Because Diane and I were working together, the experience was being shared equally between us, even though I undoubtedly killed far more targets with my area attacks. This caused Diane’s level to quickly increase, her eyes briefly going wide. By the time we had cleared out all of the moles on the first floor of the dungeon, her level had increased from twelve to fifteen. At the same time, I learned that my Fireball skill’s experience would increase more depending on how many targets I hit at once.
In terms of single-target damage, I still felt that Diane was probably more terrifying than I was, with her proficiency in assassination. However, the fact that I was able to do so much in this dungeon bolstered my thoughts about how to proceed going forward. “Any other chests this floor?” Diane asked hopefully once we had cleared out the last of the crystal moles.
I shook my head, not knowing. “We didn’t see any, right? If there are some, they’ll be in hidden passages like the first one.”
When I said that, Diane gave a firm nod, immediately beginning to walk along the caves again while I worked to loot all of the monsters. Half of the loot would naturally go to Diane, but with this many skins and gems, it was definitely worth our time to be here. Especially if we went lower and found even more valuable items. My only regret was that I didn’t have a pickaxe to mine the crystals in the cave.
Diane pressed her hand against every protruding stone or indentation that she found, looking for any kind of secret mechanism. After I was done looting, I followed behind her, keeping an eye out for any more monsters spawning in.
Just as Diane was starting to lose hope, a sharp rock slid into the hall when she pressed it down. The two of us looked around uneasily, my sword ready to lash out. However, as with the first passage, a doorway opened up in the wall. Taking a lesson from before, the two of us quickly entered the passage, knowing that it was going to close a few seconds later.
And… just as before, the inside of this passage was pitch black. Knowing that Diane could see in this situation far better than I could, I allowed her to lead the way. It didn’t take long before we found the chest in this passage, Diane’s eyes narrowing as she pulled out her dagger to stab at it. There was a metallic clink, but the chest didn’t seem to respond.
“Never too sure.” She muttered, before gesturing for me to open the chest first. I blinked, before nodding my head and opening it.
Reaching inside, I felt three items. One of them was hard, covered in crystal plates. The other was softer, made of what felt like thick, studded leather. The last was… a book? My eyes widened at the book, quickly pulling the three items out.
Casting the Appraisal skill, I identified the three items, including the book given how dark it was. The first item was Crystal Plate Leggings, the heavy armor variant of the leggings I was already wearing. Its defense was higher, but so was its weight. It had four enchantment slots, making my eyes widen in shock. I was glad that I hadn’t enchanted my current leggings yet, because I was definitely going to be switching to these.
The boots were Crystal Mole Boots, similar to the pants I had been wearing until now, and with two enchantment slots. I didn’t have any boots before now, so I was rather happy to get this.
The final skill was a defensive skill book, Ruby Rampart. When I used the Appraisal skill, it gave me the description, saying that it gave my body heightened defense and a crystalline shine. This was a toggle skill, similar to Stealth or Sprint, so I could theoretically have it constantly active. However, doing so would no doubt draw attention. Additionally, this was a Martial skill, not magic.
Unfortunately, the skill did have a drawback. Because it gave my body a texture similar to crystals, the increased defense was a double edged sword. Weaker attacks would be completely ineffective against me, while any attack that penetrated my defense would cause a more severe injury than normal, thanks to the brittle nature of the defense.
At first, I had been considering enchanting this skill onto my heavy armor, until I read that drawback. If I made my armor more brittle in exchange for heightened defense, I would be shooting myself in the foot down the road. It was better to keep this skill purely on myself, and wait to enchant it after it evolved, if it got rid of the drawback.
“You got a skill?” Diane asked as she took her turn at the chest. I immediately recognized the two items that she pulled out, as they were the Crystal Mole Leggings and Boots. Still, she handed them to me for appraisal, so that I could determine the number of enchantment slots.
“Yeah, it’s a defensive skill. I’ll try it out while we’re here, but it will be dangerous for me to use against the snakes outside.” I said, before explaining the effects of the skill while activating my appraisal.
Diane had four enchantment slots on her leggings, and two on her boots. From how Diane didn’t hesitate to equip the pants, they were an improvement over her current ones, and her boots weren’t player equipment to begin with.
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The passage that we were in was too dark to read the skill book, so I had to wait until we left the hall to read under the light of the faintly glowing crystals. While I read, Diane covered me, simultaneously practicing her Stealth skill to enchant onto her new equipment.
New Skill Acquired!
Ruby Rampart (Martial - 7☆): Increases defense and the cost of becoming more brittle.
