They packed up camp and began the long trek through the forest. On either side, pine trees towered like sentinels, reaching towards a clear blue sky. Birds sang in the lower branches, and insects buzzed around Theo’s head. Still, it was cool, cooler than the days when they’d first arrived. He wondered if the Hex would have seasons, like on Earth, or if it would stay about the same. He shuddered at the thought of dealing with a mountain winter with no shelter or proper gear.
They moved upwards, deeper into the center of the Hex. They were better equipped now, thanks to Blake’s magic, and so they stopped to take a drink at the top of a small hillock, overlooking the vast Hex before them. A valley stretched between their hill and the jagged mountains at the center of the landscape, white-capped and treacherous. As they sat and drank, Alice raised a hand to silence them.
“Listen,” she said, and then pointed into the valley. “There.”
Theo and Blake both turned to where she pointed, only to hear a groan echo through the valley. A flash of light followed, barely visible through the treetops, followed by the sounds of battle.
“Another party,” Blake said.
“Fighting a monster, sounds like,” Alice said.
“Then we stay far away,” Theo said, “last time we ran into another party, we lost half of ours.”
“Not every party is going to be like McClain’s,” Blake countered, “if we watched them for a while, approached them… well, it would be nice to have some allies.”
“There are no allies here,” Theo said, “maybe they didn’t say it explicitly in the rules, but they want us to fight. If I had to guess, only one party is making it out of here. We need to make sure that it’s ours.”
“I’m with Theo,” Alice said, “look, I want to believe people are good, deep down. But that’s not what I’ve seen here. We need to be careful who we trust.”
Blake frowned, but nodded. Theo could tell that Blake didn’t like being outnumbered. He had always been the leader: in their various friend groups over the years, but also between Theo and Blake. Theo was second in command. But in this environment, Theo’s natural anti-social tendencies and understanding of nature made him essential. Blake’s charisma and leadership felt suddenly useless, when faced with the raw wild. He felt bad for his friend, but there wasn’t any room for mistakes.
“Then let’s keep going,” Blake said, “the entrance is at the top of this butte.”
They closed their canteens and started moving along the mountain path, above a cliff overlooking the forest. Screams began to sound from the forest below, and Theo stopped, looking down at where they’d seen the party fighting. It was strangely silent — eerily silent. He feared what that might mean. How many people were in the Tutorial? How many had already died?
Blake continued to lead them up the mountain, running just behind Tiberius, who scouted ahead. Theo noted his stamina dropping steadily, but was surprised at how far and fast he could run. He’d never have been able to run up a mountain before the Tutorial, even when he was in his cross country days. Now, he barely broke a sweat.
Finally, they came to the top of the butte. At least, the highest point they could reach. The butte was topped with a cap of sheer stone, rising cliff-like into the sky. Theo couldn’t see the top of it, but a waterfall tumbled over it, falling fifty feet and then landing in a crystal clear pool. The pool, unlike the rest of the mountain, was surrounded by lush, verdant green. The pine trees gave way to cottonwoods and oaks, willows and grass. Theo longed to swim in it, to wipe the stink of the Tutorial off him. But Blake just moved around the pool towards the waterfall, then disappeared under the water’s edge.
Theo and Alice followed him, Tiberius trotting close behind. There was a small gap between the waterfall and the stone cliff, and Tiberius had to squeeze through, still adjusting to his new direwolf’s body. Theo let his eyes adjust to the space; it was bigger than he imagined, a stone cavern hidden behind the waterfall. To his right, the water thundered and sprayed in blue-white thrashes, and mist coated his skin.
The cavern’s walls were carved with strange symbols, an ancient language he didn’t know. Crumbling carvings of beasts and monsters adorned the walls, and Theo moved towards them, inspecting their alien shapes.
“Looks like… fish?” Theo said, touching one of the carvings. Indeed, it looked like a man with a fish’s head and gills. All around him, similar fish-headed people bowed, as though to a god.
“Smells like fish,” Alice said, pinching her nose, “so what, is this the dungeon? Super cool, Blake.”
