After four days of enforced downtime due to Lancaster’s injuries, Serenity felt anxious to get back into the dungeon to have something to do other than answer inane questions from the people who didn’t delve. Somehow, he’d spent nearly half the time dealing with questions and arguments between people. Someone had to be handling them when he wasn’t there, right?

He had managed to spend several hours a day practicing unarmed combat, and he had a better idea of how to use his claws. His ideas before hadn’t been wrong, exactly, but they’d been incomplete. He knew that, and he wasn’t even done working through the Basic Claw Forms. There were a lot of adaptations he needed to make, especially if he wanted to continue to use Unarmed Combat as a nonlethal form at times - his reflexes on what was lethal and what wasn’t were terrible.

It would be weeks or even months before he was able to truly master the information in the Intermediate Unarmed Combat (Claw Version) skill. Until then, he’d have to let it guide him in combat, and that wasn’t as good as actually knowing the skill it tried to grant.

Many people ignored that fact, but Serenity knew better. He’d learned the easy way, sort of. Vengeance had trained as much as he could as a way to forget his losses, and then he’d started easily beating people who “should” have been better than he was - people with a higher level of the same skill, using the same moves.

Lancaster was finally healed enough for Rissa to allow him back into the dungeon, so he could start putting some of that practice to use. It really brought home how little time 30 days was.

The duo and solo dungeons tended to have less walking time required, but even so they were already past the point where they could afford a day per level. Serenity knew that wasn’t a problem for him; he could do them during another Stage 1 as long as he found the dungeon entrance. He was confident he could solo the duo dungeon, and his skill set was excellent for soloing, so he could probably beat how far he’d gotten as Vengeance. His friends were running out of time, though, and he was glad he wasn’t the delay anymore.

[Dungeon Party]

Serenity - Battle Adept - Melee Tank, Melee Damage, Self Healing

Moira (Follower) - Death Mage - Ranged Damage (Magic)

Echo - Baffles - Ranged Damage (Magic), Scout

Lancaster - Steadfast - Melee Damage, Agility Tank

Rissa - Time’s Eye - Healing, Support

The entrance to the ninth level was annoyingly familiar: it was the “dwarf mine” with “spinners” as enemies. At least they knew the trick; if they took the faster paths, there was a good chance they could reach the Battle Arena, beat it, and move on to the tenth level in only a few hours today.

That hope was dashed before they reached the first intersection, when Lancaster stepped on a piece of the tunnel floor that gave way under his foot, sank three inches, and tripped him. He was uninjured, but when they checked the floor nearby they found several other poorly camouflaged spots that would also act as mini pit traps to trip anyone who stepped on them wrong.

It might look like the same level, but it wasn’t.

“Let me lead for a bit.” Serenity led the way, keeping an eye out for any more traps. It wasn’t long before he saw a tripwire. “Great. It’s a trap level. I hate trap levels. Does anyone have a trapfinding skill?”

No one admitted to having one.

“Right. We’ll have to do it the hard way then, perception. I guess that means it’s time for a bunch of lessons in traps. I’m not an expert, but I do know something. This is a tripwire. It can be set to trip you or it can be set to trip - that is, trigger - something else. There are a bunch of ways to find them, but since all we’ve got are our eyes, the things to look for are the line of the wire itself and the connections at the side where it’s supported and possibly tied into something else. If all it’s doing is going to trip you, a warning or removing or cutting it can work, but if it’s set to trigger something else, you need to …”

They saw all sorts of tripwires and pit traps, falling traps, swinging weapon traps, dart traps, pressure plates, and even one trap where the walls moved together.

None of the traps were deadly. Most of them were embarrassing; the falling traps usually contained foul-smelling stuff, while the dart traps usually seemed to have paint. Even the trap where the walls came together was fairly safe; it was so very slow you could just walk past it with no real danger.

It was a training dungeon for traps.

Serenity hoped it wasn’t repeated; trap dungeons were stressful and annoying, and they usually depended entirely on the skill of your trapfinder.

The traps (and Serenity’s explanations each time they found a new type) made the dungeon take about three times as long as it would have if they’d just been able to walk to the end with a few fights.

When they finally reached the room at the end of the tracks, Serenity stepped around the mine cart and saw three waist-high humanoid lizards working on something on the floor between the mine cart and the door to the room with the arena.

Kobolds. Kobolds setting traps.

“ENOUGH WITH THE TRAPS ALREADY! WE GET IT!”

Serenity regretted the shout as soon as he made it, since it eliminated any chance of surprising the kobolds in the next room. With three of them, he probably couldn’t get them all before they gave warning, even if his shout hadn’t already.

