Travian Denari was not an ordinary vampire. Not anymore. Since he had joined his new organization, his Level had skyrocketed, feasting on as many sentients as he could reach, not being forced to settle for donated blood like the rest of his kind in Carmina, or even in this very city! And now, as part of his duties, he had been tasked with the maintenance of a minor but important Dungeon. Weak enough to go unnoticed, but strong enough to kill most sentients who would be bothered to enter. No one had named the Dungeon, and the plan was to keep it that way to dissuade suspicion.
So, Travian had used a precious artifact to direct a wave of monsters towards the two, herding them into the Dungeon in order to give it a bit of a test drive. It could only be used a few times, even on monsters as low Level as the Vermisca, but it had been worth it to gather the data they required.
But then, he had started to run into some problems. First, they had received a Quest from the Dungeon itself. Travian hadn’t thought it would be able to do this, but it had, and by stepping into the arena, the two had automatically accepted it. They hadn’t seemed to have noticed that fact yet, but there was really nothing that he could do about it.
More concerning was that one of them was able to see Mana. He’d heard the guy tell his companion that fact, that he had seen strands of Terra in an odd net pattern in front of the entrance. Travian cursed himself, and this prototype. In a true, natural Dungeon, no one would be able to glean the nature of Mana from the very walls or the air around them - not so obviously. They needed to work on their subtlety.
But more alarming than all of that was the fact that the same person who’d been able to see the Mana of the Dungeon was a Shade Hunter. A damned Shade Hunter! At first, Travian had discarded the notion as pure bullshit. There was no way an actual Shade Hunter would deign to come down here - and no way that they would be so weak. But he was. And worse than that, they were winning. Even against creatures that were Levels higher, they managed to eke out a victory. They were just too heavily skewed towards strength and power.
And that beast that had emerged from his shadow was nothing to scoff at. It was a Shadow Wolf. An actual, sentient Shadow Wolf. They were extremely rare to have as a familiar, but even rarer to be seen in the wild. He had heard of a Shadow Wolf showing up at the Hall of Ceremonies and killing a Templar of the Order of the Radiant Seraphim, but that had been mostly hearsay and rumor. Now that he was seeing one in action, he was doubly worried.
Plus, that human the Hunter had with him wasn’t so bad himself. Monk was a rare martial Class for a reason, but this young man had been demonstrating all of their strengths: extreme mobility and a propensity for fast, strong attacks. He too could grow into a threat, if not eliminated here.
Still, the Hunter was the more pertinent threat. Of all the types of Hunters in the world, Shade Hunters were the most feared, and for good reason. They were almost perfect killers and sneaks, and were just as competent with magic. The only reason they weren’t more prominent was because Umbra was such a rare Affinity in the first place. It was often said that a Shade Hunter was a terrible enemy to have. And now, Travian was seeing firsthand just why that was the case.
“It seems that this calls for… drastic measures.”
Travian manipulated his Mana into the core in front of him, manipulating the Dungeon layout until it was exactly the way he wanted it. it was a risk, yes. If it didn’t go his way, the entire Dungeon might well be at risk of destruction. But he had to do this. If for no other reason than to truly earn his place among his organization. But for now… for now, he would have to go all in. The Shade Hunter would die, and his problem would sort itself out.
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Damien ducked a swing from the last Level four Construct, peppering it with Shadowbolts once more and causing more cracks to run through its stony figure. Damien, Leon, and Ash had already eliminated the rest of this last wave, a collection of six Level twos, four Level threes, and two Level fours. Luckily, they were spread far enough apart that they weren’t forced to engage with more than one or two at a time, and quickly managed to dispatch their foes without much more difficulty than normal, forced to avoid the strengthened strikes of the Constructs so as to avoid breaking their bones.
Now though, the two were somewhat on the back foot as they’d dealt with the Level fours. They weren’t any faster than the other Constructs, but they were larger, and stronger to boot. Leon had managed to whittle his down steadily, blow by blow, his sheer speed, and the exertion he gave towards the end with a certain martial Ability, was more than enough to pound that thing into dust and rubble.
