Dustin woke up in a cold sweat the morning after he had entered the undead dungeon. He checked his status worriedly, but found there were no unusual ailments afflicting him. The image of his patrol leaders eyes boring into him were burned into his mind.
Was he supposed to call it a memory if it never happened? Or was it now a premonition?
He pulled his mind away from the whirlwind of dark emotions he so easily got caught in, and spent a couple of hours in the morning poring over how best to spend his Dos. He ran through the notification spam from the dungeon, purchased a couple of things, and allocated his attributes from leveling up.
He had leveled up three times, putting him at level 9.
Strength 15 (+5) → 20
Wisdom 20 (+5) → 25
Charisma 24 (+1) → 25
Constitution 21 (+4) → 25
His attributes were still balanced, and the rounded numbers were pleasing to his eyes. Once gear and multipliers were thrown into the mix, it was a lot more trouble to organize them.
[Early Exorcism: You are the first pioneer of XQB51 to clear the City of the Dead dungeon. Your corpse cannot be reanimated after death. Gain 5% of non-holy damage dealt to undead as holy damage.]
[Thaumaturgy: You are the first pioneer of XQB51 to modify a spell. +5 Intelligence. 10% chance when combining spells to preserve existing modifiers.]
[High Achiever (I): You are the first pioneer of XQB51 to reach 20 achievements. +1 to all attributes per level up to level 20.]
It was a toss up between Thaumaturgy and High Achiever for which was the best achievement of the three. Plus one to all attributes per level was amazing. The roman numeral next to High Achiever indicated it was part of a series. It likely increased the level of which he could continue gaining attributes, encouraging him to continue hunting achievements if he wished to keep the bonus.
The increase would be more noticeable on attributes like Agility and Constitution, where Dustin's values would be much lower than the ones he prioritized for spell casting.
Thaumaturgy on the other hand had the possibility to create powerful spells. All the attributes in the world meant nothing without proper spells and equipment. A person with a thousand strength could break rocks with his bare fists, but against a monster with incredibly high health and mitigation, weapons or spells were needed to breach the gap.
Dustin could merge his Storm Bolt with another ability, for example, Storm Cloud, and create Storm of Bolts, which would send bolts of lightning to enemies underneath it periodically.
If the chain modifier was kept, this would be even more devastating as each bolt had its own chain. Dustin had to stop himself from wasting time in his head creating powerful spell combinations and jumped right back into the present time.
He had a new payout from the dungeon, giving the ability to buy another spell or two. He had both a strong single target spell, and now mediocre multi-target spell. What he really wanted was something both a little more stealthy, but keeping on track with his other spells.
The Double Dip achievement incentivized using spells from different schools, so Dustin went through the Hydromancy tree and found a suitable spell.
[Spell: Ice Bloom]
Hydromancy
Attach a flower petal made from ice to the target. After three seconds, targets will take frost damage, increasing over time as the petal remains attached.
Use: 60 Mana. Maximum: 3 Petals.
Ice Bloom was used more for its controlling ability, freezing people in place. Dustin had seen the petals placed on people's necks, or on their hair. When it popped, their head would be frozen, stopping them from shouting, and making it hard to breathe.
For that reason, Dustin purchased one other spell, which was entirely used for dealing damage.
[Spell: Shadow Dagger]
Umbra
Create an ethereal dagger made from shadows. Wounds inflicted with this dagger silence the target for 0.5 seconds. Dagger will dissipate once thrown or dropped.
Use: 100 Mana.
Umbra was the primary school for shadow and chaos damage spells, which were popular among rogues and dark magicians. It was similar to Occultism, and very often the spells crossed over into the other school.
The mana cost was quite high, which was understandable as the ability wasn't meant to be used consecutively. The dagger had to be held at all times, practically making it more of a weapon then a spell.It was undeniable that when weapons that provided a built in silence were found, the spell was basically useless as anything more than a backup. The cost was worth it as the silence effect, although short, was very important.
Any amount of silence was enough to interrupt channeled spells. Often the act of silencing someone was enough to confuse them for longer than 0.5 seconds, as they caught off guard by the silencing motion.Dustin now had three schools to affect enemies, four if the healing orb exploded at the right time. It was already a 15% damage increase with just his current skill set.
A pair of boots had also entered Dustin's eyes, giving a nice chunk of movement speed, but the cost was too high.
[Swift Leather Boots]. 1,000 Dos.
15/15 Durability.
3.0 - 5.0% Physical Mitigation.
Boots made from the leather of an old Wyvern. They feel airy and light, but sturdy enough to protect the feet.
Swift: Increases movement speed by 18%.
Setting aside his unparalleled hunger for upgrades, Dustin found his next target to follow. An old man was one of the names on his list of disappearances, and was easy to track down.
He used to be on the local council, organizing fundraisers and other sorts of things. Dustin easily managed to find him in the neighborhood just by asking around. He apparently left home early in the mornings, caught a bus into town, bought a newspaper and went over to the old community center.
Dustin could already hazard a guess as to where the dungeon was. The community center the old man visited had been abandoned due to safety hazards as a result of stricter regulations. There were plans to knock it down, but the old man had some sway on the council still, and didn't want to see it fall in his lifetime.
Dustin didn't even get to follow the man as worry was already circulating about his disappearance. The shopkeeper who had told Dustin his usual route hadn't seen him in a couple of days.
