Profession: Enchanter has reached level fifteen.

“Finally!” Dren collapsed back covered in sweat and panting lightly. All his resource pools were nearly spent, again. For two days he had been constantly enchanting the lizard rawhide. Why had he put so much effort into grinding up his enchanting? Was it for a new rune? Well, yeah sort of. But the main reason was the dungeon was out of trash mobs.

On top of that, unlike the last dungeon, this one didn’t have a boss. No, it had two bosses. Luckily they weren’t together as fighting two level twenty-five bosses would have been almost impossible.

Past where his last battle had happened there was a rather large hole in the wall. As in a good chunk of the ceiling and floor were also missing. At the same time, the thing was a good ten meters wide. It led down an earthen tunnel very similar to the one in the forest lair dungeon. Only with glowing mushrooms instead of glowing roots for lighting. At least the system kept their dungeons well-lit.

Inside was the level twenty-five Ruin Lizard Clutch Mother. A massive fifteen-meter-long and five-meter-high lizard. It lumbered around moving from one clutch of eggs to the next. Dren had checked on it over the last few days and he noticed there were never any new eggs. Nor did any ever hatch. Just as the monsters they killed never respawned nor seemed to deviate from their pattern. It was obvious that the dungeons were a created scenario. Since there could be multiple instances at once he figured that made sense. It wasn’t like it was a real ecosystem in here. It wouldn’t work, same as with the troll just sitting in the cave full of spiders.

As for the boss at the end of the actual hallway. That was as odd as the troll had been in the spider dungeon. A monster with the name “Fate Weaver Aranea”. Like the clutch mother, it was also level twenty-five and it was a weird one. It was a massive spider. Its shiny black carapace reflected the light from a cluster of glowing crystals high in the chamber it occupied. Slender spindly spider legs made no sound as they shifted around a web suspended across the room.

As odd as a giant spider might be. What really made this one strange was the humanoid torso jutting out of the monster's back, just behind its actual spider head. A very female torso. A very nude female torso. Dren was not distracted by this at all. Nope… Ok, he was. Just a little. Maybe a lot. But he got over it. It was a monster after all. It had just been a shocking surprise.

That said, after the initial bit of oogling, completely out of shock, he started watching it as he did the clutch mother. It seemed to just move around its lair spinning webs. Its web was parallel to the floor and only a few feet off it. While there were other web structures spread between pillars that circles the circular room. Or connecting the ceiling. There wasn’t near as much webbing as he had feared. So with those two monsters being the only thing left to fight in here. He wanted to make the most of his time in the safety of the dungeon. That phrase still caused him to chuckle any time he thought of it.

There was also the fact he was almost positive the experience bonus affected skill progression too. As he had gotten a further rank up in both Meditation and Calm Respite. While finally unlocking the skill for increasing stamina regeneration. Renewal. It apparently required regenerating from one percent to over ninety percent stamina ten times. Activating all three he sat back and prepared to restore all his resource pools. Then opened his system message.

“You may select one rune or enchanter skill.”

Dren blinked. That was new. Very new. Up until now, he had only gotten to select a rune for leveling up. Glancing at them he saw the same options as before. Either a new lesser rune or the basic rune of one he already knew.

For the skills, he had two options.

Dual Material Imburment. You may apply a second rune to raw materials you are imbuing.

Pretty basic but could be really powerful. Really Really powerful now that he thought about it. But at the same time, he really didn’t have any use for the materials he had enchanted so far. He could maybe attempt something with his primitive leatherworking but he had a feeling it would be a while before he could make anything too good.

His second option was.

Disenchant. You may attempt to drain an existing rune. Has a small chance to learn an unknown rune upon it being drained. Has a small chance to rank up a rune you already know when it is drained. High probability of destroying the target item.

Dren let out a groan. Sometimes the system gave really hard numbers. Other times it said stuff like Small or Moderate. But that said the skill sounded incredible. It could do so much. If it didn’t destroy an item he could reenchant the same thing for the experience. Which actually wasn’t that big of a deal with the ability to enchant raw materials.

More importantly, he could attempt to learn new runes if he found other enchanted items. And best of all it gave him a way to rank up his runes without needing to take them each time he leveled up. But all that hinged on how good the success chances were. As small could mean one percent or a one-millionth of a percent.

Still, he felt like he almost had to take that skill. Looking over all his options again he finally broke down and selected disenchant. Once his resources filled he stood up and fitted his backpack on. “You and me buddy. We are going to kill a big old lizard.” He grinned not even caring he was talking to his luggage. While he hadn’t had any friends. He also hadn’t ever been alone. His family had always been there with him. Every day of his life. He was starting to find the solitude troublesome. It was almost as bad as the day her voice vanished from his mind.

