Silver Spoon Series

Alan was once again on his own, running through the grasslands. When this tutorial was over, assuming he was still alive, it was going to be weird to have to deal with real terrain again. That thought was just his brain trying to take his mind off of things. Hearing about the level of threat they had faced, he felt guilty for several reasons.

The first was the remorse for not being there. If he had been at the village then he could have cleaned up the undead attack with little difficulty. Of course, the three villagers who had been killed would still have died because he wouldn't have known about the threat until after they struck. That led to the second regret, walls for the village.

Alan had thought of building walls around the settlement, but he had previously decided to wait until it could be upgraded to a town. Then there would have been Network bonuses applied to it and construction would have been much simpler. He also was hoping to expand the town a bit before setting it up. If Alan had just put in the work to build it now, then the wrackspawn wouldn't have been able to get into the village so quickly. Of course, the walls wouldn't have gone around the as yet unfinished fields and so the three villagers still would have died.

No matter what he thought he could have done better, short of stumbling upon the creatures as he wasted all of his time running around the village as a sentry, there was no way he could have saved his people's lives. What he was dealing with was a type of survivor's guilt combined with the pressures of leadership in a combat environment. It wasn't anything new to him, but it still felt like getting kicked in the nuts by a horse-sized wolf.

After Roger had retold the tale of the attack, he had informed Alan that Thadrick's group had arrived shortly after it was over, and they decided to try and track the monsters back to their origin. Outside of certain Network events, of which you were normally informed ahead of time, monsters didn't just appear, there had to be a source. Nephila was a decent tracker, so they should be able to retrace the mindless undead's path. Alan was hoping to catch up to them in case they found a threat they couldn't handle themselves.

The pace Alan set wasn't his fastest, because he wanted to run his own inspection on the tracks. He didn't think the spider-lady-insectoid was going to screw up, but this was too important not to double check. The path was clear, broken grass, churned up dirt, and even bits of gore made a convincing trail. It meant that he could maintain a solid running speed, only needing to check for any tracks that might have joined those he was following. So far there was nothing to suggest they hadn't all traveled together.

He ended up catching up to the group shortly after they found the point of origin. It wasn't that their party was that fast, it was because Alan had also delayed his departure from Elstree to make sure the surrounding area was clear. He wasn't a god who could see everything, so there was no way to be totally sure, but he had been pretty thorough and was confident that there wasn't a major threat within half a kilometer of the settlement. That had let Roger stand down a good portion of those on watch.

From now on, they would have to have parties patrolling the perimeter. It's something they probably should have been doing, and while it might not have made a difference this time, it could for the next attack. He also had the mayor get some groups together to start a serious logging operation. They at least needed some kind of barrier around the area, even if it would only slow attackers down long enough for people to ready themselves.

Although they now had classes to make them stronger and more durable, the villagers were going to find themselves wearing thin with so many added responsibilities. Their lives hadn't exactly been easy before he handed out the quartz stones, building a settlement from basically scratch was a lot of work, but there was so much more on their plates now. They had training, dungeon delves, bounties, and now patrolling and wall construction to fit in as well. They really needed more manpower, but their population was currently locked. Alan had some plans for dealing with that problem, but that would have to wait until they dealt with the current calamity.

That was a pretty good word for what was found. The tracks had led them straight to a dungeon entrance, the other one mentioned on the town boards, the one Lyonel's group had needed to give up on. The portal was a stand alone stone gate, made in the gothic style. That was gothic in both architecture and genre. It was at least three meters tall with a pointed design and two miniature towers on each side. The stone also looked old and sinister. Alan wasn't sure how stone could look sinister, but this stuff did. It was probably a mix of the dirt staining the gritty grey blocks, and some kind of feel it gave off. Instead of a door or metal framework, this gate had the typical plane of blackness of a dungeon entrance inside.

His last week had been spent clearing dungeons that were at, or near, being overloaded. There was a charge to the air around the entrances when the dungeon was holding too much energy. He hadn't been sure before if it was something tied to his aura reading skill, or if it was something everyone could feel. As he stared at the gate in front of him he felt that disturbance more than he ever had before.

