The New Bond

“Being aware of the nature of a target is as important in a hunt as knowing the terrain you're hunting on. The ground, the sky, and even the very air could all be dangerous when you're not aware of every ability and skill of the prey you hunt. The last thing one of you should ever become is prey to another when you are the one hunting.” - Kulni, speaking to the children of Eldaris on methods of hunting.

Aster

The bow’s string thrummed, vibrating my arm as the second arrow was released. The creature stumbled back a step. Its howl was cut short as the arrow punctured its furred throat. The third monster didn't waste time in passing the dropping form. I was having a better time on this floor already. For one, there were no hallways, the floor was as open as I could want, and the monsters were flesh and blood.

I wasn't exactly taking the small horde that I was fighting lightly, but I was having fun picking them off. The village buildings provided small funnels, and it made missing the creatures hard, as long as I kept ahead of any trying to cut me off from behind as some went around the buildings. Pulling another arrow out, I charged it with a Frost Arrow and sent it at the next creature. It impacted its chest with a pleasing snap of a bone and toppled back, frost forming over its chest. Taking a glance behind at the last pair of village buildings in the row, I listened, picking up the galloping steps of a pair of creatures who moved on the other side. Slinging my bow over my head so I didn't drop it, I turned my slow pace backward, becoming a sprint as the forest spread out in front of me. The idea of exploring the buildings had been thrown out during the first attack when I received my first mark and the dungeon quest.

[Mark of Salem - 1/10 - This mark shows you have been attacked by a beast. Each mark you gain slows down mana and stamina regeneration. When mana and stamina drop to zero, if you have the max marks, you will gain the Curse of Salem.]

It was explained quite simply, but the idea of any curse sent fear and anxiety up my spine. The only other curse I'd ever gained had almost killed me in minutes and would have without the lucky timing of another dragon rider. That small taste of curses had been enough for a lifetime, but another one was trying to gain a foothold on me.

The first attack I'd taken a bit too lightly. The human-sized furred creatures were a lousy take on what a Beast-kin could look like, but an identity told me they weren't even close.

[Dungeon Monster - Beast of Salem - Level 83]

With only inch-long claws and in the early levels of grade two, I hadn't seen much of a problem in practicing hand-to-hand with them. All it had taken to change my mind from that idea was a single misstep and for an attack to graze me. Their claws parted the leather of my armor like water, and once they'd broken skin underneath, the message of the quest and mark had appeared. The quest offered was different from what I was used to, but it did explain the floor's design.

[Salem Dungeon Quest, Floor Two - Part 1 of 2 - Town Hunt - A witch is changing the villagers into monsters. Stop the disease spreading before it claims you to draw the witch out. Monsters on the floor defeated 4/35] [Reward: Appearance of the second-floor boss.] [Party Skill Reward: Unknown.]

A two-part quest, with an added reward for having a party skill, or that was my take on it. Either way, I didn't want to know what would happen if I failed the quest. With a burst of momentum from Stalker’s Movement, I increased my speed as I barreled from between the buildings and into the forest. Off to the side, the pair of the beast tried to leap at me but was undershot by a dozen feet. As I moved to the edge of the forest where the rock would start, I went over my plan for the floor. Going by the quest, I had thirty-one more of the monsters to kill. Getting close to them without any kind of stronger protection wasn't the best idea, so I'd aim to take out as many as possible from range.

My first goal would be to make more arrows. The four in my loops and the six in my pack I had left couldn't be relied on to get me all the way through the floor and boss. Without the ability to take more from storage, I would have to make them. They would be simple; the wood in the weird forest was simple oak, but hopefully, it would be enough.

