Chapter 59: Battling Stagnation

  Crimson, using a falchion from his collection this time, parried the first of Mulgis’ tails, knocking it way out behind him, and in the same smooth motion, turned and stepped, parrying the second tail so it slammed into the first tail, causing them to become stuck by impalement.

  His back was to Mulgis, but that wasn’t a problem as the pain of skewering his own tail had caused him to flinch, allowing Crimson to turn and slip his falchion under Mulgis’ right armpit and sever a tendon in the arm, rendering it useless.

  Mulgis attempted to back away but Crimson stepped forward and used a feint toward the boss’ legs to open it up for him to disable the other arm in the same way.

  Arms and tails out of commission, Mulgis was practically helpless to Crimson, unable to stop the sword from cutting into its throat in three quick moves that carefully avoided hitting the spine.

  He’d learned that the hard way. Trying to behead the boss would take more durability than he wanted. As is, he already sacrificed a point of durability each parry of the tails, and he couldn’t afford to lose it any more quickly.

  It was better than it had been at first. Mulgis’ tails had a significant amount of force behind them, and had shredded through durability like Crimson’s swords were made out of balsa. Practice had allowed him to be more efficient in his parrying, but he still wasn’t skilled enough to completely remove the durability loss.

  He inspected Mulgis as the boss faded away. He had fought the boss more than a hundred times, and had long since stopped getting [Skill Levels] from it. He wasn’t progressing anymore, and it was driving him insane. Until he had enough money to outfit the party, Mulgis was the most efficient source of income, but for any other reason than money, this fight was a waste of time.

  His initial irritation stemmed from the revelations of earlier that day. Getting the timeline of events on the Damus incident had been helpful, but he’d been left with more questions. One of his most pressing questions: ‘was that the only artifact in that vault?’

  If it was, problem solved, they could all move on, but on the off chance that it wasn’t, then that meant this could happen again. Maybe the next time would be worse, but there was no way to be sure.

  The fact that a Rak’a’niir had been brought up during the meeting was a bit disturbing.

  Crimson himself was a Rak’a’niir, though only technically. His mind and his memories were from another world, but his body was from this one. When he’d done research into them, he’d found that most Rak’a’niir were harmless. Since they weren’t born here, they couldn’t receive a [Blessing of the Gods], and weren’t subject to the same rules for magic.

  They weren’t a very common occurrence, but they did happen, and they were well documented as a phenomenon. The two main ways that a Rak’a’niir ended up here were first: that they were involved in a magical accident of some kind, and second: that they were brought here by a god, like Crimson.

  So that meant that the theories about a rogue god sending a Rak’a’niir to cause trouble made sense. Only gods could interfere with gods, so for Damus to be hidden from the sight of the God of Truth…

  He was in agreement with the theory that it was a Rak’a’niir.

  The fact that this Rak’a’niir hadn’t left any trace of his or her influence was a great cause of concern. If one was running around causing mischief, then there was no telling what other things he might’ve do-

  Crimson froze, then dropped to the ground cross legged.

  He had a thought, no, not even a thought, the shade of a thought, and he needed to grab it. What had triggered this shade? He’d been thinking about other incidents. Hadn’t he been involved in another major incident recently? Hadn’t he recently experienced an unprecedented disaster in Lupaken? What if…

  What if that had also been the mischief of a Rak’a’niir?

  It had seemed strange to everyone that the second dungeon had gone completely unnoticed, and even the first was only noticed mere hours from when it descended. Accusations, questions, confusion, and more had flown around as he listened. There had been an explanation, but it was an unsatisfactory one.

  Even the ones who had accepted the explanation seemed reluctant to do so.

  He didn’t have any proof at all, but…if that was the case, then it did explain a lot, but what could he even do? At the very least…he’d send a letter to Alois. He’d probably like to know how Rhea’s doing anyway, so he could see if she wanted to write a letter to him too, and send them all in one envelope. The idea was also appealing because it would save money.

  Course set, he stood once more and grabbed the boss’ drops. He’d gotten very lucky this time, and [Darkvision] had dropped. He exchanged it with a [Ritual] drop that was sitting in his [Inventory], then scooped up the pair of tailbones and walked back to the beginning of the dungeon.

  He had a backpack next to the entrance of the room, and it was full of uncommon drops and the [Ritual] drops that he couldn’t fit in his [Inventory]. It was his eleventh time killing the boss today, and the tailbones weren’t small, so the pack filled quickly.

  Unfortunately, they had also started selling for a bit less than in the past, so even Mulgis’ usefulness as a money farm had decreased.

