As Shaun looked around at all of the people gathered he noticed that there was quite a range of levels and classes, the highest levelled person was at level 17 with the lowest at 12. How someone had managed to only get 2 levels over the past 14 days was a mystery, the fact they were still even alive at this point was incredible. Level 17 wasn’t bad though, if they found a good team they would probably be able to make it through a dungeon, but only if they got pretty lucky and really took their time.
Everyone was staring his way, having obviously identified him, there was chatter amongst the groups around the dungeon entrance, some seemed to be trying to gather the nerve to approach him and others looked more disappointed, thinking he was probably already in a team with those he had arrived with. Shaun ignored all of this and turned around to talk with Angus and his group, wanting to get this all out of the way so he could get in the dungeon and move on.
“We made it here, so this is where we will split. Good luck.” Short, sweet and to the point. They had already agreed that they would travel here together but no further.
“You sure you won't reconsider letting us go in with you?” Jazelle practically pleaded.
“Like I said, I fight alone. Sorry.” Looking around at the others, there was a silver lining. “You might be able to form a group with others here though, I assume that is why they are hanging about. Train a bit first though, you aren’t ready to face a dungeon yet.”
“Okay, good luck then, with the dungeon and everything else. We really do owe you.”
He just nodded at them and went to walk towards the dungeon, before he could even take a few steps though it seemed like everyone thought this was their chance to get someone stronger on their team.
“I’m Jack, we are looking for…”
“Not interested.” He didn’t even bother to wait for him to finish, he would be wasting time if he entered into polite conversation with everyone here.
“But…” the Jack guy tried again.
“No.”
He just continued walking, he had to repeat the process four more times before he made it to the dungeon.
*Welcome to the Nature’s Retreat Dungeon*
The dungeon, grown from the well of life, nurturing the world around it, will test whether you can survive the life and growth of untamed nature, of one of the base elements of the world.
Recommended that a full party of five enter at a minimum level of 20, once entered there will be no exit unless the boss is killed and the dungeon completed.
Reward depends on performance within the dungeon.
One participant located, would you like to enter the dungeon?
The prompt was very similar to the last one, same level requirement and people recommendation, the only changes from the last dungeon were that it was nature based rather than fire based. A theory that Shaun had been playing around with for a while now had further evidence to support it. Each dungeon he encountered in the tutorial was going to be focused around one of the basic elements, fire, located on the volcano mountain, nature in the trees, he assumed the other mountain that had the mist would be water, the canyon would be air, probably from a current forming through it and finally the rocky valley that had no trees would be earth.
The reason behind having all of the basic elements located in dungeons in the tutorial would be to give those that are capable a chance to bond an affinity, why else have these elements all present for those who had shown some level of worth in stage 1.
He couldn’t help but smile when he thought about the natural counter to nature, what could wreak havoc in a forest and grow stronger the more it consumed the trees and leaves that made it up? Fire. An element he now had access to. This dungeon should be a cake walk. Just as he was about to accept the prompt to enter the dungeon he was interrupted.
“You can't seriously be considering going in there alone? You're strong, we can all understand why you would think you could do it. But there is a reason why every bit of information we have says that it should be five people going in there, not one.” This was said by the level 17 guy, the strongest person there outside of Shaun.
“I will be fine, thank you though.” Turning back around to the dungeon wanting to leave already, it seemed like this guy wasn’t going to give up so easily.
“You know we have seen teams go in and none have returned yet. We have been here a few days as well. If you go in alone you're as good as dead. Let us join you.” He then gestured to a few other people he had with him, none very impressive in Shaun’s eyes.
“Well, I guess I will be the first to come back.” It was a cocky thing to say, he knew that, but he didn’t want to leave any room for anyone here to doubt him, to give them any hope that he would change his mind and let them come with him.
Deciding to have a little fun, he lifted his hand and coated it in flames, letting it spread down his arm until the flames were coating him up to his shoulder. He then smiled and gave them a wave, the flames leaving a trail behind his hand. This caused many of them to back up in fear, even Angus and the others he had walked here with looked surprised. He hadn’t shown them any of his elemental abilities, but seeing someone able to easily wield one of the elements was shocking to everyone here. Even mages didn’t have a skill like that, all they had was the mana bolt skill that wasn’t attuned to any of the elements. Turning off his flames, he accepted the prompt to enter the dungeon, disappearing instantly from in front of the group of people and immediately appearing within the dungeon.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
As expected, when he looked around the dungeon he was surrounded by things related to nature, it was very similar to the forest he had just been in, although a little more dense and overgrown. He didn’t see any direction marked out for him to travel like in the caves, when he used his echo he simply found that there were no monsters in the forest around him. The set up was rather different than the fire dungeon, and he didn’t know if he preferred this open design or not, it would certainly mean he would need to take a more exploratory approach rather than the direct one he took before.
There was a few things that he knew he needed to do while in the dungeon, which he had learnt about from seeing how the rewards were graded in the last one, he would need to kill every monster, to get a better grade, he would need to completely explore the dungeon to do this, which would take time. Doing it alone and under levelled, one he had already met but he was now over level 20 so he wouldn’t be getting that bonus again. That may or may not affect his grade, so he had to figure out if there was another way to boost the grade up this time. Potentially doing it quickly would help, or even doing it without sustaining an injury? He would aim to do both, just in case, but he wouldn’t risk his life for it.
