Congratulations! You have discovered a dungeon!

Congratulations! For being the 735th person to discover this dungeon, you are rewarded with a 5% boost to experience gained from killing anything within the dungeon.

You have discovered: Dungeon of the Patsate

The almost insatiable urge to open the doors now made sense. Most dungeons, in an attempt to get more people and creatures to come into them, gave off waves of mental pressure that would compel one to enter the dungeon.

There were skills one could gain and train to help fight back against the pressure, but those were usually gained after being subject to the pressure numerous times. It was hard enough to survive going through a dungeon once, much less multiple times.

The only hope for —- would be that this dungeon was fairly new. If it was only a few decades or even 2-3 centuries old, he should be strong enough as he is to manage to make it to the exit.

Though he was only level 1, with the extra boost to experience, he had a chance to blast through the first few levels and gain enough AP to make surviving a much easier task.

For now though, the most important thing to do was find out exactly what kind of creatures the dungeon had.

When a dungeon was first formed, which usually meant when a mana crystal grew large enough that it began to gain sentience, the dungeon would automatically pick one of the nearby species to serve as it’s monster.

While dungeons who had more than one kind of monster existed, they were usually all 1,000 if not more years old. There would be no way for him to survive such a dungeon. With age came more floors and stronger enemies, to the point where some dungeons had bosses which would be almost impossible to find outside.

Moving forwards, —- quickly cast his Void-Magic Shield and prepared a Void Blast in his hands. He realized that he should have made a weapon that would actually come in handy, not a poorly made skinning knife.

Holding said knife in his left hand, —- continued moving forwards. He had started sneaking earlier on but realized that with a massive light source right above him it was kind of pointless.

Moving forwards, the stone walks soon changed to hard packed dirt and began to look more and more like tunnels that were dug out. Soon, the tunnel began to split and other tunnels began to randomly intersect into the larger one he was walking within.

As he continued to walk forwards, —— heard a series of clacks and fast steps approaching him. Raising the hand with the Void Blast, he quickly checked his mana pool. As he had been walking for a long time even after casting the shield and Void Blast, his mana pool was fully filled at 250.

Soon, the creature came into his sight. It was a large ant, 2-3 meters long and almost 1 meter tall. It had two beedy, green eyes and 4 mandibles that all connected to a circular mouth in the front of its face. Its legs were long and thin, with sharp points at all of the joints.

Its carapace was split into two parts, and has ridges all along its back. As it sped towards him, he quickly analyzed it.

Name: None

Species: Patsate(Giant Dungeon Variant)

Level: 4

Looking at the stats, —— knew that this dungeon would be much harder than expected. A giant version of an ant species. Hopefully the dungeon didn’t have a Queen Patsate, because if it did there would be hundreds if not thousands of giant ants in his way.

As the ant came towards him, he quickly shot the Void Blast towards its mouth. He hoped that the ant would try to eat the attack so that its organs would be destroyed and it would die quickly.

Sadly, the blast didn’t hit its mouth. Instead, the Void Blast landed perfectly on the ant’s left eye. The eye quickly vaporized under the attack along with a portion of its face. The ant stopped skittering and simply dat in place, screeching towards ——. Before it could start moving again, another Void Blast managed to go perfectly down its throat.

For a few seconds the tunnel was silent. Then, as if a switch had been flicked, the ant collapsed and began to thrash around. The Voidling stayed back, scared that in the process of the ant tumbling around, one of the sharp points on its legs would hit him.

He had a slight belief that the armor could withstand the attack, but there was no need to put himself at risk to test that out. After another minute, the ant stopped moving.

He knew it wasn’t dead as he hadn’t gotten a notification so he began to close in, skinning knife in hand. He kicked its head and backed up quickly, but all the ant could do was wiggle its legs.

Walking back forwards, —- shoved the skinning knife into the same spot his Void Blast had hit its eye. After a couple twists, the ant burst into tiny particles that were absorbed into the dungeon’s floor.

You have killed a Patsate(Giant Dungeon Variant) Lv 4.

You have gained 72(+3) experience.

With the 75 experience, added to the other experience he had, —- was now 40% of the way to the next level. Looking around and spotting nothing on the floor, he continued forwards.

Dungeons, in order to lure more people in, even those who had gained the skill to resist the mental compulsion, would sometimes reward the people with items and resources that would be dropped from killing a monster.

As this took a portion of the dungeon’s strength, they would not do it too often, but when it did happen the items were rare enough that people would keep coming back for more.

Unluckily, he didn’t get anything. Not letting it bring him down, he continued to move forwards throughout the tunnels. He had encountered a solo ant twice throughout his exploration, and neither time did he get an item. They were Level 4, same as the one before, and so he gained another 150 experience.

Now, for the first time, he had come across a group of two ants. A quick analyze showed that they were now both Level 5. The tunnel was still just as wide as before, approximately 5 meters across, so there was plenty of space for both of them to come charging at him.

Quickly moving back, he shot a Void Blast towards the one to his left. The ant tried to jump out of the way. Whether it became smarter due to its level up or something else, it didn't matter much to the Voidling in the heat of battle.

The Void Blast managed to clip the left ant’s front-most left leg, causing it to stumble and slow down. With one the ants out of the way for a while, —- backed up and shot two Void Blasts at the ant on the right.

