The dungeon layout was fairly simple, Lock noted as they backtracked even further towards the entrance in search of a good spot to set some traps. It was very branch like, a single long line interspersed with the occasional tunnel branching off, but ending in dead end caverns eventually, forcing one to return to the main path.

The entire tunnel system screamed into his mind that it was designed to lead a party of adventurers to the boss of the dungeon, which in this case, would be the cyclops with the sheep, unless the tunnels continued beyond it.

The adventurers of this world had also noted that dungeons formed suspiciously in a manner that forced anyone entering to fight their way through several weaker variations of the monster inhabiting it, before delivering them onto the doorstep of a so called leader, who was stronger than anyone the party had faced before that.

A simple design centred around some grinding before taking on the boss, a terminology Lock had decided he was going to try to force through into the world around him. Calling it the strongest monster was simply bothersome.

They eventually arrived at a good spot, where the tunnel was narrow enough that one couldn't avoid any traps set in it, unless one knew about them, of course.

Now Lock wasn't a connoisseur of trapping or anything, but the earth beneath their feet was soft enough, and they had enough time and materials to create a spike pit. They were also close enough to the entrance, two caverns away if he guessed right, that they wouldn't have to lug the wood too long a way.

So that's what they set out to do, they exited the dungeon, searched the surroundings for any sturdy already fallen wood, found nothing, and chopped down the nearest tree and started cutting it into pieces which they then turned into three feet long spikes which Lock applied a small amount of poison to.

By the time they were done the sun had already reached its zenith, thankfully grandfather had been mindful enough to bring a small axe or the endeavour would have probably taken twice as long.

The axe also functioned as a small shovel, something that reminded him strongly of the army, but despite having the correct tool, however small it may be, digging what amounted to a small canyon, was still a rather arduous task. One that he took upon himself to complete, arguing that his grandfather would be the one to actually fight the cyclops, and therefore needed to preserve his stamina. Also because he'd finally deduced what potion grandfather had ingested, burst of power, a potion that transmuted all the potential energy a person could exert in their remaining life and condensed it into a reservoir of power one could draw from.

A way of recovering the energy spent did not exist, which meant that simply breathing brought Abraxas closer and closer to the moment where he would let himself be struck down by his grandson's blade.

Neither of the two commented over the fact that t'was not only sweat falling to the ground that afternoon.

Lock finished the spike pit by dinnertime, and well past lunchtime. Understandable considering they'd skipped the meal entirely in their excitement. His stomach did its best in reminding him of the folly of that decision, and the rather important rule of stay well fed when on an adventure was added to all the other things Lock had learned on this small excursion.

The meal consisted of some dried fish and black bread, washed down by warm water. A sip of a nutrient potion fortified the rather meagre nutritious value, and after that, well, it was time to kill a cyclops.

Not really though, after all it wouldn't be Lock doing the work, all he could do was try to blend in with the shadows and watch the back of his grandfather disappear within the tunnel system, the poisoned dagger Lock had prepared for him in hand.

-/-

The wait was torturous in way that he'd seldom experienced it before, comparable to waiting for the exam results that would determine your future, the test results that would tell you if you had cancer, or a tumour, all those together, and multiplied by ten.

His heart hurt.

The love he held for Abraxas was that of a friend, who also happened to be family. Theirs was a more balanced relationship in terms of experience and deference wise than one would usually experience between grandfather and grandson, which made sense, since they were about the same age. Abraxas taught him about combat and adventuring in general and he taught the man mathematics, complex writing and some rather abstract philosophies and political ideas.

It was completely expected that somewhere along the way he'd also learn what familial love really was, although it had still hit him like a brick in the face when he'd realised that he actually loved someone.

Ironic, since he would, if all went well, kill the person he'd grown to love.

His thoughts were interrupted by a stomping and he looked up from his position hiding in the shadows of a large cave, over the spike pit and down the tunnel. The stomping grew louder and Lock was treated to the rather humorous sight of his grandfather running towards him like the wind, moustache flapping about and a rather pissed of looking, bigger than the others, cyclops with a dagger sticking out of his stomach running after him.

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The humour faded when grandfather jumped over the spike pit, rolled to a halt and turned around sword and shield raised in the middle of the cave, and the cyclops followed.

Now that Lock looked closer the discolouration around the cyclops' eye did not look like the curse of the blinded eye, the eye was still blind though, of that there was no doubt, it just seemed that a sharp object had done the deed. By the seemingly effortless jump over the spike pit Lock concluded that the injury had been inflicted a long time ago, giving the cyclops enough time to adapt.

Which was just grand, really.

Although, Lock narrowed his eyes and prepared his body to run down the tunnel he was positioned before. How exactly did the cyclops acclimatize to losing his sight? Having a good hearing wouldn't allow you to feel a spike pit in the earth and avoid it after all.

Abraxas and the cyclops stared at each other, which was odd, cyclops not being known for being the most patient of monsters.

But by the picture perfect dodge the cyclops demonstrated when grandfather actually attacked him led Lock to believe that this was more than just a simple cyclops. It retaliated with a blow that roared thunderously against the shield that grandfather held up just in time. The two opposing parties stood against each other, the slightly abnormal feeling of intimidation Lock was experiencing notifying him of the fact that grandfather was using intimidation aura, or that he was more of a pussy than he thought, could be both he admitted as he watched the two combatants exchange another series of blows at a blistering pace.

