Fate/Beyond Chapter 8: Spleunking. (Patreon)

"*Huff*... *Huff*"

Noah desperately gasped for air as his lungs burnt and his circuits ached. He had just gotten face to face with 10 undead and he barely emerged with his life. Noah leaned against the wall trying to catch his breath and regain his bearings.

It had been several hours since he had started exploring the dungeon crypt thingy. He had decided to retrieve his stash and bring it to spelunking with him as making long trips just to rest wasn't a great idea. So he brought the bags along with himself and left them in the rooms he cleared to deposit "loot" into them.

Speaking of loot, the drops of the enemies were more varied than what he first initially thought. Most commonly they dropped mana crystals, sometimes their weapons and sometimes their bones. And rarely they just drop nothing at all.

But he had noticed something Something way more valuable than simple loot dropped from enemies. Something that wasn't even material.

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Defeated 3x Skeletons

+0.03 Strenght

+0.015 Endurance

+0.03 Agility

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Indeed, defeating mobs actually raised his stats. Far faster than working out. The stats given seemed to depend on the mob slain as zombies gave more strength and endurance yet less agility. Seeing his stats rise visibly with every foe defeated was exhilarating.

Along the way, he also found a second chest containing several red potions which he discovered were goddam health potions. And in one of the rooms he found a unique item. A black tattered cloak that made him slightly harder to detect. 

A skeleton who was the previous owner of this cloak was the first skeleton to actually land a hit on him that was anything more than a glancing hit. While he was dealing with several skeletons at once it crept up on him from behind and plunged its dagger into Noah's back, piercing through his liver.

Needless to say, that wasn't a very enjoyable experience for Noah.

The deeper into the dungeon he went the more varied and harder it became. For example, along with the usual skeletons appeared zombies who had F+ in strength and endurance and an F- in agility. They were slightly tougher than skeletons and could take more punishment but that was it.

They did not pose that much more threat than the average skeleton. Especially when you whip out the bladed weapons such as the spear he brought along. 

But it turns out that dealing with 10 undead (5 zombies 5 skeletons) that all held weapons at the same time wasn't the brightest idea he had ever come up with. Regardless, he had managed to slay all of them after a considerable amount of wounds and a broken spear. At least he got +0.1 in all stats out of it so everything was good. And the true reward was worth it.

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Stage Clear Bonus: Black Iron Gauntlets.

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Of course, the dungeon would have stage clear rewards. He wasn't even surprised at this point. Besides, more loot was more loot and 5 dollars is 5 dollars. 

He quickly donned the gauntlets, and they fit him uncomfortably well as if someone took his measurements and specifically made these gauntlets for him. Regardless, that was only good so ignored it for now and focused on the elephant in the room. The stairs downstairs. Because of course, this was a dungeon, it would have multiple floors.

More floors meant more loot and exp.

Without even an ounce of hesitation, Noah packed up his shit and went down to the next floor. 

This floor was slightly darker with more bones and blood splatters. He could just SEE the difficulty increase. And after a bit of walking the first floor proved that. Because instead of the normal bone boys he would see in a chamber, this bone boy had an actual sword and some weird-looking armor consisting of a bell-like helmet, a chest plate, and some boots. He also held a shield.

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Skeleton Soldier

Classification: Undead

An armed skeleton soldier raised by a necromancer to do their bidding.

Statistics:

Strength: [F]

Endurance: [F]

Agility: [F]

Mana: [Null]

Luck: [F-]

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Although the stats themselves weren't too different the presence of armor and proper weapon made a large difference. But not much to Noah as he was both better armed and far stronger. He simply dodged the skeleton's stab and knocked its head off with his mace. Picking up the drop he continued exploring.

Going about he checked the progress he had made on undead hunter which listed 47/50. Just 3 left before he acquired whatever the reward was. And as if on cue he came across a hallway with 2 skeleton warriors and a walking dead with an axe. Dropping his bag on the ground with a heavy thud he rushed forward.

Hearing the thud the undead turned their head toward Noah but before their rotted brains could respond Noah charged with his sword raised and speared it through the walking dead's head. With a twist and a pull, the undead's head was ripped off of its body. 

The nearest skeleton warrior moved toward Noah and tried to stab him but he twisted his body out of the way and broke the arm off at the elbow using his blade before kicking it down to the ground before turning around and charging at the last skeleton warrior, it raised its shield up to its chest but Noah jumped and swung his blade horizontally, beheading the skeleton and crashing into its corpse.

