The moment Jack stepped into the ankle deep water pool, the naga instantly stirred, like a spider sensing a prey touching it's web. It rose up to its full height, towering over Jack even from the distance between them, estimated at about two and a half, to three meters give or take, plus the same length of tail stretching behind it to balance it out. Large, bulging muscles flexed as it gripped its halberd, whirling it a couple of times, creating a barely perceptible breeze of wind in Jack's direction.

  'Similar in strength, though the additional mass will give him advantage on overhead swings. The tail is long and seems agile enough as well, have to care for when he will use it to deliver a well timed strike to either try and take me out entirely or do disrupt my balance to deliver the decisive strike with that halberd. Note to self, do not damage the weapon too much, that one looks at least of a rare grade.' Jack analyzed the situation as the naga slowly approached him, its movement slow and deliberate, doing its very best to appear even stronger than it already was, indicating that the monster had lived long enough and developed quite a few wise tactics to tip the favour even more in its favour than things normally would be.

  The stand off, or rather the Jack's standoff and nagas slow approach ended when the monster was on a few meters away, the naga immediately lunging forward, swinging the halberd in a horizontal slash, employing both its strength and inertia to deliver a much more potent blow to the opponent, though unfortunately for the creature, Jack had already expected a similar outcome, with the speed and reaction of a cat he avoided the strike entirely, crouching his body under the strike, at the same time performing a stabbing motion with his own spear, creating a small wound as he delivered a precise strike to nagas armored abdomen.

  "Roarrrr!" naga roared at him a moment later, less so in pain and more from the sheer rage it felt at its prey for even having the audacity to attempt to harm it, let alone actually succeeding. it then lunged once again, though this time with added caution as though expecting a similar attack coming. Much to its surprise, Jack took this strike head on, or so it seemed initially, sparks flying as the blades touched for the briefest of moments, only to be guided by Jack away as he redirected the entire thing, utilizing the new, improved momentum of naga to deliver yet another powerful strike to its abdomen, once again striking the previously created wound, earning a growl of pain from the naga, clearly his precision was not appreciated by the monster.

  As expected, the next attack seemed overly brash and seemingly rage induced, the naga apparently discarding all caution and reason to deliver a truly savage and debilitating strike, though at the same time quite telegraphed and just a bit slow, creating a rather obvious path to avoid it and place oneself in the perfect place for just as devastating of a counter. An opening far too good to be true, though Jack did not ignore it entirely. He dodged as the incoming attacks opening 'suggested' he should, though instead of stabbing towards the main body of the naga once in the position, he started his swing already as he slipped past the strike, just barely avoiding the incoming tail bash precisely where he was supposed to appear, leaving the obvious feint and the quick response right after a dud. More than just a dud either, as his own, already in motion strike landed precisely, creating a deep gash in nagas tail, this time earning a shriek of pain from the monster that would have called upon any other monsters around. Unluckily for the naga, the cave system was empty by now, courtesy of Jack, allowing the cry to resound far and wide, though the only ones to hear it were both already at the very center of the commotion.

  Jack did not waste the opportunity his retaliation provided, following up his previous strike with a few more, wounding nagas arms in the process, causing blood to seep out not only from the large wound on its tail but also in the arms and while the blood loss would take quite some time still to start showing effect, the wounded arms meant that the attacks were weaker and slower as well and combined with the heavily damaged tail, Jack could also mostly disregard that aspect of nagas skill set. To further drive the final nail in the coffin, he willed two of his unassigned attribute points into strength, bringing his total to thirteen, allowing him to fully block the incoming strikes, redirecting them right afterwards and then utilizing the momentary opening to deliver his own slashing attack, adding yet another gushing wound that increased the amount of blood naga lost each second.

  Eventually, another six minutes of similar, ever slowing down exchanges, the naga slumped down, its vitality having finally run out as it drew the last of its breaths.

  "Huuuh." Jack exhaled, exhausted as well "Fuck nagas and their insane vitality. Good riddance!" he spat as he drove his spear in the head of naga, ensuring its demise and falling on his ass a few steps away from the corpse, just moments later with arms wide to the sides he fell on his back as well, eyes seemingly locked on the caves ceiling, though in actuality paying attention to the new notifications from the system.

  Dungeon boss slain. Instance locked until the core is destroyed and rewards claimed.

  Achievement earned: The brilliant rookie- being talented is only brings one half the way, the rest must be achieved with hard work and determination. Took on the dungeon of the trial zone. Strength +1, Vitality +1.

  Achievement earned: The insane Solo- Some people are adrenaline junkies, some are unlucky and some are just batshit crazy. Congratulations, you have been acknowledged as the latter, though it is not all bad. To do and live to tell the tale is a feat in and of itself. Achieved for soloing the trial dungeon as a classless initiate. Strength +2, Vitality +2, Dexterity +2.

