After defeating the duo boss, Cerion and I retreated further back into the city, to a place that we had previously explored, and set up camp for the night inside one of the empty houses. Both he and I had to recover from some wounds and exhaustion, though my wounds were healing more quickly, a fact that Cerion made sure to whine about.

“It’s not fair! Why can’t I ever get a healing skill!,” he complained half seriously, half-jokingly.

“Just get lucky in your next life, I guess…”, I teased him.

Cerion and I had put off exploring the bosses’ butchery and bakery until later, because traps were still a dangerous possibility, despite the fact that this dungeon hadn’t used them against us yet. In our exhausted state, we weren’t prepared to explore a potentially deadly area safely. Instead, we decided to get a full night’s sleep, after staying awake for nearly three days out in the forest and fighting almost a dozen battles.

“So, how did you feel about that fight?”, I asked Cerion.

“I think we did well! That part at the end where we consistently switched the boss’ target over and over while keeping the other from getting enraged worked out perfectly!”, he claimed proudly.

I hummed. I agreed with him in that we had come up with a rather successful plan on the spot, but I still felt like it hadn’t been the optimal approach. Usually, I was the first to charge headlong into any fight, but this last fight had given me a fright. It wasn’t often that a monster so badly outmatched Cerion and me in every single aspect other than skill usage. I had been getting overconfident after we easily beat the ghost knight at the gates.

“I think we should have just tested their stats and backed off after the baker stopped his rage and backed off, to come up with a solid plan. If we had spent some time to think things through, we could’ve figured out earlier that their constitution didn’t rise after their eyes became red, which means that sneak attacks could still have worked if we were careful…”

“Look at captain hindsight over here!”, Cerion joked, “Really though, I agree with you. Usually, I would be more careful too, but I keep getting dragged along in your enthusiasm for straightforward battles. I’m happy you’re the one to bring this up actually.”, he said snarkily, before his title [Water prodigy] reappeared above his head, as if he was expecting a fight.

I grinned.

“Don’t try to put this on me, water-boy. Don’t think equipping that fancy title can scare me from placing the blame on you instead!”

A second later, we were wrestling on the stone floor of the dreary house we had taken shelter in.

~scene transition~

Later that night, Cerion and I took a moment to allocate our new stats that we had gained from another level up.

Ding! Combat finished. Congratulations on reaching [Overloading Death Knight] level 46!

Reach level 50 to advance to tier 3.

Stat points allocated. 5 free stat points per level up awarded.

The duo mini-bosses had granted us another level on their own. A few more, and we would reach our goal. This was basically just a race against time at this point, one we were winning. I put my free points into wisdom again, getting it up to 238. 300 wisdom wasn’t far off, I would reach the milestone a few levels into tier 3.

With my points assigned, I took some time to practice my skills, including an hour-long session of [Mental palace]. The group of trees and plants were slowly becoming healthier and larger, so I felt like I was on the right path as far as my mentality was concerned so far.

A few minutes after that, both Cerion and I decided to call it a night and tucked in. Revan was going to act as our lookout, so I wasn’t really worried about ambushes.

~scene transition~

The next morning, Cerion and I set out to continue exploring the city. Thankfully, the night had passed without incident, so we were well-rested and prepared to deal with anything coming our way.

The first stop on our list were the bakery and butchery from the day before. We had fought the bulky duo out on the streets of the city, which meant that their original buildings remained unexplored by us until now.

“I really should’ve asked my uncle for some information on this dungeon before coming here. I mean, the level-gain has been fantastic so far, but there are far too many strange mechanics going on in this dungeon for my taste.”, I complained.

Cerion smiled.

“I doubt he would’ve given you any, even if you had asked. I don’t know about your uncle, but my father would never give me information on a quest or dungeon unless absolutely necessary. He doesn’t want to ‘coddle’ me, as he says.”, he replied, chuckling.

I hummed to myself. I supposed there was some truth to that. If I was my uncle, I wouldn’t help any more than necessary either. There was no sense in babying people that were supposed to grow into warriors. Other, less powerful nobles might employ such tactics, but their offspring will never amount to much as a result. Challenge breeds competency, as they say.

My thoughts were interrupted by Cerion opening the front door of the bakery. Just like the rest of the building, the door looked like it had been made for giants like the two ghosts we had fought the day before. The otherwise completely ordinary bakery looked imposing, exclusively because of its height.

Even from the outside, I noticed the familiar smell of bread that always wafted through my own home in the early mornings. As we headed inside, I noticed that the large counter was indeed stocked full of bread and pastries, just like any other high-class bakery that had access to sugar. Fortunately, there was no sign of any ghosts, or even monsters in general. We investigated the rest of the building, but found nothing special, apart from the freshly baked bread that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Cerion and I decided to leave it behind. We couldn’t be sure that this dungeon food was safe to eat and we had plenty of rations to last us another two weeks. The butchery ended up being much the same as the bakery, with various cuts of meats and sausages on display, all sized twice as large as they would normally be.

“For some reason, this dungeon is imitating a normal city.”, I analyzed.

“It seems so…”, Cerion replied, “What could push a dungeon to such efforts though? We know that dungeons possess some kind of intelligence, similar to animals and monsters, but I don’t quite know why they would try to imitate humans.”