Dustin ran straight over to the old community center, pushing aside the rusted gate easily. The hinges were well oiled, despite the rest of the gates appearance, probably from the old councilman who visited it so often.
There was a degraded children's playground just to the left of the entrance, and an old swing twisted with creaky sounds from side to side in the wind. If Dustin hadn't come here with a purpose he would have already run away. It was eerily similar to some scene from a horror film.
He was comforted by the fact that he didn't have to enter the building, as the dungeon began claiming the land around him, transporting him into a dark cave.
[Welcome to the Spirited Colony dungeon, uploading current information to mini map.]
Sure enough, the mini-map revealed Dustin was standing in the middle of a tunnel. Although it looked like there was space behind him, the mini-map indicated that area as out of bounds, meaning Dustin wouldn't be able to enter it.
The tunnel suddenly lit up as Dustin took a torch from his inventory, sparking a flame onto the oiled sticks at the top. He looked around, and noticed the horrible smell coming from up ahead.
"Shit." Dustin whispered to himself as he came closer to the source of the smell.
His worst fear was confirmed as an old man's corpse was bundled up against the wall. A couple of slimes were latched onto his lower limbs, slowly dissolving the skin, flesh, and after a long time, the bone.
Dustin smashed them against the tunnel wall effortlessly, and knelt down beside the old man. He was undeniably dead, from the cold colour of his lips, to the stiff limbs and lifeless eyes.
He could only mutter a quick apology to the man, if he had been earlier, perhaps he could have prevented the man's death. But for someone so old, they were probably going to die the moment the dungeons broke open, regardless of Dustin's intervention.
Dustin continued through the empty tunnel, which had a low ceiling despite its width. He could picture the different kinds of insects that would fit in the oddly shaped tunnels, any of them would be a nasty sight to see.
The tunnels were going deeper into the earth as Dustin had to slide down some of them, not possessing the natural advantage that insects had in climbing. When he reached the point where slimes no longer wobbled along, he came to face the main enemies.
They were floating balls of energy, varying in colour depending on where Dustin found himself. The purple balls of energy would shoot lightning out, and were completely unharmed when Dustin shot his own Storm Bolt at them.
He happened across a fight between the brown and purple balls, each of them about floating at head height, and roughly the size of the basketball. Lightning would flicker across the small tunnel, striking at each of the brown balls to little effect. In return, the earth would shift around the purple ones, sending spikes of hardened rock to pierce their fragile exterior. One of the purple lights shattered like glass when it was caught against the wall, sending piping hot shards of the glass like material to the ground, still emitting a purple hue.
Dustin had nothing against either side, but waited until both sides fell low on energy. He inspected each in turn, and confirmed his initial suspicions.
[Earth Spirit]
[70/110 HP]
[Lightning Spirit]
[46/90 HP]
The lightning spirits were capable of ignoring his damage, so he wanted to avoid facing them at any costs, whilst the earth spirits had the natural advantage in an underground setting.
Thankfully the Shadow Dagger did well in disposing both of them, as neither of the elemental spirits were resistant to it. His staff and throwing knives both possessed lightning modifiers, making them less effective to the purple spirits.
The more Dustin moved around, the bigger the area he could see on his minimap. There were lines drawn into it that did not match the dungeons terrain, but instead seemed to indicate territories. After crossing a line, a different type of elemental spirit would appear, attacking which ever spirit had wandered in. Dustin had entered the Earth domain initially, seeing the fights between them and Earth shortly after.
It was easier to navigate through lightning as they didn't possess the natural advantage of being surrounded by their own element. The attacks always came directly from within them, and were often inaccurate. Dustin had no trouble cleaning them up, smashing the vibrating purple balls like they owed him money.
His spree came to a rather quick end, as larger spirits began to appear the deeper he progressed. The basketball sized spirits grew wider, replaced by spirits that doubled in size, nearly touching the floor as they covered most of the tunnel. Surprisingly, of the largest spirit Dustin had come across, he had managed to run into not one of them, but three.
Rather than just purple, Dustin could see a larger white ball of energy, and a similar light blue colored one behind it. He could feel a light breeze constantly being emitted from the white one, and a light blue one that was oddly refreshing to look at.
Since two of the three elements were not immune to lightning, Dustin held his staff in one hand, with the dagger in the other.The healing orb floating just above Dustin was about to explode like the bell in a boxing fight, but it healed him pointlessly, as a flurry of spells did not come hurtling his way, but a pair of identical twins rushed out from behind the large air elemental.
"Don't hurt them!"
Dustin's eyes moved between the spirits, but the aggression he had felt from them was disappearing.
The twins were both girls, and they stood with arms out facing Dustin. Glaring at his fighting stance.
"Want to explain to me what's happening?"
----------------
[Subdue the Elements (½)]
A war between the dungeons elemental spirits has raged on since the creator of the tunnel system disappeared. The elements must agree to work together, or be subdued, to defend against the upcoming threat. The ant colony that created these tunnels have laid dormant, and the rampaging elements tainting their land have stirred them.
[Air Spirits are willing to form an alliance with you. Do you accept [Y/N]?]
[Lightning Spirits are willing to form an alliance with you. Do you accept [Y/N]?]
[Water Spirits are willing to form an alliance with you. Do you accept [Y/N]?]
Dustin read the quest conditions under the watchful eyes of the elemental mini-bosses. If he declined the alliance, they would probably return to their aggressive state and attack him.He didn't fancy his chances taking on three of the mini-bosses at once.
