The Witch Tamer, Book 1
Page 59
"We should help them if we can," Melanie whispered in my ear.
The other team really wants food. They are getting pretty scary actually in almost demanding it from us. We were even worried they'd attack us.
This is why the others seem nervous about not doing a permanent team join.
Plus would the dungeon even allow that?
Part of us wants to save the rest of humanity. But how are we going to do that when we've been desperate also? We don't have the ability to grow food like a farmer. Nor a place to put it.
We began to work out a trade, because they are desperate. And fortunately their mage has a few decent skills.
In exchange for a spell skill scroll, they were desperate to take a spare buckler, and 2 spears, which we had from the stash of the lair of the bandit prince. We spared 2 cans of food, but we know we're going to suffer for it.
But if we hadn't done that, I'm afraid the guy with the lung damage that's coughing up blood might die. I'm still afraid he might.
And Shelly couldn't help him much.
It was a good trade.
And as a bonus, their mage gave me a 'summon water' spell scroll. (Drinking water only, not offense.)
YES! With this we might have a chance!
Given what's happening now, this is the best thing we could ever ask for! Melanie and Simone cried in gratitude and thanked the other team endlessly.
"If you can get to the town on the 10th floor, look us up. Remember my team name is Ebenson, after my name," Ebenson told us while they were leaving.
They are decent guys. They didn't try to kill us or anything, nor rob us, despite being hard pressed. We waved as we watched them leave this apartment.
We heard the combat not long after that. I think the spears helped them a lot.
But I don't think they had a healer in their team, I worried.
...
But now we have to avoid that level 5 town. And this is an irony since that's where we'd been about to go.
Now it sounds like if we go there it would be pretty easy to get robbed. And there would be no chance for food.
And at worst, the people already living on the fifth floor might even decide to lock out newcomers, which could really screw us up also.
But I don't quite understand what these guys meant by what the calamity was...
It sounds almost like multiple calamities at once.
They were sort of half crazed talking about it and very upset. Something about fire from the sky, raining down with the blue sky becoming ash and red colored. Those with no murim statuses mostly were smothered instantly without even being able to breathe. Did that mean a volcanic eruption? Or like World War 3 nukes? Or a collision into Earth by a big meteor or asteroid?
I think at least 1 of that other team had lung damage because he was coughing. But it wasn't until later that I realized the smoke and ash and fire in the air probably significantly damaged his lungs. He's probably going to die, even if he is in the 40s levels. People don't do well without lungs, even if they have mana.
I feel bad for them.
...
None of us felt safe staying where that other team was. If they'd had second thoughts or felt the effect of starvation, and exposure too much there's no telling what would happen.
We didn't stay in that building.
It took an hour but we managed to climb up to the roof on this building and then lower ourselves onto the one next to it.
Using some cabling salvaged from that building, we wove together another thick homemade rope made out of what looks like several cables from cable TV or other roof top electronics to get onto the other roof near us across the alley.
This was a good decision. By doing it this way we did risk losing about an hour to braid the rope, but we bypassed a lot of monsters on the lower floors, and streets surrounding this one building.
Plus, my radar doesn't show too many monsters in it. This building also isn't connected to any of the others. So if we can secure the bottom floor doors and stairs then we can make use of it.
It looks like a building that houses a few Mom and Pop style shops in it. One of which was a bicycle shop. Then a sewing shop in on the second floor. Storage on the third floor. Fourth floor looks like its being renovated. Fifth to 9th floors are all residence apartments.
We'd swung over to the terrace on the sixth floor.
Right away we killed 2 darklings right when we'd gotten over. We almost lost Miguel to being knocked off by a darkling but Linz saved him, pulling him up while I covered her.
Now we have to lay low and pray we can make it through the endless night of terror.
I'm almost out of mana.
The two darklings cost me all but 10% mana to fight both at the same time. We only made it through the fight because at the last second, Linz pushed one to fall of the roof to its death. (If it had evolved its own wings like some of the others, that wouldn't have killed it.)
Simone reached level 7!
We're a bit down because when he one darkling fell of the building, that means we lost the chance to get its loot. We won't be able to try to get that until morning, if we can even do that.
This city is so freaking dangerous.
I want my safe zone enchant back! And its too dangerous to try to create another one!
I had Simone show me her status screen. Well technically my pet skill let's me see it anyway.
