Chương 174: The Next Morning

In the morning, I woke up early. It was just a habit. I hadn't intended to, but I had left the curtains parted a crack, and I was used to rising early to practice jousting with Lord Ceonwin. Now that the tournament was over, I had no reason to keep practicing jousting. If I made the Skills too strong, they would overwhelm and taint my regular spearmanship Skill, which was the last thing I wanted.

Sure, I could've just left them on their own, but what was the point of a Skill that I didn't intend to merge into something better. Well, there was always the possibility of me having to joust again. Maybe I should've kept up the practice. But it was unlikely. Sure, I could try to get Hinlaw wrapped up in a trial-joust, just like they'd done to Ceonwin, and try to take his entire Domain from him. That, however, seemed unlikely to lead me to victory. How would I compete with Hinlaw's experience on the lists?

Besides, he'd probably cheat some other way. If I was going to take over his Domain and become an Ealdorman myself, which was looking like my most reasonable course of action as the days went on, I would need to find another way to deal with Hinlaw. So jousting wasn't on the table for this morning. Instead, I visited the stables, armed with a pair of brushes. When I arrived, the stablemaster hadn't woken yet. We didn't even have guards at the stable anymore.

I supposed anyone within the castle walls, at this point, was more than deserving of trust. Once inside, I located Burr's stall and brushed her fur and mane, getting out as many knots as I could. Yeah, it was supposed to take time to bond your horse, and it would take even longer for horses like this to grow beyond the strength of an average horse, but I had a suspicion that I could do it faster with more care and attention. Besides, I'd brought a flask of weak potion-water back from my lands with me.

Potions were supposed to contain arcane power. Some of them were meant simply for infusing the drinker with maegen. But all of them contained a little bit, and the potion-water, though weak, couldn't have been any different. As I brushed her fur, I poured a glug into her water bucket. The faint green glow diffused into the water in a matter of seconds, and Burr couldn't have noticed. I was drugging my horses now, like any responsible horse owner.

Still, next time Burr leaned over the bucket for a drink, she didn't protest.

"I know they say talking to your horses isn't the best idea," I said.

"But I think that's superstition, to be perfectly honest with you." I worked an especially tough knot out of her mane.

"We're going to be doing this every day until you grow more conscious, and until you get a little bit stronger." Burr whinnied softly.

"Sorry. That was a tough one." She fluttered her lips.

"Yeah, well, I'm still going to do this." I had no idea if she understood, but I'd fake it until I made it. Eventually, she'd understand what I was saying.

"You know, if we want to travel between here and my lands in a reasonable amount of time, you're going to need to get yourself stronger. We're going to need to run nonstop. Gallop, I mean." Burr didn't make any more noises to indicate a potential reply after that, but I kept talking anyway, babbling as best as I could, even if I didn't have anything to talk about. ~ ~ ~ Breakfast, as usual, consisted of infused food. Since I'd been away from the castle for three weeks, I had forgotten what the food was like.

I didn't need any reminders, though. It was dry and ashy in my mouth, and bitter, and there was an aftertaste that got stuck in my nostrils for the rest of the day. It was healthy for me, though, so I tolerated it. With the infused food, it would help lock in our attributes better, and our physical conditioning would improve greatly. I still wondered if the higher-tier Path-walkers had a way of gathering Presence even more easily.

Or some way to give themselves massive boosts, similar to how infused food helped our physical attributes. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. But then again, they had massive lifespans. They could just continue increasing their Presence slowly. I wouldn't have that much free time, though. After breakfast, I rushed to my room to put on my equipment before our Labyrinth run.

Though I didn't bring my reading slate today, I did check it before the delve.

I held up the little stone tablet and activated it, then read over my list of attributes: Name: Levi Gordon (ID#: DD-333) Class: Soldier Rank: Sergeant (SAP) Tier: Silver Vitality: 69 Agility: 74(+4) Strength: 71 Perception: 49(+1) Focus: 92 Presence: 103 Skills: Evolved Spearmanship (Journeyman), Quick-Witted Crossbow Use (Journeyman), Art: Mass Hammer (Advanced), Memory Modification (Apprentice), External Squad Synergy (Apprentice), Lancework (Apprentice) I'd gained a few points here and there, but no massive bursts.

