The Witch Tamer, Book 1
Page 17
"That sounds all right. But I need time to figure out how it even works," I said.
I also didn't want to lose the chance to dungeon explore, because that kind of strength would be necessary in breaking away from the family.
"Yeah well don't take too long. And I can feel you did something with that necklace. Don't lie to me," mom's eyes seemed to bore into me like daggers.
"I'm not! Really! But like this morning I read something I didn't know. But I realized there might be literally hundreds of secrets to figure out," I said quickly and nervously.
"Point taken. OK, one last thing. Your dad and I will get another maid for the house soon. We need someone that can protect this place and keep troublemakers out while we're at work; someone with a higher level rating and a few defense and combat skills also. So we ordered one from the underground black markets. The maid we already have is good but she's only level 47. I'll have to look for others. That will help make sure that the girl you have in your room has someone guarding and looking out for her and Melanie should they ever try to escape," mom said.
(You can order black market maids in the underground world? Wow. And to think the old maid was level 47?!)
I flinched.
"Mom, Melanie wants to be here truly. She won't be like that," I said.
"But you aren't sure about Simone yet," mom said.
"Don't hurt her please. She just needs time," I pleaded.
Somehow mom seemed pleased with that. Is she hoping to control me through threats to my girls? I hadn't intended for her to detect that and see through me, but she's too cunning.
Shit.
Mom is really a piece of work.
"I wonder...marriage can be rough. I don't know if she'll still be saying that two years from now when the honeymoon phase ends. If Melanie gets tired of this and leaves then you have the other girl. And vice versa. You'll thank me later. Plus, when you get really powerful other governments will try to bribe you with lovers like they did others in our family. Its quite normal," mom said.
Then she got up to leave.
Wow, she's intense.
...
By the end of school, by my calculations I'll be able to do another dungeon run.
If only leveling up was so easy...
And before leaving for school in the morning, I had sex with Melanie. Or rather, I guess she had sex with me and initiated it.
I also managed 2 more enchant attempts, which both failed.
But that's to be expected. I'm trying to fight to level up. Of course there's adversity along the way.
I felt a bit nervous going to school. There's not much time left in the semester also.
School was a bit boring.
But I used the bathroom during lunch and did 2 more enchant attempts, since by then my mana bar had filled up again.
Success! One of them worked!
This was used on my buckler mini-shield, which I use on my left hand, while holding a light. (But I realized the flaw in my plan is that I should have more than one backup flashlight, just in case. If something were to happen to my main light or if it were damaged that would be really bad. Being without any light in the dungeon would be suicide!)
When I touched my status screen's skill in use screen to look at the enchant options, I see some interesting options.
Option 1; 10% damage absorption
Option 2; +5 defense flat
Option 3; +5 block
Option 4; Not yet unlocked
Option 5; Not yet unlocked
Option 6; +3 defense, +2 block
Weird...I don't know much about the differences between defense and blocking actually? In games they are different. But I don't know if I understand how they work differently in reality.
Reality is much more important than a game.
I decided to pick the 'Option 2'.
[(Cheap) Buckler has been enchanted to +5 defense!] registered on my status screen.
I still have a lot to learn about how status screen stats work.
Hm...
I looked at the new updated stats in my status screen list.
Gear list;
Health necklace +1 (per 6 hours, maxed)
Baseball cap
Jacket +2
Jeans (+2 defense)
2 throwing knives at +2
1 long crowbar +3
Hoodie +1 defense
Flashlight (energy efficient enchant)
Baseball Bat
Buckler
+5
Slowly I'm getting more ready. Today I might even be able to do some good.
Most people that don't come from a well equipped clan like ours wouldn't have even this much enhanced gear probably into the level 20s even. Getting an enchantment element really is a huge gain for me to start with!
This feels exciting to think about.
This should help my growth a lot early on.
I also did some normal enhancement also while in the bathroom stall, hiding the magic effects going off. Plus, at a school with no one else in the bathroom it should be safe with no one the wiser.
I brought the shield's normal enhancement up to +3.
But I was confused why it won't let me raise the crowbar up past +3. (This is another mystery to solve. Maybe I need more level ups? Or?)
