Ch072-Damned If You Do (Patreon)

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Ch072-Damned If You Do

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The silence lingered. Sylver’s attempt at conversation had gone nowhere, Basil was very likely mute, Flax looked mortified any time Sylver so much as looked at him, and Rosa turned out to have a very limited vocabulary when it came to Eirish. On top of that, Sylver wasn’t entirely sure what to even talk about.

They sat down to eat for a few moments, to allow their legs to rest if nothing else. The path had been meandering, and largely pointless. It felt like they were walking in a circle, but the marks they left hadn’t shown up, and Sylver’s map confirmed that they were walking in a very large spiral.

After they had left the area where Sylver had met them, they entered an area that was more akin to a large room, with giant columns placed roughly every 40 meters apart. Walls of darkness stretched between, and as Sylver found out after multiple attempts, through the columns, effectively creating a straight path forward.

Sylver made note of the pillars in his map, and it looked like someone had connected a pair of dots to draw a road between them.

Zombies had stopped showing up entirely as they came in here, but now and then Rosa swore she heard something. Sylver had tried to send shades ahead of them, but found that there was a wall at the end of their path. That retreated once they ventured past a certain point, to give them more room to go forward in.

The same was true in the back, the walls would wait until the shades came back before advancing further behind them, but once they went up, they stayed up. The group of 4 was effectively moving in a very long box, that moved with them so they never saw the walls ahead or behind of them.

“If you are doing it for show, it isn’t needed,” Rosa said as Sylver continued to eat one of the dried sticks of meat Ron had prepared.

“It’s better than it looks. There are limitations to what I can get the shades to carry, and as far as foodstuff goes, this is in the top 10,” Sylver explained, as he had Tom appear again and show her the completely black bag on his back, stuffed full of tightly wrapped edible dried up meat and vegetable.

“No, I meant… You don’t have to eat if you’re doing it for us,” Rosa tried to explain.

Sylver cocked his head at the woman but couldn’t figure out what she was talking about.

“You are dead. If you’re eating just for show, you don’t have to. It is none of our concern what you are,” Rosa continued. The way she spoke Sylver couldn’t guess if she sounded uncertain because she wasn’t sure about the words she was using, or if she wasn’t sure if he was dead.

“You talk like them,” Flax added. For once Rosa didn’t glare at him for speaking.

“Like who?” Sylver asked.

“We came here from the east, and stopped at Urth on the way. You talk the same way as the people there. Unnaturally long sentences, and you’re guessing where you need to breathe, and you’re sometimes wrong,” Rosa explained.

“Urth?”

“The necropolis,” Rosa answered.

“Huh… I didn’t think it was real. What’s it like?” Sylver asked. He continued to chew on his stick of meat as Rosa spoke.

“Fortified. The man in charge is extremely protective of the people inside. We ventured too close by accident, and were met by a large gathering of skeletons. They didn’t attack us, and we didn’t attack them, and then this talking dog appeared and told us we were welcome inside, provided we didn’t harm any of the residents.”

“Was the dog about the size of a horse and with bright red eyes?”

“Yes! It said its name was Charlie. Inside the city, there was mostly… I forgot the word, but cold hard water.”

“Ice?”

“Yes! Ice, everywhere. But it was dark, darker than any I’ve ever seen. And it was cold, but not as cold as it should be. The city was split into two, it was explained to us that it was much bigger down below, but we were not allowed down there. It was dark, even during the day, but the black ice glowed at the edges, making it easy to see and walk around. It’s where we got our protection from,” Rosa explained, as she pulled back her left sleeve and showed Sylver the long piece of bright red fabric wrapped around her forearm.

[Wrap Of Immunity – 945G – Uncommon Quality]
[-75% Health Regeneration]
[-50% Stamina Regeneration]
[Immunity To Darkness]
[Time Remaining: ???:??]

“Do you have more?” Sylver asked. Rosa nodded. “Could I see one?”

