by Ivan Kal
And then, a moment later, it collapsed.
Morgan sighed as his Mass Transfer ability ran out and the mass snapped back to its rightful place, leaving him feeling somehow empty.
Everyone was slumping over. Lucius was sitting on the floor, breathing heavily, and Clara was tending to Vall’s arm. Morgan tried to walk toward them, but the pain in his leg made him stumble and fall over. He rolled to his back and glared at the white orb that was floating above him. Clara noticed and came over.
“What did you do?” Clara said as she sent tendrils of her life sensing energy into him.
“Pretty sure I broke my leg,” Morgan said.
Clara tsked, but her eyes remained focused on his leg. He felt heat spread into his body and concentrate on his lower body. “You didn’t break it, thank the Great Lord. You did crack it, though.”
Morgan sighed in relief. The last time he had broken a bone she had been forced to mend it with her power, and that had not been a nice and painless experience that he had been conditioned to believe from his games. There, a healer only needed to wave a hand and boom, health restored, but it was not so here. She’d had to cut out fragments of bone out of his body, without any anesthesia or even numbing agents, and then she had to meld the bone together as she grew back what was lost. It hurt like no pain he had ever felt in his life.
Now, however, it was just a slight discomfort compared to the last time, not that it didn’t hurt at all. Then Ves appeared in his eyesight.
Morgan smiled up at her. “Hey there.”
She didn’t return his smile, which made him falter.
“What the hell was that?” Ves asked, in exactly the same tone and expression her twin brother had used when he threw his first Phase Shot without letting him know previously. Uh oh, I screwed up somehow.
“Uh… I killed the boss?” Morgan said.
She grabbed his chin and squished his face as she leaned down. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed,” she whispered.
He didn’t respond, both because she was keeping his face tightly in her hands and because she had a crazy look in her eyes that he recognized, and he knew it would be best if he kept quiet. “Don’t ever do something so reckless again, understand?”
“Yesh, mmf,” he tried to say, but her hand made it come out garbled.
“Good,” she said and let him go, walking away to her abomination of a bear.
He knew of course that she had just been worried about him. It was sweet. He also knew that once the battle left her blood, she would calm down and understand. Morgan had to act—the boss would’ve gotten free, and they didn’t have the tools to deal with it properly. He’d taken a chance, sure, but he had also been pretty certain that it would work. All his experiments with his abilities had given him a good enough idea of what he could do. Except when throwing balls that can punch through stone.
Clara finished working on his leg and he stood up, testing it a bit and walking around. He saw Ves dismiss her bear and Lucius and Vall walked over and they all gathered around the boss.
“And now, loot!” Vall said with a glint in his eyes.
Morgan chuckled and looked around. After the final boss was dead there was usually a chest somewhere close by. He turned around and saw it near the entrance—he pointed, and they went over to it.
The chest was large, at least two meters wide, if not more. It looked to be made out of stone, with dragons engraved on it. Morgan opened it up and looked inside.
There were two smaller chests inside. Lucius reached down and took out one while Morgan grabbed the other. Opening it, he saw gold coins, a standard reward, and with a glance at the orderly sorted coins he could tell that there were about a thousand of them inside.
He showed the others and then looked at Lucius’s chest. There were four small stones inside, two ability stones and two class stones. Using his Inspect skill, he identified them:
Primal Roar I — requires domination alignment
Flash Step I — requires domination alignment
The two abilities seemed really cool. Primal Roar seemed to fear beast-type enemies around the user if they were lower level than the user, and Flash Step was a short-range teleport ability, a blink really, with around a four-meter range. Morgan was tempted to take it for himself, but with his phasing he already had an escape and movement skill that was pretty powerful. Thinking it over, he figured that they would end up giving it to Lucius, as it would suit his style. The roar would probably go to Ves—or Vall, perhaps.
Then he looked at the classes. These were advanced classes, not like the ones that ascended needed to consume in order to merge their two beginner classes.
CLASS
REQUIREMENT
Golemancer
Earth or Metal Alignment
Pyromancer
Fire Alignment
The two classes were interesting, but not really suited for any of them, save perhaps Morgan, and he wasn’t about to change his class as he knew that it was currently unique. These class stones were something that anyone who already had an upgraded class—who have merged their two beginner classes. In a way, they could also be considered for respeccing and taking another class. Morgan could take one and become a Golemancer; he would retain his skills and abilities and gain access to others based on the class, but in turn he would lose the chance to progress his own class. Still, he figured that people who already had classes that were similar or in the same general area could take them and enhance their own style. But none of these worked for them, which meant that they would send them back to Skyreach for them to use.
