Chapter 664 - Still Not a Crafter

NOTE: This chapter is the ORIGINAL version. The REVISED version is in the chapter titled 685/664+1: https://www.patreon.com/posts/chapter-685-664-80640883

I will be opening that chapter up for Pathed today as well. Since it contains the revised 664 AND the revised 665, there will be no chapter released for Pathed tomorrow.

The following day will continue with the chapter numbered 665. This is the ORIGINAL 665, but the ONLY change to it is the chapter number - it will be 666 when it hits RR. If you think that's confusing, I agree, but it's what happens when you're publishing on a platform that doesn't allow you to reorder posts.

Short version: Don't bother with this chapter, go read the one I linked above. It's two chapters, so no chapter tomorrow. Continue reading after that as normal.


Enjoy!

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“No.” Gabriel shook his head and frowned. “I’m sure you’re trying to help, but I’m not going to let anyone else choose for me. I wouldn’t let my family pick, I wouldn’t let Daryl pick, and I’m certainly not going to let someone I don’t know pick my future. I know I’m not choosing the well-known Paths, but I’m choosing my Paths and that’s all there is to it.”

Serenity grinned. That wasn’t the answer he’d expected and it certainly wasn’t a wise answer, but it was a good one. “Good.” Gabriel looked confused by Serenity’s response, so Serenity explained. “You know what you want, you know who you are and where you’re going. That’s more important than always taking the best choices. The best choices are only the best if you can predict the future, and even those who can do so only imperfectly. You’re taking it farther than I would, but I’m old enough to be confident in my choices. Sometimes confidently wrong, but it’s always my choice.”

Indeed, for a moment, Serenity was afraid he’d just been confidently wrong. He’d accidentally invited Gabriel to ask how old he was. That was a question he didn’t want to answer.

“That’s not what I’ve been told,” Naomi objected. “Choosing the known Path is safe, it’ll take you to the known endpoint reliably. Choosing your own Path risks a dead end before that.”

Serenity shrugged. “And then you have to make your own Path or be at a dead end. A dead end later is still a dead end, and if you’re no longer sure who you are, how do you choose?”

“It’s a problem we’ll all have to face at some point. My Path doesn’t end until Tier Fifteen, so I’ll have plenty of time to figure it out,” Daryl claimed. “When does yours end?”

Serenity shrugged. “Who knows? It’s not like I’m on a known Path.”

Daryl snorted at that. “See? Clearly worse. You don’t even know when you’ll start having trouble. How long did it take you to break into Tier Four? Decades?”

Serenity bared his teeth at Daryl. He hated being talked down to like that. “I had a Tier Four available as soon as I finished my first Tier Three. I’ll have a Tier Nine when I finish my first Tier Eight. It doesn’t work that way for everyone; you have to have a Path that goes higher. Making someone else’s Path yours … well, it can work if you’re similar enough.” Serenity didn’t like the practice, but a lot of people liked the surety it gave them. “On the other hand, as you said, you’ll be Tier Fifteen. Maybe that’s enough.”

Serenity flicked his Status open. He had a ways to go before he reached the next Tier, but - wait, when had he advanced his Path that far?

He stared at it dumbly for a moment before Aide reminded him of the vision-altering spell. It must have counted as appropriate for a magitech Abomination.

Path: Magitech Abomination

Level: 94 (0/7520)

Tier: 4, 100/100 Spent

There really wasn’t much left. Maybe he should think about other spells he could enhance his body with, if that was what was needed. He probably needed to use his Magitech Affinity, too; that might be exactly what the Path was trying to teach him.

Fortunately, the food arrived before the discussion could get any more heated or Serenity could get any more distracted. They all took that as an opportunity to change topics; the clink of tableware against plates was the main noise until most of the food was gone.

As Serenity had come to expect, it was Rissa that put everything back on track. “The four of you will be doing the deepest dungeon near here, right?”

Naomi licked the last of her sauce off her fork, then set it down in the empty bowl. “Yes. Probably only through the eighth level, but that’s still farther than we’re making it with the three of us. It’s as far as I can go. With just the three of us, we’re managing level six, maybe seven, so eight would be a big increase. But Serenity beat all three of us, so…”

“That doesn’t mean I’m as good in a dungeon as having another three of you,” Serenity interrupted. “I beat you by taking advantage of your weaknesses. Most monsters don’t do that. It’s especially uncommon in dungeons with their focus on other things. You said this was a dungeon based around hazards?” Serenity looked over at Gabriel as he spoke.

“Hazards?” Gabriel looked puzzled for a moment before he realized what Serenity was talking about. “Oh! Environment hazards! I hadn’t really thought about it. The dungeon’s themed, but every single theme is an unpleasant or dangerous place to be. A swamp, a desert, a blizzard … ah, what are the others?”

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The next day was a visit to the Enchanters’ Guild that Serenity expected to be quick and actually took all day. By the end of his discussion with Master Enchanter Levit, Serenity had turned down three offers of apprenticeship; the last one, from Master Levit himself, even came with the offer of not having to pay for the apprenticeship with anything but his apprentice goods.

Serenity didn’t even have to think before he turned them down. He didn’t want to be an enchanter, even if the Voice seemed to think it was a good idea. He didn’t care if it seemed all too similar to his runic knowledge, similar enough that Master Enchanter Levit was openly interested in the rune on the biplanes.

Serenity didn’t care. He had to keep repeating it to himself. He didn’t care. Even if he did care, he didn’t have time for it right now.

