DungeonFall – [A Dungeon Creation / Cultivation Story]

When Nathan woke the next morning, it was to a whole host of notes. There were a lot of changes that he needed to make to the traps in the second dungeon. By the end, there were only a couple that were fine as they were. All the rest needed various changes to drive down their energy costs or to make them more effective.

Unfortunately, he had never gotten a chance to fight any of them. That would need to wait another day or two. He needed to get more work done on the dungeon first before he had the freedom to start exploring the dungeon.

Even then, he would need to be lucky enough that there would be stragglers for him to attack. There was no way he was capable of handling a full five-member group at the moment.

After a shower and another item from the McFadden’s box later found Nate was downstairs and cooking his breakfast. The item from the box hadn’t been an herb this time but was instead a piece of crystalized honey.

The effect of the honey on his backup core was far more pronounced than the other pieces had been. There was a specific order in which they were supposed to be taken, and each one was definitely more powerful than the last. The energy from these was supposed to bring his core to the next level, which they had done right away, primarily thanks to his own efforts. However, that meant that the five items the box had contained had held an enormous amount of energy.

It was little wonder that more people didn’t try to upgrade their cores. These herbs, crystalized honey, and everything else in the box must have been horrendously expensive. And that was just to upgrade his crappy low-quality core. What would everything cost for the next upgrade, or the one after that?

Then there was the consideration that all these items were specialized in that they mainly affected his core. There was very little bleed-through from the energy. His energy stat would go up a little with each dose, but not by much. However, that could be an effect of his backup core instead of the medicine itself, he wasn’t sure.

All he knew was that they were expensive and that he couldn’t count on an opportunity like this coming around more than a couple of times. The McFadden’s had promised to provide the materials needed to upgrade his core a couple of times and that was it. If they discovered how easy it was for him to upgrade his core, they may even renege on that.

However, those were concerns for the future. At the moment, he had other more pressing concerns, such as school, his meditation arts, and his upcoming second expedition.

At least his parents were supposed to be back later that afternoon. That was good considering he still needed bolts for his crossbow and his new kukris. Not to mention that the house just felt rather empty without them. He had been alone for too many years before coming to this world, and despite the months that had passed, he still enjoyed having his parents around.

He really didn’t like the darkness or being alone. Thankfully, Aura had helped keep the loneliness at bay, or at least she had, after she had stopped punishing herself.

He was just putting the dishes into the sink when Angie’s car pulled up in front of the house.

In the car, he found the girls looking over a weapon listing on Angie’s tablet. Peaking over her shoulder, he saw that it was for a sling, well, the rich person's version of the sling. The materials it was made of were absolutely ridiculous for someone’s first official weapon. One thing was for sure though, it was certainly nice looking, and no one could say that it was a peasant’s weapon.

“I take it you got your parents on board with the idea of using a sling?” He said as he took his seat.

Angie nodded with a sigh. “After I made the same argument that the both of you had with me, they came around. However, they are insisting on it being some half-garish monstrosity like this.”

“Huh, the rich have weird tastes. I can’t imagine using something that expensive and needlessly ugly in a fight.”

“Hey, don’t make me kick you out of the car,” Angie protested playfully, her brow arched as she looked over at him.

“Of course, your richiness, I apologize, for besmirching the good taste of your opulent parents. Please let me continue to bask in your decadent presence.”

“Wow,” Lindsay began laughing. “That was actually rather impressive for something right off the cuff, like that. We both agree with you though, while it is somewhat nice looking, we’re not convinced it's even fully functional as a sling anymore.”

“Get two then. Buy that one, and then a more normal one, just in case.”

Angie bit her lower lip and flicked the auction site page back to the main site where she began a new search. By the time they had arrived at the school, she had a much more normal and far cheaper sling pulled up.

To Nate’s eyes, it looked the same as the one Anna had showed him at the store in town. However, he couldn’t exactly mention that one to her, as that would mean outing Anna’s involvement in the matter. The trainer might be more than a little sadistic, but she seemed to want what was best for Angie. So there was no way he was going to betray her like that.

Mira was waiting for them when they reached the orientation classroom. Her pressed pants and stylish blouse went well together, and as always, had been tailored for her. They didn’t look high enough quality to be purely bespoke clothes, but that could also just simply be a simple choice. Either way, it was clear that she either came from or had earned a lot of money.

She waited for them to take their seats before handing each of them a pamphlet. “During the last few days, we have been covering the basics of, well, everything, in more detail than they have in your other classes. In two days, you will embark on your second expedition.

