The wreckage was darker and darker with every step he took, looking like he was going deeper into the sea. Lucas carefully paced himself due to the potential ambushers. He already clashed with the new type of Naga, slick gray snake – like humanoids that perfectly mended on the ceilings and walls before descending on their unaware prey. First time they even managed to hit him during altercation, taking away a sizeable chunk of his Health. That meant Lucas’s stash was one health potion lighter and his Perception strained, as Lucas tried to spot where they were before they got the chance to strike at him. His careful approach yielded results as Lucas spotted shapes moving into almost pitch black darkness. He activated “Eye for details”, wanting to make sure he saw correctly.

“Saltwater Naga, Ambusher level 39”

“Saltwater Naga, Ambusher level 39”

“Saltwater Naga, Ambusher level 40”

Content at the confirmation, Lucas braced himself before he began walking a little bit more deliberate, allowing his passive to build his speed. At the last moment, as he saw one of the shapes dropping down he went into sprint, allowing him to dodge attacks from all three Nagas. He immediately turned around and with “Guiding strike” he connected with the backside of the Ambusher. It fall down and prompt appeared in front of Lucas, announcing to him that his enemy was dead. He saw movement with the corner of his eye, activating “Dodge” and somersaulting over the Naga that was in the middle of the swing. He activated “Stinging cut”, making a wide gash on the Naga, before repositioning himself to face the remaining Naga. He chained “Spin strike”, maneuvering around the unfortunate Ambusher and stabbing him deeply in the backside. Unlike the last one, this time Lucas wasn’t able to down him in one and he needed to make follow – up strike, almost severing the head of the Naga. Last remaining Ambusher was still thrashing on the floor in immense pain and Lucas quickly put him out of his misery with a stab that pierced the heart.

“You have slain Saltwater Naga, Ambusher level 39”

“You have slain Saltwater Naga, Ambusher level 40”

Lucas had to admit he was getting a little annoyed. He downed a higher level foe in one hit, and relatively easy and quickly killed another two. And a level up wasn’t in sight. He did gain a level after beating Duchess, but that was relatively expected as it was a boss five level higher at the time. He certainly hoped that will not became the rule, as Lucas certainly didn’t had desire to kill only higher level stuff, preferring instead to have fun and interesting fight. Ambushers, as an example, where higher level, but they were not a smidgeon of the challenge once you spot them, since they attacks were pretty basic and their skills pretty underwhelming and probably even dedicated to stay hidden for the most part. Duchess on the other hand, was certainly challenging but fun was sucked right out when you took in consideration challenge only came from the spell that hard countered Lucas. Dungeon itself was pretty boring, especially in comparison to what he faced during the trip and in the Scenario dungeon. He doubted he was getting spoiled, as he had no doubt other Dungeons would prove satisfying. It was just that this one didn’t stand up to the hype he felt when he saw the exterior of it. He was pulled from his thoughts by another ambush, and once again Lucas dispatched them all without a hike. Bored out of his mind, he decided to test the limit of his Perception, building his speed and still straining to spot the ambushers. It turned out his limit was fairly small, as he already lost the clarity of the surroundings after half of minute of running. He stopped and returned to pacing himself, not keen to allow any more successful ambushes. This time, however, his carefulness proved unnecessary as he didn’t encounter a single ambush all the way to the end of the twisted corridors. When he emerged, he found himself in driver cabin. Old electronics of the long sunk ship were covered in thick layers of dust and he could see the depths of the sea, making the physical position of the ship in the outside world completely meaningless, seeing as he sure as hell wasn’t overturned outside of dungeon. He clamped down that because of a more immediate threat. In front of Lucas stood a giant Naga, all of his four arms muscular beyond anything human could muster. His red eyes were full of malice as he inspected Lucas, who returned in kind, activating “Eye for details”.

“Razak, Warlord of the Saltwater Naga, Swift Striker level 45”

The huge Naga was satisfied with what he has seen from Lucas and he went into attack before Lucas was able to fully parse what he saw. Activating “Dodge” Lucas moved to the left side and immediately activated “Spin strike”, aiming to spin around the Naga and strike at his exposed back. Razak sensed the danger, his hands moving like a blur and Lucas felt four hits in quick succession, completely forcing him of balance.

