[Lucas P.O.V.]
I had to be careful, considering I was facing a swordsman with nothing but a chipped kitchen knife and a hammer. There's also the fact I don't know what his skills are either which could end horribly if I'm caught off guard.
My eyes lock onto his as he glares at me, and then with a sudden burst of speed he slashes in my direction, his sword releasing sharp cones in an arc as I duck under them. He took that chance to rush towards me raising his blade and swinging down on me clashing with my kitchen knife as I'm forced to push him back with a hook with my hammer aiming at his elbow.
He dodged back smoothly landing with barely a sound as he doesn't say a word.
I look at my kitchen knife noticing it was crumpled inward where he struck it making it almost completely useless.
"Fuck that isn't good" I mumble.
Now I only have my hammer left, and who's to say he won't destroy that in our next clash as well? I'll take the initiative this time...
I rush forward throwing my broken knife towards his eyes as I suddenly leap to the side dodging another slash that released a flurry of those same sharp cones as before which tore through the broken knife.
Seeing I dodged the attack unscathed I pivot on my heel and jump towards Garruk, using my momentum to swing my hammer towards his head.
With a snort Garruk blocked my strike before kicking me in the stomach, forcing me to grit my teeth as I was sent flying and slammed into the stone cavern walls around us.
"Okay, this guy is way more skilled than I expected from an F+ Rank Dungeon. Then again he is a dungeon boss..." I thought standing up and spitting out a bit of blood.
"That hurt ya bastard" I said smiling at the smilvani elder who scoffed.
"Did you think I'd take it easy on someone I want to kill?" He asked raising an eyebrow before slashing his blade at me once again sending another wave of sharp cones at me.
I dodged this flurry all the same, picking up a few rocks and throwing them at Garruk aiming to hit him all over his body, or at least make an opening.
"You can't be serious..." I deadpan seeing him effortlessly cut all the rocks into dust after his body emmited a dim glow.
"What's the matter, never learned how to utilize your mana to empower your body? You humans are pathetic hahaha" Garruk said.
"Alright, I've grown bored of your shenanigans kid, I'm gonna kill you now. Just hold still if you know what's best for ya" Garruk said and suddenly the green glow appeared once more as he burst towards me with speed much higher than an F+ Rank being.
Jumping over his low slash, a shallow cut appeared on my left calf luckily not deep enough to cripple my walking.
"This old man managed to change where he cut last second. Isn't this a bit unbalanced?" I questioned the system not receiving an answer.
"Of course it'd know it was a rhetorical question"
Seeing little other options I made a break for the path I came from. I'm hoping to get one of the weapons those other smilvani has, and of course the old man didn't let up in his chase.
Slash after slash he sent waves of sharp cones towards my back, though I dodged well enough not to get hit. Luckily it seemed he couldn't just spam that move giving me time between each dodge to readjust.
"You annoying brat, what are you running for?" The old smilvani shouted slowly gaining on me with the help of his mana.
"So much for the advantage of longer legs" I muttered before I saw it. The last smilvani camp I went through before reaching the boss room.
Seeing a pair of sharp bone daggers I snatched them off the ground and jumped onto the wall to my left dodging a slash from the elder who was right behind me.
Landing sideways on the wall I turned my legs bending before I jumped full force towards the dungeon's boss swinging both daggers down on top of him.
He seemed a bit surprised as he raised his sword blocking the strike and getting pushed back quite a bit. He looked down at his arm for a moment before clutching his sword tightly in his grip.
Landing back on the ground using the force of my previous attack I look over at the elder smirking.
"You seem more nervous than before, is something wrong?" I chuckled.
"Just fight boy, I'm tired of your incessant talking!" Garruk said gritting this teeth as the veins in his arm and legs bulged the green glow returning as he slashed sending more sharp cones at me which I blocked much easier with the bone daggers before meeting his clash head on causing sparks to form.
"Damn brat, why do you keep resisting? I could have killed you when you first entered the dungeon!" Garruk said before breaking away from the clash, leaping into the air and sending more sharp cones my way.
"Then you should have, nobody is to blame but you idiot" I said smiling coldly as I jumped backwards letting the cones hit the ground.
This seemed to piss the elder off as he used his mana once again and...
"Did this fucker just jump off air?" I asked dodging as he stabbed the ground where I was causing a bunch of curved spikes to shoot from the ground almost killing me instantly.
"Hey, what was that? Since when could people jump off empty air?" I said only to be ignored as the pissed off dungeon boss swung at me again rushing in shortly after as I was forced to party and block the cones before barely blocking his enhanced slash with both daggers.
