Snowstorm mountain final peak #4 reached. Reward provided upon exit of dungeon or automatic removal post time lapse.
Time remaining 7 minutes.
He’d done it, he’d reached the final, true peak of snowstorm mountain, and presumably would receive the best reward the dungeon had to offer. It felt good to have exploited the loophole he’d discovered. Or maybe most would have thought of this long before he did. Regardless, he was at the top, and he would receive a reward for his efforts. The one slight complication remaining was the fact that he still had a frighteningly powerful magical wraith chasing him down trying to end his life. As if summoned by the thought, Barry felt the cold wind stir and the temperature drop even further. Suddenly, the howling hooded figure of the wraith started to appear from the edge of the peak. Running low on options, Barry instantly activated remote chain which he wrapped around the beast’s neck and held it in place. He also scattered the peak with illusionary remote chains in a hope that the wraith would be fooled at least to the point that it would choose to take a longer route around to reach Barry. He knew the chain holding the beast would only last a short time, but at least it would force the creature to decide between attacking him or freeing itself. Thankfully, it chose the second option, and in the few seconds of safety Barry had, he ran to the other side of the peak and started sprinting downwards at breakneck speed.
Barry’s run lasted about four steps before he lost his balance and started tumbling uncontrollably down the mountain. At this speed the soft snow felt like concrete, with every bump and whack causing painful contusions and broken bones. Reflexively, Barry activated heavy fortification and instantly the injuries he was sustaining lessened, but the speed of his tumbling did not. As he fell, Barry caught a glimpse of the irate wraith standing atop the mountain with both glowing hands raised, and he got a sinking feeling in his stomach. A moment later he felt the mountain begin to rumble like before and he saw a massive avalanche forming and falling towards him that seemed to gather speed and size with every inch it travelled. Barry’s panic only doubled as he looked down in the direction he was tumbling, seeing that this side of the mountain seemed to have a steep drop off, rather than a consistent incline like the one he had hiked up. Before he could do anything about it, he found himself flying through the air off the edge of the mountain.
Quashing his shock, Barry gathered his wits and with the last of his remaining mana he summoned a remote chain from the side of what he now recognised as the side of the cliff he had just fallen off. Then with every bit of mental willpower he had he swung his own aura chain up and demanded the chains to wrap around each other to prevent him from falling. The chains responded in kind, but the result was even better than Barry could have hoped as he saw the two chains not only hook onto each other, but actually connect, resulting in a single, long and strong, continuous chain. With an incredible tug to Barry’s arm his fall was stopped and he found himself swinging backwards and forwards, repeatedly slamming into the rough surface at the side of the cliff. After a few moments his back came to rest against the cold, near vertical cliff face. From this precarious position he watched as the loud rumbling grew in volume and the massive mass of dirt and snow from the avalanche caught up to him and was sent off the side of the cliff as he had done. Thankfully the momentum of the crashing avalanche meant that the vast majority of the mass of material was sent well off the side of the cliff, rather than slipping down and onto Barry. Instead, he just dangled and watched as the deadly snow and earth mixture fell right past his face and down towards the icy ground hundreds of metres below.
Suddenly, it all stopped, and everything was still. Barry’s heavy fortification skill timed out and he received a rush of energy from a soul item level up as well as a flood of pain once the reality of his countless injuries became apparent. He wanted to scream out in pain, but he forced himself to remain quiet as he felt the familiar change in the wind that indicated the wraith was near. Barry was silent, and he kept his eyes focussed on the edge of the cliff face above him where he assumed the creature would be. He could hear the frustrated howl of the beast ever so close, and he just prayed that it wouldn’t see him. He didn’t dare move a muscle, he didn’t dare breathe. Instead, committed one hundred percent of his energy on remaining as still and as quiet as possible. The howling grew in volume and Barry knew the beast was close. Thankfully, some of the recent snow from the avalanche had settled at the edge of the cliff, adding a lip to what was previously a straight drop. It was this lip that Barry assumed was preventing the monster from being able to spot his dangling form. In agonising silence he continued to hang, mere metres from the beast, just out of its view for what felt like hours but was in reality was but a few minutes. Eventually, the moment Barry had been waiting for finally came as the timer hit zero and he suddenly found himself back within the ice worms’ den, staring at the door to the dungeon. As his brain finally computed what had just happened, Barry crumpled to the floor in shock and relief, his body a mess of blood, bruises and broken or out of place bones.
