Sure enough, with my fifth stage [Lightning Shock], I was able to slay the harpies in the air, rather than merely send them crashing uncontrollably to the ground. They fell one by one until my next level came in.

  I used the break between monsters to quickly distribute my level gains.

  That left me with perfectly balanced Stats. Perhaps that was a little counterproductive when I was supposed to be limiting my Memory gains, assuming I got the same sort of Mark as [Partially Balanced], but it kinda enforced the slow and steady increase. If I wasn't going to put free points into it from now on, I at least wanted it to rise a decent amount naturally.

  The increased [Mana Manipulation] stage noticeably shortened the casting time of [Lightning Shock], not to mention improving my mana vision. It didn't, at all, help me to understand what I'd done to Sir Khris, but I wasn't really expecting it too. In any case, with the increased casting speed, destroying the harpies became almost trivial. The waiting around was painful. With a monster descending every five minutes, I couldn't rest, but when each monster took only a few seconds of concentration to deal with, I couldn't get into a monster-killing groove, either.

  I almost cheered for joy when the next level rolled around, giving me something to actually focus on during the breaks.

  It also reminded me that I'd intended to look up the 'rewards' that were available at growth markers, in case I was on track to get something silly. Hopefully, the new Marks were sensible.

  I'd lost [Focused] and [Diverse], too. Losing [Focused] wasn't a surprise, since I had no Skills at a higher rank or stage now than I had at the end of level twenty, but losing [Diverse] was unexpected. I had eight Skills that had been or were at the fifth stage. Maybe the ones I'd obtained at D-rank didn't count?

  As for what I'd gained...

  [Perfectly Balanced] had evolved in just the way I was hoping. It was equivalent to three extra stat points per level, since one free point into Stamina or Mana increased them by five. Not a lot, but still a net positive, and a strict upgrade compared to [Partially Balanced].

  Huh? Marks could affect my Status? Not the underlying information, as such, but allowing more of that information to be displayed to me? That was interesting.

  I'd never heard of such a thing, but given the requirements to earn Paths, I doubted there was a single person back home in my village who had one. It wasn't a surprise I hadn't heard anything about this.

  ... And the other new Mark was similar. From the name, I was hoping that it would provide a small boost to all other Marks, but given the number of dungeons I was clearing, the effect was a reasonable consolation prize. I immediately set it to separate out my Marks for clearing or conquering dungeons, which was my largest category, and one that was likely to continue growing rapidly.

  A little cleaner, and if I built up too many of them, I could just hide them completely.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  There was just one little niggle: I didn't have twenty-five Marks. Yes, I did now, but only if I included [Patient Traveller] or [Mark Collector] itself. Then again, if I didn't include them, presumably I needed to include [Diverse] and [Focused] instead. I guess I won either way.

  Aside from playing with my Status, I also had a couple more skill points to spend.

  Oh, that was unexpected, and somewhat opportune. Another Path!

  Darn. Until that final sentence, I was... well... hopeful. There was no warning about Skills losing scope like there had been for [Assassin]. A couple of good Skill evolutions, and a discount on advancing [Lightning Strike] and learning other spells. It was nothing but upsides, up until that final effect. What elements opposed Lightning? Did it mean all of them, or something specific? Earth, maybe? I didn't know, and as ever, I had no intention of rushing into something blind.

  Still, despite the description only mentioning a hundred monsters, it was obvious that having [Mana Manipulation] at stage five was also a requirement, given that had been the trigger. Presumably, I could pick up other elemental paths by buying similar spells and slaying a hundred monsters with them. What if I picked up both [Lightning Mage] and an equivalent from an opposing element? Would the skill point cost change cancel out, as [Focused] and [Diverse] had done?

  ... Wait. Now that I considered it, a hundred monsters? Before advancing [Lightning Shock], it hadn't been enough to kill the harpies outright. Maybe it counted them anyway, given that the lightning had been the cause of them falling out of the sky, but if not...

  As if to confirm my musings, a loud screech sounded from above.

  I smirked a little. Given how the boss battle had gone last time, now that I could fire off [Lightning Shock] in half the time, the poor harpy queen didn't stand a chance.

