Feeling nothing from the intense heat of the flames. I grabbed the first one by the top of its mouth, slamming it into the ground, mana enhancing my every move. It's skull crushed under the blow. I moved onto the next, wreathed in flames, I crushed the bones and organs of the drakes one after another. Eventually they stopped their onslaught of fire and turned to biting and slashing at me, to the same effect, I wove in between their attacks, dodging each by a hair's breadth and striking out with my own attacks, sending drakes flying. The pack of drakes was about fifty in number by my count and I had just killed over twenty in under ten seconds. The only problem was the holes in the walls that I neglected to notice. More of these drakes were pouring out of them. I continued to tear my way through the pack, but it looked as if my efforts were in vain as the overall number of drakes grew instead of decreased.
"Damnit." I growled, I knew I could just wipe them all out but where was the fun in that? It was then a message popped up.
RIVAL PARTY ENTERED THE DUNGEON DEFEAT THE BOSS FIRST TO EARN THE REWARDS.
"What?" I muttered as I crushed the skull of a Drake and flung its body at some of its brethren. I let loose some of the mana I had and time slowed. I leapt over the pack of drakes and landed cleanly on the other side, the beasts moving as if through toffee to face me. At the far end of the hall I could see something, a figure dressed in black armour, head bear. The head of the person was unlike any I'd seen before, it was somewhat translucent, a red colour with what looked like veins going through its jelly like flesh. No bone, but it walked as if it had some and in its hand was a massive axe. It walked in slow motion as I was channeling a lot of mana, but it tipped it's head to me. It then launched itself at me. I instinctively readied my fists, but it soared over my head, it's axe carving a groove in the stone ceiling above. It's movements were quick and swift now, did it have such high agility? With mine, I could concentrate and move a but faster than this, but it also weilded such a large axe with ease. It swept the blade of the weapon through the enemy, slicing in half most of the drakes with several sweeps. I looked behind me, waiting for its allies to show up. Only then did I realise that it didn't have any, it was soloing the dungeon. Like me. I decided to appraise it.
APPRAISAL UNSUCCESSFUL
'What? It's at max level, it should always work.' I thought, bewildered, to myself.
APPRAISAL UNSUCCESSFUL
'Damn.' I made my decision then, I wouldn't take this dungeon easy.
I activated my arcane form, spreading myself thin until I reached the main chamber and then coalleced there. I concentrated millions of points of mana in a ball and blasted it out in a beam towards where the mana was flowing. Coins and goblets melted before the intense energy of the beam. The pile shook and then erupted as a dragon the size of a small city burst forth, spreading its wings. I became incorporial as a wing sliced through the air where I was floating. The dragon's scales where I was blasting it were steaming, but unaffected by the ray.
'Immune to fire damage.'
The dragon glared at my inhuman form and then looked towards the roof of the chamber and leapt. The solid rock ceiling broke apart about the dragon's large bulk and magma poured in. The sky opened up and the dragon flew out. I rocketed after it, soaring up above the shattered mountain top. I saw that below, boulders from the top of the mountain, caked in lava were falling towards small towns. I outstretched my hand and placed a barrier about each town I saw within the blast zone, shielding them against the debris. I then created a massive hammer, one made from mythril, and brought it down upon Ashardalon. A great crack sounded and the beast readjusted it's flight to accommodate the broken bones, it turned to me and roared, unleashing magma in a hot stream. I was unfazed by it, destroying the hammer and darting towards the dragon, unseen. As I hovered above it, zoning in on it for the final blow, I caught sight of something moving at an insane speed towards the dragon, it was that slime in the armour. Glaring, I grabbed a hold of the dragon's nape and channeled my destructive magic on it, it's scales turned black, evaporating into ash then nothingness. Only the scales did so, the raw flesh underneath was untouched. Frustrated, I formed a ball of mana, structuring it as a destructive spell, the same type as the one I used in the flame elemental dungeon. I let the spell activate and swiftly moved away from the dragon. The slime collided with the dragon, I could see the impact even from above, it must have a terrible strength. But my spell was what did the trick, an orb of death expanded and vaporised the dragon's neck and part of its head, killing the beast.
YOU HAVE SLAIN - ASHARDALON
LEVEL UP!
DUNGEON QUEST COMPLETE
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
+300 ABILITY POINTS
+50 SKILL POINTS
+60 TO ALL STATS
DUNGEON SPECIFIC ARTIFACT
DUNGEON SPECIFIC ARTIFACT
LOOT BOX
DRACONIC LOOT BOX
DO YOU ACCEPT THE REWARDS?
Y/N
I looked about, stunned to find the slime flying alongside me in the air, underneath it's red flesh some of its veins were glowing white. The slime didn't look like it displayed any emotion, but it was looking off into space as far as I could tell.
"Join my nation." A low, gutteral voice echoed all around me.
The slime was now looking at me.
"Was that you?" I said, voice reverberating with power.
The slime nodded. "Join my nation, caster."
"I'm sorry?"
"Join my nation, I am building a nation near here, one fit for monsterous races like me."
"No?"
"You will gain power from it, and I will gain power from you as well. What do you say?" The slime held out an armoured hand.
"I'll think about it." I said, pulling myself into the source.
The slime disappeared and I was left alone, in my mansion of crystallised mana with my message screen.
I tapped Y.
I checked my skills and saw that my individual skill was level seventy three. That was within range of my skill points. I decided to max it out.
QUEST COMPLETE - CREATIONISM
SKILL UPGRADE - UNAVAILABLE
+25 ABILITY POINTS
COMPENSATION REWARDS:
+20 SKILL POINTS
In return for being unable to upgrade my skill, it had given me skill points, a pretty decent trade.
I turned to allotting my points.
Once I was happy with the allotment, I sat back in my chair and put my feet up. They were still in the clothing that I had made in this place, it seemed that I switched to that every time, I was even in my flesh and bone form as well. I then decided to go back.
The world shifted and changed around me and I was back above the falling corpse of the dragon.
"What do you mean you'll think about it?" The slime next to me said.
'Non-linear my ass' I thought, when I was in the source, time didn't move at all. On the bright side I was still in my arcane form.
"I'll decide later. Can I ask your name?" I said, looking at where I thought the slime's head was, if it even had one.
"I'm Layman Steele. King of Altheron and you are?" It asked.
"I'm Yolen Arcanum, owner of the source." I thought I'd whip out my titles that I thought I'd use. "Arcane Lord, Undead King and keeper of the lord flame." I had just reused some of my skill names but hopefully they would be deemed true.
"Well, Owner of the Source? Once you do decide, my land is west of here, look for the city made from black crystal."
"I will." I moved to leave, rotating in the air. "Goodbye, then."
"Farewell."
With that, I spread my body thin and coalesced atop a spire of the nation's capital. I became flesh again and studied my map, the great distance to the floor beneath me, not bothering in the slightest.
I had defeated a gold rank dungeon, the next up was a diamond rank, there was one in the country.
But it was in progress..