Kaden charged into the office and through the door into what were Wren’s private quarters. There, a silver metal cage rested with Life Mana cores at all four corners. They bathed the egg in a varying flow of life energy to replace that lost through the crack. And the crack was much larger, so large, Kaden saw an eye looking back.
“It is hatching,” Winlock said.
“Agreed.” Basta reached through the mana barrier and put a hand on the egg. “How many years did it sit like this?”
“No one knows. Possibly a decade.” Kaden felt the life inside and reached out with Soul Binding.
You have bound a Beast (Griffin)
He couldn’t help collapsing as the wave of pain hit him. “He’s…sick. Wounded. Malformed.”
Winlock closed his eyes. “It’s not your fault. Not even I can save everything. Nature is cruel sometimes, but even death has a purpose.
Kaden’s eyes shot open. “Death.”
He lunged for the egg, cradling it close. “I have to get to a FarPortal. I can save him.”
Basta reached out—and Kaden twisted out of the way with [Split Second]. The gryphon inside was now alive according to the System and wouldn’t go into Inventory, so Kaden clutched it close as he sprinted out of Beast Control, trading speed for safety. Then thought better of risking Verona’s icy streets. He tore open a portal to the Guild, focusing on the smell of spilled bear and the rumble of adventureres and the sounds of crafters to locate it. The Portal was shaky and slightly unstable, but Kaden leaped through, suddenly flanked by a pair of Centurions.
“What are you thinking?” Basta asked.
Kaden stepped into the Far Portal and emerged at the Holding. He sprinted through snow, and slipped, twisting so he broke the split rail fence instead of the delicate egg. Just ahead, a layer of ice lay across Echo Lake.
Was it thick enough?
It would have to be.
Kaden leaped and slid across the lake.
Five feet from the island in the center, the ice cracked, but he held the egg up and charged forward, demanding with pure will the door open.
Just past the door, the bitter winter wind was a memory as brilliant golden sun drenched green grass and a thick forest.
Kaden took five steps in and gently set down the egg. “It’s ok. It’s going to be fine.” The surge of power in his dungeon made Kaden wince and hunch over. Two centurions was agony. “Get out.”
“A Dungeon. You mean to add the Griffin to it,” Winlock said.
“My Dungeon.” Kaden held his breath as the hatchling pushed. Warm brown feathers spread as the crack yielded. The creature within was scarred. Half its body was bare of feathers, the beak deformed. One leg twisted under it with only a single claw, and no eye. Kaden scooped it up, ignoring the wet feathers. He spoke in soft whispers as the hatchling spasmed and stopped breathing.
The Dungeon floor swelled up, forming a bowl that Kaden set the hatchling in. It sank into the soil and disappeared.
_ENTITY_ status indeterminate.
Soul Binding Incomplete.
Soul Attribute Insufficient.
FORCE_CONVERSION_ENABLED.
Your Dungeon has gained: 1x Wandering Champion Seed (Griffin).
Kaden tried to spawn it and immediately hit an entity limit.
Beast by beast, he despawned everything until the Dungeon was empty.
Then an orb of light formed in front of him, growing brighter and brighter. It surged—and when the spots cleared, a Griffin Hatchling preened in the grass, cleaning its feathers, which were wet from hatching.
“Gods.” Basta said. “Can I touch it?”
Kaden sent an impulse to the hatchling.
The hatchling rejected it and pranced away, dragging wings on the ground as it stretched, then gave out a shriek that [Beast Soul] translated.
“It’s starving,” Basta said. “Dungeon Monsters don’t need to eat. They don’t grow. They’re exactly what was brought in. Trust me, I’ve populated enough Beast Dungeons to know. Only prime specimens will do.”
The hatchling screamed again, in essence, *Hungry*.
Kaden reached for the scraps of meat he kept for Trinity, but Winlock beat him to it, producing a fish the size of a man from Inventory. “Here you go. Who loves you more than anyone else here?”
The Hatchling leaped at the fish, grasping and with its beak. The bird portion had full feathers, but the lion half’s fur was like a kitten’s, and the tail’s plume was more a different color than a thick blossom of fur.
