While things were happening outside, and the world was changing, Regulus was focused on his own stuff. He couldn’t help but regret a bit not taking some of the tools that the dwarves left behind in that town. It would have been fine if he had left money behind… or so he tried to justify to himself.

  The ores that the monsters left behind didn’t need to be purified, so the most troublesome part of the aspect could be avoided, at least in my opinion. Still, I wanted to try to make new things with the ores that I was gathering, but I needed a lot of things.

  “I guess I should try to buy those things somewhere where I am not hated… maybe it is about time to take a look at the kingdom of Talimor.”

  It was weird that I have been free for five years and I never went there… it was the nd of the people who had half human blood, after all. Logic says that it was the best pce for someone like me to stay. I wasn’t completely certain, since I was still pretty rare if compared to everyone else, but it would be worth checking it.

  I could also try to check the kingdom of Felyndor… I had some acquaintances there as well, after all. Still, I didn’t want to risk causing trouble for them. So, I decided that the best option would be to head to Talimor.

  While I was thinking about that, I turned around when I saw a group of mineral golems emerging from behind. A quick wave of arrows was enough to finish them off and then Gcien went to grab the mana cores and ores that the monsters left behind. As if she was a dog, her tail was spinning like a fan when she brought them to me.

  “Thanks, girl. You have been very patient, so I will be sure to make you something nice when I am able to start forging things.”

  “Awoo!”

  We were exploring the ninth floor of the first section and, as one would expect, the pce was completely empty. All the dwarves were busy dealing with the preparations for the war, after all, so it made sense. I didn’t have the weird feeling that something bad was going to happen yet, so I was pretty rexed. Perhaps I could let Gcien fight the boss as long as my Spidey senses don’t alert me of anything troublesome.

  Eventually, we found ourselves standing before the entrance of the boss chamber, the end of the first section of this byrinth. I couldn’t help but let my mind work. Dwarves, after all, are renowned for their strength, craftsmanship, and mastery of both magical artifacts and creation. It seemed logical to assume that the csses granted in these pces would help them reach that same path..

  Yet, a lingering thought crept into my mind: were these csses truly reflective of the dwarves’ natural inclinations, or had they simply adapted to the byrinths within their territories? After all, byrinths offer some weird css choices, and sometimes in not-so-subtle, ways. Perhaps what we were about to face was more a reflection of the byrinth’s demands than the dwarves’ cultural identity.

  “Do you want to take down the boss, girl? Monsters like this are a bit harder than the ordinary monsters found in the first section of dungeons, but you can probably do it.”

  “Awoo! Awoo!”

  “All right, it is all yours.”

  Come to think of it, golems are supposed to be one of the species of beings that emerged in the st rift… I wonder if the monsters in the dungeons and byrinths began to show up after that rift almost destroyed the world. Even if it didn’t or did it, it raised a bunch of questions either way, so thinking too much about it was useless.

  When we reached the boss chamber, Gcien assumed her attack mode and that had been the right call since we were welcomed by a barrage of stone bullets. She quickly summoned her ice fortress, and the spell sted for a while.

  In the middle of the chamber, we could see the first boss of the byrinth… The mineral golem boss was in the center of the chamber, a hulking mass of stone and ore radiating an aura of raw, unrefined power. Its body seemed to be hewn from the very walls of the byrinth, with chunks of glittering minerals embedded within its jagged frame. Shards of quartz and veins of shimmering gold ran through its arms and chest. Emeralds and sapphires jutted out from its shoulders like unnatural, crystalline growths.

  Its head, a roughly faceted chunk of obsidian, featured glowing eyes of molten amber that radiated heat and menace. The golem’s jaw was a jagged fissure that opened and closed with a grating, stone-on-stone sound, as though grinding through the earth itself. When it moved, the sound of rock scraping and cracking reverberated through the chamber, a reminder of the immense weight it carried with every step.

  “If I were worried about money, I bet that I could make a lot out of this guy.”

