Elsewhere

Back at the Inn, the trio headed in to find things emptier than they had ever seen before. Calen and Sam greeted them, “Good evening and welcome back. I would say that your private table is ready, but virtually every table is private right now.”

“Don’t worry, Sam. The Legion will return, and training will continue. In the meantime, how is the town progressing?”

“Duke, I do worry. My progress was phenomenal and now it’s only down to really good. As for the town? It is coming along well. There have even been a few who have tried the dungeon in there. Funny to say it that way. Having a dungeon in a dungeon is not normal. Regardless, they returned heavily injured and needed to spend time with the healers. I think that would please you as it has discouraged others from attempting to conquer it.”

“I guess when it comes down to it, I don’t mind either way. I would love to see the town grow and prosper within the Inn and would love to see it become the staging point for adventurers to delve into the dungeon of the Lake Front Inn. But that is all some ways down the line. Right now, I have a king to depose and all that comes with it.”

Elaine and Grat joined them at that time with greetings and smiles. They all sat down and enjoyed dinner keeping conversation light while they ate. As the evening wore on, discussion on the events in the forest progressed where Duke and Aurelia related the story of Aurelia killing the trolls. All were most impressed. At least until the story of the forest spirit, Nornsyl came up. Both Grat and Elaine seemed truly excited that the Spirit of the Forest came out to greet them. And then the rest of the story including how Nornsyl had attacked Duke came out.

“You didn’t kill the Forest Spirit, did you Duke?” Elaine asked, alarm clear in her voice.

“No, I didn’t kill Nornsyl. We did fight for a long time though. Tore all kinds of forest up trading blows. Neither of us could really hurt each other with that wild suppression field it had going. Eventually, we got tired of fighting, it dropped the suppression field, and I RESTORED the forest we had destroyed. It seemed to be cool with that afterwards. We talked for a bit more, introduced it to Baslin and Aurelia and then sent it on its way.”

“You sent Nornsyl, The Spirit of the Forest, on it’s way?” Grat asked. “Just like that? With a casual dismissal?”

“Pretty much.” Duke replied. “Nornsyl was just too alien for us to comfortably work with despite its best attempts to act somewhat human. I’m not sure everyone else picked up on it but I certainly did. It was better that we went our separate ways and did our own things. Hanging out and sharing a beer would have just led to misunderstandings and then, who knows, maybe I would have had to kill the thing. It’s better this way.”

Elaine smiled. “I completely agree with you, Duke. That was the best course of action. Unexpected, but possibly a fortuitus meeting. Things have been relatively quiet here. My scouts continue to range around the area but there is little to report beyond the activity in the town which, frankly, is not all that interesting either. They seem rather content.”

Grat added, “The defenses are still in place and are ready to be activated at a moment's notice but with the scouts finding nothing around we probably won’t need to do so. With that situation in mind, I would like to join you when you return to the Legion.”

“If things are so well handled here, come along, and join us. We still have at least a week of marching before we get close to the capital. I am, of course, expecting that we will run into some sort of resistance before then, but I am trying to not jump the gun and scout the city ahead by too much. That could give away our intentions.”

The evening carried on and the two couples went off to their rooms, leaving Baslin to head to his lab. He had work to do and as much as he enjoyed having people to talk with, he had spent more than a century by himself and had grown accustomed to it. The novelty of other people was starting to wear off, especially when they started bickering. Oh, how he hated that! That was probably why he had been avoiding Elaine as of late. Since she had gotten pregnant, she just hadn’t been fun to be around. Duke was still entertaining because he loved trying new things almost as much as Baslin did and his whole enthusiasm for blowing things up aligned perfectly.

“Yes, indeed, having Duke chance onto my tower was a grand coincidence of fate.” Baslin mused as he sealed the door to his lab. After taking a scan at his wards to make sure nothing and no one had disturbed things, he walked over to the door he had Sam conceal for him and activated the runes to open it. The door opened silently, the several meter thick stone slab gliding into the ceiling effortlessly, allowing Baslin to enter.

He smiled as he came upon his latest experiment. This was something he had been working on for a few days now and he was getting some truly interesting results from. His experimental subjects were giving up their secrets bit by bit. It would take time to get all of them, but time was something Baslin was very familiar with and knew he had in abundance. He moved closer to observe his subject.

“Well, what have you been up to, my friend?” The experiment strained against its bonds, but the Ghast was unable to free itself. It glared hatefully at Baslin, hissing at him in the absolute silence of the containment chamber. Baslin calmly walked over to a set of shelves to check on several beakers being slowly filled with some sort of distillate. He nodded and noted his measurement down in a notebook on the table next to the shelves.

He then turned back to the central containment chamber. The chamber was absolutely clear to his sight, not even providing the slight refraction a glass chamber would provide. Baslin smiled as he watched his older subject struggle similarly to the latest. Both were Ghasts contained in the magical containment that Baslin had devised.

