Serenity watched the mostly incorporeal wraith float in a corner of his room at the inn. “I don’t want to send you back. I’m still a bit hurt from pulling you here, I’m not sure it would be safe for me; I know I’d have to heal again afterwards. I can try if I have to. I’m not sure what else to do. Maybe if we go to the edge of town you can travel back on your own? Or maybe I can get you through the dungeon to the Necropolis and you can take it from there?”
"Perhaps. That still leaves the matter of how to get there. I believe you are concerned about my presence being detected?"
Serenity nodded.
"I considered options while you were out and determined a possible solution. It will require significant trust from you."
“Significant trust?” Serenity knew to be concerned when someone said that. He’d still take it if the option was reasonable. He had a lot of belief in himself and his ability to deal with problems, even when the problem was betrayal. If the Nightmare Wraith betrayed him, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d been betrayed, after all.
"I believe that I can possess your body and leave you aware. You can tell me what to say or do and I can, as though I were you. There may be a slight delay, but it should be small. There is a second possible issue, but I believe that your healing will be sufficient to counter my lifedrain."
It wasn’t a great idea. Overall, it was a pretty terrible idea. Even if the Nightmare Wraith could be trusted, they’d have to fight their way through the dungeon with the wrong person in control of Serenity's body, and even a Tier 1 dungeon could punish small mistakes harshly.
On the other hand, Serenity was responsible for the Nightmare Wraith’s presence in a hostile city, and he didn’t have a better idea. “We should try it. See how it works, if it’s possible and how bad your lifesteal is. What Affinity is it? I don’t have the Life Affinity, so if that’s what you’re stealing…”
"It is Death Affinity, of course. What else would a Wraith have? It drains energy with the power of Death itself."
Serenity had Death Immunity. This was as good a time as any to see what that meant. “Let’s try. Whenever you’re ready?”
The Nightmare Wraith floated over to Serenity. When it touched him, nothing happened. It felt oddly familiar and comforting as it overlapped with his body.
"I do not seem to be draining your life. This is an unexpectedly beneficial result."
“Yeah.” Serenity was nervous about the next step. He’d been possessed before, and he didn’t like it.
It was still better than spider webs, at least.
Almost anything was better than spider webs. He just had to remind himself of that.
“Go ahead.”
Serenity felt something he’d never felt before - a monster asking if it could possess him. It wasn’t verbal, but he knew that was what was happening and he tried to let the Nightmare Wraith in. It wasn’t easy; he didn’t want to allow it, but he needed to hide the Nightmare Wraith.
For a moment, everything went dark. It seemed like only a moment later when his consciousness came back. He had double vision, almost as though he were in two places at once; one was the vision he’d grown used to, while the other was a little gray but in color.
He felt himself fall backwards onto the bed once again as he lost control of his body and he hated it. He tried to force himself not to resist.
A moment later, he found himself able to move. “I tried not to resist.”
"I do not appear to have a separate form and I appear to be observing the world through your senses, yet I am not in control of your body. This is once again unexpected. You do have control?"
Serenity sat up. He felt fine. After the issue when he summoned the Wraith, he knew that how he felt wasn’t enough; he needed to check himself over. A quick glance showed where Guildmaster Hollis had done his repair work; the crystal that ran along his spine seemed far less damaged, but it still wasn’t back to new. It would heal with time, at least.
Something bothered him as he was looking, but he couldn’t figure out what. He kept looking, and eventually found a small ball of Death-tinged Essence nestled next to the crystal seed. It was the shell he’d made for the Nightmare Wraith, compressed into solidity. It was very small; Serenity supposed that meant the Wraith wasn’t actually incorporeal, simply mostly insubstantial.
“I’m glad nothing else went wrong. I don’t feel like it hurt me this time.” Serenity finished scanning himself and stood up. He still felt fine, but there was still something bothering him - something he’d seen but not noticed consciously.
"I believe that I can separate from you as though I were abandoning someone I had possessed. I will delay doing so until it is safe for me to leave."
“Will your dungeon core need you soon?”
"As long as no one enters the dungeon, all will be well for several weeks. I would prefer to return earlier if that is possible."
Once they were in the Necropolis seemed like a good time to release the Nightmare Wraith. He wouldn’t be the only wraith on the streets there, so it should be relatively safe.
Serenity realized what was bothering him as he was taking off his armor in preparation for bed. He could see the straps as he undid them through his hands, and his hands seemed slightly wispy wherever he wasn’t touching something.
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The moment after he realized it, it went away. He looked normal.
Serenity spent the next hour trying to figure it out. Most of that time was spent trying to make it happen again. As far as he could tell, the effect didn’t actually change anything important; if he didn’t have his weird sight, he’d have said it was purely visual. It clearly wasn’t, but he wasn’t sure what it was. All he could figure out was that he seemed to sometimes take on part of the wraith’s insubstantial nature.
Now that he knew what was happening, it seemed far less worrying. In some ways, he regretted that he wasn’t able to become truly insubstantial, but he was glad that staying fully solid seemed simple.