Damien had a harder time with the thing, especially since it was more resistant to his Shadowbolts than the others. He shouldn’t have been too surprised, it was a pretty weak Spell after all, but it still annoyed him to no end, especially since it was one of the only ways he could reliably damage them. Still, it clearly wasn’t immune, and Damien took advantage of that fact by striking the spots with his jian, further widening the cracks with every slash and thrust and cut. Eventually, like all the others, it was worn down to its last, and Damien struck it along its center line, bisecting it completely.
Wave Survived! Waves Cleared: 3/3
You have slain [Construct] x 6
+1,600 XP
LEVEL UP!
You are now Level 3!
Stats Successfully Distributed.
You have [12] Stat Points remaining.
The rush of a Level Up flooded through Damien, returning his spent energy. Sure, he technically didn’t have any more Mana or Stamina than he had before, but he did feel quite refreshed, like he had the first time. Unable to help himself, Damien pulled up his Status and observed his gains, already knowing where he wanted some of his Stats to go.
[Status]
Name: Damien Sinclair
Race: Traveler of Umbra (Male)
Age: 18
Class: Shade Hunter
Level: 3
XP: 1,450/3,000
Profession: Not Selected
Affinity: Umbra
Stats:
Strength: 14
Dexterity: 39
Intelligence: 39
Constitution: 22
Endurance: 22
Wisdom: 22
Vitality: 15
Vigor: 22
Willpower: 22
Reaction: 46
Stat Points: 12 (71:58:46)
[Spells]
| Shadowbolt (Common) | Shadow of the Night Wolf (Ancient)
[Abilities]
| Shade Sense (Uncommon)
[Skills]
| Identify (Common) | Swordsmanship (Common) | Unarmed Combat (Common) | Mediation (Uncommon) | Mana Control (Rare)
Damien immediately boosted Dexterity and Intelligence by a point each, bringing them up to an even forty. He then poured five points into his Vitality, uncomfortable with just how far behind it was getting from his other regen Stats. he put four more into Reaction, bringing it up to fifty, and expanding Primeval Awareness to a five-meter radius and sharpening the accuracy of Danger Sense.
He put the last point into Strength, his least used, and least favorite, Stat. Not because it was inherently bad, but because… well, he literally didn’t have much of a use for it. He wasn’t an up-close fighter. That wasn’t who he was. Even Corbyn, someone far more powerful than Damien in every conceivable way, had Strength delegated to what could basically be amounted to a dump-Stat. Still, it wouldn’t do to have it fall too far behind.
“I Leveled Up again!” Leon cheered, pumping his fists in the air with his staff still in his grasp. “Yes! This has been the best! Thank you!”
“I wouldn’t thank me yet,” Damien said with a shrug, unable to help the smile that crossed his lips. “We are still trapped in here for about nine more hours or so. Still, I guess it’s nice to-”
WARNING! Significant Changes to the Dungeon have taken place!
WARNING! Dungeon Boss Incoming! Extreme Caution is Advised!
The sheer suddenness of the notification stopped Damien in his tracks, and Ash manifested at his side, teeth bared in a snarl as he focused on the center of the arena. Though the rest of the Dungeon currently remained unexplored, the fact that changes had been made meant that something, or someone, was in control of this place, and that they didn’t appreciate their presence one bit.
“Looks like we’re not gonna get a choice on how much rest we get,” Damien said to Leon, sword gripped tightly as he fell back into his stance. Leon nodded, twirling his staff as he settled into a stance of his own. The silence was almost deafening as they awaited the arrival of the dreaded Dungeon Boss. Though he had no context for what a Dungeon Boss meant on Xaunis, his own experiences with video games made him hesitant and slightly afraid.
Then, like the tide of an ocean, it appeared. It was a long, scaled thing, colored an odd, darkish bronze that somehow managed to stand out against the brown coloration of the arena. Some kind of lizard creature the size of a car, with a wedge-shaped head and a massive overbite lined with fangs big and small, it's tail wide with a sharp end that seemed to almost have a blade attached to it. Without further delay, Damien used Identify on the creature.
