After running for a couple minutes Arris had finally traversed the length of the tunnel leading to the fourth level. Upon one glance around the intro room to the level told him it would be thematically different from any of the previous levels of the dungeon.

Instead of a large, semi-open expanse or city, Arris found himself in a small enclosed area with large stalactites, stalagmites, and pillars extending from the roofs and floors. The roof of the cavern was only some twenty feet above Arris’ head, far closer than it had been on any prior level. On the far ends of the room, some three hundred or so feet across the way, Arris could see three separate exits to the room. However, arguably most worrying, he couldn’t spot any enemies.

On every level Arris had cleared so far, the enemies had been rather easily spotted and how they were approached was Arris decision. But on this level, any number of any sort of enemies could be concealing themselves within the maze of stone. Of course, then again, Arris was still on the skeleton floor so they really shouldn’t attack him without any provocation.

Having a bad feeling and wanting to be careful, Arris prepped his five spirit shards before wandering into the room. Instead of walking through the center and opening himself up for an attack on all four sides, Arris stuck to a wall so that he’d have somewhere to put his back if something did attack. Arris kept his staff ready and his eyes peeled as he slowly walked through the maze of stone protrusions, ready to react at the first signs of any sort of aggression.

Only the soft scrape of bone against stone belied the fact that there was something behind Arris. Spinning, half sure he’d just imagined the noise, Arris found himself face to face with a bone monstrosity.

The creature was like nothing he’d encountered so far. All the skeletons he’d seen so far had been of more or less normal creatures he’d seen before. There were human skeletons, a dog skeleton, and a dragon skeleton, but even with the dragon skeleton none of them were too abnormal. This thing broke the mold.

The creature was some odd combination of an ape and a wolf. Its forearms were elongated, some four and a half feet long. Its rear legs were much shorter, some two and a half feet long, giving the creature a strange hunchbacked appearance. Protruding off its rear end was a long bone tail, measuring some four or five feet in length, presumably allowing the creature to balance itself.

Its forelimbs each sported a nasty set of four razor-sharp claws, with three fingers and an opposable thumb. Its head was a shortened version of the usual dog’s snout and appeared as if some mad scientist had taken a usual dog's face and crammed it in upon itself. From the bottom of the mouth sprouted two massive four-inch tusks, and from the top a pair of two-inch canines. The rest of its jaws were filled with razor-sharp teeth. The creature looked like something out of a horror show.

Arris warily regarded the creature, checking its nameplate.

From what he could infer from its name the creature was indeed somehow related to wolves. Though how exactly the wolven was related to wolves he had no idea.

The creature, which had been halfway through a careful stride, set its foot down and cocked its head at him. It then opened its jaws and clacked them together in a very unsettling manner. Arris slowly backed away from the creature, wanting to put a little distance between it and himself. It seemed rather docile, even if it had been suspiciously creeping up behind him. Maybe it would turn around and leave him alone?

Yet as he backed away, the creature followed, once again clacking its jaws together. Arris kept it in his vision at all times, only sparing the occasional quick glance over his shoulder to make sure he didn’t trip over anything.

All of a sudden Arris remembered something very important. Wolves hunted in packs. Arris put his back to the wall and turned so he could look out into the rest of the cavern while keeping his back protected. And sure enough, after another couple seconds, another wolven crept out from behind a stone protrusion some fifteen or so feet down the wall and yet another crept out of the maze of stone right in front of him. The three wolven regarded him, eerily silent, while the third wolven walked towards the other two currently in front of Arris.

While not quite as large as a human, they had at least three quarters the mass, and the fact that they were able to sneak so well was rather disconcerting to Arris. Now though, Arris was literally caught between a rock and a hard place. He could either wait for the wolven to make the first move which would allow them better positioning but may result in them not attacking him at all, or he could make the first move and take advantage of the fact that one of the wolven was still far off.

Arris only had a couple seconds to make his decision and ultimately decided to take the initiative. Getting a surprise blow it would be nice but he didn’t actually know if it was possible against these wolven.

Arris proceeded with his regular combo, starting off with a Spirit Blast into closest wolven which was four or five feet along the wall to his left. Light crackled in front of his staff as he channeled the mana through it and into the spell matrix in front of it before the spell thundered forth and into the wolven. It hit the creature and sent it staggering backward.

> You deal Skeletal Wolven 81 raw damage! <

As soon as he’d finished casting the Spirit Blast Arris had begun channeling his Condensed Aether Bolt, wanting to kill the other nearby wolven. But unlike the skeletons he’d faced so far, these wolven were extremely fast. The second he’d released his Spirit Blast the wolvens to the front and to the right of him had charged.

Before a full second had elapsed the second wolven was already in the air, leaping at Arris. Though with the aid of his perception Arris was able to dodge the blow. Arris rolled towards his right side, away from the wolven on the ground, toward the other charging wolven.

Coming out of his roll Arris crouched and angled his staff towards the wolven which he’d just dodged and was currently spinning around to face Arris again. With roughly three-quarters of a charge in his Condensed Aether Bolt which should give it enough damage to one shot himself, Arris released the spell. The wolven’s bones scattered across the ground upon impact, the spell killing it permanently.

> You deal Skeletal Wolven 243 mixed damage! <

> Skeletal Wolven has died! <

But the fight was nowhere near over yet. He still had another two wolven to take down. The wolven coming up behind Arris was his most immediate problem. Arris pivoted, turning halfway to partially face the wolven which had previously been on his right and was in the midst of leaping at him. With no time to switch to his other staff in his inventory, Arris simply brought his mage’s staff in a massive arc before it slammed down into wolven’s chest, knocking it out of its lunge and dealing massive damage.

> Critical Strike! You deal Skeletal Wolven 99 blunt damage! <

With that wolven temporarily incapacitated by the massive blow which had sent it smashing down into the cave’s floor, Arris turned back to the initial wolven which had gotten back on its feet and was preparing to charge Arris. With a dismissive flick of his hand, the five Spirit Shards floating in the air behind Arris shot off towards the recovered wolven. It leaped to the side, miraculously managing to dodge one, but the other four adjusted course and connected, pummeling the creature to death.

