Dungeons Are Bad Business

Vee and Rortenferry went over his new ghost designs during the next day’s runs. It was a little tricky to coordinate details and discuss different ectoplasmic applications between bouts of flipping switches and activating [Boost Drops] as adventurers cascaded through Crestheart, but they managed. Admittedly their progress was slow, and Vee had to ask his old teacher to repeat what he’d just said on more than one occasion, but he learned better than he ever had back at the academy.

Rortenferry had copied his original sketches onto fresh paper with a wave of his hand and a muttered skill that sounded vaguely like [Reduce Tedium]. Then he’d gotten a pen out and started marking his version up, covering them with symbols and images that would be used in the vivification process.

When he was done, he passed them over to Vee for the [Dungeon Master] to look at as soon as he got a break. It was going to be a few minutes, as the Level 18 [Cinder Ballerina] was proving a tricky foe to overcome. Each time his traps came close to hampering her movements, she twirled around or leapt into the air, trailing fire from her body and leaving naught but clouds of steam in her wake.

This wasn’t the first time than an adventurer with some fire skills had done something like that to his traps, but Vee still found it eminently irritating. Perhaps he’d specialized the dungeon’s traps too much; theme be damned, having such a large part of his arsenal rendered useless by a single elemental weakness wasn’t the type of thing he could afford moving forward. There were sure to be pyro-attuned adventurers as part of the circuit, after all.

He made a mental note to talk to Hanako soon about developing some backup trap variants that wouldn’t be weak to fire. Possibly with stone or metal? Maybe even frostnickel? That’d be a good tie into the city’s legacy.

The Expectation purred around his shoulders. It certainly approved of the idea.

Rortenferry leaned over on his arm, lazily watching the [Cinder Ballerina] with an amused expression. “Bet you wish you could drop some of these new living gauntlets on her right about now, huh?”

He gestured down to the first new ghost Vee’d come up with. Inspired by Alforde and his already-existing ghost arms, Vee’d thought to make some disembodied gauntlet ghosts that would hang from ceilings and catch adventurers in a powerful hug. However, judging by the way his old [Professor] had diligently crossed out his scribbled Use old ghost arms as base note, Vee suspected that the process was going to be rather more complex than he’d originally hoped.

That was probably for the best, all things considered. This was as good a time as any for him to shore up his foundations with sigilmancy.

He looked over at Rortenferry. “So, seeing as my idea to repurpose my ghost arms isn’t going to work, how do you suppose I should go about making the gauntlets?”

Rortenferry snapped his fingers and stacks of red and blue ectoplasm cylinders appeared on the desk in front of him. “Here, it’ll work better if I show you.”

Vee looked down at the run in progress and saw that the adventurer was drawing close to Alforde’s arena. There wasn’t much else he could do for this one, so he told his friend to expect company soon and turned his attention back to Rortenferry.

The older [Ghost Maestro] took out his [Ghost Baton] and drew a circle in the air. The basic circle used for vivification appeared, and Rortenferry sketched in the familiar symbols for bringing a ghost into existence.

A miniature version of Vee’s basic ghost appeared in the air, slowly rotating around and around.

“[Expand Sigilmancy],” Rortenferry said. Discs of light appeared in the air next to the little ghost, each covered in the symbols Vee had used in the ghost’s creation.

“From looking at your current designs, I’ve noticed a few troublesome patterns with your sigilmancy,” Rortenferry said, pointing to the sigils on the base layer. “It seems that while your work is functional, it’s often redundant and self-impeding. Here is how you can make it better.”

He changed some sigils and removed others, streamlining the rules and ideas that governed the ghost’s construction. Vee didn’t recognize nearly a quarter of the sigils his old [Professor] used, as they were far more complex than the ones he normally used himself. “Now, I’ll admit that it takes more work to set things up this way, but watch how much easier it is to make big changes.”

With a poke of his [Ghost Baton], Rortenferry changed a pair of sigils to yet more that Vee didn’t recognize, and the ghost nearly doubled in size. More than that, it seemed to be made out of ectoplasmic plates instead of a single smooth sheet, and Rortenferry’s grin made it clear that it was this property he was interested in.

“By using High-Gu instead of just regular Gu, you can make your ghosts bulkier and split them into different sections. This is where we’ll start with your gauntlet ghosts. Let’s see how you can handle it.”

Vee drew out his own [Ghost Baton] and started drawing. His own linework was nowhere near as steady as Rortenferry’s, but eventually he managed a passable High-Gu.

“Do you have a copy of Basic Sigils and Their Advanced Variants for the Modern [Ghost Maestro]?” Rortenferry asked.

Vee shook his head. He’d sold that book along with all of his others after graduation. If he recalled right, he’d only gotten fifteen percent of the list price back, which was actually on the higher end for textbook resales. His trip to the Oar’s Crest library had only turned up an older tome that hadn’t had any of the more advanced sigils.

“I’ll have to remedy that,” Rortenferry said. “I’m sure I have a few extra copies somewhere in my office back at the academy. I’ll send them along with some other remedial materials once I get back there next week.”

The casual-ness with which he’d announced his departure shocked Vee, who looked at his old teacher in horror.

“You’re leaving?”

“Of course,” Rortenferry said with a kind smile. “As interesting as your fiends are, I’m afraid that I can’t stay here forever, lad. My colleagues have been, ahem, insistent that it’s past my time to return, and I agree with them. Duty calls, and all that. Rest assured, I’m going to continue my investigations back in my own laboratory, and I promise that I’ll get to the bottom of the mystery of your orchestra.”

