Chapter 5: Dungeon Break
A few weeks has passed since Romeo's first dungeon. During that time, he has taken some guild's quests involving monster subjugation and doing daily training. He has went a few levels but it's seems that the higher the level, the more exp is needed to level up(which is to be expected). Everyone at the guild was surprised by his growth rate at first but they're all glad for him. Romeo is currently running on his last stretch of his daily training.
Wendy is walking through the city by with Carla. Even though it's been almost two months since she got back she still finds it hard to believe how much things have changed. The many shops and diners are no longer there. Some replaced by weapon shops or clinics while others were just gone. It was a sad sight, but it also show the resilience of human to be able to adapt to a world that grows more dangerous by the day.
"We should go home." Carla speaks. "There's not much to do anyway."
"Yeah." Wendy nods.
As they walk through the park, Wendy pick up a scent. It was nice, alluring even. She follows the scent, much to Carla's annoyance, and found Romeo drinking from a fountain.
Romeo is catching his breath. Just finished distributing his points, he open his stats screen mentally.
Level: 18
Str:48
-Lifting:420
-Striking/damage:450
-Stamina:450
Spd:48
-Travel/perception:440
-Combat/reaction:480
-Agility/reflex:480
Vit:49
-Health:15000/15000hp (regen 700hp/minute)
-Durability/defense:500
-Endurance/resistance:520
Int:51
-Learning/combat:540
-Wisdom/deduction:540
-Mana: 12000/12000mp (regen 1000mp/minute)
Ins:48
-Senses:440
-Charm/charisma:430
-Luck:400
Romeo looks satisfied, swiping the screen away. Quickly getting back to his feet, he noticed Wendy approaching.
"Hi." He greets her. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh just walking around." Wendy answered nervously. "What about you?"
"Just working out a bit. Keeping me strong you know?" Romeo smiles confidently.
Wendy stares. She can't explain why, but seeing Romeo smile like that just makes her heart beat faster.
"You're growing strong pretty fast huh?" Wendy quickly said, not wanting to look like an idiot.
"Too fast if you ask me." Carla chimes in.
"Well, what can I say, I got lucky and received one heck of an awakening." Romeo half-lied. He has tried to explain his story before, to warn everyone of the invasion, but found out that the burden makes it so he physically can't reveal anything. He can't talk, write, draw, he can't even make a coded mess of what happened. Only he can know about the invading forces of monster led by incredibly powerful beings and only he has the power to do something about it, so y'know, no pressure.
Before the conversation could continue, a sudden explosion on a nearby area caught all three's attention. Running to check what happened, they find the entire area filled with monsters. Powerful monsters that can only be found in a Gate dungeon.
Mages, some from surrounding guilds, some from the city's forces, some are independent, all rushing in to control the situation.
"What's going on?" Romeo asks one of the mages.
"Apparently Twilight Ogre decided it was smart to keep secret about a Gate dungeon, thinking they could clear it and reap the rewards by themselves. And well, you see what happened. Apparently it was a B-rank gate too." The mage answers before running off to fight.
"Shit." Romeo scream, before he noticed a confused and scared Wendy who's still following him with Carla not far behind her.
Realizing that she's most likely not understanding what's going on, he thought for a bit before decided to just tell it to her straight.
"A dungeon just break." He explained. "This happened when a Gate dungeon isn't cleared in time leading to the monsters inside grow strong enough to break through it. To fix this the dungeon's boss must be killed."
"What happened if we can't kill it?" Wendy asked worryingly.
"The monster will keep growing until the boss is killed or they completely destroys the city and move on. This has happened before." Romeo answered grimly.
"Earlier that man said it was a B-rank gate. What does that mean?" Carla asked, flying along side Wendy.
"It means to clear it you need at least 2 A rank mages and if it break you need a force full of A rank mages to contain the threat." Romeo explained.
