They managed to sneak up on an individual Rabbit, without the ears he was about mid-thigh height on Sam, and his fur was beige, brown with some flecks of white. Its long ears easily reached up to Sam’s chest. Powerful hind legs and small front legs, all in all, he looked like someone just scaled up a rabbit and let them walk or hop around on his back feet like a hybrid of bipedal and whatever rabbits counted as. Oddly adorable but the fact that he was carrying a spear affected the image a bit...
Janik did as planned, and as he stepped in closer, Sam moved his weapons in range, ready to do his part if needed.
Stepping out of a bush, as Janik stopped hiding the rabbit’s ears immediately twisted towards him, its eyes following right after. With a powerful thrust of his hind legs, he launched himself forward towards Janik, spear leading the charge. Janik let the attack hit him, it looked dramatic but he wanted to get a sense for it and now he had.
The rabbit landed gracefully and turned around, launching another thrust at Janik, though this time he parried it sideways and seemingly on purpose made a half-assed attack towards it. The beastfolk easily dodged it, though in all fairness; Sam felt like he could have dodged that one. The fight continued, Janik, parrying or dodging most attacks but seemed to let a few hit him, his attacks became faster and faster to the point that Sam became certain that he couldn’t dodge the attacks if this was a duel. Suddenly Janik’s attacks started landing, the first attack cut deep into the clean fur, opening up a horrifying-looking cut. The rabbit still moving launched a desperate attack but a parry and counter from Janik ended the fight entirely.
Taking a few deep breaths and calming down, Janik waved Sam over.
“So, they are very, very fast. I feel I’m a bit faster but they aren’t easy to hit. Not counting my Defense 10 rating; it seems they do 19 damage with their kicks and 26 with their spear.”
Janik drank a potion after he was done talking, letting Sam process things. “From what I can see, their health is 45 with no Defense rating.”
This was very good info for Sam, who was lacking the ability to see the health of anyone but himself and Elara. This was also survivable damage for him, though a critical hit from the spear would still one-shot him. He could survive a critical hit from their kicks, but only once. So the tactic of him not showing himself was still the best.
He also wanted to give the sword a test, still knowing it would do better in Janik’s hands, he felt surprisingly eager swinging around a silver-looking scimitar in the air. As he was considering things, Sam took care of getting the Core.
They moved on, sneaking as far as they could, keeping talking and discussion between them to a minimum, rabbits were normally a prey species and probably had very good senses.
Janik was leading, he seemed to on purpose walk upright even though he was somewhat sneaking, much like the last run through the Dungeon, and it seemed to work as it didn’t take long before he was jumped by three Rabbitmen. All three had spears and came from seemingly nowhere, clearly having readied an ambush behind some large enough trees.
Expertly blocking two of the attacks, Janik had to tank the third as the spear raked across his chest. They might be weak, comparatively speaking, but they seemed to work well together.
Sam took this as his opening and swung all weapons somewhat spread out across the three rabbits. Splitting the weapons up between them, feeling confident in his damage he used 2x 10dmg daggers on two of them, the scimitar on the last. The 5dmg daggers were split up between them. The Scimitar landed true and hard, digging deep into the body of the little rabbitman, the following two 5dmg daggers did the same and ended his life right away. Though a bit overkill one of the daggers also landed a critical hit, it didn’t feel necessary but it was neat that it happened at all. One dagger missed its target, leaving it barely alive, but Janik handled that instantly.
Feeling good about the fact that had it not been for the missing 1 dagger, he would have taken all three out right away, Sam stepped out of hiding and walked over to Janik:
“That was great, shame that it was three of them, he landed a decent hit, but I think we’re getting really good at this.” Janik complimented them both.
Sam agreed, that this kind of fight worked very well for them, the danger would come when he was also attacked in the future, but for now, it was working surprisingly well. They dug out the cores like always and continued.
The other groups they found were either one or two individuals, which simplified the attack drastically. Sam wasn’t sure if it was because Janik kept focus, or the extra hit chance from the Eagle Eye, but he landed his hits more often than he did with the frogs. It felt surprisingly great to have this level of success. Given Janik’s skill in parrying, he didn’t get too many attacks in comparison to Sam, but he managed to parry everything coming his way. Their party was missing a few roles to become perfect, but their mix worked very well even so! When they managed to sneak up on them properly there was no chance of survival, as Sam’s remote attack only let the targets see floating weapons without any hint about where the enemies were hiding.
Janik opted to try out Elara’s Venom on them, the next time they found a single target Sam tested this with an Envenomed dagger. It worked for several ticks, the rabbit becoming more and more sceptical and paranoid as the damage ticked up, but it was still weak enough that it managed to resist it eventually. A second dose did the same, so this test was scrapped for now in favour of the faster alternative. Elara needed to get her Venom upgraded for this to become a viable tactic.
Every encounter worked like this, if they were jumped or they did the jumping, Janik focusing on becoming the main target let Sam hide and do his thing. Whether he was discovered or not never became a problem due to Janik not being exactly harmless if they turned their back on him.
