The very next day two more eternals showed up, but they turned out to be a lot less stupid than the Boys had been. I was sitting with Seth, doing repairs when two people rode in on horses. I blinked in surprise as I realized I hadn't seen a single person riding a horse, even though they had been in the stable I slept in. One was an obvious dwarf, though he was taller than I expected, maybe up to my shoulders, but immensely strong looking. He had a two handed hammer across his back. His name popped up as:

Dalmar Dreadhammer

He was riding with an elven woman wearing a cloak with the hood thrown back, a bow across her back.

Maria Greentree

The names were a hell of a lot better than Boys's had been, but it still caused me to grin at the thought of how normal people managed to come up with things like that while being sent to prison. They left their horses just standing still, and when they looked around, ended up focusing on me. I could see them mouth the word 'Loser', then they both busted up laughing. I gritted my teeth and stood up to walk over.

"Oh my god" Dalmar said in a deep voice "Loser? Really?"

"Yeah, whatever" I said with a dismissive wave "I kicked the big guy in the nuts and this was his revenge"

"Holy shit!" Maria said, shock plain on her face "You kicked Lennet in the nuts?" At my shrug and nod, she said "Wow, I can't wait to tell people that. You've got to be the dumbest person in here"

Dalmar burst into laughter at the look on my face, but Maria gave me a big grin and said "Hey, just sayin. So what are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"This is home" I said, nodding to indicate the village and people watching us "and if you're here to cause problems you'll have to kill me first"

"Whoa bud" Maria said with a grin "put the fighting face away, we're just passing through" then she lost the smile and said suspiciously "You aren't treating these people bad are you?"

I shook my head no and told them "No, this is home. Had a few guys calling themselves..." I paused and grinned before adding "the Blood Boys stop in yesterday, but they should've woke up back home by now"

"Really, you skragged Cocknan and his butt boys?" Dalmar asked "by yourself?"

"No, the guard did, I just gave a little help" I said, reaching out to shake hands "Lennet made me a healer priest, so I'm not much of an asskicker, but I make up for it in meaness"

"Wow, this is a strange day" Maria said as she shook my hand "a healer priest named Loser. I guess you did kick him in the nuts. I've run into one or two druids, but I think you might be the only healer priest in existence" she blinked suddenly and said "healer priest, damn, a healer priest" Her and Dalmar exchanged looks, then Maria turned back to say "You any good at healing? What level? Do you want to join us? We have a dungeon quest and would love to have you along"

The words came out in a stream so it took a moment for me to parse the meaning, but I finally said "5th level. I can heal 50 points at a time, but I make healing potions that heal 120 points"

"Get outta town" Maria said, getting a bark of laughter from me at the odd exclamation "120 points? That's got to be bullshit"

It was quickly becoming obvious that Dalmar was the quiet one of the two, but I was still grinning at the words as I pulled up one of the potions and held it out for them to see.

"My god!" Dalmar muttered "it is" Maria half way reached for it before pulling a hand back and saying "how much to buy one?"

I shrugged and said "Honestly have no idea. What's this about a dungeon quest? I've had a message or two about quests, and I understand the idea, but how do you get one for a dungeon?"

"Never played role playing games before getting here?" Dalmar asked, and at my shrug said "bet this is weird as hell for you then. We're doing a retrieval for one of the town leaders. Find the object and return it, which ain't much, but being able to clear a dungeon to get the experience and loot is"

"So how does joining you work?"

They exchanged another look before Maria gave me a bemused look and said "You really are new at this. So, we send you a request to join us and you accept it. When you join a group you can send messages to each other, and you share any experience earned while in a group. Dalmar and I kind split the coin evenly, but sort magic and items by who can use them best" she gave me another amazed look and said "wow, an honest to god healer. The druids can't heal for shit, and the mage spells only heal two points per level, which is total crap"

"Dalmar's been in sim for almost six months, and I've been here for two" Maria continued "He's a level 21 warrior and I'm a level 12 ranger. Having Dalmar along means we'll face some pretty high level creatures, but it will mean some heavy experience points for you" she looked me over for a second, then said "How about it?"

I looked around the village for a second, then shrugged and said "Sure, sounds interesting"

Maria Greentree has asked if you wish to join her party

Do you accept?

At my 'Yes', I suddenly had two small icons below my endurance bar, and if I focused I could see their health bars. I was surprised to see Dalmar had 200 like I did, and Maria only had 120 health. Maria popped up with "Shit, 200 health, you must be crap in your other stuff"

I sighed and said "Whatever. I was cursed, so it's not like I had a choice"

The two of them wanted to see what Seth had, and to sell some stuff they accumulated, so I took the time to talk with the Captain and give him four more potions of healing, and one of Cure Disease in case he needed them while I was gone. Then I bought up a load of bread and beef for the trip since I didn't have clue how you survived in the woods or in a dungeon. I also got twenty vials so I could make potions on the way.

