After Giorgia had led Bente out of the room, Lady Grace said, “It’s clear we’ll have to upgrade the wards if we’re going to face things like that bone dragon in future. We can discuss that later today. For now, I’d like to hear her story as you know it, gentlemen. Archdeacon, why don’t you begin.”

Josef explained everything that had happened from the moment Duncan brought Bente to the temple to the time they’d arrived at the school. Then he had Duncan explain how he’d met Bente, and what had happened with her from that time until he’d taken her to meet Josef.

“Why didn’t you bring Bente to the Church earlier?” asked one of the men at the table.

“I didn’t know the Church existed until the Academy Ball,” Duncan said, suppressing a sigh. “I’m from a remote village in the middle of nowhere, and I arrived in the Arnite Empire less than a year ago due to a teleport accident in a dungeon.” He wasn’t looking forward to having to explain his history again.

“Why do you veil your strength?” asked the only elf at the table.

“Remelial, you know humans suppress their auras as a courtesy,” one of the others began.

“Not his aura, his strength,” the elf said.

“People were uncomfortable with my rate of advancement,” Duncan said. “I only began delving a year ago. It became easier to let people think I was stagnating like them. The Academy of Steel, where I’m training with the sword, well, the other students my age are almost all under level thirty.”

Remelial snorted. “Understandable.”

“You expect us to believe you reached a hundred and five in under a year?” a short man with a mop of red hair asked.

“I don’t expect anything. It’s not about me. I just came along to keep Bente safe on the journey.” Duncan said.

The man looked offended, and Remelial laughed. “Unveil your aura, boy. Show these lambs what a lion looks like.”

Duncan stopped suppressing his aura and it swept out to fill the room. Remelial grinned, the dwarf who’d met them at the gateway nodded thoughtfully, and the reactions of the humans ranged from wide eyes to gasps.

Remelial and the dwarf released their auras too. Duncan felt their strength and a definite aura of menace from both. Belatedly, he identified Remelial as a Level 140 Mage and the Dwarf as a Level 137 Warrior. Impressive. He identified all the humans as being between level one hundred and one twenty.

“Alright, gentlemen, stop waving your dicks around,” said Giorgia from the doorway. “You’re scaring the staff.” Duncan identified her as a Level 125 Mage. She’s higher level than some of the board members. Interesting. He suppressed his aura again and a moment later, the others did, too.

“Sorry Giorgia,” the dwarf said.

“Bah,” said Remelial, “It does the pups good to know there are wolves around, Grom.”

Grom just snorted. “Duncan, what was it you used to hammer that bone dragon so hard?”

“A space magic construct – immovable - it acted like a barrier,” Duncan replied. “I just placed it there, the monster crashed into it.”

“Let’s get back on topic,” said Lady Grace. “Duncan, is there anything we can offer you as thanks for your service in escorting Bente here?”

“Do you have a high-level dungeon nearby I could delve?” he asked. “If that’s too much, I’ll settle for Giorgia teaching me how to make granita and lemon gelato.”

“There are two dungeons nearby that could be considered high-level,” said Lady Grace. “I don’t know if we can find a team you’ll fit into on short notice, though.”

“I’m a solo delver,” Duncan replied. “Anything over about level ninety by Adventurers Guild standards should be fine.”

“The Lost Oasis dungeon should be suitable,” Remelial said. “It’s a desert biome with a number of isolated pools of water. Sand elementals and sand skimmers in the wastes, scaly lizards roam the sands near the pools, and groups of humanoid monsters trek between the ponds. The guild rates it at one-ten.”

“Fine.” Lady Grace didn’t sound pleased to be interrupted. “Giorgia will assign someone to show you the way. Thank you for your service. Now,” she turned to the rest of the group, “We need to adjust the budget for defensive formations.”

Duncan gave the group a short bow and retreated from the meeting. Giorgia said, “That was less painful than expected. If you’ll wait here a few minutes, I’ll have a local guide you to the dungeon entrance. It’s not far.”

“Please make sure it’s someone who can fly,” Duncan interjected. “I need to be back at the Academy soon, so I’d like to go fast. I’ll come back here before I leave, to say goodbye to Bente, and I’d like to set up an allowance for her while she’s here. I know the Church will provide for her needs, but I suspect her friends will have spending money, and I’d like her to have the same. I’ll provide a hundred gold for the allowance.”

