#077 – Hey, roleplaying is literally in my job description
Miracle of all miracles, no monsters spawned while I lay there uselessly in the middle of a dangerous dungeon.
Many people in chat theorized that it was because the dragon had triggered all the available spawns in the dungeon and then subsequently wiped all of them out with that crystal shower, so now, everything was ‘on cooldown’, so to speak.
When I finally managed to sit up with a groan, I looked around with my real eyes instead of staring at John’s screen and confird that I was still safe. Then I looked at the big crystal chest with a golden skull sitting exactly where the dragon had been.
I took a deep breath and let out a sigh.
“Loot ti, chat… Oh, right. The achievents. What were they called again…?”
Wow, rude - Deal over 25% of a dungeon boss monster’s health before it even starts attacking. [COMPLETE]
Fire off a duck’s back - Survive being hit by an adult dragon’s breath. Appropriate dungeon monsters count. [COMPLETE]
It’s just a rock - Survive complete petrification. Sohow. [COMPLETE]
“Oh, what?! Wait, the last one was a tier three achievent! That’s so many points! I have… twenty in total now!”
My mood suddenly flipped and I bead… before I grimaced again.
“...Will I always get a ton of points after nearly dying?” I murmured. “The system is seriously trying to kill , isn’t it…?”
I shook away that thought.
“Well, whatever! I lived, I learned from my screw up, and I got a ton of points! It’s perfect!”
I slowly forced myself to stand, although my legs were still a bit unsteady, and then told my forks that they were allowed to relay stuff to again. I imdiately got flooded by all the know-it-alls and their play-by-play analysis of my fight and all the minute mistakes I’d made.
And now I felt depressed again.
Wow, my mood was swinging all over the place. Okay, whatever. They did have a point that I shouldn’t have turned my back on the dragon. And sure, since the common monsters weren’t actually that dangerous, I should have just ignored them and focused the boss. And yes Jim42069, I could have just unloaded my gun into the dragon in the first place since that was what I’d done in the end anyway.
Okay forks, calm down. I didn’t need everything. God.
“Well… Let’s see what we got then,” I murmured and hobbled my way to the chest as I humd and nodded to people suggesting various ways to spend my points as usual. I actually had enough to get Rend, Mind shield, and Dual Wield. With plenty of points to spare. I honestly considered getting those right away, but I didn’t have enough skill slots for Rend anyway, unless I wanted to swap out Flaguard and risk not having an out in a tricky situation again.
Although, I could always just… leave and co back tomorrow. I was planning on leaving anyway and I was still critically low on Ether, so it was probably gonna be for the best.
With that in mind, I ca face to face with the chest, narrowed my eyes, and stood there, with arms ready by my sides.
I also called John just to get a good shot of this and after a few more seconds of the silent staredown, I quickly did several things in quick succession.
Purchase the skill [Rend] for 9 skill points?
Y/N
‘Rend’ skill unlocked!
Replace [Flaguard] with [Rend]?
Note: [Flaguard] will not be re-equipable for 24 hours.
Y/N
Then I quickly searched for the new ntal switch in my mind, selected the chest as my target, and pushed.
Rend!
I felt the energy gathering directly in my mind, spinning into itself like a little ball, and then shooting out of my mind toward the chest as an invisible projectile.
It hit the chest and rippled through it – invisibly – the sa way a dropped stone would ripple through a lake’s surface, the chest shook the tiniest amount, and then went still again.
All the while, I had the weirdest feeling that I had ‘missed.’ Not that I’d missed the target, but that the target itself turned out to be empty space with nothing in it.
Which… my best guess was that it ant there was no mind for Rend to… well, rend.
That didn’t stop from turning toward John, giving him a strained smile – That blast cost quite a bit of Intra – and say, “Easy peasy, chat. I fried its brain. No mimic problems here.”
Jeofffff: you didn’t even do anything?!??!
I blinked and then rembered that John couldn’t see the system ssages.
“Ah.” I recalled John. “I just got Rend and shot it at the mimic. You know, this thing.” I summoned the little system window and pointed at it.
