“Haa… Haa….”
The encounter itself wasn’t close to being a life-threatening battle. While the scorpion possessed tough shells and high defense, its slow movement and predictable attacks made it easy prey once you figured out how it moved.
Walking over the lifeless corpse of my recent kill, I skimmed through the quiet forest around me, checking if there were others waiting between the trees.
Once I confirmed that it was safe, I re-opened my status page and assigned the newly gained stats to my physical and strength respectively. Speed isn’t an issue at the moment, what I need now is pure muscle power.
The experiment went a little further than I planned. Initially, I only wanted to see what moves it had and retreat, yet I scratched that idea when my spear bounced off its claws. Since then, I kept coming up with new ideas about how to circumvent its incredible defenses, eventually resorting to throwing a conjured spear to conceal my actual attack.
Speaking of throwing a spear… That marked the first time I’ve done it with my less dominant arm. There was an awkwardness there, but it was still a good throw, even if it only resulted in it bouncing off the shell. I’d estimate that the power behind that throw was about half of the strength of my fully powered thrust.
A light haze of dark smoke emanated from the spot where the spear dropped after it was thrown. To my surprise, the conjured weapon is still intact, lasting significantly longer than how it was a few days ago.
The culprit of its longevity was the level of skill, which currently stood at 5. Dark arsenal’s weaponry increased in strength and duration per level, but of course, the downside would be that it costs 50% more now than it was when I first got it.
Well, of course, it dissipated into thin smoke right before I reached it.
The day was still young when I marched deeper into the forest, aiming to hunt the scorpions that were alone.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
“What? 14?”
“Shhh… Keep it quiet!”
Deep inside a tent that was secluded far away from the others, Julie and Amanda were discussing the strange person they encountered when they returned from their recent hunt.
That man was Zane. At least, that was the name that was shown when Amanda analyzed him. He was perhaps the strongest person she has met so far, eclipsing even Reghan, the so-called leader of the encampment.
“Are you sure?” Julie asked Amanda again, slightly in disbelief at the sheer disparity between them. “We’ve all worked hard to gain levels, taking close to no breaks every day, and somehow, he’s so far ahead of us?”
“I don’t know what he did, but my skill has never lied to me before.” Amanda insisted.
Julie’s brow furrowed, curious about the methods which Zane had used to gain levels, and admittedly, she was jealous of his accomplishment. “He’s alone, isn’t he? And that spear… he must’ve been the one that killed all those wolves from before.” She remarked, glancing over at the other party members outside.
“Yeah… There’s no doubt about it.” Amanda replied, catching on to Julie’s hidden meaning with that look.
While the idea of gaining all the experience and loot alone interests her, She knew fully that she won’t be able to handle a lot of the enemies on her own, not when her fighting style requires a lot of attention to be drawn away from her.
In Julie’s case, she was safe as long as she had the distance advantage at the start of the fight. But if the one she fought closed that gap quickly, then she will be in deep trouble.
“What about Reghan? Does he know?” Shifting her gaze towards Amanda, Julie stepped deeper into the tent, wary about their conversation being heard from the outside. “We have to keep this between us for now, you understand?”
“Relax… I’m not that insensitive.”, Shrugging, Amanda stared at the outside. The current belief inside the encampment was that Reghan is the strongest, and that allowed the others to place their full trust in him. Once that belief was shaken, who knows what’s going to happen?
The girls recognized Reghan was not as nice as he appeared to be. Leading a large group of people requires a high degree of leadership skills, and that includes being able to keep up appearances and appealing to people’s fears and their need for safety. So far, Reghan had done a tremendous job at keeping the peace here, but how long could he keep it up?
Unfortunately, those who believed in Reghan’s strength ended up being those who were the least capable and the least willing to fight. Julie had always moaned about the unwillingness of some of the so-called builders to fight and get stronger, hiding behind the walls as if Reghan and the others would always protect them.
“We’ll ask Zane if we see him again.” Julie said, grazing her red hair. “Now, we have to prepare for the wave. Let’s aim for the highest contribution this time. At this rate, we’ll all reach level 10 when the first wave ended.”
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
A few hours had passed since my first scorpion kill. Afterwards, I found a few more that were isolated from their brethren, then hunted them down with the same strategy, a distraction with a conjured spear, then followed up with a direct attack at its mouth. None of them proved to be much of a threat, not when they were alone.
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[Congratulations! You gained a level!]
[The Coveted Shadow class has leveled up! You gained : + 2 dexterity, +1 Capacity, +1 Intelligence, +1 Strength, +1 Constitution]
As a result, I gained another level, this time including my class level. Skills-wise, Spear mastery, dagger mastery, and dark arsenal gradually improved the more I used them, increasing each of their levels by 1.
