I received two rank up prompts from that mini-boss fight.

Congratulations, your skill Acrobatics has increased.

Acrobatics Rank 2 (+4% jump distance, +2% movement speed)

Congratulations, your Grace in Combat Technique has ranked up

Grace in Combat Rank 3

No bonuses at this time. Increase your rank further to gain a bonus.

It looked like going full anime style in my fighting gave a decent skill increase. Going over the top always seemed to result in better dice rolls for my table top rpgs, maybe this new system likes it too. Food for thought.

I reached over and touched the disgusting creature with just one finger and received the loot list.

You have gained

3 pieces of Imp hide

2 Imp horns

2 Imp Wings

Spell School Tome

6 Imp Eggs

1 Magic Beast Core lvl 10

c190

Rowan could probably make good use out of that Spell School Tome, assuming he didn’t already know the spell school it contained. But based on the theme of this Dungeon, it was probably fire and I knew he didn’t have that school of magic. I’ll have to find out if there is a limit on the number of Spell schools one can know. It would be useful information in the future.

The usual crafting materials, might be useful or might be worth some credits. Those eggs though, they piqued my interest. The could be used like big grenades, but I also wondered if we were to hatch them, could they be tamed?

Since I was designated as the loot master, even if unofficially, I just put the items into my storage ring and noted them in my book.

The others went around, poking bits of goo or Imp parts splattered all over the room. Even if there were only bits of Imp left, the loot window would still pop up and we could get the fifty credits they were each worth. Too bad all the Imp magic cores were destroyed when the Imps exploded, a dozen level five magic cores would have been useful.

Once it was all written down and stored, I checked in with everyone to see what kind of gains they each got.

“I got a rank in my Archery skill, bringing it to two. And I gained the Heavy Armor skill.” Cody said, the happiness at his gains clear in his voice.

“I didn’t make any gains” Rowan’s soft voice came out from behind a curtain of hair. “My Arcane skill is too high to easily level, and I didn’t increase my summoning on that suicide run.”

“It’s ok Rowan. I didn’t increase any of my skills either. The first five ranks were easy enough, but it starts slowing after that.” Magnus said, while placing a supporting hand on Rowan’s shoulder.

Rowan looked up from under his hair and I saw a small smile on his face. “I did gain a level though.”

We all had a laugh over the joke he played. It made me happy that Rowan was able to start joking around a bit. It looked like he was recovering from the abuse he suffered a short while ago. We were all going to have to be more resilient now, with the world ending and all.

“Grats on the ding dude,” Magnus said while giving Rowan a slap on the back. He was nearly knocked over, Magnus forgot sometimes that his strength was now above human norms.

“Ok, before we move on to another tunnel, I think we should search this room for anything hidden, maybe there will be a treasure chest or something. It’s a dungeon after all, you never know.” I said before climbing back onto the shelf where the Brood Mother nested. If there was going to be treasure hidden, I felt it would be up there.

We spent a solid twenty minutes tapping on stone walls, trying to wiggle stalagmites, or were they stalactites? I could never remember which were the ones on the floor. Anyway, after searching everything that we could think of, it was decided that there was no hidden treasure chest here.

“After that big waste of time, we should get back to clearing this dungeon.” I said, disappointed with not finding more shiny loot.

We went back to the cavern with all the branching tunnels. “We have two options here, the middle tunnel and the tunnel to the right of the entrance.” I said, looking at our options. “I say we stick with going left, any objections?”

No one had any better criteria for choosing a path so we chose the middle tunnel. This tunnel was a lot darker than the one we went in previously. It looked like the torches were spaced further apart, leaving shadowy nooks.

We got back into our formation and slowly made our way into the shadow filled tunnel. Rukia’s nose was twitching left and right as she tried to catch the scent of whatever might be down this way.

I kept trying to push out with my Spiritual Sense, but the Dungeon was playing havoc on it. The sense was dim and felt repressed, like the dungeon itself didn’t want us seeing too far ahead. Rukia’s nose was our best bet at catching any ambusher.

The tunnel went over a hundred feet before it split into two branching paths. Maintaining our rule of keeping left we took that fork and continued on. It curved around to the left for another fifty feet or so before it opened up unto a huge cavern.

