With the instincts that came with his new skill, he understood a few things. First of all, [Analyze] wouldn’t just identify everything in his field of vision. Despite how the skill was worded, it functioned on a single target. Secondly, it wouldn’t reveal things he didn’t know were there, or that he couldn’t see. He had to focus on an individual thing for the skill to function properly.

  Lucian turned his gaze to the strange orb item they had found which was sitting on the ground beside the two ingots of orange metal, and activated [Analyze]. His eyes flashed a dull blue as the item’s information was revealed to him.

  “Oh that could be helpful...” Lucian picked up the polished white sphere and offered it to Annabelle, “It’s called a [Lesser Trapfinder’s Stone].”

  “I mean, if you think about it, aren’t most rocks ‘trapfinder’s stones’ if you throw them?” She laughed and took it from him.

  “Yeah well this one has a delay like a grenade, then it makes traps near it glow. It only has 5 uses though.” Lucian chuckled.

  Annabelle blinked, “Oh, that’s cool.” She squinted at the orb in her hand, “When you explained what it did the system suddenly let me see it as if I had identified it myself.” She smirked, “Seems limited to certain tiers of trap, that probably means like, whatever the traps effective level is. And most traps probably means that if someone really good at making traps hides it as well as they can it won’t show up.”

  Lucian nodded, “That makes sense. Also good to know I don’t have to explain it one to one for it to be identified for you.” He glanced at the ingots and used [Analyze] again.

  “That also seems interesting, both for making magic items and for potentially for using in modern technology.” Lucian picked up one of the ingots and handled it for a moment before setting it back down, “It’s called Orichalcum, and apparently it’s both highly enchantable and conductive.”

  “Plus it has a really nice color.” Annabelle said after a moment.

  “Yes it does, quite a pretty shade of pinkish orange.” Lucian agreed.

  “Later, when we’re not in the middle of a dungeon, want to try teaching me how to try and get my own identification skill?” Annabelle asked.

  “Sure, I would be happy to.” Lucian nodded, “Here’s hoping you catch on quick.” He laughed.

  “Probably won’t be as quick as you, golden boy.” Annabelle teased.

  “Yeah yeah.” Lucian chuckled, “Once the Spirit I just used comes back, want to move on to floor 2?”

  “Sounds like a plan.” Annabelle agreed.

  The pair continued resting until Lucian’s Spirit recovered fully, and then began to move towards the next floor. They left the Orichalcum on the first floor, but brought the pair of potions and the [Lesser Trapfinder’s Stone], having Annabelle carry them for the time being.

  They made their way through the previously cleared rooms to the chamber with the strange door in the floor, to find it was already open. A large spiral staircase coiled downward with a drop in its center. Neither of them was keen to see how far down it went the hard way.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  They descended the staircase, keeping an eye on the wall beside them and the steps below them for any cruelly placed traps - thankfully finding none. The descent to the second floor took two minutes, the staircase leading to a large chamber.

  The second floor was more structured than the first. Rather than the floor being made of dull red bricks like the floor of the first, the floor of the second was composed of grey bricks which were each roughly twice as large. The walls, instead of being raw dirt and stone held by a network of roots, were mostly hewn stone with grey brick pillars spaced out across them. Three passages led away from the central chamber, properly archway shaped tunnels carved into the stone.

  They picked one at random, and headed down it, still wary of any traps that might exist outside of and between the individual rooms.

  The passage opened into a large room with a vaguely dome shaped ceiling. A door stood at the far end of the room, and around the chambers edges roots, vines, and flowers protruded from the stone walls.

  Lucian summoned his sword and stepped into the room, the blade forming in his hand as he took the step over the threshold and the faint blue aura of [Spirit Barrier] began to flicker into existence around him. Annabelle followed close behind him, eying the walls warily... The plant life reacted to their presence, vines writhed and parted, revealing large flower buds in the walls, which quickly bloomed. Within them were monsters made of vines, wrapped tightly around their form like muscle upon bone. They were vaguely humanoid in shape, but slightly larger than the average human would be, and their proportions were wrong. Overly long arms dragged large thorn-like claws across the floor with a scraping sound. Six such monsters stepped out from their hidden resting places.

  Lucian focused his attention on one and activated [Analyze].

  “They’re called Bloomborn Rippers, that one’s level 22.” Lucian nodded in its direction as he angled his sword to the side slightly, “Time to take this for a test drive.” He reached for his newest class skill, and activated [Heightened Manifestation].

  He felt a slight pressure in his mind, additional mental effort expended to channel two skills at once. The blue glow of his blade intensified as energy surged into it. Lucian felt its weight begin to increase as the entire weapon began to shift. The blade rapidly elongated and grew wider, the guard expanding with it. The handle increased in length as well, which Lucian would have appreciated a lot more if he still had both arms. It took a few seconds for the rapid increase in size to come to an end.

  The rippers began to move, rushing forward. Annabelle gestured at them, “[Banecloud].” A sickly green light briefly enveloped her hand, and a brightly shining mote of the same color blinked into existence towards the center of the chamber. With a hiss, the mote erupted into a dark green fog. Three of the rippers were caught in the cloud as they charged, immediately obscured by the opaque cloud.

  Lucian stepped forward as the growth stopped, his blade now about half again as large as it was before, and similarly heavier. The balance was a bit off, but that didn’t matter - he had more than enough Strength to compensate for the weapon’s shifted center of mass.

  One ripper got close enough to them and lunged for Lucian. His blade sang as he responded, a rush of air following the movement of his weapon as it cut through the air.

  The ripper tumbled forward, the upper half of its torso hitting the ground separately from the rest of its body. Yellowish sap-like blood oozed from both halves of its body as it fell with a dull thud. Lucian shot forward as he readjusted his weapon, meeting the charge of a second ripper with a downwards cleave. Vertically bisected, each half of its body fell to Lucian’s sides.

  The three rippers Annabelle had caught in [Banecloud] stumbled out of it, their bodies rapidly withering as they began to collapse under their own weight.

  The last ripper leapt for Lucian like the first had. Lucian’s sword had cut into the stone beneath his previous target, and he pulled it free just in time to bring the bottom half of the elongated handle into the path of the ripper’s claws. He blocked the attack, but the vibrations told him all he needed to know. He leapt backwards as the second claw struck the ground where he had been, cracking the bricks beneath it and biting into them.

  “They’re glass cannons!” Lucian laughed as he dodged away.

  “[Poison Bolt]!” Annabelle fired off a green bolt into its head, which rapidly began to wither.

  Lucian adjusted himself again and thrust his blade forward, impaling the monster through its chest. The tip of his sword exited its back, but he didn’t push it any further. Instead, he pulled away and moved back, avoiding a second attack from one of its overly long arms. It tried to move to follow him, but stumbled and collapsed from the damage to its chest, and the poison.

  Lucian let go of his channel on [Heightened Manifestation] as the last monster fell. The blue light that made up the blade’s extra mass faded away, returning it to its original size. He relaxed as the additional mental effort was no longer required. A few moments later, [Spirit Recovery] kicked back into full gear as the battle was over.

  “That’s pretty damn cool.” Annabelle grinned as she walked over to him.

  “Yeah it is!” Lucian agreed, “That [Banecloud] was great too.”

  “Why yes it was.” Annabelle smirked.

  They turned to the door at the end of the chamber as it began to open.

  “Shall we?” Lucian glanced at Annabelle.

  “We shall.” She replied.

  The two headed onwards towards the next chamber.