Chapter 40: Consistency (Patreon)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1etjonqXD1IvPWjwKw-j4GTQzGVuB_V29zQRoihF9Z-Q/edit?usp=sharing

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Cayden didn’t immediately take either of the skills. He doubted he’d ever take [Intimidation], but [Berserk] certainly sounded interesting, and the ratling dungeon seemed like it was a relatively safe place to test the skill: plenty of enemies to target that likely wouldn’t be able to kill him through the boosts the skill offered.

But, like always, he decided he should consult with Elise before accepting the skill. This especially applied with a skill that came with such huge downsides. How long would the skill last? It wasn’t channeled, but would he have the ability to ‘turn it off’ after he finished off all his enemies? He especially didn’t want to try activating the skill only to wander back out of the dungeon and attack Elise with his ‘vastly lowered cognitive control’.

No, for now, he’d complete the dungeon with what skills he already had.

He’d turned off [The Moment] an instant after the ratling prince’s claws had made contact with his neck, not willing to completely empty his mana pool so early, which meant his vitality and perception of time were back to their normal levels as he waded forward towards the horde.

But it didn’t matter. After his test with the ratling prince, Cayden was confident he could withstand the normal ratlings attacks without resorting to [The Moment] or the stone-skin potion. And without having to worry about his own defense, he was able to lay into the swarm with his claws with impunity.

Each swing of his claws slashed through at least one ratling, often two or three. Red flew through the air as ratlings died in droves, painting the tunnel and Cayden’s armor in shades of crimson. A glob of something flew into Cayden’s laughing mouth, and his hysterics were interrupted by frantic coughing and spitting. After that, his laughter was much more muted, though he couldn’t help the occasional chuckle that still escaped.

On and on he fought. On the edges of his awareness he noticed reinforcements in the form of another ratling horde joining the first, but it didn’t matter to him. Ten ratlings or a hundred, it was all the same. Around him was pure chaos, blood and viscera flying as ratlings climbed his legs and back, attempting to find a more vulnerable part of him to attack. They would be left disappointed.

Cayden’s only focus was to protect his chest and the glowstone resting there. As little of a threat as the ratlings seemed to be, he didn’t want to risk trying to fight them in the dark. Especially when he knew there to be at least one ratling king around, somewhere.

Speaking of which, he noted at least one more ratling prince had joined with the reinforcements, distinguishable by its larger size, the jewelry adorning its head, wrists, and claws, and the way it didn’t mindlessly throw itself at Cayden. It stayed back and stared, waiting for an opening.

That opening came just a few seconds later when one of the ratlings that had climbed up Cayden’s back latched onto his ear with its sharp teeth.

“Gah!” he screamed, slashing at his new earring. While their claws hadn’t been able to pierce through his skin, it seemed their teeth were a different story. Between his armor and nothing easily fitting between their jaws, that hadn’t previously been an issue. But with so many swarming him, it was inevitable that one had been able to knock his helmet enough askew to get at his ear.

Cayden reached up with one of his hands to readjust his helmet – giving the ratling prince the opening it had been waiting for.

It charged into the back of Cayden’s knees. And with one last flail of his claws in a desperate bid to stay upright against the surprise attack, Cayden dropped to the ground.

Sensing weakness, the attacking swarm redoubled the intensity of its attacks, heedless of the deaths Cayden reaped even from his back. The ratlings climbed over his body, their weight keeping him pressed against the ground, as they bit and tore at his armor in their attempts to get at the flesh underneath.

An instinctual part of Cayden wanted to scream and flail desperately against what felt like the hundreds of disgusting rodent monsters writhing around him, but he forced down the panic. For all that his situation was a horrific state of affairs pulled directly from his hindbrain’s nightmares, he didn’t think he was truly in serious danger, at least not yet. He focused his strikes around his head and chest, protecting his most vulnerable organs and his source of light. The swarm wasn’t infinite, and each swing of his claws killed another one or two of the monsters. As long as nothing else went wrong, he would be fine.

He felt a pinch on his ankle as one of the ratlings wriggled itself beneath his leg armor and bit down.

Cayden laughed darkly at the universe taunting his optimistic thoughts, then reactivated [The Moment]. With the writhing ratlings slowing around him, and with the sudden five-point increase to his strength, Cayden heaved, knocking ratlings aside as he pulled himself to his knees. With the last two seconds of [The Moment] before his mana pool completely drained, he swiped away all the ratlings clinging to his armor, desperately trying to bring him back to the ground, and stood upright once again.

