Archie stood in front of the sealed door with both brilliant-cut pink sapphires in hand. Adrenaline RushThornscourge Expansion,Spirit Bond

  The reason why the Spirit Nucleus lay in his satchel was that he was unable to place it back into his spatial storage. After he finished filling it with nature spirits, he felt a pulse within the Spirit Nucleus, albeit faint, but nevertheless, a pulse, which meant it was a living entity. And he wasn’t allowed to stuff living entities into his spatial storage.

  Spirit Nucleus (Epic) - Empty:

  The origin for a spirit to physically manifest into the physical plane. The type of spirits imbued into the Spirit Nucleus, along with its environment, determines whether a spiritual entity will form. [Redacted]. [Redacted]. Currently imbued with nature spirits that have an intrinsic tie towards Archie Gracefield’s Greater Nature Affinity, enhancing the Spirit Nucleus’ records. Currently bound to Archie Gracefield.

  Weirdly enough, the Spirit Nucleus claimed that it was still empty even though he imbued it with nature spirits until it couldn’t hold anymore. There was something he was missing… a ritual of sorts ... maybe, it was something he’d ask Bralmir about once he finished this dungeon.

  “Hell,” Archie chuckled, reminiscing at a memory that suddenly popped into the forefront of his mind. “Maybe I have to wait nine months till this one comes out.”

  Something he also noticed was the lack of description of what type of nature spirits were used. He wasn’t sure if they were low or moderate nature spirits, but he knew they were more potent than minor or lesser ones. It was odd that the type of nature spirits wasn’t mentioned in the Spirit Nucleus’ description using both Identify and Material Insight

  Putting that aside, Archie placed the pink sapphires into their sockets, making sure his flame-wreathed vines never touched them, slightly afraid that they might be damaged from the heat.

  As the first jewel was placed into the right socket a dark green ripple lit up the inscriptions on the right side of the door, as well as bleaching the pink sapphire white.

  Placing the second jewel into the left socket, a similar dark green ripple lit up the inscriptions on the left side of the door, as well as bleaching the last pink sapphire white.

  The dark green glowing inscriptions sent a pulse of mana that washed over the temple.

  Archie took a defensive stance from the sudden pulse but got back into a relaxed one after he felt the nature mana pulse wash over him. “It cleansed me?” Archie wondered aloud, confused at the sudden clean sensation that flooded him.

  Checking his internal energies he felt...awake, like he took a twelve-hour nap awake.

  Archie questioned before checking his reserves where he saw that they were fully topped off. “What a great dungeon,” Archie chuckled.

  After nature mana pulsed from the Laterite door, it creaked open, groaning as it grinded against the uneven Laterite flooring.

  “Automatic doors,” Archie mused before walking through the previously sealed door. “This is just proving the superiority of nature-based dungeons, over other dungeons,” Archie smiled. Thalindra's dungeon was a high-tech simulation dungeon, the dinosaur dungeon had well dinosaurs, and this one has insane storytelling alongside illusions and an automatic door that restores your reserves.

  Compared to the other dungeons he’d completed; nature ones were certainly more interesting in Archie's experience. One he certainly had no bias in nor were there any other viewpoints he was willing to take on.

  Walking through the doorway Archie took in the rotunda he found himself within. It was certainly large, spanning half a kilometer in diameter. Along the walls of the rotunda were various inscriptions that now glowed a dark green color with flying dark green tufts of nature mana that lit up the room.

  On two opposite ends of the rotunda were twin winding stairs that crept along the rotunda’s walls and as they reached the top the stairs intertwined with themselves, producing a small platform of sorts.

  On the laterite floors were various images of lizard people dancing around some sort of hairy worm. The next few images seemingly describe a story of sorts where some lizard person would run into the forest and retrieve some sort of creature. Then, once brought into the rotunda they’d carve out its core and walk up the stairs, all the while people on the ground danced and sung.

  Once they reached the top of the stairs, they placed the core on a table, banged together ceremonial cymbals while chanting a few words then…darkness.

  "I guess I know what I have to do next," Archie remarked as he stood before the staircase. He had followed the trail of images on the ground, which had guided him to the stairs, further pushing his belief that this was what he had to do.

  Archie quickly ran up the stairs, taking in the scenery. The glossy-looking emerald plates, covered in dust that hugged the walls, the still lizard people that danced as he ran up the stairs, the claw marking that scratched the laterite walls…claw markings?

  Shrugging his head, Archie arrived in front of the table, where atop it were brass ceremonial cymbals. Taking out a Venomspitter Ant Insectoid Core and placing it atop the table, Archie picked up the cymbals.

  “Uh,” Archie muttered while holding up the cymbals. “Dinner’s here you hairy worm,” Archie announced before banging the cymbals.

  The clash of the symbols resonated throughout the rotunda, tearing through the previous silence. Its echo lingered for a few more moments before silence once again overtook the rotunda.

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  “Did I fuck up?” Archie wondered as he still held up the cymbals when suddenly the rotunda started to shake along with the platform where Archie stood on. Archie quickly grabbed onto the rails, in an attempt to stabilize himself.

  Suddenly, Archie heard a deep rumble from above, making him look straight up as something burst through the ceiling.

  As Archie first set eyes on the creature, the first words that came to mind were, “That ain’t no hairy worm.”

  [Temple Guardian Lv 96]

  The Temple Guardian’s exoskeleton looked as though it were made from perfectly shined obsidian, its body; far too long for Archie to estimate, but judging how it was still coming out of the ceiling, it was well over 10 meters long and three meters wide. The stringy bits he assumed to be hair were in fact legs…hundreds of them.

