Chapter 15
*Choo!* Drew sneezed, his meditation interrupted by some non-existent allergen. Someone must have been thinking of me. Drew grinned, wiping his nose with the sleeve of his shirt like a savage. He stood up and stretched, taking in the peaceful environment of his surroundings. Drew was in a meditation chamber, one that he’d rented on the current floor of the training dungeon.
He stood in a stone gazebo that stood alone upon a grassy knoll, surrounded on all sides by what appeared to be a perfectly still lake with extremely clear water. It was all both real and fake at the same time, as everything in the dungeon was. Like Schrodinger’s cat, everything around him both existed and didn’t, until it was observed by an outside force, him.
Drew gathered his axe that sat against a stone pillar nearby, and wandered back to the low cut patterned mason bridge that connected his meditation spot, to the entry portal that led back to his wife and friends. The water surrounding the bridge was serene, not a single ripple or wave upon its surface, the crystal blue waters clear beyond any belief.
The dungeon, as he’d learned, was a self contained pocket dimension. Everything within the dimension was real to him, so long as he stayed there, but without other dungeon delvers, would eventually fade into mist and remain in a stasis of non-reality. Simply put, the “people” he interacted with in the dungeon didn’t truly exist in any real way. Once his party left a floor, everything on that floor simply evaporated. Perception is reality. Drew chuckled at the overly floral thought.
Soon, Drew would rejoin Amber, Spock, Freya, and Maud, and push towards the end of the floor. The last floor of the dungeon. They’d spent gods only know how much time in here, determined to push themselves to the absolute peak of what was possible. It’s been many years, that much is certain.
Somewhere during their journey, they’d made the decision to push as far as possible, even if that meant hitting the time limit of twelve years of internal time within the dungeon. The Baleful Lady remained in contact with him throughout their stay in the dungeon, and she’d finally finished her scans of the incursions on Earth. Throughout the world, the incursion leaders were all graded in D Grade, all but one. One was an absolute monster of a being, and was pushing low C Grade.
Those revelations had been the nail in the coffin for Drew and crew; they'd made the decision to stay and gain as many levels and evolutions as possible. It had not been an easy decision, they knew that each day that passed in the outside world would mean more human deaths that could have been prevented. Ultimately it had come down to their chances of physically eliminating the more violent incursions. With time dilation in effect, his party had chosen to stay longer, as it gave them a far greater chance of dealing with the major threats to Earth and its people.
Drew exited the portal, and left the adobe building that served as the business front for the meditation chamber company. His axe magically held into place on his back like a bad mmorpg game from his teenage years, he entered the tavern and found his party enjoying a light lunch in the dining hall.
Amber was busy shoveling the local equivalents of shrimp and chicken into her mouth, like the food items were going out of style. Spock sat with his head leaned back and a clear food baby protruding from the midsection of his leather armor. Freya was sprawled on the floor, an empty platter by her feet, and a large bone in her mouth that she was chomping down on with excited vigor. Maud was absent from the gathering, but the lich didn’t need food, she would likely be up in her room working on a garment of some kind.
Amber smiled and waved excitedly as Drew approached the booth, chunks of food going in every direction as she choked. She quickly grabbed her tankard and downed its contents to relieve her condition. God she’s so sexy. Drew laughed. Their relationship remained as strong as ever, and he was thankful for it. Spock remained comatose and ignored Drew’s approach, and Freya barely greeted him with eye contact before quickly returning to her calcium-based prize.
“Feel better dear?” Amber asked, somehow managing words between the violence happening near her mouth.
“Yeah, much better. I’ve consolidated my gains. I’m good to go whenever everyone is ready.” Drew nodded, feeling relaxed after his time spent in the meditation chamber. He sat down in the booth, giving Spock a light shove to make room.
“Er!? Oh, hello Drew Wright.” Spock jolted awake abruptly from Drew’s little push.
“Don’t worry dude, nothing’s going on, go back to your nap.” Drew smiled, waving his hand towards the man.