Blake moved to the back wall. Before him was a huge door made from stone. On it was a carving a fish-man, his hands spread out before him, as if in welcome.
“No, this is the dungeon. Or at least the entrance. Go ahead, cast identify on it,” he said.
Theo moved forward and cast identify. His vision flooded with runes.
Welcome, traveller! You have found your first Dungeon. Dungeons are places of power, the realms of ancient beings guarding their Universal Power. Like a pearl around a grain of sand, Dungeons form around beings as they grow in power. Those who enter the Dungeon and defeat the being inside stand to gain astronomical amounts of Power. However, if are defeated, the Dungeon will absorb their own power and become stronger. You have discovered the Dungeon of Kal’ech, Priest of the Deep Ones. This dungeon has a challenge rating of 1.1. A party entering this Dungeon should have a total of eleven levels between them.
Enter Dungeon of Kal’ech, Priest of the Deep Ones? Y/N
“A challenge rating of 1.1,” Theo said, “Alice and I are both level three, and you’re level four, Blake. That’s ten levels between us. We don’t have enough.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“What are you talking about?” Alice said.
Theo blinked. “The message. The description of the dungeon,” he said.
“I didn’t get that,” she said, “just a message saying welcome, it’s a dungeon, it’s dangerous, etc.”
“Druidic Knowledge,” Theo said, “it’s a skill. The multiverse tells me more than it does you, I guess.”
“Hm. I don’t suppose there’s Assassin’s Knowledge, huh?” Alice said.
“I think there is, but it just tells you how to kill people,” Theo said.
“I’ll take it. Anyway, we doing this?” Alice said.
“We should talk it over,” Theo said, “we’re one level shy of being a level 11 party. We could go level up, come back…”
“Oh come on, Theo,” Blake said, “one level? Chances are one of us will level up once we’re inside.”
He thought for a moment. He didn’t like the look of Kal’ech or his weird army of fish people. But they needed the levels, and the description of the dungeon all but promised them. Like a pearl around a grain of sand, Dungeons form around beings as they grow in power.
Did that mean that a Dungeon could form around anyone? If Theo grew powerful enough, would he trap himself in a Dungeon? Or was it something voluntary? Theo couldn’t imagine ever wanting to trap himself in the same place forever. There must be some benefit, some way to use the Dungeon to gain power. More than just eating other players, he guessed.
He shook the thought away. He couldn’t focus on that now. An opportunity to level up was in front of him. And leveling up meant protecting himself and the people he loved.
“Okay,” Theo said, “I’m in. But we take it slow. We play it smart. We’re going to have to, if we want to live. Understood.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Alice said, saluting him. Theo rolled his eyes. He didn’t normally take the leadership role, but Alice clearly had a problem with authority.
“Anyone have any skill distribution to do before we go in?” Blake asked.
“I do,” Theo said. He hadn’t forgotten about picking his Druidic Path, and he figured he’d need to make a call before he went dungeon crawling.
“Okay. Let’s sit for a while and figure it out. Rest up. Then I say we do it,” Blake said.
Theo nodded, then sat in cross-legged position and pulled up his menu. Alice did as well, but stayed standing, poking thoughtfully at the runes. Blake was clearly assigning his skill points, but Theo couldn’t tell into which categories. Blake and him hadn’t really talked about strategy too much, but he figured it was a good idea at some point. Blake had a mind for numbers, and would surely be crunching them trying to figure out the fastest way to level up.
Theo turned away from him, suddenly worried about Blake’s progress. He was already level four, and climbing fast. Theo had a competitive streak, as much as he didn’t like to admit it. That, and your quest is trying to get you to kill him. Not for the first time, Theo wondered what Blake’s quest was. Had he been tasked to kill Theo, as well? It would make sense, if the game was trying to get them to fight each other. Besides that, what was Alice’s quest? Could either of them be trusted?
He tried to focus on his menu. He pulled up the three options he’d narrowed down for his Path, and read over them again.
