Ch 318: What lies at the bottom.
Noah fell for well over a minute, quietly watching the struggling Gold Battle Wolf that seemed to want to squirm his way to one of the pit's walls to sink its claws into or something.
Noah's vision suddenly went black, and when it returned, he was laying on his back.
-12354.
"*DING* You have suffered fatal damage. [Blessed Sapphire Necklace] absorbed the damage but has been destroyed."
"You have caused the death of LV7 Lord Gold Battle Wolf: Fame +70, gained 70 SP."
Noah sighed in satisfaction, as he received reward of even indirect killings. And speaking of rewards…
Noah stood and looked around. The bottom of the chasm was made of black soil, firm enough that his feet didn't sink in. The bottom was a roughly circular area, and there was no obvious way to climb up.
He retrieved his sword that had fallen near and saw nearby a little pile of items.
[Golden Fur Pants]: Type: Lower Garment, Equipment Requirements: Strength value greater than or equal to 20, LV4 or above, Grade: Silver. Attributes: Defense +15, Strength +4, Agility +4.
Noah sighed. Why did those pants have to be golden? A girl might pull it off, if it was something like skintight leggings, but wearing those made him look like a pimp. He hoped he would have an opportunity to replace them with an upgrade them soon.
He put them on, and tried to convince himself his looks didn't matter as he explored further the bottom of the chasm. He was so far underground that he couldn't even see the top if he looked upward. Not even a tiny dot of night sky. It was a wonder he even could see his surroundings, with no obvious source of light.
The walls were made of smooth gray stone. Noah stomped a few times in different spots, listening for any difference in the noise he made that might indicate something hollow was buried close to the surface. He then did the same to the stone wall, knocking on it with the hilt of his sword every meter as he walked around the periphery.
There! The sound was different.
Noah focused on this area, and found out that there was a spot, about a meter wide and two meters tall, that sounded hollow.
Noah aimed at the area's center, kicked with as much strength as he could, and the stone cracked. It turned out to be barely a centimeter thick.
A few more kicks, and as chunks of stone fell, they revealed behind it a thick wooden door.
Noah took a deep breath and grabbed the handle, turning it. The rusty mechanism groaned, but the door opened, leading to a rough tunnel carved in the stone. Its walls were irregular, still bearing the marks of the carving tool that has been used to create the tunnel, and its upper half was rounded, the walls merging with the ceiling. Clearly, those who had made this tunnel only cared about someone being able to walk upright, not about how it looked.
As soon as Noah put a foot inside the tunnel, he received another notification.
“*Ding*… you have discovered a mysterious new area, Fame + 1oo, EXP + 1ooo.The new area is temporarily designated as ‘The Forgotten Cave’, the system has registered ‘The Forgotten Cave’ and has activated automatic exploration. Since you are the first player to discover ‘The Forgotten Cave’, the system will explore and give you the information obtained in a timely manner.”
Noah raised an eyebrow. A zone the System didn't know? Still, he welcomed the fame and experience bonus.
He advanced along the tunnel as it started making twists and turns. About 150 meters from the entrance, he received another notification.
“*Ding* …… You have entered the first floor of ‘The Forgotten Cave’, a large number of wandering cursed termites are present, please be ready for battle."
Noah could hear a few skittering sounds
"Cursed termites: Type: Demonic Beast, Level: 3, HP: 100, originally a group of ordinary termites, under long-term infection from an unknown source of demonic magic they become evil, gaining huge body and weak magic attributes, their temperament has become violent, and they will take the initiative to attack any intruder. Their attack can cause the “blind” effect."
As he carefully, quietly followed the tunnel's latest turn, Noah caught a glimpse of a wide cave, its floor, walls, ceiling, everything almost covered by chitin and flesh. There had to be maybe a thousand of those Cursed termites, one-meter-long creatures with brown heads, torsos, legs, and white abdomen.
And at least some of them caught a glimpse of him, too, because the cave suddenly became a beehive of activity, all of the termites starting to skitter toward him.
In an instant, Noah understood what he had to do, and retreated one pace into the tunnel. The narrow passage was his only chance. If he was caught in the open, in the cave or outside, he would be overwhelmed in seconds.
The wave of mandibles and flesh reached him, and Noah thrust with his sword as fast as he could manage.
-74, -74, -148, -74, -74, -82, -148, -74...
He didn't use Full Powered Strike, and only used Little Crescent Slash sparingly.
