I

Eva walked to the hollow tree that served as the dungeon entrance and selected Basic▲. It was time to get the show on the road. The dungeon was nothing she hadn’t seen before. The rooms were flat areas between sand dunes while the hallways connecting them were winding paths up and over those dunes. She tried to go off course, but she found herself running into sand that threatened to swallow her when she took even one step into it. The dungeon’s minion du jour was the satyr. The boss was some kind of dog-like monster. Observe★ was unhelpful in her quest to guess the theme of the dungeon.

Every time Eva left the dungeon between runs, she had to take care of a small number of omyeskadi who had exited the dungeon without going back in. They gave better experience than any run until Adept✶. Even then, it was close. Finally, she entered the Master✷ difficulty version of the dungeon.

The inside was only slightly different. Instead of a dune desert, the theme had shifted slightly to be a rocky and scrub desert complete with cacti dotting the landscape. The satyrs proved to be little challenge at only level 23. Still, the experience was nice, so she fully cleared the dungeon before entering the boss room—a gully surrounded by short trees. In the middle of the room was a dead satyr being eaten by the boss. Observe★ told her the answer to her hours old question. The boss was El Cupacabra.

The boss looked up at Eva, blood dripping from its lips. The lupine monster immediately Charged towards her. As soon as it was close enough, it Swiped at her with its retractable claws. She Dodged★ and slashed with her air Infused★ shortsword. She jumped back and threw a Fireball★ at the boss monster. She missed the primary damage when it Dodged out of the way, but it was caught in the explosion.

The boss was barely hanging on when it called for backup. It immediately chose one of the satyrs and bit down. El Chupacabra’s wounds began to heal as it drank the blood of its victim. Before it was fully healed, Eva blasted it with another Fireball★. The explosion disintegrated the dead satyr and set the boss’ fur alight.

The extra satyrs the boss had called were enough of a distraction that she had to blow them up before she could finish off the monster. In the meantime, it had found another satyr corpse and had healed fully. When Eva saw that, she decided it was time to take the fight seriously. She’d seen everything it could do, and she knew that she could pressure it down without allowing it to act in any meaningful way.

Her first course of action was to light a Fireball★ and Charge★ the boss. When she got close enough, she shot the Fireball★, taking a bit of the explosion damage in the process. While the boss was reeling from the attack, she Infused★ her sword with air and Pierced★ its body before cutting outwards to devastating effect. The monster Slashed its claws at her and she Dodged★, readying another Fireball★. Eva braced for impact as the explosion hit. She got an experience notification and an even more important one.

Unclaimed Dungeon Conquered

As the owner, you can now set rules for this dungeon

Quest Updated: Own all the dungeons in the Tutorial. 5/6 owned

II

She looked at the countdown clock. It was night and she decided she would rather attempt to find the final dungeon at first light. She found a comfortable enough place on one side of the boss room underneath a shrub. Eva lay down and allocated her experience before nodding off for a handful of hours.

Eva woke up just after dawn on the outside of the dungeon. She set the dungeon to human only before exiting. There were a handful of omyeskadi around that were quickly taken care of before she headed back out into the swamp towards the still rising sun.

The going was slow. She decided to keep Sneaking▲ through the mud and water of the swamp just in case she ran into anything along the way that she wasn’t expecting. It was a good choice, it turned out. A little over an hour into her journey, she came across a small group of omyeskadi and landwalkers that were hunting. A few Fireballs★ took care of them. For once, she was the one getting the drop on her enemies instead of having to Dodge★ arrows out of the blue.

Around noon, the swamp began to firm up and the scraggly trees began to thin out. Within the next hour, Eva found herself in a savanna complete with tall grasses and the occasional grove of trees. By one in the afternoon, the grasses showed signs of being burned, with huge swaths of the savanna charred. The trees still remained, the fire having burned quickly.

Eva gave up Sneaking▲ when the grasses were gone. There was simply no point since she would stand out visually from miles away. Half an hour later, she spotted what she was looking for.

Rising alone to command the area was an earthen mud wall that had been reinforced with grasses. She could see omyeskadi on the walls, though there weren’t a lot of them. Eva weighed Charging in to raid the place immediately or wait to use the monster wave for an accurate accounting of their forces and for the extra experience. She eventually settled on the latter. She found a tree to hide behind to run out the clock.

III

There are 11 days remaining

3015/10000 are still alive

New Quest: Defeat a monster wave. 0/118 killed

As she had guessed, there were not many omyeskadi to worry about. The monsters would be a nice extra treat on top of the dungeon and alien subjugation she was about to undertake. Eva was fascinated to see the monsters appearing as if teleported by light flashes. She’d already seen it before, but it was still such a strange sight that she couldn’t help but be enchanted by it.

The first monster to appear was a snake-like creature with four wings and four small limbs. She would have called them dragons if it weren’t for their diminutive size and the name given to them by Observe★. They were level 19 Windnose Drakes—related to dragons for sure but definitely not of the same danger class.

Taking heed of the name containing wind, Eva infused★ her sword with earth and got to work. The double damage against them from the tier difference coupled with her correct assessment of their weakness meant that each monster died to just a single slash or Pierce★.

The aliens didn’t sit still. They shot arrows towards both her and the monsters. However, their attempts were rather poor. Sure, they got some monsters here and there, but the projectiles were easy for Eva to Dodge★ considering the distance they had to travel.

