Yeah, so I leveled up, big whoop. No need to get all naval-gazey though so here's my sheet after I excitedly screamed, nearly revealing our position to the monsters and earning myself a knockout punch to the jaw from Borgen for my stupidity.

==========

=Status=

-Name: Mairenn Crowe

-Blessing: Reverse Minstrel

-Level: 1

-Experience: 4/300

-Attribute points: 0

-Skill points: 0

-Ability Points: 0

-Health: 8/10

-Stamina: 3/10

-Mana: 4/7

=Active Effects=

-Boons: N/A

-Ailments: Concussion

=Attributes=

-Strength: 9

-Dexterity: 12

-Constitution: 14

-Intelligence: 10

-Wisdom: 8

-Charisma: 9

-Luck: 10

=Skills=

-Basic One-Handed Weapons Handling

-The Minstrel’s Taunt

-Oration Casting

-Demotivating Call

==========

That's right, I got a grand total of one skill and nothing else, and I didn’t even get to choose the skill, the system just thrust it upon me like a cattle brand.

“You’ll only receive things like attribute points or skill points every once in a while,” Carlyn explained to me once everything had calmed down a bit. “Once every five levels, or so I’m told anyway. I got a choice at five, but most of us are only around level eight or nine, so we haven’t seen if it happens at level ten as well. Now go to bed. We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

At the fierce glare she shot me I acquiesced, curling back up in my corner and closing my eyes, letting a loose approximation of sleep overcome my overtaxed body and mind. I was awoken the following day by an extra large boot kicking the small of my back, not my ideal alarm clock, but it worked I suppose.

I yelped and jerked away, feeling every stiff joint in my body crack painfully with the motion. I groaned, rubbing at my back where I could already feel a bruise building, and glared up at Borgen who gave me a slight shrug and a broad grin.

“Finally. was beginning to think you’d gone and died on us. Real shame that would have been, bringing that news to that pretty little wife of yours,” he said, folding his arms across his chest and glancing down at the red line now marring my wrist. Thankfully he didn’t comment on it. “Come on, we’re about ready to get moving again.”

I grumbled incoherently, stretched, felt immensely dissatisfied when nothing popped, grumbled some more about the lack of caffeine, and finally set about strapping my equipment back onto me. It was a thirty-minute process, but by the end, I was very confident that nothing would randomly fall off at any point in the near future.

I moved to the cloth-covered exit of the small cave and leaned against the wall as I watched the others finish up their own preparations. It felt wrong to just be standing around while they all worked, but I didn’t have anything else to do, so I just did my best to look small and not draw any attention.

“I wouldn’t stand there if I were you,” Jones said looking up from folding up his bed roll. “Anything out there will probably be able to sniff you out through the magic if you’re that close, so unless you want to become something’s snack…” He gave me a meaningful look and I slowly shifted away, moving instead to see if I could help Carlyn pack up her own things, seeing as she somehow had twice as much stuff as the others.

“Want another pair of hands?” I asked, rubbing my hands together and smiling in that awkward fumbling way I always managed to affect when faced with the prospect of interacting with a beautiful woman.

Carlyn glanced up and flashed me that wild grin that made my traitor's heart flutter far faster than it should. “I’d never turn down help from pretty hands like yours,” the other woman said and I felt my cheeks flush at the obvious innuendo.

I coughed politely and tore my gaze from hers, glancing at the stuff piled around her. “Great then. Just tell me what to do and I’ll get it done,” I said, then realized what I’d said and readied myself for another flirtatious innuendo.

Thankfully Carlyn just let her grin turn mischievous and handed me a blanket to fold without saying another word. The work moved quickly despite the load. What took the longest was waiting as George stowed everything back inside the spatial storage. Once everything was all stored away we crept from the cave and back into the tunnels, weapons, and spells ready at hand.

Immediately a group of small meat cubes lept from either side of the small entrance to the cave, circular mouths gnashing, claws slashing. I barely had time to think before the others disposed of the little monsters as if they were little more than vermin, leaving only pasted remains scattered across the stone walls.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

We all stood tense for several seconds waiting for a follow-up attack that never came, much to our relief. We left the area behind without even bothering to loot the little fuckers, hurrying through the tunnels on not-so-quiet but quick feet. We ran across a few other small groups of meatcubes as we went, dispatching one of the more menacing Fregnicks along the way.

With every battle I could feel myself improving, Nika’s rapier lessons sinking into habit and instinct, my spells and skills activating with more ease, and all with minimal maiming and maximally painful healing. I was the steel, this dungeon the hammer, and damn did it feel good.

Now that we’re past the edge nerd rant, let me save the rest of you sane, normal-thinking people some time. We spent at least a week slowly working our way through the dungeon tunnels slaughtering the denizens of the deeps, and I managed to level up three more times by the final night, granting me a new skill and an attribute point in total. Oh, and a whole system textbook of cooking recipes that I would probably never use.

