“You’re in perfect condition, it would be best to enter the dungeon sooner rather than later.”
Looking up before swallowing the food in her mouth. Jessica had a bit of a slightly reluctant expression on her face. The time they spent shopping for winter travel gear and preparations for entering the dungeon. All of it had been spent together. It truly had been a long time since the two had done so much together. Normally, she went out doing her own thing. During this time, the old man spent most of his time at home. Every so often he would leave to do things here or there.
As for the details, she was unsure as he never really talked about it. She only knew he went out because Aderyn told her. Anytime she returned, the old man was always inside with food or at the very least a cup of warm tea. Unfortunately, she knew he was right. Anytime a person stepped into a dungeon, it was dangerous. Even more so when one delved deeply into a dungeon for the furthest room. The difference between being just prepared or in good condition made a large difference. The best condition was when both were true.
Seeing her reluctance, he could only smile as he took a sip of his tea. Slowly speaking once more, “I have a lot of things to do, so even if you don’t enter, I will be leaving. At most, I can prolong it for a couple of hours. But, before I go, I prepared something for you.” Reaching out his hand, he dropped a bag on the table.
Hearing the bag meet the table caused her to hear the shifting of some type of powder. She was curious, only after opening the bag was she able to peer inside. As the sound had alerted to earlier, inside was a blue powder. There was no scent or anything to easily identify the usage. It was only with a bit of thinking, she was able to realize the usage of the powder. Looking up, she had a bit of a twinkle in her eye. “Is this what I think it is?”
With a troubled look, the old man simply tilted his head, “How am I supposed to know what you’re thinking. I am good, but not that good.”
Narrowing her eyes, Jessica couldn’t help but groan at the playful smile in the old man’s eyes. As civil as she could muster her into her tone, “Is this dungeon powder?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know you could make this. How effective is it? Is there anything I need to look out for?”
There was clear excitement in her voice, this caused a smile to hang on his lips. Replying with content, “Yes, it is the best I could do. I haven’t made any in a very long time, so it might not be terribly effective. Because the wolves in the dungeon will be magic wolves. The amount of mana in the bodies will likely be lower than other creatures. For this reason, you will at most be able to get two uses out of each room. You should only aim for the last corpse. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. And don’t put yourself at risk just for a few gold coins.”
Dungeon powder was as its name suggested. A powder used in dungeons to preserve corpses of the magic beasts. The materials inside wasn’t especially exceptional. Especially for a Grade F dungeon. However, it could be said that for magic wolves even though they were of lower quality coming from a dungeon, they still had value. Unlike other supplies, dungeon powder was very rarely sold.
While a very generic version would be seen at almost every dungeon market. No stores carried it, and they were always sold at the markets right outside of dungeons. Almost all of these powders deteriorated, the magic beast remains. By that point, the amount of money one could make wasn’t very high. Yet, a profit was a profit nonetheless.
Therefore, one could always find someone selling some. As for the real stuff. That was all homemade. The issue came into play when entering the dungeon itself. Like a separate dimension, each dungeon was similar to its own world. Powder that was able to perfectly preserve a corpse in one dungeon might completely destroy a corpse in a dungeon of a lower grade than the first. Dungeon powder was a very complicated recipe that was incredibly hard to make, therefore it was also a very highly guarded secret.
As for the use of the powder, that was very easily explained. When a creature dies in a dungeon, its remains are collected by the dungeon itself. The creatures are artificial, which is why they don’t have intelligence. Mana is distributed throughout the entirety of the body. This is also why generic powder causes such damage to the remains. The powder works by supplying mana to the dungeon in place of the corpse. The potency of the powder determines how much mana is absorbed by the corpse to feed the dungeon. If too much the corpse is ruined, too little and the corpse and powder is both eaten by the dungeon.
With a happy smile, Jessica could only helplessly give her gratitude, “Thank you!” It was extremely heartfelt. Even if the rules were arbitrary, she still had them. When she killed animals and even the rare occasional magic beast, she always tried to get every last bit of use. Wasting was treated as a sin. A sign of disrespect. While she didn’t like dungeons, the corpses were fed back into the dungeon and every last bit was used, only with the powder the usage was not benefiting random people but herself. Even if it was selfish it was unknown who would benefit from the surplus mana generated by her, for this reason it was better for her to get the benefits instead.
The food soon disappeared, and what was left was a bit of an awkward silence. She wanted to say something to prolong the moment, only in the end there was nothing to say. The old man had other things to take care of. She was no longer a child that could justify taking up all his time. Soon the two parted after a long goodbye.
Since he had left, all that was left was Leo and her. Yet, he was constantly researching the rune, trying to find the missing pieces to replace the missing or wrong parts. He had been going for a long time and didn’t seem to be stopping. The closer he got, the harder he seemed to work. She found the silence deafening, however, she also understood why he was working so hard to finish that rune.
At first, he was unsure if the rune was what he believed it to be. Once he realized the rune was what he believed it to be. There was no time to delay. With that rune, his condition would stabilize, and he would be able to regain his former strength to a certain degree. This also meant that he could actually be used as his main purpose. While she didn’t think she would like using him as a weapon, it didn’t change the fact that he had a desire to be useful, and she wasn’t willing to take that away.
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Very quickly, she entered the dungeon. As if the entire journey after the old man left had been fast forwarded. It was only after entering, she felt everything was real again. The tension brought her back to reality. No longer was she just an observer, she now had completely control of herself. As someone combat oriented, she had honed herself to a degree that, when danger was sensed, her body entered a similar state of hypersensitivity.
