The private dining in Birchhaven was always quiet but in the aftermath of Kaden’s proclamation that he’d restore Nask, Trella drew one of her [Inkblades]. “I said I would kill that demon and I meant it. Why do you even want to regrow a demon?”
Kaden shared the Quest logs and the notices from Circe. “Look, the way I see it, I almost killed Naski myself. Ashi tore her core out barehanded. You never got a turn, so we bring her back, get an upgrade to my title and then you get a title for killing her.”
“That’s a suprisingly reasonable plan,” Sara said. “What if she runs off?”
“We’ll bring her back in a cage. Also, I’m going to plant her under the [Shield Tree]. It’s the image I saw when I spoke with Circe, me kneeling and burying her seed at its roots. The thing eats demons. I don’t know what she’ll be but it won’t be a demon.” He also shared the messenger bird info. “I said no. I don’t know that I want to join a Faction, let alone lead one.”
Sara clapped for him. “I’m so glad! I was terrified I was the only one with a freakish Faction pursuing me. It’s nice to know other people have the same problem. Maybe there’s some kind of program for people like us with different steps.”
“Admit the Faction is a problem,” Trella said.
“Appeal to a Centurion to deal with them,” Eve added.
Ashi thought for a moment. “Make a list of enemies. Do not let their power or presence protect them.”
“Determine to finish them off?” Kaden said. “I just want them to leave me alone. I checked around, Cutter Karn really did go off to the Iron Gear empire and you woudn’t believe everything she packed. She coudn’t even go by Far Portal.”
Sara nodded. “I confirmed it myself. The Iron Gear empire isn’t like Xiao. Xiao, you could sail to anywhere on any island, if you didn’t mind their cultivators destroying you. You literally cannot enter the Iron Gear empire without a diplomat’s token. The token acts as a FarPortal reference, and any place other than a Port has a physical barrier around it.”
“Well, Cutter’s party took six sets of tents, bedrolls, camping gear and enough rations for three years, assuming none of them [Cook], and I’m pretty sure they do.” Kaden wasn’t sure why anyone would walk in the empire. He didn’t walk to the Holding most days.
Eve pushed back her chair and began feeding Vip scraps as she thought. “Circe Karn is what I’d call paranoid and Sara would call prepared. Each party brought in has carried more and more gear on the assumption that something will go deeply wrong. The difference for our party is that we are not even remotely interested in this treasure.”
“Also, we won’t rush,” Sara said. “We’ll go on our time. When we’re ready. There’s absolutely no reason to add our names to the list of people who never came back. We can’t even get in right now.”
“About that,” Eve said. “Egalion had a diplomat to the Iron Gear Empire before [Diplomacy] failed. I’m absolutely certain they’ll negotiate if we bring the right trade. The problem is finding something they actually want.”
“Got it covered.” Kaden had collected so many things he planned to use. “The Guildmaster himself said to sell that [Infernal Pearl] to an island nation like Egalion. So I say we trade it for the Diplomat’s Pass.”
“As long as you do not use it. I have seen those who did. It makes them powerful, yes, but it also makes them hungry for more [Infernal Pearls].” Ashi shuddered. “You do not know how they work, do you?”
Kaden shook his head, then looked to Sara and Trella. “Either of you?”
“It’s on the ‘not-until-you-multiclass-as-a-centurion’ list,” Trella said.
“Then listen and learn,” Ashi said. “An [Infernal Pearl] will never fail to unlock at least one skill of the next tier. But those who use them hunger for more. And it is not know if one even can advance without an [Infernal Pearl] afterwards.”
“Sounds like a Tier Up scroll,” Sara said. “And even more dangerous.”
Ashi shook her head. “Not so. The [Nemesis] the System generates ignores skills from [Infernal Pearls]. It ensure you are far more powerful than your nemesis. Given enough pearls, one could destroy their nemesis at level fifty without help.”
Suddenly the pearl felt that much more valuable. “What happens when you run out of skills?”
“Your Class Evolution is also a skill. I heard Uri speak of a man who had unlocked it at level twenty four.”
It felt like a violation of how the world should run, but then again, Adventurers were meant to break the rules and push limits. “I have an option. I’m not saying we do it, I’m saying we ask ourselves the downsides.” Kaden thought through the problems. “If I fed this pearl to my dungeon, it could spawn more. It’s low rank right now, but I could, ever time, spawn enough to get all of us unlocked.”
