First room…
As she trailed behind the girl, Nox checked her skills.
Skill
Level
Effect
Cost
Calcute
Worldly
0000
Max
Evaluate Expression
Generate Income
1 Mana
1 Stamina
Over the st 180 days, she’d used all her mana with the ‘worldly’ skill, and had managed to get it up to level 1000, which was the max it would go. At that point the cost of the skill, which had previously required 2 stamina to use, had been cut by 1 stamina. That was a feature of the Blessing that the skills that came with it would have their costs drop by 1 of whatever unit—stamina or mana—when the skill reached its max level. If she hadn’t hated her Blessing so much, reaching that goal with a skill would’ve excited her, and if she’d had friends in this world, it would’ve been cause for a major party.
With it requiring her to use the skill twice per skill level, it’d meant casting it 2000 times at 2 stamina per use for a total cost of 4000 stamina. Given she regenerated 1 stamina per hour, that’d meant taking 4000 hours, or 160 days, to max it out. But now that it was, it might help in the dungeon by boosting the loot they got. Or maybe not. Titles were rare, and there wasn’t much she could find out about the skill that’d come with the Worldly title her Blessing had given her.
For example, since Ginger would be making all the kills, would the skill still boost the loot? What of the extra payouts the dungeon gave? Would the skill affect that?
I want the internet, and the ability to lookup stuff, Nox fumed. But if I was where I could access the internet, it would mean I wouldn’t be in this mess… and hence wouldn’t need it.
Quietly following behind the beastkin girl, Nox pondered her future in this world. If she could level her Blessing, at least she would get the stats that came with it, and some of the non-sex-reted skills that Blessing offered. If not… then either her life became one of serving one stranger after another in ways that disgusted her, or she would live on the streets as she’d been doing until she died. It was a far cry from the life of computers she’d once expected. As far as she could see, there weren’t any good options.
And so when the beastkin girl came to a stop, Nox stoically took the first glimpse she’d so far had of a dungeon entrance. It was mundane. A simple, shadowy stone arch in what looked to be a minor ancient temple, outside which stood two guards.
Ginger marched up to them and handed them a silver coin.
“And your partner,” one of the guards wearily ask, suggesting it wasn’t the first time he’d seen the girl, and that the beastkin had long since started to wear on his nerves.
“She,” Ginger said, point at Nox with disgust. “The useless twit of a girl I’m supposed to drag through.”
The two guards looked at Nox who silently handed over a silver coin of her own.
Then, as if passing through a simple doorway, the two of them entered the dungeon where they found themselves in a simple 20-by-20 meter stone room void of anything but a campfire that burned in the middle of the room, and another doorway on the far side of the room. Another staple of RPG games, this would be a safe room where no monsters would attack.
“Come,” Ginger snapped, and led the way around the fire where she stepped into the next chamber.
Nox nodded, and after a gnce at the fire she followed. There were any number of dungeon types, and she knew that this one was a type where when you entered it, there were no other people aside from those in your own group. As far as the world was concerned, she and the beastkin girl were now totally alone. And that girl seemed to hate her. Sighing, Nox downgraded her likely life expectancy in this world, and then stepped into the next room, another 20-by-20 meter stone chamber where she saw Ginger gring at what looked to be six green blobs of jello, called slimes—a common staple of RPG games and anime.
Without Ginger, I would now be either running back to the exit, or be dying as the slimes dissolved me, Nox mused, so I had best appreciate that she’s here.
“Grrr,” the beastkin girl fumed, and raced around the room to target one of the monsters that was separated from the others.
A dagger fshed in the girl’s hand, and Nox understood why the girl had felt so confident of being able to solo the dungeon. While the Backstabbing part of the girl’s Backstabbing Thief Blessing was based on her betraying people, not actually backstabbing them with a dagger, the skill did grant her a backstabbing skill.
Not exactly big monsters, Nox mused. Actually they’re only around a foot in diameter… so rather small. But they’re resistant to most types of physical damage. A strong enough piercing attack should handle them though. … Thing is, how can you backstab something that close to the floor? Plus they’re slimes which don’t have eyes but sense vibrations. How can you sneak up on something like that to backstab it?
Nox gulped. The beastkin girl was having trouble with the slimes who would immediately heal whatever little damage she did to them. They would then converge on her, only to have her dash off, circle around and strike at one of the slimes—only for the whole process to then repeat.
“Aarrgghh,” the beastkin girl screamed in bestial fury.
Then the girl dashed towards a startled Nox and yanked her back into the safe room. “Only if you weren’t so utterly useless,” the girl savagely snarled as she did so.
Nox winced, but not knowing what to say, she kept quiet. After all, the girl wasn’t entirely wrong. When it came to just about everything in this world, she was useless.
“Do you even have a Blessing yet,” Ginger demanded.
Nox kept quiet.
“Grrr,” Ginger again snarled. “My fucking life,” she then muttered under her breath. And started stalking around the fire, fuming as she did so.
Nox again considered her life in this world, and once more reduced the already low number she’d pced on her life expectancy. She looked at the fire.
“Heat up the tip of your knife,” she suggested. “Slimes might be resistant to physical attacks, but maybe if you do some heat damage…”
“Damage my dagger doing that,” Ginger snarled in disbelief. “If you want to try it, go ahead. Or give me your dagger, and I’ll try it for you.”
“Do I look like I can afford a dagger,” Nox asked.
“No,” Ginger admitted, looking the girl up and down. Her lips curled up in disgust.
Shrugging, Nox turned her back to the girl and winced as she sat down beside the fire to rest her aching body that had yet to recover from the wagon ride. She figured it would take days for the bruises on her butt to vanish… and as for her poor bitten tongue, that still hurt like hell. Staring up at the ceiling, she sighed.