Spock had grown immensely over the years. Mentally and emotionally the man was in a better place than he’d been prior to the dungeon. He was still a bit awkward, and eccentric, but he was no longer the little lost duckling that Drew had to constantly keep his eye on. All the time they’d spent together had made him a true member of the family, and Drew considered the man to be a brother.
Spock wasn’t the only one to show massive growth, Freya had also made a lot of progress. The German Shepherd no longer had the mind of a child, but had matured into the mentality of an adult human. Her personality remained similar to how she was previously, the major difference was her intelligence and wisdom, and not just the stats.
“Good, you’re back. As much as I’ve grown to enjoy your company over the years, I’m ready to get back to Jenkins.” Maud said, coming from behind Drew to stand in front of the booth.
“Happy to hear you’ve warmed up to us, you’ll have to come visit sometime once we’re done here. Bring Jenkins too, I’d love to meet him.” Drew smiled at the lich. The woman didn’t have any family outside of her cat, and her soulflame mother, who was apparently just a skull on her fireplace mantle.
Drew, taking the obvious hint that Maud was ready to leave, gently kicked Spock’s boot to wake him back up, before getting up from the table. Amber quickly shoved a few more pieces of fried seafood into her gullet before climbing out as well. Soon, they were on the road again. Leaving the imaginary dungeon city in the dirt, and heading towards the area they knew held the final encounter of the floor.
It’s the last floor. The last boss. We’ve changed so much…
It was true. They’d all entered as low E Grade, and were so much more now. Drew had spent a massive amount of time training with The Lady. First it had been aura training, which had been incredibly challenging for him, and after Drew had finally gotten to the point that he no longer felt like a bumbling idiot, the goddess had moved him onto mana manipulation.
He’d had the skill for [Mana Manipulation] since his race change prior to The Descent, but it had sat in his ability menu collecting dust for so long that he’d forgotten about it. It turned out to be an incredibly important tool to advancement and progression. With it, he could create his own spells and abilities, given enough time and practice. And practice, I did. Drew grimaced, remembering the early days of his training.
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“How do you think he’ll do?” Hades asked, carefully watching his Lady’s Champion on the big flatscreen in her office.
“Drew will do fine. The man is stubborn at times, but he’s nothing if not adaptive.” The Lady replied nonplussed.
“I know he’s your Champion, but do you truly believe it was wise to grant him such an education?” Hades asked in curiosity. The man meant no disrespect, but was honestly interested in his boss’s answer.
“He has… potential. If he’d been born anywhere else in the multiverse, I wouldn’t have bothered. He would have eventually found his way even with the odds against him. But he was born on Earth. You know what newly integrated worlds are like.” The Lady answered Hades, reaching down to pick up her cup of hot cocoa. Hades furrowed his brows and grunted.
“Limited opportunities for education, next to no resources built up, and less general knowledge of The System than children. Yes, I understand that. Don’t get me wrong, I like the guy, hell I like him better than ninety-five percent of our peers, but what I meant was why him? He has raw talent, there’s no questioning that, but…” Hades led on, turning his head to look at The Baleful Lady.
The Primordial blew on her drink, using her abilities to quickly cool it to the perfect temperature before taking a sip. She paused for a moment, savoring the flavor, before setting the mug back down and turning to Hades.
“His natural-born affinities in the aspects of death, life, and shadow are even higher than my own. In terms of raw potential, he’s a once in a Era prodigy.” She said sternly and in all seriousness, keeping eye contact with her subordinate god.
“High… higher than yours?!” Hades quickly reasserted control of himself, pulling back on his aura that had accidentally leaked through. “Surely, you must be joking. That’s almost impossible…” Hades began.
“And yet, it’s the truth. It was his usage of spells prior to The System’s encroachment on your vacation world that pulled my attention. His natural and unaltered affinities pulled me to him like a moth to a flame. There is a reason the seals on him are so powerful and locked up tight.” The Lady said, continuing to make eye contact with Hades. Her intention was very clear, he wasn't so much as to whisper a single syllable of what she was saying, or he would pay dearly. Possibly with his life.
