After filling their stomach with a simple meal, they both went to sleep. They had been through a lot today, and rest was essential to a healthy lifestyle. Thufrat slept under the beast skin they had just harvested, and Ark just slept next to the campfire. It didn't take long for either of them to fall asleep, and the next day was quickly upon them.
Ark's plan today was to revisit the dungeon and continue to explore it and level up. Thufrat had similar thoughts, but he also wanted to test out his new strength. He didn't notice it yesterday, but this morning, he noticed a plethora of changes to his status. Which all stemmed from his bloodline awakening, of course, Thufrat didn't know what kind of bloodline he had awakened, but from the looks of things, it wasn't weak at all.
And bloodlines were very strong in general, even if it was a weaker one, it was still something to be excited over. The only annoying part about bloodlines was that you couldn't see what they were if they were self-awakened, unless you knew a lot about bloodlines, and knew what kind of skills you got from them. Thufrat had also leveled up to level 38 from the fight they had. If Ark knew this, he would be a little dumbfounded, since it implied that Ark got less experience than other people did. Or at least less than Thufrat did.
There were some simple reasons behind this, of course, Ark wouldn't find out until later, but still. The biggest reason was his growth skill since it was so strong, it needed more experience for the host to level up. Another reason was just that different people needed more experience than others to level up.
Since the wolf couldn't talk, Thufrat decided that he would take the initiative.
"I was wondering, do you want to go back into the dungeon?"
Ark nodded his head enthusiastically as he stood up and got ready to leave. But just as he was about to, Thufrats stomach growled a little. Therefore Ark decided to just hunt him a rabbit before they left for the dungeon. After that was done, they bore off on their journey towards the dungeon. Thufrat had no idea where this tree of Ark's was, and he, therefore, needed the wolf to show him the way to the dungeon.
As they arrived at the cemetery once more, Thufrat was just about to take out his prized Warhammer when Ark suddenly shot out from in front of him. While he was moving, Ark accumulated a massive amount of ice Mana in his left claws and got himself ready for a devastating move. As he arrived in front of the big amount of enemies, he unleashed the Mana he had been accumulating and sent it towards the undead. This time around, it was a lot easier than last time, his magic was a lot stronger after all.
As he slashed out, a big tornado made out of ice was sent out, its sole objective to utterly destroy, and it delivered. The undead didn't even get the chance to resist before they were torn to pieces by the ice shards flying around at tremendous speed. Thufrat was always surprised when this wolf used magic, it was always so extravagant, and such advanced magic. Most people just condensed their elements into a slash or a ball or something similar. Ark could of course also do this, but more often than not, it wasn't as effective.
As the undead were decimated, they both entered the dungeon quickly. Since it was a bit cramped in the stairs, Ark walked in the back. The reason was simple, if Thufrat walked in the back, he wouldn't be able to see past Ark at all, and in case something happened, that wasn't really anything good. As they arrived at the bottom, they were greeted by the sight of the caves system once again.
After a while, they entered the space were the caves branched out into three different paths. As Ark was about to walk to the right one, Thufrat walked towards the one in the middle. AS they both saw what the other was doing, they were both a bit surprised, they had just both assumed that the other took the same path to get to the jungle. It seemed like the three paths led to the same place, just that some held more danger than others. As he thought about this, Thufrat decided to ask a question.
"Are there any monsters in that path?"
Ark nodded quickly.
"Then we should take the one in the middle, there are strong ghouls in the left one, but there are no monsters in the middle one."
As Ark heard this, he was a bit surprised, he was almost sure that there would be monsters in all the paths, and in the beginning, he even thought that they led to different places. But since there were no enemies in the middle one, they chose to take that path.
It took them a couple of minutes to arrive at the entrance of the jungle once more, but this time, Ark didn't hesitate like last time and just spread out light Mana to protect them from the fog, since it could mess with their heads. And that would drastically affect their combat strength. Thufrat was pleasantly surprised by this since he had just used determination and perseverance the last time.
As they entered the jungle, Ark started to ponder, that horde of skeletons they had fought with, where did they come from? And why did they seem like an organized combat force? This dungeon didn't seem as simple as it used to when Ark first entered it.
As they ventured around in the jungle, they decided to avoid most of the monsters they ran into, this turned out to be a good move since Thufrat harvested a lot of magical herbs, that were worth a lot of money, at least according to him. It looked a little comical though, a wolf and a dwarf running around in a jungle and fervently picking up herbs.
