Heavy breathing filled the cavern as everyone fought to catch their breath, broken only by the patter of Anna’s feet as she ran over to Rodrick and Olive to see if they needed any healing.

The Mesh flowed before Arwin, forming into the options for the skills he could choose to upgrade. He barely even got a chance to read the Achievement before it vanished.

[Decapitated] has been consumed.

[Awaken] (Passive)

[Molten Novice] (Passive)

[Soul Flame]

[Arsenal]

Unlike the other time Arwin had been offered a skill upgrade, this one took him almost no time to decide on. He’d already promised himself that his next upgrade would be [Awaken], and nothing had popped up to change that decision. He selected it without a second of hesitation.

[Awaken] (Passive) – All items forged by your hand have the potential to take on a trait, determined by [Unknown]. The potential for the trait to be detrimental is [76%]. Materials with a higher chance to awaken will fight with you to exert their influence on the piece they are being made into. This does not guarantee that they will awaken.

At first, Arwin almost laughed. The upgrade to [Awaken] almost seemed ridiculous. Almost. The one thing that made him look closer was that the Mesh was honest if nothing else. If it promised an upgrade, then it gave an upgrade.

Making it so that his materials would all fight against him hardly seemed like an upgrade – or at least, it wouldn’t have been if it didn’t mean he’d be able to get something out of it. A memory of the Heart of the Devouring Prism flickered through Arwin’s mind. The crystal had put up quite a fight while he’d been trying to put into the bow, and it still hadn’t fully given in.

It had also made what he suspected would be one of the strongest things he’d ever crafted. If the Mesh had just made it so that even more materials could do what the Prism did, that almost certainly meant that awakened items from here on out would be considerably harder to make – and stronger as a result of it.

I’m not sure if I’m happy or disappointed I didn’t get this upgraded earlier. It wasn’t like Lillia’s armor was Awakened so it wouldn’t have changed anything in that regard… but if it had been, would I have been able to tame it? It was a close fight. What happens if I fail? Does the crafting just go nowhere, or does something worse happen?

At a bare minimum, Arwin suspected the material would be lost. That was how things worked with the Mesh, though. With no challenge, there was no reward. It had just given him a way to push himself farther.

And, in doing so, I got a warning as well. If I upgrade this skill again before I’m ready, I might actually make it impossible for me to make more Awakened weapons. I need to make sure I’m strong enough to handle anything [Awaken] throws against me before I upgrade it again. I just hope I don’t end up making a literal horde of items like Verdant Blaze. If everything has its own desires, it’ll be a nightmare taking care of it all. Zeke’s helm hasn’t really done anything beyond help me in fights, so I’m optimistic there.

Arwin finally pulled his gaze away from the Mesh and let the golden letters fade away. He was more than satisfied with the reward he’d just gotten from taking out the centipede – and judging by the looks on the others’ faces, he wasn’t the only one.

Reya and Olive’s eyes were both glazed over as they read something written out before them. Lillia was picking through the monster’s body to see if any part of it looked edible. She obviously wouldn’t have been able to advance her Tier from the fight, but it was likely she’d gotten the same Achievement that he had considering everyone present had worked together to remove the monster’s head.

Rodrick was also starring off sightlessly, which told Arwin that his guess was likely correct. Anna finished her checkups on him and Olive and headed over to Arwin, pressing her hands to his shoulder and sending energy flowing through him.

“Thanks,” Arwin said as the rest of the damage from the fight slowly pulled itself closed. “Much appreciated.”

“No problem,” Anna said. Her brow knit in concentration and she didn’t say anything for a few seconds. The energy coming from her hands faded and she let them drop. “I was strongly considering using the new ranged heal I recently got to try and patch you up again mid-fight, but it takes a lot more energy and I barely had enough to handle everyone as things were. You all had some internal damage, not to mention concussions.”

“Good call, then,” Arwin said. The relief that Anna’s magic brought was incredible. He hadn’t realized just how fuzzy the world had gotten until she’d healed him. “Did you get anything from the fight? You didn’t get to participate too much.”

“An achievement that let me upgrade the effectiveness of my ranged heal,” Anna replied. “I figured it was better to be able to start helping from a distance so I don’t have to run over mid-fight every time.”

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Arwin rose to his feet and studied his armor. It had taken some dents from the fight. Nothing too significant – the magic had held it together far better than he could have hoped. It would take some repairs later, but those wouldn’t take long.

“That sounds like it might be a good idea,” Arwin said, dismissing the armor so only his greaves remained. “Glad you got something out of it. It would have been difficult to lure that big thing over to you so you could finish it off.”

Anna bit back a snort of laughter. “If you ever do that I’m never forgiving you. I don’t get that little energy from supporting you in the backlines. I’m a healer so it’s naturally harder for me to grow since I’m in a safer location in the fights, and that’s just how I like it. I’ll leave the nearly getting killed to you lot and level at my steady pace. I don’t have the reflexes to survive in a close quarter fight for a long period of time.”

It took a lot of intelligence and self-understanding to realize one’s limits to the degree that Anna did. Arwin had known far too many people that had been confident they could handle themselves in any fight if they believed they’d win hard enough.

