017 - THE SPOILS OF VICTORY
As Conrad made steady progress jogging back to his meeting point with Mara and the others, he took a moment to go over his notifications from the fight a few minutes prior.
Feat of Strength Performed
Defeat an opponent five or more levels higher.
Reward: 500XP
Kill Reward: Opponent’s unspent XP plus a percentage based on total XP invested - 2892XP
Total reward: 3392XP
Feat of Strength Performed
Defeat an opponent five or more levels higher.
Reward: 500XP
Kill Reward: Opponent’s unspent XP plus a percentage based on total XP invested - 2110XP
Total reward: 2610XP
Conrad felt the exact same sense of exhilarating wealth that he felt seeing Karina dump all that gold on the ground. A total of 6002XP was a fortune he had never thought he’d be staring at. He looked over his fighter class, which didn’t have too much more for him to invest in. since he had picked up a couple of new passive skills during his solo time.
Second Wind was a fighter specific passive skill that allowed him to recover some stamina after exhausting himself. He hadn’t had a ton of opportunity to develop it, but it still seemed like a worthwhile skill to have put some XP into with its 20% stamina recovery that would increase each proficiency level up.
Danger Sense was an active ability that, at level two, worked for a full minute and would light up a direction in his vision pointing out threats coming at him out of his sight line. It could activate once every four seconds while he had it going, and it had saved his life already.
Adrenaline Rush was at level four, and Tireless level three which was solid considering how long he had actually been using his Fighter class. It had taken him the better part of two weeks to max out the proficiency of Silver Tongue and even longer for Market Sense in his Merchant class, but the amount of fighting he had been doing down in the dungeon was well beyond what most new adventurers were likely to encounter under more normal circumstances.
It was almost disappointing that the only skill left in the skill tree to invest in, Scrappy, only cost 150XP. He went ahead and purchased it.
Skill Earned
Name: Scrappy
Description: You like to fight, probably more than you should. So you learned a thing or two about fair fights, and that you never want to be in one. This passive ability grants the Fighter a bonus to his combat effectiveness which increases against higher level opponents.
- Grants a 1% increase to Damage Potential vs opponents of the same level
- Grants a 5% increase to Damage Potential vs opponents one level higher, up to a maximum of 15% for opponents three or more levels higher.
Higher levels of proficiency increase the damage increase.
Level: 1
Progress to Next Level: 0%
But as soon as he did, a new notification popped into his vision:
Class Discovered
He stumbled and almost spilled himself into the bushes in his shock at just the title of the notification. Looking at his progression menu where all new skills, abilities and classes appeared, he saw not one, but two new constellations appear.
The first was right next to the clenched fist that was his Fighter class constellation. A sword shimmered into existence, and each of the stars that made it up resolved into the grayed out icons of available but not yet learned skills.
Conrad recognized it immediately, the Warrior class was a common starter class among adventurers and shared some of the same skills as other starter classes, Toughness and Adrenaline Rush among them. That would mean his progression through Warrior, if he invested in it, would be close to on par with his progress in Fighter.
As adventurers accrued classes and skills, their paths would open up new ways to progress. Many of these, like Fighter/Warrior combinations were commonly understood means of moving forward. The Heavy Trooper or the Swordsmen were two such possibilities; Joy having taken on the former and Troy, Mara’s companion, having taken the latter.
Here and there Conrad had run into unusual tier twos or even a tier three here and there, but it was still unusual to run into names and types he had never heard of.
So it was with some surprise that he noted the three lines intersecting among constellations of Warrior, and the two classes he already had, Fighter and Merchant. The shimmering starlight that ran among the three classes, connected all of them at the focal point of a new constellation.
A page of parchment with a dagger laying on top.
Curious and back on track racing toward the land bridge, Conrad looked back to the notification, two notifications, that had almost sent him off the path.
Class Discovered
Name: Warrior
Rarity: Common
Description: Hailing from all cultures and backgrounds, Warriors share one thing in common: their view of the world as a place where the only true measure of power is one’s capacity for violence.
Investment Cost: 500XP
Class Discovered
Name: Officer
Rarity: Uncommon
Tier: Two
Description: Organized warfare only became organized when Officers arose from among the rank and file to take command. Officers take charge, lead, guide, and when necessary, restrain their men.
Investment Cost: 2000XP UNAVAILABLE
WARNING: Prerequisites not met! The Warrior class must be fully unlocked before this class can be earned.
