Chapter 55: Building Momentum

  It remained dark, but Crimson became aware of himself. He flexed his fist a few times, then punched himself in the other arm, trying to see if the sensation of movement was in his head. The punched arm hurt, so he was able to move.

  The darkness was oppressive, it felt like it was wrapped around his face, so it threw him off a bit. He tried to reach out with his [Mana], and found that he lost control of it the second it left his body. He grimaced at that. It was an unpleasant feeling.

  Since he could move, he started to walk, and in just two steps he was suddenly greeted by a bright light. After blearily blinking his eyes for a minute, they finally adjusted enough for him to look around, though he needed to keep them squinted, and saw that he was outside the [Goblin Manor] dungeon. He’d just exited the fog wall that made up the entrance of the dungeon.

  With a sigh and a stretch, he checked his [Blessing].

  —————

  -You have died!

  -For your hubris and weakness, face punishment!

  -Debilitations:

  -All dungeon progress has been lost.

  -EXP gain has been prevented for a week, or until the equivalent of [3] levels of EXP have been provided.

  -Your equipped weapons have lost 25% of their durability.

  -Your clothing has not been designated as armor. The condition for durability loss has not been met.

  —————

  At least his clothes had been spared. Looking further, he saw that his [Class] had a strikethrough over it, and written on top of that was the word ‘Death.’ Where the [Class Levels] usually appeared, there was now a timer, followed by a slash, then a 0/3 to represent the levels he needed to provide. At least it was properly spelled out.

  He glanced at his rapier’s durability, then exchanged it after seeing how low it was.

  [Repair] would be expensive in the long term. Low level [Repair] was cheap, but 50% of the missing durability would be taken from the weapon, so the damage added up quickly. It was possible to find a few specialists out there with a [Perfect Repair] or equivalent [Skill], but they typically served an exceedingly wealthy clientele, either high-level [Adventurers], or nobles.

  For a rapier as cheap as this, it wasn’t worth a major investment into a better [Repair], but at the same time, permanently losing a weapon felt horribly unpleasant. He’d probably retire it when it’s max durability reached 50% of the original value.

  Hanging one of the longswords on his belt in place of the abused rapier, he turned around and walked back into the dungeon.

  He took the same route as last time, working his way to Verity. While he might’ve lost the [Skill Levels] he’d gained from [Advanced Sword Mastery], his body still remembered what it felt like to be at that slightly higher level, so he recovered them in about half the time.

  He breezed through the early encounters of the dungeon, and even managed to pick up another pair of [Fling Skill Stones], bringing the total he’d found that day to five. It was a very high amount, so it helped soothe his frustration.

  He was trying…very hard to suppress the emotions he felt from dying. There were very few situations he’d been in since getting his [Class] when he’d actually failed. He had faced countless mild setbacks, and he would never pretend that treating Alois and Rhea was easy, but he’d never objectively failed this bad.

  He’d taken down one goblin, then had been crushed like a bug. He knew from Guild Records that the boss was Lv.15, ten levels higher than him, but it didn’t feel like the fight was impossible. His strategy could use some work, and he hadn’t been able to get the space to use magic. Maybe if he’d had Verity to provide even a bit of back up, they might’ve done it.

  Objectively, he knew it would be better to wait until at least Fade had gotten his [Class] before trying again, but he wasn’t one to back down from a challenge like this. That meant that he’d need to earn a lot of money to afford cheap swords for future attempts, and he needed to figure out what conditions he needed to meet to win. What [Skills] could he obtain? Evolve? If he trained for another stat increase, would that slight edge be enough?

  He’d need to ruminate on the problem before deciding on what those would be, and next time, he’d come back with a winning formula.

  Unfortunately, he’d forgot to pass the key to Verity before entering the boss room, and the progress reset also included the items that he had in his [Inventory] from the dungeon exploration, so he had to hunt the trio of Lv.14 goblins once more. Two had moved, but the last one was still guarding the locked door.

  It was noticeably harder without Verity, but he was nothing if not tenacious, and despite being forced to retreat twice to heal, he managed to bring them all down.

