I fired off two more stone bolts at what I presumed to be an evolved polerat, killing it. That was the third and last of this group. They were quite a bit larger, medium dog-sized, but their features were too obscured by the darkness. They would retreat from the light whenever I tried to get a better look. The corpse was consumed by the floor before I could even get close. I needed to figure out how to appraise beasts without using my inventory.

If dungeons were a big deal across this world, there was a lot of potential to help those that delved inside by compiling information about evolved beasts. Tamers were missing out on this potential by limiting their skills to farming and wagon-pulling. Although, I had no idea if beasts evolved the same under a tamer’s care versus within a dungeon. I had only evolved a nodmouse, once, and I hadn’t seen any nodmice or flying nodmice in this dungeon.

Maybe there were tamers who were working on this out in the world and I just wasn’t aware. I only knew what happened in the sleepy port town of Mirut, and what I heard from sailors and merchants when I could get them to talk to me at the piers and at the markets. I needed to learn more. I pushed on deeper into the darkness.

I turned a bend in the tunnel, gasped, and immediately backed up, extinguishing my light and covering my mouth. My heart pounded in my chest. What was that? I strained my ears, listening for movement. It was pitch black in here without light, but I wasn’t sure if I could make another light without attracting that monster’s attention. I backed up, quietly, and once I had enough distance, made a small light to see where I was going and booked it back the way I came.

I eventually emerged out of the mouth of the cave and headed back towards the beach, putting some distance between myself and the dungeon. My brief glance and best guess told me that the beast I had seen had been an evolved ramhog, and it looked like bad news. I did not think a shieldback shell would stop that.

It was already getting late, so I would have to make camp somewhere for the night. I had already decided there was no way I was sleeping in the dungeon when I had no idea what to expect. Was it safe to sleep on the beach, though? The place that was safest from wild beasts was probably in the zone around the dungeon, if they would be compelled by the dungeon to go inside, but if I slept near the entrance, would something come out in the night and attack me?

Now that I thought about it, I had only ever seen the dungeon during the day. I had no idea what happened at night. Things could potentially get much worse at night.

I had not been mentally prepared for the dungeon. The level of unsettlement I felt inside was severe, and seeing evolved beasts as enemies was intense. I had found many dangerous wild beasts in this world already, but only out in the daylight and in a natural environment where everything seemed to fit. The stingknights had hives and did bee things, the vipises hunted treehoppers, the ramhogs foraged and chased off other beasts, and the griffators hunted the hogs. I had even seen evolved beasts in the context of the natural world, if I was right about rocky shieldbacks, so it wasn’t like they didn’t fit in this world as well.

But seeing those beasts, enslaved by the dungeon, some made even more powerful through evolution, doing nothing but waiting to kill without any semblance of fitting in with the world… it did not sit right. It was disturbing.

The only silver lining I could see from the whole experience was that the concentration of magic was noticeably higher inside the tunnels. My MP recovery was most definitely accelerated when I was inside there, especially with my absorption buff. If that was the case, I could be a bit more aggressive. I should use more fire spells when I go back in, and I could probably manage some harder-hitting air attacks, neither of which relied on bringing in materials like the stone and water magic I was more used to.

That is, if I even went back. I wasn’t sure I wanted to. To be honest, I was scared while I was inside the dungeon. Scared in a way I had never been before in this world. Scared of losing and being eaten by the dungeon, an unnatural darkness with unknowable intents.

I stroked Treepo’s back, who had calmed down now that we were back outside. If I died in there, Treepo would die too. Maybe not in the shallow tunnels, but the deeper we go, the less a treehopper could do.

I sighed. I would figure out if I planned on going back the next morning. For the moment I needed to eat, sort out shelter, and rest. Hopefully I wouldn’t dream of the darkness.

* * *

Of course, after enough time passed, I did return to the dungeon. How could I not? It was my main path forward to getting stronger and learning the mysteries of this world.

