When spring came around, I said my goodbyes and returned to Dawnhold, spinning up [Weft Walk] for my first long-distance trip. As warned in the library, it was certainly a disconcerting experience; my sight didn't change, but when I went to step forwards my foot ended up further than it should have done. Despite the warnings in the library, I had no trouble walking, but then again it had been a long time since I'd had any problems with [Far Step] either.

The library had also warned against running, and my attempts to jog immediately revealed the problem. Having both feet off the ground at once was like trying to [Far Step] to two different locations simultaneously, with serious groinal strain occurring as a result. That wasn't to say it was impossible, and if I was going to try, better now while the skill was at a low level. With the aid of [Dexterity] on top of the usual [Endurance] I was able to manage it, scoring myself a level of all three skills.

The guild was still being nice enough to host me, despite that I could easily have found a small home for myself by now. Assuming kids were allowed to buy homes. Being a kid was annoying. Why was fourteen still so far away? Besides, I didn't even know if I could do everything at fourteen; if it's like Earth, there could be different age requirements for different things.

Bleh, whatever. I armoured up, finding my gear somewhat smaller on me than the autumn and being very glad of the armour's higher ranked comfort enchantment; there's no way it would have still fit without it. I'd need new armour at some point this year, but at least my staff would be fine for a while longer. I still intended to weld a blade to one end when the time came to lengthen it, but I'd needed to check with a proper enchanter to ensure the existing enchantments would apply to it.

On reaching floor three, I swiftly found that another bonus of the stronger durability enchantment was that the bolts from the traps could no longer pierce through. I doubted that would be true of the more powerful traps on lower floors, but up here at least, missing a bolt with [Distortion] didn't matter. Which was lucky, because I missed a lot. I knew things would improve with more skill levels, but nevertheless it was humbling to be only on floor three and still be unable to deal with projectiles with a rank two skill that specifically existed to deal with projectiles.

A couple of hours' practice was enough to get the hang of it and score a skill level, which immediately doubled the lifetime of my portals and made things a heck of a lot easier. The fourth floor was much the same, so I tried with the fifth, where the traps were concealed. Now, as well as getting the timing right, I had no idea when or where darts would come from. The first couple of traps made it obvious that [Dexterity] was a non-negotiable requirement to react in time. [Minor Wisdom] would have been nice too, if not for the unsustainable mana cost of keeping it active, and I wished I had the rank two version.

By the end of the day I'd succeeded at floor five too, earning another skill level. The next day I risked lower floors and found even floor eight traps easy to deal with. When I knew where the traps were, the faster bolts made things easier rather than harder. I wouldn't have that luxury on floor nine, but I cleared floor eight without taking a single hit. That included the boss too, which fell easily to my increased stats. The class completion bonus had made a sizeable difference.

I doubted it would be enough for floor ten, but the floor nine boss was only a pack of eight orc warriors. They were upgraded versions compared to the floor five boss, but still had no ranged capability. I couldn't see them causing any problems if I bounced around them with [Far Step] and attacked from a distance. And so, on day three of my return to Dawnhold, I stepped onto floor nine. I knew I was going against my resolution to not be stupid, but after having the winter off and with the whole Darren situation, I once again wasn't in the mood to play safe.

I stepped on a pressure plate in the very first room and took a bolt to the back before I could react. It sailed millimetres beneath the plate that covered my upper back and punched straight through the thinner bodysuit below. That made me jump in shock, and trigger another trap, which fortunately struck my breastplate and didn't manage to penetrate through to my skin. So, duly noted, floor nine traps are far faster than floor five.

Also noted was that even these traps couldn't penetrate the thicker leather plates. Xander's [Distortion] strategy hadn't accounted for me befriending a rank four enchanter, so rather than trying to open portals behind me, I'd be better off simply shifting myself slightly to make sure they didn't impact a weak point in my armour. That kinda negated my reasoning for picking [Spatial Mage], but at least the class had very useful spells for out of combat. I pulled out the bolt from my back, which had only inflicted a couple of points of damage, took a dose of antidote and continued on my way.

