THIRTY-FIVE: SKILLS OF THE FALLEN

  “He slept through you carrying him like a sack?” Valeria’s voice woke Cassius. He jackknifed up, looking around wildly as his heart raced. Fragments of his dream clung to reality, the feeling of cold steel entering his belly, of fear choking him, of death waiting for him with eager hands.

  “Breathe, brother. You are safe,” Valeria was there in a moment, reaching over and grabbing his shoulder, her dark eyes inches from his own as she soothed him. It took only a few long breaths before Cassius’ mind sorted itself and he realized that the onyx room he was in was that of the dungeon heart chamber.

  Vira stood off to the side, lowering a corpse to the ground. Titus and Leto if Cassius guessed the second shrouded shape well. It was their arms and armor made into a pile not far away.

  “I brought you first, if it is any consolation,” Vira promised, a weary smile to her face as she stood up and walked toward them. She offered Valeria the last two watches, fat pendulums on skinny cords of gold.

  Loot as always brought out a legionnaires smile and Valeria was no different, snatching the watches and scurrying back to the wall as she looked it over. Already several of the rows glowed blue-white where she had found the right combination.

  “Do not open the door. We need you to take the skills needed to push through your tier. I have a feeling what waits beyond will be strong,” Vira warned. Valeria waved at her with one hand, focused on her task.

  “One more battle?” Cassius asked, slowly getting to his feet.

  “One more battle. Your shield and sword are over there and I found your original spear, but they had broken it,” Vira said, pointing to a spot not far away where the remnant of the spear had been tossed.

  “Thank you,” Cassius said as he stretched. He felt hollow, hungry, tired, and more, everything negative a man could feel while still living. A thirst carved at his throat, urging him to drink whatever was available.

  “We have finished our water. I hope that the treasure room will have something to drink at least. They often do have mana enriched foods and drink. Those that have been left long enough,” Vira said, eyes wandering as a finger stroked the pommel of her sword.

  Cassius may have been injured physically, but two of her kinsmen lay forever dead. Those were wounds that scoured the mind just as badly as his body had been torn apart.

  “Go, see if you will receive a blessing for our work. Then we will give the skills to Valeria and conquer this damned dungeon,” Vira ordered. Her eyes focused as they locked on to Cassius.

  “Yes, my lady,” Cassius said, nodding his head to her in respect. Vira took it without word, waving her hand toward the stone. He took the moment to look over the final alert he’d gotten when he’d slain Leto.

  NOVUS BELLATOR IMMORTUI

  LEVEL TEN

  INFORMATION: A SKILLED WARRIOR THAT HAS BEEN INFECTED AND TURNED INTO ONE OF THE UNDEAD

  There was no hint of who Leto had been in the information of the fallen. Just that a skilled warrior had been infected and risen as the undead. Cassius turned away from the words as he walked to the stone and laid his hand upon it. The connection was instant, but Cassius frowned when he saw no further blessing had been earned.

  They had slew many of the foul beasts, but the difference in tier would make earning future blessings more strenuous. It had been a quiet thought in his mind as he had been progressing through his first tier. That first batch of levels had come quickly, but had slowed as he had risen higher. It seemed that it was even more strenuous now.

  Which made him wonder how long Vira had been perched at level ten, the pinnacle of their tier. How many hunts she’d been through slaughtering beasts and killing monsters that had come through the Shifting Wall. It had been instantaneous rising to level twelve for her, while he still laboured now.

  “Greed is a sin to the world. Patience, perseverance, hard-work, they are virtues that all must aspire toward,” Cassius muttered under his breath, only slightly mocking the old words of his teachers at the orphanage.

  “Nothing?” Vira asked as he came toward them. He shook his head and she affixed a thin veneer of sympathy to her face.

  “I was the same. It appears it will take rivers of blood to rise higher. That or stronger prey,” Vira said. Skill shards lay before her, seven of them in one pile with two others slightly off to the side. Valeria had pulled herself away from the door, every roll of tiles glowing aside from one.

  “When you run a dungeon, you split everything evenly. Eight skill shards to be claimed from the dungeon, two from fallen brothers,” Vira said, her voice hitched at the last line. Cassius stopped and looked down at the two skill shards she’d harvested from her own cousins.

  They looked like any of the skill shards he’d found so far. Nothing separated what was pulled from a man to that of a beast or monster in a dungeon. The desire to swallow grew as he looked at them, but he forced it down as he sat on his heels and looked over his fellow legionnaire.

  Valeria waited with thinly veiled patience, sensing the noblewoman had more to say. They didn’t have long to wait before Vira spoke again, less confident now as her fingers coiled around her cousins’ skill shards.

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  “I would ask that we not include Leto or Titus’ skills in this. That I return them and their arms and armor back to their families.”

  “I agree,” Cassius said instantly. He had no desire for members of the strata to hate him anymore than they did. It was one thing to have their children die on expedition with him. It was another for him to return wearing their armor and using their skills.

  Valeria was slower in her acceptance, but finally she nodded as she spat off to the side. Fingers hovered over the skills, but Cassius could see the same questions that nagged at him bothering her. Eight skill shards, three of them. They were either one short, or two over.

