An Unbound Soul

"Peter, since you have [Dismantling], grab the core from that dire wolf. Don't bother with the skin. It's too bulky to carry with us."

I looked at the corpse and I knew where the core was and the easiest route to extract it, but I had only vague ideas about how to remove the skin. There was no way I could skin the dire wolf even if he wanted me to, at least not while keeping it in good condition. I used the sparse knowledge the skill had dripped into my head and cut out the core, leaving the rest of the corpse for the dungeon to reclaim.

ding

Skill [Dismantling] advanced to level 3

A few ideas on how to extract fangs and claws without breaking them suddenly came to me, but still nothing about the skin. Apparently my level wasn't high enough. Once again, I was reminded that like with my other crafting and combat skills, none of the knowledge that had just come to me was anything I couldn't have picked up by myself given a bit of time with a teacher. What about other effects? Would leather harvested with [Dismantling] make better armour than leather harvested on my own, even if I knew how to do it perfectly? I could kinda see where Xander was coming from with his comment about wasting points on skills like these; I could do well enough to grab the little things on my own without a skill, and there were dedicated experts for everything else.

Actually... Now that I thought about it, how many other skills were like that? I'd never really considered it before, but could I learn something like magic without using a skill? It sounded insane, but the way I had originally learnt [Mana Sense] was to sense mana. Therefore, logically speaking, I must have been able to sense mana to at least some extent without the skill. I hadn't done the same for [Mana Control]; that had been a purchase made thanks to my class. That was something interesting to think about at some point when we weren't in a trap and monster filled dungeon.

We continued on to the boss room, which contained three goblin heroes and a pair of goblin sages, all level eight. These goblins were clearly taller than me, and the heroes were clad not in scraps but well-fitted chain mail. One carried a bow, and the other two swords and shields. The sages wore robes and held wooden staves with glowing crystals atop, looking far more like real mages than any mage on our side.

Looking back to our group, Noah was gone and Robin had her bow drawn, black mist condensing in the space where an arrow should be. Xander flicked his wrist in some sort of signal and the two mages died, one with an arrow in his forehead and the other clutching at his neck, blood oozing between his fingers, Noah popping into existence behind him. The first magic wielding opponents I'd seen in this dungeon fell without even getting a spell off.

One of the sword wielding heroes turned to face Noah, while the bow user took aim at Robin with the remaining goblin shielding him. The goblins had seriously underestimated Noah if they thought a single one stood a chance against him, and the hero fell with slices to his eyes and throat. Noah raced towards the archer, but not in time to prevent him firing.

From the lack of reaction on our side, it didn't seem anyone was worried, and indeed, the arrow was deflected by an invisible barrier before reaching us. I didn't even know whose skill it was, but given the defensive nature of it, I'd guess Xander. The archer fell to the ground, head sliced cleanly off by Noah, who seemed to have got a little bored with throats. The fact that there was a good amount of chain mail in the way didn't seem the phase him in the slightest.

"Okay, that's enough. Leave the last one for Peter."

I duelled the final goblin, initially attempting it without magic but needing to add [Strength] and [Dexterity] as it quickly became obvious the goblin was stronger and faster than me. With my stats increased, it went down quickly enough, but that was another sizeable chunk of my mana gone. I hadn't come close to regenerating my usage on the previous floor.

This time there were three whole large coppers in the chest. Ten times the value of floor one. I was surprised I was still getting to keep the loot, despite not really having done much, but money was money. We proceeded down the next staircase, everything still looking much the same.

"We'll rest here. Peter, meditate and recover your mana as quickly as possible."

Xander didn't want me walking around with low mana either, so I did as he asked. That boss fight seemed a bit of a waste, particularly the way they killed off the mages without letting them act. I thought the point of this trip was to teach me what I needed to face on the lower levels of the dungeon, but they seemed to be using it more as an opportunity for showing off. I couldn't say I'd learned much other than the [Appraisal] results of each enemy. While still pondering what Xander wanted in this trip, I was brought out of [Meditation] before completely refilling my pool by the unexpected sound of voices.

"Huh? No-one told me it was bring your child to work day."

Looking up, I saw that a familiar party of four dogkin had just exited the staircase.

"Vyre? So, out of interest, which of their children do you think I am?"

"You know me? Oh, right, you were that kid who was with Warren back in the winter. So what, you're rank three or something now?"

The dogkin who had so spectacularly lost his beer in our last meeting shrugged. "[Appraisal] doesn't work. Just shows me his name and race. Can't even see a class anymore."

Freya grinned a predatory grin. "Well, that is interesting. You hiding something there, Peter? A magic item to block [Analysis] sounded plausible, but something that turns [Appraisal] into [Inspection] sure doesn't."

"It's the [Privacy] skill. Saves me from needing to dodge showers of beer. And no, I'm only a couple of levels higher than when we last met."

"Sheesh, only a couple of levels he says. Oh how I wish I could gain two levels in a single season."

"You should have seen him solo the fifth floor boss. Completely one sided, and over in less than a minute."

"That's enough, you two. Peter, recovered your mana?"

"Mostly. A couple of points down. Though I still want to know whose kid he thought I was."

"Good enough. We're moving on."

And now I'd never know... He probably said it as a joke, but I still wanted him to make up an answer.

Level seven was much the same as the sixth floor, except that the goblin riders had been replaced with goblin knights and the dire wolves were armoured. They had savage poisoned metal claws welded to their natural ones, as if their natural claws weren't vicious enough already. The knights were in half-plate. The boss was a level nine goblin captain, an upgraded version of the third floors lieutenant, accompanied by a squad of five knights and their mounts. On this floor, Xander wouldn't let me fight at all, only having me aid with dismantling the remains of a knight group that had unsuccessfully attempted to attack us from the rear.

