We looted all twenty-six hellhounds and the alpha, netting us over a hundred fangs, almost sixty pieces of hide, and a whole mess of beast cores. The dungeon loot list was growing expansive. What we didn’t need for our own use should land us a lot of credits at the next town we reached. We will make more money off of crafting materials than we did the actual credits from the mobs.

Once the loot was collected and noted down, and everyone recovered their stamina and respective energies, we set out once again. At the back of the cavern, almost directly opposite the entrance we came in through, was another tunnel. This one was much longer and curved around to the right this time instead of the left. It swayed back and forth, keeping sight lines short, but there weren’t any other creatures, caverns or tunnels branching off of it.

We kept our speed low, checking around each bend carefully, but nothing appeared. This was causing our tension to continue to mount.

“If something doesn’t jump out around the next bend, I swear I’m going to lose my mind and smash something,” Magnus muttered under his breath.

“It can’t keep going forever. At least I don’t think it can. It feels like it’s looping back towards the entrance. This is probably the tunnel that connects to the rightmost path,” I quietly tried to reassure everyone.

“But where is the core? I need to find the core to complete my quest. And shouldn’t we have gotten some announcement if we cleared the dungeon?” Cody asked. The stress was clearly wearing on the boy. He was twisting his mace in both his hands between gripping it so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

“There is probably at least one last cavern, the boss room. If we didn’t keep sticking to the left, we probably would have run into it first. And if we did that, all the mobs from the rest of the dungeon would probably have been summoned as adds. Just try to relax. I’m pretty sure we are almost done. But stay frosty,” I said.

Fortunately, it was only another few bends in the tunnel before we reached our goal. Before we got too close to the entrance of the cavern, I turned to Rowan. “Before we get in there, you should probably summon Sparks. You take longer now, right?”

“Yes, it’s a forty-five second cast time now instead of just fifteen.” Enough time had passed since they had destroyed the Aeon, that he immediately began summoning it. Once Rowan finished, we quietly moved closer.

The cavern before us was absolutely huge. There were a couple dozen pillars spaced around in a large circle, not like the stalactite and stalagmites that connected. These columns were smoothly carved these and polished cylinders over three feet thick and stretched from the floor to the arching ceiling overhead. Each pillar had a wide dish on the inside of the circle that held vivid red flames dancing. The entire central area was brightly illuminated and we could see everything clearly.

To one side of the circle of pillars sat a massive throne that looked to have been carved out of black granite. And upon that throne sat a demon, not just a demonic creature, but an actual fucking demon. Its skin was a dusky red, it had large leathery wings draping to either side of the throne and had a pair of unswept horns adorning its head alongside a rather fetching silver band with a large ruby attached to the front. A leather vest trimmed in fur fit snugly on his torso and a gold accented, black leather kilt wrapped around its waist with a metallic rod clipped to the belt holding it in place.

Several imps flapped around, and some others perched on stands around the throne. Two Hellhounds the size of the Alpha we fought earlier lay at his feet, and I could make out several Hellcats prowling the shadows cast around the edges of the cavern.

“Why don’t you come in? We haven’t had guests in such a long time,” a deep, velvety smooth voice emanated from the demon.

Dul’goth

Level 10 Hell Tamer

HP: 96/96

Stamina: 168/168

Mana: 668/668

Defense: 33

“Well, there goes our element of surprise,” Magnus said. As he stood to his full height, his muscles bulged out massively and his arm rose and snapped forward. He just threw his hammer blisteringly fast; I caught the brief flickering of his purple electricity before his hammer practically disappeared from his hand.

There was a loud crash, like someone struck a very large gong with an equally large hammer. A sheet of red energy appeared around the throne. It rippled like water in a pond from the force of the impact.

“Now that was just rude,” the demon said in that too smooth voice. Fire danced in the Imps’ hands as they chattered in agitation. The Hellhounds at his feet growled, and more worrying was the fact that all the Hellcats went silent and disappeared from sight.

“Son of a bitch, I hoped that would have worked,” Magnus said as his hammer returned to his hand.

