Labyrinth to Tartarus: A LitRPG Saga (The Eternal Journey Book 3)
Page 17
Among other reasons, that was why he decided not to switch to the level 20 Epic sword that he had found in the Necromancer’s Vault, even though he was now qualified to wield it. The new sword would require some practice to get used to it, and the middle of a Dungeon wasn’t the best place to work on a fighting style he had not used in actual combat for months. There was also the issue of how Saturnyx would handle the switch in weapons, now that her soul was stored in a makeshift Orb rather than the original highly magical stone that she had destroyed while saving Hawke’s life. He decided to hold off until they were done with the Dungeon. He thought that he was formidable enough not to need it, anyway.
Name: Hawke Lightseeker. Race: Half-Elf, Eternal. Class: Twilight Templar, Monster Trainer. Level: 15
Experience/Next Level: 30,430/35,000
Attributes:
Strength 27(60), Dexterity 22(46), Constitution 40(77), Intelligence 24(32), Spirit 22(32), Perception 24(30), Willpower 20(30), Charisma 20(22)
Characteristics:
Health: 832 (22.7/min)
Mana: 1,147 (22.2/min)
Endurance 655 (22.7/min)
Identity: 19
Skills
Blacksmithing 4, Climbing 2, Detect Traps 3, Disarm Traps 4, Dodge 7, Lore 4, Shield 7, Spear 4, Stealth 4, Survival 3, Sword 7(21), Swimming 2, Tracking 3
Languages: Common Fey, Vulgate, Lesser Celestial
Perks
Aegis of the Fae, Dark Vision, Elementalist, Mana Sight, Sidhe Caster, Sidhe Speed Casting, Speed-Casting (Life and Light Magic), Spell Penetration, True Sight, Undying, Unlimited Potential
Spells
Animate Shadow, Armor of Life, Army of the Dead, Aura of Light, Bless Crops, Bolt of Darkness, Bolt of Life, Bulwark of Light, Burning Light (Major), Consecrated Ground, Dark Step, Death Cyclone, Death Stare, Enlightenment, Dark Tendrils, Deadly Roots, Fireball, Gift of the Martyr, Growth, Hammer of Light (Major), Hammer of Twilight, Healing Blows, Healing Wave, In Extremis, Indomitable Aura, Lesser Healing, Minor Death Curse, Nature’s Grip, Nature’s Guardian, Raise Dead, Send Thought, Sense Life, Shadow Leech, Dark Step, Shield of Light, Shroud of Darkness, Shroud of Twilight, Simple Spell Inscription, Song of Sorrow, Steal Life, Terror Gaze, Touch of Light, Transference, Twilight Mantle, Twilight Step.
Special Abilities
Analyze Monster, Create Magical Trap, Disarm Magical Trap, Dual-Casting, Evolve Monster (3), Greater Bond, Identify Spell, Mana Channeling II, Dispel Magic I, Leadership IX (Chosen Foe I, Command IV, Generalship II, Messenger I), Living Shadow, Node Mastery V (Advanced Node Travel, Node Recall, Node Sight, Ley Line Portal), Monster Pet (Level 14 Young Tarakken), Ritual Magic I, Seal Inscription I, Soul Rider, Spell Deconstruction, Spellcraft III, Stop Monster, Summon Monster, Tame Monster, Tantric Touch, Timeless Mind, Tulpa Creation I
Arcane Vocations
Blacksmith (Level Three), Mining (Level One), Skinning (Level One), Steward (Level Four)
His current stats were even better than that, thanks to the Party ability that raised his effective level to 17:
Hawke Lightseeker (Half-Elf, Eternal)
Level 15(17) Twilight Templar, Monster Trainer
Health 925 Mana 1,277 Endurance 732
“Not too shabby,” he muttered to himself.
He wasn’t planning on getting overconfident, however; he had killed monsters and enemies with better stats than he had. The same could happen to him. No matter how powerful he had become, he was far from invincible.
