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Chapter 4
Dungeon
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"Finally!" Efrain shouted. "It's about time!"
Raising his head off of his pillow, Conor asked what was going on.
"There is a subjugation quest!"
Sleepily, Conor mumbled "Oh, cool. That's fun… Wait what?!"
He shot out of bed like a rocket and suited up. Even though the kids had only been in the city for a week, they had a great presence in the inn, and they were great friends with Noah. Down the stairs they ran, passing by Noah in a flurry.
Noah was quite confused "Woah there kids! Where are you two off to this early in the morning?"
"A subjugation quest within our rank finally showed up in the guild and we have to grab it today!"
Chuckling heartily, Noah sent them on their way. They zipped and dashed through the streets and burst through the doors of the guild, expecting the usual chaos to be there, only to be quite surprised.
The only living thing in the whole guild besides them was the receptionist, and she looked tired out of her mind. "Yawn…. Mornin' boys. What are you doing up so early?"
As Conor snatched the quest they wanted, Efrain talked to the receptionist "We're here to accept our first request! We only wanted subjugation ones, not collection quests, so we had to wait a while."
She giggled "You guys know that most of the herb quests will involve fighting? Most of the collection quests are for rare herbs, often found near monster hotspots."
Efrain blushed "Oh, I see. Well, here is the quest that we would like to take"
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Subjugation Quest, Rank E
Kill 10 Goblins
Proof: 10x Goblin Ears
Reward: 75 Silvers
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When the receptionist punched out their ticket, they excitedly grabbed it and rushed outside. Once again, they ran to the entrance of the city. Upon their arrival, Conor went to talk to the guards. "Do you know where we can find some goblins?"
The guard nodded towards the Northern Plains. "You can find a Rank E dungeon in the Northern Plains. It looks like a big pile of rocks, but has a staircase in the middle. There is a boss every ten floors, and a miniboss every five. Don't kill yourselves."
Already dashing away, they yelled back "We won't, and thank you!"
The walk towards the dungeon was taking longer than the two thought, so they went over some things.
"Hey Efrain, how much LP do you have? We can use it in a pinch if needed."
"I have 10910 LP left. I would prefer it if we didn't use it though. I still need 22 days to gain more LP, and then we can get rid of your ｢God's Hatred｣."
"That's true, but it doesn't hurt to have a backup plan."
All of a sudden, a shadow was cast over the two. Looming before them was a dark cave, the entrance to the dungeon.
"You ready?"
"No."
"Ok, let's go."
Long and winding, it took them about five minutes to reach the bottom of the stairs, but as they stepped into the vast cave that was the first floor of the dungeon, an evil presence washed over them. Efrain and Conor shuddered. In the distant fog, they could see silhouettes darting around; it made them nervous. Slowly they proceeded into the miasma, wielding their weapons with jittery hands. A shrill cry echoed through the cave as a small creature lunged at them. They jumped out of the way and watched as it stood up slowly.
"Efrain that's a goblin right?"
"Yeah, yeah it is."
It was a small, green skinned creature that stood about waist high. It was bald, with long outward facing ears. It had the eyes of a horse, and a long bulbous nose. It had rudimentary clothes made of cloth, and was holding a dagger.
"Occupy it while I ｢Analyze｣ it Efrain."
"You got it."
"｢Analyze｣!"
(MP 1432 -> 1337)
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Goblin
LVL 4
300 HP
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"Alright Efrain, I think I know how to beat it!"
"Got it! I'll distract it!"
Conor pulled out his iron sword and ran towards the goblin. Efrain was busy clashing swords with it, so it never even saw him coming. As Conor finished his swing, the goblin cried out in pain and fell to the floor. After a few seconds of waiting to see whether it would get up, the body dissolved into thin air. Left on the ground was a rusty dagger, and a goblin ear. Continuing in a similar fashion, the children defeated nine other goblins fairly quickly.
[Conor leveled up! Gained 5 status points, Gained 108 MP]
[Conor leveled up! Gained 5 status points, Gained 108 MP]
[Conor leveled up! Gained 5 status points, Gained 108 MP]
[Skill (Sword Mastery) Leveled up! - Movement speed with a sword is increased by 2%, damage with a sword increased by 2%.]
[Efrain leveled up! Gained 5 status points, Gained 58 HP, 110 MP]
[Efrain leveled up! Gained 5 status points, Gained 58 HP, 110 MP]
[Efrain leveled up! Gained 5 status points, Gained 58 HP, 110 MP]
[Skill (Sword Mastery) Leveled up! - Movement speed with a sword is increased by 2%, damage with a sword increased by 2%.]
