Chapter 4.08 T

Chapter 4.08 T
Chapter 4.07	Chapter 4.09
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Chapter 4.08 T is the 9th chapter of Volume 4 and Book 5, The Last Light. The T stands for Toren.

tl;dr[edit | edit source]

Toren survived by falling into the dungeon rift, living off the ambient mana. He disguises himself as a female adventurer and helps out Vuliel Drae. First Raskghar encounter.

Synopsis[edit | edit source]

Toren sits in Liscor's dungeon with his head in his hands, pretending to be dead.
A flashback begins showing how Toren survived being cut off from Erin's mana. Toren manages to absorb all the mana from the undead he controls and with that tiny boost he heads towards the mana from Liscor's dungeon that he senses. Mrsha spotted him on his way and she runs and falls into the crevasse, Toren goes to help her but she let's go in fright and falls down. Toren follows her into the dungeon and falls down, but there's so much magic that he's able to reassemble himself.
Toren sits there for a while after watching Zel and the others rescue Mrsha, but he's distracted by his realisation that since his mana has been cut off then it means Erin had died. Toren ponders about death before considering himself - he feels at his body and realises four of his bones don't match the rest of his body and comes to the conclusion that he wasn't just one skeleton but multiple. Toren then "faints".
Toren then realises that he has the skill to sense mana, but since it's not a Skill he also realises that you can have skills which aren't Skills and plans on learning as much as he can. Toren begins to explore the labyrinth since he wouldn't be able to survive outside of it without a mana source. Toren finds a replacement sword and a dead creature - something like a Gnoll but not. He moves on and begins noticing the traps of the dungeon which he avoids.
Toren stumbles upon a few Shield Spiders dragging Pawn into a cocoon and killing him. Afterwards he sees a second "Pawn" and realises that the first was just another Antinium and not the individual. He gets bored and lures some of the Shield Spiders into the traps before moving onwards.
Toren finds a message on the wall, in a different language to what the people around Liscor used. It says: "Horrible death awaits all those who enter this place. Your bodies shall be taken and made part of the Mother of Graves."
Toren discovers a dead adventurer with a cloak. He takes it from her and wears it, but after checking himself in a piece of broken mirror he comes to the conclusion that he needs more clothing in order to look good with the cloak. Toren puts on clothes from the other dead adventurers nearby, including a stuffed bra before fashioning a mask from the carapace of a Shield Spider. When he looks back in the mirror he sees a slim female figure with glowing eyes - but Toren manages to dim the flames in his skull entirely. With that done Toren feels like she could like any other human underneath it all.
Toren spends some time running through the dungeon killing and running away from things before she encounters a group of Adventurers, Vuliel Drae. After their standoff the adventurers believe that Toren is a solo adventurer that can't speak due to the mask and begin to introduce themselves. They offer to team up and Toren accepts.
As they explore the dungeon Toren notices a trap that Insill doesn't and stops him from activating it. The rest of the party berate the [Rogue] for not noticing and they continue on until a mass of leeches pours out of the wall and they have to fight them off. Toren watches Pekona's [Blade Dancer] fighting style and tries to copy her.
The fighting attracts a horde of monsters: Goblins followed by the not-Gnoll monsters. The Cave Goblins don't look like the Goblins that Toren had seen and Larr, the Gnoll, doesn't recognise what the other monsters are. One of the monsters has a mace that shrieks, which sends everyone but Toren to their knees. Toren kills the not-Gnoll and Pekona notices that Toren is successfully copying her style.
Toren finishes the fight by secretly using the [Fear] gem in his head and the others survive. Larr takes back a head of one of the not-Gnolls to be identified while Pekona continues to teach Toren her style. She asks if Toren is gold-rank but Toren just shrugs. Vuliel Drae decide to go back and they offer the enchanted mace to Toren, but she refuses. Toren decides not to stab them in the back as they leave because she's reminded of Erin.
Vuliel Drae notice Toren walking off as they leave. They leave the dungeon and return to Liscor's adventuring guild. A rumor begins to spread about a mysterious swordswoman who survived in the dungeon by herself.