How long do you plan to leave him like that?" Maria asked the second day

The question got me to give her an irritated glare before saying "He's your prisoner Maria. I came along to help you and the villagers out, not be his judge. I have no intention of giving him another thought, so if you ever think he should be let go you need to take care of it yourself"

The irritation seemed to surprise her and she held up her hands as she said "Whoa tiger, just asking"

I shrugged acknowledgement of her words, but said "He is a problem in my past. The man's a rapist and murderer, so as far as I'm concerned he has earned a few dozen years of falling into a pit. I imagine once he hits the first level he won't go down any more, so within a month you should be able to lock him in a jail. Though that's essentially what he's in now. 24 hours in the room followed by 1 minute of dying"

"Harsh" Maria said "but true. There's nothing good in the man, so I guess he's stuck there until the townspeople let him go" she turned the thoughtful look on me again, making me say "What?"

"I've been held captive before, but I've never heard of anyone turning a spawn point into a trap" she said in a thoughtful tone "I built a house over mine and hired guards, but what's it going to be like in a dozen years? Will we all have our own separate cities, all designed to protect our spawn point?"

"Likely" I said "or we end up with internal laws that we all enforce. This is exactly the situation all the whiners back home said they wanted, a say in how fair things are" I waved a hand around and said "This is the perfect opportunity to live by the golden rule; do onto others as you would have them do onto you. Bob did evil by anyone's standards and he reaped what he sowed. I probably won't do the vigilante thing myself, but if anyone asks for help I'll probably give it"

"You wouldn't have stopped him?" Maria asked, getting me to shrug and say "As I understand things, there are a lot of eternals doing the same thing. I don't plan on a holy crusade at the moment, though I'm not ruling it out. I've been here less than a month, and guys like Dalmar have been here almost from the beginning, so what's happening is by there choice"

"He's a good guy" Maria said defensively

I nodded and said "He truly is. But your question applies to everyone of us eternals. Will you stand by and do nothing?"

"Jesus Jake, you sound like a preacher"

That got a hard laugh from me. I grinned as I said "Far from it. These aren't religious questions, these are the basis for any society. We're forming a new one, and everyone gets a say in how it should work. The general opinion seems to be 'do as you will as long as you don't hurt me'" I shrugged and said "which isn't all that bad, but it means we are living without empathy"

"What did you do in the real world?" she asked after a few moments of quiet riding

"Assassin for hire. Killed drug dealers for rival gangs, depending on who paid me" I said "Only managed a few years before I got caught, but it paid the bills"

"God, you get stranger every time I talk to you" Maria said with a snorted laugh

"We didn't matter back there in reality" I said "you voted for whoever was selected for you to vote for. Paid whatever you were told to pay, and accepted whatever justice was handed down to you. Here, it's all new. I like it a lot and want it to keep being nice"

---

I agreed to make Maria another arrow, and gave her two more healing potions, though she still had all the old ones. I noticed her drop a couple of silvers into Telina's cup, making me grin, but I made sure she didn't see me laughing at her. She was struggling to find herself here, but she hadn't realized the locals were as real as she thought they were, and she still thought of them as a program. I wasn't going to waste time offering her my opinions on things, and I was happy enough in Mudtown that I didn't plan to ride with her. She did show me a weird option in our interface that allowed you to 'friend' someone, which allowed you to basically send email to each other.

"Didn't know you well enough to offer it before" Maria said, a little embarrassed by the whole thing. I waved it away and said "No problemo. Goddess knows you don't need to get tied up in the whole email thing again. Send me a note every now and then, or if you need any help" I told her, getting the same back.

Mary was waiting when we got back, and we made up for lost time.

I had been kind of disappointed not to get any experience for Biggie, but it was probably for the best since it wouldn't pay to encourage other players to start hunting me for the experience. Life settled down again as I re-runed the Mace of Clobberin, and did some blessings for the ever growing crop fields. I thought a couple of times about placing some runes on the tavern door or such, but I didn't really trust them not to blow up some innocent woman or kid who just happened to be angry at the world that day.

