Chapter 60: Sharing Skills (Patreon)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/187fDrwz53TCXQ7L344ya4nyZBqkwHVhix2fbQcUXpRs/edit?usp=sharing

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Cayden woke early the next morning and walked to the cafeteria before any of his roommates started to stir. Although, he hadn’t seen them the night before, so it was entirely possible that they weren’t staying on campus over the weekend. Either way, he didn’t miss their presence as he scarfed down some food in preparation for his delve.

Elise had offered to come with him today, of course, but Cayden had declined. While Elise wasn’t nearly as useless in combat as she had been several months earlier, especially with her BFG and shield enchantments, Cayden found new delves much more enjoyable when he didn’t have to worry about protecting his friend. Plus, he knew her offer of accompaniment was only made out of politeness – with the still mostly unexplored library available to her, there were things other than exploring a dungeon that she would much rather be doing.

Cayden wore his armor and carried his backpack filled with healing and other emergency potions with him to the cafeteria, so as he finished his breakfast he was ready to go. After depositing his cleaned plate at the servants’ window, he walked out of the mostly-empty building into the crisp morning air.

“Cayden! You’re up early – are you still down to work out this afternoon?”

Cayden withheld a groan as he heard the now-recognizable voice.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Jeremy. Honestly, Cayden was surprised with how much he enjoyed the time spent with his new friend, as prior to the academy he hadn’t really clicked with anyone besides Elise. But after talking with Elise the prior night, he’d been anticipating the solo delve as a wonderful release of stress, and he had completely forgotten about his offhanded plans with Jeremy to train together in the afternoon.

“Ah, yeah, about that…” Cayden said, turning to Jeremy, who was on his way to eat his own breakfast. “I don’t think I’ll be able to make it. I’m going on a delve, today – sorry, it was all last minute and I forgot about the plans.”

Jeremy laughed. “No worries, I get that. What dungeon are you delving? And who are you teaming with?”

If Jeremy had any jealousy or bitterness over the canceled plans, Cayden couldn’t hear it in his voice. It took him a moment to remember the name of the dungeon – he had been more focused on Elise’s directions to find the dungeon and what monsters it contained within than its name – but he recalled it after a few seconds. “Ah, it’s called the Albertson’s Dungeon. And no team, I’m just going solo.”

Jeremy was nodding along in recognition as Cayden said the name of the dungeon, but when he mentioned that he didn’t have a team, Jeremy’s eyes widened. “No team? In Albertson’s? Are you crazy?”

“That’s how I’m used to delving,” Cayden replied defensively. “And Elise said that Albertson’s is only an E-ranked dungeon.”

“And you haven’t even been there before?” Jeremy said, picking up on the wrong thing in Cayden’s attempted reassurance. He paused. “...do you want me to come delve it with you?”

Cayden’s immediate and instinctive desire was to reject the offer, to insist that he would be fine on his own and to delve the dungeon solo like he had so many other dungeons so many times before. But he hesitated.

Was that really the best option? Sure, he could delve it solo. Cayden was fully confident in his ability to conquer what was reportedly a weak E-ranked dungeon. And a relaxing delve killing monsters away from any people or politics certainly sounded enticing. But…was that what he really needed?

It was tempting to brush off Jeremy and all the other adventurers at the academy. To dismiss their accomplishments as handouts given to the privileged. To say that he was better off solo, that he could handle the challenges that dungeons and life threw his way.

But he knew that wasn’t true. It had taken time, way too much time, but he’d learned that in his previous life: despite his desire for independence, he wasn’t always better off alone. He’d learned that with Elise, in how her aid contributed more to his growth and opportunities than anything he could have done on his own. In just the first few classes of Frontline Combat 101, he’d learned he wasn’t nearly as far ahead as his fellow students as he had assumed, and it wasn’t merely ‘privilege’ that gave others their strength.

Velic had explained that a portion of their grades at the academy would be based on team combat. It was unlikely that Jeremy would be on his team, but the formine had made it into the academy on merit, so he was clearly qualified. If the academy was attempting to teach Cayden teamwork, the least he could do was put in some effort on his own to learn.

So, after a moment of consideration, he nodded. “Sure, if you’re offering, you can come.”

Jeremy smiled, the antennae on his head wiggling as he rushed into the cafeteria. “Great! Let me eat real quick, then grab my stuff, and I’ll be ready to go! Shouldn’t take more than a few minutes!”

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An hour later, Cayden and Jeremy walked side-by-side along a small wooded trail away from the capital. It was a much nicer walk to the dungeon than any of those to the dungeons around Avernon. Delves around Avernon typically involved a several-hour-long trek through unmarked woods as Cayden and Elise searched for the tell-tale blue forcefield that indicated a dungeon entrance. The Albertson’s Dungeon, in contrast, was only a thirty-minute walk from the Valtane city gates along a well-marked and cleared trail.

It was one of the reasons Cayden was so excited to be delving around the capital. The dungeons around Avernon weren’t bad, per se, but over the last ten months, he and Elise had thoroughly delved every nearby dungeon that was within their skill range. As the months passed, they’d had to delve further and further afield to find new dungeons, and some of the closer dungeons, like the ratling dungeon, Cayden had delved over a dozen times.

