Silver Spoon Series

Standing amidst a pile of bones, Alan carefully ran his hand over the stout wooden door in front of him. The last two rooms hadn't been a challenge, except for one trap he had missed. Fortunately it had simply cursed him with weakness. His powerful aura was able to dissipate the effects after a couple of hours. Since he had triggered it toward the end of the fight in the first room, Alan had simply elected to remain in place and work on his mana until it was gone.

The Corellians hadn't been lying when they described these monsters. They looked exactly like a two meter tall meatball with giant toothfilled maws and beady little eyes. He wasn't sure if they had fought the exact same version he had, but his experience suggested they hadn't. His meatball monsters had possessed an almost complete immunity to both slashing and bashing attacks.

Hitting them with the blunt side of his spewn had simply set up a wave effect, like jumping onto a water bed. Using the blade edge had opened a gash that closed almost instantly. Alan doubted that Lyonel and company would have been able to handle them if they had been able to regenerate so quickly. Fortunately Alan could deal massive amounts of damage at once.

His exploding missile spell worked amazingly on the bags of meat. The test rock penetrated deeply and the follow-up explosion had blown a third of the monster's mass away. There was no regenerating that. The inside of these creatures proved similar to the outside, just a mass of writhing meat. Alan's discerning eye could find no differentiated tissue that would suggest organs. There was plenty of purple blood, though. With six of these meatballs running around on their two short thick legs, Alan had to dodge while waiting for his mana to build back up. He had activated mana lode and it was a good thing since he had stepped on a pressure plate that triggered the curse trap while there were still two of the monsters chasing him.

He had been distracted and his trap skill hadn't activated. It was a good reminder that he wasn't infallible, and a moment's inattention or tiny mistake could prove fatal. The curse had only affected his physical stats, so he had been able to put the last two creatures down shortly after it triggered. Not wanting to waste his time, Alan had once again started taking his mana apart, looking at the different types he could find. He now had experienced more than twenty types of mana, not counting the starting six, but he still could only properly manipulate a handful of the higher types.

The second room, and the one he was still in, had contained a horde of skeleton berserkers. They weren't as well armored as the knights he had fought in that one dungeon, but they had been fast and were utterly unconcerned with any damage they took. That part made sense since they were already dead. Dual wielding his spewn in blunt mode, with a club in his off hand, Alan had done his best impression of a woodchipper. Chunks and shards of bone went flying, and his biggest worry had centered around catching a stray piece to his eyes. Too bad he didn't have any goggles or even glasses.

Once he had cleared the room of active threats, Alan had spent more time looking for passive ones. The only trap he found was on the door he was now fondling. It was centered on the doorknob, but he wanted to make sure there wasn't anything else. Touching the door was a risk, but the contact improved his ability to sense what was going on. This trap seemed to be purely magical in nature, and Alan handled it the same way he had handled previous magical traps. With his hand hovering as close as his senses told him he could go, Alan pulled the mana out of the trap. His upgraded energy handling skill made a noticeable difference in both the speed and ease with which he managed that.

With the known trap taken care of, Alan checked the door over one more time in case it had been masking something else. Everything seemed fine so he carefully turned the handle and peeked inside. He wasn't foolish enough to simply stick his head around the edge, but his caution proved unwarranted. On the other side of the door was a portal. It seemed the dungeon was over already, but where was the loot? Also, he was getting a strange feeling from his aether reading skill. Something was off.

Alan took five minutes to simply study the portal and the walls around it, but in the end he couldn't find anything that would cause his misgivings. He even checked in with Tamee.

"This is one of those things where I can't say anything. Confirming it's a problem, or telling you it's fine would be too much like providing direct aid." Was her unhelpful answer.

Finally, with no other choice than to return to the entrance and leave, he stepped into the portal. Alan found himself in another stone room, almost identical to the one he had arrived in. There was even a portal behind him. Looking around he wasn't sure if it was in fact the same room, but something told him it wasn't. Then he heard a voice.

