Yes.
As soon as Mason mentally clicked yes, he was transported inside the dungeon. He blinked, surprised, looking around at his surroundings. There was no jerking sensation like the past two times he had been transported. He wondered if it was because he wasn't falling this time or if it was something else. Mason shook his head, clearing his thoughts to focus on the task in front of him. He was in a small cave with three paths leading in different directions. Before he could choose which way to go a notification popped up in front of him.
[Dungeon tutorial: Since this is your first dungeon a short explanation will be given. Dungeons are unique locations that randomly spawn in the world. They can be filled with anything, nothing is impossible in a dungeon. However, all dungeons have one thing in common, loot! Most of the time, dungeons have multiple floors. After every floor, you will be given the option to leave. However, the deeper you go, the greater rewards you will receive when leaving. If you defeat the boss on the bottom floor, your rewards will be even greater! Have fun adventuring!]
After reading through the notification, Mason picked the left path and started walking. After about 30 minutes, Mason came to a bend in the cave wall when he heard something clicking against the ground up ahead. He quickly crouched down and started sneaking up to the wall. Leaning around the corner, Mason saw a big room with a weird spider hermit crab monster. It looked like if you took a tarantula and shoved it inside of a hermit crab shell. It had eight hairy legs sticking out of a large shell, with pincers sticking out of where the head should be. Since you couldn't see the head it kind of just looked like a rock with legs. What is that thing?
As if in response to his question a small box appeared over the monster's head. [Jumping Hermit (Level 8)] Alright, time to see how large of a difference 8 levels makes. Mason looked down at the longsword strapped to his side then at the jumping hermit's shell. Hmm, my sword probably can't break through that shell. I'll try and chop some of its legs off first. I could try sneaking up on it but... Mason stood up from his crouch and started walking up behind the monster with a smile on his face. This will be my first fight in a few years, hopefully I'm no too rusty.
Mason started running towards the monster, blade held in front of him. When he was 10 feet away, it turned towards him and screeched, though it sounded weird, it didn't sound like it came form the monster itself but from the roof of the cave. Either way, Mason soon reached the creature and swung his sword down on its two front left legs. His sword went straight through its legs with no resistance at all and banged against the floor, his momentum causing him to stumble.
Spinning around, Mason saw the "spider" standing there unharmed in front of him. A blur dropped down from the ceiling where he was previously standing. *BOOM* A huge wave of dust shot up from the cave floor from the force of something slamming into the ground. Unable to see what had landed and needing to react quickly, Mason did the only thing he could think of and roundhouse kicked the hidden object causing it to go flying across the room and hit the wall across from him. As he kicked it, he heard a loud crack. Something broke in his foot.
Wincing in pain but not wanting to lose his momentum, Mason rushed over and used [Power Strike] on what he could now see was a jumping hermit, aiming to slice all four of its right legs off. The spider leaped back onto the floor causing it to only get a light scratch on its front leg. Pulling his sword back, Mason struck at the spider again, but it dodged. Mason kept swinging but it was too fast for him, even disoriented from its crash earlier. Not only that, but it was recovering quickly, it stats clearly much higher than Mason's.
After these missed swings the spider started going on the offensive, it started jumping from wall to wall, trying to hit Mason on the way. The spider was a blur, moving much faster than Mason could keep up with. However, it was clear that this creature was an ambush predator and not one made for head on fights. After a while, its attacks were predictable, and it only had one mode of attack, throwing its weight around. After figuring out its timing Mason backed up to the wall and waited for it to jump at him. At the last moment he moved out of the way. Before it could slam into the wall, it flipped and landed gracefully. Mason was already swinging his sword down where its legs would be when it landed.
[Power Strike]. Slicing down with all of his strength, Mason started cleaving through the monsters set of legs on its right side, finishing the work he started. He only managed to chop off two of the legs before the monster hopped off of the wall at him, slamming him to the ground and knocking the wind out of him, it was much heavier than he thought. The spider launched off of him, shoving him even deeper into the ground. Mason stood up on wobbly legs, still trying to catch his breath. He looked around for the spider but he had lost track of it while standing up.
*CRACK* The spider slammed into Mason's back and he let out a loud scream as he slammed back down onto the ground, his head ringing against the stone. He flipped over onto his back, trying to wiggle away from the monster. But the monster bit into him with its pincers, latching on and refusing to let go. Mason screamed out in pain and tried to hit it with his sword but the angle meant he couldn't generate enough power in his strikes.
