CH13

She was lost inside her head, fighting through a twisted maze of warped memories and struggling against a force that felt inevitable. The white fawn had spent a short, sweet time with a human that didn't match the one in her visions. A disconnect existed between the human that was her partner and the human she was with. Memories claimed they were the same person, but Tony had other monsters in his party, and her memories of before were of a lonely human struggling against his fate. The labyrinth twisted, warping her memories in a slow exchange of images imperfectly in the view of a human.

As a member of the deer species, her senses were vastly different. Tony's smell of tobacco didn't match the smell of corn, blood, and rage. The rage and willpower radiated off the human that was changed in her memories like a bonfire. It was The only thing the labyrinth couldn't change scent was something humans and their skills had little experience with.

The howl of wolves filled her ears, and she shivered in the tent that smelled like him. In her memory, with a shovel, Tony fought off the wolves under the force of the psychic winds from Mt. Red. The smoking tamer didn't stand tall like she remembered and, despite his powerful will, didn't have the rage that the image shifted, and she didn't know where the line was any longer. Every time she found the line that separated the before from the present, it shifted, and memories were infected. All her resistance did was cause the labyrinth to shift and alter her memories. That couldn't stand, but she didn't know where to begin to set things right.

In her memories she remembered her friend wanted a chainsword and had fed a dungeon chainsaws and longswords as an experiment. He leveled up in a dungeon to try and warp his class into something that farmed dungeons.

"Wake up," Tony said.

She opened her eyes to see the tamer smoking. He sucked the stick to the filter and exhaled a fog bank of smoke in her face. A small barrier of psychic energy kept her air clean.

"You are a treasure. I was lucky my skills were high enough to turn you."

She turned her head to the side; what was that supposed to mean. Gwen refused to speak despite knowing this was her friend Tony. Something was wrong with him; some things didn't make sense, so she kept her voice silent unless he asked.

"I think I'm going to call you Sandy because your coat reminds me of white sand from Mist Harbor," Tony said.

Hadn't they been over this? Why did he need to change her name? Gwen was at least accurate, and she referred to herself as Gwen for long enough for it to stick. Tony only confused her more the longer he opened his mouth. Some discrepancies mounted more the longer they interacted.

She remembered attacking a human that had hurt a member of her herd. Was Loki doing well? Gwen wanted to ask, but she refused to speak until he addressed her like a friend or asked her why she wasn't speaking. Tony didn't seem to care to ask or address her.

"Alright Sandy will be how you're registered. I'm going to give you a skill shard called double kick. You're going to practice it until you run out of stamina so I can get some SP to fill out your paths. Deer are great kickers, and I doubt you're any different. We're going to put everything into trees for your telekinesis skill. Does that sound good to you, Sandy?" Tony asked.

She nodded, and the filter in his mouth fell out.

"Did you understand me, or was that just my skill making you nod?" Tony asked himself.

Then he shook his head.

"What am I thinking? Rank 1 deer aren't intelligent. I could hunt and eat one right in front of her, and she wouldn't care." Tony said.

Gwen froze until Tony pressed a skill shard against her head, and she felt it integrate. It felt like a waste to add something plain like a double kick to her repertoire when she had Blitz Kick and Fell Wind. But she was his monster and she would obey because that's what she did for her friend.

…

Day 17

The boss of the first floor clung to the ceiling with long barbed spider legs attached to a torso of black feathers and long segmented arms. A single chainsword was sheathed at its side close enough to be drawn at a moment's notice. The gristly teeth of the weapon were covered in tiny images of agony lining the length of the chain. Its head was cone-shaped with multiple sets of eyes. On its back was a set of tentacles ending in drills. Rippling muscle moved the boss monster as it searched for its first opponent.

At least the dungeon followed some rules. While I wasn't in the boss's room, it seemed I had a chance to leave and come back. I tried to leave the entrance and circled back, only for a crow monster similar to the birds I had fought before.

I couldn't let it call the boss monsters. The monster dodged my first slash as my chainsword buzzed to life.

It shot after me at incredible speeds but telegraphed a kick to my neck. My chainsword met it before my second weapon countered. The crow monster's leg came free, splattering blood on the ground. The crow monster cawed for hold as my blade took its head.