Mana Burden: 0/s. Level: 1(0%)
I gave a small nod, activating the skill. Looking down, I saw that my hands had turned red, as if a thin layer of crystal had covered my body. I took a moment to clench my fists repeatedly, glad to see that it was at least flexible enough to let me move properly. Now that I was wearing two pieces of heavy armor, I was definitely feeling the weight, and didn’t want my movement to be even more slowed.
“Let’s head for the next floor.” I said with a smile, Diane nodding her head. According to the book that I read, there were a total of three floors to the Crystal Mole Mine. The main difference between the first and second floor was the level of the monster, with the second floor playing host to Crystal Mole Elites. As for the third floor, it was a single room, housing the Crystal Mole King.
I explained all of this to Diane as we walked, having my blade at the ready to fight. If you asked me what sort of role I was aiming to play in the party at this point, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. I had multiple defensive abilities similar to a tank, but at the same time, my firepower was similar to a mage and I had a stealth ability.
Speaking of… as we walked, I tried my best to mimic Diane’s movements, focusing on enchanting my boots with the Stealth skill. Once I finished, I knew that I hadn’t completely replicated her ability, as the enchantment that I received was only a five star ‘Light Steps’, as opposed to a full Stealth enchantment. Still, the fact that I was able to move more silently would definitely be a good thing in the future.
It didn’t take us long for us to find our way to a cave that moved at a downward angle. There was an eerie glow in this cave, and Diane hesitated at the entrance. “Will it be as crowded?” She asked, and I took a moment to think before shaking my head.
“Oversaturation only happens on the first floor of a dungeon. Dungeons prioritize refilling spawns from the bottom up. So, the boss will always be the first to respawn, and then work its way back to the entrance. If the entrance is full, it will just keep spawning there until it is oversaturated.”
Diane nodded her head, though seemed somewhat disappointed. After all, this meant that she wouldn’t be able to level up as quickly. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how long it would take for the dungeon to become saturated again.
After we worked our way down the passage, we saw much larger crystal formations in a more open cave network. Although the moles were not as densely packed as they had been on the first floor, where we were easily able to kill hundreds of them before the floor was cleared, the elite moles were considerably larger.
Each Crystal Mole Elite was a full meter long, five times as much as their basic counterpart. Additionally, the crystals growing out of them covered their entire backs like a layer of dense armor. From what I could see, these elites moved around the caverns in groups of two or three, making sure to keep quite a lot of space between each group.
Diane looked at me with a nod, her body fading from view. I took a deep breath, taking a step into the cave and holding my sword. I activated my Exploding Flame Slash enchantment without Sneak Attack, wanting to get an idea both of my damage output and the health of the enemy.
With a horizontal slash, I struck directly at the body of one of the elite moles. Its ruby armor shattered, letting out a screech of pain. However, its body blocked most of the flames from reaching its companion, who emerged relatively unscathed. There were some scorch marks on its ruby exterior, but not enough to cause real damage.
While its friend struggled to stand, it rushed towards me, crystalline claws at the ready. I braced myself, ready to take the attack, before seeing Diane appear next to the creature. Her dagger stabbed the side of its head, piercing into its ear with a dense crack.
The crystal mole slid to a halt, its body dropping and going limp. Satisfied, Diane jumped behind me again, signaling for me to finish off the first one. With a nod, I lifted my hand, firing off a basic Fire Bolt from my armor into the gaping wound of the monster.
The other elites were clearly not as interested in getting involved in the fight at first, letting the first group deal with the intruders. However, when they saw that two of their kind had been killed, their anger began to flare. Three groups immediately charged over, and I waved my sword to strike out with two more flaming slashes.
I had learned my lesson the first time, and this time I aimed for the ground in front of the moles, given that their underbelly wasn’t armored like their backs. The ground erupted in dense flames before the two groups, the third rushing closer.
Like before, Diane appeared to deliver a fatal sneak attack to one of the rushing moles, before lunging for the other with both daggers drawn. She held the two daggers in a reverse grip, her body lightly spinning in the air. The edges of her crystal daggers let off a faint light before rapidly slashing, likely indicating that she had used some form of skill, probably something like Double Strike.
As for the groups that I had been in charge of, they had slowed their charge. Each of these groups had three elite moles, which were crying out from the pain of the burns beneath them. For some reason, I felt an almost manic joy seeing these monsters suffering from burns. I definitely wasn’t projecting my previous pain onto them to share my trauma. That would be petty.
I launched another set of flaming slashes, this time striking at the heads of the moles in the center of each formation. This caused both of them to die, their comrades thrown to the sides with Diane charging in.
Unfortunately, I was no longer able to use my flaming slash as long as Diane was tied up in melee, for fear of getting her caught in the area effect. A tip to all aspiring wizards out there, don’t throw fireballs at your party. You only get to make that mistake once.