Robin twisted the ring on his finger, pensively staring into the distance as he mentally reviewed the supplies he had stored in there. He’d spent some time engaging Wulfram in conversation about useful items to bring, such as rope, torches, bandages, etc. His [Bardic Lore] got a bit of a workout as well, as he’d used the conversation to prompt all manner of questions about what made a well-prepared adventurer.

It had been a bit hit-or-miss. Ballads, legends, and the like often skipped over those bits (though the more mundane stories and knowledge granted by [Shard of the Shattered Manymind] did fill in a lot of gaps).

He was as prepared as he could be, equipment-wise. In terms of his own abilities, however, there were still a few choices to be made. The sweet sound of hitting a new level had dinged this morning after he’d completed a session of information-gathering on the undercity. He must have been pushed very close to the levelling point by the nonsense with Khavren,

At least the knight was good for something.

That was unfair. He was also clearly going to be an excellent meatshield.

Robin pulled up his character sheet to consider his options. He had a few choices to make. The biggest would be which peculiarity he wanted, but before then, he had some stats to adjust.

The biggest question was where to put the free property rank he gained. It was most efficient to place it in Cunning, where he had placed all the others. That didn’t mean it was necessarily the best choice, however. Several of the peculiarities he’d been looking through were greyed out because he lacked high-enough levels of certain properties to access them.

‘You should invest in making our bond stronger,’ Rerebos said, somehow sensing he was considering improvements to his abilities.

‘I dunno, it’s pretty strong as is. Any more and it might overwhelm people,’ Robin teased.

The truth was, an improved connection with Rerebos was one of the things he was considering. It would allow the little dragon to access more abilities, like limited shapeshifting and the ability to become truly invisible. Though Robin shuddered to think what the little dragon would get up to in that case.

Thefts of small, shiny objects would almost certainly increase overnight.

Rerebos merely hissed good-naturedly at him and went back to preening. They were sitting by the fire in the tavern. The place was empty. Robin didn’t have anyone he trusted to run it in his absence yet, so the place had been sealed up with locks and boards and the few warding spells Drev was willing to cast over the premises for free.

They were temporary, but they were better than nothing.

Robin gave up on deciding which property to increase for the moment. Peculiarities were much more interesting (as were spells, and he was looking forward to quick-learning a new one as part of his level-up process too). He pulled up his short list.

[Effortless Illusions]

You have practised maintaining multiple illusion spells at once, incorporating timed effects with ongoing ones which require constant concentration. This practice has paid off. You are now able to maintain concentration on one active illusion effect without it limiting your other actions. This means you may maintain concentration on two spells at once, so long as at least one of them is an illusion, and you gain a major bonus to maintain your concentration in the face of anything which might disrupt it.

While he didn’t yet have so many spells that the concentration problem had come up for him much, Robin could definitely see the use of this peculiarity. The bonus to his concentration was nice as well. And they were about to venture into the undercity for the first time. Distractions and disruptions were likely to crop up regularly.

It was not his only option, however.

[Improved Familiar Bond]

You have dedicated time and effort to maintaining the bond you share with your familiar, and it’s paid off. Choose one of the following effects:

-Increased Power. Your familiar gains access to more of his natural abilities while summoned to this plane.

-Two-Way Symbiosis. You gain one ability your familiar possesses and he gains one you possess.

-Strengthened Mind. You and your familiar may communicate telepathically at distances up to 27 feet per your effective level.

You may select this peculiarity up to three times.

If Robin selected this feat and the Increased Power option, Rerebos would gain limited shapeshifting ability. He’d be able to turn himself into small animals like a cat or a magpie or the like, as well as turn himself invisible, which would make it easier to carry him around in public and much easier for the little dragon to go on spying missions.

The Two-Way symbiosis could be interesting, but Robin dismissed it as a possibility for later. Rerebos didn’t have many of his abilities on this plane yet, and Robin hadn’t developed many of his own. That was an option to take at a later date, if ever.

The strengthened-mind option was also tempting. It would make Rerebos into a much more effective scout. That was something else that would be very useful in the undercity, in spite of the relatively short range it offered to begin with.

