After we left the Guild branch, we picked up some cheap food and camped out near the Dungeon. Just because we got paid didn’t mean we suddenly had ‘stay at an inn with beds’ money.
We also couldn’t use the money on the bathhouse. And not just because we were broke. I couldn’t use it since they weren’t gonna let Corby into the bath with me, and he had this dumb thing about not going since I couldn’t.
Lovable idiot.
I was squatting on a tree for the second watch shift, and I heard someone approaching at dawn. I silently jumped down and nudged Corby with my foot, keeping my focus on the approaching sound. Thankfully, Corby was better at waking up than I was. He opened his eyes and managed to grasp the situation.
Love that big brain of his.
He grabbed his axe and got up, albeit less sneaky than me. The source of the noise finally came into focus, and it was Takan.
Huh. Well he’s here early.
“Hey, Takan. I thought you were going to come around noon.”
“Oh, well I thought I’d get here early. Looks like you beat me here, though.” He smiled politely.
“Alright. Well, I guess we can eat and get an early start on it.”
We had a quick meal and I burrowed a hole to bury most of our supplies so we didn’t have to lug everything around with us. I’d be worried I wouldn’t remember where I put all the stuff, but thankfully I had Corby to do all the remembering and thinking. We did bring some food, though.
No sense fighting on empty stomachs.
We approached the mouth of the cave. There was a large door with two metal things sitting next to it. It looked familiar for some reason. One of them had the three shields on it, but I didn’t recognize the symbol on the other one.
“Ah, this is like the device Grandle used to store our mana signature,” Corby said.
“Yes, most dungeons are managed by the nearby city and the Guild. They both send parties in to train and acquire resources. There’s only one party allowed a day so that the dungeon is given enough time to regenerate.” Takan explains. “The devices can check that it’s an authorized party going in and stop anyone else from coming in the rest of the day.”
“Oh, before we go in, what is your combat style like?” Corby asked
“Ah, yes. I’m something of a hit-and-run swordsman. I strike swiftly but don’t stay in one place for long.”
“Ah, that’s kinda like me!” I exclaimed. “But I also do some support stuff like scouting stuff ahead of us and tiny bits of healing.”
“I see.” Takan replied. “Healing is invaluable in any form.”
“Corby is a frontline guy who smacks things good with an axe.”
“I think it would be more chopping than smacking,” Corby replied.
“He also fills the role of correcting and lecturing,” I said drily.
“A vital role in a party with you,” he countered.
With that sorted, we followed Takan’s lead and used our guild badges on the mana reader (took me a few times to bend at the right angle for the device to properly read it).
We traveled mostly single-file, with Corby in front, me in the middle, and Takan in the back. I spent most of my time whistling to do echolocation. I was getting good at stringing them together to get good coverage and a decent tune. The coverage was amazing in this cave. Sound bounced off everything and gave me a great picture of things.
Soon we encountered our first foes: three bats and two dwiders, which attacked us from the front and the back. Corby held off the creepy crab things, but Takan struggled against the bats. He kept making reckless swings and was only concentrated on one. The other two came for me and Corby.
I jumped and kicked one of the bats out of the air, killing it instantly. The other was closing in on Corby. I wouldn’t reach in time and Corby was still occupied with a dwider. I tightened the scope of my magic as much as I could and slammed the bat with sound, causing it to flail wildly. I took the opportunity to catch up and kick it dead as well. I looked around and saw that the monsters were all dead, so I healed both of my party members.
Takan was incredibly average. I couldn’t really think of another way of describing him. He wasn’t bad, but he seemed rather reckless.
Maybe he’s relying on my healing and not factoring in risk?
He just didn’t seem really driven, skilled, or talented. He reminded me of the fishers that just mindlessly cast their line; they didn’t really want to be fishers, but they inherited the spot and gravitated to the class because they didn't have the passion or energy to push towards something else. He just felt like he was doing it monotonously, like there was something else he’d rather be doing.
Maybe Grandle had him help out the new recruits? She seems nice like that. Minus beating my ass as a prank, but I could understand needing to get even with Allie.
At one point I just asked him why it seemed he didn’t want to be here.
“Nym! You can’t just ask things like that! You need to be respectful. He’s our senior in the Guild,” Corby lectured.
Takan just looked at me strangely. He almost seemed angry? But then he smiled and replied, “there’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now than here with you.”
Well, he’s not lying. Weird.
My mana reserves were taking a beating. I refrained from any more magic attacks, but Takan managed a new injury in every fight, and Corby and I didn’t always end up unscathed, either.
I’d discovered that the healing worked better if I tried singing the words instead of just blandly saying “heal” repeatedly, so I started making up dumb lyrics when I used it. Corby groaned at it, but I’d get a snicker out of him occasionally. It cost more mana, but it felt more efficient than before. It started to help close cuts and tiny holes pretty quickly. It also helped with soreness, though we usually just trucked on through that rather than waste the mana. Didn’t help with bruises, though. Don’t know why.
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As we continued further, Corby was starting to look increasingly tired. Healing used the body’s stamina to work, so even if his body was in good shape, he was getting low on energy. I suggested we take longer breaks while harvesting monsters.
Takan was pretty knowledgeable about which parts of monsters were valuable. We offered to share the spoils 50/50 since he was helping us out anyways, but he insisted on a three-way split.
During a break, Takan asked me about the bounty we had turned in.
“We didn’t go looking for them or anything. I woke up to someone with a Mohawk trying to stab me in my bed roll. Well, I woke up a bit before that, but I’m not a morning person. I killed him by catching him by surprise. Corby was fending off the other three, so he incapacited two while I killed the third.” My voice refused to hold steady. “A-and then I killed the other two.”
