> Would you like to bind Scout¡¯s Oath (heirloom weapon) to your soul?This should be a joyous moment. My first System prompt. I should It meant I could select a Class and start gaining levels. Alas, the occasion was anything but. The enchanted bow was without a soul bond. My father was dead regardless of what was inside the closed casket. The weapon was useless to anyone but me. Stealing a heirloom was not something done lightly, that¡¯s why the murderers left it behind. I suspected that the real reason was that they wanted to officially announce that they killed my father. A woman with golden hair and the fairest features in the realm approached me. People parted to make way for the Guild Master. ¡°George, my condolences,¡± she said, her voice musical as always. As I stared at the elf¡¯s empathetic face, all I could wonder was, how many has she buried? How could se remain this calm before the tragedy? Did she have a shred of empathy? I noticed I was getting angry at her and she hadn¡¯t done anything wrong. I forced the scowl out of my lips and dipped my head to hide my shame. ¡°Thank you, Guild Master,¡± I stuttered my reply.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. She inhaled a deep breath at my detached reply. Before this day, she¡¯d always been Aunty Alice to me. A hand landed on my shoulder and then moved to push my chin up. As our eyes met, she pulled me into a tight hug. For someone as delicate-looking as Guild Master Alice, she was quite strong. My body trembled. I felt an urge to bury my face on her shoulder, bawl my brains out. But I held back. I had to be strong. The runes carved on the varnished wood of the bow staff shone, a singular pulse of energy running up and down from my hands. The System beckoned. A blinking dot appeared at the corner of my vision, calling me to action. ¡°It¡¯s okay to feel the way you are,¡± Alice whispered. Her hands climbed up my back and cupped my cheeks. ¡°It¡¯s okay to do what you want to, too. Even if it is nothing.¡± I shook my head, feeling the soft skin of her palms on my cheeks. The warmth of her hands. ¡°No. This is something I must do.¡± No more hesitation. I felt ready to embrace my destiny. I accepted the prompt. The messages flooded my sight.
Scout¡¯s Oath (heirloom) is now soul-bonded to you. Skipping Class selection. Binding to the heirloom weapon set your Class to Soul Scout (rare). You gained the Skill, Scouting. You gain your next Class skill at level 40. Rank I: Reduce terrain penalties to movement by 10% per Skill level. You gained ten points to each Attribute. [¡]I ignored the remaining notifications and minimized the window to look at it later. A tingle moved across my whole body as the System granted me the initial Attributes. All of that didn¡¯t matter. My heart felt elated. I knew I had made my father proud by taking the fist step after him. I was a Scout, just like him now. As I came back to my senses, I heard the Adventurers and Guild staff cheering around me. It took me more than I wished to realize they were cheering at me. The moment a youth gained his Class should be a joyous one but I had to balance the excitement with my grief. Dealing with all that was overwhelming. I felt insulted that people were cheering before even the first shovel of dirt had covered my father¡¯s coffin. But our world, Koiphyvv, was a ruthless one. Monsters, rival nations and organizations, evil villains, and others hid just around the corner. Our people were stalwart and brave. Dying was easy. One only needed to be careless. Despite all that, I couldn¡¯t find inside me to reply to their cheers with a smile. The pain was too strong, the grief, overwhelming. My little act of defiance when I accepted the weapon and unlocked my Class. I was a Scout, a level 1 Scout. The Soul part would remain hidden. Many classes had variations and specializations but these were confidential information. Alice laced her arm around the crook of my elbow. With a commanding gaze, she quieted the crowd. Another silent glance at the grave keepers signaled to them that they should finish burying my father. The bow staff in my left hand felt right. The soul-bonded weapon now felt like a fifth limb, an extension of my body. My eyes wandered from the grave to the city tower, poking up toward the planetary ring. I remembered that day ten years ago as if it were yesterday. My father¡¯s speech about a Scout¡¯s duty filled me with purpose. Someone had to go out there and reveal the threats poised to cause harm to the people. Without a Scout, the city was blind. My father wasn¡¯t the only Scout but he was the best. Now, I needed to do the job on his stead. I had to prove my worth. * * The funeral over, Alice didn¡¯t leave my side. She didn¡¯t let go of my arm, either. Along with the rest of the Guild employees and some mournful Adventurers, she led me down the familiar path to the Guild Hall. I didn¡¯t say a word and nobody spoke to me. I still had to sort the things in my head. The System notifications awaited my acknowledgement. With nothing better to do, I opened them.
You gained ten points to each Attribute. You have the Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Wisdom, Clarity, and Charisma Attributes. You have 50% Attribute Efficiency to allocate. You gain 15 Attribute Points per level. As a human, there¡¯s no fixed Attribute Point spread. You have the Health resource. Spend Health to recover from wounds. Automatically spend Health to mitigate mortal wounds. You have the Mana resource. Spend Mana to enact supernatural effects upon the world. You have the Stamina resource. Spend Stamina to keep exhaustion at bay and execute superhuman feats of endurance, strength, and agility. Your first Sub-Class is at level 20. You gain a Sub-Class every 50th level afterward. Your first Perk is at level 5. You gain a Perk every 10th level afterward. You gained the Trait, Perceptive. Effects of Attributes on Perception increased by 50%. You gained the Trait, Scout¡¯s Duty. For every twenty levels of creatures killed based on intelligence you gathered, you gain 1 Attribute point randomly assigned to Dexterity, Endurance, or Wisdom. Your own kills do not count toward this Trait. This is a Parallel Progression.Each Attribute point increased that aspect of oneself by 1%, additively. The initial ten points to each Attribute made me 10% better in all aspects. It wasn¡¯t big but the Awakened, people with Classes, were straight-out better than their mundane peers. Around eighty percent of the population were Awakened, while the others were pejoratively called Mundanes. But the effects were very obvious. The Perceptive Trait sharpened my vision and hearing, and my sense of smell. I could gauge distances better, see further and in more detail. I could tell where each person was by the sounds of footsteps around me. And my feet found firm purchase on the street cobblestones because of my Class Skill. Then my eyes stopped at the last line and I stopped to gawk. A Parallel Progression. This was so huge my mind was swimming. Parallel Progressions were rare, almost unheard of and never confirmed by their holders. It was a way to earn progression outside of the leveling system. Most people, the vast majority of them, was stuck with whatever points their classes gave them. They couldn¡¯t grow any further unless they earned enough Experience Points, or Exp for short, to reach the next level. The ordinary people were capped. But those with a Parallel Progression could keep growing without earning Experience. They were limitless. They were stronger than what their levels suggested. Did my father also have this PP? If so, no way bandits would¡¯ve killed him. No. My father was murdered. ¡°George, are you okay?¡± Alice said as she tugged on my arm. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m fine. Just got my Class after I bound with Scout¡¯s Oath,¡± I shook the enchanted wooden stick in my hand. ¡°Oh,¡± she reacted with way less surprise than what I expected. ¡°Do you know the stats on this weapon?¡± I asked. The elf winked at me. ¡°Some. The rest should remain a secret between you and your father.¡± The mischief in her voice told me everything I needed to know. ¡°Come, let¡¯s go to the Guild Hall,¡± Alice said as she urged me to catch up with the returning Adventurers. ¡°Let¡¯s discuss the terms of your employment.¡± The walk allowed me to process what happened. My grief would last for days but I now had a Class, a purpose. I was a Scout and the safety of this city fell on my shoulders. My task was to go out into the wilderness, find threats, report them to the Guild, and reap the free Attribute points from having others kill what I scouted. 002 - Keep your PP under wraps and safely tucked away at all times. As a child, I''d been so many times to Alice''s office in a non-official capacity that I knew where every single trinket, gadget, trophy, and memento was better than the Guild Master. And yet, in this visit, I was so on edge that I could play music tugging at my nerves. The weight of the responsibility and the doubts around my father''s death gnawed at the edges of my mind. The feeling of the magic running through Scout''s Oath, the power it could unleash and the potential I could reach with my Parallel Progression almost made me bolt out of the office, pull a waxed string over the bow staff, grab a quiver of arrows, and jump over the city walls to go hunt something and level up. All an excuse to run away. "Relax George," Alice said in her soothing tone. My mind wandered into all sorts of tangents. How unfair elven voices were, with their innate musicality and alluring timbre. How unfair were the three Gods who ruled over this planet, the uncaring ageless titans whose only contribution was to allow life to flourish in this world. A Dragon sleeping deep in the planet Core. She keeps our continents afloat in this world of ice and water. One metallic Golem on the red moon. He grants us the System so we could grow and prosper. And one Goddess sitting in the ring between the two Suns. She wields her Star Knights to fend off the invading aliens from outer space who would otherwise incinerate us. People, humans in particular, aren''t native to Koiphyvv. We once lived among the stars, going from world to world, until we were sent to live here. Part of humanity still lives up there, where nobody can breathe. Some serve the Ring Goddess, some come and go as they please, crossing unimaginable distances. Once in an century or so, a Star Knight falls down to the planet. They bring knowledge, wisdom, and prestige to those who capture or befriend them. They say escaping this world is impossible. Something about it being too big and too heavy. "George!" Alice''s voice shook me from my musings. "Yes!" I snap back to reality. "Did you hear anything I said in the last five minutes?" "No. Not really." She leaned forward over her desk, her iridescent eyes scanning me for something. "You should go home, George. Take the day off, rest for a while, get your thoughts together." The mere thought of going back to a dead home made the world around me spin faster than the planetary ring. Each and every inch of that apartment reminded me of my father. Alice snapped her fingers. She imbued some magic, a subtle spell into that snap because my mind cleared of all extraneous thoughts, granting me a moment of perfect clarity. "Do you want a job with the Guild, George? We need a Scout to search for threats and post Quests for our Adventurers." "I''m level zero!" I protested. "I''m sure this can be easily fixed with some work. You are a natural woodsman! Trained by the best. Why don''t you go with a couple of veteran Rangers and test your new Skill and talents out there?" It was hard to deny Alice anything. I had the advantage of growing up around her so her feminine charms had less of an impact than on the other men. But she had everything. Beauty, status, levels, a kickass Charisma score, and the wisdom of centuries lived in this conflict-plagued lands. "Okay," I said just to get her off my case. "Excellent. I''ll post the Quest immediately! Get yourself geared up to go outside the walls. Your first task is to scout three E-rank or one D-rank Quest in the nearby woods." * * I went home and took my adventuring gear. A boiled leather armor with a minor resistance and self-repair enchantment, bandoliers, a potion box, short sword, a pair of daggers, and a camping backpack. I also allocated my Attribute efficiency points. Twenty to Dexterity, twenty to Endurance, and ten to Wisdom. Each of these points would boost the Attribute by 1%. At 120% efficiency, the 10 starter points became 12. This was a way to specialize in an Attribute. Some Classes earned more efficiency here and there through levels or achievements but the System did not reveal these until one had earned it. A double inspection showed that everything was in place. I went back to the Guild where I met my two escorts. We exchanged greetings and went out through the west gate. Though I was level zero, I wasn''t a wet-behind-the-ears novice when it came to moving in the woods. My father had trained me, showed me the tricks of the trade, of how to move without making much noise in the wilderness, of what to look for and what to hear for. "Kid is a natural, I told you," one of the two escorts Alice hired for me, said as he elbowed his companion.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "You knew his father, Hector," Miranda, a human Ranger, replied as she rolled her eyes. The two were veteran Rangers, C-rank with the Guild. I had no idea what levels they were because there was no way to tell. Classes, levels, the whole status sheet she-bang was as private as one''s nether regions. Some really expensive divinations could glimpse some of it but the System frowned upon those kinds of magic, relinquishing only the bare minimum. The Guild had all sorts of tests to evaluate levels but those took hours to execute and measure and they only resulted in an imprecise range. Rank with the Guild had to be earned the hard way, by going on difficulty quests and bringing back proof of one''s deeds. Every monster had a standardized trophy the Adventurer had to bring back to prove the kill. Once again, the System didn''t help with that. Some said that if people could only share their notifications, things would be much easier. But the golem God, sitting on his red moon, cared not for such things. "I found a Goblin trail," I said to shush the two. They stop their bickering immediately and scan our surroundings, including the treetops, before kneeling next to me. Crouched next to the claw marks on the soft forest loam, I show it to them. "They walked in a single file, taking care to step on each other''s footprints. But their claw marks poked the loam in different spots. I estimate that about a dozen Goblins went that way," I pointed. "Good," Miranda crooned, her vocal fry croaking on the vowels. "And if they are this disciplined, they might have a warrior boss leading the tribe." Hector tapped my back. "Lead the way, young Scout. Let''s find this Goblin tribe!" Following the tracks was easy. The season was damp and the only precaution the Goblins took to hide their passing was to walk in a single file-ish. I heard the sounds of a Goblin camp an hour later. "Stay here," I told my escorts. "I''m going to scout the tribe and report it to you." The three of us checked our weapons and readied our bows. Scout''s Oath sang with joy as I nocked an arrow. Then I was off. Waddling like a duck, I moved slowly, crouching and moving slowly from cover to cover. Some city kids thought it was better to move quickly to stay less exposed but the eye recognized fast movements at a distance better than slow, intentional movements. A blur at the corner of one''s eyes would send one into a state of high alertness before even the conscious mind could understand what was going on. The Goblins took over a flower meadow, trampling all the undergrowth and putting up their crude tents. I counted around forty, plus a bigger Chieftain and a wrinkly Shaman. The two were bigger than normal Goblins that were the size of a five-year-old child but not big enough to be considered Hobgoblins. Three well-traveled trails led away from the camp. I noticed some crude twine strung around trees and bushes; rudimentary traps that would hopefully alert the Goblins before any threats reached the clearing. Not me. Satisfied with the information I gathered, I went back to my escorts. This Goblin village counted as a D-rank quest. Novice adventurers started as G-grade and it took them a long-time grinding quests to go up in grades. Given, the F-grade promotion happened at 5 quests but the amount required skyrocketed after that. Hector and Miranda listened carefully as I reported my findings. They schooled their expressions as if they were playing cards for serious money. Only after I finished did they make any sound. "That completes your assignment," Miranda said. "Do you want to shoot at the Goblins, or to return to the Guild?" "Neither" I replied. This was an opportunity. I could test my Parallel Progression if these two killed the Goblins now that I gave them the intelligence about the village. "I want you two to exterminate the Goblins. They are too organized and the Chieftain seemed stronger than the average D-rank party''s appetite. I think that if we leave these Goblins alone for a few days, they''ll grow too strong. We cannot risk it." "What about your assignment?" "I''ll find some al-Mi''raj warren or something." They both suppressed a laugh. "I see your point," Miranda said. "Let''s go, Hector. Hey, do you want to take some shots?" "No," I replied. "It would be unfair to have you carry me while I earn Experience." "Nobles do it all the time," Hector retorted but I just shook my head in disgust. "Suit yourself." The two went to the Goblin village. I climbed on a tree and made myself scarce. Soon, I heard the shouts and the faint sound of bowstrings delivering death. These two C-ranks were the real thing. They stopped after fifty-seven shots combined. I couldn''t hear not a single Goblin grunt. But the real treasure was the notifications I got.
A level 12 Goblin Mudspitter was killed. A level 17 Goblin Flint Snapper was killed. +1 Dexterity. A level 15 Goblin Stick Poker was killed. +1 Endurance. A level 23 Goblin Stone Flinger was killed. +1 Wisdom. [...] A level 45 Goblin Chieftain was killed. +1 Dexterity, +1 Endurance. A level 44 Goblin Witch Doctor was killed. +1 Wisdom, +1 Dexterity.I gained a grand total of nineteen Attribute Points from the Goblin massacre, more than one level-up worth. Scout''s Duty was the real thing. It was still less than what I''d gained if I had fought and killed those Goblins but here was the kicker. The Experience awards were based on the comparison between one''s level and the enemy''s. Killing a common creature with the same level as you granted 100 Experience points. As a Rare rarity Class, I needed 3,000 points for each level. Each level above your own granted an extra 25% while each level below deducted 20%. But once you leveled up, everything changed. With Scout''s Duty, I gained a level''s worth of Attributes without moving up the Experience tables. I could become an ultimate level 1 if I refrained from earning Experience. There was no worth in doing so, though. Levels would grant me more power and Scout''s Duty wasn''t bound to my own level. If a level 100 creature was killed using intelligence I scouted, I would earn five points regardless of my own level. But Attributes carried with them a diminishing returns effect. 100 points in an Attribute, say Strength, would double my carrying capacity, the energy of my weapon swings, and so on. But to double that again, I would need 200, then 400, and so on. At higher levels, a single Attribute point was worth shit. And the difficulty of gaining levels only increased. Some Classes with low rarity soon hit what was called a "soft level cap". A point where they couldn''t earn Experience at a satisfactory rate, when a single level could take decades of grinding low-level creatures because those monsters at the same level would insta-kill the person. A higher rarity granted stronger powers and more Attributes so the soft cap was bound to rarity. Parallel Progressions threw that to the wind. So long the person could earn points through their PP''s, they would never hit the soft cap. Hector and Miranda returned, the former holding a bloody burlap sack and the latter a clinking leather backpack. "The trophies and the loot," Hector said through a grin. "These Goblins were loaded, thanks for the tip, lad." "We will split the loot three ways," Miranda announced, drawing a frown from Hector. Only then I noticed they had located me up the tree effortlessly. As if I hadn''t tried to hide myself. Feeling a rush of power from the Attributes Scout''s Duty granted me, I jumped down the tree and joined them. Time to find those al-Mi''raj warrens and complete my first task. 003 - Is this a Trust Crisis or just Overreaction? Is this for real or just in their minds? Locating and mapping three al-Mi''raj warrens was trivial. The vicious horned rabbits didn''t even smell us moving around them. They were a curious type of monster. Ordinary rabbits were herbivore prey animals but the al-Mi''raj were vicious predators, even at the bottom of the food chain. They charged at the enemy with their sharp horns, leaping and headbutting without regard for their lives. Most people who died to al-Mi''raj attacks had themselves to blame. They either froze, tripped, panicked, or otherwise. Heck, the centaurs of the steppes sent their children under ten years old to fight these vicious little buggers. They made a whole sport out of it, making the young foals pit themselves against the bunnycorns in an obstacle arena. But with our mission complete, we went back to town and then the guild. Hector went to claim the bounty on the trophies and the mission, while Miranda examined me. The attention made me blush but I steeled myself and returned the courtesy. "Is something the matter?" I asked her. Miranda startled, then she pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "I''m sorry. It''s just that... you remind me of him too much." I felt rampaging emotions swirl around my heart and mind. The grief that was suppressed by the task gurgled up my throat. "My father?" I croaked as my voice broke like a prepubescent kid. "Yes. I''m sorry. I met him for the first time fifteen years ago. You look like a younger version of him." I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth. Reigning in the maelstrom, I tried to soften my expression, hide my pain, and smile. "Thank you. It means a lot to me, that people remember and cherish him." Miranda''s eyes glistened. She nodded, the shine crystallizing into a couple of tears that flew off. "You will make him proud." A tap on my shoulder broke the magic of the moment. As I turned around, Hector tossed a coin pouch straight at my nose. My System-enhanced reflexes allowed my hand to dart up and catch it a few inches away from the target. The adrenalin was just enough to knock me off my bedlam. "Your share of the Goblin camp," he said with a gruff voice. "Kid, if you need help, ask. And if Miranda is too much for you¡ª" The Ranger lady''s bow smacked against the back of Hector''s leg. "Let''s go. The kid has another meeting to attend." She jerked her head and we looked at the row of counters. Alice was behind the busy receptionists, her iridescent eyes beckoning me. I tossed the coin pouch up, then caught it on the descent. "Better not leave my employer waiting. Cya, guys," I said as I moved quickly to the back. * * I was sitting in front of the desk in the Guild Master''s office, eagerly waiting for my evaluation. "Everything seems fine," Alice said as she accepted my report. "We will post these and wait for someone to complete the quests. Now, why didn''t you report the Goblin camp? Going after these al-Mi''raj warrens was a waste of time!" "The Goblin Chieftain seemed dangerous," I replied. Alice wasn''t convinced. "The truth, George," she said firmly. "If culling the village was the purpose, why didn''t you join them? By the Divine Triumvirate, I''ve never seen a level zero novice with a ranged attack leave Experience on the table!" "I didn''t feel like killing things today." Alice shook her head again, then stood up from her seat. She hummed a chant and wove her arms around her, making delicate gestures with her fingers. Magic spun around her and flowed like silver rivers to the corners of the room, sinking into the walls and activating runic wards. The runes etched along the walls, hidden from sight in normal circumstances, glowed silver like her magic for a few seconds. "There. Now not even the High Seers of Carnabalt can eavesdrop on us," Alice said and let her shoulders sag as she sat. She slumped on her chair. "I''m sorry. I shouldn''t put such undue pressure on you." Alice leaned forward and whispered, despite her claim about the wards. "I know of your father''s Parallel Progression. And I assume you inherited it." I froze and all my instincts told me to get out of there. This was not a subject to bring up even with one''s close family or lovers. Indignation flared next. Even though it was Alice, a line had been crossed. People whose Status statistics were exposed, people who had a special spark such as Scout''s Duty, quickly found themselves in an early grave. Those in power loathed competition. "I won''t confirm nor deny it," I replied through clenched teeth. "What is your point?"The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. "Scout''s Duty would be invaluable for the Guild," Alice said as a plea. "Fuck, no," I roared as I stood up and slammed the desk. "You couldn''t get my father, now you want the second-best thing? Alice, you..." a sob, then a wave of anger. "You went too far. I trusted you my whole life, but you don''t get to make that offer." I spun on my heels and made a beeline for the door. Alice didn''t stop me. * * Furious, I moved out the front door and into the busy street. Adventurer''s Lane gravitated around the Guild and its members, catering to their every need. Alchemists, Enchanters, Blacksmiths, Fletchers, Armorers, Leatherworkers, and a Bank branch. Not to mention a general store. Right across the street was one such general store, taking over the ground floor of the three-story stone building. "Whisperfizzle''s Emporium," the sign read. Run by a Gnome Merchant, the rent on the lower two floors was my primary source of income now that I blew it with the Guild. From waterskins to perfectly measured ten-foot poles to impermeable backpacks, Whisperfizzle had everything an Adventurer needed in one spot. I missed the storefront and went to the side door. Unlocking it with my key, I slipped inside and locked the door behind me. Only then I let my guard down as I rested against the wall. "Shit, shit, shit, shit!" I cursed and punched the solid rock wall in front of me. It was all Alice''s fault. I couldn''t believe such a charismatic Elf would commit such crude faux pas. She had no right to talk about Scout''s Duty, no permission to capitalize on it. Invaluable to the Guild? Please. I weighed my options. I could sell the building and leave. I knew Whisperfizzle wanted to buy and the Gnome had the funds. Then I could skip town and restart elsewhere, under another name. Whatever the reason, I couldn''t work for the Guild, not with Alice at the helm. Funny how a decade and a half of trust can erode in a single day. What Alice did was unforgivable. Prying about someone''s System statistics like that? Especially something that could put a death mark on his back? Worse than death, he could be imprisoned, then placed under a Geas. Fortunately, there was no slavery in this world. Many nations tried in the fifty thousand years of history since the Gods made Koiphyvv habitable but they all failed miserably. The Gods themselves made it clear they would not tolerate slavery. The next best thing (for those who wished to have power over people) was indentured servitude. As a fair punishment for a crime recognized by the Gods, one could be made into an indentured servitor with the help of a priest. They had rights, could own property but they were forced to work for their master. Or the master and servitor could go to the temple and reach, with the guidance of a priest, an exchange of value for service for a period of time. But nobles and Royalty had a way to make an offer one couldn''t refuse. Breaking the servitude carried a heavy penalty. It could be a debuff, a curse, or something else but it always blocked the person from earning more Experience. Anyway, I climbed two flights of stairs to my home and decided to spend the rest of the day indoors, munching on my thoughts. * * Hours later, the doorbell to my apartment chimed insistently. Someone was pulling on the rope downstairs like an emergency was underway. I blinked the cobwebs as I stood up, my afternoon nap ruined by the rude visitor. Glancing out the window, I noticed that the Suns were about to set. This time of the year they were on the other side of the planetary ring. The nights would be exceptionally dark. I went to the front lobby and threw the dark cloth of the periscope over my head, peeking into the lens and mirrors optical contraption. The cloth was to keep whoever was on the other side from seeing me. It was Alice. She seemed flustered. The elf tugged the rope one more time, then glanced at the periscope, then at both sides of the street. I opened the brass tube that would carry the sound of my voice two floors down. "What do you want, Guild Master?" Alice flinched when I addressed her with such detachment. She leaned forward to look at the periscope porthole, then leaned on her end of the brass tube. "George, we need to talk. I must apologize." I snorted ruefully. "Have a good afternoon, Guild Master. We never signed the employment contract but I quit." I slammed the tube cover and pulled my head away from the periscope. Next, I wedged a piece of wood near the bell to keep it from moving whenever someone tugged the rope downstairs. I heard the rope creak but the bell didn''t ring. I didn''t care if Alice spent the night tugging on that rope. Or if it broke. Since she wouldn''t let go, I went to my room to pack my things. Come morning, I would sell the deed to the building to Whisperfizzle and get the fuck out of town. Scout''s Duty was too dangerous a secret and Alice wasn''t in the circle of trust anymore. * * I woke up in the middle of the night. It was dark and Yolanthe, the Witching Sun, painted the world purple. A dangerous night. Koiphyvv was a trinary System. Lucia, the blue star, dominated the skies. Her lover, the smaller yellow star, orbited around Lucia. Between the two lied the Goddess ring, a gateway the Star Knights used to visit other worlds in their metal ships. Our planet orbited the binary suns and far away in the outer orbits of the star system, Yolanthe lurked. Legend said that the yellow star was originally Yolanthe''s lover but Lucia stole him when she arrived. How such a massive blue star could "arrive" was beyond any Astronomer''s guess. They also said that a purple Sun was impossible but just a glance at the sky in nights like this and you''ll know that was false. Though I digress. What woke me was the sound of banging on the door. The third-floor door. I put some clothes on, took my short sword still in its scabbard, and walked in absolute silence. Our floor was made out of stone, with no floorboards to creak and tell our position. More banging, this time accompanied by a man''s voice. "George, open up! It''s the City Guard!" "What is the matter?" I asked cautiously. It could be any number of things. Given the current circumstances, I was deciding if I should fight or run away. Who was I kidding? It wouldn''t even be a fight. The Guard was well-trained and they had several levels on me. "Welfare check!" The Guard shouted. Veins popped in my neck. "I''m okay. Tell that crazy elf to get off my case or I''ll press charges for harassment!" "Open the door!" The Guard warned. There was a big possibility that the welfare check thing was a lie. I ran back to my room and started to don my equipment. I would need to escape through the back and then sneak out of town. Fuck you, Alice. My father was under the ground for not even a day and you already screw with his legacy. Fortunately, he had devised an escape tunnel into the building. It wasn''t documented in the project nor the blueprint. I lifted the concealed hatch and dumped three duffel bags full of clothes, dried provisions, and equipment. Then I entered leg first, closing the hatch behind me. A quick exertion of Will activated an Earth Meld rune that turned the hatch into part of the wall. It was thick enough that tapping on the rock would not reveal the hollow tunnel behind it. Then I slid down into the underground, collected my things, and walked to the other end of the tunnel. 