  “That’s a fucking centipede!” Archie shouted, a smile spreading across his face. The centipede chittered in rage as it jerked towards Archie.

  He kicked off the railing and jumped away, just before the centipede’s face crashed into the platform. Surging nature mana into the vines around his fists, the vines exploded towards the giant centipede in front of him.

  Once they gripped onto its body, Archie was jerked downwards towards the ground. Retracting the vines, Archie flooded stamina into his legs as he crashed feet-first into the centipede.

  The blow slammed the centipede into the emerald-plated walls, sending cracks all along the wall, with laterite and emerald rubble falling to the ground.

  Surging nature mana around the vines on his feet, he stabilized his feet onto the centipede and twisted forward his body to rain blows onto the centipede. His fists smashed onto its obsidian-plated exoskeleton, the first few blows of Relentless Flurry

  Archie constantly had to stabilize himself as the centipede kept writhing in pain as they were free falling. Archie kept up his barrage of blows, but as he saw the floor a hundred meters away, he released the vines around his feet and kicked off the centipede’s large body.

  Soaring through the air, at his apex Archie grabbed onto the railing of the half-destroyed staircase, before flipping himself to face the ground. He flooded his being with even more mana and stamina, flooding himself with adrenaline as he brought Adrenaline Rush

  Archie launched himself off the staircase as he saw the centipede crash into the ground, chittering in pain and flooding the bottom floor with dust, semi-obscuring its form.

  As Archie launched himself towards the centipede, he activated Savage Charge

  Taking in a deep breath, Archie felt his throat start to rumble, his smile widening as the rush he felt was soaring. Archie released a guttural roar that resounded throughout the rotunda and temple, shaking everything not bolted onto the ground.

  The centipede froze its writhing as a sense of fear flooded its mind, halting its spew of toxic liquid and its feet in place.

  Archie felt his vocal cords turn to mush and swallowed both the blood that filled his throat and the shredded flesh, as the moment he landed on the ground he needed to go all out to end the fight without being distracted by his mouth being full of blood and shredded flesh.

  Just as Archie smashed both of his fists onto the midsection of the centipede, he activated Impact Dynamo into both his fists, releasing their 50% full contents into its stomach.

  The blow exploded off the upper and lower half of the centipede’s body and sent Archie crashing backwards into the wall of the rotunda. The centipede’s halves thrashed around in pain, spewing out its toxic contents and seared flesh with every jerk it made.

  When Archie slammed into the wall, he leaned forwards before smashing his shoulders backwards into the wall, popping them back into place. Just as Archie peeled off the wall due to gravity’s call, his feet latched onto the wall for a moment as he dug his vines into the wall before he activated Savage Charge

  Archie crashed onto the skull of the centipede, his blow shattering its exoskeleton-covered head and revealing its twitching flesh. But Archie lunged to smash its two Ocelli in the front with his right fist and smashed his other fist into its head. Flooding nature mana into the vines around his fists, vines exploded throughout its body, ripping through its tough, corded muscle before Archie made the thorns start gyrating like a chainsaw, shredding its muscles and turning its insides to liquid.

  Archie kept himself stable onto the centipede by digging the vines around his feet into its body and covering himself with Material Carapace as the Sentinel Platiniteshell covered his upper body and head. Thus, allowing him to negate the damage from being slammed into the wall from the writhing centipede and shielding him from the splotches of toxic liquid that covered the floor of the rotunda.

  After what felt like riding the greatest roller coaster of his life, the centipede slowly came to a halt before collapsing onto the floor and laying in its toxic fluids.

  “That..was…” Archie croaked, “fun,” his vocal cords slightly repaired from the repeated use of Leeching Strikes of Fury

  Suddenly Archie felt goosebumps flare across his back as he quickly spun around blocking his face and torso with his Sentinel Platiniteshell shields from his bracers as moments later, the second half of the centipede lunged at him, smashing him into the rotunda wall behind him.

  Archie‘s breath left his lungs as he slammed into the wall, causing him to heave at the sudden loss of air. Archie felt it spew its toxic fluids onto his body and its mandibles start to squeeze him into.

  Archie started to laugh as toxins covered his form and its mandibles grinded against his armor.

  When he was shredding its upper body with Thornscourge Expansion

  But now…now, this was fun. This is why Nature Affinity dungeons are amazing.

  Archie flooded his body with more mana and stamina, raising Adrenaline Rush

  Archie commanded the vines around his body to jut out thorns in every direction before making them jerk around his body, not unlike a chainsaw. Archie felt his thorns grind into the centipede’s mandibles; the rumbling from his thorns was akin to music to his ears.

  Archie grit his teeth as he puffed out his chest against the giant centipede’s insane jaw strength, giving him purchase to move each of his arms to wrap around the mandibles that locked him in place.

  With a roar of joy, Archie ripped off the centipede’s mandibles and launched himself into its shocked face. His knee smashing across its jaws and destroying its inner fangs and the vines around his hand created a thorn that pierced into its skull before, like the blade on a chainsaw, it started to shred through its skull and its contents allowing Archie to easily yank his knee back, ripping through its face completely.

  As the centipede fell backwards in pain, Archie pressed on forwards, activating Relentless Flurry

  As Archie was about to pull his fists back once more to continue his barrage of blows he saw its vital energy bottom out, completely drained out.

  Standing atop its corpse, Archie let out a breath of air, smiling as he did. “I love Nature Affinity dungeons.”

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