  With a click, the pins in the lock settled in to place and he opened the door. Verity was sitting where he had left her, but she now had a book in her hand that she was attentively reading.

  Her efforts had really started to pay off, so it was nice to see that she hadn’t given up on improving herself at every opportunity.

  He walked over and tapped her on the arm, causing her to jump, recognize him, swear, then punch him in the arm. It was a good hit, but Crimson’s CON was higher than in the past, so it didn’t hurt.

  “My bad.” He said, having not meant to sneak up on her.

  She stood, “How’d it go?”

  “I died,” he responded dryly, “how do you think it went?”

  “Well, you could’ve died after a hard won battle, or you could’ve gone down in 6 seconds. Which was it?”

  “I took down one goblin before the boss buffed the rest of them, then managed to break the buff by hitting the boss, but was immediately hit from all sides.”

  He didn’t know what the expression on her face meant. It was a combination of disappointment and satisfaction.

  “It could’ve been worse,” she said, “now you realize that you can’t win every fight you pick?”

  “Of course I can’t, but I’m training to make sure I’ll be able to later.”

  She slapped her forehead, “Then you missed the whole point!”

  “Don’t worry, I get it. You’re trying to teach me some caution, as well as where my limits are.”

  “I was also trying to correct your attitude, but it seems I failed!” She growled out.

  Crimson tilted his head, “What kind of attitude do you want me to have?”

  That brought her up short, then she awkwardly said, “Well…I wanted you to be at least a little torn up about losing…maybe a few tears from the pain of death?”

  “So you just really wanted me to suffer.”

  “No. No! I just want you to be set up for success.”

  She looked at him for a moment, then rubbed her forehead and said, “This worked on me, so I thought it would work on you too.”

  Ahh, that explained a lot.

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  “Well, we are different people. I guess you’ll just have to point it out in the future, when my attitude is wrong.”

  She sighed, “I’ll tell you if I seen anything genuinely problematic. I’m going to let it go for today though. It seems the problem is with me and not you this time.”

  Crimson nodded, then they left the safe room. The enemies he’d fought his way through hadn’t respawned yet, so they left the mansion without any fighting.

  Once outside, Verity asked, “So, we going to head back?”

  “I was thinking that we should grind for [Skill Stones] in the chasms.”

  “…So you intend to take on the [Imp Overlord], again?”

  “Of course, we’ll probably need to kill him dozens of times.”

  “You’re taking this way too lightly.”

  “I have a fresh sword, this one won’t break immediately.”

  She sighed once more, she’d been doing that a lot today, and they headed down into the chasms to become the Imp’s death gods.

  —————

  Fade was at the guild training grounds, a few days after their first party meeting, doing pushups. Rhea was now isolating herself to deal with the impending [Blessing] that she was about to receive, and Crimson and Verity kept hitting up the dungeon. He took note of their activities, but he wasn’t too caught up in what they were doing. His body finally felt like it was finally in top form, and he needed to get to work grinding his [Skills].

  The list Crimson had given him yesterday of [Skills] he would need to get included: [Improved Recovery], [Ailment Resistance], [Attract], and [Roar]. Along with the list, he’d been given a [Skill Stone] for the [Skill: Robust]. It was his first time holding a [Skill Stone], so it had taken him a bit to get over his awe, but he’d eventually broken out of his daze and absorbed it. It was amazing how numb to [Skill Stones] he was becoming.

  Crimson had handed Rhea a total of ten [Fling Skill Stones], and also gave her the [Skill Stone: Weak Presence]. After doing that, he had expressed frustration at a ‘stubborn boss’ for not dropping its [Skill Stone] more often.

  Fade could only grin in a daze, but that swiftly became rage too. This gods cursed condition of his was something he couldn’t dwell on, since thinking about it would constantly increase the rage until he went absolutely mad. That had been the first reason why he’d been put in jail.