004 - Under the Witching Moons Inauspicious Gaze. The colors were all wrong in this purple-colored night. Up in the sky, Yolanthe the Witching Moon cursed the land of the living with her weird magic. Widely held belief held that in such days, Witches, Warlocks, Necromancers, all sorts of evil wizards grew in power and did their wicked deeds. Children went to sleep earlier. Guards redoubled their vigilance. And I ran away from all I knew. As I reached the hidden end of the tunnel, I feared I would find Alice there, waiting for me. The perceived betrayal hurt more than I believed. I''ve known her for as long as I lived but what was that conversation? Why was she trying so hard to peek at my secrets? A peek out of the manhole told me the alley was deserted. I moved the cover away and pushed my bags out. Then I climbed the rest of the way and replaced the cover. Another scan of my surroundings to make sure I was really alone. Now the really hard part. The city walls were eighty feet tall and twenty feet thick. With Earth magic helping construction and the scale of monsters out there in the wilderness, our city had modest walls at best. Better equipped settlements had walls as tall as mountains. Not that I''ve seen any of them. I had a good upbringing. My father often took me to the wild to teach me the way of the forest and how to scout. Even if I hadn''t bonded with Scout''s Oath, my Class was already predetermined. I wouldn''t be anything but a scout. And now, these same skills were my lifeline. I had no idea what craziness overtook Alice but she couldn''t be trusted. My heart ached at the betrayal. I took to the rooftops and checked my surroundings. The buildings here were tall, reaching up to five stories high. The sky was peppered with stars and the arms of the Milky Way. I let my mind relax as it soaked the beautiful night sky. Half of the year, the Suns would cast their light on this side of the planetary ring, making the nights as illuminated as a heavily overcast day. But now, with only Yolanthe and a few moons up there, it was gorgeous. Somewhere among these stars, the fabled cradle of humanity once existed. A planet of beauty and marvels of ingenuity and craftsmanship beyond compare. A planet without magic or monsters for the majority of its life. It was lost now. Destroyed, if the teachings of the Priests could be believed. The warning was clear. Our ancestors on that lost planet could leap into the stars on chariots of fire and steel. But Koiphyvv was different. The planet was bigger, heavier. The machines that allowed people to escape a dying planet wouldn''t work here. The lesson was to have faith in the Gods to take care of the planet. My pulse softened; my breathing became steady. This little stargazing session let my mind push my fears to the dark corners, letting a refreshing clarity guide my thoughts. It all went back to Alice. Her behavior wasn''t normal. She seemed... guilty? Relieved? Hopeful? These three didn''t match together and I might be interpreting things wrong. A faint noise made my ears perk. I didn''t have an elf''s senses, but Alice also didn''t have the skills to move silently. One thing about her was that she wore the same enchanted jewelry set for decades. For someone who spent as much time in her office than in my own bedroom growing up, the sound was unmistakable. And in this silent night of dread, the tinkling of gemstones and the jingling of metal carried far. "You can come out. I know you are there," I said. This was something one could use almost all the time when alone. If someone was watching me, they would think I figured them out if I sounded confident enough. If I was truly alone, nobody would laugh at my blunder. The jewelry tinkled again. Alice leaped onto the rooftop from below and landed gracefully at the end of her ascent. I had no idea what level she was but it was over a hundred. Her lowest Attributes were also over a hundred, making her several times stronger and faster than a normal unawakened elf. A lesson I learned long ago was that I couldn''t escape her. Every time I did, was because Alice had let me go. Even the last one. "George," she started but I raised a hand. "I can hear you fine. No need to wake the neighborhood. Speak your mind, Alice. And be brief. I''m leaving the city." "I''m sorry," she said with a sobbing hitch in her voice. Suspicion and self-preservation begged for me to lash out at her. But a Scout was not a person of impulse, of acting on such emotions. A scout without information was a dead scout. Ninety percent of our toolkit was intended to gather information. "You are not forgiven. Speak your mind," I insisted. Alice the Magus chanted in Elvish and a ward of privacy took the shape of a hemisphere around the rooftop. The faint sounds of the night became mute. The cityscape and stars blurred as if seen through stained glass. "I had an idea on how to improve quest confirmation for guild members," she started. "I know how Scout''s Duty work. Your father had the same Trait. It''s granted by the combination of heirloom item and Class." I sat down on a raised section and crossed my arms, working to unclench my jaw. She filled the silence with her own entrancing voice. But instead of words, it was a symphony of sobs. Alice wept. I hated it. Hated the situation. Hated the breach of trust. Closing my eyes, I replayed the debrief meeting after we returned. I tried to figure out what she intended, why she said those words, what was the real reason behind that. Did she want me to, did she expect me to be so naive and open as to confess I didn''t attack the Goblins because of Scout''s Duty? She just confessed she knew. It made sense. My current bias against Alice caused my already incensed anger to flare. Did she really believe I would be as stupid as to admit that? Or that I placed such blind trust on her to...This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. It could be. Alice was there for my birth. She watched me grow. But it was too condescending of her to believe I would place absolute trust in her. She was a close friend but not family. Even if she was. The only person I would trust with the details of my status was my father. Alas, I never developed such a bond with my late mother. "That was dumb," I grumbled when her weeping paused for a while. "I see it now." "You''re supposed to be more than a dozen times smarter than a normal elf." "It doesn''t work that way." "Then Intelligence is a shitty Attribute." "It might be. It only let me subvert the laws of physics and bring the universe under my will." "Bullshit. If it did so, mages would live in the Goddess'' Ring." She laughed. "Alice." "Yes." "Your mistake was to believe I was still a child. A naive stupid child who would tell you all my secrets." "I see it now. I''m sorry." "You said that already." "You didn''t accept it then." "Not accepting it now, either." "Your idea to improve the Guild was shit. It would never work." "We will never know for sure." "No, we won''t. Because no workflow that hinges on a single individual would ever work. That''s why I''m calling this bullshit. You didn''t intend to use Scout''s Duty to track quest success. It was something else." "When did you get so smart? Did you dump all your efficiency points into Intelligence?" "It doesn''t work that way," I threw her own hypocritical excuse back at her. "And it''s none of your business." "If you want to, we can go to the temple tomorrow morning and I''ll accept a Geas of secrecy," She offered. I scowled. "A Geas you can pay to remove or break it yourself. No. Geasa are for people who can''t trust each other." Her eyes shone with hope. "Does this mean¡ª" She stopped when I raised a hand. "I wasn''t finished. For people who can''t trust each other and are not wealthy or powerful enough to flip the Gods the bird. We know you are both." "Is there anything¡ª" "I don''t know!" I roared. She flinched away. Minutes went by in silence. I let my thoughts run wild, then let mocking laughter escape my lips. Damn, I wanted to go out and hunt something. "Why did you run away?" She asked. "I can''t stop you from spilling my secrets. My only avenue is to escape far away and start anew, with a new name." I stopped for a while, then added, "and hope you wouldn''t scry on me. And then teleport to go and fetch me. Do you have any idea how powerless I feel against you?" "I would never. To me you are¡ª" Another rude interruption. "An useful minion? Some side project to improve efficiency and reduce costs while promoting synergy at work? A pet?" Each angry word that left my mouth was a punch to her guts. Alice winced and flinched at my verbal abuse. Damn, I wanted to punch something. I wish I could be strong enough to punch through bricks. But no. I was a stupid neophyte, a level zero. The rush of power and the elation of earning free Attribute points through Scout''s Duty were tarnished. By Alice. A small portion of my mind hinted that she might not be completely responsible for the blame but the rest shouted at that small portion to shut the fuck up. "A pet?" Alice''s voice raised an octave as her cheeks became rose with indignation underneath her makeup. "Hells, no. That''s racist, George! No elf believes that!" What was a decade for someone who lived for thousands of years? Our whole family line, as far as our knowledge went, was not even half of the time Alice had walked on these floating continents. But her counterclaim came too close to the "no true Scotsman" fallacy his father sometimes warned during his homeschooling. Whoever the Scotsmen were. I was sure elves on the dark side of things... no, they didn''t see the shorter-lived races as pets. They saw us as ants. Vermin. "My sincere apologies. I let my anger speak over myself," I offered with a dip of my head. "George, can we put the hurt aside? Just for a moment?" Alice pleaded. Both halves of my heart were in a tug-of-war. Were my sanity weaker, I might hallucinate the shoulder devil and angel arguing. When I said nothing, she started rambling. "Automated reporting systems have been theorized and tested by Guild researchers for centuries. Enchanted trinkets who detected nearby deaths and tried to attribute it to whoever struck last. Clairvoyance. Without the ability to interface with the System, none of these initiatives could be trusted. Some even asked for an audience with the System God to ask for a way but the God was adamant. No way to peek into the System of others shall ever be allowed, and any who tried to breach this taboo would be smote out of existence." My jaw parted from my upper teeth. "And how a single individual could fix what the most brilliant minds the Guild ever had available failed?" "I didn''t get to that part yet," Alice admitted as she fidgeted. "But as a proof-of-concept, maybe at a local level..." The egg-head awkwardness was a facet of her I seldom glimpsed upon. I said nothing and let her dig her own grave. "And you would be greatly rewarded for it. We wouldn''t tell the Guild members, of course, and would still demand the trophies, but the discrepancies could tell us a lot. Like when a party defeats the enemies but can''t take the trophies because of interference or reinforcements. Or when the Nobles try to defraud the Guild by having a third party collect the trophies." "That latter part wouldn''t work," I replied. "Because I can''t see who got the kill." Alice raised her head, met my eyes, and beamed a bright smile. "Really?" My ears heated up and I jumped from my seat. "Gods damn you, woman." She tutted and gazed up. "Yolanthe is up and about, wandering the sky away from Lucia''s gaze. Don''t try to curse women tonight." "What are you now, a Witch?" My question came a bit stronger than I intended because I was still annoyed. But the anger had dimmed down to embers. Alice took a step back and broke eye contact. "No." It was the way she behaved when she didn''t want to reveal a secret. The truth was that we knew too much about each other. Though I wouldn''t accept her into my inner circle now, Alice and I were like extended family. A Wizard aunt with a lot of eccentricities and baggage. And one who was a miserable pile of secrets, even though she wasn''t a man. "Witch?" I mused, watching as she shied away again. "What about witches? What are you hiding, Alice?" When she faced me again, I saw guilt in her eyes. Also, a lot of clear fluid, which ran down her cheeks when she blinked. "Cards on the table?" She offered as an olive branch. It was a silly game we played back then, one she exploited to peek at a kid''s secrets. But one that was more sacred than the Triumvirate of deities who ruled over this water planet. "Sure. Cards on the table. I start." The strategy was that whoever started had to reveal the least. Since the cards had to be played in ascending order. "You and I may be close but not Status-sharing close. You crossed a line you shouldn''t have, Alice." She sucked a big breath. Such a breach of trust was not something that could be repaired with an apology and Alice was old enough to know that. "My turn then," Alice said and hesitated. "All in. If you want my trust, you need to tell everything." Alice stuttered, then reached out to me with a hand only to pull it back, her whole being wracked with guilt. "I know who killed your father," Alice confessed. Then she turned on the waterworks. I reeled back in shock. All I could think was that the cards had to be played in ascending order. 005 - The Time Witch / Dungeon Visit My fist clenched around Scout''s Oath''s shaft. My first impulse was to demand the name and then... "Don''t do anything stupid," Alice warned. "I''ll restrain you if I have to." Another reminder that my stupid plan to skip town because of her meddling required her permission. Me trying to outrun Alice was like a toddler trying to outrun someone with the Athlete Class. I forced myself to face her. "Who?" Alice tutted. "That''s not how the game is played. Your turn." I crossed my arms and stared at her. Alice''s ears twitched with irritation. The silence stretched. Then, she caved. "Promise me you won''t go after her," Alice said. "I''m level zero," I shouted back. "Whoever this woman is, she killed my father. I''m not as stupid as you believe me! Who is she?" "The Time Witch. Liliane Fade." My vision swam. I lost my balance and almost fell down. Liliane Fade. The Legendary Time Witch. And not as in legendary. Her Class rarity had to be at least that high. Classes had seven rarities. Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare, Legendary, Mythic, and Unique. The former six were in ascending order of power, but Unique classes could be better or worse than any. Few people around these lands hadn''t heard about the Fade family of witches. Heroes to a few, villains in a broader comprehension, but inscrutable and dangerous. Their bounties were astronomical but few dared go against them. Liliane''s level was anyone''s guess but it surely was way past the three digits threshold. The overwhelming sadness and grief returned and it was as if I had learned of my father''s demise once more. This time, however, I had a name. It didn''t make sense. "Why would she go after my father?" Alice bit her lower lip and looked away. The same guilt I saw in her face several times during this conversation reappeared with redoubled intensity. It didn''t make sense. What had my father done to deserve the wrath of such villainess? Or... "Why would my father go after such a dangerous person?" Eyes closed, face scrunched in pain, Alice mumbled as she wept. "Because we learned that Liliane Fade was pregnant. We believed she would be weakened, or too afraid to fight with a round belly. A party of elite among most Guild branches was assembled and sent after the Time Witch. None of them with levels lower than a hundred-fifty. Your father volunteered to go. None returned alive. But their bodies were returned to us in a delivery box, along with all their equipment and a note from Liliane Fade." Bloody hell. She not only slaughtered the best the Guild had to offer but sent the bodies back without looting them. My extremities felt like freezing. I was so shocked I couldn''t even think. But a question formed in my lips. "What did the note say?" Alice''s laugh was dark like nothing I''d ever seen in my sixteen years. When she spoke, it was like someone was raking knives over granite. "Threaten my daughter''s life again, and I will destroy your little Guild and kill everyone affiliated with it." Alice sucked in a sharp breath. "The Guild leadership decided to suspend all bounties on Liliane Fade for the time being. You are forbidden from seeking vengeance if¡ª" I snorted and laughed. Then, with a deep sigh, one thing came to mind. "Wait, she doesn''t want people threatening her daughter''s life? How can she know it''s a girl if she''s still pregnant?" "Others had wondered about that too. We determined that Liliane Fade ''s class allows her or she has other means to see the future. Given what we know of her Class and title, it''s the former." I wondered how people knew that Time Witch was Liliane''s Class but didn''t ask. "No, I won''t seek vengeance." Learning the truth behind my father''s death drained what energy I had left. My rushed escape felt childish and an overreaction right now. "Good. So, what are you going to do now, George?" I let a yawn escape my mouth. "I think I''m going home." "Will I see you at work tomorrow?" "Sure, why not?" I was too tired, physically and emotionally, to resist. All I wanted was to put this day behind me and sleep. * * I slumped on my bed without doffing my armor or my gear. My eyes felt heavy, my face was moist for some reason, and my mind was spinning a thousand kilometers per hour. The questions it brought to fore were one. Why would my father do such a thing? The answer came as clear as spring water and drew a snort out of me. Because the Guild asked. A man with a sense of duty like my father would gladly take on a suicidal mission to eradicate a villain such as Liliane Fade. I knew little about the woman, most of it from folklore and old wives'' tales. Witches were overall bad, with a few good apples notwithstanding. As far as Class morality went, they weren''t as bad as others but still... illegal. Like Blood Mage, for example. They could cure diseases that no Priest ever would, but they could also murder dozens to fuel their wicked rituals. In the end, the Guild was responsible for my father''s death. Because they put him on the path of collision with Liliane Fade. Send a toddler to fight a dragon, then get angry at the result. Not a very productive way to spend one''s time. Alice didn''t tell me everything. She glossed over her participation in all this but I think I had enough. My heart had no doubt my father went to fight Liliane Fade fully aware of what could happen and why he was doing that. He wasn''t easy to full or mislead. Also, it was kind of a shitty move from the guild to organize a death squad to kill a pregnant woman. Tired and psychologically exhausted, I went to sleep. The next day, I only woke up a few minutes before noon. It was easy to tell the time of the day by looking at the planetary ring. One just needed to read the shadow cast by the planet upon the rings as it spun around itself. Some people who needed precise time used gnomish clocks but most could tell the time with enough accuracy just by looking at the sky. Right now, it was fully lit. The roof of my mouth was dry and leathery. Since I had all my gear with me, I fixed that issue by taking a few sips from my waterskin.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I was late for work but nobody should raise an issue with that. My work hours had just shifted from the morning to the late night since I spent all that time in a meeting with my boss. I removed the bowstaff from the quiver and focused my mind into Scout''s Oath. The runes flared in a familiar pattern; one I''ve seen ever since I could remember. A Scout had to scout; else the city would fall to evil. Fixing a few things that were displaced by my sleep, I went across the street to the Guild Hall. * * Upon entering, I noticed that the four slips for the Al-Mi''raj warrens were gone from the board. I didn''t receive any notifications so the Adventurers who took them must be doing other quests or just taking their time. The Adventurers drowning their sorrows at the tavern side greeted me as I made my way to the booths. I went to the other side and greeted the receptionists that weren''t busy at the moment. The others just exchanged a glance or, in one particular case, a sultry wink. Blushing, I climbed the stairs and calmed my hormones before knocking on Alice''s office door. "Come in, George," the melodic and familiar elven voice called from the other side. I entered. "Did you sleep well?" "No, my boss kept me up all night," I replied with a deadpan expression. "Ready to go scout threats on your own?" She asked. I nodded. "Good, because you won''t do that today. Did our overeager youth kill the al-Mi''raj?" "Did they bring the horns already? I have no idea." Alice smirked. I tried to keep my poker face. "What am I supposed to do today?" "Level up. At the Dungeon." My facade broke. Dungeons were artificial constructs where monsters, resources, traps, and tunnels were constantly replenished. They were great sources of experience, power, and crafting materials but were also a huge pain in the butt. Because a Dungeon''s main purpose was to literally eat people. The monsters and treasure were lures to entice people to enter it. A gamble. If they came out, the delvers (people who entered Dungeons) won. If they didn''t the Dungeon got one more snack. "Are you going to abuse your position to make me skip the line?" I asked. Despite the danger, the lure of power and wealth was too much. More people than could safely fit inside the Dungeon wanted to enter, forcing the local authorities to set an entrance quota, barring most from the opportunity. It was a first-come-first-served quota but still. "No, the Guild has a few delving slots reserved every day. It''s no abuse or nepotism to use one of them to train a new recruit," Alice reply was firm and no-nonsense. "In fact, I''ll escort you." She stood up, wearing the same enchanted jewelry as ever but I noticed hard plates underneath her dress. Form-fitting armor, probably also enchanted to the nines. "If that''s my task for today, then I''ll go," I replied, wincing inside at the cheesy line. No, it wasn''t how the form-fitting armor was too form-fitting, damn it. "Good," Alice smiled, then led me out of her office. "Let''s visit the armory, you should take at least four sheaves of arrows with you." We got the tightly packed bundles of ammunition and a specialized backpack to hold them and went to the Dungeon. * * The streets were busy. Scents of food from several restaurants, taverns, and street vendors dominated the air. Merchants and other solicitors peddling their wares shouted over the din of the crowd. Nothing of note until we reached Temple Row, the street where all the city''s main religious headquarters was located. The Dragon Priests, with their distinctive scaled robes called for the faithful to worship She Who Holds the Planet Afloat. A goddess who chose exile in an ice coffin deep underneath the planet''s vast oceans. Then the Golem Fathers, in their colorful and angular metallic armor. One of them even piloted a five-meter-tall boxy golem with a huge metallic claw, shouting "Faith is eternal!" with a mechanical voice. These were in front of their temples and were part of the scenery, ignored by most of the secular masses. But something drew my attention, something new. A distinct and humble group, dressed in traveler robes, proselytized something that, at least for me, was novel. "The end is near! Our Lord Jesus Christ will come soon to take us to the Garden of Eden!" One particular vocal Preacher abused his Loud Voice perk. "In the forgotten world of Earth, where we all shall be born anew!" Alice grunted at the Preacher''s words. When I glanced at her with a raised eyebrow, she explained, "I''ve heard these doomsayers preach that the ''end is near'', for six centuries already" she mocked. "You''d think that if this savior was to come, he''d already be here by now." "Have they visited our city before? Don''t they know it''s impossible to leave this planet? Not even the Goddess'' Star Knights who survive the fall from the sky say it''s possible. And where among the stars is this Earth? Who names a planet after dirty?" "Earth is real," Alice said, to my shock. "And it was the planet where humanity began. At least they got it right," she confessed with a sigh. "But they believe that their God can move people to the other side of the galaxy. But Earth was destroyed more than two hundred thousand years ago." "Really? Who can destroy a planet?" Alice snorted, then pointed at the sky, right between the two Suns. The Goddess'' Ring shone between them. I whistled. It made sense that the Gods could destroy worlds. We reached a major intersection and waited for our turn to cross the street. A deluge of bicycles sped past us, some with people, others with cargo. The apparent chaos was ruled by the traffic guard, standing on an elevated dais in the middle of the intersection, waving their arms in codified patterns. In the middle, two lanes for draft animal carriages moved slower than the bicycles. Mostly horses but other exotic animals such as birds, lizards, and insects were also used. Along with most people in the crowd, I pinched my nose as one of the giant Ocypus beetles used to pull wagons decided to relieve their scent glands. The four-meter-long black bugs were cheap to feed and care, reliable, and with more stamina than a horse at the expense of speed. Alice was unfazed but I was sure she cheated with an Air spell to keep the stench from reaching her nostrils. The guard blew their whistles and stopped traffic. We finally crossed into the Dungeon plaza. * * A small fortress, complete with guard towers and portcullises greeted us. The guards in the towers watched the inside, however. The fortifications weren''t meant to keep people from going inside but to keep monsters from coming outside. Outside the main gate, a line of delver parties waited for their turn to get inside. Some of them were Guild members and greeted Alice in vain hopes she would pluck them out of the line. Just for being next to the gorgeous elf, I got more than a handful of envious glares. We approached some heavily armored knights manning the gate. They saluted Alice when they noticed the distinctive elf. "Guild Master!" "At ease, gentlemen," She snapped back like a military commander. For someone as ancient as her, she might''ve even been one in her youth. Not that Alice had a wrinkle on her face. She looked as youthful as the first time I laid eyes on her, a decade and half ago. "This is George, the newest Guild employee. He''s still a bit wet behind her ears so I decided to take him for some training and leveling in the Dungeon. Please register our entry under the Guild quota." "Sure, ma''am. He still needs to sign the admission contract if it''s his first time." "We are aware. Please lead the way." We were taken into the inside-out fortress under the protest of some delvers. Nobody can please everyone at the same time. Inside, we were led to an office where a rotund Clerk studied a grimoire. Clerks could use some Wizard spells and also had minor divine powers regarding documents. The man snapped the book shut once he noticed us. "Here for the admission contract?" He asked. "Good. Here, read this and sign at the bottom. Do you have your MP resource unlocked?" He asked as he decided which pen to hand over. When I replied affirmatively, he gave me the magical one. I started to read the contract. It had some restrictions on what I could do inside the Dungeon. No attacking other delvers without threat of serious bodily harm. No hunting down the Dungeon Core. No extraction of the Dungeon Core. No provocations or inflammation of the Dungeon Core. No breaking of the Dungeon Core. Should me or my party defeat the last boss, we should immediately egress from the Dungeon. Failure to do any of these carried penalties ranging from imprisonment for ten years, in the case of murder inside the Dungeon, or immediate execution in all the others. The City really didn''t want people to break the Dungeon. It made sense, since it was a gold mine, in both literal and figurative terms. Some crazy people tried to break a Dungeon Core at any costs. Doing so would award the perpetrator a second main Class, doubling the number of Attribute points and other things like Perks per level. Dissuading them from doing so was hard. Not even these magical contracts and the threat of death could stop them. The crazy bastards hell-bent on breaking Dungeons were called Dungeon Devotees, and quite a few tales of suffering and hardship were woven around them. I had no such intentions. Maybe if I found an unclaimed newborn Dungeon in the wild, but even then, I would consider the implications. Contract signed, Alice and I were ushered into the dark depths of the Dungeon. 