“I am done here. I got my class too.”
Nimir got the mana core of the monster and the parts of the boss that shrunk after its death. I nodded and stored them in my magic bag. I could see that he indeed got the herbalist class. That was one less thing to worry about.
“Let's check the next floor for one hour and then retreat.”
“Okay, should I increase my strength already?”
“If you think that you need it.”
Nimir seemed a bit bothered by my answer, but couldn't decide his build based on my own opinion. If he were to make mistakes, he had to decide them instead of following the orders of others, then he would be able to learn from them. That was the best way for a person to grow, by doing that and learning from other people's mistakes as well.
Without wasting time, we headed to the next floor and were welcomed by a cold wind coming from both directions. The stairs were a bit slippery too, so it looked like the next section would be a bit troublesome.
The next floor was completely blue and white thanks to all the ice around… I could finally understand why few people felt the need to come here. Only a few specialized parties would be able to walk there… the ground was completely slippery, like a skating rink…
When I tried to slip on it, my feet moved as I had intended, thanks to my Dexterity. Nimir copied me skillfully too… but soon we stopped when we heard the sound of something emerging from the ice… it was a lesser ice salamander.
The lesser ice salamander was a sleek-looking, reptilian creature about three feet long, with a slender, serpentine body. Its pale, icy-blue skin glowed with frost, covered in small, crystalline scales that appear as if coated in a thin layer of ice. Along its back runs a jagged ridge of translucent, ice-like spines, which glow faintly. Its head was triangular with sharp, frost-bitten teeth, and its eyes were a deep, glacier blue, glowing faintly in the dark. Its feet are webbed with sharp claws, allowing it to glide across frozen surfaces with ease. When it moves, a faint trail of frost is left in its wake, and a cold mist seems to emanate from its breath.
The creature didn’t look imposing, but soon opened its mouth and then fired an ice dart toward us. I grabbed my short swords in a hurry and blocked the attack… my arms shook a bit thanks to the impact. The area around me got colder as well. However, aside from that, there wasn't much to tell... the missile didn't fly that fast and with that size, the weight on the impact was pretty limited.
“I guess this will be a good training to train our reflexes.”
I watched the monster for a bit, but the creature only used the same attack five seconds later. It aimed at my head once again. It was easily blocked… I almost saw the projectiles flying at me in slow motion as they approached. It was probably because my dexterity increased again, by a massive margin this time of twenty points.
“What are you doing?”
“Just some tests…”
Nimir looked confused when I approached the monster by walking instead of attacking. He knew that I could kill the beast as soon as possible, after all. I had already changed the damaged parts of my hand cannon as well. So my actions really didn’t make much sense aside from testing my skill.
When I was five meters away from the creature, another ice dart flew at my face… I only had time to react for the duration of the blink of an eye, but my right short sword still blocked the projectile with precision. Ice shards fell around me, but soon I used my hand cannon to hit the head of the lesser ice salamander and smash it.
You received 10 experience points.
“Nice, this section will be pretty good.”
I moved to get the scales on the back of the creature. It only had five of them, but that was good enough for such a short and easy fight. When I touched them, I felt a bit of cold like they were made of ice… they were transparent as well, but quite sturdy despite that.
“There is a mana core three fingers below the neck of the monster.”
“You can sense that even in living creatures, huh?”
“Aren’t wood golems alive too?”
“I mean… living as in made of flesh and bones.”
The mana core was there and it was on the size that was supposed to be worth thirty mana core points or thirty breeze coins. Still, I was more interested in how I could use them in our favor. They had this hexagonal shape, but they weren’t that big, I could only carve a single arrowhead from them and I would have to sharpen it too… I couldn’t use them with my hand cannon, they were too thin. If I cut them into smaller pieces and glued them together, it could work, but it was a lot of work when the small iron balls were pretty cheap.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“I guess we can stick them to some leather armor to grant us some extra defenses.”
In the end, we stayed on the floor for another one hour. Nimir had the chance to fight too, but he didn’t do well since it was the first time he cut something that big and alive with knives, so the feeling of the flesh being cut made him flinch whenever it happened.
Once I realized that I never cut anything either until now, I decided to do the same. The feeling was indeed disgusting, but it didn’t make me stop even once. I already helped with the downfall of the assassins, so there was no point in hesitating against monsters. It has been a while since I did that, but I recalled that I killed some creatures like that at close range. Maybe that is the reason for it.
