Bones knew about the dungeons from what the young adventurer Nica told him and from what he read about in the book. There were different kinds of dungeons. Natural ones were formed naturally by accumulating mana over a longer period of time. They tend to adopt a theme depending on their surroundings and once cleared, they can be cleared again after some period of time passes. They are, what you would call, safe dungeons and were the kind of dungeons cities were built around! Wild ones were the opposite of natural dungeons. Their theme could be anything really, depending on the dungeon core operating and their inhabitants were extremely aggressive monsters. They were also the most rewarding dungeons, because the higher the risk, the higher the reward! If they weren’t cleared in time, they would break, letting loose all the monsters within. The breaking of a dungeon was called a dungeon break and breaking of more than one wild dungeon would lead to a monster surge! The third type of dungeons were artificial dungeons. Like their name applied, they didn’t occur naturally, but were artificially made as the product of a dungeon core research. They offer the least rewards and are mostly used as training grounds!

Bones identified the dungeon he was in as the natural one, because unlike wild ones, this one had a safe zone. Looking around, he saw he was still in the cavern surrounded by stalagmites and stalactites formed on the walls and hanging from the ceiling of the cave. Occasional crystalised looking fungi could be seen among the moss and ferns, growing on the ground. In front of the safe zone, was the tunnel. He marked it as the beginning of the dungeon and stepped through. The tunnel was lit by the motes of light released by the pores in the walls. He didn’t know what they were but it didn’t really matter, they weren’t harmful to him and he could find his way even in the absence of light. The tunnel led to the biodome, stretching far and wide. All over the biodome, he could see the cave columns protruding from the ground with holes in them. The size of the column caused him to worry because these columns were a few meters tall, some even reaching to the top and if he had to guess, Its inhabitants were comparable in size. He threaded carefully but the moment he got closer to one of the columns, ants started crawling out the holes. Shiiiit, these are Woodland Army Ants! He recognized the species immediately. They have large mandibles that act like scissors they use to slice their prey. While slicing up their victim, they spread a dissolving acid that is used to melt down flesh and muscles into a liquid matter. It was moments like these and the night he fought the spiders, he was glad he bought the monster compendium. Knowing the enemy is half the battle, or so they say. Killing half the ants would be half the battle, Bones would say.

He didn’t stay and fight, but ran and hid. Ants were reaching his waist and from the experience with spiders, he learned that the size of an enemy is a decent representation of the enemy's strength. He had no doubt they would be fast and looking at chitin, their defenses formidable. Around a dozen crawled out of their nest, all around level 15. Bones hid behind one of the many pillars of stalactite and a stalagmite. He could hear the clicking of mandibles and it sent chills down his bony spine. Ants were supposed to be small and squashable!

Meanwhile, while all of this was happening inside the dungeon, outside the dungeon, Horus was standing in front of the wall, scratching his head. “What did he do? Where did he disappear to?”

It would definitely have to be wisdom! Bones decided after fighting a dozen of ants. His spears were practically made to pierce their chitin but it still took more than two hits to kill them. Luckily they weren’t as fast as he thought they would be. They did have a nasty ability to spray formic acid, which he found to have a rather negative effect on his bones, unlike poison. Acid slowly melted his bones, which wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the damage over time effect it had. Luckily no more than ten ants surfaced at a time. He stayed hidden after killing the ants, sitting in meditation, recovering his mana. His health points weren’t the problem, his mana was! For the first time, he had to resort to drinking mana potions and not for the taste! This is stupid. How is anyone supposed to clear dungeons solo? Hm...right. Short answer? They weren’t. They were supposed to be cleared in a group. He just really, really didn’t want to group up with others! Sharing experience and loot? Disgusting!

Apparently, it was by design that ants would surface in a group of ten. This way, it wouldn’t be long before he hit level 15. He didn’t trigger all the ants, just the ones on his way to the other side of the biodome. Still, the number of the ants he had to kill was more than fifty. His bone spear leveled up immensely and was closest to reaching an upgrade. He didn’t get to level up bone nova because it seemed too risky to be that close to ants. He was using a hit and run tactic and it had gotten the job done. At the other end of the biodome, another tunnel awaited. A longer tunnel than the first one and covered with crystals on both sides, glowing faint green. It did occur to him, due to the glow, that they might be poisonous. It didn’t have any effect on him but he did wonder how the normal group would deal with a situation like this one. A healer would be absolutely necessary. A defender as well to tank those mandibles!

