by Hugo Huesca
Ed winced.
Kes went on, “I came to Burrova and stayed. The Rangers and the Sheriff needed an extra pair of hands, and I had the experience. At least a village only a few hours away from a port city should be easy enough to protect, right? We know how that went… And then I met you. A Dungeon Lord, bringing death and calamity to my village. You were about to kidnap Alvedhra, remember? At least, that’s how it looked. Then I saw my chance to do something truly good. If I exchanged myself for her, I’d redeem myself. The girl would live, and I would die because I’d have refused to work with you, and then I’d have finally won.” She raised her hands and then let them fall limp to her sides. “And then I got to know you and the others better, and… everything became so confusing.”
“That’s… good, isn’t it? Surely things aren’t so bad now,” Ed said. At once, he wished he had a few more ranks in Charm so he could’ve thought of something more helpful to say.
“Ed. I love the Haunt,” Kes said. “In a way, it reminds me of home, while at the same time being entirely different. I love the way our people strut around trying to act Dark because that’s what they’re supposed to do, but they only have Alder’s tales as examples, so they’re terrible at it. I love the way our batblins and horned spiders puff their chests with martial dignity because you expect them to act that way. You think they’re more than forest critters, and so they are. I love waking up in the morning and realizing our community is bigger than it was the night before. That’s dangerous, Ed. Loving something means you either get to see it die, or it gets to see you die. And the gods know the Haunt has its fair share of danger. Seeing the way the Inquisitors think of us, how cheap our life is to them… I don’t know. It’s the same way I would’ve acted in their place, so I can’t help but wonder if seeing all this—” she drew a wide arc with her arms “—be destroyed is exactly what I deserve. Perhaps that’s why the gods are preserving me, and why I keep surviving things that should have killed me long ago.”
It was strange, hearing herself open up to him in this way. Kes had been, by far, the most closed-up of Ed’s friends. A tough warrior who kept her feelings in check. For her to speak to him so freely… it was a level of trust that Ed hoped he could someday be worthy of.
At the very least, today, he could take her fears and concerns seriously. He wasn’t sure what help he could be to her—their lives were just so… different. But she had trusted him, and she deserved for him to at least try his best. So he focused.
“Did you… are you using improved reflexes?” Kes asked after a while, raising an incredulous eyebrow and staring at the tension in Ed’s face.
Ed ended the talent. “I needed time to think about what you said. It’s a lot to take in.” He massaged his neck. “Look, I can’t lie to you and tell you things will be all right, because shit may hit the fan at any time and we both know it. But I also think you’re underestimating your own victories. I think they vastly overshadow the defeats.”
“Ed,” Kes said kindly, “I’m not sure that ‘not dying so far’ counts as a victory.”
“But that’s exactly it,” Ed pointed out. “It is a victory when your enemy is death itself. Every day—no, every second you are alive is a victory. Death only gets to defeat us once, and then it pretends all those millions of times we won don’t count. Well, they count to me, and I know that deep down they also count to you. Death is a sore loser, Kes, but we don’t have to be. Justice is not something that we define by the way we die. A good friend once told me I didn’t get to decide if I was a good or bad person. It’s those who we help or hurt who set the score. So go ask the people of Burrova—the people of the Haunt—if they think you’ve protected them. If you’ve upheld justice. If you’ve done your best. And, forgive me if I overstep, but I could bet my life that your old squad thinks you have, because you think the world of them and I’m sure they felt the same way about you. And I’m sure we—Alder, Klek, Lavy, and the others—cannot ever replace what you’ve lost, but we can be right there with you when it’s time to fight again, because I don’t think you’re the kind of person that ever surrenders, and there’s a lot of wrongs to be righted. Perhaps it was luck that has kept you alive so far, but you get to decide why. And I think you know that.”
There was a heavy pause while the two mulled over their words. Ed flicked a pearl of sweat away from his forehead. He could feel the cool dungeon air calming his heartbeat.
