Felix swam over towards where the icon was on his map and a few hundred meters out, he saw it. Just a handful of meters beneath the surface was a large stone with a familiar cave entrance bored into the side. Around the entrance to the cave were familiar engravings depicting combat.
Felix swam over, dove down into the cave and placed his hand on the door.
Combat Dungeon A
You have found a dungeon. Would you like to enter?
Yes
No
Yes. Last one.
Combat Dungeon A
Choose your difficulty.
-2 ~ -5 Lvls
-1 ~ +1 Lvls
+2 ~ +5 Lvls
+6 ~ +9 Lvls
+10 ~ +15 Lvls
10 to 15.
Combat Dungeon A
Would you like to claim your reward in this dungeon?
Note: You may claim the reward in this dungeon once. The maximum reward tailoring level is 79. This level increases based on how many Combat Dungeons you have completed and claimed.
Yes
No
Agh, 79. I was hoping it was just +25, so 19, 44, 69 but its +25 then +35? That's so high. Oh man, it's not like I have time to come back either. I could run it multiple times without claiming but honestly, I am getting sick of dungeons. Fuck it. Yes.
Combat Dungeon A
Warning: You have selected the difficulty: +10 ~ +15 levels above your own. The encounters will be deadly to a party with an average level of 44. Proceed with caution.
Note: Rewards will be tailored to level 79 independent of levels you may gain throughout the dungeon.
Calibrating, one moment please.
Wait… huh? Oh my System, I am an idiot. It's tailored to the difficulty level, not my level. Why did I assume that this whole time. I COULD HAVE CLAIMED COMBAT DUNGEON C SO MUCH SOONER. FUCK.
Felix recoiled at the awful stench that permeated the thick wet air of the swamp he suddenly found himself in.
Fucking swamp, did it have to be this?
Felix didn't have to trudge through the ankle deep water and mud for long before he encountered the first round of enemies. CAW He looked up and spotted a murder of crows circling above him.
[E - Uncommon] Rot Crow (Lvl 78)
Oh lovely.
Just a moment or so after Felix looked up, one of the crows dove down towards him. It didn't dive all the way down, staying a few meters above him, but it did spit a nasty green smoking globule at him.
Felix pivoted left to dodge it before trying to hit it back with a Fire Bolt. He completely missed because the crow was simply too fast. When it dove down and got closer, Felix noticed that these crows were much bigger than any crows he had ever seen. Felix suspected it was bigger than any living, flying creature on earth, though he had no idea.
Alright Mana Bolt it is. I really wish I had a faster spell, like a lightning bolt, or a laser.
With some simple modifications, the first spell Felix had ever learned was bigger, zipped through the air much faster and appeared to deal much more damage. Felix had increased the size of the dart and added a lot more force behind it making it much faster. He had tried leaving it small, expecting it to be really fast, but it was too unstable and got knocked around by the wind.
Felix knew what to expect from them now so he simply waited for one of them to dive bomb him. He blocked it's spittle with a Mana Shield, which was not attached to his mana pool, just a solid disc of mana so he didn't have to risk touching it. Unfortunately, the disgusting projectile ate a hole right through his disc of mana. On the other hand, the Mana Bolt he fired struck the body of the crow.
It didn't immediately die, but it's flight path was interrupted and it flew into a tree a few hundred meters away. Felix didn't get the chance to finish it off as another crow attacked.
Felix didn't bother trying to block their projectiles anymore and simply completely avoided them where possible. When they got too close, he diverted them with a burst of force.
It took him almost 30 minutes to take them all out as it seemed they became reluctant to attack him after losing a few of their murder. They did try and coordinate attacks, once, but it didn't have much of an effect on Felix as he simply diverted both projectiles and took them out faster.
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Ding You have slain 12 [E - Uncommon] Rot Crow (Lvl 78)
Ding You have gained 8 levels in [E - Common] Caster
I wonder if that would have been easier or harder in a group. I suspect they would be nearly impossible to hit for most people. Are you supposed to trap or catch them?
Combat Dungeon A
Round 2 will begin in 30 minutes.
Start now?
Yes
No
Meh, Sure? I didn't really expend a ton of mana there, still have over half left.
Felix looked around but didn't find anything resembling a creature of any kind.
Man, I don't wanna go searching for this stupid thing, please just come to me. Hmm… I could… It would be pretty stupid, but on the other hand, I don't have to trudge through the swamp for hours. Fuck it.
Felix cast multiple Thunderclap spells with his ears covered to try and draw his next opponents out of hiding. He continued to cast his beacon spell and hoped it attracted something. Normally this would be a terrible idea, but he was pretty sure the only enemy or enemies in this entire dungeon would be the enemies for round 2. There weren't even any bugs in here as far as Felix had seen.
