Jeff's progress was far slower than Zoe's. She had expected that, of course. She knew what kinds of feats she had available to her, she knew how potent Patient Decider could truly be for her progress. She knew the sheer power she had at her disposal, even without the endless well of mana that came with being a higher level.

  But Jeff didn't. He had some idea, at least. Zoe was the lone protector of Foizo, the Verdant Watcher. She was powerful, she was almost a mythical figure, a god like presence to people like him. Of course she would be better than him, of course she would level faster than him. That made sense.

  He just didn't get the right scale. At level four hundred, Jeff's power was noteworthy. But after stripping away all of his classes, all of his skill levels, all of his stats, he was no more than a stumbling teenager struggling their way through their first dungeon. His contribution was miniscule, and his mana nowhere near enough to sustain even that for a full fight.

  Back when Zoe was grinding out her Omniscient Beholder classes, their first kill in the dungeon had netted her seven levels. A reflection of her contribution. Without her, it wouldn't have even been possible. She let them see the guards, she kept them safe from the archers, she kept them in the air away from the close combat guards below.

  But for Jeff? Their first kill only got him a single level. And the second kill didn't even get him that. He just didn't have anything at his disposal worthy enough to reward so much experience. He wasn't necessary. Tom and Zoe would have been fine without him — in fact they would have been even better without him since they would have had less to worry about.

  Jeff dragged them down, and his progress reflected that. Even still, the sheer power the dungeon had meant that even such a tiny portion of the contribution going to him was still far more than they would get going to something like Moaning Point. Compared to other options they had, Latent Power was still one of the best choices available to them. In a mere day, he could get dozens of levels. Resetting his class cap almost every day, maybe every other day.

  And as time went on, they'd get better at the process. They'd optimize more, letting Jeff take more of the contribution. His progress would speed up, and anybody reasonable would be jealous of the opportunity he had.

  But none of that made the disappointment Jeff felt at the comparison to Zoe any less staggering, after those first few kills. It flooded from him, crushing Zoe's very soul. Raw, pure devastation. Disappointment in himself, disappointment in the dungeon, with hints of awe that crept throughout.

  The first few days were a challenge, because of that. Less a struggle against the dungeon, and more a struggle against Jeff's sanity. Much of their time even through the days was spent with Jeff outside the dungeon, helping him acknowledge the opportunity he had. Helping him accept the progress he could make.

  After the first week, Jeff began to calm down, and his normal excited self started to return. Progress picked up a lot, after that. Day after day, reset after reset. Jeff started thinking about the future, about his classes, about the power he could wield. He fantasized about being the Brown Watcher of Foizo one day — the name yet to be decided, according to Tom.

  He was working on a series of earth magic related classes, to try and combine them into his first class, Earth Wizard. A month into the journey, he reached his class cap at thirty four — the lowest it could be, and settled in to his next class.

  With new power at his disposal — and far more mana to spend, progress sped up again. His increased contribution far outweighing the increased penalty he got from having another class. Most days he got well over twenty levels, some even reaching past thirty.

  Zoe's levels shot up as well, with her enchantments and Earth skill handling most of the defense as Jeff pummelled the guards below. At level 126, she took Death's Master for a healthy chunk of mana, bringing her up to almost five million. With so much mana, the dungeon archer's stood little chance breaking through her defensive enchantments that far exceeded what her level should be capable of.

  Almost a month later, Jeff reached his next class cap at level sixty eight, and progress began to slow down again. His increased power not near enough to outweigh the massive experience penalty of having his fifth class. Every day, they were lucky to see him get a handful of levels. Five on a very good day.

  But, according to Jeff this would be the last one he needed to finish his goal so they wouldn't need to keep resetting over and over again, dozens of times. The weeks turned to months, as Jeff's level climbed ever so slowly up to 195 when he finally stagnated.

