[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!—
Eric spoke quickly and quietly, not wanting his vision to be covered up with repeated messages, and made sure to keep hacking down at the zombie corpse with his blade to cover up his words from Seraphine’s sharp ears. “Paths Access: swap to cumulative readout. Remove notifications about milestone accumulation and replace with consolidated version. Allow for mental interface instead of audible.”
[Confirmed. New parameters will be integrated.]
[You have 2 level-ups to process.]
[Blackflame Mage 2, 3.]
[Choose a Skill and Trait to increase. Then repeat this once.]
Let’s increase Flashstep and Blackflame Beam. For Traits, I want both spent in Blackflame Blaze.
[Confirmed.]
-----
Skills:
Blackflame Beam 2 - The piercing power of the beam is increased, penetrating two targets (or up to 2 feet of material).
Flashstep 2 - The distance the user can travel is increased to forty feet.
-----
Traits:
Blackflame Blaze 3 - Increase burning damage-over-time to 15%.
-----
Eric smiled and glanced across his allies, who were all staring off into space, dealing with their own level-ups and messages.
I might as well get started on harvesting the Monster Parts while they finish that.
Because he had given that bevy of instructions to The Paths, his process had completed far faster. He knew that they would be dealing with far more notifications, and each interface step required audible instructions. This differentiate served another purpose, and with a quick glance at Seraphine, he spotted the slight curl of her smile.
The fact that Eric had completed his interface with The Paths so rapidly further cemented into her mind that he was fate-touched, as he seemed naturally attuned to it to the point that he had been able to blitz through the entire process.
Eric pulled the adventuring pack off his back, then removed the bag to hold the various Monster Parts, another bag for the ashes he’d have to grab from the ones he had personally killed, and a pair of gloves.
Harvesting Monster Parts was easy, messy work. Monsters naturally degraded upon death, and their useful bits remained while the rest turned to sludge and faded away. But that sludge was vile and sticky, so having a designated set of monster-harvesting gloves was commonplace.
Peter was the first to come out of his interaction with The Paths, and he looked over at Eric. “What are you doing?”
“Getting Monster Parts.” Eric gestured broadly to the remaining corpses. “Although I wouldn’t recommend doing this unless you have some gloves.” He gave little jazz hands and smiled to try and lighten the tension. “Kind of sticky. But this stuff is going to be valuable.”
“Why?” Peter asked as he came closer.
“Well, what I was told when I asked, is that we give it to a Refiner Class, and they can turn the Monster Parts into Components.” He pointed at Naomi. “Then she can make those magic items—that gear—with it.”
“Huh. Cool.” Peter glanced around. “I’ll start pushing them into piles, I guess.” He set to work using his big hammer like a broom, herding the rapidly decaying corpses together. “What did you level up?”
“The damage-over-time Trait, and then I spread the others across what I think are the most useful Skills. You?”
“I went all even across the board.”
Naomi came out of her stupor next. “Well that was interesting. So much text to deal with.”
“Just tell The Paths you want to compress it all down next time,” Eric replied. “I had a hunch and did that. It seemed to work. Looks like we can customize it a bit like a user interface on a video game.”
Naomi saw what Peter was doing and then looked back to Shannon, who was just coming out of her trance as well. “You did a good job covering us, Shannon.”
Shannon smiled and gave a thumbs up, all traces of fear and shyness gone. “I just had to picture the zombies as my dad and I was able to blow them away!”
That’s . . . disturbing. But if it works for her, then why not?
Hurriedly, Shannon added, “I need to get my bolts back,” and began recovering her ammunition from around the room.
Naomi cleared her throat. “Seraphine and the others are still just watching us.”
Eric glanced back, noting Seraphine observing silently along with the guards. “We’re on our own unless we get badly injured.”
“Ah. Right.” She knelt next to Eric and whispered, “Sorry for freezing up.”
“It’s okay,” he whispered back. He made sure to make loud squish noises as he gathered parts, gestured for Naomi to get her head close to him, and whispered back, “My first time? I froze so hard. You did fine.”
Eric finished with harvesting the zombie parts, then moved onto trying to gather the ashes. To his surprise, the ashes clung to one another in a ball, which he could easily grab and put into his bag. He gently removed his gloves, ensuring to keep the sticky monster goop from touching his skin, and slid them into a lined pouch with the openings for his hands facing out, ready to be re-equipped.
