The New Bond

“One does not just forge a legendary weapon or armor. Each piece used in its creation has to mean something to the overall piece, you idiots. When a forge Master of the Deep creates a piece the system recognizes as legendary, It is a great mix of many people's lives, work, and time. The hunters who took down a beast of great strength to get a bone, a miner who found a pure vein of mythrite, or a druid who convinced a Tarrale tree to part with a branch. You all need to understand that each piece of a craft tells a story.” - Dwarf Roklen the Gray Beard during a lesson on crafting.

Aster

To say I was getting a bit aggravated with this man was an understatement. He wanted me to do what? Prove myself? I hardly knew him. I could understand that he was Kat's brother and wanted her safe, but that didn't mean I was going to do what he asked him. Kat had chosen on her own to go into the realm event. The fact I was going wasn't due to a want or need to protect her. That didn't mean I wouldn't help her, though.

“Why should how strong I am matter at all?” I said, my words holding a bit more of a snap than I intended.

“Because the offer of taking you to dungeons isn't necessary, I don't need to help you, but you've helped Kat and saved her life from what she and Graves told me. I want to help. I just need to know my sister will be able to focus in the realm event and not be relied on,” Ren sighed.

A firm nudge from Umbra with a warning note of vague impressions of caution had me checking my anger. This wasn't the time to start getting upset at my situation. “What do you want me to do to…show I can defend myself?”

“Simple, I want you to clear a grade two dungeon on your own.” Ren tapped the table before setting his wine down. “There's a dungeon a bit to the north that hasn't been cleared in over a year because of how out of the way and unusual it is.”

My laugh was just barely held back, my mood instantly brightening, but I tried to keep my expression the same. My only other dungeon had been the one I'd gone into with Kat when we were at the academy. It wasn't the easiest to complete, but at the time, I'd had to work with people I really didn't know how to. If I was on my own, then how much better could I do? “That I can do, but I have a question first, or rather an agreement I want to be made before anything.”

To say Umbra wasn't happy with my instant agreement was an understatement. While the tent stopped the noise of her growl, I could feel the bond. Ren raised an eyebrow; it was the only hint of surprise on his face. “That was quick, but I'm sure we can sort something out depending on what you want.”

“I don't want to be led through dungeons after this. I want dungeons that me and Umbra can do together and on our own.” If I had to prove I could complete a grade two dungeon on my own, then what was the point of having someone else walk me through other dungeons? Being led through the higher-tier dungeons wouldn't be possible with how the dungeons reacted to higher grades interfering with lower grades during a delve.

Tapping his finger on the desk again, Ren didn't speak for a moment, thinking while looking at the wine in his glass. I didn't mind, as it gave me the time to calm Umbra down.

“Again? I don't like this. Going into a dungeon already keeps me worried, but on your own? What if the dungeon is too hard to clear?” Umbra was restless in her denial of the idea.

“I can turn back and leave. If he refuses to help up, then we can hunt in the wild to gain levels, but a dungeon will be faster and have cores. Even if you can't eat them to level anymore, they still help you grow in size, not to mention the rewards that can be found in dungeons.” I didn't want to give up this opportunity to explore a few dungeons. I knew the idea of going into a dungeon alone was risky, extremely risky, but the dungeon was my own grade. That meant the hardest monster in there would be the final boss in grade three, and I killed monsters above my grade all the time.

A hissing noise filled my mind as Umbra clawed the ground outside. I could tell she hated the idea, but before she could continue trying to explain myself, Ren spoke. “Dungeons that can fit a dragon bond are not so common. Any dungeon that allows for that usually has a town around it, but there is one at grade three dungeon that might work. Hmmm, I'll look into it, but keep in mind this agreement only sticks if you can kill the last boss and bring out its core as proof.” Ren looked at me, meeting my eyes, and even as unnerving as his eyes were, I knew to keep contact this time. I wanted this. He smiled and leaned back, picked his cup up, and drank.

Umbra refused to let me leave my tent after I'd ended my talk with Ren, herding me back to my tent like I was a lost pup. Now we were having a contest of who could stay determined the longest. Her snout poked through the flap of my tent, her eye staring at me while her nostrils flared, sending out chilling air and covering the tent with frost.