006 - Dungeon Gold Fever Still outside the Dungeon, I sat on a bench and unslung my backpack. From it, I removed a waxed bowstring. After testing the bowstring, I laced it around Scout''s Oath. One would think a magical bow would come with a magical string and they might be right. Except that it was not the way this particular magical bow was designed. Scout''s Oath was both a bow and a staff, providing ranged or melee combat bonuses. The shaft was tough and nigh-impervious to damage from mundane or weaker magical weapons. After stringing it, I tested and pulled the bow to its full draw length a few times. It also served to warm up my arms to the strenuous task of shooting arrows. Growing up as a child, I believed Archers needed high dexterity. Aiming was only a third of the effort, though. Physical strength, especially in the arms and back, was way more important. Sending an arrow in a particular direction was something anyone could do with enough training. Sending an arrow with enough speed and force to puncture through whatever defenses an enemy had was way harder. One of Scout''s Oath enchantments was that it''s pull strength was always whatever I could bear. If I had a pitiful strength, it would be as easy as shooting with a toy bow. But if I had enough strength, the weapon would be unmatched. I knew I would dump most of my Attribute points in Strength. Also, I had to train a lot. Still, it wasn''t worth dropping efficiency points into it. Going further, Strength would be something I had to add at every level but I expected that the bonus Attribute points from Duty would surpass the points from leveling. If I could pull that off, I would always be twice as strong as my level would indicate. The long-term benefit was that I would never get stuck at a level without enough power to earn the Experience points I needed. After stringing the bow, I double-checked my equipment, especially the arrow backpack. Then, I rejoined Alice at the Dungeon entrance. * * I felt chills and goosebumps as we descended into the unknown. A Dungeon was a living entity who hungered for people''s lives. Going inside felt like I was a rat crawling into the open mouth of a snake. My feet moved with little noise while Alice glided like a wraith, her footsteps invisible under the hem of her dress. The long skirt seemed to float. Our eyes met and she smiled reassuringly at me. Then a silent finger pointed onward. The tunnel wasn''t dark. I could see the walls, roof, and the uneven cavern ground but not the light sources. A check behind me showed that I still cast a shadow but I couldn''t see any torches, magical lights, or even candles. That only added to the eerie and spooky ambiance. My boots crunched over the small rocks and dust on the ground. A hazard for anyone waltzing down without paying the proper attention. Not me. All my senses were stretched to the limit, an attempt to detect any enemies the Dungeon could throw at me before they could detect us. My left hand was firm around Scout''s Oath while the right was ready to draw either arrow, dagger, or short sword depending on the enemy encountered. I didn''t feel watched like some people used to report but nonetheless the feeling was that someone else was there with us. The tunnel slope decreased until the ground was relatively level. "First floor?" I asked Alice, earning a nod in return. The first floor was cavernous and uneven. The rock walls broke in spots, forming ridges and dark nooks where a monster could wait in hiding. Marks of all kinds decorated the walls from radial scorch marks to places where the stone was chipped in a straight line from an errant weapon strike. All these tracks were ancient, old. Nobody bothered to clean or smooth the walls, not even the Dungeon. The ground was covered by this mix of coarse sand and gravel, uneven rocks that never tumbled around long enough to smooth the edges. Walking barefoot here was only for those with thick soles. Normal people like me would find dozens of small cuts and nicks on their feet if they didn''t have the proper gear. My boots had steel soles and a steel cover reaching from my toes to my ankle. It was basically plate sabatons covered in leather on both sides. Worn and adapted to my feet too, because only fools went into the field with unweathered shoes. The rest of my armor was the same. It had several metal plates sandwiched between thick leather, sliced to allow mobility and riveted to avoid noise. It was expensive and hard to craft and to maintain but one needed to survive before they had to worry about armor repair. We walked around while I mapped the Dungeon corridors in my mind. They could change at the whims of the Dungeon but that didn''t happen so often, at least in the upper levels, that the maps were useless. I heard noise ahead and signaled to stop. "There''s ongoing combat ahead," I whispered. Alice nodded and waited to see what I would do. I crept ahead slowly, making sure my boots would make the least amount of noise as I went. The combat intensified. Grunts, the sound of metal hitting metal and/or flesh, the creak of leather armor, the smell of sweat and blood and viscera. Flickering torchlight on the cavern walls. Just as I was about to clear the last bend in the tunnel to see the fight, Alice stopped following and stayed behind. With an arrow nocked, I peeked and clamped down my jaw as I saw two parties of delvers fighting each other. * * The long arm of the law didn''t quite reach the Dungeon. Patrolling and enforcing the law in these tight tunnels was impossible, unless the guards wanted to kill every denizen in the floor and make the place unusable for both delvers and the Dungeon. Not that it stopped stupid Lords from trying. Tales of such attempts ended in tragedy when the Dungeon decided to violently evict the intruders and clear the space above it. I didn''t recognize the people fighting. One group seemed to be foreigners by their appearance and clothing while the other looked like locals. I couldn''t say who was winning because the fighting strength was about even on both sides. But from the shouts and curses, it would only end with one side dead. It wasn''t something I should meddle with so I backtracked and found my boss some thirty meters behind. I gave my report. Alice pondered, then asked me to explain in detail each combatant. With a heavy expression, she gave me an order. "Stay here and watch for any monsters that might want to come down here to feast on the injured and the dead." With that, Alice mumbled a chant and walked toward the fight. I kept her in the corner of my eye and saw a magical shroud cover her figure and then she disappeared. Invisibility. Glancing down, I didn''t see any footprints going forward. Was it an advanced spell that left no tracks? She wouldn''t tell even if I begged. The only thing I could do was to watch the tunnel for any interlopers.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Minutes passed and the sounds of the fight ceased. A level 45 Human Iron Wall was killed. +1 Endurance, +1 Wisdom. A level 43 Human Skirmisher was killed. +1 Dexterity. +1 Endurance. A level 50 Half-elf Acolyte of the Brood was killed. +1 Wisdom, +1 Dexterity. A level 34 Wolf-Kin Brawler was killed. +1 Endurance, +1 Wisdom. A level 39 Human Berserk was killed. +1 Dexterity, +1 Endurance. A level 33 Half-elf Wizard was killed. +1 Wisdom, +1 Dexterity. A level 42 Dragonoid Defender was killed. +1 Endurance, +1 Wisdom. A level 38 Half-elf Rogue was killed. +1 Dexterity, +1 Endurance. A level 42 Human Fighter was killed. +1 Wisdom, +1 Dexterity. A cascade of notifications awarding me bonus Attribute Points scrolled in my view. The implications were obvious. Alice had... she killed nine people. No flashes of light, no sounds of explosion. The delay between each death was so minimal they were basically simultaneous. Just like that. My heart was pounding on my temple and neck. Minutes later, Alice returned. She wasn''t happy but I couldn''t find remorse in her somber expression. "One of the parties found a gold node and got too excited about it, drawing the second one," She started her explanation. "They left the node peacefully, regrouped, and struck back. Guild members. Former Guild members." The Guild rules on these issues were very clear. Self-defense was allowed but they lost that protection the moment they conceded the node. "How do you know that? Did they stop fighting to tell it to you?" The timing was wrong. They didn''t have enough time for such inquiry. "Mind magic," Alice replied as she shook her head and grimaced in disgust. "Not the glamorous version romanticized in the novels. Sifting through dirty men''s thoughts is as much fun as trying to find a missing jewel in the sewers by drinking it dry." I winced at the mental image. "I guess you had no other choice if you wanted to clear one party of guilt before they finished killing each other." "Exactly. But enough about them. Did it work? Did your PP trigger?" Alice''s question revealed no excitement in her voice. I was a flat, practical tone. I nodded. "Eighteen Attribute points." "Sounds about right. I can see their levels in the kill notification." The only reliable way to tell someone''s level was to kill them. A fact abused by many tyrants. "What about the loot?" I asked. Alice shrugged. "Go and do it yourself, or let the Dungeon take it along the bodies. But we need to move away for that to happen. My aura is too close." I weighed the factors. Their levels were around forty, a respectable number. They could have one or two magical trinkets. Potions but those were likely used up in the fight. Then it struck me. "The gold vein. It''s still there, right?" Alice nodded without smiling. "Yes, it is. And they had mining gear. I don''t want any share of either loot or vein. It''s all yours." The risk reward calculations in my mind turned upside down. A gold vein was too valuable and I was used to blood. "Then I want to loot the vein and the bodies." With a greedy gremlin nestled in my heart, I moved a bit too fast toward the fight. * * My punishment was swift. The promise of wealth clouded my judgment and I was ill prepared to what awaited me. It was one thing to dismantle and dress the game I hunted with my father, under daylight and in the wilds. It was another to see a dozen dead people, their blood and viscera covering every surface in the tunnel from the ceiling to the walls and the gold vein. The smell of blood, urine, and feces assaulted me. It was my first contact with the gruesome reality of our world. I heaved and lost my breakfast. The repulsion was so great my unconscious mind screamed to turn around and run away. Fuck the gold. Gods above and below. Was it worth staining my pristine equipment? Probably yes but add the nausea and the equation flipped. I was at an impasse. Leaning on the cavern wall, one with the least amount of blood, I waited for a few minutes. My throat was dry and I could still taste what came through but I didn''t dare take a sip of water or wash my mouth. The nausea passed and I grew accustomed to the smell and the sight. Removing my archery gloves, I donned the hunting ones. The first thing I did was to move to the other side of the cavern and check the tunnel the delvers came from. I wasn''t stupid to let monsters wander into the cavern while I was busy looting. Alice was nearby and she might protect me but it was my duty as a Scout to make sure the coast was clear. I went around fifty meters down the tunnel and stopped. Removing my pack, I set up a rudimentary trip wire trap to warn me of any incoming creatures. I picked a spot where a ridge sent a shadow across the floor, masking the wire. It still puzzled me how the illumination had no source but still cast consistent shadows. With the path secured, I went back and sifted through the bodies. Coin pouches, unused potions, trinkets and mementos that could identify the deceased. It was common decency to retrieve these and report the deaths to the authorities. I didn''t fear prosecution or an official investigation. Not only the law didn''t extend into the Dungeon, but I also both had Alice to vouch for me and no murder would report the deaths of their victims. My boots squelched as I walked over the sticky mixture of sand, gravel, and blood covering the floor. I left the armor on the bodies but took some weapons that seemed above the average in value. Swords and daggers since they had the best value to weight ratio. Once I had my loot piled up next to Alice, I took a mining pick and investigated the gold vein. It was a streak of bright metallic yellow squeezed between the rock. A lure the Dungeon placed to attract food. One that was very, very effective. Before I started swinging, I checked the surroundings. I was unsure if the rock containing the gold would fly everywhere. The blood-soaked everywhere. I went back to one of the biggest backpacks and took a tent tarp. I covered the bodies and ground around the vein with it, in hopes of catching the gold before it became bloodstained. Lifting the pick, I took a swing. My aim was a spot next to the gold but far enough away that it wouldn''t damage the vein. It chipped the rock but didn''t dislodge any gold. I set the pick on the tarp and inspected the damage. I couldn''t fit the tip of my pinky in the spot I hit. Bloody hell. Mining this gold vein would take hours if not days. It would be quick if I had the Herculean Strength of a level 40 warrior, around two hundred points if they focused on it. Alas, I hadn''t leveled yet. If I couldn''t take the gold with brute force, maybe I could take it with a smarter approach. "Alice," I called. "Yes, George?" The elf answered as she moved closer. "Can you melt the gold? With Fire magic or something?" I knew an ordinary fire would at most soften the gold. "How would you catch it?" Her question came with a smirk. I knew she was testing me. "Can you split the gold from the rock, then?" She chuckled. "Yes, I can. Stone Shape!" The elf magician''s will turned the rock into putty. The calcite surrounding the gold extended out of the wall like a slime''s pseudopod. It flowed back and forth, thinning as it left only the gold behind. I noticed that the vein wasn''t too deep. Then the rest of the rock receded, letting the yellow chunk fall on the tarp. Hours of work solved by a minute or so of magic. "I feel like I picked the wrong Class," I bemoaned playfully. Wasting no time, I picked the chunk of gold. It weighed around a hundred-something grams. "isn''t it too small?" Alice chuckled. "George, that''s a big vein." I estimated it weighed the same as fifteen gold coins. Indeed, it was a lot of gold, though I was expecting a kilogram or more. But it wouldn''t be a precious metal if it didn''t... Wait. No. This was Dungeon gold. It might cost the Dungeon a lot of energy to create this gold. Why would it put a kilogram of gold where a hundred grams did the job perfectly? To catch fish, we used worms. The bait worked. "I guess you are right," I said, drawing a smug grin out of the elf. "Hand it over. Let me make it more portable." I placed the gold in Alice''s hands. She focused, mumbled a short chant, and set her hands on fire. Blue, the fire was so hot I had to move away. The gold melted in her hands, forming a puddle. Then she cut the flames and caused frost to form around her hands. Smiling, she handed the disk of gold back. "Better?" She asked with her teasing voice. "Yes, better. Thank you." "Think nothing of it. I''ll store the loot in my bag of holding, let''s keep moving. I want you to reach level ten before the day is over." With a wave of her hand, the loot I collected floated and entered the satchel at her side. I stowed the gold in my pouch and moved on. 007 - License to Kill. The deaths lingered in my mind. Reaching level forty was hard, it could take up to a decade depending on one''s appetite for risk and the rarity of their Classes. Yet, it was all wasted to feed the Dungeon. I tried to push it out of my mind as I scouted the tunnels for prey but the sorrow for the waste of life returned over and over. Then I heard skittering ahead and my brain went into overdrive. The training my father gave me pushed the grief aside and my focus shifted to hunting mode. My fingers bristled against the fletching, the wax on the bow string. Soon, my prey came into view. They were Leaping Horrors, a low-level monster that was a nightmare. A stubby neckless gray body two feet tall and four long, with four legs resembling a frog, with a rugged and spiny skin. Its mouth had four jaws in a X-pattern, with eyes on stalks above and to the sides. a set of six spider-like chelicerae with spikes surrounded the mouth, its movements meant to shove more food into the toothed maw. They moved like rabbits, jumping from spot from spot, twisting every limb to propel the body toward their next meal. These monsters could eat up to fifty times their body weight and still not be sated. Where all the mass went was anyone''s guess but the monster had no anus. I readied a handful of arrows and inhaled. Holding my breath, I took aim and fired. My hand went for the next arrow and pulled the bow as I aimed at the next Leaping Horror. Right when the string reached its maximum draw, I fired again, hand dropping for the third arrow. The lead monster caught the first arrow on the side of its head.
> For killing level 8 Leaping Horror, you gained 511 Experience Points.Ignoring the notification, I kept firing. The second Horror took two arrows to die and then the rest of the pack caught up on what was going on. Food was served.
> For killing level 7 Leaping Horror, you gained 426 Experience Points.Five other Horrors bounded toward me in a frenzy. Remembering the tunnel behind me, I shot while moving backward. Another dead. Then a second. It didn''t matter. A single horror in melee could spell death, I had three coming my way.
> For killing level 7 Leaping Horror, you gained 426 Experience Points. > For killing level 7 Leaping Horror, you gained 426 Experience Points.Alice was nowhere to be seen. The lead Horror, slightly bigger and darker than the others, jumped further and faster than before and lunged toward me, mouth fully open and a gullet with barbed tongues read to shear the flesh from my bones. I shot the last arrow of this engagement straight into the roof of its mouth. The arrow skidded on a bony plate and veered down into its stomach, vanishing into the darkness. Then it was upon me. I blocked with Scout''s Oath, forcing the monster to latch onto the enchanted wood. Its jaw closed around, the chelicerae trying to reach for my arm. I pushed the bow in a downward arch, intending to slam the monster on the ground. The creature''s sharp pincers cut the bow string, causing the curved wood to snap back into a straight line. Added with the momentum, the Horror''s stubby tail struck the ground, forcing the staff into the leathery folds binding the jaws together. I heard bone breaking but the critter was still alive. And the other two were closing in, eager to exploit this moment of vulnerability. Fighting back to keep myself from panicking, I transferred the bow staff from my hand to my feet, keeping the monster pinned. My right hand drew a dagger and sent it flying toward one of the horrors. The dagger struck and skipped on its thick skin, spinning away uselessly on the cavern floor. I could only draw the short sword before the two Horrors jumped at my head. I crouched and stabbed up, catching one of them in the softer belly. Then I shoved the monster onto the other, using their bodies as leverage to dodge to the right. My foot slipped on the bow staff, allowing the first Horror to break free from its entrapment. The two flew toward the cavern wall but their blubbery bodies bounced back. Alliterations aside, I was in quite the prickly pickle. The first Horror twisted back on its feet and gnashed, the wounded jaws not working properly. It looked at me and screeched, sending waves of intimidation toward me. My vision spun and I felt the deep desire to flee. A Perk. meaning this one was above level 10. The intimidation bought time for the other two to recompose themselves. One was panting and bleeding from a massive gash that went from chin to pelvis, barely holding himself upright. But the third one was only slightly wounded from striking the wall. It jumped as the leader kept screaming. I brought my sword in a descending arc and bashed the crown of its head with it, in a complete lack of finesse or skill. I was using the sword as a club at this point but I at least kept the blade aligned. Mostly. The horror bounced from the sword to the ground like a basketball, coming up and getting bashed on the head again by another swing of the sword. It fell down and didn''t rise, stunned or unconscious. Still, the ancient rule remained. It''s not dead if the System is mum. No notifications came. The forgotten leader jumped low and bit my shin. The teeth and chelicerae punctured the metal guard and dug into my flesh, a hundred needles that caused me to scream in pain and drop my sword. With a roar of rage, I balanced my body on the other leg and kicked at a ridge on the cavern wall, splattering the Horror''s back against it. I heard its hip bone crack and break, causing its legs to dangle without support. The creature was chewing through the metal plate of my shin guards. I drew another dagger and stabbed it in the head, over and over until it stopped moving. Still, my leg burned like hell and I couldn''t keep on my feet. I dropped down, arm lashing out to finish the stunned Horror.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
> For killing level 8 Leaping Horror, you gained 511 Experience Points. > For killing level 11 Leaping Horror, you gained 882 Experience Points.And then the last one, who was about to bleed out and die anyway.
> For killing level 9 Leaping Horror, you gained 613 Experience Points. > Level UP! You need 2205 Experience Points for the next level.My leg was bleeding from a hundred puncture wounds but the blood loss would be worse if I removed the horror right now. Despite the pain, I gave myself a few minutes to catch my breath and still my body and mind. My hands trembled and I could feel my pulse on my temples. Sweat covered my face and dampened my gambeson. Nausea had me wishing to empty my stomach again. My vision had bright spots and I was hearing a buzzing sound. I was in shock. "Alice?" I asked. No elf answered. What happened? Was she hiding or did she ditch me. It was probably the former. I took a healing potion and uncorked it. Pressing the upright vial to my lips, I reached with my other hand to grab one of the dead Horror''s jaws. I pulled it at the same time I took a sip of the potion. I had to suppress a shout of pain as the wounds flared as if I had burned them. I had to act fast. I pulled the second one and took another sip. The third, and then the fourth. With a jerk, I kicked the corpse away. It bounced a few times on the gravel. Then I emptied the potion and grabbed the knife. I cut the straps of the ruined shin guard and tossed it away. Then I bit the knife handle and braced myself. As the potion reached its full effect, it was like worms crawled underneath my skin. Flesh moved with preternatural speed to pull the holes closed. My hands closed over the gravel and I couldn¡¯t help but grunt. Minutes passed and then it was over. I wasn''t ashamed to having shed quite some tears. * * Ten minutes later, I was functional again. Exhausted, both physically and emotionally. But I had gained a level. I had fifteen Attribute points to spend. "Base Attributes view, please," I requested to the System.
| Strength | 10 |
| Dexterity | 27 |
| Endurance | 26 |
| Intelligence | 10 |
| Wisdom | 24 |
| Clarity | 10 |
| Charisma | 10 |
| Strength | 17 |
| Dexterity | 27 |
| Endurance | 26 |
| Intelligence | 17 |
| Wisdom | 24 |
| Clarity | 10 |
| Charisma | 11 |
> Your training and knowledge improved Scouting to rank II. Benefit: Increase the effects of Intelligence to find tracks by 10% per rank.Suddenly, The tracks left by the departing delvers became much more obvious to me. It also marked Intelligence as one of the key Attributes I needed to develop. As I pondered on how to distribute my level Attributes, I decided to focus on Strength and Intelligence, Nine and six points on each respectively. Charisma and Clarity would need to lag behind, at least until I unlocked a sub-Class. Sub-Classes raised the Experience per level but also granted extra Attribute Points. Having a high Experience per level was a good thing. Since Experience awards rapidly diminished with level, gaining more Attributes per level meant you would be stronger to face challenges. It delayed the moment where you wouldn''t be strong enough to defeat enemies that granted you levels, the soft level cap. I sat down on the gravel and waited. To use the time efficiently, I went through the arrows retrieved from the fight with the Horrors to see if they were damaged. * * One hour later, Alice called to me. I was right beside her, so I just grunted in response. "The Dungeon is all ours now. The portcullis upstairs is locked and the Guard is ready to fend off a wave. Hopefully, it won''t come to that." She didn''t seem so sure. Alice took a big beanbag chair out of her satchel and dropped herself on it. Then, she had to tease. "Won''t you sit here with me like in the old times?" "It wouldn''t fit the both of us. Regardless, what happens now?" "Now, we wait," Alice said. "The Dungeon has weakened its grasp on the top floors and is gathering energy below us. It will send a wave of monsters up, and all of them will pass through those doors. You should snipe as many monsters as you can. I''ll keep both of us safe while the wave moves past us. Just let me recover some MP. Those fairies took almost everything I had but¡ª" "I know, you needed to keep the Adventurers safe and it was a good publicity stunt. It showed that you care." "That''s my boy," she crooned with a sly smile. We waited. Nothing happened and the Dungeon air became stale. Illumination dropped as the Dungeon domain withdrew even more. I assumed the first floor had descended into absolute darkness. Once Alice had recovered enough MP, she started to raise walls of stone out of the floor, forming a small fortress in one of the corners. We relocated to that position and settled on the raised wall. I had a good view of the whole room and the boss chamber beyond the open doors. As a trial, I fired some arrows at the door and into the boss room, to check the angle and reach of my shots. Scout''s Oath had several enchantments, most of them unknown to me but all of them passive. I was only certain of four. First, it granted the Parallel Progression for extra Attribute points. Second, it had the exact draw strength I was capable of pulling. As my Strength Attribute increased, Scout''s Oath would still remain the perfect bow for my Attributes. Third, it was nigh-indestructible. Only the string could be damaged but I had several in my pack as they didn''t take too much space. Finally, it imparted more speed to the arrow than a similar bow with the same draw strength would. I suspected the bow also made the arrows more resilient but I couldn''t confirm it. My father once said that his arrows broke less frequently than other archers. Alice retrieved the arrows with a mage hand spell. Even though they struck the reinforced door or the stone, none of them was damaged enough to be unusable. Then, I sensed vibrations on the ground. The monster wave was about to climb the stairs to the second floor. 011 - Monster Wave We waited for half an hour, in silence. Alice meditated to recover her MP while I spent the time checking my gear one more time. The routine check soothed my mind and brought to the fore of my thoughts the times my father taught me how to do it. After the check was done, I took a loop of fine rope and practiced knots. They too brought me closer to the unattainable. Feeling my father''s presence next to me. We were both grieving. Perhaps this delve was a farewell party, in the way only Adventurers knew how to party. The Dungeon was an interstitial space where we could be away from the gruesome reality of the world above, where we could pretend everything was fine. A low rumble made Alice open her eyes. "The wave is climbing up from the third floor. Prepare. George, I want you to shoot each monster once, focusing on the smaller and weak-looking ones. I will have to attack as well but I''ll try to target away from where you are shooting, to see if the System doesn''t treat us as a party. Don''t worry about using up all your arrows. Once you are out of projectiles, I''ll take over. I wish we could use the blindfold scouting trick again but I cannot let the wave move past this room. Some stragglers are fine, the Guard on the surface is well-trained to keep the monsters inside. But they cannot face the whole wave or the city might suffer a lot." I could only nod. It was my duty and oath to protect the city. Though it wouldn''t be my warning that saved the day, it couldn''t be helped. I was too weak to do a Scout''s job. The point of this delve, besides grieving the loss of my father, was to make me strong enough. I drummed my fingers around the shaft of Scout''s Oath. My other hand plucked the string like a delicate harp. The bundles of arrows were arranged around me. I drew one from my quiver and nocked it. Minutes later, hell broke loose. A throng of monsters rushed out of the boss room, some on foot, some on wing. I let my arrow loose. It flew true and struck an Acid Bat in the mouth. The bat went stiff and dropped down, dying instantly. > For killing level 11 Acid Bat, you gained 511 Experience Points. I ignored the notification and fired another arrow. This one struck a fire monkey that was jumping from monster to monster. The monkey clutched the arrow lodged in its belly and yanked it out. Terrible idea. It started to bleed profusely. I was already firing another arrow at a Stirge. The bird-like monster was little more than a bag of blood with a sucking beak. When the arrow struck its round belly, it burst like a balloon, killing the Stirge. > For killing level 9 Necromantic Stirge, you gained 613 Experience Points. The weight of rarity. This Stirge must be several rarity classes above the Acid Bat. Forget it. I had to focus on shooting. Some monsters noticed us on our little corner fortress and tried to approach. Alice conjured sharp, elongated icicles, and shot them toward the monsters, intercalating the icicles with explosive fireballs that rained on the monster wave below. In just a couple of minutes, the smoke, the heat, and the stench of burnt leather and charred meat made it impossible to see or fight. I was almost reaching level four. Before I devolved into a coughing fit, I took a handkerchief, dampened it with water, and wrapped it around my mouth and nose. It lessened the amount of smoke that reached me but it was still bad. I could hear monsters approaching. "Wall of Fire! Wall of Fire! Wall of Fire!" Alice frantically cast the spell over and over to block the exit tunnels. Once she was sure every tunnel was blocked, she started a long chant in Elvish. The only word I could understand was "Sylph." An elf-like creature made out of wisps of white fog and wind eddies appeared. It had feminine features but no definition to its contour. Alice talked to it and the Sylph flew off our elevated fortress and into the smoke-filled room. With the summoned entity''s magic, the smoke and soot cleared from the air, giving us a clear sight of the room again. The frenzied monsters tried to cross the wall of fire but all they got were third-degree burns, dead, and to clog the tunnels with corpses. I had no doubt some monsters managed to cross the walls but they were a minority. I sought targets that were away from the wall. Shooting at the burnt ones would mean nothing to me, as Alice was so high-leveled that the System would award all the Experience to her. Power leveling a neophyte required people around their own level, not a monstrous powerhouse like Alice. Level four came and I dumped my points as I planned, nine in Strength and six in Intelligence. Scout''s Oath''s draw strength increased again and my arrows became that much faster and deadlier. I took a peek at my current Attribute points.
