After some deliberation, he decided to put two points each into Resilience, Intellect, and Insight. It would bring them each up to 5, and they were all likely very useful to survival. Resilience would increase his HP, Intellect would help him gather knowledge and make good decisions, and Insight increased XP gain and helped against mind affecting abilities according to the tooltips. After applying the points, he could feel the magic of the world suffuse into him once more, strengthening his body and sharpening his mind. It wasn’t a night and day difference from how he had been able to think before, more like having half an energy drink that perked you up. No new windows popped up or anything for having reached level 5 in those stats, which was mildly disappointing, but they clearly already had their own benefits.
Feeling somewhat better about his decision, he now only had the two advancements to consider. Looking at his stat disk again he brought up the options for his spells.
Advancements available for Control Plant:
. Reduced initial cost
. Reduced impact on mana regeneration
. Improved command complexity
Advancements available for Toxic Spore Colony:
. Increased size
. Improved camouflage
. Enhanced poison
Advancements available for Sculpt Bone
. Decreased mana cost
. Limited material increase
. Changes revert after a set time
One of the ability upgrades did stand out from the rest, and he selected it immediately. Control plant had to be his single most impactful spell, and increasing the complexity of the commands that he could give to his planty minions was seriously a no brainer. Xander was excited by all the other options available as well, but also a bit overwhelmed by all the choices. How was he supposed to pick only one more of them? They all sounded useful to say the least, though some were definitely flashier than others. He had never really been one to be paralyzed by decisions for the most part unlike his brother Nate, but pretty much everything here could prove to be incredibly useful. Xander was curious why each spell only had three upgrades available and wondered if they were chosen at random from some hidden list, or if he had to learn more about the spells to unlock new upgrades for them, or some combination of those things.
He was sort of tempted to make another improvement on the same spell just to get more bang for his buck with the overlapping upgrades making his plants even more effective, but the two remaining options were both related to mana and he now could reclaim mana from… from a defeated foe. Xander carefully tried not to think about the fact that he would likely have to kill again and refocused on picking his second upgrade. He could go with something to make the bone armor more efficient, or something to make the mushroom trap type spell more effective. He hadn’t had a chance to use Toxic Spore Colony yet, but the upgrades were straightforward, and he would probably go with better camouflage if he was going to improve that spell.
More interesting was the upgrade for Sculpt Bone that reverted the changes after a set time. It took a good bit of mana and time to sculpt the bone in the first place, as he could attest after trying to work the ribcage into a sort of breastplate armor for himself. Xander’s cheeks heated a bit at the thought since he was still trying to get used to this new body, and was still failing. He shook off the thought and spent the next few minutes pondering what would be the point of undoing all the hard work you would have poured into the spell in the first place. None of the other options had seemed detrimental so there had to be a purpose.
It was actually his own bone armor that gave him the first idea. After adjusting it on his chest for about the fifth time in the last couple of hours of walking and trying to make it more comfortable, inspiration struck. Undoing the changes on the ribcage he was wearing would shrink it back down to its former size, and it would crush the hell out of him. He was unsure exactly what would happen in that situation, but it wouldn’t be pretty. But once he had that idea, he imagined all sorts of time-delayed traps that could be made, or just really interesting pieces of art that he could make for that matter. Watching a solid cube of bone unfold into a full skeleton would be a really cool piece of performance art.
—-----------------------------------
Leading the strange woman through the woods was still unsettling for Augustus. He definitely didn’t trust her, which was the whole reason that he had offered to show her to the dungeon in the first place. Escorting her would give him time to determine if she was really a threat to other people or not. He mostly believed that she wasn’t a true necromancer, but the two silent skeletons trudging along behind them still gave him doubts along with the creepy smirking grin on what should otherwise be a rather pleasant face. Bone armor also wasn’t entirely unheard of, but most of the time it was only worn by more aggressive races that were antagonistic to civilized folk.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Augustus tried not to shiver as memories of fighting the undead in the Labyrinth clawed their way to the surface with some success. His hand was still on the hilt of his weapon even though she shouldn’t pose any kind of threat to him. He just couldn’t seem to let his guard down; it was almost as if there were an aura of fear around her that would have totally unsettled a lesser man. He kept himself under control though.. Watching her run the dungeon should give him enough time to determine that.
Clearing his throat to get her attention, he said “We should be getting to the Bramble Den Dungeon soon. I wouldn’t normally recommend that someone at level 6 try to clear it by themselves, but you seem… very capable for someone of your level.” Unsettling violet eyes swung up to peer at him, and he felt his fingers grip the hilt more firmly, before she just nodded slowly “Alright, though I’ve never been to a dungeon before. What exactly am I supposed to do?”. Augustus considered how to answer. Pretty much everyone knew about dungeons, they were a combination of existential threat and source of levels and loot, but it sort of made sense that a tree spirit might not be acquainted with them.
