Chapter 7: Chapter Seven – The Third Floor

【Vitamancy Lv.1】

『Utilize concentrated essence as a medium to create life.』

 

While holding the orb containing the Essence of Goblinkind, I tried to discern what exactly this skill did.  Normally with skills, there is some basic sense of what to do when you get it.  Alurian’s Heal, for instance, gives me something like a instinctual idea that all need to do is simply need to open my palm towards or lay it physically upon the person I want to heal and while I don’t have to say Heal! aloud, it’s also something like a focus to do so which empowers the ability to work correctly.  Mana will be consumed and a healing effect will take place.

It’s the same for Grace of the Whirlwind, and my item box skill functions just similarly by just thinking about using it.  The Divine Weaponry passive skill essentially transmits the most basic knowledge on how to swing any weapon once I take hold of it.

But as for the Vitamancy skill, I just don’t know.

Maybe because it’s a skill far removed from any closer ones that are unlocked, that there is just no prerequisite knowledge to draw from?

The skill list that I can select from isn’t exactly orderly, it has the appearance of a spider's web.  There are many skills that thread into other ones, so that even if I wrote them all down, it would still be difficult to plan a path properly from where I am currently at.

There is just nothing I can do with it right now, which is bad, because I can’t sleep for obvious reasons.  It’s late at night, and outside of going to a gambling den, visiting a brothel, or drinking at an all-night tavern, the only thing left to distract me is the one thing I should not ever do.

Visit Zoma Dungeon alone.

If…

If I at least had something like Duster to watch my back, it would be okay, I think.  I don’t even mean the Grim Overbone Duster, just the regular one would be enough.  I’d keep to the first floor and farm easy things.

Alas, there is nothing to do.

I left my room and went downstairs.  The inn was quiet and empty.  There are a few mugs next to what is a wooden barrel with a loosely fitted lid on top.   I helped myself to some of the ale within since it was complementary, noting that the sanitary conditions surrounding it would only be more questionable if alcohol wasn’t a germ-killing substance in and of itself.

I ended up putting my head down on the table, and when I eventually returned to consciousness, it was to Rennifel giving me a courtesy shake on the shoulder.

“Mister Randell, are you alright?”

I lifted my head up and saw the Inn’s daughter dressed in her pajamas.

“Just feeling a little depressed.  Is it morning already?” I asked.

“Not even close, it’s still the middle of the night.  I had just come down to see if the Golden Arrow party had come back from the dungeon yet.  They like to eat before they go to sleep, and they tip well for the service.”

She’s a real entrepreneur.

“I haven’t seen anyone since I came down, but then you had to wake me…” I offered.

“Are you hungry?”

I shook my head.  “I have some skewers I bought earlier in my item box.”

“Not enough time with your favorite woman tonight?”

“Yeah.  My finances are shit.  I’ve got three large silver coins and it doesn’t even buy a whole night with her.”

“That’s a lot of money!  Don’t you operate on only the first two floors?  How did you make so much?”

“Yesterday was sort of an even split, that's why there is more.  When I was with the Red Hawks, the money was split five ways.  It took me a month to save up about as much as I’ve made since the party wiped…”

“I’m surprised you didn’t share a room with that mousey-looking mage, Marta.”

“With Marta?  Why would I do that?” I asked, confused.

“Weren’t you two, y’know… like Kyros and Relenna?”

“Lovers?”

“Yeah.  I mean you two were always next to each other.  I was certain you two had a thing for each other.”

That’s news to me.  Marta was nice to me and she taught me a lot of the things I needed to know as a dungeon diver as well as stuff about magic and mana manipulaton, but that was about as far as it went between us.

“Sorry to disappoint, but there was nothing like that.”

“That poor girl...”

“What do you mean?”

“She clearly liked you, Mister Randell.  She was always talking with me in the early morning about your funny stories.  She found it funny that you said you worked with magic boxes made of numbers that drew pictures which were powered by thunder, yet you didn’t know the first thing about manipulating mana.  What were they called, completers?”

“Computers,”  I corrected, “she told you everything I talked about?”

“Obviously not.  She must have let me jump to my own conclusion about you two.  I thought maybe the reason she kept her own room was because you snored too loud at night or something.”

Huh.  Marta saw me in that kind of way?  There’s no way I’m a dense protagonist here.  There would have been some signs even I would have picked up on.  It’s not like Marta was ugly.  She was fairly cute in that bookworm kind of way.  She was friendly and patient with me and we did talk a lot, but I didn’t get the sense she was interested in a relationship with anything other than her fire spells.

I opened up my item box and pulled out the skewers I bought earlier for Kokoro and I to share that she refused.

“Want some?”

“If you’re offering, sure!”

