Power Leveling (Part 1)

“What’s she doing here?” Idris asked.

This morning he had gone directly to the Seekers’ headquarters and found Jibs relaxing out front. The man had been uncharacteristically kind to him. Not that he was ever unkind, the Seekers had always treated him well, but it was over the top. Breakfast, hearty laughs, stories about the dungeon and adventuring. Idris was having such a good time he wondered if this morning was just about getting to know his teammate.

But when Gendra the Healer came clopping over, walking stick clicking over the cobbles, Idris began to get curious.

“She’s who we're waiting for,” Jibs said. They both greeted Gendra with a respectful, “Healer.”

Gendra, not unpleasantly but without any preamble asked, “Have you explained the training to him yet?”

“He…has not,” Idris said slowly, looking at Jibs.

“Right. Been meaning to get to that,” Jibs said, “This part of the training is as much training as it is a sort of initiation. So you need to know a few things. First, we’ve all done it. All the seekers. Conrad insists. Adventuring is dangerous and most first year adventurers get themselves killed, so this is our way of tipping the scales.”

Idris was beginning to feel like he had misjudged what they were doing here entirely.

“Second,” the Ranger continued, “You need to know that I’m not your enemy. I’m not taking any pleasure in this. This is all on Conrad’s orders, as I’ve said.

“And third, you can quit at any point. But if you do, you’ll no longer be welcome in the Seekers. All debts accrued through training still apply, of course,” he concluded.

Idris was beginning to form an idea of what he was about to be asked to do. Conrad liked to keep the seekers to a minimum in certain skills, and as dungeon challenges and adventuring went through its normal course, gaps would appear and certain skills would lag for certain types. And that comment about tipping the scales to keep first years alive.

“OK… you haven’t told me what we’re working on though,” Idris said, really hoping he was wrong.

“Today we’re training your toughness,” Jibs said, “And we continue training it every single day until you reach rank twenty five.”

“Twenty five?!” Idris said, almost jumping from his chair. He checked his Toughness stat and saw it had risen to 12 since he first gained the attribute. Not bad, but another 13 levels of grinding out pain? At that point it would be his highest level stat, other than his strength.

“You’ve invested in it already, then?” Jibs asked, “What level are you?”

Idris told him and he nodded approvingly, “That’s good. We can have you where you need to be in a week or so. I’ll be switching out with the others. None of us like doing this, but with a Healer in town we don’t need to wait.”

Nobody mentioned the fact that there were two healers and that he had specifically invited Gendra to this little session.

“So,” Jibs said, “Are you in or are you out?”

Idris took a deep breath. It was pain here today, or pain over a longer period of time. He wanted to be a warrior, at least here he could power level.

“Let’s get started,” he said.

Jibs led him inside and down into the training area. Idris realized what the brown stains on the mats were from now.

He had pictured being strapped to a chair and tortured, but to his surprise his time getting lessons literally beaten in him was a bit more than that. Jibs actually had him spending the whole time attempting to fight him.

The sparring was a complete beat down with no quarter given, Jibs switching up which type of training weapon he used to dominate every fight seemingly just for the fun of it. But as the hours carried on and the healings stacked up, Idris began to understand the underlying genius of the training.

Each weapon used had different common movements, ways it was held, different openings. And though he wasn’t skilled enough to exploit any of the gaps in Jibs’s defense that he saw, he was beginning to see them.

His biggest surprise was when he came up against a hammer, much like his own. Likely acquired for exactly this moment.

He felt like he should do well, at least last a little longer than he did against the other weapons.

Within two moves however, he was writhing on the ground and screaming in pain, cradling a shattered knee. He could barely focus through the pain as Gendra bent over him to straighten everything out.

“Let him get control,” Jibs said, voice hard.

Gendra scowled and paused, waiting. Idris, heard the words through a blur of pain and focused on mastering it. Or at least in changing his screams to groans. After a few minutes he succeeded and a tiny notification popped up in the corner of his vision:

Toughness +1

Jibs lectured over his groans, “You don’t have to kill an enemy to win the fight. Take him out of it, handle whatever else needs doing, and come back later to collect that XP.”

When Gendra finished healing him, tears of joy actually leaked out of the corner of his eyes and he began laughing uncontrollably. It was as if he had never felt the absolute bliss of being uninjured.

Jibs booted him in the ribs. Training continued.

***

Idris walked home that evening in surprisingly good spirits. It was incredible what simply moving normally did to his mood after spending the entire day in literally bone breaking pain.

He eyed his Toughness stat sitting at 17. He had rocketed up, but Jibs told him that wasn’t unusual for the pre-twenties. At the beginning of the day, Jibs had taken a knife and slide it across his own palm, leaving a white line as it was only able to cut the very outermost layer of skin.

His toughness was thirty five.

He then did the same to Idris, cutting a deep gash that had to be healed immediately.

At the end of the day he did it again, and while Idris’ skin broke at contact with the blade, it wasn’t nearly as deep and only wept blood instead of gushing as it had earlier.

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He still had a hard road ahead, but progress was progress.

More than increasing his stats, Idris had a lot to think about and mull over with Eana today. He felt better equipped than ever for helping her understand whatever it was that infected her healing. As impossible as it might seem for anyone else in Irondale, this was Idris’s first experience being healed by Gendra.

He knew what it should feel like now, and had ample experience handling the discomfort of how it actually felt when Eana did it.

And bizarrely, his desire to get back and train again the next day was almost as strong as his desire to take on the dungeon again tonight.

When he got home, however, Eana wasn’t there.

He waited for nearly an hour before writing out a quick note and heading out to the Shimmering Rocks on his own. He wouldn’t go too deep but he wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to gain some more experience with the dungeon.

It was in the main hall of the dungeon that he found her, sitting contentedly with her eyes closed, back against one of the huge crystalline stalagmites. She looked almost meditative.

