A week had passed since I entered the tower, and I’d been making steady progress climbing the floors, averaging just over two per day. I had just finished killing a [Guardian] on floor 24, which unlocked my access to 25. Things had been going smoothly for the most part, and I’d made a handful of levels, but there were a few snags that were causing me problems. The biggest issue is that with my new form, things even ten levels higher than me just weren’t that much of a challenge. The lack of a challenge made the adventuring aspect of training boring and monotonous, and worse yet, my experience gains were awful due to the lack of challenge. The other big issue was that I was tearing through my supplies at a crazy rate.
I was hungry more or less all the time, and I’d made a habit of trying to fight monsters that were edible so that I could try and take a haunch or two into storage to munch on. Doing so not only helped alleviate the desire to eat, it also helped to stretch my supplies out. Still, after a week I was going to have to leave the tower and re-supply back at the company HQ.I was hoping to talk to either the twins or Roland about the lack of challenge as well, because although I was making good progress climbing, I’d only made seven levels in the time it took me to climb twice as many floors. With that in mind, I finished cutting out the monster core from the [Guardian] and stuffed it into my storage.
I left the tower to an overcast morning in Foundation. A light drizzle was coming down, and there was a bit of a breeze going as well. Normally I would consider this sort of dreary weather, but the cool, damp air didn’t bother me at all in my half-dragon form. I tossed on my cloak and re-attached my blade to my harness over it to keep my mane dry more than anything else. Despite the weather, business in the Trade District was booming. My snout drew me across the plaza and down one of the side streets. Someone was roasting some kind of meat over a wood fire, and it smelled amazing. My stomach felt like it was doing a flip as I entered a tavern called Huntsman’s Pride. There was a line extending from the bar counter, around the dining room and it ended near the entrance. Seems like there was a pretty intense demand for whatever it was that they were cooking!
While I was waiting in line, I decided to go ahead and spend my accumulated stat points to improve myself.
Show me my base [Stats] without my modifiers or [Shapeshift] bonuses active.
[Strength]: 28
[Agility]: 19
[Endurance]: 18
[Vitality]: 12
[Intelligence]: 10
[Wisdom]: 10
Unspent Stat Points: 42
Hmm. As much as I want to dump all my points into my [Physical Stats] I should probably raise my two lowest [Stats] as well. Let’s raise those both to 20, that leaves me with 22 points left. 8 points into [Vitality] drops me to 14, then I’ll put two each into [Strength] and [Endurance] just to round them out. The last ten I’m going to put into [Agility]. Even though I feel like I need more [Strength] to have a hope at using [Shadow’s Cleaver] in my Human form, I need to get faster. Way, way faster. If there was one thing that spare with Eilyen taught me, it’s that all the power in the world only helps if you can actually apply it.
I committed the [Stat Point] allocation and reviewed my new base level stats once again.
[Strength]: 30
[Agility]: 29
[Endurance]: 20
[Vitality]: 20
[Intelligence]: 20
[Wisdom]: 20
Unspent Stat Points: 0
Yeah, that’s much better. It’s insane how fast my stats are growing since my [Species] change. I’m making double the number of points per level than a basic Human does.
The line had been steadily moving along while I was lost in thought and fiddling with my stats, and I was finally at the front. A rotund dwarven man squinted at me after having to crane his neck up to an absurd degree. He demanded: “What’re you having? Be quick about it, we got a line!”
Nobody speaking my language sucks!
I looked down at the menu and tapped a claw on the fried fish. The man behind the counter squinted at me, then looked down at the menu, then back up to me.
“You mute or somethin’?”
I nodded. It wasn’t exactly the truth, but it made things easy enough.
“Fu-fine. Fried fish, what else?”
I held up four clawed fingers.
“Four!? Fine, what else?”
Next I tapped on the smoked ribs and held up 2 fingers. I finished off my order by pointing at the barrels of beer behind the counter and acted like I was taking a drink from a giant cup. The server rolled his eyes and responded: “Yeah, yeah, you’re a big one, I got that much. Get table for one of the big folk and I’ll bring it out. S’gonna be 85 silver.”
