I can't remember if I ever specified what Astrid's shield weighs. Can't find it, but if you know I did and find it, let me know. Otherwise, I'll stick with what I've written here.
"It's a crusher variant!"
The third time they cleared the Purcell Dungeon Boss, the party encountered a crusher variant for the first time. The troll still carried the scars and marks of its imprisonment, but it seemed as if the orc captain that enslaved this one was a crueler master than the others. Instead of merely chaining the beast, this troll's hands had been somehow fused with stone, making them clubs of magically enhanced rock. The shackles covered both of the troll's arms from its mid forearms all the way down to the hands. There was no chain and no iron, only stone, and the Boss used its permanent clubs with an enraged frenzy.
Instead of the range and grappling dangers that the regular troll Boss offered, the crusher was deadly in the sense that every single one of its hits could cripple or even kill Astrid or Felix through their armor and Fortitude's support. The party acted accordingly, but things went poorly very quickly. Astrid and Felix were trying their best to keep the Boss's attention as it slammed its fists on the ground like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Stone cracked and flew, and the single attack that Astrid had been forced to parry was still aching all the way through her left arm, shoulder, side, and leg. She committed forward as she noticed Muti approaching from behind the monster, ideally going to deal some real damage in the opening Astrid provided. Nobody expected the troll to anticipate the Rogue's appearance.
Its fist caught Muti squarely from the side, her body folding like a sheet of paper as the strike slammed her fifteen meters away. Astrid felt her stomach drop, positive she'd just seen another of her allies die in front of her, and to her shame, a part of her mind mourned Muti's death, not for the reason that her friend had died, but because Astrid herself would lose an opportunity to go to the Wandering Trials because of it. She growled and threw herself forward, smashing her hammer into the base of the monster's spine as she cursed herself her selfishness. Not for the first time since they'd commissioned her new hammer, Astrid wished desperately for her new weapon. It was probably ready by now, but here she was, fighting against the Boss and possibly losing instead.
She cursed her selfishness and continued to attempt to draw the Boss's attention, which it happily provided. Astrid ducked two hits before pushing mana into her greaves and shield to keep herself from moving and her body from breaking. To her surprise, even with the mana infusing her, the troll knocked her back five steps with the single hit that it landed on her.
"It does not heal like the others." Muti's voice tried to carry over the fight, and Astrid only barely heard it. Now out of immediate melee distance with the monster, Astrid spared a glance for Muti, who was partially sat up, leaning on her right arm with her left hanging in an obviously broken state to her side.
Astrid looked at the monster, listening to what the more observant Rogue had said, and she saw that where she struck the beast several times, it continued to favor where it had been wounded. It was hard to tell with there being no obvious cuts on the monster, but its wounds were stacking up much more quickly than the regular Boss. Felix managed to fortify that impression when he managed a good, deep cut across the troll's chest when it lunged down at him with its fanged maw open. Its blood flowed more red than purple, and didn't congeal immediately like that of the nearly immortal troll Bosses.
"I'm gonna be a little risky!" Astrid called out as Felix kited the Boss away, its back towards Astrid that it seemed to think that it'd dealt with. She pushed a dizzying amount of her mana into the hammer and waited for an opening. She knew she'd be left with maybe 15% of her total mana after this, and if it wasn't a crippling blow, even with Quick Recovery, the party would be in a real bad state. When the Boss smashed both fists down towards Felix, an attack that he only escaped with the use of Guardian's Rush, Astrid jumped forward and smashed down with her hammer into the Boss's mostly undefended back. It tried to get out of the way, hearing her coming, but it'd overcommitted to the attack in an attempt to kill Felix.
Her hammer smashed through the bone of its spine, and the troll's legs went limp. It held itself up on the two club–like hands had, but that was the beginning of the end. With Skandr and Benedict pelting the beast with spells and Scathing Screams, its resistance grew weaker and weaker until finally, Felix and Astrid were able to dispatch the beast.
None of the party cared to pay attention to the monster once the kill notification appeared, instead rushing to where Muti allowed herself to sink back onto the ground with a groan.
"How are you doing?" Astrid asked as she came close and gently undid the straps under Muti's chin. She pulled the helm off as the barbarian bared her teeth in her approximation of a smile.
"I will need a small break."
"You won't even call this 'being injured'?" Astrid jokingly poked on her friend's forehead, not sure if she could touch anywhere else without harming her. As Benedict's Song of Healing washed over Muti and the adrenaline of the fight washed away, her face twisted in the return of agony.
"I did not say I am healthy. Only that I will need a break."
"Wordplay?" Skandr gasped. "From you? I didn't realize that we'd corrupted you so thoroughly. I must offer my most sincere condolences, that you've been forced to engage in some such foolishness as this. We truly have led you astray, and for that, you deserve my most sincere apologies."
