"Two trolls incoming! One downhill, one from the front!" Muti's warnings were timely as Astrid whipped her shield into the orc's ribs. The monster wheezed and was forced over as bones cracked, and the Warrior raised her hammer for a devastating overhand blow to the crown of its skull. With the orc's head bowed low, Astrid immediately dispatched it, uncaring of the kill notification as she turned her attention to the other remaining orc warrior. Felix dodged two strikes from the beast before turning and lodging his axe deep in the monster's ribs just below its armpit. Astrid had no need to pay further attention to that monster, instead looking for the approach of the two trolls.
Muti'd called her instructions from uphill, where she dispatched the two raiders, and though she was prepared to come to the fight against the trolls, Astrid was the only one of the three melee fighters not currently locked in battle. She looked to her left, where the troll on their approximate elevation was approaching from. It moved quickly, uncaring to display the caution and hiding abilities that it was capable of. It loped from one stone to the next, its massive jaws hanging open while drool hung in thick ropes between its jagged teeth. It lifted a stone and Astrid prepared herself to go where she needed to intercept the attack. As soon as the projectile was loosed, she took several steps and braced herself to stop the rock from striking against Skandr. Instead, the stone shattered into pieces on her shield. The beast screamed and continued its charge and Astrid, for the first time, really thought about what role she was fulfilling.
She'd always said she wasn't a frontliner and never wanted to be, because she was a finisher. For as long as she'd thought and dreamed of being a delver, Astrid'd decided that she was going to be a finisher! And right now, she was basically a frontliner. Maybe that was because of the Skills she had, that they were basically all passive and focused on survivability, but she wanted to be more deadly. As she thought as much, Skandr threw his lightning javelin at that troll, making the monster's body flash with rippling magic, and as Astrid closed in, the Lightningmage immediately turned his attention to looking for the other troll. That one was looking to be making a sneaky approach, but as the kill notification appeared for the final orc warrior, Astrid had turned her intention entirely to the troll she could see. With only a few seconds to prepare, Astrid changed her stance out of her more passive defensive readiness and instead held her shield farther back to use it more aggressively than merely as a tool to protect herself.
In the same moment that the troll came close, Astrid swung her hammer at its knee. Its long arms pushed the blow down, the hammer's head skating through the scree on the mountain trail. Stones shattered and flew everywhere as the troll threw itself at her. Hundreds of kilos of unrestrained monster slammed into her, and Astrid flared her mana through her greaves to keep herself steady as she twisted her whole body to slam the edge of her shield into the monster and push it back. As with the orc, ribs creaked and broke as she did so, but different from the orc's rage that kept them standing, the troll actively healed itself. Astrid continued pushing towards her enemy as a faint trail of its ichor trailed from the corner of its mouth. The purple blood clotted as it fell, and the few wheezing breaths the beast had taken rapidly shifted to casual, regular breathing.
Astrid screamed as she pushed forward and forced the beast back. It hasn't managed to make any real blows on her, and her frustration just continued to grow stronger. After all, the Warrior had just realized that she wasn't living the way that she had wanted to, and that pushed her to greater aggression than ever before. Her hammer screamed through the air as she dealt a flurry of blows to the monster's joints. With how the trolls regenerated, she and her party had learned that flesh wounds were useless. With anything that wasn't a crippling blow, it almost seemed like the beast didn't feel them while damage to the joints was unignorable. Surprisingly, one of the best places to strike was the foot, as with the ankle broken, they were much more unsteady and the bones there were much weaker than others. Then, once a 3 meter tall monster fell, things got simpler. Astrid drove the bottom edge of her shield into the monster's foot, and it wobbled as bones broke and tendons tore. After that, three swift blows of her hammer to its same hip followed, leading the monster to fall.
Somewhere behind her, Astrid heard Skandr call out the appearance of the other troll, and Astrid promised herself to get there in time. With a monster on the ground in front of her, despite its warding hands and snarling face, she was able to dispatch it quickly. Once her hammer had lodged itself in the monster's brains, she returned her attention back to the other remaining monster. Muti hadn't yet arrived, but the other three delvers were dealing with the sixth and final beast without too much trouble. Felix had fully captured its attention, and his axe had cut a half dozen deep scores in the last remaining monster's skin. Purple blood coated the monster's gray skin, and it seemed entirely unimpressed with the attacks it'd sustained thus far. Even so, it couldn't tear its attention away from the Bodyguard due to his Draw Anger Skill. It desperately wished to run to Skandr who continued peppering it with more and more Lightning Bolts. The thick hide already danced with ripples of electricity everywhere, a testament to the Lightningmage's success in having hit the monster with a lightning javelin. Each additional Lightning Bolt, though small and potentially inconsequential, distracted, harmed, and slowed the monster further.
