DungeonFall – [A Dungeon Creation / Cultivation Story]

Nate decided to create a secondary covered bridge, one that functioned as a funnel area of sorts for the beasts. It was a limited space where they would naturally bottleneck together and be forced into a tight space. Eventually, the tunnel would release them all into a small room where he would be waiting, ready to practice.

When he wasn’t there, the room would simply have no floor. At that point, it was up to the beasts if they wanted to fall to their doom, wait for the floor to appear, or take their chances with the wall or ceiling. If they could make one of those work, then he was fine with letting them cross. At that point, they deserved it.

Accepting the last modification to the second floor, Nate closed the interface and stood. The only thing he kept up was a couple of screens to monitor the cameras around the dungeon.

He patted the kukris strapped to his thighs, and then for good measure also pulled out the kriegsmesser. Starting with the bladed weapon that he was unfamiliar with made more sense. Trying to use it with any sort of skill while he was tired would only lead to him hurting himself.

It was slightly awkward to have it behind his kukri sheathe, but he forced himself to ignore it and continued on.

Running through the cold stone corridors, he could feel the long blade slapping against his lower leg with every movement. He was beginning to understand why everyone always had a hand on the hilt of their swords in books and movies. It was to keep the blasted things from moving around so much.

At this rate, even if he did end up liking how the kriegsmesser felt, he wasn’t sure he would actually use it. He was going for more of a somewhat stealthy ranger-styled build, and the long war knife was anything but stealthy.

Regardless, he was keeping his mind open. If there was one thing Nate was aware of, it was how little he actually knew. He had just barely stepped into the world of using these weapons to fight, trying to claim he was an expert on anything was beyond absurd.

Stepping through the portal, he appeared on the second floor and ran down the new secondary bridge he had just created. It was time to start grinding out some practice, and hopefully get some more rainbow orbs and items along the way.

***

At some point, Aura had joined him in the small room, and they had started working on their teamwork.

Seeing his companion by his side gave him enough confidence to finally start using the kriegsmesser. Up to that point, the blade had just been dangling from his side, getting in the way and being more than a little annoying.

That was definitely a solid negative against using the war knife in the future, as far as he was concerned. Though, to be fair, the same would also apply to any other sword or long-bladed weapon that he used. He had gotten used to how the kukri sheathes moved with his legs. The longer scabbard for a sword did no such thing.

It was a little nitpicky he could admit that, but when you were fighting for your life, you needed things to be just right. If everything didn’t feel right, then you wouldn’t fight to your best potential.

That said, he was also sure there were other people who had come across the problem before and had come up with solutions. If he liked how the blade handled, then it would be worth it to look into how others had dealt with them in the past.

With quick, firm flicks of his wrists, Nate scattered the blood off his kukris and sheathed them in a smooth, practiced move. Drawing the long kriegsmesser was much less smooth by comparison, since it was his first time doing so in battle.

Luckily, he had already held it and tested its weight some earlier. Holding an unfamiliar weapon for the first time in the middle of battle was a recipe for a quick death.

During the few brief seconds it took for him to switch weapons, Aura stepped up and ensured he had the time he needed. There was no need for words to be spoken between them at this point. Both were clear in what the purpose of this particular dungeon run was for. They were using it to train and grow stronger, nothing more.

The time to speak would come later, possibly much later in Aura’s case if she didn’t survive the night.

Either way, there was no point in talking at the moment. All of their focus was better served by remaining on the task at hand.

Nate spun the war knife once with a satisfied nod. The sharp blade cut through the air as the balance proved to not be a strain on his wrist. Despite its size, it was well-balanced and was not something that would wreck his wrist after being used constantly. Even his cultivation-enhanced body had its limits. He had only just started on the road of being a cultivator after all. His body had a long way to go before he truly became a superhuman.

Throwing himself back into the fray with his new weapon in hand, he began cleaving through one beast after another. The sharpness of the kukri blades couldn’t even be compared to the kriegsmesser, and the force he could put behind each swing was devastating. Granted, he had no real skill with it at the moment, outside of what the former Nate had been taught before he came along. However, enough time had started to pass by that point that only the weapons he had concentrated on the most, and certain heavily ingrained habits and instincts still lingered.

It was enough to give him a leg up in this instance, but that was it. Certain items crossed over from one discipline to the next without a problem, or with only minor adjustments. In the case of the kriegsmesser, though it looked like a sword, it handled more like an odachi, or possibly a light falchion. They were made for cutting and slicing.

