Options appeared in Dex’s vision as he picked up the scroll.
[Choose one of the following spellwords to learn]
[Suh (Action) - Force]
[Qul (Action) - Speed]
[Pel (Action) - Passage]
“Suh,” Dex mumbled. “That’s the one the vrakir assassin used against me, isn’t it?” He looked at Princess, hoping she would confirm his memory.
She squeaked in agreement. Princess moved to Ellia, hoping to get more scratches. She did, of course.
“Ms. Frostsworn, can I ask your recommendation? And maybe a short description of these?” Dex said, returning the scroll to the table for now.
“Yes, of course,” she began. “It sounds as if you are familiar with ‘suh’, so I will skip that one. ‘Qul’, used independent of any sort of action, will boost the user’s overall speed for some time. You will run, attack, and even think faster. The last choice, ‘pel’ is a bit unique. It allows the user to pass through a door or otherwise closed entryway. There is not much in the realm of enhancing it, as it is pretty one-trick. If I were you, the obvious choice would be ‘qul’ to help you in combat, as you are quite slow at the moment.”
Feeling like that was sort-of a jab, Dex decided to ignore it for now. One day, when he was stronger, he’d speak up and defend himself. For now, however, Ellia Frostsworn, number nine of the Echelon of Heroes, could say whatever she damn well please.
Following her advice, Dex selected the ‘qul’ spellword. A strange energy rushed over him, unlike anything he’d felt before. It was calming, soothing even. His limbs felt warm, fingers and toes nearly numb from the sensation. And, just as quickly, he felt nothing.
“Excellent. Now, focus your intentions on the word. Think of what ‘speed’ means to you, what you intend for it to do with it.” Ellia explained.
Dex stood from the table, staring at Ellia. His intentions were clear to himself. He just hoped she couldn’t read his mind. He wanted to prove something, partly to her, but mostly to himself. He focused on the concept of ‘speed’. To him, it meant more time to live, less time acting. The faster you moved, the more life you had, and the less time you spent wanting.
His focus peaked, and he spoke the word. “Qul.” In that moment, his body roared with energy. It was elating, almost like a high, not that he was one to do drugs back on Earth. He hoped this wasn’t addicting.
Pushing the energy into his legs, Dex sprung forward, launching a right hook directly at Ellia’s chin. Of course, she leaned back just in time to avoid the blow. Or so they both thought at first. He felt the very tip of his knuckle brush her chin as it passed by. She was uninjured, and likely barely noticed any sensation, but he had hit her.
“Did you just...” Ellia was stunned. She had felt it, but more importantly, she couldn’t believe it. “That’s marvelous. At your level, and your stats, you shouldn’t even come close to touching me unless I intend you to.” For the first time since they’d met, her smile was gone.
“Holy shit. Holy. Shit!” Dex screamed, looking down at his hands and examining the rest of his body in turn. “That was intense. It’s basically gone already, but I felt like the world was moving in slow motion.”
He looked to Ellia, whose face still shone nothing but surprise. “Now listen to me, young Dexter. Do not get a big head about yourself. That is how you get killed. Might I ask, how high is your control, exactly?” She questioned.
“Control and harmony are both zero,” Dex answered. “I am not even sure what harmony does, either.”
Ellia squinted, almost looking unconvinced of his stats. “Harmony will have to wait for another lesson, I’m afraid.”
For the first time since the boss voregar yesterday, Dex felt good. The possibilities before him were endless. Yet, he still had a sinking feeling of doubt. Could he still go on in this life, even if every step he took told him he’d be great at it? From getting a tier three class, to... whatever exactly he just accomplished, he really was starting to feel like he had a knack for this questing life.
Deciding to bow to Ellia, he thanked her for the gift.
Ever the mentor, she immediately responded with some advice. “Please keep in mind, spellwords can be very taxing on one’s stamina. Use them sparingly and strategically. A fool dies tired, a warrior dies trying.” Those words resonated with him for some reason. “Oh, one more thing,” she continued. “Did you find the compass useful to find your way back?”
Dex had almost forgotten about it. Pulling the Compass of Intentions from his pocket, he took a look at it. The dial was spinning, showing that he had no current objective. “Yeah, actually. I wasn’t sure at first what it would do, but it’s actually pretty intuitive.”
Then he remembered the other reward. He hadn’t even looked at it since it spawned on the ground and he scooped it into his pocket. Holding the seal in his hand, he held it up to Ellia. “What’s this, exactly? My quest called it a voregar claw seal.”
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“A seal? The quests you are getting are being very generous.” Ellia held it in her hand, examining it closely. The seal was a small black token, showing only three scratch marks across the top, designed to look like a claw had slashed across it. “Very interesting. Place it upon your sword, somewhere on the blade.”
Dex took the seal and did as intended. Instantly, the sword changed. Its normally shining steel changed almost black, with streaks of dark purple wrapping up the blade. The hilt became more detailed, curling up on both sides like a claw. The handle changed color as well, but otherwise didn’t change too much.
Realizing this had to have some sort of benefit, aside from the appearance, Dex used his Inspect Weapon ability.
[Vorecarver - (4)]
[Sharp (Tier 5)]
[Infectious Wounding (Tier 1)]
[Unbreakable]
[Self-cleaning]
The name stung a little in Dex’s heart. He really wanted to forget about his fight yesterday, but it seemed like everything was hellbent on reminding him about the boss voregar. Brushing that away as best he could, Dex noticed the changes on his sword. The random ‘3’ after the name was now a ‘4’, and he still wasn’t quite sure what that meant. Maybe it was the level of the weapon? The most notable change was the Infectious Wounding that was added. If it did what he thought, this could be very effective against stronger opponents.