With renewed focus and vigor, and a new laugh in his throat, he resumed his slaughter.

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A minute later, Cayden heaved deep breaths of air in the much quieter tunnel, the slowly-cooling corpses of the swarm lying still around him.

He was victorious.

He let loose one last chuckle before looking around for someplace to sit that wasn’t covered in blood and gore. But after a quick glance at his blood-soaked armor, he gave up and simply dropped where he stood for a well-deserved rest.

After falling to the ground, he noted his skin hadn’t held up quite as well as he had hoped. He had innumerable scratches and bite marks across his body wherever his armor had been torn or pulled away, and while he rested he readjusted and reattached as many pieces as were still salvageable.

Thankfully, none of the scratches was anything more than superficial, but they stung enough that Cayden pulled out one of his healing potions to help recover. He wasn’t sure how well healing potions countered diseases and bacteria, but even with [Resistance] he didn’t want to chance leaving any of the ratling bites untreated longer than necessary. Then, mostly healed and somewhat reinvigorated, with his mana pool slowly refilling, he turned his gaze to the tunnel.

While things had felt a bit desperate for a few seconds, he didn’t think he had truly been in danger. He still had both the stoneskin potion and the two-minute poison stored under his armor, along with the majority of his stock of healing potions. He was tired, but not so badly that it would overly impede him in an upcoming fight.

Yet as Cayden looked down the tunnel deeper into the dungeon, he hesitated.

Not due to fear. No, Cayden was confident that he could conquer this dungeon. He hadn’t even noticed when he’d killed the second ratling prince, the more powerful monster barely more of a hindrance in a full-blown melee than its lesser brethren, and he was sure he would be able to take down the ratling king. His heart all but begged him to continue deeper into the dungeon, desperate to prove itself worthy against the dungeon and monsters. To whom, he wasn’t sure. Perhaps to Elise, perhaps to himself, and perhaps to no one. He wanted so desperately to continue his fight into the dark.

Which was why he hesitated.

Why was he doing this? Was it for all the reasons he’d given to Elise the previous evening? He’d already fulfilled most of them. The haul of experience crystals from the ratlings he’d killed was more money than he’d know how to spend before his next delve. Even if he split it two ways with Elise, which he resolved to do after her contribution of the potions, he’d made plenty of money on this delve. He’d gotten offered two new skills, two potential options to explore for possible combinations into tier three skills. And after a quick glance at his status, he’d grown his other skills respectably as well, [Claw Mastery] and [Hardiness] both leveling in the furious melee. He hadn’t found another primordial mud, but the odds of that, even if he continued, were low anyways.

No, if he continued, it would be because he wanted to, and for no other reason. Because his pride demanded it of him and his blood yearned for more of the siren song of combat.

Very deliberately, Cayden bent over and began the grisly work of harvesting experience crystals.

He’d made a promise to Elise, one he fully intended to keep. And while he believed he could still clear the dungeon without seriously endangering himself, doing so would only be keeping the letter of the promise.

The spirit of the promise demanded he turn back.

He’d gotten what he came for. So what if he didn’t fully clear the dungeon or kill the ratling king? It wasn’t like the dungeon was going anywhere. With the haul from today’s delve he’d be able to level at least a couple of times and afford all the training he needed from more experienced adventurers. And then he could return in a few days or perhaps a week, stronger.

As he collected his loot, being careful to listen for the pitter-patter of another swarm, Cayden envisioned his future.

Once a week he could delve with Elise and a more experienced team, playing it safe and careful while helping Elise in her search for enchanting materials. In the time between those delves, he would delve alone, always on the lookout for enchanting materials he could use for his own improvement while pushing himself to his limits.

He wouldn’t treat it like a boring job like most other adventurers, but neither would he suicidally throw himself into monsters’ jaws in the hopes of a miraculous last-minute power-up. He had all his life ahead of him, plenty of time to learn and train up skills yet still push himself beyond what most others would be willing to handle.

It was what he’d done in this entire life: pushing himself with consistent, difficult, effort. It was how he got his gargoyle race. It was how he got his tier-three skill. It was how he got his [Athlete] class.

And it would be how he got everything else he wanted from this life.

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Sorry this is a bit late, but next chapter will be coming out in a few minutes. We're coming up to another timeskip, which I know some ppl love and others hate, but hopefully you'll enjoy the story going forward. Originally, this was what I envisioned as the 'introduction' to the story, getting all the pieces to where they needed to be to jump into the meat of the story. It definitely got away from me a bit and ended up much longer than originally intended, although I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.

Regardless, thanks for reading!