In the midst of his useless flailing, Alan inhaled a lungful of sand. The sheer terror of being unable to draw a single breath sent him into autopilot mode, where he instinctively called forth a [Shocking water cannon]. Regrettably, released at such a close range, his Spell blanketed them both in the highly electrified water.
Remarkable! Your Spell (U)[Shocking Water Cannon] has grown to Level 2!
WARNING! You have been afflicted with the (Paralysis) Debuff. You are unable to move during the duration of Debuff.
Duration: 30 seconds
Remarkable! Your Skill [Shock resistance] has nullified the effects of the (Paralysis) debuff!
As Alan dismissed the notices, the high pressure blast of electrified water continued to strike the Golem in it's chest, causing a (Paralysis) debuff, and locking it in place. The pressurized water blasted layer after layer of sand from Golem's torso, punching a hole clear through within seconds of Alan initiating the ultra-close range attack.
All the while, heavy currents of electricity coursed through the stunned beast. Reducing it's innards to a brittle crystal-like composition. The Golem lost its death-grip on Alan's face. Its sand-formed arms lost their last bit of cohesion and fell apart, becoming piles of crackling slag, slowly hardening on the floor.
Shock resistance having come to his rescue, Alan's (Paralysis) debuff was gone nearly as fast as it arrived, allowing him to scramble to his knees. The sudden motion made his stomach clench, and he vomited up the pieces of Golem arms he'd swallowed.
Clawing grit from his eyes, Alan howled in rage and humiliation. Though his left eye was still packed with sand, he dared not waste any more time. He drew the Basilisk fang from its sheath at his waist and shakily climbed to his feet and plunged his dagger into the Golem's Core with every available ounce of his Strength Stat.
As the electrical charge coursed through the Desert Golem, its crystalline infection spread along with the electricity. Soon reaching into the sand forming its 'head' and transforming it into a glistening cage for the Core. With the exposed Core now encased within an unyielding sand-crystal structure, it was unable to move when Alan's dagger gored the stone-like shell of the core.
Remarkable! Your Skill (B)[Dagger Utilization] has grown to Lvl 3!
The Basilisk fang easily penetrated the hard outer layer, first cracking, and finally shattering it. The destruction its protective outer casing released the thick turquoise liquid hidden within, finally putting an end to the Golem. As the beast collapsed, Alan flopped down onto his back in the slowly vanishing crystal powder that was all that remained of his most recent nemesis.
Alan basked in an uplifting boost of Experience as he tried to pick clumps of sand out of his nose.
Panting, and still coughing up sand, he dismissed the incoming Kill Log, and Level Up notifications. He chose instead to take a moment to bask in the glory of survival. Pathetic though it may have been, he was still alive. And a level stronger.
Alan thumbed out a final sand-covered booger as he made plans to rest his eyes for just a minute or two. Unbeknownst to Alan, he had failed to recognize the depth of his exhaustion. Almost as soon as he shut his eyes, he drifted off into a deep, restful sleep.
Slowly, another (Common) treasure chest pushed its way up out of the sand.
******
"I know I've told you at least a thousand times to quit climbing those damnable apple trees! And now look what happened." The Boy found it weirdly difficult to focus, so he tried rubbing his eyes. He wasn't at all sure what was going on, or even where he was. An annoying throb at the back of his skull kept pulling his attention away from the chattering man. Which only seemed to make him speak louder. "You should thank the Ten heavens I happened to walk by just as you fell out of that tree.. I only wish I'd gotten there sooner.. could've caught you before you landed on that big ol' head of yours.. but this has to be one of your jokes right? you really don't remember me? You can't have forgotten your dear ol' Uncle Alex right?
The man claiming to be his Uncle asked, endlessly chattering away. But the only reply he received was a Stony gaze. Turning away from the strange man, The Boy instead took in his surroundings. Most immediately noticeable was the smell. Clean, and crisp. The gentle breeze in this strange place carried the faint smell of ripe fruit and freshly cut grass.
Far off in the distance, he noticed a small child sprinting towards him, struggling his way through a dense, chest-high field of strange orange grass. It stretched on for what seemed like miles, finally ending at a sheer rock wall. As he looked around in open-eyed wonder, his gaze rarely strayed from the field. His mind couldn't quite come to grips with what was in front of his eyes.
Glancing up, the boy was confused to see the ceiling seemed to be made of the same stone as the walls. "Is this a cave," he wondered out loud. "And if it is, where the heck is all of this light coming from?" With no detectable light source to be found, the boy ended his search and turned back to face the strange 'Uncle Alex' character just in time to witness the other child come tumbling out of the tall orange grass.