  He probably had enough space for a few more things, and the time to kill the boss one more time before the last wagon of the day went back.

  He’d probably need to apologize to Verity when he got back though. He’d abandoned her to rush off to the dungeon, leaving her to explain the situation to their party members. Crimson was more than willing to overlook the king’s request that the discussion remained secret to tell Rhea and Fade, and Verity had agreed to explain everything to them, though she’d asked him to lend her one of his research journals for the explanation.

  It might be for the best if he also revealed that he was a Rak’a’niir… Well, maybe. There wasn’t really a reason to keep it secret, but it also felt very odd to reveal. He’d need to think on that decision once more.

  Tossing the tailbone he hadn’t put away between his hands, he approached a plinth that had appeared outside the boss room. Typically, a boss respawned every few days or so, but it was possible to revive them early by using up one of the boss’ drops. When he set the tailbone in a slot on the plinth, the entire structure disappeared, and he could sense a great and violent shift of [Mana] that calmed after a few seconds.

  Before he went in, he pulled out and inspected the letter from Elegance. He still hadn’t opened it, and he wasn’t sure what was stopping him. There was a sense of impending…something. Doom wasn’t the right word, but looking at it made him feel like there was a large shadow in the distance, and he hadn’t established whether it was friend or foe.

  Whatever was in this letter, he needed to resolve his other concerns first. It wouldn’t be good to put off forever, so he’d read it after sending the letter to Alois. He’d send his other feelings of frustration away with that letter so he could address his other concerns.

  He shoved it back into his [Inventory], sighed, then approached Mulgis’ boss room. Time for another monotonous fight.

  —————

  Fade absentmindedly rolled a bone from dinner around between his teeth, stewing over what Verity had told him and Rhea about while they all ate in the room.

  He spoke around the bone, “…I thought Rak’a’niir were weaker than children? The gods don’t [Bless] them, so there’s no way for them to level up or get [Skills]. How could one cause trouble?”

  Verity shrugged, “I borrowed Crimson’s research notes on Rak’a’niir,” she held up a well worn journal, then flipped to a page in the middle, “and he notes that while Rak’a’niir can’t receive the [Blessing of the Gods], if they were brought here by another god, then there’s a chance that they might have some other power. Forbidden arts like mind reading and mental manipulation have been mentioned as powers some Rak’a’niir have had.”

  “Could there even be one that could hide a [Priest] devotee from their god?”

  Verity shrugged, “I guess its possible, but there’s no way for us to know. I don’t know enough, and Crimson’s research didn’t focus much on the possible powers they might have.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Fade started to use the sharp side of the bone to clean his teeth, considering.

  Eventually, Rhea cut in, and said, “It’s not like we can do anything about it, so why not move on?”

  “You’re right, there’s nothing we can do right now,” Verity said, “but we should keep our eyes peeled for someone like that as we travel.”

  Fade asked, “Would we even be able to tell?”

  “Crimson might.”

  Rhea and Fade nodded at that. He was such a ball of oddness, it would be a minor thing compared to everything else if he could recognize Rak’a’niir on sight.

  “Well,” Fade said, “I suppose we should move on. Though, it feels weird to meet like this without Crimson, so I guess we shouldn’t report in.”

  “Great,” Rhea said, “I’ve got business to take care of if we’re done.”

  She’d been throwing stones every chance she got, and her accuracy had sharply improved abruptly. It seemed she wanted to become even more accurate. Fade had been amazed with how quick her growth was, and he’d seen Crimson praise her more than once for her progress.

  Crimson had shown Fade the list of [Skills] he’d been working over for Rhea to get for her [Class], and he had seemed really stressed over whether those [Skills] were right for what she wanted to do. He had spent time tweaking the list every night, and still hadn’t given it to Rhea, so the only [Skill] she had to work on right now was [Throwing]… and maybe [Darkvision].

  Fade had learned all the [Skills] on the list Crimson had given him, and was just working on grinding them up to Lv.10, as instructed. His [Blessing] currently looked like this:

  —————

  -Name: Fade

  -Race: Half (Uluu/Human) -Age: 17

  -Affiliation: [Adventurer’s Guild: Gold]

  -Active Title: [Fiend] [Raashm] [Blessings of Trans'Du'Niir]

  -Titles: Battle-monger, Devil, Cursed, Fiend

  -Health (HP): 100/100 Regen/s: 2.7

  -Magic (MP): 100/100 Regen/s: 1.0

  -Condition:

  -[Classes]:

  -Class: [None] 0/0

  -Sub-Class: [Locked]