Will this one be greedy as well, or will he take this chance to escape?

Alan wasn't sure where the voice was coming from, he thought it was in his head, but it didn't sound like Tamee. "Is someone there?" He asked.

He waited a full minute, and then called out again. "Were you talking to me?"

He can't be talking to me. Why does he wait?

This time he was sure the voice was in his head. He tried to talk to whatever it was in the same manner, but he was met with silence. With nothing else to go on, Alan took a moment to study the portal in the room.

Early Exit: Would you like to use the portal behind you to exit the dungeon. Warning, the entire dungeon has not yet been completed so your reward will be reduced.

Something strange was going on here. Alan turned to Tamee for advice again, and this time she could actually answer.

"It's not a common dungeon setup, but it does show up, especially in wild dungeons. Rather than having stairwells leading down, there are portals that lead to different sections. You can exit at any of them, but the farther you go, the better the rewards."

Alan decided not to mention the voice he had heard. It was another oddity, and if it was what he thought, he didn't want to let Tamee know about it. Instead he checked the door that should be the exit for traps. The voice might call it greed, but Alan needed to finish this dungeon so that it would stop leaking monsters. Protection was part of what he had promised Roger and Elstree. Besides, the promise of something really good at the end of this called to him.

With the doorway cleared, Alan opened it to see what the next challenge was. Gone was the well fitted stone work. Now the walls were bare stone and dirt, the kind of surface he had encountered in caves and natural tunnels. The floor was a similar situation, but most of the dirt was gone, leaving slightly smoothed stone to walk on. Alan was thinking this would make traps less likely, but then he saw an outline in his vision. A tripwire was set up just over his head. It was a strange setup, but then he thought about the range of sizes people come in, and that if he had a fancy helmet or a large weapon he could have tripped it without noticing it.

Ducking underneath, Alan made his way to the first large cavern. As he approached, he was assaulted by a truly foul odor. The smell was revolting, like a mix between dirty diapers and boiled brussel sprouts. When he turned the last corner, he was able to make out a large space that was filled with goblins. He had seen such creatures before, and that wasn't even counting the one who had outcooked him, but these were significantly larger and they looked quite a bit more confident. His nose was telling him that they probably could have used a lesson in cooking, however.

In the center of the room was a large pot boiling away over a small bonfire. It was the smoke coming out of it that smelled so bad. Alan didn't want to use his identify skill yet since one of them might be able to sense it, and there were a lot of them. If they rushed him all at once he could be in trouble. It was time to activate one of the most feared classes in all of Earth's RPGs, the stealth archer. Taking out his crossbow, Alan stepped into the shadows that ringed the cavern, which was only lit by the fire in the center.

Activating his fade ability, he was confident that he was, for all intents and purposes, invisible. There were twenty-five of the goblins scattered around, with the largest concentration near the food. He took a moment of his precious stealth time to plan out his movements, and then he was off. The first shot took out a goblin who was a bit separated from the others, and the bolt in its throat kept it from alerting any of its fellows. Alan was already moving before its body hit the floor.

Taking three steps to his right, he was able to reload the crossbow in about six seconds. Considering he was trying to stay hidden and on the move while he did it, it was an impressive feat. The second shot took out one of a pair who were sitting together on a rock, chatting. The first goblin took that bolt in its open mouth, and its companion had one puncture its chest a few seconds later. That one had been staring stupidly at his dead friend and didn't even try to locate Alan. This time he traveled about ten meters before stopping. The last pair dying had drawn some attention.

If the goblins had a leader, they were either bad at their job, or not in the area. Instead of coming together as a group, or spreading out to search, they reacted in twenty-two different ways. Many fell back on some variation of 'what's going on?', while a couple started searching for the attacker. Several others converged on the fallen to get a better look at what had happened. Alan took out one of the searchers and then moved back closer to where he had entered the cavern.