The first thing she did was not open the door to see what her opponents were. Instead, she sat down cross-legged and closed her eyes. With a big breath in and a very slow exhale. She was soon able to resist the heavy beating of her heart as she started to regain her usual calm. The turbulent emotions she had been feeling before were slowly curbed as she felt herself empty out.
Once she opened her eyes, she was faced with an empty feeling. Because of the emotions that had blazed through her shifting from oblivion to an overly sensitive state, her shift in mind had caused a bit of pressure to build up. Once the tension had dissolved like a massive block weighing on her shoulders. It allowed her to relax just a bit. While the tension was still pumping through her veins, it didn’t push down on her, causing her to feel uncomfortable.
Placing her hand on the hard rock surface of the door, there was a soft rumbling as a grating sound could also be heard as the door was pulled by a mysterious force to the side. Inside were only two wolves. It appeared she was being given a small amount of luck. The dungeon in Caplita had three floors. Each floor had a total of five rooms. With each floor having a single empty room. While each room had a random contingency to the normal clock, each room would respawn with creatures every two hours. This meant that anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours and a half would cause an empty room to no longer be empty.
Inside this room was a white and green wolf. They were of a larger size than what she was expecting to see. Generally, magic wolves were anywhere from two to six feet tall. In a Grade F dungeon, she would only expect the last room to house a wolf at five foot. Depending on the number, the size would change accordingly. In a dungeon, the individual strength of each creature increased slowly as you progressed through, as for the number in each room, that was random.
Because of the natural aptitude of a wolf, it wasn’t possible to come up with a complex set of plans. Unlike with the goblins, when facing a wolf, she was completely on the defending end. All she could do was go over the known abilities of each subspecies of wolf, so to be prepared for anything thrown at her.
The white wolf was a snow wolf, it had the ability to produce cold from its breath and claws. At higher grades, it could actually cast magic similar to what she used in the goblin dungeon. The most dangerous aspect of this creature was that its blood and claws would cause its mana to inflict frostbite if carelessly allowed to stay on her skin. This was also an ability that caused its very atmosphere to turn colder the higher the grade. As for the Grade F in front of her, its most dangerous aspect was the blood and claws that could affect her physically if she wasn’t careful.
In a similar corner was the forest wolf. In between the settlement and the remains of an old human village south of the elf settlement, were forest wolves. They were low in numbers and didn’t dare trespass into the elf territory. This was the first magic beast she had ever killed. She was extremely familiar with this breed of magic beast. Unlike the slowing effect or the atmospheric effects, this magic wolf was physically stronger than the former. The only special ability that qualified it to be a magic wolf was that its claws could cause stiffness in the wounds it inflicted.
Stepping into the room, she had already checked her weapons and clipped the fiber from her wrist wraps onto the pommels of the daggers. The second she took a step inside, the two wolves statues slowly came to life. Sniffing the air before turning in her direction. Both of them were letting off light growls. There wasn’t a need to be display any stealth, it wouldn’t have any effect in this enclosed room.
Slowly, the two moved closer as they inspected her. Dissimilar to the goblins, the wolves didn’t immediately pounce the second an enemy was seen. Only once the distance between the two were in a five-foot distance, did the forest wolf lunge at her. Sidestepping, she used her right hand to parry the claws as her side step caused it to be unable to bite her. Having needed to brace her right arm with the left. When the wolves weight was distributed to her arms, there was a heavy push back. By the time she recovered, all she was able to accomplish was a light slice on the back leg that barely made it through the flesh.
This slash caused her body to turn back to facing forward. The snow wolf didn’t lunge but ride the shadow of the first as it went for the legs. This time she jumped forward. Under no circumstance was she willing to sit helplessly in between the two wolves. Hoping to slash at the back of the neck, she was disappointed in her efforts when she wasn’t able to reach the wolves back. Once she had left the ground, the wolves instinctively crouched as it dug into the ground with a slight slide from the forward momentum.
Once she landed, she needed to roll before finishing on her legs as she moved fast to return to a ready stance. When finished, she looked at the ground and was able to see claw marks that showed how the wolf was able to stay upright with such awkward movements. While she was in a good position, the snow wolf wasn’t able to recover as quickly, this didn’t matter much as the forest wolf that had attacked first was now running at her. Seemingly able to learn, or possibly because of the slight damage it took to the back leg, the wolf didn’t jump like before. While there was still a lunge through the air. The two were moving back as she wanted to get some distance from the snow wolf.
When their distanced closed enough, the forest wolf lunged forward as it tried to knock her over. Once the wolf had left the ground, even just barely. She had braced herself for the impact. She didn’t sidestep or deliberately take the attack. Instead, she filled her body with mana. As the two were about to collide, she fell to the ground. What she chose to do was not just a little dangerous. Only, she had confidence in her physical ability to deal with the consequences. As things played out, she was correct.
With the larger size, that lead to more physical strength. If she had been wrong, it would have been a devastating blow, hardly possible to recover from. And yet, her small, lithe physique was able to easily slip in between the limbs of the wolf. Moving the mana that had dampened the force from the fall into her arms, she used all the force she could generate to penetrate the wolf from below. Combined with her efforts was the falling force of the wolf itself. As the two met, there was an added bonus of penetrating power.
As the blades slipped in, there was a rough pulling force on her arms. It would be a lie if she said she didn’t have any trouble holding onto her daggers. If not for their innate sharpness, she was sure that penetrating would have been possible, only her wrists would have also broken. The end result was her scrambling to stand up, covered in blood. If one looked closely, they would see more blood leaking between the dagger handles and the webbing between the thumb and index fingers.
The death and the blood of the first wolf had caused the snow wolf to pause briefly. This allowed her enough time to recover her stance. However, this was a dungeon and not outside. The hesitation in its eyes only lasted for a moment before it began to once again move step by step closer.