Eric thought to the Index, instructing it to open screens that would show him specific pieces of data. He wanted to see a full readout in the moment, including acquiring a full overview of the Monster Parts gathered.
Status, and secondary.
-----
Name: Eric Mercer
Classes: Blackflame Mage 3
Maximum Sigils: 5
Rotes: Blackflame Bolt, Ash Shroud
Equipped Skills: Backblast 1, Cinderburst 1, Blackflame Beam 2, Flashstep 2, Sootshroud 1
Traits: Fire Resistance 1, Blackflame Blaze 3, Vital Heat 1
Body Enhancements:
-----
Loadout Slots: 5
Gear:
Parts & Components: 30x Duskbound Zombie Material, 10x Duskbound Zombie Ash
Embers: 1
-----
Eric smiled as he thought of the various items the Monster Parts could be turned into once they were processed into Components. Magic items, colloquially referred to as ‘gear,’ were commonplace throughout Elyndor. They made everyday life much, much easier.
I can’t keep all of these parts for myself. I’m just holding the stuff for the group. That’s the benefit of doing these dungeons solo: you get to keep everything you gather and only have to pay the Consortium cut, and then the fee to the Refiner Class for processing the material. I don’t think my Class is suited to solo dives, given my lack of defensive Skills or Traits.
Peter looked to the next tunnel. “Ready to move on?”
“Hell yeah!” Shannon said as she practically skipped over to join him. “I can’t wait to shoot more stuff!”
Naomi gave Eric a curious glance, and mouthed the words, ‘What’s coming next?’
“Let’s make sure we watch our footing,” Eric said, intentionally ignoring answering her directly. “This is a mega dungeon,” he said, accentuating the latter word. “I would bet there’s traps like in Dungeons and Dragons.”
“Oh yeah,” Shannon replied. “Let me take the lead then! I’ve got really good reflexes. My brother said I’m like a cat. I think he called it . . . preter-something.”
“Preternatural,” Naomi said.
The group began heading towards the next tunnel.
Peter rested his hammer across his shoulders, both arms looped over the weapon to keep it balanced. “That fight was fucking badass. Did you see me just blast two groups away?”
Shannon was giddy. “I know! It was cool. Hey Eric, why did you focus on the farthest ones?”
“Tactics,” Eric replied. “Peter is our only frontliner. We need to make sure he never gets overwhelmed. He doesn’t have the range that you, Naomi, or I do. That means I needed to take out the distant targets before they overwhelmed him. Plus, that gives the burn maximum time to deal damage while they walked over. Speaking of overwhelmed, great job picking off the ones threatening our flanks.”
“You’re welcome!” Shannon walked up to Naomi and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “You did good too, Naomi! Maybe work on your aim a little though.”
Naomi shook her head. “I don’t think dungeons are my thing.”
At least Shannon is a lot more open this time around. I wonder if it's because Peter and I established ourselves as surrogate-brother figures, or if she’s just more comfortable? Either way, it's good seeing her personality come out. It’s a huge improvement over last time.
Stolen novel; please report.
Peter chuckled. “More stuff for me to hit. I never thought I’d be fighting fucking zombies, man. Shit’s wild.”
“Hold up,” Eric said as they approached the next chamber. It was a long, rectangular corridor which was far wider than the hallway they had been walking through. Several stone pillars had been placed in uniform rows, with small, metal hooks holding lanterns embedded into the masonry. “We don’t know what’s in there. Shannon, do you mind going into this room and scouting it out? That should be right in your wheelhouse given your Class.”
She gave a thumbs-up. “Got it!” Then, she vanished from sight—quite literally turning invisible.
Did Shannon just use a fucking Skill? Eric thought. I swear, resource management is going to bite us in the ass. These kids are going to blow through all of their Sigils so fast, and then we’re going to be screwed by the last chamber.
Eric sighed, and spoke loud enough that his voice filled the room. “If you are using Skills constantly, you’ll burn through your five Sigils fast. We don’t know how many rooms we have to go through. Those zombies probably could’ve been eliminated without using Skills. Just be cautious about resource management.”
Peter nodded and pulled the hammer off of his shoulders. “I get the mentality, but man, what a rush.” He looked back at Eric with a smile. “Plus, you’re holding onto all of yours, right? You can just use your Skills if we get into trouble.”
