Chương 113: Penicillium - Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two Phillipe didn't mess around as we continued through the fifth floor. There were three more rooms to face, each with more goblins to fight than the last, but we burst through each in only an hour. The boys were sweaty and short of breath by the end of the third room, and I was hovering in the single-digits with my mana, but we'd pressed through impressively fast.

"Why... why didn't we fight like this from the start?" I asked.

"It's reckless," Phillipe said as he wiped the back of his hand over his brow.

"And it's not as useful as you might think. If you want to improve your skills, you need to use them cautiously and carefully. A reckless fight is good all of once."

"Oh," I said. I supposed that made some sense. I had a floating theory that skill growth was measured more by new experiences than by repeated ones. There was value in practice because practice meant incremental improvement, but the growth gained from practice worked towards perfecting something, not learning new ways to apply that thing. At least, that was my theory so far. I didn't have anything too tangible to prove it.

I was certain that there were entire bodies of work and study that had been done to explore the benefits of different ways of learning skills.

"I was hoping to give you and Tyro the excuse to push yourselves and maybe learn a thing or two," Phillipe said. He sounded a little bashful about it. I smiled.

"Well, thank you. I appreciate it, at least. I don't get to practise too much and... yeah, I think I've learned a lot today. I'll see how many levels I've gained once we settle down for the night, I think." It wasn't time to be caught staring at nothing, not when we weren't safe yet.

"Is this the last room?" I asked with a gesture around us. The rooms we crossed all continued the sewer theme, unfortunately. That meant that no matter where we went, the room always smelled like lukewarm shit. Fortunately, we hadn't crossed any open pits filled with running sewer water yet, just grates on the walls that spewed out putrid-smelling air.

"It is," Phillipe said.

"The next should lead us down to the centre of the sixth floor. It's a small space, but it should be relatively safe."

"Are we going to stop there?" I asked.

"We might," he said.

"If the other team remains on the fifth floor, then we'll be out of their way. If they're wandering on the sixth floor, then when the dungeon resets overnight we won't have to worry about clearing whatever parts they've tackled already. And if they're not, then we'll be a bit ahead of the schedule I'd planned."

"Alright," I said. The next room really did have a staircase leading down, with arched walls above it lit by what looked like gas lamps fed by copper pipes that were stuffed into the walls. Methane torches? That would make some sense in a sewer, if someone had the ability to harvest the gas. I couldn't remember if the sulphur-y smell they gave off was indicative of that or not. It had been a while since my last chemistry lesson.

"How long does the sixth floor take to clear?" I asked.

"A day," he said.

"The seventh floor is even longer to clear, but I suspect we won't have to clear it. You wanted to head straight to the core?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Then we'll only need a few hours."

"Really?" I asked. He nodded.

"The seventh floor of this dungeon is pretty unique. Lots of tunnels with rooms branching off of them, but those tunnels lead all the way to the core. If you don't explore any of the side rooms, you can walk all the way up to the core without too much trouble. It's why I picked this dungeon to bring Tyro to his first core. And because I'm familiar with the Ditz dungeon, of course." That was interesting. I wouldn't say no to anything that didn't take as long. Phillipe was being pretty open.

I determined to sit down and extract some knowledge about the system from him once we were seated for our lunch. The stairs went on forever again. I didn't want to appear weak, but I had to slow down about halfway down because my legs burned from the exertion.

"Are you alright?" Tyro asked.

"Just... lots of steps," I said. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. He chuckled.

"Wait until we go the other way," he said. I almost groaned at the thought. We'd be climbing the stairs on the way back. My knees were going to give up, I just knew it. Sir Nibbles chittered next to my ear in what sounded a lot like mocking laughter.

"Shut up, you, or I'll stop carrying your heavy butt. See if you like handling the stairs yourself." Tyro blinked at me, then looked at Sir Nibbles.

"What's the story with that anyway?" he asked.

"Tyro," Phillipe said.

"It's fine," I replied with a wave.

"Sir Nibbles here and I go back a little ways. I got him... a tiny bit less than a year ago?" I was going to turn eight soon, and I'd basically gotten him when I was seven.

"He's a panbadger."

"That's uncommon," Phillipe said.

"Especially around these parts. Expensive."

"Well, I might have stolen him," I said.

"But hey, panbadgers are supposed to bond with people and... I think he's bonded with me? Honestly, I don't know. He's a grumpy little shit that eats my food for free and who likes biting me too much for his own good. But sometimes, very rarely, but sometimes, he comes in handy." Sir Nibbles chittered, then he climbed around my neck and touched the lobe of my ear with the tips of his sharp little teeth.

"I meant every word," I told him.

"You're one of the strangest people I've ever met," Tyro said. Phillipe huffed.

"Wait until you start spending time with more delver teams. There are some truly strange people that take on this career."

"Didn't you say that being unhinged was one of the requirements to join the guild?" Tyro asked.

"You remember that? That was years ago." I smiled at their banter and focused on that instead of the warmth of my muscles as I continued to descend the stairs. We made it to the bottom soon enough, and Phillipe took the lead again to clear the room at the bottom.

"It's safe," he called back, and Tyro and I followed him in. The space was small. Maybe twice the size of my farm back home, but with round walls made of interlocked bricks of a pale stone. There were two doors to either side, both closed up tight, and not much else. The room at least didn't smell as much like a gas station bathroom, even if it was about as cramped. A single lamp was stuck to one wall, and there was a small desk to one side with a crooked-looking stool before it.

There was also some interesting lichen growing on one of the walls that I knew I'd be poking at as soon as I could. That was about it. The room was otherwise empty and hardly seemed comfortable at all.

"We're going to spend the night here?" Tyro asked. He sounded a bit disappointed.

"There's barely room to lay down."

"The rooms to either side are too open," Phillipe said.

"They'll be hard to defend."

"But they'll have more room," Tyro pointed out.

"And we'll want some room to stay in. Besides, it'll mean having at least one room between us and anything else." Phillipe considered it for a while, then he sighed.

"Fine. But after a break." He let out a grunt of exertion as he sat down on the bottom-most step of the staircase. He was the image of someone worn out by a long day's work. I could sympathise. I felt worn out too, and I wasn't a quarter of his age.

"That's not a bad idea," I said.

"Breaks are good sometimes."

"Meh," Tyro said, but he moved over to one of the walls and slid down to the ground next to it anyway. He might have been willing to go on, but he was also at that age where he didn't know how to pace himself. I was probably supposed to feel the same way, actually. I went to explore the lichen at the far end of the room. It was strange, with little protuberances and conical growths that poked out of a matted body that looked a bit like a fuzzy carpet.

The main body was a sort of deep blue, with a bit of a greenish tint on the ends of the conical structures. I sniffed at it. There was a definite ammonia-like scent around it. [Sludge Moss] - Uncommon An uncommon growth found in environments with toxic materials that remain stagnant for long periods. The moss only grows in mana-rich environments, and its main body is fed by the toxins it extracts. Commonly used as a means of collecting several alchemical reagents.

I've been finding the most interesting things down here, as I reached for my bag and a vial to take a sample.