Chapter 93: Stealth Mission (Patreon)

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It didn’t take long for them to come across their first monster.

They technically might not have been ‘shrunk down,’ but the dungeon was leaning into that as its theme: all the monsters were oversized rodents and other animals that could be found in a home. And the first they found was a giant rat.

It gave Cayden a bit of nostalgia as he remembered his first-ever delve in the ratling dungeon. But despite their similar ‘origins’, the rats of this dungeon and the ratling monsters he was more familiar with had little in common.

Ratlings had been a monstrous combination of man and beast, hunched-over goblinoid creatures that, at higher levels, used tools and potentially even magic.

These, however, were simply very large rats.

“Monstrous rat, level eighteen,” Elise called from the rear of the group. It had been a while since he’d delved with someone who had the [Inspect] general skill, and he appreciated it even though it wouldn’t make much of a difference in his strategy. The rat had crawled around the edge of the doorway on the far side of the room as they were crossing it and immediately zeroed in on their position.

“To the table leg!” Cayden called. It would be nice to have something to shelter behind from the monster, if not for him then for his teammates, and the three of them rushed across the floor, barely making it to the leg before the rat.

It probably wouldn’t be necessary, as it was already focused on Cayden as the largest and closest of their group, but Cayden sent out a [Taunt] toward the monster anyway. Its back only came up to Cayden’s waist, but it was longer than Cayden was tall – even longer if he included the tail – and was blisteringly fast for its size. He didn’t want it to switch targets halfway through the fight and catch Elise by surprise.

After [Taunting] it, the speed of the approaching monster’s headlong rush increased even further. And in less than a second, it was there, and the fight was on.

The rat hissed as it charged and attempted to bowl Cayden over, and Cayden increased his [Inertia] in response. They collided with a whap of impacting flesh, Cayden moving no more than a single step back. The rat clawed and bit at him, tearing rents in his leather armor, and Cayden clawed right back, blood and tufts of fur flying wherever he struck.

After failing its charge and feeling the sting of Cayden’s claws, the rat changed its strategy. It backed away from Cayden, getting out of immediate claw range, and then repeatedly lunged forward in probing attacks. Whenever Cayden tried to lash back out at the monster, the rat writhed away from the impacts, and no more blood was drawn.

Cayden reduced his [Inertia] back to its initial value and then lowered it even further, his speed increasing commensurately. Once again he was able to hit the agile monster, but his claws weren’t able to draw as much blood as they had during the first exchange without the same weight behind them. But it was good enough; though his armor was damaged, the rat monster had yet to draw any of Cayden’s blood. In a battle of attrition, he would eventually win.

The rat also seemed to realize this and once again changed its strategy. But despite possessing a feral intelligence, it was still only a monster in a D-ranked dungeon – instead of retreating and regrouping or targeting Cayden’s more vulnerable team members, it chose to sacrifice its defense in an attempt to do as much damage as possible. It leapt forward and latched onto Cayden’s shoulder with its teeth, holding onto him with its front legs and attempting to disembowel him with its back legs.

What followed was not what anyone could describe as ‘sophisticated’ combat. No fancy skills nor strategies were used, not even any tools beyond teeth and claws. With only one arm, Cayden recognized that his biggest struggle would be holding the speedy creature in place long enough to do any lasting damage, so he made no effort to break the hold the teeth had on his shoulder, instead just curling in to avoid as much damage to his stomach as he could and giving as good as he got with his own claws.

It was bloody and brutal, and Cayden loved every second of it.

Even Cayden’s prodigious defenses were unable to stand up to the monster’s strength when he made no effort to evade or deflect its attacks, but he accepted the pain as trade for the wounds he was inflicting. Eventually, though, he could feel the monster’s hold on his shoulder with its teeth loosening, the monster either on its last legs or planning to retreat and try again.

Cayden didn’t want to waste the time it might take to chase down the wounded rat, so he brought his clawed hand back even further than normal in preparation for his next strike, angling his claws together like a drill toward the rat’s side. He swung. And then, at the last moment before impact, he increased his [Inertia], doubling and then tripling his arm’s momentum.

His claws slowed for only a moment before punching through the monster’s fur and skin. And then Cayden flexed his hand, buried halfway up his forearm, inside the monster’s chest.

The rat squealed in pain as it released his shoulder and attempted to escape, but it was far, far too late for that. Cayden wasn’t sure what he was tearing apart inside of the monster, but he was sure that it was important as he twisted his arm with a savage grin. And his guess was confirmed a few moments later as the monster released another drawn-out squeal…and then died.

Cayden shook and twisted his arm, the upper half of the dead ratling falling off of it with a plop. “Where are the experience crystals in this thing?” Cayden asked Elise as he felt his wounds disappear. He looked at Delphia, who was hunched just slightly over her stomach as she pulled a potion from the pocket of her cloak. “Should you do that? I’ve got [Alchemical Assistance], so healing potions will be almost as effective if I drink them myself. Might as well save yourself the pain.”

