Jonathan closed his interface and took one last look back at the fiery lake behind him. Then he stepped forwards and off the lava, heading for the exit. The caves continued downwards from there, with yet another borehole leading to the next stage of the dungeon. Judging by the levels of the monsters here, he was coming closer and closer to the end of the dungeon. He was a bit miffed that he had not gained any loot thus far, but he was expecting great things later on. He would gain as much as he could out of this place even if it killed him. At this rate, it might very well do so.
Jonathan raced down the borehole, as there was nothing there to catch his interest save for the uniformly smooth walls. He already knew what was behind them, and he had already reaped the rewards. There would be no benefit to exposing himself to the void once more, even if the small part of him that was now dominated by the element wanted to do so, if only for the purpose of exposing the dungeon to the void.
About halfway down, Jonathan noticed strange scuff marks on the floor, and as he paused, he saw that they continued all the way back up the borehole. They were barely noticeable, especially in the near darkness of the tunnel. His vision was powerful enough to see perfectly in the dark, but he couldn't create light where there was not simply by looking at it. If something was revealed by a reflection, then it was very hard to make out. Interestingly enough, the scuff marks almost matched the size of his feet exactly, almost as if he had already been down here. Jonathan knew that had not been the case, but he wasn't sure what to think about all this. It might just have been a glitch in the dungeon formation, or it could have been something more profound. In any case, it didn't affect him at the moment.
As he descended further into the depths, he began to hear cheering,a sound that he most certainly had not been expecting in a place like this. He broke out into an open cavern a few minutes late, which was surrounded by tiered seating, almost like an auditorium. Bright spotlights shone down from the top, but he could not make out what they were actually made of.Humanoid monsters, that looked like bipedal bulls, were duking it out in the middle of the cavern, and the spectators, more monsters, were cheering, as if like a laugh track for a sitcom. None of them did any more than that however, and the entire thing was quite creepy. As Jonathan entered, the creature all turned towards him in unison, and began to clap again. A notification blared in front of him, and he quickly read it.
You have entered a rare sub-dungeon area. This area manifests as an arena populated with monsters. The only way to escape is to defeat ten waves of monsters, finishing with a boss tier monster(increased because of challenger strength). Upon completion, you will be graded on your overall performance, which might lead to you being granted rewards.
He had been lucky it seemed, but not in the way that he had wanted. This would slow him down by quite a bit, and it might even prove to be dangerous. However, it would be a good source of essence, and potentially rewards. Jonathan took a step forwards, and the monsters who had been fighting mere moments before charged him, howling in rage. Jonathan slid his foot back, and built up power, punching as the nearest monster reached him. His blow ripped through the monster, and he almost fell, off balance. It was far weaker than he had expected. It seemed that this arena would run the entire gamut of dungeon monster strengths.
He narrowed his stance as another monster came near, and he lashed out with his gauntlet, taking its head off with one devastating blow. The audience of monsters cheered at the same volume and rhythm as before, not seeming to care much about the actual nuances of the fight itself. They were just there as some sort of narrative background noise, or perhaps even to distract Jonathan from his battle. He ignored the noises, and kept fighting, working his way through the first wave.
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There had been about five of the monsters fighting in the first round, and he finished them off in under a minute, his fists flecked with gore. The monster corpses melted away, and Jonathan barely felt the essence that entered him, as it was negligible. The audience hushed for a moment, and then a bell chimed twice, signaling the start of the second round. It didn't look like Jonathan was getting any breaks during this match, but judging by the monsters’ strength, he wasn't going to need any.
Three scorpions the size of horses appeared in the center of the arena, their stingers coated in viscous green poison. Jonathan fought to hide the slight sense of revulsion that entered his body upon seeing the monsters. They were misshapen on account of their unnatural size, and their flesh was warped almost across their entire bodies. They had vaguely humanoid heads too, which looked grotesque, especially considering that their scaly chitin extended onto the flesh as well.
The monsters hissed at Jonathan and then scuttled forwards, their many legs leaving small divots in the sand. Jonathan coated his fists with mana, and surged forwards, diving under a lightning fast tail swipe from one of the scorpions. They were not much faster than the previous monsters, but their stingers were considerably faster than the rest of their bodies. Jonathan reached out and grabbed the stinger in midair, and ripped it out of its socket, causing the monster to howl in pain. Green blood poured out of the stump where its stinger had been, and it whirled around towards Jonathan, its humanoid face twisted in pain and rage.
It snapped at him with its claws, but it was too slow to catch him, and as the other scorpions tried to attack Jonathan, he leaped up into the air, out of their reach. The stingers whipped up after them, but Jonathan was too far away for them to affect him. As he came down, he formed orbs of his mana around his fists, empowering them beyond their normal capabilities. As he fell, he avoided the stingers, pushing off them lightly with his hand and feet. The scorpions tried to get out of the way, but they were too slow, and their bodies were too large.
Jonathan fell down like a meteor, and drove his fists into their bodies. Both of the previously uninjured scorpions were still in the path of his fists, and they buckled under the force of his blow, flattening into the ground. His fists drove the void aspected mana through their bodies, eating away at them like acid. The monsters died then and there, too many of their internal organs being melted by the attack.
Jonathan landed softly and turned towards the last scorpion, which was staring at him with an expression that looked almost like fear, if such a monster could feel such an emotion. Jonathan strode forwards, and sped up at the last minute, dodging between two claw swipes. With his recently enhanced Resilience, it probably wouldn't have even affected him, but he still did it nonetheless. He uppercutted the monster with his right fist, and as it lifted off the ground, he pummeled its softer underbelly, blasting the monster apart into chunks of flesh. He shook off his gauntlets, and waited for the next waves to come. Another notification appeared instead.
You have completed the first set of waves with an overall performance score of S. This has been calculated based on the injuries that you took, the time that you spent killing the monsters, and your overall grace and technique. Well done for achieving this score, as it is quite rare indeed. The final score will be based on a weighted average of all your scores, with the final one influencing it the most. That is, if you survive.