PftA Book 2 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – Delves and Leveling

The rest of the delve was largely unremarkable. There were a few Time and Void creatures among the next series of mobs, but otherwise, it was the same as before. Aside from taking a few extra hits to defeat, the boss didn’t appear to be any different either. Even if it had changed slightly, I never gave the boss enough time to attack. My approach was always to overwhelm the singular creature as quickly as possible from a distance.

I was pleased to find the newly strengthened rift provided a marked increase in experience, even with my recent leveling. By the end of the delve, I had enough to reach level four. Since there was little reason to wait, I triggered the level-up and assigned my points before taking a quick nap to apply the changes while my mana regenerated to full.

As was common for mages, I added two points to Intelligence and one to Wisdom, increasing my mana pool and regeneration slightly. I was tempted to add a point to Strength to raise it to ten. I hated having a single-digit attribute. But I felt like it was close to increasing naturally, so I held off.

Since waiting around for the Space-dominant rift to reset was imprudent, we headed to the Metal-dominant rift that Robert had used to obtain – or maybe make – my spear. He’d never been really clear about it, and I didn’t want to diminish his gift by asking.

Maybe if it came up…

The Metal rift was odd in that it was set in a strange, futuristic smithy with metal golems that looked like a mix between robots and mechanized armor. Their insides were definitely not biological, but they also weren’t necessarily solid. I could feel the small gaps between the inner materials through my Spatial Sense.

“Blunt weapons worked best for me. My arrows are almost useless against the armored mobs,” Robert said as we observed the trio of golems from just outside the first door.

The golems were focused on smelting ore and creating small items within the small room. It looked like the forge and smelter actually worked, which was an interesting feature of the rift. I couldn’t see any tools, but that was probably because the golems could adapt their appendages to suit their purposes.

Before engaging with the metal mobs, I decided to swap weapons. I had a variety of scepters and batons in my ring to choose from. The only real difference between the two was that the scepters were mostly ranged weapons with no [Durability] or [Self-Repair] runes incorporated. Every bit of available space was dedicated to offensive magics. Though they might survive a hit, I didn’t feel confident using the weapons in melee.

Batons, on the other hand, were reinforced specifically to deal with blunt force. I generally included at least one ranged option for each baton, but most were contact effects, like [Percussive Blast] – one of my favorites.

I made the connections the same, so I could theoretically put a baton and scepter together to make a staff, but I hadn’t really used them that way before. Still, I felt it best to arm myself with one of each, holding the baton in my dominant hand and the scepter in my off-hand. That way, if I needed to hit something with a big stick, I’d be more likely to use the sturdier one.

“Lightning works?” I asked as I held up my Lightning scepter.

“It should. I didn’t test it when I delved the rift before, though,” my guardian warned.

I glanced toward my guardian, noting he was holding a weapon that looked like a mix between a spear and a mace. It was long like a spear or quarterstaff and had a large, spiky ball at one end with a longer point at the top. It seemed awkward to use, but Robert held it comfortably enough.

At my raised brow, he said, “I won’t intervene unless you ask for it or something goes wrong. But I might as well have a weapon on hand. My magic is limited in this kind of environment unless I provide my own plants.”

I looked around, noting the distinct lack of dirt or plants. We were supposed to be inside a building, so it made sense, but it wasn’t something I consciously had considered before.

With a nod, I stepped inside the sleek smithy. The golems immediately turned to face me, ignoring their projects as they were alerted to the intrusion. I hit them with a [Lightning Bolt] and ranged [Force Blast] before swapping my Lightning scepter for an Ice baton while the now-smoking golems tried to recover from the attack.

Even with weaker physical attributes, I could easily handle the slow-moving mobs. I didn’t need to cast Slow or Pause to avoid their strikes. Dedicated training made a difference, and my progress reinforced my decision to continue mixing my fighting styles while I could do so in relative safety.

Had the rift been another stage stronger, I probably wouldn’t have risked entering into melee range with the sturdy golems – not unless I didn’t have a choice. But unlike the Space-dominant rift, this one hadn’t yet been strengthened to the next stage.

After collecting the ingots and other valuable materials, we headed deeper into the rift. The second room was also a smithy, but unlike the first one, it appeared empty. The mobs only attacked after we entered the space, rushing at us from hidden locations on either side.

Robert watched closely as I fought, ready to jump in at a moment’s notice. Given the number of opponents, I wasn’t able to rely solely on my enchantments and physical abilities during the fight. Instead, I incorporated Slow to keep an advantage over my more numerous opponents.

A few still landed blows, but my Barrier was strong enough to withstand the hits. I still reinforced the spell after each strike, having had that lesson ingrained early in my adventuring career during the other timeline.

I was panting by the time the last mob fell.

“There had to have been a dozen. That was a lot at once,” I said between breaths.

“You did good, though. I was a little worried when your Ice baton stopped working, but you barely flinched before swapping it out mid-swing. It was impressive.”

I smiled tiredly. I’d practiced that maneuver for hours with my trainer. Once he saw my fighting style, Shawn, my new Atlas trainer, insisted that I learn how to swap weapons in a fight. Since I only had a limited number of uses before the mana cores powering the effects were exhausted, it made sense to practice the move until I could perform it seamlessly.

“The last room holds the boss?” I asked as I stood up straighter. I glanced around the room and noted several stacks of various metal ingots.