“I don't see why you should even bother with all of this anymore. You know the reason we even agreed to follow Kat here in the first place.” Umbra let out a long breath.

“Besides the fact that Graves would have killed us before we could get away or the fact Kat is as close to a friend as I have?” I answered rhetorically. “Coming here was much better than you being stuck in that tower, and as long as we keep seeming agreeable, I get to learn, and you get to hunt.”

“We're unofficial prisoners, like in the book about that princess who was trapped in the tower by a swarm of griffins and saved by the dragon rider,” Umbra said, scratching the ground outside. “It wouldn't be hard to get away, and if we flew north fast enough, there's no way they could catch up.”

“There are griffins here now, and as powerful as you are, I don't think even you could fight three griffins grades higher than you. Either way, we don't know exactly where we are and what monsters or beasts are waiting for us.” I said, giving the reason we had already gone over as soon as we'd arrived here.

“I don't want you to go into a dungeon alone.”

I winced at the anxiety and fear In her words, then wilted. “He wasn't completely wrong, Umbra. The realm event is going to be dangerous, and I do need to be ready for it, but more than that, I don't know what's going to happen after the event. We don't want to go back to Arilon, and Karvum wouldn't take kindly to a Dragon in their territory, so that really only leaves the wilderness in the north or south of the continent, and I know we're not going south.” I wanted to be able to keep Umbra as safe as she could keep me, and the only way that was possible was if I leveled up my classes and skills and learned to use them properly.

“If you go into this dungeon, you have to promise me you won't go into another dungeon without me. We're bonded, and we work best together, but we haven't had a chance to even do more than practice on the smaller beasts. So promise me that if you go into the dungeon, you'll never go into another one without me.” Umbra moved her snout further into the tent as she spoke. Her words were harsh sounding in my mind, but it wasn't out of anger, well, not anger directed towards me but instead the situation we were in.

I didn't have to think about my answer. First, Umbra had been stuck in the tower, then she had been advancing when I'd almost died, and now she was having to sit back again. There wasn't going to be a fourth time. “I promise that after this dungeon is cleared, we'll stick together as bonds should.” Reaching up, I rubbed her nose and then hugged it. I knew that I was putting Umbra in a hard spot and how much it hurt her to do this, but the other option wouldn't help us progress. After this dungeon, I'd make sure there wouldn't be another time when she had to stand back and wait while I went forward.

Two days passed by rather quickly, all the time I'd been provided to get ready for the dungeon. When we left for the dungeon, the only people who left were all the griffins and their riders, including Ren, Umbra, and I. Kat and Graves’s group were staying at the camp, not seeing a reason to come along. Her staying really pushed what was happening out in the open. I didn't know how to feel about Kat, but I can't say it was a surprise we were growing more distant with the more people she knew showing up. It resulted in a weird sort of ache in my chest I felt when I looked at her afterward. Kat was the only person I'd grown close to. Fernand might have been one, but the months away from Arilon had made him a somewhat distant memory. My feelings didn't make much sense to me. Kat and Ren were siblings, so it was fair that they would have kind of a connection that I couldn't compete with, but it felt like since I'd gotten here, I had been cast aside slowly.

The short two days hadn't given me nearly enough time to practice the skills I'd gained from the advancement or make much of a plan for the dungeon. It didn't help that the only skills I'd practiced openly were from my second class. Arrow Creation and Advanced Frosted Arrow.

The latter skill was something that had given me more confidence than I would admit. The amount of mana the skill required was nearly a hundred points of mana, a massive cost but resulting in an enormous improvement. It meant that I'd only have nine fully charged shots until I gained a few levels, and that was only if I didn't use other skills. Regardless of the cost, the skill was definitely worth using.

