Chereads / Counter Dungeon-Delving / Chapter 16 - Dismantling

Chapter 16 - Dismantling

The uniqueness of the dismantling skill lies in its leveling system. Unlike ordinary skills where every level brings a comparative improvement, the dismantling skill has two different kinds of improvement.

The levels 1, 4, and 7 each have a special condition to level up to. The conditions are respectively the knowledge of dismantling small monsters, the knowledge of dismantling medium-sized monsters, and the knowledge of dismantling large monsters.

Alternatively, you can see the skill as a cumulative of three individual skills.

The other levels are all proficiency-based. As long as you practice your technique the skill will certainly level up quickly.

My dismantling skill is at level 4 so I can go all the way to level 6 without needing to leave this place. In theory that is. Even if I work all day I probably won't hit level 6 by the end.

I start on the first minotaur, its head was cut off cleanly and there is still blood gushing out of its neck. Minotaurs are essentially oversized cows and bulls with human-shaped upper bodies that walk on their hind legs.

Despite their partly humanoid form, their meat tastes heavenly and the marbling is very nice. Is what I heard at least, no way I could ever afford to eat minotaur meat.

I start the long and probably very tedious work of dismantling one minotaur after another. One is cleaved in half, another riddled with cuts, and another one has his head bashed to mush.

I dismantle them all and try to salvage whatever possible despite the condition they are sometimes in. One minotaur that was burnt to a crisp was particularly hard salvage.

And so as I increase my experience I slowly find the best way for myself to dismantle a minotaur.

Next, I repeat the same with lesser wyvern corpses. When raising your dismantling skill it's important to train with different kinds of monster anatomy. The skill will only level up once you have enough general knowledge to satisfy the requirements.

To get to level 5 I need to have an average proficiency in a lot of medium-sized monsters.

Back to the lesser wyvern at hand. This individual has at least a dozen arrows sticking out of it. The first thing I need to do is to remove all the arrows. Doing that is both hard and tedious since arrows are designed with the idea of staying where they hit.

After finally removing all the arrows I can start with the actual work. Lesser wyverns take a lot of work to dismantle since I have to remove their scales one by one. For size, this thing is as big as a truck and has more than a thousand scales. The meat, chicken-flavored by the way, has a nice sheen to it and looks to be very tender.

After I finish the first lesser wyvern Navi pops into my head and tells me that my working hours are over and it's time to go home. Before leaving I take one last look at the pile of loot I've created and have a cursory glance at my status.

Status Guy Lv. 3 Goblin

Mp 10+2

Strength 5+2+2

Constitution 5+2+1

Speed 5+2+3

Magic ability 0+2

Skills:

universal humanoid language, universal monster language, dungeon map

Sword use lv. 1; enhanced stamina lv. 3; dismantling lv. 5; breathing technique lv.1

Wow, dismantling actually went up to level 5 after just a few hours of practice. I must have been blocking that level up by never getting any practical experience on medium-sized monsters. The practice of dismantling small monsters must have given me enough proficiency to carry over.

If only it were that easy. I doubt I'll get to level 6 as fast as I reached level 5. Getting to the point where I can cleanly and efficiently dismantle any medium-sized monster will take at least a few days of practice.

Usually yes, but in my case, I have stayed at level 4 far too long and the only thing holding me back was practical experience. Now that I can get practical experience it goes much faster than usual.

I exit the VR capsule and leave the building. On the way home I hear rumors of a new type of monster that specializes in attacking pets. From what I can gather a team that entered a new dungeon type called worm cave lost all their pets and carriers during their rest. Mysteriously the monster didn't try to attack the adventurers in their tents. Based on the traces left is should be a snake of some kind but no one is certain.

The government gave out the recommendation that even adventurers who rely on pets to guard their camp should consider adding a monster detection device or have someone stand guard.

That monster's actions sound awfully human, don't they?

Wait, you're telling me the monster in question is one of us?

Already! Isn't that too fast? How long until I can level up?

Still, I'm only level 3 and she's already reached level 10!

Are you sure you should be telling me this?