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Is it Wrong to Skitter in a Dungeon? Chapter 10
🕑 Added 2024-08-10 17:02:01 +0000 UTCChapter 10: The Power of Skills
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” Hestia asked, raising an eyebrow at Taylor as she fed some Killer Ant Magic Stones to Anne. The cave that the monster had dug was a crude hole in the church’s yard obscured behind some rubble, but the Killer Ant Taylor had adopted didn’t seem to mind the cramped conditions. Nor did the rest of the swarm.
“She needs our help, Hestia,” Taylor replied as she patted Anne’s head. It clicked its mandibles in response and the twin-tailed goddess shivered a bit at the sound.
“She stole from Bell and lied to you two,” Hestia said when she recovered.
Two days ago, Lili had stolen the Hestia Knife from Bell. However, she had only done so to try and protect the white-haired boy from other members of the Soma Familia. Taylor and Bell had saved her, and then, because Bell was such a kind-hearted soul, offered to let Lili live with them when he learned that the supporter had a terrible home life and needed the protection.
Lili had hesitated but eventually agreed. She’d asked for a few days to settle things with her old housing situation, and to hide her stash from Canoe or other people from stumbling across it. But today was the day the pallum was going to be moving in with the Hestia Familia.
“Like I said before, Lili didn’t actually lie to us because we never asked her about her circumstances, and it’s not a crime to hide who you are when you’re afraid of being hurt again,” Taylor said. “She also returned the weapon. And are you really going to tell Bell he can’t have a sleepover with his new friend?”
“Fine, she can stay here for now,” Hestia groaned, running a hand over her face. “And what about that other matter?”
“If he agrees to it, then we’ll go through with it,” Taylor replied.
“I don’t like the idea of letting that… thing spread its influence any further into this world,” Hestia stated, folding her arms.
“Unless you want to pay the exorbitant prices for a new Grimoire, this is the only way we’ll be able to ensure Bell is strong enough that he never has to worry about being caught unarmed again,” Taylor pointed out. “Not to mention, my Skill is the only way for new Shards to descend and form connections in this world. They can’t do so on its own.”
Her passenger sent a pulse of affirmation through their link at that. Taylor wasn’t entirely sure why the powerful Shard was holding back on seeding a whole new world with her fellow Shards. Perhaps Queen Administrator wasn’t fully in control of the Network yet and couldn’t spare the resources to the process, or maybe there was something else about the world that prevented the usual seeding method?
Taylor didn’t know the reasons ‘why,’ but for some reason, she believed her own Shard about its current limitations. The ‘pout’ Queen Administrator sent her when she thought that amused her and helped confirm it.
“I mean…” Hestia began, but trailed off. “Ugh, I hate it when you’re right.”
“Then we’re in agreement,” Taylor nodded. “I will give Bell access to a Shard, making him a parahuman.”
Taylor felt a bit conflicted about this. It felt cheap to just give away a superpower, like she was one of those hypocrites from Cauldron. But then again, she wouldn’t wish the regular way to obtain a power on anybody. Still, she felt it was for the best. Her bugs buzzed a bit as she moved her hesitation away into the swarm.
“Ugh, don’t do that!” Hestia groaned, shuddering a bit as the sound of wings and mandibles rattling echoed through the cave.
“Do what?” Taylor asked.
“Do that… emotion shunting thing!” Hestia stated, throwing her arms into the air. “Don’t shove all your emotions into your bugs! It makes you seem creepy!”
“I am creepy,” Taylor replied.
“No, you’re not!” Hestia shouted, stomping a foot angrily as she glared up at Taylor. “You’re a beautiful and strong girl with the biggest heart I’ve ever seen, and you shouldn’t have to hide your emotions!”
“I…” Taylor murmured, not sure what to do about that. Hestia patted her on the back fondly.
“Think about it,” she offered, before walking out, leaving Taylor to her thoughts.
‘Is that why people seem to be weirded out by me?’ Taylor wondered once she was alone. Lisa had mentioned that it was hard to read her. Did other people think she seemed unsettling when she was suppressing her emotions?
‘It would explain some of my interactions with other heroes and villains,’ she mused. They couldn’t all have been jerks or being driven to conflict by their shards… could they?
After a moment she shrugged, then returned to the church’s basement, where Taylor found Bell tidying up the living room and kitchen.
“Where’s everybody else?” she asked, sitting down onto the couch.
“Lili is getting her stuff from her old place,” Bell informed Taylor. “And Lady Hestia is taking a bath.”
“So, we have a bit of free time, then,” she noted. “Alright. Do you want to see if I can give you a power now?”
