February 10th/2023
Queens New York
It was late when Morgan set out for another dungeon after selling a lot of items and getting a nice amount of cash that he was saving. So, at the moment Morgan is dressed in his rat-skin uniform and managed to stay out of sight of several people thanks to using two skills he purchased from the Gamer Store
[Sneak] has leveled up! Level: 11-12!
[Parkour] has leveled up! Level: 9-10!
"Finally, here." Morgan said as he slid down a rail from the side of a building and stood in front of the dungeon entrance. The entrance was a closed corner store several blocks away from his home and in a not so good neighborhood.
Morgan got behind the store and saw another alert about the dungeon before he entered through the opened back entrance.
[You are about to enter 'Ratmen Den 2' and the recommended level is 8! Would you like to enter the dungeon? Y/N]
"Let's do this." Morgan said to himself before he hit the yes button and entered the store. It took a moment before Morgan found the way to proceed. He moved a box of chocolates on a shelf near the restroom and saw the restroom door get raised up and revealed an elevator door in its place.
Morgan quickly equipped his new gear as he sold the batons and other stuff, he looted from the Ratmen and got some cheap clubs from the Gamer Store. The clubs were basic and unenhanced wooden clubs. So, summoned one in his hand before he entered the elevator and pressed the down button before he got lowered beneath the store itself.
When the elevator opened, Morgan saw that he was once again in a stonework hallway lit up by candles. Now, Morgan started moving down the hall and came up to a room with three fledgling Ratmen that he quickly eliminated with his club.
However, the difference to this dungeon was the fact that he saw a map on the wall of the place and the wall told Morgan that this was the first floor of three levels below the surface.
"Lovely. Also, I need keycards to open the doors to the other floors. And each floor is practically a maze." Morgan said with a sigh before he headed down one of the separate hallways of this center room and bashed his way through a handful of other Ratmen before he entered a room where he saw a few dead Hydra members.
You have leveled up! Level: 5-6-7! You have gained 5 SP and 1 PP for a total of 20 SP and 4 PP! Your HP and MP have been fully restored!
"I got a level a day or so ago and now these higher-level rat monsters are giving me more experience points to use. I guess I have a moment to finally check out my stats." Morgan said before he mentally summoned his status screen.
[Status Screen
Name: Morgan Waylen, Race: Human, Age: 17
Title: The Gamer, Karma: Neutral, Level: 7 [55/1,200]
HP: 396/420, MP: 112/112
Strength: 8, Constitution: 6, Vitality: 5
Dexterity: 7, Intelligence: 13, Wisdom:6
Charisma: 9, Luck: 30
Stat Points: 20, Perk Points: 4
End]
"Okay now let's start allocating points." Morgan said to himself while thinking about what the best thing for him to upgrade was.
SP: 20
STR: 8-4-12
DEX: 7-5-12
CON: 6-7-12
VIT: 5-5-10
SP: 0
Your HP and MP have increased!
"Okay my stats are good physically speaking. Now onto perks." Morgan said before he used up his four perk points.
[Renaissance Man, Passive Rank-MAX
You are a man of many talents when it comes to creating things with your hands. Weapons, armor, ammo, misc items and many more can now be crafted and now you can loot schematic and blueprints from enemies and purchase them from the Gamer Store!
Crafting success is boosted by 120%]
[Natural Armor, Passive Rank-1
Your body is strong and tough enough to take abuse from all forms of damage now. The damage you receive is now reduced by 13%]
[Natural Armor] has ranked up! It is now Rank 2!
[One-Handed Striker, Passive Rank-1
You have trained yourself to fight with one handed weapons more efficiently, even when you dual wield them. One-handed weapons now deal 10% more damage and ignore 13% of enemy armor.]
PP: 0
"Awesome. But now that I am looking at my stats, I shouldn't be able to cast Earth Bullet as much as I can. So, what gives?" Morgan asked himself before looking over his perks and saw the perk that allowed him to use earth magic so well.
[Gaia's Blessing, Passive/Active Rank-MAX
You have been blessed by mother earth and gained the power to become her mighty champion, given time for you to mature into one. Earth magic spell cost is reduced by 50%
Earth magic spell effectiveness is increased by 75%]
"Holy shit this skill is busted." Morgan said to himself before he closed the game screens and looked the room over a bit and looted the Hydra members of their items. In the process, Morgan noticed one item that would prove very useful.
