I stepped farther into the dungeon, I looked about into a forest glade. Light streamed in from above creating dim light in the streaming through pine branches. I moved forward looking around for the dungeon creatures. I didn’t see them, but my Foresight warned me before the attack landed. I dropped down as wolf pounced from behind, it landed and spun to face me. The wolf was massive, four feet tall at its shoulder, its fur black and thick. The wolf stepped into a shadow and vanished, I don’t mean I blinked, and it was gone, I mean it literally vanished. I dodged to the side this time lashing out with my club cutting a long gash down the wolf’s belly as it passed spilling its entrails out on the ground.
Shadow Wolf -Dungeon Creature, Veteran, Beast/Wolf, Power Level: 220
The power level of the wolf was only ten ranks below me in terms of attributes, but if there was one thing, I had learned it was that attributes were not nearly as important as abilities. Kaleb Dragonbreaker had almost been hero rank, he had way more attributes then me and should have been stronger in practically every way; but when it came down to it my abilities were better than his. Dungeon creatures were dangerous, but they didn’t really have abilities, this invisibility trick was likely some innate talent of the wolf and wasn’t actually an ability.
The wolf’s blood dripped off the claws of my club as I slammed it down into the head of the dying wolf ending its suffering. Black Rage and Magma Heart(s) activated, and my head began to pound with anger and my veins pump with fire. I struggled against the desire to just give into the feeling, and I waited a moment. I had to dive to the side as two wolves pounced from different directions. This wouldn’t be like my first dungeon with swarms of enemies. These monsters would wait for me get sloppy or complacent then attack while I was distracted.
Kill them all, rend and destroy, the voidling said and for once we were on the exact same page.
I suspended three dozen stone spearheads and used them like a weedwhacker clearing the foliage around me. A wolf yelped as it was slashed across the snout with a spearhead. I instantly turned and brought my club down on its neck breaking its spine and ripping through fur, skin, and muscle with the claws. The wolf thrashed on the ground for a second then went still.
Blood and Souls (Repeatable): Kill 10,240 monsters or humanoids. Current Progress 159 out of 10,240. When you complete this quest, you will gain 2,048 Rank Points, and the next quest will require double the amount to be completed but will award double the rank points.
I kept moving using my telekinesis to spoil my foes ambushes as I pushed through the forest glen. I reached another tunnel mouth opening and entered it. The tunnel here was honeycombed with openings too small to stand upright in. I moved cautiously down the tunnel diving forward as my Foresight warned me of an attack from my right. The wolf nipped at my heels before ducking into another low side tunnel and disappeared.
I figured it out now. The wolves could attack me and retreat almost instantly. I needed to use my Foresight aggressively to clear these wolves. I moved forward again sensing an incoming attack at my back. Instead of dodging I spun and slashed up from the ground the claws of right club ripping out the wolf’s throat. It died but its body slowed my blade, and another wolf sprang at my calf while a third leapt from above for my neck. My left club swept up hitting the airborne wolf in the chest and sending it up into the ceiling. The wolf going for my leg bit down, it couldn’t break through my boots, they were artifacts, but its jaws did have massive pressure and I dimly felt the bone in my leg crack. The pain was dampened by Berserker and Troll Hide was already working to knit the bone back together and repair the deep bruising.
I whirled but the wolf was already gone. I limped forward a few steps while my regeneration slowly got to work. Another wolf jumped me from behind, this time I didn’t even turn just activated Phantom Form and let it pass through me and struck at it from behind. My attack didn’t kill the wolf outright, but it howled in agony spasming on the ground. I became physical again and struck down putting the wolf out of my misery. I continued forward like this trusting my Foresight as I counter attacked over and over instead of going on the defensive. I finally broke out of the honeycomb tunnel into a cavern.
Blood and Souls (Repeatable): Kill 10,240 monsters or humanoids. Current Progress 185 out of 10,240. When you complete this quest, you will gain 2,048 Rank Points, and the next quest will require double the amount to be completed but will award double the rank points.
My regeneration had fixed the damage to my leg, and I could put weight on it again. I looked about the cavern. It was low a single hole in ceiling letting in sunlight from above, the sunlight fell on a natural stone dais where a massive fury behemoth lay.
You have entered the Boss room of the Dungeon; your party cannot leave until one of you is dead. The rank of the boss will equal the highest rank of party members or the maximum rank for a Mortal. You will not all receive equal portions or Rank Points upon completion; instead, points will be awarded based on contributions and points will be deducted to pay for loot drops.
