Chapter Ten

Harmony sipped her wine, attempting to wash away the taste of half-digested food and death out of her mouth. At the very least, it replaced it. She didn’t want to think about how the wine cost more than her week’s wages. The longer she nursed it, the calmer Lord Tyler became. He’d stopped offering to take her back to the lodge after the fifth “I’m fine.”

Sir Maxwell laughed, retelling the match to friends who hadn’t been in the room until he waved them away and headed over.

“Little Lord, the rest of the team should arrive soon to meet our newest member.”

“What? She’s not ready yet. I only promised a few runs to get components for a spell, not membership.” Tyler sputtered.

“When was the last time you brought someone you didn’t want to make part of the team? Jess, Minx, even Alison.”

“It’s not like that. We haven’t even seen what she’ll do in the dungeon. I don’t even know if she wants to join the team.”

“She’s a necromancer going into an undead dungeon. Do we even need to guess how it will go? And who wouldn’t want to join our team? Wealth, riches, power. We’ll hit fifteen, conquer the capitol dungeon, and head to the wilds.”

Harmony didn’t want to join the team. All she wanted was to get the components and the levels, then raise her new pet. Not that she would tell either of these two as to disappoint either one of them. The thick taste of death reminded her that Old Bones wanted conflict. She wouldn’t let herself get nudged into the fight.

“I think you’re getting ahead of yourself, Max.” Tyler’s serious, almost lordly tone shift indicated skill usage.

The maid noticed neither of these boys liked the other much. Why were they on the same team? Sir Maxwell first objected to her presence to annoy Tyler. And is now trying to woo her to the team to continue to bother the young lord. It wasn’t a team where camaraderie was there to carry them off and into the wilds together. Members rotated in and out of Tyler’s party quicker than the manor went through staff. Maxwell’s promises about progressing with them were as empty as any boy whispering sweet nothings into your ear in an attempt to bed you.

“Rose!” Maxwell yelled across the room, standing up and waiving.

Tyler gave up and groaned into his hand before sitting up straight.

Harmony turned to face the newcomer. The woman was wearing black pants and a billowy blue shirt. She had what the maid initially thought was a staff before recognizing it as something she’d seen a few variations of in Tyler’s collection. A force bow for those pesky archers who no longer wish to use a string or arrows for their skills. Apply mana, pull back, and fire. Of course, Tyler only had unusual or unique variations. Still, even a regular one made the cost of skill stones seem like coppers to gold coins.

“Sir Maxwell, Lord Tyler, rare to see you two together outside of our dungeon jaunts. And who is this?” Rose asked, having given Harmony a look of mild curiosity.

“This is our new teammate!” Maxwell announced”

“Trial.” Tyler squeezed in.

“Harmony the necromancer. We have our tank, a knight, the archer, and our wizard after Len gets here when he finishes grading magical theory exams. The five of us will sweep through Old Bones two, no, three times our next run day. Maybe we’ll even beat the time record.” Max boasts.

Rose raised a skeptical eyebrow at that. Then seated herself at the table. “What’s your story, little necro?”

“Lord Tyler has offered me a chance to gain some levels and collect crafting materials. I’m trying to make the requirements for a scroll.” Harmony felt no need to reveal that she was the man’s personal maid today. If Tyler had wanted that information told, he would have. It wasn’t like most adventurers didn’t have some kind of mundane profession that they worked on to advance.

“Very generous of him,” Rose replied a little too sweetly. “Boys, we’ll need more food and drink than this. Can you go fetch some more? The good wine too.”

Maxwell nearly leaped out of his seat, getting up. Not to be outdone, Lord Tyler gets up and follows after. “Why are those two on the same team?” Harmony asked as soon as the two of them were out of earshot.

“Cousins. This is supposed to make them closer. Len tutors them both, not that they bother to attend class, and is paid extra to be on the team. All they do is compete for women, loot, and attention. Don’t let Tyler pull you into his experiments. That’s what pushed Alison into Max’s arms. Not that she didn’t rush to get her levels and bail as quickly as she could. Everyone’s nearly done with this dungeon, so I’m surprised you’ve been invited.”

Harmony knew how far she would and wouldn’t go with Tyler to get what she wanted. The other teammates were explained. “And why are you here?”

“Um… Mom wanted an in to join Tyler’s Gran’s garden parties. She’s visiting for the season. You’ll be replacing me as the newest member. I only need a level before I can follow the Cleric to the capital anyway, which should be soon.”