> You deal Skeletal Wolven 31 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wolven 31 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wolven 31 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wolven 31 raw damage! <

> Skeletal Wolven has died! <

Now there was a single wolven left. Alone Arris figured it stood very little chance against him. Not wanting to give it any sort of opportunity though, Arris swapped out his staff of power for his quarterstaff. The skeletal beast, now back on its feet and far more wary of him, circled to the side and tried to find a way around his weapon. It tentatively swiped its right claw up towards Arris, testing his defenses.

It was the opportunity Arris had been waiting for. In a flash, Arris corrected his stance and brought his staff to bear, quickly cracking it down into the extended claw and batting it away, knocking the wolven off balance. Arris stepped forwards into its guard, realizing the creature was off balance and hoping to get a couple extra hits in.

> Glancing Blow! You deal Skeletal Wolven 27 blunt damage! <

The creature idiotically stood its ground and tried to fight instead of retreating to a safer distance where it could collect itself. It swiped its left claw at Arris, rearing up on its hind legs to keep its balance. Unfortunately for the wolven though, Arris was ready with a counter. He caught the blow on his quarterstaff, deflected it, and took another step forwards.

The creature, no reason or strategy behind its actions, took offensive action yet again. Its head snapped forwards, attempting to bite Arris. Already having anticipated the attack, Arris’ quarterstaff snapped upwards in a resounding and powerful blow into its lower jaw, taking off its head.

> Critical Strike! You deal Skeletal Wolven 120 blunt damage! <

> Skeletal Wolven has died! <

Having won the fight, all that was left to do was to loot the corpses of his enemies. Between the three wolven Arris found four different types of loot. The first two of which were the wolven’s claws and teeth, which both seemed to be a sort of crafting ingredient. The next was the wolven’s bone powder which was an alchemical reagent that Arris had used before. The final bit of loot was just random bones from the wolven which had no real use.

Usually, Arris would’ve simply thrown the random bones away but this time Arris had a plan. A minute or so later Arris had finished looting the three wolven and a quarter hour after that his mana had regenerated to full and he’d summoned his five Spirit Shards. Going through one of the three exits to the room Arris found himself in a very similar cave to the first. It would naturally follow that there was a small pack of wolven somewhere within the room, waiting for an intrepid adventurer such as himself to enter.

But Arris wasn’t quite as willing to risk himself like he had in the first room. While he’d been able to take out all of the wolven without taking any damage himself it was a close thing. And Arris had no idea how much damage the wolven dealt, they might deal forty to fifty like Arris did with his normal attacks or they could deal far more. What he was sure of though was that a party of four or five wolven definitely had a chance of killing him if they managed to surround him. Arris had only seen one pack of wolven so far and wasn’t sure if he’d encounter larger packs. There might be a large one waiting for him in the room he was about to go in.

So instead of blindly charging into the room Arris took one of the larger bones from his inventory and threw it through the air to a spot in the middle of the room some thirty feet in front of him, in an open area well within his line of vision. He then positioned himself at the end of the small passage between the two caves and waited.

He didn’t have to wait too long. It was only a minute before a skeletal wolven walked up to the bone, curiously poking at it with its snout. This was exactly what Arris had been waiting for. Arris raised his staff, pointing it at the skeletal wolven. He mentally formed the spell matrix and began channeling the necessary mana into it before releasing the spell at the wolven.

> You deal Skeletal Wolven 233 mixed damage! <

> Skeletal Wolven has died! <

The sound of scrabbling bones could be heard as whatever wolven were left in the room headed towards where Arris was. A couple seconds later and a trio of wolven burst into vision from behind stone protrusions, running towards Arris. But he was in the perfect place to take them on. He dug in with Warrior’s Stance and prepared for a vicious fight.

Funneled into the small passageway the wolven were at a severe disadvantage. Divvying up his spells, Arris staggered one with his Spirit Blast and used its distraction to make quick work of it before using his Spirit Shards on another and focussing that one down while fighting defensively. The last wolven managed to sneak under his defenses while he finished off the other wolven, but that left the two in a one on one fight. It barely had a second to spin around before Arris landed his first blow, stunning it. And after a series of savage blows to its back, the last skeletal wolven slumped to the floor, dead.

Deciding it was as good a time as any, Arris chugged one of his Medium potions of regeneration. The single bite the wolven had gotten off had dealt 55 damage, but each second it held on it dealt an additional 12 or so. In total Arris had taken 99 damage.

After the second cave, Arris had sat around for about an hour and a half and reflected upon the fight as his health regenerated. Something he very quickly realized was that he wasn’t making good use of his various spells. He still had nearly half his mana simply sitting around in his mana pool doing nothing. He could’ve spent that mana on Dark Blows, Disorients, and most importantly, Grasping Hands. All three could’ve been used to distract or deal more damage to the Skeletal Wolven, and he’d completely forgotten the spells in the heat of the moment.

In previous levels, certain situations had only required him to either use his damage spells, Disorient, or Dark Blow and Warrior’s Stance individually but now he needed to string them together if he wanted to live. The dungeon wasn’t throwing him more spells at him so that he didn’t use them, after all.

A couple fights later, Arris had gotten down the strategy perfectly. It was simple: he’d Condensed Aether Bolt the first Skeletal Wolven, Grasping Hands another to temporarily keep it from the fight, and then use his remaining damage spells combined with a couple strikes to take down whatever was left. It was a wonderfully efficient strategy.

In the rest of his cave clears he only took damage a single time when the wolven pack numbered six. They seemed to generally around level 12 and gave him good experience. After clearing about twenty caves Arris had finally hit level 13. As per usual, he dumped all his assignable stat points into wisdom. This brought Mana/10 to a little over 6. Then, on his twenty-third clear Arris encountered the first signs of a boss.

