"When are you going to let me run it on my own?" complained Cluma for the fourth day in a row. Not coincidentally, it was also the fourth day since our first run of the tenth floor with Vyre's team.

"Not yet," I replied.

"You can't make me lose the bet by not letting me into the dungeon alone!"

"I'm not going to. You'll have a day to yourself at the end of winter when I'm going to spend the day in the village for Darren's birthday. Until then, I'm going to train you as hard as I can."

"But yesterday I beat the tenth floor boss almost on my own! You only had to step in a few times, and none of them would have been bad hits even if you let them connect. [Threat Perception] told me only one would even have injured me!"

"If I hadn't needed to step in at all, I'd consider it. Even a hit that doesn't wound you can distract you enough that you take a second, worse hit."

Cluma pouted cutely, but I wasn't going to let her have her way. Yesterday's tally had included a wolf that hadn't even seen her, but had almost run her down accidentally. There was also a hero reacting to its version of threat perception and swinging its sword in her direction, and a lucky shot by an archer. The arrow wouldn't have done anything, while the sword blow wouldn't have penetrated her armour and at most would have left her with a bruised rib. The wolf, though, could have been nasty.

It wouldn't have been a fatal injury on its own, but it would have knocked her over, tangled her up and revealed her location. The sages had been watching, ready to launch a barrage of fireballs the moment she revealed herself, and the knight riding the wolf would have tried to spear her too. Dodging that while prone, with a wolf on top of her, would have been tough. She might have escaped, but 'might' wasn't good enough.

On top of that, I couldn't turn invisible, and even if I wasn't actively interfering, I attracted most of the agro simply by being in the room. I was forced to defend myself, drawing a lot of the heat away from Cluma. If she was on her own, she'd have been dealing with double the quantity of monsters and denser rains of spells and arrows. My presence also gave her a boost through her [Loyal] trait, whether I was fighting or not.

The repeated clears did mean we were building up a pile of magical items, but none of them were better than things we could order from the store. Another bracelet of martial skill popped out, which Cluma wore, but had we bought a higher ranked one, we could have had a plus two or three to weapon proficiencies, instead of the plus one offered by the dungeon.

My equipment situation was as mismatched as my recklessness. I had a set of high-level weapons, two made from a mix of orichalcum and adamantite and the third my prototype electro-thaumic projector, but only mediocre armour, made from materials taken from floor six or seven of our dungeon, yet it had rank four enchantments. I had rank four enchanted rings, but rank two bracelets of martial and crafting skill. I still had my amulet of fire resistance, that I'd never actually had any use from because I'd stopped delving immediately after finding it.

My problem was that our local delver's guild's store didn't have a good supply of mythril, nor did it have dungeon-made items over rank two, while Grover didn't make goods for money. What he wanted in exchange was new materials or ideas, and I wasn't going to be able to saturate platinum anytime soon. Either I needed to go to a larger city for a shopping trip, or I needed to find something else to bait Grover with. Something good enough for a complete equipment set for the pair of us. In the absence of anything new for Grover, it was probably worth a visit to Synklisi. I did still have a teleport point there that I'd left behind after my soul mishap. But how could I take Cluma with me without spending more money on transport than on shopping?

Shelving the shopping trip for now, because our equipment was already overpowered for this ten-floor dungeon, we started the day's delve. Being able to teleport Cluma would have been useful for that too, because I could have left a teleport point outside the tenth floor boss's room and skipped the rest of the dungeon. Nevertheless, it was productive for the both of us. Cluma was racking up not just skills, but combat experience, while I was getting a chance to exercise my rank one artes that I never normally bothered with.

ding

Skill [Armour Break] advanced to level 6

Skill [Mighty Swing] advanced to level 8

Skill [Swift Strike] advanced to level 10

Skill [Shattering Strike] advanced to level 2

Skill [Shattering Strike] advanced to level 3

Class [Eldritch Mage] advanced to level 14

Class level increased intelligence by 1

Thanks to the few bosses that used shields, I finally managed to level [Shattering Strike]. My biggest gain, though, was that I'd finally drummed up the willpower to start training my health pool skills.