“Yes!” Bell said eagerly, bouncing on his feet. Taylor had told him about her ability to grant powers to others, and was excited at the prospect. He also knew he had to keep it secret. But still. Superpowers! Like a hero! What wasn’t to love?
“Alright… let’s see how this works,” Taylor muttered, before closing her eyes and looking inward, trying to find the second Skill she possessed. She’d never really thought about what it was like to try and use a new Skill or different power. Her bug control powers were always active when she was awake, and there was no effort to it.
The other one was different. The God Slayer Skill was elusive. It lurked, waiting to be called upon. If Taylor had to, she’d liken it to a Trapdoor Spider waiting to leap out at a moment’s notice. Taylor touched upon it, and Queen Administrator responded.
Through the senses of her swarm, Taylor saw Bell tremble a bit as Queen Administrator connected to the rabbit-like adventurer via a tendril of extra-dimensional energy that extended from Taylor’s passenger tucked away in her brain. The moment passed quickly however, and Bell blinked slowly before looking around, then down at his hands.
“Did it work? I don’t feel any different,” he mused.
“We should wait until Hestia updates your Falna before testing anything,” Taylor suggested, aware of how destructive some powers could be. She didn’t want the place to get wrecked.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” Hestia screeched, suddenly barging into the living room with a towel wrapped around her torso to preserve her modesty, rivulets of water pouring down from her long, untied hair.
“L-Lady Hestia?!” Bell squeaked, blushing bright red and covering up his face.
“Oh, so you felt that?” Taylor asked.
“Of course I did!” Hestia snapped. “I’m pretty sure every god in the city could feel it!”
“Interesting, that’s good to know for the future,” Taylor muttered, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
Hestia made a strangled sound before stomping back into the bathroom, before emerging a few minutes later fully dried and dressed. She then dragged Bell into the bedroom where she updated his Falna. A few minutes later she emerged, holding a piece of paper in hand that she thrust into Taylor’s. Bell trailed out a moment afterwards, eyes wide.
BELL CRANEL
LEVEL 1
POWER – C 662 → B 707
ENDURANCE – F 308 → E 433
DEXTERITY – C 629 → B 737
AGILITY – B 764 → A 823
MAGIC – I 0 → I 0
SKILLS
Liaris Freese
Jupiter Ascendant: Create clones of lightning based on the user that have strength equal to the user’s stats divided by number of clones created. Upon destruction, the clones will explode. Clones obey the creator.
“Well now,” Taylor muttered. “Your stats are quite impressive. And this skill… very interesting.”
‘If Bell creates one clone, it will have stats equal to one-half of his current stats. Two clones will mean they have one-third, and so on. This has a lot of potential.’
Bell had effectively become a one-man army. At higher levels he could be his own party and solo entire floors of the Dungeon without issue! Back home on Earth Bet, Bell’s ability would have been invaluable for the PRT for handling the legions of villains that seemed to crawl out of the woodwork at times.
She then looked up at Hestia. “Is Bell okay? Queen Administrator didn’t do anything else to him, right?”
“He’s fine,” the head of the Familia grunted. “That bitch left his soul alone.”
Taylor raised an eyebrow, surprised to hear the normally demure and polite Hestia swear. Even Bell seemed taken aback, his jaw practically on the floor in disbelief. Hestia blushed as she realized everyone was staring at her, and she looked away with a cough.
“A-anyway! We should go outside and test the limits of Bell’s new Skill!” she said loudly, and Taylor nodded before destroying the sheet of paper. Just because Lili was going to be living with them didn’t mean it was okay to leave confidential information out in the open.
Upstairs, Taylor and Hestia – along with Chris and Anne – watched as Bell did a funny pose on the lawn, summoning a white copy of himself. It looked like somebody had just painted a humanoid doll that vaguely looked like Bell an eye searing neon white, with arcs of electricity crackling along the frame every so often. It was bright, and yet was still able to be looked directly at.
‘Perhaps an effect of whatever energy field is holding the lightning in shape is also allowing us to look at it without going blind,’ Taylor wondered to herself. She was also glad they decided to do this on the stone walkway and not the grass, as she could see the flagstones sizzling a bit.
“Whoa,” Bell uttered in awe, waving a hand. It was mimicked by the clone. The two then began to move around, the clone copying ever action before it started to do things on its own independently of Bell.
“Can you dispel it? Or does it have to be damaged before disappearing?” Hestia asked.
“And how well can you control it?” Taylor added. “Also, are your senses connected to it?”
“Um, I can dismiss it,” Bell confirmed. A moment later, the lightning clone vanished. He just resummoned it the next second, along with another one. “The clones are… sorta like an extra limb? I can control them at will, but also sorta give them orders? If I wanted, I could have it explode, or stand guard, or fight on its own, using my own memories of combat. I’m unable to see or hear through them, but at the same time, I can sense what’s around the clones to an extent. Like, I know where you two are but not much beyond that, and where Chris and Anne are and that they’re monsters, because they sorta ‘feel’ different, but I don’t really know more details than that. Oh, and I can tell where walls and other obstructions are.”
