by K R Dimmick
All changes are final. Place your points mindfully.
You need 110,000 XP for your next level.
You may increase one skill by one level and go to 0% progress of the following level. Must be used before level 11.
Now that you are improving at the game, you have increased death penalties. Respawn now takes 30 minutes. You also lose 10% of the XP needed for your next level. After respawning, all stats are reduced by 10% for 10 minutes.
You have now also unlocked the ability to create a guild. You require 10 Reputation Points, 20 Florins and 5 starting members.
I’d done it. I was level 10. I’d seen the blue light cover me. Or at least I would have, if I hadn’t closed my eyes and Dodge rolled. It was marginally embarrassing, but no one seemed to have noticed, thankfully.
“Congratulations,” Mikael whispered in my ear. “And may I say, nice Dodge. Very effective.”
Sighing, I looked up to see him smirking at me.
“As I promised, since you survived this fight, I am granting your leader the answer to one question.” Angitia didn’t seem certain who to address, and ended up looking between the King and I.
Why she thought I might have been in charge was beyond me.
Without saying anything, King Faelyn motioned everyone to gather around and follow him. We all walked toward the edge of the room, hoping the goddess wouldn’t hear us while we discussed our options.
“Any thoughts on a question?” he asked.
“How about asking where the box my mother hid is,” piped up Aliz.
That seemed like a good question, but obviously, the King was loath to throw away such an important windfall if the guard could already see the box. So, he told the guard to go and search.
“We could ask more about the dragons,” Mikael said, glancing at me.
“Found it!” yelled the guard, running toward us while holding what looked like a heavy lump of air.
He put it down at Aliz’s feet with a loud thud.
“Okay, we need to open this before we use that question,” declared Aliz.
She got out the journal and undid the leather tie to release the baby dragon tooth. After a few fumbling attempts to find the box, let alone the lock on it, she thrust the tooth into the surprised guard’s hand.
“You’re the only one who can see it, so it’s up to you. Put this in the lock.”
He bent down and inserted the tooth into a slot in midair. As he did so, the whole box became visible to all of us.
There, sitting on the floor, was a rough-hewn wooden box with golden runes all over it. It easily came up to the height of my knee. No wonder the guard had made it look so heavy. On the front face was a bronze-colored lock with the dragon’s tooth partly sticking out of it.
Aliz roughly pushed the guard out of the way and turned the tooth clockwise. The lid of the box sprang open to reveal a flat surface of wood sealing off the contents of the box and a small metal chisel. On top of the wood were eight squares, all in a single row, a little like a crossword puzzle.
Well, the riddle did say we’d need two things to unlock the box. I guess the answer to the riddle was an eight-letter word. All I could assume was that we were supposed to chisel in the eight-letter word that unlocked the contents.
“Okay, so the riddle said we need the tooth as well as the riddle to open the box. I think that implies it’s a single word that we need, and it’s obviously eight letters long. Whatever it is, it’s some kind of truth and how we need to treat whoever this mesmerizer is.” I was stumped. “The question is, who is the mesmerizer?”
“That is an excellent question,” said Angitia. She’d snuck up behind the group and was peering over Aliz’s shoulder, listening in on our conversation. “The answer you’re looking for is Andrew Hoetford.”
“That was not our official question,” declared the King, looking extremely angry.
“It sounded like it to me. It was phrased by your leader and started with: the question is,” said a smug looking Angitia. “I’d say it couldn’t have been clearer.”
“But I’m not the leader,” I said. I had no idea why she even thought I might be when an obvious King was standing next to me.
“Who told everyone to avoid attacking my pet snakes?” Angitia asked, looking pointedly at me. “Who came up with the solution to my test of persistence?”
“I did,” I muttered.
“Did everyone follow your decision?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m the leader,” I said, glaring at her.
“Hmmph. Sounds like a leader to me,” she declared, glaring back at me.
“Now, let’s get back to the real reason you’re all here,” she said indicating the box. “This.”
“If I’m not wrong, which, of course I never am, your mother,” Angitia said, pointing at Aliz, “Put this box here, in my safe keeping. She confided in me about her trouble with a certain traveler, Andrew Hoetford. She hoped that, one day, her daughter would come and retrieve this box and the items she desperately needed to keep out of Andrew’s hands. It looks like today might be that day.”
“As you know, your mother was very clever. She’s given you everything you need in this riddle to open the box and claim its contents. The only thing she wasn’t sure you’d work out was who she was talking about. Thankfully, your question took care of that,” she nodded at me. “Of course, you could have just asked me what the word was, but where would the fun be in that?”
She smirked.
“Now get started, it’s all there in front of you,” she said as she turned and walked back to a stone chair that had appeared in the middle of the room.
“Okay, an eight-letter word for how we should treat Andrew,” I said. “Any ideas?”
“Loathing,” suggested Aliz.
“Guidance,” said Damir.
“How about Priority,” chimed in the King.
