Seeing that she was actually impressed, he decided to crank it up a notch. He turned it on the 4th setting which replicated standard combat between level 20 players. This was the current highest level he was able of actively being able to spar with effectively. He knew that it meant his damage output put him on a similar level to that of a level 20 player. From there he began his normal foreign routine which was quite a show.
Halfway through his morning spar Marcelina came over and joined Roksazza. Sitting next to her she greeted her, "Morning. I see that you are watching Ben do his morning workout routine. Do you think I was right about how powerful I told you he was?"
To Marcelina's surprise she responded in English, "You were right. He is quite powerful. I have to admit he's stronger than myself. Our fighting styles and abilities are very different but what I am seeing right now is definitely above my current capabilities. I believe I could be able to come close to what he is doing, but that's my current level I do not feel certain that I would last long."
"Did you learn English with a skill or something," Marcelina asked genuinely curious and slightly confused.
"There was an item in the shop that I bought. Now I don't have to wear that earpiece to be able to talk to you," she answered.
Marcelina was actually happy to hear that, "Well that's good to know. I was actually planning on teaching you the basics today, but I see that now I have a lot more time than I thought I would."
"What class is he? I know I saw his character sheet yesterday, but I only paid attention to his name. Is it some kind of hidden class option," she asked Marcelina at curious hoping she might have more information about it.
Marcelina corrected her and clarified, "No it was one of the normal options. He chose the Arcanist class. From what I've gathered Ben as a hobby would play a lot of video games and he was used to making strong characters. So he applied some of his knowledge from those games with himself. Picking abilities and whatnot that best suited him and mixed well with each other."
"These video games that you talk about were relatively new back on my world. Mostly the children play them. I remember my young nieces and nephews on their big computers playing little games that were mainly just the walls of words. It sounds like the video games on your world were a lot farther ahead," Roksazza remarked talking more about her homeworld and reminiscing.
"Yeah. On our world humans don't really have powers so we've always relied on either our own physical skills or technology. We've gotten to a point back on Earth where we've started trying to find ways to integrate technology into our bodies to improve us. But we're not there just yet," Marcelina informs her while talking about her people more happy to share information and enjoying the friendly conversation.
They stop when they see Benedictus defeat the training golem while standing on top of it out of breath. The training area he had set up was a mess and he was clearly exhausted after exerting himself quite a bit. Marcelina stood up and tossed Ben a bottle of water.
Instinctively catching it he thanked her, "Much appreciated." He immediately started guzzling it down.
In a matter of seconds the entire bottle was empty as he drank it all. He then used his Moderate Geo Manipulation to completely repair the training area in an instant. Looking over to Marcelina he set it back to the lowest setting so she could start her morning sparring.
"All yours. You and Charles kick some ass," he says giving her a high five as she then cracks her knuckles and takes up a fighting stance.
Charles comes over and got excited for a battle. Marcelina immediately boosted him and then herself with two of her abilities. She then set the training dummy to the second setting. As it was activating she used one of her new abilities on herself and she started to radiate with blue aura. For a brief second the spectral image of a lion appeared behind her.
This was one of her new abilities called Unleash the Beast. It essentially allowed her to tap into the power of her inner spirit animal which for her was a lion. This greatly enhanced some of her physical capabilities based off of the type of animal. Since for her it was a lion both her Might and Agility were boosted along with her Survival. The most important thing is that while this ability was active the output of her physical damage was temporarily doubled all around and her natural speed was boosted by 50% of what it normally was.
With her new ability and both of the other buffs active, she was much quicker and much stronger than she was back in the cave. On top of that her improved stats only made things better after she had allocated all of those stat points she had gained over the last week. With the dagger she had gotten from Benedictus and her left hand and the rapier in her right she blitzed forward towards the golem at high speed.
Benedictus sat down next to Roksazza and spoke, "I'm going to tell you a little secret. I've noticed since I've been surviving alongside Marcy that she has some issues with how she perceives herself from time to time. She often thinks that she is not as good as me and I can tell. She tries to hide it whenever she gets like that but I can always see through her attempts at pretending like she doesn't think it."
