Ione decided to imprison one of the Minthor’s using her ball of stone and metal technique, and that was when she had finally gained the notification she was after.
Congratulations! You have been awarded the Class Aptitude Skill: Prison of Flesh
Prison of Flesh- Tier 1: You have created prisons out of the materials your flesh consumes. Create more. Repeated use will result in higher proficiency and will require less mana usage.
She remembered that this would be the fourth time she had used the stone-metal prison, and, in an aim to confirm her burgeoning suspicions, she quickly produced a halberd that she used to spear a Minthor straight through.
The resulting notification confirmed her suspicions.
Congratulations! You have been awarded the Class Aptitude Skill: Halberd of Flesh
Halberd of Flesh- Tier 1: You have created a halberd out of the materials your flesh consumes. Create more. Repeated use will result in higher proficiency and will require less mana usage.
It seemed she had to use the same weapon/ moveset approximately four times to produce class aptitude skills. Yet, that wasn't what she was told in school, unless it was different for a strange class. Yet again, she was left with more questions than answers. It also did not take the fact that simply using a weapon wasn't a moveset. It was just a different weapon, yet the class aptitude box awarded her the skill even though it wasn’t a true ‘skill.’
She shook her head. Ione had to hold out hope for the tutorial book. With that in mind, she actually took a close look at the descriptions.
Um, what’s proficiency?
Nothing new popped up. She wasn’t taught ‘proficiency’ in school. Of course, she knew what the word meant, but what did it mean in this context? She assumed it would strengthen her knowledge of the weapon/ moveset, and increase her expertise. All the same, anger bubbled up the lack of education, but she quickly snuffed it out. It would do well to keep a level head in a dungeon.
I guess it’s another thing for the tutorial book.
What she could glean from the rest of the message was something that did pull the corners of her lips up. Less mana usage was incredible, especially since she was worried about her mana pool. It wouldn't do to run out and then be left defenseless, so anything that would decrease the mana needed would be perfect for her.
It was like a double-edged sword, however. The versatility in her class allowed her to wrack up an incredible amount of class aptitude skills, yet there will always be scenarios that she didn’t account for that would end up forcing her to establish a different moveset, or weapon. It also made it difficult to really establish a set moveset.
She liked versatility. She liked impromptu weapons, but the aptitude skills seemed to almost push her, and many others, to limit what they could work on. The fact that she could drop the moveset was nice, but she couldn't do that.
Ione figured she needed to use her corrosive daggers a couple more times to get the skill for that moveset. The more skills, the better her evolution, and she had a few more ideas for class aptitude skills that she planned to use this dungeon for.
The Minthors were easy prey, slightly tougher than the enemies of the last dungeon, but posed no threat to her in a way equal to the redmanes, or the sand prowlers.
She longed for a truly tough enemy. Ione didn’t have a death wish, she quite liked being more powerful than most beings in her vicinity, but there was something missing, and she was growing bored.
The excitement she held earlier melted just as quickly as the enemies melted into the floor. There seemed to be limited enemy types; this time there were just Minthors, but different variations: Barbarian Minthor, Mage Minthor, and regular Minthor. Some traveled in groups and others were lonesome. Both were boring. As she ventured through the dungeon and killed yet another Minthor, she finally got another class aptitude skill.
Congratulations! You have been awarded the Class Aptitude Skill: Corrosive Flesh Daggers
Corrosive Flesh Daggers- Proficiency 1%: You have created corrosive daggers out of the materials your flesh consumes. Create more. Repeated use will result in higher proficiency and will require less mana usage.
So it’s the same thing everytime.
Ione found it interesting that for every class aptitude skill, it had the word ‘flesh’ in the name: Prison of ‘Flesh’, Halberd of ‘Flesh’, Corrosive ‘Flesh’ Daggers. She supposed it was quite on the nose for her class, she was creating constructs from her body, and even though those constructs were made of whatever material she consumed, when they separated from her body they turned into random bits of tissue, and only tissue. Ione had tried to experiment and throw her flesh into a Minthor in the hopes that she would throw a bone shard, but unfortunately it just turned to soft muscle.