As Astrid squinted up at him, he shrugged with a little smile. "It's what Benedict would've liked me to say, but he's actually being a good party member and healing her instead of saying stupid things. If his mouth's too busy to be stupid, I can fill in. I figured I'd give him this small show of good faith in return for him not neglecting to heal me whenever this happens in the future. After all, I'd hate to give him some reason to be petty."
"I don't need a reason to be petty." Benedict scoffed, indulging in the use of Doubletalk just so he could get into an argument. "And also, this is my job! Even with my flute helping me out, I don't feel like I do as much as most of you, so I'm happy to feel useful sometimes."
The Bard offered nothing else, but Skandr had the good sense to bow his head in apology. The party went about cutting the troll's arms off at the elbow, since the magically self–regenerating stone was the most valuable part of the crusher variants. Of course, Benedict stayed with Muti, healing her along with giving her a potion and a draught to accelerate the process. Though she wasn't particularly surprised, Astrid did wince a little as she got this nonverbal confirmation that Muti's injuries were quite severe. Benedict's healing was sufficient, most of the time at least, and the party was grateful for all that he did. However, he was the first to admit that Song of Healing wasn't great for internal injuries. Getting clubbed like Muti had, well, that was a surefire way to get your guts all kinds of injured.
While they disassembled the corpse, Astrid and Felix had a quiet conversation about how they could make sure that the nearly deadly counterattack on Muti didn't happen again. Of course, Muti's ambush was revealed before her approach, or else the troll wouldn't have been able to react so swiftly. They didn't talk about that, though. Instead, they only talked about their own failures, the fire for improvement burning inside both of them.
***
"And you're sure that hammer doesn't give you any attributes?" Felix looked at Astrid in envy as she let the hammer's head thud to the ground. She was slowly getting used to the new weapon, and it was difficult to not let it swing her around instead of her swinging it, as it was intended to be. Except in extenuating circumstances, she never used her mana in power to strengthen her hits. Instead, all of her mana use went into her greaves to keep herself from flying everywhere every time she swung the hammer.
The Steel tier Smith had known what he was doing, to nobody's surprise. Whatever the manner in which he did it, he'd somehow managed to condense the mana-blessed iron into what was manasteel. What little Astrid did know about metallurgy had nothing to do with this, though, because how he had taken iron and basically just hammered it into a smaller volume to make it denser didn't make steel. However, now she had her new weapon, and that was all that mattered to her now.
The new hammer was larger than her last, the head being 24 centimeters long as opposed to her last one's length of about 15, but the striking head's surface was only a little bit larger now. Whatever magic and Skills the Smith had used, Astrid didn't know, but now she held a hammer that weighed about 40 kilos, which, combined with her dense shield, her armor, and everything else she carried while delving, was enough to have Astrid constantly benefiting from the secondary effect of Steady Load. That combined with the insane increase of the weight of her weapon by about 10 times made her feel like an entirely different person. She'd started off delving with more of a focus on being steady and taking the attacks that came her way, being mobile but fighting as a heavily armored Warrior. As she continued to outstrip the weight and the class of her equipment, she'd become more of an agile fighter by the day. The addition of her shield had slowed her down again, only to be overcome by her immense growth since she bought the shield at what, level 8?
Anyways, Astrid enjoyed the feel of this hammer as it crushed everything she swung it towards. The next time they fought the Boss after she got the manasteel hammer, a single mana infused blow from her hammer had, one, nearly thrown her through the air, and two, smashed through the troll's hip, severing its right leg with the force of the blow. The fight had gone pretty easily after that, though Astrid herself had been partially out of the fight, due to how much mana the attack had drained. With the much stronger weapon, every attack she made was more draining. And she was covered with the pulped flesh and blood of the Boss.
"All it gives is the bonus to Steady Load, which is 6 Alacrity. I'm a little quicker, but I'm carrying an extra 40 kilograms, so not really faster."
"Until we hit Iron." Felix grumbled, looking down at his axe with a little bit of disappointment.
"This is why we don't compare axes. Just leaves you feeling insufficient." Benedict slung an arm comfortingly around the Bodyguard, who shook his head and pushed off the Bard's innuendos. Instead of saying anything to Benedict, Felix nodded and looked at Astrid as she rolled her shoulders and stretched while leaving the deceptively heavy hammer on the ground.
"Two more weeks from today." Felix said. "Let's keep on going."
***
Astrid couldn't help but laugh at herself a little bit when she hit level 20. She'd built the last Bronze level up in her head for so long, that it would be the last step before she made her way into Iron tier, but now that she was here, she realized she didn't feel any different. Sure, her attributes grew, but mostly, it felt exactly the same as always. Skandr had already said much of the same thing the day before when he hit level 20, but knowing something and experiencing something were two entirely different emotions.
Eight days remained before the eight weeks were up, meaning that the party wouldn't have been able to accomplish their original deadline, but were ahead of their previous goals. Felix and Benedict would get their next level probably within the next day, and the party realized that they wanted to spend even more time in the Dungeon now that they were making up for lost time.
