“For the love of fuck, please give me some new armour,” Reysha prayed as she raised the lid of the chest. Her wish was with good reason. Although they had limited damage to her armour through proper engagement strategies, mistakes and simple wear and tear had by now reduced it to only a half-usable state. There were several holes punctured through the leather and some of them had widened to create gashes in the fabric that made it slowly disintegrate. It gave her a rugged sexiness and didn’t hinder her yet, but using this armour actively for a few more weeks would have seen it destroyed to a barely usable degree.
Apexus peeked under her shoulder. He was curious to see what the chest held, but he also appreciated the easy excuse to hold onto her waist for a little bit. Aclysia hovered next to them, unwilling to put her feet on the boss’ remains. A sphere of light she had conjured illuminated the twilight of the groove.
For its size, the chest was remarkably empty. Being over a metre across and half of one deep, it could have contained a nice number of items, and that was before considering that these divinely placed chests had the capacity to be bigger inside than would have made sense. In this specific case, no such dimensional stretching was necessary.
“Let’s see, we got a pouch with… fifty silver, stingy divine ass,” Reysha grumbled and pushed her hand into the pouch to see if it was at least an adventurer’s bag. It wasn’t. It wasn’t even particularly good cloth. “How come I get one gold in a starter dungeon and here we get half of that, huh?”
“Likely a continuation of the gods making earlier dungeons more rewarding to incentivize beginners to put themselves in risk,” Aclysia swiftly found a logical explanation. “Although danger never fades, I imagine that beginners have the highest fatality rate among all adventurers. Only after a few dungeons have been defeated, are group dynamics formed and basic stratagems hammered in.” The metal fairy stopped for a moment to catch the pouch. Since it was just money, she was in charge of keeping it. “It may also be that the god of this dungeon truly is stingy.”
“Maybe he counterbalances it with other good items?” Apexus suggested.
“I see nothing large or shiny, so I doubt it,” Reysha stated and reached back into the chest. She pulled out a steel sickle that was enchanted with lasting sharpness. The group, however, was unaware of this. While Aclysia and Apexus could sense the faint magic of a weak enchantment, they couldn’t decipher what it did. Since the effect wasn’t immediately visible, they assumed it was something relating to sharpness or durability, but they had no way of confirming it at that moment.
“Someone who can Appraise would be useful,” Aclysia stated.
“Scribe thing?” Apexus asked.
“Scribe for a general overview and Crafters for details, yeah,” the tiger girl answered, her tail waving around. “What kind of Crafter depends on the item, of course. Smith won’t tell you a lot of useful stuff about robes.”
“Perhaps I will look into learning about basic Scribe spells whenever the opportunity arises…” Aclysia thought out loud.
“Can you even learn things outside of your created Class?” Reysha wondered, as she pulled the next item out of the chest. A blue satin dress, valuable but not fit for the adventuring life.
“I believe so. Such flexibility has been given to me,” Aclysia responded. “Perhaps my father is playing a deliberate gamble to acquire a stronger servant. Us angels can come in many forms, but rarely is one created that can rival a top-level adventurer. The time and energy needed to manifest such a being is rarely spent.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Reysha hummed and picked up an ornamented gemstone. It looked beautiful, but that was just the craftsmanship. The actual material it was made from was quite common.
Apexus held it for a moment, he liked the way the light played on the facetted surface. “Would diverting your attention that way make your healing weaker?” he asked.
“It certainly would create the necessity to continue to hone that skill in the time I would otherwise spend improving my healing knowledge. It would also tax the shape of my mana circuitry, but I would regard this as a minor issue. Fate and Holy magic are the closest two related schools.”
Most adventurers preferred to become extremely good at one or two things, moderately good at a few others, proficient at whatever else they had to and rely on their group for everything else. This was, in large part, because of sheer time constraints. Someone who was a good smith may also have been a good carpenter, but it was unlikely that they would find the opportunity to chase both occupations in equal measure. Another drawback was the shaping of magical circuits and the magical cortex inside the body. Like muscles, they would develop to best fit the strain they were regularly presented with and come to support certain spells more effectively than others. Also, like muscles, they could be retrained with time and dedication. It was rare to go for drastic changes, however.
“I’d still rather you don’t. Magic items are good, but we don’t need them as badly as good healing,” Apexus stated his opinion.
“Would be really fucking nice if we had someone else tag along for stuff like that. Some kind of Scout plus Scribe and a Warrior would make this group a bit more versatile. Can’t do that at the moment though,” Reysha said as she pulled the last item out of the chest. “Well, this looks kind of interesting at least.”
She was holding a glove of a deep green, leafy colour. It was made from some odd material, like woven strands of shaved wood. The palm displayed a yellow ivy leaf. Apexus held it for a second, just to feel the magic radiating from the item. “It is enchanted,” he reported and gave it back to Reysha, who eagerly put it over her hand.
Making a fist, waving her arm around and spouting a few random words that sounded magical, the tiger girl tested if she couldn’t find out what the inlaying enchantment was. No lighting, no fire and no steam rose from her hand, so elemental enchantments seemed to be out. The item didn’t seem or feel particularly sturdy. Thrusting her open hand forwards, she finally succeeded in activating the magic.
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A leafless ivy shot out of her palm and extended for five metres before falling to the floor without any extra effect. “Well, that’s okay?” Reysha wondered and spent half a minute trying to recall the plant still connected to her palm. Once she had succeeded, she pointed another thrust at the ceiling. It connected to some part of the branch ceiling. Testing, Reysha wrapped the connected ivy around her hand and pulled as strong as she could. When the ivy held, she put her second hand on it as well and climbed upwards. Even when she was all the way up, the conjured plant held. “Not exactly new leather armour, but it’s pretty fantastic,” she grinned from underneath the ceiling, before lowering herself back down. When she made the recalling motion, the ivy let go and retreated without protest.
