The next two months passed quickly for Duncan. He was able to delve the Sawiskin dungeon sixteen more times, going overnight on random nights so that he wasn’t always going at a predictable time and day. Even so, the Sawiskin had set up a guard station outside the dungeon entrance, suspecting that someone else was going in and killing their adventurers and looting their dungeon. He had to sneak in by flying in from the back side of the entrance and ducking in from the top on several occasions.

He didn’t encounter the flame turtle again, but he did have several good fights with unusual monsters. A massive crab that had an incredibly high resistance to spiritual damage and a ridiculously tough carapace took him two hours to kill, as he had to lop off its legs and chisel a hole in its shell while it continually belched poisonous gas at him.

A watery giant with a club bigger than Duncan shared the Sawiskin water affinity and techniques coupled with a massive reach and strong melee attacks. Duncan’s momentum-absorbing shield and Blink served him really well in that fight, and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

He had to flee from a hydra – it regenerated too fast for him to kill it alone, and it had too many attacks for him to avoid them all. He ran through half his mana in under two minutes and the hydra was still unharmed, so he Blinked away until it stopped following him.

A giant octopus with a Mind attack and clouds of inky darkness tested his limits as well. It grabbed him several times and stripped his sword away, forcing him to Blink to safety and pull replacements out of storage. He ended that fight with a sliver of mana remaining and it took him an hour to find his missing swords in the muck at the bottom of the flooded cavern where the octopus lived.

His training with both his swordmasters progressed well. With Master deBouteville consistently demonstrating her phenomenal Blade Sense for Duncan, he started to understand what she was doing and how she was doing it. But he was astonished to see it appear as an eleventh passive Technique in his soul gem’s information display. The guild said there was a hard cap of ten Active and ten Passive Techniques, and that the last few of each could only be learned by Technique Stone. I remember Repdam being less definitive when he told me about the limits, though. I really hope I haven’t cannibalized an active slot to gain this extra Passive slot. Either way, I’m sure Blade Sense will really help against a lot of humanoid monsters, so I cannot complain.

Name:

Duncan

Class:

Warrior

Level:

81 (+5)

Profession:

Adventurer

Strength:

232 (+10)

Intelligence:

73

Dexterity:

213 (+11)

Wisdom:

60

Agility:

216 (+11)

Endurance:

234 (+11)

Concurrent Active Techniques:

3 (+1)

Health:

20880 (+1220)

Health Regen:

11340/hour (+700)

Stamina:

3150 (+160)

Stam Regen:

28350/hour (+1750)

Mana:

16502 (+875)

Mana Regen:

5900/hour (+200)

Mana Reserved:

401

Cultivation:

Mid Earth

Affinities:

Body

Outstanding

Death

Weak

Mind

Strong

Lava

Weak

Spirit

Outstanding

Gravity

Weak

Fire

Weak

Poison

Negligible

Air

Weak

Blade

Outstanding

Water

Weak

Ice

Weak

Earth

Moderate

Decay

Weak

Stone

Moderate

Soul

Moderate

Lightning

Weak

Corrosion

Negligible

Gemstone

Moderate

Space

Outstanding

Nature

Negligible

Healing

Outstanding

Life

Weak

Shadow

Moderate

Metal

Moderate

Blood

Negligible

Techniques

Active

Rank

Passive

Rank

Blade Echo

7

Tempered Blade

7

Fold Space

5

Regeneration

6

Blink

6

Coagulation

5 (+1)

Mind Spike

5

Hardened Skin

5

Destrin's Restoration

4

Tranquil Mind

4 (+1)

Flying Sword

4 (+1)

Spiritual Shield

3

Bladestorm

2

Personal Space Pocket

4

Remove Affliction

3 (+1)

Ignore Pain

4

Shadow Sight

3

Assessment

3

Blade Sense

1 (+1)

Skills

Rank

1H swords

7 (+2)

Plate armor

4 (+1)

2H swords

5 (+1)

Mail armor

1

1H axes

3

Leather armor

3

2H axes

3

Anatomy

2

Shields

3

Survival

2

Spears

4

Skinning

1

Daggers

3

Meditation

3

Bows

3

Swimming

1

Tracking

1

Riding

1

Three concurrent active techniques means I can use blade echo through a fold in space whilst flying. And my sword training is paying off. With my Flying Sword Technique up to rank four, Master deBouteville wants to start including aerial combat. Blinking while flying and attacking sounds wonderful. The sword will stick to my feet now, but I don’t get the wind barrier for another rank yet.