“His runic tattoos… I was curious about that.” Hades said. It was all starting to come together. He had been wondering why the runes were so advanced, for them to have formed naturally at his grade…
“A necessary precaution. It’s truly a shame that their placement was on his face, rather than a more concealable area. However, very few in the multiverse will be aware of the runes’ significance. Regardless, you have my answer, and I’d prefer not to count my chickens before they hatch.” The Lady sighed, picking up her drink again.
“Chickens before they hatch? You’ve been spending a lot of time watching him if you picked up on that obscure idiom.” Hades chuckled, turning back to watch Drew on the flatscreen.
“Yes. That and his culture is most interesting. Apparently, their planet’s movies and shows have been making a big splash across the Multiverse…” The Lady began, and time seemed to freeze as the pit of Hades’ stomach lurched, his forehead suddenly covered in dense perspiration.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“...Even that sister of mine, Ezereille, called me to recommend a movie. Get this, its name is Hercules, if you’d believe it. The Records must have bled through somehow.” The Lady finished, lightly laughing to herself about the coincidence.
“Eep…ahem, did you say Hercules? I believe there were several films made with that title. Which… which one was it that she recommended?” Hades tried and failed to remain in tight control of his voice and aura, hoping against hope that The Lady was distracted enough to have not caught the minor infractions.
“Oh, I don’t know. I think it was some animated movie. You know the kind of thing my sister likes, probably a sappy romantic comedy with nothing too serious.” The Lady laughed, clearly thinking of her sister’s questionable preference in entertainment.
No…no no no… think…think!
“Oh, I see. That’s a shame. That production is quite terrible. Really, it’s the worst of the bunch. Truly, Lady Ezereille has reproachable taste.” Hades claimed smugly, trying damn hard to be as convincing as possible. Please… Please just read a book or something.
“It’s that bad?” The Lady asked, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head.
“Oh yes, it’s very bad.” Hades replied. Nailed it!
“In that case, let’s both share a laugh at my sister’s expense. Drew won’t reach the boss for another few hours anyways. Come, join me on the couch. Now… where did I put that remote?” The Lady thought out loud, turning her head and checking in between the couch cushions.
Fuck!!!
“Ah! There it is.” The Lady said in triumph, pulling the remote from its hiding spot. “Come on now, don’t be shy. I don’t bite.” The Lady laughed, patting the seat cushion next to her in invitation. Hades shuffled over to the couch and sat down.
I’m just… going to find a hole… to crawl into and die.
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Purple beams of light cut through the sky as Spock tried to land a hit on the boss. Like tracer ammunition from Old Earth, the spells shot forward, but the boss was too agile with its wings. Beam after beam followed, ahead of the creature’s trajectory, Spock was doing everything correctly, but it was as if the boss danced around them.
“We’ve got to land a hit on that thing!” Drew yelled out, using his own [Death Toll] ability. Screaming skulls joined Spock’s beams, and the occasional fire arrow completed the trilogy as Amber added her own skills to theirs.
The boss was a Wulf Dragon, and its air superiority was without question. It wasn’t a true dragon, like one would imagine from books and movies, but it was close enough to get the jist of what the boss was all about. It was the size of four school buses, before the wingspan was taken into consideration, the wings themselves added another three and a half school buses to the flying lizard. The glossy black scales covered it from head to toe, leaving only its weaker underside vulnerable.
“I am trying, Drew Wright.” Spock replied loudly. His chicken familiar didn’t have the range to add anything meaningful to the fight currently, instead it sat on Spock’s left shoulder, waiting in anticipation for its master’s command to join the battle.
The Wulf Dragon banked, and began a sweeping run towards their party’s location. The boss’s throat bulged, swelling in size, as the nearby scales began to glow an unearthly green.
