“Ummm… how would you recommend I spend these points?” he asked after a moment. Mr. Sinclair looked surprised that he was being asked for advice, “You really want my help?”
“I know we didn’t start off well, and okay a lot of that was my fault, but I’ve been just making all this stuff up as I went ever since getting to Gaellus. Yes, of course I want the help of a knowledgeable entity who is more versed in all this!” The treant looked at him with a much softer expression than usual, and then nodded slowly. “Thank you for saying so, Lord Xander.”
“Eh, none of that Lord business, at least not between us two, it sounds weird” he tried to protest, but his helper shook his head. “It is your proper title, so I will use it as is right. On the matter of your available points, I would suggest getting your Intellect and Insight to 10, along with Resilience. That will give you three milestones for only 15 points. Intellect and Insight will help you learn faster, level faster, and make more considered decisions. Having a resilience under 10 as a Dungeon Lord would just be criminally negligent.” he explained.
“Oh actually, I have a question about milestones,” Xander said, “Do they happen every 10 points?”
“No, the milestone levels are 10, 25, 50, 100, and then every 100 thereafter.” Xander boggled for a moment at the number of points needed, but then considered that if he somehow managed to reach level 100, he would have earned 300 points as a Dungeon Lord. “Do adventurers really get their stats up to those kinds of numbers?” he inquired. “Absolutely,” replied Mr. Sinclair, “In fact, I’ve heard that in order to be classified as a Hero class adventurer, they need to have at least two stats over 100.” Xander whistled, but then went back to considering what to do. “If I take your advice, that leaves me with 15 points, which is still enough to get one ability up to the second milestone. Do you think that’s a good idea, or should I spread them out among my major stats a bit more?”
“There are arguments for both sides, but milestones can provide a significant advantage, and each tier of milestone offers stronger advantages in general. So obtaining a second tier milestone could prove very powerful indeed. Speaking of milestones though, you never selected the milestone for Magic Resonance attaining 10 points it seems.” Xander slapped his forehead, covering his eyes with his hand. “Damn… you’re right, and considering what happened right after that, I could have probably used it. Uggghhhh…” he groaned. “Clearly…” Mr. Sinclair said with a faint hint of amusement.
Bringing up the window, Xander looked over his options again.
Your Magic Resonance has reached a milestone. Please choose one of the following advancements.
- You may now spend ability points to increase your affinities. Each point spent increases an affinity of your choice by 10. You may not increase an affinity above 50 in this way.
. Your spells are 20% more effective.
. You gain the ability to see magic. Note: This ability costs mana regeneration while in active use.
“Ooof, it’s no easier to pick one of these options than it was before,” he grumbled, “Suggestions?”
“You can easily discount the second option,” Mr. Sinclair stated definitively, “Since you don’t specialize in attack magic, this amounts mostly to a lowered mana cost for you. Likewise, you have the ability to use the dungeon’s interface to modify the magic of your dungeon already, so it will be less useful here than it would be in the outside world.”
“Leaving the option to increase affinities. And oh look, I have a bunch of stat points to spend.” Xander said with a shit eating grin. But then he paused and frowned. “I do have a bunch of stat points, but is that really the best use for them? If I used even one point to bump an affinity then I couldn’t hit that additional milestone. Hmmmm…” he mused to himself then nodded. “Magic sight it is, I want to make cool magical art installations, and I think it’ll be more helpful for my ultimate goals.” He selected the option before Mr. Sinclair could protest.
“Hmmmph… I don’t think that was the optimal choice, but I suppose it won’t be too much of a problem” the D.I.E. said, but didn’t sound that put out. Xander shrugged, and went back to the Dungeon Lord interface, where he dumped 5 points each into Resilience, Intellect, and Insight. Vigor and clarity flooded through him, and the rush was so powerful that it verged on orgasmic. It took Xander a minute or two to calm down and focus enough to read the first window that had popped up.
Your Resilience has reached a milestone. Please choose one of the following advancements.
. Gain damage reduction equal to 33% of your Resilience
. You take 50% less additional damage from critical hits
. Add half of your Resilience to your Insight when resisting mind-affecting magic
“Oh, those are pretty cool,” Xander said, “I’m thinking that resisting critical hits is the way to go here since Resilience isn’t going to be one of my main stats.”
