Not really remembering what his next quest was, Ceras ran on as he felt that he had been doing this for eternity.
--
Ceras woke up, feeling the cold slab of marble on his back. His eyes started to focuses on the white stone ceiling above him, and the memory of the giant troll's hand hitting him in the face came back to Ceras as he groaned in remember the pain from the experiences of dying. He felt the pain of the compression of his nose into his face as he remembered the hand entering his head after his nose.
Symania was standing next to him in her infirmity, with a sad frown on her face, which was changed to a look of concentration as she cast a magical healing spell on his mind. From Ceras point of view, the memories didn't disappear; they just seemed to fade into the background as the phantom pain subsided.
"Your just like that woman over there, pushing yourself too hard," said Symania in a matron voice of a healer twice her age, "at least I know why you are doing this, but as for her I've no clue."
Still, weak Ceras was able to just turn his head, to the side that Symania had been pointing in, he could see a girl about his age lying on a resurrection slab, in the plain white robs that everybody wore when they returned to life. She was just about getting up with a groan and starting to get down of the cold surface onto the equally cold floor beneath. Symania went over to help the girl with blond curly hair stand up. Look at her Ceras vaguely recognized her face, but thought no it couldn't be her it not possible.
Anyway, he started to get up himself as he had things to do, he let himself down onto the cold floor, which he wished had underfloor heating as his feet touch the cold surface. It always was a rude awaking if you had died and maybe a warm resurrection slab and floor surround would be a welcome relief next time.
Hobbling to a corner with a set of lockers that were refilled with equipment he would need for leveling, Ceras quickly put on the outer garment that padded his body against the chain mail he would be wearing. A staff was leaning up against the wall that was ready for him to take. After he put on the rest of the clothing, he started to walk out of the room, only to see the same woman that had been on the slab dressed in cheap chain mail armor with a mace in her hands. The eyes met for a brief second as she ran off toward the dungeon portal with Ceras following behind still wondering if it was her. By the time he entered the portal to the level he was questing on, he had forgotten all about her and was fully concentrating on the battles ahead.
--
Ceras lent back, on his chair, with a smile on his face, he was in his drawing room sitting at his large wooden table with a plate that he had just finished eating of the set to the side. Several books were open in front of him as he was trying to modify a spell from the text. A gremlin exited the small wooden doorway in the wall and, took away his plate, only for it to be replaced by a plate full of sweet desert carried by a different gremlin, whom Ceras smile at and got what he supposed was a smile in return as the gremlin show all it sharp point tiny teeth in a grimace.
A day ago, he had reached the experiences point to level up to the standard wizard class, now all he had to do was create some new magical modification that met the requirement to progress. So, he was getting a much-needed break from battle as he was studying some text that Hidden-Caverns had suggested to him.
Rather than following some more academic spell modification, which Ceras would have preferred, he was trying to modify the two of his most used weapon spells, by trying to combine them into one. He had developing fire and frost separately for the last ten levels when he was in the journeymen's stage, gaining an understanding of the spells. He could nearly produce the spell into any forms he could imagine as long as he had the power left in his MP reserve.
The most usefully was being able to produce multiple fireballs that converge on any target from all side, resulting in separate entry point to enter the body of the monster. All are exploding at once basting the body to pieces often leaving a burnt stump of a body.
"I really think you should do it my way," said the impatient Hidden-Caverns, "from the air surrounding his head, trying to persuade him again what he was doing was wrong."
Ceras only ignored him for about the hundredth time today, and want back to finishing off his written spell in his own spell book under the simple title "Temperature extremes." In his vision, the following text appeared:
Spells
Name
Mastery
MP
Effects
Temperature Extreme
Standard
100
The heat of the sun and cold of the vacuum of space all in the same minute spot causing the spell to tear apart any material with temperature cycling
"See," said Ceras in victorious voices to Hidden-Caverns, "I told you that my way would work. You just need to have more confidence in your most excellent dungeon master."
"Lucky," said the sour voices of Hidden-Caverns.
The happy notification came up that indicted his progression to a new classification of 'Standard':
XP 4 of 26 too level 16 Wizard (Task required for progressing from Journeymen to Standard completed)
Ten stat point to place into character sheet
Ten stat point to place into Dungeon sheet
Checking his character sheet Ceras saw the following, as he had dumped all his point into the intelligence stat. To be able to do this had taken a lot of time to convince Hidden-Caverns as he always wanted the points in Knowledge. Ceras had to promise to take a second class once he had gotten to a level he was safe from high-level nobles, so he could increase the knowledge stat the increase the size of the dungeon.
