There were just three beetles left. They were heavily wounded and drained. One was stuck under the body of the worm. The worm’s killer was stuck in the worm’s body, trying to pull his mandibles back out. The remaining beetle that hadn’t been hit turned its head and looked toward Erik, who had freed himself and was using Mana bullets to break the worm spit tying his legs together.
Erik was swigging a Mana potion at the same time.
“Enemy coming over the worm!” Rugrat said.
The beetle jumped onto the body of the worm and raised its head in a battle cry.
“Get fucked!” Erik yelled, sending a compressed Mana bolt into the underside of the beetle.
The beetle’s already cracked carapace broke apart under the attack. Green ichor covered the worm as the beetle slumped, greatly weakened by the attack.
“Fucking bug,” Rugrat hissed between his teeth.
Rugrat fired. The first round hit the beetle’s antennae. It screamed out, as the second round found the hole in its chest. The next pierced through its neck. The next pierced the other side of its neck. Rugrat pulled the bolt back to the rear; he raised his hand and a fresh magazine appeared in his hand as the empty went into his storage ring.
Each of the rounds had Explosive Shot cast on them. The beetle slumped on the worm. Another tombstone appeared as Rugrat switched his aim to the beetle that had killed the worm. Its mandible was broken, twisted off in the worm’s fall.
It cut a pitiful picture as it started to charge Erik.
Rugrat fired on the beetle. His shots only annoyed the beetle but didn’t do any damage. The other beetle was climbing out from under the worm.
Erik pulled out a grenade and threw it. He was looking overdrawn from using so much Mana. The grenade, based on the grenades that had worked with the golem, went off.
The grenade blew off the beetle’s front leg, causing it to dive into the ground.
Erik jumped up and landed on the head of the beetle. He caught himself from falling off and kept low as he ran up, pulling out his personal rifle.
He ejected the magazine, wiping his finger on the rounds in the magazine and slapped the magazine back in. He jammed the rifle’s barrel between the beetle’s carapace layers and pulled the trigger.
The beetle twitched before finally a tombstone appeared.
The last beetle poked its head out from under the massive worm’s body.
“And fuck you too!” Erik yelled, covered in green ichor. He pulled out two grenades and threw them at the beetle.
The beetle opened its mouth, only to be force-fed two grenades.
The beetle exploded. A wave of green ichor covered Erik and caused him to fall off the beetle.
Rugrat surveyed the battlefield. Nine tombstones rested in the air, waiting to be claimed.
Erik reloaded his rifle and was looking over the battlefield.
“Looks clear,” Rugrat said from his vantage point, able to see the entire battlefield. Rugrat moved down to Erik, who was getting himself organized. Rugrat pulled out Big Momma to clear the jam as he kept looking around.
“We’ll clear the cave. Once we’ve done that, we’ll gather the loot out here and get moving.” Erik surveyed the area with his rifle.
“Got it,” Rugrat said. Erik was covered in the bright green and pungent ichor. Rugrat swallowed his joke as he checked the area, looking for threats.
Loot could wait. They needed to make sure that everything was secure before they let their guard down.
Erik led the way, moving through the bodies, ready for anything. As they entered the cave, Erik stepped over the vine that was buried in the ground and stepped on certain areas in the ground where the vine wasn’t.
Rugrat followed him.
They moved deeper into the cave. Insects were flying around but they didn’t seem to mind Erik or Rugrat in the slightest. They moved through the different plants that were inside the cave, caring for them and feeding off them. The first room was filled with the caretaker animals’ homes; underneath them, there were troughs, where the beetles ate the nectar from these caretaker creatures.
Beyond them, they moved down a long hallway wide enough to fit three of the beetles beside one another.
The walls were held up with plants. The whole place must have been burrowed out but then with the plants holding the sand and dirt back, it had created a series of tunnels.
Rugrat followed Erik’s lead as they moved through the tunnels slowly, making sure that they were all clear and nothing threatening was left.
“Don’t step on that.” Erik pointed to different plants that dotted the ground that could hurt them.
The tunnels were much cooler than the desert outside and regulated, with a slight breeze moving through. A small water spring bubbled up water that ran through troughs to the different plants.
It was its own entirely self-sufficient underground garden.
Erik lowered his rifle as they returned to the entrance, having not found anything.
“You want to collect the loot out there, I’ll clear up in here?” Erik asked.
“On it.” Rugrat slung his rifle, not putting it away as he wanted it close at hand. They’d had too many surprises recently to put Rugrat at ease.
“See you in thirty,” Erik said.
Rugrat gave him the okay symbol with his hand and went back up to the battlefield. He looked through the tombstones and then looked over the creatures to see whether there was anything else other than what was listed on the loot tombstone that he would be interested in.
Rugrat took out a chisel and hammer and went to work on the best-looking beetle bodies.
He moved through the creatures meticulously. He took the mandibles. They could be used to create longswords and claymores that relied more on the blunt force to break an enemy’s armor.
He retrieved the monster cores. Three Common, two Lesser, one Grand, and a Greater Mortal monster core all fell into his hands. He dismissed the tombstones. The beetles started to dissipate as he moved to the worm.