Like normal, Efrain put all of his points into INT. (INT 40 -> INT 55. MP/LVL has increased to 140 MP/LVL. MP cap is now 960 MP)
[ INT has reached 50! Please pick one of the following skills - (Quick Thinking [Passive]) - allows you to process info slightly faster than normal. (Overdrive) - Process thoughts with the speed of a supercomputer. 10000 Mp/sec]
The boys fell over, shocked. This was something new!
Efrain groaned "Darn it. If I get ｢Quick Thinking｣, I can think a little bit faster, but if I get ｢Overdrive｣, I might not be able to use it yet, but the speed of a supercomputer is roughly 2.5 billion processes per second! That means I would be able to process 2.5 billion thoughts in a single second! Of course, I would have to get 10000 MP first, but that's okay. For now though, I'll have to go with the more convenient one. I choose ｢Quick Thinking｣!"
[Efrain has obtained skill ｢Quick Thinking｣ - increase thinking speed by 50%. Allows someone to multitask.]
A light shone around Efrain as he obtained a new skill. Once it died down, Conor went up to Efrain. "How do you feel? Do you notice a difference?"
Efrain laughed "This is so cool! It's like my brain is running at 150% speed. Not a massive boost, but still really significant. I'm also able to truly multitask now, focus on two different things equally at the same time!"
"Dude that's so awesome! While we're here, should we keep going in the dungeon? See how far we can get?"
"Yeah. I honestly want to see what's in the boss room. Or miniboss. I'm not picky."
"Alright then, let's go."
After wandering around the floor for a few minutes, the boys found the stairs down to the second level. When walking down, they noticed that the ominous presence was growing stronger, but not enough to affect them significantly. Soon they stepped into the next floor, only to be greeted by clattering. All of a sudden, the pair came face to face with a skeleton.
"｢Analyze｣!"
(MP 1678 -> 1583)
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Skeleton
LVL 6
450 HP
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"Efrain I'll hold him!"
Conor dashed in and knocked the skeleton over with his shield. Efrain then ran in and slashed its spine. Clattering to the ground, the skeleton fell apart. The boys were about to high five, when all of a sudden the skeleton was put back together.
"What?!" Conor exclaimed.
"We need to destroy the skull! Use your sword, and hurry!" Efrain cried
Grunting with effort, Conor swung his sword as hard as he could. CRACK! The skull fractured into pieces, which soon dissolved. Sweating hard, the boys came to a unanimous decision that they wouldn't go for too much longer. They started charging through the floor. Skeletons on the ground were getting up to attack. WHACK! SMASH! Efrain and Conor didn't even give them a chance as they blitzed through. After a half hour, the floor was littered with the remains of the skeletons, and they had reaped the benefits.
[Conor has leveled up 8 times! Gained 40 stat points, Gained 864 MP!]
[Skill ｢Sword Mastery｣ has leveled up 2 times! Movement speed with a sword is increased by 4%, Damage with a sword increased by 4%.]
[Efrain has leveled up 8 times! Gained 40 stat points, Gained 464 HP, and 1120MP!]
[Skill ｢Sword Mastery｣ has leveled up 2 times! Movement speed with a sword is increased by 4%, Damage with a sword increased by 4%.]
"Hey dude, why are we leveling up so fast?" Conor wondered.
"Well, every LVL from 1-25 takes the same amount of experience, but then it increases exponentially with every level after that. We're just leveling up quickly because we're taking on enemies above our level."
"Oh, I see. Anyway, what are you going to do with your stat points? INT?"
"No, this time I know exactly what I'm going to do."
(WIS 19 -> WIS 50. MP regen has been increased to 22 MP regen/hr/LVL. MP regen/hr is now 156 MP/hr.)
(VIT 16 -> VIT 25. HP/LVL has been increased to 62 HP/LVL. HP cap is now 1208 HP.)
[ WIS has reached 50! Please pick one of the following skills - (Minor MP regen boost) - MP regen is boosted by 30%. (MP Saver) - Reduce MP cost of spells by 10%.]
Immediately, Efrain chose ｢Minor MP Regen Boost｣.
[ Efrain has gained skill ｢Minor MP Regen Boost｣ - MP regen is boosted by 30%. MP regen is now 208 MP/hr.]
Vigour renewed, the two boys began down the third set of stairs. When they reached the bottom, they were slightly confused. The place looked like a real jungle! There was a stream, there were plants and vegetation, and even sunlight! They staggered into the forest like drunken men.
A little while later, they were tired.
"Ugh! We've been searching for the door for over an hour now! And there hasn't been a single monster! I want to fight something!"
"Calm down Conor, nothing will get solved if you keep doing that. Besides, maybe it's time for us to turn back anyways. We still need to redeem our request."
Conor's face brightened immediately. "Oh yeah! I had forgotten about that! Let's go!"
Right when the stairway came back into view, the boys were approached. It was a big silver wolf, with blue slitted eyes and black claws.
