We found an inn with nice food. The plan was to gather Intel about what had happened, but then Nimir would be in a bind since the misinformation effect on his bow couldn't last for that long. In the end, I left him in our room and then gathered Intel while I was eating in the first floor, I heard enough information and then returned to the room where I delivered his dinner.
“What have you heard?”
I held my chin while summarizing the information… Nimir was sitting on his bed since this inn had rooms with two beds. It was a bit weird to share a room with someone like that. I never had that in my previous life or in this one for that matter.
“It looks like a certain house was attacked… the house of the lord of the town. No one knows the group who did the attack, but they killed a bunch of guards and then left while being followed by a bunch of battle slaves.”
Nimir stopped eating when he heard that… he always wondered why he didn't become one. The Hex Jinx was the cause of it… but he couldn't feel grateful for it. There was a risk that he could kill those around him the more time they spent close to him. That wasn't the truth, but only I knew that... everyone ran away from him when the first disaster struck. Still, I wondered when the next would happen with me as the target. For a moment, I wondered if Nimir would think that I was running away from his Hex by preparing him to survive by himself.
In any case, we arrived at a difficult time since everyone would be on guard for those who weren't around the area and those who would make suspicious moves… it was better if we could clear the dungeon as soon as possible and then move on.
Still, this situation could also be an opportunity… I had no idea what kind of group was behind the attack, but those who wanted to free slaves couldn't be bad people, right? I considered that they might take Nimir in and treat him well… that would be possible if they were from the kingdom of Talimor.
If they were from another area, I had no idea how they would treat him. Still, the chances of them being from Talimor were high… the harpies and avians wouldn't do that, and the elves didn't leave their lands unless they had some pretty good reasons.
“I need to hear more… but we can't be caught snooping around.”
“Do we need to hear more about the dungeon or about the situation?”
“... The dungeon.”
For now, I decide not to let Nimir know about my plans. His confidence was Increasing and this kind of idea could put that in jeopardy. He was still a kid, after all. Better to make sure to follow the plan and deal with the other things by myself while he wasn't aware of it.
In any case, even if this plan fails, he has the Actor class. I told him to use the second skill as much as possible as well… that way, he will be able to fool people even without the misinformation effect of his bow.
I decided to sleep and then think things through the next day with a clear mind. That helped a lot, since when we were having breakfast, I decided my next steps… for now, we had to check the shops in the city for enchanted gear. I had to level up my Arcane Transference, after all. I also had to make a proper item for Nimir to keep his information wrong all the time.
“Come to think of it, this type of enchantment lasts for quite a while for some reason… I have had it for over two years, but there are no signs of it weakening.”
Nimir's bow was also fine… probably because he didn't use it for combat. Unless the enchantments are for that, the shelf life of the items can increase quite a bit, apparently. I guessed that since Identification wasn’t an offensive spell, and it wasn’t a direct one to affect my ring, it made it last for much longer. Regardless, I had to experiment with that eventually.
“Do you want to buy something?”
“I am just checking things for anything that can be useful…”
We spent a few hours checking the shops in the town and as expected, the quality and variety were better than in the previous settlement. Still, most of them were glowing red since they had the fire enchantment. It made sense considering the types of monsters inside the dungeon… In any case, I got three of them.
Emberstep: Warms the wearer’s feet and melts ice in their path, preventing slipping on frozen surfaces and reducing the effect of frost on movement speed.
Frostwalker: Allows the wearer to walk over ice and snow without slipping or sinking. It also prevents cold from seeping through, keeping the wearer’s feet warm.
Swiftstep: Increases the wearer’s walking and running speed for short bursts, allowing them to escape danger or chase down fleeing enemies.
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Those seemed to be useful for many types of situations… I could try to combine them with others later. Still, I felt like I would need to take a break from dungeon diving if I wanted to do that effectively. That seemed a bit too soon considering that I left a job two weeks ago.
“Let’s go to the dungeon.”
The items that had those enchantments were pretty cheap, they only cost one Aqua coin each. The quality of the enchantment was on the apprentice level, though. Putting that aside, I was wondering if Nimir was planning to buy anything… he had money, but it still looked like he wasn’t ready to use it or how he could use it.
It was midmorning, so the guild was pretty empty… we saw some adventurers looking around as if they were looking for something like the guards, probably those battle slaves that had escaped. If they were still in the town, then they didn’t find signs of them leaving… Still, wasn’t it obvious that they were in the sewers?
