"Funny. I'm getting Experience from some contract, but I have no idea from whom," Cless mused out loud.
"Isn't it from the boys?" Josefine suggested.
"Yes! There were two assholes when I went there to heal them. I charged Experience from them. They should be fighting something. Josie, could you check if they are in the Dungeon?"
Josefine sighed, "What makes you think I can see them from twenty-two kilometers away?"
"Because every time I asked you looked straight in the direction they were. And you know how far they are. And you are the Great Sage, who can use any magic spell."
"You are wrong," Josefine pouted. "I can't use clerical magic. Or see inside the Dungeon, too much miasma. But they are using that fancy peel tower you made as a staging base. That fancy tower you made in a day."
"I hope they are alright this time. Shall we continue our lesson, Great Sage?"
After having an "Of course, Holy Maiden!" from Josefine forced down her throat, Cless resumed her magic studies.
While she had quite the selection of spells to cast from, she had no idea how they worked or how they interacted with each other, a flaw that could be fatal now that she was out of the 'kids league' as Balthus called those under seventy-five. Or nine-tenths of everyone. Josefine was tireless in her pursuit of the perfection of magic. And unless the world ends, she has all the time to do it.
The Experience kept trickling. Lower values than before, but it seems Shane's guild were doing fine in their dungeon delve. It stopped a few hours after nightfall. These fire-and-forget contracts could mean a steady source of Experience, like an investment. She could grant Skills through written contracts. Why not make them in a way that her payback is a small trickle of Experience? After winter ends and she moves to Glauchester, she could set up some sort of business helping delvers in exchange for that Experience trickle.
The problem was how to keep secrecy with a lot of people contracted. Maybe make them anonymous? The Skill contracts had nothing to pin on her. Maybe...
She went to her desk and tried to draft a contract. She could mask it as some magical scroll and put the details in the fine print.
> Spell Scroll.
>
> The bearer of this scroll agrees to tithe the charging cost in Experience as a compensation for the crafting of this scroll. Bearer tithes 10% of earned Experience automatically or can immediately charge the scroll by placing his hand on the item and saying the words "Full Charge". Once the charge is full, the spell below can be cast by following the activation rules.
>
> The bearer will automatically tally and remember the tithed Experience and know when the scroll is fully charged.
>
> If the scroll changes hands before it is fully charged the charge amount is reset unless it returns to the bearer within 24 hours. The bearer can, if willing, gift the fully charged scroll to another person.
>
> Spell: Revivify (proficiency: 70).
>
> Charging Cost: 15,000 Experience Points.
>
> Activation: Holding the scroll, touch the dead body up to 10 minutes after death and say: "Return to me, your time is not over!"
Cless used her Skill to find and fix a few mistakes and to gauge how much she could charge for the spell. The amount impressed her. She cast Revivify into the Scroll and felt the 37 points of Power drain from her. She felt the spell's energy in the parchment. She rolled it and went out to find Josefine. She found Karen and George talking in the taproom.
Karen sensed her approaching from behind. "Cless? It is unusual for you to be out here this late at night. You hate crowds. Is anything wrong?"
"Hi, aunt. I made something new, I would like your opinion on it."
Karen placed her drink in the bar and Cless gave the scroll to her. She read it and gave Cless her full attention. "Is this thing real?" Karen sounded surprised.
"Yes. Oh. I went too far with this one, maybe I should make another with a lower-level scroll. Wait for just a minute."
She drafted another for the Light spell. The Charge cost was 100 Class Experience. She gave the scroll to her aunt. Karen didn't hesitate. She said "Full charge." right away.
> Your contract earned you 100 Experience Points.
Karen pointed at one of the support beams and said, "Give me Light." The usual ball of light appeared near the beam. The scroll's ink faded. It was still readable but the spell's Power was spent. Cless thought she could put several charges in one.
"Cless, this is amazing," Karen clapped her hands and pointed at the Revivify scroll. "Can I keep this one?"
"Of course. I could make more if you want." Her only cost was the three solidii for the vellum and her Power. "How much do you think I could sell one of these?"
"Something between eight to twelve crowns. The problem is that you can't sell too many of these or people will suspect of the origin," George took over. "Just a curiosity, how many of these can you do in a day?"
Cless did some math and answered, "With Revivify? I think forty per day."
"I got an idea. Can you make these with several charges in a single scroll? You could ramp the value. I think a scroll with ten charges of Revivify could sell easily for sixty-five Crowns."
"Could I charge fifty crowns for a scroll with seven charges?"
"Possible. I suggest you hold onto them until you are in Glauchester. You can say you got them as Dungeon loot. You'd have to pay Association taxes but it would be a nice cover."
