Yawning, I roll to the side, not wanting to get up to the new day. My mother shakes me, and I groan angrily. Snapping my eyes open, I don't see my mother in front of me. Instead, a blond haired, middle aged woman was shaking me awake.
"Wha.." I mumbled, still half asleep. And then the memories of before I went unconscious hit me. Fighting off the snake, getting poisoned, the woman saving me and feeding me the petals. And oh the pain, the horrible pain. It was like nothing else I had ever witnessed before. However...I don't think it was as bad as getting bitten by a poisonous snake before the Great Towers spawned. Maybe the Great Towers are dampening our emotions? It's hard to say.
"Finally, you're awake! I thought I had lost you there." The woman seemed relieved.
Sitting up, I replied, "I never want to do that again...How long was I out?"
"A good 2 hours. Luckily, most of the monsters around here seem to be afraid of us since we killed that snake. Must have been the apex predator around here."
"Yeah...Just give me a minute while I go through all my notifications." I responded.
You have killed [Adult Blue Venomous Snake - LVL 12] - 400 level EXP [Extra EXP gained for killing an enemy above your level]
Congratulations! You have gained +1 Strength, +1 Endurance, +1 vitality and +1 willpower due to strenuous activity
Congratulations! You have leveled up! +3 free stat points. Happy Climbing.
Congratulations! You have leveled up! +3 free stat points. Happy Climbing.
Status:
Name: Cad Cooper
Level: 3 (55/250)
Class: N/A
Race: Human
Health Points (HP): 110/110
Mana Points (MP): 110/110
Stamina: 120/120
Stats:
Strength: 13 Agility: 13 Endurance: 12 Vitality: 11 Toughness: 9 Wisdom: 12 Intelligence: 11
Perception: 12 Willpower: 9 Luck: 6
Free points: 6
Skills: Identify
Titles: Trailblazer
Quests: N/A
Well, now I knew that health and stamina are fully restored when I level up. That fight taught me that I needed to improve basically everything. I was too slow to properly dodge the snake, didn't hit hard enough to deal a good amount of damage and almost died to a few scratches! The first floor was not as easy as I thought it would be. My recent near death experience in mind, I added 3 to vitality, 2 to strength and 1 to agility.
Health Points (HP): 140/140
Mana Points (MP): 110/110
Stamina: 120/120
Stats:
Strength: 15 Agility: 14 Endurance: 12 Vitality: 14 Toughness: 9 Wisdom: 12 Intelligence: 11
Perception: 12 Willpower: 9 Luck: 6
My vitality was going up with my health and my endurance corresponded with my stamina like I assumed it would.
"Alrighty, now that I am awake we can go and check the snake corpse, maybe there is some loot?" I suggested to the woman.
"Ah, um, I better get back to the group, I was just suppose to collect some wood and come back to them...Thank you for saving me." She replied before collecting her wood and walking back towards the group.
What did they even need wood for anyways? They didn't need a fire yet as it seems to be around midday. Was there even any nights in the Great Towers?
Her antics were a bit weird, but more riches for me! Well, if there is actually any loot. The Towers seemed to act a lot like the books I used to read but who knows what's possible now! Maybe there is a fly skill. Flying would be great!
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Belatedly, I realised that I was acting way too positive for almost dying, but who really cares anyways? If I don't get PTSD then that is only advantageous right?
I quickly jogged over to the snake corpse and well, there wasn't really anything unexpected. Just a snake corpse. Maybe I need to say a command word to loot it? I tried thinking and saying multiple words such as words similar to loot, but nothing was working. I stood next to the snake for a while, trying to think of how to loot it. After a couple minutes, I gave up and walked deeper into the forest away.
A few dead killer rabbits later I made it to the end of the forest.
There was a huge cliff towering over me, with a cave directly in front of me. There was a weird purple mist in front of the cave. Shrugging my shoulders, I walked into the cave hoping it wasn't poisonous.
You have entered the floor 1 final dungeon.
