There was no foreboding rumble, and the statue didn't spring to life. Dominic decided to be grateful for small mercies. Though, nothing actually happened at all. Wondering whether it was a dud, or whether he’d simply missed something, Dominic hesitated for a long moment, frozen in his position.
When the message flashed up in front of his eyes, he felt his chest relax - he hadn’t realised it had become so tight.
[Congratulations! You have completed the G-Grade Savannah Plains Temple dungeon.]
[You have earned 3000 XP]
[Error]
Oh no, not again, Dominic moaned to himself at the ominous message which had heralded the start of his current body issues last time.
[XP capacity for User is latent due to form]
[Solution: postpone XP reward to when form has XP capacity]
The messages went silent. Dominic waited nervously for something to happen, but thirty seconds later decided that any consequences would have already shown themselves. His mind started working on the information revealed.
So XP is for humans then? Or humanoids? And I’m not that. He still remembered the first message he had seen when in his new body - how his options had been whittled down to one with crafting being crossed out; how ‘humanoid’ had been crossed out and left only ‘beast’. Or not at the moment, he mused, putting things together a little.
It mentioned that the reward had been postponed. Does that mean that I have the potential to earn XP at a later stage? If I gain a human or ‘humanoid’ form, perhaps? It was an interesting thought, though not directly relevant at the moment.
Another message flashed up in front of him, making him push his thoughts to one side.
[In completing the dungeon, you are offered a choice:
Destroy dungeon
Access reward chest ]
If he’d had eyebrows, Dominic would have lowered them. Instead, he found his lips lifting a little off his teeth automatically. What kind of choice was that? If he was understanding it correctly, he could either receive a reward, or he could destroy the dungeon entirely.
Why would I want to destroy the dungeon? Then again, he recalled some dungeon core novels he’d read, and the way the checks and balances worked in those worlds. He didn’t know if it was the case here, but maybe the option was a way of humanity - or humanoids, if there was a difference - keeping the dungeons from getting too powerful. With the option of a reward being in the balance, it’s much less likely people would just choose to destroy a dungeon for fun, either, he mused. Then another thought occurred and his eyes lit up. With any luck the reward for finishing the dungeon will be a lot better than others - to motivate people to leave the dungeon intact….
There wasn’t any contest for Dominic, for sure. Quickly choosing the reward option, he was gratified to see the statue shift in front of his eyes. With the sound of grating stone, it moved sideways to reveal a hole in the middle of the slab. Eyeing the hole, Dominic was pretty sure that there were some weird spacial magics going on - the hole looked deeper than the slab was thick.
With the prospect of loot right in front of his nose, he didn’t waste any more time thinking about those kinds of details. As soon as the hole was fully revealed, Dominic poked his head over the top. A pleased huff exited his mouth as he saw the chest there.
It was bigger than the other two; more ornate as well. Figuring that heralded good things for the contents, Dominic quickly opened the lid. Inside, there were not two rewards like in the previous chest, nor three or four. In fact, there were five separate items, only one of which the human-turned-lion recognised on sight.
A health potion, he thought with elation. With the prospect of his level-ups becoming more difficult to achieve, and his recent experience of being far too close to death for his liking, the potion was a welcome sight. Though the memory of its taste was less appealing.
Information.
[Health Potion (moderate, T1)]
[This minor health potion offers an immediate healing of up to 150 HP and its accompanying wounds (starting with most life-threatening). It also offers a small boost of +15% to healing over the next 20 minutes. Single use.]
Definitely worth the fight, Dominic thought, delighted as he saw that it wasn’t only a health potion; it was a better health potion. Although still Tier 1, the change from minor to moderate had seen improvements in all three of its features: the immediate health points it offered had doubled; its boost to healing had increased by 5%; and he’d gained an extra 5 minutes of healing.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
He’d have to use it judiciously - no point using it if he was above 200 HP, but if he’d been able to escape from the warthog for long enough to use it, he wouldn’t have almost died at the end there. Actually…. Wondering if it would work, Dominic did a little experiment.
Putting the potion in his inventory, he removed it again, but this time focused on the vial appearing within his mouth. For a moment there was a bit of resistance, but then he was delighted to feel cold glass appear between his jaws.
Returning the vial to his inventory, he bounced a little on the spot - being able to avoid all the awkward manoeuvring that had been his first health potion was awesome. He’d got the idea from how he’d been able to send the meerkat Cores rolling towards the warthog despite not being able to physically move at the time.
The next item looked like a Beast Core, but it was bigger than any he’d seen before and the colours swirling inside it were brighter and more present. It must have been about twice the diameter of a baseball, making its volume significantly more than one. Asking for information again, a new message flashed up.