Stopping for a moment he watched her and he began to smile. Seeing how well Marcelina was greatly improving he complimented her as he continued speaking to Roksazza, "The truth is though, that woman has talent. Believe it or not I've noticed that she has an incredible ability to learn and develop. If given enough time I think she can find a way to match me in strength. When she finally does I just hope she'll finally stop trying to compare herself to me, and realize just how great she is."
"You speak very highly of her. Is she your life partner," Roksazza wondered.
"No. But she did save my life and honestly if she wasn't here I probably be starting to go crazy only having Emma to talk to. I guess it's still a little early to say but I would believe she is my friend. Or at least I hope so at this point," he clarified for her while chuckling at the idea.
The two of them sat in silence and watched enjoying the sight. Eventually the rest of the day went by and the group started to familiarize themselves a lot more with each other. Getting to learn a lot about each other's cultures and homeworlds. It was a good day.
The next morning after breakfast and training, Roksazza had came to ask a very serious request of the group. Addressing them both she informed them, "So when I had initially ended up floating in the river it was after completing a hidden dungeon behind the waterfall upstream. I fainted in the water and was carried off from what I believe. I wasn't able to collect everything from the dungeon after completing it because I almost died. But I realize I left my sword. Would it be okay if we ventured back to the waterfall dungeon so I can retrieve my weapon and the rest of what I left behind?"
"Certainly. I personally don't see anything wrong with that," Benedictus agreed to her request.
"I was itching to travel out and see about testing my skills against real opponents. This is a fun excuse to do just that," Marcelina responded eager to put her new capabilities to the test in a more practical way.
"Thank you," she replied giving a slight bow of her head.
Benedictus instructed both of them, "Grab everything you need and we'll head out in an hour. If we take the hover car it'll probably be faster if find."
The two ladies gave a nod and with that they all began to prepare to venture to the completed waterfall dungeon. When it was finally time to leave, they all loaded up into the hover car with Marcelina in the back with Charles and Emma. Roksazza was way too big to try and fit in the backseat. He was about 7 and 1/2 ft tall it was as bulky as some professional football players. None of it subtracted from her natural feminine beauty it just made it harder for her to sit in the smaller space of the backseats.
The only idea of where they were going was based off of the fact that when she had gotten dragged to their base by the current, she came from upstream. Because of that all they could do was simply fly the hover car upstream until they caught sight of a waterfall. They flew for what must have been almost an hour before they finally caught a glimpse of it.
He found a nearby clearing that was big enough for him to land the hover car. After setting it down and all of them had gotten out, he shrunk it before placing it back into his inventory. The group then began walking towards the waterfall which only took about 10 minutes since they had landed close by.
Upon arriving at the waterfall Roksazza inform them, "Inside there might be some enemies in case some of the creatures that populated the dungeon may have returned while I was away. Keep an eye out just in case for giant blue reptiles."
Ben and Marcelina gave her a nod and began making their way inside together as a group. Passing through the waterfall they began entering into the dungeon where they were notified that they had entered into the Secret Waterfall Dungeon. Right next to the dungeon there was a comment in the system that explained that it had already been completed. They knew this was the case because Roksazza was the one to complete it after all.
The first thing that they immediately noticed was the carnage. Body parts of blue scaled reptiles lay everywhere. It look like they had already started to decay but part of them had been eaten. Seeing that some of the corpses look like they had been used as a snack made it obvious to the group that something has come here since then and has been eating parts of the corpses.
Using her Wild Sight, Marcelina was able to notice that there were relatively fresh cracks in the area, "Fresh tracks. Something has been here within the last day."
With that information the group proceeds through the dungeon slightly more hesitant. As they began to slowly make their way through the area they start taking in more of what the creatures here were. At first they thought it was what only appeared to be some kind of giant gecko with extra legs and eyes but that changed when they got to one of the larger areas. They began to see what appear to be giant snakes covered in porcupine quills. All of them had been killed by Roksazza when she had first came here but now it looks like they had become food for something else.
