Before Daniel reentered the dungeon he first went to the shop to buy some more potions and supplies. After the team dungeon with Steve which felt so long ago now he had used all of his remaining potions saving Steve. Daniel hoped that he wouldn't need to use any health potions to save his or Kota’s life, but it was better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them.
Daniel purchased three new health potions and like before put two on his waist slots and one into his bag. He also considered buying a few other potions that might help in combat, but decided against it. He still had one vial of alchemical fire left from the team dungeon. He decided to also put that vial in his waist pouch. Leaving the shop with Kota he approached the solo dungeon. Daniel readied his hammer and checked over his equipment and armor. With his new weapon, armor, and shield he had gained a greater understanding on how to take care of his gear and the proper way to hold his weapons and how to wear his armor. With his new strength Daniel was able to wield ‘Ice Fang’ in a single hand and hold his shield in the other with no problem. This of course would make his swings slightly weaker, but Daniel thought it was a small price to pay for the extra protection the tower shield gave to him. After making sure everything was in order Daniel looked down at Kota. “Ready buddy?” Kota barked his reply and Daniel nodded in affirmation. With every day that passed in this new reality Daniel swore that Kota was getting smarter.
Idly Daniel considered what would happen if he put one of Ulgatha’s children into Kota’s mind. Would he be able to talk with his companion? Or maybe there was a spell he could learn with his new psionic powers that would allow him to speak telepathically with Kota. These were all things that he considered as he stepped into the portal which brought him onto the sixth floor of the solo dungeon.
~~~~~~
Like all of the previous goblin floors Daniel once again appeared in a cave. Unlike previous delves however there was not just a single exit, but two. This was a new development and not something Steve had mentioned when they had spoken. One exit was just like all of the others he had seen. The other had a wooden post in front of it that had several goblin skulls on top.
Daniel decided to avoid that path for the time being, and chose the path without the post with skulls on it. He began to make his way further into the dungeon. Daniel kept his guard up as he made his way further. He had learned from his previous dungeon incursions that he could never be too careful. Like the previous floors, soon the hallway Daniel was walking down opened up into a new chamber that held five goblins. A warg rider, a shaman, an archer, and two warrior goblins that wore tatter chainmail armor.
They were already ready for battle when Daniel saw them. With his new armor and gear he made a lot more noise than before and they had clearly heard his approach and were already ready for combat. As the days had passed Daniel had gained a greater connection with Kota. He had gained an almost innate sense of Kota’s location and what his companion was doing, so as the two goblin warriors charged him he knew Kota was crouched in the shadows behind him ready to attack. Through his evolutions Kota was becoming a silent hunter ready to kill his prey without them even becoming aware of his presence. That meant it was Daniel’s job to gather the attention of all of the goblins so that Kota could take out the high priority targets.
With that thought in mind Daniel also rushed forward towards the charging goblin warriors. He used ‘Heavy Charge’ for a short burst of speed and distance. He stopped his charge just short of the goblin warriors. Daniel brought ‘Ice Fang’ down onto one of the goblin warriors' heads. However in the middle of his swing brand new instinct from his ‘Weapon Proficiency: Maul’ made him slightly change the angle of his attack mid swing. Instead of his blow landing on the top of the goblin warriors armored head he adjusted the attack to land on the side of the goblins neck right where the neck and the shoulder met. As his blow landed Daniel heard an audible snap of bones as the attack broke the goblins neck.
The goblin crumpled to the ground. Unseen to the other goblins who were fixated on Daniel, Kota had snuck past him and into the shadows at the edge of the cavern. Daniel smiled as he felt several objects striking his shield. Kota was getting close to reaching the second tier, so for this solo dungeon run Daniel wanted to get Kota as many of the kills as possible to accelerate his progress.
Daniel played a defensive role as he continued to block the attacks of the goblin warrior and goblin archer, as he waited for Kota to make his move. The goblin shaman looked to be channeling some kind of spell, but Daniel wasn't worried. Although he couldn't see Kota he could feel his companions' rough location and knew that he was approaching the shaman from behind.
As Daniel continued to defend blocking attacks with his tower shield Daniel watched as the shaman slowly raised his hand a green ball of fire appearing a moment later. Just as the shaman was about to throw the fireball Kota leapt from the shadows behind the shaman and tackled the goblin face first onto the ground. The sudden impact caused the green fireball in the shaman's hand to wink out before he had been able to throw it. Then before any of the other goblins could react to the new threat Kota bent down and ripped the back of the goblin shamans neck off.
