A man stood before the closed doors to the core room. He was nondescript, clean shaven with a full head of gray hair. He wore a suit and tie, and his white gloved hands were clasped before him. Only I recognized him.
“Uhhh, what are you doing here?” I asked System.
“Tavi… do you know this man?” Arven asked. His swords were already drawn. I hadn’t even seen him stand up. He was frowning and squinting slightly at the artificial god. “My examinations are telling me there’s nothing there. Is he an illusion?”
“No… well maybe. I don’t know. That’s System,” I told him.
Behind me the others all shared a glance. I could feel them doing it. “Tavi…” Dawn started to say.
“Yeah yeah, I know. System’s not a person. Tell that to him.” I motioned to the man in question. He nodded and took a step forward.
“I am indeed the avatar of the System. I rarely appear on Astra and prefer not to be worshiped or idolized. I am impartial and not subject to being swayed by prayer. You are correct that most of what you think of as the System is not a person and is not aware in the way you or the gods are. I exist to handle situations which require intelligent oversight of the automatic processes that govern reality, and today I am here to fix this mess,” he told us, very unfairly looking at me in the process.
“Mess? What mess?” I asked.
“Please, have a seat. This will take a moment,” System said, motioning towards us. Then the cheeky fucker took out the chair I’d stolen from his waiting room like he’d pulled it out of a soul-space and followed his own advice.
I glared at him but sat down on the rubble I’d been using earlier. He just smiled pleasantly at me. The others all took seats as well, obviously not sure where this was going.
“You all have done quite well for yourselves. You’ve defeated The Lord Adversary’s Holy Ordeal, cleared this dungeon, and defeated its raid boss. You are entitled to numerous rewards,” System began. “When I assign rewards for raid bosses and dungeon events, they are based on participation and contribution, and modified by the lethality rating of the encounter. I base the lethality rating on a few factors, such as the ratio of previous successes and failures for the same encounter, average party level, total party level, and the tiers and statuses of the participants and creatures involved.”
“Oh, I think I see where this is going,” I said, grinning my shark toothed grin.
“You do?” Lucus asked. “Is it good or bad?”
System motioned for silence. “Please, hold your questions and commentary for a moment. There will be time to discuss when we are all on the same page.”
We shut up, and System nodded in thanks before continuing. “Looking at the encounter with The Unholy, the participants in the fight can be said to be the six of you, the two daemons, and The Adversary’s agents, as they were - in a way - trying to defeat the creature.”
He started ticking off fingers as he talked. “Cassara died before her binding fully took hold, but she managed to disable the creature for a time while it was taking damage. Arven and Lucus both successfully held the creature’s attention and negated its attacks. Arven’s attacks against the creature were unable to overpower its regeneration, but he was one of the few to actually damage it.
“Lucus defeated several lesser monsters during the fight and receives full marks for his rescue of Dawn. I take both healing and damage negation into account in my calculations, and in this dungeon that includes saving someone from an endless fall into the void. Dawn likewise gets credit for her healing, and Dorian for his songs.
“Savas, you never actually attacked the creature, but I give you some credit for your attacks on Licane. It was technically a different encounter, but your contribution aided the fight against The Unholy indirectly, and you slew some of its offspring. That brings us to Randal Licane. Under normal circumstances, he would receive credit for the actions of his daemons. Havarati was instrumental in containing the creature while Cassara began her binding, and of course Telvarn rather abruptly ended the encounter by, as he would have put it, squashing the bug.”
System tapped the armrest of his chair thoughtfully, then shook his head. “Telvarn very nearly destroyed the creature on his own, not to mention Licane himself. I am reminded by this why we so seldom employ the powers of greater daemons. Even the lower tier ones such as Telvarn are absurdly dangerous, and the gods themselves have reason to fear an upper tier greater daemon.”
He looked up at me then and frowned. “I said Licane would have received the credit for his daemon’s actions. However, during the course of the fight I observed him use a previously unreported exploit, and on review of the logs I found that he had used this exploit in the past. This renders him ineligible for rewards in this encounter.”
I coughed, and raised my hand, waiting for acknowledgement before interrupting. “About that… I was going to petition you later. I actually reported that exploit yesterday, but I haven’t even gotten a confirmation of the ticket.”
System blinked, and then his eyes went distant for a moment. “Interesting. Your exploit report does not appear to be on file, but I found the log of you making it yesterday. I will be making inquiries…”
System said the word “inquiries” like a judge sentencing someone to death. Then he gave a small smile. “That can wait. As I was saying, Licane is ineligible, even posthumously. That leaves you. You set the creature on fire early on, doing persistent damage over the course of the fight. You also killed Cassara and fought Licane to a draw, which earns you some credit for freeing up Arven to attack the boss and causing Dawn to enter the fight.
“You are also directly responsible for the actions of Telvarn during his brief time as an unbound daemon. Moreover, you technically were him for a brief time, including when he killed the creature. You also didn’t use any exploits or dubious interactions in the process. I am therefore left in an unprecedented predicament of having to assign the vast majority of raid contribution points to a single person.”
I grinned at him and waggled my ears in amusement. “Does that mean I get something really cool?”
