Gianna joined Kal’s party by clasping his arm and saying “Accept.”
She expected a new hud to pop up or a chime to sound but neither of those occurred. Then she became aware of Kal’s presence. Not the sight of the proud orc hunter or the strength of his grip or the warmth of his hand, but the intangible weight of him within the cool and clear space of the throne room. Even when she dropped her hand and looked back to the massive giant lord, Gianna knew exactly where Kal stood in relation to her. Moreover, she had a sense of his current strength, energy, and vitality.
Lord Ortolus cleared his throat, and Gianna unconsciously straightened to attention.
“Surgeborn and Gateborn,” he proclaimed, his voice rolling like the ocean’s roar to the highest peak of the ceiling, “Both of you come to me lacking classes, the metal of your souls brittle and weak. Look forward to see the hundreds who have come before you and brought honor and glory to themselves and their families by overcoming the dangers of my palace. I know your desires both spoken and unspoken, I see the path that has lead you here and some of the paths you may yet march.
“Hold your head high, hold your courage fast, never lose sight of the passion that brought you here, and always do honor to those who walk beside you. The gods reward well those who show their worth, for it is you who will defend the myriad realms at the end of days.
“Go now and enter the first room, by my command, Lord Ortolus, son of the primordial sea.”
Behind the throne, a set of doors swung open. Kal bowed to the water giant, squared his shoulders, and marched forward, looking neither right nor left. Gianna tried to mimic the bow but was awkward. She had many questions to asks, and as she scurried after Kal, she hoped this would not be her last chance to ask them.
The room they entered was human-sized. It appeared to be an elegant public bath made of white marble and filled with pools and fountains. There was a large, thick rug piled with silken pillows, and blue-skin nymphs draped in pale linen greeted them with smiles.
Two stepped forward, taking Gianna and Kal’s hands and guiding them to a low table.
“Eat, drink, be at ease,” the woman who held Gianna’s hand said. “As this palace holds the fierceness of our father, so it holds the gentleness of our mother.”
Gianna sat down on the thick rug beside Kal, pulling a soft pillow close to her. After living for weeks in the wild, even the woven fabric under her fingers felt creamy.
“This is nice,” Gianna commented to Kal. Not at all what she’d expected.
As plates of hot foot were served before them and wine poured into their glasses, she hesitated to sample. “This isn’t a trick is it?”
The orc shook his head. “This is refreshment. Reaching a dungeon can be a hardship in itself and we are allowed to renew ourselves for the coming trial. In larger dungeons, rest areas may even be interspersed along the way.”
That was good enough for Gianna. She attacked the food with a hunger she didn’t even remember having. It was a spicy blend of noodles, crab, and vegetables simmered in a creamy yellow sauce. The meal was so rich she found herself unpleasantly full far sooner than she would have liked.
She picked at the small chunks of crab, fishing them from the bottom of the bowl and popping them into her mouth.
“Can you tell me what to expect?” Gianna asked. “Actually—I have a ton of different questions.”
“I will do my best to answer. This is a dungeon; a magical shifting maze given form by a powerful enough spirit. Enemies wander throughout, but there are also tests of a different nature: fiendish traps, puzzles, or areas you must show your strength or resolve to cross.”
“So we come in here, make it to the end, and get a reward,” Gianna said, “but what about the spirit who made this. What does he get?”
“Strong warriors. The enemies of god and man are many. The Heavens can no longer protect the mortal realms on their own, and so they build an army of heroes who do battle with the dark.”
Gianna contemplated thee glass of red wine before her. It was tempting, but she knew better than to indulge. “Then there’s a good chance we won’t die. They want to train us, not kill us.”
“We cannot die in this dungeon,” Kal replied as he picked up a stuffed olive and tossed it into his mouth. “If we would die, the magic of this place brings us back to this room. We may even go again if Lord Ortolus allows it, but often one must level a class or otherwise improve one’s skills before they may return.”
“You have no idea how glad I am to hear that. Though I’d rather not almost-die either.”
Kal chuckled. “The pain, I’ve heard, can be horrible.”
She didn’t want to think about that. “Where do we Surgeborn come in? Why were my quests important?” then she remembered that she hadn’t picked a talent. “For the Scavenger profession, should I go with Danger Sense, Treasure Sense, or Pack Rat?”
“Treasure Sense is the most rewarding. Danger Sense may keep you alive to be rewarded, but it can also dull your own alertness as you become used to it. Pack Rat is the worst of the three; you should only pick it up when there are no other good options and you already have the strength and equipment for it.”
