Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Three - A True Captain

Everyone gathered on the top floor of the boss room, all of us rather exhausted, even Bastion seemed a bit tired, even if he and Howard had been the only ones entirely unscathed by the boss fight.

“How’re you?” I asked Awen. She was leaning up against the wall near the door that I suspect led out of the dungeon.

Awen grimaced. “My health is a bit low? Um, and my Stamina... my mana is fine?”

“I don’t think your mana’s a big deal right now,” I said. I searched my bandoleer for a potion, but the only one I had was broken.

Why were potion bottles made of glass? That was just silly.

“Here,” Amaryllis said as she handed an intact potion to Awen. “Once we’re out of here, I think it would be wise to find a healer. At least, if there is one in Insmouth?” The last she asked while looking at Howard.

“We have a good apothecary, but nothing so special as a doctor or healer,” he said.

“What’s the difference?” I asked. “Between doctor and healer, I mean.”

“One knows how the body works very well, and has skills to fix it physically,” Amaryllis said. “The other throws magic at the problem and hopes for the best. Doctors are better, generally, but slower. Both is best.”

“Right,” I said. A neat lesson, but not what we needed right then and there.

“We’ll find someone in Sylphfree, I’m sure,” Amaryllis said.

“We do pride ourselves on being the most advanced nation when it comes to the healing arts,” Bastion said.

Amaryllis nodded, and if she was acknowledging it without complaint, it was probably true.

Awen took her potion and sighed after. “That was scary.”

“I was terrified,” I said.

“Awa, I think... I think I want to learn how to swim.”

I giggled, which got her laughing a bit too. Amaryllis rolled her eyes, but at least she was smiling. “We’ll find a pool or something,” I said. “I can teach you to doggy paddle at least.”

“How undignified.”

“If it keeps you above water, it doesn’t matter how silly you look,” I said.

Howard stretched his back and looked over to where the boss had been before. “I’ll go see if the boss dropped anything,” he said before heading off.

I took in my friends at a glance. We were done here, mostly. Just the last bit of the mission left to take care of, but that was a part that we could take our time in handling, and one that was unlikely to attack us. My friends seemed preoccupied, especially Amaryllis who had a smug birdy grin on.

“Levelled up?” I asked.

“I did,” she said.

I sat down next to Awen, then scooted over a bit before checking all of my notifications. Mister Menu had a bunch for me.

Dungeon Cleared!
All adversaries with The Depths of Insmouth Defeated.
All Bosses Defeated.
Broccoli Bunch, Cinnamon Bun Bun, level 12, Wonderlander level 4, is awarded the Deep Diver class.
All class slots filled.
Replace current class with Deep Diver?
Replacing one of your current classes will reset your level to 0 in that class.

Did I want to become a fish-person with bunny ears? Not really, no.

Class: Deep Diver set in abeyance until Class Slot becomes available

Well, that was done! Another dungeon cleared, another potential class saved up for when I reached my next evolution.

I was expecting a level up, but I got... nothing. I scanned through all the messages I had from Mister Menu, but there wasn’t anything about levelling up. That was annoying. And we’d worked so hard!

Though, I supposed it was fair. It had only been a few hours, and there was hardly as much fighting here as in the last dungeon. And the monsters weren’t quite as impressive.

Plenty of skills had improved though!

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Archaeology skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!
Rank D is a Free Rank!

Oh! That hadn’t moved around in a long time. It was nice to see it growing a bit. Not the most handy of my skills, but maybe now that it was at Rank D it would start being more useful. It felt like Ranks F was just there to tell you that you had a skill, and Rank E was only good for helping a tiny bit. D was where things started to really improve.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Tea Making skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!
Rank C Costs one Class Skill Point!

I grinned. Rank C Tea Making! I wondered what that did? Would it allow me to make magic teas? Or would I have some sort of Stamina-related ability linked to Tea Making? Maybe it would allow me to prepare tea better? Oh! Maybe it would allow me to hold my bladder better!

No, that was silly.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Insight skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!
Rank B Costs two General Skill Points!

A bit expensive for a skill I was constantly forgetting to use.

I’d set that on the backburner. General skill points were precious, and I couldn’t afford to waste them willy-nilly.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Hugging Proficiency skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!
Rank D is a Free Rank!

“Nice!” I cheered.

“Level up?” Amaryllis asked.

“Nope, not this time,” I said.

“Well, neither of your classes are combat based,” she said.

I blinked, then narrowed my eyes at her.

Amaryllis Albatross, Thundere level 13, Puppeteer level 3, smug.

“Okay, two questions,” I said. “How are you a level ahead and one behind me, and why do I see both of your classes?”

