Jack's POV

  We ran.

  If Jensen could break through the floor opening once. I hoped he could do it again. But we had a goblin nest to clear and a quest to complete. Moreover, Jensen wanted me to fight the floor boss on this floor as well.

  "You sure about this?" I asked him while he ran a few feet ahead of me. "We should be going down instead of thinking about the quest," I said, at the top of my lungs.

  "How much more experience do you need to reach level ten?" he asked, ignoring me.

  The interface popped up right in front of me.

  Ping!

  Current xp: 7,585xp

  Xp required to reach next level: 415xp

  Cumulative xp required to reach level ten: 8,000xp.

  "Shouldn’t you be much closer than that?" asked Jensen, still maintaining the lead.

  "Ask the System," I said, "It's giving lower xp than the previous floor because I have reached level nine, and it is deducting half of it as I'm the lord of the dungeon."

  "Fuck!" Cursed out Jensen while we raced toward the floor boss first.

  "We have time," I said, trying to reason with him. "By the time that other lord of the dungeon shows up, I will reach level ten," I said.

  "Did your parents never teach you not to talk to strangers?" he asked me.

  "I sold stuff to the strangers for extra cash," I said. "You think they were buying those weeds for the healing properties?" I asked out. "And those cookies of Mrs.Tuma among other things she makes with those herbal weed sold like crazy for a reason…"

  "Ah, great," he said. "I'm stuck with the drug lord of the dungeon…"

  "Ya, right," I yelled out while we kept running. "I sold them to you too…" I said. "And I remember you buying my whole stock."

  He halted in his tracks without a second thought, and I almost crashed into him. But at the last moment, I pivoted on my toe.

  After having fought hundreds of goblins nonstop. This was the only positive growth I had noticed in me. It was as if my body had learned to be quick on its feet to avoid being inflicted with slashing or stabbing pain.

  "Hey, what’s the big idea?" I stepped out from behind Jensen to stand next to him, and what I saw blocking our path ahead made me want to step back.

  Four five feet tall goblins armed with clubs and swords stood blocking our path. They weren't buffed like the floor three's boss. But they had that sharp look about them. Like they could strategize and mix combos like him.

  "I think those floor boss's bodyguards should fetch you fifty xp each," said Jensen.

  "You must be out of your mind if you think the System would give me that much."

  "Ask the system that you want to negotiate a self imposed restriction," said Jensen, while those four goblins held their weapons by reaffirming their grip on them.

  "System," I said, under my breath.

  Ping!

  "Nice try. But nope!"

  You have no skill or have a level appropriate enough to have any meaningful restriction!

  P.S Do not listen to the mad mage. He is called a mad mage for a reason…

  "Hey," said Jensen, taking offence to the prompt of my interface. But then he paused for a moment. "How about a new restriction with me in the picture?" he asked out to the System while goblins growled and salivated in our presence some twenty feet away.

  Ping!

  "Nice try. But nope! Part 2"

  You are already under the most amount of restrictions the System can place on you. Anymore, and we would have to declare you dead.

  That prompt made me look at Jensen on my left. He had said he was a liar. So I could only wonder in that moment if he had put a lot more at stake than he had shared with me originally.

  "If they land even a single hit on me," said Jensen, while having his eyes on the copy of my interface in front of him. "I will wager five of my levels." He grinned.

  Ping!

  "Were you never loved as a child?"

  Well, I know you weren't.

  The System recognizes your crazy, and is willing to up the stakes.

  Challenge: Kill them all, and claim your prized xp, you mad mage.

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  System Restriction: Can use only one skill during this trial!

  Self Imposed Restriction Negotiated: Get hit once, and lose five levels!

  Accept?

  Yes/No

  That same moment, a loud rumble made itself known, and the four goblin bodyguards stood aside as the floor boss showed up from the tunnel behind them. A six feet tall goblin, with a four foot long club. This one was much more muscular than the other floor boss and had a crazed look about him.

  As per the map, he was supposed to be in his own boss room. A couple of hundred feet ahead, in a similar dome shaped room like the floor boss above. But now he had not just stepped out. He was surrounded by four more goblins.

  "Jensen…" I said, under my breath, while those goblins eyed us hungrily. I was sure that the only reason they weren't attacking us just yet was because of the System. "This is stupid," I said to him. "I know firsthand just how difficult it is to level up despite being a level nine." I tried to talk sense into him. "You are on a much higher level than I," I said. "If you lose five levels. It will take you forever to gain—"

  "Counter condition," said Jensen. "All the experience goes to Jack from this trial," he said.

  Ping!

  The system recognizes your crazy, and is willing to up the stakes.

  Challenge: Kill them all, and claim your prized xp, you mad mage.

  System Restriction 1: Can use only one skill during this trial!

  System Restriction 2: The skill should be non combat in nature!

  Self Imposed Restriction Negotiated: Get hit once, and lose five levels!

  Additional Condition: All the xp goes to Jack!

  Note: Bonus reward will be awarded based on the fashion in which the challenge is completed!

  Accept?

  Yes/No

  "Jensen," I called out in warning. Knowing him, the bonus reward line would have triggered some scheme on how he could handicap himself even more.