Two more points of Presence since I'd last checked, though, which I couldn't complain about. Now that we were back at the castle, I could continue to grow. My next Skills to focus on would be Spearmanship and my crossbow Skill. I needed them to catch up to my Art. Once I'd finished checking over my gear and stowing my reading slate, I rushed out to the Labyrinth entrance. Although the orc attack had made a mess of the keep and the castle, repairs were underway.

Mortal masons and other senior sappers who were helping oversee our training (and who weren't on a mission) helped make repairs to the walls and the inner keep's damaged archways. The thin hallway down to the Labyrinth waiting room in the cellar, however, had greatly expanded—an ogre had plowed through it, crushing stone and mud and widening the way for us. More masons shored it up with cobblestone, and the Drillmaster assured us that it was safe to use.

When my squad and I reached the waiting room, I found Yesman and Habit's squads waiting for us at the very front.

"Glad you could make it back, sir," Habit said, a sarcastic glint in his eyes.

"We appreciate you leaving all the orcs for us, though," Yesman added.

"It was quite the chore. Along with all the digging and excavating." I rolled my eyes.

"Sounds like you guys enjoyed it. But I take it no one has ventured down to the second level yet?"

"No one," Habit confirmed.

"You timed it perfectly to avoid the worst of the tasks, and made it back just in time for the fun stuff.."

"I wouldn't say I avoided the worst of the tasks," I said.

"That's a story for another time, though. I suppose we're going our separate ways now?"

"Well," Yesman said.

"I don't know about that." Typical Yesman—always the first to say 'no.'

"Since we're going to be dealing with monsters around Silver and Gold, we were wondering if you wanted to scope it out with us beforehand," Habit said.

"At least get a lay of the land with us on the first day." Right now, of the twelve of us (between my squad and their two), I was the only Silver. The rest were Titaniums.

"I'd be happy to," I said. It was just the first week, and I hadn't had a chance to plan out the next Skills yet I wanted to work on yet. Getting a lay of the land was far more important than anything else we could do today. As per usual, the Drillmaster read out a list of all our rankings. My squad, in our absence, had fallen to fifth place, and Yesman's had risen to the top. But with my full focus now able to go toward training, I planned to unseat him soon.

When it came to individual rankings, I was at the top of the list. I ignored that list, though, not wanting to get complacent. Besides, when it came to my squad, I had to help lift the rest of them up. I couldn't just ascend beyond them without a care in the world. We were meant to fight in groups, and we would be far stronger together.

"We have not stocked any more monsters in the upper levels," the Drillmaster explained.

"There are some orcs remaining, for those of you who are still stuck at Steel, but you will be expected to venture to the second level soon. As for the rest of you: be careful. We have invested many resources into your advancement, and we expect to see a return in the form of front-line victories. Your death in the Labyrinth would be a poor return on investment. You may begin." Our squads followed our usual routes, delving through the outer layers of the Labyrinth first—the winding tunnels at the very start.

When we reached the lower city, I only paused on out balcony for a few seconds to stare up at the roof projection. Ripples of light painted a sky across the artificial dome overhead. Then we descended to street level and took a direct course right toward the center. We wove through barren streets. There weren't any monsters, though there was a distant howl of something that hadn't been killed yet. Even the corpses of the invading orcs were gone.

The thick crowds of high-tier monsters around the central plaza were gone. When we reached the central plaza, we stopped. Yesman and Habit's squads caught up in moments. The plaza was mostly repaired. Only a few chunks of stone were out of place, and Labyrinth Keepers still crawled in thin, glowing lines across the floor, repairing the bricks and fixing patches of damage that the fight between Othmuk and the Floor Guardian had caused. We couldn't worry about that right now, though.

In the center of the plaza, a gaping hole in the floor yawned, with darkness beyond. Pressure seeped out of it.

"There's our entrance," I said.

"No time to waste. Let's move."