When Ellis got back to the main chamber, he laid everything he had scavenged out on the ground in front of him and inspected it all. All in all, he had gathered a pile of small teeth and claws, a large bone spike, two big chunks of leather, three medium chunks, nine small chunks, five large bones, three big hunks of meat, two blue gems, and the broken pieces of his shield.
Using the wood from his shield, Ellis put together a small pile of wood in a teepee shape and made some small wooden skewers. Ellis held his palm to the teepee of wood and used a minuscule amount of anima to shoot lightning into the center of the woodpile. After a few moments, the wood burst into flames. Ellis then picked up the slabs of meat he got from the imps and speared them on to the skewers before he leaned them over the fire to roast the meat.
He then directed his attention to the leather and bones. There were bits of loose flesh still covering the inside of the hides and bones. Ellis picked up his knife and dragged it all over the hides and bones, scrapping all the leftover flesh off and tossing it into the fire. After cleaning the bones Ellis set them aside to dry near the fire. Occasionally, he would throw a new piece of wood into the fire as he scraped the different pieces of leather and bone clean before stretching the leather out in front of the fire to dry.
When he was done stretching all the hides out to dry, Ellis picked up the big tail spike from the imp. It was long and had a boney lump at the bottom as well as one in the center that formed a perfect handhold. Ellis picked up his knife and attempted to start whittling the bone into shape, but his knife could barely scratch the surface of the hard bone. Determined Ellis began grinding the curved bone on the stone ground and gradually the spike began to take shape.
Every once in while Ellis would stoke the fire and check on his meat, turning it around for an even roast. After working at the knife for a while, the smell of roasted meat filled Ellis's nostrils causing him to drool slightly. Luckily, his new knife was finally completed, and it held an impressive edge, it was at least ten times better than the knife he had been using before. He set the bone knife aside and snatched a juicy, hot chunk of meat from the fire. He blew on the meat to cool it down before taking a massive bite. The meat was pretty tough, but it didn't taste bad. It kind of tasted like roast duck, but with no seasoning at all which was to say it was pretty bland. Ellis continued to eat the meat like a starved animal, but he wished he had some salt or something to season the meat with.
After eating two of the slabs of meat, Ellis took out his waterskin to drink some water and noticed that the waterskin didn't seem to be getting any emptier than when he had first drunk from it. Curious if it was some sort of magic waterskin, Ellis guzzled down half the bag before feeling the weight of the bag. It was still completely full.
I guess this waterskin refills itself somehow. At least the Tower was nice enough to make sure I didn't die of dehydration. That's one less thing I have to worry about now.
Ellis didn't have to worry about water and now he had a full belly, so he felt good. He stomped the fire out and set the left-over meat to the side.
I don't think this meat will last very long. I'll have to eat it quickly, so it doesn't spoil.
Ellis then grabbed a piece of the hide on the ground and felt it. It was pretty dry and hard but still had a little give so Ellis could shape it the way he wanted. Using his new knife Ellis sliced some of the weird shaped smaller chunks of leather up into strips to use as lace. He then used the bone knife to cut the two largest pieces of imp leather into chest sized shapes and then cut the medium-sized chunks of leather into two shoulder pads to hold up the chest and back pieces of armor. With his bone dagger, Ellis poked holes evenly across the top right and top left of the large pieces of armor before doing the same for the shoulder pieces. Ellis used the leather lace and tied all the armor together leaving him with a decent looking ash red-colored leather cuirass held up by shoulder pads. Ellis looked at the rest of the leather and sees that he doesn't have enough to cover his entire body, so he decides to make some simple bracers and greaves next. He cut the imp leather into the right shapes and again poked holes in it with his knife using the leather strips to tie the opposite sides together.
Ellis picked up the dried bones from the imp and fashioned them to his chest piece with the leather lace to make an extra layer of protection.
He then looks at the pile of small claws and teeth and decides to incorporate them into his armor to further protect him as a sort of spikey defense so if anything got on top of him, the spikes would pierce into them. He used a random hard stone from the ground and carved notches into all the teeth and claws at the base and then he poked small holes in his armor where spikes could help him. After poking holes in his shoulder pads, arm bracers, and greaves, he pushed the various claws and teeth through the holes up to the notch which held them in place.