Rend:
Use a moderate amount of Intra to montarily shock the target's mind.
“I guess you can’t see it from the outside?” I humd and rubbed my forehead – ugh, my head really hurt now, I shouldn’t have done that. “Anyway. I totally sniped that jerk… and now I’m low on Intra too, ugh… Whatever, let’s get the loot already!”
Jeofffff: I hope theres a bonus for killing the enrage version
I walked right up to the chest and unceremoniously opened it. I only spent a few seconds marveling how I was tall enough to do that without too many issues now.
Inside the chest were three objects. A shiny blue – sapphire? – dieval-looking horned helt, a crystal flask filled with dark green liquid, and… so kind of big crystalline gun with a wide dragon head-shaped muzzle.
Too bad I didn’t have Appraisal.
“Another gun, chat!” I cheered and imdiately grabbed the thing. I looked it all over, trying to figure out what it was. My instincts and chat were already telling exactly what it was, though.
“It’s a flathrower, isn’t it…? Or maybe a… crystalthrower? Would fit the the of the boss… Hmm, but it doesn’t have the little torch thing that’s usually in front of the muzzle…” I narrowed my eyes, aid it away from , put my finger on the trigger…
GonguuH: hold on, weren’t you low on ether?
I flinched away and let go of the trigger.
“Uh, yeah. Right. This thing will definitely use Ether. Yeah. Okay. Let’s try it later then.”
I stashed it into my backpack and turned to the other two things. I grabbed the helt and imdiately put it on my head. Just like every other wearable loot from the dungeons, it fit perfectly and I could feel the subtle flow of Ether inside it. The field of view was abysmal though.
Then, when I sent out John to take a look at myself – huh, the system screen was visible through the helt – I couldn’t help but snort.
Who was this cutely dressed girl sitting on top of a giant chest wearing a demon lord-esque helt?
The worst part was that as much as it contrasted with the dress, the color fit perfectly with the rest of my outfit. I looked like the demon king’s daughter who badgered her dad to make her the sa helt he wore in her size so she could imitate him.
I straightened up, crossed my arms, tilted my head back , and sent John lower to look up straight into my eyes through the helt.
Then I let out the best villain laugh I could muster.
“So, you’ve finally co, feeble heroes!” I bellowed – as much as I could with how tired I was. “How bold of you! You think you can defeat ?! Aoto Nana, the demon queen of the blue nation?! Fools! You have no chance of standing up to !” I pointed at the cara dramatically.
I stayed in that position for a few seconds before I giggled, took off the helt, and grinned at the cara.
“Well, it’s not very practical though. I can’t see anything with it on. I could maybe rge it with the dress though. I’ll have to see what it even does when I appraise it.”
Into the backpack it went and I looked at the last item in the chest.
“Hmm, it’s a potion… and it’s green just like the other potion. And like life ooze… So it’s probably more life ooze, right? It would make sense if this is an Ether dungeon. What’s up with the fancy container though?”
Unfortunately, I couldn’t confirm anything right now, so I just shrugged and stuffed it into the backpack as well.
There were so people in chat who wanted to chug it to recover my Ether and I briefly considered doing just that, but I decided against it. I already nearly died once in this dungeon, I wasn’t going to take unnecessary risks right now. Not like I was in a rush to conquer this dungeon right away anyway.
With that, I got out of the chest – which poofed into nothing a mont later – grabbed the key sword that had been laying next to the chest, and then went to retrieve my other stuff. All while still on guard for any more monsters trying to jump .
I really didn’t want to deal with another snake right now.
Luckily, nothing appeared as I safely gathered up my pan, my gun, and my crappy mace, and then I walked straight out of this crystal crater the way I’d co in.
I didn’t fully relax until I crossed the threshold and the relieving feeling made relax automatically.
I breathed out a sigh of relief and forced myself to clamber my way to my temporary shelter I’d built nearby.
“Okay, we made it out, chat… Next ti, I’m just letting my enemies finish their intro sequence before blasting them. Unless I get a lot stronger and can one shot them.”
I spent the rest of the day just lying around and recovering while talking to chat.