“I can’t heal or protect. Just hurt things and provide utility.” Eric looked to Naomi. “Are any of your Skills or Rotes combat focused?”
She shook her head. “No. All about crafting things, or improving—actually, wait.” She grinned. “Peter, hold your maul up for me.”
Peter put it in front of her, and she passed her hand over the head of the hammer. Eric watched as one of her phantasmal green Sigils winked out of existence, and the weapon shifted and warped slightly in Peter’s grasp.
“Damn, dude. It feels way better to hold,” Peter commented.
Naomi glanced at Eric. “I was able to upgrade it by redistributing the weight, slimming the profile of the shaft, and a few minor tweaks that improve efficacy.”
That’s useful, but it’s not actually gear. Just mundane equipment. It doesn’t have a tier, but that does beg the question, could whatever Skill she just used work on gear as well to improve the tier?
Gear came in varying rarities called tiers, and generally the weaker, lower-floor monsters would only provide Monster Parts that converted to Components of an equally low tier. “Does that Skill improve the tier of gear?” Eric asked.
Naomi grinned. “Mhmm. Though it has a cap reliant on how many Ranks I put into it.” She put a finger to her chin. “Maybe I will be more active in dungeons. I mean, I helped here, at least. If I make some improvements to my MAB, I could be a bit more useful. Maybe I’ll put a sight or a scope on it . . . what if I could make some type of smart-shot or auto-target system . . .”
Peter was spinning the maul in his hands, the weight seemingly perfectly balanced around the mid-point of the shaft. “You should stick with us. It would suck to fall behind in progression.” He frowned. “Wait a second. Why did Naomi get to level up if she’s not a Combat Class?”
“Why not ask the Index?” Eric asked, knowing the answer but wanting to teach his allies how to use The Paths and its functions that were fully available to them.
“Okay,” Peter replied. “Index, why that thing I said earlier?” His eyes went pale and then they snapped back to normal. “Oh. Cool. It looks like these ‘milestones’ can be preset or variable. Sometimes they align with doing stuff outside of dungeons. But in this case, clearing the chamber gave us a milestone.”
Naomi shrugged. “I’ll investigate how this milestone system works later on.” She gave Eric a sidelong glance, as if prodding him for more information.
“Let’s see what comes next,” Eric replied—he didn’t want to digress any further while Seraphine and the guards observed them silently from afar. He raised his voice and called out, “Shannon? Find anything?!” Something pushed his left shoulder, and he instinctively manifested a Blackflame Bolt.
Shannon suddenly appeared, standing right next to him. “I’ve been talking.”
“I don’t think anyone can hear you when you’re invisible. Is that a Skill?” Eric asked.
“Yeah. Stalking Shadow.” Shannon pointed into the room. “I saw some weird cracks along the floor. Looks like tiles that were put down incorrectly. I didn’t go further, since the tiles run all along the room.
Eric knew exactly what she was talking about. Pressure plates. Stepping on one would result in the floor vanishing and dropping them into an acid pit below. However, he had to keep his foresight hidden, as Seraphine was watching, and only Naomi knew the truth about him. “Maybe we should try pressing down on one of the plates? Shannon, can you fire a bolt at one and see what happens?”
She unslung her regular crossbow, cranked back the lever, slotted a bolt, and, with expert precision, fired. The bolt flew out and slammed into one of the tiles, at which point it depressed and the floor beneath vanished. Bubbling, viscous green acid covered the space where the floor once was, leaving only the pillars. “Shit,” she whispered, that fear returning to her voice. “That’s fucking dangerous! Who designed this place?”
Peter whistled. “Looks like thirty feet to the other side. No way anyone can jump that.”
I could get across with a Flashstep, but that’s a waste of a Sigil.
Eric pulled the adventuring pack off and retrieved a coiled up, thin rope made of a braided fiber. It was similar to hemp, but was less coarse. Making a small loop and quickly tying a Lariat knot, he had a lasso. “Peter, you’re from Texas. Ever spend time on a ranch?”
Peter grinned, set the hammer down, and grabbed the rope. He put on a full-blown southern twang. “What good ‘ol Texan boy didn’t? My gramma raised horses, so I got to ride some bucking broncos.”
