In the end, I gave up on the idea of not giving my mana to Nimir during the day. We would need his Honed Senses active all the time. Still, I could enchant some arrows with my remaining mana.
“Didn’t you say that the smell is no longer here? Go to sleep already.”
Nimir didn’t say anything. He just stayed on his bed while hugging his knees… the idea that someone was watching us bothered him a lot. I could understand where he was coming from, but worrying endlessly wouldn’t change a thing.
“I will stay on guard duty for a bit, but the chances of something happening here are close to none. Go to sleep.”
“... Yes.”
The last one was an order and Nimir didn’t like to try to disobey those. He was probably thinking that I would leave him behind at the first sight of trouble. In any case, my words didn’t have much weight since the assassins even work in the cities… why wouldn’t they work in a place like that? Nimir probably had heard of that.
In any case, I didn’t know how well assassins operated in this world… I knew of some of their skills, but it wasn’t enough knowledge to prepare some countermeasures. Still, I knew what I could do when it came to defense systems.
While Nimir was sleeping, I used some of the bow materials to make four crossbows and connected them to the door and the window with the bowstrings. The moment someone opened them, they would be hit. I was feeling particularly nasty since I was already tired of dealing with them, so I armed them with bolts enchanted with lightning and poison. That would make them suffer for a while.
In the end, nothing happened that night… the assassins probably had realized that we noticed them and decided to wait for another chance to get us off guard, that was their modus operandi. I didn’t have to wait for them, though.
I slept only a couple of hours that day and I kept waking up every ten minutes. It has been a while since I slept roughly like that. Still, at least I had four new weapons that I could use now. After disarming the crossbows, Nimir woke up and soon jumped from the bed and raised his guard.
“Nothing happened. Relax.”
Nimir nodded, but he didn’t relax at all… I wondered if I should tell him the reason suspicious people would be watching us… it wouldn’t be fair to keep things like that hidden. Besides, it would be a good way to make him understand the dangers of working with me.
“One year ago, I was exploring a dungeon when assassins tried to target a certain girl who was in my party. We repelled them, but one escaped. My guess is that they are after me for getting in the way of their plans. They are the twilight brotherhood.”
“I heard of them… scary assassins.”
“That is right. Another reason for you to learn to fend off for yourself as soon as possible. You wouldn’t want to be with me when they attack again.”
“I… I wouldn’t mind.”
“You would look more convincing if you weren't pale. Anyway, I am not planning to let things work the way they intended. I was planning to stay here for another two weeks, but I guess we will have to speed things up a bit. We will clear the dungeon in the next run.”
It was a bit tiresome to take things slowly… but it was annoying to be forced to move like that when my plan wasn’t originally the same. Still, I would need all the extra strength possible to deal with those freaks. Nimir wasn’t that strong, even with his senses… we would be in a bind against professionals. Fortunately, the annoyance made my brain work faster and I already knew what we should do.
Once we had our breakfast, we spent the morning accepting quests and then delivering the materials that we had for the clients. While we did that, I told Nimir to keep an eye on anyone who could be watching us, but he didn’t notice anything. It made me realize that I would be in a difficult spot when we split up... I needed some skill books to teach magic that even those without magic classes could use. Enchanter was a magic class, but it was different... Regardless, I had to find uses for my Spellbinding Ink.
At the same time, I bought some useful things for us. A lot of food and water since we didn’t know when the run would last and a lot of magic items as well. My original goal was to learn a new enchantment every month, but I decided to hurry things up now since I learned that I could combine them. Passing their enchantments to other items would help me learn them after a few attempts.
We picked the quest to get some ice scales and then went to the dungeon afterward. Not even in the guild did Nimir feel the presence of enemies or familiars… during the day, we could be watched from a greater distance, and I had to assume that the enemy wouldn’t have left to alert their allies to ambush us.
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“Fight the wood golems for a while, I will craft some things for us here.”
“Okay.”
With some magic core, I enchanted the crossbows with the wind enchantment. Since it was a dual wind effect, they would boost the movement speed of the crossbows by sixty percent and silence the projectiles as well. Still, that was just the beginning.
Soon enough, I began working on passing some effects to other items after I crafted some crossbows. The effects didn’t work that well with such weapons, but my goal was just to learn the effects and have some extra weapons, so it was fine. They cost me a lot of money, though. Ten Aqua coins…
Manaflow - Enhances the wearer’s natural mana regeneration rate, allowing them to recover magical energy faster over time. Ideal for spellcasters who rely heavily on magic in prolonged battles or intense magical rituals, ensuring they can cast spells more frequently without running dry.
