Chương 205: Perception Skill

Training continued on the same schedule for the next week, until our Labyrinth run. This time, we deployed into the depths first, and I had a plan. There was a monster that I'd spotted a few weeks ago, and I figured we were ready to face it. We couldn't let it go any longer, though, because other teams had surely noticed it too. Since we were going down first, it gave our squad the best shot.

I'd noticed that, when we were all starting from the same place, some of the middling-ranked squads tended to follow in our footsteps, and if we didn't go quickly and get a head start, someone might try to snag a kill from us. When we arrived, we raced to the edge of the level, cleaving through skeletons as we went. When we found one with Imperial Steel armour, we stopped only for a moment to take its armour, but they were rare.

When we reached the edge of the lava canal, we continued along, and only a single lava gorilla (fine, a flameknuckle) attacked us. Working together, we dispatched it in less than a minute, then looted its remains. Our Vitality was high enough that we could hold the high-temperature rocks in our hands after a few minutes, so that was what we'd do. It took about ten minutes in total, but when we finally arrived at the plaza I'd been aiming for, we stopped.

We didn't round the corner yet, so no one in the squad could see what we were up against, but we all knew it was there. Sage said, "It's near the top of—""Wait," Anchor hissed.

"Levi should try to sense it."

"I don't have a perception Skill yet," I replied.

"How do you think you get one?" Anchor asked.

"Alright, how?" I asked, looking at the three others.

"Do not involve me in this, brothers," Brawl said.

"I have no intentions of ever getting a Perception Skill. Once my attribute climbs high enough to see the sign, that is it. I will not enhance it any further. No. More. Snakebites." Sage rolled her eyes, then urged Morph to carry her forward so she was in front of Brawl.

"Dupes' Perception Skills work differently from regular Path-walkers' arcane senses. You can sense a creature's Presence, and that's it. But yours extend farther, and they can sense far more creatures without having to focus on one."

"So I have to do what the flameknuckles do to see?" I tilted my head.

"Well…yes…wait a second, dustbrain. Did you call it its proper name and get over your stubbornness?"

"Perhaps." I smirked.

"Anyway, senses." I shut my eyes—"Don't shut your eyes," Anchor said.

"Envision what you know is around the corner. Sense its weight in the currents of the world."

"How much practice does it take to get a Skill for this?" I asked.

"In the outside world? When you're not in a Labyrinth?" Anchor shrugged.

"It took me a few months to get mine. It should be much faster inside the Labyrinth, though."

"Well, then." I folded my arms.

"Let's give it a shot." I inhaled, as if somehow, I could smell Presence. I couldn't. I just got a nostril-full of ash and sulfur. After a few seconds, I was tempted to close my eyes, but I left them open. I looked through the building, envisioning the monster on the other side.

"It's not really fair," I began, "considering I know how strong it is."

"This is just an early trial," Sage told me.

"You know, brother, you could abandon the concept altogether and join me in my lack of sensefulness," Brawl provided.

"Sensefulness…" Sage snickered.

"As your sergeant, it's gonna be a little helpful if I can sense things on my own, though. I won't even be taking Anchor's entire job, because his Skill is probably always going to be better than mine. It doesn't mean it won't be useful, though." I tried again, trying to envision the Presence as an invisible wind. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. But my senses didn't work exactly like a flameknuckle's. I couldn't sense maegen; I could only detect Presence.

Instead, I imagined the monster ahead as a weight. It was standing on the surface of a trampoline, making it bend, and drawing things toward it. It had a stronger effect on the world around it. More impact in everything it did. Finally, I detected a slight impact ahead of us. I couldn't pinpoint how powerful it was—I could only say it was there. To tell how powerful it was? Well, that was a different challenge, and not one I wanted to waste time on today.

"We've already wasted too much time," I said.

"Sage, you were going to say it's a powerful Silver?"

"Correct," she replied.

"It shouldn't be too much of a challenge, then." I gave my spear a twirl, then cast them a smile.

"Let's go."

"Are you going to tell us what it is?" Sage asked.

"Just take a look." I was the first around the corner, and Brawl followed close behind, holding his flail out to the side. Anchor and Sage followed, staying beside each other. Anchor kept his bow at the ready, arrow between his fingers. He could nock it and draw at a moment's notice.