Ellis lays out all the armor he's made on the ground, admiring his work.
It looks barbaric, but it'll get the job done!
DING!
Ellis's chest glowed faintly for a second. Ellis opened his TowerCard and browed it to see what had changed.
Name: Ellis Ryne
Level: 3
Age: 17
Race: Human
Class: None
HP:15/151
AP:5/57
(7) unused stat points!
STR:6 AGL:8
DEF:10 CON:5
INT:10 LUC:6
Skills:
Language Comprehension LV. 2
Spark LV. 2
Shock LV. 1
Crafting LV. 1
Under skills, a new skill had appeared called Crafting.
Nice! With this skill, I should be able to craft even better stuff as I get more materials! This is definitely going to be an invaluable skill if I want to survive this place.
Ellis looked down at the rest of his materials on the ground. There was still some leather, leather strips, and quite a few claws and teeth left.
I still have enough materials to make some boots. Let's put this crafting skill to the test and see how these boots turn out!
Using the fur hide from the rodent, Ellis began cutting up the leather into shapes that he could tie together to make boots. Everything came more naturally to him and it made the process ten times easier than when he had made the armor. After making the boots he adorned them with the extra claws and teeth he had, so if he needed to, he could kick monsters to at least cause a little damage.
Wow! I can definitely tell the difference between the quality of these boots and the rest of the armor. These boots are a lot higher quality. Now to try everything on together and make sure it all works.
Ellis put on his newly made armor. It was pretty comfortable and felt sturdy, but Ellis wanted to make sure that it would stay on when he needed it to. To test his armor, he jogged around the room turning abruptly and threw himself to the ground, but his armor didn't budge.
Perfect!
Ellis opened his TowerCard to deal with the rest of his stat points. He had to do something with them but he still didn't know what.
(7) unused stat points!
STR:6 AGL:8
DEF:10(+10) CON:5
INT:10 LUC:6
I guess this armor is good enough to double my defense! I should use the rest of my stat points before I go back out exploring. I don't even know what all these stats do. I should use my stat points to test out what the different stats do.
Ellis did some pushups to test his strength and then put two points into STR before he did some push-ups again.
Sure enough, STR just makes me stronger. What about the rest?
Using the rest of his points he tested the rest of his stats. After testing all of his stats he came to a rough conclusion of what most of them did. STR made him physically stronger, AGL made him faster, DEF made him tougher, CON gave him more HP, INT gave him more AP, and LUC didn't seem to do anything that was apparent.
STR:6->8 AGL:8->9
DEF:10->11(+10) CON:5->6
INT:10->11 LUC:6->7
After appreciating his new stats for a little bit Ellis looked toward the doorways and his face turned to a frown.
If I get lost out there it'll all be over. I only managed to find my way back here before because I stuck to the left for every turn but if I want to get out of here I'm going to have to map this place out so I can figure out where the exit is without getting lost.
Ellis picked up one of the extra pieces of leather that was around the size of both his hands put together.
I can use this to draw a map on it to figure out where I've already been before. But I need something to draw with.
Ellis looked around and his eyes landed on the remnants of the fire he had made earlier.
Charcoal! I can use a piece of charcoal to write on the hide with!
Ellis went through the ashes of the fire and pulled out a few lumps of charcoal that were about the right size for writing. At the bottom of his new map, he put a small square to represent the room he was currently in and then rolled the map up and put it in his satchel along with the charcoal.
Alright, let's start mapping this labyrinth out!
Ellis clenched his new bone dagger in his hand and stepped through the middle doorway once more.
Ellis continued to journey forward cautiously stopping at every split in the hall to check for monsters and map out where he was going. He also carved a small 'x' at every turn to indicate which way he'd gone. After a while of mapping out halls and turns he finally arrived at the area where he had fought the imp before.
Ellis peered around the corner and saw a small group of five large rodents scavenging through the corpses of the monsters. The rodents looked to be of the same species as the dead rodent that the imp had been eating when he first found it. After watching the creatures for a few seconds Ellis decided to try and use one of the new skills he'd obtained recently.