Sliding back from the heavy blow, my arms felt a bit numb as I shook off the slight ache in them. I look ahead of me to see an angry Garruk running my way once again, however I noticed something as well...
"He's slowing down from using that mana amplification technique, his breath isn't steady anymore and his movements are more clear to me now."
I lean to the side dodging this sword slash before headbutting Garruk and slashing at his neck with a dagger, he brung his sword's sheathe up just in time to block the fatal blow yet that failed to stop me from kneeing him in the stomach sending him backwards.
"Seems the fight is shifting in my favor hahaha" I spoke, stretching as I got ready to end this fight, once and for all.
In a burst of speed we both meet in the middle clashing harshly, and sending sparks flying. We clashed, giving out shallow cuts and parrying fatal attacks as we moved faster and faster, knowing that the one who gives up first, is sure to die here.
Whoosh! Crack!
I sent a brutal knee to Garruk's nose knocking his head back as I stabbed him in his thigh earning a roar of pain from him as tons of sharp spikes burst around him forcing me back and causing me to lose a dagger.
"I'll fucking kill you here and now you bastard!!" The green man shouted the green glow returning as it all condensed around the edge of his sword only.
"Haaaaaaa!" He roared sending a powerful and Visible slash to carve through everything to reach me.
It was to wide to dodge completely, and I could only see a couple of ways out of this situation. It clearly weakened the further it got from its origin, and with that knowledge I decided to run away from it to weaken it as much as possible.
Garruk was kneeling on the ground panting, likely using all his remaining mana to fire an attack at E- Rank (E Minus Rank). If I survived this then I win for sure.
I ran as fast as I could and the slash was weakening faster and faster, however it still held the power to end me right now if I were to let up for a second.
"I'm definitely taking that old bastard's sword when I leave here" I thought to myself when I finally reached the end of the dungeon, exactly where I started from.
Turning to meet the now much smaller mana slash, I used the remaining dagger I held and swinging full force I clashed against it. Green sparks formed where I met the attack head on and that helped reducing it's power even more. I pushed against it as best I could silently remembering to try learning Mana amplification myself after this.
"Who'd of thought a dungeon boss would teach me a new trick haha."
It took a bit, but I managed to weaken it enough to alter its path sending it into the dungeon wall where it dissipated.
" *Sigh* That was much closer than I thought it'd be. Lesson learned, don't underestimate anyone or anything in this crazy world" I muttered before grinning evilly.
"Time to kill that old man and get my free skill" I cheered happy to get stronger.
I made my way back towards where the battle took place and saw the elder struggle to stand, the dagger that was in his leg broken leaving a piece of it behind in his thigh as he limped back to the boss room, a pathetic sight really.
"Yo, I don't think our fight is over just yet~" I said stabbing him in his back as he crumbled to the ground to tired to even scream in pain.
"I might be a sadist..." I thought enjoying the elders pain.
Taking my dagger out of his spine, I raise it over my head and stab Garruk through the skull ending him once and for all as a notification appeared.
[Dungeon complete, 1 skill (Rapid Regeneration) has been acquired. Please think the phrase EXIT to leave the dungeon.
Automatic return in 10 minutes...]
I looked away from the notification going over to Garruk's body and searching this corpse for any cores, and to my surprise he dropped 4 cores all at F+ Rank. That's 20 more into all my stats.
So with this additional 20, and the ones I absorbed before the boss fight, all my stats have reached 70! The peace of F+ rank should be 100 if I'm not mistaken meaning E- Rank is closer than I realized. Maybe the reason others don't rank up this fast is due to sharing the loot since they clear dungeons in groups instead of solo.
"Open"
---
[Name: Lucas Howell]
[Age: 18 (36)]
[Affinity: N/A]
[Title(s): Jackal]
[Innate Ability: Dungeon Maker]
[STATS]
[STR - 70 (+35)]
[DEX - 70 (+35)]
[END - 70 (+35)]
[INT - 70 (+35)]
[WIS - 70 (+35)]
[SPELLS: Rapid Regeneration (passive)]
---
I smiled a bit at my stats which were all 10 just a bit ago, now they're 7 times higher and I'm more than 7 times stronger.
"Show skill description"
[Rapid Regeneration - Passively accelerates the body's natural healing process, allowing minor wounds to close almost instantly and more severe injuries to heal much faster than normal. It also slightly boosts resistance to poisons and illnesses by quickly purging harmful effects. However, it cannot regrow lost limbs or organs, and healing slows significantly when stamina is low.]
"Hehe with this I'll be able to do dungeons much quicker than before, and worry a bit less about bleeding out."
With that I exit the dungeon satisfied, I can already feel my soreness fading faster than before, truly a worthwhile skill to have...