Rosa reached into her rucksack and took out a tightly folded-up dark grey square. She handed it to Sylver and Sylver gently opened it.

The inside was covered in gold circuitry, with a few small spikes sticking out in several areas, where Sylver assumed the device clamped onto the skin and into the arm. The spikes were hollow, and having figured that out, Sylver could see how the thing functioned.

It was… strange. Sylver could see the logic of it, he even understood some of the sigils used for the framework, but it was too far away from anything he was familiar with. But despite that, it worked. Not only that, but Sylver couldn’t find a fault in the thing. He wouldn’t have built something like this, there were easier ways of protecting people from dark miasma, but he’d never seen something so compact that wasn’t a ring with a pocket dimension.

“You haven’t denied it,” Rosa said.

“Hmm?”

“That you’re dead. Or undead I mean. If it isn’t too personal, how did you die?” Rosa asked.

Sylver stayed silent as he folded the grey fabric back as he had been given it and thought about it. Other than Ron, Lola, and Ciege no one else knew he was undead. The cats might have known, but Sylver didn’t get the feeling they put any weight on that information, or shared it with anyone. Plus [Living Undead] seemed to handle anything system-related when it came to people analyzing him.

“You are right in that I am undead. But… It isn’t the kind of thing I am comfortable discussing until we’ve known each other for a very long time,” Sylver said, as Rosa nodded slightly. “Why did you ask?”

“No reason. You feel like you’re alive, but you aren’t and it was worrying me. Do you need to eat?” Rosa asked, as Sylver felt Flax and Basil look up from their food to look at him.

“If I want to stay as I am, I do. My body doesn’t need to have skin and flesh and muscles, but they make things a lot easier for me. In terms of effort, eating, breathing, and sometimes washing requires significantly less effort than bringing dead flesh back to life. It’s like doing what you need to, to take care of your hair, as opposed to shaving it off. Not to say my body is entirely aesthetic, but it makes life easier in the long run if I have it. Not sure how that works with the hair metaphor, but you understand what I’m trying to say?” Sylver asked.

Rosa thought about it for a few moments before she nodded.

The rest of the meal was eaten in relative silence.

*

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*

It opened up without any warning.

One second they are walking down a straight path, ever so slightly curved to the right, and the next there’s a rusty sword surrounded by a teleportation framework. The wall on the right had opened up to reveal a sword stuck in the ground, with 3 walls surrounding it. The group’s previously rectangular box now had an extra square of area that it encompassed.

“A challenge... Either a sword is the prize, or it’s just the way the crypt is set up to activate… But knowing challenge crypts there’ll be restrictions…” Sylver said, partially to himself as he approached the weapon but stayed out of the teleportation framework.

He looked back at the group to see them standing where they had stopped.

“It’s a shortcut,” Sylver summarize, as he gestured towards the rusty sword.

“How do you know this?” Rosa asked. She walked closer to Sylver and the sword but Flax and Basil remained where they were.

“Stories. Sometimes it’s a chalice on a pedestal, sometimes a crown to be put on, sometimes a hammer, sometimes a dagger, but the gist of it is, you accept the challenge, and have to complete it to skip a portion of the crypt. One sword mostly likely means only 1 person can challenge it. I pull the sword out, and everyone in the teleportation framework is teleported along with me. I complete the challenge, and we move on to the next area. Probably…” Sylver offered.

“How certain are you of this ‘probably?’” Rosa asked.

“Fairly certain. But it could also be a trap, we get teleported into a room where the walls slowly close in and crush us. But that’s not the feeling I’m getting here, I think this will be as fair as something like this can be. So how are we handling this?” Sylver asked.

He turned around to face the others and dusted his hands off.

“…”

“Our options are either; one of us pulls the sword out and accepts the challenge, and potentially we gain some sort of prize if the challenge is completed, or we are killed because this is a trap. Or we keep going and wait and see if another one of these shows up. I vote to accept it and see what happens,” Sylver offered.