Maximum player limit: 1
Do you wish to proceed?
I thought yes. My surroundings abruptly changed; I found myself in a narrow, dimly lit cave. Tightening my grip on my daggers in both hands, I cautiously approached the dungeon, scanning the the area ahead of me for monsters. After around 10 minutes of slowly walking, a trio of killer rabbits wandered towards me.
Young Killer Rabbit - LVL 5
Young Killer Rabbit - LVL ???
Young Killer Rabbit - LVL 4
It seems that when a monster is more than a few levels higher than me it doesn't allow me to view its level. The rabbits rushed at me, leaping towards my face. I dodged, and instantly stabbed into the skull of the first rabbit, my increased strength making a huge difference. The second rabbit managed to graze my arm with its sharp teeth but it barely made a difference to my new health pool.
The other rabbit jumped towards me, but this time I was ready. It only took a few slashes to finish. The final rabbit leaped towards me futilely, but quickly met its end.
You have killed [Young Killer Rabbit - LVL 6 | Young Killer Rabbit - LVL 4 | Young Killer Rabbit - LVL 5 ] - 50 EXP [Extra experience gained for killing multiple enemies above your level]
The experience gain was pretty crazy, especially for how easy that fight was. The levels must be harder to get at higher up, otherwise there was going to soon be lots of LVL 100 people running around.
Munching on an inferior healing petal, I continued onwards.
3 hours of walking aimlessly later, I had killed over 50 rabbits relatively easily, as the highest group size I came across had only 5 killer rabbits. My water supply had ran out, and I prayed that I was close to the end of this dungeon.
Congratulations! You have leveled up! +3 free stat points. Happy Climbing.
Congratulations! You have leveled up! +3 free stat points. Happy Climbing.
I noticed my leveling speed had dropped by quite a bit, the experience for to get to level 6 was much higher than level 1. I decided to throw all 6 points into agility with little thought, I just wanted to speed up and finish this dungeon - which I immediately regretted. Why was I being so impulsive?!
Status:
Name: Cad Cooper
Level: 5 (65/350)
Class: N/A
Race: Human
Health Points (HP): 90/110
Mana Points (MP): 110/110
Stamina: 45/120
Stats:
Strength: 13 Agility: 19 Endurance: 12 Vitality: 11 Toughness: 9 Wisdom: 12 Intelligence: 11
Perception: 12 Willpower: 9 Luck: 6
Free points: 0
Skills: Identify
Titles: Trailblazer
Quests: N/A
I felt my body become more responsive and that my walking speed increased slightly. This was going to be fun to fight with.
This dungeon was quite a disappointment. The theme of this floor must be killer rabbits. Really boring. The highest level monster that I found was a level 9 young killer rabbit - not even an adult! It made me wonder why there was such a hard snake creature in the forest. Also, levels weren't everything - the snake was level 12 and almost killed me whereas a level 10 young killer rabbit was not even a threat unless it had friends.
"Could it be because it was an adult while all these killer rabbits are 'young'? Maybe the monsters get a buff at adult level?" I mused.
Deep in thought, I sat down to recover some stamina and chewed on an inferior stamina petal. My first mistake.
A huge rabbit, almost at 5 feet tall, ran out from the shadows. If I had being paying attention I would have been able to see it coming easily; as it was, I only saw it just before it rammed into me. I barely managed to roll to the side before it was upon me. Despite my roll, it still managed to smash me into the cave wall behind me.
Screaming in pain, I quickly got back up and charged the beast. It let out a howl of rage and met me head on.
At the last second, I jumped to the side and my daggers danced across its flesh. The rabbit roared. Yes, you heard that right, a rabbit roared.
My whole body felt sluggish despite my recent boost to agility, my stamina being far too low for an extended battle. Deciding to risk it all, I jumped onto the monster, stabbing as fast as I could. One of my daggers broke, a miracle that it lasted this long. I stabbed over and over crazily. After a couple of minutes, it fell dead just before I ran out of stamina.
What a horrible fight.