Without further hesitation, he opened the vial and drank its contents.
Energy rushed into him. It wasn’t as intense as before, but he still felt ready to burst like a balloon as it seeped through him. This time, it focused on his skin until all the Energy was consumed and he could finally relax.
The process hadn’t taken more than a minute or two.
Congratulations on advancing your Direction.
You have taken the first step on stage one of your Direction.
You have gained Minor Resilient Skin.
Continue to advance your Direction to evolve your Constitution further.
Good luck!
Ben looked at his skin and didn’t see any apparent change. He poked his arm with a finger—it didn’t feel any different. He drew his knife and pricked himself—that was different. The force required to pierce his skin seemed greater. It was obviously hard to quantify, but it felt like a significant step up.
If that was a “minor” development, he was interested to see what further steps and stages would bring.
For the first time in a long while, he looked at his Status.
STATUS
Name: Ben Jackson
Tier: 2
Path: Path of the Unyielding Protector
ATTRIBUTES
Body: 24 — Constitution: Stage 1, Step 1/3 (Minor Resilient Skin)
Mind: 17
Magic: 6
PERKS
[General]
- [Analyze] — Grants insight into objects, creatures, and sapient beings. Not upgradeable.
- [Multi-Lingual] — Allows comprehension and communication across most sapient languages, verbal and written. Not upgradeable.
- [Knight Protector] — Establishes and governs a Protectorate; +1 to every attribute per settlement level; chosen core attribute (Body) gains +10 % per five dungeon tiers integrated. Unique — Path Alignment: Foundational
[Body]
- [Resilient Body] — When out of combat, your body will fix itself over time. Rare — Path Alignment: Positive
- [Axe Handling] — Whether felling trees or your enemies, you are on the path to axe mastery. Uncommon — Path Alignment: Neutral
- [Frenzy] — In heated battle your Body attribute is raised by 2, Mind increasingly reduced with duration of battle, after battle Body reduced by 2 until rest. Uncommon — Path Alignment: Negative
- [Strengthened Body] — Body attribute +1. Allows a more efficient exertion of the body’s capabilities. Uncommon — Path Alignment: Positive
- [Self?Defense] — First steps toward martial?arts mastery. Common — Path Alignment: Neutral
[Mind]
- [Meditation] — Significantly increases control over emotions and recovery speed for an extended period after a meditation session. Uncommon — Path Alignment: Positive
- [Palisade of the Mind] — Defends against attacks on the Mind as if the attribute were +5. Uncommon — Path Alignment: Positive
- [Strength of the Protector] — Once a day provide your team members with a small amount of your attributes for a short duration. Uncommon — Path Alignment: Positive
- [Public Speaking] — Improves your ability to convey your intent. Common — Path Alignment: Positive
- [Administration] — Increases the effectiveness of managing complex institutions. Common — Path Alignment: Neutral
- [Perceptive Mind] — Enhances all senses. Common — Path Alignment: Positive
[Magic]
- None
He was more than happy with his development. It was time to check out the new dungeon.
***
You are about to enter a dungeon.
Theme: Rat World
Tier: 1
Min / Max party size: 1 / 10
Instances: 1
Levels: 4
Average days to break: 3
The original Rat Attack dungeon had been relatively straightforward, with waves of rats attacking. Rat World seemed far more complex, with three main differences from their other dungeons: the maximum party size was ten—twice that of most others—there were four levels, a record, and it averaged only three days before breaking.
He turned to the rest of his team and Damien, who stood with them.
Nobody had been more relieved than Damien when Ben and the team had returned with the hostages. He had always been a bit shy and reserved, but since yesterday he had been all smiles and joking.
“Ok, Damien, what can you tell us about the first floor?” Ben asked.
“Boss, I will tell you, but I think you would have a lot more fun if you just explored it… The first level isn’t that hard—especially not for your team,” the young man said with a shy grin.
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Ben raised an eyebrow at the others, who chuckled.
“Is that some sort of challenge?” Ben asked teasingly, to which Damien just shrugged.
“Ok, I always hated it when people spoiled movies for me. If you say that it isn’t too hard, we will explore it without any hints. But on a more serious note, do we need ten people?”
“For the first floor, definitely not. I can’t say what happens beyond.”
“Ok, then I suggest we get going,” he said, glancing at his team, who were now dressed in new armor, thanks to the effort of Marcus and Carter, who had worked tirelessly with their apprentices to get the armor ready for their return from the city.
The armor had been made to the specifications that Ben had provided, with Allison opting for light leather armor as well. One difference from his armor was that the Protectorate emblem was slightly smaller; otherwise, the crafters had given it the same treatment that they had his.
Ben stepped through the portal and went through the familiar weirdness of the transition.
He looked around, struggling to understand what he saw. To the right of him was a wall so high that he could not see where it ended; to the left, he could see a similar wall in the distance. He stood on rough stone plates that were slightly wet, maybe caused by a recent rain. The sky, far above him, was steel gray and gloomy.
Ahead lay mountains of trash—food and otherwise—piled against the wall; behind him stood only the dungeon portal.
The others joined him and were equally confused.
They moved forward, and as they neared the first trash heap, they found their first clue as to what was going on. One piece of trash was an apple core. That was not unusual; what was unusual, however, was that the core was about as big as Ben’s arm.
