Chapter Six
I woke up the next morning feeling well rested. I hadn't been interrupted in the middle of the night, I didn't have any monster attacks, I was able to get a full eight hours of sleep. The strange thing that I did wake up to however, is a game notification that I hadn't seen before.
Game updated.
View update log?
An update? I didn't figure an all knowing concept like the game system would ever need to update, but I'll take it. I mentally selected that I would like to see the change log, and a small list appeared.
Skills no longer level up, but instead scale with stats.
Minor UI improvements.
Fixed the infinite exp glitch.
Cats now cast shadows.
More bees.
Ice now causes 15% more traction loss.
Time travel now doesn't cause inextinguishable fires.
Apologies for any of these issues that have inconvenienced you. Please, have a delectable treat for your troubles.
(Delectable Treat) added to inventory.
What. I…what has been happening in the background? Who is time traveling? Wait, have I even seen a cat yet? Infinite exp!?
I stop and take a deep breath. None of those really even bother me except for the first, but even that one wasn't very impactful. The only skill I even had that had been level up beyond one or two was mana bolt.
I opened up my inventory to look at the treat I had received.
Apparently, the game decided a delectable treat looked like a cookie. I read the description and couldn't help but laugh. It said that it was a special treat that was made to be one of the best cookies in the whole universe. I closed my inventory after deciding to save it for later.
I packed up everything I had and made my way out.
Twelve hours later, I flop down on yet another motel bed with a sigh. Today had been just as tiring as the last. On my journey I didn't see any interesting stores or places I wanted to go, but what I did find, repeatedly, was dungeons. I found two rare dungeons and a common one. The rare ones were actually pretty interesting, the had more chests, more enemies, and the maps were bigger. The bosses themselves were more impressive than the others also. One of them was a big snapping turtle that had a razor like shell that used a spinning attack that was really difficult to dodge with my current stats, and the other was a mouse dungeon.
The turtle one took a little bit to figure out, because anytime I would attack it would duck into its shell and the magic would bounce off of it without any effect. Eventually I turned to using ice bolts on the little arena to make it slick and once I maneuvered the turtle to hit it while spinning, it flipped over and couldn't turn back over without being out of its shell. So I was able to whittle it's health down enough to take care of it.
The mouse dungeon was harder. Instead of facing one boss in a one versus one, the boss spawned swarms of regular sized mice. If I didn't have mage armor, then this dungeon probably would have been the death of me. The swarms of mice didn't stand up very well to mana blasts, but the boss spawned so many of them that it became a problem very quickly. Mage armor gave me enough time to keep them from swarming me, and thankfully I didn't have to do very much to take care of the boss. When they first started spawning, I noticed a slight decrease in the bosses health with every swarm that was created, so I knew it was a similar situation to the slime boss from a few dungeons back. I kept being careful and patient, and eventually the boss damaged itself enough that it only took a few hits to finish it off.
Neither dungeon gave any notable loot though. Increased potions, money, and drachma, as well as ingredients and other crafting materials like soul gems, pelts, and shells, but nothing else worth mentioning.
The best part about them though, was the exp. With those three dungeons, I was bumped up to forty-five, so I gained three skills. Two class skills and a reaper skill. Or, I say new skills, but it was a little something different.
Skill upgraded!
Mana Bolt - Mana Bullet
Mana Bullet – a compacted version of the mana bolt spell. This version offers a faster speed and a slight penetrative quality for a trade off of increased mana cost.
Reaper skill gained:
Necrotic Damage: You can now choose to enhance your attacks with necrotic damage instead of soul damage. Soul enhanced attacks are stronger versions of their originals, but attacks enhanced with necrotic damage reduce the targets total health by the damage done, which means the target can't heal the damage until you remove the debuff.
Skill upgraded!
Mana Shield - Mana Aegis
Mana Aegis – a far more flexible version of the mana shield spell. You're able to freely manipulate its shape to fit your situation, each transformation takes additional mana. Damage blocked is based on the mana put into the spell, shield durability is based on your Int stat.
My Wisdom stat is sitting at exactly ninety-nine, so I'm expecting another skill soon. Finding all of those dungeons was great for my leveling, but not so great for the trip. I only travelled a few miles, so it would still be two or more days before I made it to camp. I was only five levels away from unlocking professions, so I would probably just grind out the last few levels on my way.