I looked over at Corby, and his face contorted when I said that. He didn’t say anything, though.
I looked back at Takan, who seemed to be concentrating intensely. Finally, he spoke. “I see. That seems like a difficult situation for a pair of Freshies. I regret that you felt like you had to make those choices.” His words felt slow and deliberate.
Right, I guess it was his case, after all.
Not long after, we made our way to the end of the first floor, where the floor boss waited. We took a break in the hallway leading to the final room.
“So what’s the floor boss like?” Corby asked.
“It’s an undead called a gigaghoul that’s a couple stories tall with a big sword,” Takan said.
I shuddered. That sounded like the thing Allie had save me from.
Takan continued, “it’s weak to fire and immune to poisons. Oh, and when it raises its sword, it means it’s about to slice down at you with a skill. Make sure to move to the side when that happens”
Corbin and I both nodded and got up. Time to clear our first dungeon level.
Part of me was dreading seeing that monstrosity again after all these years. The rest of me really wanted to kick its stupid head off. I decided to listen to the head-kicking part.
It laid slumped over next to the stairs to the second level. Since we all knew it was very much not dead—as much as a giant undead can be, anyways—it looked more like it was taking a nap than anything. If I didn’t hate the thing so much, I might have even felt bad waking it up.
I looked over at my party. Corbin looked tense, but still composed. Takan looked excited.
I guess since he’s done this a time or two before it’s no big deal for him.
We inched closer, and apparently that was enough to wake the thing. It was slowly rising up, sword in hand. I could work with slow.
I got in front of Corby and got into a running stance. Corby, thankfully, knew what I was thinking and jumped on my back.
Thank you bonk points.
I sped at the skeleton, which was still on its knees. When we got close, Corby tapped my shoulder. I started skidding to a stop and braced myself as Corby launched off me—this time not making me faceplant— and chopped at the knee of the leg it was using to get up. The knee buckled and it stumbled to the ground again on all fours.
I didn’t have a lot of options on my end. Couldn’t disorient an undead with sound, and it was too damn big to stab to death with foot knives. So that left my big ostrich strategy: chip away at a leg till it falls.
Do I hate undead or ostriches more? As least it’s not an undead ostrich.
While I made my way to the leg that Corby had started on and started carving tiny pieces with each lick, Corby was taking advantage of it being on the ground and was still chopping at the knee like it was some creepy-ass rotting tree.
Those years of woodwork really did pay off.
Takan caught up to us and got a few strikes at the head of the undead. The creature didn’t like this much, so it backhanded him, sending him back a few meters. I disengaged to shout out some healing words to him. Costs a bit more mana to do it from such a distance, but I couldn’t afford to be stingy with mana right now.
80% mana.
From behind me I heard a disgusting squelching sound as the undead rolled over, its skin slopping off a little on the ground. Corby had managed to roll with the creature, but was now right between its legs as it stared down at him. It started to lift its sword.
Shit. Not good.
I glanced back at Takan, who was still on the ground.
Even more not good. Why isn’t he up? Does he have a brain bruise or something? That doesn’t sound like it would be good.
Not having time to fret for long, I ran and leapt to kick the undead in the face as Corby backed away to a safe distance. My kick didn’t do much other than distract him, but that was enough. It tried to hit me with the sword instead, but it missed. I couldn’t tell if it was bad aim or a good dodge on my part.
Unfortunately, Corby backing away meant it had time to get to its feet. I sent a heal shout to Corby, who gave a quick nod of appreciation, not taking his eyes off our foe.
I sent a long-distance whisper to Corby. “You keep chopping at the leg. I’m going to be too annoying to ignore.” I could see him grin at that.
He ran toward the leg, and I launched myself at the monster’s face. I didn’t know if undead use eyes to see, but just in case, I aimed to kick through one of its eyes. The goop in the eye splattered, covering most of my legs.
Fucking gross ass piece of shit.
Getting out of the eye turns out to be a more difficult task. Unfortunately, the monster decided to help me; it grabbed me and tossed me across the room, where I splat against the wall.
I winced in pain and spat out some blood. I had broken some kind of bone. Couldn’t figure out which one, but it wasn’t a leg one.
I can work with that.
I got up and took quick stock of myself. Turned out I had only broken a shoulder and a rib. Pretty lucky, all things considered. I let out a quick rhyme, trying to focus on my insides and any parts that were still bleeding
“I think it would be really dandy,
And as sweet as any candy
If all my blood could still be
Safe and secure inside me.”
Not like I need the shoulder working. 30% mana now.
I look at Corby hacking away the knee. He must have used his attack skill three times by now. He must be exhausted.
Need to buy him more time. Hopefully one more does it.
I winced in pain as I sprinted towards the creature again. I saw it raise its sword in the air, and I recalled Takan’s warning. I went to roll to the left, but something caught my eye and by some instinct made me jump backwards instead. Before I even landed, the sword had swept across where I had been standing and where I would’ve rolled.
Before I can think about what just happened, I saw the monster topple over on its face as Corby cleaved through the leg. He looked utterly exhausted, but he still continued forward to finish the job. I was afraid to even heal him for fear he’d pass out.
The creature flailed around, but there wasn’t much it could do. It tried to crawl towards me, but Corby walked up and simply started hacking away at its neck. Within a few swings, it was dead. Well, deader.
I saw Corby slump down next to the severed head and take a deep breath. He gave me a weak thumbs up as I went over to check on Takan, who still hadn’t moved.
Really hope he isn’t dead. Even if his advice was crap.
I leaned over to check on him, when all the sudden he lurched forward toward me. I looked down, and there was now a knife stuck inside my stomach.
Huh. Well that’s not good.