“Because classes level according to what one is doing, and my Puppeteer class, as much potential as it has, is still relatively weak. It’s moving slower. As for the second question, either you actually figured out how to use Insight--which I doubt--or you already know part of the information so the skill is filling that in.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Ah, I’m falling behind.” Awen said. “I’m at twelve and three.”

I shook my head. “Hardly. When we met you were a bunch of levels behind, now you’re just one behind either of us if we tally all our levels together.” I bumped shoulders with her. “You’re doing awesome.”

She smiled, a little bit timid, but not as timid as she had been even a few weeks before.

“Right, give me a few more minutes, I have more notifications to look at.”

One more notification, actually.

Ding! For doing a Special Action, you have unlocked the General skill: Captaining!

Oh.

Captaining
Rank F - 00%
The ability to lead and take charge through soft sailing and rough patches.

That... was actually kind of nice.

Things were looking pretty good. My Hugging Proficiency was obviously a priority. Other than that... well, I had a lot of points just sitting there, not doing all that much. With Cleaning finally at Rank S, I figured I could start diversifying a bit. Getting it to SS though... that was really tempting.

It wouldn’t happen until level 19 in Cinnamon Bun Bun, which could be months from now!

At the same time... I bet there weren’t that many people with Rank SS anything, let alone a skill as handy as Cleaning!

Well, that could wait. I’d ask Amaryllis for help later. She was smart. In the meantime, I didn’t have any problems dumping a bunch of points in my Wonderlander skills... if only they were cooler. Tea Making was nice, and Mad Millinery was cool, but they were a bit... strange and not super.

As for General Skills... maybe Makeshift Weapons? Definitely Hugging Proficiency. The ability to buff my friends was invaluable! But then I only had four points there.

“Need help?” Amaryllis asked.

I shook my head, hesitated, then nodded. “Yup, but not right now, I don’t think. Once we’re back on the Beaver I think I’ll bother you for a little bit.”

“Sure. We wouldn’t want you spending points on some of your more useless skills.”

“Hey!” I said. “My skills are cool. Mostly.” I could do without Adorable.

I stood up as I saw Howard climbing up the steps with... a dress over his shoulder? A purple one, with a very floofy set of petticoats sticking out from under the ruffled skirts.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Drops from the boss,” Howard said.

I blinked, then fired Insight onto the dress.

A pretty dress. Good for ablative armour. New.

“Huh?”

Howard shrugged. “We don’t rightly know either. You can cut them up for some scraps. The insides are soft; make for good bedding material.”

“I guess,” I said. I set that aside for the moment. The dress looked way too small for any of us. Not the reward I expected, and not something that seemed too useful.

We gathered up our things, with Amaryllis and I splitting Awen’s things between us even as Awen protested that she could handle it herself. Then, with Howard pushing the last door open, we moved deeper into the dungeon.

The corridor ahead forked. On both sides were shimmering portals, set into stone door frames. One had a hazy image of the mausoleum from which we’d entered the dungeon, seen from the inside looking out. The other was the core room.

It was not nearly as bad as I feared.

The core sat upon a pedestal made of stone tentacles, the big orb carefully held in place there.

Touching it, just barely, was a root, one tangled up in the twisting stone below and that reached out to every corner of the room.

“Be careful,” Howard said. His voice sounded a bit off. Fearful, almost.

“We will,” I promised.

Stepping up, I hiked on my backpack, then handed my warspade to Bastion, who took it almost absently.

Stepping into the core room felt the same as it always did. Strange and almost icky. The passing sent shivers down my spine, and I could feel the magic in me bubbling and racing. I’d been getting better at feeling that. I bet people like Amaryllis who did plenty of magic would feel the core a lot more.

I stared at the orb in the centre of the room for a bit. The room itself wasn’t anything too special. Stone walls, with embossed carvings in the walls that, when the light hit them right, created strange, wriggling shadows.

The only light came from some glowing mushrooms ringing the edge of the floor where the Evil Roots hadn't broken through them, and from the core itself.

I reached out, carefully touching the core. It felt warm. “We’ll fix you up in no time,” I said.

Then I knelt down and grabbed the base of the roots climbing up the plinth.

Cleaning magic at Rank S was almost scary when it found something as dirty as a root. It dug in, hissing and spitting, and the root started to fall apart around where I held it.

I let more magic flow, covering the floor and concentrating where the roots were more visible.

They started to burn.

I didn’t know if this would cure the core entirely, but maybe all it needed was to be given a chance to cure itself. Like a vaccine, sorta.

I patted the core gently before leaving the room, the last bit of Evil Root pinched between thumb and forefinger. “I think we’re done,” I said as I wasted Cleaning magic on my aura. “And I think I’ll be keeping this bit.”

“As a souvenir?” Amaryllis asked.

“No, as something we can study, or maybe give to someone who can. Come on, let’s get out, I’m looking forward to seeing sunshine again!”

***