As they had ventured around for a couple of hours, they both suddenly stopped. In front of them, the jungle suddenly ended. And in front of them, there was a large plain, upon which stood a castle. Compared to the castles he had seen in his past life, this one was a lot more magnificent, but that was only because the castles he had seen were from backwater places.
Out from this castle, came another squadron of skeletons, led by a high skeleton in scarlet armor. As Ark and Thufrat saw this, plans started to form in both of their minds. Ark wanted to conquer this castle since it seemed to be the boss of the first floor, that would lead them to the second floor, and he would surely get some levels if he were to take over it. Thufrat also wanted to level up, but he was more excited for the treasure they would inevitably find in this castle.
Since they didn't know the exact numbers of enemies, it would be stupid to just run in like some buffoons and end up dying. There was surely a strong boss monster in the castle as well, therefore, it was best to take out the underlings. Before Thufrat was able to voice his opinion, Ark made a noise to grab his attention. As Thufrat shot him an inquisitive glance, Ark started to draw on the ground.
His plan was to wait for some squadrons to go on patrol, like the one from yesterday, and ambush them until the castle couldn't send out any more. When that happened they would swiftly attack, and this time around, Ark would handle the big boss, while Thufrat would handle the small fry. As Thufrat saw this plan drawn on the ground, he started to grin, as he gave his assent to the plan.
And like this, the plan to conquer the first floor had officially started!
Due to some severe pain in my neck, I couldn't write anything yesterday, therefore you get double chapters today instead, hope you'll like it!
As the plan was set, and they were both rearing to go, they set up an ambush about half a kilometer away from the castle. Ark predicted that this was on the route of the patrol, and there were multiple spots to ambush them from, making it one of the best spots to set up an ambush. Since they saw a patrol leave the castle just now, they had to hurry and get in position though, since they didn't want to miss them.
Their plan was to have Thufrat intercept the path of the patrol, and grab their attention, then Ark would try to assassinate the High Skeleton of the group. Then they would clean up the small fry together. They would then act according to how the forces inside the castle responded, if they were oblivious and kept sending patrols, then they would kill off the patrols until there were none left, they would then storm the castle.
As the patrol was already on its way, and they were not far away, it only took a couple of minutes for it to appear. At the helm of the patrol, was once again a High Skeleton clad in scarlet armor, this one, however, had a scary looking two-handed battleax at its back. As the patrol noticed Thufrat, the leader ordered them to attack him. But just as they started to move, a highly condensed arrow of light suddenly pierced the High Skeleton head, instantly blowing it to pieces.
The other skeletons had no idea how to react to something like this, and they just stood completely still for a moment. Thufrat and Ark didn't let this chance go to waste, and they instantly started to attack the skeleton. Thufrat used the same skill he had used the time he battled against the other High Skeleton. Instantly crushing between 25 and 30 skeletons.
Ark didn't let him steal all the glory though, as he instantly erupted with a large wave of light which swept over a large number of skeletons. Even though it didn't kill all of them it killed most of them and severely injured the rest, making this clean-up even easier. Since they both wanted to conserve some Mana and energy, they both just used normal attacks as well as some light magic while dealing with the rest of the skeletons.
This first ambush had been a large success, and it was mostly due to the surprise attack that managed to instantly take out the High Skeleton. In normal cases, an attack like that would just be blocked easily by its battleax, but since it was unaware, and focused on something else, the attack managed to hit. The reason why it instantly killed it was just that the head was the skeletons weak spot.
If it had hit any other area of the body, it wouldn't have done much damage at all.
Since they had taken care of this patrol, they both sat down to rest and to wait for the next one to come. They had both leveled up and decided to spend their stat points while they waited. Since he didn't do much this fight, Thufrat only gained 2 levels. Ark gained 3 levels, and he was essentially level 35 right now, even though his actual level was 20. Therefore he decided to put 10 more points into his intelligence, as well as 5 points into strength.
Name: Ark
Condition: Excited
Species: Radiant Ice Wolf
Level: 20 (35)
Mp: 210/210
Strength: 30
Agility: 40
Dexterity: 30
Endurance: 25
Vitality: 25
Intelligence: 70
Wisdom: 30
Night Vision [Lv.2]
Water magic [Beginner Lv.4]
Growth [Lv.Max]
Inspect [Lv.5]
Mana manipulation [Lv.6]
Mana perception
Mana recovery [Lv.2]
Herculean strength [Lv.1]
Swift [Lv.2]
Nimble [Lv.2]
Stealth [Lv.4]
Regenerate
Enhanced Stamina
Small Fire Affinity
Small Water Affinity
Big Ice Affinity
Big Light Affinity
Mental Fortitude
Yin Yang body constitution
Envoy of Holiness
Holy Spear: Dawn
Status points [0]
As he once again saw his status a couple of minutes later, he noticed that he had started to pay less attention to his agility, and for good reason, it just didn't feel like it was the path he wanted to go down. No matter how good agility was, Ark felt like he was more suited to magic, since it was something he earnestly loved, and it was basically the only thing in this world which he helöt any passion towards. He had also noticed that he quite liked exciting battles.