As he accepted the quest and all three alliances, the gigantic light bulbs started floating away, with the twins following them. Dustin sighed and ran after them, checking the three auras that had been temporarily given to him.
Ally of Water: 15% increased Health Regeneration. +50 Mana shield.
Ally of Air: 10% increased movement speed. 5% increased attack speed.
Ally of Lightning: 15% increased Mana Regeneration. +5% increased cast speed.
Air was probably the most impressive buff, but the others couldn't be completely discounted. Dustin caught up with the group as he closed the display. The two twins completely disregarded his presence and followed the air elemental like loyal children.
"So uh, what now?" Dustin's mini-map was updated as the lightning elemental gestured towards him. It revealed the territories of the three elements he had allied with, and part of the areas they had launched attacks into.
The map took the form of a doughnut, only cut in half, with a boundary removing the north side from access. Although the area it covered was extensive, given its nature of being underground, the dungeon was likely smaller than even the Goblin Forest. The lightning spirit had filled in colors to indicate which parts belonged to which faction. The air-water-lightning alliance all bordered each other, with air occupying the safe seat in the middle.
They had claimed a section on the bottom right, with only one unknown faction on above them, and three on the left. Fortunately none of the other spirits had entered into an alliance, setting a board for Dustin to manipulate.
Taking the time to explore the dungeon a little more revealed the nature of the red faction, earning him a couple of burn marks when he failed to avoid the gushing flames that filled the tunnel. He was less worried about them, despite the close call, as they were situated right next to water. It only took a quick look at a fight between the spirits to realize that fire was completely outclassed.
Back on the other side, was the fight between earth and lightning. There was no advantage of one element over the other, only that the terrain favored the former faction. Dustin was unable to discover anything beyond Earth just yet as the brown balls were adamant in stopping his exploration attempts with a series of spikes.
The first action he needed to take was simple, and likely to have occurred regardless of his entry. Water was going to defeat fire, laying claim to the entire eastern side of the half-doughnut. From there, it would be easier to launch attacks on the left side once their rear was protected.
If Dustin defended against the earth spirits, water would overtake fire on their own. There was limited communication between Dustin and the spirits, but he managed to convey his plan to the alliance well enough.Lightning gave him three small spirits to aid his defense, otherwise maintaining their regular patrol structure. His other two allies sent their forces to deal with the fiery threat behind them.
Three little orbs, each about the size of a basketball, floated beside Dustin and followed him around. He learnt that he could also command them to do simple tasks. Attack a certain spot, hold off on attacking a target, and retreat.
With his little kill squad in toe, Dustin set about dismantling the earthen offensive, which was difficult. Being underground negated the ability to rely on stealth for attacking, as the spirits could detect them approaching.
Dustin had taken many nasty bruises from rock pillars shooting out from the ground and nailing him. One particular elemental had broken his arm, which he had to cover with a regeneration salve.
He came across a couple of stronger earthen spirits that had given him some trouble, able to cast different spells. The earth would rush towards him from all sides, shot out from the wall faster than he could react. He had to down a healing potion after that onslaught, but managed to keep himself intact, enough to finish them off. The brown lights were less impressive to destroy, they did not shatter like the lightning spirits, but seemed to be solid inside. His staff was considerably more effective at dispatching them, providing a similar service to destroying armor.
The dented and fading balls lay rolling on the ground in front of him when the first lot of good news came through, accompanied by the sudden influx of colored lights into his surroundings.
[Fire has been subdued.]
Dustin sighed in relief, resting against his staff, and looked up at the two emotionless spirits that were left. The missing spirit had been smashed into a wall, splintering into thousands of pieces like a smashed up Christmas ornament.
The mini-map changed as the new information flooded in. The red was washed over by blue, snuffing out any sign of fire from the territory. They were now protected on one side, provided nothing was able to attack them from outside the dungeons boundaries. It was unlikely, but not impossible. Dustin wasn't going to trust the mini-map completely, and left water with their two territories to defend, whilst the combined offensive of air and lightning pushed west.
Where the quality of attacks and defensives had failed against the earthern spirits, quantity succeeded. The brown balls were now facing more attacks than they could handle, and were quickly crumbling under the pressure. Dustin hadn't expected to reach their center so soon, but realized the cause when they entered into an ongoing battle scene between the largest earth spirit, and a smaller green coloured spirit. A foul liquid dripped from the earth spirits opponent, sizzling as it ate a hole in the ground.
The earth spirit had taken a few of the green spirits attacks, revealing the same fate as the earth beneath it. Much like the fate of the fire spirits, they were unable to stand against their natural enemy.
[Acid Spirit]
[550/800]
His allied spirits did not possess the same subtly as him and immediately jumped into the fight, sending blades of air, torrents of water, and bolts of lightning, at the weaker target. Whilst the acid spirit was smaller, which generally meant it was less powerful, the earth spirit was in a worse state.
Under normal conditions, he would had preferred facing the earth spirit as acid was extremely painful and difficult to remove.In an underground dungeon however, the earth spirit was definitely the one to target. Pillars of earth shot up around the saucer shaped room that each of the elemental leaders stayed in, pinning every type of coloured spirit to the ceiling. Lightning spirits shattered, acid and water spirits splattered, and air spirits scattered.
