DMS Chapter 143

It was around eleven in the evening when Flinx returned home with Mark, Merlo, Emil, and Oscar. The others were already there, gathered outside the five towers conjured by Flinx’s twenty fellow Earthlings.

They sat on comfortable chairs purchased from the System Shopping Site, while camping lights cast mellow glows across the area.

Flinx found their hangout area comfortable and relaxing, and he had to admit that his fellow Earthlings knew how to decorate the place.

From what he had overheard from the men discussing his adopted family, Olivia’s two brothers and the four children had wanted to stay and spend time with Flinx’s “countrymen,” but Olivia refused, insisting that the men needed privacy to discuss matters related to their homeland.

Samuel would have protested and allowed the children to join them, but some of the others were sensitive and mature enough not to interfere with how Olivia managed the family. Besides, the men had to admit that some of their discussions were not suitable for children.

Flinx agreed with Olivia. Given the mental state of his fellow Earthlings, they were still unfit to accompany others. Perhaps after enough time had passed, just like him, everyone would eventually be ready to live normally again—as normally as a group of traumatized people could.

That night’s discussion centered on the way Flinx fought the dungeon monsters on the thirty-fifth floor of the Dungeon of Mara. For context, Mark explained that without Flinx, the monsters on such a deep floor would have destroyed them within minutes. The only reason they had managed to fight at all was because Flinx’s summons tanked the monsters. The elementals were intelligent and aware enough that whenever the monsters’ attention shifted toward Mark and the others, the elementals would immediately attack more aggressively to draw the monsters’ focus back to themselves.

Mark also explained that even with Flinx’s elementals tanking for them, it still took the group twenty to thirty minutes to defeat ten dungeon monsters, whereas Flinx could wipe out the same group in seconds by bombarding them with spells.

“You all have to remember that even with my debuff, I’m already level sixteen because of my two Classes,” Flinx reminded everyone.

“I know that, but it’s still a little disheartening,” Merlo said quietly.

“It’s like we’re all playing a massive multiplayer online game. While we’re struggling to level up in the beginner zones, a high-level player suddenly appears and starts showing off his skills,” Samuel said belligerently, causing everyone to laugh.

“In truth, I received a massive advantage. I was already level seven when I got transferred to this world, so I never experienced the weakness that comes with being level three or four. I honestly thought that after all those years of killing dungeon monsters—even if they were the weakest monsters imaginable—you’d all be around level seven, eight, or nine by now,” Flinx said.

Everyone remembered their earlier discussion regarding the gate Flinx had used. Because of that, they persuaded him to return to the world of the Torbal Slavers the following day to check whether the gate was still in its original location. Thankfully, even while suffering from the debuff caused by using the Wish spell to escape the spatial lock arranged by the Torbal Slavers, Flinx could still cast the seventh-level Wizard spell, Phase Shift.

Everyone also believed that the original mine should still be safe since the last time Flinx had returned there, the place had been completely devoid of life.

The next day, everyone returned to delving the twelfth and thirteenth floors of the Dungeon of Mara, while Flinx prepared to return to the world of the wizard enslavers. Once everyone had left, Flinx wasted no time casting Phase Shift and traveling back to the enslavers’ world.

When he arrived at the cave where he had once slept as a dungeon miner slave, the place was pitch-black. The first thing Flinx did was cast all of his defensive spells. He did not want to feel vulnerable even for a few seconds.

He then cast the seventh-level spell, Crown of Stars, illuminating the cave with floating motes of light.

Next, Flinx used the fifth-level Wizard spell, Conjure Elemental, expending his strongest available spell slots to summon two wind elementals. He then bound them with the fifth-level spell, Planar Binding, before ordering them to scout the surrounding area for any signs of life.

He waited until the elementals returned and reported that no living creatures were nearby. The report comforted Flinx, since he was not in the mood for battle. He wanted to search the entire area as quickly as possible and return home immediately.

Thankfully, he still remembered the route leading to the rooms where the wizard had planned to experiment on him. As expected, when he entered the wizard’s chamber, he found nothing inside. The gate that had once stood there was gone.

Most likely, those religious fanatics who had attacked the Torbal Slavers had taken everything of value from the mine. Although Flinx hated them less than the Torbal Slavers themselves, he still found them distasteful because they had slaughtered every living creature in the mines, regardless of whether they were slavers or slaves. Instead of massacring the prisoners, they could have rescued them.

After finding nothing in the wizard’s chambers, Flinx decided to conduct a thorough search of the entire area. He ordered the elementals to continue searching as well. He could have used his owl familiar, Pip, but he had avoided summoning the owl ever since his eleventh spell slot had been locked. He did not want to witness his familiar reverting to its old, non-sentient state because of a weaker spell slot.

Flinx spent three hours searching and failed to find anything of value. After several more minutes, he finally gave up and returned to his tower in Ilioven.

Since it was not yet noon, he decided to spend the rest of the day delving into the fortieth floor of the dungeon. Using the seventh-level Wizard spell, Teleport, he traveled to the hidden alley near the entrance of the Dungeon of Mara. After arriving, he paid the entrance fee for the fortieth floor and began another dungeon-clearing spree.

After completing a single run, his Wizard experience points remained unchanged, but his Cleric Class progressed from level four with ten percent experience to eleven percent. A mere one percent increase for his secondary Class, but it was still progress.

He also earned twenty-three low-level mana stones, ten medium-level mana stones, and two high-level mana stones. After paying the required taxes, Flinx dumped all the mana stones into the System Shopping Site, increasing his funds to a staggering 188,000 dollars.

For a brief moment, Flinx paused and imagined all the things he could purchase with such an enormous amount of money.

For several minutes, he browsed countless items on the shopping site while standing motionless beside the Adventurer Guild kiosk near the dungeon entrance. He examined expandable prefab houses worth twenty to fifty thousand dollars and thought they looked impressive. In truth, however, he had little need for them since he could already cast spells such as Galder’s Tower.

Eventually, while browsing expensive massage chairs, he noticed people staring at him. Realizing how ridiculous he probably looked standing there like a statue, Flinx finally stopped wasting time on the shopping site and returned to his tower to continue his usual antics.