Thunder bone (Uncommon)

  A halberd infused with the power of lightning, created from the bone of a powerful beast by a talented weaponsmith. This weapon will become stronger and move faster when imbued with lightning. strike down on your foes with the wrath of thunder. Let none survive the storm.

  (Enchantments, lightning slice, self repair, soulbound)

  Lloyd was unsure what to do, he had expected it to be good, but not this good. His first uncommon weapon on his first completed craft, it really just goes to show how much practice helps.

  Lloyd took the weapon away and went to go test his new halberd. He pushed open the door to the training room, gripping his weapon in anticipation. he swung the weapon around at the dummies trying to test all of the different elements of the weapon, though this proved harder than expected because of how weak the targets were.

  Any target that he stabbed would end up with half the dummy blown off from the force, anything he tried to grab with the hook would have a massive slice taken out of it. Then there was the blade, which when swung at the dummies, absolutely shredded them.

  While vaporising the dummies might be fun, Lloyd found himself quite irritated, as he was unable to properly test his new weapon. Because of this, Lloyd could only practice swinging, until he realised what he had forgotten, that is.

  It was down in the final line of the weapon description, lightning slice. The name sounded similar to the enchantment on his bracers, thunderstrike, yet he felt they would be very different from each other.

  Lloyd held his halberd high, ready to strike, then began infusing it with mana. Blue light began slithering up the handle, snaking its way through the patterns in the bark, it rose at a steady pace reaching the blade in around a second.

  The light spread through the blade, blooming out across its surface, and once it was covered, Lloyd knew it was time to strike. He swung down on the last remaining dummy, the only one wearing his armour, that changed very quickly as his blade cleft through it like butter.

  The dummy was separated cleanly, the top half falling to the floor. Then the second wave came. A trail of arcing lightning followed the blade, scorching and burning all that it passed over.

  Lloyd’s was grinning ear to ear when he inspected the damage, his old armour, while not as good as what he was currently wearing, was still hard as iron yet hadn’t stood a chance. His old chameleonic chestplate had been perfectly bisected, with the contents being burnt to ash.

  This was great, but it did pose a threat to him in a way he hadn’t considered. While he could almost certainly survive a good few hits from the giant miscus, what would happen if it used a skill? If it deployed a skill like the one the miscus in the tree side had used to speed up its swing, then Lloyd was not in for a good time.

  Although probably not as bad as what had happened to the dummy, Lloyd would still end up like Swiss cheese if he got hit. It didn’t mean he couldn’t fight the miscus, just that he had to be wary. Hopefully this shouldn’t be too much of a problem, since Lloyd was ultimately still a mage and wouldn’t be in melee all too often.

  Lloyd looked around, and came to a realisation. There was nothing left to do here. He had accomplished everything he needed to do, and now he had no reason to stay.

  After all this time, he could finally leave.

  He hadn’t tried to leave before, in case the dungeon would kick him out immediately like the system did when sending him to the tutorial. This meant he wasn’t really sure how to leave, but luckily it was as simple as walking into the small room at the end of the workshop where he had first arrived, where he was met with a prompt.

  Leave dungeon: Miscus guildhall

  Yes/No

  Lloyd took a deep breath before selecting yes. To his surprise, Lloyd was not met with the outside of the building, or even a confirmation prompt, but something else entirely.

  Dungeon complete. Result, B tier.

  Choose B tier reward?

  Yes/No

  This was not something Lloyd knew could happen, he hadn’t found out much about dungeons in the books he had been given, but what he had read was nothing like this. Although, to be fair, this dungeon was nothing like the ones he had read about, as there was no objective, just the opportunity to gain a class.

  Normally you would just get some loot from a boss or something, not getting a tier, but getting kicked out instead. However, since he hadn’t fought anything, this did kind of make sense. He assumed B tier was on the usual F-A system, meaning that he had done decent, but not outstanding.

  Personally, Lloyd felt that he kind of deserved an A, for making an uncommon item and whatnot, but he could see where the B came from. Someone truly dedicated might make a whole bunch of them, or get a heap of levels, maybe even getting the next rarity.

  While he was pretty annoyed that he had only gotten a B, this was easily forgiven by the fact that the system was giving him free shit. He didn’t really have a good idea of what kind of things the system would give him, but he kind of hoped that he would get some more potions since he was all out of health ones.