As Cody’s armor formed around him, he readied one of his Shocking arrows and infused it with holy energy. The arrowhead looked like a pair of stylized bolts of lightning that met at the point. The arrow loosed and pierced an imp that was forming a fireball.

I targeted another Imp and launched my Ki Bullet through my spear. Our experience with those Imps and their Fireballs still fresh in our minds.

Rowan and Tess each launched an Arcane missile and an arcane bolt respectively, before Tess flew into the room and vanished with a small pop, appearing forty feet further and landing on the Imp she shot, tearing into it with fang and claw.

In the first couple seconds of combat, we managed to stun or eliminate most of the Imps threat, but had to brace ourselves for the onrush of Hellcats pouncing out of the shadows. Rukia let out a long, loud howl from beside me. I felt the chill of her Ki flow past me and visibly slow the enemy beasts.

“Enough of that, SILENCE” the demon boomed, and Rukia’s howl cut off abruptly. I caught the faint flicker of light from the Dul’goth’s outstretched hand. That son of a bitch cast a spell on my dog. I saw Rukia’s muzzle curl in a silent growl before she sprang after one hellcat, while it was still in midair.

I activated my grace in combat, charged forward and thrust my spear directly through the chest of the second Hellcat, while Magnus braced himself behind his replacement shield and smashed it into the face of the third.

Cody focused on firing imbued arrow after imbued arrow, using up all five charges he got with the Radiant Bow before switching to his own soul bound weapon. His Angel, Malakai, used his golden shield to deflect firebolts cast by the remaining couple Imps. They seemed to have given up on the longer casting fireballs.

The fight was brief but chaotic. Fur and fire were flying, concussive booms came from Magnus and his hammer, bolts of arcane energy flew from Rowan while Sparks laid waste to the mobs with a combination of his more effective breath weapon, bolts of lightning and stunning shocks. It couldn’t hold up its barrage of Mana intensive abilities and spells, but it helped us gain the early momentum.

There was a moment in the fight, one where I wasn’t fighting for my life. A moment between killing one cat and dodging a bolt of fire, when I looked over at the demon. That mother fucker was kicking back in his throne, petting one hellhound and looking amused at our struggle. He was bloody amused while sitting safely behind his barrier.

When the last beast and the last imp died by our hands, the demon sat forward and gave us a slow clap. It made my blood boil. “Bravo, bravo,” he said. “You handled my pets splendidly, but can you handle these?” he raised a small bone tube to his lips and blew through it. I heard nothing, but Rukia’s ears flattened to her head. It was a damned dog whistle.

He sat there expectantly for a moment. His brow creased in confusion before blowing on the whistle again, longer this time. I smirked at him and said, “Sorry mate, but your pets aren’t coming. We slaughtered them all first, you twat.”

He didn’t seem to enjoy being called a twat, and he really didn’t like it when he realized all his other pets were already dead. Dul’goth’s face turned from red to maroon and he snarled at us. His smooth tone vanished and replaced with harsh reverberations. “You will all die slowly by my hands. Your flesh will feed my pets and I will break your bitch and make her eat you while you watch your insignificant worm.”

He rose to his feet, thrust his hands over each of his personal Hellhounds, and before my eyes, they bulked up. They grew an extra six inches in height and their muscle mass expanded dramatically.

Black and red chitinous armor formed around his entire body, making him look even more demonic, if that was possible. He tightly clutched the metal rod as he unclipped it from his waist. A thick flexible bar of liquid looking fire shot out of the end and twitched and hissed as the tip danced across the smooth stone floor.

Dul’goth

Level 10 Hell Tamer

HP: 96/96

Stamina: 168/168

Mana: 223/668

Defense: 72

“Well Shit” I said when I used Identify on him again. How in the nine hells were we supposed to damage something with over seventy defense? And that looked like heavy armor. My spear was shite against heavy armor. And a fucking fire whip. I was so sick and tired of all the gods’ damned fire.

