Artivan cut the mango while he walked, sticking a piece in his mouth, then handing the next piece to Owin. A fire burned nearby with a pile of scaltari corpses pushed to the side under a bush. “These scaltari camps are the best places to rest on the floor.” The knight sat down heavily. He undid the belt holding his sheath and let the sword drop onto the ground.
The blue wings of his crossguard scored the dirt. He pushed it aside and offered Owin another slice of mango. “Are you injured?”
Owin snatched the mango from the knight’s hand. He had never had something with such an odd flavor. It was delicious but a little slimy. “No,” Owin said through a mouthful of food.
“Good, good.” He gestured to the fire. “Take a seat.”
Owin still hovered nearby. If Artivan had wanted to kill him, he would have done it immediately. Based on what Owin had seen, there wouldn’t have been a way for him to stop the powerful knight.
Owin sat across the fire and squinted as the heat pressed against his face. “Why did you help me?”
“The dungeons are an odd place. Laws in the outside world don’t apply. How could they? There’s often nobody to enforce laws or punishments. A place such as this can breed scoundrels, or at least encourage them.” Artivan tossed the last slice of mango over the fire right into Owin’s lap. The knight leaned forward as if he was about to tell a secret. “You look familiar. You remind me of the goblin darkblade from the first floor.”
“I think I am.”
“Interesting. But your class isn’t a darkblade, which would have made the most sense. Deficient classes aren’t common inside dungeons. Have you been outside the Great Forest?”
Owin shook his head. “I woke up on the first floor.”
“Chorsay will want to hear about this. Actually, most people will want to hear about this. You are the first non-human hero I’ve heard about, and I’ve been around dungeons most of my life.”
Owin looked around their little island. Other than the scaltari bodies nearby, it seemed calm and quiet. Water continued rising and falling in the spaces between islands. “What if they come back?”
“They would need to be at a higher level before I would become worried. There is a reason I’m in here on my own.” Artivan smiled as he pulled his gauntlets off and held his hands close to the fire. His hands were a tapestry of scars. “They said you killed their hunter. Who attacked first?”
“They did.”
“Did you kill any heroes on the first floor after you awoke?”
Owin nodded.
“What was it like? To wake up?”
“Terrifying.” Owin turned his gaze from the knight’s blue eyes. Nothing burned in the fire. It was simply flames in the center of a circle of stones. The fire burned perfectly within the bounds of the fire pit.
“It is impressive that you have made it here without gaining a level. Even your attributes are lower than a kid’s.”
“You’re not scared that I’m a goblin?”
“Goblins are common in the dungeons. I’ve seen a lot of goblins. Fought a lot of goblins. Killed a lot. The one thing I’ve never seen is a scared goblin. They’re fierce, and often rude if they do speak before trying to stab you. You were terrified while you ran from those heroes.” Artivan grabbed his shield from his back and placed it in front of him, digging the pointed bottom into the dirt. “A knight’s job is to protect. When I became a hero, I went into a dungeon thinking I would rise through all ten floors and conquer it on my own without worry. It took only a few floors to humble me. Once I learned about protecting people . . . that’s when things started to make sense in my life.”
“I don’t know if you answered my question,” Owin said quietly.
Artivan laughed. “I don’t know if I did either, little goblin. With your stats, it would be incredibly difficult for you to harm me. Even if you were stronger, I am not scared of someone simply because they look a little odd.”
Owin set his greatsword to the side, but easily within reach. He finally opened the bag he had snatched from Nikoletta. There were five potion bottles inside and a small collection of gold coins.
“What do you have there? Is that the stolen bag?”
Owin nodded. He pulled out two health potions and hooked them onto his belt. The third was a shield potion just like he had stolen from Cato on the first floor. The last two were buff potions. Owin tossed the bag to the side and stared at the odd colored liquids.
“Buffs,” Artivan said.
“I know.”
