Dungeon Hunter: Act I

Groceries

The next few days we spent familiarising ourselves with our abilities and figuring out what kind of teamwork would be best with our current composition. Though we had all agreed that Jye was better at backline damage, the only projectiles we found at the gym were smaller weights, but we'd talk about hitting up a Kmart and pocketing bags of knives.

Though it was accidental, we figured out that Axel's [Ground Smash] did a decent amount of damage while also stunning people. Jye had ended up in bed for half a day recuperating 12HP and whilst tending to them, we'd watched in horror as their broken foot creaked and cracked to correct itself. They'd been in intense pain too, screaming and writhing upon the gym mat we'd laid on the floor. Perhaps it was witnessing that that made me confident this wasn't just some delusion. What kind of coma patient imagined healing hurting?

On the third day, electricity flickered out. Axel had thought ahead and filled up the beer bottles with water, so we still had a couple litres left. We started soaking our cup noodles. Honestly, it changed very little about the experience other than having to chew a little more.

I'd finally been able to use [Channel] without a system error. Unfortunately, with my current mana and stamina pool, I could only use Axel's [Ground Smash] without major detriment. It turned out that I had to use whatever stat was required for the channelled abilities. Though we still couldn't determine the true name of Jye's first ability, we discovered that as long as they had enough mana and stamina, they could increase the effect of it without limit. Given that it seemed to increase the weight of an object, we took to calling it Dropping A Load. The first time we ended up in stitches, but it just stuck. But we called it Load for short.

Suffice to say, after multiplying the effect ten times, the dumbbell had sunk through the floor, past the concrete foundation, and into a deep dark hole. After that we didn't test out Jye's Load to its fullest capacity since the ramifications of sinking a weight into the Earth's core probably wouldn't be good.

Eventually, we came to the party pattern of Axel closing the gap between the target with his [Swift Footed] trait, then using [Ground Smash] to stun them, then backing off, and then Jye would pelt projectiles and layer on their Load on their down arcs. Since I could only use [Ground Smash] with my [Channel], I was delegated to protecting Jye and locking down anyone who approached. If the projectiles didn't finish the target off, Axel would dash back in, and we'd repeat the process.

On the fifth day we ran out of cup noodles.

It was probably for the better.

"So, Woolies and Kmart?" I asked, closing the gym door behind the three of us.

Axel led the way. "Yeah, though all the groceries are probably gone. We'll pick up what we can. Kmart, we all need to grab weapons. I'm thinking a bat for me. Knives for Jye. What would work for you?"

I thought for a moment. "I might get a broomstick? Staffs seem cool."

"Staves," Axel said.

"That's what I said, I want a staff."

"No, you said staffs. The plural of staff is staves."

I glared at him. "You're really hard to get along with, you know that, right?"

"I know that only too well."

Despite food being the more pressing matter, Kmart had simply been easier to get to. Woolies was another block and none of us wanted to risk the trek without being able to properly defend ourselves. Whilst our training allowed us to work together, I don't think any of us were truly ready to fight anything or anyone. Jye's brush with the "healing" foot also made us want to err on the side of caution. Regenerating health points was far worse than losing them.