Of Rewards and Roostaurs

((If you would like to support my work, or just want to read more than one chapter today, feel free to check out my Patreon))

Fortunately, the loading screen on leaving the clearing with the mine brought them directly to the inn, saving John from hauling Hubert the Hunter all the way from his cabin. Once there, a pair of villagers took the hunter to somewhere else, while John and Qhila went to poke the chests, located in the same place as last time.

This time, he just booped both chests immediately, claiming all the EXP and money in one go. It was a bit more of the former and a bit less of the latter than the total for the first Segment, probably owing to more EXP in the Quest rewards, but less mutants killed overall.

They got 7 research notes from the regular chest and nothing else of note there, with another 3 in the Boss chest bringing them up to a total of 22/40. That was a good bit short of two-thirds of the way, but with their DP at almost 300, he felt fairly confident in buying out the gap.

On top of that, the boss chest held three items: a bottle with greyish-brown liquid, a piece of cloth with an anchor on it and a small breastplate with pauldrons stylized into the shape of dog heads. A small breastplate of legendary rarity.

Getting consumables in Boss loot was usually something of a feel bad moment. Getting something so temporary from the kind of challenge and effort that Boss clears were made of just wasn’t great. It helped substantially that in this case it was neither the only item nor the highest rarity one. It also helped a lot that he could potentially hang on to it until he could reliably Reverse Engineer it.

The most significant part about this drop, however, was that ‘lesser’ implied better versions of this potion, presumably ones that worked for side effects from higher IL concoctions. Getting rid of the side effects of something like hyde serum would make him much more comfortable using it, and according to Qhila there was stuff with both better benefits and worse side effects out there.

Anti knockback gear, probably at its best on a tank, or someone with long channels or cast times. Neither of them could really use it optimally at this time, but on the other hand it didn’t hurt to have.

And that was absolutely bonkers. The AR and damage resistance alone was massive. Especially if the damage resistance applied first. In that case, Qhila would be able to walk off a point blank shotgun blast with only a few bruises.

Fury of the Small was fantastic as well. While the activation requirements were a bit onerous, at least until they had more party members, the armor’s own mitigation benefits helped a lot there. Once activated, the damage boost was massive. If Qhila used it on an attack hitting someone around John’s size, she would nearly quadruple the damage.

This was an absolute jackpot of a drop, with only one thing John could think of that could rain on the parade. “So, is this armor made of awesome, or is this when you bring up an unwritten downside of slowing you down too much?”

“... Sort of. If heavier armors actually restricted the kind of motion needed to fight in them much, they would never have caught on because only morons would wear them. But the motion needed to fight is one thing, getting in the way of stealth or of non-standard movement like climbing or swimming is another one. And besides that, getting used to moving in one of these takes a lot of training that I don’t have.

“I could start working on that, of course, but it would probably take at least a few months before I could actually use it, and who knows what’s been spawned by your Latebloomer nonsense by then. Unless you dig up a guild with someone better suited to wearing it, I think the best use we can put it to is auction it off and use the money for some proper armor in your size. Because that thing is going to be worth a lot and you’ve been the one taking a beating so far…”

“... I guess I can’t argue with that.” John sighed. He was no stranger to putting rare drops on an auction house or the recycle into crafting mats bin, but doing it with his first legendary felt pretty shitty. Hopefully, whatever guild they ended up finding would have someone worth giving it to.

“Oh well, let’s see what we get for saving the hunter.” He was halfway turned towards the Boon Vendor when his stomach made its presence known with a growl. Sheepishly, he added, “After that we should probably take a dinner break. But I think we can do another Segment after, before I have to head home.”

“Sounds like it,” Qhila answered with a stifled giggle. Putting that spot of minor embarrassment aside, John stepped up to the innkeep and observed the cartoonish Robin Hood hat on the counter.

Hubert’s Feathered Hat
Once he has had a night to sleep off whatever he was dosed with while captured, he’s ready to lend a hand. He will distract the first Boss of the next segment, rendering it optional. If you choose to fight it anyway, he joins the battle.

