As Alex's vision returned, he did not see a wall with a portal anymore. Instead, in front of him was a dimly lit and damp cobblestone path leading deeper into what appeared to be a mining cave. Two braziers hung off the side of the wall illuminating the path in front of him. Looking behind himself was a dead-end that did not lead any further.
Alex walked down the only available path as quietly as possible, with Rudy following closely behind him. Upon reaching the end of the path, the room in front of him opened up and became much wider and brighter. As he entered the room, a large bonfire placed in the middle of the room self ignited.
With the self ignition of the bonfire, a small fairy creature appeared out of a cloud of grey smoke. When Alex slowly approached, the auto speech of the fairy began.
"Welcome to the Cave beneath the Mountains. I am the fairy spirit of the Cave, Gnome!" The soft faced female fairy fluttered in place.
Alex looked over the fairy, and though she was incredibly small, she was still quite beautiful. She had distinct gentle female features like a young mother, with a sparkling brown dress and delicate ethereal wings.
A small window prompt appeared in front of Alex.
- Reset the Dungeon? Warning: Restores players to full Health and Mana at the cost of reviving all enemies slain. Enemies previously slain do not give experience until Dungeon cooldown resets. -
Since this was the only information within the prompt, Alex took one more look and then left Gnome behind to look around the room. Just in the first room there was two veins of copper to be mined.
Alex equipped the Copper Pickaxe he had purchased in town and began to mine the veins. Since he did not have the Mining Skill, he only succeeded in retrieving about 40% of the maximum possible yield. Undeterred, he unequipped the Copper Pickaxe, equipped his Iron Battleaxe and continued to survey the room.
The room was large, and there were two separate paths to choose from. Both were well lit, but the mine itself had many twists and turns. The halls were both roughly five feet wide, enough to facilitate a path for a mining cart.
Alex chose to first travel the right pathway, traversing close to the side of the damp wall to avoid the mud on the floor. As he continued down the hallway, a sense of unease came over him.
Looking down at the floor roughly seven feet away from him was a fairly obvious Kobold trap. Alex knew it was a Kobold trap because he had seen the trap beforehand, when he first scouted the Kobold armies.
The trap itself resembled a bear trap, though it was much smaller and was made of several broken shards of metal. Alex picked up a small rock and threw it at the trap, triggering it. The trap went off, as both sides that were previously on the ground smashed together in the middle before falling apart.
The now broken trap disappeared and Alex received experience for successfully navigating through the trap without receiving damage. As he rounded the corner, the path turned into a dead-end with a copper vein at the end.
Alex quickly mined the copper vein and doubled back to the main room. Upon entering the room once more, he immediately chose the other unwalked path and began briskly walking down the twisting passageway.
The deeper in he traveled, the wider the trails became, from five feet to eight, and finally ten. A few of the paths became divergent but all had dead-ends, with a copper vein at each end.
Finally and without much notice, his first group of enemies appeared. A small group of three Kobolds patrolled the passageway he was currently in, and he was forced to either draw aggression from them or retreat. Since he knew the level of the Kobolds was 1, taking on three at a time was no issue for him.
Alex raised his Iron Kite Shield as Rudy growled menacingly. The Kobolds noticed his presence and lunged forward with their small chipped axes, swinging recklessly at the sturdy shield. None of the attacks penetrated his defense, nor did he take much damage from their combined strikes.
As the first set of attacks ended from the enemy, Alex raised his Iron Battleaxe and plunged it deep into the skull of the closest Kobold. The face of the Kobold split in half as the Iron Battleaxe cleaved its way through the head and into the body. Rudy timed her strike perfectly to dive at one of the Kobolds and sink her teeth into it's neck, killing it instantly.
The last Kobold gained the 'fear' status effect and began to flee from Alex. Before it could get far enough to warn the others, Alex charged forward while using his Iron Kite Shield to pin the Kobold against the mossy wall. The force of the momentum from the charge crushed the Kobolds ribs against its organs, slowly killing it. In the throes of death, the Kobold cried out as loud as possible for relief.
