The light suddenly disappeared and I wondered if I was in the void again. After a few seconds, I realized that I wasn't, because I could see a faint red light.
A few more seconds after that, I realized what I was seeing and I opened my eyes. The red light was the light of a light bulb shining through my eyelids.
I looked around the room and saw that I was laying on a bed in a small room that was painted a beige color, with white trim going around the ceiling and around the frame of the doors. The room itself was sparsely decorated, without any pictures or anything to draw the eye, the space looked bare. The only thing breaking up the walls were the two doors set into different walls. I sat up slowly and took my time getting adjusted. I brought my hands up and flexed my fingers a few times and looked down and wiggled my feet.
In the void I had always assumed that I had had a body, but now I realized that I never did. The feelings of actually moving my appendages, the feeling of the bed under me, the light on my skin, the breath in my lungs, even the sound of the ceiling fan told me that I was fully alive again.
[Welcome to the Tutorial!]
[New Quest!]
The first step:
Finish the tutorial
Rewards: One random common Class appropriate item, 3 Int, 2 wis, Observe skill
Failure: none
1) Navigate your menus.
2) Complete a dungeon.
3) Equip a new item.
I blinked and quickly scanned through the boxes. The sight of the game screens had brought me back to the present. I now had my first quest! And not a bad one at that. If I remember right, those bonus stats are the equivalent of a free level up. And just for completing the tutorial? I'll take free points, loot, and a skill any day.
I did as I was told and thought the word menu, and a screen bigger than the usual ones popped up. At the top of the screen were six tabs. Status, skills, inventory, equipment, map, and settings.
Just thinking about switching screens did just that, which was good. I wouldn't have to worry about talking to or pushing screens in public. I started on the status screen.
Alex Morgan
Age: 12
Class: Mage (inactive)
Level: 1 Exp: 0%
Reaper level: 0 Exp: 0%
Health: 50
Mana: 100
Str: 5
End: 5
Dex: 5
Int: 5
Wis: 5
Chr: 5
Lck: 5
Alex Morgan is the demigod son of Thomas Morgan and Hecate, the goddess of magic. Due to his mother's love for him, she lingered around after his birth to help raise him, but this brought unwanted attention. Her godly power drew monsters from all over and Thomas was unfortunately killed. Seeing that she had brought this on to her family, she took Alex to an orphanage and set up an account to send him to Yancy when he came of age. He is currently about to turn thirteen.
Okay so the stats aren't bad for a level one character, pretty basic stuff really. Passed that though, the big words that caught my eye were demigod, and goddess of magic. That not a joke right?
Nope.
Oh. All of a sudden my feelings of bewilderment became more subdued, like a shade over a light bulb. I could still feel the emotions, but it's like they took a back seat and I could focus on driving again.
Well I do have a gamer system, maybe it's because of one of those perks? I flicked over to my skills tab with a thought.
Reapers constitution:
Passive – (?) gains strength from you defeating other beings. When you defeat them, (?) takes a piece of their soul or energy, and converts it into their own power. Beings that are able to respawn after you defeat them will find their strength reduced slightly because of this effect.
Gamers body:
Passive - Allows the users body to function as if it were in a video game.
Gamers mind:
Passive - Allows the user to remain calm in battle and in day to day situations, and prevents the users mind from being manipulated by outside effects.
Son of Hecate:
Passive: Your mana capacity and regeneration is increased, and magic classes and skills you have level up slightly faster.
Okay so it was definitely because of the gamers mind perk. Suddenly I could only feel relieved that the perk only made it easier to control my emotions, instead of sterilizing them completely. While I came to terms with the fact that I was now a demigod, I continued onto the reaper constitution perk.
The question marks made sense after I realized that they were only there because the reaper hadn't decided on a name yet. Speaking of, it had been strangely silent. I closed my eyes and mentally probed around my brain, looking for my stow away. I frowned when I didn't find my newest friend, so I relaxed back down into the bed and searched deeper.
