I had done it, I had actually created a way that I could use magic. Granted… I still needed to test it to be sure, but the armor’s enchantment did not include a ‘Cannot Cast’ tag, so there didn’t seem to be any reason why it shouldn’t work.
As for putting the armor on right now… I decided to wait. After all, my arm was still charred black and screaming at me in utter agony. The burn was serious, having burnt me from the inside out, and the timer on the injury was a full hour long. I could potentially eat some of my Cure Herbs to try to fix it, but they’d probably only knock a few minutes off the timer.
Without a true healer, there probably wasn’t a way to really help with this. I gave a hiss through gritted teeth, focusing on reactivating the Stealth skill that had been disabled by scorching my own arm. As I did, the laughs of the surrounding crowd began to fade, as if they had lost their interest. Note to self, prepare remedies in the future when enchanting a magic skill.
I hadn’t expected the magic to backfire so violently when I tried to enchant it. However, the fact that it ultimately worked opened up a whole new path for me… as long as I was willing to deal with the pain.
Wincing, I leaned back, laying against the ground and using my good hand to stuff the armor back in my inventory. Right now, getting an infection in the wound was the least of my worries. That would just add another injury that took a little longer to clear. Just bear with it, fight through the pain, and try not to scream at the sky. That last one was important.
As long as my Sneak skill was up, and I didn’t make any overt actions to draw attention, I was increasingly less likely for someone to simply decide to walk over and put me out of my misery. The last thing I wanted at this point was to risk dropping the armor that I had just enchanted.
And so, I closed my eyes, trying to even my breathing and ignore the pain. On the bright side, this was doing wonders for training my Endurance skill, which might as well have been named masochism given that the experience was climbing rapidly as long as I allowed a severe injury to persist.
Like that, I waited it out, feeling intermittent spikes of unimaginable torment from my arm here and there while fiercely gritting my teeth. Whatever gods happen to be out there, please don’t let this happen every time I use my armor, that would be the epitome of bad.
Eventually, after the sky had darkened and the noises in the surroundings had quieted down, my arm began to heal. Fresh, green skin replaced the charred flesh, giving a cooling sensation as scabs chipped off onto the ground. Once it was done, I took a brief look at my skills, my eyes nearly popping out of my head. From this incident, Endurance had gone all the way up to level thirteen, becoming a five star skill.
For a brief, very brief moment, I thought that it was worth charring my arm. Thankfully, I didn’t have another piece of player equipment on me, or else I might have been tempted to enchant it as well. Sneak had similarly made leaps, between my earlier sneaking through the forest and the most recent incident of staying hidden while injured, and it was now level sixteen. If things went as expected, the skill should reach the conditions to evolve overnight.
With that in mind, I closed my eyes, letting the sweet embrace of sleep wash over me. Honestly, at that point, I was simply exhausted. Not only had I been up the night before keeping watch for Diane, but my mental and physical fortitude was utterly spent enduring the pain of my arm burning.
By the time I opened my eyes, the sun was already rising. Players could be heard walking down the road, or fighting nearby monsters. I sat up, brushing the dirt off of me. The first thought that came to mind was checking my skills.
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Sneak has reached level 20! Would you like to evolve the skill? |
My smile burst wide, and I quickly nodded. With a level twenty Sneak skill, I could avoid most perception abilities from current players. However, with an evolved Stealth, I might be able to better avoid monsters, as well.
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Stealth (Utility – 8☆): Evolved from Sneak. Allows the user to mask their presence from others. Mana Burden: 0/sec. Level: 1(0%) |
Without hesitation, I activated my new skill, which immediately replaced the old version. Even I felt my figure becoming faint when the skill activated, as if the colors on my body had grown dim.
After standing, I equipped my new armor, feeling a faint warmth emitting from the chestpiece. I wanted to try this out, but not in front of everyone. Looking around, I broke away from the road to turn more south, following the map that had been in the book I read the day before. The Crystal Mole Mine shouldn’t have been discovered by players yet. Give it a couple more days, though, and the mine will be swarming with them.
I passed by the players that were hunting wild monsters, doing my best to give a wide berth to those that might notice me. Thankfully, my stealth skills finally started to act like a real stealth skill, monsters not taking notice of me even if I walked near them, so long as I didn’t purposely make any noise.
This was… a good thing, because the closer you get to a dungeon, the higher the level the monsters are around it. Monsters that spawn in a dungeon have a chance to flow out into the world outside, but that just makes it an excellent feeding ground for more powerful creatures that prey on them. The only real exceptions are places like the Dire Wolf Den, where the outside of the dungeon is protected by the alpha.
Given that this dungeon is filled with crystal moles, the monsters lurking outside are their natural predators, vine snakes. According to the book, these monsters are around level thirty-five, and their favorite meal is precisely the crystal moles born in the dungeon.
Since I knew how strong the snakes were, I was very careful to avoid them as I made my way towards the large mound in the distance. There were red crystals that seemed to grow from a hole in the mount, and many serpents were eyeing the opening with hungry gazes.