Thankfully, all the termites died in one or two strikes, and he could barely keep up as they started climbing over their fellows' dead bodies to try to reach him.
Noah still has to slowly retreat in the face of such pressure. He killed a few, made a step back. Killed a few, made another step back. Rinse and repeat.
He realized that it was a race. If the termites still had significant numbers by the time he would be pushed out of the tunnel and back at the bottom of the pit, they would spread around him and kill him. The outcome would be determined by his killing speed.
And he really didn't want to feel what 'Death by Mandibles' was like!
As he fought, Noah realized that he had forgotten to invest his 70 skill points in either Full Power Strike or Little Crescent Slash, but it didn't matter against those monsters. The oversight actually worked in his favor, as it kept the mana cost of Little Crescent Slash down, and he would surely need a lot more than 70 SP to bring it to a level where it would kill three termites with one activation.
At some point, Noah reached level 8, but he didn't have the time to allocate his attribute points. he was more than halfway back when he finally noticed that there were less termites behind those trying to reach him After another minute, they were all dead, and Noah sighed in relief.
"*Ding* …… you successfully killed a thousand ‘cursed termites’, the door to the second area of 'The Forgotten Cave' is revealed."
Noah retrieved the copper coins littering the ground and opened his Status.
Character: Noah
Level: 8
Class: Apprentice Warrior
Faction: None
Fame: 205 Money: 23 Gold 8 silver 2 copper SP: 70
Basic Attributes:
Strength: 37 Constitution: 7 Agility: 26 Spirit: 5
Available: 0
Innate Attributes:
Luck: 10 Comprehension: 10
HP: 250 MP: 130
Physical Attack Strength: 92
Magic Attack Strength: 10
Defense: 35
Hit Rate: 28 Dodge rate: 26
Critical Hit Rate: 7% Pierce Rate: 6%
Attack Speed: 100% Movement Speed: 100%
Elemental resistances:
Water: 0% Fire: 0% Wind: 0% Lightning: 0%
Earth: 0% Light: 0% Darkness: 0%
Skills:
Scan lv 1
Full Power Strike Lvl 3
Little Crescent Slash Lvl 1
Noah had put his new attribute points into Strength, as he wanted to shorten any future fight, but when it came to his Skill Points, he hesitated. He would need 30 more to bring Full Power Strike to Lvl 5, or 25 to upgrade Little Crescent Slash to Lvl 2.
He decided to explore the cave and see what was beyond it before making a decision.
Noah reached the cave, searching for anything of interest. there was no visible traps, no treasures, only a few stalactites and stalagmites.
With a shrug, Noah opened the heavy wooden door on the opposite side from which he had entered. The tunnel behind it was equally narrow and irregular, which made the existence of the doors strange. It was as if the designers of Mystic Moon had created this area with little regard to theme of internal logic. The rectangular doors required straight lines for their frames, which suggested construction standards and an industry of some kind, while the cave and tunnels could have come from the cavemen era.
In short, this secret area had been half-assed.
Noah slowly followed the next tunnel, minimizing the noises he made, when a new notification appeared.
“*Ding*…… There are stronger guardians in “The Forgotten Cave” second area, please be ready for the battle.”
Noah tightened his grip on his sword and walked even more slowly. He found another door, already opened. Noah wanted to see what was beyond it, but the tunnel turned shortly after.
He carefully walked to the corner and risked a look.
Scorpions. Damned Scorpions.
Noah hated those critters because they were hard to deal with, being able to attack with three different limbs. And those were huge. They were about the size of large dogs, not counting the pincers and stinger-tipped tail.
[Cursed King Scorpion]: Type: Demonic Beast, Level: 5, Grade: 1 Star Elite, HP: 410, originally a group of ordinary Scorpion Kings, after long-term infection of demonic magic from unknown an origin, their body grow bigger and gained weak magical attributes, their nature has become more brutal, they will search actively and attack any intruder, their stinger can poison the target, Their attack can cause “Instant Death”.
*CLANG*
Noah flinched at the noise just behind him. The door was now closed, and there was no handle.
Noah wasn't naïve enough to think he could force that door open, so he didn't even try. And the noise had alerted the scorpions.
"Shit game design." cursed Noah under his breath as he entered the large cave. Since his previous tactic wasn't an option anymore, he would need to remain highly mobile this time.