I took out my grimoire and set about to practicing my calligraphy while paying only a minor amount attention to the motel to the motel television until I felt my eyes felt heavy enough to go to sleep.
I woke up feeling refreshed and rested, the sun not even up yet. A quick shower and bite to eat and I was back on the road and following my map. Which is just about where my good morning ended however.
I could just barely see the sun starting to peak over the horizon, so shadows were still long and everything was still shaded pretty darkly. I had planned on making good distance today so I started earlier than normal, but that actually turned out to be pretty bad apparently, because as soon as I started making my way down the street, three creatures rolled out of an alleyway ahead of me. They were all taller than me, balancing gracefully on long tails covered in dark green scales. I couldn't for the life of me think of what they were called, but they were big snake women. From the waist up they looked mostly like normal women. They all had a dusky skin tones, with dark hair that looked matted and dirty. They were all similarly armored, wearing leather chest pieces and leather wrist guards, probably for the bows that they all had. They all had daggers strapped to their waists.
They turned the corner and spotted me right away, each of them making a triumphant hissing sound. Observe told me right away that they were all much higher leveled than me, and that they were lamia, so I knew that I probably wouldn't stand a chance against all three of them. They were about ten feet away so I cast a double mana blast at them, forcing them to take cover back into the alley way. With them distracted, I turned tail and ran. I didn't make it very far before I heard a chorus of battle cries behind me.
I didn't turn and look at them as I tried to make my getaway. If there was one thing I learned from every chase scene I'd ever seen, it was that you never looked back. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, but I couldn't out run arrows.
The projectiles rained down around me as I swerved around obstacles to try and block their line of sight, but I couldn't be lucky all the time. I was just about to turn left to head into a park filled with trees when I felt two white-hot lances of pain shoot through me, one through my left calf and the other into my left shoulder. I stumbled and fell to my knee, but I quickly shuffled back up to my feet and hobbled on. The pain was almost unbearable, hands down the most painful thing I've gone through since I've been here, but I knew that if I stopped, I would be killed. With that thought in mind, it made it possible to push on and try to get away.
I have skipped, half hobbled my way past the trees and towards the center of the park to where I saw a couple large boulders clustered together. I couldn't hear anymore snake-ish cursing behind me, and I didn't see anymore arrows flying, so I might have lost them while I was running out of sight.
I made it to the rocks and ran behind them and crouched down, looking over the rocks as stealthily as I could, I saw two of the lamia slither through the trees and look around. I took advantage of what little time I had and looked at the arrow sticking out of my leg for the first time. There wasn't anything remarkable about the arrow itself, but it had pierced all the way through my calf. Fortunately, I knew this was a good thing. The metal arrowhead that was on the end of the shaft would have made it impossible to pull back through my leg, so with it pierced though, all I had to do was break the arrow and pull both ends out. Unfortunately, while the arrow had pierced through, the one in my shoulder didn't. But I'll get to that one in a minute, if I take care of my leg first, I'll be able to run better.
Now, having book knowledge of what I should do and actually doing the act itself are two different things entirely. When I grabbed the arrow to try and break it, I nearly whited out with pain as I shifted the arrow too much. If I didn't have gamers mind helping me through this, I probably would have fallen when I was shot, and wouldn't have been able to get away.
I grit my teeth and grabbed the back of the arrow as firmly as I could and bent it sharply, the snap of the wood telling me that I had successfully broken it. Without giving myself a chance to think about it, I grabbed the other half of the arrow and pulled it through my leg. With a sound I'd like to never associate with my own body again, the arrow pulled free and I breathed a ragged sigh of relief.
I tossed the arrow aside and pulled a potion out of my pack and drank it down as fast as I could. I put the now empty bottle away into my inventory and saw my health bar stop sinking quite so fast. I lifted up to peek over the rocks and saw the two lamia had gotten close, almost all the way to the rocks I was hiding behind. I turned around to see if I could get out when I saw something etched into the rock that caught my attention. It was a triangle, but it didn't seem etched with any tool that I recognized, the corners and lines were too clean and perfect. A memory itched at the back of my brain, telling me I knew what that was, but it just barely eluded me.
I shook my head and turned back around to continue my escape when I finally saw where the third lamia had gone. It had circled around the park and was coming into the clearing from the opposite side, and unfortunately for me, it spotted me right away. It immediately alerted the other two with a hiss and nocked an arrow into its bow.