Name Wandering Champion? [Y/N]
Kaden thought for a moment.
Entity has been assigned name, “Cloud Chaser.”
A second hunch let him reach out again with [Soul Binding].
You may not bind an entity a second time.
Everything about this was wrong. Trinity had been a Soul Bound Beast when he sacrificed her to form the Tri-Terror boss. Kaden felt the link but couldn’t pull Cloud into his soul. He could study the status effects.
[Cloud Chaser - Griffin]
Class: Wandering Dungeon Champion
This Entity has been hybridized by your actions and nears the limits of what the System allows. Further mutations may invoke ADMINISTATOR oversight. Gryphons are the undisputed champions of the forest, whether it’s soaring through the air or stalking through the trees. The only Beasts who challenge them are the Dragons, and even to them, a full grown Griffin is a threat. *Beast Knowledge - They’re almost singularly physical Beasts, with only the slightest mana Skills. That said, they’re beyond deadly. Agile, vicious, powerful. We watched one tear apart the City Guard once. Not a guard. The Guard. All of them. They had it coming, but watching it grab them in talons and drop them on the palace taught the Queen she didn’t want a pet after all.
Level: 0
HP: 800
Mana: 10
Skills: Raking Claw, Bite, Flight(*)
*This skill cannot be used yet.
Kaden studied the status, then summoned the Falcrow to send a mesage to Ashi. “What’s a Wandering Champion and how do I use it?”
A few moments later, his Dungeon groaned as the entire party swarmed in, along with two Centurions. Ashi sang out in delight and kneeled, calling softly to Cloud Chaser, who pranced over, stretching wings out over Ashi to show off caramel brown base with white tips.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“This is a wonder,” Ashi said. “No Dungeon may have a Wandering Champion until rank ten, normally. You must empower it with Directed Mana equal to its total HP and Mana if it is slain, but once empowered, it is not bound to the Dungeon like other spawn.”
That meant Cloud Chaser could leave.
Kaden looked to the two saints. “How do I care for a gryphon?”
The Forest Saint shook his head. “You don’t. You can’t teach it to be a Griffin. You need to take it to the nearest Colony. Gryphons almost all reach Enlightenment, and I have no idea if they’ll accept…that.”
“I know the Northern Continent Anderin Range Colony,” Basta said. “I’ve never [Tamed] one but I did spend some time living near them trying. And more time afterwards while I recovered from my wounds.”
With Kaden’s Soul Binding on Cloud, she couldn’t be [Tamed]. “I could release her binding if you want to try taming her.”
“Don’t.” Basta said. “This is what the old Cataclysm folks used to call an ‘Edge Condition.’ If you disturb anything, I don’t know if you can reset it. Is it the [Taming] slots?”
“I don’t have those, it works differently. And it’s weird, he’s not showing up in a slot at all. [Beast Taming] was subject to the weird way my levels increase. I have no idea if the mutated version is, too.” Kaden reached out and Cloud came dashing over to push his head up against Kaden like a cat rather than an eagle, then purr-screed and pranced away.
“I never…I’m not going near it. The Horror is hungry for it, which means it’s powerful.” Sara stepped back.
Kaden explained how the egg had hatched deformed and dying. “It was the only way I could think of to save it. Eve might have been able to heal it.”
“I can heal. I can’t correct deformities.”
Trella came to kneel beside him. “What do you need to do for it? I’ll help.”
Basta answered. “I’ll get permission to take him to the Andrin Colony. Then you’ll need to do it. The colony is always on edge thanks to Lashkivores. They’re a type of lizard that lives near Griffin colonies.”
“Been there, killed a bunch,” Trella said. “Is that the egg shell?”
The greenish, thick remanants hadn’t been absorbed by the Dungeon. Trella studied them. “Not alchemical reagents. Do you get a [Reap Materials] notice?”
Kaden left her playing with Cloud to focus on the egg shell.
This Artifact Material may not be processed with Reap Materials.
“It’s artifact material. As in Artificer, maybe.” Kaden put the shell fragments away. “Wren will know, and my rule is that materials always go to people I know.” Before he could say anything else, the pain that hit him had Kadens screaming. “No! No more!”
