The moment I took a step on those stairs, the world seemed to change as I felt as if I was turned sideways, thrown forwards, and back again. It was completely unlike what I felt when I first entered the dungeon, which was why even with all of my stats, I still found myself on my knees, puking my guts out. Right now, I really, really hate my life, but nevertheless it's just a little vomit. I can survive this, so far I've survived worse. I raised my head up.
I was in a chamber of sorts, or perhaps it would be easier to call it a rest area. There was a metallic table with motifs of webs on it, and there was a wooden and a silver chest on it. And then I remembered, outside of the dungeon all you can get are cores or if you're extremely lucky, like a 1 in 10 million chance, a skill book. But in dungeons those aren't that rare; you kill someone in a dungeon and there's a 50% chance that a skill if theirs would drop. But apart from that the dungeon itself and the creatures offer up rewards.
You get potions, skill, cores which are the norm for all monster kills in a dungeon, and equipment. There were also things like maps, blueprints, and overall materials that cannot be found anywhere else but a dungeon. I just beat the first floor, so this was probably a rest and reward area. Dungeons had these things between floors, or on floors for people to find, or after a few floors, or not at all. Either way I guess I can catch my breath for a few seconds longer.
Now that I think about it, this place is more like a lounge, there were seats on both corners of the room with a door on the other side. It was closed, but based on the Giant red 2 painted on its grey frame, I guess that's the way to the second floor, it's really convenient if I do say so myself. I moved towards the table with the chests and placed the massive gun on the ground. I might be stronger but that thing is quite a hassle to lug around.
The wooden chest had motifs of webs on it too, just like the table, only it was a deep red. I opened it up, remembering too late that sometimes, chests like these are poisoned. I ducked, but there was nothing, no sound, no attack and no poison. I peered at it from underneath the edge of the table, then I got up and looked inside.
A bottle with a red liquid in it, and a book. I can recognize a health potion whenever I see it, this just seems to be a bit more than the usual. Usually the bottles are about a palm wide, this was bigger than my entire hand and can probably be called a flask instead. I picked it up, wishing and regretting that I never got to pick the Identify or Appraise skills, though considering how rare those damn things are, even my uncle's influence would not have helped me cross that hurdle. I looked at the book, it was black with the depiction of a spider jumping from one edge of it to the other, I smiled, I knew what this was... It's a skill book!
[Lesser Spider Stride]
If I open this book I automatically learn it, however protocol demands that all skill books be returned to base, where it would be determined if it would be given to the soldier who found it, or to another more suited for it while the soldier would be compensated and rewarded for contributing to the future of the Terran Coalition...... Protocol be damned.
I'm pretty sure that all went out the window when cadets got shot out of the sky and into a forest where we've had to fight for our lives every second since. To survive I need every edge I can get and this was an edge that could have helped me in a lot of confrontation with the elves. I opened the book, which quickly turned into a stream of light that drilled into my skull... What comes next is not pleasant.
"Arck!"
To learn a skill is to have it ingrained into your memory, into your soul and into your body. To have just basic understanding of it alone when you're learning it, your entire body would be stimulated, sometimes muscles you've never used before would have to be rapidly exercised to let your mind understand how to use the skill. It wasn't automatic like all those games made it seem, this was reality and it was fucked up. To become strong, you had to pay the price, and paying that price hurt like a bitch. However, the rewards are well worth it.
[Learned Lesser Spider Stride! +5 to Physique! +5 to Movement]
I was once again on the ground, heaving as I hurt in parts of my body that I didn't know I even had. I got up to my knees, smiling as the pain rapidly faded away, just as quickly as it had come. Without an appraisal skill I can't see the explanation of the skill, but I knew what it does, it's already in my mind after all. I turned my attention to the silver chest.