[Moutain Wyrmling]
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Level: 6
Affinity: Terra
The presence alone was enough to put Damien on edge, and Ash began to growl as he stared the monster down. It just glanced at them as though they barely existed, which, considering the fact that they were three levels below the thing, it wasn’t exactly unwarranted. Leon didn’t hesitate, rushing forward with all haste and cracking the beast across the head with his staff. The monster snapped its head to the side, but unlike the Constructs before it, the Mountain Wyrmling actually had some coordination and agility to go along with its massive strength. It moved with the blow, swiping back at the human with its tail like it was a whip.
The blow cracked against Leon’s staff, which he’d barely managed to pull up in time to block the strike. His feet scraped against the earth as skidded back several meters, barely managing to stop himself from collapsing, his arms shaking from the force he had barely managed to block.
Damien began to pepper the thing with Shadowbolts, which the monster treated as little more than bugs at it turned to him in annoyance. They were clearly affecting the thing, but not that much. The Traveler ducked a swipe from a slender, curved claw of the beast, the air turning sharp as he emerged from his roll and ran towards the thing. His jian cut minor gashes into the thing’s hide, but that was all. Though he was faster than the Wyrmling as a whole, it was only just.
His Danger Sense alerted him to another blow coming at him from below, forcing Damien to react on sheer instinct, trusting his Dexterity to follow through with his motion as he lifted himself from the ground, performing a side-flip that narrowly put him in the gap between blows. When he managed to touch down, a notification just so happened to shoot across his vision.
NOTICE! You have gained the Skill [Acrobatics (Uncommon)]
His body continued to fluidly dodge attacks as fast as his Dexterity could manage, narrowly avoiding blows as Damien tried to counter where he could, sliding his sword along the scaled expanse of the monster’s hide, each cut growing deeper by the barest fraction of an inch. He wondered, briefly, why he had gained that Skill he’d been trying to achieve for the last few weeks instead of some kind of Dodge Skill.
His answer came from his newly gained Skill, the clarity it provided him with allowing him to appreciate how the System had streamlined certain things. In a sense, learning Acrobatics did teach him how to dodge properly, since the Skill itself was all about proper movement and timing. Making another Skill for the sole purpose of moving one way would be redundant and a bit stupid.
Damien moved out of the way of yet another swipe from the Wyrmling, this one just a bit too fast for Danger Sense to react in time. The sharp implement rent through Damien’s dark clothing, drawing blood for the first time since combat had begun as a burning pain followed the line of his wound, almost causing him to lose focus. he pushed out a breath even as he stepped backwards, trying to focus on the monster before him before it could make another of those deadly attacks. Luckily, it didn’t seem like there had been any particular Ability behind it, otherwise he may well have been cut entirely in half, but it had still been monstrously fast.
Ash raked his claws along the thing’s side, biting into the thing’s haunch leg not a moment later and causing it to give a cry of pain. For the first time since the fight had begun, the thing actually looked… hurt. Not much, but enough to legitimately feel some of the damage that had been dealt to it. It somehow reared back and flung its legs upwards, missing Ash by the barest of inches as he leapt backwards, waiting for a chance to flank the monster again.
By this time, Leon had largely recovered from his shock, and together with Damien the two began to assault the now distracted Wyrmling, who was now being properly assaulted on three different fronts. Leon used a similar Ability that he had earlier, striking at the monster with a speed that Damien couldn’t hope to match without a much higher Dexterity. Still, he did his part, striking out with his jian at every opportunity to try and find a way to widen the scratches he had already laid into the beast’s armor.
Nothing seemed to work, and the two were forced back by more wild blows from the Wyrmling, only their ability to dodge keeping them on their feet, and only just. Ash was the only member of their group who had done real, tangible damage to the thing, and the monster was quite wary of the familiar now, using its tail to keep him at bay and its claws to occupy the two humanoids of the group. It seemed to be stretching the monster's animalistic intelligence, but it was still an effective, if basic, strategy.