“It’s a shame you never met my old squad. I think you would’ve liked them,” Kes said. “We were all horrible at speaking of what was going on inside, but they were like you. So full of defiance, they honestly made you think we could go against the gods themselves and win.” She tapped the side of her nose, then gave him a genuine smile, the kind that erased ten years of hardship from her face and let the idealistic avian girl she’d been a long time ago shine through in all her radiant beauty, if only for an instant, before the grizzled survivor returned. “Now I’m all nostalgic. You know what? Sometimes, people with high Charm may say beautiful things that make you feel all fuzzy inside, but once they leave, all that stuff vanishes. Words are air—except worse, because you cannot soar on them. But when warriors speak their truth? When we raise our fists and rage against the heavens? That’s real. That’s our soul.” She stood up, groaning as she did so. “Thanks for hearing me out, Ed. I don’t remember the last time I talked about my life, if at all. I didn’t expect it, but I guess you were right. Speaking about it helped.”
Ed smiled, unsure if he’d actually done anything right. Kes had done it herself. All he’d done was trust she would. “Sure. Any time.”
By now, the drones had long finished fitting the armor. He stepped up and the two of them headed for the door.
“A word of warning, though,” Kes said, only half-jokingly. “I may be a bit testy for a while. I’m still fucking angry, after all. Feel free to call me out if I take it out on you guys.”
“We’ll handle it,” Ed said. “What else are friends for?”
Kes grinned. “For one, they’re very useful at drawing aggro,” she said.
The list of Ed’s available talents had grown since the last time he looked, thanks to Kes’ training and his own increasing expertise as a Dungeon Lord. The options now dwarfed the rather rigid character builds he’d worked with in Ivalis Online.
He had a drone bring him a coal stick and used an empty section of wall to do some quick calculations.
“What about power attack?” Kes suggested. “That’s a fighter’s cornerstone talent, and I’d sleep a lot easier knowing you had it in your arsenal.”
“He needs more arcane power to throw around,” Lavy said. “Since we still haven’t found spellbooks so we can learn new formulas, he should get all the magical talents he can use as a Dungeon Lord.”
“How about more defenses like his pledge of armor?” asked Klek. “Perhaps with the right defenses in place, we need not worry about those nasty, shiny attacks.”
Alder shook his head. “If Ed stacks too many always-on talents like the pledge, the strain on his body could kill him. Many famous heroes met their untimely demise that way, you know. Power strike could work because it’s an activated effect, the same as his Evil Eye. My own build is going to focus on activated talents, for example, so I can get a wide variety without worrying about my heart exploding at thirty-five.”
“All those are all good suggestions,” Ed said. “I agree with the three of you, actually. Here, look at my favorite options.” He focused and made a conscious effort to share his talent sheet with his friends.
Power Strike (30 experience) - The user adds +1 to his Brawn attribute when making an attack with a melee weapon.
Energy Drain: Activated. Moderate.
Dungeon Vision (20 experience) - The Dungeon Lord can watch any location in an owned dungeon he’s currently inside as if he were present there. The location must be uncontested.
Energy Drain: None.
Hypnotic Evil Eye (40 experience) - The
Dungeon Lord’s Evil Eye is upgraded with an activated Gaze attack. Hypnotic Evil Eye forces the target into locking stares with the Dungeon Lord for a minute unless they resist a Mind contest. On a failure, the target can’t avert their gaze and is vulnerable to Mind spells and illusions cast by the Dungeon Lord.
Energy Drain: Active. Low.
Choosing this upgrade disables the Veil Piercing Evil Eye upgrade tree.
Veil Piercing Evil Eye (30 experience) - The Dungeon Lord’s Evil Eye is upgraded with a constant effect. The Evil Eye can now detect invisibility and similar forms of concealment and has an advantage at piercing illusions and magical misdirection. Veil Piercing cannot affect Legendary-ranked magic or higher.
Energy Drain: Constant. Very Low.
Choosing this upgrade disables the Hypnotic Evil Eye upgrade tree.
