When the monsters appeared for wave two, there were a few things that had changed. The monsters were the same, still soldier ants, but now they were level 26 and there was 6 of them. To him the changes would be minor, fighting one more ant wasn’t going to have much of an impact on the fight and even with them being level 26, he didn’t expect a boost in strength when compared to when one moved from F to E grade. The only difference with this fight was that he was going to attempt to rely less on magic and use his sword, purely so he could conserve mana for the later waves.

This time, Shaun didn’t wait for the ants to come to him, instead he rushed forward as soon as they came into view and went in for the attack. His fighting style was very different when he wasn’t purely using his elements, he had to rely more on his blade mastery skill and his stats, which thankfully he had plenty of. As soon as he made it to the first ant he went straight for the kill shot, aiming straight for the head, however the ant was slightly smarter than expected and moved at the last minute so that the sword hit one of its pincers rather than its head full on. Although he sliced cleanly through the pincer, removing it with one swing, he had failed in hitting his target. Not that it mattered, his dexterity was nearly at 200 and he had been using a sword for nearly the full time he had been in the tutorial, he didn’t have a master skill for nothing. He quickly changed his grip on the sword and swiped back, burying the sword into it head before quickly moving back to gain some distance.

Really though, it was just a precaution, he had stabbed the ant right through its head on his reverse swing, killing it with the move, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t be cautious, if he got too cocky he may find himself in a position where he would need to use his mana to heal himself rather than save it for stronger enemies.

With one ant already down he was down to five more to go, he continued on the offensive for now, he knew that there was more risk involved in fighting in close combat but he really needed to work on his non elemental skills for a bit, he couldn’t rely on his mana for the rest of his life. His class was focused around not only elemental attacks but also using a blade, so now he was going to train the aspect he hadn’t been using properly for a while.

Moving to the next ant he attacked it in a similar way to the first, but instead of going straight for the head he first cut through one of its legs, and when it went in to attack him with its pincers, he quickly dodged around the head and then brought his sword down cutting through its neck execution style. While this had occurred the remaining four ants had started to move to surround him, Shaun wasn’t stressed about this though, worst case he would run over the top of them with his air element, but that was only if he had no other choice. Rather than try and stop them from circling him, he moved to the next ant, dodging an attack from another who had moved in close to him from the side.

He was much quicker than the ants were, not to mention his echo skill allowed him to know where they were at any given time, he had felt the ant moving in on him, so dodging any attack was not a hard thing to accomplish. When he moved up to the ant he was targeting next he moved around to its side, cutting through first one, then two of its legs, before following up with stabbing it through its body. The ant fell to the ground quickly after that, hurt but not dead, and he immediately followed up with cutting through its body, practically cleaving it in two.

This had allowed him to move past the ants turning around he now had all three of them in front of him again. Shaun had killed three of the ants in under a minute, they were not a challenge to him at his level and really needed to move up in waves before he got to a real fight, one where his life may actually be on the line. Finishing the fight as quickly as he could, Shaun moved straight into he last of the ants, disposing of them as efficiently as he could, the fourth went down from a beheading, the fifth by bisecting and the sixth he cut the head into two, right down the middle.

*Wave 2 Completed – Wave 3 starting in 1 minute*

Afterwards, he looted all of the bodies and did something he should have done before he even came into the dungeon, apply his AP. He had 64 to apply and ended up deciding to add 15 to each of his physical stats and threw the last 4 into Intelligence, his lowest stat. When the multipliers from all of his affinity and titles came into play his stats had large increases.

Status:

Name: Shaun Clermont

Race Human (F)

Level: 32

Class: [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger - Level 34

Profession: [Advanced] Elemental Creator - Level 30

Health Points:2060/2060

Stamina:1912/2040

Mana:4005/4440

Stats: (Available Points: 0)

Strength: 204

Dexterity: 219

Endurance: 204

Vitality: 206

Intelligence: 164

Perception: 171

Willpower: 171

Soul: 444

Affinity: Earth, Fire, Nature, Air, Water

Titles: New Initiate, Apex Predator, Planetary Forerunner, Elementalist, Expert Solo Dungeoneer

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Heritage: Azreal's Legacy (Hidden)

Skills:

Class: [Advanced] Blade Mastery (Level 15), [Advanced] Earthen Echo (Level 28), [Advanced] Enhanced Mind (Level 29), [Advanced] Elemental Strike (Level 23), [Advanced] Stone Skin (Level 22)

Profession: [Advanced] Elemental Fusion (Level 3), [Advanced] Creators Control (Level 2), [Advanced] Element Coercion (Level 3), [Basic] Meditation (Level 25 - Max), [Advanced] Mana Sight (Level 19), [Basic] Rune Knowledge (Level 21)

His stats were looking good, the 15 AP he had point into each of his physical stats had boosted each of them by at least 20, his percentage multipliers coming into play. He had also gained one level in his Blade Mastery skill in the last fight, and with it being his current focus, he was hoping to gain a few more by the time he had finished with this dungeon run.

