Both imps were shorter than Tetsu by a good margin and he wanted to avoid doing any measurements with those blades in their hands.
Those wonderful-wonderful blades, though. The childhood dream of every guy was to own blades like those. He wanted one.
The best way to describe them is as if they ripped their wings out, stretched them wide, waited for them to stiffen, and then transformed them into blades.
"Badass." Tetsu hisses.
They noticed Tetsu at first, but as soon as he stepped back and hid inside the pit with his skill, they seemed to have completely forgotten about the intruder.
Now they strolled around the five entrances with no care in the world. Tetsu assumed they were the guards who eagerly waited for their shift to end. Those kinds who would ignore a problem at their doorstep enough for the next shift to handle.
He slid out and retreated to come up with a better plan. All he had were skills to run, and he was sure running in an unknown dungeon wasn't wise.
A left and a right, and he found himself back in the cavern. At first glance, Tetsu thought he circled back somehow.
An identical cavern with the same creatures?
He could tell that they were the same imps based on the bloody wounds they had given themselves some time ago.
"This is a darn maze!" Exclaimed Tetsu. "And a shifting kind at that… Cool."
He checks to see if the exit remains.
[Do you want to exit the dungeon? Y/N. Warning! Once you exit, you can only return twice.]
Tetsu dismisses the screen. "Exit is ever present, so that's good. Now, how do I plan this?"
The general idea is to pass the dungeon before the third try, so he has two attempts to map and loot the dungeon. The biggest problem revolved around the ever-changing maze. If only he had his pants to mark a spot.
"Wait, will I lose my pants here?"
It is a risk and a risk he wasn't willing to take.
Two curious hunches within him wanted to test a few theories and to be honest, he encouraged the thought.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained." He accepts the experiment and waits.
After a long time, the devils/Imps moved from their spot. Tetsu stalked them for a while. If they roamed inside this cave, they should know their way around. Or at least some kind of direction.
During his investigation over the imps, Tetsu finds out they are incredibly stupid. Even more so than RJ. Yet they somehow knew where they had to be. Which made no sense.
"Or maybe they are lost and stop by random entrances, acting as guards?"
Info over the spilled blood told Tetsu they were level one cave Imps with wind and earth affinities.
The cave aspect must've taken their fire affinity. They did have red skin, and it is a reasonable doubt. Tetsu ain't racist.
With a few detours, trusting the dungeon to always link him back to the cave imps, Tetsu stumbled into many other traps. Some had strangling vines, bell flowers, spank leaves, carrier flies, which carry acid, rock, and a slew of other things to drop over one's head.
Tetsu also found a room in which he shall never peep, as his life meant more than his curiosity. Only for this once.
"If I didn't know any better, I would say they built this place to kill the people that enter." This gets an enthusiastic nod from Saint. "And you couldn't have told me this in the beginning‽" Tetsu schools, exclaims and scolds the saint all at once.
Carrier flies were by far the most interesting aspect of the dungeon.
Imagine a mixed breed between a mosquito and a firefly. With a lot of magic, obviously, that's why I said Imagine.
These can penetrate any surface and absorb anything to any amount. You can find one sucking rocks into its stomach, larva, and even acid. There is no restriction on what they can eat.
RJ two-point-zero if you will.
At first, Tetsu imagined a boulder flying by and thought little about it. He was in a fantasy realm, after all. When he saw a tiny fly carrying the boulder and figured out the massive boulder was indeed in its stomach. That was when Tetsu gave up on reasoning.
"Fantasy be on drugs or drug addicts be making fantasy."
Either way, this is beyond ridiculous.
They consume anything, bulge, say fuck-you physic, and fly around with tiny wings, carrying a billion tons over their usual body weight.
If you dodge their initial attack, which is them dropping their stomach and its contents on you, you are free.
They die after their initial attack, losing their belly and all, thank god.
This was the sole reason Tetsu could use info on them. There is no way he would've risked it otherwise. Boulder containing stomachs he can do. What about the acid, larva, and blackish oozing content?
No, thank you.