Tunnel was slightly curving left and he stopped walking when he heard the sound of clicking. The sound of mandibles clicking, now very familiar to him. They're here, right behind the curve! He summoned both spears, ready to take action at a moment's notice. He waited and waited, but ants never came. All he could hear was the occasional sound of clicking. He silently approached the bend in a tunnel and peeked. He saw in the distance two ants standing on hind legs, holding spears in whatever ants had for hands, and clicking with each other. The antennas on their heads were twitching constantly. He identified them as Woodland Army Ant-man. Eh, not very imaginative. They were standing almost as tall as him and had four arms. Overall, smaller than their brethren he was fighting previously. Their spears, however, suggested some expertise with weapons. He couldn't see the detailed information on them, but he could guess from his previous encounter that they too, had formic acid they would spray? Spit? Whichever it was, he was to keep his distance.

He picked up the decent sized rock next to him and aimed behind the ants, hoping it would distract them and give him an opportunity to attack without being noticed. He adopted a throwing stance, took aim and threw the rock. It hit the ceiling at half a distance and alerted them. Bones stood in a daze, jaws agape. Ants furiously clicked at him and then charged, spears up front. Bones chuckled, sighed and summoned his spears again. What else was he supposed to do given the absurdity of the situation?

He took a stance sideways and sent his first spear flying, then switched sides, and sent the second one. First spear hit the ant in the chest, cracking its chitin but not penetrating. The second ant actually deflected the spear with a wide swing of its own, not losing any momentum. It reached Bones first and thrusted the spear forward, planning to pierce its target's heart. Bones moved slightly to the left, avoiding a thrust and given how close the ant was, used mana blast to heavily damage the ant. Its four arms were blown away along with one of its legs. The blast sent it flying a couple of meters away. It barely had any life left but before Bones could finish it, the other ant intervened. A wide swing straight to his chest cracked a few bones and sent him rolling away. Instead of clicks, a hissing sound was heard followed by a spitting sound. A blob of acid was shot at Bones, who in the process of getting up, was hit again in the chest. His already cracked chest was now dripping with acid that was making a sizzling sound. It melted through the leather armor and a new shirt, making a hole the size of a fist in his torso. Slowly, the hole was expanding until it was the size of a head. Bones fiery eyes were blazing through the holes in the mask. Mend bones skill was working overtime but it couldn't keep up with the potency of the acid. It stopped spreading when it reached the end of its course.

The ant-man looked surprised that his target “survived”. The moment Bones took advantage of and sent the spears through the ant's legs, crippling him. More hissing sounds were heard and Bones avoided the next blob by feinting right, then moving left and lodging the tip of his sword through the ants head. He turned his head to the remaining ant-man, walked over and ended its life.

“That worked out well.” He growled.

He sat and meditated, his mana was dangerously low from mana blast and overusing the mend bones skill. It leveled up for sure and if this fight was any indication of his fights in the future, it was going to be leveling up often. At least he finally leveled up his class to level 15.

ding

Level up!

Congratulations, class Bonemancer is now lvl 15

You have learned a new skill: Bone Armor

Bone armor [basic] - wrap yourself in an extra, thin layer made of bones to act as a shield against physical damage. If the skill is channeled, mana cost is sustained. Cost: 50 mp + 5 mp/s sustain when channeled

Bones couldn’t wait to try out the new skill so he ended the meditation prematurely and with half the mana, summoned bone armor. He sensed the new layer manifest, covering parts of his body. Most of his torso was covered, his ribs no longer visible and spine protected. A thin layer covered the back of his head, his upper arm and below the waist. He tried the hardness of armor by knocking on it a couple of times and it seemed like it could take a hit or two. It did say the skill could be channeled so the armor might repair itself when destroyed? There wasn’t much else to it but to test it out! At least now he didn’t look as skinny with clothes on. Speaking of clothes, he still had a hole in the middle of his leather armor. Enchanted shirt was already in the process of repairing itself and the hole was much smaller now. His race leveled up as well and attributes were distributed automatically. The only thing left to do before moving on, was to distribute the free point he gained from his class level up.

Having more mana and power is nice and all but it won’t do me any good if I couldn’t sustain the mana cost. With more abilities at my disposal, mana expenditure is only going to increase.

For the first time, Bones placed his free point in WIS. The core when empowering his body sustained almost half his mana regeneration and bone armor would cost him additional 5 mp/s when channeled, so he would be close to losing mana at this point. With proper management he could manage two sustained abilities for now, but he would need to raise his mana regeneration for sure.

After he was done regenerating both his health and mana pool to full, he got up and continued down the corridor. It occurred to him that the dungeon was actually a hive and he was expecting to reach a biodome soon. He encountered patrolling ant-man two more times and there were always two of them. His bone armor, once manifested, didn't disappear when channeled unless destroyed. A hit would destroy the armor, but only that part of the armor would be destroyed. While channeling the skill, the destroyed part would be replaced with a new layer of armor over a period of time. As long as he wasn’t hit often and wasn’t taking big hits, he could have armor on him at all times. Regardless of the sustained mana cost, it was a perk for sure and a massive defense boost.