Chapter 38: Rematch Prep (Patreon)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KDS5VUbOgFahS5mxuLdQEAY1uRafGjXgsHHjgmTxpuM/edit?usp=sharing

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“Wait, what?” Elise said, stopping in the middle of the street, forcing Cayden to stop next to her to keep up the conversation. “You can’t be serious.”

Cayden tried to subtly edge her to the side, out of the way of other pedestrians, but she refused to move. “I am. I think it’s necessary if I want to push my skills to the limit and gain the skills I want. I don’t think I can get to the place I want to be if I delve like a ‘normal’ adventurer.”

“Is this about the team from today?” Elise asked, her face scrunched up into a frown. “I’m sure we can find a better team. One closer to our level that will work with us. I just don’t understand why you would want to do something so…” she trailed off, her voice fading to a strangled silence.

Cayden sighed. “I’m not suicidal if that’s what you’re worried about. I fully intend to come back out of the dungeon. But the way the team today delved, the way the siblings expected us to delve…they’re in the dungeon to make some coin while playing it safe. And that isn’t what I need.”

He sighed again, and gently pulled on Elise’s arm, who allowed herself to be led to the side of the street.

“I need to push myself, and I don’t want to drag other people along if they aren’t comfortable with that,” Cayden continued. “And while I’m sure it’ll be more dangerous than today’s delve, I truly don’t believe I’ll be in serious danger. And I promise to back out the moment I start to feel in over my head. I have much higher stats than the last time we delved the ratling dungeon, plus a tier-three resistance spell, remember? I’ll be fine.” Cayden didn’t mention that [Resistance] was lower level than [Physical Resistance] had been in the previous delve of the ratling dungeon, which was just as effective as the higher-tier skill against the damage types from ratlings. But despite that, he truly did believe he’d be fine.

The issues with their previous delve were manifold, but they all stemmed from one thing: lack of preparation. They hadn’t known what they were getting into, and found themselves pushed almost beyond their limits.

This time, though, Cayden was much better prepared. He had higher stats, more skills, and – perhaps most importantly – he wouldn’t have to worry about protecting Elise. Without having to protect a noncombatant, he wasn’t nearly as worried about getting ambushed or surrounded. And with his increased vitality, boosted further by [Hardiness], he believed he’d be able to fight his way free regardless of the number of ratlings that might swarm him.

“But you can push yourself with a team!” Elise exclaimed. “We just need to find the right group–”

But Cayden cut her off with a slash of his hand. “My mind’s made up,” he said, choosing not to argue with Elise about it on the side of the street. Elise was smart – smarter than him – and knew the same facts. She might not like it, but she should know that with Cayden’s skills he was capable of keeping himself safe. Adding anyone else of the same level as Cayden or the siblings would more than likely just add to the danger. And to get some of the skills he wanted, skills that she had suggested, risks were required. “Although, if it’s not too much to ask…can I get some of your medium healing potions?”

“Of course,” Elise replied with a glare. “And don’t be stingy if you have to use them. Getting a skill isn’t worth it if you die a few seconds later.”

Cayden chuckled. “Yeah, I’ll be careful. Especially on this first one – I can push myself further on subsequent delves.”

Elise nodded in approval, confidence returning to her stance. “Come by tomorrow morning, I’ll have your potions ready.” And with that, she strode away down the street to her house, not looking back or bidding Cayden any more of a goodbye.

The next morning, Cayden rose before the sun. Elise started her work at the library at second bell, and he didn’t want to make her late because she was too busy supplying him with potions. So just as the first bell rang out over the city, he lightly knocked on the back door to Elise’s house.

He hadn’t set up an exact meeting time with Elise, so he was prepared to have to wait for a bit, or perhaps knock louder, but he wanted to avoid drawing Mr. Heymore’s attention if he could. He leaned forward to knock again–

The door swung open, and Elise stepped out fully dressed, closing the door just as quickly behind her.

“Umm,” Cayden said, not quite ready for her sudden appearance.

“Let’s go before it get’s too late,” Elise said. “It’s not a short walk to the dungeon.” And then she turned and strode down the street.

