Evelyn finished carving the eclipse symbol she’d chosen above the door to the darkness trial. She enjoyed the chance to pursue artistic endeavours once more, but after carving the stairway down from the escape room, the central room and symbols for each element, she was ready for a break.
While it was tempting to call Ivy over, the girl seemed so absorbed in her work it would be rude to disrupt her focus. She was currently sitting in a pile of steel mirrors while muttering ominously about how she couldn’t believe they hadn’t used flint yet and in the wrinkles of her clothes pooled grains of something... maybe sand or sawdust, Evelyn had lost track. Ivy had honestly been more distracting than even the delvers, who had cautiously resumed plundering the first floor periodically. However, her results could not be argued, and Evelyn was hardly one to complain about the odd appearance of one’s methods.
Evelyn summoned a skeleton in front of herself with a wave of her hand. The gesture wasn’t strictly necessary but it just felt right. It was time to see what this could become. The mana stone in the creature’s chest glowed as mana poured in, levelling it rapidly until a blue screen appeared in front of Evelyn.
Congratulations, level 10 Orc Skeleton may transform into an Uncommon or Rare creature. Do you wish to transform into one of the creatures below?
Creature
Rarity
Description
Orc Zombie
Uncommon
A strong humanoid zombie. It remains animated until it suffers sufficient damage to the head or affected by purity or life effects.
Many Armed Skeleton
Rare
A humanoid skeleton which is adept at wielding equipment. Number of arms increase with level. Vulnerable to purity or life effects.
Evelyn was rather unimpressed by the options. The zombie had similar utility to the skeletons though she conceded it may lead to unlocking other creatures further down the line. The skeleton on the other hand, while an upgrade, seemed surprisingly minor compared to the difference between the boar and its dire form. Evelyn cocked her head towards the safe room despite neither having nor needing the line of sight to where Ivy now seemed to be shaping… springs? She would likely have ideas for these creatures. Making equipment seemed to give her great joy, even if Evelyn couldn't see an immediate use for most of it.
Acting decisively Evelyn chose to decline the options and continue levelling the skeleton. She could always mention the option to Ivy when she was less distracted, perhaps she would see some potential Evelyn missed. The levelling began to slow, Evelyn grimacing as more and more mana was consumed with each level.
Congratulations, level 18 Orc Skeleton may transform into a Rare creature. Do you wish to transform into the creature below?
Creature
Rarity
Description
Ogre Skeleton
Rare
A large humanoid skeleton with strength befitting its size but with unusually little intelligence. Vulnerable to purity or life effects.
Evelyn’s cheeks felt almost painful as a wide grin split her face. This was much better, though for it to be characterised by a lack of intelligence when zombies hadn't, spoke of how much truth there was to the tales of ogres as dumb brutes. Still, she’d happily command such brutes. Even as the creature glowed and reset from level 18 to 3 she felt little regret. That probably had something to do with the shimmering form almost doubling in height and width to tower over Evelyn, the head having to crane downwards slightly as the light subsided to fit in the 10ft high room. With a surge of childish glee that likely carried through in her tone she appeared beside Ivy.
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“When you have a moment, I could use a club for a new minion.”
“Oh!” Ivy jumped at Evelyn’s words dropping a metal cylinder with a clang and sending a handful of ball bearings cascading outwards. “Evelyn, you scared the pants off me! Wait, weapon for a new minion? What’s new?!”
Seeing the excitement in her eyes Evelyn chuckled, “Come with me and see.”
Choosing to walk down the staircase to the octagonal room to give Ivy the full effect rather than simply teleporting, the ever-curious girl pestered her with questions she refused to answer all the way. As she reached the heavy wooden doors and moved to push them open she heard a sharp intake of breath beside her.
“Holy cow! That thing doesn’t need a club, it needs a tree! Is it a giant’s skeleton or something?”
“An ogre’s actually. I’m not sure how a giant’s skeleton would compare, their size changing abilities are fairly unique.”
“Wait there’s giants here too!”
“Yes, they are the second-born children of The Warrior after the dwarves.” Evelyn responded amused at her endless curiosity, though slightly disappointed her enthusiasm hadn’t stayed on the ogre skeleton.
“OK second-born children, that sounds like there’s a story to it that I’d be curious to hear sometime. This guy is awesome though, I’m sure as an ogre he packs a punch. Honestly, while I was kinda joking about the tree, he probably does just want a big, long club of some description. Really leverage that reach and strength.”
