Appearing mid air above the hovering monster Dren prepared to strike, but was sent tumbling away as another thunderous boom echoed through the massive room as the Dragon Knight streaked away. The monster hovered in the air glaring at him, his scaled lipless mouth moving silently before six small glowing orbs appeared around him. They each turned into streaking arrows of flame that arced towards him. Vanishing again he teleported away to appear high above the monster. Below he watched the magic attacks all zero in on the point he had been at, and then instead of colliding they curved away. Two shot up to chase him while the other four split between Ren and Meg. Before he could worry about his companions, the monster flapped its wings causing another boom.

In less than a heartbeat it was there, above him with that massive greatsword swinging down. Twisting in the air he managed to parry the blow, preventing himself from being cleaved in half. The force of the blade strike followed by the blast of fire sent him rocketing downwards. The two fire arrows pierced him in the back as he blasted toward the ground. Both seared holes right in his armor and charred his flesh. While the flames billowing around him sucked the air from his lungs and tried to cook him alive. With the billowing flames around him, he couldn’t see or concentrate well enough to teleport away. His mind raced for a solution but his efforts were interrupted when his back smashed into the ground. The force of the impact helped disperse the flames around him. “Ow.” He groaned with the last of his breath while his system chimed brightly.

Fire Resistance increased from Rank Three to Rank Four.

“Joy.” Dren breathed out as he forced himself to his feet. A thunderous boom signaled the next attack. Looking up his eyes widened, the searing blade was already there. Only a hands width from his face and too close for him to react. Then it just stopped, hundreds of invisible threads beginning to glow as they heated up where they held the blade at bay. Ren was there with a grimace on her normally stoic face, two holes burned right into the gut of her armor. But she stood with both hands gripping fists full of threads she had stretched across the room to stop the blade’s descent. Dren teleported away as flames erupted from the sword, engulfing where he had been and melting away the silken threads.

Glancing around he found Meg standing at the entrance, two holes charred into her blindingly white pure silk robe. Her mouth was still moving and she clutched the fetish in her hand but seemed otherwise unbothered by the two holes burnt into her body. Turning his attention back to the enemy he found it rushing towards Ren who didn’t even bother trying to dodge. Instead, she wove swirling shredding cocoons of steel silks around herself. “Good girl.” Dren praised, she had realized this thing was just too fast to run from. Dismissing his daggers he pulled out two fist fulls of small metal balls from his storage and then teleported.

He appeared above the Dragon Knight as it pressed down harder on the edge of its blade as it tried to cleave through Ren’s defenses. Its wings flapped the moment he appeared and it shot away from them. Dren didn’t hesitate and hurled a handful of the balls at the monster with all his strength. Even with his higher than normal strength attribute, the grape sized orbs were far slower than the monster. Until they weren’t. Suddenly they turned to streaks of silver light as they sped up to impossible speed. They smashed into the beast with enough force to careen its wild flight path slightly off but did minor damage to the boss monster. Instead of falling away, each stuck to the monster as if glued on. Then a moment later with a crackle and flash of light, lightning arced between each orb. They passed along the boss's flesh as they discharged between each other. Its entire body seized up and it started to tumble out of the air. Dren appeared and hurled a second handful of orbs at the momentarily frozen monster. These clung to it and discharged again, arcing between all the orbs both new and old.

The air stank of ozone as the monster crashed into the floor of the room. A massive shimmering barbed blade appeared in the air right above it before slamming into it. It pierced the boss like a bug on display and pinned it to the ground. Sweat dripping from his brow as he held the manifested blade together Dren appeared next to the struggling monster. It had dropped its massive sword but still clawed at him until silken threads started wrapping around its arms. It still managed to tear free of the first threads then a shudder passed through its body and its arms seemed to lose some of its strength. No longer able to break the silken threads its hands were quickly being bound.

Cracks spread through the shimmering blade pinning it to the ground and part of the top vanished. Greatly increasing the size of a blade he manifested reduced its duration, it was only through a combination of feeding it more resources and sheer willpower that it hadn’t already dissipated. But now that the monster’s limbs were bound and it was pinned down, he stepped forward. Planting his booted foot on the horns of the monster's head he pinned its head down and revealed its throat. A gout of flame erupted from its mouth a short intense burst that burnt away more of Dren’s already depleted health. Dren didn’t flinch instead he put more weight on the thing's head to hold it still. His dagger coated in a shimmering triad of light suddenly grew. The shimmering light extended until the wide bladed dagger now looked more like a broad short sword. Downward he plunged the blade right into the brightly glowing line on the thing's throat. It was a spot that pulsed and glowed like flesh made of embers. With a hiss fire leaked from the point of impact. Dren twisted the blade hard and was blown back when an explosion detonated. His manifested blade shattered, and Ren’s silk was burnt away in an instant.

The intensity of the flames were far beyond any the beast had used before. Enchanted leather turned to ash, imbued silks vanished in a flash, and flesh was burnt away revealing bone that blacked as it charred. Hitting the ground Dren slid back looking for all intents a blackened corpse. Ren’s lithe voice echoed in the sudden silence as she shouted. “Master!”

