Chapter 20
Jose came to during the break, and his wife and daughter took him aside into a corner to talk to him where Eli couldn’t hear. That was fine with him, he didn’t want anything to do with the man. He was regretting bringing him with, as far as Eli was concerned Jose Santos was a simple waste of resources that could be better spent on the rest of the party.
There was another toilet in the safe zone, fortunately, but no sleeping arrangements, but nobody was in the mood to sleep anyway. Everyone was restlessly leafing through the books. Which were inconveniently indecipherable.
Except when they weren’t.
Lucy picked up one and gasped as she began to … not read, but look through the pictures. She asked someone to take off their undershirt and got one shirt soaked in teenage sweat from Peter, who was pleased to take his football gear off for a while and show off his new muscles anyway.
Eli had, naturally, assigned her the embroidery kit. She sat with the sweaty T-shirt in one hand and the embroidery kit in the other while she chewed her lip and sewed. Eli left her to her experimentation; he had a feeling from his own experiments with enchanting that if she succeeded, she’d know she’d succeeded as soon as it happened.
Luke was the other one most excited about the books they’d gotten. In addition, the goblin mage had dropped two rings, one on either thumb. One of those rings increased Magic Power, and the other one mana capacity. Luke was wearing the Magic Power ring, while Eli had gone for the Maximum Mana, stating that it seemed more useful than power at this point in his development.
It wasn’t much, just a +10 to his maximum mana.
He sighed and pulled up his status again to reflect upon his gains since clearing the second floor
Name
Elias Mathews
Health
130/130
Age
15
Mana
215/215
Species
Human
Stamina
127/127
Class
Scholar
Strength
12
Level
6
Dexterity
12
Titles
Runekeeper
Agility
12
Party
Unnamed Party (Leader)
Endurance
13
Guild
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None
Constitution
13
Allegiance
None
Magic Power
15
He’d gained three levels thanks to clearing floor two, and his physical stats were coming along slowly. But he was most focused on his Mana, since that seemed to be where his ability to support his party came from.
He was certain he had some use for Magic Power as well, but so far he wasn’t certain that his enchantments improved with that or not. They didn’t seem any stronger now than they’d been at level one.
Not that he would turn down physical stats if he could figure out how to raise them aside from simply gaining more experience, but considering that he was a magic baised class he wasn’t terribly worried about them at the moment.
He sighed and turned his attention away from his menu and back to the book he was reading. It was a Grimoire, like the Runekeeper’s Grimoire that he could access from his memory, but this one he actually needed to have the physical copy in front of him.
The words swam before his eyes and made no sense to him. The diagrams showing runes and enchantments made a bit more sense, but without the text explaining them he didn’t know if they were a method of enchanting your underwear to stay dry or cursing your enemy into have a heart attack, and he didn’t want to find that out the hard way.
No, if he was going to give anyone a heart attack, he would rather it be deliberate.
Still, Gabri said that it was an important book, and so they included it in the pile to keep. Most of the others Gabri said were just very valuable and could be sold once they reached floor five, which was apparently the first place where they’d be able to spend their contribution points.
Eli was looking forward to it.
“Give me your shirt,” Lucy said, interrupting him from his study after he’d been at it for an hour.
He looked up at her. “Pardon?”
“I don’t know what these enchantments do, but I know that they’re beneficial,” she said. “The one I just put on Peter’s shirt clicked into place most decidedly, and I got a menu notification. ‘Embroidery-Lesser Steelweave.’ That’s the name of the enchant that I just put on his shirt. I’m going to try another one on yours.”
“Oh,” Eli said. He took off his jacket, then his shirt, and handed it over. “Okay, good luck. Let me know how it turns out.”
Then he put his jacket back on because it was slightly chilly and he didn’t want to go around shirtless, and he sat back down to study. Maybe that was the secret, just learning by doing. He pulled out a sheet of blank paper that they’d brought along and began drawing one of the designs on it.
Abruptly the sheet of paper burst into flames. He glanced up at Gabri, who, rather than looking contrite or sly or any other expression that Eli had been expected, looked angry .
“I thought I said not to blow yourself up, Master,” the little faerie said angrily. “What do you think you were doing?”
“Learning,” he answered.
“By copying part of the most dangerous rune circles in this entire book?” Gabri asked, kicking the book closed. “I said to study it , not to copy it . Only a Scribe can copy a book like this you idiot, and you’re a Scholar . If you copy any of the rune circles in this book you’re likely to activate them if you put any mana into them at all, and given your complete lack of control you’re very likely to do exactly that.”
“And what, the magic will burn off my eyebrows?” Eli asked, skeptical.
“No. Then you’re likely to create a magical chain reaction that will draw all the mana into a confined area and explode it. You’ll be lucky if you survive as more than a pink stain on the wall,” Gabri said. “We need to teach you to read the Language of the Birds before you even think of actually putting into practice anything in this book.”
Eli frowned at the faerie. “Well if we’re not going to learn anything, then what are we doing sitting around here for?” he asked, and he went to speak with the others.
It was time to get moving, he thought. And the others all agreed with him. After a few minutes, they put their team together and headed out, leaving a small group behind this time to watch their supplies and their loot.
Most of the male members of the party left their shirts behind to be embroidered by Lucy, who was grateful to be of service. Jose also remained behind. Eli hadn’t heard a word out of him since Mai and Alaina had finished talking to him. Alaina also remained behind this time, which made Eli worry a little bit because she was their healer, but he’d been without a healer the last time as well.
John Sr. also stayed behind to try to figure out new and interesting ways to use the supplies that he was carrying with them to hurt and kill goblins, while Junior came with the delving party.
Susan was the other party member who stayed behind, but basically everyone else moved out.
Sophie had been busy scouting while most of the party had been studying the books, and she’d completely mapped out one of the four hallways. The party, by mutual agreement, went off to kill the two bosses that lie in that direction.
Eli pulled up the SafeZone menu before he left to check their time and objectives.
Welcome to Floor 3 SafeZone
Time until SafeZone Collapse: 19:53
Floor 3 objectives:
Kill 400 goblins
or
Kill 3 of 10 Goblin Champion
or
Find Stairwell to Floor 4
or
Solve the mystery of the Totems
Completion of any of these four objectives will teleport your party to floor 4, regardless of where they are on the floor.
Return to SafeZone before Collapse if you wish to withdraw.
Good luck!
The’d spent more than four hours studying the books, which he saw as a waste of time. The number of regular goblins they needed to kill to progress that way had doubled once more, while it sounded like defeating bosses was actually becoming an easier solution due to their heavier presence. Eli wasn’t too hopeful about the other two options to advance; he had absolutely no idea what the mystery of the Totems referred to and was just as clueless about which of the five directions to head into to find the exit.
No, killing the bosses must be the easiest way, he thought to himself.