"I don't think we'll quite be able to achieve it," Skandr said as Astrid signaled to the others that she'd gotten the level, "but if necessary, Muti and I will have to stay out of the Dungeon if we get too close to level 21. You three will be fine up through the third or fourth floor without us, but I figured I'd remind you all of the possibility."
"Nine days to get 35,000 experience? Tell me, how was day one of nine for you?" Astrid scoffed.
"You know as well as I do," Skandr squinted at her, "that we got just over 3200 experience yesterday. I don't think that how quick we manage to gain experience is going to change in the next week, but if it does for some reason, then I figured I'd say as much. Duchess above, Astrid, you can't just let a man say something?"
The words were testier than usual, a testament to how exhausted everybody was. They'd been throwing themselves into the Dungeon all day every day, spending two nights in a row in the Dungeon with one night out, and that had been their schedule for over seven weeks now. They were already pushing themselves hard before that, but everybody was, frankly, sick of being in the Dungeon. That the only prize they had waiting for them at the end of this journey was more, longer time spent in the Dungeon wasn't particularly hardening, but it was what they had literally signed up for. Feelings were raw and frustrated.
"You're right and I'm sorry." Astrid forced herself to say instead of the biting words that rose to her tongue. "We're all just a little bit more short tempered than we have been. Again, I'm sorry."
Skandr let out an explosive sigh and shook his head. "No, I shouldn't have been so angry either. I just… maybe I was hoping to get that break, you know?"
"A time to recover would be most welcome." To every single member of the party's amazement, the indefatigable Muti echoed his sentiment. When Astrid cocked an eyebrow at the Rogue, Muti's face scrunched up. "I am a living being. I can tire. When tired, I require rest."
Astrid didn't say anything but nodded and stepped forward, drawing everyone's attention to her. "We're all going to hit level 20 in time. As such, I make the executive decision as the leader of the party that, with two days left until the deadline, six days from today, we will stop delving. We will take that time to make any purchases that we need, to acquire any potions and equipment that we are looking to take with us, and most of all, just take a break. If you want to train, we're all willing to do that, but we deserve a break from the deadly battles. We don't know how long we're going to be in the Wandering Trials, but it'll be longer than we've ever been in the Dungeon before, and we deserve to not be exhausted by our efforts before we go."
It was interesting to watch a mixture of relief and reluctance wash over every single one of her party members' faces at the same time. Even Muti and Skandr, who had the greatest chance of earning those days of rest without her decree, were loath to "waste time" resting when they could be getting even a little bit closer to their long-term goals. Regardless, there were no complaints, but instead, a surge of energy from everyone as they knew that it was less than a week until they would no longer have to come back. In fact, after six days, there wouldn't be any reason for any of them to ever go into Purcell's Dungeon again.
Thinking of their incoming deliverance, the tired party stood up, clapped each other on the shoulders, and strode towards their next fight.
***
Astrid nearly stumbled out of the defensive pyramid that covered the Dungeon entrance. It wasn't a physical tired that Quick Recovery could do anything. After all, the Skill made sure that, in the hours it took them to travel for dozens of kilometers at a good clip, she could recover nearly to full. Even so, the exhaustion that every member of the party was suffering from was more than bone deep. It seemed to go down to their souls, and they'd pushed themselves exceptionally hard over these past six days to "earn" their break. The party hadn't quite gotten to the point of Muti and Skandr needing to retreat, but they'd gotten closer than any of them had reasonably expected with two days chopped off of their training regime.
They walked wordlessly through the streets towards the inn, and though it was only a couple hundred meters to get there, every step seemed to drag on. Even so, once they returned and Astrid shrugged out of the two backpacks that she had been burdened with, every member of the party looked back and forth with wide grins. It was time to rest, they'd done enough, and finally, they could feel somewhat secure in joining the Wandering Trials soon.
As a surprisingly prepared group of assistants came forward and gathered up the materials, Astrid chose not to question why they were there or why they were ready to collect their materials, but instead looked at her Status.
Status
Name: Astrid
Class: Warrior (Bronze)
Total Level: 20 (20,274/34,000)
Attributes
Current
Per level growth
Power
108 (+1)
+5
Alacrity
67 [+20]
+3
Fortitude
109 (+3)
+5
Magical Potency
25
+1
Self-Mastery
26
+1
Acumen
26
+1
Skill List
Blunt Weapon's Mastery (Bronze)
Shield Wielding (Bronze)
Quick Recovery (Bronze)
Boon of Potentiation
Steady Load (Bronze)
Locked
She knew that, if they spent the next two days in the Dungeon, she could get to be less than 10,000 experience away from hitting the watershed, the final watershed, but Astrid allowed herself to be satisfied. Then, she walked forward, followed the people taking her materials, and stepped into Greely's office. The Guild representative looked up at her with a smile, his door always open, and asked a question he and she both knew the answer to.
"Are you ready for the Wandering Trials?"