“Best save those until you know you will be going into a boss fight. There is one at the end of this floor.” Artivan leaned to the side to look at the potions without the fire in between. “Actually, I would buy those off of you. I’m not sure strength buffs are going to do much for a deficient wizard.” His index flashed in front of his eyes as Artivan looked over Owin’s attributes again. “Well, strength is your highest. I’m very confused about your attributes.”
How much did Owin want to tell him? Was it worth waiting to use the buffs to keep the secret that they were permanent for him? It was entirely possible that Artivan would know something Owin didn’t, or that he had some buffs of his own that would help Owin get stronger faster.
“I woke up when a wizard spilled an intelligence buff on me.” Owin popped the cork off the Artisan Strength Buff. “They are permanent to me. I don’t know why.” He drank the salty concoction in one gulp.
Strength +30
Strength: 176
Artivan watched with a furrowed brow. His index hovered in front of his eyes as he looked through a few pages worth of information. “Usually, if your intelligence is high enough, you can see what buffs somebody has active. Mob or hero. These can be from entertainers, potions, spells, or equipment. For you, it doesn’t say a thing.” The page changed on his index as he looked back at Owin’s stats. “And your strength is now thirty points higher.” Artivan slapped the metal armor on his thigh. “Incredible. Is that how you’re a deficient wizard? When you awoke, the rest of your stats were horribly low? With high intelligence, you would appear to be a wizard. And now you’re more like a berserker. Do you have abilities? I assume not. Wizards only get spells.”
“I have three spells.”
“Can you use them?”
“Kind of.”
“This is incredible. You’re almost as strong as I am. Your health is still far too low. Oh.” Artivan reached into the bag on his side and dug around. Bottles clinked and various small gems fell out into the dirt. Artivan held up a purple potion, the same color as Owin’s hair. “Here.” He tossed it.
The bottle smacked Owin in the face, doing exactly one point of damage. It fell harmlessly into his lap.
“We might need to get your dexterity higher,” Artivan said.
Owin held the purple potion in front of his face and used Examine.
Journeyman Constitution Buff
+20 Constitution
Duration: 3 Hours
The duration quickly faded in Owin’s view, leaving a blank section. He shook the bottle, spinning the purple liquid inside the little round bottle.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, absolutely. It wouldn’t help me at the moment. You see, every fifty points in constitution, intelligence, or wisdom helps recovery rates for health and mana. I need one more point in constitution before that would even bump me to the next fifty. I should have you just punch me until I gain a point.” Artivan laughed, more weakly this time. “It will be more helpful to you. I insist.”
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Owin immediately drank the fruity buff. He also drank the other strength buff he had stolen from Nikoletta, which was only an apprentice level buff.
Constitution +20
Constitution: 90
Strength +10
Strength: 186
He tossed the bottles into the fire, where they cracked and shattered. He didn’t immediately feel stronger, but his strength was now higher than the powerful knight sitting across the fire.
Artivan Morro just stared.
“Are you awake?” Owin asked.
“Yes.” He looked at the sky. The sun was still high in the air. Not much of the day passed. “Speaking of being awake, do you need to sleep? Heroes often struggle with sleep on the second floor here.”
“I don’t know if I need to sleep.”
“Do you feel tired? Drowsy? Heavy eyes?”
Owin shook his head.
“Oh. If I didn’t need to sleep, I don’t know what I would do with my extra time. I wish I could say I would train, but is that true? Would I not just read?” Artivan cleared his throat. “This is fascinating, and I am thinking through what it all means. If what I am saying seems a little odd, it is me thinking out loud.”
“Okay.” Owin didn’t really care.
Artivan picked up the gems that had fallen out of his bag and stuffed them back inside, then he tightened the top of the bag and adjusted its position on his hip. “There are secret secondary missions on almost every floor of all seven dungeons. I was preparing to go into the labyrinth on this floor before I heard the commotion from earlier. You, little goblin, are welcome to do whatever it is you want. The scaltari on this floor are brutal. You saw that berserker in a tough fight against one. They get stronger the farther north you travel, with the scaltari boss right in front of the stairs all the way in the northeast corner of the map.”