Deciding he wanted to move on, Dex thanked Ellia for the lesson, and the scroll, and touched the quest crystal.
[Quest available: The Stone of Hyshara - Difficulty: 4]
[Quest available: Crawler - Difficulty: 4]
[Flicker quest available: Demon of the Lake - Difficulty: 3]
[Flicker quest available: Trial of Ascension - Difficulty: 10]
[Assigned quest available: Skill Evolution - Difficulty: ???]
There were some interesting options available, and Dex was immediately uncomfortable with the increased difficulties. However, he decided to continue to ignore the flicker quests for now and accepted the other three. The first one, The Stone of Hyshara, didn’t offer much in the way of information.
[Acquire the Stone of Hyshara: 0/1]
[Find the amulet atop its creator’s statue]
[Reward: 5,000 points]
[Reward: The Stone of Hyshara]
As was becoming the norm, he was going to have to figure this one out himself. Hopefully his new Compass of Intentions could guide him this time, at least. Dex checked the next quest, Crawler.
[Complete the Dungeon of Descent: 0/1]
[Locate the Dungeon of Descent within Eazewood and survive its assault]
[Reward: 5,000 points]
[Reward: Dungeon Chest (Tier 1)]
[Reward: Attribute Scroll]
This one seemed promising. Figuring, once again, his compass could lead him to the entrance, Dex felt great confidence in his chances.
“Hopefully, the chest has something cool in it!” Princess echoed, having been given the details from Dex.
“I’m more interested in the Attribute Scroll, personally. A chance to increase my base-line attributes hasn’t come up very often so far.”
Leaving it at that, Dex checked his final quest; the one assigned by Ellia, Skill Evolution.
[Evolve a Skill: 0/1]
[Your skills become your own. Find yourself within them]
[Reward: ??? points (based on final difficulty)]
“All it gives is points?” Dex complained, hoping for another cool option before him.
“The knowledge that quest will give is greater than any point reward you could earn at your level, young Dexter.” Ellia decided to chime in finally. “Each individual must find out their own evolutionary path, and knowing it’s even an option is the first step.”
“So you’re telling me that I am just going to have to guess how to evolve a skill? What does it do anyway?”
“Depends on the skill and the person.” She smiled.
Dex groaned, knowing he wasn’t going to get much more out of her at this point. “Thanks,” he mumbled, making his way towards the portal. “Guess I’ll be back in a little while. Thank you again, Ms. Frostsworn.”
She nodded at him as he stepped through. Once again, Dex found himself in the forest. This time, however, he was already near his quest.
The clearing he appeared in was massive, hundreds of feet around, at least. The grass here was greener and more splendid than any he’d seen before. It looked like it had been managed pretty well. More notably, however, was the statue. It stood taller than the walls of Fort Moortin and was infinitely more ornate. He couldn’t tell what kind of metal it was made of, but whatever it was, it shined in the sunlight. It was beautiful, some of the best craftsmanship he’d ever seen. Not that Dex was a world-class art critic or anything.
The statue appeared to be a warrior of some kind. Wearing full armor and holding a battleaxe in both hands across his waist, he looked valiant, almost like a god, in a way.
“This must be where the stone is at,” Princess pointed out, as if it wasn’t obvious enough.
“It says “atop the creator’s statue”, and there’s no way I’m getting all the way up there.” Dex looked up towards the statue’s head, cranking his neck to even chance a glimpse. He couldn’t see anything that stood out as a mystical stone, but maybe it sat directly on top?
Deciding to try anyway, he dropped his sword near the foot and started climbing. Well, started to try to start climbing. In reality, he gripped onto a smooth ankle and slid back down, exactly where he had just been standing.
“There’s no fuckin’ way I’m gonna climb this thing,” Scratching his head, Dex took several laps around the feet, hoping to find anything that he could grasp onto. There was nothing, not a damn thing. It was the smoothest, most un-climbable surface he’d ever try to climb. “Think you can climb it?” He asked Princess.
“Please, I’m a rat, not a lizard. Plus, whatever this is made of seems pretty strong. I’d never get a grip, even with my claws.”
‘Claws’ felt a bit generous to Dex, but he let it slide. She did, however, give him an idea. Retrieving his sword, he clenched the handle and held it like a baseball bat.
“The sword says it’s unbreakable when I inspected it, so the worst that happens is I bruise my hand a little from the impact.” He explained, readying his stance.
Pulling back, he took a swing. His Weapon Shift ability changed his sword into a large wood-axe, which felt appropriate. This wasn’t exactly a tree, but he was trying to fell it.
The first few swings did nothing. All they did was vibrate through him and dizzy him a little. But on the seventh, he saw a crack.
“Yes!” He screamed. “I am definitely going to topple this thing.”
Swinging again and again, the crack grew larger, and as it did, the world got darker. He didn’t notice at first, but after a dozen more smacks, it looked like it was the dead of night around him.
“What the hell did you do?” Princess echoed, looking around for any signs of actual danger.
“I don’t know,” Dex shoved his sword back into his belt and stepped back. A chill shot up Dex’s entire body when he heard a voice boom over the forest.
“A cheat!” It screamed. The voice was deep and raspy, but more than that, it was angry. “You damage my statue and expect my reward? I’ll see you dead before you send another blow.”
Small flashes of light appeared all around, dozens of them. When they finally dissipated, they were surrounded by a small army.