It took a moment for Cayden’s tired mind to register what he was seeing. Elise walked away down the street with her large backpack slung over one shoulder, her water-pouch slung over the other. Cayden jogged to catch up, grabbing his friend by the shoulder.

“Hey, wait,” he said. “I was serious yesterday. I’m going to delve this alone. You can’t come with me.”

Elise looked back at him derisively, and Cayden noted the deep circles under her eyes. “Of course you’re delving alone. I’m not so stupid as to join you on such an idiotic endeavor.” She took a deep breath. “But I’m still coming with. What happens if you drag your injured butt out of the dungeon, completely out of healing potions, only to get eaten by a wandering deer from the forest? I’ll wait for you outside the dungeon in case you need me.”

Cayden stared at her, stunned, and after a few seconds of silence, Elise turned and continued her walk away. Cayden hurried to catch up.

“What about the library? Don’t you have work today?” he asked as he walked by Elise’s side, struggling to match her long stride. He was in much better physical shape than his friend, but he was still six inches shorter, and she seemed…energized. Her angry pace was equivalent to a half-jog for Cayden.

“Pshaw,” Elise responded, flipping her hand back over her shoulder toward the center of town behind them. “What are they going to do? Fire me? As long as we’re not extremely unlucky, I’ll make plenty from my enchantments from our safe and intelligent delves with a responsible team that has their head screwed on straight.” She glared at Cayden, not slowing her pace in the slightest. “I was probably going to quit, soon, anyway. No reason to keep working there if I can make ten times more than I made in a week off of a single lucky delve.”

Cayden chuckled to himself but didn’t respond, focusing instead on keeping up with his friend and teammate.

Elise’s foul mood continued through the morning, but it wasn’t enough to sustain her pace all the way to the dungeon. After fifteen minutes of angrily stalking through the Lost Forest, she slowed to a normal walk, huffing for breath, and then a few minutes later plopped on the ground and drank deeply of her water pouch.

She glared at Cayden as if daring him to remark on the early break, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.

“I’ve got a few things for you,” she said after they got moving again, this time at a more reasonable pace.

“More than the health potions?” Cayden asked, surprised. He hadn’t exactly given her much time to prepare, since he’d assumed he’d only need a few health potions that she’d have on hand. Although…that would explain the dark circles.

Elise gave Cayden another side-eyed glare, but it lacked some of the fervor from earlier. “Yeah. You’re going in there alone. You need more than just a few health potions, ‘just in case.’” She dug through her bag as they walked, pulling out three different vials. “I didn’t get as much prepared as I’d hoped, but these will hopefully be useful.” She held up the first vial. “This is a stone-skin potion. It’ll give you a weakened version of the effects of the skill [Stone Skin], kicking in about ten minutes after you drink the potion. Not as good as the actual skill, and I’m not completely sure how long it will last – somewhere between ten and twenty minutes – but it should be effective against ratling claws, especially when coupled with [Hardiness] and [Resistance].”

Cayden nodded, accepting the vial and taking a few seconds to tuck it safely beneath his armor. He’d learned his lesson from the first failed attempt at the ratling dungeon: if something was grabbable by the ratlings, they’d make an effort to steal it. It would take a few more seconds to grab the vial than if he’d had it on his belt or in a pocket, and he’d have to be careful reaching for it with his claws unsheathed, but that was better than the alternative. Besides, with the effects not activating until ten minutes after he drank it, it wasn’t a potion he expected to be reaching for in an emergency.

The effects of the potion were easy enough to understand. He’d previously discussed [Stone Skin] with Elise as a skill he might want to combine into a tier-two defensive skill, but he hadn’t known there was a potion that could replicate its effects. “How will that work towards getting offered the skill [Stone Skin]?” he asked.

