As I crossed the threshold of the cave I got a new message.

You have entered The Chitin Horde: Level 5 dungeon. Recommended team size 4 people of level 6 or higher

"Well I did want to level up, might be just the place I needed," I sighed and gripped my staff, "Maximum effort."

***

I smashed the last centipede of this group into the ground and took a breather. This was the third wave I fought off so far and I had nearly died in the first wave when I tried to use my new Seismic Strike not realizing it was a two-part spell. The second wave hit me before the spell cooldown refreshed and I choose to go without the skill for the third wave, instead deciding to utilize Stunning Gust. I backed out to the cave entrance to buy myself more time before the next wave hit so I could look over the skill description in detail. I would have to remember to acclimate the spell knowledge I learned in the future instead of just assuming all of my spells acted the same.

Seismic Strike: Causes a rippling wave of Earth to deal weapon damage to everything within 20m from the point of impact and causing those affected to stumble, Cost 100 mana, cool down 3m

It took a bit of digging but I found the issue I was having.

Point of impact spells requires a somatic component in the form of origination loci. Can be accomplished with a part of the body or weapon

The system could be so vague sometimes, how was I supposed to know that point of impact meant that was a second step. Casting the spell as it was intended to be cast I could hear and feel a thrumming hum coming from my throat and I activated the next step by slamming the end of my staff into the ground. The power of the spell rippled out from that point and into the ground shaking the floor, walls, and ceiling causing some loose rocks to fall but no serious structural damage to the dungeon which was reassuring.

The spell also caused some screeches from down the tunnel as the next wave was hit by the edge of the spell's effect. I smiled, time to get to work.

I waded through the next group of five centipedes which seemed to be immune to the stumble effects of my spell, not surprising with that many legs. I spun my staff in a horizontal slash letting out a Stunning Gust at the closest bug.

It went down but wasn't dead, I continued the spin of my staff around my back slapping the next one back as it tried to spit at me. I jabbed my staff in its face crushing it against the wall and jumped back as three spit globs came at me. I managed to dodge two as the third hit me in the arm. I hit one of the centipedes with an Earth Fist ending its life and jumped towards the last two with Flurry active. I wanted to see if I could hit both with one attack, I wasn't quite effective as I managed to strike the first one three times, then I missed two strikes as I adjusted my aim towards the second bug only managing to hit it once as the spell faded away.

The first one died from the damage but the second one lunged at me trying to rip my throat out with its sharp mandibles, I attempted to lean back and only managed to fall over as the bug sunk its mandibles in my raised arm.

"AAAAHH!" I screamed as the creature tried to rip my arm off. I managed to roll over on top of the bug, using my body weight to push down on my staff hard enough to crush its head against the floor. After it died I pried its jaws off my arm with shaking fingers, rolling off to the side while casting Rejuvenate as the last centipede lunged at me from behind. This time I remembered to keep track of all my targets. Rolling out of the way hurt my already injured arm but I grit my teeth.

"I didn't forget about you, my creepy crawly friend," I said, getting to my feet and keeping my wounded arm low to my side. I weakly jabbed out with my staff using my good arm and the creature dodged to the side. I cast Aura Strike and rushed in with some more jabs and thrusts. I had noticed these creatures weren't very good at backing up.

Eventually, I got the strike I needed and the creature fell over dead. I looked at the mess that was my right arm. Already the wound was healing. I had lucked out with the sticky spit as well, there was so much dust and debris on the ground that the spit I was covered in had failed to stick to the floor. That would have been bad. My arm slowly regenerated and I used Cleanse to make sure I didn't get any nasty disease from the bite wound.

As long as I kept track of these bugs they weren't all that hard to fight, my staff easily able to crush the hard carapace. They were relatively slow as well, which is probably why they had the restrictive spit. I just needed to avoid being hit by their mandibles, feet, and the spit.

My mana and health ticked up as I waited for the next wave of bugs. It seemed to be taking longer for each successive wave to come at me. Probably because they had longer to travel, that was fine with me it gave me time to recover my health and mana and let my cooldowns end.

This was too slow. I needed to try and draw as many waves to me as I could. Luckily the cave had some bioluminescent moss along the walls allowing me to see somewhat as I sprinted down the tunnel ducking and dodging past the scuttling bugs that seemed to be surprised by my actions. This didn't prevent me from being hit a few times by spit or attacks and I used Rejuvenate to keep my health topped up. I did this until I had a train of twenty of the Rock Centipedes following me.

