“I’ve never heard of this trap door. If you need Hymil’s staff to open it then that would explain it. No one in their right mind wouldn’t run out immediately to get their payday. We should have been halfway to the exit by now.” Calrin said as if he wanted to do just that.

“Well want to see what is down there? If no one has ever been in there, it must have some really nice stuff.” That convinced the Bladesman to shut up.

There was a rotten ladder that broke every other rung. Xane fell the last few cursing as he landed. And then having to jump out of the way of Calrin having broke the one he was standing on. “How are we going to get back up?” Xane complained.

“Eh we can climb back up easily-” The trap door shut on them. “On second thought, maybe this is a trap. Dungeons are notorious for traps.”

Xane pulled out two of his light cubes and handed one to Calrin. It was a cellar of sorts with rotting barrels and crates. Nothing of interest was in them. Really there was nothing at all in there at all. One door of less rotten wood was locked. “Can we just bust it down?” Xane asked.

“Probably but usually there is something we need to do to open it.” he answered sagely.

The two looked around more Xane using his sight to try and peer through the walls. Something blocked his sight through the door and the walls just had dirt on the other side. It was Calrin who found it. A small key that was hidden behind a loose brick. The door was unlocked to lead to a hallway.

There were numerous traps in the hallway of death. Spikes that would come out of slits in the wall. False flooring that would lead to even more spikes. A cloud of poisonous smoke came from the ceiling. All were either old and defective or plain bad. Neither took any damage from the traps, only wasting time. 15 minutes it took them to get to another door. It was more metal than wood and was too locked.

Xane recognized the shape of the keyhole. It was the locket he got. The door creaked open rust, having kept it shut for however long. Inside was a light filled room. The light source was a floating gem the size of Xane’s palm. “Holy shit is that what I think it is?” Calrin asked rhetorically.

“What is it?”

“The core of the dungeon. There used to be a large bounty to find the core. Taking or breaking the core is the only way to destroy a dungeon. The bounty was waived when they discovered how lucrative the dungeon was. Now taking or destroying a dungeon core is forbidden in Zakor owned dungeons. For reason you can guess.” Calrin said this getting closer to the gem. “This thing can be sold for so much.” He shook his head. “If the bounty was still up I’d have taken it. At least younger me would have. If we were to tell them we found it that would mean though you’d have to tell them about both the drops and that you have them. I think now those items cost more than that bounty was so long ago.”

“So we aren’t taking the shiny gem?” Xane asked.

“No.”

That wasn’t the only thing in the room. A chest was in a corner. It was small but held a good amount of coins mostly ranging from copper to gold. A few platinum specked in. Xane pocketed that having no reason to let Zakor take 30% of it. On the other side on a table was a finely crafted greatsword. Xane didn’t even have time to inspect it before Calrin had picked it up twirling it around and testing its weight. “Here we keeping this.”

Undead Bane Blade(Rare)

This blade was specially crafted to fight against undead. Knight Cynil brother of Hymil came here long ago to fight his brother and free him from his torture. Sadly Cynil failed in his endeavor, his blade all that was left. It was hidden away so no one could use it against the horde. This blade does significantly more damage to undead. Has a chance to instantly kill undead under level 20.

Xane oooed over the blade. It would have been useful in this dungeon. “Of course something that would have made this dungeon easy is at the very end.”

There was another door behind the core. When they opened it they could see the outside right at the entrance. The two left happy with their finds.

The clerk was none the wiser when they left and handed over their goods. They put in some gold coins to act like the boss drops and called it good. “This haul is decent but you two must have been unlucky. This is less than average. Anyway, how would you like your portion? currency or loot?” Xane chose money since that was what he truly needed less so with the chest but he would take more.

Xane didn’t have another dungeon to go to for another 4 days so he went back and purchased all the runes Warren was willing to sell. That included a stronger version of his spark rune called combustion. The cleaning rune and also a durability rune just because. As well as protection for the same reason as he could. In the notes form Akaid he had a feeling he could double up on the effects and they would multiply not add if done correctly. Lastly was the one he was most excited about. It was a rune that would increase the speeds of projectiles. He could put it on a bow and arrows used on that bow would have increased speeds. What Xane wanted to do though was use it on his guns, the idea to significantly increase their damage and speed.