Seeing my gaze, Robert grinned and waved me toward them, indicating I should collect them while he stored the defeated mobs. Since they were made mostly of metal, their entire bodies were valuable.

“It should. I only delved here once, and it was an LT1 rift then. This room seemed a lot more difficult than when I delved.”

Seeing some spearheads and ax heads along the wall, I asked, “Is this where you got my spear?”

Robert shook his head. “I got the spearhead for yours from the boss room, though these look about the same. The first time, the quality was much worse in this room.” He looked back at me. “I did grow the shaft myself, though. If you look closely, you’ll see where the shaft grew into the socket, filling the holes from the inside.”

He said it without guile, so it took a second before my brain made the connections. I didn’t think Robert was trying to flirt using double entendres, but the part of my brain that was still firmly a teenager struggled with the comment.

Thankfully, I limited my response to a few lip twitches.

Damn Rhona and her comments making my mind go in directions it wouldn’t have otherwise.

Ignoring the juvenile thoughts my brain was spewing, I focused on collecting all the materials I could find, including the unprocessed ore in the bin next to the smelter.

With the boss being a solo fight with a slightly larger golem with no minions, it wasn’t that difficult. I stuck with using enchantments to maintain my mana reserves, but it didn’t slow me down. I’d embedded my favorite offensive Space spells into one of the scepters since I had plenty of Space mana cores to power it. I could also refill the cores easily enough with my personal mana.

The reward for defeating the boss was a blank crystal. I’d only seen them a few times in the decade I’d adventured before. The first time I’d seen one, I thought the rift had cheated us. Ros had explained that they were actually valuable, though not nearly as much as crystals that already held a spell. Those were even more rare, especially at lower tiers.

Rich people often purchased the crystals to give personalized spells to their children. At least, that was how it was explained. I’d never used one, so I had no idea how any of that worked.

Ros wasn’t much better since he’d been disowned upon awakening without an affinity, so he hadn’t used them either. He had watched his older brother use several on his brother’s awakening day, but watching and experiencing were dramatically different, especially for a child.

“That’s pretty valuable,” Robert said with a note of surprise. “Merchants always give good prices for them.”

“They’re used to copy spells, right?” I asked.

Robert looked uncertain. “I think so? I…really don’t know. I’ve always been told to sell them if I came across one since the nobles like them. It isn’t like we can use an empty crystal.”

“Maybe. I’ll ask Rhona about it later and see what she says. If we can use it, do you have a spell you’d like?” I asked. I had little trouble learning spells, so it made sense to share.

“No. You earned it. You can keep it if you want. Besides, I plan to start chipping away at the interface upgrade as soon as you hit Tier Two and start sharing the experience,” he said with a playful grin. “You’ll have to show me how you learned all those spells with your interface after I get my upgrade.”

“Deal,” I said before putting the crystal in my ring. It would probably be better to set something aside for my family anyway.

If I told Rhona I was saving it for Amie, she’d probably copy one of her own spells into the thing. It was obvious Rhona loved the toddler. The more I got to know Rhona, the more I realized her distress when Justin and Amie had disappeared probably hadn’t had anything to do with Justin. It had almost certainly been focused on Amie.

= = =

With how much experience I’d earned in St. Louis, Robert and I decided to do an extra delve there the following morning after the rift reset. After selling our excess loot and Teleporting us back, I spent the rest of the night relaxing and sleeping – real, disconnected sleep – which rejuvenated me in a way I hadn’t realized I was missing.

The extra delve pushed me to level five, allowing me to select my profession. The list was much longer than it was in the game, and there were nearly thirty entries for me to select from. Even Healer was present, though I had only used Heal or Restore a few times outside of recovering from workouts.

Though I was tempted by a few of the more general professions, I ultimately went with what I already knew how to earn experience with – Enchanter. The profession suited my current job role the best, and I was pretty sure I would still use Enchanting as part of my future work with Mage Stella.

She’d mentioned me working with her on a project several times, but had refused to share any details until I officially started working with her. The most I gathered was that I’d need a specialty augmentation for Lisa to assist me with whatever Space-related project we’d be doing together.

I celebrated gaining my profession (again) by not doing anything else magical or work-related for the rest of the day. Instead, I headed to the beach with Justin and Amie and tried not to think about anything related to the game or the future. I simply enjoyed spending time with my family.

“Does Bell like the beach?” Justin asked while we took a break from building sand castles with Amie to have lunch.

I narrowed my eyes. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure she does.”

Justin glanced away, avoiding my gaze. “You should invite her next time. She seems interesting,” he said as if it didn’t really matter, and he was just trying to be nice.

“Or, you could invite her. You’re coming over to our apartment on Wednesday, right?”

My brother focused on helping Amie organize the goldfish on her napkin. “Sure, yeah. It’s no big deal. I just thought it would be nice to invite her, is all,” he said uncomfortably.

“Look, if you like my roommate, that’s fine. But I’m not getting involved with anything. You’re going to have to handle it yourself. I’m not playing matchmaker.”

Justin finally met my eyes. “I’m not sure I want to start anything, but Bell is… I don’t know how to explain it. I feel a weird connection to her.” I felt my hackles raise slightly, but then I realized I was reading waaayyyyy too far into the comment. Bell and Justin hadn’t even known each other in the other timeline.

“I can tell she’s a good person, and Amie seems to like her. It wouldn’t be the worst thing to get to know her,” he continued. “It’s not like I’m going to jump into anything serious. I have Amie to think about.”