  Setting that dark history aside, he was forced to realize very early on that common sense went out the window when it came to Crimson. He knew for a fact that he had two more [Weak Presence Skill Stones], and that was only so they could discuss why it would be a bad idea for Fade to learn that [Skill].

  It hadn’t taken much convincing to realize that the Tank being less noticeable was a bad idea. As for Rhea, she’d promised to return [Weak Presence] to Crimson if the [Class] she chose would be harmed by it. After she said that, he became aware of something, an interesting effect to see in Rhea, then recognize in himself: trust.

  In other parties he’d been in, temporary as they had been, if a [Skill Stone] had popped up, everyone would’ve fought over it - even if they didn’t need it. In this party? If Crimson or Verity found a [Skill Stone], they always reported in that they had found it, and gave it to the one who needed it the most.

  Take yesterday, for example. Crimson had gotten a [Skill Stone] for [Darkvision], and he had left it up to them who would get it, with both the promise and understanding that he would get enough for everyone.

  Gods curse him for it, but Fade believed him without question, and [Darkvision] unanimously went to Verity, who was already active in the dungeon.

  Finished exercising, he stood, inspecting his impending opponent.

  It was the kid from the tournament, Mortimer, who Verity had suggested as a potential party member. He was lanky, with darker skin, and dull orange hair and eyes. Crimson had asked him and Rei to vet the guy when they got the chance after he’d declined Verity’s suggestion that he start over for a better [Class]. He was already Lv.5, and didn’t want to give it up. Fade wasn’t sure whether to blame him for that decision or not. Only time would tell.

  He was a little fascinated to feel like he was already being treated like a trusted comrade. His opinion was as equally valid as the senior members of the party, and he felt respected. It was a great feeling.

  If Crimson only knew what affect his casual actions were having…

  Going back to the matter at hand, Fade had yet to finalize his decision on Mortimer, but he was leaning more toward ‘yes’ than ‘no’ - even if only on a temporary basis. He was a little worried about the kid’s attitude, but there was always time to change. If he too ended up getting swept up in Crimson’s pace, then he’d be a fine comrade.

  Fade didn’t have any equipment to use, so he borrowed training weapons from the guild to use against Mortimer for this bout, a shield and an axe. All of the equipment he had was Lv.14 and higher, so he couldn’t use any of it for a bit. He’d sold all his low level weapons to help him afford better ones when he upgraded, and that decision had unexpectedly come back to haunt him.

  Squaring up, Mortimer summoned a massive greatsword, a knife, and a shield, then sent the two weapons after him.

  Just looking at Mortimer gave him an immediate sense of what he was planning. It was instinct beyond logic for Fade, and from that he knew that the knife was the decoy, while the greatsword was the real attack.

  It would be easy to assume it was the other way around, as the greatsword was attention-getting, but Mortimer was trying to use Fade’s prior combat experience against him to make him focus more on the knife.

  He pretended to fall for it, but all the while, his instinct hummed within him.

  He deflected a stab from the knife with his shield, twisted to avoid an attack from the greatsword, then stepped once more to dodge the knife, and used the shield to deflect the second blow from the greatsword. The attack he was waiting for hadn’t come yet, so despite the rage within him egging him on, struggling in impatience, Fade waited while playing a defensive game.

  He didn’t have any talent for things like parrying, his weapon choice wasn’t suited for it any way, so his axe was useless as he dodged around, but he kept it at the ready anyway, waiting, watching. Eventually, Mortimer seemed to pick up on the openings Fade had been intentionally leaving, and attempted to use the move he was waiting for.

  The dagger shot at him, just barely visible from the corner of his eye. As it caught his attention, the greatsword seemed to disappear from view, but instinct told him where it was. Above!

  It whipped at him, spinning end over end as he side stepped the dagger right into the path of the greatsword. If he hadn’t known about it bearing down on his head, he might’ve been in trouble, but he did, so he swept his shield overhead, deflecting it by him and straight into the ground.

  It stuck at an angle, and a quick blow from the back of his axe drove it deeper into the ground, making it stick, and giving him time to shatter Mortimer’s Shield in 6 powerful blows. While he’d been pretending to play along with Mortimer’s long con game, he’d been conning him, and had naturally edged closer with his dodges, without the boy noticing.