I handed two of them over and snacked on the other two myself.  They were greasy, salty, and not much else, but they went down easy and were better than a lot of stuff the other stalls sold.  In fact, it was Marta who I accompanied that introduced me to that stall in particular.

“Rennifel, you know fire and water magic, right?”

“Un.”  She said while chewing.

“Have you ever heard of Vitamancy before?”

She shook her head.  “No, what is it?”

“I don’t know either.  It’s a skill I recently picked up, and it needs something called Essence to use.”

“Essence?  I know about Essence.”

“You do?”

She swallowed her food.

“Yeah, I heard about it from the Granny who I took lessons on magic from.  There are for people who have an affinity for Life.”

I certainly had an affinity for staying alive.  I liked existing.

“Can you tell me more?” I pressed.

“There’s not much more that I know.  Granny just said that a long time ago when she was a young girl first learning magic, she met a human who could create things from nothing using pure Essence.  That’s all I remember.”

“Is your Granny still around?”

“Sorry, but no.  She left the city a few years ago to go on a pilgrimage back to the Evernight Forest.  She said she hadn’t been home in over two hundred years, and she was feeling nostalgic.”

“Two hundred years?  Is she not a Human?”

“Nope.  She’s an Elf.”  

Elves.

I mean, they exist.  There are Elves in this very city and even in the Dungeoneer’s guild, but they are troublesome to deal with.  It’s not anything like cultural xenophobia or anything.  It’s actually the opposite.

They’re too fucking curious and whimsical.  It’s like dealing with a seven year old after they’ve done a line of powdered pixy stick sugar as if it was cocaine then were told they didn’t have a bedtime anymore and rules were just suggestions that didn’t make sense when it wasn’t fun.

I’d like to avoid dealing with elves for now.

The door to the inn opened and a part of six, four men and two women entered.

“Oh, that’s them!  If you’ll excuse me, Mister Randell...”

“Don’t let me keep you from your profitable business.”

The Inn’s daughter, Rennifel, left me alone and sauntered over to the party who all took a seat at a nearby table.  A few of them eyed me, but no one called out or approached.  Rennifel started by bringing them some ale before disappearing into the back room where the kitchen was.  If I remember correctly, she said the party was called 「Golden Arrow」 and they hunted until the wee hours of the night.

From the weapons they carried I could guess at what most of them were.  Three of the males were all fighter-types and one was a magician, while one of the women was a scout-type for sure.  Was the other woman not wearing a visible weapon their support then?  Maybe she had an item box like I did and kept it there.

They weren’t being quiet at all, and were sounding rather arrogant.  It seems they had plans to fight the second floor’s boss tomorrow, and amongst all the faces at that table, only the scout’s face had any trace of concern.  

Seeing a party like this in front of me made me uncomfortable.

Because that, until recently, was how I and the rest of the now deceased Red Hawks probably looked like to other people.

I returned to my room, and did my best to stave off my thoughts, but it was no use.  I found myself going back there.  To the brothel.  To where I abandoned my wife...  My cute, sweet, soft, tender wife.

Entering the establishment, the receptionist was there.\

“Oh, you came back?”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“BOY!”  I heard a shout come from the side.  It was the Madame.  “Boy, follow me.”

I did as she asked and the Madame led me behind the counter where the receptionist was until I came into an office with a nice long sofa.

“You don’t have to say anything.  I already know why you are back here, foolish boy.”

I nodded, and the Madam sighed.

“Just lie down here and rest.”

I sat down on the sofa and somehow felt better.  Not for any reason but that I was just a bit closer to her physically.

“How Alurian tests her faithful…”  The Madame spoke off-handedly.  “Just close your eyes for now, and we’ll talk again when you wake.  ”

I did as she said and sleep quickly overtook me.

When I woke up after a dream that I’m sure wasn’t pleasant at all though I can’t remember any specifics, I was no longer at the brothel where I remembered laying down.

I was back in my room at the Blue Robin Inn.

It was confusing.  Had… had I even gone to the brothel?

I was perplexed.  All I knew was that I woke up later than I should have, and that I needed to hightail it to the guild.  Sitting up in my bed and catching my bearings, I changed into my diving outfit, which was nothing all that fancy.  Tan leather armor which I had bought early on, black breeches, a leather belt, and boots made from some kind of animal hide that was my biggest splurge since they didn’t exactly sell brand name Hike Winds here on Labyrinthia.

Opening the door to my room, there was a fellow waiting for me.  I’d say he was on the scrawny side; all skin and bones, if you take away the skin.

“Duster?”

Clack.

“Did Teresa send you to get me?”

Clack.

“Shit.   I’m sorry, I overslept.  You might not believe this, man, but you and I are kind of in the same boat.”