Pledge of Burning Armor (60 experience) - The Dungeon Lord’s Pledge of Armor is upgraded with new effects. As an activated effect, he can surround his armor in magical fire similar to the effects of the spell Eldritch Edge. This wall of fire won’t damage the Dungeon Lord or his minions. In addition, the Dungeon Lord can now resist the effects of non-magical heat, as if he possessed the Resist Elements talent.
Energy Drain: Moderate while activated, very low otherwise.
Pledge of Muted Armor (40 experience) - The Dungeon Lord’s Pledge of Armor is upgraded with new effects. Upon falling unconscious or being otherwise impaired, a team of four rescue drones is generated around his person. The rescue drones will stop at nothing to drag the Dungeon Lord to the nearest safe place, but they lack defensive capabilities. In addition, the Dungeon Lord can hide his armor’s magical output at no extra energy cost.
Energy Drain: Constant. Very Low.
Choosing this upgrade disables the Pledge of Burning Armor upgrade tree.
Elder Lord Aura (80 experience) - The Dungeon Lord’s Ancient Lord aura is upgraded with new effects. He and the minions in the area of effect are now resistant to Holy magical sources. His minions are immune to mind-control magic, and all the attribute bonuses they receive from Ancient Lord aura are increased by one extra rank.
Energy Drain. Activated. High.
Wraith Step (50 experience) - The Dungeon Lord gains the ability to instantly transport himself to any uncontested location of a dungeon he owns and is currently inside. All the items he wears on his person are transported as well.
Energy Drain: Activated. Moderate.
Banshee Shriek (50 experience) - The Dungeon Lord gains a scream attack. Any creature within hearing range must immediately pass an Endurance contest. If they fail, they become frightened and unable to cast spells. Any creature with a Fortitude rank lower than five is instantly killed instead.
Energy Drain: Activated. High.
Advanced Spellcasting (60 experience) - Improves the Spellcasting talent, allowing the user to cast Advanced-ranked spells.
-The user starts with one advanced spell per day besides his basic ones.
-Upgrading to this talent slows down improvement of the basic version.
Lavy whistled when she was done reading. Since Objectivity governed everyone in Ivalis, talking about experience and talent choices was a globally shared hobby. “Remember when our hardest choice was between resist disease or resist poison?”
“This is only the curated version,” Ed said with a hint of pride. “I left out all the endure elements to save time.”
“That’s what a rigorous training regimen will do for you,” Kes said. “Now that you’re reaping the benefits, I’ll drive you even harder, Dungeon Lord.”
“I can see those talents aren’t cheap,” Alder mused. “Our talent choices are already improving, so the point cost will keep increasing from now on. How many points does the average Dungeon Lord earn? Even the most adventurous Bard taps out before a thousand or so.”
“Lord Kael had about two thousand when he died,” Lavy said. “He was strong, but he wasn’t the most powerful Dungeon Lord ever to walk the earth… so maybe three thousand as the upper limit?”
Kes nodded. “Adventurers and mercenaries cap out near two thousand, I’d say. If they live long enough to reach that level, they’re aging and slowing down and they’ve kingdoms and armies that do the fighting for them, so even if they wanted to, they would have no reason to leave their castles. Their combat skills and physical attributes slowly fade, but that’s just how life goes. It happens to everyone… unless you’re a lich, I guess.”
Ed scratched his chin. “Heroes don’t have that problem. When I played IO, we racked up tens of thousands of points in only a few days.” In hindsight, the ease with which his character had thrown around spells bewildered him—he had about six daily spells as a Dungeon Lord, and that was after months of grinding. “That means I need to make every talent count if I’m to go against them.”
“Not alone,” Klek reminded him.
“Of course,” Ed said. He gave the batblin a thumbs-up. “I’m counting on you, man. You have any suggestions for me?”
Klek told him to get the talents that would make him seem bigger and meaner, so everyone would leave the Haunt alone. Ed didn’t have a rebuttal for that—the logic was flawless.
