Chapter Twenty Four

"Level seven." Jason said. He didn't know exactly how to feel about that. Though the dungeon was hard, after he learned its quirks, he was easily able to adapt to it. He took a look at his new wisdom and whistled. It was five levels higher than he thought it was going to be.

Seeing his wisdom so high, the only thing that made sense for him to do was add the attribute points from leveling into his intelligence. "If there's a pattern to these dungeons, I might get an intelligence gain from the next one." He said to no one in particular. "Just to be safe though," He saved the points into the stat and grew his mana to two hundred points.

Next his eyes went to (elemental) which was added to his mana saber. Before starting this dungeon, his mana saber had only been able to use neutral mana. After having defeated enough elementals, he had been able to figure out how to incorporate the mana density from his skin to his attacks, resulting in a new element being added to his mana. With just that change, his combat proficiency had just skyrocketed.

When he had just started with Mage's Academy, he had been confined to close quarters combat with an advantage in spatial transference, but that wouldn't do much when it came to opponents with higher agility. Though he was still in the same situation, he could at least use projectile attacks to keep his opponents at a distance.

"Wait." He checked his stats again. "Why didn't I have to absorb the experience from the enemies like I've had to do in previous levels?" His question was left unanswered as his stat screen had no other notifications. He decided to ask Selena when he returned home.

Rising from his spot, added his fire mana to one hand, and his frost to another to attempt to make water, but then realized that he could just activate water instead. He smiled as he filled his hand with cold water. He heated it with a hint of fire mana before washing his face. He didn't know why it felt as refreshing as it did, but he couldn't stand the sweat stinging his eyes every time he finished a fight. Not only that, but washing his face just felt invigorating.

Jason went to the door and tried it. Unlike the other doors from the dungeon, this one opened without the need to either cool it or heat it. Instead, the smallest pull was enough to open one of the doors. As soon as it opened a crack, Jason's eyes went dark. A feeling of inertia hit him and he recognized it as teleporting.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he opened his eyes. He was used to this form of transportation due to his repeated completions of the level five dungeon.

Looking around, Jason was surrounded by almost complete darkness. The only light was provided by small glowing crystals on the stone walls surrounding him. The cave was almost the size of a football field if he were to use the crystals to judge distance. He looked up, but only saw darkness above, the crystals were not bright enough to cast light at the top.

His feet echoed off of a marble floor as he walked to the center. He felt as if he were missing something as he looked around. He remembered the boss of the last dungeon and how he had appeared above him. This made him slightly nervous due to the lack of light.

Deciding on a course of action, Jason decided to use an element he had since the beginning, one that he had yet to use in this dungeon. Instead of casting flash heal, he focused on the feel of the mana and formed it into a ball. Enlarging it slightly, he cast it up into the air, making an artificial sun. The mana drain was twenty mana per minute, which was still well within the amount that he could cast without going into the negative for his mana stores.

He looked up once again and noticed what he wouldn't have without the light globe. The ceiling to the cave was illuminated fully within the artificial sun, and something glimmered above it. Something metallic. Jason all of a sudden had a bad feeling about this area.

Just as that premonition hit him, the beast above fell to the ground. The entire room shook with the monster's arrival. It turned to Jason and screeched something of a warning. The metal of its form shifted as the light hit it, casting reflections onto the rock walls. Jason's eyes took in the large beast that looked to be a metal scorpion, the size of a large fifty two foot trailer, with the truck.

Jason activated his mana saber in its flame element. Before he could lose his nerve, he teleported to the back of the beast and slashed downward. As he did, the blade went right through where it touched. The metal took on a liquid state. As if sensing where he was, the scorpion's tail lashed out where he stood. Jason teleported back to the ground before the tail could catch him.

"Heat's out." He said as he switched his element to water and wind, cooling his saber to a subzero temperature. Teleporting back to the creature, he went for the belly in order to avoid its tail. He stabbed upward, but couldn't so much as dent the skin. He jumped back just as one of its pincers came in to cut him in two. He narrowly avoided the attack and teleported away to gain some distance.

"Well, mana saber seems to be useless here." He looked at his weapon as it fizzled out. Instead, he ran back to the creature and put his hands on the ground in front of it. Before it could attack him, he sent fire mana into the ground, melting marble and trapping the creature in place. He then built up the heat even further, trying to melt the scorpion.

The beast turned a cherry red, but continued to attack with its pincers and tail as it pulled itself from the melted ground. If he got hit by any of the appendages, he would be cauterized right after being sliced apart.

Jason teleported again, this time behind the creature. He added wind and water together as he slammed his hands down to the ground. The temperature of the cavern began dropping fast. He added fire skin around him to protect himself, the strain on his mana began showing as he felt it drop by five mana a second. He knew he only had one shot to end the dungeon, or he'd have to start it all over again.

He held onto his ability as long as he could. The rock walls began to glisten with an icy layer. The ground resembled an ice rink. What was most noticeable though was the giant scorpion that had stopped moving.

Jason activated his fire mana saber and charged the creature. He jumped high into the air, just as he had in the beginning of the fight. He brought the saber down in a stabbing arch center mass on the creature's back. He stood there for a moment with his saber buried deep in the creature. He felt the first fracture before he heard it. He looked down to see cracks form where the blade stuck out.

The creature crumbled to metallic fragments clinking against the marble, echoing against the cavern walls as Jason fell to the ground. He deactivated all abilities, casting himself back into darkness as his headache began to diminish. As it did, he was surprised to feel something else he hadn't expected to feel.

Jason flipped his phone open from his pocket and looked at his notifications:

'Congratulations! You have defeated Dungeon Levels {5-10}

Reward $6,000

EXP 6,600'

'You have leveled up!

'Current Level: 8

EXP: 100/8,500

HP: 160

MP: 210

STM: 95

Armor Rating: 20

Current Skills:

English Scribe: Intermediate

Cooking: Beginner

Cardio: Intermediate

Hunter: Apprentice

Hand to Hand Combat: Beginner

Sword Skill: Apprentice

Spellbook:

Novice Fire: level 5.2

Novice Water: level 5.5

Novice Wind: level 5.5

Novice Earth: level 0.0

Novice Light: level 2.5

Novice Dark: level 1.2

Novice Time: level 2.5

EXP Bonus: 20%

EXP to next Level: 8,400

Spells Unlocked:

Temporal Shift: Mastery: 100%

Arcane Thrust: Mastery: 1.96%

Mana Saber (Elemental):2.16%

Hurricane Kick: Mastery: 0.90%

Flash Heal: Mastery: 2.70%

Revive: Mastery: 0.00%

Sneak: Mastery: 1.30%

Mana Skin: Mastery 5.00%

Other spells may be unlocked upon experimentation and advancement in rank.

INT:21

STR:25

VIT:16

AGI:29

WIS:41

DEF:21

'You currently have 5 attribute points to distribute.'

Balance: $21,916'