  With high expectations Lloyd confirmed the prompt, but that excitement didn’t last very long. He was faced with the apparitions of three different rewards, and he could only choose one. The rewards were all nothing alike, and the third one didn’t even make sense, there was a massive pile of high quality leather and bones, a collection of over fifty different tools, and finally, a plain, gold, unadorned ring.

  Why was the ring even an option? What did the system think he would use some jewellery for? Problem was, this was the most practical option, the other two both fell into the trap of being too much, they were both amazing rewards, but there was no way he could carry them anywhere.

  His satchel, while able to carry more than it should, wouldn’t be able to contain more than a quarter of the tools or a tenth of the beast hide. While this might still be a decent reward, Lloyd felt like it was telling him not to take them in the way it so clearly outlined he couldn’t carry them.

  He wasn’t sure if it was actually the system influencing his choice, or some other subconscious guide, but Lloyd felt like he should consider the ring more closely. Afterall why would the system bother putting it on offer if it was useless to him? How could he be sure it wasn’t something like the one ring? Of course, Lloyd knew it wasn’t that powerful, but his point still stood, it must contain some kind of power within it. Perhaps a powerful skill?

  With mixed emotions, Lloyd selected option three. Suddenly, the ring appeared in front of him, floating in the air, he grabbed it without a second thought, but his mind was preoccupied with something else.

  You will be automatically removed from the dungeon in 59:58

  Leave now?

  Yes/No

  He was here for another hour. Why? He had completed everything hadn’t he? Or was there something more he hadn’t considered. Perhaps it related to his newest acquisition. Lloyd looked at the ring more closely, it had no jewels embedded, and no patterns engraved, just a blank slate, all he could really comment on was its extreme hardness.

  He was a bit annoyed it took him this long to think of it, but Lloyd tried to use identify to give him some answers.

  Spatial ring of the journeyman crafter (Uncommon)

  Bend the laws of space, all for convenience. Hold a mountain on your finger, summoning anything you want from your inventory with a mere thought. Disregard the laws of physics, they will just get in the way.

  (Enchantments, self repair)

  Full of excitement, Lloyd cut his hand and smeared the ring in the blood. The blood sunk into the metal, being absorbed like it was on a sponge, adding the soulbound tag to the description.

  Lloyd wasn’t worried about this though, as he was more preoccupied with what he had just unlocked. If he infused even the tiniest bit of mana into the ring, Lloyd was able to access a strange space he hadn’t seen or heard of before. It was a plain black room about the size of an Olympic swimming pool and was very similar to the place he met the system in –just without the stars.

  He wasn’t sure what this place was, but he did have a good idea. Lloyd grabbed thunder bone, and sent a mental command to the ring, suddenly his halberd had disappeared and been transported withing the black room. This was perfect, he had been unable to store the other rewards, but now he had more storage than he could possibly need.

  Lloyds eyes shone with greed as he looked at the valuable items all around the building, knowing he was going to take everything that wasn’t nailed down.

  So, it turned out that the system had a lot of fucking nails, as it had heavily restricted what he could and couldn’t take. Most things like the tables, beasts, and most tools had been blocked from going into his spatial ring, but not everything. He had gotten away with the books, a few dozen barrels, the crucible from the forge, the bed, and some tools for inscribing.

  Everything else he had tried to take had just refused to go in the ring no matter what he tried. Not to say he was unsuccessful in this endeavour, he had gotten a heap of good stuff, but a lot of other things like his unused materials, and tools which he had come to rely on, would have to stay behind. All this really meant, was that Lloyd would have to make some more tools himself, which while annoying, was not too hard.

  With everything that could go in the ring stripped from the building, Lloyd only had about twelve minutes before he would be kicked out of the dungeon. While he was still in relative safety, Lloyd decided to quickly go over some notifications he had ignored when his halberd was completed.

  Level up available.

  You have reached lvl 12 in your profession.

  …

  Level up available.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  You have reached lvl 14 in your profession.

  After crafting his halberd, Lloyd had pushed his profession level to 14, just one above his class level, this also brought the benefit of a race level.

  Level up available

  You have reached lvl 13 in your race.

  This gave him a large influx of levels, but his main gain had to come from his latest title.