  “What if we do not wish to take the skill shard available?” Cassius said. He had no desire for something called [Infect] to shape his next class. The hubris of the thought startled him, thinking that he would be able to push through to the next tier when only the richest and most powerful in the republic could do so.

  “Then we sell them and split the profit,” Vira said instantly. Valeria froze and looked over the skills with a wince.

  “What would the cost to buy one of them be?” Valeria asked, looking up to Vira. The noblewoman pursed her lips and thought for a moment before shaking her head.

  “A common enough skill that is easily harvestable, like your own [Thrust] or [Reinforce] could cost up to fifteen ounces,” Vira said. Cassius felt himself relax a bit. Fifteen ounces of silver was nearly six months of wages, if one had not incurred debt for equipment.

  “Silver or gold?” Valeria asked quietly. Cassius froze as Vira tilted her head a bit and laughed.

  “Gold of course.” Cassius looked down at the skills and felt his intestines boil at the wealth laying at their feet. Only once had Cassius seen a golden drachma when a rich merchant’s bag had split from a clumsy purse cutter.

  Blood had run down the stones of the street as the merchant’s guards had laid upon the crowd with bare steel. Urchins and beggars had died until the fat woman had reached over and picked the heavy, bloody, coin off the ground and placed it back in a fresh purse.

  A drachma was three ounces of pure gold, printed and stamped by the mint. It was the wealth of a year or more of a classed labourer. Each of the skills at their feet were worth five drachma.

  “Sell them!” Cassius and Valeria said at once. They met each other's eyes and a dark chuckle came from them both before they both looked at Vira. Cassius hated that the math was easy in his mind.

  A single unsuspecting sword stroke on their share grew larger. It was the cold calculations of the street. Less mouths, more food for him. Then he remembered who it was sitting on her heels in front of him.

  Viridian Agricola Triticum was of a house so powerful and rich that the idea of buying multiple skills for five drachma each was of no concern. That a third daughter could reside at the pinnacle of the first tier and have enough experience to immediately reach level twelve when she pushed forward.

  It would be more rewarding to return her alive in the long term, than to split her skull and take the skills now. Cassius had nowhere to sell them anyways and Valeria wouldn’t either.

  “[Regenerate] is not a skill you will ever see again unless you conquer more dungeons or find it in the Wilds. I have heard rumors about it, but even my mother can not afford the skill. If what it does is true, then it will extend your life far beyond what even blessing will.” Valeria and Cassius both thought that over.

  “Valeria, I do not mean to press your decision here, but I must insist you take two of the skills. We need another second tier warrior if we are to breach the treasure room and reap its rewards. Not to speak of what awaits us outside. That this was a trap is evident and we are fewer now than we were. We must be stronger when we leave here,” Vira spoke passionately.

  “How many of those are [Regenerate]?” Cassius asked.

  “Half of them were before you took yours. There are three remaining [Regenerate], one [Infection] and three called [Imbue]. It is [Imbue] that I believe made their blades glow with power, a skill similar to [Reinforce] perhaps?” Vira said, waving at them with one broad hand.

  “I have no desire for that skill,” Valeria spat, her gaze focused on [Infect]. It was a foul thing that Cassius could agree on. He almost suggested that they leave it buried here so none could take it, but the thought of heavy gold in his pocket stayed his tongue.

  “I am to assume that you will take one of the other [Regenerate]?” Valeria asked which Vira nodded to.

  “Cassius, I ask a favor from you. Claim the other [Regenerate] for Marcus,” Valeria whispered, eyes shining as she looked at him. Cassius instinctively wanted to say no, to claim his own reward of one of the [Imbue] skills, but thought better of it. A fevered gamble came to his mind

  “I will relinquish my share, if I can claim the monster’s skill inside the cave if there is one,” Cassius said.

  “I will agree with that,” Valeria said.

  “What is in it for me?” Vira asked, eyes narrowing.

  “If the creature on the inside has a skill, then we shall increase our taken skills to nine, three for each of us. But I have no doubt that you have as much desire as we do for [Infect]. I will give half my share of the split for first claim of the dungeon boss,” Cassius offered. It was pure, reckless instinct that pushed him to make the offer.

  “That and the extra dungeon swords,” Vira said. Cassius blinked at her, squinted his eyes and remembered the eight blades that the undead had wielded.

  “Are they expensive?” Valeria asked, leaning in.

  “The single blade would be worth all of what Titus and Leto’s arms cost. We each have two with the spare to be split to be sold between us,” Vira said.

  “If the dungeon guardian carries a weapon, I will claim a single sword, the guardian’s skill, and the weapon. In return I will relinquish half of my share of the sale of the skill [Infect], all of my share of the two spare blades, and will give Valeria one of my swords,” Cassius said.

  “Remind me to dice with you! You are generous with your terms,” Valeria said with a laugh.

  “I can accept those terms. I will claim [Regenerate] and [Imbue] along with half of the cost of the sale of [Infect] and half the sale of three dungeon blades. In addition to our normal split of the treasures inside of the room,” Vira agreed, her hand over the skills in waiting.

  Cassius fought a wince as the warrior nearly crushed his fingers in her grip, but kept his face stoic. Valeria did so as well, happy herself as she managed to achieve all of her goals and increase her shares as well.

  That wild reckless adrenaline faded away and Cassius swallowed as he looked at the glowing door, wondering if his gamble would pay off.