He did wish for such a stomach, though. He learned to be a glutton from a rhino. Why not step up his game by imitating flies? Some side dish of acid or garnish of larva sounds fun. If you can eat it, that is.
"Yeah, I can do it." He spots an acid-carrying fly heading toward him. "I don't have to learn right now." He turns to run. "Wait! How do I learn if I can't observe?" He stops and questions.
Staying wasn't an option, but coming back should be, right? Tetsu's mind rushes. He turns back and uses a unique skill, quite literally.
'Resource Radar. Rarity: Unique.'
This skill helped Tetsu maintain a radar of what he deemed was a resource. It can be a rock, a tree, and maybe even a fly.
With ease, he enters the 'Carrier Fly' as a resource and dashes away. RR always pointed toward acid fly and now Tetsu also had a compass within the maze.
"Two birds, one acid fly." He smirks.
This is why one should always revisit or learn from their previous steps. One thing leads to another, and they all join the same road at some point.
"Now you watch me win." Tetsu cheers. "Fuck no."
RR compass swings a one-eighty from facing northwest to southeast.
"Did I move, or did the cave, or did that damn fly?"
Until Tetsu noticed, every creature stuck to their territory inside the dungeon. That ruled out the fly. And he himself took a few steps forward.
"I didn't move, or at least I don't think so."
His mind working on overtime comes up with a rather simple solution.
If he draws another formation and makes a bubble of health or mana, he can mark it as a resource, and if his theory works out, he should have several compass needles. Each pointed at different formations he made before reaching the cavern.
"If it does. Someone should crown me a genius." He eyes the Saint. "Not pointing any fingers."
Tetsu checks his resources and plans to make a mana-bubble. His skill was already preparing the health bubble.
He activates the runic formation and marks both bubbles. Several ethereal needles pop up within his sphere, while his mana pool takes a noticeable nose dive.
"As expected, I am a freaking genius."
Tetsu spread his hands wide, basking in his glory. He turns toward the closest mana bubble. "Time to replenish my..."
Before he finishes the sentence, a wall pops into existence, blocking his path.
"Of fucking course."
Tetsu didn't even have to turn to know he had company.
The two guards guarding the cavern were back or, more accurately, it had transferred Tetsu to them.
By their flabbergasted faces, Tetsu guessed the latter.
"Ah, cavern's, right?" He chuckles and bolts.
Normal Earth Tetsu would've been dinner long ago, but the new and improved scared Tetsu ran like the wind.
A part of his brain switched on 'lightweight' and 'speed' runes.
The cave imps were never meant to catch him. But to his luck, the darn dungeon was on their side.
At every turn, Tetsu ran into more imps until he somehow gathered them all up. Now he was back at the huge cavern, along with the boss imp and seven smaller imps.
How did Tetsu differentiate the boss without info?
Well... he was taller than Tetsu. Fatter. Bulkier and with wing blades that put his artifact to shame.
One positive aspect of being back at the cavern is having all his safety bubbles close by.
Fight or run?
Let's run as we fight, Tetsu decides.
Before Tetsu flipped his back at the boss, it swung the huge wing blades, creating a small current of wind within the cavern.
Those muscles and blades weren't just for show.
He judged Tetsu enough or had the intelligence to cut Tetsu's speed in half.
The wind currents carried the dungeon boss's infused mana, creating winds that obstructed Tetsu's every step, while the smaller imps used their blades as gliders to ride the wind currents.
'So cool.' Tetsu's eyes shimmer. 'Super-duper smart for imps, for sure.' He makes another note.
Low on mana and far away from the resource bubbles, Tetsu had no chance of surviving.
Only one option left. Leave and try again with his second chance.
"No." An inner voice refused.
"Yes." There's still a lot I can do, Tetsu reaffirmed his decision.
A step and flip. Tetsu turns a one-eighty and dashes toward the boss.
"I'm not leaving just yet." He grits his teeth.
The smaller imps riding the winds weren't able to change their direction, while the boss froze for a second, noticing Tetsu's fangs.
A moment is all it took.
Tetsu slides between the imp's legs, emerging at its back.
'Classic.' He chuckles to himself.
