I was grateful that Diane didn’t try to get me to talk any further while I was healing, closing my eyes and simply focusing on enduring the pain. I couldn’t even be bothered to check the specifics of the new enchantment. When I heard the ding of a system message, I ignored it. From what I could understand, it would surely be the evolution prompt for Endurance, but that could wait until I stopped looking like I just got off of a bonfire.
Half an hour passed, and I finally felt the sensations returning to my body. My fingers twitched, black skin flaking off to reveal yet another new layer of green flesh. I need a healing skill… badly.
Unfortunately, healing skills weren’t easy to come by. It was possible to obtain them from the church’s quests, but they required proof that the recipient would be able to put it to good use. This came in the form of both checking an individual’s traits and their existing magical ability. I couldn’t afford to let my traits be known to an organization as big as the church, since there was bound to be corruption in any party that large.
The only other options were trading with other players, or getting them directly from monsters. If the former, it would be difficult because players are more likely to want to use them themselves. Meanwhile, getting it from a monster wasn’t easy either, as there were not very many monsters that used healing skills. Most of them were higher level, or even boss monsters.
Stretching more of my body, I scraped off the bad skin, quickly donning my armor once again. Thanks to that conflagration, I had lost all of my existing clothes, and would need to get new ones at the next village.
Seeing me recovered, Diane walked over, carrying a pair of ruby-tinted daggers. Treasure chests could be opened by anyone, and the loot inside would refresh when somebody new opened it. However, the same chest couldn’t be opened by the same person more than once. Even if I left the dungeon and came back, this chest wouldn’t provide me with anything new.
“Congratulations.” I said, rubbing my throat. My voice still felt a bit hoarse from the screaming earlier.
Diane nodded, sheathing the daggers. She sat down on her knees in front of me, staring into my eyes intently. Even in the darkness, her eyes seemed to glow with determination. “Enchanting. Teach me.” She spoke firmly, hands on her knees.
I blinked for a moment, processing what she had just said. It was only after a few seconds did I realize what she wanted. “You’re planning to add your stealth skill to your equipment to negate your negative trait, aren’t you?”
Diane gave a firm nod, still staring at me. With a sigh, I sat down, clearing the ground in front of me. I explained to her the same process that I had explained to Ennolf and Nuoda. Diane appeared surprised that it wasn’t a specific skill that I could give her, but rather something that anyone could do.
“Is your outfit all player equipment?” I asked, to which she nodded her head. “If you want, I can appraise it for you, so that you can see how many enchantment slots it has.”
“You can appraise?” Diane asked, blinking in surprise. “I see… you don’t need the experience for yourself.”
By now, it was clear that certain skills were starting to become more known to the players. In this world, it was possible to delete skills that you didn’t want anymore, awarding you with an amount of experience related to the deleted skill. However, you would need to spend twice that experience to learn it again. This was known as sacrificing the skill, and was what most players did when they obtained something like Appraisal.
Diane didn’t hesitate, removing her leather armor and leggings, setting it on the ground in front of her together with the two daggers. Thankfully, she still had her basic clothes under her equipment, though my eyes widened at her boldness.
I cleared my throat, bringing my hands to the items and used Appraisal. I blinked in surprise as I looked at her vest, before explaining all of the items in turn. “Your vest has four slots, which is quite rare. It must have been made by a master. The pants have three, similar to my armor. As for your daggers, one of them has two slots, and the other has one.” I told her, pointing to each dagger to indicate which one it was.
Diane nodded her head, quickly donning her gear again. “So… I just focus on imbuing the skill onto my equipment, and related actions can cause increased effect and chance of success?” She confirmed, to which I nodded.
Diane closed her eyes, focusing. When she started moving, I entirely lost sight of her in the darkness. Even my Perception skill didn’t have a chance of seeing her, nor did I hear the sound of her footsteps. I see… she’s using her method of walking as the enchantment ritual. While Diane practiced, I pulled out my scimitar, finally confirming the new enchantment on it.
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Exploding Flame Slash (9☆): Gathers fire along the blade and slashes out, the flames traveling through the air and exploding on contact. Mana Burden: 0 |
My eyes widened at the reveal. It hadn’t become a simple fireball, but rather, the skill changed because I applied it to a sword? Or is this magic ruby highly compatible with fire magic, so the ritual I performed gave it an increase in effect?
My only worry at this point was whether or not this would still give me experience for my skill, though there was only one way to find out. Before that, though… I turned my attention to the other message that had been waiting for me.
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Endurance has reached level 20! Would you like to evolve the skill? |
Naturally, of course, I chose yes.