---

Maria managed to not bother me for a whole six days, then I got a message

Hey Jake, got a level 7 who has a rescue quest. She's a noob like you, so could use the help. It's a couple of days south of Telinor, so if you want to help we can meet you there

It popped up sort of like one of the system messages, and after some thought I sent (after I figured out how)

Sounds fun. Leaving today, meet at same Inn as last time

I still owned my horse, but he spent his days in the stable behind the Inn. I loaded up on bread and meat, twenty vials, and stopped to let Andulin know I would be gone and I'd be happy if the town was still here when I got back. The first night as I was cooking dinner I was attacked by a wolf that didn't do a very good job sneaking past my horse. He, my horse, whinnied and sort of nodded toward the wolf as I stood up and pulled my mace. This one was a level 4, so stronger than my initial wolf friend, but he wasn't much competition now that I could get the Fist in action between his jumps. It turned out I had some unresolved anger issues with wolves. I still missed a few times, and he still bit the living hell out of me, but three solid connections and I was picking up a skin and some meat. Waste not, want not.

Telinor hadn't changed in the last couple of weeks, but Maria wasn't at the inn when I got there, so I did some wandering, checking armor and weapon prices, and even stopping in a magic shop to drool over the large selection of things that weren't usable by a priest. Every....Damn....Thing!. I think someone was playing a joke on me. Not of course, that I could have afforded to much, being as someone made a vow of poverty for me. Stupid world.

Maria showed up with a human woman dressed in chainmail, carrying a shield and a sword. I remembered then that Maria said she hadn't specialized until level 8, but I would think you would already be using a bow if that was what you wanted to do. Shrugging, I stood up to greet them

"Maria" I said as the other woman stopped, then burst into laughter and said "Oh my god, it's true. I thought you were bullshitting me about the loser thing"

Yep, just standing here impressing the ladies. The woman turned out to be a human named Susan (seemed weird to me too), who had long, deep red hair, green eyes, and a fairly muscular build that still didn't hide the large bust. She was kind of hot, in a biker chick sort of way.

"Sorry" she said with a shy smile. I wasn't sure how a woman in mail, carrying a sword could give me a shy smile, but she managed it "Maria told me, but it..." she finally just shrugged. I waved them to a seat as I plopped back down, then gave Maria a 'what's up?' look.

"Susan is from my town, so I've been sort of helping her adjust" Maria said, snagging my ale and taking a swig "she's got a rescue quest from one of the locals to retrieve a girl from a gnoll cavern"

"Gnoll?" I asked, getting Maria to roll her eyes and say "Kind of like a man-dog, or dog-man. Looks manlike but has fur, a tail, a dog head, and likes the taste of people. The dungeons get pretty gross with the half eaten people, but the treasure is usually pretty good" she waved a hand dismissively before continuing "anyway, the quest. We go with Susan, clear the dungeon, rescue the girl, and escort them back here. I'll take her the rest of the way back"

She was obviously working to make it sound like I didn't know where she was from, which was perfectly fine with me. Prevention was the name of the game. Nodding, I told Susan "Works for me. I follow Maria's lead most of the time, so I probably won't have any useful information, but it worked out well last time" it was mostly jabber to get her talking. She shrugged and said "I appreciate it. She said you're decent at healing, so that's a huge benefit. What percentage are you wanting?"

The question kind of threw me, and I had to consider for a moment before saying "I guess I was expecting one third of the coin"

She rolled her eyes like Maria had and said "Well of course one third of the coin, I meant of the magic"

I once again had to think about things, since it seemed so obvious I had to wonder if I was missing something. When she started looking impatient I said "Again, I was sort of just expecting a common sense split. If it works for me better than for you, than it's mine, and vice versa" I paused for a second, then added "You do know I'm a priest class right?"

"Of course" was the reply "but magic is money, and even if you can't wear it, you can still sell it" I ended up frowning over at Maria, who was watching us with a small grin. Not interested in getting involved in signing contracts and stuff I said "This doesn't sound like my kind of thing Maria, so why am I here?"

Susan looked a little offended as she said "What do you mean? I'm just trying to avoid questions later, not be an ass" Shaking my head in frustration I said "Why would there be questions?"

