The Forgotten Legacy

This dungeon, by far, was Shaun’s most favourite so far. There was no robots to deal with, no playing Shepard to Hobbits and his only focus was on fighting. He ended up clearing the second area of the dungeon in the 2 days as he had planned but had to then spend nearly half a day to fully recover his stamina and mana. The termites were stronger, being named Warrior Termite, and as expected had been between the 80 to 100 level. He had only received 2 levels in the area which was to be expected, his level having increased significantly since the first E grade dungeon had impacted on the amount of levels he was receiving. At first he thought it was going to annoy him, the reduced levels, but the more he pondered it the less he cared. His aim was to just claim the dungeons and then raise his skill levels, once he hit level 125 he wouldn’t be choosing his next class upgrade until he had pushed his skills to the max anyway.

The third area of the dungeon was where it got harder, the termites were harder to kill and he was slowed down considerably in his push to the end. Shaun knew that this was bound to happen, but the fact he made it probably two thirds of the way through using only one skill was an impressive feat.

He had already committed to going to the end of the dungeon, not bothering to turn around and retreat. With three days left he was optimistic that he would be able to finish the dungeon, to ensure that was the case he used his summons skill to help him along. Shaun had never used his summons skill to summon the same type of creature more than once at a time, but given he needed speed and fire he attempted to give it a go.

The first summon, his Flame Hound Spike, came into being quickly with the skill, he even spent a moment giving him a head rub. When he started the second summons, using the same fire element, it took much longer than the first and he felt his mana channels strain with the pressure it was under by being used by not just one but two summons. Although it took longer than his first summons, he was greeted by a second Flame Hound eventually, although this one looked slightly different and the feeling he got was that it was subservient to Spike. Having succeeded in two he moved on to his third. The process hurt this time, but he was able to push through. If he was to guess this was a combination of not just using the same element but also using it with such a high amount of mana compared to the actual skill level.

Regardless of the pain and pressure he felt, he managed to summon a third Flame Hound, and similar to the second one he summoned, he felt that it would follow both his lead and Spikes. His plan for them was simple, kill everything and do it quickly. The excitement he felt after he relayed their objective was almost overwhelming, and that excitement seemed to seep into him as well. This is going to be fun.

For an entire day the four of them pushed through the dungeon with nothing but joy in their hearts and a passion for the kill. The monsters in this final area were strong, but against the four of them they went down quickly. The termites were guards, and if the past had taught him anything than the only thing they could be guarding was the area where the queen was.

To say that he was upset when his summons ran out of mana would be an understatement. He had not had so much fun in so long that he couldn’t even remember the last time he let loose and just felt free. Soon, he would be coming back to this dungeon, just to do it all over again, soon he would get to run with his pups not just for a day but even longer.

After he said goodbye, he spent a good amount of time resting. He felt like he was closer to the end of the dungeon than he had planned to get, he assumed that it would be close to three days but with the way that the guards had gotten as strong as any of the monsters near the final bosses in the previous dungeons, he knew that in less than a day, maybe even just a few hours, this dungeon would be done.

When he had recovered his mana he kept moving forward, for twelve hours he killed more and more guards, and although it was at a slower pace than before he had little to no issues getting through them. They showed no sign of any higher-powered attacks, seeming to rely on physical attributes more than magical ones, which was their downfall. Without a ranged attack they were killed before they got close to him, or if he chose to let them come in range of melee attacks, he cut them through with his sword before they did any damage to him.

When the Queen was located he started moving towards it, the entire area around the cavern it was in was empty of other termites, all of them had been called into the cavern with her to help protect against the invader.

It was a smart move, against anyone else. For him, having all the remaining termites all in one place and packed together would just make this a slaughter of massive proportions. While he moved towards the queen he powered up his sword and gauntlet with as much mana as they could hold, even slowing his pace to give himself more time. His gauntlet reached capacity much quicker than the sword, but still held a good few thousand mana even after draining the gem in it. He started to feel resistance from his sword closer to ten thousand mana, nearly double that of the gauntlet. Still having that much mana ready to unleash at a moments notice was going to result in a massive blast of fire that he doubted even he would survive.

By the time he reached the cavern he was straining against the amount of mana he was holding back, having to utilise his mind skill the entire time so as not to have it blow back in his face. When he did come to the cavern entrance he saw the entire room filled with termites, easily over a hundred with the queen standing at the back.

