Wyatt waited an hour for his MP to regenerate, allowing his health to fill slightly. When his MP reached full, Wyatt stood and headed for the stairs into the dungeon.
Wyatt decided to stop by the training area and grab a wooden staff to replace the one he had lost in the woods. Analyze gave him the same stats, word for word, as his old one, and he placed it in his cloak.
Wyatt descended the stairs into the dungeon. They spiraled downward for a while, easily going a hundred feet underground before finally coming to a door at the base of the steps. Turning the knob, he opened the door slowly.
Inside was a square room roughly 30 feet across. It was lit with the same lanterns that he saw in the tower. In the center of the room were three large lizards, each easily reaching his knees in height.
Wyatt, seeing yet another abomination of Earth’s animals, could feel his anger rising. With an effort he never needed before, he pushed it down. Emotions would only get him killed here, he needed to prepare to fight. Assuming these creatures were still cold blooded, he wished he had some kind of ice-based spell, like Jesse had. As it was, he would make do with what he had.
Drawing his staff from his storage, Wyatt cast Haste on himself. His newfound increase to intelligence meant it would last for 47 seconds, which should be long enough for this fight. If not, the sudden decrease in speed after it ended could throw him off for a crucial moment, and he brought back to mind the image of Chuck overstepping.
Shaking his head, he prepared his opening move.
Casting Daze on the closest lizard caused it to freeze, but the subtle nature of enchantment magic meant none of the others knew he was there. He cast it again on the second, then made his presence known by launching a Rock Spike at the third. It struck it in the side, causing the creature to sway for a moment, before turning toward its aggressor.
The large lizard’s movement was faster than the mage expected. He prepared his staff to attack but was thrown off when the creature jumped towards him from farther than Wyatt expected. The jump wasn’t high, more a forward movement than upwards, and Wyatt was able to bring his staff up to block. He pushed with it, sending the lizard several feet back, before it prepared to lunge again.
Wyatt learned quickly from his mistakes and was ready. With a graceless swing of his staff, he caught the lizard’s body midair, once again sending it to the ground. This time, it had difficulty getting back onto its feet, and Wyatt took advantage of the situation by bringing his staff down onto its head, ending it.
Immediately after, the first dazed lizard regained control of its body. It came at Wyatt quickly, and he was barely able to dodge out of the way. He ended the roll on his back, his staff landing out of reach, and he was immediately attacked again.
Wyatt caught the creature’s throat in his hand as it crawled on top of him, momentarily preventing it from biting his face. His low strength meant he would not be able to hold this stalemate for long. Luckily, his next weapon came to him in the scaled form of the third lizard.
Just as the thing was about to lunge at him Wyatt used Subtle Manipulation, causing the claws of the creature to cut deep into the side of the one pinning him. It hissed in surprise, then turned at his apparent attacker, forgetting the man laying prone on the ground.
Wyatt, seizing the opportunity as the two lizards fought themselves, got to his feet and recovered his staff. He sent two more spikes at them, finishing off one just before the other had a chance to. He didn’t know if the system would give him credit for the kill if he wasn’t the one to deal the final blow, and he wouldn’t risk losing the precious experience.
The last lizard proved easy to kill. Wyatt had learned what they could do and could account for the way it fought. His mana was low, so he used this as an opportunity to practice with his staff. He dodged several attempts at an attack, taking a hit to the leg from one of the thing’s sharp claws when he miscalculated the second lunge.
He retaliated quickly, thrusting his staff to hit the lizard on the head twice. He brought his staff back and spun, avoiding another jumping attack from the abomination, then swung hard for its side, stunning it momentarily. Not wanting to lose momentum, Wyatt struck again and again, finally seeing the notification signaling the end of combat.
Combat Report
You have slain:
Dire Skink x3
Rewards:
Experience earned
Your class has leveled up: Mage – Level 7
You have gained Attribute Points
Your skills have leveled up:
Earth Magic – Level 5
Enchantment Magic – Level 7
Staff Mastery – Level 3
Staff Mastery – Level 4
Wyatt sat down for a moment to catch his breath. His mana and stamina were almost completely empty, something he would need to account for. He didn’t know if the system had put any intelligent thought into the encounters in this dungeon, but he assumed most of them were meant for multiple people to face. Given his solo status in the dungeon, the draw on his resources for each of the fights he would face would be incredible.
His health had also taken quite the hit. With a toughness of 12, his health was only 120, which he assumed was low for his level. The one attack he had suffered in the fight had dealt 38 points of damage, bringing his already less than maximum health to 72. If he didn’t find a way to heal himself after his fights, then this dungeon would take quite a while.
Wyatt opened his status page, wanting to distribute his free attribute points as soon as he could. With the increase he received to his free points, he decided to place two points into willpower every time he leveled, and he did so now. He placed the one point into intelligence as he had every other level before. Looking at his other stats, and analyzing the fight, he decided the best course of action was to increase his endurance, increasing his stamina and stamina regen. His last point was placed in toughness, increasing his health. He would need to forgo the stereotypical “glass cannon” type of magic user.
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With his stats distributed and his mana back to acceptable levels, Wyatt stood. He would still need to spend some time recovering his lost health, but for now his immediate concern was how he was going to feed himself during the course of this dungeon.
