Inside the Dungeon, Swag stared over the body of the final boss with a sense of immense accomplishment.

{Challenge Completed: Random Reward Granted}

{Reward Pending} Select Option from the System Window to continue.

He smiled at Dana, who was standing beside him, silently sorting through her gains.

"I got it. The Divine Reward from the Gods! The System has given me a Challenge Reward." He declared.

"Oh, that is wonderful. But if you collect it here, and we walk out that portal, everyone is going to know that something extreme happened, and then they're going to want all the details about the possible rewards.

I, for one, would rather not reveal that information. But I suspect that it will not be optional if the Peak Immortals of the other Sects get their hands on us."

Swag gave her a double thumbs up. "I will wait to claim it. But how are we going to get out of here without answering questions? There are always questions, especially when something happens and we finish a super hard mode.

There is always some sign that it is happening, either a change in the portal or a regional announcement when we finish.

The others aren't going to ignore that."

"That's what we have Karl for. He should be able to portal us out."

One of the Lycans frowned. "You can't use portals in or out of a Dungeon."

Karl shrugged. "I can. Being the Avatar of the World Dragon, I can move between adjacent realms with portals. The Dungeon is adjacent to the Immortal World we are on, connected by a portal. So, I can just take us straight back to my apartment in the Clan compound."

"We should probably message our champion so he doesn't think that we died in the dungeon." The Lycan agreed, already smiling at the prospect of being able to hide the good stuff, and not have the truth dragged out of him by someone who could either read minds or cast a spell to prevent lying.

"Then away we go."

Karl opened the portal, and waited as everyone else passed through.

Remi and Cara were still finishing looting everything that looked valuable or edible within the dungeon, though there wasn't much for plant life. But even a few rare plants were better than zero rare plants, and Remi didn't know what might be useful later.

What the tiny Naga Matriarch couldn't know was that the strange red weeds she collected were actually Fire Lotuses, which grew in the rubble of Immortal Plane Wrath Demon cities. An immature form of the rare Immortal Rank resource, overlooked by everyone else because they didn't yet give off the aura of a powerful magical plant.

What Remi did know was that they had flower buds, and she did not have any of them in her collection.

That meant she needed them.

Cara, on the other hand, was collecting shiny stones, broken weapons and anything else that would go well with her treasure hoard. It didn't have to be valuable, it just had to look the part when she piled it with her other treasures. With that finished, they left the dungeon behind, and joined the others in the apartment.

"Now, before we go all in on the loot sorting, I think that we all want to see what Swag got as a System Reward. Is the bonus stated? Or is it random?" Karl asked.

"Random. But I know it's going to be good. I have a feeling"

Those were dangerous words when the System was involved. Random meant "random" and not always "good".

"Alright, going for it."

Swag's eyes went vague as he immersed himself in the random reward interface, and everyone waited impatiently for the outcome.

Then, Swag's power level began to soar, and the whole group exchanged shocked looks.

"No way. There is no way that this is actually happening. Do you know how insufferable he's going to be if his strategy actually worked?" Min asked.

"No, he's not going to make it to Supreme. His growth rate is already fading. I think he's going to stop at the entry to Awakened Immortal." Khalid, their forest dragon Druid healer, decided.

But that was not all that was happening.

Swag's name plate was changing, shifting from the dull brown of a basic

warrior to the pale tan colour that marked a Paladin.

Then, his entire name changed. For a second, it said James Monroe. Then, it immediately changed back to Divine_Sw@Gg0d_2.

"So, that's what his name used to be. Oh, it's going to be so fun to see if he remembers it. Most of the transfers from his world forget after a decade or

two." Min joked.

Swag opened his eyes with a triumphant smirk.

"See, I told you that it was going to be amazing! I am almighty, I am the

favoured son of the gods! I am..."

"An Ascended Immortal. Looks like you set your expectations a bit high on the divine favour scale, James." Min joked.

"Wait, how do you know that name? Every time I try to speak it out loud, the System stops me." He asked.

"James Monroe, who fancies himself as the Divine Swag God, returned. That's why you put it with the number two at the end, right?" Min asked.

Swag mumbled an answer, and the green dragon smirked at him.

"What was that? Speak up so we can hear you.

"Divine_Sw@Gg0d was taken. And so were the normal spellings. It's not my fault, I thought I was making a game character, not getting reborn into a new

world."

The group members laughed as they patted him on the back and congratulated

him.

"Well, your plan wasn't a total failure. Now you just need to train your way through the Ascended Ranks, and you can reach Supreme." The leader of the Lycans' group consoled him.

"You're right. I'm like three quarters of the way to Supreme. Now, it's just the

easy part."

That was optimistic. The Ascended Rank was where things actually got difficult, as you were no longer trying to establish your foundation as an Immortal, and had to build your power to move beyond Immortality.