Duncan had no trouble changing his weapon classes to be all sword all the time. His first week was everything he’d hoped training at the Academy would be. At breakfast on sixthday, David asked him what he planned to do on his rest day. “Nothing has tried to kill me for almost a month. I need to find a dungeon to delve,” Duncan said.

“Really?” asked Amelia. “Your first rest day here and you want to fight monsters.”

“I really do,” he said. “I should go ask Jacob if the Academy has access to any decent dungeons and grab a map from the local Adventurers Guild. There has to be something within a few hours of here.” He had two hours before his monster identification class, so he took his leave and ran off to see Jacob.

“I’m sorry, Duncan. The Lanford academies do share access to a dungeon, but it’s rated level thirty, and so we tend to send in groups of six to ten students at a time. It’s surprisingly popular on rest days. You would need to sign up weeks in advance,” Jacob explained, when Duncan asked him.

“Are there overnight slots? I don’t actually need to sleep much. I would need an entire timeslot to myself, though. I can’t take a bunch of um, inexperienced delvers with me.” Level thirty is pretty useless, but if I get some overpowered rare spawns, it could be worthwhile.

“There’s no support staff overnight, so there are no slots then,” Jacob began.

“That sounds ideal!” Duncan interjected. “Who do I need to talk to to gain night access?”

Jacob sighed. “I will discuss it with the Headmaster and get back to you when I have an answer.”

“Thank you,” said Duncan. “I’m heading to the Adventurers Guild to get a map of the other dungeons in the area. Hopefully there’s a miserable dungeon nearby that no one else will risk.” With a wave, he left a bemused Jacob shaking his head.

He flew to the city gates, then stood in line to get in. His Academy student ID got him access without having to pay the entry fee, which was a nice perk. “Is there any way to get permission to fly into the City?” he asked the gate guard hopefully.

The guard snorted. “Sure, hit level one hundred and buy a flying pass for ten gold a year.” Oh, that doesn’t seem so bad.

Duncan thanked the man and ran to the Adventurers Guild hall. He only had an hour and a half before his class began, so he didn’t have time to dawdle. The map of the area was the usual five silvers, but it was disappointing. “Is this really it?” he asked the guild representative. “Half a dozen low-level training dungeons?”

“Sorry, sir. The ambient mana around Lanport isn’t sufficient to support a high-level dungeon.”

“Where’s the nearest nasty dungeon? I’m interested in anything rated level sixty to ninety, the less popular the better.”

“Again, I’m sorry sir. There’s simply nothing nearby at all.” The attendant was not going to be helpful. Duncan thanked him for his time and hurried back to the academy for class.

After his training session with Master deBouteville, he asked her if she knew of any worthwhile dungeons he could get to with only a few hours of travel time.

“What is your criteria for worthwhile? And how fast can you travel?” she asked.

“My Flying Sword Technique is only rank three. So not as fast as I’d like. Worthwhile is unpopular with other people. Anything up to about level eighty should be okay for me. I prefer humanoid monsters for the better loot, but I will take almost anything. It’s been a month since I was in a dungeon, and I miss it.”

Lena sighed. “I still have difficulty with the idea of solo running dungeons rated higher than your current level. Do not waste my time here by getting yourself killed before I can turn you into a swordsman. There is a small island not twenty kilometers from here, to the Southwest. There’s a watery dungeon there that the Adventurers Guild ranks at level ninety. If it were located elsewhere, it would probably only be rated level seventy or eighty, but the dungeon is claimed by the Sawiskin people. They are aquatic lizardmen who live beneath the seas. But they claim that dungeon and slay anyone they find on the island or in the dungeon. If you delve that dungeon, you have to deal with not only the dungeon denizens, but groups of Sawiskin. And they have Mages, Warriors, and Healers, just as we do.”

“The Adventurers Guild doesn’t mention the dungeon, nor will anyone else around here. This is because that dungeon claims more high-level adventurers than perhaps any other in the empire. The Sawiskin keep the dungeon well in hand, and so the authorities here prefer to pretend it doesn’t exist. To the best of my knowledge there are no other dungeons you would consider worthwhile within a hundred kilometers of Lanport.”

Duncan grinned. That sounds exciting. “Thank you, Master deBouteville. I will explore it very carefully.” I wonder if my Cloak of the Unseen will work there. What counts as ‘normal behavior’ in a dungeon? The Cloak of the Unseen was a Mind Affinity item he’d found in the Endless Depths dungeon. People didn’t notice him when he wore it unless he was acting abnormally. Maybe I should look for an actual invisibility item in the Adventurers Guild item exchange. Although, given they offered me a hundred gold for my cloak, it may be that true invisibility items are ridiculously expensive. It’s something I’ll have to look into.