I ended up buying a horse from Dina (2 Gold!), which I was less than pleased about, but Dalmar said it would save days of walking. The dungeon was supposedly one or two days south by horse, and the less time spent camping the less we would have to deal with random monsters. The ride out was peaceful, something Maria said was due to Dalmar's high level "System has trouble with mixed level groups like ours. A level 5 wolf would be a one shot for Dalmar, but would be hard work for you, so it confuses things. It'll change in the dungeon, don't doubt that. Most of the grunts will be in the 8 to 15 level range, and the boss will probably be at least 25, so you'll want to stay back to keep from getting killed early" she waved a hand to indicate everything "the system design is pretty primitive compared to some of the commercial games now. Magic for anyone other than mages is pretty limited, the lack of decent healing spells and potions has really hurt the dungeon crawls. There isn't an enchanting skill available which really sucks, and other than repair, neither of us has found a way to get the smithing skill set" She seemed to assume I knew what the hell she was talking about, so I said "Enchanting?"

Dalmar chuckled and said "Noob" getting a laugh from Maria before she said "Yeah, you know, like putting magic spells on your weapons and stuff. You can find enchanted items all the time, but they just seem to appear, no one actually makes them"

"Oh" I mumbled, thinking about the ring I was carrying around, the one that discriminated against priests. The Magical Ring of Bigotry as I called it.

Maria talked pretty much non-stop, but it was interesting hearing her story. According to her the world had only been operating for seven months, making Dalmar one of the oldest players in here. She had been doing some embezzlement, and when offered a ten year jail or being sent here, she came to Tarinath. "What the hell, it's not like real life was any fun. I wasn't much to look at, and with a record I wasn't likely to get a decent job any more"

She picked a warrior but focused on archery, then at level eight selected Ranger as a specialty, something they had to explain. When I told them about the tutorial being set to advanced, even Maria muttered "that Tennant is such an asshole" She seemed to mix a little warrior with a druid since she could do some magic now, but was limited to leather armor like me. She could use bows and swords though, and what she could do with a bow was freaking crazy. I swear she didn't have to even look at what she was shooting at and she would hit it. She said I actually had it kind of good being so far out because she started in one of the smaller cities in the empire, the same place as a lot of other players. "It can get pretty bad. The cities, the guards are high level and tough, but they don't interfere in eternals business as long as no one dies and you don't mess with the locals. There are groups of players that gang up to torture and rape other players when they first appear" she looked away as she added quietly "it's pretty bad until you can get somewhere safe"

Dalmar patted her arm and said "Eternals are hated most places, but you've seen that. Some of us older ones try to police things, but there are only a couple thousand players scattered over this continent, so it's easy for guys to find a place to make their own"

"Anyway" Maria said forcefully "you choose a specialty when you reach level 8. Don't ask me why it's 8, it just is. You get two attribute points up to level 5, then you only get one point a level until you reach level 10. After that it's half a point per level. It keeps people from becoming gods is my thought, and the death penalty gets ugly when you reach Dalmar's level. Easy to lose two levels, but hard to get them back"

She was giving me a lot to think about.

Dalmar was what Maria called a tank. He was a warrior, but had chosen Holy Warrior as his specialty and selected Tarra as his goddess. Maria said something about it not being a paladin, but pretty good overall, talking like I had the first clue. "She's the goddess of the dwarves and things of the earth. We destroy the undead since their presence defiles Tarra's earthly soul" Dalmar said. He sounded like he was quoting as he added "She rewards her believers with gold and gems, and blesses mines and homes below ground"

Neither of them asked me who I was a priest of, which I found kind of weird, but I didn't volunteer the information, figuring it would come out if I did a blessing as I made potions. Both of them were fascinated by the process, and the look on Maria's face made me end up giving them both two potions for free. It wasn't like they were hard to make, and we were partners. I wasn't getting soft or anything, just protecting my partners. The potions had gotten stronger with the kick up from my faith numbers (165 points of healing)

"That is so freaking amazing" Maria said the next day as we rode along "we've been making due with those crappy 10 or 15 point potions since I got here, and paying the alchemy shop in gold to get them" she cast a guilty look my way, causing Dalmar to laugh and say "Oops, cats out of the bag now Maria" he laughed again and said "those potions would be worth serious gold to a high level player Jake" It was so, so nice to hear my name again, thank Telina. Wow, that came out so naturally.

"No shit" Maria said "I mean think about it, one of these will restore me to full freaking health. I could go up against some pretty high level bosses if I had a couple of these, and the treasure drop would more than pay for them" she perked up and kind of turned toward me to say "You know what? You could get really rich doing this"

I sighed as I felt sweet old Telina's dismissal of that idea. I looked up at the sky and yelled "Hey, cut me a little slack, I'm stuck with the name Loser and you're complaining about making money?" Stupid goddess just giggled in my ear.

Maria and Dalmar were giving me doubtful looks, so I shrugged and said "Telina has strong opinions about accumulating things that make me happy" I grumbled to myself about 'stupid goddesses' and 'what would it hurt' for a while until Dalmar asked "You speak with Telina?"

I shrugged and said "Yeah, you don't talk with Tarra?"

"Um, no" Dalmar said like it was the most obvious thing in the world, making me decide it might be better to keep that relationship secret for now. To change the subject I said "Hey, what do you think these would be worth?" pulling up a cure disease potion.