While I might not have been able to hide from beasts in the dungeon, they still fell for illusions. The clone illusion I had cast worked as bait as intended, and the massive beast, more ox than hog, rammed right into it–and then through it, since nothing was there, colliding with the wall. I took the opportunity to blast it with fire, as hot and powerful as I could manage.

It spun on me, its metallic, bladed horns red-hot, and I slammed its head from both sides with two shieldback shells. A loud crack reverberated through the air as one split in two. I took magical control of the stone blade I had left on the ground beneath my illusion, and slammed it up into the beast’s belly, dragging it towards me and splitting it open. It took a step, then another, before collapsing.

I still had MP at the end of the battle. Not a lot, but some.

I checked my EXP as the huge monster was pulled into the floor. That battle was terrifying, but the experience had been really good. One nice thing about this whole mess, at least, and–

I didn’t even see the striking vipis until it was too late. It blew past me, its foreleg tearing open my belly, as though in retaliation for what I did to the dead monstrosity. I screamed, the pain immense. I looked down and saw my own intestines, and freaked out.

I can’t heal, I don’t have enough MP for this, I’m going to die–

Panic was taking hold, but if I lost my rational thinking I would stand no chance. Treepo, the beautiful idiot, was scream-grunting at the vipis, his natural enemy. Now exposed from its ambush, it hadn’t moved again, waiting for my inevitable death before taking out the treehopper. I calmed my mind, slowing my breathing.

I didn’t have the MP to heal, but that was why I prepared MP potions. I pulled one out from my inventory and downed it, immediately casting an expensive heal and depleting half of what I just restored.

I glanced at the creature that tore me open, saw that it was starting to move again, and blasted it with a shrieking pitch sound attack using 5-point magic. Its antenna spun wildly. Fortunately, this was just a regular striking vipis, and I had killed these before. They were fast and scary, but nothing to panic about so long as I was safe from ambush. I calmed my breathing some more as I summoned out some stone spikes and turned it into a pincushion. I watched with satisfaction as the dungeon consumed the corpse.

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Where had that come from? Was it here the whole time, laying in wait until the larger beast was out of the picture? I had never been hit with a one-two punch like that in here: it was either single enemies or groups of enemies which attacked together. I shuddered a bit, looking down the tunnel and thinking about what was to come.

If I lost focus for a second in this place, I could die. I couldn’t afford to calmly check my menus this deep into the dungeon. I rubbed my belly, the fabric torn open. I would need to sew it back up. The phantom pain, a memory of what I had just healed, stung despite the skin being smooth and unblemished.

I had gained a lot of my recent experience through traps and the use of magical stealth. Straight combat like this was not my forte, no matter how powerful I thought my magic was. I sighed, realizing finally that I wasn’t strong enough for this. I had never come this close to death before. This was as far as I would go, for the moment. It was time to head home and re-evaluate.

* * *

I spent the next few weeks grinding for the experience to get to level 11. It was slow and steady work, each ramhog worth less and less points with each repetitive kill. Without new tactics, I couldn’t increase the amount of EXP I got from a beast like this. I went after vipises and griffators too in order to reach my target, but as with the ramhogs, the safe and reliable methods of baiting and trapping slowed down my progress. I used stone shots and pressurized water too, and even managed to sharpen up my air blades, but fire was too risky in the jungle, particularly when I was avoiding the guards.

Once I had my level and my 11 SP, I bit the bullet, and approached Horg.

“Pa. Could you please teach me how to use a sword?”

* * *

Skill acquired: One-Armed

Skill acquired: Two-Armed

Skill acquired: Stealth

Skill acquired: Ranged

Skill acquired: Detect

Skill acquired: Acrobatics

* * *

“You’re a natural, my boy, just like your father,” Horg laughed. We had trained for weeks, and I wrung out all the physical combat skills I could from him. I applied no additional skill points through my metasystem, only allowing points to grow my skills through actual, hands-on training with my father. The result was a substantial amount of experience, even if it were a slightly sloppier point spread. I had to guide the training a little to ensure I got all the skills I wanted from him, in case I lost all my points to the one-armed skill from Horg’s over-excitement at drilling me with the sword.

