Fred brought the Dire Wolf Pup out from the bag he had placed it – her – back into before they left the DAS building earlier. “If you really want to see my necromantic powers, I don’t think a little pup will help—”
“Just a moment, and don’t worry – she’s perfectly harmless to you or me – but it’s better you see this now rather than later. However, don’t tell anyone else, otherwise someone might want to hurt her. And I don’t want any humans…uh, other people…to die needlessly.”
That’s a strange turn of phrase. And what is he talking about—
Seconds after Fred placed the pup on the ground, she started to grow; and not just a little bit, but to gigantic proportions. Within moments, the Dire Wolf was three times Eisa’s height and nearly twice as long as she was tall. She could easily imagine herself being eaten in one bite inside the jaws of the wolfine monstrosity. Eisa had seen a lot in all her years of delving into dungeons, but she had never been that close to something that large and intimidating.
She peed herself just a little bit and was not ashamed to admit it.
Before she could scream or use her Lifedrain spell to defend herself, the giant Dire Wolf bounded off into the forest, its massive legs propelling it so fast it was gone before she could react.
“Deecy’s a bit intimidating at first, isn’t she? Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it; plus, she can’t maintain that form for too long, so once we’re done, she’ll go back to being lazy in my bag,” Fred said absently, while he was looking in the direction the humongous wolf went. “Oh, that was good luck, she found a small bear nearby! She’s bringing it back now.”
She didn’t use her Animate Dead spell that often, but when she did, it was usually a half-rotted carcass of some unfortunate deer, elk, or moose. Only once was she able to snag a wolf that had crossed paths with what she assumed was a bear, since it had been sliced up from throat to hindquarters. Predatory animals were always better, but they were in short supply. At least until now.
Deecy – she might as well think of the gargantuan Dire Wolf by her name since they were in a group together – swiftly ran back, after only being gone for about a minute. She was carrying the corpse of a bear in her mouth and it barely looked like its weight inconvenienced her. Oh, and small didn’t quite describe one of the largest bears she had ever seen.
“Can you control more than one at a time?”
She just stared at the bear corpse that had to have weighed seven or eight times her own weight that was now lying in front of her, after it had been gingerly placed by the mammoth wolf. “Uhhhhh…no, I’ve only raised the effectiveness of my animations, not the quantity. I…usually don’t get the chance to reanimate more than one of these at a time, so there was formerly no need to worry about it. And I’ve never had such a…pristine corpse either.”
“Ok, that’s fine – wait! Before you do anything, let me absorb…uh, do something first.” In the background, Eisa saw Deecy start to shrink, reverting back to a small, cute little Dire Wolf Pup that immediately curled up on the forest floor and watched Fred. Who was touching the bear corpse as if he was trying to commune with it or something.
Eisa finally moved a little, her muscles and joints stiff; once she started moving, she realized that her body had been paralyzed in fear ever since the sight of the initial transformation. Now that Deecy was a small little pup again, Eisa relaxed and watched Fred finish up whatever he had been doing to the dead beast.
He was finished within a minute, taking his hands away with a smile on his face as he looked over at her expectantly. Ok, here it goes. She hadn’t ever reanimated anything this large before, but as they say in the necromantic world – size doesn’t matter. Or, at least, she thought they would if she ever had the occasion to talk to another Necromancer.
Pulling on her innate power, which was actually bursting at its limits within her since she hadn’t used any in a while, she mentally invoked the Animate Dead spell inside her mind, waving her hands over the corpse of the bear for dramatic effect. Neither of which was strictly necessary to use her spells, but they helped to focus her mind.
She felt a small trickle of black-colored power flow out of her and into the still form of the bear, spreading out and suffusing its bones, muscles, skin, and fur. By the time the power stopped trickling out, it was like a thin transparent film that only she could see was wrapped around the entire corpse. With a mental push, she instructed the bear to stand up.
She got a small boost of pride when she saw the amazed look on Fred’s face as the massive bear struggled to its feet, swaying in place as it finally stood on its four feet. She absently noted that it must have had its neck snapped to kill it, which was why its neck was bent at a strange angle. She walked closer to it and hovered her hand over its misshapen neck, using another small trickle of her necromantic power and her Repair Animation spell to fix it.
When she was done, she stepped back, marveling at how alive it looked; as stated before, she usually found corpses that had been rotting or mauled before she got to them. The undead bear in front of her looked like it had just wandered over – unless you looked at its eyes, of course. They were still as lifeless as she expected, but at least they hadn’t been pecked out.
She felt a small pulse of power transfer from her to the bear, the upkeep cost of maintaining her animated corpse a small price to pay for its use. Since she was full, she could maintain the animation for more than a day before she was forced to sever the connection due to lack of power. Of course, that was only if she didn’t use a single other spell – which was unlikely. At best, she thought she could get it to stick around for a few hours before the spell ended and it collapsed into dust, unusable as a walking animated corpse for a second time.
