Chapter 14

Morning came quickly, and I found myself standing outside the dungeon portal soon enough.

I let Mike take the lead since Cora had mentioned that he was technically the party leader. Since I hadn’t officially joined their party yet, I figured it would be a good idea to observe how the two of them operated instead of interjecting myself right away.

I didn’t care too much about being in charge, anyway. As far as I was concerned, as long as Mike was competent, he could keep the role.

“Ready?” Mike asked as we stepped through the sensor arch and up to the Association representative standing in front of the dungeon portal.

Only Cora was wearing armor, and hers was the thin, light armor that one would expect a rogue to wear.

Mike was dressed in sturdy, but unarmored clothing, though he had a stone longsword attached to his back. I assumed that he planned to use his earth magic as a form of armor and realized that we should have probably discussed our skills in a bit more depth before entering the dungeon.

It was fine, though. We could have that conversation in the safe zone when we got there.

Unlike the colorful swirled mana of rift portals, those leading into the dungeons of this realm were hazy and indistinct. In fact, they were quite easy to overlook if you weren’t specifically seeking them.

I imagined it was part of what made finding new dungeons so difficult.

“I’m good,” Cora replied before glancing my way.

“Ready.”

“Alright. Let’s get to it.”

“Names and estimated duration?” the Association representative asked. He eyed our lacking gear with something close to worry, but said nothing.

Mike provided the requisite information, estimating our stay within the dungeon to be a day or two. It was going to be a short run, mostly to earn enough funds for me to buy the enchanting focus while also allowing us to gauge how well we worked together.

Once the representative obtained the necessary information, they motioned us forward, and my two provisional party members and I stepped through the hazy portal.

To my surprise, we appeared on the second floor. Though we hadn’t discussed it, I’d assumed, based on their lower levels and the fact that they’d mentioned bringing some brand-new delvers into the dungeon, that they hadn’t yet completed the first floor.

“Surprised?” Cora asked with a chuckle when she saw my expression. I’d never had a very good poker face.

I shook my head ruefully. “I shouldn’t be. Obviously, the two of you would be capable of completing the first floor as Ascenders. You could probably do it at level one.”

“To be fair, we spent almost all of our time on level one,” Mike said. “We wanted to be as familiar with it as possible if we were going to bring inexperienced delvers back with us.”

“So, that was something you intended from the start?”

The couple nodded.

“We ran a school back home,” Cora explained. “It just seemed normal to do something similar here.”

“Once we actually brought them into the dungeon, though, it became clear that we weren’t going to be able to progress in any sort of reasonable timeframe if we went that route,” Mike added.

“And since we aren’t willing to give up our own future to help out a bunch of kids we have no real connection to…” Cora shrugged. “Maybe it’s cold of us, but we’ve worked too hard to just give up on any hope of progression right at the beginning.”

“I don’t think that’s cold of you,” I said. “I think it was sweet that you thought to help the kids in the first place. But you have to take care of yourselves before you can take care of others.”

The comment made me think back to the briefings that every commercial airline passenger had to experience each time they flew back before magic became a thing.

The mental image of a flight attendant holding an oxygen mask to their face to demonstrate the idea popped into my mind unexpectedly, making my lips twitch.

“Yes, we realized that,” Mike said with a small grimace. “Perhaps in the future we can find a balance.”

I glanced around the safe zone. I hadn’t spent more than a few seconds here the first time that I came, so I hadn’t had enough time to see if there were any significant differences from the first safe zone.

It didn’t take long to see they were basically the same.

“Let’s discuss our roles and abilities before we head into the floor,” Mike suggested, saving me from having to bring the topic up. “We don’t need to know the specifics of your skills, but a general idea of what you are capable of would be helpful.”

I appreciated the lack of demand for detailed information. I wasn’t sure what I would have done if the pair had suddenly demanded to know the details of every skill I had slotted.

Probably left and found another party to work with.

I didn’t mind sharing most things, but I didn’t want it to be a requirement for working together. Knowing someone’s build to such a degree required trust, and we’d only just met.

“As I mentioned, I have an inventory skill and a healing skill. I also have a core lightning skill, the ability to teleport short distances, and Identify. All of those are listed on my profile with the Association.”

Deciding to share a little extra since it was relevant and I really didn’t want to have to lie about how I was keeping herbs fresh, I added, “But I didn’t mention that my inventory is one of the rare kinds that prevent anything inside from changing. Hot food stays hot, cold food stays cold, that kind of thing.”