“No,” System said. “It means I have to intervene and manually distribute the rewards via a fair system.”
My ears drooped. “That sounds a lot like Tavi gets fucked without any of the fun parts.”
System pinched the bridge of his nose in obvious exasperation. “Do you mean to tell me you’d prefer that your friends not receive fair rewards for being willing to fight alongside you in what should have been a suicidal encounter?”
“Huh? No! Of course not. You just made it sound like I was losing out on a big reward,” I said, backing down.
“That’s almost a separate issue,” System confirmed. “However, I think I can solve both problems fairly readily. It is true that defeating a raid boss with such a small group and while simultaneously defeating an ordeal should grant you all substantial rewards. It is also true that you are all lawful prisoners of Altria, and therefor any physical rewards you receive should by rights be the property of the Duke of Altria.
“There is a cap on the level of rewards I will distribute to a single participant of a raid, and even if I evenly distribute the rewards you are all hitting that cap. I therefor have a proposal for you all, one that I believe you will find generous and to your liking.
“Instead of giving you random rewards and letting you divide them up, I will do the following. First, I shall secure each of your releases from the prison in a way that least benefits the nobility of Altria. I will negotiate on your behalf with the King of Etrona and spend some of your combined reward credit on whatever he demands as payment for six full and unconditional pardons for crimes committed in the past.”
Everyone perked up at this, and Savas interjected with the question that was on all our minds. “Does that mean we’ll get to keep all our loot from the dungeon?”
System nodded. “I shall ensure that the pardons are written in such a way as to absolve you of any debts to the crown or nobility and restore all property rights to you. Further, when I have completed my negotiations with the King, I will create a personalized reward for each of you using the remaining credit not needed to secure your release. Personalizing the reward will cost some of that credit but will ensure that your reward is tailored to you.”
We all looked at each other, then looked back at System. “So, uh… where do we sign?” I asked.
***
When System left, we sat down to go through the achievements and awards we’d earned from the last fight. We wouldn’t be getting any loot from the raid boss directly. System would be delivering that later when he’d figured out how much he still owed us after getting us pardoned. Amusingly the prompt we’d gotten about it even said as much.
> System Message
>
> Raid Boss Defeated
>
> Victory is yours! The Unholy has been defeated and the dungeon has been conquered. Now your raid party will reap your well-deserved rewards. Let the celebrations begin!
>
> Rewards:
>
> Pending System review
When we’d defeated Cassara, another message had apparently gone out to everyone, everywhere. I hadn’t seen one of these before, but the others didn’t seem surprised about it.
> System Message
>
> World Alert
>
> The Adversary’s chosen agent has been defeated, ending an Ordeal before it could even truly begin. Rejoice! Yet remain vigilant, for The Adversary’s machinations are unending. Next time it may be you to face The Ordeal.
>
> Titles and treasures have been awarded to those who participated in the event. Know them by their appellations and give thanks.
It was weird to think that, if things were going well, I should expect to see this sort of message show up occasionally from events I had no knowledge or involvement in. It was basically a reminder that every now and then the people of Astra needed to defend themselves against what amounted to a terrorist organization. I hadn’t really thought of The Adversary and his people like that in the past, and it made me deeply uncomfortable.
We’d all gotten a bunch of rewards for defeating Cassara and Licane, but mine were a bit different than everyone else’s.
> New Achievement
>
> Or… not?
>
> You have stopped an Ordeal of The Adversary by killing the Host of The Ordeal before they could accomplish their primary objective. Your actions have no doubt saved many lives and prevented untold destruction. The Adversary himself commends you on a job well done.
>
> This achievement replaces and combines all the achievements that would normally be awarded for defeating an Ordeal. It is awarded only to the one who slew the Host of the Ordeal.
>
> Rewards:
> Title Unlocked (“Redeemer”)
> Title Unlocked (“Hero”)
> Polymorphic Trait
> Token of Divine Favor
> Tome of Enlightenment
> Scarab Token
I’d taken a glance around and almost everyone had gotten a scarab token. The only one who hadn’t seemed to be Dawn. She looked rueful but resigned. I’d known you could get these in other ways besides finding bugs, but was a little surprised to see them handed out for foiling one of The Adversary’s plots. Still, I guess it made some sense.
With what I now knew about how the influence system worked, I suspected that just starting one of these ordeals must cost The Adversary some influence. Equipping Cassara with Nemesis had likely cost some as well. The ritual that summoned Cassara had likely been one of the things The Adversary had used his initial pool of influence to buy, but I suspected that he didn’t need to pay for every single time it was used. The cost for that was already set by the price Reign had put on all summoning in Astra.
It made me wonder if the rewards handed out for defeating an ordeal were a way of balancing the influence scales, since by definition anyone trying to stop an ordeal shouldn’t be one of The Adversary’s followers. Dawn had been a bit unusual in that regard, but it was hard to say if she’d gotten less rewards because she hadn’t directly participated, or if she wouldn’t have been eligible even if she had.