The room fell deathly silent.
“I’ve been that person. The one whose skills outmatch my level.” Trella spoke clearly, calmly. “It’s incredibly powerful. I won’t even claim it’s bad. It’s not bad. It’s amazing. But I want the ‘adventure’ in ‘Adventurer.’”
“And I as well. Life alone is not enough,” Ashi said.
Sara started to speak and then stopped. “For a Summoner, those are more powerful than you can imagine. We don’t have a large number of class skills. Every pearl would unlock a new summons. I want to use it.”
“Don’t you dare!” Eve said. “I’ve seen—”
“I said I want to use it,” Sara shouted. “I didn’t say I’m going to, but I want it. I can’t help wanting it. Summoners are meant to be the most powerful class in the System given time. Mages fear us, men at arms flee, and I have stuck been stuck using dual swords for most of my damage. My level fifty summons will be something incorporeal, I believe, able to move about and inflict area of effect damage.”
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“How do you know?” Trella asked.
Sara summoned a Crawling Horror. “I had dreams about these disgusting little guys long before I reached twenty five. Now I dream about a gasseous creature that causes my enemies to choke and panic and lose focus and flee.”
Kaden put the pearl away. “I’m fairly sure this is what I would have had to use to unlock tier two skills if I hadn’t gone to Vichor. I still don’t have a way to unlock my tier three or four skills, let alone class evolution.”
But he knew where the dungeon was that spawned them. And he knew its layout, its monsters, its entire setup. “Are we sure Egalion will trade?”
“Certain,” Eve said. “It’s an island nation with no dungeons and its army is small but entirely built with [Infernal Pearls].”
Kaden looked to Sara. “Do you mind writing up an offer and contacting their trading minister?”
“We can’t. Infernal Pearls are not illegal in the ‘we will hunt you down and kill you’ aspect, but they are definitely not on the Trade Guild’s allowed list.” Sara drew her Messenger Parrot and whispered to it. “Mom will know how to make the trade.”
A few moments later, a jet black bird returned, whispering to Sara. She listened closely as it continued far longer. “Eve, Mom says you shouldn’t go. I’ll take it Egalion myself.”
“I have to go for my Quest,” Kaden said. “It doesn’t matter who else goes, I have to go to the Temple of Varun in Egalion.”
“Then we go together. Ashi, Trella?” Sara waited.
Trella’s deceptions stood on either side of her. “If he’s going, we’re going. I trust Kaden, but I don’t trust anyone from a kingdom built around the temple of a happy cheery goddess. No one should be happy and cheery all the time.”
“I would stay and tend the Dungeon, if I may. I am weary. Everywhere we go, we find conflict and battle. There must be a season of rest,” Ashi said.
Trella tapped on Kaden’s hand. *Better to leave her here if she needs time. Hell, we need time.*
Cutter Karn wasn’t exactly a friend but she was an ally. Kaden wouldn’t ignore her party. “Ashi, I’m worried that the balance on my dungeon mobs isn’t right. I should have been able to rank up again already and the parties just aren’t coming. I may have overdone it with the Bearserker.”
“Have you not checked the status?” Ashi asked.
Kaden pulled it up. In the months that they’d been gone, it had definitely advanced.
Your Core requires Directed Mana x100,000 (99,991 acquired)
1000x Adventurer Party (989 acquired)
100x [Entity Seeds] (100x aquired)
1x Lieutenant Seed (1 acquired)
10x Loot Seed (10 acquired)
Optional, Required for next Rank: 1x [Secondary Boss] (acquired).
Banked for next rank:
241x (Entity Seeds)
2x (Lieutenant Seeds).
4x (Loot Seeds)
Special:
1x Wandering Champion (Cloud)
“Ten parties is not even a challenge,” Ashi said. “There cannot be so much wrong. If they so much as sneeze you will have the Directed Mana. You should not go to Egalion until after the rank up.”
That would be intense. “Will I gain another level?”
“Most likely,” Ashi said. “It will be slow now, but I will stay and adjust if you grant me this permission.”
The System acknowledged his will without hesitation. “How long do you think it will take?”
“A few days,” Ashi said. “Cutter has been gone months. If a few days makes the difference, it is a wait worth it.”