New Skill unlocked: Aether Reading

Thadrick and his party had noticed Alan's approach a while ago, but they were giving him space to check things out for himself. They had already had time to do a cursory scan of their own, and since he was technically the boss, they backed off to let him do his thing. This gave Alan the opportunity to ask Tamee about his new skill.

"Any idea what Aether is?" He quietly whispered. Niphela at least had good perception so he had to talk extra softly to try and keep her from hearing.

"I think I've heard the word before, but I couldn't tell you what it is. Why do you ask?" She answered. Tamee didn't have to worry about anyone else hearing her voice, so she spoke in a normal tone.

Silence was her only answer. Alan wasn't trying to be rude, but the less he talked to her around other people the better. He also didn't want to reveal to her any more than he already had. After getting qi reading, he had shared the skill with Tamee without thinking. After the fact, however, he had realized that maybe he shouldn't tell her everything. She was supposed to be on his side, and had provided valuable information before, but he didn't really know much about her.

In a previous dungeon, he had been warned that there was a group outside of the disc they were on, who would try and exploit the winners of this tutorial. The Aristocrats were a bunch of hereditary groups who held power on almost every known planet. Tamee could very well be a member of one of these families and was looking to learn all she could about Alan to one day use it against him. He honestly didn't think that was the case, but some things couldn't be left to feelings. Operational security existed for a reason.

Many of the things he was dealing with were fine to share. His trap detection skill was nothing crazy, and with the sheer number of people who reached the opal and diamond level, all of his classes were probably well known by those who studied such things. His Reading skills, however, and his merged energy handling skill, he was coming to believe were incredibly rare, especially at his level. In discussions with his mentor about his aura reading skill, Dracon had shared that he thought his acquisition of it was from his work as a doctor plus a lucky encounter with his first monster, an octospatium.

According to Dracon, doctors, as we know them on Earth, were practically non-existent in the Network and incredibly rare on newly incorporated planets. The octospatium was a creature far beyond his ability to handle before even receiving a class, but a well-timed explosion of the International Space Station gave him credit for the kill. His experience, and the achievements earned from 'killing' the monster, had combined to give him access to a skill he had no business gaining for quite some time.

So many of his others, mana handling, mana enhancement, and now qi and aether reading, were a result of that first one. He wished he could talk with Dracon again. Even if the man was an Aristocrat (a possibility he couldn't overlook), he had a Network enforced desire to see good things happen for Alan. It would be nice to have someone more knowledgeable about these things to bounce his ideas off of, but Alan, at least, felt like these skills were something special.

The work with mana, and energy, that he had been doing to build roads and then later to make the squirrel's cage better, at the time had felt normal. Now that he was starting to think about things, however, what he was able to accomplish seemed unreasonable for someone who was a 'normal' human just a couple of months ago. Because of this sneaking suspicion he had, he decided to be a little more discreet about what he shared with Tamee and others.

The mention of Aether had been a test. If that had been a normal term for Tamee, then it wouldn't have seemed that special. If she, admittedly not the most informed person about energy matters, had never heard of it, then it couldn't be all that common. It also seemed to be tied into dungeons, and there had been no mention of this energy in the pamphlet he had bought. Yes, the brochure had been something he could afford with his limited wealth, so it was going to be limited in its depth, but the lack of mention was still suggestive.

Aether's relation to dungeons was confirmed as the skill ticked up just by studying the gate and the energy around it. He 'knew' from the pamphlet and talking to Indiana that dungeons were limited by the mana in their surrounding area. Cores were able to migrate some, a combination of moving inside of their domain and then moving their domain. For low level dungeons, It wasn't a fast process, however. Just moving from Indiana's current location to here would take the young core days. Its domain just wasn't that big. Cores still sometimes moved around because they benefitted from being in the strongest concentration of ambient mana they could.

Alan already knew that dungeons were still spread around despite this tendency. The reason for that was the fact that dungeon domains couldn't overlap. If two dungeon cores were trying to claim the same area, then the domain that was first established had the priority. However, strength mattered as well. If one core was significantly stronger than the other, it could claim the weaker one's domain, and a portion of its power.

