The Pinnacle Warrior [LitRPG Dungeon Diving]

The evening passed quickly. The bath? Barely a memory. Meal? No idea what she'd eaten or what it'd tasted like. She managed to engage in conversation with her two friends, but Astrid couldn't keep her mind from the days ahead. How many wargs a day would she kill? From her understanding, each floor spawned more and more wargs a day. The first, which she wouldn't be clearing, spawned about 30 on a regular day. The second floor was a bit under 40, the third right at 50, and the fourth floor had just so slightly more than the third, as well as the Boss room. That meant, with the Boss and its two helpers, Astrid would be able to kill about 150 wargs a day. She wasn't great at math, but she could multiply by 5. 750 experience, minimum, every day.

A week to pass the first benchmark and get her fourth Skill. After months of delving as much as she could without violating the rules or getting assistance from others, Astrid was mere days away from taking her first steps as a real delver. She couldn't stop bouncing her legs, and finally, Guinevere stopped speaking before setting her hand on Astrid's shoulder.

"What is it? There's something on your mind."

Astrid debated answering for a moment, before shrugging and deciding to tell all.

"I'm only going to be here for another two weeks, tops. I just hit level 5, and Grom's agreed to accelerate my experience gain until I hit level 6. As soon as that happens… I'm gone. I'll be off to another entrance, though I'm not sure which. Grom's got a list that he's mentioned before, so I'll probably check that."

"And you won't return, at least, not for a long time." Guinevere smiled softly. "Good for you! That's really exciting. Do you have anything that you're wanting to fight next? I'd imagine that you're done with four-legged things, if you can help it."

Despite herself, Astrid laughed a little.

"Yeah, I don't want any of those. The only other four-legged monsters this low level are basically the same as what I've fought until now. Dire wolves are stronger but they don't get any additional attributes per level, so they're only really different in the first level or two. There are panthers and other feline monsters, and they're stronger still than the dire wolves, but they hunt alone, and since there's no additional experience for the difficulty, I don't see any real reason to fight monsters that'll give me the same experience that I get here, just harder and less efficient."

"You'll have to forgive me," Moira said, "but I've never had any real interest in delving, despite my hometown. Why aren't the dungeons like this, where people can get experience pretty quickly for low effort, not overrun with delvers?"

"Well." Astrid pulled her knees up to her chest. She sat on the floor on a cushion by choice. "A couple reasons. First is that wargs aren't worth anything. Nobody's making any worthwhile money here, not by delver standards. I delve at least twice as much as the rest of people around here, and at least twice as much as other delvers, as far as I know. If I hunt all by myself all day, I'll make anywhere from 60 copper to a bit over a silver. An honest day's work, if you talk to any regular person, right?"

Guinevere and Moira nodded.

"How much would I have had to pay you, Moira, for repairs when I was first starting out? You know, if you weren't giving me a preferred price and I was coming in every other day for small repairs?"

After thinking for a minute, Moira ventured, "Maybe 20 copper? Up to 40 on the bad days."

"Your prices are that low? You've got a monopoly." Astrid asked, surprised and sidetracked.

"Don't need more." Moira shrugged.

"Okay then. Anyways. And Guinevere, how much do you think I spend on draughts a week?"

"At regular price, I think what you buy would be somewhere around two silver a week."

"Frankly, I'm better at protecting myself and more wasteful with draughts than others, because of how I delve." Astrid added. "I'll just call regular expenses for a delver around here for a week to be 10 copper a day for food, 30 for the room for the week, so another silver there. You starting to understand why there's no money?"

"Sure," Moira shook her head, "but aren't levels worth more than anything?"

"At these early levels, sure." Astrid nodded. "But the higher level you get, the harder they are to get, which you know. But have you paid attention to how much experience the higher levels actually take?"

"I've never paid attention beyond Bronze." Guinevere shrugged. "I'm never going to get to Iron."

"Same."

"Figured that's what you thought." Astrid said. "Each watershed provides a jump in required experience, so at level 6, you need 10,000 experience, and then it progresses by a thousand each level until 11, where it becomes 20,000, and 16 becomes 30,000. Level 21 takes 50,000, with each subsequent level requiring another 5,000 experience with the watersheds jumping 25,000 experience from the previous level. Then, you know that each tier gets longer and longer than the last, so for the 30 levels of Iron, it takes more and more monsters for every single level. In Steel, the 40 levels jump by 10,000 every level, the watersheds jumping 50,000. Mithril and Adamantium continue jumping such ludicrous levels, to say nothing of what little I know about the Arcanite."

"That's… why it's so hopeless to delve." Guinevere hummed in understanding. "I'd just never cared enough to learn about how it works. I understand how impossible it'll be for me to reach level 11, so who cares about what comes after, right?"

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Moira grunted in agreement.

"So people aren't over here, because money can cover many of the issues that crop up later?"

"Close enough that I'd call it the truth." Astrid replied. "Another one is how few monsters are in a given Dungeon offshoot like this one. If there were more driven, high-leveled delvers over here, or even just more in general, then I wouldn't have this opportunity, regardless of how much Grom likes me and thinks I've got a good future ahead of me. The Guild controls how many people stick around a Dungeon entrance, more or less. Anybody who's got enough levels to go to another entrance go there instead of here. Then, when people move up, the Guild has a couple options that they let them choose from."

"More bureaucracy than I expected." Moira pursed her lips.

"I don't mind it, honestly." Astrid shrugged. "It keeps everything working in a way that it couldn't otherwise. There's too many things that need to be dealt with, and delvers are a lot of things. Well organized isn't one of them. And the final point doesn't really apply in this case, but there's also the reduction in experience gained for tier disparity."