However, that didn’t mean that she wasn’t experimenting with projectiles.
She needed to figure out her range issue, while she had the 2.5 meter range her class afforded her for using the materials she’s-Harold has digested, that still didn’t help her with enemies that were 10 meters away, even 5 meters away.
Ione wanted to work at an additional skill that addressed the issue, and so, she did.
Throughout the second dungeon, in between killing the various types of Minthors with various types of weapons and trying to find the boss room, she had experimented with building pressure in her arms. She knew that once it had exited her body the property of whatever material she chose would turn to flesh, but that didn’t mean that she couldn't account for that by building pressure to the point that whatever material she used wouldn't matter.
She supposed one would ask, ‘well, why don’t you just use your flesh?’ To which she would respond, ‘because trying to build pressure with a material like flesh is harder than simply using metal.’ After all, she did want to shoot bullet-like projectiles as a surprise attack and mimicking actual bullets was her solution. Granted, it would most likely come out as a shotgun shell would, scattered, but that would just maximize the damage.
A couple more class aptitude skills were bestowed in between her barrages of unrelenting carnage.
Congratulations! You have been awarded the Class Aptitude Skill: Polearms of Flesh
Congratulations! You have been awarded the Class Aptitude Skill: Flesh Gauntlets
Both were self explanatory, and didn’t require her to look at the description when she knew it would say the same thing the other descriptions said.
Ione’s thoughts circled around her class often. The potential for what she could do was endless, and she had trouble deciding whether she wanted to hide what she could do, or just be out in the open with it. If she hid what she could do, then that would lead to a lot of underestimations, which would be nice since she would have the upper hand, but that would only work if she had a class title that wasn’t so obvious.
[Fleshweaver]
So. Fucking. Obvious, Ione thought. While Fleshweaver did not directly state in itself that she consumes non-magical materials, and could turn her flesh into them, it did indicate some sort of flesh based power- which is strange. People might and will come to the conclusion that she had a strange class, but they wouldn't know what she could do besides some sort of flesh manipulation and she could work with that. She had to make them expect something from her.
People loved to know that what they expected was right and she would play into that. Her class was no secret, those she passed at the barrier would have already known and spread it, but that was all they knew.
What would be the most likely explanations for a class titled '[Fleshweaver]'? That Ione could sew flesh? Collect flesh? Use her own flesh to fight others? If she saw someone that had the title [Fleshweaver] she would run in the other direction. She would think, gee, this person is going to wear my skin. No, she actually wouldn’t, but the thought gave her a laugh. No she would think, this person can use their own flesh to fight. Which wouldn't be too far off the nose, but it missed crucial bits of information. The fact that she could utilize every non-magical material, and that she could produce weapons from every surface of her body.
With a shake of her head, Ione vowed to hide her capabilities for the sake of having an extra advantage. Ione was greedy, and she would take every advantage possible. She will focus on one weapon, which was left to be decided, use that for any fights that had spectators, and for dungeons she will train different skills in secret.
Ione knew that eventually the full extent of her power would be revealed, but until that point she would be content in the knowledge that she would be underestimated.
With a new pep in her step, corners were turned and notched, just to mark her progress, and Minthors were desiccated while she experimented with different pressures in her arm. More often than not, she had ended up with a blown up arm and a chunk of health missing, but that proved beneficial for [Arcane Flesh Healing] and [Arcane Flesh Molding] as the former increased by 3 levels, and the latter increased by 6 levels. She was nearly at Tier 2 for [Arcane Flesh Molding] and she figured that fighting the boss will push her over the threshold.
