Chapter Seventeen

The temptation was there. [Final Silence] to quiet the skills a little.

“Groak.” Bored. Hyacinth complained with the distinct flavor of dislike at being used as a pack animal with a fresh bundle of wooze hair on his back.

It reminded Harmony that it wasn’t just her who would suffer from her impulsive desires. Not that she wanted to implode or explode, or whatever the consequences were of the instability caused by becoming Lady White.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t use the new skill and play around with what she could do, only not on herself. It’s not like she was without self-control. The invisible tattoo on her hand itched at that line of thought. It has been an easy cover-up using [Beautician] and [Manipulate Dead] to make it skin color and refresh that in her morning routine, enough so that it had left her mind until it itched. Checking in with the guild to enter Nae’s Garden, however, made it more noticeable, but so far no consequences there.

The wooze, hit by the silence, had stopped blind and waited placidly. It’s not like you could see the ball-of-fur’s eyes or nose in that mess before she de-haired them. Whatever skills or class helped them track down and see targets, boosting their senses, and causing their vicious rage was neutralized. The silenced wooze was docile. Do beasts have classes? Maybe look that up in the future? With every class having some version of [Silence] there had had to be books on the topic or an expert she could hire.

Four wooze jumped through the bushes in a coordinated attack, the sound of their travel muffled by their fur. Harmony detected them coming a while ago. [Mana Rotation] boosted [Manipulate Dead], and poof hair exploded everywhere detaching from the four targets. The chilly air from the field of [Cold Touch] putting a light frost on everything hit them with a punch. Every naked wooze locked up. Not actually dead. That would have taken too much effort, but they fainted immediately requiring a little duck and twirl to avoid the unconscious bodies as they flew through the air.

Hyacinth snapped their necks and Harmony gathered all the floating hair into a neat bundle to add to the pile. This time she shouldn’t need to throw it all away by choking the brood mother.

Her toad could be bored. This doesn’t need to be anything too different from any tedious task she performed as a maid. And it gave her time to think.

Connections and synergy, Harmony's personal stats let her explore [Final Silence]. If she hadn’t passed out last night in the middle of forming the skill she would have done that then. While she could bend rules, the months she’d had the stats taught her they were much safer to be used mapping out potential uses for skills. After [Mend] and [Recall] she’d spent days locked in her room prodding those.

Here there wasn’t time to do that. But already she’d figured out that with a minor application, she could target the space around her, deading the sound of her movement even as she crunched sticks and leaves along the path forward. Back at the manor, she could have had so much fun appearing so silently as to scare the wits out of others. Bates would eventually sit her down and put a stop to that but it would have been a glorious few days. The staff are supposed to be quiet, just not this silent.

It improved [Cold Touch], but she’d need to repeat some of the experiments for her journal to see how much. The reverse was also true, probably, simply by synergizing the skills slightly in use. Stillness in action. Sadly lots of ideas included self-experimentation with [Renew Spirit] and [Recall] on how this new ability added to them in ways to calm skills or understand them better. Can’t disappoint her adorable pet, by bending rules to only sorta use it on herself.

Hyacinth nudged her through [Familiar Bond]. They were nearly at the brood mother's clearing.

Different sizes. This one was big. Small house big. Two Harmony’s tall, but not like the last one where post-shaving she was up to its knees. The larger body would probably mean it was more resistant to cold. It would also be difficult to remove all the hair as fast as she’d done the smaller ones. Before she leveled there would have been more of a challenge, though probably not the need to risk Hyacinth like she had. Now everything was stronger.

[Stride Before the fall] The two Harmonies were of one mind as they stepped into the clearing. [Mana Rotation] surged again, [Manipulate Dead] synergizing [Beautician] pushed forth at an already charging brood mother. It would look better naked. Hair fell away. [Cold Touch] combined with [Final Silence] struck out with the chill of the grave and finality of the last nail in a coffin. Together the act bled nearly all of her energy as the mana in her felt so thin she knew it would take time for the swirling currents inside her to recharge and perk up.

The brood mother fell like the others had.

“Kragrk,” Hyacinth complained some more.

“I know it’s not dead,” Harmony said, the strided her already fading away. She’d hoped the strike would kill it. But it’s not like she’d shot an ice spike or frozen blade into it. [High Kick] could probably put it out of its misery. Her one truly offensive skill of shoving her foot into something. That idea made her more tired. Too much effort showing off to herself to take it down. The big bad maid, soloing the first-floor boss. Maybe a little less effort next time.