Giving up on the sword Mason wrapped his hands around the spiders pincers and started pulling. The serrated edge on the pincers made it feel like he was cutting his fingers off. The spider started digging its remaining legs into his abdomen. He was starting to get woozy from the blood loss and pain. In a last ditch effort Mason let out a roar, and with a burst of strength, pulled the pincers out of his chest before flipping the spider on its back.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Mason scrambled up, his broken foot throbbing and multiple holes in his chest leaking blood. However, he stopped when he saw the sight in front of him and started laughing. The monster was stuck on its back. The spider was so heavy in the middle that once on its back it was unable to flip itself back over. Mason grabbed his sword and chopped at the spiders legs, lopping them all off. Once he finished with that and ensured that even if it flipped over it wouldn't be able to hurt him, he shoved his sword straight into the hole where the pincers came from and heard a loud squelching sound.
[Jumping Hermit (level 8) defeated]
[Enemy of a much higher level defeated, increasing rewards]
[You reached level 4!]
Mason laid there on the stone floor, breathing heavily, covered in blood both his and his enemies. Eventually, he rolled over onto his side and sat up against the wall. After getting comfortable, he decided to check his status.
[Status:
Name: Mason Decker
Race: Human
Grade: Unranked
Class: Warrior
Level: 4
Dao: N/A
Soul Power: Unknown
Magical Affinities: Unknown
Spells: N/A
Health: 200/620 (Regen 60/9 min 55 secs)
Stamina: 140/300 (Regen 30/57 secs)
Mana: 140/160 (Regen 10/30 mins)
Passive Skills (2/5):
Novice Swordsmanship (Basic)
Poison Resistance (Common)
Active Skills (2/5):
Power Strike (Common)
Novice Grit (Basic)
Titles: Lucky
Achievements: Cheater of death
Stats:
Strength: 19
Dexterity: 14
Endurance: 20
Vitality: 28
Perception: 9
Wisdom: 7
Intelligence: 6
Mind: 9
Free points: 8
]
Mason let out a long sigh looking at his health total. He was honestly surprised that it wasn't lower with all of his injuries. He also was grateful for the health increase, as he would've been dead almost twice over if he hadn't gotten it. He also analyzed how leveling up seemed to affect him. Max health is set by Vitality, he also feels a little tougher, so maybe it helps with defense as well. While max stamina and regen for stamina and health are covered by endurance. Finally, every other level you get +1 to all stats, and every level you get 2 free points to spend.
Now, the question is what to spend my free points on. Mason thought about this for a while, however, he ended up deciding on Vitality and Strength. They were both clearly integral for his class anyway. And also while Mason was always gifted at fighting, he always preferred a straight brawl to a battle of technique, and these stats helped him do that. With a mental click, Mason spent his free points and pulled up his stats.
[
Stats:
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 14
Endurance: 20
Vitality: 35
Perception: 9
Wisdom: 7
Intelligence: 6
Mind: 9
Free points: 0
]
That boost in Vitality had brought his max health up from 620 to 725, he wasn't sure exactly what the Strength boost did, but it made him feel better mentally now that Strength was at a flat 20 instead of 19. Closing out of his menu's, Mason looked around the cavern that he had been brought into a little more thoroughly. After all the fake shit that he had been seeing he wanted to make sure he wasn't in any danger from hidden rooms or anything.
Looking around, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, all of the walls looked the exact same. Right as Mason was starting his second scan of the cavern, he noticed something. The right and left walls of the cave looked literally the exact same, and he didn't mean that sarcastically. Mason stood up, wincing due to his wounds and hobbled over to the right wall. There was a small crack in it, followed by a small divot that went towards the floor.
Looking back at the left wall again, the same divot and crack were there. Mason walked over to the left wall and reached out to it, and like he suspected, when he tried to touch it, his hand went right through it.
[Skill notification:
Focused Sight (Common): Allows the user to focus their vision on a specific target. When in use, the user can see farther and in more detail, allowing them to spot traps or illusions. Hard to use while moving. Cost: 10 stamina/min Type: Active
]
Mason stared at the notification in surprise. Man, I'm starting to rack up these skills. I'm gonna be out of skill slots pretty soon. Getting himself ready for whatever could be on the other side of the wall, Mason readied his sword then rushed through the illusion.
[You've found one of the secret safe rooms in the Oasis dungeon, monsters cannot find you here and you will regenerate faster while in these rooms. However, you can only use each room once. Once you leave, you can never enter again.]
Mason let out a deep breath and looked around the safe room. It was a pretty small room, around 10x10 feet. There was a small pond in the corner with clear water and that's about it. Mason walked over to the pool and took a cautious sip. He Waited a few seconds to see if he would be poisoned again, when nothing happened, he drank until he wasn't thirsty anymore and filled up his waterskin.
Mason stayed in the safe room until all of his resource pools were full and then headed out. As soon as he exited the room, he turned around to see what was stopping him from re-entering only to be shocked when he saw it was a completely different wall now. He ran his hand along it and it was no different from any other wall in the cave, perfectly solid.
Shaking his head, Mason turned around and started to head down the tunnel leading out of the room he had been in. This had only been the first of many monster he'd face in this dungeon he was sure. He had a lot more monster slaying ahead of him.