As they move towards the Gate area, corpses can be seen throughout the streets. Wendy and Carla is horrified by the sight while Romeo, although disturbed, maintains his composure. While this is thanks to his blessings, he has seen enough sights like this over the years to not as affected by it as someone like Wendy.
Current objective: clear the raid. Reward: 20 stats points.
Monsters runs amok the area. Destroying building and hunting people. There's many types of monsters but the main force seems to be a group of reptiles people.
The mages tries to fight back, and are met with some success, but was quickly overwhelmed by the reptiles forces which are pushing them back. Just as the monster are about to push through the defense line, Romeo and Wendy appears.
Wendy provides healing along side some other healing mages in the area which wasn't much. Romeo summons his weapons and begins charging at the enemy. Using dash he's able to dodge the reptiles' attacks while landing hits of his own though they don't seem to cause much damage. Switching attacks he begins to use fatal strikes which was able to deal great damage to the enemy, even killed some of them. But the amount of enemy plus mana consumption of this attack means he can't keep this up forever even with his high mp and mp regeneration rate especially when used with dash and weapon reinforcement.
"Fire Dragon Roar"
Someone scream suddenly follows by a blast of fire.
"So this is what a Dungeon Break looks like. This looks fun, I'm all fired up now." Natsu and his team shows up to offer some much needed support.
"We mustn't waste time. Lucy, go help the injured. Everyone else, follow me." Erza commands, everyone follows.
This turns from a difficult situation to a winning fight at a shocking rate. With Natsu providing the firepower(heh), Gray creating an ice wall surrounding the area, Lucy with her summons offering extra support, and Erza aid in combat, the battle becomes much easier to manage. Everyone at Fairy Tails also gets to see Romeo in action and to say that they were impressed would be an understatement. Seeing Romeo fight with the skills and finesse of an experience warrior and the power that's almost on par with someone like Natsu, one can't help but wonder: how did he got so strong so fast and what are the limits of his growth?
The battle quickly reach its conclusion, with only some monsters that needs to be clear up remains. But the Gate is still open.
"Where's the boss?" Romeo wondered.
Suddenly from the Gate a green serpent creature walks out. It was bigger than the other reptile monsters and has a snake tongue hissing.
"Another one eh?" Natsu walks up. "Well let's finish this quickly. Fire Dragon Iron Fist."
"So you're the hunters that killed my forces." The monster caught Natsu's fist and begins to transform. It grows in height, its hands turns to claws, its scales hardened, fangs grows from its mouth and its face turns more dragon like.(Look up Record of Ragnarok Serpent for a better visual reference)
The transformed monster ram its claws into Natsu's abdomen, much to everyone's shock. It then toss him to the side, leaving him to bleed.
Romeo use assess
Boss
Jades, leader of the serpentine tribe
100,000hp
10,000 defense
5,000 damage
Romeo was dumbfounded. This can't be real. There's no way a B dungeon boss is this strong. Just 4 hits from this thing and he is done. But he can't let it do as it's please. Besides he's not alone.
Erza charge in with her Adamantine armor set and strike the monster.
-1000hp
Jades then suddenly disappeared from everyone's view. Before they could react, it strikes Erza in her back with its tail.
"You will make a fine addition as one of my servants." The creature spoke. "Or perhaps I could offer you as a tribute to the lord."
"Like I'd let that happen." Erza screams, swinging her sword around. Jades disappeared from sight and strikes her to a near by building.
"Don't act so rash. You're more valuable alive."
Before the monster could take another step however, a stab strike it to the side. It looks over, seeing Romeo just as he moves back.
-1050hp
"Asking for dead at such a young age? How sad." Jades disappeared, Romeo uses dash.
The monster proves to be the faster of the two as he quickly gets a hold of Romeo, throwing him to the side follows by a stab attack which Romeo barely managed to block, pouring most of his mp into reinforcing his blades.
The blades shattered however, and the attack lands.
-2000hp
The damage is reduced but is still significant, and Romeo is in pain.