Delphia shook her head in the negative, though. “I have to train my skills, too. Healing after real combat is better experience than healing from a training session.”

Cayden nodded consideringly. He still felt bad, knowing any injuries he took would, temporarily, be pushed onto his roommate. But he understood and respected Delphia’s desire to train her skills in spite of the pain. Sometimes it was easy to forget that healers and other supportive classes, despite not getting ‘stronger’ in the same way that he and other classes did, were pushing themselves just as hard to grow. Just because it looked different didn’t invalidate the time and effort required.

“Actually…” Delphia continued as Elise stepped forward with a small knife and began the grisly work of cutting the experience crystal out of the back of the rat’s neck. “I was thinking. Would it be possible for me to join in on the combat…more directly?”

Cayden frowned. “What do you mean?”

Delphia took a deep breath, seeming to gather her courage, before responding. “I’d like to get some combat skills, rather than just staying back, ready to heal you, while you clear the dungeon.

“...why?” Cayden asked. He didn’t mean to be confrontational…but he was honestly confused. Delphia was a healer, a role that was supposed to stay back while others did the fighting. Here and now seemed a strange place and time for her to suddenly want to switch roles.

“My skills force it, at least somewhat,” Delphia explained. “I’ve been thinking about what Instructor Barry said about my healing skills and their limitations. It isn’t an issue now because of [Conduit], but for anyone else I delve with, my healing skills are limited to touch. Unless I plan on letting my teammates die, I’ll be forced into combat, or at least forced near to combat. I should start training and planning for that while I can, so I can get skills that’ll help me in those situations.”

Slowly, Cayden nodded. “That makes sense. But that wouldn’t require actual combat skills, would it? Couldn’t you train movement and evasion skills without getting directly involved?”

Elise had finished her excavation of the experience crystal and was looking back and forth between Cayden and Delphia, interested in the conversation.

Delphia coughed, and Cayden got the impression that, beneath her shadowed cloak, she was blushing. “Yeah…well, I kind of figured, if I’m going to be so close to combat, I might as well learn how to contribute more directly. Maybe not in the same way you fight,” she said, gesturing to Cayden’s absolutely blood-soaked arm. “But with the way you two were talking about options for [Alchemical Assistance], I think I can contribute more than only as a healer.”

“That’s great!” Elise exclaimed before Cayden had a chance to react. “You want one of my potions now? Which one do you want?”

“Er, I’m not sure. Is there any you’d recommend? And don’t worry, I can pay you back for them.”

“Don’t be silly, we’re on a delve together, I wouldn’t charge you for my potions. And maybe we can start with something that works with your racial skills? I have this ‘reduce presence’ potion that’ll get rid of footsteps and small noises, as well as any scents.”

“That could be good,” Delphia said, and then she perked up a bit further. “And I could activate my racial skills on Cayden through [Conduit] so we’re both stealthy. Maybe kill the monsters a bit easier next time.”

“No, that won’t work,” Cayden quickly responded. “I mean, it would probably work, but it would leave Elise as the only one easily found. We don’t want monsters to target her.”

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine,” Elise responded. Cayden gave her a questioning look, but before he could ask her what she meant, she was simply…gone.

Well, not gone entirely. Cayden was pretty sure she was somewhat there, which is why he didn’t immediately panic, as he had a faint, niggling impression he could see her in the same way a child might imagine monsters in the corners of their eyes. But he couldn’t see her directly, his eyes passing over her previous location without slowing in the slightest.

Attempted mental manipulation from unknown item.

A moment later, Elise reappeared, fiddling with a bracelet on her arm.

“You can see me again? Good. I suppose I probably should have figured out how to turn it off before testing it for the first time.”

“...where’d you get that?” Cayden asked in surprise. She hadn’t delved since Avernon, and Cayden was intimately familiar with all the enchanted items she’d made in their earlier delves. And he doubted that something producing that powerful of an effect could simply be picked up in the market for a few coins.

“Oh, I told Basura I was going to go on a delve, and he didn’t seem to think my current enchanted items were up to snuff. So he gave me this!” She proudly held up her braceleted wrist. “...I have to give it back after I’m done, though,” she added with a small pout.

It took a moment for Cayden to remember Basura as the name of Elise’s instructor, the gnome who was supposedly renowned for his enchanting expertise. He supposed it was a good thing he was looking out for her safety, but he couldn’t help feeling a little annoyed, for a reason he couldn’t identify.

He pushed aside the feeling – he knew it to be irrational – before responding. “...I suppose that will work, then. Do you have enough of the potion for me too?” Cayden asked.

“Yep! For all three of us,” Elise responded, passing out the new potion.

A few minutes later, after waiting for the effects of the potion to kick in, they once more resumed their trek across the massive floor of the first room of the dungeon, much more stealthily than Cayden had ever before moved.

Somehow the delve had turned into a stealth mission.

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