"Hey!" Maria yelled, reining her horse around so suddenly it made mine jump away "Did you make that? How the hell can you do that? They told me there were no disease potions and you had to go to a damn temple"

"So..." I said while waving the vial "I guess it would sell?"

Dalmar started laughing as he slapped Maria's horse into motion, then said "Oh it would sell. While it's not a common occurrence, nothing screws up a dungeon crawl quicker than picking up some weird disease and finding out you've lost half your endurance or half your dexterity. Then of course you have to travel all the way back to a temple to get it cured. Lot of people just kill themselves and take the level loss"

That made a lot of sense, and that sore thing Dina's sister had wouldn't have been something I'd have wanted to deal with for the weeks it took to get to a temple. I cast a sour look up as I realized it really didn't matter how much I could get, it would depend on what my naggy goddess expected. These guys were a god send (or goddess send I guess) since I would never have figured half this shit out on my own. Maria seemed happy to do all the talking, accepting simple grunts of acknowledgement from Dalmar as his part of the conversation.

The dungeon they were talking about turned out to be an old temple to some god or another, though all that was left was four broken walls, and a large iron banded, wood door set into the floor. Dalmar and Maria just let their horses go and told me "horses are safe, nothing attacks them if we're not here" I had paid two gold for mine so I was a little hesitant to just walk away, but finally decided I really had no choice. It wasn't like he was going into the dungeon with us. The two of them acted like this was just a simple job they were doing, with Dalmar pulling his warhammer out and Maria holding her bow as they stood in front of the door. I looked at their weapons for the first time to read:

Hammer of the Deep

25-50 damage

35/35 Durability

+12 when wielded underground

+15 against undead

+3 to hit

Not usable by: Mage, Priest

Siriela's Bow

12-24 damage

28/28 Durability

+5 spirit damage

+5 to hit

+4 Dexterity

Usable by: Ranger

I pulled out my mace of major inadequacy and said "If we take a minute I can do a couple blessings to give you a boost" Dalmar and Maria exchanged shrugs, so I did my calling on Telina thing to bless Maria first. I was hoping it would do both of them, but no, I had to restore, then cast another blessing, then restore again. Neither of them seemed put out by the time it took, and Dalmar actually said "30% on damage and healing rate, nice. I can call on Tarra once a day for a 30% boost, but it only lasts for ten minutes" Maria just shrugged and said "nice way to start anyway"

They explained the strategy for clearing dungeons that they normally used, then adjusted it to include my abilities "Maria can sense creatures within fifty feet and is good with traps and locks, so she leads the way until we have to fight, then she steps behind me. I keep the enemy focused on me and away from Maria, and you too now. My armor rating is 75, so I don't take much damage until we get toward the tougher levels, but we carry a dozen of the weak healing potions if I need them. Maria takes out magic users first, then shoots anything else left. For now, stay next to Maria and heal me and her as needed. You have great health, but your armor is for shit and that mace won't even slow most of these things down"

Yeah, not feeling like a loser now you bet. I shrugged and said "I can do four healings of 50 points, then have to restore my mana. The restore takes about half a minute, so keep that in mind"

"No shit?" Maria said "Less than a minute to restore your mana?" she patted my shoulder before adding "Jake, I think you're a keeper"

Dalmar was chuckling when he pulled the door open and waved Maria forward down the stairs it revealed. Both of them could see in the dark as well or better than me, and Maria's cloak made her sort of fade into the shadows as she walked ahead of us.

Our first encounter was a dead guy. Literally. It was a walking corpse wearing chainmail and carrying an axe and a shield. He wasn't a skeleton, but the flesh he still had was withered down to what looked like leather.

"Draugr" Dalmar said, sounding like 'drowgear'. He spelled it later, but I didn't care one way or the other since it was the first time I had seen one of the undead. Dalmar continued "Guess we'll be doing the undead thing Maria" I focused on the draugr as it started up the steps toward us:

Draugr warrior

Level 9

Health 75

Maria slid up against the wall so Dalmar could squeeze by, then just stood next to me to watch Dalmar beat the thing down. His first swing hit it's shield, but the creature dropped to a knee as a quick stunned appeared, then faded. Dalmar's second swing hit it right on the top of the head and it collapsed and disappeared. The armor and weapons remained behind, and I watched as Dalmar kicked through what was there before picking up coins and saying "3 silver"

"Dalmar can carry tons" Maria said "I let him hold everything until we leave" I shrugged and said "works for me"

The stairs ended in a hallway that had two more draugr standing twenty feet away, sort of guarding a doorway on the right side. Maria let Dalmar go by and started plinking arrows into the two creatures, shooting fast enough that one of the creatures had three arrows and 22 points of health left. I was feeling a little bit useless, but I could see my experience going up as Dalmar finished the two creatures with three swings. He actually took some damage, so I cast a quick healing on him, more for something to do than because it was enough to affect him. Maria started playing with the door lock as I cast Fist, just to be prepared, then did a restore as she opened the door. She jumped back and out of the way as Dalmar blocked the door and started swinging his hammer, holding the three draugr back as they tried to surge out of the door. Screw it.