Looking into a cave Arris could see bones. Tons of bones. Enough bones for the corpses of thousands of animals. Inside the mounds of bones, Arris could spot human skulls, rat skulls, wolven skulls, and the skulls of many more unnamed creatures. There were only a couple visible stone obstructions in the cave, but the cave still formed a maze as there were so many bones stacked up in certain places that they formed a pillar of sorts which reached the roof, obscuring much of the cave.

Cautious, Arris employed much the same strategy he had in the rest of the caverns, throwing a bone out into the middle of the cave. The bone hurtled through the air for a couple seconds before impacting into a large, unstable pile of bones, sending them toppling over in a cacophonous clatter. A couple second later the sound of a massive roar reverberated through the cavern. The loud thud of footsteps moved slowly through the cavern as something massive moved through the cave towards Arris.

Then, the level boss finally came into view. Whereas the Skeletal Wrathion Fledgling and the Skeletal Hound had been large, this creature was huge. Arris checked its nameplate.

Whereas the Skeletal Wolven may have been something out of a horror show, the Skeletal Dire Scragath Hatchling was something out of your worst nightmares. It was like some grotesque mashup of a dragon, elephant, and praying mantis. Four massive tusk-like spines adorned its two-yard snout, a pair on the top and a pair on the bottom, appearing roughly halfway along its length and extending forwards to meet just in front of its mouth in four wicked points. Its mouth had no teeth but was instead a bony beak capable of easily shearing through bone—and maybe even stone. Its face was completely devoid of any holes for eyes and the glowing red flames revealing it capable of vision. The creature had two massive trunk-like back legs capable of supporting its weight and a series of massive spines interspersed randomly along the creature’s back and ribcage. Instead of forelimbs, the creature sported a dual set of three short appendages terminating in a wickedly curving spike. The remnants of the creature’s tail extended in a long line protruding from its rear end, giving the creature a counterbalance for its massive weight. It was stocky and wide, built like a tank.

In total, the creature was roughly thirty feet head to tail and around ten feet in height. The Skeletal Wrathion Hatchling likely only had roughly a quarter of its biomass. This thing was massive in comparison.

Praying to whatever gods that were currently watching, Arris slowly backed away from the Skeletal Scragath, not wanting to give any indication he was there. Luckily, it didn’t move as he crept away, silently observing with its massive eyeless face pointed towards Arris. After half a minute of creeping backward and away, he finally got out of visual range of the creature.

> Sneak +1 <

Arris then hid behind the wall and waited for the creature to disappear back into its lair before venturing back into the cave that connected to the Scragath’s lair. While Arris had been feeling rather confident before actually meeting the boss, now he was no longer quite so sure of himself. Arris had been so sure that the boss would be a low health, stealth reliant, easily outwitted melee fighter. While the easily outwitted melee fighter part might still be true the Skeletal Scragath Adolescent had to have at least 1000 health if the Wrathion had around 500. And it definitely wasn’t stealth reliant.

Arris was tempted to go and search for the hidden boss. Arris didn’t quite know how difficult it would be, but surely it wouldn’t be quite as daunting as the Scragath. Judging from its size and its power, Arris felt reasonably confident that the Scragath would one shot him if it could land a blow with its beak or catch him with its tusks.

But the last time he’d gone off searching for the hidden boss because he didn’t want to face the main boss the hidden boss had almost killed him. That had been when he’d found the Wrathion.

In fact, thinking back on it, every single hidden boss that Arris had encountered so far had actually been more difficult to kill than the main boss of the level aside from the very first hidden boss. If the hidden boss for this level was more dangerous than the Skeletal Scragath Adolescent then Arris could be in some serious trouble. He might not be able to clear any of the level bosses.

Well, it didn’t matter. Arris wasn’t quite willing to face the Scragath yet so instead, he went off wandering and searching for more monsters to kill. Maybe if he found the hidden loot chest he’d get an item which would help him kill the Scragath.

Some five or so hours later Arris had cleared out yet another ten rooms of wolven. He’d gotten more loot and his inventory was getting dangerously close to full. Another couple big, heavy items and Arris would need to start dropping things.

It was right about then that Arris found the second odd room in the level. Unlike the rest of the rooms in the level this one was huge. Most of the rooms were only some three hundred by three hundred feet: this one more had more than double the area and far, far more height. Whereas the roofs of the previous caves had only been some twenty to forty feet off the ground, the roof to this cave was well over three hundred feet above Arris’ head. A ten or twelve-foot wide spiral ramp went up through the room, leading towards a platform at the top. Pillars starting from the base level supported its massive weight.

But what might have once been a grand piece of architecture had turned into a crumbling ruin. If there was once a railing, it was long gone, the sparse pillars the only safeguard between the pathway and a long fall down. The path itself was rocky and had debris strewn all over it. Massive sections of the pathway had crumbled and fallen. At several places on the walkway a fallen pillar connecting two sections of walkway between which the path had crumbled was the only safe route upwards. At several other places on the walkway, pillars had broken free from their foundations and fallen to connect one side of the pathway to another.

Arris traced the pathway to the top, ensuring there was a safe path up. As far as he could tell, the pillars were perfectly positioned just so that he could safely make it to the top between them and the ramp. Arris absently scratched at his head. The hidden loot chest had to be up there. It was also equally as probable, however, that the hidden boss would attack him on the ascent. Arris decided to prepare for the event on the off chance it happened. He sure hoped it didn’t. The designer of the dungeon shouldn’t be that cruel. Right?

After prepping his five Spirit Shards Arris began his steady ascent. He didn’t have to climb the ramp for long before he reached his first connecting pillar. He ascended that one. Then the next. Then the one after that. And then another one. It wasn’t long before he gained a level in climbing.

> Climbing +1 <

When Arris had traversed about half the length necessary to reach the top loud howling started up from somewhere above him. Arris glanced up in confusion and spotted two large wolven looking creatures staring down at him from the next level of the ramp. Aside from their general increased size, they had larger, longer claws, an additional set of tusks protruding from their lower jaws, and a longer tail with a cross of bone spikes at the end. The two beasts started running down the ramp towards Arris. Just then a notification popped up.

