I Built This City [LitRPG Lateral Progression Kingdom Building]

Continuity of experience was a strange thing.

Ellen felt like Hunter Ellen in most ways. She had the memories all the way up to the moments before she’d killed the boar, and it had fatally wounded her. She remembered that feeling, the pulse-pounding excitement. It was why she’d been willing to follow Anroll and the ‘twins’ into the dungeon, where combat was almost certain.

That, and she fully intended to see exactly how fast she could rush a Level.

The new ability to adjust banked experience wasn’t listed on her sheet, but it worked fine, so it had carried over from her previous life even if the others didn’t. She’d not used any of the banked experience when doing mundane things unrelated to being a Hunter, and used the full ten times multiplier when carving the boar up, or walking quietly, or any other award related to it. She’d gone from Level 6 to Level 7 just by making the trip to the dungeon.

Mana Manipulation was a Cross-Class Perk for now, but Healer had assured her that once she took a more magic-focused Class, that limitation would vanish and her mana usage would be much more efficient. She’d considered practicing with it to see what effect that would have, but the dungeon trip promised an even better test.

“Uncle, if you run to Merriweather for us, pick me up a new bow as well. Ask Merchant for the money,” Ellen noted, checking the string. It had lain on the ground, strung taut, for so many hours out in the cold snowy weather, and had already been secondhand. She’d taken good care of it, but was pretty sure it wouldn’t last much longer under these conditions.

“That’s probably a good idea,” Anroll agreed. “Are the three of you ready? Don’t stress yourself, I don’t want any of you hurt. How do you usually handle the first chamber?”

“We burn them!”

Both Healer and Apprentice said that with so much enthusiasm that Anroll nearly jumped in surprise. The two started laughing in sync as well, which added to their odd effect… especially because it was still happening even when they looked wildly different, like now.

Apprentice carried a spear, with patchwork hides for a sort of armor. Healer never intended to get into any combat at all, but she had one of their knives at her side, and lighter boots. Ellen wasn’t sure why Healer wasn’t shivering, she didn’t look like she’d dressed warmly enough for this day.

Anroll whispered to Ellen, “Are they always so… identical?”

“No,” Ellen answered aloud, since she already saw Apprentice was hurrying toward the entrance. Healer grabbed her twin by the cloak and yanked her back, rolling her eyes.

The fact that they could be so eerily in sync with some things yet completely different when acting out their roles was the weirdest part… or so Ellen had thought before. Her interactions with Smith Ellen had made her start to realize the kind of relationship these two had. In a way, she felt a little envy that they’d become so comfortable with their split identity.

She understood what Smith was becoming, but they didn’t share the same easy camaraderie that the twins had. It was a little strange, too. Had their accelerated learning also accelerated the differentiation between their selves? They were all Ellen, yet the further apart the lineage, the wider the gulf.

Concerning.

Anroll trudged forward toward the dungeon entrance. “Right, let’s see how this goes. Stay behind me and take a shot if you think you can hit, but don’t take any risks. I may be a Gold, but protecting three of you is still going to be rough. We’re here to figure out if the monsters go after me or not, and to give you a quick tour of the first floor so you can tell me if anything has changed.”

“I’d like to get at least one kill in before we turn back,” Ellen reminded. “I want to test something about using Perks and our situation. I’m not sure I can fight anything in the other chambers, these two are the only ones with memories about those.”

“They’re pretty fast,” Apprentice said, bouncing from one foot to the other. “And we don’t have the spear Skill Enhancer or any Perks related to them this time. I still know how to use it, but I only did well last time because I got lucky.”

Healer nodded. “It was pretty terrifying. We really need an Ellen that takes a more front line fighter path again, then we can run the dungeon ourselves.”

Anroll tapped his own spear on the stone entrance. “Let’s try not to give me any more anxiety about my niece’s existence, please.” It was a casual statement, but he said it without the smile he usually wore.

This is really bothering him, Ellen realized. The twins must have realized the same, as they stopped joking around and followed without further comment.

Ellen quickly chose the Archery Skill Enhancer so her shots would be more steady, and continued following Anroll into the depths. Her uncle had much more money to burn, so his light was in the form of a shining gem on his bracer, which he directed forward so as not to spoil the night vision that they were working on building up.

“They usually start toward us very soon,” Ellen warned.

“Usually all five at once,” Apprentice added.