This fact led to dungeons generally not wanting to get too close to each other. A weak dungeon didn't want a stronger dungeon to suddenly move its domain and steal a bunch of its energy. On the other side, a strong dungeon couldn't be sure that the 'weak' dungeon nearby wasn't actually a much stronger dungeon that was simply shielding its energy output. Alan now suspected that energy was called aether, but the pamphlet had just called it energy.

This was all for wild dungeons, or even some Network dungeons that were allowed to roam. Town dungeons also had cores, but they were tightly controlled by both the settlement administrators and the Network. They tended to stay in place, and the ambient mana also placed restrictions on what the town could access, anyway, so it wasn't normally an issue.

The reason he was thinking about all of that at the moment was that this core seemed to have far more of, and more potent, energy than it should. The mana in this zone was solidly white grade, which was to say not too strong. What he was feeling from the gate, and by extension the core, was significantly stronger. If he had to guess, it was probably high red or above. Even though the core was strong, the ambient mana limited what it could produce, so the dungeon couldn't create red grade monsters, but it could certainly create plenty of the most powerful creatures allowed. Indiana, in the meantime, was limited to level five or six creatures.

Add in the fact that this dungeon had clearly leaked recently, the trail of wrackspawn originating from the gate was a dead giveaway, and Alan was shocked by how unstable the aether still was. He couldn't read it as well as mana, the skill level was only in the single digits, but the energy seemed ready to burst at any time. The last breakout hadn't been a minor one either. Yes, the monsters had only been level five, but there had been almost twenty of them. That should have bled off a huge amount of energy, preventing another leak for weeks.

It was almost easy for Alan to forget that he was no longer alone, so it took him some time to remember to ask the others what they were feeling.

Gaud was the first to talk as always. "I feel like this dungeon had a massive leak. Hopefully it will behave for a while."

Nephila simply nodded at that, but Elluin had more to say. "There is a feeling in the air, I'm not sure how to describe it, but it is not something I have felt around a dungeon before. I don't think it's a good thing."

The elf then started mumbling about what he was feeling, but it was more generalities and mostly a repeat of what he'd already said. While he seemed to be talented, it was not surprising that he hadn't held a high position in adventurer society. He was just a little bit off, but then again so were Gaud and Nephila. He did seem to have a talent for the magic arts, so it wasn't much of a surprise that he was more sensitive.

Neither of the others had felt anything odd, so it was more confirmation that his skills were letting him do something special. The question now was what to do. From what he was sensing, this dungeon could easily overflow again, and in a matter of days if not hours. The village should be better prepared for an attack similar to what they faced last time, but what if it wasn't like last time. What if it sent a single stronger monster instead of many weaker ones. He had to chuckle a little at his classification, Alan was pretty sure all of the villagers would have considered the wrackspawns to be pretty strong. He needed those people to get better faster.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Thadrick's group was here, so they could keep an eye on the dungeon and at least let the villagers know of what's coming. It would tie them down until the dungeon was dealt with, but there wasn't another good option. Having them try and go through the dungeon wasn't an option. If Lyonel's group couldn't clear this thing, then there was no way that they could. That left only one option, Alan would need to try this thing. It was a little daunting since he knew what the Corellians were capable of and he knew that they had failed. And that was most likely before the dungeon had become supercharged.

"Samuel F. Jackson."

Dantelion gave him a strange look. "What was that?"

"Nothing, I'm gonna go in to clear this thing. It was too strong for a group of opal adventurers, so you guys won't be able to take it. I need you to stay in the area and keep an eye on the gate. If anything else appears, you will have to either deal with it, or run back to the village and warn them about what's coming."

The ever loyal Thadrick spoke up. "Ya sure you wouldn't like some of us to go with ya? Ya might want someone watching your back."

"Now you suddenly want to join me in a dangerous mission? Well, I appreciate it, but it's better if I go alone. None of you are strong enough to be in there."

