The humans fell like dominoes. Each one seeming to take out the next in a cascade of murder.
I could never imagine this carnage. How... Why did they kill each other? Thought Jean-luc.
Satharis’ charge had set events in motion that cascaded out of control. Leading to the worst possible outcome for his conscience.
Jean-luc shouted at them to stop, screamed for all he was worth. Still they fought. The young man cutting the girl’s throat. The old man dismantling the young. Level up! Notifications echoed in his mind. Rewarding his tortured silence with gifts.
On it went, continuing with the young girl disappearing in a green shimmer. Painfully similar to CGI disintegration effects of old TV shows. He rushed forward, positioning himself between the elf and elder. Yelling into faces that did not hear him.
He threw himself at the woman. His intelligence phased through her. There was nothing he could do. They could not hear him, could not see him. There was no way for him to make them feel his sorrow.
Jean-luc had never felt so helpless, so hopeless in his entire life. Not even when Brother Peterson broke through the confessional.
He had no power here, leveling up came with a price tag he could not afford. He slumped, or tried to. Since he lacked a physical body his slump amounted to a small flutter in his perspective. Without a physical body he had no heart, or brain, to hold his emotions.
Emotions turned fugitive in his incorporeal mind.
Despair faded into nothing, leaving Jean-luc feeling as though there was a void where his soul should be. The old man spoke to the elf. Begging her to take his experience and protect Hattie. Probably the redhead. Jean-luc struggled to care. This world was so different from his own. These humans were violent murderers, not the civilized humans of his own world.
I can’t let this nihilism take hold of me. I need to ground myself in the words of god, if only I had a bible to study… ah, what good would that do? I can’t even turn the pages.
A thought came to him. Prayer. Finally, a sacrament that could be offered no matter the place or time. A silent prayer to connect his soul to God.
Whispers of a “-secret to evolve.” caught his ear. Attention piqued, he paused his prayer, listening in on their private conversation. Floating between the elven ear and human mouth.
Oh… Satharis didn’t mention these conditions! Crap. Why would he? It wouldn’t stop the arrogant lizard from evolving, but it will stop me...
Lost in thought he failed to notice the goblins respawning. More violence troubled his omniscent eyes. The adventurers slew the goblins, and continued their conversation without missing a precious heartbeat. Jean-luc's horror grew when the elf woman, Nara, cut the old man’s throat.
More of the accursed Level up! notifications appeared in his mind. Flaunting the price that came with his goals.
How can I call myself a priest, how can I say I am doing good if this is the price to return home? Sacrificing others to pay for my misdeeds is no different than making others pay for my sins. That is the banality of evil. I can’t…
Nara fled from the goblins. Disappearing down a tunnel illuminated by small glowing rocks. Jean-luc followed her, floating after her while pondering the impossible.
Satharis had never answered how many goblins it would take to reach level 100. Thinking back to their conversation he summoned a chart of the fibonacci function. At his call, the chart appeared in his mind, accompanied by simple calculators. He skimmed the chart, skipping ahead to every ten iterations.
10 : 5,500
20 : 676,500
30 : 83,204,000
40 : 10,233,415,500
50 : 1,258,626,902,500
60 : 154,800,875,592,000
70 : 19,039,249,070,913,500
80 : 2,341,672,834,846,768,500
90 : 288,006,719,437,081,612,000
100 : 35,422,484,817,926,191,507,500
Oh… Oh dear god. I can’t count that High. 83 million to reach level thirty? 10 Trillion to reach level 40? These numbers are longer than anything I've ever worked with. Whoa… Satharis was right. A million goblins massacring each other… Lets call it training from now on. They don’t actually die so… It’s more like jujitsu or sparring. With teeth and blood and - EW! I hate this.
I hate this dungeon, I hate this world, I hate this violence!
Piper changed directions. Abruptly vanishing from sight.
Whoa! That’s super cool! But also really annoying. How can I help you when you hide from me?
Jean-luc expanded his sight until he could sense the dungeon from entrance to rift. Searching for some way out of this disaster. The orchard was as lively as it always was and the goblins were back to training, while the slimes were doing… Whatever slimes did.
