Walking across the streets wearing the equipment his father used to wear, it drew a couple glances but everyone turned away shortly. They all knew who he was and his story so no one was surprised when he was going off the the dungeons today.
The city they were in was called Arient and it was ruled by the Enveyr family along with the dungeon. There were a few guards standing around the dungeon entrance who looked up at him as he walked towards the entrance.
He felt a breeze overcome his body before one of the guards snickered openly at him, clearly aware of his awakening skill. The rest weren’t so much better off in hiding their expressions but that was probably a spell or magitech scanner, he would remember the experience well.
As he walked down the broad stairways down, he was met with a underground area half as big as the city above him. This was the hub, his future home for the next couple months unless he wasn’t in the dungeons.
But for now it was time to actually enter the real dungeon, kill some mobs and get filthy rich. Sword drawn, he stepped past the dungeon gateway and into the dungeon.
A faint musky smell permeated the air as Ad found himself in the middle of a small clearing with a few corridors in front of him. The walls were slightly damp with sparsely dotted lumen crystals emitting a bluish light, just enough for him to see his surroundings.
Lowering his posture he started stalking along the corridor, in search of his first goblin. This wasn’t his first time here but it was his first time hunting, his father had taught him everything he knew before he died.
So he was very clear what kind of monsters laid in this area of the dungeon. There were always a few portal spots unique to all the species in the current floor. They would always lead to the same biome with the same monsters and the one he had exited from was a goblin biome.
He had come to know almost everything there was to know about the first 2 floors of the dungeons due to his father. If he couldn’t even break past these 2 floors, then he could just suicide since he was so useless.
Spotting the familiar lumps of flesh that the goblins had when they were hunched over, he slowly sneaked forward to prepare for a sneak attack. As he got close enough for his comfort, he sprang into action, tearing the goblins head cleanly off its neck
Blue blood flew into the air spraying across the cave walls as the other goblin still around rose up in shock, screeching madly at him. But it had only started reaching for the spear lying on the ground when a blade found itself lodged into its nape, choking on its own blood as it tried screaming out its death throes.
“That’s 2.” He said to himself, panting heavily even though he had only swung his sword twice.
All monsters in dungeons had cores inside them when they died, the most common ones were mana cores. They were in the shape of a diamond with 2 longer ends and a circular indent in the middle.
They usually glowed a dim blue, glowing brighter the stronger the monster was. Since goblins were a rank 0 monster, the glow was very dim but they still went for 1k crons each. When a monster died, if they didn’t have have any gatherable parts they would disintegrate into dust after a while.
The only gatherable part a goblin had were their forefinger which goes for 120 crons without a gathering skill. His goal was at least 15 cores per day to use to pay for his debts, the rest would be used to improve himself.
Which was why he had prepared a bag for something like this, well his father prepared it for him. Ripping the lodged blade from the goblin’s neck, he quickly moved to harvest whatever he could before leaving the scene.
A few hours passed without him noticing as he netted 11 cores by the time he was finally ready to take a rest. Walking to the nearest cleared area he had been, he sat down to review his past few hours of work.
11 R0 cores, 22 goblin fingers and a crystal ball that he had no idea of it’s use. He got it on his 9th kill when the corpse distingerated before he could harvest it, leaving the crystal ball behind. The goblins here were a bit more sparse than he liked so he couldn’t get as much as he wanted.
He would get it appraised later but he wanted to check his mana construct and status first.
“Status.”
Name: Aiden Smith (17)
Skills 1/3
Race: Human (M)
Level: 2 (20 / 100)
Hp: 84/120 (0.39/hr)
Mp: 120 (6.4/hr)
Class: -
Stats: [AP: 3] [SP: 0]
STR: 13 DEX: 16 SPI: 9 CON: 12
INT: 12 LCK: 4/10 WILL: 12
Skills:
Mana Construct Lvl 1: 0/100
Summons: 1 Cost: 50 Dura: - CD: -
So it was 2 casts at full mana and 5 hrs to his next cast before he was totally out, another 19+ hour before he was fully topped up again. Taking a rest would increase that regen rate exponentially but there wouldn’t be time for that here.
Putting 3 points into Int it was now time to summon his first worker.
“Summon worker.” He said while pointing forward.
He felt an icy rush from his core rapidly coursing into his outstretched fingers before being pushed out. A blue blob of liquid dropping on the floor before it morphed into a human form rapidly.
A dark blue human standing in front of him holding nothing at all, just quietly awaiting his orders. He wanted to check it’s status though but he didn’t have a appraisal skill, which was a problem he needed to solve soon.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
Name: -
Skills: -
Race: Worker Construct
Level: 1/10 (0 / 100)
Hp: 40
Mp: -
Class: Worker
Stats: [AP: 0]
STR: 10 DEX: 15 SPI: - CON: 10
INT: - LCK: - WILL: -
Worker:
A class that grants user improved proficiency in the use of all tools related to construction.
All construction skills gain +10% xp gain.
Has a fixed amount of hp that cannot be raised.
Well it was nice to know that he didn’t any skills to appraise the status of his workers but he still needed a appraisal skill soon. Anyway this sumon wasn’t going to be any good except as a meatshield or construction worker.
The walls started groaning softly causing Ad to jump up surprised, kicking the crystal ball away accidently.
