Chapter 9: Fourth Boss Down!

“KHKHKHKH”

The worm gives a weird cry in pain and charges. Poko decided to step into the big room since he did not want to get trapped in the long corridor with that things mouth behind him.

When the worm gets close it opens its mouth and Poko does not wait to see what it’s doing. Using quick steps Poko increases his speed as he feels a bit of energy drain from him. He rolls to the side just as tiny pointy rocks fly from the worms mouth, hitting the other side of the corridor.

‘This thing definitely can’t turn well.’

Poko runs behind it, giving the worm a wide berth. He starts to cast lesser fire and surprisingly the worm rolls to its side and whips its tail right at Poko.

He uses his shield to block and gets whipped to the side, taking 3 damage and breaking his concentration. The spell fizzles and Poko loses 5 mana.

The worm turns its head to him and poko uses quick steps again just as the cooldown resets, dodging another breath attack. This time he goes a bit further away, making the worm approach him first.

Poko attempts the same as last time, except this time focusing more on casting. He casts right before the tail whip comes but because he focused so much on casting, the tail hits him hard. Sending Poko 20 feet back and taking 19 damage.

The worm is quick to turn and open its mouth, shooting pointy rocks at Poko. This time he is still getting up and in a kneeling position so he puts his shield in front of him.

The rocks blast him with great force, almost tossing him back. The spikes do 11 damage in total.

‘12 hp left.’

The worm charges ahead, attempting to swallow Poko but he gets up in time to use quick feet and dodge to the side. Poko casts lesser fire as quickly as he can while the worm attempts another tail whip.

This time Poko did not take as wide of a berth, betting everything on his spell and because of that he cast it before the worm could start its whip.

The worm gets hit and writhes in pain, rolling around attempting to put out the fire. Poko casts it again sending his mana to 0 and finally killing the worm.

[Congratulations! You have defeated a fourth Floor Boss!]

The boss dropped 2 skill books, 1 bronze, and a helmet. The helmet has a weird little nub above the forehead and is enchanted like the dagger.

‘Hm wonder what this does. It looks really weird but… I guess it’ll protect my head?’

Poko puts it on and checks the tomes.

[Would you like to learn Prospector’s Insight]

[Would you like to learn Earth Shower]

“The second one is probably like his breath attack, I’ll definitely take these!”

As Poko learned Prospectors insight he suddenly realized there was signs of an ore vein nearby. He checked it out for some proficiency However with a practically full backpack and nothing to mine it with he quickly gave up on gathering it.

He did find some ore in the iron that his skill didn’t know of, after looking at it for awhile it finally triggered and he learned about the higher purity iron but it didn’t trigger a skill level up.

‘Probably because I haven’t used it enough.’

Poko decided to first get his mana back up since he ran out. He sat down next to the carcass and started to meditate.

As he starts meditating Poko realizes his hat seems to be vaguely connected to his mana veins. He draws mana to the hat and the hats little nub starts to light up! The light is way brighter than his little almost burnt out stick.

“Sweet! I wish I had this earlier but at least I don’t have to worry about a light now!”

Upon further inspection Poko discovered a small core inside the helmet, allowing mana to be stored. First he got 5 mana for himself, then 5 for the hat which filled it.

[Congratulations! Your Meditation skill has been upgraded to Meditation I. + 1 AP]

“Sweet! Is it because I did something the skill didn’t tell me how to do? That was true for the flower as well so maybe I can try it for lesser fire. First I need mana.”

Poko started meditating again for another 20 minutes when suddenly he hears a noise.

Poko opens his eyes suddenly, prepared for a fight. Down one of the left tunnels shines a bright white light. He prepares for battle, prepping his spell and hiding behind the giant corpse.

After some time he realizes it’s actually other players! So he turns his new light on.

Poko: “Hello”

Unknown: “Who is that?”

Poko: “My names Oko, how about you?”

Unknown: “Hahaha Oko? What kind of name is that!”

The light gets to the cavern entrance and Poko can see them. The first person is a handsome guy with a bow and quiver wearing the beginning outfit.

The other two are surprisingly Abby and Felsen.

Abby: “Oko?? How’d you get down here? We thought you died since you hadn’t come back to the door!”

