“Well,” Joshua said, sitting on the stone path of the underground dungeon, “I guess I should probably get moving now.”
After several seconds, Sin squawked impatiently at him.
“I’m psyching myself up. Give me a minute.”
He looked down at his only real weapon, the unihorn.
Though it had done a number on him when attached to the rabbit, and though he’d managed to kill the wolf with it, it didn’t inspire great confidence. He did have the skeleton as well, which actually was probably a better weapon.
“Hey,” he said to Sin, “you took out an airplane engine. You’re smaller now, but are you still that durable?”
Without warning Sin flew headlong into the cavern wall, bounced off, then landed in a heap beside where Joshua sat.
Joshua stared down at the bird. “Uh, are you still alive?”
Sin popped to its feet, ruffled its feathers like a dog shaking off water, ran a wing over its red mohawk, then stared up at him, squawking once.
“Damaged it? You seem the only one damaged.”
Sin fluttered up to his shoulder and pecked his ear.
“Ow. Don’t pierce my ear too, I have enough holes already.”
Sin squawked.
“You’re right, it’s better than screeching right in my ear. But I’d prefer you did neither.”
Joshua grudgingly got to his feet and inspected the spot on the wall the bird had collided with. He couldn’t be sure, but it seemed there was a chip taken out of it.
Not a big one, but still.
“Kamikaze pigeon.” He shook his head. “At least it’s something. All right then. Time to complete another quest. But first…”
He brought up his overview screen to get a look at where he was at after his enhancements.
Name: Joshua Baxter
Species: Tellurian
Tier: Mortal
Rank: White
Enhancements: ❬3❭
Aspects
Divine ❬0❭ (Talisman: [Divine Guide])
Body ❬1❭ (Affinity: None)
Mind ❬0❭ (Affinity: None)
Soul ❬0❭ (Talisman: [Sinister Pigeon])
Talents
⧼Divine Guide⧽ ❬1❭ (Aspect: Divine)
⧼Sinister Pigeon⧽ ❬1❭ (Aspect: Soul)
Spells
[Map] ❬1❭
[Loot] ❬0❭
[Identify] ❬1❭
[Storage] ❬1❭
[Grand Purpose] ❬1❭
Godmarks
⟪Auspicious Contender⟫
“So I have two aspects that don’t have an affinity. Can I use anything to make an affinity? Or is it only certain items?”
Affinity Stones may be attuned to an Aspect to grant Talents. The initial Stone attuned to an Aspect will influence all further Talents under that Aspect.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Wow, you actually answered me. Maybe that upgrade’s paying off.” He reread the message. “That seems a little complicated. If I’m interpreting this right, I get talents by using affinity stones and attuning them to an aspect. Which would be only four talents, but then you say the initial one affects other talents, so I’m guessing I can have more than one talent per aspect. How many can I have total?”
At your current Rank you may possess four Talents.
“And at the next rank?”
Increase in Rank to gain access to information about that Rank.
He sighed. “What’s the difference between affinities and talismans?”
He waited, but got no answer.
“Back to the silent treatment.” Used to this by now, he shrugged. “More things that are probably in that table of contents.”
Would you like to view the table of contents to [Divine Guide User’s Guide]?
“Geez you’re persistent with that.” He looked around. This was probably as safe a place as he was likely to find in the near future. He could spare a minute or two. Plus, it meant he got to sit here and rest a little longer. “Yeah, sure, fine. Show me.”
He was assaulted with a wall of text.
“I knew it was long, but wow.”
He frowned as he scanned it. “What the heck? It’s not even in alphabetical order!”
There were numbered sections, but there were literally thousands upon thousands of items under each of them, each a single line of text not in any obvious order.
“Well that’s just poor design. You seriously don’t have a search function?”
You currently already have the table of contents to [Divine Guide User’s Guide] open.
“Might as well see if I can find information on affinities, talents, and talismans.”
He scanned through the massive lists. Each section was labeled with what he thought was a place name. The first one was Mysterious Dungeon. After this was East Alderdark, West Alderdark, then Valrun, then Titanrest, then many, many more.
“This seems like an index, not a table of contents.”
An item under Titanrest caught his eye, Steelborn Dragon, but nothing happened when he tried to access it.
He explored the lists some more and found that the only ones he could use were Mysterious Dungeon and East Alderdark. The dungeon only had two items under it: Underground Tributary, then after this an ellipsis. He opened the ellipsis.
Enhance or explore to gain access to more information about your current area.
“Huh.” He dismissed the screen and focused his attention on the random item he’d opened under East Alderdark.
The Lost Waterfall from Nowhere
A waterfall in the depths of the Alderdark whose source remains elusive.
East Alderdark had thousands of items under it, and he scanned through them, but at first glance didn’t see anything about affinity stones, talismans, or talents.
He opened several more items at random, hoping to stumble onto something useful.
The Games
East Alderdark once played host to Game events including a Dungeon Crawl and a Monster Hunt, as well as several other lesser events.
Sages
There have recently been reports of Sages entering into East Alderdark.
Daemon Shards
East Alderdark is the primary source of Daemon Shards for Titanrest and its surrounding vassal towns.
Healing Potions
Beware of healing potions growing on East Alderdark trees. They are not real. Many an explorer has succumbed to illusionist horrors, which use their prey’s desires against them. And in the East Alderdark, those desires are almost always healing-related.
“Well, that last one would have been helpful earlier. At least I got a daemon shard out of it.”
He sighed. It was like a tourist guidebook to the area. He had more pressing matters to worry about. Like getting out of this dungeon, and hopefully finding a healing potion.
He closed all the windows and the table of contents itself, then tilted and twisted his head to look at his familiar, perched on his shoulder. “All right then, Sin, ready for adventure?”
Sin fluttered its wings once in agreement.
“Hey, you’re learning,” Joshua said happily.
Sin squawked joyously. Right in his ear.
“Annnd we’re back to square one.”
With nothing left to procrastinate on, Joshua finally turned his attention from his guide, and focused on the path he’d climbed onto.
Directly ahead of him it wound briefly before terminating at an even higher ledge, this one at least three or four times his height. Above it was an opening all the way at the roof of the cavern, leading into the wall itself. There was a rope ladder below the ledge that had either broken or been cut and now sat piled beneath it.
He looked down at it, then up at the opening high above. The rock was too smooth for him to try climbing, so the only way up would be if he could somehow throw and hook one of the rungs on the anchor up there. The cut end was still anchored in place with two spikes, and each stuck out enough that there was room for one of the ladder’s rungs to hook onto.
“There’s no way I can throw it that high.”
He tried anyway, hoping maybe his enhanced Body Aspect would give him the strength required.
All he got for his trouble was a rope ladder to the face, which Sin was swift enough to dodge.
Joshua rubbed the bridge of his nose where one of the wooden rungs of the ladder had hit.
“If I keep this up, I’m going to do myself in.”
Sin returned to its perch on his shoulder and pecked his cheek encouragingly.
“That’s not what a peck on the cheek is supposed to feel like.”
He put the ladder in his inventory. “Only takes one slot. Handy.”
Joshua turned his attention ahead. “Into the unknown it is.”
Sin squawked.
“Huh, you’re right. Climbing up the ladder would have been into the unknown also. But at least it’s going upward. That’s always the way out in a dungeon.” He thought for a moment. “Actually, I guess sometimes there are portals at the end. But you usually have to defeat a boss first.”
He stared down the path ahead, which disappeared into shadow not a hundred yards from where he stood. “Why do I feel like this is a bad idea?”
Sin pecked his shoulder in an encouraging manner, and Joshua grudgingly headed off into the dark.