Gabe

Out.

We need to get out.

I don't have a danger sense skill, but if I did, it would be ringing loud enough to wake the dead.

The few minutes have confirmed two different things.

One, the system is intelligent. Status boxes that are insanely specific could mean one of three things inside my head. One: the system is intelligent and maybe trying to poke fun at me? Notify me that it is watching me? Maybe there was an update I didn't read about? Two: the system is designed to seem to have a sense of humor during especially dark moments... maybe after I've been mind-controlled against my will, and is constantly reading my mind and is aware of everything that happens around me. Three: ... I can't remember three.

Second, I am in extreme danger.

Yeah, I get it now. Being inside what is literally a fortress with someone who has enough enchanted charms to blow up city blocks, with someone able to mind-control me with a word, should have been a giveaway. I'm too trusting. I forget that Dungeon Quest has the ability to interact with my mind, in a way that no game ever had. I forget the absolute terror that the Daemon at the carnival brought on me... and I should have remembered.

I shouldn't have needed to know that Hector also has a secret hidden class, the ability to create things I've never even heard of, and can toss in a bunch of hidden curses along with his enchantment while being as carefree as a lark in Spring.

If I make a wrong move here, I'm going to die. Or worse. I'm gonna be hit by curses, then be used as a puppet by someone, stuck in a dungeon every future moment that I play Dungeon Quest.

My emotions still feel calm, thanks to the spell cast by Maribel just a few minutes prior.

Minutes.

So much has happened that it feels like we've been here for hours.

Hector approaches me and opens his mouth again. This time, though, he talks.

"You're a sucker. You're all suckers. Someday I'll learn what you're hiding, and then I sell you for a buck like every other sucker out there. No hard feelings. You're just a sucker."

I turn my head away from him, as if I couldn't tell anything was coming out of his mouth. That's the best I can do because I'm pretty sure that my eyes will give away my racing mind if he is able to see them.

"How was your experience, boy?"

My mind races as I realize I'm not sure if the badge is still present on my chest. Looking down would give me away. Responding in any way would give me away. Is this a trap? I look at the skill progress for Curse Resistance.

[Passive Skill: Curse Resistance Level 1 (14.2/10000)]

[Grants a chance to resist the application of a curse. Upon a successful resist, grants an extremely small chance to automatically gain permanent immunity to the given curse.]

Wait two seconds.

No change.

Which means the badge is off.

That said, the correct response is actually no response. It shouldn't matter. The feeling of admiration and love I had for Teacher Hector is completely eclipsed by the abject terror that I feel. I look out towards Sister Maribel. Hector asks again.

"Boy?"

I turn and look at him.

"Sigh... and I was so hopeful..."

A tinge of positive feeling. But I am still terrified. I narrow my eyes and purse my lips, and walk over to be directly next to Sister Maribel.

"And this! After I just performed such a valuable enchantment! How are you even going to be able to use it if I don't tell you about it?"

I look away from him. The enchantment might have certain usages, but I'm guessing that Sister Maribel has one as well, or at least knows how the enchantment works. I'd rather get away, as quickly as possible, and remove the hidden curses present on my permanently attached mithril ring.

Hector reaches out and pulls the badge off of Sister Maribel.

"Hector, thank you for your services. We will be going now."

"Won't you stay for tea, Eliza? I still had so many questions. And you have so many answers you can give me."

"I'm afraid I'll have to insist, Hector. Your payment is here."

Sister Maribel pulls a small purse from a pouch at her waist, and places it on the sitting table.

"And if there are portions missing? Or the quality is inferior?"

"You know where I live, Hector. And while I hope to never need your services again, I would be burning far too many bridges to anger you over something as small as payment. Please, escort us out and we will be on our way."

Hector sighs, and grabs his cane before tapping the small crystal around his neck. The twinkles of red light in the ceiling switch off, and the murder charms along the hallway turn on. Hector turns to me and smiles, a saccharine-sweet gesture that I now know is more cold and calculated than I could ever imagine.

"Hallways don't work unless the charms are on! It pays to be careful."

He winks at me.

I smile back, bile rising in my throat.