1x First Floor Key Card
"Nice." Morgan said before he left the room and was about to head to the second floor, however a new thought crossed his mind. "I should clear out this place entirely. Get the loot and make sure no Ratmen escape."
Now after saying that, Morgan goes throughout the various halls and rooms of the first floor before clearing them out of Ratmen entirely, as well as getting some more notes on project Sparda. So, when he gets to the door to the next floor, Morgan takes a moment to sell some loot and starts buying some new items from the Gamer Store.
1x Spear Mastery Skill Book
4x Lesser HP Potions
4x Lesser MP Potions
1x Earth Spear Skill Book
1x Earth Wall Skill Book
"The only things that cost me a lot of money were the skill books. The potions were cheap and plentiful." Morgan said before he learned the skills from the skill books.
[Spear Mastery, Active Level: 1
People have fought with various weapons, but a spear is an age-old favorite for many fighters. It is a strong thrusting weapon and usable in narrow passageways unlike swords and axes of a certain size.
Increases Thrusting damage by 20%]
[Earth Spear, Active Level: 1
Tier: 1
You have learned to harness the elements of earth to create a spear that can be thrown at enemies or used as a makeshift weapon.
Deals: 125% Thrusting Damage
Cost: 50 MP
Thrown Range: Based on STR!
Summon limit: 1!
Duration: 60 Seconds.]
[Earth Wall, Active Level: 1
Tier: 1
By harnessing the power of earth, you can create a wall of rock in front of you to act as a shield from attacks.
Cost: 50 MP
Durability: 20/20
Summon limit: 1]
Due to learning three earth-based spells, you have earned the [Lesser Earth Movement] skill!
[Lesser Earth Movement, Active Level: 1
You can control and manipulate a small amount of earth in order to create spells or manipulate earth-based spells and change their properties.
Earth based magic is reduced by 2%]
"Looks like I'm becoming an earth mage." Morgan said with a smile, but he did note that his spells now had tiers placed on them and in the store, tiers went from cheap to new car levels of expensive.
[After a recent update, there is now a Tier system in place for magic spells and incantations. Tiers range from 1-10 with 10 being elder god levels of powerful, but you're not ready for that level of power yet.]
"I'm going to ignore that snide comment for a moment and just say thank you." Morgan said before he proceeded down to the next floor of the den.
This floor acted as something akin to a science lab and it was just as large as the first floor, and while walking down a hallway, Morgan saw his first real threat in the Ratmen ranks.
Ratmen Gatling, Level: 10
The Ratmen let out an evil laugh before it fired its large and almost steampunk style minigun towards Morgan who acted fast and activated his new skill.
"Earth Wall!" A wall of solid rock burst out of the ground in front of Morgan through a golden magic circle and blocked the shots from the gatling gun of Warpstone bullets. Sadly, the wall was degrading fast, so Morgan cast the spell again three times over before he quickly charged up his Earth Bullet spell. When he heard the Ratmen's gatling gun stop, Morgan quickly moved past his walls and fired the solid mass of rock at the rat's head and took it clean off.
1x Ratmen Gatling Slain! EXP 350!
"Nice chunk of EXP but it was not really worth it." Morgan said before he noticed a strange set of objects deposited into his inventory.
1x Warpstone Eye
1x Warpstone Ore
1x Warpstone Laced Whip
Morgan looked the items over in his inventory and was disgusted at what he saw. Warpstone is given the perfect name because exposure to it will warp a person's mind and mutate their body in horrible ways because it is basically condensed Chaos Magic which isn't something normal living creatures can handle.
Morgan quickly sold the items and made his way across the second floor before finding another note and another access card.
To: Sinthea Shmidt
Our progess with Ratmen has been promising, but there has been a problem with their development. They seem to have started rebelling against orders, they have demonstrated some level of willpower in order to fight against the audio controlling instructions that have been affecting them.