“One of the benefits that this school provides to all students who create their cores while enrolled is two free energy skills. One for attack and one for support. Now, just to remind you three, each cultivator can only ever have seven skills at a time. However, don’t forget that you can remove skills from your core whenever you want. You will simply lose the progress you had made in that skill forever. Even if you later choose to bring it back, you will still be starting from the beginning.”

Nate nodded along with what she was saying. That limit didn’t apply to him thanks to his backup core, but he wouldn’t be telling the average person about that particular detail. Regardless, the average cultivator could have three attack skills and four support skills.

Each of the energy skills was designed to be upgraded along with the cultivator according to their insights and needs. So, while you could buy a more powerful version of the skills, it generally wasn’t regarded as the smart move.

“On that pamphlet, you will find a list of the energy skills the school offers. I would suggest that you take your time and go through it carefully. These skills are meant to help you with your expeditions and your future cultivation efforts. The benefits behind some of them are not as readily apparent as you might imagine.”

She was staring directly at Nate, when she said that, as though offering him a hint.

The girls raised their brows and opened the pamphlets before them. After the name of each skill, it was noted whether it was a support skill or an attack skill, and then there was a small description of what it did. That was it.

It was not exactly the best-formatted list any of them had ever seen, nor was it something that was designed to be informative.

Lindsay raised her hand. “Where is all the information, Miss Moorish?” She asked after the teacher had nodded at her. “There is almost nothing here.”

“For whatever reason, that is all the information that the school has decided you need to make an informed decision.” She sighed. “That said, if you find one you are interested in, make sure to ask me about it before making your final decision. The descriptions are accurate; however, they do not always tell you everything about the skills.”

The pamphlet contained an even split between attack and support skills. The issue they each faced was whittling down the list of well over two hundred items to just two in the next few minutes. They couldn’t spend too much time choosing, or Miss Moorish wouldn’t have time to go get the skills for them. It was doubtful that they would be able to bring the skills home either, which meant that this class was the only time they had to learn them.

Well, this one, and the one they would have the next day on Friday.

Still, it was a schedule that didn’t leave them with a lot of time to dither over everything. They had to go with their gut instincts and trust that they hadn’t screwed up.

Nate was tempted by several different support skills. ‘Basic Examine’ was one that was almost always recommended to have. However, he had discovered that everything was naturally identified when it was put into the storage of his wrist computer. That was only part of the function of the overall examine skillset and not even the basic one at that, yet it was enough to keep him from taking it for now.

He needed something that would be more immediately useful.

The same went for ‘Basic Flight’. The skill sounded nice, but it took forever to train.

No, what he needed was something that could help his parents, Aura, his friends, and himself. With that in mind, Nate selected the ‘Basic Healing’ skill.

With that decided, he moved on to looking through the attack skills. Preferably, he wanted to find something that he could use with either his kukris or the crossbow. Barring that, he wanted a skill with the potential to grow towards working with both of them, and any other weapons he might use in the future.

There were just so many options. Blasts of qi, blades of qi, extensions, waves, ripples, whips, attached, non-attached, line of sight, timer-based mines, proximity mines.

It had only been around a hundred or so years since dimensional zones began appearing and people started cultivating. Yet there were already so many different skills. It was a testament to humanities’ creative ingenuity and their warlike nature all at once.

Pushing the list away in frustration, Nate held up his hand. “Is there an attack skill that would work with dual blades as well as a crossbow? Or something that would work with one of those and have the potential to grow towards working with them both or other weapons if I later decide to change?”

Mira Moorish leaned against her desk in thought for a minute. “I can think of a couple that would work decently well, but not great with both of them. There are also a couple that work great with just one but have the potential for growth. Which would you prefer?”

Mediocrity or potential for greatness at the cost of time.

Nate smiled. “The second one, obviously. I will always choose potential.”

She nodded with a grin of her own. “Perfect, just what I was hoping to hear. In that case, I think I have just the attack skill for you. Angie, Lindsay, are you ready to choose as well?”

In the end, they accepted the teacher’s help in selecting the best skill to fit with both of their weapons as well.

“That was so much more stressful than I thought it would be,” Lindsay complained, stretched out across her desk a few minutes later. Miss Moorish had just left to fetch all their energy skills.

Angie and Nate grunted in agreement, both similarly collapsed atop their desks, just waiting for their teacher to return.