I stumbled backwards into the rock formation, my hand hitting the solid surface behind me to try and catch myself. The two other lamia came around both sides of my temporary cover, unhurried and unafraid. They each let out stuttering hisses that I realized was them laughing at me as I felt my heart lurch in my chest.
Suddenly the sounds of shifting rocks filled my ears and I noticed the snake women's attention wasn't on me anymore, but instead was behind me. I didn't want to fall for the oldest trick in the book, so I didn't turn and look. Which made it that much more surprising when the ground shifted under me and I found myself falling down a stone tunnel, the only light coming from the hole I fell through up above me.
Looking up, I could see the hole quickly vanishing farther and farther away, before it too was gone and I was encased in darkness. It was there, falling down a natural slide in pitch black, that I remembered that symbol in the rock was a delta symbol, the symbol frequently used to mark openings in the labyrinth. When I fell back I must have hit it, which opened the pathway.
I couldn't help but be relieved, I had traded a certain death for a less certain one. In retrospect, I would take that choice every time. It wasn't much longer that I felt my uncontrolled fall slow down, before I was deposited unceremoniously onto a cold and rough surface. I looked around, my eyes flickering around wildly as I was reminded of my time in the void, seeing and hearing nothing. A few brief seconds later I realized I was feeling the ground under me, so it was just dark. A few more seconds after that, I remembered that I now had access to magic and I summoned a torch to my hand. The flickering green flames illuminated my surroundings and showed my that I was now in a tunnel. It reminded me of the slime dungeon, but it was far older, the stones that made up the walls looked like they were made out of clay.
The green light made gave the clay bricks an eerie look, their shadows dancing in a way that made them look alive, but the light from the torch felt oddly comforting. The tunnel wasn't much taller than I was, maybe six or seven foot tall, the walls on each side of me about a foot away from my hands if I reached both arms out.
I didn't hear any sounds of pursuit or any thing coming from farther in the tunnel, so I sat as close as I could to one of the walls. My health was getting down low, so I downed another health potion as I prepared to do what I had to. I leaned back until I felt the back of the arrow that was still in the back of my shoulder touch the wall, and I took a few breaths before I shoved my shoulder back as hard as I could, the arrow coming through to the other side with a wet squelch. I bit back a yell and waited for the new pain to subside a bit before I broke the arrow head off and pulled the arrow out.
The feeling of relief as the arrow was finally gone almost made me laugh out loud. Like when you finally pull a splinter out of your finger that's been bothering you, but times one hundred. The potion I took not too long ago was still healing me somewhat, so I didn't take another one, instead just resting there as my health slowly ticked up to full.
When I hit max health, I looked around to see which way I should go. In the labyrinth, direction really didn't matter. I could walk what I thought was a mile and wind up in Europe, so with a shrug I just picked left and started walking.
The path continued, sometimes straight, sometimes curving or even doing crazy one hundred and eighty degree turns. Eventually the texture of the tunnel started changing, changing from clay and mortar to rough stone. I kept going and the tunnel opened up into a large room with four different doorways. I walked out of one, and that left three. Each one was identical in almost every single way, none bigger than the other, each path seemed carved straight out of the stone. With another shrug, I picked one at random and kept walking.
I had been walking so long that I didn't notice a strange square cut into the floor, until I stepped on it and heard a sharp click. If I had been anywhere else, I would have just wondered what that sound was, but because it was the labyrinth, I immediately dove backwards as fast as I could. Just in time too, because I looked behind me as I landed and saw the floor I was standing on give way, the stone tumbling down farther and farther. I peeked my head over the side, waiting to hear the stone hit bottom, but after several seconds, the tons and tons of stone fell without a sound. I didn't have a flying skill or anything that would help me bridge the gap, so I turned around and went the way I came.
I walked and walked, becoming more and more frustrated as time passed. I knew for sure I had walked far enough to reach that room with the doorways, but all I was seeing was more and more tunnels, which means the labyrinth was messing with me.
However with no other choice, I just kept walking. I kept my eyes more open this time though, avoiding several more traps. They started getting really intricate though, so it was easy to stay alert. It started with more pressure plates, and then trip wires, then snare traps, then electrical traps. It was bizarre when I saw a blinking red LED light set into rough stone, but I through a few of my more useless items at it until it triggered, and faster than I could blink, the ceiling opened up and a few spears slammed down into the floor. They didn't reset, so after a few seconds I slipped my way in between them and kept going on my way.
