“Time for your final test,” Squire Jessica said.
“Final test? What is it?” I asked.
“It has been two and a half months since we entered the dungeon. Time to leave and let you rest up a bit before your mother returns,” she said.
“Rest? I can keep going,” I replied with determination. Squire Jessica chuckled at this.
“You and everyone else kid. Listen, breaks and resting aren’t a bad thing. They help clear you mind. Let you reset. There have been studies done that show all of this. Lots and lots of studies for optimal level gain. That is why your mother set a time frame of three months. She will rush back, check your progress, and rush off again.”
“Won’t my mother need a break?” I asked.
“After the last incident with you being attacked, she will want to check on you more regularly. Training us Squires is simple for her. It is only when she goes below the 20th layer of the dungeon that she needs to get serious. Rotating out us Squires to have us train and protect you is also a break for us from our usual focused training. Also, teaching is a good way to improve some basic skills that have been languishing,” Jessica explained. I nodded at this.
“So, the test?” I asked again with determination.
“The test is to fight a champion monster guarding the path down to the next layer of the dungeon. Champions tend to be twice the level of the other monsters. Which makes them incredibly difficult the lower you go.”
“Can’t you run by them?” I asked.
“They are one of the few monsters that will chase down an adventurer, but only if they run to the next layer. Monsters can hurt each other, but they won’t go out of their way to fight each other. And having something chase you is a good way to end up in a bad situation and dead. Now during a fight with a champion, there tends to be regular monsters of a similar type. I will handle these regular monsters, while you focus on the champion.”
“Got it. I know you think I am ready, since you are saying I should do this, but am I really ready?” I asked a bit nervously.
“Doubt is in all of us kid, even me. The deeper you go, the greater the doubt becomes. Good rule of thumb is 20 stats per monster level to be safe. When you checked months ago you had had 96, which is around monster level 5. This is only a guideline. Regular people have around 12 stats per level, since you get 10 free stat points per level up. Nobles and rich people have around 15. This number is harder to keep up the higher your level,” she explained.
“Since natural stat gain is harder,” I replied, and Jessica nodded at this.
“Exactly. You are probably around 110 or 120 if I had to guess. No looking at your status. You have enough stats to be considered eligible to fight the champion at this level of the dungeon, while being over qualified for the regular monsters.”
“Got it. I am ready,” I replied, and Jessica gave me a nod.
“Good. Now focus on the fight, especially your Danger Sense. I will be watching but will only step in if you are about to die. Don’t let that happen,” she told me.
We made our way through the tunnel to the next chamber, which was quite large. I saw a staircase leading down in the middle of the chamber with a single lit torch next to it. The dungeon created features like this, but I had been learning to ignore them for the most part as part of the background scenery, unless they impacted combat in some way. The single light source would create longer shadows. There was a large troll monster that was twice Jessica’s height standing near the staircase, it was three times my height.
“Big,” I muttered quietly.
“Yes. Sticking with a sword?” she asked me.
“Yes. A troll, so regeneration?” I asked looking at the scars on its body. The dungeon sometimes offered clues about monsters if one looked closely enough. There were general guidelines based on appearance, that one could use, especially in the upper layers of the dungeon.
“Yes. But it will be slow. It is a physical brawler and large. If you try to block head on, it will smash you away, breaking your footing. Focus on dodging. Don’t let it grab you,” Squire Jessica said. I nodded at this and took a deep breath.
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There were no other monsters that I could spot in the chamber, just the champion. I walked forward and the troll’s head swiveled towards me far more quickly than other monsters had noticed me. It must have a higher Perception stat, with its higher level.
“RAWR!” the troll let out a roar and stood up. No weapons, just clawed hands and a mouth with lots of teeth.
I advanced, suppressing my fear. I would win. I could do this. The troll lunged and swiped at me. I felt an incredible amount of danger and stepped back. Avoiding the hit. The troll stepped forward and swiped again. It was too big and its arms too long, I couldn’t spot an opening and stepped back again. My only advantage was that I was so short compared to the troll, it had to hunch over to swing at me, disrupting its balance.