*Wave 3 Commencing*

The third wave was much like the last, almost predictably so. There were now 7 soldier ants at level 27. Not wanting to waste time, he just took care of them the same way he did the last, utilising his sword to cleave them into pieces. This was even easier than the last ones, the extra stats showing their worth, they had increased by nearly 10% across all of the physical attributes, which was a large jump at this point in his levelling, and with the increased speed and strength he slaughtered them all in nearly half the time it had taken to kill the last ones. His stamina was slowly dropping down but no where near enough to have any impact on him at least for another few waves at least.

Once he got the notification that the third wave was done, he looted, and got ready for the next wave. The fourth wave followed the exact same pattern, now 8 ants at level 28. And again, he took care of them with no real issues. This time it did take a little longer, they had managed to surround him twice, and not wanting to risk getting hurt he ended up having to manoeuvre around many attacks, only picking key times to go on the offensive, he didn’t use any mana though, which was the aim.

When the fifth wave started thing finally changed. There were of course now 9 soldier ants at level 29 but now, as if number 5 was going to be special for the dungeon, there was also an extra monster, one that was slightly different from the others.

*Ant Queen – Level 30*

Now things are starting to get interesting. The fact that there was an additional, stronger monster wasn’t a bad thing, it was great news! Level 30 wasn’t that much lower than him, meaning that he might actually get something out of the fight, not bonus experience, he would need to go a few more waves for that, but hopefully a level. The ant queen had what looked like a crown growing from its head, rather than being made from the same chitin as the rest of its body it was silver in colour, almost white.

Rather than running straight into the fight, Shaun decided to wait a minute and see what the queen would do. He figured it was going to have some kind of special attack, the soldier ants were staying close to it as well rather than running straight at him. He didn’t have to wait long before the queen decided to act, the crown started to glow, slowly at first but quickly gained momentum until it was almost blinding. When the queen lowered it head, the crown now pointed straight at him, he decided to test out a spell he had not yet used on the gauntlet. Holding his hand up with his palm towards the crown he started to channel mana straight into he gem and the runes, activating the Nature’s Barrier spell. Almost instantly a shield of glowing green light appeared before him, it started off almost see through, but the more mana he channelled into it the more solid it became. When he thought that it was strong enough to hold against the attack he stopped pushing mana into it and just left a slight trickle continue so that it would keep its form.

He was just in time as well, as soon as the barrier was done the queen released a beam of energy directly at him, when it hit his spell he felt the pressure against it, the energy nearly breaking it to pieces, but it held. The beam cut around the shield and flowed harmlessly to either side of him, he didn’t stop concentrating on the shield though, making sure that if he needed to he would push more mana into it. There was no need to though, the beam from the queens crown stopped after about 10 seconds and once it did he also dropped the barrier.

Shaun was impressed with the Nature’s Barrier spell, it had taken a full frontal attack from a level 30 monster and had managed to completely shield him, it was a better result than expected, especially as he had only put in about 150 mana into the spell.

Once the ants realised the queens attack had failed they all raised their heads in the air and starting clinking their pincers together before running at him at full speed. Rather than wait for them to come to him though, he made a run straight at them, he wanted to get close enough so that if the queen made another move to kill him with its beam of energy that he would be able to kill it quickly without using more mana.

Once he made it to the first ant, he dispatched it with an efficient strike from his sword, what followed was a whirlwind of ant parts and sword swings. Shaun didn’t slow down for a second, he went from one ant to the next, attacking with every bit of strength and speed he had, wanting to end the fight before the queen had more time to prepare another attack. As he killed the last of the soldier ants he walked directly to the queen, just in time too. The crown had started to glow again, not yet at full strength, but given another 10 seconds it would be fully prepared to launch another attack at him. He didn’t let it though. He started to run right up to it and leapt straight at the ants head. Unfortunately for it, it had committed to its attack, it didn’t move, practically immobile while powering up the crown, and with practiced ease he cut the head from its body.

*You have defeated a (Soldier Ant – Lvl 29). Experience gained. 1800 TE awarded*

………………………………………………………………………………………………

*You have defeated a (Soldier Ant – Lvl 29). Experience gained. 1800 TE awarded*

*You have defeated a (Ant Queen – Lvl 30). Experience gained. 2000 TE awarded*

*Class: Elemental Blade Slinger has levelled up by +1 levels. [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger has reached Level 35. +3 Str, +2 Dex, +3 End, +3 Vit, +4 Soul gained*

*Wave 5 Completed – Wave 6 starting in 1 minute*

Finally, another level! Shaun had been waiting to get another level for a while, he had barely grown in class levels for the last week and he missed seeing the notifications. What’s more, every level above 25 for a monster gave him 200 extra TE, and with all of the monsters he had killed he had nearly doubled his TE count on the first day of this stage. The loot from the monsters was all the same, except he got the crown from the queen, it was called the Crown of Power, an advanced ranked item, all it did though was act as an item to channel mana through to power up a beamed attack, no attunements either which was disappointing and not something he would use. Who wore crowns anyway.

*Wave 6 Commencing*

He didn’t know what the pattern would be now, the last wave had broken the pattern which meant he couldn’t predict what he would be facing in this fight. He didn’t have to wait long to find out though. Around him ten monsters appeared, and his least favourite type as well. I hate fighting birds!

*Spear Sparrow – Level 30*

Ten level 30 birds was going to be a pain to fight, he had not had good experiences with birds in the past, having encountered them in the air dungeon not that long ago. At least this time he had something he didn’t have before, he would control the air.