My guess was that handing out rewards to your enemies might reduce or eliminate the influence requirements to do this sort of thing. That said, it felt like it might be abusable, and I was certain that if it was, The Adversary would abuse it. My own situation might even count. I hadn’t really thought of The Adversary as my enemy until recently, and if I had to admit it, I still found it difficult. It was very clear he’d been secretly helping me for some reason, and now I had to wonder if my killing Cassara hadn’t been part of his plan too. How on rails was I here?
I sighed and I turned my attention back to my own rewards, taking a look at the two titles first. The other rewards were unfamiliar to me and based on the text of the achievement I suspected that I’d been given the rewards for being the first traveler to defeat an ordeal as well. Those world first achievements were rapidly getting a lot harder to get, but I hadn’t seen any previous notifications of an ordeal being defeated, so it made sense. They usually gave really good rewards, so I had high hopes for this set.
> Hero
>
> Title (Tier 5)
>
> You helped protect the world from a grave threat, earning you the recognition and respect of those who owe you their lives and way of life. While this title is equipped members of your party other than you gain a 20% bonus to all defenses. Additionally, if you equip this title in a primary slot, your attacks and defense against higher level foes are 20% more effective and your reputation with all non-hostile creatures is increased by one stage.
> Redeemer
>
> Title (Tier 10, Unbreakable, Final)
>
> This title is conveyed only to one who has slain a Host of the Ordeal. If you ever become a follower of The Adversary this title will be lost. If your actions ever directly result in the success of an Ordeal, this title will be lost.
>
> At any time, you may offer up this title to The Adversary in sacrifice via a petition. If you do so you will become the new Host of the Ordeal, you will gain the Betrayer mandatory title. If you succeed in your assigned task, you will gain an Ultimate Blessing of The Adversary.
>
> Note that failure is not an option.
>
> While this title is equipped you gain a +3 bonus to all attributes, and you have an extra accolade title slot available. If you equip this title in a primary slot, the bonus is doubled, and any title equipped in the bonus slot granted by this title acts as though it were in a primary slot for the purposes of providing its benefits.
I paused on reading that one. This title could basically be equipped for free and would grant a fantastic stat bump, but holy crap what a loaded gun this was. Minor and Lesser Blessings could be traded for progression points or skill ranks, I knew that, but what all could you do with an Ultimate Blessing?
Blessings were divine power placed in mortal hands, and from what I understood the differences between the types was exponential. That thought prompted me to look up the help menu entry on blessings, and there I discovered that there were seven levels of blessing. The order was least, minor, lesser, greater, major, supreme, and then ultimate.
Conveniently, this documentation provided a table showing how many of each blessing was needed to reach the next level up. It appeared to be based on powers of two, so two of the same blessing was worth one of the next level up. That also meant that one ultimate blessing was worth sixty-four least blessings, or thirty-two minor blessings, and so on.
This was a cruel reward, putting temptation forever in the hands of anyone who ever stopped an ordeal. I had to shake my head in both disgust and admiration. I wondered how many people had succumbed to that temptation in the past. You couldn’t even break the title to get rid of it.
The other rewards were much less antagonistic, but still very interesting.
> Polymorphic Trait
>
> Anima (Tier 10, Ascendant, Consumable)
>
> This item unlocks a single locked trait. When you activate this item, choose one of three traits to unlock. Your selection of traits is not random, each option will be from among those that fit the shape of your soul. If you get the opportunity to unlock another trait in the future, you may see the same options or different ones depending on how your soul has evolved during the intervening time.
>
> Note: This item is locked to the soul it was generated by.
> Token of Divine Favor
>
> Divine Currency (Tier 5, Consumable)
>
> To some people “Thank the gods!” is just an expression, to you it’s an opportunity. This token can literally be used to thank a god. Activate the token and select a deity, your reputation with that deity will rise, and the deity will receive a measure of divine influence within the pantheon.
>
> The influence from this token is drawn from the unallocated pool of influence governed by the System. The amount of influence and reputation received is based on the tier of the token. If the current unallocated pool of influence is insufficient to pay off the value of this token, the remainder will be drawn from every other prime deity in equal measure.
>
> Note: Using this token will not incur divine wrath from any deity. Deities are prohibited from even knowing who possesses a Token of Divine Favor until it is used to benefit them. Measures have been taken to obscure the causal relationship of changes in influence as well.
> Tome of Enlightenment
>
> Recorded Wisdom (Tier 3, Consumable)
>
> You may spend one week per tier of this item reading words of ancient wisdom and forgotten knowledge from its pages. At the end of each week spent in contemplation of this tome, you gain one of the following benefits:
>
> - You discover a prerequisite for a skill you have unlocked. If the skill has no prerequisites you are unaware of, you learn this fact instead. The prerequisite revealed will be the one you are closest to qualifying for, if any.
> - You add one additional option to your next species or class evolution (choose which when you pick this benefit). The option is random, but the Tome will automatically satisfy one prerequisite for that option if it has prerequisites.
> - You immediately evolve one of your known skills. Skills evolved in this way are unlocked, and any Mastery prerequisite for the previous skill is bypassed.
> - You must choose your area of research at the beginning of each week you study the tome. To count as a day of progress, you must spend at least eight hours in study, and if you fail to study each day for an entire week, the benefits for that week are lost.
I very briefly considered using the Token of Divine Favor to start fixing my relationship with Limitless, but then discarded that idea.