“So, let’s see what the other distillation has revealed, shall we?” Baslin spoke with a hint of excitement and curiosity in his voice as he walked to a set of shelves on the opposite side of the containment chamber. There, he also noted his measurements and turned back to jot them down in his journal. “Fascinating. The undead produced by the dungeon is the same level as this one presumably produced by Negron, yet its Mana level is four times as dense. I do wish I could get confirmation of its actual origin. No matter, I will learn what I can from both.” He delved back into his experimentation for the rest of the night as sleep wasn’t a particular concern for him. He could go weeks without sleeping and not even begin to feel its effects.

Morning saw everyone back at the breakfast table. “Everyone have a good night?” Baslin asked as they all settled in. He was greeted with smiles from Grat and Elaine who seemed especially happy this morning. Duke and Aurelia shared a look. He took a drink of coffee allowing her to respond. She responded with a grin of her own. “Oh, we had a great night. Thank you, Sam, for all the soundproofing!” Duke spit out his coffee.

“You’re welcome.” Sam responded from somewhere, his avatar not appearing. Mirth was evident in his voice.

Duke was still choking on his coffee so Aurelia decided to mercifully rescue him. “How was your night, Baslin?”

“Quite good. My experiments are coming along nicely. Soon, I should have some results that I can apply within my magic. Most exciting.” Baslin replied.

“What exactly are those experiments?” Grat asked.

“It’s a comparative study of two different forms of magic and how they interact within specific magical constructs.” He replied, watching most of the group’s eyes glaze over. “But that is not really important, is it? Shouldn’t we be heading back already? Won’t they have broken camp by now?” No one seemed to notice his change of the subject as they all scrambled to get ready to leave.

Duke had finally stopped choking on his coffee and gave the group a glance to see that they were ready. He wound up waiting for Grat to give Elaine a goodbye kiss before they departed in a flash of TELEPORTATION. Duke loved how he could turn that visual on or off at will.

Once back at the Legion, the command tent was stowed in Duke’s INVENTORY, and they all set out with the Legion. Duke took this time to review his notifications from this morning while he walked.

*** Well, well, well, what do we have here? Two significant encounters and you didn’t kill a single thing. Are you getting soft on me? I guess after last night, I really can’t say that, can I?

Be that as it may, you made a strong accounting of yourself for your first time under a suppression field. You might want to practice that a bit more. It couldn’t hurt. Even though you didn’t kill the Spirit of the Forest, you did beat it in a manner of speaking. Take 85,000 experience for fighting it to a standstill. For convincing it that you could outlast it and getting it to essentially give up, take another 15,000 experience. That will make a good highlight for your time here and it even brings you up to level 95. Enjoy your 12 Characteristic points.

You had quite the workout on your Skills and Abilities. Fighting in a suppression field can really do that for you.

TELEPORTATION has increased to Adept 70

REGENERATION has increased to Adept 47

LIGHTNING has increased to Practiced 60

OVERCHANNEL has ranked up to Adept 2

MENTAL FORTITUDE has increased to Practiced 15

SPELL RESISTANCE has ranked up to Initiate 2

SIMULCASTING has increased to Initiate 30

CLEANSE has increased to Initiate 27

RESTORE has increased to Master 37

IDENTIFY has increased to Initiate 18

SENSE MAGIC has increased to Novice 12

REMOTE CASTING has increased to Novice 18

INVENTORY has increased to Initiate 40

ARMOR SKIN has increased to Practiced 76

FLIGHT has ranked up to Practiced 3

CLAIRVOYANCE has increased to Initiate 12

COMBAT SENSE has ranked up to Initiate 3

DUNGEON SENSE has increased to Adept 41

Dodge has increased to Practiced 40

Aerial Maneuvering has increased to Initiate 20

Martial Arts Combat has increased to Adept 21

You have now started to see some of the greater capabilities beyond the small, isolated corner of the world in which you have been placed. Perhaps it is time for you to leave the small pond. Then again, even in this small pond, are you really as big a fish as you think? We shall see. ***

Duke noted the tone of the message again turning more friendly than it had been after his interactions with the gods of the realm. The information presented did intrigue him some as well. He had four Abilities rank up and he saw that his ARMOR SKIN was getting close as well. All this progress made him take a closer look at his stat sheet.

Name

Adam "Duke" Ellington

Race

Seeded (Sprouted)

Class

N/A

Level

95

Tier

3

Max Health

360,126

Current Health

360,126

Max Mana

524,628

Current Mana

524,628

Experience

4,635,887

EXP Needed

19,113

Characteristic

Value

Modified Value

EQ Bonus

Title Modifier

Multiplier

Agility

420

420

100%

80

Strength

310

310

100%

58

Endurance

325

325

100%

61

Reason

301

301

100%

56

Intuition

315

315

100%

59

Psyche

617

679

110%

131

He still had 12 points to spend but was quite excited with how far he had progressed so far. One thing he was sure of was that his Characteristic Points per level were way beyond the norm when compared to everyone else he had spoken with. He was, of course, just fine with that. He would take any and every advantage he could find. He briefly contemplated where to place his new Characteristic Points but was interrupted by a sense of wrongness that brought him to full alertness.