  [Uncommon Artisan] – successfully create an uncommon item while still in F-grade. A monumental task for most, that you have conquered. You are a skilled craftsman and a future prodigy, may this title bring great renown. + 15 all stats

  This title was amazing, it gave the stat equivalent of more than five levels along with another boost to help with his fight against the miscus titan. Uncommon artisan, along with all his stat gains from the halberd had completely transformed his status page. His stats were all way higher especially after he dumped 10 free points into intelligence.

  status

  Name: Lloyd Tethys

  Race: Human (F) – lvl 13

  Class: lightning mage – lvl 13

  Profession: bestial craftsman – lvl 14

  Health points (HP) 322/337

  Mana points (MP) 310/335

  Stamina points (SP) 238/262

  Stats

  Strength – 152

  Agility – 80

  Endurance – 105

  Toughness – 100

  Vitality – 135

  Perception – 107

  Intelligence – 134

  Wisdom – 123

  Willpower – 92

  Free points – 0

  His recent influx of levels had really changed up his stat page. Suddenly, nearly all of his stats were above 100, and intelligence had been pushed down to number three, behind strength and vitality. The stat gain was great but is did mean he should probably start dumping all of his points into intelligence to push it back to the top.

  Hopefully his suddenly brutish strength would help him out a bit when he went to fight the miscus. Speaking of which, time was almost up

  You will be automatically removed from the dungeon in 0:13

  Leave now?

  Yes/No

  Lloyd got to his feet, taking an offensive stance as he waited to be kicked from the dungeon.

  Reality warped around him, his vision folding in on itself as he was suddenly transported back to the miscus village. His arrival was marked by the thud of metal on wood as his false leg collided with the tree branches.

  He looked around, his eyes trying to adjust to the light after being in the building for so long. All around the treetop plaza, miscus scouts were staring at him, jumping around trying to spread the message, and straight across from him was his target. The titanic miscus was sleeping with its back against the wall, waiting for his return.

  Lloyd was honestly surprised that they were still out here waiting, but he figured they knew he had to come out eventually making it only a matter of time. The leader of the miscus began to stir as his underlings yelled wildly, trying to wake him, but Lloyd beat them to it.

  Miscus Chieftain -lvl 17

  The feeling of identify was what finally woke the miscus from its slumber, leaving them in a standoff across the plaza. Not wanting to give the chieftain any advantage, Lloyd struck first summoning a swarm of mana bolts in the air around him that shot into the miscus’ hide like bullets.

  The miscus roared in anger, charging forward with newfound fury. It moved with extreme agility, running with the dexterity of its smaller kin despite its bulky frame. Lloyd ran away, firing bolts at the beast behind him as he dodged its continued advance.

  This continued for a while, until Lloyd was unable to stay ahead and had to confront his enemy in close combat. He weaved between the legs of the miscus as its four arms tried to pincer him, taking a step back, Lloyd launched a plasma bolt, landing right at the joint of the lower left arm.

  Lloyd dropped to the floor, narrowly avoiding a swing aimed at his midriff before jumping back up to continue the assault. A sudden flash of energy beckoned the debut of thunder bone, he swung for the miscus chieftain’s legs, slicing into its calves with more difficulty than expected thanks to some natural armour he hadn’t noticed.

  He pulled his weapon back, dislodging it from the flesh, failing not noticing a devastating swing headed straight for his chest. The force rattled his bones and sent him flying upwards, he coughed up blood but didn’t let the pain slow him down. Mana bolts struck down on the miscus like spiteful hail as its dug into the beast’s flesh.

  Mana surged into his legs, dampening the fall as he crashed into the ground. With the miscus chief hot on his tail, Lloyd didn’t waste a second, shooting away the moment he touched down.

  The miscus chieftain was getting visibly angrier as it was forced to eat a constant barrage of mana bolts as it tried to pin him down. Lloyd was still going fine, as he had refined his mana bolts to use less than one mana point each, barely eclipsing his mana regen. Unfortunately, despite the abundance of his mana bolts, they didn’t do all too much damage, meaning Lloyd couldn’t rely on them to win the fight.

  Thunderous footsteps from behind him warned Lloyd of imminent danger and he ducked just intime to avoid another devastating strike. Another cut shot blood everywhere as Lloyd pierced the miscus’ lower back and infused it with electrify.

  A booming roar echoed across the clearing as the chieftain roared in pain, but it wasn’t a roar of surrender, rather a roar of defiance. Suddenly a red flash shot out from the beast’s hands as the chieftain activated its first skill. its fists were covered in macabre gauntlets made from beast skulls which still had the spines attached forming a deadly lash that followed each punch.