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*****

Dren crouched in the shadows outside the Clutchmother’s lair. Glowing moss covered most of the cavern keeping it brightly lit. Which would be great once he started fighting but also meant he would have a hard time sneaking up on it. The cavern was sixty meters across and the lizard mostly moved around the back area where its eggs were concentrated. While it would be hard, it wasn’t impossible. There were still some random clusters of the watermelon-sized eggs around the cavern. Their little mounds were big enough for him to hide behind. He just had to get to one. Fitting three explosive stone daggers between the fingers in each hand for a total of six he started creeping out. Accuracy wouldn’t matter against a monster that big. He was going for maximum damage from the start. He had finally gotten around to enchanting the sword. Settling on the basic bleed rune as its only enchantment. As he figured the fight against the giant lizard was going to be an endurance match.

He moved as quickly as his stealth would allow to the closest mound of eggs. As he moved his eyes stayed glued on the giant lizard. It was making its rounds checking on the eggs. When he was only a meter away from his goal the lizard suddenly froze. He could see it's long forked tongue darting out rapidly to taste the air. Throwing all caution away he dived behind the clutch of eggs just as he heard the large lizard shifting around. It was so huge its belly dragged on the ground making plenty of noise for him to track it by sound alone. Crouched behind the mount of eggs he listened as it grew closer. When it was only a few meters from the eggs it stopped. He could hear it hiss slightly as it tasted the air.

Just as he started to jump up and fling all his daggers at it. His heart jumped into his throat as a system chime went off. Mentally swearing wildly he glanced at the notification to see his Stealth had finally ranked up. As he closed the notification a new sound came from the lizard. It sounded like it was sucking in air. Getting a bad feeling Dren popped up and flung all six knives at the lizard. It had its mouth open wide as if it was going to swallow him whole. But was still meters away. Whatever it was going to do, it didn’t get a chance. The crude stone dagger whistled thru the air before stabbing into its open mouth. Six small explosions went off with enough force to knock the lizard over. Blood flowed from its mouth as the thing went crazy.

Rolling around on the ground wildly while letting out pained shrieks. Dren didn’t hesitate. Sword and dagger in hand he jumped over the clutch. Darting towards the monster he activated his Battle Focus then refreshed his Assasin’s Eyes on the monster to sharpen the glows to lines. Even as the monster rolled around in a frenzy he darted in. Both arms danced as he stabbed and slashed at any critical point he could. All the extra dexterity earned from leveling up was noticeable. As his hands practically moved on their own. The blades almost seemed drawn to the glowing lines.

Half a dozen critical hits in the span of a few seconds were all he managed before having to retreat back as the boss monster focused. It lunged forward and snapped so quickly that the already dodging assassin was still almost caught. Kicking off extra hard he flung himself back to get some room. For the beast was charging at him with that strange yet impossibly fast swaying gait. Landing he sprang forward at an angle. Letting him shoot right past the charging monster's face, just out of reach of its snapping jaws. He landed a few more blows on its forelimb but couldn’t reach any critical points. He just had to be happy with the bleeding wounds it left. For a moment he thought he was free and clear. Before the thing's thick tail whipped around and caught him right in the gut.

It carried enough force to send him sailing back. His body twisted parallel with the floor and his back smashed into one of the clutches of eggs. Before his momentum rolled him over the clutch to smash into the wall. Seeing an entire cluster of her eggs destroyed. The clutch mother responded by letting out a sound between a hiss and a roar. Then charged right at Dren who was stumbling to his feet covered in goo from the eggs. With the giant lizard barreling down on him he prepared to dodge. Only the lizard suddenly skidded to a stop as it closed. Its mouth opened wide again as if to swallow him. Yet, again the distance was too great.

It became obvious what it was doing a moment later as it let out a loud hissing breath. A billowing stream of greenish fog rushed out of its mouth toward him. Dren didn’t have to think too hard about what that was about. Too big to dodge to the side to avoid he did the only thing he could think of. Suck in a quick breath before pressing his lips tight. He held his breath as he rushed into the cloud.

‘Please resist. Please resist. Please resist.” He chanted in his mind as system messages chimed away. Bursting out of the cloud with a jump. He landed on the snout of the lizard just as it closed its mouth. He barely had time to register that no poison debuffs had appeared before thrusting both weapons into the eyes of the monster. Its head snapped up with sudden force as it hissed in agony. The force of the snap sent him up and over to crash down on the thing's huge back. Dren had a split second to think this might be a safe spot to launch attacks from. Before the thing went into a death roll. Smashing him into the ground and crushing him with its bulk. Nearly a quarter of his health disappeared as it crushed him.

Ignoring the full-body agony he scrambled on his hands and knees to rush away before he got crushed again. But it hadn’t all been bad. When it crushed him into the ground, his short sword had been placed right to impale the monster. The blade was now jammed to the hilt in its body.

With a practical burbling fountain of blood oozing up from around the hilt.

Stumbling to his feet, Dren thought things were actually going pretty well. All things considered. He had blinded the creature. Landed plenty of attacks. Had a heavily bleeding wound that wouldn’t heal up with the enchanted sword still impaled in it. Even if this thing turned out to have regeneration on par with the troll. It was already on the back foot.

Shifting his dagger to his main hand he prepared for another assault. But stopped as he winced. The blinded beast had let out another roar, even louder than before. To the point, it hurt Dren’s ears and he even saw a few points of health tick away from it. Once it ended all he could hear was ringing. Ringing and the sound of eggs cracking open.