[ Levelup +1! ]
Though levelling up was an amazing moment, it didn’t bring that much to the table besides some more weight. He still needed four hands to use the sword and it didn’t give him another point of Energy, so at the moment it just felt like a tiny stepping stone more than anything. Though he did enjoy looking back to the time when he needed multiple hands to lift just one dagger, now he could flail around 20 of them.
In the end, they again stood in front of the clearing that acted as their little village. This time, rather than a swamp and wooden housing, there were a bunch of holes in the ground and some mounds here and there. It was nicely lit up by the sun and looked surprisingly idyllic with the little plant life surrounding the various burrows and just spread across the field.
[ Dungeon clear conditions:
Kill the Rabbitman chief. 0/1
Optional: Kill all monsters
Monsters killed 16/20 ]
The duo could see only two of the remaining four rabbits, the Chief was nowhere to be seen.
“Hmm... I think the Chief is going to be worse to fight, just imagine the speed of the normal ones...” Janik commented in a low whisper. “But I can go out there and get their focus, if I’m close enough to the forest you should be able to stay hidden.”
That was a good idea, they were fast but none seemed to be able to dodge the swarm of blades coming their way, especially if Janik was keeping their focus. They still had the escape option so this was feeling surprisingly viable.
“If you’re comfortable with that, I’m good.” Sam agreed in the end.
“Great, if possible leave the Chief to me!” Janik whispered a little bit louder as he got up, completely stopping to sneak he just walked into the opening, instantly seen by the two rabbits they saw who shrieked, most likely alerting the others. He stopped well within Sam’s Area but far enough from the forest edge that there was space between them.
“Bring it, you adorable fluffballs!” He shouted out as a challenge to the lot, if the shriek didn’t warn the others then this would.
The rabbits weren’t entirely dumb, the two standing there threw their spears from outside of sword range, though they had to be a bit closer than the frogs were as their underdeveloped arms couldn’t throw as strong or as far. Sam didn’t even need to react, Janik parried and redirected both spears effortlessly.
From the holes in the ground came three more individuals, the two first ones looked similar to the others, being normal ranked targets, but one was different. He was a little taller than the others but had a more slender and lanky build. Even through the fur, they could see more developed leg muscles on him. He was a sprinter or jumper... or whatever you categorized this on rabbits. He wielded a spear like the others.
Slowly closing the distance towards Janik, the two rabbits now lacking spears took to pouncing on him. Having taken his time to prepare properly, Sam had zero problems slicing down both incoming rabbits as soon as they pounced. He expected that to happen due to their lack of spears and method of attack in earlier fights. They were sliced to shreds in mid-air, Sam having split up his weapons between them, and since one couldn’t easily dodge after jumping this turned into a surprisingly easy attack.
Saying that this made the others hesitant was an understatement, the two other rabbits took a few steps back, seeming like they wanted to run, but a shriek from the lanky one had them hesitantly step back forward. The taller of the three pounced forwards first, which had the other two follow suit. He was dramatically faster, holding his spear forward as he kicked off he made himself into a weapon. The others did similar things. Having already agreed on a split of focus, Sam focused on the two additional targets.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
As Janik parried the incoming spear, it looked like he was just barely able to react in time. The two other rabbits were easier for Sam to handle now that he was used to them. Since they followed the same straightforward angle of attack, both fell easily to his attacks, one of which even landed a critical hit. As the two fell lifeless to the ground, the Chief turned slightly to confirm what was going on. Janik used this moment to slice after the Chief but a quick step backwards had him miss.
This new position became a problem for the chief. His ears twitched around as he seemed to try and scan the area, but since Sam didn’t need to move the slightest to use his Psyhands, he had no chance to find him. Janik stepped in and attacked again, the chief dodging one slice and parrying the other with its spear. Sam sent in a barrage of attacks but the speed of the rabbit was quite the thing to witness.
Dodging and parrying the best it could, managing to avoid the Scimitar, one of the 10dmg daggers was parried and a few of the 5dmg ones were dodged as well. However, the Vampiric dagger, three 10dmg daggers and 7x 5dmg daggers landed with one landing a critical hit.
This wasn’t enough to kill it, but it severely wounded it. It got a bit sluggish which let one of Janik’s two slices land properly, though the rabbit Chief parried the first slice the landing cut killed it instantly.
“Woo!” Sam’s excitement got the better of him as he jumped out from behind the tree where he was hiding with a fist pump in the air. Janik chuckled at the excitement of his ally.
Like every time before, the Dungeon Clear window popped up and completed itself.
[ Dungeon clear conditions:
Kill the Rabbitman chief. 1/1 - Complete
Optional: Kill all monsters
Monsters killed 20/20 -Complete
Rewards:
1500 xp
1x Healing potion - D
Bonus rewards for optional step:
1000 xp
Random Box - X ]
[ XP to lv.12: 3617 / 10240 █░░░░ ]
[ Elara XP to lv.10: 2472 / 2560 █████ ]
Having earlier levelled up, it was still nice to see that he was getting a decent chunk into the next level. Killing all the 20 creatures in question netted him 4650 XP, counting the quest rewards. It was a good step and it meant that he could make it to level 12 in two more runs, but after that, he’d need four runs or something. The doubling XP needed per level was surprisingly harsh, but it did put a strange value on grinding, which in turn had increased the odds of getting neat gear or rewards.
