I spent the rest of yesterday after the breakfast conversation sitting around, and it left me feeling completely restless. My body is probably hating the fact that I was unconscious for over four days and then stagnant all of yesterday.
I walk out late to my second breakfast at Maria’s house, and after another lively, but measurably less emotional meal, I ask, “Can someone show me the way to The Haul today? My HP is back to full, and I’m still pretty far behind you guys. I’m also getting a bit restless sitting around waiting to become as strong as you guys.”
Maria thinks for a moment and then says, “Carlos, why don’t you go with him? It’s safer to travel in groups, and I need you to pick up some items from the dungeon market to restock my forge and my pantry anyway.”
“Yeah, that works. I’ve been needing to restock on potions soon anyway.” Carlos says.
-
Thirty minutes of dragging my hammer and mostly silent traveling later, we arrive with a list of things to buy for Maria. I turn to Carlos and say, “Thanks for the directions; I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to manage my way back.” I turn and leave him at the dungeon market, heading for the information desk, where I’m sure Thomas will be absolutely thrilled to see me.
As I walk up, Thomas begins speaking to me, “Mr. Ward. I see you’ve come without your party today. I presume you’ll be wanting to go solo diving again? It did go so very spectacularly the first time after all.”
“Uh, I,” I begin. I can’t tell if he’s being serious or being sarcastic. I’m honestly not sure I’ll ever understand this guy. I sigh and continue, “Yeah, I’m diving solo again. Can you set me up with a dungeon that’s decently safe for diving at around Level forty?”
“Unfortunately, I can’t do that, Mr. Ward. In order to solo dive in a dungeon, you are required to have killed a dungeon boss that is comparable in level to the standard monsters in the dungeon you wish to proceed in. You would need to begin working your way up, starting with the Goblin dungeon.” Thomas answers with a thin smile that I can’t begin to read.
“But I’m Level 43! That’s just a waste of my time! Ugh, how many dungeons would I need to go through in order to get to fighting Level 40 monsters?” I ask.
“Don’t worry about it, Thomas. I’m going in with him. Let’s see. Can you set us up with the Minotaur dungeon? Party of two?” I turn as I hear Carlos speaking as he walks up from behind me.
“Of course, Mr. Perez. That will be twenty-five Silver.” Thomas answers, looking past me.
"Actually, we’ll do the fifty-fifty split today. Less of a grind for items, more of a grind for Levels.” Carlos responds.
“Wonderful. The Haul will be glad to facilitate this. Please hold still while we annotate the MP of your current items.” Thomas says as he pulls out his mana reader and steps out from behind the counter. After waving it over us, he writes down a note of the MP and asks, “I assume you know the way, Mr. Perez?”
“That I do, Thomas.” Carlos responds as he gestures for me to follow and begins walking away.
“It seems like a dumb rule that I have to clear every other dungeon before I can go diving where there are monsters around my Level. I appreciate you covering for me.” I say as we walk up to the shop that used to sell all of my favorite lifting gear. I realize it’s somewhat untouched other than the clothing as Carlos speaks.
“What do you mean covering for you? I just figured that if I was going to be here already, I might as well teach you how to fight. I watched you in that last one, and let’s just say there’s room for improvement. I want to save your life as little as possible, and with the way you fight currently, that’s not gonna be happening.” Carlos says with a smug laugh.
“I wasn’t planning to be critiqued today, but sure. Care to tell me about the Minotaur dungeon then?” I ask, deflating slightly at the realization that Carlos is not only coming along but will also be telling me how much I suck.
“Nah.”
“Nah? What do you mean, ‘Nah’? Isn’t your whole thing about knowing your enemy?” I say with more than a hint of bewilderment.
“You won’t always be able to do that. It’s great when you can, but what happens if you dive into a dungeon that isn’t regulated? How about this? Kill one, and let me know what you think of them. It’ll also help me to figure out how well you can actually handle yourself. Give me as much detail as you can, and then I’ll fill in the rest.” Carlos answers, acknowledging my frustrations with a shit-eating grin.
We enter the green portal, and as I go to continue complaining, Carlos cuts me off to say, “Listen. I know this is unorthodox, but just trust me. If it helps, you can think of me as a personal trainer.”
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“Yeah, alright. Why don’t we see how it goes, and then we can talk about it?” I respond.
“Great. By the way, this dungeon is a bit different than the rest. There is no boss, but all the Minotaurs are stronger than they would be otherwise. Also heads up,” he says, pointing over my shoulder.
I look and find an eight-foot behemoth about 60 feet away charging at me, horns first. I smirk to myself, thinking, bigger than me, huh? Let’s try that synergy thing again and see what Carlos has to say about it.
I activate [Shatter] as I drop the hammer and watch my hands begin glowing out of my peripheral vision. I take a wide stance as it continues charging closer and start aiming my barbell. I quickly glance behind me to make sure there aren’t any others trying to sneak up on me while this one charges, only to find Carlos with his arms crossed, watching me with a slightly disappointed look on his face.
I smirk. He doesn’t know how strong I am. I crippled the Boss Orcs leg with [Shatter], and this Minotaur is probably half of that things Level. With it getting closer, I squeeze my fists tight around my weapon and aim for the side of its head. Once it’s in range, I swing with all of my might.
Nothing. I hear my attack whistle through the air as the Minotaur pulls up short at the last moment. All the momentum of my attack has me turned completely around, and I see Carlos with his head in his hands. As I’m still processing the fact that I’ve missed it, I feel a shallow slash open up across my back.