Lastly, Morgan turned to look at the rest of the loot in the chest. There were several items inside: an armor set with a chest plate, as well as vambraces and greaves. Then there was a pole-arm, a guandao, that looked almost identical to the one that the final boss had used, except this one was more appropriately sized compared to the boss’s. The last thing there was a bronze-colored ring with a small blue stone set in it.
Morgan used Inspect on them.
Molten Armor of the Eternal Watch LVL 30 (requires 30 strength, 25 constitution) — The molten armor of the Emperor’s General. Once per combat, the wearer can activate its Molten Core ability to gain a 10% increase to all types of movement until the end of combat.
Morgan raised an eyebrow at the set. It looked like it was made out of dark iron, which would make it fairly tough. But the ability was very useful, especially for high-movement classes like Lucius’s and Vall’s. Neither of them was the required level yet, but they would get there soon enough. He turned to the next item.
Guandao of the Betrayed General LVL 30 (requires 32 strength, 26 agility) — The weapon of the loyal general betrayed by his Emperor. Once per combat the wearer can activate the Minor Strength ability, and gain a 20% increase to strength until the end of combat.
Another good item, but none of them used pole-arms or spear-like weapons. Still, it could be useful for different situations, and perhaps Vall might decide to give it a try. He had the weapon-mastery skill and wasn’t tied to swords like Lucius was.
He then took a look at the last item.
Ring of Broken Promises LVL 30 (requires 34 will, 30 intellect) — The ring worn by the Emperor who lied to his people. While wearing this ring you can activate its ability True Sight, allowing you to detect lies for the duration of a single conversation, once per day.
Morgan’s eyebrows rose as he read through the information on the ring. What a useful little thing. It would make dealing with merchants far easier if he could ask them if they were swindling them and know the truth. He turned to the others and let them know what each item did. They didn’t decide who would get what right then and there, of course—they would do that once they got back to the inn. With the chest looted and the items stored in their inventories, they started looting the rest of the dungeon, even taking pieces off the terracottas, since they were literally made of valuable material—but only the dark iron and mist stone, of course. Th
ey cleared everything relatively quickly, even spending a bit of time trying to find any hidden rooms, since Morgan remembered there being treasure rooms hidden somewhere, but they were unsuccessful. At the end they found only a few more weapons: a zweihänder sword, a throwing axe, and a dagger, all without effects, but well made.
After they filled their inventories they went back to the entrance and left the dungeon. They stepped into night. Morgan blinked, the shock from going from day to night not really connecting in his brain. Quickly, though, he realized that the open dungeon had been somehow taken out of time, the blurring of the sky had been an indication that they were seal in, but hadn’t occurred to him that something like this could happen. Still, he knew that they had been inside for several hours at least, but since the sun was still shining inside he hadn’t really realized how much time had passed.
“Finally!” a voice said and Morgan looked over to the source, doing a double take at what he saw. The mage student that had met them here was still there, of course, but he was sitting on a chair, with a closed book on the table, a ball of light above his head. “I was worried that you would loot until tomorrow!”
Morgan gave the man an apologetic look—they had taken a long time. “Sorry about that,” Morgan said. In truth, he had forgotten that the man was there. They could’ve tried to go a bit faster, he supposed.
The man stood up and waved a hand over the table and the chair, making them disappear, then shook his head as he walked over. “It’s not a problem. You are the team that took the longest to get through that I had watched, but at least your run was highly entertaining. Most of the others that I watched over just purchased the guides and came prepared with what the guide recommended. You made your own plans, right?”
Morgan nodded. He hadn’t realized that most of the other teams had purchased the complete guide. He wondered how many had had this dungeon as their assignment as well. The man’s mention of time made Morgan nervous that the time to complete the dungeon would be taken into account—he hadn’t considered that.
“It was truly entertaining to watch!” the man said as he put his hand out and the orb floated down to him. He pulled out some kind of heavily engraved cube and then pushed the orb into it. “I just know the evaluators will have a lot of fun watching it.”
“Thanks,” Morgan said, before mentally adding, I guess?
“And all of you have some really uncommon builds,” the man said conversationally.
“I don’t know about that. We just work with what we have,” Morgan said.
“Hah, really?” the man said. “I’ve never seen a druid quite like you. I mean, I’ve seen those who focus only on plants, but you have quite a bit strength also. Don’t know why you stayed back all the time, but hey, it’s your team.”
Morgan saw that the man had confused his utilization of mass and phase abilities as high strength, but he didn’t correct him. People tended not to talk much about their classes and abilities with strangers, and it was considered rude to ask.
The man shook his head again. “We should start back. It’s already getting late and I need to be here in the early morning for the next team.”
Morgan nodded his head and noticed that he had a notification. He brought it up and saw the experience they gained from the dungeon. His eyes widened as he realized that he had enough to ascend.
Immediately, he entered his soul space.
