I woke up with half my face burning and my hat missing. It was pitch black, no light or sound reached. My father taught me that when waking up after an injury, I should try to slightly move my extremities to see if everything was still attached. I was missing a little less than a third of my HP, the exact amount of my threshold. It meant several things. First, that I was knocked out, not asleep. Second, that the blast delivered the most damage, and then I was tossed around. Third, that my hat fell from my head because I passed underneath a closing door. Maybe the trapdoor / manhole cover linking this room to the black chamber where we fought the Squirraculas.
I could feel that I was covered with a layer of dust and silt. Other than that, nothing broken. The heat from the blast was mitigated by my amulet. The leftover damage was applied to my HP. It had dulled the blast to the point I suffered only skin and muscle damage. I was okay but the burns would require special treatment to avoid scarring. Fortunately, millennia-old hags had advanced the science of alchemical skin restoration to almost perfection. Not Alice, because she was an Elf and elves were biologically immortal.
Three notifications floated in front of me. One from the boss, level up, and the last one some System nonsense. They were the only thing I could see in this pitch black darkness. What the hell a snake had anything to do with what happened? Maybe some internal joke?
I was also starving and parched. My tongue was as stiff as a shoe sole. My whole mouth and throat was so dry I feared the mucous membranes would peel off. How long did I remain unconscious?
I searched for my potion box but then I remembered I gave it to Kara. Stupid. The memory of the events preceding the… Dungeon Core explosion returned. My bonds… I sensed Sleepy next to me. The little guy had some singed fur and feathers but was otherwise okay. He had much more HP than me and I was shielding him with my body. Tears formed on my eyes as I noticed I couldn't sense William. Pulling my detailed Attribute sheet and doing some math, I noticed I only had Sleepy's bond bonuses.
Soul Scout (rare) Level 34 Attribute Base Bonds Efficiency Total Strength 240 17 110% 282 Dexterity 177 27 130% 265 Endurance 210 30 140% 336 Intelligence 189 4 110% 212 Wisdom 185 8 130% 250 Clarity 85 25 120% 132 Charisma 51 2 120% 63 Health (HP) 374 48 1839 Mana (MP) 136 32 389 Stamina (SP) 170 16 694
William was gone. Whatever he decided to do in the core room, he didn't make it. If the blast dealt this much damage to me this far, William wouldn't have survived. He was just Uncommon. The tyranny of rarity was a cruel and uncaring one. Damn. This Dungeon took everything it could from us.
I removed a backpack from my quiver, the one with a handle to be considered a "mace". First order of business, a spare healing potion and water. I slowly drank the shitty distilled water from the Squirracula blood. I let the water rehydrate my mouth, slowly softening the tissues up. Then I applied some burn balm on my wounds, to keep the skin from getting too dry and prevent scars from forming.
I tried to stand up but failed. Instead, I curled into a ball and cried as I mourned William.
*
*
I finally managed to stand. The left side of my face still burned even though I drank two healing potions. The skin was raw and tender but I had to return to town to heal the rest of the wounds. My armor was ruined and I discarded it, using my knife to cut the straps and let the metal bands fall to the ground. Even my gambeson was ruined. I didn't bother putting on clothes right now. My entire MP pool went to repairing my enchanted items, mostly my cloak that was in tatters. I still needed more MP to finish the repairs but nothing was lost. Except for William. And maybe Kara.
The Captain was tough. I bet she devoted most of her Attribute points to Endurance, more than the amount recommended by the Guard's leveling guide. That gash on her leg should be an amputation if she hadn't. Or at least I hoped. Though I didn't know her level, it was higher than mine though I believed I had closed the gap by a large margin.
I killed most of the squirrels. Sleepy did. Speaking of the Wolfertinger, I found him in the dark. I fed him a superior healing potion. He stirred but didn't wake up. I took his crate out and put him to rest inside. Now, Kara.
I changed my clothes and shoved the garbage into a corner of the room.
When I turned around and finally ignited a magic lantern, I saw Kara lying not a meter away from me. She was unconscious but alive, and her gear was in a worse shape than mine. She had more extensive burns than me. I carefully knelt next to her and checked for a pulse. Damn, I couldn't lose her too. When I felt her heart beat and her soft breath, I cried again. It was okay, nobody was watching. Except for the System God.
No sassy notifications came. It was a dour and solemn moment.
When I cut Kara's armor off, I found that her clothes were fused to the armor and that her gear was fused to her skin because of the burns. She was behind me when the Core exploded and suffered major burns to her back and flanks. Her hair, as well as mine, had burned out completely. We were both bald.