Dustin dodged the predictable pillar rising from beneath his feet and focused his efforts on the acid spirit. His allies had already chosen their target, and splitting the damage was only going to make it take longer, as well as draw attention to himself. He added to the orchestra of thunder claps by using Storm Bolts, but held back on using weapons. Acid was notorious for degrading durability quicker than anything else, for obvious reasons.
He tested out his other new spell as well, summoning an ice petal onto the acid spirits body. As expected of a body made from the noxious liquid, the ice was unable to fully form in under three seconds, destroying the petal and nullifying the spell.
Dustin waited until the Acid Spirit fell apart, dropping the suspended liquid to the floor, to attempt another petal, this time on the other target. The petal did not immediately start degrading, and managed to sprout, spreading a thin sheet of ice. As soon as the earth spirit realized the cause of the cold damage, it struck itself with an earth pillar, crushing the fragile petal with ease.
Dustin could not expect good results given the enemies he was facing. These enemies could wield elements freely around them, something that was uncommon to most other types of enemies. On a normal animal, it would prove much more effective.
[Earth has been subdued]
The enormous brown ball crumbled into tiny pieces of rock, returning to the earth like a pile of rubble. There was no joy or victory celebration in the allied spirits, only cold efficiency. As soon as the territory was flooded with purple, they moved on, advancing onto the ugly green colored domain.
Despite losing more spirits than expected, they had managed to land a serious blow against the next enemy in line by killing their 'second in command' spirit. Dustin had no qualms with letting the spirits kill each other, unwilling to put himself in the line of fire. Despite the pain he had felt in the past, and the experience of death, he would still avoid pain where he could. Acid was a nasty substance, and he let the three spirit leaders take the front as he stayed further back.
He had yet to even kill an acid spirit when he heard the splashing sound, accompanied by the quick victory over the domain, leaving the final two elements to defeat.
[Acid has been subdued]
Just by looking at the mini-map, one might mistake the next territory as out of bounds, given the pitch black colour that covered it. It matched the shimmering dagger in Dustin's hand.
After losing out on easy experience and Dos by avoiding the acid, Dustin didn't hesitate to throw himself into combat against the shadow spirits. Their damage was respectable, but often painless, as they were meant to be silent killers. When something caused a lot of pain, it often made people cry out, breaking the veil of stealth.
Dustin was adept at managing the shadow spirits that came towards him. Their attacks came not from the black balls of energy themselves, but appeared as a ethereal spike behind ones back. It was an ability called [Shimmer Spike], which could also be purchased through the shop. He was able to time the slight dodge that sent the shadow spike hurtling past him, instead of digging into the back of his neck.
As shadow, or Umbra, spells were popular among assassins, rogues, or anyone with an interest in being stealthy, he had often faced them during times of turmoil. Much like the spirits he was zapping, Humans also fought among themselves, even during external conflict. The dungeons breaking had not deterred individuals from exacting their long-hidden revenge, or treasuring the belongings of others.
Even to the point of extinction, they still clung to the dark emotions, drawing the power to survive from festering them. The arrival of the Torians was the only intervention strong enough to band humanity together, forcing their grievances aside just to live another day.
Dustin was fueled by that grief and anger as he decimated the shadow spirit ranks with mechanical efficiency. Each move perfectly cleaving the shadows in half, dissipating the collection of dark energy. He never stopped to cast a spell, relying on the throwing knives and metal staff for damage.
He finally took a break when his staff suddenly bent under the pressure as it smashed a spirit into the wall.
Sparing no breath, he plopped down on the rocky ground and pulled out a cup of tea, sipping lightly at the sweet liquid that sent a burst of power into his mana bar, increasing the regeneration. He used his free hand to repair the staff and throwing knives. Although he was able to pick them up to 'repair' durability, the frenzy of killing had left many in unknown places. There was no point in wasting time trying to find them when he could simply kill more, and buy another repair kit.
The throwing knives had two modifiers on them now, so Dustin wasn't worried about them gaining a negative modifier since their current tier restricted the amount of modifiers to two. Whilst he was busy with enacting his revenge, the spirit coalition had approached the shadow leader, and utterly destroyed it.
[Shadow has been subdued]
Lightning spirits were the closest of the territories, so they were responsible for capturing the domains they advanced through. This also had the advantage of adding each domains strength to their own, creating a super territory that could completely overwhelm the enemy. The element after shadow was holy, which was the eternal enemy of their previous neighbor.
It was a quick victory over the lightbulbs, which made a cute jingling sound when he hit them. Dustin barely managed to kill two of them before the spirit allies thundered through, caring little for his glares as they forced their way straight to the leader. He couldn't even see the giant spirit as the sheer amount of spells being cast blocked all vision. The holy spirit leader's health dropped to 0 under the barrage, sending the light scattering to the edges of the room like a disco ball.
[Holy has been subdued]
[Subdue the elements (½) complete!]
[Subdue the Ants (2/2) activated!]
As the elemental war has come to an end, the dormant denizens laying below have awoken, only to find their territory stolen. Descend through the ant colony and eliminate the Queen Ant.Dustin rest his staff against his shoulder and read the display.
The three elemental spirits stood guard as a new tunnel opened up, revealing a low and wide tunnel that led even deeper down.
When the shaking stopped, and the tunnel was completed, a screeching sound echoed from within, followed by the stomping of a thousand feet.
Dustin casually turned to the tunnel entrance and gestured grandly.
"To the Ant Queen!"