The next trap I stepped on fired from the front, and I was able to harmlessly redirect it. The next two came from behind, and with a slight bend I made sure they impacted where they would do no damage. The next came from the side, and got redirected into the neck of a charging orc, stunning him while I electrocuted his partner. Aside from the first slip up, things went well, and I made it to the boss with no further poisoning, picking up my third [Distortion] level of the past couple of days in the process.

I waited outside the chamber, funnelling mana to make sure I was going to be heading in with full pools. As I was nearing full, I heard voices approaching, and to my surprise saw a delver group approach. It was a traditional balanced set, with a healer, mage, scout and pair of front-line fighters, one of whom I recognised.

Zachary, Human, Warrior (6/46)

What had his level been the last time I saw him? Certainly not that high, but it had been a couple of seasons. "Hi," I called out, waving.

"Peter? What are you doing here?" he asked in mild surprise. And it was indeed mild, the biggest reaction I saw from the whole group being a couple of raised eyebrows. I suppose I'd bumped into enough people on floor eight last year that my progress wasn't exactly secret.

"Waiting for my mana to refill before running the boss. What about you? Are you going to floor ten?"

"Heck no. Fighting the dungeon's final boss at our level? Not a chance."

Pity, if they were going to run floor ten, I'd have asked to join them. It would probably still be advisable to join them for this boss, but if my theories about skill gains were correct, I wanted my first time to be without a safety net to maximise the rewards I could reap. I was confident I could win, so no point throwing potential skill gains away.

"Fair enough. Anyway, I still have a bit more mana to regenerate, so feel free to move in ahead of me."

"Thanks," replied their scout. Was he the team leader? "You heard the kid, but let's not hold him up. I expect a quick and seamless victory."

Trent, Human, Invisible Stalker (12/52)

I watched them march into the room, hearing an unfamiliar voice before the doors slammed shut. "I dunno how he's not dead already. He's not going to last much longer, mark my words."

I didn't see which one of the other three it was, but apparently not everyone had confidence in my continued survival. The doors reopened ten minutes later. Presumably they'd won, but as ever there was nothing in the room to indicate either way. And now it was my turn.

The boss was as I remembered; eight lightly armoured, axe-wielding orc warriors. They were all standing together in a clump, so I did what any self-respecting mage should do and unloaded my three seconds of lightning at them, grinning madly as sparks jumped from orc to orc. None of them fell, which was a first for this lightning weapon, but the one I'd hit first was not in a good way, and the others closest to him had some very obvious burns. It was a pity I didn't have the spare mana to throw [Analysis] at them to see how much damage I did.

All eight orcs roared, but between the distance and [Endurance], I stood firm. I responded with an attack of my own, using [Far Reach] to smash a knee of the frontmost enemy, who stumbled and tripped the others behind him. I swung again and again, smashing a knee of whatever orc was closest to me, immobilising five of them before the others got close enough that I needed to evade with [Far Step].

The three mobile orcs turned and glared at me, but didn't charge. That was concerning; thus far it had only been bosses with a leader that had shown signs of planning and advanced strategy. Then I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, and dodged as an axe came flying at my head. Great, they were throwing their weapons again. At least they could only do that once each.

The orc that had just thrown the axe was the one I'd electrocuted, and that last bit of exertion seemed to finish him off; he collapsed, blood oozing from his burns and flowing freely from his knee. The three orcs still capable of walking spread apart and started marching towards me at a far more measured pace than their usual charge, and when I attempted to strike them with [Far Reach], they dodged. They were on guard against me now.

Fortunately, this deep in the dungeon my glove recharged quickly, and I unloaded it once more into the rightmost of the three, then closed the distance with [Far Step] and finished him off while he was stunned. I then set about attacking the orcs still on the floor, leaving the two walkers for when my glove recharged. I killed one, then another before dodging to another part of the chamber, then killed the other two before needing to dodge again. They did their best to attack by throwing their axes, but they were easy enough to dodge when I saw them coming.