Congratulations on being the first initiate to complete the hidden dungeon: Snowstorm Peak. Reward: 10 free points allocated.
Barry was so exhausted and sore that he didn’t even notice the message at first, nor did he see the four loot boxes shining next to him for a good few minutes. Instead, his stinging body was taking up all of his attention. Eventually, his focus returned and the first thing he did was repeat the same trick he had used a few days earlier to relocate his dislocated shoulder. Once it had clicked back in place, he started pulling the various ice spikes from his limbs. His eyes watered, and some blood started flowing out from some of the larger wounds. After clearing himself of foreign bodies he considered what to do next. As a distraction from the pain he decided what to do next. Eventually, he decided to hold off on distributing his twelve free points for now, instead turning his attention to the loot boxes scattered beside him. Pleasingly, he’d been rewarded with one bronze, one silver and one gold box, as well as another even grander variant that he didn’t recognise. This one a shiny, silvery-white colour, generously encrusted with various glowing jewels and exquisite engravings.
Platinum loot box (epic): A loot box containing useful or valuable items of epic rarity.
Barry let the grin spread across his face, not caring about the discomfort it caused his bruised and battered cheeks. Until this moment he didn’t know that there was a rarity above gold when it came to loot boxes. The loot he had previously received from his gold boxes was incredible, so he could only imagine what sort of amazing goodies there were in a platinum box. Without further ado he got to work opening his loot, as per usual saving the best for last.
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The bronze box contained a small, red disc thing, about the size of a fifty-cent coin that was called a ‘lesser tracking disc’. As the name suggested it was able to track the location within one hundred metres of whatever or whoever it was placed on. Barry was surprised, he had come to expect mostly crap from the bronze boxes, but this actually seemed quite a useful item. The silver box contained a set pair of jeans that also provided a plus one boost to vitality, making them useful for some, but not for Barry. His trousers of the brawler already provided a stat point in both stamina and strength, easily making them the better option.
“Why can’t I get a bloody shirt for once,” Barry whined, looking down at his bare battered chest.
With mild irritation, Barry moved on to the gold box. Popping open the latches he reached in and pulled out a large, light piece of silver fabric. Confused, Barry inspected the item.
Bandana of versatility (rare): A specialised garment that takes up both the upper body and neck item slot. This item provides a magical boost to vitality, stamina, and mana. Each stat receives a 1% increase after all other boosts have been calculated.
Barry’s eyes widened at the description. A percentage boost rather than just a numbers boost was crazy. Right now it didn’t make a huge difference, in fact it was probably slightly worse. But as things progressed like Barry assumed they would, this bonus would be incredible. The mention of item slots was a first, but if it worked like the video games he was familiar with then it meant he would have to remain shirtless for the foreseeable future, which was irritating, but not the end of the world. Overall, he was thrilled with the item, he just needed to work out how to put it on. Barry lay the fabric on the ground and attempted to fold the bandana to make it wearable. After failing miserably on multiple attempts, Barry decided to just tie it around his neck. As soon as he brought it close to his neck the bandana formed by itself, setting into a fashionable, neat tie at the front of neck. Strangely, once it was on Barry knew he could change the style of the garment with a tap into either a cowboy bandana or a full face covering. Eventually, he settled on the cowboy style and enjoyed the silky feel and warmth of the material around his neck. Then with building anticipation, he moved on to the platinum loot box.
As he popped open the gloriously designed latches with a satisfying clunk, Barry watched in awe as smoke emerged from the box, adding to his building anticipation. After clearing the air with a wave, he reached in and pulled out a ten-centimetre wide, black cube. The weighty cube had no engravings or adornments, and Barry found it a little anti-climactic considering how impressive the loot box had been. That was until he inspected the strange item.
Merging cube (epic): An extremely rare cube which contains magical properties allowing it to merge two garment items of up to rare rarity into one. The resulting item will maintain and improve upon the boosts or abilities of both items used in its creation.