Hector walks in front, with Maribel second and me in back. The hallway is just as long and foreboding as before, though this time I can imagine all sorts of boiling oil or arrows coming from the holes along the way. We get to the front entranceway, and Hector taps the crystal.

"It takes just a moment to clear the alleyway. Are you quite sure that you won't stay for tea, Eliza? I have an absolutely exquisite brew of Camellia that came highly recommended."

Sister Maribel keeps her face schooled, her lips a tight line.

"Thank you, Hector, but we will have to decline. And, if it's alright with you, I'll make sure that we've cleaned up as well."

Maribel asks for permission, but goes ahead immediately with a cantrip that turns the crystal in the doorway blood red. There's a brief flash of flame, and I can smell smoke.

"Really, Eliza? A flame cleansing? You didn't have to. But you should be careful in the future, and let me take care of it. You could have damaged all my fine, expensive equipment!"

"You know as well as I do, Hector, that flame cleansing was designed with that exact equipment in mind. I'm happy to oblige, as always."

She smiles, and the doorway crystal turns white and the door unlocks.

"We'll be off now. Thank you for your services."

"Goodbye Eliza. Keep safe. We wouldn't want any... ruffians... to catch up with you, would we now?"

With that, the door closes, and we're left in the quiet alleyway. Maribel quickly starts walking, in the opposite direction from which we came.

I start to speak and she holds up her hand. I may be clueless to most things, but I can read handspeak for "don't talk" when I'm running for my life from the most terrifying experience I can imagine.

The sounds of the city rush back in as we leave the alleyway. Maribel holds her hand up again, and I follow her as we make half a dozen turns, before crossing through a square. She turns to me briefly before continuing to walk as she speaks.

"Do not speak until we are back at the church."

I follow her, quiet, as we walk through the city. The sounds and smells all feel more... safe than before. I never realized how comforting normalcy was. I realize that I'm still compartmentalizing my emotions. They are, after all, still stuck in a tiny box in the corner of my mind. Maribel either has the spell still going, or it lasts for a certain amount of time.

Hopefully I have long enough for us to get back. I have a sinking feeling that I'm going to need to find a room to throw up in.

----------------------------------------

Gabe

I make it back to the church, and Maribel pulls me back into the small room. She seems to be able to read my mind, as she maintains the spell (or it hasn't run out yet) and casts something else.

I feel calmer.

Until I realize that, yet again, my mind is not my own. This calmness isn't mine. It quickly fades and turns to terror yet again, and I find myself wondering if Maribel is hiding something too. I've essentially trusted her with my Dungeon Quest life, and now she holds the reins over anyone who has any idea about my skills. Forget Hector and his curses. Maribel could sell me to the highest bidder and I wouldn't even know until after it happened... and I'd probably assume that she was doing what was best for me the entire time. Just like I felt about Teacher Hector.

Bile rises in my throat, and I rush for the trash can.

At least I haven't eaten much.

That said, who made vomiting in Dungeon Quest so real? I can understand pain. But throwing up? Sickness? Nausea? It's just... horrible. This could traumatize someone. I guess I'm past that boat though. What with dying slowly from bleeding out, or getting hit to death, or having my mind controlled.

I throw up again.

Maribel loosens the stranglehold her spell has on my emotions, and they all come flooding back. The terror, the concern, the terror. The Terror. The TERROR. I start shaking as I throw up again and again, dry heaving hunched over on the chair. After a few moments, I feel a hand on my back, and I begin crying. Shaking. Unable to process what happened but just feeling so, so, so scared. Maribel silently rubs my back as I choke on my sobs, shaking, just waiting for the emotions to pass.

A few minutes pass, and the heaving sobs and choking breaths start to subside.

"I'm sorry... it was just..."

Maribel doesn't say anything. For once, I'm glad for the quiet. No "it'll be ok" or "I understand" or finishing my sentence for me.

"He controlled my mind. It was like... I wasn't me. How can he do that?"

I guess, of all the questions I could ask, this is as good a one as any to start with.

Maribel sits next to me, still softly rubbing my back.