Twenty-Five
Hawke wasn’t the only one who had leveled up. Nadia’s bodyguard Gzzatt had made it to eleventh level. Gosto and Alba and had reached level ten, a major milestone. Tava had made it to thirteenth, and Olaf and Grognard to seventh. The two newbie Eternals were still the weakest links in the team, but so far they had handled things well. Even Digger had dinged all the way to fourteen.
And then there were the Drakofoxes, who had been born a couple of days ago, the definition of complete noobs when they set off towards the Northern Foothills.
Blaze (Drakofox)
Level 5 Draconid (Epic Elite)
Health 644 Mana 530 Endurance 550
The two kits began wrestling, their yips and barks mixed with their eerily humanlike laughter. Hawke watched them with a mixture of affection and concern. Their speech had changed; they sounded like they were eight or nine years old rather than toddlers. And he was sure they’d grown in size as well. About as big as a medium dog, not counting their long tail.
Tava walked over to him. “They are lovely, aren’t they?”
“There are as cute as a pair of buttons, if buttons could deep fry you,” he replied.
He – and Tava – should probably be more worried than they were, but the bond with the two kits worked both ways. Hawke felt extremely protective of the little monsters; their happiness made him happy, and even the idea of their being hurt, or losing them, put him in a murderous mood. Tava and he had become parents. Not exactly what he’d expected when he’d found that golden egg during his first Lair expedition. That had been another ‘gift’ far above what someone at his level should have gained. Sooner or later, he suspected that someone was going to present him with a bill for all the ‘free stuff’ he had gotten along the way.
“I’m going to take Blaze with me on the next chamber entry,” he said. “He wants to do it, and he’s turned into the toughest critter in the Party other than me. His Resistance value against Elements and Forces has increased with his level; he’s now at 50% versus everything.”
Tava thought about for a moment before she nodded in agreement. “Luna can remain with me. She is more cautious, and she prefers to use spells. Spells her brother taught her after he learned them from you.”
“I didn’t teach him anything. Little bastard picked them right off my head.”
Hawke didn’t ask how the kit knew those things. Maybe some sort of genetic memory transfer, or just plain Fae witchery. He squeezed Tava’s hand and watched the children play. Children that could eat a fire lizard’s face if they felt like it, but children, nonetheless. They were growing so fast.
Blaze went on.
How serious is that sort of thing? Hawke asked the sword.
Why tell your True Name to anybody?
Hawke nodded. Do I have one of those?
He was happy enough with his current name. Not going to deal with that crap any time soon, he thought as he watched people finish their lunch break. He noticed that Gosto’s Class had changed to a Druid specialty he hadn’t heard of: Druid Warden. Tava’s brother looked somehow taller and more threatening; there was a green aura around him, glowing softly. Hawke’s Advanced Mana Sight showed him that the Druid Warden had a powerful connection to Nature
and Life magic beyond that of the base class. They also could call upon animal spirits; he could see them hovering around Gosto, ready to lend him their strength, and perhaps even their shape.
Gosto Kintes (Human)
Level 10 Druid Warden
Health 304 Mana 604 Endurance 293
The new specialty had the Health and Endurance of a hybrid class, capable of fighting as well as spell-casting. Gosto’s shoulders were broader than before, and thankfully his magical armor had expanded to accommodate his changing body; that kind of magical enhancement was common among Enchanted and higher quality items. The Druid’s new class would enhance his survivability, and Hawke would have to learn what Gosto’s new abilities were and adapt the Party’s tactics to take advantage of them.
Alba had selected a new Rogue sub-class at tenth level: Spy. It wouldn’t add much to her abilities for their current dungeon crawl, but she clearly wanted to specialize in information gathering and covert operations. As Lord of a Domain, Hawke could certainly use somebody like that. He was going to make her the head of the Valley’s version of the CIA. He exchanged grins with her and gave her a thumbs-up.
