The Forgotten Legacy

When Shaun came to he was lying on the ground, he had been rendered unconscious after receiving the last message, as he couldn’t seem to remember anything after that point. He wasn’t hurt which was a good sign but there was a lot going on that he didn’t understand. His body felt different, not in a bad way, but like something vital that he had been missing his entire life was now present inside of him, making him feel whole.

*Heritage: Azreal’s Legacy has been fully integrated*

He didn’t know of any Azreal in his family line, not that he knew much about anyone in his family; it had always been just him and his dad until he was on his own. Looking further at what exactly this legacy was he was more confused than ever.

*Azreal’s Legacy: The remnants of a lost power, passed on from generation to generation never awakening, Azreal’s Legacy is the hope of a long forgotten race that was hunted to extinction. The legacy provides the ability to more easily connect and harness all elements that make up the Multiverse, however the risk of doing so increases with each element bonded into an Affinity. The carrier of Azreal’s Legacy has been unbound by the awakening of this heritage, transforming the body, mind and soul in the hope that what was once lost can be found again.*

That was a lot to take in, the best part was the fact that he would be able to continue to bind elements into an affinity, the downside was the risk in doing so. He had just experienced how hard it was to bring a second element into his body, the idea of doing it with a third was, the havoc it would wreck on him was unthinkable. He didn’t even have any elixir’s to help him with the process, he would be doing it all by himself, and with the help of this legacy.

The thing that made him even more hesitant to start adding more affinity was that the description of Azreal’s Legacy talked about lost powers and an entire race hunted to extinction, if you put those two things together it was clear that they were hunted down because of the power they had, probably the power that Shaun now had to bind as many elements as he wanted as long as he was ready to risk it.

Looking at what had occurred just before getting the heritage, he had successfully bound his second affinity and considering that the legacy was all about taking on more elements that couldn’t have been a coincidence. The only reason he was able to bind fire was because he found the elixir, which thinking about it now also seemed too much of a coincidence. Why would there be a legendary grade elixir in the tutorial anyway? Why was he the one to find it? What did this all mean?

He was starting to spiral out of control, there were too many questions he just didn’t have the answers for and the idea that someone, or something, was pulling strings and making him dance around like a puppet to their tune was terrifying. Before he could really lose control he needed a distraction, he still had a notification he wanted to look through, anything to get his mind off of the legacy.

*Title earned: Elemental Prodigy*

*Elemental Prodigy: Having successfully bound two elements as an Affinity you have done what few others in the Multiverse are capable of. Title upgradable. +10 to all stats, +10% to all stats*

The new title was fantastic, and all of the extra stats were even better, he felt a lot more confident with continuing on in the dungeon now that fire couldn’t hurt him and he gained a significant increase in each one of his stats.

Status:

Name: Shaun Clermont

Race Human (F)

Level: 17

Class: [Basic] Rogue - Level 24

Profession: [Basic] Mana Crafter - Level 11

Health Points:682/730

Stamina:550/550

Mana:756/1160

Stats: (Available Points: 4)

Strength: 55

Dexterity: 108

Endurance: 55

Vitality: 73

Intelligence: 55

Perception: 108

Willpower: 81

Soul: 116

Affinity: Earth, Fire

Titles: New Initiate, Apex Predator, Planetary Forerunner, Elemental Prodigy

Heritage: Azreal's Legacy (Hidden)

Skills:

Class: [Basic] Short Blade (Level 25 - MAX), [Basic] Stealth (Level 25 - MAX), [Advanced] Earthen Echo (Level 14) , [Advanced] Enhanced Mind (Level 8), [Basic] Empowered Strike (Level 20), [Advanced] Stone Skin (Level 3)

Profession: [Basic] Mana Meld (Level 10) , [Basic] Mana Manipulation (Level 12), [Basic] Mana Attunement (Level 9), [Basic] Meditation (Level 10)

His Soul stat had gone from the lowest to the highest and his Dexterity and Perception had also gone over the 100 mark. His Strength, Endurance and Intelligence were now his lowest stats, he was getting 2 points in intelligence for every level in his profession so decided that he didn’t have to worry about that one compared to only getting 1 in the other two per level of his class.

He still had 4 AP to use as he had stopped putting them into Vitality when his health had gotten higher so now he had to figure out how he wanted to split up his AP going forward. He was relying more on his magic rather than anything at the moment but he didn’t want to reach a point where he wasn’t able to do physical damage. Deciding he would split his AP between Strength and Endurance for a while, at least until they were at the same level as his Vitality.

Having finished off the last of his notifications and done everything he needed to with his stats he turned to start his fight with the crabs. As he walked through the tunnel leading to the cavern he had to resist the urge to play around with his new affinity, he needed the mana for his fight and although he really wanted to see if he could throw a fireball, he knew that it wouldn’t help against these monsters.

When he came to the cavern he looked out at the crabs, there were still 9 of them and nothing had changed, they were still moving around in the cavern with little care or worry. He was about to change that though.

Walking into the cavern like he owned it Shaun went up to the nearest cluster of rocks and waited. The crabs hadn’t noticed him, they acted like he wasn’t even there which was rather insulting, his plan revolved around getting them to come to him rather than the other way around.