After so long in the void, and now finally having a physical body again, I believe I knew the difference between my soul and my body and so I used that knowledge to look for it.
In my past life, I had never tried meditation because I felt I didn't have the time for it. However, spending forever looking at nothing really helps you find an inner peace. It's either that or go crazy, anyway.
I didn't know exactly how much time had passed, but after awhile I found what I was looking for, along with something interesting. I found my soul, along with my passenger, but my passenger seemed to be deeply asleep.
In my mind's eye, I was standing at the edge of a pool of water that glowed with a faint green glow. The pool was decently big, and it was surrounded by black sand that reflected the pools light. Floating directly in the middle of the water was the form of the reaper, still shifting but at a much slower pace.
I tried to wake the reaper up but it didn't even budge, so maybe the trip or the spell exhausted it. Also, my status screen said something about my reaper level being zero? Maybe I need to start collecting some exp to level it up, maybe it'll wake up then.
I looked away from the being that was floating in my souls manifestation and turned my attention to what could only be my mana. I didn't see it manifested as a physical object or anything like that, but I felt it. I felt it thudding and pulsing through my body like a river, I just didn't know it was there until I tuned everything out.
I opened my eyes and found myself back in my tiny room. I blinked my eyes a few times to get adjusted to the light and turned my attention back to my menu.
The next tab was my inventory, which showed a row after row of empty boxes. I could already see myself becoming the stereotypical hoarder that gamers usually were.
The next tab was my equipment and that just showed a 2D version of myself equipped with what I was wearing. This was also the first time I had seen my new body. The stat page had said I was twelve, and I had to say I looked it. My hair was black, and somewhere between unkempt and shaggy. My face still had some of the roundness that most children had, and my eyes were mossy green.
As for what I was wearing, it just a simple set of light blue pajamas which my equipment screen helpfully told me offered no beneficial stat increases or additional protection.
The next tab was the map, which showed me as a blip in my room, and the surrounding school. I noticed that there were two other blips besides me in the school area, each on other sides of the building with one being in the attic, and one in the basement. They looked like a simple white serrated circle that was filled in with a swirl design. I mentally clicked on one and the map told me it was a common dungeon.
So you've located a dungeon. They are scattered all over each world you will go to, and they have varying difficulty levels. White rank dungeons are common dungeons.
Good to know. I couldn't see outside the boundary of the building, so I assumed once I left I'd be able to see the rest of the map. I did my best to memorize the layout of the school so I could get to both dungeons from here without having to pull my map up in the corridors and then I switched over to the settings tab.
There were quite a few, so I spent a good ten or fifteen minutes going through them all. I ended up only making a few changes, but the changes were pretty good for me. I was able to add a mini map into the corner of my vision that I could dismiss and summon with a thought, I changed the text of the game to voice mode and I set the voice tone to female (because of course I would), and I set all the minor notifications to pop up in a chat log in the corner of my vision opposite of the mini map so I wouldn't be blinded by text boxes in the middle of combat. There had also been options for background music, but I wasn't comfortable enough with my power yet to add that distraction. Id hate to be listening to a song and some enemy get the jump on me because I couldn't hear it. Maybe when I have a sensing ability.
With that done and taken care of, I closed my menu and looked around. My eyes fell on the clock just as it ticked over to midnight.
Congratulations!
You're now thirteen. Your godling powers will now become active. Your halfblood scent will start to attract monsters from all around, so be sure to grow big and strong!
I read the words in my new chat box. Wait, Halfblood? Suddenly all the key words clicked together and made sense. Halfblood, demigod, Yancy. I'm in the Percy Jackson verse, arnt I?
Yes.
A new voice softly confirmed in my head. Hearing it was instantly better than reading a text box.
Thank you.