If I understood how things worked correctly, there was a fixed amount of influence spread out between all the gods, or possibly just the prime deities. Any of them could spend influence with System, which then went into the unallocated pool. The gods had various ways of buying back that influence, but since there was a fixed amount, a god could potentially hoard influence to keep it out of the available pool and limit what all the gods could do.
I wondered what would happen if a god ended up owing influence they didn’t have? Did they lose whatever game they were playing? If so, what did that mean for their followers? Could they go into influence debt?
Valera had said I was her only champion at the moment, but this was the first method I’d found to directly give her influence. Maybe other things I was doing were helping her, but if so, it was unclear how. I didn’t think I could afford to use this on anyone else. If I did, I might inadvertently screw myself over. Without knowing how much this token was actually worth, I couldn’t afford to play games with it.
I used the token, directing it at Valera.
Your relationship with the Church of Valera has increased to “Honored.”
You have received a Least Blessing of Valera.
So, she’d chosen to refund me some of the influence, that was interesting. Maybe that meant she had a safe amount of influence in reserve. On the other hand, a Least Blessing was the smallest blessing, so maybe it was just the only way she could say thanks.
Next, I turned my attention to the Polymorphic Trait. This item took a form similar to an Orb of Comprehension, except that instead of a crystal full of shimmering light, this was a pitch black sphere with a fiery figure eight at the center. It was small enough to hold in one hand, and I stared at it for a moment, wondering if it looked like this because it was in some way bound to my soul.
Activating the item caused it to sink into the palm of my hand. The symbol remained on my skin for a moment, and a new prompt appeared.
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> System Message
>
> Select a Trait
>
> You may choose one of the following traits which are highly compatible with your body, spirit, and soul.
>
> Choose One:
> - Shadowsworn (Physical): 10% of your dodge bonus applies to both armor and resistance when cloaked in shadows.
> - Glorious Purpose (Spiritual): +10% Blessing Effect, -10% Blessing Influence Cost, Deific Curses may not be removed with Blessings.
> - Breaker of Chains (Conceptual): +10% Resistance to Compulsion, Immobilization, and Incapacitation effects.
I looked at Shadowsworn in some confusion. The other traits all made sense to me, but why did that one give an armor bonus, and why was it listed as physical?
Then I got it.
I had to give it to the old man, he was pretty good with his puns. It wasn’t “shadow sworn” it was “shadows worn.” It was giving me an equipment bonus for literally wearing shadows.
I was a little afraid of compulsion effects, but immobilization and incapacitation didn’t scare me because of Unrestrained. I was worried that a compulsion effect might bypass my ability to activate Unrestrained by simply making me not want to, or unaware of the effect.
Having some inherent compulsion resistance seemed like a good idea, but I had a title that offered complete immunity to compulsion when in a primary slot and double my normal bonus when otherwise equipped. That was way better than this trait, even if I couldn’t always use it.
My dodge bonus was over twice as high as either of my other two defenses, so Shadowsworn would help even me out. It would also help to replace my missing chest equipment slot. Right now it would be a +4 bonus to both armor and resistance, which seemed pretty significant.
That resistance bonus would likewise help me shrug off compulsion effects, and if Breaker of Chains meant that it increased my resistance stat by 10% for the listed effects, then I was currently better off getting that 10% boost from my larger dodge stat and having it apply to everything.
Glorious Purpose was… terrifying, to put it mildly. Taking that would be like sticking a lightning rod on my head and laughing at a storm. It would likely be fantastic for Valera but I wasn’t quite ready to get myself cursed into oblivion on her account. Maybe later when my build was more solid. Right now, I had too many things I wanted to spend my points on.
Shadowsworn it was then. I wasn’t using Embrace of Shadows at the moment, but the room was dimly lit. When I selected the trait, I half expected the shadows around me to stir a bit in response, but what actually happened was stranger. I got very slightly harder to see.
I had been looking at my hand when the prompt appeared, so when it vanished, I was still looking in that direction. I could see easily in the dim light with my Darkvision skill, but as I watched my hand became slightly darker. It was so minor I never would have noticed it if I hadn’t been looking.
I didn’t often think about how my skin was a weird shade of yellow green, or the fact that my hands had only three fingers and a thumb each. You would think that sort of thing would be hard to forget, but the opposite was true. I had to really concentrate on it for it to seem odd. Some of the things I’d inherited from Tavi I’d adapted easier than others, and this seemed to be one of those.
While her gender identity and sexuality had clashed with my other soul’s, her body image had not, likely because we were in fact using her body. My identity hadn’t felt threatened by it, possibly because I’d started out thinking of this as a game, or possibly because I’d managed to focus my inner conflict on the parts of her anatomy related to gender expression. I didn’t know for sure. I’d gotten over having long hair very quickly as well, so maybe that wasn’t entirely accurate.
I was experiencing a similar phenomenon now. A moment ago my skin had been a shade lighter, and now it had darkened. The green was slightly more pronounced and the yellow slightly less so. I felt like it should feel weird, like my body no longer matched my mental image of itself, but it did not. Was it because I didn’t really think of it as my body? Had my soul gem darkened too?