Vitalis - Gradually restores the wearer’s health by accelerating their natural healing process, even during combat. Perfect for warriors or adventurers who engage in constant skirmishes, allowing them to recover from injuries without the need for potions or spells.
Endurance - Increases the rate at which the wearer recovers stamina, reducing fatigue and allowing them to sustain physical exertion for longer periods. Beneficial for athletes, rangers, or front-line fighters, enabling them to maintain peak performance in battles or long treks without tiring quickly.
The first effect was of the ring that Ovelia bought for me a bunch of times. On the novice rank, it could only increase mana regeneration by 1.0 points, but with my skill, I could make it reach the apprentice level… even with mana cores, I couldn’t do any more than that. The compatibility between effects and items was important too, so it couldn’t be helped. Still, I could add two of those in each crossbow since they came in the rare rarity rank, so that improved our fighting abilities quite a bit. However, the enchantments would only make the weapons last for three to five days since they were made of wood.
“All right, let’s take a break.”
We reached the ninth floor before noon since Nimir had gotten stronger and the items had helped him a fair bit as well. I also bought some extra clothes for us and I enchanted them with the same effects. Those would be worn out in no time as well, though.
Nimir decided to use the break to rest and eat a bit… while he was doing that, I focused on the last crossbow I was working on. I made a bunch of them, but this one was taking longer since I wanted to make it more durable… it could last for a while if I didn’t add any enchantment, but that would be meaningless.
I needed metallic parts, but without commissioning them, I couldn’t use them. I couldn’t forge them myself either without the proper skills and classes. I had this idea of using mana cores for reinforcement, but their shape was irregular… if only I could reforge them in some way.
I had heard that people tried that before and some people pulled it off, but such an amazing technique was obviously a well-hidden secret. I needed a self-repair effect, but I also knew that such an effect was only something high-level enchanters knew how to add to gear.
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I am not hungry right now.”
Nimir noticed that I didn’t make any signs of going to eat my meal, but I couldn’t waste food without properly tasting it. I wouldn’t enjoy it properly while working on the crossbow. Maybe I could make it harder using the parts of the boss… or maybe I could make it harder using the bones of the lesser ice salamander, or even the giant salamander. They were magic creatures, so their bones definitely would make them last for a while.
Using wood was easier, but with my Dexterity, I had to make something out of bones. Still, it was a bit dreadful to do such a thing… those thoughts didn’t stay in my head for too long since I was working on my survival, after all. I needed to work with what I could get...
Once we were done resting, we headed to the boss chamber and I exploded the creature with the rest of my hand cannon. I probably would have to change the central part soon… but I decided to only use it against the next boss or when enemies arrive to bother us.
While I was writing down the importance of finding solutions to the durability problem, I realized that I was overlooking a lot of my melee strength. Nimir was working in that field and I was only offering support, but we wouldn’t work together forever. Besides, my ability to fight at close range was limited until I got the strength parameter. In the end, I had to make do with what I had.
“I can deal with it.”
Nimir declared and then assumed his charging stance on fours when the first lesser ice salamander showed up.
“Destroy them, berserker.”
He had no idea what I meant by that, but he charged anyway. His fighting ability had increased a lot in just ten days… he also could move well on slippery ice, so even the lesser ice salamanders were just minor issues for him.
When he was done with the creature, I began to dismantle it… I was able to chop the limbs with relative ease, by pulling the bones out had been a massive pain in the ass thanks to my lack of strength. Eventually, I separated the bones, but by then, Nimir had already fought three times and there were others to dismantle. The smell of blood was strong in the air too…
The bones were pretty thin since the creature was small… I would need to change some parts to make a whole crossbow out of bones. While I was thinking about that, I considered using the scales of the monster to reinforce the bigger parts… I would be able to make the central part using wood that way and it would save time too.
Still, I would have to design the whole thing to be like a simple puzzle, that way, I would be able to attach the other parts to the main body. I already knew how to do that, and the process would be a lot easier. However, the crossbow will certainly have ice properties.
“I guess it will be fine if I use bolts enchanted with the other elements…”
Making a smaller one would be better too since I wanted to keep it hidden… without wasting time, I began to work on it.