The elves exchanged looks and used their eyes to ask each other if this was a crazy human, or a crazy undead.

“We think we should leave it alone,” Rosa answered, and got nods of confirmation from Basil and Flax.

Sylver stepped away from the teleportation circle, and walked out of the ‘room’ until he was back in the original rectangle they were in before.

“Would you mind if I checked it first? Have one of my shades try to accept it to see what happens?” Sylver asked, as one of the swordsmen shades appeared by his side. He had it take off most of its gear so it wouldn’t be lost if it never returned.

“What happens if it doesn’t come back? Or if the teleportation circle takes you along with it?” Rosa asked.

“They’re not connected to me like that. They’re more like dogs that follow my orders, than summons that are part of me. I’m not going to do it unless we can all agree, but I think we should. I don’t think the owner of this crypt was the type to try to starve or bore people into stepping into a trap, but I can’t say that for certain. There’s a risk to this, but it’s minimized, and the reward could be nearly anything,” Sylver explained.

“Do you think you could analyze it with your magic?” Rosa asked, as she turned to look at Basil.

“Everything in this crypt is heavily protected from anything I have, I do not think this would be any different. And I would need to touch it to be certain, which could very likely trigger it. But if he’s willing to take the risk, I don’t see the issue with it,” Basil said. Sylver was slightly surprised by how normal Basil sounded.

Going by the fact that the man hadn’t uttered a single word up until this moment, Sylver was half certain he either couldn’t speak, or was embarrassed by his voice. Apparently, he simply didn’t have much to say up until now.

“We’re only here for the flower, this would not be to our benefit,” Rosa said quietly. She stared at the sword and was swaying on her feet a bit. “Having said that, it wouldn’t be fair to you if we were to simply find the flower and leave… If you believe it to be safe, you should send your shade to check,” Rosa offered.

Sylver nodded and had the shade swordsman walk over to the rusted sword.

Nothing happened. The shade attempted to pull the sword, but couldn’t get it to so much as budge.

“I think it’s the same thing where the crypt can recognize parties. All four of us need to be on the teleportation framework, with one person accepting the challenge. Are any of you any good at close-quarter combat?” Sylver asked, despite already knowing the answer.

“Just speaking in hypotheticals, but if someone who wasn’t aware of the flower’s value had managed to find it, using the rewards we get from these challenges to trade for it wouldn’t be out of the question,” Sylver offered.

All three of their faces went blank slightly at this, but Rosa slowly nodded. Sylver could almost see Rosa imagining a scenario where the flower is taken hostage, in the same way, she was, and whatever they got from this challenge would be the difference between complete and utter failure, and walking away with the flower in hand.

The four of them made their way to the sword and teleportation framework.

As long as the challenge didn’t stop Sylver from using magic, there wasn’t anything to be fearful of. Although if it could restrict Sylver’s shades, it would be difficult.

And if it restricted his shades and his magic, his 1 point in strength would be a massive issue. Not impossible, but very difficult, nonetheless.

Sylver took a deep breath before he grabbed the handle and was blinded by the bright light.

*

*

*

Opening his eyes Sylver found himself standing in the middle of a sand floored arena. In one hand he had a circular medium-sized wood and steel shield, and in the other a very simple one-handed sword. Sylver tried to turn, but found the armor he was wearing was restricting him. He looked down to see he was covered from head to toe in a dark plate mail, the kind Sabo had, but small enough to fit Sylver.

Sylver managed to turn and saw Rosa, Flax, and Basil standing behind him, separated by an invisible barrier that looked exactly like the shadow walls they had seen before, but clear. Sylver felt a relief when he felt Spring tap on the inside of his wrist. The shades were fine.

Sylver heard a clanking noise opposite him and saw that his opponent was dressed and armed identically to him. Although the armor was a little larger, to accommodate for the person’s height.