That made sense. Gianna pulled up her level-up screen and picked Treasure Sense.
Kal continued with his answers. “The Surge is magical, but made by mortals, not the divine. One of the Sorcerer-Kings of old created it. It draws in people from across the realms and deposits them here. And so this island is the Gateway to the realm of Ymir for many. Other than that, I know little. I am merely a hunter.”
“As for your quest: the water manastone is the greatest prize of this dungeon. As I said, it is an ever-shifting maze, and not all of its configurations lead to it. That you were given that quest and ‘felt’ your way here means that you are awakening to magic. It also means that your path through the dungeon will be one of the most perilous. We are sure to encounter powerful foes and earn ourselves a class if we triumph.”
Awakening to magic. Gianna hardly heard the rest. Yes, as a child she’d often wanted to go to a wizard school and cast spells, but she’d put those ideas behind her long ago. Here, in this new land, not might she find a place but discover something rare and powerful within herself.
“What does magic do? What kind of spells can I use?” she asked, eagerly. “And how to I best awaken it?”
Kal looked unsure.
“You’re only a hunter,” Gianna said.
“I know many stories of witches and sorcerers. Elders who could spin gold from hair, sing the earth into flowering, and black out the sun with a wave of their hand. The magic I have seen myself is that of mending wounds and drawing sickness from the blood, warding a place from evil spirit, and calling on spirits of fire and wind to attack others.”
“That’s wonderful!” she replied. Why did he act as though seeing those things weren’t worth mentioning? “On my world, there is no magic. None!”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
He knit his black brows together. “None?”
“Not a speck of it.”
Kal looked doubtful, as though Gianna claimed to be from a land without water or the sun. “I have heard there are many strange realms, but never imagined one so empty.”
“I wouldn’t call it empty. The cities are pack to bursting.”
“None of those live on the Gateway, but I have heard of such places on the mainland.”
That struck her as unusual. If Gateway was where the Surgeborn landed then it ought to have at least one major city. Gianna wondered if the storms were far worse than she’d yet encountered, or if there were some other natural phenomena that made it difficult to inhabit.
“Tell me, Kal, are you just here to bag the biggest monster? Does it make you important or something?” she asked and then paused. Her words sounded harsher than she’d intended. “What class are you hoping for?”
“I would gladly take whatever class the gods see fit to give me. I honor and serve the powers of this land.”
“Oh…” Kal sounded noble and sincere. He believed the words he spoke with a level of conviction that made Gianna slightly uncomfortable. She was open-minded, or so she tried to be, but in Gianna’s experience, religion often allowed people to indulge in their worst behavior while claiming themselves virtuous.
Logically, she knew that it might be different in a world where gods were blatantly in evidence, but she still didn’t like the idea of someone giving up too much of themselves to a higher authority.
“But,” Kal said as he set down his spoon in the empty bowl, “for myself, I hope to slay a great monster, a gold-ranked one, and present it as a trophy to the father of a woman I care for.”
“Ooooh,” Gianna replied, far more interested. “Young love?”
“Not so young. Her name is Iris, and she is a widow to a battle-brother. After he died, I wished to ease her burden and helped to raise her son. That has been…” he sighed, thoughtfully, “four years now, but I know I would happily spend the rest of my days with her.”
“And what better way to show your affection, than the head of a hideous monster.”
Kal laughed loudly this time, slapping the table with amusement. “I take it that is not the prize many women would wish for among your people. But no, the trophy is for her father—to hang in his hall and impress his guests. He would not want a rough hunter or woodcutter to take her hand.”
It was a matter of social class then. Gianna understood; even back home, in a land where everyone was supposedly equal, she’d seen people turn their nose up at others for making less or being less educated.
“I hope I can help you,” she said. “I am worried that I’ll be more of a hindrance though if we fight anything.”
“Would you mind sharing your status screens with me?”
“Not at all—how?”
A pause as though she’d asked something so basic he’d have never thought to tell her how unprompted. “Think about doing so and say ‘Share Status and Skills to Kal.’”
She did so and a blue box appeared.
Name
Gianna Obryan
Classes
None
Character Level
1
Profession
Scavenger – 1
HP
110
Armor
0
MP
125
Ele Mitigation
5
FOC
100
Strength
30
Dexterity
36
Vitality
40
Spirit
55
Intellect
35
Wisdom
65
Presence
50
Perception
36
Skills:
Animal Handling – 12
Athletics – 7
Communication – 10
Insight – 15
Medicine – 2
Melee – 8
Poison Resist – 20
Woodlore – 10
One of the nymphs conjured a lyre and began to play as they waited. Gianna yawned, her belly full and happy, as Kal looked over her sheets.
