You have entered Oberon's Hunting Ground. Oberon has started the hunt. Run, hide, or fight, it matters not. The hunt comes for all.

Goal:

Find the exit

Defeat 10 hounds [Optional]

Defeat 5 Huntsmen [Optional]

Defeat 5 Riders [Optional]

Defeat Oberon [Optional]

Defeat all hunters [Optional]

The familiar message butted into my vision. I read it over making sure nothing changed before closing the notification and looking around. I once again found myself in a hallway made of trees and thick underbrush. I walked forward following the left wall retracing my steps from the last time. I made sure to stay calm this time through. I will admit it was far easier this round. Each time I started to get nervous I just reached up and touched the handle of my greatsword to calm me down.

It wasn't long before I came upon the first room. I loosened my sword in its scabbard before I pulled my bow out knocking an arrow. I inched forward scanning the room for the hound that should be there. It took a bit but I finally found the hound as it walked between a group of trees nose pressed to the ground.

I inhaled as I pulled the arrow back bringing the bow to full draw. I held my breath lining up my shot before exhaling as I loosed the arrow. The hound's head snapped toward me at the twang of the bowstring just as my arrow hit a few inches off target lodging itself into the hound's shoulder.

I backpedaled as the hound bolted towards breaking the arrow shaft as it squeezed between the trees. I rushed my next shot but to my surprise, it was still on target. A dirt wall rose up in front of the hound blocking the arrow.

The hound kept up onto the wall snarling before pushing off of it. I clicked my tongue as I shoved my bow into my inventory. I pulled my sword free with my right hand as electricity arced in my left. I threw my left hand forward as the hound got within ten feet of me, sending out a bright blue-white bolt to slam into the charging hound.

The hound's fur stood on end but unfortunately, it only caused the hound to stumble slightly. I burned stamina charging the hound. My leading left shoulder slammed into the hound's muzzle stopping its mad dash and pushed its head down. I gripped my sword in both hands as I brought the blade down onto the hound's head cleaving it in two.

I blinked twice before pulling my sword out of the hound and whipping the blade off on its pelt. I put my sword away and drew my dirk getting to work harvesting the hound using Analyze on each part. The fangs turned out to be the only thing of value I was able to harvest from the hound before I gave up and looted the remains.

The body burst into rainbow motes, some drifted into my chest as most seemed to fade away. I pulled up my inventory to check on what I got, but at first glance, I didn't see anything added. It wasn't until I took a closer look that I noticed I had gained a second health potion.

With the hound taken care of, I wiped my dirk off putting it away before I walked into the room collecting the arrow that had been blocked. I looked around the room finding nothing of interest and with no new notifications, I left the room to continue with my dungeon crawl.

I knew I should check the one I got heading here but I was perhaps overconfident in myself this time around since I had a rough idea of what I could expect and how easily my first fight was. I hummed softly to myself wishing not for the first time I had music to listen to. I eventually came to a stop at the second room's entrance and looked around for my next opponent.

I pulled my bow back out, nocking an arrow as my gaze darted around the room. I slowly walked into the room after what felt like five minutes but was probably closer to thirty seconds. I dashed behind a tree as the hound's head peek out from behind a tree fifteen feet to my left.

I pulled the string back as I inhaled. I held the shot for a second or two lining up the shot before exhaled releasing the string. Once again the twang of the bow was enough to warn the hound and throw my shot off slightly. The hound ducked low causing my arrow to glance off its skull and disappear into the distance.

The hound stumbled before shaking its head. A green glow surrounded it before fading away along with the wound revealing bark-like armor was now coating its body. My second shot followed the first just as the hound realized where the attack had come from. It slammed into the tough armor of the hound only for it to get stuck before it could do any real damage.

The hound seemed to scoff at the arrow stuck in its armor before locking eyes with me. It rushed forward as I dropped my bow into my inventory. I brought my left hand up sending my newest spell racing toward the hound. Luck was again against me as the ball of electricity burned into the hound's armor but failed to paralyze it. I quickly pulled my khopesh free aimed the tip at the hound's chest and darned my stamina in a Charge. I figured if it worked last time why not do it again?