“A utility item is always of value,” Aclysia agreed. “Was that all?”
“That was all,” Reysha confirmed. Just because of good manners, they closed the chest before they headed back out.
The view of Verdany was a strange one. The immediate surrounding remained unchanged, but the massive tentacles they had always seen moving around in waving and coiling motions were now all rigid. Frozen in motion, some of them slowly slumping, they showed nothing of the dedicated power they had previously. With their ‘brain’ dead for the moment, these plant-tendrils concentrated on the regular parts of being flora: standing around and absorbing sunlight.
“No regular shortcut this time around,” Apexus noted and started morphing into the shape better lending itself to carrying the tiger girl.
“We have flight privilege, so who cares,” Reysha giggled, swinging herself on his back once the transformation was complete. Apexus started running and beating his wings, taking off and then quickly gaining height. Following right behind them with her magical flight, Aclysia caught up the moment the slime switched to a more stable soaring.
“Which way?” Apexus asked. Beyond the bramble wall of the dungeon, there was just an ocean of green. He knew they needed to go north-east, but had no idea where that was. The only way to find out was to look at the sun and he didn’t feel like searing his retinas if Aclysia could do it without damage to her eyes.
After a moment of looking up, Aclysia pointed in a direction. “If we go in that direction, we should see the bridge soon. We will stop in a city on this side of it and sell what we got,” she told him and they went on their way. They had spent about two and a half weeks inside the dungeon. By the standards of regular adventurers, it was a fast but not impossible clearing time. Even considering the fact that they had nothing in the way of guides. With it, it was normal for adequately prepared adventurers to clear Verdany in about a week. Information was the basis of warfare, even when the war was targeting a spawning location for monsters.
The next two steps of the plan were very basic. Once they had made a short stop in whatever city Aclysia chose, they would sell all their things and then continue their journey to Myrlight on foot. The north was too densely populated to risk landing and exposing Apexus’ morphed shape. The same reason why they landed on the northern outskirts of the jungle before reaching the village when the sun moved towards the horizon.
The streets were buzzing with the last spurt of daily business. People were packing their things for the day or getting in what they still could. After the time they had spent in the dungeon, seeing other people again was somewhat odd. That there were so many of them didn’t help. The city wasn’t huge but it held a couple thousand people. It was a stark contrast to the violent nature of the dungeon, exaggerated further by the suddenness with which they had reached this new area.
Kids were crying, neighbours chatting and bells rang all over the place. A fellow with a dog tail and ears was growling at a cross-armed merchant who refused to lower his prices. Worried, a guard looked over to the discussion, hoping he would get to end his shift without a sudden complication. A group of bored, young men were engaging in some friendly bullying of one of their members to approach a woman and ask her out for drinks. Somewhere, a cat meowed. Barrels were rolled over the pavement. Footsteps, hundreds of footsteps accompanied the movement of people through the broad streets.
There was room to walk and navigate between the wooden stands, something the group appreciated. Walking across the market and looking for whoever seemed willing to buy their things, the group could avoid any close contact with people. Whenever they found a promising shop, like a jeweller for the nicely carved rock, they haggled only for a little bit and then sold the item a fair bit under value. They knew that it was happening, but they weren’t in pressing need of the money and preferred to just get the affair over with.
Once they had traded all of their items for coin, they searched for someone who could patch up the holes in Reysha’s leather armour and, if they had some money to spare after that, someone who could clean and look at Aclysia’s robe as well. Since both women had changed into their casual clothes, they could get that done without being left stark naked.
“I can do that for you, but not today,” a leatherworker they eventually found told them, inspecting Reysha’s armour and pants. “Just some standard cuts. Stitches won’t be pretty, but they’ll work. Again, not today though. I’m ready to close shop.” Glancing at the white-haired woman and the air they gave off, he added, “I’ll start with it before I usually open the shop. Should be done with it by noon. It’ll add another 5 silver to the price though, so you owe me a total of 15.”
Reysha was just barely listening to those words as she concentrated on breathing. The sounds of the crowd were getting to her.
“Thank you for your consideration. I will gladly pay that extra,” Aclysia stated and bowed her head.
Behind her, Apexus was looking at the many wares on display. Leather sheaths for knives and other tools, cut-outs to serve as a separation between plates and tables or other kinds of barriers, and other simple things. It was a nice and practical shop. Every time the slime looked at leather, he was fascinated that animal hides could be transformed into such an array of soft, hard, thick and thin materials.
Reysha slowly stepped away. Her senses were dull and memories flickered across the inside of her eyelids whenever she blinked.
Fascinated as he was, Apexus was paying enough attention to see the redhead sway into an alleyway. Looking between her and Aclysia, still talking to the leatherworker about a few pieces of information he may have to give, he presented a somewhat silly picture. Like an extremely confused owl, his head flew left to right and back again. The hood and wooden mask obscured his features and most people remained more intimidated by his large, enigmatic form. Funny wasn’t the word that came to their mind. Creepy was their chosen description.
Once Reysha was out of view, he could no longer wait for the metal fairy to turn his way and quickly took after her. Leaning back against the wall and her eyes closed, the tiger girl didn’t immediately respond to his approach. Careful not to set her off, Apexus stood there, his wings creating a barrier between the street and the little space between the two houses.
Eventually, the tiger girl opened her eyes and gave him a weak, but triumphant smile. “I didn’t lose control,” she proclaimed. “I got it under control, Apexus!”
Since he had no smile to show her at that moment, the slime went over and hugged her instead.
“I’m happy,” he said.