Then there was the option that strengthened one of his most powerful and versatile abilities.

[Illusion Focus]

You have increased your mastery of illusion through dedication and repeated effort. This had paid off in an effective level increase when you cast spells of the illusion school or use abilities of the illusion subtype. You are treated as one tier or three effective levels higher (whichever is more advantageous) for purposes of determining level-dependent effects. This also counts toward determining your effective level for peculiarity and profession prerequisites.

Your illusions are also harder to detect or resist.

[Illusion Focus] would give him a huge bump in the size, duration, and range of his illusions. With the limitations to his spellcasting energies it was a very tempting option. Though that was offset to a degree by his ability to use [Visual Phantasm] at will. Still, he’d be able to produce much bigger [Visual Phantasm]s at a longer range.

Robin pondered. Did he prioritise the short term and take something that would help in the undercity, or did he play the long game and choose an option that he would likely get the most use out of? After all, he wasn’t planning on making most of his living by delving into the undercity on an exclusive basis.

After some thought, Robin selected [Illusion Focus]. Between Jhess and Savra they should have their scouting needs fairly well covered, and he was worried more about being able to fool the creatures they might encounter in the undercity with his illusions. [Effortless Illusions] could wait until he had some more spells that required his ongoing concentration.

Rerebos fluttered his wings in disapproval. Of course the little dragon would rather Robin have chosen something that increased his own draconic might. The bard had foreseen this problem, however, and was ready with a brightly polished copper piece. He had his apologies at once and offered it up as tribute. The little dragon immediately claimed it for his hoard and the grumbling and resentful looks ceased.

That sorted, Robin returned to the question of which property to increase. In the end he placed the point into Cunning, as it was most efficient and none of the peculiarities he was eyeing for the near future really needed him to boost another property more.

There was a bit of spare experience to play with as well, so Robin went ahead and raised his Deception to meet the new cap. That was always the first thing he did with his proficiencies on gaining a new level. It was his core skill, after all!

‘Arcane knowledge,’ Rerebos hissed, sensing Robin’s next intent.

Because the familiar could eventually access that knowledge on his own, the little dragon was quite invested in the choice. Actually, it spoke rather well of him that he had enough foresight to be invested in planning out his future power gains. Though Robin expected that a small part of it at least was Rerebos lusting after spells like he lusted after other shiny things. Most magical effects were quite sparkly, in their own way.

In the end, the choice of which new spell to pick up was easy. Robin finally nabbed [Invisible Servant]. Not only could it help make his illusions more convincing, it would be useful to cart small things in the undercity, open light things they suspected might be trapped, and of course provide extra help around the tavern when they returned from their adventure. Not to mention Rerebos approved. It meant less menial work like gathering slate tiles for him.

Honestly, without seeking out new Tier 1 spells that weren’t listed in his interface or finding some synergy with the options that were, Robin had pretty much exhausted the no-brainer choices available to him on the spell front. At least until he gained access to Tier 2 enchantments.

Robin spent some time flipping through the options he could see at Tiers 2 and 3. Most of the information was greyed out, beyond his current comprehension level, but he could see some very tempting options in the future, including some illusions at Tier 3. He suspected that was where they really began to come into their own.

He really needed to find more writings of Rhyth’s church or other prominent users of illusion magic. There had to be all sorts of tricks he was missing out on. And with the increasing appearance of prerequisites for some of the abilities he could see in his interface, he wanted to be able to plan the growth of his power a bit better.

If such a thing was even possible in this world. It certainly was in other tabletop RPGs he’d enjoyed. And it seemed it was an option here as well, though a far trickier one with the limits he faced on his access to information.

‘You ready to go?’ Jhess poked her head into the room and interrupted his train of thought.

Behind her, Robin could see Drev, Savra, and Khavren assembled with all of their equipment. Rerebos was already lurking out of sight. Wulfram was in the kitchen, assembling a last set of provisions. Robin closed out his interface and called the retired adventurer in as he rose from his chair.

‘Yes.’ Robin led the others down into the basement, and from there, into the undercity. ‘Let’s dive in, shall we?’

Here Endeth the tale of Into Noviel