"What... the... fuck," Brandon mumbled in disbelief as he looked upon the giant creature that had just exploded from the water in front of him. Upon focusing on it, he found that it was called an Aquatic Seraph, and it was safe to say it was fucking terrifying.
It was truly massive, almost reaching the roof of the cavern he was standing in. Its body seemed to be mostly water, shaped like some kind of serpentine eel, though it had six humanoid arms sprouting from various parts of its torso—none of which seemed to belong. It had what looked like angelic, wing-like membranes extruding from its back, glowing with a soft blue bioluminescence. At the end of each of its six arms were webbed claws, and its face was a horrific mix of pain and anguish. Its eyes were hollow pits, as if they sucked in the light around them. Brandon could see rings of sharp fang-like teeth littering its mouth, and it had a long tail with an even longer-looking claw at the end—one Brandon had no doubt it knew how to use.
Brandon once again lost all the confidence he had been building, but he resolved himself to get through this fight. He used his shadow clone to appear in front of the beast, and as he did, he was horrified to find that, for the first time, the beast seemed to know it was a distraction.
"Well, shit," Brandon muttered, circling the creature as it seemed to prefer staying in the center of the pond. After a moment, the beast took the initiative. A large shriek emanated from it, and Brandon immediately dropped to his knees, hands covering his ears.
"What the fuck is that?!" he screamed, feeling himself grow dizzy. It took a moment after the shriek stopped for Brandon to gather his wits again. When he looked up, he was immediately met with a stream of water that threw him back into the wall behind him. Thankfully, it only caused minor cracking on his shield, but he knew it couldn’t take much more of this.
He quickly tried to conjure his whip, but he was concerned when it took much longer than usual to coalesce into his hand. "What the fuck?" he thought, his heart racing. He quickly checked his overview page and was greeted with the terrifying message:
"Mana low. Rest to recover. All spells and magic will be uncastable if you run dry on mana."
"Oh, come on!" Brandon shouted, realizing he couldn’t re-conjure his shield again. In desperation, he used Volt Infusion and his whip, checking his mana once more. It read:
"Mana remaining: 1%. Please rest."
"Well, this is it," Brandon mumbled, his voice tinged with frustration. "Make or break time."
Brandon took a deep breath, amazed at the fact that if he had tried this yesterday—or even when he woke up this morning—it would have been painful. He decided that, yes, so far the cons definitely outweighed the pros of his current situation, but there were still a few pros.
"I can cast fucking magic now," he muttered, a boyish gleam entering his eyes, which cheered him up a little. "If I die here, I sure as shit won't just let it happen," he resolved, his determination setting in. Now was his time.
His shield was already cracked, so he decided he was just going to dodge everything. How hard could that be, right?
Trying to choose his moment carefully, Brandon managed to pick the worst possible one. He ran forward just as the Seraph pulled back one of its arms and pointed it at the wall on Brandon’s right. He watched as it started leaking water, and before he knew it, a torrent came streaming directly at him. He tried to stop his run before hitting it, but his feet slid along the floor. Too late—he came to a halt right as the water flushed over the top of him.
Determined not to let his whip disappear (which would happen if he let it go), he gripped it as tightly as he could. He was surprised, and lucky, to find that the electricity originating from the whip didn’t seem to harm him—something he was incredibly grateful for in the middle of a torrent of water.
The water threw him against the opposing wall before disappearing. It seemed as though it wasn’t designed to cause any real damage, as it didn’t crack his shield further. However, as the water vanished, Brandon noticed the creature’s tail flying directly at his head.
Brandon shouted in panic, throwing his body to the side as he lifted his whip—now in its rigid form—and struck at the side of the creature’s tail. Thankfully, it penetrated, and Brandon saw the tail convulse before going still. The creature shrieked, and Brandon felt himself go dizzy once more, but he held on. Painstakingly, he climbed to his feet.
"One foot, two feet," he grunted to himself, forcing his focus onto the simple act of standing.