  Yup. Not a chance. That was another pair of extra stat points and a twenty percent experience boost to killing monsters classified as 'avians'.

  This time, the chest contained a few feathers. From the size and colour, from the harpy queen, rather than the regular harpies. Harpy feathers were actually quite valuable, but I couldn't carry the quantities needed to make it worthwhile. Harpy queen feathers were presumably even more so, but were they so much more so that only three feathers were worth selling? Bosses couldn't be harvested, but if there was a dungeon somewhere that had harpy queens as mobs, I couldn't imagine a mere three being worth much. I took them anyway, on account of them being from a boss chest and hence presumably having something worthwhile about them, and then headed for the exit.

  The branch exit, this time, rather than the teleporter.

  Given the featureless landscape, it meant staying close enough to the edge that it was still visible as a kind of absence of horizon. I could see other people in the distance, too, presumably doing the same thing. That meant they could see me, too. It wasn't as if [Lightning Shock] was subtle. Oh well. I was far past hiding anything at this point.

  Besides, I'd just passed the second growth milestone. I had physical and magical Skills at the end of C-rank. I had silly high Stats for my level. I didn't want to say I'd survive a fight with Leo, let alone Sir Khris, but it was quite likely that out of everyone in Leo's bandit camp, there was no longer anyone other than Leo who could threaten me. I was, finally, getting to the point where I didn't need to hide. At least, not from the likes of Charles Klendy and his ilk. Triple digit level assassins were still a no-no, but for how much longer? By the next growth milestone, even the likes of the Fatal Breeze may not be overwhelming.

  It was with that thought that I reached the branch and crossed back to the real world, which was, of course, in pitch darkness. It was easy to forget, given the fixed sun in the Harpy's Aerie and my Constitution eliding my need for sleep, but I'd just done something like nineteen hours of monster killing. It was the small hours of the morning. Sensible people were in bed, sleeping.

  Those sensible people probably didn't appreciate it, then, when I dropped from the tree and a rather large magical bell loudly went ding.

  "Seriously?" I asked, recognising the large magic circle that encompassed the tree, me within it, causing something of a light show. "What did I pick up that's contraband?"

  There had been more skill crystals from the mobs' chests, but nothing I'd considered interesting.

  "A combat skill crystal?" suggested the guard, wandering over, while a couple of adventuring groups watched on with interest. No-one seemed surprised, though, so maybe this was a more common occurrence here than the last time I'd triggered it.

  "Nope. Just got regular occupational ones," I replied, taking out my skill crystal earnings for the run. "I was just going to sell them anyway, though, so if any of them are restricted for some reason, I'm not going to be bothered."

  The guard when through them one by one, poking them to check what they were.

  "... and [Carpentry]," he muttered, confused. "No, these are all fine. Are you sure this is all you found in there?"

  "Well, there was the boss chest, I guess," I said, taking out the harpy queen feathers. "But they're just feathers."

  The guard's jaw dropped open.

  "Just... feathers...?" muttered one of the nearby adventurers. What had been curiosity flowed smoothly into outright incredulity.

  "Uh... these aren't just feathers?" I guessed.

  The guard sighed. "Thankfully, my job doesn't entail describing to you what you've found. That's one gold a piece, for a total of three gold."

  Now it was my jaw's turn to drop open. "One gold each? Wow... I should run this dungeon a few more times."

  "Plenty of noble women would be very happy should you decide to," agreed the guard, taking my feathers in exchange for a rather obscene amount of currency.

  "I'll keep it on my list. But first, I have some goblins to kill."

  Somewhere in the heights of the dungeon-tree, an owl went hoot.

  "Actually, first I should sleep. Then kill some goblins."

  I was kinda looking forward to the goblins. All my new Skills had raised a rather interesting question: was it possible to kill something with lightning and still get assassination experience?

  I didn't see why not. Previous encounters had proven that I got assassination experience as long as my victim didn't see me coming, even if they knew in abstract terms that something was wrong, including if their fellows were killed. There had to be some limit to it, though, else I could sit in a tree and blast them one by one, and as long as none of them got a look at me, I'd get bonus experience for them all.

  I didn't know, and what better research subjects were there than goblins?

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