Okay, so what do I know about the Percy Jackson verse? Do I know that dates around when it starts? I think back to the time so long ago when I read the books. I know the books timeline wasn't that long, maybe a month or two. I know that Percy's quest deadline was the solstice, but I didn't remember the year. What year is in here now? I looked over to the alarm clock and saw that it didn't provide a year, but it did tell me it was a Saturday in the beginning of May. Okay so let's just assume worst case and say I'm slightly ahead of cannon and that I have less than a month to prepare. Not that bad a time frame if I'm honest but I'd always like more prep time. Who wouldn't in a universe like this with gods and titans walking around?
Uhh okay. So the field trip to a museum happens, Percy kills a fury, and then Percy gets expelled and goes to the beach? That all happens in like a two or three day time period, right? Maybe I can find an event calendar somewhere in the halls and I can confirm when the field trip will happen.
1 Wisdom
Oh so that's a good decision then? I can look for one on my way to the dungeon.
Your class is about to active because your bloodline has awoken.
The soft voice warned me just before I started to get several notifications.
Mage class now active!
Skills learned:
Mana bolt
Mana shield
Mana strike
Torches of Hecate
I read the descriptions of each skill and found they were all pretty self explanatory. Mana bolt is the most basic ranged magic spell, mana shield is of course a shield made of mana, mana strike allows me to imbue and item or a part of me with mana for a melee attack though I was warned that unless I had a high endurance or a different supporting skill then my body would still take damage from the hit, and torches of Hecate summoned a spectral torch that I could mentally control to illuminate my way. Each skill told me they scaled with my intelligence stat, so at that was something. I also found out that I could only cast around five spells before I ran out of mana, as each one cost about twenty points of the magical energy.
I went ahead and activated the last skill. All I had to do was reach out my hand and think about activating the skill and a torch appeared in my hand like it has always been there. The handle was black with intricate inlayed designs and the flame was a bright green. I could feel the smallest of drains on my mana as I held the torch. The description said I could mentally control it so with a thought I tried to have the torch float next to me. The drain on my mana increased slightly but the torch did exactly that and bobbed slightly in the air besides me.
I deactivated the skill and stood up. With two objectives left in the quest, I was eager to get going. The next one should be pretty easy, and now that I have a few attacks I should be able to take care of a dungeon. If not, I'll retreat and go back with a better idea of how to win.
I headed over to my dresser and found what I was looking for. I pulled out the blue jeans and t-shirt and started to change just like I always did, but then a thought hit me. Didn't I need to equip these?
I tried putting the clothes into my inventory instead and they disappeared instantly. I opened my menu and went to my inventory and there they were. I mentally tapped them and equipped them. My pajamas went to my inventory and I was suddenly dressed in my new jeans and a clean shirt. I found some socks in a different drawer and put my shoes on the same way.
When that was done I confirmed that I had completed another part of my quest. All that was left was completing a dungeon. I don't know what kind of dungeon it will be so I should go prepared at least. I don't have a healing skill so I should have some kind of bandages, so I went to my closet and put two of my towels into my inventory. They weren't great, but they would stop a wound from bleeding.
New Quest!
First Aid:
Quickly obtain a suitable cache of first aid supplies.
Time limit: 10 minutes
Reward: Whatever supplies you get will be doubled, 5 dex
Failure: You will fumble any attempts at first aid in your next dungeon.
Ah, well shoot. Are you trying to make me a villain in this play through, game? The only way I'll be able to complete that is if I break into the nurses office. Not that I really mind though. I'll need it more than the next guy I'm sure.
I opened my map and plotted my course to the nurses office. It was on the way towards the dungeon in the basement so it would be easy to swing by. With the click ticking I was about to rush out of my closet when I saw something that made me pause. Next to a pair of cleats on the ground was a wooden baseball bat. I smiled and put it into my inventory as I made my way outside of my room. I peaked out slowly and looked both ways up and down the corridor, but it was empty. With the coast clear I made good progress to the nurses office. Thankfully, I knew the lighting thief book took place pretty close to 2005 or 2006, so there weren't any cameras around that I had to avoid yet.