"Not bad. I might've misjudged you, kid." Jades complements. "And now that I got a better look at you, I can feel there's something special about you. Like some forms of blessing."
Jades disappeared again. Romeo can't used dash in time and got hit.
-4500hp
Romeo grunts in pain, coughing up blood. Jades follows up with a tail attack.
-5000hp
hp drops below 30%. Increases all stats by 1000%.
Romeo panting, his body is broken.
"You're tough, kid. But that's all you have. Now I'm gonna-"
"Who do you serve?"Romeo interrupt.
"What?" Jades asks confused.
"Earlier you said something about a tribute to a lord. Who is it?" Romeo ask, trying to get as much information as possible. If he's gonna fall then he'll at least try to past some info to his guild.
"Who I serve is none of your concern."Jades said.
"But is your lord the one who create these Gates? Are they the one who wants to invade my world?" Romeo scream, somehow not stopped by his burden.
"Wait what?" The people nearby heard. "What are you talki-"
Suddenly, the world glitches.
"Who I serve is none of your concern." Jades said.
Romeo is confused. Until a message pops up.
Burden of Secrecy activated. Stronger measures will be in place to prevent something like this from happening again.
Romeo sigh, the he felt something strange. His body is overflowing with a feeling. Like he could perform a miracle right now.
"Fuck it. What do I got to lose." Romeo mumble, following this feeling, getting up for a final attack.
"All or nothing attack huh. I like those. The faces of disappointment and despair were always so priceless." Jades monologue, amused. "Tell ya what, why don't I let you get this hit in. I'm just gonna stand right here and do nothing. That will make the face you make afterwards even funnier."
Romeo feels patronize, but said nothing, channeling all his power into one attack. A fatal strike.
He rushes forward, Jades did not move. The attack lands, and suddenly, black lightning sparks flies over the place. Jades looks in agony for a second before being obliterated into millions of pieces. Romeo feels a sense of euphoria, a feeling of awakening, he can feel his magic like he was the magic itself.
-1,767,766,951hp
You've leveled up.
Objective complete. You've gained 20 stats points
Achievement unlocked: lightning in a bottle
Achievement unlocked: against the odds
New skill acquired: magic understanding
New job acquired: master of all crafts
You've gained a skill rune stone
You've receive a message
Acquired 10 serpentine scales
Acquired 10 serpentine fangs
"Huh?" Romeo said, dumbfounded, everyone else share the same expression.
"What just happened?" Wendy spoke up, she's currently healing Natsu, who's recovered enough to stand, with the help of some other healers.
"What the heck was that!?" Natsu scream, rushing towards Romeo. Everyone else follows, bombarding him with questions.
"So yeah. I just felt like I could make a miracle hit and just went with it." Romeo explained once things calm down. "I don't think I can do it again anytime soon though."
"Perhaps it has something to do with the blessing that monster mentioned." Erza guess.
"Maybe." Romeo replied half-lying.
"Maybe that's why your grow in power is so fast." Carla guess.
Romeo smile awkwardly.
"Well who cares. Now that that's over, let's party." Natsu cheers. No one argues, everyone could use a drink right now.
After the whole incident, Twilight Ogre was forced to closed while Fairy Tails was rewarded handsomely for their contribution in stopping the monsters. Enough so they could get their old hall back and still has plenty to spare. Everyone parties. Romeo was swarmed with so many questions and attention throughout that it was physically draining him.
Romeo managed to sneak away and have some alone time to check on his stats. He was still injured from the fight. Wendy has offered to heal him but he refused, saying that there are others needed it more than he does. After using the Skill Rune Stone, he open the menu screen.
Player
Romeo Conbolt
Money:205,459 jewels
Level:25
Job: Master of All Crafts
Str:70
-Lifting:700
-Striking/damage:750
-Stamina:790
Spd:72
-Travel/perception:750
-Combat/reaction:790
-Agility/reflex:750
Vit:76
-Health:25,000/90,000hp (regen 2,000hp/minute)
-Durability/defense:810
-Endurance/resistance:830
Int:75
-Learning/combat:810
-Wisdom/deduction:790
-Mana: 15,000/70,000mp (regen 1,900mp/minute)
Ins:70
-Senses:720
-Charm/charisma:750
-Luck:700
Abilities:
Passive:
-Health regeneration: regenerate your hp base on your vitality.
