Unbound Soul Chapter 130: Risk (Patreon)

The third floor boss was a bit of a crowd, with the lieutenant and his fifteen lackeys. Taking a deep breath, Cluma closed her eyes and then ran for the lieutenant. I'd already explained that the commander-type monsters buffed their subordinates simply by existing, and so Cluma had come to the conclusion that she should take out the leader first.

The stone throwers could get going faster than archers, needing only to pull a stone from their pouch and throw it, so Cluma was pelted by five stones before reaching the lieutenant. She didn't even try to dodge, nor did she react to them at all, so it seemed likely that [Threat Perception] hadn't fired. The impact seemed to surprise her, slightly disturbing her charge and giving the lieutenant a chance to swing his two-hander.

Cluma leapt gracefully over the swing, then brought her daggers down into the sides of the lieutenant's neck, using him as leverage to push herself back into the air, somersaulting and landing in the midst of the stone throwers. They didn't survive long after that. Nor did the ten unarmed lesser goblins, who all charged straight to their death, each going down to a single, ruthless stab.

"That somersault was nice," I commented.

"I didn't see those stones coming at all, though," she answered. "They were so weak that they didn't even scuff my armour, but precisely because they were so weak, none of my skills responded and they were able to surprise me. They didn't even make any noise. Even if I'd had my eyes open, they could have done the same thing from behind, so what was I supposed to do there? I can't just ignore impacts, because it could be a case of [Threat Perception] failing, rather than deliberately ignoring something for not being a threat."

"I think that's just a case of knowing what enemies you're fighting. Unless you start delving unexplored dungeons, you'll always know what monsters you'll be facing in advance. If you know you're fighting level two stone throwers, you can ignore the impacts. If you're fighting high level assassins, you need to react to the slightest stimuli."

"Urk. So many things to remember..."

"It's only your second day. You'll get the hang of it."

"I hope so..."

She looted the chest, and we moved on to floor four. This was the first boss that had any real chance of harming her, with five goblin champions carrying a range of weapons, and I wasn't sure she should be attempting it blind. "If you want to keep your eyes open for this one, I won't object," I commented as we entered.

"Nope. I said I trusted your training methods, and I'm going to stick to them."

Despite her words, she looked a touch nervous this time. Knowing from experience how quickly things could go bad with this boss, I kept a tight grip on my weapon, with [Weft Walk] active so that I could step in at a moment's notice.

She stepped over the line, and the pair of archers immediately drew arrows, while the three melee combatants moved towards her. The sword-and-shield user went in first and soon came within range of her [Monster Perception]. She lashed out, but was obviously having difficulty judging the position of his shield, and failed to land a blow.

The first archer fired just as the whip user struck at her ankle, and she leapt into the air, over the shield of the shield-bearer, stabbing him in the neck as she went, and using it to push herself towards the archers.

The second archer fired while she was in mid-air, but she twisted and avoided it. The sudden change in her orientation spoilt her landing, but she was still able to stab one archer before he could attack back. Alas, the delay gave the whip user a chance to attack again while her back was turned, before she had a chance to take out the second archer, but again she picked up the attack and tried to dodge.

This attempt didn't go as well as the first. She dodged along the path of the whip, so it still hit her, [Threat Perception] apparently not giving her sufficient information to know exactly what the flexible weapon was doing. With my own universal weapon proficiency, I could tell that the goblin had been trying to wrap it around her ankle, and her movements had spoilt that, but it still struck her on the thigh.

She yelped, but recovered quickly and charged at the whip user, getting close too rapidly for him to make any further attacks, and utterly gutted him. Behind him was the two-handed sword user, preparing to swing, and behind Cluma, the surviving archer let loose a second shot. She reacted to the arrow, leaping slightly into the air and spinning just as the goblin swung his sword. There was no way she could dodge it; without purchase on the ground, she didn't have the manoeuvrability to avoid a wide swing from such a large weapon.

I stepped forward with [Weft Walk] to parry for her, only to feel a substantial amount of resistance against my foot, causing me to trip over. In desperation, I fired off [Far Reach], but I wouldn't make it in time. I watched helplessly as the two-handed sword impacted Cluma in the side, launching her across the room like a baseball. She carried on rolling after impacting the floor, almost reaching the chamber wall.

"Cluma!" I yelled.

"I'm okay," she shouted back, jumping to her feet, and I sighed with relief, before looking at my feet. There was a knife stabbed into the floor right in front of where I'd been standing. Cluma's dismantling knife. She'd tripped me on purpose?!

As I was staring in disbelief, she climbed back to her feet and made another attempt at the remaining pair of goblins, this time keeping the archer behind the sword wielder to prevent him from getting a clean shot. Both goblins fell quickly.

"Why?!" I complained the moment the final goblin fell. "You almost got yourself killed! Or kicked out of the dungeon, anyway. You know what I mean."

