Chapter 40

A day and a night flew by as we continued to battle every zombie we encountered on the floor. I was determined not to retreat to level five again, but there was no good place to rest on the sixth floor either. We ate the last of our food and then set out. Lydia had finally reached level 10, and she even said that she felt like her knowledge of swordsmanship had increased. That was good enough for me.

As for myself, I returned to White Mage. I reckoned that if we wanted to survive this dungeon, White Mage was still the best job for me. I could heal both of our wounds, and if I learned any more buffing skills, that would be best. So, after Hero reached level 5 and I was able to help a bit with the sword without stabbing myself, I switched back to White Mage so we could quickly down the zombies. Speed was important, and I could be a bigger help using Harm Undead, which grew more powerful as I leveled up.

That's right, I discovered leveling up did have a direct relation on stats. Each level someone gained in a job likely increased their status in certain areas. Which stats depended on which job. White Mage mostly contributed to mana and spell power, but with each level, I had to gain a little in strength and constitution too. When a job switched, you didn’t lose those status bonuses. However, you could no longer access any related skills. Some skills boosted relevant status, so even if I was level 100 mage with full mana, there might be various skills that amplified my status for using White Mage spells, as well as decreased mana consumption, and increased mana pool, making equipping mage still potentially useful.

I also found that when I unequipped Hero, I lost my knowledge of swords. It was the same with cooking, but it was less recognizable, especially since I wasn’t cooking much at all. There was a bit of latent muscle memory, so I could still wield the sword better than I did before I got the spell, but the difference was night and day between having the skill Basic Swordsmanship and not having it.

After leveling all day, we could down a group of three zombies in only about a minute. She was a level 10 swordsman, and I was a level nine White Mage. As for what skills I learned, they were Holy Circle and Light. Rather than disappointed, I was very deeply happy that I had got these skills. I had been so worried about food that I hadn’t even noticed we were running out of oil. My lanterns would have been out in a day. Lydia had better night vision than I did, but even she needed some light to navigate this dungeon.

Water was also a concern that I had been putting off. I had about two days of water left, and we were already low enough on rations that my throat was scratchy. I couldn’t even imagine what I would do if we ran out. The floors were always damp though... so I imagined we'd end up licking them to survive. The second skill was Holy Circle. Holy Circle was a spell that created a circle around us. Zombies didn’t seem to be able to pass within the circle. They were repelled. That’s all it did, but if we didn’t run into another cathedral, this was the only way we were going to be able to get any sleep.

We were both exhausted, but I didn’t want to rest before seeing what was on the next level. We returned to the hall with the two Living Armors who seemed to be standing in vigil over the staircase. Gripping my sword nervously, I looked over at Lydia.

“Shall we go?” Lydia asked.

I gave a nod and the two of us surged forward. I would be taking on one living armor as a level 5 Hero, and she’d take on the other as a level 10 Swordsman. The last time I had risked my life, I had acted on pure instinct to protect Lydia. This was the first time I made a choice to truly put my life on the line.