After another untold amount of walking, the texture of the tunnel changed to a golden colored brick, and I noticed a light in the distance. I had been looking at everything with green light for so long, noticing an orange light in the distance was a very noticeable contrast. I kept walking until I reached a room with water running through it, sort of like a small aqueduct. Thankfully I didn't need to chance drinking it because I still had water and food in my inventory, so I didn't feel the need to touch it.
I looked at each doorway trying to find something to differentiate them somehow, but they all looked exactly the same to me. I was about to pick one at random when I started to hear the strangest sound. I stopped and focused, clamping my hand over one ear and listening to each tunnel trying to figure out which one it was coming from. A few seconds later and the sound was more clear. It was a rapid clacking, but metallic sounding, like something with a lot of metal legs walking towards me. I even managed to isolate which tunnel it was coming from, so I stood back and waited to see what came out of the tunnel.
It took several minutes, but after awhile a small creature came crawling out of the tunnel. It looked almost like a Dwarven spider from Skyrim, but rounder and not as rough looking. It was made out of a copper color metal, with what looked like eight or ten legs or so. Every few steps it would let out a little burst of steam out of a random part of its body. It walked out of its tunnel with purpose, not pausing at all as it selected a tunnel and started walking down it. The most interesting part of the whole thing though, was the soul crystal it was holding with its front two legs. It was just a common one, but it was strange that it was carrying it at all.
With a mental shrug, I set about to following it. It walked quickly for something so small, so I had to hurry not to be left behind. It walked passed dozens of intersections without stopping, leading me passed any obstacles. It avoided any and all traps I could see, and several I couldn't. I quickly learned to follow any path that it took, especially after I triggered a trap that I hadn't seen. It was a fire trap, with a gout of flame singeing my hair as I hastily jumped to the side to avoid it. In the five seconds that I was distracted, I almost lost the little construct as it continued to scuttle quickly down the path. I definitely made sure to follow it more precisely after that.
I don't know how long we walked, but it felt horrendously long. I pulled food out of my inventory when I was hungry, water when I was thirsty, and health potions when I was feeling too tired to keep going. I wasn't damaged, but drinking the potion seemed to keep the need for sleep at bay, if only barely.
I heard sounds sometimes, down the way we came or up ahead where we were going, or down paths we weren't taking at intersections. Countless sounds of monsters, of growls I couldn't recognize, inhuman screams, the clanging of metal like people were fighting, but no matter what I heard, I followed the little worker construct, who kept on his merry little way. It had kept me out of danger this far, so I would trust it more than a dangerous tunnel that I knew little about.
After an untold bit of time, we actually came up to a door in the stone. It was wooden, with an old iron lock. The little spider made a whirring sound before its back opened up and a long, telescoping arm reached up with a key attached at the end, and unlocked the door. Without a sound, the door swung open and the spider retracted its arm and walked forward.I couldn't see very well into the room, as it seemed almost hazy when I looked in. Presumably some space-y labyrinth-y magic. I didn't have much time to decide what to do, because shortly after the little bot went in, the door started to close on its own. I made a decision and jumped through the doorway before the door could close all the way.
When I jumped past the doorway, I was greeted with a room that was filled with soft yellow light. The light didn't come from torches, but from glowing orbs that were set into the walls, spaced a few feet apart. They didn't look light light bulbs, but more like ambient light trapped in some sort of sphere.
I spent a few seconds pondering the orbs before the sound of clanking reminded me of where I was. The room I was in was sort of like an entranceway, with nothing really decorating the walls. The clanking I heard was the spider walking up a few steps into a much bigger room. I followed it and saw a large room filled with all sorts of tools, half built things, materials everywhere scattered around the numerous toolboxes that were all over the place. I started to observe everything before I noticed the little bot heading towards a set of shelves in the back. Everything was covered in a haze of dust and dirt, obviously not being used in a very long time. The only signs that anything had even been in the shop at all, were several trails of little prints in the floor that clearly belonged to the little scuttle bot. It must have been gathering for quite some time. Possibly programmed to gather until it hit certain quantities or ran out of room.