Seeing an opportunity, Astrid rushed forward with her shield held high and her hammer held low. Though awkward to run in, the stance was just right as the troll sent one fist flying down at her, her shield in the perfect position to deflect it. Then, with an additional step and a twisting of her whole body, Astrid turned that same momentum into a blistering upward swing that lodged the head of the hammer a handful of centimeters into the flesh of the troll's throat. Blood flowed down the hammer and out of the troll's mouth at the same time as it wheezed and stumbled. Felix took the opportunity to chop deep into the monster's knee, nearly severing its right leg. The second monster fell, and Astrid and Felix dispatched it just before Muti could arrive.
"You did not leave me any trolls! You have stolen from me a glorious opportunity!" Muti's complaints were mostly joking. Mostly. She grinned widely, excited to have spent as much time in the Dungeon as they had ever since they made the decision to get as much experience as fast as possible twelve days before. The Rogue was one of the few in the party who could remain excited. Astrid, however, couldn't help but do the math and look at the numbers. With them actively delving for, on average, 12 hours a day, they were gaining about 1500 experience each per day of delving. They couldn't push that number higher right now, and if they did, they'd end up getting themselves hurt or killed.
Despite knowing what it was going to show, Astrid turned her attention to her Status.
Status
Name: Astrid
Class: Warrior (Bronze)
Total Level: 15 (20,238/24,000)
Attributes
Current
Per level growth
Power
83 (+1)
+5
Alacrity
52 [+8]
+3
Fortitude
84 (+3)
+5
Magical Potency
20
+1
Self-Mastery
21
+1
Acumen
21
+1
Muti and Skandr would probably get their levels in the next day, though Astrid hadn't asked them specifically how much remained to the next level for a little while. Every member of the party knew what the collective was trying to do, and when they got there, everyone would be excited. There was no need to push anybody specifically further or faster, because they all need to be level 20 in just over six weeks from now. At least, that's what Astrid's mother had said. There had been a fair amount of conversation regarding if that two months was including whatever travel time had been included to get the letter to them in the first place, but there was nothing they could do other than continue to get experience with as few distractions and delays as possible.
Astrid found herself continuing to think about numbers and experience while Felix and Muti continued on joking about saving monsters for the other in the future. In order to accomplish everything they were planning on, there was so much that needed to happen, and there was no guarantee that they could do what was necessary to get there. All Astrid was allowing herself was the hope that maybe the upcoming boon from the Great One would be something that would allow her to get experience much quicker. Was there a boon that gave extra experience? There had been dozens of stories regarding boons, but nothing concrete and everything spoken of them was in a hushed, almost reverent whisper. After all, such a direct experience with the Great One was a privilege beyond merely gaining levels or evolving a Class.
"Leader! You are lost in paths the rest of us cannot find within the Dungeon. You may wander them when we are not busy. Focus." Muti's words pulled Astrid from her mental math. "In one more pack, Skandr and myself shall be reaching level 16. Let us push to make this next advancement that we may bring our fellows along, shall we?"
Astrid rolled her shoulders and nodded, agreeing with the sentiment. After all, she'd been worrying too much about things that she couldn't really control right now. She looked at Muti before turning her attention to the rest. Somehow, Astrid hadn't noticed that Skandr's eyes were constantly tight with worry, Benedict was painfully serious, and Felix, even more withdrawn than ever. None of them were stupid, everyone understood the situation they were in and the hopes that they had. Participating in the Trials would be a chance they could only feasibly participate in a single time, so they were willing to sacrifice these months' sleep, comfort, relaxation, and much more of what made regular life worth living, that all because they all decided to strive to get themselves ready to be qualified to be brought to the Trials. Astrid wasn't the only one capable of thought, and she wasn't the only one who felt the pressure. She just needed to stop being so self-absorbed.
"Thank you, Muti. Are we ready to keep moving? Skandr, I know that you're the main person who will need to recover after this latest fight. How's your mana looking?"
"Well, not great, if I'm totally honest." Skandr shrugged. "I probably shouldn't have kept peppering that thing with Lightning Bolts, but that's what I did. Sitting at a bit over a quarter, so I've got one more lightning javelin and one minor lightning curtain in me. After that, I'm basically out of the fight."
Astrid squinted, but nodded. "Well, if you're about to cross that watershed, that'll help you out quite a bit with getting back into top shape faster. I say you should only use lightning curtain as we fight this next band of orcs. That should get them slowed and get you that next level. You were planning on going for Mana Manipulation, right?"