Noah informed us that we were the first team to set foot on floor eight that day, which meant the path to the boss room wouldn't be clear. Floor eight was the point at which orcs started appearing as mobs. [Appraisal] named the variant as 'weak orc' and they had no weapon or armour. However, they were far away from being the true danger of the floor. The orcs came in groups of three or four and remained in their rooms, much like the goblins of the lower floors, but something far worse wandered the corridors. Goblin assassins, wielding poisoned daggers, with an ability that was at least equal to Noah's [Stealth]. Were monsters able to use skills? Maybe it really was [Stealth] they were using. I couldn't detect them at all, and from the looks of it, neither could Freya or Jared. The catkin pair seemed to have some way to know where they were, and Xander was as inscrutable as ever. For all I knew, he could see them as plain as day, stealthed or not. Whenever one got near, we grouped together and Xander used his shield skill, which popped the assassin into visibility as soon as it tried to pass. They went down easily enough once we could see them.

The boss this time was a level ten goblin general, another step up from the previous floor's captain, accompanied by a sizeable squad of heroes, sages, knights and assassins. Some of the assassins were using bows with poisoned arrows on top of their usual daggers. The battle started in the same way as all of these squad battles, with Robin scoring a head shot on the general and taking him out in one hit. It was all downhill for the goblins from there.

Floor nine had lesser orcs in the rooms. While there were no assassins this time, the traps were completely invisible. Since Noah couldn't clear a room of traps while a chaotic fight was going on, the strategy used was to draw the orcs into the corridors. The boss was a group of eight level twelve orc warriors, armed with axes and rough hide armour.

That finally brought us to the bottom floor. It was similar to the previous one, except with the lesser orcs upgraded to orcs, who didn't stay in fixed rooms, and a denser trap layout. I could see why Xander considered a scout a necessity on these floors; I would have been a pincushion by the time we reached the boss room without Noah telling me where to step.

This dungeon really didn't do variety in decoration. Stepping into the boss room, it was still completely identical to every boss chamber before it. I blinked as my brain caught up with my eyes. It was completely identical. If this was the bottom floor, why was there still a closed door at the rear? That mystery could be left for later, though, because between that door and us waited a horde. No, it was too organised to call it that. It was an army. A level twelve goblin king at its centre, standing as tall as an orc. The comparison was easy, since he was surrounded by a pack of orc warriors acting as bodyguards. There were four squads of twenty goblin heroes, each led by a goblin general. There was a cavalry division, a squad of thirty goblin knights mounted on armoured dire wolves. There were magic corps bringing up the rear, a couple of squads of ten goblin sages apiece. I could see goblin assassins dotted around, working in pairs.

This made the rest of the dungeon look like a complete joke. There were a hundred and fifty monsters here, none of which were below level seven. Even if it were Xander's overpowered party, how the hell was he supposed to fight this? Looking around, I could see that even Freya was looking slightly nervous. Xander, on the other hand, looked very much like he was suppressing a smirk. That was weird. Was he enjoying this?

"Now this is what I wanted to show you. This is what you're going to have to beat, alone, two years from now. If you can do that, the rest of the dungeon will pose little difficulty."

So that was why they didn't bother teaching me strategies or details of the previous floor bosses. In the face of this, it didn't matter. This was the only important one.

"You four, protect Peter."

"Huh?"

"What's that silly noise for? Don't you go underestimating our boss."

Xander hadn't even waited for a response. He was calmly walking towards the army, alone, sword held vertically above his head. It started to glow, shining brighter with each step he took. He swung it down and in a blinding flash, the centre of the opposing army vanished, the stone where they were standing scorched and broken. The goblin king, his orc guards, two squads of heroes, one of sages, all gone.

The survivors roared and charged.

Noah had his bow out for the first time this run, and along with Robin was watching for any goblins targeting our group. I saw a few assassins go down, some with the black misty bolts, others with traditional arrows. A barrage of fireballs came at us, but Freya conjured up an earthen wall to block them. I saw another flash of light from behind the wall, and by the time the wall fell, the mage corps were no more. By this point, the organisation of the army had been completely lost and there were only scattered goblins running around. A number of knights tried to charge us, but all fell to Robin's bow before getting anywhere close. Noah took out the stragglers one by one, and only a couple of minutes after the start of the fight, nothing was left. For the first time, I'd been given a glimpse of what Xander was really capable of.

The scattered remains of goblin and orc vanished into the floor, and interestingly the damage Xander had done to the area itself also repaired itself right in front of my eyes. The teleporter and treasure chest appeared, and the rear doors swung open. Oddly, I was still being permitted to loot the chests despite doing basically nothing for the second half of this run. Just how much was the guild master paying these guys to babysit me? After that display, it was hard to think of it as anything else other than babysitting either; talented as I might be, I was still far off any of this party. Admittedly, they had age on their side, but still...

The chest contained a small silver and five large copper, and also a ring.

Ring of strength (rank 2)

Someone did say this dungeon produced rank two magic items, so this must be what they meant.

"Hey, can I ask a couple of questions? Is this what you meant by the dungeon producing magical items?"

"Yeah, the tenth floor boss chest always produces one, but it's random what you get. Sometimes treasure chests spawn out on the rest of the floor, but they never have much good in them. On floor one, you'd get a single copper coin. Floor five might give you iron or copper ingots. Down this far, you might get a rank one magic item. Plus one to a stat or something. Not really worth it for anyone capable of getting here."

Cool. I stashed the ring in my pack for now. I'd probably be wearing it rather than selling it, if it did what it said on the tin and boosted my strength.

"Okay, second question. If this is the lowest floor, what's through that door?"

The whole party turned to look where I was pointing.

"What door?"