Lets be honest here...Alan thought, rubbing his tired eyes. What was really eating away at his nerves in the present moment was Su'ong. He was quickly discovering that he felt much less confident with her around. Not that he didn't enjoy her company, because he did. Immeasurably. After spending so much time alone, he'd begun to have serious worries about becoming mentally or emotionally unstable. Quite honestly, he was Still worried. Luckily, her presence seemed to have grounded him in a way, it had quickly provided him with an emotional anchor point of sorts.
The real problem he was having had more to do with his Skill set than having anything to do with her company. Alan knew first-hand that he was sorely lacking in any kind of hand-to-hand combat abilities. When he was in a fight with anything stronger than a Goblin or Desert Flan, he had more or less become totally dependent on firing off Spells until the corpses of his enemies were reclaimed by the Dungeon. It wasn't very pretty, and it hadn't been very safe. But it's been enough to keep me alive so far, Alan thought, trying to focus on the positives.
While his Spells had proven highly effective at eliminating Dungeon Born creatures, the same could be said about anything those same Spells came into contact with. When it came to his Daemonic Flames, it seemed that almost nothing was safe. Nothing except for his own worthless hide that was.
Admittedly, hours of practice, and real-life experience had led to him becoming much better at maintaining control over his casting. Though that still did very little to alleviate the stress and fear he felt when imagining himself accidentally hitting his new companion with a [Spectral Plasma Storm].
Once he'd done his best to shake off his worries, Alan called up his Equipment tab. After a split second of indecision he swapped out the Basilisk Fang Dagger in his right Hand weapon slot for his Tortoise Shell Tower Shield.
The dagger and it's sheath hanging from his left hip vanished into his Storage Ring, and his shield materialized as a heavy weight on his back. Alan reached back over his shoulder and grabbed the smooth edge of the shield. After giving it a couple eager tugs, only to have it remain fastened in place, he came to understand that he had to be doing something wrong.
No fucking way this works...Alan had an idea, but he felt foolish for even thinking about trying it out. Well, either it works, or I look like a complete asshole. Prepared to look foolish, Alan raised his right arm and extended his hand in front of his torso, palm facing outward. He sent out a mental command to the defensive weapon stubbornly clinging to his back. EQUIP YOURSELF YOU WORTHLESS SHIELD!!
It was as if the shield had been waiting for Alan's call ever since it's creation. Before he'd even finished thinking the word equip, the handle of the shield was snugly clasped in his fist. It had happened so fast, that in between trying to finish his unnecessarily long command, and expecting to look like a dork when it failed, he hadn't actually prepared himself to support the sudden weight.
His arm dropped. Fast. The squared off bottom of the shield clanged noisily when it bounced off of the hard stone floor. Alan turned away as his cheeks began to grow warm. He looked sheepishly over in Su'ongs direction, but she continued her examination of the floor, gracefully pretending not to have noticed his blunder.
Even though he now held a massive, six-foot tall shield, Alan still felt like he was unnecessarily vulnerable. He couldn't shake the feeling that something sinister was watching him from the shadows. What he needed now, Alan decided, was an extra set of eyes. Maybe even two. Having made up his mind, he stopped hoarding his Mana and refreshed his [Vortex Shield].
With thirty seconds to kill while his Vortex reformed, Alan thought the word 'Unepuip' and his shield returned to its place on his back. At least I don't have to carry the damned thing around, He realized, suddenly liking his Tower Shield a hundred times more than before.
Since his Spell was still forming, he pulled up his Status tab. He was excited when he saw there were forty-two unallocated Status Points just sitting there, waiting to be used. Even more of a surprise was when he realized that at some point between the cavern exploration and the battle against Sentinels, he'd somehow completely forgotten about Evolving his [Multiversal Language Comprehension] Skill. After glossing over his Statistics, Alan placed three points into each of his Stats, which left him with six unallocated Status Points left. And as he'd already grown accustomed to, he placed those into Luck.
Alan pulled up his newly updated Status tab as the tingle of his increased Stats taking effect grew to a hot buzz. One that swiftly grew to be uncomfortable. Alan could sense that he was close to reaching a tipping point, his cells were positively humming with the energy they contained.