“Magnus, Cody, you two are going to have to play DPS on this guy. His armor is too high for me to penetrate unless I get lucky” their blunt soul-bound weapons were our best chance at getting through this fight. I even took off my Manticore Fang Ki Battery and tossed it to Magnus. “It has seventy-five Ki in it. You’ll need it more than me.” I said just before I downed a Ki Potion. Magnus did as well.

Cody had long since switched to his mace, and it still held the golden glow of his blessing that seemed rather effective against these demonic mobs.

Rowan looked ragged from his massive Mana expenditure. I could see him pulling out Magic Beast Cores. Instead of absorbing the silvery color of experience, he instead was drawing the blue of Mana from each before they crumbled to dust. Sparks and Tess both inhaled Mana from the stones as well, trying to refill their Mana pools as quickly as possible while the boss was powering up for the next stage of the fight.

Dul’goth cracked his flame whip against the inside of his barrier, and it shattered into millions of pieces before dissolving into little red motes that were sucked into the floor of the cavern.

“Al’gon, Al’reth… Kill” the demon commanded his extra beefy Hellhound Alphas. They spang into action, charging at our group. I rushed forward, the second stage of Grace in Combat thrumming in my veins as I thrust at the lead hound. Rukia ran right behind me, taking the attention of the second hound.

I infused Ki into the Sharpness Binding, increasing its penetration and damage potential. It was a good thing I did. Whatever spell that was that increased the strength of the Hellhounds, it seemed to increase their defense as well. Even with extra Ki sharpening my spear further, I still felt resistance as I stabbed. The hound managed to deflect the thrust of my spear to the side, scoring a line across its shoulder.

I spun away from its gnashing fangs, barely avoiding having my blood drawn. I glimpsed Magnus using his Explosive Stride combo attack. He flashed forward in mid-swing of his hammer, using every bit of his boosted strength and copious amounts of Ki. He struck the Demon with a resounding BOOM. Magnus blasted the demon off of his feet, but not before the whip struck out, catching Magnus by the ankle.

Using its wings to control his movement in the air, the demon managed to use his momentum to swing magnus around and released him to fly into one of the stone pillars. I caught a glance of silver as Cody charged in to follow up on Magnus’s strike. I couldn’t see any more. I had to flip back, managing a single-handed backhand spring to avoid getting my throat ripped out. I managed to kick the hound in the snout, which gave me just enough time to set my footing before it was on me again.

Instead of lunging at me again like I expected, the Hellhound used the moment I was out of position to inhale a lungful of air and, right as I looked up from landing on my feet, it breathed out an intense gout of crimson flame. Even with my improved movement ability, I didn’t have time to get out of range. Instead, I flooded my Dermal Meridian with all the Ki it could handle and then some. I forced the Ki out of my skin and focused on creating a barrier between me and the fire.

I crossed my arms in front of my face and I felt something snap into place as my Ki dropped by a prodigious amount. I wasn’t sure how much. I was too busy trying to not die to watch my Ki pool in my HUD. A flash of blue appeared and was auto minimized before it could get in my way.

The fire washed over me, the heat of it stripping the air from my lungs and I couldn’t breathe. But strangely, the fire didn’t burn my flesh for once. I could feel the heat of it as it washed over me, but there was no pain, no red numbers flashing past. I opened my eyes and saw my arms. They were covered in triangular, overlapping, semi-transparent scales the dark golden color of Ki.

Somehow, in the heat of the moment and out of the desire to not be caught on fire again, I managed to create an armor technique. I was stunned for a moment as I reveled in not burning alive. That was, until the hound latched onto my arm and shook his head vigorously.

The fangs didn’t manage to penetrate my scaled armor, but penetration wasn’t necessary for a brute like this. I felt my arm crack and the intense wrenching pain of my shoulder being torn from its socket.

-15

I felt myself being flung into the air, tumbling head over heels before I impacted a column.

-17

This time, I did not lose consciousness from striking solid stone. The scales on my body resisted the impact somewhat before shattering into golden motes of Ki. I slumped to the ground. My arm wouldn’t move and I was pretty sure some of my ribs cracked, if not fully broken.

