Unbound Soul Chapter 169: Judgement (Patreon)

Name: Peter
Species: Human
Age: 14
Class: Eldritch Mage (Level 21/83)
Class History: [Commoner 10] [Apprentice Mage 10] [Body Mage 20] [Spatial Mage 15] [Apprentice Fighter 7]
Soul Points: 2
Health: 237/250
Stamina: 570.00/570.00
Mana: 720.00/720.00
Strength: 35(+17)
Dexterity: 37(+17)
Endurance: 36(+17)
Intelligence: 50(+17)
Wisdom: 31(+17)
Charisma: 31(+17)
Rank 1 Artes: [Backstab 5] [Armour Break 7] [Mighty Swing 9] [Swift Strike 11] [Shattering Strike 3] [Rapid Shot 6] [Piercing Shot 5]
Rank 1 Spells: [Minor Strength 15] [Far Step 15] [Minor Speed 15] [Minor Dexterity 15] [Minor Endurance 15] [Minor Intelligence 15] [Minor Wisdom 15] [Minor Charisma 15] [Far Reach 15] [Minor Slow 15]
Rank 2 Spells: [Strength 15] [Dexterity 15] [Endurance 15] [Weft Walk 15] [Item Box 15] [Distortion 15]
Rank 3 Spells: [Detach 12] [Redistribute 10] [Shelter 9] [Superimpose 7]
Rank 1 Skills: [Inspection 15] [Meditation 15] [Concealment 11] [Foraging 15] [Hunting 10] [Musician 12] [Weapon Proficiency: Universal 15] [Basic Crafting 15] [Clock 15] [Enlarged Health Pool 12] [Stamina Finesse 5] [Danger Sense 12] [Basic Etiquette 5]
Rank 2 Skills: [Appraisal 15] [Enhanced Mana Recovery 15] [Weapon Style: Flowing Mist 15] [Extended Mana Pool 15] [Engineering 5] [Secrecy 11] [Enhanced Stamina Recovery 15] [Extended Stamina Pool 15] [Soul Perception 15] [Rapid Healing 5]
Rank 3 Skills: [Analysis 15] [Expert Mana Control 15] [Expert Mana Finesse 13] [Mana Sight 13]
Rank 4 Skills: [Eye of Judgement 1]
Traits: [Unbound Soul] [Determined Progressor] [Test Subject] [Xenophilia] [Soul Bound]
Titles: [Jack of All Trades 2] [Victorious Underdog 3] [Skilled 2] [Survivor 2] [Flexible Combatant] [Versatile Crafter] [Magician] [Athlete] [Novice Delver] [Durable]
Status Conditions: [Crippled] [Partially Blinded]
Attuned Affinities: [Body] [Soul] [Space] [Time]
Rank 2 Available Classes: [Monk] [Soul Mage] [Temporal Mage] [Thaumaturgist] [Teacher] [Trader] [Gatherer] [Bard] [Artisan] [Warrior] [Ranger] [Scout] [Spellsword] [Maid]
Rank 3 Available Classes: [Analyst] [Body High Mage] [Spatial High Mage]
Rank 4 Available Classes: [Eldritch High Mage]
Rank 1 Available Skills: [Weapon Style: One-Handed] [Weapon Style: Two-Handed] [Weapon Style: Shield] [Weapon Style: Dual Wielding]
Rank 2 Available Skills: [Extended Health Pool]
Rank 3 Available Skills: [Profound Mana Pool] [Profound Stamina Pool] [Rapid Mana Regeneration] [Rapid Stamina Regeneration] [Soul Sight] [Status Concealment]

Used on myself, once I'd remembered to deactivate [Secrecy], [Eye of Judgement] didn't supply a huge amount of additional information. I already knew my age, attuned affinities and that I was crippled and half blind. My available skills could be viewed anytime. The only thing there that couldn't be viewed at will were my available classes, but it wasn't as if that revealed many surprises.

The single curiosity was the fact I'd qualified for the [Maid] class. That probably came from [Basic Etiquette], but why [Maid] and not a butler class? I knew butler classes existed, thanks to Cliff the [Master Butler]. Apparently, even the System was getting in on Cluma's joke.

Would a higher tier of [Novice Delver] mean that I could take rank two classes without any need to level them? While I wasn't willing to invest any actual time or effort into this ongoing gag, I'd certainly be picking the class if I could immediately swap it out again without needing to level it.

Used on others, [Eye of Judgement] displayed the same set of information as when self-targeted, but it also had an additional advantage; I could view the information of any class, skill, title or trait. While [Analysis] wouldn't show items of a rank more than half its skill level, my level one [Eye of Judgement] showed everything even at level one, but the extra information feature would only work on rank one items. Presumably, it would follow the same levelling scheme as [Analysis] for viewing higher ranks.