That small amount of knowledge was enough to give him a foundation to work with. Which is all he really needed. The avatar Nate currently inhabited would come back to life whenever he needed it to. There was a small resource and energy cost involved, but that had always been negligible. The real cost came in the form of the pain he felt from each death.

Yet, each one was also a learning experience, and he refused to waste them or downplay how valuable they were simply because dying was overall a terrible time. At least now he had Aura to suffer with alongside him.

He could afford to try different things and attacks that others wouldn’t normally dare, exactly because he would be back the next night. It wasn’t the smartest method, but it would allow him to keep growing on his own. More than that, it would give him valuable experience in actually fighting with his chosen weapons.

Mostly, at least. He didn’t have a crossbow for his avatar, and the kriegsmesser was just an experiment at the moment.

Beast after beast rushed into the room he had created. The small size of the tunnel that led into it kept them from being overrun. Still, they just kept coming. The dungeon was working overtime to absorb each of the bodies as they fell at their feet.

Nate barely had time to touch the orbs that would drop and throw whatever came out of them into his storage. He did notice that he was getting fewer pieces of equipment. Instead, he was now getting more herbs and rainbow cultivation orbs, but that was it. Not every beast dropped an orb either, most did, but it seemed as though the dungeon was adjusting the drops with his growth.

It had known he needed equipment, so that was what it gave him originally. Now, it was prioritizing his practice over explosive growth, though it ensured he still received items with enough frequency to not annoy him.

It was an interesting realization, but also one that made him realize that he wouldn’t be able to solely count on the dungeons for his cultivation. He would need to get his meditation art working at some point.

He was continually learning new things about how the dungeon system worked for him. It also seemed to be doing something for Aura, though not in the same manner.

They had been fighting for hours by that point, and both of them should have been beyond exhausted. Instead, for him, at least the consistent infusion of rainbow orbs and the qi they contained kept him going without a problem. Visually, Aura wasn’t getting any energy from the kills, and yet she hadn’t started to lag in energy at all. Of course, she was a realm ahead of him, so that wasn’t too strange anyway.

Still, he had a feeling the dungeon was helping her in a similar manner to how it helped him.

The hours of fighting had done exactly what he had hoped it would do. He now had a much better idea of what the kriegsmesser was capable of and how it handled. There were a few things he didn’t like about it, especially when it was just dangling from his hip not being used. No weapon was perfect though. It was simply a matter of how they fit the user and the circumstances involved. In those areas, he thought the war knife fit him almost as well as the kukris did.

It was definitely something he would be using again.

Right now though, he was done; it was time to turn in. Nate had hit the limit of what he could mentally manage in one session and needed to rest. Cleaning the blade with a few swift swings, he sheathed it and picked up any items he had missed.

He motioned to Aura that he was leaving, and while she nodded; she chose to stay behind. She wasn’t quite done getting her own practice in just yet.

Backing out of the room, Nate took the kriegsmesser off his hip and stored it, and then left the avatar behind for the sweet release of sleep.

***

Nate slapped away the alarm clock when it began ringing in his ear. He had set it to go off a half-hour earlier than normal the night before and now he regretted it. Using his avatar was no different from sleeping for him, and while his mind was active, a person’s mind was active while they were sleeping anyway. It seemed to function in the same manner by putting his brain to sleep. Using the avatar could almost be considered a form of astral projection and possession.

Regardless, while he always woke up rested, he was still a teenager, and that meant he liked his sleep. Waking up earlier than normal was almost a sin punishable by death.

However, this particular morning he had the first dosage of the herbs from the McFadden’s for his core that he needed to eat.

The first thing he needed, or rather wanted to do before any of that though, was check out his current information. Pulling it up on his wrist computer while gathering everything together for his shower was easy enough. The information was always there on the side of the screen beside the menu, that he tended to simply forget about it most of the time.

It was nice to know, sure, but it also wasn’t truly relevant to how he was living his life. However, seeing the progress he had made after each night truly did help him feel as though he was actually getting better.

That said, the numbers still made no sense to him. There was no way the numbers represented a normal scale. He was stronger than when he had started out, obviously. His body had been in terrible shape back then due to his health issues. However, was he really almost thirty points stronger than those days?

He doubted it, which made him doubt the scale as well. It was probably using a compressed linear scale for each realm, which would then jump to a logarithmic scale for the transition. At least, that was his guess. At the moment, it didn’t really matter. It was a way to keep track of his progress, nothing more.

Everything else could come later.