3 Master Joro

The leaves crunched underneath John's feet as he walked through the stone forest. His eyes darting through his surroundings. He could feel the hair on the back of his neck begin to rise, a sure sign that he was being watched. However, his stalker had yet to make their presence known.

Terror began to fill John's mind as he thought about the enemy who was stalking him. Terror at the unknown, terror at the thought of those creepy 8 legs as they left the eye of that skull. The terror was mixed with a sense of excitement, his blood began to pump as he lifted his pistol up, trying to locate the enemy who had determined he was prey.

John reached into the pouch on his leg, withdrawing the fang of the spider he had slain. Using it as a makeshift dagger, he carried it in his left hand as he proceeded through the forest. In front of him the leaves suddenly moved, the large head of a snake appearing out of the dense leaf cover. Its large eyes glaring at me, blaming me for disturbing its slumber.

There was no sense of excitement as the blood rushed from my face. Terror filled his heart as the large mouth of the snake darted towards me. He felt a tug on his wrist, pulling him to the side, as a line of blood began to float in the air. The large green and brown snake's head began to slide to the side, leaving behind its body as it quickly began to rot.

To his side a beautiful woman stood, she had dark black hair, and her eyes seemed to be every shade of green at once. "Beautiful" John couldn't help but mutter as he looked upon her appearance. The woman laughed, and the core of the giant snake slowly floated through the air towards her. She grabbed it in her hand, slowly examining it before tossing it to John. "Garbage"

<Silent Strike Python> level 7

Absorb core? Y/N?

"I can have this?" John asked the beautiful woman as she began to walk forward, her hips swaying with each step. She looked back and smiled "Knock yourself out, but hurry up, I don't have all day and he won't let me leave until you're safely out of here"

John's pistol greedily absorbed the orb as he ran to catch up to the woman. "Who won't let you leave?" John asked but the woman only laughed in response. Nothing approached us as we continued through the forest. The Stone Forest seemed alien a fossil, except for the rapid sounds of scurrying that were heard occasionally, fleeing away from them.

"Do I at least get to know this beautiful sister's name?" John asked hopefully, he had truly never met a woman as beautiful as she. The woman looked down at me and thought for a moment, "you may call me Joro".

John smiled "My name is John Enders, it is nice to meet you Lady Joro! Your Mana armament seems so unique? How did you train so that you were so good at it?"

Joro looked at John in amusement as he spoke. "How could you not know how to use your own mana armament? Is it not just an extension of your soul? Do you not know how to use yours? Don't you just point and pull the trigger?"

John blushed at the obvious rebuke. "It is more complicated than that. I mean sure I instinctively know what I have to do, that if I line up my shot, and make the correct actions my bullet will hit its target, but its more complicated than that! The monsters are moving! And more importantly I'm scared! So you know how terrifying it is to face something that is so much stronger than you? Knowing that it could kill you at a moments notice"

Joro nodded. Her face grim as memories flowed into her head against her will. Her hands tightened as a tear formed in her eye. "So then you need to get stronger. You need to face your own fear. You need to train. Courage is not something that can be taught, it is something that you must earn with your own blood sweat and tears" she looked at the boy, who looked so similar to the man she loved, say back before things got complicated. "However I can teach you a skill, a skill taught to me by the greatest man I know, a skill that will help you, but solidify the path you will walk"

A look of determination entered John's eyes as he looked upon the beautiful face of Joro. He nodded "I will take what you can teach me Master Joro, for only if I can become strong can I live. Whatever path that takes is fine with me".

Joro smiled "then you will be my first and only disciple, but once we leave this special dungeon you will likely never see me again. Are you sure that you can take me as a master, knowing this?"

John once again nodded as he looked up at the face of Joro. He kneeled before her "I John Enders, Son of Lucy Enders and Kyle Anderson, Pledge my loyalty to my Master Joro."

Joro smiled at her disciple, the look on his face truly reminding her of the days long past, when her king had yet to take on the burden of the world. "Then rise John Enders, and accept my gifts." Joro placed her hand on his head, sending in a wave of information. A skill began to be planted in his inner world. A skill that she was intimately familiar with.

<Silence>

Lowers the resistance against a person as they move, causing them to move quietly and slightly increases speed.

Ad the sudden information began to penetrate his head, a sharp pain could be felt in his left eye. He could not move as he felt his eye being tore out, only to be replaced by something else. His body began to instinctively fight against the foreign object, but the red mana that surrounded it was to strong, seeming into his skull, taking over the circuits in his brain. He blacked out.

When he awoke he found himself on a stone platform. The stone forest and master Joro were no where to be seen. A large black portal swirled in front of him, and he knew that this was the exit of the dungeon. He did not know what floor it was on, or how much time had passed, but he was at the end, and he was alive. He did not look back as he stepped through the portal, his inner world reacting as he completed the special Dungeon.

A notification popped up, causing john to pause.

<Congratulations on completing the special dungeon! Your achievements through the dungeon have been recorded and you have been assigned the class <Arcane Marksman>. A cultivation method has been deposited into your inventory. As a special reward you are given the opportunity to spin the wheel of rewards!>

A large spinning wheel appeared in John's inner world. It reminded him of one of those wheels you see at a convention, that stops on a random color and you get the corresponding prize. As the speed began to slow down John could make out the words on some of the stops. The reward appeared to be skills, attribute increases, and elemental affinities.

What the spinner stopped on was not one of these prizes however. It stopped on the smallest sliver of the wheel, one that could barely be seen. The sliver became larger as the rest of them disappeared.