Thankfully, they couldn’t enter the cave easily. If a wild monster entered a dungeon, its power would drastically decrease. At that point, it would become little more than prey for the beasts inside.
The only question, then, was how to get in. With so many vine snakes watching the entrance, the chance of one of them spotting me was high. Even if I sprinted in, I’d have to suffer at least two or three bites, their venom fatal.
As I thought about that, I saw a small creature walking out of the cave, red gems growing out of its back, arms, and head. It sniffed at the air, and the serpents went completely still, hiding themselves within the tall grass. Not seeming to spot anything amiss, it walked out, only for a surge of green to cover its body, the snakes fighting over who would get the tasty prize.
My eyes widened, and I immediately sprinted forward, making sure to keep my Stealth active. It might be less effective with my speed, but the snakes were already distracted. Just as I managed to get in, a rather terrifying thought occurred to me…
How am I going to get back out? I managed to rush into the dungeon only because the snakes were busy fighting over a crystal mole. If I was instead coming from inside the dungeon, the thing that they’d be fighting over eating would instead be me.
I cursed under my breath, knowing that I’d have to stay in this dungeon for a while. In order to leave, I needed to meet one of three conditions. Either my Fire Bolt skill had to evolve into an area spell that I enchant onto a new piece of equipment, I become strong enough to break through the encirclement of serpents, or I call for help.
The last option was certainly the easiest, but I didn’t know any players at this point that would be able to help me break out of the dungeon, so I was left to rely on the first two. There was a low chance that I could find a treasure chest in the dungeon containing equipment, though that chance increased the longer I was here.
If someone dies in the dungeon, whether they were a chosen, a player, or a fallen, their body doesn’t permanently remain like normal. Instead, it only lasts for about an hour. After that hour, the body is looted by the dungeon itself. Any items looted by the dungeon are gradually altered by the dungeon’s nature. For instance, a dagger dropped in the Crystal Mole Mine might become a crystal dagger. Coins might become precious gems. There was even the chance the a skill book dropped by a fallen could mutate to gain the dungeon’s property.
Items that had been mutated and stored in this way were kept in treasure chests hidden throughout the dungeon. Typically speaking, the longer it had been since the dungeon was conquered, the more treasure one was likely to find.
Because of the fact that this dungeon was surrounded by powerful monsters, I wasn’t too hopeful of finding loot like that. If I couldn’t, I would have to resort to crafting it myself, using the hide of the crystal moles themselves until I acquired the skill.
As my thoughts reached that point, I glanced up, seeing a number of crystal moles wandering the paths ahead. Some of them used their sharp claws to mine at the gems growing out of the walls, gnawing on them like snacks. Others seemed to be lazing around or patrolling.
I couldn’t help but gulp, sneaking my way through the group. I had my broadsword in my right hand, my left hand ready to activate my magic. But first… I needed to find a test subject, a target off on its own.
This was the downside to exploring a dungeon that had not been conquered in a long time, because it meant that the monsters within had had time to spawn to the dungeon’s maximum capacity. Whenever one wandered out, there would be plenty of energy left to immediately replenish it.
Eventually, I found a path leading off to the side, one with fewer gems in the walls. This was a dark space, and there was a single crystal mole napping at the far end. Maneuvering around the nearly-blind monsters wasn’t incredibly difficult, I just had to make sure to not make much noise, and my Stealth skill did the rest, so long as I didn’t step on one.
I took a deep breath, moving to an alcove in the cave were I wouldn’t be seen from the entrance, and aimed two fingers on my left hand at the mole. Sneak Attack. Activate Fire Bolt. I thought to myself. With the first skill’s activation, I felt a small buff falling over my body, which dissipated as soon as I activated my attack. This was the moment of truth, and I prayed it didn’t cause my arm to explode.
A small, red magic circle appeared at the tips of my fingers, and a thin arrow of flame shot out, piercing the chest of the sleeping mole. It let out a cry of pain, its body lighting on fire before falling over, dead. Good… a successful sneak attack lets me kill them.
Smiling, I soon noticed a swarm of moles rushing in at the cry of pain, suddenly vigilant. I activated my Stealth again in a panic, not wanting to be eaten alive by an army of moles.
When they arrived in the branching cave, they began looking around. Some of them came to their fallen comrade, prodding it with their snouts, while others began to spread out. They weren’t too intelligent, but they were smart enough to realize that something was wrong.
I had to carefully dodge the moles for a good five minutes before they began to recede, leaving only five of the swarm behind. I couldn’t tell if they were guarding the body or not, but they lounged in the cave.
I can’t take five on at once, not yet. I thought to myself, shaking my head. I snuck through the darkness to the fallen mole, placing a hand on it and mentally chanting ‘Collect’. Its body dissolved, leaving only a brown hide that glittered with red crystal dust.
The five nearby moles sat up all at once, looking at the body. They seemed as confused as a mole could appear, but then took it as normal. Three of them left the cave, the other two staying behind. It was time to start thinning the herd.