The dwarf's mouth had turned up at the mention of his attempts to get out of scouting the kobold village with Alan, but his head dropped when he was told they weren't strong enough. It was harsh, but the truth. Thadrick especially had only one class that was ready to evolve to opal, and two of his four he had just gotten days before. The party was more likely to be a liability than an asset.

Alan hadn't been planning on running a dungeon today, but with spatial storage items, he was always ready. Stepping into the gate, he prepared for whatever this dungeon had to offer. Lyonel's group hadn't managed to clear the first floor, so he couldn't be sure how big this thing was. Based on the energy he was reading, though, he seriously doubted it was only going to be the one level. There wasn't any time dilation either, so this could take a while.

The usual flash left him in a stone room. There was a wooden door in front of him and nothing else here of any interest. Now that he was properly inside the dungeon, he could feel how strong the aether truly was. He hadn't had the skill the last time he was in a dungeon so he didn't have anything to compare it to, but it was a little overwhelming. It seemed he would need to work on tamping down the skill, which was not something he was used to.

When Lyonel's group had done their after action report on this place, they had mentioned it was a classic dungeon, and Alan had to agree. Stone blocks, roughly the size of cinder blocks, made up the walls and there was the everpresent light that so many dungeons had. He approached the door, but he didn't open it right away. They had mentioned a pit trap filled with spikes and a honey ooze. This door probably wouldn't trigger that, but where there was one trap, there could be more.

The door was clear, and so he opened it to reveal a hallway. It wasn't very wide, only two people could fit side by side, but that was pretty standard for a dungeon. The hallway went straight from the room he had entered and he cautiously made his way along it. Just before reaching another door, he found his first trap. It was a simple trip wire, but he could feel the effect of his trap detection skill. The wire had almost glowed in his vision. He was still getting a handle on exactly how skills worked. Sometimes it seemed like just a number indicating how good he was, while other times they seemed more like abilities.

Alan wasn't going to try and disarm the trap. That would no doubt let him gain another skill, but a single mistake here could have serious consequences. Better to mess around when the stakes weren't so high. Carefully stepping over, he moved to the door. Inside he found what the Corellians had described as chicken terrors, but his identify said something different.

Beast: Dread Chicken (Rare) Level 12, threat: medium. These enormous chickens evolved intelligence and have become the avengers of their kind. They have an innate hatred of all humanoids and will attempt to slaughter any they see.

There were at least ten of the things in the room. They all had spears with sharpened bone blades. Each one was taller than Alan, which left him feeling a little threatened. The way they could stare menacingly with their beady eyes was definitely some kind of racial ability. Just a couple of seconds after opening the door, the birds attacked in a mass. With the rush of feathered bodies he couldn't quite tell how they were holding their spears, but he chose not to worry about it as four of them came for his body.

His spewn and pugio had already been out and he began his lethal dance. Spears are an incredible weapon, but if your opponent can get inside of your guard, it loses most of its effectiveness. The same was not true for his smaller blades. He aimed both weapons at a single chicken's chest and was rewarded with three spurts of blood. The number left him confused until he realised one of the injuries was his own.

The chicken's feathers weren't soft like a normal bird's, the edges were as stiff and sharp as a steel blade. His spewn was a little longer and he had managed to strike without his hand getting close. His left hand (always the left!?), though, had brushed a feather as he plunged his dagger in and it had sliced the meaty part opposite the thumb. His regeneration spell was already kicking in and the wound would be closed in a second, but it was something he would need to watch out for.

Fortunately his injury had come with the death of his first opponent. The two strikes had hit something important and the dread chicken collapsed in a heap. That did leave him exposed to the attacks of its comrades, however. Bending in ways that would have made Keanu proud, he managed to avoid two stabbing attacks, and a third slashing attack glanced off of his bone mail. Whatever creature his armor's bone rings came from must be stronger than the one that made up the spearhead.

The rest of the chickens fell one by one as Alan used his speed and dexterity to avoid their blows and deliver his own. He wasn't completely successful in dodging all of their attacks, but his regeneration and occasional minor healing spell were able to keep his health topped off. That was even after considering the occasional slice he took from the feathers. Half way through the fight Alan learned that while those feathers were incredibly sharp, they were also quite flammable. A mid level fire bolt was enough to send a monster screaming in agony.