Maybe they are like snails, but with all the gooey bits on the outside. Wondered Jean-luc.
Unable to locate Nara, he addressed the notifications he could find. Since he was not an actual combatant, there was no way he could have earned any real XP. If he still had eyebrows, they would have left his skull. He had dozens upon dozens of notifications. Mentally clicking on the first notification he approved the level up and received three attribute points for reaching level three. They were automatically allocated to his “Intelligence” stat.
Makes sense, there is no body to get stronger and my brain doesn't need to dodge.
He accepted the next level up, beginning to sweat at this time receiving four attribute points and a spell titled Rage.
Rage:
Cost: 5000 MP
Briefly doubles strength. While active, the target’s intelligence is halved.
A priest who casts rage… Hairy Heph has a sense of humor. No wonder Satharis is always quipping about the god. What does it mean by briefly? Hold up…
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
Checking his other spells, he found they all had similarly hiden details. Important nuggest of information like a longer description, exact numbers on the effect, and most importantly, timers. Everything from spell duration, to how long you had to wait between casting times.
A dark thought entered his mind. Mentally wincing, he opened “Talent steal” and found his worst fears confirmed. There was an expiration on how long he could maintain a copied talent. His XP hack, 'Curiosity' would expire in less than a week.
At that thought an idea entered his mind. One that would not be dismissed. Checking Satharis’ respawn countdown, he scowled. Noting how the dragon had to wait nearly ten times longer to respawn.
5901s
Jean-luc didn't bother checking the MP cost. He needed Satharis' advice, and he needed it now. Biting the MP bullet he approved the respawn, mentally clicking it.
Error, Respawn request rejected.
Rejected? You little blue turd. I offer you a life and you choose to stay in hell. Fine then. Have it your way.
Hoping to spawn someone who appreciated him, Jean-luc spawned six new goblins. The perfect test subjects for him to test his new spells on. Starting with Rage, he cast it on each of them, waiting until they began training with their older brothers so he could see the full effect.
Jean-luc immediately became squeamish. Not wanting to see the carnage but feeling too responsible to look away. Besides, he didn’t have eyelids.
One by one, the enraged goblins mauled their partners, overwhelming the marginally better equipped goblins with ease. They would have gone further but Gurk stepped in. Now armored with a broken breastplate and twin daggers he hacked through the enhanced goblins. Dispatching his brothers with glee. Like a child who found daggers and armor underneath the Christmas tree.
Name: Gurk
Class: Goblin
Rank: 5
HP 20/20
MP 20/20
Respawn: 600s or 50,000 MP
Strength 12
Agility 5
Intelligence 5
Talent:
Intimidate
Whoa! Gurk got ripped. Compared to the two intelligence and five HP he had earlier today this guy is really hitting the gym... Or his brothers...
Jean-luc struggled to be happy for his minion’s success. Thinking the price was still too high. He decided to level up himself, taking time to spend the additional mana he received to purchase more goblins. His attributes were auto assigned so all he had to do was click the “Yes” icon.
Choices would slow him down but there always seemed to be an easy answer, no reason to learn a new spell when he could improve one of his existing spells. Curses and offensive magic felt wrong to him, so he always opted for buffing magic or talents that allowed him to build.
Enhance became multi enhance and Rage upgraded multiple times. Each upgrade adding an exclamation mark to the name. Rage! Became Rage!! Which turned into Rage!!! And finally RAGE!!! In all capital letters.
On theme for the spell I guess. Hephestus spends too much time coming up with names for these. If he has this much time on his hands then he could have stopped in for a chat, or explained why he brought me here.
True to their descriptions they all increased in power, something that caused great excitement in goblin town. One moment Gurk would be pummeling a noobie, only for a RAGE!!! spell to turn the tide for a few minutes. When he was done he let out a low whistle, stunned by how much a mere 10% of the old man’s XP had been worth.
