Before heading out to the first E grade dungeon, he made sure to confirm that there would be no issues with him terraforming as he went rather than having to go back and confirm with Viv every time he claimed one. Thankfully she had no issues, she had more than enough to deal with in the F grade space and having to travel back and forth would take time out of both of their days that neither wanted to waste walking through the forest or up a mountain.
Shaun left as soon as he finished speaking with Viv, he already knew where two of the dungeons were so wasted no time before heading towards the one that was closest to him. It still took a while before he reached it seeing as he had to travel a fair distance towards to the mountain and even then scale his way up and around before he managed to find himself at the entrance of the first E grade dungeon he would enter on Earth.
*Welcome to the Awake the Prime (E grade) Dungeon*
This dungeon forms part of an unclaimed cluster. Current dungeons claimed in this cluster: F grade 15/15, E grade 0/5, D grade 0/1.
Note: to claim this dungeon you need a minimum of 2,000,000 TE. No rewards will be provided if dungeon claimed.
One participant located, would you like to enter the dungeon?
He was more than ready to enter the dungeon, the only thing that made him slightly uncertain was how long it would take him to finish it and just how strong the monsters inside would be. Unlike the E grade dungeons in the tutorial there was no classification of low or peak E grade, it was simply E grade.
*Objectives of Awake the Prime dungeon*
Sentient robots have taken over the outpost of Trifel, work your way through the outpost, killing all of the robots and unlocking each lock placed on the central area. By unlocking all five locks you will be granted access to the Prime who will only awaken once all of its minions have been killed.
Defeat the Prime to save the outpost.
Note: You may leave the dungeon at any time by retreating back to the entry point. Dungeon difficulty set to max until dungeon is claimed.
He was shocked to get another message the moment he arrived in the dungeon, that had never happened before but he welcomed the information. The note about the dungeon difficulty being pre set to max was interesting, he had never been able to set difficulty of a dungeon before but it seemed that due to the range of E grade it was an option, just not until it had been claimed. What also had him confused was the act that these monsters weren’t actual living beings, but mechanical robots, even though the description said they were sentient. The objective was at least clear, kill the robots, unlock the locks and then kill the prime.
Around him in the dungeon he found himself standing on a platform in a small room. There was nothing in the room and he saw only one way out through a set of doors. There was no other information to gain from inside the room, his only way forward was out. The moment he stepped off of the platform everything went to shit, a siren started going off that was loud enough to echo through the outpost and red lights flashed throughout the room. Guess they know I’m here.
Rather than delay going through the door he went straight up and opened it. He had no idea what to expect from robots, he didn’t even think something like this would be possible, but if TV and movies had taught him anything there was going to be lasers, maybe some kind of gun? The chances were that most of their weapons would be ranged, that meant he would need to be prepared to dodge and defend. Looking through the door he saw that the red flashing lights continued down a long hallway lined with doors, the moment he took a few steps out from the doorway he found his first opponent.
*Mech Blaster Sentinel – Level 63*
The moment he saw the robot, taking in its level and appearance, he was stumped at what it could actually do. For all intent and purpose, it had a very humanoid shape, it had a body, arms and legs and a rectangular head that was lit up with red lights. The moment it saw him in the hallway it lifted up one of its arms, pointed it directly at him and within a second it started to glow red before launching a shot of pure energy at him.
Shaun didn’t just stand their and let the attack hit him, he jumped to the side and sent out his own fire strike, hoping that it would melt through the metal and injure the thing. When the robots attack hit the wall behind him he felt the resulting blast on his back, when he looked to see what his attack did to the robot he found that it was a little charred but still standing. Okay fire didn’t work, lets try the next element.
Over the next minute he cycled through all of his basic and advanced affinity and found that out of all of them earth, lightning and surprisingly magma did the most damage. He had plenty of robots to test against as the longer he stayed in the hallway the more of the sentinels appeared from the rooms and from around the bend of the hallway. They were smarming him and he was having to block more attacks using his mana than he would have liked. Within the minute there was easily 20 robots firing at him and rather than stand in the hallway as an easy target he ducked into one of the side rooms, cutting through the robot inside and slamming the door shut.
He needed a moment to figure out plan, these robots, even in the first area, would be able to harm him if they hit him with enough shots, that and their large numbers put him in a vulnerable position. There was a reason behind testing out all of his elements on the robots though, he wanted to test and see which element he should use before he used his summoning skill. The earth element would be the best use for protection, it would give him the chance to do more attacks without needing to defend as much while lightning and magma would aid him in attacking but would still leave him open to attacks and reduce his own fighting ability. He decided that using earth was his best bet, he needed the protection more than anything and he needed to figure out the most optimal way to fight these things before they got stronger.
Putting in 8,000 of his mana he elemental summons using earth. It took a few moments but when it finished a golem that he felt was a mixture of rock and metal appeared in front of him. It was much bigger than he was, if he was standing behind it he would be fully covered by the golem. When the connection fell into place between them he found that it was a lot less sentient than Spike, his flame hound. It would take directions well enough but it didn’t seem to have the personality that his other summons did. Shaun had a good understanding of the golem though, its main purpose was to protect, which was what he had hoped for, but it also had a innate desire to crush things under its giant fists. The biggest issue he now faced was that it was too big to get through the door. The moment he thought that though he immediately felt joy come from the golem, without even needing to direct it, it walked up to the closed door and rammed his body through it, leaving a hole much larger than the door in its wake.
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The moment the golem was in sight of the robots they started shooting and he saw the mana reserves start to go down. At the current rate he guessed he had about 10 minutes before the mana was completely drained. Shaun rushed after the golem, communicating his plan as he did. He needed the golem to protect him while attacking any of the robots close to it and move through the hallway, as it did he would attack either form behind or he would quickly jump into the mix and retreat back when necessary.