The door to the main office was unlocked so I was soon looking at the nurses office door. Before I decided to do anything crazy, I confirmed that the door was indeed locked. It was white with double pained glass that had wire mesh between the layers, so I knew I wasn't getting in there with just my bat. Not without bringing all kinds of attention my way, anyways.
I had no idea where the nurse stayed, or if she even stayed on campus or not, so my next option was finding spare keys. I hunted down the principles office, but it was locked like the nurses door. I looked at my countdown clock and saw I only had five minutes left so I rushed to the front desk and started rifling through drawers. When that search came up empty also I turned to my last option, the janitors office.
Thankfully, that door was unlocked. I ran to the desk that was against the far wall and lo and behold, sitting right atop was a ring full of keys. I grabbed them and rushed back to the nurses office. Thankfully the keys were labeled or I never would have opened the door in time.
Once I did have it open, I took a quick look around to see where to start first. There was a glass case that had bottles of prescriptions, but it was locked so I went to the large first aid cabinet next to it. I only had a minute left so I just started stuffing everything I could into my inventory, all the while doing my best to remember where everything was.
The timer ticked into the final few seconds as I threw the last gauze roll into my inventory. All together, it was a pretty solid haul. Tons of gauze and wraps, as many antibiotic ointments or creams that you could think of, even needles and surgical thread for stitches.
Quest Complete!
First Aid:
Quickly obtain a suitable cache of first aid supplies.
Time limit: 10 minutes
Reward: Whatever supplies you get will be doubled, (?)
Failure: You will fumble any attempts at first aid in your next dungeon.
Rewards gained!
Medical supplies added to inventory
5 dex
I looked into my inventory and saw that I definitely had double of everything. I smirked and started to put everything back the way I found it. This had been my plan when I saw that the reward would double whatever I would get. This way, I can take everything that's here, while leaving the same amount so no one would suspect anything.
1 Wisdom
It's nice to have proof that I sometimes have good ideas.
After I had set everything right, I left the nurses office and locked the door behind me. Before I left the office though I looked around for a calendar or an event print out to see when the museum trip would be. It took a few minutes, but I actually found what I was looking for written down on a giant desk calendar in the receptionists office. I had been correct in my assumption earlier. Because the trip will be on the first of June, I have less than a month before cannon starts and Percy goes on his own personal odyssey to save the world.
I'll see what I can do to make it a little easier on him and his rag tag group.
I made my way out of the office, but I decided to keep the keys just in case I ran into any locked doors. If I make any kind of money in this dungeon maybe I'll get some of them copied.
I decided to head to the basement dungeon first since it was closer and I wouldn't have to go through several floors to get to it. The long corridors we're dark and empty, giving the whole place a strange and foreboding feeling. It's always strange to see a place that's always full of people so empty.
However, with it completely empty, it was child's play to make it to the basement undetected. I stopped right before I touched the door though. There was something off about it.
Nice catch. That's the portal to the dungeon. The entrances can be anything from a free floating portal to a gate key like object or something as normal as a door. Touching it will activate it.
Awesome. Now that I know to look for something specific, I could tell what was different. The paint on the door itself shifted slightly in the light, and I just couldn't see it before because it was almost pitch black in here. I hadn't wanted to turn on any lights and risk alerting someone.
I reached out and grabbed the handle of the door and a screen popped up.
Do you want to enter the dungeon?
I pressed the yes button and the door swung open in front of me, revealing a set of stairs leading down. They didn't match the basement though so I knew this was the dungeon. Without waiting for me to step forward, I could feel the dungeon bringing me in, and suddenly I was standing on the top step with a closed door behind me.
The stairs were made out of an old wood that creaked beneath my feet. The walls on either side of me felt like cold stone. The stairs didn't go that far down, and I could see that because there was a candle burning at the bottom that provided a dim light. I slowly walked down the steps and poked my head around the corner.