Orichalcum Ring (Quality: 50)
- Enchantment: Comfort (Quality: 70)
- Enchantment: Strength (Quality: 60)
- Enchantment: Dexterity (Quality: 60)
- Enchantment: Endurance (Quality: 60)
Weight: 3 grams

Items showed enchantment quality ratings and weights. I didn't have any monsters around to check, but I was hopeful it would give some warning of special moves. The range was also massively improved compared to [Analysis], so I'd have no problems hitting monsters with it in dungeons, and the mana cost remained unchanged.

It was, in all, a disappointment. Nice for being nosy, but it was a huge expenditure of soul points largely for convenience, showing nothing that I couldn't have found out by other means with some extra effort. It would save me needing to look things up in the library, but little else.

Were all rank four skills like that? Highly priced, in exchange for incremental improvements over the rank three versions? I didn't regret buying it, but perhaps I should have delayed it, going for [Extended Health Pool] first. Then again, it was a skill that had no class restrictions, so perhaps it was weaker than average.

Not that there was nothing to learn from it. Used on dungeon-spawned magical items, I was able to confirm that all dungeon enchantments were at the minimum quality rating for their rank. I'd guessed that, given the behaviour of stat items, but it was nice to have it confirmed. Any enchantment that could be produced both manually and by a dungeon was better off done by a real enchanter.

Thanks to my boosted healing, I was quicker at escaping hospital than expected, released little over a day after my admittance. With six more days until the next scheduled anomaly, and a week minimum until Grover was done preparing for our next round of [Superimpose] experimentation, there was little else to do than resume our training in the Serpent Isle dungeon. With the extra levels of [Detach], I could afford to leave an anchor on floor seventeen while we delved further, aiming for the final floor, but still leaving us able to train against monsters that could see through Cluma's [Stealth] should we need to.

That turned out to be unnecessary, because floor nineteen was back to mambas. Deadly mambas, this time, no larger than the black mambas, but exceeding them in all stats.

Deadly Mamba (Level: 19)
Health: 45/45
Stamina: 45/45
Mana: 25/25
Strength: 60
Dexterity: 80
Endurance: 40
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 30
Charisma: 5
Abilities: [Piercing Bite 19] [Deadly Venom 19] [Vibration Perception 19] [Olfactory Perception 19]
Deadly mambas are a mid-level mamba variant, with stronger venom and faster reflexes than their weaker kin. Beware their venomous bite, which, as well as dealing up to twenty points a minute of direct health damage, will harm movement and coordination, causing complete paralysis to anyone with less than forty points of endurance. Their eyesight is weak, but they compensate with additional innate perception abilities.

Perhaps I had been too hasty in writing off [Eye of Judgement]. On top of their stats, the skill not only listed their abilities, but gave a textual description. The description was the same style as for monsters I'd looked up in the library, so it presumably came from the same source, but it was still useful to be able to look up while in a dungeon.

On top of that was the way abilities had levels. They all matched the level of the monster. Were there cases where they didn't?

Fighting our way through floor nineteen was substantially harder than seventeen, Cluma and I both falling victim to their bites on multiple occasions.

"My armour is starting to look like a sieve," she complained, looking at a new tear under her elbow where skin was clearly visible. Or rather, a scab, since the associated bite wound was still fresh and far from healing.

"Yeah. I'm starting to think we need upgrades," I agreed, falling back into my usual cheating methodology. Rather than improving myself, I'd developed a habit of relying on stronger equipment. Then again, what was the point of armour that these snakes could bite through so easily? The reinforced plates still stopped them, at least, but the bodysuit portion offered no resistance, and the plates were getting so badly damaged that even they wouldn't help for much longer.

I'd thought about mythril or high-ranked steel reinforcements back when I'd ordered it, but reinforcements weren't the problem right now; it was attacks sneaking in between the reinforced areas. What was I supposed to do about that? How could I avoid attacks to the thinnest sections of armour? Thickening it everywhere would make it too inflexible, even with Grover's comfort enchantment.

Grover's idea of a skill like [Superimpose] overlaying the flexible leather with adamantite would be ideal, but let alone a skill we weren't sure existed, it relied on a class we weren't sure existed. A class that may well be rank four even if it did. That was the very definition of clutching at straws.

We could certainly use better materials. Dire wolf leather had to be weaker than the anaconda skin used here, and once we reached floor twenty, I could bring back enough of the stuff for replacement armour sets, but how much difference the material would make when we were using rank four durability enchantments was debatable. Maybe we could get orichalcum enchantments, to push Grover's abilities a little further? And I could lend him my crafting bracelet to get another plus one to the quality ratings.

"I think we need to stop trying to avoid every hit and focus on avoiding bites to our weak points. Yes, our armour will get even more battered, but we need to replace it anyway, and might as well use it up completely while we finish this floor."

"Easy to say, but hard to pull off."

