Mason awoke with a groan and rolled over to his back. "I'm getting real tired of waking up like this." He slowly got onto his knees, then his feet and walked over to the corpse of the adult rock spider and sat on it. Fuck you, stupid rock. Lets see what I missed.
[Missed skill notifications:
Retribution (Uncommon): If you are hit for more than 50% of your HP in one attack you may make one attack that deals your normal damage plus the damage dealt by that enemy. Modifiers to your damage are then added to that added total. Cost: 100 stamina. Type: Active
]
Well that explains how I was able to kill that big spider even though it was much higher level than me. I must have stacked [Retribution] and [Power Strike].
[Missed title notifications:
Big Game Hunter (Rare): Defeat a monster 10 or more levels above you alone. Effect: When fighting a creature that is 10 or more levels above you, you gain +5 to all stats.
Healthy (Uncommon): Have 1000 HP or more at level 15 or below. Effect: +5 VIT
]
That's it? After everything I went through I only get a conditional +5 to all stats? This is some horse shit. After spending some more time lamenting the unfairness of the world, Mason checked his last notification.
[Missed loot drop notifications:
Spellbook of Minor Illusion
]
After reading through the notification, a bland looking book appeared in Mason's hand. He looked at the front and back but there really was nothing special about it. Shrugging his shoulders, he tried to open it.
[Would you like to learn the spell Minor Illusion? Y/N
Minor Illusion: Allows you to conjure false images or sounds. They can be no bigger than a 5x5 cube, and no louder than a shout. Cost: 10MP
]
Mentally clicking yes the book started rapidly flipping pages and a light spilled out onto Mason's face. Then in a final flash of light the book disappeared. Not feeling any different, Mason opened up his status to see what changed.
[Status:
Name: Mason Decker
Race: Human
Grade: Unranked
Class: Warrior
Level: 11
Dao: N/A
Soul Power: Unknown
Magical Affinities: Unknown
Spells: Minor Illusion
Health: 1250/1250(Regen 120/10 mins)
Stamina: 460/460 (Regen 40/min)
Mana: 180/180 (Regen 10/30 mins)
Passive Skills (2/5):
Novice Swordsmanship (Basic)
Poison Resistance (Common)
Active Skills (4/5):
Power Strike (Common)
Inner Grit (Basic)
Focused Sight (Common)
Retribution (Uncommon)
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Titles(3/3): Lucky, Big Game Hunter, Healthy
Achievements: Cheater of death
Stats:
Strength: 37
Dexterity: 24
Endurance: 15
Vitality: 56 (+5)
Resistance: 42
Perception: 12
Wisdom: 10
Intelligence: 9
Mind: 12
Free points: 14
]
Interested in what his new ability could do, Mason tried activating his new spell. [Minor Illusion]... Nothing happened, Mason tried a few more times, but he couldn't get anything to work. Letting out a deep breath, he cleared his mind and thought of doing what the spiders did. He pictured a copy of himself standing in front of him, [Minor Illusion].
Slowly, a very hazy outline of what could vaguely be described as a humanoid appeared in front of Mason. "This thing fucking sucks, can I get a refund on my rewards please, I almost died for this" Mason shouted to the heavens above him. Whatever. he thought. He decided that spending his free points would make him feel better.
Looking around at his surroundings, and at the place where the hole in his abdomen used to be, Mason decided to dump all of his stats into Vitality to try and stop any sneak attacks from killing him. Pulling up his stat sheet again, his vitality was getting pretty damn impressive.
[Stats:
Strength: 37
Dexterity: 24
Endurance: 15
Vitality: 70 (+5)
Resistance: 42
Perception: 12
Wisdom: 10
Intelligence: 9
Mind: 12
Free points: 0
]
That increase brought his maximum health to a whopping 1460. At this rate he might get so tanky he won't have to dodge attacks at all, at least he would like to hope that could happen at some point. Standing up from his rocky throne, he walked over to the entrance and picked up his backpack and set to walking back down the hallway.