“RAWR!” it let out another roar and rushed at me wildly in a frenzy. I leapt to the side and swung, drawing a small gash on one of its arms. I barely had time to bring up my shield as it was struck by a clawed hand. The force was too much and my footing broke. I went tumbling. I made sure to angle my sword away from my body but not let go. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hold onto my shield.
I got to my feet as the troll rushed in. Out of desperation I dove under another swipe of its clawed hand, between its legs. My sword cut the monster along its ankle, deeply. Green blood flowed freely.
The troll spun and I tried to block its clawed hand with my sword, but I wasn’t strong enough. I was hit, my sword went flying, and I went tumbling across the floor. As I struggled to stand up, my heart was wild with fear. I couldn’t see Jessica anywhere. Did she abandon me.
“No,” I said weakly as I tried to stand. The troll advanced on me and grabbed me. I was going to die. This was it. I am sorry mother. I was too hurt, and my breath was being squeezed out of me as the troll brought me up towards its mouth. I couldn’t control my bladder as fear overwhelmed me in my final moments. My struggles were useless.
“Fire Blade.”
The entire chamber erupted in light and heat and I was falling. I hit the ground with a thud, the troll’s hand still grasping me, but now it was a severed stump near its elbow. Its head had also been removed, leaving nothing behind but a smoking stump at its neck. The troll collapsed to the ground, dead.
Jessica walked over and swung her blade incredibly fast. The troll’s hand was cut up freeing me and covering me with green troll blood. I started hyperventilating.
“Breathing, focus on your breathing,” she said. I thought she was supposed to protect me!?
“Why!” I shouted in anger.
“A lesson regarding hubris. One that can be safely given here on the 1st layer of the dungeon. If you don’t feel comfortable taking a fight. Don’t take it. That is the best advice I can give you and this lesson will hopefully sink in,” she said.
I didn’t know how I should feel. Frustration, anger, helplessness, shame from having wet myself as I was about to die. They all came up at once and I began to cry. I couldn’t stop myself. Jessica said nothing as she went over to the side of the chamber and took a seat against the wall.
It took me far longer than I wanted to finally calm down. My healing points had completely bottomed out and I felt incredibly sore. I made my way over. “My healing points are empty,” I mumbled. Jessica nodded at this and stood up.
“Clean.” The blood, my shame, it was all removed. “I won’t apologize. You aren’t training like some noble to just gain levels to flaunt about. You wish to become a legend. A supreme legend, this means you must embrace the reality that is death.” I nodded at this. If I said anything I might just start crying in shame all over again.
“That is why even with stats, even with a high Mind stat, children your age are rarely brought down into the dungeon. It is uncaring. Unkind. There is no mercy given by the monsters. One mistake and you will be consumed and die a horrible death. Most of your stats are in Mind and Focus. Good for your development and resisting mental effects, but you never thought about how others would have their stats. They would be concentrated in the more physical stats, Vitality, Strength, Endurance, and Agility,” she explained.
I just nodded. Feeling angry I had just listened and accepted what she had said, without thinking deeper. “If the lessons you have learned from this fight stick with you the rest of your life, then I will have done something right. Now come, we are headed towards the path out of this place,” Squire Jessica said.
Before, she had seemed a stern but caring tutor. Now I knew better. This was an elite adventurer who was probably frustrated about having to watch her boss’s kid. I could complain to my mother when she returned, but that would just prove how weak I was. I wouldn’t say anything. I would just focus on getting stronger and not making this mistake in the future.
Trust was rare and precious. While Jessica taught me some important lessons, it had cost the trust built up between us. She wouldn’t let me die, but she wasn’t about to stop me from making mistakes either. The pain and the shame I felt from having almost died was a lesson I would never forget.
I had been injured previously during the fights down here in the dungeon, but those were minor injuries, nothing serious. Nothing where I was moments away from being eaten.
Jessica set a brisk pace and killed all the monsters in our path with a casual swing of her sword. She didn’t bother collecting their cores and I didn’t bring it up. As her kills, she was entitled to do what she wanted with the corpses. We reached another spiral staircase, this time leading upwards. Looking closely, it was the same one we had come down on.
The skill Depth Sense was really good at finding one’s way down here. I followed Jessica up as we began to climb the stairs. A group passed us on the way down and there were just head nods, nothing else was said.