Between the two of us, the crystal mole elites weren’t able to do much harm, so long as we didn’t allow them to get close to us. If they did, I had no doubts that they would be able to pierce straight through my defenses. After all, my defenses were based on the red crystals in this mine… which these moles casually ate as snacks.
Thus, despite Diane’s apparent eagerness to pull larger groups, I did my best to control things so that we only had to deal with one or two groups at a time. Unlike the Fire Bolt skill that could be rapidly cast from my armor, there was an innate delay built into the enchantment on my sword. Since it required me to swing the sword to activate it, and would follow the path of the blade, I couldn’t fire multiple shots every second like I could before.
In total, there were just over fifty moles in the entire dungeon’s floor, give or take for some that may have respawned along the way. In the process of clearing the floor, Diane gained another two levels, while several of my own skills increased in level from the constant usage. Sadly, none of them were nearing the level for evolution, so I would need to diligently practice once I got out of here.
As soon as we had confirmed that all of the monsters on this floor were dead, Diane immediately began to scan the area for any secret passages or hidden chests. Thankfully, there weren’t any traps in this dungeon that we had run into so far. “After chests… boss?” Diane asked, though I shook my head. “Why?”
“My damage output is enough to deal with the elites. However, I don’t believe that I can take the boss out with what I have before he is able to land a clean hit. No matter which one of us he hits, it will be an instant kill if we’re not careful. Besides, we could be considered to have cleared the dungeon now. The only benefit to taking the boss on is a repeating chest.”
“Repeating chest?” Diane asked in confusion.
“All of the chests we’ve opened so far can only be used once for every person.” I explained, shaking my head. “However, there is a special chest associated with the boss of every dungeon. As long as you contributed to the boss kill, you will be able to open that chest, regardless of whether or not you’ve used it before. That’s how people typically earn complete sets of equipment, by repeatedly challenging the boss.”
“I see…” Diane nodded her head. Aside from the experience of killing the boss, and the potential to get its skills or talents, the only thing worth mentioning was the chest. Thus, it’s better for us to just leave after getting the hidden chests on this floor.
As with the first floor, there were a total of two hidden passages, each with their own chests. However, both of these chests were initially locked when we found them. Diane pulled out a small tool from her inventory, and gradually began to unlock each one as we found them. In the first chest, I gained thick leather gloves with three enchantment slots, while Diane received a magic healing potion and a hat fashioned from the hide of the crystal moles with four slots.
In the second chest, I received a large, red crystal shield that was large enough to cover my entire upper body with ease. Additionally, there was a magic healing potion and a skill book for a Martial skill known as Ruby Slash. It allowed me to sharpen my weapon in a similar manner to how Ruby Rampart hardened my body, increasing the damage at the risk of damaging my weapon if I couldn’t break through the opponent’s defense.
Due to the drawbacks of the skill, I decided not to immediately learn it. While another skill would be great to have, that was only if I was planning to make use of it. Otherwise, it would be best to sell it.
Diane, meanwhile, obtained a leather chestpiece, leggings, and gloves. She had already gotten the leggings before, and these weren’t any better. However, she was able to swap out her chest armor and gloves, which had one and three slots respectively. Looking at Diane’s outfit, which had entirely been replaced from head to toe in dark brown leather with scattered red crystal studs, I was somewhat taken aback.
Aside from the accessories one might obtain in the dungeon, and skill books, Diane had gained a complete set of this dungeon’s equipment. Moreover, it was all medium armor, as opposed to getting any crystal plate or robes. She looked at her gear in satisfaction, before shaking her head. “No set bonus.”
I didn’t really know what she meant by that. I hadn’t heard anything about ‘set bonuses’ before. I looked down at my own equipment. For sure, I was doing rather well myself. The only thing that I was missing, aside from the accessories, was a chestpiece and helmet, though my equipment was a mix of medium and heavy gear.
“Can you deal with the snakes outside?” Diane asked me as we began making our way back towards the surface, enchanting all of her new equipment with her Stealth skill along the way. With that, I had no doubt that she could just casually walk out of the encirclement without any worries.
I hesitated for a moment, before nodding my head. “I’ll probably take a few injuries, but I’ll be fine as long as I don’t lose a limb or anything.”
Disregarding the price of the monster drops themselves, we had easily made over one gold just in the equipment that we had found in the dungeon. If the drops were to be totalled up as well, that’s almost two gold from the entire dungeon. All in all, I felt that it was not a bad run.
Diane gave a nod of her head. As soon as we got to the dungeon’s entrance, her body disappeared, walking into the distance. I could sense the snakes staring at me hungrily, even though the sun had long since set.
