The third wing, or branch, of the dungeon proved mostly similar to the second, but had several not insignificant differences.

  It had 5 distinct chambers, which they made their way through comparatively quickly - with Annabelle’s new ring, the time they needed to spend between encounters decreased drastically.

  The first room was simple enough, several stone golems which the pair easily dealt with. Lucian’s assumption about his [Manifested Proficiency] level up proved to be correct - just because his sword felt lighter to him didn’t mean it was, allowing him to deliver more powerful strikes with the same force. Normally, Lucian might have stopped to consider the implications of such a strange distortion of the physical laws he was familiar with, but the laws of physics as he knew them had been less like laws and more like guidelines since the integration happened.

  The second held a pair of the flying golem variant, and had several stone dart traps scattered across the walls. In the end, it turned out that the traps didn’t actually differentiate between the dungeon’s own monsters and its intruders. This was proven when a backwards dodge by one golem in an effort to avoid an attack sent it drifting into the path of one such trap, ending with its core shattered by a high speed fragment of sharpened stone. Lucian and Annabelle filed the interaction away for future use.

  The third room changed things up slightly with a new kind of monster. It was a larger golem, more than twice Lucian’s height, and not composed entirely of stone. It was an amalgamation of stone and plant. Its torso was composed of several larger stones bound closely together, though through the cracks between them Lucian could see tightly bound cords of plantfibre. Its limbs too were made of stone, threaded with thick dull brown roots to provide their ability to move. It came alongside several of the standard golems.

  Lucian focused on cutting down the smaller ones while dodging strikes from the large one, while Annabelle used her poison magic. With the combined effects of her [Potent Poison] skill and her [Necklace of Venom], her skills proved quite effective against the larger half-plant golem. The roots that held the golem together withered and died over the course of the fight as the poison took its toll.

  The efficacy of her poison skills against plant based monsters was emboldening, if only because Lucian figured that, unless this monster in particular was weak to poisons, it might be an effective way to damage that tree knight his thoughts kept wandering back to.

  The fourth room had a handful of the floating golems and one of the plant-golems, along with a couple of the stone dart traps they had encountered before.

  After dealing with the monsters, Lucian discovered that there was actually a chest in the chamber, despite it not being the last one in its arm of the dungeon, a small stone box sitting in a cubby in the right wall. It contained three small ingots of a surprisingly light sunset orange colored metal.

  Lacking the ability to equip it to identify it easily, Annabelle decided to carry them with her for the time being. Lucian had an idea for trying to identify the metal, but decided to wait until they left the dungeon to try it.

  The fifth and final chamber in this section of the dungeon contained a pair of the plant-golems, as well as a circular section of the chamber’s floor in its center that was slightly indented. Once they cleared the room out, they discovered that the bottom of the indented section had a seam running down its center giving the impression that it was a door of some kind. Additionally, the room contained another chest at its far end, it held what could only be described as potions - a pair of small conical glass bottles containing a light red liquid within which swirled darker red particles.

  “No way those aren’t health potions.” Annabelle laughed as she picked up one of the bottles and lifted it, examining it from various angles.

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  “If you want to test that out, be my guest.” Lucian chuckled, “Though personally, I’ll wait on partaking of the mysterious red potion.”

  They took a moment to examine the strange door in the floor, given that it didn’t open when they had cleared the room they assumed it had some other condition. Lucian suggested it could lead to a second floor and Annabelle agreed, saying that if that was the case then perhaps there was a floor boss they had to kill before it would open.

  After their brief discussion the pair returned to the central chamber, and set down the ingots and potions for them to grab on the way out mainly so that they wouldn’t lose or break them while exploring the rest of the dungeon. Clearing that branch had gotten them each a level, which Lucian took a moment to review. He had leveled up to 29, and Annabelle had leveled up to 27.

  Combined with the free points he hadn’t spent from level 28, he now had 6. He took a moment to think before distributing his points. His first 2 went to Endurance, bringing it to 40, and the remaining 4 went to Strength, bringing it to 76. The increases to his stats brought his maximum Spirit up to 102.

  They took a brief rest before moving onto the next branch of the dungeon. Counting the one they were entering there were two left, and Lucian decided he would try and level up some of his other skills in this one. [Slash] sat at level 3, 2 levels behind [Penetrating Strike] which sat at level 5 - to say nothing of his newest skill [Cleaving Wind], which given its high Spirit cost he hadn’t used much, it was still level 1. Thankfully for Lucian, he knew he could fix those things through proper use.

  Lucian thought [Cleaving Wind] was an interesting spell. It had the potential to pack a punch, but it had a fair amount of range falloff - which at the same time increased its area. From far away, it served more to knock enemies like the floating golems around than deal any significant damage though he assumed that would change if he invested time and Spirit into leveling it up.

  The first chamber of the next branch was occupied by a pair of plant-golems. Lucian danced around their attacks while Annabelle fired off [Poison Bolt]s at them. He also took the chance to grind [Slash]. It was less effective against the purely stone golems, as they were made of tougher rock, but the plant-golems had exposed joints held together by vines which provided a workable target without [Penetrating Strike].

  He cut at their joints with [Slash] as he moved, Annabelle brought down one of golems fairly quickly, leaving Lucian to dismantle the second one on his own since he had told her what he was trying to do beforehand. Before long, he had severed its arms and legs, and stood atop its chest, stabbing down through the gaps in its stone armor. He felt his sword hit something harder in the center of the tangle of vines and the monster went still.

  Lucian smiled, it wasn’t the best upgrade in the world since the boost applied after the amplification but it was better than nothing.

  The doors to the next chamber in the branch were open, and they continued onward. The next chamber held another giant golem like they had first fought, and a few of the floating golems. Lucian dodged around the giant golem for long enough, with the help of Annabelle’s [Tanglethorns], to take out the flying ones by using [Cleaving Wind] to push them against walls and limit their movement before using [Penetrating Strike] to deal with the big one. That room took the most Spirit of any they had cleared thus far, but the upside was that [Cleaving Wind] leveled up.

  “Not a bad upgrade at all. Still super expensive though…” Lucian sighed and looked towards the door at the end of the room. It was also more ornate than the previous doors and unlike the previous rooms, they didn’t automatically open when they had cleared the room out - but some of the designs on their surface had lit up with a dull blue when the last golem fell.

  “Definitely a boss room.” Annabelle crossed her arms, “Let's rest for a while before we try opening it.”

  “Oh for sure.” Lucian yawned and stretched a bit before sitting down against a wall, “That fight took a lot of Spirit.”

  “Hopefully the boss is actually vulnerable to poison.” Annabelle chuckled, “Most of the monsters here have been middle fingers to my build.”

  “Yeah that bit has sucked. Sorry.” Lucian nodded.

  “Eh, it isn’t your fault. Thanks though!” Annabelle smiled at him before sitting down against the wall beside him.

  The pair made idle chatter as they rested and recovered. They wanted to be at full power when they fought whatever was behind those doors.