Chapter Thirty Four

Ding!

Dodge (E) has Leveled up!

16 – 17

Had he lungs, Bob would have breathed a sigh of relief at the alert finally materializing. Reaching out to crush his opponent in an almost absentminded show of force. Not even allowing the window to pop up; unconcerned about the singular experience point its death would be granting.

He would have gone longer if he could have afforded to, but a quick glance at his improved ‘Danger Sense’ had shown that he would have been pushing things if he did.

So, goodbye Mr. Crabby.

He’d estimate it had been roughly a week since his major windfall inside the Manor’s ‘Master Bedroom’. A week spent trying to grind as many Skill levels as he could. First with the slaughter of the fourth-floor crabs; and then by using ‘Taunt’ to tempt the crustaceans covering the roof-top – though he still had no idea as to how they’d gotten there – into falling down onto the third-floor balcony.

The experience had actually been very fruitful. Not only had he gotten ‘Dodge’ to level seventeen, he’d also bumped up ‘Taunt’, ‘Lesser Crushing Tongue’ and ‘Toothless Grasp’ a similar or even greater amount. The last one getting very near its next evolution.

Sadly, He couldn’t say the same for ‘Beginner Rope Weapon Mastery’; which he hadn’t managed to gain a single point in for some reason. Nor any of his attempts to gain either a ‘calmness skill’ or try to independently use his Mana. The less said about the latter effort, the better.

Unfortunately for him, however, ‘magic classes’ were going to stay on his schedule. As well as his attempts to increase the level of the Skills he already had access to. No matter how slow they might grow against the primarily ‘F’ rank crabs he could lure off the rooftop.

And no matter how few of those he could sense remaining.

Had he unlimited time with each of them, he imagined his gains could have been far grander. Unfortunately, he didn’t. And for the same reason that he hadn’t traveled below the third floor since his last Species level up.

The reason he was grinding Skill levels in the first place.

When Evolving ‘Treasure Sense’, Bob had been given three options. Ones he’d banged about in his head for twenty to thirty minutes before making his choice. They differed slightly from a normal evolution in that the Class Skill itself didn’t change. At least not in name or general function. Instead, the evolution simply added or boosted an individual aspect of the skill. The options he was given being ‘Range’, ‘Detection Level’ and ‘Mapping Function’. Their descriptions making the boosts quite evident.

Range Increase

Doubles the effective range of ‘Treasure Sense’

Detection Level Increase

Increases Detection Level of ‘Treasure Sense’

Unveils Monster’s Species, Level and Ranking

Unveils (Minor) Concealments

Map Function

‘Treasure Sense’ Now allows its user to ‘sense’ walls and passages inside the Dungeon. Giving a mental ‘Map’ of the user’s surroundings

It was a hard choice. All the options being ones he wanted to have. But, given the situation he was in, as well as the scare he’d had with the octopus, Bob eventually decided to go with ‘Increased Detection Level’. A decision he’d had no regrets about since.

Which wasn’t terribly surprising, given that it was likely the only reason he was still alive.

As soon as he’d selected the ability, ‘Treasure Sense’ had seemed to light up with new energy. Bob immediately noticing the almost instinctive understanding he’d gained of how to look deeper within the auras. A strange twinge of thought which suddenly had the species, rank and level of his target appearing within his mind.

Something which honestly took a little getting used to. Bob preferring when the system kept its little illusions, at least cosmetically, outside of his head.

He was about to mentally dive to the first floor, curious how powerful the Crab from Behind the Wall really was, before he noticed something. Something which had him almost subconsciously activate ‘Lifeless Disguise’ as he froze in terror.

And that would be all the new auras that didn’t use to be there before.

One of which was halfway up the stairs to the third story.

Its aura was different from the others. An almost opaque greyish fog that seemed to flicker in and out of existence the longer he ‘stared’ at it. Its oddness almost making Bob hesitant to ‘touch’ it with his mind.

He still did, however. Even as he cringed at the ‘oily’ feeling it left behind on his brain.

Though the sensation was forgotten only moments later. The information he received being so much worse.

Stalker Mad-Crab (D) Level 11

Threat Ranking: Extreme

The prideful thoughts surrounding the power and potency of his newest evolved Skill were instantly extinguished. The arrogance he’d felt after demolishing the spindly spider-crab lookalikes now sitting like a bitter pill at the back of his throat.

Because D-rank crabs weren’t like their lesser brothers and sisters.

Even at the height of E-rank, the scale and strength of the creatures only just seemed to be creeping past what could be called ‘normal’. Each one looking like some viral A.I. image of ‘World’s biggest crab’ you’d find on your alcoholic uncle’s Facebook page.

D-rank blew right past that. The only fitting description for them truly being ‘Monstrous’.

This reveal had immediately necessitated a quick migration to the fourth floor. Whereupon he just as quickly found himself an empty room and entered into a state of temporary hibernation; waiting for the hard-shelled assassin to head back down to the second story. Something which took most of a day.

Afterwards, he had cleared out the few threats on the top floor – four F-Rank crablets – and despaired over its available ‘treasure’ – a half-dozen copper trinkets – before then stopping. And, for the first time in over a week, sitting down to think beyond his next victim or hiding place.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

With all the monsters cleared out, the top two floors were essentially his. A private fiefdom carved from the greater crab empire. He could easily slaughter anything ‘F’ or ‘E’ rank which might wander up, and the larger, more dangerous crabs preferred not to climb the stairs in the first place.

The only exception to this being the ‘Stalker’ crabs; which he was currently keeping a very close eye on. Their movements towards the third floor during his ‘training sessions’ largely determining their length.

If nothing else, he could comfort himself with the fact that they were nowhere near as intelligent as the octopus. Some sessions going quite long after they’d gotten themselves ‘trapped’ inside of a room during their attempts to charge towards his location. That being the only reason he’d managed to get ‘Toothless Grasp’ to level nineteen, in fact. Their idiocy allowing him to spend almost an hour walking around with two ‘F’ rank crabs stuck in his mouth.

That same level of idiocy probably meant he wouldn’t have any trouble sneaking past them either, to be fair. Or any of the other more dangerous crabs in the building. Though, should he really be in a hurry to leave the manor, he could also simply throw himself off the balcony. He’d had numerous chances to do so safely, in fact. The crabs rarely spotting him until he’d been there some time.

But he wouldn’t be doing that either.

Because if he wanted to have any hope of surviving outside the manor, he first needed prove he could survive inside it. This was rather quickly shown to him when he started delving into signatures at the edge of Treasure Sense’s range.