"Thank you. If you don't mind, I can make more. And aunt, don't keep it on yourself or it will collect Experience?"
"What? This?" She shook the scroll in her hand. "Full Charge!"
> Your contract earned you 15,000 Experience Points.
"Aunt!" Cless shouted in irritation. Was fifteen thousand Experience pocket change for these people? Wasn't it hard to get by? Even if she was level three hundred, it was still five percent of the amount to the next level.
"Don't mind it, my flustered niece," Karen hugged her. "You gave me an inestimable gift when you showed me your full status."
Karen leaned in and whispered to Cless, "I can mimic any Skill ranked B or lower while I am inside my inn. I need to see its full description though. And now that I have the ones you took from Frederik, I might even be able to fight against the Patriarch in his home turf. If and when I manage to bind an inn inside the Holy City."
That was... amazing? Cless almost drooled when she thought of the humongous collection Karen should have. She was happy, very happy to have her as an aunt.
Cless dedicated a whole day to managing her Status. Skills were getting out of hand. She split them into five categories. Combat, Social, Production, Defense, and Others. She also gave away the Skills that would be best used by others. Venaris took both [Great Agility] and [Courtier's Charm] as she had others that also unlocked Charisma and the proficiencies had overlaps and [Master Appraiser] to better hide her status while the gnome returned [Burrower Bond] so she could speak with the pet drillmole. Silverfang got [Pierce Defenses] for his bite and [Steel Muscles]. They overlapped with Trevor's skills. She got [Spellslinger] back from Vic so she could write more scrolls and gave him Stage Magician for the small Dexterity buff.
These trades made her weaker but not by much and balanced out with the gain in power from the other members of the guild. She also painfully noted the complete lack of options for Kurt. She would find something else for him. Maybe hand over [Brownie Magic] to him so he could use the basic mage spells. There weren't any third-tier spells for that school of magic and while the loss of the Skill would reduce the effects of her spells in that category by a third and she would have to also curb the effect of either Deeppockets or Blink...
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No. Kurt didn't deserve scraps out of pity. He had a good enough weapon that worked on females, the problem was that it worked on both her and Venaris. Maybe if they trained resistance to that but she wasn't sure there was one. She would get a decent spellcasting Skill for Kurt later.
But she needed everyone in a good fighting shape because she didn't want to be alone and do everything herself. Also because even the most trained warriors can fall to a throng of weaker enemies. Point in case when Silverfang attacked with his wolf pack the boys were able to overwhelm him with humbers. Even for her, if the orcs back at the gnome village decided to come at her all at once, she would be done for. That was how the angry mob was able to overwhelm her mother even though she was on the two hundreds.
Cless rounded her Exp and gave almost five hundred thousand Experience Points to Venaris. It moved her eight levels forward, to forty-eight. She was still the lowest leveled member, but that would fix as they adventured together.
Together being the key word, Cless thought with a sigh. Soon it will be midwinter. She had projects to keep her busy but Cless would move out of Tambrill and set out on her own in the Dungeon Town, Glauchester. Not the only Dungeon town by far but the closest. Cless was getting cold feet and not because of the weather.
To scare away those dark thoughts, Cless picked up her drillmole pet to play. "How are you doing, kid?"
"Right. I think it is time I give you a name. What name would you want? Do you have anything in mind?"
He had an odd accent. Sounded at the same time gentlemanly and snobbish. "Shad, Shad, Shad... Hey, Shad, why did you pick that name for yourself?"
Cless leaned to put her eyes at the same level as the mole on her desk. "Do you like mining?"
Shad tilted its head and trilled its snout. < Why wouldn't a drillmole like to mine?>
"That's good. I was thinking of heading there tomorrow. Check the road, see what Shane's guild is doing."
Her plans to hit the Dungeon were postponed. The next day a nasty blizzard hit Tambrill. In the whole town, the only two people that were okay outdoors were probably Olson and Venaris. The former was almost immune to weather and natural disasters and Venaris was one with the snow, courtesy of one of the gnomes' Skills Cless gave her.
Cless had to take her pick of the twenty-fifth level Technique from the Beast Tamer class. The options were War Form, Share Skills, or Heal Companion. The third one was discarded immediately. Between an impressive combat buff and the versatility of making use of her wide array of Skills, she went for the latter. She wasn't disappointed. The wording 'bound creature' felt misleading but it only applied to the tame beasts, or just Shad for the moment. She would have picked War Form if it would apply to SIlverfang. The idea of having a five-meter tall werewolf raging after her enemies were very enticing, but nothing more than a fantasy.
"It is snowing." She picked up the crystal-furred mole and showed the blizzard through a gap in the window.