Huh. I'm in an old timey stone cellar. It was lit by candles that were placed sporadically along the walls, and I could see two different doorways in the next room. So a cellar dungeon. There also happened to be a large wooden door set deep into the far wall.
What caught the most of my attention though was a large rat sitting in the middle of the room. It was about the size of a small dog, maybe two feet tall and twice as long if you didn't count the tail. It was smelling something on the floor, and was luckily facing away from me. If it didn't have it's attention on something else, I'm sure it would have seen me or caught my scent by now.
A small display above It's head showed that it was a level one rat with sixty health and no mana. Not enough health to be an immediate threat then.
I looked at my hand and wished that I had experimented a bit more with my new skills before I came down here. I'll just have to wing it I guess. I held my hand up, palm facing the rat and I focused on using my mana bolt skill. Suddenly, I felt what could only be my mana flowing and shifting down my arm and out through my hand. The dark green mana bolt shot from me to the rat faster than I had thought it would and hit it on its flank.
It's health dropped maybe a fifth of the way, and the rat squealed and spun around. I absolutely would have panicked if it wasn't for gamers mind helping me stay in control, so with a calm breath I aimed again fired. The spin up time of the ability was very fast as was its speed as it flew through the air, so even though the enemy was facing me it couldn't dodge out of the way completely.
It recoiled from the hit and I used the chance to attack it as many times as I could. I hit it two more time but it dodged the third and rushed me. I went to hit it with the bat before I realized it was still in my inventory. So unfortunately, I was caught looking at my hand in disbelief like it had betrayed me when I was tackled by the rat. It was small, but it carried a surprising amount of weight. I put my hands against its throat to keep it from biting my face. My five points in strength was just barely enough to keep the above average rat from having my face as a snack. I really need to fix that soon.
I pushed upwards as much as I could and swapped to my elbow to hold it up so I had a free hand, and I used mana strike with my other hand. I felt the mana reinforce my hand and I felt the mana burst against its pelt when I hit it. The rat immediately burst into motes of golden light and several objects dropped onto my face and chest.
I laid there and caught my breath as I watched my health and mana slowly refill. I didn't take much damage, but I did get a few good scratches. While I waited, I looked around to see what I was sure my loot was.
There was a only couple of dollars and a few teeth, but thankfully they seemed clean enough so I picked them up and put them into my inventory with a thought.
I paused and took my bat out of my inventory and grumbled to myself. This is why in Pokemon universes you always adventure with a pokemon out, just so you don't get ambushed like that. Ill use that same rule in every dungeon from now on.
With everything sorted I decided which was to go next.
I walked up to the door and tried to open it but I got a notification instead that told me I needed to clear the rest of the dungeon before this door would open, so it was probably the boss room.
I looked between the two doorways and picked the right one on a whim and slowly looked through. This one was different only because this room had two rats.
With two there, I couldn't do what I did last time, so I needed to come up with a plan. So I have two attacks, and one defense skill. I backed farther into the cleared room and held my hand out and activated my shield skill. A large green square that resembled a screen and was a few feet across both ways appeared in front of my hand. I tried to move it and it followed my hand, which was good. I tried to make it stay in place but that didn't work. For the last test, I cautiously fired a mana bolt at the screen but as soon as the bolt hit it it just dissipated harmlessly against the shield. Well there goes the plan of holing up in a corner and taking cheep shots.
So now I knew how my skills worked, but now I needed a plan. It took around five hits to take that last rat out, and it took all of my mana to do even that. Wait, I do have another skill. My torches. The don't take much mana, and I could mentally control them.
I created one in my outstretched hand and with a brief bit of concentration it floated upwards and started drifting away from me. It got about three feet before it suddenly vanished.
Okay, so it's range isnt great, but maybe I could set the rats on fire with it? I looked around but I didn't see anything to test it on, so I went back to the doorway I chose before and peeked in again.