Pulling out her bone knife she walked over to the comatose beast. Time for the messy work.

Too tired to clean the blood off her properly, Harmony rested in the clearing grass. Hyacinth licked some of it from her.

“These solo dungeon diving trips burn. You’re here but I could use a little more friendly company.”

Being more of a solitary being she felt the shadow toad’s shrug. He wasn’t going to take offense at not satisfying her socially. The hunting trips with Adric, Ambrosia, and even Bates had been cozy at times and comforting to know friends were nearby even when things got heated.

“Shall we check out the second floor?”

The shadow toad wasn’t enthused, but it wasn’t like he’d put much effort on the first floor.

“Not enough prey?” The woozes were unsatisfying and nearly indigestible cold. The second floor was worse. It only had plant-based monsters. Hyacinth was not a vegetarian.

Plants were a concern. Working on the flowers for the lounge had stressed Harmony’s skills in a way that had left her exhausted. Plants didn’t die properly quick enough. Cuttings could be used to grow new ones. Long dead floorboards, bits of debris in dust, and sheets of paper were totally different from a living plant. They didn’t even have hair and nails to work with.

Like with the first floor, they’d only have one monster. She needed to know what she was working against, without a skill that made the floor a walk in the park.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

[Manipulate Dead] crafted a large hacking blade from one of the brood mother’s teeth. The weapon felt uncomfortable in Harmony’s hand, but what was she going to do to a plant, kick it to death?

The second floor was eerily identical to the first, opening up to a thick jungle. Harmony reached out with her senses automatically, only to come back blind as it hit a land teaming with life. Her ability to detect hair and nails was a little unusual, but it had been impressively useful in hunting animals. Bowe's feathers and near-death state had masked him when she'd tried to raise him months ago.

Here there wasn’t even a hair floating around in the air. Only the thick pack Hyacinth carried on his back.

Vinestrictors were rooted to the ground here, their vines stretched out to grab and pull prey back to them. Twiggy’s were another option to run into, six-limbed stick monsters that dashed about, unrooting and rooting as needed. They’d root into a person if able to. Either was an option early on the path. Time to test taking one on, and maybe both, if the fight goes well.

Silently through the woods, harmony kept [Final Silence] lightly active, lest she break a twig and spook herself. “You sense anything?”

“Croak,” Hyacinth responded negatory.

This was probably how others who didn’t have ways to sense ambushes felt. Nothing, and then a wooze jumps from the underbrush. Not a pleasant feeling, not knowing what was coming.

“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkk….”

Hyacinth’s fading shriek caused harmony to twist towards her partner, but he was already gone, a trail of disturbed sticks and leaves leading into the thick bushes.

The necromancer twisted and pushed off after him, following the [Familiar Bond] and flecks of wooze hair ripped off his back by branches like a trail of breadcrumbs.

Lord Tyler’s gift wasn’t made for pushing through like this. Scrapes and cuts from broken and reaching branches streaked across her exposed skin. The skin-coating black starscape she'd accidentally added onto it didn’t snag, catch, or tear, but she could feel it all the same.

The trail ended at Hyacinth gripping a tree with his forelimbs, his leg encircled by a thick brown vine, pulling and stretching him out as he groaned.

Bone cleaver in hand, harmony kicked out swinging it down towards the taunt living vine.

She didn’t see the second vine spring into action. It hit her hip, wrapping it with a loop, yanking her out of the air and away from her familiar.

Chronostasis kicked in and everything slowed down for her. The scream that involuntarily started felt deeper as it escaped her mouth. The bone blade jostled from her grip, sliding past her fingertips, too late to try to pull back into her hand with her fully extended arm. The vines were thick and wooden, with no flexible sponginess, they only moved that way. [Manipulate Dead] kicked on with a choice. Attempt to pull the tooth-crafted blade into her hand or boost its momentum already spinning forward toward her target. Losing the weapon would be bad. Losing Hyacinth would be unforgivable.

Aim, push, shoot. She wasn’t an archer, but enough of her skills were good at figuring out trajectories. [Small Armor] and [High Kick], that with some effort she could just about. The blade spun through the air and with a satisfying thunk hit the taunt vine.