As they ventured out of that room and down one of the natural large corridor paths of this cave dungeon Marcelina noticed something about the wall as they were passing it by. She stopped everyone and realized that there was a hidden door right in the wall. Triple checked it to make sure and after a careful examination she was right.
"There's a hidden door right here," she informed the group.
"Alright we'll do this like back in the vinuu nest. Prepare yourselves in case of combat I'm about to open it up," Benedictus responded getting ready to use Minor Geo Manipulation to open the passage.
The group prepared to fight and waited for him to remove the hidden wall. To their surprise the hidden room that they found was just a small room with a chest in it. Considering this was their first time encountering a hidden treasure room they were a little bit skeptical.
Ben walked up and punched the chest just to see if it was a mimic. There was no reaction so he assumed it was a normal chest again. He looked back at the group and opened the chest.
Sure enough when it opened the familiar light began to shine from inside. They watched as the light slowly took shape and form in front of their eyes. The light ultimately took the shape of a bracelet.
The bracelet itself seem to be made out of gold primarily with multiple rubies forming the shape of a sword constellation. On the inner part of the bracelet there were familiar runes however these were of different symbols and were red. Benedictus took the bracelet and then decided to look the information it had about it.
Star Sword Bracelet: This beautiful bracelet was made from 24 karat gold and flawlessly cut rubies. Originally a gift for an Arcane Swordmaster of a world that no longer exists, it was found floating amongst the stars buy a traveling astronaut from afar off world. It was passed down through their family for several generations before one member ended up coming to this world and sadly passing away. After a tuning to this bracelet whoever becomes its new owner gains the following 3 abilities:
1) Arcane Sword Bolt: You select a single target that you can see within 100ft and fire a spectral sword made of raw arcane magic at them. On a successful hit you will deal 8 to 64 magical fire damage + 8 to 64 magical force damage + your Brilliance. This can be used 5 times per day.
2) Impact Sword Counter: Whenever you are attacked by a target in melee range you can use your reaction to manifest and swiftly strike back with a massive spectral colossal sword made of raw arcane magic. This counter automatically hits and it deals 4 to 40 magical fire damage + 4 to 40 magical force damage + your Enlightenment. This can be used five times per day.
3) Mana Sword Rainshower: You manifest several dozen swords of different types all made of arcane energy in the air above you. All creatures within a 50ft high and 30ft radius wide cylinder centered on you must make a DC 35 Agility save or they will be struck by the falling arcane swords raining down on them from above. On a failed saving throw they take 12 to 120 magical fire damage + 12 to 120 magical force damage + your Brilliance. On a successful save they take only half damage. On a critical successful save they take no damage. On a critical failed save they take double damage. This can be used twice per day.
After looking at it he immediately puts it on and gets notified that it will take an hour of having it on his person for the item to properly attune to him. The item was too good to simply let go.
With a smile on his face he looks back to the others and says, "This was definitely worth the trip here. I hope there are some more rooms that you missed along the way. Hopefully we can find some more good loot."
"What does that do to make you seem so happy," Roksazza asked curious about the bracelet.
He pulled up his character sheet and went to his inventory and clicked on the bracelet. He showed her the information and she began to read it. Looking at the abilities that it was capable of she could see why he was so interested. Despite its stylized fashion it was quite a useful item that offered a bit of combat versatility.
He asked with a cheeky smile, "It's nice, isn't it?"
"Quite nice if I say so myself," she seemed slightly jealous but not enough to actually covet the item badly, "You found it so it's yours."
"Tell you what, if before an hour passes we find something else that suits me better then I'll let you have the bracelet. After all if you plan on sticking with us for a little bit; I don't see the harm in making sure that you get a fair share of everything like the rest of us," he offered.
Hearing that she agreed giving him a sly grin, "Well if such a thing happens I will gladly accept."