The only one of them that was still alive was him. And now, Arwin knew that the only reason he’d even survived all the battles with Lillia until this point was largely because the Adventurer’s Guild had been using both of them as toy warriors that weren’t allowed to break until the time was right.

That brought thoughts of a black gem – thoughts that weren’t going to be answered in the depths of this cave. Arwin shook his head and brought himself back to the situation at hand. The others had all finished up with their messages from the Mesh and were starting to gather.

“Good results?” Arwin asked.

“New ability,” Reya said with a smug grin. “A really cool one.”

“Oh?” Rodrick waggled his eyebrows. “Tell me.”

She leaned in to whisper into his ear. It wasn’t exactly the politest way to handle things with Olive, but Arwin didn’t blame her in the slightest. Abilities were personal and giving too much information away was never a good idea.

Besides, it’s not like she’s offered to tell us her own abilities. I don’t know what she was doing with that sword swing of hers, but it looks like she’s got something that trades speed for either sharpness or power. Pretty good ability in the right scenario. Would actually pair incredibly well with Reya.

Rodrick’s eyebrows crept up his forehead as Reya leaned back.

“Whoa,” Rodrick said. “That is a cool ability. I’d have to see it at work to know if it was actually effective, but it sounds like it would be. Too bad you didn’t get it a bit earlier.”

“I doubt it would have worked here anyway,” Reya said.

“Now I’m curious,” Arwin said. “Tell me too.”

She shot a quick glance back at Olive before walking over to him. Arwin fought to keep the confusion from his face. Somehow, it felt like she was actually enjoying hiding the information from her rather than doing it purely for safety reasons.

Reya stood on the tips of her toes to whisper into his ear. “It lets me bind the energy of a monster I help kill as long as it’s within a tier of me. If I manage to bind it, I can basically summon a spectral form of the monster to help me fight temporarily. It doesn’t always work, and it’s easier the less difference in Tier I have to close between us.”

She stepped back and Arwin found the same expression that had made its way across Rodrick’s face infecting his own.

“Well, shit,” Arwin said. “That’s incredible. Is it…”

Unique?

Reya nodded, picking up on the unspoken question. “Yeah.”

“And I think I can cook this!” Lillia exclaimed, holding up a chunk of centipede meat. It didn’t look as awful as Arwin had expected and vaguely resembled a huge chunk of lobster. He wasn’t quite sold on it tasting anywhere similar, but he’d try it if Lillia was cooking. “It would go good with lemon.”

“Isn’t that what you said about the spider?” Rodrick asked. “The one that you dumped out on the ground behind us?”

“Do you want me to go back and get it for you?” Lillia crossed her arms and pursed her lips. “Because I can. It’s probably a bit mushed up and covered with grime now, but I’m sure I can wipe it off. I can put it on every meal I make for you if you’re so caught up on it.”

Rodrick hurriedly cleared his throat. “You know what? Centipede sounds fantastic. I’d love nothing more.”

Lillia beamed and stuffed the large chunk of centipede into her bag. “I knew you’d come around.”

“And I think that brings us to the most important question of the dungeon,” Anna said.

“Whether we should get Lillia more food to cook with?” Rodrick asked.

“No. Well, not directly, but that wasn’t what I meant,” Anna said with a huff. “I meant if we should go deeper or not.”

“You want to go deeper after that?” Olive’s eyes went wide. “You can’t be serious.”

“There was nothing to indicate that was a special enemy,” Arwin said. “Though it probably should have been. Given how large that was, it must have broken into the dungeon recently and not yet found the right room it belonged in.”

“You mean the actual gated monster might be weaker?” Olive asked, a thoughtful expression passing over her features.

“It’s possible,” Lillia said as she walked over to join them, her bag of centipede-meat over her shoulder. That reminded Arwin to check and see if the centipede’s plates would be of any use to him. He went to pull one off, but Lillia pulled the corner of one out from her bag. “Already got one.”

“Oh damn. Didn’t even see you do it. Thank you,” Arwin said. He wasn’t sure how much use the plate would be since they hadn’t been all that tough, but he suspected he’d be able to find something to make from it.

“No problem,” Lillia replied. “Though our query remains. I think we could recover a fair bit if we sit around for about an hour. Enough to go at least one more room.”

“If the Mimipede settled here, the next one is probably a purple-torcher. I figure it was just too lazy or fat to fit through the door,” Rodrick said. “But I agree. I’m for staying for one last room.”

“Same,” Reya said.

“I’m fine with it,” Arwin put in, and Anna nodded at the same time. They all looked to Olive.

“I haven’t even done all that much yet,” Olive said with a shake of her head. “If you’re confident we can keep going, then I’m fine with it. Let’s do one more room.”

“It’s settled,” Arwin said. “Everyone take some time to cool off – Reya, can you come check the previous room with me? I want to make sure we don’t have any company coming up on us since there are other adventurers in the area.”

Reya blinked, then nodded. “Sure.”

Perfect. I want to know what’s up with you and Olive. If she’s a threat, I need to know.