Liam panted as he brought his hands to his knees. Even though he didn’t fight like he normally did, he still felt tired. He looked at his resources and noticed his Mana Pool and Stamina Bar were close to a quarter left. He pulled out a Weak Blueberry Mana Potion and a Weak Orange Stamina Potion and drank them.
As he drank the two potions, he heard a few chimes echoing in his mind as notifications appeared.
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“Congratulations! Arcane Swarm has reached level 11! Progression to level 12: 29%!”
“Congratulations! Field of the Elements Focus Point – Lightning has reached level 10! Progression to level 11: 67%!”
“Congratulations! Electro Orb has reached level 10! Progression to level 11: 67%! You can now create two orbs of lighting!”
“Congratulations! Your understanding on manipulating Lightning Mana has reached level 11! Progression to level 12: 12%!”
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As Liam stared at the notifications he thought about how far behind his Arcane and Lightning magic was compared to his Shadow and Gravity. While he was around others he couldn’t use his Shadow or Lunar because they would raise some questions from what he was told. While his Gravity was okay to use his Lightning really needed to be worked on. The paralyzing effects it could apply was very handy when fighting monsters susceptible to it.
Until he found some place he could use to train both his Shadow and Lunar magic he would have to work on raising his Lightning magic while getting his Gravity to level twenty.
He was brought out of his thoughts suddenly as a new notification popped up.
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“Completion of Dungeon – Seaside Cave of the Sea Slimes has been recorded in your Adventurer’s Identification card. All monsters defeated have been recorded in your Adventurer’s Identification card.”
“New addition unlocked on your Adventurer’s Identification card. Slayed Monsters. The Slayed Monsters feature allows you to keep track of all monsters slain while inside or outside of dungeons.”
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“That’s interesting,” Liam muttered to himself. He then turned to Cindy who was making her way to him. He noticed she was thinking about something, but before asking what it was that was on her mind he wanted to know more about this new feature. “Hey Cindy?”
“Hm?” Cindy replied as she was brought out of her thoughts and looked at him. “What’s up?”
“I just got a notification about unlocking a new feature on my A.I.D. called Slayed Monsters and was wondering why it just appeared now and not when I killed the first Slime back on the first floor?”
“Oh, yeah for some reason it only appears after you complete your first dungeon,” Cindy started. “It’s a feature that helps keep track all of the monsters you have killed or were a part of helping kill. In that section if you click on the monster it’ll show their level and dungeon you killed them in. It also adds monsters you killed outside of dungeons as well.”
“Does it also add in the monsters from the tutorial dungeon I conquered? Since it shows in the Dungeon Section that I completed that one?” Liam asked curiously.
Cindy shook her head. “No. Since you didn’t have the A.I.D. during that time it doesn’t know what you fought or killed. The only reason why it shows you conquered that dungeon is because after you informed the Adventurers Association they put it on there.”
“That’s good to know,” Liam said, sighing in relief internally.
He was relieved to know that because if the association wanted to see what he had killed, he didn’t want to have to explain why he had those monsters on his list.
Liam looked back at Cindy who was staring back at the Engulfing Sea Ooze. He could tell there was something on her mind about it, so he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Huh?” Cindy questioned as she looked back at Liam. She could see he was curious about something then noticed she had a hand to her chin. “Oh, I was just trying to think about why the monsters on this floor were stronger than usual. It’s almost like…”
Liam noticed Cindy give a look like a light bulb suddenly clicked on.
“Fuck me, I’m such an idiot,” Cindy suddenly cursed.
“What do you mean? What’s wrong?” Liam questioned feeling a bit confused.
“Well, as I was saying, I was thinking that the levels on the first two floors weren’t exactly what they were supposed to be, but the levels weren’t really too high to note. Normally the first floor monsters are level three to four. The second floor monsters are usually around six to seven, but majority of them were at least a level or two higher than normal,” Cindy started.
Liam nodded as he kept listening.
“The monsters’ levels on this floor are supposed to be eight with the floor boss being level ten,” Cindy continued. “After seeing the regular monsters on this floor’s level being at thirteen I thought it was rather strange. Not only that, but for the Dungeon Boss to be an Engulfing Sea Ooze? That was a twist. However, I had completely forgotten something so basic.”