I slid forward until I could see inside enough to see the two axe users and the archer behind them, then I cast Telina's Flame on the middle one. Dalmar wasn't being threatened much, even with the arrow that the draugr archer plunked into him, as his hammer seemed to stun the draugr when it hit. Telina's Flame appeared like it had last time, starting at ceiling level above the middle draugr, then shooting down in a column to envelope him before splashing out to hit the other two. The one in the middle dissolved into bones, then into dust in a flash, while the other two burned to bones before disappearing.

"Neat" I said, drawing on Telina to restore my mana again. I hoped doing the restore wasn't like ringing her doorbell or she was going to get seriously irritated with me. Dalmar went into the room while Maria stopped in the door to look inside, then back at me to say "What the hell do you call that? You just killed three of them with one spell. It would take a tenth level fireball spell to do that much damage"

I finished doing the restore and slipped into the room before saying "Telina's holy flame. Does double damage to undead, so it's not normally that strong. Still pretty cool though. Turned Gandalf the geek into bones when I used it on him. Uses all my mana so it's not something I'll probably use all that much"

"No, keep a reserve if you can" Dalmar said as he picked through the remains "but this was a good time to use it" he stood up to watch Maria examine a chest at the back of the room. She fiddled with it for a moment, then opened it and looked through what was in it

"4 silver and 13 copper" she muttered "and a leather bracer with a simple armor increase" she turned to give me the bracer

Leather Bracer

armor 3

+2 armor

22/22 durability

Hey, every little bit helps. I swapped out the bracers and watched my armor rating go from 18 to 21. I looked at Dalmar and Maria to see what theirs was, and realized that other than the weapons in their hands I couldn't read any of the things they were wearing. In response to my question, Dalmar said "Yeah, not sure why it's like that. Maria thinks it's a left over from the original game design. PvP types would have used it to see if you were worth killing, but Tarinath doesn't let you pick up other players equipment when they die, so it's sort of moot"

"PvP?"

Maria shook her head and said "You really are a Noob. Player versus player. Killing other players was a good way to get some good loot if you didn't mind the bad rep. Like Dalmar said though, it's moot here. Probably for the best since they basically stocked this world with a bunch of criminals. There's a bunch of stuff like that, which is why I think things get weird or unbalanced sometimes"

I checked my experience and was disappointed to see it was only at 92%. "How much does this experience thing slow down at level 5?"

Maria led the way down the hall again as Dalmar said quietly "A lot, but you're also sharing it with me and Maria. I probably got maybe 1% for those four, or even less, and yours will suffer because our level is so high that it reduces the amount of experience per creature"

Huh. Well, it wasn't like I was in a hurry since I had like...forever.

We did three more rooms on this level, none of them any more difficult than the first one. I did Telina's Flame again on the last room just for the practice, killing two creatures outright, and doing a ton of damage to two more. Maria killed those two with an arrow each, making that room the easiest one yet. I had cast three healing spells on Dalmar, and one on Maria when she managed to get hit with an arrow.

"Normally I would be down to about half my health" Dalmar said as we gathered at the top of a stairs leading down "we would probably take a rest and cook some food to get some of our health back, or even use a potion or two if we needed to. Worst part of this world is the low health numbers compared to damage done. Even the strongest players can be taken out in a couple of hits by something strong enough. Makes for a frustrating experience when you've done five levels already, then get killed by some boss and find yourself two weeks travel away knowing you have to do the whole thing over" he gave me a look before saying "you my friend are going to be very popular"

Hmm, not sure I liked that idea much. I'd have to talk with Dalmar and Maria when this was over to see if I could get them to keep my existence a secret for now. This was interesting, and the money was going to be useful, but I needed to find something useful to do beyond wandering around killing monsters. I'd have to give it some thought.

The second level of the dungeon introduced some kind of ghostly creature that used a sword, had glowing red eyes under a cowl, and was accompanied by three of the draugr archers.

Wraith

Level 14

Health 105

The thing was, the only damage done to it appeared to be the magical amount on Dalmar's hammer. So he was doing like 15 points every time he hit, but it was doing like 30 every time it hit him. This turned into a war of attrition as Maria exchanged shots with the archers, Dalmar with the Wraith, and I kept healing our people. I hid behind Maria at one point to do a restore, then popped out to heal them both up again. Maria started laughing by the end, which I thought was a little bit nuts considering how much it hurt to be shot with an arrow. Dalmar finished the Wraith a moment after Maria killed the last draugr and he said "Hate those things. I can call on Tarra to banish it, but this early in a dungeon I prefer to save it for something worse, and they take forever to kill 15 points at a time" The wraith and his buddies did give me enough points to level up though, and I got to make another choice in spells, but I needed some information on the intelligence, wisdom thing, so I asked.