Cerion and I continued to discuss the dungeon’s strange behavior as we headed deeper into the city, as the never-ending drizzle continued. We explored more streets with stone imitations of houses and explored everything that seemed even slightly out of place, but we couldn’t find any clues to clearing the dungeon. Eventually, we decided to continue with our original plan and headed to the clock tower, the tallest building in the city.

When we arrived, we found out that the clock tower was part of a larger complex of buildings attached to one another. The architecture reminded me of the citadel and palace in the capital, combined into one ugly, chimeric building. The complex seemed disjointed, as if whoever designed it had differing opinions and wanted to prove their section was the best. In the middle of this mess, the clock tower stood, sticking out of the otherwise chaotic building.

Cerion and I wanted to enter, but right as we walked over to the tower, a blue barrier shimmered into existence, blocking us from coming any closer.

Immediately, we both backed up from the complex, looking around fervently for any threats and even summoning Revan and Alia in case of an ambush.

Instead, nothing happened. Even after a few minutes, we were still completely alone. Unfortunately, the barrier was still there too, barring us from entering what I supposed was the final boss’ chamber.

“Should I break the barrier?”, I asked Cerion frustratedly.

“Watch out with that! What if you attacking the barrier makes a hundred enraged butchers chase after us!”, Cerion warned.

I nodded, because I could see his point. Hitting enemies carelessly had bitten us in the ass before, so caution was necessary.

“Why don’t you back off with Revan and Alia, and hide in a nearby house. Meanwhile, I’ll attack the barrier. If something happens, I’ll apparate to you.”, I proposed.

A few minutes later, we were in position. I drew my sword and activated [Overloaded sword] as I did so, sending a wide arc of dark mana at the giant bubble that covered the entire complex.

As it made impact, my attack just fizzled out. The barrier showed no sign of damage, it didn’t even buckle under my attack. Enraged, I started swinging like a madman.

~scene transition~

Half an hour later, Cerion approached the barrier as well, where he found me, exhausted and leaning on my sword to stay upright. He ran over to me and put his arm around my shoulder, supporting me as I stood.

“What the hell happened, Arthur? Did you get attacked?”, he asked, concerned.

“FUCK THAT HELIOS-DAMNED BARRIER! Half an hour of attacks, all for nothing! I threw everything at that damn thing! The maelstrom, the orbs, the sword arcs even the fucking curse mark, and nothing happened! This fucking thi-”, I shouted.

Cerion patted me on the back and interrupted me with a strained smile.

“I’m sorry to hear you ‘wasted’ your time, Arthur. I was worried you had been hurt for a moment, but luckily nothing happened. Listen, why don’t you take a break and go meditate for a few hours. I’ll continue investigating the barrier. There must be a way to enter, we just haven’t found it yet.”, he proposed.

I nodded and scampered off to our improvised resting spot, taking out some dried bacon to eat away my frustration. While I chewed, half cursing as I did so, I took some time to pet Revan. For a lizard, he liked behaving like a dog far too much. Now that he was getting larger, the black skull resting on my head was also getting heavier. At tier 3, he would just have to give up acting like a canine and start behaving like an actual lizard. I told him as much, but he only closed his eyes and ignored me. Well, instead of closing his eyes, the two lights in his eye socket went out when he decided to ‘sleep’.

A few hours of meditation later, Cerion excitedly opened my tent.

“Arthur, I think I’ve found out what we have to do! Come look!”, he said happily, before running off again.

With a groan, I got up out of my lotus position, and tried to sprint after him. He led me to the barrier.

“So what did you find out? I don’t see anything.”, I sighed.

“Don’t be so negative, Arthur! I’m a genius, so I know what we have to do!”, he replied jovially, without a hint of sarcasm, though I knew that he meant it to sound sarcastic. He took out his sword, before swinging an arc of water at the top of the barrier. Just like before, it didn’t even leave a scratch.

I looked over to Cerion, unimpressed.

“So? I could’ve told you nothing would happen. No disrespect meant, but I don’t think we can get through this barrier by force.”, I said in a monotone voice.

Cerion shook his head.

“No, look! Symbols appear when you splash the shield with a lot of water at once!”, he shouted excitedly.

I looked up and, sure enough, white symbols had appeared on the shield. Three circles were attached to symbols that looked like chains, positioned to one another like a triangle. They spiraled to the center of the three circles, where they connected. One of the circles was gray, rather than white, though, and the chain seemed broken.

In the center of said circle, two figures were depicted. A rolling pin and a cleaver, crossed like swords.

The circles at the bottom-left and the one at the top had a strange symbol I didn’t recognise and a strange knife depicted in them, respectively.

“I believe each circle represents a certain mini-boss in the city!”, Cerion continued, “With one dead, one of the circles became grayed out. The music note probably represents a musician of some kind, while I don’t know what the stake represents.”

“A music note?”, I asked, “That’s what that weird squiggly thing is?”

“Yeah!”, Cerion replied, nodding.

Now that I thought about it, Cerion knew about a lot of different things. He knew a lot about monsters, knew how to draw maps and now even knew what music notes looked like. It seemed that his father had given him a varied education, something most commoners could only dream of. Apart from learning your letters and numbers from my parents, I hadn’t gotten much of an education myself, but I was learning as I went. Eventually, I could make some time to learn about more things. Maybe…

“So, two more bosses, hidden somewhere in the city, huh…If their boss arena’s stand out as much from the gray, brick buildings like the bakery and butchery did, we should find them easily.”, I observed.

Cerion hopped up and down in excitement.

“Let’s get to hunting!”