Homesteading in a fantasy world

The second floor was still cave-like, but it was on the edge of becoming something man-made. After the trap came the first room. The mobs were still rabbits, but now they were twice the size of regular rabbits and the first room started with four of them.

Two were with horns and two were with plates. I had switched back to my shield and javelin but now contemplated making the switch back to the bow again.

The problem was I could practice my bow outside, but it was a lot harder to find targets that were willing to attack so I could practice my close-up fighting.

The rabbits are currently not bunched up and they were at the sides of the room eating some grass and moss. I could just rush in and kill the first one and if I think of this as training it would be good to practice my homesteaders mile in combat. The timing had to be quite precise otherwise the ability might end too soon and I might not be able to make a quick attack the way I want.

I could have pushed up a little bit more as I ended the movement ability a bit too early. It was still good enough to surprise the rabbit and strike it down. I had to use piercing cut to kill it in one blow because I was quite sure regular strikes would no longer kill these rabbits.

I was then set upon by the remaining 3 but I was still able to use movement to minimize their attacking pattern. They seem to be a bit smarter in their attacks, but I able to keep ahead of them.

I was correct about a non-ability strike not being able to kill in one strike. It took three to kill one of them. I made quick work of the rest of the rabbits using abilities.

There was another trap after the first room which was easily circumvented. In the next room there were five rabbits, but luckily the two next rooms also only had five rabbits. Then came a split, but this time there were three hallways to go down. I decided to go with the right one again.

This room was a lot bigger than any I have seen yet and inside were eight rabbits. There was a lot more grass here as well as in the corner there was a pond. Without my sights, I would not have seen that in the high grass on the other side of the room was an animal that was hiding there. It wasn’t a rabbit this time but a fox.

I monitored them for a little while to see if the fox will hunt the rabbits, but he did not. I’m certain that when I’m fighting the rabbits the fox will use it as an opportunity to sneak attack me.

With this fight no matter how good my movement is I will get hit and I guess it’s time to see how good my armour is. In the last room, I purposely let one of the last rabbit hit my shield multiple times to gauge its strength. I believe my armour can protect me quite well.

I started to battle with a knife that I threw and then right after charged in with my movement ability. The knife didn’t kill but it hampered the movement of one of the horned ones and I quickly started to hack apart the rabbits with my abilities.

I had to use counterweight so that the rabbits hit on my legs wouldn’t cause me to lose balance. The horned ones I blocked with the shield. It was a quick fight and as I suspected when I turn my back the fox attacked me.

By that time only four rabbits were still alive, and one was wounded badly so I was able to just dodge to the side, but the fox didn’t do what I expect. It didn’t turn around but sprinted for the grass again. I didn’t let it get there as I threw my javelin at it pining it to the ground and killing it. I then pulled out my sword and finished off the rest of the rabbits.

During that fight, I took about four hits to my legs and a bit more to the shield. I looked at the shield and some of the horn strikes had made quite the impact but none of them had been able to get through.

I searched the room but there wasn’t anything more here even the pond was just filled with water. There was no hallway leading to the next room, so I had to backtrack and went through the middle one this time.

The rooms kept getting harder and I found another one of those rooms with the fox. This time when I killed them all and I inspected the room I found that the room itself had some different rock veins.

Examining it closer I found it to be marble. Not really that much of use especially in so little quantity but I still chipped one piece off as a trophy for my first, let’s call it loot.

It took a few more rooms until I made it to one that had multiple hallways leading out similar to the first floor. This room was covered in grass and there were 12 rabbits and three foxes.

I was getting tired of fighting them but it was good training so I couldn’t complain too much. I have had a lot of practice, so my movements were a lot better even though I still took some hits I was able to finish off the room, although it took more time than I wanted to.

The foxes acted quite well as a distraction so I could not focus on killing the rabbits because I needed to dodge the fox attacks. It was hard to kill them because they were doing hit-and-run tactics.

My breakthrough came when I decided not to dodge but rush towards the attacking fox making killing them off simpler and after that dealing with the rabbits was quite easy.

My armour was holding up quite well and there was no damage that needed to be fixed, but it wasn't shiny new anymore. I proceeded towards the boss room and inside was a rabbit that came to my waist height and a fox the size of a wolf.

As I stepped in a bit more to look around the room to see if there were any more enemies at the sides, torches started to lit up 1 by 1 at the edge of the room and the rabbit and fox woke up and untangled themselves and started to watch me.

“Well, shit!”

The rabbit was the plate variant, and I honestly didn’t want to get hit by it ramming into me. So as it accelerated towards me I used my movement ability to dodge to the side and then forwards to attack the fox.

My movement surprised the fox, and I was able to get quite a good wound on one of its front legs, but he was also quite quick. If I had worse battle awareness my fight might have ended as the rabbit now with a glowing plate, charged quickly towards my location again.

This forced me to dodge and then I needed to avoid the claws of the fox but his attack was a bit too fast, and he was able to scratch my back armour. Thanks to the armour the attack didn’t affect me and I was able to turn and get another hit in. Then I needed to jump away so that I would miss the charging rabbit again.