The rats were still milling about aimlessly, with the closest one being about six or seven feet away. I created another torch and crept my way towards it, taking care to make as little noise as possible. Finally I got within range to try and set it alight when I had a thought and decided to change my tactic a bit. With my new plan, I knew I'd at least do some damage if my ignition plan didn't work. I brought the torch up above my head and activated my mana strike ability and brought the torch down directly onto the base of its skull with all of my might. The mouse collapsed under the sudden attack, and while I did hold the torch against its pelt, it didn't ignite like I had hoped.
I clicked my tongue against my teeth and brought the torch down on its head again with another strike and this time two things happened.
First, with a weak squeak the rat vanished into golden light and dropped it's loot. Second, the torch cracked and broke apart in much the same way but instead of gold light, it was a dark green.
The squeak caused the other rat to spin and charge at me with a hiss. I was about to panic before my mind suddenly calmed and I had an idea. I waited till the rat pounced and I created a shield in it's path and used it to knock it off to the side and followed with two mana bolts before it could recover.
After the last mana bolt, my mana was almost completely depleted so I readied my bat and waited for the rat to recover. It didn't seem to think my weapon of choice was any danger to it, because as soon as it was back up it charged me with abandon and leapt at me as soon as it was close enough. Thankful for my brief baseball lessons in gym when I was growing up, I put my shoulder into my swing and twisted my hips and made a solid connection. The rat tumbled onto the floor and didn't get back up. It didn't poof into light so I hit it again to send it on its way. With the room clear I took a deep breath and went to grab my loot before I sat to wait for my mana to refill. There wasn't much more than last time, just more money and teeth, but I also got a jaw bone this time as well.
What surprised me though was that I leveled up. I had forgotten that I had delegated that notification to the small chat box and I almost missed it. I checked my stats and saw all the increases were where they should be and I looked through my inventory as I waited. The bones and claws were listed as crafting materials, and I started to wonder what I could make out of them. Maybe they would be good potions ingredients?
Anyway, my mana pool was bigger now as well as my regeneration thanks to the level up so I could now cast around six spells before I ran out.
After a few minutes my mana was filled up and I started out running through the rooms. There were plenty of rooms but there were never more than three rats to a room, and there was only a single room like that. That one was the only room I had gotten hurt in, but it was only a glancing hit and I made sure to keep my shield up after that and tried to use it a bit more effectively. I had to utilize my bat quite often, and it was starting to show a lot of wear so I'm hoping it'll last me through the dungeon. Maybe I can even get something a little better.
In all the rooms I never found a chest or anything like that, but that's probably because it's the lowest tier dungeon so there would probably only be one and it would be in the boss room. Each rat dropped an assortment of parts like claws or teeth or random bones, and I even got a few pelts from some of them. All of them dropped at least a couple dollars each though.
After the fourteenth or fifteenth room and four more level ups, I got a notification that the dungeon was cleared and the boss room was unlocked.
Another thing that I had gotten, was a few mysterious stones that had dropped from the random rat or two. They were dark in color, ranging from dark blue to light purple. I didn't know what they were yet, and I had decided that I needed an identify spell of some sort when I get out of here. I had just put them into my inventory and kept going as I was.
The best thing that I had gotten so far though, I received when I hit level five.
New skills:
Mana Sphere
Mana Regeneration Upgrade (small)
I don't know yet if it's a pattern, but I'm willing to say I'll be getting new skills every five levels. The mana sphere skill description says that it's a close combat skill, slow to start up at the beginning levels but with a higher damage output in return. The other passive skill is pretty self explanatory.
As I made my way back, I looked at my skills and stats. My shield had leveled up three times and my Mana bolt had gotten to level five so now I made two bolts per spell for the same amount of mana so if I dual cast it that meant four, which was pretty good against rats. Probably not so great against anything with more defense or health. The sphere skill might work better on those enemies, but for now I'll stick with bolts.