Dustin woke up in a cold sweat the morning after he had entered the undead dungeon. He checked his status worriedly, but found there were no unusual ailments afflicting him. The image of his patrol leaders eyes boring into him were burned into his mind.
Was he supposed to call it a memory if it never happened? Or was it now a premonition?
He pulled his mind away from the whirlwind of dark emotions he so easily got caught in, and spent a couple of hours in the morning poring over how best to spend his Dos. He ran through the notification spam from the dungeon, purchased a couple of things, and allocated his attributes from leveling up.
He had leveled up three times, putting him at level 9.
Strength 15 (+5) → 20
Wisdom 20 (+5) → 25
Charisma 24 (+1) → 25
Constitution 21 (+4) → 25
His attributes were still balanced, and the rounded numbers were pleasing to his eyes. Once gear and multipliers were thrown into the mix, it was a lot more trouble to organize them.
[Early Exorcism: You are the first pioneer of XQB51 to clear the City of the Dead dungeon. Your corpse cannot be reanimated after death. Gain 5% of non-holy damage dealt to undead as holy damage.]
[Thaumaturgy: You are the first pioneer of XQB51 to modify a spell. +5 Intelligence. 10% chance when combining spells to preserve existing modifiers.]
[High Achiever (I): You are the first pioneer of XQB51 to reach 20 achievements. +1 to all attributes per level up to level 20.]
It was a toss up between Thaumaturgy and High Achiever for which was the best achievement of the three. Plus one to all attributes per level was amazing. The roman numeral next to High Achiever indicated it was part of a series. It likely increased the level of which he could continue gaining attributes, encouraging him to continue hunting achievements if he wished to keep the bonus.
The increase would be more noticeable on attributes like Agility and Constitution, where Dustin's values would be much lower than the ones he prioritized for spell casting.
Thaumaturgy on the other hand had the possibility to create powerful spells. All the attributes in the world meant nothing without proper spells and equipment. A person with a thousand strength could break rocks with his bare fists, but against a monster with incredibly high health and mitigation, weapons or spells were needed to breach the gap.
Dustin could merge his Storm Bolt with another ability, for example, Storm Cloud, and create Storm of Bolts, which would send bolts of lightning to enemies underneath it periodically.
If the chain modifier was kept, this would be even more devastating as each bolt had its own chain. Dustin had to stop himself from wasting time in his head creating powerful spell combinations and jumped right back into the present time.
He had a new payout from the dungeon, giving the ability to buy another spell or two. He had both a strong single target spell, and now mediocre multi-target spell. What he really wanted was something both a little more stealthy, but keeping on track with his other spells.
The Double Dip achievement incentivized using spells from different schools, so Dustin went through the Hydromancy tree and found a suitable spell.
[Spell: Ice Bloom]
Hydromancy
Attach a flower petal made from ice to the target. After three seconds, targets will take frost damage, increasing over time as the petal remains attached.
Use: 60 Mana. Maximum: 3 Petals.
Ice Bloom was used more for its controlling ability, freezing people in place. Dustin had seen the petals placed on people's necks, or on their hair. When it popped, their head would be frozen, stopping them from shouting, and making it hard to breathe.
For that reason, Dustin purchased one other spell, which was entirely used for dealing damage.
[Spell: Shadow Dagger]
Umbra
Create an ethereal dagger made from shadows. Wounds inflicted with this dagger silence the target for 0.5 seconds. Dagger will dissipate once thrown or dropped.
Use: 100 Mana.
Umbra was the primary school for shadow and chaos damage spells, which were popular among rogues and dark magicians. It was similar to Occultism, and very often the spells crossed over into the other school.
The mana cost was quite high, which was understandable as the ability wasn't meant to be used consecutively. The dagger had to be held at all times, practically making it more of a weapon then a spell.It was undeniable that when weapons that provided a built in silence were found, the spell was basically useless as anything more than a backup. The cost was worth it as the silence effect, although short, was very important.
Any amount of silence was enough to interrupt channeled spells. Often the act of silencing someone was enough to confuse them for longer than 0.5 seconds, as they caught off guard by the silencing motion.Dustin now had three schools to affect enemies, four if the healing orb exploded at the right time. It was already a 15% damage increase with just his current skill set.
A pair of boots had also entered Dustin's eyes, giving a nice chunk of movement speed, but the cost was too high.
[Swift Leather Boots]. 1,000 Dos.
15/15 Durability.
3.0 - 5.0% Physical Mitigation.
Boots made from the leather of an old Wyvern. They feel airy and light, but sturdy enough to protect the feet.
Swift: Increases movement speed by 18%.
Setting aside his unparalleled hunger for upgrades, Dustin found his next target to follow. An old man was one of the names on his list of disappearances, and was easy to track down.
He used to be on the local council, organizing fundraisers and other sorts of things. Dustin easily managed to find him in the neighborhood just by asking around. He apparently left home early in the mornings, caught a bus into town, bought a newspaper and went over to the old community center.
Dustin could already hazard a guess as to where the dungeon was. The community center the old man visited had been abandoned due to safety hazards as a result of stricter regulations. There were plans to knock it down, but the old man had some sway on the council still, and didn't want to see it fall in his lifetime.
Dustin didn't even get to follow the man as worry was already circulating about his disappearance. The shopkeeper who had told Dustin his usual route hadn't seen him in a couple of days.