It wasn't a fight Lock could interfere in, he ground his teeth, all he could do was try to figure out the cyclops' weaknesses and hand over the information to Grandfather.

He let the emotion he had invested in the fight drain out of him and simply watched as the cyclops dodged a flying shield, but was then hit when the thing curved backwards to lodge itself in the back of his neck. Grandfather used the opportunity opened up by shield return to go in for another slash at the cyclops torso, but the monster simply stepped back and avoided it, it didn't attempt to retaliate, simply stomping down onto the shield that was slowly rattling its way over the ground back to the owner who had so callously thrown it.

The question now was, if the cyclops had simply heard the shield rattling on the ground and hadn't been able to dodge its previous return flight due to the lack of sound it made flying through the air. Or...

Lock pulled a dagger and carefully, so as to not take a simple step, threw it gently at the direction of the standing still again cyclops. It bounced harmlessly off its left shoulder, the hilt being the part that impacted the monster, but that was enough for Lock to discern one aspect of the monsters skill.

Still being careful to not make a single step he pulled out another piece of equipment, his own shield this time, and lightly threw it at grandfather, who deftly caught it out of the air, having been watching the entire interplay with interest.

“He can feel movement through the earth.” Lock said simply, “he doesn't know you have another shield yet, since it flew through the air, unless it can understand us” he added.

Grandfather nodded, not taking his eyes off the cyclops.

He didn't move for a while either, Lock took a while before he figured out why neither of them were moving. He'd discerned the fact that the cyclops could have earth sense through the fact that it had been unable to dodge the unnaturally moving shield, and that it had then crushed it when it was moving on the ground. It being able to avoid the spike pit entirely was also another indicator.

But the biggest one was the fact that the cyclops had seemingly been unable to predict Lock throwing a dagger at it while it had dodged grandfather's thrown shield, well, until it made an arc backwards at least. The only difference between the two throws had been the fact that Lock hadn't moved his feet at all during it, which had for him confirmed the skill earth sense.

The problem was that grandfather didn't know if he could trust Lock's judgement completely, if he acted on false information it could very well mean his death after all, and thus he was testing out the same thing that Lock had been.

The entire fight, the cyclops had always reacted to being attacked, never taking the initiative. Humans didn't weigh overly much, therefore it made sense that someone who sensed the earth would only be able to feel them through it when they were moving around.

Cyclops were a race known for their stupidity, maliciousness and most of all their rage. A cyclops, if he had the chance to attack a human, would do so, that's why they were termed as monsters after all.

Every second that grandfather spent not moving and that the cyclops did not use to attack, the higher the possibility of the monster having earth sense, and being unable to feel a human unless this human moved. Which meant that Grandfather was basically trading the time standing there and doing nothing to confirm valuable information.

Sasuga Grandfather-sama.

The cyclops could also be faking it, but Lock doubted it, he'd only ever heard one thing about their intelligence, namely their lack of one. This cyclops was already furthering the boundaries of what he considered a stupid monster being capable of, simply standing there when one wasn't capable of telling where one's enemy was, instead of say, flailing around madly, was a sign of at least monkey tier cognitional ability.

Lock continued to watch with baited breath as the two combatants stood there, he'd never thought a stare off could be this exciting. But if his eyes did not deceive him the cyclops was, yes, it was fidgeting, grandfather was as well though, wait, that wasn't a fidget, that was a hand gesture.

Most likely directed at him, him being the only person with functioning eyes to see the gesture with. He halted his thoughts and tried to actually interpret the gesture, it was a, flick of the finger in the direction of the cyclops.

He tilted his head at grandfather, who glanced away from the cyclops for a short moment to mount the words, 'throw' at him.

Well, that was a command Lock could get behind, he hefted his last disposable dagger glanced at grandfather, received a nod as confirmation and threw the thing at the cyclops, actually aiming to stab the monster this time.

As the dagger flew through the air grandfather, very gently laid down Lock's shield, touching it with a finger and saying some words, probably a skill, before visibly tensing his leg muscles and propelling himself at the cyclops with a mighty leap that was made even more impressive by the lack of a running start. Lock's throw hadn't necessarily been fast, just accurate, him wanting to give grandfather some time to react with the throw, so the two projectiles, one metal and one human reached the monster with only a small interval between the two. The dagger impacted its left shoulder first, making the hulking beast flinch in that direction and half raise its arm in defence. Grandfather didn't as much impact the beast as he flew over its left shoulder, in the midst of the old man's front flip a gleam of steel flashed and not a second later did the warrior gracefully land on the ground, head of the cyclops falling to the ground with a thud behind him, the body collapsing shortly afterwards.

Only for the entire thing to go up in a cloud of smoke that almost explosively expanded from the now dead monster, engulfing grandfather fully, for a short time, his form quickly skidding out of the smog and landing before Lock in a defensive position soon after.

Lock noted in his mind that the entire thing hadn't lasted longer than three seconds since he'd thrown his dagger, and was about to retreat down the tunnel, unwilling to burden grandfather with a person to protect if something were to actually come of the smoke, but he was halted in his intentions when the white cloud dissipated as quickly as it had come.

Leaving behind a decapitated sheep in the spot where the cyclops had died.