What followed was an intense battle, for the most part he would shift into either air or lightning, appear in the middle of the robots unexpectedly and cleave through them with his sword ensuring that it was continuously powered up with a magma strike as it allowed for him to bypass the resistance of whatever metal they were made of and his strikes cut through them like butter. The devouring nature of the magma element also came in handy here as the robots seemed to only be put down by crushing their heads but no matter where his mage element hit them it would slowly devour all of the metal it encountered, fuelling the destruction of the robots bodies.
The number of robots in the hall dropped quickly, between him randomly appearing and unleashing his blade on the unprepared robots and his golem working its way down the hall crushing those it encountered, they made good time. When the last robot was taken care of he waited to see if nay more would arrive, he still hadn’t received any notifications of the robots death and because of that received no experience and couldn’t even loot the bodies. He searched for any robots that he may have missed but came up empty both through his echo skill and through actually looking.
After he finished checking every room and up and down the hallway finding nothing he took his golem and they continued down to the end of the hallway and down the next corridor. It didn’t take log to find the next battle ground, it was almost a complete replica of the first down to the same type of robot. His golem only lasted halfway through the fight but by that point he was able to clear the rest out with no issues. He was finding his groove with fighting these things and although his mana was slowly depleting, he was still in the fight and would be for a while.
He spent hours traveling the hallways, fighting practically nonstop every time he went into a new area. The sirens never stopped and the flashing red lights were starting to drive him mad. After he finished in the 5th hallway he knew that he had finally found the first room where he should be able to unlock the first lock. His mana had taken a beating during the extended fighting, as had his stamina and health, but even if he stopped to recover he had no illusion of being able to get any real rest, not with the siren and lights going off. The robots level was only in the mid 60’s throughout these hallways but it was still enough to cause him issue. The confined space plus their numbers and attacks were enough to put him at a disadvantage. He had taken a number of hits during the dungeon already and even with his armour they had hurt, taking a chunk out of his health.
Taking a deep breath to centre himself he pushed open the doors to the final room of this area and immediately went on the attack, there was only 5 robots in here, all level 70 and all looked to be supped up versions of what he had already fought, the name didn’t change but rather than only being able to send blasts with one arm they could so it with both. He pushed with every advantage he could muster, using everything he had to teleport around the room and cut the robots to pieces, sending blasts of air to knock some into walls while slicing through others. He was a whirlwind of destruction and he utilised his mind skill to focus fully on ending the fight as quickly as he could.
Surprisingly the fight was easier here than in the hallways, although they were stronger there was less of them and he had more room to work. That was the downfall of these robots and he capitalised on the change in environment. As soon as he took the last one down he located a big red button, towards one side of the room, seeing nothing else of note he walked over and pushed it, hoping that he wasn’t about to have to deal with another swarm of these things. The moment he pressed it the sirens stopped and the lights stopped flashing, he even heard the click of a different set of doors which he assumed was where the next area started.
*Lock 1 has been unlocked – Area 1 cleared*
*Loot unable to be distributed until dungeon claimed*
*You have defeated a (Mech Blaster Sentinel – Level 63). Experience gained.*
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
*You have defeated a (Mech Blaster Sentinel – Level 70). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained.*
*Class: Elemental Blade Slinger has levelled up by +2 levels. [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger has reached Level 77. +6 Str, +4 Dex, +6 End, +6 Vit, +8 Soul gained*
*Race: Human has levelled up by +1 levels. Human (E) has reached Level 67. +16 Ap gained*
To say he was pissed would have been an understatement. This dungeon didn’t let any experience loot until you cleared an area. He was happy that he gained 2 levels but not getting any of the loot from these robots was infuriating. He applied his, which he gotten in the habit of doing, and then reviewed his status.
Status:
Name: Shaun Clermont
Race Human (E)
Level: 67
Class: [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger - Level 77
Profession: [Advanced] Elemental Creator - Level 58
Health Points: 2596/9380
Stamina: 1025/6570
Mana: 2548/27030
Stats: (Available Points: 0)
Strength: 712
Dexterity: 851
Endurance: 657
Vitality: 938
Intelligence: 681
Perception: 589
Willpower: 648
Soul: 2703
Affinity:
Basic: Earth, Fire, Nature, Air, Water
Advanced: Lightning, Ice, Magma
Titles:
New Initiate, Apex Predator, Planetary Forerunner, Elementalist, Expert Solo Dungeoneer, High Mayor
Heritage:
Azreal's Legacy (Hidden)
Skills:
Class: [Advanced] Blade Mastery (Level 48), [Advanced] Earthen Echo (Level 49), [Advanced] Enhanced Mind (Level 55), [Advanced] Elemental Strike (Level 43), [Advanced] Stone Skin (Level 30), [Advanced] Elemental Shift (Level 18), [Advanced] Elemental Summons (Level 10)
Profession: [Advanced] Elemental Fusion (Level 52), [Advanced] Creators Control (Level 45), [Advanced] Element Coercion (Level 39), [Advanced] Meditation (Level 56), [Advanced] Mana Sight (Level 50), [Advanced] Runic Scribe (Level 48), [Advanced] Elemental Storage (Level 6)
He had long since muted his notifications when it came to skill level ups, preferring to look at them on his status sheet, so when he noticed that he got to level 10 on his elemental summons skill he was more than pleased. That meant that now, instead of being able to summon 1 creature he could summon 2. The downside was that meant using more mana, which, given how much he had used in this first area would have a larger impact on his ability in the next.
Rather than rushing into the next area, he decided that rest and recovery was in order. He needed to sort through everything he had learnt about the robots and come up with better methods to kill them. Then, once he had a plan, he would continue on.