Oh god, my hands ached, my body ached, and I was going cross-eyed from all this carving and crafting. Despite the aches and pains, I had finally managed to get my rune crafting skill up enough to eke out a 4% flexibility boost most of the time and a three percent in the rest, making sure those plates went to non-critical areas on my armor. Turns out runes are very sensitive to the overall depth of the carving and having that depth as consistent as possible increased the effectiveness of the runes. I was sure I was just barely scratching the surface of what runes were capable of.

Because of the hard work, I earned the skill armor crafting as I assembled the roughly shaped Chitin Jerkin, using my old jerkin as a template of sorts as well as a backing material. The plates were quite heavy; I mean what had I expected from rock centipede armor coming in at around 15 pounds. I did have to sacrifice a shirt to cover the hole in my leather but it was worth it.

Rune crafted leather-backed chitin jerkin

Quality: Low

Armor: 12

Slashing resistance: 25%

Acid resistance 10%

This layered plate jerkin was crafted by a novice crafter with subpar materials each plate was painstakingly rune crafted to improve the flexibility of the armor. Because of this, any movement penalties for armor are based on light armor

It wasn't much to look at, bits of cloth and colorful nylon rope sticking through dark grey plates. It looked like someone's very first attempt at cosplay. I guess that wasn't far from the truth.

I even got experience for my first crafted armor and rune crafted item.

Congratulations for crafting your first set of armor you receive 500 XP

Congratulations for crafting your first set of runic armor you receive 1500 XP

All in all, it took me sixty-two of the plates to cover the majority of the armor. I made sure to pack as many of the plates as I could fit in my bag after that, which turned out to be about 120 plates. The XP was a nice boost, although at this point it was just a drop in the bucket.

Work on the armor had taken far longer than I had anticipated mostly due to my having to stop every few hours and clear out the mobs. I think it was time to finish off this dungeon and move on. My Area of Denial spell was off cooldown and I cast it blasting the barrier away, I waded through the destruction as I moved down the passage killing anything in sight.

I cut through the groups of mobs much easier now with my extra level and armor. They also seemed to hesitate for a split second when they spotted the plating as if unsure. I didn't mind, it was an extra second for me to bash a skull in. I continued moving down the hall deeper and deeper, going past my previous depth. After killing off six more groups I reached the boss room.

Helgatha | Rock Centipede Queen | Level 7

The cave was large, covered in thousands of tiny rock centipedes, all the way up to the nearly full-grown ones and the queen, at least twenty feet long curled around a massive clutch of eggs.

"Well, that explains the endless waves of mobs." I murmured.

"Orkin man, I heard you had a pest problem have no fear for I am here," I said in my most macho voice, striding into the birthing chamber while casting Seismic Strike.

The Queen shrieked as her eggs and young died from my spell. The sheer death as my spell went off was fan-fucking-tastic. Dead insects were falling from the walls and ceiling like drops of rain, smelly nasty rain that got caught in my hair and mouth. Oh god, the taste.

I whipped a Stunning Gust off at the queen as she was rearing back to hock a massive spit at me. The stun landed and she flopped over twitching. The few remaining adolescents that survived my first attack scurried towards me and I went at them with gusto. Their attacks were much weaker than the adults and Rejuvenate and Healing Touch was more than enough to keep up with the thirty or so I had to fight off.

Any time the queen awoke I would either hit her with another Stunning Gust if it activated I left her alone if not I smashed her with an Earth Fist. The rest of the children died and with one final Earth Fist I finished off the queen.

Congratulations you are the first adventurer to clear this dungeon. For this epic feat, you have been awarded 1 free skill slot

For clearing this dungeon solo you have been awarded 1000 credits, for being the first person to clear this dungeon you have been awarded 800 additional credits

You have earned the title Bane of Arthropods 15% additional damage when fighting hard-shelled insects

Additional rewards are being calculated based on waves you survived before clearing the dungeon

Calculating...

You survived 302 waves

For being the first person on your planet to survive more than 50 waves in a Horde dungeon you receive 1 stat point

For being the first person on your planet to survive more than 100 waves in a Horde dungeon you receive 1 stat point

For being the first person on your planet to survive more than 150 waves in a Horde dungeon you receive 1 stat point

For being the first person on your planet to survive more than 200 waves in a Horde dungeon you receive 1 stat point

For being the first person on your planet to survive more than 250 waves in a Horde dungeon you receive 1 stat point

For being the first person on your planet to survive more than 300 waves in a Horde dungeon you receive 1 stat point

This dungeon will cease to be in 12 hours

Ho..le..shit six stat points all for just surviving round after round of abuse. If I would have known that I would have farmed this dungeon for all it was worth. I was kicking myself now for my lack of patience. It was doubtful I would ever come across an opportunity like this again.

It was odd though that I didn't get another notice for killing more than forty creatures, maybe the system only recognized adult creatures for that specific reward. I decided not to waste time and I looted the queen. She dropped six exquisite chitin plates, two exquisite mandibles, and a mana heart. The mana heart resembled a rough-cut gem.

I made room for all the good stuff in my backpack making my way back to the cave entrance. With twelve hours I had enough time to rest and recover before this place vanished. On my way back up I decided to assign my stat points. One in Intelligence, one in agility, one in perception, one in strength, and 2 in luck. It felt right to round out some of my weaker stats with these essentially free points. I was a little miffed about losing my baseball cap in the fall, that extra point in perception would be helpful.

Paul Fuller | Mantra Enchanter | Level 8

Strength: 12(+2) modifier x9

Endurance: 16 modifier x27

Agility: 14(+2) modifier x9

Perception: 13 modifier x9

Intelligence: 17 modifier x27

Wisdom: 14 modifier x9

Charisma: 11 modifier x9

Luck: 14 modifier x9

HP: 432(475)

Mana: 459

Mana Regen(M): 126

The only visible change was to my mana, although, I did feel slightly stronger, slightly faster, and able to pick up on details quicker than before. As for the luck stat that remained to be seen. That last room and boss had gotten me to about quarter way on my experience bar, which was no small matter considering all the mobs in that last room were under level 5 except the queen.