Jer Patch
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Chapter 30: Missed Vines
🕑 Added 2025-02-17 15:00:20 +0000 UTCVines in each corner of the room rolled up to the ceiling before vanishing from sight. I shivered, suddenly glad that none of us had gotten caught in those directions. Insight didn’t catch the creatures before they were gone.
The others went ahead, and I finally turned to leave the temple. Bright light streamed in from the open archway, and I found myself back at the fountain. The mist rising from the water brushed over me even from this distance, and everything suddenly felt better, including the area that had gotten spiked and the graze. My healing abilities had fixed both up, but a soreness had lingered. That vanished with the magical waters of the fountain.
A calming presence soaked into my body, and I took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then let it out. It reminded me of a good soak in a hot tub, without the heat. Quietly, I strolled over to the same bench as I’d used before and sat down.
Hammy chatted about the amazing fight we’d just been through as he climbed out of his armor, while Dengu sipped at the water. Lenna soaked her crystal in the fountain, while her focus kept flickering back to the dinosaur.
Hammy’s turtle shield rested against the fountain, while the spike Hammy used sat in the holster on his back. I’d split some of the crystal off from the shield handle to reinforce the spike, and give it burning abilities, right after I crafted the shield.
“That was awesome,” rumbled Hammy. “I can’t wait to test it again on the next path.”
“Alex’s the only one who took damage, and she’s doing okay.” Lenna grinned as her eyes flickered over to me and I sent her a thumbs up. Her eyebrows drew together in response.
“It means everything’s okay,“ I explained, chuckling to myself. Lenna wasn’t human, and I knew that. She was green, for freaking sake, but it was hard not lumping her in with everyone else. I wouldn’t lie to myself, it was nice to have someone as short as me around. Not to mention her archery ranked the best I’d seen so far, even better than Hawk’s.
“Oh, that makes sense.” She gave me a thumbs up back. “I like this.”
Dengu padded away from the fountain and approached me. His head tilted one way, then another, before he chirped. A huff came out, then he tried again, chirping.
“Sorry, my friend. It’s still all chirping to me,” I whispered. I held up my hand, and he leaned closer, touching the top of his head to it.
“He likes it if you scratch just under his chin near his neck,” said Lenna.
I did like she said, and the velociraptor purred. He reminded me of a giant cat more than a chicken, even with the massive talons and the way he bobbed his head.
“I hope your foot is better,” I said as I continued scratching. “I’m sorry you got hurt when I cut you free.”
He chirped softer before pulling away and heading back to the fountain.
“So, what’s the plan now?” asked Hammy, grabbing the shield before joining me on the bench.
Lenna stayed perched next to the fountain with her necklace inside. She pulled it out once, then stuck it back into the water.
“We have two more paths to go, then we’re done with this place after the final fight.”
The statue on top of the fountain had changed. Spikes ran along the spine of the stone raptor, along with spikes at the end of its tail.
“Unless we want to do the hidden bonus level,” whispered Lenna.
I opened my mouth to respond, but Hammy beat me to it.
“I’m gonna opt out of that. Once my quest is done, I need to get to my workshop in the dropship.” He scratched the back of his head, then shrugged. “I haven’t been the best party member, and I need to focus on figuring out the direction I need to take with my class. I’m holding onto the free stat points I’ve got, after I put a few extra points into constitution. That way I can hopefully do something useful with my build, once I figure out what that is.”
“That’s a good plan,” I said. “You need to know where you want to aim. Do you want to be an up-close fighter like me? Maybe always use a shield? Or figure out the gun stuff like my dad?”
Hammy frowned, staring at the shield.
“Heck,” I motioned to Lenna. “You could focus on arrows like Lenna.”
“No matter what, I’m not going to keep punching things.” He eyed the suit, which stood off to one side. “I’m half tempted to reduce the metal in the hands right now and figure out something new, but given that the spike and shield worked out okay, I’ll stick to that for now.”
That was some crow to eat. He’d admitted he needed to change, and planned to figure out what else to aim for. That was a good sign.
“You have plenty of time,” added Lenna. “We are so very early in our journeys. While I love archery, it will evolve over time as my skills change and I unlock better abilities.”
I couldn’t wait to see Lenna with even better abilities.
She paused for a moment. “I don’t think I’m going to attempt the hidden level either. This dungeon has been a harder challenge than I thought, and I want to respect my father’s wishes in this.”
“What about you, Dengu?” I asked half-jokingly.
