Content that his build wasn’t off-track, Duncan returned to his routine. He delved the Sawiskin dungeon at least twice a week, took his roommates and Paul through the training dungeon once a week, and practiced his martial skills diligently. His roommates all consulted with Pelleas and provided him with a list of Techniques and items that he shouldn’t sell to the guild if he came across them. With their share of the loot from the training dungeon (thanks to the rare monsters that still showed up pretty consistently for Duncan), they would be able to buy them from him for the same price the guild offered him.

David seemed alternately upbeat and depressed as they spoke about their plans for personal strength. “My affinities aren’t strong enough for fast progression even under the stress of dungeons. It’s going to take me a very long time to max out my Techniques, even at rank four or six. Fortunately, though, I should be able to use enough Technique stones to get a much higher level than my family ever expected. It’s even possible that I might reach level one hundred at some point.” He shook his head, “I don’t understand how you got to a hundred at age eighteen, Duncan.”

Duncan shrugged. “I’m fortunate to have some outstanding affinities. I started training young and I accept greater risks in delving solo, so I progress faster. I get good money out of dungeons, which lets me buy Techniques and gear that give me further advantages. And I train my martial skills to the utmost.”

He continued, “I haven’t seen much of the empire, but it feels like most people don’t get much beyond level thirty. Some good craftsmen and adventurers get to fifty, and the numbers seem to drop pretty quickly after that. Talented guards and some nobles seem to reach eighty or more, probably by using as many Techniques that fit their affinities as they can, even if that results in a less than optimal build. Just the increase in body density, health, and mana as a result can be very useful.”

“That’s what I’ll be doing,” said David. “Pelleas gave me options that will help me in dungeons and when leading troops – and he agreed that the two Techniques you gave me are good choices for me, so thanks for that – but I’ll only be able to raise them to rank six or eight, and that will take years.”

“You need to stop comparing yourself to Duncan,” said Amelia. “What level is your uncle, Lord Taggart? What about the rest of your family, your cousins? The officers in your guard?”

“My uncle’s level sixty-five, at age fifty-one. I guess most of my cousins are not much over level thirty. Our best soldiers are all under level fifty.”

“You’ve shared your soulgem information with us before,” said Duncan. “Are you willing to do that again?”

“Sure,” said David, and they could all see his soulgem information. “Pelleas showed me a trick to put Techniques I don’t have in there at rank 0, so I can track what it is I’m trying to get.”

Name:

David Taggart

Class:

Mage

Level:

28

Profession:

Str (Body):

44

Int (Static):

60

Dex (Body):

45

Wis (Mind, Spirit):

55

Agi (Body):

45

End (Body):

43

Concurrent Active Techniques:

1

Health:

4038

Health Regen:

175/hour

Stamina:

710

Stam Regen:

1750/hour

Mana:

5925

Mana Regen:

2138/hour

Affinities:

Body

Weak

Ice

Weak

Water

Strong

Decay

Moderate

Corrosion

Weak

Spirit

Weak

Mind

Moderate

Techniques

Active

Rank

Passive

Rank

Water Wings

4

Water Sense

4

Touch of Rot

4

Ignore Pain

3

Purify Water

4

Water Breathing

0

Whirlpool

2

Tranquil Mind

0

Rainfall

2

Telepathy

0

Water Jet

3

Regeneration

0

Water Armor

2

Water Walking

0

Drowning Spheres

0

Cloud of Decay

0

Skills

Rank

1H swords

3

Riding

3

1H axes

2

Sailing

4

Leather Armor

3

Navigation

3

Swimming

4

Shields

1

Leadership

2

Tactics

2

“Alright,” said Duncan. “So, if you max out the Techniques you’ve got available to you there – that showing rank 0 Techniques is nice; I didn’t know that was possible – you get to what, level one hundred and twelve? And you’ve got room for another four Techniques on top of that. People start aging more slowly at around level eighty, and the aging process virtually stops after level one hundred, according to Pelleas. So you may not be leading your family, but you could be the wise old uncle to generations of Taggarts. So stop sounding so down about your affinities.”

David blushed and nodded. Duncan continued, “That said, you’re clearly not working hard enough on your Techniques outside the dungeon. You should be depleting your mana pool every day you’re not delving by using your armor skill and trying to cast water jets while maintaining the armor. I got two concurrent skills at about level thirty, I think, and that’s not dependent on a given affinity, so you should be able to match me there. You should be creating whirlpools in the pond or in the sea to rank that Technique. You have a strong water affinity, so you should be able to rank those Techniques to four pretty easily before progress really starts to slow down. I won’t critique your skills – that’s what the Academy is here to do, push those forward. You might consider adding meditation though – it will help with your mana regeneration and let you practice more.”