-Mana regeneration: regenerate your mp base on your intelligence.
-Item box: a storage area where items you put in won't be affected by time.
-Will of the survivor: if your hp gets below 30%, increase all your stats by 1000%.
-Swordsmanship: you can wield a blade with the expertise of a train swordsman.
-Duel wielding: you can wield weapons in both hands for combat.
-Nocturnal eyes: you can see in the dark.
-Magic understanding and control: you gain a level of understanding and control of your own magic that only a rare few can reach. Your mp requirements for skills is reduced by half.
Active:
-Dash: cost 50mp to activate and 5mp for every minutes it's used. Increase your speed by 50%.
-Assess: cost 5mp. Allow you to view information of your enemy or an item.
-Weapon recall: cost 5mp. You can summon your weapons to your hand anytime you like.
-Fatal strike: cost 100mp. Land a critical strike that deal significant damage to your enemy.
-Weapon reinforcement: increase your weapons' toughness. The toughness increases depends on how much mp was used.
-Serpent scales: cost 150mp to active and 15mp for every minutes it's used. Create a snake-like scale body cover that increases 50% of your defense.
Blessings:
The Honored One: you exude an aura of power. Increase others affection for you.
A Perfect Body: a body that's built to thrive in all types of situations. You're now immune to all forms of negative physical status effects.(You can still feel some effects of the attack.)
A True Hero's Heart: you're capable of staying true to your heroic values even in a world that actively corrupts it. You're now immune to all forms of emotional attacks and manipulation.(You can still feel some effects of the attack.)
A True King's Mind: you're able to take charge and make tough decisions in difficult situations without succumbing to the pressure. You're now immune to all forms of mental illness, attacks and manipulation.(You can still feel some effects of the attack.)
A True Saint's Soul: your soul will always remain pure. You're now immune to all forms of soul corruption, attacks and manipulation.(You can still feel some effects of the attack.)
Burdens:
Burden of secrecy: you cannot reveal your power as well as Bladewolfe's existence to anyone. This will also prevent anyone from extracting this information.
Achievements:
Lightning In A Bottle: successfully landing a black flash for the first time. Gain magic understanding
Against the Odds: defeat an enemy that completely out classes you. Gain Master of All Crafts
Black Flash: if magic enhancements is applied within 0.0000001 of a second after landing a physical strike, the attack's power is amplified to the power of 2.5. Landing a Black Flash will let you enter a state of being calls "The Zone" for a short period of time. In this state, you will experience increase euphoria and controlling your magic will become second nature to you, reducing mp cost to 1 for all skills. Black Flash cannot be use on command. You can increase your chances of landing a Black Flash, but Black Flash is not a skill you can learn.
Master of All Crafts: you can have multiple jobs at once and have them at the highest class.
"Black Flash is fucking OP." Was Romeo's first thought after reading all of this. He also noticed how his stats also increased at a much higher rate than before. It seems the higher the level, the more exp is needed to level up, but in return the more stats you gain too. Romeo suddenly remember that he received a message. Open it, it plays a video message from Bladewolfe.
"Hey Romy. I'm sure you're wondering what just happened earlier. Well long answer short, your violation of the burden should have had you punished, but a glitch in the system turns the punishment into miracle which lets you land the Black Flash. Now normally I'd punish you for this but since I'm enjoying your story and no harm was done, I decided to let it slide, this time, don't expect something like this again. I know things might get desperate and you feel like there's no other option, but try not to go for the easy way as the first thing you do ok? Also I know you were dark but I didn't know you were a rule breaker too? Man you're one edgy kid.(Bladewolfe laugh) Anyway take care. Peace."