The price was steep, which was to be expected with a place that was in the downtown Trade District area near the gateways. I felt comparatively rich now though with the pay advance I’d been given, so I took out two gold coins, clinked them onto the counter and slid them over to the Dwarf. His attitude changed the instant he saw gold coins, and his pudgy fingers snatched up the coins so fast he would have made a rogue do a double-take.
The fat man said: “Have that out to you in a flash mister!” and scribbled my order onto a slip of paper. As soon as he had it down, he darted off to the kitchen, leaving a frazzled-looking human woman behind to collect orders.
I turned and snorted to myself at being called male, then made my way over to one of the heavy extra-tall wooden tables and took a seat on an equally heavily constructed stool. I took down my hood and waited for my food. The floor inside the tavern had wooden planks and was a little sticky on the pads of my feet, but it didn’t bother me too badly. There were a few years growing up where I had to use foot wraps, which were barely better than walking barefoot. You sort of got desensitized to stepping in the occasional gross thing. Well, that, and you tended to pay attention to where you were stepping, too.
I really wish I could use the whisper rune jewelry that Phyara gave me, but not having anyone on the other end who can understand me doesn’t really do me any good. I’d just be making noise to them. Oh, that reminds me, I need to get something to write with and a notebook or something to carry around, also. I’ll have to do a little shopping after I get done here.
The food arrived in waves and I immediately dug into it with gusto. True to his word, my server brought a cup of beer that was sized appropriately for someone like me. It was pretty much just a pitcher, it just lacked a spout. The fried fish was coated in some kind of light, fluffy batter that was golden-brown colored and crispy. I was glad that I didn’t have to wait for it to cool down! Each of the fried fishes were larger than the plates they came on, easily over a foot long. I didn’t bother with using the provided utensils and instead just took big bites of the fish directly.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The fish itself was perfectly cooked, and the seasoning of the batter complimented the mild flavor quite well. Each one went down in only a few bites, since I’d since learned that I didn’t have to worry too much about things like fish bones. I did my best to ignore the handful of people who chose to eat their food in the dining room with me. I seemed to be the center of everyone’s attention, but I was content to simply eat my meal. I had finished off my fish and was about to break into my ribs when I heard strained whispering coming from the line.
I looked over to see a young girl wearing a coat over her dress standing just to my side, staring up at me. I guessed that she was maybe around six or seven years old, and she looked adorable staring at me with wide eyes. I put my rack of ribs back down on my plate, wiped my fingers on the cloth napkin I’d been provided and turned to face her.
“Are you a real dragon?” she asked me in a dulcet tone.
I covered my muzzle with one hand and chuckled. I didn’t want to scare her with my grin. I knew from my own experimentation that reactions could be a bit mixed at times when I smiled at someone. I held out my free hand and rocked it from side to side, making a so-so gesture.
The little girl frowned at my gesture, not quite catching my drift. I glanced from her to see her parents. Her father was standing as still as a statue, and her mother was clutched to his arm in what looked like a death-grip. Getting another idea, I took my pitcher and held it in front of me, then held my fingers level at the middle of the cup.
I could see the cogs turning in her head and then it dawned on her, and she said: “Oh… Half dragon?”
I nodded quickly.
“And you fight monsters with that big sword? In the tower?” She asked, eying the hilt that extended several feet over my shoulder.
I covered my mouth and chuckled again, and I put a bit extra shake into my shoulders. That seemed to relax her parents, at least partially. Holding one clawed finger up, I gestured at the girl to wait a moment. I had her undivided attention, so I made some gestures with my hands that I thought would look like I was doing some sort of magic, then I plucked a particularly colorful monster core from my spatial storage.
It snapped into existence between my pinched thumb and forefinger. It was a rainbow-hued round marble around an inch and a half in diameter. I’d extracted it from one of the [Guardians] from the mid-teens, if I was remembering correctly. It was probably worth a small handful of silver, but was less than what I’d spend on a meal, so I didn’t particularly care about the value.