It scuttled up to one of the bottom shelves, lifting the crystal is was carrying until it was level with a box that had other soul gems in it, and dropped it in. The bot then reset its position before it started clacking its legs in place repeatedly. It took a few seconds to realize what it was doing, but then I realized that the little bot was celebrating. Maybe it wasn't just a bot? I finally observed it, and realized where I was.
Observe told me it was a construct that was animated with a soul gem, made by Daedalus as a gatherer bot. Looking around, everything I saw started making more sense. The shelves that I was in front of were filled with all sorts of things, different ores, bolts and screws, tools that I was familiar with and many more that I wasn't, and strange crystals that observe told me was a crafting material.
I walked around the room, wiping away the thick layer of dust that sat on everything, looking at each contraption that was in varying stages of completion, trying to make sense of each project on the tables. I have a pretty high int and wis stats, but that didn't let me have sudden knowledge of engineering or whatever went into making these things, so I didn't stay looking at them too long. Instead, I wandered the room, finding anything I could that might be useful. The first thing that I noticed was that there was another doorway leading to a separate room. I walked through the doorway and saw what looked like an efficiency office. I saw a desk with a tattered book and scattered papers laying on the surface, a bookshelf full of old scrolls and more papers, and a small bed tucked into a corner. Through yet another small doorway, I saw a small bathroom, and testing the shower faucet and sink faucet revealed that I still had access to water.
Like the workshop out there, everything in here was covered in dust. Maybe I could stay here and make this place my own, take it over. It hadn't been used in a very long time, so I wasn't really worried about Daedalus showing up. For some reason or another, he had moved on from this shop but left one little bot all by its lonesome.
I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I stayed for a little while.
I walked forward and grabbed the book off of the desk. Flipping through a few pages told me this was an old journal, detailing some of the experiments and things he built after he discovered soul gems. I put it back onto the desk for now and walked back out to the shop. It was because I was now facing the way that I came in that I saw it. A portal clear as day, right next to the stairs I climbed up to get here. The strange shimmer told me it was a rare dungeon, which means it should be decently tough. I had no idea what kind of dungeon enemies I would find in a dungeon that spawned in Daedalus' workshop, but I was excited to find out. First things first though, is cleaning up.
The next few hours was spent cleaning up as much as I possibly could. I had no cleaning supplies in my inventory, the thought that I would need them hadn't even passed through my mind. But what I could do, was put the dust into my inventory, so I spent quite a while sweeping my hands over everything and doing just that. I felt extremely filthy when I had finished, but a quick trip to the shower fixed that. I did still have a few bottles of shampoo and body wash from one of the numerous motels I had stayed at, as well as a few towels.
After the shower and a bite to eat, I decided I was ready to try the dungeon. I was so close to level fifty I could taste it, and it seemed like I would be stuck here for quite a while, so no reason not to do the dungeon now. The sooner I finished it the sooner I could go back, anyway.
I entered through the portal, once again surrounded by darkness. It wasn't complete darkness, I could see some sort of soft glow in the far off distance. I created a torch to float along beside me, illuminating everything with a green glow that I was starting to find strangely comforting. I was in another cave, instead of not being able to see the roof like the bat dungeon, this one had a low hanging ceiling. I sent another torch ahead of me, showing me the floor and eventually several natural archways that led to other rooms. The glow I had seen looked like it was coming from crystals that had sprouted out of the walls and floor, the same kind of crystals I had seen in the workshop.. There were all sorts of rocks and stalagmites and stalactites scattered about, but the one thing I did notice, was the big creature made of stone that noticed my torch floating about. It was only slightly taller than I was, it's uneven stone body vaguely made up a humanoid form.
Observe told me it was a stone golem, and a decently leveled on at that. It was observing my torch with something that resembled vague curiosity. Because the torch had its attention, I snuck behind it, and dual casted two mana blasts towards it. The spells took decent chunks of its health, as well as a good portion of its solid body, but as soon as I started casting the golem spun around and charged me. I rolled to the side just in time to dodge a swipe of its huge hand, sending another blast through it. Because my last two spells had taken bits of its body off, I aimed this one at its legs. The effect was the same, as a big chunk was taken out of one leg it staggered, but still made its way towards me. I scrambled backwards, throwing more and more spells at it, trying to dodge its wide swings of its hands. If I didn't have gamers mind this probably would have a pretty scary experience, but because of the perk I was able to think clearly enough to be able to dodge and then attack.