  As much as he tried to dodge, Lloyd was unable to escape the increased reach brought on by the trailing spines. When he was inevitably struck by one, he was flung to the floor with a scarred chestplate and lacerated arm. He pushed himself up, trying to avoid putting pressure on his arm, in doing this, Lloyd was unable to notice another punch coming straight at him.

  He was rocketed across the plaza, slamming against the central building while the chieftain thundered over to him. Unwilling to back down, Lloyd got up once more, he held thunder bone ready to strike as he made sure to keep an eye on the four bone whips lashing about.

  The miscus shot forward undeterred by Lloyd’s blade, reaching over the halberd to reach him, revealing its vulnerable underbelly. Thunder bone shot forward, slicing across the chieftain’s stomach pouring blood and viscera all over him.

  The miscus cried out in pain, clutching its underbelly as Lloyd dashed through its legs to take advantage of the situation. He quickly slashed at the creature’s legs, slicing into the tendons in its calves.

  Seeing what Lloyd was doing, the miscus spun around to counter him –only worsening its injuries and falling into his trap. Lloyd had retreated back out of the miscus’ reach and was ready to take advantage of the chieftain’s new weak spot.

  A barrage of mana bolts shot toward the miscus, many digging into the open wound in its stomach only furthering its agony. This combined with the torn tendons, made simply moving around a dangerous endeavour.

  The chieftain’s nearing defeat was becoming ever more prevalent as the titanic creature began to look around worriedly. In a last ditch effort to kill him, the miscus began to charge skill in its final moments, energy surged around it, and Lloyd prepared to block.

  Then it came, the miscus’ whole body glowed with a sanguine lustre as it roared towards the heavens in defiance once more, and the heavens answered. Thousands of screams echoed out in unison from the branches above where countless miscus stared down at them.

  The shouts sent down motes of energy, coalescing around their chief as he rose from his knees to face his foe once more. Seemingly back in perfect condition, the miscus stared him down before bellowing out a roar of challenge, slamming its fists against its chest to show its might.

  The miscus roared to the heavens once again, and once again it got an answer. A shimmering rune appeared above its head, its muscles bulged, and it began to grow in height, stretching from an already massive twelve feet to a monstrous eighteen. With its transformation complete, and its skills exhausted, it simply stood there, staring him down to issue its challenge.

  Lloyd stared at the beast in disbelief. Moments ago, it had been brought to its knees seemingly at deaths door, yet now it stood stronger than ever with its gauntlets glowing while the spines hung below them like macabre chains.

  It was undoubtedly more powerful than anything he had seen prior, including the spider he had barely escaped when first entering the forest. This was going to be his hardest fight so far, but Lloyd was not backing down.

  Another barrage of mana bolts appeared in the air, shooting towards the miscus, aiming for vitals like the eyes and lungs. The chieftain tried to block, but was unable to stop all of them resulting in it losing one of its bulbous, bug-like eyes.

  It did not scream as its eye was punctured, but rather advanced, pushing the offensive and putting Lloyd on the backfoot. Lloyd swung his halberd through the air with deadly precision, parrying the bone chains, and gauntlets, as the miscus swung down at him.

  The violent clashes echoed out across the treetops, Lloyd did his best to rebuff the overwhelming assault but was beginning to lose out to the miscus chiefs’ endurance. As things currently stood, Lloyd was beginning to lose, and if nothing changed, he would.

  He held out for as long as he could, and when he saw a chance, he took it. Lloyd rolled between the miscus’ legs, stabbing into its thigh while he repositioned. The chief spun around to face him, but Lloyd had already retreated back to a safe distance.

  The chieftain was swarmed with mana bolts, blood flowing freely from all over its body, it charged forward. Lloyd dropped to floor, earthshattering punches raining down around him, he jumped backward but was caught on the foot by a bony lash.

  Lloyd spun through the air as the miscus surged forward, he tried to gain control of his body but lost all semblance of balance when he was launched across the plaza by a monstrous punch. He slammed into the ground, his skin tearing away as he was grated against the rough bark of the tree branches.

  Lloyd pushed himself to his feet, flooding his face with mana as he shot back into the fight to disrupt the miscus chiefs’ momentum. The miscus charged to meet him, its thunderous footsteps shaking the branches as it bore down on him.

  As hard as he tried, Lloyd was unable to fend off the unending assault. Every clash, Lloyd found himself on the losing end of the encounter, if he wanted to reclaim the upper hand he would have to use his intelligence to his advantage.