The Dig Boys stressed that a good working relationship was vital for any team. The people by your side would put their lives on the line for you. You had to trust them to do their job as much as they trusted you to do yours. Tyler wasn’t the best with people, but she had assumed he might have a friend on his dungeon team, or they’d at least be professionals.

“Don’t pout. Neither of those boys has yet to find a problem they couldn’t throw money at. The dungeon is a piece of cake.”

That was the prevailing wisdom that Harmony didn’t believe. More than didn’t believe it because she’d experienced the rare random encounters that could make things turn deadly. That was one of the reasons she didn’t contemplate anyone other than Tyler, who’d cleared the dungeon multiple times.

Rather than get caught up fretting, Harmony leaned into [Poise and Bearing] without activating the skill. She trickled energy into allowing her to present a relaxed but confident demeanor by the time the boys arrived back. It was easier than it had ever been for her to do it. She noticed how the rotation inside her was charged enough that instead of needing to transfer directly to the skill, she merely had to let energy move from the swirling inside into [Poise and Bearing]. Even that much contemplation ended up a little too much as she forced her attention away and took another gulp of wine.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Maxwell embellished the match between him and Harmony for Rose. She ooh’d and ah’d at all the appropriate places through practice or skill. Tyler bragged about improving the speed of his skill activations. Rose explained how the team easily took down the bone knight, one of the dungeons rotating final bosses. Allowing both boys to add their contributions to her story. Harmony knew the story was for her benefit and appreciated it. A cakewalk to twelve with a champion’s tooth in hand, she’d be ready to raise her pet. Only eight more days before the prince’s body is picked up, and his Coatl would be out of reach.

“Len!” The team announced the wizard’s arrival together. The bespectacled young man in long gray robes looked embarrassed at the outburst. After a brief introduction to Harmony, they did their best to compete to be the quietest in the group.

That was until Tyler spoke up, looking more than a little tipsy. “Did you know Harmony here is also atypical? She practices Carter’s schema.”

The distance between casual disinterest and intense focus was crossed in two deep inhalations, enough for the wizard to power his words. “How do you contend with Well’s takedown of Carter’s derivatives? Or the compelling paragraph on the topic in Problems of Progression? What Carter derivative are you letting guide you? Please don’t tell me it’s Thalia.”

The unexpected verbal rush forced Harmony to activate [Poise and Bearing] to buy time to formulate a response. The first impulse was to secretly stab Tyler in his sleep as he giggled into his mug of wine. The biggest issue was that she had no idea what the wizard was talking about. The manor library might have some of those texts, but she hadn’t gained access. All of her learning had come from the book nook in the parlor she’d cleaned, Tyler’s esoteric collection and speed reading any text she leisurely had to return to the library after one of the masters of the house was done.

“I don’t contend with them. I simply prefer Carter’s Schema to the current Thibodeux activation craze. If skills were meant to work solely on activation, they would be designed that way, without synergies, adaptations, and flexibility. What progression path do you follow?”

“Professor Oak’s evolutionary mindset.”

The rest of the table groaned. “Look what you’ve started, Tyler. If I wanted to listen to a lecture, I’d actually go to college.” Maxwell rebuffed.

Harmony ignored the complaint. She hadn’t heard of this theory. Classes evolve every twenty-five levels. You actually get three to choose from, similar to when you gain new skills. Most treat it as a thing that happens as you progress without it playing a big part in how you choose to use and develop skills. Like getting your period or a boy’s voice dropping. It happens when you’re older and move on. “Explain.”

“By maximizing and minimizing certain skill levels of my class and profession before leveling up, I can influence my stat progression and even the class options I receive during evolution. This will let me guide my evolution. I will become the next arch-magus!”

Rose tossed a roll at the wizard’s head. It bounced off, and he ignored it.

“It doesn’t seem right to leave skills underdeveloped.” The idea of doing that bothered her deep inside. Some of her skills simply hadn’t gotten much use as a maid, but that didn’t mean she wanted to abandon them. Carter’s mindset of using everything to the max appealed to her, the idea that you are your skills. Leveling them made you stronger, and improved synergies gave you more tools to work with, like exercise.

“Oh, only up until evolution. It might be harder to max out old skills after you evolve. This is more about narrowing the focus to what options you are given. Skills acquired through skill stones are shown to have greater importance for options. A knight with a fire-based skill added on has a much greater chance of being given the firebrand option upon reaching twenty-five.”