[Beast Core: Warthog Guardian level 10
Ability option 1: Second Wind (50% chance))
Ability option 2: Overdrive (70% chance)
Ability option 3: Charge (100% chance)]
Dominic narrowed his eyes at the message. While it was much as he’d expected - the abilities offered notwithstanding - he wasn’t entirely sure what it meant. Did it mean he would gain all three abilities straight off? Or that he had the potential to gain all three abilities? Surely not. Perhaps he had to choose one ability, losing the others. What if he just consumed the ball? Could he start to work towards all of the abilities? Would that even be a good strategy anyway?
Information, he tried, happily surprised when it worked.
[The Beast Core of a dungeon Guardian offers the possibility of a single ability. This ability can be directly absorbed and used by the holder, or can be used in crafting, offering a much better chance of an enchantment involving that ability succeeding. The chance of successfully gaining/crafting with the ability depends on the percentage chance of that ability within the Guardian’s Core itself. ]
OK, so, anyone can use this Core to potentially receive an ability which they can then use - like my Quick Strike. Or they can craft with it to, what? Give the ability to a piece of equipment? How would that even work with something like Charge? Dominic was assuming that ‘charge’ was more in reference to what the warthog had liked to do to him, rather than anything to do with electricity.
He couldn’t see how it would enhance a sword. Though I suppose that boots enhanced with it would be pretty cool - not that I can wear them. And would it be possible to gain the ability if he had a breastplate enchanted with Charge? Interesting thought, though not relevant at that moment since paws weren’t exactly useful for any sort of crafting. Nor was a lion mouth much good for communicating with human ones.
So, the percentages after each of the abilities is…the chance of success? That meant he’d only have a one in two chance of gaining Second Wind, but he was guaranteed to be able to get Charge. Is that how it works?
The messages stayed silent. Dominic didn’t know whether to take that as a yes, no, or don’t care. Focussing on each of the abilities, he tried to get some more information about them.
[Second Wind (T1): When your HP and/or SP have reduced at least to 50% of their total, activate this ability to refill your health points and/or stamina points. Note, this ability can be activated below 50% health/stamina, but only 50% health and/or stamina will be restored. This may change as the ability increases in level. Warning, increased health points will not heal your wounds. Warning, upon activating this ability you will start a timer. At the end of this timer, all health and stamina points gained through Second Wind will be removed from you. If this means that your health drops below 0, you will die. At level 1 you have a timer of 5 minutes; this may change as the ability increases in level.]
Well, Dominic said to himself after a moment of consideration. That’s a bit of a double-edged sword. He guessed he knew what had happened to the warthog, then: he’d run the timer and it had lost enough health points along with what it had lost from the injuries Dominic had inflicted that it was taken down to the point of activating its second phase.
As a hail Mary, it’s a pretty good one, Dominic mused. But probably only a weapon of last resort - if I couldn’t get a health potion down me or level up in time, I’d die along with whatever I was fighting. The fact that it was only a 50% chance of gaining that ability was another factor to take into consideration.
Focussing on the next ability, he called up its information too.
[Overdrive (T1): Upon activation, increase your speed and strength. Activating this ability starts a timer. When this timer runs out, you will experience a penalty to your speed and strength for a period of time. At level 1, you will increase your speed and strength by 50% for 1 minute with a penalty of 25% to these for 2 minutes. These may change as the level of the ability increases.]
Sounds pretty similar to Rage, Dominic thought. Or at least ‘Rage’ as he’d seen from the trodil mini-bosses. Though he supposed that possibly Rage had some sort of emotional component to it that Overdrive didn’t, just from the name.
While a boosting skill - or ‘ability’ - would certainly be pretty useful, two of them probably wouldn’t be. Though, was there any guarantee that he’d run across any more creatures with Rage? He was only 24% towards gaining it, after all.
I think there’s a good chance I’ll run into more creatures with boosting abilities, Dominic decided, basing his theory on the fact that both the trodils and the warthog had had it. In fact, if he was lucky, the trodils would have respawned outside and he’d have a chance to gain it before even leaving the dungeon.
The fact that there was only a 70% chance to get it all was another strike against it. He might be willing to take a smaller chance for the probably more exotic ability of Second Wind, but not for the seemingly more common ability of Overdrive.
Finally, he looked at the last ability that was being offered - the one that had a guaranteed acquisition rate.
[Charge (T0): Add increased momentum and speed to your charge. This ability only works while running in a straight line, and consumes stamina at double the speed of your normal run. At level 1, you increase your speed and effective mass by 10% each. This may change with the level of the ability.]
It was a simple ability, but it had a powerful effect. From his school-knowledge of physics, Dominic knew that increasing both his speed and effective mass by 10% would lead to a much greater increase than 10% to the effect of his charge.
Additionally, even though the ability itself only talked about the percentage effect changing with the level of the ability, it was clear that it would also be affected by both changes to his stamina and to his speed.
Dominic sighed. Second Wind or Charge? The Hail Mary ability which was twice the gamble, or the guaranteed Charge which could potentially become the same bread-and-butter attack as Quick Strike? It was a hard choice.