The boss's sudden fear was well put. The vampires were a well-known force that struck fear into every vitality-based creature in the multiverse.
Its fear didn't last long. Within a moment, it turns the fear into anger, for it was an imp. Yet that second allowed the human to escape its blade.
For a level one human, he wasn't only fast but was capable of disappearing as well. Even on high alert and using a skill, it couldn't find him anywhere.
What can a stealth skill do in a heated battle?
Tetsu didn't know. All he did was what his gut told him to do and what felt right.
Sliding across the boss over a rough floor tore his thigh open. Serene meditation kicked in, taking support from the adrenaline rush of the battle.
Fear triggers flight. And to hide is partly to run.
With 'Expert Deceit' on full display, the boss imp lost track of Tetsu. If it had checked the blood stains below or at least followed his trajectory, things would've been much different.
"Not that smart," Tetsu scoffs under his breath.
His hands move like lighting, carving a runic formation of health bubbles and injecting the poison inside the bees' stinger.
[Ding!]
"Not now," Tetsu commands his system to shut up.
Before the boss realizes it, Tetsu uses his skill to siphon more health.
Boss picks up on the human's mana signature and swings back.
Already anticipating this, Tetsu places both his feet over the imp's swinging arm and uses its strength and momentum to his advantage.
He flies farther away from its range but misses his intended landing spot. Boss imp ranges with anger, its red form glowing more red.
The imp's bulky muscles sink within itself as it transforms into a much slender form.
Tetsu notices the bubbles behind the Imp rapidly grow. This technique had to do something with vital energy. Either it's summoning more or using more. In both scenarios, it has way more control over vital energy than Tetsu.
"The damn devil has more understanding of vitality than me."
Boss imp dispelled the poison and healed the wounds the human inflicted.
With its front-facing Tetsu, he didn't notice that his ru'nic formations were gone. For him, the runes were still there and the ru'nic formation worked without a hitch.
Yet another secret the saint kept to himself.
Boss imp flips its wind blades and pops them back into the wing sockets, now having wings to fly.
"Cool." Tetsu's eyes sparkle. "I'm fucked." He realizes, his excitement turning into a frown.
Boss takes up to the skies or the top of the cavern with its wing magic amplifying.
Tetsu didn't have time to analyze if it feared runes or poison. He didn't once consider his fangs.
He didn't have time to analyze the many cave imps pouring into the cavern.
Nine, fourteen, twenty, and counting.
This also allowed Tetsu's many bubbles to draw in more mana and health. As the smaller, dumber imps released more resources with no self-control.
Some amount of mana is always left behind as residue if you can't control the charge or the launch. Needless to say, neither the level one imps nor the boss imp has such fine control.
Why did they release their vital energy?
Tetsu knew the answer to that, and his inner saint purposefully poked at his hunch. Yet he wrote it off as a mystery.
The stupid imps used a boosting skill that boosted their inner force.
Tetsu was too far away to access any of his resource bubbles.
"Come to me." He commands, then remembers. "Huh! That should work?"
The hoard of imps stopped in shock, gawking at Tetsu's sudden interest in mud. He ignored all of them and was squiggling something. They weren't kind enough to let him play with mud.
With a flip of their blades, they catch another wind current that carries them closer to the human.
A sudden primal instinct within him rose to the surface as he hissed at the approaching hoard of imps.
For some reason, they glide past him in fear. Some crash into each other, while the rest slam into the walls of the cavern.
This gave Tetsu enough time to create his new rune. He didn't want to know what or how just that it worked.
His flight instinct kicked his fight instinct, which triggered his inner Kile to speed up. In a zap, Tetsu creates two new runes. Fixed point and pluck. Inspirations from the carrier fly and his own 'Tag-along' skill.
With a yell from the boss, the low-level cave imp's fear shifted back onto Tetsu.
A part of him was vigilant, the other ready to vanish, and another entirely concentrated on the task at hand.
The wonders a death match can bring you.
Imps, however, were having a different kind of dilemma. Be killed from behind or approach the naked human upfront.
Boss, big and scary, will kill. Human scrawny, naked, and yukkier than them, and that's something else coming from an imp.
Attack human it is.
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