Name: Morress Inverwoods

Source: Fawweld.2

Model: Statistical_4.7.5a

Level: 1 (0/20 XP)

Basic Statistics: (3 Points Available to Assign)

Strength: 0 [+] Intelligence: 0 [+] Manipulation: 0 [+] Power: 0 [+] Physique: 0 [+] Awareness: 0 [+] Intuition: 0 [+] Capacity: 0 [+] Dexterity: 0 [+] Wisdom: 0 [+] Empathy: 0 [+] Control: 0 [+]

Remainder Hidden Until Relevant.

Morress shut it all away. What did Model mean? He put that thought away for after work.

He could just do it himself, but he thought it would be wiser to ask Vevaria for her input, seeing as she had prior experience. it was an advantage over speculating with other rookies.

He could see most of the others excitedly talking to each other, trying to figure out what this was about. Those who weren't seemed to be loners, already moving to catch up with the ones who were ahead, or likely had some kind of prior experience.

Vevaria was talking with the two who were with her, and Morress noticed that the man was more of a boy than anything; someone wo looked like a young scholar instead of a menial worker. Young looking, a head shorter than Vevaria or the girl, and clutching a wax tablet and a book to his chest. He even had reading glasses over his eyes as he spoke intensely.

The woman was more relaxed as she leaned on her spear like a cane, and was looking more at the stonework of the room, practically pressed against the wall. He didn't notice it before, but the stone on this side of the room had a different hue; almost lighter in colour.

The boy was finishing up, and Morress only caught the last of what he was saying.

"-ot classify Fawweld as a Dungeon or a Tower, but a Locale."

"So a Locale doesn't change, and aren't isolated away from the world. I see. I thought they all were called Dungeons and Towers, and it was an above ground or below ground thing."

"You'd think that, but it's not quite the case. It's really fascinating."

Vevaria caught sight of Morress and Ximon approaching, and waved them over.

"Hey, Morress, Ximon, this here is Damien and this is Beth. They're from one of the Academies."

Noble blood then, Morress thought.

He stuck out a hand. "Morress Inverwoods, young sir."

Damien hesitated, unwilling to let go of is secured books. Beth however, took it and shook his hand roughly while keeping eye contact with him. "Beth. I'm his guard for this trip, at Level Twenty."

It was awkward, because she looked like she didn't like him, and Morress felt like trying to alleviate that suspicion would make her dislike him even more.

He settled on returning the shake. "Good to meet you."

She didn't return the pleasantry. Morress shook out the pain from her too tight grip quietly, and caught Ximon lowering his hand and looking away at the exit instead. The one on the other side of the dome.

"I got the system thing," he said to Vevaria and Ximon. "It wants me to assign three points, and I... Well, I have no clue what's a good idea."

"Surely you're not going to put all those points into social stats in this scenario," Beth commented.

Morress gave her a bewildered look. "What?"

"Intuition, Empathy," Beth rattled off at him. "Manipulation."

That was enough. "Why would I take social stats when I have to fend off bats and navigate perilous drops?"

Beth scoffed. What the fuck is her problem?

"You know exactly why, gutte-"

"I'd put at least one point into Dexterity to start with," Vevaria interrupted, "and then the other two into Physique, Strength, more Dexterity-"

"Wisdom," Damien also cut in.

"-Wisdom, or even Awareness. They all are good choices. You'll get more points very quickly here. Most Bats gave around five points of experience when I was last here, and other monsters like Clamberers and Climbers give out more. Ten or twelve, I think."

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He opened it up again, still marvelling at how simple and easy it was, and put two points into Dexterity, and his third into Strength.

Almost as soon as he put points in, Morress' body felt more nimble, and then stronger.

"Wow."

"I know," Vevaria smirked. "You done, Ximon?"

"Yeah," Ximon replied. "One into Dexterity, two into Physique."

"I'll lead the way."

They left the room, ahead of the groups that were assigned hauling duties, who were staying back with equipment, waiting for the frontal scouts of the expedition to cut a save route for them to work.

Stepping out into the shade made everything seem... strange.

Instead of towering above, the buildings of Fawweld sunk below, down towards a perilous plummet onto the island. Bats roosted and flew between spire to spire, and accessibility was only via the graces of how tightly packed most of the buildings of the city were before it became a Locale.

And each of those tightly packed buildings will also have other monsters within. Climbers and Clamberers, who were heavily mutated humans from the magic of Fawweld.

The entrance they used wasn't a commonly used one, according to Vevaria. It was hard to get inside Fawweld easily, because the magic of the dome would send most people into the island, and the area reset, destroying most attempts at more solid buildings. The best way to enter was to enter via a building that intersected the dome part way, like the tunnel they used. It was an old warehouse before.

Several wooden ladders were hauled between the windows of the werehouse and into other buildings, and there was fighting already as the denizens of this place fought back against intruders.

