Serenity had seen a quest screen appear during Raz’s story, but he’d waved it away without paying much attention. Raz’s tale required too much attention; he could pay attention to the quest later. It wasn’t until he finished the first healing for Raz that he realized he’d found the Path Choice Quest he was looking for.
He made sure he wasn’t facing Raz, since he didn’t want to explain the smile he couldn’t hide.
[Path Rejected: Compulsory Healer]
[Path Rejected: Missionary of Death]
[Path Chosen: Informed Consent]
[Path Choice Quest (Branching) Step 1: Draykin Decisions Complete]
Serenity could guess what the quests had been from the titles, and was happy with the one he’d picked without reading the options. For all that Raz was around half his age and seemed very sheltered - really, who follows someone they meet at a World Portal? - Raz was an adult. If he had the information, he could make his own choices.
Even if he did have some odd ideas about Death magic being weak. Serenity hadn’t heard that since Vengeance reached his third century!
Maybe that wasn’t a great comparison, since that was more than two centuries in the future.
Time travel was a recipe for headaches.
[Path Choice Quest (Branching) Step 2: Dealing with the Heart]
[When you decided to heal Raz, you accepted some of his problems - especially the source of the corruption you agreed to cleanse. You have found the Heart of the Deathless. While you can easily resist it and Raz succeeded, not everyone will. What shall you do with this artifact?]
[A Lich Again: You have a well-known, easy to follow path to power sitting in front of you. Combining your history and heritage with the heart of an undead Great Sorcerer can lead only one place]
[Conditions: Place the Heart of the Deathless in your chest. Accept the power it offers, but take control of it. Accelerate the spread of undeath in your body to convert the Heart from the Heart of the Deathless to the Heart of the Final Reaper]
[Reward: Transformation into a true sorcerous Lich]
[Failure Condition: Fail to control the power and mind resident in the Heart of the Deathless]
[Conditional Failure Consequences: Return the Deathless to undeath; True Death of Serenity]
Nope.
[The Safe Plan: The Final Reaper took chances, and while most were successful (or he would not have lived), many others led to bad consequences. There is no reason to take a risk with the Heart]
[Conditions: Destroy the Heart of the Deathless]
[Reward: XP awarded for final destruction of the Deathless. Increase the safety of “high risk” Evolutions and Paths]
Ehh. Not an unreasonable choice and the XP would be nice, but Serenity wasn’t thrilled with the other half of the reward. He also wasn’t sure the choice fit his Path all that well.
Which was probably why he wasn’t enthusiastic about the second reward.
It was possible if nothing else worked, but that was all.
[Hoarding for the Future: You never know when you will need an Artifact, and the Heart of the Deathless is powerful. Destroying it is a waste]
[Conditions: Take the Heart of the Deathless with you when you leave the A Rest from Death Dungeon]
[Reward: The Heart of the Deathless]
Also possible, but probably stupid. The Heart was dangerous and keeping it as an item seemed like the perfect way to end up having to deal with a thief who suddenly became possessed.
That was all too likely. Serenity rejected the option despite the appeal of preparing for the future.
[The Way Out is Through: As counterintuitive as it sounds, sometimes the best way to leave a Path is to reach the destination]
[Conditions: Place the Heart of the Deathless in your chest. Accept the power it offers, but take control of it. Allow the curse to spread on its own but do not permit it to reach your brain. The extent of its spread will determine the power of your next Evolution. More undeath is more power]
[Reward: Your next Evolution will be Death-related. It will merge the Heart of the Deathless with your body and grant you the power without requiring you to become a lich or having a not entirely friendly artifact inside your body. The Deathless will be unable to return to life or possess another person]
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
[Conditional Reward: When the undeath has spread as far as you are willing to permit it to, you may choose to lock its spread. This will disable your Incarnate of Death and all Death-based abilities and magic. This must be maintained for a minimum of a week before you Evolve. Locking away your Incarnate for a week will remove all Death-based Evolutions after the one that takes in the power of the Heart and its curse. Death-based Paths will still be offered]
[Failure condition: Allow the undeath to reach your brain before you Evolve]
[Failure Consequences: This Path converts into the A Lich Again Path and triggers the contest for control and conversion of the Heart]
Allow the curse to spread? Eww. Moving more into Death didn’t appeal, but he read the rest of the option anyway.
The Conditional Reward reversed his opinion of the option and explained the option’s title. Removing all Death-based evolutions was appealing, since he expected to otherwise get almost exclusively Death-based everything, with his Incarnate. Having an Affinity well ahead of others tended to push you into Paths using that Affinity, and he doubted Evolution was different.