All good suggestions, but I figured we only had a single shot at this with the chisel.
“Prudence,” added Mikael.
There was something about the way Angitia had emphasized the words started and front as she’d walked away that was nagging at me. That could suggest the King was correct, since a priority came first. Somehow, though, it didn’t seem to fit. The line in the riddle said to ‘treat the mesmerizer such’ and you treated someone ‘as a’ priority, not really ‘with’ priority. How did I feel about Andrew? Loathing fit extremely well.
“What about Mistrust,” piped up Kira, counting the letters on her fingers.
I noticed Angitia sit up sharply, craning her head toward us.
That was an interesting suggestion. It definitely fit, yet why did it look like Angitia was desperately hoping to hear what was coming next? I had to be looking at this the wrong way. We had an eight-line riddle, of which we understood seven of the lines. Wait. We had an eight-line riddle, I thought. I pulled up the riddle so I could see exactly what it said again.
Down beneath the fields of green,
Immune to fire, you can’t be seen.
Savrine’s closed story holds the key,
Take the box you cannot see.
Riddle along with mythical tooth,
Unlock the box to level in truth.
Say what’s real, two words too much,
Treat the mesmerizer such.
“Yes! Got it!” I shouted. “It’s Distrust. The first letter of every sentence spells out distrust. That has to be it.”
“Do it.” Aliz handed me the small chisel.
I hunched over and started carving the letters into the boxes on the wooden panel. Just as I finished the bar across the last letter T, there was an audible click and the panel sprung up away from the rest of the box.
Angitia started clapping again.
“I had a feeling you might get there eventually,” she said.
Aliz grabbed the wooden panel to see what her mother had hidden in the box.
Congratulations! You have completed the quest: Solve Savrine’s Ridd
le
You have received 20,000 XP.
My little XP bar grew again, putting me up to 20% of the way to my next level. I looked over to see what Aliz had found.
Inside the box were two scrolls, two small potions and a letter. She grabbed the letter and started reading. One of the potions was a deep purple in color, the other was a bright orange.
“She says these two scrolls, coupled with the potions, will raise me up to Master and Grandmaster Alchemist. I have to drink the orange potion and read the Master scroll to unlock Master rank. Then, once I’m ready, I drink the other potion and read the Grandmaster scroll to unlock that.” Aliz smiled. “The rest is a letter for me and more warnings about Andrew.”
“Well, drink up and get reading, then,” I said, grinning.
She downed the potion and opened the first scroll. A few seconds later, it burst into flames and disappeared in a puff of smoke. With a smile on her face, she put her hand on my head and started chanting something.
Congratulations! You have become a Master of the craft: Alchemy.
Brew potions to increase your skill level.
You can learn all Superior or lower level recipes.
“Enough of this, it’s time for my rewards,” said Mikael, walking toward where Sethno had disappeared.
He was right. I couldn’t wait to see what loot I’d gotten, although becoming a Master Alchemist was already an awesome reward.
A serpent bangle was on the floor, along with a vial of what looked like blood, and a piece of parchment. The bracelet looked just like the entrance around the portal; A snake eating its own tail. It was a dull silver color and the details on the serpent were almost lifelike. I picked it up.
You have received: Angitia’s Bracelet of Protection
+ 10 Toughness
+ 8 Intelligence
+ 6 Fortitude
Quality: Exotic.
Rarity: Limited.
Unique Skill: Throw on the floor to summon a rattlesnake to aid you for 10 minutes. Effect can be triggered once in a 24-hour period.
Well that was interesting. Plus, I’d gotten another exotic item, which was exciting. Asking around, it seemed that everyone else had also received exotic items. I guess this dungeon wasn’t completed very often.
I gingerly grabbed the vial of blood.
You have received Vial of Gorgon Blood
This blood comes from the right side of the gorgon. As such, pouring it down someone’s throat will bring them back to life, provided they have not been dead for longer than 2 minutes.
Wow. I know it was something I could only use once, but I’d essentially doubled the amount of people I could Resurrect at a time. I picked up the parchment to see what else I’d received.
You have received: Blank Parchment.
You sense more may be revealed during a blue moon.
Not another one. I don’t know what it meant by a blue moon, since one of the moons was already blue. Oh well, I had my five points from leveling that I was going to put into Wisdom. Maybe that would let me see what was on this, if not I’d learn one of the spells from Damir.
I put my five available points into Wisdom and looked again at the scroll in my hands. Nothing. However, the icon for my inventory had a flashing red dot on it. I thought about pulling out whatever was causing the dot, and the other blank parchment appeared in my hands.
You have received the spell: Anti-Illusion
Temporarily cancel or reduce the effects of Mesmerize on you and anyone in your party.
Anti-Illusion is part of the Spirit Magic skills
It is linked to the stats Intelligence and Wisdom.
Increase your Intelligence to increase the percentage reduction of the effects, up to 100%, which completely cancels the effects.