“Which is?” Liam questioned as he raised a brow.
“It’s because I’ve done this dungeon a few times before. The last two floors just once, but this one I’ve done at least six or seven times whenever I just want to get some slime materials and not deal with any other monsters,” Cindy stated.
Liam looked confused at what she meant. He wasn’t sure what her coming to this floor a few times had to do with the monsters’ levels being a bit higher than normal.
“Monsters’ levels raise if you go back to a floor you have done before,” Cindy stated. “That is a thing for all dungeon types except for Free Roam and Raid type dungeons.”
Liam raised a brow. “What do you mean?”
“I’ll use Tower Dungeons as an example. These types of Dungeons have this mechanism where if you and a party take on a floor that you or anyone else has completed before then the levels of the monsters will rise,” Cindy explained with a confused look. “Didn’t the overseers tell you this when you were in the Tutorial Area?”
Liam thought about it. He tried to remember if they did and remembered they had talked about the dungeons, but couldn’t remember for sure if they had. Instead, he shrugged and answered, “They might have, but can you refresh my memory?”
Cindy shook her head. “Ok, so it’s like this. We’re going to use this dungeon for the example. Say you do this dungeon with a group of people. The level of the monsters are…let’s say three.”
Liam nodded.
“After completing the dungeon, you decide you’re going to take on this dungeon again. Now the levels of the monsters are four or five. Then the next time it’s six or seven,” Cindy said.
Liam’s brows scrunched. “Are you saying the dungeon will make the levels of the monsters higher each time I come to take it on?”
“Yes,” Cindy nodded. “The amount of levels that is risen depends on how many times you take it on, and it affects the floors not the whole thing. Coming here to this floor reminded me of that.”
“Ok, but I haven’t taken this dungeon on before. Why does it still raise the levels even though this is my first time?” Liam asked.
“Same rules applies even if there is a member on the team who hasn’t taken the dungeon on before,” Cindy started back up. “The same could be said about floors. Say there is a party who takes on a Tower dungeon with seven floors. They make it to floor three and a member or two decides they don’t want to continue. The members they replace them with have to have reached the same floor or higher. If someone has never taken that dungeon on before and tries to join that party, the dungeon will reject their access to that floor until they reach it.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“That’s interesting,” Liam said as he tried thinking about it. “Do you know why that happens?”
Cindy shrugged as she shook her head. “No clue. I know there are people researching into it. If they know they haven’t told anyone.”
“Hm…I see,” Liam muttered. He looked at the creature once more and asked, “I’ve never harvested an Ooze before. Is the process similar to a slime? Will it call upon my knowledge of harvesting Slimes or is it different?”
Cindy gave him a smile as she replied, “They are different, but there is a prerequisite when harvesting oozes. You need to have a certain amount of knowledge on harvesting slimes at least to the point where you don’t need to place your hand in them anymore and just have the materials flow into vials.”
Liam gave her a confused look. “Why do you need to have that amount of knowledge on slimes if they are completely different?”
“That’s because an Ooze is an evolved variant of a slime,” Cindy started explaining. “A slime can evolve into different versions and an ooze is one of them. They are the acidic version. You never want to place a hand in them to harvest them because the acid that still remains in their body, even after the Acid Cover is broken, can cause a lot of harm.”
Liam’s eyes widened at that. He looked back at the creature and said, “Good to know.”
“Go ahead and loot the slimes outside this boss room and harvest them. You should gain enough understanding to be able to harvest this boss monster,” Cindy instructed. “After that we’ll go grab some lunch. This took a bit longer than I was hoping. After lunch we’ll take on a Free Roam Dungeon.”
She brought a hand to her chin and thought some things over. After she came to a conclusion she announced, “We’ll probably have to hit up some more dungeons tomorrow to gather more supplies. So today let’s take it slow so you can get used to things.”
Liam nodded as he started walking towards the open door. “Alright sounds good to me.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took another thirty minutes for Liam to collect and harvest all the slimes outside the boss’s room and harvest the Engulfing Sea Ooze. The material he was able to harvest from the Engulfing Sea Ooze was completely different from the slimes.