He also quickly opened his interface and invested 5, then 25 points into Little Crescent Slash, bringing it to Lvl 3.
"[Little Crescent Slash]: Current level: LV3, Highest Level: LV5. Points to Upgrade to LV4: 80. Beginner skill for apprentice warriors, with their weapons and crosscutting ahead, drawing a small sword arc, dealing 110% regular damage towards 3 targets in a 3-meter forward area, MP Consumption: 6 points, Cooldown Time: None."
Noah was pleasantly surprised that the skill didn't just gain 20% damage, but that its range also increased by one meter. It would be extremely useful.
Since those Cursed King Scorpions were Lvl 5 1-star Elites, they would net him 5 SP per kill, and there were twenty of them. They would cover the cost of maxing Full Power Strike.
Noah waited for the first three scorpions to enter the skill's range and activated Little Crescent Slash.
-73, -73, -103.
The last hit had been a Piercing Hit.
Noah jumped back and used the skill again, and again, and again.
By the time he had run out of mana, nine of the twenty scorpions were dead.
“*Ding* … … You successfully killed a star elite “Cursed Scorpion King”, Fame +5, Skill points +5.”
“*Ding* … … You successfully killed a star elite “Cursed Scorpion King”, Fame +5, Skill points +5.”
“*Ding* … … You successfully killed a star elite “Cursed Scorpion King”, Fame +5, Skill points +5.”
…
Noah started running around, using his superior speed and the cave's size to keep out of the scorpions' range while his mana slowly regenerated. When he had recovered enough, her unleashed his new favorite skill again, killing more.
Killing all twenty Scorpions had taken him over fifteen minutes, but the 100 SP they gave him were well worth it.
He invested them into Full Power Strike.
[Full Power Strike]: Current Level: LV5, Max level reached. Beginner skill for apprentice warriors, using the weapon in the hand to strike at the target in front with all your strength, 150% damage, 2% chance to Daze the target for 23 seconds. MP Consumption: 5, Cooldown Time: 0 sec.
'That skill may turn out to be useful after all.' thought Noah as he took in the changes. The mana cost hadn't increased, and that 2% chance to Daze seemed useful. He wasn't sure yet what the Daze status meant in practice, but he would eventually find out.
Noah checked the tunnel he had used to enter this large cave, and the door was still closed. Without surprise, its wouldn't budge when he tried to kick it open, and slashing at it was futile.
He wanted to secure a potential retreat route if need be, but that wasn't in the cards.
Shrugging, he opened the door that had appeared when the last scorpion died, and wasn't surprised when another notification announced another floor, with stronger monsters.
[Cursed earthworm]: Type: Demonic Beast, Level: 5, HP: 1200, Grade: 3 stars elite, a group of ordinary giant earthworms, under long-term infection of demonic magic from an unknown origin, with strong body and weak magic attributes, its nature becomes violent. The weak looking body can exhibit an incredible strength, once something is wrapped by it, there is no way to escape.
Ten cursed Earthworms, 3-star Elites this time. Black, squirming worms, each three meters long, with a thickness that increased or decreased as they moved. Their round mouth was surrounded by four large fangs.
Unlike the scorpions and termites, however, those Earthworms were just squirming around the cave's center and didn't react to his presence.
Noah took a chance. With a pebble, he hit one of them.
-1
The creature hissed and moved toward him, half extending, half moving like a snake. Noah hit him with a Full Power Strike.
-129.
Those were pretty good damage numbers, but Noah had also noticed that the Earthworm was quick to react to his sword strike, twisting to evade it. Against someone with less combat experience and worse reflexes, the Earthworm wouldn't have been hit at all.
Noah had carefully observed how much the Earthworm could extend, and how fast it moved. With a bit of caution and enough room to kite it around, killing it was relatively easy. He just had to remain cautious and not give the earthworm any opportunity to grab him.
“*DING*… You have successfully killed 3-star elite “Cursed Giant Earthworm”, Fame+15, SP+15.”
Noah took a deep breath, found another pellet, and hit another Earthworm.
…
When the last Earthworm died, Noah retrieved the silver coins on the ground, as well as the five, yes, five! items they dropped.
[Beginner Strength Crystal]: Type: Energy Crystal, Grade: Beginner, Attribute: Fire, Effect: Physical Attack Strength +3%.