Congratulations, you have found and activated the hidden boss challenge Skeletal Dire Wolven Duo! Do your best to survive!

Uh oh. Arris had really been hoping that nothing would attack him on the ascent. Even worse, Arris was three-quarters the way up a pillar connecting one undestroyed piece of ledge to another undestroyed piece of ledge. The fallen pillar was a terrible place to fight the wolven. The agile creatures would have every advantage fighting on the small, round, difficult to balance on pillar. Arris needed to climb to a flat level of ramp.

Unfortunately, the Skeletal Dire Wolven were on the next level of the ramp, and from the way they were quickly moving down it towards him he knew he couldn’t make it to the top before they did. But he definitely wouldn’t be able to crawl back to the previous level either. It was too precarious and Arris wasn’t that good or fast a climber yet.

With only one option left Arris summoned his staff of power from his inventory and began preparing his Condensed Aether Bolt. The two agile Skeletal Dire Wolven only increased their speed once they saw him channeling the spell. But as fast as they were they had only just made it to the ramp and begun clambering down it towards Arris before he finished casting the spell.

For safety’s sake, Arris channeled extra mana into the Condensed Aether Bolt. He wasn’t quite sure exactly how much health the wolven had but he figured it was around 300, maybe 350. Just to be safe, Arris overcharged his Condensed Aether Bolt with a bonus half charge, totaling about 300 mana, before releasing it.

> You deal Skeletal Dire Wolven 428 mixed damage! <

> Skeletal Dire Wolven has died! <

The Skeletal Dire Wolven blew apart, its ribcage exploding as its bones fell off the pillar and through the air towards the ground. With its companion dead, the second wolven let loose a bestial howl, its red flames of eyes glaring malevolently towards Arris. Arris attempted to cast Grasping Hands on the second wolven and keep it in place for a second so that he could smack it with the remainder of his damage spells, but the nimble creature somehow noticed the hands and launched itself off the pillar and out of their reach. In a feat of extreme dexterity, it then managed to twist in midair before grabbing and somehow managing to land on the section of pillar just a few feet behind Arris.

Very unfortunately, this put the creature within ten feet of Arris. Arris immediately brought his staff to bear, forming the spell matrix for Spirit Blast and sending it rocketing into the creature. The five Spirit Shards followed right after.

> You deal Skeletal Wolven 85 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wolven 33 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wolven 33 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wolven 33 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wolven 33 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Wolven 33 raw damage! <

The spells weren’t enough to kill the creature though. Arris checked its nameplate.

Arris did some fast math and realized that the creature should have less than a hundred and fifty health. A Dark Blow followed by a Disorient into a Spirit Blast should take the beast down.

But only a second more and the creature shook its head, regaining its senses. It was much faster than Arris expected. It quickly focused on Arris and roared, springing towards him. The beast scrambled up the steep incline of the pillar and swiped a claw at Arris. He raised his staff in front of him, parrying the blow but almost getting knocked off in the process.

> Climbing +1 <

‘Not the time right now System’ Arris thought to himself, trying to ignore the notification. Distracted, Arris almost wasn’t able to shimmy up the pillar in time to dodge the Skeletal Dire Wolven’s step forwards into a lunging bite. And he certainly wasn’t able to dodge the following powerful swipe of its claw. The blow smacked into Arris’ staff violently, not deflected at all this time, knocking him clear of the pillar with its force.

Arris’ arms pinwheeled rapidly as he tried to regain his balance and plant his feet on the pillar. But he was too far away and his balance was ruined. Then one of his footholds slipped, and Arris plummeted down from the pillar, through the air, and towards the ground.

It was some one hundred and fifty feet to the floor from the point Arris had fallen from. There were no pillars directly below him which he could grab onto or land on. The ramp itself would never be closer than fifteen feet away horizontally from where he was falling. The only pillar even remotely close to below him was a full seven feet away, not even nearly close enough for him to grab onto. It seemed Arris was about to meet his end as bone powder on the floor of the dungeon.

Then, in a flash of genius, Arris had a brilliant idea. Instead of hopelessly flailing at the out of reach pillar, Arris began casting a spell. There were only ten or so feet left between him and the pillar when Arris finally managed to cast the spell, planting it horizontally facing towards him on the pillar.

As Grasping Hands went off, a veritable swarm of hands erupted from the wall, grabbing onto Arris’ legs and then his arms, yanking him sharply into contact with the pillar.

> Ingenuity +1 <

Arris gave a skeletal clacked his jaws together in cold anticipation, now firmly reattached to the wall and no longer about to plummet to his death. The Skeletal Dire Wolven which had been avidly tracking his progress howled with disbelief as it saw its nemesis recover from what had seemed an irrecoverable situation. It immediately began scampering further down the ramp, trying to recover the distance made between it and Arris.

Unfortunately for the wolven, its time was up. Arris’ Condensed Aether Bolt was off cooldown. His staff somewhere far below him, Arris channeled the spell regularly, taking careful aim. The Skeletal Dire Wolven saw the spell matrix forming and froze, maybe about to take evasive action, maybe accepting its impending doom. The world would never know because a second later the beast was dead.

> You deal Skeletal Dire Wolven 203 mixed damage! <

> Skeletal Dire Wolven has died! <

With the second wolven dead there were no remaining impediments to Arris’ ascent. While he’d just killed the hidden boss Arris felt there was still a good chance there was something at the top of the room, namely the hidden loot chest. It could potentially be in any of the unexplored rooms that remained in the level but Arris doubted it. This dangerous climb seemed to be something that the System would reward people for its undertaking.

As much as he wanted to loot the hidden bosses’ bodies, Arris didn’t want to have to climb to the top of the room again. So instead of making the descent to the bottom of the room where the Skeletal Dire Wolven’s bones were scattered, Arris simply continued the ascent towards the top.