Ione figured that an hour had passed before she actually found the boss room. Like the last dungeon, this was a circular room, but that was where the similarities ended. Unlike the last boss room, this one was backlit by ethereal blue light, and had four towering pillars that had Greek symbols and lettering that glowed with a cerulean hue. The ceiling had hanging cages that prisoned human skeletons and she could see bones scattered around the stone flooring which were subsequently cracked due to the hulking hoof that stepped upon them.
This Minthor was the boss. Her gaze traveled from its gigantic hooves, all the way to its massive head. Its eyes glowed red and steam was exhaled from its nose. It carried a breathtakingly huge greataxe that spanned the length of her body and a feral grin spread across her lips. She inspected the beast.
[Great Minthor]- LVL 250
Casual steps brought Ione to the middle of the arena and the Great Minthor levied a heavy red gaze towards her. It’s mouth and open and Ione angled her head towards the ginormous being, before having her ears absolutely blasted by the chesty bellow the boss let loose.
DING! You have resisted The Call of the Beast, no status affliction caused.
A few smaller Minthors entered the arena.
She frowned. Ione hated bosses that had little minions. She found the design lazy and thought it was meant to pad out a fight. Regardless, with a quick sweep, she destroyed the little Minthors with complete ease, and turned her attention to the Great Minthor who passively watched its minions quickly die.
Ione briefly wished she had a boss level orchestra playing, but all that assaulted her ears was the quiet trickle of water from elsewhere and the exaggerated huffs of the Great Minthor. It was just a little too quiet, but that was a fleeting thought as the greataxe was brought down on her head.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
She thanked her dexterity and reaction speed for that save. Her overconfidence caused her attention to lack and that was another notch in lessons to be learned. A nearly fatal lesson, at that. High emotions weren’t the only things that could distract, it was also wishing for an epic music score to occur while fighting a boss.
The Minthor was fast, it swung its greataxe with practiced ease, and while Ione was fast, the speed at which each opponent moved was nearly equal.
Ione decided that she had to focus on removing the weapon from the boss, otherwise she wouldn't be able to get close. Its reaction time was nearly on par with hers, and despite her high dexterity she couldn't seem to get close enough without the beast trying to decapitate her.
It wouldn't do to get her head chopped off in a level 200 dungeon.
That would just be embarrassing.
It was nice, however, that she would be able to use her pressure practice in her attempt to dislodge the weapon. The Great Minthor swung the greataxe and Ione dodged while she experimented further with building pressure, which was equally good practice. If she can maintain the concentration of building pressure and dash at the same time, then that would bode well when she faces many human, or elf, enemies. [Multitasking] did help quite a bit, however.
The pressure she built in her arm was much like the pressure one can build in their mouth if they push vestigial air to their closed lips. This often resulted in her blowing her hand to pieces due to the precarious nature of trying to force one’s arm into a makeshift firearm.
Ione snickered while she dodged another life-ending blow. Heh, firearm.
She had to slowly and gradually build the pressure, else if it was too fast and too much, then that would result in her extending more resources to heal herself due to the expected blow up. While Ione had the mana available, she wanted to practice mana management as well. The feeling of nervousness was present when she thought about the amount of mana it would take to actually fire the bullet. Already, even just building the pressure slowly resulted in about 3,000 mana points gone. Thankfully [Meditation] helped in keeping her mana pool from dripping to catastrophic levels, but she had to juggle that along with [Arcane legs of Momentum] to both make sure she didn't drop below half, and that she had to alternate their usage. [Meditation] couldn't be used alongside movement boosting skills.
She didn’t want to expend her entire mana pool simply in the effort to dislodge a weapon. That would be absurd.
The metal bullet in her arm started to vibrate and the Great Minthor huffed in annoyance. It seemed the beast was annoyed at its own inability to kill her and with renewed vigor it started swinging the greataxe as if she was a weed in a field.
Ione had to act and she had to act now, otherwise all her progress would be lost.
