Chapter 46: Worst Elvira Cosplay Ever

Frankly, the golden mosquito was proving to be a pain in the ass.

They’d come up with a clever plan for Zach to set one of the mundane mosquitos on fire, then use that fire to burn the wings of the others and down them. Meanwhile, Jo would use her Gift to get Thomas unseen under the flock. He’d kill the goldie just as it landed, and then they would both go on a squishing spree… with Jo aiming to disable so Thomas could finish them off.

Sometimes he had hesitations about killing dungeon monsters. Not when it came to giant mosquitos.

But Zach was running low on his Fire mana and hadn’t been able to top off on the good level 3 stuff in the dungeon. His blast of fire caught maybe two-thirds of the mosquitos and completely missed the goldie because it seemed to fade from existence and then reappear in another.

Also, the goldie was highly aggressive. Thomas’s own bulletproof vest had shown itself to be a lifesaver as the thing had tried to javelin him multiple times.

Every time Thomas went to bat it out of the way, it popped out of existence and appeared somewhere else. He’d only broken an illusion.

However, Jo was chopping through the regular mosquitos like a champ, slinging blades where needed, and Zach had switched to air control to bring down the others while they were in flight.

The damn golden mosquito was in the air again, right above Thomas, its needle-like proboscis pointed down. He didn’t need his Combat Foresight to know that it was aiming to dive right on top of him.

Try it, Thomas thought, holding his mace. Hopefully, this mosquito would be the real one this time and not an illusion.

Suddenly, a fireball came streaking toward it from the side. It struck a wing and burned it to a stub in a moment.

He had expected it to disappear and reappear somewhere else like before. In fact, it did seem to jitter in place for a moment. Then it fell, striking the ground hard.

Thomas ran over and saw it twitching, almost dead but not quite. He ended it with his mace.

He looked around, seeing Jo had finished off the rest of the regulars. When the plan had gone to shit, she had switched to killing instead of disabling.

It was finally over. And now for the loot.

The rewards were easy to find; they lay next to the mosquito’s smashed head as if they’d always been there.

“Good job,” Thomas said to Jo, who jogged up to him. Despite recently leveling, she was out of breath. It had been a hectic fight that had lasted longer than taking out the boss.

Thomas looked to Zach, who had come up to join them. “You too, that last fireball came in right on time.”

“Yeah, bro.” Zach looked tired but proud of himself, as he should be. “But I think that was my last hit for the dungeon. I’m running on fumes. What did the skeeter drop?”

Thomas held up an A-grade, level three healing crystal. It said something about the quality of the dungeon drops, because while that was usually an excellent reward, now it felt almost mundane. Then he opened his other hand and revealed a skill shard.

Heavenly Mandate: Skip The Distance

“No way,” Zach said.

“Way.” Thomas couldn’t help himself. “This is what I think it is?”

“Teleportation, dude!” Zach pumped the air with a fist. “Hell yeah! It’s not even Blink sub-skill, it’s Skip The Distance.”

“I thought it had been using illusion,” Thomas said with a laugh. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of teleportation.”

Jo looked between them. “Wait, this is good, right?”

“Yeah, real good,” Zach said. “Like, beyond amazing, actually. So high level. Dude, these Goldies must have a compounded effect in this dungeon plus Thomas’s gift.” Zach was far more enthusiastic than even what was normal. This skill must be every bit as good as Thomas hoped.

Thomas was grinning along with him. Then his amazement dimmed a little as he thought forward and worked out the logistics.

Damn it. He wouldn’t get another open skill slot until he reached level 4. As he just reached level 3, that probably meant he wouldn’t be teleporting around like the guy in that Jumper book or the terrible Jumper movie.

Zach seemed to come to the same conclusion at the same moment. He gave a sideways smile and a sort of, “Welp, what are you gonna do?” shrug.

“Well,” Thomas said, looking around, “on the plus side, we have even more crystals to harvest.”

“Doubt any of these are going to be Fire,” Zach said, “and that’s what I need most.”

He couldn’t delay any longer. With an internal sigh and a forcefully upbeat expression, Thomas turned to Jo and extended his hand to her. “You want the skill?”

To his surprise, she shook her head and took a step back. “No, one of you guys should have it.”

“My skill slots are full,” Thomas said, and was a little proud of himself that he did not sound the least bit bitter.

“Can’t,” Zach said regretfully. “But come on, Jo. This would be the perfect skill for your build. With your gift and your poison? You’d be like the ultimate assassin.”

She looked sick. “I don’t want to be an assassin.”

“I mean,” Zach said, “it’s just an archetype. You don’t actually have to kill people.”

“Jo, it has the words ‘Heavenly Mandate’ in the description,” Thomas said. “It’s powerful.”

She took a breath as if to steady herself, then shook her head. “Yeah, no. I appreciate the offer, but you’ve given me almost everything I have: My other skills, the mana crystals to get me started, even my sword, and the sword before that. The only piece of magic I’ve picked for myself is Poison mana, and even then it came from your Gift. You’re a nice guy, Thomas, but it’s past time I figured out my next step on my own.”

Oh wow, had he been too pushy? The last thing he wanted to do was take her agency away from her. He had just wanted to help, but… this was a really high-level skill. He didn’t think she understood exactly what she was turning down.

Or maybe she did, and that mattered less than choosing for herself.

“Alright, uh…” He had to accept her decision even if he vehemently disagreed with it. Also, he sensed the mood turning awkward, really fast. He looked to Zach and asked half-heartedly, “Are you absolutely sure you can’t take this skill?”

Jo jumped in like a woman seeking a lifeline. “Yeah, how many skills do you have?”

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“Zip. I wish I could use it, but,” he shrugged “my Gift makes me and my mana the same, and teleport skills are supposed to be crazy mana hungry. I’d be burning life.”

Thomas looked at the skill in his hand, frustrated. Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.

“We could always sell it,” he said regretfully. “But I’d like it to stay in the team. If you guys don’t mind, I’d be happy to have it at level 4.”

Though he had no idea how long that would take. It never really occurred to him before, but the message in the sky said dungeons were capped at level 3 until the count-down ended. Five more months unless he wanted to build his core using lower leveled mana. Damn it.

Or Jo could take it once she finally came to her senses. Who didn’t want the power to teleport? Seriously, Jo!

There was a kind of awkward agreement from Jo and Zach, and regretfully Thomas put the skill in his pack for later.

The discussion had left a dampening effect on all of them. Though, when they went through the rest of the loot from the fallen mosquitoes that helped ease things a little. Thomas hadn’t really killed many, but monsters still dropped loot and they came out with a scattering of more crystals.

Jo got a D grade Poison mana, and Thomas found a few more Earths and Waters. They even came up with a C grade air, which Zach absorbed with a slight grimace.

It was clearly time to leave the dungeon. That was fine by Thomas. He was ready.

Thankfully, on the way back, he figured out how to turn off his new Treasure Sight because he was starting to get a headache. It must have run on stamina, or it was just late at night, or both, because he was tired. So tired he almost forgot about the exit reward chest until he almost tripped over it in the exit room.

Jo opened it, and they all stared. Three gold bars were nestled on the bottom of the chest.

“I can’t believe I’m about to complain about gold,” Thomas said, “but these are going to be heavy as hell to pack to the car.”