Dungeon Delve completed!

Collating Results…

“Um, Miss Sasha, am I seein’ things?” I goggled at the letters driftin’ through the air made from the soot of all the vines we’d burned up.

“Oh, that? No, this is how the System interacts with people most of the time. Your interface that comes from me is a lot better than what most get from their Sin Totems, so they’d have a much harder time getting information from the System than you do. To get around any unfairness or confusion for Delvers, the System will use methods like this, manipulating the natural surroundings, to give you notifications.” Miss Sasha sounded mighty pleased to be back to explainin’ things to me. If I was a bettin’ man, I’d say that she’d been none too happy havin’ to take care of me in this Delve and was happy to be back to just tellin’ me stuff.

“So why didn’t this show up in our first Dungeon?” I waved at the floatin’ soot.

“Could be a lot of reasons. Most likely, it was because the god who designed that Dungeon set it to give out the absolute minimum of information without bothering to mess with the details. The gods have a lot of decisions to make when they put a Dungeon together, and many of them skip through the options they don’t care about. That information block included the collating of results. This Dungeon obviously took what information was displayed into account, considering the plinth at the beginning. I think this Dungeon was designed almost as a lesson of some sort by whoever made it. For most people, this place would have been a learning experience.” She snorted.

Somehow, I felt that Miss Sasha was exasperated with me again. But I couldn’t for the life of me think of what I mighta done.

“Well, that’s interestin’. How long is this gonna take?” The soot hadn’t shifted for nearin’ on a minute now.

“Any moment. It’s usually faster than this. I think the Dungeon designer set this Delve up to account for a lot.” Miss Sasha wound herself tighter, settlin’ so that she could see the soot easier.

Sure enough, it wasn’t but a handful of seconds later that the System message shifted.

...Rewards Collated!

Challenge One:

For avoiding the Effluvia Oil Vines and burning them out without native assistance, you receive a Peak Reward.

You Have Earned

Essence of Insight (Sixth Step/Blue)

God: Hecate

Quality(s): Magical Perception

Miss Sasha gasped when she saw the words formed, but the message kept goin’ before I could ask what was so important about it.

Challenge Two:

For defeating the SteelFlame Grizzly by utilizing the natural resources of the Dungeon while avoiding any injuries, you receive an Advanced Reward.

You Have Earned

Essence of Hand (Fourth Step/Green)

God: Geb

Quality(s): Magical Manipulation

Challenge Three:

For surviving the Umbernight Raven while it remained in the boughs of the Radiant Purgation Redwood, you receive a Basic Reward.

You Have Earned

Essence of Bottled Lightning (Second Step/Yellow)

God: Unmis

Quality(s): Magical Capacity

“Huh, so I’m guessin’ it was that bird we saw. Seems we missed it. Oh, well.” I shrugged. I wasn’t all that torn up about it, if I was bein’ honest. None of this magic stuff was all that interestin’ to me anyhow. Missin’ out on better Rewards wasn’t good, but I wasn’t gonna lose a minute of sleep over it.

“Incredible.” Miss Sasha hissed, her voice soft in my ear. Just by takin’ a look at her, I could tell she hadn’t heard a word I’d said. “This Dungeon grants all the Essences for the basic magic Stats. It’s a mage builder.” She laughed. “How could we have stumbled into this? This is just…So incredibly, impossibly, lucky. It’s to bad we don’t have a Second Step Ambrosia, or you could become a mage right now.”

But the messages weren’t over yet. The soot swirled up thicker, the letters it formed lookin’ a fair sight more impressive than they’d been before with lots o’ fancy swirls and sparkly magic nonsense.

Extra Reward Conditions Fulfilled!

For relying on your Sin Totem throughout the entire Delve, and utilizing their inherent magic to its maximum potential and even beyond, you receive and Exceed Reward!

You Have Earned

Ambrosia of Camaraderie (Second Step/White)

God: Jesus

Quality(s): Compassion, Connection, Bonds, Magic, Mercy, Sacrifice…Etc.

Unlike the other messages, this one kept goin’.

As an Exceed Reward, the Qualities of this Ambrosia have been increased by several orders of magnitude.