That was a good point. The problem was that they didn't have a place to dig. She pointed it out.
Was there something to dig? She focused on [Gemsense]. A few scattered pockets of tiny gemstones, almost at the edge of her senses. [Sense Ore] revealed some copper and traces of iron. Probably not worth her time but she didn't want to write spell scrolls and disappoint Shad. She went downstairs to look for Karen. The common room had a dozen patrons, probably people that decided to keep themselves warm and sheltered from the blizzard inside Karen's inn.
She also noticed that the room was warm and the hearth was dead. Karen might be mimicking her Skill to keep rooms warm, but in this case, it was the whole inn. Cless found Karen in the kitchen.
"Cless. I didn't think you'd leave your room with this blizzard."
"It is cramped in there and I don't like the bone game the boys play. Karen, this is Shad."
Karen picked the Crystalback Razormole and examined him. "Nice specimen you got here. Won't be much in a fight though."
"He wants to dig. I was thinking if we could mine a bit in the backyard. I'll fix everything, don't worry."
"Knock yourself out. I'd recommend digging the tunnel from one of the horse stalls. You don't want water seeping in your mine."
Strange. "Don't you mean snow?" And now that she mentioned it, there's the sound of rain from outside.
Cless went to the back door and opened it. The backyard was covered in mud. Heavy rain was falling and a gust of wind sent a spray inside. She shut the door.
"Pretty nice Skill you got there. I was able to make it work in the whole area of the inn, either indoors or outdoors."
Cless decided to go mining anyway. She would cross the mud and then dry and clean up once underground.
"I'll get changed and bring my pickaxe and shovel then."
An hour later, Cless and Shad were twenty meters underground. She compacted the loose earth, dirt, and gravel into solid stone and created a canopy around the horse stall and a spiral staircase. She was wearing her brass-iere over the heavy-duty jacket. The light the piece of armor gave for her [Steelshine] talent was enough to navigate in that cramped space. Now that she was underground, she could sense the deposits better. She would store the stones dug in Deeppockets.
As some pastime on a boring snow day, it was fine. The economic profit of this digging operation was questionable. They kept going for another couple hours when they hit the first copper node. A not-so-impressive two-kilogram in assorted small and tiny nuggets of copper ore. Cless shared her [Sense Ore] with Shad and he started to dig toward the iron. Three hours and they found less than a kilogram of iron ore. Sensing around, she felt no other ores in her impressive half-kilometer of range. They backtracked to the bottom of the spiral staircase, Cless dumping stones on the way back to shut the tunnels and alleviate her load.
During the second day of mining, Cless shared [Gemsense] when she felt a deposit of gems with Shad and watched with mirth as the hungry drillmole went straight for a deposit of milky beige gems. Then she was distracted by the sound notifications.
> Your contracts earned you 120 Experience.
>
> Your contracts earned you 150 experience.
'Are they delving in this blizzard? But then again, here I am, underground as well.' Cless mused. She shifted rock with a spell to make it easy for Shad to return. He was clutching a batch of gems and covered in dirt. Cless stored it and they moved toward another ore node she sensed.
> Your contracts earned you 180 Experience.
>
> Your contracts earned you 225 experience.
If it weren't for the displaced stone, they would've covered three times the ground they did. But Cless had to soften then compress the stone to make room for more stone. She wanted to have a way to make the stone disappear but there wasn't one. Maybe at a higher tier.
> Your contracts earned you 90 Experience.
>
> Your contracts earned you 100 experience.
'That's some hardcore delving.' She thought as the notifications kept coming. She reached a red ore she didn't know what it was but mined it anyway. The notifications kept popping, every ten to fifteen minutes all the way back to the Beaten Hare.
She observed that the blizzard was still raging on and shaped the stone down, covering up the tunnel she made and restoring the horse stall. She crossed the muddy backyard.
"Back again so soon?" Josefine was in the kitchen. "There's soup for you. Everyone else is sleeping."
"Josie, how long can a delving party below the forties keep going in the Dungeon?"
She was worried. The notifications kept popping, all of them with low values. It meant they were either killing an endless stream of very low-level monsters in a small to medium group or they were all bunched up and fighting something strong. But they were there for hours.
"Still worried about your friends?" The elf just tried to see them using whatever she used but came empty-handed. "They are in the dungeon."
"All this time? We did take an entire day to clean the first floor, but it was idle gathering monsters for almost a month."
Josefine looked around in the general direction of the gnome village, staring at the distance. Startled, she dropped the bomb.
"There's a monster migration in progress, the monsters are rushing into the dungeon. I think your friends might be in trouble."
> Name: Queen Cless Hreidmar of Myrkheim and Infernal Realm (in exile)
>
> Race: Human.