I shout in pain and turn around to face it. It backs off a short distance, and I realize for the first time that while it was presenting its horns as its main weapon, it’s unsheathed a large sword that it wields in one hand and a shield it carries in the other. A quick glance at my stats tells me that I lost roughly 300 HP in that attack. The same wound that would have killed me a week ago is now just a shallow cut on my back. It still hurts like a mother fucker, though.
I begin swinging at it as hard as I can, trying to slip a hit between its guard, but it deflects all of my attacks. Seeming to probe my defenses, it slips its blade between my attacks and nicks me on the chest. It’s not even taking this seriously!
I twist my body slightly to try and keep that from happening again and begin taking more measured attacks against it. Yet again, however, I find all of my attacks deflected with little to no effort. At the very least, this position allows me to more easily dodge its next attack, as I’m able to slip past the blade it stabs at me.
Or so I thought. It angles its blade as I’m mid swing, and I find my barbell hitting its blade and knocking it into my side, opening another shallow cut. “Fuck!” I yell as I feel it pull the blade away from my side. It gives a hefty snort that I think might be laughter.
A thought occurs to me as it does that, and I have to hide the smile that tries to take over my face. I go back to swinging with reckless abandon, tracking how and where it deflects my attacks. I take another probing slash to my thigh as I realize it’s more toying with me than anything. That’s fine; let it and Carlos underestimate me. Once I find the angle I need for it to deflect just right, I swing a few more times in different spots before going for the one I needed again.
I take a hefty swing that I know it will deflect with ease using its shield, but at the last moment, I stop putting effort into the swing and leap forward. I see a flicker of surprise come across its glassy black eyes, as with my barbell further forward than it expected and its block already in motion, it knocks my barbell right into the side of its skull. Fun fact I just learned about shatter. It doesn’t deactivate until I hit an enemy.
[Synergy used]
[None Larger - When attacking an enemy that is larger than you with [Shatter] on a bone, deal +50% damage and increase the chance for the bone to break based on damage dealt.]
I watch as the right side of the Minotaurs head implodes slightly as the gray light on my barbell condenses into the spot where it meets the monster's head. Its eye pops out of its socket, hanging on by a dripping cord of nerves. I immediately retract my weapon once the attack is through and dart around to its right side, taking advantage of its lack of vision on that side.
It bellows in pain and grips its horn, trying to straighten out its crumpled skull, and I take the opportunity it gives me and lay into it. I remember my experience with the club wielding Goblins and also watching James incapacitate the High Orcs and aim several attacks at its knees. One thing I’ve learned from diving so far is that if you can keep an enemy from moving, they’re basically free Exp. just waiting to be harvested.
I’m able to land three hits as it flails blindly with its sword while I keep to its blind side, but eventually, its knee buckles and it falls to the ground. It uses its shield arm to catch its fall, and that opens up a hole in its guard as I swing for its already crushed skull and deal the final blow. Its skin ruptures as my swing lands, and it falls to its back, giving me a couple notifications as some gray brain matter spills out of the new hole I just put in its skull.
[Level 46 Minotaur Slain - Exp. awarded]
[Level up]
[Level up]
I must have been right on the edge of leveling up to have gotten two levels from that. I put that thought aside and turn back to Carlos. Between pants, I say, “Well? How was that?”
“Not great. You had to use an ability to open its guard, but the attack itself was alright. You relied too much on your Strength to save you in the beginning, but I saw you learning as you went. You also need to work on your footwork. I think a gentle breeze in the right direction could have knocked you over, even with all that strength. Not great, but not bad.” He says as he smiles at me.
He continues on with, “Well, what do you think about them? I want estimates on Health, Defense, Strength, Agility, and Intelligence as well as how you would counter their fighting style.”
I stare at him slack-jawed. “You want me to know all of those things? All I got was that it was a sword and shield user!” I protest.
“Wrong,” he says. “Your strikes were deflected, not blocked outright. This means it’s smart enough to understand it isn’t strong enough to simply block you and counterattack. It was also smart enough to have performed that maneuver once it recognized you were waiting for it at the beginning of the fight. It probed your defenses as it went, not overcommitting, which also speaks to its Intelligence, and you saw how fast it ran and how many hits it took to take it down. You should be able to give me good estimates on all of those numbers based on that, but that’s why I’m here.”
I look in slight awe at him and ask, “You’re able to figure out all of that without even going up against it?”
“I have to be able to. Someone has to call the shots during fights, but everyone should try and do it for themselves as well. Knowing your enemy is the most important part of winning a fight. You can win fights without it, and you can lose fights with it, but it’ll give you a better idea of what your chances are the more you can figure out. Besides, I saw you doing it yourself when you started probing its defenses and used its own attack against it,” he says in response.
“Now, if I’m going to be able to help you more, I need to know what you’ve invested your stat points in, what you mutated, and we need to get you enough Strength to use the warhammer since your barbell is severely underleveled for this dungeon,” he continues.
Still slightly taken aback at his ability to analyze fights, I quickly check my stats, acknowledging my missing 1200 or so HP, and respond, “Eight points went into Strength before I got my class, but I haven’t put anymore in since then; I haven’t chosen a mutation yet, and right now my Strength is 416.”
He tilts his head and looks at me for a moment with confusion on his face before saying, “Ok. Sit down; we’re fixing this right now.”