Romeo sigh, rubbing his forehead. Bladewolfe is right though, he can't be so negative at the first sign of great danger, that'll get him nowhere.
Needing to clear his head, he decided to go shopping.
Money:205,459 jewels
Level up.
That's how Romeo describe the state of the Bazaar once he enters it. The once broken down stalls now replace with small buildings with professionally made signs on the front. The inside looks homely with items display throughout the building, like someone turns their house into a store. It wasn't much, but it's definitely better than what it used to be.
"You look like shit, kid. What happened?" Sylvia said as Romeo approached her store.
"Dungeon got out of hand." Romeo answered. "Seems like things got remodeled around here huh?" He observed.
"Yup. Thanks to you." Sylvia smiled. She then tossed a bottle towards Romeo.
"Here." She yells. "On the house. Consider it as a gift of appreciation."
Romeo catch the bottle which was a potion of some kind. Assess
Advance healing potion-A potion: can heal critical injuries and accelerate the healing process at a rapid rate.
This reminds Romeo of something.
"How come the items rank I bought the other day don't seem to match the difficulty of the monster?" He asked. (If you're wondering what he's talking about, remember Romeo bought two A-rank items and two B-rank swords and they did nothing against the B-ranked dungeon boss)
"Well why don't you look at the item ranks again?" Sylvia suggest.
Bracelet of Dawn-C item
Rings of the Elements-C item
"What?" Romeo confused.
"You could thank Bladewolfe for that. He has the system's ranking completely out of sync with your world's ranking. It just got fixed." Sylvia explained.
Romeo's eyes twitch. There's no knowing what he feels right now. He takes a deep breath, then sighs, rubbing his forehead. Deciding to let that go, he looks back at his gift.
"Are you sure you want to give me something this valuable?" He asked.
"Don't sweat it kid." Sylvia assured. "I actually have a lot of businesses going on right now thanks to you so giving something like this ain't gonna hurt much."
"How do you get more business?" Romeo asked, putting the potion away in his item box. "I'm the only player around right?"
"Wandering traders." Sylvia answered. "Thats all you're gonna get until you level up."
Realizing he's not gonna get anything else, Romeo thanked Sylvia for the gift, then leave.
Wanting to check out the new stores(and to avoid Mia and Richard), Romeo walk straight to a store that's made of bricks and has smokes flying off the chimney. Weapons and armor on display in the front, Romeo figure that this is a weapon shop of some kind.
Walking through the entrance, Romeo see no one attending right now. He was about to call for someone when suddenly a voice screams out.
"Gimme a seicont laddie." A deep Scottish male voice coming from the forge area.
A small man walks out, covered in ash and smoke. He was shorter than Romeo with a muscular build. He has long grey beard and no hair. One of his eyes seems to be permanently closed and he's only dressed in a brown, tattered pants.
"Whit kin ah dae fur ye young laddie? Leekin fur some weapons? Some armor? Weel ye'r in luck mah laddie. Ye'r in th' best forge in toun." The man said cheerfully.
"More like the only forge in town." Romeo thought, but he smiled, liking this man already.
"Yes." Romeo answered. "I have materials ready too if that helps mr.?"
"Ca' me Steinn. Th' best dwarven blacksmith in th' merkat. 'N' ye said ye hae materials duin laddie? Och that wull hulp nicely. Save ye loads o' dosh ah tell ye that." Steinn laugh heartily.
Romeo pulls out the burning poison stinger from his first dungeon fight and all his serpentine scales and serpentine fangs.
"Quite th' loots ye git thare." Steinn amazed. "Th' scales 'n' fangs wull mak' ferr th' armor 'n' th' stinger wull mak' a deedly blade. Dae ye hae ony specific request laddie?"
"Nothing for the armor." Romeo answered. "But if possible I want a short sword made."
Romeo don't know why, but he finds short sword to be his best weapon of choice for some reason.
