She felt like her biggest problem currently was damage. Every time she grew even a little stronger, she quickly found herself facing ants a level or two higher, and she felt their END and defense increases outpaced her damage increases. Making up her mind, she dumped both her points in STR and looked at her stat sheet.

Name

Elizabeth Anne Bell

Class

Brawler

Level

5

Strength

15

Dexterity

11

Endurance

11

Intelligence

10

Wisdom

9

Free Points

0

Titles

Silver Flame Empress Inheritor

Skills

Ancient World Gate[0]

Crush Copper[5]

Identify Copper[1]

Pain Tolerance Copper[5]

Swords Apprentice[1]

Unarmed Apprentice[1]

Wealth

3c

She was quite happy with the new level of power. She was likely a little stronger at this point than the strongest humans on the planet; at least, the strongest humans on Earth before the change. She stretched again, feeling her spine crack again and her shoulders pop a little. The warm comfortable feeling returned again, and Beth grinned gleefully.

She was eager to find another ant and test herself. Four more STR plus another level in Crush would make her quite a bit more powerful. The level in Pain Tolerance was nice as well, as her feet, shins, and knees did get rather bruised when hitting the higher-level ants. It even seemed to slightly help with the light aching that had started in her muscles from so much fighting.

She worked her way through the level fives, clearing the second underground floor of all the level fives before moving on to the third floor. Here she found level sixes, which presented even more challenge than the fives. The first room had two of the new, higher-level ants in, which proved to be a real challenge. She had now officially hit the point where her blade did little more than mar the chitin of the beasts with all but her strongest swings, and she was forced to abandon her blade to go fist-to-mandible with the ants. The level sixes proved both tougher and faster, dishing out several wounds before she was able to fell them.

Common Ant Level 6 slain.

Common Ant Level 6 slain.

She slowly walked over a few steps to where her sword lay while holding her side. She bent down and picked the blade up with a pained grunt, taking the time to wipe the blade off before re-sheathing it. She guzzled some water from her bottle, leaving it with about a quarter left after she was done. She looked down at her side and thought about whether she could go on, thinking that she should probably head back for now.

As she was thinking this, information flooded into the forefront of her mind. Beth staggered slightly, holding her head with one hand and her side with the other. She sat down to keep from falling, trying to understand what she was seeing. After a minute or so, she realized the memories were from the legacy that Liveria had left her, and it seemed to be something she could use immediately.

The memories detailed a method of meditating to look inside one's body. It wasn't something that many Awoken decided to practice when first starting adventuring. It was a somewhat foolish decision, as it had a huge number of benefits. It allowed a greater understanding of oneself, which could help a great deal with many skills and abilities, as well as understanding better as one's strength grew. It also allowed one to begin to see how mana sat and flowed in the body, useful for a host of things in this new world. It also was a great idea to start early, as it was very beneficial when attempting many complex tasks later in one's development.

In particular for Beth right now, it would be helpful in allowing her to analyze her wounds as well as try to start treating them. The knowledge was not only of a way to look inward, but a way to circulate one's mana to forcibly regenerate wounds. These concepts took the form of two skills, Focused Meditation and Lordly Reconstruction. The skill for meditation was an intermediate one, better than a basic Meditate skill, but certainly not something at the top of what was possible. The regenerative skill, on the other hand, was fairly powerful, even at Copper level. Liveria had acquired the skill from a difficult Trial shortly after becoming an Ascendant, marking it as fairly valuable.

Beth followed the pattern displayed in the memories, using her Pain Tolerance to crush down the ache in her side and begin to focus internally. She moved into a state of deeper concentration, closing her eyes and looking inside herself. The skill felt weird to use, but she could faintly see into her own torso. There was a glowing lump in the center of her chest next to her heart, looking like a small pouch partially filled with silver colored liquid. She knew instinctively that this was her Mana Reservoir. She was able to see she was at about half on her mana; even the process of learning the skill was already providing her with great value.