The mass of fur stood up revealing a wolf the size of a minivan. Her fur looked black at first but turned a pale silver when she stepped into the sunlight her eyes a bright yellow. She loosed a howl, and I felt a supernatural effect wash over me trying to make me flee or cower. I let the fear pass over me and growled in response anger pushing aside any desire to flee or thought of cowardice. I examined her, searching for weakness and the system popped up a message.
Ulvera the Wolf-mother, Gifted- Dungeon Boss/Beast, Rank 275
So, she was forty-five ranks higher than me, it would be a fair fight then.
Ulvera dropped down and began to circle me. I raised my hand my spearheads rotating midair. She dashed in fast. This time I wasn’t faster than my opponent I would have to guess that her Speed Attribute was as high as mine. I slashed down in a counterattack and felt her teeth bypass sink right through my skin like it was a hard cheese and rip into my thigh before she leapt away taking only a glancing strike from the claws on my left-hand club.
I looked down my pants were ripped and there were ragged wounds from her fangs in my diamond hard skin with blood pouring out like a river. If I had the option, I might have retreated to reassess the boss, but this was to the death, and she was coming at me again.
I dodged this time; I couldn’t rely on my skin’s hardness in this fight, but I’d been in plenty of fights were I didn’t even have it, so this wasn’t nothing new. I rolled across the ground and slashed with my right-hand club overhead as she passed over me ripping a deep wound in her belly. I spun and activated my helmet’s ability; I doubled in size making the giant wolf almost seem normal sized. She still came up to my waist and didn’t seemed phased in the least by the size difference between us now. She rushed me letting out a snarl my blood foaming pink in her mouth.
At the last second, she stepped into a shadow, my Foresight went blind to her existence the different possible futures distorted like an old staticky television screen. Any future possibility relating to Ulvera was blank now, something that I hadn’t ever seen before or not seen in this case.
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I attacked behind me blindly, but she dropped down on me from the ceiling. I pulled to the side fast enough to keep her teeth from sinking into my neck, but they still bit into my shoulder passing through the armor of my pauldron as if it wasn’t even there. She began to thrash her head tearing at my shoulder as she dug in. I grabbed her neck and fell back landing on top of her.
She let out a yelp and let go. I tried to pin her to the ground, but she wriggled free. I had dropped my right-hand club in the fight and now had to scramble to grab it. Ulvera was on my back in an instant, but I spun ramming a stone spearhead into her foreleg. She clawed at me with her claws I turned incorporeal, but her claws still cut into my ghostly body, I roared in pain before lashing out kicking her in the face. She stumbled back snarling her muzzle red with mine and her blood and dripping saliva. Spearheads launched at her from all directions, but she vanished into the shadows again.
My leg wound was healing I could feel, but very slowly. I got to my feet and spun as I felt and heard something behind me, Ulvera rushed past her teeth nipping at my wrist ripping away a bit of skin. She stepped into shadow again as I sent a hurricane of spearheads after her. I activated my ring cursing myself for forgetting as the stone-skin enchantment hardened my skin.
Ulvera appeared at my back again and I rolled to face her as she snapped down towards my head. I blocked with my left arm and her teeth bit down and held me like a vice. Her teeth didn’t dig in as deeply this time, but they still broke my skin; I grabbed the spear made from the fang of the saber cat and rammed it into her chest. It only went in six inches but she howled in pain letting me go and retreating.
She circled me again a deep growl rumbling in her chest. She lunged forward again this time I caught her jaws and held them apart instead of trying to block. With every wound I had inflicted on her in the fight my Might had gone up by two-and-a-half and I was able to hold her jaws apart. I strained as she tried to bite down and take off my fingers. I used her distraction to launch a dozen spearheads into her flank. She yanked back out of my grip her sides now coated in blood. My own wounds had yet to close, and I suspected she had some sort of ability to counter healing abilities.
I winced as I put weight down on my wounded leg, but I fought through it. One way or another this fight was almost over. Ulvera lunged forward and I dropped down stabbing forward in lunge meeting her charge. My spear took her in the neck right above the chest. She staggered for a moment, but I teleported next to her a death-adder dagger in one hand that I plunged up under her jaw. The Den Mother was finished, she collapsed, and I pulled out my bag of herbs I hadn’t used in a while and packed my wounds with Cauter Fennel the herb bursting into flames on contact with my blood sealing the wounds shut stopping the bleeding. I tossed back one of my homebrewed healing potions to replace my lost blood.
137 rank points gained.