“You can take most of the monsters on the way back, I will be making some bows in the meantime.”
“Okay.”
Nimir readily accepted the job and then began to mow down the wood golems. He had the chance to increase his strength a few times, so that worked to increase his attack power and his confidence as well.
While he was busy with that, I tried to make the best bow possible while using mana as well. Still, the process was only complete when the bowstring was attached. When I finished the body, I added some of the scales of the lesser ice salamanders to it and then I added the bowstring.
You received 40 experience points.
Long Wooden Bow (Rare)
Enchantment Slots: 02
Bonus Effects: Eagle Eye - Provides an increase in range and accuracy of 20%, allowing the archer to shoot from great distances with little penalty.
Freeze - Causes five points of extra damage when using your arrows and decreases the movement speed of the target by 2.0 meters per second for five seconds.
It wasn’t an epic bow, but it was a pretty good one with two slots and two bonus effects. I couldn’t have asked for more. The bow wouldn’t be useful in the area with that bonus effect, but I can always keep some of them in my magic bag to sell them later if I don’t find the right prices in the settlement. I recalled the power of my first Epic bow and then decided that have some specialized weapons in store would be a good idea, so I decided to save some of the ice scales.
“Do you want this bow? You won’t be able to hide your information, but you don’t need to do that inside the dungeon that much.”
“I am fine, I am not even using this bow aside from that. Fighting while moving my body is better.”
“If you say so.”
Nimir was doing fine with the knives too… he also liked to sharpen them whenever possible, it was a bit scary since he did that while humming, maybe I created a monster. In any case, I enchanted the bow as well and added the effects to create magic arrows when the user is out of ordinary arrows and the wind enchantment to make them lighter to carry. It was a nice combination for those who didn’t want to be specialized archers.
At the end of the day, we were back to the settlement and then sold the mana cores we got for twenty Terra coins… we had enough materials to complete some quests, but we could do the next day. Before the shops could close, I went to check with them if they wanted to buy my bows. Each one of them bought one and after some bargaining, I smiled in satisfaction.
You received 65 experience points.
You received 95 experience points.
You received 50 experience points.
You received 58 experience points.
“I guess every three extra coins above the original price of market analysis gives me one point of experience… not bad. Still, the merchants should know the price of the market as well. However, they can see the fluctuations a lot better than me. I have to level up that skill as much as possible.”
We returned to the inn and then waited for dinner… I went to the bathroom to clean myself a bit in the hot water that I made. I didn’t sweat at all in that area, but I still liked a nice warm bath. After that, Nimir went by himself. I could hear the sound of him playing with the water.
“Well, he is still a child… well then. Time to plan things to clear the dungeon.”
Based on what I heard, the last boss of the dungeon is a proper giant ice salamander. It had enough mana to outlast a full party of adventurers. At the same time, the number of lesser ice salamanders we had to fight would increase by one on the third, sixth, and ninth floors. We would be able to get a lot of materials, but we will have to fight a bit and it is better to finish them off as quickly as possible and then leave the dungeon after clearing it and then get the silver rank.
I calculated that my hand cannon could last a month, but using periodically would decrease its duration a fair bit… I could trade the parts, but even so, I didn’t know if, with my mana, it would be enough to kill the boss, weakening it was fine, but it would still be difficult with only two against the boss.
“I guess I will spend the next day enchanting arrows for the fight… I will have to stop giving my mana to Nimir.”
While I was thinking about that, I noticed the door of the bathroom opening slowly without making any sound. When I looked at him, I saw that he hadn’t dried himself properly while he had put my spare clothes. He looked tense for some reason and then he pointed at the door.
I furrowed my eyebrows and then noticed what he meant by that… someone was spying on us. I equipped my hand cannon and then silently headed outside. I thought that we kept ourselves in a low profile just fine in this settlement, but it looked like I was wrong.
All of a sudden, I kicked the door and pointed my hand cannon to the front and both directions, but I didn’t find anything. Most people were having dinner at the entrance so the place was empty on our floor. However, I didn’t drop my guard.
“They vanished… they smelled like rats.”
“They… it was more than one person?”
“... I don’t know… The scent is mixed with the surroundings… the smell is pretty weak.”
“A rat… a familiar?”
I recalled what had happened a year ago… we are still pretty close to the border with the Talimor kingdom. I wondered if one of the twilight brotherhood had found me here. I clicked my tongue in annoyance. This could be bad…