After around five minutes, the vast majority of the monsters she could see were dead. The ones that still lived were on the other side of the wall from where she was. The drakes not near to her flew towards the omyeskadi and provided a good enough distraction for her to close the distance.

When Eva was close, she Charged up the wall. It wasn’t perfectly vertical. Instead, it sloped slightly for stability. Most creatures would have trouble taking advantage of it, but that was not true for her. The inside of the wall was barren. There were some tents and a few cooking fires, but it looked mostly deserted. The only other thing of note was the copse of trees near the center of the camp.

The aliens at the top of the wall were surprised to see her so quickly. They barely had time to yell before they were executed with her sword or blasted apart by a Fireball★. The drakes did a number on the defenders, lessening the amount she had to kill but at the same time replacing those numbers with themselves. Ultimately it was a six of one, half dozen of the other situation.

It took about twenty minutes for her to take care of business. There had been some reinforcements leaving the copse of trees, but otherwise it was straightforward, if not terribly rewarding. Even the omyeskadi had little in the way of things to loot—not that she really wanted their armor or weapons. There were some shards that she stuck in the Shard Ring✹, but otherwise not worth the effort.

Eva took a deep breath when she approached the copse of trees that served as the dungeon entrance. This was the final dungeon. Whatever reward she was due would be given as soon as she had finished the final boss at Master✷ level. There was no time like the present to get it done. Despite her success thus far, she felt nervous upon entering the dungeon.

The interior of the dungeon was a dim twilight fog. The terrain was marshy with the rooms being dry areas surrounded by dangerous looking mud. The paths between rooms were similar but only wide enough for one person to pass at a time. To match with the spooky theme the dungeon had going for it, the minion monsters were skeletons starting at level 2. The boss—at level 7—was some kind of specter that could be damaged with physical attacks, subverting her expectation of the encounter.

Six hour later, after Eva had eaten some food leftover from the now dead aliens, it was time for the final run. The apprehension she’d felt before the Basic▲ dungeon was now twice as strong now that she was entering the Master✷ dungeon. She was not one who enjoyed surprises, and the System surprising her—even for something good—was not a good feeling.

The inside of the dungeon changed slightly for the Master✷ level. The first thing was that the twilight had been replaced by pitch darkness. The second thing was that here and there were creatures flying just out of reach that cast the barest flicker of light across the landscape. The biggest change was the look of the monsters. The skeletons were now headless and adept at Sneaking around. If it weren’t for her light Infused★ shortsword, it would have been a nightmare!

Like every other dungeon she’d done, Eva first cleared all of the easier monsters before she faced the boss. The experience was significant, too. It was just enough for her to gain a level—and thus a class point—before heading into the boss room. She picked up 5% more elemental damage when using an elemental skill, the same as she had the previous level. The next point she got would go towards boosting her elemental magic skills by another level.

The boss room had also changed. Before, it had been just another dry area with a few torches for atmosphere. Now, it was a riverbank complete with a dock and a boat roped to it. Standing on the dock next to the boat was the boss. By the glow thrown from her weapon, she could just make out what it was. Her breath caught before she remembered to Observe★. The skill confirmed what her eyes refused to believe. Grim Lv 27.

The monster’s scythe glinted in the dim light as they moved towards her with almost a gliding motion. The previous versions of the boss had been rather easy to kill. Though magic wasn’t strictly necessary, exploiting their weakness to light made the fights much faster. Eva lit a Fireball★ and planted herself in a defensive position while the boss approached.

Though she would usually have Charged★, she felt something she’d not felt in nearly a month: fear. That fear forced her to be more passive than she wanted to be. By the time she realized something was wrong, the boss was already upon her. She yelled and slashed with her sword.

The light winked out momentarily before bursting back to life as the blade exited the Grim. It did significant damage. Her shield Blocked▲ its counter attack, limiting the damage she took somewhat. Yelling and attacking snapped Eva out of whatever effect the boss had placed on her.

Angry at having her emotions manipulated, she Charged★ into the Grim, knocking it back several feet. Her Fireball★ exploded against it a moment later. Though she got caught in the explosion, it still did a lot less damage to her than her opponent. It was just an unpleasant and unfortunate consequence of fighting in close with what was, by all rights, ranged magic.

Before she could finish off the boss, it raised its scythe into the air and called out with guttural sounds that shook her to her core. Out from the dark mist came specters of the dead. Eva shook her head and Charged★ the Grim again. She was determined to put an end to its life before the specters could interfere. Two well-placed slashes from her shortsword finished the boss off. With the boss dead, the specters faded back into the mist.

Unclaimed Dungeon Conquered

As the owner, you can now set rules for this dungeon

Quest Complete: Own all the dungeons in the Tutorial. 6/6 owned

Reward: Title Tutorial Conqueror✹ and choice of further reward

Eva mentally opened the screen with the reward choices.

10,000 Experience

Unlock Special✹ Node in Class Tree, +1 Class Point

Special✹ Item

Journeyman★ Skill

She went back and forth over the options for several minutes. The experience was out, as was the item. She could get or source those with time. The Skill was enticing as well, but she ultimately decided to go for the Class Point. The unlocked node had stood alone, away from the rest of the web and did not require any other connections to pick it. She sunk the free Class Point into the node, receiving a 10% more experience multiplier!