After we finished killing all the crabs, I remembered to equip my shiny new helmet. It fit so well that I barely felt it. Since I couldn’t exactly see it, I could almost pretend that I didn’t have a helmet on at all.
Val walked up to me and peered at my head. “So, that’s the helmet you wanted so bad that I had to bring my climbing gear? Doesn’t look like much.”
“Well, it is invisible, so...”
“How’d you go about picking up something like that, anyway?”
Before I could tell him, Murr stepped forward. “The monsters are taken care of. You shouldn’t waste any time.”
Val grinned. “I like your enthusiasm! As long as we don’t get interrupted, I should have a solid four hours for mining. I’m feeling lucky today!”
The purple-haired dwarf walked up to the copper vein and started to swing his pickaxe. Once again, the rhythm of his strikes were echoed in the intensity of the pink mushrooms’ glow.
***
After several hours, there were no signs of stray lizard-dogs to break up the monotony of guarding Val. It got to the point that we took turns watching for monsters every ten minutes just so we didn’t get complacent.
Kron had thrown himself onto an overturned mine cart to read a book on magic.
Meanwhile, Murr leaned against a pillar and appeared to be tweaking his new knife.. It wasn’t long before the blade disappeared somewhere and he stood up to give me a break.
I grinned. “I think we did a good job of clearing out the first level. I don’t think we’ll see another enemy today.”
The rogue glared at me. “Don’t say that! Now, we’re definitely going to see another fight, and soon.”
“Oh, come on. The universe doesn’t work like that.”
“Rogues often make our own luck, but even we know not to test—“
“Murphy.”
He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at me. “Who?”
“Never mind. Who were you talking about?”
“Kul.” That was the god of fortune and misfortune in this world.
“Don’t his believers say that there are only six kinds of luck?”
“No, it’s three.” Murr held up one finger. “Extreme Luck. Also called Drama Luck. Where you win big and lose big. Mediocre Luck, which is self-explanatory. Then Random Luck, which varies from moment to moment.”
“Then where do the six kinds of luck I heard about come from?”
“That’s due to positivity and negativity. If you come out ahead more often than not, then you have a positive variation of the three luck types. The same goes for the negative variation.” He tapped his chin and looked me up and down. “I think we both know what kind of luck you have.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I do not have Drama Luck.”
He grinned. “I wasn’t the one who said it.”
“Sam absolutely has Drama Luck,” Kron said, setting his book down. “That’s the only way he could have met us at the right time.”
“Oh, come on!”
“Of course,” Kron continued, turning to me, “it was your actions that convinced us to party with you. That had nothing to do with luck.”
I went to scratch my head, but hit my helmet and awkwardly put my hand behind my back. “Well, anyone would have done what I did.”
Murr opened his mouth like he was going to say something, then his vertical pupils dilated wide and he spun to face the gap in the wall.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
The Mid-Boss suddenly burst through the hole it made yesterday.
Miner Val jerked his head around. When his eyes landed on the massive crab, they widened comically. He ran towards the safe room built for miners. The monster crab walked toward him angrily.
“HEY, SCUTTLEBUTT! YOU SMELL LIKE ROTTEN GOAT BREATH!”
Its eyes turned red, and it started charging at me.
“What does goats’ breath have to do with anything?” Kron muttered while standing up.
“I couldn’t think of anything good.”
“You never do.”
“At least it’s effective!”
Light appeared under Kron and he threw a Weaken spell at the crab as it charged over here.
I nonchalantly rested my swords on my shoulders, waiting for it to collapse under its own weight like all the other monsters we’d come across had.
It would happen any moment now.
The crab paused and rocked like it was shaking off mud.
Any. Moment. Now.
It continued coming toward us but slammed its legs deeper into the ground as if we had pissed it off.
Damn!
I turned to Kron and pointed at the monster.
He winced. “Its magic resistance is higher than I thought, but if I keep trying, a spell might get through.”
“Then it looks like I’ll have to take a few laps around the room.”