Name: “Jean-luc Delance”
Class: Dungeon
Rank: 90
HP 10,000/10,000*
MP 2,000,000,000 / 2,000,000,000
Strength: -/-
Agility: -/-
Intelligence: 5500
Talents:
Manipulate dungeon x3, Rebuild dungeon x3, Move dungeon x3, Enhance dungeon x3, build dungeon x3, Build trap, Reset trap, Enhance trap, Make door,
Spawn monster, Respawn monster, Dominate monster, Summon treasure,
Create illusion, Expel, Evolve creature, Unlock floor.
Spells:
Curse of Greater Stubbed toe
Talent steal
RAGE!!!
Multi-Enhance
Heroic Bravery
Holy Smite
Heal
Mass Heal
Teleport
Mass Recall
Repair
Ice wall
Summon monster
Control monster
* = HP value is for the dungeon core itself.
A whopping two million MP made him stop and appreciate his stats. Gawking at them for a full minute. If MP were cents, he would be richer now than he ever had been in life. Brushing the thought away he spent his MP freely, spawning a few trees. He would have created more goblins, but somewhere along the leveling process he had reached one hundred goblins. An apparent cap on his trainees.
Movement in the darkest depth of his dungeon caught his eye. Nara had reappeared. Jean-luc watched her for a moment, confused why the elf had left the path of stones. Scanning the dungeon he immediately understood why.
In his haste to level up he had cast each talent and spell on the nearest eligible target. Casting spells and moving dungeon walls to discover the consequences. How was he supposed to know the difference between “Manipulate dungeon” and “Rebuild dungeon”? One of his talents had moved the tunnels, cutting the glow stone trail in half.
Jean-luc tried respawning Satharis again. Only to receive the same error message.
If he keeps moping, I’m gonna demote him and put Gurk in charge. At least the green sociopath knows how to keep working.
With nothing to do in the dungeon, he resorted to the ancient practice of reading the manual.
His internal interface was a complicated affair and he took the time to read every word he could find. Hephestus might name things strangely, and he might lack interpersonal skills, but the demigod took exquisite notes. Their meticulous lines brought warmth into Jean-luc’s heart. Precise words that stated rules as they were as well as notes on their intended functions.
He was so thorough that he included excerpts of his own diary. Gushing over the reinforced hinge on the goblin jaws, or the self multiplying nature of slimes. They were the only creature with the capacity to self divide, passively increasing a dungeon’s inhabitants while taking out the trash. The fact that they could not fight or cast magic was a challenge to be addressed in future iterations.
Hephestus reminds me of Brother Arie. A programmer who often forgot to bath, or what day of the week it was. A man who seemed to be absentminded, only to drop a few grand in the donation box each sunday.
Father Delance had once made the mistake of asking him what he did. Only to spend the next five hours listening to him discuss the intricacies of validated lists and recursive integers. Thankfully, Brother Peterson had rescued him from that quagmire.
Where did I go wrong... Okay, I know what we did. There has to be a way to make things right. Satharis was right, make a plan. So that is what I'll do.
While perusing Hephestus’ notes, he discovered an entire book documenting Satharis. His motivations, abilities, and most importantly why he was in Delance dungeon.
So our local dragon has goals of his own. Impossible ones too. He could live a thousand lives and it would not be enough time to change the world. Well… He is a dragon after all.
Satharis’ respawn timer finally counted to zero and the dragon appeared in the orchard. Materializing silently on a particularly thick tree branch. No sound or fanfare accompanied him.
Looks like Hephestus didn’t answer your prayer. Said Jean-luc.
“Oh greeeeaat. I’m back here in the nursery. Right next to a sleeping Leviathan.” Quipped Satharis.
If only there was a powerful monster who I could use these new abilities on. Then we could get rid of that sleeping worm.
Sthatris made his draconic laughing sound as Jean-luc spoke.
“Your buffs really turned the tide during our fight earlier. Oh wait, we all died!” Snapped Satharis.
Okay, okay! You are right, I screwed up earlier. That is my fault and I am sorry. My powers didn’t make sense to me then, but I've read the manual now! Exclaimed Jean-luc.
Satharis flapped his wings a few times. Warming them up as he turned towards the gash in the dungeon wall.
“I’ll be back once you’ve had a chance to grow up.” Sneered the blue dragon.