Risen World

Chapter 80: Beginners Dungeon Final

The second floor was very different layout wise from the first floor of the dungeon. There were a few extra pathways that lead to more treasure chest and a couple of more open rooms with large clusters of enemies for Joshua to take down, but for the most part it was still the same dimly lit maze like area that the first floor had been.

There were a couple of glaring differences though that Joshua noticed right away. First was the fact that now almost every group of rabbits that he ran into now had at least one butterfly nearby that would try to use its abilities to hinder Joshua while the rabbits charged in recklessly. This was a bit annoying since Joshua had to focus on taking out the butterfly first before finishing off the rabbits, but for the most part it didn't hinder him as much as it would have most groups that entered this dungeon. The second most important difference was the fact that there were now traps strode all throughout the dungeon. There were all sorts of traps from spikes coming from the floor or arrows from the walls, but Joshua's aura pulse always found them out before they became a problem. Apparently some jobs were good at disposing of traps, but for now Joshua was able to handle it on his own.

A lot of the treasure chest he found lying around were also booby trapped, but Joshua just used his aura hardening to tank any small explosions as long as the danger he sensed from the trap wasn't too great. In those cases he would use an aura blast to knock the top open from a bit of a distance so the trap wouldn't be able to reach him. Most of the items he found were either weapons that he didn't feel the need to use or some more useful healing potions and other sorts of potions that he would have to inspect more later on. One thing he did decide to keep was a simple short sword that he attached to his belt in a similar way to the gun he had found earlier. If he ended up in a space that was too small to properly use his scale blade then he could rely on the short sword and gun for combat. On a couple of occasions that was exactly what happened sense the rooms he entered were only about a foot taller than his height giving him no room to swing his blade overhead.

It had been about an hour of him exploring the second floor when he was starting to approach the end of what the map he had found earlier showed. Up ahead of the hallway he was traveling down would be another wide open room that had two doors inside of it. One went into what looked like a small room while the other seemed to lead to the biggest room he had seen in the entire dungeon layout. Joshua sent out an aura pulse to check to see if this was the case and found out that there was another group of rabbits and butterflies waiting in the room ahead of him to block his way. This time though there wasn't a treasure chest nearby which surprised him a bit. Up to this point usually whenever he ran into a bigger group of enemies they were usually guarding a chest.

When Joshua entered the room he could see another group of eight rabbits, two of which were variants, were waiting for him. There were also six butterflies hovering above them. It would look a bit intimidating if Joshua wasn't already use to disposing of these types of enemies by this point so he made quick work of the butterflies by infusing his sword with and aura blast and tearing them to shreds. He then finished off the stubborn rabbits that continued to recklessly charge at him even though he easily overpowered them. After gathering up all the corpses into the inventory he made his way over to the door that lead to the smaller room. It wasn't nearly as imposing as the other door at the far end of the room, but Joshua got the feeling he would find something interesting on the other side.

He pushed the door open, but didn't immediately step inside in case there were traps ahead. Inside the room was just enough space for him to use his scale blade well enough and a slightly hall like area that stretched eerily onward with nothing but a few torches allowing him to see what was inside. At the very far end of the room was a slightly larger treasure chest that was set up on a pedestal that just screamed trap room to Joshua. When he used his aura pulse to check the place out he immediately understood what the trap would be. The doorway he was standing in would immediately close behind him the second he took a step inside. While the ceiling above would open up letting the large group of monsters above him fall into the room and of course they would all try to kill Joshua the moment they noticed him.

Although he knew it was a trap he also had the feeling whatever was in that chest would be more worthwhile than anything else he had found in this dungeon up to this point. Anyways these new enemies would just end up being more experience considering how easy they were for him to take down. Joshua stepped inside the room and heard a clicking sound followed by the door behind him slamming shut. He turned to look up at the ceiling and saw it slowly part open letting a group of ten of the larger variant bunny rabbit creatures fall inside the room. This in itself would already be a nightmare for most beginner groups, but one more creature came out of the ceiling that surprised Joshua. It was a lone butterfly, but unlike the other ones he had seen up to this point this one was clearly a variant of the same species. It was actually smaller than the large blue butterflies at about half the size, but it had vibrant red and blue patterned wings that had what looked like eyes on each wing from the patterns on them.