"Well" Maria said "Tarinath is pretty old school, so intelligence ups the mages mana amount and spell damage. The druids have to put points in wisdom for theirs, so I'm sure it works the same for you. Supposedly affects what spells you can choose from too"

Choose 2 spells:

Turn Undead

Undead of Level+5 or below will flee for 5 minutes

80 Mana/use

Telina's Restoring Touch

Restore full health to creature touched

120 Mana/use

Create Rune

Ability to learn and place runes of power

Player determines activation requirements

(Cool down 7 days)

Rune of Flame:

When activated by user will do 100 points +5/level of fire damage

100 Mana when placed

Telina's Protective Aura

Player receives 10+level armor bonus for 2 hours

(Does not stack)

75 Mana/use

I was definitely getting the +16 armor one since it nearly doubled my existing armor numbers. The restoring touch thing seemed redundant with the potions and now that I'd met some undead, I didn't think it would help a lot to have them run away since I would still have to deal with them later. The rune thing seemed kind of weird and you could only use it once a week. How do you determine 'activation requirements'? I finally shrugged and picked it and the aura one, deciding I would figure it out later.

Loser

Healer Priest

Level 6 (0%)

STR 10

DEX 10

STA 20

INT 10

WIS 11

Health: 200

Mana: 120

Endurance: 200

Armor: 21

Spells:

Telina's Gaze(+75% activate)

Applies 40 points (+20%) of healing to the user or any creature touched

20 Mana/use

Telina's Fist(+75% activate)

Applies 40 (-15%) points of damage when activated and a successful hit is made

20 Mana/use (effective hit)

Cure Disease

Cures disease (Level+10) of any creature touched

80 Mana/use

Telina's Holy Blessing

On creature: 35% increase in base stats

40% increase in healing rate

Duration: 6 hours

(+5%/level to level 10)

On flora: 45% increase in growth rate

55% crop amount

(+5%/level to level 10)

85 Mana/Use

(Does not stack)

Create Potions

Healing potion:

Vial of water with Telina's Blessing + Telina's Gaze

Healing= Telina's Gaze + Telina's Blessing + 2(Faith)

Cure Disease potion:

Vial of water with Telina's Blessing + Cure Disease

Cures any disease Level 75 and below

(Cool down 12 hours)

Telina's Flame

Holy fire strikes to cause 90 points damage to creature chosen

Splash damage: 25% damage to enemy creatures within 10 ft

Double damage to undead

(+10/level)

90 Mana/use

Dispel Magic

Dispel Level+5 magic on creature or area chosen

-Does not dispel enchanted objects or potions

-Does not dispel own castings

(Cool down 4 hours)

75 Mana/use

Create Rune

Ability to learn and place runes of power

Player determines activation requirements

(Cool down 7 days)

Rune of Flame:

When activated by user will do 100 points +5/level of fire damage

Lasts until destroyed or dispelled

100 Mana when placed

Telina's Protective Aura

Player receives 10+level armor bonus for 2 hours

(Does not stack)

75 Mana/use

+20% Healing Spell

-15% Spell Damage

+ 1.2% hand to hand

+ 19% light armor

+ 13% Blunt Weapon

+ 30% Concentration

+ 50% Faith

+ 29% Cooking

+ 41% Repair

I went ahead and cast the aura spell, finding that I had to do my thinking of Telina thing, followed by picturing having an aura for about 15 seconds. Maria and Dalmar were looking impatient by the time I got it to work, then made them wait while I restored my mana. Dalmar had scrounged up all the loose coin, but the only other thing beside weapons and armor was a pair of boots only usable by a mage. Just once I'd like to find something only usable by a priest. I kept the boots anyway since Maria said they would sell for a couple gold pieces and that still seemed like a lot to me. Neither of the other two had mentioned how much money they had, and we weren't friends enough to be exchanging that kind of information. I hadn't been asking how much he had been finding since I seemed to be having to trust him anyway.

This level had a series of interconnecting rooms, and the next room introduced me to an enemy magic user. We stepped into an empty room and had the door close behind us. Maria shrugged and said "Normal. Means bad guys incoming" She was right because they appeared right in front of us.

Draugr Mage

Level 15

Health 65

He was behind three draugr warriors, and he started shooting these bolts of ice at Dalmar, then turned them on Maria after she plunked a couple of arrows into him. I kind of screwed the pooch here because I started healing my partners when I should have called down Telina's Flame on the mage. The three warriors focused on Dalmar, but the room was open enough that they surrounded him on three sides. I was going to take a swing at one, but Maria pulled me back and yelled "Don't! They'll leave you alone unless you attack them" I healed her as a thank you for the warning, then settled in to watch her and Dalmar's health. I could do 6 healings now, so did the first two, then waited until they would get down to half health before doing it again. Maria and the mage exchanged projectiles until he finally collapsed and disappeared, then she started plinking one of the two warriors left. Dalmar had killed one and beat the other two down to about nothing, so the fight ended pretty quickly with Maria helping.