At the Dungeon door, Mr. Dervish stood. “What’s wrong?
“You are too powerful,” Ashi said. “Too many Centurions in such a small dungeon. You do not know how to mask your mana. Both of you must leave for another to enter.”
As Winlock and Basta stepped out, Kaden breathed easier—then hitched as Mr. Dervish stepped inside. “Wandering Champion? I had a hunch it was crippled, but truth be told, I thought it would be crafting materials. This. It’s better.”
“Why didn’t Guardian of Life affect it?” Kaden asked. “It’s supposed to help wounds heal.”
“That title was probably the only thing that saved the hatchling,” Mr. Dervish said.
Kaden stood and stretched. “Cloud has the run of the whole dungeon. I had to despawn everything to create him.”
“A first time cost,” Ashi said. “But this creates a problem. You cannot leave it here. It will attack the other monsters. It is a baby, it knows nothing. It must stay with me tonight, I will care for it.”
“I’ll do it,” Sara said. “Put him in my room.”
Trella shook her head. “We already have Trinity and Eclipse. The master bedroom is large but not ‘Hydra-Cat-And-Griffin’ large.”
“Trinity will sleep in the living room,” Kaden said. “Come on, boy.”
The Griffin leaped into the air, wings outstretched—and crashed to the ground, rolling end over end. Kaden scooped it up. “What were those fish?”
From outside the dungeon Basta shouted. “Crystal Lake Bass. I’ll introduce you to Jason, he’s the [Fisherman] you want to buy them from. They’re what almost all colonies feed on until they’re old enough to go hunting in forests. The mountains are only for nesting and rearing.”
“I’ll have a delivery arranged until we can get Cloud a place in a colony,” Winlock said.
Kaden gripped Cloud tightly and approached the door. “You’re sure he can leave?”
Ashi nodded.
Kaden stepped out.
It felt like pulling a thorn from his side. Mana gushed out, draining into the Griffin. Then the drain stabilized. One by one, his Dungeon’s monsters respawned. “Ashi, we’re close to ranking up, but the next rank’s going to require major expansion. Is it worth doing now or better to conserve for a better result?”
Ashi joined him, then flash-froze the lake several times to support the entire party. “This is a matter of great debate. I cannot order because I do not know. The next rank raises your level cap to twenty. The abilities it unlocks are minor, you may create variants of your monsters at great mana cost the first time. Also you may choose strains of music or ambiance and lighting for low mana cost. But the costs for rank five are so very high. You will gain more with level twenties, but if you have a steady flow now, perhaps it is not worth the disruption.”
“I would prefer a steady progression,” Sara said. “We can notify the GuildMaster. There are, however, so many more options for adventurers at level twenty, I see the draw in keeping the rank down.”
Kaden would deal with that later. They stood on the porch of the farmhouse, and Cloud shivered, giving loud chirps. “Winlock, Basta, thank you for your advice. Let me know when you make contact with a Griffin colony. Mr. Dervish, don’t you have a ‘gathering of saints’ to deal with?”
“I ain’t in charge of anything except getting us a place. It’s important every few decades to talk over if anyone’s seen signs of a coming cataclysm.” He followed Kaden in side, standing so high his head almost bumped the common room ceiling. “I ain’t angry about earlier, but I’m serious. When someone’s crazy enough to attack a Centurion and strong enough to fight three of us at once? Stay out of it. Morgana was blocking everything. Most everything. A lot of it, and that multi-form is a constant mana drain. The Assassin was going to lose, eventually.”
Rationally it made sense. In the heat of combat, it was harder to remember. “I’ll work on it.”
“Oh.” The Summoning Saint looked to Sara. “Got a message to pass along from Mercari. They’d appreciate you not dumping ten thousand [Mirror Shields] on the market all at once. By ‘Appreciate’ I mean you won’t make enemies and you’ll gain some faction favor.”
