Aurelia dodged out of the way, just in time to miss the spike of solid ice aimed at her head. The attack had appeared right after the last of the golden orbs had been shattered by her spells. The golden orbs had been a skill of the golden bear, which created an area of spell nullification. Unfortunately for the bear, it did not extend to the tunnel above and as the spells were created out of the range of the orbs, it had allowed Aurelia to take down all the orbs without a fuss. When the orbs were all gone, Aurelia was free to take aim on the bears with no fear her spells would be counteracted. It just also meant that the bears could now use other spells on her.
Aurelia would have no way of knowing, but her spell repertoire and fast leveling from doing the dungeon solo allowed her a higher advantage than most other people who would try to take on this new dungeon. Her height advantage on the bears also allowed her to take on the two remaining bears with greater efficiency and less risk to her own wellbeing. With the Eldrian System being the only witness, Aurelia finished off the golden and white bears alone.
As Aurelia casted mana bolts and spatial slashes, the bears casted ice spikes and golden bolts of light. The wall of ice she had created to protect herself was not as strong or as thick as the dungeon ice walls, so with each enemy spell that hit her wall, shards of ice went flying. Thankfully, it was enough to be the protection she needed. A couple minutes later, Aurelia identified the two bears to see how much health they had left. Seeing that she still had a bit to go, she continued to send down as many spells as she could. She checked the bears’ heath every so often over the next few minutes. When both bears were at low health, Aurelia teleported into the cave behind the bears and sent a lightning chain at the white claw bear. As it fell to the ground, the second chain impacted the golden bear.
The golden bear did not die like the first bear, but spun around to attack the young woman. She teleported away, then finished off the golden bear with some well aimed spatial slashes to the head. As the second bear fell to the ground, Aurelia didn’t quite relax until she got the kill notification for both of the bears.
The relief she felt at seeing those notifications made her knees weak, causing her to just slump to the floor to a sitting position before she fell over. Aurelia glanced at the two bears before she looked at the notification.
[White Claw Bear] Level 21 defeated.
[Golden Grand Claw Bear] Level 24 defeated.
43,783 experience earned!
You have reached level 10!
Stat points allocated!
You have one free skill point.
You have 27 free stat points remaining.
Would you like to loot [White Claw Bear] and [Golden Grand Claw Bear]?
Aurelia was excited to see that she had leveled up again, and the new stat points rejuvenated her exhausted body and mind. She eyed the amount of free stat points she still had to allocate and felt a bit ashamed at her failure to make use of those points. Before she moved on, she decided it was as good of a time as any to allocate those points. She decided since her main stats were so much higher than other stats, she would use some free points on her lowest stats. Her 16 points in charisma may be okay for now in the dungeon, but she figured that one stat that may be very beneficial when she finally exited hand had to interact with the people of Eldria. She put 14 points in that stat to bring it to an even 30. She then put 5 points into endurance to bring it from 25 to 30. Another 6 points took her 24 in strength also to 30 points. With two points left over, Aurelia put them into luck, bringing that stat to 17.
After she accepted all of the changes, Aurelia felt another wave of strength and energy. Hopefully the rejuvenation would help her do what she needed to in finishing up the dungeon. Aurelia then accepted the loot for the two bears, sitting up in anticipation. As the two bears disappeared from existence, a new notification lit up her vision.
[White Claw Bear] meat x 6 received!
[White Claw Bear] pelt x 1 received!
[Golden Grand Claw Bear] meat x 7 received!
[Golden Grand Claw Bear] pelt x 1 received!
[Ice Dagger] skill book: uncommon received!
[Ring of Nullification] item: rare received!
[Monster Core] level 21 x 1 received!
[Monster Core] level 24 x 1 received!
54 Copper coins received!
19 Silver coins received!
All loot deposited in [Spatial Storage].
Aurelia’s excitement grew at two of the new items she had received. She first took out the ring of nullification, which she expected did exactly as the name indicated and what she had recently experienced. Unfortunately she still did not have the skill to identify the specific description of the ring, but she decided to put it on her right pointer finger. The new skill book quickly followed the ring out of her storage space and into her hands. The ice dagger skill book looked almost identical to the ice wall skill book, with the white and silver coloring. When she opened the book, a prompt asked her if she would like to learn the new spell. Seeing no line letting her know she didn't have the proficiency, she agreed.
Congratulations! You have learned [1] new skill.
Ice Dagger: skill level 1
Ice Dagger:
Spell allows the User to create shards of ice that when cast will fly in a straight line until it hits a target. At level 1, the spell will deal light damage and has a 0.01% chance of freezing the target. Cost: 8 mana. Cooldown: none.
