ABH - CH 28: To Listen to a Mentor Long Lost

A/N: AND WE'RE BACK BABES!!!

Chapter Twenty-Eight

To Listen To A Mentor Long Lost

Rise of Winter, Week 5, Day 4

Freddie knew she should have stopped, should have crawled under the table and taken a nap, or used [Meditate]. She should have recovered. But, she wasn’t drained fully yet. She had enough mana to get through one of the Vanda Vines, of which there were only two. 

She’d have to make a decision. 

Left? Right? Which one was better? Which led to greater rewards? To harsher fights?

Letting a huff force its way out of her, a wry grin was on her face.

“Only one way to know for sure—[Otherworldly].”

The Skill was always running, Freddie knew it. She’d read its description, after all. But sending the magma of her mana into it allowed Freddie to feel her aura expand viciously. She could taste blood in the air and tilted her head to the side. As she stood, listening to fate’s guide, Freddie heard the shuffling of feet to her right.

Her grin turned feral. 

“That way it is, then.”

Turning to face the Vanda Vine, Freddie didn’t bother to pull out her dagger. Instead, she used [Imbue Flame] and lined her palms with white hot fire. She went up to the Vanda Vines, evaluating their grip on the ceiling, then she tapped the stone floor with her heel. 

With a slow whistle, Freddie bent her knees and jumped. Gripping the Vanda Vine as she ascended, she began climbing up the plant monster—leaving shriveling vines in her wake as she quickly shifted her grip between the vines to keep herself supported. It took several jumps and dodging the jumping vines, but she got to the top of the Vanda Vine and swiped her hand over where its roots had adhered to the wall. 

As the roots shriveled, the green vines began to fall into the pit they were covering. Freddie gripped yet another vine, the flames that lined her palms eating through the plant quicker now that its roots were not supporting it. 

Rather than wait for the vines to fall on their own, Freddie began ripping them down. Despite the vines being her own form of support. As she ripped and pulled and tossed the plant matter away, vines wrapped around her ankles and tried to drag her down violently. 

[Fire Step]

Under her feet, a fiery platform appeared and cut through the vines trying to capture her. Freddie let go of the last of the vines and landed roughly on the platform. Surveying the dungeon from where she stood, she watched the Vanda Vine writhe—but only for a moment, because she knew that there were other threats living in this dungeon. 

Her bright orange eyes flicked to the far side of the pit, where two Red Goblins were yelling in garbled phrases that Freddie didn’t care to understand. They both wielded rusty swords. 

Freddie [Fire Stepped] across the pit, leaving the plant to die a slow and painful death as her flames spread across its vines and released the fire clinging to her hands. She was too busy jumping down from the fiery platform and tackling one of the Red Goblins to maintain it. 

She kicked the nearest goblin's wrist, forcing it to drop its sword, before wrapping herself around its back and pulling apart the tissue of its neck. With a pop, the fight left the goblin, and Freddie turned to the other monster and flung her first out and hit what she presumed would be a universal weak spot—the temple.

Freddie watched as the goblin stumbled backward, but didn’t pause. Instead, she swung her leg out and swiped the goblin's legs out from under it. As the creature's skull slammed into the ground, Freddie brought her heel down on its face—shattering it fully. 

Stepping back, Freddie felt a tingle on her back and she whipped around.

Coming face to face with another five Red Goblins, Freddie swore, refusing to look at the pit behind her. 

“Let’s step away from the ledge, shall we?” She laughed, then charged them. 

She never did reignite her fists, but that hardly mattered. 

Nails were sharp enough without melting all they touched. Fists cracked bones all on their own. Kicks landed roughly without needing to slough off heat-destroyed flesh. 

Dodging and ducking, Freddie went for efficiency over aesthetics. Her moves wouldn’t have gotten her more money in the Gladiatorial Games, but she still would have won. She always won. 

That was who Freddie was. 

So, as she mercilessly crushed a goblin’s nose, Freddie ripped its dagger away from the goblin and lodged it into the neck of another. Pulling that goblin’s sword out of its palm, she slashed open the abdomen of a third monster. That one also had a dagger—which promptly found itself in the gut of a fourth. As Freddie lunged for the final goblin, she ducked under its spear and headbutted it in the chin. Black blood hit Freddie’s cheek, and she growled—as if she was a beast herself. 

Smacking the spear out of the goblin’s loose grip, Freddie caught the weapon before it hit the ground and spun the hilt so that the blade was piercing the heart of the goblin. 

“Die, and stay dead.” She spat on the final goblin before viciously wiping the blood off her face. “Disgusting.”

Turning back to the ledge, Freddie looked down. 

This time, the flower beast was not atop a chest—instead, it was flat on the ground. After pulling the spear out of the goblin’s heart, she used [Fire Step]. Freddie descended into the pit, but before she reached the base, she threw the spear with all her Strength. 

It didn’t quite hit where she wanted—just off center of the bulb below the flower—but it did well enough to cause the creature to shift its focus onto protecting its heart. Freddie took the opportunity to call upon her flames and coat the plant monster in heat. 