The child rolled to a stop at his feet, and recognition struck The Boy immediately. "Rexus..?" He demanded. "Rexus is that you?"A look of confusion replaced the smile on Rexus' face. Without bothering to stand, he calmly replied, "No Alan, it's me, your long lost brother Gandalf! I've recently returned from the foul mountain, and seem to have misplaced my beard! Now quit messing around and LETS. GO. FISHING!!" Still pumping his fist in the air for emphasis, Rexus charged towards the river and his awaiting fishing gear.
Quietly observing in the background 'Uncle Alex' watched the boys closely, his eyes radiating an inner light. Unseen by the children, a strange smile could be seen starting to settle across his features.
******
Waking with a start, for a few confused seconds, Alan wondered how all of this sand had managed to wind up in his bed. It didn't take long for the dismissed notifications flashing at the edge of his sight to grab his attention. Realization set in. As the dream faded to the background, so too did his memories.
Reality hit Alan like a ton of bricks.
"Fuck me, I'm still in the Sandstone Palace Dungeon.." Alan shook his head from side to side, trying to shake the remnants of sleep from his mind. He was drastically under-leveled, stuck inside of a dangerous dungeon, and he'd somehow allowed himself to fall asleep. While out in the open no less, and most likely surrounded by enemies. Alan knew without a doubt he'd been extremely lucky to have even woken up at all.
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Chiding himself for his carelessness and stupidity, Alan pulled himself onto his feet. Though he was most definitely upset at his lack of caution, the sleep really had helped. He felt mentally and physically rested in a way he hadn't since long before the Tutorial began. To get rid of the angry flashing still going on in the corner of his vision, Alan summoned up his unseen notifications.
Remarkable! You have defeated a Lvl 9 Desert Golem!
+3072 Exp gained!
Remarkable! You have reached level 7! +22 free status points! Evolution to next Evolutionary Stage (F) is still available. You have 22 unallocated status points.
960 Exp to next Level!
Three more Levels until I'm caught up to the Dungeon's recommended Level! I got an extra 2 Status points again, so assuming nothing changes, Level 8 should give me 24 Status points... But how long can I count on that lasting? I really can't rely on anything but myself at this point.
Unable to wait, Alan placed three points each into Strength, Constitution, Vitality, Endurance, Perception, Agility and Dexterity. Finally raising all of his Stats to 50 or more. Once again he dumped his remaining point into Luck.
The moment his points were allocated, an intense rush of energy crashed over and throughout his entire body. His fingers and toes clenched up into painful knots. Alan was given no choice but to cover his eyes in the crook of his arm, as the light in the room had suddenly increased to painful levels.
His ears began to ring, and not long after, started throbbing painfully. As the dull ringing steadily built into a deafening roar, Alan was forced to abandon his attempt at covering his eyes. Unclenching his fists and slamming his hands protectively over his ears, the agony in his skull swiftly crossed the limitations of what he could handle.
Just as Alan felt sure his head was about to explode, all sound disappeared in a thunderous Pop and a sudden gush of warm fluid from his ears. Looking at his hands, Alan was unsurprised to see that they were covered in blood. A panicked glance at his Hp bar indicated his Health pool remained at 100 percent. "I guess I'm not dead yet," Alan said sarcastically. His furiously racing heart finally starting to settle back to normal speeds.
As the bleeding ceased, sound returned. Though Alan still required several more minutes of adjustment. The time was taken in order to try and get used the changes wrought to his body by hitting 50 throughout all of his Stats. It was as if his body had somehow received an upgrade. His vision was far clearer, to the point that he found it effortless to single out individual grains of sand from over one hundred feet away.
While Alan marveled over his improved eyesight, he recognized his breathing seemed overly loud. When he concentrated, he easily heard the steady beating of his own heart. Listened as each pulse pumped the blood circulating throughout his veins. To Alan it sounded as if his body suddenly contained a raging river.
Getting used to his new reality took him a bit longer than expected. Once he was confident that at the very least he wouldn't trip over his own feet, Alan paced to both ends of the corridor in a quick hunt for enemies. His search revealed nothing but a single (Common) Loot Box sitting in the sand next to where he awoke.