When the knowledge of how to cast the spell entered her mind, Aurelia smiled in triumph. She had another spell! Aurelia got to her feet, then glanced at the stone door across the cave room from her position. Before she moved, Aurelia remembered that there was still one more thing she needed to do. Aurelia looked at her skill sheet, looking to the line that read she had one remaining skill point to spend.
Aurelia had a lot more new skill options this time around. A few more attacks, utility spells and so on. If she was being honest, there were too many skills to choose from, and she didn’t have enough knowledge to understand what might be the best course of action. She had a good number of skills now including four offensive magical skills, intellectual skills like scholar and linguist, utility skills like spatial storage and identify, and defensive skills like the new ice wall and the mana shield.
She paused when she remembered the injury she had received by the white claw bear in the daylight cave. Aurelia winced at the memory and then immediately restored her mana shield back up. It may only last for a couple smaller attacks or one big attack, but maybe she would get new gear or maybe upgrade her mana shield spell so her defense could be better. She sighed, then decided to move on.
Aurelia looked through the offered skills and spells.
Aura of Authority
Beauty’s Grace
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Enhanced Agility
Enhanced Memory
Fireball
Gravity Aura
Gravity Orb
Jumping
Mana Bomb
Mana Arrows
Open Lock
Princess’s Poise
Simple Light
Spark
Spatial Distortion
Staff Proficiency
Starfall
Wand Specialization
As Aurelia focused on each new skill, it would give her a description of each. Some skills looked to be specific to her spatial mage class, one definitely was specific to her princess rank, and others like the jumping skill looked to be a general skill. Her eyes lingered on the gravity spells and the starfall spell. All three looked to be powerful and useful, making her itch to choose one of those over the rest. Gravity aura would allow her to have an influence over the gravity of a certain area. This would allow her to jump high or fall lightly when falling from a greater height. It could also help her increase the gravity for her enemies, making it more difficult for them to move. The gravity orb was an attack spell that she could detonate at will, causing an orb of gravity to pull in objects and enemies before exploding. It sounded awesome and destructive. The third skill, the starfall spell, was an area attack spell where star-like orbs of light and energy would fall from above and strike enemies causing damage in a large area.
She would indeed be grateful for any new skill, but she knew there was one she probably needed at the moment. Aurelia chose her new skill and accepted the prompt.
Congratulations! You have learned [1] new skill.
Staff Proficiency: skill level 1
Staff Proficiency:
A passive skill that gives basic knowledge on how to use magical and non magical staves. Gives the User an advantage on applying instructions on how to use staves and can more easily learn by observation.
As she finished reading the notification, the knowledge flowed through her mind. Aurelia was slightly disappointed she didn’t choose another cool spell, but she felt that this was the correct decision. There would be times in the future where she may be faced with having to fight without her magic again, whether because of another spell suppression skill or because she was out of mana. She had her daggers, but didn’t even get the option to specialize in them. She also would rather keep enemies at bay with a six-foot staff, rather than have to get up close and personal with a dagger.
Time would tell if she made the right choice, but Aurelia also knew she needed time to get used to all the spells and skills she had. She had forgotten about her mana shield twice now in this dungeon, which had led to potentially deadly injuries. Aurelia wished she could talk to an actual person about Eldria and its reality.
Now that she was done with her skill and stat sheet, Aurelia got up and walked towards the stone exit door. She raised her hand towards the door and pressed her palm against the smooth gray stone. A new prompt entered her vision.
Congratulations, User [Aurelia]!
For completing the [Forest of the Claw] solo, you have received an [Iron Chest]!
Dungeon Objectives:
One: Find and kill 30 monsters in the forest 30/30: Completed
Two: Locate the entrance to the final boss room: Completed
Bonus Objective: Find and kill all monsters in the forest 35/35: Completed
For completing all primary objectives for [Forest of the Claw], you have received an [Iron Chest]!
For completing the bonus objective for [Forest of the Claw], you have received a [Bronze Chest]!
Aurelia’s eyes shone with excitement as the two iron and one bronze chest appeared beside her. She turned away from the stone door to approach the first iron chest. The first chest was the largest of the three, maybe the size of a regular school backpack. She opened it to find what looked like a bundle of clothing. Everything she had received from the dungeon so far had some ability or value, so she wasn’t too disappointed at the gift. She glanced down at her own clothing, covered in blood, with claw size rips in the shirt and corset, her leggings still shredded from the cave moles. The iron chest had provided new pants, shirt, and corset all of much better quality than what she had arrived in Eldria with. Deciding that the clothing she now wore wasn’t doing much for her, she unclasped the cloak from around her neck and changed into the new clothes.
