FULL NOVELXO contemporary romance
Chapter 17: A Job Well Done
I stood in the middle of Zue Akinsoft’s basement, trying to figure out how I’d get rid of the Trimps that were eating the Enchantments off her stock. The stock itself was massive – filling the cellar were crate upon crate upon barrel upon barrel of weapons, armor, rings, jewelry, and tools that each had their own unique Enchantment. It was all remarkably unsorted, simply piled haphazardly into random boxes. And, of course, this was all in addition to the entire main room above me, where customers could peruse through her stocks of yet more Enchanted goods.
I had no idea why her store would be so run-down if she had so much money’s worth of goods just lying around, but that wasn’t my job to figure out. Right now, I just needed to kill some Trimps.
I had an idea for how I’d take care of the little rodents, but first I’d need to find one to test it out on. I fished around in a crate of assorted equipment – taking care not to stab myself with the Enchanted blades that were no doubt full of effects to poison me or set me on fire if they so much as pricked my finger – until I found a helmet that didn’t seem expensive, and put it in the middle of the room. Trimps had a nose for Enchantments, so hopefully the smell would lure a couple of them out of hiding. Then, I extinguished the candle I was holding and sat in a corner of the cellar, waiting in darkness for one of them to take the bait.
After a few minutes, I spotted movement as one of the things crawled out of its hole and crept toward the helmet. It was small and covered in fur, with four legs – the front two of which doubled as arms. Huge, pointy ears sprouted from its head, and large eyes darted around at its surroundings. I watched the rodent. Once it was out in the open…
You have cursed Level 2 Trimp with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, it loses 5.51 Health and 4.41 Stamina each second, and its Dexterity score is lowered by 11.
47.3 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 167.
Immediately, the Trimp fell to the ground, the drastic Dexterity debuff shocking its muscles and causing it to trip. A coat of frost covered the monster and I could see the freeze slowly killing it. It tried to escape away – its Dexterity was apparently above 11, so it could still move – but the damage would continue no matter what for the next fifteen seconds, and I was confident that a monster as small and low-Leveled as it was wouldn’t have the Health to endure the full curse.
Soon enough, it stopped moving, apparently having run out of Stamina. And then, after a bit more time…
Due to its target dying, Crippling Chill has worn off of Level 2 Trimp.
You have struck Level 2 Trimp for 65 damage and drained 52 Stamina over the course of 11.8 seconds using Crippling Chill.
You have slain Level 2 Trimp.
You have earned 3 XP. Your XP is 21.
Yep, looked like it’d work. I was glad I’d taken Crippling Chill; having some sort of ranged option really did work wonders. fr eewebn ovel.com
Well, time to get to work.
After a few more hours, it seemed like the bait trick began to slow in effectiveness. Once I’d killed about a dozen more of the rodents, they seemed to understand that anything that came out would die. Of course, they had no idea why – there was no projectile I was shooting from my hands, and I wasn’t moving at all to cast Crippling Chill – so they probably didn’t even know someone was in the room, just that coming out was dangerous right now. The pile of Trimp corpses surrounding the untouched piece of armor was testament enough to the fact it was deadly.
I sat and thought for a bit. While I could simply sit here and starve them out, I wanted to get it done in a reasonable amount of time, so I needed a change of plan. The Trimps hid in holes and tunnels small enough that I couldn’t fit through them, so I needed another way to get to them.
I let off a puff of Noxious Grasp while I thought, the resultant gas floating from my fingertips and stopping to hover up at the top of the ceiling, the sealed room preventing it from dissipating into the sky like it normally did.
…Wait.
I looked up at the ceiling of the cellar. Most of my Mana had been spent on Crippling Chill, but over the course of the few hours I’d been down here, I’d still let off a few seconds worth of Noxious Grasp, and in the semi-airtight underground room, it was still hovering there at the top.
I looked over at the holes in the walls where the Trimps were hiding, then back at my fingers. I had an idea. Slowly, I crept toward one of the holes. I pressed my hand up against one of them to make it as airtight as possible, and then activated Noxious Grasp, pouring fumes into the tunnels.
The fumes themselves weren’t damaging; the Spell stated that I needed to touch something to deal damage to it, so that was how it’d work – no edge cases where the gas was technically what dealt the damage, or anything. However, that didn’t mean that the byproduct of the Spell would be perfectly breathable. Even if it wasn’t poisonous, it was still smoke, and you can’t breathe smoke for too long.
With 215 Mana at my disposal, I could keep Noxious Grasp active for about one continuous minute before I’d need to stop to recharge.
I’d never actually kept the Spell active for such a long continuous time before, and I felt a bit drained by the time my Mana bottomed out. The headache somehow felt nostalgic, the dull pain reminding me of the times I’d had in the forest, back before I had to deal with rude shop owners.
