The XP difference between Alexander and Ocean normally wouldn't be so small for them to level up together. Thanks to the (Tree of Good Fortune), they became very close to leveling up.

  "She will finally evolve again," thought Alexander, excited. "But this also puts a 3-day timer on me to get as many growth points as possible."

  With this goal in mind, Alexander sped up his clearing pace even more, which also made him more exposed and suffer various injuries, ranging from light to deep.

  Alexander endured the pain of each of his wounds knowing it was for a good reason.

  Seeing his injuries pile up over time, Diana couldn't take it anymore and tried to stop him: "Stop, Alexander, you're already full of wounds. I can't heal so many at once."

  "Don't worry. They look worse than they are," replied Alexander, trying to convey indifference towards the injuries, which despite not affecting his performance, still hurt a lot.

  Having no effective way to stop him, Diana could only bite her lip in frustration and do her best to heal him even faster.

  Feeling Diana and Ocean approaching, as well as the gradual intensification of the healing spell on his body, Alexander wished he could stop. He could imagine the stress that forced spell intensification caused.

  This time, however, he wouldn't stop. He didn’t have time to stop.

  When they reached the dungeon BOSS door, Alexander took a short break to catch his breath and let Diana finish healing him. Surprisingly, she didn't need much time, as he was already practically fine.

  After confirming that Diana was okay, the group entered the BOSS room. But while Alexander was thinking about Diana's situation, Mark and Stella charged at the BOSS.

  [{Undead Warrior} – Undead – 2nd Evolution]

  The duo's charge was successful and made them proud.

  Mark held the BOSS at bay, engaging in direct combat (shield against shield); and Stella covered him with a few consecutive |Fireballs|.

  After some time, as they began to lose the momentum created by the initial clash, the pressure on Mark became increasingly unbearable.

  Not understanding why Alexander still wasn't helping them, Stella started looking around and what she saw froze her heart: in the farthest corner from the fighting duo, Alexander—who was mounted on Ocean—held Diana with one of his arms and didn't seem to have any intention of helping them.

  To make the duo's situation even worse, his face conveyed a clear message: "Isn't this what you wanted? Then deal with the mess yourselves… We have nothing to do with you two."

  Anxious, Stella repeatedly tried to get closer to argue with Alexander. But with every step she took to approach, Ocean took two to increase the distance between them even more.

  Unable to reach him, Stella tried to focus on eliminating the BOSS as quickly as possible.

  However, since her spells had too wide an area, she only managed to bring Mark to the brink of collapse even faster.

  Seeing Mark about to collapse under the BOSS's blows, Stella despaired. She would be the next to die if he succumbed, and she didn't want to die.

  With tears about to burst from her eyes, Stella bit back her anger, nobility, and prideful nature to scream for help: "Stop this! We exaggerated a bit, but we don't deserve to die!… I don't want to die!"

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Her cries were very touching, but, unfortunately for her, the person most affected was Mark. Until then, he could only imagine the situation.

  Stella's desperate plea startled Mark and made him open his guard a little, which culminated in him being thrown back by a strong kick to the stomach.

  Seeing the imminent death of her group companions, Diana began to struggle even more to break free from Alexander and go help them, but the difference in strength between them was too great.

  Alexander, unlike Diana, remained deathly indifferent. Even so, he responded to Stella: "Stop what, exactly?"

  "Was it my duty, or Diana's, or the academy students', or perhaps the whole world's, to spoil and protect you, and I just wasn't informed?" mocked Alexander. "If that's the case, forgive my utter ignorance."

  Hearing his response, Stella thought all was lost and began to cry.

  To her surprise, Mark—the one she thought wouldn't be able to get up—stood up surrounded by a gray and translucent energy.

  "{Iron Will}?!" Stella asked herself incredulously, as if she weren't seeing Mark, but the rope that would prevent her from falling into the abyss.

