Solomon's Crucible 11. A Warm Welcome (Patreon)

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Of course, Solomon wasn't about to march into the dungeon armed with nothing but his pocket knife. He stopped a few feet in front of the dungeon entrance and started pulling his purchases out of his inventory.

Changing clothes was one of the many tasks that was going to be annoying to accomplish one handed. He didn't even want to think about how long it would have taken if Mort hadn't carried boots that fastened with some kind of velcro. 

Once he was done, though, he did feel much better. He'd been doing his best to focus on other things, but walking around with his clothes in tatters had been getting him down. His new gear even included some armored reinforcement. He hoped he wouldn't have to put that to the test, but the way his day was going he was glad for any protection he could get.

That wasn't the end of his preparations. Solomon pulled a lump of steel from his inventory. Well, the system called it magisteel, but according to its description it was pretty much identical to steel except for the fact that it could be modified by system-granted abilities. He held his hand out over the lump.

"Molding."

He could feel the energy move out of his hand and seep into the metal. There was an initial MP cost to use the ability, followed by a slow drain over time. Solomon brought his hand down and gave the steel an experimental poke. It deformed around his finger as though it were play-doh instead of solid metal.

He worked his way around the edge of the lump, pushing the metal down and out with the heel of his hand. It reminded him of working with  pizza dough. After he'd made a few passes around the body of the shield, it gradually spread out to form a circle of a somewhat even thickness. The end result wasn't something that would ever be put on display as a show piece, but it should provide a decent level of protection.

Solomon used the Affix ability to attach a pair of leather straps to the metal. With that, the shield was ready to be strapped to his arm.

He then took a smaller chunk of metal and formed it into a crude spearhead. Another use of Affix attached it to the end of the wooden spear handle he had purchased.

All told, his engineering projects cost him 20 MP, leaving him with about half his MP pool remaining. It was enough to apply one of his system-granted enhancements. Rather than try to guess what would be best, he decided to get a look at the dungeon before spending any more MP. He'd spent enough to put his regeneration to work, and he didn't want to be stuck waiting on his regeneration if stepping into the dungeon made it obvious that he needed a particular enhancement.

It had been a while since he'd played any games that involved conquering dungeons, but his recollection was that the entry way was usually designed to give players a taste of the dangers to come. Dropping players into an immediate deathtrap was only done by the cruelest of dungeon masters. He didn't think the system would have bothered setting up a dungeon in the first place, let alone providing a conveniently placed store, if it was going to hit him with that kind of whammy right out of the gate.

Shield strapped to his arm, spear held in his other hand, Solomon squared his shoulders and approached the dungeon entrance.

[Would you like to enter the dungeon?

WARNING: Once you enter, you can only leave by clearing a floor.]

He took a slow, deep breath, then nodded.

The door swung open of its own accord. The open doorway was covered with a shimmering curtain that prevented him from seeing anything on the other side. 

There was nothing for it but to step through. As he passed through the distorted space, Solomon experienced a moment of confusion and disorientation before the world around him snapped into sharp relief.

Solomon noticed a few things right away. He was standing in what for all the world seemed like a forest that was enjoying a sunny day. There was no sign that he was underground, nor any sign of an exit. He happened to be in a small clearing.

He was sharing the clearing with a large boar, which noticed him about the same time that he noticed it. While Solomon considered what to do, the boar didn't hesitate. Letting out a furious roar, it charged straight for him.

Solomon didn't have much time to prepare. He stabbed the butt end of his spear into the ground and braced himself behind his shield. The boar showed the same complete lack of a self preservation instinct as the furball had, charging straight into the spear and driving it home into its own shoulder. The boar, though, was bigger and stronger than any foe he had faced so far. It kept charging straight up the spear, slamming into his shield hard enough to send Solomon staggering back a couple of paces.

Solomon kept his feet, though, and in a straight pushing match against the wounded boar without the influence of momentum, he had the advantage. He kept pushing forward, not letting the boar get free to go at him with its tusks. Locked up as they were, he was close enough to see the flashes of light as the system expended HP trying to heal the boar around the spear buried deep in its body. The boar wasn't getting much use out of it, as its continued struggles kept opening up its freshly healed wounds. The shaft of the spear was fairly coated in the boar's blood.

Solomon was struck by the memory of the system wasting his own HP healing his hand over and over, accomplishing nothing but letting it be crushed by the same boulder time and time again. As sophisticated as the system undeniably was, it seemed there were still some traps left in place for the unwary. Or for those ruled by pure animalistic aggression.

He was content to maintain their deadlock and wait for the boar's HP to deplete. It seemed like a good plan right up until he heard the rumble of hooves behind him.

What he had taken to be an echo of his foe's roar had actually been the sound of incoming reinforcements.

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