Chapter 11- Lost in the Dungeon

A Chapter by NG-S

Chapter 11- Lost in the Dungeon

When I opened my eyes I found myself standing in a narrow passageway. There didn't appear to be anyone else around me. I checked to see if my kunai was still up my sleeve and it was. Good, it was just a teleport trap and not a force unequip trap as well. It would be bad if I dropped my weapons, I wouldn't have any chance of finding them in here.

I wonder where exactly I am in the dungeon. I won't know exactly until I come across a monster and check its level. The best thing for me now is to travel undetected. Thinking this, I activated my Invisibility skill.

The skill made it impossible for others to see me with the naked eye. I myself could still see myself, but in a transparent outline. I didn't feel any different than how I normally would with the skill activated.

I began walking. After a while I found the passage led to a cliff drop-off. Looking down the edge I saw the floor was a pool of magma and giant flame breathing serpent monsters were swimming in that magma. Those creatures all have levels in the 300-300 range.

This is bad. This dungeon only contains monsters up to level 400 and level 330 monsters in this area means I'm very deep within the dungeon..

As things stand I'd stand no chance against these monsters. Even if I used the remaining Greater Level Potions the Dark Lich gave me I would be unable to beat them. It would give me the skill points necessary to gain new skills, but no skill could cover the distance in levels between us.

If any of these overgrown snakes has a detection skill I'll be tempted to throw the Hero at them to make my escape.

For now I start backing off. I turn around and head the way I came. My sense of direction is completely thrown off in here, I have no idea if I'm heading deeper in the dungeon or not.

I'll have to wait until I encounter more monsters. I should also be careful of traps, this deep in they'd be deadly for me.

Yeah, I should've been more careful about traps. When I step forward a magic circle appeared in the air in front of me. Before I can even react, spears form in the air and are thrust at me.

Son of a b***h!

I had no time to move, they were too fast. Spears shot into my face and body, piercing all the way through my body. Blood gushed and splattered out of me as I stumbled around.

Instantly I deactivated my Invisibility skill. I gritted my teeth as I pulled the spears out of my body, two at a time. I've already activated my Regeneration skill.

Next I pull the spears from my face. Damn it! The game's pain settings aren't set that high, but it still feels like someone smacked me pretty hard and this pain is lingering.

Imagine being punched twice in your face and four times in your body, and the initial impact never stopped. That's what it feels like to have six holes in my body. I can also feel blood dripping down my body.

These wounds are fatal, but my HP is recovering. Before I activated Regeneration I activated Recovery. With Regeneration activated I should also heal from my injuries. As long as no monster encounters me before I'm fully healed I'll be fine.

I rest against a wall, sitting down. There's nothing for me to do but wait. If the others are as deep in the dungeon as me they'd surely all die. It's not a bad thing if they do, the death penalty isn't that bad at a low level and they'd respawn outside the dungeon. It would only hurt their pride.

I myself should teleport out of here. That would be best, but my stubborn pride refuses. I won't run away with my tail between my legs. I'll stand back up and crawl my way out of here or die trying.

It's time to stop holding back. I stand up and head toward the magma den. My wounds are nearly closed up, I'm still losing blood with every step.

That doesn't matter. I refuse to let myself fall. I head bacķto the cliff edge. I activate my ice magic, freezing the floor beneath me. I freeze everything from the walls, ceiling, and even the magma cools with the amount of ice magic I'm pouring out.

The serpents notice me as expected. I'm high up here and they're still down there. Without arms, legs, or wings they can't reach me. I have the high ground, I've won.

I start launching icicle spears down on them. Their scales are tough and my spears break upon impact, maybe dealing an average of 1 damage.

Occasionally they'd breathe flame and melt an icicle, this made me realize that their weak spot is inside their mouths. If you can't hurt them from the outside, go from the inside. There's only one problem with that, their flame breath.

No matter how many icicles I launch they'd either take them head on or melt them. If I somehow managed to wedge their mouths open they'd burn through whatever was holding their mouth open.

The serpents tried shooting their flame breath at me, all I had to do was back up,into the passageway to avoid the attack and wait until they stopped to step back out. At the rate things were going my MP would drop to zero and their HP would remain over 90%. I have little chance of winning simply by spamming them with icicles.