Name; Simone Mansfield
Race; Human
Magic job; Ranger
Level; 6 → 7
Health; 91/111 → 99/119
Mana; 40/40 → 45/45
Mana Regen; 2
Health regen; 4
Element affinities; Nature (weak)
Str; 32 → 33Agi; 48 → 51Con; 49 → 50
Int; 54 Wis; 45App; 94
Skills; athletics, jogging, defend +2, block, parry, evade +1, Search, spear proficiency, Forage +5, range efficiency(new!)(increases range weapon 'to hit' efficiency, but only by small amount; +1%), quick draw (new!)(weapon speed skill)
Magic Skills; Nature's Blessing
Gear list;
Leather armor set (greaves, cuirass, skirting, wrist guards, gloves)
ranger boots +2;(+10 to movement, +5% evasion, +5 armor)
Baseball bat +1
Buckler +3
Spear
Huh?
She finally got a magic skill, but its not for something like a [snare] skill? Instead its this,...whatever blessing thing?
She says she doesn't know how to get it to work yet. She gets that she has the skill but doesn't know how to cast or do the gestures for the spell.
Melanie also leveled up.
Name; Melanie Williams
Race; Type 349F human hybrid
Magic job; Amplifier
Level; 13 → 14
Health; 129/129 → 134/134
Mana; 152/152 → 158/158
Mana Regen; 5 → 6 (per hour)
Health regen; 3 → 5 (per day)
Element affinities; Mutation Buffer
Str; 18 → 19Agi; 27Con; 43
Int; 63 Wis; 62 → 63App; 95 → 96
Skills; athletics, mana affinity +1(enabled), defend-2, evade, block, parry, danger sense
Magic skills; Amplify +1(13% or 18%), Mana Sensing
Gear list;
Sleeveless tank top
Shorts
Sneakers
Baseball bat
Spear
Combat boots, armor; 5
I still don't understand why her stats seemingly are random in how they are going up. Her strength stat lacks a lot. But I was pleased to have her health regen stat go up by that much; hell, I'd even take that if it were me, so we'd be less dependent on Shelly.
Chapter 39
6 AM
I woke up.
Wife intimacy time with Melanie.
Damn, this is so wonderful. It feels like heaven.
She seems to be enjoying it more lately. Does that have something t
o do with the love magic skills that have been going up?
It also seems like I can get it up more, for longer intimacy time, and more number of times.
6:42 AM
I get up to see what I can enhance and work with.
First I checked the new skill, the summon water spell scroll.
I frowned.
So I don't have the water element. This doesn't mean I can't learn this technique. But it does mean that when trying to use something like this it will function at a much, much lower strength, making it difficult to use. This would make it impractical for attack and defense, but not for food summoning and washing with.
My skill tab does show during the night while sleeping that in fact, my status screen did in fact absorb the [summon water] skill! Success!
I tested it. It bumped me down 6 mana, though it would have only cost me 4 mana if I was water element, and 5 mana if I was related to water or with some proficiency.
Damn.
It gave me 3/4 of 1 cubic foot of water. But for my level and according to the description, it should have given me 1 cubic foot of water for every 3 of my casting levels.
So this is getting 25% of the effect that a real element mage would get with the same spell if they had that affinity! Its really ridiculously low, even probably more like 20% of normal power for combat type spell programs. But that still means some survival! After all, who can live without water.
That confirms my previous hypothesis, that I can't rely on water spells in combat. But to survive I'm just grateful for the water.
I used some containers to do 2 more water summoners, which I've stored for the others. With this, they won't mutiny.
Now reality is setting in also.
That calamity that just occurred?
This means, we're on our own. It means I'll have to get tough and help the others through this. I can hedge them against depression if I help them have a better life.
And one of the saving graces is the discovery that there's towns in the dungeons! Our short term goals could include working our way to one of them and possibly seeing if we can live there. However, I also think that the lower level dungeon floors in some ways have less town stability! You'd think it would be the opposite, but that's not true. As the dungeon floors get harder, people are willing to work together more, not less.
So, will we be living forever in the dungeon?
I suppose I can use my mind skills to help dampen the effects on the others, of knowing our old world is gone.
My gosh, I can hardly believe it myself!
Linz pulled me out of my dark moody thoughts by giving me some hot chocolate in a cup, which I have no idea where she got it from. But I also noticed she gave me some only, while the others are still sort of getting up.
