Just as a surge of luminous energy pulsed up the twin eye stalks of the enormous crab, Victor shifted to the side — narrowly avoiding the crackling arc of icy energy and simultaneously skewering the softer flesh at the edge of the shell with his bone spear.
But just as Victor had learned to predict the monster’s attacks, the crab seemed to have learned to anticipate his movements to some degree as well — as the larger pincer whacked into Victor’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him and sending him sprawling back across the ground.
Wheezing, Victor scrambled back to his feet as quickly as he could, frantically assessing the situation.
The crab was attempting to remove the spear, though it couldn’t quite bend its own limbs just right to extract the corroding weapon.
Capitalizing on his opponent’s distraction, Victor rushed forward again. By the time the crab realized that he was still an active threat, he had already grabbed hold of the end of the spear.
Yanking it out, he stabbed the monstrous crustacean right between the eyes.
The crab twitched.
Retreating hastily, Victor put a good amount of distance between himself and his opponent. He had left the spear where it was, of course — he was hoping to repeat his victory against the cat.
It worked.
The crab twitched again, its pincers trembling, and then it collapsed to the ground with a thud, even crushing one of its legs under the impact of its own shell. Victor held his breath.
Soul harvested!
Harvested souls: 2
Breathing a sigh of great relief, Victor collapsed to the ground on his knees. The flaming imp drifted over to his side, and Victor gave it a tired smile. “Looks like we finally won.”
Of course, there was still the whole obstacle room filled with slimes and tortoises and worst of all, bats, to deal with — but with a little hope, the third phase of Victor’s plan would give him a significant advantage.
Turning back to look at the now deceased crab, Victor sighed again. The way forward was pretty obvious in his mind… he just hoped the bats would leave him alone long enough to carry it out.
A burst of fog alerted him to the arrival of a chest. Calming himself down from his initial fright, Victor glowered at it. I swear, if I get another crafting kit…
Creeping over, Victor tapped it with his foot. It felt a bit silly to keep doing it — but he knew it would be the one time he didn’t check when it turned out to be a mimic — so he would make sure to never break the habit.
Satisfied that he wasn’t going to be attacked, Victor unlatched the top and peered inside — revealing a soft white blanket.
Victor stared. He blinked, and nothing changed. You have got to be fucking shitting me. Looking around, he glowered at the dungeon walls. Does it have a sense of humor or something? If the core is even paying attention to someone as insignificant as me, of course…
Whatever. Tossing the blanket aside — he had a far more luxurious cave-cat cloak, after all — Victor examined the remainder of his reward items. Let’s see — another tin of meat, a packet of dry biscuits, a bundle of rope, and… what’s this?
Picking up the smooth metal cylinder, Victor arched his eyebrows. It was quite warm to the touch. It also appeared to have a screw top…
Twisting it revealed that it did indeed, and Victor popped it open to unleash the deliciously savory aroma of a steaming tomato bisque.
Looking around in wonder, Victor gingerly set the thermos to the ground. “If you are paying attention to me, dungeon core, I just want you to know that you’re totally awesome and this is a really cool area and thanks for the blanket, even if I don’t really need it anymore.”
Laughing to himself, Victor lifted the thermos to his chapped lips and took a sip. It was hot — shockingly so, though Victor had a suspicion that it was actually a moderate temperature and he was just over sensitive to heat because of the cold.
It was also really fucking good. The best meal he had tasted since his interview over lunch with Lord Harvey half a year prior, in fact. Taking several more gulps, Victor decided that he would pocket the meat and biscuit, and take his time enjoying the rest of the soup.
Its best quality right now was that it was hot, after all, and even the thermos probably wouldn’t keep it that way forever.
Also, he needed the energy. As long as he kept exploring and killing monsters, the dungeon should keep providing him with food and drink — and to keep performing those activities, he needed to stay healthy and refreshed.
Humming to himself, Victor contented himself to the hard earned meal under the soft glow of his summon. Maybe things won’t always be so bad.
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Fucking dumbass stupid bats.
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Miserably grumbling to himself, Victor hustled down the frigid passageway back to the chamber with the colossal crab corpse.
With one hand, he kept his bony spear raised, ready to ward off any enterprising bats — and with the other, he gripped the edges of the dungeon blanket as far away from himself as he could.
The cloth hung down like a pouch, and was tied at the top with a bit of rope which he cut with the knife he got from the very first chest, after killing the rat. The bundle squirmed, and Victor cursed, picking up his pace.
Inside it was a slime.
Victor really hadn’t wanted to work while being assaulted by bats again, and he also wanted to put more time and effort into his next item. Therefore, he had resorted to kidnapping a slime in order to have a source of the glue like material at his own convenience.
The abduction had gone reasonably well, though a trio of bats had still pursued him, now kept at bay by his fiendish summon.
Finally, Victor reached the room where he fought the crab, and he set the wriggling bundle down to the floor. Wiping his brow, he breathed a sigh of relief. He had made it.
Now, if he could get just a little peace and quiet — he glared back down the corridor — he could properly craft.