While the materials he harvested from the slimes were Slime Liquid and Slime Mucus, the Ooze provided three vials of Acidic Ooze Liquid. Cindy informed him that this material wasn’t used in potions or Medicinal Creation items but rather for Poison Crafting and Chemicalized Creations. She told him he could keep it as a reward for killing his first Ooze.
Speaking of killing the Ooze and a reward. When he looted the Engulfing Sea Ooze he had received two items that Cindy told him he could keep.
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“Skull of the Engulfing Sea Ooze. Item type – Material (Crafting). Item Rarity – Uncommon. Item Quality – Poor.”
“Cloak of Acidic Cover. Item type – Armor (Back). Item Rarity – Uncommon. Item Quality – Poor. + 7 Armor. Effect – Acidic Cover. Acidic Cover – Creates a layer of translucent acid armor over the wearer’s body. The acid armor does not harm the wearer nor melts any of their armor. Can absorb up to 500 physical and magical damage. Dampens Apprentice to Beginner Water type magic by 50%. Weak against Lightning and Plant type magic. Causes Acid Damage to anyone who physically touches the wearer.”
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The armor the cloak provided wasn’t as good as his old Cowl of the Haunted he used to have before it had been destroyed by the Mummy Rot the Askith Pharaoh Mummy Lord used on him, but it was better than nothing.
The design of it was simple. It was a dark sea blue hooded cloak that felt silky and smooth. Even though the color wasn’t something he’d have preferred, it felt light and was easy to move around with.
Liam and Cindy didn’t waste time staying in the dungeon after everything was done. The moment they walked out through the portal he noticed there were less people than there were earlier. It wasn’t by much, but there was more room to walk around in and he was able to see more of the room.
Thanks to this he noticed a few pitch-black small creatures scurrying around the walls of the room making their way for the closed door he saw the first one entered earlier.
I wonder what that’s all about. Liam frowned. He decided not to give it any more attention as he tried to catch up with Cindy who wasn’t wasting any time leaving the building.
As they made their way down the stairs and onto the street towards the Adventurers Association building Cindy spoke up, “I think we have enough Slime Liquids for now. The next dungeon we enter we’ll collect some bones through killing monsters and a few other items.”
Liam’s mind suddenly swirled as he thought about harvesting bones from creatures. After learning that his old class ability Harvest before evolving spared him the time from having to do everything manually and thinking about how he had to harvest Slimes; images of him having to pull bones out from the dead creatures filled his mind. He felt a bit sick after thinking about that and asked Cindy, “Am I going to have to learn how to pull bones out of creatures manually?”
Cindy turned to look at him. She must have noticed the look of disgust on his face because she started laughing. “Heavens no. There are a couple different ways of retrieving bones from killed creatures. Depending on the type of monster will determine the method. One such method is used on animal-like creatures. If you have the skill Butcher from the Chef Craft then bones will be received as materials when you separate the meat from the bones.”
Liam felt a bit relieved to hear the first method. He had the skill and even had it at level ten.
“Of course, you’ll need to have the Gathering Craft Skinning in order to do that since Butcher requires you to have the skin off the targeted materials. At least that is what I have heard,” Cindy stated. “However, that way is a long process since you need to skin and butcher before you get the materials. Depending on the monster killed it is possible to place the bodies in your inventory or a bag with a subspace in it suitable enough to carry it in. But larger creatures you’d have to do the entire process there.”
Liam nodded understanding what she was saying. Smaller animals were possible to take care of later while larger ones needed to be done in the dungeon. Maybe if he got the skill high enough he’d be able to do it quicker, but at a measly level ten…it would probably take too long. Adding in the fact his Skinning ability wasn’t that high too, he’d need to find and pack away small creatures that he killed in the next dungeon to practice the craft.
“What’s the other method?” Liam asked, hoping it wouldn’t require him to just shove his hand right into the body and try to yank the bones out. He was really hoping it wouldn’t come to that.
“It’s simple really,” Cindy started. “Especially with humanoid like creatures. You just receive it as loot.”
Liam suddenly stopped walking. Cindy turned to look at him and noticed the look on his face. It said are you serious?
“It can’t be that easy?” Liam finally said.
“You’re right. Not all loot will give you bones so it’s a gamble on if you’ll get that material or not,” Cindy clarified with a smile. “Why? Did you think it would require a different way? One more…bloody?”
Liam looked abashed as he said, “No…maybe.”