“That’s incredible!” Hestia cheered, clapping a bit.
“Yes, it will make going through the Dungeon a lot easier,” Taylor said. Hestia rolled her eyes at that, but couldn’t hide the smile she wore on her face, either.
“What else can they do?” Hestia asked. “Can you juggle?”
“Uh, I don’t know how to juggle,” Bell admitted. “But maybe? If I learned? Anything I know, the clones should know, and be able to do.”
“Do their skills degrade?” Taylor inquired. “If their stats are reduced compared to yours, what about their motor functions?”
“No, that seems to be fine, still,” Bell said after ordering his clone to flip a coin and do some stretches. He tried to have it show off some dagger fighting stances, but the stick Bell tossed at his clone combusted from the sheer heat radiating off of it. Although before the stick burnt up the clone had been able to perfectly pull off a couple of stabs.
“You could probably cook a bunch of different meals all at once!” Hestia gasped in realization. “Oh my gosh, I could have an assistant cook working at the food cart with me!”
“We should probably figure out how far Bell’s clones can go from the original,” Taylor said. “And if they’ll listen to anyone other than him or even hold things. But yes, that could be a way to use them.”
Bell just couldn’t stop grinning, almost vibrating in place from the sheer excitement he was feeling.
“W-what the?!”
“Oh, Lili’s back,” Bell said, turning to the young-looking girl who would be staying with them. Taylor had seen her coming well before anyone else had, but decided to have some fun at her expense. To her swarm, Lili’s hum was like the crackle of embers and the soft fluttering of soot.
Lili’s jaw was currently on the floor as she stared at the lightning clone Bell had created, both of whom were waving at her in greeting.
She didn’t have much luggage with her, at least compared to what she normally carried around with her. It was just a single steamer trunk. It did look really heavy and sturdy, though.
“As you can see, Bell’s acquired a Skill,” Taylor said blandly, privately taking a bit of amusement from the stunned expression on the girl. Who, interestingly, didn’t have dog ears anymore.
“What happened to your ears?” Bell inquired, asking the question Taylor had wanted to know as well.
“That was a Spell,” Lili replied. “It lets Lili pretend to be other people.”
‘A Stranger ability?’ Taylor thought to herself, intrigued. ‘I suppose this makes Lili a pallum.’
The odd, hobbit-like people who resembled human children were a strange existence for Taylor. There was no easy way to tell the difference between an adult pallum and a young human. No unusually sized appendages nor noticeable changes in their outward physiology. The only way Taylor herself could tell was the smell. Pallum smelled different to humans according to her swarm’s senses.
“How thorough is the transformation?” Taylor wondered. “My swarm wasn’t able to tell you weren’t a chienthrope. To all intents, your disguise was perfect.”
“Cinder Ella lets Lili transform into anything around the same size as Lili,” the pallum supporter explained. “Even monsters! Lili can also mimic their abilities, such as a chienthrope’s sense of smell and hearing, though it is limited by Lili’s stats.”
“Why didn’t you change your hair color or alter your physical appearance more when you were pretending to not be a pallum?” Taylor inquired, intrigued by the name. “Your chienthrope form looked almost identical to your original appearance, and Orario isn’t exactly that heavily populated. Not to mention adventurers tend to move in similar circles so you’d be more at risk of being noticed."
“Not heavily populated?” Lili exclaimed in disbelief. “Orario has over a million people living within it! To say nothing of the villages and farming communities within a day or so of the city! It’s one of the largest cities in the world!”
“I’ve seen bigger,” Taylor shrugged, and Lili just stared at her.
“Um, I’m curious, too,” Bell said, raising a hand politely. “About the transformation, thing.”
“…Lili didn’t think it through,” the supporter admitted, looking to the side in embarrassment. “Bell had already seen Lili’s chienthrope form, though, and knew Lili in it, so Lili thought it would be fine.”
“We’ll have to experiment with what exactly you can do with this Skill of yours,” Taylor decided, and Lili shivered a bit at the way she said ‘experiment.’
“So, where will Lili being staying?” the pallum girl asked, deciding it was better – and safer – to change the topic.
“For the moment there isn’t much space,” Taylor admitted apologetically. “Bell is sleeping on the couch, while Hestia and I share the only bed.”
“We did add a cot for you!” Bell quickly spoke up. “It’s in the bedroom with Lady Hestia and Miss Taylor.”
