“oh hey.” Lex said as he looked down at two girls with tears in their eyes .”did I worry you?”
“ I’ve missed you. Its been three days.”
Lex frowned. “ I made it two.”
“ it seems the time in the dungeon is slightly slower than out side.” Alloy said into Lex’s head.
“ Tatty. I do love that you missed me but I’m in a lot of pain, so could you climb off for now.”
Tatty climbed off and Ella offered her hand to help her brother up. Lex absorbed his armour and the girls saw the state of Lex’s body.
“ oh my god Lex. What have you been doing?”
“ it’s a long story. I need a bath, some tea , something to eat and a good sleep. Then I’ll tell you everything.” pausing for a moment” if I wear shorts could you help me wash? I’m in so much pain I don’t think I can do it my self.”
“ sure we can help. Are you really that bad?”
“ just wait till you see. I’ve had a buisey few days.”
Tatty carried the pack up to the room and Lex picked up some shorts and a change of clothes. Picking up some towels they went to the bath house.
Stripping down behind curtains the girls left on underwear and wrapped towels around themselves. Lex stripped off and put on his shorts carrying his towels out with him and sat down.
Ella gasped as she saw Lex sat there stripped of all his bandages and clothing. The cuts and bruised were one thing but the deep gashes were something else.
Lex noticed his sisters gaze.” let’s just say I’m so glad i'm metal on the inside, or I wouldn’t be sitting here now.”
“ God, Lex. How bad was it down there?”
Lets just say. I'm keeping you two to the first three floors for the first few times . you need to be stronger by a lot before you move down to lower floors.”
Ella gently poured water over Lex’s body and slowly wiped him down. Tatty washing the back. A puddle of bloody dirty water gathered around Lex’s feet. The girls rinsed and washed Lex a couple more times. After washing his hair Ella filled the bath and added disinfectant to the water to help clean the wounds.
“ it may sting when you first get in, but it’ll help clean out those cuts of yours.”
The girls helped him into the bath and left him to soak in his soothing bath.
“ El. I don’t suppose you could bring me a pot of tea. It’s all o could think of for the past couple of days.”
“jeez Lex. I don’t know who’s worse . you or dad.”
“ oh dad. He’d have it on a constant drip if he could.”
The pair dried off and got dressed and made their way to the kitchen to ask the inn keeper for a tray with a pot of tea and a pot of honey, and a cup. Explaining that Lex had returned and would be wanting dinner later also.
After dropping off the pot of tea, Ella and Tatty went out to the stores to buy some clean bandages and a healing cream.
Returning back to the inn the girls entered the bath house. Lex climbed out of the bath and dried off. Ella put healing cream on the cuts and bruises until the tin was empty . it stung a little and smelled like cheap drain cleaner. She then helped with bandages and dressed him.
Leaving the bathhouse the trio headed back to the dining room for food.
Lex ordered another pot of tea and two portions of ribs and veggies.
After finishing his meal and thanking the inn keeper for her help with his sister, they headed up to his room.
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They sat on his bed and Lex spent the next three hours retreading his journey out of the dungeon. He showed off some of the loot he got aswell as the white core he got from the giant.
He explained that he had levelled up several times and the girls admitted they had levelled twice.
“ tell you what. I am about to doze off any minute . how about when we have had breakfast we come back up and go through our stat sheets together.”
“sounds good to me. You look like you’re about to drop.”
Both girls hugged Lex and left the room. Lex stripped down and climbed into bed, spreading out and sinking in to the plush mattress. This was the most comfortable he had felt in days, with in moment he had drifted off to a deep sleep.
Back in their room, Ella and Tatty sat on the bed talking.
“ did you see his wounds? What has he been fighting to get damage like that?”
“ I don’t know. But he said he’s gone up several levels. He must have been fighting a lot of monsters.”
“ a giant . he said he fought a giant. All this on his own.”
Tatty held Ellas hand “I know how you feel, but we couldn't have got to him even if we went back with others.”
“ I know. But to think he had to go through all of that alone.”
Turning off the lights, the girls huddled up and fell asleep.
Sitting down for breakfast.
“ that’s the first good sleep I’ve had in days. All I managed was a couple of hours when I found the stairs.”