I jogged while taunting the Obsidian Crab Mid-Boss…. Which needed a better name. It liked glittery things like copper so, how about, Mr. Shiny? Oh wait, that was too close to the crab from Moana. And I was pretty sure this was a female crab since it spawned babies so, how about…
“OVER HERE MRS. DIMCRAB !” I started leading the monster around the room. When I heard it quicken its steps, I ran. That didn’t stop it. It had momentum and gained on me.
I had to get some space between us, so I rushed at the wall with the copper vein. Instead of turning before I hit stone, I used my speed to help me run up the wall. I backflipped, just barely getting out of the way of Mrs. Dimcrab as she slammed headfirst into the copper mine she loved so much.
Before I ran too far, I stabbed Honor at her claw and activated Tether. Then I booked it, running backward as fast as I could so I could prepare for her inevitable escape.
She pulled away from the wall, only to realize that her claw was stuck when it snapped back onto the wall. Maybe it was just my imagination or a trick of the pink light, but I thought her eyes glowed red with fury. She jerked back, pulling at my tether. Then she slammed back into the vein. The already cracked wall broke further, reaching the ceiling, then a chunk of the rock fell on top of her head right as one of Murr’s black ball was about to hit her. While she rocked back and forth from dizziness, Murr’s shot bounced off her and flew toward me. I batted it aside with Blood.
“Drama Luck!” he called before darting behind a pillar.
“Oh, come on!”
Of course, I didn’t have time to say anything else since Mrs. Dimcrab finally pulled herself free from the tether and charged at me using the horrifyingly effective Murder Steps. The floor cracked more, but I was far enough away from her for it to not affect my footing.
Once I neared the hole, I turned, leading her alongside it, hoping she’d fall in. She did not. Mrs. Dimcrab wasn’t the brightest crab in the bucket, but she wasn’t dumb enough to take a loony toon dive off an obvious cliff.
I spent several more minutes kiting her around the mine while Murr took potshots at her eyes and Kron attempted to cast Weaken. Since it kept failing, I was tempted to tell him to forget the spell and cast Life Steal, but before I could, a pop-up appeared.
Congratulations! Through your constant creative and unusual running, you have created a movement, Aura Skill!
Balls to the Wall - Rank I - Run at full speed while ignoring difficult terrain, and keep just out of the way of any monster 6 levels above you or lower.
When moving backward, you can sense the world behind you similar to echolocation. This feature will not work if you cannot hear.
Echolocation? What? The only thing I could think of was that this was some kind of add-on, thanks to Game Sight. Most RPGs were played in third-person, so if you wanted your avatar to run backward while kiting a bunch of mobs, it would be fairly easy to do. But asking someone in first-person perspective to do the same was asking them to die after running off a cliff if they weren’t careful.
As I reached the hole in the floor, Kron threw another spell at her. When the Weaken spell hit Ms. Dimcrab, she collapsed. As massive as she was, it wasn’t a surprise that she shook the whole cave when she fell. She even skidded to a stop a foot away from the edge of the hole.
Murr, seeing his chance, ran out from the shadows, jumped on top of her, and plunged his new dagger deep into her eyes repeatedly.
Meanwhile, I slashed at the spot where her claw arm met her torso, activating Thousand Will Do. My multiple aura swords sliced deeply into her. Her joint cracked, splitting open.
She started using what strength she still had left in her limbs to push herself sideways, towards the edge of the hole.
I hacked at the joint twice more, digging deeper each time until finally, her arm fell off with a crash. Between Murr’s damage and my own, I thought for sure that would kill her off, but when the Weaken spell wore off she was still alive. Murr jumped off her. She lifted her remaining claw and grabbed him while he was in mid-air. He struggled and even stabbed her claw’s joint a few times.
Then she pushed herself into the damn hole, bringing Murr along with her.
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/996145339650293891/1125352736909701130/SPOILER_1_1_copy.jpg]
[Image Link]
“Nooo!”