"Identify."
Ellis whispered to himself as he looked at the monsters. A box appeared above the creatures' heads. The boxes above the monsters said 'Scarver' followed by what their level was. Their levels ranged from 2 to 4.
As he gazed at the scarvers his vision seemed to magnify, and he could examine as if he was standing right in front of them. They were about the size of a small dog with an immense amount of large, sharp teeth and because of their teeth they were unable to fully close their mouths.
As Ellis watched, it seemed as though they were finished with the corpses and started searching the hall for more food. They were facing the opposite direction of Ellis giving him the perfect opportunity to sneak attack them.
This is the best chance I have to practice a full lightning bolt. Let's see what happens if I pour most of my anima into the shot.
Ellis leaned around the corner and extended his hand out aiming at the pack of monsters. He gathered 90% of his anima to his palm and after it was charged, he willed it toward the center of the monsters.
ZWOOH! KABOOM!
The recoil from the shot knocked Ellis onto his butt. He scrambled up from the floor and looked at the where the scarvers were or at least had been.
The three in the center of the pack of beasts had exploded, leaving nothing but ash and blue gems where they had been. The two farthest away were sent flying, charred and roasted.
"That was overkill."
Ellis whispered to himself as he dusted himself off and looked at the crater in the ground where his lightning bolt had hit.
Whoosh!
Rainbow-colored smoke rushed into Ellis's chest and he felt himself grow stronger once again.
With this much power, I won't have to worry if I run into another imp. It smells like roast meat in here now.
Ellis walked up to the burnt scarvers on the ground and inspected them.
This smell is making me hungry. I wonder if their meat tastes better than the imps?
Ellis squatted down above the roasted monsters and brought his dagger down. He carefully cut off a leg of meat from the beast and used Identify on it.
[Cooked Scarver Meat]
After confirming with Identify that it was cooked, Ellis brought the leg to his mouth and took a bite.
The meat was dry and a little crispy, but it didn't taste terrible. Ellis ate his fill of the meat before packing up a few chunks of it in his satchel. The majority of the scarvers were destroyed from his lightning bolt so there wasn't much to scavenge but he took everything he could. He also picked up the three anima gems in the ashes of the scarvers he'd incinerated.
Wow. These things are indestructible.
Ellis held one of the gems in his hand squeezed it hard.
CRACK!
Oh. Oops.
The gem exploded in his fingers and a wisp of blue energy seeped into Ellis's hand.
What was that?
Name: Ellis Ryne
Level: 4
Age: 17
Race: Human
Class: None
HP:193/193
AP:8/68
(5) unused stat points!
STR:8 AGL:9
DEF:11(+10) CON:6
INT:11 LUC:7
Skills:
Language Comprehension LV. 2
Spark LV. 2
Shock LV. 1
Crafting LV. 1
Ellis checked his TowerCard and discovered he had leveled up again. After checking his stats he decided to break another anima gem and see if anything changed.
Name: Ellis Ryne
Level: 4
Age: 17
Race: Human
Class: None
HP:193/193
AP:10/68
My anima increased by two after breaking one of the scarver anima gems. What happens if I break the bigger one from the imp?
Ellis broke the slightly larger gem and discovered that it restored his anima by five.
This is awesome! If I can keep killing these creatures and getting their gems, I can restore my anima without using the Anima Potion, which would mean I could use magic more often.
Ellis broke the rest of the anima gems he had before evenly distributing his stat points and leaving to explore more of the labyrinth.
Ellis kept on exploring the halls, mapping everything out. He came across a few more packs of scarvers, which were completely annihilated by his lightning. His stats slowly rose as he fought monsters. He even gained four more levels but leveling up seemed to be slowing down the more he fought.
After exploring for hours and hours, Ellis decided to head back to the safe room and rest.
Using his satchel as a pillow, Ellis laid down on the stone floor to sleep while staying vigilant of his surroundings just in case any monsters decided to enter the room. He slept on and off unaware of how much time was passing by. Eventually, Ellis woke up and felt rested enough that he could continue on with his search for an exit.
He sat up and his stomach grumbled loudly. After drinking some water and eating some leftover meat to fill his belly he got up before he gathered his gear to begin mapping out the dungeon once more.
