Rin spent the next 30 minutes systematically charming every one of the cave wrigglers. Unsurprisingly, the level 3 wriggler proved the most stubborn of the bunch, taking several doses of jerky until it yielded to his efforts.
Hmph. That means charming the boss is out of the question. For now.
At first, Rin attempted to keep the entire chamber of wrigglers charmed. He had visions of himself charging unopposed through the dungeon with his traveling troupe of monsters marching behind him. He soon discovered the fundamental flaw with this idea: The charm on each monster was so short that by the time he’d finished the last one, he had to start all over again. In the end, he conceded that in spite of their increasing friendliness, he should just kill them all and be done with it.
Finding flowers was his priority, not befriending worms.
So he slaughtered the rest of them, as per usual, feeling a slight pang of guilt at the deed as he arrived back at the level 3 wriggler whose charm had just expired. He paused with his sword raised over the beast when he had an idea. The wriggler tilted its blind head to the side, almost curious.
He sheathed the weapon and fed the wriggler another piece of jerky. This time, the notification came instantly.
You have charmed a Level 3 Lesser Cave Wriggler (Stone Type)
Duration: 2 minutes
Hmm, it was easier to re-charm the second time. I need to retest that later. For now, let’s try something else.
The boy sat cross-legged on the sand, patiently waiting as the cave wriggler lay placidly beside him. After a minute, a swirling trail of essence formed.
Interesting. So charmed monsters count toward clearing the room and making the flowers appear.
His eyes followed the wisp of essence, bulging when it dove beneath the sand.
You’ve got to be joking.
He left the wriggler where it was, ignoring it for now, while he dropped to his knees and began scooping with his hands.
It was back-breaking work without access to a shovel. Worse still, the pit spanned the entire chamber width.
He was two feet down when his hands teased loose a flower’s leaves. The good news was that the flower pulled free effortlessly because its roots had no purchase. The bad news was the sand covering the thing. It made the prospect of eating it even more unappealing.
He slumped back, exhausted.
Dammit, I bet there’s more than one down here.
He looked around, appraising the size of the chamber with renewed appreciation.
I’m going to have to check every last inch of this pit, aren’t I? This is going to take days! There’s got to be an easier way.
The cave wriggler nuzzled his hand and Rin froze, staring at it.
“Hey there, little guy! I need a favor. Can you understand me?”
The monster sat there with its jaws agape, unresponsive.
“Can you go fetch me a flower? Just like this one? Go! Go fetch!”
The monster remained unmoved.
When he ripped off a tiny leaf scrap from the plant and tossed it into the wriggler’s mouth, it spat it out, uninterested.
Rin thought for a moment, then placed the flower’s stem sideways into the monster’s mouth. He quickly put his hand on the floor, palm up, and began flicking his fingers against the sand, thumping it with vibrations. When the wriggler tasted the flower’s stem, it spat it out yet again.
That was fine by Rin. He was trying to get the wriggler to spit it in his direction. Into his hand, specifically. That could then count as some desperate measure of progress. However, after fifteen minutes of working diligently with the beast, charming it several times in the process, Rin admitted it was utterly hopeless.
He scrolled back through his status notifications and reread the one he received when he first acquired the monster charming ability.
It says I should be able to express basic intent. Maybe I’ve been going about this all wrong.
He focused on the flower in his mind, picturing a well-defined image of it. Then, he attempted to mentally fling the picture at the wriggler.
Rin sensed befuddlement from his minion. It seemed to have received the message but was confused.
Hmm, maybe it didn’t recognize the picture of the flower. After all, how would a blind worm detect a flower?
Rin focused again, this time closing his eyes and rubbing his hands all over the plant. He focused on the texture of its leaves, the stem, the structure. Then he flung those sensations at the wriggler.
It responded by stretching side to side before diving beneath the sand. Within seconds, it emerged with an entire flower clutched firmly in its weird triangular mandibles.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Rin rewarded it with a pinch of his rapidly dwindling jerky supply and it quivered with pleasure before diving away again. Over the next few minutes, the wriggler retrieved a third flower hiding in the sand.
Rin gulped them all down, patting his stomach as it roiled with mild indigestion. Checking his Charisma almost made him feel better.
Rin Cartwright
[CURSED] Level 6 Potato Farmer
Attributes:
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 15
Perception: 15
Stamina: 15
Toughness: 8
Current HP: 80/80
Recovery: 30 HP/min
Magic: 10
Current MP: 100/100
Absorption: 5 MP/min
Charisma: 9 (+3)
Unspent Attribute Points Available: 0
Special Abilities:
Identify: Grade F
Poison Resistance: Grade D
Focused Recovery: Grade F
Monster Charming: Grade F
Charisma of 9! Who knows what I can charm now?