A person's aura was able to fight off magical fire over time depending on the relative strengths, but if that person had something flammable on, that offset the ability. These feathers must have been made of gasoline because the flames didn't go out until it was thoroughly roasted. His sorcerer class was already his highest leveled, so he held back from using it any more. Alan had only resorted to it this time because the chickens had finally managed to surround him, and he needed a distraction.

In the end, Alan was winded, but not wounded. The chickens were a bloody, feathery mess, and the way to the next room was clear. Alan waited around a minute, but the bodies remained, no lootnados here. The same thing had happened occasionally before, and in one of Tamee's more generous moods, she told him that it meant the reward was being deferred. Rather than getting a bunch of lesser loot from the monsters, and then something nice at the end, it meant that the final prize would be something great. Usually.

From Lyonel's story, Alan knew that the next room was supposed to contain a lot of fairly large mosquitos. Depending on the numbers, he wasn't too worried. If there were hundreds then he was pretty much screwed, but as long as the odds weren't truly overwhelming, he could count on his healing spells to keep him going while he took the bugs apart. The moment he stepped in the room, he knew something was different.

Instead of a swarm of mosquitoes, the area at first appeared empty. A quick scan showed that wasn't the case, there were three forms dangling from the ceiling. Looking closer they seemed to be large bats, but as he focused on one, identify kicked in and let him know it wasn't so simple.

Undead: Minor Vampire (Epic) level 13, threat: Severe. The bite of a vampire can allow their curse to spread to new hosts, however, not all who are bitten are of equal value. These pitiful vampires were the weakest of individuals before being turned, and they are still the lowest of the Nosferatu.

Alan was solidly mid-opal which translated to around level fifteen or sixteen for a monster. He was also fairly skilled for an adventurer, and had eight classes. Just as he would be stronger than a regular adventurer at his level, these vampires were stronger than a normal monster. Epic was the highest rarity he had seen in a monster and the battles he had fought with them hadn't been easy. Well, the first one against the hedgehog hadn't been a challenge, but the others had been hard fought wins. Even though these things had a slightly lower level than he did, he would need to watch out.

While they were listed as vampires, they certainly looked like large bats. The contrary descriptions were dealt with when the creatures detached from the ceiling and transformed into humanoids on their way to the ground. The ceiling had been about ten meters high, so it was a quick transformation. They looked mostly like humans, but they had pointy ears like a vulcan and their mouths were much wider than normal. When they opened them to snarl at Alan, he could see that their teeth also resembled a human's, but they had double the number of canines and they were also extra long. A bite from that would leave a mark, but it wasn't as troubling as some of the dental work he'd seen since coming to the tutorial.

Alan had his usual offensive array of weapons out, spewn and pugio, and he was ready to see what these things brought to the table. When they moved, Alan was shocked to discover they were probably faster than he was. Not many creatures he had fought recently could say that. It wasn't an insurmountable difference, but it was going to make things interesting. When he attempted to block the first one's strike, he was shocked all over again when he discovered they were stronger as well. Inconceivable.

Mercifully, these vampires didn't seem to have any weapons other than their bodies. They also weren't trained in hand to hand combat, but speed and strength can sometimes overcome talent. The first swing was a haymaker and Alan tried to block with his left hand so he could stab it with his spewn. The force of the blow was more than he bargained for and he was knocked off balance, unable to retaliate. A second vampire moved in with a front kick.

Fool him once, shame on you, fool him twice…well, Alan wasn't going to simply take that shot. Instead he put his pugio in the way and backed up as quickly as possible. The vampires were wearing clothes, not armor, so his dagger had no problem going through the kicker's shoe and skewering its foot. There was a sizzling noise and the vampire screamed in pain. It seemed his holy enchanted pugio was really good against undead.

Unfortunately, while it may have been painful, it wasn't debilitating and Alan now found himself in the middle of the three vampires. Despite how effective his pugio was turning out to be, Alan stored it and pulled out his shield. Blocking with it was going to suck, but he needed to do something drastic or this fight might get out of hand.

