Dungeon Salvation

The trio continued to walk around for a while longer, until they met up with Peter and Vivian, but the mood was decidedly more tense. They introduced themselves to Marco and exchanged niceties for a while, but obviously noticed their son’s poor mood. When asked, Elias gritted his teeth and explained that he and Marco were going to test each other in a sparring match.

His father let out a chuckle while his mother just rolled her eyes. They knew their own child and immediately understood what this was about. They even asked if the pair needed them to officiate the match, but the offer was declined. They still transferred a few thousand energy to Elias for him to pay for a dueling ring.

Before they left, taking Isabela with them, they invited Marco to visit the dojo to train with Elias sometime, if he wanted. The other man smiled and thanked them for the invitation, but declined saying that he already trained with his own father in swordsmanship.

The ring was just a square area of packed dirt, little better than nothing at all. The true benefit from paying to use one was that there was a healer on call. They would heal the fighters when they were done using the ring or if there were any grievous injuries.

The pair didn’t agree on any specific rules for the match beforehand, since this was still supposed to be a friendly spar, something Marco reminded him of many times. He had tried not to let it show that he had gotten angry, but the other man had clearly noticed. Judging by his opponent's powerful and fit physique, he would be at a clear disadvantage, but he was confident in his fighting skills. He even teased Marco by asking if he wanted to use his training sword, but the other man declined with a snort.

When both combatants were ready, they nodded once and approached each other, guards up. They circled one another for a few seconds, until Elias let loose a quick jab at his opponent, which was easily dodged. The other man returned a jab and a straight punch, which was similarly dodged by taking a step backwards.

They continued like this for a few seconds, just out of each other’s reach, until Elias decided to punish Marco for underestimating him. He baited the other man by throwing a slow punch, pretending to overextend. Marco leaped into his guard to take advantage of the perceived misstep, only to find a backhand hook flying at his face, as Elias took a stance shift forward. Marco stumbled back, dazed by the unexpected hit.

Elias didn’t follow up on his strike, as it was only meant to show the other man that he should take this fight more seriously. He wanted Marco to understand that even when taken seriously, he was not an opponent to be easily trifled with. He did shoot him with a vindictive smirk, however, to express exactly what he thought of the man’s cavalier attitude.

Marco gathered himself from his dazed state and gave Elias a serious, assessing look. His expression turned serious and he gave a grunt and a nod, before approaching once more. This time, he went straight into Elias’ guard with a frontal kick.

Elias dodged to the left of the kick and tried to let a punch slip by Marco's guard. The punch was blocked and he was left looking at his opponent’s back. Marco swung his right arm at Elias’ throat, letting the appendage’s momentum lead the rest of the man’s body in a quick turn. Elias dodged the swing by taking a step backwards.

They traded blows, punching, dodging, kicking, and blocking in a fast paced dance. It seemed like they were evenly matched, but Elias knew that he was at a disadvantage due to the difference in attributes. He could see where the man drew his confidence from as he was a very talented fighter indeed, but Elias was better, if slightly. Still, if he didn’t change things up he would lose, as he was not suited to a fight of attrition.

Although he hadn’t mastered the skill yet, he tried to copy the way his father had changed the rhythm of the fight a few days ago, during training. He slowed down his movements, instead of speeding up, causing a punch Marco had thrown to miss by the barest of margins. His jab caught the other man, whose arm was still extended, straight in the face.

Marco realized that something had changed and attempted to push his opponent away with a kick. However, Elias was too close already and landed another punch, to the gut. Unbalanced by the strong blow, Marco fell on his back, trying to regain his breathing. He looked at Elias startled, uncomprehending of what just happened. Elias grinned in self-satisfaction.

This was not the first time someone had doubted his fighting abilities due to his sickly appearance, resulting in a ‘spar’. He always won handily, despite being the physically weaker party. This exact same story had played out many times before.

He half expected to see Marco’s look of disbelief transform into one of anger and humiliation, like he’d seen so many times before. He hated that look. However, after recovering from his shock, the other man seemed elated instead, bursting out in a full belly laugh. Elias extended his hands to help his friend up hesitantly.

“Good grief, dude, you were right! What the hell was that, by the way? It was like, all of a sudden, I couldn’t hit you anymore.” Marco grabbed onto Elias’ hand to pull himself up.

“One of my dad’s tricks. He did invite you to come by to the dojo to train, but since you declined… I guess you’ll never know,” he said grinning. That just drew another laugh from the other man.

“Well, I guess I can come by after all,” said Marco with a grin of his own. “Seriously, though, I really do have to check with my dad about that. He’s insanely strict when it comes to training and he’s one of those teachers that do not like to share. But I’m sure he’ll make an exception at least once. Maybe.”