“ that couldn’t have been comfortable”
“ the first night was ok. I found a small cave and had some animal skins to lay on the ground. But after that I needed to make room so I had to dump the skins and my bed roll.”
“ oh , Lex. What did you do after that?”
“Sat on the stairs with a little fire and hoped for the best.”
“ at least you got some good stuff” Tatty said trying to lighten the mood.
“ yeh. I’m hoping to make some good money from this mess.”
“ are we going to the guild today?”
“ yup. When we’ve gone through our stat sheets” he said draining the last of his tea.” speaking of which, shall we head upstairs now?”
Thanking the inn keeper for breakfast the three went to Lex’s room to go through their stats .
Making themselves comfortable in chairs and Lex on his bed. Ella opened hers first.
You have levelled up. You have two levels, there are 60 points to place and one new skill
Name Ella
Race. Human
Level. 5
Sex. Female.
Age. 17
Strength 50
Constitution 50
Dexterity 50. enhanced
Ineteligents 30
Speed. 50
Sense 35.
Hp 150/150
New skill. Critical hit. Bow class. 70% chance of fatal shot with any bow type weapon.
Other skills.
Enhanced dex. Pole and staff weapon proficiency . enhanced aim. Enhanced skeleton.
Nano and system installed.
Everyone shared their huds so each new what the others had earned.
Next up was Tatty.
Name. Tatty
Race vix
Sex. Female
Age. 19
Level. 7
Strength. 45
Constitution. 40
Dexterity. 35. enhanced.
Intelligence. 27
Speed. 55. enhanced.
Sense. 50. enhanced.
Hp.180/180
New skill acquired. Assassin. 80% chance of instakill from stealth attacks.
Other skills.
Sense weakness. Killer claws. Speed boost .create short bladed weapons, throwing blades.
“ooh assassin. If we get you a cloak you can be our rogue. So cool.”
Finally Lex pulled up his sheet.
You have jumped 10 levels. Congratulations , a bonus box is on its ways to you. Please look forward to its arrival.
Name. Lex
Race. Human/drone hybrid
Level 14
Age. 22
Sex. Male.
Strength. 60. enhanced.
Constitution. 90
Dexterity. 50
Intelligence. 60
Speed. 55
Sense. 60
Hp 500/500
New skill. Create drone.
New skill. Rail gun.
New skill. Fast recovery.
Other skills. Enhanced strength. Hack. Lockpick. Shield. Simple blade and bludgeoning weapon proficiency. Simple weapon creation. Intermediate weapon creation. Hardened body. Crushing hammer .map.
Integrated AI and matrix. Alloy reservoir.
Bonus box.
Remaining nano upgraded to basic drone core. Can be used for support. Semi sentient.
“wow. I think all that work has paid off.” Tatty said reading her hud.
“ it was almost constant fighting. Although I am glad I got faster healing. I should heal much quicker now I’ve saved all my stats. Did you both save?”
Both girls checked and nodded.
“ooh. I forgot. We got some new bags.” Ella ran back to her room. Returning with a large back pack. It’s a semi bag of holding. It can hold twice as much as the size can hold. So in our three packs we can hold six bags worth of stuff. I know it’s not a real bag of holding but it’s still good.”
“damn that’s a bag. Thanks sis.”
Lex jammed his bag into the back pack and there was still lots of room left. He wished he had this when he went down to the dungeon. He could have brought back all the things he left behind. Some of them skins would have sold well. The pack also come with hooks and straps to ad things and bottom straps to hold bedding or a tent. very handy.
The group headed out to the guild hall.
He sold all of the items and handed over the body parts collected for affirmation of kills. He also sold three quarters of his cores. coming away with 50 gold, 30 round silver, 10 silver and 70 round copper.
“ just as a quick enquiry. How much would this be worth?” he held up the white core.
Looking aghast the clerk took the core and studied it.” A pure white boss core. Solid pearlamine. This is the largest pearlamine core I’ve ever seen, there are many things can be made from this core. It is almost indestructible, if you can find a way to proses it. that’s the hard part. I can offer 30 round gold and 65 gold.”
Lex took it back and returned it to the pack. Thanking the clerk and collecting his coins, the trio left and returned to the inn.