An imposing visage greeted Lucas on the dungeon entrance. Massive corridors, all made out of the same steel that adorned the exterior of the ship was present all around him. Even more, the halls lacked any real decoration, its walls made for complete utility. There were a number of thick doors placed on those walls in regular intervals, offering a number of chances for exploring. Lucas noted all that, mentally salivating at the prospects of a huge sprawling dungeon. But h also did have a task and it wouldn’t do him justice to completely lose focus. And so he went, making sure to peek at every door he could reasonably justify opening. What he found was a little anticlimactic seeing as most of the doors hid big bedchambers filled to the brim with clothes and other pre – System valuables that were useless in the new System environment. What he did take however were jewels of all kind, especially gold and silver. They had the luxury of maintaining their value and even growing it, like in the case of silver that turned out to have rich conductive properties, after going through the hands of skilled jeweler or blacksmith, for certain people with the right classes. Lucas was already felt being a little heavy, as he wasn’t use to carrying loot, usually peddling that obligation on some other party member, but that didn’t particularly effect his passive as he doubted that a one second delay of reaching neck – breaking speed will affect much on the level he currently was. So he continued looting whenever he found the chance and was rudely interrupted during one of his usual check – ups by the hissing from the doorframe. Not taking any chances, he immediately activated “Dodge” and did a quick roll under the bed. That proved as the correct decision as he heard a heavy slam that rattled the bed frame hard. He rolled once again, emerging on the opposite side from where he stood before to spot two humanoids with four arms, an ashen gray skin and red, snake-like eyes. Their body ended in a long snake tail, a burgeoning mass of muscle. Lucas had pretty good idea what he was facing, but before he inspected them, he had a closer threat in the form of few humans, bloated as if they were drowned

“As they probably have” Lucas thought and activated his “Eye for details”.

“Drowned thrall, level 34”

“Drowned thrall, level 34”

“Drowned thrall, level 36”

Avoiding another blow from the thralls without using any of his skills, Lucas figured they were manageable and turned his attention towards the snake – like humanoids.

“Saltwater Naga, Warrior of the Depths, level 38”

“Saltwater Naga, Caller of the Drowned, level 39”

Lucas already had experience with the Nagas, although he faced their deep forest brethrens, and he knew what they were all about. What concerned him, however, was the fact that entry level mobs were already in their late-thirties. If Bruce were correct in his calculations that meant that this dungeon had equal level sprinkled throughout its entirety. That type of dungeon wasn’t unheard of, but they were pretty rare and Lucas was skeptical about finding two rare type of dungeons in the vicinity of Camp Hearth.

“Although, to be fair, they do say it is a special settlement” Lucas finished his thought before focusing fully on the fight ahead. Thralls were slow and stupid, relying on the mage Naga to guide them with more tactics than just mindless rush. That left the warrior on the island as far as Lucas was concerned. He struggled to see how a slow single target could pose a threat to him without a massive difference in levels which the warrior certainly hadn’t possessed. Using a swipe from one of the thralls as a starting point, he activated “Dodge” to do a somersault over them and immediately go for the warrior. His passive skill boosted his moving speed and in an instant he was at the warrior’s side, launching himself into a spin move with his “Spin strike”. His wooden gladius found his target and he slashed at the back of the unfortunate Naga, who didn’t even had a chance to try some hypnosis fuckery it was about to do. Lucas pressed the advantage, not keen on giving the Naga time to recover and use somekind of hypnosis they were able to do with their eyes and followed his strike with “Death by a thousand cuts”. His every strike found its mark and black blood soon form a deep pool at their feet. Seeing the thralls catch up to him, Lucas immediately backed off once again building his speed. This time he decided to activate his ultimate skill and he murmured “Infused piledriver” mid – step, aiming at the Caller. Unable to muster a swift response, the mage Naga was easy prey and Lucas’s sword collided with its torso, his momentum carrying the sword all the way to the hilt in the flesh and organs of his opponent. Naga simply felt on the floor and a prompt surprised Lucas, but also made him satisfied at his new power level.

