Evolution of a Healer

Now that skill selection was over with, Cyn could get back to other things. Like making sure she wasn’t fighting in just her undergarments. The entire back of her tunic was basically gone, making the tunic continuously try to fall off, and the leather satchel and straps were damaged. The leather had held up better than her flesh or the cloth, and was still usable, but was at risk of just breaking fully. She did not trust it to keep holding together her tunic, and ended up just taking the whole tunic off. Sam’s tunic was also pretty ruined, but the chainmail he wore did not appear to be affected by the acid so the tattered remains were just keeping the metal off his skin.

Cogtopia had not had a bra that would have fit her, so Cyn was just wearing some tightly wrapped cloth around her chest. She wasn’t comfortable to be running around in just that if she could avoid it. Instead, she quickly washed off her web-covered cloak and put it on before flipping it backwards, so it draped over her front instead of her back. She then used its length to wrap around one side back to her front and over the opposite shoulder, making a sort of halter top. Recognizing her problem, Dana stepped in to help her fasten it all together with some makeshift metal clips. It didn’t even look too odd, almost looking like it was intended to be a wrapped garment, except for the hood of the cloak now being on her chest. She wouldn't be able to use it for wiping away web easily now, and it definitely was not going to be protective against rain, but she still considered it better than nothing.

“Hey, Hex, can I try using Identify on you again?” Cyn had the decency to at least wait for the Rogue to appear to be done with his menu, not long after she had settled back down to continue resting. It was hard to resist the temptation to just do it, since she had wondered if the increased quality of the skill would result in more information. He blinked at Cyn a few times then shrugged.

“Sure. Why not?”

Human - Level 16

Level sixteen ? There was no way he was that high a level. While Cyn was thinking that over the Rogue cocked his head to the side, watching her a moment, before speaking again. “I could tell you were Identifying me, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as before, or even when we were scanned at Cogtopia. Just mild goosebumps.”

“My Identify upgraded when I picked up my profession, that's why I wanted to try it again. I just had not thought of trying it on one of you until now. I can see your Human, but it also says your level is sixteen…?” As she finished speaking, a sense of being looked at came over Cyn, and she felt the goosebumps Hex had mentioned.

“It’s probably the sum of my levels, five in Rogue and eleven in Cook. I got the same thing for you, except you are level eleven. And you can be licked for more information, apparently.” Cyn laughed at his amused tone, though she did wonder what else he could possibly learn about her with his skill. Probably just that she was made of meat.

The rest of the party traded uses of Identify, learning to no one's surprise that Cyn was the lowest level. She had been the only one to struggle with leveling her profession while they were in Cogtopia, but with the exception of Hex she might also be the only one who could get experience in the field. Overpowered Cook had bought a heat stone and small cooking pot he now carried around to make fresher food whenever they had a chance to rest. Everyone had also received an upgrade to Identify when they chose a profession, but the Rogue was the only one who had a result that was not just race and level.

By the time they were all done making their skill choices and discussing Identify, Scott had fully recovered from the venom that was paralyzing his arm. Cyn would have to wait to get the chance to test out Purify, but she wasn’t bothered. She had no doubt that they would be facing more venomous arachnids shortly. Very shortly, since the party saw no reason to hold off on continuing down the tunnel.

As they approached the baby Harvesters the small arachnids scattered, fleeing en masse away from the humans. As Cyn passed one of the glowing egg clusters, everyone having decided to just leave them alone in favor of moving on, she used Inspect.

Illuminant Harvester Egg Sack

Contains a multitude of unhatched Illuminant Harvester Hatchlings.

Disturbing the Sack now will cause the Harvesters to hatch early.

Mostly what she would have expected, with the addition of reinforcing their decision to avoid disturbing the eggs. The party walked for much longer than Cyn anticipated before finding more fully grown Harvesters, who were overly aggressive instead of waiting to ambush them. She reasoned that that was because this appeared to be a sort of nest, or leading to a nest, and the creatures were more protective of their young. Not a trait she would normally associate with arachnids, but it's not like she had dealt with any spiders as large as a car tire before coming here. So maybe it was normal.

Regardless, the Harvesters were no more difficult than before. This tunnel was relatively short, at least compared to the one going to Cogtopia, so it was only an hour or so before they reached the end. They sort of knew what to expect, from Dana’s conversation with the foreman, but it was still a little eerie to walk up to a large vertical shaft going straight down. Inside of the shaft was an old contraption meant for moving ore from the lower tunnels up to this one. It reminded Cyn a little bit of a Ferris wheel, but tall and skinny instead of round.

Only about half the buckets were still intact, and many of those looked dangerously close to crumbling. The shaft was also predictably filled with web, and while no one could immediately identify waiting Harvesters there was probably some lower down. Ideally, the party would make use of the contraption to get down to the lowest floor, where the elevator to the surface should be. But if they couldn’t get it working, or it was too unstable, they would have to backtrack to the entrance cavern to harvest the Illuminant Web Mass for ropes. They had intended to get some while they were in the cavern before, but being attacked had derailed their plans.

To one side of the shaft was the decrepit remains of the magic engine that used to run the machine. While they could spend the time trying to repair it, the party instead looked to the opposite side where a large hand crank was. Unlike the engine, the more simplistic mechanical crank appeared mostly intact. It would just take a lot of strength to use. Once everyone was satisfied with their inspection, Sam took up position and, with a grunt, turned the crank.

The tunnel filled with the sounds of groaning metal, but sure enough the ore buckets started to move. Because this machine was meant to move ore up to their current floor, they would be taking the buckets on the opposite side of the machine to go down. As well, Sam would have to stay up top to turn the crank. It was still better than trying to rappel down, since at least Dana and Cyn would still be able to attack any waiting Illuminants from above as the party made their way down, but it definitely was not ideal.