Daniel took that as his que to take the initiative and stop playing defensive and went on the attack. With a ‘Heavy Blow’ infused attack Daniel slammed his shield forward and into the goblin warrior in front of him. Daniel heard something break as the shield impacted the child sized goblin. The attack made the goblin lose its balance and fall onto its back. Daniel brought his maul down on the defenseless goblins head. He didn't want to kill the goblin, but he did want to knock it out so that Kota could get credit for the kill after the fight was over.
With the warrior goblin that Daniel had killed and the other one that he had just knocked unconscious, and with the goblin shaman that Kota had killed that only left the goblin archer and warg rider still alive.
Both the archer and the warg rider had turned to Kota as soon as he had taken out the goblin shaman, and hadn't seen Daniel take out the last goblin warrior. The archer readied another arrow and the warg rider began to charge at his companion.
During this time however Kota hadn't been idle. As soon as he made his kill on the shaman he had begun to sprint his way towards Daniel. Kota made it to Daniel just in time for him to block the goblin archer's arrow. A moment later the warg rider activated some skill and he surged towards Daniel in a blur of speed. Daniel was ready for this and as soon as the rider got close to Daniel he hit the rider with a ‘Quickened Blow’ empowered shield bash which threw the goblin off of his mount as the warg continued past Daniel and towards Kota.
Daniel left Kota to take care of the warg. As Daniel looked at the goblin rider which was now sprawled on the ground it seemed like his blow had knocked the rider unconscious which saved Daniel the effort of needing to make a follow up attack. With Kota handling the warg and the rider out cold this left Daniel free to finish off the goblin archer.
He activated ‘Dash’ and rushed at the archer with his shield raised. A moment later Daniel felt another arrow thump into his shield. This one was different however. The archer must have infused some skill into the arrow because the arrow pierced through his shield and impacted his chest. Thankfully his armor stopped the arrow cold. As Daniel closed the remaining distance to the goblin arch he felt one last arrow strike his shield, but it didn't contain any of the piercing power that the first arrow had contained.
Once Daniel got to the archer it only took him a few moments to disarm and incapacitate the goblin. Daniel then turned towards Kota to see how his fight was progressing. Unfortunately Kota seemed to be losing against the warg. That did make sense however. Kota was still a tier 1 beast while the warg was tier 2 meaning that its base stats were higher than Kota’s, but Kota had items and equipment that the warg did not possess.
Daniel didn't want to directly interfere with Kota’s fight, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to help. As Daniel watched Kota and the warg broke apart and began to circle one another. Then suddenly the warg put on a sudden burst of speed and lunged for Kota’s throat. At that moment the instant before the wargs' jaws made contact with Kota Daniel activated ‘Death’s Embrace’ on his companion. A moment later when the wargs’ jaws connected nothing happened. Confused, the warg released his hold on Kota and backed away, but Kota used this moment of hesitation to lunge forward with his shadow claws extended. The warg was unable to move out of the way in time and Kota’s shadowy claws stabbed into the wargs chest causing damage to its internal organs.
Moments later the warg died and Daniel saw the blue motes of mana leave the wargs body and enter Kota. Daniel then directed Kota to finish off the three still alive but unconscious goblins. One that had been taken care of Daniel checked how much progress he had made towards his next evolution.
Companion Evolution Progress: 0% -> 45%
It appeared that killing so many tier 2 creatures had greatly propelled Kota towards his next evolution. The same thing had happened when Kota had consumed all of the mana from the elementals from the team dungeon. Daniel hoped this trend of rapid progression for Kota would continue, but he knew that his friend would soon start to experience diminishing returns from consuming the mana of too many of the same creatures.
Daniel nodded to Kota and they continued on towards the next cave containing goblins. Daniel continued in this way for several more rooms. Daniel would act as bait and a distraction for Kota. He would draw the goblins' attention while Kota would stealthfuly enter the room and take out a valuable target while they were focused on Daniel. Each room they entered had a different variety of goblins. One contained three Goblin archers and two warriors. The different groups did not change their overall strategy and Kota was able to secure most of the kills.
Their strategy was effective, but like Daniel had predicted, Kota's evolutionary progress soon stalled. Daniel quickly pulled up his progress and checked its new total
Companion Evolution Progress: 79% -> 91%
Kota had only gained 12% evolutionary progress from their last battle which was significantly lower than their first battle. Daniel focused back on the present. They were approaching another cavern. Daniel tried his beck not to make a lot of noise, and his efforts seemed to have paid off because when Daniel appeared into the chamber the goblins were not preparing for battle and seemed to be relaxing around their fire.
The room contained two warrior goblins, a shaman, and to Daniel’s surprise the final enemy was a hobgoblin. The last thing Daniel noticed was that there wasn't another tunnel leading away from this room. Meaning that this was the final room of this floor of the solo dungeon.