After another quarter hour of arduous, dangerous climbing, Arris finally arrived at the top. He slipped once but a hasty Grasping Hands immediately arrested his descent. At the top, a single pillar ended in a rather large platform. Clambering up onto the platform Arris found what he had been looking for: a massive chest. Arris eagerly ran up to the chest and popped it open. Inside was a massive sword, a pair of silken red and white lined gloves, and a decent bit of cash, namely five silver and sixty-four copper. Arris stowed the cash then Assessed each of his new items, eager to see what new items he’d received.

Slayer’s Falchion of Execution

Condition: Excellent

6 kg

Requirements:

79 Strength

32 Agility

Stats:

+57 - 62 Damage

+10% Damage to Monsters

Execution:

Critical Strikes gain a +50% chance of inflicting crippling effects or grievous wounds

Silken Gloves of Levitation

Condition: Excellent

0.5 kg

Requirements:

9 Agility

12 Vitality

Stats:

+3 Defense to equipped area

Levitation:

While equipped, you may channel mana into this item to levitate. This costs 30 mana per second.

Arris frowned down at the items. Arris had gotten what he wished for: the falchion was definitely an item which could help with the boss. The boss was so large that hitting vital areas couldn’t be too hard, and crippling effects and grievous wounds both sounded pretty nasty. No, the problem was that he couldn’t actually use the sword, even in Warrior’s Stance his strength missed the mark by some thirty points. Arris sighed and stowed the item in his inventory. He was tempted to invest in strength a little so that he could maybe later use the item, but he knew that it would seriously detract from his mage build. Maybe the boss race evolution at level 15 would give him the strength he needed.

For now, though, Arris would just hang on to the weapon. There were a couple other things he’d drop before he got rid of it and anyways he still had 5 kg of space in his inventory.

Continuing his evaluation of his new gear, Arris read the description for The Silken Gloves of Levitation. While they were surely convenient, and they may allow him to get to the floor in a single jump, but they had no real practical use in combat. Who knew, maybe they’d be useful for something further on down the line.

Arris quickly swapped his armored gloves out for the silken ones and did a couple tests. He didn’t have a lot of mana left in his mana pool, so he had to be quick. He did a quick jump test on the flat surface which went fine, and then a leap test where he jumped twenty feet down a pillar before levitating himself. Both worked fine, totally stopping his fall.

Deciding he might as well trust the System and the item to work, Arris’ next move was the hurl himself off of the side of a pillar where there was nothing below but the ground. Arris fell downwards for several seconds before stopping once at 20 feet, again at 5 feet, and then finally at the ground. No damage was taken.

Arris then quickly hunted around for bones from each of the Skeletal Dire Wolven. As there were no obstructions blocking his vision, Arris was able to quickly locate some of the bones of each of the creatures. They were broken and smashed but Arris was still able to pick up loot off of them. He also found and retrieved his staff which was fortunately unbroken.

He received a grand total of 0.2345 kg of Dire Wolven bone powder, the Dire Wolven’s head which was apparently some sort of strange helm, and two sets of Dire Wolven claws. He then assessed the helm, not really expecting much.

Dire Wolven Skull Headpiece

Condition: Good

1 kg

Requirements:

27 Intelligence

26 Strength

29 Agility

56 Wisdom

Stats:

+7 Defense to equipped area

+5 to all Stats

Aspect of the Dire Wolven:

+10% Speed

+10 Damage to biting and unarmed attacks

Arris’ eyes widened. While he could only just barely use the item, he could equip it. And the item was absolutely overpowered. The single item brought a whopping stat buff of 30 by itself. While the Bronze Helm of Intelligence gave him 5 more Intelligence, when you factored in the general stat buff it wasn’t even a competition. Arris took off the Bronze Helm of Intelligence and equipped his new bone piece of headgear. As much as he might want to keep the Bronze Helm of Intelligence he simply didn’t have the room for it in his inventory. Dropping the helm on the ground, Arris was done sorting through his inventory.

Now Arris had two paths forwards. He could go and try to fight the Scragath or he could continue clearing the floor and try to get level 14. He was actually rather close to level 14, only 18% experience off. Another two or so rooms and he’d hit level 14. Deciding it was a good idea to be more prepared for the boss fight, Arris went and found four uncleared rooms and killed all the wolven in them, getting himself to level 14.

Now it was time for Arris to formulate a plan. He opened both his stat page and inventory, wanting all his tools in front of him so that he could easily remember and include them in his planning.

Name: Arris Graham

Class

Mage (Thaumaturge, Dark Paladin)

Profession

Animal Trainer (0), Alchemist (4)

Titles

Trailblazer I, Original I

Synchronicity Rating

97.6

Renown

0

Level

14, 3%

Race

Human Skeleton

Health

245/245

Mana

398/440

Toughness

245/245

Spirit

220/220

Attack : 39-45

Attack Rating : 86

Defense : 19.25

Defense Rating : 43

Strength : 49

Agility : 37

Intelligence : 30

Wisdom : 139

Luck : 5

Charm : 0

Constitution : 25

Vitality : 18

Health/10sec : 0.064

Mana/10sec : 6.885

Toughness/10sec : 0.32

Spirit/10sec : 6.885

Perception : 10

Rapport : 5

Ingenuity : 6

Poison Resistance : 5

Resistances

-5% damage taken from physical sources

+50% damage taken from fire-based attacks

+150% damage taken from holy sources

-50% damage taken from dark magic

-90% damage taken from death magic

+30% damage from blunt damage types

-30% damage from sharp damage types

-10% damage from magical sources

99% chance to resist mind control and other types of subversive magic

Attributes

Skeletal Frame

Minor Undead

Immortal

Soulbound

Passive Skills

Mana Sense

Blunt Weapon Proficiency (28)

Projectile Throwing (1)

Climbing (4)

Power of Darkness

Equipped Items

Collar of Strength (Neck)

Crude Iron Chestplate (Chest)

Thief’s Leather Greaves (Lower Legs)

Warlock's Bone Staff of Power (Two Hands)

Leather Bracers of Agility (Forearm)