My body flew forward the tip of my khopesh slammed into the hound's shoulder as it tried to dodge to its left. My blade punched into its shoulder before hitting bone and getting deflected away from anything vital. The hound lashed out in pain its jaws flashing toward my head forcing me to jump back.

It was at that moment, while I was I'm the air that my Danger Sense screamed at me. I was barely able to shift my body to the right thanks to my tail pushing into the ground. Something slammed into my left shoulder causing me to go flying off into the underbrush.

I was lucky that I didn't get stuck halfway in the bush. I pulled myself free rolling my left shoulder making sure the armor hadn't been damaged too badly. I'd have to hammer it a little but it wouldn't affect the fight. I turned my attention back to my enemies glaring as the spider that sucker-punched me had just sent a green ball of light at the hound.

The hound's wound closed before my eyes. It moved in front of the spider blocking my path as mocking laughter danced in its eyes. I gripped my sword tightly, my eyes narrowing as I stomped forward.

I darted toward the left side of the hound as I rushed forward. It followed while keeping itself between the spider and myself. The hound lunged forward snapping at me. I ducked low as I brought the hilt of my sword up into the hound's jaw forcing its mouth shut. I slid to the right in a half-turn before driving my khopesh down in a heavy chop.

Shock ran up the handle and into my arms as the blade sunk halfway into the hound's neck and struck bone. Danger Sense screamed at me forcing my deaded hands to let go of my main weapon as I jumped back barely dodging the spider's long leg.

I backed away cursing under my breath as I pulled my dirk free. The hound stumbled and dragged my sword as it half turned to face me before crumpling to the ground and sliding down the length of my blade. My eyes darted to the spider as it crouched low. My hand shot up lightning dancing as it arched forward only for the spider to jump left and cause it to slam into the tip of my sword and travel into the hound putting it out of its pain.

I started to circle the spider inching closer to my dropped blade. Before I could get within reach the spider launched itself toward me. I planted my feet lowering my center of gravity by dropping my bushy tail and raising my left arm using it to take the spider's weight.

I was able to get my forearm just past its mouth. The impact bent my body almost in half but I barely was able to keep my footing and push back against its weight as its legs wrapped around my body pulling me closer. My left arm was all that was stopping my face from meeting its fangs.

I pushed my dirk into its sternum just above where it connected to its abdomen. Casting a Bolt into the blade I dragged it up splitting the spider's sternum as green light fought to keep it alive long enough to pull my face into its dripping fangs.

To my utter delight, I finally managed to get lucky as Bolt paralyzed the spider, weakening its legs. I pushed hard against the spider with my left forearm ripping myself free before I brought my dirk around in a hook slamming the blade hilt deep just behind its eyes.

I kicked the spider hard pushing it away as it curled up in death. Panting softly I scanned to room triple checking that nothing else was about to show up. It was good to know while the rooms might not have shifted the enemy placement sure had.

Being lazy I walked over to the spider kicking it to loot the body before doing the same to the hound after I wiped both my blades off on its fur. With my looting finished I checked my inventory only to be annoyed that all I got was another fang. I took a deep breath before I pulled up my notifications needing something to make me happy.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Congratulations, Heavy Armor has leveled up. Constitution +1

Congratulations, Ranger has leveled up. Agility +1

Congratulations, Dodge has leveled up. Dexterity +1

Congratulations, Basic Greatsword has leveled up. Strength +1

Congratulations, Bolt has leveled up. Intelligence +1

Congratulations, you have defeated a level 1 Terran Hound, a level 3 Silva Hound, and a level 3 Sanctus Aranea Venator.

Level up!

You have gained +2 to a physical stat of your choice. +2 free stats. +1 Ability Point.