| Strength | 44 |
| Dexterity | 43 |
| Endurance | 42 |
| Intelligence | 35 |
| Wisdom | 38 |
| Clarity | 10 |
| Charisma | 11 |
| Soul Scout (rare) | |
| Level | 6 |
| Strength | 62 |
| Dexterity | 43 |
| Endurance | 43 |
| Intelligence | 47 |
| Wisdom | 39 |
| Clarity | 10 |
| Charisma | 11 |
| Health (HP) | 60 |
| Mana (MP) | 19 |
| Stamina (SP) | 45 |
| Scouting | Rank 2 |
| Reduce terrain penalties to movement by 10% per Rank. | |
| Increase the effects of Intelligence to find tracks by 10% per Rank. | |
| Perceptive | Effects of Attributes on Perception increased by 50%. |
| Scout¡¯s Duty | For every twenty levels of creatures killed based on intelligence you gathered, you gain 1 Attribute point randomly assigned to Dexterity, Endurance, or Wisdom. Your own kills do not count toward this Trait. This is a Parallel Progression. |
| Wilderness Survivor | When in any natural setting, your needs for sustenance are reduced by (25 + Endurance / 10)%, to a maximum of 95%. |
| Soul Scout (rare) | |
| Level | 9 |
| Strength | 97 |
| Dexterity | 46 |
| Endurance | 46 |
| Intelligence | 71 |
| Wisdom | 43 |
| Clarity | 11 |
| Charisma | 12 |
| Health (HP) | 91 |
| Mana (MP) | 29 |
| Stamina (SP) | 77 |
| Soul Scout (rare) | |
| Level | 10 |
| Strength | 114 |
| Dexterity | 140 |
| Endurance | 132 |
| Intelligence | 71 |
| Wisdom | 121 |
| Clarity | 11 |
| Charisma | 12 |
| Health (HP) | 162 |
| Mana (MP) | 33 |
| Stamina (SP) | 113 |
| Soul Scout (rare) | |
| Level | 17 |
| Strength | 183 |
| Dexterity | 180 |
| Endurance | 174 |
| Intelligence | 117 |
| Wisdom | 159 |
| Clarity | 11 |
| Charisma | 12 |
| Health (HP) | 326 |
| Mana (MP) | 56 |
| Stamina (SP) | 239 |
| Soul Scout (rare) | ||||
| Level | 20 | |||
| Attribute | Base | Bonds | Efficiency | Total |
| Strength | 194 | 5 | 110% | 218 |
| Dexterity | 148 | 7 | 130% | 201 |
| Endurance | 144 | 8 | 130% | 197 |
| Intelligence | 125 | 1 | 110% | 138 |
| Wisdom | 146 | 2 | 120% | 177 |
| Clarity | 15 | 4 | 110% | 20 |
| Charisma | 26 | 1 | 110% | 29 |
| Health (HP) | 220 | 653 | ||
| Mana (MP) | 60 | 72 | ||
| Stamina (SP) | 120 | 371 | ||
| Soul Scout (rare) | |
| Level | 20 |
| Strength | 225 |
| Dexterity | 218 |
| Endurance | 219 |
| Intelligence | 139 |
| Wisdom | 193 |
| Clarity | 26 |
| Charisma | 57 |
| Health (HP) | 701 |
| Mana (MP) | 75 |
| Stamina (SP) | 385 |
"A delve is when an Adventurer party enters a Dungeon with the sole purpose to kill monsters, gather resources, and - more importantly - leave without ever getting near the Dungeon Core. On the other hand, a raid is when the intention is to reach the core and break it. Believe me, the Dungeons know the difference. Assume all of them can see and hear anything inside their tunnels. They will fight for their lives with fervor greater than any cornered beast. Be prepared."¡ª Adventurer''s Guild field operations manual. *
"A lava slug who likes to hump legs"And it would be fine. Though we''re not having a lava slug pet. Sorry if you have a lava slug fetish. Damn, now I feel bad for you. Maybe we can have a bonus pet. Just so you realize your dream of having a lava slug in a story you like. Did we hit 500 characters already? Can I stop now? KISS: Keep It Simple, Somehow. You don''t need to write a D&D monster manual entry but don''t let me stop you. Be nice to your fellow commenters. You can discuss entries but treat other''s suggestions like it''s their babies. Oh, and there''s a poll down there. 0048 - Wild Dungeon Baron Montmour came to greet us in person. I guessed it was the sensible option when the two most powerful people in the region came to visit. On the way to the plantation, I heard that a Herald went ahead to put the good Baron up to speed regarding the fast-moving development. When securing a wild Dungeon, you had to either be fast or be so powerful that no one would dare interfere. The Baron would be pissed that a Dungeon was found in his territory and the finder did what the law dictated without suffering what the law left unsaid. He made a point of not making eye contact with me. I was okay with that. I could see that he was divided. On one hand, he wouldn''t lose a huge chunk of his lands to eminent domain. On the other hand, he was denied the opportunity to do backroom deals and steal the Dungeon Core for himself. Was a man forced to be righteous just as worthy? Baron Montmour was the least capable person to answer that. His irritation was understandable. People in power seldom like to lose agency. I tuned off their exchange of forced pleasantries. I heard the Lord mention my name a few times, let time pass, and come back. Once everyone had their ducks in a row, we went on our way. Sleepy was fully recovered from our encounter with the Redscale Basilisk. Except for a lack of pointy stuff poking out of their heads, my bonds were as healthy as they could be. To get to the island proper, Alice used her magic to make two arched stone bridges. One crossing over the near river arm, the other from the island to the other side. The construction felt solid and it was permanent. Regardless of the Dungeon''s fate, the island would no longer be an isolated piece of wilderness. Sorry, birds and critters. Your home has been demolished to make way for progress. Well, not entirely but we had to see the outcome of this raid. The caravan of fancy carriages and sturdy wagons crossed the bridge. I moved to the front, walking ahead of the horses. My eyes and ears were open to detect any threats ahead. Floating by my side, Alice kept paving the path as I led everyone to the still-covered Dungeon entrance. The trail left by the Basilisk meant we didn''t have to cut any trees. Any intact trees, I mean. A lot of cracked and damaged ones were on the way. While we could save those trees, Alice just conjured giant stone hands to uproot them and toss them to the side. The hands then morphed into cobblestone and paved our path. Though the Scholars had no consensus on the matter, the mainstream belief was that Dungeons only opened access to the outside world when they were ready to. Whether it was because it believed itself strong enough, boredom, or just claustrophobia, it depended on the Dungeon''s peculiar personality. Some even said that Dungeons were once people, bad people who were punished by the Gods in the afterlife. These believed that breaking them was to grant the tormented soul respite. That''s why the reward for doing so was so inflated. "It''s here," I said. "In the middle of that clearing." "Stand back!" The Guild Master commanded. Nobody complained. Alice paved the site around the entrance too, using deft Earth manipulation to move the nearby trees without damaging the roots, a feat only truly appreciated by those who knew tree roots reached far out like a spiderweb in contrast to those idiots who thought trees were just a stick stuck in the ground. And she claimed to be an Archmage of Destruction. Is this how the retired old monsters spend their time? To think there were older and more monstrous entities out there like the Demon King. We don''t talk about the Demon King. * * We stood around the circular patch of earth left in the middle of the now-paved clearing. People were nervous, especially us, low-level peasants. If the aristocrats shared the sentiment, they were too good at hiding it. I wanted to believe Alice had it handled but the fear of the unknown, of what would happen next was overpowering. "It''s indeed a Dungeon," Alice said after she cast a few spells. "And it knows we are here. It is spawning monsters at a fast pace already." "What kind of monsters?" The Lord and Baron Montmour asked in unison. Alice spoke more to our enlightenment than to the Nobles. I bet they knew it already. "No idea. Dungeons usually only spawn the monster species that died inside of it, the full corpses it fed on, and sometimes a whole category, as if it had gained them as a pack, say, goblinoids, from a System feature. The Dungeon isn''t very old, maybe less than a century old. They grow really slowly most of the time but accumulate deep stockpiles of mana. It may lead to explosive growth spurts or monster stampedes. As agreed, I will keep anything from spilling out while the delve group hunts for the Core." * * Everyone scattered as Alice started to gather a lot of magic around her. I knew that altering the terrain around a Dungeon was nigh impossible. But she started to raise pillars around the edges of the clearing, then connect those to create a sturdy wall. It was standard procedure. The first concern when securing a wild Dungeon was to prevent it from spewing monsters like an erupting volcano. The second concern was to keep said spewed monsters from going everywhere and destroying civilization. I went to a corner of the expanded clearing to perform my rigorous equipment check. We were betting our lives and I wouldn''t move a finger without maximum preparedness. The Knights did the same with the help of their squires. These young lads wouldn''t come with us. The supplies were taken off the wagons. Our group had six noncombatant porters. Each of them had a wheelbarrow with containers tied on top of it. Two of them were special. These wheelbarrows had a metal box instead, one enchanted with a space expansion and ice enchantments to hold perishables. The other had a similarly-sized metal box but it was a huge water reservoir. Meanwhile, Hector talked to the Baron. Kara stood alone and afraid, clad in metal Guard armor more suited to fighting people than monsters. Her armament was composed of a longsword and a kite shield, with four daggers as side arms. She carried a small backpack with her essential supplies. Back in the city, I fetched the first one of the club-chests and placed it in my quiver. Kara''s camping gear and spare clothes were with me. Once everyone was ready to delve, Alice stepped closer to the entrance. She wore that ephemeral and otherworldly grace of elves, a clear display, at least to me, that she was very annoyed. Alice spent centuries among the other races and had long lost those immortal airs of the forest people.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. The Archmage wrenched the plug of earth and rock that the Dungeon covered its entrance with and violently flung it away, over the walls and forest. It splashed in the river many seconds later. She pointed a hand at the tunnel wall and we all heard a loud "Whoomp" sound. The wall cracked and a shower of dust and debris shot out of the hole. Wind magic carried the dust away. "Yup, it''s a Dungeon, no doubt about it." She clicked her tongue. I guessed that she was still bitter about the deal. But Josephine secured a good set of concessions for the Guild. "What? But Dungeon walls were supposed to be indestructible!" Baron Montmour protested. Alice cackled haughtily. "This concussive bolt spell would have carved the island in half all the way to the river and a few hundred meters beyond it if that wasn''t a Dungeon wall," she explained. An invisible presence came from within the hole, covering the area around the entrance and striking at Alice. The civilian porters and some squires fell to the ground. The rest of us braced in time but it was a powerful magical attack. The Elf''s white dress fluttered as if that massive magical attack was just a breeze. Alice engaged back. She wrestled against the Dungeon in a magical duel. Sparks flew and waves of mana became visible like a localized Aurora Borealis. "The pitiful thing is fighting against me with its domain," She said with a labored breath. "I think it''s scary. Fool. Wasting your energy for¡ Naught!" With a shout, she forced the slanted tunnel floor to bend and turn into stone stairs. The Dungeon''s presence withdrew back into the depths. The pitch-black depths. Wait. If the Dungeon was strong enough to wrestle magic with a level five hundred Archmage and make her show that much effort¡ It was all a ruse, wasn''t it? I was glad I was too shocked to laugh. Meddling with Alice''s theatrical performance was the worst I could do right now. At least it seemed that everyone bought it, including the slack-jawed Baron and the grimacing Lord. Maybe the latter was thinking about the strength of the knights he was sending. All of them were army officers. If the Dungeon was that strong, what chance did they have? The contract had a clause he could use to concede the Core to Alice. Could he be thinking about using it? He shook his head and took a step closer to his son, to show support. "All yours, Lord Hector," Alice said. The young lordling was despondent. The pressure he was under was nothing to scoff at. * * Another wave of magic came from below. Monsters started to appear in thin air above the walls. Everyone gasped but the real warriors drew their weapons. That was the knights and me if anyone didn''t get the memo. It was going to rain monsters. Dozens appeared within seconds and then¡ they didn''t fall on our heads. Instead, all the monsters floated in Force magic bubbles, just like the Guards a few weeks ago. Alice closed her hand with a warcry and all the bubbles shrunk to a tenth of their previous diameter. The monsters became flesh smoothies. "Sleepy, lunchtime!" Alice chirped as she conjured a bowl of stone outside the clearing and deposited the smoothie there. Sleepy rushed there on bounds three meters long, each. She made us wait until Sleepy slurped all he could eat. At least she cleaned the gore off his fur and feathers with a murky ball of water. It was transparent when she summoned it. Leave it to Alice to piss off a Dungeon and everyone else on our first encounter. She noticed my disappointment and winked. I understood why she did it on purpose, though. She was making the Dungeon waste its resources. "Okay, it doesn''t seem like the Dungeon will attempt to spawn stuff out here again. You are cleared to start. Good luck." "Thank you, Guild Master. Men, to me!" The lordling said. We lined up to descend the stairs. Nobody said a peep. The marching order was six knights in front, Hector, two knights, Kara, me, and my pets, the porters pushing wheelbarrows with our supplies, and then four knights closing the formation. I had to remind myself once again that these ten men were battle-tested elites. None of them would hesitate to die for the glory of their Lordling. Hector avoided me as he went to his spot. Since yesterday, he kept our interactions to the socially minimum acceptable, acting more like a military leader than the friend he once pretended we could be. He also treated Kara with distance and detachment. The only thing that kept me from thinking he was plotting to kill us down there was the ironclad and System-enforced contract. It was anathema to the mission''s goal if he got struck with an Oathbreaker debuff. He couldn''t evade it through one of the knights either; the System could judge intent and was nigh-omniscient. * * Down we marched. The stairs had a narrow ramp in the middle for the wheelbarrows. That too was standard Guild procedure. It was either one groove for wheelbarrows or two for minecarts. Gemstones artistically embedded on the knight''s helmets provided all-around magical light. This Dungeon had no light source whatsoever. Stealth was a foregone option. The Dungeon knew we were coming and where we were. The contract conspicuously left out a duty to scout for traps and ambushes out of my duties. I was still doing so but from the seventh row. We spent hours walking down an irregularly excavated tunnel. The rock was cracked and scratched, still showing the white fracture marks where the material was stressed. The air was stale but only smelled of rock dust. I caught no musk, mold, or excrement scents in the air. No bifurcations, alcoves, or side tunnels either. It seemed like it was a single tunnel dug in a hurry to connect a deeper location to the surface. No speleothems either, not even signs of infiltration despite the river raging above us. The separation between the walls and roof was impossible to discern. Despite that, the tunnel floor was roughly flat and wide enough for two armored men to fight side-by-side. No traps or ambushes either. We reached a large cavern filled with a hazy thin dust in suspension, the light failed to reach the walls and the echo of the knight''s armor told me said walls were at least twenty or more meters away. As we entered, the knights formed a protective circle. "I wish we had secured the services of a mage," Hector lamented to one of the officers. "But we couldn''t find one trustworthy enough." I understood that as such; either they couldn''t pay the asked price or didn''t find one suicidal enough to come. "I''m going to scout the room," I said. Taking Sleepy by his collar, I set him next to Kara. "Guard!" I ordered. Sleepy sat down by her feet and kept watch. "William, heel." We moved without making a sound. William''s hooves only clopped when he wanted them to. I lit my magic lantern and set the shutters to project a cone pointing forward. It hung from a belt strap over my pants. It was the most convenient spot that wouldn''t hinder my archery. Going past the knights, we followed the left wall as I made a mental map of the room. The knights vanished but I could still see the light bubble behind me. It meant that whatever monsters were set in ambush ahead of me would see my lantern before it illuminated them but the alternative was to never see them at all. I heard the sounds of dozens of hard things scuttling over the rock and stopped. William moved to my side and I readied an arrow, three others between my other fingers. Then they came, a swarm of a dozen. The monsters, one and a half meters tall each, stood on brown hairy arthropod legs but only four. They were mostly upright, with a square maw with two rows of pearly white incisor teeth mounted on their stomach, crab claws on the end of similarly hairy chitin arms, and two slug eyes on rubbery tentacles on top. No visible head, or no torso if they were heads with four legs and arms coming out of the temples. The monsters became maddening. Mouths garbled gibberish sounded like a soprano trying to make a political speech while choking on water. The eyes spun around as the claws clacked furiously. "Contact!" I shouted and put the four arrows in the air at the same time. One for each monster. Before I could assess the damage, I was already pumping more arrows at the others. William charged and rammed two. These two flew away, crashing out of sight. William moved backward before the other monsters could fill the gap. I managed to put seven out of commission before the rest reached us. William rammed another but this one only fell and skidded back two meters. Two left standing. I shot one and the last one clawed at me but kept moving as if it would climb me with those heinous hairy insect legs. With no room to shoot, I swung for the rafters. The monster grabbed Scout''s Oath and yanked it off my hands. I let it and drew my secondary bow. The curse took over as I shot the wounded ones trying to stand up. > For killing level 19 Spider Half-Gibbermouth, you gained 64 Experience points. ¡ > For killing level 17 Spider Half-Gibbermouth, you gained 40 Experience points. I had never heard of these monsters. Their levels ranged from 19 the highest to 15 the lowest. Once more I forgot to get their names with my Perk. But until I trained to make it take no time, concentration, or effort, I wouldn''t risk using it in combat. "George!" Hector called. The lack of hurried steps and plate armor clanging told me they didn''t move from the entrance. 0049 - Is it Okay to Eat Monsters in a Dungeon? The floating dust had to be an environmental effect created by the Dungeon. I could hear more monsters skittering in the distance. "I''m okay!" I shouted back at the main group. "Come back to the formation if you are done there!" Hector said. They weren''t coming to my location. I understood why. The dust made it impossible to see anything after ten or fifteen meters, even with improved senses. I was the Scout and it was my duty to see them through this place. It also meant they wouldn''t come to help me if I engaged more monsters. That was okay, the previous engagement barely lasted half a minute. Despite all that, I couldn''t go back yet. "Not yet! Hold formation!" "We got you loud and clear! Take your time." Before doing anything else, I listened for other monsters. I could hear the skittering but it was distant. This room was huge. Since no trouble was likely to find us in the immediate future, I set to work. I retrieved the arrows while William pushed the bodies closer together next to me. A yellowish goop seeped from the wounds. They didn''t display any special eye power and their bodies were too small to fit any digestive system. Most of the torso was the mouth cavity. How they ate if they did it at all was a mystery. With a knife, I cracked the shell open. They were more crab than insect, now that I saw them close. At first, I thought it was a crab standing upright on only four legs and with the forelegs on backward. The eye stalks weren''t on mollusk appendages. The mouth was where the crab''s back would be, in the lower half, and the monster''s back was the crab''s belly. It even had that folding genital part. I think it was called the apron. The insides smelled of seafood. It wasn''t a bad smell and made me think they were edible. I broke one claw off and dug out the meat with my field dressing knife. William approached, sniffed it, then carefully chomped it off my hands. He chewed longer than he had to and then swallowed. I felt that he loved it. Also, it wasn''t poisonous. It might seem cruel to use William as a taste tester but I saw him eat garbage, broken pottery, and even carrion one time. I was pretty sure he could eat Wyvern venom pie and be okay. Since I already had my field dressing knife out, I carved the legs and claws off, going from monster to monster, piling the limbs on an oiled tarp. The torso had some meat down the sides and I cut that off too. I had no idea if the eyes had any alchemical properties and they would be a bother to preserve. So, no eyes. William ate those, preening whenever he made one of them pop with his square teeth. The next part was tough but the crash course we got at the castle stressed how important it was. We weren''t delving into the Dungeon. Dungeon raid protocol required the team to dispose of and burn any monster remains. The rationale was that Dungeons spent a lot of energy to create the monsters. A good part of it could be retrieved if the corpses were left behind. By burning them, we broke that recycling loop and starved the Dungeon of its resources. It had the issue of generating smoke underground where air was at a premium. But most Dungeons cleaned the air automatically. I stared at the dust, miraculously kept away from my face because of my enchanted hat. Not this air, apparently. Was it wise to start a fire here? Probably not. The dust was very suspicious. Why put it here? Why the trouble to hide some weak and delicious monsters? I was afraid this dust was combustible. Starting a fire here could make the entire room explode. And that led me to remember other tricks Dungeons used in the past to thwart invaders. Would the Dungeon use bad air to defend itself? We brought air purifying runes in this case but it would take a lot of MP just to let us breathe. At least we had one hidden spellcaster in our party. Sleepy should have a ton of Clarity. Could it have a section underwater? Acid pools one needed to swim to cross? It all depended on what the consciousness inside the Core knew. The worst Dungeons were rumored to host the souls of dead Adventurers. These, even if the rumor wasn''t true, were truly devious. So, I couldn''t risk a fire. Not my decision to make. "William, stay here. I need you to keep the Dungeon from reclaiming the remains." William bleated and went to eat the internal organs of a carcass. The Dungeon couldn''t absorb matter close to an invader. Every creature had a magical aura and it interfered with the Dungeon''s absorption. I cut another chunk of claw meat and set my lantern on a folding pole next to William. Leaving the Tityron there, I rushed back to the main team with the meat. The Knights let me pass. "George, what is going on?" Hector asked. "Twelve weak monsters," I replied. "Edible meat. I don''t think we can burn the remains. This dust is suspicious and it might be flammable."Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. To prove my point, I waved my hand and created eddies in the suspended dust. "Good point. What were they?" "The System called them Spider Half-Gibbermouths. Never heard of them. Despite the name, they are more crab than spider. I think they are edible too. Sleepy, catch!" I tossed the chunk of white meat. Sleepy leaped and snatched it in the air, the meat gone before he hit the ground. Sleepy barked, eager for more. Kara clapped, then remembered who was next to her and stopped. "At the least, if nobody wants to try the meat, I''ll save on pet food," I joked. "I can test for most poisons," Hector said. "We will see if the meat is edible for humans or not. Forget about burning the remains of weak monsters. It''s more trouble than it is worth. Let''s gather the meat and leave the remains behind. These low-level monsters are very cheap. No point wasting valuable reagents that can be used on more dangerous and way more expensive monster corpses." The group moved as one unit to where William was. Navigating was easy once we saw the lantern''s glare through the dust. I gathered and tied the crab limbs, making a big rogue''s sap and storing it in my quiver. Then we had to explore the dusty hallway in the dark. My hearing was good enough to tell the direction and distance to the next pack of monsters. It took forever for us to walk to the next pack in this low-visibility room. We fought another six groups of twelve to twenty Spider Half-Gibbermouths before we mapped the whole room. Only the Knights, my pets, and I fought. Hector and Kara stayed with the porters to defend them. The Experience was divided into eleven ways, which meant little to no progress toward the next level. With awards ranging from three to seven Experience, I needed to kill hundreds in this group to gain a level. The kill speed didn''t make up for it but the lowered risks did. With a lot of allies with a high HP pool, the risk of suffering a serious or deadly injury dropped drastically. * " We eventually found a huge rectangular opening to another chamber. This was supposed to be the Dungeon''s first-floor boss room. A work in progress, obviously. The interesting part was that the dust cloud stopped at the door and went no further even though we could walk into it without problem. I assembled one of my lantern posts to mark where the boss room was and left my pets to guard the pole so the Dungeon wouldn''t absorb it. One of the core tenets of delving into a Dungeon was that anything left behind was gone, eaten by the Dungeon. We searched the rest of the dust room but unless the other tunnels were hidden high in the walls and ceiling, it was a linear thing. Without anything of interest there, we backtracked to the boss''s room and checked it too. The room was big but aside from nine thick pillars equally spaced in the square room, it had only one more feature. We found the stairs down, at least. The Dungeon had more than one floor but I already expected that. We camped in a corner of the boss room, with sight to both the stairs and the empty door frame to the dust chamber. Four improvised lamp posts using the same folding poles let the knights turn off their helmets to save their MP. The former were much more energy efficient than the latter. Our tents, specifically designed to be used inside Dungeons, would stay stable even though we didn''t affix them to the ground with pitons. Only Alice could pierce Dungeon walls. All of this was standard fare for prolonged delves. The novelty was two barrels with a pole from which hung a round curtain on a ring pipe. The curtain rig resembled a prop angel halo when closed. These were our latrines. The first barrel was exclusively for number one while the second was for number two. The former had a divider with a water filtration enchantment. Pure water came out of a spigot in the back. While the latter had a desiccation enchantment and had to be regularly emptied. Its byproduct was a flaky dry substance resembling dirt or hardened clay. At least it didn''t smell. One of the knights joked that he would love to have one of these back in the last war. Another complained, as a joke, that they didn''t clean the user at the end. Some crass jokes about unclean cracks followed, much to Kara''s dismay. I took the bulging tarp of monster meat and a drum barbecue grill out of my quiver. After Hector confirmed the meat was safe to eat, I spent a few hours cooking giant crab. The smell was mouth-watering. "I can''t believe you are going to eat those monsters!" Kara protested. I cut a chunk that seemed to be already cooked and bit on it. "Hector said it was safe, my bonds ate it raw with no complications, and it is delicious. Everybody eats monster meat at one point in their lives. What do you think the mystery meat skewers they sell on the streets are made of? Most of the meat consumed in the city comes from the Dungeon. A few monsters are considered a delicacy and their meat sells for more than a gold coin per kilogram." She wasn''t convinced. "I ate baby kraken at the Royal palace once," Hector entered our conversation. "The meat melted like butter in my mouth. Don''t ask how much it costs. I never found it for sale." "I bet it made every steak taste like shoe sole," I joked. "Indeed," Hector said, his eyes on the barbecue. "Hit me up." I took a leg with the tongs and swung it at him. Hector dodged with a laugh that cut out too short. He winced in pain but regained his composure fast. I focused on his shoulder and I saw him keeping it close to his chest as if shielding it. Damn. He still hadn''t fully recovered from that wound. It was already a miracle they saved his arm. The Lord must know about it and he was going to give a near-cripple the Dungeon Core? Then I realized why. Hector was going to get the Core exactly because he was a near-cripple. With the achievement came a second main class slot. Hector would get a Class with powerful regeneration Traits, dump all his Attribute points in Endurance, and supercharge his natural healing. Some extremely high-level people could regrow lost limbs; healing from his wound with a dedicated Class that did only that, was well within his means. Later on, he could drop the Class. It was a choice available to anyone. If I dropped my subclass, I would lose everything it gave, Attribute points, Traits, and so on. The only things I got to keep were the Skill and one Perk of my choice. The Skill would drop one rank and could never advance again. The replacement subclass had to be leveled up again from scratch. That''s what Alice has been doing for two hundred years to keep her Experience points from going to waste. One of her subclass slots, most likely the last one she got, was used in this carousel. Some people did that, sacrificing level growth for versatility. Then there was a less-talked option of dropping one''s main Class. Doing that brought one back to level zero. They got to keep only the skill with no loss of rank and one Perk. It was called "prestige reset" for some reason. Doing so allowed one to pick any Class they qualified for. Often one of a higher rarity. They also got a 100% Experience bonus until they reached their old level back. The cheat came from having two main Class slots. Hector could get his regeneration-focused Class, heal his arm, and then drop it for something with more oomph. He would keep the regeneration skill and one Perk. It was going to cost him a lot of Experience points but his father thought it was worth it. Not my problem. Except because we had one more noncombatant in our group. One nobody expected. 0050 - Natural Reserve Camping, this was not. With Kara convinced to give it a try, everyone ate roasted monster crab meat. Even the porters and some of them cried because it was the best meat they ever tasted. It also saved us a day or two of rations. We had more meat than we could eat and nowhere to store excess food. The enchanted cold box was still full. I let Sleepy and William eat as much crab meat as they liked. The little guy ate forty kilograms of meat. That was more than one and a half times his body weight. His stomach was bulging. Sleepy radiated a sense of satisfaction like nothing else. It confirmed to me that monsters could convert food into power with radical efficiency. The literature confirmed this but not on that scale. It had to be another of Sleepy''s Perks. So far, I knew two of them. The red nose and this turbo-eating one. Some scholars said that a monster''s perks were highly influenced by what the monster suffered during its development. At his level, Sleepy already had five Perks. Legendary rarity granted a Pert at level four and another one every four levels. It also had a ridiculous amount of Attributes. I could indirectly measure this from the bonuses I got in my detailed Attribute spread.
| Soul Scout (rare) | ||||
| Level | 22 | |||
| Attribute | Base | Bonds | Efficiency | Total |
| Strength | 194 | 15 | 110% | 229 |
| Dexterity | 157 | 19 | 130% | 228 |
| Endurance | 189 | 22 | 130% | 274 |
| Intelligence | 125 | 4 | 110% | 141 |
| Wisdom | 162 | 6 | 120% | 201 |
| Clarity | 15 | 13 | 110% | 30 |
| Charisma | 51 | 1 | 110% | 57 |
| Health (HP) | 242 | 653 | ||
| Mana (MP) | 66 | 72 | ||
| Stamina (SP) | 132 | 371 | ||
| Name: | William Ol? | Name: | Sleepy | |
| Species: | Tityron | Species: | Wolfertinger | |
| Rarity: | Uncommon | Rarity: | Legendary | |
| Level | 24 | Level | 20 | |
| Total Attributes | 310 | Total Attributes | 670 | |
| Estimated | Estimated | |||
| Strength | 80 | Strength | 110 | |
| Dexterity | 70 | Dexterity | 170 | |
| Endurance | 100 | Endurance | 170 | |
| Intelligence | 20 | Intelligence | 30 | |
| Wisdom | 20 | Wisdom | 50 | |
| Clarity | 10 | Clarity | 130 | |
| Charisma | 10 | Charisma | 10 |
| Soul Scout (rare) | ||||
| Level | 32 | |||
| Attribute | Base | Bonds | Efficiency | Total |
| Strength | 240 | 21 | 110% | 287 |
| Dexterity | 177 | 28 | 130% | 266 |
| Endurance | 210 | 32 | 140% | 338 |
| Intelligence | 159 | 5 | 110% | 180 |
| Wisdom | 185 | 8 | 130% | 249 |
| Clarity | 85 | 19 | 120% | 124 |
| Charisma | 51 | 1 | 120% | 62 |
| Health (HP) | 352 | 56 | 1787 | |
| Mana (MP) | 128 | 30 | 349 | |
| Stamina (SP) | 160 | 20 | 677 | |
| Soul Scout (rare) | ||||
| Level | 34 | |||
| Attribute | Base | Bonds | Efficiency | Total |
| Strength | 240 | 17 | 110% | 282 |
| Dexterity | 177 | 27 | 130% | 265 |
| Endurance | 210 | 30 | 140% | 336 |
| Intelligence | 189 | 4 | 110% | 212 |
| Wisdom | 185 | 8 | 130% | 250 |
| Clarity | 85 | 25 | 120% | 132 |
| Charisma | 51 | 2 | 120% | 63 |
| Health (HP) | 374 | 48 | 1839 | |
| Mana (MP) | 136 | 32 | 389 | |
| Stamina (SP) | 170 | 16 | 694 | |
| Soul-Binder Ranger (Epic) | ||||
| Level | 34 | |||
| Attribute | Base | Bonds | Efficiency | Total |
| Strength | 316 | 72 | 130% | 503 |
| Dexterity | 245 | 100 | 130% | 448 |
| Endurance | 248 | 156 | 160% | 605 |
| Intelligence | 214 | 19 | 130% | 302 |
| Wisdom | 219 | 29 | 130% | 322 |
| Clarity | 151 | 44 | 120% | 234 |
| Charisma | 84 | 21 | 120% | 126 |
| Health (HP) | 476 | 228 | 4961 | |
| Mana (MP) | 272 | 57 | 1098 | |
| Stamina (SP) | 238 | 62 | 1909 | |
| Name: | William Ol? |
| Species: | Silver-Square-Eyes Phantom-Thief Tityron |
| Rarity: | 2x Legendary |
| Level | 36 |
| Strength | 941 |
| Dexterity | 1195 |
| Endurance | 2327 |
| Intelligence | 260 |
| Wisdom | 244 |
| Clarity | 145 |
| Charisma | 253 |
| Health (HP) | 47083 |
| Mana (MP) | 1141 |
| Stamina (SP) | 1816 |
Chimeric Strength: Like all chimeras, your flesh is 20% stronger for each fused base animal (currently 40%) you are made out of. Weather-Hoof Wool: Your wool has an innate ability to regulate temperature. You treat all environmental temperatures as sqrt(Endurance) degrees Celsius closer to your comfort zone. You take 75% less damage from cold and fire attacks. Capricornucopia: You can store up to sqrt(Endurance+Strength+Clarity) kilograms of mass in a dimensional pocket. Time does not pass inside. Ghoast Mode: You can toggle an immaterial state at will. While immaterial: You exert no pressure upon fluids surrounding you. Physical attacks deal no damage while energy attacks deal 50% more damage. You can move through solid objects and creatures. Attempting to become corporeal again while inside solid matter shunts you to the nearest open space, dealing severe damage to both you and the solid matter as you are shunted. Goathon Hand: You have a spectral fifth limb that is detached from your body. It is invisible and incorporeal but can manipulate objects as well as a hand with half your Strength and Dexterity score can. The Goat Hand can send items it can lift into your Caprinurcopia storage.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. M-Bleathril Horns: Your horns are laced with Mithril, granting them great resilience. They deal double damage to creatures vulnerable to silver, truesilver, and/or mithril. This Mithril reverts to ordinary silver if separated from your body. Square-Cube Eyes: Spend MP to Change the inertia, kinetic energy, and momentum of objects and creatures in your sight. Bleautiful Eyes: Enemies who stare into your square eyes are stunned for sqrt(Strength+Clarity+Charisma+Endurance) milliseconds. They become immune to this effect for the next 24 hours.Perks:
Hornficient Parry: Increase your Dexterity score by 50% when parrying with your horns. Attacks and effects successfully parried by your horns deal no damage to you. Hoofect Step: Reduce all penalties by 50% when performing acrobatic jumps. Woolesome Armor: Reduce damage from attacks and effects that touch your wool by 34% before it is applied to your HP. Your wool is immune to burning and corrosion. Impala-ing Horns: Your piercing attacks with your horns have a 10% odds of scoring a critical hit, ignoring the target''s HP, if any. Billy Jean is not my Goat: If you so desire, you may appear exactly as an ordinary Tityron. Smooth Goatminal: While immaterial, you may become invisible for a small MP cost. Just Bleat It: You can taunt enemies with a bleat. Enemies suffer a 50% accuracy penalty if they target your allies while you are still active in combat. Beast of Burden: When carrying or pulling heavy loads, you move as if it were 75% lighter. Your carrying capacity is unchanged. Pushcart Expert: When pulling a cart, it has 75% lesser inertia. Wheels ignore 50% of any terrain movement penalties. Luggage Preservation: Luggage in your care is water and oil-proof; it also enjoys Hardness equal to 20% of your Endurance score. Perishables in your care deteriorate sqrt(1+Endurance/50) times slower.What a cheater His HP was way over nine thousand! Five times! William became way stronger than me. Bloody hell, look at that Endurance score! He was basically immune to steel weapons, for sure. And why do several of his Features sound like puns or song titles? William''s Attributes were too high until I figured it out. His Attribute Efficiency points also doubled when he gained the Core Breaker achievement, making his growth seem exponential. I could only imagine what would happen if the Redscale Basilisk managed to claim the Core if that is what happened to William. It wasn''t strong enough to defeat the Molluskull but it would surely gain heaps of levels grinding the Dungeon until it was strong enough to tackle the boss and claim the Core. William''s steep power climb was a sobering reason to keep monsters from becoming Dungeon Breakers. The power scale was off the charts. I could guarantee that any person without the Dungeon Breaker achievement under level 80 would lose to William in a fair fight. * * I also checked Sleepy''s Status, to see what the little guy had going on for him.