When the Kobold died, Alex picked up the loot from the Kobolds and continue forward. The passageway led to a large room with multiple packs of Kobolds patrolling around. Alex threw a rock and struck a Kobold in the face, making it aggressive towards him. The Kobolds this time were different from the first pack, as it included a healer and a mage.
Alex backed into the passageway, breaking the line of sight of the ranged caster Kobolds and forcing them to enter melee with him. With a few well placed attacks, even the healer and mage were no match for him. He quickly cleared the large room of all twelve Kobolds and accepted the Siphon Skill prompts before choosing to look around. The large room contained many crates and barrels filled with decaying flesh, blood and other various Kobold delicacies.
As Alex entered the middle of the room, a small thumping could be heard as the floor in front of him opened up. In just the same way as the floor opened when he lit the eight braziers outside the Dungeon entrance, a staircase appeared out of the floor. The thumping got increasingly louder as a figure emerged from the darkness of the staircase.
The monster that appeared in front of Alex was the Kobold King, whom he had killed just hours before entering the Dungeon. Dressed exactly the same and wielding a rusted dagger with the exact same markings, it gave off the same feeling as the one Alex dealt with outside.
"This is my cave, stupid human! I found it!" the Kobold King snarled as he began to chant magic.
Alex knew exactly what he was attempting to cast, and could not allow him to succeed. Before the magic was finished casting, Alex thundered forward as his feet pressed shallowly into the mud of the floor. Catching the Kobold King mid cast, Alex used the edge of the Iron Kite Shield to bash the Kobold King in the throat.
A 'silenced' status effect appeared above the Kobold King's head as Alex crushed his larynx. The Kobold King spat blood as it attempted to stab Alex in retaliation. Alex could not react in time for the attack, but Rudy was already set to lunge and changed her focus to the Kobold King's arm before the stab could follow through, catching the arm in her mouth. As the Kobold King was pinned by Rudy, Alex swiftly swung his Iron Battleaxe with as much force as he could muster, cleaving the Kobold King in half.
Despite the challenge he initially had against the Kobold King in the non Dungeon world, he was now a higher level than he previously was. This difference in level allowed him to extinguish the Kobold King's life without half as much effort as it previously took. The level 3 Kobold King's body slumped to the ground as the Siphon prompt appeared as usual.
Siphon body?
Yes or No
Alex accepted the Siphon, but ultimately the skill failed. It was of no concern to him as he had already healed thanks to the previous Siphoning. The Kobold King's body disappeared as the loot dropped. Alex nonchalantly placed the items into his backpack and was now presented with a single pathway leading further down.
The passage was very poorly lit and considerably steep considering it was a path for a mine. As Alex traversed the passage, he actively found and triggered several traps and dispatched packs of enemies whenever he came across them. The path twisted and turned several times before eventually leading into a medium sized room with two large treasure chests on opposite walls.
The treasure chest on the left had clumps of moss growing on it, and was adorned with small jewels around the lock. The treasure chest on the right was pristine, with nothing to discern that it was even in use besides a small lock.
Alex carefully checked the room before deciding to open the chests, and he very quickly noticed small slits in the walls of the room. With his previous knowledge of video games guiding him, he knew it was most likely some type of arrow trap triggered from the opening of one or both of the treasure chests.
The arrow traps were placed just slightly above the top of the treasure chest height wise, so Alex ducked his head low as he checked the first chest. Since he had no way of disabling traps, he decided to just swing the chest open while ducking as low as possible. He chose to open the moss covered treasure chest first, since it was closest to him.
Alex broke the lock of the chest with the blunt end of his Battleaxe and flipped the lid with as much force as possible, and just as he imagined, the arrow traps went off. The arrows flew from the southern and northern wall, before smashing against the opposite side and falling to the ground. With the chest open, Alex peered inside to see what loot he received.
Cracked Earth Orb x 1
Ring of Earth x 1
"Interesting, i've never heard of a Cracked Earth Orb before." Alex checked his inventory and read the advanced description of both the Orb and the Ring.