"There are endless skills in the world. And each of them can do anything. A skill like that is rarely seen, and usually limited to extremely rare classes - so Hector shouldn't have access to a skill like that . Hector is, however, an enchanter. And, with enough work and support, an enchanter can make objects that mimic almost any skill. It could have been any of the items in his workroom that had the ability."

She speaks quietly. The regal stature she had for most of today, the strong-willed direction and forceful declaration of what was right? Gone, exchanged for quiet melancholy.

"I'm sorry, Gabe. If I had any idea he would do something like that, I would have tried something else. I know my apology doesn't mean anything... but I'm truly sorry."

We sit there in the room, as my shaking lessens slowly. Maribel hands me a handful of tissues and a glass of water. I rinse my throat and face, and wipe the cold sweat off my body.

I sit up, realizing that the danger hasn't yet passed.

"Maribel, how secure is this room?"

She looks at me questioningly.

"This room is secured by a permanent faith skill. It's the primary reason the church remains here and has never been moved. No information can be detected from the outside by any means. Well, a higher level faith skill could work, but I have no idea what level the skill was that created the room in the first place."

I take a deep breath.

"We can't trust Hector."

Maribel looks at me with a raised eye.

"I know that, Gabe."

"Maribel... I... I was able to hear him while he did the enchantment. And he cursed me with a hidden class."

Maribel again looks at me with a questioning look.

"That shouldn't be possible, Gabe. The charms Hector used on us were mithril, powered by perfect gems. They work even on someone with a naturally high curse resistance."

"I %H&#@@K #&%$!"

Maribel looks lightly startled.

"Ok. Let me think."

I try to figure out how to share what's inside my head, without acknowledging my skill. Come on...

"%$&###!"

Nope.

"%%&&$LJ#$"

Nope.

"Is it possible for Curse Resistance to eventually provide Immunity?"

Maribel starts for a moment. She stands and paces slightly.

"No. Curse Resistance simply provides a chance to resist the initial application of a curse. It doesn't do anything for a curse that is already applied, and a perfect gem through mithril applies so many curses that it makes anything but Immunity irrelevant. But that usually doesn't matter, because Immunity is restricted to extremely rare cases... like creatures that are born with it, or legendary items, or legendary classes..."

"Or skill advancements."

"Gabe. Your %$&H#@&!L"

"Yep. %&$J@!*&"

Maribel sits down in her chair.

"So you &%$*#@LD"

"I heard Hector during the enchantment. He has a hidden class called ShadowChant and hid curses in the item when he enchanted it."

[Congratulations! By sharing a powerful hidden truth with a Seeker of Truth, you have increased the power of Truth in the world. +2 Truth!]

Maribel shakes as she receives a notification herself. She turns to me.

"Gabe, I need you to explain as much as you can remember, please, in as much detail as possible."

I explain as much as I can, stopping when the Lock interferes with anything relating to my skill, and trying to explain circumstances rather than the skill itself. Through it all, Maribel's face is a look of placid calm, so still that I'm sure it must be a skill, whether a skill or something learned and perfected over time.

"So Hector's enchantments are from a hidden legendary shadow class called ShadowChant. He hid triggered curses in your ring, and you say the enchantment was also made permanent. I'll assume that the curses are present and try to remove them, but there will be no way to tell unless they show up with Greater Identify. Unfortunately, once I've used Greater Identify, my actions are restricted. I would be unable to help with the item in any way, whether the curses were still present or not - the price to pay for a minor faith skill that can identify anything. Honestly, I'm guessing that there will be no way to remove the curses. Minor curses are like enchantments - they can be broken with enough expertise, enough power, or enough time. Perfect curses are like perfect enchantments. The only way they disappear is by running out of energy, or a faith skill dedicated to removing cursed items. And even then, the curse is still present. I'm guessing that making the enchantment "permanent" used a large amount of mana to create an external mana well in the mana dimension that slowly regenerates over time, then created a conduit to the well. Unless we're able to somehow identify where the mana is being stored, and destroy the well, there's nothing we can do. It's possible that an enchanter could reuse the same well for multiple enchantments... but Hector is obsessed with perfection. He would never do that. And finding a single mana well in the mana dimension would be like trying to find a specific blade of grass somewhere in this world. Nigh until impossible. It's why so many skills use the dimension for so many purposes."

