Dungeons Just Want to Have Fun

The people had need, and the numen provided. That was how it worked in the forests of the elves and that was what Tyla saw now. The numen— Kelsey— made bedding for the women appear out of thin air. It looked like the bedding that they had just stolen from the Malik compound, but comments from the women indicated that it had been cleaned, thoroughly.

“If there’s one thing I have plenty of, it’s steam,” Kelsey said cryptically. She summoned lightweight—at least to Anton and herself—partitions that fastened together ingeniously to form private sleeping spaces for everyone. It wasn’t long before the women returned to the sleep that their rescue had interrupted.

Tyla held herself apart from the activity. There was a bed here for her, but Kelsey had said that they would talk, later. She watched the body that the numen had formed carefully. Numen could be capricious and cruel at times, and Kelsey certainly showed signs of that. Tyla watched Kelsey closely, seeking hints as to how she should be properly appeased.

Eventually, later arrived.

“So, do you know of any other dungeons—I mean, numen— that have Avatars like me?” Kelsey asked, sitting down in front of Tyla.

Tyla shook her head. “No, they were all killed when the first Dark Humans came.”

“All of them? From Anton’s lot?” Kelsey asked.

‘She must be talking about the Forerunners,” Anton said, joining them and taking a seat of his own.

“I never took you for a history buff,” Kelsey said. She narrowed her eyes, staring at the space between them.

“It’s not history so much as stories,” Anton replied. “The Guild doesn’t just have books on Classes and monsters, you know.”

“Fair enough,” Kelsey agreed. She summoned one of her partitions and handed it to Anton. “So who were the Forerunners?”

Anton stared at the panel he’d been given and held it awkwardly. Kelsey produced some kind of post and attached it to one corner. “Well, you know that Zamarra is a colony of the Tiatian Empire, right?”

“I know you came from far away,” Tyla said. “A place to the East.”

Kelsey attached another post to another corner.

“Yeah, that’s the Empire,” Anton said. “A long time ago, our ancestors came here, looking for a place to carve out kingdoms for themselves, out of the reach of the old Empire. A lot of the kingdoms on the north coast of the Sea were founded that way.”

“And these ancestors were the Forerunners?” Kelsey asked. She attached a third post to a third corner and then pulled the panel down so that the three posts were standing on the floor.

“No,” Anton said. “The Forerunners were from before that. There was… a war? I’ve heard it was called the Unification War, and after it was over, there were several very powerful fighters left with nothing to do.”

“Normally what would happen then is, they would start carving out their own kingdoms and you’d need another unification war,” Kelsey said. She attached the final leg to the table and moved it so that it was standing between the three of them. Then she sat down again.

Anton shrugged. “That’s history,” he said. “The stories I read didn’t touch on why the Forerunners didn’t seek to rule. The tales just said they came here, to the wilderness, looking for challenges.”

“The Dark Ones slew everything in their path,” Tyla said. “None could stand against them. And when the strongest of us had fallen… they left. When your people arrived, we thought them more of the same, but they were… lesser.”

“They went back to the Empire,” Anton explained. “Boasted of their victories. My ancestors were the ones who heard about lands where all the big threats had been wiped out and decided to form an expedition.”

“Nice and opportunistic,” Kelsey said wryly. “But we’ve gotten away from the main point, which is dungeons with avatars.”

“I know of none still existing,” Tyla told her. “The ones who were slain were all very old. I don’t think that a Numen has formed an… avatar as you call it, for over a thousand years.”

“That’s a long time!” Anton said, startled. “The Forerunners would have been three-hundred-something years ago.”

Tyla nodded. “My grandfather was alive to see them,” she said. “For older events, we have tales passed down. I don’t know why the numen stopped making bodies, only that they did.”

Kelsey nodded. “That’s a shame. I would have liked someone to talk to, you know? But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”

She waved her hand, an all-encompassing gesture at the space around them. “We’re all in this together, you know? Us and the girls and you. Even Soraya.”

Tyla nodded. She shared neither blood nor tribe with those here, but she had grown close to the girls and she understood the necessity of banding together against a greater enemy.

“But some of us,” Kelsey continued, “Are more in this than others. The core group: Anton, Aris, Zaphar and myself. And I want you to be a part of that.”

“Why?” Tyla asked.

“I like to think I have an eye for talent… and you’ve got it,” Kelsey said. Anton snorted in response.

“This is because she murdered those two guards in cold blood, isn’t it?”

“Not just that,” Kelsey objected. “Speaking of which, do you still have a problem with the way she did that?”

“I—” Anton looked awkward. “I don’t like it, but I guess I can understand why she did it.”

“It was wrong of me to kill those men,” Tyla put in. “My… hasty actions put the operation in danger.” The Elitran word operation was new to her, but she had heard Kelsey use it several times and she was a fast learner.

Kelsey shrugged. “It’s not much of a plan if it can’t take a few speedbumps along the way. You’re fine. Right, Anton?”

“You mean, am I fine with her joining our group?” Anton asked. He looked at Tyla, really looked at her. His eyes met hers and she felt, for the first time, that he might be something more than a skilled fighter.

“Just… no more murders, all right?” he asked. “Not prisoners or unconscious people.”

Tyla nodded. “It was cowardly of me,” she admitted. “They were higher-tiered and warriors. If they were awake, I would not have been able to kill them.”

“Nothing cowardly about that,” Kelsey said. “You see your chance, you take it, is what I say.”

Anton sighed. “Just… try to do better in the future. And speaking of better, you might as well accept that level. The experience isn’t going to go anywhere else.

Tyla scowled. “I don’t want another level of Doxy,” she complained.

“A common Class is still a class,” Kelsey said. “It may not be much, but not much is better than nothing.”