“Is everybody ready to move on?” he asked the group.
Everyone nodded. They looked more confident, ready to take on anything that came their way. Hawke felt lucky to have them at his side, and proud to be part of that team.
He should have remembered that pride went before the fall.
Twenty-Six
For Slaying Your Foes, you have earned 720 XP (90 diverted towards Leadership; 90 diverted towards Node Mastery).
You have found: 3 gold, 1 Mana Potion, 2 Endurance Potions.
Quest Complete: Cleanse the Dungeon
You have earned 1,200 XP (120 diverted towards Leadership; 120 diverted towards Node Mastery).
You have found 20 gold.
You have found: Ring of Destruction (Level 18 Masterwork Quality item).
Current XP/Next Level: 32,350/35,000. Leadership XP/Next Level: 22,729/25,000
Current Node Mastery XP/Next Level: 9,460/12,000. Current Guild XP/Next Level: 1,215/2,500
The first chamber at the end of the left side corridor had held six Soul Burners. The Party had wiped them out easily, and consequently earned a lot less experience for it. Winning easy fights didn’t pay in the Realms. On the other hand, everyone had completed the basic ‘kill X monsters’ Quest of the Dungeon, which had gotten Hawke close to sixteenth level. Girl had leveled up; her demonic face had an inhumanly wide grin that reached all the way to where her ears should be. Her Quest reward had been a third piece of the Panoply of Murder set, a pair of gloves that fit her like a second skin, and which could extend long slashing talons from their fingers. She was turning into a monster before their eyes.
I can’t smell her, but I see a lot of nasty stuff on her, he agreed.
His Mana Sight could see that Infernal-attuned Mana now ran through most of her body, displacing the Darkness Element that once fueled most of her abilities. Even more worrisome, he realized that she had started working on her Chakras, and unlike him, was trying to open three of them at the same time. She looked at him, studying his Mana flow in the same manner he was examining hers, and gave him another inhuman grin.
“Don’t worry, Lord Hawke,” she said. “I will keep my word. The Infernal Hierarchy has no use for oath-breakers, and I’ve already used my one ‘get out of jail free’ card.”
“As long as you don’t forget it,” he told her. “The Arbiters are itching to erase any Eternal that breaks the rules. And now that you’ve got Advanced Mana Sight, you’ve made their list.”
“I’ve got a little list,” she said/sang; her voice was almost disgustingly normal, coming from the demonic mouth. “They never would be missed.”
The little snippet tugged at Hawke’s memory, but he couldn’t identify the song. “Are you all right, Girl?”
“Of course I am. I’m just angry as hell, only I don’t remember why. Thanks to you.”
“Let’s focus on the dungeon crawl, okay? After we’re done, we can work things out.”
“Sure. ‘We.’ We’re all a big happy family.”
I’ll keep an eye on her, Hawke told the sword.
“Can you clear the traps in the next corridor?” he asked her.
“You got it, boss,” Girl said, and scampered towards the exit at the end of the chamber.
Hawke had already looked at it; the corridor that came out of the chamber ran straight for fifty feet and ended in a closed door. His Enlightenment spell had spotted dozens of traps along the way. Girl should be able to deal with them more easily than Hawke. While she went to work and the rest of the Party rested and got more fluids in them, he went through his spell rotations. He now had two rows of spells fixed to his ‘window’; their icons floated in the lower left corner of his field of vision, where he could see them without blocking too much of his view of the world.
The first row listed his buff spells: Armor of Life, Aura of Light, Bulwark of Light, Healing Blows, Indomitable Aura, In Extremis, Shield of Light, and Transference. With those seven spells on, he was pretty hard to kill. The glowing icons would run a timer showing when they were about to expire, as well as glow brightly whenever their cooldown was off and they could be recast. Keeping those spells active at all times could make the difference between breezing through an encounter or faceplanting in disgrace.
