Dungeon Noble - Squire

They ran the Dungeon twice more with a short break in between, bringing their total Wyrdgeld earned for the day up to over a hundred each. It was so much, and yet it felt like so little compared to what they needed.

Surprisingly, each of those short breaks was enough to revitalise them. However, by the third delve, they were consistently running low on Wyrd. The short breaks weren’t long enough, and consuming Wyrdgeld to top them up would be counterproductive to what they wanted to do.

Felix had reinforced the concept that these were training sessions after each delve, which was enough for Jake to realise what he was doing. He’d long since worked out that Felix had some Skill or Trait that boosted the recovery of his students, but this was the most direct and deliberate use of it that he’d seen.

Jake knew they would have done much less without it, especially after spending a few hours marching hard to get here.

“Are we going again?” Jake asked, looking around at the others as they finished their break after the last run.

“I don’t have the Wyrd to carry on,” Rhew said reluctantly, looking down at her wand with a slight glare. “We would probably be best to start again in the morning.”

“We’ll push on to the next Dungeon tomorrow,” Felix said, his tone carefully neutral. “If you’ve hit your limit for the day, then it would be best for you to rest and be ready to do it again when we arrive. Ari has booked us into an inn. He can show you the way.

Jake frowned unhappily but couldn’t think of a good argument to make the others stay. He knew that rest was important, but he felt like he had more to give.

“I think that would be best,” Rhew said, getting to her feet and rubbing her face. “We’ll work the next one hard instead.”

“Alright, let’s get back then. I want a coffee,” Ari said, rising smoothly to his feet as he started walking off at a relaxed pace.

“Jake, wait a moment if you would,” Felix said as the others followed after Ari. “You don’t look satisfied with finishing here.”

“I think I can do more,” Jake said honestly. “This wasn’t enough either, not if we just have one more full day of delving ahead of us. I’ll be able to rank up tonight and likely again tomorrow, but that leaves me at the seventh rank.”

“We’ll have more than that,” Felix said, gesturing for Jake to sit with him. “The three days for arrival timeframe was a worst-case scenario. We likely have one or two more than that. I’ll get a message from Michelle when she knows more. The important part was that you all started strong.”

“I’m not sure that five days would be enough for me to reach rank ten,” Jake said, working the numbers out in his mind.

“It won’t be, not unless you’re willing to show me your true mettle.”

“I don’t understand,” Jake said slowly, not sure where Felix was going with this.

“We can run this Dungeon as we did the ones in the past,” Felix said, pulling a satchel up from where it had sat out of sight on the ground and placing it atop the table with a loud clink of glass. “I won’t give you the Wyrdgeld, but I will help keep you going while you earn it yourself.”

“Yes,” Jake answered before he even finished processing what Felix was offering. He’d take any path forward that would be offered.

“Very well, there is more to explain, but let us do that within the Dungeon,” Felix said, rising to his feet and gesturing for Jake to lead the way as he shrugged on the strap of the satchel.

-**-

The dark, dank tunnels of the Dungeon seemed far more foreboding now that Jake was taking them on without his companions. Thankfully, Felix had lit a torch and was helping illuminate everything, but it wasn’t quite the same.

The first beetle emerged from the darkness before long, scuttling forward to try to clamp its mandibles on Jake’s leg.

Infusing his sword took a good amount of Wyrd, so Jake drew his wand and sent a Wyrd-conjured thorn into its head. The thorn easily breached the monster's thick carapace, killing it before it could get close enough to pose a threat.

While this method was wasteful on the Beast-ranked beetles, it was proof of concept for Jake and would be how he planned to deal with the acid-spitting Enhanced beetles that were deeper in the Dungeon.

“You said there was more to explain?” Jake asked as he drew the Wyrdgeld from the dead monster and dropped it into his pouch before continuing onward.

“Yes, regarding the Trait that I’ve been using to help you all recover. I will share how it works so you can understand the situation,” Felix said, smiling slightly at the shocked expression on Jake’s face.