| Name: | Sleepy |
| Species: | Wolfertinger |
| Rarity: | Legendary |
| Level | 32 |
| Strength | 297 |
| Dexterity | 558 |
| Endurance | 646 |
| Intelligence | 106 |
| Wisdom | 237 |
| Clarity | 558 |
| Charisma | 45 |
| Health (HP) | 4625 |
| Mana (MP) | 2533 |
| Stamina (SP) | 1641 |
Chimeric Strength: Like all chimeras, your flesh is 20% stronger for each fused base animal (currently 80%) you are made out of. Wolf''s Hunger: You can consume up to sqrt(Endurance/10) kilograms of food before your stomach becomes full. Rabbit''s Reflexes: Increase your Dexterity score by 50% for evasion purposes. Reindeer''s Red Nose: Immune to ice and cold damage. Reduce heat and fire damage received by 50%. When temperatures drop below zero Celsius, your nose starts to glow. An area with a radius of sqrt(Clarity) meters has its temperature set to 5oC. Ice and Cold attacks that come into contact with this area are weakened by 50%. Hawk''s Acrobatics: When flying, double your Dexterity for maneuverability and speed purposes. You require less wingspan to fly. Al-Mi''raj''s Impaling Horns: Al attacks made with your horn deal 50% more damage and may cause critical hits. Jackalope''s Lightning: Immune to Lightning damage and Stun effects. MP costs for lightning spells are reduced by (N/2)% where N is the percentage of your antlers that remain intact. Wolpertinger''s Immunities: Immune to poison and acid damage. Immune to diseases and parasites. Wolfertinger''s Tenacity: Reduce bleeding damage by 80%. You may ignore fatal and incapacitating wounds for sqrt(Endurance) seconds. The latter effect has a 4-hour cooldown if you survive.Perks:
Last of your Kind: You are the last Wolfertinger alive. Once per day, when dealt a fatal wound, you take only half the physical damage. Fast Budding: Your antlers, fur, and feathers grow sqrt(Endurance/100) times faster if they aren''t yet at maximum size. Rejuvenating Sleep: You heal and recover resources sqrt[(Endurance+Clarity)/100] times faster when sleeping. You require sqrt(Endurance/10)% less sustenance while sleeping to a maximum of 75% Ball Lightning: You may cast lightning spells as an AOE effect centered on you. This AOE effect deals 25% less damage to each target. Mostly Harmless: Increase your Charisma by 50% when engaging in non-hostile social interactions.Compared to evolved William, Sleepy''s Status now looked lackluster. But he still had double the Attribute points a Rare person his level would. My guess about his Perks and HP pool was about right. And what about all those Immunities and survival features? Was that how he survived the Rescale Basilisk''s bite? But when I read the "Last of your Kind" Perk, I became really sad. At least I could tell Alice to stop the search for more Wolfertingers. That was superb. I was so proud of my two bonds. I feel like I was the one holding them back now. * * I closed their Status windows. Then, I spent a long while staring at the Tityron''s cube eyes. "Bloody hells. You broke the damn Core. It didn''t violate the contract because I didn''t order you to do that and Hector wasn''t a combatant anyway. Nobody would ever expect a monster of all people to get it. Is that why you stayed behind?" "Bahhhhh!" William said. "I see," I lied. I didn''t understand shit. "Damn. Nobody can know this." "Bahhhhh!" William said with a roll of his eyes. "You cannot use any powers from your evolutions. Just be a normal Tityron. Can you do that?" "Bahhhhh!" William said. "Okay, bud. You do you." That double Legendary monster was a potential heap of trouble. I didn''t mind that he was giving me these many Attribute points. Seriously, between my two bonds, I was getting almost ten points per level, and that meant two full rarity levels. Not accounting for my PP, I had the same Attribute Points per level as a Mythic rarity, the biggest one publicly known. "Show me what you can do, William. Wraithform!" The Tityron became transparent, like a ghost. I waved my hand through him, feeling a shiver climb up my spine. Next, we tried his dimensional storage and phantom thief powers. He could store around half a cubic meter of stuff. The things he could steal were light but seeing him manipulate the objects in the air opened several new options for both combat and daily life. No longer the lack of thumbs would hinder William. His Chilling Horns attack left frostbite on the tunnel walls when he rammed them. His horns had grown extremely hard and resilient. When I tried scratching them with a knife, the silvery horns left dents on the knife and showed no signs of even a scratch. I found a line of metal but it was the residue left from the knife. I patted the side of his neck. "I''m so glad you are alive, William." "Bahhhhh!" William licked me. His tongue had these tiny cubic shapes in place of the taste buds. Or these were his taste buds. "Now, seriously. Try to stay as normal as possible in front of other people. And keep Sleepy safe. He''s the little guy now." "Bahhhhh!" William said as if it was obvious he would do that. 0062 - Cheese it like its on farm mode The little guy woke up first and I could sense he was ravenous. I fed him smoked crab meat and let him drink as much water as he wanted. I had a lot of meat stowed away for them. For my monsters, it was fine dining. As for water... it was enough to last until we got out. After Sleepy was back to resting, I checked on Kara. She was still unconscious but her body was warm and her vitals were stable. I put her on her side atop my lap and let her head tilt down and to the side. It was an alternate position that would also work for the potions but it put more stress on her neck, so I didn''t use that out of fear of aggravating her injuries. Her burn wounds were bad. She would need extensive treatment. I felt a pang of pain at seeing her like that. If it was only the lack of hair but... she got nasty burns on the side of her head and face. Using a spoon, I slowly fed her water, waiting for it to be absorbed before pouring more into her mouth, making sure none seeped down her throat. Her lips were cracking. The other option was to feed her water rectally. She was a tough girl and didn''t need such extreme measures. Once she had absorbed all the water for this hydration session, I checked the exit. The trapdoor was still stuck in place. I had an idea on how to open it but I wanted Kara to wake up first. So I waited. Hours later, with her still unconscious, I gave her more water. This went on for hours. Kara was so dehydrated she wasn''t producing saliva. It was only when almost an entire day had passed since I woke up that she stirred. Kara jolted as if her mind reconnected to her last waking moment, the Core explosion. I held her back to keep her safe. "Easy, easy," I crooned. "You are safe." "Bahhhhh!" William reassured. Sleepy hopped closer and jumped on Kara. He licked her cheek with a slavering tongue. That finished the process of recovering her consciousness with a startle. Her head raised from my lap but I pinned her down. Kara mumbled something unintelligible. Her eyes were unfocused and I feared she had suffered some brain injury. Then her pupils adjusted and she looked at me. "George?" Kara noticed the position and stiffened. "My clothes?" Or she stiffened because she noticed she had no underwear. "They burned in the explosion. I''m sorry but I had to remove them to treat your burns." I offered her a skin of water with my explanation. She spent long moments without moving and without breaking eye contact. Then she slowly drank the water. At a point, I withdrew the water skin. "More water," Kara demanded. "Go slow. Your stomach might get upset." It wouldn''t be the case if she had a lot of Endurance, which I knew she did. We waited for a while, then I offered more water. Kara drank slowly from the water skin. She had basic Guard training and survival was one of the subjects. Her mood was shit. I could see the silent tears glistening under the magic lantern light. "Who else survived?" She asked with a pained voice. She knew the answer. The silence whispered it to her. "Only the four of us. You, me, Willam, and Sleepy." Kara curled as she became really sad. If I had kept my trap shut, she could deny reality. Tears dropped from her eyes. "Hector?" "Vaporized by the Core explosion. Then buried under tons of rocks." She puckered her lips, then wiped her tears with the back of her right hand. The one that wasn''t burned. "How bad was it? The explosion? You are bald." "Yes, ma''am. I''m entirely bald." I tried not to grin. Failed. "You are bald too. The blast burned you badly. I had to cut your armor and peel it off of your skin. I''m sorry." She ran a hand over her head, then touched her face. Her fingers ran over the scar tissue. "Am I ugly?" My throat hitched. "No. Never. Don''t even... Look, these... It all can be healed. Cosmetic healing is expensive but... No. You can''t be ugly." "Can''t?" Kara was puzzled. "Can''t," I doubled down. My hand squeezed her right shoulder. The good one. "I don''t find it hard to look at you." Bloody hells, what was wrong with me? Why was I unable to string two sentences together? We were in a shitty situation but I still felt all giddy and tingly because Kara was lying on my lap. And I probably stank. Gods, I was stinking, wasn''t I? Why was Kara fine with lying on my lap if I stank? "So you saw me naked," she stated, then chuckled. I stammered a string of unintelligible grunts. I could die of embarrassment. Kara closed her eyes. She sighed. I was expecting the slap but it never came. Instead, she mumbled a muffled, "Thank you." "Think nothing of it. I was just helping a fellow¨C" She reached up to put a hand on my lips. "I don''t mind. You seeing me naked. Thank you." Kara snuggled as she made her head comfortable against my thigh. The impression was that she would let me see... Stop. Down that train of thought lied a physiological reaction I couldn''t have with her nestled on my legs. I had to think flaccid thoughts to fight it off. If she noticed something, Kara was kind enough to not mention it. But the long silence was killing me. "What happens now?" She asked. I spoke fast, like someone commenting on a gladiator fight. "We are in the ladder room underneath the Squirracula chamber. The trapdoor is still locked. We can try to force our way out or wait for rescue. I am leaning on the latter. We have enough supplies to last the two of us another week if we ration our water. I have a lot of smoked crab meat for William and Sleepy." "Bahhhhh!" William agreed. Kara chuckled. She took a deep breath. I took a deep breath. "We could stay longer if I can fix my water distillery." "I''d rather not drink boiled piss if I can help it." I moved my hand and it brushed against her neck. I tried to pull it away but Kara held my hand and pressed it against her cheek. "Why stay? If the monsters all left as you said¡" "No. Not all monsters. We can''t leave." "Why not?" "The grass boss. If the Dungeon respawned it while we were stumbling in the black chamber, the way out is blocked. I don''t doubt that''s the case. It is a sessile monster that spreads through seeds. It isn''t going anywhere." I didn''t mention that I feared the trapdoor was stuck because the black stone chamber above had caved in. It was a huge open space and rock was heavy. Without the Dungeon to reinforce the chamber, a collapse was more likely than not. She let her body slump. "Waiting for the rescue it is, then." "I guess so. Alice won''t leave us down here for too long. She might be on her way already. Did you get anything good from the boss fight?"If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. "Yes, two levels and an achievement that granted me a lot of Attribute efficiency. I''m thirty-seven now." I was shocked and skipped a breath or two. Revealing one''s level was something reserved for close family and trusted confidants only, those you were damnedest sure wouldn''t ever betray you. I bit my lips as I stared at her caramel eyes. She grinned at my distress, letting me know that what she did was intentional. "Thirty-four here," I said with a heavy sigh, then relaxed. "And I gained a Class fusion promotion. My Beast Master Class merged with my Soul Scout Class. I''m now an Epic Soul-Binder Ranger." Kara tried to whistle but her mouth and lips were too dry for that. Her eyes went wide as saucers but a smile crept up across her lips, climbing up to crease the corners of her eyes. She let out a soft laugh that reminded me of small bells. I closed my eyes and leaned down to kiss her. Kara wrapped an arm around my neck and kissed back. She was still weak so it wasn''t a passionate burning kiss. It was soft and ephemeral, long and careful. A meeting of the souls. And dry, cracked lips. My mind raced, my willpower cracked and my body reacted. I poked Kara, not with my hands. She pulled me tighter and ran her tongue over my lips. It was not the time to join the mile-deep club. Not in this condition. My mind raced to find something to distract me. I thought about our gains. They were huge. Then a thought passed through my mind. Could William tank the Shambler Requiem? He had twelve hundred Endurance. More HP than... 99% of people. I pulled away." Kara, we are leaving." Startled, she sat up. "What? But you said... the boss!" I missed the faint frustration in her voice. Kara would later tease me about the missed opportunity. "William here can tank the Shambler Requiem now. Can you, big boy?" "Bahhhhh!" William agreed. * * It took me a day to grind the door open. Yes, grind. I abused my odd Perk, Summon Sandpaper. Once I managed to make an opening big enough for my hand, I found a latch and flipped it off, releasing the lid. I heard not a single peep from the vampiric squirrels. Lighting up the ceiling showed it was empty of monsters. It took us a couple of hours but we found the entrance to the stairs. I was happy this room hadn''t collapsed. From the side of the stairs, the boss room was always accessible. I used a mirror on the end of a pole to check and the grass boss was right there. "William, if you start taking damage, go incorporeal and get back here." "Bahhhhh!" William shrugged. The mad lad climbed the last few steps and triggered the boss fight. The vines swished and wrapped him. Then, he just stood there, bleating calmly. I climbed behind William and cut the vines. They withdrew. Then I ducked down. The next wave of vines, with half as many as the first, came and the same thing happened. That many vines weren''t strong enough to move William. I cut them too. The third wave, with more than double the amount of vines on the first, started to slowly drag him toward the center of the room. I cut these and then ducked. The fourth wave of vines came and these did manage to bring William back with them. I poked my head up and looked at the ground where he was. Not a single strand of black wool to be seen. The leaves weren''t sharp enough to cut his wool. "Bahhhhh!" William said he was fine. I mean, his bleat showed no distress signs. More vines shot across the room above. Then the sixth wave came and struck. "Bahhhhh!" William chuckled. I mean, his bleat sounded like laughter. Our bond told me he was feeling fine if not a bit constricted. The seventh and eighth wave fired and I climbed to look. The mound was in the middle, half out but all the grass vines were tangled into a ball around William. "Let''s go, time to mow some grass!" I shouted. Kara and I rushed into the room and hacked the grass at the bottom. It was super easy, barely an inconvenience. The ball of vines holding William fell to the ground. We cut him free. William was unscathed. He was missing three-quarters of his HP, though. "Boss fight time. It will be easy this time. Sleepy, come here and dig its brains out again." The Shambler Requiem had extra arms for each kill the grass scored. This one had zero arms. All it could do was run after us and try to stomp us down. We ran down the stairs. Sleepy landed on the boss and delivered a massive ball lightning attack that made me see black spots. Moments later, the notification pinged. > For Cheesing level 36 Shambler Requiem (boss), you gained 224 Experience points. > Your training and experience improved your Beast Mastery Skill to rank IV. Benefit: Beasts you raise from infancy develop 10% more of their true potential per rank. The Experience award wasn''t reduced because the message said "Cheesing" instead of "Killing." It could say "Bullying" too. I didn''t care. The way out was clear and my pets rocked. * * Meanwhile, in the Hall of Justi¡ ... Alice saw the Lord approach once more. Ever since the raiding party descended, he came to see her every five days. This marked the fourth visit. She stayed in the same place, floating above the stairs, waiting. Nothing went inside the Dungeon, nothing came out. Baron Montmour hired some infiltrators to snatch the Core but Alice killed them. May the new Baron Montmour get busy enough rebuilding his manor to leave her alone. "Guild Master," the man greeted her with a respectful fifteen-degree bow. "City Lord," she acknowledged him with a nod. "How is the expedition?" He asked, eager for good news. She was aware of the stakes involved. While Alice would love nothing more than to get George a second Class, she had her hands tied for the sake of peace. She was a retired destroyer, a sleeping dragon. Snatching the Core would upheave the social order so much she would need to crown herself Queen to fix things. And George''s life would also be scattered to the winds. She couldn''t risk it. Her only hope was to let him realize the loophole in the contract that allowed him to legally steal the Dungeon Core from Hector. She knew that he wouldn''t figure it out. And even if he did, would he betray the Lordling? She guessed he wouldn''t. George was still a child. In both age and levels. Once he saw the real nature of this world and his place in it, he would start making the right decisions. He needed to be more selfish. "The same. They are still down there. I believe the important people are still alive but I have no way to tell. All we can do is wait. I am not bothered to stay here as long as I need." Alice, with her Endurance score over nine thousand, could go two years without sleep. A month without water. And almost a year without food. She didn''t even need to worry about sustenance. Conjuring water from the river was trivial and the small forest on the island had enough nutrition to sustain her. She didn''t even need to move from where she was. Where she remained all these days in eternal vigilance, worrying like a mother. Not that Alice felt she deserved to replace Karina. May the God in his Apple have mercy on her soul. But she worried about George in her own way. The way she believed she would worry for a son if she were a mother. Maybe that''s why she never had a child. She would be a crappy mother. "I see," the Lord replied. "Well, I''ll see you soon." He went away. She sensed when he boarded the carriage and left. Hours later, the earth shook. A localized tremor burst out, having that location as its epicenter. The Dungeon''s presence also vanished. They did it. The Dungeon was no more. Alice prepared herself to stop the stampede. Minutes later, a horde of low-level mutated crustaceans the System insisted on calling spiders something came and were shredded by her stone needles spell. Hours later, a swarm of low-level trash bugs, some kind of poison giant mantis. They died all the same. The important part was that it marked two floors, with no boss for the first floor. The Dungeon shouldn''t have more than four and she was confident the delve team could deal with that many monsters. What worried her was that no boss appeared for either floor. It could be a sessile boss but given the theme, she expected some bug boss. Insect, decapod, or arachnid. Something chitinous with a limb count between six and ten. Yet, as she waited, no second-floor boss nor monster for the third floor came. The magical energies inside had all dissipated. It was a dead hole in the ground. One that fortunately didn''t collapse. Some Dungeons relied on the enchantment making their walls nigh indestructible to keep everything stable. Dungeons collapsed within a day or two of the Core''s death. As another two days passed, she came to the conclusion that this one was the exception. Nobody came. Alice was certain that George was alive because of an indirect fact. Lilliane Fade was interested in him. That selfish bitch never did anything that wouldn''t have deep repercussions and shape the future the way she wanted. If the Time Witch went out of her way to rescue a damned monster pup, then she had something in mind that required George. Ergo, he was alive. Lilliane would make sure of it. And she would make the de minimus effort to make it happen. Since she hadn''t interfered so far, George was safe. Alice was an elf who drank her copium in one gulp. That didn''t mean he had the means to come back to the surface on his own. What if the Dungeon had an underwater floor and he had injured companions that couldn''t swim? The kind and naive Scout would try to find a way to bring them with him, even if it delayed his return and put him at risk of death. He was that¡ stupid wasn''t the word she wanted to use. Naive it was. Too kind for his own good in a world where that feeling was considered a weakness. In a world where Alice spent a millennium and a half thinking the same thing. She was getting old and soft, wasn''t she? That settled it. Alice cast an Earth manipulation spell, set it to automatically use her MP, and descended. The spell pushed earth and stone away from her in a sphere but also didn''t let material move past the edge of the said sphere, forcing it to compress and harden. It was a very useful and expensive spell meant to stabilize tunnels as one delved. The pressure heated the rock to the point it got red and she floated down in a hurry, leaving a smooth and round tunnel behind her, slowly cooling. Thousands of her MP drained each second. Alice didn''t care. She could keep the spell for hours. She reached the first-floor boss room. It was without a door. Traces of an illusion spell that had dissipated a few days ago lingered in the air. She strained her ears and heard steps approaching. She recognized the voices. George and Kara. And they sounded very, very friendly. Many couples formed in Dungeons and they wouldn''t be the first ones to join the "mile-deep club". "Hey!" She shouted to get their attention. "I can come back later if you want some privacy." "Bahhhhh!" The Tityron bleated. She had no idea what it meant. 0063 - Kara, a hostage? "Bahhhhh!" William made the goat-sheep equivalent of a facepalm, which didn''t involve trying to paw his own snout. But I noticed he used his Perk to appear as a normal Tityron. I was proud that, for once, I didn''t need Alice to come and rescue me. But what she implied set my cheeks on fire. I couldn''t even glance at Kara to see her reaction. We climbed the rest of the stairs to the first-floor boss room. "Hey, you there!" Alice waved at us with her trademarked smug elf smile. As if she''d caught us in the act. Sleepy bounded to smell her feet. Satisfied, he returned and jumped on William''s back. "Guild Master," Kara said in her business voice. Thank you for coming to get us out." Her tone was one of defiance. "Well, it seems it wasn''t needed. But I must ask, what happened to your equipment?" I took a step ahead. "Destroyed when the Dungeon Core exploded. Only the magical items survived. Though my hat was nowhere to be found." "Fair enough," she tapped her cheek with a finger. "What about the others?" "All dead," I said with a grimace and a shake of my head. "Including that guy I won''t name." Kara sighed. We took turns explaining what happened to Alice. Minutes later, we ended the tale. It was weird reducing a person''s life to "he fought and then he died." "We need to go back and retrieve something belonging to Hector. If your magic items survived the explosion, maybe one of his survived too. The Lord won''t directly accuse you of murdering his son, not with the contract enforced by the System but anything below that can fly. I really don''t want to kill him and take over the city." Alice believed it was a bother to rule anything more than her Guild branch. I thought that was the only reason she held back during the Dungeon Raid negotiations. That and Josephine''s presence. "Can we stay here? We just climbed all these stairs," I asked. "Sure," she placed a hand on her satchel and pulled a chest out. It was weird seeing the chest stretch and grow as it came out of her small satchel. The chest was a meter tall at the hinges and two meters wide by one and a half deep. It was a big-ass chest. "There''s assorted clothing in there, you can take whatever. And you must want some food and drink too." Alice approached us. She reached inside her satchel and took comfortable leather loafers and wool socks. "Captain Kara, here. I want you to have these. The shoes are enchanted and will resize to fit you. The socks are mundane." Kara was still wary. I reached out and took the shoes, glaring at Alice. "No take-backs!" "It was intended as a gift!" The elf protested and took the shoes back. "Actually. Kara, I am sorry." My world shattered. Alice, apologizing? Did we die and go to another parallel dimension? "Don''t give me that look!" Alice protested with a bashful and whiny voice. Definitely. The explosion knocked us into a parallel dimension. Alice produced a tea table and two chairs from her satchel. These pieces of furniture wouldn''t be amiss in any Imperial palace''s gardens and were probably stolen from one such place. She then placed snacks and bottles of beverages on top of it. Lit candles floated above the table, high enough to not obstruct the view. Without any further words, she flew down the stairs, reciting a spell to push the rock away from her, creating a scalding red cylindrical tunnel as she went. * * I opened the chest and found a ton of clothes in there, neatly folded and smelling of lavender. It had everything, from men, women, children, and lizard people''s clothes. To ogre loincloths. Including everything from underwear, shoes, belts, sashes, and even neckties. Where did she get these, I had no idea and no desire to ask. It could be from a thousand years ago when she raided some clothing store, or from her defeated enemies. "Do you want to get new clothes?" I asked Kara. She smiled, then nodded. "Can you pick something for me to wear?" It was a test, I knew it. I rummaged through the clothes, then selected a blue dress with some sewn stones for her. I showed her some underwear, panties, and some top options. She picked what she wanted, and then I turned my back to her. "Thank you. This looks lovely." I heard her hum while fabrics rustled. "There. You can look now." I turned. Kara looked lovely in that blue dress. I took my time admiring the woman I fell for. Then I met her eyes. She looked away. "Do I seem ugly?" She asked. "Not at all." "I''m bald. And disfigured!" She protested. "So am I. We will need to see a Flesh Shaper but you will make a full recovery. It''s expensive but we have a huge reward waiting for us." I said as I approached and touched her scars. She pushed my hand away. "Kara. Look at me." She didn''t. I took her chin and moved her head, finding no resistance. Kara was crying. "Can you tell if I''m lying?" She snorted, sniffled, then shook her head. "You are a pretty bad liar." "Thank you. Then tell me if this is a lie. You are the most beautiful woman in the world for me. Even without hair. Even with burn marks that will disappear." She sputtered, pulled back, took a step away, then covered her face. Kara trembled. I was expecting a slap to the face and wouldn''t dodge. Instead, she jumped and threw her arms around me. "You cheesy bastard," she whispered in my ear.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. We kissed, and then Kara picked clothes for me. After we were dressed for the occasion, we helped ourselves to Alice''s tea set. * * We slept for six hours and then talked for some time before Alice returned. "Did you find Hector?" I asked. "See for yourself," She said, then proceeded to dump Hector''s partially molten armor on the ground next to his dancing sword. She showed the only intact item she found. "It''s a storage ring. Quite spacious. The armor and the sword may be salvageable, I can still sense a faint lingering magic in them but I need to see if Haru can do anything with them. It might be more profitable to just ransom it to the Lord. Oh, and I found your hat." She tossed it to me. It was charred, and threadbare, but I could still feel the bond. Once in my hands, I started to pour hundreds of MP to repair it. "Thank you." "Now, let''s get out of here. I have some instructions for you but we can talk on the way." * * It was night when we finally set foot back on the island. I was glad for it because, after all these weeks under the ground, the sunlight would blind us. Our world was already too bright with the blue and yellow suns. Now that we were back on the surface, I dreaded dealing with the aftermath of the failed expedition. The Core exploded, and everyone else was dead. Hector was dead. William¡ wasn''t a ghost. I was still curious how he survived. And what that ethereal transformation was. I digress. The Lord was going to be furious. The System contract we signed at the church shielded us from the worst but only Alice could keep us out of his reach. Then, the System slammed us with more bad news. > You gained the achievement, Dungeon Raider. Awarded for successfully raiding a Dungeon Core above your level and returning to the surface with the Dungeon Breaker. > Benefit: Ten percent Attribute Efficiency for all of your and Skippy''s Attributes. William already got his reward. "Kara, did you¡" She nodded. "Bahhhhh!" William demurely shrugged. The fear of people finding out about William was so great I felt my balance waver. Alice floated around me and supported me from behind. "William needs to learn how to conceal his magical aura," Alice said. "But don''t worry, almost nobody in the city will sense it." Silly me, trying to hide the fact that William had cracked that Dungeon Core. "But did the Core explode? Did William strike the Core the moment it went off but before it could be destroyed by its own explosion? How did he survive?" "There''s a Perk for that," I said with a sigh. "Okay. This stays between the three of us," Alice said. "It will be a shitshow if people learn of what really happened. You will be questioned about this, most likely at another visit to the temple. Did any of you witness the Core explosion? Don''t answer. You didn''t. I can see the burn marks. You were fleeing from it, far away from the explosion. You would be dead otherwise. When questioned, you will say only three things. First, that you didn''t break the Core. Second, that you were away from the Core when it exploded. And third, that only you two survived. No speculation, no telling how people died. You weren''t directly or indirectly involved in any deaths or we would know through the original contract. And that is it. This tale dies with the two of you. That, or this tale will be the death of you. Your choice." Kara and I had the same reaction. We shuddered as if the grim reaper had rubbed our spines with their cold scythe. "Understood." "They will try to rephrase the questions but you will say only that," Alice said. "We can rehearse it later on. Let''s go home. I have a carriage waiting for us near the bridge." She had the light orbs follow above us, flooding the woods around us with light. Four giant Ocypus beetles were grazing near the carriage. As we approached, the Driver whistled and the gentle monsters came to let him attach them to the harnesses. Alice sighed and reached for Kara''s hand. "Come with me. The boys wait outside for a while." Kara didn''t want to go but she wanted to offend Alice even less. The women went into the carriage and closed the curtains. "Bahhhhh!" William complained, indignant. I scratched behind his ears. "I know, buddy." I could use some time to digest what happened. But not the hour they took inside. * * The door opened. Kara wore a floral sundress and a blonde wig. It was shocking but her smile put a fire in my heart. We boarded the Ocypus-pulled carriage. I didn''t miss the fact that Baron Montmour''s mansion was missing. A charred crater occupied the site. I glanced at Alice, she stared out the window and made sure to avoid eye contact. Bloody hells, Alice! Ocypus beetles were damn cheap and easy to care for. But they were slow as molasses. We rode for four hours back to town. Kara held my hand all the way but we fell asleep soon after departure. It was good to be home. I felt sorry for Hector but in hindsight, he was unsuited for the task. His descent into madness was a harrowing tale about greed, entitlement, and the burdens of leadership. A sobering tale. * * We should have gone straight to the castle, with a victory parade just like when the Wolfertinger Sire was defeated. If the expedition was successful and we were victorious, that was. Hector would be leading us. Instead, we took the road that would lead us to the Guild Hall. A group of army knights was stationed near the Guild Hall when we approached. They recognized Alice''s carriage and blocked the street. "Halt!" An officer shouted. "Prepare for inspection!" Alice opened a hatch on the ceiling and flew out. The hatch shut right after she passed. Inside the carriage, we could only hear what was going on. Because I wouldn''t open the doors, not even for a dragon. "You try to block my transport, Colonel, and I''ll schedule a meeting with the Gods for you." "Guild Master, we have orders¨C" "I am not seeing your men clear the street, Colonel. Move or be moved on the count of five." "Four." "Guild ¨C" "Three!" "-- Master." "Two!!" "MAKE WAY!" Marching boots on cobblestones hurriedly scrambled away. "Thank you, Colonel. You may go and report this: ''Guild Master Alice has the survivors of the expedition with her but it is late and everyone is tired. Tomorrow, two hours after noon, they will be at the System temple to offer all the information they can to the Lord''s satisfaction. She also stated that anyone trying to infringe on the rights of her wards or the Guild will be polymorphed into a Goblin. Permanently. She will then place a bounty of one gold coin on every confirmed Goblin kill inside the city." The Colonel played his last hand. "Guard Captain Kara is required to report for duty." Alice giggled. "Nope... She''s my hostage. Driver, take us inside the complex." The carriage moved. I made sure all the curtains were closed. Kara was oddly calm. I reached for her hand and held it. "Are you okay with that?" "Strangely, yes," she laughed nervously. "Does it mean I am being kidnapped? Like a Princess?" Was she¡ man, I was so confused. I had no idea of what was going on in her mind. And she was older than me, twenty-five to sixteen. Was she roleplaying, was she sad and hiding her pain under that veneer, was she enjoying all this? I decided to take a risk and go along. "Yes. You are now my hostage and you¨C" She broke into a fit of giggles at my terrible impression of a villain. Caricature, is more likely. "Kyaa! Please, I will do anything you want, just don''t hurt me!" I heard Alice snort and laugh above the carriage. But the way Kara said "anything"... stirred something in me. Some thoughts I was trying to avoid¡ I pulled her on my lap. Kara wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her body against mine. That sundress was too thin. I could feel her as if we were touching skin to skin. Then my mind betrayed me by making me remember her naked inside the Dungeon. Kara tried to hold my shin but the hat repelled her. She took it off my bald head and tossed it away. Sleepy jumped and snatched it. Then she tilted my head up and stared into my eyes. "It''s okay," she whispered in my ear. I think I heard the sound of popcorn popping outside the carriage. It must be my imagination because I couldn''t think of anything. At all. A primal instinct was trying to take over my mind but my civilized. Kara touched me. William put a hoof in front of Sleepy''s eyes. Something using a cherry as a metaphor happened. And now we interrupt this narrative and fast forward to the meeting at the temple. Shh. It is already embarrassing enough that Alice later reminded me the carriage wasn''t soundproof. 