“Did you have geese, too?” With a pant, Inke sliced through the last honking waterfowl. With a horrifically loud noise, a rain of metal fragments fell through the air after being shattered by her sword. She wiped some sweat off her brow.

Harin was leaning against the wall, hand on his chest, having retreated several geese into the battle. “S-see, there’s another story. Lots of stories, I have so m-many things to say. Y-yeah. Led an interesting l-life, huh?”

Watching the remnants of the monsters be Absorbed, Inke pulled her waterskin from her belt and took a drink.

“Y-you have a lot of different pouches and stuff on your belt, don’t you?” Gaze drawn to her actions, Harin’s brow furrowed. “Fifteen pouches? Twenty? S-something like that?”

Inke smirked slightly. She pulled back the corner of the cloak she was wearing, revealing potion bottles, pouches, and other assorted items. “Probably closer to thirty.” And while the number might have been accurate, more than a few of the bags were spatially expanded and could hold more inside them than their appearance implied. For the moment, though, Inke tried to stick to using only her more typical gear to avoid suspicion.

Stealth made everything so much more difficult than it needed to be.

Ignari vibrated slightly in her hand, a reminder for Inke to focus. “Back to geese.”

Harin jolted. “Oh! Yeah, uh, this is c-conjecture, but before I had chickens, I h-had some g-g-geese.” With a full-body shiver, he continued, “Those things were p-pure evil. S-so one day, I tried to get rid of them, except any time I tried to kill one of them, a-all of them would swarm and peck me. I, uh,” he blushed, “I ended up releasing them into the wild. At least one of them m-must have ended up in the dungeon.”

Perking up, though, with a wide grin splitting his face, Harin added, “B-but then I got chickens! And they’re so m-much nicer than geese.”

As Harin finished his story, Inke stood from where she had been collecting the monster drops. Brushing invisible dust off her clothing, she looked over at the door that had appeared once each of the geese were slain. Above the door, there was a curling, scrawled script that Inke couldn’t identify.

Either that, or it was decoration, and Inke was reading too much into it. Literally.

Slowly, Harin said, “Beware the boss.” At Inke’s surprised glance, he yelped, “Th-that’s what it says! The- the inscription!”

She offered him a one-shouldered shrug. Inke would have to take his word on… the words. Considering that the only languages Inke could read were Intyu, the standardized language almost everyone spoke, and her native language of Rete, she assumed Harin would know much better than she did.

He knew quite a few random other things, after all.

For once, Harin attempted to enter the next area of the dungeon ahead of her, stepping past Inke and placing his hand on the door to push.

Inke froze. “Stop,” she said, in a tone so low it was almost a growl. Slightly louder, she added, “Let me go through first, alright? Last thing we need is the boss sneak attacking the first person through.”

“H-hah, yeah… wouldn’t want to get one-shotted…” Harin shot her a furtive glance, looking concerned, but Inke dismissed it.

Striding forward confidently, she shoved the door aside with only the slightest tremble of her hands. Harin followed close at her heels. Inside, an overly large egg lay nestled in a stone divot in the center of the room. Inke had only the time to take in the black patterns spiraling their way up the sides before the egg erupted, hatching in an explosion of light and power.

With a loud slam, the door behind them swung closed.

Do or die.

As vision returned and Inke could finally see again, her eyes were inexorably drawn to the giant swan, wings spread proudly, standing triumphant in the large, domed cavern. The design of the boss room reminded Inke of an arena, with an improbably high ceiling for how deep the dungeon was and raised walls surrounding them that leveled off into what appeared to be spectator stands.

Nothing besides the swan, herself, and Harin was in the room, but Inke felt a prickling at the back of her neck as if she were being watched.

Inke tipped her head at the boss. “Yours too?”

Harin stared at the swan. “O-okay, that, I don’t know w-where it came from.”

It didn’t matter. Sword in hand, she charged at the boss. The swan screeched, a piercing cry that made Inke want to curl up into a ball and clap her hands over her ears. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Harin drop down on one knee, blood trickling out of his ears.

Skill: Piercing Screech Inflicted

Damage Inflicted: -20 HP

Bleed Effect: resisted

Disorientation: resisted

Partial Deafness: resisted

Resisting most of the effects, the boss hadn’t managed to damage Inke by much. She glanced at Harin, momentarily torn between attacking the boss and running to the aid of another injured party member-

It was only a moment’s hesitation, but it was enough for the swan to rear back before lunging forward and hitting Inke with one giant wing. Being both a dungeon monster and a boss, it was far larger than any normal swan, at least twice Inke’s height and with a wingspan that she couldn’t quantify.

Tumbling and crashing into the floor, Inke hissed, blinking away tears that had welled in her eyes. She was done with this boss. “Suffocate,” she said with a vicious snarl.

Activated Skill: Suffocate (Soar)

Mana Drain: 10/second

Mana Activation: 400

Active Status Effect Inflicted – Suffocating*: 1 HP/second; damage x2/10 seconds

*0 damage inflicted if targets do not require air

It was the most highly damaging skill that she could inflict without utilizing her other Bond, but it took time for the full damage to take effect. Running low on mana, as well, Inke would have to finish the battle quickly and keep the boss from targeting Harin until she defeated it.