Name: Alan Robbins
Race: Human(G) LVL 19 EXP 22655/369472
Class:
Cultivation core: (dormant)
Titles: Dungeon Explorer, Novice Mage, Above Your Weight Class, Singularly Skilled, Surpassing Expectations, Peerless Mage, Prodigious Mage, Luck Of The Daemons, Unprecedented Entity, Twisted Trials 1, Aspiring Martial Artist, Entry Level Adventurer,
***STATISTICS***
Hp: 3078/3078
Mp: 2790/2790
Stamina: 3150/3150
Hp Regeneration: 442.5 per minute
Mp Regeneration: 415.5 per minute
Stamina Regeneration: 485.5 per minute
Strength: 92 (103)+5%
Constitution: 91 (113)+5%
Vitality: 91 (101)+5%
Endurance: 91 +5%
Perception: 91+5%
Agility: 91 (105)+5%
Dexterity: 91 (96)+5%
Intelligence: 91 +5% (+5%StEf)
Wisdom: 91 (95)+5% (+5%StEf)
Resistance: 91 (95)+5% (+5%StEf)
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Willpower: 91 +5% (+5%StEf)
Luck: 128 +5% (+10%StEf)
Unallocated Status Points: 0
*** SKILLS***
(B)[Examine] Lvl 8
(C)[Multiversal Language Comprehension] Lvl 12 Prepared for Evolution Y/N
(C)[Falling with Character] Lvl 3
(B)[Walking] Lvl 5
(U)[Steady Hand of the Cartographer] Lvl 3
(B)[Dagger Utilization] Lvl 3
(C)[Throw Weapon] Lvl 3
(C)[How to Take a Punch] Lvl 3
(C)[Trap Detection] Lvl 2
(C)[Enhanced Cognition] Lvl 6
(U)[Tenacious Concentration] Lvl 4
(C)[Enhanced Pain Resistance] Lvl 1
(R)[Unburnt Flesh of the Impure One] Lvl 2
(C)[Shock Resistance] Lvl 2
(C)[Mana Perception] Lvl 5
(R)[Advanced Spell Alteration] Lvl 2
(C)[Dual-casting] Lvl 8
(Unique)[Daemonfire of the Impure Realm] Lvl 4
(U)[Mana Regulation] Lvl 6
(C)[Blind Resistance] Lvl 1
(C)[Acid Resistance] Lvl 2
(C)[Bleed Resistance] Lvl 1
(B)[Stealth] Lvl 2
(C)[Stamina Conversion] Lvl 3
(C)[Mp Conversion] Lvl 3
(C)[Hp Conversion] Lvl 5
*** SPELLS ***
(U)[Healing Fog] Lvl 4
(B)[Water Jet] lvl 5
(B)[Lightning Strike] Lvl 6
(U)[Spectral Firebolt] Lvl 6
(B)[Banish Darkness] Lvl 1
(C)[Gale Blade] Lvl 8
(B)[Stone Skin] Lvl 3
(U)[Vortex Shield] Lvl 1
(U)[Shocking Water Cannon] Lvl 3
(R)[Spectral Plasma Storm] Lvl 4
(C)[Blessing of the Wind] Lvl 2
(R)[Gaea's Tempest] Lvl 1
***TECHNIQUES***
*Unique*{Suit of Anger}
(C){Mirage Step} Lvl 1
Looks like something is definitely gonna happen when I hit 100 in all of my Stats...Alan thought, his excitement overwhelming his weariness. And if I can keep up my current rate of growth, it realistically shouldn't take me very much longer...
Once he'd finished up, Alan faced the direction Su'ong had indicated and set off. Su'ong trailed close behind him as he clambered up the slippery hill of flowstone, and out of the emptied pond. Alan activated [Stealth] and cautiously made his way into the vast forest of stone. Within less than a minute the empty pond was no longer within his view, hidden behind dozens of two and three-foot wide, rough stone stalagmites.
Remarkable! Your Skill (B)[Stealth] has grown to Level 3!
The floor in this part of the cavern was covered in a thick layer of white slime. Each step he took had to be placed carefully, and even then, several times he had to grab hold of a nearby stalagmite to keep from falling into a puddle of sludge. The surface of the stalagmites were like a fine sandpaper. As he braced his weight against the rough surface's, they left countless shallow scratches on his palm.
By the third time he'd been forced to catch himself, his hand was bleeding freely. The strange white slime seemed to be some kind of anticoagulant. It stung like fire, and made the wounds on his palm heal excessively slowly. After nearly twenty minutes of treacherous travel, and almost a dozen near falls, Alan and Su'ong finally made it to the wall of the room. Only to find there was no sign of an enemy
The moment Alan stepped out into the narrow clearing bordering the wall, Su'ong froze up. Before he could ask what happened, she was already using the party chat features to communicate with him.
