As Evelyn looked across at her bubbly [Guide] while they debated their next steps, she felt relieved despite Ivy’s oddness. She seemed to know of things that Evelyn had never heard of like goblins, yet also seemed to have less common sense regarding levels than the average child. Regardless, Evelyn knew she’d be having a breakdown if she was on her own right now.
After upgrading the spear wielders in something of a panic - not that Evelyn truly regretted the action, but rather her shameful lack of composure when doing so - they had been discussing the options for how to spend the remaining mana. Evelyn was upset to learn that most of the common creature templates were relatively normal animals. Yet both she and Ivy still thought discovering a random creature template was likely worthwhile in hopes of obtaining something for the [leadership] boon, or at least gaining some versatility. Traps also seemed quite efficient, although Evelyn thought Ivy might be overestimating their effectiveness against genuine threats. The current point of disagreement was materials.
“You’d said that equipment would help the skeletons punch above their level, materials could help produce them as well as other kinds of traps," Ivy pressed.
Evelyn frowned. “The spears we can currently produce are far too expensive. While other materials might not need to be magically fused together to make a somewhat passable weapon, what would happen if the random material is just another type of stone? Or parchment? Or something equally useless? The risk is just too great.”
“If we want people to delve the dungeon without trying to destroy it, they will need rewards for delving and materials or equipment have value as loot.”
Evelyn looked at her incredulous. She really didn’t get it. “There’s nothing we could offer as loot that would be more valuable than the mana gems in the skeletons.” Seeing that Ivy looked curious rather than understanding, Evelyn continued, “The elves need them for the barriers and teleportation… How do you not know this?”
Before Ivy could answer, Evelyn felt a familiar jolt of adrenaline. Someone had just entered the dungeon.
“We’ll return to this later, one of Timberhollow’s rangers has arrived.”
A simple exertion of will had the two appear by the entrance to the dungeon. While Ivy had told her previously that they wouldn’t be able to directly interact with delvers, it was still strange to see no reaction to their sudden appearance from the clearly tense [ranger]. The three tree insignia of Timberhollow was embossed over his heart on his leather armour, as if the long, mottled green and brown cloak didn’t give away that he was a [ranger] in the first place. Given his caution and appearance she’d place him somewhere in his thirties, though the tell-tale pointed ears that marked him as a half-elf made that harder to be sure. She was fairly convinced this guy was a true [ranger] and not just a member of the organisation. This could be a problem. Ivy’s squeak of, “Elf!” Marked something else they’d have to talk about later.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
With a torch in one hand the half-elf raised the other to his mouth and spoke softly, “I have entered the dungeon, appears cave-like with no light source and low ceilings, proceeding with investigation.”
“Damn, he has [relay] which means he’s fairly high level.” At Ivy’s raised eyebrow, she explained, “Short range communication skill picked by Timberhollow’s [ranger]s but it also allows for longer range communication by bouncing along a chain of willing individuals, with the skill spreading out the mana cost between them. I don’t know what level they get it at but it’s over 10, I’d guess closer to 20 in [ranger].”
“Shit.”
Evelyn gave her an unimpressed look. Despite the direness of the situation one should never give up on decorum. The [ranger] continued slowly through the corridor crouched low and methodically checking for traps before each step with a diligence Evelyn could respect.
“I assume I can’t just make a pit trap below him?”
Ivy chuckled, “No, you can’t edit a floor that has delvers, but you should be able to edit other floors or do general things like purchasing a random template.”
As the Ranger’s slow systematic progress reached the first room, and he gave a succinct update with [relay], Evelyn spent the mana for a random creature template.
Rat template unlocked
Rat Skeleton template unlocked
Underwhelmed she decided to hold off on spending more mana until she’d seen him go through a few more rooms. If he kept being this cautious she might be able to use that against him. Thankfully, as he slowly made his way across the first room he was about to step on a pit trap. Ivy gasped as he placed his foot on the trap. Crack! Even before the sound had begun to echo in the relative silence, the [ranger] jumped back. A series of web-like cracks were left in that section of the floor, as several fragments of stone plinked into the spikes below.
While the Ranger appeared unharmed, he was breathing heavily. Cautiously moving the torch down and peering into the hole where his foot had been, he swore softly, “By the Three! Thank The Seeker for [danger sense].”
“I thought we had him. That skill seems strong,” Ivy opined.
“I haven’t heard of it before, but I’d heard [trapsense] was almost a requirement for dungeon kill teams. It probably has a long cooldown or a prohibitive mana cost, but I doubt we’ll be catching him out with the other pits now,” Evelyn responded. Gesturing to the crouching [ranger], who had drawn a dagger, and seemed to be testing the ground in front of him by striking it lightly with the pommel. They watched as he made his way across the room, managing to avoid another pit from the hollow sound it made when struck.
The half-elf gave another update with [relay] when he made it to the second room. Ivy seemed excited to see how the lean figure would get on with the so called “monkey bars”, however as Evelyn expected they proved little challenge to him. His strength was sufficient to let him pull himself up onto the first bar even with a torch in one hand. Then he was able to leverage his very high agility to walk across the bars close to the wall where they were least likely to break from his weight. The one reassuring thing was that at least he seemed to be proceeding even more slowly now than he had initially, checking each bar carefully for traps, having almost been caught once.
Unfortunately, when the [ranger] was most of the way across, Evelyn felt another jolt of adrenaline. The dungeon had another delver.