That thought triggered a memory in Daniel's mind. This wasn't the final room of the dungeon. When they had entered there had been a second branching path. Making a decision Daniel signaled Kota to walk away from this final chamber. Daniel wanted to go back and explore what was in the other path they didn't take. He was worried that clearing this final goblin encounter would count as clearing this floor of the solo dungeon and removing them from the instance.
Together they backtracked their way through all of the chambers they had already cleared until they had returned to where they had started. Like before the other path had a post with several goblin heads on top. Daniel had to assume the sign was meant for the other goblins living in the cave to not enter.
Daniel however wasn't a goblin, so without any hesitation Daniel entered the tunnel. After walking for about twenty feet Daniel began to see various bones scattered across the floor completely picked clean of any meat. At the sight of the bones Daniel began to make his way forward with even greater care not knowing what they would be facing. As they continued forward the piles of bones became even more dense until Daniel could barely take a step forward without stepping on some piece of bone that would shatter under his weight causing loud snaps to reverberate and echo through the tunnel.
Their approach had not been quiet, and Daniel expected to be in the middle of a fight as soon as he emerged from the tunnel, but to his surprise the complete opposite was true. When Daniel and Kota emerged into the cavern Daniel saw a massive ugly creature that was sleeping on a massive pile of bones it was completely unaware of Daniels and Kota’s approach. Unsure what this creature was, Daniel decided to risk using ‘Identification’ on the creature.
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Race: Monster
Species: Lesser Stone Troll
Tier 2
Core Refinements: 1
Details: Trolls are considered to be one of the most dangerous monsters an adventure can encounter in the lower tiers. With their large bodies and strength higher than most creatures a tier higher than themselves would make them a difficult foe to deal with on its own. Coupled with their natural regeneration and the natural durability of trolls makes them an extremely dangerous enemy for even the most well equipped adventuring party. However trolls are also some of the least intelligent monsters and a clever group of adventurers armed with a good plan have been known to take down trolls with ease.
Stone trolls, unlike some of their otherkin, have a weaker natural regeneration, but in exchange their skin takes on many of the properties of the stone they are named after. Stone trolls have the highest natural durability of their kin and some of the highest tier stone trolls have been known to be completely immune to physical damage. However their low intelligence still makes them very susceptible to magic and psionic attacks.
Highest Attribute: Strength
The information provided by his skill was interesting. It gave him several ideas on how he might be able to skill the creature in front of them, but he just didn't have the time for some of the options. Stone trolls were apparently weak to psionic attacks, but Daniel lacked that capability and wouldn't have time to try and figure out how to make one considering he was standing only ten feet away from the creature. They could try and exit the cave the same way they had come in, but there was a real chance it could wake up as they were leaving. With it asleep they currently had the upper hand and Daniel didn't want to give up that advantage.
The prompt had also informed Daniel that stone trolls were resistant to physical damage meaning that his maul would be less effective than normal. He hoped that blunt attack would still somewhat be effective, but Daniel didn't want to risk his life on such a hope.
This left Daniel with only a few options remaining. In table top games he had played in the past trolls had a natural regeneration like the prompt had said. However in those games that regeneration made them weak to fire and acid attacks that would deal extra damage to them and also slow or completely stop their natural regeneration. Daniel only had a single vial of alchemical fire, and he didn't know if it would be enough on its own to kill the troll. In all honesty he highly doubted that it would be.
Using the vial was an option, but like before he didn't want to risk their whole plans' success on something he was unsure would work. He didn't dismiss the option of using the vial all together, but he mentally set the option to the side for now.
Another option that had a high chance of working was Kota’s ‘Ethereal Shadow Claws.’ They ignored natural armor. If Kota was able to sneak up all the way up to the troll's head he could use his claws to shred the creature's brain. The only problem with that was Kota would need to scale the pile of bone the creature was resting on and there would be a real chance of the stone troll waking up as Kota scaled the pile. Daniel also temporarily dismissed that option as well. It had a high chance of working, but it would be putting Kota in a significant amount of Danger that Daniel wasn't comfortable with.
Daniel considered what other options he had. His main issue was his lack of knowledge on the ugly creature that was snoring in front of him. A moment later Daniel wanted to slap himself on the forehead for his stupidity. The only thing that stopped him was the fear the sound would wake the sleeping troll, but that seemed like slim chance considering all of the noise he and Kota had made on the way in. Well mainly him, but that's besides the point.
Daniel closed his eyes then tried to project his thoughts to the creature that had just taken up residence in his mind. “Ulgatha, can you hear me?” Daniel whispered into his mind
“Yes, Daniel I can. There is no need to whisper we are communicating telepathically, no one can overhear us in your own mind.”