“Kid, I’m sorry about this, but you knew the risks when you came here,” The woman said. Sylver was upset to hear that she genuinely sounded sorry about it. A screaming lunatic would have been easier to deal with, not that it would have changed the end result in any way.

“Likewise. If you have anything you’d like for me to pass along to your teammates or the like, I have a good memory,” Sylver offered. He already had a plan in mind, and awkwardly tried to spin the sword in his hand and nearly dropped it.

“What happens if we don’t fight?” Sylver asked, as the woman slowly walked towards him. The arena was large, and the armor limited their movements it would take her a while. She was holding the sword in her hand expertly, but there was a strangeness in her movements, the shield on her arm wasn’t something she was used to.

“I don’t know, but I’m not willing to find out. If you throw down your sword, I promise to make it as painless as possible. Even with my skills disabled, you don’t have a chance at winning,” the woman offered. Sylver looked back at Rosa and the others, and let his sword fall to the ground.

“And the shield! I’m not falling for this a second time!” The woman warned. Sylver had to work at the latch for a few moments, before he managed to get the shield to fall off too.

Sylver got down to his knees and angled his head to the floor. Sylver reached into the floor and pulled out a small notebook. He ripped a page out and folded it.

He held it out for the woman to take, while keeping his head facing the floor.

“Shera in Arda, she’ll know what to do with it,” Sylver half said half mumbled.

The woman gave him a curt nod as she reached for the paper.

Sylver grabbed her by the wrist, and pulled her towards himself. The woman swung her sword backward to hit Sylver, but screamed as her sword holding hand was cut off. She didn’t manage to get another word out, as Spring stabbed her in the back of the neck with a dagger, and pierced upwards through the armor plates, and hit her right through the brain stem.

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy 10 levels above you, additional experience will be awarded!]
[Due to defeating an enemy in a fair duel, additional experience has been awarded!]

Sylver got up from his half-crouch and looked at the disappearing body of the woman he had killed. He barely got Spring and the others back into his shadow when he was once again blinded by a bright white light.

*

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*

Sylver’s eyes stung slightly, but he was more relieved to feel Rosa’s soul nearby. In his hand, Sylver felt a new weight, and nearly dropped the sword.

[Coward’s Bane - ??? – Epic Quality]
[Automatically blocks any attempt to backstab the wielder]
[Uses Left: 100/100]

Sylver lifted the sword to inspect. It was almost small enough to be called a dagger, and had an empty hole down the middle of it. More than that, it was blunt, but oddly heavy for its size. Sylver’s curiosity got the better of him, as Spring used the same dagger he had a moment ago to kill that woman, to stab Sylver in the back.

Sylver’s fingers went numb as the blade in his hand ripped itself free from his grasp, and caught Spring’s dagger in the empty hole in the middle of it. It lurched back into Sylver’s hand, with Spring’s dagger in tow.

[Coward’s Bane - ??? – Epic Quality]
[Automatically blocks any attempt to backstab the wielder]
[Uses Left: 99/100]

[Appraisal (V) Proficiency increased to 5%!]

Sylver brought the sword up to his face and tried to see the framework drawn on the blade. It was hidden deep inside the metal but it only took one mana pulse for him to realize this wasn’t something he would be able to crack open to inspect. Maybe Lola could manage it, but Sylver would just break it if he attempted it.

“We’ve moved,” Rosa said as a matter of fact. Despite the floor and ceiling being identical, Sylver understood what she meant. If the slight bend of their path was anything to go by, they were about 2 layers closer to the middle, and hopefully end, of the crypt.

One square forward, and opposite them, there was a spear sticking out of the ground.

“It disabled her skills, or at least she said they were disabled. The message read ‘a fair duel’ and the only way a duel could be fair between a mage and a warrior, both wielding identical sword and shield, would be if the warrior lost their skills or perk…” Sylver thought out loud.