  Level earned. Current level- 6. Class selection available.

  "A good harvest." Jack chuckled, thoroughly exhausted, but the freshly acquired additional vitality points already doing their job, alleviating the exhaustion on his body. "Still, there was no naga the last time around and where the hell is my sweet sweet portal to the abyss?" He was confused, quite a large part of his second 'playthrough' depended on the availability of the abyss where he would grind both levels and materials for whatever crafting class he picked. And he was also counting on the rewards for the first major stage completion. As his thought process reached that point though, he went dead still, his memory bringing up two relevant snippets of knowledge regarding his current problem.

  "Of fucking course!" he exclaimed as he laughed, working over the first realization. 'One abyss per plane, period. And since I already cleared this planes abyss, even if in different timeline there of course would not be another entrance. That also explains why the naga was here. It's place was not taken over by the portal to the abyss. Shit, talk about scatterbrained. Change of plans then.' he though rapidly, still laying on the ground, recovering from the long fight he had just had, mulling over the second revelation as he did.

  'Some fucking legend actually did it.' he laughed in his head, remembering his last wish upon completing the abyss. 'If anyone from the summoned heroes reaches that games end and decides to roll back time to fix everything that went wrong, I want to be brought back as well, aware and everything to get a second go with whatever knowledge I had gained until the time of reversal.' That was his wish at the end of the abyss while he was on his high for reaching the end. It had seemed like an absolute waste of a wish once he had calmed down, but now? Now he was fucking ecstatic about it twice over, patting himself on the shoulder and praising both himself and the dude who made it all possible. There was simply no way a woman would be as batshit crazy to be like- I can fix all this shit the second time around. Hold my beer. Nope, that had to be a dude.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  "Hmm, should I adjust my plans?" he mused a short while later as he slowly rose to his feet, shuffling back over to nagas corpse, taking the nice looking coral halberd and using it as an extra balance walked over to a small and quite beautiful altar that the naga had obscured with its body, a slightly glowing, fist sized object floating just above it. He raised his new weapon and swung it, cleanly cutting the glowing object in half, a system notification informing him of his success and a chest spawning on the altar.

  Dungeon complete. Free stat point awarded. Calculating contribution.... Contribution- 100%. three free attributes awarded.

  As far as he knew, each participating member earned one free attribute for clearing a dungeon, so long it was not low leveled, meaning ten or more levels below the participants own. Additionally, three highest contributors also received an attribute each, ensuring no high levels would chase after low level dungeons, and those that assisted low level noobs earning their attributes for participating would earn a single attribute for being among the top three contributors. However, since Jack was the sole participant, as well as within the level range, he naturally earned the reward for it all, the participation, as well as three attributes for attaining 100% contribution score. It was important to note that there would be no attribute rewards for contribution if there were no participants who were eligible for participation attribute rewards, meaning yet another reason high levels would not solo low level dungeons. The drops and monster bodies would also be far too weak of a rewards for such guys. The question then arises, would the high level guys not bring in a single guy eligible for the clear reward and solo it then, but that too does not work. The moment there are more than one person inside, the contribution gets distributed with one point per person, meaning the third point gets wasted, and no clan or group would be willing to just let free attributes to go to waste, only real fools would waste a chance to help one of their own grow stronger since stronger group meant higher tier dungeons could be cleared, meaning higher chance for the ever elusive elixir and other valuable drops.

  "Right, forgot." he shook his head and looked at the halberd in his hand, a small system description appearing. He could see a similar one when he focused on his own splitting spear as well, though without special analyze skills one could not do so with items not belonging to them.

  Splitting spear(common)- simple yet sturdy spear provided by the angelic race to the initiates passing the tutorial. It will hold its own against anything the tutorial will throw at you.

  Elite coral halberd (rare)- crafted by naga artisans and handed to promising warriors who have a chance to reach royal guard ranks. Strength +1 while equipped.

  A person could equip up to two weapons and a bow, provided the two weapons were one handed, or a two handed weapon and another, smaller one handed one. In the case of choosing a two handed melee weapon, one sacrificed their range by a lot, though there were some one handed options available at higher ranks that resembled guns, though those weapons had a single shot and they recharged relatively slowly. For pure ranged combat enthusiasts the choice was between bow or a crossbow of a few different kinds with some small melee weapon for emergencies when the enemy gets too close.

  "Nice." Jack smiled and equipped the haberd, the weapon appearing on his back in its sheathed state, though seemingly smaller than it actually was. With but a thought Jack could draw it, the weapon extending to its original size. "Lets see what else we have earned here." he chuckled as he moved over to the chest that had appeared after he destroyed the dungeon core, opening its lid slowly.

  "Tsk." he clicked his tongue as he noticed a small pouch, clearly filled with gold and gems, two dozen potions sparking with red or blue colour, a dozen of each, clearly health and mana recovery, and a single tome. he collected the potions, stashing them away in his spatial storage and took the book in his hand, system notification popping up the moment he did.