"Of coorse laddie. That's child's gam fur me. Noo keekin at th' tot cost a'd say 80,000 jewels total." Steinn answers.
Romeo accept quite readily. He doesn't know why but something about Steinn just endears him. Maybe it's his accent, his energetic demeanor, or his friendly attitude, but Romeo looks forward to future meetings with Steinn.
Money:125,459 jewels
"Here ye gang laddie. A' duin tae slay some monsters." Steinn offers the new armor and weapon.
Serpant chest plate-A armor : add 150 defense and absorb poison attacks.
Scorpion's bane-A weapon: add 200 attack and dealt fire and poison effects on the enemy.
"Now this is A rank weapons." Romeo thought.
"This is great." Romeo look at Steinn. "Thank you."
"Anytime laddie. Come back fur upgrade, repair, freish weapons or if ye juist wantae chat." Steinn wave goodbye then walk back to his forge.
Romeo said goodbye, then left. Going to the last new store, which is a library.
"Greetings." The store keeper, or the librarian in this case, greeted Romeo. She looks around the same age as Romeo and just as tall. She wears a white dress with white long hair and slightly pointy ears similar to an elf.(Look up Emilia from Re:zero)
"I'm Aria, keeper of this library." She introduced. "We offer books with stories of many genres, knowledge of many subjects, and many skills of magic. What can I get for you?"
"I'm looking for more skills to aid in combat." Romeo answered excitedly.
"Wonderful. Follow me." Aria smiles.
Inside, Aria sets up a list of books with magic skills in them. They're all offered great skills are perfect addition to his arsenal. The problem?
"The cheapest one here is 100,000 jewels!?" Romeo thought, shocked.
All of them are expensive. Ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of jewels. The 100,000 jewels book is a flash spells book, used for distraction. Useful but Romeo needs long range attack skills. He was gonna call it quits and leave but then realized that he's giving up too easily, something he's trying to change. Looking around, trying to think up a solution, Romeo noticed that on bookshelf that has most of the skill books lies a ragged book with a fire drawing on the cover. Approaching it and picking it up, he was stopped by Aria who has been watching on the side.
"You wouldn't want that skill." Aria said.
"And why is that?"
"That book is an old skill book. No one has used it for centuries now because of how hard it is to use. It's a fire creating skill but to effectively use it you need a good understanding and control of magic, otherwise you'll just be a mana wasting candlestick or an uncontrollable fire monster of mass destruction. I've wanted to get rid of it but at the same time find it's a waste to throw a way something so old since most fire skills today originated from it."
Romeo thought it was a shame until.
"Wait, I have a skill for that in my arsenal." He realized.
"If I were to get this skill, how much would it cost?" He ask.
Aria looks surprised.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"...50,000 jewels."
"Ok that's still high but more manageable." Romeo thought.
"I'll take it"
"Are you certain, sir?"
"Yes."
The two remain silent for a moment, before Aria relent. The two make the exchange.
Money:75,459 jewels
You've acquired the skill Fire Maker
Fire Maker: you can create and control fire to your liking. The strength of your fire depends on how much mp you use to create it.
Looking around for bit, Romeo turns to Aria.
"So where can I test this out?" He ask.
"Give me a moment." Aria sigh, then cast a spell. "This whole building is now fire proof. Go nuts."
And Romeo did. He created a blast of fire and tries to control it. Struggling at first, he quickly gained the hang of things. He created fire walls, shot blasts of fire, coating his blade in fire, control the path of the fire, increasing and decreasing the fire's strength and finally extinguished it. Aria watched on in silence.
"How?" She asked once Romeo is done, awestruck.
"I've landed a Black Flash." Romeo response.
"I see." Aria realized. "I've should've charged you more then"
"I'm glad you didn't." Romeo jokes.
"I'm glad that skill finally got a new user." Aria smiles.
"I'll make sure to put it to good use." Romeo promised.
"Thank you."
The two said their goodbyes, and Romeo left the bazaar.