Fi-fi-f-f-f-finally, *wheeze* outta, *wheeze* that, *wheeze* freaking sauna hellhole!
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
New Location of Interest found: [The Water-Knot of Glavras], Floor 1
Oh, I've been waiting for this message to pop up. Especially lately, when I had to travel through Floor 2.
Seriously, what was up with that place!? Who would crank up the temperature of their bathwater to such extremes!?
For those who want an explanation, the Dungeon's second floor was a geyser area! Tons upon tons of hot water sources! The temperature was enough for me to almost pick up [Fire Resistance]! But I showed perseverance and stopped myself. Heretic attribute skills and Evil Eye skills are more important than some random Resistance Skills.
Ugh, my HP's still a little down.
Name:Garami
Race:Grey Demon | Gender: Female
Level:8
Karma Value:-65
Skills:23
Skill Points:0.4
HP: 12/22MP: 19/20SP: 21/28
STR: 30VIT: 22MAG: 17
RES: 19SPD: 20DEX: 31
INT: 120LUC: 150
Hmm? There's something wrong with my status? Nu-uh! That's right folks! Garami has earned her first skill at Lv.20! It also shows the target's Karma Value now. And just look at this beautiful sight of a skill list!
Skill List:
Ability Skills:[MP Auto-Recovery Lv.2] [Strength Increase (Small) Lv.9] [Vitality Increase (Small) Lv.6]
Active Skills:[Aura of Darkness Lv.9] [Stealth Lv.10] [Camouflage Lv.9] [Spatial Storage Lv.1]
Passive Skills:[Threadsmanship Lv.12] [Darkness Reinforcement Lv.14] [Debuff Reinforcement Lv.7] [Auto-Mapping Lv.5] [Language Adaption]
Resistance Skills:[Darkness Resistance Lv.4] [Poison Resistance Lv.4] [Heretic Immunity Lv.1]
Perception Skills:[Night Vision Lv.16] [Danger Sense Lv.15] [Identification Lv.20] [Discern Lv.4] [Magic Sight Lv.18]
Elements:[Darkness Element Lv.11]
Monster Skills:[Poison Bite Lv.5] [Spider Thread Lv.18]
Things are going smoothly here. I had a serious [Identification]-party to force its level to the point where I can see my skills.
A pretty sweet line-up, right? Huh? Hey, wait a sec! When did an immunity need a level!? Now that I think about it, I saw the level when I selected my skills. I-I kinda forgot about it all. I mean, "Immunity" is such a strong-sounding word...
Fine, fine. Shame on me. But it can't be that bad? What does the book have to say about this...
Skill:Heretic Immunity
Skill Type:Resistance Skill
Attribute:Heretic
Effect:
If the level of incoming Heretic attribute attack is equal to half of this skill's level or lower, the incoming Heretic attribute attack will do no damage.
In the case of owning the [Heretic Resistance] skill: Half of [Heretic Resistance]'s skill level is counted as this skill's resistance level.
Skills that would resist the Heretic attribute status ailments can instead fully negate the status ailment.
Wow. That's wicked. Not as much as if it was, like, limitless, but this works as well.
From the looks of things, having [Heretic Resistance] must be the key for this thing to truly live up to its name. Let's find the page about Immunity-skills... here!
Ehem. "An Immunity-type Resistance Skill is unlocked when an individual reaches a level of 30 or higher, depending on their comparability with that attribute. One may obtain an Immunity Skill in other ways, as an initial skill, or through a blessing from the gods.
"In the worst case, one cannot obtain an Immunity Skill. On the other hand, even if they do unlock the skill, it will cost no less than 10 Skill..." 10 Skill Points!?
Good thing I got it for free... Guess I should pick up [Heretic Resistance] once I've got the point... and the mean of leveling them both up. They should work in the same way...
Huh? "Skills are easy to get levels on, so there's no need to worry"? As if! You won't believe how long it has taken me to reach this level. I didn't know, nor believe it, either.
It wasn't before [Auto-Mapping] reached Lv.5 in the middle of Floor 2 that I knew how messed up my sense of time had become from living my life inside the Dungeon all my life.
At Lv.5, [Auto-Mapping] gains the feature called "Discovery Date". It's not that fancy, just that it shows when you have discovered certain areas on your mental maps. And there was a 5-month difference from the cave I was born in, to the entrance of Floor 2. At least I know my birthday, but still...
Floor 2 wasn't all that bad. Except Floors 8 and 6, it must be the place with the fewest monster in the Dungeon. I'm not counting the lake due to not knowing what's lurking down there. Thanks to that, and the new [MP Auto-Recovery] skill, I could farm some proficiency with [Aura of Darkness]. I essentially had it "Always on Display". *Snicker*
Bad puns aside, I got the Element skill to a decent level thanks to that, but the Aura itself is still refusing to take the last step. I did learn more points about the skill. First, it can't protect me against heat or scalding water. Tsk.