It took seven more charges from the rabbit until I could finally chip away at the fox enough so I could deliver the final blow. Killing the rabbit only took timing as I needed to dodge and then quickly follow it before it can turn around.

He put up quite a good fight even after he was no longer able to charge but his death was inevitable. The level-ups were nice, but I dismissed them to look at them later at the same time as all my other notifications.

There was no drop but at this time there was a symbol next to the downward stairs. If I understand it correctly it would teleport me to the beginning of the dungeon. I chose to ignore it and went down to the third floor.

Luckily on this floor the rabbits weren’t all the size of that second-floor boss rabbit but in the first room one still was. As I continued forwards, I really start to hate the foxes as they were now a lot better at the sneak attacks, but it was also good training for my awareness, so I pressed on.

Bruises really started to pile on now as my legs were hurting quite a lot but other parts of me were also. This floor will be my last although I don’t know how deep this dungeon actually goes.

The rooms were now a lot more open with them all being covered in grass. Luckily thanks to my sights I was able to bypass all the traps. One of the side rooms that I went actually had two wolves instead of the foxes and rabbits I was used to.

I ended the fight quickly by throwing my javelin powered by charged throw to finish off one of the wolves quickly. With my sword and shield finishing the second one was also quite quick as I used his momentum against him to help my sword penetrate deeper.

Unfortunately for my effort, I didn’t get any loot, not even marble veins. I had only seen that once so I’m guessing even those are rare to appear.

It took quite a few more rooms until I found the hallway room that leads to the boss room and inside was quite the unfortunate sight. There were so many of the twice normal-sized rabbits. I counted 22 and I just knew this fight was going to be a bitch and a half.

I turned out to be quite correct because when I killed half of them the little bastards started to use abilities similar to that second-floor boss. I was lucky that the first one to use it was a plated variant, if it was the horned one it could have pierced my armour's weak spot and caused me quite a lot of damage.

Even then it hurt quite a lot and caused me to lose my footing almost making me lose my life. Thankfully I was able to get the shield in front of my face to protect me from a horned one, but it still punched through the shield and cut my cheek.

At that point, I pushed as much energy circulation as I could and started to use all my abilities at once draining my energy pool quickly but ending the fight just as fast.

“I hate surprises.”

My pool of energy was now at about 10 to 15% and I still had a boss fight. If it wasn't going to be this many rabbits again, I might be able to clear it. I took some more time to rest than I usually did after every fight.

I finished off the last of my water and made a mental note to also bring food and more water for the next time I guess, I have been down here for more than half a day.

I walked down the hallway towards the boss room, but this time there was a door blocking my way. I couldn’t even open it because I needed to do a simple colour puzzle to get past and that made me sigh out loud. One thing I hate more than traps in a dungeon was puzzles. Quickly solving it, I was able to open the door and see what was inside.

It was a big round room with a grass floor and in the centre sat a rabbit that was a head taller than me with a wicked-looking horn. Like in the last boss room torches at the side of the rooms start to light up 1 by 1 and as the last torch lit up the boss started to charge at me.

It took me about a millisecond to decide my next move as I started to charge my javelin with charged throw and every other ability that might be useful.

The rabbit started to move but I just waited in the throwing position until I felt that the javelin couldn’t take any more energy and would break if more was pushed in.

The boss was already 2/3 towards me when I finally threw it with all the strength that I had. The spear flew fast and penetrated the rabbit’s skull right next to the horn. It was buried so deep in that only a foot of the handle stuck out. I only had to take a small step to the side to let the now-dead rabbit slide past.

When the boss rabbit started to dissolve, I could see my javelin had cracks all over, even the metal part and it was useless for another fight. What surprised me was it not being the only thing left behind. A small rabbit’s foot was also left behind and as I used inspection on it, I was quite surprised.

Crafting material: Lucky rabbit foot

A genuine piece of loot. It seemed that I need to do some crafting to make it into a necklace but I was still quite pleased. There was no stairway down and I was quite happy about it because all I wanted to do was relax. My body felt like a punching bag. But there was a door at the other end and my curiosity got the better of me and I opened it up.

Behind the door was a meadow-like room that held a wolf that was my height. It was lying in front of a pillar and his eyes never left me. On the pillar was a round ball and it didn’t take me long to figure out that that was the dungeon core.

I in no way wanted to step inside the room but before I closed the door, I looked at it with all my other sights and I saw a curious thing. The core was controlling energy, constantly circulating it and pushing strands of it into the walls of the room.

So instead of closing the door I sat down just outside it and started to observe how the core was controlling and changing energy. I could also see strange strands of black emptiness that I believe are associated with magic.

Similar veins were inside Meredith, it was the first thing that clued me in that she might be a mage. I could not see it with any of my sights but to energy sight, it was blackness or emptiness so I was still able to at least notice its presence.

I think I fell into a trance watching how the dungeon core controlled energy, I was able to learn so much but my stomach protesting its lack of food brought me out of it. I finally got up close the door and went to the symbol and put my hand on it, but nothing happened so just in case I channelled some energy into it.

In the next moment, I found myself in the first hallway of the dungeon and just behind me was the exit. I found my apprentices outside waiting for me and the sun starting to set. I had spent the entire day inside. I quickly calmed them down and started to share how my delve went as we walked back.