I brought my character sheet and had a look. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell if anything had changed. It looked right to me, but so did my skin. Had any of my other traits changed me like this without me noticing? I should ask Lucus to… I had to quash that line of thinking.
I’d been about to strip and ask Lucus if he saw any changes. It wasn’t actually an unreasonable request. If I had changed in ways I couldn’t really detect I might need someone else to look me over, and I knew from Tavi’s memories that Lucus had seen her naked more than once. She’d really enjoyed teasing the poor guy, mostly because he never failed to get embarrassed by it.
Still, it wasn’t the right time for that, and if we got out of here, I could just ask Maraci or Narani to do it. No need to mess with Lucus’ emotions. Hell, I could ask Ryke. That would lead to complications, but he was the only one of them that wouldn’t care that I wasn’t really Tavi. Telling the rest of them that was something I wasn’t looking forward to.
I turned my attention back to my loot. The Tome of Enlightenment I’d gotten was interesting. I’d been told it was possible to do things like research alternate prerequisites for skills, and here was a way to do so. However, I was pretty sure this wasn’t the only way. It seemed more like a magically assisted way that guaranteed success. That made using it in that way feel a bit like a waste, but perhaps doing things the more mundane way was very difficult or time consuming.
After thinking about it for a bit I decided that really all three options had some pretty significant downsides. The class and species evolution options you’d have to wait for, and there was no guarantee that you’d be able to use what you got from it, or even want to. You could end up completely wasting that option if you had access to better choices.
Meanwhile the skill evolution option didn’t actually do anything for you other than making it unnecessary to fully rank up a lower level skill. It did have some practical uses I could see, but they were pretty minor. I could have used it with Soulspace for example, since Expanded Soulspace was technically a more efficient use of points. Perhaps there was some other use case I wasn’t aware of.
Either way, I didn’t have time to spend reading right this moment.
Lucus was sitting next to me looking over his own rewards. I saw he’d also gotten a polymorphic trait and was looking at his own hand where a symbol I didn’t recognize was already fading into his skin. I couldn’t see the prompt it had generated, but I could see his eyes moving as he read over his options.
He noticed me looking at him and glanced my way. “Already done?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
I was sticking the book into the spacial bag we’d gotten earlier. Once it was in, I stuck it back into my soul-space as I stood up and stretched. “Yeah… for now at least. I got a Tome of Enlightenment, but that will have to wait. You get anything good?”
He nodded distractedly. “I got a trait and platinum loot box, only tier 1 though. I’m thinking about just selling it, you can get great money for a platinum box no matter the tier.”
I grunted noncommittally. “Is that your first trait?”
“No… I was born with one. Stone’s Embrace. It gives me a 10% boost to my armor rating. This one I just got is giving me some options to deepen my connection to stone, but I also got one called Shieldbearer just says it increases the effectiveness of shields by 10%, and one called Savior that doesn’t give a bonus but says it is a prerequisite for some classes. I’m honestly not sure what to pick.”
Lucus looked over at the Bastion, hovering in the air nearby. “Are you sure you want me to keep that? I’d understand if you want it back when we’re out of here.”
I sighed. “I won’t lie, that thing is worth probably more than this city. Possibly more than this whole kingdom. I don’t know for sure, it’s hard to put a real value on it. I got it for you because we needed an edge, and because I couldn’t live with myself if you died. If you don’t think you’ll have a use for it in the future I’ll take it and try to sell it back to where I bought it.”
I waited for him to meet my eyes before continuing, hoping to convey my feelings accurately. “But Lucus, I’m probably not going to stick around here for long. I have too many memories and feelings tied up in this place that aren’t really mine. And you might want to think about leaving too. When Arven kills the Duke… it may not be safe for either of us to stay.”
Lucus winced, then nodded. “You’re saying I might still have a need for this shield… No more playing at being a thief, I suppose. I guess you don’t really need the levels anymore anyway.”
I pretended he hadn’t just conflated me and Tavi again. I knew he was trying his best. “Not from petty crimes at least. Honestly, I’m not really big on the idea of being a thief anyway. I know you were trying to get Ryke and Tavi levels to pay off their penalties, but I have better methods.”
It was Lucus’ turn to sigh. “I need to think about this, but I take your point.”
Across the room Arven and Dorian had been speaking quietly, comparing their own rewards much like Lucus and I just had. Since System’s announcement that he would secure pardons for all of us, Arven had been wearing a stupid dazed smile like he was convinced he was dreaming and was just along for the ride. I couldn’t blame him.
Now though, he caught all our attention by standing, a small frown on his face. When the various conversations around the room died out, he spoke.
“Dorian and I just noticed our dungeon quest is still active. I got a notice saying it had been updated during the fight but didn’t really think about it. It seems the update paused the timer, but we still haven’t found whatever it is we’re supposed to do in here.”
I took a look and found that he was right. For some reason the quest that we’d gotten upon entering the dungeon was still active. It had been updated to pause the timer, and a new hidden objective had appeared.
> Zone Quest
>
> The Devil in the Bleak City
>
> Evil stirs in the heart of Altria. Beneath the city, its dark mirror hangs in an empty sky. The undead haunt the streets and sewers, and the Lord of Ruin sits upon his throne.
