Chapter 207: Chapter 189: Preparation

Fetching yet another useless amulet of ice resistance from the chest—a significant downgrade over the ice resistance enchantment we already had on our rings—we headed back to the portal.

"I don't know why you complain about the chest contents. It's your fault they lost their value," pointed out Cluma as we walked.

"Well, yes. But there are items like our skill bracelets that don't overlap. It would be nice if..."

I paused as we stepped through the portal, where five delvers were staring at us.

"Umm... Can I help you?" I tried.

"Grant was telling us we needed to help you, but I see he's had a bit of a misunderstanding," said the leader, who looked a bit like Xander in his full plate with a tower shield strapped to his back.

Or at least, Xander as I remembered him. The current Xander probably didn't bother with plate mail or shields of any size, now that he was banished from all dungeons...

"Again..." muttered one of the others, in the standardised leather.

"But... the hydra..." said Grant, standing at the back of the five.

"We didn't just wander in not knowing where we were, and that hydra is very obvious even from this side of the portal," I pointed out.

"And you two beat it. Impressive."

"Nope! Not us two!" exclaimed Cluma. "Peter beat it on his own!"

"I'm not sure that's fair. I didn't beat it on my own. I beat it with the aid of Adele, Grover, Hassok and Vargalas. And that's before I start acknowledging the people who helped build the mana concentration chamber. Heck, Darren made a lot of the material for my weapons, and even Mum helped with the enchantment on my underwear. We actually have a pretty big team when you think about it."

And again, Darren and Mum featured, but not Dad. No, that was wrong, too. At least some of the food I kept in my [Item Box] was grown by him. Everyone participated.

Cluma frowned, then tilted her head as her ears twitched in confusion. "That's a good point. But you still get credit from the System for fighting solo. That's not fair to people who don't have combat classes!"

"Yeah. You'd think if they made equipment that I went on to clear the dungeon with, they'd get titles and levels of their own, too."

"I'm not completely sure what you're talking about, but you're both unharmed, right?"

"Yup!"

"What were you planning to do if we weren't?" I asked. "We never would have come out of the boss chamber."

"Perhaps, but at least we'd be sure."

I didn't see it myself. If we'd died in there, we'd have popped back out upstairs fully healed. It's not as if we'd have been lost. I suppose we could have ended up seriously injured, such that we would die without a healer, in which case we wouldn't want to leave the dungeon in case we couldn't find one in time. Seemed unlikely for us to beat the boss and then make it back to the antechamber under those conditions, though.

"Thanks for looking out for us then," I said, because politeness didn't cost anything. Except for my dignity, when I accidentally followed the advice of [Basic Etiquette] and did one of its weird little gestures without thinking. "Want a hand transporting those corpses?"

To be fair to them, there was a lot of dead snake in that pile. Around two dozen anaconda emperor corpses, all in good condition. In fact, from a quick inspection, I had no idea how they'd killed them. I couldn't see any wounds at all.

"Sure, if you're offering. Just drag 'em through the portal. The guild will collect them on the other side."

That would be easy enough, but it seemed a shame to drag them anywhere given how cleanly they'd been killed, so I used [Item Box] instead, sucking in two of them before it filled up.

ding
Skill [Item Box] advanced to level 17

Make that three of them.

"That's [Item Box]? You're a [Spatial Mage]?"

"Close. [Eldritch Mage]," I said, dragging a fourth. Cluma grabbed one too, pulling it towards the exit portal.

"I've never even heard of that. You are human, right? You're what? Fifteen? How are you down here?"

It was nice to be unknown from time to time, even if we had to come somewhere as isolated as this to achieve it.

"Still fourteen, actually. Not fifteen for a few more weeks."

"Fourteen, and you have a rank three class?"

Yes, nice to be unknown, but not so nice to be questioned about everything. Why couldn't everyone be like Caleb?

"There were extenuating circumstances," I tried, going for a vague excuse.

"Most people just don't try very hard," added Cluma, which made me pause. Yes, I'd formed the same opinion back when I first realised how quickly I was progressing compared to everyone else. I'd blamed the Law making everyone uncompetitive. I hadn't realised other people knew.

"Well, yes, but better safe than sorry," said their team leader.

"Right," said Grant, nodding firmly. "Taking risks is dangerous."

I smirked to myself at the tautology.

