Tutdun Chapter Sixteen ) A gift shared. Or, is this GISH?

“Shoot.”

I didn't have a panel telling me that another Trainee was coming in, but then I didn't see the panels when I was in a body.

[ 9 ]

But I was still getting a countdown even though I was in another dungeon, which meant whatever was giving me information with floating letters still saw me as the guide to my dungeon even over here.

[ 8 ]

What I also didn’t have was a way to get up high enough to jump down and smash this skeleton body up to free myself back to my glowing ball form…

[ 7 ]

Or what would happen if I did? Would I get pulled back to my dungeon by the resistance I got whenever I tried to go more than a hundred feet from where I had first landed near Alice something or other?

[ 6 ]

Or would I be free to roam around?

I don’t think I want to just wait for the countdown, and there was someplace up high, or highish, that I could jump from.

[ 5 ]

I turned and began to run, pausing only for a second when I noticed the staff, belt, pouch, and other stuff now sitting on the table.

As if a trainee had arrived and the equipment for them had appeared, all in their size.

No time. I keep running out of the room with a clatter of bones on stone.

[ 4 ]

I think there was a knife, it kind of looked like a smaller version of the sword I got.

[ 3 ]

I could see the stairs a few rooms away and leaned into the run.

[ 2 ]

I reach the stairs and begin to race up…

[ 1 ]

At the top of the stairs, I leap…

Stolen novel; please report.

And then I was floating in the air above the middle of my, checking, yes my dungeon. About three feet higher up than the Strata.

“Alright, so that’s what happens when I’m in a body and a new Trainee shows up. If I had put in the arrival gate before I got stuck inside a goblin I could have skipped the whole drowning thing.”

"Would have been nice to know that then. Yeah, I'm talking to you Panel."

Floating along above the dungeon, I saw a woman tying her long pale hair back with a length of leather cord she had found on the shelf I labled “Strings and cords.”

She was neither old or young, sort of like York and Mr. Rude, so I guess people end up at about that age unless they died younger than that. Sort of how Nathan ended up getting here healthy and well fed looking despite a long lingering illness.

I cleared my throat. “Hi, I’m Tex. It okay for me to drop in.”

She didn’t respond, or jump, or even look up.

“Hello, can you hear…?” Right, no air up here. Nothing to carry sound on.

I slowly began to drop down into the room before I tried again.

“Unhum?”

She whipped around with a startled look, then began to breathe heavily, with tears in her eyes.

“Are...are you God?”

If someone asks if you’re a god…? Nope, it’s a classic line, but not the time for it.

“No darling, just an old man who died and got assigned to work here and help people like you.”

She calmed down a bit, setting her hand on her chest and taking a few deep breaths.

“Then, are you an angel now?"

Am I a…? "Well that is a good question, if I am I think I'm one of the lower ranked ones, like a cherub but those are actually middle ranked I think. How about we just call me a Guide, alright?”

She nodded and gave me a shy smile. “Do you know why I got two class abilities? One for Fighter and one for Mage?”

….wha?

The woman seemed to start getting excited. “They told me I had to be a Fighter since I didn’t have the talent to be anything else, but now I got a Magic thing, and… I’m just so happy.”

Well… I’m glad for her, but I don’t think she’s going to be able to do anything with it right now. Somehow me getting the Mage starter ability gave her it too…

Is everyone coming here going to get it too? Do I have Power strike like a Fighter? Can I get the three Mage skills if I make it back over there, and how can I give those to other people?

Did I just screw her up somehow?

Meanwhile, she is beginning to twist around and look uncomfortable as I've been just floating overhead and not saying anything.

“I’m happy for you too, but could you tell me you’re name and maybe a little about yourself?”

Madeline Kesler had been a retired banker in her nineties and had just attended her great granddaughter's first birthday after which she was taken by her grandson Greg back to her nursing home, and settled in for the night.

“I think I dozed off in my chair watching a late show, did I die?”

I guided her over to the armor. “I think so, that’s how I got here and I think the three people who came here before you did too. Now you’re going to need some protection at first, even if you do learn to do magic over there. If you do end up not needing it you can always sell it.”

“So your first quest is to pick and try on one of these suits of armor.”

Even if I rushed her through her training and had her wait until it became hard to breathe, I didn't think I could get over to the other dungeon and learn if I could unlock the other skills over there, and that it would somehow give me the ability to share them with her.

Plus it would be unfair not to give her all the optional training I could give here, which would also give me enough time to get to the Mage Dungeon and mess around with it before anyone else got there.

Madeline, "Call me Maddy" didn't care for fighting all that much, but took to skinning and cooking up the horned rabbit just fine. "My Timothy liked to hunt, but he would ruin the meat if I left it to him. I wonder if I'll see him over there."

I bobbed up and down a bit as she looked up at me from where she was cooking over her fire, which she had started up with the firestarter kit, then got her second quest done with the two stick method while the rabbit started to cook.

“I hope so Maddy, there are some people I would like to see again as well. But if not on the other side of these gates, then maybe sometime in the future.”

Which made me wonder, “I have to train ten thousand people before I’m free to do other things, what about you.”

She sighed. “I have to get at least ten levels before my next life ends, or I have to start over again.” She perked up a bit. “But Aly said that I might unlock other classes depending on what I do in my second life, so maybe I will be able to learn how to be a Mage and get there with that instead.”

She passed on getting the chance to fight anything else, and only took a staff off the various weapons I had available for her. After telling her about the three gates, she chose the Planes.

"I almost want to try the forest one, it sounds more like a fairy tale than the endless killing place, but I don’t know if I could make it out of the place in the dark. I’ll give the Planes a chance.”

Before she stepped through the gate, she blew me a kiss. “Thank you for the help Tex, and who knows, they may need a teacher over there.”

4: Madeline “Maddy” Kesler. Classy lady