By that time the glove had recharged again, so I unloaded into one of the remaining two orcs, then smashed his head with [Far Reach] before he could recover. Then there was one. I idly swung with [Far Reach] a couple of times to keep him on his toes, but I intended to wait for my glove to recharge again rather than engage him seriously. Despite the signs of intelligence, it seems that my assessment of this boss had been correct; they hadn't been a threat.

Just as my smugness peaked, pain blossomed from my back. I found myself falling to the floor, unable to move my legs. I was unable to even feel my legs. I had literally no clue what had just happened, and by the time I got over the shock and used my arms to push myself up, the final orc was almost on top of me. He roared again, and from this close range I couldn't completely resist the effect. The room fell into silence, and my vision blurred.

I immediately switched to [Mana Perception], which revealed the first orc, who had collapsed after throwing his axe, was actually still alive. Damn it! Why hadn't I checked with [Appraisal]? I hadn't thought it mattered since he'd already thrown his weapon, but apparently he'd found something else to toss. It also showed the last standing orc raising his axe. I threw myself to the side as he swung down. The pain in my back redoubled, but I considered that a small price to pay in exchange for not being bisected.

My glove had recharged, so as the last orc turned towards me again, I blasted him full in the chest. Laying on the floor, I couldn't get the angle for a swing of my staff, so I drew my knife and repeated my finisher from the first time I fought an orc. I gently pushed it with [Far Reach] straight into an electrical burn exposed between his armour pieces, where the tough skin had been melted away. Unfortunately, I didn't hit anything vital, but having a knife stuck in his belly certainly wasn't doing him any favours, and slowed his recovery from being shocked.

I was desperately hoping my glove would recharge again before he recovered, but it wasn't to be. Through [Mana Perception] I saw him draw back an arm and tighten his grip on his axe. He was about to throw it, and I had no way to properly dodge. I couldn't make a portal with [Distortion] anywhere near big enough to deal with this axe, and I couldn't [Far Step] with my lower body missing in action. I used [Minor Speed] and [Minor Slow] to give myself every edge I could, then as the axe came flying at me I held my staff tight in both hands and did my best attempt to parry.

The axe slammed into my staff, but failed to damage it, ricocheting off harmlessly behind me. The impact knocked the staff right out of my hands, sending it sailing behind me along with the axe, and leaving my arms numb. A crack from my right arm suggested a broken bone. The orc started walking towards me, sneering, balling his hand into a fist. In my position, he needed no weapon.

It didn't matter; my glove was already recharged enough to use. Since he was in no hurry, I'd give it more time to recharge. I wanted to make sure the next shot killed him. Then I spotted movement from the other surviving orc. He was reaching towards his left foot, and I noticed that his right foot no longer had a claw. Was that what he'd thrown? He tore the claw from his left foot and prepared to throw. Thank goodness I still had [Mana Perception] up; I had no intention of letting him catch me by surprise again.

He threw the claw, and I raised my arm and invoked [Distortion], redirecting the claw into the throat of the standing orc. I followed it up with a lightning bolt, careful to use only half of the stored charge, and he fell down dead. That left me alone with the orc who had faked his death, who was now standing on his one good leg and hopping towards me. I drained the rest of the glove's charge into him, my relief palpable as he also toppled over, dead.

ding

While I was of course interested in my rewards, I had more important matters to deal with first. Checking my status, my health damage wasn't actually all that bad. I'd lost twenty-five points, which was somewhere over half of what I had without [Endurance]. Health points didn't tell the entire story though, and with [Mana Perception] I could see that the first thrown claw had penetrated my back below the top plate and severed my spine. No wonder my legs no longer worked... I poured a potion into my mouth, tore the claw out, doing my best not to scream at the pain, then swallowed before I had the opportunity to lose too much blood.

When that didn't return the use of my legs, I drank my second potion, trying to find a comfortable position as it did its work. I had no-one to blame for my unseemly state but myself; a monster had fallen and I hadn't confirmed its death, believing that even if it was still alive, it had no weapons. It was a mistake I wouldn't make again. Nevertheless, I had won. I'd beaten the floor nine boss, and now only had one more floor to go to clear this dungeon.