The worm’s skin was strong, but it was too heavy, heavier than iron armor but with stats that weren’t as good as iron armor.
What was left was four hearts, meat, worm spit sacks, and a Grand-grade monster core. Rugrat retrieved them and hoped that Erik or someone could do something with them.
He shook his head as the worm started to dissipate. Because it had been killed by the beetle, none of the Experience made it to Erik and Rugrat.
“Wouldn’t want to fight the worm and the beetles, though,” Rugrat muttered and turned back to the cave.
“Oh, it’s about midday. I should use Dungeon Sense.” Rugrat activated his ability. He felt it sweeping out as he yawned and moved into the cave.
His footsteps halted as something resonated with him and his notifications started to beep. A new way point appeared on his map.
“West!” Rugrat yelled, running into the cave to find Erik.
***
Erik quickly finished harvesting and collecting the different ingredients he found in the medicinal beetle’s burrow.
Most of the ingredients he didn’t know but using the knowledge of Alchemy, he was able to harvest about seventy percent of the ingredients properly.
Erik and Rugrat trudged through the desert. As they took breaks, Rugrat would make more grenades, or work on his new weapon testers. They still hadn’t tried the new rounds and the barrels because they didn’t want the noise attracting unwanted attention.
Erik reviewed his gains from the last battle with the beetles.
==========
232,669/225,000 EXP till you reach Level 17
==========
The beetles had only been level seventeen to eighteen. They had killed the worm and two of their number were killed by the worm, leaving just six of them. Their biggest weapon and greatest defense was their carapace, which increased their fighting abilities, but once it was opened then they were eas
y to kill.
“Just a few thousand away from seventeen.” Erik knew how hard he had worked for his current level and he didn’t think that it would get any easier in the future.
His eyes moved to the updated skills.
==========
Skill: Hand-to-Hand
==========
Level: 35 (Apprentice)
==========
Attacks cost 20% less Stamina
==========
Erik had showed a deeper understanding of his body when he fought. Having learned and tested out his ideas on the golem, he’d been able to pour more power into his attacks. Even as he was using Mana to strengthen his attacks, it was still based on a hand-to-hand combat style and awarded him skills for improving the lethality of his strikes.
==========
Skill: Throwables
==========
Level: 18 (Novice)
==========
No bonuses at this time. You must prove your skills first.
==========
“I wonder what kind of bonuses I’ll get when it becomes an Apprentice-level skill,” Erik said under his breath. He removed the information from his view, looking through the slit between his scarf as he followed Rugrat through the Hersht Desert.
Chapter: Desert Spiritual Palace
Feng Yi coughed, disturbing the dust in the room.
“Are you okay?” Ru Xie looked up from the three others on the floor.
“I’m fine, Xie.” Feng Yi put on a brave face. He had dirty-blond hair; coupled with well used and maintained armor and a hammer at his side, he was a solid-looking man. Even with his outwardly rough appearance, when Xie looked away there was a fear in those eyes and his fist shook while looking around the room. His hand clamped onto his hammer at his side.
Xie wiped her sister’s face and then turned to the next person on the ground.
Three of their party were on the ground in a comatose state, with Xie waking them up occasionally to get them to consume some kind of food and supplies.
If we had only gone to trade food instead of damn trinkets and weapons. Feng Yi couldn’t help but sigh.
“I knew that dungeons were dangerous but I never thought that they were this bad. Those…things…” Ru Xie started to shake, crying.
Feng Yi looked away. Any words of comfort would be useless now. Four more days. Four more days until those soul-sucking demons come back again. He looked over to Ru Xie and then away. His tremor subsided and although there was still fear in his eyes, there was also resolve.
It might be selfish, but please, Xie, live on if I can’t. Find a way to get out of here even if they claim me too.
***
Two men stood in the sand dunes of the Hersht Desert.
The wind tore at their clothes. There seemed to be nothing around for miles.
“There’s just one and a half months to go until we promised to make it back to Alva Dungeon,” Rugrat said.
“It’s coming up fast,” Erik agreed.
“We should be near it now, right?”
“We must be. The searching area has slimmed down since yesterday. It’s about time I used my Dungeon Sense,” Erik said.
Although it might be less than four kilometers away, with the sand dunes, they spent most of their time climbing up and falling down them.
As they had moved to where Rugrat had picked up on the dungeon, they had started to pick up the dungeon’s location and the search area to find it only decreased.
Erik sent out his Dungeon Sense ability.
Erik could feel it shoot out and then come into contact with something. He opened his eyes and looked at a sand dune. In his vision, he could see a red doorway.
“It’s under that, about a meter or two,” Erik said.
“Thank God we’ve got shovels.”
Erik moved right above the doorway and pulled a shovel out from his storage ring. “If we didn’t have the Dungeon Sense ability, there’s no way we would be able to find this place.”
They cleared away the sand. Rugrat’s shovel hit stone. They looked at each other and sped up their digging, clearing out the area around the dungeon entrance. Sand was thrown up around them. A door was revealed. It had two stone slabs sealing it from the outside elements.