Alan walked over and stood on the lid of the chest. He snorted in amusement when that was all it took to successfully cause the prompt to appear, asking if he'd like to open the Loot Box. Mentally selecting Yes opened it, and only after stepping down did it open. Within the box Alan located an (Uncommon) Warlockwood Staff, 200 (Iron Grade) Lotus coins, and an additional 2 (Iron Grade) Tutorial Tokens.
Alan held his new Staff in hand, and immediately became captivated by the glistening black wood. Staring deeply into its surface revealed glimmers of dark green. The staff was incredibly warm, almost to the point of being too hot to touch. It was just over 6 feet long, and nearly the diameter of his wrist. Although the Staff itself was gorgeous, his eyes couldn't help but be drawn to what sat at the top of the Staff.
A beautiful, fist sized triangular orange gem was fixed in place. Held aloft in the grasp of a forged metal hand, it was as if the Staff were making an offering to the Heavens. As Alan gently lifted his stunning new prize, he felt a heavy drain on his Mana pool. He knew instinctively the staff was feasting on his energy reserves.
Flinging the hungry weapon to the floor, Alan activated [Examine]. The information he received drew an audible gasp of surprise.
(Uncommon) Warlockwood Staff - An exceptional Staff, hand-carved from a branch of the Warlock Tree, and set with a Mana Storage Gemstone. +2 Strength +4 Wisdom +4 Resistance. Capable of storing up to 1000Mp.
Alan carefully stored his new Staff. After pulling some rations and his water canteen from storage, he tried unsuccessfully to sate his ravenous hunger. He ate about a pound of jerky, and several handfuls of trail mix. Only then did he bother to pull the top off of his canteen.
After drinking deeply from his bottomless water supply, Alan placed the canteen back into storage.
In desperate need of a shower, he stripped out of his armor, followed by the remaining strips of his singed underclothes, and readied himself for a cold shower.
After activating [Dual-casting] and [Mana Regulation], he took aim at the ceiling directly above him and summoned up a pair of [Water Jet]s, while utilizing [Mana Regulation] to channel additional Mana.
Due to the increase in Mana that Alan was steadily applying, the torrents of water doubled in both size and pressure. Their resulting blasts of water smashed into the ceiling, falling back down like waves over Alan's naked form. Cutting Mana to the Spells marked the end to his shower.
Alan quickly realized he didn't have a towel, or really Anything to dry off on. And sand was already clinging to his wet feet. Grumbling to himself, Alan redressed himself in the crumbling remnants of his underclothes and geared up. His lip curled at the ripe stench of his sweaty armor. Alan cast one more [Water Jet] at the roof, using the falling water to rinse his gritty leathers.
With his breakfast and shower now complete, and all of his Spells off cooldown, he set off to see if he could put a dent in the monster population.
As Alan crept down the hall, he refreshed his [Aqua shield] in preparation. Upon coming across another path he was faced with two choices. To the left was a larger than normal corridor. Though he could only see a short distance down this path. A ninety-degree turn completely removed his view of whatever waited beyond.
The path he was currently walking continued forward into the distance. A glance at his Mini-map revealed it should dead-end soon, so Alan decided to follow it all the way. Once he cleared it of any stragglers, the plan was to return and explore the oversized corridor.
The passage soon made another sharp left turn. Alan realized he'd not only found the dead-end he was expecting, but also four more Desert Flans. Activating [Examine] placed them all at Level 8.
Standing shoulder to shoulder, arranged two in front, and two behind, these Flans seemed to be guarding the Iron chest clearly seen behind them. Alan nearly allowed himself to simply demolish the Flans and everything in-between with a [Spectral Plasma Storm]. The Daemonfire surging within him begged to be released. But at the last second, he managed to restrain himself.
"Get a grip man! Don't destroy your own Loot you dickhead.." He grimaced at the near loss of his self control and possibly the next piece of his Wasteland tortoise gear. Alan instead activated [Dual-casting] along with [Mana Regulation]. He glared down at the soon to be piles of crystal and ash. He kicked off the fight by calling up [Shocking water Cannon], and [Lightning Strike], using [Mana Regulation] to force additional Mana into both Spells. The results spoke for themselves.
Remarkable! Your Skill (U)[Mana regulation] has grown to Level 2!
In an impressive display of not only his increased Stats, but his burgeoning command of Mana, the battle ended before it ever began. As the pressurized torrent of electrified water rocketed towards the front row of Flans, a large grey storm cloud nearly triple its usual size materialized above their stationary forms.
The ominous cloud dumped not one, but three bolts of lightning, the first of which struck the back row of Flans.
Just in time for [Shocking Water Cannon] to make an appearance.