“Hey, he’s back!”
“Wow, so soon… I wonder how many statues he killed?”
“Quick, ask him to join our group!”
“Hey, we’ll pay you more than them if you join us for the dungeon!”
Jay left the dungeon and found himself in a small crowd. He calmly walked through the crowd of desperate adventurers, ignoring them completely.
Many adventurers wondered why he was doing this dungeon solo, surely he could make much better progress if he was teaming up with others - but little did they know, Jay had his own reasons.
“I can’t party with them anyway, otherwise they will find out about my class…” He didn’t care too much about being alone, as his class more than made up for it.
Still, he was feeling a little disappointed, but to the other adventurers he actually looked quiet and confident as he walked through the crowd around him.
“...so cool…” an adventurer quietly said as Jay walked by, gazing at his deathwalker sentry shield which was still equipped.
“It must be a super rare drop… oh fuck, I think it’s looking at me!” Another adventurer grabbed her friend's arm as she stared at Jay’s shield. For some reason, it sent shivers up her spine.
Jay totally forgot he had his shield out, so he immediately stored it away.
People couldn’t analyse the shield unless he gave it to them, and of course, he would never do that, so he was safe - but it would be better to hide the demonic-looking item anyway, lest rumours spread.
“I should pick up some supplies and check on Trenly as I pass through town” Jay thought about his next steps as he walked by without even looking at most of the adventurers. His mind may as well have been in another world.
As he walked, the crowd gave way to him, forming a large circle around him as if he had a barrier spell.
It was like he was an untouchable prince, but he didn’t even notice people were treating him like this as he left the area through the ruined gateway, heading into the forest on the north side of Losla.
Matheson found the mining camp in the silt-wolf dungeon.
“Hmm, seems like I’ll need to carry this lamp,” he held it in his free hand.
Using up a hand to carry the lamp was fine for Matheson, as he used a one-handed rapier. His other hand was usually free; though sometimes he would use it to punch, but that was a rare occurrence.
Matheson’s sword had a ruby gem socketed into it, it emitted faint red glowing wisps of its aura every so often. It glowed slightly, but not enough to provide adequate light for him to see, so the lamp was still necessary.
“I will need to get a luminous orb from home.” he realised he may need this for future dungeons.
Matheson just entered the [Wolf Quarry] dungeon, and after thoroughly inspecting the mining camp, he began to follow the pressed-dirt path which ran alongside a deep river.
Suddenly, something stirred in the dark waters.
“...” Matheson squinted at a pair of golden eyes popping up from the slow-moving underground river to stare at him.
Without incident, the massive golden eyes retreated back under the water surface.
“...” he waited a moment to make sure it disappeared.
“pathetic weakling…” he sneered - albeit quietly.
Matheson slowly walked down the path, taking care and creeping along very slowly. To his knowledge, this was the safest way to do a dungeon by yourself.
Matheson was alone, so he had to be extra cautious. A dungeon like this was meant to be done by a group of at least three adventurers after all.
Soon he came to a narrow path that entered into the cave wall. Walking into it, he checked behind every single crack and every stalagmite as he went - and soon enough, he found his first enemy.
Behind a large boulder, a silt wolf was crouching as it waited for a chance to ambush a passer-by.
As it noticed Matheson peeking around a rock, the silt-wolf pounced with a snap, but Matheson stepped back, easily dodging it.
Before fighting, he immediately analysed it.
<[Silt Wolf - Level 5]>
[HP] 40/40
<[Skills]>
[Solidify]
- The wolf causes its hide to turn as hard as stone, 90% immunity to all attacks excluding blunt based damage types.
- 10 second cooldown.
[Corundum Claws]
- Ignores armour
- 5 bleed damage/2 seconds.
- Can stack (4) times.
[Corundum Teeth]
- Ignores armour
- 10 crush damage
- Chance to cripple for (10) seconds
<[Description]>
[Silt wolves consume top-soil, pebbles and small stones which form its body and help it to grow - along with organic matter that help to form its various semi-organic organs. These wolves are prized for their large, cobalt-blue shiny skulls which often become ornaments in esteemed mansions, while more rarely are made into armour due to the nature of their semi-organic bones being as light as leather, yet as tough as bronze.]
“Huh, I have a few of these skulls at home.. so this is where they come from.” he read the description before checking its other stats.
“Level 5 with 40hp huh, I’m gunna make these little dogs squeal” he said confidently, perhaps out of habit, before some other thoughts followed “Though it is a level 5 dungeon after all. If it’s too hard, I’ll try a lower level dungeon…” he shrugged; much of his god-complex had disappeared.
“I’ll just see how the first fight goes.”
The siltwolf pounced again with a snap, but Matheson side-stepped and slashed with his rapier, leaving a large burning gash on its neck.