Tyla’s scowl grew more fierce, but she had to admit that it was true.

You have reached Level 3.

Applying Benefits for Level 3

Dexterity + 1

Willpower + 1

Charisma + 1

Checking her status, she could see that it left much to be desired.

Tyla Greenwalker of the Padascar Tribe (Level 3)

Overall Level: 7

Paths: Padascar Hunter (Broken)/ Doxy

Strength: 10

Toughness: 6

Agility: 6

Dex: 12

Perception: 13

Will: 8

Charisma: 8

Traits

Persistent Tracking

Silent Shot

Danger Sense

Getting the Danger Sense trait from Doxy had been the one benefit that she had gained from the situation. A trait that was generally useful instead of one tailored to her doomed fate. Tyla was determined to get out of the Class before it gave her another trait.

“So you said you didn’t have any good Classes to go to,” Kelsey said.

“No,” Tyla agreed. She checked again. “I already had Warrior and Hunter. Now I have… Throat-slitter, which seems to be some sort of criminal Class. It’s a better grade, at least.”

Anton nodded. “I know about it,” he said. “It’s not nice, but it leads to Assassin, which… still isn’t nice, but it’s a Rare Class.”

“Mhm-hmm,” Kelsey said. “I think we can do better than that.” She placed a glowing crystal sphere on the table.

Tyla stared. “Is that… you?” she asked, astounded. “I thought…”

“No, I’m pretty much immobile,” Kelsey confirmed. “This is a dead Dun—Numenstone that I took off a Wizard.”

“It’s dead?” Tyla asked. It didn’t look dead.

“It still produces magic,” Kelsey explained, “but whoever was living in there before is gone now, as far as I can tell.”

“You’re not sure?” Tyla asked. Kelsey frowned.

“My own magic is sharply limited when it comes to this particular topic,” she admitted. “I did some experiments and they found no sign of life… but I’m a bit dubious about relying on them. Mages have probably got better tools for this, but their incentives are all in the wrong direction.”

“Why are you showing me this?” Tyla asked.

Kelsey laughed, a short guffaw of genuine amusement. “That’s why,” she said. “Girl, I’m offering you this. Touch this, and you get offered a spell-casting class. Take this, and you’ll be able to cast spells.”

Tyla stared at Kelsey for a moment, not able to process what she was saying. Anton filled the gap in the conversation.

“I thought you hated mages for carrying around the corpses of your sisters?” he asked.

“Don’t worry, Anton, we’re still best buddies forever!” Kelsey assured him. “I thought about offering this to you. A Heroic Sorcerer would have been pretty neat. But…”

She trailed off, looking at Tyla, who was still staring at her. “It didn’t feel right. This does. She has a respect for cores that goes beyond what you’ve learned, or even mine. I feel like this is more respectful than just leaving the thing sitting in an alcove for the rest of my life.”

Tyla regained her voice. “It is forbidden,” she said. “Elves are not permitted to take up numenstones and use magic.”

Kelsey shrugged. “You’re a long way from home, and this is a… Numen? Numen Spirit? Telling you that it’s fine. That’s gotta overrule what the Elders say.”

“Even so, I would not be able to return home after such a sin,” Tyla said doubtfully. “I would not be welcome in my own tribe.”

“We have a lot of things we need to do before going home,” Kelsey said. “You’ll be third Tier in no time. Is your village going to turn you away, then?”

“And even if they do,” she continued, “We can make a new home for you in Kirido. Don’t tell me, after all you’ve seen, that you’re going to be happy living in a forest again.”

“What I’ve seen?” Tyla asked. “I have mostly seen the inside of a cage. Sleeping rough in the forest is preferable to that.”

“You’ve seen more than that,” Kelsey said. “You’ve seen power, and the abuses that those who have it make. You’ve seen how the rich live, off the backs of the overburdened poor. You’ve seen how the weak suffer and you know that it needs to end.”

Kelsey pushed the stone towards Tyla. “This is power, the power to correct the wrongs that you’ve seen.”

“But why?” Tyla asked suspiciously. “I haven’t even agreed to join your group.”

Kelsey shrugged. “I do want you to join up,” she said. “But that has to be your choice. If you take this and go your own way, then no hard feelings. The world will be better, either way.”

“You just want to give it to me for free?”

“Sure,” Kelsey said shrugging. “It’s not doing me any good just sitting on a shelf. Aris has her guns, Anton has his hero thing. Zaphar has a lot going on already, he doesn’t need magic added to it. You seem like the right person, and we need a mage. So why not you?”

Tyla stared at the stone. She had felt the power of magic, of what it could do. Having the ability to fight back was tempting.

Just touch it and see. They can’t make you take the Class.

Nervously, she reached out. The crystal was warm under her hand, not like stone at all. And the Class was…

Apprentice Dungeon Witch (Rare, Tier 1)

Requires: Possession of a Dungeon Core, Guidance

Stats: 5: [S|T|A|P|W]DPW (1 Free)

“It’s Rare,” she admitted. There was Apprentice Hedge Wizard as well, but it was only Fine.

“So how about it?” Kelsey asked. “Are you going to come aboard for the good fight?”

“I don’t think the stone is dead,” Tyla said, ignoring the question for the moment. “It doesn’t feel like it.”

“Once you get a few levels, you might be the only person with both the ability and the inclination to prove that,” Kelsey said.

Tyla thought about putting the stone down. Part of her was appalled that she hadn’t done so already. But she already felt a bond with the stone. Did it want her to own it? Or was that just her desires tricking her?

“Oh, fine,” she said.

Are you sure you want to break your Path? [Y|N]

You have reached Level 0.

No benefits to apply.