Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

Lucan cast a spell through Adrestia, then once again. A shadow tunnel took form, connecting the surface to the underground.

"I am sorry everyone. I have found what I was searching for. I won't be able to continue filming the movie with you right now." He said before disappearing through a shadow gate.

Lucan stood before a set of large iron doors. It may have been pitch black underground. But with the help of Mentas's eye, he was able to see with no problem. Walking forward, the warlock pushed the doors opened and entered.

[You have entered a resource dungeon]

[Defeat enemies to receive items]

[You are a dungeon master and have the right to attempt to conquer this dungeon. Would you like to attempt taking over this dungeon?]

Lucan selected yes.

[Dungeon difficulty temporarily increased]

[Defeat every enemy within two hours to claim the dungeon as your own]

The level of the dungeon rose. Originally, the creatures were around level one hundred, but since Lucan was trying to take over this place, their levels rose to match his.

Taking a look around, A large underground lake took up most of the area. A beach circled around the entire area. Hanging from the stalactites above was a glowing moss that gently lit the cavern in a pale light.

Lucan heard a shifting noise to his side and felt a tickle from his danger sense. He jumped backwards as a snake struck where he had been previously standing.

The scaley creature quickly turned and locked onto the warlock. The snake struck again.

The black short sword appeared in Lucan's hand. He deflected the snakes attack and followed up with another strike, cutting into the poisonous creature.

A telekinetic hand began to float where Lucan's left hand should have been. It connected to his arm through an illusion. He passed the sowrd to his left hand and drew a wand.

Lucan unleashed a flurry of real, and telekinetic, slashes toward the snake. When it would try to lunge and bit him, Lucan would turn into a shadow with shadow form and let the snake pass through him. It wasn't long before the snake lost its head and lay motionless on the ground.

The snake disappeared, leaving behind a small piece of ore. Lucan picked it up to take a closer look.

[You have obtained Seatirte Ore.]

He scanned over the light blue colored stone but found nothing remarkable about it. Lucan didn't have time to study the ore dropped, he put it into his bag and got ready. In the distance, he could see two snakes slither out of the underground lake and head his way.

Lucan decided to act first. He summoned four different Phantom Rogues. The two snakes didn't bother to even look at the illusions. It was withing his expectations. The cavern was fairly dark and snakes were know to hunt through a sort of heat vision. Phantoms obviously wouldn't be giving off any heat.

They were practically invisible when they launched their joint attack against the snakes. Lucan joined them.

Five swords cut through the air. Both snakes took damage, but the only target in their eyes was Lucan. The snakes hissed before lunging and trying to sink their teeth into his flesh. It wasn't easy for them.

Lucan turned into a shadow and they passed straight through him. Turning solid again, a flash bang exploded at the end of his wand. The bright light caused the two snakes to double over in pain. The bright light was something they had never seen before. These snakes had never left the cave and had never seen the light of day. A sunset would blind them, yet instead they encountered a much brighter light.

As the two snakes were writhing on the ground, Lucan and his phantoms stepped forward to finish the fight.

When both their bodies disappeared, Lucan picked up a bit more seatrite and put it in his bag.

One snake was easy, two was manageable. If the amount of snakes kept doubling he would be in trouble. Defeating four was possible, but eight was unlikely. Killing off sixteen of those snakes at the same time… wasn't possible. At least not without a tremendous amount of luck.

Lucan heard something slither out of the placid lake water. It sounded much bigger than the previous snake.

He looked to see what was coming. Slither across the ground was a pale skinned min with the lower body of a snake. In his hands, he held a trident. He opened his mouth and spoke while pointing his weapon at the warlock.

"Alkhjf oihf wfbio lmbc." Said the snake man.

Lucan couldn't understand what he said, it was a language he had never heard before. He considered connecting to the creatures mind to speak telepathically and try and find out what it is trying to say, but his current task was to defeat everything in the dungeon. He needed to clear it out to make way for his own design.

It was easy to tell that the snake man was angry. In Lucan's mind, the snake man was cursing at him. If he knew the language of the snake people, he could in fact confirm that the snake man was cursing at him.

When the snake man spoke and didn't receive a response again, he gave up communication and lunged towards Lucan, thrusting out his trident at an incredible speed. The weapon came so fast that Lucan was barely able to turn to shadows quick enough to avoid the attack. He was barely nicked before his figure lost his physical form.

Returning back to flesh and blood from shadows, he received a piece of disheartening news.

[You have been poisoned]

Lucan instantly felt slower and more sluggish.

He raised his wand and unleashed another flash bang. But it would seem that the snake man had watched the previous fights and was ready for it. He may have temporarily lost a bit of his hearing, but the snake man had his eyes covered before the spell took effect.

Even if he didn't blind the snake man, at least the creature stopped its attack and covered its eyes. Lucan used the opportunity to act.

Shadow bolts and telekinetic slashes quickly attacked the snake man's fleshing upper body. His lower half may have been that of a snake and covered in thick scales, but his upper body was made from skin.

The shadow bolts did decent damage but the telekinetic slashes seemed worthless. No mater where they were aim, when they were about to hit the creature, a set of scales roamed across his body like a shield and moved to intercept the slashes.

Lucan was confused as to why the moving scales would block the telekinetic slashes but not the shadow bolts.

Even if he had the time to find out why, the snake man wasn't going to just stand their and let him experiment.

In a burst of rage, the creature slapped its large tail against the ground and pounced towards Lucan.

With his time limit on Shadow form almost running out, he decided to cast ethereal step.

[Leaving the dungeon is an automatic loss. After experiencing three losses in the same dungeon you will no longer be able to conquer that dungeon.]

"Damn it!" Lucan cursed.

Out of time to react, he had no choice but to take the hit.

The three prongs of the trident plunged into his thigh while the snake man open his arms and tackled Lucan to the ground.

Very quickly, the creatures tail began to wrap around his legs. When the snake began to constrict he was unable to move around.

Using the last few seconds of his shadow form, he escaped the creatures grasp and appeared overhead.

A phantom fighter appeared next to Lucan.The creatures eyes quickly darted to the illusion. It would seem that the creatures heat vision was nowhere near as capable as a real snake.

As the creature got its tail back under its body, the phantom fighter went forward to bully it.

While the phantom fighter bought time and unleashed its telekinetic slams Lucan was able to finish casting soulfire.

The green beam of energy locked on to the snake man and cut his speed in half.

Its slower speed and the phantom fighter kept the snake away from him. Lucan pulled out the poison covered trident from his thigh and tossed it away. The poison flowing through his veins had increased to the point where the warlock could barely move.

When the phantom fighter used up the last of its telekinetic slams Lucan disconnected the soulfire being and launched the soulfire bomb.

*Bang*

The explosion roared, the cavern shook and the only sign that the snake man existed was the sample piece of seatrite laying on the ground.

At that time, three snake men left the water together, trident in hand, and went towards Lucan. The warlock cursed to himself, things weren't going to be easy.