by Brent Tyman
This was probably my time to come clean, but I looked first to both of my women to see how they would react.
Again, Juliana gave me a fairly neutral look, while Clarissa shrugged with a wink. They were leaving it up to me on whether or not I’d share information about my skill with the others.
“Uhh,” I said, drawing everyone’s attention. “I have an explanation for the gains; just hear me out first.”
I explained to everyone about my Growth stat and how I’d started out with some really abysmal stats only a few months ago. I didn’t tell them I was from another world, of course, so the initial story about my origins that I had given to Juliana on our first meeting, sufficed.
I still couldn’t believe it had only been a couple of months since I’d come to this world; I had come so far.
Although, I’d never thought I would find myself stuck in an underground town, of all places.
There was silence as I finished explaining my story, before Karl slammed his hands onto the stone table.
“That’s incredible!” he shouted, causing the guards at the front of the stone house to push open the door and check on the commotion. “You must tell me rough estimates of how many monsters you have vanquished per day in the Dungeon. Your diet on those days would also be appreciated, as well as any other observations you made. I can surely work out how far reaching this skill is!”
“Karl,” Juliana cautioned, but he rushed on.
“Such a skill is unprecedented in its nature. I’ve never heard of a skill that boosts a selected stat to this degree!”
“Karl…” Juliana warned again.
“This sort of increase in Strength spread across the entire party plainly shows huge potential. We could become the most powerful party in all of the three nations in a fraction of time!”
“Karl!” Juliana shouted, bolting up from her chair. “Calm down! Everyone outside can hear.”
Once again, Juliana had to reign Karl in when he went off on one of his tangents and caused a commotion. The man at least looked apologetic as Juliana waved the guards away, who had once again appeared to ensure their charges were safe amidst all the commotion.
“So…” Kesara said, breaking the silence that followed. “Alex has a skill that speeds up stat increases? I knew there was something special in that slim frame of his.”
Once again, Kesara kept calling my frame ‘slim’, of all things, even as she winked at me.
“Hmm,” Vencia said, tapping a finger to her chin. “This does explain why Clarissa Vos Hoganna latched onto you so quickly.”
“Excuse me?” Clarissa huffed, grabbing onto my arm defensively. “That isn’t it, at all. Alex and I were simply made for each other, isn’t that right, handsome?”
Juliana latched onto my other arm as I opened my mouth to respond.
“Made for both of us,” Juliana insisted. “Right, Alex?”
I couldn’t help myself. I chuckled as I looked at each woman in turn.
“Haha, you have the right of it. I meant what I said before, that I consider you both family.”
That was clearly the right thing to say, as both of my women beamed at me.
Maybe I was getting better at picking the right dialogue options, just like those RPG’s I used to play all the time.
“One thing I still don’t understand, though…” I began. “To my mind, everyone should have gotten the same increase as me, since experience is shared across the party, right?”
“Oh,” Clarissa said, “Don’t you know handsome? Me and Anny get full shared experience for our stats, since we are all in the same Clan. Everyone else in the party… not so much.”
“Indeed,” Karl agreed. “Party members with no Clan link receive significantly less increases to their stats from the party link. I believe the rough estimate is around forty percent to fifty percent. It seems, in this case, we received the higher end of this.”
“Really?” I asked in disbelief. “I didn’t know that was the case.”
“Didn’t you wonder why you rarely see adventuring parties who do not share the same Clan?” Juliana asked curiously.
I shook my head. It wasn’t like there was an obvious sign that indicated adventurers were all part of the same Clan or something.
“Well, that is why you seldom find those who only look for a party,” Juliana explained. “It would be foolish to halve your stat gains by only forming a party for Dungeon training. Clans are more… permanent… but they offer such benefits as full experience sharing for stat growth.”
It wasn’t that permanent, since Clarissa had left hers at the drop of a hat, but I knew what she meant. Clans had that air of commitment to them, so naturally everyone was looking for people that would be the best fit.
Even if those people ended up being someone like Daiver…
Daiver waved his arms in the air, and we all turned our attention to him.
“Alex, we should return to the Dungeon immediately. I must develop my stats to the highest level possible before we return to the Academy. I can’t wait to show everyone there my superiority.”
“Uhh,” Kesara groaned. “Can we kick Daiver out of the party, so he can’t benefit from Alex’s skill?”
“I second that,” Vencia agreed.
“Third,” Karl remarked.
“No!” Daiver whined. “I need more stat growth! How else will I surpass my father and become worthy of my impeccable lineage?”
Daiver complained for a few more moments, but Juliana quickly caught everyone’s attention with a firm slap on the table.
“Listen, please,” she said. “Let’s table discussion about Alex’s skill, for now, and focus on more pressing matters. As you might have guessed, we had no luck finding an open route back to the surface.”
“Does Grotsanik still refuse to aid us?” Vencia asked with a frown.
Juliana nodded. “Yes, but we have another solution,” she said, nodding to me.
I took a deep breath and explained my plan to travel even deeper into the tunnels to the level the Ogres had come out of and use the Dungeon as a way to return to Tringall.