“That’s… amazing, Emie. Really,” Cora said, seemingly shocked by my openness.

I nodded in thanks. “I can also speed my movements by twenty-five percent, though it takes a lot of focus to use. Similarly, I can move small objects with considerable effort.

“The last thing I’ll mention isn’t really an ability. I have the Herbalism skill. It lets me know more about the plants I encounter, which, aside from ensuring our diet will be a bit more balanced, allows me to know what is worth foraging.”

It was a lot to share – almost my entire status sheet, really. But I felt it was important to share as much as I could without touching on things better kept to myself.

I didn’t share the information about my Repulsion Aura since its effects could be explained by Telekinesis. I also didn’t mention the auxiliary skills, since I didn’t want to draw attention to them.

Still, I’d shared most of my skills, and I hoped that Cora and Mike appreciated the trust that had been extended.

“I imagine you have more capabilities beyond what skills are slotted. As an Ascender, you can probably fight at least passingly well,” Mike said. “Are you comfortable fighting in melee, or are you strictly a ranged fighter?”

That was a very relevant question, even if my only true ranged offensive skill was Lightning Bolt.

“I am proficient with most weapons, though I prefer staves and batons. I’m hoping to get an elemental blade skill similar to Cora’s Arcane Blade so I can turn my blunt weapons into bladed weapons as needed.”

“It’s good to know you aren’t one of those ‘true mages’ who can only fight from a distance,” Cora said. “Being able to heal is great. Honestly, that alone would make it worth finding a way to make this work. But it’s nice to know you don’t need to be protected like most mages and healers would.”

“I thought that was implied by my status as an Ascender?”

“You’d think that,” Mike laughed. “But Cora and I have met a few who have gone on to ascend who haven’t been able to function on their own.”

“They usually ascend with others, so it isn’t that big of a deal. But I’ve known one or two who ascended on their own,” Cora said, exchanging a meaningful look with her husband. “But enough of that. Let us share our abilities with you so there are no surprises.”

Unsurprisingly, the rogue had a stealth skill, though the minor teleportation skill through shadows was a bit of a surprise. She also had Blade Mastery as a core skill, which allowed her to use nearly any bladed weapon with ease.

That included her Arcane Blade skill, which she’d augmented to create Pierce, a skill that magically extends the tip of any blade, including her Arcane Blade, to pierce deeper. The skill also allowed her to bypass minor armor.

The last skill she mentioned was a bit of a surprise. It certainly wasn’t mentioned on the information sheet.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Compressed Space Bolt?” I asked when she’d simply referred to it as a Space Bolt.

“Yeah. You know it?”

“I do. It was a pretty common space-based offensive skill in my old realm.”

“There were maybe a handful of people in our entire realm with access to space magic. The cores for those were rare, and no rift ever consistently produced them,” Cora said. “The skill is really good, though it’s more draining than the others.”

“That’s probably because your other skills are either core skills or related to your core skills,” I theorized. “Compressed Space Bolt was the only one you mentioned that was really different.”

“Maybe.”

Aside from Earth Manipulation, which was the only skill he’d reported to the Association, Mike claimed Create Stone Weapon, which made manifesting weapons easier and gave them a level of permanence that his regular constructs didn’t have.

He also picked up two skillbooks in the short time they were in the dungeon: Arcane Armor and Sharpen.

He accepted Arcane Armor because making armor out of his manipulation skill was cumbersome, especially with the amount of material being controlled. While his skill was strong enough to support such use, that was all he’d be able to do with it until he grew stronger.

Sharpen worked with the manifestations he created, making them more effective.

With the number of skills they claimed to have obtained via skillbooks, I couldn’t help but think I’d messed up by initially storing most of the mobs I’d killed on the first floor.

It seemed logical that the first floor would have a significantly higher rate of skillbook drops for brand-new delvers, so even if I went back and redid the whole floor, it probably wouldn’t make a difference.

In fact, now that I out-leveled the floor, I probably wouldn’t get very good loot if I were to rerun the first floor.

“I also have a second core skill. It’s a new one,” Mike said. “It’s called Enflame, and it allows me to set any object that I control on fire. The being who guided me through the transition recommended it after I mentioned wanting to learn another element.

“It works really well in conjunction with my Earth Manipulation skill. I can create stone shards and set them on fire before launching them as an attack, or enflame my longsword to cause additional damage. But since I’m not immune to the flames, I have to be careful. I’ve burnt myself a couple of times experimenting with the skill.”

“That’s one of the reasons we were so eager to have a healer join the party,” Cora added.