It gave any mage or rogue a massive advantage over a pure warrior, or even a hybrid warrior, but the sheer difference in strength and dexterity would even things out. It was hard to tell how much of this was true, given that he didn’t give the woman a moment to use any of her skills. And he hadn’t checked to see if he could cast magic, he only knew that he could use body-enhancing magic. For all he knew, the crypt hadn’t restricted anything, and the woman was simply lying.

It was hard to tell if the system had done anything to Sylver, since the drop of magic he used to enhance his strength was negligible. The shades were also completely unaffected, as far as Sylver could tell at least. It wouldn’t make sense if it restricted the warrior, but not the mage, but then again, Sylver wasn’t exactly a typical mage. It might have simply disarmed them, and given them equal equipment, and considered that fair. Sylver would be hard-pressed to believe a warrior didn’t have her own sword.

Sylver looked at Flax and could see the man wanted to say something.

“If you’re considering telling me I fought ‘without honor’ I would say I did just the opposite. I respected the woman enough to not give her a chance to fight, if anything I feel like trying to win against her in a fair fight would have been dishonorable. I’m not thrilled about it, but as she said, we both knew the risks when we came here,” Sylver said carefully.

Flax nodded with a faint trace of a sneer on his face, before he turned around and pretended to look ahead and onto the path ahead.

Sylver placed his new dagger into his robe and moved it to sit directly over his spine. He’d need to check how it worked a few more times before putting any real faith into it, but it was a good of a place as any for the moment.

Sylver looked around the floor as he approached the spear, and made a mental note that there were specks of blood on it. He saw from Rosa’s eyes that she saw it too, but there wasn’t any point in discussing it.

Flax might not have been thrilled about Sylver cheating like he had, but Rosa didn’t seem to have an issue with it, or at least didn’t show it. Basil was dead silent and unreadable as usual.

Sylver grabbed the spear and everything went white again.

*

*

*

Sylver did his best to keep his eyes open, to get used to the bright light, and saw that a man was already running at him. In Sylver’s hand was a spear, with minimal shadow-based armor wrapped around his forearms and shins, as well as a thin leather-like helmet on his head. His torso and the rest of his body was entirely unarmored, only Sylver’s robe and cloak defending it.

The man rushing towards Sylver had tears streaming down his face, but his bloodshot eyes were focused enough to see where he was going. He was dressed the same as Sylver, with the same simple stick and blade spear in his hand, pointed at Sylver’s torso as he ran.

Sylver did a mental calculation, and placed his spear in his left hand, and started to spin it around clockwise around his torso. He held his breath as the man was now two steps away, and spun his spear so quickly that he felt it bend from the air resistance. Sylver’s spear tip caught the man’s spear tip, and flicked it away from the middle, to Sylver’s left and the man’s right.

Sylver let go of his spear and didn’t even watch as it was flung away from him. The man’s eyes were focused on Sylver’s airborne weapon, as Sylver tensed and straightened his fingers and hit the man square in the neck. Sylver made his hand into a fist as he pushed it down from the man’s neck, and brought it back up, and hit him with a loose sideways uppercut, shattering several teeth as the man’s open mouth slammed shut.

The man’s grip on his weapon had released at some point, and his weapon flew away to the side. He lay on the ground, clutching and clawing at the sand, uncertain what to address first, his crushed shut windpipe, or his shattered teeth.

Sylver experimentally held his hand open, but couldn’t get the mana to come out. The effect was similar to lead touching him, but it wasn’t as invasive. Spring summoned more shades out of Sylver’s shadow, and none of them had any issue walking around. So magic was limited, but not internal magic, or Sylver’s shades. So what was limited? Just magic external magic? Did the crypt consider that a fair fight, if a mage couldn’t use magic, and a warrior couldn’t use their skills?

Sylver turned the man over onto his back, and searched through his pockets as the man hoarsely gasped, trying desperately to suck in a breath of air. The blood from his mouth had stained the sand red, and made it stick to his face and beard. Sylver did his best to tune out the man’s pitiful cries for help and mercy, and continued to search him.