...
Four months later.
Name: Ellis Ryne
Level: 14
Age: 17
Race: Human
Class: None
HP:545/545
AP:109/109
STR:8->20 AGL:9->20
DEF:11->20(+25) CON:6->20
INT:11->15 LUC:7
Skills:
Language Comprehension LV. 2
Spark LV. 3
Shock LV. 2
Identify LV. 2
Crafting LV. 2
Lightning Bolt LV. 4
Magic Mastery LV. 3
Dagger Mastery LV. 2
MONSTERS DISCOVERED:
Imp - Imps have greyish-red, extremely tough skin. The skin is rough and scaly to the touch. Imp's stand about four feet tall. They have long rounded ears and an oversized head. It has a scorpion-like tail with a stinger at the end. They have two large talons on each of their feet that they use to rip their prey open. At the end of their short arms are long, razor-sharp claws. They rarely travel in groups.
Killed: 12
Winged Imp - Winged imps have the same features as normal imps apart from a pair of large wings on their backs making them more agile.
Killed: 3
Scarver - Scarvers are large furry carnivorous rodents with a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth.
Killed: 122
Scarver Wolf - Scarver wolves are massive scarvers with a huge mouth full of long razor-sharp teeth and extremely powerful legs that help them attack unrelentingly.
Killed: 2
TITLES:
Tower-Walker
Ellis would occasionally run into monsters as he explored, but they would always be obliterated by his lightning or stabbed to death by his dagger. After using his lightning Ellis would take a sip of the blue liquid and if he got hurt, he would take a sip of the red liquid. Ellis kept this up for days without end. Whenever he felt too tired to go on, he would make his way back to the safe room and sleep before continuing mapping everything.
During this time Ellis mostly encountered packs of scarvers and the occasional imp. A couple of times he encountered variants of Scarvers and Imps, such as scarver wolves and winged imps. Those battles were hard-fought ones since the variants were much stronger than the normal ones and required him to be on his toes. Especially the winged imps as they moved so fast that he had a hard time hitting them with his lightning bolts. After fighting so many battles Ellis had hardened himself and become fairly adept at using his magic while leaping around.
I've leveled up a lot and gotten a few new skills, but I still haven't found an exit. This labyrinth feels never-ending.
Over the course of the few months, Ellis had created over twenty maps of various parts of the dungeon but was still nowhere near close to getting out of the labyrinth. Most of the paths just lead to dead ends.
Ellis looked down at all the maps he'd made so far organized on the ground in front of him. As he traced the recorded pathways on the maps, he found an unfinished path that he hadn't gone down yet and decided to choose that path today.
He put on his newly upgraded armor that used the various hides from the monsters he'd killed. He then equipped himself with two daggers, both made from the iron-like bone from imps' tail spikes. After getting ready Ellis left his base to investigate this new pathway he had yet to explore.
Ellis walked down the hall. He cleaned up monsters as he went and eventually discovered a large doorway at the end of a long narrow corridor.
This must be the way out! I've finally found it!
Ellis yelled out as he shoved the doors open and ran into the brightly lit room on the other side of the door. He shielded his eyes as he entered the room allowing his eyes to adjust to the room.
When his eyes adjusted, he saw he was in a huge room full of hundreds of Imps all gathered around together in groups standing near burning piles of other monsters' corpses. Ellis's optimism shattered as fear enveloped his face.
All at once, the Imps turned their heads toward Ellis.
SHREEK!
Hundreds of Imps all howled at once and started charging toward Ellis.
Shit.
Ellis turned around and sprinted through the doorway he had come through. He ran at full speed down the halls toward his base.
There's no way in hell I can face all those things at the same time! I'll die for sure!
Ellis ran all the way back to his base before turning around to make sure nothing had followed him and started to catch his breath.
I'm going to need a plan to do this.
He had already used up his Anima Potion over the last four months and only had a handful of gems left so firing off endless lightning bolts wasn't feasible. He had been conserving the Health Potion as best as he could but all that was left of it was a few swigs so he wouldn't be able to charge in there and fight them all by hand. He would have to take out as many as possible with his lightning, retreat, then come back when his anima was full and repeat until they were all dead.