“Doesn’t help,” Elise replied. “It has the same name and mimics the effects, but it isn’t actually giving you a temporary version of the skill. [Stone Skin] affects your actual skin, while the potion creates an extremely thin membrane on the surface of your skin that resists cutting and piercing attacks – basically just an invisible layer of armor. Underneath the membrane, your skin is just like normal.” She held up the second potion. “This is a vitality-boosting potion. It will boost your vitality stat by something like ten to twenty percent for the next thirty minutes, activating as soon as you drink it. I’d recommend taking it at the start of your delve, or the moment you hear ratlings approaching.”

Cayden accepted the second vial with a nod, tucking it beneath his armor next to the first. “Is the bonus applied after the thirty percent from [Hardiness]? Or just to my base vitality?”

“Just to your base vitality. Attribute boosting effects always apply their bonuses to the base stat, with a few weird exceptions,” Elise said, and Cayden nodded. Elise gingerly held up the third vial, this one colored a sickly green. “This one…” she paused. “Be careful with this one. It’s more of a ‘last resort’ option than anything else.”

Cayden leaned towards Elise, examining the potion. Now that he looked closer, he noticed that the vial was only half-full with liquid, but swirling above the liquid in the top half of the vial was a green gas the same color as the potion. The top had a thick wax seal around the stopper of the vial. “What is it?”

“Two-minute poison,” Elise responded. Cayden stared at her, waiting for further explanation, and Elise sighed. “It’s very volatile. Break the vial and it will immediately release a large cloud of poisonous gas that’ll diffuse through the air. In the tunnels of the dungeon, without open air to spread out, it should cover a lot of space. It’s called ‘two-minute poison’ because it’ll usually disperse enough within two minutes to no longer be harmful, so if you can hold your breath for long enough you’ll be fine. Although in the tunnels, it might last longer.” She shrugged and passed Cayden the vial, who carefully tucked it away in a different part of his armor – one that was less likely to cause the vial to shatter from an unlucky blow. “It isn’t the most deadly of poisons, which is part of why I chose it,” Elise continued. “I’m not sure how well it’ll affect the ratlings. They have smaller bodies which would normally make it much more effective, but they’re also dungeon monsters, which tosses everything up into the air. But they didn’t like my acid from the last delve, so hopefully they’ll be vulnerable to this too. You, though, are bigger than the ratlings, have [Hardiness], [Resistance], and a higher vitality. Even if you can’t hold your breath, it shouldn’t be fatal for you. Not immediately.” She reached back into her backpack and pulled out another handful of vials. “It’ll definitely be painful, though, so I’d recommend taking a healing potion as soon as you can if you breathe any of it in.”

Cayden accepted the medium healing potions, tucking them into various points around his body. From all the training he’d done with Elise throughout his life, he knew how much she typically undersold the pain or difficulty of a task. The two-minute poison would definitely be an option of last resort.

“How do the vitality and stone-skin potions affect my healing backlash?”

“They won’t help,” Elise replied. “But they aren’t as bad as if you were to drink another healing potion. Maybe about equal to half a healing potion each?”

Cayden nodded as he patted down his armor as he walked, making sure he was able to still stretch and turn his body without shattering any of the vials. A few of them dug into his body uncomfortably as he moved, and he made small adjustments where he could.

“Finally,” Elise said after digging through her pack one last time. “We have this.” From her pack, she pulled out a runecarved glowstone cradled within a harness. “I won’t be there to hold the torch for you, and you’ll need both hands free if a swarm comes after you. Hopefully, this’ll keep them from being able to steal your light.”

Cayden accepted and then slipped into the obviously homemade harness. The glowstone was about the size of a baseball and was covered with straps that held it loosely against his chest. They paused in their walk and Elise helped Cayden tighten a few of the straps, securing the glowstone in place.

The glowstone wasn’t nearly as bright in the daytime, but it still felt strange having what was essentially a flashlight strapped to his chest. But it was much better than his previous plan of tossing his torch to the side when he had to fight and hoping the ratlings didn’t try to steal it.

Frankly, he felt ridiculous. He wore his leather armor with vials tucked into every nook and cranny, glowstone strapped to his chest with a thick, overly-secured harness. He looked like a cross between a poor man’s renaissance cosplay and a steampunk bondage victim.

He’d never felt more prepared.

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