* * *

“You’re coming into the city with us tomorrow, Duncan. No excuses.” Amelia said. Two months into the term, the only students whose names Duncan knew were his roommates. Cassandra was still a social magnet at every meal, but the people who approached their table to talk to her knew by this point that Duncan wasn’t interested in them or what they had to say. I really should be nicer to these three – they’ve made every effort to make me feel welcome here.

“Alright. What are we doing?” he asked.

“We’ve been discussing it all week!” exclaimed Cassandra. “Were you not listening at all?”

“I was listening, I just don’t remember any of it,” he said with a shrug.

“But he remembers every moment of his fight with that octopus,” laughed David. “We are going to pick up Cassie’s new armor, and shop around the blacksmiths, then going for lunch at Beothuk’s, where we had to book a reservation weeks in advance, then we need to be fitted for new clothes for the midsummer ball. Which is mandatory attendance for students, so that includes you, too.”

“Sounds great,” Duncan said. Maybe I can work on my meditation. Or practice my assessment. “Say, I know you guys were looking at getting into the Academy dungeon sometime. Do you have a slot yet?”

“You’re a bad influence, Duncan. My parents are quite annoyed that I’m concerned about advancing my Techniques while I’m in school here. So far only David’s managed to advance something from training,” said Cassandra.

“We haven’t gotten a slot yet,” said David. “I don’t really have any gear suited to dungeons, so I haven’t really been trying very hard, honestly. I’ve advanced mostly through patrolling the family lands with our guards, fighting monsters and outlaws. I wear leather armor so I won’t immediately sink if I fall off the boat, and my sword’s an old cavalry saber.”

“Oh,” said Duncan. “You should have said something. I could equip you with gear I find in the dungeon. I just dump it all on the Adventurers Guild.” He looked at the women, “Do either of you need gear?”

“I can’t afford to buy gear from you,” David said, flushed with shame. “My family can barely afford to send me here and dress me in acceptable clothes so I don’t shame them in front of other families.”

“I don’t know how to say this without sounding insensitive or braggadocious,” said Duncan, “so I’m just going to say it. I have more gold than I know what to do with, and I get lots every time I delve a dungeon. You three are the only people I know here, and you’ve always been good to me, in a slightly annoying social way. I am happy to give you gear. Not sell, give. And if you can find a decent healer, I will escort you through the Academy dungeon so you can advance your Techniques and get some spending money of your own. You won’t advance fast with me there, but when I started delving, I had high-level escorts, and I did okay.”

“The Taggarts are an old family, a proud family. They would disown me if they heard I was taking charity,” said David.

“Gods save me from the prideful,” sighed Duncan. “How about this: I will lend you some gear for some dungeon runs and you can buy it off me with the loot you take from your dungeon delves? Or you can return it and buy something else.”

“I, uh, I guess that would be okay,” said David.

“Right, I haven’t sold anything from the last few runs yet because it wastes hours traveling through town on foot to visit the Adventurers Guild and I have oodles of storage space. So, you use a sword by preference?” asked Duncan.

“Yes.”

Duncan pulled three swords out of storage and tossed them on his bed. “Do you have a specific affinity you want to match?”

“Water?” David said.

“That’s convenient. Most of the monsters in the dungeon are water affinity. Oh, I can’t identify any of this stuff other than to see if it’s enchanted or not. Do any of you know if there’s an appraiser on-site here?”

“There’s not,” said Amelia.

“Ok, then we go into the city a couple of hours early in the morning and you guys accompany me while I get all the loot identified at the guild,” said Duncan, storing the swords again. “Do either of you ladies need anything? Amelia, you’re a longsword user – I don’t suppose you have a shadow affinity?”

“No, why?” she replied.

Duncan summoned the longsword of the shadows from his storage device. “I mostly keep this because it’s so pretty, but it’s a good sword if you have a shadow affinity. It can blind the people it hits.”

“Wow, that is a gorgeous sword!” Amelia gushed. “Can I try it?”

“Sure,” Duncan shrugged, “but you can’t keep it unless you have a strong or outstanding shadow affinity.”

While Amelia drooled over the longsword, Duncan turned to Cassandra, “Anything you need?”

“I appreciate the thought,” she said, “But my family provides, as you’ll see when I pick up my new armor tomorrow.”