Shannon giggled. “Pff. Okay, country boy. Come on, show us what you got.”
Peter walked to the edge of the acid pit and pointed, his voice returning to its normal tone. “You’re thinking of the lanterns, right?”
“Right,” Eric replied. He knew that the floor would come back after approximately a minute of time, but had to put on the act that he did not know that, and that he and the group were working out how to bypass this trapped chamber.
Peter quickly spun the rope, hooked the metal lantern, and pulled. The knot constricted, and he gave it a few tugs. At that moment, the floor phased back into existence. “Oh . . . do we even need this, then?” Peter asked.
Naomi pointed at several tiles. “I see a pattern. We could go across with that, but if Shannon is okay with spending the bolts, we should test the route first.”
Eric added, “We should also put up the rope from lantern to lantern, just to make sure we have a handhold in case someone steps wrong.” He gestured behind them. “Remember the audience. We should show off all of our problem-solving abilities.”
Peter took the bottom half of the rope and with a complicated toss was able to loop another circular section over the next lantern in the line. “We’ll have to start moving forward for me to hook the other ones.” He grabbed his maul and looped it onto the ring on the back of his armor.
Shannon notched another bolt into place. “Naomi, point out where you want me to shoot.”
The group slowly made progress. Last time, Eric had fallen into the acid over and over, and he healed himself constantly to outpace the injuries. The others had suffered injuries that he had mended once they reached the other side. This time, he was determined to not expend resources while also showing off their intelligence and problem-solving skills for the observers.
Glancing back, he saw Seraphine’s approving look.
The process was methodical. Naomi pointed to her suggested path, Shannon tested the tile, and then Eric walked onto the spaces they knew were safe. They had decided he would be the one to do that, as if the floor fell out from under him he could use a Flashstep to get to safety. Of course, he knew he wouldn’t fall in. Peter was following behind him, focusing on looping the rope along the lanterns so that the others could have a handhold in case they slipped up later. Some of the safe steps were just small enough for him to be on his tip-toes, while others were wide enough to stand on with both feet.
Once Eric was on the far side of the room, Peter took his last few steps, and then the ladies followed, holding the rope as an extra support.
Naomi’s step was sure, but Shannon seemed to forget the path and had an errant step, and she mis-stepped. All of the floor in the room vanished, and both women let out a sudden scream of panic. They clutched the ropes tightly as they were suspended above the acid.
Eric heard Peter’s gasp of shock and put a hand out to keep him from charging into the acid pool hip-deep to help the ladies. “Don’t,” Eric said. “You’ll just suffer injury and lose some of your armor in the process. They have to hold tight.” He raised his voice a bit. “Just hang on! It takes a minute for the floor to come back!”
Shannon was practically frozen, her grip like iron as she kept completely still, clutching the rope for dear life. Naomi was struggling, and Eric felt his heart beat faster as he realized she likely didn’t have the upper body strength to hold on.
If she falls in, then we look a lot worse. She won’t die, since we have Seraphine and the guards, but I wanted to get through this room without a mistake. It won’t put us in a good light if we need to call on their help.
Eric shouted out commands. “Shannon! Feet on Naomi’s butt! Push her up! Naomi, at the same time, swing your legs up and hook your heels onto the rope!”
Shannon moved stiffly but listened to his orders; Naomi swung forward as Shannon pushed, managing to wrap her legs around the rope and alleviate the tension on her arms.
“Fuck yeah!” Peter shouted as he pumped his fist. “Good job! Now hold tight!”
“No shit, Sherlock!” Naomi shouted.
Shannon kept stock still, her arms not showing a bit of strain, but her face remained contorted in fear.
When the floor returned, Naomi pointed to the proper spot for Shannon to step on. The two made their way across without further incident, and the lanterns all glowed blue briefly. Eric grinned as the messages from The Paths appeared in his vision. The information was in a more familiar format that had taken him a while to customize in his last life, but he had been able to achieve it with a few prompts this time.
[You have leveled up!]
[You have 2 level-ups to process.]
[Blackflame Mage 4, 5.]
[Level 5 in Blackflame Mage reached! Gain access to a new Skill. You may equip your new Skill on your Loadout by spending one hour doing low-impact activities.]
[Level 5 in Blackflame Mage reached! Gain access to a new Trait. You must choose an existing Trait to remove, or lose access to this new Trait.]