Status

Name: Theseus

Race: Primae Sciurus [Primal Squirrelfolk]

Class: Fighter

Level: 3

Titles: Dungeon Delver, Progenitor

Health: 250/320 Stamina: 200/240 Mana: 125/230

Strength: 20

Agility: 21->22

Dexterity: 23->24

Constitution: 16

Intelligence: 22->23

Wisdom: 23->24

Skills:

Acrobatics level: 2

Analyze level: 2

Basic Archery level: 1

Basic Greatsword level: 7

Basic Leather Crafting level: 2

Basic Spear level: 1

Basic Spellcraft level: 2

Calligraphy level: 2

Cooking level: 6

Dodge level: 5

Fire Resistance level 1

Harvesting level: 1

Heavy Armor level: 2

Meditation level: 6

Natural Weapons level: 4

Pain Resistance level: 3

Ranger level: 3

Weapons Crafting level:1

Abilities:

Armored Skin level: 2

Bond Blade level: 1

Charge level: 4

Danger Sense level:3

Father Fall level: 3

Tongues level: 2

Weapon Focus [Greatsword]

Spells:

Bolt level 2:

Create Water level: 1

Flame Breath level: 2

Imbue Natural Weapons level: 2

Minor Self-heal level: 1

Bond Blade level: 1

Bond to a weapon to increase the effectiveness of skills and abilities used through it. You gain an extra slot in your inventory for your bonded weapon. Your bonded weapon will automatically enter your inventory if it's not within 30 feet of you.

With my new level, I was able to grab Bond Blade. I was sure there was more to the ability than what was stated just like how Charge dialed up your perception allowing you to react while moving at such high speeds. Either way, it was a step closer to being able to infuse my weapons with spells. Speaking of spells now that I had a point or two as a buffer in case anything bad happened it was time to see if I couldn't change Imbue Natural Weapons to something that I could use again.

I walked over to a tree and scurried up it. Once I was comfortably nestled in its branches I pulled up Imbue Natural Weapons' spell diagram in my head and my makeshift spell book out of my inventory. I started by writing down the pattern in my book before cross-referencing the runes in the encyclopedia. To my surprise, the spell was very complicated having more runes than I at first thought necessary.

It was only after combing through the spell a half dozen times that I finally understood what was going on. While some of the runes could be taken out it would weaken the outcome of the spell having the extra runes added more power than just dumping more mana into it. After I was done with this I'd have to go back through my new spells and swap things around to give them a bit more bang for their buck.

It took me another dozen of slow pass-throughs of the spell and a very thorough read-through of the encyclopedia before I found what runes I could swap. With the bulk of the work done, I drew the new pattern in my spell book touching up the pathways to smooth out the mana flows.

With all the drawing and design done I made sure to write down what I had learned about redundant runes along with going back to my previous spells and writing down ideas for how to strengthen them. Bolt was pretty simple with just amping up the voltage. Minor Self-heal was going to be harder and I wasn't concerned with Creat Water.

I closed my eyes sinking into meditation to help focus before pulling Imbue Natural Weapons back into my mind. Slowly and carefully I pulled one rune out at a time swapped it for its replacement then smoothed out the pathways. All while holding the rest of the spell formation in place stopping it from collapsing. Time slowly ticked forward as I work until the last run snapped into place and stabilized the spell. My meditation came to a stop as notifications popped up.

Congratulations, you have successfully transformed Imbue Natural Weapons to Overflow. The spell's level has carried over.

Congratulations, Basic Spellcraft has leveled up. Intelligence +1

Overflow level: 2

Cost: Min: 5mp

Max: 10mp/level

Description: Flood your body with mana pushing it to its limit for a time.

The other spells would have to wait until after I was done with my dungeon run. I pulled my khopesh free and activated Bond Blade. The ability came with a bit of knowledge letting me know that while I could bond to a new weapon my current one would be destroyed. Not something I had to worry about right now but I would have to be a bit more critical about what I replaced it with.

I checked my health, stamina, and mana happy to find them mostly full. If I was right I'd be in top shape by the time I got to the next room. I hopped down from the tree and headed out to continue my run.