It turns out he had chosen the hardest path from the beginning. The rest of the tunnel he had been on previously came to a dead-end. The middle path was very short, with only one room with two spiders in it followed by a safe room. At least the saferoom was nice though, he took a long time to rest in there and took a bath in the clear spring, he was getting a little gross from all the crusted blood.
Finally, the right path seemed to be a dead end but was actually an illusory wall that lead to the floor exit. He hadn't even gained anymore levels this floor. Mason walked up to the exit, it looked exactly like the entrance to the dungeon did, a normal wooden door. He placed his hand on the handle and a notification pooped up like he expected.
[Door to the second floor of the Oasis Dungeon. Would you like to go to the next floor or exit the dungeon?]
His mental hand hovering over the exit button, Mason hesitated. Yes, this had been a terrible experience, he had almost died multiple times, but when had that ever stopped him. In the face of something new and exciting, when had he ever stepped down because he was afraid of dying. Most of all, when had he ever given up on a good fight? Never. His decision made, he selected the button to move to the next floor.
As soon as he clicked the button, he appeared in a new cave with only two pathways this time, one to his left and one to his right. This one was even darker than the last, he could barely see. He did his best to scan his surroundings with [Focused Sight] to make sure he was safe, but the reduced lighting made it difficult.
Once he decided that he was most likely safe, he had to choose which pathway to go down. The left walkway looked almost pristine, which made him very suspicious of what was down that path. The right pathway on the other hand was dented, and had clear marks from where something had dragged along the ground. It could be rock spiders, but something about the indents made him think otherwise.
After some deliberation, he ended up choosing the right path. The left path gave him an uneasy feeling. Plus he wanted to see what kind of monster made the marks on the ground on the right path.
It was slow going walking through the tunnel. It was so dark that he could barely see 10 feet in front of him, so he used [Focused Sight] to try and compensate. luckily his stamina regen more than outpaced the cost of the skill. After a mile of walking, grating sounds, like stone being rubbed against stone started echoing down the tunnel. Every step he took further down the path the noise got louder.
Eventually, he found the entrance to a large room in the cave and peered inside to see what was going on. He strained his vision, trying to see past the darkness. It wasn't hard to find the origin of the noise since it was so loud. There were two monkeys walking around the inside of the room. The grating sound was from their incredibly long arms dragging on the ground behind them. Their fists seemed to have some sort of rock like material growing on them. They were about as tall as the adult spider but much skinnier.
Mason analyzed the monkeys to see what he was dealing with. [Stone Fist Monkey (Level 12)], [Stone Fist Monkey (Level 13)]. Ok, they weren't too much higher level than he was. Now he just needed to come up with a plan of attack. He could try a rushing strategy again, but these didn't have an obvious weakness like the rock spiders. Mason stopped thinking, and peered inside the room again, the grating sound had stopped. He looked inside to see both of the monkeys staring at him.
*HOOOOO* Both of the monkeys howled and beat their chests. Mason drew his sword in response and backed up further into the tunnel, he hoped the narrow space would help him. Before he could start to formulate a plan, the monkeys charged at him.
Mason braced himself as the first monkey made it to him and swung its rock covered fist straight at his chest. He barely managed to get his sword in the way before it landed, its reach much longer than he thought it would be. *CLANG* A loud ringing sound rang out when the monkeys hand collided with his sword, and he was shoved backwards a few feet.
Mason fixed his footing and dodged the second monkey that jumped at him. He tried to [Power Strike] it in mid-air but it grabbed onto his leg with its foot and swung around onto his back. Mason dropped his sword and grabbed at the monkey on his back but it kept moving before he could grab it.
While he delt with the monkey on his back, the first monkey launched itself at him again, swinging its fists wildly at him. Mason activated [Inner grit] and slammed down onto his back dodging underneath the monkeys assault while trying to crush the one on his back.
The monkey on his back realized what he was doing and jumped off of him before he fully landed, though its foot still got caught underneath him and now had a large crack running down the side. The two monkeys grouped up, the one limping slightly. Mason grabbed his sword off the ground and turned towards the monkeys. "Round two motherfuckers."