My only guess was that they were afraid of being ambushed there and were just waiting for the targets to be forced to leave… since they couldn’t remain there forever. In any case, when we got in the dungeon, we confirmed that… the board with the mission had a quest with a reward of fifty aqua coins for any information about the people that had escaped… thanks to that, all the other jobs were accumulating in the guild.
“Everyone is trying to make a lot of money faster… this might be good for us.”
“Aren’t we going to just check the first floor today?”
That was the original plan, so I could understand Nimir’s question. It was better to enter the dungeon as early as possible as well if we wanted to do something like that, but it was a good idea to remain adaptable.
Regardless, the quests were a bit odd… they were only asking for two things, the hide and the meat of the monsters called frost lizards… I heard that they were in the second part of the dungeon and in the first part, there were the snow golems. So, we could only make money on the second section of the dungeon with materials.
“Both types of monsters are of the ice element… this dungeon will be pretty cold. Doing more than five runs here will be a waste of time since the first section, we can only make money with mana cores.”
“But it should be easy to kill the snow golems, right? Since they melt so easily when they die and when they are attacked with fire.”
“If you are a mage and can spam fireball, then yeah.”
That made me consider… perhaps learning that spell would be a good idea to test my Spellbinding Ink skill. The magic of skill books was interesting because we could learn skills from some classes by reading them. The classes wouldn’t be unlocked, but it was still a good idea to learn them if possible. My bolts might destroy the bodies of the snow golems, but without destroying their cores, it was the same as nothing. Using the ones that explode would be a waste as well…
For now, I decided to check the dungeon without picking any quests since we couldn’t head to the second section in the first run. Thanks to that, I had a better idea… it was about time to put that into practice.
The dungeon was pretty close to the town, we only had to walk for ten minutes from the guild… probably because the town expanded over the years. The terrain in that direction was free of obstacles, and maybe the same couldn’t be said in the other directions. We came from the East and it was filled with hills and trees.
This time, we only found a single guard protecting the dungeon… it looked like they were really shorthanded. In any case, we showed our cards and then entered the place without a fuss. It didn’t take long before I could see Nimir quivering. The cold there was quite strong, but it was still manageable for me.
The interior was covered in ice and there was some cold being emitted by the walls and ceiling as well, so perhaps that was the cause of it.
“The enchantment on the boots and gloves is still working… are you really that cold?”
“... Yes… it is worse than outside.”
There was a breeze inside… I knew that sunlight naturally warms outdoor spaces, even in colder weather. Indoors, especially in shaded or windowless rooms, there’s less direct solar heating, making the interior cooler.
Some places limit heat exchange with the outside environment. If it’s cool inside and the insulation is good, heat from outside may not penetrate, making indoors stay colder. Materials like concrete, stone, or tile tend to retain colder temperatures longer than air as well. Thanks to that, the walls and floors may feel colder and influence the indoor temperature.
“The snow golems don't attack from a distance, and they are purely melee fighters. So, we won't have to worry about them hurting us with surprise attacks. Still, this is a good chance for me to train my melee skills for a change.”
“Is there any reason why you are going to do that now of all times?”
“It is better to always have another option if things become troublesome like me running out of ammo. Anyway, I can fight at a close distance, so don't worry about it. Let's just cover as much ground as possible to obtain the next class.”
Nimir nodded and then I grabbed my short swords. I didn't add any enchantments to them until now, but it was about time. Using the cores of the boss we defeated, I enchanted each one of them.
Scorching Twin Blades (Rare)
Enchantment Slots: Flames (Expert), Flames (Expert), Flames (Expert). (Causes your attacks to burn the target for ten seconds, causing twenty points of fire damage per second.)
Bonus Effects: Critical Hit Boost: The swords have an increased chance to land critical hits, or deal extra damage when a critical hit occurs.
Attack: 30
Durability: 80/80
They were pretty good swords… they even had extra enchantments thanks to their rarity rank. They were also a gift from Ovelia, so that made me feel a bit troubled as well. The woman seriously had been too kind to me…
In any case, the area around us got a bit warmer and Nimir stopped shaking that much. That was useful, but with enchantments like that, I would draw a lot of attention… it was better to keep them in my magic bag as much as possible.
Soon enough, the first snow golem showed up and then I took the lead to deal with the monster… the creature was three meters tall and pretty heavy, so it approached me with slow footsteps.