“You have slain Saltwater Naga, Caller of the Drowned, level 39”

“Hole in one on four level higher opponent” Lucas thought in awe as the battle abruptly turned into easy pickings. Without the guiding hand of the mage Naga, thralls dissolved into mindless bull rushing, impeding the movement of the already slow warrior and interfering with his plan of attack. Lucas generously used that fact and constantly avoided and maneuvered in that way as to make most of thralls mindless charging, even managing to cause a full headed collide between the warrior and one of the thralls. Deciding to take that chance, Lucas decapitated one of the thralls with a quick slash, not even bothering to activate any of his skills and sent a strike towards the warrior with a quick mental command to activate “Guiding strike”. His hand automatically lunged, finding a way in between two of the scales that adorned the front of the warrior, Lucas feeling shredding of the flesh. The unfortunate Naga extruded another round of black blood and reeled back as Lucas pulled out his sword. Another thrall ram it through to get to Lucas, who used a quick “Punch parry” to block the swipe of the creature and retaliate with a sword deep into the guts of it. Lucas decided to kill the last thrall, as he concluded they served their purpose and launched himself into a light jog, his passive easily building momentum to allow him to zap past the thrall and strike him at the exposed back, aiming for a place where brain and spine connected. Thrall shot down on the floor and that left Lucas, who quickly dismissed the announcement of his skill alone with a writhing, half – dead Naga warrior. The unfortunate Naga tried to catch him with his hypnosis, but he was too slow. Lucas simply walked over to him, his speed almost teleporting him to his enemy. Not needing any of his skills, he simply stabbed the Naga in the eye, ending the creature’s life.

“You have slain Saltwater Naga, Warrior of the Depths, level 38”

“Didn’t even break a sweat” Lucas smugly thought as he moved to inspect the gear Naga left behind. Unfortunately, he didn’t find anything useful so he continued on. As he traversed the belly of the wreckage, he slowly progressed from lower deck, having the occasional battles with the Naga patrol. After one such fight, he finally got the long coveted prompt.

“Congratulations! You are now Duelist level 36”

“Stat allocation in progress…”

“+3 Agility, +1 Perception, +1 Strength. One free point”

“Stat allocation completed”

After a few second of deliberating, he decided to wait with his free point, wanting to pick Bruce brain a bit before committing to anything. He continued his trek and soon found himself in a massive hall. From there he could see a positively massive female Naga commanding about two dozens of thrall, most of them doing menial tasks. Lucas use his chance to sneak in into the unsuspecting Naga room and activate his “Eye for details”.

“Solandra, Duchess of the Steel Keepout, Witch of the Call of the Depths level 41”

Lucas felt a bit overwhelmed after reading all of this information. He didn’t had to discern much what was he up against, as thralls and Call in the name of the class showed him he had a summoner family class focused around the thrall. What concerned him, however, was that it looked like an upgraded class, or as Bruce called them, Advanced class. They were essentially a better version of a basic class, usually awarded by the System to those who excel or a thoroughly unique class that marked the powerful individual path to glory. At least, that was the length of explanation Lucas remembered about it, with a final note about how nobody can say for certain is there a tier above Advanced class. From what Lucas could gather, this was an essentially upgraded version of the basic class and he expected a finer control over thralls and probably ability to sling spells alongside controlling them. Depending on what kind of magic Duchess wielded, Lucas could see this going very easy or borderline impossible.

“My bet is on the borderline impossible” Lucas thought, predicting that he will face a lot of high destructive channeling spells while thralls hold him down and contain him. He remembered the stone Bruce gave him and decided to keep him close, just in case. As he was getting ready, he spotted the sign that stood on the door behind the Duchess, one that probably led further into the dungeon. On it was written “Keep out” and Lucas froze, shell-shocked, realizing from where the Duchess title came. Face palming, he activated his ultimate skill and soon he was rapidly spinning towards the Duchess. Just before he struck, however, one of the thralls appeared in his way and intercepted the hit, almost being cut in half. Soon, other thralls in the room dropped what they were doing and started moving towards Lucas, while Duchess herself took the time for only an angry hiss at Lucas before starting a spell. Lucas felt a chill all around him, but his resolve aiding him in raising another swipe of his sword. Once again, one of the thralls instantly appeared and intercepted the strike and Lucas finally realized they were connected to the Duchess. He ran towards the mass of them, hoping to start cutting them down and do it quickly, but they simply retreated while holding up their hands, Duchess instructing them to rather lose a limb then to die. Meanwhile, the spell gained in strength and Lucas felt more pressured by the minute. Worse yet, all that pressure was slowing him down even more and as Naga finished her spell and started throwing orbs of blackened water at him, he had a hard time evading, even his “Dodge” not taking him all the way. After the first barrage, he took some minor hits, but enough to have him worried.

“You took 101 points of damage”

“You took 89 points of damage”

“You took 98 points of damage”

Meanwhile, thralls were starting to take attacks of opportunity and Lucas once again was forced to consider fleeing, his thoughts returning to the stone more and more. After narrowly dodging yet another swipe, he relented and swiftly took the stone into his palm activating it.

He found himself back outside the dungeon, with Bruce’s worried look already on him. Not ready to face the shame of his failure, he slammed his fist onto the Earth and remained sprawled on gravel floor of the shoreline.