<"I can't say for sure what just happened"> She began, <"But that strange energy signature just vanished without a trace. It's gone Alan. Like ALL the way gone. I don't like this at all. I really, really don't like this. Such deft aura manipulation...I fear we're up against something truly monstrous.">
Alan slowed his pace to a crawl. He maintained his current heading, following the wall in the direction of the strange energy anomaly. It took nearly ten minutes, but as he came around an inordinately large stalagmite, Alan's eyes fell upon another ledge jutting out of the wall, similar to the one he'd been able to use as a shortcut earlier. Though it was almost eight feet tall, his comparatively inhuman strength allowed him to easily hop up to the lip of the overhang. The added height of his new vantage point gave Alan a near-bird's-eye view of his surroundings.
He knew that whatever manner of creature Su'ong had sensed should be somewhere in this area. But it seemed like no matter how he went about searching, there was nothing to be found. Even after he activated [Mana Perception].
The Skill allowed him to perceive the room's ambient Mana as a turbulent iridescent haze. It floated through the air, filling every square inch of the cavern. He thought there might've been a faint brownish tint clinging to the ambient Mana, but he couldn't completely convince himself he wasn't imagining things.
As he reveled in the vibrant haze that had only moments before been invisible, he renewed his hunt for his well hidden quarry. What he assumed would turn out to be the actual first floor Boss. Alans gaze was able to cut through the Mana, but the range of his vision was reduced by more than half. In the end, he came to the conclusion that in this situation [Mana Perception] was turning out to be more of a hindrance than it was worth.
Once he'd deactivated his overworked Mana vision, Alan turned to his left and walked to the far end of the ledge. As he approached the very edge, a sense of impending danger made him drop down into a defensive crouch. A powerful surge of paranoia nearly locked him in place. Alan trembled in place, waiting for the hammer to drop. When the expected attack never came, he peered around nervously and began to scuttle forward on all fours.
Alan peeked over the edge, fully expecting to find the Boss lying in wait. What he actually saw left him both frustrated and embarrassed. There was nothing there but a plain stone floor covered in the heaviest layer of white slime that he had seen so far.
He also found that the rock wall he was lying on didn't end in the sheer drop-off that he'd expected. It was more like a steep hill. When the light hit the surface just right, it cast a harsh glare into his eyes. For a moment he was uncertain of what he was seeing. Why is this patch of stone so polished, Alan wondered. He ran his hand across the smooth-looking surface and almost gagged when he realized the stone hadn't been polished even once.
It wasn't even the stone that had been reflecting the light. The slick layer of goop stuck to his palm informed Alan the light was bouncing off a thin film of clear sludge. It actually seemed to be coming out of a small crack running down the full length of the outer edge of the hill.
An unexpected shove from behind sent Alan tumbling headlong down the disgusting slope. Now covered in stinking muck, he rolled onto his back to see Su'ong smiling innocently at him. "I can smell you from here you filthy Daemonling," She said sarcastically.
Apparently the simple insult wasn't enough. She then placed her index finger and thumb on her dainty little nose, and squeezed her nostrils shut. She curled her upper lip in mock disgust. Alan used the palm of his hand to scoop up a handful of slime from his breastplate. He tried to throw it at his pain in the ass companion, but contrary to his goal, the colorless goo made a foul slurping sound and remained fixed in place, refusing to budge.
Once she'd finished with her theatrics, Su'ong happily descended the slide. She even went so far as to Whoop in glee. As if the musty slime caked to her under-scales didn't bother her in the slightest. She came to a stop right next to Alan and held out her hand. Alan glared at the proffered assistance, and back down at his own disgusting fingers. With a sinister gleam in his eye, Alan grabbed her wrist and slid his hand all the way up to her elbow. His self-satisfying action left her with a slimy skid-mark all the way up her arm, and a look of unclaimed vengeance radiating from someplace deep within her golden eyes.
Su'ong snarled, latching her own hand around Alan's forearm. "That. Was. A. TERRIBLE MISTAKE!" Su'ong growled out through clenched teeth, her voice gaining volume with each word. She yanked Alan up off the floor, but before she was able to exact her revenge, a deep seated rumble could be felt in the floor.
As the loose stones on the ground vibrated, Alan looked up at Su'ong questioningly, wondering if this was her doing. However, an unanticipated flash of color drew his eyes away from his companion. He saw light reflecting off of something near the crest of the grimy, slime ridden hill.
Though he may have been unsure what he was looking at, Alan felt sure it was a cause for concern. With eyes fixed on his target, Alan activated [Examine] as fast as he could.
Lvl 22 Adolescent Earth Wyrm- HP: 11000/11000
*WARNING!* YOU HAVE LOCATED THE FIRST FLOOR BOSS!!! VANQUISH THE EARTH WYRM!
Well, piss in my hair, Alan thought grimly.