-----
New Skill:
Combustion 1 - Only usable if a target is suffering from Blackflame Blaze. The target explodes, dealing the remainder of all burn damage in a burst that affects nearby targets. This does not trigger Blackflame Blaze. 5-foot radius centered on target.
-----
New Trait:
Sheltered Flames 1 - If an individual designated as an ally is struck by a damage-dealing Rote or Skill, Blackflame Blaze does not trigger.
-----
Eric pondered his choice. Traits were gained every five levels and were tracked separately by each Class, but, they required the user to give up another Trait, as a person could only ever have three from a single Class. On top of that, he could never take back that choice. He had to evaluate what was more useful.
Fire Resistance is good for keeping myself alive. Blackflame Blaze I have to keep, as that seems pretty integral to the whole Blackflame Mage setup. Vital Heat is pretty useful too.
He glanced at his allies, all of whom were in that same trance-like state as he was, although he had trained himself to look past the screens in his vision and see past them.
If my plan is to go on more solo dives into the Twilight Depths, then Sheltered Flames isn’t useful. But on a field of battle? It will probably help significantly. It helps that I know war is coming. I’m planning on acquiring a second Class that goes with barriers or healing, so I won’t need Fire Resistance.
Remove Fire Resistance and take Sheltered Flames.
[Confirmed.]
[Choose a Skill and Trait to increase. Then repeat this once.]
Let’s go with Backblast and Cinderburst, and let’s put both Trait increases into Blackflame Blaze.
[Confirmed.]
-----
Skills:
Backblast 2 - The damage dealt increases.
Cinderburst 2 - The area of effect increases in size. 60-foot radius.
-----
Traits:
Blackflame Blaze 5 - Increase burning damage-over-time to 25%.
-----
Name: Eric Mercer
Classes: Blackflame Mage 5
Maximum Sigils: 5
Rotes: Blackflame Bolt, Ash Shroud
Equipped Skills: Backblast 2, Cinderburst 2, Blackflame Beam 2, Flashstep 2, Sootshroud 1
Traits: Sheltered Flames 1, Blackflame Blaze 5, Vital Heat 1
Body Enhancements:
-----
Loadout Slots: 5
Gear:
Parts & Components: 30x Duskbound Zombie Material, 10x Duskbound Zombie Ash
Embers: 1
-----
While he felt the warmth permeate his body, Eric walked to the next tunnel entrance to wait for his allies. Naomi came out of her trance first and strode over to him. “How do these level ups work? How are we hitting these milestones?”
Eric made sure to jostle his pack a ton to make a racket and prevent Seraphine’s augmented hearing from picking up his words. Then, he lowered his voice to a whisper and leaned in to say, “Milestones are just thresholds placed by The Paths. They correspond with clearing chambers in dungeons and with activities performed outside of dungeons. Every Class is different for the latter.” He pulled back when Shannon joined them. At a normal volume, stopping his pack-shaking, he said, “What did you get?”
Shannon’s look of fear was still there, though it had softened. “I got a new Trait that was pretty good. I swapped an existing one for it.”
Peter joined them a moment later. “Lucky. I was offered a new one, but it was shitty. More lifting capacity? Why would I ever need that?”
“Going forward, I won’t be igniting any of you if you’re in the area of one of my Skills,” Eric said. He glanced down the hallway. “Not that I’d ever try to hurt you. But, I figured it was worth saying. You’d be hit by the area-of-effect damage, just not affected by the damage-over-time.” He squinted. “I realize that sounds weird. Think of it this way, if it were turn-based-combat, normally you would suffer a turn of burn before I could turn it off. With this, there is no ‘burn period’ before I can turn it off. It just doesn’t apply the burn.”
Peter clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks, bro. Come on, let’s go and find more monsters to smash!”
Shannon looked at Naomi and hugged her. “I’m sorry,” she whispered just loud enough that Eric heard her. “I’m so sorry I almost got us hurt. I promise I’ll do better.”
“It’s okay.” Naomi nodded and gently tapped Shannon’s back. “Let’s get going.” She fell into stride alongside Eric at the back of the room as they walked down the tunnel toward the next obstacle. “Monsters?” she whispered.
Eric jostled his bag again, making a loud noise to cover his whispers, “Graveborn Striders. Mean motherfuckers.”