When I look at the buckler now it shows [Buckler (+5)+3] in my system. Or in other words; buckler +3 enhancement with a +5 defense enchant. But if I were more skilled the enchant could be a spell effect instead or something else.
I hurriedly put everything away and shut the status screen when another person came into the bathroom then. After that I felt extremely tired.
My mana bar was now at... 130/339, at right before 1 PM.
Losing that much mana all at once kind of made me sleepy also.
By the end of the school (I'd fallen asleep in class), so my mana bar went up to 175/339.
Melanie picked me up in her truck at 3:07 PM from school.
A lot of people are jealous, when they see the beautiful sexy Melanie picking me up. Someone like her stops traffic. And she'd clearly dolled herself up before picking me up in short shorts with tanned legs and a nice form fitting tank top.
Plus, her truck is big lift kit option enabled, and also new, which adds to other people at my school being curious. I'd endured people asking about her the last few days.
Its pushed my image up also.
"Hey. I missed you," she said.
"Thanks. Missed you too," I replied.
"Hurry. Let's go. Maybe we can go find somewhere to go make out?" she gave me a sly grin.
"Sounds fun."
"So are you going in the 'Tower' again today?" she asked me while pulling out of the pick up zone. She looks happy to see me also, and is holding hands with me.
"I want to. But my mana is a bit tight again. I might need another day first to rest," I told her.
"OK, just don't let anything happen to you. If something happens to you, it will become terrible for Simone and I," her voice trembled.
She then tells me usually beginners only go up like once a week, with lots of down time, either to heal up or acquire tools or gear.
So I do have a huge edge, even if I rest a day or two.
"Are you OK?" I took her hand.
"While you were gone, your mom had the maid come in and burn our clothes. We're only allowed one outfit for when we go out. I guess she wants to keep us locked up and under your family's control. I got lucky, since I have a clan connection. But Simone doesn't get anything at all. Jay, our families suck. This demon lord clan thing, which is a lot harsher than I thought it would be, when you are underneath them," she said while pulling onto the main road.
She seems to be purposely driving slow.
She seems to be doing that to enjoy our time together, while chatting with me. And maybe she's relieving a bit of stress.
I put my arm around her waist to comfort her.
"Thanks," she replied.
(The maid mak
es Melanie check out her one outfit like a library book, when leaving the house, in case she were to get pulled over.)
Its kind of fun to watch her strip, when we get home.
My family sure is crazy weird. If we weren't so powerful they'd definitely get in trouble for something like this.
"Sorry," I said.
"NO! Hey! Don't be sorry! I love you! I love you so much Jay!" Melanie said tearfully. "If this is what I have to go through to have love. Wow, its going to be OK. Although I think part of your mom hiring the new maid is to keep Diego from your room."
Shit...
Was he there again?
That made me worried.
But its fascinating how the mind control skills are making Melanie like putty in my hands. She's already trying to change the subject to making out when we get home instead. Both of us already know it will lead to way more than making out; and her eyes twinkle while saying it.
I'm interested in experimenting with it.
Wait, that's wrong to think that isn't it?
But Melanie was going to go after me anyway. This Mind Control route is just keeping her honest. So its arguably justified.
I found out a few more things.
She and Simone also were given an exercise program that they have to do from mom, including work on the treadmill while I'm at school by the maid. The maid is supposed to especially lean on Simone.
That made me flinch and feel stressed out.
Sorry Simone, I kept thinking.
Mom really is worried about her betraying us. That's why she's doing this to train her.
...
I had Melanie drop me off at 'The Tower' entrance after we found a place to 'make out', but we'd actually gone all the way like usual. She will go home and then pick me up.
I lost 10 dollars paying for the entrance fee charge, which sucks.
Then I went in.
Like before the dungeon hasn't changed. The first level floor is unchanging it seems.
I passed several solo adventurers hunting while going in.
Then I started my first kobold battle!
Smash! My crowbar goes into the kobold's skull easily within 3 blows and one stun. Sometimes also if you hit them in the head you can stun them just from the damage; which will save mana but not physical stamina.
Nice!
My crowbar +3 is doing +3 damage more than my crowbar +2 was doing! Its probably around +20% damage gain! That's amazing! A very nice increase!
However, I doubt the gains will always be like that. This one might be like that because the damage was low to begin with?
I shrugged.