  Outside the dungeon, back in the somewhat repaired throne room Jeff had built so long ago, he sat himself on his glorious throne. And a moment later, collapsed to a flailing pile of flesh as the system's magic wreaked havoc through his body.

  Zoe watched as tendrils of earth climbed up his legs and arms, reaching around his neck and grasping at his ears. The whole process took minutes, covering Jeff in a detailed web of earth.

  And then Jeff went still. His breathing settled, his chest rising and falling in a comfortable, steady pattern. Tom let out a sigh of relief, and Zoe smiled.

  Several days later, Jeff woke, stumbling out of the chair to the floor too many feet below with a dull thud against the rocky surface.

  "Jeff?" Tom called out from one of the side rooms he'd been sleeping in.

  "Toom?" Jeff called back in a craggy, brittle voice. "Got any water?"

  Zoe teleported out to the central room from the one she'd been in, and summoned some water that Jeff swallowed down with fervor. "Good class?" She asked.

  Jeff nodded, pulses of mana surging through the tendrils of earth that clung to his body with every movement. "I think so. It's called Sinkhole's Authority. Lots of sinkhole stuff."

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  Zoe looked above his head at the text showing him as a mere level eight. Whatever he got merged into his first class, then.

  "So what's it do?" Zoe asked. "Any fun skills? What classes did you merge into it? How'd you get it?"

  Jeff smiled. "You've got your secrets, and I've got mine."

  Zoe shrugged. "Fair enough. At least publish a book on it one day, then. Want help testing your new skills, then?"

  Jeff shook his head. "I think Tom and I will be fine, but could you take us back to Foizo, at least?"

  Tom nodded. "A bit worried about him being down here at level eight."

  "Sure," Zoe said. Mana flooded out from her, covering the three and teleporting them far above to the skies, and then back towards Foizo. With the mana she had at her disposal now, it only took a few seconds before they were back outside the western gates of Foizo proper.

  "Thanks," Jeff bowed deeply to Zoe. "I really appreciate this."

  "It's fine," Zoe waved her hand aside. "I owed you for helping me, anyway. Feel free to contact me if you ever need help with something." Zoe said. "Or if you ever feel like sharing the details of your new class." She added.

  Jeff laughed. "Maybe one day. I think... I'd rather keep this one secret, for now." He tapped on his head. "Memories, and all."

  "Thanks, Zoe. Do you mind helping me loop one day?" Tom asked.

  Zoe shook her head. "No, not at all. I enjoy it usually, honestly. But next time you've gotta tell me what you get, and let me help you test your skills. That's the fun part. I'll let it go this time though, since technically I did owe you anyway. And I've got some stuff to work on, so maybe not for a few years at least."

  Tom chuckled. "Sure. It was nice seeing you again then Zoe. Good luck."

  "You too." Zoe smiled, and vanished. Moments later, she was back in a dark cave, eager to experiment with the last of her Beholder classes' skills.

  The first she chose to toy with was Omniscient Beholder's Elemental Manipulation. It was an odd skill, with the definition being so lax. A central component, with individual elemental definitions tagged on in an ever growing complex web of mana as more and more elements were added. Zoe already had several elements in her general skill Elemental Manipulation from her Seasoned Persistence's Elemental Manipulation, as well as Elemental Shaman's elements and a few others she'd found on her journey.

  Omniscient Beholder's Elemental Manipulation was similar, though the individual elements differed. Tying them in to her existing Elemental Manipulation was simple in theory — take the elemental definitions that she already had from stealing the base skills, and attach them to the existing Elemental definition she had.

  But in practice, it was quite a bit more complicated than that. How did all of the different elements tie in together? With the four Omniscient Beholder covered, it was simple. She could use the skill, see how they interweaved with each other, and copy that.

  The issue was that she didn't just want to replace her existing skill with these elements, she wanted one skill that had all the elements. Which seemed incredibly inefficient to Zoe, and as her Elemental skill continued to grow her theory was only proven to be true. Each new element she added, the skill grew more and more many hungry but never seemed to be any more powerful than just using the individual elements themselves.