“They’re a manifestation of magic, according to a scholarly wizard I talked to once,” Augustus explained, “I honestly didn’t get a third of what he was saying, except that most of them form over something called leylines. When a leyline gets too close to the surface or has too much magic flowing through it, dungeons form to release the magical pressure.” Upon seeing the lack of comprehension on the face of his audience, he sighed and simplified, “They’re usually filled with monsters to fight, and if you can get to the deepest part of them you generally can pick up loot in the form of materials, magic stones, and the like. This one is filled with wolves.”
“Isn’t it kind of cruel to just kill a bunch of wolves?” asked the girl, surprising him somewhat. He regarded her with a raised eyebrow and asked “As opposed to using dead bodies to make your armor and your minions?” She waved that away. “The wolves didn’t do anything to me, these guys were trying to murder me for no good reason” she retorted defensively. Augustus shook his head, “Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make any accusations,” he said trying to keep things from escalating, “But dungeon monsters aren’t real creatures, not until they make it out of the dungeon, which only happens if dungeons are left alone to fester for too long.” She looked at him skeptically, and he shrugged. “Seriously, you’ll see when we get there.” The rest of the walk was made in an uncomfortable silence as Augustus tried to work out the girl’s strange dichotomies without much success.
—--------------------------
Xander stared into the dark maw of the dungeon with a great deal of reluctance. He knew that he had agreed to come here and fight, but seeing the entrance gave him a chill. A large portion of the forest here seemed to be walled off with thick and heavily thorned vines. He could almost feel power radiating out of it, and not the warm and welcoming kind either. There was also the ethical matter of whether or not it was right to go in and kill a whole bunch of wolves for no other reason than getting a bit stronger and picking up some loot. Sure, if this had been a video game or an RPG he would have been the first to jump in, but that was when lives weren’t at stake. The danger to himself was probably the biggest factor if he was completely honest with himself, but murdering a bunch of wild animals didn’t exactly sit right with him either.
Glancing back at his ‘companion’, the warrior didn’t seem to have any such compunctions, just waiting impatiently to one side, fingers drumming lightly on the hilt of his weapon. “So you’re really not going to help?” he asked, still trying to buy himself a bit of time to think about this whole scheme. “If you killed the bandits, you shouldn’t really be in any danger from the wolves” Augustus said, “And I will be there to make sure you don’t actually get killed. But as you should know, fighting on your own is the best way to level up and get stronger. If I participate, you won’t really get anything out of it, and I won’t get anything out of clearing such a low leveled dungeon whether I help you or do it on my own either.”
Taking a deep breath to steel his resolve, Xander stared for a moment more at the opening in the curtain of unnatural growth, then sent his two plant monsters in first. There was just enough room to send them in side by side, which he counted as a good thing. It meant that any aggressive monsters couldn’t just immediately flank them. “I don’t suppose you’d tell me if there were any traps in here, would you?” he asked his watcher. The man just shook his head minutely. “Fine” Xander grumped and stomped after the mismatched minions. The second that his foot crossed the threshold of the entrance, a new message disk popped up.
Welcome to the Bramble Den Dungeon. Suggested level: 15, or level 10 if in a party of 4.
That message brought him up short, and he glared back at Augustus “Seriously? It’s saying I should have more than twice as many levels as I do to try this.”
“I know what it recommends, but your creatures are tough, and they also make it so you are a small party. And I’m here just in case. Or do you want to back out? It’s not like I’m going to make you fight, but you said you wanted to get stronger, and this is the best way.” The man said, offering Xander a way out. A big part of him still didn’t relish the whole idea of fighting and killing to get stronger like some kind of murder hobo. He also knew himself well enough that he could tell he wasn’t mad at Augustus, he was just trying to find an excuse. Squaring his shoulders he resumed walking inside.
he thought to the vines in front of him. the vine animating the gnoll skeleton asked with more than a little confusion in its tone. Xander thought back hastily while trying not to laugh at the literal interpretation. asked the other animate vine with more curiosity, which made Xander want to blush. he thought back, mortified. The vines went back to plodding forwards as instructed while he fought down his embarrassment with amusement.
The inside of the ‘Den’ was more like a hedge maze than any kind of naturally grown thicket should be. The walls of brambles were too thick to see through, let alone pass through, and were fairly straight. The brambles were just chaotic enough and blended visually in with each other to the point where he didn’t notice the first side passage until they were only a few feet from it. Looking back towards the entrance he could see that they had only traveled about a hundred feet so far.
There was a rule for getting through mazes just like this, but Xander couldn’t think of what it was at the moment. He glanced down the side passage, but it didn’t look any different than the path he was already walking. “Should I try to do side quest type things, or should I just try to head for the center of the place?” he mused out loud, more to himself than to his silent company. Not having or getting a good answer, he shrugged and headed down the new path. Perhaps it would be better to fight a few wolves off the main path first before trying to tackle whatever was at the end of the dungeon immediately.
This path curved a bit more, not giving him line of sight to its end. It meandered side to side as his little ‘party’ shambled forwards, and he was actually thankful for the silence as he strained his hearing to try to listen for anything up ahead. After a few more minutes of travelling, his vigilance was rewarded when he picked up a faint growl coming from up ahead.