64 - Hostile Debriefing Since it was almost morning when we arrived, Alice decided that tomorrow was tomorrow and we spent the whole day hidden inside the Guild. Not exactly hidden because everyone knew we were there, it was the day''s gossip. Not that anyone talked about it inside the Guild Hall. No, it was one of the least busy days of the year. The reason? Alice was pissed because the army had somehow scried on us and learned that only the two of us survived the expedition. Her "mage pride" was hurt. She probably forgot to defend against divination magic. Because I knew the army had nobody capable enough to scry on her. She swore she was, indeed, protecting us against divination magic all the time. So, the conundrum of a hidden magic master who could beat a level 500 Archmage on the scrying countermeasures war kept Alice busy all day. That meant we had a whole day to relax, decompress, have¡ something that rhymes with decompress, clean up, and get some Dwarven beard-restoring balm rubbed on our heads. Burnt beards were very common among dwarves and their concoction worked on other species too. Exporting it to human lands was the hard part. It also made the balm an expensive luxury among other things. I was worried about Kara''s recovery. Her left ear was a molten mess of flesh and most of her left side had burn scars. I was afraid that at least the ear would have to be cut off and then regrown. It was a costly process. The reward money for the Dungeon raid could not cover it even if we pooled our resources. I made sure to shower my affection on her the whole day. * * But as the suns rose on the second day since we returned, it was time to pay the Piper and face the City Lord. My bonds remained in Alice''s apartment on the fourth floor of the Guild Hall. With one arm over each of our shoulders and a couple of birds on her head (don''t ask. Her mood was fowl and the birds had a clear purpose, whatever that was), she led us into the temple. A furious City Lord awaited in front of the door. "Captain Kara! Get over here this very instant!" Everyone on the temple street stopped to watch, even those doom-saying priests of the God of the Old World. Scores of Guards came out of the alleys to make a show of numbers. The horrors of the day they arrested me resurfaced. Alice squeezed Kara''s shoulder to reassure her. "Sorry, sir. I am being held captive by the Guild Master." Kara''s greatest feat was to say that without laughing out loud. She didn''t seem like a hostage. Especially not when tap dancing. Wait, what? That dwarven hair tonic had something else in it. Maybe that''s why the City Lord was breathing fire. The Lord glared at Alice, who had her trademarked elven smug and demeaning smile. As if she was daring a child to be petulant. Because she was. To Alice, we were all children. That elderly woman who got blocked on her way back from the market by the swarm of Guards and soldiers barely able to hold her grocery basket might be a preteen in the elf''s book. The Lord huffed like a raging bull full of grief and frustration. He grew horns. "Let''s get it over with." Maybe it was time for me to grow a beard. "Lead on," Alice said. We entered the temple and reached the same room as before. Once everyone was seated, the priest started. "Under the System God''s eyes, we start this debriefing session as agreed in your contract. Know that the System sees all and will severely punish lies. Fear not. The truth will be revealed." A pressure settled on us. It felt like we were under the gaze of a mighty entity. A portal opened and an armored man entered. The armor resembled the one the priests wore but was like the skin of a man made of steel, with round curves, and no armor straps. Colorful bands of light across it. The priest fell to his knees and pressed his forehead to the ground. Wait. Was this the avatar of the System God? "At ease. From the faithful, I demand only service, never subservience." "Master," the priest was in tears. "I am honored." The armored man waved a hand. "Man, don''t make it awkward. Here, give me a hug." Then, Alice and the Lord started to sing. He''s the hero we need, a cyborg with speed Fighting for justice, with power that''s supreme! Everyone, Kara, Alice, Lord, Priest, and the mechanical man, stared at me and whispered, "He''s Black Jack Six!" William entered the room, chewing on some grass. "Wake Ahhhhh-p!" * * I woke up and sat up, breathing heavily. I was drenched in sweat. Looking around me, I was still in Alice''s guest room with Kara by my side. Then I noticed I was screaming. "George?" Kara woke up and rubbed my chest with her hand. "Is everything okay?" "Yes," I laughed to release tension. "I had a weird dream about the System God." She kissed my cheek, letting the sheets fall down and giving me the best view ever. "Calm down. It was just a dream. Tell me what happened." I told her. Kara hugged me as we dove under the duvet. * * I thought I had gained the gift of prophecy. Everything up to the priest''s warning about lying happened the same way. Except that the Lord didn''t grow horns, Kara didn''t display her amazing tap dance skills, and Alice didn''t have birds on her head. We had three people on our side but the Lord had four advisors with him. The four were City officials and were there only as witnesses. They shouldn''t talk during the proceedings. The priest gave the same warning about not lying during this sacred ceremony, and a portal didn''t open.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. On second thought, most of the things that did happen were pretty obvious and easy to predict. "Let us begin. City Lord, you may ask your questions." "Where is my son!" He roared and slammed a fist against the table. I answered that one. "We do not know. The last time I saw Hector, he was hitting the Dungeon Core while we fought the third-floor boss. But the core was about to explode so we fled the room." "Truth!" The priest proclaimed. The fun part of this session was that we didn''t need to disclose the full truth. The only hard rule was that we couldn''t lie in any of our statements. Nor could we use creative wordplay to weave dubious statements. If we tried, the Priest would quickly call on the System''s power. It wouldn''t be a punishment the first time but it would make the other party very suspicious. If the City Lord could get any more suspicious. The Lord grumbled and would murder us if he could. "What happened to the core?!?" I continued answering. "The Core exploded. It severely wounded both me and Kara even though we were in another room. Hector failed to break the Dungeon Core. He even used a dancing sword to no avail." "Truth!" More grunts from the bereaved father. He moved on to the next question. "Did either of you break the Core?" "Neither of us was even close to the core and didn''t fire a single attack in its direction. During combat, I was fully focused on the boss.." "Truth!" He changed targets. "What about you, Captain Kara?" "I was tending to the wounded. I never went into the Core room nor used any ranged attacks. I also saw Lord Hector attack the Core." "Truth!" The next question was directed at the Priest. "Did any of these two violate the contract?" "No." A pause followed the priest''s statement. "Are you satisfied?" Alice said. "I searched for your son down there. I only found his dimensional storage ring, his armor, and the dancing sword." "Truth!" The priest shouted. The next part was cruel but the City Lord was an antagonist now. Alice held a hand up to signal she wasn''t done. "Since the contract we signed for the raid expedition didn''t address salvage rights, I will use the Guild''s guidelines. I had these items appraised by a sworn enchanter, and their ransom is as follows." She spoke a value in platinum that drained the color from my face. Each platinum coin was worth a hundred gold coins. Without waiting for an answer, she pulled a lidless coffin from her satchel and placed it on the table without making a sound. "The armor contained your son''s mortal remains, which weren''t incinerated in the blast. Here is Hector''s corpse." Kara grabbed my hand underneath the table. A charred and caved ribcage, spine, and pelvis bone was all that remained of Hector. I glanced at Kara and she was weeping. Bloody hell. Hector might not deserve this fate but it was what fate had in store for him. I felt guilty for not being more assertive when things started to derail. I should''ve taken the mantle of leadership off of him after we defeated the Shambler Requiem. I should''ve called his hypocrisy still on the first floor and declared him unfit for the raid because of his wound. The Lord screamed in pain. He pulled the coffin closer and then drew a knife. The Priest didn''t react. The man sliced his hand and dripped some blood on the bones. One of the advisors then poured a transparent potion on the blood and the bones and blood glowed golden. Despair settled on the Lord''s party as they confirmed that it was indeed Hector. I felt the urge to throw my breakfast. My jaw was clenched so tightly that my teeth hurt. Then, the silence was broken by the coldest voice I ever heard Alice use. It was merciless and fearsome, carrying a sense of impending doom. That was the Archmage of Destruction of yore, a frightening villain who killed millions, resurfacing. "Do you have any more questions, Lord? Otherwise, the three of us will leave. You can decide whether to pay the ransom or not at your own convenience." His will expended, the Lord''s persona took a backseat and the father grieved. The most powerful man in the city slumped back on his chair and wept. Alice stood up in silence. As ruthless as she could be, I couldn''t believe she had this much cruelty in her. Kara and I stood up after her but the Lord raised a hand. "Captain Kara, you will stay." "She''s my hostage," Alice said, the same tone that expected no resistance and promised swift punishment if they did. "You are welcome to try and rescue her." "Truth!" Those were all the wrong words. The City Lord was still a Noble with a high level, most likely in the triple digits. It begged the question of why didn''t he raid with us but the answer came to me moments later. I remembered the impulse to claim the Core. Could he resist that pull if he was in the room? Seeing how much William''s Attributes and Features improved after he broke the Core, I could answer that. If I were in the Lord''s shoes, I would a hundred percent steal the Core from my son. The power it offered was ridiculous. He glared at Kara as if he wanted to kill her. "You are a disgrace to the Guard uniform, woman! You are relieved of your duties!" "Truth!" "What?" Kara gasped, indignant. "After all I did to rebuild the Guard garrison, after being used by your son as a puppet to drag George into the Dungeon, after promising me heaps of gold which I still didn''t see, after I risked my life in the Dungeon trying to save your military officers from death while your drunk son issued the most ridiculous orders, suffering abuse from your son! You dare DEMOTE ME?" "Truth!" The Priest only confirmed the statements. The grieving Lord found an outlet for his negative feelings and became furious. Getting lip from Kara was the last straw. His hand hammered the table and smashed it to smithereens. His advisors quickly grabbed the coffin to keep it from falling down and desecrating Hector''s mortal remains. "You traitor!" He pointed a fist at her and was about to cross the room to attack Kara. "Lie!" A pressure from above descended upon the room, causing Kara and I to fall to our knees, along with the advisors. Alice and the Priest were the only ones unaffected. We felt the strength leave the Lord''s body as he fell to his knees clutching over his heart. He gasped and wheezed as foam seeped from the corners of his mouth. A triangle of blue boxes appeared over the ruined table. It was obvious that everyone could see it. > As a punishment, Lord Tobias has permanently lost twenty percent of all Attributes'' Efficiency ratings. Shitting Hells. That was... Almost as bad as dying. Efficiency didn''t grow in trees and it was really hard to gain these points. The System had just crippled the City Lord. "The apple doesn''t fall far from the tree," Alice said. The Priest was about to call truth or lie but shut his mouth before the words escaped his lips. The Lord pointed at Kara. With trembling lips, he declared. "You are fired!" "Truth!" The only two reasons this hadn''t yet devolved into violence was that the System would punish the perpetrators instantly and two, Alice had probably enough physical Attributes to kick all these men into submission without even using her magic. Kara huffed in relief. Her eyes were unfocused as she stared at something from the System. Kara let the tension leave her body. Her next words made me understand why she wanted to be fired so badly. "Finally! I thought you wouldn''t discharge me from my job. I didn''t want to quit but now that you and your son did all this to me, I would be distraught if I was forced to continue doing my previous duties." "Truth!" It didn''t make sense. Kara loved her job. What did the System do to trigger this? It was obvious that something happened when she was fired. I would ask her what it was about later. As we met each other''s eyes, she mouthed "later" to me. "You played all your cards," Alice said. Each sentence that followed below increased her menacing aura tenfold. When she finished, even I was scared. "Except for the cards that will bring your House ruin. I suggest you sire more children and, at least this time, don''t raise them to be spoiled little bitches. Hector was your failure. Having him try the Dungeon for its Core was throwing good money after bad." Everyone was frozen in place. Her words felt like hammers banging on our conscience. The guilt for failing. For being the survivors. For benefiting from the tragedy. The effect was worse on the City Lord. He physically flinched with every affirmation. The Lord didn''t have the Strength to refute her words. Not even to fight back. But Alice wasn''t done. "Hear me. You will not besmirch these two valiant delvers who survived your son''s folly. Tell the right story or tell no more tales. These two now have immunity in your city. No matter what they do, they will only be prosecuted for anything if I personally authorize it. She was the City Lord''s sword of Damocles. Alice must have a Charisma score in the high hundreds and she was making use of all of it. It didn''t compel us to change our minds but allowed us to sense the intent and the truthfulness of her words. "If you try anything against them, no matter how many proxies you use, I will know. If any of them dies, I will use this city as the first step on my Ascension quest. You will be known forevermore as the fool who provoked the Archmage of Destruction out of retirement." When she stated her title, something shattered in the Lord''s mind. It was the same reaction of a prisoner who learned he was about to be tossed into an arena to wrestle a dragon. Powerless, defeated. The Lord had no moral ground to stand on. And I think he had been smitten by the System when he lied. I hoped it wasn''t a permanent debuff. But any anger, defiance, or even disobedience was washed out of his system. His pride was shattered, and his perceptions were humbled. "Tr-truth¡" Poor priest. Not a chapter: Waylaid by Bacteria! I got a nasty throat infection that''s bugging (ha) me since last Wednesday. I am on antibiotics now so fingers crossed that it will solve the issue. I have 65 drafted but I couldn''t review it. In the following hours it should come online.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Errata: - In chapter 60 - The next sub-Class is at level 35, instead of 40. The following line was added: > You gain extra experience from binding souls, finding new beast types, biomes, and special locations. 0065 - Cape and Cowl (Book 1 End). POV: Kara ---------------------------------- The moment the City Lord fired Kara, she could barely contain her tension and excitement. She expected the System to chime immediately but it didn''t. Instead, a small blue box appeared only for her. > Wait until after the meeting is over. I got yer sixes, fam. Kara had no idea what or where her sixes were. She only understood she had to wait. So, wait she did. Alice said her threats, the Lord got a massive debuff from the System, and they were free to go. The City Lord''s condition was none of Kara''s business but she couldn''t not worry. The debuff he was hit with for lying seemed permanent. It shouldn''t be as bad as the fearsome Oathbreaker one but still¡ she could only watch him board his carriage and go. The Secretary of Finances was waiting outside for them. Without even greeting them, he handed them a bank deposit receipt. It was their payment for the expedition. Kara used her Validate Document Perk on both hers and George''s receipts and confirmed they weren''t counterfeit. She adjusted her hood to cover her skin. Her hair still refused to grow and she had massive burns on her body. A lot of the gold she earned as payment would go into healing her wounds. George was much better in that aspect. He was further inside the tunnel, had more HP than her, and a magical amulet to protect him from the heat. Her right ear itched. The skin had melted and it was now an ugly, misshaped, and itchy lump of scar tissue. Kara didn''t have the guts to scratch it. So, she endured. George and she went on several errands, and then, she finally could be alone in her new bedroom. With a sigh, Kara looked at herself in the mirror. Her pride swelled when the System acknowledged her as the perfect example of what a Guard should be. But it also planted the seeds of doubt. That the city didn''t deserve her. That she would be betrayed and cast away. It was prophetic. But she still had no idea what it meant. > Your Trait, I''m not Batman, yet¡ has been activated and consumed. You won''t lose the bonus Endurance. > Your Classes have been fused, changed, and upgraded. You became a level 37 Silver-Age Vigilante (Epic). All previous Class and subclass features have been retained. > Class Experience: After delivering a criminal to justice, you gain Experience equal to their kill value. Halve any negative level differences. > You gained the Trait, Alternate Identity. You may have several alternate identities. For each alternate identity, set a shift up or down by up to 20% for each Attribute. The sum of all changes must add to zero. Once set, it cannot be changed without discarding that identity. You have a Vigilante identity for free. For each Sub-Class you have, you gain another identity. Abandoning a subclass means abandoning the respective identity. Switching identities takes 10 seconds and carries a 10-minute cooldown. Switching identities only affects Attribute efficiency and what is stated in other Features. > You gained the trait, Justice Pays. For every 1000*N levels of wrongdoers you arrest, you gain a new subclass slot. N starts at zero and is equal to the number of subclasses gained by this trait. This is a Parallel Progression. > Justice Pays granted you a subclass slot. N has increased to 1. > You have three open subclass slots. > You gained the Trait, Cape, and Cowl: you can set an outfit, complete with gear, armor, and weapons for each identity. When you change identities, all currently worn items, including non-storage weapons (thank George for that) held in your hands are sent to a pocket dimension and associated with the swapped identity. The gear associated with the assumed identity is brought forth, if any. Each new identity comes preloaded with basic cotton clothes and leather shoes. If you abandon a subclass, the associated equipment immediately drops to the ground. > You gained 185 Attribute Points and 40% Attribute Efficiency to distribute. > You gained the Stealth Skill. Rank I benefit: When skulking around, increase the effects of all Attributes, except for Clarity, by 10% per rank for purposes of avoiding detection. > Your next Class Skill is at level 170. Kara couldn''t believe it. * * POV: George. Once our duties at the temple were over and we were paid, we decided to go to Kara''s new home and get her things. She was renting an apartment and I had plenty of space back home.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! But before we left, Alice stopped us at the foot of the temple steps for some last-minute talk. "I don''t expect them to be stupid enough to try anything but here. Take these with you." She conjured some winged eyes that could turn invisible and had them follow us. People saw her conjure these monsters, including some Guards who were making sure the temple avenue was free of criminals. As if. "Those are called ''eyes of Cerebellon'' and report what they see to me. So, no naughty business until you are back home." Kara didn''t like it but I stayed the fuck out of that silent argument. Immortality begets boredom, as they say. Alice wasn''t immune to that; creating drama was how she kept herself entertained. My improved mental Attributes, especially Charisma, made me notice the motivation behind her behavior. The Lord came out of the temple and went straight to his carriage. The crowd of Guards had dispersed. Our first stop was to get the remaining chests for my quiver. Everything went fine and I could see that the design of the latest ones was improved from the prototype. It was good to have some variety and even bigger chests because, with all the Strength points I gained, I could lift so much more. Then we went to Kara''s apartment and gathered all her things, including what furniture she salvaged from her old house, the one Alice destroyed. Kara was spacing out. I felt like she had something to tell me but I couldn''t force her to spit it out. She would do it on her own time. * * It happened faster than I expected. The same day, after dinner. "George, honey," she started, then bit her lip. "I have something to share with you. Is now a good time?" I dumped the dishes in the sink and turned around. "Sure is. What''s on your mind?" "When I gained my promotion to Guard Paragon, I also gained a strange Trait. One that did nothing until I was fired from my job. No, I lie. It gave me fifty free points of Endurance. I also couldn''t speak about it until I was unjustly fired." "Which just happened. Don''t worry about the secrecy requirement. The System does it all the time," I sighed. "You too?" She asked with a surprised face. "Yeah. I''ve had entire conversations with the System." She chuckled. "Anyway, now that I was fired from my job, my Class changed because of that Trait. I''m no longer associated with the Guard." Only one thing mattered. "Are you happy with your new Class?" Nervous, she laughed. "Happy? Yes. That trait was consumed but my new Class came with a new Skill, new Traits, and it absorbed my Lawyer Class! George, it bumped me to Epic! I have three open subclass slots! I grinned. "Same here. No, not the subclass slots. The promotion to Epic. What can your class do?" "Hunt criminals. I became a Silver Age Vigilante." Kara stood up and went around the table. She leaned to whisper in my ear. "It granted me a Parallel Progression. As I hunt criminals and deliver them justice, I gain extra non-combat subclass slots and bonus Experience." "Bahhhhh!" William voiced his apprehension. Given that he was now a Phantom Thief, I feared our family dynamics would become very, very complicated. I let my mouth hang. Kara made a smug smile. "I have a Parallel Progression too. It was granted to me because of Scout''s Oath." She was surprised, then became thoughtful. "So that''s why you seemed stronger than your level suggested. I overheard the Knights speculating about your level back in the Dungeon. They concluded that your level should be between sixty and eighty." "Damn. Did they manage to measure my Attributes this close to their actual values? What rarity did they think I was?" "I didn''t hear that part of their conversation. But I believe Scout is an uncommon Class, right?" I nodded. "Though mine had a modifier and was granted by the Heirloom. It got bumped up a notch. Tell me more about your new Features." Kara read her whole Status Sheet to me. It was a massive amount of trust. At one point, I got rather envious. She gained whole subclass slots! Though she needed to pay the Experience for these slots, while my Parallel Progression delivered the points straight to me. The amount of levels was also staggering. But would I trade fifty Attribute points for one more subclass? It was the comparison because her PP needed a thousand levels for the next subclass slot. Absolutely. But then I realized that it scaled. The next slot would cost two thousand levels, then three, and so on and so forth. She would become really strong and versatile but it would take an increasing amount of effort down the line. "I am so happy for you. Unfortunately, I got stuck on level thirty-four. One more level to get my second subclass slot." "What do you think you''ll pick?" "Probably Marksman, to increase my ranged damage and add some tricks to my repertoire. But not right now. If I fill the slot now, I''m going to get an itch to level it up and we promised to stay quiet while we heal." Kara raised a hand to her left ear, the melted one, and stopped right before she touched the scarred skin. She sighed. "I''m going to take that Class Hector wanted. The one with regenerative powers." My first reaction was to say no but I held back. "Know what? You should. So long you bring the Skill to rank ten before you drop. You can afford to use your subclass slots that way. And we should think about your Attribute efficiency and your identities thing. Does the Trait lock you out of any of your Class options?" "No. I honestly don''t think it is that good," she said. "Oh. No. It''s perfect. You can have disparaging Attribute sets for each occasion. And think of how much equipment you can stow away in that mystical wardrobe of yours." "It''s called Cape and Cowl." Most likely another of the System''s shenanigans. "Let''s strategize." We spent the rest of the evening going over plans for her Attributes. Kara could min-max her build like crazy. * * Late that night, William stopped pretending to sleep. He checked around him and used his Traits, becoming incorporeal and then, invisible. He darted through the streets, through the buildings, through people. They couldn''t see him, touch him, hear him, smell him. Probably not even taste him but William was unwilling to put himself in people''s mouths to check and much less let them eat him. No, today he was on a mission. A self-imposed one. Crossing the castle walls was no problem. They had no protection against incorporeal intruders. Why care? It wasn''t like the town had any previous problems with such things. He moved down the corridors; invisible, intangible, and without making a sound. William found what he was looking for after an hour of wandering around. He used his Traits and had his spectral appendage remove the trophy from the wall and put it in his storage. It was a very convenient thing to have a way to keep items without carrying them on his back. Though he missed the simpler days of wandering around with his saddlebags. He also had a fainter grasp of reality and the intricacies of life. Back then, he only concerned himself with following his former master, eating, sleeping, and getting shelter from predators. And yet now here he was, pilfering objects of art from the corrupt City Lord. As William pondered, staring at an empty wall, he decided he should leave his mark. He wanted people to know who had brought justice to them. Yes, because they didn''t own that object. He used his horns and carved an X on the wall. The mithril-enhanced horns had no trouble scratching the stone bricks. Satisfied, he just walked out. -------------------------------------------------- The end of Book 1. Book 1, Appendix 1: Character Sheets. George:
| Soul-Binder Ranger (Epic) | ||||
| Level | 34 | |||
| Attribute | Base | Bonds | Efficiency | Total |
| Strength | 316 | 72 | 140% | 543 |
| Dexterity | 245 | 100 | 150% | 517 |
| Endurance | 248 | 156 | 170% | 686 |
| Intelligence | 214 | 19 | 130% | 302 |
| Wisdom | 219 | 29 | 140% | 347 |
| Clarity | 151 | 44 | 130% | 253 |
| Charisma | 84 | 21 | 130% | 136 |
| Health (HP) | 476 | 228 | 5533 | |
| Mana (MP) | 272 | 57 | 1161 | |
| Stamina (SP) | 238 | 62 | 1890 | |
Perceptive. Effects of Attributes on Perception increased by 50%. Scout¡¯s Duty. For every twenty levels of creatures killed based on intelligence you gathered, you gain 1 Attribute point randomly assigned to Dexterity, Endurance, or Wisdom. Your own kills do not count toward this Trait. This is a Parallel Progression. Bond Synergy. Add ten percent of your base Attributes and resources as a bonus to bonded beasts. Add five percent of the base Attributes and resources of each bonded beast to yours. Extra Bonds. You may have two extra Beast Bonds. Sympathetic Resistances: You and all your bonds share part of their resistances. Immunity is instead shared as high resistance. Energy attacks received by you or your bonds deal half as much damage when it originates from you or your bonds. Soul Magic affinity: You have improved ease to learn, develop, and cast Soul magic. Bond Status: You can see the Status Sheet of your bonds.Class Experience:
Discover threats and resources while ranging at a good distance from your group''s main shelter. Bond and care for beasts you control. Binding souls, finding new beast types, biomes, and special locations.Skills: Scouting, Rank V
Reduce terrain penalties to movement by R*10%. Increase the effects of Intelligence on tracking by R*10% The error in your estimates of distance, time, and direction lowers by R*9% All of your senses'' range, accuracy, and the resistance to distractions, overwhelming input, or hindering debuffs increase by R*7.5% When not in combat, you move R*10% faster without loss of awareness.Beast Mastery, Rank IV
If you or your party don''t intend to harm non-hostile beasts, their reactions are R*20% more favorable to you. Monsters under your tutelage learn R*10% faster. Beasts under your care heal R*8% faster. Beasts you raise from infancy develop R*10% more of their true potential.Perks:
Wilderness Survivor: When in any natural setting, your needs for sustenance are reduced by (25 + Endurance / 10)%, to a maximum of 95%. Beast Bond: You can bond with tame and friendly beasts. Up to 1+sqrt([Endurance+Charisma+Clarity]/200) such bonds may exist at the same time. Rope Mastery: Rope you manipulate may become (100+Endurance)% tougher and harder to cut or burn, or weaker if you will. Knots you tie do not come apart naturally unless you will them so. You deal double damage with whips. Summon Sandpaper: Spend 10 MP to conjure a 0.2sq.m sheet of diamond dust sandpaper with any grain you want. Conjured sandpaper vanishes after 24 hours. Diamond dust cannot be traded or used as either reagents or crafting materials. Attempting to do so will trigger an early dismissal. MP transfer: You and your bonds may move HP between any of you at a ratio of 3 spent MP to 2 gained MP. Heal Bond: Spend MP to heal your bonded creatures you touch. This is a channeled effect and requires concentration.
