Jonas gazed at the stairs that had lifted themselves from the floor around him. He had first checked to see if there was anything with the troll that could be taken with them. He didn't have much hope for it, but thought it was at least worth a shot.
Though, he hadn't been that optimistic, after all, during the fight, all he had seen on the troll had been the clothing it had been wearing, that looked to him like it was made from either cheap leather or rawhide and that was burned completely away before they'd even killed it.
Although, as the announcer had told them about being able to leave the dungeon, Jonas realized that now would be a good time to check his status. Not because he hadn't thought about it since the troll had been killed, but more because he hadn't been willing to take the time.
Besides, he was sure there wouldn't be much else to do and while he was out of view of everyone else, this would allow him to do it and not seem to be waiting for the last minute on it.
Hp 49/56
Mp 4/23
Stamina 43/48
Level 9
EXP 742/4500
Str 15
Dex 20
Con 15
Int 17
Wis 11
Cha 12
Agi 16
Vit 22
Endurance 22
Physical Resistance 10%
Magical Resistance 10%
Skills:
Appraisal II 20/150
Disabling/Enabling devices 0/100
Keen Eyes III 289/350
Keen Ears II 178/225
Unnatural Reflexes II 68/150
Stealth II 25/250
Shadow Sight
Magic Sense 55/100
Abilities:
Shadow Merge II – 4 MP initial, 1 MP each minute 101/200
Crippling Strike – 6 stamina 75/100
Boomerang Blade – 2 stamina, 1 MP 0/100
You have 10 attribute points to allocate. Would you like to place them?
What he first noticed about his stats that surprised him was his Magic Sense having gotten some mastery. He hadn't thought about it since he got it, but if he gained proficiency with it just by being around magical objects, then the magical items he'd found for his team in that secret room certainly seemed to be working towards that.
However, it hadn't done much, so he could only just look at where to allocate the attribute points. He wasn't sure what he needed at the moment. Though, he speculated that he probably should get more MP, since it recovered so slowly and he couldn't say what he might need later on. Yet, at the same time, he was starting to wonder if he should increase his HP.
Though, he wasn't sure what would be the best allotment, so he merely put down 6 for Wis and 1 for his Str and Con. Which made his MP max 36 and his HP max 64.
Then as soon as he'd confirmed the allocations, he saw the message get replaced with: You can learn a new skill. Would you like to choose or see the options?
When Jonas looked at the options, he didn't see anything different, other than the lack of the skills he'd chosen last time. So, he took Improved Stamina. At the very least, he knew that it should in essence increase his total stamina. As anything that reduces his stamina consumption could in effect be considered an increase to his stamina rather than lowered stamina cost.
As soon as he'd taken care of that, he began to navigate his way out of the middle to the stairs. They had risen up around him, which was fine to block him from view of the others, but at the same time, he had no idea where the bottom or the stairs were or how to get out from in between them.
Fortunately, it was a straightforward way and only took a few minutes. Though, as he came out, he looked around and way Elin and Kim on the other side of the base of the stairs from him, though Elmo wasn't anywhere to be seen.
"Where's Elmo?" Elin asked immediately when she noticed Jonas.
"I guess he might still be with Heather and Sonya," Jonas replied, not really sure himself. He'd mostly been paying attention to seeing if he could get anything of value from the troll and when it was dark, his shadow sight really helped him out.
"What's taking them so long? Kim asked. "Shouldn't they have already started coming over here already?"
"I think what Owen did to them might have worn off," Jonas answered. "They looked pretty out of it after the fight was over."
Kim sighed. "I guess when the troll's clothing was burned up, his thing might have been a trigger for them," Kim remarked. "I mean, that's a sight I never wanted to see."
"Is that how it works?" Elin asked, her eyes wide.
"Uh, it might be more than that," Jonas said, not sure if that was a line of conversation Elin should hear, given how sheltered and innocent her mind seemed to be. "After all, Elmo told me that when he tried leaving Heather alone there, she did something that made him think that she wanted him to stay by her."
"Why would she want a guy around her?" Kim asked, sounding rather annoyed.
"She's not like you, so she might find Elmo to be trustworthy," Jonas said, getting annoyed at Kim's clear bias towards pretty much every male except him, for some reason.