BE WARNED! Higher Qualities can lead to deviations in one’s Path if they overwhelm the Sinner’s inherent Qualities.

“Well, how ‘bout that. Second Step Ambrosia, just like you said, Miss Sasha.” I chuckled. “Seems we did somethin’ pretty impressive, huh? That Quality list sure has a lot goin’ on. And the connected god is Jesus? Isn’t that your boss? Since I was a follower when I died?”

Miss Sasha seemed to have just plum given up. She was starin’ at the soot slack-jawed, not makin’ a sound. Not gonna lie, it was a little funny.

“Miss Sasha? Hello? Anyone home?” I snapped my fingers in front of her a couple o’ times before she snapped out of it.

“Thisss isss ridiculousss! Exceed Rewardsss are only given when you do something the System didn’t account for. Not just the Dungeon designer, but the actual Hell System didn’t think we could solve the Delve like this.” She shook her head. “I’ve never seen this before, only heard of it.”

“Well, you did do all the heavy liftin’ for this Delve. I’d just say it’s the System given’ you a proper pat on the back for a job well done.” I shrugged. Miss Sasha really worked herself hard this time ‘round. Gettin’ somethin’ good for it just seemed…Right. Proper.

I took a gander at the message again. “So, this one’s got a warnin’ on it. Somethin’ we should worry about?”

“That’s…A complicated topic, without a simple answer. Exceed Rewards are packed to the brim with high-grade Qualities, and Qualities are the main thing that ends up determining your Path with the Divine Steps. If you use an Exceed Reward with Qualities that don’t fit into your existing Path, it can cause a deviation, and even break Steps in the most extreme cases, crippling you. But in our particular situation, it would only be a positive. You haven’t even started your Path yet, so there’s nothing to conflict with. It would just be a straight injection of solid Qualities without a real downside, outside of narrowing your future options somewhat. But that’s something that happens with every Reward you convert into a Step. It would just be a bit worse than normal.” Miss Sasha explained.

Most of it for sure went over my head, but I got the general idea, at least. If I used this super-fancy special Reward, nothin’ bad would happen. Which begged the question. “Do you think I should use it then?”

“Yes!” Miss Sasha shouted lickety-split. Then she paused, lookin’ at the message with a look like she’d bit a lemon. “...No.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Why not? You seemed real keen on it for a second there.” I was curious. She wasn’t usually so wishy-washy about this magic stuff.

“I’ve come around to your way of thinking, in the end. Using these Rewards would put you at the second step immediately. But…You would hate being a mage type Pathwalker. It doesn’t suit you at all, I think you’d end up resenting it in the end. We should wait to get some Essences that are more in line with your wishes. The Ambrosia…We’ll have to see. Exceed Rewards are flexible in what kind of Step Ability they become.” She sighed. “I wish you weren’t right, but in retrospect, I think forcing an incompatible Path is what doomed several of my previous charges.”

“If that’s what you think.” I wasn’t ‘bout to gainsay her. ‘Specially when she was tellin’ me I’m right. “But what do we do ‘bout the unfriendly fella sittin’ outside? If’n he’s still out there, that is. I’m not exactly back in fightin’ shape, and that hammer was nasty business.”

“Oh,” She got a nasty look on her face. “I’ve actually got a good idea for that. Here’s the plan…”

{}

Watching the Bad Man, the Imp was worried. He’d attacked-ran every time the Bad Man tried to sleep, bleeding him in a rush that fed the Imp’s growing angry-mad feelings. Every time, he got away. It was almost funny-silly, how easy it was. The Sinner was really, really dumb-blind.

After a few times scratch-running, the Imp got used to that pattern, and started to feel better about the whole thing. Maybe he could even take out the Bad Man on his own? It could take a long-slow time, but he wasn’t in a rush. It turned out that licking the Sinner’s blood off his claws was enough to drive away the belly growls, and the Imp hadn’t felt the need-hunger for treasure either. Really, the Imp had never felt better. At the same time, the Bad Man was getting more and more scratched up.

And that was why the Imp was worried now. Because something had changed. The Sinner was holding a little rock that the Imp hadn’t noticed before. It started to make weird noises and shot out sparks that made the Bad Man flinch. Then it started talking. It was hard-tough to understand through the random sounds, but the Imp thought he caught most of it.