| Name: | William Ol? |
| Species: | Silver-Square-Eyes Phantom-Thief Tityron |
| Rarity: | 2xLegendary |
| Level | 36 |
| Strength | 941 |
| Dexterity | 1195 |
| Endurance | 2327 |
| Intelligence | 260 |
| Wisdom | 244 |
| Clarity | 145 |
| Charisma | 253 |
| Health (HP) | 47083 |
| Mana (MP) | 1141 |
| Stamina (SP) | 1816 |
Chimeric Strength: Like all chimeras, your flesh is 20% stronger for each fused base animal (currently 40%) you are made out of. Weather-Hoof Wool: Your wool has an innate ability to regulate temperature. You treat all environmental temperatures as sqrt(Endurance) degrees Celsius closer to your comfort zone. You take 75% less damage from cold and fire attacks. Capricornucopia: You can store up to sqrt(Endurance+Strength+Clarity) kilograms of mass in a dimensional pocket. Time does not pass inside. Ghoast Mode: You can toggle an immaterial state at will. While immaterial: You exert no pressure upon fluids surrounding you. Physical attacks deal no damage while energy attacks deal 50% more damage. You can move through solid objects and creatures. Attempting to become corporeal again while inside solid matter shunts you to the nearest open space, dealing severe damage to both you and the solid matter as you are shunted. Goathon Hand: You have a spectral fifth limb that is detached from your body. It is invisible and incorporeal but can manipulate objects as well as a hand with half your Strength and Dexterity score can. The Goat Hand can send items it can lift into your Caprinurcopia storage.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. M-Bleathril Horns: Your horns are laced with Mithril, granting them great resilience. They deal double damage to creatures vulnerable to silver, truesilver, and/or mithril. This Mithril reverts to ordinary silver if separated from your body. Square-Cube Eyes: Spend MP to Change the inertia, kinetic energy, and momentum of objects and creatures in your sight. Bleautiful Eyes: Enemies who stare into your square eyes are stunned for sqrt(Strength+Clarity+Charisma+Endurance) milliseconds. They become immune to this effect for the next 24 hours.Perks:
Hornficient Parry: Increase your Dexterity score by 50% when parrying with your horns. Attacks and effects successfully parried by your horns deal no damage to you. Hoofect Step: Reduce all penalties by 50% when performing acrobatic jumps. Woolesome Armor: Reduce damage from attacks and effects that touch your wool by 34% before it is applied to your HP. Your wool is immune to burning and corrosion. Impala-ing Horns: Your piercing attacks with your horns have a 10% odds of scoring a critical hit, ignoring the target''s HP, if any. Billy Jean is not my Goat: If you so desire, you may appear exactly as an ordinary Tityron. Smooth Goatminal: While immaterial, you may become invisible for a small MP cost. Just Bleat It: You can taunt enemies with a bleat. Enemies suffer a 50% accuracy penalty if they target your allies while you are still active in combat. Beast of Burden: When carrying or pulling heavy loads, you move as if it were 75% lighter. Your carrying capacity is unchanged. Pushcart Expert: When pulling a cart, it has 75% lesser inertia. Wheels ignore 50% of any terrain movement penalties. Luggage Preservation: Luggage in your care is water and oil-proof; it also enjoys Hardness equal to 20% of your Endurance score. Perishables in your care deteriorate sqrt(1+Endurance/50) times slower.
| Name: | Sleepy |
| Species: | Wolfertinger |
| Rarity: | Legendary |
| Level | 32 |
| Strength | 321 |
| Dexterity | 598 |
| Endurance | 689 |
| Intelligence | 115 |
| Wisdom | 256 |
| Clarity | 598 |
| Charisma | 49 |
| Health (HP) | 4891 |
| Mana (MP) | 2687 |
| Stamina (SP) | 1735 |
Chimeric Strength: Like all chimeras, your flesh is 20% stronger for each fused base animal (currently 80%) you are made out of. Wolf''s Hunger: You can consume up to sqrt(Endurance/10) kilograms of food before your stomach becomes full. Rabbit''s Reflexes: Increase your Dexterity score by 50% for evasion purposes. Reindeer''s Red Nose: Immune to ice and cold damage. Reduce heat and fire damage received by 50%. When temperatures drop below zero Celsius, your nose starts to glow. An area with a radius of sqrt(Clarity) meters has its temperature set to 5oC. Ice and Cold attacks that come into contact with this area are weakened by 50%. Hawk''s Acrobatics: When flying, double your Dexterity for maneuverability and speed purposes. You require less wingspan to fly. Al-Mi''raj''s Impaling Horns: Al attacks made with your horn deal 50% more damage and may cause critical hits. Jackalope''s Lightning: Immune to Lightning damage and Stun effects. MP costs for lightning spells are reduced by (N/2)% where N is the percentage of your antlers that remain intact. Wolpertinger''s Immunities: Immune to poison and acid damage. Immune to diseases and parasites. Wolfertinger''s Tenacity: Reduce bleeding damage by 80%. You may ignore fatal and incapacitating wounds for sqrt(Endurance) seconds. The latter effect has a 4-hour cooldown if you survive.Perks:
Last of your Kind: You are the last Wolfertinger alive. Once per day, when dealt a fatal wound, you take only half the physical damage. Fast Budding: Your antlers, fur, and feathers grow sqrt(Endurance/100) times faster if they aren''t yet at maximum size. Rejuvenating Sleep: You heal and recover resources sqrt[(Endurance+Clarity)/100] times faster when sleeping. You require sqrt(Endurance/10)% less sustenance while sleeping to a maximum of 75% Ball Lightning: You may cast lightning spells as an AOE effect centered on you. This AOE effect deals 25% less damage to each target. Mostly Harmless: Increase your Charisma by 50% when engaging in non-hostile social interactions.
| Silver-Age Vigilante (Epic) | |||
| Level | 37 | ||
| Attribute | Base | Efficiency | Total |
| Strength | 200 | 130% | 260 |
| Dexterity | 200 | 130% | 260 |
| Endurance | 535 | 170% | 909 |
| Intelligence | 110 | 120% | 132 |
| Wisdom | 110 | 120% | 132 |
| Clarity | 10 | 110% | 11 |
| Charisma | 55 | 110% | 60 |
| Health (HP) | 777 | 7839 | |
| Mana (MP) | 148 | 343 | |
| Stamina (SP) | 296 | 686 | |
"I''m not Batman¡ yet.": Gained 50 points of Endurance. Alternate Identity. You may have several alternate identities. For each alternate identity, set a shift up or down by up to 20% for each Attribute. The sum of all changes must add to zero. Once set, it cannot be changed without discarding that identity. You have a Vigilante identity for free. For each Sub-Class you have, you gain another identity. Abandoning a subclass means abandoning the respective identity. Switching identities takes 10 seconds and carries a 10-minute cooldown. Switching identities only affects Attribute efficiency and what is stated in other Features. Justice Pays. For every 1000*N levels of wrongdoers you arrest, you gain a new subclass slot. N starts at zero and is equal to the number of subclasses gained by this trait. This is a Parallel Progression. Trait, Cape, and Cowl: you can set an outfit, complete with gear, armor, and weapons for each identity. When you change identities, all currently worn items, including non-storage weapons (thank George for that) held in your hands are sent to a pocket dimension and associated with the swapped identity. The gear associated with the assumed identity is brought forth, if any. Each new identity comes preloaded with basic cotton clothes and leather shoes. If you abandon a subclass, the associated equipment immediately drops to the ground.Class Experience:
When creating or handling official documents. When working on a judicial case. When training fellow Guards, keeping the city safe, and refusing corruption. Its harder than it sounds. After delivering a criminal to justice, you gain Experience equal to their kill value. Halve any negative level differences.Skills: Stealth Skill, Rank I
When skulking around, increase the effects of all Attributes, except for Clarity, by R*10% for purposes of avoiding detection.Notary, Rank VI
Reduce misinterpretations and mistakes when reading by R*9%. Increase reading speed by R*20%. Increase memory retention of read materials by R*10% The effects of all Attributes are R*25% higher when examining signatures. The effects of Intelligence and Wisdom when checking a document for forgeries or alterations are R*20% higher. The effects of Intelligence and Wisdom when checking coins and banknotes for forgeries or shavings are R*15% higher.Paralegal, Rank III
The effects of Intelligence and Wisdom when interpreting legal texts is R*10% higher. The effects of Charisma when arguing in court are R*20% higher.Investigate. Rank I
Clues are R*20% easier to spot. No, 100% easier doesn''t mean you automatically find them.Perks:
Coin Counter: After examining a bunch of coins for 1 second, you know the total value of the currency. Document Handler: Documents you prepare or store are 200% more resistant to fire and water and take 5 minutes longer to either burn or get wet. Bounty Tips: Whenever you process a bounty for someone, you gain 1/10th of the Bounty''s Experience. Objection: When raising an objection during judicial proceedings, sqrt(Charisma) seconds must pass before anyone can interrupt you. Surprise Evidence; When presenting novel evidence during judicial proceedings, the impact of said evidence on people''s opinions is doubled. Untarnished Badge. Your Guard badge and Uniform are (200+ Endurance)% tougher and cannot be soiled, stained, or dirtied. Your badge is indestructible and mitigates 75% of heart damage dealt to you when worn and displayed by you. While worn, your uniform also self-repairs at a small cost of MP. Your socks are always clean, cool, and dry no matter the circumstances. If you underappreciated the last effect, you are no soldier. Authenticate Document. Gain a 100% bonus to Intelligence and Wisdom to determine if a document is legitimate. You can imprint your MP signature on documents. The difficulty to forge your MP signature increases by (100+ Endurance + Wisdom)%.B2, 001 - Subclass Selection Kara and I took a week-long vacation to unwind. Or I took a vacation from my Guild duties since she was unemployed. During that time, she worked on fulfilling the requirements for the Stalwart Regenerator Class, mainly taking 20,000 points of HP damage in real combat. The critical injury requirement was in the bag. We went to the City Dungeon, the source of most of the raw resources the city produced. On the third floor, we found the monster to tank. Some of the first floor''s leaping horrors were capable of critical hits so we skipped them. The second floor, which was empty during my previous visit a few months ago, was populated by Wererats. They carried diseases and infected blades, so we also skipped that floor. I was thankful that this Dungeon had the omnidirectional glow effect, making lanterns optional. On the Third, we found Lesser Ogres. They ranged from levels 20 to 26 and used clubs to bash at their targets. Kara would discover one Lesser Ogre, let the monster beat her HP until it was down to double digits, and then kill the monster. It was good for both the Class unlock and to give her some real combat experience. Kara would abuse our stash of HP potions to recover and then find the next Lesser Ogre. This approach allowed Kara to get the undivided Experience from the kills. I earned bonus Attribute points from my Parallel Progression. My bonds and I kept watch for interlopers, be they monsters of other delvers thinking we would be an easy PK. * * POV: Kara After each fight, she checked her Class unlocks to see if she got it, but it never did. It took way more than fifty thousand HP of damage to unlock, proving that the information the Guild had was wrong. Worse, if it counted lifetime HP damage, the total amount could reach over a hundred thousand. But eventually, the Stalwart Regenerator Class appeared on the list. She immediately picked it up. > You became a Stalwart Regenerator (Rare). As this is a subclass, you gain only 5 Attribute points per level. > You have a debt of 37,000 Experience points. For every 1,000 Experience points you repay, the Stalwart Regenerator subclass will gain a level. No Experience will be awarded to your Main Class during this time. > You gained the Trait, Enduring Recovery: You recover from wounds [10+sqrt(2*Endurance+Clarity)]% faster. > You gained the Skill, Regeneration. Rank I Benefits: Wounds are R*5% less severe for purposes of recovery. > Class Experience: You gain Experience by recovering from wounds. "And we''re done," Kara said. "Though the Experience debt is crippling." A blue box popped in front of her. > For recovering from wounds, you gained 1 Experience. "Still crippling," she said with a sigh. "It took way too long. What went wrong?" George asked. "The information the Guild had was wrong. To unlock the Class, it requires more than a hundred thousand spent HP." "Well, at least it didn''t have a third hidden requirement. Or if it had, you passed it." "Yeah. But I still wished the System told us what it was." "It would make Class unlock information way less valuable." "I don''t think the guy in the Red Moon cares about that." "Me neither. But he handles things with a hands-off approach. Hey, do you want to go down to the fourth floor? Monsters there are level thirty, we could farm them for a while." "Yes, let me create the new Persona for this subclass. I''ll need a lot of Endurance and Clarity." * * POV: George I waited while Kara messed with her System windows. She lowered the Attribute efficiencies for Strength, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma by fifteen percent each to pump Dexterity, Endurance, and Clarity to the maximum of 20% Attribute Efficiency on each of the three. "Okay, lead on. Just let me remove my armor and bind it on the next persona." She had to do that because we didn''t have a spare set of armor and equipment for that new Persona. Once she was down to her underwear, Kara activated the transformation. Cotton clothes appeared on her body a few seconds later. She removed these and donned her equipment. I scouted ahead to see if we could find the way to the boss room. After a few more fights with ogres, we reached it. * * Two parties were camping in the third-floor antechamber one on each end of the massive room. From the looks of it, they were here for the long run. If they brought enough food and water, they could stay down here for months. The Lesser Ogres were edible but since they were humanoids, it was frowned upon. Not that anyone would enforce any rule or law in the depths of the Dungeon.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. The doors were open but a fog blocked vision of what monster it was. "Hey, you there!" The lookout shouted. "State your business!" "Just passing on our way to the fourth floor," I shouted back. People came out of the tents. I tensed a bit. William bleated and Sleepy growled. I wasn''t fearing an attack. If these guys were here farming the third-floor boss for drops and Experience, they were at most level forty to fifty. And their Classes should be between Uncommon and Rare. Even if they were level sixty, with my overpowered pets and the rare bonuses to Attribute Efficiency we gained, we could tackle all of them. The two groups at once. Doing the same calculation on their side, I just stated we were passing to the fourth floor. It meant we were strong enough to farm there and not here. That would make them believe our levels were higher than theirs. Added to the fact our group was composed of a strange chimera, two people, and one beast of burden, it forced that estimate even higher up. I bet they were estimating our levels on the sixty to seventy. We could very well be going deeper than the fourth. They wouldn''t believe I was bluffing either. Because if we were, we wouldn''t enter the boss room. They could wait and see. Also, I wasn''t wearing my Guild badge or the tabard. "Easy guys. They aren''t hostile." One of the warriors who came out of the tents said. His reaction was expected. "Thank you," I replied. "What''s the schedule for the boss fight? I assume you are farming the boss." "We surely are," the Warrior said. "But the mist is a damn problem. Three types of bosses come with the mist, and none of them is good news." "Would you be willing to sell the information?" I asked. I had a good idea from the Guild guides but Dungeons were devious, intelligent, and sapient. They could have changed the Boss types. Sometimes, Dungeons keep tricky monster types hidden for centuries, waiting to use them at a fortuitous time. Fortuitous for them. The warrior laughed. "Sell? No. If you guys won''t stick around and are willing to go in and clear the fog, we will give you the information for free. You are doing us a favor." "I see." They were farming the third-floor boss and the fog put a halt on their activities. Without a way to earn an income, they were basically losing money sitting around. "Well, if you may." "The first alternative is a Myst Elemental. With a Y. It is a monster that can only be harmed by magic," He said and gauged our reaction. Neither of us was a spellcaster. He didn''t know Sleepy was our "mage". Or that I still had some elemental arrows in my quiver. "Should be weak to the attacks we can use," I said. "What is its level?" "Between forty to forty-five." "Okay. What could it be next?" "A Rusalka." "The drowned fey?" "Exactly. Similar levels to the Myst Elemental. The Third one is a Giga Ooze. Water, Air, Mist, Steam, or other similar element." "Cool." "Though the Giga Ooze is level fifty." It matched the reports the Guild received from Delvers. Everything was fine. "Even better. Man, thank you for the information." "No problem." "If you get to the surface and visit the Guild, tell the bartender George will pay a round for your crew." "Awesome. George, it was a pleasure to meet you. I''m Bjorn." We shook hands. "Bjorn, I wish you safe farming. Let''s go, guys. William, take point. Sleepy, charge up." The four of us rushed into the boss''s room. The doors closed behind us and I breathed in relief. Even if they suspected we were of a higher level, greed was a great motivator. They could very well attack us in a fuck around and find out kind of mindset. * * The mist pooled. I tried to hear sloshing or anything and when I heard only a soft wind moving the mist around, I knew which one of the three we were facing. "Sleepy, charge to the maximum. William, go around and see if you make contact with the boss. Kara, stay out of Sleepy''s AOE. Sorry, love. You might need to sit out of this one." She sighed. Nobody wanted to sit out of a boss fight but she had no way to damage the Myst Elemental. William galloped around the room, while Sleepy''s nubs started to glow, making the mist shine white. I drew three Earth element arrows. "We will get you a sword with elemental damage first thing once we get out of here." We didn''t think about that. Big mistake. William made contact with the Myst Elemental. I watched as around 400 HP vanished from his Status screen. It was ridiculous. If each attack did that much damage, the elemental would need to hit William more than a hundred times before it could crack his HP. "Sleepy, go! Follow William''s voice." The brave Wolfertinger leaped with his rabbit legs and then took to the air. He flew straight to the bleating Tityron and probably landed on William''s horn. Then a bright flash momentarily blinded us. My Scouting Skill granted me some protection from sensory impairment. Not a second later, a loud thunder shook us. "Shield your eyes!" I shouted. Other, less intense flashes of light rang as Sleepy burned MP to electrocute the Elemental. Soon, it was over. A notification rang. > For killing level 44 Myst Elemental (boss), you gained 4,788 Experience points. > Level UP! You are now level 35. > You gained a subclass slot. > You gained the Perk, Soul Siphon. Whenever you kill a creature with a level higher than yours, you gain a temporary boost to Clarity Efficiency equal to double the level difference plus one. Good. "I leveled up." Checking the Status, Sleepy had also raised to level 33. The level difference between the Wolfertinger and me was about to drop to 1 or even get equal. "Congrats." "Bahhh!" William conveyed that the boss had dropped something good. We went there to check. It was a Myst core. Basically a sphere of solid vapor the size of my thumbnail. It was smaller than the one dropped by the Shambler Requiem but this boss stayed alive for way less time than the grass one. "Okay. I''m getting the Marksman subclass now," I said. I used the subclass slot vacated by Beast Master when it fused into my Main Class for this one since I didn''t know if I would keep it. > You became a Marksman (Uncommon). As this is a subclass, you gain only 5 Attribute points per level. > You have a debt of 35,000 Experience points. For every 1,000 Experience points you repay, this subclass will gain a level. No Experience will be awarded to your Main Class during this time. > You gained the Skill, Marksmanship. Rank I Benefits: Arrows you fire are R*5% more accurate, reducing defense chances. > Class Experience: You gain Experience by scoring clean hits on enemies with arrows. This experience is a tiny fraction of the target''s kill experience. This was the arrow version of Swordsman. Though it was Uncommon only, it hardly mattered for a subclass with such great synergies to my fighting style. Though it didn''t grant any Traits, that would weigh less if I decided to ditch this subclass for another. I''d keep the Skill (though it would lose a rank) and one Perk of my choice. Normally, a person wouldn''t cycle subclasses that way, but with Kara''s Parallel Progression granting her subclasses that did put her in debt, I wouldn''t want to gain more levels over her. It was smarter to get a Subclass that would put me in a similar situation and then pay the debt together, to keep our level differences closer. I would still repay mine faster and even gain a new level before I tried to do it again. In any case, any considerations of dropping the subclass would only happen when the granted Skill reached rank ten. It would be a long time before that. B2, 002 - Walk right side, safe. Walk left side, safe. Walk middle, ... get squish, just like grape. Meanwhile, on the surface. --------------------------------------- A clearing in a forest far from civilization. The end of Winter was close but the evergreens gave the people there a lot of privacy. City Lord Tobias was having a clandestine meeting in the dead of the night. Only Yolanthe was a witness in the sky. Not even the Goddess Ring or the Red Moon were in the sky. It would be a contradiction because how could the man who unilaterally dictated the laws do anything clandestine? The answer was obvious to anyone who was following recent events. Even if he had supreme executive power, he was still beholden to powers he had no control over. Such powers viewed each of their actions as a cost-benefit analysis. The Elf Archmage would lose a lot of reputation and would even be sanctioned by the Guild and lose her cozy retirement but she would kill him if he became a nuisance higher than the one of losing her social standing. So he made sure that nobody would know he was the one who hired a hit on the Guild Scout while he was busy inside the Dungeon. He met with the mercenaries two hundred miles outside his city, away from his fief and the eyes and ears of the Guild Master. Negotiations went okay and he paid in advance for a team of level one hundred and fifty Assassins. Once the gold was in their hands, they were bound by their organization''s reputation to carry out the job. Tobias huffed in relief. It would be easier if they worked through a proxy but these Assassins only negotiated with the real client. Now, his son''s murderer would be avenged. Tobias was sure the Guild Scout used a loophole in their original raid contract. They even hinted at that during their debriefing meeting. He would also have to raise taxes to replenish the treasury. His recent expenses impoverished his fief to a point where he would need to cut many costs. His first act was to disband the Guild District Guard garrison. Let the Adventurers deal with their own security. The Assassins counted the gold and then nodded. No words were exchanged, to keep the risk of some clairvoyant picking up the sounds when scrying into their meeting. Only a nod from their leader let Tobias know they accepted the job. Now, unless they. BOOOM. The ground shook as if a massively heavy creature had just taken a step. Then another and another. The frequency increased until Tobias felt the ground shake like it was an earthquake. From between two trees, a creature more than twenty feet tall, shaped like... a cottage with duck legs and feet appeared. In the darkness, they only heard the rustling of leaves before the momentum of the monster caused it to trample over a couple of assassins. It was a blur and Tobias felt the wind rush past him as the monster vanished on the other side of the clearing. By its speed, it should have thousands of points in Dexterity. A high-level monster, but why did the monster look like a house on legs? High-level combat usually took seconds, but this was ridiculous. Before anyone could react, a green flash of light erupted from the way the monster came and then another three Assassins started to choke. Smoke rose from their dark clothes. They fell on their knees and fell down, dead. Tobias couldn''t hear their breaths anymore. He heard the thuds as some objects fell on the clearing floor but he didn''t see what they were or where they fell. "Gentlemen," a woman''s voice came from where the green flash appeared. Two Assassins darted toward the voice, weapons drawn, their high Dexterity making them vanish from where they stood. Tobias too drew his sword and activated the enchantments. Next, the sound of blades slicing through bone and flesh sizzling came in that direction. Tobias saw these two Assassins fall down in two pieces, the sliced skeletons falling to the sides along the pieces of their equipment.