“Whaaat!” Kesara screeched. “Isn’t that extremely dangerous?”
“It is,” Karl confirmed. “But I have to admit, ingenious. Using the Dungeon as a means of travel is rarely utilized but should work… in theory at least.”
“Yeah,” Kesara grunted. “But we would have to go really deep, to floors where the monsters could gobble Daiver up in a heartbeat.”
“Huh?” Daiver replied. “My Defense is quite respectable, if you hadn’t noticed.”
Kesara responded by rolling her eyes. “And the support I dished out your way wasn’t trivial. It would be nice if you didn’t simply stand there and take damage.”
“Agreed,” Vencia said. “At least try to dodge an attack every once in a while.”
“How else am I supposed to level my Defense stat?” Daiver frowned, puzzlement plain on his face.
“To answer Juliana’s question,” Karl said, moving the topic along, “Yes, we would be very deep into the Dungeon, but I don’t believe it will be too much of a problem. Demons come from floor forty or so and Ogres from floor thirty. If we are lucky, we won’t need to travel that deep and the path will be much easier.”
Jeez, Demons were from floor forty? To think we had managed to take one of them down—never mind two—was craziness now that I thought about it.
Although that feat seemed to pale in comparison to the massive Titan we had felled just a few days ago.
“Still,” Kesara fretted, “I would need ample protection from a certain slim framed adventurer to ensure nothing untoward happens to me.”
“Must you really, Kesara?” Juliana groaned softly.
“You know me, Juliana,” she winked. “Sometimes I just can’t resist.”
“Hmm,” Clarissa remarked, grinning. “Not bad at all.”
“I think we have a fairly good chance of making it through the Dungeon,” I said. “There’
s some danger, sure, but as long as we don’t get separated like we did last time, I think we can overcome anything the Dungeon throws our way.”
“Plus, it would get me out of this insufferable heat,” Clarissa said, using a hand to fan her pretty face. “If I didn’t have Alex to help me out before bedtime, I don’t know how I would be able to sleep through it.”
“Oh, really?” Kesara perked up, grinning wildly. “Please, elaborate on how he helps.”
I heard both Karl and Daiver groan at this. Vencia simply rolled her eyes.
Juliana’s face turned beet red, but I really wanted to sell my Dungeon idea. “And for guidance,” I continued, “we can make use of Anny’s pathfinding skill as well.”
Anny had seemed content to sit quietly in her seat this entire time and listen to the conversation. But when our eyes turned to her, she looked ready to bolt at the unexpected attention.
“Ahh… me?” she questioned. “Well… I suppose I could, but…”
“We just need to know where enemies are so we can take steps to avoid them,” I said. “Are you able to do that for us?”
“Well… ahhh… Yes, I can,” she said, slowly nodding. “But I still need to test out my Strength stat and…”
“I’m sure we will still run into monsters you can fight,” Clarissa assured her. “And don’t worry, we won’t let any harm come to you.”
That seemed to calm the woman, but I always knew Anny would pull through for us.
She did step up with us against the Titan, after all.
I highly doubted we would face anything even near that level of power on our trip home through the Dungeon.
We spent the rest of the day planning out the trip, and everyone seemed to be in agreement that it was worth a try. We always had the option of returning to the Beastkin town, if we ended up at a dead end or things got too heated in the Dungeon.
The only thing left to do was to prepare the supplies, tell the soldiers, and take another dive in the Dungeon.
Despite the added danger, I couldn’t wait to explore the deeper levels.
3
True to his word, Grotsanik supplied us with all the food, water and necessities we could ever need for our journey.
We only had one pack horse left, though, so most of the supplies were divvied up into backpacks and spread out amongst the soldiers.
In only two days, we were ready to leave. As I waited by the west gate, where the Ogre attack had originated, I couldn’t help but note how much smaller our force had gotten.
Juliana had brought one hundred soldiers with us from Tringall. Clarissa had surprisingly showed up afterwards, and while I didn’t learn how many she had brought at the time, she told me today it had been around one hundred and thirty.
After the Troglodread encounter and the Ogre battle, I counted only forty-two soldiers left. It was a mostly even split between Sovereignty soldiers and Hoganna ones, with maybe a few more of the soldiers sporting green dyed armor.
At this point, it mattered little which soldier was from what nation; the remainder seemed to act as one unit and there was little friction between them.
That was good to see. The last thing we needed was to get into fights amongst ourselves, when there were so few of us left.
Once everything was ready, we finally got going, with practically the entire town sending us off.
“Be careful, Nyaa!”
“Nyaa! Thank you for your help!”
“Come back anytime, Nyaa!”
The cat girls’ voices were fairly loud and distinct, compared to the other Beastkins’ deeper shouts. I nodded to Grotsanik who stood at the edge of the ruined west gate.
“The town will always welcome you back, any of you. Please return to us should things get too difficult,” he said.
“We were happy to help,” I replied. “And thanks for the supplies, once again.”
“Farewell,” Juliana said formally, bowing her head slightly.
“Don’t forget you owe my father for this,” Clarissa added as we moved out of earshot and into the tunnel.