As she looked around in her own torso, she could see two dark red areas on her left side. There was a small, thin line on her hip, and a thicker, deeper line a little above it. These were the two wounds she had received from the two different ants marring her side. She focused closer on the wounds, seeing the missing flesh of her side, the severed capillaries and smaller veins, and even the fraying in her obliques on the deeper cut.

Stolen novel; please report.

While she was inspecting the wounds in her side, she began to pull on her mana, trying to circulate it through her body. It was extremely difficult at first, like grabbing water with a hand she never knew she had. Concentrating on her Mana Reservoir, she focused on the mana itself and how to control it.

She was slowly, over the course of several minutes, able to coax a thin thread of mana out of her Reservoir and began to move it through her torso. She was so excited she almost lost her focus, but managed to calm down before she lost the thread.

The next part of the skill required her to move the thread of mana into the wound. Keeping control of the thread as it got farther from her Reservoir became slightly harder, but she persevered and managed to move the end of the thin thread to the larger wound in her side. As the thread hit the wound, she began pushing the end of it outward, spreading it across the wound like she was pouring liquid onto an upside-down bowl.

Once the wound was mostly coated, she began to follow the method in the memory of the skill to integrate her mana with the edge of the wound. She forced the mana to transition into flesh, directly restoring the wounded flesh. She continued to concentrate as the wound filled in, maintaining the thread and using it to keep the wound coated. It really took all her concentration to keep everything running smoothly and, by the time she was done fixing the large injury, she was coated in sweat and panting heavily.

Focused Meditation Copper[0] acquired.

Focused Meditation Copper[1] acquired.

Lordly Reconstruction Copper[0] acquired.

Lordly Reconstruction Copper[1] acquired.

Lordly Reconstruction Copper[2] acquired.

Beth panted, tired and wrung out, but now no longer carrying a moderate wound. She grabbed her water bottle and guzzled the rest of it while wrinkling her nose. The ant blood and guts scattered around really didn't help the water be any more refreshing. She sighed and stood up, stretching fully. She was tired, and just a quick glance showed her mana reservoir almost empty, but she was still quite happy. The two skills she had gained from the memories would be insanely useful, not just now, but well into the future.

As she was finished stretching and started tapping her chin, trying to figure out what to do, an ant trundled into the room. She hit it with an Identify.

Common Ant Level 1

Shaking her head, she strode towards the ant. The ant charged her, and she stepped into its charge, smashing her right fist into the ant's head. It exploded like an overripe melon hit with a sledgehammer.

Common Ant Level 1 slain.

Beth moved aside from the corpse and looked at the tunnel to the next room. She didn't want to leave, but she also didn't want to keep fighting groups of level six ants with no mana. She spent a minute tapping her chin, unsure of what to do. Finally, she decided to split the difference and wait. She pulled out her phone and checked the time, sighing as her stomach rumbled. It was 1:00 PM. She would wait a while and regen her mana, then try to finish the floor. She really wished she had some kind of inventory that she could put things in, or a special item or backpack with storage. She had already tried pushing her water bottle into her stat screen to no effect.

Sighing, she clipped her water bottle back to her belt loop and continued on, moving through the rest of the floor. She cleared another room with two level six ants, taking little damage in the process as she was both more careful and had a better idea of the exact speed and toughness of the stronger beasts. The third room on this floor had a new, slightly poor surprise, as it presented three level sixes for her to kill. This fight took a little longer, and she concentrated on being far more precise with her attacks and mana usage as she fought.

Common Ant Level 6 slain.

Crush Copper[6] acquired.

Unarmed Apprentice[2] acquired.

Remaining mana converted to one copper.

