《Shifting Tunnels》Chapter 6

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Suddenly being informed that they had just gotten their last path. Iden quickly distributed their points.

Wisdom Growth ranked up to Novice 1

By reaching Wisdom Growth Novice 1 in under a day, you have unlocked

Path of Wisdom 1 0/5

Seeing that it had removed one of the time constraints they were working under. They turned to the group of villagers it was working with.

"I think our best chance would be to quickly leave. Staying in here to try and recovery just increase the chance of us being attacked again." Says Iden.

"Your right. We can morn once we are back in the village." Says Ivan as he holds out his hand for Liz to grab.

Quickly garbing onto it, Liz pulls herself to her feet. Doing her best not to grab onto the hand with an arrow in it,

"Make sure to keep your guard up. Just because we already went down this path once does not mean it is necessarily safe." Calls out Iden.

"I'm also only going to be able to create one more of those shields. So we're going to be able to deal with one more of those traps at most." Says Nick.

"That makes matters worse. Is there any way for you to be able to cast more?" Asks Iden.

"No, I'm afraid the Mana core takes time to recharge. And I don't know of any way to speed that up." Replies Nick.

"Well, we should at least make what preparations we can," Iden says, walking over to pull there dagger out of the goblin. "We might even be able to make use of these weapons. Even if they are a little small."

"If you haven't used a bow before then I would just leave them. They require a lot of training to use right. And would end up being just as much of a threat to us if you don't know what you are doing." Says Ivan.

"Ah, so these won't be of much use to us then. Will they." Iden says while pointing to the bodies.

"You should search them for Mana cores. If you find one it will help to offset the cost of any adventurer we will need to higher." Says Nick.

"Mana core? Like the thing in your staff?" Asks Iden.

"Ya. Just cut em open and take a look around their chests. Shouldn't be too hard to find. If any of them do have one." Says Liz, while holding the sword out with their good arm. "Also you might as well take this back. It won't be much use to me in this state."

Quickly walking over, Iden takes their sword back. While handing the dagger over to them and speaking.

"I've also only got a single working hand. So you might as well hold onto this for me. Besides, I would feel a lot safer knowing that you were armed." Iden says. Trying to keep their tone warm and kind. Before starting to cut open the remains of the goblins.

Charisma Growth ranked up to basic 3

"It doesn't look like there is any cores inside of them. Though, it's not all that surprising with their rarity. It's still quite a disappointment." States Nick.

"Ya, finding some cores would have definitely helped. But there's nothing we can do about it at this point. Better to just get out." Ivan says as he walks to the front of the group. "I'll take lead with Nick behind me, ready to support if needed. Behind him will be Liz, with Iden taking up rear guard."

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Quickly moving into position, they start to move. Heading back the way they originally came from.

The walk back ends up being quite easy. Not running into any new monsters or traps. Arriving back at the entrance with the the seven who decided not to enter waiting for them.

"Thank the gods you returned. You were in there so long I was starting to worry that you weren't going to come back." Says Ivan mother as she runs forward to hug her son.

As she does this, the others run forward and start to surround the other three. Asking what happened in the dungeon and if they were able to find the others. Though the questions were coming far to fast for them to be able to answer any of them.

"We will tell you everything once we return to the village. But for now Liz is injured. So her treatment needs to come first." Says Ivan. Before helping Liz's walk by putting hus arm around his sholder and walking out of the dungeon.

Watching them go, Ivan drops themselves to the floor. Having yet to find a solution to their lack of healing.

"Hey, you're not planning on staying here are you?" Calls out Nick. After stopping to look back to them.

"I don't think I will be able to walk all the way to your village. I'm just going to rest here." Replies Iden.

"Nonsense. You were willing to go back into the dungeon after being attacked just to help us out. There is no way we are just going to leave you here." Says Nick as he starts to walk back over to them.

Not putting up a fight, Iden lets Nick help them to their feet before supporting them.

"See, it's not so bad. Now let's get you to the village as well. We need to get you patched up as well." Says Nick, as they also walk out of the dungeon.

You are currently leaving Asezis's Crypt

Do to no longer having the dungeons support. Deterioration will begin in 20 hours.