Daniel unconsciously straightened his posture at the slight rebuke and then began to communicate normally to Ulgatha. “Sorry about that.” Daniel hesitated for a moment before continuing. “I need whatever information you have about lesser stone trolls. I am currently standing in front of a sleeping one and I need more information on how to kill it.” There was a slight pause before Ulgatha spoke, and Daniel was worried for a moment that he had not transmitted his thoughts properly. He was about to repeat himself when Ulgatha spoke.
“Okay, I have caught up on your recent memories, and you are in an excellent position to take down this troll in a single coordinated assault.”
“I was hoping you would say that, but I just don't know anything about this creature besides what games and ‘Identification’ told me. I need more information so that I can formulate an effective plan.” Daniel replied.
“Okay I will start at the top then. Like you suspected, trolls are weak to magic, but specifically fire and acid. This will affect their natural regeneration and make it significantly less effective. I have formulated a plan for you based on your current capabilities if you would like to hear it.”
Ulgatha sounded slightly submissive when she made that last statement, and Daniel didn't know why. Unsure what else to do Daniel agreed with her idea. “Sure, you probably have a better understanding of what I am capable of then I do. Let's hear what your plan is.”
“Okay, first before I start explaining the plan I have a question I need to ask you.”
“Sure, what's on your mind?”
“Why have you not given Kota a skill gem for ‘Party Interface?’
Daniel was floored by the question for a moment, and didn't know how to respond. Unsure what to say Daniel just asked his own question. “Kota can learn general skills?”
“Of course. All creatures can learn general skills. Most of the time beasts and monsters have to gain them the hard way, but as your companion Kota can use skill gems. If Kota had learned ‘Party Interface’ you would be able to form a party and he would be able to gain the mana from creatures that you killed. The way you have been going about clearing this dungeon has been very inefficient.”
Still unsure what to say Daniel just said the first thought that came to mind. “I didn't know other creatures could learn general skills.”
“Well, now you know. After you clear this floor you will need to purchase Kota the skill gem. Now it's time to get back on track. Here’s the plan.” Ulgatha began to explain the plan to Daniel, and he nodded along.
~~~~~~
Fifteen or so minutes later their plan was ready to be executed. With Ulgatha's guidance Daniel had constructed a solid platform out of psionic energy around the pile of bones the stone troll was sleeping on. This allowed them to scale up the pile without the concern that the pile would collapse under their weight and wake up the troll. Making an object out of psionic energy in the physical had been significantly harder to do than it had been in his mindscape. The energy needed and mental effort required were much greater.
Ulgatha had also informed him that anything made out of purely psionic energy in physics would always be temporary. Unlike in the mindscape where psionic constructs would last indefinitely. The physical world didn't have the capacity to support items or creatures of a purely psionic nature. Ulgatha had explained it to him that the psionic web where psionic creatures like her lived acted as a separate plane. It was connected to the physical world, but the two planes of being were separate, and didn't interact with one another unless a being like Daniel who existed in both the physical and psionic used their power to force the two planes to interact.
That had all made a sort of sense to Daniel, and even now Daniel could feel his psionic energy being siphoned away to maintain the psionic structures overall integrity. With Daniel and Kota in position next to the troll's head they were ready for the next stage of their plan. Daniel raised ‘Ice Fang;’ its spiked point ready to impale the troll. Kota also raised one of his paws; his ‘Ethereal Shadow Claws’ emerged ready to slice their way into the creature's brain.
This step had to be quick. Ulgatha had told him that trolls had a very good sense of smell, and while standing this close to the creature it may be able to smell them and could wake up. Daniel nodded to Kota and gave the signal to attack.
At the same time Daniel and Kota attacked. Kota’s claws were the first to strike. The claws of shadow went through the creature's head without resistance shredding its brain before emerging out the other side. The creature let out a roar of pain as it woke up from the pain inflicted by Kota’s attack.
An instant later Daniel brought ‘Ice Fangs’ spiked point down aimed at the creature's eye. His blow was empowered by ‘Heavy Blow’ and a ‘Quickened Blow.’ With the aid of his new maul proficiency his blow landed exactly where he had been aiming, piercing the creature's eye with little resistance. Once the spike entered the creature's eye he activated one of ‘Ice Fangs’ enchantments and detonated the icicle inside the creature's head. Its roar abruptly cut off and its body went limp, but they were not taking any chances.
With their surprise attack finished Daniel and Kota quickly retreated. Once back to the entrance of the cave Daniel threw his vial of alchemical fire directly onto the stone troll. The fire was hot enough that it even began to ignite the bones beneath the troll which aided with the combustion process.