I believe this bares some more investigation. If Ratmen overpopulate before we can solve this issue, we will be in serious danger of dealing with armed rats. Our experiments with them have also developed some enhanced and stronger Ratmen than normal, and their ability to manipulate Warpstone has also changed based on their mutations.
Lastly, Ratmen have been talking and communicating with each other frequently, but when near humans they clam up and only respond the way they think we would like them to. I believe that a rebellion might already be in the works, and I humbly request some reinforcements for the designated dens. Call me cautious or even cowardly, but having more men fight against armed rats would be more then welcome and wise.
"So, that's why I keep finding the corpses. I had a guess about a rebellion, but this just confirms it and makes me a bit worried about the rats I might find." Morgan said to himself before he left the room and when he did, he suddenly saw that he was ambushed by several Ratmen.
Five fledglings, two warriors and another new rat.
Ratmen Chaos Caster, Level: 13
Cheese Hoarder
The two warriors were armed in what looked like reinforced imitations of Morgan's own armor and the caster was wearing a long robe with a wooden staff with a Warpstone ore on top of the gem.
"Kill-slay him!" The caster ordered with his staff raised as Morgan quickly equipped the metal spear he got from the last dungeon and decided to start levelling up the newly acquired skill he got and started spearing and parrying the Ratmen hoard he was fighting against.
Morgan understandably took a few hits, but he managed to slay the Ratmen forces before the caster snarled in anger before the tip of his staff started cackling with sickly green sparks of electricity.
"Earth Wall!" Morgan cast as the Ratmen fired his lightning spell. It nearly shattered the wall as Morgan put his spear into his inventory before he activated Earth Spear, and summoned a spear made of solid rock in his hand. He leapt to the side as his wall shattered from another green electric spell; Morgan then pulled back and threw the spear as hard as he could towards the Ratmen and by the grace of the gods, his spear went straight through the Ratmen's skull.
The Ratmen's body or more specifically their bones were flexible but not as sturdy as a normal human's bone structure. Morgan knew that was the only reason his spear did the job. If anything, this showed him that he needed more power in his physical stats.
[Earth Wall] has leveled up! Level: 1-2
[Spear Mastery] has leveled up! Level: 1-2-3
"At least I got some loot to sell and a good portion of experience points." Morgan said to himself with a critical eye as he now paid more attention to his surroundings before making his way to the next locked doorway to the last floor.
Morgan tore through a few more Ratmen in the process and disarmed a few traps which earned him the following rewards.
[Trap Unarming] has leveled up! Level: 2-3!
[Spear Mastery] has leveled up! Level: 3-4!
[Earth Bullet] has leveled up! Level: 3-4-5!
You have leveled up! Level: 7-8! You have earned 5 SP and 1 PP! All your HP and MP have been fully restored!
"I'll save the perk point but let's more on my physical stats again." Morgan said to himself before summoning up his stat sheet again and started allocating points.
SP: 5
STR: 12-15
DEX: 12-14
SP: 0
"Still nothing to special." Morgan told himself since he hardly even noticed a small amount of muscle form on his body before he proceeded down to the last floor. The last floor was another lab, but it was eerily empty of Ratmen and just had several corpses.
"This is creepy."
Morgan proceeded through the empty halls but found nothing special until he made his way to a sealed door that opened with the keycards he collected. When the door opened, Morgan saw a massive football stadium sized room of mechanical design and standing in the center of the room was a cloaked figure that was the same size as a Ratmen.
You have entered the Boss room!
"Clever man-thing. Making your way down here to the final floor." The cloaked rat said as Morgan walked up to the rat with his metal spear being held in one hand.
"I almost didn't make it here. You rats put down a lot of traps and ambushes in this place." Morgan replied through his cloaked and distorted voice.
"Members of the Skaven must be clever and tricky to kill-slay you man-things. But, in this world, Skaven can do more." The rat said before Morgan noticed the information above his head and that the floor between himself and the rat had started opening and releasing mechanical noises.
Canven, Level: 12
Warplock Engineer
"Thanks to man-things technology. I learned to create new powers for ogre-brothers." Canven said with a sinister chuckle before a figure emerged from the rising floor in front of Morgan, causing him to take a few steps back and see a towering rat monster in front of him.
