The first room of the next level went much more smoothly than the first. Like before there were still four goblins sitting around a fire, but this time when he used ‘Identify’ they had two core refinements instead of one. Daniel assumed that made them stronger; he just didn't know how.
This time when he used ‘Heavy Charge’ to close the distance he accomplished what he had been attempting previously. He slammed the full weight of his moving body into one of the goblins. He had also managed to clip another one of them as he had rushed past. From there it was easy to clean up.
The two remaining goblins were surprised and on the back foot Daniel took the one on the left out with a single downward swing of his maul enhanced with ‘Quickened Blow’ and Kota took out the last that had been entirely focused on him.
Daniel got a notification that Kota had once again increased his evolutionary progress. However this time it was much less than when he had still been a mundane beast. He only gained 6% progress for killing the goblin. Daniel would need to consider keeping some of the goblins alive for Kota to kill to help boost his progress.
Daniel went and checked on the two goblins he had clipped with his charge. The one he had clipped was thankfully still alive. However, the one he had directly impacted had its neck broken when it had impacted the wall. He directed Kota to kill the last goblin which increased his progress by only 5% this time.
After that was all done Daniel scanned the room and saw that there was another hallway leading off of this one. It appeared that there was another room. Side by side Daniel and Kota crept down the new tunnel. Like before the tunnel opened up into another domed cavern. However this time the goblins inside were slightly different.
Like before there were two normal goblins like those of the previous room, but there was also a goblin that was riding a wolf-like creature. It was smaller in stature than Kota, but it looked mean. Its fur was a patchy orange color and its mouth was filled with a lot of pointy looking teeth. If Daniel was going to continue to go off of video games and fiction about goblins he knew of then this creature was probably a warg. He used ‘Identify’ to confirm his guess.
Race: Beast
Species: Warg
Tier 1: Canine
Total Evolutions: 2
Details: Wargs are vicious beasts that can be commonly found in the company of goblins. It is difficult for most to train them since they only respond to violence to assert dominance. Many tribes of goblins have taken to breeding and bonding with the beasts as a way to help fight off other beasts, monster, and adventures
Beast Companion of: Unknown Goblin
It was a warg, but it had also gone through two evolutions. Daniel had talked a bit about how beasts worked with Steve and after that conversation he had also done some research of his own after Kota had gained his mutation.
Mutations usually have some kind of physical effect on a beast. Like with Kota it changed the coloration of his fur. This warg in front of him had two mutations. Before he engaged this new threat he wanted to try and figure out what kind of mutations this beast had.
Its fur was patchy and when Daniel looked closer he could also see that it was scrawny. That could be because of a lack of food, but the skin underneath the patchy fur had scabs and its skin looked pale and sickly. It almost looked diseased. Daniel didn't know enough about mutations to have any idea what a mutation that made you diseased might do, but he did know one thing: he did not want to get bitten by the creature.
After another minute of looking he couldn't figure out what its second mutation might be so instead he used ‘Identify’ on the beast's rider.
Race: Monster
Species: Goblin
Tier 1: Humanoid
Core Refinements: 2
Daniel ignored the description that popped up when he used his skill on the goblin. It was unfortunate that he couldn't get any more information on the goblin through the use of his skill. The only difference between this goblin and the one he had already killed was the weapon it held. In its hand was a long knife that was almost a shortsword in its hand. It was in much better condition than any of the other weapons that Daniel had seen the goblins wielding.
After doing all of the prep work he could manage Daniel entered the room with the goblins. He held off on using his charge skill and instead waited to see what the goblins would do.
It only took a moment for the goblins to respond to his presence. The mounted goblin charged at him, and he saw an opponent activate a skill for the first time. A light emitted from the goblin and entered the warg and then began to emit from the goblins weapon. The warg went from completely stationary to a full-on charge in one stride. Daniel had not been expecting how fast they approached him and was unable to react in time to avoid the charge. The goblin stabbed its knife at his midriff. The weapon itself was nothing impressive and was sized to fit the goblin’s small, child-like body. The goblins knife struck his body and as it did the light that was still emitting from its weapon rushed out of the blade as it struck. Lucky for him the knife glanced off his armor, but he could see a deep gouge in the metal where the knife had struck.