I don't want to test my buckler out, because that means exposure to damage. And I'll eventually run into that anyway.
I stormed through the tunnels easily.
In one room a giant rat is trying to eat an adventurer. When I'd snuck up on them, it looked like it was chewing on its intestines and guts.
Gross...
I ran past.
I fight 3 more skirmishes; two of which were giant rats, but the last of the three was a slime.
I want to avoid the giant rats. They seem like a lot of trouble. Luckily they are rare.
I passed a slime also that was asleep. I snuck by carefully.
And one dark pit, I'm not even sure what was there and didn't want to climb down into.
But by then I heard someone calling for help.
I ran forward.
Smack!
Pain went through me, and it took minute to figure out what had happened. I braced my buckler over myself to absorb the blows coming down.
I began to also panic in my mind.
Get up or you'll die, I thought to myself quickly. I managed to pull through the needle like feeling of my head ringing enough to activate my status screen skill.
I lashed out with my stun. To be safe I'd done two stuns in a row and then smashed into the other person!
It was an ambush!
They'd called for help with the intention of hurting whoever answered the call for help!
I kept alternating my stun with my crowbar smack down. I even managed a shield bash once or twice.
By the time, I'm done with the minor skirmish, I see that I'd taken (-12 damage) total. This is much more than I usually do. And it would have been a death if I wasn't wearing enchanted gear.
I stopped to loot the body.
Who the hell just did that to me? It hurt immensely but nothing is broken, thank goodness.
Well the dungeon is starting to eat their bodies already, but its happening slowly.
There's a nice backpack which I took. Inside are 4 wallets.
I was horrified as I realized what it meant! The wallets aren't theirs. Those are obviously victims' wallets taken by this killer.
"Jose Rodriguez, Michelle Smith, Bryan Jex, and the last one says, Addie Burgens," I read aloud. Each of the IDs also has blood stains on them. They also looked like young students, probably they'd been too energetic and ambitious beyond their stats limits.
Sad.
I took a quick picture of the face of the person that had tried to kill me before his body melted. That would help the guards outside use their camera feeds and track this guy down.
I also took the guy's money and whatever else was salvageable. His hoodie I didn't want because it had too much gore, plus it smelled like something that belonged to a drug junkie.
(I think this guy also was a higher level than me also. But he didn't have real armor. Plus, he didn't have magic, which gave me the chance to live.)
$347 dollars...not much if you consider the loss of life he reaped to get that much.
I was able to salvage one of the guy's swords, but the other one was broken from our fight, when my crowbar hit it.
I kept working through the tunnels, but this time I'm a bit wary and worried of helping people calling for help. I never expected that someone would try to kill me that way.
I ran into new monsters today. And I had to even speed up to avoid having large amounts of down time. I even lost track of how many kills I did, and had a hard time getting back to the entrance.
The giant rat. (I need to find out what the chance of getting a disease from these is, before I go after them too much.)
Feral squirrel. (Possibly mutated, but didn't look diseased, unless by mana something.)
Willow wisp. (Very very rare).
I wish I could capture the wisps. I'd read they have a lot of mana. But I'm not sure how to do that. Plus, if I were to do so while carrying it back to the entrance it might give away my position to enemies if it saw an opening to do so.
Plus, they are fast and dodge well, so grabbing them would be hard, even though they don't hit for very much damage.
...
I felt exhausted coming out. By then its getting close to being dark.
My cell phone time reads: 8:31 PM.
Wow, I was in there for close to four hours! I'd had no doubt I probably fought more than 3 times those numbers of the previous run also. (My body hurts. I reduced wounds a lot but I'm bruised up everywhere also.)
There are lamps put out here by the staff also, even though this looks like an abandoned urban concrete river bed area.
(I noticed they increased the guards before it got dark also. And a lot of the shops stand guys leave before it gets dark but not all.)
I called Melanie to come get me.
While she's driving down here, I visited shops.
I sell my loot, which is much better this time!
The loot sales comes to $217, which is added to the previous $347! The total for today alone combined with everything together is $664!
Wow!
I went from thinking I was bankrupt to this! Just a few enhancements and upgrades had really given me a boost!
Amazing!
"How'd you do?" Melanie asked. "Are you hurt?" she asked worriedly giving me a quick hug.