‘I guess this will do…’
In the end, after I found the poster with my face on it, I was unable to rest at the inn… while thinking of what might happen, I decided to return to the dungeon without picking a new quest.
It was a bit of a waste, but maybe it wouldn't be… in any case, I was trying to make my arrows last longer by attaching mana cores to the tip of my arrows. Since that made the wound larger, then the other parts of the arrow wouldn't get dirty.
It wasn't perfect since I couldn't change the shape of the mana cores, but I was able to glue them to the tip of the arrows. I just finished the fourth arrow when I arrived on the fifth floor, so I didn't have to stop and I still had some glue left.
‘How much time do I have? A day or two at best? Leaving the dungeon will be a pain…’
I noticed the gaze of some people when I was heading to the dungeon… as expected, they had seen the poster and they found the similarities. It wasn't like I didn't expect that, but I still wished that I had been a bit luckier. Still, after I leave this city, then things will be fine. Aside from shaving my hair and eyebrows, I would do something even more drastic. I considered cutting my ear to take the pointy shape, but I decided not to go that far.
Before I reached the next sixth floor, I found some adventurers leaving the place. They didn't pay attention to me, so it looked like they had been inside for a while. They looked beaten…
‘I am obtaining a lot more experience solo and since I am only getting the mana cores, my progress isn't half bad. I guess I can pull it off and reach the last floor. However, it might be safer to return after the tenth…’
Reaching the last floor would be according to my plans, but my plans were aimed at perfecting my path to obtain as much power as possible. I could obtain less for my safety, but I didn't like the idea of running away at the first sight of trouble. Doing that whenever something happens and disrupting my plans would give me a bad habit.
You received 01 experience points.
Master of Exploration was working as intended, whenever I found a new route inside the dungeon, I would gain experience and whenever I added that information to my map, I gained a bit more. It was accumulating nicely, but improving my Dexterity was getting pretty hard lately. For now, I was only using the experience to make my mana regeneration increase to the same level as stamina regeneration and then I would focus on it again.
Thanks to my memory, I reached the seventh floor in no time and also followed the routes that I had used with the twins, which halved the work and after two hours, I found the entrance to the eighth floor. I should be inside the dungeon for ten hours give or take, but the real thing will start now.
The fights up to the tenth floor had been somewhat easy… as soon as I heard the screeching of the monsters, I would have enough time to prepare and then fire the arrows before they could attack. Their range was rather limited if compared to mine since their attacks weakened the more they flew.
Still, I couldn't mess up a single moment. After each battle, I took five minutes to check my bow and arrows and clean them regularly to make sure that they wouldn't break.
Eventually, I reached the tenth floor and then found the boss's chamber. On these floors, a person could only find the boss's chamber, after all. I put my torch to the side of the entrance and then got ready to fight. The torch could only illuminate things so much, but my dexterity improved my eyesight too.
Still, even that had limits. The chamber was a dome that was one hundred meters long and wide, so I could only see some shadows in the distance of the stalactites on the ceiling.
Before long, I heard the sound of a screeching and then pulled my bowstring. Eventually, I heard the sound of wings flapping and the shadow of something approaching in the distance.
The wings flapped harder for a moment and then I jumped to the side… before long, I heard the sound of a gush of wind hitting the ground.
‘It has better reach than the others, obviously…’
I could only see the silhouette of the monster while it was twenty meters away, its wings were two meters wide, each one of them, and the eyeball had one meter of radius.
The creature began to fly to the side to avoid being attacked by me and soon fired other blasts of wind. I jumped to the side and rolled in the ground ready to fire an arrow, but another blast of wind almost hit me. Their magical power was at least three times higher than ordinary eyeball bats.
‘Should I take my chances?’
I thought while I was running in the opposite direction of the monster to gain more room… I didn't know what I should do since the beast probably could repel my arrows with the wind blast.
It was my fault, I didn't have enough time to ask around about the boss… I was planning to just overhear some conversations, but that worked against me. Still, I had a trump card.
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I put my arrow away and then grabbed the ordinary ones… I could take chances with those. After nocking the arrow, I used Power Shot without hesitation and then the creature used the wind blast as expected. The attack slowed down my arrow enough to give the monster the chance to fly away.
I clicked my tongue, but soon confirmed that the monster didn't follow up with an attack… I wasn't the only one who wasted some energy.
