The Dungeon Destroyer: A LitRPG Level-Up Adventure (The Dungeon Slayer Series Book 2)

by Konrad Ryan

  Suddenly he stood in the class tower, but not in the basement where all his belongings had been left. Instead, this was a closed room, perfectly white, no windows, doors, or even stairways of which to speak. Tad opened his stats.

  *Tad Harrington

  Rank: Warrior

  Class: Fighter

  Level: 50

  Health: 111/700

  Mana: 150/150

  Str: 100

  Dex: 60

  Con: 60

  Mag: 50

  Cou: 30

  Cha: 10

  Points to allocate:10*

  They hadn’t changed yet, but his buffs had run out. His muscles swelled, his tendons tightened and twisted. He could feel the mana pool in his mind swell and grow, a lake in a downpour, its shores washed further and further with each drop of rain. His muscles and blood condensed, then solidified, before returning to normal. Strength settled into his bones as the 2x stat aspect stabilized into his soul.

  Musical chimes filled Tad’s head.

  *Stat aspect installation successful! Congratulations on your Void Assimilation victory!

  Congratulations! You are now the rank of Warrior! Your level cap has been extended to 100! You have ten seconds until the next battle starts. Next battle unlocks the ‘Character Creation!’

  Recommended level for quest: 62.

  Do you wish to quit?*

  Tad pulled up his stats to view the spoils of victory.

  *Tad Harrington

  Rank: Warrior

  Class: Fighter

  Level: 50

  Health: 111/1000

  Mana: 300/300

  Str: 150

  Dex: 120

  Con: 90

  Mag: 100

  Cou: 60

  Cha: 20

  Points to allocate:10*

  Interesting. The double stat bonus hadn’t been what Tad had expected. Some of his stats had doubled, but not all. Strength and constitution had only increased by half. He could only think of one reason. They didn’t multiply with his class bonus, but worked additively. Both the stat aspect and the class bonus doubled his base fifty strength, then added it together. Where each stat point on dexterity would give two, he would get three for strength and constitution because of his fighter class.

  That his mana had recharged during his void battle, was good news. It had done the same when he had hidden from the lizard boss in the void. He kicked himself that he hadn’t checked his mana during the void assimilation. He likely could have ended up with full mana and health. He’d remember that for the next time. Tad closed his eyes and cast the heal spell. He focused, trying to change the nature of the spell. Instead of hot needles stitching his skin together, he imagined fairies kissing his wounds, where their kisses landed his skin was healed. It didn’t work as well as he wanted. Painful kisses burned like fire where they landed, cut skin mended, blood filled his veins, but it wasn’t the pain-free experience of the champion level healer. But at least it had been different. It was progress, but he still needed more practice.

  Tad glanced at his health once more.

  *Health:1000/1000

  Mana:74/240*

  It was nice to have enough maximum mana to heal to full and still have some left over. The countdown for the next fight was almost up, but he was ready for it. His last rank up trial, he had hesitated and taken a lot of damage. And while the minotaur trial had exceeded all expectations of difficulty and danger, somehow he didn’t expect it to continue. Especially since the recommended level was only 62. The last had been 80. Only one of the four voids had progressed to warrior rank. Surely, he wouldn’t meet more voids until his champion rank trial.

  In his soldier trial, Tad hadn’t been able to earn all the rewards. The electives, the void had called it. This time, he wouldn’t make the same mistake. He wasn’t sure what ‘character creation’ even was, but he would earn it, for more rewards lay beyond.

  The countdown finished and Tad stood on a platform, surrounded by an endless sea of flame and magma. Sweat dripped down his brow instantly, his hand swept it away from his eyes as he searched for his enemy. He felt them before he saw them, his perception bubbled further than it ever had before. Likely from his doubled courage, which had given him the perception skill.

  A four-legged creature exploded from the earth beneath. Raekast’s Fang sunk into its neck and sliced down its back before it even landed on the ground. It was a furless hyena the size of a dining table, blades for claws and teeth, extra arms holding more blades, jutted from its shoulder blades, almost like Tad’s cloak had done.

  Tad moved.