  -Sub-Class: [Locked]

  -[Stats]:

  Strength (STR): 13 Agility (AGI): 11

  Constitution (CON): 22 Vitality (VIT): 27

  Intelligence (INT): 10 Wisdom (WIS): 10

  Charisma (CHA): 19 Willpower (WIL): 16

  Perception (PER): 14 Luck (LUC): 20

  -[Skills]:

  -[Meditation] 8/10, [Expression Control] 6/10, [Emotion Resistance] 7/10, [Robust] 6/10, [Attract] 9/10, [Roar] 10/10, [Darkvision] 2/10, [Improved Recovery] 4/10, [Ailment Resistance] 2/10, [Demanding Presence] 5/10

  —————

  For his year of desperately running around become a hero, he only had three [Skills] for it. [Meditation], [Expression Control], and [Emotion Resistance] were the only ones that survived when he purged his [Class]. They were the only [Skills] he had learned through his own efforts. Looking at the list now, he could only see it as pathetic.

  Just with his own efforts, he had learned 5 new [Skills] in less than a month, with two others from [Skill Stones]. Feeling proud of himself wasn’t a common feeling for him, but every time he looked at his [Skills] he would feel it until it vanished into rage.

  His abysmally low LUC stat would probably still bother him no matter how much time passed, but after a year of seeing it, it no longer made him angry.

  In less than a week, he’d probably be ready to get his [Class].

  The girls had long since left while he was deep in thought, so he shifted to sit cross-legged and breathed deeply. [Meditation] was one of the means he had to control himself. It was a twice daily ritual for him to meditate, reasserting control over himself. Some days were worse and he had to meditate an extra time, but they weren’t too frequent.

  After a bit, he cracked his eyes and spotted that Crimson had slipped into the room. The kid was dead silent when he wanted to be, which was most of the time. Fade frequently didn’t notice him enter or leave rooms, and sometimes forgot about him after a bit of time in the same room without interacting.

  It was a good trait in a scout, so he wouldn’t complain so long as this power wasn’t used for pranks - which it hadn’t been.

  Crimson was staring at the list for Rhea once more, contemplating. He seemed really stressed over guiding her to the [Skills] she wanted and needed.

  Fade decided to cut into his train of thought. It would help him more than brooding over things.

  “So,” he called out, feigning a casual tone, “what’s the plan moving forward?”

  Crimson didn’t look up from his notes, but said, “Get everyone their [Classes].”

  “And after that?” He wanted to push Crimson to shift his mind to something else.

  “I don’t have a concrete plan, but I do have an inkling of one, so long as I can get everyone on board.”

  “I don’t think you’ll have a problem with that. So long as I get what I want, I’m not too fussed about when and where it happens. So long as I become a hero, that’s all that matters.”

  “Rhea and Verity?”

  “Verity is even more willing to go along with anything you have to say than I am. Rhea acts indifferent, but she’s also fine with whatever you have planned. I don’t know what she wants or why she wants it, but she’s relying on you like the rest of us. She does hate me though.”

  “That’s random.”

  “I thought so too.”

  “No, I was talking about you bringing up her hatred of you. The reason she hates you is really clear.”

  Fade was shocked to hear Crimson, of all people, claim to understand someone easily.

  “Why then? I’m too stupid to figure it out.”

  Crimson looked up from the paper in front of him for the first time, then glanced back at Fade.

  “…It would be to your best benefit if I don’t tell you. If you don’t figure it out soon, we’ll probably return to Lupaken eventually, and it will be all too clear.”

  Fade suppressed the rush of irritation that he felt, then said, “So, what? You think it matters how I find out?”

  “Yes. It matters a lot.”

  “Why?” He nearly growled the word, but managed to restrain his tone and expression just enough to not seem hostile.

  “Because you don’t actually care. Verity has already figured it out, and even I have, for a socially inept as I am. If you truly learn to care about Rhea, then the reason she hates you will become obvious. That reason will probably also vanish when you properly understand her.”

  Crimson turned to face him completely, and made solid eye contact, silver and yellow eyes boring into Fade’s purple ones. “Rhea is a person who has been hurt her entire life. If you want to know how, and why, then try to get to know her. She might not like you, but you are a comrade. She can’t avoid speaking to you if you treat her well.”

  Fade opened his mouth after a moment, but Crimson cut him off, “To continue answering your question, let me tell you this: when fighting a boss with a Level greater than your by 5, the rewards from that boss are boosted. You get better drop rates, and [Skills] increase faster - up to a point. So, my shadow of a plan is to get everyone to Lv.5, and see if that bonus increases if there’s a 10 level difference.”