Daniel watched the fire burn for several long minutes. Daniel never got confirmation from the system that they had killed the troll. For all he knew that could have killed the creature on the first attack, but Ulgatha had warned them that you could never be too careful when killing a troll. With their natural regeneration they had survived more than one wound that some adventurers had thought fatal only for them to recover and kill the party.
With the troll being a part of the solo dungeon Daniel wouldn't gain any experience for killing the creature in the dungeon. He would only gain experience after he finished the floor. Ulgatha had explained that monsters in the outside world not controlled by the training hall would give experience as soon as they were killed, which was the best way to know for sure that a creature was dead.
Daniel and Kota stood ready and watched for several minutes as the fire slowly burned out. When it was finally gone only blackened bones remained. Daniel let out a relieved sigh. Their plan had worked without any unexpected surprises. With the troll dead and its body reduced to nothing but ashes, Daniel and Kota left and returned back through all of the other chambers that had cleared, returning back to the final challenge of the solo dungeon.
As it turned out the final room didn't end up being that much of a challenge. Unlike the hobgoblin they had faced on the fifth floor, this hobgoblin did not possess the same rage ability that had made its predecessor so dangerous. The hobgoblin was just a better equipped larger goblin. It was still dangerous, just not nearly as much as the hobgoblin mini boss.
When the dust settled Kota held the final goblin warrior by the neck. A moment later Daniel watched as blue light left the goblins body and entered Kota’s. Then Daniel got the notification he had been waiting for.
Companion Evolution Progress: 91% -> 100%
Congratulations, your companion: Kota has reached their fifth evolutionary threshold. Please choose what mutation your companion will gain. Choices are based on the accumulated absorbed mana.
Time remaining before spontaneous mutation: 9 minutes and 59 seconds
As Daniel read over the notification informing him about Kota’s evolution he appeared back in the main room of the training hall. Before he was able to begin to read over what new mutation options Kota had access to, another notification entered his vision.
Congratulations! You have cleared the sixth floor of the ‘Solo Dungeon.’ You have gained 6,000 Exp and receive 3,000 coins.
You have completed an optional bonus objective ‘Kill The Sleeping Stone Troll’ during your clear of the sixth floor of the ‘Solo Dungeon’ Additional rewards have been awarded. You have gained 1,000 Exp and received 500 coins.
Daniel was honestly a little surprised. He had hoped to receive some kind of additional reward for killing the stone troll, but didn’t know that it was an optional objective. Daniel wondered if he had missed any other optional objectives in the first five floors of the dungeon. He honestly doubted it though. This was the first time one of the floors had contained a branching path. All of the other floors with the exception of the fifth floor had been completely linear. I was just something he would need to keep an eye out for going forward.
Daniel also decided to check his own progress towards his next level. He needed just over seven thousand experience to get to his next tier. Clearing one more floor of the solo dungeon should get him most of the way there. That was something he was excited for, but not something he could focus on right now. He had other things that were more pressing. Mainly picking Kota’s next mutation.
Daniel opened the menu back up and began to read over the new mutation option that Kota had gained access to. Daniel wanted a mutation that would give Kota some more defensive capabilities, but most of his defensive options came from the earth based mutations which he was still reluctant to choose.
Daniel continued to read for several minutes. Then his eyes fell on a mutation option that he hadn't seen for Kota before, but was absolutely perfect for his companion. It wasn't the most defensive option, but it would help. And he thought it would fit in with Kota’s other mutations almost perfectly giving him a very strong synergy with all of his other mutations .
Tier 1 Beast Mutation:
Gloom Cloak: Your prey will see nothing but darkness before you descend to deliver the finishing blow.
Effect (Active): Shadows constantly cling to your body wishing to be a part of you. Your body gains an organ that is able to naturally store shadows within your body. At will you can release these shadows from your body making a sphere of darkness centered on your body. You are able to control the size of this sphere by increasing or decreasing the rate at which you release the shadows from your body. Rate at which your organ regenerates shadows increases by 30% while in near or complete darkness. Rate at which your organ expends shadows decreases by 30% while in low light conditions. No-Cooldown.
Stats: +5 Constitution
Daniel was happy with his choice, but he didn't think about it long. As Steve entered the main hall in the training room. Steve waved before jogging over to Daniel. Good to see you out of the dungeon. “Daniel, this is some great timing. John should be arriving any minute now. It would be great if you would join me in greeting him when he arrives.”
“I would be happy to.” Daniel said as he and Kota followed Steve out of the portal that connected the training hall to the outside world. Daniel wondered what this new hero would be like.