He had a hundred and thirty experience points to allocate. It would be a considerable increase in power, so he wasn’t making the choices lightly. But it also meant he couldn’t buy all the talents he wanted—not all at once, at least.
“The aura upgrade seems powerful,” Kes said. “Resistance to magic is something most warriors would give an arm for. It’s expensive, though—it’ll leave you space for power strike and perhaps the dungeon vision.” She scratched her chin. “Not that I look forward to not having any privacy.”
Lavy cursed under her breath. “Just great. I hadn’t thought of that.”
Ed raised an eyebrow. “If I get the talent, I’d obviously respect people’s privacy. It’d just let me react faster in case an alarm triggers.”
“Sure,” Lavy said, narrowing her eyes. “Like an alarm that triggers when the ladies’ baths are in use. Don’t you think I’m not on to your plan, Dungeon Lord.”
Ed decided to ignore the comment. “What about you, Alder?”
“Well, I would combo the vision with that wraith step talent to instantly arrive at the baths when that alarm triggers—”
“I mean, what talents would you get?”
“Ah. In that case, I’d want to get both the Evil Eye upgrades. I’ve heard of a couple Dungeon Lords that devoted themselves to maxing out theirs, and they could do pretty impressive things. For instance, Lord Khalfair—Numerios’ archenemy—could turn his enemies into stone and animate the stones to fight for him. He had this amazing garden decorated with his defeated foes where he and Numerios had their final battle…” Alder sighed nostalgically. “I wrote a dissertation on that tale back in Elaitra. Anyway, if I had to choose… Hypnotic Evil Eye would combo nicely with my illusions, but you don’t use those. The burning armor one, then, if only because I’d look incredible playing my music while on fire.”
“I can’t believe you’d invest in a sixty-point talent just because of vanity,” Lavy said. “I’m glad that Ed is more mature than that.”
Actually, he’s right. Strolling around while casually on fire would be great. Ed was sure he had once fought a final Boss with that talent while playing Ivalis Online. If he was right, then the Burning Armor upgrade path involved some sort of damage reflection and increased elemental resistances. It had made for an interesting fight… but was it the best path for Ed’s build? Some gamers, like his friend Mark, ignored armor’s stats and went for the coolest-looking item. There was allure in that approach, but it was anathema to Ed’s power-gaming ways.
“If I could set myself on fire and not burn,” Klek mused, almost to himself, “I could sleep anywhere in the forest, and no wolf would try to eat me…”
Ed coughed politely and decided to change the subject. “And you, Lavy?”
“You know magic is simply
superior. Advanced spellcasting, obviously. In fact, I’m picking it up soon, myself. I want to improve my specters—as they are, they’re little more than fodder for the Inquisitors, and to make them a threat I need access to advanced hex rituals. I’d also get that banshee shriek talent, because getting swarmed by assholes with heavy sticks is a Witch’s nightmare. I’d combo it with an Endurance-draining spell, which fits my build, and hopefully they’d all die in a single cast.” She smiled dreamily. “With any luck, their bodies would all strike the floor at the same time.”
Alder took a step away from the Witch.
Ed considered his options. The biggest issue was that he didn’t have enough experience to buy all the talents he wanted outright. So, he’d have to prioritize. Which ones did he need right now? “I’ll have to take pledge of muted armor,” he said. “The drone effect would’ve been very useful after Gallio’s attack, and hiding the magical output lets me blend in better in Undercity.” It was a shame to lose out on the cool burning effect, but following the muted path adhered better to his character build. He wasn’t supposed to draw aggro to himself, since all an enemy needed to do to destroy the Haunt was to kill him. Covering himself in magical fire would just paint a huge big target on his back, begging for a volley of fireball runes. “I wish I could take the aura, but it’s simply too expensive, and with such a high energy drain I doubt I could keep it running for long enough. I’ll leave that upgrade for later and go for advanced spellcasting instead, along with veil piercing Evil Eye.”