Ben had barely processed the implications when the heap shifted and a rat burst out of the trash. It was about as big as Ben.
Scurrying Rat. Energy-Born. Tier 1. Uncommon Challenge.
“Let’s move back a bit and let it come to us,” Ben said.
The rat seemed unhappy that they had disturbed it and came after them. While the rodent was large, it was relatively weak. With Jamal blocking it, Anne and Ben had no problem ending it quickly.
“It seems like we are in some sort of trash-filled alley and we were shrunk to the size of rats,” Allison summarized.
“Anything to consider?” Ben asked.
His mother shrugged. “Not really. The only thing of note—while this rat was easy for us, it was an uncommon challenge on level one. That is more than in the other dungeons, and this goes four levels deep, so we should not underestimate this place.”
The others nodded.
Despite the size of the rat, the Energy core they harvested was not different from those they had harvested elsewhere.
They made their way through the alley and handled the individual encounters. They encountered a single ‘Leader’ and learned that making too much noise drew in more rats, so a quiet and quick approach was probably the best way to clear this level.
In the end, it wasn’t a big challenge for them, though.
The portal to the next floor was integrated into a sewer grate, indicating the theme of what was to come.
Instead of a filthy alley, they emerged into a huge tunnel. In the middle ran the sewage of a city of giants—it looked like a river, given that they were still so small relative to their environment.
Just like the alley, this level was also relatively linear.
They fought more Scurrying Rats before encountering Sewer Brute Rats, rare creatures that were significantly wider than their relatively lean cousins.
Fortunately, they were still largely solitary, and the team managed to kill them without too much of an issue.
After about half an hour on the second level, they had the choice between continuing down the tunnel or climbing up a ladder. What sounded easy looked like a massive undertaking, as the ladder rose high above them and the steps were uncomfortably far apart.
“I am not sure I have the strength to pull myself up that many times,” Allison admitted. She had always been fit—living in a lumberjack camp brought that with it—and over the last few months, she had increased that further, but dozens of pull-ups with the risk of falling many meters to the floor was a step too far.
Ben nodded. “Makes sense. Why don’t Michael and I scout up there and see where it leads?”
Ben managed to scale the ladder without issues, but even Michael, whose focus was on both the Body and Mind attributes, had to take a break to catch his breath.
They managed to squeeze through the gaps of a damaged trapdoor.
They were in a room that looked like a basement storage room, lit by an oil lamp. Sacks of potatoes and other vegetables lay on the floor, and shelves were filled with preserves and other foodstuffs. All huge and much too heavy for even Ben to move usefully.
The one thing that caught his eye was a relatively small lockbox sitting on the lowest rung of a shelf.
He started toward it, but Michael pulled him back and pointed to a corner where, on top of a shelf, sat a large orange cat.
Feline Hunter. Energy-Born. Tier 1. Epic Challenge.
It was about twice as large as Ben, and around its neck hung a small silver key. It seemed they had to go after the orange menace or forsake whatever loot was in the lockbox.
The cat eyed them with interest, its expression almost smug. Surprise was not an option.
Even so, Ben wasn’t sure the two of them could defeat the beast easily. The sheer difference in size made it difficult.
He really wanted the loot, but fighting two against one epic challenge without any other advantages was something he should probably not do.
He nodded to Michael to withdraw.
Back on the ladder, he waved to his friend to stop. Using his telepathy armband, he reached out to his mother. All safe down there?
She confirmed.
Would you mind if I borrowed Anne for a bit?
He could almost hear his mother’s amusement as she agreed. A few minutes later, Anne joined them at the top of the ladder. He had explained the situation to her while she was climbing up.
“The plan is simple: I’ll play chew toy while you two deal damage. Try to immobilize it if possible.”
The others nodded, and they returned to the storage room.
Ben jogged toward the lockbox, which immediately triggered the cat to leap from its perch and attack.
Ben focused on defense, using the opportunity to test some of his new moves against an outsized opponent. He was sure he would face more of them in the future.
He dodged, rolled, and, when he had no other choice, even parried with his axe. That, however, hurt both of them—Ben from the sheer strength of the hit, and the cat because its paw was cut.
In the meantime, the others had not been idle.
They had apparently agreed to focus on the cat’s left hind leg and, with a coordinated attack, inflicted meaningful damage that left it hissing in pain and fury, swiping its tail at them.
Ben used the opportunity for his own first attack. Unfortunately, he couldn’t reach the beast’s throat, so he targeted the left front paw, leaving a deep cut that earned him a retaliatory swipe he couldn’t fully evade.
He crashed into one of the shelves, but between his new armor and his ever-increasing Constitution, he was fine.
As it tried to follow Ben and capitalize on its successful hit, it became clear that the cat’s mobility was hampered, and Anne and Michael did not relent in their attacks either.
Ben quickly scaled the shelf he had crashed into and leaped with all his might onto the orange creature. He landed on its head and didn’t waste a second hacking away with his axe.
He managed two solid hits before the cat collapsed to the floor, rolling onto its back. Ben had to jump off, but it provided an opportunity for Michael to strike with his short sword while Anne landed another crushing hit on its leg.
From then on, the rest of the fight was straightforward, and they managed to take the beast down without much more trouble.
“Are you both alright?”
They nodded, having managed not to get hit.
“So let’s see if all this was worth it,” he said, cutting off the key, which was almost half a meter long.