Skandr nodded as he let out a little smile. Mana Manipulation would allow him to be more efficient in this spell casting, but getting that next level would help push him further in a different way too.
As the only party member who gained a 6 in any attribute every level, gaining levels and experience very quickly carried Skandr further ahead than the rest with regards to his Magical Potency. In fact, with his equipment, it had passed 100. Everyone heard about how getting a 100 in an attribute changed your body, but Greely had mentioned that surpassing 100 in a single attribute only brought physical changes when that number was passed by the attribute individual not counting their equipment. In Astrid's case, her Alacrity passing 100 wouldn't count if Steady Load was the way that it had surpassed the benchmark. Fortunately, the Druid had also shared that passing 100 in Magical Potency would significantly increase Skandr's mana recovery rate.
Typically, mana recovery was intrinsically tied to Self Mastery, so since Lightningmage was specialized more towards potency than recovery, the change that passing this benchmark would bring was going to be immense, they hoped. The whole party was looking forward to Skandr being able to finally let loose with his spells. He continued to experiment with new ones, and had several promising prospects that the party had decided not to use in the Dungeon. The experiments he conducted had shown that lightning spear, a direct upgrade in potency to lightning javelin, and call lightning, something of a twist on the lightning curtain, were both viable, but so much more costly that they didn't justify their use just yet. The spells he'd already developed were functioning more than well enough in the environments they currently delved in.
"I'm happy to keep pushing for now." Skandr nodded. "I just wanted to let you know that, without taking time to recover, I'm not at full capacity."
"I will find a band of orcs that does not have a troll nearby for our next target. It shall be easy to do so, the floor only has one or two of the gray beasts remaining." Muti's answer came quickly, and she perked up, her pointed ears twitching as she sniffed deeply. After about 30 seconds, she nodded and pointed in one direction. The party followed as she led them to their next stepping stone. The paths they tread were more familiar every day as the party spent more time in the dungeon than they did above ground. Of course, that wasn't new, but with even more time locked in the Dungeon branch, every day drew greater familiarity with the mountains they frequented.
As they followed Muti's guidance, it didn't take long before she held up a hand and faded into Stealth as she went to prepare to ambush the raiders while the rest took care of the warriors. Astrid consciously kept from thinking about the Trials and instead turned her attention to the present, preparing herself to meet with the orcs. The party approached slowly, allowing Muti time to get into position before they were all ready and the orcs took notice of their presence. The squad of brutes shouted their war cries in their squealing tongue, and whether it was words or not didn't matter to Astrid. She simply squared her shoulders and strode just to Felix's side as they prepared to destroy the war party. As three of the cudgel–wielding monsters stepped around the craggy wall of a blind bluff, Astrid raised her hammer with a war cry of her own.
***
"Duchess above but they weren't kidding when they said that there was a big change from crossing that threshold." Skandr staggered as the second to last orc was killed. Muti cut the final raider to ribbons before setting about cutting off the trophies and materials to take back. Astrid joined her, though from a distance as she cut the warrior ears free.
"What does it feel like?" Astrid couldn't help but grin widely as she asked.
"I can… taste the mana in the air? It's not quite that, but it's a sense that I can't describe in any other way." Skandr struggled with the words as he fought to keep his balance. Finally, he gave up and staggered to sit on a nearby stone. "I know what the general density of the mana around us is, but I can't see, smell, or hear it. It isn't a pressure, so the nearest way that I can describe it is honestly just the taste. And this new sensitivity to mana? It's crazy. Because I can feel it, I can draw into myself better. That's probably why I think Greely was saying that this benchmark would be one that assisted with my recovery."
Astrid nodded, wondering in what way having crossed that threshold would change things for the other attributes. She'd been told about how the big difference with each of these thresholds was something to do with how mana interacted with your body, and that with Power, it was almost like a weaker ability to use Power Strike at will. She was looking forward to it, but would have to wait four more levels to get there. Interestingly, she'd also surpass that benchmark with Fortitude at that same level. For now, her focus was the next watershed, level 16. Only Muti selected her Skill upgrade right then, immediately thumbing the bandolier of throwing knives she always kept with her. With her Thrown Weapons Skill upgraded, her ability to more accurately and powerfully throw the weapons would make her more deadly than before.
Skandr had already explained his general plan to refrain from selecting his next Skill until he could sit and allow any inspiration to wash over him when he did so.
"It'll probably end up doing nothing," he explained, "but if it does, it's better to use this opportunity to catch up with all you as best as I can."
As her two companions were blessed by the descent of the Great One, Astrid glanced once again at her own Status, promising that it would only be two days before she gained that next level, and finally saw what boons she would be able to choose from.
Two days.