ding

Skill [Accelerated Healing] advanced to level 10

New skill acquired: [Rapid Healing]

Skill [Accelerated Healing] consumed by superior skill [Rapid Healing]

I still wasn't quite self-abusive enough to advance [Enlarged Health Pool], alas. That one seemed to require losing a significant fraction of my health, or perhaps a large amount of health in one go.

[Rapid Healing] cost a few soul points that I'd intended to save towards [Eye of Judgement], but faster healing was worth it. With my previous boosts, I could watch wounds scab over. Now, I could watch them visibly shrinking. A small cut would vanish within minutes. It certainly went some way towards solving our party's lack of a healer, but it still wasn't enough to use the second stage of [Detach] on limbs, or even fingers. While simple wounds would heal at ridiculous speeds, it would take the rank three version, [Regeneration], before I would regenerate missing body parts, and even that wouldn't be fast enough to realistically recover limbs.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Within the week, Cluma grew able to clear out the final boss without my interference. Whether she'd be able to maintain that when I wasn't in the room attracting the attention of a portion of the monsters, I'd find out once I got back from the village. I hoped she would succeed; there was no way she wasn't going to try, and losing the bet was preferable to her getting saddled with [Failed Delver]. And so, early in the morning on Darren's birthday, in the last week of winter, I escorted her to the dungeon entrance and waved her off as she entered alone.

At my advice, she had at least purchased some buff potions, the same stat increase and physical defence boosts I'd used so many years ago. She didn't take a hero's last stand, and I prayed she wouldn't need one. Maybe I was worrying unnecessarily. It wasn't as if I'd been that worried when I'd done it, and I didn't even have Erryn's new safety net. Regardless of my concerns, after watching her leave, I teleported back to the village.

Since birthdays weren't really celebrated here, beyond the special coming of age one, there wasn't much happening beyond an unusually extravagant meal. I gifted Darren an amulet that reduced mana costs by a measly three percent that I'd looted from the dungeon, but mostly out of interest as to whether it would have any effect on him rather than because presents were expected. As far as I could tell, it didn't, but he liked it anyway.

I'd given mum a spare bracelet of crafting skill that I'd found, boosting her already high tailoring by another level, as well as aiding her cooking. If I'd found two of them, were they not fairly common? Why didn't Adele wear one? Or any of the Dawnhold crafters? I'd seen plenty of items with a quality rating of fifty, but none of fifty-one.

For that matter, why hadn't Grover made his own for himself? Mythril had been around for long enough that he should have forged himself a full set of accessories to boost every skill he had. Maybe it wasn't an available enchantment? I'd seen skill enhancements around, but they had no effect on skill level, and only improved some aspects of the skill. Mum did have a tailoring enhancement on her needles, but it didn't affect the quality rating of what she produced.

That still didn't explain the lack of dungeon-made items. Even one level was useful, especially for people who'd capped their skills. Maybe I'd been lucky finding two?

Other items I'd found hadn't been so useful. A few percent mana or stamina reduction. Plus five to a stat when custom-made items gave me seventeen. A few weak elemental resistances. Minor affinity boosts, but only to affinities that I didn't have. Cluma did at least get a darkness boost, but a custom made one would have been more effective. There was nothing even close to my bracelet of transport. It was no surprise that people had stopped clearing the Dawnhold dungeon once mythril had spread.

We enjoyed a luxury meal and copious cake, but as time wore on, my thoughts drifted back to Cluma. Was she still in the dungeon, or was it over already? Had she succeeded? I managed to hold off for another hour before giving in and teleporting back to check.

The guild's bar was rowdier than usual, and through [Mana Sight] I could see a cat-girl standing on a table, mug held in the air. Guess she succeeded then.