Character Name:
Ceras
1st Class
Wizard
Character Total Level*
16
Major
Strength
Fortitude
Agility
Number
94
94
94
Major
Intelligence
Charisma
Knowledge
Number
140
20
76
Minor
HP
MP
Stamina
Carry Limit
Number
534
842
480
198
Regen Sec
9.4
29
10.4
N/A
“Ok,” said Ceras with a sight, “off we go again. The break is over as I now have to grind through sixteen more levels to get to the master class.”
Grabbing his staff, Ceras ran out of the door on the way to the portal, leaving his sweet desert behind in on the table in the room. In a few seconds, a small hand reached up onto the table, taking some of the deserts of the plate as the door to the room closed with the footsteps of the adventures running down the corridor.
--
Ceras hit his bed, as the comfortable sheets of his forgotten bed reach up to take him into its warm embrace as he heads bounced on the pillow. For a man that had managed to go from the journeymen level to the first level of the master in wizardry, in under two months, he should have been ecstatic and smiling with his success, but he was not. Mentally Ceras health was hanging on by a thin wore out the thread, as only the spell of mental healing had kept him going, barely, as Symania frown got more concerning every time he saw her, but he had done it. He had just finished the last monster gaining the experiences he needed to advance to the master level. Having decided a few weeks ago to break up the long grind with studying to modify another spell to the master level.
Now that it all was over, he had not even placed his last point into his character sheet or chosen the skill he had acquired, as he did not trust himself to make any decision but had gone straight to bed. The last thing he saw was the wizard symbol on his hand showing at the level thirty-one-a master of wizardry; he vaguely wondered if
he was the youngest wizard master as he slipped into blackness.
Chapter 8 Awaking as a Master Level Wizard
Ceras face was pressed against the pillow, as he slowly came back to consciousness. He could feel wetness where he had slobbered while he was asleep. Opening his eyes was a herculean effort as his brain just wanted to go back to sleep, but his body was screaming with hunger, as he had not eaten for a few days. Wondering if that was the case, he slowly picked his face of the pillow with marks from the fabric across his face making it look red.
Suddenly he heard a noise from the next room as if a little door had open and somebody had placed a plat on a hard wooden table. Lying their fantasizing that it was food being served, he suddenly smelt a plate full of fried food. It would have been impressive if he had been able to jump up and run to the table, but that was asking too much of his tired body, as he felt that he had been run over by a cart and left for dead like a rat on the cobblestones.
Remembering he had a healing spell he cast it on himself slowly, only to take the edge of his aching body, enabling him to crawl out of bed slowly to feast on whatever meal had been provided.
By the time he had his third plate full of fatty food in a thick gravy, his hunger was satisfied enough to be able to think about what to do next, as a small hand reached up to grab his plate from the table.
"Thank you very much," said Ceras to the gremlin that producing a mouth full of teeth from the creature in response as if he had just learned to smile, and then it disappeared through the small doorway with a flap as the doors closed.
Ceras heard a quiet knock on the door and shouted, "Enter."
Unexpectedly Symania walked through the door in her healers robs, with a bag of holding on her hip as if she was making a healer's house call.
"Good to see a bit more life in you," she said with the first smile that he had seen from her since he started the grind of his life, "overuse of magical healing for such an extended period can lead to cumulative effects."
"Well, I bet dying so much really helped as you can't get any worst physical," said Ceras returning the smile.
"That was not your only problem," she said with a frown, "staving off insanity was a major factor with all the magical miracles that I've had to do over the last couple of months. The amount of experience that I've gained from just healing your mind has put me into the standard level of healing. So, in some ways, both of us have gained from your crazy plan. I know that it was needed, but it was still crazy."
"As needs must if I'm to survive," said Ceras in a somber tone of voices, "but I did what I set out to do at least that is an achievement to be proud of."
Symania did not look convinced of the statement and just said, "We having a meeting up in the tower in about an hour, as it is rumored an army of adventures is only a few days away from the dungeon."
With that, she turned around and walked out of his apartment, as she left Ceras thought how she was a lot bossier since he first met her. Maybe it was the influences of Rhef.
As soon as Ceras heard the door close, he got down to the important business of assigning some of the stat points he had gained from getting to the master level. As always, everything went into intelligence.
"No complaints," said Ceras to the unusually quiet dungeon that did not answer back.