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He even learned the runes on the shovel which were area and dig. Area gave a radius effect to a connected rune. Dig was self explanatory.

He also purchased knowledge of 3 more enchantments. Glow which was the same as his light rune. It was cheap though. As well as a weight increasing enchantment and weight reducing enchantment. Both having their uses.

Xane decided to risk the gun Von had given him what felt like ages ago. Xane had sent a letter to the port they had split, having set it as a place where they would meet up or drop stuff off for each other. Xane just hadn’t had time to go check if he had left one for him.

Xane took out his tools and disassembled the pistol to find the best spot to place the runes. He was going to use 3. Durability first to strengthen it. Cleaning so it couldn’t get dirty. And lastly the speed rune. Xane easily put the durability rune on, it went on the inside of the grip. The cleaning rune went on the other side. Warren only had a speed rune of minor rank. That was much harder to create than the lessers he had been using. He had prepared though. The 4 days used well.

Xane had gotten his runesmithing to level 25 in preparation. He also chose the option to put on more runes since the others felt too specific for his liking the same as enchanting. It going up to 5. He had practiced the speed rune on multiple bows in preparation believing he can do it.

Calming himself he began.

“Wow, I really shouldn’t have worried so much.” Xane said to himself. It went smoothly only one close call when a bead of sweat tickled his nose. The tests went even better as the mana bullet went way faster than Xane thought it would. The problem with mana bullets was that they were much slower than regular bullets. As well as the strength of the bullets were less than metal ones. They got better with his increase in intelligence surpassing durability of normal bullets a while ago. The speed though was still less until now.

Fear gone he did the same to his revolver pleased with his work. “I hope you don’t let this stuff get in the hands of the people of this world. I truly don’t think it's ready for such a weapon. Very little training needed for such a strong weapon. It would revolutionize armies.”

“I agree which is why I keep them on me and try to keep them a secret.”

“And you trust Calrin and them enough?”

“Yes”

“Just not with me?”

“You are the one who told me to keep you a secret. I don’t like lying and keeping things to myself.” Xane tried not to yell since others could hear them if they tried.

“I know I’m sorry. I-I just want my own body. Some true control over my life again. I enjoy being with you but the sooner we can not for a while the better. At least a few days. I’ll probably go to Twila. I think that's far enough away from you.” Xane could tell by the end that she was half joking and appreciated the attempt to smooth over the situation.”

“Well I want to be at least 25 miles away from you.” They laughed for a few moments not really knowing why.

The 4 days went fast and Xane, Calrin, Huntress, and Hatchet found themselves in another dungeon. This one was a step up from the last one at Grown. He would increase his delver feat once completing it.

This one was filled with ants. A lot of ants. Way to many ants. They were the size of humans lengthwise. They were in a giant system of winding tunnels that lead to oddly well crafted traps. Some would drop rocks. Others would drop piles of ants ready to eat your face. There were pit falls with you guessed it ants waiting to eat your face.

Xane didn’t very much like this dungeon. It didn’t have any rules though except a max party of 6. Garry didn’t like the taste of the bugs and wasn’t very effective so Xane sadly put the snake away since the tunnels weren’t that big. Poor Garry hadn’t been out for a while. Huntress at least got Mutt to go on hunts and Xane was too busy. He promised Garry they would go for a hunt after this dungeon.

The dungeon aptly named Antasrophe was a slug fest. The numerous ants didn’t drop much while there were also very little secrets that none of them could find. The ones they did find just a purse of extra coins.

The boss fight was with a highly intelligent mother ant that would birth larva that would grow into fully grown ants in only a minute. She also shot acid balls. There were traps all over her lair. They were sadly just the same ones they had seen before and didn’t get injured by any. Though a mountain of ants falling on top of you was dangerous.

In the end she dropped common loot and the only worthwhile thing was the upgrade to the feat giving him 1 more point to each stat.

In a month's time they did all the available dungeons. Xane having done a few more young ones by himself. As well as a growing one. This netted him enough points to get to the 3rd rank of dungeon delver.

Through all that he only got a single level. The deficit on experience through dungeons grueling. If he wanted to get to level 25 and get his class he needed to kill real creatures. Truth be told he probably got that level more from his professions and cultivating than from the dungeons. Calrin promised him that the fighting experience was worth it for his class choices. Xane put all 6 into endurance getting it close to 100.