Finally, after several minutes of evading for my life, the golem staggered one last time before it crumbled to the ground and turned into the same golden motes that every monster did.
I fell down onto my butt and leaned back, trying to catch my breath as my mana refilled. It's health pool had been huge, the most that I could remember any one creature having, even the boss monsters. It did give quite a bit of exp though, so even with the added difficulty it was worth it. I might even get to level fifty before I leave this dungeon, depending on how big it is.
The mana blasts had been mostly effective, dealing decent damage as well as damaging the body, but unfortunately I think that's the only spell that might work. My bolt and arrow skill probably wouldn't do anything, and the elemental bolts definitely wouldn't. Well, not fire or electric, at least. I could try and see if my frost bolt would freeze a portion and then break it with a blast. Oh, and bolt evolved, right? I could try mana bullet.
When my mana had filled up, I took a quick drink from a water bottle that went back into my inventory, and I stood up and dusted my self of. I walked the few feet to where the golem had died and looked over my loot. There was money of course, but there was also a piece of paper. There was strange writing on the note, so I observed it. Observe told me it was a used spell tag, used to animate the golem. That left me with the question of who animated the golem though. I kept turning the note over and over in my hands, and I realized that I did recognize some of the writing. It was some of the runes I had been reading about in my grimoire that my mother had given me. I put the note into my inventory, deciding I would cross reference the runes later, and I made my way to the next room.
It looked almost exactly the same as the last one, rocks and natural rock formations all over, as well as a golem shambling about. I had decided not to use my soul energy on my attacks so I could save it for the boss, and so I could maximize my exp gain.
Sneaking further into the room, I got as close as I safely could to the golem before I made another torch and floated it away from me. This had distracted the last one, so I figured it would work a second time. The torch floated in front of it and it did follow it, just like the last golem. I'm not sure what it is about the torches that they like, but I won't question it.
When it was far enough away, I sent as many frost bolts at its legs as I could and true to form, the golem turned and charged in my direction. I could see the frost bolts working pretty quickly, frost building into ice on its legs. I was about to cast the mana blast I had prepped, when the golem took one slow step forward and put its weight on its leg, and with a loud crack it's frozen appendage shattered. The golem fell to the ground with ground shaking thud, but that still didn't stop it. It crawled at me, still taking swipes at my as I back-peddled. There was just something so off putting about the vague humanoid coming at me with such single minded determination. Maybe some kind of uncanny valley effect. Oh well.
The golem was still advancing, but I could run backwards faster than it's crawl speed, so this fight was as good as done. I used mana bullet on it until its health hit zero and it vanished into light. It's loot was the same as the last, an old spell tag and some money. Everything went into my inventory and I made my way to the next room.
The next few hours passed by much the same way. I would go room to room, sweeping the golems off of their feet and finishing them off with mana bullets. I had a little variation in a few of the rooms, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. In a few of the rooms, I encountered a golem made of water, but they were limited to the pool of water that they were spawned out of. They could only attack me with ranged attacks, so I used the natural cover and my new aegis spell to shield myself as I took pot shots at them until I whittled their health down. The same went for the lava golem that was spawned in a pool of lava that was dribbling out of the cave wall. The rocks and shield I hid behind didn't shield me from the heat of the attacks, but at least I didn't get burned.
I never got an sort of loot that wasn't the spell tags and money, which was a bit of a downer but on the plus side, I got several notifications that made me forget about the loot.
Wisdom Milestone reached
Rolling random Wisdom perk:
New skill: Fast Learner
When learning a new skill, you learn at an increased rate based on your wisdom stat.
Level 50 reached!
New skill: Mana Reinforcement
The ability to augment your body and things you can touch using your mana. Mana cost depends on what you reinforce.
New skill: Mage Eyes
Using your mana to enhance your eyes, your sense of vision is enhanced and you can see mana and un-shrouded magical effects.
New Reaper skill gained: Sense Life
You can now sense life in a wide area around you. This sense passes through most barriers and even detects some of the most well hidden beings there are.
Quest Complete!
Never Ending Grind:
Become strong enough to defend yourself against base level foes!
Rewards unlocked!
Higher level dungeons have started spawning
Professions unlocked! You are no longer limited to just learning skills or abilities based on your class, you can now learn all sorts of skills from all other sources. Mentors, how-to books, studying a subject long enough, or even repeating actions!
