Three metal rods were embedded around the room, each nearly as tall as Hector. They hummed faintly, vibrating just enough to make his teeth ache. Thin arcs of static crawled along their surfaces, snapping softly in the air.
At the center of the chamber stood a woman, well not really a woman but something feminine in nature. She was small and wiry, wrapped in scavenged leather and torn cloth strapped tight against her frame. Nothing about her attire was decorative. Everything was practical, stripped down to essentials. Her skin was pale and scarred, stretched taut over lean muscles.
She reminded Hector of the goblins he had seen in video games. Basic creatures that were usually found in the starting zone of almost any fantasy video game. He never remembered them being this ugly though. He had also never experienced their smell through a video game either, something he wished he could go back to at this moment.
She leaned casually against a pile of scrap, arms crossed, fingers twitching. Sparks jumped between them as thin threads of lightning snapping across her knuckles.
Hector focused on her.
[Analyze: Belona, Scavenger Maiden]
Classification: Humanoid
Tier: F
Role: Dungeon Warden
Level: 25
Description:
Belona is a scavenger warden adapted to prolonged dungeon habitation. She exhibits advanced environmental manipulation, favoring indirect combat through traps, constructs, and controlled energy discharge.
Prolonged exposure to unstable power sources has resulted in permanent physiological alteration. Electrical conduction is integrated into her nervous system.
Threat Assessment:
High.
“Well, you are quite the loud one, aren’t you?” She said with a bored tone.
Hector slowed, eyes flicking between her, the rods, and the walls. “You running this place?”
She snorted. “Running implies effort.”
Lightning crawled up her arms as she straightened.
“You seem...different, I can’t quite put my finger on it. Mind explaining? I highly doubt it”
Hector clenched his fists, green light flickering faintly beneath his skin. “I will take that as a compliment.”
Her lips twisted into a smile; it was not friendly.
“Good, this would be boring if you didn’t have a backbone, don’t disappoint me boy. It has been quite some time since I actually had anyone fun to play with. Try not too die to fast, that would be just as boring.”
She snapped her fingers and lightning leapt from her hand and slammed into the nearest rod. The room screamed into life. Metal shrieked as the rods flared, arcs of electricity racing between them. Scrap along the walls rattled and shifted as shapes pulled themselves free. Constructs stitched together from bone, rusted metal, and rotting flesh lurched forward. Their movements were jerky and unnatural, but fast.
Hector surged forward and struck the nearest construct. He flared Hands of Triage flared, and the construct convulsed as his fist made impact. Instead of collapsing, it swelled; Hector’s instincts screamed a half second too late.
The creature ruptured in a wet explosion, spraying burning tissue and crackling energy across the chamber. The floor hissed where gore and lightning residue spread. A sting hit his cheek and neck, heat and static biting into his skin. Hector staggered back, his heart pounding.
Belona laughed once, sharp and humorless.
“If that is all you got, I think this is going to be pretty boring. Get him boys!”
With a wave of her hand, the remaining constructs rushed to him.
Hector fought on reflex, punching through one, then another. Each kill caused another detonation. His attacks were turned against him, construct after construct exploded under his fists, as the damage began to accumulate across his body, healing desperately running to keep up.
He ducked under a cleaver made from jagged scrap, felt the wind of it pass, then shoved the attacker into another construct so hard the two tangled together. Another punch landed; another detonation flared, and a spray of burning filth splattered across his forearm.
Belona moved along the perimeter, striking the rods again and again. Fallen constructs reanimated. Others surged with overcharged power, the floor became slick with gore and metal scraps littered the chamber.
“You are swinging like the room owes you money. Perhaps if you actually manage to deal some real damage you can collect” she called out, voice carrying easily.
Hector felt the familiar burn of overheal crawling up his arms. His foot slipped as he took a step, his boot skidded over a patch of wet stone, nearly sending crashing into one of the many metal structures.
He needed to think of a plan because what he was doing now was clearly not working. Then realization landed hard and fast. Not because he was slow, but because he had been trying to brute the problem instead of using his head.
Instead of striking, he shoved, pinned joints, smashed constructs into walls, dragged inert bodies and slammed them against the bases of the rods. Hands of Triage flared at the lowest output he could manage, just enough to disrupt without rupture. He knew the only way to win this was by outsmarting the scavenger, she had home court advantage and that was becoming more apparent
The explosions slowed and Belona’s smile faded. She picked up speed and began to showcase her agility. Lightning cracked past him, close enough to burn. It grazed him, singeing his sleeve, as a spark of pain went up his arm as the arc passed to close for comfort.