“Hello…… I’m here, the names Shaun. Thought you might want to know the name of the person who kills you.”

That got their attention. All of the crabs froze and looked at him, for a second they didn’t do a thing, almost like they were processing what he had just said and found the entire statement insulting. As one they started snapping their claws open and closed in the air, it was an odd sight and rather unexpected.

This isn't going fast enough for my liking. “Will you just attack already!”

Finally they all started to rush at him, they weren’t very fast so he had some time before the first crab reached him, he was already prepared though. Just as the first crab got into range he lifted one of the rocks with his affinity and sent it with full force right at the monster. The rock was heavy and could easily crush a man, his hope was that it could also crush a crab. As he watched the aftermath of the collision he was awarded with an unmoving dead Crab that had its shell completely caved in from the front.

This was going to be easier than I thought. One after the other the crabs rushed him and he met each one with a rock the size of their body, they couldn’t avoid rocks quick enough from a short distance and he was making his way through them with ease. He had to move his position twice, each time one of the crabs would get close enough that when it burst into flames he would be engulfed in them, but it did no damage.

When there was only one crab left he retreated back to the exit, hoping it didn’t follow him through, he needed to regain his mana before the boss fight and he knew that would start as soon as the last crab was dead. As soon as he exited the cavern the crab stopped coming after him, as if it wasn’t able to leave the cavern it was in.

He waited a few hours until his mana was full and then went back in to finish it off. He was impressed with his slaughter of the crabs, he had beaten them easier than he had the lizards and in only a fraction of the time. He went around and looted what was left of the bodies, getting meat, which he was delighted about, as well as their carapace, the shell from the body.

As expected he felt the boss come up from the largest lava pool, this one right underneath the waterfall next to the large cliff-like wall that the lava was flowing over. Before it had even gotten out of the lava pool Shaun had already set up how he was going to deal with it.

He had hoped that it would appear out of the largest pool, just like the lizard, and he assumed the boss was going to be a tanked up crab as well. His suspicions were all correct when the monster finally appeared, it looked to be twice the size of the other crabs and had spikes on its shell that looked wickedly sharp.

*Explosive King Crab – Level 23*

Just as expected. Before the crab had a chance to do anything Shaun triggered his trap. He had been preparing for this, he had tested out being able to find and form weak points in the cavern walls when he first went back to the lizard cavern and had great success with his tests. This time though, instead of a call he used the cliff like edge, spreading his influence throughout the structure until with a thought he could send it crumbling down on top of the boss.

He watched the rocks drop down, piling one after the other on top of the king crab. It was an avalanche of earth, something he was rather proud of, especially as it meant he was going to save some time to get to the next cavern.

Shaun waited for the notification to appear that the monster was dead but it never came, instead the rocks started to shift and then they all exploded out from where they had been piled on top of the monster. He had to dodge a few of the rocks but when he stopped and looked back at the monster he found that it was still alive, if barely.

The spikes on its back were all broken, its shell cracked in various places, and it was missing one of its claws, but it was still ready to put up a fight. Shaun was at a loss as to how it had lived, even after he had dropped that much rock on top of it, but he now needed another plan, it was no longer invulnerable to his bladed attacks, he could easily get his sword or a dagger through the cracks in its shell but he would need to get close enough to do it.

Before he had time to react the crab lifted its remaining claw in the air and it started to glow red, not knowing what was going to happen Shaun backed away as far as he could before the claw came crashing down into the ground releasing a blast or flame on impact that spread out all around it. When the flames hit him he worried for a second before he came to a stop. The flames can't hurt me, so why am I running?

Turning around he stood to face the monster, and with a smile on his face ran right towards it. The crab in response lifted up its claw again to power up another burst of flame but Shaun just kept running at it. Just as it smashed down to the ground he leapt onto the crabs back, the flames washed over him before he landed, blinding him for a second, but when they cleared he could see where he was going to land.

Without a second of hesitation he rammed his sword straight into one of the cracks with an empowered strike, blasting the shell to pieces. He was sent flying off of its back and ended up crashing into the ground, he easily rolled into it and came to a standing position, drawing another of his daggers now that he had let go of his sword, but there was no need.

*You have defeated a (Explosive King Crab – Level 23). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained. 230 TE awarded*

*Class: [Basic] Rogue has levelled up by +1 levels. [Basic] Rogue has reached Level 25. +1 Str, +3 Dex, +1 End, +3 Per gained*

*Race: Human has levelled up by +1 levels. Human (F) has reached Level 18. +4 Ap gained*

Finally, after killing all of these monsters he had levelled up to level 25, he had felt like it had taken way more experience than it should have to be able to get that level.

*Class upgrade available on [Basic] Rogue class*

This shouldn’t have been unexpected, his basic skills all capped out at level 25 so why shouldn’t his basic class? It also made sense why it took so much more experience to hit level 25 compared to all the other levels, it was a milestone level, and he needed to put a lot more into getting it than the ones previous because he got the chance to upgrade it. He was curious as to what he may be offered, he didn’t know if his choices were going to be based on his current class, his achievements or if they took into account everything that he had done up to this point in time.