  The bladehyena yelped in pain, and blood poured down its sides. It turned to snarl at Tad, but his dagger punched up under its jaw, exploding out from the top of its skull, exactly like he had done to Syphon. The health bar completely disappeared above the creature as its head exploded into bloody chunks of bone and flesh. Three more bladehyena’s leapt from the lava, their blades glowed red hot, but Tad dispatched them before they could even find their footing. A fifth was lapping at the lava around the platform, but Tad ended its life before it could do anything with the ingested lava. He might have struggled against this test before the stat bonus, but not now. When you had real power, true strength, you didn’t have to worry about the gimmicks of weaklings.

  *Congratulations! You have now unlocked ‘Character Creation!’ You can now control the effects of body-altering stats! Use the voice command ‘character creation’ to access the menu.

  You have 3 minutes to continue. You will be teleported to a new arena.

  Warning! Recommended level: 84.

  Your next reward is: ‘Class swap.’

  Do you wish to quit?*

  Oh! Character creation was nicer than Tad had thought it would be. Recommended level 84 for the next trial. But with Tad’s stats doubled, it was like he was really level 100, more if you counted his class. 84 shouldn’t be that deadly, but he wouldn’t underestimate it.

  Tad looked down at his muscle ridden body. His dexterity had toned it down some, but his constitution and strength stats seemed to overpower dexterity. He looked far too much like a heavyweight Olympic wrestler for his own liking.

  “Character Creation.”

  A small replica of Tad appeared in the air in front of him with various sliders next to three stats: strength, constitution, and dexterity. A reset button sat below the three sliders.

  In his mind, he still looked the same as he always had. Fairly tall, slender, with black hair and a charming smile. At least, he thought it was charming. To be fair, it had never worked on any girl he had ever used it on, so maybe it was less than charming. Tad pressed the reset button and his jaw dropped. Floating before him, slowly rotating, was a model of Tad in his jean shorts and ragged T-shirt. His hair was unkempt, almost touching his shoulders, but not in a good way. Not in the perfect way that Brad’s golden hair had rested. Tad recognized himself for what he looked like, a borderline homeless man that hadn’t bathed or groomed in months. How had he ever thought this look was acceptable?

  Tad trimmed the hair with a few waves of his finger. He removed both the shirt and shorts to expose bone-thin extremities. He looked like a skeleton, with a thin sheet of flesh wrapped around it. Was this really how he had looked before his rebirth? He was wrong, he no longer saw himself like this at all!

  Tad dragged the strength and dexterity sliders up about a third of the way to the maximum. Muscles rippled with extreme definition, visible veins crawled up every inch of his exposed skin, almost like worms swimming through dirt. Gently Tad brought the constitution slider up to about a tenth of the maximum. The definition faded slightly as his body filled out. Veins receded into his skin until he looked good. Strong and healthy, fit but not shredded beyond reality. For kicks, Tad dragged the constitution slider all the way to 100%. Fat covered the small model in front of him as his waist expanded, his butt grew large, legs with fat roll after fat roll. His gut was so large, he wasn’t sure the model could even
stand under the forces of gravity. Tad didn’t even recognize himself.

  He moved the slider back to where he had liked it before, then accepted the changes.

  Instantly his body morphed, his huge bulbous muscles shrunk and deflated to match what he had chosen. His extremely pronounced jaw reduced, his neck returned to how proper necks should look. Tad danced from foot to foot, and even though his body didn’t move any differently from before, he felt different. Even though his stats hadn’t changed, he felt sleek. Fast. Deadly.

  He had never known his own perception of himself had controlled some portion of his feelings. It was an interesting observation.

  Character creation was even cooler than Tad had thought. It broke the connection between appearance and stats, allowing him to shape his form to match his ideal. He would never lament raising his constitution too high, and becoming fat, ever again.

  Tad closed the character generation window, saving his choice with a thought, but before the window closed an alert popped up.

  *You are missing 3 teeth, would you like those repaired?*

  His mood darkened instantly and his tongue slicked across his gums. Three missing teeth, his three back molars on his upper left side. One for each of his party members, he had failed. Gruff, Becca, and Scar. No, Tad hadn’t failed them, it had been Gruff. He was the dungeon leader. He should have seen them through safely, shouldn’t have betrayed Tad.