Rin would never have predicted he’d be so thrilled to acquire Charisma, of all things. But when you’re lost in a sea of despair, you take what you can get. Charisma was his liferaft, and he clung to it with everything he had.
He only hoped it wouldn’t sink.
Rin hopped from the pit, taking one last look at the mess he’d made. He wondered how deep the sand pit went. The wriggler had certainly been absent for a long time retrieving the final dungeon flower. And in retrospect, there was no way he could have ever dug each one out individually. Without the wriggler’s help, he would’ve needed some kind of magic to assist him, like a tornado or levitation magic, perhaps. And where would he get that? He didn’t have enough money to hire a mage, let alone one that would help a Cursed.
No, charming the wriggler was clearly the best way to do it. He couldn’t fathom any other solution that made sense. Charming the wriggler was the way it was intended to be done. It made him wonder just how many people had ever figured this out.
It can’t be many. Right?
The feeling filled his veins with a thrill that had been noticeably absent since he’d been Cursed. He finally had a way to progress; a strange, unorthodox, off-the-beaten-path way forward.
Granted, the class still sucked. This path wasn’t great, and it wouldn’t make him strong. The best he could hope for was to start some kind of monster farm where he could train them to do remarkable things. Like a … circus?
Jeez, that sounds so dumb.
He shook his head. Nah, the class definitely still sucked. His options were terrible. Mages and warriors alike would laugh their asses off seeing him walk by with a troupe of cave wrigglers trotting behind.
Not to mention, they squished easily.
Yet something about the exploration made him excited. He’d always wanted to explore, and this class was scratching that itch something fierce. Perhaps he’d get lucky and discover something rare and unique. It already felt like he was on the path less traveled.
By far.
Rin strode into the adjoining pit chamber with a spring in his step. It was then he realized he needed to search every last pit.
And I didn’t bring a light.
His shoulders sagged.
All I had to do was buy a torch from a street vendor. It would have been simple. Sometimes I can be so stupid.
He remembered a street vendor, a half-block from the dungeon, that specifically sold torches to dungeoneer hopefuls. He deliberated pressing on to the next chamber to try his luck with more flowers. But there were several other dark places requiring a torch to explore, the bat roost above the ledge in this very room being one of them.
I’ll just have to go buy one.
Despite what he’d discovered, Rin felt a sense of defeat trudging back to the dungeon entrance. When he reached the room with the stone ratbacks, they had respawned and were blissfully ignoring him. He froze as he considered another epiphany.
I can train a ratback to get the flowers behind the wall!
It took him precisely ten seconds to discover that the magic veil blocking the hole worked against monsters, too. His adrenaline crashed so hard he almost gave up and went home, then and there.
Just how am I supposed to get into that stupid hole?
By now, he was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt the flowers were there for a reason. He just needed to figure out a way to open the puzzle.
That’s what this is—a puzzle. I can do this.
He plodded onward, his brow tight and his head buzzing. When he arrived in the dungeon’s entrance room, he walked past the phantasmic blue torch on the wall, then froze and slowly turned with narrowed eyes.
Would this work?
Rin held his hand a short distance from the flickering flame, testing its warmth.
He felt … nothing. No heat, no pain. Nothing at all.
He moved his hand closer until one of the flames brushed up against it.
A notification startled him and he instinctively jerked his hand back.
You have been cursed by Craven’s flame.
-100% XP gain for the entirety of this dungeon run
“Oh, ho ho!” Rin hopped up and down, unable to contain his excitement.
The notification contained the obvious trigger word, Craven. It was a masterful move, placing this torch near the entrance where dungeoneers could withdraw to reset their dungeon run with no harm done. Rin imagined it was rare indeed that anyone used the torch after receiving the curse.
But to the vanishingly few dungeoneers that both possessed the Cursed class and required a light, it was a message. Craven was telling him something, but he didn’t know what. Not yet. He only knew that this artifact had suddenly become exceedingly important to him.
He reached up with confidence and gave the torch a firm tug. It came loose easily from its iron bracket on the wall, almost as if happy to be free, springing readily into his grasp.
Thought so.
A broad grin tore across Rin’s face as he marched back into the dungeon.
Look out, flowers. Daddy’s hungry.