Cracked Earth Orb: Material used in the creation of lower level weapons. Grants 1 magical property.
Ring of Earth: Equip to receive + 5 resistance to earth based magical attacks.
Alex equipped the Ring of Earth and headed over to the other treasure chest. Rudy sniffed the treasure chest as soon as Alex approached it, and began to snarl at the chest. Even Alex thought it was weird that is was in such pristine condition.
Alex struck the lock of the treasure chest but it did not break. Instead, the chest shook and unfolded into a monster. As the top of the chest opened, a long red tongue popped out around two rows of large sharp yellow teeth. An arm stretched out from both sides of the chest as it screeched in anger.
"Guruuuruuu..." The treasure chest grumbled as pieces of gold coins and jewelry danced in it's mouth.
Fully awakened, the chest attempted to grapple Alex as the mouth of the chest opened, ready to consume it's foe.
Alex blocked the chest's right arm with his Iron Kite Shield while Rudy chomped on the left arm. With no other form of attack besides a bite, the chest tried to jump forward to eat Alex.
Alex swung his Iron Battleaxe down with a chop and struck the fleshy inner part of the chest. As blood and flesh flew around, the chest mimic recoiled and fell against the wall. A 'bleeding' status effect appeared above it's head as blood slowly oozed around it. In a matter of moments, the mimic had been successfully killed.
As the mimic disappeared, the prompt for the Siphon Skill came up but it was ultimately another failure. Undeterred, Alex waited patiently for his loot. The loot never appeared, even after Alex stopped to eat a morsel of food with Rudy.
Based on the damage that Alex received from blocking the right arm attack, the mimic was most likely level 2. Compared to him at level 8 and Rudy at level 6, if it took more than one blow to kill it he would feel ashamed. Such was the difference in levels comparatively.
Continuing forward, Alex kept finding and killing packs of Kobolds, as well as discovering dead-ends and many copper veins. The path became more and more twisted as it spiraled deeper down.
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The next room Alex entered was very similar to a circular fighting ring, with an iron fence engulfing the room. In the middle of the room was a bizarre looking beast with a lion's head and body, large bat wings and a scorpion's tail.
"That is... A manticore?" Alex spoke out loud to himself before entering the room. No doubt this was another mini-boss, as he had already defeated the Kobold King and the Dungeon still continued on.
According to old lore, the manticore was an amalgamated beast like a chimera, created from both geniuses and madmen who sought to create an ultimate being. The lion part of the manticore was hard enough to deal with, but the scorpion tail was the deadliest part of the monster. The scorpion tail secretes a neurotoxin that causes muscle spasms and renders the victim unable to move. The wings were large enough to carry the manticore, allowing it to fly.
The flight of the manticore did not need to be considered in Alex's assessment of the dangers, as the height of the room was only roughly twenty feet.
Assessing the situation, Alex found it to still be in his favor. His Mana was almost full, having only used a handful of the Siphon Skill. His Health bar was almost full as well since he only took 30 damage from blocking the chest mimic's strike.
With favorable conditions, Alex stepped into the fighting pit with Rudy at his side. Since the worst thing that could happen from a manticore sting was loss of bodily control, Rudy could participate in this fight without worrying about death from lethal poisoning.
The manticore roared as the door behind Alex closed with a heavy thud.
"Who seeks to enter my domain! I will eat you, and use your bones to pick my teeth!" The manticore yelled at Alex.
"I heard a manticore heart is a rare delicacy! Let me have a taste!" Alex retorted.
The manticore was infuriated as it leapt on top of a crate and glided to where Alex stood. Alex was temporarily caught off guard, not considering that the manticore would glide instead of fly.
The two claws of the manticore swung down forcefully onto Alex's Iron Kite Shield as the weight of the manticore pushed down on him. Alex did his best to hold the manticore back as Rudy circled around behind the monster and jumped to bite the base of the scorpion tail.
Rudy firmly bit the scorpion tail, rendering it useless, and Alex could finally bash the manticore back with his Iron Kite Shield. A 'stunned' status effect appeared above the manticore's head for a brief moment, which was enough time for Alex to uppercut the manticore with his Iron Battleaxe.