The next thirty seconds saw his regeneration spell work overtime. Bones fractured and tissue bruised, but the vampires were unable to land a killing strike. Now it was Alan's turn to retaliate. While he had taken out his shield, he had also taken out one of the pebbles he kept in his storage. He had been holding the thing the entire time he danced around, infusing it with holy mana. In a natural lull of his three opponents' attacks, he willed the shield back into his ring and opened his palm, shooting the pebble into the nearest vampire with his exploding missile spell.

It easily penetrated the shirt, but it had a hard time getting through its skin. The pebble ended up embedding itself only a centimeter or so into its chest. Alan sent a large pulse to detonate it. He wasn't sure how powerful the creature's aura was. Whatever its strength, it wasn't enough to block his attack, and the pebble exploded. Some of the force was wasted since it was located so close to the surface of its body, but the shards that penetrated its body were infused with plenty of holy mana and it did truly terrible things to the vampire's heart. Turns out a wooden stake was not required.

The death of one of their number set the other two on their heels. Alan tried to press the attack with his spewn and pugio, but when they found themselves threatened again, they overcame their shock and started working him over once more. He was getting ready to try the pebble trick again when he realized that he wasn't actually being pressed all that hard. Yes, they had higher stats, but now that there were only two of them, he was able to use his combat knowledge to hold his own.

Since he was a little more comfortable, Alan started planning. The small hits he made with his spewn were quickly healed by the vampires' natural regeneration. The stabs and slices from his pugio were another matter. They too showed signs of healing, but it was at a greatly reduced rate. The one vampire still had a slight hitch in its step from being stabbed at the start of the fight.

When experimenting with holy mana, before creating his meteor spell, he had learned how to cast a holy bolt. It was similar to how the fallen angels had done it, but his spell was less effective. For some reason it also didn't appear on his status sheet. The spell wasn't going to be useful to him here. The casting time was long and the ball didn't move that quickly. The speedy vampires could probably dodge it.

However, Alan had learned that you didn't always have to simply cast a spell, there were ways of using the mana in what were called cantrips. Basic manipulations of the mana to create small effects. That's what he wanted now. The vampires had learned that his spewn wasn't much of a threat, but they didn't realize that in addition to being a dagger/mace, it was also a wand. Slicing the chest of one of the vampires, he sent a spray of holy mana out of the blade. It was only a shallow slice that the monster would have healed almost instantly, but the mana shooting out of the end of his weapon acted like acid on the vampire's flesh. Its aura, which Alan had gotten a chance to read better, and now knew it was indeed strong, was working away at the attack and it would recover shortly, but it meant that it was out of the fight for the moment.

This left Alan with a single powerful, but untrained, foe. He took him to school. Alan had a read on their movements now, and how to counteract their stat advantage. He twisted and writhed his body to dodge a couple of punches, and then blocked the next attacks with the points of his weapons. With the vampire's limbs currently impaled, Alan saw his opportunity for a front kick, knocking the creature on its ass. Another kick to its jaw caused it to bite its own tongue off, but the pugio in its eye that followed made the stumpy tongue a moot injury.

The last vampire had recovered from the holy mana spray, but the front of it looked like ground beef. The skin was bubbled and peeled back, exposing bloody muscle tissue. It made for a great landing zone for the tip of his pugio, the monster's blood sizzling as it came in contact with his holy blade. Best enchantment ever. With his opponents now dead, Alan took a moment to regroup. That was the hardest he had fought in a long time.

It was clear that the dungeon was going to be more difficult than when Lyonel's group had come through. The chicken's, at least by description, had been stronger, and the vampires had to be an upgrade over a cloud of mosquitos. He had also encountered a handful of traps in addition to the first one. His trap detection skill had spotted all but one for him, and the last he had noticed due to his careful pace as he traveled between sections. There were at least two more rooms, and that was just on this floor. His aether senses were running and it just didn't seem like the amount of energy on this level was enough to match what he had sensed at the entrance. There had to be stairs or something around here that would take him to another section. This was going to be a real challenge. The loot had better be worth it.