Cassandra

Year 820 | Month 8 | Day 8

“Shiiiitttt,” I whisper shout as I run through the tunnels of the corrupted dungeon with abandon, not stopping no matter how many fireballs fly past me from the elite salamander chasing me. Fireballs that prove too powerful for me to take a single one, even with me being in a Calling of Wrath beast transformation right now.

Where’s that last fucking lizard?!

It’s been an entire month now since I first entered the corrupted dungeon, and after a lot of searching, I’ve finally killed every last salamander of both Tiers 3 and 4. Except for one.

But I just can’t find the stupid thing. No matter how hard I try.

And ever since I finished off all but around ten or so of the salamanders, the elite salamanders have been chasing me nonstop. With one of them always being right on my metaphorical – literal right now considering the strange humanoid dragon form I’m in right now – tail.

No matter how many times I lose the elite salamanders, another one always finds me. Probably because I’ve drained a lot of the Wrath energy in this place by now thanks to my own natural absorption and the jewel I got from the drake’s altar.

So now my hunt for that last salamander has turned into an all-out chase. One where I lose an elite salamander only to be immediately found by another, after which I lose that one and am found by another. With all of the elite salamanders moving in the same direction even if they’re in different tunnels.

And I don’t even want to know where the drake is. Not literally, since I do want to know where it is. What with it being the biggest threat here.

Anyways, I keep running for my life while keeping an eye out for the final salamander. But the fact that the whole ‘kill ten thousand’ and ‘kill a hundred thousand’ Tier 4 and Tier 3 salamanders meant to just empty the entire place out of salamanders makes that incredibly difficult to accomplish.

Fortunately for me, the progress for the mission seems to count other creatures killing them as my own kills as well. So there’s that.

I glance at the Corrupted Dungeon Mission’s progress as I continue running.

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Corrupted Dungeon Mission

Title: The Wrath of the Salamanders

You must complete the last of the three mandatory objectives in order to complete this mission!

Objective 1: Eliminate 100000 Tier 3 Salamanders. Current Progress: 100000/100000 Complete.

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Objective 2: Eliminate 10000 Tier 4 Salamanders, known as the Ashen Primates. Current Progress: 9999/10000

Objective 3: Find and claim the Drake’s altar. Current Progress: Complete.

Optional Objective 1: Eliminate every single Tier 5 Elite Salamander within the dungeon. Current Progress: Not Complete.

Optional Objective 2: Slay the Tier 6 Drake. Current Progress: Not Complete.

Rewards:

To be calculated after decision is made to exit the dungeon.

Each objective has its own rewards.

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At least it’s a Tier 4, which should make it a bit easier to find thanks to its-

My thoughts immediately halt, and I find myself turning my head in a certain direction when I sense something approaching this way. Something enormous.

Something that is obviously the drake.

I grit my fangs in my dragonoid form before flapping my wings once, gritting my teeth even more due to the pain from the burns on them as I fly straight through the tunnels. Upping my speed by quite a bit in the process.

But the drake continues flying towards me.

And it’s not bothering with the tunnels or walls, judging by what I can sense of its movements. Just mowing straight through them without a care while heading straight in my direction. Almost as if it’s just locked onto me somehow.

Damn.

I continue flying while occasionally glancing backwards to find the drake beginning to catch up. Only for the creature ruling over this entire corrupted dungeon to appear by breaking through a damned wall before it gobbles up an elite salamander like a snack.

Out of a tiny spark of hope, I check the Corrupted Dungeon Mission, just to find that it hasn’t updated at all. Meaning the elite salamanders aren’t treated the same as the regular ones on it, and I don’t get credit unless I make the kill myself.

Should’ve expected the System wouldn’t be so nice.

The drake continues flying straight in my direction though as a large ball of black and red flames begins to build up right in front of its mouth. The creature no doubt preparing a breath attack to kill me in one fell swoop.

I begin to panic as I search for one way after another to get out of this situation, but no solutions come to mind.

Instead I’m left directly in the path of the drake’s shot even after trying to lose it in other tunnels or trying to slow it down with my own attacks.

The breath attack continues to grow in size before eventually shooting off after me. Devastating every last thing in its path.

But the moment before it is about to hit me, I hear a ding in my head, followed by a message stating that the last mandatory objective of the Corrupted Dungeon Mission is now complete. And lastly, a message asking me if I want to complete the mission now and leave or if I want to stay.

I immediately select to leave while the ball of Wrath flames is close enough to me to singe my tail. Leaving me teleporting straight out of there and onto the ground right in front of where the corrupted dungeon was outside.

Back in Hell.

Another wave of messages appears in my vision, with one of them being the reward for the corrupted dungeon mission’s clearance. One that includes a rather large EXP reward, thankfully. But I ignore it all for now as I fly the hell away from the corrupted dungeon’s entrance.

An entrance that is beginning to crack, no doubt about to release the monsters within it.

And I don’t want to be anywhere near it when that happens.