Chapter 65: Hidden Dagger

  “Did you know about this?” Alex waved his hand at the screen that floated in front of his face as though he was indicating evidence of a blasphemous act.

  “No, I didn’t. But I’d be lying if I said I was surprised. Dungeons are seriously difficult skill and power tests for the challengers. You saw those warnings at the beginning, when has The System ever given you a warning?”

  “ Damn it!” He hated when Obby was right. Thinking back now, the little pebble was certainly on to something. He didn’t remember any other time that he had gotten a warning in a system notification. Unless he counted the initial trial quest warning him of his death upon failing, the quest whose timer still counted down second by second in his quest screen, as well as in the back of his mind.

  If The System deemed it necessary to give an explicit warning, then it surely wasn’t fucking around when telling Alex this dungeon would be difficult.

  Being unable to spend his experience points was a huge handicap that he hadn’t been ready for. Any increases to his power would have to come naturally instead. Which meant very slowly. With Alex having to spend time towards progressing whatever he was working on.

  Time that he just didn’t have.

  “Speaking of time…”

  “ Let’s do it.”

  He moved as the aura dropped once more. The number of skeletal archers started to increase. Alex hated the things. Every arrow they fired meant more energy he had to spend on a [Shield] spell. He tried dodging the arrows a few times, but he found he simply wasn’t fast enough to do that. Even with Obby helping by giving him advanced warning, he still took glancing hits or an arrow to his shoulder.

  He spent one of the few precious health potions in his bracelet’s storage learning to simply deflect the arrows instead.

  Still, he could make it to the next gravestone relatively in good health. The problem was that he was still using more aether to get to the each mound than he could regain in the time inside the aura’s of protection.

  “What are the options we have Obby? Can we manage that essence gate enhancement you showed me?”

  “We wouldn’t have the time, completing that would take roughly twenty hours straight, and stopping in the middle of it would render your gate useless until its complete. Can you increase the number of aether braids for your gathering technique?”

  “ No,” he shook his head. “Adding a fourth or even a fifth braid will simply interfere with the technique. I’d have to increase the starting number to nine, braid those down to three, and then into one, condensing the aether at each step. Far too much to work on learning to do right now.”

  “Agreed. Your aether control is currently lacking to accomplish that based on what I’ve seen. ”

  “Hey,” Alex snapped back with irritation in his voice.

  “I’m just saying how it is meatboy, don’t dagger-eyes the messenger.”

  “ What about the bone?” Alex pulled out the enchanted thigh-bone the Kobolds had given him, its glyphs pulsing slightly under his touch as he held it.

  “It could help, but I don’t know how much. It seems to be an activated enchantment, and only holds so much aether. Once it runs out, its out, you won’t be able to recharge it with your current [Glyphcraft] skill.”

  “Damn,” He slipped the bone back into his bracelet. Hesitantly, Alex pulled out the last item he had as an option. The weird looking dagger that he had kept tucked into his belt. The thing still gave him the creeps when he looked at it, and that was increased manifold as he held the thing by the hilt. “What about this thing?”

  “That… I don’t know. I’m not sure what it does, but the Kobolds most likely gave it to you for a reason. It might actually be great in here. But even if it is, Alex, that thing has certainly got a Mr. Hyde lurking inside it. You might regret using it later. I’d even venture to say you WILL regret using it later.” Obby’s voice was no longer in his forced creepy tone, but the seriousness in which the enchanted rock now spoke still gave him pause.

  If the damned rock was weary of it, then it was some serious stuff.

  “Do I really have a choice though?” He finally asked.

  “Probably not.”

  He thought over his possible regrets, the benefits and costs to his next decision. He was really scared of an item that would make even Obby worry, but he had already made so many choices in this new world that he came to regret. Leaving his team that first day. Not training up himself and everyone else more on the badgers before trying to take out the Den Mother. Most of all killing those Kobolds when Garret and he were on their way to Vrung’s Quarry.

  A lot of mistakes were made, what was one more mistake on the pile if it meant helping his friends?

  He also knew that was a bat-shit level of logic which would get him cast further and further into trouble. Yet again, he was already alone, cast into an endless pit of undead enemies, how much worse could things really get?

  I’ve been fucked over since this whole thing started. By The System itself. Celeste, Kate, Doudra. Maybe I’m due a chance to fuck myself over for once. Stepping up and taking charge of my own destiny. That’s what Adam would do right? Take this world by the horns and bend it over to his liking.

  “Time is up,” Obby flashed a ten second countdown in his vision. “ What’d you decide?”

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  Alex cut his gathering technique and cracked his neck. The dagger was still held tight in his grip and he looked down the slope at the gathered skeletons at its base.

  “It’s rather convenient that the stances of the [Demon Asura Style] works with almost any melee weapon doesn’t it?” Alex finally said.

  Then he dashed forward down the slope. Once more the protected barrier dropped just as he cast [Flare]. In a flash of destructive aether, he was dashing out through the field towards the next mound.

  Alex’s first swing with the strange dagger felt natural after having practiced his martial stances for so long. The second path of the Asura dealt with one-handed weapon use, and he slipped into the stances for that path easily.

