I Built This City Chapter 55: Chapter 55

Read chapter 55 of I Built This City by ThePudding on NovelPedia.

Fighter(Adventurer) Ellen Ellen waved away the notification of entering the dungeon. She had taken the full multiplier on that one, since she intended to specialize in taking on dungeons. When she reached her Level 11 thresholds, the Classes she took would hopefully be more dungeon-related. She had a range between 8 and 9 depending on the self, so with any luck she could get all her selves to 11 today. She readied her spear, advancing slowly. The dungeon continued to have an obsession with killing her, so Ellen was prepared for it. Counting on it, even! That was why she walked slowly forward with this body, waiting for her Scout to draw out the spiders she knew were in the first chamber. Her Scout came backing up the tunnel rapidly, but Ellen waited until she was almost past her before thrusting the spear forward, impaling the spider before she could see it. She knew where it was by how her Scout moved. The hissing squeal of the overlarge spider was a rewarding sound, as always. She saw her other self drawing a knife with eyes toward the ceiling, so she swung the butt of her spear up and to the side, batting the pouncing spider toward her prepared self.. She let the knife her Scout stabbed take care of the spider she’d just knocked away, turning to thrust into the plume of flame that her Scholar and Acolyte had used against the other spiders. It was a tactic she knew worked, at least if the opportunity presented itself, but her Scout hadn’t retreated up the tunnel in a way that had indicated it wouldn’t work this time. Experience notifications rolled in as Ellen punted the most intact corpse toward her Scholar. That self already had her bag out, scooping up the curled up arachnid into the large, crude sack before the dungeon could reclaim the body. Hopefully they would learn something about the monsters in here, especially if they were different from others. But that was her Scholar’s job to think about. LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 10. “Ten,” Ellen announced, and she heard both her Scout and her Acolyte say the same thing at the same time. Her Scholar lagged behind, so that specific self could gather a larger portion of her experience in the dungeon for the Class advancement plans. That self would reach Level 10 on the next leg of the sweep. Without thinking about it, Ellen placed her new Attributes into Strength and Endurance, the latter already selected for her by the System. Her Scholar had informed her that she would need Willpower as well, eventually, but it could wait until the next Attribute boost. Ellen’s self was for defense and melee fighting, and she would focus on that, to let her other selves take on the other roles needed to be a good adventurer. Ellen moved forward to the first chamber and paused, waiting until her Scholar had finished securing the bag. As usual, none of them needed to speak to understand this—they only exchanged words when talking to the Others, or to entertain herselves and keep her mind sharp. She really didn’t need to talk to herselves much, but the Others might not be ready to realize that. It was a pity about the Others. Ellen would have liked to have them work together more, especially Hunter. Of all the Others in Onroc Anroll, Hunter was the one that understood the dungeon the best, she felt. But Hunter wasn’t ready to trust herself yet, not like Ellen had. In fact, Hunter was the most independent of the Ellens, aside from Village Ellen. Ellen really admired Village Ellen, in a way. Of all the Ellens, Village Ellen had become the most singular of the Ellens. She didn’t trust herself like Ellen did her other selves, but she didn’t need to. Village Ellen had a different kind of trust in Ellen, one that allowed her to live a life on her own, and allow all her other selves to be the things she couldn’t. It was an interesting approach to their selves, and Ellen liked how the seemingly quaint and simple version of her had become the most strong and independent despite lacking the rest of