I finally made my way to the locked door and saw it had actually disappeared. I was instead just looking into a large open room which clearly told me it was a boss room. Looking in from the outside the room was empty, probably to stop me from taking shots at the boss from around the corner.
I braced myself and walked into the room and right away the door appeared behind me and closed with a loud thud. When the sound finished echoing across the empty room, the boss crawled up out of a small hole in the floor that I hadn't yet seen.
It was easily twice or even three times larger than the other rats, coming up to my lower chest and being maybe seven or eight feet long. It had quite a bit more health too, being maxed out at three hundred. I also didn't have the element of surprise with me because it spawned looking right at me.
Without any preamble or fanfare, which I didn't know I was expecting until I was disappointed when it didn't happen, the rat attacked.
Not only was it bigger than its mob counterpart, it was also much faster. I didn't have time to get my shield up in time to deflect it's attack, only to stop it from getting to me but even then, it still pushed me back a few feet.
With it chomping away at me and trying to get through the shield, I was having difficulty holding it back and trying to cast spells. I pushed back with all I had and sent it back a few feet and when it tried to charge at me again, I waited till the last second and side stepped it, pouncing on it's back as it went past and started casting mana bolt as many times as I could.
The rat spun and tried to bite at me but it was having trouble around the spells I was flinging into it's face. I managed to land several hits before it got wise and rolled over with me under it. I felt the air leave my lungs as it rolled over me and I took a bit of damage from it's weight.
One of my hands was trapped in between us but the other was free so I created a mana bolt and drove it into it side. It took a bit but after a second the bolt burst against it's fur and the rat squealed in pain and rolled off of me.
I sprung up as fast as I could and put up my shield. At this point I was pretty low on mana, so I would have to end it quick. The rat was pretty hurt by now, down to less than a fifth of its health, so I only needed three mana bolts to finish it off.
I kept the shield in front of me and started creating the first one. The monster saw and started running at me so I fired off and hit it, but it seemed to know it was at the end so it kept coming. I had just finished the second one when it made it to me, and my attack slammed into it's chest as it ran into the shield. It attacked the shield with a fury that it didn't have before, and the shield started cracking. I only had time to start making the final bolt before the boss monster shattered my shield and clamped it's filthy teeth down onto my arm.
Pain erupted through me as blood immediately poured from the wound and seemed to send it into a frenzy. My health dipped a fourth of the way and started falling faster and faster. I grit my teeth and finished making my attack and through the pain I smiled at the beast. It seemed to know what that meant and paused as the final bolts hit it again in the chest.
The boss monster vanished into the now familiar light and was replaced by it's pile of loot. I ignored the items for now and looked at my arm which was still bleeding heavily. Under my health bar was a small red icon with a drop of what I assumed was blood in it, so I figured it was a bleed debuff. I had leveled up from killing the boss but there was no change in my health, so I guess no healing with a level up. I pulled some peroxide out of my inventory and generously poured it over the bite, clenching my teeth at the pain. After that, I applied the antibiotic cream and started dressing it with gauze and finished with a wrap. After I had done all that, the bleed debuff was gone and my health was slowly ticking back up.
I let out a sigh of relief. I had done it. I had completed my first dungeon.
Congratulations on completing your first dungeon!
10 cp
Nice. What is cp again?
Customization points. When you start a new world you can use these points you've earned to unlock new options.
Oh neat. Thanks game.
I went back and started going through the loot, but there was really only more of what the other rats dropped. The teeth and claws were bigger, as well as the pelt, but the mysterious stone that dropped was about the same. Frankly, I was a little disappointed. No chest?
I looked around and saw that it was basically just an empty room. Nothing of any value anywhere. The only thing that didn't belong was the hole that the boss had crawled out of.
I walked over to it and peered over the side and actually saw what I was looking for. About five feet down was the bottom of the hole, and nestled in the corner was a little chest. I'm ashamed to say the inner pirate/gamer in me went a little crazy seeing the chest and I scrambled down into the dark hole without a second thought. When I reached it, the latch opened without any problem and the lid lifted without a sound.