That was not as bad as they had been expecting. The time frame would give it some freedom to explore outside the dungeon. As well as hopefully make it so that the Voice would be unable to sense them.

So Iden began to walk back to the village with the others. Trying to avoid conversation were possible as to not say something to give themselves away. While also listening in on the conversations of those around them to learn what they could.

In total, the walk back took around 1 hour and netted them one point of Endurance and one point of Charisma.

Once they reached the village Iden quickly took a look around. The most obvious thing was the buildings. Each one seemingly made nearly completely of wood. They formed two semi-circles around the dirt path cutting through the center of town. With a total of six building on each side. With a taller structure behind each set of homes. Each one being taller, cylindrical, and made nearly inertly of stone. With large fields of grain even further behind that.

"Welcome to our village." Whispers nick to Iden. "It's not much, but it's home."

"What's going to happen now?" Iden whispers back "You recently lost of people didn't you?"

"We're going to conduct a funeral for those that died. Then, once the next merchant arrives, we are going to higher adventurers to come and destroy that dungeon." Replies Nick, in a tone much colder than before.

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Able to tell that trying to continue that conversation is most likely not a good idea. Iden instead looks to the town once more. Noticing a large group of people looking back at them.

Wondering who they all are. Iden looks up to ask. But quickly notices that the people they are travailing with are lowering there heads. No longer speaking. And, not wanting to seem out of place, Iden quickly dose the same.

"Were you able to find any of them?" One of the people in the village calls out.

"No. We were unable to find them. From what we can tell they most likely died inside of the dungeon." Says Ivan mother, a grave expression present on her face.

Hearing this, some of the people run off back into buildings. While the others still standing on the road start to deal with the news in their own ways. Some breaking into tears, others seeming to flare up in anger, while others still seemed to still be unable to accept the truth. The whole time Iden continued to walk. Trying not to revile that they were the ones who caused their deaths.

The situation only getting worse once they entered the town. As the people started to walk around comforting each other and talking about the times they shared with those who had died.

They were about to try to join in when they felt a tap on their shoulder. Looking behind them, they saw Ivan standing there. Still helping Liz to walk.

"Come on, we need to get you and Liz fixed up before we do anything else." He says, voice wavering.

"I'm fine. I want to stay for the ceremony." Says Liz as she tries to push herself away from Ivan.

"No, you aren't. And, even if some people suspected we might be having a burial ceremony soon. It will still take time to get everything ready. So if you go now you will still be able to attend the ceremony after." Says Ivan, in a far more forceful tone.

Giving up after hearing that. Liz simply utters a fine before letting Ivan help them over to one of the buildings. Shortly followed by Iden with help from Nick.

Once inside they saw a shorter person sitting at a table. Staring down at it with a blank face.

"Is he OK?" Iden whispers to Nick.

"His father was one of the people who went into the dungeon. He was our villages only healer. His sun was to be his replacement and was being trained by him." He whispers back.

"You doing OK there?" Ivan says, having walked closer.

"I heard the news. My father didn't make it back did he?" He says. His voice lacking any signs of emotion. Before standing up to be eye level with Ivan. "Did they at least destroy the dungeon?"

"No. We tried heading into it to try and find them. It was far more dangerous then any of us had ever imagined. We never even saw the core." Says Ivan.

"Then what was the point of sending people in there. Now we are going to have to bankrupt the village anyways. Just to higher some adventurers to come and destroy it. Meaning my father died for nothing." Shouts the healer, slamming his fist onto the table. His calm from before replaced by furry.

"If your father hadn't been so insistent on dealing with this himself. We would have just done this from the start. And no one would need to have died." He yells to Ivan. Before storming out of the house.

What they said seems to be getting to Ivan. As he helps Liz sit down in one of the chairs before taking a seat for himself.

Seeing this, Ivan broke off from Nick to take the seat facing Liz. With Nick quickly following to take the final seat facing Ivan.

"You know he was just angry, right?" Reassured Liz.

"Ya, he seemed to not be very stable when he said that." Says Iden.

"I know that he was just angry. But that still doesn't change the fact that what he said was true. There was no reason for our village to try and deal with the dungeon on our own." Laments Ivan.