“If there are more than five, the dungeon has been toughening the first floor.” Healer chimed in with her observation as well, since it had been a little while since they’d attempted the dungeon. Winter preparation and the subsequent snowfall had kept them from exploiting it much.

Ellen held her breath as they approached, and she squinted into the light. She’d been offered every Attribute to upgrade except Affinity, but choosing Willpower meant she’d missed that slight edge her Perception gave her. Everything was harder to see, and her body felt less responsive.

If it was this bad now, she wondered what it would be like for an Ellen that actually got to a high Level. How weak would she feel? She didn’t know Anroll’s exact Level, but last she’d heard he’d gone Hybrid and was in the upper thirties again, post reset. What would it be like dropping that far to her utterly average Attributes?

The skittering drew her attention back to the dungeon as the spiders approached. Recklessly, or they wouldn’t be making so much noise. She raised her bow and waited for one to make itself visible.

“Five, so it looks like it may have been making new floors,” Anroll announced. His keener senses had probably picked up on it even earlier, but Ellen knew he tended to hold back to give her a chance. He’d always done that.

She spied a bulbous abdomen wobbling on the walls, approaching her rapidly.

Ellen lifted her bow and announced, “I’m taking a shot.” Her newly-purchased Skill Enhancer steadied her aim and eased the fatigue of pulling the string back, letting her aim more carefully. She wasn’t sure how many shots she would have, so she wanted to do it right. Her heart pounded once more as she prepared the shot.

With a strange sensation of warmth vacating her chest, she tried to wrap mana around the arrow she loosed.

A whopping 37 points of mana vanished from her total, but the arrow flew true. It streaked through the air, past Anroll’s shoulder, and she saw his startled expression when the arrow impacted its target.

It wasn’t the best shot. The arrow bit deep just above the eyes, where the carapace was armored and protective. But though the mana sheathing the arrow was clumsy, Ellen had poured so much into it that it still split the hard exoskeleton open easily, causing the spider to practically explode.

Notifications rolled in.

Nearly two thousand experience from a single kill, not counting the first time bonuses. That was a ridiculous amount for a single spider. If she could defend herself from the other four somehow, this would be a quick way to boost Levels of any Ellen who needed a quick leg up.

“Unlocked Mana Shaping for you, Apprentice.”

“Nice!”

Anroll frowned as the other four spiders ignored him, heading right for Ellen or the twins instead. “Guess they’re specifically for you. That’s concerning, but we can use it if we plan carefully.”

Several rapid thrusts of his spear—too fast for Ellen to follow—wiped out the four remaining ones. Assist awards flashed across Ellen’s vision, comfortably adding another three thousand experience to her total and putting her only about eight thousand from Level 9.

At the rate she was gaining experience, that might get done in the next room.

The four continued down the tunnel to the room proper, where Anroll called for a brief break. Ellen wasn’t about to turn down the chance to top off her mana… she hadn’t hit the critical halfway point yet, so it was returning at a rapid pace.

“You’re still rough around the edges,” he noted. “But you work together very well. I feel like I’d be slowing you down if I weren’t so high rank. You need to be more cautious, but when you move I can tell you cover one another instinctively. That’s good.”

“And the bad news?” Healer asked, echoing Ellen’s thought just an instant before she herself could say it.

Anroll shrugged. “You have a terrible party composition. You need someone in the front line, like you said. Worse, none of you have any spells yet, or Abilities. Anything worse than a goblin or animal really needs a few more Levels under your belt before you can be reliable. That’s why spellcasting Classes are so rare. It’s hard to get them usable for a dungeon.”

“They’re also more complicated,” Apprentice added.

“Right.” Anroll sighed. “I’ll have to look up this group you mentioned when I get back to Merriweather. If you can trust them with your secret, it sounds like they’d be a good companion group to run through the dungeon a few times. I’m not sure I like the sound of the party leader, though.”

Healer shrugged. “He’s all right, I think.”

Apprentice nodded. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he’s trustworthy with something like this.”

It was a flip from their usual stances, Ellen noticed, but she didn’t say anything about it. Anroll hadn’t said anything they hadn’t already known, so she wasn’t sure what to add to the conversation.

He turned to Ellen anyway. “And that bow definitely needs replaced. I’ll do that before I leave.”

She nodded back. “I thought so, too.”

“All right,” Anroll turned to look at the two tunnels. “Everyone ready and rested? Shall we clear the floor?”

A chorus of agreement answered him eagerly.