On first read the item didn’t seem that impressive. It simply combined the effects of two items. But the more he thought about it, the better it sounded. His current items were already amazing, or at least Barry thought so, but the fact that he could improve upon the boosts already provided was huge. Plus, if only one item could be used per item slot like he assumed, being able to free up an item slot to be used for something else in the future would be a massive boost. Barry considered which items of clothing he should combine. He immediately ruled out his boots that didn’t provide any stats. He ruled out his trousers of the brawler as well as they only provided two stat points, which was much less than some of the other stats. That left his headband of mind fortification, his gloves of the fortress and his recently acquired bandana of versatility. All were great items and equally great options. The other option was to save it for use at a later date. Barry considered this, but with how close to death he had been on so many occasions he decided that any boost he could get that would allow him to grow stronger he would take as soon as he could. Eventually, he decided to combine the headband and the bandana for two main reasons. Firstly, when combined they would provide him with boosts to a total of four different stats, making it extremely versatile. Secondly, from an aesthetic perspective, Barry felt the bandana and headband combination was a bit much. He knew this wasn’t a great reason, but it was his item, and he could do what he wanted with it.
With hands shaking with excitement, Barry removed his headband and bandana before placing them on the merging cube and watched on as a powerful glow shot out from the items. The glow soon faded, and he saw both the headband and bandana be absorbed into the black cube that had changed to a shining white colour. A few moments passed and Barry saw the black and silver colours of the items swirling around within the cube with spectacular effect. Then suddenly, the glow ceased, and the cube vanished, replaced instead with glorious jet-black piece of fabric adorned with breath-taking silver swirling patterns throughout. The item had an incredible magical presence that his other items lacked altogether. He immediately brought the item up to his head and felt it form around his neck into a cowboy bandana. It was the most comfortable, soft, delicate and spectacular material he had ever felt in his entire life. Finally, after appreciating the sensation of the clothing against his skin, he inspected it and grinned widely.
Inspection:
Bandana of soul fortification (epic): An extremely specialised garment that takes up both the head and neck item slot. This item provides a magical boost to vitality, stamina, mana and wisdom. Each stat receives a 10% increase after all other boosts have been calculated. This bandana also passively provides additional resistance to external mental attacks.
This was better than Barry could’ve hoped for. He now received a massive boost to his stats, and it now included wisdom in the percentage boost calculations. He was a little confused with what happened to the three points in wisdom the headband had previously provided but was thrilled to see they had just been added to his permanent stats. This was now by far his best item, plus it now took up the neck and head spot instead of the upper body slot, which meant he could wear a top! Still smiling, he decided to rest his head against the dungeon door and go through his soul stats and free points. Twelve was the most he had ever had available to distribute, and it gave him a lot of options. Eventually he decided to sure up some of his more neglected stats to even himself out a bit. He started off by throwing one point into strength, two into dexterity and mana, and three into stamina. Finally, he threw the last four into wisdom. The boosts wisdom provided wasn’t as obvious to see as some of the other stats, but he just felt better the higher his willpower was, and somehow, he knew his decision making was improving to a large degree. Then he closed his eyes and examined his progress.
Status Screen:
General stats:
* Race: Human
* Power level: 15
* Class: Phantom protector (rare)
Magic stats:
* Magic level: 15
* Primary affinity: Illusion
* Secondary affinity: Earth
Item stats:
* Item level: 15
* Item name: Aura chain
Soul stats:
Physical stats:
* Vitality: (54 + 10) + 10% = 70
* Strength: (11 + 1) = 12
* Stamina: (12 + 1) + 10% = 14
* Dexterity: (8 + 1) = 9
Mental stats:
* Mana: 21 + 10% = 23
* Perception: 2
* Manipulation: 1
* Willpower: 44 + 10% = 48
Titles:
* Early specialist (vitality)
Other:
* Free points: 0
Skills:
* Expert linguist
* Inspection
* Item duplication
* Rapid recovery
* Retraction
* Heavy fortification
* Duplication
* Remote chain
* Barrier
* Null magic skin
Barry noted that the percentage boost always rounded stat levels down, rather than up, which was disappointing. But other than that, his levels were climbing at an incredible rate. Satisfied, Barry allowed himself to close his eyes and sleep, snuggling his head into the back of his balaclava with a smile still on his face.