“Duncan the taskmaster!” laughed Cassandra. “No, I understand. No one reaches your heights so young unless they’re driven. And the undead invasions are definitely motivation for the rest of us to work on improving our personal power. Delving the training dungeon weekly is a pretty big commitment for a typical student, and we’ve stepped up for that. And you’re right that we should spend more time practicing our Techniques each day. I’m not giving up my beauty sleep, but I’m sure I can find an hour a day to blast targets with lighting and wind blades, and I’ll have new Techniques to rank up soon, too.”

“I won’t press you,” said Duncan. “If the lure of being strong and stopping the aging process while you’re young isn’t enough motivation, there’s nothing I can say that will help. I am happy to keep going to the sewer dungeon with you to assist you in your progression, but I won’t nag you about training.”

“We appreciate it,” said Amelia. “We’re probably the only first years advancing our Techniques at all.”

“My progress is slowing down, too,” Duncan said. “Even the secret dungeon isn’t very rewarding any more – too much familiarity. It’s really only good for the loot and occasional rare spawn these days.”

That night, Duncan was surprised to see no Sawiskin guards outside the dungeon. Inside the dungeon, there was a huge ambush waiting for him. He was immediately engulfed in a watery prison globe, from which he promptly Blinked straight up and summoned a sword to ride. He dodged around the room as at least twenty Sawiskin tried to encase his head in a bubble of water, strike him with a high-pressured jet of water, or entrap him in another watery prison globe. Duncan dodged as best he could, Blinked out of the bubbles that did hit him, and instantly regenerated the damage from the water jets that hit him.

He dropped a Bladestorm in the room, hitting more than half the Sawiskin, the area of effect having grown with each rank up. At Rank three, it covered a square fifteen meters per side. I really should have ranked that up more by now. Duncan stored his flying blade and Blinked behind a caster outside the Bladestorm, striking it with his spirit blade, and using his rose quartz shield to deflect some of the water jets. The water armor Technique the Sawiskin used was quite effective against physical weapons but was significantly less so against his spirit sword.

There were a lot of attackers; he worried about being overwhelmed and considered running for the gate or deeper into the dungeon. Instead, he used a fold in space to redirect attacks that would hit his torso to instead hit a Sawiskin a few meters away. Half a dozen of the jets were redirected, doing some significant damage to his target despite its water armor before the casters realized they were attacking one of their own.

He looked around the room trying to pinpoint the healers. With a group of twenty plus, there could be four or even five healers. He spotted three easily, spread out throughout the room, healing the damage from his Bladestorm and his melee attacks. This isn’t going to work. I can’t overwhelm multiple healers. I simply don’t have enough burst damage. If I can see three healers at a glance, chances are there are more, and even three is too many. Duncan Blinked to the cavern exit that led deeper into the dungeon and cast another Bladestorm behind him, then summoned a blade to fly on and flew deeper into the dungeon, hoping to cause his pursuers to string out behind him so he could fight them in smaller groups. I hope they think the rest of my party is coming in behind me…

The first few caverns in the dungeon tended to have little of note in them – occasional monsters foraging in the muddy areas or eels in the pools – so he passed through them quickly. He stopped at the narrow entrance to the third cavern and listened for pursuit. When he heard approaching footsteps, he created a fold in space about a meter off the ground, and a bit more than a meter square, with a very small deviation (the distance between the entrance and exit). A Sawiskin warrior ran into the room, caught the bottom of the window in his belly and folded over it. Duncan ended the Technique, and the warrior was neatly cut in half at the waist. Is that cheating? It feels like cheating.

He struck the next Sawiskin through the entrance with his spirit sword, sweeping it through the creature’s torso as it rushed past him into the room. It slowed and turned to face him as two more Sawiskin entered, one a healer. Duncan used his Mind Spike Technique on the healer, then hit it repeatedly while it was stunned, maneuvering to keep it between him and the other Sawiskin as much as possible. When the stun wore off, he used another Mind Spike immediately and kept up the attack until it fell. Then he Blinked across the room and used Destrin’s Restoration to heal himself before re-engaging.