“Hey! Hey? … Are you? … Gone too long… mad at me! … Where you are, or I’ll … Respond!” The whiny voice shouted.

The Sinner sneered at the rock. “I’m trying to meet quota here, you rat. Some of us have to work for our gruel. I found a target, but he ran off into a Dungeon before I could lock him down. I’m guarding the entrance, but he’s taking a while to die in there.”

“Oh! That’s … Keep it up! … if he doesn’t die?” The response came back quick-fast.

“”Hah!” The Bad Man had an ugly smile. “I whacked him good. He’s down an arm for sure. I think he’s holed up, hoping to wait me out. But he’ll start starving eventually. Then I’ll get him.”

“...at’s fine. Are … hav … problems?” The rock voice sounded eager.

The Sinner growled and frowned, looking all around him. He flicked his hand, throwing his hammer around like he had many times before. “...No. Everything is fine.”

“... Doesn’t sound … fine.”

The Bad Man snarled. “Don’t you question me, rat. I can handle myself and any fresh-faced baby Sinner without a single Step to his name. Do I need to remind you just who has blessed me, whose Steps I’ll follow?” His hammer crashed down loud-hard, breaking more bowls.

“Fine, fine. Just … quickly. We … much …ime. Boss is getting …” The whiny voice sounded as scared-afraid of the Bad Man as the Imp used to be.

“I’ll handle the boss. You just keep that rat nose out of my business.” The Bad Man rolled his eyes.

“I get … just doing … job.” The rock stopped sparking and making weird-random sounds.

“I swear, that rat…Such a pain in my ass. Acting like I need a minder. Stupid…” The Bad Man kept muttering to himself. The Imp stopped listening. He was focused on the rock, and what it meant. The Bad Man had batchmates, or something like it. Sinners that were helping him.

The Imp had never heard of that. It was scary-bad just to think about. After all, imps had only ever beat-won Sinners because they were always alone. If they grouped up…The Imp wasn’t sure there were any Natives that could face them. At least, none that the Imp had ever seen.

And that also meant the Nice Man was in even worse danger. These Sinners were hunting others, just like how his batchmates had hunted the Imp. And the Imp hadn’t done very well-good before the Nice Man saved him.

Suddenly, all the scratches on the Bad Man didn’t look that impressive anymore.

The Imp look-glanced all over, trying to find something he could do. But… What could he do against a bunch of Sinners? He was just one imp. A small, weak imp. He was a runt. He was tiny. Maybe the other imps were right.

Nope.

The Imp grit his teeth-fangs. He’d had a taste of the angry-mad feelings and he didn’t want to give them up. Being scared-sad was just the worst. But the Imp was clever-smart, he knew he couldn’t fight even one Sinner like the bigger Devils could. He was an imp runt, and he was alone. He was gonna have to be real smart-sharp about this.

And that started with doing what he’d been doing. Ruining the Bad Man’s every bit of sleep. Already, the Imp had noticed that the Bad Man was getting more slow-stupid. His eyelids drooped, and he would stop and stare-look at nothing all the time. Even with his magic hammer, the Imp thought the Nice Man might have a good chance of beating the Bad Man. Even if the Nice Man was still broken-hurt.

So the Imp kept it up. The Bad Man started trying to sleep more and more. He even tried to fake-sleep and catch the Imp. But the Bad Man didn’t seem to know that he made loud noises when he was actually sleeping. Probably because he was so dumb-stupid. So the Imp never fell for the trick. Not that it would have worked anyway. The Imp could hear the Bad Man’s heart thump-thumping in his chest, and he knew what it sounded like when he was sleeping. It slowed down a certain way.

After long enough, the Bad Man started falling asleep even when he didn’t want to, and even before the last scratches stopped bleeding. That was also when the Bad Man started to look different. He wasn’t angry-mad, and throwing his magic hammer all over. The Imp wasn’t sure what he was. It took staring-watching the Bad Man’s face for a long time to get it, but the Imp finally figured it out.

The Bad Man was starting to look scared.