There were 5 serpents in total and no magic I had would be strong enough to pierce their scales. I only had one skill strong enough, but it was risky. If it failed I'd be ripped apart.

Ah what the hell do I have to lose?

My dragonoid features returned as I jumped off the cliff. Before their flame breath could hit me I activated my last resort, Impenetrable Scales. Purple scales form like a coat of armor over my entire body, at this moment I truly look like a dragon. It felt a bit stuffy with all these scales over my skin.

Their flame breath hit me, but I felt nothing. I grabbed the nearest serpent by the throat and choked it. I twisted its head around my knee, snapping the head around 180 degrees.

Dropping the body I turn to another serpent. I wedge it's mouth open with my hands. I shove my tail into its mouth and pierced through its skull. My tail went straight through its head, brain matter and blood splattered out as my bloody tail shot out the head. Pulling my tail out I dropped the body. I flicked my tail, throwing blood off.

I snapped the jaw open wider than it should have been, breaking the bones of the next serpent. I tossed its limp body aside as I picked up an icicle and threw it into the eye of a serpent that tried attacking me.

That serpent hisses and recoils in pain, backing off. I ran at the last serpent and wrestled it to the ground. I snapped my teeth on its face, tearing off chunks of flesh with every bite as I pushed my hands in its mouth. It tried breathing flames on me, but did no damage. I tore at the inside of its mouth with my hands, claws now with scales covering them. I ripped chunks of flesh out as I continued biting off its face like a ravenous monster.

I ripped off as much flesh as I could until my 30 seconds were up. This skill might prevent me from using other skills, but impenetrable Scales are a weapon of their own.

The scales retracted from my body. My scales may have been coated in blood, but with them gone the only parts of me in blood were my tail, along with the blood that splattered on my horns and wings.

The only serpent still standing is the one I jabbed in the eye. It slithered toward me, rising off the ground and looming over me. It hissed it's tough at me, probably thought it had me cornered.

The other serpents aren't dead, their HP is increasing. It appears they all have Regeneration skills. No matter, they're all still too weak to move. I create more icicle spears, jabbing them into the mouths of those serpents. Those serpents that lay defeated have their HP drop even more, their whole bodies turning to ice.

The serpent behind me rises, the one whose face I tore off, blood is constantly dripping onto the ground. It launched forward, but instead of attacking me it attacked the other serpent.

I grinned as I saw the look of confusion on the serpent as its brood sank its teeth into its neck.

The other three serpents rose off the ground and slithered toward their brood as well. Just like the one with the face ripped off these serpents sank their teeth into the body of the serpent who had an icicle jabbed in their eye. It was especially amusing to see a serpent with its head on backward do this and another whose jaw was far too wide open.

The reason for this? Well that would be Necromancy. These four serpents are now my undead thralls.

How'd this happen when they still had HP? Simple, it was the icicles I shot in their wounded bodies. Those alone did plenty of damage, but they were coated in spikes and every point of contact was damage. Coat an icicle in hundreds of small spikes and shove it in the mouth of a giant serpent and instead of dealing 1 hit of massive damage you deal dozens of hits of massive damage, enough to drop all their HP to zero. The serpent who remained alive never noticed by Necromancy skill activate, the magic circle was large to cover this whole area and the ice on the floor hid the illumination.

My undead serpents tear the flesh off their brood. They rip its body apart, blood and chunks of flesh flying off as they swallow every other bite. After they stuff their faces all that's left is a bloody skeleton that contains a few pieces of meat,here and there.

I approach the serpent corpse to claim it. It's a shame I couldn't get a complete set of 5 undead serpents. Regardless, the experience from this brought me to level 132.

The ice field I created is now littered with blood and chunks of serpent. I managed to win, and now I've gained 4 pets. Even with this victory I'm no fool. The best option is to try and escape the dungeon. I won't be able to use any of my most powerful skills since they have long cool downs. I'm still surrounded by powerful enemies, my serpents are not equipped to protect me if the numbers aren't in our favor. I'd like to escape, but I'm still lost.

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