The trip from the village in the middle of the floor to the edge of the floor was about ten minutes of running. Once the stone wall came into sight, I looked at it. This is where another part of the half-baked plan came into play. The distant howls of the beast grew constantly. It wasn't hard to tell that they could track me since they had followed me from the entrance to the village. I was curious if it was a skill, scent, or something Dungeon-related, but it didn't matter. The wall was craggy and had lumps of various shapes and types. It looked like someone had played a game of stacking boulders. It was perfect for me. The vines hanging down from the roof had given me the idea to scale to the roof, but it seemed too high up to be viable, so up the wall was the best option. If the beast decided to climb after me, then it'd make them easy to pick off. Now, I only had to find a place where I could sit and work comfortably and get some workable wood beforehand. Looking at the nearby trees, it wasn't hard to find a branch that could provide a few good arrows, so after breaking it off and snapping it down to size to fit decently well in my pack, I moved to the base of the wall and started to climb. Moss-covered hand holds made it a bit slippery, but the wedges and cracks made it quick work to scale up a few dozen feet to be above the closest trees. Finding a spot to sit was a bit harder. With the rocks tending to want to curve down, it made slipping off a big possibility. Thankfully, there was a decent ledge only a dozen feet up that only sloped slightly down. It wasn't big, and I was forced to prop her feet into a smaller ledge awkwardly as I got ready to work. Sliding my pack off, I looked down as I pulled out the small knife. For fletching, I'd have to settle with bark; it wouldn't hold up well over any time, but it'd have to make do. Splitting the log, I kept an eye out as I let my new skill aid in the carving.

The process of creating twelve arrows took three hours, and during that time, woodworking went up to rank four. The arrows were crude but sharp, and I was starting to understand the benefit of using a quiver, at least in a dungeon. The spare arrows were either in the loop or stuck through the top of the pack for easy access. With over fifteen arrows, clearing a pack of thirty would be a lot easier. The time had given me an idea, and if it worked, the fight would end a lot faster than I'd originally planned. The few rune-etched arrows would play a big part.

Below me, the sound of scratching and clawing at the stone had me rolling my eyes. They couldn't manage to figure out how to climb the stone, but in the nearby trees, the best scaled as high as they could with ease, able to sink the short claws into the bark and let out growls but didn't try to make the thirty-foot jump. While they seemed content to wait and watch, I waited as well, taking careful time to count the beast I could make out. I wanted to pick off as many as possible while they were easy to hit, and if the beast had any brain function, they wouldn't hesitate to run when the first of them died. Slowly getting into a standing position, I found the best footing I could and looked for the beast's set of targets. The set in the tree was the easiest to pick out, a set of five on the thickest set of branches at the top. It would take them time to climb down if they didn't risk jumping or have a skill for it. Reading one of the oak arrows. They lacked any great ability to hold mana, and the Frost Arrow skill, while able to infuse the arrow, felt considerably weaker than any claw wood arrow. Taking aim for center mass, I watched the snarl of the beast as it let out another growl and then shot. It hit with a thunk, and the frost that spread out while only half a foot wide still froze and cracked the skin and, hopefully, the organs underneath. As it fell with a wheezing gasp, I took another one of the arrows out of a loop, and infusing, I let it loose at the second-highest beast.

CORE N.41 Label: Salem

Salem was upset but, at the same time, thrilled. The stone wall around the floor had been mostly made out of design choices for looks, but his monsters for the floor couldn't climb stone, and the girl delver had taken full advantage. The error would have to be fixed when his dungeon was empty, a small cost to smooth most of the bottom of the wall out enough to prevent climbing. While he was at it, raising the vines slightly higher would be wise as well, and maybe a waterfall that was scaleable. He felt his thoughts drifting off and redirected his attention to the delver. She had already taken out four more of the beast at an impressive speed for her grade, but she still had to find a way down. He then turned his attention to the mana he was receiving from the delve. It was quite a lot, more than he'd expected, and with her special status as well as the dungeon forms. As it stood, and if she was on the floor for the time he'd hoped she'd be, then it was likely he could finish his third floor. It would be bare and lacking a lot of what he wanted, but it'd give him the option to change out his floors, and he could finally have more people enter his dungeon. That was if the delver survived at least for a few more hours.