  He jabbed forward in a lightning quick strike, the blade’s tip slammed into the skull of a swordsman skeleton and easily pierced through the bone, killing the creature in one strike. He was moving on to the next enemy already when he felt it.

  A small jolt of aether moved through his hand and arm, dispersing through his body quickly. The amount of energy was minuscule, and he probably would not have noticed it if he wasn’t so actively aware of the amount of aether he was using.

  “What the fuck?” Alex looked down, finding the runes along the dagger’s blade were glowing faintly. They died out just as quickly, but he had for certain seen them alight. He couldn’t stop to investigate further as more enemies were converging on him. So he paid extra attention to the weapon when he used it to shatter the skull of the next swordsman.

  Through his activated aether sight, he could see a thin tendril of aether being pulled out of the skeleton into the dagger. From there it seemed to convert from the sickly dark attuned aether of the undead into a pure aether that flowed into Alex.

  Whatever this dagger was doing, it seemed to be filtering the aether from his kills and feeding him some of what it absorbed.

  Grinning like a mad man, he rushed into a throng of skeletons with dagger in hand. By now, he knew how to fight against these undead even with nothing but his bare fists. With an actual weapon, it just made things easier. Alex began wiping up swathes of skeletal swordsman, including an occasional archer that he got close enough to.

  Every kill with the dagger fed him a bit of energy, and he began using it as his main finishing attack. After a couple dozen minutes, he once again touched the next gravestone and put up the barrier.

  “Well, that dagger is indeed more useful than we thought. With your current regen rate, after cultivating here, you will pretty much break even in your aether capacity.”

  “Break even for now,” Alex corrected. He was already braiding aether for his technique. “The number of skeletons spawning is still increasing. It might take a few hours or even a couple days, but eventually we won’t be able to keep up.”

  The dagger in his hand appeared to flash softly as Alex looked at it. There was also the unspoken fact that neither Obby nor Alex knew what price this dagger would exact for its use. They both guessed the damned weapon was cursed in some way.

  How exactly, they wouldn’t know until perhaps it was too late.

  The next two gravestone runs went well. No issues presented themselves for Alex, and he simply got better with using the weapon over time. Shattered skulls, and crumbled skeletons lay in the wake of Alex’s advancement.

  Use of his [Shield] was still required due to the number of archers still popping up to harass him. But that didn’t deter him. Every downed swordsman was simply aether to feed Alex’s next dash. A defeated skeleton was the next [Shield] spell to guard and attack. The dance of the Demon Asura took shape and he fell into a rhythm once more.

  His dance came to a halt once yet another new type of opponent appeared before him.

  In one skeletal hand it gripped a rusty sword, just as all the others before had. In the other though, it held a circular metal shield. On its shoulders hung armor fashioned of laminar strips giving it the look of a roman centurion back on earth.

  Alex faced down this new enemy, dagger gripped tightly in hand and chest heaving. He quickly downed another stamina potion, mentally noting he only had six left in his bracelet. He didn’t want to try facing down this new opponent while tired, that was just an unnecessary risk.

  A quick [Flare] cleared out all the skeletons around Alex, opening up a space to fight for the two of them.

  The two attacked each other at the same time. Alex dashed forward, stabbing his dagger towards it’s neck. Meanwhile, he found a sword swipe coming towards the left side of his face. He managed to duck the blade and felt his own weapon clatter off the metal shield, both attacks doing no damage.

  A stance change brought Alex in closer to his opponent, and his dagger flashed forward again. He was surprised to find the skeleton’s sword blocking his attack this time, and the edge of the metal shield instead rushed towards his face.

  He dodged back then countered, his attack met air as the skeleton dodged away in turn. Alex faltered a moment. The skeletons had never dodged like that before, never had they skillfully countered his attacks either. This thing was more sentient than the others, far more skilled. He had to be serious.

  Stances flowed as he became fully aggressive in his position. Fists, dagger swipes and elbows rained down leaving his opponent floundering.

  “Take the opening,” Obby highlighted a break in the skeleton’s guard.

  The help wasn’t needed though. “I see it,” he had already struck, his dagger piercing through the eye-socket of the thing’s skull and breaking it in half.

  Another quick [Flare] cleared the area around Alex once again, as he needed to catch his breath. This new enemy was a bigger pain than the archers. At least he could mostly ignore the archers and deflect a few arrows here and there as he fought, that wasn’t so with these skeletal warriors. They were too skilled to ignore, and he was sure they would chase him down much more quickly than the standard swordsmen.

  After his short breather, Alex took off once more towards the next grave-mound. It didn’t take long for him to come across his next warrior spawn. He tried to avoid it this time, taking a longer path around the skeleton. Just as he had feared, it chased him down, catching up to him as he was slowed down by being forced to carve through the field of swordsmen.

  The warrior clashed with Alex when he was merely a football field from the grave-mound.

  Dagger met sword in a flurry of movement. A metal shield blocked a strike from one angle just as an aether barrier deflected an attack from another. It was a dance Alex had to learn, a dance particular to the warriors. Stance change to stance change, he slowly cornered and brought an end to the warrior.

  A notification flashed, which he swiped it away and looked to the grave-mound ahead.

  He pressed forward.