The second point is that the skill does not affect me that much. This is evident as my stats never went down, nor did I gain any status ailments. However, [Debuff Reinforcement] seems to gain proficiency even when I use the Aura on myself or inorganic objects. But not as much as using it on real creatures.
The third point is that [Darkness Resistance] goes up a little, even when the Aura's not supposed to affect me. I think this must be a common point for attribute skills. [Poison Fang] increased my [Poison Resistance], but I thought that was because of some of the venom spilling from the fangs. This means I should expect all attribute skills to have some sort of "backfire" towards the user. But I also think that skills such as [Night Vision], [Stealth], and reinforcement skills are safe to not include in this theory.
And my final point here is about the Aura itself. I think its nature must be similar to erosion, as it could weaken even the stone walls of the Dungeons. It was also more effective when applied to the wounds I made with [Poison Fang] instead of simply covering the target with it.
It's good to know more about my abilities, as the tutorial is now done. I opened up the Quest Menu, a special function of the World System that everyone had access to, and retrieved the "Tracking Devices", which appeared out of thin air inside a carton box. Surreal.
The devices looked like oversized light bulbs with the bottom looking like it could be stabbed into the ground with no problems. These won't break after I leave them?
I'll believe that these have some godly qualities in them. Now, onward to the first Power Spot!
---
*Thunk*
And there went the third device. I'm on a roll here!
Despite Floor 1 being a three-dimensional labyrinth of bridges, tunnels, open areas, stalagmites, stalactites, and much more, the floor's not that big as first expected. Around half of Floor 7, which is the third-biggest floor after Floor 3, then 9.
As for the inhabitants: they're dwindling. No, seriously. There was like, a ton of the usual Greycave Rats and Pond Frogs, but they have almost disappeared since I appeared here. And no, I've not killed them all. They suddenly disappeared.
What gives? Are they that afraid of me? Well, I do look like a ball-shaped, water strider bug with a face that can send even the spirit of Halloween home with its tails between its legs.
Oh well. I've stocked up [Spatial Storage] to the brim with leaves from the third floor. I could survive a famine with ease. Besides, I need to look for the next spot.
The Power Spots that I need to place the devices in emits a pulse of aether, which is shown in a network-like pattern in the Dungeon. This is the Dungeon's blood veins. It can't fake these signals. So I take advantage of them to find spots that are is needed for the Quest.
Oh? A new spot's close by. Good for me-!? [Danger sense]? But where's it coming from? I looked around, but the place where the skill told me the potential enemy where was blocked by a massive black wall. Wait a sec... when did the Dungeon walls go from grey-blue to black?
There's a snake in the grass here. [Identification]!
Name:none | Floor Boss
Race:Glavras Ophigiganta | Gender: Male
Level:37
Karma Value:-27
Skills:23
Condition:Sleep
HP: 421/421MP: 89/89SP: 225/254
STR: 189VIT: 167MAG: 65
RES: 210SPD: 113DEX: 152
NT: 98LUC: 87
OOIIII!! The wall's a monster!? From the name of it, it looks like an evolution of the cobras. Maybe the middle tier between the cobras and the king cobra?
Well, time to run-like-crazy! HEEEEELP!!
Alright, this should be far enough away from that slippery monstrosity. Time to calm down, and try to figure out this all.
First, it wasn't visible with [Magic Sight]. This could be that it had too little mana compared to its huge body. If not, then it probably used some concealment-type skill. I should have used [Discern] on the skills. Not that it was worth risking my life over it.
The second problem was that thing besides its name. "Floor Boss" is easy to understand, but when did those start to appear? The king cobra must be the boss of Floor 9, but Floor 8 was deserted. On the other hand, Floor 7 had several... that's it!
The three Glavras boss monsters were on different floors! The Sahuagins and those... rebel dinos? The Sahuagin faction must have sneaked past the boos on the sixth floor, then entered a war with the boss of the seventh floor. The bosses of the eight- and sixth floors then came to support the seventh-floor boss, leaving their floors empty.
The first four floors must have a middle-stage Glavras monster. That happens in games, where a former boss monster gets degraded to a normal mob as you proceed in the game. Either that, or it was that those guys at the war floor are simply the elites of the Dungeon. Not so sure about Floor 5, and I'm not sure I wanna know.
I've been lucky until now, as I've yet to face a Floor Boss. Still, this ain't a game. If you need to challenge the Big Bad, you can just destroy the last door instead of finding that magical key that's needed for it. Also, the Big Bad wouldn't wait for the hero to grow up to the point of being a threat to him either. Just release some of the Four Heavenly Kings right outside the starter town. That takes care of things.
My point is, there's no need to challenge guys like the Floor Boss if your only goal is to proceed to the next floor. That's what I've been doing, only in reverse.
I don't think the Floor Boss will notice me placing the devices, as long as I'm careful. Still, that was a close call back then. I better take this with more caution than before.