She kept the pressure stable in her arm as she jumped up to one of the cages, she murmured a quick, “rest in peace,” to the deceased, before she locked her sights on the beast's right hand. The Great Minthor stared at her from below, and she knew that once she dropped that it would start swinging.
Now, or never.
Ione released her grip on the cage and fell with her right arm outstretched. The arm itself was slightly bulbous and disgusting looking, but it held a growing power. The Great Minthor swung its ax at her as she got into range.
The pressure in her arm was extreme and with a deep breath, she aimed.
Then fired just as the offending hand got into view.
Her arm was torn to pieces, and the resulting blast knocked her back onto one of the pillars, but she quickly caught herself and looked at the Minthor, eager to see if she had done any damage.
Her breath caught as she heard the greataxe clamor to the floor and she saw the mangled hand that once carried it. Blood dripped from the stumps left behind and the creature let out a pained bellow. Its mouth opened and out spewed a torrent of fire right in her direction.
Shit! Why the fuck can it breathe fire?
She jumped to another pillar while [Arcane Flesh Healing] dealt with her own stump of an arm, and she realized that she had just entered into the second phase of the fight.
A sigh of disappointment escaped her lips. While the plan she made had worked for removing the greataxe out of the fight, now she had to deal with a fire-spewing roided-out bull that had its attention directed at her.
Ione grimaced and once again jumped around the pillars as globs of fire were launched at her. She thanked [Climbing] as it allowed her to use the carved Greek glyphs as tiny handholds while she thought of another way to deal with the Minthor.
Then, she had it. Ione was going to strong arm the beast, the plan was shoddy, but she hoped her [Fire Resistance] was enough. She formed a double-sided bone polearm, and rushed the boss. A wash of fire licked at her form and she felt her skin bubble and burn.
It was so hot. Luckily, her nerves were quickly burned away and she prevailed. The Minthor staggered back as she landed on its head and with all of her strength, she shoved one end of the polearm into its eye and through its brain.
All was silent, save for the squelch of her retracting the blade from its eye socket and her light steps meeting the floor as the body of the boss fell in a heap. Its form melted into the floor, along with the greataxe, and a message popped up.
You have completed: [Labyrinth of Sorrow]
Exit the dungeon immediately.
A few dings were heard, but she had to ignore them in favor of actually exiting the dungeon.
Don’t need to tell me twice.
Ione was a little sad that she didn’t find any gear in the dungeon, and wondered if she had missed a hallway in her aimless wandering, but that thought was pushed to the side when she realized that in order to get back to the exit, she would have to go through the labyrinth once again. She tentatively checked the invisible ceiling, just to make sure it was still there, and it unfortunately was.
“Fuck!” She cursed.
As she ran through the maze, she dimly realized that it rearranged itself. Corners she had notched didn’t exist anymore, and hallways appeared longer than normal. Her panic grew once she realized the whiteness of the void creeped up on her and she could see it swallow the surrounding whole.
Ione ran as fast as she could, her legs propelled her along with intermittent uses of [Dash] and [Arcane legs of Momentum], and she cursed her own stupidity. She should have known that the labyrinth would do some fuckery once she defeated the boss, one last hail mary to fuck with her before she attained freedom. It wasn’t like she could have brought some string with her, or left items to indicate how close she was to the exit, but the notched corners seemed futile now that she knew this dungeon had a particular bone to pick with dungeoneers.
She grit her teeth. Her mind whirled with potential solutions. She could try to brave the vast whiteness if she couldn't find the door in time, but that scared her. The complete uncertainty was daunting, and she had a feeling that it wouldn’t be exactly good for her to stay. Given the message she received about exiting the dungeon, ‘immediately.’
No. She had to continue on. It would be stupid to try and wait for the whiteness to claim her.
She turned right, then left, then right again. Ione knew she was running out of time to escape and her heart was near bursting. She was tempted to use [Pain Resistance] for the mental aspect, but she stopped herself in the hopes that she wouldn't need it. This was a dire circumstance and she would work through it on her own. This was a situation of her own making, after all.