In the end, that was what really made the difference; he didn’t have time. An apprenticeship was years of effort and learning; he wanted to get back to Earth sooner than that. He wasn’t sure how he’d handle being on Earth at his Tier, but he had to try. Maybe he could just stay in a dungeon or a nexus.

Maybe he could import an enchanter to teach … Students. Yeah. Students.

Actually, wasn’t one of Katya’s relatives an enchanter?

Serenity sent her a message with the question, then scolded himself. He didn’t even have the students lined up yet, why was he looking for a teacher?

At least he was going to get to kill some monsters soon. That should clear his head; he hadn’t had any really good combat lately, other than the exhibition fight against the Silver Blades.

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The day of the delve was misty and chilly in the morning. Rissa saw Serenity off with a warm breakfast, a kiss, and her well wishes. She was headed to join a different delve that day, acting as a low-Tier healer, but they planned to meet at the dungeon, which was closer to the Library than the Mercenaries’ Guild.

Serenity met the three Silver Blades at the Mercenaries’ Guild. He arrived shortly before they did and spent the time relaxed on a chair talking to Aide. Aide was excited about enchanting and kept asking about the relationship between runes and enchantments; it was enough to make Serenity want to hire a teacher just to answer Aide’s questions. Serenity didn’t know the answers.

From the Mercenaries’ Guild, it was a five minute walk to the nearest local Portal Node, then a quick hop through a portal that took the four of them to the far side of Takinat. The area was deserted; it had clearly been overrun by dungeon monsters repeatedly and simply walled off rather than trying to defend the dungeon.

Serenity had seen the strategy before, but it was only used in places where there weren’t enough delvers to reliably keep a dungeon cleared. Instead, it was encouraged to have small dungeon breaks, which were simple to take care of, by running the easy levels. The overpressure at the deeper levels would cause a dungeon break, but the lack of monsters in higher levels would limit the break to a small number of low level monsters. It wouldn’t relieve much pressure, but it was still far easier to handle.

The fact that there was a wall that didn’t look new outside the dungeon told Serenity that Takinat had been using that strategy for this dungeon since long before the attacks started and the delvers left. That was not what he remembered from the discussion at the Mercenaries’ Guild, but it was entirely possible that the wall predated having enough high-Tier people to regularly clear the deepest part of the dungeon. It was also possible that they thought some level of small breaks was normal; Serenity couldn’t guess which from the small amount of information he had.

The fact that the first thing the Silver Blades did when they crossed the wall was hunt down the giant frogs without any comment made Serenity think that the second option was pretty likely. Serenity took care of his own share of frogs; they were simple Tier One monsters, so he was able to use any Skill he wanted, but he mostly used his duplicating knives. They were the lowest cost thing in his array of tools and they worked fine against Tier One frogs. They usually died to a knife throw before they even knew he was there.

Once the area was clear, they met up at a stone pedestal at the center of the walled area. It was a relatively common setup for a clearly instanced dungeon. It needed something as an entry point and a stone pedestal was easy to find.

Serenity wasn’t expecting any surprises, since he hadn’t seen anything odd about the Cliff Dungeon on Zon. On the other hand, the Cliff Dungeon was in a weird state when he entered, since it was being controlled using a dead dungeon’s core; he probably should have tried entering a normal dungeon before he went in with a group of strangers. Fortunately, it seemed like no one else could see the same message he did.

[The Layered Dungeon greets the Dungeon Lord]

I am honored by your presence. Please grant me your blessing; if there is anything that is not in accordance with your wishes, please tell me and I will correct it.

Serenity shivered at the abasement of the message. He didn’t like it; it sounded like the dungeon was afraid of him and trying to appease him.

Please treat me like any other delver.

The dungeon didn’t respond immediately, so Serenity tried again.

I want to see what you’ve prepared for others. I’ll be traveling through the dungeon with a team you’ve seen before.

That seemed to work.

[Dungeon: Layered Dungeon]

[The Layered Dungeon is a creation of joy and exploration, stacking similar or disparate things together to achieve something as sensible yet unique as possible. It has no purpose other than challenge]

[Status: Active]

[Tier: Nine]

[Type: Environment, Level-Based]

[Maximum capacity per group: 5]

[Availability: Currently Unlimited]

[View Additional Information?]

[Enter Dungeon?]

[Bind Dungeon?]

[Command Dungeon?]

[Enter Core Space?]

Serenity selected Enter Dungeon. He could only guess what Bine and Command Dungeon did, but they were definitely not something he wanted to do right now. Perhaps they’d permit him to avoid killing dungeons in the future, though some were simply better dead. He didn’t like admitting that, but he was pretty sure the volcano dungeon would never have been happy without its continual eruptions.

When Serenity appeared in the dungeon itself, the first thing he noticed wasn’t the squishy ground or the terrible smell. Instead, it was the fact that he could feel everything about the dungeon level he was in. It was almost like being in his Rest from Death dungeon, except that he could only feel everything and not control it.

At least, he didn’t think he could control it. He didn’t want to try. Whether or not he could, it wasn’t the right thing to do; this wasn’t his dungeon and he didn’t know the dungeon core. Maybe he could talk to Aki about trying it when he got home.

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Author's Note: I couldn’t come up with a way to make the section dealing with the enchanters interesting. I mean, I could have written an entire chapter about it, but really … I covered it in that short section. Most of the people he ran into there won’t come up again; Master Levit is the only one who’s likely to.

Serenity is still in denial, but his interest is getting harder to ignore. It just needs one more realization …