winterwhereof

  If Gareth wanted an ho appraisal of how idiotic his heading to the dungeon with a non-bat css was, Natalie would give it to him. It might be the only thing that stopped him from getting killed.

  Though she doubted she would be able to ge his mind. She reized that stubbornness. The determination to pursue a dream regardless of the danger. Almost all academy-trained delvers had a simir attitude.

  But maybe, by beating him around the sparring grounds, she could disabuse him slightly of the notion. Or at least i a modicum of caution. Sometimes people got cocky and needed a reminder of their retive weakness.

  The Kraken's Hearth was located on the southern outskirts of town, so there lenty of spa the training yard; they weren't packed in like they might be downtown. Natalie and Gareth took a free spot away from the rest of those who had followed them out of the inn. Their team had inteo test Liz's rength, but with the miniature crowd they'd gathered, they'd gotten sidetracked. There was no helping that. Liz could hahe tests herself, anyway. Natalie hardly had to be there.

  Setting up o dirt arena, Natalie slipped out the appropriate monster core and withdrew her on. The massive metal hammer materialized mid-air. Even grown familiar with it, she grunted as its heft settled intrip.

  Gareth's eyes widened as he took in the sight of the on. "Woah. You fight with that?"

  She raised an eyebrow, resting her hammer on her shoulder, the metal rod digging into her. "Aren't scared of gettien around a little, are you?" she asked amusedly.

  "Scared?" Gareth asked. He ughed, a hearty, booming noise. "Definitely not. It's what I asked fht?"

  Natalie frowned. Not because it was a bad answer, but rather, because it was a good one. Because much worse than her was waiting for him in the dungeon. But he really did seem to accept the reality of the situation, how terrible his idea was, a was carrying oe the faatalie became doubly certain it would be impossible to persuade him from his decision.

  "Though," Gareth said. "Why's it look like that? All … you know. Pink and striped?"

  Natalie winced. She lifted the on off her shoulder and pced it face-down into the dirt. Running her eyes up and down its length, she again came to terms with [Valentine]'s appearance. A white shaft striped with red bands, two giant pial heads with a heart design imprinted on each face. It was definitely one of the more ridiculous ons Natalie had seen … and was all the more embarrassing when bined with her sdalous armor.

  "The dungeo like me," Natalie said. "It keeps giving me weird stuff." She looked down at herself—into her promily dispyed cleavage. "If you haven't noticed," she said dryly.

  Gareth cleared his throat, his cheeks c as his attention was drawn, again, to her armor—or ck of it. "I, uh, wouldn't call it unlucky," he offered tentatively. "I think it looks good on you."

  "I'm sure you do," Natalie replied amusedly.

  His cheeks colored further. "That's a hell of a ce, though, isn't it? That you keep getting stuff like that? I thought dungeon gear was random."

  "Like I said. Dungeon hates me, and is making a joke out of it. Or something."

  "You're talking like it think," Gareth said. "Some people really believe that, right?"

  After ret revetions with Maliatalie didn't so much think as she khe dungeon had a mind, now. She still had to sit down with Malid learn what she could about the so-called 'Keeper of the Crypt'—and Malice's life in the dungeon in general.

  "Some people do," Natalie said. "And I'm one of them. It's alive to some degree, for sure."

  "Huh," Gareth said. He seemed briefly like he was going to question her more about that, but he ged his mind. "How much does that thing weigh?" he asked, turning the subject back to Natalie's hammer.

  "Not sure."

  " I try holding it?"

  "Uh. Go ahead?"

  She tilted the hilt of [Valeareth. Shog her, he actually mao pull it from the ground and hold it in his grip. His muscles bulged as he tried to stabilize it. After giving a slow, clumsy test swing in which he went stumbling forward with its momentum, Natalie ughed and walked forward to grab the hammer, saving him from toppling over.

  "Architect," Gareth said in admiration. "That thing's a monster. You're strohan you look."

  Natalie raised an eyebrow.

  "Not that you don't look strong," Gareth hastily said. "Just, uh, you know."

  Natalie's amusement grew. This boy clearly wasn't aced to being around delvers—or bat csses in general. Sure, Natalie was hardly some dainty girl with stick arms, but yeah, pared to Gareth's tall stature and wide [Lumberjack]'s build, she was admittedly a fair bit smaller. But stature didn't matter a tenth as mubat csses as it did tur folk. It became entirely irrelevant as they leveled: a tiny four-foot woman could easily crumple a seven-foot man up like a paper ball, if one was a high-rank fighter and the other was a low-rank mage.

  That said, at level one, his bulk would certainly help. The average man had a defirength advantage over the average woman at the beginning of their career. She could take some so that fact, if he indeed did recklessly head into the dungeon.

  "Alright, enough chatting," Natalie said. "Let's see what you do."

  Gareth paused, then warily eyed Natalie's hammer. "You're really gonna use that thing on me, huh?"

  "Weren't you the ohat wanted me to 'knoe seo you'?"

  "And I'm all for that," Gareth agreed. "But. I prefer all bones being … not broken."

  Natalie ughed. "Stop being a chi. I won't break anything."

  " you stop yourself, when you're using that thing?"

  Despite his hesita being on the receiving end of [Valentine], he pulled his axe from his belt. Ualie, he had no monster cores to carry around his loot. Not that it'd even work with his on if he did have one, with his axe being an obviously muem.

  The smooth wooden haft was a solid four or five feet long, with a rge, broad metal head. He gripped it in a familiar manner, settling into a wide stanatalie appreciated that he didn't seem totally unaced to bat—she could read some level of skill in the way he stood and watched her carefully.

  Natalie gripped her own on. "Ready, then?"

  "I don't think anyone's ever ready to have their ass hao them," he replied. "But yeah. As much as I'll ever be."