She sits down and holds her head in her hands.

"And the fact that he was able to hide curses in your items, while I was watching, means that it's possible... no... probable... that he has hidden curses in any item left in his care. Anything that he has ever enchanted, for any purpose... is likely cursed."

I've never seen Maribel look so... defeated. She reaches around her neck and suddenly she's holding a small locket in her hands, one that I've never actually seen around her neck before.

"Invisible. Among other things. It's not perfect, but it helps if people can't see the item itself to dispel an important enchantment."

She places the locket on the table.

Think, Gabe. There's gotta be a solution to this.

Maybe... probably not.

Or... no.

What about... ?!?!

"Maribel, how do permanent enchantments work, exactly? Or permanent curses? Are they similar to the ones on the badges with gems?"

"Permanent enchantments are similar to ones powered with perfect gems. Perfect gems slowly absorb ambient mana, and then use that mana to fuel enchantments. Perfect curses? I... don't know. But perfect gems and mana wells should work similarly. Perfect gems can be embedded by anyone, where mana wells are very difficult to create and link, and have to be large enough that they naturally absorb enough mana to power the enchantment. If you hadn't overheard Hector's enchantment, I would have never thought that was possible. It's likely that single aspect of his enchantment was the largest expenditure of mana, or the highest level skill that he used."

"I know the trigger. I %$&F!?!"

Nope. Try again. Something simple enough that Lock won't restrict it.

"Immunity."

My thought: I could say the trigger words, trigger the curses, and eventually develop Immunity to the curses. Assuming they get re-applied over and over, even the miniscule chance that my Curse Resistance skill grants should be enough. One in a million chance? Just do it a million times. Or two million. Then I say the trigger words again, turn off the curses, and regardless of what happens I'm safe. It should work, right? The only potential hiccup is how long it takes to develop Immunity to the different curses. It didn't take long with Silence, but that was a dedicated perfect enchantment, using mithril and a perfect gem. I don't know how different a mana well-fueled enchantment will be, but from Maribel's example I'm guessing that the frequency of application will be significantly less. Which means a potentially much slower speed to developing immunity.

And I have no idea if Hector is somehow connected to the mana well. Can he see if the curse has been triggered?

"Is there a possibility that Hector could see if the curse has been triggered?"

Maribel ponders for a moment.

"Yes. Anything is possible. It's possible that he has a dedicated passive skill that allows him to constantly review anything that he has ever enchanted, along with their current status. In which case, he would know immediately if the trigger words for your enchantment were spoken. What he cannot do, however, if you are in this room, is know where you are. As I said before, only faith skills of a higher tier would be able to detect or scry anything that happens here."

"I... want to try. I know it's dangerous, but being subject to his curses at a later point in time is more dangerous. If he has the ability to detect if his curses have been enabled, or to enable or disable enchantments at a distance, I think it's also important that we learn that sooner rather than later. My thought is to trigger the curse words, wait long enough, then turn them off."

I think for a moment.

"If I could take off my ring and put on your locket, I would do that one first. I know which curses are on my ring, but we don't know what curses are on your locket. Looking at my list of immunities would help us with that. As it is, I think wearing both and doing it at the same time makes the most sense. I don't know if he uses the same trigger words for all of his curses, but I'm guessing there is a chance that he used the same ones for both of us since you introduced me to him. He would want to immediately disable anyone who could call for help or help the other in any way."

"Alright. What curses are on your ring?"

"Silence, Stun, and Sleep."

"Ok. I'll bring a cot in. You should probably eat and drink something before we try. It could be a while. Do you want me to disable the curses after a certain amount of time?"

I think for a moment.

"No. I can't remove the ring, and Hector is probably trying to dig up information about me as we speak. You mentioned how dangerous it is. Now we have someone with a legendary hidden class on our trail. I need this Immunity, and you need to know what curses you are up against since I'm guessing that you need your locket for a similar reason that I need my ring."