Damaged Leather Thigh Armor (Upper Legs)

Steel Gauntlets of the Pugilist (Hands)

Mail Pauldrons of Constitution (Upper Arm)

Battered Sabatons of Swiftness (Feet)

Dire Wolven Skull Headpiece (Head)

Active Skills

Assess

Sneak (2)

Warrior’s Stance (8)

Condensed Aether Bolt (18) (30 CD)

Dark Blow (14) (10 CD)

Spirit Blast (15) (15 CD)

Spirit Shards (16) (3 CD)

Disorient (12) (15 CD)

Grasping Hands (9) (20 CD)

Inventory:

0.9153 kg Human Bone Powder

0.3110 kg Wolven Bone Powder

0.111 kg 37 Wolven Fangs

456 Copper Coins

53 Silver Coins

0.042 kg 7 Bronze Rings

0.024 kg 4 Silver Lockets

0.030 kg 5 Gemstone Necklaces

0.006 kg 1 Gold Ring

8 kg 4 Scimitar of Synchronicity

0.216 kg Drake Bone Powder

3 kg Spiked Shield

7 kg Young Drake Bones

0.2 kg Scroll of Teleport

0.5 kg Alarian’s Journal

4 kg Iron Quarterstaff of Command Lesser Undead

0.0048 kg 6 Root of Branthia Blast Plant

0.0024 3 Stalk of Airwort

1.08 kg 9 empty flask

0.8456 kg 7 Medium Potion of Regeneration

0.4832 kg 4 Excellent Potion of Regeneration

1 kg 2 Magical Grenade of Mana Dispersal

1 kg 2 Magical Grenade of Fireblast

2 kg 2 Dire Wolven Claws (Complete)

6 kg Slayer’s Falchion of Execution

0.2345 Dire Wolven Bone Powder

Capacity 37.6142 / 40 kg

Scrolling through both his inventory and his status page, Arris’ eyes passed over something he’d almost completely forgotten: Alarian’s Journal. With a flash of insight, Arris realized that the journal may include some important information on Scragath behavior and what way was best to fight them.

After a quarter hour of scanning through various journal entries, Arris finally found the one he was looking for. It turned out that Scragath belonged to a family of creatures named Multadonts. They were characterized by their massive size, voracious carnivorous appetites, and unusual sensory body parts. The creatures located and sensed their prey primarily with their absurdly powerful hearing and extremely sensitive skin which could pick up vibrations in the ground and in the air. They had eyes and a nose but tended not to use them.

Also worthy of note was the fact that, according to Alarian, even the Scragath pups were untrainable. The creatures in question were fiercely territorial and highly competitive over mating rights. Both males and females would often fight to the death protecting their mates and territories, never willing to share. Once in a fight, they never backed down.The only way to deal with a Scragath was to run or fight, there was no frightening it off or forcing it into a stalemate.

In terms of actual combat, Scragath were easily provoked and favored charge attacks. Anything caught with their tusks, which they could spread out like the jaws of a trap, would meet a swift and brutal end. What few creatures could dodge their tusks would often be caught by their spikes of arms. Alarian emphasized several times it was recommended that only seasoned adventurers should dare tussle with the violent and powerful creatures.

To be fully honest, while the journal entry was interesting, it wasn’t very helpful. He’d already figured that it would engage in some sort of charging attack and use its arms to catching anything dodging much like the Wrathion had with its wings.

Scanning back over his inventory, Arris began to formulate a plan. He still had both of his fire grenades and was thankful that he hadn’t wasted one on the necromancer. If he needed, he could just use both on the Scragath which would likely deal at least a quarter its health.

And while his Grasping hands likely couldn’t actually hold the creature down, it might be able to halt its charge or even trip it. And now that he considered it, there was also that scroll of teleport. If things got too hairy he could just jump himself out.

After another couple minutes, Arris had finally finalized his plan. When Grasping Hands was up, he could use the spell to trip the creature and get in a couple melee blows. Otherwise, Arris would use the pillars as cover to break the creature’s charges and kite it around waiting for his spells to come off cooldown and his mana to regenerate. It may take him an hour or two but he’d eventually kill the beast. After prepping his five Spirit Shards, Arris set off for the boss room.

With trepidation, Arris stepped into the boss room. With much care to be silent, Arris crept to the area where the boss was resting. He was sure not to kick any of the bones scattered on the floor and disturb the silence. It wasn’t long before he found the Skeletal Scragath Adolescent, laying silently and seemingly lifelessly on the floor in the back right side of the cave, out of sight of the entrance. He checked its nameplate to verify the pile of bones in front of him was the actual boss.

With its identity verified and his plan already carefully laid out Arris decided that hesitating would only make him more nervous and initiated his simple plan. He snuck back some one hundred or so feet to stand on the opposite side of the room of the Skeletal Scragath. He then raised his staff of power and channeled the mana for a Spirit Blast through it, letting the spell loose at the Skeletal Scragath. He quickly followed it with a Condensed Aether Bolt with exactly 200 mana in it, and then his five Spirit Shards. He didn’t know how long the fight would last, and he needed to save every single drop of mana he could. Cost wise, overcharging Condensed Aether Bolt was not half as efficient as normal casting the spell and Arris could stall the fight out and wait for his cooldown. With an explosion, Arris’ initial salvo of spells collided into the Scragath.

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 91 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 331 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 36 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 36 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 36 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 36 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 36 raw damage! <

Arris then checked its nameplate for its percentage health.

He did some fast math, tallying up his damage and referencing it with the monster’s percentage remaining health. When he finally finished crunching the numbers he realized that the monster had a little bit over 1500 health. That was a lot of fucking health. Its toughness bar could substitute for some 750 to 800 health of physical damage. He only had enough mana for one more salvo of spells. How the fuck was he supposed to take this thing on?!?!

The Skeletal Scragath shook off the confusion of being awoken by a massive spell combo and rose to its feet, letting loose a terrifying roar. Somewhere in the auditory background, Arris heard the rumble of stone, likely the exit to the boss room closing. Great. Now he had nowhere to run. That Scroll of Teleport was looking awfully tempting.