"Thanks."
"No problem!" she smiled.
"Um...can I watch, what you are doing?" she asked, putting a hand on my leg.
"Sure."
I went back to working on the new spell formula and my stats.
The water summon unfortunately I discovered another drawback. I'm not a water element, so its high mana cost still... I don't like that.
I looked over my gear list;
Gear list;
Crowbar +3 (Knock back effect)
Health necklace +1 (per 6 hours, maxed)
Baseball cap
Jacket +2 → +4
Jeans (+2 defense)
1 long crowbar +2
Hoodie +3 defense
Flashlight (energy efficient enchant, blind 3/day)
Flashlight #2 (mezz 2/day)
Remote Control (slow 1/day)
Baseball Bat
Buckler
(+5)+3
Belt +2
Ring; mana regen+1
Ring; Charm skill+1
Umbrella +4(Damage absorption shield enchant on activation, +10 to absorption from +4 unlock)
Endless Water canteen
Endless Beef Stew +2 (+10% volume per day)
Pack frame (+5% carrying volume, -20 to weight enchant)
Ranger Boots → +2(+10 to movement, +5% evasion, +5 armor)
I'd also gone over some of the items we'd taken from the bandit prince's stashes. There was a ton of throwing knives and normal knives in there. These I'll be able to enchant and sell wherever we're going, once we hit town to bring down costs.
But one problem we'll have is that we're not making tons of money to support renting rooms or housing in whatever dungeon towns we find. This needs to be fixed.
Let's see...I do have a few cheap rings we can try to enchant also. These are easy to carry, and we took some. The others don't mind if I enchant and sell those, since they are basically worthless without the enchants.
A normal dungeon class person can only get 2 rings equipped + I think they can unlock 2 more in higher levels.
With me that's different. I can equip 4 rings and 2 necklaces. Plus, I'll be able to unlock more later.
I need to put more focus on money after this.
And to do that...
I found I can enhance my pack frame to +2 now. But I don't dare waste any mana. For now I got that to +2, and my baseball cap to +2.
By then I have a few minutes left for wife intimacy with Simone. And then I can spent time with Melanie tonight.
...
After breakfast we made an attempt to clear the halls in this building again. Being on the sixth floor, we'd cleared some of them last night. But during the night many of the zombies had drifted, but staying often near the apartment complex doors.
It was hard work, because the sounds of our combat had drawn in a lot of monsters from the whole floor.
It ended up that I'd used about 120 mana, just to keep us alive from what turned into a constant train of zombies while we worked using stun and damage absorption skill combos from my skills to keep them from overwhelming us.
If it had been anyone but me guiding and tanking these guys, someone would have died.
We also used the ranger forage skill wherever we could. And that part is turning out fairly well.
We stopped for a break at one point.
"So what now?" Mandy asked me.
The others looked at me.
"First before you loot, let's make sure we didn't miss any. Then I'll check the detection enchant to decide where to go," I told them.
It was a good move to double check before looting.
3 more stray zombies had gotten caught behind doors, and could have bitten someone from behind if we'd looted first.
We didn't get much, considering how much work we did. Plus, we'll have to sterilize any of the zombie loot, just in case; though the zombie parts do 'melt' when they are slain because we're in a dungeon.
Every bit helps.
Today's loot;
180 USD found.
60 dungeon dollars.
+Various odds and ends that we'll sort later.
I managed the detection enchant while we move around the floor. The detection enchant can pick up stuff above and below us. But going beyond one floor is hard and not easy to do.
Hm...
Uh oh.
Sub-boss on the 8th floor.
Would it come down to the 7th if it heard us fighting?
"Better not risk it," Rita advised.
We went down one floor.
By 10 AM we have to take a break and retreat again. But this time for different reasons.
"Oh crap. That guy re-spawned somehow," Mandy said.
"Holy cow, they spawned close. Back up," Rita signaled.
"What?! They can do that?" Melanie cried.
"This is bad," Simone said.
"They see us! They are coming!" Linz called out.
An undead skirmish occurs. Because the floor was reset with zombies I had a hard time but kept everyone alive and un-bit. The umbrella damage absorption shield is godly for undead like this, and the reason we're not zombies already. Initially they'd come at us in low groups of 3s and 4s in number, but tho
se small pulls just never stopped because of the whole floor being reset.