  Gcien had gotten confident in her endurance tely, so she didn’t hesitate in charging toward the monster and attacking it with a body sm. I increased that parameter in order to see how much she could grow, but she slowed down after getting as tall as me. It would be fun if she could become as big as a dragon, but the costs in food would be catastrophic. Even if she hunted for her food, she would decimate the popution of prey in any area that we would stay for more than two days. Perhaps I was digging my own grave with those experiments.

  In any case, the body sm pushed the monster away, but not that much damage was caused on the monster. Creatures like that are truly hard to deal with, no pun intended.

  In any case, before the monster could recover, Gcien bombarded the monster with frost arrows and hit its core as much as possible, but the damage there had been minimal as well.

  Gcien looked at the monster, annoyed… perhaps I should give her a hand with some arrows that decrease endurance. As long as I don’t cause damage, it would be fine, right? Then again, my debuff arrows were supposed to be curses… can even inorganic monsters like that be cursed?

  While I was thinking about that, Gcien charged at the monster again. Her charge this time even hurt her a bit, but at least it knocked down the monster… before the creature could get up, Gcien bit the arm of the monster and then tried to snap it with her mouth.

  The arm began to crack a bit in the joint, but the monster resisted and soon used the other arm to attack Gcien… She used Frost Arrows on the joint and after freezing it, the arm broke.

  Gcien just jumped away with the arm in her mouth when the monster still followed with a barrage of stone bullets. It was annoying to fight monsters like this, since they couldn’t even feel pain. Still, at least Gcien found the right path to victory. The monster fired stone bullets from its arms and only used that spell until now, so it was safe to assume that victory was all but assured, but I decided to keep an eye on the fight, just in case.

  You received 500 experience points.

  You completed a trial. Please choose between the csses: Weaponsmith (Magic Forger), Archer, and Acolyte (Dark Acolyte).

  You obtained the Magic Forger css.

  You improved the Mana pool parameter.

  You unlocked the Aptitude: Arcane Crafting.

  You unlocked the skill: Summon Arcane Tools.

  You unlocked the skill: Ethereal Smelter.

  Arcane Crafting: Gain bonus crafting experience when using magical tools in the forge process. The bonus increases with the complexity of the weapon involved.

  Summon Arcane Tools: Call forth enchanted tools to assist in crafting. Each tool provides specific benefits. Hammer of Precision: Improves the critical success rate of crafting by 10%. Tongs of Stability: Reduces material degradation during crafting by 20%. File of Finesse: Grants a 15% chance to enhance item quality by one tier. Cost: 15 Mana per tool, sts for 5 minutes.

  Ethereal Smelter: Summon a magical furnace to refine raw materials, increasing their purity and effectiveness in crafting. High-purity materials result in better-quality weapons. Cost: 20 Mana per minute.

  I was a bit surprised by those options and since I was curious about what would happen if I upgraded the weaponsmith css, I decided to pick it. Those skills were really convenient… but now that makes me worry. Whenever something good like this happens to me, it is a sign that trouble is brewing on the horizon.

  “Perhaps it isn’t that convenient given the cost to summon them… Well, I just need to keep my guard up.”

  While I was thinking about that, Gcien approached in a good mood. Despite that, she had bruises all over her body. Her body sms harmed her as well, and even the scratches that the boss caused hurt her quite a bit. I decided to use Beast Bond to transfer my health to her. While I couldn’t drain the health of inorganic monsters, my health regeneration was higher than hers, so it wasn’t a problem. Her wounds began to heal quite fast afterwards.

  “I want to test my new skills, but perhaps I should keep going and get better materials instead.”

  Only half a day had passed since I had entered the byrinth, so I should have some time to take things slowly… I had to do that in order to accomplish all my goals here, which were to level up my archery skills and get as many materials as possible since I didn’t know when I would have the chance to get more of these.

  Now that I think about it, staying in this pce for a few weeks or perhaps even a month wouldn’t be a bad idea to stock the materials and mana cores. I would grind some skill levels and I also would get a lot of experience in and out of battle. Considering that Jacques had more or less a good idea of what I could do, I imagined that this would be very necessary. Our fight made me think that he just came to get a feeling of my skills before facing me for real.

  ‘I knew that I had to adapt my pns pretty often, but this is way worse than I thought…’

  WritingMachineGun