“BREATH!” Amber shouted, having observed the warning sign early with her razor sharp perception. The clumped together party split like the Red Sea, creating as much space as possible between each other. The boss expelled its breath, as both gas and liquid spewed forth onto the earth below it. Acid and poison.
The acid hit the ground first, as its liquid form was heavier. Where it met the ground, it sank deeply into the rocks and compacted dirt of the mountainous region, steam rose as the acid ate away at everything below it. The gaseous poison soon followed, in the form of an angry and low hanging cloud. A stray rodent took the reprieve after the acid hit the ground to make a dash for safety, but the billowing cloud quickly overtook the small creature.
Spock cast his right arm towards the incoming and quickly spreading cloud in a sweeping motion, a large breeze manifested from his action, and pushed the rolling cloud in a safer direction. With the ground clearing from the green cloud, the rodent remade its appearance, belly up, with one lower leg twitching as foam ran down from its mouth.
“Clear!” Drew yelled to his team. The beams, skulls, and arrows returned in short order, again chasing the Wulf Dragon through the sky as it danced along.
“AROOOOO!” Freya howled. Drew felt his furry friend’s ability take hold, buffing and boosting all his attributes and regeneration effects.
“Maud, can you add anything right now?” Amber asked, her head briefly turned over her shoulder to the melee lich.
“I’m glaring at it angrily. I’m certain it knows of my displeasure.” The lich yelled back, her gaze locked with the Wulf Dragon boss.
A bright light hit Drew’s right eye for a moment as he raised his axe to the Wulf Dragon, shooting another [Death Toll] towards it. Momentarily blinded, Drew’s spell missed. It would have missed anyways, but he wanted to blame it on the sudden light. His right eye cleared, and he looked from his axe and then to the sky. The sun was nowhere near that side of the horizon. Where did that glare come from?
Drew quickly recast his damage over time spells on the Wulf Dragon, and he felt the instant failure of two of them. [Focused Contagion] managed to stick, but the others never hit. The boss, much to his ire, had been resistant to several of his more powerful spells. It was most likely a Dragon thing, as that was common in fiction, but it still peeved him. His corruption spell wasn’t doing much to the flying creature, but at least it landed, where the others hadn’t. Drew surveyed his surroundings, trying to find the source of the glare that had blinded him from his axe’s reflection.
Oh? What do we have here? A cave entrance, well hidden within the walls of the mountains nearby. Large rocks and boulders lay scattered nearby, with tall, almost redwood trees clumped together like a miniature grove. Several of the trees were dead, specifically the ones closest to the cave’s entrance.
“I think I found something, I want to check it out. Can y’all cover for me?” Drew shouted to his team. They shouted their replies in the affirmative, and Drew bolted towards the cave. The Wulf Dragon, still dodging all of Amber and Spock’s attacks.
Drew cautiously entered the cave, leery of traps or other nasty surprises when he came upon something metallic and shiny sticking out from the compact dirt surface near the entrance. He reached down to pick it up. Jackpot, it’s a den. He raced inwards, there wouldn’t be traps here, this was the Wulf Dragon’s home. Drew pocketed the metallic piece of eggshell, and raced further inside. He reached the end of the shallow cave, and found more broken shells, and in the corner, huddled together in fear and for warmth sat the key to his party’s victory.
Six of them. That’s four too many for our purposes. Oh well. Drew bolted towards his prey, his axe falling and beginning his grisly work. The baby Wulf Dragons hissed and screeched as Drew cut four of them down in cold blood. With two remaining, he locked his axe to his back armor plate, and grabbed the dragonlings by the neck, and once again began to pick up speed, hauling the babies out to see their mother.
Drew was a colder person these days. Several years of near constant combat in life and death situations had hardened him. He still held warmth in his heart, and he was still human, mentally, but he’d learned to make harsh calls to keep his party safe. Eliminating four of the baby Wulf Dragons meant his party didn’t need to worry about the ankle biters coming out of the cave and flanking them when they were ill prepared. They might be babies, but they were still Wulf Dragons.
