It was official, robots sucked. Fighting indoors sucked. This entire dungeon sucked. Even though he had found his groove when it came to fighting these things, utilising a mix of force through blasting air through a hallway, followed by sending out his summons. He now focused on using the magma element as its ability to consume the robots he knocked down with his air element was the most efficient method. His summoned creature when using Magma was almost a mix between a molten slime and rock, everywhere is moved it would absorb its prey. All of this mixed in with an aggressive attack strategy had let him move through the hallways and areas.
The monsters didn’t change but more were added, in the second hallway drones were thrown into the mix, in the third little bots that crawled along the walls that had miniature cannons attached to them. In the fourth the sentinels got shields made of energy that were a struggle to get through and finally in the fifth he was greeted by robotic snake like things that would crawl along the ground and could open themselves up and send barbed metal rope to trap him in place. The only upside was that the areas he was fighting in also got bigger giving him more room to work.
That wasn’t the only thing he was dealing with though, in every new area the average level went up by 10 levels, meaning, he was dealing with robots in the 70’s in the second area and it went up till in the final hallway they were in the 100’s. The last two areas had taken him days to complete, he needed to stop and rest before he even made it to the buttons to stop the alarm and lights. He was utilising every skill he could to make it through the dungeon and if it wasn’t for his ability to heal himself he would not have made it through. Several times he almost left the dungeon, figuring that he would just got to one of the others, get stronger than come back and deal with this one at the end. But the idea of quitting annoyed him more than the dungeon.
The only upside he found to this experience was the levels. He was now fighting robots that were continuously above his level, by a lot. He got another 2 levels in his class in the second hallway, 3 in each of the third and fourth and finally 4 in the last hallway. It felt like a lot of levels in a short time but he guessed that with all of the breaks he was now having to take just to make it through a hallway, he had been in the dungeon for over a week, maybe closer to two.
He had no idea what was happening on the outside, the stone he used to communicate with Eric didn’t work in the dungeon, but he guessed that the remainder of the people would be close to the area, if not here. All he had left to do in this dungeon was walk into the central area, confront the Prime and walk out of here alive. He had been waiting until he was back to being fully recovered, but even when he was he still didn’t enter. He hoped that the only thing in there was going to be the Prime, if there was a whole group of robots his chances of making it out were not high. He had long ago come to the conclusion that these E grade dungeons, until they were claimed at least, were going to become mass graves for the people that entered. He had though back on the message when he entered the dungeon, realising that there was no limit on how many people could enter. That meant that it wasn’t going to be teams of 5 walking to their death, instead once people realised just how hard they were, armies would enter with very few actually making it out alive.
He realised that, what he was doing, claiming all of these dungeons for Viv and The Empire, he was helping them in more ways than was obvious. Where the factions on the other side of this war would lose people by the thousands trying to claim these dungeons, The Empire risked nobody. That was why they offered him the deal they did, on the off chance he managed to do what he said he was going to, their position in this war was practically guaranteed. If he failed and died, they got what they originally wanted. There was no way they came out of this deal having lost a thing.
Part of him was annoyed when he realised this. They had agreed that the D grade area was to be his, but if it was going to go up all the way to the peak of D grade there was no chance that he would be claiming the area, not before the year was up. His only hope was that the D grade dungeon was capped, but even if it was he would need to train harder than he ever had before to make it to the point where he would be able to actually complete it.
He knew he was now just stewing in his own thoughts, putting off finishing the dungeon as he was uncertain just what kind of robot this Prime would be. Having struggled his way through this dungeon, his confidence had been shot and he just wanted out of this entire situation. If it wasn’t for the fact that this event that he knew was coming up in a few months would actually benefit him long term, he probably would have just called it quits on Earth and made his way to The Alliance. At least there he wouldn’t have to deal with robots there.