Another bolt took out one of those who had gone to inspect his handiwork, and now there were twenty. Finally, after seeing others start falling, they began to work together. The goblins split up into groups of five and started moving to the edges of the cavern to search for him. The sixth bolt took out one of the closest goblins and Alan retreated back into the tunnel. Either the goblins would continue searching the cavern or one of the groups would come into the tunnel looking for him and he could take out the smaller bunch in the cramped confines of the passage. It was a win-win as far as he was concerned.

The now four goblin group charged toward his last position, and seeing themselves so close to a tunnel, they chose to move into it to search for him. The other goblins stayed behind to continue searching the cavern. The stone tunnel wasn't very well lit, so Alan had little trouble hiding in the shadows. Lucky shot number seven took out the biggest goblin here, and the rest charged forward. Alan continued to back up just long enough to take out another goblin with the crossbow, this time a nimble fellow who seemed more capable than the others, before storing it and using his spewn and pugio to quickly dispatch the remaining two.

His stamina was running low, as fade doubled the rate at which he consumed it. Since the cavern-bound goblins showed no inclination to enter the tunnel at the moment, he sat down and meditated. There was no teasing apart mana strands at the moment, instead he just focused on moving energy in his aura and watching his qi pathways. There was currently an anemic amount of motion at the moment, but as his stamina pool built up, so did the energy in this other aura. That just confirmed for Alan that qi was tied to his stamina just as his aura was related to mana. Alan wasn't sure why there weren't pathways for his health as well, but then he realized he was overcomplicating things.

His body did have an aura for his health, it was his body and the arteries and veins that carried his blood around. As he powered up his aura, it connected to more and more of his body, which also made his energy pathways more closely mimic his body's circulatory system. It was an interesting thought, perhaps leveling up was simply causing his energy body and his physical body to more perfectly resemble each other. But if it was true, he wondered what happened when someone reached red grade. Alan already knew from looking at Pixel's aura that it was vastly different from a white aura, but he hadn't seen a similar change in her body. He also couldn't imagine what that would even look like since her aura had been fractal in nature. It was yet another mystery for him to try and figure out when this tutorial was over. Or possibly before if he could manage to move up in grade, but that seemed like a distant dream at the moment.

Now with a full pool of resources again, Alan moved back into the cavern. He paused at the entrance, but there were no guards present, the others were still searching the cave in their three clusters. Only two groups were moving around the perimeter, the last one was searching the interior space. Now that they were down to fifteen goblins, he wasn't as worried about them swarming him. He still planned to strike from the shadows, but if they spotted him he wasn't as worried about taking them on. It wasn't arrogance, it was an informed opinion after fighting two of them in close quarters. Things might get hairy if any of them were mages or ranged specialists who could provide support while he was stuck in melee combat, but he hadn't seen any gear that would suggest such a possibility.

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The next five goblins went down just like the last group. He targeted the one currently closest to him and took out it while they were in the cave, and another one died when they entered the tunnel. He didn't try to get a third shot off, he simply went at them with his daggers. After a brief skirmish in which the three had hardly even caught a glimpse of Alan before he killed them, he was getting ready to go back into the cavern to shoot some more. It was at that moment that the last two groups rushed the entrance. It looked like he was done with stealth, it was time for close-in work.

Deciding to try and level some of his skills, Alan took out his gladius to go with his spewn. The sword had been a reward for killing several humans way back in tier two. Alan was thankful that he hadn't actually killed them, it had been a trick, but at the time he had felt horrible. Still, that wasn't the weapon's fault. He didn't work much with swords, preferring his faster daggers, but he needed to improve the skill in case he ever needed to use a longer weapon. It also meant he had to switch the spewn to his left hand, but by now there was little difference between his two hands.

A few of the goblins turned out to have slings, and they chucked rocks at him while he was engaged with the brawnier creatures. He could have retaliated with a variety of spells to end their threat, but he chose to incorporate the attacks into his training. Blocking blows and following up with his own strikes was much more difficult with the whistling stones flying at him. It was straining both his perception and dexterity to keep from taking a major hit. He wasn't able to avoid all injuries, but that was why he was a healer too!