Watching it shrivel and disappear into miasma reminded Freddie of the goblins up above. She hadn’t smelled sewage from any of them after they’d fallen. 

“Sweet, that means I don’t have to pull out the Mana Pearls. They’ll just be there,” Freddie said, relief filling her. 

That had been so gross. I could do without touching another fully manifested goblin carcass. Frowning, Freddie furrowed her brow. I’m going to have to touch so many goblin carcasses. What was that? A Vanda Vine and seven Red Goblins? This is just the entry Level. 

As another [Combat Report] tried to manifest in Freddie’s view, she brushed it away. Later, after I’ve conquered something actually difficult. 

Stretching her arms, Freddie jumped down into the pit. As she felt within herself, her mana was almost entirely gone. She’d pushed it with the last bit of [Fire Conjuration]. As she looked around the pit, Freddie huffed. A quick rest would be enough to get her back up to snuff. All she needed was a quarter of her mana to handle whatever the Red Goblins threw at her—the real problem would be if she came across another Purple Goblin. 

I could take a mana potion, she thought, then shook her head with resignation. No use wasting one when I can just wait out the regeneration. For now. The lower floors will likely require me to use them.

Resolving herself not to use any mana potions until at least Floor 2, Freddie settled into a corner of the pit and rifled through her satchel. 

Pulling out the bestiary, she began doodling the Vanda Vines and Red Goblins—writing everything she knew. 

“Tilly,” Freddie grumbled, “You better get me out of here so I can give you this stupid political chess piece.”

At the thought of the woman, Freddie whispered to herself, “[Nemoan Protectorate]”

But no power left her, no magma filled her veins, no energy pushed out. It was simply silence. And so, Freddie’s hand shook as she wrote down the aspects of the Vanda Vine’s fibers. If the dungeon could make them into gloves that aided Skill learning, surely other artisans could as well. 

It’s not like dungeons worked outside the System—well, not entirely.

Freddie took her time, writing everything she noticed about how the goblins moved—how they really only brawled, they didn’t really fight. The way they used their weapons was simplistic, and their strategies were lacking. Overall, their strength was in their numbers. The Red Goblins weren’t anything special. 

She made sure to put in a doodle of the black marks under their eyes. It seemed important enough to include. 

Writing about the types of weapons she observed, Freddie counted out how many used each—surely that was related to something. It was beyond Freddie what it could be, but it seemed like the kind of thing Tiltham would ask her when she handed over the bestiary. At that thought, Freddie went back to the Vanda Vine and wrote, in big bold letters, ‘WEAKNESS: FIRE.’ In smaller, more refined letters, she wrote, ‘and maybe acid.’

Freddie did use a third page layout for the Purple Goblins, but she had only met the one. And when she thought back to what [Inspect] had told her, she simply wrote: ‘archer, [Uncommon].’

It was all she knew. All she’d pieced together. Aside from the way it empowered its arrow. She decided to also write that down. 

Capable of breaching over 100 Vitality. 

It was vague, but Tiltham would understand what it meant. 

It meant Freddie had more than 100 Vitality. With every entry, Freddie would reveal her whole hand. If anyone but Tiltham ever got hold of the bestiary, they would know all there was to know about Freddie’s Skills, her Attributes, and the way she fights. All it took was reading between the lines. 

But that was a problem for Tiltham—it would be her job to protect the book, after all. So Freddie wrote it all down. Anything she thought Tiltham could use in even a small capacity. 

That was how an hour passed.

When Freddie snapped the book shut, she sighed. It was a nice distraction. She hadn’t even been in the dungeon that long—a few hours at most. She’d eaten and rested. She’d written what she saw. She’d recovered over half her mana. It was time to move along. To continue through the dungeon, to face whatever perils it would throw her way. 

Standing, she put the book away. It slid into her satchel effortlessly. Freddie swiped the Mana Pearl of the Vanda Vine, then used [Fire Step] to climb out of the pit. Her outfit, which had been tattered just a short hour ago, had stitched itself back together while she’d rested. No longer was she in rags. Now, she looked like a junior member of the Void once again. 

Freddie stared at it for a moment before a genuine smile found its way onto her face. 

“Ah, Tilly, never sparing an expense. We love to see it.”

As she stepped off the fiery platform of [Fire Step], Freddie saw two paths before her. One that veered left and another that went right. It was a similar choice to before. This time, Freddie made her own choice rather than calling upon a Skill that could do anything under the suns. 

Heading off, Freddie decided she would go right until there was no other choice but left. 

It was like a maze. Stick to a wall and eventually you’d find your way out. 

Or, well, she hoped it was like a maze. Elsewhere didn’t have dungeons, and Freddie only knew so much about the matter. Truthfully, most of her ‘dungeon knowledge’ was half-baked and consisted of what Tiltham had tried to shove into her head on the long ride to the border of Nemo’s lands. 

Then again, wasn’t most knowledge half-baked?

Freddie nodded to herself as she continued down the corridor. 

Confidence is key. It’s what’ll get me out of here.

As Freddie was musing about her inevitable escape, she failed to notice the pair of eyes tracking her movements.