"Oh," Sage muttered." That is what we're hunting." A mountain lion made of fungus prowled the center of the plaza. Its beady eyes were made of clumps of black spores. Its fur was a rippling pelt of stacked conk mushrooms. Its claws were petrified mushroom stems, as were its teeth. It faced us and growled, eyes locked on.

"Its pelt is natural armour," I told Sage.

"I know you don't want Imperial Steel, but we do need to boost your survivability somehow, and I figured natural remedies would work better for you—""Perhaps," she replied quickly.

"But first, we must kill it." We circled around it, moving closer. There was no magical solution. No weak spot. It pounced, jaw wide, eyes wild. As it approached, backed away slightly, then tried to jab it under the jaw with my spear. I cleaved off a row of mushrooms, but it wasn't enough to pierce through, even with a resonance Skill. Instead, I dragged it back, using a pulse of [Mass Hammer] to tug it at an angle toward the ground.

It slammed into the paving stones, shattering them, then bounced a few times as it left the effect of my well. Brawl and I flanked it, rushing to catch it as it came to a halt. The beast jumped up, but Anchor fired an arrow into its eye. It pierced in, sticking deep into the beast's flesh. Not enough to kill it, but it blinded it on my side. I was about to drive my spear in, but Sage called, "If you want to save its pelt for armour, you can't damage it too much!"

I didn't lose Focus on the monster, but it did stall me, and I didn't attack as decisively as I could have. I didn't jab my spear in, and a wild flail of its limb caught me, leaving a slice on my arm. Its claws went through my basic chainmail like it was paper. I spun away, and Brawl moved in to take my place while Sage repaired the gash I'd just earned. Brawl wrapped the monster's paw in his flail's chain, enclosing it, then pulled it to the side.

Its other claw swung toward him, but I was back in action quick enough to intercept its paw. I lunged, then caught it with the haft of my spear and deflected it. There was nothing that Moonhand had taught me over the past week that was helpful here. I just needed brute force to overcome it. I glanced at Brawl as the monster pulled away, freeing its claws from Brawl's bind.

"I've got a way to kill it without piercing its flesh," I said.

"Brawl, charge your Art."

"Will do, brother." We fought it for what felt like a few minutes, but was more like thirty seconds. I helped keep control of the fight while Brawl took hits. If we both needed to distract it, Anchor fired an arrow to pull its attention away, but he didn't use a resonance Skill, so it didn't pierce the beast's pelt. We could've won much quicker if we'd been able to pierce its coat, but as it was, we were still quick enough. And I barely had to spend any Presence.

When Brawl's Art had charged, I shouted, "Direct it at the beast's chin!" Brawl triggered his Art. I used mine as well, tugging in the opposite direction and aiming at the beast's upper body. It spun, neck snapping back. The beast did a full backward summersault before its head cracked into the stones of the plaza, breaking them. Its skull caved in, and it fell still.

"I'd bet there's some kind of treasure in that house," Anchor said, pointing to a building on the opposite side of the plaza. A storefront with a level on top of it.

"That one?" I asked.

"How do you know?"

"It looks right," he replied.

"The excess of amphoras certainly doesn't hurt. It's the only one nearby with that many. Besides, the monster was pacing in front of it before we rounded the corner." I got Sage and Anchor to work on looting the monster's corpse, while we went hunting for treasures inside. We checked inside every amphora on the first floor and found nothing, so we went to the second floor.

"Do you sense anything, Sarge?" Anchor asked.

"I just started…" I said.

"You're not one to turn down extra practice, are you?"

"No, I am not."

"Then try to sense it."

"How far away can we sense enchanted items?"

"From a few paces," Anchor said.

"I can sense it right now."

"Of course you can." I sighed, then extended my senses, hunting for the same extra impact. At first, there was nothing, but a moment later, my gaze washed over an amphora in the back corner that felt like it was vibrating. For a brief moment, an outline of a short sword appeared in my vision. The weapon was in there.

"There," I said.

"Good." Anchor clapped.

"You're getting better at this already."

"Let's just bring this up to Drywsone and see what he can do with it."