The only light source was a glowing red crystal cluster at the center of the domed ceiling. At its center the cavern was at least a hundred feet up, moss hung in long strands from everything, flat topped pillars of varying heights and thickness were spaced randomly throughout, as far as we were able to see.

Rukia let out a long low growl at the entrance, she did not like the smell of whatever made this its home. She already activated her Arctic Coursing River technique. The ice crystals forming over her fur looked to be made of blood in the red crystalline light. I shuddered a bit at the imagery.

Before entering, we all took a moment to activate any spells or techniques we would need in the obvious fight ahead. Rowan summoned Sparks and Ember. We didn’t have high hopes for a lot of damage out of a fire aligned Aeon in a dungeon filled with fire element creatures, but as long as it didn’t actually heal the enemy, any damage it managed to deal would help.

Cody didn’t have much to prepare, he left off his armor ability since he only had one more use of it and wanted to save it for emergencies. He had his soul-bound mace and wooden shield out, Malakai hovered over his shoulder ready to do his part.

Magnus had his hammer at the ready, purple arcs of electricity dancing over its face while I still had my Grace in Combat active and steel spear in hand. There wasn’t much more for me to prep at the moment, if necessary I could activate stage two at any time. Man, I needed to develop more techniques. I had a decent movement technique, a decent ranged technique, a weak accidental close combat technique that I never used. I needed to come up with an armor and a better melee technique.

Wait, where was I? Right, we were all prepped as much as we could be before entering an ambusher’s wet dream.

“Keep a sharp eye out, give a shout if you see something before anyone else.” I said to the group right before we entered. The shortest pillar I could see from the entry was at least ten feet tall, but most were three or even five times that. The pillars and the walls were draped in hanging moss and very leafy vines, cutting through the ever present sulfurous stench with its fresher green scent.

Keeping to the left wall, we entered the cavern. All the greenery gave the room a jungle like feel, just with stone instead of trees.

“Ahhh” a shrill scream sounded from behind me, I whirled around and saw Rowan clutching at his side, blood seeping through his leather armor.

Cody pulled Rowan away from the wall. It took me a couple seconds to process why. The vines and moss swayed like something passed through it. I rushed forward thrusting my spear past the vines.

My arm vibrated painfully as the spear tip passed through the vines and struck stone behind it. As I recoiled from the shock and pain, a large beast launched itself out of the covering and knocked me over. I felt as four sets of burning claws dug into me. The claws tore through armor, skin and muscle, leaving a searing pain and the smell of charred flesh behind as it sprang away.

-19

-19

-19

-19

Damn, even though my defense, that thing took seventy-six of my health. Eighty percent of my health was gone in an instant. The beast caught me in the chest and thighs, I could barely move through the agony I felt. Someone forced a glass tube between my lips and poured a thick liquid down my throat. I coughed and sputtered for a moment before my health started to slowly climb back up.

With the returning health, the clarity of mind returned as well. Almost every second that passed I recovered a full health point. I managed to stagger to my feet, my coordination was lower than I expected until I realized that I lost my movement technique. I shook my head and reactivated Grace in Combat and looked around to find my dropped spear. I really needed that armor technique.

I grabbed my spear and looked around; a huge feline sprang between pillars as it sought to avoid the mighty swing of Magnus’s hammer. I managed to get a good enough look to use my Identify skill.

Dungeon Hellcat

Magic Beast Level 7

HP: 126/126

Stamina: 198/224

Mana: 60/140

Defense: 14

As I watched, Sparks launched a pale yellow bolt of electricity and managed to strike the Hellcat while it was in the air. It didn’t seem to do any damage, but the beast spasmed in midair and failed to spring off of the pillar like it had earlier. Magnus and Cody both capitalized on the opening, swinging their blunt instruments into its side before it could regain its footing.

I could hear several ribs cracking from the dual impacts. With its ribs tenderized and before it could attempt to regain its feet, Rukia darted between her allies and sank her Ice covered fangs into its throat, shaking her head and savaging it. Dark blood sprayed all over the pillar and Rukia’s fur. I could feel the fury radiating from the husky. She did not like seeing me that badly injured and was taking it out on the cat.