But Arris steeled his resolve and calmed his nerves. The fight hadn’t even truly begun yet. The Skeletal Scragath was only just lining him up in its sights and preparing for a charge. With another earth-shaking roar, the creature heaved its massive bulk forwards, slowly accelerating. Scratch that. Rapidly accelerating. In the brief few seconds that Arris had taken to refocus his attention from himself back to the beast, it had already covered half the room’s length and was only some fifty feet in front of him.

Banish all panic from his mind, Arris put his plan into action. With a wave of his staff, a host of hands sprang up from the ground around one of the Scragath’s legs, grabbing onto and tripping the creature. With a surprised bellow, the creature pitched forwards onto its face, violently impacting into the ground and sliding most of the remaining distance towards Arris.

> Critical Strike! Skeletal Scragath Adolescent takes 121 blunt damage! <

It was an unexpected windfall of damage. Surprised, but not quite to the point of not being able to take advantage of the Skeletal Scragath’s moment of weakness, Arris swapped staffs, darted forwards, and landed two blows on the Skeletal Scragath’s snout, charing one with a Dark Blow. The creature then shoved itself forwards a little with its hind legs and almost snapped its tusks down on him but Arris, noticing the movement out of the corner of his eye, managed to leap back out of range.

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 97 raw damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 71 blunt damage! <

In the span of a few seconds, Arris had taken down the creature’s health by yet another 300 or so damage. Suddenly, things weren’t looking so bad for Arris. He turned and ran away as the creature clambered to its feet, righting itself before looking at Arris and roaring. Just as the creature was beginning its charge Arris ducked behind a pillar of bones, stymying the creature’s attempt at reaching him. With a frustrated roar, the creature walked around the pillar, expecting to find Arris behind it. He wasn’t. Arris was instead running towards the next pillar of bones. He repeated this strategy, preventing the creature from charging him and waiting for the cooldown on grasping hands.

Without any movement speed while not charging or the brains to do anything but mindlessly chase after Arris, he was able to efficiently kite the creature.

Every couple pillars Arris’ Grasping Hands would come off cooldown and he’d allow the creature to charge him and trip the beast. He’d then get in two to three fast blows and then continue running. He averaged about 300 damage a run. Unfortunately for Arris, the fight changed when the boss finally dropped below 40% health. As Arris was running away from the boss towards the next pillar after landing his combo on it, Arris realized he could no longer hear the stomping of its feet behind him.

Turning around slowly, Arris glanced at the beast in confusion. What was the thing doing? It was just laying on the ground where it had tripped, doing nothing. Well, actually, now that Arris looked closer, he realized that it wasn’t doing anything. Or wait. Was it? The creature was starting to glow. Its eyes, red orbs of malevolence, grew larger and more intense. And even stranger, its very bones themselves had taken on a red hue and begun to emit a red mist. Arris peered closer, his red orbs of eyes narrowing, as he wondered what was happening. He soon had his answer, as the creature veritably sprang to its feet and let loose a bone-chilling roar, just as a notification window popped up.

Skeletal Scragath Adolescent has become Enraged! Beware! Its speed and damage have drastically increased.

Arris gulped, nervously. Whatever. This shouldn’t be too big a problem. A little speed and damage shouldn’t give the creature an advantage as he could just kite it out with the pillars. His plan was flawless. Obviously. With that fact in mind Arris turned and ran behind the pillar. The loud thumping of feet approached the pillar from the opposite side. This time though, the noise didn’t slow and halt as it approached. It increased in tempo instead.

With a massive smashing noise, the Scragath collided with the pillar sending bones flying every which way before swinging about, throwing its head up and releasing a massive roar. Then, the creature turned. But not to face Arris, who was madly running away towards the next pillar. No. To face the shattered remains of the bone pillar. Extending its massive maw, the creature greedily crunched up the scattered bones lying on the ground.

Skeletal Scragath Adolescent has regenerated its Toughness!

Arris broke out into a cold sweat. How was this in any way fair. If the creature could do that again, then his previous strategy was worthless. Best to scrap it.

It was time for plan B. Checking his mana pool, Arris knew he only had 140 mana left. Checking its nameplate, Arris verified the creature had 40% of its health or 600 health points. Thank goodness spells bypassed toughness. In terms of mana efficiency, Spirit Blast was by far his most efficient spell in terms of damage to mana spent. But he only had enough mana for three and he needed seven to kill the creature at 90 damage a shot. The mana for a Spirit Blast took approximately a minute to charge. So that meant that he’d need to stall the creature for three and a half minutes if he wanted to kill the creature. That was significantly longer than the fight had already gone on. Arris gulped. This was not going to be easy.

The creature, done with its bony meal, turned and lumbered towards the pillar Arris was hiding behind. It rapidly closed the distance and smashed into the pillar, once again sending bones flying everywhere. Arris was already running and spun about only so that he could throw a Spirit Blast back at the creature.

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 89 raw damage! <

The creature was much faster than it had been before though. Now, there was hardly half a second of hesitation before the beast focussed on him, roared, and resumed its charge. It was gaining ground on him. Rapidly. This time one of the flying bones from the smashed pillar almost clipped Arris. It hadn’t even been thirty seconds. He needed to stall for three minutes. But at this rate, Arris wouldn't even last for a third of that. He needed a plan C.

Glancing around, Arris desperately tried to discern some path to victory. The room was just full of bone pillars and stacks of bones. There was no stalactite loosely connected to the ceiling or massive magical sword conveniently laying on the ground. Desperately scheming, Arris sprinted to the next pillar at his maximum speed, only barely managing to outrun the Scragath and dodge the flying bones from the pillar breaking. And even worse, in front of him was the wall. To make it to another pillar Arris would have to run back into the room, past the Scragath. He’d never make it. Then, inspiration struck.