“Dump them?” Sara wasn’t the young woman she’d been, naive and hopeful. Years of Adventuring had hardened her. “I have a Business Profession, thank you. I operate an entire shipping station and two cargo ships. I know the value of a [Mirror Shield] and already calculated the average number in circulation. Tell them we’ll be selling twelve shields a month shipped out to a rotating schedule of capital cities across all continents, contingent on pricing maintaining an average of two hundred and fifty gold. Should the price sink, I’ll hold the next month’s shipment. And of course, for the right amount, I could ‘find’ one. Over the next century, they’ll provide a solid profit.”
Mr. Dervish grunted. “Don’t recall being your messenger bird, but I’ll make an exception ‘cause I like the message. You’re starting to think right. That’s a hard one for most folks.”
“A century?” The sheer assumptions in that made Kaden uncomfortable. “If you make it to level one hundred, maybe. Otherwise it’ll be providing gold for when we both can’t walk.”
Sara didn’t answer. She stared at him, squinting in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Old age. Not a problem as long as you get to that.” Kaden pointed a thumb toward Mr. Dervish. “Wouldn’t it be better to have gold while you’re young? For equipment while you’ve got a shot at it?”
The awkward silence in the room was broken only by Cloud puking half-digested fish on the floor and then slurping them up again.
“When you hit level fifteen, didn’t—” Sara looked to Trella. “The Sisters went over this with you, didn’t they?” She switched her attention back to Kaden. “You’ve been running on the assumption you have to make level one hundred in a commoner lifespan. So much makes sense now.”
“Speak for yourself.” Eve shook her head. “How do you make it to level twenty nine and not realize…you know what, I want to brush Vip’s fur. I’ll be upstairs, brushing, for as long as it takes.”
Sara looked to Mr. Dervish, then dove in. “The moment you gained a class, you broke free of what we’d call ‘common’ lifespan. Even a level one ditch-digger should live to a hundred if not longer. Every level changes us fundamentally.”
“Look at yourself next to a commoner,” Trella said softly. “You could kill one by accident. It wouldn’t even take effort. They stab you, you slap them, they die, because that’s what happens. How many times have you been stabbed in the gut? Or the chest? Or poisoned or held your breath for half an hour in an underwater Dungeon?”
Kaden’s life was a patchwork of misinformation and things he’d learned while being beaten, burned or bitten. “How long will I live if I never gain another level?”
“Two hundred years, most of it looking like you do now,” Mr. Dervish said. “That’s ignoring Talents. But she ain’t hit the important parts. You saw that [Black Blood] stab Morgana straight through the heart.”
Kaden’s own chest ached in sympathy where an Assassin had stabbed him through the heart. “She dodged.”
Sara shook her head. “Starting at level fifteen, your vital organs are more an expression of your existence than the cause of it. You can still cause Lethal Damage, say, by cutting someone’s head off, but with every level and tier, the damage is more representative than physical. The System enforces [Brutal Blows] or [Crippling Strikes] but a Centurion’s will is more solid than their bones.”
[Planes Wielder] had spoken of will as a weapon. His [Levicon Blade] was a physical representation of the WorldBoss’s unbreakable will. And he understood now what his mom’s spirit had said. He had a whole life to live. “Thank you for explaining. I’m going to go make a nest for Cloud.”
“Wait.” Trella’s tone could slice through steel. “How did you hit twenty nine?”
Mr. Dervish answered. “Got in between a level ninety nine [Black Blood Assassin] and her prey, poisoned it with that bow of his, then went toe to toe a couple rounds before he had the good sense to hide. I told him to be smarter. I reckon he’ll listen to you better than he does me.”
Trella’s glare hit him like a charging Quillophant. “Oh, he will.”
“Then I’ll be going.” Mr. Dervish said. “Your party is getting a lot of attention. Ain’t good. Ain’t bad. Be ready, make decisions you can live with.”
He stepped out into the snow, then leaned in. “There’s a Wandering Boss not two hundred yards from here, if you’re keen.”
Kaden stood. “I’ll be right—”
“Party meeting right now!” Sara said. “Good night, Mr. Dervish. If you feel like throwing the boss into the holding, Dominion will probably do the rest, but Kaden is busy.”
The door shut.
Kaden had a plan. “I got a talent. One that doubles Quest rewards. If I accept a Quest and the Party completes it, do I receive the double rewards or does everyone?”