Inside was a small saucer-like coin, a wad of money, and two tiny red vials and a tiny blue one. When I saw them and what color the liquid inside them was, I knew right away that they were potions so I threw them into my inventory along with the strange coin and the money.
Dungeon complete!
Would you like to exit the dungeon?
I hit yes and I was suddenly back at the basement door with my hand resting on the handle, looking at a small screen that told me the dungeon was on a twenty four hour cool down.
Quest Complete
The first step:
Finish the tutorial
Rewards: One random common Class appropriate item, 3 Int, 2 wis, Observe skill
Failure: none
1) Navigate your menus.
2) Complete a dungeon.
3) Equip a new item.
Rolling for common Mage item:
.
.
.
Minor Ring of Mana Storage added to inventory
3 Int, 2 Wis
Learned "Observe"
The skill description for observe told me I could use the skill as something akin to identify, so I started pulling out all the random things out of my inventory.
My first choice was the ring. It was a thin silver band with a small clear stone set in it. I slipped it onto my right pointer finger and turned it so it caught the light. Observe told me it was an old magic item that mages used to store mana that they could use at a later time.
I still didn't have my mana pool full yet after the boss fight, but I had more than enough to experiment with this. I concentrated briefly and pushed my mana into the ring and I felt it greedily absorb it just as fast as I could fill it. I put about two hundred points worth of mana into it before I felt that it couldn't hold any more. The once clear stone was now the same deep green that my torches flames are.
Next were the strange stones I had picked up. I observed one, and my eyebrows rose of their own volition. They were soul stones. They reminded me of the ones from the Skyrim game from my first life. They were the same color and shape, and could be used for exactly the same things. I put them back into my inventory, knowing I would be hoarding them to use later.
Lastly, was the strange coin I had gotten from the boss chest. Oh it's a gacha token. A random pull of a random selection of items…I should wait until I'm back in my room.
I started walking back, only halfway paying attention to make sure I wasn't seen. There was still another dungeon that I could try and complete tonight, but I felt like I should wait till tomorrow. I wanted to run into town and try to find some better supplies for dungeon diving.
Thanks to the dungeon I now had a few hundred dollars that I could spend, maybe for something that might pass as armor. I definitely needed to find a replacement for my bat at least.
I made it back to my room without any fuss and I pulled out the gacha token and activated it by crushing it in my hand.
Legionnaire's Spear added to inventory
Oh the gacha items go straight into my inventory? That's great.
I pulled the spear out and observed it. The spear was entirely made out of some metal that was colored a spectacular hue of yellow, similar almost to a ray of sunlight. Observe told me it was imperial gold, which kick started another memory from my last life. Wasn't there another demigod group that used imperial gold?
I tried to remember more but the memories past a few obscure facts were too fuzzy to make out.
Oh well, that's a topic for another time and at least the gold weapon will be as useful as a bronze one.
I looked out the window and saw the smallest hint of red peaking over the horizon. Soon the sun would be fully up and other students would be awake and moving about, and that's as good a reason as any to wait until tonight to take care of that other dungeon.
So that really only left a few things to do. I had to find somewhere to buy supplies and maybe some better dungeon delving clothes. I knew that if I just went and started clearing dungeons then I would find some loot eventually that I could equip, but that would be a terrible idea. What if while I was waiting for better loot I was attacked by something that I needed armor for?
While I'm out and about I could also look for other dungeons to clear later on. If I get to a high enough level with decent enough gear then I might be able to take care of several dungeons a day.
I laid down on my bed and tried to remember what I knew of canon and if the main cast went anywhere that could help me at the moment. Unfortunately after a few minutes I was drawing a blank, but at the same time my eyes were starting to feel heavy and the bed was feeling more and more inviting. Maybe a short nap before hitting the town wouldn't hurt.