>
> Time Limit: Paused.
>
> Objectives:
> - Complete: Stop The Adversary’s Ordeal (Hidden)
> - Discover the secret at the heart of the Undercity before it’s too late.
>
> Success:
> - Bonus class progression points divided equally among your group.
> - Titles for each participant.
> - Each participant will be awarded a Random Loot Box based on their participation.
>
> Failure:
> - You’ll probably die. The good news is you won't be alone!
There was apparently still something more to discover in this horrible place.
“What does it mean that the timer is paused?” Savas asked. “Can it restart?”
Arven looked like he was about to say something, but Dawn interjected first. “An ordeal ends when its host is defeated. With Cassara dead, The Lord Adversary will be required to pick a new target for his efforts. Altria is safe for a minimum of one year.”
“That may be true,” Arven said. “But that also might explain why the quest timer is paused. It might mean The Adversary still has plans for this place we haven’t discovered but needs to wait a year before he can try again.”
“Ah fuck,” I said, turning towards the core room door. “I just thought of another possibility. Licane’s a red smear on the ground but we left Cassara in there with all those bugs. I killed her with Nemesis, there’s not a mark on her, and it’s really good at turning people undead… What are the odds we go back in there and find her missing, or worse?”
Arven swore and moved towards the closed doors to the core room, flinging them open easily and striding through the haze as the rest of us rushed to follow. We piled in behind him one by one, coming to a stop not far inside as we took in the scene.
Fire had ravaged the room, and all the broken wooden pews were little more than ash and cinder. The room smelled heavily of smoke and the rancid oily substance The Unholy and its children had used for blood. There was nothing left of Licane, not even a smear at this point. His blood had dried and blackened in the fire and was now indistinguishable from the rest of the ash coated surfaces in the room.
The Unholy itself wasn’t much better off. Its midsection had been crushed to paste, and its extremities sent flying by the force of Telvarn’s strike. Its old man’s head had hit the wall above us with enough force to crack the stone and shatter its skull, but it had been fairly intact when we’d left the room. Now all I could make out of it was a blackened skull resting on the ceiling.
Cassara was in the middle of the room, right where I’d last seen her. Her body looked untouched by the fires that had ravaged this room. It appeared that even in death devils retained their fire immunity. Her clothing was likewise intact, though I wasn’t sure if that was because of her immunity or some property of the armor.
I turned on Spirit Sight and walked over to have a look at her. I’d never really used this to look at a dead person before, but I could easily tell that she was dead, not undead. The fires must have protected her corpse from The Unholy’s foul spawn. Her spirit was almost entirely faded, what remained seemed to be leaking into the air around her.
She wasn’t glowing like a dungeon creature did when it had loot, but nevertheless when I touched her, I got a prompt asking if I wanted to loot her. I hesitated, then declined.
“Spread out and search the room,” Arven told the others. “Maybe we’ll find whatever we need in here.”
I was facing an unexpected moral dilemma. Deciding that I had no intention of leaving her body here to potentially become undead, I began moving Cassara’s body into my soul-space. The question was, what would I do with it from there? This was Rhel’s sister, and while she hadn’t seemed fond of her sibling, she might want her body back for whatever death rituals devils had for their fallen.
On the other hand, as soon as I got the body into my soul-space, I confirmed that the same prompt I’d gotten when I’d examined Dorian’s body occurred here as well. I only had one body-slot, whatever that meant, but the system seemed to think I could wear this body just like I was wearing Tavi’s body. That was tempting, but I had already decided I wasn’t super interested in taking other people’s bodies wholesale.
I didn’t want to impersonate Cassara any more than I was currently impersonating Tavi. Still, there was a chance that when I paid off my tier 50 penalty it would unlock true character customization. I might be able to use Cassara and Tavi’s bodies as baselines and change them to suit me.
It was useless speculating; I’d need to try it and find out.
I was also a little disappointed, as I’d been looking forward to trying out being a guy again, but I didn’t think I could turn Licane’s pile of ash into anything usable. Maybe I could just steal the Duke’s body when Arven was finished with him.
I paused a moment to reflect on how fucking weird that thought was, then shook my head and went to join the others searching the room.
***
We ended up searching the entire cathedral.
There were a lot of ghouls. Most of them were a new type called Injusticar’s, they had the same Embrace of Shadows skill as Nightstalkers but wore armor and carried metal staves inlaid with dimly glowing runes. They were all minor elites, and Arven cut them down like they were made of butter. I had to stop him from one-shotting all of them so I could steal a kill and add it to my collection.
Havarati made the butchering even worse because any time they tried to rush us he just held up his hand in a “Halt!” gesture, and the ghouls would slam into an invisible wall just like we had when fighting Licane. We could pick them off at our leisure while they futilely clawed at the wall that only existed for them. Only the elites were able to make any progress against the little daemon, most of them having less success than Lucus had using the Bastion.
When we finished our search, we returned to the entryway where we’d met with System. We’d found nothing of note, and we were all getting frustrated.
“Do we just give up on it?” Lucus asked.
“We can’t…” I growled, “It still has the ‘Everybody Dies’ failure condition.”