The rat was a miniature hulk in terms of size and muscles, but it has a two mechanical arms and back legs, with a tail lined with sharp razors and in the center of its body is a mechanical device that reminded Morgan of a jet turbine, except it was infinitely smaller.
Bio-Mechanical Rat Ogre, Level: 14
Experiment 22.1
"Have fun man-thing. Kill-slay him!" The rat said before the rat suddenly vanished in a sickly green light. The rat ogre charged at Morgan, forcing him to dodge to the right as Morgan thrusted his spear into the leg of the rat ogre. But the spear just bounced off and Morgan was sent tumbling down to the ground when he was hit with the rat ogre's spiked tail.
The force sent him down and the spikes on the tail went through his piss-poor armor and seriously hurt Morgan.
You have been inflicted with [Lesser Bleeding]!
"Fuck!" Morgan shouted before rolling out of the way of the ogre's punch aimed for his head and saw a massive hole form in the ground now. So, Morgan held his spear firmly and decided to start fighting a bit smarter and put his spear away into his inventory.
"Earth Shot!" Morgan shouted and started spamming the spell repeatedly before realizing that attacking with his type of spell wasn't effective as the ogre kept swinging at him and sadly, Morgan wasn't fast enough to dodge all the hits and ended up getting thrown against a wall. He lost a lot of HP and quickly went into his Inventory and took out both a HP and MP potion and quickly chugged down at the same time.
He felt his health and mana start to regenerate before he evaded the ogre's charge and caused the massive monster to run headfirst into the wall making it stagger itself for a moment.
"Let's try that." Morgan said before casting Earth Shot again but this time he aimed at the mechanical core of the ogre and saw that it released sparks and received some damage from the strike. The ogre visibly backed itself against the wall in pain, but Morgan didn't let up and kept spamming the spell until the core of the ogre exploded and took a large chunk of the monster's chest with it.
The ogre fell to the ground and Morgan rushed over before taking his metal spear out of his inventory and thrust it down spear first into the monster's skull to make double and triple sure that the beast was dead.
1x Rat Ogre Slain! EXP 1,200
[Earth Bullet] has leveled up! Level: 5-6-7-8!
1x [Rat Fur Long Coat] has been broken!
You have earned one of three possible rewards to choose from!
1x Assassins Greece Chest Piece
2x Rat Ogre Skull Caestus
3x Warriors Fleece Lion Cloak
"The chest piece is good, but I can just buy one and I'm not getting a fist weapon made from the rat that almost killed me, despite how cool it would be. So, option three it is." Morgan said as he selected the third option and got equipped with the cloak.
It was made from bright white fur that was loose and silky to the touch, while the inside of the cloak was made from sturdy leather material. The hood was in the shape of a lion's head and when the robe closed, it could conceal Morgan's entire body with ease, and to top it all off. The cloak was also considered a piece of armor and granted him a lot more protection compared to his rat fur and skin armor.
"Time to see what else I can learn from this place." Morgan said with exhaustion before he made his way to the room at the end of this boss area and found more files and paperwork about project Sparda, however he also found information about specific hero targets and the times when they are vulnerable.
"This is bad. The attack is coming faster than I thought it would and I'm nowhere near strong enough to help yet. I need to start power levelling in these dungeons." Morgan said to himself before he gathered everything he could before leaving the dungeon.
February 11th/2023
Queens New York
"Okay my first step in advancing should be to get better gear." Morgan told himself while sitting on his bed in his room. He accessed the gamer store and sold several items before getting some better loot that was within his price range.
1x Mercenaries Greek Chest Piece
1x Mercenaries Greek Greaves
1x Mercenaries Greek Gauntlets
1x Mercenaries Corinthian Helmet
"Okay these should give me a lot more protection than before. Also, I levelled up my Spear Mastery and my Blunt Weapon Mastery so I should get a skill book or two for those skills, but instead of doing that I could try and develop the skills on my own by buying a magic skill book that doesn't revolve around earth magic."
1x Alteration Skill Book
[Alteration Magic, Passive Level: 1
You are studying the art of Alteration, which allows you to change the properties of your magic and the world around you. This skill allows you to gain access to Tier 1 spells in Alteration. Higher Tiers of magic will be available after this skill reaches certain levels.]