  “No.” He wouldn’t fix those.

  With dark thoughts on the mind, he sat and waited for the next challenge to begin.

  Chapter 21

  Green rolling hills stretched further than Tad could see, the amber light from the strange-looking sun above caressed his skin. This was the same place as before, during his soldier trial, where he had gone into the cave and fought the first toothblender. This time, however, there were no red arrows to show him where to go. Tad stretched out his perception into an inquisitive tendril. It sped across the grassland looking for the monster he would surely fight.

  The pattern of the warrior trial seemed to follow that of the soldier trial, minus the voids that joined him in the minotaur fight. There was an intelligent creature to fight, the minotaur, followed by some brainless animal, the blade hyenas. Next should be some arena fight, or maybe a humanoid fight. Like King Wraithford.

  His perception tendril stumbled across a figure, crouching behind a boulder, ripping teeth out like mad, shoving them into the dirt below.

  The fight wouldn’t be like King Wraithford. It was Wraithford. Fingertooth after fingertooth hungrily dug into the ground, some mysterious liquid dripped down its chin, Tad knew exactly what it was. Green blood.

  Suddenly a voice boomed in Tad’s mind.

  “And what do we have here? What a treat! Tad Harrington, the King Killer, Hartmaster, Stag Surfer, Master of Roe and Doe, Dungeon Destroyer, and Vanquisher of King Wraithford the Third, is back for another deadly battle!” The ground below rumbled and pitched wildly. A violent gust of wind brought dark clouds from over the horizon, moving at an impossible speed, like titanspawn hungry for a meal. Pillars exploded from the ground in the distance as an impossibly large coliseum appeared around him. This time, however, it wasn’t just as big as a football field. No, instead the enormous building had enclosed at least a square mile. Ghoulish figures raced through the stands to find their seats. An enormous monitor showed a video feed that circled Tad, but he couldn’t see a camera.

  Soon the shouts and cheers of the audience grew until the ground rumbled, not from an entire structure appearing from below the earth, but from the excitement of millions of voices all thirsting for violence.

  “We know our challenger, but this time we have a special treat! Out for revenge for the brutal murder of their most promising lesser wraith, we have the entire Greater Wraithford Clan!”

  Tad glanced at his mana. It sat at 128 after his subsequent battles. His mana was regenerating at over four a minute now, not anywhere near how fast Blaze’s must regenerate, but it was promising that each time he checked it, it had climbed.

  “Two-hundred walk in!”

  Tad’s stomach sank. Did he say 200 wraithfords?

  “How many will walk out? Will today be the extinction of the Greater Wraithford Clan? Unlikely, but let’s see how much you have grown void! Ready? Fight!”

  Mountains exploded from beneath the ground. Tad leapt out of the path of the giant gnashing fingerteeth that threatened to swallow him whole. How had they gotten so big! The wraithfords themselves had been the regular fifteen foot tall, muscular glowing green gods, but the fingerteeth were each as big as a school bus, their fingernails opened to reveal dripping fangs each as big as Tad! Boy had these buttsuckers gotten big! Raekast’s Fang wouldn’t be enough.

  Tad pulled and Fangshredder roared to life at his touch. He ran past the swarm of fingerteeth. He had already fought these monsters before; he knew their weaknesses. Fighting the fingerteeth was pointless, especially if there really were 199 wraithfords out there. Tad leapt with all his might, he yelled ‘vortex’ and soared into the air, over a hundred feet in a single jump, Fangshredder pulled him even higher, the wriggling fingerteeth below now looked their proper tiny size.

  Tad wet his lips in anticipation. He wasn’t the same person. Strength oozed out of him. It was time to try to tame the beast that was cyclone.

  “Cyclone!”

