Chương 55

Fighter(Adventurer) Ellen Ellen waved away the notification of entering the dungeon. She had taken the full multiplier on that one, since she intended to specialize in taking on dungeons. When she reached her Level 11 thresholds, the Classes she took would hopefully be more dungeon-related. She had a range between 8 and 9 depending on the self, so with any luck she could get all her selves to 11 today. She readied her spear, advancing slowly.

The dungeon continued to have an obsession with killing her, so Ellen was prepared for it. Counting on it, even! That was why she walked slowly forward with this body, waiting for her Scout to draw out the spiders she knew were in the first chamber. Her Scout came backing up the tunnel rapidly, but Ellen waited until she was almost past her before thrusting the spear forward, impaling the spider before she could see it. She knew where it was by how her Scout moved.

The hissing squeal of the overlarge spider was a rewarding sound, as always. She saw her other self drawing a knife with eyes toward the ceiling, so she swung the butt of her spear up and to the side, batting the pouncing spider toward her prepared self.. She let the knife her Scout stabbed take care of the spider she'd just knocked away, turning to thrust into the plume of flame that her Scholar and Acolyte had used against the other spiders.

It was a tactic she knew worked, at least if the opportunity presented itself, but her Scout hadn't retreated up the tunnel in a way that had indicated it wouldn't work this time. Experience notifications rolled in as Ellen punted the most intact corpse toward her Scholar. That self already had her bag out, scooping up the curled up arachnid into the large, crude sack before the dungeon could reclaim the body.

Hopefully they would learn something about the monsters in here, especially if they were different from others. But that was her Scholar's job to think about. LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 10.

"Ten," Ellen announced, and she heard both her Scout and her Acolyte say the same thing at the same time. Her Scholar lagged behind, so that specific self could gather a larger portion of her experience in the dungeon for the Class advancement plans. That self would reach Level 10 on the next leg of the sweep. Without thinking about it, Ellen placed her new Attributes into Strength and Endurance, the latter already selected for her by the System.

Her Scholar had informed her that she would need Willpower as well, eventually, but it could wait until the next Attribute boost. Ellen's self was for defense and melee fighting, and she would focus on that, to let her other selves take on the other roles needed to be a good adventurer. Ellen moved forward to the first chamber and paused, waiting until her Scholar had finished securing the bag.

As usual, none of them needed to speak to understand this—they only exchanged words when talking to the Others, or to entertain herselves and keep her mind sharp. She really didn't need to talk to herselves much, but the Others might not be ready to realize that. It was a pity about the Others. Ellen would have liked to have them work together more, especially Hunter. Of all the Others in Onroc Anroll, Hunter was the one that understood the dungeon the best, she felt.

But Hunter wasn't ready to trust herself yet, not like Ellen had. In fact, Hunter was the most independent of the Ellens, aside from Village Ellen. Ellen really admired Village Ellen, in a way. Of all the Ellens, Village Ellen had become the most singular of the Ellens. She didn't trust herself like Ellen did her other selves, but she didn't need to. Village Ellen had a different kind of trust in Ellen, one that allowed her to live a life on her own, and allow all her other selves to be the things she couldn't.

It was an interesting approach to their selves, and Ellen liked how the seemingly quaint and simple version of her had become the most strong and independent despite lacking the rest of her. Shaking her idle thoughts from her head, Ellen moved toward the next tunnel. There were two here, but one led to another nest of spiders, one which was harder to deal with than the first. Now that her Scholar had finished adjusting the sack, she knew it was time to move, as did the rest of herselves.

She wondered if the Others would still feel unsettled by them when she realized none of them had bothered to talk. Here while doing their first solo attempt at the dungeon, the need to talk to herself had been replaced by the serious drive of clearing the floor. She could have fun with herself later, after she'd proven she could solo the first floor with just her four fully trusted selves. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Her Scout shuffled to the side and slowed as she approached the chamber, so Ellen stepped up her pace and lowered her spear into a ready position. She strode into the room, then relaxed her legs, letting herself get pounced by the snarling beast that was this room's guardian. The first floor should be easy, now that she knew everything. Later floors would change the enemies around more frequently, according to Uncle Anroll, but the first floor was predictable for a dungeon.

Ellen frowned as her spear didn't hit full in the chest, instead gouging along the side of the giant stoat-like monster. She dropped the weapon and lifted her buckler up while letting herself be bowled back, feeling the wood creak under the impact of the slavering jaws trying to bite through it. Claws scored over the leather armor she wore, rending deep furrows into it but not quite penetrating. She wasn't worried. Three others of her were here.