[Bronze Skin, Active Level: 1
Tier: 1
You have learned the age-old spell from Spartan magic casters and are now able to gain the defensive power of bronze metal for a short time.
Duration: 60 seconds.
Cost: 20 MP
Grants: 15 Armor]
[Weapon Reinforcement, Active Level: 1
Tier: 1
You have learned how to harness pure mana into a weapon in order to make it stronger and deal more damage.
Duration: 40 seconds.
Cost: 20 MP
Increases weapon damage types by 12%]
"Okay more power and now I can reinforce my body and weapons. I probably should have done this earlier but now I learned my lesson about being cheap with protective armor and weapons." Morgan said to himself with grim memories about his recent boss fight and how close he had gotten to getting killed.
A sentient mind has tried to connect with you. Would you like to establish a connection to this being? Y/N?
"That…Isn't something I expected to see today." Morgan said with concern about this message and slowly hit the yes button to see just who could possibly try and reach his mind.
Then suddenly a golden light emerged on the back of Morgan's hand and took the shape of a tree with many branches.
"Greetings child. You have been fighting against the forces of dark for a few days, and yet I can't help but notice that you are still willing to fight against it. You've almost embraced death itself, so why persist?" a mysterious and angelic voice said within Morgan's mind before he responded.
"I don't know who you are but the reason I'm fighting these monsters is because nobody else knows about them or the attack on the city that is coming up. If I try to give this information to the police without any kind of backup or anything, they'll write me off as crazy. So, I need to fight and get stronger so I can get the attention of a hero and tell them everything that is going on."
"You have heart child; I will admit that much. However, your brush with death would mean that I would have to wait a while before being able to choose another champion, and that wouldn't be ideal for the world or its people."
"Wait…Are you Gaia?"
"I am. I have been partnered with many warriors throughout the ages of mankind's evolution and frankly I'm…Distressed and concerned about how much the dark god has interfered with this world."
"A dark god? Like Hades or the devil?"
"No child. The dark god I speak of is something much worse. Consider him similar to the stories you've heard about a monster called Cthulhu. In any case I am speaking to you because Hydra has been using Warpstone with reckless abandon and are going to bring about untold destruction unless you put a stop it."
"That's the plan. But why did you choose me to get this power? There must have been better choices for you to choose from."
"The reason I choose you child; is because of your heart. I've seen it and I know that you wouldn't abuse this power for selfish gain or to try and rule the world. Even more important than that is the fact that you respect the power you have and don't think that you deserve it from some abstract ideal of pride or arrogance."
"You make it sound like you've have a bad experience with people like that."
"I have sadly. As I've said, I've been partnered with many warriors, mages and people who just see my power as nothing more than their birthright. I can't remove the power from them, but I could lock them out of certain abilities. Even in those extreme cases, they were stubborn, and it got them killed."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't be. Through them I have seen the world. I have seen much darkness, but I have also seen the light and hope that people can create. Which is why I am allowing you to use a power that only a rare few have been able to use."
There has been a new DLC downloaded onto your system. You can now access the [Coliseum] via the [Dungeon Traversal] perk you have unlocked.
"This skill will allow you to enter and exit the [Coliseum] dimension I have created back when the world was still new. Think of it as a place where you will fight strong monsters for powerful rewards and experience in order to level yourself up and level up your skills. Time will move while you're in the dimension, but at an altered speed. Basically, time will move faster for you in the [Coliseum] while time in this reality stays the same."
"Like hell from DC comics?"
"Exactly."
"Well thank you Gaia…Ma'am…Goddess?" Morgan struggled with what to call the deity, who simply chuckled in response.
"You can just call me Gaia."
"Thank you, Gaia. I promise I won't let you down and that I'll live up to your expectations." Morgan said before the connection between them was cut off, and Morgan saw the mark on his hand fade away.
END
A/N: Wooo another chapter done and now Gaia makes herself known to her champion and gives him a little reward for being a good exterminator. So, who is the dark god that Gaia mentions? What are the Ratmen and Hydra going to be doing? Will Morgan become strong enough to save the day?
Stay tuned and find out.
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