The second row was filled with offensive and healing spells: Bolt of Life, Burning Light (Major), Consecration, Dazzling Light, Hammer of Light (Major), Hammer of Twilight, Healing Wave, Lesser Healing, Tendrils of Darkness, Touch of Light, and Twilight Step. Eleven spells to keep track of; the glowing icons and their timers made the job much easier. Unfortunately, he had a selection of even deadlier spells available, like Death Stare, Death Cyclone and Fireball, but they would be useless against Undead Demons. Death magic would damage normal demons, but would actually heal Undead, for the same mystical reason that healing spells harmed them. Fire magic would work against regular Undead, but most demons laughed at it.
He kept those spells off his rotation, as well as a few others, like Bolt of Darkness, that weren’t worth the trouble of using. With his current rotation and his bonuses to spellcasting, he would always have several spells off cooldown and available by the time he was done using them all. And, unlike most dedicated magic-users, he would be doing quite a bit of fighting in between his magic-slinging. Eleven spells were more than enough. Under different circumstances, he would bump the list to twelve or thirteen, but that would be a bit cluttered. He would probably drop some of his current spells out of the rotation (“I’m looking at you Hammer of Twilight,” he muttered) to make room for the others.
He could still use spells that weren’t marked by icons, of course, but they would take a moment or two to call up and cast (or insta-cast in many cases). That might not seem like a lot, but when dealing with monsters, a second or two could make the difference between life and death. Not for him, necessarily, but for other members of the Party. He had no intention of letting anybody die on his watch. Not even Eternals. Not even Girl-Has, demonic outfit or not.
Speaking of the devil, the Shadow Mistress returned to the chamber. “All clear, your Machismo,” she said. “I also cleared the door and unlocked it. All you need to do is open it and take a looksee.”
“Or you can use the Farsight ability that came with your new face to peek inside.”
“Or I can do that, sure,” Girl said in an agreeable tone.
She closed her eyes and concentrated for a couple of seconds. When she opened them again, her inhuman grin was back. “Door opens into a circular chamber with three open archways leading o
ut. Big room – a good hundred feet wide. And before Farsight expired, I caught a glimpse of something big at the end of one of the archways. Couldn’t see its nameplate or stats, though.”
“I guess they couldn’t keep throwing Soul Burners at us. It’s probably a new kind of critter. Let’s get buffed up and ready. I, Girl, Digger and Blaze will take point, along with my summoned pets. Nadia, Gzzatt, Tava, Luna, Rabbit, Alba and Gosto’s new pet will be in the second team. We don’t know what we’re dealing with, so hang back by the entrance until I call you in. Gosto, Olaf and Grognard, you’re the third team. Ranged heals, attack only targets that are busy with one of us. Stay on the other side of the doorway and be ready to run back here if I give the word.”
Everybody nodded. After several fights together, they all had a decent idea of what they were supposed to do.
“Let’s go.”
Twenty-Seven
Things started out well, but went downhill fast.
The heavy door swung inward, and Hawke led the way, Blaze perched on his shoulder, and his Living Shadow and Digger close behind. Girl and a bear-shaped Nature’s Guardian soon followed. The entry team spread out in a semicircle around the entrance, stepping forward to leave the second team room to maneuver.
Like Girl had said, the room was at least a hundred feet wide. An arched doorway was directly opposite their entry point, with two others on either side. Reddish light without an apparent source filled the room, allowing everyone to see the black marble floor and walls. The domed ceiling was painted with a Renaissance-style scene depicting demons preying on fleeing people from a variety of species, including humans, Elves, Gnomes, Orcs, Goblins, and a few Hawke didn’t recognize. Like the carvings he had seen at the entrance, the painting was so realistic it could have been a photograph. And it was just as disgusting as those murals had been, with scenes of death and dismemberment right out of a torture porn movie. Kind of like the Sistine Chapel of the damned.