  Fangshredder’s teeth reversed themselves, and before the air could blast, he swung the entire thing horizontally, parallel to the ground far below. The weapon roared to life, blasting air behind it. The weapon twisted and spun in his grasp, but Tad flipped himself up onto the hilt of the weapon and flew through the air. He hooked one foot underneath the tree trunk, securing himself to the weapon. A misstep would send Fangshredder soaring for ten seconds, while he plummeted to the ground below. Suddenly, he regretted bringing his fart armor instead of his frog boots for his fourth item. Being immune to fall damage had never seemed so important before he could reach these heights. But his incredible strength made falling a virtual impossibility. His feet pressed into the hilt of the weapon with a vise-like grip. The wood almost creaked with the force of it, but mixed with the control of his dexterity, Fangshredder soon found itself tamed. Tad was a witch on his gruesome broom, and he had some wraiths to slay. Steering the weapon proved simpler than expected, it was delicately balanced, a nudge here, a shift there, but Tad soared through the air away from the danger of fingerteeth.

  He swooped, lower and lower, and spread his perception out in a wide net below.

  A single Wraithford looked up at him with eyes that gleamed with green hatred, its translucent skin as sickly as Tad remembered. Wielded in each hand was an enormous obsidian axe. Tad’s lips turned into a grin at that. He hadn’t been able to wield his last ones for lack of strength. That would not be the case this time.

  Tad kicked the hilt downward and plunged into a dive. He crouched down on the haft of the weapon, ready for his maneuver. The wraithford below turned and ran, but his speed wasn’t anywhere near Tad’s own.

  “Vortex.”

  Violently, the weapon twitched, Tad waited for the perfect moment, the one between pushing and pulling, then he swung it around, pointing it straight at the chest of the first wraithford. The vacuum sucked him forward even faster. Fangshredder pierced completely through the fleeing wraithford from spine to sternum, before the glass ram-horned teeth shredded the wraith completely. Green blood and chunks of flesh sprayed across Tad’s face and clothes. Tad snatched one of the obsidian axes from the air, the other careened away in the violence. Tad banished it to one of his equipment slots. Where the wraithford’s green blood splattered, it sizzled and dissolved skin and cloth alike.

  Tad allowed his feet to touchdown, running as fast as he could, then leapt once more off the ground, Fangshredder pulled him soaring into the air once more.

  Luckily, the coliseum gave the dimensions of the battleground. There were only so many places his cowardly foes could hide.


  His net of perception found two more wraithfords huddled together behind a hill. Tad swooped down after them once more, feeding more mana into his raging weapon. A glance showed 110 mana left. This strategy wouldn’t work forever, not with this many foes.

  Tad dispatched these two as the first. Fangshredder made quick work of them, and Tad got his second axe. He ran once more, huge strides between steps before he launched again, but Fangshredder didn’t pull him like it usually did, instead it was just a huge leap. Tad landed a few moments later, the ground already beginning to writhe around him.

  With dismay, Tad examined his weapon. The weapon that allowed him to fly.

  The glass ram horns had been eaten, almost completely through, by a green bubbling liquid. Even the taut and muscled flesh of the toothblender had holes where the caustic liquid was especially thick.

  Tad pulled up the information of the item.

  *Fangshredder: Crafted by Tad Harrington. Two-handed weapon. The skin of Acapacio strengthens and reinforces the wood to an almost unbreakable state.

  Requires 50 Strength, 100 while activated.

  Can be activated for 10 seconds with 10 mana.

  Deals 24 Damage.

  Deals 240 Damage while activated.

  Active skills: Cyclone, Vortex

  Broken. Needs repair.*

  A new line sat at the bottom. One he had never seen before.

  His weapon was broken.

  And with 196 wraithfords still to go, this was going to be a long hunt.

  * * *

  Tad had changed tactics several times already. At first, he sped across the ground, exploring with his perception ahead of him. He had caught a few unprepared wraithfords this way, but soon they adapted to his strategy. Their fingerteeth seemed to relay his information to the wraithfords, and they were already gone by the time he arrived. Tad hadn’t been able to figure out where they were escaping to, but had glimpsed one retreating underground. Into a tunnel made by their fingerteeth. Bony hands and fingers tried to grab him whenever he stopped to think, but when he was moving the skeletal spell was too slow to grab him.