- Giovanni Perwicax-

Vanni geared up for a delve. His daggers were always snugly in his boots, but he added a machete to his belt and a minuscule knife disguised as a hairpin. Throwing on his cloak on top of all that, he slid out his window and into the palace gardens.

His cloak used Charisma. Since most people didn’t invest in that stat, it gave him an advantage when it came to discovery Skills. Unless it was one of his half-brothers, but Laurus help him if he ran into them, cloak or no cloak.

For most, though, the cloak made him look unordinary—something helped by the fact that machetes were used for cutting plants, and his rough clothes were unequivocally practical.

Practical was not something you saw on most princes, not even illegitimate ones.

Vanni took a deep breath as he took the servants gate out of the palace complex. He’d never been comfortable within those walls, never would be either. When he became king, he would burn the whole place to the ground.

It would make a good funeral pyre for his father and brothers.

Blending into the crowded streets, Vanni quickly made his way to the local dungeon. The walk wasn’t long. Its entrance was on the South side of the river and difficult to reach for those of the lower classes, since they were expected to stay north in ‘Grimeville,’ as high society called it. But once you reached it there were no gates or guards—none needed. If you were part of the Laurus Sect, they told the dungeon you were allowed in. Otherwise, you were out of luck.

Vanni, or rather Prince Giovanni, was for once in his life in luck. He was nearby, and no guards meant that none of his brothers’ men knew he was there, and Dungeons didn’t care about politics.

Once inside he cast [Candleflame III], lighting a path through the darkness. The Capital’s dungeon was grown in the sandy, limestone supported ground under the river and northwards into the commercial district. It had kept to the theme, and Vanni was soon jumping around pools of quicksand with practiced ease.

He’d run the beginner levels at least one hundred times. Casting [Hypnotize I] on a Rock Golem, he used it to wipe out any other monsters in his path.

“I’ll call you Carl.” He told it affectionately. “You stick with me, pal.”

Rock Golems weren’t very smart. It continued following his orders after the skill’s duration was up, and ended up dead when they met a Giant Alligator on the third floor.

“Noooo.” Vanni put a hand on his heart, sniffing dramatically. He didn’t care enough to cry, but Carl deserved some sort of mourning (even if it was fake). “Carl, I’ll never forget you.”

Carl crumbled away, dissolving into a respawn from inside the Alligator’s jaws. Dropping the theatrics, Vanni jumped onto the monster’s snout before it could lunge at him. It shook its head vigorously to get him off, but Vanni flopped onto his stomach, hugging the Alligator’s nose for all he was worth.

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It was times like these that he wished he’d invested a little more into his strength stat. But, on the other hand, Vanni’s hair still looked amazing after 2 hours in a dungeon. It was all about priorities.

Army crawling up the reptilian snout, Vanni inched his way up towards the neck. He was crawling between its eyes when the Alligator suddenly stopped wagging its head.

The dungeon, with its marshy theme, had begun to put pools of dirty water in around the third floor; coinciding with the appearance of Alligators. Vanni’s current steed was now diving towards one of these pools.

Letting out a string of curses, he grabbed the blade from his hair and unleashed [Eviscerate I], dropping his MP to 19.

The skill nearly split the Alligator’s skull in two, sending blood and brains flying everywhere as Vanni fell into the gaping hole it had created in the now-corpse.

“Oh Laurus,” Vanni swore, in a way only the barely religious can. He tumbled out of the dissolving monster, swearing up a storm. “I’m a mess!”

A System notification made things… somewhat better. He doubted it was a level up but invited it to show itself anyway.

* Congratulations! You have been selected to be part of a Beta Test Group! Accept?

The notification pressed at his mind for an answer, but Vanni sat back on his heels for a moment. ‘Beta Skills’ were a widely controversial topic, and for good reason. While Skills usually weren’t harmful, Beta Skills were often useless. This could mess up your build, and the common wisdom was to reject Beta Testing and stay on the beaten path.

But Vanni had access to the royal library and read a lot of history. The kind of history the Laurus sect didn’t want most people reading. There were a few cases where Beta Testing Groups became insanely powerful.

“If I accept a Beta Skill, will I be able to get rid of it?” Vanni asked just in case, but he knew the answer.

* A skill that you have already selected costs XP to remove.

As he thought, it still followed the normal rules of skill selection, even if Beta Skills were chosen by the System. Still.

“I accept.”

* Very well. Analyzing Mythic Type.

“Mythic Type?” There was no response. After a minute or so of silence, Vanni moved over to one of the sandy pools to wash off the worst of the mess. He smelled like stomach bile.

* Mythic Type Assigned: Ruler

He froze. That was, of course, what Vanni wanted, but not what he’d expected. His class was ‘Incipient Tyrant,’ after all. It didn’t make sense for anything in his status to be so… heroic sounding.

* Randomized ruler skill being assigned.

Vanni recovered himself in the following pause. Put his hair up with his false hairpin.

* Skill Assigne—

An icepick of pain blossomed behind Vanni’s eyes. He yelped, falling to his knees.

“By Laurus…” He whispered.

A stone sky-- sun shining on an orchard.

Jewels and ornate carvings—wealth—water—

A carnivorous worm the length of his arm. The shadow, stretching from a glowing core.

Children playing—sparkling dew on fruit—wealth…

Vanni was moaning on the floor when the pain faded.

* Skill Assigned: The Eye of Horus I

“Gods and monsters…” He stayed on the floor, listening for any dungeon creatures. Luck was with him, or perhaps the System itself. “That hurt.”

It still hurt, an aching throb that squeezed his skull like a nutcracker. Nevertheless, as the images in his mind became coherent knowledge, he began to grin.

There was a new, unclaimed dungeon. One with gold and gems and precious materials of every kind…

Standing up and striding away, Vanni had to keep himself from bursting into maniacal laughter.

He was going to be King.