Without a healer, the two remaining Sawiskin were unable to deal with the spiritual damage from Duncan’s sword or the mental damage from his Mind Spikes, and both succumbed to his attacks in short order. Duncan looted all the bodies and then stored the corpses in his bracelet. He would dump them in an out of the way place in the dungeon a little later – in the meantime, he didn’t want other Sawiskin stumbling across the bodies – he wanted them to think perhaps their friends were somewhere else in the dungeon, still looking for him.

Duncan headed deeper into the dungeon, hoping for rare monsters. If the Sawiskin came across him, he’d likely still be able to Blink to safety and ambush them again. If I ever run into something with a teleportation block stronger than my Blink, I’m going to be in a world of hurt. He killed the usual inhabitants of the dungeon methodically and encountered another group of five Sawiskin that came looking for him. They only had a single healer, and so he took them out with relative ease, too, using the same tactics to stun and kill the healer first.

Eventually, in what he’d come to think of as the ‘real’ boss room where he often found rare creatures more dangerous than the turtleman chieftain, he came across a number of human-sized shrimp-like creatures in the deep pond where he’d encountered the flame turtle. They looked different from the shrimp he saw regularly in the dungeon. He switched to his Beastbane sword plus his dragontooth sword and Blinked down to the bottom of the pool to do battle.

He hit the nearest shrimp with a Mind Spike, stunning it, then waited for it to attack him, rather than going after it into a crowd of monsters with unknown abilities. Once the stun wore off, it scuttled towards him across the bottom of the pond, its claws advanced. Just before it reached melee range, Duncan felt a burning sensation in his left arm, and his Beastbane sword, along with his hand and forearm, dropped to the floor.

Panicked, he Blinked up out of the water. His amputated arm was cauterized by the attack that separated it. His dragonskin armor had done nothing to impede the attack. He had no idea what the shrimp had done – he’d never even seen the attack.

Fortunately, the shrimp made no effort to follow Duncan out of the water, instead settling down to… eat Duncan’s arm. Argh. He used Destrin’s Restoration and regrew his arm, then poured mana into his living armor to repair it too. Then he meditated a short while to recover his mana and wait for the shrimp to move away from his lost sword so he could recover it.

He Blinked back down to the bottom of the pond and used Cage of Blades to trap the same shrimp, then hit it with a strong Mind Spike to both damage it and stun it. He used a fold in space at its maximum divergence to stab the creature from below while it was stunned. As soon as the shrimp recovered from the stun it tried to reach him, only to be damaged by the Cage of Blades. One of the imprisoning blades simply disappeared as the shrimp attacked the cage.

Duncan repeated the Mind Spike and attacks to the underside through a fold in space several more times, until the shrimp died. He examined the corpse but didn’t find anything that could tell him what the attack was. Still, he had a reliable way of killing the shrimp without being dismembered, so he started in on the rest of them. It was slow going compared to his normal fighting style because he needed to pause to regain mana after each fight.

After he’d killed half a dozen of the shrimp, a group of eight Sawiskin entered the room and attacked him while he was resting. He dropped a Cage of Blades on one, Blinked behind one of the healers and attacked it with his Spirit sword, four Blade Echoes striking home with every thrust. Swapping swords in and out of his pocket space had become second nature at this point. He used Mind Spike to prevent it from healing and added a second strong Mind Spike to the second healer to give him additional time to hurt his primary target.

The rest of the Sawiskin were attacking with water jets or tridents. Duncan tried a folded space window between him and the casters, redirecting their attacks at the healer he was attacking. It only worked momentarily – as soon as they realized they were seeing their ally instead of Duncan they stopped casting. That was almost as good as them attacking the healer with him, though – it still kept him from taking additional damage. He used his shield to block incoming trident blows as best he could and continued to focus on the healer until it dropped.

He Blinked under water to get a brief respite to heal himself and the Sawiskin jumped in after him. They were incredibly graceful under water, moving much faster than they did on land. Duncan was forced to Blink again almost immediately – so he Blinked past a small group of shrimp, careful not to attract their attention. The Sawiskin swarmed towards him, swimming over the shrimp.

Suddenly, there were pieces of Sawiskin dropping to the bottom of the pond and the group scattered as the shrimp tore into them. Duncan was watching carefully to see what happened and still couldn’t see the attacks. They seemed to either be long melee attacks or very short range ranged attacks, but there was no indication of what caused the damage. The shrimp simply reached towards the Sawiskin, and limbs were severed.