“Anyways… Man, you have no idea what a relief it is to find someone that can actually keep up with me in a spar. Usually, I just pretend to take the fight seriously and rough them up some. This is great!” Elias agreed with the man’s assessment. Marco was a much better fighter than what he had expected. It would be invaluable to have a capable sparring partner, so close to him in skill. It also made forming a party between the two of them much more likely. Most of all, Elias was just happy that Marco seemed to appreciate his fighting skills instead of being threatened by them.

They continued sparing for a while longer in the ring, since Elias had already paid for an hour anyway. Afterwards, they parted with smiles on their faces and promises to meet up again.

Elias entered the jungle and hunted monsters for the rest of the day, his grin splattered to his face all the while. At this point, the initial excitement of being able to gather exp had died down significantly. The task of killing these weak monsters had become monotonous, more than anything else. It was like a never ending line of training dummies he had to beat up after he’d perfected his battle strategies. Walk for a couple of minutes, kill a beast, gain exp. Easy. A couple hours later, he had even gained enough exp to raise his Agility for the first time.

Congratulations! Your Agility has risen to level 7.

The increase in the Agility attribute immediately made him feel lighter on his feet, even though most of the increase’s benefit would only come after training. He felt like he’d been a taut string for a long time and had finally been given some slack. His movements came easier and his balance was surer. As a result, the speed of which he could move through the hard to traverse jungle became much faster. He found monsters more quickly and gained experience at a faster rate as well.

He continued to hunt monster after monster in the jungle until it was time for dinner. He bought the cheapest meal he could, a chicken noodle soup, which still cost him over a thousand energy. After eating, he went right back into the jungle to continue killing monsters. He was much faster at it now that it was nighttime outside too, since there were fewer people around.

By the time that he should be heading home he had already accumulated 12.210 experience points, which was enough to raise either his Vitality or his Strength by another level. He wanted to hold on to the points to raise his Agility again, however, seeing how much easier it was to move through the jungle than before. At the rate he was going, it would only take a couple more hours until he had the 15.000 exp he needed. Plus, tomorrow morning he was training with his father again. The hand-to-hand combat training wasn’t a walk in the Temple by any means, but still couldn’t compare to his mom’s hellish training.

Congratulations! Your Agility has risen to level 8.

The next day, his father’s training went by smoothly and he even revealed how the sparring match with Marco went. His father gave him a relieved smile, saying that he was glad that everything turned out well. Peter also seemed pleasantly surprised that his son’s new friend turned out to be such a capable fighter, saying he looked forward to Marco visiting them.

They continued training his rhythm and timing throughout the day and Elias was finally getting the hang of it. In truth, it wasn’t as hard to accomplish as he had initially believed. It was just so weirdly different from how he was used to doing things that it would trip him up. Regardless, by the end of the day, the pair were exchanging blows while changing rhythms at the same speed they used to train at before starting rhythm training in the first place.

Ever since her visit to the dungeon, Isabela had been talking non-stop about becoming an adventurer. His parents had even agreed to begin training her already, like they did with him so long ago, which only made him chuckle in malicious glee.

We'll see how much you really want to be an adventurer after training with mom for a couple of days. Hehehe.

The day after, Elias left the house a few hours before lunchtime. He had promised to meet up with Marco to train together for a bit. The other man had even brought an extra training sword with him so they could spar with them as well. Elias admitted that Marco was indeed a much better swordsman than himself, but he wasn’t really a swordsman at all. If he had a pair of wooden batons, or something, that could serve a similar role to his machetes, he reckoned that they would be about evenly matched.

Elias had even caught Rebecca watching the pair of men training at one point, drawing a smile from him. He waved and tried to show off, earning a very undignified punch to the face for his troubles. He glared at Marco, who merely shrugged in response, as if to say ‘you should have been paying attention’.

As expected, his exp gathering rate reached new and unprecedented heights with his increased Agility. After having consolidated the attribute increase by training the day before, he moved through the jungle even more effortlessly. By the end of the day, he had already gathered nearly 18.000 exp, as much as he did the last time without having to stay in the jungle for longer. He decided against continuing to grind until he had 22.000 points, the amount necessary to raise both his Vitality and Strength by a point. Tomorrow was his training with his mother and he did not want to be tired for that. She might even make it worse if he had an extra attribute to train. Therefore, he simply leveled his Vitality and began his trek back home.

Congratulations! Your Vitality has risen to level 6.

His training the next day featured the esteemed company of his little sister, for the very first day of her own training. Like it had been with him, the first few years of her training would be administered by his mother alone. His parents said that it was because it was necessary to build the foundation before constructing on top of it, or something along those lines. He suspected that his father simply didn’t have the heart to beat some discipline into his students like his mom did. Instead, he only worked with those who were ready to obey his every word, no questions asked.

Isabela somehow failed to dodge almost every single projectile his mother threw at her during reflex training. Vivian flicked tiny rubber balls at them for this training and although they didn’t hurt, they did sting. It was honestly impressive how poor his sister was at dodging them. Even Kitty seemed in disbelief that her human was performing so poorly.