He tilted his head one way, then the other.
“I’m going to take that as you don’t know yet.”
Lenna’s eyes widened, and she nodded.
Score one for me.
“I’m in the same place. Gathering experience here has been great, or I’m assuming it has been, since all of it’s banked. But the weird time stuff is hard…” I motioned upward. The sun sat at the point of noon, and it had stopped moving across the sky. My body felt like it was heading toward evening, if not a little later. Soon, no matter what, I’d need to sleep. All the calories in the world wouldn’t be able to keep me up indefinitely.
“I’ll have to see once we get there if I find it worth it.” The forced paths of the dungeon, along with the trials, just felt so fake. Maybe it was because it didn’t truly feel like a challenge for me. My high stats let me cruise through the fights, with backup from the others. On my own it might have been rough, but I was pretty sure I could have taken it.
“Are you bored?” asked Hammy.
His bluntness made me blink.
“I mean…”
Lenna stared at me as well, waiting for an answer.
“Maybe?” Being put on the spot made me look anywhere but the two of them.
“Do you think you’d get these done faster and easier without us?” Again Hammy tried to clarify his question.
I let out a huff. “It isn’t that. I’m just not really a fan of how the trials are set up. Things were really different when I traveled through the jungle alone. It felt more real… this feels very forced.”
“It is,” said Lenna, saving me from my explanation. “The dungeon is meant to be a teacher, but many of the lessons you already knew. For me it's reinforcing that learning, but for you it’s probably pretty heavy-handed.”
That felt like a good way to put it, like when I held Hammy back from attacking those kids. Though that mistake would have cost him his life, I knew better. Honestly, it’d be easier if I saw the gain happening, versus everything being banked. My eyes narrowed, thinking about ways to see that.
“Hey Guide, is it possible to see your banked experience? Or what level it’d bring you too?” I waited expectantly and wasn’t disappointed.
The guide shimmered into view next to the fountain. Hammy jumped sideways away from him.
“That is not a question about the dungeon, but based on my experience you control how information is presented to you.” The guide paused before they spoke again. “Any questions about the dungeon that I can help you with?”
“Does it ever become night here?” asked Hammy.
“The Paths all take place in the sunlight.” When nothing else came from us, the guide vanished.
I pondered on his words. He didn’t say the dungeon took place in the sunlight, only the paths and challenges. Did that mean the hidden level took place at night? Another thing to ponder, but first I opened my stat sheet. From there, I tried to focus on my banked experience.
A new screen appeared, one I hadn’t ever seen before.
Banked Levels: 8
Banked Stat Points:
STR: 16
DEX:
>QUICK - I: 16
>FLEX: 16
CON/TOUGH: 16
INT: 16
WIS:
>FORT: 16
>WILL: 16
CHA: 16
FREE: 48
“Woah,” I whispered to myself as I heard some swearing from Hammy.
Forty-eight free stat points that I’d be able to allocate as I pleased. With that much piled up, I’d be able to get all my stats over 100, and given the boost that Quickness and Flexibility had from being that high, it’d feel amazing. That is, it’d feel amazing after the pain of bumping that high that fast wore off.
Lenna's voice cut through my amazement. “Remember that things evolve once you hit the first rank at 50.”
I closed my screen to stare at her. My confusion must have caught her eye.
“Rank One is everyone up to level 50, which is a pretty normal evolution point for most species. That’s what I meant when I spoke about my class changing. Up until then, you can try all sorts of things out, but by level 45 you’ll want to know your path.”
“Yeah, I’m not close to that, yet,” added Hammy, he smiled brightly at us both. “But I’ve banked an additional level. That feels good.”
“That’s new to me…” I’d need to ask Noseen what happened at level 50 with Devourers. Maybe that's when I‘d become a Great one. The idea of running the bonus level now sounded like a great plan. All of the final bosses for the paths were around level 30ish. Given my capped level, that meant I got extra experience for them because of my Achievements.
Gaming the system.
“Is everyone ready to move to Scales and Hides?” I asked, standing up. It’d be good to see how many more levels I could bank before the end of this dungeon.
Hammy's eyes sparkled as he nodded my way. Lenna smiled and patted Dengu on his shoulder as she turned in that direction.
“Only two more to go before we take down the final boss.”
“We totally got this,” whispered Hammy.
Taking the lead, I marched over to the second to last path, and crossed the symbol carved into the pavers. It flashed, then a breeze blew right in my face.
I smelled dirt, flowers, and a hint of peaches.