Duncan took advantage of the confusion and panic among the Sawiskin to Mind Spike the healer. At rank six, his Fold Space technique had a divergence of thirty-two meters, so he attacked it through a fold in space using his spirit sword and Blade Echoes while the monster drifted. When the trident-wielding Sawiskin approached him, he Blinked to the other side of the shrimp and continued his ranged sword attacks on the healer, keeping it stunned with Mind Spike attacks. It didn’t take long for it to die, and once it did, Duncan Blinked up out of the water to heal himself (the water jets were hard to see under water, and he’d been hit by several, even whilst hiding behind his shield). Fighting the Sawiskin underwater seemed like a poor choice, even with the helping hand he’d gotten from the shrimp. Better to face them on dry land where they weren’t nearly so mobile.

Duncan stunned the first Sawiskin to step out of the water with a Mind Spike and followed up with several swings from his spirit sword. He Blinked away as more monsters came out of the water, but continued his attack on the same one, using a fold in space to continue hitting it with his sword and its echoes. With no healers left, Duncan could whittle the mages down one at a time, keeping the trident-wielders at bay with Cages of Blades and well-timed Blinks across the cavern.

He was very low on mana when he finished off the last of the Sawiskin, having chosen to simply meet the last two sword and shield versus their tridents. They seemed able to maintain their water armor indefinitely and being stunned didn’t cause it to drop – it seemed to be a strong Technique, and Duncan suspected the Sawiskin all had it ranked up very high.

After he’d rested a while to recover his mana, he went back into the water and spent another couple of hours finishing off the last of the shrimp from range. First time the rare spawn has been twenty monsters. It’s usually just one. There was a chest in the deepest part of the pond which went directly into Duncan’s storage Technique. He used Extract Resources on the shrimp corpses and was rewarded with some shrimp meat, some sharp claws, and some hardened chitin, which he stored away. He dumped the bodies of all the Sawiskin at the bottom of the pond and moved back towards the entrance. It had been a much longer dungeon delve than he’d expected.

He flew high through the caverns on the way back to the entrance, hoping that anything lying in wait for him wouldn’t spot him immediately up by the roof. In the entrance chamber, there stood a single Sawiskin, head and shoulders taller than any Duncan had seen before. It wore armor that looked to be made from fish scales and carried a trident which trailed a greenish steam when it moved. And unlike the other Sawiskin he’d encountered, this one had an aura that suggested it was quite dangerous.

The Sawiskin noticed his arrival and said something in its native tongue. Duncan’s Understand Languages Technique gave him no idea what it said – the Technique was too low-ranked and it was the first time he’d heard a Sawiskin speak beyond the commands they snapped at each other when they fought him in groups. But the tone was angry and the body language belligerent, so Duncan assumed it was hostile.

It gestured with its trident and a green net materialized around him. There was a rope attaching the net to the Sawiskin’s hand, and it used it to yank him down to it at a dizzying speed. He was met by the tines of the trident, which punctured his armor at his hip – his shield was bound to his torso by the net, so he had a modicum of protection there.

Duncan Blinked away, escaping both the net and the Trident, but it cost him more mana than normal, and he left the sword he’d been flying on behind. Maybe the net has an anti-teleportation enchantment I had to overcome? His wound wasn’t serious, but a numbness was spreading from it, so he used Remove Affliction in case it was poisoned or something, and then Destrin’s Restoration to heal himself. Remove Affliction was able to deal with the poison, if that’s what it was, to Duncan’s relief.

The Sawiskin teleported across the room, appearing in front of Duncan and thrusting again with the Trident. Woah – a teleporting foe? And a humanoid one at that. This is special. A reflexive block with the shield bought him a moment’s relief as the momentum-stopping power of the shield confused the Sawiskin. Duncan used a Mind Spike, which stunned his opponent, and followed up with three swings of his spirit sword. Four echoes followed each attack, and while the Sawiskin appeared unharmed, Duncan’s Assessment Technique showed he’d done some significant damage.

Suddenly everything went black. Duncan couldn’t see a thing, even with his Shadow Sight Technique. Remove Affliction did nothing. Something hit him in the thighs, much of the force absorbed by his armor. He Blinked ten meters forward and found himself able to see again. Magical darkness in an area?

