The rewards for the Dungeon were more blackberries and some coin, which they pooled together before splitting up and giving everyone thirty Wyrdgeld each in coin and Wyrdfruit.
Given the situation, Aspen and Gargan took their portions in Wyrdfruit, leaving the coin to the rest of them.
Heading back out of the Dungeon, they relaxed and had some time to recover before heading back in.
Aspen had shared out the Wyrdfruit he’d just earned, and Jake was enjoying one of the surprisingly sweet and tart berries when he found his gaze resting on the inscription on the Dungeon.
Whatever strange magics were at play with Dungeons did their best to make him forget about the shifting carvings along its doors, as well as the runes above the entrance.
Remembering how he’d sat with Varin and worked it out before, Jake decided to do the same here, and forced his gaze to linger on the runes.
Almost immediately, Jake could feel their meaning, sensed it was just there, just out of his reach. Focusing harder, he felt something behind his eye throb before they snapped into focus and the words flashed into his mind.
“Fyardi Veranis,” Jake said in a whisper, tearing his gaze away and blinking rapidly. That had been a lot easier than last time, but the words made as little sense now as they had back then.
Or did they?
Calling up his Status, Jake looked to his Boons section and looked at the name with a growing smile
Orchard’s Gift - (II) - Granted by the Aptofir Veranis Dungeon, this Boon allows you to Manifest an apple infused with vitality. Ingesting the apple transfers this vitality, healing and sating the hunger of its consumer.
Aptofir Veranis, that had been the Dungeon with all the apple trees and the damn flowers. Now he had Fyardi Veranis, another forest Dungeon.
The second part of the name must mean something about what was inside, though that didn’t explain the two Dungeons he’d seen that were called Deja.
Maybe with more Dungeons he’d figure it out, but for now, he was just pleased that he’d figured out something about Dungeons.
The fact that the name was over the top of the entrance wasn’t that big a deal, no matter how he tried to spin it, but it was still something.
“Ready to do it again?” Aspen called out, throwing the last berry up into the air and catching it in his mouth.
“Yeah,” Jake said, getting up as he idly rubbed at his temple. Learning the name had been a bit painful, but it was worth it.
Strapping on his sword belt, Jake considered his shield for a moment before leaving it behind. The more he experimented with using a sword and wand together, the more he liked it.
He’d still keep the shield for the future, but he didn’t think they’d need it for this Dungeon.
-**-
They cleared the Dungeon another three times that day, and they could have easily pushed for more if they wanted to. Jake had decided not to in the end, but only because he wanted to pace them.
Ari and Felix would be gone for a little while, so they’d have plenty of time to run this Dungeon until then.
It did help that their group had a lot of strong answers to the monsters of this Dungeon, so the individual delves didn’t take long, and weren’t that strenuous.
Between all four delves, they’d only picked up a handful of injuries, mainly from hidden Rootlings, and all had been easily taken care of with a potion.
Their last delve ended early enough that they had the whole evening to themselves, which was a good chance to relax and get to know each other better.
Ari and Felix were busy off on their own, planning out what they intended to do and what route to take, leaving the rest of them to their own devices.
Gargan turned out to be carrying a few books in his pack, and the quiet caster became almost talkative when discussing them with Alan.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Aspen seemed content to withdraw a box of ingredients that he’d left with Ivaldi in the past and cook dinner, leaving just Nepthys and Jake.
“So, is now a good time to teach you?” Nepthys asked as Aspen hurried past them with his box.
“Yeah, works for me,” Jake said, getting to his feet and resting a hand on his sword. “Do we need swords?”
“Yes, but not those,” Nepthys said, waving for Jake to wait at the table as she hurried over to Ivaldi’s, returning a minute or two later with two new sword belts, each holding a pair of wooden swords in the style that she used.
“These are pretty heavy,” Jake said, buckling on the one she passed to him.
“We train with heavier blades where possible,” Nepthys said, drawing the wooden blades and giving them an idle twirl. “It is part of our technique, one that my family has passed down through the generations. I can not teach it to you, but I can help you understand the basics.”
“I understand,” Jake said, pushing down the tinge of jealousy he felt as he wondered what his family might well have taught him.
“The first step is to understand that your task is to cut your foe, every movement should bring you a step closer to this,” Nepthys said, moving slowly to strike at Jake with her longer blade as her shorter one swept in from the side.