When I saw the next group, and before they spotted me, I doubled back, casting Area of Denial and Seismic Strike. Then I turned into a whirlwind of spins jabs and thrusts using all of my abilities to kill off the monsters before my spell ran out. I managed to get eighteen of them before the spell ended and I finished the last two off without taking any serious wounds. The area around me was covered in spit and orange ichor in a perfect circle from where it slid down the field's surface.

I carefully stepped over the bodies making sure to avoid any of the still sticky spit. I was exhausted. Who knew fighting was so taxing even with my high endurance it took a lot out of me. I made sure to loot every corpse, but like the ones, before they only seemed to drop chitin plates and mandibles. My pack was full of them now and I had to leave the rest behind.

I really, really, needed a dimensional storage item; it was getting tiring losing out on all this extra loot. Sighing, I jogged back up the tunnel. I was gaining experience quite fast in this cave but my big ability was on cooldown and I needed a break. Leaving wouldn't be a problem as it took 12 hours for dungeons to reset after you left, according to Frathsar. I may have to deal with more than one group of the beasties when I returned but it shouldn't be a big deal, now that I had a bit of a rhythm. I exited the cave and looked around for firewood. I had an idea I wanted to test.

It didn't take me long to gather a few armfuls and toss them next to the cave entrance. I even dragged some larger logs over. I wasn't going to smoke them out, that would just be ridiculous. Even if I did know how large the cave system was, I was more likely to be swarmed by the bugs before the smoke did any noticeable damage.

This wall of wood was mostly to keep the multi-legged horrors away from me for a few hours while I ate and rested. After a few more trips I figured I had enough materials and entered the dungeon again. I had to fight off ten of the beasts at a time as soon as I got back in and that was a close one. The only thing that saved me was one of the health injectors I had gotten from Frathsar. That man was a godsend.

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Other than the battle being a bit more hectic it was becoming easier as I was starting to get into a groove and getting better at dodging the damn spit. After I killed off the bugs in the first room I started hauling in the logs and kindling. I piled up the logs and remains of centipedes in the tightest portion of the cave tunnel. It wasn't perfect but it would work for my needs.

I used some other kindling to start a small fire near the entrance keeping my eye on the barrier I constructed. The sounds of chittering were coming from the other side and every three minutes I would cast Seismic Strike and an Earth Fist beyond the wall. The squeals of anger were enough to let me know I had scored a hit. I then walked over to make sure the barrier was still intact.

I repeated this for the next three hours taking the time between attacks to eat. I only once had to fight off a wave of three that managed to get through the wall before I could resecure it. I even managed to hit level 8 during those three hours. While I wasn't offered any new skills I did get upgrades to some existing ones.

Rejuvenate: Heals 95hp over 30sec 25m range, Cost 25 mana, cooldown 30sec

Minor Giant Strength+: Increase strength by 2 for 10min, Cost 30 mana, cooldown 6min

Improved Earth Fist: Deals Earth damage INT x .34 Modifier to target within 25m range, Cost 60 mana, cooldown 1min

These were all very nice skill bumps. Rejuvenate was starting to become less and less effective as I fought harder mobs. Hopefully, it would keep leveling every 3 levels or so. The increase to my strength buff was a major boon as now I could keep it active all the time.

It was still quite expensive versus my Wind Walk spell but I was glad nonetheless. Even my venerable Earth Fist got a decent bump in damage ability going from the .25 modifier bonus to the .34 which was quite an increase. That bumped the damage potential of Earth Fist from 108 to 144. It was my single most powerful ability to do constant damage at the moment. It also had versatility as a speed-boosting platform if I could train some more with it that way. Now that I was level 8 I wanted to see what my health, mana, and regen rate were at with the boost to the modifier.

HP: 432(475)

Mana: 432

Mana Regen(M): 126

Excellent, I was now recovering my mana at 2 per second. It was getting to the point where I would be able to use my cheaper abilities nonstop during a fight without having to worry too much about running out of mana. While I was going over my stats I noticed my icon lit up letting me know Area of denial was reset and it was now time to put my plan in motion.

I could hear a horde of the little buggers on the other side of my improvised wall and I smiled. I had been thinking about this tactic since my fight with the crazy Black Dragon mage and I wanted to see how well it worked or if it worked at all.

I walked right up to the wall and cast Seismic Strike to rile the centipedes up since it didn't do a whole lot of damage. When I heard the centipedes clamoring at the wall even fiercer I knew it was time. Pressing myself against the barrier I cast Area of Denial causing the logs and corpses to shoot down the tunnel twenty or thirty feet as my barrier forced them away from me at high speed.

The results were spectacular. Crushed and mutilated corpses of Rock Centipedes lay strewn about and I waded through the remains to kill any survivors.