"Sorry" I said "I should have called flame down on that guy but didn't think about it until I didn't have enough mana"

Maria waved a hand in dismissal, saying "Eh, wouldn't worry about it. Dalmar and I would have taken them anyway, but it would have meant sitting around waiting for our health to get back up. You need to be careful about pulling aggro on these guys though or you'll end up having to spend your time fighting rather than healing. You have the health to last, but you don't do enough damage to stop them" at my confused look she rolled her eyes and said "Aggro. Player speak for aggravating them enough to attack you. That's Dalmar's job, so let him do it. I can usually take the mages and priests down in five or six shots, so let me handle them unless they attack you"

Great, she basically told me to be quiet and stay out of their way. Dalmar chuckled at the look on my face and said "Really Jake, this is the standard set up in the games, we just never had a healer here in Tarinath before to make it work. High level players aren't nearly as powerful in this world as they would be in a game since the health limitation makes this stuff risky. Most players only do low level dungeons since they hate the death penalty and it takes forever to level up after the first ten levels. You make it so my level 21 is actually useful"

"What he said " Maria said as she inspected the next door "I hate sitting around for hours waiting for my health to build back up" she jerked her head to tell us to get in position, then opened the next door. A couple of warriors and four archers were waiting, which allowed us to use the doorway to channel them into Dalmar. Dalmar yelled for me to use my flame spell, so I channeled that at the archers in the back of the room. It killed one of them outright and did a butt load of damage to the other three, so I stepped out of sight to restore my mana while Maria started shooting the left over archers. I wondered how the mages did this stuff if they couldn't restore their power after every use.

"Potions and magic items" Maria said after the fight was over "and they start out with like two hundred mana and build from there. They specialize, and everyone I've met was an elemental mage, which meant they cast fire and ice spells really cheaply. They do a lot of damage real fast, but that specialization means they're crap at everything else. Like Gandork and his sleep spell. Probably took everything he had to cast it because he specialized like he did. That's a nasty spell, and it works on everyone at their level or below if they aren't protected, but the elemental mages don't use it much because if it fails, they're left with nothing to fight with"

Dalmar came up with a ring that I could use and he and Maria said I could have it since they already had the two you could wear.

Ring of Dexterity

+2 Dexterity

That seemed blunt enough, and the 2 points it added to my dexterity gave me a +10% hit chance, which was really nice after spending a couple weeks with a -15% in that slot.

"That boost your spell gave me is pretty nice" Dalmar said as we watched Maria check the room for hidden items "with my strength already so high, adding percentages like that really adds up" he paused when Maria said "Yeah me too. The boost to my hits is nice"

I considered that, then said "But you never miss anyway" Dalmar shook his head and said "Just because you hit doesn't mean you're doing full damage. Strength gives you the damage number, but you need the dexterity to actually hit it, and make the hit count. She adds points of damage for every boost in dexterity or by a spell like yours"

"Oh" I mumbled, once again thinking how my life felt like it was being done on a spreadsheet.

"Don't let it freak you out" Maria said as she joined us in front of the next door "just think of it as buffing up. It all works in the background anyway, you just need to consider things when you level up"

The exit door on this room was twice as wide as the normal ones and Maria said it was trapped, so Dalmar and I got to watch her play with the door for about five minutes before she declared it safe. I finally asked what she was actually doing and she said “You know how when you repair stuff you just touch it with the hammer?” at my nod she said “kind of like that. Traps have specific deactivation sequences and I have to touch certain places in a certain order to deactivate them. Part of my specialization gave me the skill, but you have to have high dexterity and decent intelligence numbers to make it work good. Meant spending more points in intelligence than I wanted, but except for one or two of the players that picked rogue, you won’t find anyone else capable of doing the locks and traps like this. I’ve got a side business escorting players into dungeons to handle locks and traps for first pick on any magic other than final drop. Made a lot of gold doing it too. I’ve got a house in Averdeen and a trading store in Formil City that a local manages for me”

Maria always managed to throw something out that left me confused, so I said “Own a house? You can buy a house?”

Dalmar chuckled and patted me on the shoulder before saying “Man, you really did get dropped into the unknown didn’t you? Every town or city has someone who can sell you property, and you can turn it into a shop if you want to, but you have to pay a pretty hefty fee to do it. If you own the store you can buy stuff from it for half price, and it’s a steady cash stream if the town isn’t sacked. Formil City is where I call home, and a lot of players go there for armor and stuff, so she gets pretty good trade goods from them when they sell dungeon earnings”

Hmm. This was something I would have to look into when I got back to Mudtown.

“Ok” Dalmar said as he stepped up to the door “Based on the door I’m thinking we’re at the boss level for this dungeon. Most of the undead ones are pretty short, but the bosses are tough as hell” he glanced back at me to say “Goblin and kobold types can be ten or twelve levels with a dozen different boss fights. Good money, but it can take forever with all the rest stops you end up having to take”

“Yeah, yeah” Maria said, waving her hand for Dalmar to get moving “Monsters to kill, money to make big guy. Less jabberin and more hammerin”

Both Dalmar and I we’re laughing as he swung to door open to reveal a wide stair curving downward. Maria led the way down, having to stop twice to deactivate a couple of traps, getting Dalmar to say quietly “The door trap and these two on the stairs would have cost a party a hell of a lot of health if it didn’t kill a couple of them. This is why players pay her so much since losing a player at this point would pretty much kill your chances” I nodded my understanding as we watched Maria blur into shadow again and move forward. We did three complete rotations on the stairs before Maria came to a sudden stop at the bottom, then suddenly turned and jogged back to us, signaling for everyone to stop.