After some discussion, it was decided Hex, Cyn, and Dana would go down first and hope there was a crank at the bottom of the shaft. Dana surprisingly had almost as much strength as Sam, due to her profession, so she should be able to use it. Cyn was an obvious choice to go, although healing anyone while they were separated in the ore buckets would be a challenge. Hex was going in case they had to fight at the bottom, and being the most agile of them he was the least likely to fall down during the initial descent. Scott would stay to defend Sam in case reinforcements arrived from either the shaft or back the way the party had come.

If they found a crank at the bottom, they would send up either Dana or Hex’s cloak in a bucket to notify the Guardian and Warrior. If not, the three of them would just reascend so the party could return to the entrance cavern to collect some makeshift rope. With that decided, and everyone ready, the scouting party found three sturdy-looking buckets close together and climbed in to start their descent.

It was uncomfortable. Mostly because the buckets swung as they traveled downwards, leaving Cyn feeling constantly a little unbalanced. At least they were far enough apart that she could stand. Hex and Dana were both further from her than she would have liked, because they were too tall to be in any bucket that had another one right above it. They would have received a concussion. The Archer was three buckets above, and the Rogue two below, though there was not actually a bucket between him and Cyn. It had crumbled away or otherwise became detached before the party arrived, giving just enough space for Hex to stand.

Should she need to heal him, the Rogue would just have to reach upward for them to touch. Not ideal, but neither was trying to fit both of them in a single bucket. As long as nothing made it past him or Cyn, the Archer should not need healing. At least she hoped so, since it would be incredibly difficult to get the other woman within touching distance. Everyone kept their focus downward as they slowly traveled, keeping an eye out for any signs of ambush. It didn’t take long for a waiting Harvester to become visible, clinging to the vertical surface just far enough from the moving ore buckets to not get hit by them.

Cyn was about to call up to Dana, to make sure she saw it, but there was no need as an arrow streaked past, hitting the arachnid. Almost before it could react to the first shot a second arrow hit, dooming the poor Harvester. Cyn almost felt bad as she saw the low-level creature fall down the shaft, dead, without having a chance to retaliate. Almost.

That scenario repeated itself only a few more times before the bottom of the shaft came into view. Hex was able to get out of his bucket fairly easily, and as soon as he was on stable ground the Rogue lunged forward towards an arachnid. Cyn could only stumble out of her bucket, nearly doing a faceplant. After making a mental note to invest in more agility, she noticed the foe he was fighting was not one of the Harvesters. Instead it was another Weaver, the huge creature far too close for comfort.

Hex was not struggling too badly with the web covering the ground, his increased stats from leveling up helping a good deal, but even being slightly slowed by it was dangerous. As Cyn quickly got out of the way of the buckets, so the Archer could also get out, she saw the Weaver just barely nick the Rogue’s arm as he dodged a fraction of a second too slow. Even a graze that small was enough to envenom based on what she could feel, her new skill seeming to have given Cyn a better sense of when someone was hampered by a debuff Purify could help with. Since Cyn was more hampered by the terrain, her strength stat significantly lower than anyone else's, it was the perfect time to test if Purify could be used at range.

Much to her surprise, it worked. She felt the venom subside, it not even having spread enough to make Hex drop his dagger. While she created and sent a single mana needle, trying to preserve her resources, and Dana began to rapid-fire arrows into the Weaver, Cyn watched as Hex used what must have been the new skill the Rogue had gained at level five. He threw himself backward and up and, the Rogue’s body moving faster than what Cyn thought should be possible, suddenly reversed his momentum mid-air to strike downward with both daggers.

It was remarkable to see what the combination of slightly higher stats and a new skill could do. As Hex’s weapons struck into the back of the Illuminant Weaver its exoskeleton practically shattered, causing the Weaver to emit a high-pitched screech and shake violently. The shaking was not enough to dislodge the Rogue, who followed up with more strikes to the creature's exposed organs. The Weaver only lived a few more seconds before the combination of Dana’s arrows and Hex’s attacks was too much, and it collapsed.

After a few moments of silence, the now-winded Rogue began to climb off his dead opponent. His health felt fine to Cyn, so she assumed the skill had taken a toll on his stamina or his mana. Perhaps both. The Archer let out a low whistle. “Damn, I feel cheated if that's what you got for level five.”

Hex let out a short laugh before speaking, inspecting the Weaver’s fangs at the same time. “Yah, that was more effective than I expected it to be. Took a lot of stamina and mana, though.” Dana just shook her head, putting away her weapon and looking around the still-moving ore buckets for a manual crank. The Rogue carefully cut off the fangs and started to shove them in one of his pouches before Cyn interrupted.

“If you need to taste those, I can dispel the venom after a few seconds.”

Hex raised his eyebrows at her for a few seconds before muttering, “Oh, hell yeah I do.” He quickly pulled down his mask, grinning like a maniac, and stuck the tip of the still dripping fang to his tongue. Cyn felt the venom enter his body, and could not help but laugh as the Rogue’s face grimaced at the taste. He quickly spat it out, and after a few heartbeats of letting it spread Cyn used Purify to remove the venom before it got too far.

Hex nodded his thanks before putting his mask back up and putting away the fangs. Looking back at the Archer, Cyn saw she was now missing her cloak and just sitting near the crank, seemingly waiting for it to stop so she could take over. In the opposite direction, past the Weaver corpse, she could see a wall of web a short distance away. Based on the map they were given, beyond should be another large chamber with the elevator to the surface at the other end. And based on the party's previous assumptions, it would probably also be a boss room.

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