My breath had gotten heavy from the fast fight, or maybe it was from the boss monster's presence.

I found a skill shard from the monster's dissolving corpse.

Skill Shard 

Final Blow 

Description: The last strike in a battle and the deciding factor. Higher levels increase the amount of damage able to be used in a final attack. 

It was common, but if my first Blow was the last, then wouldn't that increase my damage even more, especially if I expected it to be a killing blow. The logic was sound in my state of loneliness, betrayal, and all-consuming rage.

New Skill 

Final Blow lvl1 

I left to get a few more kills in; more monsters needed to be put down before I even thought of fighting the boss. Who knows, if I left the dungeon might change and lose the chainsword theme it had going on before I claimed every skill I could with it.

My path changed when I found a sphincter door I missed before. It opened to reveal a lake of blood and massive mosquitos and spider chimeras running on the lake's water. I picked up a rock and threw it at one to get its attention, and four broke off after me.

I revved my chainswords and went to work. All four leaped at me at once, and I moved between them, slashing to take limbs off in the early stage of the fight. My fear of monsters had been slowly eradicated from my fight against the wolves, and most monsters didn't expect me to charge into them. It often threw them off.

Joints were my favorite avenues of attack, and the monsters I attacked lost balance and fell on the shores, leading deeper into the blood lake. Wings flapped too fast to see as one rose up to flee. I measured the distance and threw my sword. The blade spun in the air and cut through the chimera's midsection. It fell in multiple pieces as I slashed and took the head of another bug. The two remaining lunged, and I blocked, feeling the weight of two massive bugs struggle against lingering will.

All the while, my chainsword did its work, sawing through their bodies until something gave. Final Blow activated, and I swung, cutting through both of their bodies. Blood and guts flowed out the end of my chiansword, joining the blood in the lake.

I sucked in a breath before letting it out. Being down a weapon wasn't good. Somewhere in the lake my chainsword lay on the bottom with the corpse it took out.

From the dissolving bodies, I found two more skill shards.

Skill Shard 

Gemini Blitz 

Description: Wielding the constellation of the Gemeni, this skill allows the user to dash forward and leave after images that attract the attacks of enemies. The higher the level of the skill, the more images are produced. 

Skill Shard 

Blitz Kick 

Description: Kick at lightning speeds, dealing incredible amounts of damage based on strength and willpower. Higher levels of this skill can allow multiple blows to land and even incorporate elements into the skill. When combined with skills containing similar elements in the name, skills will synergize and deal more damage. 

New Skills 

Gemeni Blitz lvl1

Blitz Kick lvl1 

From what I recall, most dungeon floors had around 20 common skills and 6 uncommon ones that could only drop from mini-bosses. Rare skill shards only dropped for bosses, and they were difficult to farm. Most drops competed with equipment and money drops.

Psychic was a rare skill shard that would only drop for a boss. I would need to battle the boss monster of the first floor several times to even have a chance at it. To get stronger, the smartest thing for me to do is to collect every skill imaginable no matter if it's useful to me in the present or not. More skills equal more skill points that will turn into attributes and more skills.

There were rumors about rare machines in dungeons that could fuse skills together into skill sets, but that was far away. I needed the attributes and skills to defeat a rank 2 monster. Tony Graves would be back, and I would be ready.

I knew the common excuses for why this wasn't normally practiced. Skill shards could be sold for quite a bit of money, and monsters were specialized for roles in a team. Few wanted to turn their monsters into jacks of all trades, masters of none, or worse, masters of all. There were regulations to keep that from happening. Monsters that reached that point were practically unstoppable and couldn't be controlled by their tamers.

A chimera buzzed my way, and I combined skills and kicked it in the chest. The chimera insect barely reacted as I kicked it again before taking its head with my chainsword. All of this was a work in progress. I continued searching for skill shards to cover my weaknesses. I needed to collect more skills if I was going to have a shot. I followed the banks of the river to where I was sure my first mid-boss made its home.

Corpses of birds dried out and desiccated filled the blood lake as I made my way to a towering nest floating atop the shore of the lake. I was itching for a fight, and it looked like I would have one. All to get into shape to get Gwen back.