As the status effect disappeared, the manticore howled and attempted to take flight. Incapable of supporting it's own large body and also Rudy, the manticore fell over quickly while Alex followed up with another strike.
The final blow was dealt to the manticore as Rudy finally tore through the scorpion tail, tearing it off the manticore's main body. The manticore fell over in pain and howled in agony as the 'bleed' effect appeared above it's head.
"There was so many things I hadn't done. In the end I didn't even escape." The manticore gave his final sentence as it's Health reached 0.
Siphon body?
Yes or No
Alex clicked yes and a large body of blood flowed from the manticore corpse into himself. Almost all the damage he sustained from the manticore and the chest mimic was healed as the loot dropped and the body vanished.
Manticore Heart x 1
Large Bat Wings x 1
Scorpion Tail x 1
Scorpion Poison x 3
Once he was done collecting the loot, Alex mined the copper veins in the medium sized room and looked around to see if there was anything he may have missed.
Alex found a sconce on the eastern wall that seemed out of place considering all the braziers lighting up the room nearby and decided to fiddle around with it. Upon pressing it down, a hidden staircase revealed itself, appearing from behind a thick stone wall and heading upwards.
As Alex climbed the staircase to the top, he found himself at the very beginning of the Dungeon where the fairy appeared.
"A shortcut, how convenient!" Alex remarked before heading back down the staircase.
Upon reaching the room again, Alex placed the sconce upright and watched as the stone wall raised again.
"Nothing to do but continue forward..." Alex headed to the only available passageway across the room from where he first entered.
This current passageway was not large, only a few feet in width, and was incredibly muddy compared to the previous paths. The passage continued spiraling downward for a good few minutes only to lead into a large throne room.
In the throne room, six large stone pillars stood an equidistance apart from each other. The path from the passage to the large stone throne was covered in a beautiful red silk carpet.
Sitting on the throne was a large Earth Elemental, pounding his fist against the armrest. As he pounded the armrest, the entire room shook with force. The rhythmic pounding of the Earth Elemental's fist was precisely like the sounds outside the Dungeon when the mountain shook.
Alex eyed the Earth Elemental carefully as it continued to punch the armrest. The Earth Elemental resembled the fusion of a humanoid and a small mountain, as it had two arms, two legs, a head and a torso. On top of the rocks that comprised the Earth Elemental, clumps of moss and vines draped over it like a cloak that clung too close to the back.
Alex considered his position but was fairly certain that he still had the upper hand, especially after equipping the Ring of Earth. He had no doubt that the Ring of Earth was meant for a tank, but since he was solo he did not need to worry about sharing loot.
After careful deliberation, Alex and Rudy finally stepped forward through the entrance of the passageway. A stone wall closed off the path behind them as the Earth Elemental began to speak.
"This place was my home, before I was hollowed out by those damned Duergar. Who will give me back my precious gems and stones? Your debt can only be paid with your life!" The Earth Elemental began to glide across the cobblestone floor as his legs melded into the stone beneath him.
As the Earth Elemental glided through the stone floor, the floor remained unchanged and was not destroyed or moved in any way.
Alex dodged out of the way of the Earth Elemental's fist by tumbling left while Rudy jumped right. Rudy growled in order to catch the attention of the Earth elemental long enough for Alex to strike.
With the Earth Elemental's back turned to him, Alex horizontally chopped his Iron Battleaxe into the side of the great monster. The Elemental's Health depleted by a decent chunk, and Alex drew aggression from the monster. Instead of turning around, the face of the Earth elemental appeared on the other side of it's body, catching Alex off guard.
The Earth Elemental's two massive hands clapped together with Alex in the middle as Alex became 'deafened' and 'stunned'. Unable to properly defend against the next attack, Alex took a punch directly to his body as he was flung away from where he was standing.
When the 'stunned' effect wore off, Alex finally snapped back to reality and saw Rudy defending his damaged body. Rudy herself was in bad shape, having taken multiple glancing blows from the Earth Elemental.