Aster

I listened to the not-so-distant howls. The beast had backed off quickly but not too far. They were waiting for me to come down. The quest said eight of the beasts were dead, and my notifications confirmed it. My solution to getting down without getting swarmed and picking a few more of the creatures off was easy enough. I was going to tree hop. It was obvious that they were non-sapient and were reacting as any beast would. Slinging my bow over a shoulder, I looked across the gap at the tree the beast had been in. The first jump would be easy since I knew the branch I was landing on was steady, but the others would be a guess. Checking and making sure everything was secure, I jumped with Stalker’s Movement, the skill staying active until my feet left the rock. The emotion of being in the air with nothing under me had been dulled in my flights with Umbra but still did get a slight rise out of my belly. The landing was aided by Careful Step and Forest Stride Basic. The notification of a rank, the first gained in the latter skill, was a bit of a surprise and slightly derailed my thinking as I wondered how a forest was defined since it was underground and made by a dungeon. My next jump was easier and brought me over another tree, and then another leap took me further out. As I got into the rhythm of hopping, I grabbed my bow and an arrow, resting it on the string. Three more jumps, and I paused on a slightly bigger three with a thicker branch near the top and waited. The howls of the beast didn't take long to sound out nearby, whatever method they were using to track, letting them know I was nearby. The coarse black fur below was the single warning I got before the tree rustled as a black mass converged on it and the sound of bark cracking as they started to scale. I thought for a moment before I changed the arrows for one with a rune-etched tip and began to infuse it with mana. They were all clustered. At least a group of ten scaling over each other trying to reach me first provided a shot I hardly had to aim for. The explosion of the blue cloud was slightly different from the one used during training with Josh.

This arrow, and the other ones I had, were made to be deadly and not just a trap to hold someone. The burst of built-up mana was beautiful, at least for me. The runes in the arrow were a set of four consisting of water, heat, freeze, and burst. That said, making it work the way I wanted was much more complex and involved a few sleepless nights with grumbling from Umbra. The burst of water instantly heated into a cloud of mist and then refrozen into tiny frozen droplets that would hang for a second before the last rune burst activated, creating a small wave of force, busting every droplet into a small cloud of tiny, sharp shards of ice. Any target with armor or made of stone the arrow was useless against, with the exception of maybe acting as a small distraction. The cluster of beasts with short, coarse fur, sensitive snouts, exposed eyes, and almost thirty feet off the ground? It was a match made by the gods.

The reaction of the runes was near instant, and the shrill screeches and howls that turned into wails were all worth it. Three notifications of kills and a fourth a moment later when the group fell from the tree wasn't as much as I hoped for, but it made picking off the injured ones with Frost Arrow quick work. One by one, the number climbed, reaching fifteen, then with another rune arrow, it reached twenty. That number went up to twenty-three before I noticed a problem with my math. There were only a few under me, and I was short a few arrows, but that could be fixed with another trip to make a few. But more importantly, after counting, there was only a set of eight under me still scaling the tree. The last two of the crude arrows I had lowered that down to six, but it still left five unaccounted for. I took a pause, slightly confused, checking the number in the quest. Definitely a few missing, but were they in the village or somewhere else? The feeling of a non-passive skill being used without intention was strange. Lesser Draconic Instinct was like a panicked prod from the back of my mind of something dangerous to my left, and I turned my head a tree over one cast in the shade with a set of two Salem beasts leaping already halfway across the gap answered my question. My time to react was short. My single idea to use Stalker’s Movement to leap to another tree was forgotten about as I realized the second or two I had wasn't enough to get out of the way of its tackle, so I raised my bow like a shield and braced.

The creature was bigger than me and struck like a tackle from Sandath, except with no care for the harm it might cause. We were both thrown off the branch and into the air. Its jaws opened and aimed for a bite that was stopped short as I let my bow drop from my grip and grabbed the underside of its muzzle, forcing it up. The snap of closing jaws sounding above my ears was like cracking ice. Turning slightly to avoid a swipe from its arms, I kicked it at its stomach, pushing it a foot away before we both hit the ground. The fall was hard on the packed earth and sent me rolling away, my vision spinning and a painful ache in my left shoulder, which had taken the brunt of the collision, but the pure adrenaline of the fight had me getting to my feet as I looked around. The other creature was also getting to its feet, shaking its large head. Looking around, I spotted the bow under its massive paw of a foot and grimaced. Before I could try and get it back, the noise of more of the beast leaping down and climbing down from the tree sounded. Taking a step back, I raised both of my fists before the closest one charged.