"You started it by claiming you wouldn't protect me. Like I said, I knew what you were trying to do. You thought that if I was fighting without backup, and slip-ups were actually dangerous, I'd level quicker. But you're a crap liar, so I helped you out."

"But that meant I couldn't protect you for real!"

"Exactly. It worked too. I got [Threat Perception], [Monster Perception], [Snap Thrust] and a point of endurance from that. Besides, aren't you being hypocritical again? If you were using all of your senses, like you keep telling me to, shouldn't you have spotted my knife? That I could trip you without using [Stealth] and without you noticing is a bit of a slip-up of your own, don't you think?"

"That's not the same. I had all the goblins in view."

"Same thing to me. Anyway, I already told you to trust me. And if you can't do that, at least trust Grover. Do you think armour with his durability enchantment on it would be cut by a goblin?"

True... When these goblins scored their hit on me, Adele's tailoring skill was lower, and the enchantments were only rank two. Not to mention my physical stats being far lower. Still, that was a good hit the goblin had scored. It must have done something.

I sighed and gave her a hug. "Please don't take risks like that," I said.

"Again, that's hypocritical given your behaviour in here. How many years have I worked at the bar now? I know all the stories, including the time you rushed the last boss, using some potion that knocked you out for an entire day. And several times people had to carry you back because you were too injured to walk."

Gah... "Yes, I'm aware that I'm a seriously bad influence. But there were extenuating circumstances that forced me to clear this place as quickly as possible, so please don't base your behaviour on mine. Now, how much health did that cost you? I can't believe you're completely uninjured."

She looked off into space for a moment, presumably reading her status, before poking at her side and wincing. "I lost twelve health, and it hurts to touch."

"Could just be heavy bruising, or it could be a cracked rib. I wouldn't be able to tell from looking, and if it is cracked, you might aggravate it trying to take your armour off. Drink a health potion, and we'll wait a few minutes. If it still hurts, we'll teleport out from here. If not, we'll continue on floor five."

"Isn't that a bit rude? What if there's someone waiting for the boss?"

"There's no-one yet. I can see with [Mana Sight]. I'll let you know if anyone turns up."

Cluma nodded and drank a potion. If we did have to leave here, that would put us out of pocket for the trip, but I wasn't going to have her walking around with a potentially cracked rib. Grover's enchantments really were impressive though; despite taking the full-force blow from such a heavy sword, the armour only had a slight scratch.

"Aww," said Cluma, rubbing it, because even a minor scratch was a failure.

A couple of minutes later, it still hurt to poke, but it didn't impede her movements and there was nothing to suggest a serious injury, so we continued to floor five, where Cluma settled into a routine of taking out the goblin groups without further issue. To avoid a repeat of the mistake she'd made against the boss, she would occasionally allow herself to be struck by an arrow in a thick reinforcing plate in order to avoid a more serious hit.

The enchanted armour was enough to prevent any of the weapons on this floor from piercing, so it was only bludgeoning damage from large weapons she needed to worry about, and the arrows were too light for that. She was strategising well, and picked up a level of [Critical Strike] and another of [Trap Perception] throughout the day. At this rate, she might even max out her class by the end of the week, as if her stats weren't high enough already.

When the time came to leave, she one-shotted the orc boss, successfully stabbing him in vital points despite her closed eyes. "I see what you mean about doing more with skills, despite the level not changing," she commented, unconcernedly standing in a growing pool of blood. "I never would have thought I could aim for a heart so accurately using only [Monster Perception]."

"Yup. If that goblin from yesterday tried that now, I expect you could slice his head clean off without even needing to turn and look. But you might want to open your eyes now."

"Why?" asked Cluma, opening her eyes. "Eww!"

"Tomorrow we'll do a bit of teamwork practice, and then you can go back to being an invisible assassin."

"Invisible terror," she said, trying to shake the blood from her boots. Thankfully, a rank four comfort enchantment made it all slide off. It looked like water on a hydrophobic surface and was kinda cool to watch. But what was that about a terror?

"Pardon?"

"It's invisible terror, not invisible assassin."

"Okay. Not sure what difference that makes, but I'll try to remember."

Wasn't that what I'd called her at the party? Seemed a bit of an odd thing to cling to, but whatever. Cluma smiled as we returned to the surface, skipping along and sticking with me this time when I went to sell the contents of my [Item Box]. "I can give you the money tomorrow, like we did yesterday, if you don't want to tag along. And what are you so happy about?"

"Not telling. And I have a chore to do tomorrow morning, so can we meet a bit later? Half an hour or so, after the shops open? I'll collect the money now, and replace the healing potion I used on the way tomorrow."

I didn't mind delaying tomorrow's trip if she had other stuff to do. It was just that her smile was a bit dodgy, and I couldn't help feel that she was plotting something... I'd been mean to her today, so hopefully it wasn't some sort of revenge. I teleported home after trading in the cores, and then spent far too long awake in bed concerned about invisible flying hugs. The silence enchantment wouldn't let her sneak past our front door, right? It squeaked!