“How is your poison resistance so high?” he asked first.
“I don’t know. I ate a bit of everything when I came here; it made me sick at first but then I adjusted.”
“High wisdom and spirit. Low strength. Your scavenger profession didn’t do much for you when it comes to stats.”
“What is a good score for a regular person?” she asked.
“Forty or up. Classes tend to be based on attributes that are fifty or higher. I don’t know any class that uses spirit as their primary. What class combines wisdom and presence?” Kal scowled, rummaging through his mind for an answer. “Sorcerer is intellect and presence, so it’s not that.”
Gianna’s hopes for a magical future slipped. “I’m not going to be a sorcerer? But there are other sorts of wizards, right?”
She associated wisdom with priests but Gianna wasn’t interested in worshiping any gods, even nice ones.
“I have no doubt you’ll get a magical class, but I couldn’t guess what.”
With luck, it would still be useful to the group back at the beach. Gianna looked at her half-eaten meal with guilt as she thought about the others, probably half-starving, scared, and cold while she rested her butt on literal silken pillows.
After this was over, she’d ask Kal if he’d help transport them closer to the lake. That way others could partake in the dungeon and get classes.
He dismissed her sheet and stood, gathering up the war ax and shield he carried. Gianna bolted to her feet.
“Is it time?”
“Your attributes aren’t that of a warrior, but I believe I’ll be able to handle anything close by.” He made an arcane hand signal in the air and pulled out a second ax he gave to Gianna. “Just a quick sweep and we’ll return.”
Gianna’s eyes widened. “We can come back here?”
He nodded in affirmation.
Outside the baths was a long tunnel stretching to the left and right. Unlike the palatial richness of the first room, this appeared to be little more than crudely hacked dirt and stone with a few questionable support beams.
“There’s a light over there,” Gianna said. It was faint, bluish, and hovered about two feet off the ground, bobbing slowly.
“Keep behind me. Don’t focus on that, but watch the corners, ceiling, and behind us.”
She’d have done so with no hesitation. The hairs on the back of her next were standing and she had the sense that something was watching her from the shadows. As they got closer to the light, it resolved into a translucent eel, floating aimlessly in the air, its insides glowing with blue light.
Kal took held his ax in the hand of his shield arm and pointed.
“What do you think?” he said in a low tone.
“About what?”
“About that. What do you think it is? What do you think it’s doing?”
It wasn’t responding to them walking to it or speaking beside it. “Sleeping?”
“No, look again. Not at it but the bits of the wall it lights up.”
Gianna squinted and leaned forward over Kal’s shoulder. On the bare walls, she caught shiny swirls in the nooks and crevices.
“There are more of them!”
“Yes…”
“This one is acting as though it’s asleep or injured while it glows to lure in the unsuspecting. Those over there, are waiting for someone to try to grab for the decoy so they can attack.”
“Exactly this. Your wisdom is showing.”
“As is my low intellect—I would have attacked it without questioning why it was acting like that. Or, wait… shouldn’t it be the other way around? My wisdom tells me to be cautious while my intellect figures out why something is happening?”
Kal made that hand gesture again, slipped his ax into his inventory, and pulled out a staff with a curved sharpened blade at the end.
“No, you were right the first time. You’ve never encountered something like this before. Wisdom requires experience before it’s useful.”
“...that doesn’t sound right.”
There was a swoosh as the polearm slashed through the air, neatly bisecting the floating gloweel. Others uncoiled from the walls and swam towards them but Kal has both reach and the slashing blade to take them down.
In a few seconds, the bodies drifted to the ground like plastic bags and were absorbed by the stone, leaving behind nothing save for a small, glowing pebble.
“Can I have that next time?”
“You’re more likely to hurt me swinging it,” the orc said. “The pebble is yours. Pick it up.”
Gianna did. It was the same blue as the gloweel’s insides and it made her fingers tickle as she held it. She rolled it in her hand in fascination.
“It feels different.” Even as it slid over the flesh of her palm, Gianna felt it leave faint marks of itself. There was an oily energy to it.
Simply thinking about absorbing the energy didn’t work, so she put it in her mouth and began to suck on it. It worked! The energy oozed out, coating the tongue and the inside of her cheeks. She felt a tickling buzz in her nose.
“I wish I had a mirror right now,” Kal said. “Your lips and the inside of your mouth are glowing bright blue.”
Gianna pursed her lips together and blew her breath out in a short blast. Blue light puffed into the air before her and dissipated.
Mana Sense level 1