“You are learning, good, most who come here tend to fall after the first dozen explosions. So, congratulations are in order for making it this far.” She said in a mocking tone.
Hector grunted, hauling a construct by its metal spine and slamming it into the base of the nearest rod. Static bit at his palms, as he forced the creature to the ground. He watched her hands as Lightning struck one of the rods. The mechanical creations may be activated and controlled by the lightning but that didn’t mean they were immune to it.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Lightning struck again, and the rods hummed louder before activation. Hector had been paying close attention to Belona’s attacks and began to notice specific attack patterns that she favored. Using what he knew, he baited an attack out of her.
He stepped where he should not have, dragging a disabled construct with him and shoving it hard against the base of one rod. Static bit at his skin as he placed himself between two of them, close enough that the air crackled.
Belona raised her hand and lightning slammed into the first rod. The constructs he had gathered at the base began to soak up the electricity. Before the hum faded, she fired again, and more lightning arced towards the rod and constructs. The constructs were starting to die from the continuous attacks, and Belona’s good eye widened.
“No!” She hissed.
She snapped her hand up for a third strike, but it was too late; power fed back into itself. Lightning arced wildly between them as the control lattice collapsed. Metal split with a shriek. One rod buckled, then another. Sparks erupted in a violent cascade, bright enough to bleach the chamber white for a heartbeat. The very constructs that required the rods for operation were its downfall, as explosions resounded through the chamber. The constructs not already disabled stopped, before falling to the ground motionless.
The chamber fell silent. For the first time since he had entered the boss chamber, the room stopped listening to her. Hector staggered away from the ruined rods, pain finally catching up to him. His chest heaved and arms burned. Overheal simmered beneath his skin, as he fought to keep it under control.
Belona stared at the wreckage, disbelief twisting her expression.
“You broke it, do you know how long it took me to set up? Not to mention the cost. I am never going to financially recover from this!” Rage filled her face as she surveyed the wreckage.
Hector wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. “Woops?”
Belona’s lips curled and then she moved. Lightning snapped across the floor like a whip, not aimed at him, but at the ground in front of him. The stone exploded into shards, forcing him to hop back and to lose sight of his opponent. The next lash came higher, aimed at his throat, Hector ducked, as he felt heat flash across his scalp, and rolled to his feet.
He was curious how this fight would turn out; Belona seemed like the type to sit in the back and give orders. Not one to fight on the front line like a brawler, he didn’t know what she was thinking, but still he readied himself, he did not plan on dying today. Belona advanced, one hand low; the other raised. Electricity crawled over her fingers in tight coils instead of wild arcs.
“You think you won because you broke my rods? Well not to worry I can do more than command mindless minions. Now the real fight starts!” she said, stepping closer.
Hector clenched his fists, green light pooling behind his knuckles. “Then stop talking and fight me.”
Belona smiled again and flicked her wrist. A bolt snapped into his shoulder like a hammer. It hit and spread, flooding his muscles with painful numbness. His arm jerked, fingers and legs started spasming. Hector snarled; Pain Suppression activated as he forced the limb to obey.
Belona came in close, fast, and drove a knee toward his ribs. He barely shifted in time; the impact still clipped him, a shock of pain running through his side. He countered with a punch aimed at her jaw.
She slipped it by an inch and answered with a palm strike that cracked into his chest. Lightning burst outward, and the air escaped his lungs as the impact hit. Hector stumbled, boots skidding on the slick floor, but Belona pressed forward, relentless in her attacks.
A second palm strike. A third. Each one laced with a precise burst that tried to lock his muscles and steal movement. She may have been small, but it was obvious to Hector that she was no stranger to combat. Whether that be commanding minions in the back or getting her hands dirty herself, she was the strongest opponent he had faced so far.
Hector forced himself to breathe, forced his focus tighter. He surged forward; letting her strike land on his forearm and absorbed the pain as he closed the distance. His other hand snapped out and caught her wrist. Belona’s eye widened just slightly, and green light flared along his grip.
Belona hissed and yanked back, but he held it a heartbeat longer than she wanted. The lightning on her fingers flickered, unstable for the first time. He drove his shoulder into her and shoved her back toward the wreckage.
Belona twisted mid-step and whipped a bolt into the ground at his feet. The stone burst again, forcing him to stagger. She used the opening and slid sideways, moving with a scavenger’s grace.
