Duke had to brace himself as the notifications washed over him.
*** As this was the first delve into the Desert Fortress of the Amber Sands, all experience and gains are increased. You completed twenty-one of a possible fifty waves of attackers with no casualties on your side, which is impressive. Doing so solo is more than noteworthy. Here are your gains:
You killed a total of 1,470 Desert Raiders of progressively increasing difficulty and level. You receive 13,618,500 experience. This brings you up to an astonishing level 178 and provides you with 1,308 free Characteristic points available to spend. Your Strength, Endurance, and Psyche each gain 109 points from advancing your Dungeon Emperor Class.
Your Ability and skill gains are:
TELEPORTATION has increased to Master 10
REGENERATION has increased to Adept 90
DUNGEON MANIPULATION has increased to Initiate 32
LIGHTNING has increased to Adept 10
OVERCHANNEL has increased to Adept 37
FORCE has increased to Initiate 27
FLAME has increased to Initiate 27
POISON has increased to Initiate 12
ACID has increased to Novice 11
WIND has increased to Novice 7
ICE has increased to Initiate 27
EARTH has increased to Initiate 6
LIGHT has increased to Initiate 29
DARKNESS has increased to Initiate 7
SPELL RESISTANCE has increased to Initiate 24
SIMULCASTING has increased to Practiced 9
CLEANSE has increased to Practiced 24
RESTORE has increased to Master 56
IDENTIFY has increased to Initiate 39
SENSE MAGIC has ranked up to Initiate 3
INVENTORY has increased to Practiced 27
ARMOR SKIN has increased to Adept 25
MANA DRAIN has increased to Novice 5
FLIGHT has increased to Practiced 41
COMBAT SENSE has increased to Initiate 39
DUNGEON SENSE has increased to Master 6
AURA of PROSPERITY has increased to Initiate 7
Dodge has increased to Practiced 79
Martial Arts Combat has increased to Adept 41
Tonfa Mastery has increased to Adept 136
Diplomacy has increased to Initiate 34
Your gains from this initial dungeon run are far beyond what I expected but, then again, I did not expect anyone on Teldin to be able to solo the dungeon for that long. Next time, try the dungeon without using your DUNGEON MANIPULATION Ability. You already have enough tools to excel so there is no need to change the parameters of the dungeon to win. What I do ask is that you make significant use of the Ability outside of a dungeon delve. This Ability is the core Ability of your Class and will be increasingly important as you progress. ***
Duke decided to sit down in a chair while he distributed his points. He started with a round of peanut butter, adding 100 to each Characteristic. He then thought heavily about his build.
I am still magic-focused and I don’t see that changing. My physical Characteristics will mostly increase with each level except for Agility. Maybe add some to that and then pour a bunch into Psyche to push my Mana pool and the effects of some of my Abilities? Worth a shot.
300 points went into Agility, bringing it to an even 1,000. Next, came 100 into Intuition and the remaining 398 went into Psyche, bringing its modified value above 2,000. Duke suffered through the pain as such extensive changes roared through his body and mind. It only took a few minutes but was excruciating. Afterwards, however, he felt exceptional. He sprung up from the chair he had chosen and nearly roared with delight. With a quick CLEANSE and RESTORE, his new armor was fully repaired and shining.
He gave Dagny a wave and TELEPORTED to his throne room. He appeared amongst error messages from the system.
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*** Warning, you are attempting to take more than your allowable value of items created through your DUNGEON MANIPULATION Ability out of a dungeon. Since the items were a contiguous set, the entirety of the items have been revoked. ***
Duke looked down, realizing that he was in his smallclothes. A gasp etched its way across the room and Duke looked up to see Duke Madrigal and Lady Hargwaetch standing near the entryway. In an instant, he was in his room in the Inn, pulling his selected kingly party outfit out of his INVENTORY.
Well, that happened. Not sure how I’m going to explain that. At least it was only a few people. And what the hell was that about a limit?
Duke finished dressing and TELEPORTED back to his throne room. He could tell that the pair were holding back laughter behind their “noble composure”. Duke looked at both of them quite seriously. “You do know that holding back your laughter is not good for you. And that was hilarious.” Seeing as they were still holding it back, Duke offered a broad smile. “Come on, let it out. Holding it in will spoil your whole evening.”
Finally, the pair burst out laughing and Duke joined them shortly thereafter. After they all calmed down, Duke opened up communication Portals to Baslin and Aurelia to make sure they were ready as well. When they said they were, Duke opened Portals for them to come to the throne room as well. Finally, he reached out to Siegfried to make sure everything was in place. He assured Duke that it was.
“OK, Madrigal, since you are the highest-ranking noble that’s not me or Baslin, I am tasking you to bring our guests to the festivities. Everybody walk with me and I’ll show you the path to take. This should knock their socks off for sure.” Duke led them outside of the throne room and back into the main passages of the castle. As he walked, he realized that he had not set foot in most of these passages since he took over the kingdom. Maybe they’ll call me an absent king and call for my resignation. Wouldn’t that be special.