Serenity wondered if it would go away when he sent the wraith away. He more than half hoped it would. However useful partial insubstantiality was, it seemed likely to also cause problems he didn’t need.
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No one noticed anything different about Serenity in the morning - or if they did, they didn’t say anything. He was grateful for that.
They met Stojan Tasi the next morning, and headed to the Wailing Woods Dungeon, which was in one of the outlying caverns - technically still part of the Shining Caverns, but really a satellite community formed around the dungeon itself. To get there, they had to walk a couple miles to a particular gryphon field, then hire five gryphons and a guide; apparently there wasn’t a full-size landing field at the Wailing Woods, so they’d each be on separate gryphons.
Serenity’s gryphon clearly didn’t like him, but the guide convinced it to let him ride. “I’ll make sure you get one of Silvertail’s kits at the wayhouse tomorrow. She does a lot of the training for us, her kits don’t shy at anyone that hasn’t hurt them. They don’t like the main city, and most of ‘em don’t handle the group harness well, so we keep’em at the outlying stations. Have to have some out there, and that’s where most of the long rides happen anyway.”
It was a two-day flight to the Wailing Woods Dungeon cavern. Serenity hadn’t realized that any of them were that far away when Hale was going through the options. The Shining Caverns might not have the population of a modern Earth metropolis, but it certainly had the land area.
It made him wonder just how far the exit was going to be from the Necropolis City Lord’s Residence. Serenity seemed to remember the Necropolis as being far larger than the small amount of it he’d explored when he lived there.
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The Wailing Woods Dungeon cavern reminded Serenity of many different small towns that he’d seen as Vengeance. They sprung up around remote dungeons the same way mining towns had once appeared near silver and gold deposits in the Old West.
At least half of the buildings were always rooming houses. Half of the remainder were entertainment places of one sort or another - bars and gambling, mostly, but there were other options as well. Exactly what was offered changed, but its presence was a constant, even at higher Tiers. The rest were places for the locals to live and shops of one sort or another, often set up by craftspeople to have a ready market for their goods.
This one was relatively small; only a couple dozen buildings greeted them when they landed. The guide happily told them what was there, and they headed to “the best overnight place you’ll find here”.
Serenity wasn’t surprised to find that they had to catch food at “the only restaurant in town” on the way there.
It was a place to sleep. That was all that could be said for it. Serenity had slept in far worse.
Serenity was cheered up when he examined himself that evening and found that he was nearly healed. He still didn't want to try to channel too much energy, but he felt confident that small spells wouldn't be a problem - and it was just in time for the dungeon.
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That morning, Serenity found himself slightly wispy for the first time since it originally happened. He pulled himself together before heading out to see the others. Unlike most of the other changes he’d seen with his body, it wasn’t automatic and it didn’t seem to be similar to a skill he already knew how to use.
He had a choice: he could hope it would stop happening, he could practice and try to learn how to control it, or he could choose a Path where the Voice would tell him how to use it.
It wasn’t really a choice, was it? He was going to have to practice. Even if it came as a Path Skill, practice always helped; the better you were at something without the Path, the more the Path fit what you knew and the more you could do with a skill.
He’d still wait until the wraith was gone. It was still possible that it wasn’t actually his skill doing it. If not that, perhaps it was related to the damage he'd done to himself pulling the Wraith to his location. Perhaps it would go away as he healed.
He had to admit (even if only to himself) that, now that he knew it was possible, if it did go away he'd try to replicate it. Skills were always useful, even if the way to use them wasn’t obvious.
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At the edge of town, there was a small grove of dead trees. Serenity looked them over and saw that all of them practically radiated Death magic. He suspected they weren’t really trees and had probably never been alive; the entrance to dungeons often looked like something you might find in nature, but it was rarely what it seemed.
Serenity was surprised to note that there didn’t seem to be a ley line next to the Dungeon entrance. The magic level was a little higher than in town, but not much. Perhaps that was why the difficulty was so low?
The dungeon didn’t have a door or tablet to open or touch. Instead, when he walked between the outermost trees, a message appeared.
[Potential Party Found]
Stojan Tasi - Hidden Lord
Serenity - Evoker
Tnsarac Hale - Hammerfall
Katya Kyrika - Sorcerer
Razinkh ‘e Sunrise - Speaker to Dungeons
[Join Party as listed?]
Yes
[Stojan Tasi has been nominated to serve as Party Leader. Confirm?]
Well, he was the City Lord, and they were here escorting him. Why not?
Yes
[Party Formed]
[Dungeon: Wailing Woods (Catacomb)]
[The wind blows through a desolate forest where the only life remaining is the memory of better times]
[Status: Assault Slots Available: 3/7]
[Tier: 1]
[Type: Death, Undead, Plant]
[2 group assaults in progress. Maximum capacity per group: 5]
[Catacomb Key Required to initiate Assault]
Serenity looked at the Paths displayed. He was looking forward to actually getting to use his Evoker skills; as close as he was, he’d probably get the second one unlocked after the first level of the dungeon.
Wait, what was his XP allocation on now?
He changed it to go completely to Path XP. He could finally level his Path like a normal person. It was a liberating feeling.