What mercy? The only way out of this arena was for one of them to die, the man was essentially begging for Sylver to kill himself so he could live. He knew the risks when he touched the spear, it was his problem If he couldn’t accept them.

Sylver found what he was looking for inside of the man’s armor, hidden near his stomach. Sylver quickly flipped through the small notebook and was happy to see a nearly identical map in the later pages. The man was from ahead, and going by the markings on his map this was his 2nd challenge. But they were spaced out, Sylver’s had been right next to each other, but this man, or his party, spent several hours walking before another challenge showed up.

Sylver was about to kill the man to finish this, but got a better idea instead. He glanced behind himself to see Flax and Basil standing with their backs toward him, with only Rosa staring unflinchingly. Sylver made a spinning motion with his finger towards her, trying to tell her to turn around so she didn’t have to see this, but the elf woman refused with several shakes of her head.

Sylver ripped the silver adventurer’s tag off from the man’s neck and pocketed it without even looking at the name. He made a mental note to make a bag for adventurers tags when he had the chance. The man continued crying and trying to beg, but Sylver was well past that, the sounds didn’t even register as speech in his mind at this point.

The shades held the man’s arms out of the way, and Spring sat down near his head and held it in place. Sylver cut the leather straps that kept the man’s armor in place, and exposed the man’s chest. Sylver could feel the man’s chest nearly bursting with the effort of trying to pump oxygen around his system without any ability to breath, mixed with the unimaginable fear of what he could only guess was about to happen. But this didn’t need to be precise or pretty, blood magic was crude by nature.

Not even 5 strokes of the scalpel later, Sylver had a simple framework over the man’s chest. His head was a lot easier, the man was barely moving by that point in time. Finally, Sylver made a small cut on his wrist, and let his blood drip onto the man’s open and heavily bleeding wounds. Sylver carved a similar, but slightly move complex sigil onto the back of his forearm and checked to see if the connection had worked.

Spring waited for Sylver’s nod and in a single fluid motion, turned the man’s head sideways and snapped his neck.

[??? (???) Defeated!]
[Due to defeating an enemy in a fair duel, additional experience has been awarded!]

The body started to disappear, as Sylver was blinded by a white light.

*

*

*

Blood dripped down from Sylver’s elbow as he brought his hand to his face and held his palm over his eyes. It flashed yellow for a moment, and continued to glow as Sylver focused on the spell.

Sylver struggled to see anything, there was too much blood in the man’s eyes, but he could tell by the rough shapes that 4 people were staring down at the body. Sylver couldn’t hear a single word the people on the other side said, but could only guess that they were swearing revenge, or something of that nature. They all noticed the man moving, and the glowing sigils on his chest and forehead.

Before Sylver could say anything, the man’s head was smashed by a large hammer, and Sylver’s connection was severed.

Sylver removed his blood-covered hand and wiped it on his robe, and did the same for his face. He tightened the darkness around the wound on his arm to stop the bleeding.

Flax and Basil were looking out into the hallway, so as not to look at him. But what upset Sylver more was the disgust in Rosa’s eyes. They stared at each other for a moment, before Sylver’s eyes made their way down to his other hand and the short spear he was holding.

The weapon was roughly 1-meter dark wooden handle, and a relatively wide 30 centimeters of blade. Sylver spun it in his hand once, and didn’t like the balance on it.

[Spear Of Shriveling- ??? – Rare Quality]
[Any flesh damaged by the spear will gradually contract and harden.]
[Uses: 333/333]

[Appraisal (V) Proficiency increased to 7%!]

Sylver spun the short spear in his hand a few more times, but still didn’t like it, the point of balance was too close to the blade.

“If I were to die during the challenge, the rest of you would be teleported back where we accepted the challenge, I think. Or possibly, it teleports the losers backward, so you would lose a few hours of progress, but that’s about it,” Sylver explained.

He looked up at Rosa, but couldn’t get a read on her. Without directly touching her, all he knew was that she wasn’t thinking of attacking him, or at least there wasn’t any killing intent directed towards him.