“That’s very kind of you,” said Giorgia. “I’ll have the paperwork ready when you return.”

A few minutes later a Level 89 Mage approached Duncan. “You the lad I’m supposed to guide to the Lost Oasis Dungeon?” At Duncan’s nod, she said, “Right, this way. It’s a short flight into the mountains to the North.” A cloud formed beneath her feet and lifted her off the ground.

Duncan followed her to the dungeon, enjoying the lack of wind resistance his new rank in Flying Sword provided. It was really quite fast now, though he suspected the mage still had to slow down a little to accommodate him. The portal was on a ledge up what would have been a steep climb for a non-flyer. “Here you are,” the mage said. “Hope it’s what you’re looking for.”

Duncan thanked her and stepped through the portal. The dungeon spread out before him in all directions. There was a pillar of light marking the entrance, which Duncan thought was a nice touch. There was a reddish mountain visible in the distance to the North, and no other features visible. The dungeon’s artificial sun bathed the area in heat and light.

Duncan summoned a sword from his storage space and flew directly away from the mountain in the distance, looking for monsters. After a couple of minutes, he spotted an island of green in the ocean of sand and headed towards it. From the air, he could see a group of tents on one edge of the pond, and some trees and bushes all around the edge of the water. He dropped to ground level so as not to be an easily visible target as he approached.

Rather than slog through the sand, he flew just above the surface, changing his approach so that he arrived at the pool on the side of the water opposite where the tents were set up. There were three tents, each fairly small, and between them, a humanoid figure tended to a spit over a small fire. Those tents probably hold two people each, so this group shouldn’t be bigger than six. Let’s see what you’re like.

Duncan activated Leech Mana, then stored his sword and used Mind Spike on the monster tending the fire, then Blinked to it and struck it from behind with his dragontooth sword. Electing for safety over offense until he knew what they were capable of, he had his rose quartz shield equipped instead of a second sword.

The monster was wearing some sort of hide armor. Duncan aimed for the creature’s exposed neck and his sword bit into it and drew blood. His Blade Echoes followed up, doing what looked to be fairly extensive damage. His Assessment Technique showed the monster as ‘wounded’. He added a second attack while it was still stunned, then it exploded into action.

It snatched up a spear lying on the sand and dove over the fire, rolling to its feet to face him. It had the features of a snake, with slitted eyes and a forked tongue and fangs that protruded from a snout. It hissed loudly and gestured at Duncan even as he Blinked behind it.

Snakes made out of sand snapped at the place he’d been a moment earlier. Duncan stabbed at the monster’s exposed neck again, but it hunched over and spun to face him, and he missed. He turned the thrust into a draw cut but the creature’s hide armor protected it.

The snakeman thrust low and hard with its spear, and Duncan twisted to interpose his shield, then uncoiled with a thrust of his own. The monster reacted faster than it should have given the shock of his shield absorbing the momentum of the spear and stepped back. Duncan passed forward to continue his thrust and just managed to penetrate its armor above its hip, taking a draw cut from the spear across his back, which his armor dealt with. He recovered from the lunge and regarded the monster warily. This thing is superb with a spear.

Noises from behind warned him that more of the creatures were emerging from their tents. He hit his target with a Mind Spike, Blinked behind it, and thrust at the back of its neck once more, wounding it severely. He could see five more of the monsters now.

The ground beneath his feet turned to quicksand and he started to sink rapidly. He Blinked up, summoned a sword to fly on, and attacked his target through a fold in space again, doing enough damage to its neck that it collapsed. He had to abandon his Leech Mana Technique, though – with only three concurrent Techniques, he couldn’t fly, create folds in space, use Blade Echoes, and Leech Mana.

He was engulfed in a stinging storm of sand and Blinked forward out of it appearing behind the tents. He immediately stabbed another snakeman in the neck through a fold in space while they all thought he was still in the sandstorm they’d created. He was able to strike twice more in the confusion as they looked for him before one of them saw him and launched a spear of sand at him. He blocked the spear with his shield and continued his assault on the necks of the snakemen through folds in space. Flying removes the threat of the quicksand and the little sand snakes. Seems they only have the spears and sandstorms that can hit me up here.