Once again on his feet, Brandon locked his gaze on the Aquatic Seraph. As the shrieking stopped, he decided it was his turn to make the first move. The pond, at most, was only about seven feet wide, and Brandon figured he could jump that distance. He kept his whip in its rigid form, planning to use it as a sword of sorts. While he'd have preferred to use it as a lance or javelin—since the edges were rounded, not sharp—he had no choice but to make do. Without the ability to conjure another whip, he decided his best bet was to strike with the electric side of it.
Brandon eyed the jump for a moment, questioning his sanity. He came to the conclusion that he had none and made a run for it. Eyes locking onto the side of the beast, he screamed a wordless shout and leaped, swinging his whip at the edge of the creature and connecting. The beast shrieked a painful cry this time, but it didn’t affect Brandon. However, Brandon had slightly misjudged his aim and ended up striking the beast’s two uppermost arms on its right side, leaving one arm freely usable. The creature took advantage of this and lashed out, clawing down along Brandon’s left leg. He screamed in expected pain, but was surprised to feel his shield redirect most of its mana, creating a more resilient barrier around the blow.
He didn’t have long to think about this as he was thrown mid-air by the force of the strike, hurtling toward the roots sticking out of the ground on the other side of the pond. He crashed hard.
Brandon opened his eyes just in time to see the tail once again lashing out for him. Without thinking, he shoved himself up as quickly as he could, narrowly avoiding the long claw that would have impaled his throat. The Seraph's claw dug deep into the root, and Brandon noticed it couldn't be removed. Sensing his opportunity, he made a split-second decision—one that, had he been told he would do it, he probably would have tried to have the person committed to a mental hospital.
He took a quick, deep breath and made a run for it, scrambling up the tail of the Seraph before leaping past its head. The beast lunged forward in an attempt to bite at his midsection, but he narrowly missed its jaws. Mid-air, he was caught in the side by one of the creature's arms and claws. He grunted in pain, watching as his shield exploded outward into the creature’s arm with such force that it cut through, leaving the arm hanging limply at its side. With every bit of energy he had left, Brandon swung his whip up and around the creature’s neck, pushing the electricity as hard as he could. He dangled from the whip as the creature convulsed in agony. The electricity seemed to be enough to stop the Seraph from shrieking, and Brandon could only compare the effect to what happens when someone gets tased in his world.
It took longer than Brandon thought it should, but eventually, the creature dropped and fell back into the pond. Brandon, still hanging from his whip, fell with it and landed on top of the creature. All he could feel was pain. The arm still lodged in his side had penetrated deep, and it was still stuck there. He barely registered the voice in his mind announcing, "You have slain Aquatic Seraph, Level 6. Experience Gained. Level 4 Wizard gained. Congratulations, Wizard Level 5 gained. Congratulations, Ability Choice available."
Brandon pulled a regeneration sap from his inventory, noting that after this, he only had two left. He started grunting to himself, louder each time, as he built up the courage to rip the bloody arm from his side. As he did, blood sprayed from the wound, and Brandon felt himself rapidly losing consciousness. "I did not beat that fucking thing just to die with it," he screamed at himself mentally, frantically rubbing the sap onto his side. He had just covered the injury when he dropped into a deep unconscious state.
Stolen story; please report.
Sulgar grunted, watching Brandon fall unconscious through his projection. "I thought he was done for a while there," he said in a low, calm voice to Veylan, who sat beside him.
"As did I," Veylan replied, clearly deep in thought. "Though he did choose some strange means to kill the beast. But I suppose he didn’t know they can be killed rather easily if you manage to strike its stomach with electricity," he mused.
"Oh, but it was a good fight because of that," Sulgar replied confidently. "Many of my friends will enjoy this recording," he continued.
Veylan, for his part, just nodded. "I'm sure they will. Just be careful—we don’t want the others to realize his potential. Most would have, and rightly should have, died in that fight."
"That is true. We could earn good money off him if he agrees to help us on hunts," Sulgar replied with a contemplative tone. "Maybe I won't show them the fight then. Let him be a surprise when we enter him in the tournament," Sulgar continued, looking to his friend for confirmation.