Owin blankly stared at the knight. While he didn’t feel dumb, there were some things that still meant very little to him. He only knew what the scaltari were because he had the chance to use Examine on one of the lizard people. But a boss? Northeast?
“If you have no direct destination right now, you are welcome to stay with me and explore the labyrinth. It will be my first time inside. Then I can escort you to the exit.”
“I was told to climb the tower.”
“Told? By who?”
“Ruvaine.”
“Oh, frick.”
Owin squinted. That was a new word. “What does frick mean?”
“I just—” Artivan sighed. “It doesn’t matter. You will have to get much stronger much faster if you’re going to climb. Mobs get smarter and stronger per floor, and the heroes you will run into will be stronger too. There are at least four above us right now. I saw them enter before me, and I have to assume they passed the second floor faster. Level fifty was the lowest.”
“I didn’t see any heroes on the second floor.”
Artivan put his helmet back on but kept the visor up. He reattached his sheath and stood. “I can tell you about dungeon structure as we walk. I assume you’re coming with me?”
Owin hadn’t actually made up his mind. He had managed to make it through the second floor, but he hadn’t done it alone. He had made allies, even if they were just mobs. Artivan Morro was a high level hero who didn’t seem to want to kill him. That had to be worth a lot more than any mob allies.
“I’ll go with.”
“Let’s start moving. We don’t want to get caught when the water rises.”
Artivan led the way past some more scaltari corpses and through a grove of trees, back into a small pool of water. Owin felt tiny compared to the knight. Kidibose and Rattis were taller than Owin, but they had been relatively normal sized humans, while Artivan was huge. His armor added even more bulk.
“Why do you know so much about the dungeons?” Owin asked. He let his greatsword rest on his shoulder while the bag he had taken from Naxile hung on his hip. The other bag was now back at the fire, but it was empty and not worth carrying, as far as Owin was concerned.
“Experience. On the second floor, did you find the excavation site?” Artivan walked briskly and kept his eyes straight forward. A brief taupe flash pulsed from his body.
“What was that?”
“A spell to help me keep an eye on our surroundings. Did you find the hands?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Hold.” Artivan drew his sword. “Two scaltari are watching us from the bushes ahead.” The index flashed in front of the knight’s eyes. “Weak mobs just meant to slow heroes down outside the labyrinth.” He pointed at a bush that grew in the middle of a small clump of trees. “Flare Burst.”
A scaltari immediately shot out of the bush, charging right at them. It hissed as it burned with luminous fire. Owin shrugged his greatsword off his shoulder and swung it one handed. He carved right into the scaltari’s chest, where the sword got stuck in its spine.
The other ran at Artivan. He bashed it with his shield and effortlessly pierced its throat with his longsword. Owin stood on top of the dead lizard and yanked his sword out, spraying blue blood all over himself.
“Not the cleanest kill I’ve seen.” He laughed and bent down to the corpse at his feet. He flipped it over and pulled a few golden coins out of the lizard’s trouser pocket.
Owin was staring. It looked weird to fiddle with a corpse when they could just leave them alone. Artivan cut off the tip of the tail and stuffed it in his bag alongside the coins. He finally noticed Owin watching him and looked down at the bleeding tail stump.
“You don’t know why I did that, do you?”
Owin slowly shook his head.
“Scaltari tails are used by alchemists.” Artivan sheathed his sword and walked over to the corpse beside Owin. He flipped it over, checked the pockets, and pulled out a cloudy emerald. “Do you loot your kills?”
“Loot?”
Artivan put the emerald into Owin’s bag. “Mobs have random items on them. Usually it’s gold or gems, which can make you some decent money outside the dungeon. Sometimes you can find alchemical ingredients or rarer items too. Even something like a skeleton can have loot on it. It doesn’t really come from anywhere. It’s one of the mysteries of the dungeons.” Artivan cut the tip of the scaltari’s tail off and added it to his bag.
“Did I miss a lot of loot on the second floor?”
“If you didn’t check, then yes.” Artivan continued walking, pushing right through the bushes and over the next mound. “Do you see that?”
