The next day, Exill woke up early to warm up and practice basic spear forms. By the tenth bell, he finished strapping on the new pugilist gloves.
Tsarra stood off to one side, nervously playing with her ring while biting her lower lip. Her mentor looked invigorated and there was a lively look in his eyes as he nodded at Envy, who feigned annoyance and waited for him to get ready.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” she asked, knowing only she could heal his wounds.
“It is going to be fine. We won’t venture too deep considering it’s been a while since I saw active combat.” Exill assured her, a strong smell of cured leather brushed her nose when he squeezed her shoulder. Then without further ceremony, he left the clinic.
“Is Grundle and… Feroy was it? Will they be fine that I’m stealing you in the mornings?”
“Mn. They understand.” Envy replied, and she flashed her green slave token to the Gate guard. They approached the plaza surrounding the Labyrinth and joined the short queue to enter the Tower.
“Well if it ain’t the Spirit blessed Witchdoctor, fancy showing your ugly mug here after all this time!”
“How is business?” Exill grinned as he left the line to greet Bola, the vendor he had assigned Tsarra under to sell mana imbued poultices.
“Can’t complain, dear, there’s an influx of new visitors for the upcoming festival and your poultices are selling like hotcakes. When is that cute gal gonna drop by and watch my store? You know a lot of my regulars are asking after her you know.” She grinned, leaning forward to check if Samson the grill vendor was listening.
The male dwarf was attentively watching Exill, his ears obviously straining for any information on his crush.
“Ah… Since I’ve begun delving again I was going to drop them off starting tomorrow but if she is that popular… I guess I should ask her to come by with new stock then.”
“Damn right she is popular. Did you get those two tickets to the romantic comedy like I asked you?” Bola grinned, elbowing the Witchdoctor conspiratorially.
“Yes, I bought two tickets a month ago, but as far as I’m aware, she hasn’t used them yet.”
“Hmph, maybe she is just waiting for the right man to come along, I’ll give her a good tease when you send her over tomorrow.” Bola waved at Exill as he walked away to join Envy who had reached the front of the queue.
Exill and Envy both flashed their Guild handbooks and was waved through by the Imperial Guards. They entered the hushed, cool interior of the Tower and he paused briefly to appreciate the distant vaulted heights of the ceiling.
“Did Tsarra ask you to go with her to the play?” he asked, checking over the straps of Envy’s cuirass. A wave of nostalgia washed over him as he went through the familiar movements.
“No.”
‘Huh... Bola was pretty insistent that Tsarra wanted to watch the play.’ He wondered while finalizing the strap check, then tapped her back twice to indicate all was good to go.
“Can I trust you to watch my back in there?” He didn’t channel mana into the question, and instead studied her features earnestly.
Envy flicked his forehead in affront then marched towards the Labyrinth gateway alone.
“Hey! We aren’t partied yet!” Exill jogged after her and hastily formed the party. He was surprised to sense the trailing edge of disappointment from the Vampire through their connection, until it was quickly smothered. Shaking off the sense that he had done something wrong, the two entered the inky black portal and delved into the dimensional depth of the Labyrinth.
The first enemies they encountered were a pack of three zombies, and Exill returned from his reconnaissance to relay the news.
“Mages typically use fire wall to whittle them down right?”
“Mn. But it ruins their harvestable organs.” Envy added.
“Right… at the moment I’m focused on gaining experience so let’s take down as many of them, as fast as we can.”
Exill’s mana bar had increased from 35>>45% thanks to Wizard Ring’s enchantment. This had the added effect of increasing the raw damage output at his disposal. He summoned a fire wall as the zombies staggered towards them, summoning an encroaching fire wall once the last of them passed through the previous blaze of flame. By the time they had reached the duo, the zombies were a pile of charred corpses.
Exill pierced their brains to ensure they were finished before moving on. The next enemy was a group of four plague rats, and Exill was suddenly taken back in time to his training assessment at the refugee camp over a year ago.
“They shouldn’t pose a problem, let’s go all out.” He said, activating [Steady Hand] and [Weak Point] while charging forward to impale the first of the rats in a surprise attack.
Feeling these were the perfect non-dangerous targets to experiment with, he released the mithril spear and activated Monk’s [Mana Channel] to imbue his fists with enhanced strength. Slamming his glowing fist into the nape of the nearest plague rat, an audible snap was heard when the neck broke, causing it to collapse into a spasming mess.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
He saw Envy expertly slice the jugular of one rat while fending off the other with the buckler. She then kicked the second rat down and finished it off.
After that, they faced off against two more groups of enemies until Exill called it a day, satisfied with their progress.
‘I’ve still got it.’ He thought inwardly, grinning from the success of their delve.
Summoning his Card while Envy filled the netting with their haul, he was pleased to find Warrior had reached level 40, unlocking a new passive buff as he had expected.
Job Warrior Level 40 Description Melee Combat - Tier I Passive Buff + attack speed (scales with level), STR bonus, VIT bonus
On closer inspection, his Vitality bar had increased by about 10% and on reflection, he had felt sturdier after defeating the last group of enemies.