I also still had eleven skill points left after buying Rend and there were a couple of things I wanted to get.
I wanted to get the Mind Shield upgrade for Rend eventually, just to have so kind of insurance that my brain wouldn’t randomly get scrambled. That would cost five points. And then I also wanted the rest of the upgrades for Soulbound item – Soul Pocket and Dual Wield. Those cost two and three points respectively.
Mind Shield - Use Intra to protect your own mind from basic ntal attacks.
Soul Pocket - Grants access to a small pocket dinsion where you can store your soulbound item. Touching it is required for putting it in or bringing it out. A small amount of your Tempor reserves are locked for this sub-skill.
Dual Wield - You can now have up to two soulbound items.
In theory, I could get all three of them right now and would be left with one point. The only other things that I realistically wanted were Action hero caraman to make John even more aweso, Soul strike to upgrade Soulbound item, and maybe so of the Appraisal upgrades.
Huh, actually… Assess only cost one skill point and sounded like it could be very helpful.
Assess - You can now use appraisal on living beings.
If it gave any useful info at all, I could use Appraisal on every enemy I encountered and then imdiately have my forks consult with chat on the best way to use that info.
Hmm…
Yeah, why not? It would cost all of my remaining skill points, but I could get all four of these things right now. I didn’t need to upgrade John right this mont and Soul Strike would have just been a neat bonus anyway.
“Alright then! Let’s splurge, chat!”
Purchase the [Mind Shield] skill upgrade [Rend] for 5 skill points?
Y/N
‘Mind Shield’ skill upgrade unlocked!
Purchase the [Soul Pocket] skill upgrade [Soulbind Item] for 2 skill points?
Y/N
‘Soul Pocket’ skill upgrade unlocked!
Purchase the [Dual Wield] skill upgrade [Soulbind Item] for 3 skill points?
Y/N
‘Dual Wield’ skill upgrade unlocked!
Purchase the [Assess] skill upgrade [Appraisal] for 1 skill point?
Y/N
‘Assess’ skill upgrade unlocked!
“Wooo! So much stuff!” I cheered and chat cheered with . Well, most of the chat cheered with . So grumbled about not buying what they wanted to buy.
“Anywho. I can soulbind another item now, chat. And yeah, for those wondering, I got the Soul Pocket because bringing out a weapon on a di sounds super useful. Especially since all my fights end up being so hectic. Now, the only question is what should I soulbind?”
I tried not to think about how it might feel to soulbind another thing. I would deal with that feeling later… And I would probably talk about it with Jane as well.
“Option one is a lee weapon… but I don’t really have anything good right now. The mace is too crappy and I don’t want to use ultimate fusion on the pan since I wanna get the egg out of it eventually.” I huffed. “Stupid city dungeon eating my naginata… I an, I guess I could soulbind the key sword but ehhh… Option two is soulbinding my gun. And I guess if I do that, I can also add my brand new flathrower into it for an ultra ga fire and water plasma gun.”
I grinned, trying to imagine how chaotic that would be. I couldn’t help but like the gun option. Chat seed to be in agreent.
“Yeah, I think I’ll for the gun right now. It’s not like I can’t get a third soulbind slot. Look, here. It’s super expensive, but Soulstrike has this upgrade…”
Soul Strike:
[RGED] with Soulbound Item. Use a moderate amount of Ether and Intra to strike at the target's soul directly using your own.
Upgrade: Triumvirate (9SP)
Triumvirate - You can now have up to three soulbound items.
I winced.
“Oof. Yikes, that’s even more expensive than I rembered. Ten points for Soul Strike and then nine more for Triumvirate? Jeez…”
In other words, if I soulbound the gun, it would probably be quite a while before I could soulbind anything else.
But, well, that didn’t matter too much. I was used to cycling through all sorts of lee weapons anyway. And I only needed one gun, realistically. Having more lee weapons was useful for throwing them or blocking with them, but having more guns would just get annoying. Better to have it all in one.
So with that in mind, I talked to chat for a little while longer to see if anyone got any good argunts against doing this, and when nothing relevant ca up, I used Soulbind item on my water gun.
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