“Boring. Boring. Boring. You might have had the little lord listening to your lectures once upon a time, but we don’t need any of your yappy lectures tonight.” Maxwell groaned.

A table exploded in a burst of magic at the far side of the common room. “Wooo!” Rose yelled and was joined in by many of the patrons.

“That’s the kind of action we need.” The Knight encouraged.

Harmony could taste a pungent whiff of the dungeon’s influence flooding the room. A shiver of fear crept up the back of her spine even as the wine and joyous wildness of the room made her feel free. She noted that the staff of the dungeon club had cleared the central area and now hugged the walls, watching the patrons with practiced looks on their faces.

A chair flew out of the area where the explosion had come from. The patrons were getting to their feet. Harmony’s height gave her a disadvantage in watching what was going on. But from the noise alone, she could tell a brawl was growing. “I think we should leave, Lord Tyler.”

Sir Maxwell lifted his sword high and roared at the crowd.

“Too late for that. My aunt will kill me if I leave Max to get hurt. Wisdom is not his strong point. And hey, you asked for a distraction.” With a flash of magic, a maul and a single latching breastplate dropped onto the middle of the table, and Tyler started to pull on the piece of emergency armor. Harmony presumed it was enough for him to activate his skills even as her mind goggled at the fact he had a storage item. While neither rare nor unusual, the expense of them meant that even wealthy families rarely handed such things out until their kids’ first evolution.

The necromancer had no interest in getting caught up in a brawl inside a dungeon club. As one of the lowest-level people here, if anyone was going to get hurt, she was. Using the environment in that match against Sir Maxwell was one thing, but at best, she could hide behind Tyler or the people she had only just met. This wasn’t a mess to clean or hair to style. The appeal of earning a pet had been that it could fight in commission matches, so she could avoid this kind of attention.

“Max, We’re not joining this fight! Get me out of here, or else!” Harmony yelled at him, letting [Poise and Bearing] take her into more of an aggressive presence rather than a panicking one.

“Or else what, little lady?” He countered, half drunk and full of arrogance. The Knight stood there, the picture of a pampered guild adventurer, fancy black beard and wild hair. She’d served his type many times. He wouldn’t back down because the image he made of himself demanded action.

Without the mass of ground bone, she doubted her skills could hurt him. If she had learned whatever the combat skill [High Kick] was, she could damage him enough to snap him out of this. If it didn’t risk a greater chance of riling the boy up more. The challenge was there.

Synergies knotted as she pulled upon skills amid the slurry of [Mana Rotation] that now felt more at home inside her soul than ever before. [Manipulate Dead], combined with years of experience, braided with a task she’d used almost daily. Instead of careful application through her hands, she pushed out the skill at a distance. Her synergized death magic cut through the thick power of the dungeon. It felt like they sparked against each other.

Sir Maxwell glowed under the influence of the necromancer’s power.

“By the Gods, she’s made you pink!” Rose barked out.

She had worked on the matriarch, changing and adapting her hair. [Manipulate Dead] with a pinch of style and a heap of [Beautician]. It was an attack on the Knight, one she hoped would wound the man’s pride enough to pull him out of his intoxicated madness.

The black locks and intricate beard all glowed bright pink. Splashes of color stained his armor due to her lack of control. Not even the young man’s eyebrows were saved. Where hair used to be black on his forearm now looked blonder, in how the pink strands appeared.

Sir Maxwell’s look had undergone a significant change. Still, Harmony could sense a greater change as the death atmosphere from the dungeon turned hot like cooked rotten meat. The room began to shake.

“Dungeon quake.” Someone in the crowd cried.

While the room pitched and rolled, the fighting stopped. As the dungeon space settled, everyone stayed frozen in place. “Drinks for all!” The crowd yelled.

The energy of the place had stopped and spun in a different direction. Even the flood of death left Harmony’s senses. The staff worked double time. Everyone was up for drinks.

“What’s this about?” Harmony asked the wizard.

“First dungeon quake? It means something big has happened. A team got wiped. A new boss has been added. Something has stirred Old Bones up some. It’s tradition to raise a pint for those who may have died or for a new future that has yet to come. It’s been over a year since the last one.”

Max ignored that he’d been turned pink, joining in the celebration.

Harmony lamented her choice to not wait a few more seconds. Everything could have worked out fine if she’d done nothing. Accepting a fresh mug of ale delivered to her, she sipped it as the settling mana skill started to feel manageable. “Adventurers.” She softly muttered as both a curse and a blessing.