These burn wounds had to be treated in a certain way to avoid the worst scars. And I had to peel the fused clothes with the utmost care, cutting slowly with my sharpest knife to damage the least amount of tissue. I feared a perfect recovery was going to be expensive. So, while mentally begging for forgiveness, I stripped her naked with the purest of intentions. But I was a sixteen-year-old man. My purest intentions were on a best effort basis, though I kept it professional. I used an eyedropper to apply tiny amounts of healing potion to her skin, and gently massaged the burn balm after the skin re-knit itself.
Once all of her body was treated and her condition was under no risk of worsening, I force-fed her another two superior healing potions. I had to tilt her head forward in a supine position and then slowly pour the potions so it pooled inside her mouth. The alchemical liquid didn't need to reach the stomach. Just contact with the mucous membranes was enough. I had to absolutely avoid getting it into her lungs. Some manuals even go as far as recommending dripping it into the nostrils of an unconscious person if the risk of choking was too high.
These potions were meant to heal any internal injuries she had. Once Kara's skin healed enough, I dressed her in one of my spare sets of clothes. Her baggage was lost along the wheelbarrows, like everyone else's.
I tucked her in a bedroll laid next to Sleepy's crate. Feeling guilty for undressing her, I asked for forgiveness again, this time out loud. Then, before I could catch myself, I kissed her forehead and cried again. I lost William already. I would go insane if I lost her too. It was okay. We just needed to stay put and wait for rescue.
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I waited for several minutes as I tried to hear anything. Other than the soft breathing of my companions, nothing. The Dungeon was dead and the monsters that did respawn most likely had all rushed outside. The Dungeon didn't have control over its creatures other than forcing them to stay in a certain area and not attack the Dungeon itself. When that influence ceased, say, with the Dungeon's death or the removal of the Core, the monsters would search for food and shelter.
A dark hole in the ground could provide only one of these so they instinctively fled. Seldom did monsters remain inside. In almost all cases, they left and never fought among themselves. It was as if they came alive for the first time and had to find something to kill. Being enslaved to a Dungeon must be a horrible thing. The monsters didn't even fight among themselves before they egress from the Dungeon entrance. Not even if they were bitter natural enemies.
Making sure they were fine for the last time, I adjusted the lantern shutters to keep the light from directly hitting Kara's face. I backtracked to the boss room with a second lantern. It was ruined. The explosion had caused a cave-in and only scattered pieces of bone and charred flesh remained of the Molluskull. The smell was horrible. The core room was entirely covered in loose rocks. Smoke and dust floated in the air, making the atmosphere oppressing.
The cave ceiling had cracked and loose rocks. I couldn't move any of the stones in fear of causing a cave-in and getting buried alive. It was an end no delver ever wanted for themselves and the tales the Adventurers told me as a child still haunted me.
I still had hope to find my Tityron friend.
"William!" I shouted in vain. He was the second creature closer to the Core when it detonated. No way he survived. "William!"
Nothing. Whatever remained of William, the bravest creature I've ever seen, was buried under tons of rock. I turned around and walked.away.
Then I heard rocks shifting and my heart raced. Could it be? I looked all around but it was only me. The rocks shifted because of my weight.
*
*
Despair took over me and I sat by the tunnel mouth, feeling awful. Then...
"Bahhhhh!" I heard a bleat.
Now my mind was playing tricks on me. I also saw a white-blue cool light bring the whole room alive. It wasn't my lantern, emitted a yellow and warm light.
The hairs on my neck, those few who survived, raised. Goosebumps formed in my arms. My heart went racing inside my chest.
"Bahhhhh!" I heard another bleat.
"William!" I called. My feet were glued by fear, I couldn't stand up or turn around.
"Bahhhhh!"
"Bahhhhh!"
I wept. The light shifted, casting my own shadow on the walls ahead of me. It was getting closer.
"Bahhhhh!"
"William!"
"Bahhhhh!"
"William!"
I finally gathered the strength to turn around. My heart froze. There, floating in the air, was William's ghost. Ghosts were rare types of undead monsters who formed out of the grudges accumulated in life. Was I such a terrible master?
"Bahhhhh!" William's ghost chastised me.
If it attacked me then, I wouldn't resist. If William hated me enough to become a vengeful spirit—
Something flicked me in the forehead.
> You earned the achievement, Drama Queen! Awarded for being such a self-centered little bitch.
> Dude, if that was really a ghost, it would have attacked straight away, instead of softly bleating for a minute to get your attention. (snort) Dumbass.
> Reward: +1 Manly Tears.
I felt humbled. What were these Manly Tears? Something flashed above me and I looked up. Two salty drops of liquid fell on my face, despite my hat's barrier.
