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Chapter 14: Beasts Beware

Forest Tiger: lvl 14

This was the 8th one he saw and again a comfortable shiver ran down his spine.

The creature was asleep, curled up beneath the shadow of a nearby tree.

With carefully placed steps, as to not alert it, Makoto got close enough to attack it.

Executing a quick movement his sword slashed over the exposed neck.

Critical hit!

328 Damage dealt!

Letting out a roar the tiger woke with a deep gash on the back of his neck.

Not wasting any time, Makoto jumped to the right and again used his blade to target the Vital area together with 'Curse Blade'.

Critical hit!

351 Damage dealt!

You have put a status effect on your opponent!

Bleed: - 20 hp every 2 seconds for 12 seconds.

Attacking vital areas with this Skill did more Damage and the chance to inflict a 'Bleed' was ridiculously high.

Soon enough only a blood drained Carcass remained of the Forest Tiger.

Wiping his blade clean he checked the message he had gotten during the fight.

The Skill 'Curse Blade' has leveled up!

The Skill 'Blood Rejuvination' has leveled up!

Checking both Skills after quite some time he was happy to see that they indeed had grown considerably.

Curse Blade:Enchanting your blade with a secret curse your every strike will lacerate the enemies flesh, bringing unbearable pain and misery to your opponent.Skill Type:activeSkill Level4 (3%)Skill Effect:+45% more Chance to inflict the 'Bleed' status effect.Additional Effect:+25% more Damage and longer Duration when inflicting the 'Bleed' status effect.Uses:20 Mana per attack

Blood Rejuvenation:While bathing in the blood of others you are able to find new Strength even during extended battles or skirmish.Skill Type:passiveSkill Level3 (1%)Skill Effect:0.2% max health restored every second for every 2% missing health.

'Blood Rejuvenation' had a very slow experience gain, it was to a point were he literally sometimes stood there and let himself be attacked for 10 minutes to grind the Skill.

Now at level 3 the regen had increased again, double of what it originally was.

His 'Curse Blade' was also not easy to level but the reason was simple, he just didn’t have the mana to sustain the Skill for too long.

The cost for it had even increased at level 3, depleting his mana pool even faster now.

Still, he was not willing to increase his mana just because he had 1 Skill that used it.

After all the Bleed effect he got was good, but not to the point were it was a good idea to invest stat points.

The Skill was versatile none the less and he used it at least once every fight.

Getting back to business he picked up the loot left behind by the Forest Tiger and the counter in the corner of his eye went down by 1.

After accepting all the tasks he could see different counters listing how many of which kind of Monster he had left to kill.

Currently he had not even killed a meager 5% of the needed Monsters.

Looking back at it, it might have been a bad idea to accept them all simultaneously but the choice was made and he could only continue his current hunting spree.

Makoto had nearly cleared out the entire area surrounding Shivercliff and was now in a deeper part of the woods.

The level of his prey had naturally increased again, giving him even more experience and loot.

Just like this Makoto continued to fight Wild Boars ( lvl 13), Forest Tigers (lvl 14-15) and Wood Wolfs (lvl 11-15).

The amount of Boars he had to hunt was the least so he concentrated on them first.

A trail of blood followed him into the forest, after about 6 hours of continued hunting he reached level 14, had finished up all Wild Boars and Wood Wolfs, there was only about 20 or so Forest Tigers left.

The black of his cloak had permanently changed color to a deep and dark red, as new blood splattered on it from time to time.

After killing off another Forest Tiger without any problems Makoto noticed a change in his surroundings.

All around him in the trees and bushes, strange milky threads went through the branches.

Curious, Makoto followed the strange trail and soon enough the threads turned into cobwebs, their number so high that even walking past a tree became impossible if he didn’t cut through one or two webs with his sword first.

After fighting off an especially clingy web he entered an open area with cobwebs plastering the whole floor around him and a dark hole that was partially hidden by those webs.

Immediately a shiver ran down his spine as he realized what this was.

"Spider Dungeon... oh god..."

Again a shiver accompanied the thought and he had to swallow hard.

It was not like he hated spiders in particular but who really enjoyed the idea of fighting a possible swarm of them?

Shaking his head he dismissed those thoughts and instead another idea came to mind.

What if it has good loot in it?

