Chapter Seven

Ambrose first turned his attention to his attributes. He had twenty-four of them to spend. He was tempted to use all of them for willpower, but something gave him pause. Sometimes, you have to be a fox, and other times, you must be a lion. A good fighter knows which to be at any given moment. Raylen’s voice echoed in his mind. Ambrose’s father had never explained that little nugget to him, but he had always meant that you needed to know when to use your head and your strength.

In other words, if I’m too focused on one, the other will become useless. Ambrose firmed his lips into a line. As game-like as the world had become, it was not a game. People were dying. Min-maxing was a great idea in Dungeons and Dragons and was often fun. This wasn’t D&D. People were dying; the monsters here were real. Ambrose was not about to neglect his other stats when it could mean the difference between life and death.

With that in mind, he assigned seven points to his constitution stat. A tingle rushed through his body, a wave of warmth spreading through his muscles. Man, that feels good. Ambrose thought, suppressing a groan. That gave him seventeen points left to spend. He assigned ten to wisdom and the remaining seven to his intellect.

Ambrose grunted as his awareness seemed to expand around him. The scent of the cave grew sharper as he inhaled through his nose, the dankness gaining more depth, and Ambrose swore he could feel more of the dirt beneath his boots. With that done, Ambrose willed his answer to the System, bringing up his skill options.

[Shield of Conviction-Uncommon]: Armor yourself in your convictions. Using your mana, you can form a shield around yourself fueled by your willpower. This skill will block most common and uncommon attacks up to how much mana has been infused into it.]

Ambrose blew out a breath through his nose in a quick snort. This was basically shield of faith, a staple Paladin skill. Still not a bad skill. I have had to rely on dodging so far. Ambrose got to pick two skills, so he kept this on the maybe list and moved on.

[Smite-Uncommon]: Infuse your weapon with mana and turn the mana into the flames of conviction, detonating against your foes with explosive fire that strikes the spirit. The more mana you pour into the skill, the more powerful it is.]

Ambrose was all but certain he was going to pick this as one of his skills. Divine Smite had been his favorite feature in D&D and while Ambrose was becoming increasingly disabused of the notion that this was a game, the opportunity to actually smite things in reality was too good to pass up. He still considered the other options, even so.

[Insight-Uncommon]: Gain a greater insight into people, places, and things.]

Ambrose frowned at the offered skill. Knowledge was useful. There was no denying that. An uniformed warrior is a dead warrior, boy. Ambrose furrowed his brow in annoyance at his father's voice. His dear old pops would have chosen the skill, he was sure. Raylen Severen had believed in knowing everything he could before acting on anything.

Ambrose didn’t want to pick it, bottom line. It’s just so…boring. He thought. Of course, that shouldn’t have mattered. He should pick whatever was going to lead him to his goal faster. There were practical reasons not to pick it, too. He needed more direct combat power due to the situation and place he was in, and now the people he had to try and keep safe.

Ambrose compromised with himself, vowing to pick up the skill later. He moved on.

[Sanctuary-Uncommon]: Infuse your mana into the surrounding area, creating a safe environment and immediately making you aware of any threats that enter the area. In addition, the sanctuary will impose penalties on those that break Sanctuary by attacking.]

Ambrose rubbed the bridge of his nose, running his tongue along his teeth. Choosing this skill was a good idea because it served the group. He closed his eyes, taking a breath. He was going to dismiss it as an option. He needed power to do damage, not to sit idle and be safe. His eyes flicked to Jenny, who was poking at the dirt by her father, a smile playing on her face.

How about Jennifer? Little Jenny, for short. His wife’s voice. Ambrose closed his eyes, calming his quickening heart. He flicked his eyes open and made his selections.

[You have selected [Smite-Uncommon] and [Sanctuary-Uncommon]. Your profile has been updated.]