After getting up he walked over to the downed skeleton and beheading it.

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Undead Hunter - (50/50) - Complete

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Finally, he had managed to complete that damn task that the system had given, granted he didn't need to complete it but goddam it he was curious and thirsty for power. Deciding that now would be a good time for a brake as any, he barricaded the door with a coffin and plopped down, taking out a nutri bar and checking the reward.

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You have completed the achievement: Undead Hunter I

[Reward] Skill: | Undead Hunter  [E] | 

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 | Undead Hunter  [E] | 

The ability to proficiently hunt undead. Enhances the user's skills in hunting anything classified as undead. 

+12.5% damage against all creatures classified as undead.

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[Undead Hunter II] is available.

[ Undead Hunter II (0/250) ]

Reward:  | Undead Hunter  [E] | ->  | Undead Hunter  [D] | 

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Seeing the notifications he couldn't help but smile. Nothing could beat the enjoyment of seeing yourself visibly improve. And seeing these notifications he couldn't help but wonder.

'It seems that according to my actions and intentions, the system gives me tasks and quests to complete. From what I can deduce, tasks are basically the requirements for achievements that give me skills like I am a heroic spirit. And quests are given by the system according to my situation and intentions which provide me with a variety of rewards.'

'I should put a bit more focus on completing tasks then, if the skills are half as good as undead hunter. 12.5% is nothing to scoff at. But for now, I should focus on recovering.'

Steadying his breathing after downing two nutri bars he rested his head against the wall. Yet it seemed like the mistress of sleep decided to play hard to get today. So he whipped out one of the weaker ones of the few enchanted weapons he got and started practicing.

Enchanted items were way harder to use reinforcement on than normal items. Due to their higher magic resistance. So practicing with them allowed Noah to raise his proficiency faster. 

Also, the fact that if he was successful he may be able to use reinforcement on his weapons during a fight.

So he spent several hours trying to reinforce the enchanted weapons. Bleeding several times and taking frequent rests before he passed out from exhaustion 

....

A few hours later he woke with a pain on his back and neck along with a thirst for completing this dungeon. Getting up he grabbed a nutri bar and ate it, washing it down with water before gearing back up and kicking down the barricade he made.

Adjusting his cloak he set out.

....

Undead Hunter lived up to its expectations and more.

This was a true skill, not just magecraft but like a personal skill a servant would have and it showed even at E rank. Firstly a 12.5 percent damage boost against undead was already good but the next part was the one that was ridiculous.

Although it wasn't obvious when he first got it, the effects became apparent when he faced undead. The effects weren't too obvious. But he felt like he had developed an instinct. Like he instinctively knew how to better deal with an undead opponent.

He could better predict their attacks and aim for their weaknesses. Giving him a slight edge up on the fights alongside the raw damage increase. However, the floor also got harder as along with skeleton warriors emerged Zombie warriors, who wore full-body cloth armor and carried weapons.

But subsequently, the loot was also better as the crystals they dropped were now F+ and the weapons were borderline usable. He used both the mace and sword interchangeably. But there was a reason he insisted on using the sword. And it was pretty simple.

Most of the good weapons were swords.

He really couldn't name a singular noble phantasm or weapon for that, that took the shape of a mace. So swords it was. 

Besides, unlike normal swords, swords that are magically reinforced were actually really useful weapons with a lot of utility. So using that, for now, did not really make his combat capabilities suffer all that much. Currently, his swordsmanship was approaching D. It seems to increase way more in action than normal training.

After a while, I reached the end of the floor after a large battle of 15 undead which he had to repeatedly escape from and kite to win. As a reward for clearing the floor, he got black iron boots which decreased his weight slightly by around 10%. But just as he was about to head down to the next and likely last floor he noticed something. A seemingly hidden corridor that was barricaded with planks with some scratches in a language he couldn't understand next to it.

Although the message said floor complete he still wanted to check it out, maybe it would be nothing but it could also be hidden loot. So he went up and kicked the rotten planks down and entered the room.

Inside was completely dark except for a few red torches allowing him to see the dozens of piles of bones scattered around thankfully his glasses let him see more but he really didn't like what he saw. In the middle of the room was a figure pacing back and forth, the moment he stepped inside the figure abruptly stopped and turned around.

The moment their eyes locked, Noah's mind could only produce one word.

'Shit.'