In the end, he had to chase down the sling wielding goblins after he killed their fellows. Seeing their meat shields get sliced apart, they decided to go find some more tanks. He really wished he had seen about purchasing some throwing daggers, but the idea kept slipping from his mind. Next time he saw Smithy, he was going to ask the man to make him a set. Without a non-magical means of striking them (his crossbow was almost out of bolts), Alan cast a bramble wall in their path, and then cut apart the goblins as they struggled to free themselves. He really appreciated this improved nature version of a wall, even if it did mean sacrificing some of his fruit stock.

The rest of the floor was similar to that first cavern. It turned out that he was in a goblin warren, and the initial area had been the kitchen and dining room. He killed well over a hundred goblins before he once again found the portal to exit. Along the way he had picked up a few weapons that didn't seem to be in too bad a shape, but the limited armor and other equipment they carried was poorly maintained and not worth taking. If he started looting everything that wasn't nailed down, the core could take it personally and start making his life even more difficult than it already was.

Stepping into the exit, he once again found himself in a clone of the starting room. There was also a portal behind him, but he wasn't inclined to take it now, any more than he had the last time. As he checked for traps again, he once more heard the voice in his head.

This one shows some skill, but if he doesn't take the exit soon he will find himself completely overmatched. I look forward to harvesting the energy from his decaying soul.

That was a lot less friendly of a message than the last time. Alan was pretty sure that the voice was that of the dungeon core. He didn't think he was supposed to be able to hear it, Tamee had never mentioned being able to talk to cores, and neither had Gaf. It must have something to do with his aether skill, and maybe the fact that he was bonded with Indiana, but he was also only hearing it while in this starting room. Perhaps there was something about how this space was set up that made it easier to communicate. Alan ignored the voice for now, he didn't want to rile it up anymore than its bloodthirsty words suggested it was.

The trapless room led not to a cave or hallway, but instead into a forest. The dense vegetation almost forced him to stick to the solitary path, and since it probably led to his next challenge he didn't try and push his way into the trees. He wasn't attacked, but there was a nice collection of traps along the way. A couple of pitfalls and one snare that would have left him dangling from his heels, meters up in the air. When he found his first opponent, he half expected it to be a little furry bear-cub humanoid. Yub yub. Instead it was bigger than he was.

Creature: Forest Troll (Uncommon), Level 15, threat: medium. These trolls possess the regenerative abilities that trolls are known for, without as severe a reaction to the sun. It will weaken them, but not turn them to stone.

The troll was holding a halberd in one hand like it was a longsword. Since it was two and a half meters tall it didn't look so ridiculous. The warty and bulbous face of the monster was currently fashioned in a scowl as it looked at Alan. It didn't move from its spot however, as if it was waiting for him to make the first move. Alan obliged it by dashing in close with his spewn and pugio at the ready. He wasn't going to get a reach advantage against this thing, so he chose to move in closer where it would make its weapon more awkward.

Having played enough fantasy games in his life, he didn't need identify to tell him about its regeneration, but it did remind him that fire was the traditional enemy of a troll. Rather than hitting it with a firebolt, he simply bathed his blades in fire mana. It wasn't an infusion, he wasn't trying to add it to their auras, he was simply coating the edge with a thin and very temporary layer. The spewn already added some fire damage to its attacks, but the added mana let him hack apart the troll like it was made of butter. It was one of the easier fights he had in the dungeon. The bloodthirsty core wasn't going to be feasting on Alan's corpse anytime soon.

The troll had snapped its halberd in its death throws, which was highly suspicious, but it meant there wasn't anything important enough for him to loot, so he moved on down the path. He fought a few more creatures one at a time. A hobgoblin, an orc, and a hill troll all were defeated before he found himself confronted by a strange sight.

Gralvan: Bodarian, Enforcer, Threat level: medium.