[Rock Needle]: Type: Dagger, Grade: Iron. Equipment Requirement: Assassin class LV10 or above, a sharp dagger forged from iron, possesses weak earth element attribute. Attributes: Attack+12, Attack Speed+30, attacks deal an additional 5 earth damage.
[Beast Skin Armor]: Type: Upper Garment, Grade: Bronze, Equipment Requirement: LV 5 or above, a rough piece of armor made from animal skin, flickering a weak earth element glow, Attributes: Defense+12, Constitution+3, Earth attribute resistance+3%.
[Beast Skin Trousers]: Type: Lower Garment, Grade: Bronze, Equipment Requirement: Any class LV 5 or above, a rough trouser made from animal skin, flickering a weak earth element glow, Attributes: Defense+10, HP+20, Earth attribute resistance+3%.
[Nimble Ring]: Type: Ring, Grade: Iron, Equipment Requirement: None. Ring that bears some ethereal energy. Attributes: Agility+2, Hit Rate+2.
The dagger was interesting. Its requirement meant that it couldn't be used in the tutorial zone, since everyone started as an Apprentice Warrior. If not for that, Noah would have used it for the attack speed bonus alone.
The pants weren't as good as those he already had, and Noah didn't think he could afford any downgrade in this place, so he just stored it in his inventory. He could use it on the outside, if the golden pants attracted too much attention.
The Beast skin armor and ring, however, were very welcome additions, and he put them on immediately.
He also slotted the crystal into his Moon God Bracelet, bringing his Physical attack power from 92 to 95, and spent 80 SP to upgrade Little Crescent Slash.
"[Little Crescent Slash]: Current level: LV4, Highest Level: LV5. Points to Upgrade to LV5: 150. Beginner skill for apprentice warriors, with their weapons and crosscutting ahead, drawing a small sword arc, dealing 120% regular damage towards 4 targets in a 4-meter forward area, MP Consumption: 7 points, Cooldown Time: None."
The MP consumption had increased by one point, but so did the number of affected targets and the range! Compared to those, 10% more damage was a fairly negligible benefit, but still welcome.
Noah paused for an instant as he considered just how much this place, dangerous as it was, was benefiting him. Most players would be hard pressed to find enough Skill Points to improve their skills. They would have Full Power Strike at Lvl 3, maybe, but improving Little Crescent Slash past Lvl 2 would seem like an impossible dream to them, at least until they left the tutorial island.
Noah opened the door to the next floor, wondering if he would have to face another trial. Judging by the progression so far, he expected a Lord-grade monster. He'd be lying if he said that didn't make him a little nervous, after his fight with the Gold Battle Wolf.
As expected, the next cave only held a single monster, and the tunnel leading to it had another door, one that without a doubt would stop him from retreating.
[Hell Spider]: Type: Demonic Beast, Level: 5, Grade: Lord, HP: 3800, A type of very scary man-eating spider. Its entire body is covered in deadly poison that can easily kill people, the area it appears in will definitely fall into disaster, thus becoming a target of elimination for humans, disappearing from the land thousands of years ago.
A huge black spider, standing in the middle of a cave that wasn't that large, compared to the previous ones. With its body currently just barely above ground, it reached a meter in height.
Noah estimated that the spider weighted maybe around a ton.
Its glowing green eyes, two large ones and six smaller ones, glowed with malevolence as it waited for Noah to come closer. Its chitinous body was covered with a oily substance, and every few seconds, a droplet fell to the ground, making the stone sizzle and emit white smoke as it was corroded.
Noah hoped that his sword wouldn't be compromised after hitting it a few times. Surely the developers wouldn't be this vicious… right?
When Noah crossed the five meters threshold, the spider suddenly raised its head, and projected a green stream of venom in his direction.
Noah evaded to the side, noting the range and spread of the attack.
He was now starting the most dangerous part of a boss fight, learning the boss's attack patterns. And he had to be extra careful as any physical contact would poison him.
Venom projection, swipe with the forelegs, forward jump, and leg thrust were all moves that the spider attempted to attack Noah, and he managed to evade them.
But there was a problem.
None of his own attacks, even a Full Power Strike delivered straight into one of the Hell Spider's eyes, did any damage.
Noah frowned and dashed to the side, trying to get behind the spider.
The Hell Spider didn't try to stop him, and even turned its abdomen toward him.
This was a huge red flag, and Noah ducked, just in time to evade a burst of silk that would have hit his head. Instead, the silk thread impacted one of the walls and stuck like glue.