“Ah shit, pick that up for me.” He said before turning his attention back to the cave walls that were now sinking inwards.
This was a clear sign of monsters respawning soon in which case was goblins, he just didn't know how many.
“Graa!” The goblins screeched loudly at him.
Stepping forward, he slid his blade across it’s neck before pivoting around to the other goblins around him. Other than the one he just killed there where 5 other goblins left, which means 6 cores for him, wonderful.
“HAA!” Screaming himself, Aiden charged forward with his sword raised, clashing against the 5 newborn goblins.
10 minutes later, Aiden dropped his ass to the ground completely exhausted from the fight. Fighting 5 goblins face on was still too hard on him as he was left with only 43 hp after the fight. However it was all worth it because one of them dropped a skill crystal, he didn’t know what skill but it was a skill crystal alright.
His other worker had somehow disappeared along with the crystal ball, maybe it died to the goblins. He was too lazy to pick everything up so he went for the lazy path, summoning another worker to grab all the cores for him.
Most of their bodies were too destroyed to harvest so they disintegrated into dust as soon as the cores were plucked out of their bodies. Putting the 5 cores and skill crystal into his pack, he slowly made his way back to the hub with the worker in tow.
He would see if he could come back down again after taking a reset and selling his shit. But for now he stepped past the purplish portal and back into civilisation. Wincing slightly at the sudden change in lighting he slowly stumbled towards a nearby alchemy shop.
Finding one he entered it and walked towards the relatively empty desk where an elf was manning.
“ Ah welcome to Ericsons Services, how may I be of service?” The man said brightly.
“Selling magic cores and goblin fingers.” Ad replied succinctly.
“Alright then let’s see what you’ve got.”
Nodding, Ad dumped all the cores he had along with the goblin fingers on the table.
“Wow, this is a pretty decent haul for your first dive. The cores would be 16000 crons, as for the fingers they would be 2640, I’ll put it as 2700 alright.” The elf said, impressed.
“Thanks. Do you know where the nearest appraisal is?”
“ Oh I can do that too, you got a crystal drop on the first floor?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh thats pretty lucky, most people don’t see any drops until the 7th floor. Well let’s have a look at it then.”
Nodding again, he handed the orange crystal over to the elf who then casted some sort of appraisal spell over it.
“Skill crystal - Gathering, Tier 1, Level 1. Not bad, are you selling it?”
“...I’ll keep it for now.” He would need a skill like that in the future since his plans were all for going solo.
Thanking the elf again he quickly left for the marketplace, he had 3.7k crons to spend and he needed a class and skills. He already knew the build he wanted, summoner and sorcerer for his 2 main class and alchemist as his profession.
Each main class gave 1 extra skill slot every 5 level and every 10 level he gets 2 new slots, every 5 level gives him one free skill point that had a few useful uses. A profession would get him 1 skill slot per 10 level which in total may seem like a lot but it isn’t.
If it was just active skills then yes, but utility skills also took skill slots, only passive don’t take slots. Anyway he would need, Meditate, Fireball, Shadow Strike, summon familiar or skeleton and Magic circuits to complete his early build.
Sorcerer class crystal was first on the list which took 1000 crons, he then went for Shadow Strike and Magic circuits. This dropped him to a measly 200 crons which was just enough for a night in a cheap inn.
He wanted Fireball first but that would mean he was left with no money to buy anything else. Well he would earn more eventually but it was time to use these crystals. Finding a room in a cheap Inn was easy enough as he got it in a few minutes of bargaining with the innkeeper.
Throwing both crystals in his mouth, he felt the same cold liquid flow down his throat before disappearing.
You have gained a new Class: Sorcerer R0
You have gained a new Skill: Shadow Strike R0
You have gained a new Skill: Magic Circuits R0
Sorcerer (Common)
Rank 0
1/10 (0 / 100)
The sorcerer is the master of magic, wieding it with absolute control to lay waste to his enemies.
+1 INT +1 SPI per level
10% xp gain with magic spells.
Shadow Strike (Common)
Rank 0
1/10 (0 / 100)
Requirement: Dagger, Shortsword
Gather the power of shadows and strike your enemies with a deadly strike.
Sneak attacks deal 4x damage.
Back attacks deal 1.5x damage.
Will dismember limbs.
+2 Slash
Cost: 5 Mana
Cooldown: 7’s
Magic Circuits (Common, Passive)
Rank 0
1/10 (0 / 100)
Your body has been remodeled to use magic much better now.
Max mana +10%
Control +10%
Name: Aiden Smith (17)
Skills 2/4 (3)
Race: Human (M)
Level: 2 (20 / 100)
Hp: 52/120 (0.39/hr)
Mp: 160 (8.2/hr)
Class: Sorcerer(1)
Stats: [AP: 0] [SP: 0]
STR: 13 DEX: 16 SPI: 10 CON: 12
INT: 16 LCK: 4/10 WILL: 12
Skills:
Mana Construct 1/10 (0/100)
Summons: 1 Cost: 50 Dura: - CD: -
Shadow Strike 1/10 (0/100)
+2 Slash Cost: 5 Dura: - CD: 7’s
Magic Circuits 1/10 (0/100)
Passive
It wasn’t amazing but he was getting there alright, it won’t be long till he stood at the top of the word.