When there was only one left, he Blinked down to the ground and engaged it with two swords, trying to use only weapon skill to win. He had to Blink out of a quicksand attack and discovered that the little sand snakes inflicted a nasty poison, so he had to spend more mana that he’d wanted on healing and Remove Affliction, but he thoroughly enjoyed the fight. The snakemen were brilliant spearmen. His armor was better than theirs, or their raw strength was less than his, but they were just as fast as him and used their spears well both at range and up close.

What warrants this place being rated one-ten? Sure, the snakemen are fast and skilled and they have a few sand-related Techniques, but I don’t think they’re tougher than the eighth level of the endless depths, really. Although I guess I’m a lot stronger than I was then. It wasn’t all that long ago, either. I’ve advanced really quickly. A lot of that comes from adding additional Techniques that have room for fast growth, though. I need to go back and try the endless depths again to get a real comparison…

He looted the corpses and checked the tents, but they contained little more than bedding and empty packs. Then he explored the rest of the oasis. The plant life extended only four or five meters from the edge of the water before the desert conditions took over. The plants were mostly either very prickly or tall with no leaves within reach of grazing animals. Extract Resources earned him a couple of vials of viscous clear liquid. The water was still, the pool deep enough that he couldn’t see the bottom.

The surface of the water exploded as tentacles lashed out and grasped him as he peered in. In a flash he was dragged under the surface and saw a tentacled horror with a mouth bigger than him. That thing is as big as the entire pool! Duncan equipped his water breathing ring from his storage space and switched to his Horrorbane sword and his rose quartz shield. I don’t know if this is a beast or a horror, but it has tentacles, so I’m guessing horror.

He felt a crushing pressure in his mind, like something was squeezing his helmet. He blacked out for a moment and discovered he was in the creature’s mouth, and its teeth were grinding against his armor. He regenerated completely in a flash, then tried to Blink straight up, but the Technique failed. So he activated Leech Mana and began lashing out at the creature as best he could whilst trapped in its mouth. He thrust his Horrorbane sword at what he assumed was the monster’s soft palate. After several frantic strikes the monster opened its mouth and Duncan tried Blinking out again the moment he saw light.

He appeared at the edge of the pool with a massive drain on his mana. Blinked into the ground and got shifted, maybe. He Blinked straight up another thirty meters and regenerated, only for his head to feel like something was trying to pop it like a balloon. He almost lost consciousness again but managed to Blink away from the pool as far as he could go. At rank six, his maximum range on Blink was over five hundred meters and he used every meter of it.

He hovered about five meters above the sand and regenerated again, leaving himself quite low on mana. That… was rough. The mental attack, in particular. Not being able to Blink when it was chewing on me was something of a shock, too. He looked around for a safe place to land and meditate, but it was nothing but sand in every direction except the oasis with the horror lurking.

Eventually he chose to fly South as he waited for his mana to recover. He’d have preferred to land somewhere and meditate for the increased mana regeneration rate, but the desert felt too exposed, and there was nothing else. As he flew, he kept an eye out for the sand skimmers and sand elementals that apparently lived in the wasteland.

After a while, he saw two creatures that looked like flat fish flying above the surface of the desert. Those must be sand skimmers. They saw him at about the same time and turned toward him. He equipped his Beastbane sword and shield. The monsters separated a little, then there were four of them, and then eight. Uh oh.

Duncan hit the first one with a Mind Spike – and nothing happened. Something almost invisible struck him, cutting deep into his leg through his armor. Moments later, several more hit him, lacerating both legs and stinging fiercely. The monsters were using a Wind Blade Technique, but the blades were subtle, barely noticeable with the air distorted by the heat rising off the desert sand.

Duncan used his Bladestorm Technique and was gratified to see the monsters actually lose a little health from that. But it was a low-ranked Technique, and they were high level monsters – the damage done was best described as negligible. Still, blades could hurt them - he Blinked forward and cut at one of the skimmers. His blade passed right through it and it dissipated for a moment then re-formed. A phasing ability? Or illusion?

A sandstorm formed around him, the sand grinding against his armor and digging into every gap to abrade his skin. He Blinked forward, and the skimmers turned smoothly to re-engage him. A barely noticeable glint in the air warned him of more incoming Wind Blades, and he Blinked away five hundred meters to the North, then flew back to the dungeon entrance as fast as he could. So, a level one hundred and ten dungeon is too much for me. Or at least, this one is.