The nature of the information he got from identify told him that this was a sapient creature, it had a soul. That shouldn't be possible. This was definitely a wild dungeon, and they couldn't recruit people to populate them the same way a Network-bound one could. Also, this was a Bodarain, a denizen of one of the four planets competing in the tutorial. There was one more oddity, he couldn't be sure, since it had been at quite a distance, but this looked like the warrior who had led the Bodarian party that he had seen fight with the Nivex. Alan had assumed he was dead, since the tutorial had declared Alan the victor of this tier, something that shouldn't be possible if an enemy recruit still survived.

However, there the Bodarian stood. As a type of golemoid, the Bodarians were all imposing specimens of humanoids. This particular one looked to have been carved out of a mountain. He was much taller than Alan, and the man's limbs were almost as thick as Alan's chest. Any doubts as to who this man was, were banished as he took in the long handled hammer this man was carrying. It was more like a hunk of metal on the end of a tree rather than a finely crafted weapon of war, but it matched what he had seen the Bodarian leader use to smash a Nivex to pulp. Somehow he was both alive, and here. He couldn't be a copy since dungeons, even wild ones, couldn't create creatures with a soul.

Using both his aura and qi reading skills, Alan could tell that his own energy levels were higher. Gralvan's aura was definitely opal, but it also had the inefficiencies from classing up that Alan had removed from his own pathways. The Bodarian's qi pathways showed similar issues, but were larger than his aura. That was the first time Alan had really seen that in a sapient person since developing his new reading skill. Perhaps that meant the man was more reliant on his body and not as much on mana?

That was a question that could probably be solved by combat. It was most likely going to come to that anyway, but Alan wanted to get as much information as he could about what was going on before that happened.

"I see you, Gralvan. My name is Alan, can I ask why you are here?"

The words felt a little stilted as he said them, but at the same time some instinct said they were correct ones. When the Bodarian answered it was in a very deep, powerful voice.

"I am here to test you. Only if you defeat me can you continue your journey."

It was a reasonable answer, but not what he was looking for. "I mean why are you here, in this dungeon."

A strange look started to form on his angular features, but then Gravlan's face relaxed as he answered as he had before. "I am here to test you. Only if you defeat me can you continue your journey."

That wasn't a good sign. From Alan's limited experience, such behavior suggested he was being controlled by a dungeon core. Alan was constantly running his aura reading skill, which had recently broken the two hundred barrier, but he wasn't used to qi or aether as much. Alan tried questioning Gralvan again, and this time he focused on the aether around him.

"We are currently in a dungeon, and you seem to be under the control of a dungeon core. Do you know how this happened?"

This time the man's expression never changed, but the aether swirled around him. Instead of answering, his qi started to pulse and his muscles contracted before he exploded into motion. It seemed that the dungeon core was controlling him and it had decided to get things moving. It was an impatient being, apparently.

While Alan might have a significantly stronger aura, Gralvan wasn't to be taken lightly. He crossed the eight meters between them in four steps and was bringing his maul around in a horizontal swipe as he did so. If that thing hit, no shield was going to protect him. Of course, Alan had no plans to stand still and take such a blow. Instead he was moving to the side. He had seen such rushes like this before, and those that used them usually had difficulty adjusting their course too much. Whatever the name of this ability was, Gralvan also was unable to adjust and his swing met nothing but air. Activating twin slash, Alan's daggers left a deep gash in the big man's side.

It seemed to anger him and he dropped his maul with one hand and tried to backhand Alan. He was surprisingly fast, but the twitch in his qi had let Alan know he was attacking, and even if it hadn't, it was an obvious move so he was ready to counter. Ducking under the blow, Alan kicked out and caught Gralvan in the side of the knee. It felt like kicking a boulder, but it still caused the Bodarian to stumble. He didn't feel the distinctive sound of a kneecap breaking, but the rock man probably had all of the constitution to strengthen his body with.