“Is… Is that why you tortured that man?” Rosa asked, her expression breaking down the slightest amount, more towards upset, than disgusted.

“I don’t cause harm for the fun of it. I needed to see what happens to the bodies of the people who lose, and this was the only method available to me. I had hoped to track it to figure out how much ahead the person was, but I couldn’t feel the location of the body, there’s too much interference. His map isn’t detailed enough for me to figure out where exactly they were when they accepted the challenge. I also wanted to make sure the people who were teleported along with the challenger didn’t get killed if he failed,” Sylver explained.

Rosa took a shuddering breath before she composed herself.

I see, she was worried I did it for fun.

“Why?” She asked.

“Because I was worried about what would happen to you should I lose, and I needed to know,” Sylver answered.

Rosa mumbled something to herself in her language, and smiled ever so slightly before she spoke in Eirish.

“I would like to take the next challenge,” Rosa said.

Sylver shrugged his shoulders, as they walked towards the rust-covered and nearly destroyed bow.

*

*

*

The fight was over, even before Sylver’s eyes had time to adjust to the sudden flash of light. Trying to hold them closed didn’t work, since the light passed through his body, and thereby eyelids.

Rosa stood completely motionless, with three arrows embedded in her bow, and a thin man standing on the other side of the room. His face was invisible behind the forest of arrows embedded into it. The man slumped down to the floor, and blood sprayed out onto the sand below, as the arrows pierced further into his face.

Sylver could guess what had happened, and was curious if the crypt decided not to restrict any of their perks or skills since they were both archers. Rosa had caught the 3 arrows that had been fired at her, by the shaft of her bow, and at the same time unloaded enough arrows into the man that his death was as close to instant as an arrow could provide.

Rosa made the faintest of bows towards the corpse, as a bright white light blinded Sylver again. Sylver had considered asking her to stun the opponent so she had enough time to take their maps or notes, but now that Sylver saw how much, respect for lack of a better word, Rosa had for the deceased, he didn’t think there was any point in asking.

*

*

*

[Bottomless Quiver - ??? – Epic Quality]
[The arrows inside this quiver will never run out.]

[Appraisal (V) Proficiency increased to 8%!]

If Rosa felt any joy at gaining an item that apparently would let her never worry about wasting any arrows ever again, she didn’t show it. She turned the quiver upsidedown and a torrent of arrows fell out of it, fading into nothingness before they even bounced off the floor.

Flax on the other hand had something eerily close to a grin, as if he was trying to say “that’s how you do it. No cheating, pure skill”. Sylver chalked it up to youthful ignorance, that Flax didn’t quite understand how the world worked, and how easy it was to lose a fight and everything you’ve worked hard for.

In Sylver’s case, it only took him 3 very bad losses until he stopped trying to ‘fight fair’. If Flax was smart, it would only take him 1 to realize this, and if he was an overly optimistic moron, it would take him 3.

Basil was as always, silent and neutral, while Rosa had a grim determination painted on her slightly pale face. She told Sylver that all of her skills were restricted, but the perks and traits remained untouched. At least as far as she could tell.

Sylver glanced towards the next box, and suppressed a smile as he saw the rusted to shit, twin axes. And going by the curve of the walls around them, Sylver guessed there were only 4 or 5 more challenges until they were near the center. But that was a guess, considering no one was sure how many people were down here right now. Everyone was slowly walking in the spiral towards the middle, and they were skipping ahead of everyone.

Only a bit more until they were done, and could go their separate ways, and Sylver could go and confront the woman in white. Hopefully armed with whatever Igri’s student is using to power this dungeon, and even more hopefully, with a [Hero]s weapon that Sylver could use.

With how thick the dark miasma was here, Sylver couldn’t imagine anything with a holy, or even a positive attribute surviving down here. Barring that, even getting his hands on the notes that let the crypt creator create Sabo and the harpies, would be a massive help.