Over the next few days, I was able to grind out my Throwing skill to level 3 by using Hammer Time to kill absolutely everything I can in the dungeon. Anytime I needed more ammo I just returned to the hammer throwing turtles and used the exploit I discovered to fill my bag with throwing hammers. This not only neted me lots of loot but enough experience to get to level 4. Since I knew I need the extra help aiming for my plan to kill King Kanon, I invested four stat points into dexterity which brought the stat to twelve. The physical benefits were astounding. I found that I could run faster and move more fluidly. Additionally, dodging the weapons of the Goblins became much easier, and I noticed the increased rate in which my hammer throws hit.
With all the loot I got while grinding, I was able to afford that Fireman’s Jacket and a few pieces of simple leather armor that raised my physical defense. Once I was able to hit my opponents 4 out of 5 times, I decided I was ready to try to beat the boss again.
I made my way to the third floor of the castle without taking much damage and prepared myself for the boss mentally. I bought some small health potions just for the occasion. However, each potion took up a single space in my inventory, so I was only able to bring two health potions. I went over the plan in my head once more. I nodded and reminded myself that the worst that could happen is that I died again and I lost some XP. Well, that and the pain of being burned to death.
I stepped through the door to the boss’s room and heard it close behind me. That was it—no turning back. I have to sit through King Kanon’s speech again. I tried attacking him while he was talking, but the attack didn’t do any damage. Instead, as he spoke I walked across to the other side of the room at the maximum range of my hammer throw. When the boss finished his speech, he began attacking with his fireballs. I used Roll to dodge the fireballs and Hammer Time to toss hammers at him. Each time I used the ability, a new hammer was automatically taken out of my inventory, placed in my right hand and thrown at the target I’d focused on. I found that attacking the spiked shell did less damage than attacking the boss’s head. However, it was a surer hit, since the head weaved back and forth making it a moving target. I take a few fireballs, but between the fireman’s jacket and the health potions, I was able to stay alive long enough to whittle down the boss’s health. When the last hammer was thrown, and the last sliver of health disappeared, King Kanon looked at the caged princess and croaked out, “Remember that I love you,” then died.
I quickly used Inspect on him and see he had two abilities: Fireball and Shell Defense. I had to decide whether or not to use Absorb to try and get one of those abilities but before I could make up my mind, my time ran out and the body disappeared leaving a small bag of loot. The bag of loot had three items: A large green gem, an empty spiked turtle shell, and a large golden key tagged as a quest item. I transferred the items to my inventory.
When I approached the purple haired princess in her purple ballroom gown, she started to thank me for my bravery in fighting the evil King Kanon. Even though he kidnapped her, she still spoke of the boss with a modicum of respect. When I touched the golden cage, a blue screen appeared.
Would you like to free Princess Plum from captivity?
I carefully considered my next move. Yes, I could free the princess and complete the quest I got from the old man, but that would also complete the dungeon and make it disappear. At least that’s what it said in The Idiot’s Guide to the System, Vol. 1. Yeah, the experience points and credits from the quest reward would be useful, but I didn’t know when or if I’d be able to find another dungeon. Even if I did find another one, who said it would be at my level? Alternatively, I could just leave the room and use the dungeon as my personal experience point mine. I thought about why I was doing it, and the answer was simple.
I said “No,” and walked away. The princess just stared at me open mouthed, not believing that I hadn’t freed her. She lost her cool as I walked out of the room and said some very un-princess-like things to my back.
The next three weeks are spent grinding for experience points and credits. With the Hammer Time ability, none of the monsters in the dungeon are a big challenge at first. It takes a full day for the boss to respawn and I decided that the loot rewards just aren’t good enough to justify the loss of a chance to absorb its abilities. Each day I would pop into the dungeon, kill the boss, and Absorb his remains after beating him. The experience points were always a plus, but for some reason, I just didn’t get the abilities the boss had. I did get every other ability that the other monsters in the dungeon had. Thanks to my Analysis skill, I figured out that if I fought a monster at a lower level than me, it only took about ten absorbs to get an ability. If they were the same level as me, then it took about 20 absorbs. Unfortunately, I seemed to have a much lower chance of absorbing the abilities of a monster that had a higher level or a boss.
Over the course of those three weeks, I also noticed that the monsters in the dungeon started to change as the red fog around the castle spread out. I hadn’t noticed it at first, but the red fog spread through the plains and then the forest. Whenever I found a monster in this red fog, it seemed to get stronger and harder to kill. The Blue Blobs turned into Red Blobs and took twice as long to kill. The Goombies transformed into Spiked Goombies, and had spikes on their shoes that did additional damage when they kicked me. The Goblins all turned red and got better weapons that did more damage. Short swords replaced clubs; crude bows became longbows with much better range and damage. The spear wielders got armor, and I had to knock off their helmets first before I could kill them with the hammers. The hammer throwers grew spikes on their shells and could shoot them out when I get close. The boss even got tougher. He didn’t get any new abilities but his health pool grew and the damage his fireballs did also increased.
Thankfully, this increased challenge also increased the quality of loot the monsters drop. Unfortunately, I couldn’t sell any of it at my level 1 System Store. I even claimed a full set of studded leather armor and some swords with increased durability, but it ended up in the collection of gear at my home base. I was able to sell off simple gems and monster parts, but the good gear just piled up in my room.
At the end of the fourth week of exploiting the dungeon, I’d just reached level 6 and had realized that I stopped getting any experience points from a monster that’s more than five levels below me. It’s also at this point that I experienced my first death since I got the Hammer Time ability. I wasn’t even killed by the boss this time, but by a group of Goblins that were better armed and had more hit points than me.
****
So here I sit, respawned, trying to figure out what to do next. This last death knocked me back down to level 5. Looking over my character sheet I can’t help but sigh again at the loss of the skill points and stats I’d gotten when I got to level 6.
Anthony Tinoco
Level 5
Unspent stat points: 0
Unspent skill points: 40