"Maybe we can take care of it." Says Iden. "We were unprepared for the dungeon last time. But if we make more preparations, and train some more. Then we should be able to destroy it."

"You want us to go back in there? Liz still has an arrow in her hand from the last time we tried. Not to mention, you look like you might drop dead at any moment." Replies Ivan.

"He's right. Our village can't afford to pay for adventurers to come and deal with this dungeon. And were the only people left in the village with combat jobs. If we get a couple more levels we might be able to conquer the dungeon." Says Liz.

"If we start to kill the monsters without going after the core. I might be able to make a better wand. Which would make progressing far easier? Never mind the stat boosts we would gain from leveling." Says Nick.

"So, you all want to try going after the dungeon again." Asks Ivan, seeming to consider the idea.

"It's only going to keep getting stronger. If we don't act fast, we might never be able to." States Iden.

"Your right." says Ivan. Seemingly giving in. "But that still leaves the problem of us being injured. So we are going to need to get treatment and rest first."

Having come to a decision. Liz looks to her hand in frustration. Before gifting her teeth a pulling the arrow out of her hand. Barely holding back a scream.

"What are you doing." Yells Nick.

"Treating my hand. Now go get some of that green paste the doctor always uses." She says. Voice wavering the whole time.

Not knowing what she is talking about. Iden simply sits in place as Ivan and Nick get up and start looking around the building. Quickly pulling open each drawer and pantry in their search.

"Found it," Nick yells.

"Pass it over" replies Ivan. Before quickly garbing it and rushing over to help Liz.

"Took you guys long enough. I was starting to worry the infection would start before you guys found anything." Says Liz, chuckling.

"What were you thinking. You can't just be doing things like that. You probably caused a bunch of extra damage from that. Not to mention making it take even longer to heal." Berates Ivan.

"I figured that if I took it out sooner, then it would start to heal sooner." She says back.

"You know that's not how it works." He chides, starting to rub the green paste onto the wound. As Nick starts to wrap a white cloth around it.

"I was just trying to get your minds of everything that's happening." She apologizes.

Iden just chuckles at this. Revealing a faint smile. Before turning to look to Iden.

"So what are your classes then? We are going to need to start learning to work together if we want to conquer this dungeon." They ask Iden.

"I don't have any." Replies Iden.

"You don't have any!? Not even farmer or something?" Gasps Nick.

"No. Is it that strange not to have a class?" Ask a confused Iden.

"Yes. They make life far easier. So people tend to select them the second they unlock one. But since Humans can only have a maximum of 3. With commoner already taking up one slot, it is hard for people like us to amass any amount of strength. But since you don't have a class yet. You should be able to take two combat classes. Giving you far higher stats and far more skills." Says Nick.

"Oh. So that's the reason that Liz is so hesitant to become a Fighter and why each of you only has one combat class." Says Iden, finally beginning to understand the situation. "If that's the case. Why don't you just keep getting new skills and upgrading them to complete more paths? It seems like you would be able to keep increasing your stats that way."

"How has no one ever taught you this?" Asks Nick. "Everyone is only able to learn a maximum number of none class skills. Normally something like fourteen to twenty. And since theirs no way of knowing till you hit your limit. You need to be very careful with which skills you take."

Iden swallows at this. Realizing how close they had come to making a mistake it would never be able to recover from.

"Since you have no class. You could learn the Fighter and Wizard class. Since they are the only ones we know how to get. Though I doubt we have the time for either." Says Ivan.

"You just got to fight in a way that is natural to you. You will eventually get a class that works for you." Says Liz.

"You should just focus on training your skills. A class is not everything. Especially at low levels like us." Says Nick.

"I'm going to need some time to think about this." Replies Iden. Having no idea what they want to do. Or how long they will have to do it.

"Well, we have plenty of time for the moment." Says Nick.

"Yes, we do. So for tonight, let us celebrate the lives of our friends and family. Then tomorrow we will begin to destroy the dungeon." Says Ivan. Before standing, a new look of determination plastered across his face.

Quickly following suit. The others stand up as well. Before walking out, determined to enjoy the ceremony. And with it, say one final goodbye to the ones they had lost.

Leaving Iden to follow them. Confused, but determined none the less.

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