Oko: ”Nah I stayed in a cave, how have you been? Everyone spawn yet?”

Abby: “Yeah they all did yesterday, although there is only 100 of us total. We made a camp by the door if you wanna come see.”

Oko: “Oh sweet, only 100? By the way does any of you have the plant knowledge skill?”

Abby: “I have it.”

Oko: “Cool here take this and let me know what happens.”

Poko takes the slightly crumpled blue flower from his bag and hands it to Abby.

Abby smiles pleasantly

Abby: “It’s beautiful, thank you.”

The unknown guy sneers “It’ll take more than a crumpled up flower to get her to like you buddy.”

Oko: “Oh haha no, I leveled up my plant knowledge skill by inspecting it, idk if it’ll work after it’s harvested though. It’s useless to me unless someone can make mana potions within a day and a half.

Abby looks surprised and inspects it slowly, after a few seconds.

Abby: “!! Oh I leveled it up! I’ve been looking at every plant I saw and I’ve never seen a plant it couldn’t recognize, where’d you find it?”

“In a cave, also I have some things to trade for rangers so do you know anyone who isn’t rude?”

Abby: “Well… this is Arcus. He’s a good guy and a really good ranger.”

Arcus gives a slight smile.

Arcus: “It’s fine I’m sure I won’t need it, I can show you some rangers when we get back. We can escort you since it’s dangerous down here.”

Felsen is quiet as always but Poko notices some slight irritation on his face, seems Arcus is normally like this.

Abby: “By the way have you seen or heard a giant worm around here? Some people died to it yesterday and they said it was down here, we think it might be a boss.”

Arcus scoffs.

Arcus: “If he had seen it he would be dead.”

Oko: “…Uuuhh you mean this worm?”

Poko says pointing at the giant Boulder.

They all look surprised and run over to inspect it.

Felsen: “Was it a floor boss?”

Oko: “Yup! This one was hard too.”

Arcus: “I guess bosses aren’t as hard as I thought.”

Abby: “You killed a floor boss! That means you can move to the next floor right?”

Oko: “Yup! I’ll probably go up tonight, if I can find my way back from here.”

Abby: “Well we can take you out. It’s not far from here actually, we are practically under the door. So long as you take the right path of course.”

Poko follows the three back out and it only took about 20 minutes to see daylight again, it’s about 4:45ish in the day.

Stats and inventory check!

——————————————————————

Name: Poko

Tower level: 0

Lives left: 5

Current Health: 20 (45)

Current Mana: 12 (35)

Mana: 7

Stamina: 6

Magic power: 9

Physical power: 5

Constitution: 9

Total: 36

AP: 0

    Skills:

Storage:

Store up to 5 square ft or 500lbs (scales with mp)

Meditation I:

Circulate mana and gather it from your surroundings

Lesser Fire:

Create Fire within 100 ft that deals dmg (scales with magic power)

Ingredient Identifier:

Identify ingredients and their uses

Plant Knowledge I:

Identify plants and their uses

Piercing Strike:

Increase Pierce damage (scales with strength)

Thick Skin:

Decrease incoming physical damage

Hide:

Others are less likely to see you

Fire Resistance:

Resist fire

Quick Feet:

Move quicker with a burst of speed (consumes stamina)

Ore Smelting:

Basic knowledge on smelting ore

Skinning Knowledge:

Knowledge about skinning

Tracking:

Used for tracking animals through various terrain

Silent Steps:

Move quietly (consumes a little stamina)

Prospector’s Insight:

Knowledge on formations and ore veins

Earth Shower:

Earth spell, create a cluster of pointy rocks  within 1 ft, then blast them in a direction

——————————————————————

Equipped Clothing:

Enchanted Miners Helmet (light?)

Leather chest piece

Silk pants

Boots

    Inventory:

200 copper

4 bronze

1 starter sword

1 old tattered shield

1 enchanted arrow ()

1 enchanted dagger (sharpness?)

1 mana potion

1 small bottle of dark liquid (poison?)

1 piercing arrow tome

1 pack

Misc herbs.

Floor boss Bear meat

Spare pants (shirt was used for torch)