“Once again, I am puzzled how a noble such as you, from such a powerful clan, lacks basic etiquette,” Juliana commented, shaking her head ruefully.
Clarissa grinned at that and pressed her breasts into my arm in response.
“Who needs etiquette, when my wiles have won me my handsome Alex?”
“At least the heat is starting to die down,” I said, feeling cooler air touching my face.
“It really stinks here, though,” Anny commented, wrinkling her nose. “What is that?”
“Don’t you remember?” Clarissa asked. “The Titan barreled through this tunnel and turned many Ogres into puddles of goop.”
“Oh,” Kesara said, looking down. “I had almost forgotten. Best I not get my boots wet, then.”
“We had to climb over rocks to get to the town before,” Vencia said. “It seems the Beastkin have cleared some of the rubble.”
She was correct.
While this tunnel had collapsed, thanks to the Titan, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the damage the Troglodread had caused to the much larger tunnel we had taken on our way into the depths. Juliana’s retinue had been able to climb over the rubble left by the Titan fairly easily, from all accounts, just before we had reunited.
Now, though, this tunnel had only a few piles of rubble on either side, with the middle being easily passable. Only fist-sized rocks remained on the path.
We spotted the occasional Ogre limb amongst the debris though; that was probably where the awful smell was coming from.
“How long do we have to walk like this?” Kesara complained, stepping daintily over an arm. “If only I could ride the horse.”
“Haha,” I laughed. “I’m fairly sure that the one horse we have is carrying a third of the supplies.”
I looked back to see if I could spot the horse, but it was hidden by the mass of red and green armored soldiers.
We reached the exit of the tunnel, where the path forked. We could either take the path to the left or the one to the right. I looked up, hoping to see hints of the damage the Titan’s massive form might have done as it had smashed its way through this tunnel. I was surprised it hadn’t done more damage here.
“Which way, Anny?” I asked, and the woman’s eyes became unfocused.
“Ahh, well, both paths lead somewhere, but I’m not able to see where,” she replied sheepishly.
“Hmm,” Karl mused. “If we prioritize paths that go deeper underground, then eventually we should reach the Dungeon.”
“As long as we don’t let our dearest Daiver lead the way,” Kesara said. “I’ve had enough of his detours to last me a lifetime.”
“We reached the town… eventually,” Daiver reasoned, but Kesara only rolled her eyes.
“Let’s try the left path, then,” I suggested. “And Anny can let us know if there are any dead ends well before we reach them.”
“I love it when you’re so decisive, handsome,” Clarissa mused, stroking my arm.
“Let’s move forward then,” Juliana said, giving the soldiers behind us a quick hand signal.
We traveled along the left path, until I spotted more corpses of fallen Ogres.
Only this time, it seemed their remains were closer to puddles of goop than rotting limbs. That was likely the Titan’s doing.
Although I suppose most of the Ogres had been dispatched by the Titan, now that I thought about it. There had been plenty of them in the tunnel, just before the Titan appeared.
I was pleased we had access to Anny’s guidance as we navigated the tunnels. Her pathfinding skill turned out to be invaluable.
It had occurred to us that the Titan likely had smashed its way through some tunnels on its way to the surface, and we found further evidence of its presence in slightly collapsed tunnels.
Unfortunately, some parts of this cave system had extremely high ceilings, making it difficult simply to retrace its steps. There was the occasional cor
pse of an Ogre here and there, but they were far too spread out to be reliable indicators that we were still on the right path.
Anny quickly found a route that was shaped like a spiral staircase, looping downwards until we reached the Dungeon. We knew it was the Dungeon, thanks to a small opening that appeared in one of the walls, which looked to be very out of place on this spiral path.
“There it is,” Juliana said, pointing to the opening. “This must be where the Ogres broke through into this tunnel system.”
“Does that mean this is floor thirty?” I asked and Juliana shook her head.
“If I remember correctly, from what I gleaned from my father’s messages, the Ogres had traveled upwards towards the surface. This is probably just an opening they found along the way,” she said.
Juliana ordered some men to take point, and we watched as a row of soldiers formed up and approached the opening.
“This is strange,” Karl said. He took off his glasses and gave them a good wipe with some cloth before placing them back on his face.
“What is?” Vencia asked, curious.
“I was made to believe this Titan had chased the Ogres towards Valdura.”
“That’s what happened,” Daiver piped up. “And, I heroically dispatched the ones that were in our way.”
“But look at this hole,” Karl said, pointing. “It’s far too small for the Titan to fit through. In fact, it’s far slimmer than it should be. The Ogres would have had to have walked through single file. Why didn’t they simply smash the thin wall into a wider opening? I can’t accept that this is where they came from.”
I considered Karl’s argument, and I had to agree with him, now that I thought about it. This opening in the Dungeon was almost too clean, with straight lines running along either side, as if someone had used something like a drill to make the entryway.
“Huh,” I said, tilting my head to the side. “You’re right. The sides of the opening look charred as well.”
“An excellent observation,” Karl said. “Also, while some Ogres could have passed through, the Titan clearly did not. I don’t believe the Ogres did so, either.”