“Greetings, Master,” Sabila, his soul-implant-thingy, said, floating in the gray nothingness that was the player’s soul space.
“Hey, Sabila, long time no see!”
“It’s been five months, seven days, and forty-three minutes since last we spoke.”
Morgan whistled. “A long time, then,” he said.
“Depending on your point of reference, I guess,” Sabila added with just a bit of sass. She had gotten a lot more…free since Morgan had gained his evolved class.
“Anyway, I’ll go and ascend now, if that’s okay.”
“Of course, Master,” Sabila said, and he turned his eyes to his screens.
Morgan Newton LVL 29 Heart of Verdure — EXP 23256/21000 (ascension possible)
He pressed the button and a new screen showed up. Morgan raised an eyebrow as he looked at the three choices into which his class could evolve into. He hadn’t seen this the last time as Sabila had forcibly evolved his class, but now he could choose.
CLASS EVOLUTION
DESCRIPTION
BONUS
Heart of Verdure
You remain on your path, deciding that control and power over plants is the only way forward.
+4 to Nature alignment.
+4 to Phytokinesis.
-10% energy requirement for nature-based skills and abilities.
Mutated Heart of Verdure
You choose the path of experimentation and mutation, knowing that in creating new lifeforms you will find strength.
+2 to Nature alignment
+2 to Phytokinesis
-10% energy requirement for nature-based skills and abilities
*perk—Once per week you may attempt to mutate a specific change into a plant at a 50% chance of success.
Mass Manipulator
You choose the path of manipulation of mass, looking to find out the secrets behind the most fundamental forces of the universe.
+2 to Metal alignment
+2 to Gravikinesis
-10% energy requirement for metal based skills and abilities
*perk—You may exchange mass between objects permanently.
Morgan looked at his three choices and frowned. He wasn’t sure which to choose. The last one was intriguing, but not something that he would pick at this moment. His kit was too focused on plants, and choosing it wouldn’t gain him any strength as he would just be switching focus, even though his metal-based skills were powerful. Perhaps if he kept utilizing his metal alignment skill and abilities and if he found a way to integrate them more with his plant-based stuff he might consider switching at level forty. For now, he was going to remain on his current path. It had most of the things he wanted in a build; his only real problem was that he required either plants near him or at least soil in order to be effective. But he had been having some ideas about how to get around that—which meant his choice was between staying on his path or going to the more evolved version and focusing on mutating plants.
That meant just one real choice, as plant mutations were his best weapon. He chose Mutated Heart of Verdure, and felt the ascension pass through him. He looked back at his name again.
Morgan Newton LVL 30 Mutated Heart of Verdure — EXP 2256/23000
Smiling, he noticed that he had a few notifications. He had apparently gained a new skill, Nature Seismic Sense I, which allowed him to sense vibrations in the ground, but of course only through plants—meaning it would allow him another sense inside a forest, but do little in a city. Although, he remembered, a city like Al’Valor was covered with all kinds of plants, so perhaps it would not so useless even in an urban setting.
The second notification was a new ability, Accelerated Growth I, which allowed him to grow plants in nearly an instant. He already could do it pretty fast, but this was actually a great ability for him. He always needed to concentrate and use his Phytokinesis for that before, and now he could use an ability to both reduce the cost and not need to keep his focus. He would probably need to control the plant after it was grown, but still.
The last ability was Root Wall I, another solid addition.
The last few notifications were some skills and abilities that had leveled up. He sorted the new abilities and the skill and looked at his screens.
SKILLS (Main)
Elemental Alignment—Nature 18 (+one rank guild buff)
Elemental Alignment—Metal 9 (+one rank guild buff)
Hand-to-Hand Combat 5
Throwing Weapons 7
Sharpshooter 11
Energy Manipulation 16
Unyielding Will 4
&
nbsp; Phytokinesis 13
Gravikinesis 5
Life Sense 5
Nature Seismic Sense 1
ABILITIES (Main)
Power Infusion 12
Power Siphon 9
Ward 6
Phase Shift 9
Arcane Mark 4
Touch of Death 4
Energy Blade 6
Vampiric Root Spear 8
Binding Roots 5
Root Wall 1
Mass Transfer 6
Gravitic Stomp 5
Momentum Shift 3
Accelerated Growth 1
Iron Skin 4
He received a few levels in the skills he had used in the dungeon, which was great, and he also had a few more ability points as well as skill points, though he decided to keep those for later. All abilities could be upgraded for two points, but it wasn’t really an effective use for them—it was better to wait and purchase a good ability once he managed the requirements. With a glance he could tell that there was nothing new offered to him regardless. As for skills, it cost too much to upgrade, every level the cost increased. But like it was for his abilities, he was waiting for any new skills that might interest him.