Blood and Souls (Repeatable): Kill 10,240 monsters or humanoids. Current Progress 186 out of 10,240. When you complete this quest, you will gain 2,048 Rank Points, and the next quest will require double the amount to be completed but will award double the rank points.
Congratulations, you have cleared the Dungeon, Den of the Wolf Mother, solo. Due to this feat, you have received a bonus to the quality of your rewards.
Adamantine Bar (rare); A foot long bar of adamantine weighing twenty pounds, this magical metal is practically indestructible but due to its weight is typically only wielded by those with high Might Attributes.
Quantity:
3.
Cloak of the Forest Lord; (very rare): Crafted from the hide of one the Beast Lords of the past this cloak fills its wearer with bestial power and fury. When you kill an enemy while wearing this cloak you gain an instance of Blood Frenzy which lasts for three minutes and stacks with other instances of Blood Frenzy.
*Blood Frenzy; your damage is increased by a minor amount however your Perception Attribute is hampered as your vision turns red making it hard to tell friend from foe and you are filled with the singular desire to kill.
Durability:
40-40.
That was incredible, you need to fight more often, the voidling said. That felt like five days of food right there, your anger and hate from killing were incredible. How do you have that energy?
I ignored the voidling again as I read through the notifications.
The loot wasn’t as good as loot as my first dungeon, but I hadn’t discovered this one. The three adamantine bars could be very useful. The last item was the most interesting but also the one I was least sure of, doing more damage was great but the disadvantages in the description were way more than the single buff it gave me. I sighed and put on the cloak, civilization and the other champions had already framed me as the villain, and I would need all the help I could get.
The cloak was made from the pelt of wolf very similar to that of Ulva appearing a dark silver in light and fading to charcoal black when in shadow, like the nemean lion this pelt had a faint stripped pattern on it like a tigers but not as stark a contrast. It was fastened with a silver chain and hung down to my knees, even though it was brand new it already had a tattered, savage look to it. As I looked it over, I saw runes etched into the chain. I took off the cape and now saw that a circle of runes had been painted onto the back of the hide Exited I pulled out my storage pouch reaching in and pulling out my backpack. I copied the runes into my sketchbook on their own page writing the description of what the effect of the enchantment was. I had copies of the runes for all my magic items, I didn’t know how to copy them yet but with my knowledge of the Old Magic I could actually somewhat read the runes.
I put my sketchbook and backpack in my new storage pouch and reequipped all my magic items. It was time to leave the dungeon return to my vassals. I had met with Wolf Clan and didn’t need them here anymore, so I’d send them back to our base tomorrow and head out on my own to deal with the other clans and beast lords.
---
Guinevere looked at the bridge spanning the river and frowned. “It almost seems like a trap,” she said.
“A bridge seems like a trap?” Jamis asked.
“There haven’t been any bridges crossing this river for over four centuries,” Helen said. “The water is to wide, deep and flows to fast for conventional construction and there isn’t any real need for us to build one.”
“Which means whoever we are chasing is the one who built this,” Guinevere said. “And just left it behind giving us an easy route across the river, it would have taken us days to cross normally.”
“So, he has a construction power,” Ishtor snorted. His massive amphibian eyes looked down at the black stone construction with distain. “What the big deal about that?”
“His construction is extremely strong,” Chritor said setting down his anvil. He brought out one of the stone spearheads they had been coming across and set it down, pulling out his hammer he raised it high above his head. “Titanic Strike!” he shouted activating an ability.
The hammer came down on the stone spearhead, sparks flew but the spearhead remained intact with only a chip of stone flaking off of it.
“What is the hardness of this stone?” Felrick asked.
“Fourteen,” Chritor said. “It would take massive amounts of mana to craft this bridge and three times as much to destroy and structure like it.”
“The Warlord has historically been very good at taking territory but bad at keeping it,” Helen said. “How likely is it that this one will have the patience to wait in a fortification while we besiege him?”
“You are assuming this is the Warlord,” Mira said. “We still don’t know that.”
“I feel its more and more likely,” Guinevere said pointing to the north-west. “We’ve been heading this direction for a while, about another week’s journey is the Wolf Clan’s territory. The myrmidons have long been followers of Kelesa and servants of the Warlord, if anyone would be headed to their territory it would be him.”
“Then we need to follow his trail quickly before he gains an even larger army,” Helen said. “Alright everyone lets take advantage of this bridge the Warlord was kind enough to leave for us. We march all day and into the night if we have too. His tracks are only a few days old and I want us nipping at his heels.”