Chapter 68: [Spear of Purity]
Mori was in thought, in front of the fire he used for food and general heat.
On the other side was Aleesia, grimacing while cutting vegetables on a cutting board.
"Don't hold a knife like it's dirty laundry. Your maids won't do everything for you your whole life, you need to be able to do this much."
"They very much would do everything for me my whole life, actually," she muttered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"Thought so."
And this is why I need to inspect weapons, in the future. thought Mori.
Mori was holding the spear, its details were quite intricate, as if hand-forged.
From the prongs to the pointy end at the other side, its design was truly beautiful, a work of art.
Mythic weapons are in a league of their own. I was quite lucky.
Mori kept looking at it while Aleesia did her best to prepare food. His cooking level had increased significantly, but her learning new skills wouldn't be such a bad thing.
Mori had considered giving the spear to Aleesia, with it she could most likely deal with enemies easily, and she wouldn't miss them by throwing it.
However it wasn't an easy decision.
If the spear was somehow deflected, she would be in a bad position, and would have to retrieve it, at which point she needs to get in range.
But then what could stop the enemy from picking it up?
She could probably use her bow, then the spear after assessing her opponents. There is a world in which this spear propels her progress forward.
However, he wanted to test something as well.
What if using the other end of the spear didn't incur an explosion?
It would then simply be a mythic-level spear he could use, and he had no problems blowing himself up while using the other end while guaranteeing a hit.
Since he isn't throwing it, if it's deflected or stopped he's still holding onto it.
"I'll keep it."
"So you can blow yourself up?" Stay immersed with m_vl_em_p_yr
"I'll use the other end," said Mori holding the spear up.
She glanced quickly, stopping her cutting motion.
"Hm. I hope that works."
"It should. I'll let you know, but I think for now I can use it well, and eventually I'll let you have it and trade it for something else. Something scaling with magic, hopefully."
She nodded while grimacing. Her tongue was out sideways, as she did her best using the knife on the cutting board.
Mori sighed, but made no comments.
So I just beat [2-0], and she's close to [3-0]. We're making decent progress... At this rate, by [10-0] we should be around level 80? We could maybe push our levels by farming S levels.
"How was [2-8]?" asked Mori.
"Easy. Like always. As long as I don't run out of arrows."
"Well, don't get comfortable. It will get harder."
Mori turned while sitting, facing the Unkindled.
"What floor do you think we'll start having a hard time?" asked Mori.
For you to figure out.
"Really?"
Assessing threats and your own progress, while making adequate preparations is a skill necessary for anyone who wants to conquer this dungeon.
"I just want to know around what level do you think our progress will slow down. No need to go into specifics."
Maybe around [5-0] or [6-0].
Mori nodded. That was what he had in mind.
He got up, and headed toward the recycler, dropping on the crafting materials dropped from monsters.
The [2-0] levels didn't drop much kindle, but the recycler truly made their lifestyle bearable.
"Should we get armor?" asked Mori across the room.
"Huh?" she said, concentrated.
"I thought we should save up for legendary armor, but we could also just start with a rare set... but since you're going so fast through floor, maybe we don't even need..."
Mori's sentence trailed off, as he went back into his thought palace.
Aleesia was barely listening anyway, focusing on her task.
In the background of all of that, the Unkindled was staring at its flame.
After most material were dumped in the recycler, he moved on to the weapons.
As they progressed through higher levels, drops became more common but they were still of quite low quality.
This mythic weapon he dropped was the highest he ever gotten, he hadn't even seen a legendary tier weapon before, which is a tier lower.
His luck was unbelievable, yet not that useful for now.
It was too strong.
Can I even train to be able to use that spear? Without curses I don't see how I can physically stop my arm from blowing up.
I doubt you can protect yourself from that blast with stats alone.
"Right."
"What are you saying?" asked Aleesia.
"Just talking to the Unkindled. I think the only way I can stop my arm from blowing up would be with some sort of armor that can take the blast head-on. But then... I'd need something covering the whole arm, and gloves too. I'm guessing levels would allow me not to pass-out so easily, and could maybe lower the damage done overall while not protecting me from it..."
Mori trailed off again, but Aleesia wasn't paying attention anyways.
Mori spent hours juggling thoughts. His decisions were not extremely important, but a bad one would probably slow them down in intervals of weeks or months.
Unkindled? How is Aura doing, now? You said she was progressing swiftly, before?
She has reached the [8-0] level some time ago.
Mori's surprised showed on his face.
I did not doubt she had potential, but [8-0]? While we're still so far down? Impressive. She might actually conquer this dungeon before we get close to do it ourselves.
She won't be conquering it.
Mori quickly turned toward the Unkindled.
"What? Why?" he asked. "She's doing so good, worst case, she'd just need to farm [8-0-S]."
She hasn't moved from her [0-0] room in a week, and probably won't be able to keep going. She will most likely die in there.