  Class tome- hydromage acquired. Would you like to use it?

  He rejected the prompt, stashing the book away in his space storage as well.

  "Well, time to get to the juicy part." he mused as a small circle of runes formed close by that would take him out of the dungeon once he stepped on it, he was informed by the system since it was supposedly his first time inside a dungeon. Jack ignored the exit for the time being, more focused on the one thing that would shape quite a bit of the things he could do going forward. Obviously, he was about to choose a class he would go with. Important to note that it was quite the expensive process to change classes once one was chosen, the choice being either a class book of a higher rarity or an extremely expensive ritual to remove the currently held class, or, in insanely rare cases and lucky cases, a grimoire giving one the skill of dual class, allowing for another class to be earned.

  What Jack knew however was another way, though it had even harsher requirements than the previous three, unless of course you had all the relevant information at hand. Class fusions. Some classes could be fused with others, creating a new, superior variant of a higher grade and with boons from both that were used in the fusion. Still, he had to first figure out what he would pick as the base, no doubt his choices would differ from what he had available the first time around. Not only were his physical stats leagues above what he had the first time around, his Spirit was through the roof as well. One had to note that spirit was a rather ethereals stat was was nigh impossible to strengthen, his own only changing when he stepped in the realm of half divines in the future that would never come to pass now.

  "Alrighty then, show daddy what we are working with here." he chuckled and prompted the the class selection and, true to his suspicions, a wall of text, a list more like, expanded before his eyes, countless different class names listed one after another. Indeed, unlike the first time around where he only had the choice from the base four classes- warrior, archer, mage, priest, and their advanced, abyss variants, now he had a list so long before him, he could probably spend days going through it all and still being stuck. Luckily, the system was a friend in this regard, and so, he mentally commanded the system.

  'Filter out all common, uncommon, and rare classes, as well as non crafting classes.' With the command issued, the list shrunk considerably, though. it was still quite large. Only the classes of epic, heroic and legendary rarity remained and all of them were related to crafting in some manner or another.

  'Filter out non fusion variants as well.' he issued another command, the list shrinking even more, now remaining at about two pages.

  "Wait a second!" he exclaimed, remembering something he had talked about with one of the other ascendants once he was bored in the higher plane in the future that would never be.

  'Clear the filters and search for class Aspect of polarity.' he commanded once again, and indeed, a single class appeared on the screen.

  Aspect of polarity(??)- a class that embodies a chosen 'value' and the polar opposite of it, forming skills around said value and its opposite.

  A shit eating grin formed on his face, for no other reason than his unique suitability for it given what he had become in his previous go around. 'Choose Aspect of polarity.'

  Confirming choice. Confirmed. Select the value.

  A screen with empty box appeared before his eyes, and with the same shit eating grin, he chose his path.

  'Destruction.'

  Value confirmed. 'Destruction' chosen. Aspect of polarity taking shape.........

  A minute or so later, Jack could feel the fundamental changes taking shape in his existence as the class settled in, shortly followed by a number of system prompts, each and every one eliciting unrestrained laughter of a true and tested madman, having achieved one his his many, many insane masterplans.

  Aspect shaping complete. Class defined -Twin aspect of Creation and Destruction(EX).

  Formulating class specific skills........

  Completed...

  'Growth from creation' acquired

  'Lesson in destruction acquired'

  Growth from creation and Lesson in destruction merged. 'Wisdom of Creation and destruction(EX)' acquired.

  'Choice of the creator(EX)' acquired

  'Eyes of procurer(EX)' acquired.

  'Matter storage(EX)' acquired.

  "Boy, oh boy, oh boy." Jack smacked his lips in unrestrained glee once his laughing fit had finally stopped. He knew his ascension as the 'Aspect of destruction' would bring quite the numerous benefits were he to choose aspect of polarity as his class the moment he remembered talking with that old madman about it, but for it to reach Ex class? That he did not anticipate, and good thing he did not, otherwise he might have gotten just too damn excited about the possibilities and gotten himself killed somewhere along the way while he was off in the La-la land daydreaming about said possibilities. This was going to be fun even without the abyss, Jack came to a quick realization.

  Jack Raja(?)

  Age- 27

  Species- human(?)

  Level- 6

  Class- Twin aspect of Creation and Destruction(EX)

  Stats unassigned: +8

  Attributes:

  Strength- 9+7+1

  Vitality- 7+7

  Dexterity- 5+6

  Intelligence-7

  Spirit- 20

  Skills- Wisdom of Creation and destruction(EX), Choice of the creator(EX), Eyes of procurer(EX), Matter storage(EX)

  Spells- temporary spatial storage (shrinking)

  Titles(unlocked): The real Monster, Big Game Hunter, The brilliant rookie, The insane Solo.