I looked up and saw I was missing almost half of my health pool. There wasn’t time to heal myself through Ki, so I pulled out a health potion. It tried to appear in my damaged arm and my fingers couldn’t grasp it. I managed to catch it with my left hand, but the pain in my ribs and shoulder made me dizzy for a moment. With a deep breath, I ripped off the cork with my teeth and downed the syrupy concoction. In just under a minute, I would be fully recovered and able to fight.

I looked up and saw the Demon in the air, staying aloft with its wings and out of reach from Magnus and Cody. Since the wings weren’t armored, Cody switched back to using his bow and was launching arrow after arrow, trying to punch enough holes that the demon couldn’t support its own flight.

In-between arrows being launched, Magnus was using his Explosive Stride to appear in the air and swing at Dul’goth. He wouldn’t hit each time, but when he did, the armor would crack under the concussive force.

Rowan and Sparks were working together to take down the Hellhound I was fighting. Between stunning shocks and Blink Steps, Rowan managed to keep himself out of harm’s way while still launching bolts of arcane energy.

Rukia and Tess were working together as a team to take down the other Alpha Hellhound. Rukia’s Ice fangs and spikes were very effective against the beast, but he was so massive and strong that she couldn’t land a killing blow. It was moving slowly from the stacking debuffs she left on it, and Tess was trying to use her claws to gouge out its eyes and dig into any tender bits she could reach.

Once I could make it to my feet, I saw and felt my Ki drop by another fifty points as my second stage, Grace in Combat, refreshed itself. I was down to only twenty-five Ki left. I checked my spear and found it to be empty. I downed another Ki potion and watched my Ki tick up another fifty points. We needed this to end soon or I wouldn’t have much left to fight with.

While trying to avoid notice, I sprinted around the battlefield, keeping pillars between the hounds and myself. Timing it carefully, I got in close enough for a long lunge. Right when Sparks stunned the hound and Rowan blink stepped again away from the hound’s bite, I pushed thirty points of Ki into the Sharpness binding and another thirty points of Ki down the double helix and into the Projection binding. I lunged forward and pierce through the chest of the Hellhound and released the projection technique inside the beast. With a cough of blood, the Beast’s insides shredded, and it slumped over and died.

That freed up Rowan and Sparks to help bring down the last Hellhound. I only had fifteen points of Ki left and I felt nauseated at the thought of drinking another Ki potion. Something in my gut rebelled at the idea of drinking so many of them in a short time. It was probably a good idea to listen.

I looked up at the Demon boss as it was avoiding most of the attacks from Magnus and Cody and had an idea. I put away my spear and pulled out the fireman’s axe. Leaning heavily on my increased body control for accuracy, I activated the holy fire ability of the axe. With both hands at the base of the handle, I brought it up and behind me. With my whole body bowing in the motion, I flung the axe, spinning it end over end right at the Demon’s back.

Sensing the danger coming from behind, the demon spun around in the air and slashed at the spinning axe with its whip. It managed to avoid the throw, but in its moment of distraction, Magnus appeared in the air behind it. Magnus was already spinning like a top and managed to drive the spiked side of his hammer right into the temple of Dul’goth.

Dul’goth crumpled in mid-air like a piece of tinfoil and crashed to the hard stone floor, the chitinous armor shattering like my scaled armor did just a minute ago. The final hound howled in anguish, but it was cut off with a gurgle as Rukia latched onto its throat while Tess gouged out its eyes and Rowan launched an arcane missile into its side. The combo of attacks, combined with its distraction, brought the last enemy in the dungeon down.

Congratulations Sapients

For being the first beings to clear a dungeon on Earth

First clear rewards have been upgraded

You have gained the Title “Dungeoneer”

I slumped down to the ground, exhausted and glad it was finally over.

“Ding,” Rowan said, exhaustion and pain filled his voice. “I just hit level 10… I get an advanced class” then he slumped to the ground as well, cradling his head in pain. “I… I think I will pick it in a bit.”