Not underestimating his opponent, or taking this challenge lightly, Alan kept pushing while Gralvan was off balance. Another twin slash stuck near the first. He had been trying to hit the exact spot, but his control with the class ability wasn't as good as when he did things himself. He would have to practice more with it to really make it his own. For the moment, it was the best he could do. The burly fighter now had parallel slashes above its ribcage. It was a good spot to land another attack, but Gralvan was already recovering so Alan backed away, not trusting the large man's quickness. Yes, his qi could somewhat broadcast his moves, but it was better at signaling when someone was going to move, and not how.

Gralvan was on his feet in an instant and once again held his maul in both hands. Instead of pain or fear, there was only determination in his eyes. This was a worthy opponent, Alan thought it was unfortunate he couldn't have met him outside of the dungeon. He would have made a great ally. Pushing those thoughts aside, Alan prepared for the next attack. He debated using his stalker's sigil to give him bonus damage, but the very long cooldown made him change his mind. If there were any stronger enemies coming up he wanted to keep it in reserve. Alan could only hope that the ability didn't end up hoarded like health potions in a video game, always hesitating from 'wasting' them and in the end they sat, never used.

Another pulse in his opponent's qi warned him of a skill activating, but it was slightly different than last time. Now the Bodarian lifted his maul like it was a toy, and moved in toward Alan. Perhaps he had gained a boost to his strength? Whatever the ability, he also was able to move faster now that the weight of his weapon wasn't an issue. Alan found himself constantly sidestepping hammer blows, or narrowly dodging swings. Gralvan had mastered the art of keeping his weapon in front of him as he attacked, preventing Alan from getting an easy riposte.

Going back to what used to be one of his favorite spells, Alan sent three prismatic orbs into the hulk's face. Alan had been prepared for his spell to have little effect, but the man's weaker aura meant it had a harder time fighting off the disorientation. The triple blast didn't help the Bodarian either, and he whipped his head back and forth. Whether it was to try and clear his vision, or simply an attempt to see something, it was unhelpful. With a few quick steps, Alan was behind his foe and stabbed him with both his daggers. The pugio didn't seem to receive any bonuses from its holy infusion, and it only penetrated about eight centimeters. His spewn, however, sliced deep into the muscle and passed between two rib bones, dealing significant damage to the organs that they had failed to protect.

Talent Upgrade: Critical Hit → Critical Hit I

Talent Upgrade: Backstab → Backstab I

The dual upgrade was nice, but his opponent wasn't done yet. He appeared to go turtle, rolling onto his back and twirling his maul in the air above him. It looked pretty funny, but it also allowed the still blinded man to protect himself a little. Judging it too risky to try and physically bypass the spinning hunk of metal and wood, Alan cast another spell. Gralvan's head exploded in a spray of flames as his firebolt struck home. It wasn't full powered and the man's constitution protected him from taking too much damage, but it did cause the hammer to wobble. The metal head wavered before he lost control completely and it flew out of his hands. Alan also got another notification.

Talent Upgrade: Fire Starter → Fire Starter I

The flames were dying and Gralvan's vision was no doubt returning, but he was now prone and without a weapon. Alan stored his daggers and removed his crossbow from his ring, then he used it to put a bolt in Gralvan's upper chest before once more storing the weapon and then taking out his daggers once more. Fired from point blank range the missile had managed to penetrate deeply and as the Bodarian curled around the wound, Alan smashed down with the blunt side of his spewn. He didn't manage to smash through the impossibly thick skull, but he did hear something break. It also did terrible things to the brain inside and Alan was able to attack again without any retaliation. The second blow left a large dent and the man went still. Not willing to take any chances, Alan struck a third time and cracked the man's head open, leaving the mashed cerebral matter exposed to the air.

As Alan came down from his adrenaline high, he started to feel bad for Gralvan. Somehow the man had become trapped in the dungeon and was now simply a test for adventurers to overcome. He had put up a good fight and Alan almost regretted the need to kill him. Hopefully the dungeon would bring him back again. For now there was another path for Alan to follow, and no doubt another opponent, but for now he needed a rest. His stamina was only half full and he needed to go over his gains. Quite a few skills had improved, and three talents had upgraded. If nothing else, this dungeon was making him a better warrior.