"Mmm, but there's a difference between pushing yourself and taking unnecessary risks."

"No there isn't," chimed in a third member of their party. "Any risk at all is too much. You only need to slip up once to wind up dead. Or... banned, now, I suppose. Which isn't so serious."

"It would be, if a significant number of delvers got banned. There would be food and material shortages everywhere."

"But the number of delvers starting has gone up since dungeons became safe, so we could lose a higher percentage and still be back where we started. And if the survivors were higher level, thanks to pushing harder..."

"I still think it'll work out the same in the end. It's the ones who push harder who would make up all those extra losses."

I listened on in bemusement as the other party got stuck into a debate on the maths of risk versus reward. Frankly, none of it mattered to me; I wasn't going to hunt one floor for a year of my life, because that would be boring, so thinking about things from the perspective of providing resources wasn't something I'd ever done.

"So, are you going to run it on your own now?" asked Cluma as we dragged the massive snakes back to the surface.

"Not right this second. I need to tell people I'm going to be away and stock up on food and potions. Maybe some furniture, too. Since I can't teleport home each night, what do you think about packing my bed with me?"

"I think that's completely unfair, unless you find some way to let me bring a bed when I do it."

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"That would be tough. Item bags can't store anything bigger than their neck."

"No bed for you, either, then."

I was about to complain, when I noticed through [Mana Sight] that her ears were drooping inside her helmet. Why would a conversation about [Item Box] depress her? It wasn't as if she was that jealous of the spell. Did the bed remind her about her cancelled mating season again?

No, if I had to hazard a guess, it was because I was ready to solo the dungeon, and she wasn't. She could probably get to the hydra, but she wouldn't be able to beat it. With this new weapon, I'd overtaken her again.

"Thanks for the help," said their party leader as we piled the corpses outside, the debate about whether pushing themselves was worth it eventually settling on them continuing to act like they'd always acted. I wasn't the only lover of the status quo.

"No problem," I answered, as Cluma ran around giving their whole party goodbye hugs. It was fortunate I wasn't the possessive type.

"So, when are you going to start?"

"A couple of days, maybe? I'll need to clear five floors between each rest, which will take a day and a half. Maybe a bit quicker for the first ten floors, but it's going to mess up my sleep schedule either way. If I rest for half a day in each safe room, it's going to take around eight days in total."

"Mmm. It's a pity we haven't found any way of navigating directly through each jungle."

I hadn't had any more [Clock] levels since obtaining [Skilled 3], but perhaps extra levels now would boost my GPS resolution? Not that I'd be able to level it before I started.

"Would you prefer me to wait for you?" I asked, picking up on her still-drooping ears.

"Huh? Oh, you're worried about getting ahead of me? It's a little annoying, but no. Actually, I'd rather you get started right away, so that you're out in time for mating season."

"Why? I thought that was taken care of?"

"Hopefully, yes, but we have no idea what difference my species change will make. The potion may not do anything. Maybe I'm worrying for nothing, but I'd rather you be there."

Oh... That was a valid concern. "Then shouldn't I wait until after to go? What if it starts early?"

"It shouldn't. It's the same time for every beastkin."

"What? Exactly? It's the same day for everyone?"

"The same minute. Mating season starts at fifth bell on the first day of summer and ends tenth bell on the twentieth."

What? How in the heck? How could a species evolve to all go into heat at the same minute? This world didn't bother with time-zones, but the single populated continent spanned a decent chunk of the planet, so it got light noticeably earlier in Serpent Isle than in Synklisi. It would be even worse further west. How could the entire continent be coordinated to the nearest minute?

... Because they didn't evolve, obviously. The beastkin races were created artificially from humans. Who by? The beastkin themselves blamed an unnamed progenitor, and I hadn't discovered any cases where Erryn had downloaded lies into anyone's heads. Was this progenitor a real person? From what I'd heard, the original beastkin went extinct long before the System was created. Were the stupid levels of magitek required to build the System more or less than the levels required to turn humans into beastkin? No, it was even worse than that. There were catkin and dogkin here, but no cats or dogs. Yet whoever made the beastkin knew what cats and dogs were. Had cats and dogs existed here back then, or...

Or the alternative. Whoever made the beastkin came from another world. This progenitor—who were they?

"Random question, but do you know more about the beastkin progenitor that you haven't told me?"