He was ready for the new experiences and variety that the dungeons around the capital could offer. Not only were the dungeons around the capital new to Cayden, but there were also significantly more of them compared to Avernon – one of the reasons Valtane was chosen as the capital so many years ago. Of course, to go with the increased number of dungeons was a vastly increased number of adventurers willing to delve those dungeons, but Cayden wasn’t as worried about that. It would somewhat lower the odds of finding enchanting materials in the more commonly delved dungeons, but he wouldn’t need to reserve his spot for delves unless he was delving in a lower-ranked dungeon on dyneday, when those adventurers who also worked other jobs commonly delved.

Also, there were some dungeons academy students had exclusive access to that Cayden could use to search for enchanting materials. But for his first delve, when he was only delving to let off some steam rather than in a search for a new racial skill or as focused training, that wasn’t necessary.

“Um…if we’re gonna delve together, we should probably talk a bit about our skills,” Jeremy said as they continued walking, and Cayden looked over at him. “Nothing specific!” he exclaimed, misinterpreting Cayden’s look. “Just generalities, so we know what to expect. We saw each other fight, but is there anything else I should be prepared for?”

Cayden shrugged and brought up his status. “I’ve heavily physically based. I’ve got [Tuant], to keep monsters off of others. Other than that…” he scanned through his general, racial, and class skills one more time. “...I’m really durable.”

It was a bit disappointing when he described his skills like that. So much time and effort. One tier-three skill and two tier-two skills. And yet his entire build could be summed up almost completely by saying he was ‘durable.’ Sure, he had skills like [Enhanced Flexibility] and [Recovery] which diversified his skillset a bit, but neither of those was a skill that would affect a delve. Aside from [Taunt], his only skill with a truly magical effect was [Inertia], and that was the one skill he was hoping to keep closer to his chest. [Ineria] seemed like it could be an extremely useful skill that he was still barely scratching the surface of, but much of its usefulness could be lost if someone knew how it worked and could exploit its weaknesses.

Jeremy stared at Cayden for a few more seconds, waiting. But when Cayden didn’t elaborate, he nodded. “Well…I’m also physically based in terms of what I personally can do. But my skills mostly revolve around buffing my teammates.” He paused. “It’s easier to show you than it is to explain. Do you mind?”

Cayden shook his head.

And then suddenly, before Cayden had the chance to prepare for it, the world changed.

Over the years since his change, Cayden had gained stats many, many times. Many of those were from his training, his natural growth as he pushed his body and mind to their limits. Even more were the times his stats had increased from his level-ups, carefully planned decisions on how to best optimize his stats for his build. And other times still he had ‘artificially’ increased his stats via activating or gaining skills like [Claw Mastery] or [Endurance].

Yet none of those compared to the swell in stats that Cayden felt as Jeremy activated his skill.

The world grew brighter and slower as his perception and mind stats increased, the smallest of details around him jumping into immediate focus. His muscles flexed with new power as his strength swelled, but were still under his complete control as his dexterity increased to match. His other stats increased as well, less noticeable than strength or perception, but still discernable as he moved his body, testing out his new limits.

But despite the drastic jump in stats, the biggest change Cayden felt wasn’t coming from his body, but rather from his mind.

His perception had increased, but not nearly so drastically as to explain how much larger Cayden’s field of view now was. It felt like he had a second set of eyes by his shoulder, able to pick out things that would have been invisible to Cayden, regardless of his perception. Yet despite the increased awareness, he felt no strain on his mind to process the additional data, a common symptom of those who increased perception too far above their mind stat.

“What’s going…” Cayden began, but immediately cut himself off as a strangely distorted echo followed behind his words.

Best not to talk out loud, he heard in his mind, instinctively understanding them to come from Jeremy. It wasn’t as if Jeremy was speaking, either – rather than words, Cayden felt a series of impressions that perfectly conveyed his friend’s intent without the normal delay of language. Just think intentionally about what you want to say, and I’ll hear it. It should come easily.

This…is amazing, Cayden thought back a moment later. It really was instinctive, something about Jeremy’s skill conveying an understanding of how to use it. Or perhaps it was skills – Cayden found it unlikely that a single skill could do everything that Cayden was currently experiencing. At least not at tier one.

Although now it made perfect sense how Jeremy made it into the Academy. If, as Cayden suspected, the skill could be shared between an entire team, it was unbelievably useful. And if it functioned at a range too? Even if Jeremy was nothing but dead weight otherwise, the benefits of this skill were more than enough to justify having him on any team.

How long does it last? Cayden asked. They were still a few minutes away from the dungeon, and he didn’t want Jeremy to run out of mana before they got there.

Indefinitely. But the longer it’s active, the heavier the backlash is when it deactivates. Jeremy sent the mental equivalent of a shrug. I figured it was better for you to have a few minutes to get used to it before we started the delve.

Cayden nodded, but inwardly he frowned. Jeremy didn’t mention what might cause the skill to deactivate, and Cayden didn’t ask – Jeremy was already showing a huge amount of trust by revealing his skill so candidly for a casual delve – but that seemed like a potential major downside to the skill. He wasn’t worried about their current delve, as from Elise’s description he didn’t think there was anything that could truly hurt him in Albertson’s Dungeon, but it was something to keep in mind for potential future delves.

They continued their walk, Cayden occasionally striking out with his claws and suddenly turning his head to get used to the increased stats and new perspective. But after a few minutes, the trail veered to the side to a small metallic building with a glowing blue forcefield over the entrance.

They had arrived at the dungeon.

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