With only one real option, he removed his cloak and threw it over the closest lizard body. It disappeared, once again depleting Wyatt’s mana, and he looked at the inside of the cloak. There wasn’t any blood evident on the purple cloth, and he put it back on his shoulders. Unfortunately, he only had enough mana for one of the corpses, and he dragged the other two to the end of the room. He would have to head back to the tower, but he knew he would be coming back through here.
Back in the kitchen area of the tower, Wyatt stood staring at what he tried passing for a meal. In actuality, it was only meat from the lizard. Skinning the thing proved harder than he thought it would, and he silently thanked Marlene for showing him how. He examined the spices in the cupboard, trying a few. He had no idea which of these would go well with skink meat, but he found a couple he didn’t mind. Without labels, they were impossible for him to identify, but he figured unless they were labeled “salt” or “pepper” it would mean nothing to him anyway.
There was less meat than he thought there would be on the large creature, but he had enough on the one corpse for a few meals. He bit into it, surprised that the taste was better than he thought it would be. If someone like Marlene had prepared it, he assumed he would even enjoy eating it. As it was, he could stomach it without puking, and received a notification of health regeneration similar to the bread.
Great, my cooking is on par with stale bread we found in a cave.
Then he received another notification.
You have gained a new skill:
Cooking – Level 1
At least his cooking could get better, and with how long he would be here, he knew it would. Hopefully, after he was able to level it a few times it would start giving him a real bonus to health regeneration. If this was anything like the games he was used to, then he would eventually be able to make food that had other effects as well.
Gaining a skill like cooking was the first time he had gained any skill not related to combat or exploration. The fact that he could opened the door for any number of general skills, like smithing or alchemy, led him to think about what he would do in a world like this if he had been born into it. Being able to craft weapons or armor would be fun, and potions required a mental focus and intelligence he knew he had. For now, however, “adventurer” was his job, and he put his mind back to it.
His stamina refilled; Wyatt decided to spend some time practicing with his staff while his health was still regenerating. He went downstairs to the training area, striking one of the training dummies that was set up against a wall. He practiced hand placement and movement to increase the damage he could do with his weapon.
He could practice with any number of the training weapons in the room, but they were made of wood. Wyatt knew that the quarterstaff was probably the deadliest of all of the weapons in here, being that it was supposed to be made of wood.
When his stamina began to run low, he started practicing with his magic. He didn’t know many spells, only having one offensive ability, but he practiced regardless to get his skills up. His primary focus was on his Shift ability. The practice was simple, teleport until his mana pool ran out.
Each time he did, he felt the mana inside him to better understand the magic. It was strange, more so than his enchantment magic, which he was the most comfortable using. When he focused on the spatial mana for too long, his head began to get dizzy, as he felt the swirling multi-dimensional magic.
Trying to apply the magic to other tasks, like making an object teleport to his hand or telekinesis, was a waste of time. He would just have to get better at using the skill as it was before he could start trying to manipulate it.
By the time he was done practicing, he had been in the tower for just under three hours. His health was sitting at 99, which meant he still needed 31 before he was in top shape. He didn’t know what the dungeon had in store for him, but he didn’t want to take any chances. There was no indicator that he was on any timer, so he assumed he had all the time in the world.
He had gained a level in his spatial magic skill, and another in staff mastery. All in all, a fruitful training session.
Wyatt went back upstairs, trying to find something to keep his mind occupied. He looked around the study more closely than before. He noticed a drawer in the large desk and opened it. Inside was a stack of blank paper, and a quill. Pulling them out, he tried writing with the strange, feathered pen. It was odd at first, only scratching the surface of the paper. Without ink, he didn’t think this would come in handy at all. Then, he decided to analyze the quill.
Name:
Quill of the Wizard [Intermediate]
Durability:
-
Requirements:
Class – Mage
Description:
Crafted from the feather of an exotic bird, this quill allows the user to write with mana instead of ink, useful for magical applications.
Enchantment:
User can channel mana into the quill when writing.
He started channeling his mana within him, not conforming to any of his skills. The raw mana was then pushed toward his writing hand, and into the quill. He was rewarded with a blue mark on the page that shimmered as he looked at it. At the same time, he received a new skill.
Skill:
Calligraphy
Level:
1
Attribute:
Intelligence
Description:
With Calligraphy, written words can become much more than their meaning. Focusing your intent on the magic within the words can have wonderous results.
Yes!
He didn’t know what uses this would have, but he knew it wouldn’t be few. For now, he simply practiced on the page in front of him, taking a break periodically to let his mana recharge. The mana drain seemed minimal, but he was simply using it for ink, and not any spell related application.
When he was finished, he opened the drawer to put the paper away, but was surprised to see it had another half stack of paper already in the place the first had been.
Surprised, Wyatt analyzed the desk.
Name:
Desk of the Wizard [Intermediate]
Durability:
50/50
Description:
An enchanted desk for arcane writing uses.
Enchantment:
Absorbs the ambient magic created during the arcane writing process to provide a constant supply of paper. Mana can be directly infused into the desk to speed the process.
I’m going to have to remember to use analyze more often.
Knowing he had an infinite supply of paper and ink, Wyatt decided to spend the time he had starting a journal. He didn’t know who would ever read it, but if he died in this dungeon, or in this world at all, he wanted there to be some trace that the human race had existed.