The blade didn’t cut through. Harmony knew exactly how sharp she’d made it, shock rippled through her as her heart sped up a beat.

Snap! Stretched tight as it was toad and vinestrictor in a tug-a-war, the two-thirds deep cut was enough. Energy dispersing both toad and vine were flung in opposite directions. A brief purple flash showed her familiar passing through the shadows. [Recall] made a note to find some way for Hyacinth to fight these types of enemies.

Chronostasis only lasted so long and as her heartbeat returned to its excited speed, Harmony crashed to the forest ground with acceleration pulling her towards the waiting fight.

Being dragged over roots and rocks made it difficult to concentrate. Sharpening and strengthening her nails she attempted to claw off the vine around her hip as it squeezed the bone uncomfortably. If it had gotten around her soft middle, Harmony shuddered at the damage it could be doing. Digging into it made her fingertips bleed and only scraped off a thin layer.

[Cold touch], frost seeped into the vine. The uncomfortable constriction stopped, water inside it swelled up, and with a crack, split some of it, not enough to break it off. It might have made it more brittle, but it was still too dense for Harmony’s strength to shatter it.

[Final Silence] couldn’t find a target, it was like targeting a finger rather than the core of the being.

The acceleration slowed. Good, bad? A second vine slipped around her left ankle and started to twist up her calf towards her thigh. Very bad!

Kicking did nothing other than jerk it about some, and that was her other main combat skill. Looking down her legs, she could see the writhing mass of tentacle-like vines waving with anticipation of bringing in prey.

A third vine criss crossed her chest. At this point, she’d let loose with [Cold Touch] radiating chill away from her, enough to kill a naked Wooze, but here it only slowed the compressing.

Closer… [Mana Rotation] kicked into action. Closer… Flailing whips lashed at her. Close enough, boosted [Final Silence] kicked in at thirty paces for the new skill hitting the Vinestrictor. The whole thing froze in place. Why couldn't it go limp and let her escape? But whatever aspect the silence interrupted it dealt with at the very least the dungeon monster’s movement, but not the stiff durability of the plant.

Thirty seconds, plus however much [Mana Rotation] boosted it.

A flicker in the dark canopy above. Hyacinth crashed down out of the shadows like a boulder from above. His weight and size were not a hindrance now. Immobile vines snapped, bent, and broke underneath him as he landed in the middle of the vinestrictor. What she needed to do was damage its roots enough to kill the sucker. There were options, too risky options.

[Stride Before the Fall], restrained as she was, the skill felt like it was fighting fate and the seconds ticked on with nothing happening.

[Manipulate dead] did its best to worsen the cold-damaged parts around her while Hyacinth rioted about. The vine connecting Harmony to the main body snapped. Hyacinths work.

[Stride] completed.

Bloody beaten and exhausted harmony stared at the entangled version of herself. Night looked fine, but scratches and newly forming bruises covered her. The adrenaline of fighting overcame how bad she looked. [Recall] kept track of the time left and they were running out.

[Familiar Bond] called the shadow toad to her. With a paired leap she grabbed onto the dirty and torn mat of collected fur on his back and they jumped into the shadow together to start skipping back towards the entrance.

Rather than disperse [Stride] right away the part of her that stayed paid attention. The vinestricter started moving. If it had been Adric she’d have at least six seconds left, even boosted the monster clearly resisted silence skills.

Undamaged vines struck out with enraged purpose, wrapping her tight and dragging her in. Stopped, she could feel more vines wrapping around her, fighting the chill as they insulated each other and creaked inward. “Burn you.” With the last of her strength, she pushed [Cold Touch] into the ground. The vinestrictor shivered in pain. Then it redoubled its efforts. Squeezing until her bones ached and her flesh bruised. Harmony let that part of her disperse as they collapsed over a pocket of mostly nothing.

The memory stuck with her as Harmony stood beside her also beaten Familiar outside the second-floor entrance, ready to leave. Luckily the short jumps forced by the dungeon environment didn’t lead them to more trouble. “I should have chosen [Rot].”

Stay true to you. Hyacinth reminded her with the rare use of his voice in her head.

His support meant something, even if it didn’t wipe away Harmony's feelings of doubt and recrimination. They have to plan better. Together they limped out of the dungeon. The complimentary healing potion had been on the copy of her that dispersed moments ago, along with a small bit of supplies. A small price to pay.