“Thanks, pop,” I said. It was nice to spend some time with him, even if most of our time spent was combat training. “How did you learn all this stuff, anyway?”

“Ah…” he trailed off, frowning slightly. “You’re a mature kid for your age, Pilus, but that’s a conversation for when you’re older, I think.”

I shrugged, and looked down at the wooden sword in my hands. I was curious about his level and that sword master ability, but I was more interested in whether or not this would be helpful in the dungeon.

I learned the skill for stealth to see if I could sneak up on enemies with actual, practical, physical skill, as opposed to magically induced invisibility and silence. Detection might help avoid an ambush, so that I didn’t get taken by surprise again like what had happened with the vipis. Wielding weapons by hand would save my MP for when I really needed it, even if it put me closer to the danger, and I hoped acrobatics would improve my reaction time, particularly in conjunction with the combat skills. If I could detect, deflect, dodge, and attack back properly, an attack like the vipis had landed on me could instead transition into an effective counter-attack.

I knew it wouldn’t happen overnight, even with the new skills applied. I would need to practice. Plenty of beasts in the jungle to practice on.

I would need some weapons.

* * *

I had three options for acquiring weaponry. I could make them with stone, which was easy and free, but not reliable, as stone weapons broke too easily. I could steal weapons from the guard, although after stealing the MP potions from Belat I had told myself I wouldn’t make a habit of theft for personal gain. The only other option was buying the weapons myself.

That was a bit of a problem, because I was seven. And a half.

I would have to enlist some aid.

I couldn’t ask Belat to buy me weapons, because she knew my mother. They had already spoken about my desire to study potions and enchantments, and it was hard to explain to my mother why I was interested in those things without revealing my hand. She had accepted that “the enchanted items in her store are so cool,” but I didn’t need to bring on more suspicions through any further involvement that I couldn’t explain with Belat. I had to fully manufacture a lie about where I got the two silver that I paid for the lessons with.

I could probably ask Forn, but I never knew when I would see him. Sometimes I got lucky and I caught the cargo ship he worked on, but it was rare. I didn’t even know for sure if I would ever even see him again, because he could always leave the ship or lose his job while at another port. I knew he didn’t hail from Mirut, so there was no guarantee, and I didn’t want to wait.

My best bet was Bosh, but telling him that I needed weapons would surely raise some alarms, since I already brought him meat beyond my ability. I knew that he knew that I was hunting the beasts, but we at least continued to pretend that I wasn’t. Also, if I asked him to buy me a small sword now, I would be dangerously close to admitting to him that I had not been using a sword before, which is almost the same as admitting that I was using magic. Even if there was a small risk of that, I wanted to avoid telling people I knew magic.

After brainstorming my options, I instead asked him for something more related to our relationship.

“You want to buy a set of butchery tools?” he asked me after I told him what I was looking for.

“Yeah,” I responded. “A cleaver, some knives, stuff like that. Maybe one of those long chopping blades you have, too?”

He looked at his tools, then back to me. “I know I’ve paid you a lot of coppers in the last couple of years, but the tools are expensive. I doubt you can afford it,” he told me.

“How much are we talking about for a full set?”

He listed some prices, and I paused. I had… some of that.

“How much would just a decent, all purpose hunting knife cost? Something… big,” I said, not over-elaborating.

Bosh sighed, clearly debating with himself. If I were still a five year old, I don’t think he would have caved, but I was halfway to an apprenticeship already. It wasn’t that insane for me to be thinking about tooling up for my future. Fortunately, Bosh and I understood each other. He didn’t ask about my parents and why I wasn’t going to them. He knew I had my secrets, and didn’t pry, because it made him money. He finally caved, and named a price.

I reached into my pack, pulled out a bag of coins I prepared. The coppers and silvers jingled within as I tossed it to him. “Here’s my budget,” I said. “Please get me something nice.” Then I pulled out some wraps of shieldback meat, and handed them over as well. “And these are on the house,” I said with a wink.

Bosh shook his head at me with a small smile on his face and sent me off.