‘This means Hunter lvl 40 would likely impart another stat bonus considering it largely mirrors Warrior in terms of benefits.’ He thought, noting the job required another three levels to catch up with its more utilized brethren.
‘But why is [Murderer] only level 3?’ He puzzled over the screen. It had been level 1 when he entered the Labyrinth, and by his calculations it should have exceeded level 7 at the incredible 256 multiplier in EXP.
“Hold on a second Envy.” He dismissed their party and leaned against one of the large pillars supporting the interior of the landmark Tower. Summoning his Card again, he scanned over the listed equipment that was currently equipped. There were two items whose enchantments were greyed out.
‘I see the reason why… the enchantment from Trainee Carpenter’s Ring isn’t active. Is it because it clashes with the Wizard Ring?’ He scratched his head, ‘But why is my Enchanter’s Circlet also not active?’
Under the eyes of the amused Envy, he took his boots, gloves and rings off, re-equipping them in a different sequence of order. After several tries, he came to a bitter conclusion.
‘It is not that the two rings clashed. I’m unable to activate more than six of the same enchantments.’ This meant his EXP rate was capped at x64 of a mundane person. It was still an outrageous advantage as it stood. Nevertheless, he felt disappointment that the grandiose plan hadn’t worked.
‘Is there a special significance with the number six?’ It felt a strangely arbitrary number.
Completely remove restrictions on equipable enchantments? [Yes] +30 Rejection [No]
‘Damn...’ Exill had tapped around on his card with [Planeswalker] active to check if the rules could be bypassed, when he was presented with the frightening prompt.
‘If the cost was ten, or even twenty Rejection I would have seriously considered it.’ He carefully pressed [No]. His Rejection was currently at 40 and there was no telling what would happen if it nearly doubled.
“I’ll see you back at the Guild, I just need to drop by the Pawnbrokers.” Hefting his light haul for the day, Exill left the Tower. He planned to return the Carpenter’s Ring and Enchanter’s Circlet, and hoped the store had a decent refund policy.
***
Sometime later, he arrived back at the Guild. The Pawnbroker hadn’t been willing to do a full refund, but they met in the middle at 90% of market value for what had been an expensive, but very valuable lesson. He walked up to the counter to greet Iris, who had begun her shift several minutes prior; noting the small cask of detox by the counter where it was proudly labelled as the following:
Item Appraisal Witchdoctors Detox 6 Denars
“Will you be regularly delving into the Labyrinth now?” Iris asked, stymied away by the Pugilist Gloves from inspecting his hands.
“Yes, I’ll be seeing you every day for the foreseeable future, how are the detox sales going?” He replied, channelling a trickle of healing magic into her questing palms.
“Hey!.. they’re doing fine, I think it will last another week.” She replied, noticing the warm tickling sensation as the cuts on her hands were mended. She paused for a moment, then continued on, “Would you like to come to the party at my house three days from now?”
“Who’s invited… and will there be enough chamber pots?” he whispered teasingly, grinning while narrowly avoiding an exasperated slap from Iris.
“Only Envy so far, I was going to ask Tsarra tomorrow.”
“It sounds like you would have a better time if I stayed out of it, I have a lot of preparations to make for the festival anyway.” He smiled warmly, trying to take the sting off his refusal. He remembered how small Iris’s one room flat was and four people would have been a crowd.
“Maybe next time then…” she looked disappointed for a moment, but the warmth in her kind grey eyes returned as she waved him off.
Exill raised a hand in recognition on the way out to Envy and Grundle, the gruff bald mercenary who had been his former partner. They were standing idly by, waiting for the third member of their party to arrive.
‘It was Feroy wasn’t it?’ He tried to remember the enthusiastic wolfman who always referred to Envy as ‘Big Sis’. They were a good team, and he felt happy for them. Slightly exhausted, he arrived home sometime later. Tsarra was visibly relieved when she saw he had returned unharmed and fussed over the small cuts on his fingers.
“Iris invited you to a party at her house three days from now, are you interested?” he asked.
“Will you be going as well?”
“No, I think it will be more fun as a girl’s night out.” He said, semi truthfully.
Seeing her nod in reply, he continued, “I need you to drop by the Labyrinth to supply Bola with a fresh batch of poultice, by the way, do you still have those tickets to the romantic comedy I gave you?”
“Yes… and yes, I still have them.” Tsarra played with the two clay tokens in her pocket, she hadn’t made up her mind yet on who to watch it with.
Exill read her expression and decided not to press further, instead reaching into his pack to withdraw a small wooden case wrapped with a piece of green ribbon.
“Alright then, here’s a small gift, a token of appreciation for all the help you have provided me.” In many ways, this was the best he could do since she vehemently refused being paid a wage while under his apprenticeship.
Tsarra gingerly opened the case to reveal a padded interior, on which rested her very own enchanted mithril scalpel. She jumped for joy and embraced him with a hug, reaching up on tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.
But for whatever reason, her aim missed and the two of them were stunned when her lips softly pressed against his.