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Resilience (Martial – 7☆): Evolved from Endurance. Increases Stamina. Mana Burden: 0/sec. Level: 1(0%) |
At the moment the new skill appeared, I felt my body strengthening. I had the suspicion that if I redid the previous enchantment now, and had the fire resistance potion, I might only suffer a ten minute injury. Of course, this was only my rough estimation.
Diane suddenly appeared in front of me, pulling me from my thoughts. “I’m done.” She said calmly, though I felt a hint of joy and pride in her words. Her eyes didn’t seem to glow as much as they had before, and her figure seemed less… focused to me in the darkness. I only realized now that I had been able to keep sight of her so easily before thanks to her negative trait.
Her negative trait would have been excellent on a tank, but for a rogue like her, it was just holding her back. “Do you want to continue exploring the dungeon?” I asked, and she quickly nodded her head, before pausing.
“Wait… need to do another enchantment first.” She said, her body fading away into the darkness again. This time, I didn’t know what she was doing. It wasn’t until I heard the sound of the air being cut that I realized she was swinging her daggers up ahead.
She must be trying to enchant Sneak Attack onto her daggers. I thought to myself, wondering how well it would turn out. I could honestly see Diane doing this routine with any new equipment she gets in the future.
What amazed me the most was how long she took. I didn’t know if she had her Stealth skill active the entire time, but it took her a full fifteen minutes before she approached me, indicating that she was done. It would be understandable if she was turning it on and off as needed, but even so, that is a lot of mana burn to work through.
When she indicated to me she was ready to move, I nodded my head. “Okay. When we fight, I’ll play the frontline role. I’m not a tank, but I’m confident in my ability to take damage.”
Diane’s eyes narrowed slightly when she heard that, but she still nodded. “Then I will be the scout and assassin.”
After saying that, she turned, walking down the hall. Her eyes swept over the walls, seeming to be looking for any other holes that could be hiding a mechanism. We walked until we reached the end of the hall once, and then retraced our steps. On the third time we passed the hall, Diane suddenly jumped up to her right, latching onto a small gap in the wall and shoving her hand through.
There was the sound of stone sliding, and Diane flipped back to land behind me, her figure growing faint. I already had my sword ready, activating the new enchantment on it. The ruby blade lit up with bright flames, illuminating the dark corridor. When the light spilled out and into the room beyond, we saw dozens of rodents suddenly stop to look at us.
My body shivered, but I quickly slashed out. An arc of flame extended from my blade, slashing into the ground just before the pack. Although I missed my initial attack, the eruption of flame spread out roughly two meters in all directions.
When I was using the level one Fire Bolt skill, it took two or three hits to kill a crystal mole before. Now, I was using the upgraded enchantment based on the level one Fireball, which evolved from a level twenty Fire Bolt. Even the splash damage was more than enough to completely kill anything in its area.
Experience surged in, but I was more concerned about the Fireball skill. When I looked, I saw that it had successfully gained a small amount of experience. I couldn’t help but grin. As long as there was experience, I could train it.
While I was in thought, Diane lunged out, avoiding the burst of flame by running along the walls. She used the protruding crystals as footholds, her figure ghostly. I saw the illusion of faint mist spreading off her form as she appeared behind one of the creatures, stabbing it cleanly through the back.
Even with her stealth canceled, she moved with incredible agility. When two more moles lunged at her, she twisted her body to pass between them, her arms whipping out to precisely cut at their throats with her daggers. Afterwards, she kicked off the ground and faded away again.
Now wasn’t the time to get caught up in what she was doing. I had to focus. Now that we were actively fighting them in an open area, the moles weren’t running. They gathered their numbers and charged at us. Well… at me. I was the only one plainly visible to them, having not reactivated my own Stealth ability due to playing the role of frontline fighter.
Lifting my sword above my head, I activated the enchantment once more. I had seen its effects previously, where the flames erupted within two meters of where the flaming slash landed. Then, if I were to launch a vertical slash, what would happen?
I swung downwards, just as the first of the moles reached me to jump. I ignored it for now, watching the flames descend on the pack behind it. The bottom tip of the blade landed less than three meters ahead of me, while the tip landed another ten meters back. However, the explosion still appeared to be two meters in every direction. The only difference was that the flames seemed a bit thinner. The first pack of moles were instantly burned to death by the initial wave, while this second set persisted in pain for a few brief seconds before falling down.
It seemed as though the larger the area struck, the lower the individual damage. With that thought in mind, I looked at the crystal mole that had latched onto my arm, its teeth piercing my flesh. It didn’t hurt as much as the last time I was bitten, and I grabbed the mole to throw it into the flames.