Conrad wasn’t about to sit around and not invest all that XP into the Warrior class. This was an extravagance he could afford and with all that had happened he couldn’t imagine not finding the Warrior skills useful anyway. He spent the necessary 500XP to unlock the Warrior Class and then 500 more to unlock the four skills he was missing.
Power and knowledge rushed into Conrad as the new class and abilities increased his stats and Order gave him the knowledge necessary to make use of his new skills.
Class Earned!
Warrior
Skills Earned!
Imbued Strike, Recovery Block, Psych Up, Weapon Proficiency
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Status Modification
Strength + 3
Agility +1
Dexterity + 1
Endurance +2
Up ahead he saw the land bridge and slowed to a walk. His new skills would bolster his combat ability and be invaluable in the upcoming fight, but it was too bad he didn’t have some time to try them out before jumping into it. He was about to invest in the Officer class when he realized he still needed to figure out what to tell the others about what happened to the Seekers. It wasn’t like he could just walk up and explain he’d been tricked into a slave contract and had, only shortly before, managed to kill all the people responsible.
Could he though? Just tell them? He hadn’t bothered to gather the evidence of the contract and it was too late now to go back for it, but would they believe him if he told them? He was a brand new adventurer, a Merchant with no reason to go into the dungeon and no skills to take on three higher level adventurers. He had the bizarre circumstances of his weapons and equipment, his refusal to join up with Troy and Mara… There was a lot going on that signaled the truth of what happened.
But what would he think? If there was one thing he learned in watching the Seekers and Mara’s group interact, it was that trust was hard to come by in the dungeon and without exceptional circumstances like his literally saving their lives, it was not granted easily.
That settled it. He couldn’t tell them. Not yet. Maybe not ever. This was a secret that, no matter how much he felt he had been justified, might just have to follow him all the way to the grave.
So what would he tell them?
His musing was interrupted by a rhythmic pounding behind him in the woods. Not drums exactly, it was more clanging than that, accompanied by the steady sound of…marching.
The Lizard King. He was coming and he was almost here. Conrad sprinted the remaining distance across the scrubby open area between him and the land bridge.
The bridge stretched across the river, a natural arch carved through what likely used to be a hill - or, seemed to have been a hill since the dungeon likely hadn’t been around long enough for any of this to form naturally. Five, maybe six people could walk across it side by side, but if they were fighting two or three would probably be pushing it.
He didn’t have any formal training in tactics, but looking around the strategy seemed obvious. If they could meet the King here, their ranged fighters could take position at the top of the arch while the rest of them fought closer to the base, keeping the King’s greater numbers from mattering too much while they whittled down their strength from above.
Once the Royal Guards were down, they could take the King as a group.
Conrad ran to the top of the arch and looked down the other side. The jungle was dense, and the path leading to the bridge was really the only approach that could be made and it curved off into the trees, killing visibility beyond a few dozen meters.
“Come on Mara,” Conrad whispered, “Where are you?”
He looked back the way he had come, the river was drowning out the sound of the marching now but… there, right up the pathway he had just come running up was the vanguard of the group. Hardened chitin armor on full display, the Kings retinue rounded the corner heading exactly along the path Conrad had expected them to come.
“Gonna be a real waste of an opportunity if I have to run away from this,” he muttered. Maybe there was something he could do? Some sort of trap he could spring and he could actually solo the King?
“Conrad!” A man’s voice called out pulling Conrad’s attention away, mercifully, from the temptation to throw his life away in a fight he had no chance of winning.
Up the path came a party of eight adventurers. In their lead was Troy, twin swords sheathed over his back. Next to him was Mara, looking refreshed and dangerous in her fighting gear, and beside her walked Karl - extra bolts visible for his crossbow.
The other five were variously dressed and armed, Conrad didn’t know them by sight but he saw a couple of them using sword and shield, a spearman, and two more ranged adventurers sporting bows.
He waved at them, “Get a move on! He’s here!”
The group broke into a run, the speed of them indicating they were all experienced adventurers with stats well above that of common men and women, and in less then a minute they arrived.
“Hiya!” Mara said.
“Good to see you,” Conrad replied forgetting entirely to greet the rest of the group as he took in her form fitting leather breastplate strapped tight over the thin material of her caster’s robe, which–
“Where’s your band, Conrad?” Troy said, breaking the spell.
“We got separated,” Conrad said, “Wanted to venture a bit further out and see if there was a better spot than this but the fighting got intense.”
He looked around at the nonplussed group and added hastily, “Hope they’re okay. But we should be good on our own anyway.”