  Was he truly never loved as a child? I asked myself.

  "Yes," he said, with the grin of a madman.

  I didn't even have a moment to react, as all four of those body guards ran at us with their spit flying everywhere. I braced myself for their attack. But Jensen picked me up like I was some little lost goblin baby, and threw me over those four bodyguard goblins and straight at the floor boss.

  Before I knew what was happening. I was already at the feet of the six feet giant of a goblin, and staring at his balls from underneath the cloth he had tied on its waist.

  I screamed in a high pitch tone like I had never screamed before. And despite the predicament we were in. With Jensen's five levels being at stake, a lord of the dungeon chasing us down, and a six feet goblin floor boss, and his bodyguards attacking us.

  Jensen found the situation amusing enough that his laugh rang in that place.

  I was about to yell at him to stop. But that goblin raised its leg, giving me a better view of its family jewels. And I not only rolled out of that place but also put everything I had in my legs to jump out of that goblin's reach.

  Despite being a level lower than me, and much larger. That floor boss was so quick on its feet that even before I could gather my thoughts, and think of attacking it. It had me on the back foot while swinging its club. I ducked and rolled again, armed with nothing but the dagger.

  But this floor boss, unlike the previous one, had much more reach given its long arms. The more I dodged the faster it tried to move, and I knew I couldn't drag this fight on like the way I did with the previous floor boss. I had to end him and go help out Jensen.

  Jensen knew that fact too, as he used his non combat spell and buffed me up. Not once, not twice, but five whole times. I knew I was in one hell of a crash the moment the buffs wear off on me. But I wasn't going to waste the chance that Jensen had given me.

  As I had said already, I knew the goblin's fighting style like the back of my hand. So while I side stepped, rolled, and did what I could to not get hit. I pulled him into a false sense of security that I was on the defensive. It took but all thirty seconds for him to let his guard down, and that's when I moved in boosted by the buffs.

  My dagger went straight through its throat, and as it stumbled back. I let go of the dagger just to jump and kick that dagger even deeper into him with my feet. I knew it wouldn't be enough. So I charged, and instead of kicking its feet like I did with the previous floor boss. I chose to body slam it instead and tackled it to the floor before it could use its rage skill. Then yanked the dagger, and went all stabby on him before it could gather its bearings.

  "Die… Die… Die…" I yelled, as I stabbed, stabbed, and stabbed. Its green blood gushed out, covering me in it, but I didn't stop. I had to end it before it could use rage.

  Before I knew it, I had stepped into a dark room inside my head. This one was different. I felt pain in here, and it was filled with voices that wanted me to die. And I was all alone in there. All alone with just my dagger while the hands from the walls and ceiling tried to grab a hold of me. But I couldn't stop. Because if I did. Then the thing that I was trying to kill. Would kill me instead.

  "Oi," came Jensen's voice from behind my back. "Oi, that's enough…" he yelled at me.

  But I couldn't stop. I would just yank the dagger out and plunge it back down into that goblin's skin. For a moment, I knew I had gone too far. That the floor boss was already dead after the first few strikes. The prompt that was displayed in front of me was the proof of that. It said that it was a critical strike. But I couldn't. I couldn't stop.

  "Jack…" he called out. His voice reached me in that dark space. "I need your help…"

  Those words. Those four words snapped me out of that place, and my hand stopped mid stab. I didn't let my mind take over my actions again and used that single moment of clarity to gain control over my body. Getting on my feet, I stumbled back a few steps with the dagger in my hand. My mind numb, and my heart beating like a drum in my ears.

  And there was this smile on my face.

  A smile that wasn't my own.

  What the hell is wrong with me? I placed a hand on my face. Why can't I stop smiling? I asked myself.

  "Jack…" came Jensen's voice again, and I turned to find him standing with his hand held out towards me. "It's okay…" he said, like he was trying to calm a wild goblin. "The floor boss is dead, we have got the xp, and I didn't lose my levels either." He licked his dried lips. "We won," he said. "You can stop now…" He nodded at me.

  I blinked at him and then looked at myself, covered in all that gore and filth. I wanted to look at the floor boss. But Jensen was in front of me in a heartbeat, and held me to his chest. Not allowing me to see what I had done to it.

  "It's over," he said, holding me tight.

  I dropped the dagger and waited for my heart to calm down.

  "It happened again, didn't it?" I asked him while he held onto me.

  "It was the buff," he said.

  "The rage one?" I asked.

  "It's my fault," he said, instead of answering me. "I shouldn't have made that wager with the System." He held me for a long moment, until the dungeon reclaimed the bodies. Once that body was gone. He stepped back and said, "Check the System notification."

  Ping!

  "Would you look at that…"

  System Trial Ended!

  You took down the floor boss on your own without using a skill, and such a feat is bound to be rewarded.

  Bonus Reward: The dungeon creatures will no longer spawn around you or attack you unless provoked!

  I didn't have it in me to read the entirety of it. But from the gist that I could gather. I was awarded forty xp for each goblin bodyguard instead of fifty, and about two hundred and forty xp for the floor boss. I was still short of fifteen xp from leveling up. But as the fatigue set in.

  I couldn't care about it.

  I just fell face forward.

  *****