It was bunnies.
The Authority Dungeon was four floors of different types of knee high rabbits. Granted, these monsters had cat-like teeth and a horn at the top of their head. And that was just the floor monsters. The bosses were all at least waist high.
“What. Are. Those. Things?!” Fray’s eyes got wide.
“Unilops.” Rix shuttered. “First floor is wood, the second floor is Bone, the third floor is rock, and the fourth floor is metal.” She pointed at the different colored rib cages that were exposed on each one of them. “Their ribs grow outside of their pelts and are composed of different types of whatever their typing is, so with the metal ones, you’d see copper, iron, steel…” She waved her hand. “There’s a rarity to what can spawn, so you’ll obviously see copper more often than a silver one.”
“You know about them?” Fray turned in her seat.
“The bandits I was with would deal in them a lot. Their horns in particular are made out of pure…” She waved her hand. “Whatever they are. The higher rarity Unilops are worth a lot more than a regular crystal and if you could extract the horn from one, those were worth a lot more.”
“So you know how to beat them?” I was starting to regret that we wouldn’t be going into that Dungeon.
Rix zoomed in to the picture of the wooden one and pointed at the back of its neck, “They try to gore their targets, which means they have to have a pretty straight spine. It also means that right here is exposed when they charge. All you have to do is let them charge, then sidestep and…” She made a chopping motion with her hand. “At least that’s what I’ve seen done. The Giant ones are probably going to be more difficult and require a really tough shield.”
Ether shook her head. “I’m glad we’re not fighting one of those.”
“You don’t want to have the cute monster try to gore you?” I smirked when she glared at me.
“How hard is it to summon one of them?” There was a look of awe on Fray’s face.
“You can’t be serious.” Ether pointed at the window, “Out of all the monsters that we’ve seen and this is what you want?”
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“I think it’s cute.” Fray turned around. “Mister Vowler. How much mana does it take to summon just a floor monster?”
“At level one?” Trent didn’t turn around, “Most first floor monsters have twenty-four in total stats.”
Fray started doing math in her head.
“You have thirty Mana.” Ether glared at the green woman.
Fray smiled back, but also looked confused. “I didn’t think you liked the idea.”
“I don’t.” Ether took a deep breath. “I think that you’re a physical class, so you’ll be spreading yourself thin to try to keep up with it. You also have to remember that the Mana you spend on it won’t regenerate even if you use a potion, so you’re going to be able to use exactly two Slashes before you deplete yourself. And that’s not to mention that you’d need to take up a skill slot for Command Summon and that’s only if you have the crystal embedded into a piece of gear. Otherwise, you’ll have to take up a skill slot for that too.” She finally let out all the breath that she’d been holding in. “But if that’s the way you want to build and Mister Vowler’s okay with it…” She shook her head. “Yes, you have enough Mana that you could do it.”
“Oh.” Fray looked down at her hands. “That’s a lot… I just…” She looked at me, then back at the window. “Thought it’d be a way I could do more.” A small smile cracked her lips. “And they’re cool.”
I did not share her opinion on the cool part or that she wasn’t doing enough, but I wasn’t going to challenge her on the first topic.
I slipped around the table so that I could sit next to her. Both she and Ether had to scoot together to make room. “Hey. You’re a valued member of the team. You do your job well, so don’t feel like you need to do more.” I put my arm around her and hugged her. “But if it’s something you really want…” I knew that I’d been thinking about dabbling in summoning, but that was for a mount that could get us around the Dungeon easier. This felt like something she was going to use more outside of the Dungeon than in. “Then I’m sure we can figure out a way to get you fixed up.”
“Really?!” Fray looked up at me, then over at Ether. “Really?”
Ether rolled her eyes and sighed, “Yes. I may not want to do it, but if that’s the way that you want…”
“Thank you!” Fray pulled away from my embrace to wrap Ether in a hug.
Rix was chuckling as she watched us.
“What?” I slid out of the booth and leaned against the counter next to her.
“You just agreed to let her get a pet.” Rix had a huge smile on her face. “I’m curious what Aelin is going to want.”
“Why would..?” I didn’t have to finish that sentence. Once we fixed up Fray with a monster crystal in a piece of gear, there would be no way to say no to Aelin, or Jen, or I could also see Ren participating. I hung my head. “What have we started?”
Rix smiled, “No clue, but I have a feeling it’s going to be entertaining for me to watch.”