Charred flesh crumbled and was pushed away by new shiny pink flesh as Dren’s Life Surge did its thing. Sitting up Dren groaned as Ren skidded to a stop in front of him. For a moment he thought she was going to tackle him, but she quickly schooled her face back into her normal blank mask. “I’m fine.” His voice was hoarse and muffled by his mask. Standing up he looked down at himself, the burnt remains of his armor crumbling off him. All his hard work making the full Dread Leather set was wasted, all that remained was his mask and oddly enough the troll hide bracers from his first dungeon.

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His flesh was still raw and not fully healed, glancing at his life bar he found himself at only a third. His Life Surge should have been fully stocked, which meant that finally blast had done a ton of overkill damage. Suddenly he regretted using five thousand of his own health when he manifested that blade. But at the same time, would he have killed it so easily without such a huge amount of damage in one attack? With a shudder, he searched his inventory for something to wear.

A soft throat clearing sound brought his attention out of his inventory to Ren who held out a pair of silken boxers, her eyes locked firmly on his face. “Thanks.” He took the shorts and pulled them on.

“Good thing the loud one wasn’t with us. She wouldn’t have lost her mind seeing you nude.” Meg spoke dryly as she approached closer.

“Wait, did you just make a joke?” Dren asked wryly.

“No. I was stating the obvious.” Meg said just as dryly. Dren narrowed his eyes at the woman, not sure if she was really being serious or not. Ignoring Ren giving a small nod in agreement he sighed. Ren and Meg got along surprisingly well, neither seemed to really like Kitty. Their reserved natures didn’t mesh well with the loud and energetic redhead.

Changing the subject he motioned towards the chest. “That wasn’t so bad. It only cast, what one spell? When they said it could use magic. I expected more.”

“It used several spells against me, Master.” Ren spoke lightly, her face a blank mask. He glanced at her and she tilted her head but didn’t say anything more.

“It used a binding spell on me as well.” Meg said, he turned and she pulled up her robe to show him her legs. Both had snaking charred paths going all the way up to mid thigh. As if someone had wrapped burning ropes around her legs.

“Shit. Do you need a healing potion?” Dren tried to remember if she had any left. Meg’s dropped her robes and her hand rested on a pouch at her hip. It was another rectangle leather bag, made and enchanted by Dren. It was dark black and contrasted heavily with the pure white silk of her robes. Her pale skin blended with the robe and the dark mop of hair stood out just as starkly. She looked more like some holy priestess of light rather than a witch that specialized in curses.

“The fight is over. I will save it.” Dren knew she had a very high regeneration stat due to her high Spirit attribute. But he knew how much burns hurt. Then again, the pain would mean little to her. She even needed it to fuel her own abilities and fetishes. Where the fetish she had provided him was incredible in mass battles. Against a single enemy, they produced far too few resources. Instead, she used one that fed off her own pain and suffering. Still, he checked her status via the slave tab in his menus just to make sure she wouldn’t die on him. He had invested far too much into her.

Next, he moved over to inspect the burnt marks in Ren’s armor. He poked his finger in and brushed away ash to reveal smooth pale skin. She let out a light giggle but when he glanced up her face was a perfect mask. “Already regenerated or potion?”

“Regenerated.” She answered with a light neutral tone.

Sure that his investments weren’t going to die on him, he moved towards the chest excitedly. This was the last uncleared dungeon nearby. There were rumors of new dungeons forming further to the north, but between grinding out his enchanting and the weekly attacks on the Necropolis, there just hadn’t been time to head there. Yet.

Touching the chest the menu popped up showing the loot pools. Having Meg as a slave worked just like Ren. She didn’t count as a party member so he still got the solo bonus to loot, but he also only got one real item. It was always a great item, much better than what a group would get for their first chest. But she also widened the loot pool. Meaning he was less likely to get something for himself. He had to remind himself that her getting stronger also helped him. Despite that he hoped it was something he could use, he always wanted more new toys.

Reaching in he grabbed the first item, a scroll. Using identify on it he was torn between extreme joy and extreme annoyance. It wasn’t something he could use but it was something he wanted.

“Here.” He tossed the scroll of Curse of Lethargy to Meg. It was a good reward, considering it was the same as getting a class skill. Now that they weren’t sure when they would get more skills again. He hadn’t gotten a class skill at twenty five like he expected. Plus based on the name it was probably a curse that slowed a target down, just what he had been wanting. Like always it was something that would have been immensely useful against the boss. Next, he pulled out a small coin. This was something new and he flipped it around several times looking at it. On one side was a large U while on the other was the image of an anvil.

Upgrade Token: Smithing

Staring at the name he focused on the identify menu to see what other knowledge he could glean. Again, he was filled with both excitement and annoyance. It would upgrade a smithing setup by one tier. Ren could use it on her portable forge raising its tier and removing the current bottleneck she had. Flipping the coin over his shoulder towards Ren he didn’t say anything and not hearing the token clatter to the ground knew she caught it. Reaching back in he pulled out a second bonus item. Again it was another of the coin-like tokens, he saw the U on one side and… a pot on the second. Grunting he flipped it back over his shoulder. A moment later he heard Ren make a pleased sound. Grumbling he reached in and grabbed the last item, he had saved it for last. The Prime Reward.

It was another piece of fruit. The second time his prime reward had been not only a consumable but a fruit. It was a small bright reddish pink fruit with spiky green leaves growing out of it, almost like the bud of a flower. Picking it up he used identify on it.

Dragon Fruit.

As he read the description his grin spread beneath his mask. “Finally, loot for me.”