When Shaun woke up he was still lying next to the body of the lizard, nothing had changed in the few hours that he rested and he couldn’t pick up on any monsters nearby, getting straight to retrieving all of his weapons, he looted the monster and received something interesting.
**Flaming Frill – The frill, taken of a Frill-necked Lava Lizard, containing the element of fire. The frill is near completely resistant to flame and heat, can also act as a catalyst when broken down and used to increase the power for fire attuned items or rituals.**
There was no denying how weird it was, the fact it was resistant to fire was great but no longer needed now that he had his Stone Skin skill, the idea of using it to increase the power of already attuned items held some appeal though. Collecting the last of his things he moved towards the cave that would lead to the next area, he was conscious of how much time he had spent here already and needed to get a move on. During his rest he had recovered almost to full so was ready to start getting a move on, the cave itself didn’t have anything of note in it, and it wasn’t until after he had walked for about 30 minutes did he come to the next cavern.
This one was larger than the last, about twice the size, but had a similar layout. Lava was flowing down some of the walls in a waterfall of flame leading to rivers of the stuff flowing through the cavern. There were still rocks and boulders around, including a cliff-like edge near where the waterfall was, the monsters though were something else entirely.
**Flame Bursting Crab – Level 21**
They were crabs, but not just any crabs, as he watched them, 9 in total, they would occasionally burst into flames. He couldn’t figure out a reason for it, nor pick up on any pattern but he was certain that getting close to them without using his Stone Skin wasn’t going to be possible. They were two levels higher than the lizards in the previous cavern and there were also three more of them. If he was to guess he also assumed that once they were all dead, a bigger, meaner and stronger crab was going to appear and if it followed the pattern would be level 23.
Observing the crabs was easy from his vantage point, they moved around a lot more than the lizards and their shells seemed to be much more durable than anything he had fought before. Testing his theory he hid on one of the walls of the cave so that he would be hard to see in stealth and could still see a few of the crabs, letting one of his arrow heads fly he saw it hit the shell of the closest crab and barely make a scratch in its tough armour. His arrow heads were pretty much useless and he doubted his daggers would do much more unless he powered them with every little bit of mana he had. Even if he did go down that route, alerting every single one of them to his presence was a death sentence with the weapons he had on hand.
Sitting down Shaun continued to observe them and tried to formulate a plan, he couldn’t get close for any length of time or risk being burnt to death when his Mana ran out, his bladed weapons didn’t really do any damage, he might be able to do some damage on the underside of its body but he would find it very difficult to get them in such an exposed position. There were still rocks and lava in the cavern but he didn’t have any way to utilise either of them outside of using the rocks to hide behind.
Unless……he could use the rocks. He hadn’t done much experimenting with them since he had metal weapons, and metal was always better than a rock, except if you needed to crush something rather than stab it. His experiments in stage 1 had not gone well but his use of his earth affinity on the ground and rocks since coming to stage 2 had gone much better. The beginning of a plan formulating, he moved back into the open cavern that he had fought the lizards in and started experimenting.
Moving to the closest rock in the cavern he sat on the ground and focused on his connection to it, it was bigger than anything he had ever moved or controlled with his affinity but he did think it might be possible with enough effort. Exerting his control over the rock he imagined it lifting into the air, it took time but eventually he had it slightly off the ground before he lost control and it dropped the few centimetres he had managed to raise it.
It was exhausting, even with his Enhanced Mind skill he struggled to hold onto it for any length of time, instead of giving up though this just turned into one more challenge to overcome. He would give himself a day to get this right, if he managed then he would be able to deal with the crabs quickly and efficiently, as he had a plan that may work. If he couldn’t get it to work, then he was going to be fighting 9 crabs at once and would have to figure that out when the time came.
Over the course of the next few hours he had managed to gain better control of the rock in front of him, now able to hold it up for a minute before it dropped to the ground, his Enhanced Mind skill had levelled up a few times and was now level 5, making it easier to use his affinity and keep control. When he was confident in being able to lift the rock without much thought he moved on to his next task, forming cracks in the rock walls. This was much harder than just lifting the rocks up in the air, he had to use his echo skill, mind skill and affinity at the same time to accomplish what he wanted. The echo skill was to try and find natural faults in the cavern walls, the affinity was to take advantage of these faults and widen them into larger cracks while he used his mind skill to focus on doing all of this without causing an avalanche of stone to come down from the wall.
He continued his practice for hours more until he had been going at it for a full day, he felt like he was now prepared enough for his plan to work, the only thing he was missing was having enough mana to be able to see it all through. And to get more mana he needed more levels in his crafting profession, which was easier said than done.
In his inventory he had, skins from multiple monsters, fangs, claws, the frill, a long sword, chest plate, as well as a bow and quiver full of arrows, which he had completely forgotten about. On top of all of that he had more meat than he could eat in a year some metal he had left over from making his own claw arrow heads and water. He had some other bits a pieces but nothing he could really use for crafting. Taking out the Lava Lizard skin he inspected them.
Stolen story; please report.