“God damn it Dalmar” she hissed “You and your level 21. It’s a damn bone dragon” her eyes were flashing in irritation as she said to me “Level 25 and 310 health”

Oh shit

We sat down on the stairs while Dalmar and Maria talked strategy, with Dalmar saying “Alright. Bone dragons supposedly have a freezing breath attack that ices you over for a couple of seconds, leaving you stuck while it attacks. Swords and arrows do half damage, and it’s immune to cold attacks. It’s undead, so both mine and Jake’s spells will do heavy damage, but it regenerates about 5 points a second” Maria was fidgeting and nodding as he talked, then broke in when he drew a breath “Yeah I know all that. The thing is sitting like right at the end of the stairs. Jake and I have to see it to attack, and if we can see it, it can see us. You would have to go down and pull aggro to keep it off us, and it would kill you if Jake isn’t healing”

“Wait” I said, getting an idea “If we give Dalmar a couple of healing potions, would it keep him alive even if he gets frozen?”

Maria and Dalmar exchanged questioning looks before Maria said “Forgot about the potions. Shit…” she paused, then added “shit, that might work. Can it do 200 damage before you unfreeze and do it some damage?” Dalmar grinned and said “Probably, but maybe I don’t have to do damage. What if I do a Monty Python to get it facing the other way, then you two attack it. When Jake hits it with his fire it’ll turn to face you, which will give me a chance to use a potion and attack it myself” Maria rolled her eyes at my confused look and said “Run away? What did you do your whole life, rob stuff?”

I chuckled, getting the reference now, and told Maria “No, mostly just killed people” turning to Dalmar I said “So you go in first, running around it to get it facing away, then I do Telina’s Flame. That’ll leave me enough mana for a single heal, or I can attack it directly and draw…aggro” I grinned at Maria with the last before adding “I have as much health as you do and a potion if I need it”

“My armor rating is 75” Dalmar said “so he’ll be doing half damage to me. You’re going to be taking 80 or 90 points of damage if he bites you, and the freeze spell will probably do 30 or 40 by itself. You go out there you run a good chance of getting frozen, then killed before you can use a potion”

“What he said “ Maria added “I can do a Blind Side shot if it’s facing away, which will do 50 points on top of the arrow damage, but that’s a onetime thing. I should be able to keep it from regenerating after that, but I won’t add damage”

I ran the numbers. I would do 180 points of damage, leaving 130. Maria adds 50, which left 80. Even if I used Fist I doubted I would do more than 30 points of damage, which left Dalmar having to plan on doing the last 80 himself. I shrugged and said “I figure it as you needing to do the last 80 or 100 points before I get chomped. Doable?”

He gave it some thought before saying “Yeah, probably two good hits if call on Tarra for a boost. If it’s facing you that shouldn’t be a problem” At my questioning look, both of them exchanged glances, then shrugged together before Maria said “Your funeral Jake”

Loved her confidence. Dalmar chuckled as we climbed to our feet. Maria catfooted it back to the entrance and raised her hand. Dalmar whispered “as soon as I get through the door, step in and call your fire, then attack immediately” I nodded and pulled my mace before following Dalmar down, but stopped when he did. He did some kind of prayer or something that caused him to glow for a second, then Maria suddenly dropped her hand and Dalmar took off like a shot, surprising me with his speed. You wouldn’t think such a stocky guy could move that fast. He turned right as he cleared the door, and I walked down to the base of the stairway and stepped into the room. It was a huge cavern, with stalactites hanging down above, a few stalagmites poking up from the floor around the outside, and a giant dragon skeleton in the middle, standing on four bony feet as its long bony neck led the way as it turned to follow a speedy dwarf snack scurrying through its domain. The things haunches were probably twenty feet high, and a spray of frost was coming out of its mouth, but I only noticed that peripherally as I pointed my mace at the dragon and called down Telina’s Flame. It formed above the dragon, then descended in a column to hit it in the middle of its back, striking hard enough to force the dragon to fall to its belly as the flames rolled down to cover it. The dragon let out a scream that staggered me for a second, and I was stumbling as I tried to run forward. An arrow flashed by me to strike at the point its tail attached, and there was a flash of red light when it hit. The flames disappeared and it surged to its feet, spinning in place as I called on the Fist, then swung and missed the damn thing. It was two feet in front of me! A series of arrows was flashing by me, chipping at the bones of its chest, as I set for another swing. Unfortunately the head came around, swiveling ahead of the body, sliding along the ground like a snake and sent a surge of frost at me.

Dragon Breath

65 damage (-55% faith)

Slowed for 5 secs

I could actually still move, but it was much slower than normal and I had no way to dodge when it scooped me up and bit the living hell out of me. You know what hurts a lot…dragon teeth. I screamed like a little girl as it raised its head and bit hard. It opened its mouth to bite again, but let loose with another scream and dropped me. From thirty feet…doing 20 points of damage when I hit the ground. I’d love to say I jumped up and started swinging, but that would be bullshit. I was in serious pain and bleeding like a pig as I staggered to my feet. My health bar was at 35 when I pulled a potion and guzzled it down. My wounds healed just in time for the dragon to swing its tail around and knock me into the wall 50 feet away.