"Newton said you can suck on his law," I said stomping through the remains bashing anything alive. All in all forty centipedes had died from my improvised claymore, and I even got a nifty notification or four for it.

Congratulations you are the first person in your zone to deal over 1000 damage with one strike 1500 XP awarded

Congratulations you are the first person on your planet to deal over 10000 damage with one strike 15000 XP awarded

Congratulations you are the first person in your zone to kill forty creatures in a single attack 400 XP awarded

You have earned the title Overkill: If your attack brings a creature down to less than 5% health they die immediately

The XP rewards were awesome, but I was curious about the forty creatures' one. It said a single attack so I could definitely see a bunch of min-maxers training huge groups of mobs that had been weakened and then just finishing them all off with one weak AOE. I looked at my experience bar, even with that much experience my bar only moved up eighteen percent, not including the experience from the monsters. I decided to reset the barrier as soon as my zone spell wore off. It was time to grind.

I continued this process for another six hours getting past the halfway point on my experience bar before I needed to rest. I managed to trick the bugs into spitting all over my barrier making it even harder to get past and I piled up even more wood before sitting down next to the glowing coals of my fire.

I used some string I had in my bag along with the chitin shells as an alarm system. If the wall was disturbed too much the shells would start clacking together making an awful racket. During my downtime, I slept fitfully popping awake every few hours to see that the barrier was undisturbed other than the sounds of all the tiny feet and jaws clacking on the other side. It appeared intact so I dozed off again. I only managed a few more hours of sleep and upon waking decided to try my hand at crafting some replacement armor. Or even just a new chest piece to replace my holy version, amen.

I had a rough idea of what I wanted to make. Styling it like old Japanese paper armor with overlapping plates. There were more than enough of them I thought, glancing over to a pile of the chitin coverings. I didn't have any leather cord other than on my current jerkin what I did have was a lot of nylon cord from my tent and a rope I had packed.

I just needed to figure out how to poke holes in the plating to pass the cord through. I looked around for a sharp rock that was big enough to hold yet pointy enough to make a small hole and got to work. I went through five plates before I figured out a method to make the holes without cracking the surprisingly delicate plates.

Turns out the armor cracked quite easily if you pressed down too hard on the edges as they were slightly concave on the inside. I hoped that overlapping them would reduce this risk of cracking, if not I had another idea to try. I managed to get three plates together before I had to kill off another large group of centipedes that had started getting through my wall. Another improvised claymore later and some cleanup to follow I restacked the wall recovered more plates and got back to work.

It took me two more hours before I had twenty-five plates prepped and ready for assembly. I stacked five of the plates together in an overlapping pattern kind of like roof tiles.

"Now for the test," I said, slamming my staff down on the plates. They all cracked under the blow.

"Well shit, I guess it's time for plan B."

Plan B was, of course, adding runes to the plates. What runes, I had no idea as I had not had time to invest in furthering my research on them. Surprisingly the books were one of the few items that had remained in my bag during my tumble down the cliff. A little banged up perhaps but intact. I pulled them out and started reading, looking for anything that might help me. I found something interesting in my second book, a combination of runes that were said to aide in flexibility while getting older.

"Hmm, maybe I didn't need to make them stronger just more flexible."

Pulling out my little pocket knife I started scratching combinations of the runes into the back on a few plates to test the efficacy of the pattern. I didn't know if they had to be in any order, or have a design attached to them, like the common Celtic knots. For this test, I decided to keep it simple and only carve the actual runic symbols. After I was done I equipped each to see the bonus. I wish I had an upgraded Identify spell that worked on items it would have made this process a lot faster.

Chitin plate .01 armor -5% flexibility

Ok, the first one was a miss even though I gained the runic combination to decrease flexibility. Maybe it would come in handy later.

Chitin plate .01 armor +1% durability

Interesting but not exactly what I was going for. Another runic combination was stored in my notes.

Chitin plate .01 armor +2% flexibility

Perfect, now for a control test. I set the three plates down on the flattest spot I could find. I also included a piece that was not infused with runes. I pressed my staff butt end into the plate, slowly increasing the force until it cracked.

I did this for three more basic plates to try and get a feel for the standard breaking point. Then I tried it on the first plate and it broke with a little less force. Next, I moved to the durability one and it surprisingly held up longer than the basic plates by a few seconds. Now for the last plate, I pressed down and the plate creaked and finally snapped. It was an improvement over all my other designs by a bit. I needed to practice and clean up my scribing to hopefully improve on the overall bonus the runes gave.