The assassin ran into the wall and up it. He used the momentum to push himself off in a high arc and fly over his pursuer. He came up behind him and immediately struck with his sword staff.
The short-legged creature whirled around surprisingly quickly and parried with an iron-shod quarterstaff. Sparks flew.
Glen swung the quarterstaff in a circle and whirled it towards Weylan's feet. He jumped over it and thrust at the dungeon monster with the end of the sword staff. It barely dodged.
Further blows were exchanged and parried. A short swing of the quarterstaff hit Weylan, who was unable to jump away in time. With an audible crack, his ankle broke and Weylan was pulled off his feet. The strangler ran towards him with his short strides. Weylan slapped the ground with the flat of his hand to signal his surrender and Glen slowed down.
The dungeon monster jumped on the spot and raised one hand with two fingers splayed and one with one finger. Weylan grinned at this enthusiasm and nodded, "Yeah, you're right. Two to one for you."
The shadow assassin straightened up carefully: "Good strike. I told you, if you hold the staff further in the middle, you'll have a shorter reach, but you're so fast that it's much harder to dodge."
Princess Ulmenglanz, who had been sitting on a bench at the edge of the room, slowly raised herself demonstratively and calmly walked over to the injured man: "You don't seriously expect me to heal you, do you?"
"Wasn't that your job in this training session you came along for?"
She sighed, looked up at the ceiling resignedly and placed her hand on his broken ankle. Golden light shone out and the pieces of bone came back together. The wound above it, however, still looked green and blue.
"Can’t you do more?"
"I could heal you completely. But I don't waste my magic on nonsense like that. It'll heal the rest of the way on its own."
Weylan struggled to get to his feet with his sword staff and looked at her with wide eyes: "But the pain!"
"You have the pain-resistance skill. Healers can sense that. So don't act like a hurt puppy."
Weylan shrugged, stood straighter and bowed slightly. He was clearly too smart by now to upset the group's healer unnecessarily, "Then thank you for the grace of healing you have granted me in your wisdom, princess."
"Are you mocking me?"
Weylan looked up and met her gaze with wide eyes: "That would be an insult to your majesty! I would never dare do such a thing."
She smacked him on the head, but smiled as she turned and walked back to her bench. There she took a book from her bag and opened it at the bookmark.
Glen looked to the other lurking stranglers watching on the benches around the room. They raised their hands with their thumbs up.
Weylan raised an eyebrow: "What exactly are your friends trying to say?"
Glen made a vague gesture with his impressively muscular shoulders.
"Malvorik once told me that in the Cathurian Empire, this gesture meant a gladiator should be handed over to the gods. Usually by sacrificing him.”
The strangler held his hand in front of his heart in mock dismay. He turned to his fellow monsters, pointed at Weylan and then ran a finger across his throat with a quizzical expression on his face.
The dungeon stranglers waved their hands in an exaggeratedly defensive manner. Glen looked at his opponent and shrugged his shoulders.
"That reassures me. It wouldn't be easy for you to beat me either. After all, I'm four levels ahead of you."
The strangler held up two fingers.
"Only two? The last fight in the dungeon was the battle for the duskgnomes. I only got to know you after that and you were level 2 according to the dungeon heart. How were you able to level up to level 4?"
Glen trudged a few steps and pointed to reddish-brown spots on the floor.
"You trained alone? Against what?"
Glen held his hand close to the ground and let it move back and forth. He made squeaking noises.
"Rats?"
The strangler nodded and then pointed to the other stranglers watching.
"You fought each other? Experience points are only awarded for killed opponents..."
The stranglers, unfeeling dungeon monsters with faces that were never meant for expressing complex emotions, looked visibly stricken on the floor. Glen drummed on his chest, pointed to the ceiling and in a circle to the entire room. Then he got down on his knees, which didn't make him look much smaller, and bowed.
Weylan scratched his head thoughtfully for a moment, then he understood: "You sacrifice yourselves for the Dungeon? Your master?"
All the monsters nodded eagerly.
Weylan patted Glen on the shoulder a little uncertainly: "I'm sorry. I'd love to take you up with me on quests, but..." He didn't have to finish the sentence. The monsters knew they couldn't leave the dungeon.
"What new feats do you have?"
Glen grinned and twirled the staff above his head. His fur flickered and his body blurred.
Weylan shrugged: "I can still make out your outline. Chameleon hair is not invisibility. Besides, your staff remains visible. You should hide it behind your body."
A hand-sized figure with glowing wings shot in through the archway: "Don't! You must not kill each other!"
The strangler became visible with dark brown fur and obediently lowered his staff. Weylan, who held his staff sword loosely in his hand, only raised an eyebrow: "Hello Selvara. How are you?"
She stopped in mid-air and looked back and forth between the two of them. "Hey, I thought you two would be bashing each other's heads in."
Weylan shook his head: "We’re only training fighting techniques. We've even taken Ulmenglanz with us in case of accidents."
The dryad waved absently without looking up from her book. As long as no one was seriously injured, she wasn't particularly interested in the fight. She had turned down offers to train with the two of them. Her preferred fighting style was too different from that of the others.
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"We did yesterday. He has a long reach, but his arms are slightly in the way due to the length. We're still working on a suitable technique. Swings are too slow, but a stabbing-based style should work."
"He acquired the skill on Layman I this morning. His sensitive sense of smell is not particularly suited to the mixtures you gave me. He sneezed twice into the mixing bowl and spread the stuff all over the table."
The lurking strangler jumped up and down excitedly and pointed upwards.