“Dragon?” The closest kobold looked up, stopped whatever he was doing and turned to look at Serenity. He blatantly sniffed. “DRAGON!” He fell onto his face with his arms above his head. “Don’t kill me! Please!”

The other two kobolds scattered. The one next to the door ran through it. Serenity could hear the kobold screaming “DRAGON” as he ran.

The other one ran farther back into the room.

That was not the reaction he’d expected from dungeon monsters. Kobolds must have a thing about dragons, but … how had they known he was a dragon? He didn’t particularly look like one with his armor on. Maybe he smelled like a dragon?

Serenity waved everyone into the room and looked for traps. There were three half-completed traps where the kobolds had been working, but that was all unless there was something at the door. Serenity more than half expected there to be a bucket full of nastiness sitting there to fall on anyone careless.

He walked up to the groveling kobold. “Ah, tell your friends that if they let us through I won’t kill them.”

“I will I will I will!” The kobold skittered backwards on its hands and knees until it was close to the door, then darted through the door. Something fell, barely splashing the back of the kobold. Serenity could hear the kobold shouting as it ran. “RUN AND LIVE!”

Definitely not a reaction he’d anticipated. “I think it’s safe now?”

On the other side of the door was what looked like a kobold village set up in the destroyed remnants of the old Arena and betting area. It went faster, because there didn’t seem to be any traps. The group skirted the hovels to get to the door with the level crystal.

A few brave kobolds looked out at them then immediately vanished back into wherever they’d been hiding.

Once they got to the final room and closed the door, Serenity sighed and leaned against it. “I’m so glad that’s over.”

Rissa turned to him and tapped him on the nose. “Dragon!”

Serenity chuckled. “Yeah, that was funny.”

The chests held another Cloak of Elemental Protection (which went to Lancaster since he was the only person without something of Elemental Protection), Minor Bracers of Spell Deflection, and 32 Etherium.

Minor Bracers of Spell Deflection

These bracers are enchanted to allow the user to actively deflect attacks made of mana. The bracers will break the link to the caster and allow the user to deflect or redirect the magic if the user has sufficient control. Each deflection damages the bracers proportionally to the amount of magic deflected.

Echo identified the bracers, then handed them to Serenity. “You’ve got a bunch of Affinities, right?”

Serenity had seen items like these, but they were rare; taking control of another person’s spell was always difficult. Unfortunately, it seemed unlikely he’d be able to practice, since that would damage the bracers. Hopefully they’d be easy to use.

[Tutorial Great Dungeon Level 9 Complete]

[1900 XP awarded]

[1900 Core awarded]

[Pleasure Resistance increased]

Name: Serenity

Species: Essence Dragon Chimera (Hatchling)

Core: Unique

Progression: 42.7%

Tier: 0

Features: 3/10

True

Crystal

Link

Path: Battle Adept

Level: 36 (190/370)

Tier: 0, 0/100 Spent

Path History: Death-Eater

Condition: Damaged Death Aspect

Healing Available: Empty

Mana: 830/830

Stamina: 850/850

Might: 75

Agility: 75

Phys: 75

Understanding: 73

Will: 77

Mind: 73

Perception: 75

Luck: 71 - 168%

Essence

Pure (Innate)

Ev: 623 (Purified)

Essence Techniques

Chimeric Alteration

Claim Mana

Devour Mana

Purify

Resistances

Chemical: 137+10

Cold: 553 (53 active)+10

Curse: 263

Darkness: 277 (27 active)+10

Heat: 532+10

Light: 298+10

Pain: 1038 (38 active)

Pleasure: 27

Shock: 334+10

Sleep: 1

Unknown

Affinities

Death: 160%

Life: 14%

Mind: 30%

Arcane: 50%

Plasma: 42%

Liquid: 6%

Vapor: 14%

Solid: 17%

Energy: 40%

Void: 60%

Time: 58%

Space: 31%

Concepts

Death

Mind: 15%

Arcane: 78%

Plasma: 26%

Energy: 52%

Void: 25%

SpaceTime: 30%

Essence: 15%

Aspects

Essence: Growth (Bloodline)

Time: Nascent

Death: Damaged, Healing (Restricted)

Titles

Previous Supreme Existence

First of A Kind

Named

Ghost in the System

Aspect Pathfinder

Chimeric Heritage

Pure (Innate)

Essence Dragon (Bloodline)

Asura

Draugr, Sage

Godling

Human, Earth

Lich, Paramount

Vampire, Daywalker

Known Heritages

Sea Lion, Earth

Coin

116 Etherium