Beth, flexing her hands and arms slightly, grinned a wide, full grin. Another level in her main damaging skill, another level in her main weapon skill, and another copper coin. Recovering a little, she regretted being out of water. She decided to meditate and see if she could heal the other minor injuries she had. Sitting a little past the middle of the room, away from the ant corpses, she glanced at the next tunnel before closing her eyes. She calmed her breathing and fell into her Focused Meditation, examining her body while she rested. She noticed after a minute or so that it seemed she was calmer, and her mana seemed to recover a teeny amount faster.

She used some of the little mana she had left while she relaxed and focused to address the two small cuts with Lordly Reconstruction. She found drawing out the mana thread from her reservoir a little easier and moved it down to the other small cut on her hip. It took only a single coating of mana and a quick thought to heal, Beth even more impressed with the skill. She moved the microscopically thin thread down to her thigh and did the same on the last cut. Finally, she decided against using it on the bruising, sure that she would at least partially heal up while she meditated.

After another hour or so of meditation, being interrupted by three low level ants, Beth was back to about half mana in her reservoir. She got up with a sigh and stretched, feeling her back pop. She moved over to the tunnel leading to the fourth and hopefully final room of the third floor and started walking down it. After almost two minutes she arrived at the final room, but immediately saw that this was different.

The room was larger than the previous rooms, almost one hundred feet across. There were no other tunnel entrances or doorways leading out of the room, and there were three ants in the center. Beth used Identify to get an idea what she was up against.

Common Ant Level 6

Common Ant Level 6

Princess Ant Level 7

Shit, she thought, I don't know about this. The third ant was in the center of the other two and was larger than them, with an elongated abdomen and darker coloring. It was clearly going to be a different kind of challenge than the level six ants had posed. She was confident in taking out the level six ants, but didn't know if she could get them before the level seven joined in. And what if the level seven led the charge? There was a lot that could go wrong in this room. At the same time, it was the end of the dungeon, and Beth wasn't willing to give up without even trying.

She thought for a minute, watching the room. As she watched, an area in front of the princess lit up brightly. After half a minute, the light died down, and a fully formed ant was standing there. The ant waved its antennae at the princess, who seemed to respond, then turned and headed for the tunnel. Beth retreated a ways down the tunnel, waiting for the new ant to approach. She used Identify on it when it drew near.

Common Ant Level 3

She let the ant charge her after it noticed her, waiting for it to draw close. When it was in range, she charged Crush in her right fist with a little mana and stepped forward, slamming her hand into the ant's head. It shattered from the force of the blow, chunks of chitin and brain matter splattering across the tunnel.

Common Ant Level 3 slain.

Beth wiped her glove and body off perfunctorily, moving back toward the final room. When she was in the hall outside the fourth room again, she took a deep breath and shook out her shoulders, getting ready for battle. After calming down and focusing, she stepped forward into the room, watching for the ants' responses.

She was able to take advantage of her knowledge of the ants' patterns and exact strength and speed to tilt the fight in her favor. The second thing that helped, as she crushed through the first ant's head, avoiding the spray of ichor, was that the princess had retreated instead of attacking, allowing her two 'guards' to do the work for her. That suited Beth just fine, as she mulched through those two level six ants in just over a minute before turning her attention to the princess.

In engaging the princess, her first thought was 'Fast!' The boss ant moved far faster than the level sixes, likely far faster than a 'normal' ant at level seven would, able to outmaneuver Beth with relative ease. She took a few hits, one to her leg and one to her torso, though she was able to avoid being badly injured thanks to her improved stats and growing wealth of combat experience. The fight was a real slog, but she eventually prevailed, taking the princess down with the last of her mana as she collapsed to one knee, panting from the sheer effort she had to exert to clear the dungeon. And clear the dungeon she did, as she immediately saw:

Princess Ant Level 7 slain.

Crush Copper[7] acquired.

Remaining mana converted to one copper coin.

One silver gained for clearing Basic Ant Dungeon.

Four silver gained for clearing Basic Ant Dungeon solo below level ten.

Copper Combat Ranking Association Badge gained for world first solo dungeon clear.