That made sense, but it didn’t soften the blow at all. Vee had gotten used to having Rortenferry around to answer his questions and provide guidance, even though his old teacher’s presence often filled him with feelings of serious incompetence.

Reginald coughed, and Vee looked over. The hat jerked his brim toward the viewing crystal, where Alforde was in the midst of battling the [Cinder Ballerina].

“Sorry to interrupt, but I figured you’d be interested in seeing this, boss.”

At first, Alforde had thought the [Cinder Ballerina] wouldn’t be much of a threat. Her fire attacks had bounced harmlessly off his armor, and she was no match for him in terms of strength. Certainly, she moved quickly, but Alforde was able to keep up well enough to pressure her out of just attacking from range.

However, no matter how far he knocked her off stage, she fluffed her skirt, spun around, and floated back without issue. It simply wasn’t fair.

She’d managed to take a stock with a series of powerful kicks ended by the hardest hip bump Alforde had ever heard of, and Alforde was scrambling to even the score.

He could feel his domain coalescing in the air around him, but the skill still refused to activate each time he tried to do so. Alforde was getting frustrated. Had all his practice with Holly been for nothing? He’d thought that he was getting better at summoning his domain, but in the heat of actual battle it still felt too far away to grab in his gauntlets.

The adventurer landed another heavy kick, and Alforde felt his temper starting to rise. He launched a vicious [Combo Attack] of his own and watched his foe go flying as Slammy struck true. Once again, though, the woman fluffed her skirt and started floating back.

Alforde was going to put a stop to that particular maneuver. Focusing as hard as he could, he said, “[Chilling Tempest]!”

The domain activated, and his cape vanished as the arena was filled with howling, frigid winds. Alforde could sense every bit of ice and snow individually, and he slammed chunks of ice together until they formed a large makeshift pillar. Controlling his new creation with the winds was a slightly trickier proposition, but the [Dungeon Champion] managed to move it over so that it hovered above the adventurer’s path back to the stage. When she got close enough, he slammed the pillar down, and the [Cinder Ballerina] cried out in pain as she was struck and slammed hard into the ground.

“And that’s a point for the [Dungeon Champion]!” Reginald announced. “The match is now tied!”

Vee whistled softly through his teeth as he watched the blue-white chunk of ice smash into the adventurer’s body.

“That’s a new one,” he said.

“Sure is,” Reginald said after he muted his magnifying crystal.

The bout continued, and though Alforde couldn’t keep his domain summoned consistently, he managed to activate it twice more and prevented his opponent from floating back to the stage like she kept trying with the new pillar. He moved slower after each use, but managed to keep the lead as the timer ran out due to a clever use of [Give No Ground].

“If the big guy can do that more often he’ll be a real tough nut to crack,” Reginald said. “It looks like he’s starting to get the hang of controlling his domain.”

With the match finished, Vee returned his attention to the traps and Rortenferry, doing his best to absorb all the information his old [Professor] was giving him.

Together, they finished the prototype of the gauntlet ghosts, the running ghost legs – which could be used as a fast attacker or an elemental resistance tank depending on which version of the Bu sigil Vee used in its construction – and the ghostly hydra.

This third minion was particularly challenging, as Vee’s original concept had relied on a series of sigil combinations that didn’t actually work together the way he thought they did. Rortenferry corrected them, and when they experimented with cutting one of the miniature ghost’s heads off, two more sprang into existence as Vee had hoped.

When the ghosts were done, Vee felt the familiar ding in his skull that indicated he’d completed his quest, and a notification appeared before him.

[Quest Complete!]

[Congratulations, you are now a Ghost Maestro Level 30!]

[Wit +2]

[You can now use Ectoplasmic Surge!]

Vee thanked Rortenferry for his help and closed his eyes to check his new skill in his soul’s mirror. He read the entry carefully.

[Ectoplasmic Surge] (Active) – Empower your ghosts by rapidly consuming refined ectoplasm. Additional power is dependent on quality and quantity of ectoplasm used, as well as speed at which it’s consumed.

The [Dungeon Master] rubbed his chin. Now that sounded like something to experiment with.

Main Character Sheets:

Vee Vales

Primary Class: Ghost Maestro (Locksmagister University), Level 30 (+1)

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar’s Crest), Level 21

Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 5

Might: 13

Wit: 35 (+2)

Faith: 21

Adventurousness: 7

Ambition: 14

Plotting: 20

Charisma: 15

Devious Mind: 23

Leadership: 17

Guts: 14

Intimidating Presence: 10

Citizenship: 20

Public Relations: 7

Determination: 2

Persuasiveness: 3

Bargaining: 1

<3***Infatuation***<3

Alforde Armorsoul:

Primary Class: Hammer Afficionado (Self), Level 25

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 14

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar’s Crest), Level 16

Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 7

Might: 45

Wit: 13

Faith: 28

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 9

Endurance: 23

Intimidating Presence: 12

Heart of a Champion: 11

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 8

Vigilance: 6

Vanity: 1

Reginald :

Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ???

--~%@(%$@ &% (*$ #&#e !i$$ (#$%#$%#$@!)~--, #$v@& ????

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 40

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 16

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 8

Might: 1

Wit: 33

Faith: 14

Ambition: 27

Greed: 23

Deceptiveness: 27

Manipulativeness: 38

$#&*!@!!: !!!

Loyalty: 47

Patience: 9

Irritability: 20

[#&%%%@%!#@__--#%]

Hop@#!! @#$@!@#

@#$@%%^

#4^5#*&_!+++#(@$#

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 7