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. "Why do these idiots always think they can fight whatever comes their way?" The woman asked herself. The other Assassins were gone. Tobias found himself alone in the clearing with the mysterious woman. "Identify yourself!" Tobias shouted. "Sure, sweetheart. Here, let me make it easy for you." An orb of light shot up into the sky, its luminosity increasing until the clearing became as lit as during daytime. Tobias looked at the woman. She was a stunning redhead, wearing tight travelers'' clothes and high-heeled boots. She had a fur cloak with gold trim and a purple wide-brimmed pointy hat full of decorations and dangling beads and semiprecious gem cords. She had a domineering gaze that was hard to avoid. Tobias felt drawn to her, a sign of an extremely high Charisma. The last thing he noticed was that she had a bulging belly but a slim waist, a clear sign that the woman was pregnant. "So, you know who I am?" She asked. Tobias couldn''t breathe. Yes, he knew who she was. He also knew he had no chance of escaping her. One of the ten highest-leveled individuals in the whole continent. Instead of struggling, he closed his eyes. "What did I do to draw your wrath, my lady?" Tobias asked. He wanted to laugh at himself. "You hired these Assassins," she answered. "To kill someone I need alive." Tobias snapped his eyes open and stared at the Time Witch. "The Guild boy? Aren''t you one of Alice''s enemies?" Lilliane Fade shrugged. "Maybe. We were friends once. Family even. We didn''t fight the last time we met. But our relationship is... estranged now. We both did bad things. Maybe I did more of those bad things than her. But one thing you should''ve learned at your level, Tobias, was that some things are beneath us. We don''t go around crushing bugs on a whim. You understand that, don''t you? We also don''t do vengeance. Retribution, yes. This is neither of them. This is me making sure the most beneficial timeline for me comes into reality. That kid you wanted dead? He''ll be a real asset to the city. More than your son would ever be if he broke the Dungeon Core. There are some timelines where he comes out victorious." Tobias chortled in derision. "You manipulated to see him defeated." The woman smirked. "Maybe. Wouldn''t you be dying to know the truth?" Tobias exploded as he used his Lightning Charge Perk to attack the Witch. In less than a second, he crossed the clearing, and then... he sensed as if he was falling backward. He saw the sky, then the ground, the sky again, the ground, and then he kissed the forest loam. His body fell to the side a second before he lost consciousness. * * > For Killing level 227 Aristocrat Warlord, you gained 0 Experience points. Lilliane Fade didn''t think she deserved the kill credit. Though she did stretch the strand of Vorpal Spider silk where the man would rush through, Tobias killed himself. If only he devoted enough points to Intelligence to notice the thread... > Seriously, Lilliane. Take your walking house to that scenic mountain retreat and rest there until you deliver your child. She laughed and looked up at the sky. Neither of the "gods" space stations were in sight but she knew the System would hear her. Holding her bulging belly, she retorted. "I told you. If you can keep her safe from the demons, I''ll go. How about that for a bargain, Skip?" No answer came. She knew the delicate balance of power in this star system wouldn''t let the System interfere. Because her daughter wasn''t the chosen one. That honor belonged to someone dead for almost half a million years. Give or take a couple hundred thousand years. Lilliane Fade used her Sight to peek into the future. None of the surviving Assassins came even closer to Tobias'' city. They would report that the meeting was fouled by a third party and with most of their team dead, the payment missing, and the client dead, their organization would void the contract. She took her hat off and waved it over the dead City Lord''s corpse. His gear vanished, leaving a naked headless corpse in the clearing. Starving Wargs she bewitched into obeying her orders would soon come and clear the bodies. After she collected all of their nice magical items and the bag of platinum. Now, it was smooth sailing until her daughter was born. The only thing Lilliane feared was that the day of the birth was one of the few she couldn''t look into. She always hated it when one of these days came around the corner. Her Sight got muddled for weeks as she could only get blurry visions for these weeks. One of these would be the day she died. Nothing in this whole world was more important than keeping her unborn daughter safe. If the Demon King got his hands on the child, millions would die. The catastrophe leading to these deaths was blurry to her Sight because it would only happen decades in the future but for the Time Witch, that mattered little. These kinds of pivotal moments had so much metaphysical weight that they were almost impossible to avoid. If she couldn''t twist Fate to avoid the catastrophe, she only had to find a way to make sure her daughter would profit from it. B2, 003 - Undead Boss Jake and his crew awaited before the boss room doors, weapons ready. The moment these doors opened, a great opportunity might present itself to them. Whether it was a victorious but weakened boss ready to be finished for easy Exp, or a victorious but weakened delving party, ready to be ganked for easy loot. It all depended on how long the doors remained closed. The longer it took, the more likely it was a close call. His men knew it and also knew not to rush inside before they knew what they were dealing with. But when the doors opened not two minutes after closing, he shouted, "halt!" A chill ran up Jake''s spine. It was too soon. That couple seemed too experienced and that rabbit-wolf winged chimera reminded him of a monster the Lord''s son had hunted two months ago. It was in their eyes. These eyes weren''t the impressionable eyes of delving novices. Nor the frightened or the delusional eyes of someone going way over their heads. No. The eyes on that couple had a burning hatred for the Dungeon, a wariness often seen in delving veterans. As the mist quickly vanished, Jake saw the four of them staring back at him. * * "I understand you were spawn camping," I said in a challenging tone, "but to think you were also gank camping. The Guild will love to hear it." The provocation was intentional. If these guys were going to be trouble, it was better to deal with them now rather than worry about them stalking us on the fourth floor. My mental Attributes, especially Wisdom and Charisma, gave me an injection of confidence. I cringed inside when I remembered I was about to skip town because Alice hinted that he knew about my Parallel Progression. These guys were seasoned delvers, with years of experience. Yet here I was, still wet behind the ears, challenging them. It was a kind of experience that could inebriate a person and make one think they were more than one''s peers. It was the trap that killed Hector. "We don''t want trouble," I said before anyone could take action. "We are going to test the waters on the fourth, you can stay here and farm the boss to your satisfaction. Do you have any plans of descending? Also, do you know if anyone is on the fourth?" "No, sir. We''ve been here for two weeks, and didn''t see a soul passing by." It could be a lie. These guys probably killed people down here. The Dungeon was the perfect evidence and garbage disposal. But it wasn''t my problem. It would be nice if people were polite and respected each other''s right to live. But the Dungeon combined the lure of power with the temptation of greed. Top that with an uncaring System and what you got was humanity''s worst impulses set loose. "Okay. We are descending now. Stay safe." Translation: stay on the third floor. "Sure thing, sir!" The guy almost saluted. We went down. They didn''t attack us from behind. * * On the fourth floor, we put a lot of distance between the stairs and us. I didn''t hear any sounds of combat but that could be misleading. Still, for the sake of alacrity, I let William loose and gave him carte blanche to go after the monsters. He quickly found the first pack. The fourth-floor denizens were the Flametail Skunks. Just by the name one could see why this floor wasn''t popular. The vicious beasts used innate Fire and Light magic, could wreath themselves on fire, and had a stench attack that almost always made people lose their lunch. We planned for this. Alchemists on the surface developed a cleaning tincture called El Diablo''s Cologne, that could cleanse a creature of all scents, smells, odors, and stench with just a few drops. It was expensive but well worth it. William went invisible. As the skunks became wary of us, William appeared behind them. His eyes glowed and he charged, goring the first skunk pair despite their HP, one on each horn. With a flick of his head, the two monsters splattered against the tunnel wall. > For killing level 33 Flametail Skunk, you gained 124 Experience points. > For killing level 35 Flametail Skunk, you gained 187 Experience points. Then the Silver-Eyes Phantom Thief Tityron became a blur. With William''s evolution he not only gained more Attributes but each point of those Attributes also meant more. His base form was stronger, faster, and way tougher than a normal Tityron. The other four Skunks were no match for William''s evolved speed. They were dead before they could clench their butt cheeks and squirt their noxious secretions on him. Or us. > For killing level 33 Flametail Skunk, you gained 124 Experience points. > For killing level 32 Flametail Skunk, you gained 99 Experience points. > For killing level 31 Flametail Skunk, you gained 79 Experience points. > For killing level 34 Flametail Skunk, you gained 156 Experience points. We moved on. When we met the next group, I killed them with arrows before they could move ten meters from their starting point. It netted me two bonus Experience points per shot because each was a kill. The third pack had only three skunks. Kara wanted to get these herself. She had to train her Stealth skill, anyway. She skulked toward the skunks and shanked two with her long daggers, then kicked the third away. As the monster ignited and spewed the vile pheromone, she tossed both daggers at it and then jumped away.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. I finished it and the other two with my arrows. We split the Experience. "I didn''t get hit!" She cheered. We moved away from that spot as the pheromone was not only an insult to our nostrils but would also draw lots of skunks. From now on, we had to be careful because the smell would put every monster on this floor on high alert. If we managed to reach the boss''s room, it would work in our favor because it was a great deterrent against pursuers. * * When we reached the boss room, we knew we would go down to the fifth. Nobody was camping in the antechamber and the few tracks I could spot were months old. We peeked inside the boss room. It was a mad necromancer''s laboratory, with a huge creature on top of a metal altar. Roughly humanoid, we could only see its clawed feet and the general contour from where we stood. It had over twelve feet of height, judging by those feet and the proportions of the altar. Around the room, implements whose function I could only guess were haphazardly spread around the many workbenches and the walls, along with vials of strange fluids; everything was covered in dust and cobwebs. The ground was littered with broken pots, glass shards, and sharp pieces of metal bent in odd ways. It would remain so if we didn''t intrude into its room. The doors to the boss room were decorated with skulls. Never a good sign. The room was also cramped and the monster wouldn''t need more than four steps to reach anywhere from that altar. Close quarters with all these hazards and a creature that was obviously as tough as it was strong were factors we wouldn''t want in one of our fights. "At what level do you think the boss is?" Kara asked. "Anywhere between fifty and seventy." "We can take it," She said with an odd confidence. "Between William and I, we can tank the boss while you and Sleepy take it down." Boss fights were to the death. Once those doors closed, you were only getting out either victorious or if you were strong enough to break Dungeon Walls. Like Alice was. But this Dungeon and the Wild one were in totally different categories. This one was old, with more than ten floors. Nobody knew how deep it went because people were only allowed to delve down to the tenth floor. Anyone attempting to go down to the eleventh would see the full wrath of the Dungeon. The Wild Dungeon was an infant with three floors. Nobody wanted to see what this one could do. "Since the monster seems to be undead, I''m going to use my Holy Arrows. I don''t think it will hold aggro. It all depends on how smart it is." "Okay," Kara said, preparing her equipment, "Let''s go!" Since all of her gear was destroyed in the Wild Dungeon, she bought a set of enchanted half-plate armor from Haru. The shield was also enchanted with deflection and general debuff protection. I couldn''t deny her determination. If this was where we died, then so be it. We would die fighting side by side. But in all honesty, maybe this was a boss William could solo by himself. I wouldn''t let him go alone, though. "Let''s charge, then!" We ran side-by-side and had to leap forward as the doors slammed shut right as we crossed the threshold. A tub hidden in the ceiling turned, splashing the boss with a green liquid. "Trap!" I shouted. Kara was the slowest person among us and she was four times faster than a normal woman. We all moved to the edges of the room, trying not to step on any of the debris on the floor. We avoided being splashed with the liquid but it gave the boss time to awaken and sit up. It was a deformed undead, without skin. Corded sinew linked the bones and exposed muscle like badly burnt scar tissue. It didn''t have eyes, or dark cavities that went deep into its skull. The teeth were needle-like. Cartilaginous flesh covered its forearms and legs like gauntlets and greaves. The same claws we saw on the feet were also on the hands. Silver orbs were all over its body and also on stalks across its back. Two big ones on his shoulders and several smaller ones all over his chest, arms, and legs. It didn''t have a sternum; the crisscrossing sinew kept the ribs in place. At the center end of the ribs, the bones were sculpted to look like snakes. The green fluid wasn''t dripping off of it. Instead, the sinew and muscle seemed to be absorbing it and growing in size. * * A/N: Caveat Emptor (body horror), click the spoiler if you dare. * * William charged and rammed the boss'' knee, bouncing off. It roared and the fight was on. The monster clawed at William and the same thing happened. William''s HP fully deflected the claw attack. Kara approached from the other side while Sleepy charged lightning. The small size of his antlers still required a longer casting time. Since it was taller than my companions, I could shoot at its upper body without worrying about friendly fire. I avoided shooting at the spheres until I knew their purpose. They could be weak points or traps for all I knew. My arrows too bounced off the boss. Kara ducked under a claw and slashed across the boss'' hips. This first stage, like most boss fights, was all about grinding each other''s HP pools. Unless one of the parties could cause debuffs or other effects that ignored HP, that was. But usually, everything that caused physical damage would be blocked by the HP pool. William parried the next swipe on his ram horn, killing the momentum. The boss shook from the impact and then roared. It brought its torso down and was zapped by Sleepy. Lightning coursed over the boss''s body, causing the silver orbs to light up. Energy seemed to be drawn into the orbs, especially the ones on the shoulders. After the shock passed, the orbs had this faint glow. "Sleepy, don''t shoot!" I shouted. The Wolfertinger yipped dejectedly. We had to know what those silver orbs did. So, I focused my fire on them. First a small one on the arm on Kara''s side. The arrow sapped a lot of HP from the boss but didn''t deal significant damage as it flew off. > For a clear shot, you gained 5 Experience Points. Yeah, it was something. But instead of emboldening me, I feared for Kara''s safety. What if the orb bursted and released something nasty, or even exploded? That the boss hadn''t yet used any of them was also suspicious. I drew and nocked a Holy arrow. "Kara, move over to William''s side!" "Right!" She blocked the next swing with her shield and then ran around the altar. She had an equivalent speed to the boss, which was good. William stared at the boss and used his evolution''s eye features, His MP dipped but the boss became sluggish. So, instead of chasing after Kara, he focused both claws on William. The Tityron blocked one and then took the other on his wooly flank, mitigating the damage because of his special wool. Once Kara was on the other side, I let loose. It struck right in the middle of the boss'' left shoulder sphere. > For a clear shot, you gained 6 Experience Points. The sphere burst with a whiny static sound. A massive sphere of lightning shot out, small arcs of electricity jumping around all the hundreds of metallic objects in the room. The whining sound was deafening. We were all mostly okay. Sympathetic Resistance meant that William and I were highly resistant to Lightning because Sleepy shared it with us. And I had my amulet. Kara''s metallic armor worked to shield her from the attack because it grounded the lightning, making it run around the armored parts of her body instead of through them. She also had double my own HP pool. My next Holy arrow went through an eye socket. A bright flash of light showed us all the holes in the monster''s head and also that it had nothing inside. I gained 2 Experience Points from this shot. I thought for a moment that I could farm a lot of Experience if I dragged the fight out but it was stupid to do that. What I needed was to kill this thing and then move on with my life. These meager Experience points weren''t worth the risk of having one of us critically injured. William''s eyes lost their glow and the boss slammed both fists on him. Kara returned to her position to split the damage. I was beginning to suspect that the boss would change its pattern once its HP ran out, like a second phase. What I had to decide was whether I should pop all these orbs before the second phase or after it. B2, 004 - Doomed if you do, doomed if you dont. "Kara, back off to the far end of the room! William, kite the boss to the other end! Sleepy, start charging!" I issued my orders as I aimed at the silver spheres. I found it odd that they weren''t protected by the boss''s HP. It was as if they were equipment. Each of these orbs, when burst, delivered a burst of lightning but we tanked it on our HP. It was just business as usual. William''s humongous forty-seven thousand HP pool was down by half already. The boss was getting minutely faster and William couldn''t parry all of the blows with his ram horns. But, for the first time, one of my arrows pierced his flesh after breaking one of the minor orbs. Next, William gored the boss with his Mithril-laced horns, causing the undead flesh to sizzle. Mithril was a Truesilver alloy and was extremely potent against the undead. The energy on the remaining orbs started to sizzle even though nobody had touched them. Fearing what was to come, I focused on them and rapid-fired arrow after arrow. Most of these shots gave me between one and three Experience points. Marksman was a really awesome synergistic subclass for me. > Your knowledge and experience have increased your Sharpshooting skill to rank II: Treat enemies'' HP threshold as R*3.4% lower per rank. At rank ten, that Skill would lower the HP thresholds by a third. Since I didn''t have any Features to increase my arrow damage, my Damage Per Second, DPS for short, was underperforming what a pure archer my level could output. Only two orbs were left intact once they became unstable enough to burst. They were located behind his massive shoulder blades and it was hard for me to snipe them. A burst of flesh came out of behind the boss, painting the room behind it with gore. The spots where the other spheres were buzzed with static. They released sparks of energy coursing over the boss'' flesh, causing the upper layer to slough off, dropping it as a heavy dust cloud of flesh particles. They also immobilized the boss. William went intangible to dodge the downpour of undead flesh. "Sleepy, now!" Sleepy created a bright arc of crackling lightning around his budding antlers, which rose and grew above him until an act of will pushed the lightning arc toward the boss. Twin lashes of electricity forked as the metal in the room drew it but most of the power was delivered straight to the boss'' chest. The snake-ribs hissed and moved as the bones in its open ribcage opened, tendons frying and shrinking under the scalding heat from the lightning. William appeared next to me. The boss writhed and roared for the first time. The lightning burst kept going for six or seven seconds before Sleepy discharged all the energy he''d gathered up. We saw a massive void inside the boss'' chest. If I looked at a certain angle, I could see the front of his spine at the bottom of the ribcage. Two dozen hissing bone-snakes hissed and lashed at us. As the last of the flesh flake cloud fell, we saw that the boss had become leaner. The crisscrossing sinew network that seemed to cover the boss was gone, and now the boss was mostly dried muscle and bones. Then the boss dashed. His speed had quintupled, at least. The boss came straight at me, mouth open as if grinning. I parried one claw with Scout''s Oath but the other came at my right side and launched me toward the other corner of the room. William tried to use his eyes to cut the boss'' momentum but was too slow. He did slow the boss down but I was already being buried under a shower of necromancy implements. That blow ate 900 points of my HP, almost to my threshold. "Charge!" Kara shouted. I snapped back on my feet after a few seconds of disorientation. As I assessed the situation, I saw Kara and William facing off against the much faster boss while Sleepy was firing bolt after bolt of lightning at its back. The boss now used both claws and its hideous mouth to attack. The undead boss was overpowering the frontliners with his superior speed. If that was the case, I had to cripple one of these natural weapons to reduce the damage we were taking. I focused my fire on its right elbow joint, using the remaining Holy arrows first. William dropped to a quarter of his maximum HP. Kara was taking some scratches from the claws. A higher HP divider actually helped one stay in the fight for longer. Since the HP dulled the attack, the damage that remained was applied to one''s Endurance-enhanced body, turning what could be a fatal blow into a grazing hit. People with a low threshold divider like me could take bigger hits but also fewer hits before the damage was entirely applied to one''s body. One particularly nasty blow caused Kara''s shield arm to snap as the force twisted the joint too much. It didn''t break any bones but the torsion put that arm out of commission until she could use a potion. She needed to disengage to do that safely. The boss'' was about to capitalize on the weakness when William''s square eyes flashed a deep purple. The boss shifted his attention to that and froze on the spot. It was stunned even if momentarily. Kara withdrew two steps as she sheathed her sword and pulled a potion. She bit the cork, pulled it with her tongue into her cheek pouches like a squirrel, and sucked the potion like one of those competitive speed drinkers. The whole action took less than half a second. As the boss regained his motion, Kara coughed and spat the cork as she tossed the vial and drew her sword. I guessed she had choked a bit on the potion. It didn''t matter. While that happened, I seized the moment of paralysis to cripple the monster''s elbow with the remainder of my Holy arrows. With the bicep tendon severed, the triceps pulled the forearm back, making the arm go stiff as a club. Another pop signaled the return of the function to Kara''s left arm. She rushed back into the fray. I moved to the other arm, trying to repeat the feat and remove yet another of the boss''s weapons. Undead were a bother to deal with because they felt no pain and suffered no shock. A rapier through the heart would incapacitate a person because of these two factors but some berserkers could fight for a minute with a punctured heart until the blood on their heads was no longer sufficient to keep them awake. For the undead, that effect was an order of magnitude bigger. Without Holy arrows and unwilling to use Fire, I switched to Air elemental arrows to attack the second elbow tendon. These Air arrows had what was known as a Kamaitachi effect, which added slashing damage to the arrow, making it ideal for cutting stuff. They worked worse than the Holy ones but were my best call given I was out of the latter. The battle raged on. With six Air arrows, I slashed the tendon, forcing the boss to slam with his stiff arms instead of clawing. The undead monstrosity tried to use the snake-ribs to attack but their reach was too small, less than half a meter out. William went down to his last two thousand HP. He too suffered from a low threshold divider. His wool had defensive properties and his Endurance was sky-high. But he still took all of the damage on his HP. Sleepy ran out of MP. I sent him five hundred of mine but paid seven hundred and fifty of mine to keep the lightning assault going. I circled around to get a better firing angle to minimize the odds of friendly fire and then I saw my mistake. The two remaining orbs had carved big chunks of flesh out of the boss'' back and shoulders. I could see the back of the ribs and the spine, charred black by the explosions. Connecting the dots, I realized that the orbs were not part of the boss. Instead, they should be a sort of parasitic organism... yes! That''s why the orbs weren''t protected by the boss'' HP! And they were sapping the monster''s energy, that''s the reason it couldn''t use its full speed at the beginning of the fight. The boss didn''t just speed up as part of his "second phase" mechanics.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. But wait... if the orbs were parasites, then exploding was part of their lifecycle. I looked around the room and found flakes of silver among the skin flakes that sloughed off the boss. And some on Sleepy''s fur. They probably caught on him when he flew to the boss'' back. "Sleepy, come!" I shouted. "Jump, don''t fly! Avoid the glittering silver chips!" The Wolfertinger bounded across the tables and jumped in my arms. I had to stow Scout''s Oath and leave my two other companions to tank the boss while I examined him. AT closer inspection, the flakes of silver were writhing and slithering into his fur. Some were already burrowing into Sleepy''s skin. I took an Ice arrow out of my quiver and pushed MP into it. The tip was instantly coated with frost and I pushed it into one of the silver flakes. When it didn''t react, I instead used the arrowhead as a scalpel to carve into the insertion point and dig the silver flake off. Sleepy''s nose shone bright red as his Reindeer trait activated. He was immune to cold damage so only the sharp metal digging at his flesh bothered him. The little guy whined but I could feel his determination. He also wasn''t feeling any pain from the location, which led me to believe this parasite had some sort of anesthetic effect on its hosts. "Beware of the silver glitter shards! They''re a parasite." I shouted. I also remembered that one of Sleepy''s traits made him immune to parasites. In any case, this thing could not be classified as one by the System. Nobody but Skip the System god knew exactly which one was which. The cold didn''t seem to harm the silver flakes but they surely stopped moving. I ripped tufts of fur as I removed them. The silvery substance wasn''t solid and could seep between hairs to better anchor itself. I removed ten and glanced at the fight. William was out of HP but he was better off than Kara, who was on her last wisps of HP protection. The speed with which these parasites latched and reached Sleepy''s flesh told me I had to act now instead of finishing the boss first. When the Ice enchantment sputtered out, I took another instead of trying a Fire arrow. The reason was that these orbs absorbed Lightning and exploded. It stood to reason that they would be resistant to, or even worse, absorb Fire damage. Even so, it was worth wasting an arrow to try. I ignited a Fire arrow and launched it with my hand like a dart. The fire burnt the flakes of undead flesh like a pile of dried leaves on a windy autumn morning. The silver parasites remained behind, now exposed and clearly visible but unharmed. Next, I tried to poke them with an Earth arrow. The reaction was immediate. The parasites became agitated and avoidant of the Earth element. I used the arrow like a poker and crushed the parasites that fell on the table. They became stiff and cracked, losing their luster. Now that I knew its ecology, at least regarding what elements affected it, I spent a minute cleaning Sleepy. It was an eternity in the fast-paced boss fight happening to my side. But the defenders were tough enough to withstand it. I shoved all the necromantic instruments off the table and set Sleepy to rest. My little guy was lethargic and had lost a lot of blood due to the parasites feeding off of his blood and energy. Then it was back to the boss fight. I used the rest of the air arrows to sever the overgrown right-side trapezius muscle. With that, the head lost side motion and was bent to the left by the other trapezius. The boss now had only the slam attacks and the snakes. Both were highly ineffective. "Kara, back off. Let William tank." The blows did nothing to William''s fluffy winter wool coat. And the snakes didn''t want to be parried by his Mithril horns for obvious reasons so they only hissed and bitched from a distance. I drew two glaives from my quiver and handed one to Kara. From out of the boss'' reach and behind William, we hacked and slashed at the boss'' flesh until it and the snakes stopped moving. > For killing level 50 Parasite Juggernaut Ghoul (boss), you gained 14,860 (x4) Experience Points. You paid 14 levels worth of debt. You gained 70 Attribute points. With that huge Experience award, William advanced a level while Sleepy gained two. I split my points into Dexterity and Intelligence. I needed more speed in combat. Kara also repaid a lot of her subclass debt.
| Soul-Binder Ranger (Epic) / Sharpshooter (s) | ||||
| Level | 35 | |||
| Attribute | Base | Bonds | Efficiency | Total |
| Strength | 325 | 73 | 140% | 557 |
| Dexterity | 287 | 102 | 150% | 583 |
| Endurance | 250 | 158 | 170% | 693 |
| Intelligence | 250 | 19 | 130% | 349 |
| Wisdom | 220 | 30 | 140% | 350 |
| Clarity | 155 | 46 | 130% | 261 |
| Charisma | 85 | 21 | 130% | 137 |
| Health (HP) | 490 | 231 | 5717 | |
| Mana (MP) | 280 | 59 | 1223 | |
| Stamina (SP) | 245 | 63 | 2063 | |
| Name: | William Ol? |
| Species: | Silver-Square-Eyes Phantom-Thief Tityron |
| Rarity: | 2xLegendary |
| Level | 37 |
| Strength | 967 |
| Dexterity | 1239 |
| Endurance | 2396 |
| Intelligence | 275 |
| Wisdom | 249 |
| Clarity | 149 |
| Charisma | 259 |
| Health (HP) | 49795 |
| Mana (MP) | 1226 |
| Stamina (SP) | 1895 |
| Name: | Sleepy |
| Species: | Wolfertinger |
| Rarity: | Legendary |
| Level | 36 |
| Strength | 351 |
| Dexterity | 672 |
| Endurance | 756 |
| Intelligence | 129 |
| Wisdom | 278 |
| Clarity | 668 |
| Charisma | 49 |
| Health (HP) | 5863 |
| Mana (MP) | 3287 |
| Stamina (SP) | 2071 |
| Silver-Age Vigilante (Epic) | Persona: Regenerator | |
| Level | 37 | Adjusted Total |
| Strength | 260 | 300 |
| Dexterity | 312 | 360 |
| Endurance | 952 | 1064 |
| Intelligence | 192 | 168 |
| Wisdom | 168 | 147 |
| Clarity | 44 | 38 |
| Charisma | 93 | 80 |
| Health (HP) | 8174 | 9044 |
| Mana (MP) | 213 | 204 |
| Stamina (SP) | 1142 | 1272 |