Instantly, Efrain froze up. "We need to be extremely careful. That's a swift wolf, but it doesn't look normal. Plus, they always travel in packs of 6 to 8. Use ｢Analyze｣! Hurry!"
"｢Analyze｣!"
(MP 2514 -> 2419)
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Swift Wolf Hunter
LVL 35
5000 HP
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All of a sudden, six other wolves came out of the underbrush and surrounded them. As the boys stood back to back, they simultaneously grinned and looked at each other.
"Efrain, how much does a speed skill cost?"
"Ok, so ｢Minor Speed Boost (Passive)｣ is 300 LP, ｢Speed Boost (Passive)｣ is 600 LP, ｢Major Speed Boost (Passive)｣ is 1500 LP, and lastly, ｢Second Gear｣ is 1250 LP each"
"Let's go with ｢Major Speed Boost (Passive)｣"
"Done"
(LP 10910 -> LP 7910)
[Conor obtained ｢Major Speed Boost (Passive)｣ - Increases speed by 100%.]
[Efrain obtained ｢Major Speed Boost (Passive)｣ - Increases speed by 100%.]
The wolves were getting tired of waiting to see what the boys would do, and started circling closer. Efrain suddenly dashed past the wolves, and they quickly gave chase, except for one. The hunter wolf growled at Conor, but he just smirked. "｢Play｣: Teminite - Beastmode!"
(MP 2422 -> 2272)
Dazzling light filled the area as the skill was activated. Conor's body began to change. His hair was pushed around as horns grew up through it, and scales began to cover his arms up to his elbows. His nails elongated into claws, and his feet became scaly and armored. A tail was flicking behind him, sharp spines lied up along it. His pupils became slits.
Growling, the hunter wolf lunged at him. Using his newfound speed, he ran behind it and jumped off a wall to bring his fist down onto the wolf's back. It growled and shook him off before speeding up. It slashed down at Conor, who barely managed to deflect the blow. Conor snarled and slashed at the wolf, just nicking it on the nose. The hunter quickly dashed beside him and aimed a well placed bite behind Conor, who suddenly spun, smacking the wolf to the ground with his tail. Conor quickly pinned the wolf to the ground, and was about to slice it apart, when in a sudden burst of strength, it got up and began to sprint through the forest. Conor sprinted after it, and soon they were weaving through the trees, with Conor right on the hunter's tail. They were dodging left and right, dirt flying into the air as they tore through the jungle. Soon they broke out of the tree line into a clearing, and while the wolf stopped, Conor almost went off the edge of a cliff. Slowly, the swift wolf hunter walked towards him, frothing with fury.
Efrain was sprinting at his fastest speed, jumping over roots and bushes as the wolves tailed him. Quickly he decided that they were far enough out, and spun around with his sword out.
"｢Paralyze｣!"
Three of the wolves froze up, but there was no time to cut them down. Already the other wolves had launched themselves at Efrain. He grabbed the paws of the one in front of him and threw him to the side, knocking one other wolf out of the air, and ducked underneath the other one. Efrain blitzed toward the frozen wolves. Whirling his sword like a hurricane, he cut down two of them before being tackled by one of the other wolves. The last paralyzed wolf twitched, and broke free. One of the wolves was pinning Efrain down, so he slashed its stomach and kicked it into the nearest one. He jumped to his feet and dodged an incoming slash before removing the paw from the body and proceeded to put the dog down. With the remaining two wolves, there wasn't much of a challenge for Efrain. When they charged, he sidestepped, before crying out in immense pain. He had gotten his foot bit! Because he had been fighting for long, he was tiring out. Instantly, he decided to put an end to it. "｢Paralyze｣!" Only one of the wolves froze up unfortunately. Efrain had had enough. He swung his sword and sliced the wolf in half, before taking down the last one. In the distance, he heard an extremely loud roar and froze up. "Oh no. Conor!"
Conor was cornered. He had been backed up to the edge of the cliff, and the hunter was ready to kill. However, he was not planning to give up. Conor started pouring all of his MP into the skill ｢Play｣ .
As his MP was drained away, his eyes began to glow, and he could feel energy building up. The hunter barely had time to cock its head before Conor opened his mouth and let a torrent of flame loose.
The hunter yelped and began to run, but there was no escape this time. Conor's horns had increased in size, and the scales now came up to his chest. There were wings coming out of his shoulder blades, and his speed had tripled. The swift wolf hunter was trying to run, but Conor zipped in front of it and slashed across its face. The hunter yelped and tried to surrender, but Conor had lost rational sense. He burned the body to a crisp, then stood up and let out a roar to pierce the heavens before falling to one knee.
As the song faded away and the transformation melted off, Efrain broke the tree line and sprinted over. Conor couldn't quite make out what he was saying as his vision faded to black.