Chapter 18: Relax
Grabbing some bones from his ring, Jay crafted some bone daggers for his level 1 feeble creatures.
"I won't need to buy weapons from that disgusting merchant ever again" he chuckled to himself.
Each level 1 underling had a single bone dagger while the level 2 feeble creature had 2 bone daggers.
"Let my minions do the work" decided Jay as observed the next obelisk. He sent his three feeble creatures to test it, while he and Anya watched at a distance.
"Sir, reporting" A guard stood behind his commander who was currently looking out into the forest.
"Yes?"
"We found something odd. It wasn't another corpse, but there were two piles of soap-rat bones."
The commander shivered, remembering his first dungeon, the stink-rat marsh - back in the days before the new adventurers were levelled up at the guild to skip that stinking hole. "Are you sure they're from the marsh?"
"Yes sir, we had some veteran soldiers and some higher level adventurers verify them."
"Hmm… return to duties." The commander said as he thought to himself 'so, maybe something was able to leave the dungeon…? Or was this a pissed off adventurer? ...I don't think it would be a dimerkin, they wouldn't make it this far down south without being slaughtered by the army…'
He decided to send a few people into the marsh.
"Scout master, I want two of the scouts to enter the stink-rat marsh, look for anything out of the ordinary before killing Molodus and coming back. You have.." the commander looked at the sky "until nightfall".
The scout master looked distressed at having to send his men to the marsh, nevertheless, he had his orders "Sir." He sent some of his men south to the dungeon entrance.
Jay leisurely put his hands in his pockets as he watched his three feeble creatures fight a level 4 bayring. The level 2 Don seemed to be doing the most damage as it was using one bone dagger to take the graze's while it stabbed at the crystal with it's other hand.
The creatures all made short work of the level 4 bayring, especially with their new weapons. They seemed to possess a natural skill for the daggers, having the qualities of being fast and aggressive.
"Perhaps they would be good with axes and hatchets too" Jay considered, "Though it seems like they enjoy stabbing rather than slashing."
Something unusual happened during the fight - the bayring seemed to have a new attack. It stabbed at a level 1 creature with its pointed crystal core, though thankfully it was destroyed before it could hit anything.
[55 Exp]
"Awesome, I'm pretty close to level up." said Jay as he willed the level 2 minion to retrieve the green crystal for him, happy as it brought back one which glowed more than usual.
"Nice" said Jay, gazing into the crystal as he checked it's stats.
[Minor Crystal - Green] (Charged)
[Alchemy ingredient Tier 1]
[Spell channel Tier 1]
[Discharge] (1 charge) - 5 Electrical damage. 5% chance to stun for 2 seconds.
"I'll give that a go if my boy's need some help, otherwise, i bet it would sell a good amount" Jay pocketed the crystal and kept moving, smiling as he looked at Anya "feel free to help out".
Anya didn't say a word 'You clearly did nothing to earn that crystal' she thought with a head shake.
The duo were still choosing the smaller obelisks as they explored the dungeon, deciding they would try one of the larger ones once Jay had levelled up to 6. The next obelisk they came to ejected two level 3 bayrings.
Without turning to Anya, Jay commented "They might need some help this time".
Anya took a few steps forward and took a knee.
'Huh, when you think about it, she's kinda like one of my minions…following orders and stuff' Jay had a weird thought.
Anya was keeping a level 3 bayring stunned while the 3 feeble creatures destroyed the other - though since it was level 3, it recovered more quickly from her attacks, so Jay had to lend her a little help.
It wasn't long before the 3 feeble creatures had killed one and come over to help, the five of them together made short work of the bayring's.
[30 Exp][30 Exp]
"Imagine if there were only two of us, this would be so much harder" Jay commented.
Anya nodded as she took a sip of water then went to retrieve some bolts and a crystal, while Jay got the other one.
'Oh, this one isn't charged' Jay looked at the crystal that Muffin brought him 'It must only be the level 4 bayring's that drop the charged ones.'
Pocketing the items, they moved on through the dungeon as they only came close to the comparatively smaller obelisks which would eject only one level 4 bayring or two level 3's. It wasn't long before Jay had a small stockpile or charged crystals - meanwhile, another one of his feeble creatures hit level 2. Jay took some bones out of his ring and created a second dagger for it.
Looking at his charged-crystal stockpile, he thought "These will be useful in an emergency." he thought to himself "It's basically a free 5 damage attack with a chance to stun, I suppose it's effectiveness depends on how quickly I can use each of them… I should definitely come back to this dungeon to harvest these."
Hitting level 6, Jay smiled "Finally, time for an upgrade. I wonder what I should level up. Another feeble creature would be good, but If I come to a strong boss it could just wipe them all out. I don't need to upgrade my shell restoration, they hardly get hurt and I can just wait for more mana. Undead mastery seems like the best option - raising their max level to 3 will be useful in the long run. I may need more MP too for the healing so I think I'll put some points into health and mana."
With that, Jay added his 3 attribute points to energy and 2 to vitality - then upgraded undead mastery to level 2.
"What are you doing?" Anya wondered why Jay stopped moving.
"Level 6" Jay didn't even look at her as he checked his stats.
"Nice." she said.
<[Jay]>
[Necromancer Level 6]
[Race - Human]
HP: 75/75
MP: 61/61
Strength: 15
Dexterity: 25
Vitality: 27
Energy: 38/38
Exp: 63/1500
<[Skills]>
[Raise Feeble Creature level 3] - 3/3 Raised
[Shell Restoration Level 1]
[Shift]
[Undead Mastery Level 2] (Passive)
[Stress Response] (Passive)
[Running level 1] (Passive)
[Dagger Proficiency level 1] (Passive)
[Poison Resist 10%] (Passive - equipment)
<[Research]>
[Chimera Research 3%]
[Immortality Research 2%]
Jay checked his upgraded skill too.
[Undead Mastery Level 2]
[Your undead can reach a max level of (3). Level up is permanent]
"Now we just gotta level you guys up" Jay said, looking at his feeble creatures as they patrolled around him in a loose circle, looking for danger.