Licking his lips with a sudden greed, Makoto didn’t hesitate to slide down inside the hole.

You discovered the hidden Dungeon: North Forest Queen Domain!

As the first player to enter this Dungeon you are rewarded for your bravery and courage.

+5 Fame

+500 Experience.

The inside of the Dungeon was covered in Cobwebs, wall, ceiling or the floor it didn’t matter, everything had thin silky threads over it coloring the surroundings in a milky white.

After a few steps Makoto found himself at the top of a spiral going downwards, in the middle of this enormous spiral was just a gaping hole and the ground beneath it could not be seen.

Alongside the wall Makoto could see small holes and the occasional spider egg crossing his path.

Unwilling to soil his boots with possible guts he made sure not to step on them and proceeded down the spiral, shortly afterwards he encountered the first enemy in this Dungeon.

Green Carapace Spider: lvl 16

The spider had the size of a big cat and eight eyes were staring at Makoto with a pair of big fangs.

Simply put it looked disgusting.

Like one of those giant plastic spiders you can buy in any Halloween store just this time it was alive.

His sword at the ready he watched for any sudden movements.

Both Makoto and the spider had a short staring contest until he made his move.

With a quick and experienced movement he did a vertical slash, missing the spider as it jumped back surprisingly quick.

This time he was at the receiving end of the attack as the spider jumped, only to sink its teeth in his arm.

You have received 102 Damage!

You have received a status effect!

Poison: -35 hp every second for 10 seconds.

"Jesus, you gotta be kidding me!"

Makoto shook the spider and was able to chop one of its legs off as it let go of him.

With a terrified expression he watched his health drop to half only for his 'Blood Rejuvenation' to kick in and heal him again.

With only one bite from the spider he had received a status effect that was truly terrifying.

A lot more cautious this time he focused on slowly chipping the spider to bits.

In the process he was bitten 3 more times, luckily his regeneration was high enough after dipping below 50% health, that he was able to negate the continuous Damage he took while being poisoned.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Makoto looked at the dead spider before it disappeared in a cloud of particles.

"If I didn’t have my regen I would have been toast just from this one spider... this really seems like a tough dungeon."

After checking for loot he was able to salvage a small sack and 8 Copper coins.

"The amount of money this thing drops is pretty insane, now let's see what this is."

With a quick look he examined the sack.

Venom Sack: (ingredient)A useful ingredient used mainly in alchemy or cooking.

Can be used on a weapon, consuming the sack in the process.Uses:When applied to a weapon, attacks have a 20% chance to poison your opponent.

"That is actually pretty good, if I use this together with 'Curse Blade'..."

A devil's smile appeared on Makoto's face and while gently putting the venom sack back in his inventory he turned around to proceed down the spiral.

After only a few steps a new spiders appeared, crawling out of one of the many holes in the wall.

Makoto had another short battle, slowly he got used to the new pattern, this time he was only bit twice while also being able to land one Critical hit on it.

In the same manner 5 more spiders appeared one after another, every single one of them dropped at least one poison sack so his smile got brighter every time while looting.

Soon enough 2 and 3 spiders appeared at the same time, it was a clear indicator that he had gone far enough to reach a new level of difficulty, just like in the Crystal Cave before.

One problem Makoto noticed with the current situation was that if he was poisoned and then bitten again during the duration, not only would he receive normal damage like always but the effect would reset and be even more damaging.

Apparently it could very well stack up like that until his regen had no chance of keeping up anymore, as he got fairly close to dying because of it.

As far as normal regeneration goes Makoto was able to find out that it worked like this.

100 Vitality = 1.0 hp regen per second.

Mana regeneration seemed to work differently as Vitality boosted ALL regeneration abilities and wisdom also increased it, so it probably worked like this.

100 Vitality + 100 Wisdom = 2.0 mana regen per second.

That was what Makoto's guess was at least.

With a desperate swing he killed the last spider and decided to sit down and rest for a while.

His health was currently only at 20% and keeping the poison effect at bay.

After the status effect wore off, it quickly replenished to 80% until the regeneration slowed down.

"Alright note to self, if you are poisoned don’t get hit all the time or the poison alone will kill you, I have no way of countering something like losing 100 health per second at the moment so I got to be more careful..."