“Don’t worry, we have plans to find a new place to live soon,” Taylor assured Lili. “Until then, though, we’ll be sharing a room for the next month or so.”
“Ah, that’s fine,” the supporter said. “Lili is used to sleeping in odd places.”
Taylor nodded, then watched with a critical eye as Lili hefted her trunk with one hand without issue before putting it on her back like it was her supporter pack.
“Lili, how are you able to carry all that weight on your back?” Taylor asked. It was something she’d always wanted to know.
“Lili has a Skill called Artel Assist,” she replied. “It reduces the weight of anything Lili wears or carries. The heavier it is, the easier it is to carry.”
Taylor blinked. “That sounds absolutely incredible.”
“It’s not that great,” Lili said, shaking her head.
“Hang on, I’ve seen other supporters carry around massive bags in the Dungeon,” Bell spoke up. “Do they also all have that Skill?”
“They probably do,” Lili confirmed. “Artel Assist is a fairly common Skill. Its the easiest to actually teach people. All you have to do is force somebody to carry a large amount of weight and eventually they will gain it.”
“You can teach Skills like that?” Taylor asked, surprised.
“Not all Skills are unique,” Lili claimed. “The most powerful ones are, but some are more like talents that anyone can obtain with some effort. There are also Grimoires that can teach Skills, though Lili has never seen one before.”
“Interesting,” Taylor mused. That was good to know. She’d come back to it at another point. For now, it was time to discuss the reason she wanted to hold this meeting.
Bell led Lili down into the church’s basement, showing her the room. Taylor and Hestia followed behind, watching with amusement as Bell acted as a tour guide.
Once Lili had put her trunk into the bedroom and Taylor had shown her where the bathroom was, Taylor called a meeting between the adventurers.
“Yesterday, you and Bell nearly made it to the Tenth Floor,” Taylor began, and the two adventurers nodded. “It was not your fault you did not make it. As such, I think that means we all need new gear if we’re going to be going any deeper in the future.”
‘And if we’re going to be running into more adventurers like Canoe,’ Taylor didn’t say.
“Are you going to try and make a contract with a blacksmith?” Lili wondered. Taylor looked at her in confusion, and motioned for her to explain.
“Lili keeps forgetting you are all newbies,” the pallum girl muttered to herself before clearing her throat. Louder, she said, “Some adventurers will negotiate a contract with individual blacksmiths from other smithing Familias. In exchange for helping the blacksmith obtain Excelia and materials in the Dungeon, they will give the contracted adventurers priority on any orders.”
“And I’ll bet it’s easier to make customized equipment if you make a contract,” Taylor guessed.
“That’s right,” Lili confirmed.
“I have an idea!” Bell said excitedly. “What about we find the person who made the Pyonkichi and ask them if they want to make a contract with us?”
“Your breastplate?” Taylor asked.
“Yup!” Bell nodded. “The armor was shoved into the back in the discount section of the store Eina and I visited, so that might mean the blacksmith isn’t well-known and thus more open to potentially making a deal with us!”
Taylor blinked in surprise. She’d known the armor had been cheap, but that was odd to her. The armor wasn’t up to the standards of her own costume’s ceramic composite armor plating, but it was still damn good armor, having held up to everything the Dungeon had thrown at them so far, even managing to stand up to a glancing blow from a War Shadow, which was quite the feat seeing as a War Shadow’s sickle could cut through flesh and bone with worrying ease.
Bell’s observation about the possible situation of the blacksmith who made his armor was also very likely and well-reasoned. Taylor sometimes forgot that underneath the fluff and sunshine was a warrior whose growth was leaps and bounds above anything a normal person should be capable of.
“Who made it?” she asked.
“The tag said it was somebody by the name of ‘Welf,’” Bell said.
“Hmm. Lili?”
“Lili does not know every blacksmith in the city, Miss Taylor,” Lili deadpanned.
“Fair enough. Let’s hit up the craftsmen district, see what we can find,” Taylor said. Bell nodded excitedly, while Lili just shrugged.
“Hestia, what will you be doing?” the parahuman asked, glancing at the girl with twin-tails.
“Speaking with the old lady who sold me the food cart,” Hestia replied. “I’d like to hire her to help me run the stall. Obviously I can’t always work there.”
“See if she knows about anyone else who’d be willing to work for you,” Taylor suggested. “And maybe look into a craftsman to make a second cart.”
“Ooo! Yes, I’ll do that!” Hestia exclaimed, bouncing up and down, which did interesting things to her chest.
“Alright, let’s go find ourselves a blacksmith,” Taylor said. She led the group out of the basement into the sun. Hestia split off from them after a bit, while the trio decided to go to the store Bell had bought the armor from.
Hopefully they would succeed.