"Peter!" she exclaimed as I walked in. She was surrounded by a group of delvers, and had changed out of her armour and into a lightweight, loose dress. "Finally! Use [Analysis] on me!"

Name: Cluma

Species: Beastkin (Catkin)

Class: Darkness Mage (Level 1/46)

Class History: [Commoner] [Apprentice Fighter] [Scout] [Apprentice Mage]

Soul Points: 10

Health: 41/53

Stamina: 106/106

Mana: 42/42

Strength: 34(+12)

Dexterity: 47(+12)

Endurance: 36(+12)

Intelligence: 25(+12)

Wisdom: 29(+12)

Charisma: 36(+12)

Rank 1 Artes: [Backstab 10] [Armour Break 8] [Rapid Shot 10] [Piercing Shot 6]

Rank 2 Artes: [Snap Thrust 9] [Critical Strike 7]

Rank 1 Spells: [Minor Harm 6] [Minor Drain 4] [Weaken Light 1] [Darklight 2]

Rank 1 Skills: [Basic Cooking 10] [Weapon Proficiency: Dagger 10] [Inspection 10] [Concealment 10] [Meditation 10] [Enlarged Mana Pool 10] [Hunting 10] [Dismantling 10] [Weapon Proficiency: Bow 10] [Weapon Style: Dual Wielding 10] [Privacy 10] [Danger Sense 10] [Mana Sense 3]

Rank 2 Skills: [Stealth 10] [Threat Perception 9] [Monster Perception 9] [Trap Perception 7]

Traits: [Hyperactive] [Acrobatic] [Invisible Terror] [Loyal]

Titles: [Jack of All Trades] [Athlete] [Novice Delver]

ding

Skill [Analysis] advanced to level 13

Yup, [Novice Delver] was there. She won. But that wasn't the most interesting thing I saw. [Invisible Terror]?! What the hell?! What sort of trait was that?! That was what had evolved from [Hugger]?!

Despite that mystery, there was something else I focused on first. "You're injured," I pointed out, casting [Endurance] on her.

Cluma's ears drooped. "The sages set off some sort of humongous explosion. They killed most of their own team! Thankfully, my fire protection amulet helped, but I still needed to drink a potion. Sarah was nice enough to give me a [Heal] once I got back here, but I've had about as much healing as I can have for one day, and I'll need to visit the hospital tomorrow to finish it. There's nothing but a few burns left, and they aren't bothering me."

Guess I shouldn't write off the dungeon made items so quickly, and should be thankful I found a duplicate fire protection amulet that Cluma kept, but she'd still have been better off with a higher ranked, custom made version. Still, being twelve points down after a potion and a [Heal] meant the original damage must have been massive. I suppose that without me there providing a visible target, it wasn't a complete surprise that the goblins' tactics changed. It was no wonder she'd switched to loose clothing if she was still burnt. And who the heck was Sarah? Was that anyone I should know?

Wait, was that why people didn't have bracelets of crafting skill? I'd got my fire protection amulet after getting my face burnt off, and Cluma had got hers after a nasty rendezvous between a fireball and her bum. Did the item drop depend on our actions in the boss's chamber? It wasn't as if I went crafting in the dungeon, but I did at least have the skills. The only crafting skill I could imagine being common among delvers was [Dismantling]. Bracelets of crafting skill may simply not drop for anyone else.

Well, it was a theory. I didn't have a whole lot of evidence, and there were still some things that didn't fit, like the earth protection amulet that had dropped once despite no-one using or being hit by earth affinity spells, but it was the best guess I had.

"At least you're safe, little miss invisible terror. And yes, I acknowledge that you won our bet. I'll face my fate with dignity."

Cluma smirked, her expression fully displaying the cheekiness she'd acquired since returning from the Emerald Nest. "Oh? Such confidence. I'll have to see what I can do about that."