Chapter 14. The Hellish World of Katabasis.

Dante's health had finally been restored to the max and thankfully when the boys carried him and threw him in here they didn't take his bag with all of his equipment. After waiting a few minutes for his mana to replenish himself and putting on his equipment he was ready to start moving. After putting on his equipment he opened up his system stats.

Lvl 7 human (9,000xp out of 10,000xp)

Strength 30(+15)

Endurance 25(+20)

Agility 30(+15)

Intelligence 25

Charms 15

Luck 15(+10)

Health 160(+50)

Mana 160(+50)

He felt a lot more confident with all his equipment on and his health and mana restored. Before he did anything else he finally activated a skill he had been waiting a long time to use Alpha Pup Summon. A medium sized completely black colored pup hopped out of what appeared to be his chest landing on the ground around them. Upon seeing his master finally the wolf pup couldn't help but wag his tail and nudge his hands for affection. Being cooped up for so long was rough on the pup but he had no way of talking to his master yet. Dante decided to activate his Eye Inspection skill and keep it on for now since it didn't cost any mana. He looked at the pup and saw (alpha pup summon 0xp out of 500xp health 100 mana 100. Skills Alpha Claw, Alpha Howl, and Alpha Bite)

He was quite happy with the pups skills and stats. Before he could get to excited he heard a bunch of rattling from the forest in front of him. The pup snarled and it's fur stood up on end before a group of 10 skeleton warriors had showed up. He did a quick scan with his Eye Inspection skill. ( low tier Skeleton Warriors health 50 mana 50.) Dante order the wolf to attack to get some experience and also told him not to use skills that he would watch his back. Somehow the wolf pup understood him and charged. Even not using a skill the pup could kill these skeletons in 2-3 hits. Dante hung back and only attacked when the pup was about to be hit. The pup was agile and only need his help twice. After the battle he checked the system.

(Dante level 7

Skeleton warrior first time kill experience +1,000

Skeleton warrior kill +100

Dante level 7 10,100xp out of 20,000

First time Skeleton warrior kill please pick a skill.

Hard Bones lvl F(a passive skill that makes you take 20% less damage). Skeleton Blade Slash lvl F( -5 MP per use. a sharp slash capable of going through weak defenses.) Head Smash lvl F. ( -5 MP per use. A hard skull is a good weapon.)

Dante went with Hard Bones because he had a feeling he would take damage no matter what on this adventure and every little bit he could shave off might save his life.

Alpha Pup Summon level 1

Skeleton warrior first time kill experience +1,000

Skeleton warrior +100 times 7= 700xp

500xp hit level up 1,000 xp hit level up. +2 levels with 200 experience out 2,000. Wolf pup stats for health and mana +20

Wolf Pup Summon level 3 200xp out of 2,000

Health 120

Mana 120)

Upon exiting the system he went to the skeletons remains and easily found their cores and stuck them in his bag. Right off the bat he already had 10 cores. Before he even had his bag situated on his back he heard more rattling bones. 5 Skeleton warriors appeared before the two with 5 mages coming up from behind them. Dante decided this time he would take out all the mages besides one and let his wolf try to get the rest. Four punches later 4 dead Skeleton mages were turned into dust. The one he left his wolf pup had went straight too it and took it out quickly. Leaving only the 5 warriors left. Dante hung back and only had to step in once slaying a warrior before it hit his pup. After a minute of work the pup had killed all the warriors.

Quickly taking care of his system before anything else arrived he looked at the exp gain from this little battle.

Dante level 7 human

( 1,000 xp for first kill of skeleton mage

100xp X 4= 400xp

Total of 1,400 earned and added to 10,100 for a total of 11,500

First time kill of Skeleton mage one skill awarded please pick your choice.

Water Bullet lvl F( -5MP per use), Mage Shield lvl F( uses mana to block attacks. Mana usage is equal to damage that would of been taken. Can be continuously used until out of mana.) Mages Mana Regeneration lvl F( -5MP per use. Fills up 5 points of mana each minute for 10 minutes.)