Joshua was a bit weary of the new enemy, but sense it was all the way at the back with all of the rabbits bristling up and preparing to lunge towards him he had to take care of them first so he could get to it. Before the rabbits charged over the butterfly started to send out some dust into the room that Joshua held his breath against knowing how problematic it could be if he breathed it in. It wasn't done yet though as its wings seemed to glow and all of the rabbits nearby started to shine in return. 'Well that's new.' Joshua thought just before the rabbits charged at him.

These rabbits were faster than usual in comparison to the variants he fought earlier and he had a feeling it had something to do with the shine effect that the butterfly was having on them. Joshua decided to take them down quickly before they actually became a problem and quickly coated his blade in aura before slashing through all of the charging rabbits two at a time. When he was finished with them the butterfly tried to shoot some silk webbing at him to slow him down, but he side stepped it and responded with an aura blast through his blade that cut the butterfly in two. It was still clearly as weak physically as its basic counter parts, but the ability to strengthen its allies was knew. He'd have to watch out for monsters that could do things like that in the future.

After having cleared out all of the monsters the pedestal that the treasure was raised up on slowly sunk into the floor leaving the treasure there for Joshua to take. He made sure to check it for any traps before opening it and was surprised to find a ton of equipment and potions inside. He didn't care much about any of the armor or cloth equipment sense what he had was already far ahead of any of the stuff he found, but the short sword was far better than the one he had found earlier and there was a gun that seemed a bit more advanced than the one he had picked up before. Even though he hadn't used the old one yet just based off the design and the description that popped up when he observed it through the system he knew this was a better gun that fit what he needed it for. The old gun was basically a pea shooter in comparison although it had far more bullets to use on each reload. This one might as well have been a desert eagle with the power behind it, but honestly if he was going to use a gun he would prefer more powerful shots then multiple small ones.

He strapped the two new weapons onto his belt replacing the older ones before looking over the other stuff in the chest. There was a rather interesting looking staff which seemed to be able to handle more mana than the other ones he had found up to this point. He quickly through it into his inventory sense he wasn't a spell caster and might just sell it later on. The rest of the stuff were potions that seemed to be of a higher grade than the ones he had found earlier. After inspecting the room for any other surprises he went back to the room he had come from so he could check out the other door that he had seen earlier. He was glad the monster didn't just respawn like you would expect in some games and he was able to make it over to the other side of the open room without any hassle.

The new door that he stood in front of had two sides to it and unlike before where there was a number to designate the floor carved into the door this time around there was a large depiction of a skull on it. "I guess this is the boss room then." Joshua said aloud as he glanced over the design. "I guess this dungeon only had two floors. Well let's just see what kind of big bad guy is on the other side."

Joshua pushed open the doors and walked into a room that looked like an arena that was huge in scale in comparison to all the other rooms he had been through in the dungeon. The room was lit up by ten torches that were spread out evenly in a circle all along the walls of the arena. By each torch there was a butterfly that hovered in the air somewhat menacinglywell not that menacingly they were butterflies after all. These butterflies were of the basic variety so he didn't have to worry about them buffing up their allies like back in the trap room.

Now that he had checked out the side kicks he turned his attention to the big boss monster in the middle of the room which unsurprisingly was another type of rabbit. It was a giant crimson red rabbit that was just a little bit smaller than the giant frogs he had fought against back at the marsh. It was named 'King Horned Rabbit' and had four stars next to its level which was fifteen. That wasn't the only thing he had to fight in front of him though sense there was another creature that was actually hiding up on top of the giant king rabbit. This creature was also a rabbit, but was even smaller than the basic horned rabbits he had come across up to this point, in fact it wasn't all that much bigger than a normal rabbit. Its fur was pink in color and it had long floppy ears that tried to flare up when it took notice of Joshua. It had two little golden horns on its head that were too small to actually be dangerous. When Joshua observed the creature it had three stars next to its level and the name was simply cute rabbit.

Before Joshua could wonder why such a thing was a part of a boss fight the king rabbit roared and charged at him while all of the butterflies started to release the hypnotic dust and shoot silk in his direction. Joshua instantly flared his aura and avoided the king rabbits attack while charging towards the nearest butterfly. Just like usual he started to take down the annoying butterflies while holding his breath so the dust wouldn't start to affect him. He didn't bother to waste his aura on his scale blade and simply smashed the butterflies into the wall whenever he got close enough. A few of the butterflies wizened up and tried to fly out of reach, but Joshua just took out his gun and shot them down while continuing to avoid the big boss that continued to chase him.