Then the ghost became material and landed on the rocks with four distinct clopping sounds.
"Bahhhhh!" William bleated with a little more force.
He was as hale as he could be. Even his goat horns were intact. Wait. His horns had a matte metallic hue now.
But if William was there, why weren't we bonded? I Reached out with my Perk.
> Do you vow to stop being a little whiny bitch and re-bond with Silver-Square-Eyes Phantom-Thief Tityron, Kaiba? Or will you refuse and activate my trap card?
What? What the hell, System! No traps, please.
> You may call me Skip in your thoughts and dreams. But not out loud. Come on, do you want me to take you by the hand and press yes too?
I let out a rueful laugh. It was the stress leaving my body. "What happened?"
> Mad lad antics. A little nudge from yours truly. The rest was the stuff of legends.
I selected yes. Power flooded me as the System chimed.
> You gained the Mad Lad Tamer achievement.
> The reward is the same as before. Double bond strength. If William dies...
I opened my Status and saw that the bind stats more than doubled. They kind of quintupled. Wait. How this could be? Was William a Legendary now?
> Always has been, in heart if not Status. I feel like fate has just corrected an Injustice. He earned it fair and square. Heh. Square. NGL, that species was a blast to make. I almost made their bodies square too, like a Minecraft mob. But it would be too much.
Was I having a conversation with the System? Yes. Was I going insane? Maybe. Why were William's Attributes doubled? The most likely answer frightened me. I couldn't believe it. Not even think about it. Did William...
> Yeah, dum-dum. You got it in one try. Here's the real reward. Don't get used to it. I'm not here to Shart on you. I can't do this often, or I'll get scolded by my jailor, the lady in that big silver ring. Here you go, no need to thank me.
What? Jailor?
> Your Classes have fused and evolved into Soul-binder Ranger(Epic).
> All features retained. Some features were upgraded.
> Your Subclass slot is free. Your next subclass slot is at level 40.
> You gained 340 Attribute points. You gained 40% Attribute Efficiency to distribute. Resources adjusted.
> You gained the Trait, Bond Status: You can see the Status Sheet of your bonds.
> You gained the Trait, Soul Magic affinity: You have improved ease to learn, develop, and cast Soul magic.
> You gained the Trait, Sympathetic Resistances: You and all your bonds share part of their resistances. Immunity is instead shared as high resistance. Energy attacks received by you or your bonds deal half as much damage when it originates from you or your bonds.
> You gained the Perk, Heal Bond: Spend MP to heal your bonded creatures you touch. This is a channeled effect and requires concentration.
Bloody hells. Epic? Did I just jump two rarity levels? And recovered a subclass slot?
Whoa. It was a lot. A whole fucking lot. My head was in the clouds. Was this how Kara felt when she gained her promotion?
I spent the bounty of Attribute points to bring my Strength back to nine per level, Intelligence to six per level, and Clarity to four per level. Giving it some thought, I invested enough points in Charisma to bring it up to one per level, leaving me with ten free points to spend at each level. I would commit to this spread as long as I could. No Attribute would be neglected and I could still adapt to the circumstances.
The efficiency went ten each to Strength and Intelligence, and twenty to Endurance. Survival was never the wrong answer.
I had to check my full Status.
*
*
Soul-Binder Ranger (Epic) Level 34 Attribute Base Bonds Efficiency Total Strength 316 72 130% 503 Dexterity 245 100 130% 448 Endurance 248 156 160% 605 Intelligence 214 19 130% 302 Wisdom 219 29 130% 322 Clarity 151 44 120% 234 Charisma 84 21 120% 126 Health (HP) 476 228 4961 Mana (MP) 272 57 1098 Stamina (SP) 238 62 1909
Bloody Demons from hell. The Attribute points from the bonds were almost as much as what I gained from my levels, before I upgraded to Epic. William was giving me more than a hundred and twenty points of Endurance alone! It was insane! He had enough Endurance to be almost immune to ordinary steel! How many Hit Points did he have now? These two were giving me half as much base Hit Points as I got from my Class! And my MP??? It reached a thousand!?!?! Goodness, it was a lot. I was overwhelmed.
*
*
The Silver-Square-Eyes Phantom-Thief Tityron approached. I had no idea who Kaiba was but just shelved it as System nonsense right next to Chewbacca. I was still wary of that trap card, though.
"Your species name is rather long, William."
"Bahhhhh!" William shrugged. "It is what it is", was the meaning he conveyed.
"I thought I had lost you!" I cried. He playfully headbutted me. Then I laughed.
"Bahhhhh!" William bleated his laughter along mine.
It was over. The Dungeon was dead, long live the Mad Lad of Bahhhhh!