Path of Beasts: The Beast Druid focuses on control and command of animals and animal shapes. On this path, a Druid may decide to collect and evolve multiple animal companions, or to master many forms. Includes the subpaths Path of the Shapechanger and Path of the Beastmaster. Path of Beasts Druids learn animal related skills 25% faster.
Path of the Elements: An Elemental Druid focuses on the non-living aspects of nature. A fully realized Elemental Druid can summon storms, create wildfires, or mold stone. Includes the subpaths Path of Water, Path of Air, Path of Fire, and Path of Earth. Path of the Elements Druids learn elemental magic 25% faster.
Path of Evolution: All things grow and change. Path of Evolution Druids focus on their own evolution. Augment your body with the skills and abilities of your enemies. The Path of Evolution transfers one random skill from an enemy you have slain into your own skillset. The level of the transferred skill is relative to the XP gained from defeating it.
Looking at them again, he boiled it down to the essential problem. If he chose one of the first two, Beasts or Elements, it would allow him to learn Druid-specific skills 25% faster. That was a big bump. And he knew where the Paths would take him, what kind of skills he could expect.
Path of Evolution, on the other hand, was a wild card. If he killed something, a skill would be applied to him at random. So as he leveled up, and slowly started taking down bigger enemies, the skills would get better and better. The compounding aspect of that was fascinating, but the description was too vague to break down the math. It would also allow him to break out of the Druid class completely, break out of the human species completely… if he killed Kal’ech, would he get one of his skills at random? He couldn’t imagine what a god-priest like Kal’ech could do.
Slowly, he reached forward and pressed the rune for the Path of Evolution.
Power surged over him. His skin crawled as the blue wisps of mana filled every cell, lifting him off the ground. Wind whipped around him, and his eyes glowed as the Tree of Knowledge illuminated before him.
Congratulations! You have chosen the Path of Evolution.
You have learned the spell Minor Mutate! Minor Mutate allows you to make small anatomical changes to the body of one creature less than half your level. Minor Mutations include the addition of fangs, poison glands, wings, or claws.
You have learned Flash Equip! You may now automatically equip and de-equip any and all gear.
Theo watched the notifications come. Minor Mutate seemed kind of gross, but he guessed it would help if we was summoning animals to fight for him. Flash Equip was actually super convenient, and he was excited not to have to peel off his sticky leather pants or filthy socks again. Speaking of, he desperately needed a bath. Maybe they could camp out a night before they entered the dungeon…
New Notification!
You have been gifted a spell!
The notification flashed in his vision. Gifted a spell? The last time he’d been gifted one, it had been from DEITY UNKNOWN. He quickly opened the link.
You have been gifted: Nature’s Healing by Bel, The God of Broken Things.
Huh, Theo thought, that’s the god that gifted Jessica Major Mending.
New Notification! You have received a quest from Bel, The God of Broken Things. Open quest? Y/N
A quest from a god. It seemed surreal. Theo opened it, and the words flashed before his vision.
Save Jessica White
The power flooded him and he felt the knowledge of Nature’s Healing enter his mind. He looked at the new quest, wondering what it meant. Had the gifted spell been a bribe, a way to entice him into completing the quest? If he did complete it, was there more power to be had? And why did that god — Bel — care so much about Jessica?
And why now? Did he want them to go right that very second and save Jess? Or was he indicating that they were heading in the right direction, that he should enter the dungeon and level up.
Theo frowned. If he went to save Jess now, he would die. They all would, unless they leveled up first. If Bel really was a god, he would have known that. And so, Theo surmised that Bel wanted them to enter the dungeon. A message would have been nice with the quest, Bel. Was that too much to ask, from a literal god? Some instructions?
He shook his head. There was still the possibility that Jess was in trouble right that moment. So they needed to level, and level fast. He stood, brushing off his pants. He moved to the door and stood before it.
“It’s time,” he said. Blake and Alice closed their menus, drew their weapons, and stood by him.
Alice stared at the carving of the fish-man, with his razor sharp smile and outstretched claws.
“Are we sure about this?” she asked.
Theo frowned. “We don’t have a choice.”
And with that, he put his hand on the dungeon doors, and pushed.