Same as the other ant, it leapt to the side only to be struck by the other Void Blast. It screeched but continued to push forwards towards the Voidling. Checking his mana pool, he saw that it was at 102. Though much had happened, since he cast the very first Void Blast, only four seconds had passed.

The right-ant, after being hit by the attack, continued to charge at —-, mandibles spread in a horrifyingly inviting manner.

Stopping to better his aim, the Voidling managed to launch one more Void Blast down the throat of the ant, causing it to collapse and squirm. He quickly ran past it, trying to get to the other ant before it could gain momentum.

As he did, one of its legs stretched out and managed to hit his leg. Thankfully, the armor he was wearing managed to fully block the blow, and he continued forwards.

Though the mana-shield he cast earlier was still in effect, because it only blocked magic and not physical attacks, it had done nothing.

The other ant finally managed to right its footing and charged at —- while he charged back. As the ant came in for a bite, the Voidling leaned back and managed to dodge the attack.

Right after doing so, he moved back forwards and stabbed the knife into the ant’s right eye. Feeling the pain, it shook its head violently and smacked —- across the chest with its mandibles, launching him towards the tunnel walls.

He hit the wall hard enough some of the dirt above flaked down. His head hit the wall right after his chest did, so not only did he get the wind knocked out of him, but his vision almost started to go black for a couple seconds.

Before he fully collapsed onto the ground, he managed to shoot out two more Void Blasts, emptying out his mana pool. Though his vision was blurry, he could see one hit the wall while the other hit another one of the ant’s legs, leaving it with only four.

Losing the balance it already struggled to maintain, the ant collapsed on the ground a few meters away from —-. It continued to thrash about, the knife still stuck in its eye.

As the Voidling finally caught his breath he backed away from the ant. It would take another 80 seconds for his mana to recharge enough for him to fire another Void Blast, so the only hope he bad would be to try to get the knife that was stuck in the ant.

Seeing the ants struggles, —— quickly found an opportunity. As it attempted to right itself, he ran behind it and jumped onto it, landing right behind its head. It once again fell, not able to hold its front-half up with no front legs.

Quickly grabbing the knife, he pulled it out before plunging it back in. He put so much strength into the push that even his hand had made it inside the ant’s eye. Thankfully for him, dungeon monsters didn’t bleed, but he could still feel the eye-juice come in contact with his hand.

As quickly as he felt it, the feeling went away as the ant’s body dispersed. As he looked up, he noticed the previous ant had also already died.

Before even looking at his prompts, —- simply collapsed against the tunnel walls, breathing heavily.

You have killed a Patsate(Giant Dungeon Variant) Lv 5.

You have gained 80(+4) experience.

You have killed a Patsate(Giant Dungeon Variant) Lv 5.

You have gained 80(+4) experience.

Congratulations! Void Magic has leveled up to Lv 3.

Congratulations! Void Blast has leveled up to Lv 3.

You have gained a new skill!

Small-Blades Lv 1

Description: The ability to use small blades of all kinds to cause harm to your enemies.

You have gained a new skill!

Dodge Lv 1

Description: The ability to dodge and maneuver around enemies attacks.

Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 2! You have gained 8 Attribute Points(AP). Progress towards next level: 5/1050

Sighing with relief that he was still alive, —- began to look at his status. His mana was still abysmally low, the entire fight having only taken 20 to 30 seconds. His health had gone down 25 points from the ant’s mandibles hitting him and another 50 from slamming i to the wall, leaving him with just over two thirds of his total health. His stamina plunged down 120 points when he got the wind knocked out of him, leaving him less than half when you added his other exertions.

Overall, the fight was much closer than it should have been. His mana would never last against tens and hundreds of ants if he couldn’t even kill two of then with it. His melee skills were barely even there, as seen by the fact he got thrown against a wall.

The 8 AP’s came as a saving grace that would make the delve that much easier, and the skills gained meant that he was making progress.

Speaking of AP’s, —- decided to switch up his strategy a bit. Instead of splitting 4 points into intelligence and wisdom, he simply put all 4 into intelligence. This would boost his mana pool by an additional 40 points. As two points in wisdom would only equal another 0.04 mana per second, which would be almost useless in these quick fights.

That extra 40 mana though, meant that after 20 seconds he would have enough mana to cast another Void Blast. He contemplated putting another point into intelligence, but decided to instead use the 4 points to strengthen his physical aspects, and he increased those according to his earlier plans, 2 in agility and 2 in dexterity.

Looking at his stats, —— felt a strange feeling of elation rise up within him at seeing his growth. It was… pride.

Name: --- Species: Human Voidling Level: 2 Title: Health: 250 Mana: 290 Stamina: 250 Age: 15 Years Lifespan: 300 Years Strength: 25 Constitution: 25 Endurance: 25 Vitality: 25 Agility: 27 Dexterity: 27 Intelligence: 29 Wisdom: 25 AP: 0 Skills Identify Level 1 Herbal Knowledge Level 1 Weapon Making Level 1 Armor Making Level 2 Tailoring Level 3 Skinning Level 3 Climbing Level 1 Stealth Level 1 Meditation Level 5 Small Blades Level 1 Dodge Level 1 Mana Manipulation Level 1 Void Magic Level 3 Void Magic Shield Level 1 | Void Claws Level 3 | Void Blast Level 3 Water Magic Level 1 Light Magic Level 1 Brightening Orb Level 1