**Termite Queen – Level 124**

He took one step into the cavern and the termites made their move, a second later he released his own attacks. Using both his sword and gauntlet at the same time he released strike after strike, waving his sword through the air and having released the claws from their place in the gauntlet he swiped his hand through the air into different directions than his sword. He attempted to pace the amount of mana he let out with each strike, the first few were much higher than he wanted but when he was able to lessen the strain of holding back so much mana he gained more control and precision with his attacks.

He had lost sight of the termites after the first few strikes, all he could see was flames. By the time he was done the entire cavern was engulfed in nothing but fire.

**You have defeated a (Termite Guard – Level 113). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained.**

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

**You have defeated a (Termite Guard – Level 118). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained.**

**You have defeated a (Termite Queen – Level 124). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained.**

**Class: Elemental Blade Slinger has levelled up by +3 levels. [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger has reached Level 110. +9 Str, +6 Dex, +9 End, +9 Vit, +12 Soul gained**

**Race: Human has levelled up by +2 levels. Human (E) has reached Level 84. +32 Ap gained**

**Bow before the Queen Dungeon Completed. Dungeon will automatically eject successful participants in 1 minutes.**

Well, that’s one way to finish a dungeon. He still couldn’t see through the flames, but clearly, he had finished them all off with the ridiculous amount of mana he had just used in his attacks. Was it over kill? Sure. But it was still fun. Seeing as he had gained multiple levels in his Elemental Strike skill, it was also worth it.

In the minute he waited to be ejected he went over how complacent he had been at the end of the tutorial, not pushing his skills like he should have been. He didn’t need stronger monsters to do that, he just needed to use his imagination a little and practice. That was why Commander Alserio had been so annoyed with him, he had been lazy, relying to much on just using skills at their most basic level rather than truly pushing his limits. That had changed though, he still had a lot of work to do but he would fix the problem.

The minute passed quickly, appearing outside he got his first breath of fresh air since he started the dungeon and he welcomed the sun on his skin. Night would be coming soon but till it did he would bask in the sun and light. He hated caves.

** Bow before the Queen (E grade) Dungeon has been completed**

Would you like to claim this dungeon for 2,000,000 TE?

He had gotten into the routine of answering all of the prompts when he claimed a dungeon, he would be able to do it blind at this point. He still had to spend a few hours with the terraforming as making a mistake would be disastrous and he did not have the energy or patience to fix it just because he failed to do it correctly now. Like the first two, this one ended up being carved into and through the mountain, he was curious what the finished result actually looked like but he also had no reason to back track when he would get to see it all at the end anyway.

Although he didn’t really need to recover all the mana he had spent, already having enough to get moving, he did decide to rest. Removing his armour and laying in the sun was needed, more for his own wellbeing than anything else. It had been too long since he relaxed a little and seeing as he was ahead of schedule he indulged in this small thing.

‘Shaun, you’re out of the dungeon already? Are you okay?’ He hadn’t been expecting to be contacted by Eric so quickly after leaving the dungeon, he also sounded stressed.

‘Yeah, I’m good. That dungeon is great.’ He gave a quick recap of the dungeon, as he had with every other one. When he finished he got some interesting news.

‘I am taking a large team through Awaken the Prime, on the easiest setting though. Anything more you can give us to help with it?’ God that dungeon sucked.

‘Nothing more than what I have already told you. Good luck in there. Let me know what loot you get.’

‘Also Viv said that if you can to meet her, she has some propositions for you that are kind of urgent.’

‘What about?’ Don’t say help running this place. I did not sign up for that.

‘Money mostly. She wouldn’t say it outright but we need coin.’ Thank fuck for that.

‘That’s fine. I have two more dungeon to do, then I will head over to her. Give me a few weeks?’

Eric didn’t seem happy about the timeline and just said whenever was possible. They ended the chat fairly quickly after that and he removed thoughts of heading back to help immediately form his mind. It wasn’t a selfish decision, not exactly. But they had agreed that she would need to sort all of the people and settlement stuff herself. If he came running now it would give the wrong message, she needed to mind a solution that didn’t involve him, at least for now.

He didn’t move until the sun set and it started to get cool, only then did he kick into gear and get a move on to the next mountain. He was over halfway done with these dungeons, then he would get to finish off the ward, something that he was actually looking forward to. He had never done anything on a scale this large, and he was excited to start pushing his profession again.