“That’s amazing! So, all you do is send your power into the corpse, let it cover every part of it in that transparent stuff, and then…what? Tell it to get up?” Fred asked, his expression gone from astonishment to excitement.
“What? Have you seen this done before? Or…are you saying you saw my power enter it?”
She knew that seeing another’s power was impossible; the results were always apparent, but her (and everybody else’s) power was invisible to other people. Even the greatest Adventurers couldn’t actually “see” another’s power, though it was rumored that the best-of-the-best could use some sort of high-rated spell to magically see it for a limited time. She wasn’t sure if she believed that, though.
Still excited at the animated bear corpse in front of him, he ran his hand through its fur on its back, before remarking, “Its skin feels still a little warm, but I suppose that’s because it wasn’t dead for long. I’m sure it will be cold soon though.” He looked over at Deecy briefly, apparently remarking to the pup for some reason, “Isn’t that amazing, Deecy?”
The wolf made no response, and Fred turned back to her. “Uh, no – I haven’t seen this before. This was actually the first time I’ve ever seen a hum—person cast a spell before. And of course I saw your power enter it; it was hard to miss, even though it was a dark black color. Why, was I not supposed to see that?”
Chapter 20
Apparently not.
Fred watched as Eisa threw her hands in the air and scoffed at him, the words trying to leave her throat but not succeeding. He had no idea why she was so bothered by what he said, but it wasn’t really a concern of his. Instead, he was excited since he had learned a little more about the power and abilities that the humans had as a part of this new system that he just had initialized inside of him.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a guide or courses to study or learning plans associated with the Artifact that had caused him so much pain and distress back in Gatecross. However, it appeared as though everything that he needed to know came automatically to his mind, when he needed it. He couldn’t rummage through it all to find something, but it could react to him and pick out things to “show” him when he required it.
Case in point: the necromantic spell he had ju
st observed. He couldn’t see a reservoir for Eisa’s power like he could see something that was full of mana, but as soon as that power was used to do something – he could see everything it did! And not only that – he thought he could replicate it.
If he had another corpse. Oh, and much, much more power than he currently possessed. Even the small drain on her power every minute or so was more than he could supply for more than a few minutes, and it was only a fraction of how much she had used to initially reanimate the bear. He pulled up her Adventurer Status again, just to see how she was holding up.
Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate Interface
Name: Eisa Howells
Class: Necro-healer
Rating: E-6th
Essence Needed to Rate-up: 450
Total Essence: 770,850
Available Essence to Distribute: 0
Body: 8 (0/1280)
Brawn: 8 (0/1280)
Mind: 16 (326370/327680)
Vitality: 80/80
Stamina: 72/80
Power: 2085/2200 (-5.0/min Upkeep)
Base Physical Attack: 8
Base Physical Defense: 8
Power Regen Rate: 4.0/min
Class Traits (Necromancer)
Your available Power is increased greatly by your Mind stat
You can see slightly better in dark places
You and your animated corpses take less damage from Dark magics (15%)
Your targetable spells deal more damage to Light monsters (10%)
Class Abilities (Necromancer)
Animate Dead 1 – 0/1000
Repair Animation 2 – 0/3000
Invoke Fear 0 – 0/100
Enhance Animations 3 – 0/9000
Lifedrain 4 – 0/27000
Shadow Strike 3 – 0/9000
Class Traits (Dark Healer)
Your Power Regen Rate is increased greatly by your Mind stat
You and your group take less damage from Dark magics (10%)
Your healing spells will damage any Light targets, including allies
Class Abilities (Dark Healer)
Vitality Transfer 5 – 0/81000
Painful Purge 2 – 0/3000
Bind Soul 1 – 0/1000
Shield of Darkness 3 – 0/9000
Inflict Pain 5 – 0/81000
Vitality Explosion 3 – 0/9000
It wasn’t until they were already on the road to the dungeon that he learned that if he concentrated on Eisa, he could see her Adventurer Status like he could his own. Hers, as expected from someone who had been part of the Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate for as long as she had been, was much more detailed and had representations of her class traits and abilities. He couldn’t tell what the abilities did, necessarily, which was why he jumped at the chance to have Eisa show him one.
It was obvious from her power regeneration – which he assumed came from something inside her body – that she could maintain the animated bear for almost a day and a half before she ran out of power. Of course, he wanted to see some more spells, so that wasn’t likely to happen.
“I can’t deal with you right now, so let’s just go to this dungeon and get it done. Hopefully you’ll Rate-up quickly and have some ideas for a class by the time we’re through.” She marched off in the wrong direction, followed by the lumbering steps of the animated bear.
Fred was ignoring the dungeon core pounding at his consciousness the whole time they were heading toward it, but he was entirely aware of where it was. “Hey, you’re going the wrong way – it’s over here.” He unerringly pointed behind him.
