title in a single strike.”

  The title settled into my eyes like all the previous titles, but with a feeling of more weight somehow. I laughed.

  “Yes!” I had what? 14 titles now? That gave me a constant additional 70% to my maximum damage, and once per day I could unleash a killer move with 350% more damage. Even if I’d only had the passive boost during that super smackdown I’d given Alpha, the extra damage would have been enough to kill him.

  “So, Alexander, as in Alexander the Great?”

  “Of course. Who else is worthy of naming such a great title?”

  “It works for me. I love it.”

  Feeling very satisfied, I turned to my inventory. Time to see what loot I got from Lord Ashkaroth.