In a way, it echoed his life experience. He’d become Death as the Final Reaper and was trying to move past it to other things.
This should have some interesting effects on his personal overall Path. It would probably reduce the number of Death-based Paths he was offered, even though they were still allowed, because it was a very clear decision to not follow Death.
He didn’t like what he would have to do, but it was definitely staying on the list. He didn’t have to like something to do what was needed.
He was sure that was one of the things the Voice was thinking about when it made the option available.
[Keep your Options Open: Keeping the Heart sounds wise, but keeping it as an item that could be stolen or lost does not. You do not wish to become a lich or even court the possibility unless it is necessary, but you do want to keep a source of Death mana close]
[Conditions: Place the Heart of the Deathless in your chest. Accept the power it offers, but take control of it. Drain its power so that it cannot spread past the Heart itself. Beware, for the Heart of the Deathless will test you. Complete the test to destroy its mind and become its master without accepting undeath]
[Reward: Continually generate Death mana]
[Failure Condition: Fail to control the power and mind resident in the Heart of the Deathless]
[Conditional Failure Consequences: Return the Deathless to undeath; True Death of Serenity]
That was almost exactly the opposite of the previous option, even though both required replacing his heart with the artifact.
Continuously generating Death mana was not a reward he wanted any part of. While it was obviously useful, it would screw up his Path at least as much as the one that turned him back into a lich.
[Somebody Else's Problem: This is not your problem to deal with. Sometimes a problem is best left alone]
[Conditions: Leave the Heart of the Deathless behind when you leave the A Rest from Death dungeon]
[Contingent Reward: If the A Rest from Death dungeon continues to exist after you leave, it will revert to the Last Refuge of the Deathless]
[Contingent Reward: If the A Rest from Death dungeon is allowed to fail, the Heart of the Deathless will follow Raz]
This option was the “screw everyone else” option. It didn’t matter which of the two contingent rewards happened, someone else would end up paying so that Serenity could avoid the problem.
That was a problem for his path in a completely different way from the others, but it still wasn’t his Path even if it was an action he’d be willing to take.
[This branching quest will advance to the next Step upon leaving the A Rest from Death dungeon]
Were there any real options the Voice hadn’t listed? Sometimes there were. If you found one, it would usually be added, with its own rewards.
Serenity couldn’t think of any. That might be because there weren’t any or it might be because he already had a bunch of options to choose between. Unless he thought of something quickly, it wouldn’t matter. He had to choose before leaving the dungeon, and he wanted to do that soon.
The only real choices were The Safe Plan or The Way Out is Through.
It was an ugly choice, but the answer was obvious if it was just those two options.
“Raz?” Saying Raz’s name made Serenity think of the option he’d proposed. Giving it to the mercenaries sounded like the Hoarding for the Future option, only instead of a thief, they’d be handing it to someone who probably couldn’t handle it. “Can you think of any way to contain the Heart? I have a couple options, but I don’t like either of them.”
Raz was at the other side of the room - the other side of the dungeon, essentially. It was far enough that even though Serenity spoke loudly and the dungeon was quiet, Raz could barely make out the words. “What did he say?” Raz stopped pacing and headed back to Serenity.
Serenity could always tell where Raz was, and he had no trouble hearing Raz’s mutter. He knew he shouldn’t be able to, but brushed that off as something to worry about when he wasn’t trying to figure out a way to avoid choices he didn’t like. He waited for Raz to get close enough to hear him before repeating the question.
Raz looked off into the distance and seemed to start working with an interface of some sort, looking for the right option. “I don’t have a sealing box. Maybe the dungeon can make one?”
Serenity knew the answer as soon as Raz asked the question. “Yes and no. That is, it can make a sealing box, but it wouldn’t hold the Heart of the Deathless.”
Maybe Serenity could add runes to a sealing box, enhancing it enough to hold?
No, that was still the same Hoarding option. It would make it harder to steal and people wouldn’t sense the magic coming off it, but it would also make it more obvious it was powerful to people who couldn’t sense magic. Adding temptation was not a good idea.
“Sealing boxes can be opened and people will, just to see what’s in them. We need a permanent solution.” Serenity was quickly convincing himself there were only minor variations in the options the Voice had provided, at least if he wanted to leave soon. If he was willing to stay in the dungeon for a few weeks, he might be able to build a ritual to contain the Heart.
That might actually work. He couldn’t be sure how long it would take until he roughed together an idea of the ritual itself. He didn’t want to wait weeks; he didn’t think he could afford that long away from Earth. He could wait long enough to see if it would take that long.
Serenity started designing, not noticing that the floor in front of him was changing to match the ritual configurations he was thinking about.