A thread was now connecting the Hell Spider to one of the walls.
It tried another time, resulting in a second thread, and Noah, now warned, evaded with more margin of error.
His strikes on the boss's abdomen were also ineffective, but he noticed something. Just before the spider shot more threat, it exposed a glowing red part between its spinners.
Noah waited for the spider to be ready to shoot its third burst of silk, and plunged his sword between the spinners, hitting the red part.
*SSSSS*
The Hell Spider made a strange whistling sound as it collapsed, its limbs twitching.
“*DING*… You have successfully destroyed the hell spider’s spider core, hell spider unable to move for at least 5 seconds, defense dropping to 0, dodge dropping to 0, will create a new spider core after 5 seconds.”
Noah didn't waste an instant and unleashed Full Power Strikes as quickly as he could.
-143, -143, -143, -286, -143, -143.
The Hell spider regained control of its body and turned to face him, but Noah didn't intend to let it do that and followed its movements, remaining behind the spider.
Another sticky silk thread shot out, missing Noah.
Noah knew he was in another race for time. If the Hell Spider kept shooting its threads everywhere, forming a web, his own ability to move around and evade would be gradually reduced. At some point, he would become stuck in place, without anywhere safe to run to, an easy prey for the spider.
Fortunately, now that he knew the spider's weak point, it wasn't difficult for him to destroy its core again.
Had the spider been smart, it would have moved its body against a wall, covering its only weak point, and waited for Noah to lose patience and make a mistake, or fall from exhaustion.
But its attack pattern were, in the end, scripted, and Noah punished the Hell Spider, again and again.
After destroying its core for the fifth time, the Hell Spider died. And Noah gained another level.
“*DING*… You have successfully killed ‘Hell Spider’, Fame+50, SP+50.”
Noah put his 5 Attribute Points into Strength, again. He didn't much like how skewed his attributes were, but… It was working.
With him now having 160 Skill points, Noah paid 150 SP to unlock the last level of Little Crescent Slash.
"[Little Crescent Slash]: Current level: LV5, Max level reached. Beginner skill for apprentice warriors, with their weapons and crosscutting ahead, drawing a small sword arc, dealing 120% regular damage towards 5 targets in a 4-meter forward area, 20% chance to knockback the target. MP Consumption: 7 points, Cooldown Time: None."
“*DING*… You have reached max level with Full Power Strike and Little Crescent Slash. Skill Fire of Rage unlocked.”
"[Fire of Rage]: Current level: LV1, Highest Level: LV5. Points to Upgrade to LV2: 40. Effect: HP-10, Defense -10, Physical Attack Strength +10, Duration: 10 seconds. MP Consumption: 5 points, Cooldown Time: 1 minute."
This new skill was a double-edged sword, sacrificing defense for more offense. Noah didn't much like this kind of tradeoffs, but he could see this being useful against a target with a high defense attribute.
With his status updated, turned his attention to the best part of killing bosses. The loot!
First were 5 gold coins, 3 silver coins, 4 red potions, 2 orange potions, and 3 blue potions.
The Hell Spider had only dropped a single piece of equipment, but it was a Silver-grade one, just like his gold pants.
[Mind Saber]: Type: Two Handed Sword, Grade: Silver, Equipment Requirements: Strength equal to 35 or more, LV5 or above. A light saber forged from silver. Its light silver aura can make the user’s heart still as water. Attributes: Attack+22, Strength+4, Hit Rate+4, immune to 'Confused' condition.
He didn't know what this 'Confused' state meant, but the greatsword's stats were a significant upgrade over his current sword, and he gladly equipped it.
In addition to the weapon, the Hell Spider had dropped a few other things.
[Poisonous pedipalp] x8 : the pedipalp of the poisonous spider, can be used in forging, granting the forged weapon the “poison” attributes.
[Hell spider saliva]: obtained from the poisonous spider, is extremely toxic, once contaminated, unless your power is above Fairy class, otherwise anyone getting infected will lose instantly 3o% of health. After leaving the hell spider body, the saliva toxicity will gradually dissipate, after 24h will lose all of its toxicity.
Noah pocketed the items, hoping that the dose of poisonous saliva wasn't a red flag. Because surely, this Lord-grade monster was the last boss before either some great treasure, or a clue to the danger hidden by Mystic Moon, right?
Surely, there wasn't going to be another room with a fairy-grade boss… right?
…Right?