“Alright. We leave at six bells for the Adventurers Guild. All of you should get some sleep.” He confiscated the longsword from Amelia and went to perform his evening ablutions.

* * *

At six bells, Duncan ushered his roommates out of the student dorm. “I don’t suppose you guys have a movement Technique?” he asked.

“I can swim really fast,” David grinned.

Huge white wings appeared behind Cassandra’s shoulders. “I can fly,” she said.

“Nice,” said Duncan. He turned to Amelia, who shook her head. “I can carry you both.” He knelt and held his arms out. “Each of you sit on my shoulder, and I’ll hold your legs.”

Amelia and David looked at him, aghast. “Don’t make me toss you over my shoulders – it’ll be way more comfortable if you sit,” he said. Hesitantly, they did as he requested, and he gripped their legs, stood up, summoned a sword under his feet, and rose into the air. Amelia shrieked a little. David shrieked more than a little. But they both settled down as he just hovered, holding them easily.

Cassandra flew up beside him, “Just how strong are you?”

“More than strong enough for this,” he said, flying at a relatively sedate pace towards the city. No point in going slower than we could run, but no need to terrify the passengers either. He landed out of view of the city gates, and they joined the early morning queue to enter the city, mostly farmers with carts of produce to sell.

Once inside, they hurried to the Adventurers Guild hall and Duncan led them down to the appraisal room. The privacy seal in place, Duncan said, “I’d like to start by depositing some gold to my account.” He summoned a thousand gold from his Pocket Space, making it appear in neat stacks on the counter. David’s eyes bugged out. The appraiser swept the coins into a guild storage device and credited Duncan’s account.

He followed up with hundreds of spears and dozens of tridents, getting just over a gold for the entire lot of them. He shrugged at his roommates, “I know they’re not worth much, but it’s easier to store them all in case one is enchanted than to check each one while I’m in the dungeon. I have a lot more storage space than I have spare time in there.”

Next, he pulled out the swords he’d shown them the night before. The appraiser said, “Sword, metal affinity, additional damage for metal affinity wielders. The guild can offer you two gold. Sword, fire affinity, channel mana through it to produce a stream of fire. Damage scales with mana channeled. The guild can offer you twenty gold for it. Sword, poison affinity. Poisons the target with an ongoing low damage effect. The guild can offer you five gold for it.”

Duncan turned to David, “Not a great selection. Pick one and if I get something more suitable later, you can swap it out.” David took the cheapest option.

Duncan dumped a pile of enchanted weapons on the counter. The appraiser began, “Spear of the snake. Poison affinity. Spear can strike around defenses and adds an ongoing damage effect to each attack. The guild can offer you ten gold. Dagger, Fire affinity. Adds fire damage to each attack, scales with affinity. The guild can offer you two gold. Rapier, air affinity. Increases effective rank of wind blade attacks by two when wielded. The guild can offer twenty gold for it.”

Cassandra coughed, “I can use that one. I’ll buy it.” Duncan passed it to her without comment.

“Crossbow, Stone affinity. Generates stone ammunition. The guild can offer five gold for it,” the appraiser continued. “War axe, decay affinity. Adds a rotting ongoing damage effect to attacks, scaling with affinity. The guild can offer five gold for it.”

David said, “That suits me better than this sword.” Duncan slid the axe down the counter to him.

“Staff of flames. Fire affinity. Adds fire damage to weapon attacks, increases the effective rank of fire spells by one. The guild can offer twenty gold for it,” the appraiser continued. “Battle Axe, Life affinity. Increases wielder’s health by twenty percent. The guild can offer twenty gold for it. Dagger, Death affinity, damage scales with affinity. The guild can offer two gold for it. Maul, gravity affinity. Weight of weapon can be modified instantly, scaling with affinity. The guild can offer thirty gold for it.” Ooh that’s neat, you can swing a maul that weighs 2 kilograms and hit with a maul that weighs twenty kilograms.

“Dagger, Corrosion affinity. Inserts acid into the wounds it creates for an ongoing damage effect. Damage scales with affinity. The guild can offer three gold for it. Wind bow, Air affinity. Dramatically increases range of missiles fired, increases missile damage. Range and damage scale with affinity. The guild can offer twenty gold for it.”

Cassandra said, “Damn it, that one’s for me, too.” Duncan grinned as he handed it to her.