It was larger than the wooden one, but I didn't get my hopes up. Just because it was in a silver chest didn't mean it's contents were more valuable than what was in the wooden one. Like I said, reality, even in dungeons, was a lot more different than what I've seen in the media. Plus, back at the academy we were warned enough time about expecting better loot just because it's placed in a better looking package; some might actually kill you.
I moved to the side of the silver chest, a lot more careful than before. I placed my hand on the lid and lifted it up. I was lucky that my head was leaning to the side as three eight spikes or lances shot out from the open chest, two of them finding purchase in my chest, I was shocked for a moment, I could my heart scraping on top of one of the lances as it beat in my chest, shit!
"Fuck!"
Okay no talking, no talking at all. I heard a whirl, a hiss and a click and the lances, though now that I looked at them a little closer, they looked like segmented rods. They pulled back into the chest, a spray of blood following after them, as I fell to my knees, feeling extremely weak, I could barely open my mouth to speak.
"Light Heal!" There was a little bit of relief, but it's not enough, I need some more.
"Light Heal!"
"Light Heal!"
Yeah that's much better. It's crazy, I guess chests really can be trapped. Though if I had to be honest this kind of trap wasn't expected, I just got stabbed by what looked to be mechanical spider legs, but considering the size of the chest, how could something that big get into it. I got back to my feet, with Light Heal at a higher level, I could heal a lot of damage for less, and it wouldn't cost me much.
I moved closer to the open chest, at least now I knew what to expect so I wasn't so worried. What I saw however, was a bit surprising. There was a spider the size of a watermelon inside of the chest, however it had no legs, and then there was a pair of ear cuffs with a glowing blue band running through their center. I looked at the spider for a moment, not exactly sure what I was looking at. There was a trace of blood at the side, making me realize that this was where those rods had come out from. I picked it up, and realized that it's underside was completely flat, and then I looked back at the cuff and everything seemed to click.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"No way!"
I picked both cuffs up and placed them on my ears, then I lifted the spider up just as I felt a bit of mana drain from my body and straight into the cuffs.
[CHARLOTTE'S LEGS: Dwarven Make Neural-Bridge Spider Exo-Skeleton(Upgradable): Slot 1: N/A / Slot 2: N/A / Slot 3: N/A / Slot 4: N/A / Slot 5: N/A / Slot 6: N/A / Slot 7: N/A / Slot 8: N/A]
The spider flew out of my hand to my back, moving the pack I had aside as it attached itself to me and all of a sudden I felt like I had eight extra limbs to keep track of. For a moment it was a little disorienting, but after a while, I was able to focus and turn around enough to notice the right iron grey limbs that were now hanging out of my back, I blinked as I spoke out to no one else but myself.
"I'm Spider Man!"
The only reply I got about that was complete silence and a rapidly growing feeling of embarrassment. Even if nobody was around, I couldn't help feeling a bit ashamed, this was a weapon and I was in a life and death situation, the me of 3 days ago would never have been this lax about anything... Oh!
I would never have been lax about anything, or carefree about my decisions or rash either. Somehow I had changed along the way and that's so crazy that it's leaving me feeling a bit stumped about it. There wasn't an official term for this, but usually 68% of Terran soldiers who get dropped on Alfheim developed this condition. Not that it was a bad thing, but... It was and could be quite extreme in a lot of cases.
[The Unveiling] is one of the terms used for it; it's when the full exposure and access to mana causes a sudden shift in personality in a person. It's always usually under control and the changes aren't that extreme, however your hidden inhibitions are brought to the forefront, your deepest desires and true character would be laid bare for the world to see. It's especially very intense when you gain levels really fast as opposed to elves who gain it at a sedate pace over a long period of time. They were long lived, so they grew slower hence not having to worry about such a problem, but humans, especially when they were first introduced or exposed to mana and the leveling system have had to deal with this quite a bit.