Pulling himself together Shaun came to a stand and moved to stand in front of the final door which would take him to the Prime, if he didn’t do this now he would admit defeat and be forced to come back to this hell hole again later on. The last thing he wanted to do was come back here which meant killing the Prime and never looking back. The moment he opened the door and went inside he nearly cursed out loud. The room had been pitch black before he entered, the moment he did step in though the room was flooded with lights. In the centre was a robot bigger than anything he had seen before. It stood over 5 times his height, it had two arms on each side of its body and what looked like blasters on its shoulders. The metal it was made of gleamed in the light and it looked tougher than what the other robots had been made of.
**Sentinel Prime – Level 124**
He had expected this, it being at the peak of E grade, the only thing giving him some hope in this fight was that it was just the two of them, it had no lackeys to fight with it. Wasting no more time he summoned two creatures, the first being his magma slime friend who had helped him throughout the dungeon, the second he did something different and used lightning. He didn’t think his earth golem would be able to do much against the Prime, not when it was so much bigger than the other robots and looked like it could crush the golem with one of its four hands.
As soon as he started to use his skill the Prime lit up and he knew it was time to start the fight. Immediately two of its arms turned into blasters, the other two retracted back, forming into large swords made from pure energy. At the same time this happened he saw his creatures manifest, his slime on onside of him and a large bird that crackled with lightning with each flap of its winds on the other. He only had one order to give them, distract and kill the robot.
As soon as the order was given the Prime attacked, using both of its arm blasters to attack directly at him, ignoring his summons. Shifting into the air he moved as quickly as he could around to the other side of the room, solidifying behind it and setting off two magma strikes before the Primes shoulder guns swivelled around and started firing at him, forcing him to go back on the run. The Prime didn’t even turn around and instead made his way to his bird summons which he realised was called an Zapian Eagle. For a moment he though that his summons would fall to the Prime straight away but the eagle was too quick and moved out of the way from the descending sword.
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While he witnessed the attack on the eagle his magma summons made its way towards to the robot aiming for one of its legs. He assumed that the Prime would utilise its blasters on it but it seemed that they had a cooldown after use, how long though he didn’t know. He continued to dodge the guns that were shooting at him while taking in all of the moves that the Prime made, getting int close this early on could end up with him being hit, waiting and planning before making a risky move was going to be how he got through this fight.
After 10 seconds before the first attack with the blasters the Prime used them again, this time directly at his slime who was not quick enough to move out of the way, the attack from both blasters took out just over 90% of the mana he had used creating the summons, one more attack and he would be down to just his Eagle. He was annoyed at the situation, even with clearing all the hallways he had only managed to get his skill level up to 18, two more levels and he would have been able to summon three creatures, not that he could change that now.
Considering the Prime had just used its blasters he figured that going in all the offensive was his best bet to wearing down the robot. Using his elemental shift he shifted into his lightning form and descended down onto one of the Primes shoulders, attacking at the gun immediately after appearing, using a magma strike at the same time as cutting through it with his descending sword. Even with putting all of his strength into the attack he only managed to destroy the gun, not being able to cut any deeper into the body of the Prime.
The moment he had attacked he felt one of the Primes swords come straight at him and having no time to shift again or even use his teleportation ring he threw as much mana as he could into Stone Skin, a skill he had been neglecting for a long while. When the Primes sword hit him he was knocked across the room, the pain he felt was devastating and the only reason he knew he was still alive was because he was feeling that pain. His armour and skill had only done so much, checking his health he could see he had lost a quarter of his health in one hit, three more and he was done. His mana wasn’t infinite and the summons paired with his skill usage had taken him to just half left.
With the Primes attention now fully on him he had no choice but to push through the pain and get moving to avoid the incoming attacks. Just as the Primes remaining shoulder gun aimed at him, his Zapian Eagle came in from above and started tearing into it with all of the power it had. At the same time his magma slime made it to one of its legs and started crawling up it.
Seeing the Prime’s attention off of him, he refused to give up this opportunity to do some damage. Shifting into lightning form again he dropped down on the same shoulder he had last time, this time though he didn’t attack out with his sword. After immediately appearing he shifted into his ice form, pushing all of the mana he had in this shape into freezing the two arms below him. He had yet to attempt something like this but in the form of pure ice he had a greater ability to affect the material the Prime was made of compared to using it in a strike or just on its own.