"Half off for every tier's difference, right?"

"Yeah." Astrid rocked back on her cushion, thinking about the coming day.

"We won't be seeing you much from now on, will we?" Guinevere spoke again, pulling the attention back to their relationship instead of other things.

"Probably not." Astrid spoke quietly. "If I'm going to be hunting down every warg like I plan to… I'll eat meals in the stairways and be so exhausted when I come back that I'll just collapse into bed."

"Is this goodbye, then?" Her voice caught as she asked.

"No. But soon. Sooner than I'd like. But too far away all the same."

Guinevere stood from her chair and stepped around Astrid. Sitting on the floor like she was, Astrid was just the right height for the Apothecary to lean down and rest her head on Astrid's.

"I'm happy for you. You've been… like a caged beast. You have broad horizons before you, and being kept from them is a form of torture for you. Astrid Warrior is a wanderer, and I look forward to hearing about all that you accomplish for the next decades."

As Guinevere spoke, Astrid leaned her head down and rested it on Guinevere's hand. Then, as Moira stood and joined them, Astrid climbed to her feet as well, towering over her two friends. Then, as gently as she could muster, she pulled them both into a tight hug.

"Thank you. For being here for me." Astrid whispered. "I… don't think I could have made it without you."

"That's why we're here." Moira laughed, though Astrid could hear a catch in her throat as she did so.

None of them said anything more as they stood in a close hug for a minute, and Astrid didn't care about how her back ached or how the sun set. This would be the last tender moment she had for at least the next week. Then, as she pulled back, a tear glinting in most of their eyes, she turned and walked out of the shop.

There was rest she needed to get before the big day she had before her. And even if there were a couple tears from complicated feelings staining her pillow, she didn't mind.

***

"We're starting with the Boss." Grom said as they trotted through the third floor. A pair of wargs lunged out, and Astrid dealt them killing blows while Grom did nothing to help her. She ignored the beasts' dying whimpers as she got the kill notifications. They hadn't partied together, so the 16 experience they offered was all hers.

"With the Boss, I'm going to do only two things. One, I'll take its attention as it gets started and enrages. Then, I'll stand there while you deal with its supporters, and once one's dead, I'm stepping away. Letting you deal with the problems on your own. Got it? The only other thing I'll do is make sure you don't die, and, frankly, that's a bit generous. I'll be the last Guild Representative that holds your hand like this, and I imagine that it won't be long before I let you take it on all by yourself."

Astrid nodded, then, feeling nervous, she spoke. "Actually. I want to try to do it by myself."

Though his helm hid his face, Grom's voice carried the look his face couldn't. "Really?"

"Yeah. See if I can take them all alone."

"Well, then. Great. Let's go, see how you do soloing a Boss at level 5."

Before she could get more nervous and possibly back out, Astrid jogged forward. Where the black forest was seemingly the same all the way through, the entrance to the final room of the Dungeon was obvious. A curled pattern of braided black branches stood near the center of the floor, and a faintly opaque glimmer shone where a door would have hung in the space. With nothing stopping her, Astrid walked through the doorway, a strange feeling twisted in her stomach for a brief second. Then, she was somewhere else.

The Boss room was even darker and blacker than the rest of the Dungeon, with trees, each as thick around as an adult man, patterned almost regularly through it. As she walked forward, the Boss made itself known. Bubbling growls echoes through the space, and the Boss rushed towards her. Its eyes glowed a faint red and the ruff around its neck was nearly a mane. Drool fell regularly from the corners of its mouth, and it didn't think of anything except for violence. It screamed its challenge as it threw itself at her shield. Astrid thought of trying to kill it quickly, but instead, she kept an eye out for the other two monsters.

It slammed against her shield, and Astrid had to gather herself. She'd spent months fighting against wargs, and she'd nearly died at least a dozen times. Though they were among the weakest of monsters, they were still dangerous, and they were surprisingly strong. She'd had to double her attributes to have a prayer of survival against the other Boss she'd fought, and though it wasn't too difficult to kill, it was painfully strong.

Now, she realized that it was also a higher level than this one, and it was boosted by the out of control mana from the surge and its berserk Skill. Though she'd braced her shoulder against the attack, she'd expected to be pushed back. It felt like she'd taken a training blow. Sure, it hurt, but it wasn't anything to worry about. With a scoff, she shoved the beast back, and though she saw both of its minions coming to flank her, there wasn't any reason to delay. She roared as she swung her hammer up into the monster's bottom jaw.

Bone pulverized as she followed through, and the Boss stumbled. It opened its mouth to activate its Skill and boost its attributes, but why would she let it do that? Astrid darted forward, away from the attacking minions, and smashed her hammer again into the monster, this time crippling it. Its front legs snapped, and instead of its rallying cry, it whimpered in pain.

The Boss out of commission, Astrid quickly dealt with the two level 5 wargs and then, with a bleeding, suffering monster before her, she cleared the Boss all by herself for the first time.

Warg slain. 9 Experience gained

Warg slain. 9 Experience gained

Boss Warg slain. 30 Experience gained

Seeing her experience rise by 48 so quickly, Astrid grinned as she turned to speak to Grom.

"So I can do this every day?"

Without speaking, he nodded.

"Great! If you want to come to be sure, you can tomorrow, but I think we'll be just fine!" Astrid wondered if maybe she'd have enough time to talk a little with her friends each day. And if not… well, she'd make that happen.