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Detaching the larger pincher from the rest of the exoskeleton had been a colossal pain in the ass. It took Victor what felt like an hour of grueling knife work, and that was about the only thing he had accomplished in that time.
Taking a moment to stretch and walk around, Victor considered what to do next.
He glared at the corpse. Why do you have to be so damned tough?
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Two hours later, and Victor had all the bits of crab he needed — but he wasn’t satisfied. No, the exoskeleton was quite smooth, and he wanted something that would be better to grip.
He had also hollowed out all of the flesh so that his final item wouldn’t rot — a process made far more convenient by the original enchanted dagger. Unfortunately, the dagger was still attached to the bone spear, which made it a bit unwieldy.
But no matter. He still needed something better to hold on to.
Victor glared back down the hallway, and several pairs of beady blue eyes glared back. Right then. It’s war.
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As Victor tore the last bat apart with his teeth, he cackled wildly like a deranged madman. The vicious, airborne critters had given him a hard fight indeed, but with sheer rage, determination, and the deftness of his summon, the bats had ultimately met their highly deserved demise.
Panting, Victor dropped the shredded corpse to the floor.
Soul harvested!
Harvested souls: 5
Licking his lips, Victor cracked his knuckles and then rolled his neck. You fuckers don’t deserve to be soulforged. And then he dissolved the three bat souls into raw arcane energy.
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The slime died without incident, leaving Victor to the task of assembling the crab exoskeleton, his collected panther bones, and larger bits of bat hide into a weapon fit for a primitive, dungeon delving, soul devouring madman.
The step of putting it all together turned out to be the quickest and easiest, and before long, Victor had completed his task. Now, he only needed to choose a soul.
Let’s see. Should I enchant it with the soul of a giant magic wielding monster that almost killed me several times, or should I use a slime?
Yeah okay, enough kidding around.
Activating soulforge, Victor selected the crab’s soul.
Crab Claw Mace of Shattering Frost (Rank E) added to inventory.
Victor examined his handiwork with no small degree of pride. The weapon was just slightly shorter than his outstretched arm, ending in a curled pincer. The hollow interior of the patched together exoskeleton was reinforced with panther bones, and a wrapping of bat skin provided a leathery grip.
As Victor turned it over in his hands, he realized it felt even sturdier than it had before he enchanted it — and he even thought he could see spidery blue lines of energy crisscrossing the purplish black, polished surface.
Right. Let’s see what this thing can do.
Standing up, Victor hefted it in his hand, turning it over several times before swinging it experimentally. The balance felt surprisingly good, and it seemed just heavy enough to inflict damage without being unwieldable.
Cautiously, Victor drew upon his reservoir of arcane energy, funneling just a little bit into the weapon.
The mace reacted immediately, as a surge of crackling icy energy pulsed up and down its length, sending a shower of cold sparks drifting down to the floor.
Swinging it again, Victor watched in delight as a blast of frost and icy shards curved outwards in an arc.
Impressive. Let’s see how it holds up against bats.
Gathering up the remainder of his items, Victor began marching off down the passageway back to the obstacle room — but he stopped in irritation when his spear wouldn’t return to his inventory.
Frowning, Victor attempted again. The tip — the enchanted fang — strained against his own spirit, as if it wanted to disappear into the void as it did before — but the boney shaft refused to budge.
Victor furrowed his brow. He hadn’t actually dispelled it since he connected it to the shaft…
He initially thought that anything he crafted and enchanted could be stored, but maybe that wasn’t the case. Maybe, he had to craft and then enchant the entire item for it to work…
On a whim, Victor stored the mace in his inventory, raised the spear over his raised knee, and snapped off the rat tooth tip.
The fang disappeared into his inventory without issue.
I see.
So he couldn’t add onto enchanted items and still store them — he had to craft an item and then enchant the whole thing at once for the storage to work. Victor sighed. That wasn’t ideal, but it was good that he realized it fairly early on.
Discarding the now useless bone shaft, Victor summoned his new mace back into his hand. He hadn’t even tested it yet against a living enemy, yet it made him feel powerful. Something about its blunt, brutal nature appealed to something primitive within him.
It’s fun to whack things, I guess.
Truer words were never spoken.
Shrugging, Victor continued down the corridor, back to where the three different passageway’s split off from each other. Instead of continuing straight to the monster filled obstacle room, Victor peered back down the original entryway.
Half a dozen pairs of luminous blue eyes peered back at him. Victor’s gaze hardened. His war against bats was far from over — and this particular group were the ones who had first attacked him, inflaming his terrific animosity in the first place.
Victor didn’t bother to be subtle. Mace in hand, he strode forward while consuming his last remaining soul. The bats remained motionless. Removing his hood, Victor stopped several paces away.
And then he charged.
The bats descended all at once, just as expected, their shrill shrieks tearing at his ears like rusty razor blades. But Victor didn’t relent. Channeling arcane energy into the mace, he swung with all his might.
A wave of chilling frost washed over all six of the bats, freezing them in midair. As they plummeted to the ground, Victor swung again — this time, channeling the icy lightning.
As soon as he hit one, the bolt arced between all of them.
They shattered.
6 Souls harvested!
Harvested souls: 6