“You took 121 points of damage”

“You took 155 points of damage”

“You took 90 points of damage”

“You took 111 points of damage”

Bloodied and battered, Lucas started sprinting while his hand frenetically searched for a health potion in his stash. He managed to find it and gulped it one go, feeling the familiar sense of pleasantness coursing through his body.

“You restored 300 health points via health potion”

All his rants about boredom were instantly forgotten, and he felt adrenaline coursing through his veins. Razak was worthy opponent and as he slowly slithered towards him, Lucas started planning to use that weakness against him. Lucas was already running, using limited space he had to the best of his ability, trying always to keep the distance between him and the Naga, trying to find the opening. Once or twice he thought he had one, before strikes which came in quick succession forced him to back off. On his side, Razak quickly deduced he isn’t able to catch up to Lucas so he fell back on using on something Lucas guessed was a skill. His swords moved all over the place, sending blades made out of pure air towards Lucas, mixing up predicting strikes with the ones that were on position which Lucas occupied. Lucas was managing to dodge them for now, but he wasn’t sure how much he will be able to last, Naga strikes almost matching him in speed. Making a quick decision, he activated “Infused piledriver” starting his spin towards Razak. Naga tried to response and started twirling his blades, creating a moving barrier in front of him. That was acceptable to Lucas, however, and he stopped his spin, anchoring himself with his legs and activating instead “Guiding strike”. Same maneuver that served him against dryad King also did it job here, his hand automatically flying under the twirling swords, stabbing deeply between the scales of Razak. Huge Naga howled in pain stopping his blades, which was the advantage Lucas capitalized on, with a quick mutter “Stinging cut” he opened a wide gash on the torso of the Razak. Overwhelmed by pain, Razak was completely out of the fight and without the additional enemies to take the heat of him, all that was left was for Lucas was to activate final “Guiding strike” forcing his hand to stab Razak on the top of his head, sword going all the way to the hilt and wrecking the brain of the Naga.

“You have slain Razak, Warlord of the Saltwater Naga, Swift Striker level 45”

“Congratulations! You are now Duelist level 38”

“Congratulations! You are now Duelist level 39”

“Stat allocation in progress…”

“+3 Agility, +1 Perception, +1 Strength. One free point”

“+3 Agility, +1 Perception, +1 Strength. One free point”

“Stat allocation completed”

Once again, the Dungeon hyped him up just for the fight to end anticlimactic. Lucas made a mental note to ask Bruce about his power level and now reoccurring theme of one shooting or two shooting higher level opponents. He wasn’t about to fall into complacency and find himself having a hard time just because he easily cleared this particular Dungeon.

“Relatively easily” he corrected himself, still feeling sore at how easy he lose to the Duchess the first time.

“You have finished this dungeon

Do you want to exit dungeon now

Y/N

Your prizes are waiting you when you exit the dungeon”

Lucas accepted the prompt and was teleported back on the familiar shore line, Bruce standing over and sorting the pile of loot Lucas had sent him. When he registered Lucas returned he instantly spoke.

“That was reckless, foolish young. Those stones were for you, not for teleporting goods”

“But it was good loot” Lucas responded with the widest shit – eating grin he ever had.

Bruce rolled his eyes and simply waved Lucas toward the new chest that manifested itself while they were talking. Lucas ran to it and with a simple touch he opened it. Inside the chest there were several items, but was caught Lucas’s eye was a simple looking diamond. He pulled it from the chest and activated “Eye for details”

Basic leveling gem (Legendary)

This gem is a System generated reward. When used, it grants it user one level

Without waiting a second, Lucas used the stone and prompt appeared.

“Congratulations! You are now Duelist level 40”

“Stat allocation in progress…”

“+3 Agility, +1 Perception, +1 Strength. One free point”

“+3 Agility, +1 Perception, +1 Strength. One free point”

“Stat allocation completed”

With a dash of euphoria, he went to inspect the rest of his prize.