Assigning my newly gained attributes, I looked over my status sheet once more.
Player : Zane Black
Race : [G - HUMAN]
Level : 16
Health : 460/460
Stamina : 254/460
Mana : 32/160
———————————————————————————————————————————————————
ATTRIBUTES
Physical [22] :
[Strength] - 46[base : 22] [sub + achv :18] [equipment :5] [bonus 1% : 1]
[Dexterity] - 58 [base : 22] [sub + achv :30] [equipment : 2] [bonus 6% : 4]
[Constitution] - 41 [base : 22] [sub + achv : 18] [equipment :0] [bonus 1% : 1]
Mind [0] :
[Intelligence] - 11 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 10] [equipment :0] [bonus 1% : 1]
[Willpower] - 4 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 3] [equipment :0] [bonus 1% : 1]
[Capacity] - 11 [base : 0] [sub + achv : 10] [equipment :0] [bonus 1% : 1]
[Free Main Attribute points : 0 ]
[Free Sub Attribute points : 0 ]
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
Classes :
[The coveted Shadow - epic (8)]
Skills :
[Daggers mastery - novice(2)] [Spear mastery - novice(7)] [Sword mastery - Novice(3)] [Dark arsenal - novice (6)] [Shadow step - epic]
Achievements :
[Death’s door(2)] [Big game hunter] [The first of many] [the trial seeker] [Mark of the elite]
Affinities :
[]
Talents :
[Innate sensory]
After assigning my newly gained attribute points to physical and strength again, my attention was shifted towards a gleaming object towards my right.
That object was something that I was very familiar with.
It was another obelisk, this time golden in color, yet no floating balls were found nearby this time. I sneaked closer to the Obelisk and the system message appeared when I was within an arm’s distance away.
[Portal - Golden tier coffin. Enter, and clear the trial to unlock the bounties within.]
[You do not have the portal key.]
Unlike the first blue obelisk, there was no glowing ball to be found this time. Perhaps its being chased around by a scorpion somewhere else, but I heavily doubt it.
To make sure that I didn’t miss the key by accident, I circled the area around the obelisk multiple times, hoping to find some sort of clue about the whereabouts of the key. My effort proved fruitless, however, as there was nothing remotely unusual in this part of the forest.
At the very least, I’ve tried.
Returning to the obelisk again, I walked in the direction where I found the highest concentration of those scorpions, assuming that the dungeon had to be there. Otherwise, if I failed to find anything, I’ll return and wait nearby their encampment.
Sneaking past the trees, I trekked through a significant amount of distance before I was met with a strange structure amidst a forest clearing. I dedicated all of my attention to the anomaly, discerning the details with a closer look.
There were a set of 4 man-made stone pillars in front of a staircase. Upon a further inspection, that staircase reached quite deep into the underground, but I couldn’t see past a few meters from up here.
No questioning it now. That has to be the dungeon.
I leaped towards the pillars with caution, wary about the possibility of a random attack, or even worse, the same trap that almost led to my death a few days ago. Nothing of that sort happened though, as I sigh in relief before a system message confirmed my guess.
[Dungeon - The tomb of the warrior - Tzatch]
Finally. A dungeon.
The [Dungeon] title of this place implies that the previous cave I was trapped in was not a proper one. A heavy sense of apprehension locked my feet on the stone floor, refusing to let me budge.
I was unsure if I could tackle this dungeon at this level. Sure, I’m a lot stronger since the fight with the Ant Queen, and yes, I’ve gained so much more experience in fighting non-human things, but still…
If I considered the levels of the scorpions that were found nearby, there was a strong possibility that the boss here would be around level 25 ish, which was an enormous gap that I couldn’t compensate with luck and skill.
And yet….
There’s something down there that is calling out to me. From the [innate sense] talent, I could smell the same sweet aroma that came from the onyx hyacinth emitted from deep inside the dungeon. Albeit, the smell was less prevalent this time.
I could take the risk and delve into the tomb for a few hours, leaving when I felt it got too dangerous. While the possibilities of being trapped were present, I have more tools and escape mechanisms this time. Hell, losing my spear wouldn’t be nearly as dangerous as it used to be, since I could summon any weapon I needed at any time.
The downsides of entering this time? Well, I have no potions left. Rations are useful but I don’t have any access to regaining health quickly when push comes to shove.
Crossing my arms, I tapped my feet on the floor rapidly as I internalize the discussion in my head. Risk versus rewards…
One hour. I thought to myself. I’ll enter just for one hour.
Steeling myself, I entered the dungeon with a cautious grin on my face.