Strong men became weak cowards and cowards showed more bravery then even the most well trained and battle hardened commander. It simmers down the longer you remain in a mana saturated environment. Your personality changes, settling down into an optimal version of you that's acceptable to your person.... It would just take a few days. This should also explain the case of bullshit backstabbing from Malkova and the others and my very easy decision to resign from the army.... Or at the very least I hope it explains it. It's still them, but at least this gives them a message for redemption.
I looked around the room, there was nothing else here. It would be nice to try and rest a bit, but I wasn't exactly tired. Besides I needed to learn how to move with this new Exo-Skeleton, but I wasn't too keen on remaining here for long, I wanted out. Learning how to use it would be best done in combat, and not in a controlled environment.... I guess I just made another rash decision... I needed to get out of here and maybe get some sleep, I'm really tired.
<<<<<<<<<<••>>>>>>>>>>
Andrej grunted as he and then others were teleported into what he expected was the second floor. Instead they were sent into a room that looked more like a lounge, with a few seats and three chests on a table with web motifs. There were already two open chests, with one closed, and on the ground was a heavy machine gun and a significant amount of blood that looked to be just a few minutes fresh.
"Samson came through here." Laurent said as they all observed and came to the obvious decision.
"Looks like he's injured, was it from the monsters?" Amina asked as she made her way around the table, looking for anything out of place.
"There's no blood trail from the entrance of the safe room, whatever injured him got him right in this room. There doesn't seem to be remains of any monsters so I would envision one of those chests was trapped. Though to be honest I don't get why he would leave the big gun behind." Ricardo offered as he picked up the hulking piece of machinery.
"This is really nifty; it doesn't have a trigger but actually activates when you use Mana. There's probably no need for maintenance or anything of the sorts, this baby can keep spitting fire as long as you have mana to spare." Ricardo said with awe in his voice as Andrej couldn't help but roll his eyes in annoyance.
They had noticed when Samson had used the gun against the spiders. Andrej had tried to replicate the results but with limited success. There were only 4 of the large spiders, and unlike Samson that got chased with one, all 4 had gone after them, probably due to their larger numbers. Nguyen had sustained an injury from the assault forcing Andrej to abandon on delusions of gaining control of them and using them against themselves, probably making this whole dungeon dive a breeze. There was also the very big problem of the fact that his Technopath abilities were not working against them.
He could hijack anything with electrical currents, no matter how little or complicated the creation, as long as there was a bit of electrical currents he would be able to at least influence it in one minor or major way. But these spiders ran on a whole other different circuit. They moved fully by magic; it was shocking, but these were machines that didn't respond to his control. It was completely unlike Terran and Elfin technology that incorporated both ideas of magic and technology, having some measure of electrical currents, even if it's powered by magic, to help most tech work.
These things were Dwarven Make as the descriptions had called them. He had no idea what it meant, but it sure as hell wasn't anything made by humans or elves. And that worried Andrej a lot. If this dungeon wasn't based on human or elfin technology, then who is it based on? And this is an instance dungeon, the fact that they started in different areas than Samson was proof of that. Once it's cleared then the dungeon is gone for good, the entire environment would be left under the control of who found it.
It would mean safety for all of them, but Andrej was loath to let Samson have such glory. The only reason he had gotten this far, is because he was trained as a medic. Every injury he sustains, he walks off and keeps on fighting. He was mediocre, having above average combat abilities, significantly lagging behind the other cadets, and worst of all, he was plebeian with no Miracle. The boy is a complete waste of space and resources. He should call in line and be utilized properly, he's insubordination against Andrej's authority has been pretty much wasteful, they all would have needed a healer right about now. Either way there was no time to dally, the plebeian already has a head start on them, and there's secrets to be cleaned from this place. He would rather find it first, before that damn plebeian gets to it.
"Loot the chest and prepare to move out after 15 minutes of rest. Salma can see to Nguyen, apart from Samson you're the only other person with medical training. Make sure she is fit and ready for combat, if not... Make sure she survives and stays out of the rest of our way. I have a feeling that it's only going to get harder from here on out.