  The main reason she liked stealing Elemental skills was she was something of a hoarder. It was just satisfying to have one skill that governed so many different elements. And maybe at one point, the system would ever reward her for being a greedy, gluttonous elemental beast.

  Each of the elements the skill governed was complicated, but Zoe already had an abundance of notes on how they all worked. She'd studied each of them in detail, and recreated their essences already. A few weeks of toying with the mana pattern, and the four new elements were added seamlessly to her general skill. Each one woven through the mass of mana so complicated Zoe doubted anybody who didn't design it would be able to understand it with any degree of ease.

  Then she turned her attention to the remaining skills. They were interesting, Zoe found. The mana patterns were a blend of each of the elements, with her body dragged along in subtle but important motions. Her eyes enhanced with the scrying skill through gentle woven threads through them, her body torn apart and repaired in place as she used Omniscient Displacement.

  Stealing them was a challenging, but fun process. Needing to focus on the magical effects at the same time as the slight physical effects they each had. Mana to focus her vision as well as another branch to bolster her physical sight. Tiny strings of mana that stretched out, barely perceptible to Zoe's sight that instructed her body on how to move, on how to help the skills along.

  Omniscient Beholder's Scrying being more powerful made sense, after she studied the skill. Arcane Beholder's scrying didn't use light or shadows or her body nearly as well. But Omniscient Beholder didn't have that same restriction. Every facet it could use pulled to full effect, letting her see distant sights.

  Each of the skills felt almost the same. A culmination of everything the core components were building up to. Nescience cut off mana, light, shadows and even raw sound waves with expert use of each of the core elements. Omniscient Flare bore down on enemies with the raw power of each of the elements. Powerful mana, Umbra, Starlight and sheer, brute force in a beautiful display of existential pressure.

  Each of the skills were beautiful to look at. So many conflicting elements woven together in a pattern, serving one purpose, together. The raw, primal rage of Umbra. The prideful serenity of Luminary. The control of the arcane and the battering power of her Corporal form.

  Zoe expected them to be complicated to steal. And maybe they would have been, had she not spent so long studying each of the core components. But she had, and they weren't. Each of the elements served a clear purpose, with clear definition and distinction between them.

  She still had to work through the obscuring mana the system covered everything with, but underneath that each of the skills was nothing short of perfection. Powerful elements put together in simple patterns that were more than the sum of their parts.

  Zoe watched them with awe, stealing them one by one, until she had just one skill left to steal. Her favourite, of all the skills she'd been granted. And by far the most complicated of the skills the class had to offer, by Zoe's sight.

  Beheld.

  A mass of mana, twisting, winding and surging around the object she forced the skill into. The mana was far more complicated than any of Omniscient Beholder's other skills, and came with an entirely new problem she had to deal with as she worked on it.

  She only had a brief moment to see it. An instant. Mere fractions of a microsecond. The instant she cast it, mana rushed out from her and her mind was ripped away to view the origin of whatever she used it on. If the mana was still present, rushing through her mind to show her the vision, then she had no way of seeing it at all.

  By the time she was back to reality, much of what she'd seen in that instant had been forgotten. Lost amid the ever changing memories the skill showed her. Even just using the skill was disorienting, but using it while trying to focus on exactly how the mana was used in the instant she used it was one of the most frustrating experiences she'd ever had.

  After several months of losing her mind, viewing a similar scene of some creature stitching two pieces of fabric together over and over and over again, Zoe gave up on the task. One day, Eliza would have the skill. And on that day, they could both study each other's skill.

  Zoe sighed and pulled out her todo list, crossing off Omniscient Beholder with a note to come back for Beheld, then looked through it for the next thing that interested her. She settled in on one scribble she'd made many hundreds of years earlier. It was about time she stole Enchanted Mirrors.

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