"The beastkin progenitor? Not really. A human decided that humans were stupid and overly complicated and that she didn't want to be one any more. There's a statue of her in the Emerald Nest, so we know what she looks like, and that she was catkin, but not anything beyond that."

"She? So she was female?" That was some new information, but not anything actionable.

"Well, we assume so. Your maid outfit is mostly a copy of what the statue is wearing, after all, and most people don't enjoy cross-dressing as much as you."

Right, she had described it as a child-friendly version of the traditional beastkin progenitor outfit, so that made sense. But where had a statue come from? Had Erryn made it? What was child-unfriendly about it? And if the progenitor was a maid, who was she a maid to? Someone powerful enough to change someone's race at a whim? Or maybe she was just eccentric enough to wear it as her normal outfit, and the power was hers? Yet more mysteries to add to the pile. But it was a mystery that could wait until after my run of the dungeon.

"Okay. I'll get a good night's sleep tonight, and dive in first thing tomorrow."

"Mmm. But don't rush so much that you fail!"

"If I take any injuries that would make it hard to complete the run, or if I'm not in peak condition to face the hydra, I'll teleport out and try again some other time."

"Good! If you die in there, I swear I'm going to make you wear nothing but maid dresses for the rest of your life! And speaking of our progenitor, Mum told me all about the difference between the traditional and child-friendly versions of her outfit, and believe me, I'll be getting you the traditional version next time."

That threat was disturbing on multiple levels, despite the fact that the Law meant she certainly wouldn't be able to follow through on it. Thankfully, the penalty was easy to avoid; I just had to not die. I had several decades of experience in living during which I'd only ever died once, so my success rate was pretty good. One more week shouldn't be hard.

I teleported her back to Dawnhold for the last time in a while, before following myself. There was some amount of nervousness, but not enough to stop me sleeping, and I turned in early to get as much as possible. The first five floors should be quick, given the pitifully weak monsters, but even if I managed two hours per floor, there would still be a full day between bosses.

... I wished, not for the first time, that I'd overruled Cluma and insisted on Bloodrock. Or even the underwater one. I bet neither of them had such large floors.

The next morning, I redressed, inspecting myself in the mirror. Brown diamond-patterned leather plates, with pale pink gunge coating the joints and gaps. My helmet, in the same brown leather, covering most of my face and with its cute little pockets for my fake catkin ears. Healing potions and antidotes clipped onto my belt. More of them in my [Item Box] along with buff potions and even a couple of mana potions. My sword-staff was with them, with my short sword hanging at my waist. The star of the show, my new lightning glove, was worn on my left hand, with my various magical accessories under my armour, along with my self-cleaning, dismantling boosting underwear.

I was ready. It was time to earn myself a title upgrade and my next class change.

No. Almost ready. There was one more thing I needed. I turned away from the mirror and placed my hand on my bed, sucking the entire thing into [Item Box], regardless of Cluma's opinion on the matter. Now I was ready.

Not surprising me in the least, Cluma was awake and downstairs, waiting for me, dressed in a black dress and light sandals, rather than her delver gear.

"Good luck," she called, running up for a hug. "Be safe, even if you don't finish it."

"I will."

"You'd better, but just to make sure, take this good luck charm."

Charm? I looked down in confusion, my eyes confirming what [Mana Sight] told me; she wasn't holding anything.

With one of her evil grins, Cluma suddenly bounced onto tiptoes, bringing her face right up to mine. I reflexively attempted to jerk backward, but she still had me tightly gripped in a hug of death, and I was helpless to escape as she kissed the end of my nose.

"Huh?" I commented, completely blind-sided.

Cluma giggled as she finally deigned to release me. "A kiss for good luck. Just be thankful your parents weren't watching, unlike when you did it to me."

"You're completely crazy, but I love you anyway," I laughed, initiating [Redistribute].

Her expression morphed completely into a mix of shock and bliss. "I think that's the first time you've ever told me that out loud," she said quietly, which was quite possibly one of the worst things she could have said just as my lungs departed for a different island. Should I go back and finish the conversation properly? Was it really the first time I'd told her I loved her?

No, ending the conversation that way would make a good memory for us both. Transport complete, I climbed to my feet and marched out of the dungeon, only to turn around and walk straight back into the first floor.

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