Finally. Relief washed through Cyn as she felt herself hit level five and put down her fishing pole. It had been just over a week since the party had arrived in the underground city, and she was afraid that she would be unable to reach the first skill selection in Creature Handler before they returned to the mines tomorrow. Everyone else had reached level five within just a few days, and had been excited to discover their first skill selection. While the first two levels had come quickly, the next ones were substantially more difficult to achieve for Cyn in particular. The diminishing returns on experience for doing things you already knew was really harsh. Ultimately she had to meet and handle both kinds of ‘livestock’ the gnomes kept, the second ones being the flying creatures she had glimpsed when they first entered the city who were a bit like giant bees, and for the final level she had resorted to fishing up the strange creatures that lived in the pools at the far end of the cavern. The fish were ugly and practically inedible, and because of that she had had to make her own janky fishing pole as well since the gnomes had no reason to be fishing them up.

Her efforts at least were not totally in vain. As it turns out, Creature Handler was not a popular profession so it paid fairly well in Cogtopia. Between her and Sam the party was able to afford the materials to train their professions, along with being able to get everyone some basic clothes to wear and supplies. She had been sad to see her coffee frog shirt go, but could not deny the plain tunic and full pants were more comfortable, despite being a boring gray. Not knowing what to expect out of her first skill choice, she braced herself and checked her notifications.

Profession level up! [Creature Handler] is now level 5

‎ +3 Vitality, +1 Mind, +2 Will, +1 Strength, +2 Agility, +1 Luck

+3 free points

Skill selection available for [Creature Handler]. View options now?

‎ [View][Wait]

Cyn dismissed her level up and chose to view her options on the second notification. As she did, a larger pop-up took over her menu to present her with three new skills to choose from. A little disappointing, as both Hex and Sam had received five options.

Fish Finder (Common)(Passive) - You are able to detect aquatic creatures present in nearby bodies of water, without having to see them.

That one was clearly based on her past few days of fishing, and since Cyn hoped to never pick up a fishing pole again that was almost definitely the worst option.

Detect Weakness (Uncommon) - Focus in an attempt to discern where a creature is most vulnerable.

Reliability of skill is dependent on many factors, including how familiar the Creature Handler is with the type of creature skill is used on.

That right there was pretty close to what Cyn had been aiming for. It seems the System had noticed her attempts to focus on finding weaknesses in every creature she had handled since choosing her profession. Being a skill, rather than just relying on her taking the time to study the creature, she hoped it would be usable in the spur of the moment. The only concerns were the skill itself seeming to note that it was not totally reliable, and it being activated rather than just a passive. If she was already familiar with a creature, would she really need a skill to know where it was vulnerable? Or perhaps ‘type of creature’ was a broad category, and she would be able to quickly find the weakness of any centipede-like creature after studying the spikipedes. Looking at her final option did not make the winning choice any more clear.

Pet (Uncommon) - It seems they enjoy being touched almost as much as you enjoy touching them.

Has a chance to produce a calming effect when used on an agitated creature.

Attempting to use this skill on a hostile creature may result in injury or death.

Well, damn. Cyn had noticed her penchant for petting was not universal almost immediately, as the caretakers only seemed to touch their creatures when they needed to, but to make it a full on skill? And why was she so tempted to take it even though it had little to no benefits compared to Detect Weakness? Although, if she thought about it, were there really that many benefits to Detect Weakness? Like almost everything else since the System whisked her away, the description was vague. It did not take long to convince herself to once again take what she wanted to, instead of what might be a safer or more useful choice. With that final level up, that left one more task for Cyn to take care of before they left.

Name: Cynthia Price

Race: [Human]

Class: [Mage] Level 2

Profession: [Creature Handler] Level 5

Health Points: 176/200

Mana Points: 270/270

Stamina Points: 162/180

Free Points: 18

Vitality: 20

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Mind: 14

Will: 20

Strength: 8

Agility: 14

Luck: 9

Racial Skills: [Dimensional Translator][Inspect]

Class Skills: [Restoration][Mana Ball][Mage Regeneration][Freeform Mana Casting]

Profession Skills: [Friendly Aura][Harvesting][Pet]

Feats: N/A

18 free points to be spent. Having focused on leveling her profession for a while now, her stats no longer appeared so skewed towards just mind and will. Although as soon as they were fighting again that would probably change. With that in mind, and still feeling too slow, Cyn spent ten of her free points on agility and split the rest between will and luck. She was going to just put the remaining all in will, since that appeared to be a strong stat for both her class and profession, but decided since she now had multiple skills that appeared to reference chance or likelihood she would probably benefit from a little luck.

Health Points: 180/200

Mana Points: 280/310

Stamina Points: 185/280

Free Points: 0

Vitality: 20

Mind: 14

Will: 24

Strength: 8

Agility: 24

Luck: 13

Satisfied with her progress so far, even if it was less than her party had made, Cyn closed her menu and stood to stretch. It was a long walk back to their temporary home in Cogtopia, and she needed to get back with enough time to take a final bath. Picking up the makeshift fishing rod to recycle, and despite the time constraints, she started to walk the longer route back in order to Pet just a few more creatures before they left for good.