The treant shook his head though, “That’s probably the worst of the three for you actually. I know you haven’t read up on your species yet, but Dryads are already highly resistant to critical strikes. Basically, your physiology doesn’t rely on nearly as many organs as other humanoids, leaving your brain as pretty much your only true weak spot.”
Xander had soooo many questions about that, but he had the literature to read later, so instead he maintained focus. “Alrighty then, so how about boosting my ability to resist mind shenanigans then?”
“Yes, that is probably for the best. Since you are unlikely to be a brawler, spellcasters are likely to be your most troublesome foes.”
With that settled, they moved on.
Your Intellect has reached a milestone. Please choose one of the following advancements.
. Gain 25% additional experience from all sources
. Your memory becomes eidetic and you can recall information faster
. Immediately select one additional class spell, then enhance it.
“So… this is going to sound kind of dumb, but errrmmm… what does 'eidetic' mean?” Xander asked sheepishly.
“It means you will have perfect clarity when remembering information. You are already underleveled for a Dungeon Lord however, so I would recommend the first option to help you catch up.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“No offense, but eidetic memory sounds pretty fire.” Xander countered, “Sure the XP bump would probably be nice, but being able to perfectly recall everything I know, and do it faster?” He locked in the choice. “The other two don’t even come close.”
“If you aren’t going to listen to my suggestions, why did you even ask me to offer them?” Mr. Sinclair asked.
“Hey, I’ve taken them into consideration, and without you I would have probably screwed up the Resilience milestone, so it's not for nothing. Come on, we’ve got more.”
Your Insight has reached a milestone. Please choose one of the following advancements.
. When choosing advancements you now have 4 options
. Increase your effective resistance to mental magics by 50%
. Your number of passive slots increases by 1 (Total of 4)
He was still thinking them through when Mr. Sinclair urgently said “Take the last one, it is an incredibly rare option, and will become even more important as you level.” Xander had been strongly leaning towards an even better resistance to mental magics, since having even more options when advancing would just make his choices harder. He hadn’t known there was a limit on the number of passives he could have though, and Reginald was very insistent about it.
“Alright, I’ll trust you on this,” he said, then smirked, “See? I do listen sometimes. Aannndd… done. Well, one more thing to do before we look at dungeon stuff, right?”
“Indeed.” Mr. Sinclair relaxed visibly after Xander brought his passive slots up to 4. “And have you decided on which stat to bring up to 25?”
“Oh that was easy enough,” Xander said with a chuckle, “On more than one occasion I found myself praising one stat in particular, and it should help greatly in the fights to come. I’ll probably be leaving it at 25 for a while after this though.” The treant lifted one gnarled barky eyebrow questioningly, and Xander dumped all of his remaining free stats into Regeneration. Unlike with his other increases today, nothing really felt like it changed, but the expected system disk appeared as faithfully as ever.
Your Regeneration has reached a milestone. Please choose one of the following advancements.
. Healing beyond your maximum HP grants temporary Overhealth (up to your Regeneration score). Overhealth has a half-life of 10 minutes. Regeneration will not grant Overhealth by itself.
. Increase your Regeneration speed by 1000%, (Heal 12.5 HP per 1 Minute)
. Magical status effects can now be removed by Regeneration. Speed of removal depends on the potency of the effect, your Regeneration and Resilience, and applicable affinities. Note: Magical status effects beyond a certain potency will not be removable.
If gawking were an Olympic sport, Xander would have placed at least silver. “Reginald… what… what the fuck are with these numbers and these abilities?”
“I did tell you that milestones grew more potent with each tier, did I not?” the treant said, without even the slightest trace of smugness of course. “But I think the increased speed percentage is due to a racial bonus. Dryads are well known for their high regeneration for a reason. You already enjoy a significant bonus to the speed you regenerate, and that bonus is likely affecting this option as well.”
“I mean… the choice seems pretty clear…” Xander half-mumbled, still a bit shell-shocked by a thousand frigging percent increase. “But how does overhealth even work? That seems wonky even for magic, and like it should also be under Resilience.”
“The answer to both questions is the same. Overhealth works by nearly instantaneously regenerating damage taken. Resilience would just give you additional HP, which in many ways is superior to Overhealth. For example, if you have 100 HP and take 100 damage in a single blow, you will die before Overhealth could fix you up. And of course there is the half life to consider too.”
“Well I guess I can see that, so why bother with overhealth at all then?” Xander asked curiously.