With her forearm snakeskin braces back in place, her jumping boots securely on, and her blue cloak clasped, she turned her attention to the next reward. The second iron chest was the size of her hand, but that didn’t dissuade her whatsoever. She opened the chest to find a faceted gemstone the size of her fist, just small enough to fit inside. The gemstone was a pale yellow color that glowed faintly. It was beautiful. As the gemstone entered her storage, the second chest disappeared.
The bronze chest was larger than the second iron chest, and Aurelia opened it up to find a large potion bottle. It glowed with a pink and yellow swirling mixture inside. Her eyes widened in surprise at the item and held it up close to her eyes. She had no way of knowing what the potion might do. It could be a poison for all she knew. Shrugging, she put the mysterious potion into her inventory.
With all the chests opened and disappeared, Aurelia faced the stone door once more. She placed a hand on the door, and it swung open. Stepping through the door, she found herself in a jungle. No sun hung overhead as in the forest, instead she could see a bright moon casting light through the branches of the trees. Her mouth dropped open in shock when she realized that the jungle was no ordinary forest, the trees all around her were huge. From what she could make out some of the trees around her were almost ten feet across. She took another step forward away from the bear cave behind her, and the stone door slammed shut. Aurelia let out a short yelp in surprise, but calmed down when she realized what the sound was from.
Aurelia glanced around at the dark shapes around her. The moon was bright, but the jungle forest was thick with trees and underbrush. For all she knew, there could be monsters hiding under the bush right next to her. The large trees would certainly be good hiding places for creatures. Remembering her pathway skill, she looked more closely around her. And maybe 15 feet to her right, she spotted a gray strand of glowing mana. It started at the base of one of the larger jungle trees and made its way up the trunk until it disappeared in the foliage.
She began to walk closer to the gray mana when she spotted something in the tree. Aurelia tilted her head to the side as the image of something long and white poked out from the leaves. It almost looked like… bone?
“What is that?” Aurelia whispered aloud. That couldn’t be bone, maybe it was… Aurelia let out a gasp as she spotted two more bone-like objects like the first. They weren’t bones, they were claws.
Horror gripped her heart as three claws, half the size as she was wrapped themselves around the trunk of the tree. Connected to the three claws was a leg of gray fur, and as she continued her gaze upwards, Aurelia could spot the large form hanging in the tree. Two glimmering eyes stared back attached to the bandit-like face of the… sloth?
Horror changed to confusion as the sloth’s large eyes very slowly blinked at Aurelia. It wasn’t until the sloth leaped from the tree, aiming right at her, that Aurelia realized it wasn’t a joke. And when a split second later, as the sharp-toothed mouth of the sloth let out an ear piercing wail, that Aurelia knew she was in for a ride.
----------------------------------------
Half an hour later, Aurelia sat panting in the hollow of a large tree. Sweat ran down her back as she tried to catch her breath. Her mana and stamina were almost empty, so she swallowed a mana potion to replenish her pool of mana, and went back to using her ice wall spell to seal up the entrance. When she could no longer see the light of the moon, Aurelia felt herself relax just slightly.
Thankfully, she hadn’t received any major injuries, but after the fourth rabid sloth had finally destroyed her mana shield, the rush through the jungle had resulted in a number of scratches and bruises. Aurelia glanced down at her thigh, where a particularly gnarly thorned bush had created deep grooves in her skin. To her surprise, her leggings showed no sign of being torn, but she could still feel the injury underneath. Had her leggings fixed themselves? Too tired to care, Aurelia turned to her notifications.
When the first sloth had jumped her from the trees, it had been quite a shock. Thankfully, Aurelia had teleported out of the way just in time as it had crashed to the ground where she had previously stood. As she could now look at the kill notifications, she saw that she had been attacked by a raging sloth. Geesh. That fight hadn’t been too difficult, until the other nearby sloths had joined the first. Aurelia guessed that when the first had screeched at her, it had also called its friends over to grab a tasty treat.
Aurelia shuddered at the thought. What had then followed was thirty minutes of literal hell on Eldria, as sloth after raging sloth raced in her direction. And she meant raced. Aurelia had run and fought until she had lost or killed all the sloths. She knew more were still out there, but at the moment she didn’t have the energy to deal with them.
[Raging Sloth] Level 20 x 7 defeated.
[Raging Sloth] Level 21 x 3 defeated.
[Raging Sloth] Level 22 x 5 defeated.
[Raging Sloth] Level 23 x 2 defeated.
396,632 experience earned!
You have reached level 11!
Stat points allocated!
You have 9 free stat points remaining.
Would you like to loot [Raging Sloth] x 17?
“Yes.”