Dante decided to go with Mages Mana Regeneration as he thought it would be the most useful currently.

Alpha Wolf Pup Summon lvl 3

1,000xp for first time kill of skeleton mage

100xp X 4 = 400xp

Total of 1,400 xp added to current 200xp for 1,600xp out of 2,000xp.

After skimming over this stuff he again grabbed all 10 cores for himself. After that he decided to scale a tall tree to see if he could see any buildings or anything close. The only buildings that seemed to be close were in bad shape and surrounded by skeletons . Dante scanned them with his Eye Inspection skill. He counted a total of 50 Low tiers. They all seemed to be warriors and mages besides one that was floating around the area. Dante saw it's name ( Skeleton Lich middle tier. HP 200 MP 200).

Upon seeing this he formulated a plan he would try to draw the low tiers towards him without aggravating the Skeleton Lich. He didn't know how well this would work but he had to try. He order the Alpha Pup Summon to attack the group closest and bring them to the edge of the forest where he was waiting for them. After killing a single skeleton warrior the dog ran half heartedly back to Dante that way he wouldn't lose the group chasing him. Soon 20 skeletons could be seen walking as fast as they could. When they got close enough to the tree line Dante jumped out at the group attacking the closest mage.

This time Dante went all out with his speed and strength smashing through each skeleton like they were nothing. After getting 10 mages and 5 warriors his pup had finished the last of its own 5 warriors. They didn't have time to rejoice because the Skeleton Lich had noticed the fight and sent over the other 30 with him in the back of the group. Dante didn't waste any time and took off with all his speed with his pup trailing behind him. He preformed a round house kick when he got to the group and destroyed 4 skeletons at once. Before he could make another attack the Lich had shot off a powerful Water Lance skill. Dante barely had time to dodge this attack but he did and sent a combo punch to 3 different skeleton skulls and before he could be targeted by the Lich again he leapt to the side throwing out a kick that took out another 3 skeleton's.

Looking back Dante could see his pup was going fine it had managed to kill 5 skeleton's all together so far. When one got to close too him the pup attacked with all its might. Seeing how well the pup was doing Dante decided to rush the Lich before he got hit with one it's skills. Dante threw two fireballs towards the Lich and watched 50 points be taken off it's health with the two blows. Right when Dante was upon the Lich it shot out two Water Lances. Dante could only dodge one and the other managed to graze his shoulder knocking off 20 of his own health.

Before the Lich could fire off another skill Dante decided to try some of his new martial arts techniques he threw a Hammer Fist Strike and a Hammer Heel Kick. He knew they both worked because he could feel the mana fluctuations bursting out of his attacks. The Hammer Fist Strike caused 80 points of damage and the Hammer Heel Kick finished off the Lich. Before he could celebrate he was surrounded by the other skeletons. He just threw out kicks and punches in rapid successions before the battle field was empty with nothing but bone dust hanging in the air.

After the fight was over Dante went around picking up cores. If the low tier cores weren't so tiny his bag would probably be full but as of right now it was only a quarter of the way full after adding another 50 low tier cores and 1 middle tier core. His pup had done rather well and out of 50 it managed to kill 20 while only taking a few minor wounds. He checked the system and this is what he saw.

Dante lvl 7

Fireball leveled up to lvl D

(First time kill of Skeleton Lich 5,000xp

3,000 xp earned for 30 skeleton kills. Total of 8,000xp earned added to current 11,500 for a total of 19,500 xp out of 20,000xp.

First time kill of Skeleton Lich one skill awarded please choose.

Water Lance lvl D(-10MP per use. A concentrated beam of water that can penetrate most defenses), Summon Skeleton warrior lvl D(-10MP per use and can only summon one at a time. Warrior doesn't increase in strength.) Lich Charge Attack lvl D( -10 MP per use. a focused magic attack coming out of the palm.) Dante decided to go with the Water Lance since he already had a fire attack.