Daniel didn't know what the skill the goblin had activated did, but he wasted no time in retaliating. The goblin seemed surprised that its attack had failed. Daniel capitalized on the closeness of the goblin after its charge and punched forward with his fist while activating ‘Heavy Blow.’ The punch caved in its chest and threw it from the back of the warg. The warg, seemingly unaware that its rider had been dismounted, continued its charge past Daniel and looped around the room. It was then that the other two goblins in the room reached Daniel and tried to strike him with their shivs. He had learned quite a bit about how to combat these creatures now and took advantage of their much shorter reach.
He kicked one of the goblins in the chest knocking it onto its back. Then he brought down his hammer on the still standing goblin. To blow took it on the top of the head and with an explosion of gore that Daniel would have preferred not to see. Daniel quickly brought his hammer back around for a second swing against the goblin that had just managed to get back to his feet after it had taken his kick.
He wanted to keep this one alive for Kota so he aimed for its shoulder. With the goblin out of the fight Daniel looked around the room to try and find the warg only to see Kota locked in combat with it. Daniel moved to help Kota, but Kota looked back and barked at him. Daniel didn't know why Kota didn't want him to interfere but that's the impression he got. After a moment of thought he remembered stories that described wargs as a corrupted race of wolves, maybe this was personal to the wolfdog though the description when he had used ‘Identity’ on the wolf had made no mention of wolves being the ancestors of the warg.
Daniel stood back and watched the fight. He was close enough that if things went bad he could interfere, but he didn’t think that would be needed. Kota was winning without a doubt. If he had to guess, it was likely because its rider was dead; without a rider, it would be far less effective as a combat mount.
The two canines growled and snapped at each other, each looking for an advantage. It was then that Kota lunged forward going for the wargs throat for a killing blow. The warg tried to move out of the way, but its efforts were in vain as Kota’s Jaws closed around the warg's throat. With several violent shakes of Kota’s head he ripped the beast's throat out. It took about fifteen seconds for the warg to bleed out, and Daniel knew it had died when a surge of brownish-red energy left the warg's body and entered Kota. Checking Kota’s page he saw that his evolutionary progress had increased by a whole 15%.
Once the energy had stopped flowing into Kota Daniel pointed Kota to the last goblin which was quickly dispatched. This netted Kota another 4% progress. Towards his next evolution. Moments later light enveloped them and they had once again returned to the training hall.
Congratulations! You have cleared the second floor of the ‘Solo Dungeon.’ You have gained 1,500 Exp for your class and 1,000 coins.
Your class juggernaut has reached level 7 (6 -> 7) you gain +4 points to strength, +4 points to constitution, +1 free attribute point and +4 Skill points.
Immediately after gaining the level up notification Daniel opened his Reinforcement skill tree and put 5 skill points into ‘Power Organs’ when a new prompt opened asking which organ he wished to enhance he chose his brain without any hesitation. Instantly after making his decision it felt as if electricity was flowing through his head. It wasn't painful, it was almost as if a fog had been lifted from his mind. His thoughts came faster and clearer. In all ways it felt like his mind just worked better.
As he had leveled the ‘Powerful Organs’ skill he had noticed some of these changes to a lesser extent. His heart rate had slowed, he needed to eat less food, his body did not get tired as quickly he needed less sleep. It was a lot of little things, but this was a huge difference that was instantly noticeable where before some of the improvements could have just been his mind playing tricks on him.
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Before he got too caught up in these new changes a new prompt invaded his vision. As he read his smile grew even wider. He had forgotten about this. He had been so caught up in his greatly enhanced mind that he had forgotten about the other bonus. He was also able to choose an additional bonus based on his chosen organ. He had thought this choice would be made for him, but that wasn't the case. Before his eyes was a list of options
The options were nothing too amazing being only a minor bonus. His greatly enhanced mind was already a huge bonus, and this was just an additional cherry on top. Daniel quickly skimmed through the list and quickly found a couple of options that he was interested in.
The first option that appealed to him was a further increase in his mind's durability. The second option would increase his mind's efficiency at information transfers. Either option would help with his problem with his feat, but he was leaning towards the second option. This was mainly because he already had skills and stuff that increased his mind's durability; he had nothing that assisted with information transfers.
Making up his mind Daniel chose the second option. He felt no change occur when he made his choice. He would just have to hope that this change would help then the next time he got another knowledge bomb from his feat. With ‘Powerful Organs’ reaching max level and his bonus chosen he had managed to put enough skill points into his reinforcement skill tree to reveal the capstone. With some excitement and surprise Daniel looked at his two options.