  It was far more strategic than he usually fought, but what could he say? His fight with Crimson had impacted him. He’d need to strike a better balance between ferocity and strategy moving forward - especially because he’d need to be acting within a permanent party.

  He sparred with Mortimer a few more times, and despite having fewer levels, he didn’t find any of them harder than the first. He won every single time. If he had to point out a specific flaw with Mortimer, it was that he was too impulsive. He tried to act with strategy, but his strategy began and ended with the weapons he chose to summon.

  He didn’t do anything like abruptly changing a greatsword to a shield, nor did he let the weapons languish to make Fade forget about them. He made some half hearted attempts to use himself as bait, but his [Class] wasn’t physically based, so even when Fade walked into those traps, he could beat Mortimer down before the trap finished its work, just with his physical stats.

  Fade’s STR and AGI were only average, so the fact that he was able to perform such a one-sided mindless beatdown meant that those stats were below average for Mortimer.

  He was willing to say yes to Mortimer joining, but he’d need to put in some more effort to be on the same page as the rest of the party. Each of the four current members were power-driven, and had both the goals and the motivation to act on that desire. Mortimer might be power-driven, that remains to be seen, and he might have lofty goals, but whether he had the motivation was another story.

  With enough motivation, even pride can be disrupted. Fade was living proof.

  —————

  Rhea moaned in pain, alone in the room she shared with Verity, but the pain was worth it. Reflected in her eyes was a stone covered in writing, conveying everything about her existence.

  Unfortunately, one of the first things written was:

  —————

  -The gods grant you Rizvim, may you be undaunted.

  -[Ul Madit] has been granted.

  -[Ul Madit]: Spells cannot be learned nor used.

  —————

  While she wasn’t surprised at all, she was grateful that it wasn’t worse.

  The first thing she did was reach into the bag under her bed, slowly, and drag out the bag of [Skill Stones] that she’d put under there. It was heavier than before, so Verity had likely added another one or two while she’d been unconscious.

  She shattered [Fling Skill Stones] one after the other in her grip, and immediately was left with a maxed [Fling]. The first one taught the [Skill], and each successive one increased the level. Progress for cheap, all it took was killing hundreds or thousands of goblins, or one Crimson.

  Crimson had gotten progressively more mad as the week passed on, as mentioned to her by Verity, and the reason was the boss, [Mulgis], had not wanted to drop [Darkvision]. Based on the fact that she’d just found one in the bag, he’d finally managed to luck out.

  She broke that too, and a small area, like a bubble, around her in the dim room seemed just a bit brighter. Just bright enough to read.

  There were a couple [Cut Skill Stones], and she broke those too. The last one in the bag was for [Weak Presence], but as promised, she didn’t use that one. She still honestly didn’t know which [Class] she wanted.

  Verity had once mentioned that she had a road of infinite possibilities before her, so rather than worry about all those choices, she should just pick the one that sounds right. They were pretty words, but worthless to her.

  Rather than a road of infinite possibilities, she felt more like she was hovering over a dark void of disappointment, despair, and woe.

  Nothing felt right, and any decisions she made felt like they’d be wrong, so she was just going along with the options right in front of her. She didn’t have a reason to want or need [Fling], but maybe it could help. Because she’d decided to pick up [Cut], her weapon of choice would be a set of claws. There would be no deeper reason, and she was more worried about the fact that her flippancy didn’t worry her.

  She saw how much Crimson, Verity, and even that bonehead Fade thought about their decisions. Fade had even asked Crimson if he could have a little extra time to pick up an additional [Skill], which had been met with wholehearted approval.

  She…wanted to get stronger. She had the motivation to do it too, but she didn’t have anything to point these feelings at.

  All she needed was a spark, a little idea, a hint, and she’d go all in on it. In the mean time, she’d worry about the low-hanging fruit in front of her…once she no longer felt so sore. Two more days in bed, and she should be back in action.