Stunned 3 seconds

Which I didn’t need a message for since I was lying on the ground trying to get my lungs to unfreeze long enough to pull in some air. I missed the rest of the fight since Dalmar managed to get the final hit against the dragon’s jaw as it tried to scoop him up like it had me. The thing collapsed into a pile of bones rather than fading away, and Dalmar and Maria came over just as I got back to my feet. That last hit took off 100 points of health, but I decided to save a potion for now.

“Easiest dragon fight in the history of Tarinath” Maria said smugly. Dalmar burst into uncontrolled laughter at the look on my face, taking a while to regain enough control to say “Oh my god you should have seen your face” he laughed again before swatting me back handed in the chest and said “It really was though, you know. I wouldn’t have even tried him if we didn’t have the potions. Not even with two more people”

“No Shit” Maria said firmly “No one fights bone dragons, and no ones ever met an actual dragon. The living ones are supposed to be real tough. Sure death for at least half the party, and that’s if you get lucky”

Both Maria and I leveled up, and Dalmar said he got enough points to reach half way to his next, which according to him was an incredible amount. Huh, when that kind of fight only gets you half a level things were getting pretty tough.

I decided to stick with the wisdom thing for now, and was disappointed when I didn’t get a choice of more spells. It didn’t even offer to give me the old ones again. My mana costs went down on some items, and I noticed my light armor skill went up.

Loser

Healer Priest

Level 7 (0%)

STR 10

DEX 10(+2)

STA 20

INT 10

WIS 12

Health: 200

Mana: 140

Endurance: 200

Armor: 21

Spells:

Telina's Gaze(+80% activate)

Applies 45 points (+20%) of healing to the user or any creature touched

20 Mana/use

Telina's Fist(+75% activate)

Applies 45 (-15%) points of damage when activated and a successful hit is made

20 Mana/use (effective hit)

Cure Disease

Cures disease (Level+10) of any creature touched

80 Mana/use

Telina's Holy Blessing

On creature: 40% increase hit damage

45% increase in healing rate

Duration: 6 hours

(+5%/level to level 10)

On flora: 50% increase in growth rate

60% crop amount

(+5%/level to level 10)

85 Mana/Use

(Does not stack)

Create Potions

Healing potion:

Vial of water with Telina's Blessing + Telina's Gaze

Healing= Telina's Gaze + Telina's Blessing + 2(Faith)

Cure Disease potion:

Vial of water with Telina's Blessing + Cure Disease

Cures any disease Level 75 and below

(Cool down 12 hours)

Telina's Flame

Holy fire strikes to cause 90 points damage to creature chosen

Splash damage: 25% damage to enemy creatures within 10 ft

Double damage to undead

(+10/level)

80 Mana/use

Dispel Magic

Dispel Level+5 magic on creature or area chosen

-Does not dispel enchanted objects or potions

-Does not dispel own castings

(Cool down 4 hours)

70 Mana/use

Create Rune

Ability to learn and place runes of power

Player determines activation requirements

(Cool down 7 days)

Rune of Telina’s Holy Flame:

When activated by user will do 100 points +5/level of fire damage

Lasts until destroyed or used

100 Mana when placed

Telina's Protective Aura

Player receives 10+level armor bonus for 2 hours

(Does not stack)

70 Mana/use

+20% Healing Spell

-15% Spell Damage

+10% to hit

+ 1.2% hand to hand

+ 25% light armor

+ 13% Blunt Weapon

+ 30% Concentration

+ 50% Faith

+ 29% Cooking

+ 41% Repair

It was pretty clear I wasn’t destined to ever be an asskicker like Dalmar. The Fist let me do pretty good damage, but it was obvious now that I wouldn’t have a free couple of seconds to call on it after the first swing. I needed to get better weapons and armor if I didn’t want to end up being some sidekick for a stronger player.

The dragon hoard was the motherlode when it came to treasure. 210 gold pieces, and a bunch of silver and copper, and the first gems I had seen in the world so far. A small bag held three fist sized rubies which we split up, with Maria saying “Gems are rare, and you can sell them for decent gold"

There was a magic sword, which of course I couldn’t use, though Maria could, and it did some major damage. Magic chainmail which of course I couldn’t use and Dalmar said wasn’t as good as the chain he had. Magic gauntlets that gave a big strength and armor boost that Dalmar said were a high level item and he could use. But the thing I had been wishing for, something usable only by priests finally showed up.

Holy Cup

Unclaimed

Usable by: Priest

Yep, a cup. It looked like a chalice, so they could have called it something neat like ‘holy shining chalice’, but no, it was a cup. Couldn’t have gotten holy armor, or holy mace, or even holy underwear. No I get a cup. One that didn’t appear to do anything but sit there being a cup. Neither Dalmar or Maria had run into one before, but tried to make it sound good since it was part of a major treasure find. Still, why a cup? Stupid world.