Her Scout was already moving in from the side, knife flickering in the lantern's light from where her Acolyte held it behind her. Blood gushed from the monstrous beast, and it let loose of her buckler to yowl loudly in pain. Her Scholar had already picked up the spear and, when the stoat yowled, used the opportunity to stab it in the mouth. It didn't quite penetrate to the brain, but it caused the stoat to gag and choke on its own blood… and to give Ellen a respite from the clawing weight.

Seeing the opportunity, Ellen drew her short knife and finished the job, plunging it into the stoat's neck and rolling the beast to the side.

"Ten," her Scholar announced, then held the spear out for Ellen to take. Ellen grasped it and steadied herself, shaking her head to clear the spots from her eyes. Her Acolyte stepped forward, then just stopped once it was clear that Ellen wasn't bleeding. While she'd been making sure she was okay, her Scout had gathered the loot from the dungeon and started distributing it to her other selves. Ellen tucked the coins into her pouch and ran her fingers over the gouges in the armor.

The damage didn't quite go all the way through, but she wasn't sure how Hunter would feel about being asked to repair it. Maybe one of the new Ellens would take a Class that can properly repair armor. When Ellen straightened, she only had to wait a moment for the other three of her selves to all look up as well. The moment her Scholar rose to her feet after finishing the examination, Ellen walked forward. No point in wasting time before handling the floor boss.

Her other selves all fell in behind her, with her Acolyte passing the lantern to her Scholar. It had been exactly one hour since entering the dungeon at this point. As Ellen approached the final chamber, the boss chamber, her Scout squeezed past her and darted ahead. Ellen readied her spear, waited for two breaths, and rushed after her with spear point forward.

She heard her other selves hurrying along behind her at a brisk jog, keeping the light close enough that it flooded the room just as her Scout was rushing in. As before, the arachnohopper was already there, waiting for them. The heavy, eight-legged beast was marginally less prone to a mindless rage when confronted with an Ellen than the others… but still had little in the way of planning or intelligence in how it attacked.

Her Scout had anticipated this, rushing in, then diving down and focusing entirely on evading the oncoming pounce that narrowly missed her. The dungeon boss was fast on the pounce, but those eight limbs on a giant rabbit body were cumbersome to turn around. Her Scholar had remembered that and formulated this plan, and Ellen had no trouble trusting it would work. That's why she charged into the room while the monster was still turning about, before her Scout had even rolled to her feet.

Her full weight and momentum behind it, the spear sank deeply into the join of neck and shoulder, a shriek rising from the infuriated rabbit-thing. Venom-dripping fangs gnashed at Ellen, and she tightened the grip on her spear to keep it at bay. It wasn't a boar spear, and without a crossguard the obsessive beast was able to shove itself closer… not to mention the sweat on Ellen's hands causing her grip to slip slightly.

Her heart was pounding, the rush of combat causing a roaring in her ears as she struggled to keep the deadly gnashing teeth from reaching her. She felt her grip begin to fail. Just as the spear began to slide through her hands, the arachnohopper squealed out in pain!

Its long ears were sensitive, and while it had been desperately trying to bite Ellen's arm off, her Scout had leapt up from behind and grabbed both ears, yanking them back and forcing the rabbit-spider's head up, exposing its throat above where the spear was still firmly lodged. Within moments, the monster would twist about and sink its fangs into her Scout instead, and they'd lose part of themselves. Two more would return in her Scout's place, but they did not want to feel that pain.

Despite what the Others thought, none of her wanted to throw a part of her away. Ellen released her spear and lifted a hand, palm toward the entrance. Just in time, the handle of her Scholar's larger knife slapped into her palm, thrown toward her before she had even let go of the spear. She didn't hesitate to bring it in a swift, vicious arc across the exposed throat, opening up the monster's neck in a spray of arterial blood.

The arachnohopper gurgled and choked, the shock of the wound giving a precious opening for Ellen to step forward and follow up with a thrust to bury the knife deep under the chin. Unlike her shorter backup knife, this one was long enough to penetrate to the brain and end the creature's life with a violent convulsion. Her Scout released the ears as Ellen joined her other self in quiet panting, recovering Stamina. None of herselves announced a new Level, even after the awards rolled in.

One more run for her would push her to Level 11, but her Scholar might need a little more on top of that. She turned to the other selves in the entrance, watching as her Acolyte gathered up the loot and her Scholar considered their fatigue. None of her selves had been injured, but the next level down would be much more dangerous. As her Acolyte distributed the loot, Ellen saw the slight shake of her Scholar's head. It would be too dangerous to attempt the second floor yet.

This made sense, as Ellen had yet to do any of her Class Evolutions to Tier 2. Wiping the knife off, Ellen handed it back to her Scholar before picking up her spear and starting the long trek out.