The game of cat and mouse didn't last long as Joshua cut down the last butterfly and turned back to the boss. He shot in the face a couple of times with his pistol, but that seemed to only anger it more as its hair started to stand up and it chased after him at an even faster pace. Joshua channeled aura into his hands and clapped them together to send all of the left over hypnotic dust towards the edges of the arena before taking a deep breath and using a defensive posture to take on the enraged boss's charge assault. He slid back a bit in the same way he did when he tried to block the large frogs, but it didn't take long for Joshua to stop its momentum. He then pushed his scale blade back harshly and to the side in a way that twisted the large rabbit's horn and caused it to fall on its side.

With the large rabbit kicking and flailing on the ground Joshua took the chance to smash one of its large hind legs with his sword before it could get back up. He would have gone for the head if it didn't keep swinging the dangerous horn around whenever he got to close. The impact of the blow created a loud crunching noise causing large rabbit to let out a squeal as it kicked with its one good leg to get Joshua away from it. Before Joshua could charge back in the large rabbit got back up onto its feet although it had a noticeable limp now. It glared at Joshua angrily, but kept its large horn in between itself and Joshua threateningly.

That was when Joshua noticed something weird take place that he didn't expect. The large crimson bunny suddenly lit up with a white glow that soon focused on its broken leg for a few seconds before it faded away. Directly after that occurred the king rabbit was able to put its full weight on its leg again and was about to charge down Joshua once more. The whole action surprised Joshua, but he did take notice of the fact that the little rabbit had a glow around it that started to fade away just as the injury was healed before it went back to hiding on its back. 'Well that's annoying.' Joshua thought, but then he smiled as he glared at the little rabbit for a moment. 'Looks like I've got to take down the little guy first if I don't want to waste a lot of time and energy.'

Joshua positioned himself to take on the creatures charge once again, but this time instead of knocking the creature over he simply redirected its charge by twisting his scale blade on contact. He then turned his body so that he was right next to the displaced rabbit's side. In one quick smooth motion he focused an aura blast to emit from his feet as he sent out a devastating kick that lifted the large rabbit off the ground and sent it crashing into the wall causing some parts of the arena to collapse on to the screaming boss. This wasn't the only thing he was after though sense he smiled when he saw the poor little rabbit fall off the boss's back and onto the arena floor. It looked terrified at the situation and was about to race back towards safety when Joshua shot it down quickly before it could get away. Although the pistol wasn't able to hurt the big guy it had more than enough force to put down the smaller one.

By the time the boss was able to pull itself out of the ruble the fight was already decided as Joshua charge forth and coated his sword in aura. Each swing of his blade sliced open giant wounds onto the over grown rabbit that made it impossible for it to put up a fight. Now that it had nothing to heal its wounds it was nothing but an overgrown target in Joshua eyes. When it finally lost enough blood to the point it couldn't thrash the dangerous horn on its head around Joshua quickly ended its life with one slash to the neck. The large beast fell over dead and Joshua could feel his body feel up with strength as he gained another level. Before he could put the body in his inventory a message popped up in front of him from the system.

[Congratulations on completing the beginner's dungeon in record time. This will be a part of the evaluation on your reward. Evaluating.you have received an evaluation of 'S' level and will receive the highest possible reward Reward received check your inventory to find what you have gained.]

Joshua was a bit surprised at the short evaluation process, but shrugged it off and opened his inventory to see what he gained from the dungeon. At the very top of his inventory a book was lit up in golden color to show that it was his reward. He picked the book and information about a skill popped up in another message.

[This is the skill book for the weapon skill echo strike. Description of the skill can be found below.

Echo Strike (Active) A rare weapon skill that has an added effect on to all attacks from any type of weapon. This skill creates an echo of the user previous attack that does twenty percent of the attack output of the previous attack used. This skill uses either the user's mana, rage, aura, or any type of reserve energy to take effect. Can be leveled up with constant use.]

Joshua smiled at the description and figured the trip was completely worth it just for this skill alone. He chalked it up to his high evaluation along with his luck to land a skill that was a perfect fit for him in the long run. He quickly put the remains of the boss into his inventory and then headed for the door that appeared after the boss had been killed. It was time to head back home and train up his potential once again before he took on the hidden dungeon. Now that he had a good idea of how dungeons worked he was looking forward to it.