Duster just stared at me vacantly.

“Can you keep a secret?”

A pause, then a clack.

“My wife works at a brothel.  Has to feel like shit knowing someone else is with your wife, right?”

Clack clack.

“No?  You aren’t bothered that your wife and your brother are…”

Duster turned around completely and began walking down the nearby stairs.  I guess we aren’t yet at the point where we can open up about this kind of thing to each other yet.

Well, it’s all one-sided since Duster can’t speak words.

Waiting downstairs was the Inn’s Missus, and she had my usual three parcels of breakfast waiting for me to collect.

“Renny said you had a rough night.  I made a little extra for you.  The credit to your room ends tomorrow, so if you’re going to continue lodging make sure to let me know.”

I removed a few coins from my item box since I never kept them on my person for fear of pickpockets and when in the dungeon, roblins.  “As usual, I’ll be staying through the week.  Please continue to make me breakfast.  It’s really nice to have something good to eat when I take a break in a safe place in there.”

“Sure.  Also, that skeleton from before…”

“I’m sorry.  It’s a summon that belongs to one of my new party members.  It’s well behaved and won’t harm anyone.”

“Oh, I wasn’t asking because I was upset.  I met the young lady who it accompanied.  She asked me to relay a message to you.”

“Oh, Teresa came?”

“Witchy looking girl, about your age?  She said to meet at sun’s zenith at the guild.”

“Uh, what time is it now?”

“Should be eleven bells soon.”

“Right.  Should give me time to do what I need to do today.  By the way, aside from Duster… err the skeleton.  Was there anyone else near my room this morning?”

“Not a soul.”

“Alright.  Thanks.”

“Good luck diving.”

I left the inn, to which Duster remained outside waiting for me.

“I have to run an errand first to Featherly’s Grimoires.  If you don’t need to return to Teresa immediately, do you want to come with me?”

Clack.

“Great.  You haven’t heard of Vitamancy before, have you?”

Clack clack.

“I think it’s something like the reverse of whatever you have going on with your undeath.  Anyway, when you killed the Goblin Leader yesterday I got some kind of Essence thing, and it’s related to the new skill I chose that’s supposed to be able to do things with Essence.  I’m hoping there’s a Grimoire with some answers for me there.”

Most of the time it seems that if it’s not a yes or no question, Duster doesn’t bother to reply with a clack.  It takes some getting used to, but I get the feeling Duster was a sociable person when he was alive.  Otherwise I don’t think his clacking would come across so cleanly.

I entered Featherly’s Grimoires, and expected to see the clerk from before but there was no one at the counter.  

“Hello?” I called out loudly into the store.

There was no response.

“It’s me, the guy from yesterday who you were trying to explain what grimoires were to… I’m looking for something specific… kinda… rare maybe?”

“Rare, you say?”

I jumped when I heard a woman’s voice suddenly speak to me from behind.  Turning around to see, it was the same woman from yesterday holding on to her long pipe, Tisa.  While Duster was next to me, he didn’t seemed bothered by her sudden appearance like I was.

“Yeah.  Actually… I’m looking for some clues to a Skill I recently acquired.”

“I presume the skill in question isn’t Necromancy?” she said smugly as she pointed her pipe at Duster.

“Uh, I think it’s related but also the opposite?  What I’m after is should be related to a skill called Vitamancy.  Any chance you have something like that here?”

“Only one way to find out.”

She walked past me, and towards the back of the store.  Duster and I followed until we reached a section that looked like it had been neglected and overlooked for many years.  There was a thick layer of dust on every book around us.  The shopkeeper was holding her pipe out like a dowsing rod.  It took a few minutes but she eventually found whatever it was she was looking for.

“This.”

“That book?”

She nodded.  “What you wish to learn is in this Grimoire.”

“How do you know it has what I need?”

“Because I know.” She answered as if it was common sense that she would.

"O… okay?  Then, how much is this going to set me back?”

“Six silver, one large copper and three.” She gave me the grand total.

“It's Kind of pricey.”

“All knowledge has a price.  Is the value of what you seek less than what you believe it’s worth?”

I groaned.  That’s half an hour with Kokoro up in smoke if I buy it.

Duster clacked, pointing at the book.

“Yeah, I get it.  I’ll take it.”

“A wise decision.” She replied smugly once more.

I ended up purchasing the book.  With that out of the way and the book safely in my item box, Duster and I left Featherly’s and headed to the Dungeoneer’s Guild to meet up with Teresa and Gonzo.  Whatever it was that crawled up Gonzo’s ass yesterday seems to have come out, as he was moving around normally again.  

“Sorry I’m late,”  I apologized immediately upon meeting them both, “I ended up sleeping in.”