He felt the influence of the ice slowly creep into the Primes side, the robot tried to bring his sword arm up but when it got halfway to him it jerked and came to a stop. When it realised that its entire left side was all but useless it turned its right sword arm on him. Before it managed to do any damage though, his Zapian Eagle, having finished destroying the other shoulder cannon intercepted the attack and sacrificed itself in a blast of lightning that threw the Prime’s attack off course. He knew his time was up with this direction of attack, shifting from his ice form back to his normal one he lifted his sword high into the air and drive it straight into the Prime’s shoulder, coating it with a lightning strike to blast straight through the robot’s frozen side.
Before he could see the destruction he had wrought on the Prime he was knocked off of it shoulder by its sword. The blade cut through his armour and into his chest before he even had time to react, he had been so distracted by causing it damage that he had not been paying enough attention to how quickly it had recovered from the attack from the Eagle.
When he landed on the ground he felt the blood leaking out of the wound. He had no choice but to push as much of the healing element of nature as he could into the wound, both using his gauntlet and his own affinity. With the wound across his chest he wasn’t able to do anything but focus on healing before he ran out of health altogether, he could see it dropping down at a rate quicker than what he was healing. He was able to keep an eye on the Prime though. His attack had cleaved off the left side of it body, now leaving it with only two arms. His magma slime was eating through its leg at a rate that left it unable to fully stand on it right leg, now being forced to use its sword as a crutch properly move or risk falling. It was attempting to shake off the summoned creature but his slime refused to let go. It wasn’t until the arm blaster was back online that it aimed directly at its own leg and obliterated it along with his summons that it then paid attention to him again.
He had 10 seconds left before the Prime would aim the blaster at him and there was no way he would survive the attack with his health where it was. The Prime hobbled to him using it one good leg and its sword, if he let it get close he wouldn’t even last the 10 seconds before its blaster was ready to go again.
In a list ditch effort to survive he switched form healing to another element, one that he hoped would be enough to stop the Prime from taking his life. Taking his hand from his chest he slapped it onto the ground and pushed all the remaining mana he had into forming a pool of magma underneath where the Prime would have to walk to get to him. Shaun counted down in his head until the 10 seconds were up, not breaking his focus on creating the magma pool just underneath the ground.
When it got down to 5 seconds the Prime got to the edge of the pool, it couldn’t see what was occurring under the ground as he was making sure that the surface was left intact until the lats possible moment. When there was only 4 seconds left the Prime crossed onto the area where Shaun had hoped it would be. And just as it got to only 3 seconds left the Prime had reached the centre of the magma pool. With his last remining mana he collapsed the surface area, at first it was just a crack, but even that jolted the Prime enough to give him the remaining time he needed to finish collapsing in the surface of the pool.
Just as the 10 seconds were up and the Prime aimed its blaster at him it feel down to its waist into the magma. Because the Prime had been using the sword as a crutch the top half of its body dipped into the mage before it could right itself, but even when it managed to pull its arms out they were coated with magma that greedily ate through the sword and blaster both. No matter what it attempted it couldn’t get its blaster to work, and it tried. His beat increased when it first pointed the magma coated blaster at him, but when it didn’t power up he let himself calm down just enough to enjoy watching the Prime die.
It was by no means a slow death, it sunk lower and lower into the magma until only its head remained, it didn’t stop staring at him the entire time. The experience was unnerving, and he expected some new attack to come from it at every moment with the way it just stared at him. But when its head finally disappeared under the magma he let himself relax.
**You have defeated a (Sentinel Prime – Level 124). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained.**
**Class: Elemental Blade Slinger has levelled up by +3 levels. [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger has reached Level 92. +9 Str, +6 Dex, +9 End, +9 Vit, +12 Soul gained**
**Race: Human has levelled up by +2 levels. Human (E) has reached Level 75. +32 Ap gained**
**Awake the Prime Dungeon Completed. Dungeon will automatically eject successful participants in 1 minutes.**
Thank fucking god.