“Shield of Rescue, healing affinity. Casts a heal on its bearer if the bearer falls unconscious, heal amount scales with affinity. The guild can offer a hundred gold for it.” Duncan whistled and set that one aside. Probably not suitable for me, but that’s a literal lifesaver for a combat healer. “Spear, nature affinity. Additional damage scaling with affinity. The guild can offer two gold. Vampiric longsword, blood affinity. Heals the wielder for a percentage of damage dealt. Percentage scales with affinity. The guild can offer eighty gold for it.” Duncan glanced at Amelia, and she shook her head, so he left it in the pile to sell.

“That’s it for weapons. Armor’s next.” The appraiser swept up the weapons on the counter and Duncan added a small pile of armor to replace them. David got a leather cap that increased his mental resistance and a pair of leather gauntlets that added five to his dexterity score. Everything else went to the guild.

Duncan dumped a double handful of stones and gems on the counter. “Technique stone: water jet. Water affinity, fires a jet of water at a target. Damage scales with rank and affinity. Uncommon. The guild can offer two gold for it. Technique stone: water armor. Water affinity. Creates a suit of watery armor around the caster. Effectiveness based on rank and affinity. Uncommon. The guild can offer three gold for it. Technique stone: Tranquil Mind. Mind affinity. Provides resistance to mental damage and effects. Uncommon. The guild can offer four gold. Technique stone: water wings. Water affinity. Allows for increased travel speed underwater. Uncommon. The guild can offer two gold. Technique stone: Salt leech. Salt affinity. Removes salt from target’s body, rapidly weakening them and causing an ongoing damage effect. Very rare. The guild can offer one gold. It’d be much more if Salt affinities weren’t incredibly rare.” Aha, that’s the Sawiskin poison effect! “Technique stone: Fireball. Fire affinity. Shoots a ball of fire at a target. Damage and range scale with rank and affinity. Common. The guild can offer fifty silver for it. Technique Stone: Disrupt Armor. Metal affinity. Creates a weak spot in the target’s metal armor. Scales with rank and affinity. Very rare. The guild can offer ten gold for it.” The list went on, with nothing else that appealed to anyone present.

“Do you want any or all of the water affinity Technique stones?” Duncan asked David. He turned to Amelia, “And do you want the metal one?”

“I already have a water movement Technique,” David replied. “The other two sound great, but I don’t know if I should add them.”

“Good point.” Duncan tossed him the two Technique stones he was interested in. “Consult your advisor, and if you don’t want them, give them back.” He tossed the metal affinity one to Amelia, “Same with you – check with your advisor and if this is appropriate for your build, use it.” He turned back to the appraiser, “I’ll sell the rest.”

Miscellaneous gear was next. Duncan kept a cape that gave him fifty percent lightning resistance and a gourd that produced up to twenty liters of fresh water every day. The things I didn’t know I needed!

“Just add the proceeds from today to my account,” Duncan told the appraisal clerk. He looked over his roommates. Cassandra had stored her two weapons in her storage device and Amelia had only received a stone, but David had a weapon, two Technique stones, and two armor pieces to deal with. Duncan handed David the fifty-slot storage ring he’d found on an earlier delve. “Store your items in this. You can give me the ring back when you get one of your own.”

“I can’t take this, Duncan. Storage rings are rare and valuable,” David protested.

“They’re not rare in high-level dungeons,” Duncan replied. “I’ve got four others, all bigger than that one. I’ll never use it. Sure, I could sell it to the guild for a bit more gold, but I’d rather see you put it to good use.”

“Take it, David,” Amelia said. “He’s just trying to be a good friend.”

David looked anxious. “I… thanks. I’ll return it when I get a replacement.”

“Perfect!” said Duncan. “Now let’s go terrorize some blacksmiths.” He thanked the appraiser and led his roommates out onto the street.

Cassandra led them to a district with several smithies, tanneries, and alchemists. Noisy and smelly. Lovely. She stopped at a relatively small smithy. “Astrid is probably the best smith in the empire,” she said as she entered.

Duncan looked around, comparing the smithy to the one he knew from the Valley, and not seeing a lot of difference. The Level 78 tradesman proprietor was a dwarven woman of indeterminate age wearing a thick leather apron over thick leather clothes.