"It should be doable for you; just follow the advice of [Threat Perception]."

"...I suppose," agreed Cluma unhappily, still in the mindset that her armour taking damage counted as a failure.

I hit her with [Eye of Judgement] as we walked, but it showed even less information than [Analysis], with only rank one items being visible. The effects of her [Privacy] couldn't be accounting for my [Skilled 2], leaving [Eye of Judgement] acting like a level one [Analysis], rather than level five if I used the real skill.

"For me, I'm going to need to start using [Shelter] defensively. It's at a high enough level now, but getting the timing right is going to take some practice."

Trying to dodge attacks with [Shelter] turned out to be a stupid idea. Even at level nine, I could only phase out small sections of arm, or even smaller sections of my legs. Had I been facing rigid weapons, I might have done better, but I wasn't. The snakes could twist mid-strike, and phasing out a block of arm simply meant they could bite me on the inside. A single bite was enough to convince me to give up on that idea, although I did at least earn another level for my attempts.

We spent a few days fighting our way through the floor, needing to retreat out of the dungeon on multiple occasions when poison left us in a condition where we couldn't defend ourselves. By day three it was obvious that our activities weren't sustainable. Not only were we burning through antidotes and healing potions fast enough to risk alchemic poisoning, but our armour was so badly damaged that a few days more would leave it unusable.

ding
Skill [Swift Strike] advanced to level 12
Skill [Shelter] advanced to level 10
Skill [Superimpose] advanced to level 8
Skill [Enlarged Health Pool] advanced to level 13
Skill [Stamina Finesse] advanced to level 6
Skill [Danger Sense] advanced to level 13
Skill [Rapid Healing] advanced to level 6
Skill [Expert Mana Finesse] advanced to level 14

After those three days of needing to retreat from the dungeon after every few fights, we eventually made it to the portal to floor twenty, so the pair of us stepped briefly on to the floor, intending to take a quick look before retreating once more.

"Well, that explains it," I muttered, looking around with [Mana Sight].

"Explains what?"

"Remember Sara said that the bosses were things that show up on lower floors, but two bosses were level twenty?"

"Yes? Doesn't that just mean that both anaconda and prismatic serpents are here?"

"...Yes," I admitted, while carefully refraining from admitting that I hadn't considered the option at all, despite Cluma having thought it was obvious. This was hardly the first floor that had two distinct types of snake.

Three, actually. There were smaller snakes around too, that looked suspiciously like more mambas.

"I suggest we kill an anaconda or two, get the corpses back to Dawnhold, and get our armour remade."

"Can't we just order something from Synklisi. You're rich enough."

I considered that option. I could. No doubt Synklisi had rank four craftsmen and enchanters, and it would have superior materials than what was available from this dungeon. But, for all that I liked cheating with my equipment, I'd never thrown money at things before. Grover didn't take money; he took materials and ideas. Adele wanted normal payment, obviously, but she only used local materials. It felt more like I'd earned my way legitimately, working with Grover.

For Cluma, that distinction wouldn't be there. The super-materials made by infusing metal with mana had been my discovery. To her, getting equipment from Grover was no different to getting it from Synklisi, although she did at least pay back in hugs, whether Grover wanted them or not.

On top of that, there was a twinge of sentimentality, as if going to different craftsmen after all the effort Grover and Adele had put into our equipment would be cheating on them somehow.

"We could, but I would rather harvest the materials we use for our equipment with our own hands. What about you?"

"Hmm... You did help make adamantite and orichalcum, but I didn't." She flicked her tail around as she pondered, peering at her short-swords. "Mmm, it would be nice if these swords were made out of materials I'd gathered myself. They'd feel more mine, somehow. But they were still presents from you, so no way am I getting rid of them. Fine, let's do that for our armour."

Beyond sentimentality, there was the issue that if we used materials far beyond what we could obtain ourselves, we'd have a problem when we started delving deeper. We would run out of new materials before we ran out of dungeon. There would come a time when we couldn't rely on stronger equipment to get further, and even finding rank five craftsmen would serve only to push that point back further.

I'd never seen Krana wearing armour, either, yet he'd cleared the great dungeon. The benefit of dragon scales; he had armour built in.

Relying on my [Mana Sight] to track down lone anaconda emperors while avoiding other monsters, we managed to find and dispatch a couple without trouble. With them unable to see through Cluma's [Stealth], they were considerably easier than the mambas we'd spent days fighting.

Anaconda Emperor (Level: 20)
Health: 105/105
Stamina: 85/85
Mana: 20/20
Strength: 80
Dexterity: 60
Endurance: 80
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 20
Charisma: 5
Abilities: [Constriction 20] [Crushing Bite 20] [Vitality 20]
One of the highest level varieties of anaconda, the emperors have great strength and endurance. Their lack of venom does little to blunt their danger; once caught, it's rare for their prey to escape without external aid.