My first test had been yesterday at a wood target, which was a small tree Umbra had uprooted and moved a little way off from the camp. Completely charging the skill on the arrow had taken just shy of twelve seconds, and when the arrow was released, a blue glow could be seen on the tip, almost like my rune arrows. When the arrow stuck to the target, the difference from the old Frost Arrow skill was shown. Instead of a slow crawl of frost that would slowly sap the target's stamina until mana ran out, the improved skill created a small bust of frost in every direction a foot wide that clung to everything. The frost lasted for over a minute. Umbra and I agreed that the reason it lasted so long was because it wasn't being used on someone with their own internal mana that would fight the affliction.

Arrow Creation was tested in a different way, and while the skill wasn't a combat skill, it was equally as valuable as Advanced Frost Arrow. The skill worked like a passive skill, kicking in on its own when I started to work on arrows. My first test was creating an arrow, one out of the sparse wood found in the area with some feathers of previously hunted birds. The skill sped up the process, guiding my hands not taking control but also almost subconsciously seemed to help me see smaller issues during the carving and fletching of the arrow. My next test was to see if rune carving on the arrow tips was aided by the skill, and to my glee, it was. Arrow Creation seemed to work in tandem with Advanced Rune Etching, making the entire process go way smoother. My knife that I was using created the symbols with ease, but slowly, mistakes still occurred, but not because of a slip of the knife Or twist of the arrow. In the end, it was still a process that couldn't be sped up and would take time.

Sitting on Umbra's back as she flew behind the griffins, I spoke with her, doing my best to reassure her and making promise after promise to back out if anything I couldn't handle appeared while I was inside the dungeon. I went through the items in my spatial storage, checking that I hadn't missed anything inside that needed to go into my bag. When inside a dungeon, taking anything out of spatial storage would cost more mana than usual by a large amount. It was typically worth not taking the item out inside a dungeon for that reason, but that wasn't all. I did some reading on dungeons after my first experience with the issue and learned that there wasn't a formula for how much mana each item took. It was seemingly different for each dungeon and group, but one thing did stay the same. The cost of pulling an item out would grow with each floor. From the cost listed in the book, it would be impossible on the second floor for me to even take out a piece of bread. I just didn't have the mana at my level that would be required.

A nudge from Umbra had me standing up, pulling the leather that kept us tied together tightened as I peered over the edge of her shoulder and down. We were descending towards a rather large hill covered in thick yellow stones with a rather big one in the middle that reached serval tower levels in height. As we touched down, I started to gag at the smell. The area almost smelled rotten. Taking breaths in with my mouth, I picked up one of the rocks and watched as it crumbled away in pieces at the touch. Under Umbra’s weight, the rocks were reduced to powder. Looking at the bigger rocks, I wondered how the rain hadn't washed them apart.

“You can see or rather smell why there's no town set up around here. The dungeon produces the rock around its entrance, and it's not worth anything, although dwarfs from the mountains send caravans down to collect the stuff every other year. It saves us from having to clear the dungeon yearly,” Ren said, approaching me, his nose wrinkled

“Let's get this done. I'm already losing my appetite,” I said, almost gaging again.

“The smell is bad, but it's not that horrible,” Umbra said, glancing at her. I snorted. I could tell even she wasn't breathing through her mouth. It was firmly closed, preventing any smell from getting to her tongue.

Giving her a narrow but playful look, I followed Ren to the dungeon entrance. The faster this got done, the better.

The entrance was bigger than the dungeon in Arilon, but only slightly, but it had the same cavelike opening leading into darkness. I looked at it for a long moment. The other griffin riders hadn't dismounted and were staying back, so I turned to Umbra, taking the steps necessary to reach her, and gave her a hug. “I'll be back as soon as I can, but we need to find where that other dungeon is. There's no telling the next chance we'll get to run a dungeon. Oh, and I'll keep any cores I get to give to you. It shouldn't be longer than two or three days from what the books said about a grade two dungeon and its time warping. Thinking about it, It's funny how random things seem to appear like this.”

Umbra rumbled, but there was a snort mixed in, letting me know that I'd gotten her to relax a little. She didn't say anything else and didn't need to. As she watched, her emotions were enough for me to know she didn't want me to go but had some of the same thoughts I did. Taking a deep breath and not bothering to look at Ren or listen to anything he might say, I walked into the dungeon.