"That is if we can enter him. He needs to be at least level 100 with a race level of 10," Veylan replied, his tone matching Sulgar’s. "That, in itself, shouldn’t be too difficult with what he’s shown. But also, we cannot enter him if he doesn’t agree, and he may just decide he doesn’t want to do it."
"And provided he doesn’t, you know, die," Sulgar added.
Veylan nodded and made his way to the door. "I have things to attend to here. Fetch me when he wakes, please," he said, reaching for the door handle.
Sulgar nodded and returned to his drink, which he had taken back from Veylan while he was busy giving Brandon his new abilities. "I hope you live up to expectations, Brandon," Sulgar said. "Otherwise, there will be hell to pay for Veylan and I," he muttered, a rare look of concern crossing his face now that his friend had left the room.
Brandon awoke, shivering. "Oh, great, now I'm cold and wet. Just brilliant," he groggily muttered, looking around. He made his way to the edge of the pond, stepping carefully away from the corpse of the Aquatic Seraph, and surveyed his surroundings. Nothing seemed to have made its way into the room, at least not that he could see, but he wasn't sure how long he had been asleep.
Remembering the reason he had fallen unconscious, he quickly checked himself over. His shirt was in tatters, no longer of any use to him. With a sigh, he threw it aside, offering it as a thanks to the creatures he had fought in the dungeon so far. He was relieved to find that, despite the shirt's shredded state, his body was still intact.
Brandon removed the bottle of water from his inventory and took a long drink. Then, remembering something, he opened his overview and checked his system messages:
"Congratulations on reaching Wizard Level 5. You may now choose your first additional ability to complement your loadout. This is your first step on the path of power—choose wisely."
He read this message and felt excitement at the opportunity to choose a new ability. He went to his ability panel on his overview screen and was greeted with a different layout than usual.
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Ability choice:
Your actions have granted you 3 abilities to choose from within your specialization. These are your choices:
1. Conjure Binding Chains
Conjure ethereal chains that can bind enemies and creatures, rendering them immobile for a set amount of time. The chains can restrain opponents, preventing them from attacking or using magic.
2. Conjure Elemental Ward
Conjure a magical barrier that can absorb or deflect a limited amount of damage from physical or magical attacks. The ward lasts for a set duration or until its energy is depleted, offering temporary protection against incoming threats.
3. Conjure Mana Lash
Conjure a whip of concentrated mana that lashes out to deal light damage. This whip disorients enemies, potentially sapping their mana or causing brief confusion, making it ideal for disrupting spellcasters or fast-moving opponents.
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Brandon found a rock and sat for a good couple of minutes, weighing up each option.
"Conjure Elemental Ward could be really useful to create environmental blocks and funnel an enemy to a certain spot," he reasoned. "But I don't see the need for it when I have no area-affecting abilities," and shook his head, deciding this was definitely not his choice and the easiest to rule out.
"Conjure Mana Lash could be useful, disorienting enemies and sapping their mana could be really useful, but I'm not sure how useful it would be at the moment when most attacks I'm being hit with just hit me in the stomach or something," his face visibly distorted in the memory of the pain from the Aquatic Seraph's arm being lodged in his side. "Yeah, no, definitely useful and probably helpful if I ever see the ability again, but right now, no," he said, turning his attention to the last ability.
"Conjure Binding Chains," Brandon read, thinking back through his fights and how it could have been really useful to bind the Stone Mite and just stab it from underneath. Or, at the very least, it wouldn’t have been able to rush him as easily as it did. Then thinking back to the Rockroot Grunt, he also believed it would have been really useful to just tie down its arms to kill it. Though he wondered how strong the bindings were and if they could be broken.
Thinking of the battle with the Aquatic Seraph, he decided none of these abilities would have really made a difference, excluding the ward to stop the water from hitting him, but he shrugged, as that attack didn’t do much damage anyway.
Decision made, he mentally chose the Binding Chains and felt a rush of energy run through his body. He was beginning to like the warm feeling and wished it would remain longer. Once it had dissipated, he returned to his overview screen and went through it.