Jake blocked awkwardly, not used to using a sword to block with his left hand. He’d had multiple lessons with Felix on swordsmanship, but they’d always focused on footwork, balance and grip.
“Weapons are just an extension of your body, you should practice with them until you can wield them as such,” Nepthys said, stepping back and resetting before demonstrating a different attack. “You must practice until they are natural in your grip, and then your focus is entirely on the fight. A wand will not be the same as the sword, but the principle of using them together will be the same.”
Jake nodded, kind of understanding what she was saying. He hadn’t expected this sort of philosophy to be part of it, but he supposed that his attitude towards the fight was just as important.
They changed over, so that Jake was attacking Nepthys while she defended. They kept the movements slow, so that Jake could get a feel for what he was doing.
After they’d swapped another time or two, Nepthys signalled for him to stop and gestured to his offhand. “You’re considering things as two individual attacks, am I right?”
“Yeah, one then the other.”
“You need to think of it all as one. One attack, one motion, two swords as one. If you can do that, you’ll find everything easier.”
Jake stopped and considered that for a moment, thinking back on when he’d been using his sword and wand together. With Nepthys’s words in his mind, he could see that he’d never truly used them together.
Even that timed fight against the Oaken had been a sword strike and then the wand. Yes, he’d set it up that way, but they were individual actions, not everything flowing together.
“Yeah, I think I understand what you mean,” Jake said thoughtfully.
“Good, being able to examine your own actions is critical,” Nepthys said, sheathing her practice blades. “Take some time to reflect on this and we can do some more tomorrow. That is, if you want to?”
Jake wasn’t distracted enough to miss the hopeful tone she used and quickly agreed. “Yeah, that’d be great, this was really helpful.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear it,” Nepthys said, pausing for a moment before giving Jake a small smile. “I had fun as well, I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
“Me too.”
They stood in silence for a moment until Jake realised he was still wearing the sword belt and began to unbuckle it to hand back.
“No, no, you keep that,” Nepthys said, waving him off. “I’ve got more stored with Ivaldi if I need them.”
“Alright then, thanks, Nepthys,” Jake said as she walked back towards camp.
He had a lot to think about now, and part of him wanted to have a quick solo delve to try and experiment further. Now wasn’t the time, though, so he dropped off his new practice swords in the cabin he’d picked out before heading to where Aspen was serving up food.
Tomorrow, they’d hit the Dungeon hard.
-**-
Ari and Felix left early the next morning, not even waiting for Aspen to cook up some bacon that he’d prepared.
“Just how much food do you actually have stored with Ivaldi?” Jake asked as the classer provided them all with breakfast sandwiches. Bacon and egg was a great way to start the day, that was for sure.
“Nowhere near enough,” Aspen said with a chuckle. “The way I see it, this food helps us recover faster and delve more. Plus, it always tastes better. It’s a perk of delving often that I can have this much, and it helps give me a reason to keep pushing.”
“I thought your whole reason was about that refining through combat thing from your god?” Alan asked before munching into the sandwich Aspen passed him.
“Oh sure, it is,” Aspen said with a shrug. “That drives me to keep going and doing more, but it doesn’t really cover the grinding part of being a classer. So to keep things interesting, I like to mix up the Dungeons and gather as many types of food I can. It’s a great excuse to delve repeatedly, and I hate rations.”
“Don’t we all,” Alan said, the others nodding along. Jake said nothing, but privately he thought that they weren’t too bad.
“So yeah, that’s why I do this,” Aspen said before taking a hefty bite out of his sandwich. “Damn, these eggs are great.”
“Are they from a Dungeon as well?” Jake asked curiously. The sandwich was one of the best he’d had, so it really wouldn’t surprise him. “What sort of a Dungeon gives eggs?”
If he remembered right, the tavern in Restern had served Wyrd-infused eggs as well, so it must be a fairly common one.
“Not a Dungeon,” Aspen said, shaking his head a little. “Some non-combat classers can work with domestic animals or plants and make them into sort of pseudo-monsters. I don’t really get it or understand it, but the end result is Wyrdmeat, Wyrdfruit and the like.”
“Dungeons are an easier source, though,” Alan said, finishing his sandwich off. “And require a lot less upkeep.”
“Huh, I guess that makes sense, I just hadn’t really considered it.” Jake finished his own sandwich and they all sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes.
“Well, my food has settled, shall we go set fire to stuff?” Aspen asked, laughing as Gargan rolled his eyes at him.