With us all together, we met with the receptionist Myria who was pretty much our go-to here at the guild.  A large pouch of coins was given to me shortly after.  It was heavier than usual.

“The goblin brains sold well.”  Was all she said in regards to it.

Evenly divided, my take ended up being two large silver coins, three small and four small copper.  The other half I handed to Duster, intentionally.

He clacked.

His hand stretched out and he took the pouch since I had no need of it.  Then he offered it immediately to Teresa.  She quickly snatched it and peered inside.

“What did you two do yesterday to earn this much?” She asked.  

As the hunting yesterday when we were all together wasn’t all that profitable, when Duster went all Grim Overbone, I didn’t hesitate to clean up after him.  

“Just went around the second floor as usual?” I offered as an explanation.

Duster clacked in agreement.

Did he not care that I omitted the specifics, like the solo raid he performed on the Goblin Leader?  I get the feeling he wants to keep that on the down low.

“I suppose you want something since you’re just giving this to me.”

Duster clacked.

“Yeah, it matters to me why!” She said angrily while glaring at her calcified partner.

Duster clacked while pointing at her.

“You aren’t going to give it up, are you?”

Clack clack.

“Fine.  Then... One gold coin!”

I could feel an ominous surge of dark energy manifesting around the skeleton.

A clack came but it felt… hauntingly powerful.

“We’ll see.”  Was all Teresa replied before the sinister feeling subsided.

Duster then clacked at me, gesturing with his hands what looked like a thrusting motion.

“You want the spear again?”

Clack.

I took out Relenna’s Regret and passed it to Duster.  I could almost make out some kind of infernal light in the empty sockets of his skull where his eyes would have been.

“Same deal as last time, Duster?” I asked him.

Clack.

“How about a signal for when you’d like me to use Grace of the Whirlwind?”

Duster took hold of the spear with both hands and held it before his body.  Then he slammed the butt of the spear down onto the floor.

“Understood.” I repled.

“Alright, I’m ready to go, and I believe Duster is as well.  Shall we get a move on?”

I led the way to the dungeon.  Duster continued right through the first floor, bypassing the one at the entrance which would move us straight to the second.

“Duster, do you have a plan?” I asked him.

His answer as usual, was a clack.

“Alright.  I’ll be on clean-up duty then.  Go wild my friend.”

Duster began to lead the way.  Aside from the occasional Bat-bat which was outside of the sweeping range of Relenna’s Regret that Gonzo took care of, the trip through the first floor was expedient.  I didn’t bother to be picky about my looting.  I put everything into the Divine Treasury.  It only took two hours before we were at the Boss Room leading to the Hell Mother.

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Duster made the motion for both a heal from me, and a reapplication of Grace of the Whirlwind.

As soon as we all entered, Duster flew at the Hell Mother like a missile.  One stab at it’s head in passing cause it to retreat into it’s shell, but he was already behind the boss turtle with a clack as he drove home my former party member’s spear right into the behind of the turtle which caused it’s head to shoot out of it’s shell.  Duster had already launched himself in a jump over the beast entirely and swung the spear in a slashing motion at its exposed neck.

The Hell Mother was brutally decapitated.

“Bro!  That’s cheating!”  Gonzo cried out towards the skeleton.

Duster piked the severed head of the turtle onto the spear and walked over to Teresa.  He then slid the butt of the spear through his pelvis and…

“Oh grow up and stop being a Poxin’ child!” Teresa complained.

Duster clacked a few times, but it was less of a comment and more of a… laugh?

While Duster eventually removed the offensive imagery, I had already gone and stowed away the rest of the first floor’s quickly slain and uselessly oversized boss monster.  It was good progress, however.  I was already crossing a quarter of the way through the forth level of experience!

We all continued onwards to the second floor, taking a short break to eat some of the food I had received from the Inn’s Missus. Duster stood guard for us while we ate, though his gaze was on Teresa the whole time.  Or at least it appeared that way to me.  Whether he intended to cause her to feel anxious or not, I don’t know.  But it was visible on her face that she was.  I had tried to distract her by asking if she knew anything about Vitamancy, but was met with a shake of her head.

“Never heard of it.  With a skill name like that, there’s probably a class called Vitamancer then, isn’t there?”

It was a simple deduction, but also a speculation.  The fact of the matter is, I don’t know enough about my own class, Chosen of Alurian to know how it could tie into such a class if it even existed.  Judging from the sheer volume of skills available to me, it doesn’t make sense that I would have access to a skill I could never eventually use.

It seems the only answers I might find lay within the Grimoire I purchased from Featherly’s.  There’ll be plenty of time to peruse it when I’m suffering another round of insomnia due to my pathetic finances.