After Ellis had formed his plan he headed back to the room of Imps with conviction. He was prepared this time and would escape this dungeon no matter what.
This time, when he got to the doorway three imps guarded it.
He didn't want to alert the giant room of imps so he would have to take these ones out by hand. Ellis breathed out slowly to calm himself. This was the first time he'd be fighting more than one imp at a time in close combat. Usually, if there was a big group of monsters he would just blast them with lightning before cleaning up the stragglers with his daggers. After calming himself, he stepped forward ready for the imps to attack.
As soon as the imps saw Ellis, they immediately barreled toward him with their razor-sharp claws out and spikey tails ready to impale him.
The first Imp leaped at Ellis, who instantly sidestepped and drove his dagger into the Imps stomach before ripping the blade upwards tearing the imp open.
THUD!
The Imp fell to the ground lifeless.
The other two Imps continued their assault unfazed by their comrade's death. They both attacked Ellis at the same time from different angles.
Ellis dodged to the left avoiding one of the imps, but the second Imp caught him with its talons ripping his armor and leaving a nasty gash gushing from his arm.
Ellis lunged forward and stabbed the imp in the neck, ignoring the pain from his gash. He had been hurt many times fighting monsters; this was nothing a little sip of potion couldn't fix.
Blood spurted from the imp's neck as it fell to the ground.
Ellis rushed forward at the last imp and dug his blade into its chest.
The imp clawed at him in a final struggle to take Ellis with it, but Ellis jumped back unscathed.
The imp fell to the floor dead before it could take another step toward Ellis.
"Haah..."
Ellis breathed out stressfully before he took the red potion out of his satchel and took a swig of it. Instantly his wound began healing and within seconds all that was left was a pale scar.
Alright. Now for the hard part.
Ellis slowly leaned into the doorway in front of him and peered inside.
There were still hundreds of Imps gathered around bonfires in groups eating the carcasses of other monsters. There were at least twenty winged imps as well. Luckily, none of them had noticed Ellis yet.
Ellis held out his hand aiming for one of the bigger crowds of imps and braced himself against the wall. He gathered about a third of his anima and let loose a massive bolt of lightning.
ZWOOH! KABOOM!
The fifty imps in the center of the explosion were reduced to ash and another twenty farther away from the center were burnt to a crisp.
The other imps turned to see where the lightning bolt had come from.
As soon as their eyes connected with Ellis, they began charging toward him. He turned and ran about thirty steps outside the door before stopping. Ellis turned and faced the door, waiting for the onslaught of Imps.
The imps all rushed through the door at once and funneled out into the hallway.
ZWOOH! KABOOM!
Ellis fired a lightning bolt at the crowd of Imps.
I can only use lightning bolt one more time. I have to make it count.
As the dust cleared, more Imps came rushing out of the hole in the wall Ellis had just created. They climbed over the corpses of their comrades, swarming toward Ellis once more. This time Ellis waited longer for more imps to fill the hall before he let another bolt of lightning.
ZWOOH! KABOOM!
Ellis turned and ran as more and more imps flooded into the hallway. He didn't stop running until he made it back to his home base. Ellis crushed his remaining gems and stood by the entrances to the room waiting for anything to come after him. Luckily, nothing came so he slowly restored his anima before he set out of the room of imps once again.
Just inside the large room, a crowd of imps was huddled around the door guarding it. Further in, the rest of the imps had moved most of their dead comrades to the giant piles of corpses and were feasting on them.
Ellis snuck up to the door and shot a lightning bolt at the group guarding it. Then before the others could react he shot another group before the rest started charging at him again. He used the same tactic as before and let them funnel into the hallway before he shot his last bolt of lightning.
Only twelve imps remained after the last blast and most of them were mutilated in some sort of way.
Ellis charged forward at the remaining wounded imps with his daggers clenched tightly in his hands. He slashed and stabbed furiously while dodging every attack he could.
"Haah... haah... haah..."
Ellis stood in the middle of the hallway, surrounded by mounds of imp corpses, gasping for breath loudly, drenched in sweat and blood.
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