**Lava Lizard Skin – The skin form a Lava Lizard found in a dungeon with the tutorial of a newly integrated planet, the skin has traces of the fire element present within it making it resistant to heating and flame.**
It wasn’t as good as his stone skin but he figured every little bit would count, he took them all out and started forming them into one large piece. From there he started cutting off pieces to form into 2 new bracers, a new vest as well as a cloak that he would wear from around his neck and shoulders, so that in an emergency he would be able to cover himself in it and at least have some protection from the crabs fire if the worst occurred.
Once everything was formed he tried to enhance the items with his own affinity using the attunement skill but it wouldn’t stick, he assumed that this was due to the fact that it already had the fire element present within it and earth couldn’t be added to it in such a crude fashion, something to experiment with when he wasn’t on a time limit though.
Next he took out more claws and metal as well as something he had never used before but now had a reason to. He had the venom from the cavern spiders that he had spent time hunting in stage 1, it was paralytic and very effective if you could administer enough of it. His plan was to create something both similar and yet different from the old arrowheads, this time he wanted to fill them with poison that once pierced into a monster would cause them to become sluggish and easy to take down.
He wasn’t going to use these on the crabs as he didn’t think he could get them deep enough for the poison to work, but he assumed that the crabs weren’t the end of the dungeon and preparing now would save time later.
He followed the same process at the beginning of forming the arrow heads as he did before but this time when he got to carving out the middle for the metal he continued carving until there was room for him to deposit enough poison in it to effect a monster the size of the lizards. To make sure that the poison would indeed enter the body once the arrow head had done its job he made it so there was a weak join on the tip that would easily break off once it hit the skin of the monster but sharp enough that it would still enter the body.
In Shaun’s opinion he was a genius, these would work incredibly well in a fight, and although they were really only a one use item they would still pack one hell of a punch. He didn’t stop crafting the new poisoned arrow heads until he had run out of metal and by that point he had a few dozen of the little weapons that he could use in a fight. He had been ignoring all of his notifications up until this point as he was so engrossed in his work.
**Multiple Skill Level ups: [Basic] Mana Meld - Level 13**
**Multiple Skill Level up: [Basic] Mana Manipulation – Level 15**
**Profession: Mana Crafter has levelled up by +2 levels. [Basic] Mana Crafter has reached Level 11. +2 Int, +2 Wil, +4 Soul**
**Race: Human has levelled up by +1 levels. Human (F) has reached Level 17. +4 Ap gained**
He had just reached and surpassed level 10 in his profession, and with it he could now see the option of picking a new skill. He had no idea what the choices would be and was rather excited as to what he may be able to add to his repertoire.
**New Profession Skill Available: Please choose from one of the following options:**
**[Basic] Mana Transfer: The ability to transfer mana from the user's personal supply into a compatible item to store for future use or to power an item.**
Shaun could see a lot of uses for a skill like this, the idea that he could store mana and then use it later, for example if he was running low in a fight, would be extremely helpful. The downside to this was that whatever he used to store the mana had to be able to hold it and as far as he knew he had nothing like this on him, making the skill at this point in time practically useless.
**[Basic] Rune Knowledge: Runes, the written language that governs magic in the Multiverse, have a multitude of uses throughout the Multiverse, they are used in crafting to inlay spells in items, in rituals to act as focal points and catalysts as well as in a multitude of other ways. This skill provides a basic understanding of runes in how to both read and create them.**
He had heard of runes before, not in the tutorial, but before that, it was something that you came across a lot in games, movies, and even history. What one could do with runes was limited only to one's knowledge and ability to use them and getting this skill early on would be a boon that could help him not only grow quickly now but also something he would be able to take advantage of in his upcoming fights. If he could learn enough he might be able to use runes on his weapons that would cause a significant amount of damage when used in battle.
**[Basic] Meditation: The Meditation skill allows the user to more easily fall into a trance like state where they are able to recover their Mana at an increased rate, the skill also allows the user to block out their surroundings and fully focus their attention.**
The meditation skill was one that he had wanted since he had started using mana, having to wait for his mana to recover had been a factor that was impacting how quickly he was able to craft as he would run his supply down to 0 and then have to wait, not being able to continue until it was back up to a reasonable level. It wouldn’t help him in battle but it would help him in other ways.
**Skill Gained**: [Basic] Meditation (Level 1)**
Picking the meditation skill over the rune skill wasn’t a spur of the moment decision, in fact the skill helped him with the second part of his plan on getting through the dungeon. Taking out an item from his inventory, he identified it again.
**Elemental Elixir (Legendary) – The Elemental Elixir is a resource that when consumed will place the one into a trance where it will become easier to connect to the world around you. Used by those who are lucky enough to obtain one to help them find their Affinity. If surrounded by a specific element that one wishes to connect to it greatly boosts the chance of forming an Affinity with that element.**
There was a very high chance of this not working at all but as he looked through the description of the elixir again he started checking off different parts of what was needed. He was surrounded by a new element, fire, and it was one that if he could obtain would greatly boost his fighting ability. He couldn’t think of an affinity that would complement his earth one more so wanting to connect to it was present. And the reason why he picked the skill, it would put him in a trance and he hoped the meditation skill would work hand in hand with this and help him boost the effect.
It was a risk, using the elixir now had no guarantees of working, not that it ever would be certain, but he was running out of time and he needed every edge he could get if he was going to get out of this dungeon and complete two more afterwards. It's worth the risk, Shaun thought, but I need to prepare a bit more first.