***

The party’s departure from the city after a final, restful sleep was unsurprisingly uneventful. Only Asri, who was once again on door duty, was there to say goodbye. Over the past week it had become quite clear most of the residents of Cogtopia thought them mad for even thinking they could take on the Illuminants and escape, and their helpfulness to Cyn and her party had started to come across as more forced than genuine as they took up more resources. Cyn wondered if they would have even received help if this was the real Cogtopia, and not a dungeon, since sometimes when interacting with the residents their responses started to feel more like a generated dialogue, rather than fitting with the personality they displayed otherwise. She also missed Kreeble, and since they had not heard or seen the old gnome since his last conversation with them Cyn couldn’t help but think that the System may have gotten to him. Even if he wasn’t real, the idea that something may have happened to him because of her party really bothered her. Not that there was anything to be done about it now.

Everyone had agreed that once they left they probably would not be welcome back in. It was going to be all or nothing for the rest of this dungeon floor at the minimum. They all felt quite prepared, though, especially with the extra few days Cyn took to level up. Everyone had at least one or two new pieces of gear, on top of their more comfortable clothing, and had improved their ability to carry around stuff with a leather satchel for each of them. At first Sam had offered to act as a sort of pack mule, to take advantage of his high strength, but they decided it was too risky to have all their supplies on one person and would instead split them as if the group may become separated in the future.

Scott and Sam now both had light chainmail vests made by Dana they wore over their tunics. They were poor quality, since they had been some of the Archers first attempts at crafting full items, but no one was going to complain when the other option was no armor at all. Sam had sold his longsword as scrap and decided to fully commit to fighting bare handed, since he found it more comfortable anyway. The Warrior also now had pants that fit, much to everyone's relief.

Cyn had traded out her pajamas for a tunic and pants, and had chosen to ditch her staff. It was unwieldy, and she hadn’t made much use of it anyway, so instead picked out one of Dana’s better attempts at a dagger to carry around in case of emergencies. She felt better having both hands free. Also, socks. No matter how soft the boots were, not having socks chafed. Hex had chosen to only swap out his t-shirt for a more durable tunic, and continued to go barefoot. The Rogue had mentioned something about bare feet being better, and frankly no one had wanted to argue with him. Maybe he would get a skill for tougher feet. Cyn was pretty sure she saw Scott stuff an extra pair of boots into his satchel right as they were leaving, though.

Dana still carried around her bow and quiver, as her effort to create a working firearm had had questionable results. She had managed to make something that resembled a rudimentary handgun, but Cogtopia lacked anything that resembled gunpowder. Cooking and smithing were both done with magically created, flameless heat. Tests of her handgun using this flameless heat to propel metal slugs had a low success rate so far. The Archer took her prototype with her, but would have to depend on her arrows and a dagger to fight with for now. At least she seemed to enjoy working on her profession, and was not too bothered by the lack of results.

As the gate into Cogtopia closed behind them, sealing shut, Cyn channeled mana into her diadem for the first time in a week. She had almost forgotten how bright it had been inside the city, with its lamps and glowing crystal formations, compared to the decrepit mining tunnels. The pale, directionless light no longer felt as comfortable as it had the first time she saw it. Frankly, Cyn wasn’t sure she would be comfortable until she saw the sun again. The cavern the city stood in was amazing, but she had spent enough time in caves to last a lifetime now.

As they cautiously made their way down the tunnel back towards the cavern they had entered the dungeon into, Sam remarked that the Illuminant Web Mass he had previously carried around appeared to be gone. More concerningly, there were also signs that more of the arachnids had been through the area since the webbing across the walls and floor was more dense. They had hoped that it would remain mostly peaceful until they at least were further from the city, but since that did not seem to be the case the party quickly moved into their previously used formation.

It was only a few minutes of walking before they stumbled across their first pair of ambushing arachnids, waiting on the ceiling of the tunnel for them to pass under. Cyn quickly used Inspect on one of them, wanting to see if she would get more information now, while Dana was aiming her bow. After using Inspect almost exclusively on farmed creatures for so long, she did not immediately consider that the Harvester might know it was being looked at.

Illuminant Harvester - Level 3

An ambush predator that creates glowing silk webs that can be harvested for various uses.

The tips of its legs are sharp and tough to help it stay anchored to rock ceilings and walls for extended periods without moving.

Parts of this creature are edible.

Thankfully, the Harvester did not seem to notice Cyn using inspect. She was concerned to find both of them to be level three, higher than the level two Harvesters from before. As the Archers first shot missed, both of the waiting arachnids launched themselves at once towards the party. It wasn’t much of a fight regardless, since they all had vastly improved stats from before, but served to highlight how rapidly the party had lost what little skill they had gained on the way to Cogtopia. They would need to shape up, fast. If these monsters had returned stronger, the ones they left in the infested tunnel would probably be stronger as well. With that reminder of the lurking danger, Cyn returned to training herself to grasp onto her vented mana from Freeform Mana Casting. The skill had been left by the wayside while she trained as a Creature Handler, but now that they were walking again, and she had little to do but exist as a floodlight and occasional healbot, there was no excuse to not practice.

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