A high-powered jet of water struck him in the side, and he Blinked again, all the way across the entrance chamber to the far wall, where he appeared with his back to the wall and healed himself. The Sawiskin fired another jet of water at him, and he blocked it with his shield, stabbing through a fold in space to stab the Sawiskin in the back with his spirit sword and its echoes.

The green net appeared around him again, and again he was yanked toward the big Sawiskin. He Blinked backwards a few meters even as he was pulled and was able to avoid the thrust of the trident. But the Sawiskin reacted quickly, teleporting to Duncan and stabbing at him with the trident once more. Duncan stood his ground, defending with his shield and attacking with the spirit sword, which couldn’t be parried or blocked.

A moment later, darkness engulfed Duncan again, and with a lot less panic, he Blinked forward and to the side, appearing not far from the Sawiskin. The creature leapt at Duncan, attacking with a furious flurry of blows. Duncan defended desperately with his shield, unable to parry with the spirit sword, but the Sawiskin was very skillful and managed a thrust over Duncan’s shield after a clever deception. The trident struck his face and penetrated his helmet. Duncan Blinked forwards past his enemy and healed up. It took a significant chunk of his mana to perform the heal. That was entirely too close!

He used Cage of Blades on the Sawiskin and immediately Blinked ten meters to the side, expecting it to teleport out of the cage and attack. It did as expected, teleporting to where he’d been a moment earlier. Duncan hit it with a strong Mind Spike and followed up with several attacks through a fold in space, his spirit sword and its echoes wreaking havoc on the Sawiskin’s health.

The Sawiskin gestured broadly and was engulfed in a whirlpool of spinning water. Duncan noticed its health rising rapidly as the Technique healed it, and used another Mind Spike to stun it, but while the attack did damage, the stun failed to take effect. He attacked aggressively with the spirit sword through a fold in space, the weapon penetrating the swirling water without a problem. Still all the damage he could do was barely enough to counter the healing.

After ten seconds or so the water faded, and the scowling face of the Sawiskin could be seen again. Hah! Thought you’d be fully healed, did ya? Duncan used another Mind Spike and another series of attacks with the spirit sword to leave the Sawiskin badly wounded, though showing not so much as a scratch.

Another whirlpool surrounded the Sawiskin, but Duncan attacked through the effect, and his opponent ended up in much the same state he’d begun the Technique in. One more Mind Spike and another flurry of spirit sword attacks dropped the Sawiskin, and Duncan breathed a sigh of relief. That took almost all the mana I had.

Duncan stored the body and gear and flew deeper into the dungeon again. Then he pulled the body out, stripped all the gear off it, and left it stuffed into a crevice in a dead-end passage. I don’t want anyone finding the body before the dungeon takes it. The less they know about what I can do, the safer I am. That fellow was scary. If he’d had friends with him, I’d have had to flee immediately.

He meditated for an hour to recover his mana. The dungeon absorbed the body of the big Sawiskin, and Duncan breathed a sigh of relief. He made his way back to the entrance, hoping he wouldn’t encounter an army of Sawiskin waiting for him. The entrance chamber was empty, so he stepped through the portal and Blinked up at an angle as far as he could, then Blinked twice more in rapid succession to get away from the area before summoning a sword from his pocket space to fly on.

There were at least twenty Sawiskin on the island. They’d seen him come out of the portal and disappear and were looking around frantically. Duncan suspected their vision wasn’t great in air because none of them spotted him two hundred meters away. He’d used this tactic a dozen times or more, and they’d never seen him after his initial Blink.

He flew off to Lanport, landing not far outside the walls, where he took the chest from the shrimp out and used the Sawiskin’s trident to flip the lid open. There was no explosion, no poison gas, and no dart flew out, so he approached the chest with caution and looked inside. There was a pile of coins and jewels in the chest, so he flipped the lid closed, stored it in his pocket space, and headed for the Adventurers Guild hall. Pelleas had the overnight shift, so he’d have him catalog the loot.

“A productive night in the dungeon?” Pelleas asked as he set the privacy ward.

“It was,” said Duncan. “I fought some shrimp creatures that had an attack I couldn’t see. The first one amputated my arm despite my dragonskin armor, and I have no idea how it did it. I ended up trapping them in a Cage of Blades and stabbing them through the belly from a long way away. They were kind of terrifying.”

“Oh, there was a twenty person Sawiskin war party waiting for me inside the dungeon. And when I was done, there was a single bigger Sawiskin waiting for me in the entrance chamber. He had real skill with his trident, and some strong Techniques as well. I barely beat him – at the end I had almost no mana left at all.” Duncan began piling his loot from the last few dungeon delves on the counter. “This isn’t all from tonight’s run. I have so much storage space now I could probably go six months without having to sell.”