Okay, so the next Segment had at least two bosses. Given the loot they’d been gaining from those so far, they were probably going to go for the fight anyway, so the main value was having an NPC ally. They didn’t have much info on what sort of ally, but between the Robin Hood aesthetic and him being a hunter, John was willing to bet the cash drops of the entire Dungeon that he was a ranged DPS.

Beyond that, there was the Class Pack Boon, and two of the NPC rescue Boons from the first Segment continued throughout the Dungeon, namely the special Food Buff and the Dungeon specific healing potions. And whatever he bought for the Boon Vouchers or for DP.

As for those purchases, the hangover cure that cleared potion and elixir side effects was worth it now, with twice the penalties in place compared to before. The battery recharge probably wasn’t. While they’d drained most of a battery over the second Segment, Qhila still had enough left to last the day, and while getting new ones from the Abyss Market or Auction was less convenient, it was probably far cheaper.

As for the boost to Skill EXP gain, he had gained 9 Skill Levels over the last Segment distributed between Unarmed Combat Proficiency, Biomancy, Accelerated Recovery, and Squirt Gun Proficiency. Which meant the Boon had been worth 3 Skill Levels or 8.3 DP per Skill Level. Not counting any fractional Skill Levels floating somewhere. That seemed much more likely to be worth the cost than recharging batteries they were unlikely to need today. And in retrospect, he should probably have left Pheromone Aura running on something unobtrusive to maximize the benefit.

Picking up the continuation of the Quest had come with some generic lore about House Chevo being the local noble house which had fallen into decline because the sole heir was a reclusive weirdo, to the point where nobody had actually seen them for a few years. Not even their tax collector.

It seemed pretty obvious that the heir was behind the mutants and that either he had deliberately gotten rid of the rest of the house because they got in the way of his mutagenic obsession, or some experiment had killed them accidentally and caused him to slide off into the deep end.

Once again, they hit a loading screen upon leaving town, this time with Hubert in tow, which deposited them in front of a manor in a clearing in the woods. A wall coming up to John’s chest height with decorative wrought iron spikes at the top surrounded the manor grounds, with an iron bar gate standing slightly ajar.

Beyond was an old time-y two story mansion with a large, almost gate-like double door front entrance and hopefully decorative gargoyles along the edge of the roof. In addition to the main house were a few smaller, one-story buildings and an on-premises well.

All of it looked mildly dilapidated, however. While it didn’t have the look of outright ruin and decay that cracks or collapsed bits of wall would have, the iron fixtures were dotted with rust, the grounds were overgrown, and the stones lining the pathways crooked.

Qhila took a closer look at the gate for a bit, making sure it wasn’t somehow trapped, before they pushed on inside. As soon as they stepped onto the grounds themselves, a crowing erupted from one of the adjoining one-story buildings that John was guessing to be a stable. It sounded like someone had hooked a very enthusiastic rooster up to a megaphone or something. Moments later, the door to the maybe-stable was shattered as something large burst out from within.

AI picture, graciously provided by Fun

’Given the Developer’s tendency to gutter mindedness and the punny mutant naming convention, it’s a small miracle that this thing isn’t called a Horsecock…’

Hubert immediately shot at it and started moving away from John and Qhila in a way that would keep it from blocking their path to the entrance door. Predictably, the beast focused on him making it fairly clear that this was the Boss that he rendered optional.

The Boss not having a legendary drop was a bit disappointing, but then again there was definitely going to be at least one more. Also, the mutagen sounded interesting.

In terms of strategy, there was going to be at least one other Boss in the Segment, which made mutagens a bad play. That left the shotgun or grenade and the Class Pack as trump cards. Of those, the former helped with damage and the latter with tanking, and since they had a DPS-oriented NPC ally, it was a pretty easy choice. Plus, if things went south, he could always whip out the shotgun then, and hopefully still keep some ammo in reserve for the next one.