Alex stood up, even though he was in an incredible amount of pain, and brandished his Iron Battleaxe. While the Elemental was still distracted by Rudy, Alex got the brilliant idea to dual wield his Iron Battleaxe with his Iron Dagger + 1.
With two weapons in hand, he began smashing and slicing the Earth Elemental while ducking and weaving away from the colossal blows being rained down upon him.
After an intense barrage of twenty attacks from both sides, the one to finally fall was the Earth Elemental.
As it's body crumbled to dust, a parting statement made its way to Alex.
"I'm finally free from this burden..." It whispered.
The body vanished without a prompt from the Siphon Skill, and a golden glow enveloped Alex's body. Alex knew he leveled up, but he was much more curious about the loot from the Earth Elemental.
"Kobold Dungeon: Complete!" The A.I. voice intoned. "First To Kill The Boss Receives A Special Item requirement met!"
Earth Elemental Core x 1
Spirit of the Earth (Summon) x 1
Earthen Chestplate x 1
Heart of Mining x 1
Moonstone x 3
Special Item: Silver Ingot x 5
Alex was sprawled on the ground with Rudy at his side when the items came pouring into his inventory. Despite his reservations about entering the Dungeon, he was glad he got through it successfully. If he hadn't, there was no telling when someone else would have got the Special Item.
- Do you wish to leave the Dungeon now? -
A prompt appeared in front of Alex and he clicked yes. As his vision went dark, he re-appeared at the entrance to the Dungeon he had just entered, sprawled out prone on the floor.
Awkwardly, Alex stood up and left the Dungeon, the mining cave and the mountain side and headed to the marker on his map for the Moonglow Shrine. On his way over, the monsters of the forest changed from Kobolds and Gnolls to zombies and ghouls. The relative damage from the monsters was the same, so it was not as if he was worried about dying in this place.
Still, it was best to be prepared for anything in this new world. While Rudy gleefully hunted down the unholy monsters near the Moonglow Shrine, Alex sought out the sister of the farmer. After more traveling and speaking with NPCs, he was able to find the sister he was looking for.
The woman was quite literally a sister of the cloth, dressed in gently used white robes with a black and white shawl covering her head and shoulders.
"You've come to assist me in exorcising the evil spirits of the Moonglow Shrine?" As Alex approached, the automatic speech began.
Alex completed the quest and accepted the two quests she had to offer.
Exp + 150
Quest: Spirit Fruit Accepted.
Quest: Root of all Evil Accepted.
Alex checked his status screen and advanced tab now that he had a moment to himself.
Name: Shadow
Level: 9
Race: Demon
Class: Demon King
Title: One who rules the underworld
Skills: Tough Hide 8
Unholy Magic 6
Siphon 7
Pet: Rudy
-Stats-
Strength: 10 + (16)
Dexterity: 10 + (20)
Endurance: 10 + (20)
Wisdom: 10 + (16)
Intelligence: 10 + (16)
Spirit: 10 + (16)
Health: 500/500
Mana: 300/300
-Equipment-
Armor Bonus: 12
Weapon: Iron Battleaxe (Damaged)
Off Hand: Iron Kite Shield (Damaged)
Head Gear: Werewolf Hunter Leather Helmet
Chest Gear: Werewolf Hunter Chest Armor
Leg Gear: Werewolf Hunter Leg Armor
Foot Gear: Werewolf Hunter Leather Greaves
Ring Slot 1: Ring of Beast Calling
Ring Slot 2: Ring of Earth
Neck Slot 1: None
Special 1: None
Special 2: None
Experience: 11950 of 13500
Languages: Common, Undercommon, Demon
Money: 0 Mithril
0 Platinum
1 Gold
59 Silver
212 Copper
Special Abilities: Dominion, Territory Management
-
Name: Rudy
Level: 6
Owner: Shadow
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 21
Endurance: 14
Wisdom: 3
Intelligence: 3
Spirit: 3
Health: 200/200
Mana: 0
Experience: 6900 of 8100