Bone Plating ( 0/1 ): Your Bones are have existed before you and will continue to exist once you are gone; you are temporary, but your bones have existed since the very beginning of time itself. Cost to increase 15 skill point(s).
Level 1 (Passive): Your bones are incredibly durable and near unbreakable. This durability scales with your strength and constitution stats.
Level 1 (Active): At will you may expend stamina to grow extra sections of bone out of your body to be used to either attack or defend. Speed of bone growth is determined by endurance and constitution. Once per 24 hours you may summon a complete set of bone armor that completely covers your body. This armor lasts for 10 minutes +X seconds where X equals your endurance
Capstone Bonus: Increase your body's base armor rating by 100% while wearing no armor or bone armor.
Bloody Marrow ( 0/1 ): Blood is the very foundation of your life. Without it your body would shrivel up and become nothing, but dust on the wind. Cost to increase 15 skill point(s).
Level 1 (Passive): The marrow in and blood in your body are greatly enhanced. Your blood will now give you a passive health and stamina regen. This effect scales with your constitution and endurance stats. Gain increased white blood cells effectiveness against magical diseases, poisons, and other negative effects. Become immune to all non magical negative effects that affect the body.
Level 1 (Active): Once per day you may instantly recover 50% of your total health and 100% of your stamina, mana and any other resource pools.
Capstone Bonus: increase the overall effectiveness of skills in this skill tree excluding the capstone skill are increased by 50%.
These skills seemed amazing to Daniel. He could definitely see how someone could build their whole fighting style around ‘Bone Plating.’ Being able to make your own weapons and armor and the like with bone you grew from your own body was strong, it just didn't appeal to Daniel. Even with all the problems he had been having with his crafters legacy feat he was still a crafter at heart, and he wanted to be able to make his own gear. If he chose bone plating that would no longer really be an option. Sure he could still make weapons for himself, but armor would be out of the question unless it was made from bone which was a very heavy restriction.
Bloody marrow on the other hand had several advantages that intrigued Daniel. It would give him another skill that gave him a constant source of life and stamina regeneration. Then there was the active skill which would instantly heal 50% of his health and completely refill all of his other resource pools. At Least for right now that only included stamina since he had not yet unlocked his mana pool.
The last thing that interested him was the capstone bonus that came with choosing the skill. It would increase the effectiveness of all of the skills in his reinforcement skill tree by another 50%. That bonus would be another large increase to solving his problems with his Crafters Legacy Feat. it would further increase the strength and durability of his mind.
He decided that his next goal would be to save up his skill points and unlock ‘Bloody Marrow.’ With that being decided it was time for him to continue clearing the dungeon.
~~~~~~
On the third floor there was once again an additional room filled with goblins, and in the final room there was also another new type of goblin. This one wielded a staff and when Daniel charged into the room like normal it raised its staff and it began to glow. Roots emerged from the ground and wrapped around Daniels leg. He was surprised at first and tried to move away. To his surprise the restraints easily broke when he moved away.
The goblin shaman looked as surprised as Daniel at this development, but that didn't last for long as Daniel took full advantage of his freedom. The fight didn't last much longer after that. The spell casting goblin managed to get off a few more spells, but they were of limited use against Daniel.
Congratulations! You have cleared the Third floor of the ‘Solo Dungeon.’ You and your companion have gained 2,000 Exp. You receive 1,500 coins.
~~~~~~
The fourth floor of the dungeon was the hardest one yet. In the final room there was every single type of special goblin he had faced so far. There was the shaman he had faced on the last floor, three warg riders, two heavily armored goblins, and finally there was one more new goblin. This one wielded a short bow.
Daniel tried to communicate With Kota to try and take out the bow wielding goblin first, but he was unsure if he had understood. He did see Kota begin to sneak around the edge of the room which would take him closer to the archer. However he could no longer focus on what Kota was doing since the goblins had started their assault on him.
The fight, it turned out, wasn't much of a challenge. The goblins were just unable to get through his armor and defense skills. However, Daniel had learned a long time ago that even if something wasn't challenging didn't mean that he couldn't learn from it. He still wasn't a great fighter, and he would make these goblins the grinding stone that sharpened his skills.
As the fight started he was determined to improve on his technique and his usage of his skills while in combat. He started by prioritizing the goblin caster in the back. He wanted to use his ‘Heavy Charge’ skill to quickly take out the goblin shaman. His secondary goal was to try and hit as many other targets with his charge as possible.