“It does say probably,” Savas pointed out, unhelpfully.
“It’s possible it has nothing to do with the ordeal,” said Dawn. “Maybe we only had a timer because if Cassara had succeeded the point would be moot.”
That didn’t really make anyone happy. If Dawn was right, it meant we had no clues to go on. I turned to look at Havarati, considering. How much did he know and understand about what Licane and Cassara had been doing here?
“Hey, do you have any clues as to what might be a secret about this place?” I asked. “Anything those two mentioned or did? How’d they even get in here? Were they here before the event started, or did they come in after?”
Havarati made a strange gesture, his thumb pointed up, and his index finger extended for a moment before curling inwards. The finger wiggled back and forth for a moment, and I suddenly realized he was miming scratching a chin in thought. He just lacked a chin. I was kind of surprised he hadn’t tried to use Arvens.
As I was considering the logistics of this, Havarati suddenly came to attention, stuck a finger straight up in the air, then beckoned me to follow him. He then skuttled over to the doors leading outside and pushed them open. The Unholy had looked out of these very same doors earlier, and I was a bit confused as to how they’d gotten closed again. Probably one of the ghouls had done it.
At the threshold, Havarti stopped and pointed emphatically at a group of buildings in the distance. It was where the prison should be if it had existed in this version of Altria. I’d noted that it was missing previously but I had written it off as being absent because it hadn’t existed when the dungeon was made.
There must be something there… the only problem was, it was across the river again. We could see the river from here, and it was flowing again, if much reduced from what it had been. It looked like the actual river might during a heavy drought. We’d need to fly to get there, which was dangerous.
“I’ll check it out and report back.” I told the others, activating Mythcaller once again and sprouting wings. Havarati made a gesture of negation, then tossed his thumb back over his shoulder as if to indicate himself, then simply crawled out the door without waiting for me to acknowledge him.
I glanced at Arven, who shrugged. “If you aren’t back in ten minutes we’re coming after you.”
“Works for me,” I told them, stepping backwards out the door.
I flew out in pursuit of the little daemon. I was easily able to pass him and make my way to the far shore, but then I had a hell of a time actually landing. The air of this dungeon was as dead as everything else, and the black sun gave off no real heat. The cathedral was on a hill looking down on the city in the real world but here that meant I started out lower than pretty much everything else in the area.
That meant I really had to pump my wings to gain height, and I had a bad moment when I realized that it was taking stamina to do so. Stamina that wouldn’t recover while I was in the air. Fortunately, I was able to reach one of the taller buildings and cling to it with spider climb.
From there I sat and recovered while I watched as Havarati approached the river. He attached a thread of spider-silk to a building, then swung across the gap in a long arc that let him easily clear the riverbanks. It left me wondering if this was how Licane had gotten across the river. If so, for whatever other faults he had, he hadn’t been a coward.
Havarati rejoined me a moment later and motioned for me to follow. We encountered a Nightstalker on our way, but I just set it on fire and Havarati did his mime impression, and the thing died clawing at the air, wondering why it couldn’t get any closer to us. The little daemon then led me to a large building with a sign out front. It was an Inn and tavern, and its sign featured a stylized fortress or castle.
“Welcome friends!” A voice called out as I opened the door.
Quest Complete: The Devil in the Bleak City
I froze in shock. There was a man behind the bar. He was standing on the ceiling, but he was otherwise perfectly normal looking. He was tall and swarthy looking, with visible muscles. His face was clean shaven except for a luxurious mustache, and he had a full head of short brown hair without a trace of gray. Scan told me his name was “The Unexpected” and he was only level 1. Despite the name, Havarati seemed to be expecting this and motioned for me to go inside.
“Uh, hi?” I said.
“Please, have a seat,” the man said, motioning to fallen chairs and stools scattered around the room. “Sorry it’s a bit of a mess in here. I’d offer to get you something to eat or drink but the stuff we have here would poison you at best.”
I hesitantly grabbed a chair and flipped it over, placing it backwards and taking a seat where it was easy to look up at him. “Who are you exactly? Are you undead?”
“Ah, quite astute. I am indeed among the unliving. A type of ghost left to haunt this place. My name… Well, I’ve forgotten the name of the man I was based on, and good riddance too! I’m known as The Unexpected, because the monster who made me didn’t intend for me to ever exist. He forgot that when he was making a world of opposites, he might have an opposite too… Would you like to hear my confession?”
“Your confession?” I was still baffled by what was happening here.
“Yes, well it’s more of a testimony really. You see, I’m here to be exactly the thing he didn’t want to exist, so I always tell visitors about his crimes.”
“Who are you talking about exactly?” I asked.
“My creator. The creator of this entire blasphemous world we stand in, and the owner of this inn. Murderer, scoundrel, thief, and liar. He spent his entire life making the world worse, and when even that failed to satisfy him, he made his own world to suit his depraved vision. He thought to make himself a god of death, but through Astraea’s mercy he was discovered before he could complete his plans.”
“Wait, so you’re saying that someone made this dungeon intentionally? Why? How would this help them become a god?”