He had over a thousand gold in coins, a couple dozen gems, and a pile of items both mundane and magical. The big Sawiskin’s trident had water and poison affinities and dealt increased damage for water affinity users and left a nasty poison in the system with every strike. The guild offered him twenty gold for it. He thought about giving it to David, but David didn’t have a poison affinity, so he sold it in the end. The fish scale armor was brilliant, though. It was lightweight but very sturdy. Not on the scale of Duncan’s dragonskin armor, but almost as good as his plate from the Valley. And best of all, it didn’t have so much as a scratch on it, because Duncan had used his spirit sword to fight the Sawiskin. He resolved to give the armor to David. Its armor value scaled with the water affinity of the wearer.

He sold a dozen or so enchanted weapons and other items to the guild for another seventy gold total. There were also nine Technique stones. Duncan said, “Oh! Thanks for helping David, Cassandra, and Amelia with their builds. David shared his build and showed us that you can put placeholder rank zero Techniques in there. How is that done? Also, can you price out the Techniques he’s looking for for me? I’m never going to be able to spend all the gold I’m finding now, so helping him out feels like a good idea.”

“I’m happy to help them. I cannot discuss their affinities or techniques, of course, but if you give me a list of the technique stones you want to purchase, I am happy to do that. As to showing rank zero Techniques, it’s not entirely dissimilar to showing a false level. You see…”

Duncan sold eight of the nine Technique stones to the guild for another 57 gold. The last one, Duncan just stared at chuckling. “Leech Mana. Spirit affinity. Very rare. Very much in demand. At rank one, you gain one mana for every two hundred and fifty health damage you deal whilst the Technique is active. At rank ten, you’d gain one mana for every fifty health damage you dealt. The guild can offer you two hundred gold for it,” said Pelleas.

“I was just commenting on how I was almost out of mana in the fight against that big Sawiskin, and I had to meditate between fights with the shrimp to recover mana. This will be a huge help for me. Quite a coincidence, another Technique I can really use showing up like that. I won’t be able to strike with Blade Echo through a fold in space whilst flying on my flying sword and Leech Mana, but I can have three concurrent active Techniques, and most of the time, I’m not using three concurrently unless I’m practicing fighting whilst flying.” Duncan looked at Pelleas, “Do you see a downside in me using this and gaining the Technique?”

“I thought your build was complete at ten Techniques. So any additions are a bonus. Adding this will let you heal more and fight more with less downtime. It’s a significant benefit. Whether or not it’s the best choice for your last active slot, I cannot say. But I can say I doubt you’ll regret having this Technique.”

Duncan grinned and used the Technique on the spot. “Oh, one more thing. The big Sawiskin I fought had a Technique where a whirlpool surrounded him (even though he was on land) for about ten or fifteen seconds, and it healed him a fair bit over that time. I was able to do enough damage with my spirit sword while he was channeling the Technique that he didn’t come out too far ahead, but it seemed quite a strong Technique. Do you know of it? I think it might suit David very well.”

Pelleas thought for a moment. “I think so. Water and Healing affinity, though it can work with just water, with a lesser effect. Let me search the list. Whirlpool of Healing, maybe? Yes, that sounds right. Very rare, very expensive. We have none available at all. It’d probably sell for about five hundred gold if we did. The same as the Leech Mana stone you just used so casually.”

“Ah well. It was worth a look. Let me order Cloud of Decay, Drowning Spheres, Water Breathing, Tranquil Mind, Telepathy, Regeneration, and Water Walking for David,” said Duncan. “I know a couple of those are mostly filler just to boost his level, but they have some value. Water Breathing and Water Walking in particular I’ve found on items, so I’d consider them a waste for someone like me, but given that he has so few good affinities, using them as filler for his levels seems like a viable plan.”

“I agree,” said Pelleas. “Most people use less than ideal Techniques for that purpose. The additional robustness one gets from having the Techniques ranked is justification enough. A noble at level eighty may only have three or four truly useful Techniques, but he’s still a lot stronger and more durable than he’d be without the filler Techniques.”