He reappeared outside of the cave moments later, screeching dragonlings held in check by his tight grip. He found his way back to his party less than a minute later, his agility stat once again proving it’s worth.
“Maud, come help me with these.” Drew called out to the lich. She quickly came over, eyes widened slightly at his catch before smirking.
“You’re going to force her to land. I like it.” Maud said, still smiling. Drew nodded his head and handed her one of the babies.
“Alright folks, next time Big Momma does a breath run, I need her to see us.” Drew said loudly, waiting for the acknowledgement of his party. With their verbal affirmation, he retrieved his weapon and began casting screaming skulls back at the boss.
“Breath!” Amber called out. It’d taken a minute, but the boss was making another run. Like before, the party split ways, getting out of the way of the acid and poison attack. Drew and Maud clumped together, directly in the line of the incoming attack. They hoisted the dragonlings into the air and he squeezed hard on the throat of his victim. It screeched in fear and pain. Drew felt the boss's attention the moment it locked eyes with him. His high perception allowed him to see the exact second the mother noticed her captive children.
The breath attack swerved to the left abruptly, cutting into the trees next to the mountains before the attack halted. The Wulf Dragon dove straight towards Drew and Maud, its claws extended in the hopes of gutting them both and saving her children. In her single mindedness she flew in a straight and predictable line, and soon the purple beams of Spock’s spells, and several of Amber’s flaming arrows hit her vulnerable underside. Magic had little effect on the bus-sized tyrant, even his own contagion spell had rotted off minor amounts of scales, rather than reducing her to bones.
Moments before the boss’s claws would shred and maul them, Drew threw his captive to Maud, who pushed off with all her strength and dodged to the left. Instead of dodging himself, Drew used his immense strength and leapt up, grabbing a hold of the boss’s front left ankle. Getting a hold of the scales was difficult, so he used his axe like a climbing pick, bringing it down into the meat of the Wulf Dragon’s leg. He used every ounce of his ridiculous stat points as he slammed his weapon down, grabbed more scales and hauled himself up.
“SREEEEEEEEE” The Dragon roared. It was definitely a screech, but with that much bass it came out as a reverberted roar that he felt hit his diaphragm. Drew was moving quickly, but the boss wasn’t having any of it, she flew near treetops, hoping to scrap him off like she’d stepped in a dog turd. Mid-flight, air pressure blowing around him, and weighed down by his armor, he was slightly slowed, but not enough to make a difference in the result.
The Wulf Dragon tried and failed to use its right legs to remove Drew, but everytime it did, its own flightpath changed, and it needed to quickly revert its plans to allow for more control in the air. That, and Drew was just too damn fast. Within moments he was between the front and back legs, and as he turned his head to the left, he found his prize. The joints and skin for the boss’s left wing. Finally within melee striking distance of the boss, he brought down his axe in a brutal swing, activating [Baleful Strike]. Resistant to magic, fine. But you won’t be resistant to soul attacks bitch. His weapon cut through the thin skin of the wing like a hot knife through butter, before finally hitting the scaled and bony joint of the appendage.
The Wulf Dragon practically screamed in pain, no longer was it a screech of anger and menace, now it was pure and unadulterated agony. Drew swung again, and again, and on the fourth swing, finally managed to cut through the bone, the wing dropping like a short bus full of screaming potatoes to the ground. The boss fell into a spinning dive, unable to remain aloft. Clear thoughts no longer came to it, it was unaware of anything other than the physical and soul damage it had taken repeatedly. She had flown high previously, trying and failing to dislodge the armored flea that had been attacking her. Now she was dropping from that same prestigious height.
Drew had time still, not a lot of time, but enough time. He worked his axe like a climbing pick again, and covered the distance to the other wing. I’m not giving you a snowball’s chance in hell of flying again. He brought his weapon down three times on the right wing, fully separating it from its original attachment point. Just before the Wulf Dragon crashed, Drew pushed off from her back, using his strength to propel him away from the boss and its incredible speed as it slammed into the ground like a meteor.