Hector flexed his hand, feeling the residual numbness trying to cling to him. Emergency Heal stirred, but weak and sluggish under the dungeon’s pressure.
Belona came at him with a flurry, lightning snapping between her knuckles as she struck. Hector blocked what he could, took what he could not, and kept moving. He closed distance the way he always did, by accepting pain and converting it into timing.
She used feints like a professional, throwing him off and leaving him open. Belona’s palm strike skimmed past his shoulder as Hector’s fist drove into her ribs.
Hands of Triage pulsed at the lowest output; a precise shock of healing-aligned energy delivered on impact.
Belona gasped, not from the punch, but from what followed. The energy did not explode; it slid inward attacking vital point he had located. Her breath hitched and the lightning on her fingers sputtered. She was hurt and Hector did not let her recover. He struck again, this time to the sternum.
Belona staggered, coughing once, a wet sound that did not match her confident posture.
He swung an open palm towards her chest, it made contact and injected healing energy directly into her yet again. Belona’s breath hitched and her lightning guttered and died as the healing energy reached her heart and stopped it instead of mending it. Overheal worked fast and finally there was silence.
Her body went slack beneath his hand. Hector stepped back, chest heaving, and stared at her for a moment as the adrenaline drained away. His hands shook, not from fear, but from the effort of control.
Among the wreckage, something hummed. He pulled a scorched, metal-bound tome free from the debris; its surface warm beneath his fingers, glowing faintly green and blue.
[Skill Book Acquired: Vital Conduction (F)]
Hector exhaled slowly, the weight of the fight settling into his bones. He looked once more at the broken chamber, the inert constructs, the woman who had turned death into a tool, then he turned away. The dungeon was not finished, and neither was he.
This was the first time he had ever received a skill book, and he was very curious to see what it was exactly.
[System Notice: Skill Book]
Skill Books contain structured knowledge fragments recorded by the Pantheon. When used, the information is integrated directly into the user’s Core. Skill Books do not grant mastery. They provide a stable framework upon which the user must build through practice and application. Compatibility is evaluated upon use. Incompatible users may experience rejection, backlash, or partial integration.
Once consumed, a Skill Book cannot be reused.
[Vital Conduction (F)]
Cost: Variable mana, scales with output
Cooldown: None
Description:
Vital Conduction alters the behavior of healing-aligned energy, allowing it to propagate beyond its initial point of contact. When activated, healing energy no longer remains localized, instead traveling through biological systems along natural conductive pathways such as nerves, circulation, and connective tissue.
This conduction may stabilize, amplify, or destabilize life processes depending on intent, control, and output.
Vital Conduction does not create energy. It reshapes how existing healing energy moves and interacts within living targets.
Effects:
- Healing effects may spread from the point of contact to adjacent biological structures
- Enables chained or distributed healing through physical or internal connections
- Allows healing energy to interfere with vital processes when applied aggressively
- Increases effectiveness of healing-based techniques when sustained contact is maintained
Limitations:
- Ineffective against non-biological entities
- Poor control may result in unintended spread or backlash
- High-output conduction increases strain on the user
Hector frowned at the description. “Conductive state,” he muttered. “So it spreads.”
That was enough for now.
He focused on the book.
[Would you like to learn Vital Conduction (F)?]
[Yes] [No]
“Yes.”
Light rushed toward his center. The book unraveled like a ball of yarn as energy flooded into him. A sharp, static sensation raced through his body, like power crawling along his nerves. Then it stopped and the book was gone. He checked his status and Vital Conduction sat listed at Level 1. Hector let out a slow breath, excitement tempered by caution. Whatever this skill did, it was not going to be safe.
While digging through the piles, he uncovered several bottles of healing and mana potions and stored them carefully. He searched the chamber one last time. Nothing else of value remained, aside from some scrap metal that might prove useful later.
After clearing a space, he sat and meditated. He was ready to continue, but not at the cost of his own awareness. When he finally stood, he approached the exit.
Instead of a tunnel, a door awaited him. It was gold, massive, and engraved with the image of a dragon breathing fire. The craftsmanship was so precise it felt unreal.
He placed his hand against it and a message appeared.
[System Evaluation Update]
[Deviation Detected]
[User performance exceeds baseline parameters.]
[Remaining rooms consolidated into a Composite Zone.]
[Effective Room Count: 5]
[Difficulty escalation authorized.]
Hector smiled faintly.
“Of course it is.”