After a few minutes of trying to attract his enemies, Felix spotted something moving in the bog to his left. All of a sudden there were subtle, unnatural ripples in the water winding their way towards Felix. He pretended not to notice but silently prepared a jump spell and visually marked an area he hoped was stable enough to land on.
The creature was trying to stalk Felix suddenly burst out of the water towards him and he instantly leapt away. Turning around he saw the body of a massive snake with mostly black scales broken up by dark green spots from head to tail. It was about as wide as Felix was tall.
[E - Uncommon] Giant Swamp Pygeatrix (Lvl 85)
I feel like that was a pretty sharp jump in levels, hopefully this is the only one of these things.
The serpent slithered around a tree and out of the water. Felix couldn't even begin to guess how long it was as it was coiled around multiple trees with it's tail still submerged. He looked to his left just in time to jump back as the snake lunged for him, mouth agape, fangs out.
Felix fired off a few Fire Bolt's at it's body as it flew by him but they all seemed to brush off of it's scales with minimal effect. There were no signs whatsoever that it had been hit once the fire dissipated.
Well shit, so it's either Mana Bolt, though that also probably won't do much. Ah shit, it's time to do something really stupid, isn't it?
The snake coiled back around a tree to Felix's right and tried to wind itself behind him so it could strike without being seen. It might have worked too, as the sheer length of it's body made it confusing to find the start and end, like a long tangled rope. Unfortunately for the Pygeatrix, it's venom was either made from or enhanced with mana, so Felix could sense it oozing out of it's fangs.
Felix waited for it to strike again and prepared one of his new favorite spell forms, the fire bomb. He packed in a lot more fire than a normal Fire Bolt, over 15 times as much. He also made the shell as thin as he could without it instantly blowing up as he wanted it to detonate around it's head, or as close to it as he could get.
He felt the serpents fangs moving quickly from his right and slightly above him so he cast the spell and prepared to throw it as he jumped away. The serpent struck from exactly where Felix expected and he threw the little ball into it's mouth and jumped. Unfortunately, he was nervous and threw it too early so, it exploded before being swallowed. He hoped it had still done some damage, but he didn't expect it to do much, if any from outside.
He sensed the serpents head recoil and swing back around a different tree, sling-shotting around it to strike from his left just as he landed. Felix shot himself backwards in mid air with a blast of force dodging it's strike. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to create another bomb this time so he would have to wait for the next strike.
This time the snake took it's time winding itself around trees, through the bog, even through the mud trying to confuse it's prey. Felix created another fire bomb and mentally tracked it's fangs. The snake tried to sneak up very close to Felix, just a few meters behind him from the branches of a tree. Felix slowly turned towards it which caused it to strike early to try and maintain the element of surprise it thought it had.
Felix shot the fire bomb this time with a blast of force right into it's gullet and jumped back. The bomb exploded right were Felix hoped, just behind it's skull. The snake's strike, along with the shock from the bomb, sent it's head right into the ground. Felix wished he could do something, but when it's maw was filled with dirt, he didn't have great options to damage it from the outside.
Felix darted away through the bog trying to escape the web of it's body. He could have sworn it was endlessly long as every time he darted around a tree, he found more of it's body. Eventually, Felix escaped, finding a large clearing in the bog surrounding a lonely tree in the middle. He didn't have time to examine it as he felt the snake's fangs approaching rapidly from behind him.
He started creating another bomb, twice as dense this time, and slowly turned around waiting for it to strike. He felt it moving towards him fast, just behind a tree on the edge of the clearing. He was ready for the strike, but not for the tree to explode in a shower of splinters as the snake dove through it. Felix panicked and threw the fire bomb then dove to the side, which was more like a horizontal high dive with his jump spell.
Felix quickly caught himself with a force spell to slow down and a Gust spell so he didn't scrape his body along the ground with his remaining speed.
Ding You have slain a [E - Uncommon] Giant Swamp Pygeatrix (Lvl 85)
Ding You have gained 3 levels in [E - Common] Caster
Combat Dungeon A
Round 3 will begin in 30 minutes.
Start now?
Yes
No
No.
Felix dropped to the ground and began meditating. He really wanted to examine the body with his Hunter's ring, but he was running low on mana and didn't want the next enemy to catch him off guard and helpless. He pulled the ambient mana as fast as he dared, without screwing up his spells and drained mana batteries to supplement his regeneration. He managed to regenerate to about 80% of his maximum mana which he figured was probably fine, he rarely needed his entire mana pool in a fight. . . . . .