Lucas flung his body to the right, just in time to dodge the giant hunk of stone swinging his way. The cudgel passed right by his head, never truly making contact but still, it carried enough force to push his body toward the ground. Lucas turned his dive into a roll and quickly got back to his feet.
“GrorRG!”
The giant cudgel smashed into the side of the cave hard enough to shake the surroundings slightly and disturb Lucas’s footing, but the sound of its impact was wholly drowned out by its wielder’s bellow of rage. Before the monster could recover and face him, Lucas [Quick Step]ped past its flank with his sword held parallel to the ground and crackling with electricity.
The weapon bit deeply into the lumbering troll’s leg and slashed through an important tendon, causing the monster to partially collapse and let out another rumbling bellow. It tried to catch Lucas with its free arm as he flew by, but his movement Skill had already pulled him out of reach.
“Good one!” Harry called out as Lucas cut his momentum just a few paces away.
“Set it up for you,” Lucas told him, and though he wasn’t looking at the [Hunter], he sensed the feral grin Harry gave the wounded monster.
“Then I hope you don’t mind if I finish it off!”
Harry pounced forward before the troll could recover, moving at a speed at least comparable to Lucas’s own movement Skill with his spear held aloft. He got within striking distance of the monster before it could notice him and planted his feet before pushing off the ground with a lunging thrust. Harry’s strike shot straight toward the underside of the troll’s jaw at an angle that would see it pierce the monster’s brain, but then it saw him.
The troll used a Skill of its own and its skin suddenly turned craggy and dark gray, exactly like the cave around them, causing the strike to break before piercing more than an inch. Harry cursed and flung himself back before the troll’s counter strike could get too close, and a moment later the [Stone Skin] vanished.
“Damn it all!” Harry complained. “This would be sooo much easier if it stopped abusing that Skill!”
“Yeah, but what would be the point if it just rolled over and let us kill it?” Lucas asked rhetorically. “Can’t level without a challenge.”
Harry didn’t bother answering–he knew all that already, of course. The troll’s repeated use of its defensive Skill was admittedly quite frustrating, but without it, it probably would have died within their first few exchanges. This way was better, as far as level grinding went.
They both eyed the troll warily as it went quiet and stared them down. Lucas’s slash to its leg had reduced its mobility considerably, but the monster was still large enough to take up almost the entire width of the rocky tunnel. With both Lucas and Harry now at its front, it was in a well-enough position to defend itself from any advance.
Looks like it's time to switch things up.
“Hold back for a moment,” Lucas warned his companion.
Harry glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “Barrage?”
“Just to break through its defense,” he confirmed. “Watch for your opening.”
The [Hunter] stepped back behind Lucas and relaxed his stance slightly. “Blast away,” Harry said.
The troll let out a wary growl as it watched them with primitive caution, but it was helpless to take the initiative unless it wanted to throw its only weapon–and Lucas didn’t think it was smart enough for that to even occur to it anyway. For now, he kept one eye on the creature and let the rest of his awareness fall in on his mana.
[MP: 3120/4710]
Good, looks like I’ve got enough for four attacks before my reserves get too low, Lucas thought. That might be a bit overkill for just one troll, so let’s start with two and see how it goes.
With a thought, Lucas started pulling two thick, twin streams of arcane energy from his channels and pooling them in the air before him. Once they built up to around 500 MP each, he cut off the flow and started shaping them into long, jagged bolts with a combination of [Lightning Construct] and Lesser Mana Authority, all guided by one of his General Skills. The result, when he finally finished nearly a full minute later, was two frozen spears of lightning that filled the air with the smell of a coming storm.
The troll’s growl deepened as it eyed Lucas’s [Construct] weapons floating in mid-air–it tried putting its cudgel between it and them. However, even though the monster’s weapon was large enough to be a pillar itself, it was too small to cover its full body. Lucas flicked the first spear toward the monster’s chest with his Authority, followed immediately by the second.
The spears flew almost faster than any of their eyes could follow, but the troll knew they were coming. It used its [Stone Skin] again, just before the first attack crashed into its chest with a resounding crack, and lightning coursed across its entire body. The monster roared in pain and rage as it was knocked back slightly. Then the second spear hit in the same spot as the first, and its Skill failed.
“Now!” Lucas yelled.
Harry dashed forward, mirroring his previous actions, and got in close. The troll was still teetering backwards from the force of Lucas’s attacks, unable to meet the [Hunter]’s attack.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Harry’s spear flashed in a deep, vital red and pierced directly into the monster’s heart.
“ArrrGhhah!”
[*ding Your party has slain [Cave Troll - level 129]
[*ding [Lightning Construct] has reached level 71!]
[*ding [Creator’s Insight] has reached level 73!]
Harry retracted his spear and the monter’s corpse finished crashing down onto its back, shaking the tunnel just enough to be noticeable.
“Damn, no level,” Harry said in the sudden silence.
“Yeah, none here, either,” Lucas added. “Just a couple for my Skills.”
He dismissed the notifications and approached the troll’s former weapon, kneeling down to inspect it.
“At least you’ve got that,” Harry complained. “Ever since I hit 100, it’s like I need another horde to go up at all.”