The wolf immediately used it's solidify skill, but it seemed to be useless against the burning effect.
Matheson's sword has a ruby gem, so it did bonus fire damage.
The wolf whimpered from the attack, retreating for a moment as the fire burnt into the cut; it only took half a moment before it recovered and resumed growling again.
“Similar attack style to the rats. Now all I have to do is wait as it bleeds out.” he smirked to himself.
The wolf jumped forward a few more times - snapping with its teeth and slashing with its claws, but Matheson easily dodged each attack as he had comparatively much higher dexterity.
“Why isn't it dying…” Matheson sidestepped another attack and looked at the slash across the wolf’s neck, noticing something odd.
“The gash is still there, but there’s no blood?” he was confused for a moment, but this was not an obstacle to him.
“I guess I will just have to slash you to pieces.” he furrowed his brows in anger - annoyed that the wolves would be wasting his time.
Matheson took a more aggressive strategy now, waiting for the wolf to pounce and then counter-attacking with a slash or a poke. Before, he was simply only doing one attack and waiting for it to die.
Matheson developed a strategy to fight the rats - slash at the neck and let them bleed to death. Unlike the wolves however, the rat’s actually had blood.
This was the most effective way to fight, as he could kill them quickly and conserve energy. Slowly but surely, Matheson was becoming a technical, tactical fighter.
While the wolf didn’t bleed, damage numbers were still appearing with each strike, so he knew he simply needed to keep slashing at them.
“Aruu~”
After many whimpers from the wolf, it was finally dead.
“Wow, 200 exp. It was worth it. Compared to the rats, I would have killed about 3 of them by now, totalling 45 exp.”
Matheson looted the wolf, getting some [Ferritic Plate] and a silt-wolf skull.
“I still don’t need to loot, as I have enough money, but this seems like a good habit to get into, especially when I start relying on the loot for money. In the meantime, perhaps I’ll create a collection of these drops.”
Matheson continued on his journey into the mine, albeit slowly. It wasn’t long before he encountered his second wolf.
“I think I can handle these 1 versus 1 fights, otherwise, I think I will have to leave...” he thought as he entered the fight once more, a calm demeanour.
Fighting a single wolf was fine, but adding a second wolf would make things three times as hard.
Matheson held back no strikes and showed no mercy as he struck the wolf.
He didn’t care much about its whimpers as he repeatedly plunged his sword into its burning cuts to cause more damage. He slashed its tendons so it couldn’t pounce and sliced across its eyes. There was absolutely no mercy or charity in his blade.
It was kill or be killed, and there was no such thing as compassion when fighting beasts.
Previously when threatened, Matheson would almost instinctively start yelling about how he was a noble, how his father would punish them - but this verbal reflex was now mostly gone from his character.
The beasts don’t care about nobility, wealth or background - they only kill, and this was the core part of the reality that Matheson found himself in. It was like a wall that he ran into, shattering his reality.
Matheson was being changed by these dungeons as they made those little things seem to not even matter at all when faced with life and death.
Slowly, it was like the dungeon was teaching him, becoming a part of him.
Jay walked leisurely through the north forest of Losla. It was a nice day outside and the sun was shining, which was quite refreshing after the long, dark winter, so he took his time.
(In this world, winter was during June/July, summer was during December/January)
He was walking relatively slowly, enjoying the sunlight shafts peeking through the trees and looking at the various plants - when suddenly, he felt a small pain in his side.
*Taka taka taka*
Looking towards a sound, he saw a strange plant shooting tiny wooden barbs at him.
[-1][-1][-1]
[You are poisoned]
[-0.8 damage per second for 5 seconds]
“What the?”
There wasn’t much pain, and it seemed like his cloak was blocking most of the damage as well as the poison. The wooden barbs were already consumed by the Molodus coat.
Suddenly, a small crab-shaped rock opened up, and from underneath, two tiny cylinders poked out and began shooting Jay with rock spikes.
*taka taka taka taka*
[-2][-2]
“Ouch.” Jay got his shield out and blocked most of the spikes easily. The deathwalkers sentry immediately squeezed his arm, warning him of nearby enemies - though this much was obvious.
The small turrets took some time to set themselves up before firing, which gave Jay ample time to prepare.
*flut flut flut*
Nearby a puddle made a sloshing noise, and a translucent water turret rose from it, firing water bullets towards Jay - of course, these too were easily blocked.
Jay took a few steps back and took cover behind a nearby tree.
*taka taka taka*
The turrets continued to fire at the tree even though they didn’t have line of sight.
Jay was more confused than angry or annoyed about what was happening; with his 93hp, they were like mosquito bites. He easily shrugged off the hits.
“What the hell is happening?” Jay raised a brow, leisurely standing behind the tree.