She staggered to her feet, hefting Ignari. Starting with a slow walk, Inke picked up speed as she approached the boss. It turned back to face her at her approach from where it had focused on Harin, but not quickly enough. In a flash, she attacked, bringing her sword down and cleaving into the swan’s left wing.

With a cry, it stumbled back, beady black eyes narrowing onto where Inke stood. She offered it a smirk. When she made to close the gap between them again, the boss flapped its lone wing, moving away from Inke.

Though it was grounded and likely slowed by the loss of a limb, Inke didn’t have Gust activated and the mana cost would be unsustainable in combination with Suffocation and, as ever, the constantly present drain of having her bond with Soar activated. Luckily for her, she didn’t need to close into melee range in order to kill the boss.

Every several seconds, she made a half-hearted swipe at the boss; the boss would retreat, backing deeper into the boss room. After several repetitions, however, the swan paused abruptly, chest covered in feathers heaving in and out. From experience, Inke knew what was likely to happen as the damage continued to increase. She turned tail and dashed towards where Harin still lay, blood dribbling and pooling around his head.

Wincing at the sight, she knelt and picked him up, slinging the adventurer over her left shoulder, and continued running. Behind her, panicked screeches and cries were heard from the swan, and a backwards glance over her shoulder allowed her to catch a glimpse of the thrashing boss, striking out wildly at everything within its reach.

When she reached the edge of the room, Inke set Harin down. Merely a few seconds later, the mass of feathers in the center of the room collapsed.

She dismissed Suffocation, not wanting the mana drain to continue any longer any longer than it already had. Only then did Inke allow herself to relax, adrenaline draining out of her system. That had been… uncomfortably close.

In front of her, Harin jolted abruptly upright. “I, I don’t, what-” he stopped, eyes landing on the fallen boss in the center of the room. Voice cracking, he breathed, “It’s still alive. Second stage. I-if it’s not dead yet-”

Before Inke could react to that statement, there was another flash of brilliant light that flooded the room. She shook off the effects quickly, blinking to clear her vision, and above the corpse of the boss rose a hovering figure composed purely of light.

It looked as if someone had taken the previous boss, sketched it out using lines of light, and filled in the gaps with wispy streamers that imitated the appearance of feathers. Cawing loudly, its wings folded, and it swooped down towards Inke and Harin.

Harin said something, but it was lost to Inke in the sound of rushing blood that filled her ears as he stepped in front of her, hands outstretched.

No.

She couldn’t-

Not again-

Transferred Mana

Harin transferred 150 mana from [???].

Mana Gained: 150

With the infusion of mana, Inke felt immediately rejuvenated. She didn’t have time to bask in the feeling, though, as the swan twisted in the air, sending beams of light spiraling towards the pair of adventurers.

One of them hit Harin in the side, sending him sprawling onto the floor.

He didn’t move.

Inke grit her teeth. Forget stealth. She was going to fight.

Strictly speaking, Inke was Platinum VI, meaning that she should have been able to easily tear through such a low-ranked dungeon. Realistically, as an Architect (Bond), her power was tied up solely in the bonded objects and creatures she had access to. And Inke only had two: Soar and Ignari.

One of those was a support item, intended for faster and easier travel, and it only took up three of her sixteen available bond slots. With it activated, Inke’s ranking went from a Copper V from stats and weapon training alone to a Silver II.

The other…

Inke wasn’t a Shatter for nothing.

There was, however, also a reason that the Guildmaster typically assigned her either the easiest or hardest tasks that the Shatter Guild currently needed to fulfill.

She’d grown complacent, used to the simple, Copper and Silver dungeons she’d destroyed. But this dungeon, no matter that it was low-ranked, was different.

“I’m sorry,” Inke said, before grasping Ignari’s handle from where she had left the sword leaning against the wall. She ran her thumb over the large, polished Crystal embedded in the cross-guard. “Activate Bond: Ignari.”

Power rushed through her and Inke felt alive.

Activated Bond: Ignari

Bond Slots Utilized: 13

Mana Drain: 520/minute

Soul Shard Drain: 13/minute

Status

Skills

Stat Increase – AGI: +35

Stat Increase – END: +60

Stat Increase – STR: +35

Stat Increase – REF: +35

Stat Increase – INT: +205

Stat Increase – WIS: +105

Stat Increase – CHA: +30

Stat Increase – LUC: + 25

Gained Skill: Hurricane

Gained Skill: Manipulate Weather

Gained Skill: Swiftness of the Storm

Gained Skill: Lightning Strike

Gained Skill: Storm’s Avatar

[53 Skills hidden]

Gained Skill: Luck Inspection

Gained Skill: Tip the Scales

Gained Skill: Probability Analysis

Gained Skill: Fifty-Fifty

Gained Skill: Luck of the Draw

Active Effects

Regeneration (HP): 10%/minute

Regeneration (MP): 20%/minute

[12 Active Effects hidden]

Shadow-Realm

By a Slim Margin

Passive Effects

Sentinel of the Storm

[5 Passive Effects hidden]

Threat Detection