“Simple. Pain and critical damage can be instantly removed with overhealth. If your arm is broken or your belly is opened with Overhealth active, those injuries would be removed. Well, up to the amount of hitpoints you have stored in the ability that is.” Well, on second thought that sounded pretty useful to Xander after all. All three of the abilities sounded insanely useful. “What the hell do I do here?” he asked plaintively of no one in particular.
“Oh take the increased regeneration speed, without a doubt,” counseled Mr. Sinclair, “It leans into your racial ability, and if you can manage to hide for a few minutes in a drawn out fight it will give you a significant advantage. Since you are likely going to be relying on minions to do the heavy lifting for you, it should be easier to get away and recover.”
“I was kind of thinking that too,” Xander admitted, “But what about magical status effects? Avoiding crowd control seems important too.”
“You’re not entirely wrong, but most classes won’t get such status effects until at least their first class evolution. There are a few exceptions, but those classes, like Enchanter, would have a good chance of ignoring that ability anyway.” If Mr. Sinclair was correct, and Xander had no reason to doubt him, then it was a good point. With a steadying breath, he locked in the ludicrous amount of regeneration.
“Alright, well, I don’t feel any different physically, but I feel much better about my chances of surviving a fight.” He grinned as he thought of all his juicy increases. Which was naturally when the world, or fate, or whoever decided it was a good time to let him prove it. Xander sighed as the magical blue lanterns shifted to red and a new window popped up in front of him.
Warning: Intruders have entered your dungeon.
—------------------------------------
“Allllllright, this ain’t so bad. I feel much better about our chances.” Tor told his brother as they finished bashing apart one of the strange undead that wandered around the grounds. Kord just grunted in agreement, not being a huge fan of words in any format. Delsa on the other hand looked around nervously. “Why are we risking our necks with a Dungeon Lord at all though, Tor? I ain’t heard much about them except that they’s bad news.”
“Don’t be a baby,” he half sneered at her, “Them’s just stories to scare the children.” The big man laughed as he stomped on the fallen skeletal creature and listened to the bones crack under his mighty blows. He made sure to grind the colorful flowers sprouting out from between the ribs into the lightly churned earth. “See?” he said to her as a plume of pollen was released, “They ain’t shit, hardly different than any of the other rabble we deal with. Easier even, I’d say.” Kord grunted in agreement again, and Delsa glared at them both.
“I’m just sayin’ that we oughta be cautious is all, ain’t no one been in this dungeon before, and the Lord’s gonna make it harder, and is a bloody necromancer besides, yeah?” Delsa eyed the cloud of particles distrustfully and took a step away. Tor rolled his eyes. That was the problem with women, they didn’t have the balls to take chances and go for the glory. Delsa wasn’t half as bad as other women, she could drink and screw and even fight with the best of them most days, but even she had her weak moments. It was just an unavoidable part of her gender as far as he was concerned.
“Look, Del,” he said patiently, “The information I got from my source says this Xander bitch is a low level fucking dryad. A fucking pansy ass flower fucker, yeah?” He kicked the skeleton again, causing another colorful billow and even more bits of bone to shatter and go spinning away. “And these pansy ass undead seem to make that true eh? What chance you think we got at ever taking a shot at another Dungeon Lord, eh? They’s supposed to drop loot what can set you up for life, yeah? Besides, I gots me a lil’ surprise for the necro-bitch,” he said, patting a pouch at his waist, “So quit’cher bitchin and let's get on with it.”
“Fuck you, Tor” she said back angrily, but he could tell her heart wasn’t in it. The promise of loot was just too good for even her to pass up. “Already did, sweetheart,” he chuckled with a leer at her. She just rolled her eyes and retorted “Your brother was better…”. Tor clutched his chest with one hand in mock indignance. “Well of course, he’s a beast! Unlike this riff raff,” he smirked and pointed at another pair of the undead headed their way. Kord just grinned darkly with a wink at his arguing teammates, and hefted the massive battleaxe that was his signature weapon.
Muscles bulged and power flared within all three of them as they prepared to fight again. These creatures were pathetic compared to the denizens of the dungeons they usually ran, since their levels were all in the mid twenties. Dungeon Lord or no, a level 11 dryad would be easy pickings, and then they could all relax in luxury for a while. The trio sauntered forward, leaving smashed skeletons in their wake, and pressing on towards the looming mansion that dominated the center of the grounds. None of them took much notice of the yellow dust sticking to their lower bodies.