While hunting on the first floor was methodically done by Duster, taking care not to ruin the Bat-bat pelts, there was no such consideration on the second floor.  Goblinkind were more vermin than actual vermin were, and Duster, perhaps overhearing Myria say the word brains when she handed me the coin purse began decapitating every single enemy.

So, weapons and heads.

We also chanced upon two treasure chests.  One contained a quality rapier and red cloak.  The other a hammer and an ope-faced helmet.   Duster showed interest in the cloak and helmet immediately each time the chest was opened.

He looked like Hell’s version of a Spartan warrior.

While the Grim Overbone had yet to manifest in it’s entirety, there was very little for us three to do, aside from collecting drops and severed heads.

I appreciate that both Teresa and Gonzo seem wholly unconcerned with picking up decapitated goblin heads.  I just couldn’t see Relenna or Marta ever doing something like that so casually.  Even Kyros would have been disgusted to do so.

That duty would have belonged to Jung and myself.

Three and a half hours, combing every nook and cranny of the second floor eventually brought us to the boss room.  Yet Duster didn’t seem interested in it today.  Instead we moved to the bypass, which was a door off to the side that would only open for people who had cleared the boss room once.

We four were let in, and against my better judgment arrived on the third floor.

Duster must have had a reason for not wanting to fight the Goblin Leader, so I respected it.  We were now in new territory for me, and I was wary.  Duster asked for another reapplication of Grace of the Whirlwind, and I threw in a courtesy Alurian’s Grace.

I was given a clack of thanks.

While I knew about the enemies on the third floor, I had yet to encounter them.  The third floor was affectionately known as The Night Forest by dungeon divers and for good reason.

It was a large forest.

Going with what I learned of dungeon ecology from Priest Northay who was my lifeline when I arrived in this world, the principles that govern the dungeon are not necessarily the same principles that govern the world of Labyrinthia.

The first two floors definitely give off the impression of what a dungeon should look like.  Cavernous, full of rooms small and spacious, brimming with monsters.  I originally presumed I’d need to learn how to fight holding a torch at first until I learned about Glowmoss.   

Glowmoss may as well be best explained away as the dungeon’s source of light.  It tends to grow all along the roof which is close to thirty feet high for both the first and second floors.  Here on the third, however, that ceiling is much higher, and there are no cavernous rooms.  Only a vast expanse of forest.

Enemies here include Darkwolves, Kicksies, Drop Ropes, and Horny Rabbits.  The last one sounds like a joke, but it’s appropriately named.  Horny Rabbits are a bit of a pun, but also highly dangerous.

They spook easily and are otherwise an easy monster to kill, unless you interrupt their coitus.

And they have coitus as much as possible.  At that point, suffering a case of what I can only think of as blue balls, they show maximum hostility towards the party disrupting their activities and attack by using their horn, which is strong enough to dent an iron shield without breaking off.

It’s also an aphrodisiac, so collecting horny rabbit horns is almost always profitable.  It was also the location that the former Red Hawks I was a part of had looked forward to reaching.

The competition to loot horny rabbit horns is offset by two things; the first being that every party on the floor is after them as well, and the second is that every monster on the floor is also after them.

Horny Rabbits are the basic food group of the third floor to the monsters here.  Darkwolves are huge wolves that hunt them in packs.  And Drop Ropes are big snakes that camouflage themselves well then act like an ambush predator by dropping down from tree branches onto any unsuspecting prey.  Their bites while not fatal to humans, do cause a temporary paralysis which goes away after about ten minutes.  The upside is that there is also an anti-paralytic grass which grows on this floor as well.  It’s a fairly common alchemical ingredient so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to obtain some just in case.

The main reason why I was playing it safe and not planning on coming to this floor until I was at least level ten was simple.  I wanted to be better prepared.  Even though I am a support, I fully expect to engage in combat and that is something I feel I could use much improvement in.  I have no idea how I’d fare having to deal with actual apex predator type monsters.

I didn’t want to be an eternal drag on my party!

So, being exactly that right now, nothing more than a mobile backpack that can heal a wound every now and then, Duster lead us around.

“I love this place!”  Gonzo said with gusto.

“It does have a certain charm to it.”  Teresa agreed.

Considering those two were both emo edgelords, of course a forest shrouded in darkness would be something they’d enjoy traipsing through.

Duster, for all his contained strength since he still hasn’t shown off his full Grim Overbone mode yet to either of them this trip.  And upon walking into our first encounter with three Darkwolves, that hadn’t changed.

Of course, it didn’t need to.

Duster promptly ran each of them through with the spear he was using.

Then he seemed to be irritated.

Clack clack.

“What do you mean it isn’t useful here?”

Clack.