Rugrat used his Simple Inorganic and Simple Organic Scan to look through the door and check for traps. Erik had his shotgun ready to go. The pellets had been changed to Mortal-iron filings to increase its stopping power.
“Looks clear.” Rugrat stepped back and pulled out his personal rifle. He was still using the same powder and rounds from before, but to the bullets, he’d added enhanced Mortal-grade iron core.
Rugrat covered Erik as Erik tried the doors. He had to push on them because the door was wedged shut with sand.
Erik looked over to Rugrat, who nodded.
Erik kicked the door and tossed in a handful of night pearls that turned on in the darkness.
Rugrat rushed in, checking around the door.
Erik swung his shotgun around and followed him in.
“Stairs front!” Rugrat warned.
Erik entered and stepped out onto a small platform before it descended down a set of stairs.
“Clear!” Rugrat said as he moved forward.
Erik followed him. Their two guns had night pearls fitted to the front so they could see what was in front of them clearly.
==========
You have entered the dungeon: Desert Spiritual Palace
==========
Erik and Rugrat quickly dismissed the screen that appeared and looked forward.
The stairs ended and the hallway curved. Erik stacked up behind Rugrat and pinched the back of his arm.
Rugrat and Erik turned around the corner. Rugrat took a knee, Erik standing behind but above him.
Erik pulled on the back of Rugrat’s armor.
Rugrat stood up as Erik moved right beside him.
They came up on another corner and repeated their corner drills.
“Door right five meters, hallway left,” Rugrat said.
“Seen,” Erik replied, pulling on Rugrat’s plates.
“Cover the other doorway. I’ll test the one on the right,” Rugrat said.
“Got it.” Erik moved around Rugrat so he was aiming on the left side now.
Rugrat peeled over to the door and Erik moved to the corner.
Erik stepped out in a crouch, scanning the hallway. “Fifteen meters, hallway to the left. Door straight ahead twenty meters, collapsed.”
“Got a device here,” Rugrat said. “Looking to disable.”
“Go for it,” Erik said.
Rugrat pulled out tools and started to chisel away part of the door. A rune-covered pressure plate was found shortly afterward.
Rugrat quickly removed the jewel power source and then put the formation plate into his storage ring. He checked over the door again. “Thunder attribute mine. Take the door—I’ll be lead.”
“Got it,” Erik said.
He moved out of the corridor and then over to the door. He repeated the same process with entering the dungeon’s door.
Rugrat rushed in and Erik went in behind him.
“Clear right! Two doorways back right,” Rugrat said.
“Clear left,” Erik responded. “Low obstacle in center of the room, altar. Go left, high-low. I’ll go close.”
“Good!” Rugrat said.
Erik moved forward and Rugrat followed him. With their angle, they could see the two new doorways and the altar in the middle of the room, covering all three.
They moved around the altar, doing the same as when they had turned the corners.
Seeing nothing on the other side, Rugrat pulled Erik up.
“I’ll cover the doors—you check the room.” Erik changed to his personal rifle and used the altar to stabilize his aim.
“Got it!” With his Simple Inorganic Scan, he could cover more
ground and find more of the hidden items in the room.
“Got some skeletons in the walls. Looks like channels go to you. Channels are runed. I don’t think they were just getting drained of their blood.” Rugrat stopped at a section in the floor.
“Mana?” Erik asked.
“Think so. Got another thunder mine thing here.” Rugrat went to work, removing it.
Rugrat found another thunder mine closer to the doorways.
Once the room was cleared, meaning Rugrat had looted it of everything good and made sure that there were no more traps, they moved on.
There was a door made of solid stone but it had runes that were glowing on it slightly. The other door was actually a portcullis that allowed them to see through to the other side.
Rugrat moved up first, touching the metal to find out its mechanisms. “Thorium? Damn,” Rugrat muttered.
“Thorium? Isn’t that stuff like super rare?”
“It’s not that rare here. It’s a really good material to conduct Mana, used more in formations. If a mage uses a weapon that is made from thorium, then they’ll be able to amplify their attacks more and the necessary Mana to activate the weapon will decrease. Also, it’s an absolute bitch to deal with if you don’t have a magical flame. Thankfully it’s only connected to a thunder mine trap, stronger one. Whoever made this place rides the goddamn lightning. Cover me.” Rugrat moved to the other wall as Erik continued to look through the portcullis.
“And unlike the masterful and eargasmic AC/DC, they can’t nearly do it well enough to get praise from me.” Rugrat smacked a chisel into a tile, pulling it off and then searching through the open space behind. He twisted and pulled something. Another thunder mine entered his storage.
“Hallway to the right about thirty meters down,” Erik replied.
“Hoist the thing up and I’ll go through.”
Erik nodded. Now he was the stronger one with the stat boosts.
“Good to go,” Rugrat said.
Erik let his rifle hang; he grabbed the portcullis and lifted it. The thorium had been combined with iron and it wasn’t light.
Second Realm Page 29