Cindy laughed out loud as she watched Liam look embarrassed as they started walking again. “Gathering bones is one of the many materials that fall in the unorthodox way of collecting. Besides the first method I mentioned, I haven’t really heard of any other way.”
Cindy suddenly looked up as a thought came to mind. “Sorry, there is another, but I’ve only heard rumors of it and haven’t seen it myself.”
Liam gave her a quizzical look as he inquired, “What way is that?”
“There is a couple of classes that get the Harvest skill as a Class ability,” Cindy started. “I heard that it bypasses the manual methods of the skill you gain through the Focus Point Gathering Craft and automatically gives you materials. But I haven’t seen nor heard of anyone ever having that before so I’m not sure if its real or just super rare to have.”
Liam internally groaned as he listened to Cindy. If he knew about the difference between the class ability and the Focus Point skill he would have tried to make sure he wouldn’t have lost it.
“Oh well,” Liam quietly muttered. “No point crying over spilt milk.”
“What’s that?” Cindy asked as they slowly approached the Adventurers Association building.
“Nothing,” Liam said with a shake of his head.
As they came up to the doors of the building, Liam turned his head to look right as two familiar people made their way to the doors as well.
With a smile he greeted, “Hey, fancy meeting you two here. What are you both up to?”
Cindy turned to look at who he was greeting. One was a girl who stood a little shorter than Liam. She had shoulder length dirty blond hair and hazel eyes. She wore casual clothing. Next to her was a Fox-folk male with messy red hair and had deep blue eyes. He too, wore casual clothing.
“Liam?” Mila said as she got a good look at him. “What are you doing here?”
“Yo,” Alv greeted with a slight smile to his stoic face.
“Not much just about to grab some lunch with Cindy here,” Liam stated as he nodded his head to her.
Mila and Alv turned to look at her. Cindy looked them up and down and grew curious. She then greeted, “Hello, I am Cindy.”
“Nice to meet you Cindy. I’m Mila,” Mila greeted with a smile.
“Alv,” Alve responded as he looked at her.
“Are these friends of yours?” Cindy asked with a curious look.
Liam and Mila laughed a bit.
“No, Mila is my cousin and Alv is a member from her group,” Liam explained.
“Oh,” Cindy stated as she understood why he was friendly with the girl.
“How do you know my cousin?” Mila asked with a mischievous grin. “Are you perhaps…”
“Cindy here is helping me with understanding how dungeons work while I help by gathering materials for her and her uncle’s shop,” Liam explained as he shook his head at Mila’s misunderstanding.
“Oh?” Mila said as her grin deepened a bit while slightly chuckling. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Liam sighed before reprimanding her. “Don’t go around making things uncomfortable for her.”
“Hey Liam,” Alv started as he shook his head.
“What’s up Alv?” Liam asked.
“I was wondering if you’d have any time to make more of those potions you sold us the other day,” Alv stated. “We tried them out while taking on a couple quests yesterday and are starting to grow low on stock. I think Alphonse or Molly might have some materials you can use, but I can ask them later.”
“Ah, I don’t know when I’ll be able to make more, but…,” Liam started. “I do have some over at her uncle’s shop. I’m selling them through there right now whenever I make big batches. I don’t know if they have any on the shelves yet, but maybe…” He then looked at Cindy for confirmation.
Cindy understood what he was wondering. “To my knowledge I think my uncle was going to stock them tonight after the store closed since he and Abby were trying to figure out where to place them. However, if you tell him that I sent you as well as Mila saying she is Liam’s cousin I am sure he will sell you some today.”
Alv nodded. “That sounds good. Thank you.”
Cindy shook her head. “Not a problem.”
Liam gave them a smile as he replied, “When I have some free time I’ll search for you guys and get those materials and make you some later. For now, just go with what Cindy said.”
“Sounds good,” Mila nodded before looking at Cindy. “Thank you for allowing my cousin to sell his wares at your uncle’s shop. I don’t know much about the crafter side of things, but I know there is a lot of process to go through in order to do it.”
Cindy smiled. “There is, but I’m sure it will all be worth it.”
Mila nodded once more before saying loudly. “I’m hungry why don’t we get a table and get some food.”
“Sounds good to me,” Liam said as they all walked in.