Marcelina interrupted there banter and reminded them of the task at hand, "Well does that mean we can keep moving because I don't want to be in a hall in case whatever has been eating these corpses shows up?"
"Yeah you're right. Let's keep moving," he agreed as they continued down the passageway once more through this hidden dungeon.
After about 5 more minutes walking they found themselves approaching the opening of another larger area within and saw what looked like light. Upon getting closer they could tell that the light was coming from what looked like a bonfire. That didn't sound right to them as it would imply an intelligent creature inside. Thankfully though the light illuminated the room enough for them to see what was in there properly while remaining hidden in the shadows of the passageway.
Munching on some of the corpses were short humanoid pangolin looking creatures with four eyes and four arms. They had stag antlers and their teeth resembled that of a shark not just in shape, but also in the multiple rows of retractable teeth that they seem to have. They were dressed in tribal clothing and speaking in grunty slurred simplistic sounds. They assume this was some kind of primitive tribal creature that they were all seeing for the first time.
There seemed to be about 6 of these creatures in the room feasting on some of the corpses of the giant blue snakes that Roksazza had slain the last time she was here. They were so busy eating they didn't even look towards the passageway or the group was. They seemed to be about between 3ft to 3 and 1/2ft tall and very aggressive as they growled at each other whenever another came close to one of the corpses they were munching on. Now knowing what they were potentially going to have to fight the group prepared themselves.
They quietly tried to enter into the room, but the moment that they were all out of the hall the creatures caught a whiff of their scent. It look like there would be no sneaking up on them as they were spotted once the first one caught scent of them entering into that area. Preparing themselves they quickly grabbed their weapons and got ready for a fight.
The group watched as the first of the creatures came rushing at them much faster than even the vinuu. It seemed these creatures were ferocious and fast as they were easily able to start closing distance in a matter of only a few seconds. But they were no match for the quick thinking of Benedictus. He stomped his foot and spikes appeared from beneath each of the creatures that were charging at them.
Some of the creatures were able to dodge out of the way, but not all were so lucky. 2 of them ended up getting impaled instantly. Three of them dodged to the right and one dodged to the left. The one that had dodged to the left was unlucky as it was pounced upon by both Charles and Emma who quickly pinned it to the ground and started beating it to death. After severely pummeling it with their paws and horns, Emma grabbed one of its legs with her teeth and Charles did the same with one of its arms. They pulled in different directions and ripped it in half.
The first of the three that had dodged off to the right found itself being grabbed by the neck and smashed into the ground by the sheer strength of Roksazza. With her fist she punched it one time as hard as she could in its head. Not only was the blow strong enough to instantly exploded head like a squished watermelon, but it even left a sizable dent in the ground with large cracks forming around where her fist struck.
Another one had tried to pounce on Roksazza, but Marcelina didn't give it a chance to get close enough. While it was in mid-pounce she pierced it through the skull with her rapier. The blade had pierced through its eyes and out the other side of its head. It's body began to dangle on her rapier before she swiftly kicked it off of her blade.
The last one started to seem afraid watching how in seconds the rest of its people were slaughtered. It wanted to run away but it never got a chance. The second it turned to flee it was charred to a crisp by a lightning strike from behind.
As the traces of the lightning still ark around Benedictus' fingers after finishing off the last one, he looked to the others and said, "That was easy. They must not be that dangerous of enemies."
They all soon got a notification that they had gained XP. Realizing that this was all of the enemies in this room the group seem to silently all agree. These things were fast and aggressive, but ultimately currently weak in comparison to them.
They offered about the same amount of XP as an alpha vinuu. Benedictus took this to mean that they were about comparable and strength to one. For lower level individuals these things would be quite dangerous, but as they currently stand these things were a mild inconvenience at best.
The group took a moment to look around and check and see if there was anything of note or value. They saw that the creatures seem to have been stockpiling the soul cores left behind in the corpses that Roksazza was unable to claim. She didn't even seem to understand what they were or how Benedictus and Marcelina looked at the orbs with great joy.