What skill, you ask? Why that would be none other than the magnificent false rest skill. It granted me a physical boost for a short time, leaving me a tired, useless mess for at least a few hours after its timer ran out. It's great, so long as I only have to fight one enemy or group of enemies for that timespan. And I should clarify, the skill states that it's a ‘stat’ boost, but as far as I could tell the only thing that was changing was my stamina and health pool, the specific stats it changed were not displayed in my status box.

As we settled into another small cave for the fifth ‘night’ since I’d entered the dungeon, Carlyn gathered us all in to talk strategy for the next day which would be our battle against the alpha in its den. I know I’ve been talking for a while now, but the details were all really boring and I want to get to what comes next so, once again, let me summarize the discussion.

Carlyn and Jones would stay near the den’s walls to provide healing support and ranged damage to the monster while George and Nika dealt damage from the front and Borgen and I acted as mid-ranged support and damage. Turned out the big guy also had a taunt skill of his own so it was our job to take turns leading the monster around the nose while everyone else beat the shit out of it. It was admittedly a somewhat simple plan, but why make it complicated when simple would do just fine?

When we were done strategizing Carlyn gently pulled me aside to her bedroll. I caught Borgen giving his sister a frown as we moved away from the others. For some reason, my idiot brain hadn’t quite understood why.

“What is it?” I asked as Carlyn’s hand began to glow with a strange dark light.

“Just a sec,” she said, then waved the glowing hand towards the others who were not so subtly watching us. The dark light lept from her fingers in a glowing blob of black, forming a shimmering bubble around the two of us in seconds, perfectly concealing us from outside eyes.

Warning bells rang in my head as if signaling the start of a funeral procession and I unconsciously took a half step away from the other woman, suddenly aware of how close she was to me.

“What is this?” I asked, staring at the bubble and avoiding Carlyn’s hungry gaze.

She was silent for a beat, then said in a soft, beckoning voice, “I’m not blind, ya know. I can see the way you look at me, and I know you see the way I look at you.”

“I’m married,” I reminded her, raising my arm to display my marriage band. “Let me out, Carlyn. If this is your idea of a joke, it’s not funny.”

I took another step away and felt my back hit the bubble. Startled, I fell back, my boots slipping on the smooth stone. I landed with my hands on the glass-smooth bubble staring up at Carlyn as she closed the distance between us.

“What does it matter if you are, Mai? What she doesn’t know won't hurt her, after all.”

“My vows,” I said, trying to push myself back to my feet. I failed, my hand slipping on the too-smooth bubble and landing hard on the ground. Carlin stepped over my prone form and dropped, pinning my hips beneath hers as she reached to cup my face with her hand.

“What of them?” She asked, giving a half-lidded gaze that sent a shiver running up my arms and spine. “You already broke one, what's one more?”

I caught both her arms by the wrist and tried to push the agondlon woman away but she surprised me with her sheer strength, delicately pushing me back as if I were little more than a child.

“What are you?” I asked, breathing heavily with exertion as I still struggled against her.

“Agondlon,” Carlyn said simply, giving me a self-satisfied smile. “My brother’s blood bred more true than mine, but I was still blessed with my ancestors' strength and stamina. Come on, stop fighting me, I know you want this just as much as I do. How could you possibly believe I would ever hurt you?”

“You’re hurting me now!” I half growled at her, feeling something pop on my wrist as her grip tightened. She sighed and suddenly pulled away and I sprawled, landing in a heap at Carlyn’s feet. I slowly got to my feet on shaky legs, glaring at the other woman.

“What the hell was that?” I snapped, unable to stop as more kept coming. “You know I’m not interested, damn it. I’ve told you at least a dozen times already! How many more times do I need to tell you no?” I was half yelling by the end all while Carlyn just lowered herself to her bedroll and looked up at me with an amused expression on her face which only made my blood boil more.

“So? I don’t want anything emotional from you, just sex. Is that really so bad?” She asked with a shrug. “Besides, it's likely been months out there. Could be she’s grown impatient and found someone else. Would you really deny yourself a bit of comfort in this hell hole just to hold onto something you don’t even know is still waiting for you once you get out of here?”

“Just drop the fucking spell,” I said, hoping the disgust I was feeling towards the other woman made its way across my words. Of course, my wife hadn’t cheated on me. If she had my mark would have shown it. Carlyn knew that just as well as I did.

“Just one night,” Carlyn said again as I turned away from her. “One night, and then we’ll forget any of this ever happened.”

My only reply was silence. After several seconds she finally relented with a heavy sigh. “Fine,” she said, and the black wall began falling apart like melting ice. “But if you change your mind, you know where I am.”

I did my best to maintain a flat, stoic expression on my face as I marched to the opposite side of the small cave and curled up on the stone floor, hugging my arms close to myself. I felt tears form in the corners of my eyes but I fought them back. I needed to be strong, we had a big battle tomorrow, and I couldn’t afford any distractions.