"And she's supposed to be a valedictorian," Kim scoffed, rolling her eyes.
Jonas shook his head, not sure if he'd ever be able to get her out of that mindset. Though, he couldn't help but wonder what had happened to her to view every male as someone who's just one step away from doing something terrible. At the same time, he couldn't figure out why she hadn't treated him the same way, after all, it wasn't like he was anything other than a guy.
However, he quickly pushed that thought to the side. He had better things to do with his time. "Well, regardless of why they're like that, we'll probably need to carry them," Jonas said. "If you want, you could carry Sonya and I'll carry Heather."
Kim sighed, as if she was being given a heavy burden of some kind. "Fine, though, don't do anything to Heather. I'll be keeping an eye on you," Kim informed Jonas.
Jonas could only just shake his head. While she phrased it like that, he didn't detect anything behind those words. It felt like she'd merely said them either just to say them or to put up an image she wanted to convey without having any intention of doing anything about it.
So, they made their way over to where Elmo was. When they reached him, he was looking lost as to what to do about the two women in front of him. He clearly wanted to leave, but didn't want to leave either behind.
"Need help, runt?" Kim asked.
"Please," Elmo replied, looking rather startled. Jonas could only assume Elmo had been so focused on what to do about the two women that he hadn't even heard them approach.
Kim moved immediately to pick up Sonya while Jonas picked up Heather, bridal style again. "If we have to fight anything, you two will need to look after Sonya and Heather, okay?" Jonas told Elmo and Elin.
"No problem," Elmo said while Elin merely nodded.
Jonas sighed, This wasn't his ideal way of getting out of this place, but it would be better than leaving the two here. Especially since they'd already saved them from the goblins. Unlike all the politicians he'd seen on TV proclaim that they were going to take 'responsibility' for whatever they'd been caught doing, he knew that he needed to take actual responsibility for what choices he'd made. Which meant accepting all consequences of what he'd chosen to do. Including things he'd rather just leave by the wayside.
Carrying Heather and Sonya with them having a clear relapse was one of those. Climbing the stairs while carrying Heather wasn't so bad, though he did worry about there not being anything on the side of the stairs, so if he lost his balance for any reason, it was possible that he could fall off, carrying Heather with him.
Fortunately, the top of the stairs seemed to only go up roughly twenty feet until they reached the opening in the ceiling. Jonas wasn't surprised to see that the others had already gone on ahead. Not that he cared. All it meant was that the stairs were less crowded at the moment. Especially with carrying someone.
When they reached the top of the stairs, they were in a large room that didn't seem to have any purpose, other than to be at the top of the stairs. However, Jonas noticed that there seemed to be small openings in the floor and wondered if this dungeon had been used before by the people running whatever competition this was. As those openings could easily be used to shoot arrows through or other weapons and create a deathtrap for whoever went below.
Since they clearly hadn't been used during their fight with the troll, he had to assume that it was possible that they merely got lucky that nothing was up here to do something like that. Although, he didn't feel like telling the rest of the team. Especially Elmo.
Ever since Elmo kissed him on their way to the minotaurs, Jonas hadn't been able to really look at Elmo in the same way. Yeah, as far as he was concerned, Elmo was a kid, but he was still in his early twenties, so legally he wasn't a kid.
He wasn't sure what he'd do if they came across a secret room that they could have privacy in, much like Kim and Elin had enjoyed a couple days previously, or anything else like it, but he found himself interested in finding out.
Part of him also started to imagine carrying Elmo like this, but he quickly pushed that thought out of his mind as he felt his body start to react to it. He didn't need to let any of this thoughts bring attention to what he might be thinking.
The room had only a single exit. A hallway that had natural light shining through it after a couple hundred feet. It was too distant to see what was outside of it, but Jonas could easily see the other groups ahead of them. So, they started walking down the hallway. Kim was next to Jonas with Elmo and Elin behind them.
Part of Jonas wished at least Elmo was ahead of them, so he could just at least look at him, even though he suspected that his own body would react to just looking at just even looking at Elmo right then. Which was why the rest of him was glad that Elmo was behind him. It kept him from worrying about Kim, or especially Elin, from noticing and asking questions he'd really rather not answer. Or even have to dodge.