The whole group stood at the apex of the bridge, just in time to see the King, resplendent in his mother of pearl armor, emerge from the jungle with the last of his retainers.
In all, it looked like there were about thirty Royal Guards, maybe ten of which were Mauler types, but all of them were heavily armed and armored, moving as a unit instead of a mass.
Troy rubbed his chin, “I think we can all see the obvious play here. Mara and the ranged types on the arch, the rest of us hold the line.”
Mara nodded, “If we can keep them tightly packed I can do some serious damage, but we’ll need to be mindful of friendly fire,” addressing the two with shields she asked, “Either of you have skills for making distance?”
Both men, burly and wearing heavy armor, nodded.
“Good,” Mara said, “Shields up front, that’s you too Conrad, polearms and Troy behind, ranged and me up top.”
Conrad nodded, “Good a plan as any.”
“As any?” Mara said feigning indignance good naturedly, “Sir. It’s the best plan there is. And this ground’s the place to do it.”
Conrad smiled and Troy took out his swords and yelled out to the group, “I see a big payday marching toward us, lads! Let’s get rich!”
He clanged his blades together, the armored shield bearers pounded their thick plate armor and the whole group put together a clamorous cheer.
They moved into formation, Conrad at the center. And with this group, absent the compulsion, absent the reckless danger the Seekers had put him through, Conrad actually felt an eagerness to not just test his skills, but to get rich.
Almost as an afterthought he opened his status and invested the 2000XP needed for the Officer class. Why waste the advantage?
Class Earned!
Officer
Status Modification
Endurance +2
Intelligence +2
Bonus!
Poison Resistance +5
His endurance was really getting up there at 23. It increased his health and also his stamina, which would definitely be needed in the coming fight. Intelligence was an interesting bonus, it usually lent itself to improving abilities or skills that required a keen mind, like his Market Sense ability.
He didn’t have a lot of time to prepare so he scanned the new skills and abilities available to him, but noticed there weren’t as many as he expected.
A small information notification was attached to his class message that he had ignored a moment before:
Class Earned!
Officer
Note: For classes above the Common rank, not all of the skills, abilities, and spells are available immediately. They can be learned through practical experience, study, or in some circumstances, breakthrough investing.
It was nice to get concrete understanding of a rule Conrad had only understood intuitively before. He had “broken through” to the Fighter class, meaning he had no direct knowledge of it prior to investing his experience into it, but as a common class Order gave immediate knowledge of all of the skills available.
For Warrior, he knew the class well since there were so many of them coming and going from the store - he even had sales pitches for items keyed to maximize effectiveness of particular skills. And so when he learned it, he also knew about all of the skills that came along with it.
But the Officer class was a new one to him. It was possible he had heard of it at some point but he didn’t know what role it was actually supposed to fill or what skills were typical for holders of the class. So, more curious than disappointed, he examined the two new skills available to him against the constellation in his interface, where the unknown skills remained merely formless stars.
“Oh,” Conrad said, reading over the list, “Yeah. Oh definitely yeah.”
He invested in both skills immediately.
Skill Earned
Name: Defensive Aura
Description: Just an officer’s presence on the battlefield is often enough to bolster the troops and keep morale up. If the brass is on the front line, so the reasoning goes, then the battle is going well. Increases the defensive stats of friendly adventurers. Higher levels of proficiency increase the bonuses offered
Bonuses:
Toughness +2 (0 if attribute absent)
Armor Durability + 10% (0 if unarmored)
Endurance + 1
Level: 1
Progress to Next Level: 0%
Spell Earned
Name: Restrain
Description: Restraint is the domain of the learned warrior. This spell immobilizes a single target completely. Amount of time immobilized has a base of 10 seconds, which varies depending on the strength of the target. Higher levels of proficiency increase the duration of the spell and improve its strength vs higher level enemies.
Mana Cost: 5
Bonus Mana: 2
Level: 1
Progress to Next Level: 0%
Restrain was Conrad’s first, genuine offensive magic spell! Even with his high intelligence, Order only ever granted a single additional mana point per five points of intelligence, so onto his base of five mana and with 25 intelligence, adding this new bonus he had a total of twelve mana.
He activated Defensive Aura.
“Oh that does me good,” the man to his left said.
The man on his right just gave a nod and returned to watching the oncoming group of enemies, ready. Conrad too was feeling confident and ready.
The Lizard King represented the fattest payday anyone delving the Warren Dungeon could walk away with.
And with these new skills and this group at his back? Conrad intended to get paid.