She was right. “Fine. Sara, we have a ton of quests stacked up. There’s a roadside dungeon I blew off after the trial. Eve needed to end a civil war, there’s so much to do.”
“Your honeybee colony is on the move, I’ll need to get Vivomancers to sign off on the transport,” Sara said. “Are you ok to handle this dungeon?”
“It’s a rank four dungeon. I’ll destroy it in my sleep. I won’t really get any XP, either.” It didn’t matter. Protecting other dungeons from erratic energy was his responsibility. “Anyone want a shot at a title?”
“Queen of Entropy has been useless to me for most of our encounters. I’d like titles but I want good ones,” Eve said.
Sara, on the other hand, thought it over. “I want more. I will always want more. Will it be a good title?”
“Not likely,” Ashi said. “Rank five is where the valuable ones come, but I have gotten worse from high levels.”
Trella cleared her throat. “Who wants faction tokens from the Sisters? It’s me. Not everyone has a trustworthy party. I could arrange a group of twenties to fill out the party. And I could make sure they understand who’s in charge. They’ll follow your orders.”
There was exactly one [Shadow Blade] Kaden loved and respected. The others frustrated him to death. Always trying to poison him. Always with the threats. “Sara. Your pet party, Anika, how about we drag them through?”
“Absolutely not,” Sara said. “Their progress is much more normal. I saw a note they’d reached level fifteen and promptly had a full party wipe in the Crystal Spires Dungeon. Twenties are of course possible, but I doubt she—or her party—would willingly enter an erratic.”
“I know women who will happily enter an erratic,” Trella said. “This will be different, I mostly promise.”
Ashi had leaned back in the chair and summoned her pet octopus, Levi-ling. “A promise is absolute. It is like being on fire. One is either on fire or not. One promises, or does not.”
Kaden pointed to Ashi. “What she said. I’m willing to take anyone through. It’s an erratic, so there’s always going to be danger, but I’ll only do it if they follow my lead. No skulking off in the darkness on their own. They are basically inventory cubes with hands and feet. Talking inventory cubes. Do they have hair? Hairy talking inventory cubes that flop around waving their hands.”
“I’ll handle the Sisters. And we can stop in at Deshun and see how our miner-not-bandit buddies are doing,” Trella said. “That Quest gives a mana core. You want it, right?”
Trella was forgetting Quest Master.
That was fine. “I better not get stabbed or poisoned. I’m heading home. I have a wyvern to feed and I need sleep. And I forgot to deal with something at Devish’s Summoning Services. Kaden dispatched the Falcrow, and a moment later a bird returned.
It spoke in Mr. Dervish’s gruff voice. “I’m working all night, going to create my next major Summons. Come on by.”
A few minutes later, Kaden slipped in through the back door of Dervish’s Summoning Services and found Mr. Dervish in a summoning room, working on a workbench with several binding tokens. “I forgot to ask something. I did a trial. The Trial of Yarrow. First off, I need a stone bowl. Then, I need a place to hide a couple things. Somewhere they won’t ever be found.”
“Show me.” Mr. Dervish waited as Kaden produced the corn and grain.
“Carrying these around is just asking for someone to kill and loot me. They’re relics like the Icon of the Builder. They cause crops to grow and harvests to be heavy. I thought about putting them in my town but Verona is surrounded by farms.”
Mr. Dervish studied them. “Yep, Spring relics from a god. Probably some ‘marriage of the seasons’ bullshit. You shouldn’t use them in Verona. I’ll keep them safe if you’re afraid of them being stolen, but there’s a network for relics like this. The Justari move them around as needed.” He pointed to the workshop basin. “That probably won’t burn.”
Kaden didn’t hesitate. He dumped the [Wheamyn] seeds in the basin and activated [Wrath of the Furnace] for a split second, filling the metal bowl with lava. The seeds screamed as they caught fire.
“Did not see that coming,” Mr. Dervish said. “What did you burn?”
“A monster called a [Wheamyn]. The daughter of Nature told me to. Said they had no place outside the trial.” Unleashing Wrath had left Kaden shaky.
“Heard about them, never fought them, and that’s how I like it. You holding up ok?”
Kaden wasn’t listening. He was focused on the notification that had popped up.
Demon Lord Asmodeus has offered you an alliance. Accept? [Y/N]