“Humph,” Ginger snorted, and again resumed her stalking.
Eventually the beastkin girl sat down and, still scowling wrathfully like her most fervent wish in the world was to commit hotblooded murder, she pced the tip of her dagger in the fire. It was an action that caused Nox to cringe. After all, she had no idea how expensive the weapon was, nor did the girl seem happy about abusing her dagger in such a way.
Standing, Ginger entered the room with the slimes and Nox followed.
Again the beastkin girl drove into action and unched herself across the room at a sprint to attack a slime that stood apart from the others. As before her attacks did nothing, forcing her to quickly retreated back to the safe room.
Frowning, Nox again followed the girl, expecting to hear any number of degrading comments tossed her way as the beastkin girl compined about the needless damage the fire would’ve done to her dagger. Instead she found the girl sitting, the tip of the dagger again in the fmes.
They reentered the slime room where Ginger again dashed at a slime, attacking it with a quick, powerful sshing motion. She then slid her dagger into the tiny gap the motion had made in the slime’s skin, and made a second quick sshing motion, opening the gap even further. Then she was racing around the room as the other slimes converged on her. She again fled the room.
“Damn,” the beastkin girl vehemently swore while once more pcing her dagger tip in the fire.
The fourth time they entered the room, Ginger, as before, dashed for a slime that was slightly separated from the rest. Another small gap opened up when she made a sshing motion, and this time she rammed her dagger inside; dead, the slime burst into a spray of blue light. Then the beastkin girl was fleeing again.
“My poor dagger,” the girl sobbed, again pcing the tip in the fmes. “My poor, poor, Toothy!”
Nox winced, realizing the girl had named the dagger and was heartbroken over the abuse she was heaping on it.
It took a while, but the six slimes did die.
Ding!
A blue screen popped up before Nox.
You have cleared room 1 a total of 1/20 times!
Base Reward: 10 experience.
Additional Reward: 2 experience.
Nox stared. It seemed here her ‘worldly’ skill had worked, netting her the 2 extra experience she’d hoped for. She looked around the room, hoping for the chests dungeons sometimes generated. There were none, so she instead focused on her Blessing.
Worldly Prostitute
Name: Nox Walker
Race: Human
Level: 0/100
Subrace: Pneswalker
Exp: 12/2000
Str: 100
Con: 100
Int: 100
Wis: 100
Cha: 100
Luc: 100
Mana: 100/100
Stamina: 99/100
Regen: 1 Per Hour
Regen: 1 Per Hour
Seeing the 12 measly experience towards her next level, the girl wasn’t sure want to do. Sob in joy, or weep in frustration. It was progress, but they—Ginger rather—had barely managed to clear the first room. Emotionally drained, Nox decided she was too exhausted to do either, and she silently followed the girl from the dungeon. It was the way this dungeon worked. You cleared each room 20 times, then you could move on to the next room, which also had to cleared 20 times. And you could only do one room a day.
“We wait,” Ginger stated, daring the girl to say otherwise. “The dungeon will reset in an hour, then we’ll do it again.”
“You have some sort of skill to boost rewards, don’t you,” the beastkin girl stated a few moments ter.
Nox kept quiet.
Ginger shrugged.
Slumping down to sit on the road, Nox waited with Ginger pacing around her. The dungeon had 50 rooms, each of which had to be cleared 20 times to ‘conquer’ the dungeon. Should she find the coinage to pay the entrance fee, which was 1 silver per day—this was going to take a thousand days to complete.
Slowly the road behind her filled with people. Lunk was a dungeon city, and a full half of its 12000 inhabitants would be people dungeon delving. Wanting to get an early start, like Ginger they would now be impatiently waiting for the time to tick over into a new day so they could clear whatever room they were on.
Someone tapped her with what she though was a boot, but she didn’t open her eyes to check.
“Is she still alive,” a male voice asked.
“No,” Nox replied from under her cloak, evoking ughter.
“Did the backstabber find a partner yet,” another voice asked.
“Grrr,” Ginger growled.
“Her,” the voice snickered, clearly amused.
“I’m dragging her,” Ginger expined, and Nox winced. It was true, but did the girl have to be so brutal in spreading the word around. Nor was it an entirely one way street. Thanks to her worldly skill, the beastkin girl was getting 2 extra experience per room cleared. Not to mention when loot was generated, her worldly skill should affect that as well.
Nox sighed and stood to look back at the crowd which now numbered in the hundreds. Everyone was better dressed for the dungeon than she was. For one, they all had some type of armor and a weapon. They also all appeared to be the same age as her, or even slightly younger. There was also a look of disgust in their eyes when then looked back at her, leaving her wondering just how much nonsense she would have to take while she was in the City of Lunk.
Turning her back to the crowds, she waited, and when the day ended, quietly turning tomorrow into today, she and Ginger stepped back up to the guards to hand them a silver coin each. She had to admit, having a dungeon was a good gig for the town. There would be 6000 people entering the dungeon each day, netting the city 6000 silvers in dungeon admission fees alone.
Inside she saw things were as they’d previous been—a rge stone room with a fire in the middle. And beyond the inner doorway was a room that once more contained 6 slimes.
Things went a bit faster this time and within an hour the slimes died.
Ding!
A blue screen popped up before Nox.
You have cleared room 1 a total of 2/20 times!
Base Reward: 10 experience.
Additional Reward: 2 experience.
“We’ll meet here again at the end of the day,” Ginger commanded when they exited the dungeon.
“What’s your Blessing,” a girl asked when the beastkin girl vanished round a corner.
Nox looked at the speaker and shrugged. “Does it matter,” she asked, knowing it did. And that people would badger her about it relentlessly until they found out.