The rewards were dumped in their hands as always, glancing over to Janik he saw that his ally didn’t get any neat boons this round either, they both held just a potion and a box. Not waiting they both opened them and as the light subsided Janik’s box had left more crafting materials. Sam’s Random Box had left crafting materials but also a small ring! The ring had a silver band with a tiny ruby-red gem, picking it up the gem seemed to be vaguely warm to the touch.
[ Ring of Flames
+20% Fire Spell Damage
+10% chance to ignite hit target. ]
He let out a dissatisfied click with his tongue, bringing Janik’s attention.
“You got something bad?” Though he sounded normal there was a slight hint of annoyance yet again as he held only Aether Gems while Sam held a ring.
“Yeah, well. It looks expensive but I can’t use this.” Holding it up for Janik to inspect it, Sam had to take some interest out of his ally’s annoyance.
“Well... yeah... You’re not a fire mage but this thing is powerful... Very much so. It’s not always that you get supporting skills on items like this... I’m not sure how much this will go for but... probably at least $40 000.” He again looked happy on Sam’s behalf but seemed somewhat annoyed as he looked down on his two Aether gems.
Sam couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty in a strange way, though it wasn’t his fault he was getting the expensive stuff.
Janik took a moment to inhale and exhale deeply, seemingly calming himself down.
“You know, beginners' luck can stretch only so far.” His expression was somewhat deadpan and annoyed. “Are you hiding some bullshit loot bonus in that Ascendance shit of yours?” His smile slowly grew back but it was clear that he was still envious. If nothing else he carried it decently, all things considered.
“To be honest, I don’t know... I can’t see anything mentioned in the info about it?” Answering honestly to the question, Sam realised that he knew less than he should about the Ascendant thing.
“Well!” Letting out a louder-than-normal word, Janik forcefully drew focus and changed the topic with zero subtlety. “Let’s leave this place when we’re done and take a few more runs before we turn in for the night.” He smiled properly again, seeming to look somewhat forward to it.
Having gathered the cores they left the Dungeon for another run. As they exited the dungeon they changed the plans a bit, rather than just going straight back in they took a well-deserved lunch break. During this, they had to let other people know they weren’t interested in grouping up. Though that would increase survivability, it would also affect the gained experience. It wouldn’t affect the loot chance due to this being considered a quest reward but the unknown PvP factor lingered in Sam’s mind. As Janik explained in the first dungeon they did, since the Dungeon rewards always manifested automatically like that, it was a timing one could easily abuse where a potential target was focused on what they got, to attack them.
It didn’t sound like this was a normal thing to happen, but he still felt slightly paranoid. He had only known Janik for a relatively short time but unless he was a master actor, Sam felt confident in his placed trust in this weird man.
Once they had eaten they went back into the Dungeon for a third run. This run had them fight Wolffolk, who were some mini werewolf-looking people. They used rusty swords instead of spears, too broken to even consider bringing them out for selling. They were much better at using tactics and doing a better job at surrounding them. Their sense of smell forced the duo to consider the wind more. The Chief was very strong, landing some terrifying hits on Janik, but with his parrying ability and now with Sam’s upgraded arsenal with the sword and slightly more experienced sneaking, they made decent work of it.
Janik was going through potions at a decent rate, to the point that Sam donated a few E-rank and one of his D-rank potions to the tank of the group.
Another run, another Random box, another batch of XP
[ XP to lv.12: 8267 / 10240 ████░ ]
[ Companion Elara, level up +1! ]
[ Elara XP to lv.11: 2237 / 5120 ██░░░ ]
As the norm by now, he put Elara’s point in Vitality. The Random boxes were somewhat lacklustre this time, they both got crafting materials, Sam ended up with two, and Janik also got a potion, but that was about it. None of them got the 1% bonus item from the optional step either.
Gathering the cores before leaving and entering again, they decided that this was going to be the last run before they took the rest of the day to relax. It wasn’t that interesting compared to the other ones, the difference was that they were fighting Squirrelfolk this round. They were even less robust than the rabbits, but they were even faster and were exceptional climbers, using ranged weapons which were mostly sharpened sticks. Though Sam’s remote attack did wonders for that, he missed surprisingly often given branches and fast, jittery movement, he felt a bit bad the first few hits as it didn’t feel right attacking something that adorable.
The fight at the end was done almost entirely in a large tree, the duo almost falling more than once but in the end, they managed to take out the Chief and his group of squirrels surprisingly easily.
[ Levelup +1! ]
[ XP to lv.13: 2677 / 20480 ░░░░░ ]
[ Elara XP to lv.11: 4562 / 5120 ██░░░ ]
With a bag full of cores, the level-up point put in Spirit for the Energy, weight and extra hands, Sam was looking forward to getting all of that sold. He was also looking forward to a good night's rest. Though he hadn’t been swinging his body around as much as Janik had, he was still tired from all the sneaking about and the adrenaline boost from the danger of fighting.
Again none of them got the 1% item. But in addition to the Aether crystal, both their Random boxes contained something more!