He also felt like he would be able to attain greater heights if he focused on magic, since he had a bloodline that seemed to be really good with magic, and it wasn't even fully awakened yet. And as the saying goes, jack off all trades, but master of none. If he solely focused on 1 stat, it was surely going to bring him tremendous changes in his combat effectiveness. Of course, he wouldn't let his other stats fall too far behind since that would greatly affect his body. How would his body be able to handle his enormous Mana pool if it was weak?
Ark had also noticed that the wisdom stat was a lot more effective than he originally thought. Since he could now recover a couple of Mana in a manner of minutes, whilst at the beginning of his journey, he assumed that the wisdom stat was the amount of Mana he recovered every hour, but it now seemed like it was more about percentages of his max Mana. He still didn't intend to invest a lot into it, since it wouldn't be that helpful in actual combat. But he would try to keep it a notch higher than the other physical attributes in the future.
As Ark pondered, the sound of a marching troop suddenly entered the duo's ears. It seemed like the next patrol came earlier than they anticipated, as it had only been an hour since the last one. They both didn't dare slack off since that would just be a waste of energy in the end, and they got ready in their positions. The High Skeleton this time was armed with a small circular shield, as well as a shortsword. It had the same scarlet armor as its predecessors.
But this time around when Ark tried to assassinate the High Skeleton, it didn't go as expected, the skeleton had raised its shield in the last second, completely blocking off the attack. As Ark saw this, he was a bit surprised, but he recovered in an instant, and instantly went on the offensive. When Thufrat saw this, he knew that he would have to stall the entire patrol by himself this time, but that only sparked his battle spirit.
Ark wanted to end this quickly, and he decided to spend a lot more Mana this time around. Therefore he decided to use the same move he had used in the first battle, and he started to conjure up a massive amount of swords made out of light Mana. The High Skeleton didn't want Ark to do this of course, but before it could get close, Ark howled, releasing a shockwave of ice into the air. This was something he just came up with, and it seemed to be effective as the skeleton was caught off guard and sent tumbling as it blocked the majority with its shield.
Since he now had the time he needed, Ark released all of the swords he had created to wreak havoc upon the skeletons. The first target was the High Skeleton, which tried to put up a fight, but it soon got overwhelmed by the sheer amount of swords, and it lost its life. As it died, the remaining swords continued to wreak havoc as Ark and Thufrat cleaned up.
This fight was also pretty easy, but Ark only got a single level from it, which showed that it would be harder to level the more levels you got. But Ark didn't really care, he was sure to face more powerful foes in the future, which would still allow him to level up at a decent pace. And of course, not everything was just about levels, you needed to be able to use your strength as well.
As the day went on, Thufrat and Ark faced all kinds of High Skeletons, sometimes it was easy, sometimes it was a bit bothersome, but they always came out on top. And at the end of the day, no more patrols came. At this point, Ark had already gained 2 more levels, and he dumped 5 points into endurance again, and 5 points into vitality, the last 5 he put into wisdom.
Name: Ark
Condition: Exhausted
Species: Radiant Ice Wolf
Level: 23 (38)
Mp: 210/210
Strength: 30
Agility: 40
Dexterity: 30
Endurance: 30
Vitality: 30
Intelligence: 70
Wisdom: 35
Night Vision [Lv.2]
Water magic [Beginner Lv.4]
Growth [Lv.Max]
Inspect [Lv.5]
Mana manipulation [Lv.6]
Mana perception
Mana recovery [Lv.2]
Herculean strength [Lv.1]
Swift [Lv.2]
Nimble [Lv.2]
Stealth [Lv.4]
Regenerate
Enhanced Stamina
Small Fire Affinity
Small Water Affinity
Big Ice Affinity
Big Light Affinity
Mental Fortitude
Yin Yang body constitution
Envoy of Holiness
Holy Spear: Dawn
Status points [0]
There you go! Hope you enjoyed it!
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