Dustin ran straight over to the old community center, pushing aside the rusted gate easily. The hinges were well oiled, despite the rest of the gates appearance, probably from the old councilman who visited it so often.
There was a degraded children's playground just to the left of the entrance, and an old swing twisted with creaky sounds from side to side in the wind. If Dustin hadn't come here with a purpose he would have already run away. It was eerily similar to some scene from a horror film.
He was comforted by the fact that he didn't have to enter the building, as the dungeon began claiming the land around him, transporting him into a dark cave.
[Welcome to the Spirited Colony dungeon, uploading current information to mini map.]
Sure enough, the mini-map revealed Dustin was standing in the middle of a tunnel. Although it looked like there was space behind him, the mini-map indicated that area as out of bounds, meaning Dustin wouldn't be able to enter it.
The tunnel suddenly lit up as Dustin took a torch from his inventory, sparking a flame onto the oiled sticks at the top. He looked around, and noticed the horrible smell coming from up ahead.
"Shit." Dustin whispered to himself as he came closer to the source of the smell.
His worst fear was confirmed as an old man's corpse was bundled up against the wall. A couple of slimes were latched onto his lower limbs, slowly dissolving the skin, flesh, and after a long time, the bone.
Dustin smashed them against the tunnel wall effortlessly, and knelt down beside the old man. He was undeniably dead, from the cold colour of his lips, to the stiff limbs and lifeless eyes.
He could only mutter a quick apology to the man, if he had been earlier, perhaps he could have prevented the man's death. But for someone so old, they were probably going to die the moment the dungeons broke open, regardless of Dustin's intervention.
Dustin continued through the empty tunnel, which had a low ceiling despite its width. He could picture the different kinds of insects that would fit in the oddly shaped tunnels, any of them would be a nasty sight to see.
The tunnels were going deeper into the earth as Dustin had to slide down some of them, not possessing the natural advantage that insects had in climbing. When he reached the point where slimes no longer wobbled along, he came to face the main enemies.
They were floating balls of energy, varying in colour depending on where Dustin found himself. The purple balls of energy would shoot lightning out, and were completely unharmed when Dustin shot his own Storm Bolt at them.
He happened across a fight between the brown and purple balls, each of them about floating at head height, and roughly the size of the basketball. Lightning would flicker across the small tunnel, striking at each of the brown balls to little effect. In return, the earth would shift around the purple ones, sending spikes of hardened rock to pierce their fragile exterior. One of the purple lights shattered like glass when it was caught against the wall, sending piping hot shards of the glass like material to the ground, still emitting a purple hue.
Dustin had nothing against either side, but waited until both sides fell low on energy. He inspected each in turn, and confirmed his initial suspicions.
[Earth Spirit]
[70/110 HP]
[Lightning Spirit]
[46/90 HP]
The lightning spirits were capable of ignoring his damage, so he wanted to avoid facing them at any costs, whilst the earth spirits had the natural advantage in an underground setting.
Thankfully the Shadow Dagger did well in disposing both of them, as neither of the elemental spirits were resistant to it. His staff and throwing knives both possessed lightning modifiers, making them less effective to the purple spirits.
The more Dustin moved around, the bigger the area he could see on his minimap. There were lines drawn into it that did not match the dungeons terrain, but instead seemed to indicate territories. After crossing a line, a different type of elemental spirit would appear, attacking which ever spirit had wandered in. Dustin had entered the Earth domain initially, seeing the fights between them and Earth shortly after.
It was easier to navigate through lightning as they didn't possess the natural advantage of being surrounded by their own element. The attacks always came directly from within them, and were often inaccurate. Dustin had no trouble cleaning them up, smashing the vibrating purple balls like they owed him money.
His spree came to a rather quick end, as larger spirits began to appear the deeper he progressed. The basketball sized spirits grew wider, replaced by spirits that doubled in size, nearly touching the floor as they covered most of the tunnel. Surprisingly, of the largest spirit Dustin had come across, he had managed to run into not one of them, but three.
Rather than just purple, Dustin could see a larger white ball of energy, and a similar light blue colored one behind it. He could feel a light breeze constantly being emitted from the white one, and a light blue one that was oddly refreshing to look at.
Since two of the three elements were not immune to lightning, Dustin held his staff in one hand, with the dagger in the other.The healing orb floating just above Dustin was about to explode like the bell in a boxing fight, but it healed him pointlessly, as a flurry of spells did not come hurtling his way, but a pair of identical twins rushed out from behind the large air elemental.
"Don't hurt them!"
Dustin's eyes moved between the spirits, but the aggression he had felt from them was disappearing.
The twins were both girls, and they stood with arms out facing Dustin. Glaring at his fighting stance.
"Want to explain to me what's happening?"
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[Subdue the Elements (½)]
A war between the dungeons elemental spirits has raged on since the creator of the tunnel system disappeared. The elements must agree to work together, or be subdued, to defend against the upcoming threat. The ant colony that created these tunnels have laid dormant, and the rampaging elements tainting their land have stirred them.
[Air Spirits are willing to form an alliance with you. Do you accept [Y/N]?]
[Lightning Spirits are willing to form an alliance with you. Do you accept [Y/N]?]
[Water Spirits are willing to form an alliance with you. Do you accept [Y/N]?]
Dustin read the quest conditions under the watchful eyes of the elemental mini-bosses. If he declined the alliance, they would probably return to their aggressive state and attack him.He didn't fancy his chances taking on three of the mini-bosses at once.
