Dungeon Run Aftermath and Assessment Pt 1

I voluntarily ended the timer on my current form early and shapeshifted back into my human form as soo as the door was locked and we all dropped our gear to the floor and collapsed onto the nearest comfortable surface. After a few minutes of exhausted yet companionable silence we began rotating through the shower to wash off the blood and dirt that we brought home from the dungeon. Isabell went through first so she was clean and able to help assess and take care of peoples injuries as they came out of the shower, and then we went through in order of who had the worst or most injuries. Once we were all through the shower and in clean clothes, which thankfully Mick had thought to grab some for Ren and himself when he was compiling our makeshift weapons cache, we sat there waiting for Isabell to get done taking care of everyone. Mick and I tried to wave her off saying we were fine but she insisted since that's what her System Type and abilities were for. Once Jenna's leg had been cleaned out and stitched up and Isabell was satisfied that the rest of us had been tended to properly we relaxed back in our seats and almost instantly passed out.

The next morning I woke up to the smell of eggs and bacon being fried and discovered Isabell in the kitchen cooking breakfast.

"You know you didn't have to do that right?"

"I know, but shooting a slingshot isn't particularly hard work, nor was it very effective either, and I wasn't really put in the position to be injured like the rest of you either so I want to carry my weight in other ways."

"Well thank you," I said as I turned back to look around the living room at the rest of the group who had yet to wake up. After a few more minutes between the smell of food and the obnoxious volume of Ren's snores everyone started to wake up. Ren was the last one to wake up and he only did so, accompanied by one final incredibly loud snort, after Mick threw a pillow from the couch at his head. I helped Isabell pass out the plates and after we all started eating I suggested that we start discussing the dungeon.

"Which part? There's so much that happened in there to talk about," Isabell sighed.

"That's true, but I figured as a group we should mostly go over what we gained while in the dungeon so that we can all easily keep track of each others capabilities and what we were lacking in the dungeon both in terms of equipment and combat capabilities as a team," I said, "Everything else we can tell war stories about to each other throughout the day as much as we want," I finished with a smile.

"Makes sense." Jenna nodded.

"How should we start this?" Mick asked.

"How about while we finish eating we can go around and share what we got from the chests and anything else we may have gotten from the dungeon, and then we can pass out the Ethereal cores once we've finished eating and go into the combat stuff and what equipment we're lacking." I suggested.

Everyone nodded agreeing to the plan I suggested, "I'll go first," I said, "You guys already witnessed the effect of the ability I got from my chest last night. It's called Instantaneous Shift and for a certain amount of mana which scales depending on the rank of the form it let's me shift into the form instantly instead of the one minute it normally takes."

"Well that explains why you were able to turn into a jaguar so fast last night, I can go next," Ren said. "I got a skill called Taunting Roar, basically I yell out whatever insulting thing I can think of at the moment when I activate the skill and it consumes mana to translate it into something incredibly offensive in the opponents language to try and get them to target me."

"It's not guaranteed though?" Jenna asked.

"No it's not, I think the chances are supposed to get better the higher the level gets though." Ren replied.

Jenna nodded and Mick jumped in and said "I guess I can go next, before the chests I ended up getting a System Type and an Ability."

"Oh look at Mick, finally joining the club of people who have a System Type," Isabell said with a laugh.

"Hey it's not my fault!" Mick retorted.

"Of course it's not Mick, some people are just late bloomers after all." I said causing everyone to laugh and Mick to roll his eyes.

"Ya ya, make fun of Mick for not having a magic an instant System Type like the rest of you over achievers. Anyway, I got them when we were fighting the first group of those ugly green little fuckers when that one had me trapped on the ground. I got really angry and then all of a sudden my anger started making me more powerful somehow. I found out later that I had gotten a System Type called Berserker then and I had gotten an Ability called Berserker's Rage. I can only use the ability once per day but it basically makes me really angry, strong, and blood thirsty but when it wears off I get exhausted for a while. I also got an ability called Thick Skin which as it levels up makes my skin harder and harder to pierce making it like a natural armor."

We all looked at Mick with slightly shocked gazes at how much he had gained from the dungeon.

"Damn man, you got a lot out of that run, congrats" Ren said.

"Thank you, hopefully it'll come in handy next time." Mick replied.

"Alright, I guess I'll go," Jenna sighed "Besides the fancy new battle scar and the short spear I brought back I gained a level in my Tactician Ability and I got a new ability called Assessment from the chest. It gives me insight into how strong an enemy is and what their capabilities are, right now it's a little vague and doesn't give to much detail but it gets better the higher level it gets."

"That will come in pretty handy in the future," I told Jenna.

"Definitely," Mick said, "Now you just need to join the System Type club and we'll all be in there."

Jenna stuck out her tongue at Mick and he laughed in response.

"Izzy you go so I don't have to listen to this doofus any more."

"Alright, I only got something from the chest. It's a staff with a little crystal on top called a magic staff. It's supposed to let me use it for some kind of basic ranged attacks and also help with casting bigger spells to once I learn them."

"So you don't have to use the pea shooter anymore?" Mick asked.

"No, I don't."

"Oh thank the gods," he aid as we all heaved a collective sigh of relief.

"What?!" Isabell asked indignantly.

"Izzy, no offense, but that thing was useless." Jenna told her as we all nodded in agreement.

"Ya, ok that's fair." Isabell said with a sigh.

"How about we hand out the Ethereal cores now?" I asked