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Biting his inner cheek, Ambrose wasn’t thrilled with his choice of sanctuary, but there was no going back now. He rubbed his hands and brought up his newly updated profile screen,

[Name: Ambrose Severen

Level: 22

Race: Human [E-Grade]

Traits: Ruthless [Uncommon]

Class: Paladin [E-Grade]

Profession: N/A

Mana: 550/550

Health: 300/300

Skills: [Mana Infusion-Common], [Insight-Common]

Constitution: 30

Strength: 25

Intellect: 25

Wisdom: 25

Willpower: 55

SC: 0

Attribute Points: 0

Inventory: Basic armor, basic axe.]

Ambrose nodded his head, twisting his lips into a grin of satisfaction. His attributes were somewhat balanced. If you don’t count how far willpower is shooting ahead, Ambrose thought wryly. He had new skills to use, too. He was as prepared as he reasonably could hope to be.

“Okay, let's move out. Let me take the lead.”

Darren, Jenny, Andrea and Thomas all fell into a loose group behind him as they left the small cave area. The cave opened up into a much wider cave, revealing a multi-colored crystals lining the walls and ground in mismatched batches. Some batches were larger, others smaller, but there were a lot of them.

“These are the crystals they were having us mine.” Darren said, gaze flicking over to the mining tools set up in the middle of the massive area.

“Aren't they pretty, Daddy?” Jenny asked, tugging on her dad's pants as she looked around at the crystals shining with light, eyes full of wonder.

Darren smiled down at his daughter,

“They sure are, sweetheart.”

“Just wish we knew what the blasted things were, hmmph.” Thomas said.

Andrea shrugged,

“Who cares? All that matters is that we make it out of here alive.”

Ambrose used [Insight] on the crystals.

[???]

Curious. Ambrose thought. He swept his gaze around the cave and noticed three large tunnels. One tunnel seemed to twist, leading downward. Darren pointed at the tunnel.

“We've been through the other tunnels. They just lead to other rooms with more crystals. Haven't been down that tunnel, no clue where it leads.”

“Nowhere good, sonny.” Thomas piped up.

“We can't go back up, that tunnel is the only option.” Andrea replied crisply pointing up.

Ambrose followed her finger and sure enough there was a slight beam of faded light that shone down from the only obvious entrance.

“The roots brought us down! It would have been fun if it wasn't super scary!” Jenny said solemnly, eyes downcast at the memory.

“Then down we go,” Ambrose said to everyone, heading for the tunnel. The others followed, trepidation in every step.

________

The tunnel felt like it went on forever. Ambrose trudged along, and as he did, Jenny skipped up to him.

“Hey, Mr. Ambrose?”

“Hmm?”

“Was it easy? To kill meanie-head back there?” She pointed the way they had come.

“Jenny come back here,” Darren called.

Ambrose waved him off.

“No, it's okay. She's going to ask about this kind of thing eventually.” Ambrose flicked his gaze to meet Jenny's, she was staring at him with open curiosity.

“Some people aren't good people, Jenny. They are able to do bad things easily even when they shouldn't. I'm one of those kinds of people. It was easy for me, but it shouldn't be. Killing anything should never be easy.”

Jenny put a finger to her lips, raising her eyebrows.

“Nmm. I don't think you're bad, Mr. Ambrose! That guy was super mean and you saved us! Only good guys do that! You're a good guy, Mr. Ambrose.”

“Jenny. Now, please.” Darren called, his voice carrying a warning note. The little girl shrugged, waved at Ambrose and skipped back to her father.

Ambrose closed his eyes for a brief moment as emotion suckered punched him in the gut. Oh, you have no idea, little one. He seized the feelings a second later and locked them away deep inside, throwing away the key as he did. Emotions wouldn't help here.

A little more walking and the tunnel opened up to a wider room with a single, old iron lever in the middle. There was nothing else around except dark purple and black stone.

Ambrose walked over to the lever, but before he could put his hands around it, Darren stopped him by grabbing his arm. Ambrose shot him a pointed look, and Darren raised his hand.

“Sorry. But you don't know what could happen. Should think about this.”

Ambrose rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“What is there to consider? Only other option is to go back up and wait around for the next flunky to come with more root knights. No, we move forward.”

Ignoring any further protests, Ambrose reached out and yanked the lever.