“I am, by definition, not an expert in these matters. However, I do know that he was a necromancer of no little power. He thought he could somehow use this realm of the dead to his advantage, and more importantly he believed that this place would empower him simply by existing. I fear what might have happened if he had ever been able to fully command it.”
I was struggling to follow this. The spirit was apparently the opposite of this dungeon’s creator, set here to tell everyone about his crimes. I hadn’t realized this place wasn’t a naturally occurring dungeon, but now that I did, I wondered at how sick a mind someone would need to have in order to come up with a place like this.
“So… You say he never got to take advantage of this place? What happened to him?” I asked the ghost.
“Ah, well, he made a mistake in the crafting of this place. He had intended the entrance to be located here in the basement of this building, but the nature of this place caused it to instead be in a thematic but opposite location - the grave of a good and honest man, Altria’s first Duke, Talcion Strumald.
“Still, the shadow of the entrance remained here in this building, and so two paths were created, a path to this house, and a path to the sewers you no doubt entered by. The other entrance now resides above your head, within the cellar of this building. It was sealed for many years, but I sense that it has now been reopened, though I know not why.”
My eyes widened as I took in the implications. “What stopped him? Did someone find the cathedral entrance?”
“In a way, yes. One night when he was exploring his creation, my creator accidentally caused the river to rise up and overflow its bounds. It unleashed a flood of undeath into his basement, and though he had secured it against anyone entering and finding him at his work, he had not anticipated needing to prevent anything from getting out.
“At that time, the entrance located here was not sealed, so I was able to make my way out as well. I spoke to those in the house of justice above, telling them of all they might find here. They took my testimony and assured me that justice would be done.”
“Was it? Did they get him?” I asked.
“I know not. My mind is fogged with each cycle of the dungeon. I only remember my confession clearly,” he said, shaking his head. “All else is like a faded dream.”
I suddenly felt sorry for this friendly ghost, doomed to live out eternity in an endless loop, never knowing if he’d accomplished his purpose.
“I think they must have; this building doesn’t exist anymore. It’s a prison now, and only prisoners are allowed into the dungeon,” I told him. “Have you ever considered trying to leave again? If you have a dungeon entrance right here, couldn’t you just leave wherever you want?”
The ghost shook his head. “I surely could, but I will not, as there is no point to it. There are more versions of this world than stars in the sky, all locked in an endless cycle, and those of us trapped within it cannot escape. Every 8th day we awaken to find ourselves here once more, memories fading into fog as the various incarnations of ourselves merge and split apart again. I believe the only reason my sojourn in your world remains with me is that not one version of me failed to do the right thing when the chance was given. I have never felt so real before or since as I did that day.”
I shook my head, incredulous. He was saying that every version of him from every possible instance of the dungeon had all made the same choice, to exit the dungeon and tell the world about his creator’s crimes. Had they merged into one creature upon exiting, or had Altria been flooded with ghosts?
I suddenly wondered if he had used to be an elite. If elites were more real than other things in a dungeon maybe he’d lost his elite status as soon as he fulfilled his purpose for existing. I was going to have to spend some time researching dungeons. I effectively had one growing inside me, I should figure out how they worked.
“I’m sorry to hear that, but with you here at least there’s one good thing in this awful place,” I told him.
He accepted my words with grace, bowing his head slightly. “I do what I can to undo the evil that was done here. Now… to happier matters. Would you like to leave this place? I can open the cellar for you. The exit is within the furnace below. It will take you to the crypts below Astraea’s cathedral.”
I hesitated before saying no. Perhaps I should scout it out before fetching the others? “Can I get back in that way if I exit? I have friends who’ll want to leave too.” I asked.
“I don’t see why not. The path was once sealed but I sense that it is open once more. Someone has entered through it during this cycle, and it remains open.”
That had to be Cassara and Licane. I turned to Havarati. “I’m going to poke my head out and take a look, mostly just to see if your old boss left behind anything we should be aware of. It’s been a few minutes though, so the others might be coming for us before I get back. Can you stay here and make some ropes or something to give them a hand up? Without Spiderclimb they might have a hard time getting here.”
Havarati gave me a thumbs up followed by a crisp salute. Then he headed back out the door we’d come in through, already starting to produce thick spider silk.
The Unexpected opened a trap door in the ceiling that for him was a floor. “It’s just above, simply enter the furnace and walk towards the back. When you reach the wall, look above you and climb out. You may have to push aside the stone slab that covers the sarcophagus, but I think not.”
It occurred to me that this might be some elaborate death trap, but I wasn’t too worried. If he tried to trap me in the furnace and burn me alive, he was going to be in for a real shock.
I followed the instructions and a few moments later found myself breathing air that had the scent of trees and dirt and people for the first time in days. It was dark above, and I had no idea what time it was, but I couldn’t wait to see real sunlight again. I stuck my head out of the sarcophagus and inhaled deeply, glad to be out if only for a moment.
Then a sword pressed itself lightly against my neck, its blade glowing a soft but lethal shade of blue I knew all too well.
“If you move, I will kill you,” said a voice as cold as death, as cold as the steel pressed to my neck. “If you activate a skill, I will kill you. If you resist in any way, I will kill you. Do not test my patience, for you will find I have none.”