Stating her confusion she requested an explanation, "What are those things, and why do you both seem to be happy there's so many?"
"They're soul cores. Don't tell me you haven't found any before now," Marcelina quickly answered kind of assuming that Roksazza was joking.
Roksazza ask some follow-up questions, "What is a soul core and why is it important?"
"This must be your first time seeing one if you don't know the answer to that. Collecting these things you can trade them in in the Ascension Shop for items, gold, and a variety of different types of points. The more rare the core the more you get for trading it in," Benedictus answered while examining and placing all 12 soul cores in his inventory.
Roksazza was utterly surprised by that information, "Wait really?!"
"You must not have been scavenging the corpses. I was shocked to find my first one inside of a elite vinuu alpha. If I hadn't burned its body to a crisp I would have never spotted the orb inside.... Speaking of which it appears that we have 5 one-star cores and the remaining 7 are all two-star cores. This must mean that they didn't put the boss core here with the rest. They either haven't gotten to it yet or they have it somewhere else," Benedictus reminisced and then remarked.
Marcelina realized what that meant and looked towards the passageway to the next area, "I guess we continue on into the boss room."
"Thankfully it's just on that passageway. This place wasn't too big but the enemies here were quite vicious. They were all very tough due to their hard scales and they had a lot of raw strength. The boss was no joke either," Roksazza inform them based off of what she remembers about this dungeon the last time she was here.
"What was the boss by the way," Benedictus asked while taking the lead once again and continuing down the passageway.
"It was called a Infant Azure Lynwyrm. I'm assuming the adult ones were fastly bigger because it was huge," she answered.
The group made their way further in to the boss room. This passageway was much longer than the rest but when they made it to the boss room they saw the corpse of a giant blue scaled draconic creature that resembled the common depiction of the Chinese dragon. It was a little bit more serpentine in its facial features and instead of antlers it had ram horns.
Although it looked dangerous it's body was now dead on the ground after having been clearly sliced thoroughly enough by Roksazza. Her sword was even still sticking out of the creature's skull where she dealt the finishing blow piercing its brain with her blade. They were actually surprised to see she was able to bring such a large beast down by herself, as it was nearly three times larger than an elephant and about twice as long as an adult anaconda.
They soon found that they weren't the only ones in the room as they quickly spotted another one of those tribal creatures. This one was performing some weird magical ritual as it was waving around a staff and green energy was channeling from it to the corpse of the creature. It seemed to have removed the soul core of the boss and also took its heart, placing both in between it and the corpse.
It looked exhausted like it had been performing this ritual for days. But it chuckled with joy as it seems to be finally completing what it was doing. They watched as the heart dissolved and the soul core turned to ash. The liquefied heart seeped in through the creatures pores underneath its scales and it's blood began to glow with a blue light. The ashes of the soul core floated around the creature for a moment before burrowing into its chest.
In a matter of seconds it's bones began to crack and snap as it's flesh was torn and its body reshaped. It grew to nearly 7ft tall and it's muscles became much more defined and beefy. This thing started to look like an absolute unit of a monster. It's sandy yellow scales turned bright blue, and it's solid black eyes became solid green with a faint glow coming from them. It grew a second pair of antlers much smaller than the original pair and green lightning began arcing between the tips of its horns. It's tail suddenly sprouted large quilts like a porcupine.
Marcelina immediately realized that they were probably about to get into a serious fight. She cursed, "Oh shit."
"Brace yourselves for battle," Benedictus commanded them as the creature turned its attention to them.
It then snapped its fingers and shouted a phrase in the weird language these creatures speak. Suddenly light began to emanate from the corpse of the boss monster. Green lightning began to streak from its eyes as its body began to move.
"Well that's not okay. I already killed that thing once. Boshra! Looks like I'm doing this again," Roksazza complained seeing the creature that almost killed her last time start to rise once more as an undead servant of the now transformed creature.
Benedictus pulled out his pistol and began channeling his mana in preparation for an attack. He complained while sighing, "Well fuck me. Looks like we're doing this the hard way."