The moment Ruun's massive corpse hit the frozen earth, a cascade of system chimes filled Tony's ears, crisp and intoxicating.
[Congratulations on clearing the Ascension Dungeon: Rise of the Beastmen (Part I). Evaluation: S]
[Rewards Granted: Strength Crystals ×30, Agility Crystals ×30, Constitution Crystals ×30, Spirit Crystals ×30, Equipment – Bloodrage Battle Axe]
[First-Clear Bonus Achieved: Strength Crystals ×50, Agility Crystals ×50, Constitution Crystals ×50, Spirit Crystals ×50, Special Item – Wuhán Root Seedling, Skill – Blood of the Savage Bull, Title – Pioneer]
[Your rank has advanced to Tier One.]
[Innate Divinity has been enhanced: +3 additional skill slots unlocked.]
[New inherent skill awakened: Tier Suppression.]
One after another, the prompts rolled through his vision, yet Tony had no time to fully absorb them. Even with their chieftain slain, the remaining minotaurs didn't retreat. If anything, they went completely berserk, launching suicidal charges toward him.
Tony's eyes narrowed, and his grip on the bloodstained greatsword tightened. "Fine," he muttered under his breath, voice a low growl. "You want to die? I'll oblige."
What followed was nothing short of a massacre. The blade blurred in sweeping arcs, a storm of steel cutting through horn and bone alike. Strangely, the surviving minotaurs felt weaker now, sluggish and less ferocious under his strikes. Within minutes, the Bloodhoof encampment lay drenched in blood, its warriors reduced to lifeless heaps strewn across the snow.
Only Tony remained standing amidst the carnage, chest rising and falling steadily, breath misting in the frigid air. The system prompt flickered again, offering him the option to exit immediately or linger within the cleared dungeon. There was no cooldown now; he could leave whenever he wanted.
But Tony wasn't in a hurry. Slinging the crimson-soaked greatsword over his shoulder, he allowed himself a rare, satisfied breath. Now came the real reward—the spoils of victory.
The sheer generosity of an Ascension Dungeon's rewards was undeniable. Between standard completion loot and first-clear bonuses, he had amassed a staggering 320 attribute crystals across all four stats, not to mention equipment, skills, and special items.
His final evaluation was only S-rank. Not ideal, but not a loss either. If he had waited to stack his stats for four more hours and then entered, he might've crushed everything effortlessly and secured SSS-rank. But how could he have known the dungeon's true difficulty without testing it firsthand? How could he claim first-clear without taking that risk?
"No risk, no glory," Tony muttered, a faint smirk curling his lips. S-rank was plenty worth it—besides, the most critical prize, the first-clear title, was his.
Once his mind settled, he scrolled through the newly unlocked details, starting with his enhanced Innate Divinity.
[Talent: Innate Divinity (EX)]
Effect One – Immortal and Undying: Nothing can truly kill you. Upon death, you may choose to resurrect instantly at your location or a designated safe zone.
Effect Two – Breath Take Makes Me Stronger: Every breath you take enhances all attributes. The higher your rank, the greater the amplification.
Reading the description twice over, Tony confirmed nothing fundamental had changed. The enhancement only affected the second effect. Closing his eyes for a moment, he felt the difference immediately. Where once each minute of breathing raised his stats by 0.2 points, now it had jumped to 0.5 per minute—a staggering 2.5× increase.
Half a point a minute. Thirty points an hour. Seven hundred and twenty points a day.
He let out a sharp laugh. "And here I was worried about not getting SSS… who needs it when I've got this?" The attribute crystals he'd just earned suddenly felt like small change compared to his accelerating growth.
Next, his gaze landed on his newly awakened inherent skill:
[Tier Suppression]
Type: Passive, Inherent
Unlocked at Tier One. With every rank you surpass your opponent, you exert a 10% suppression across all aspects of their power attributes, skills, and combat efficacy. Suppression scales with rank difference.
Tony blinked, realization dawning. "So that's why those minotaurs suddenly felt like fodder." They were zero-tier creatures. Now that he had ascended to Tier One, his very existence exerted a natural dominance over them, weakening everything they did.
This changed everything. If a lower-tier being faced a higher-tier Awakened, raw stats wouldn't save them. No matter how high you stacked your numbers, if your tier lagged, you'd fight under suppression, possibly losing before even landing a blow. Ten tiers apart? You'd be a bug under a boot.
"This… this is why advancement matters more than brute force," he murmured, eyes narrowing with new understanding. "Never delay a breakthrough again. Ever."
The possibilities swirled in his head. Tier Suppression affected not just base attributes but even skills—unless those skills had higher innate quality, they'd falter under his presence. A terrifying advantage in duels.
Shaking off stray thoughts, Tony opened his next reward:
[Title: Pioneer]
A tribute to Awakened who dare to chart the unknown.
Effect: +3% to all attributes (true value, unaffected by suppression or external debuffs).
His heart skipped a beat. True attributes. Even if he faced an enemy ten tiers higher, that 3% would remain untouchable, immune to every form of suppression.
"What the hell…" His eyes widened, breath misting sharply. He'd underestimated titles before, but this? This was priceless. An unshakable fragment of his strength, immune to the universe's rules of suppression.
"This settles it," he vowed aloud. "Every Ascension Dungeon first clear from now on is mine. No exceptions."
He scrolled further down to the remaining rewards.
[Bloodrage Battle Axe] – Fine quality weapon, forged and handed down through the Bloodhoof Tribe for generations. Its scarred surface bore the weight of countless battles and bloodshed.
Tony snorted. "Figures Ruun's axe would drop. Shame I don't use axes." His sword mastery made the weapon practically useless to him, so he set it aside.
[Blood of the Savage Bull] – Passive skill.
Effect: Permanently enhances physique. +20 Strength, +10 Agility, +30 Constitution.
Tony grimaced. "Not bad for a rookie… but for me?" It felt underwhelming. Even if he maxed the skill to Level 10, the doubled effect wasn't worth much in his eyes—forty strength, twenty agility, sixty constitution? A nice boost for others, but peanuts compared to his growth rate.
He wouldn't sell it yet, though. His EX-tier talent could level skills effortlessly. If he could push this one beyond its supposed cap, maybe it would become worthwhile. If not, he'd trade it later.
Finally, he reached the special item. His breath caught as the details unfolded before his eyes.
[Wuhán Root Seedling – Special Item]
(A line of ancient script flickered faintly beneath the description, its meaning cryptic and powerful.)
Tony stared at it, stunned, a slow grin spreading across his bloodstained face. "Now this… this is something else."
Whatever this seedling was, it didn't just promise power—it promised mystery. And Tony had no intention of leaving mysteries unsolved.