With the last of the adventurers dead, Sol and Amber looted the bodies, taking what was useful to them. Sol’s mood wasn’t that great, as he didn’t like the fact that he had killed someone who was begging for his life.
‘There was no choice. We were enemies, and he saw too many of my skills.’
While Amber also used to be an enemy, Sol knew she had no choice in the matter, and now they were working together to find his parents. Urian, on the other hand, was begging to be his follower out of fear of dying, and Sol simply couldn’t imagine trusting that man with the way he previously acted.
Besides the multiple spatial rings that had plenty of gold and items, the total wealth of all the adventurers' rings didn’t compare to what was stored in Urian’s.
Spatial Ring
Rare
Skills:
[Pocket Space] Lv 5
“What an absurd amount of resources…”
The five meter cube was almost completely full of materials gathered from the dungeon. It appeared that Urian was holding onto all the materials they found for safekeeping, likely to later divide it equally among the adventurers.
“We could both get unique armor and more with this much money.”
Armor tended to be more expensive than weapons because of its life-saving purpose and the amount of materials required to make it. Amber made a move to begin stripping their armor, but Sol stopped her.
“Just take the weapons. None of the armor is unique, and while the dungeon is going to consume them, at least let them go with dignity.”
Because of the copious amounts of materials they could sell to the guild, the two were no longer in dire need of money. There was no reason to strip them naked just for a couple of hundred gold when they would soon have thousands. Even with just the rings that were either common or rare, they would net over 1000 gold.
Amber didn’t question Sol and handed him the rest of the weapons so they could sell them later.
Receiving the weapons, Sol thought to himself, ‘I'll have to sort out which to keep and sell later.’
Just before Sol stored them in his spatial ring, he noticed one of them was a unique dagger.
Serpent Fang
Unique
Skills:
[Numbing] Lv 7, [Corrosive Edge] Lv 6, [Crushing Fang] Lv 7
“Here, take it. You normally dual wielded daggers, right?”
Before they bought Amber’s new dagger, she wielded two rare ones. While Amber could still use them, they were nowhere near as effective as the unique dagger and didn’t last as long either. Amber could still deal great damage with only one weapon, but Sol knew how strong she was when she had two.
Amber nodded and silently took the dagger off Sol and placed it in her spatial ring.
“Alright, let's go then.”
Done with the bodies, Sol and Amber descended to the 14th floor to get some real rest.
...
Six hours later, Sol woke up in his tent feeling reenergized.
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Sol stretched as he walked out of the tent.
‘I didn’t even check the system messages or train with [Reinterpret].’
Not getting any decent rest as he had to keep watch, Sol just missed the feeling of turning his brain off and didn’t bother to do anything else besides sleeping.
‘Let’s deal with the system information and the weapons.’
[Barricade (Variant)] reached MAX level, evolve skill?
“Obviously.”
Giving the system the go ahead, he soon saw his new skill.
[Barricade (Variant)] evolved into [Unpassable Bulwark (Variant)]!
[Unpassable Bulwark (Variant)] Lv 1: Take a stance to block all attacks that come your way. Attacks that come near the user will gravitate towards the shield, unable to attack those behind you. Can be canceled at any time. Enhances defense by 1200%. Duration: 30 seconds. Cooldown: 30 minutes.
Sol was very satisfied with the upgraded skill.
‘It became much stronger, and luckily it kept the variant benefit.’
Sol also took this chance to see his status page.
Name: Sol
Race: Human
Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer]
Level: 71
Exp: 9,540,095/27,300,000
HP: 1400
MP: 1400
Str: 75 (+70)
Vit: 70 (+70)
Agi: 70 (+70)
Int: 70 (+70)
Wis: 70 (+70)
Talent Skills:
[Siphon] Lv 4, [Analysis] Lv 6, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX
Passive Skills:
[Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Counter] Lv 6, [Shortened Cast] Lv MAX, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Mana Efficiency] Lv MAX, [Precise Coordination] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 3, [Intermediate Weapon Mastery] Lv 7, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 8, [Perfect Balance] Lv 2, [Death Absorption] Lv 6, [Danger Sense] Lv 7, [Multicast] Lv 6
Active Skills:
[Cross Slash] Lv 3, [Ground Shrink] Lv 3, [Snap Punch] Lv 8, [Invisibility] Lv 5, [Terra Spikes] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Fell Cleave] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 8, [Telepathy] Lv 1, [Unpassable Bulwark (Variant)] Lv 1, [Intermediate Elemental Magic] Lv 5, [Overpower] Lv 4, [Create Undead] Lv 6, [Weapon Enhancement (Variant)] Lv 7, [Disarm] Lv 8, [Backstab] Lv 6, [Bombardment] Lv 1, [Storm Blitz] Lv 8, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 5, [Seeking Shot] Lv 6, [Mana Slash] Lv 2, [Intermediate Light Magic] Lv 7
‘A few skills have leveled up, but there is still a lot to do. I now have access to light magic, and I need to take some time to process all the spells I learned. I also need to figure out what to do with skills that have a lot of potential but have fallen behind, like [Snap Punch].’
Sol didn’t want to fall into the trap of only using a few skills when he had an opportunity no one else had. There were just two problems that stood in his way. The first was that he was only a single person; although he had a plethora of skills, he could only use so many at once. The second and more important problem was that Sol only had so much time.
If Sol wasn’t trying to level up as fast as possible in the dungeon while also on a time limit for the knight selection, he would be able to dedicate time to the more forgotten skills. Sadly, there was not much Sol could do regarding that and could only continue to push on.
As Sol was taking out cooking utensils, he mumbled to himself, “I wonder what I should make for breakfast today…”
While making breakfast, Sol was also reviewing the spells he learned from Urian. Light magic was more versatile than Sol thought. There was a spell for almost any scenario: healing, damage, shielding, even movement.
Light magic by itself was a massive gain for Sol, but there were two other benefits as well.
[Mana Efficiency] Lv MAX: Reduced mana cost of all spells by 50%. The user has much finer control over mana and can manipulate ambient mana better.
[Multicast] Lv 6: Able to cast a spell twice at the cost of more mana. The mana cost of the second spell: 130%.
‘[Mana Efficiency] finally maxed out, making spells even more cost effective with the added benefit of easier control over ambient mana. I originally thought [Multicast] would let me cast two different spells at a time, but instead, it lets me cast the one spell twice.’
Wanting to try it out, Sol chanted in his mind.
“[Wind Cutter]!”
Two blades of near invisible wind flew out of his hand and slashed the nearby wall.
‘The cost is higher, but it’s absolutely worth it. Not just with casting [Explosion] twice, though I imagine it would hurt a lot. I can also cast [Tailwind] and other supportive spells on both myself and Amber at the same time. There may be more I can do, but I’ll need to take some time to try it out.’
Yet another thing Sol had to do in his ever increasing list of tasks.
Amber appeared, coming out of her tent with her hair slightly messy.
“Mornin’, Amber. Give me a minute, the food is almost ready.”
Sol served Amber and himself a portion as they both sat down to eat a warm meal. The two didn’t really talk, as Sol found it hard to get more than two words out of Amber at a time, but he was fine with that.
Soon, the two were done and packed up their camp, ready to dive into the 14th floor.