Boss Spawned! Marking the location on your map.
Reading the screens that kept popping up one after the other, I couldn't stop my victorious smile. I got several incredibly useful perks, one that I could feel activate right away. My sense life's range was actually far enough that I could sense the boss. It was in a room I recently passed, and it looked like it was all alone.
The second skill I tried out was mage eyes. The entire world lit up in a way that was almost painful to look at. Mana was flowing through everything, the rocks on the ground, the rock of the cave, the slightly glowing crystals that were scattered about. I started making my way to the boss room with the skill active, getting used to the feeling of mana flowing through my eyes and the way everything glowed.
While I was walking, I tried the mana reinforcement skill. I didn't choose any specific area to reinforce, so mana flooded my entire body. When I say that it was a rush to feel mana flowing through me, it feels like a vast understatement. It was a feeling of power, of assurance, of confidence, and of peace. I felt like I could run a marathon in record time without breaking a sweat, like I could lift a (small) car. It was breath taking. I laughed and ran to the boss room, running far faster than I had ever been able to before.
I had to deactivate my eye skill and the reinforcement when I got to the room because using them together was actually pretty mana intensive. I spent the few minutes using my sense life skill because it didn't take mana, getting a feel for the room ahead while my mana refilled.
The boss was alone, and he was stationary. I didn't get the sense that he was standing, maybe sitting? The reading I was getting from it was strange, it was life energy that I was sensing, but it was off somehow. I'm still not used to this skill, I'll need a lot more practice.
After a little bit, my mana was full up so I walked inside the boss room.
As usual a door appeared behind me and blocked my way out, but it didn't surprise me like it used to. The boss was indeed sitting down, on a large throne made of stone. I suddenly knew why the life signature was strange when I saw the boss. It was a skeleton, wearing dark brown leather armor with a metal breast plate. It had a sword and shield sitting on the ground next to its feet, looking freshly polished. As soon as the door closed, the skeleton stood up and grabbed the equipment and started walking slightly to the left of me. I didn't really understand what it was doing until it sheathed its sword into his shield and reached into a pouch it had on its waist and pulled out a slip of paper. I realized what it was doing about a second too late, my hastily cast mana bullet pinging off of its raised shield as it slapped the paper down on a few boulders I hadn't thought to make note of. As soon as the paper made contact, it seemed to sink into the stone and the boulders started lifting upwards, taking its first few steps. I started casting my frost bolts at it, catching it off guard, my tried and true strategy working efficiently after several hours of practice.
The frost quickly overtook it and I destroyed its legs with a mana blast, but I didn't try to finish it off. I was looking for the golemancer that had disappeared from my sight, but not my sense life. Since the mana bullet hadn't worked on its shield, i readied two lightning bolts as I ran to where I could sense the skeleton heading towards more rock formations. I found it about to make another golem as I let loose my spells on it, the two bolts headed towards its back with fairly good accuracy. I don't know how the skeleton knew my bolts where there, but it spun and raised its shield at the last second and blocked the two attacks with it.
It had probably been expecting more of the attacks it had blocked so easily last time, so when the electric spells hit the shield I could see it's body tense as the elemental effects ran through it. I rushed forward, pulling my bat out of my inventory and activating my mana reinforcement as I brought a mana strike infused attack down on its head. My arms shook with the impact, pain shooting up my hands all the way to my elbows, but the feeling of something giving way under my attack distracted me from the pain. The skeletons skull had shattered under the impact and its body crumbled to the ground, lifeless, before vanishing into light. I turned and saw the golem crawling towards me, before it too stopped. The spell tag rose out of the stone before falling to the floor. I guess without the mages magic keeping it active, it could no longer function.
I wandered back to where the mage had died, and saw that it had left it's armor behind, but no sword or shield. That's fine though, maybe I could get it to drop in another run through. I equipped the armor and was surprised to feel how comfortable it was. I had never really worn armor before, I guess I had just assumed it was all leather. Inside was a soft layer of cloth that helped with the comfort and added some insulation. The new gear fit wonderfully and I still had full range of motion, but the new weight would definitely take some getting used to. I looked around the room to try to locate the chest, and saw it had spawned at the foot of the stone throne.
I put it into my inventory and accepted the prompt the leave the dungeon, appearing safe and sound back in the lab. I went to the small bedroom in the back, unequipping my new gear as I went.