Mollified by Ivy’s renewed interest Evelyn decided to explain, “I only know them by reputation, but the strength of giants is widely praised. As for the creation of the races, there’s not much to the story. Each of The Three originally created a single race, elves for The Seeker blessed with time to acquire knowledge, dwarves for The Warrior blessed with the constitution for war, and The Lover’s firstborn race is unknown. It’s said something drove the elves and dwarves to band together to annihilate that race and they succeeded at significant cost. The Lover was said to be troubled by the destruction of the race She had created but rather than inflict Her vengeance on the other races, She instead convinced The Seeker and The Warrior to let Her create a new race, and they agreed on the condition that they would each create a new race as well. So, The Lover created humans, blessed with the ability to copulate with any sapient race, The Seeker created beastkin, blessed with the ability to travel the wild places of the world and be changed by them, and finally The Warrior created giants blessed with the ability to change their size while maintaining their strength. These were the secondborn children of The Three. The thirdborn were dragons, created not by one of The Three but all of them, as judgement on their other children as I’ve previously mentioned.”
“That was a bit bloodier than I expected, I knew about the dragons but the elves and dwarves committed genocide. That’s…a lot.” Seemingly trying to bring the mood back up again, a slightly forced brightness returned to Ivy’s tone, “Still it would be cool to see giants or beastkin. Do you think we’ll see them any time soon? It’s mostly been humans so far. Wait! Where do orcs fit into the story?”
Happy to see Ivy’s genuine curiosity come to the fore once more as Evelyn was reminded how unsatisfied the answer that we can’t know the dwarves’ or elves’ reasons for their actions had made her, Evelyn responded, “They came from dungeons.” Pausing for a moment to enjoy Ivy’s shocked look, “They were originally only dungeon creatures but when dungeon breaks pulled them from the dungeons, they gained their sapience. I don’t entirely know how it works but I think there was an issue if they delved a dungeon that since they have a mana crystal in their chests that dungeon could absorb them as a minion. Over the years though they seemed to change enough for that to no longer be a problem, though they still have a crystal which gets larger as they level letting them fight longer without running out of mana for spells or abilities.”
“Wow, so do orcs have a different relationship with The Three then?”
“I’m not sure, some argue that they are simply monsters given their origins, though thankfully Timberhollow has no place for such fools any longer. Come to think of it those I’ve interacted with seemed to pay more homage than most to the minor gods and one worshipped the system itself primarily,” Evelyn shrugged. “You’d asked about the beastkin, they visit towns to trade now and then but their caravans are somewhat irregular. Still, they are the only ones to have the means to travel through the wilds reliably so the trade is always welcome when it comes. The giants had quite a militant society and I’m not sure if they survived the Great Breaks. Most of the strongest combatants who did, died trying to destroy dungeons.”
“Hopefully we’ll get some beastkin delvers at some point. Speaking of strong combatants though, I wanted to touch base with you about something. Now that delvers go into stasis if they don’t instantly die, and healers seem to be able to fix most things, I was planning to crank up the danger to progress while minimising the danger to recover those in stasis. What do you think? You know more about levels and skills than me, but I assume extreme conditions help with gaining them?”
“Well in principle that would be ideal, though there are a few gaps in your assumptions. While Timberhollow’s healers can fix much, they aren’t omnipotent. Even if they save someone’s life, there can be lasting damage. For skills, repetition is usually the recommended method, but then again most don’t have our resources.” Evelyn stroked her chin as she continued, “What did you have in mind for making people easier to retrieve?”
“OK so you know how the idea for this floor was to do a challenge with each element to collect a stone token and once you put all 6 in the door you can progress?” Ivy’s explanation had all the enthusiasm of a wannabe [merchant] with an exciting offer, though Evelyn had much more faith in her competence. “So, I was thinking about challenges and I thought what if most of the danger came from getting back with the token. That way if a group comes to save people then they just grab the people and avoid the token. Some of the challenges are probably better not to send a whole party anyway so they can pick up their downed companion if they fail.”
“That…could work. That’s brilliant Ivy!”
“Thanks!” Ivy beamed.
“So have you got something for each element?”
“Yes, although I could do with some help dialling in the difficulty, I’m still not used to the difference levels make. Some things I’ll probably need to test a bit to see how effective they are anyway, though I had been struggling with how to make the water challenge difficult enough but…” with a look and a grin up at the ogre skeleton, “How do skeletons fare underwater?”