Exploring the Cave

Faust quickly opened his status screen once he had switched classes.

Name: Faust

Level: 8 (10)

Title: Slaughterer of Bats (1)

XP: 140 / 2400

Realm: Ravendun

HP: 120/120 / Mana: 180/180

Bloodline: Human (100%)

Alignment: True Neutral

Class: Shadow Swordsman

Strength: 14 / Agility: 33 / Constitution: 10 / Intelligence: 10 / Faith: 0 / Luck: 0 / Fury: 1

[Unspent status points: 10]

[Skills: Examine (Level 2), Strike (Level 1), Concentrated Hit (Passive, Level 1), Aura (Level 1), Awareness (Level 1), Shadow Step (Level 1), (Shadow Bind (Level 1) ]

"Level 8…? So the penalty dropped me down 2 levels. I only have 10 unspent points so I have to assume that I lost the other 10 when my level dropped down to 8. I wonder if I'd still lose them if I had spent them first? Probably, the game designers wouldn't leave such an obvious flaw. The penalty isn't that bad… Let's see my new skills." He clicked on the 'Shadow Step' skill first.

[Shadow Step]

Becoming one with the shadows, you may traverse between your own shadow and any shadow in a set radius instantly. As the skill is level 1, the current radius is 2m for every 10 intelligence points.

Requirement: Shadow Class Archetype

Mana cost: 30

Cooldown: 10 seconds

Next, the 'Shadow Bind' skill.

[Shadow Bind]

Bind the target of this spell with chains of shadows. Lasts 1 second per 10 intelligence points.

Requirement: Shadow Class Archetype

Mana cost: 100

Cooldown: 1 minute

Faust deliberated on how to assign his unspent status points.

"My agility is already way higher than the rest of my stats, so I can count that out. With this class, it feels like I'm leaning less towards an all-round fighter and more towards an offensive damage dealer. Both of my new skills currently scale off my intelligence, so I need to increase that. I think I'll adopt a 3:1:1 ratio for now. For every 3 points in Intelligence, I'll put 1 in Strength and Constitution. I need to get a new weapon as well."

Assigning his stats according to the aforementioned distribution, he checked up on his main weapon.

"Examine."

Name: Blunted Short Saber

Rating: Common

Requirements: None

Durability: 3 / 20

Attack: 13 ~ 17

Description: A used saber, left rusting without care. It's edge isn't very sharp, so use with caution.

[No further information is available.]

"Hmm… The upgraded examine skill doesn't show any additional information, but that might just be because this is a beginner weapon. I'll test it more back in town. This durability though…"

The sabers durability had decreased to almost 3, only a few steps away from 0. He probably couldn't use it for much longer.

"I suppose the best plan of action now is to continue hunting in this dungeon until I die. Since I don't even know the way back to the village, the only way I'm getting there is through a revival."

Walking back over to the dying embers of the torch he had thrown on the ground, he used the little light remaining to light another. No bats came at him this time, however, and he was able to explore the cavern he was in. Apart from the entrance, there were 3 other tunnels he could choose from to continue his journey.

"Eenie meenie, miney mo… catch a tiger…" His finger pointed at each of the tunnels in rhythm to the song.

Finally his finger landed on the right most tunnel. With a determined nod, he began walking at full pace.

Towards the left-most tunnel.

'Knowing my luck, that right tunnel was certain doom. Heh.'

As he delved deeper into the tunnel, he encountered a few solo bats. He was able to finish them all with a single strike. The increase in modifiers must have increased his damage since the weapon was the same. Having a new class really was quite handy.

As he walked, he eventually left the tunnel and found himself in another large cavern. Nothing seemed to attack him this time, however, as he was able to explore it completely. There were no other exits aside from the one he came through, and the only thing in the entire cavern was some sort of altar.

Placing his torch down next to it, he began to look over it. Shaped like a casket, it had strange runes etched all across its surface. Although they seemed stationary, Faust noticed that every now and then they would emit a dull glow and writhe across the top of the altar. Perhaps calling it an altar is a misnomer at this point, as it was almost certainly a tomb of some kind.

'Should I try to open it? I'm pretty sure a boss monster will pop out if I do.'

His hands traced over the runes on the exterior of the tomb.

'Well, the only way back to town is through death after all. Might as well give it a shot.'

As he settled on a plan of action, he began to push at the lid of the casket. One thought came to his mind as he struggled against the weight.

Heavy!

Outrageously heavy! He couldn't budge the lid at all.

'What if the key to opening it is in the runes laced along the top? Like some sort of lock to keep whatever's in there inside.'

He stopped attempting to push the lid off and went back to examining the runes. After humming and hawing at them for a while, he came to a very simple conclusion.

'I have absolutely no idea what the hell any of these mean.'

'Am I supposed to understand this? Am I supposed to decode it?'

Struggling internally for a bit, he elected to return to the foundation of humanity in order to solve the problem. Hitting things with other things.

Lifting his sword up high, he proceeded to slam it down on what he believed to be the center of the runes as hard as he could.

Ddung!

The sound of the blade hitting the hard stone echoed out into the cavern. What came next was the sound of pain from Faust.

"Argh!" His hands trembled from the impact, and his wrists were met with a sharp pain.

"You goddamned idiot!" He called out to himself in a fit of anger.

Clutching at his wrist to try and soothe the pain, he glanced over to where he hit the lid. A small, shallow mark was present on its surface, but the runes showed no signs of changing.

Taking out his dagger, he tried to dig into the groove he had created to see what would happen.

'Why didn't I just do this in the first place?'

He didn't know how long it took, but eventually the runes started to change. When they crossed the groove he had created, they started to flicker when crossing the gap.

Renewing his efforts, he began to carve at the gash with renewed intensity.

An unknown amount of time later, he managed to finally dig deep enough that the runes could no longer cross over. It seemed as though he had created a crevice all the way through the lid of the casket.

Putting down his dagger, Faust sighed. What happened next was up to fate.

As the runes continued to writhe and ripple across the lid, they started to become distorted as they passed over the gap he had created. Slowly, they began to swirl into a circle. Unfortunately, that circle now seemed to be missing a part. The rune that was obviously supposed to be there had been replaced by the gap Faust had created.

The circle of runes pulsed for a few seconds before dimming completely.

Faust heard the subdued sound of a click like a lock had just been opened.

The lid began to move.