Their stamina wasn’t permanent, and at one point or another, one of them would slip and receive something more than parting cuts. Given a true battle of attrition, the monster would win. It was Level six, and had Stats that outstripped them in every regard. The only real advantage they had was numbers. Although…
Damien recalled what Ash had done as he dodged past another claw swipe and side-stepped a loud, snapping chomp. The Shadow Wolf was practically made of Umbra-Attuned Mana; the fact that his pelt didn’t reflect light only further supported Damien’s thought that this had to be the case. Umbra Mana did affect the thing, but Damien’s Shadowbolt Spell was a bit too weak to do much damage, even while his Intelligence sat at a whopping forty. Or, perhaps it wasn’t a question of Mana or the effectiveness of his Spell… maybe it had something to do with applied force?
Willing to go for that gamble, Damien utilized mana Control, summoning the power up in a rudimentary, basic pattern that he had come to recognize as Shadowbolt. Instead of firing off the Spell, however, he adapted it on instinct, forcing the spherical result to adapt to something more resembling a strike. With that in hand, he swept out with his sword with all the swiftness he could muster, a darkness that could only be Umbra gathering at the edge of his blade.
NOTICE! You have gained the Ability [Shade Strike (Uncommon)]
Damien felt the pull on his Mana and Stamina both as he slammed his sword into the monster’s foreleg, and felt something break. Luckily, it was not his jian, though the edge of the thing was starting to chip from all the fighting. The Mountain Wyrmling screeched out in pain as it hobbled back, clutching its injured legs to its torso as it realized that Damien was suddenly a very real threat. He’d meant to separate the thing’s foreleg entirely, but he could settle on breaking it, for now. The but that marred its leg, and the break it entailed, was a deep thing, and if he’d had just a bit more Intelligence or Dexterity, he would’ve gathered enough speed to cut straight through it.
As it was backing up, Ash set upon its undefended back once more, this time taking a much more preferable target, biting its tail clean off in a single, hard bite. It was probably one of his Abilities, and it paid dividends. Without its tail, the Dungeon Boss seemed sluggish and off-kilter, as though someone had loaded the thing up with drugs as blood continued to seep out of the gaping stump at its backside. Damien grinned as he swiped at the thing with his jian completely covered in Shade Strike, rending a long cut into the thing’s flesh and causing it to screech at him in further pain.
Leon stepped in and moved like the wind he was so attuned to, smacking the thing’s head up, down, left and right with blow after blow after blow. Individually it hardly made a dent in the thing’s skin, but altogether? It made for a lovely distraction. One that was immediately put to use as Damien and Ash went at it, putting even more damage in the thing’s armored hide, with fangs and claws and blades and fists all covered in a thick layer of Umbra-attuned Mana. Victory was in sight.
And then the monster’s eyes started glowing red.
Suddenly, as though it couldn’t feel pain at all, the Mountain Wyrmling swiped its head at Leon fast and hard, catching the human in his side, audibly breaking several of his ribs as he was rocketed off to the other side of the arena, inertia and gravity causing him to fall and roll on the ground. It blindsided Ash too, kicking out with all the desperate fury of a child. It worked, and the Shadow Wolf flew even further than the human had, smashing into the wall with a loud thud, his form nearly dissipating from the impact of it.
Damien was no better off a moment later, the thing’s remaining claw coming in to cut deep across his chest, Danger Sense warning him of the attack too late. The large diagonal gashes sprayed blood on the earthen ground of the arena as he struggled to remain conscious, the pain a blinding thing as he fell to his knees with the shock of it all. His blood began to pool beneath him in a sanguine crescent, evidence of his coming death. And yet… and yet…
The Mountain Wyrmling had not yet slain him. He didn’t know why. It didn’t matter why. Even as he was bleeding out, his mind losing cohesion and his limbs losing strength, Damien pulled his head up and stared at the monster. Its red eyes remained, not quite in a frenzied state as he had first thought. It was as though some foreign force, or mind, was currently taking residence in the monster’s head, staring at him.
No, not staring. Glaring. Looking at him with complete and utter contempt. he didn’t know how such an expression could’ve been placed on a reptile’s features, but it had, and it was. It was odd. It was surreal. But more than anything else, it filled Damien with a powerful rage that he could not identify. It was enough to make him grit his teeth in a snarl at the monster in front of him, and he glared right back. That was when it did something that Damien hadn’t expected.