Duncan rose before dawn on his rest day and flew South from the Academy until he could skirt the edge of Lanport by flying West to the sea. From there, he turned Southwest and began searching for the island Lena had told him about. He spotted it to the North of where he’d expected it and flew a low pass over it to have a look. The island was only a few hundred meters long, and half that wide. The silver-grey disc that was the dungeon entrance hung only a dozen meters from the North shore.

He equipped his water-breathing ring. Better to have it on before I enter than have to equip it while I’m being attacked. The mana drain is insignificant. Then he flew to the entrance and stepped through.

The entrance chamber had 5 Sawiskin in it. Of course it does. They were scaly humanoids a head shorter than Duncan, with frills on their faces and limbs. Not at all like the mossfoot frog men from the Endless Depths. Three were armed with tridents and shields, while the other two had only tridents. None wore any armor. They seemed quite surprised by his arrival.

Duncan stabbed the nearest creature in the side. His blade penetrated the scaly hide and the flesh beneath with only a little resistance. My Tempered Blade Technique seems ample to deal with them. Three blade echoes struck a moment later, and his assessment showed the creature to be ‘wounded’ as opposed to ‘badly wounded’ or ‘near death,’ as he’d been hoping for.

As the creature gave a hissing cry of pain, Duncan Blinked behind the most distant Sawiskin and repeated the attack. It hissed and convulsed, and all five of the creatures covered themselves in a thick layer of water. Duncan struck the Sawiskin again and found it much harder to penetrate this watery armor. He Blinked back to his starting position, stored his steel sword with a thought, and summoned his Spirit Blade.

He struck his initial target again and the Spirit Sword and its echoes passed cleanly through the armor and body, leaving the creature badly wounded. Two of the shieldbearers thrust their tridents at him, damaging his armor, but not piercing his hardened skin beneath it. A ball of water appeared around his head as one of the others used a Technique to smother him. I’ve seen that Technique before. I can breathe water at the moment but no need to let them know that yet. Duncan Blinked back to the other wounded creature to escape the ball of water and any other inbound attacks, and struck it with his Spirit Blade. It dropped soundlessly.

A high-pressure jet of water struck his chest and cut straight through both his truesteel armor and his Hardened Skin Technique. He Blinked back across the room and healed himself, then hit the mage with a Mind Spike as it turned to face him. That was incredibly strong. And painful. He followed up with an echoed slash from his Spirit Blade, then Blinked immediately to the one he’d hurt earlier to finish it off, only to find it almost fully healed. One of these bastards is a healer, but I can’t tell which, damnit. Gotta focus on one until it drops. The mage goes down first, because that water jet is scary.

Duncan hit the mage with another Mind Spike, then Blinked to it again and slashed at it with Blade Echo Techniques until it dropped. He took a couple of blows from tridents as he did, but they couldn’t hurt him much through his armor and Hardened Skin. The Sawiskin he’d hurt before was fully healed now, but he’d seen which of the monsters was the healer. You’re next…

A huge ball of water completely immersed him, but he Blinked out of it to the healer, slashed through its body, hit it with a Mind Spike, and slashed through its body again. A trident managed to pierce the armor on the back of his leg, but he ignored the wound to strike at the healer again with his Spirit Blade, finally dropping it. He Blinked behind another of the creatures and healed himself, then used Mind Spike on it. A throbbing pain persisted after he healed himself, and assessment told him he was poisoned. Fortunately, Remove Affliction took care of it.

With the healer and mage dead, he mopped up the warriors in short order. The last one made a break for the exit, but Duncan was able to interpose himself between it and the portal. I’d hate to step out of the dungeon and find an army of these things waiting for me if one got away to warn them. He stored their weapons and gear in his ring and moved into the dungeon proper.

The dungeon was a series of partly flooded caves. There were sandy sections, stony sections, and completely submerged sections. There was a nice variety of monsters, as well. Toothy fish and electric eels swam in most of the flooded areas. A tribe of spear-wielding turtles that stood upright had roaming patrols. They seemed to have a salt affinity; they tried to blind him with blasts of salt, and they poisoned his blood somehow. But for their most unusual attack, they withdrew their head and limbs into their shells, then flew at him at high speeds, spinning madly. His Spirit Sword countered their tough protective shells, and he could Blink out of the way of their spinning attacks. But the poisoning and blindness needed Remove Affliction, which was mana-intensive at rank two, so he had to rest a little after each encounter with them. I’m glad I got Remove Affliction; it’s been handy several times already. And I’ll get it ranked up fast if I can come back here on a regular basis.

The depths also held some giant transparent crayfish that had a mental attack very similar to Mind Spike. They used it to stun him then thrust their forelimbs at him, piercing his armor and Hardened Skin. Fortunately, they only ever came in pairs, else he may have succumbed to their attacks. They were relatively frail, but they did more damage to him than almost anything he’d encountered previously. That stun and stab trick is mine, damnit. Still, if I can come back, these will be great for my Tranquil Mind training.