I took a deep breath, making sure to stay inside the dungeon while slashing out with my sword. The night was immediately illuminated by the surge of flames, and several serpents let out indignant hisses. Just by a rough count, there were at least two dozen. Some of them fled from the flames, while those that had been injured charged forward indignantly, even if it meant entering the dungeon’s territory.
Once inside the dungeon, their power weakened, unable to break through the defense of my new equipment. With a grin, I released a second slash to kill those unfortunate enough to enter, and another at those still waiting. While not incredibly exciting, surviving was more important than having fun.
This process repeated itself until I could no longer sense any snakes lingering nearby. At that point, I leaned down to gather the loot of the fifteen serpents that had either died from the flames outside or had charged in.
Of the monsters, five didn’t drop anything. Six of them dropped Vine Snake Skins, three dropped their poison sacs, but one… when I saw the loot of the last snake, my eyes went wide. Very rarely, monsters could drop themed items. Throughout the entire dungeon, we hadn’t seen this happen once, but once we left the dungeon…
But why is it a bow? I asked myself with a sullen sigh. I didn’t have any arrows, so this was useless to me. Still, I appraised it when I picked it up, my eyes twitching at its value, a full forty-eight silver. It also came with an innate ability to poison arrows when fired, as well as two enchantment slots.
Opening up my friends list, I hastily called Diane before she could get too far away. Do you use bows, by any chance? It wasn’t unusual for an assassin to be a skilled archer, so I had to ask. If this item was good for her, I wouldn’t mind trading for it.
No, only daggers and whips. She replied after a moment. A whip user? Those were rare, since whips had a rather steep learning curve. Still, since this wasn’t something that she wouldn’t be interested in, I didn’t press the issue. I simply activated my Stealth skill to make my way back towards the road.
For a moment, I was rather sad that I had already evolved the Fire Bolt skill, as enchanting it on this bow would probably let me fire it without needing arrows. Though… would that remove the poison effect, since the wounds would be cauterized as soon as they were made? I could try to enchant the bow with the Fireball skill, hoping for the same effect, but once again it would lose the effects of the poison.
I shook my head, storing the boy in my inventory for now. When I made it to Arcanhide, I would look for a basic Mana Bolt skill book. If I used that, the poison should be preserved, and I wouldn’t need to worry about arrows. Of course, it was still a question of whether or not I’d be able to find the book in the first place.
To increase my chances, I sent a message to the three people on my friends list, letting them know that I was on the lookout for that skill, and would pay thirty percent over the market price if they were able to find it for me.
With that done, I made my way back to the road, once again simply laying down at the ditch and letting myself fall asleep. I awoke to the sun shining down upon me, stretching my limbs with a faint groan. I could definitely feel the weight of all of my equipment at this point, especially the heavy shield.
However, as I stood and bit into my last apple, I didn’t unequip any of it. Walking around encumbered like this would help me train not only my Brawn skill, but also Resilience, and even Sprint once I started running. And running was exactly what I planned to do.
After I woke up, I noticed that my Sprint skill had reached level nineteen, meaning that it was just a bit away from evolving. Aside from that, Brawn was at level sixteen. I had a full day of running in order to reach the next village, so it was only natural for both of those skills to evolve along the way.
The Sprint skill evolved into Fast Runner, while Brawn evolved into Strongman. The effects of both were the same, simply dropping the ‘Slightly’ from their description. Upon the evolution of the Strongman skill, I found that my equipment felt far lighter than before. Aside from my shield, I barely felt any burden from wearing the rest of my gear.
At first, I didn’t see many players along the road, likely because those that left early were nearing the village, while those that delayed were blockaded by the wolf alpha. Like this, I only started to pass by people after I had almost reached the village, where I could see players hunting the lower level monsters along the sides of the road.
I needed to find somewhere that I could sell my loot from the dungeon, but there wasn’t anywhere suitable in this small village. At most, they’d buy it for a tenth of the market price, while players would constantly pester me about where I got it from rather than buy it themselves.
I shook my head at the latter idea, knowing that the true craftsman players would still be either back in Brita, or their starting city was Arcanhide. When I realized this, I gave up on the idea of selling any of my equipment before reaching Arcanhide. Instead, I used the little money I had to stay at an inn for the night, and bought a small stack of cheap bread.
To my surprise, I didn’t see Ennolf or Nuoda in the village, so I assumed that they either got stuck in Brita or went ahead without stopping. The latter wasn’t really an option for me, because it was already late by the time that I arrived in the village, and I desperately needed to clean off after sleeping in ditches for the last three nights.
While injuries, disease, even poison could be healed over time thanks to the attributes of the Chosen, filth would not immediately wash itself away. That was the main reason people were willing to pay so much to stay at an inn in the first place.