It flinched.
It had seen his state, practically put him on the brink of unconsciousness and subsequent death… and it flinched.
Damien used Mana Control in that moment to gather his power into something - anything he could use to turn the tide of this fight. He dug to somewhere inside himself that he’d never known he had, and tried to find that something. At the barest edges of his hearing, so faint he thought he’d imagined it, the soft, metallic rattle of chains could be heard.
A memory came to the surface, then. It was from before his parents hand died, when he was either eleven or twelve. He had an assignment due the next day for his Greek Mythology Class, and he and his dad had gotten into a conversation about what it meant to be in Tartarus, the Greek equivalent of Hell, basically amounting to a great big vault somewhere in the Underworld that the gods used to imprison their enemies.
His father had explained that Tartarus was both a deity and a place, and that it held within itself two purposes. To imprison the wicked, and to birth monsters. Damien had asked him why Tartarus wouldn’t just do one? Surely then it would make more sense, right? But that was when his father said something that resonated with him in every way.
“If you can imprison the true monsters of the world, son, then you are just as capable of imprisoning everyone else. Of imposing your will on people who may not wish to even know of it. It is what you do with that terrible power, in the face of its capabilities, to truly know yourself and who you are. So, if, someday, you come into power like that… be good. To yourself, and to everyone else who will need you because of it. That kind of power can corrupt, but if you have people to keep you in check, to keep you from going too far, then it can be used for something good. That’s what I believe, at least.”
Though the man was long since dead, his words echoed through Damien’s mind as though they had just been spoken. And then, suddenly, he heard it. The rattling of chains, clear and steady as a beating heart. Not from the outside, but from within. From somewhere deep in his soul, the sound and shape of black chains made themselves known, filling his vision with their presence, metal clinking against metal, the lengths long and heavy and well used. Damien took that image, that power of chains, the sound of the metal, the weight of their magic… and pushed.
They burst from his shadow and outstretched hands both, the chains a startling beautiful mix of violet and black as they rocketed forwards towards the Dungeon Boss taking it completely by surprise. First four, then eight, then a dozen, then almost twenty of the things wrapped around each limb, its torso, the stump where its tail had once been, and its head, clamping the jaws shut with an audible snap before it could think to do anything.
Damien felt his blood and Mana burn as he fed both into the chains, his hands flexing into the shapes of claws as he kept pushing and pushing and pushing, notifications popping across his vision as he started to cough up blood.
NOTICE! You have created a Unique Spell!
NOTICE! You have gained the Spell [Invocation (Epic)]
NOTICE! You have gained the Ability [Bloodcasting (Epic)]
WARNING! Your Health is extremely low! Caution and Healing are advised!
WARNING! Your Mana is extremely low! Caution and Mana Recovery are advised.
Damien didn’t pay them any mind as he reached forth his hand, glaring into the Wyrmling’s terrified eyes as he brought his middle finger and thumb together, taking a brief moment to look this thing dead in its beady eyes.
“I hope this hurts, you shithead.”
Then he snapped his fingers, and blood erupted from every inch of the Wyrmling’s body that had been wrapped in the chains, the implements gaining spikes made of pure Umbra as they pierced its hide in every way imaginable. And then, it fell to the ground, dead at last. Damien didn’t quite believe it until the notifications came in, and it was a sweet, sweet relief.
You have slain [Mountain Wyrmling]
+300 XP
NOTICE! Skill [Swordsmanship (Common)] has evolved to [Adept Swordsmanship (Uncommon)]
NOTICE! Skill [Unarmed Combat (Common)] has evolved to [Adept Unarmed Combat (Uncommon)]
NOTICE! You have gained the Skill [Thrown Weapons (Uncommon)]
NOTICE! You have gained the Skill [Stealth (Uncommon)]
CONGRATULATIONS! Dungeon Quest [Unnamed] Complete!
+2,500 XP
LEVEL UP!
You are now Level 4!
Stats Successfully Distributed.
You have [12] Stat Points remaining.
“Well… would you look at that? It was… worth coming here… after…”
Before Damien could finish that thought, he passed out in a heap.