Drew landed roughly, twisting his ankle as he landed wrong, and spraining his leg. It hurt like hell, but at least it wasn’t broken, and he was in far better shape than the boss. Drew pulled a healing potion from his inventory and downed it, healing his leg and ankle as he took in the twisted form of the boss in the crater nearby. His leg beginning to heal, he hobbled forward, finally breaking into a run as the minor damage healed quickly. The boss was twitching, and clearly in a lot of pain, but still very much dazed from its impact.
The armored man fell upon the downed boss, axe held high overhead, and savagely bringing down into the Wulf Dragon’s neck with [Baleful Strike]. Its body thrashed in automatic and unconscious response as Drew brutalized its neck, hitting multiple nerve bundles. As the third overhead swing crashed into the neck, the boss’s eyes snapped open with an audible pop. Drew was flung backwards as the boss used its powerful tail to dislodge him. He crashed through the first tree, splitting it and causing it to fall to the ground before he cratered into a second tree behind the first, breaking several ribs in the process.
The impact forced blood to be ejected from his mouth, splattering the inside of his helm, as the air was literally beaten out of him. Drew felt panic set in, as his diaphragm refused to function, his lungs frozen and unable to bring air into them. He slammed down with his will, focusing his mind and grabbing a superior health potion from his inventory, his last one. He downed it as quickly as possible. His eyes locked with the boss, he saw its throat engorge as it prepared a breath attack directly at him and at close range.
As the Wulf Dragon arched its neck back to fire the blast, a series of fifteen flaming arrows pierced its right eye, the boss’s head jolted straight up in pain as the arrows exploded, searing flames erupting inside the Dragon’s eye socket. It tried to roar in agony, but its throat was full of a breath attack, which it then released directly above itself. As the fats of the boss’s eye popped and sizzled away, and the smell of crispy bacon wafted through the air, the Wulf Dragon’s own acid landed on its body.
Huh, guess they… aren’t immune… oww my fucking rib… Drew tried to finish his thought as the broken ribs pushed themselves back into place, melding together and healing. Soon his lungs were functioning normally, but the healing process was agonizing, especially with the audible pops he both felt and heard from his own body. The acid ate away at the dragon, leaving large sections of missing muscle and fat, its own ribs and vertebrae visible in some parts. Then its poisonous glass cloud dropped, Drew felt Spock’s ability blowing the cloud directly down onto the dragon.
With nothing to do but wait, Maud found Drew, and pulled him out of the armor-shaped crater within the tree. Minutes later, his party all caught up and nearby, Spock blew the remainder of the poison towards the mountains. The Wulf Dragon was left, foaming at the mouth, its body thrashing, clearly in its death throes. Freya bolted forward and began to rip off the rest of the boss’s head, chomping down, ripping and tearing, until it finally came free.
The body, now twitching, was left behind as Freya grabbed her prize, a Dragon horn in mouth as she towed the Toyota Corolla-sized head like an oversized stick to her parents. Her tail wagging, her black coat covered in blood, she dropped the head at the feet of Drew and Amber, sitting down and looking up as if to ask, “I did good right?!” Drew reached out and gave her some good scratchies before turning to his wife and smiling.
*DING!*
Dungeon Complete
Floors: 1647/1647 Cleared
Final Boss: Defeated
Total Kills: 13,471,852
Elapsed Time: 9 Years, 47 Days, 6 Hours, 29 Minutes, 14 Seconds
Completion Grade: Calculating…
Completion Grade: A-
Distributing Rewards
Titles Granted: [Heart of the Mountain], [Tis but a scratch], [Dungeoneer], [Mmm, Bacon], [Delver], [A Hero’s Return]
Ability Gained: [Dragon’s Roar (Epic)]
Equipment Rewarded: [Beowulf’s Armored Regalia (Mythic)]
Mount Granted: …Error… Dragonlings Terminated… Calculating…
Title Granted: [Monster]
Oops…