She didn’t say anything or even look at him as she turned around and walked past him, the bear still following in her wake. He quickly scooped up Deecy and put her in his bag, slinging it over his shoulder and trotted after the fast-walking Eisa.
Fred caught up to her quickly and asked, “What do you know about this dungeon?”
She didn’t answer right away, and he was beginning to think she was angry at him – for some reason he couldn’t fathom. He was going to ask what was wrong, but he was too busy trying to ignore the almost overwhelming aura of the nearby core. By the time they finally arrived at the entrance, however, she seemed to calm down enough to answer.
They stopped right outside the dungeon entrance, which was essentially a pile of rocks in the middle of the forest, 30 feet high and the same wide, with an opening just barely large enough for the animated bear to squeeze inside. Any bigger, and it wouldn’t have fit – would’ve been a waste.
“This is a G-2nd-Rated Nature dungeon, which means we’ll probably find traps that are nature-related, such as: trees that will try to bash you with their branches, large thorn spikes, poisoned bushes, and the like. I haven’t been in this particular one and they’re all different, so it could be all of those, none of those, some of those, or even ones I didn’t list. We’ll have to be careful still, even though most of these easier dungeons aren’t too deadly – unlike their bigger brothers, who have something that can easily kill you and me around every corner.
“The Syndicate provides a basic informational pamphlet – for a fee – on each and every dungeon they’ve explored, though it’s a bit pricey for even these starter dungeons. It’s usually only good to buy them for the higher-rated ones, as walking into those without some sort of advanced warning can be deadly. And they’re not always correct…” She trailed off and stared ahead, apparently lost in thought.
She shook her head after a moment and continued, her voice a little tight-sounding. “As for the monsters inside, it’ll probably be some sort of large insects, if I remember correctly. You don’t usually find anything much more substantial than that, though I’ve been surprised before. Only thing we can do is explore and find out.”
“Sounds good to me, I’ll go first and check it out,” Fred told her, impatient to get started now that he was finally there. He went to squeeze past Eisa, but she grabbed his arm before he could.
“Hold on, Fred – you’re what we call in the business, ‘squishy’. It means that an unlucky hit or two could take you out sooner than I could heal you. If it were just us two, you might have to risk it, but we’ve got my fine furry friend here to soak up the blows for us. We’ll go in first, and you bring up the rear.”
I guess that makes sense, even though I could probably take more than she thinks. He reluctantly agreed, and the short wait while they went ahead of him actually made him a little nervous. This is going to be strange walking into a dungeon that’s not my home. I wonder if it will look and feel the same…
When it was his turn, he started to step over the threshold when Deecy “shouted” in his mind.
“STOP! I just realized that if I go in there, the dungeon core will recognize me for a version of a dungeon defender, even if there’s never been one like me before. You’re going to have to leave me out here while you go in; you should be safe from detection, at least. You’ve got no actual core inside of you and you’ve integrated the human Interface, so nothing should look out of the ordinary.
“A word of caution: don’t attempt to talk with this dungeon core! I can tell that it is a weak one, just like Eisa said; it probably won’t have the information you seek, and tampering with it could be problematic. That, and it may not be able to actually understand you. I can sense that, while your parents weren’t unique, not every dungeon core will have learned the human language…at least not yet. And since you apparently can’t use your Mana Communication skill, it won’t do you much good.
“I can and will monitor incoming and outgoing mana communications, which I can now do since I’m close enough; just set the bag down outside the entrance and I’ll try to let you know if anything out of the ordinary comes up.”
All of that entered his mind between one step and the next, which was extremely helpful for relaying long messages. He immediately turned around and took his bag off his shoulder, gently dropping Deecy down outside the entrance. As he turned to head inside, he felt a fluttering in his stomach.
“Good luck!”
“Thanks – see you soon, Deecy.” Fred walked through the rocky entrance, the intense feeling in his chest at the proximity of the nearby dungeon core pounding away at him. As soon as he entered the first room, however, the nearly painful sensation faded until it was only a vague awareness of the dungeon core’s location.
“There you are – what took you so long?”
Chapter 21
Finally inside the dungeon, Eisa got herself together and put all her other concerns behind her. Whenever she walked into a dungeon, she always felt the outside world melt away, while she focused on the job at hand. She immediately had her animated bear take point – sometimes a dungeon might surprise any delvers with something right inside the entrance, so she wasn’t going to take any chances.
Now that she got a good look at the first room, Eisa found that she was right in her assessment of the Plant-based dungeon: floor-to-ceiling plants, trees, vines, and other assorted foliage. Overall, it was a large assortment of green, green, and more green; the smell alone felt like she had just shoved a few leaves up her nose. A few small trees grew around the perimeter of the small room, probably only 50 feet square and twenty feet high; she felt as if she was in one of the famed jungles she had heard about to the far south, which she hadn’t visited, but wanted to at some point. But she imagined that the room was what she had heard described.
Dungeon World: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 14