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Brandon Larente
Race: Human – Level 1
Profession: N/A
Class: Wizard – Level 5
Specialization: Conjuration
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Abilities:
• Conjured Distraction: Unpractised
• Arcane Barrier: Novice
• Conjured Whip: Apprentice
• Conjure Binding Chains: Unpractised
• Flame Infusion: Unpractised
• Volt Infusion: Unpractised
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Brandon was somewhat surprised to see that his Whip and Volt Infusion hadn’t upgraded. He reasoned that the Whip was his highest ability, and he had only used Volt Infusion once. He was also beginning to think that you earned more experience for doing different things with your abilities. When the Whip leveled up, he’d gained the ability to make it rigid, something he had wished he could do before.
He had some ideas for experimenting with some of his other abilities—like maybe using his Shadow Distraction to attack from—but that was something he'd have to test later. All in all, he wasn’t too shocked that nothing had upgraded. After all, he was happy to have gained two levels from the fight.
He also noted that the beast had really beaten itself, not him. Sure, he had killed the Aquatic Seraph, but it was the Seraph that got its tail stuck, giving him the opening he needed. So, he also felt as though two levels were generous, but he was always told not to look a gift horse in the mouth. He decided to just be grateful and move on.
Brandon, now deciding that his admin work was done, stood and walked over towards the edge of the pond and focused on the Seraph.
"Would you like to claim your bounty?" the screen prompted, as per usual. He accepted, watching as the beast’s body combusted into flames.
He jumped, startled to find that the water left over from the beast’s water torrent attack also combusted.
"How is water burning?" he thought, trying to regain his composure. "At least the damn water in the pond didn’t disappear. I’m glad I wasn’t drinking monster juice," Brandon thought to himself as he awaited the message telling him what his loot was.
"You have received:
1 Seraphic Scale
2 Seraph Fanged Tooth
1 Seraph Core
Tunic of Minor Protection"
Brandon read the list, assuming it would be more crap that he couldn’t do anything with. However, two items piqued his interest, and he immediately opened his inventory to check them out.
He first focused on the Seraph Core, and its description read:
Seraph’s Core:
A small orb of pulsating water. It appears to still hold a moderate amount of power from a slain Aquatic Seraph.
Can be used as crafting ingredients in weapons and alchemy. Can also be used to power rituals and water-based experiments.
"Maybe if there’s some kind of shop somewhere, I could see this," Brandon muttered as he focused on the item that interested him the most: the Tunic.
Tunic of Minor Protection:
A plain black tunic that adjusts to the wearer. It glows faintly with a magical hue. It grants a bonus to the total damage any shield or barrier abilities applied to the wearer can absorb.
"Does this damn system thing know I lost my shirt, or is this just a coincidence?" Brandon muttered as he took the Tunic of Minor Protection from his inventory and slipped it on. True to its description, the fabric shifted and adjusted to fit him perfectly.
"I could get used to this," Brandon said with a smile, feeling the comfort of the tunic settle over him. He reached to activate his shield, then paused mid-motion. "Wait, did I recover mana while I was unconscious?" he asked himself, quickly pulling up his overview screen.
To his surprise, he realized he didn’t actually know how to check his mana, though he assumed he must also have a health stat to go along with it. He noticed that the warning message was gone and, from that, deduced that his mana must’ve regenerated while he was out cold.
After coming to that conclusion, he tested his shield and was pleased to find that it worked without issue. The effect was subtle, but he could definitely feel a slight increase in its power. Still, if he was being honest with himself, he was mostly just happy to have a shirt again. After all, he wasn’t some fit 30-year-old hero out of the books Gary had told him about, and he definitely didn’t want to go walking around shirtless.
Levels gained, shirt adorned, Brandon decided it was time to continue, hoping he was nearing the end of this damn dungeon. He walked over to the pond once again, refilling his water bottle, before heading toward the other side of the cavern, where he assumed a corridor would be waiting for him to proceed.
To his surprise, he was greeted with two corridors side by side and another statue standing between them. He focused on it, reading the message that appeared in front of him.