“Now, we have quite a few of those in stock. Someone - I can’t imagine who - has been delving a water-based dungeon for the past few months and selling us a lot of water-affinity Technique stones. I can give you Water Walking, Water Breathing, Drowning Spheres, and Regeneration right now. The rest will take a week or so to arrive. It’ll cost you twenty-five gold for the ones you can take today, and another forty for the ones we’ll have to have shipped. Telepathy is particularly expensive.”

“Perfect,” said Duncan, waving off the cost. “That costs just a bit more than what I’m getting for the Technique stones I’m selling you today. I still come out with extra gold in hand, given everything else I’ve sold you. Actually, Cassandra and Amelia gave me a list of Technique stones to look out for. Do you have Create Vacuum, Lightning Cage, Commune, Breathe Clean, and another Regeneration for Cassandra, and Sliver Storm, Shackle, Coagulation, Neutralize Poison, and Harden Skin for Amelia?”

Pelleas raised an eyebrow, “I have Lightning Cage, Regeneration, Neutralize Poison, Coagulation and Harden Skin. The others are rare or expensive or both. For those five, it’ll be another forty-four gold. Create Vacuum is twenty gold, Commune is sixty gold, Breathe Clean is twelve gold, Sliver Storm is forty gold, and Shackle is eighteen gold.”

With a shrug, Duncan handed a hundred and ninety-four gold over to Pelleas and said, “Easy come, easy go.”

Taking his leave, Duncan flew back to the Academy and meditated a while to process the fights in the dungeon. Some scary fights today. I wish I knew what the shrimp were doing to cause that much focused damage. It snipped my arm right off, and they did the same to the Sawiskin. Funny that the Sawiskin didn’t recognize the shrimp as a threat – they mustn’t be local monsters. That Sawiskin chief or hero or whatever… he was a worthy opponent. Great skills, strong Techniques, good strategy. Almost killed me with that blow to the face. And he could heal, though he had to stand still in that whirlpool for a while to do so. I’m grateful to have survived and pleased with my progress the past few weeks.

Name:

Duncan

Class:

Warrior

Level:

108 (+3)

Profession:

Adventurer

Strength:

289 (+7)

Intelligence:

73

Dexterity:

265 (+5)

Wisdom:

60

Agility:

270 (+6)

Endurance:

290 (+7)

Concurrent Active Techniques:

3

Health:

27400 (+740)

Health Regen:

17280/hour (+480)

Stamina:

3980 (+100)

Stam Regen:

43200/hour (+1200)

Mana:

21228 (+526)

Mana Regen:

6980/hour (+120)

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 (limit reached)

Rank

Passive (limit reached)

Rank

Blade Echo

8

Tempered Blade

8

Fold Space

6

Regeneration

7

Blink

6

Coagulation

6

Mind Spike

6

Hardened Skin

6

Destrin's Restoration

5

Tranquil Mind

4

Flying Sword

5 (+1)

Spiritual Shield

3

Bladestorm

3

Personal Space Pocket

5

Remove Affliction

4

Ignore Pain

5

Regenerate Other

2

Shadow Sight

4

Cage of Blades

3 (+1)

Assessment

4

Extract Resources

2

Blade Sense

3

Leech Mana

1 (+1)

Understand Languages

2

Skills

Rank

1H swords

7

Plate armor

4

2H swords

5

Mail armor

3

1H axes

3

Leather armor

3

2H axes

3

Anatomy

2

Shields

5

Survival

2

Spears

4

Skinning

1

Daggers

3

Meditation

3

Bows

3

Swimming

1

Tracking

1

Riding

1

Elven language

1

A few months ago, that much delving time and success would have gotten me a dozen levels. Just three for that. But Flying Sword is one, and at rank five, I gain the effect that cuts the wind resistance. So I should be able to fly faster safely. Wind resistance isn’t eliminated at rank five, but it’s reduced. Maybe I can fly fast enough to get to a different dungeon overnight some nights. Certainly on rest days, I hope! Cage of Blades ranked up, as well. It’s still not going to hold anything my level for more than a few seconds if its willing to take some damage to escape, but it’s improving. Bladestorm is stubbornly refusing to advance. I need to use it more often. I keep forgetting to try to extract resources from things. That needs to change. Every damned rock I pass in a dungeon gets tested for ore or minerals or whatever. Hmm, Blink and Mind Spike have to be close to advancing again. I use them all the time, and in very perilous situations. Maybe the stimulus from a new dungeon will help. I’ll talk with Eric and Master deBouteville, and Pelleas too, to see what dungeons might be within range now that I can fly faster.