  He continued, “If there’s a reward for a 10 level difference, then we’ll need to find a place where the boss is either Lv.15 or Lv.20, and keep our levels accordingly low. In other words, Horrakin need to die before we leave Falst.”

  It was clear that Crimson didn’t want Fade to talk about Rhea anymore, which explained the abrupt change in topic, but he still found it strange. He was very good at understanding people. What they thought and what they wanted, so being told that he wouldn’t be able to understand one little girl just because he didn’t care enough was baffling.

  He allowed the topic change though, and said, “So, the plan is to get me a [Class], get Rhea hers, and take on the boss? Me tanking, her buffing, Verity healing, and you killing everything? We going to bring Mortimer in on this?”

  It was a given to Fade that Mortimer would join. He struggled to keep a party, and in the short time that Fade had known him, had been kicked out of no less than two. It would probably be three by tomorrow.

  Fade waited for an answer, but noticed that Crimson was completely frozen. As he watched, his party leader slowly began to rub his hands together in thought. Something about his casual question had sparked something in his party leader, and it seemed like an important one.

  Eventually, Crimson slowly said, “No…we need to kill Horrakin before Rhea gets her [Class]. I would bet three of the swords from my collection that Horrakin will drop a [Skill Stone] that will teach her a buffing [Skill]. If we can find out what that [Skill] is, then it might help me settle on what [Skills] to recommend to her.”

  Crimson’s eyes snapped into focus, locking on to Fade’s, and said, “Change of plans. I hate to pass up the money, but I need to spend time focusing on [Skill] grinding. I need to be strong enough to beat Horrakin on my own to guarantee that I can get the drop, and Mulgis isn’t cutting it anymore.”

  It was the most lively Fade had seen Crimson in a while, so he grinned, enjoying the happiness radiating from his party leader for as long as he could before it vanished into a sea of rage.

  He ignored the rage, and said, “I need to start carrying my weight anyway. I’ll start taking requests at the Guild and cover the expenses for the room. You don’t eat much, so I can cover food too. Just focus on the goal in front of you, and we’ll all work to see it through.”

  Crimson smiled at Fade, to which he asked, “What’s with that smile?”

  “I don’t think it’s going to take you as long as I worried to learn to care about Rhea. You might think you’re helping me, but you’re helping her right now.”

  Fade shook his head in amusement. Crimson had a really odd way of seeing the situation, one that seemed like a large stretch. His perspective was frequently odd, even considering hundreds of Royals of profit a week as being just ‘barely’ breaking even. Seeing this situation as Fade helping Rhea, and not himself, was a strange conclusion that no one in their right mind would reach.

  Still seeming amused, Fade watched as Crimson absently pulled a letter out of his [Inventory] and opened the envelope, but didn’t pull out the actual letter, seeming a little zoned out.

  Curious, he asked, “So what’s with the letter?”

  Crimson jumped, then glanced at what he was holding and swore. He jammed it viciously back into the [Inventory], seemed to regret it, and slowly pulled the letter out again.

  He tapped it, and rolled it end-over-end in his hands before eventually sighing and saying, “Well, I suppose my curiosity got the better of me. Guess I’ll just deal with an extra problem on my plate.”

  He pulled the letter out of the envelope and read it. He read it twice more with a frown, then passed it to Fade who glanced at the contents.

  —————

  To Crimson,

  I was greatly impressed by your performance in the recent tournament. Your fame preceded you, and I was glad to see you exceed every expectation that I had.

  This is a formal invitation from me to your party to come visit Al’laivis in the Adurnia Republic, my hometown. I would be delighted by your presence.

  Features of my hometown include a Lv.15 dungeon, with both a Lv.15 and Lv.20 boss, as well as the Grand Academy.

  Though you may not yet know what you seek, I dare to say that you will find it here.

  Yours truly,

  The Am’zavac who represents Elegance.

  P.S.

  Treasure your most trusted allies. Those who fall short will likely betray you.

  —————

  It was a strange letter. Fade didn’t know much of Dark Elves, and even he knew how important Am’zavac were. For one to provide a direct invitation to Crimson was almost mind numbing. The post-script was very strange, out of place, but fascinating.

  He looked back at Crimson, who commented, “I don’t dare reject the invitation of an Am’zavac. Looks like our next destination is set. I don’t see any kind of time frame in the letter, so let’s finish up business here and head there next.”

  Fade nodded and handed the letter back. It seemed that Crimson had managed to crush a few roadblocks today. It made him quite happy to see.