Michael didn't wait a minute to call out his system to check on his loot from the serpent.
Name: Michael Arden
Class: Shadow Monarch
Affinity: Divine Shadow & Lightning
Innate Talent: Lineage of the Shadow God
Strength: 1.07
Agility: 1.50
Endurance: 2.01
Speed: 1.55
Dexterity: 1.02
Essence Capacity: 2.05
Intelligence: 2.50
Luck: 0.5
Familiar Bonds: ---
Echoes of memory: obsidian blade fang, Celestial Star bow, Blackcoil Armor.
[Warning: Core system still evolving. Further functions will unlock as the system evolves.]
Michael didn't even have time to check out his system status as his eyes scrolled down to the section of the echoes of memory. He could see the obsidian blade fang and the Celestial Star bow already there, but there was a new memory, and it was an armor type. Michael didn't know if he should cry or laugh about it; maybe the gods were thoroughly looking after him. Michael immediately focused on the name of the Blackcoil Armor to summon its description from the system.
{Blackcoil Armor: Forged in the forgotten age of the gods, crafted from Vaelyxx's own shed scales, bonded with Ebonheart fragments and quenched in the creature's venomous blood—a primordial serpent feared even by the divine, by now lost to time.}
Reading the armor's description gave him a headache as he realized that he didn't know much about the gods and what this forgotten age of gods the system was talking about meant, and what it meant by "now lost to time." Clearly, the system had a habit of using the weirdest words to describe things, almost like it enjoyed being dramatic and keeping people in the dark. But Michael didn't care much, even though he would like to learn more about the gods. He was still weak, even though he wanted to be some sort of archaeologist or was it antiquarian? Anyway, it was one of those two.
Just reading the description made him happy, even though it was just a tier one dungeon armor, and he would soon outgrow it. He decided to check the armor's enchantments.
Skills:
{Venomous Resilience (Passive)– The armor can absorb and resist most poisons and toxins, channeling them into the wearer's strikes.}
{Coilguard (Active)– In moments of desperation, the armor wraps spectral coils around the wearer, shielding them from attack.}
{Ophidian Reflex (Passive)– The armor enhances the wearer's reflexes and spatial awareness, allowing them to react with uncanny speed when surrounded.}
When Michael saw the armor's enchantments, he almost cried out. How rare was it to find an armor that could protect him from attack and poison, and were both active and passive each? If anything else, just this armor made this dungeon trio worth it for him. Now, with this armor, he didn't need to fear anything in this dungeon.
Michael quickly summoned the Blackcoil Armor, feeling the cold embrace of the armor around his skin as it manifested from a spark of light around his body. Michael was finally able to see the armor, and he had to say it was cool and awesome.
The armor was made up of black scales—small, overlapping, and tightly interlocked, forming a flexible yet durable shell across the entire body. The scales varied subtly in size, finer along the joints for ease of movement and broader across the chest and back for added protection. Each one carried a natural, matte finish, textured with shallow grooves that gave the surface a reptilian, almost fluid appearance.
The chestplate curved smoothly along the torso, segmented with layered panels that allowed it to shift with each breath or motion. A raised, coiled serpent pattern was embossed across the center, not painted but integrated directly into the shape of the scales themselves, catching light at certain angles to give the illusion of movement.
Shoulder guards flared slightly outward, their edges serrated like the spines of a lizard, while the pauldrons were reinforced with ridged plating that followed the curvature of the deltoids. The arms and legs were similarly protected with smaller scale plates strapped seamlessly along the limbs, giving the armor a continuous, organic flow from shoulder to fingertip, and hip to boot.
Around the waist, a belt of thicker, hexagonal plates cinched the armor close, supporting a layered skirt of flexible scale strips that hung to mid-thigh, allowing for unhindered leg motion. The greaves and boots extended the scaled design all the way to the toes, each piece molded for precise fit and silent movement.
The armor bore no shine, no sharp edges—just a sleek, natural contour that moved like skin, as if the armor was already part of his skin, and the armor didn't restrain his movement at all.
Michael took a minute to admire the beauty of the Blackcoil Armor and had to say it was amazing. "With this armor, I can hunt more creatures," Michael said, ready to head out in the direction of the other desert serpents, but he would first have to get the serpent cores first. Michael now had seventeen cores with him—sixteen from the worms and one from the serpent. He could decide to sell them or absorb them to increase his strength, but he decided to keep them for now; he would have to think how he could use them later. After all, there were more prey he needed to hunt, and he still had more time to kill more creatures.
Michael went back to the direction where he first saw the serpents and was happy that the three serpents were still there. Michael wasn't afraid of them anymore as the desert serpents were only feared for their poisonous fangs, but he didn't need to worry about that. Now he had the Blackcoil Armor; he didn't need to fear.
Summoning the star bow, Michael released an arrow, aiming for one of the serpent's heads. He was very close to the serpents, and he was sure that the arrow would find its mark. Michael wasn't able to tell what rank the Celestial Star bow was, but he was sure it was stronger than a rank one weapon like the obsidian blade. Normal weapons of low dungeons such as this one weren't given a rank by the system; till now, nobody knows why, as the system normally associates ranks from tier two dungeons depending on the creature you killed. Tier one dungeon monsters were called creatures, which were of a low class, but from tier two dungeons, one would have to face monsters of a different level, which are monster, beast, mutant, sacred, and supreme. These were creatures one would face from a tier one to tier five dungeon. Michael didn't know what tier of creature one was to face from a tier six dungeon, as those were on a higher level. But one thing was for sure: if Michael were to face a monster right now, he would die for sure, let alone a sacred or supreme beast; those could kill him with just a look. Luckily, there has never been a dungeon outbreak humanity wasn't able to face currently with the awakeners there had. Currently, Michael's only desire was to grow stronger, to pass the limit of an awakener to an evolver, just like monsters. Humanity has its own hierarchy of power, which was from an awakener, evolver, ascended, transcendent, celestial. There were other ranks after that, but Michael didn't know them, as that was government top secret. If Michael wanted to become an evolver, he had to conquer a tier two dungeon, but that wasn't an easy feat, as most people die from a tier two dungeon, as the danger increased from tier to tier. An ascended can't challenge a tier one dungeon no matter what, which made conquering the dungeon with someone stronger impossible. If Michael were to evolve, he would be rejected by a level one gate and could only face a tier two dungeon or higher. Since Michael was just an awakener, he could enter any tier one dungeon and could even challenge a tier two dungeon if he wanted to ascend, but like the saying goes, there was no reward without its danger. As the number of deaths in a dungeon was even higher than that of casualties around the world, as youths who team up to face tier two dungeons have a low rate of surviving. After all, one can't exit a dungeon in the middle of conquering it. It was easier for an awakener to exit a tier one dungeon without conquering it than for an awakener to exit a tier two dungeon without conquering it first, which increased the death count of dungeon incidents, which caused many never to embark on the road to ascension, as the risk was much higher than its reward to some people. After all, what was power if you are dead to wield it yourself, which made it difficult for humans to ascend, which in turn causes dungeon outbreaks if a dungeon is not conquered after it matures.