Teresa sighed before asking me an interesting question.  “Do you have another weapon in your item box that he can use, Randell?  He says the spear isn’t a fit for him on this floor.”

That’s news to me, but I had plenty of weapon drops from earlier so… I just dumped them all out into a pile for him to sift through.  I didn’t feel like playing twenty clacks with him over what kind of weapon he wanted to use.  Though it’s not important, the items which belong to the former Red Hawks which I looted from their bodies all are locked to prevent accidentally removing them without a direct intent to.

So everything in the pile here is basically what I picked up in the dungeon.

Duster picked up two specific weapons.

They were the quality rapier and the heavy hammer which were looted from the two treasure chests earlier.  Holding them in an outstretched hand before his… eyes?  There was almost a resounding sense of satisfaction in his clack just then.

I stowed away what wasn’t taken and added the bodies of the three Darkwolves as well.  We continued on with Duster the skeleton in the lead, moving stealthily through the forest.

Now, there was a monster that I didn’t touch on before, but needs some explaining now.

Kicksies.

Kicksies are the chief annoyance of this floor.  They always appear by themselves, but never alone at first.  They use the distraction of combat with the other monsters of the floor to harass divers to the extreme.

They have a small body, humanoid in shape but with a pair of wings.  They fly around at ridiculous speeds and it’s sort of like a mosquito bigger than the size of a closed fist that likes to ram into you causing mishaps.

Left unchecked they are a nightmare to deal with.

One such Kicksie has decided to make our party it’s target, and the one seeing all of the harassment… is Gonzo.

“You stupid blighter!  Stay still so I can kill you!  Help me out, brother!”

Gonzo was spinning in a circle swinging his sword wildly in and effort to get rid of it, but not having any luck.  I thought Duster might have helped him out, but that wasn’t the case at all.

Duster simply clacked.

“Forget it, Gonz.  There’s a reason he’s not lifting a bone to help you.”

“What reason is that, Reese?”

“Since the Kicksie seems to favor you and is not bothering me in the slightest, it’s fine to leave it that way.”

“You’re saying that me having to put up with this thing isn’t bothering you in the slightest?”

“That’s right.”

“Brother!  Help me out here, please!”

That request fell on a purposely deaf cochlear bone.  We continued onwards for a while, even coming across a drop rope who landed right on a completely un-phased Duster.   He quickly poked it in the head with his rapier ending it’s life and it was in my storage soon after he dropped it at my feet.

Duster had been holding on to the hammer all the while but hadn’t used it at all.  That changed when we finally came across our first actively engaged pair of horny rabbits. 

I have no doubt the skeleton could have snuck up on the pair of coitus-loving hares, but he purposely clacked in order to provoke the male.  What it actually did was cause the female to get startled and dash off, leaving a very unsatisfied male behind.  It squeaked angrily and turned to face the skeleton.

I think Duster enjoyed doing that.

The rabbit dashed forward far faster than I ever imagined it could, and the skeleton met the momentum of the horn-first charge with the blunt side of the heavy hammer.

CLANG!!

The horny rabbit was left dazed, and unconscious from the impact of the precise defensive blow.  Duster stood over the body of the rabbit, unable to stand and pierced it’s neck with the rapier.

Duster’s victory clack I swore sounded like one of those old cash register dings.

Duster wasn’t done yet with that rabbit.  He picked it up and with some effort even from him, ripped the horn out of the rabbit’s skull.  Then he lodged it in a conspicuous place on his bony self.

I stored the rabbit into my item box anyway, and we continued on.

As if that horn was somehow able to point the way, we began to frequently run into more and more rabbits.

Only this time he didn’t play fair.

The following pairs of mating lagomorphs were dead before they even knew there was a skeleton hunting them.  We had lost track of time, but my inventory was stocked.  I had simply collected every monster without thinking and stored it away since I had no issues with the usual space constraints back when I only had a level three item box skill.

We had been in the dungeon for hours now, and even I was wanting to call it quits for the day.  I had no idea how late it was, but I was getting worried…

“Duster, can we call it a day?”

He stared at me blankly.

There was no way of knowing if it was a whole gold coin’s worth of material that I had in my Divine Treasury.  So as a compromise I think, he slammed the hammer down onto the ground and held up one finger in front of me.

“Then, just for as long as one more buff with Grace of the Whirlwind?”

He clacked.

“I can work with that.  Do you remember the way back?”

He clacked twice but twisted around to point in a certain direction.  Even I knew that wasn’t the direction we had come from.

“So, that’s where the boss room is?”

Clack.

Being near the boss room meant we could use the portal there to return.

“Gonzo, Teresa?  Can you guys hang in there a little longer?”  I asked them.