When they made it to the heavily guarded hallway that Duke had decided would be used for today’s purpose, he opened the Portal at the end of the hall. He did not miss a beat as he walked right through it and into the Hall of Possibilities. There was only one other Portal open, and it led right to the “Party Level”. Duke crossed his fingers and hoped Siegfried had gotten everything right. He didn’t think there was time to fix it if he hadn’t.
They all emerged in the Party venue and stopped cold. The venue was arranged with three large curved tables set in a circle. Each was elaborately carved with depictions of what the three nations were known for. Surrounding the tables were tall golden pillars holding up a glass ceiling. Through the ceiling, the stars were visible but seemed closer and in better focus as a result of the glass ceiling acting like a lens. Lady Hargwaetch gasped as she realized that by focusing on a star, it would fill up the view of the ceiling for her in breathtaking detail, she could manipulate it to see the planets surrounding the star.
Duke gazed around the room and saw all manner of opulent magical decorations from tapestries that moved when you focused on them to statues that changed positions from time to time. The floor was white marble with diamond shaped tiles depicting Stormstride’s livery with a delicate golden border interspersed. All the servants were in identical Stormstride livery and were impeccably dressed. Duke fired off an unconscious CLEANSE and RESTORE. The only change was with the people who came in with him.
Siegfried hurried up to Duke, bowing perfectly. “Your Majesty the venue and menu are set to receive your guests. When are they expected?”
“Are you absolutely sure that you are ready?”
“Quite sure, Your Majesty.”
“Excellent. It will not be long before they arrive. Duke Madrigal will escort them into the venue when he is ready.”
Duke stepped away from everyone, whispering to Sam. “Set this place back to normal time, please.”
The whisper back was equally quiet. “Get better with your Ability and you could do this yourself. But, yes, the time has been set to normal. I hope your party goes well.”
“Me too. Thanks Sam.”
Returning to the group, Duke announced, “Everything is ready here. Can anyone tell me the proper protocol for who arrives when in this situation?”
Madrigal smiled, knowing that this was one of Duke’s true weaknesses. “All the noble peerage that are coming will be here before any of the foreign dignitaries arrive. You will be last to arrive, Your Majesty. Merchants and other non-nobles should already be arriving.”
Aurelia spoke up, “And now that the passage is open, they will start shortly.”
Siegfried bowed again. “Please come with me to the Royal waiting area, Your Majesty.” Duke followed, amused by all the pomp and circumstance. As he left the room, he noticed that music had started playing. It was quite pleasant and set a nice background for the evening. Once he got to the upstairs waiting room, he settled down to relax until it was time for him to head in for his grand entrance. He was able to see through the specially designed window and observe the reactions as people entered the reception space. Their reactions of delight and wonder buoyed his mood. But still he waited.
When the delegations started arriving, Duke paid careful attention to their reactions. To an individual, they held their countenances tight and unmoving. But Duke has some unique advantages in this arena. He could see the strain of their neck muscles as they fought not to gaze around in wonder, and their dilatating pupils gave them away to Duke’s keen senses. They were equal parts impressed and surprised.
Finally, all the guests were seated, and the time had come for Duke’s grand entrance. And grand was what Duke was aiming for. As he approached the entrance Portal, he steadied himself and RESTORED his outfit to fit the exact parameters that the tailor had created. He straightened his spine and kicked off a change in the music using his DUNGEON MANIPULATION. He had debated on whether to have his entrance music be pure instrumental or to have lyrics. Ultimately, he decided to keep it simple and chose instrumental. He strode in to “Ride of the Valkyries” with his best regal bearing. The lights of the room had been dimmed and Duke was glowing with an application of his LIGHT Ability.
All eyes were locked on Duke as he strode to the center of the room, the focus of all three massive tables. As he strode to the center of the room, he gently manipulated the floor to rise under him, creating a dais in the center where he stood to address the crowd.
“Good evening, all. Thank you for attending this night’s celebration of Stormstride’s newest friends, the kingdom of Tannish and the Ansky Empire. Food and libations will be brought out shortly. Relax and enjoy yourselves as we all get to know each other better. Keep in mind that this is a celebration of friendship so please be open to discussing all sorts of amusing topics. This may be a state event, but it is an event of friendship so please do relax and enjoy yourselves. I’m sure we will have plenty of times for political gamesmanship in the coming days.”
Duke returned the floor to its original state as he moved to his seat. With a gesture to the servers, the feast began. Food and drinks were brought out to all with Duke making sure that he was served last. It broke protocol but it was a not so subtle message that he put his people before himself. The food included accents and dishes from all three nations and the chef had found some way to bring them all together for a truly tasty set of dishes. The wine served was also stellar. As the dinner continued, conversations began to spring up throughout the room.
Eventually, people took their drinks and started circulating around the room admiring the décor and small conversations started up. Duke was bumped by Borondar and gestured aside. When the pair were separated from the crowd, he handed Duke a note. “This was given to me be Lord Greengold.”
Duke thanked the Captain of the Cloudspire guard and moved away for some privacy. As he did so, he saw Borondar’s eyes on him, scanning the area around with intent. Duke opened the note and read it. It was short and to the point. “There is an assassin in the Ansky contingent.”