The Imp hadn’t expected that. He was a runt. A Sinner shouldn’t be scared-afraid of just him. It was…Strange. Odd. It made the angry-mad feelings wobble and shift in a way that the Imp wasn’t sure he liked. But he didn’t have time to dwell on it. Because the Bad Man’s fear had started to make him think less dumb-stupid thoughts. And that was bad for the Imp.

The Sinner started to mess with the magic talking rock, looking at it like he was going to eat nasty-smelly dirt. And if the Bad Man was going to do something he didn’t like, that meant he’d be doing something different. And the Imp knew that different was bad, bad-scary for the Imp most of all. The Imp also didn’t need to be that clever-smart to figure out what the Bad Man was thinking, looking at that talking rock.

He was going to call other Sinners.

The Imp started to think hard-fast. His chest felt tight-heavy as the fears came back, fighting the angry-mad feelings. No matter how hurt the Bad Man was, the Imp couldn’t just jump out and attack him. If that hammer got even close-near him, the Imp would explode. But that meant he couldn’t stop the Bad Man from calling more Sinners, and then someone more smart-clever than the Bad Man might show up.

At this point, the Imp wasn’t even doing this for the Nice Man. If that was all, he would have left when the fears came back. He liked the Nice Man, and wanted him to be ok. But not enough to die for him. But now…Now, the Imp had tasted what it was like to make the Bad Man pay for his actions, for acting like the Imp’s batchmates. And he wasn’t sure he wanted to live with the imp he’d be if he let that go just because it got tough.

The Imp was going to stay, no matter what happened. But that didn’t mean he had an idea-plan. His thoughts ran faster, and his chest got heavier, but no ideas came.

Just when the Bad Man looked like he was really going to use the talking rock, the Imp felt his neck heat up. His eyes snapped over toward where he felt something appear where there wasn’t anything before. There, at the Dungeon entrance, was the Nice Man.

“Howdy there, ‘member me?” The Nice Man grinned at the Bad Man. For his part, the Bad Man had a lot of looks on his face, all of them coming and going before settling on an angry scowl so deep, the Imp wondered if his face would ever be able to go back to normal.

“RAAAA!” The Bad Man lurched up, face still dripping red from the Imp’s last scratches. He was clumsy and sleepy-slow, his hammer jumping into his hand as he cocked his arm back for a throw. It wasn’t nearly as fast as the throw the Imp remembered. The one that broke the Nice Man was fast as a blink. This one was…Sad.

In contrast, the Nice Man flicked his arm out so fast the Imp flinched even though he wasn’t the one being aimed at. That was also when the Imp noticed-saw that the Nice Man had one of the arm-length gloves from his strange armor-suit on, with his Sin Totem wound around his forearm. The snake’s jaws opened, and a long green rope-thing shot out, guided by the Nice Man’s gloved hand.

It flew across the distance, faster than the Bad Man’s arm could come around. He was too slow from being sleepy and bleedy. Before he could even make the throw, the rope-thing landed, sticking tight to the Bad Man’s hand, trapping the hammer in his grip-fingers. Then the Nice Man flicked his wrist weirdly, and the rope-thing jerked, sending a loop around the Bad Man’s arm.

Only a few blinks and some arm waving later, the Nice Man had sent loops of rope-stuff winding all around the Bad Man, binding his arms to his chest and his legs to each other. No matter how much he squirmed and pulled, the rope-stuff only stuck harder.

“Well, Miss Sasha, that went right smooth, didn’t it?” The Nice Man chuckled as he walked up to the Bad Man, the rope-thing disappearing into the snake’s mouth the whole time. Finally, when the only part of it was what was stuck to the Bad Man, the snake bit down, cutting the rope-thing short.

“You were supposed to try to sneak up on him, not announce yourself. He almost got a throw off.” The Sin Totem sounded upset, but also like she’d given up.

“Oh, I remembered. But then I got a good look at that face there.” The Nice Man gestured at the cut up mess that the Imp had made of the Bad Man’s face. “And I figured sneakin’ wasn’t real important. Someone did a right number on him. And I’m thinkin’ some thanks are in order.”

Then, though the Imp could hardly believe it, the Nice Man turned to look right at the shadow he was in. “Heya there, little one. I’m thinkin’ that you’re the reason this feller is lookin’ so rough. And I think we should have a talk about it.”