“Couldn’t wait to get back at it?” Idris said.

She opened her eyes slowly. He had expected to surprise her but she seemed as if she had known he was there the whole time. Maybe he should work on his stealth…

“I wanted to test something out,” she said.

“What’s that then?”

She hesitated a moment, cocked her head as if listening to somebody else, then answered, “I got a couple of new skills. From my class. And I’m about to help you do part of your quest.”

“Which one? Beating the dungeon boss? That’s… why I’m here,” he said, gesturing to the room at large.

“Not that part, the bonus part. Getting the dungeon to level two,” Eana said,

Idris couldn’t remember if he had told her about that, it wasn’t important, maybe he had forgotten.

“And how exactly are you going to help me level the dungeon if we sit around here, relaxing? Let’s get going.”

“I’m almost done, just wait a minute. Relax,” Eana said, eyes once again closed.

From somewhere deep in the dungeon there was a rumbling. Eana seemed not to notice but Idris was suddenly on his guard. Dungeons could change, he knew that, but not typically until they had leveled up.

The semi-smooth grinding of the doors in the dungeon echoed around the chamber and, with it, the distant cries of imps.

“Yahn…” Idris said, casting Radiance and then enhancing it with Detect, “Something is hap-”

Idris realized he hadn’t cast Detect since he had leveled the proficiency the day before. At level three it was supposed to show him the energy of Chaos as it flowed to collection points. And there in front of him, plain and obvious in Detect’s light he could see a purple energy like wisps of smoke emerging from Eana and moving directly into the floor of the cavern.

Was that…? Chaos energy?

“What are you doing?” Idris asked, voice suddenly sharp.

His sister’s eyes shot open. She looked around herself and saw what he saw, the thing that she was doing as she “helped” him, made visible.

She stood and, taking a deep breath as if she were doing final preparation for a moment she knew would arrive, began explaining, “It’s one of my new skills. I’m helping the dungeon level up and… it’s giving me XP.”

“Helping the dungeon?” Idris interjected.

“It’s okay!” she replied, hands placating, “This is what happens when we kill creatures in the dungeon. I’m just doing it without all the extra stuff.”

Idris scoffed and eyed the chaotic energy, now dwindling to fine wisps without Eana concentrating on it, “It is not the same, Yahn. We fight dungeons. We kill the creatures they spawn and we take their treasure. We don’t do…” he gestured futilely at her, “How do you even know what you’re doing? ”

“It’s my class. And Shimmer explained it,” she said, simply, then seeing Idris’ blank stare, continued, “She’s the dungeon. She’s the voice!”

“She?” Idris said combatively.

Talking to the dungeon? This was getting crazy. “But it shouldn’t be talking to you! It wants to destroy us. It is made to hurt us, Order, everything!”

“Maybe it doesn’t have to be like that! She’s still young, but she – oh!” Eana suddenly looked pleased, “We did it! She’s just reached level two.”

Screeches, grunts, and the commotion of dozens of moving bodies began echoing throughout the chamber. Idris checked his map. The whole image was distorted, boxes icons and colors moved, shifted, disappeared and reappeared. Around them dust fell from the ceiling and the rumbling that at first seemed distant now was all around them.

What would happen to them if they were caught in the shifting mess of rooms and caverns?

“We have to get out of here!” Idris yelled over the noise. He reached down and grabbed at Eana’s arm but she yanked it away reflexively before he could get a grip.

She cocked her head as if listening again, nodded, and said, “I’ll be OK. Shimmer said she won’t hurt me.”

An imp leapt from on top of a nearby rocky shelf. Idris caught it, surprising even himself at the enhancement to his reflexes and rammed its snarling face into the ground, killing it.

“Yeah? Did it mention me?!” He shouted, then gesturing to the shaking ground and dust falling from the ceiling, “Did it mention all this?!”

Eana paled suddenly, “I think she meant you too.”

“You think that when IT said YOU, IT meant US?!” Idris yelled.

“People talk that way all the time!” Eana said, standing and taking a step toward Idris.

He grabbed her arm, spun her around and threw her over his shoulder. “We’re getting out of here!”

Eana, still lighter than most loads of ore he lugged every day, struggled and flailed at him as he ran but even with her enhanced strength she couldn’t hold a candle to him. He ran the fifty meters to the entrance and exited to the gloomy dark of late evening.

Outside he deposited Eana on the ground before yelling, “What is wrong with you?”

She just stared up at him, looking hurt.

“Do you have any idea what happens when a dungeon levels up?” he continued, frustration oozing through his voice. It made sense now. He understood why the adventurers were so careful about managing the dungeons through their level increases.

“We’re completely unprepared. There were rooms in there we haven’t even explored! No clue what is coming at us.”

Eana’s face shifted to confusion. For once at least, it seemed like she was thinking of something other than her own feelings about the situation.

For Idris’ part his thoughts were swirling. There were the stories he had heard of expelled monsters terrorizing the countryside, this couldn’t be that bad. Imps were fairly weak, and the node would… should keep the town safe.

No, the worst part was the knowledge of the dungeon getting out. The hive had drawn in adventurers from all over inside of a couple of months. With the adventurers already here in Irondale? He’d have a few days to explore on his own.

Maybe.

He had to stop it. Had to stem the tide right here at the best bottleneck available.

“Prepared for what?” Eana asked.

He ignored her question.

Was he crazy? He knew there were over thirty imps in the rooms they had explored, not to mention the shaman. What else was beyond them? He looked at his sister and his frustration galvanized his resolve.

After all the things she had done without explanation, without thinking it over, without talking to him after all he had done to share his dungeon with her and she goes and does this?

After all he was doing to help her?

He had to fix this new mistake. He had to fix it here and now.