“Well, it is the first boss of a chimeric-level type of dungeon… it should be stronger than the alpha horned wolf. Still, it is just a dumb monster…”
I pulled a certain arrow from my quiver and shot it using Rapid Fire. Two other arrows were shot first and only the special one was also fired when I activated Power Shot. The monster quickly used the blast of wind to repel all of them. The last one exploded in the air… it didn't explode actually. A bag at the tip just was torn apart and then its contents flew toward the creature.
The beast didn't feel any danger, it didn't do anything, but soon something fell on its eyeball… only a few particles landed, but it had been enough to make the creature screech in pain. The eyes of the monster turned red and then tears began to come from it.
“How do you like it? I call it: the pepper arrow.”
The monster began to fly from one side to the other back and forth without knowing what to do. It blinked several times trying to clean its eyes and I used that chance to put some arrows on it. The brain is mightier than the biceps.
You received 100 experience points.
You completed a trial. Please choose between the classes: Tattoo Artist, Painter, and Sculptor.
You obtained the Tattoo Artist class.
You unlocked the Spirit parameter.
You unlocked the Aptitude: Ink Master
You unlocked the skill: Enchanting Ink.
You unlocked the skill: Quick Ink Application.
I chose my class and also noticed that the monster gave me two times more experience than the alpha-horned wolf gave me. It wasn't half bad… the only problem was that I had to see the giant eye melting in front of me when the monster fell. The mana core appeared and then I cleaned it… it was the size of a finger and it was pointy too, so I could use it as an arrowhead.
‘The dungeon boss should respawn in a day… and it should be night outside. I only found one party coming here, so I guess I should be fine resting for a couple of hours.’
I needed all the energy I could get before facing the golems. I also heard that the layout of the dungeon wouldn’t change, so I would need a clear mind to avoid all the problems that might arise.
Resting while sitting on the rough ground was hard, but it couldn't be helped since I couldn't bring camping gear with all the arrows I was carrying.
In the end, I was so tired that I slept the whole night… I didn't hear anyone approaching, so that helped. After checking my gear once more, I took a small bag of ink from my backpack and a brush.
Why a brush instead of a pen? Because I wanted to save time. After that, I took my notebook and ripped a page. With a lot of care, I carved the shape of one of the tattoos that the skills granted me. It was a simple one in the face of a hawk.
After that, I put the page on my arm and painted the spaces with the brush. When that was done, I could feel my mana being drained every minute, but the tattoo enhanced my dexterity, if only by a single point. As expected, my plan worked... thinking a lot about those classes helped me once again.
You received 10 experience points.
Name: Regulus Dawnshield
Race: Dhampir
Health: 70/70
Regen: 0.1 per hour
Mana: 70/70
Regen: 0.5 per minute (0/400)
Stamina: 70/70
Regen: 0.5 per minute (0/600)
Dexterity: 39 + 01 (0/3600) 1.1x
Spirit: 05 (0/600)
Traits: Minor Weakness to Sunlight, Minor Sensitivity to Holy Magic, Minor Aversion to Silver
Classes: Archer, Explorer, Scribe, Fletcher, Tattoo Master
Aptitudes: Precision Training, Master of Exploration, Master of Record Keeping, Master of Archery Craft, Ink Master
Experience: 199
Ink Master: Gain bonus experience when creating magical or symbolic tattoos.
Enchanting Ink - Infuse your tattoos with magical properties, granting the wearer enhanced parameters of your choice. The tattoo consumes one point of mana per level and it increases the parameters based on the level as well.
Quick Ink Application: Increase the speed and precision with which you apply tattoos, reducing the time needed to complete complex designs. This skill allows you to create detailed tattoos quickly without sacrificing quality, ideal for use in urgent situations. Cost: 05 Mana per minute.
“This is interesting… it consumes one point of mana per minute apparently. The ink can only last for the duration of the skill as well, so ten minutes as of now.”
I needed to level up that kind of skill and I also needed to increase my mana regeneration. That was necessary since the cost would increase as well with the level of the skill.
After ten minutes, the effects wore off and the ink disappeared as well. That was good… I was planning to use the tattoos to change my appearance, but I didn't want them to be permanent. I wondered if I was being half-assed while thinking like that.
I put the tattoo on again since it was the only way to level up and by fighting using it as well.
After going down the stairs between the floors, I frowned a bit after I saw the next floor… The rough corridors gave room to a place filled with bricks in all directions. When I checked the surroundings, it felt like there were a lot of lines on the walls, like they were connected, but filled with breaches. That was odd…