For endurance training, they went on another run, but this time he was expected to run 15 kilometers in an hour, since he “did so well the last time”. His sister had to run 10 kilometers instead. She was slightly winded, but in much better condition than him. She actually had a natural score of 8 for Vitality, and 7 for Agility. She was far from where his mother would be satisfied with her performance given where her natural limits lay. Isabela didn’t even get to use any recovery potions yet, since she wasn’t able to push herself far enough to make good use of them.

You poor, poor baby, you have no idea what’s coming for you, he thought, looking at her in genuine compassion.

She mistook his compassion for mockery, since he got a potion and she didn’t. It probably didn’t help that he kept making his trademark ‘this is delicious’ face while he drank it. She decided to complain to their mother about how unfair it was that he got a potion and she didn’t, when they were doing the same training.

Vivian hated complaining, defiance, hesitation, and any other behavior that might be mistaken for disobedience from a world away, but only during training. Under normal circumstances, she was the most doting of their parents, bubbly and energetic at any given time. Elias watched as his sister so tragically put all of her effort and energy into digging her own grave, obviously thinking their mother would behave as she usually did. She wouldn’t.

By the end of training, Isabela ended up getting a potion of her own after all. His sister was laying down with her back to the floor, looking like she wanted to burst into tears. Kitty comforted her by kneading on her belly, somehow looking worried for a cat. Even he offered a few words of consolation and encouragement. He didn’t offer a hug, of course, as that would risk getting some of her vomit on his shirt.

The next ten days went by in a rush of activity as he trained with his parents and gathered exp in the dungeon. He met Marco in the clearing every other day for lunch, where they trained and ate together. Throughout, his friend realized that there was a lot more truth to his sister’s comment about him liking Rebecca than he’d initially thought, and kept ribbing him about it.

With his greater movement speed through the jungle of the newbie zone, he was able to gather enough exp to raise his attributes by at least one point every day he actively killed monsters. Firstly, he increased his Vitality from 6 to 8, bringing him to the same level as his sister had naturally. Then, he also increased his Strength to 8, from its initial value of 5.

Congratulations! Your Vitality has risen to level 7.

Congratulations! Your Vitality has risen to level 8.

Congratulations! Your Strength has risen to level 6.

Congratulations! Your Strength has risen to level 7.

Congratulations! Your Strength has risen to level 8.

Name: Elias Oliveira

Exp: 5.240

Spirit: 8

Skill: None

(17.000 exp to level)

Wisdom: 7

Skill: None

(15.000 exp to level)

Intelligence: 7

Skill: None

(15.000 exp to level)

Charisma: 3

Skill: None

(7.000 exp to level)

Agility: 8

Skill: None

(17.000 exp to level)

Strength: 8

Skill: None

(17.000 exp to level)

Vitality: 8

Skill: None

(17.000 exp to level)

His physical attribute increases, compounded with his ostentatious consumption of recovery potions during training, saw his body transform these last days. His stick thin figure filled up with muscle, his complexion grew healthier, and even his skin gained more color. For the first time in his life, Elias didn’t look like he would be blown away by the wind. He bought new clothes, as well, when the ones he wore wouldn’t fit anymore. He made sure that they were loose around him too, since he would be gaining even more weight and muscle mass.

Elias realized just how much of a disadvantage he had been in, due to his lacking physique. He could now move faster and easier, exert more strength with less effort, and simply felt more solid than before. It brought him no small amount of comfort that people stopped staring at him in disgust when he went out. At one point, he even received a flirtatious look from a girl, to which he had no idea how to react. That had never happened before!

In a world with magical potions available for purchase, maintaining a healthy body was easy with the barest amount of effort. Everyone he had ever met had been physically fit, except for him. He must have looked like a freak, with his stick-like body and sunken eyes. Most people assumed, incorrectly, that he was simply lazy and weak willed, that he could improve with just a little exercise just like them. Few people knew that it was even possible to be born with a Vitality score of 1.

His parents grew very emotional with his changing body, far more than he’d expected even. They were so happy that they promised to give him a present when he raised all of his attributes to level 10. He looked forward to it, until he heard that they had returned his other birthday present to buy this one. His machetes!

He had talked about it with his parents and knew that the weapons would be returned, but he was still upset about barely having used them. Soon, he would be able to use Uncommon rank equipment, so he hoped that the new gift would at least be better than the old one.

One day, having lunch with his friend, Marco said that he had nearly reached level 10 in all his attributes already. He would be strengthening his foundation for a few weeks before selecting his Skills. This would be his last day coming into the dungeon for a while.

“Well, I only need a few thousand exp to raise my Spirit to 10, so why don’t we go farm exp together this one time? Even if we end up sharing exp, you’ll probably gain it at a similar rate if we go into the core area of the zone,” said Marco excitedly. Elias immediately agreed to the suggestion. He’d been meaning to ask his friend to go delving with him some time already. If they could work well together, it would be a great first step to becoming a real party.