“Young Cassie York! I have a set of armor for ye as requested,” she said in a surprising soprano voice. “One moment while I fetch it.” She disappeared into a room in the back, returning a minute later with a set of mail armor which she placed on the counter. “Mithril mail. Lightweight, and enchanted for increased durability, as Her Grace your mother requested.”

Cassandra stored her clothes and equipped a padded gambeson from her storage, then put the armor on. “It is very light, and it fits perfectly,” she said. She dismissed it into her storage device and summoned it back onto her body. “This will work very well. Thank you. I assume my mother has already sent payment?”

“That she did. Is there anything else I help ye with?”

“Actually,” said Duncan, “I’ve been wearing the same set of armor since I first began delving dungeons and I would really like to replace it with something stronger.”

“I am capable of making some very good armor indeed. What is your budget?” the smith asked.

“Two thousand gold, maybe?” Duncan said. His roommates made various strangled noises and Astrid’s eyes widened in surprise. “What? Good armor is expensive. I’m not going to get myself killed for lack of good armor just to hang on to some extra coin.” He summoned his armor onto the counter. “This is my current armor. It’s served me well, but many of the monsters I fight are able to tear through it relatively easily these days.”

Astrid examined the armor carefully. “Hardened Truesteel, with an enchantment to reduce the weight and another for self-repair. The self-repair enchantment is like nothing I’ve ever seen. Is it as effective as I suspect?”

“You can appraise? A flame turtle burned a couple of holes through it two months ago. It was good as new half an hour later, but I did have to feed it a lot of mana. That’s not an unusual occurrence, although most things don’t do as much damage to it as flame turtle fire,” Duncan confirmed.

“Of course I can appraise. It’s a necessary Technique for a master crafter of any kind,” said the smith. “It’s like your armor knows the shape and condition it’s supposed to be in and uses the mana you provide to regrow itself.”

“I have a Healing Technique that works much the same way,” said Duncan. “Can you make me better armor that will stand up to monsters in dungeons rated at level one hundred and above? Weight is not a concern with my current level of advancement.”

Astrid stroked her chin, “I can make much stronger armor than Truesteel, given the materials. It is the self-repair where I’ll fall short. I’m a competent enchanter of metal, but I don’t know anyone who could replicate the enchantment you have, at least not without deconstructing your armor to learn it.”

“That’s an option I’ve not heard before,” said Duncan. “It may come to that. In the not-too-distant future, this armor’s not going to provide any meaningful protection against the monsters I fight, no matter how often I can repair it.”

“My master could, perhaps, solve the issue. But it would cost far more than two thousand gold and would depend on your affinities. He is one of the few smiths alive who can create living armor. If you’re able to bond to it, you could heal it when you heal yourself. But there are few people able to bond to living armor and heal it. You would need an affinity for the material, an affinity that lets you build a bond, and a healing affinity to heal it,” Astrid said.

“Oh?” said Duncan. “I have a lot of affinities but no strong affinities for what I’d consider armor materials. And what affinities would work for bonding?”

“Armor can be made from rare earths, stone, gemstone, or metal. You’d need a Blood, Mind, or Spirit affinity to bond with it, and the healing affinity. All those affinities contribute to your ability to heal the armor,” Astrid said.

Duncan nodded, “I’d definitely be interested in speaking with your master, in that case.”

“As I mentioned, the cost would be very high. My master is Olsen Smith, and to see him, you’ll need to perform a great service for the dwarven people or provide some truly legendary material for him to craft with. He will explain what else is needed, should you be able to speak with him. I’m sorry I cannot be of more immediate help for you with armor. It would have been nice to work with some of the more advanced metals again.”

Duncan sighed and stored his armor away. What I have will have to do until I can find the Valley again, or another smith and enchanter as good as we have back home. “Thank you for the information. It’s more than I had yesterday.”

“Is there anything a wee bit less extravagant I can do for any of the rest of ye?” Astrid asked. No one else needed anything further, so they took their leave.

“I need a sheathe for this new rapier,” said Cassandra once they were outside. “And David will need a hanger for his new axe. We should check a leatherworker while we’re in the area. And Duncan, I will write to my mother to secure payment for you for the rapier and bow.”

“Only if you need to salve your noble pride,” Duncan replied. “I’m happy to see the loot I find put to good use, and I really don’t need a few more coins.”

“Very well,” said Cassandra, “I accept your gifts, and will put the items to good use.”

Amelia poked David, “See how easy that was?” David blushed and said nothing. Wealth and charity were obviously touchy subjects for him.