Alpha Wolf Pup Summon leveled up once. 2,000 experience earned only 400xp used for level up.

Alpha Wolf Pup lvl 4 1,600 exp out 5,000xp

Health 130

Mana 140

After reading all this Dante decided to look in the buildings nearby now that all the skeletons had been cleared. All the smaller buildings basically nothing was left of they were all made out of wood, stone, or brick so that wasn't surprising. One single building stood up mostly untouched and it had a military sign on it though most of it was unreadable. The building was made out of thick steel to stop monsters from getting in and had almost no windows. The front door wasn't accessible so he walked around. In the back he found a large bay door that had somehow been ripped through. Feeling uneasy by seeing this but he still wanted to see if he could find anything useful in here he walked in slowly.

After his eyes took a while to adjust to the darkness he bumped around in the garage area. Suddenly he remembered he had his phone on him and used the flash light on it and stuck it in his top shirt pocket. Being able to see a little bit was better then nothing at all. What he saw he didn't like though. A bunch of what looked like human bones were scattered everywhere. Although no monsters were around that he could see he was ready for any attack should they come. He searched room after room when he left the garage but almost nothing was left. He found a key ring full of keys at the front of the building he decided to grab them even though nothing has been locked at the point.

He kept searching the building until he was down to a final room that seemed to have a wider and thicker metal door on it. He tried to open it but it was locked so he started trying keys. After going through half the keys he finally found the right one. He opened the door and was disappointed at first thinking it was just a small personal library. He decided to look around a little bit still and that's when he got a big surprise. It was a room filled up with level F and few level D skill books.

Dante started to grab every book he thought would work well with his combat skills.

Water bullet level F, Ice Bullet level F, Earth Bullet level F, Air Bullet level F, Thunder Bullet level F, Fire Tornado level D, Tornado level D, Ice Tornado level D, Lightning Tornado, Earth Lance level D, Fire Lance level D, Ice Lance level D, Air Lance level D, Storage Bag Level D( can turn any normal bag into a 50x50ft room to store items. Think about the item when you reach your hand in and you will be able to pull it out. ) Teleportation level D, and Levitation level D. Just when he thought he had found everything he saw two books hidden behind the other books. Transformation level C(a type of magic useful to humans or monsters the larger the transformation the larger the mana expenditure.) Five Headed Elemental Baby Dragon Summon level B. ( each head controls a main element ice, water, fire, lightning, and earth. Passive skill that unless summoned remains as a tattoo on the body of the Master. Grows with experience from kills. Exp 0 out of 500.)

Dante couldn't believe he just found a level C and a level B skill book. The Level B skill book was even a summon like his Wolf pup that could grow with him! He didn't wait any longer and used his system to learn every skill book that he had chosen for himself. Upon learning the Five Headed Elemental Baby Dragon Summon he felt a searing pain on his back that covered about half of his upper back with a dragon tattoo. He summoned that dragon who was only half his size even if it was a baby. The 5 heads were slender compared to the body and wings. It's eyes on each head matched the element that each head had. He went up to it and started to pet the heads one by one trying to earn the monster's affection and trust. The dragon took too him quickly and it even got along with his Wolf Pup surprisingly.

After learning all the skills books he chose the system prompted him. ( I can turn additional skill books into experience if you find multiple copies of have books you don't want to learn. The experience varies upon the skill level of the book.) Hearing this Dante grabbed all the books left in the room. He ended up finding 40 level F skill books and 15 level D books. Each level F book gave him 1,000 experience. Which brought him from level 7 to the top of level 8 39,500exp out of 40,000. The 15 level D books gave him 5,000 exp each taking him from level 8 to level 9 74,500 experience out of 80,000. After he finished the last book he heard a crashing sound coming from the garage. He heard howls and snarls coming from the direction of the garage along with what sounded like fighting.