“What, do you think we’re tired or something?  We’ve hardly seen any action today.” Gonzo said in almost a breathless manner.  We had walked a considerable distance today, and even though he was trying to show some bravado by saying he was okay, we were all still living creatures and bound to feel fatigue.

“How long does your skill last when cast?”  Teresa inquired.

“Anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour depending on how long I channel it.”  I answered, having figured it out after using it on Duster every time he asked for a reapplication.

Teresa walked over to her undead husband.

“It’s enough already…  Just get us to the teleportation circle before it expires.  I’ll let you touch it.”

Duster walked over to me and dropped the hammer four times in front of himself, then pointed at each of us. 

“You want me to apply Grace of the Whirlwind to all of us?”

A clack let me know that it was exactly what he wanted.  I had enough mana to do it, but I’d be risking not being able to deliver a heal for a short while until it replenished.

I enhanced each of us, ending with Duster who as soon as the buff applied, was enveloped by that menacing darkness once more.

He was finally going Grim Overbone!

With an unsettling clack, he took off running and all three of us had to make a mad dash to follow him.  The entire time we were on this floor we hadn’t run into a single other party.  It occurred to me that since he somehow knew which of the goblinkind were named and that one was even waiting in the boss room though the door wasn’t open in any way that could have been peered inside, that Duster had to have some kind of sense for where certain living beings were.

It didn’t take any effort to find the path made by the skeleton on a mission.  I learned a new trick today in fact.  How to loot while running.

One thing being a dungeon diver did for me that I never did for myself back on Earth was bodily training.  I’d lifted weights a few times, sure.  But never really did much in the way of cardio.  The old twenty-nine year old version of me would have surely kicked the bucket moving at this breakneck pace.

The running came to an end though, and we finally had a role to play.  Blocking our path was a pack of eight Darkwolves, and one of them was especially fierce looking.

“Shit.  Is it a named?”  Gonzo said while panting heavily and drawing his sword.

“Doubt it.  Isn’t the named supposed to appear solo?  That’s why it’s called Lone Wolf, right?”  Teresa revealed.

“Motherblighter.  That means it’s a variant.” He astutely deduced.

Variants are sort of irregular versions of monsters who have an increased parameter somewhere that changes their usual pattern of behavior to capitalize on it and give divers a real change-up challenge.  Since duster handled almost all the fighting since we entered the dungeon, I didn’t even have the first clue as to how Darkwolves really fought divers.  While Gonzo and Teresa had been to this floor before, I was completely out of my element.

Duster clacked, causing all the wolves to take up an aggressive posture.

“Should we do that again?”  Gonzo suggested and I got the feeling if they tried doing any of those theatrics right now, these darkwolves would have the advantage.

“No.”  Teresa wisely declined.  “Randell, get between us.  Duster is going to focus on the variant while Gonz and I protect you.”

“What should I do then?”

“Use your spear if you see an opportunity.  Otherwise, if we get hurt, heal us.”

“You’re a mage though, shouldn’t I be guarding you?”

“It’s a misunderstanding if you think that, Randell.  After all, not even my husband could best me in a fight!”

Barehanded, I learned exactly why that was the case.

As if the intangible string that was the tension holding everyone back suddenly snapped.  All the Darkwolves pounced on us at the same time.  Duster threw the rapier in his hand at one of the Darkwolves still in mid-air who was aiming for Teresa.   His other brought the heavy hammer to bear, slamming it into the variant.

“Shadow stab!”  Gonzo had both of his swords out and he was piercing one of the wolves through the underbelly while another ended up biting onto the other blade.

I had one to deal with as well.  I managed to hold on to the spear tightly while a Darkwolf who decided I was a worthwhile target ended up being impaled between the leg and neck.

It let out a harsh whimper.

But that was nothing in comparison to Teresa.

“Fester!”  “Curse!”  “Lifesteal!”

She received their slashes and bites and returned nothing but pain and death.  The wolves who attacked her began to grow boils which blistered and popped and their bodies began to shrivel up.

I managed to shove the impaled wolf I was dealing with away, then thrust Relenna’s Regret at another that Gonzo was having some trouble guarding against.

“Enchant Curse!”  Gonzo’s blades glowed and began to push forward into the mouth of the wolf from before who had grabbed hold of his blade with its mouth.  The blade passed through it’s head and bisected it, killing the wolf in style.

The battle was quickly turned and it was now just Duster and the Variant left, along with the one remaining darkwolf that had survived being impaled by my spear.

And that too was over when from seemingly nowhere Gonzo appeared out of a shadow and plunged his glowing sword through it’s spine.  The Variant Darkwolf howled angrily when that happened.  Teresa was covered in blood and fell to her knees.  Gonzo was bent over and panting while looking exhausted.