Not that that was directed at anybody.
But really, the headache wasn’t that bad. Besides, my Mana had just bottomed out, and it didn’t seem like I’d pushed enough fumes in to gas out the Trimps yet, so I’d just have to sit around and wait for my Mana to regenerate until I could push more in. At least my hand seemed to form a good enough seal that there wasn’t much leakage.
After about an hour of pouring Mana into Noxious Grasp, I finally began to hear scurrying as the smoke began to reach the Trimps inside their tunnels. I’d let a decent bit of my Mana regenerate and held it in my pool, so right as I heard them nearing the tunnel’s exit, I dashed away, allowing them out and into the open. Once I caught sight of them, I hit them with Crippling Chill.
You have slain Level 1 Trimp.
You have earned 2 XP. Your XP is 68.
You have slain Level 4 Trimp.
You have earned 5 XP. Your XP is 73.
It only turned out to be two in that tunnel, but there were still a few more holes that I could see in the walls of the cellar, so I’d probably be there for a few more hours.
After a long afternoon and about a half dozen more Trimps, I finally had the job done. I stood in the dark cellar once the last pest was killed and wiped my brow. I’d worked up enough of a mental sweat that my head was actually pounding; the repeated casting of an unfamiliar Spell in Crippling Chill along with the lengthy casts of Noxious Grasp – rather than the short bursts I was used to – had really worn me down. That said, I’d really seen the fruits of my effort in the XP gains.
After all the Trimp killing, my own XP leapt from 18 all the way up to 95/200 – although after a whole day’s work, it felt more like a slow climb than a leap – and my Spell XP was also looking good. Crippling Chill was up from 0 to 9/14, and Noxious Grasp finally Ranked up!
Threshold reached. Noxious Grasp XP has reached 45.
Noxious Grasp Rank has increased to 6.
Due to Noxious Grasp Rank reaching 6, it has undergone the following changes:
Mana Cost: From 3.40 to 3.49
Health Drain: From 12.8 to 13.4
Stamina Drain: From 6.38 to 6.70
I smiled at the increase. I was that much closer to reaching Rank 10! Plus, the extra damage certainly didn’t hurt. Although the increase in Spell XP requirements were really starting to be felt at this point, with the next Rank costing 66.
On some level, I actually felt more accomplished in getting more powerful now than I did back when I was in the forest. Back then, it was completely necessary. I basically had no choice in training hard and fighting harder. The only alternative was death. But now, not so much. I had free choice in what I could do – if I wanted, I could keep doing exactly this type of job for the rest of my life. I could survive on it just fine – the silver I’d get paid here would probably be enough to sustain me for a week, and it barely even took a day to complete.
But I wouldn’t be satisfied doing this forever, and I knew it. There were tons of people who only got a few Levels and then stopped, resting on their laurels there. It was especially common for nobles to do that. They’d get their parents to let them go out and get a Class and pick up a couple Levels so they could feel like they were better than the Unclassed masses, but never actually do anything substantial with it.
It wasn’t like there was anything wrong with that – grabbing the Wizard Class so that you could pick up a few non-combat utility Spells was something I completely understood the value in. And for many manual laborers, having a Class to give you a bit of extra Strength and Endurance could let them get a lot more done in a single day.
But for me, I wanted much more than that. Even before I’d been shoved into the wild with the Minute Mage Class, back when I was still aiming for Swordsman, I wanted to be strong. I didn’t want to end up like my parents. They’d taught me that, no matter how powerful you were, there was always a bigger monster. So all I had to do was get so strong that there wasn’t a bigger monster.
Lofty goal, I know.
But I was slowly approaching it, and I refused to slow down. With every Spell Rank, with every point of XP, I got closer to true power. And I’d be lying if I said that prospect didn’t excite me.
But for now, I had to forego my moment of solace and achievement, and go poke the sleeping Dragon – that is, I had to go ask for payment from the lady that hired me.
I walked over to the stairs of the cellar and began climbing. From the muffled noises coming from the main shop, it seemed like there were a good few customers in there. I was glad I hadn’t made any noise. It was hard to see through the bit of smoke that still filled the room from my usage of Noxious Grasp, but it seemed like, through the cellar door I was approaching, a decent crack of light peeked through. It was probably the afternoon already, considering how long I’d been working on this.
I grabbed the handle and opened the door and began to walk through. But then–
Shit…
I hadn’t realized just how much smoke buildup there was after my hours of gassing out the Trimps from their hideouts. And just as I opened the door, the smoke that had collected in the cellar billowed out into the main store.
Akinsoft’s head snapped in my direction with a furious glare. This was going to be a long day.
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