As he accepted the quest and all three alliances, the gigantic light bulbs started floating away, with the twins following them. Dustin sighed and ran after them, checking the three auras that had been temporarily given to him.
Ally of Water: 15% increased Health Regeneration. +50 Mana shield.
Ally of Air: 10% increased movement speed. 5% increased attack speed.
Ally of Lightning: 15% increased Mana Regeneration. +5% increased cast speed.
Air was probably the most impressive buff, but the others couldn't be completely discounted. Dustin caught up with the group as he closed the display. The two twins completely disregarded his presence and followed the air elemental like loyal children.
"So uh, what now?" Dustin's mini-map was updated as the lightning elemental gestured towards him. It revealed the territories of the three elements he had allied with, and part of the areas they had launched attacks into.
The map took the form of a doughnut, only cut in half, with a boundary removing the north side from access. Although the area it covered was extensive, given its nature of being underground, the dungeon was likely smaller than even the Goblin Forest. The lightning spirit had filled in colors to indicate which parts belonged to which faction. The air-water-lightning alliance all bordered each other, with air occupying the safe seat in the middle.
They had claimed a section on the bottom right, with only one unknown faction on above them, and three on the left. Fortunately none of the other spirits had entered into an alliance, setting a board for Dustin to manipulate.
Taking the time to explore the dungeon a little more revealed the nature of the red faction, earning him a couple of burn marks when he failed to avoid the gushing flames that filled the tunnel. He was less worried about them, despite the close call, as they were situated right next to water. It only took a quick look at a fight between the spirits to realize that fire was completely outclassed.
Back on the other side, was the fight between earth and lightning. There was no advantage of one element over the other, only that the terrain favored the former faction. Dustin was unable to discover anything beyond Earth just yet as the brown balls were adamant in stopping his exploration attempts with a series of spikes.
The first action he needed to take was simple, and likely to have occurred regardless of his entry. Water was going to defeat fire, laying claim to the entire eastern side of the half-doughnut. From there, it would be easier to launch attacks on the left side once their rear was protected.
If Dustin defended against the earth spirits, water would overtake fire on their own. There was limited communication between Dustin and the spirits, but he managed to convey his plan to the alliance well enough.Lightning gave him three small spirits to aid his defense, otherwise maintaining their regular patrol structure. His other two allies sent their forces to deal with the fiery threat behind them.
Three little orbs, each about the size of a basketball, floated beside Dustin and followed him around. He learnt that he could also command them to do simple tasks. Attack a certain spot, hold off on attacking a target, and retreat.
With his little kill squad in toe, Dustin set about dismantling the earthen offensive, which was difficult. Being underground negated the ability to rely on stealth for attacking, as the spirits could detect them approaching.
Dustin had taken many nasty bruises from rock pillars shooting out from the ground and nailing him. One particular elemental had broken his arm, which he had to cover with a regeneration salve.
He came across a couple of stronger earthen spirits that had given him some trouble, able to cast different spells. The earth would rush towards him from all sides, shot out from the wall faster than he could react. He had to down a healing potion after that onslaught, but managed to keep himself intact, enough to finish them off. The brown lights were less impressive to destroy, they did not shatter like the lightning spirits, but seemed to be solid inside. His staff was considerably more effective at dispatching them, providing a similar service to destroying armor.
The dented and fading balls lay rolling on the ground in front of him when the first lot of good news came through, accompanied by the sudden influx of colored lights into his surroundings.
[Fire has been subdued.]
Dustin sighed in relief, resting against his staff, and looked up at the two emotionless spirits that were left. The missing spirit had been smashed into a wall, splintering into thousands of pieces like a smashed up Christmas ornament.
The mini-map changed as the new information flooded in. The red was washed over by blue, snuffing out any sign of fire from the territory. They were now protected on one side, provided nothing was able to attack them from outside the dungeons boundaries. It was unlikely, but not impossible. Dustin wasn't going to trust the mini-map completely, and left water with their two territories to defend, whilst the combined offensive of air and lightning pushed west.
Where the quality of attacks and defensives had failed against the earthern spirits, quantity succeeded. The brown balls were now facing more attacks than they could handle, and were quickly crumbling under the pressure. Dustin hadn't expected to reach their center so soon, but realized the cause when they entered into an ongoing battle scene between the largest earth spirit, and a smaller green coloured spirit. A foul liquid dripped from the earth spirits opponent, sizzling as it ate a hole in the ground.
The earth spirit had taken a few of the green spirits attacks, revealing the same fate as the earth beneath it. Much like the fate of the fire spirits, they were unable to stand against their natural enemy.
[Acid Spirit]
[550/800]
His allied spirits did not possess the same subtly as him and immediately jumped into the fight, sending blades of air, torrents of water, and bolts of lightning, at the weaker target. Whilst the acid spirit was smaller, which generally meant it was less powerful, the earth spirit was in a worse state.
Under normal conditions, he would had preferred facing the earth spirit as acid was extremely painful and difficult to remove.In an underground dungeon however, the earth spirit was definitely the one to target. Pillars of earth shot up around the saucer shaped room that each of the elemental leaders stayed in, pinning every type of coloured spirit to the ceiling. Lightning spirits shattered, acid and water spirits splattered, and air spirits scattered.