"I think he understood what a city is and how the concept of shady characters and crime roughly works."
Weylan called up his own status and went through the list of skills he had acquired with his character class. He nodded. From his backpack, which was leaning against the wall at the edge of the room, he pulled out a light crossbow that was already sticking out at the top.
"Glen, this here is a crossbow. This up here works like a kind of bow... A bow is a stick that you bend to... Let me just demonstrate."
Selvara watched with interest as Weylan taught the monster how to use a crossbow. The dungeon heart created a target out of soft wood and then a few more targets and crossbows as the other stranglers joined in the practice. Even the healer picked up a crossbow and joined in the practice. It quickly turned into a competition. Weylan went from shooter to shooter, correcting the stance and showing how to load the crossbows more effectively.
After a few hours, they went to dinner and met up again the next day. After about eight more hours of training, everyone had learned the skill.
For the first time in a long time, Weylan took a look at his full status. His father had always taught him not to be reduced to a few numbers. But he wanted to have a comparison to the dungeon monster.
Name: Weylan
Race: Human
Class: Shadow Assassin Level 6
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 15
Constitution: 14
Willpower: 12
Intelligence: 12
Charisma: 10
Advantage: Shadow affinity
Affinity for shadow magic, shadows and darkness in general. Advantages when learning and casting shadow magic.
Resistance to shadow magic.
Increased chance to recognize illusions from shadow magic.
Non-magical effects: Bonuses to sneaking and hiding. Bonus to attack and damage rolls when in shadow or complete darkness. Bonus increases when actively using magic to manipulate shadows.
Disadvantage: Living in interesting times
Increases the probability of non-standard events and quests. Increases the probability of very rare and unique random loot. Easier access to rare or forbidden character classes and abilities.
Mana capacity: 30
Mana regeneration: 4/ hour
Feats:
Shadow Sight *
Shadow Manipulation *
Magic Talent (shadow magic only) *
Skills:
Acrobatic dodge (Layman V)
Analysis (Layman I)
Climbing (Apprentice III)
Crossbow (Apprentice V)
Dual-handed combat (Layman I)
Knives and daggers (Apprentice VI)
Mana control (Layman IV)
Mind Block (Journeyman I)
- Skill feat (Journeyman): Protected sleep (Mind Block remains active even during sleep and unconsciousness.)
Picking locks (Layman I)
Poison lore (Layman I)
Short sword (Apprentice III)
Stealth (Apprentice IX)
Streetwise (Apprentice I)
Sneak attack (Apprentice V)
Sword staffs (Apprentice VIII)
Teaching (Apprentice I)
Trap lore (Apprentice I)
Weylan noticed the asterisk behind his feats for the first time. As he concentrated on them, he got an explanation:
Automated response to rule request:
“*” marks feats gained outside of leveling.
Feats are typically selected during leveling, but they can also be acquired through extraordinary actions, rare quest rewards or by using feat-crystals.
“Hey, wait a moment, why didn’t I get to choose a feat at level one? Everyone else seems to get one!”
Automated response to rule request:
Classes that require a teacher to acquire or level up cannot choose feats without teacher supervision until reaching level 6.
His thoughts were interrupted by the dungeon heart.
Glowing characters appeared on the wall, while the Dungeon Heart used light spells to make writing appear on the wall. The status of the lurking strangler quickly formed on the wall:
Name: Glen
Breed: Lurking Strangler
Monster class: Chimaera (Strangler/ Chamaeleon)
Monster level: 4
Class: Shadow Assassin Level 1
Strength: 14
Dexterity: 16
Constitution: 12
Willpower: 10
Intelligence: 9
Charisma: 8
Mana capacity: 20
Mana regeneration: 1/ hour
Feats:
Advanced unarmed melee combat
Shadow Fur *
Shadow Sight *
Magic Talent (shadow magic only) *
Skills:
Climbing (Journeyman II)
- Skill feat (Journeyman): Enhanced grip while freeclimbing
Crossbow (Layman I)
Dodge (Layman I)
Knives and daggers (Layman I)
Mana control (Layman I)
Picking locks (Layman I)
Poison lore (Layman I)
Sneak attack (Journeyman II)
- Skill feat (Journeyman): Increased chance to grapple target when sneak attacking
Staff fighting (Journeyman II)
- Skill feat (Journeyman): Damage increased against armored targets
Stealth (Journeyman VI)
- Skill feat (Journeyman): Increased stealth inside dungeons
Streetwise (Layman I)
Unarmed close combat (Journeyman II)
- Skill feat (Journeyman): Increased choking damage
Weylan whistled through his teeth, "Wow. You're stronger and more dexterous than me. And your skill list is just – monstrous."
The strangler spread his arms and indicated a bow.
"Can you use magic?"
The monster frowned, which caused deep wrinkles and looked quite impressive. After a few heartbeats, its fur turned a deep black. It seemed as if it was swallowing up the light around it. Only a vague black shadow could be seen. Weylan looked at him scrutinizingly, then concentrated. The shadows of the other people present flowed across the floor towards him and up him. In the brightly lit room, it was only enough to make him look blotchy. He gave up and the shadows abruptly returned to their normal place, "That's not the same thing I'm doing. This is related to your chameleon fur, isn't it?"
The strangler thought for a moment, tilting his head, then shrugged his shoulders.
"I wasn't planning on it. Why do you ask?"
Weylan nodded. He said goodbye and trotted the short distance through the dungeon at a steady run until he reached the portal. He jumped through it and bridged the way up to the basement of the bathhouse.