Sharing Skills was the height of trust, and Jake almost missed his strike on the next beetle as he tried to process the implications of Felix offering it to him.

Hurriedly recovering and finishing off his opponent, Jake checked for any other monsters before moving to take the hand that Felix was holding out.

Sharing Trait details from Felix Drusus

Train Hard, Fight Hard (IX) - Rare - When performing a training exercise, all involved recover at a moderately increased speed once the training is completed. This speed is further increased individually by the effort expended.

“I’m sure you can see the implications,” Felix said, his eyes twinkling with amusement despite the situation as Jake rocked back on his heels.

“But, how can this work with delves? They aren’t training situations, right?” Jake asked, confused by how the Trait could work like this.

“I consider them training for the future, and by telling you that, you’ve all been considering them training to enough of a degree that it can function,” Felix said, gesturing for Jake to take a seat. “The System doesn’t care what mental gymnastics we do to make our Skills and Traits work. There is no oversight there.”

“But doesn’t that mean that any Skill can apply to any situation if you can convince yourself?” Jake rubbed his face, trying to make it all make sense.

“Yes, as long as you can convince yourself it’s true,” Felix said with a slight shrug. “I know people who make some very strange mental adjustments to help their Skills work, but there is always a cost.”

“A cost?”

“Yes. You see, you can’t just tell yourself it's true and then it will work; you have to believe it. I know that this is training for you, and by telling you it repeatedly, it has taken enough of a hold on you to work. Forcing that kind of understanding on yourself for something less workable can leave you disjointed. There’s a reason why higher-tier classers are often strange.”

Jake considered forcing himself to believe something was true just to gain a Skill or Trait benefit and shuddered. That sounded like an easy way to send yourself insane.

“Okay, I think I understand,” Jake said after another minute of thought. Calling the description of Felix’s Trait back to mind, he ran through it again, understanding now what Felix had wanted him to see. “The recovery speed is based on how much I push myself.”

“Yes, and you need it to be high,” Felix said, his smile fading as his expression grew serious. “Physical recuperation is easy enough, but regaining your focus takes longer, and anything less than the full effect of my Trait won’t be enough for you to get as much done as you need to.”

Jake nodded, taking a deep breath before getting to his feet. “Then I need to make sure I push as hard as I can.”

-**-

Jake dodged to the side, his thoughts sluggish as he mechanically stabbed a krok fly that was trying to latch onto him before drawing his wand and firing it at the closest of the acid beetles, or at least, he tried to.

A sensation like forcefully poking a bruise came as Jake tried to use the wand, and he winced as he realised he was out of Wyrd. His Boons were long since used up as well.

Jake hesitated, his mind sluggishly trying to think of an alternative, as the beetle spat out a thin stream of acid that caught him on the side as he tried to dodge.

Fresh adrenaline crashed into Jake as pain stabbed into him, bringing clarity with it as the mental fog he’d been struggling with was ripped away along with the flesh on his shoulder.

This was the third delve since the others had left, and while Jake felt only mildly tired in a physical sense, his mental fatigue had continued to grow. There was an odd dissonance now between his mind and body, but at least he had the presence of mind to get out of the beetle’s line of sight.

Hunkering down behind a stalagmite, Jake grabbed the frayed ends of his focus and forced himself to be present in the moment as he surged around the far side and dodged a blast of acid.

Eschewing any fanciness, Jake bodily slammed into the beetle, knocking it off balance before he got his free hand under it and heaved it onto its back. A weak spurt of acid caught him on the neck, taking his breath away, but he had enough presence of mind to put his weight behind his sword as he fell, embedding it in the beetle.

Blissful coolness came a moment later as Felix reached his side and poured a potion over the injuries on Jake’s neck and shoulder.

“You’ve done well, Jake. That’s all for today; get your reward, and then you can rest.”