Vevaria climbed up on a ladder first, followed by Ximon, then Morress, Daniel, and Beth at the rear. They hopped down into another building, where an injured scout was being tended to for a gash, somebody else was stripping claws off dead bats, and two others were throwing dead clamberers out of the windows to the depths below.

It was a ramshackle basecamp near the entrance, set up to head off any issues like an attack from behind.

"We catch up, then go around. I want to get to the high street shops," Vevaria said to the group.

"Why there?" Morress asked.

"They are nearby the kirks, which is where our boss is pushing towards if he wants to reach the island, and they have a lot of materials that could be useful and valuable. It helps set up a perimeter of safety for anyone trying to reach the island from the kirks, too."

He couldn't deny that logic. They weren't there to loot alone as a small party at cross-purposes with everyone else; they were there to help fortify the Kirks and then carry as much stuff from the island as possible.

"And I'm heading to the library with Beth, so we're going in the same direction!" Damien added.

They moved on, and as they navigated through buildings and across thin but terrifying gaps where there was no real need for a ladder, the fighting got louder.

Climbing onto the ledge of a door and helping Ximon through, He caught sight of something crawl in through the window. Elongated to a grotesque degree, it had a head that was lengthy in a way that the face was a snout, the jaw was in a massive, rictus grin, and the eyes were almost sideways facing. The torso extended to an extent it had to curl up, and it's limbs reached from one side of the large room to the other.

Vevaria yelled out. "Climber!"

It swung a massive hand at her, and she dove backwards, out of the way. Ximon dashed forwards, and the climber tried to bite his arm as he threw out the spear, scoring a hit on a finger, cutting deep into it.

It then made a noise, like a hiss, and Vevaria ran straight at the best, swinging her sword at it and chopping of one foot of finger.

"Kill it! Before they-"

Out of every window in the room, bats poured in.

One tackled Ximon, sending him into a screaming panic. Damien ducked down as Beth slammed her palms together. "Get down! Scour!"

Bat shrieked out in pain as their epidermises burned away with the magic. One raked the outside of Beth's thigh as it flew past, but it's wings were made of thin flaps of skin, and soon enough most of them were landbound.

Two weren't, and as eth was busy stomping one of the bats to death as it kicked at her, they grabbed Damien with long, nasty claws and dragged him up and right towards Morress. If it wasn't for the two points in Dexterity, Damien would have had nobody save him. If it weren't for the point in Strength, Damien, and then Morress would have been pulled out of that window.

Ximon threw his spear, and it scored a hit on one of the bats, but cost him his only weapon. The climber slapped him off his feet with a sweeping attack. But it was one bat against Morress now, and he pulled Damien back in, even though a claw scraped his cheek the whole way across as he bat let go and flew off.

Beth clapped and yelled her spell again, this time at the climber. It hissed and covered it's eyes, and Vevaria took the moment to swing her sword, which went over it's arms and into it's face, killing it.

"Fuck," Ximon muttered.

"Damien!"

Beth ran over to coddle the noble student, and Morress stepped away, but not fast enough because Beth then grabbed him by the shoulder. "Thank you. I mean this."

Then she let him go, and he went ack to Vevaria.

"Get to sticking the ones who are kicking," she said, looking at the dozen or so downed bats, weakened by Beth's magic. "Beth will get some Experience for it, but finishing blows count a good amount."

They took turns killing the Bats, who may have lost their wings, but weren't pushovers. Those clawed feet meant business, and Morress took a nasty stab to the foot from one he thought was dead.

But they killed six each, leading to Morress first level up, and a small amount of recovery from that, which Vevaria explained was normal.

He put another point into Strength, then one into Physique and the last into Awareness.

"Let me carve these bats up. their claws are cheap, but useful in a pinch."

"The climber have anything good?" Ximon asked.

"It might have a ring."

"It does!"

He pulled off a ring that looked like the Silent Screaming one Morress bought.

It filled him with mild annoyance and amusement. "Fuck off. Even now you cost me money."

Ximon laughed as he put it on.

The screeching of bats attracted their attention outside, and warily, the entire group looked out. A man fell out a window, dragged out by a climber who reached in, pulled him out, and let him go, screaming the whole time. More climbed on the outsides of buildings, used elongated toes and fingers to grip to buildings and walls.

"That's not a normal swarm," Beth muttered.

"It isn't," Vevaria said. "Let's go."

As they made their way through more buildings, each remarkably empty in a way that Vevaria and Beth couldn't help but comment on, Ximon tapped his fellow rookie. "Morress."

"Yeah?"

"We need to ask her what Eghart's deal is."

He gestured to the pitched battle in the buildings nearby.

"You think-"

"Yeah," Ximon said. "I think this situation might get worse for those guys over there very quickly. And then us."

The next building was the first of the stores. As soon as they got in, Vevaria clapped her hands and gestured at the upturned shelf items around them, most still on the shelves that were attached to the floor, or ceiling now, Morress supposed.

"Okay, we can look for gear here, talk, and answer questions."

Ximon nodded, but it was Morress who asked first.

"Why the fuck is Eghart sabotaging the expedition?"