Increase your Wisdom to reduce your casting time.
Increase your Spirit Magic level to increase the duration of Anti-Illusion.
Restriction: Requires the user to have 25 points in Fortitude before they can learn this skill.
I didn’t think I had 25 points in Fortitude. A quick glance back over my notifications, however, showed I’d gained a total of five more points during the dungeon run for the speed at which I’d solved the various problems we’d faced.
I sat down hard on the floor. My original plan, especially with how useful Damir’s shield spell had been in this fight, was to learn the shield spell next. This one, however, was directly useful against Andrew. Not to mention that it related to my main branch of magic, which meant it was going to be more effective than anything else I learned.
“Wheeoo,” whistled Damir, looking over my shoulder. “Did you just get that?”
“No, I got it a while ago, I just couldn’t read it until now. I got a different blank parchment a few minutes ago instead,” I sighed.
I tried showing the new blank parchment to Damir, but he couldn’t read it either. I guess it was going to be a while before I could read it, given that he was level 40. I shoved it back into my inventory.
Anti-illusion it was, I decided. I read the full scroll, allowing the spell to take root in my mind, once again giving me the impression I was remembering something I’d previously forgotten. It probably would have been a useful spell against the basilisk, I thought darkly.
I shook my head to get rid of the dark thoughts about the elf we’d lost in this fight, and not even in the boss fight itself.
“Time to leave and mourn our dead,” said the King.
I threw a bunch of the rattlesnake skins into my inventory and followed the others back out of the dungeon.
Congratulations! You have received 10 Reputation Points for delivering on your promise to Queen Elysyia Clemens.
This grants you the ability to start a guild or settlement.
The tiny golden lights that had surrounded me when I’d given my promise to the queen burst out of me and dispersed. One less thing to worry about, I thought.
45
Bonding Time
Back in El Sanctum, the elves had halted everything to go and mourn the hunter who’d died. Since I hadn’t known him, I decided to stay out of their way and take stock of where I was and work out what I needed to do next.
The first thing I had to do was use my free skill level up from reaching level 10. I pulled up the skills part of my stats sheet to see how I was doing and work out how best to use it.
STATS, ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS
NAME: Orianna
LEVEL: 10 (Progress 20%)
Magic Skills:
Arcane Magic: 1 (Progress 0%)
Fire Magic: 3 (Progress 17%)
Spirit Magic: 7 (Progress 4%)
Physical Combat Skills:
Archery: 9 (Progress 2%)
Dodge: 8 (Progress 95%)
Stick Fighting: 2 (Progress 10%)
Non-Combat Skills:
Inspect: 2 (Progress 45%)
Stealth: 7 (Progress 52%)
Partnering Skills:
Pet Bond: 2 (Progress 10%)
Crafting Skills:
Alchemy: 40 (Progress 0%)
Gathering: 10 (Progress 0%)
Herbalism: 20 (Progress 0%)
I was happy with the way things were progressing. The recent fight had done a lot for my Spirit Magic progress.
The question was, where did I want to put my free level up? The most obvious places were Arcane Magic, Archery or Spirit Magic, since, out of all the combat skills, they had the lowest progress to the next level. The question was, could I level up Pet Bond instead, since that was proving harder to level than other things?
I crossed Archery off the short list, since I’d pretty much gone full magic user now. I loved Spirit Magic and I knew what a difference I could make in a fight, but it gave me no offensive skills that I could use on my own. Arcane Magic, on the other hand, would give me the Lightning skill, so I’d have something to use if whatever I was fighting was immune to fire damage.
While Soter and dungeons obviously didn’t mix, I knew I wanted
to learn how to work with him better. Who knew what would happen once the bond got higher? That reminded me, in all the chaos, I still hadn’t spent my Pet Bond Point.
I brought up the descriptions again to help me select which skill to buy.
Share 1
Share your selected pet’s body for 10 minutes.
You move out of your body and into their body. You can see, hear and experience everything they can. You have no control over them. There is no distance limitation.
Cooldown: 24 hours.
Cost: 1 Pet Bond Point
Combine 1
Combine your HP, SP and MP with all your pets for 5 minutes.
You or any of your pets can use the combined pools
Cooldown: 1 hour.
Cost: 1 Pet Bond Point
Transform 1
Transform yourself into a copy of your selected pet for 10 minutes.
Your body is transformed, and you gain identical skills to them, temporarily losing all your own skills. You are in complete control over your transformed body. There is no distance limitation.
Cooldown: 24 hours.
Cost: 1 Pet Bond Point
The most sensible choice was probably Combine 1, as that would allow me to have a temporarily increased mana pool for an emergency. I could also see Share 1 being extremely useful, too. The trouble was, I’d been sensible all my life, and recently, the few times I’d just reacted and gone with my instincts, things had worked out much better. There was something about Transform 1 that was just calling to me. To be able to become a wolf, or whatever else, if I got other pets, just sounded totally magical.