Ceras wondered if he was upset about not getting new levels but now was too busy thinking about how to survive to worry about the feeling of the dungeon. The selection of his four skills was surprisingly easy as running down the long list all he wanted at his moment was to be, so he just selected the skill that increased his power level:
Skills
Name
Mastery
Effect
Spell efficiency
Master
Increase the spell efficiency by 150%
Double mana
Master
Double your mana
Double your Knowledge
Master
Double you Knowledge
Double your Intelligence
Master
Double you Intelligence
Double your Charisma
Master
Double your Charisma
As he entered in accepted the skills Hidden-Cavern broke the silence and said in a sincere voice, “Thank you for that it will really help out in the long run.”
“Let hope that there is a long run for us,” said Ceras in a worried tone of voice.
“I think we’ve now got a fighting chance,” said Hidden-Caverns, “If you look at your stats, they not too bad. With the spell efficiency work, you’ve been doing you attack spells are now nine times more powerful than they would be for somebody on a who had not done the specified training we developed. That blessing from the forest wisp has made it possible for you to put all your point in stats to do with being a wizard but has kept your strength, fortitude, and agility at a good level. Now that you’ve been able to double your stats, you’re a powerhouse of magical energy.”
Ceras thought about his character sheet and saw the following:
Character Name:
Ceras
1st Class
Wizard
Character Total Level*
31
Major
Strength
Fortitude
Agility
Number
169
169
169
Major
Intelligence
Charisma
Knowledge
Number
620
40
152
Minor
HP
MP
Stamina
Carry Limit
Number
789
6544
855
348
Regen Sec
16.9
125
17.9
N/A
"That being able to double intelligence and MP at the same time has really increased my magic power," said Ceras with a happy tone of voice, "I'm starting to get a bit more confident about this up and coming challenge."
After casting a cleaning spell on himself and as he was still in his chain mail Ceras decided to go to the tower for the meeting with the other adventures and see what was happing.
--
Entering the room in the tower that the adventures normal had their meetings in, Ceras noticed that there was a plater full of food and some plate for serving. As he placed some of the food on his plate, he thought how things had changed since the start of his time as an adventure, now they not only had the finest accommodation but great food on demand. Wondering if he would ever take this for granted, he saw Rhef telling her to bother of for trying to load up two plates of food, and thought if he did, he always had his friends and Hidden-Caverns to pull him down a peg or two.
Looking around the room, he saw Symania chatting away to Grikius, but the biggest surprise was the size of Apollo sitting on the floor next to Symania.
"Bloody hell," said Cera out loud as he did a double take on the dogs or whatever it was size, "what happened to Apollo."
Everybody looked around at the dog that was now sitting on its haunches, and the head came up to Symania head as she was sitting down.
"A lot of eating," said Grikius with a smile, "but I also invested some of my skills into Apollo causing him to grow a bit more than I may have expected."
Apollo opened his mouth in a big yawn, and Ceras got to see the size of his teeth and shuddered as he thought of the dog biting monsters. Now with his size, he was an asset to the adventures.
"How was your leveling up?" said Rinaldo with a smile.
"Long and hard work but it got me where I wanted to be, so let's hope that it all works out," said Ceras sitting down with a plate of food.
"Good news Rhef," said Hidden-Caverns in a happy tone, "he doubled his knowledge, so we have one hundred and thirty-six-level to play with."
Rhef
just smiled and patted Ceras' arm as if he had done her a great favor.
"Doesn't it just mean more work for you?" said Ceras leaning over to Rhef who was smiling.
"It does, but I'm really enjoying it, and the amount of experience in the construction classes that all the work is giving me is large. You're not the only on that now in the master class, and I must say that the way I gained it was a lot less dramatic."
"Humph," grunted Rinaldo in a contemptuous tone of voice, "it really doesn't count if it's in a none combat class anyway."
Rhef angerly picked up one of the plates, that was lucky metal, and throw it at her arrogant brother. It hit him in the face and sent the large boy flying off his chair with all of his food falling over his body. Getting up a slight bit disheveled he brushed his food off his front and glared at his sister.
"Your just jealous that I've reached master level in some class before you," spat Rhef at her bother, "just because you've not had the chance to fight in any major battle for your strategy class it not my fault."
"Well hopefully that will change shortly," said Rinaldo with a smile at the room of adventure," I've been discussing with Hidden-Caverns the up and coming battle for the dungeon. We now have a significant trained army of monsters, who tactics I've been working on."
Dungeon Battle Page 6