Her stamina was dangerously low. The white void gained on her, and she turned a corner only to spot the open door at the end of a long hallway. She was about 200 meters away and her eyes zeroed in on her target, the lush green forest was like a balm for her brain and her eyes, and she ran like a fart in the wind. One glance was all it took to force that extra bit of effort and she dove through the doors right before they shut on her toes.
She came to a rolling stop and stayed lying on her back. Her chest heaved as she fought to catch her breath and she dimly heard dings resound in her mind.
Congratulations! You have successfully completed: [Labyrinth of Sorrow]
Rewards are calculated based on performance, time and level.
Your completion grade: A
Rewards Calculating…
Rewards Calculating…
…
Rewards Calculated:
1,250,000 EXP
250 attribute points
Great Minthor’s Greataxe
Great Minthors Fire
Mana Crystal x 5
Accept Rewards?
While she wanted to accept the rewards, she wanted to level up some of her class aptitude skills before she bottlenecked herself at her class evolution. She estimated that this would bring her up between levels 120-130, and she was content with not accepting the rewards right away even though every fiber of her being wanted that immediate dopamine hit.
She had to exercise restraint because her evolution might be crap. Her mouth thinned in a line as she contemplated what happened in the dungeon.
Funnily enough, it wasn’t the Great Minthor that proved to be the most difficult, it was actually escaping the dungeon after she defeated the boss that gave her the most trouble. Why couldn't she just have a nice little stroll back through the labyrinth? She lamented her frustrations internally.
Her breath finally slowed to a manageable rate and she looked at the other notifications.
DING! Arcane Flesh Molding Tier 1 LVL 9-> Arcane Flesh Molding Tier 2 LVL 2
Arcane Flesh Molding Tier 2 LVL 2: …however the shaping of Flesh costs 35 mana/s when active. Range is 3 meters away from the origin body.
It added an additional cost of 10 mana, and increased the range to 3 meters. If anyone could see her face, they would see that a disappointed frown marred Ione’s sharp features. She couldn't tell if the trade-off was worth it, but she assumed that she would have plenty of time to see if it did soon enough.
[Arcane legs of Momentum] leveled up from Tier 1 LVL 3 to Tier 1 LVL 7, which was great and [Arcane Flesh Healing] leveled up to LVL 9, right at the precipice for Tier 3. [Meditation of the Flesh] increased by one level, and so did [Total Body Control].
She looked at the skills that were lacking, and she frowned when she realized that she’d have to put in more work to bring those up to higher Tiers. Both [Arcane flesh Sense] and [Total Body Control] were lacking, so those were two other skills she had to keep an eye on as well, else they would fall behind before her class evolved.
Ione swiped a hand down her sweaty face and sighed. She nearly had her full pool of mana back and her stamina was steadily climbing higher. Ione watched the clouds move by and she meditated for a brief moment before a little green blob burst from the bushes.
“Ione! You promised!”
Oh, that’s right. The food.
A smile graced her features and she sat up. Two hot plates filled each hand and she subtly directed Spewn to mark the third dungeon on the map. Once Spewn completed her silent demand, she handed the creature each plate and watched as it scarfed down the food, as if it was the last meal it would ever have.
Spewn gave her back the plates, to which Ione stowed away in her pack. Spewn spoke up.
“Master told me to tell you that they require your presence after the third dungeon.”
Ione raised a brow. “Do you know why?”
Spewn shook its little body. “No.”
Well, Ione would know soon enough. She had to go through just one more dungeon, and then she would be privy to what the Treller wanted. She gestured to Spewn. “Wanna escort me to the last dungeon?”
It stared at her before it gave a small nod. The little dude was strangely silent, but she let it go. It wasn't her concern at the moment.
Ione looked at the map.