The young girl’s eyes grew to the size of saucers with the display of my ‘magic.’ I held a single index finger up once more, and she nodded slowly.
I did cut this out of an actual monster, I should at least make sure it’s not got crusty blood on it or something.
Dunking the core in the small bowl of water I had been provided to wash my hands with, I scrubbed the smooth surface of the core with my thumbs, then toweled it dry with my napkin. It had been pretty clean to begin with, if the lack of staining in the water was any indicator. I held the stone out to the girl, and she carefully took it from my grasp. The look on her face was worth the price of admission. Her parents were obviously fairly well-off, considering the place they had come for lunch. Maybe they’d pay for her to have an education in a career related to the tower. I suppressed a grin as she ran back to her parents and showed them what she’d been given.
I was still getting side-eye from her mother, but her father was excitedly chatting with the little girl about her core. I didn’t know if she knew what it was, but I had to assume that he would know. It was sort of hard to live in Foundation and not know even the basics of the adventuring trade and nature of resources that came from the tower. Spectacle over, I returned to my meal and demolished the ribs. They had been the source of the incredible smell, and the wait was totally worth it. I knocked back the remains of my pitcher of beer and stood. The little girl waved at me as I made my way to the exit, and I waved back before flipping up the hood of my cloak and exiting.
My shopping didn’t take too long, I wound up finding a large notebook that had been enchanted with basic resistances to adventuring conditions for a decent price, and I bought a pair of extra-large pencils to go with it. That would help alleviate the communication problem for the time being. My return to the company HQ was uneventful, but I couldn’t help but feel like there were eyes watching me.
Probably just people gawking at my size or appearance.
Stepping into the company hall, I took my cloak off, shook it, and hung it on one of the many coat hooks at the entrance. The main hall was empty, and the place was quiet, so I headed directly upstairs to see if Roland was in.
Luckily he was, and after knocking, he bid me to enter. I ducked through the doorway and waved at him. Pulling my notebook and a pencil from spatial storage, I got straight to business.
“Welcome back, Senwyn. What can I help you with?” Rolan asked me.
I kneeled in front of his desk and started to write out the things I’d come to talk about.
Ugh, my reading and writing isn’t the best, hopefully I don’t make a total idiot out of myself.
“Everything is too easy. I barely make any XP. Just opened up floor 25. Only level 17 tho.” I wrote down and then handed the notebook over for him to read.
Roland took a deep breath and let out a slow sigh. “I was afraid of this, but I’ve been looking into ways to help you train, and I think I have a good way to fix that problem while letting you train your attributes at the same time.”
I motioned for him to continue. He proceeded to pull a set of four copper open bracelets out of his spatial storage and handed them over to me. When I’d taken them, he pulled out a matching waist and neck chain and handed them over.
“So this is a set of training equipment for physical training. It’s all basically enchanted jewelry. You put it on and feed it some mana, and it acts like you’ve strapped weights to your body. You reset them by taking them off. The more mana you pump into them, the greater the effect will be.”
I turned over one of the bracelets in my hands and looked it over. It was a fairly simple style, with balls affixed to each end of the bracelet so it wouldn’t dig into your skin while you were putting it on or wearing it.
“So my suggestion is to put them all on, and then crank them up. Like way up, to the point that it’s hard for you to fight the things on the floor you’re on. That should fix your experience issue, so you don’t fall too far behind on levels. It will have the added benefit of continually training your body as well. You should notice your [Strength], [Agility] and [Endurance] all growing. You’ll have to adjust accordingly.”
I nodded slowly in response.
I can basically get the effect of strapping on a bunch of training weights and use it all the time. This should help immensely. I’m going to go hard on using these!
Taking my notebook back up, I wrote my next issue out, writing: “I am using food supplies too fast, even eating food I get from hunting.”
Roland read what I’d written and tapped an index finger on the surface of his desk in thought. After a moment, he said: “Well, that will become less of a problem over time as you keep climbing and start getting to mana levels in wildlife that is more appropriate for you. For now though, I think it’s probably best that you come back to HQ once a week to restock. We can try and map your progress out that way, too.”
I quickly wrote out: “It feels like I am going too slow.”