The other thing he needed to consider, which would be the riskiest thing he could possibly do if he chose to go through with it, was trying to bond with the nature element using his heritage to gain it as another affinity. It would be dangerous and take time, but it would also offer benefits if he did it correctly and succeeded, if he did it wrong he would die though. It put him back to the mindset he was in the fire dungeon, with great risk can come great reward.
He decided he wouldn’t make that decision yet, he would work through the dungeon first and see how quickly and efficiently he could do it before considering if he had the time to sit and try to bond with nature.
Having made the decision, he created a fireball and started heading to the closest monster, it wasn’t too far away which was good, and if it followed the same trend as the fire dungeon it should be at around level 19, which should be a problem for him given he was at a higher level and wielding flames.
When he got close enough to where he should have been able to see the monster he couldn’t manage to locate it, he felt it in his echo, it should have been right in front of him, but he couldn’t manage to see it. Looking around at the surrounding trees, nothing seemed to have changed from where he had started, they all looked alike, he was getting frustrated as he knew something was there with him and he just couldn’t see it.
In his frustration he threw the fireball at where he felt the presence using his echo. Instead of the tree being set on fire though, something seemed to drop off of it onto the ground, something that he had not even seen on the tree. The monster was letting out pained croaks while trying to put out the flames but it was no use, the fire was burning it alive quickly, and the monster had no resistance to the flames. It didn’t take long before it stopped moving altogether and laid still on the ground just under the tree.
*You have defeated a (Camouflaging Tree Frog – Lvl 19). Experience gained. 190 TE awarded*
A frog? A damn frog that can blend into its surroundings as seamlessly as if it had a high grade stealth skill? If someone didn’t have a detection skill the monster would easily cause chaos, both with trying to find them and being attacked unaware. It was level 19 which meant that it was the exact same level as the first cavern in the fire dungeon, if it followed the same trend there should be 5 more to be a total of 6 and then a boss. But with the different layout he didn’t know if that would still hold true.
His fire had killed it so easily that he didn’t think he would even be able to call it a fight, it wouldn’t be until he was fighting opponents above level 21 that he would get the bonus experience again, meaning that he had to start moving if he wanted a real challenge in this dungeon. He looted the body, because why leave monster parts laying around when he may be able to find a use for them, he received some toxic slime for his troubles. Better than nothing I guess. May be useful like the venom though, I will need to look at it more later.
Without delay he continued on through the forest, continuously using his echo to locate the frogs, it took him at least two hours before he had found and killed six frogs and even then he couldn’t find a boss. What proceeded was another hour of walking around trying to find where to head to next, he hadn’t been able to find any other monsters in this forest, and he had explored a good amount of it by now. It was frustrating, not being able to do anything but search for his next opponents, it wasn’t in the least bit productive and a waste of time.
He started playing around with his heritage while he walked, he figured a dungeon would be the safest place to do so and if he did decide to try and form an affinity to nature, he wanted to be as prepared as he could. While walking he continuously engaged his enhanced mind, trying to locate the attuned mana that he knew was around him. He had seen it when using the elixir, but without that boost he was trying to do it blind.
The wandering around and trying to practise with his heritage lasted for hours before something changed. He had stopped using his echo skill, a stupid thing to do, but he was so focused on trying to locate nature mana that he had lost sight of why he was in the dungeon in the first place. He found himself having entered a grove in the forest, where on the other side there looked to be subtle shifts in the trees and surroundings. But between him and the other side was a pond of water, with a huge leaf floating on top, on top of that leaf was a monster, similar to the frogs but bigger.
Finally, the boss, that took forever! He formed and threw a fireball in a split second, hitting the monster head on before it had a chance to do anything. Being hit with fire had killed the other frogs immediately, this one though jumped into the air after being hit, but instead of landing on him it went straight into the water. Damn it! I should have used an elemental strike.
The frog had disappeared under the water, Shaun could feel it in there, just under the surface, but he couldn’t see it. If it had the same ability to camouflage as the other frogs then it would explain why it was invisible in the water, but generally the other boss monsters had another ability that gave them an edge in a fight.
He started to power up an elemental strike, planning on aiming it directly into the pond, but before he had a chance to send it the water of the pond exploded out, and with it the frog. When the water landed on his clothes it started to fizzle away, doing some damage but not enough to fully eat through it. Must be because of the earth attunement of the skin when I crafted it. As in contrast, where the water landed on his skin it immediately started to eat through it.
Not hesitating, he activated stone skin and the effect of the water immediately lessened, turning to the frog he growled at it, he was more annoyed with himself than anything else, but he was still pretty angry at the monster for being able to get in a hit. He sent the elemental strike out before the frog got another chance to move, he had figured that the toxic trait of the frogs was amplified in the boss and that while it was in the water it had also turned it toxic.
Hitting the boss frog directly with a fire-imbued elemental strike sent it flying backwards, hitting a tree which also sent a crack through its thick trunk. The tree swayed from the hit and eventually started to tilt further to the side where it snapped and fell. The sound of the tree hitting the ground blasted out from where it had impacted the ground, it didn’t cause any of the other trees to fall but it was enough to nearly deafen him.
*You have defeated a (Camouflaging Toxicroak Frog – Lvl 21). Experience gained. 210 TE awarded*
Didn’t even get a level. What a joke.