Owin had to push through the bushes that slapped against his face before he saw a little doorway built into the side of a mound. If Artivan hadn’t been pointing at it, Owin might have missed it. The mound was like the others, but a little taller and with a thicker grove of trees over the top. Water was low at the moment, making it easy to see the whole doorway. When water rose and spilled over the sand bars, it would pour right into the doorway, if it were open. It was a little stone door made of bits of gray and tan, so it blended into the sand and the surrounding rocks.
“The excavation site on the second floor with the hands is similar to the labyrinth. They are both secret areas with extra objectives. They don’t have quests associated with them. There is a secret room in the goblin caves too, but I assume you knew about that.”
“No.”
“Oh. It’s just around the corner from where you usually hide.”
“I don’t have memories from before I woke up.”
“That is a blessing. I’ve personally killed the goblin darkblade there multiple times.” Artivan cleared his throat and looked at Owin. “Sorry.”
Owin shrugged. “Why have you gone through more than once?”
“There’s a term in the outside world. It’s not official, but everyone knows what you’re talking about. They call people like me ‘Career Heroes.’ I will never become a Shard Carrier. I’m not strong enough or dedicated enough to make it past the sixth or seventh floor of any dungeon. Career heroes are people who go through to loot the first few levels and sell what they find. Even now, I only plan to clear the fifth floor before leaving. When you examined me, did you see the extra line?”
“Nimble Hog Hero Company,” Owin said, remembering the line. It had stood out as a little odd compared to everyone else he had examined, but he hadn’t had a chance to think about it.
“Exactly. People can hire hero companies to escort them in the dungeon, but it is also a place where people like me can find people to buy loot easier. I have been on the first few levels of most dungeons a number of times. Sometimes to loot, sometimes to help alchemists find ingredients.”
“But you haven’t been in the labyrinth?”
“I missed it more than once. This floor is huge. I didn’t even know about it until recently when my friend Sanem found it. Nobody talks about the dungeons outside. Any secrets found are closely guarded. These have been around for as long as we know, and we still are learning new things. Look at you. Nowhere in recorded history has a mob ever become a hero that can travel between floors.”
It seemed like as good of a time as any to ask the question that had been on Owin’s mind. “If I leave the dungeon, what will people think?”
“Hm.” Artivan walked across the small pool of water and stopped just outside the door. “I don’t know, little goblin. I fear leaving the dungeon may be more difficult for you than staying inside.”
“How many people are like you?” Owin asked.
Artivan found a part on the door where he could dig his armored fingers into the stone. He had to brace himself on the doorframe to drag the heavy stone door open. It grinded loudly as stone slid across stone. The doorway was pitch black, similar to the doorways between floors.
“Very few, I’m afraid. Void Nexus Heroes might even try to kill you on the streets, and be justified in doing so. Why don’t we do this—” Artivan crouched in front of Owin. His blue eyes bore into the goblin’s. “Stick close and I will help you as far as I can in the tower. When it comes time for me to leave, I will wait for you, and we can go to Atrevaar together. Chorsay is my dear friend as the guild leader of the Nimble Hog Hero Company. I can introduce you so you can have a safe space within the city.”
Owin felt uneasy. His stomach was knotted as he looked into the old man’s eyes. “How am I going to climb higher than you?”
Artivan smiled and placed his hand on Owin’s shoulder. “Ruvaine wants you to climb, so you will climb. Maybe we can find some more buffs for you inside the labyrinth.”
“Can I do it?”
“Without a doubt, little goblin.” Artivan stood and pulled the visor of his helmet down. He grabbed his shield and drew his sword. “I don’t know what will greet us down there. Be ready, stay close. With those buffs, you will hit harder than me, but I can keep you alive. Do you think you can make this work?”
“Yes.” Owin held his Greatsword of the Malignant Spirit with both hands. He could kill level 12 and 13 enemies in a single hit with his raised strength. Whatever awaited them in the dark of the labyrinth wouldn’t stand a chance.