Roland chuckled and shook his head, saying: “Any week you can make seven levels in is a good week, don’t take that for granted. You’re probably right, you can probably make far more levels with that leveling [Divine Skill] you have, but you’re still new to this. You have to find what works well for you, then you can start working out how to improve upon it and get more efficient.”
I ran the claws of one hand back through my mane and sighed. I tried to think of what other questions I had and made a short list, so we didn’t keep having to pass the notebook back and forth so often. I wrote out what I could think of off the top of my head:
1. Should I be doing body training outside fighting and leveling? How much?
2. Both of my weapons are very big, what do I do in small spaces?
3. I have cores, do I donate them or sell them?
4. Any luck finding a translation item yet?
I slid the notebook over and waited for Roland’s response.
“These are all good questions. I’ll go in reverse order because the first two are sort of complicated. We are talking to the Jeweler's Guild about getting a custom piece made for you, but it’s going to be expensive. You speak a quite rare language that isn’t often included in most enchantments, so it’s going to have to be entirely custom. We’ll get it made for you, and then deduct the cost from your pay over time.”
Roland held up two fingers and said: “If you want to give them to me, I’ll have them sold and put towards your ring.” I gave him a thumbs-up gesture for that. The more I could offset that debt, the better in my book.
Raising a third finger, Roland told me: “Since you’re large in this form, you have a bit of a disadvantage in smaller spaces. My suggestion would to be fight using your natural weapons: punches, kicks, claws, bites, that sort of thing. You’ll probably get access to some good skills or fighting form passives if you do it enough, then you will always be prepared.”
Well, I am very strong in this form. I could probably tear the limbs off things my level in hand to hand combat. Yeah, that’s a pretty good idea, actually. I’ll go with that.
I clicked my tongue in my mouth and nodded.
“Finally, training is a tricky one. Short answer is yes, you should be training along with getting experience fighting. How much you train really depends. When I was lower-level, I had a relatively light training schedule, and I spent more of my time leveling. The higher level I became, the more it became a requirement to train before trying to push for additional levels. My suggestion to you is to try and pack as much of your easy gains in along with leveling. With those bands set sufficiently high enough, just walking around and doing basic things will be training your body.”
I hummed a little bit under my breath and bobbed my head up and down slowly. It was another case of figuring things out for myself, but once again, it was because everyone’s circumstances were all slightly different.
“Oh, one thing I will say. When training, try and do challenging things. Don’t just run around and do exercises if you have a harder way of doing things. Always go for the harder way, I am pretty sure you will get better results that way, and maybe make some titles or skill levels along the way.”
I wrote out: “Thanks Roland. Can you ask someone to help me resupply? I’m probably going to go straight back in the tower after we’re done here,” in my notebook and handed it back to my company leader.
“Of course, Senwyn. And the fact you’re staying so motivated is great. Push yourself hard, and you’ll see the benefits from it. Also, I almost forgot. There’s a permanent dungeon on 25, you should try and clear it. It will be great experience for you, and you can practice hand-to-hand in there, too.”
I smiled and followed him down to one of the supply rooms, and he explained along the way how to find the dungeon. Its existence wasn’t a secret, but it was tucked out of the way, and he told me that outside of company runs there, it didn’t tend to get much traffic.
I was super excited to get back in the tower and practice using the training gear he’d given me. I started to make plans while I offloaded all my cores and resupplied on my consumables.
I’ll make a few levels, up to 22 or 25, I think. Then I’ll match however long that takes with time training. Maybe I’ll alternate and do one or the other every day. After that, I’m going to solo that dungeon from top to bottom!
Waving Roland goodbye, I made my way back to the main hall, tossed my cloak back on and put the hood up, then left the guild hall, heading straight to the tower. I had a new plan of action, and I wanted to say that I’d been able to best a dungeon all on my own. I’d taken on a larger load of food and drink this time around, since I didn’t wind up really looting much outside some monster materials and cores last time around.
A dungeon under a fallen castle? Tucked away in a mountain pass? And my first time fighting undead, too! This is going to be great!