Lucas waved his words away without even looking back. It was a bit of an exaggeration, he knew, but not by much. At level 87, Lucas needed to really push himself to raise his Class the slightest bit, but Harry was an entire evolution ahead of him, and so the [Hunter] had to work seemingly twice as hard to keep the same pace. Likely, Lucas would catch up considerably before Harry got his second Class.
“Nevermind that,” he said, then knocked the back of his hand on the giant cudgel. “Think of this is useful?”
“Lucas,” Harry said, and he heard the humor leaking into the young man’s voice, “I know you like to try out new weapons, but don’t you think that one is a little big for you?”
Lucas turned around and glared. “Har har. I mean, do you think the stone is worth taking back with us?”
The [Hunter] chuckled at his own lame joke for a moment, but then gave Lucas a shrug.
“You’re the one with [Sense Mana], not me. If the Dungeon’s infused it at all, I have no way of telling.”
“My Skill won’t work on something that’s not living though,” Lucas reminded, “so do you think we should try to take some of it, or not?”
They both looked at the object in question. At its immense size and rough surface that, even after being slammed around the cave many times as hard as the troll could, wasn’t actually cracked or chipped the slightest bit.
“Yeah, I’m not going to,” Harry stated. “What would we even need high-grade stone for? Maybe it would be worth it if there was some metal ore in there as well, but [Identify] isn’t picking up any of that.”
Lucas sighed and rose from his crouch. “Guess the levels will just have to do, then. What time is it?”
Harry’s eyes unfocussed as he checked his status. “Just past sundown,” he said. “We should probably be heading back.”
Lucas hummed his acknowledgement and finally sheathed his curved sword on his back in one smooth motion. He took one last look around, particularly past the troll’s corpse and down the path that would lead them deeper into the Dungeon, then gave Harry a nod.
“After you.”
----------------------------------------
The trip out of the Dungeon took nearly a full hour, but that wasn’t because they had gone terribly far in to find the cave troll. No, even after nearly two years since Harry and Lucas had started delving into the place, it remained an incredibly dangerous environment with an unpredictable population of monsters. Each time they entered, they had no idea what they might face down each path, and each time they exited, the way back would be guarded once more.
That hour was spent clearing the way of skaven, tunnel worms, and even another troll. By the time the two of them exited the Dungeon, the stars were fully visible above the mountain pass. Despite himself, Lucas took a second to look around, inspecting the nearby flows of the ambient mana. Two years after that night, there wasn’t much left to hint at the monsters that had once occupied the pass–not even mundane rubble and debris–but he always liked to make sure.
There were things out there in the world that could put his home in terrible danger. Lucas hadn’t forgotten, and he would be ready for them if they ever came back.
Soon enough after his search came up empty, their journey continued. When Harry and Lucas were lower-leveled, the trip from the village to the Dungeon always took half a day at best, but since they started sneaking out to it every few days, their capabilities had grown in many ways.
[Lucas]
[Free Stats: 0]
[HP: 3140/3140]
[MP: 4710/4710]
[STR: 172]
[DEX: 316]
[VIT: 314]
[WIS: 471]
[INT: 469]
[Class: Ratian Sentinel]
[Level: 87]
[Skills:
* [Fulgurous Mantle: 81]
* [Unflagging Physique: 87]
* [Arclight Renewal: 87]
* [Arclight Destruction: 86]
* [Lightning Construct: 71]
* [Rend Spirit: 51]
* [Overcharge: 80]
* [Quick Step: 81]
* [Eternal Vigil of the Sentinel: 86]
* [Adaptation: 66]
[General Skills:
* [Identify: 63]
* [Creator’s Insight: 73]
* [Social Knack: 78]
* [Vigilance: 87]
* [Sprinting: 79]
* [Battle Meditation: 87]
* [Hygiene: 80]
* [Learning: 81]
* [Reflexes: 87]
* [----------]
At his current level, Lucas’s regeneration could fully replenish both his HP and MP in around half an hour. [Unflagging Physique] was an absolutely broken Skill in this way–most people took nearly ten hours for that kind of recovery. And though the Skill didn’t strictly say that it affected Lucas’s stamina in the same way, he’d found that he could last much longer and recover from exerting himself faster than the people around him as well.
That wasn’t even the greatest thing about [Unflagging Physique]–that honor went to the way it constantly healed his body to comparable levels as a pure [Healer] below level 50–but it meant that he could sprint to and from the village at his max speed without ever needing to stop.
And if he channeled a bit of mana into [Fulgurous Mantle] as well, he could go even faster. Altogether, Lucas could complete his current journey in just over three hours, if he so wanted. Harry’s Skillset wasn’t quite as built for speed, however, so even though he was an evolution above Lucas, it usually took closer to around four and a half hours to make it all the way back home.
That was discounting the possibility that they ran into a roving monster or two, as well. The forest was dangerous these days, and every trip outside the village came with a high chance of encountering something that wanted to eat us. On a bad night, the trip might take the two of them six full hours.
Fortunately, Lucas and Harry were able to avoid the notice of anything too dangerous, and it didn’t take quite so long to make it back. They saw the village long before exiting the tree cover, and they gradually slowed their pace down to a casual walk. In the luminescent light of Anki’s great blue moon, the towering fortifications that boxed the village in looked just as much like mountains as the range that made up the valley.