Dustin dodged the predictable pillar rising from beneath his feet and focused his efforts on the acid spirit. His allies had already chosen their target, and splitting the damage was only going to make it take longer, as well as draw attention to himself. He added to the orchestra of thunder claps by using Storm Bolts, but held back on using weapons. Acid was notorious for degrading durability quicker than anything else, for obvious reasons.
He tested out his other new spell as well, summoning an ice petal onto the acid spirits body. As expected of a body made from the noxious liquid, the ice was unable to fully form in under three seconds, destroying the petal and nullifying the spell.
Dustin waited until the Acid Spirit fell apart, dropping the suspended liquid to the floor, to attempt another petal, this time on the other target. The petal did not immediately start degrading, and managed to sprout, spreading a thin sheet of ice. As soon as the earth spirit realized the cause of the cold damage, it struck itself with an earth pillar, crushing the fragile petal with ease.
Dustin could not expect good results given the enemies he was facing. These enemies could wield elements freely around them, something that was uncommon to most other types of enemies. On a normal animal, it would prove much more effective.
[Earth has been subdued]
The enormous brown ball crumbled into tiny pieces of rock, returning to the earth like a pile of rubble. There was no joy or victory celebration in the allied spirits, only cold efficiency. As soon as the territory was flooded with purple, they moved on, advancing onto the ugly green colored domain.
Despite losing more spirits than expected, they had managed to land a serious blow against the next enemy in line by killing their 'second in command' spirit. Dustin had no qualms with letting the spirits kill each other, unwilling to put himself in the line of fire. Despite the pain he had felt in the past, and the experience of death, he would still avoid pain where he could. Acid was a nasty substance, and he let the three spirit leaders take the front as he stayed further back.
He had yet to even kill an acid spirit when he heard the splashing sound, accompanied by the quick victory over the domain, leaving the final two elements to defeat.
[Acid has been subdued]
Just by looking at the mini-map, one might mistake the next territory as out of bounds, given the pitch black colour that covered it. It matched the shimmering dagger in Dustin's hand.
After losing out on easy experience and Dos by avoiding the acid, Dustin didn't hesitate to throw himself into combat against the shadow spirits. Their damage was respectable, but often painless, as they were meant to be silent killers. When something caused a lot of pain, it often made people cry out, breaking the veil of stealth.
Dustin was adept at managing the shadow spirits that came towards him. Their attacks came not from the black balls of energy themselves, but appeared as a ethereal spike behind ones back. It was an ability called [Shimmer Spike], which could also be purchased through the shop. He was able to time the slight dodge that sent the shadow spike hurtling past him, instead of digging into the back of his neck.
As shadow, or Umbra, spells were popular among assassins, rogues, or anyone with an interest in being stealthy, he had often faced them during times of turmoil. Much like the spirits he was zapping, Humans also fought among themselves, even during external conflict. The dungeons breaking had not deterred individuals from exacting their long-hidden revenge, or treasuring the belongings of others.
Even to the point of extinction, they still clung to the dark emotions, drawing the power to survive from festering them. The arrival of the Torians was the only intervention strong enough to band humanity together, forcing their grievances aside just to live another day.
Dustin was fueled by that grief and anger as he decimated the shadow spirit ranks with mechanical efficiency. Each move perfectly cleaving the shadows in half, dissipating the collection of dark energy. He never stopped to cast a spell, relying on the throwing knives and metal staff for damage.
He finally took a break when his staff suddenly bent under the pressure as it smashed a spirit into the wall.
Sparing no breath, he plopped down on the rocky ground and pulled out a cup of tea, sipping lightly at the sweet liquid that sent a burst of power into his mana bar, increasing the regeneration. He used his free hand to repair the staff and throwing knives. Although he was able to pick them up to 'repair' durability, the frenzy of killing had left many in unknown places. There was no point in wasting time trying to find them when he could simply kill more, and buy another repair kit.
The throwing knives had two modifiers on them now, so Dustin wasn't worried about them gaining a negative modifier since their current tier restricted the amount of modifiers to two. Whilst he was busy with enacting his revenge, the spirit coalition had approached the shadow leader, and utterly destroyed it.
[Shadow has been subdued]
Lightning spirits were the closest of the territories, so they were responsible for capturing the domains they advanced through. This also had the advantage of adding each domains strength to their own, creating a super territory that could completely overwhelm the enemy. The element after shadow was holy, which was the eternal enemy of their previous neighbor.
It was a quick victory over the lightbulbs, which made a cute jingling sound when he hit them. Dustin barely managed to kill two of them before the spirit allies thundered through, caring little for his glares as they forced their way straight to the leader. He couldn't even see the giant spirit as the sheer amount of spells being cast blocked all vision. The holy spirit leader's health dropped to 0 under the barrage, sending the light scattering to the edges of the room like a disco ball.
[Holy has been subdued]
[Subdue the elements (½) complete!]
[Subdue the Ants (2/2) activated!]
As the elemental war has come to an end, the dormant denizens laying below have awoken, only to find their territory stolen. Descend through the ant colony and eliminate the Queen Ant.Dustin rest his staff against his shoulder and read the display.
The three elemental spirits stood guard as a new tunnel opened up, revealing a low and wide tunnel that led even deeper down.
When the shaking stopped, and the tunnel was completed, a screeching sound echoed from within, followed by the stomping of a thousand feet.
Dustin casually turned to the tunnel entrance and gestured grandly.
"To the Ant Queen!"