Sighing deeply he looked at his sword.

He had been using it since he left the beginner Village of Salem but right now it was too weak, all the damage he was currently really dealing came from his high Strength stat and the 'Penetration' skill.

A sword like this he outgrew nearly 8 levels ago...

That was one of the problems he had, he could tank a few hits normally or just evade them but his damage was not necessarily high right now, stat wise he was ok just his Weapon was lacking.

At the moment he was unable to solve this problem so he had to just push forward and hope for the best.

Luckily, because of the constant poison status his 'Blood' Rejuvenation leveled up soon enough.

Blood Rejuvenation:While bathing in the blood of others you are able to find new Strength even during extended battles or skirmish.Skill Type:passiveSkill Level4 (5%)Skill Effect:0.25% max health restored every second for every 2% missing health.

Even though it didn't look like much, in reality it was a big boost to his overall survivability.

With new confidence he went deeper into the Dungeon, avoiding any and all eggs that covered the floor and fighting spiders whenever they appeared.

Soon enough he was able to see something like a ground down below in this strangely well lit Dungeon.

It still looked miles away but just knowing that the end was near made it possible for Makoto to quickly finish up new spiders.

Just like that Makoto kept going until he saw a different type, bigger and even meaner looking.

Queen's Youngling: lvl 17

"The boss' kid? That's a bit messed up..."

Unsure, Makoto decided to observe the wolf sized spider, it did the same with him, just standing there and the only thing that moved was it's eyes.

Cautious Makoto decided to attack once and see what would happen.

He readied his sword and stepped forward but before he was able to even attack the Youngling opened it's mouth and a clear liquid splashed against his arm.

You have received a status effect!

Acid burn: -70 hp every second for 30 seconds.

"No fucking way!"

Enraged Makoto dodged another shot, scrambling for cover.

With wide eyes he watched his health bar decline at a rapid pace, finally stopping at the 30% mark but also not increasing.

"If I didn’t have 'Blood Rejuvenation', just one shot from that thing would kill me.

Jesus, just what is up with this Dungeon!"

Naturally Makoto's words were true, normally a player going inside a Dungeon was suicide and only balanced parties, each with a Tank, Melee damage dealer, Ranged damage dealer and at least one Healer would try it but Makoto had forgotten about all of that after playing alone for such a long time.

Generally speaking a Healer would have a simple skill that would get rid of any debuff or status effects and even make it impossible to receive them for a certain period of time, making this Dungeon very easy.

That Makoto was even able to get this far alone was admirable and thanks to his unique playstyle and class.

Back to the now.

"Let's see how you like a nasty status effect yourself, little shit!"

Furious Makoto charged at the spider and used 'Curse Blade' a few times after which he immediately fell back again.

The 'Bleed' status effect was applied on the Queen's Youngling and a dark liquid poured out of multiple cuts on it's body.

Makoto also noticed something strange while dodging another Acid Spray.

Even after he hit the spider it just kept shooting the same acid at him, if he got hit it would only worsen his current debuff but at the same time the Queen's Youngling had not moved at all since the fight began.

"Could this be it's weakness? That it is pretty much stationary?"

Unsure but aware that the longer he dragged this out, the more likely it was that he would die, Makoto charged forward and jumped over the spider, attacking its rear.

This time the spider did move and tried turning around but it was at a speed were Makoto nearly laughed out loud.

While constantly slashing the backside of the spider he had no trouble keeping up with its movements, the Queen's Youngling was incredibly slow and was unable to face Makoto again before dying, accompanied by a miserable cry.

"So in the end you only hit hard but are a slow poke, good to know.

Now where can I find your brothers and sister?"

He asked with an evil grin.

Makoto was very much determined in letting his anger out on them but before he was able to proceed, he noticed the time.

"Guess that has to wait until tomorrow, damn."

A little annoyed, Makoto logged out, the memory of giant spiders and eggs all over the floor even haunted him in his dreams...

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Chapter of today!

Hope you all enjoy and as always, if you have any questions just ask me in the comments. :D

Wish you all a good day and see you tomorrow!:goodjob:

PS: I am using an older Laptop right now to post Chapters, pls tell me if it looks weird or i messed up with the spacing as i did notice a change here but I can't see how it looks on newer PCs D: