Chapter 49: What Lurks in the Dark

  Crimson quickly looted the drops of the goblins he’d just killed. He also noted that the [Enhanced Recovery] Verity had cast on him had run out a bit ago. Hopefully she would still get the experience for the kills.

  Among the drops, there was another [Skill Stone]. This one was for [Fling], another that Crimson didn’t have a use for, but he held it up for Verity to see, then slipped it into his [Blessing] while she rattled off a list of cusses.

  [Skills] were great, but [Skills] that would force him to fight differently would be a problem. Crimson had a ranged option - magic - so he didn’t need a [Skill] that would take away from his time training more useful ones.

  Verity wouldn’t have a use for this one either, but he offered it to her when they met up again. She punched him in the arm again, then declined it sweetly.

  Looking around the room again, Crimson noted that there were four doors on the first floor they were on, not counting the entrance. One each on the left and right wall, and one on each side of the staircase on the back wall. The top of the stairs had a door, with two more directly over the ones on the left and right wall.

  That said, the manor wasn’t in very good condition. The wood was frayed or broken in several places on the bannister, and the tiles they were walking on were dirty, dusty, and cracked in several places.

  The goblins who attacked them all used rudimentary weapons, so environmental story telling would indicate that the set up was that they took over a manor they found, maybe after killing the previous inhabitants.

  There weren’t any paintings to help that thought, but there might be some further in that could help verify that theory.

  After a moment of surveying, Crimson turned back to Verity and asked, “What level are you at?”

  “Level 4,” she responded, seeming bemused by the abrupt progress.

  “Good, then lets head back for today. I’d love to explore more, but I don’t want to risk getting another level.” He said after a moment of thought.

  Verity shook her head at him, “I’ve never heard anyone say they want to be careful not to get a level.”

  “Sure, we need to make sure the repercussions aren’t too severe, and we also need to spend more time training our [Skills]. Balanced growth is what I’m shooting for. Also,” he said wryly, “I can think of a group of people who intentionally kept their levels low to terrorize weaker opponents. They just got disqualified from participating in their respective Tournament Categories.”

  Verity fell silent for a long moment, staring at him with piercing eyes, before finally saying, “I wasn’t going to say anything, but it’s hard to bite my tongue when you’re this unobservant.”

  A flash of concern, and the sudden appearance of a stone in his gut made Crimson worry about what she’d say next.

  “We need to worry about revenge from the tournament participants. You saw that they were getting mad at you? Yet, you didn’t pay enough attention to note that those same people followed us here today.”

  He frowned, then tilted his head in thought. Now that she pointed out that detail…he realized that the people he’d vaguely recognized on the wagon were tournament participants. He’d been so wrapped up in his own stress that he hadn’t given it any further thought.

  “So,” he said, his thoughts blazing, “you think we’re going to have to fight our way out of here?”

  Verity nodded, with an expression that said, ‘he finally gets it!’

  Crimson grimaced, then lightly asked, “You weren’t going to mention it to me?”

  “Sure, you need to make mistakes to learn from them. You wanted my experience? You make mistakes. Its not like I’ve never died in a [Godmade Dungeon]. I’ve had to give up on a lot of things I’ve wanted and needed to get stronger, and I’ve even lost new [Skills] to dungeon wipes. I want you to be strong, but your current level of strength has made you careless.”

  “Oh you’re cautious against the strong alright,” she said, continuing, “but against people who you think are weaker, you tend to drop your guard too much. You are blind to people of the same kind as you, someone who intentionally hunts those stronger than them. I thought I’d just let you figure it out the hard way, but if I don’t point it out, I’ll lose my mind.”

  Verity’s criticism was quite scathing, but Crimson wasn’t bothered by it. Rather, this is the kind of stuff he wished she’d told him right when they got in the dungeon, while he was questioning her. It was something that would help him learn and grow, so he could only accept her words with gratitude and excitement.

  It was a mistake to forget the malice he’d been subjected to. In the future, if someone treated him poorly, or directed ill will against him, he would note them, just to make sure a situation like this wouldn’t repeat.

  “Thank you, I will take this warning to heart.” He said.

  She nodded, then asked, “So, what are you going to do? I agree with your guess, we’ll have to fight our way out, but I don’t know how. They could try killing us with a monster swarm, or just use overwhelming numbers to destroy us. I don’t think they’ll be right near the entrance, the odds of getting caught are really high the closer to the entrance they are, and they won’t want to be interrupted. Newbie killers act like this, murdering people in a [Godmade Dungeon] then doing everything they can to get away with it. Even if they’re caught and punished, the punishment isn’t too severe for killing another person in a [Godmade Dungeon]. I think that’s stupid. Just because the death isn’t permanent, doesn't mean it didn't happen. They are still the kinds of people to murder others callously or for their own amusement.”

  Crimson, having worked for the Guild for about a year now, knew the rules as well as the punishments associated with them. They pretty much just amounted to a slap on the wrist and a few fines. He’d heard about the incident from last year, where Verity’s party had accidentally caused a monster train - called a monster swarm here - that had killed several parties in the [Hallowed Graveyard]. If they’d only gotten one party killed, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but several? The fines do not increase linearly.

  Meaning that even if Crimson and Verity are killed in the dungeon, the repercussions for doing so will be nonexistent, since they were only a single party of two people.

  The reason the fines were so low amounted to the Guild and the country intentionally turning a blind eye to misconduct to allow duels to take place. It wasn’t frequent, but tacit approval of the dungeon as a location for duels to the death saved lives.

  Dueling was much less common these days though, but he’d read about a time when they were nearly daily occurrences.

  So, if dueling was tacitly approved, why were the fines implemented when duels, by definition, had to be consensual? Simple, because there was a trend of people intentionally getting in duels, losing, then turning around and claiming murder, which had been more heavily punished back in those days. A prison sentence and a large fine.

  It created a lot of situations of ‘he said, she said,’ and the solution was just to create a blanket punishment fine so resources wouldn’t have to be spent on investigation, which was the current state of affairs. The idea was that just two people fighting would be a duel, so keeping the fine low allowed them to fight without much issue, but increasing it in terms of the number of people killed and the number of parties killed should prevent a murderous rampage. There were still obviously ways to get around that.

  Regardless, by entering the dungeon as early as they had, before the tournament goers had left, Crimson and Verity had painted massive targets on their own backs, and it was his fault.

  With a sigh and a grimace, he realized that just thanking her for her criticism wouldn’t be enough, so he said, “Look, Verity…I’m really sorry I got us in this mess. If I’d paid more attention, or if I hadn’t come here in a panic, we might not have to be dealing with this trouble.”

  She had turned away right before he’d spoken, so she turned her head back causally and said, “Sure, I don’t mind. You’re still learning, but don’t repeat your mistakes. Though, I wouldn’t have blamed you for today regardless. I know how much that warning from the God of War impacted you, so I can understand wanting to be strong enough to face whatever it is, but this is still a lesson you need to learn.”

  He nodded, then they both walked over to the door. Between their fight and discussion, it had been roughly a half hour since they’d reentered the manor. More than enough time for the crowd that nearly surrounded the entrance to form.

  A quick count told him there were about 30 people glaring him down, and he could only be grateful that it wasn’t higher. Making eye contact with a few of them, he could see a kind of maniac rage lingering in their eyes.

  After Verity’s warning, he was being more cautious, so he spent a moment longer on that thought than he normally would. Normally, it would be impossible for this many people to be feeling the exact same emotions in identical ratios. This wasn’t natural.

  Heightening that unnaturally, there was a distinct path left open, the one directly in front of the door. The four other paths were completely blocked by the press of bodies.

  He exchanged glances with Verity, and they slowly walked down the path toward the crowd. They were a little short on options, with no way out, and Crimson didn’t feel like they could talk their way out of it, so facing things head-on was the best move they could make.

  It was likely still a dumb decision on his part, yet another mistake he’d made that day, but he made it anyway.

  The crowd didn’t attack them, just stared, and Crimson looked down the path they kept open. It was one of the narrower ones, chasm stretching into darkness on either side of the path.

  There was a man waiting on the center of the path, glaring at Crimson. He wasn’t one of the ones he’d seen on the wagon this morning, but Crimson recognized him anyway: it was one of the finalists for the Under 10 category. Crimson knew personally that fighting him wouldn’t be hard, but that was under ideal circumstances.

  This wasn’t the tournament, this wasn’t a safe zone, it was a battlefield.

  Making eye contact, Crimson was surprised, then confused. There was a sensation like he was looking at two people at once. The first had the same mania as the others he’d seen, but deeper in those eyes was another presence, one that was inspecting him with cold indifference combined with a small amount of impatience.

  There was something profoundly wrong with these people, it wasn’t just Crimson’s actions, there was something else going on here, but [Mental Interference]-type [Skills] were forbidden by the gods, it was nearly impossible to learn [Skills] to directly control another, though [Skills] that influenced emotions and perceptions were common. Because of that, he could easily explain the mania he was seeing, but that other presence…

  He was broken out of his thoughts by a hollow voice, “I am quite the generous man. If you duel me, I will let you go free.”

  Crimson’s eyes narrowed, once again, Verity’s warnings rung in the back of his head, and after a moment of thought, he noticed a key detail missing from the finalist’s words.

  “And my companion here?” Crimson asked in a low voice, his tension obvious.

  The presence in the finalist eyes, the second one that wasn’t him, strengthened, and the man’s voice took on a slightly different sound, like there was a slight echo, “We will not kill her during our fight, but if I kill you, then her life is forfeit. I will behead her myself.”

  Good luck with that, even as a [Healer] Verity had more combat experience than anyone else here. If he were a betting man, then he’d put good money on her being able to get away on her own if that did happen. She might not win a direct fight, but in a chokehold like this path, she might have a good chance of getting by the only guy blocking their way forward.

  Crimson glanced around, frustrated. There was definitely a trick or a trap of some kind in this, but he couldn’t figure out where it was.

  Probing, he asked, “What are the rules of this duel?”

  A jagged grin crossed the face of the finalist, and he held a finger up, “Single combat, no one else can interfere directly with us two. No other rules, just continue until one of us dies, sound good?”

  He could work with that, winning the duel wouldn’t be hard, but there was still something wrong. If the finalist was going to break his word, the outcome would be the same as if no deal had been made, so accepting it as is was his only option. There was no reassurance he could seek from an individual like this anyway.

  Crimson glanced at Verity, and she looked back at him, calmly accepting, and nodded. He nodded in return, then said, “Very well. No one else may interfere.”

  He stepped forward, drawing his sword. He didn’t expect his opponent to be so kind as to announce the start of the duel, so as he saw the man start to move for an attack, he immediately said, “The duel begins!”

  It was pedantic, but it was possible that the finalist had chosen not to announce the fight to keep the non-interference from being a binding rule. Having an ‘official’ start would at least put the rules in place - even if they wouldn’t be respected.

  The very first moment their weapons clashed, he heard a shout behind him, Verity! So that was their trick! He hadn’t checked to make sure they wouldn’t touch her.

  She was an excellent combatant, but they all rushed her at once, and they weren’t trying to hurt her, a quick glance in a a gap he created for himself revealed them shoving her off into one of the chasms, the one on the right. She didn’t go down easily, but Crimson was so distracted between her plight and the fight that he couldn’t end it quickly enough to help her before she tumbled into the darkness.

  He vaguely remembered an adventurer referring to the chasms as a newbie killer on their own, deep enough to survive the fall, but with monsters dangerous enough that death would swiftly follow. So she should not have died from that fall, that meant their best chance of survival was-!

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Free of the distraction of trying to watch behind himself, he whipped his [Virrak Tau] into high gear and slammed the tip of his saber into the finalist’s shoulder after a deft parry, sinking it deeply in.

  Unfortunately, the man behaved in a manner he didn’t expect, and stepped into the blow, causing the saber to sink in all the way to the hilt, and grabbed the hand guard. Recognizing the danger, Crimson immediately let go and stepped back.

  The finalist roared, “He has struck a lethal blow! I’ve been inflicted with [Rapid Bleeding]! The duel is finished!”

  Unlike with Verity, they armed themselves immediately to charge at Crimson, and the finalist dropped to his knees, ripping the saber out of his own chest in a fit of mania, and immediately started to bleed out.

  It only took a short moment for him to bleed out, Crimson had stabbed an artery, and [Rapid Bleeding] was an ailment, which meant that a regular human under the same wound without the ailment wouldn’t bleed out as quickly as the finalist did in this moment. Disappearing in a few seconds and leaving Crimson’s saber laying on the ground.

  He made a split second decision - there wasn’t enough time for him to grab his saber, the crowd nearly on him, so he dove off the side of the chasm, and prayed that he wouldn’t land on Verity.

  —————

  Verity looked around the darkness around her, cupping a [Magic Light] in her hands, a big grimace on her face. She knew there would be some kind of treachery, but it occurred in a form she hadn’t even had time to prepare for her. The crowd had surrounded her in the moments before the fight began, and she’d instinctively thought they were forming a fighting ring to watch the fight, and so hadn’t been prepared to be grabbed and pushed off the edge by a group of men. She’d managed to knock one of them out with an uppercut to the chin, inflicting the [Daze] ailment, but his staggering form had instantly been replaced, and her arm grabbed to prevent another knockout.

  The fall hadn’t been very far. The darkness down here was magical, oppressive, and brokering no light. Even her [Magic Light], which was usually bright enough to make a torch jealous, barely lit a few feet around her.

  She couldn’t say she knew much about the [Goblin Manor], but even she’d heard that the monsters of the chasms were impossible to beat for low level adventurers, and the simple reason for that was this darkness. A goblin with a spear could stab her in the back without entering her ring of light, so any kind of ambush would be near instant.

  She backed up, intending to put her back to a wall, and it took more steps than she expected before her back hit the wall. Based on that information, the chasm was wider at the bottom than the top indicated, which would prevent her from climbing out. The only chance she’d have would be to fight her way out.

  As she was considering all that, she heard the loud thunk of boots on stone as someone landed in the chasm near her.

  It could be Crimson, but if it wasn’t, then she wanted to get the jump on them.

  She extinguished her light and held her breath, listening closely. Tensed up, she listened for any indication of sound. Anything at all. It was dead quiet, which meant it was Crimson. He had the habit of walking as quietly as he could.

  She reached out her hand again and started to recast [Magic Light], but before she could, she was abruptly lit up by a silvery [Magic Light], her intuition had been correct. She looked him in the eye, inspecting his condition, and asked, “You win?”

  He shrugged, “I killed him, but since we’re both down here, I would call that a loss.”

  “You feel alright?”

  “A bit off. Killing a man, even if it’s not permanent, feels disturbing.”

  Verity nodded, “Good, killing people should never come easy, but it’s important that you can do so when you have to.”

  Crimson grunted back at her, and she recast [Magic Light]. It didn’t do anything to expand their visibility.

  They surveyed the darkness, and Verity asked, “So, how much trouble do you think we’re in? Think we can climb out of this mess?”

  “Not likely. There’s a barrier over the top of the chasm. You can get in easily enough, but there’s no climbing out. There must be an intended exit.”

  “We don’t have any info on these chasms?”

  “None, pretty much every adventurer who falls here dies before they even see what enemies are down here. Some have gotten glimpses, but nothing clear enough to identify what’s down here.”

  “Which means the enemies down here are specialized for stealth attacks?”

  “Yeah.”

  She felt a little disheartened at that ‘yeah.’ Enemies specialized in stealth - especially at low levels - were easy to kill, but only so long as you could catch them before they could kill you. In darkness like this, there would typically be no way to catch them, but she was with Crimson, so he might have something. If she were on her own, best chance would be running.

  “Do you have anything to sense monsters in stealth?” She asked.

  A sword slowly appeared on his waist, a claymore, and he drew it while he responded, “Maybe. I’ve extended my [Mana] around me as much as possible. If anything walks through it, I’ll be able to sense them unless they have a [Skill] to disguise their [Mana].”

  “What’s your range?”

  “About 20 feet. That should be enough time to react unless they’re too fast.”

  Verity nodded, and Crimson took the lead, sword at the ready. She wished a bit that she could do something similar, have a spell ready in the moment before it’s cast, but she didn’t know how to do so, or if it was possible. She’d need to ask Crimson about it at some point later.

  They started walking through the darkness, Crimson had confidently walked off in the direction to their left, and that was presumably the way toward the entrance, though they had no way of knowing if it was the way out of the chasms.

  The only walked for a scant few seconds before Crimson tensed up, sword at the ready, looking a little to the right of the direction they’d been facing, and slowly rotating his head further to the right.

  Based on the way Crimson’s head was facing, Verity could easily figure out where the enemy was, so she immediately stepped behind Crimson, and put her back to the wall again. She needed to be out of his way and safe for fights like these. She didn’t have his perception abilities, so she was dead weight, and enemies like these typically targeted the weakest members first.

  That would be her.

  After a few minutes of stand off, where the creature tried to edge around Crimson in the darkness to get to her, he deliberately turned his body alone slightly away from where the creature was, giving an opening, before suddenly turning and striking into the darkness.

  A clash of bone on steel was all that greeted them, as his sword luckily managed to intercept some kind of whip-like object with a dagger like bone on the tip. It had been going straight for Crimson’s heart. It didn’t move like she’d expect of a whip, so it was likely a tail or a tentacle of some kind - unless it was another type of limb she couldn’t think of.

  While she was trying to figure out what it was, Crimson attempted to snatch at the - assumed - tail, but missed and had to jerk his hand back to avoid getting cut.

  The tail retreated into the darkness and Crimson took another ready stance. He let out a low cuss and Verity heard him mention something about ‘low durability.’ If that was the case, then they were likely in a lot of trouble.

  The standoff continued, with a few more clashes. The monster constantly targeted Crimson’s heart, so figuring out where the creature was aiming allowed him to block the blows better.

  Eventually, Crimson abruptly backed up, near where Verity was, and asked in a low voice, “Do you have any spells you can use here?”

  “Maybe, but I don’t think any of them will help. It’ll just be trying something else.”

  “[Rejection]?”

  “It would have to get closer.”

  “[Barrier]?”

  “I wouldn’t trust it to hold up, typically monsters like this have abilities that let them destroy armor and defensive magic easily when they’re in stealth.”

  “Then I guess I’ll go for plan B. I worry about my claymore’s durability if this continues, and if my last sword breaks, then I would just assume we’re dead.”

  “Plan B?”

  Instead of answering, he abruptly charged into the darkness. The second he stepped beyond Verity’s circle of light, she couldn’t see him anymore, though she still should’ve been able to see his light, the magical nature of the darkness prevented even that.

  What she heard from the darkness was pretty muted, like she’d pulled a blanket over her head, but she heard a crash, an inhuman screech, the sounds of breaking bones, and then the low moaning of a monster in pain.

  She called into the darkness, “You get it?”

  “Yeah,” Crimson said, dragging a scrawny black monster, about the size of a child, with a tail that was about 10 feet if she had to guess. The tail was broken in several places, and he was dragging the thing by it. He had a large gash on one arm.

  “An imp?” She asked incredulously while healing him, “That’s whats down here? We’ve been terrified of a monster this pathetic?”

  She caught herself, then hurriedly corrected the statement, “Well, pathetic is a bit much, but imps have a reputation of being weaker than goblins. Goblins are at least adaptable, but Imps all fight the same way.”

  Crimson glanced around them, then said, “It wasn’t that hard when I was aggressive, but staying on the defensive meant playing right into it’s strategy. The environment is our biggest enemy here, not the imps.”

  Verity nodded in agreement. Even as a [Healer], she’d likely be strong enough to punch a regular imp to death, but the trick was doing that while she couldn’t see when and where it was attacking. That was the part that would get her killed.

  “You must’ve run pretty far into the darkness to kill it, the sound was muffled.” She said.

  “Not at all, I was just five steps away. The darkness must have a sound dampening effect.” He responded, sounding interested.

  “Must be there to make it easier for them to ambush us.” She said after a moment.

  “I think everything about this place is meant to make it easy for us to be ambushed.”

  She was inclined to agree.

  Crimson spoke after a moment, “I think I’ll be able to handle them one at a time in the future, but if two or more show up, I worry about protecting you.”

  A valid concern, but not one that could stop them here. If even one of them made it out with their levels intact, Verity would count that as a win, and she told him as much.

  In response, he said, “There’s no point if we don’t both get out of here with everything intact. I’m worried about what might greet us outside if we don’t have a few levels on us.”

  That was a good point. There might be people at the entrance willing to escalate this from harassment to murder. Crimson had already been hard enough to fight at Lv.1, but with a couple more levels on him would get him stats more than double his contemporaries.

  Verity knew, because she was also at Lv.4. She’d gotten a total of 42 stats for 3 Levels. That was ridiculous. Absolutely mad!

  With her old [Class], a Low-Grade one, she would’ve had 18 more stats from those level ups. Their stats put her and Crimson in direct competition to a Lv.9’s stats. To say nothing of how much Crimson had gotten from training and maxing [Skills].

  That meant that their opponents would be praying that they’d die down here, assuming there was an ambush waiting for them.

  “Huh,” Crimson said, freezing while he looked at the air in front of him. His [Blessing]?

  “What’s up?” She asked.

  “Hold on, I maxed one of my [Skills] earlier, and I’m trying to make sense of what I’m seeing.”

  —————

  Crimson stared fixedly at his [Blessing], trying to interpret what he was seeing.

  —————

  -Skill Level Up!

  -[Eyes of Will] 9/10 —> Max

  -[Skill] Max reward: 5 WIL 2 PER

  -[Eyes of Change] 1/10 —> 2/10

  -[Eyes of Will] can now be removed from [Eyes of Change].

  -Please select another [Skill] to take the place of [Eyes of Will].

  -Compatible [Skills]: [Mikiri], [Ul Byrn], [Sophisticated Mana Sense], [Secret Sense]

  -Select one: <____>

  —————

  Crimson flicked out his [Mana] in a quick pattern to verify that they were alone still - it was just them and the crippled imp -, then turned his attention back to his [Blessing]. He’d wondered about [Eyes of Change] forever ago. He’d assumed that it was a [Skill Set] of some kind, but apparently it was a [Skill] that held other [Skills].

  …

  He needed a moment to process before he finally broke out and honed in on which [Skill] he could swap [Eyes of Will] with. [Secret Sense] was chucked out instantly. Not helpful in this situation.

  [Ul Byrn] was a [Skill] he didn’t understand enough, so he disqualified it on that ground alone.

  Between [Mikiri] and [Sophisticated Mana Sense], both could potentially be useful in this situation, but he suspected that [Mikiri] would be more useful in this situation, if only because he wasn’t sure if the ambient [Mana] in the air would rend him blind if he chose [Sophisticated Mana Sense].

  It could also allow him to see exactly where his enemies were in this darkness. There was just no way to know, so rather than gamble on the dangerous option, Crimson chose the safe one.

  —————

  -[Mikiri] has been slotted into [Eyes of Change].

  -[Eyes of Will] becomes [Aura of Will].

  -[Mikiri] becomes [Ru Mikiri]

  -[Eyes of Change: [Ru Mikiri] 1/10] 2/10

  -[Aura of Will] 1/10

  -Note: [Skill] progress will be tracked separately independently when slotted into [Eyes of Change]. [Skill] levels will be reset unless [Eyes of Change] are Lv.3.

  -Note: [Skills] cannot be removed from [Eyes of Change] unless they have reached Max.

  —————

  Verity suddenly grabbed his arm and turned him to face her, her eyes boring into his. There was no sensation of clashing wills, he couldn’t see it any more. No surprise there, but it felt strange to not get that peek.

  She spoke in a rush, “Your eyes have changed color!”

  He blinked, then asked, “What color are they now?”

  “They still have some silver to them, but there’s yellow streaks, like lightning, that seem to be floating over the silver. I can see them moving.”

  He reached up to touch his eyes, a little surprised by the change. Did that mean…this entire time…his eye color was the result of a [Skill]?

  His thoughts were interrupted as the Imp he’d drug over tried to crawl away, still whimpering pathetically. He finished it off quickly, stomping on the back of it’s neck, and letting it disappear.

  They didn’t have claws, and what they had in the way of teeth weren’t meant for fighting, so once he’d shattered the thing’s tail it had been effectively rendered harmless. Regardless, it was still careless for him to forget to finish it off. He’d gotten caught up in talking to Verity, then in what was going on with his [Blessing].

  He reached down to loot it, and got another surprise. There were four drops again. One of each kind.

  He reached for the [Skill Stone] first and inspected it. It contained [Weak Presence]. Now that could actually be useful. Not just for him, but Verity as well.

  He handed it to her, expecting another punch, but this time, she just sighed and accepted it.

  After she’d had it for a second he said, “It might be a good idea for you to take it. It’s not a great [Skill] yet, but it is a stealth [Skill]. It could be incredibly useful for you in the long run.”

  She thought about that, then nodded and said, “Sure, but it might be more useful in your hands than mine.”

  There was some truth to that, but between him and her, she needed it the most right now, so he insisted that she take it.

  Verity was a bit reluctant, but he said, “Look, I want us both to get out alive here. If this [Skill] does anything to help you survive, to help those things ignore you, then I’ll take it. We can come back and grind for this [Skill Stone] later so I can have one, but the priority is getting out of here.”

  She sighed, then clenched her fist, breaking the stone and absorbing the [Skill].

  Crimson stared at her in interest. Her presence had gotten weaker. It was the sensation that came from knowing another person was in the room. That kind of minute emotional pressure.

  It was subtle, but hopefully it would make a difference.

  The other objects he looted were a rib bone - the common drop -, and the tail bone, the part that formed the weapon on the end of the Imp’s tail for the uncommon drop. The [Ritual] material was a [Wind Shard].

  They resumed exploring after Verity cast [Enhanced Recovery] on them both, maximizing duration once more.

  It didn’t take long for them to be ambushed again, and Crimson immediately began to feel the effects of [Ru Mikiri]. It felt like attacks were approaching in slow motion in comparison to what he was used to. His dynamic vision had sharply improved, and he could see every little flex of the Imp’s tail muscles as it stabbed the sharp bit at him.

  It didn’t allow him to go any faster, but he could see how he’d need to move sooner to be in position to deal with attacks, so he could now easily grab the imp’s tail with one hand, and sever it with his claymore in the other, inflicting the [Dismember] ailment.

  The difficulty dropped by such a sharp margin that Crimson could only be amazed. The [Skill] level was shooting up pretty fast too, and as it did, it became even easier for him. He no longer needed to grab the tail to sever it, he could just place his sword where it needed to be and watch as the imp severed its own tail.

  That was phenomenal. [585th Claymore] still hadn’t been repaired, and it’s durability was in a critical state. The only reason it could still do decent damage was a simple one: [Blade Spirit]. The small boost to attack and durability were all that was keeping the claymore limping along. He’d been hoping to repair it, but it might have to meet a permanent retirement after this.

  They continued to explore. Verity was still being targeted by the imps, but it was a slight degree less, and it improved as they explored. She mentioned it to him when [Weak Presence] reached Lv.3, though that took a few hours.

  Crimson was pretty thoroughly lost by this point. The darkness was so oppressive that he couldn’t discern any land marks, and dungeons were extremely quick to recover from damage, so he couldn’t make any marks that would help.

  The one indication he had was that some passages they went down were free of enemies, while others weren’t. Crimson guessed that getting in fights meant they were going the right way, so by the time they’d killed everything down there they might find an exit.

  The one issue with using enemies as the indication of which way to go was that they would respawn, so there was a chance, albeit slim, that they were going in circles. he’d killed no less than 12 imps in that time frame.

  They had been against the left wall for the entire exploration, to have a reference point, so if this were a traditional maze they would reach the exit at some point. The concern there was that this wasn’t a traditional maze, but Verity didn’t have a better idea either.

  Eventually, they found a passage that opened up, presumably into a big room, though Crimson couldn’t tell due to the darkness. His visibility dropped noticeably as they entered the room, the darkness surging closer. He felt a presence on the edge of his [Mana], and immediately readied his claymore. This presence felt a bit bigger than the previous ones, maybe an Elite Imp of some kind?

  Regardless, he stepped forward quickly. Even if it was reckless, the usual imp attack pattern would leave him at a massive disadvantage if he was on the defensive. He was under [Enhanced Recovery] - Verity had been recasting it every time it wore off -, and she was poised to cast any spells she might need to back him up.

  A tail rushed out of the darkness, significantly faster than the ones he’d been dealing with up to this point, and even with [Ru Mikiri] he only just managed to parry it. Doing so took a serious chunk of durability from his claymore, and, in horror, he quickly had to deflect a second tail. He was also finally close enough to see the thing in the light, and his horror battled with excitement as he saw a name hovering over the large imp’s head:

  [Mulgis, Imp Overlord]

  It was a [Boss] monster.