“This fucker was fast” Magnus said, shaking his head at the corpse in front of him. He looked over and saw me on my feet. “You ok bro?”

“Ugh, that thing tore me up good. Thanks to whichever one of you fed me that healing potion. They taste like shit, but get the job done,” I said.

Cody looked down at his feet before saying, “I did it. You looked too hurt for Malakai’s or my healing to be effective unless we used all of them on you.” He swallowed hard before saying the rest in a rush. “I know you can heal yourself and that the potions are a limited supply, I’m sorry I hope you aren’t too mad at me wasting a potion like that.”

“Woah, easy there, I’m not mad. While I can heal myself, it’s not that fast. It would have taken me ten minutes to heal what that potion did in one. If we got ambushed by another of those Hellcats while we were distracted by that one, I could have held it off while you all finished off that one.” I said, trying to reassure Cody that he made the right call.

I looked at my health and saw that the potion had run its course. I had sixty-nine out of ninety five health left. I canceled my movement technique for the moment and proceeded to infuse twenty-six Ki through my Muscle and Dermal Meridians to finish healing my wounds. It would take about five minutes for the healing to complete, and it would itch like hell, but I would be fully recovered. As it was I considered myself to be in reasonable combat shape.

As I walked over to loot the Hellcat I said, “At least we know what we are facing in this room. Be very careful with the walls and pillars. They can potentially spring out from any direction. And watch out for that pounce, it’s a pain in the ass.”

You have gained

Magic Beast Core lvl 7

Hellcat hide x3

Hellcat fangs x4

Hellcat claws x8

c70

I copied down the loot to my notebook and we moved on. I lost track of how long we spent in that cavern with the blood red crystals for light. But it was a brutal slog, the Hell cats died easy enough when we were able to pin them down. But they were fast, agile and moved three dimensionally. They moved along the floor, up and over the Pillars and even bounding between them to come at us from unexpected angles.

Cody’s Malakai had to use his holy shield ability to defend us from sudden attacks, attacks that even though we were alert and looking for them still caught us by surprise. Rowan and Tess spent more Mana conjuring their Arcane shields than they did attack spells. But it kept everyone from nearly dying when the Hellcats used their devastating pounce ability.

Their fangs and claws seemed permanently on fire, and hurt like hell when hit, but nothing compared to getting four claws all at once, it seemed to get a damage bonus out of that as well. Fortunately it took too much Mana on their part to use them more than once, unless the fight really dragged out. And one of the fights did just that. The damned cat kept retreating to the tops of the pillars, evading Magnus’s explosive stride and my highly mobile attack style. It stalked us for over five minutes hiding to avoid the casters, waiting for its Mana to recover enough to try to take one of us out in one shot. Their stealth skills outstripped out perception abilities, especially with Magnus’s and my Spiritual Sense suppressed.

All in all, we took out fifteen of these demonic beasts, got lots of crafting supplies and a bit over a thousand credits added to our dungeon loot. I looked at my watch and saw that we had been in the dungeon for over six hours already. It was almost four in the afternoon, and the constant tension from never knowing when we might get attacked combined with all the actual fighting, it was no wonder that after clearing the chamber and making sure it really was cleared, we considered continuing on. That idea was shot down with a unanimous decision to rest.

Everyone was exhausted, several of us even sported the damned debuff reducing our various regen rates. I didn’t trust the effectiveness of our camping equipment in the dungeon, but I thought I had a better option available to us. I pulled out my portable Ki Forge and proposed my idea.

“If I open this on one of these walls covered in vines, and covered the entrance with a blanket under the vines, we shouldn’t give off any light to be seen by. Nothing can get in without being at least on the guest list so we should be safe enough inside to get some rest.”

Rowan and Cody slumped to the floor; Rukia lay next to them panting. Magnus just waved his hand in acceptance, so with all their enthusiasm at the idea, I just did it. I used some duct tape to attach the dark blanket over the entrance and made sure the vines and moss draped as naturally as I could before following everyone inside.