Arris ran at the wall. The Scragath, after quickly reorienting itself, followed Arris, expecting an easy kill with nowhere for its prey to run. The creature trumpeted a triumphant roar. But Arris just savagely clacked his jaws together. The Scragath wouldn’t be eating him today.

As Arris ran, he channeled the mana for a spell through his staff. He pointed it at the roof, some twenty feet above him, and let loose. A good ten feet before reaching the wall, Arris leaped upwards, extending his staff as high up in the air as he could. The grasping hands, reaching down from the roof, were just in range to grab it. They hauled Arris up out of the charge of the Scragath. The creature howled in disbelief as it charged underneath him, shocked to see its prey slip away from what it had been sure was a hopeless situation. Then its massive head slammed into the wall.

> Critical Strike! Skeletal Scragath Adolescent takes 219 blunt damage! <

Arris savagely gnashed his teeth together, and swapped out his staff for his combat staff, dropping onto the back of the creature and striking it heavily.

> Critical Strike! You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 107 blunt damage! <

Arris then followed up the blow with another two quick smacks to the creature’s back.

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 74 blunt damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 67 blunt damage! <

The Scragath, quickly recovering from the savage impact with the wall, realized what had happened and roared angrily before beginning to buck wildly. Arris almost fell off before he hooked a foot between a bony armor plate and the Scragath’s ribcage before he went back to smacking, landing another four blows whenever he could manage to balance for it.

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 68 blunt damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 65 blunt damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 73 blunt damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 70 blunt damage! <

The Scragath, whether through brain power or instinct, quickly came to the realization the enemy wasn’t coming off with mere shaking. With a keening cry, the creature lurched and started to flop over onto its side in an effort to crush Arris. Realizing what was happening, Arris landed one final quick blow before leaping off the side of the falling beast and coming to his feet quickly in a roll.

> Glancing Blow! You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 54 blunt damage! <

> Critical Strike! Skeletal Scragath Adolescent takes 44 blunt damage! <

Arris wasn’t done quite yet however. He hadn’t wanted to approach the creature directly from the front, but now he had the opportunity to get behind the creature, to its relatively undefended side. He close the distance quickly, getting in a blow as the Scragath rolled to its feet.

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 75 blunt damage! <

The creature began to spin towards him, but Arris had anticipated the move and rolled through its feet while avoiding getting stomped. He came up behind the spinning Scragath, and struck another two strong blows on the back legs of the creature.

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 68 blunt damage! <

> You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 69 blunt damage! <

The Screagath growled with frustration and took several steps forwards, realizing that Arris could simply keep rolling around through its legs and stay behind the creature to defeat it. Arris managed to land one final one-handed blow on the rear end of the creature before he turned and ran.

> Glancing Blow! You deal Skeletal Scragath Adolescent 50 blunt damage! <

The Scragath, spinning once sure it was out of range only to see Arris’ retreating back, screamed with frustration. Arris just turned back and pegged it with a Spirit Blast, checking its nameplate after the impact.

Arris clacked his jaws together savagely. A Spirit Blast and a Spirit Shard or two and the creature was down. Considering that it should stop one more time to replenish its toughness, the remainder of this fight should be a cinch.

Sure enough, it was. The creature took a solid fifteen seconds to eat a bone pillar and regenerate its toughness. And a few more desperate scrambles from pillar to pillar later he had the mana needed for the combo and finished off the beast. It collapsed to the ground, with a shriek as its body lost its magic potency and broke apart into a pile of bones.

Somewhere in the background there was the rattling noise of the entrance to the boss room opening, but Arris hardly heard it. He was eagerly reaching forwards to loot the Scragath. That had been an epic fight, and Arris could only hope the loot would be equally as epic.

Unfortunately, for beating the Skeletal Scragath Arris only received three things. 8 Stalks of Riverwart, a veritable mountain of cash, and a Tanker’s Plated Steel Chestplate. He opened the description of the new piece of armor, praying to god that it wouldn’t be another dud like the falchion had been.

Tanker’s Divine Plated Steel Chestplate

Condition: Excellent

22 kg

Requirements:

49 Strength

134 Constitution

Stats:

+67 Defense to equipped area

-10% to all damage dealt to equipped area

Divine:

Gain 10 Health/10sec for three seconds after taking damage

It was every bit the dud the falchion had been, if not more. The item was absolutely overpowered and would literally straight up give almost 10 defense to the defense stat. Throw in the -10% damage to the most commonly struck part of the body and the 30 health regenerated every time the character was struck and any attacking enemies may as well be ants trying to attack an elephant. The only problem, the one incredibly important and frustrating problem, was that Arris couldn’t equip the item. Nor could he put it in his inventory to save it for later.

Sighing, Arris had to drop the item. At least he’d gotten some alchemical ingredients and a ton of cash from the creature, a total of one hundred and twenty one copper coins, eighteen silver, and his first two gold pieces.

Reluctantly, very reluctantly, Arris had to let go of the amazing chestplate and leave it behind in the boss room. Who knew? Maybe if he could find a way to store more stuff he could come back for it. As he stepped out of the boss room a notification popped up.

Congratulations!

You have met the requirements for clearing the first level of the Skeleton Floor of Malechian’s Dungeon (Boss slain, 75% Monsters slain)! You may now proceed to the next level and kill creatures without any sort of experience deduction! Beware though, the next level is the final level of the floor and will possess unexpected challenges and stronger monsters! Good luck, and may the worthy survive!

Arris read the notification once over and his jaws clacked happily together, phantom lips trying to twist into a smile. He was almost done with the floor. Arris could only imagine the treasures he would find at the end of the first floor of the dungeon. They must be guarded by suitably terrifying and difficult to defeat monsters. This level had truly been exceedingly challenging, but like all the other challenges in the dungeon Arris had overcome it. The next level would up the danger.

Despite the near-death experience and promise of more to come, however, Arris reveled in the fact that he would soon have the chance to put himself to the test again. It felt good to have a challenge. It felt good to feel something, at all.

Arris waved his hand and the notification floated away. He strode away into the darkness, jaws clacking intermittently.