Duster however was trading blows with the Variant expertly.

The variant raked a sharp claw across his exposed bony chest, and Duster after receiving the slash, returned it with a heavy blow from the hammer to much the same place on the variant wolf.

It was a back and forth battle until Duster lost an arm to a particular nasty bat of the variant’s paw.

Duster clacked in frustration.

Teresa just laughed.

“Weren’t you going to show off for me, dear husband?  Or is that rabbit’s horn just for decoration?”

It was a definite taunt by Teresa.

Duster clacked angrily.

The Variant who had a wary look on his face and kept an eye on the hammer with detached-but-attached arm still gripping it, gauged the situation.  Then Duster made a move to raise the hammer in his remaining hand up high provoking an opportunistic moment for the variant to attack.  It was a feint, but the kind only a dead man could pull off.  Duster stepped back and accepted the pounce, but when the wolf landed and Duster’s bony body shattered into pieces, he had managed to win in the end.

The rabbit’s horn lodged in his pelvis had pierced the wolf in the underbelly and struck a vital point.  Though his head was no longer attached to his spine, and most of his body was shattered, somehow part of his chest which still had his arm attached, the arm holding the hammer no less, swung down on it’s back, driving the rabbit’s horn deeper inside.

The Variant let out a death wail, then collapsed.

We had survived.

“You deserve that kind of ending this time, brother.  You could have helped kill that stupid Kicksie back then.”

Indeed.  Speak of that, where had that Kicksie gone?  Up until just before I buffed all four of us with Grace of the Whirlwind, it was still pestering Gonzo.

It is a mystery for later.

Almost all of the wolves in this fight were too destroyed to bother collecting.  All except for the one I failed to kill, and the variant.  Heading over to the Variant, I stored it’s body to take some weight off of the collapsed Duster.

His jaw had managed to fall off when his head separated, so he was unable to clack to let us know anything of his situation.

Teresa had crawled over to it and picked it up.  She didn’t need to hear his clack to have her own conversation with him.

“Did you think I’d be impressed with that?  Look at yourself!  You’re a complete wreck…”

An emptiness where the usual clack would come in.

“I’ll summon you later when I recover my mana.”

“…”

“Yes, we’ll be fine.  It’s just ahead a bit north, right?”

“…”

“Alright.  Alright I said!  Just go back, we’ll deal with it later.”

The animation holding Duster’s broken body together gave out, and the skeleton crumbled into pieces of shattered bone and powder.  Teresa lobbed the skull over her shoulder as if it was worth less than the trash on the floor of her home.  I collected the helmet from off of the discarded skull, the red cloak, the rapier and the hammer and stowed them away in my item box again.

Everything should have been dead, but there was still a survivor.

I don’t know how I know, but…  I knew.

The wolf who attacked me.  The one Gonzo attacked from behind and drove his sword into the spine of…  was alive, barely.

What’s worse was that it was crying out to me in a way that invoked sympathy from me.

It wanted to live, as I did.

Gonzo had moved towards it with his sword in hand ready to silence it, but I called out for him to stop.

“You want to kill it or something?” He asked curiously.

“No… I want you to let this one go.”

“It’s already pretty much dead, man.”

I moved towards it and knelt down in front of it so it could look in my eyes.

“If I heal you, will you attack us?”

It closed it’s eyes.  I interpreted it as a surrender.

“I have to touch you, so no biting.”

I moved to the side of it, and put my hands on both bloody wounds, one on the top of it’s back, and one by what would be it’s shoulder and began to channel Alurian’s Heal into it.

But no matter how much I poured into it, I could feel it’s life slipping away.

The Darkwolf began making a strange gagging noise, like it was trying to regurgitate.  I continued the healing just in case, but I felt the body give out and the healing wouldn’t flow into it anymore.  The last act of the remaining wolf was a black ball that spilled out of its mouth and onto the blood stained patch of grass in front of it.

It looked similar to the orb I found with Duster in the boss room, The Essence of Goblinkind. 

When I took it in hand it felt warm.  

Vibrant.

“What is that?”  Gonzo asked upon seeing it.

“Something useful to me soon, I hope.” I replied, holding the Orb.

Stowing it away, I was able to learn what it was instantly.

「Essence of Canus Matria」

I’ve come across another piece of Essence.  It seems like I have some reading to do now.  I doubt it’s a coincidence, if only because of how I felt drawn.

That wolf was probably the weakest among them, and likely assumed I was the same as it was.  For two creatures who wanted to live to see the next day… it was like there was a resonance between us.

Teresa was finally up on her feet thanks to a hand from Gonzo, and I rose up as well.

“Ready to go?”  I asked, knowing full well it was time to cash in on our busy day.

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