As the goblins began to approach him he started to run at an angle. He did not run directly at the shaman, but instead focused on lining up his charge. Soon enough he thought he saw his opportunity. He activated his charge skill; his body blurred forward with immense speed as he felt stamina drain from his body. He ended up missing one of his targets with his charge. He had tried to clip the warg and the goblin riding it with his charge, but the beast had managed to use its own charge skill he had seen before to move out of the way in just the nick of time. That ment he only managed to hit the shaman and the armored goblin with his charge since the armored goblin was standing in front of the shaman protectively. Its shield was raised and sword drawn and pointed towards Daniel.
It didn't end up helping the goblin much as the weight of Daniel's much larger body crashed into the much smaller goblin. Knocking it away and leaving his path open to the goblin caster. His charge ended right in front of the shaman: all of his momentum seemed to instantly bleed away. As soon as it ended his weapon was already swinging downwards towards the unprotected head of the shaman. It had no time to react as Daniel caved its head in. One goblin down.
After that the fight didn't last much longer. Kota did manage to take out the goblin archer, and the armored goblin. It had been staggering around dazed when Kota pounced on it. It seemed Like Daniel had really done a number on it when he had hit it with his charge.
After that the other goblins quickly fell and Daniel was once again brought back to the main room of the training hall.
Congratulations! You have cleared the Fourth floor of the ‘Solo Dungeon.’ You and your companion have gained 2,500 Exp. You receive 2,000 coins.
Your Companions Evolution progress has reached 76%
~~~~~~
Daniel was happy with how that fight had played out. He had still made several mistakes, but those were things he could improve on. He was excited about the progress he was making. He felt like he had made significant progress towards fixing his problem with ‘The Crafters Legacy’ Feat. With his mind being further reinforced with ‘Powerful Organs’ reaching level 5. His last major stop would be to gather enough skill points to purchase ‘Bloody Marrow.’ When that was finally purchased he felt that he would finally be able to take a step back and start considering other ways he could use his skill points.
Daniel began to walk over to the crafting hall. He finally felt confident that he could start forging again. He began to think about what he wanted to make and with what materials he would use. He thought about his last fight with the goblins, and how things could have gone differently if he had different gear.
As he began to consider different types of metals and items he could make his unasked for memories began to give their own input on the topic. They provided him the names of different metals he had never heard of before, and how they could be used to make different magical items.
All the different ideas, materials, crafting methods and more began to flood his mind. Each idea seemed to take on a life of its own and began to ‘argue’ with other ideas. Soon Daniel could hardly distinguish his own thoughts from those of his feat until a system message broke him out of his spiral.
Notice. The first of the 10,000 heroes, Lukas Kisan ‘The Unyielding Wind’ has fallen on the 10th floor of the solo dungeon. The weight of responsibility falls more heavily onto your shoulders. His loss will become a burden for all Hero's who remain.
Daniel stopped in his tracks at the message, his mind clearing as all of the other voices began to go quiet as they seemed to also read the notice. After the clamor from before the silence in his mind felt almost deafening.
After reading it he could almost feel the increased responsibility that this other hero's death laid on his shoulders. With one less hero in the world, how many more people would die because of this loss? Daniel stood there for several long minutes unsure what to do. Then he realized something. ‘What am I doing? I told myself that I would use every advantage I had at my disposal and here I am about to make a weapon with the bare minimum of what I have access to.’ It was then that he changed his mind. If he was going to make a weapon and the training hall gave him access to anything that he wanted, then he would use that chance.
Sure he wouldn't be able to afford the item, but he could just sell it, then with those profits, he could make another and buy it from the shop. Why should he limit himself in such a way when the workshop wasn’t the thing that was limiting him. He had barely begun to scratch the surface of the knowledge he had gained and he should be using it all to the best of his abilities even if it sometimes tried to kill him. Mind made up he began to come up with a new plan.
He wanted a metal that was similar to steel. Just because he had access to anything that he wanted didn't mean he should be wasteful. Steel was the metal he was most familiar with. He sent a probing question into his mind asking for a metal or metals similar with steel and of common rarity to fulfill the requirements of his profession quest provided by his feat.
Daniel had a new drive to craft that he had been lacking in recent days.. He would make the best item he could with the knowledge of his feat. He was determined to take advantage of every opportunity he had been given, and he would start with the crafting hall.