>
> Level: 82 ( 3,000,000 / 3,403,000 Exp )
>
> Class: — Dabbler 25 ( 300,000 Exp / ** ) — Beast Tamer 25 (900,000 Exp / ** ) — Vicar 24 ( 1.450.345 / 1,500,000 Exp )
>
> Profession — Veteran Warmaster 25 (300,000 Exp / **) — Master Instructor 11 (306,435 / 341,000 Exp)
> — Crafter 25 (Skill) — Farmer 25 (Skill) — Herbalist 25 (Skill) — Alchemist 25 (Skill)
>
> Base Stats — Strength: 64 [192] — Agility: 83 [148] — Health: 102 [236] — Intellect: 105 [201] — Wisdom: 100 — Charisma: 100 — Magic: 250
>
> Available Status Points: 50
>
>
>
> Skills:
> S-rank: [Absolute Contract]
>
> B-rank: [Fear Aura] – [Perfect Might] – [Succubus’ Kiss]
>
> C-rank: [Eat Anything] – [Elven Longevity] – [Appraise Immunity] – [Craftsmen] – [Dangersense] – [Earth Magic]
> – [Master Miner] – [Seductress' Charm]
>
> D-Rank: [Alchemical Tolerance] – [Alchemist] – [Brownie Magic] – [Curmudgeon crafter] – [Dancer’s Grace] – [Darkness Resistance]
> – [Druidwalk] – [Farmer] – [Gemsense] – [Giant's Stamina] – [Great Leap] – [Grounding] – [Heavy Handed] – [Herbalism] – [Merchant sense]
> – [Ore sense] – [Poison Resistance] – [Runner's Dash] – [Sharp Mind] – [Singers’ Talent] – [Snakes' Flexibilty] – [Spell Resistance]
> – [Spellslinger] – [Steelshine] – [Tinker] – [Tremorsense]
>
> E-Rank: [Air sailing] – [Architectural Ingenuity] – [Burrower Bond] – [Coin Sense] – [Enhanced touch] – [Gravebreath]
> – [Hearth’s warmth] – [Howl] – [Pack Rat] – [Seamstress Talent] – [Silk Hair] – [Splinters]
> – [Virility] – [Wanderlust] – [Weavertouch]
>
> F-rank: [Cheat] – [Florist’s Wonder] – [Gardener’s touch] – [Inner Compass]
>
>
> Techniques:
>
> — [Beast Taming VI] — [Beast Status] — [Share Skills]
>
>
>
> Spells (spells under 20 hidden / Spells without a number are at the soft cap / * denotes a level 25th ultimate):
>
> Cleric: — Mending — Detoxify — Light — Turn Undead — Blessing — Holy Bolt — Purify — Protection
> — — — Hallow — Flametongue — Cure — Uncurse — Banish — Heal — Warding — Revivify*
>
> Mage: — Detect Magic — Armor — Fireball — Shield — Resistance — Deeppockets* — Blink*
>
> Priestess: Censure — Bulwark — Mass Mending — Sacred Dance — Judgement — Song of the Accord*
>
> House: — Detect Dust — Doorwatch — Prestidigitation — Never Overdone! — Touch Up — Dry — Repair — Clean — Bloom — Hearth Recall*
>
> Earth: — Soften — Earth Armor — Stone Shape — Terrakinesis — Golem* — Earth to Stone — Grasping Hand — Spike Wall — Construct*
>
> Vicar: — Water Breathing — Shield of Faith — Sanctuary — ???????
>
>
>
> Proficiencies (values under 10 hidden / {A} = Automatic Proficiency: Soft Cap +5):
>
> Appraise: Status: 80 — Resistance: (immune) — Forgery: (immune)
>
> General: Prayer: 80 — Reading: 50 — Architecture: {A}
>
> Crafting (+13 Profession): Tailor: {A} — Embroidery: {A} — Knitting: {A}
>
> Farming (+13 Profession): Dismantling: 30 — Foraging: 30 — Forestry: 30
>
> Production: Mining: {A} — Weaving: {A}
>
> Social: Negotiation: 80 — Persuasion: 80 — Bluff: 80 — Flirting: {A} — Sexual Technique: {A} — Etiquette: {A} — Dancing: {A} — Singing: {A} — Gambling: {A}
>
> Movement: Running: {A} — Athletics: {A} — Balance: {A} — Jumping: {A}
>
> Martial (+18 profession): Leadership: 80 — Intimidation: 60 — Tactics: 80
>
> Weapon (+18 profession): Long Blades: 80 — Unarmed: 80 — Archery: 80 — Maces: 60 — Pickaxe: {A}