"Oh. That reminds me. We need to set your status. Pull up your status, and think the words, Access: Camouflage (status)."

"Do I need to do anything with the ring?"

"No. It grants the skill and you can use it as if it were your skill."

I pull up my status screen, and think the words.

{Access: Camouflage (status)}

[Camouflage (status] enabled! Please rewrite your status as desired. Notice! The presence of unlikely values or skills, or the absence of important aspects, may suggest that your status has been altered.]

"Go ahead and remove what you need to remove."

I edit my status and save it. I wonder though. I try to add back the skill. It appears as jibberish. Yep. Lock affects even stuff that I write through a skill.

"You will be unable to change your status back. The only way will be to remove the item that grants you the skill."

Yup. Checks out. Not that I want anyone to have a chance of seeing it. At least Greater Identify doesn't allow the person to act on the knowledge they gain. Otherwise there's a chance that any old priest or nun could pin me down. Though, honestly, I'm guessing that Greater Identify is rarer than I think.

"It's done."

"Good. I'll grab a cot."

----------------------------------------

It takes a few minutes to situate myself in the room. I reach for the locket and Maribel speaks up.

"Are you sure, Gabe? We don't know what curses the locket might have. It's possible that they could counter... or cause permanent damage... or even kill you."

Woah. I hadn't thought about that. It is quite possible that Hector could have placed damaging curses, or ones that somehow invalidate some skills.

"I don't think that it's possible for a curse to fully remove curse resistance. If there were a way, Hector would use that instead of using gems or mana wells. I guess it probably is possible. Any skill is possible - even a skill that makes curses able to penetrate through Immunity."

I file that piece of information inside my head. Don't rely too heavily on immunities. There are probably skills that negate immunity. Or different levels of immunity.

"That said, we need these items, and we need to know what we're up against. You can call a healer, and if I start showing signs of damage or distress, just keep me alive until I wake up on my own."

Maribel frowns for a moment.

"I know a healer who is able to keep quiet. Let me call for them."

----------------------------------------

Gabe

Let's say that the last person I expected Maribel to bring back would be a player. Players shouldn't have anywhere near the power to catch her eye... unless they somehow worked with her in some major regard. Like during the cleanup from the ambush.

But it is a player. Sort of. Nando is a healer who lucked into a passive aura skill that works even when he's logged out. Which is most of the time. Apparently he doesn't actually enjoy playing Dungeon Quest, and only does it when he absolutely has to. Almost never. That said, his aoe aura of healing, while it also uses all of his mana regeneration and requires sunlight, continuously nets him experience points even while he's gone. Apparently any increases in his character are automatically applied. Simplest, most direct option. So while he might not be as useful as a dedicated healer (especially since an AFK character can't direct healing), as a slow-and-steady, make-sure-you're-alive-over-the-course-of-hours healer? Perfect.

Nando's character came with an... escort? Bodyguard? Scheduling manager? Either way he's loaded sitting in a little cart/wagon, wheeled over by the unnamed guard who carries a small lantern on her belt. The room isn't very large. The addition of a little wagon, however small, makes it feel pretty small even though we removed the table.

"At most, he'll see some messages in his log about healing. His manager says he isn't due to log in anytime in the near future."

"How much does this cost?"

"Don't worry about it, Gabe. I didn't ask you to pay at... she looks and sees the guard still present... the last place either. I'm not going to ask here."

"Is the guard going to stay?"

"The guard will stay outside the room, and the door can stay open. She will be able to see inside, but unable to hear anything that happens."

The guard nods her affirmation, pushes a button on her watch, and flips a switch on the lantern. The room is suddenly filled with bright golden light. She then walks just outside the door, where she takes a slightly crouched stance facing the doorway.

I notice that the healer isn't wearing starter equipment. I'd expect someone who hates playing the game to only have starter equipment. But I don't really have time here, especially since I'm guessing that Maribel is paying by the hour for a sleeping healer. I put on the locket, lay down on my side on the cot next to the wagon (in case I end up getting sick as one of the curses), wish for good luck, and say the magic words.

"Red Camellias in half bloom."

Everything goes black.