  With no time to confirm her assumption, or even wipe the tears from her face, Stella followed Mark—who began attacking the {Undead Warrior} laughing like a maniac, to try to end this and survive.

  Alexander was the least surprised by the energy, because he noticed it before any of them—including Mark himself.

  He saw it emerge to protect Mark from the kick that would take him out of the fight.

  Even with this turnaround, Alexander didn't intervene.

  He just released Diana and continued to observe with interest while thinking: "It seems his talent awakened in this 'life or death' moment... His luck didn't abandon him."

  With the increase in Defense, Vitality, and Strength that the {Iron Will} talent seemed to provide him, it was Mark's turn to pressure the BOSS.

  The biggest advantages of {Undeads}—in parity against a human—were not feeling pain and not having the bodily self-preservation restrictions of living beings. With the awakening of his talent, he overcame these advantages.

  Mark's only problem was that he couldn't deal much damage.

  However, it wasn't something he needed at the moment. Stella was taking care of that.

  As time passed, the trio organized themselves into a good arrangement to face the {Undead Warrior}: Mark kept the BOSS under control, Stella dealt the damage, and Diana healed Mark.

  Their improvised cohesion was so good that they came one step closer to defeating the BOSS.

  When they were on the brink of victory, two blurs passed by them, one white-bluish and another black-grayish.

  The trio only understood what happened when it was too late.

  The white-bluish blur, which was an ice stalactite, exploded upon colliding with the {Undead Warrior}'s head.

  The darker blur, which was Alexander's spear, came right after and blew up the BOSS's partially frozen head.

  Ding!

  [Mission Completed]

  This action left the fighting trio with a mix of feelings. Someone stole the achievement they worked so hard for.

  As if that weren't enough, Alexander even taunted: "You don't need to thank me for helping you. It was just a simple courtesy of mine."

  Seeing some hostile faces staring at him, Alexander used |Water Field|, |Mana Blessing|, and began channeling |Elemental Water Blast| on his dagger. "Upset? Want a piece of me?… Bite me if you can. Let's see how many rounds of this spell you can withstand."

  At that moment, Mark and Stella deeply hated Alexander for acting so dominantly towards them. But they hated even more their inability to do anything about it, because they knew they would end up dead in a confrontation.

  Seeing them resign and retreat, Alexander dissipated his spell and went to get his spear and the chest items, as they posed no threat to him.

  Even on their best day, they wouldn’t be able to defeat Alexander in a direct confrontation.

  The best they could do, counting on a lot of luck and a lot of carelessness from Alexander, would be to force him to activate his talent. But that would result in certain death—among other possibilities—by poisoning.

  Setting these thoughts aside, Alexander once again told the "dynamic duo" to leave, but they refused, saying they wanted more experience. They even promised to obey this time.

  Thinking it would be a shame to waste this manpower at this moment of need, Alexander decided to exploit them to clear the other {Intermediate Dungeons} of Iron Hammer City faster.

  Over time, when they seemed to want to give up, Alexander provoked them so they would remain driven by pride despite exhaustion.

  Unaware of Alexander's tactic, Mark and Stella were exploited until total exhaustion prevented them, which was even normal.

  What really surprised Alexander was Diana. She didn't collapse from exhaustion like they did.

  With their help, Alexander managed to clear the {Intermediate Dungeons} of Iron Hammer City before the fifth day of travel, which was very good.

  Even so, he couldn't help but taunt them: "Is that all you've got? So weak…"

  Mark and Stella almost went crazy with this last provocation. But while thinking about how to counter it, Diana began to heal their wounds.

  "It's not just him, she's still standing too. And helping us," the duo thought with a bitter taste in their mouths. "Are we really that weak?"

  As soon as Diana finished treating the duo, Alexander reflexively smiled at her and patted her head as if she were a pup who had done a good job.

  Realizing this might seem strange and/or offensive to her, Alexander stopped, but she didn't seem offended—just a bit flushed.