  Energy rushed into his legs as Lloyd launched himself skyward, he shot through the miscus’ arms but failed to avoid getting struck while above its head. Thankfully, this was all part of his plan, the strike from the miscus, while painful, was just what he needed to gain more upwards momentum.

  Lloyd fell to the ground like a meteor, a plasma bolt appeared in his hand, and he launched it toward the miscus like heavenly judgement. The bolt struck true, slamming into the beast’s head and leaving a charred scar along the side of its neck.

  One hand gripped its neck on instinct, but the miscus pushed through the pain, it other three arms ready to intercept his attack. Lloyd summoned Thunder Bone, ready to strike down on the miscus once more when they met.

  As they got closer, the miscus chieftain leapt upwards, its arms ready to block Lloyd’s strike. They were mere moments away from one another, the miscus’ fists shot forward with devastating momentum and Lloyd infused his swing with electrify to activate lighting slice. The positioning was in his favour, lining Lloyd up for a perfect strike at its head while his opponent was struggling to reach him.

  Then it all fell apart. Lloyd was flung downwards as one of the bone whips caught him by the ankle and threw him off target, but Lloyd wasn’t the only one. The titanic miscus was thrown across the plaza like a ragdoll by an invisible force, it crashed into the floor sending up a cloud of woodchips as the branches were destroyed.

  Lloyd wasn’t much better off as he had lost the target he was planning to slow his decent with. He slammed into the ground at the apex of his momentum, he infused mana into his legs to try and disperse the impact force, but his metal leg hampered the effectiveness.

  He was definitely a bit worse for wear, but he was in relatively good condition for having fell over twenty meters onto a solid surface. Lloyd began circulating mana to repair his damaged body as he looked across the plaza to the miscus chieftain. What the hell had happened to it?

  The miscus was ten tones of pure muscle, and yet it had been sent flying, what could possibly have done that? Lloyd looked around to try and find the source of this phenomenon, he thought that perhaps the miscus up in the canopy had used magic to make it dodge his strike, but they seemed to be preoccupied.

  Up in the branches, the hordes of miscus were fending off groups of lizards almost as big as the megalanias. The miscus were holding them back with sheer numbers while the shamans began casting spells to finish them off. Lloyd wasn’t sure where the lizards came from, but he was glad they’d appeared, as it gave him a bit of respite in his fight with the chieftain.

  Lloyd’s attention was drawn back to the ground by a roar from the miscus chief, his first thought was that it was returning to continue the fight, or assist its kin up in the trees, but he was a long way off. It seemed that while the chief was locked in a fight, certain creatures that would usually stay back due to its presence had decided to take advantage of the situation.

  The miscus stood in a defensive position, looking around at the air worriedly. Behind it, the air started to shimmer, the colours began shifting as the backdrop of the forest was replaced with a colossal lizard.

  It looked like a mix between an iguana and a Gila monster, it was clearly not any real lizard from pre-integration earth. The beast’s head was massive, making up almost a quarter of its body length, its skull reached almost as high as the titanic miscus at full height, and the beast’s tale was long and thick with a sharp club on the end.

  The creature had a thick, almost bulbous body, but it wasn’t fat, rather densely packed muscle ready to flatten its opposition. This thing was truly massive, almost the size of a small civilian airliner, Lloyd was sure this thing had to be in a berserking state already. In an attempt to better understand the situation, Lloyd tried to gauge its power with identify and was shocked at the result.

  ???

  It didn’t tell him the name. He had never encountered this before, its level must be too high for him to see yet, this was bad, he was not on the same level as this creature. There was no way anything in this village was strong enough to fight this thing. He had to run.

  Lloyd knew that if he wanted to guarantee his safety then he needed to get out of here, but he found himself unable to. The miscus chief was only slightly stronger than he was, yet instead of running, it stood its ground. The chief was unrelenting constantly launching strikes at the lizard only able to land some shallow flesh wounds, while getting pummelled by the lizards earthshattering strikes over and over again.

  It knew that it was its tribes only chance, and if it didn’t stand its ground, then they would all be hunted down and killed by the lizard and its smaller brethren. The chieftain knew its responsibility and was willing to die to give its kin a chance at survival, and if something didn’t change, its death would come sooner rather than later.

  Lloyd looked across the plaza and locked eyes with the chieftain, in its gaze was no animosity, no anger, only determination. It didn’t care that Lloyd fighting it had attracted the lizard, it just cared than its tribe survived.

  Lloyd didn’t like what he was doing, but he started running.

  Right towards the chieftain.