Both of us ended up looking at Maria, who giggled and said "You guys are so cute" waving a hand at Susan she said "Guy's a stone cold killer, who is also the nicest person you'll ever meet" waving her hand at me she said "She's had it tough here and in the real world, so she's leery of people using her. She's not being greedy, she's just wanting to make sure you're not, so don't get all stuck up"

I had to laugh before I pulled her ale over and started drinking it. When I set it down I said "Ok then. Fairness rules"

Susan was a level 7 warrior with aspirations of being a tank like Dalmar. The world was truly equal opportunity when it came to eternals since a woman's strength was stat based like ours, and Susan was quite a bit stronger than I was (Like twice). She didn't look all muscle bound, which was nice, but her carrying capacity was huge. Neither of them wanted to delay, so we headed out after a couple of drinks. (the alcohol actually did affect us, just not as much, and you never got a hangover...paradise right?)

"Gnolls use pikes and halbreds" Maria said, then with a grin at me "halbred's basically just a really long axe. They stab or chop with it, but they can also snag you and hold you in place. Don't let them do that or you'll get beat up pretty good. We'll use the same thing as last time Jake, but with Susan in Dalmar's spot. My level 13 means 7-12 on the grunts, and 13-17 on the bosses" she rode in silence, chewing at her lower lip for a few moments, so obviously considering something that neither Susan or I interrupted. After about five minutes she looked at me and said "I trust Susan with my spawn point"

That was clear enough. Maria was asking if I was willing to share my potions, and letting me know she thought Susan was worthy of my trust. Susan had 160 health points, which wasn't bad, but not great for someone being the tank. I didn't say anything back, and ignored Susan's obvious interest, just considered the risks. Two people already knew, and adding another added a huge amount to the risk percentages. But it wasn't like I wouldn't give her a potion if she needed it, which she probably would, so I finally shrugged and pulled one out and showed it to Susan. She looked at me like I was a weirdo for a moment, then finally realized what the bottle said

"What the hell? Where the hell did you get that?"

"I make them" I said "and I am willing to share if you promise never to tell anyone else without my permission" Susan blinked in confusion for a moment, then looked at Maria to say "That's what you meant earlier" she snorted and said to me "Well, it's not like I'm going to make a liar out of Maria, so yes, I promise to keep it a secret"

She had a passive-aggressive type attitude that rubbed me the wrong way, but I tried to hear the words and not the tone (totally failed). But still, I gave her one with a nod at her thanks.

Susan's quest seemed to supply a map that guided us to where we supposed to rescue the woman, and I just followed the two women as we rode south out of Telinar. Maria as usual spent a lot of time talking, and she gave me pieces of useful information periodically.

"The orcs have a whole tribal system going on, though their lands don't start for another few days riding from where we're headed. Dalmar visited once and said the orcs spend all their time raiding each other's villages. Mostly a bunch of wood walled fort kind of towns, though he said their weapons and armor is as good as any the humans make. They don't eat people, though they will kill you for even looking like you are thinking of challenging them. Supposedly dragons live even farther south of them, which is what he went down there for, but he said that once you leave the Orc lands the monsters are all high level and don't adapt to yours. He got killed by two level 18 ogres when he was a 15" she laughed before adding "a couple of weeks of travel and fights and he didn't last two days in the Forbidden Lands. Talk about pissed"

"That big guy, Tennant" Susan said "mentioned that I was going to be one of the last ones put here. They supposedly have a..." She paused to give use a disgusted look "less crappy world now"

"So, will they turn us off?" Maria asked with a shrug

I chucked as I said "not like we would know it happened"

"It doesn't worry you a little?" Susan asked. I laughed again and said "I'm already dead, this is the afterlife. If they turn us off, who knows where we'll end up"

Maria waved the whole thing away as unimportant and said "anyway, as I was saying, the Forbidden Lands are supposed to be the uber treasure area if you can survive it. I've been talking with Dalmar about getting a team together when I get a few more levels" she looked pensive for a moment before adding "and I'd like to visit the elven lands at some point, just to see what that's all about"

"How come you're only level 7?" Susan abruptly asked me. I blinked in confusion before asking "what should I be?"

"You've been here twice as long as I have, so I would think you'd be at least a 10"

"He's kind of lazy" Maria said with a giggle "sits in his town drinking ale with the locals in between putting the smack down on eternal assholes"

"Hey, Samuel makes good ale" I said in mock anger "and don't be dissin my homies"

"See" Maria said with a laugh "guys weird, but fun to have around"

We were attacked twice, once by a pack of goblins, and once by a bear, with Maria killing all of them with her arrows before Susan or I could do anything to help. I was at 45% at my level 7' and those only added a few percentage points to my total. I was interested in what level 8 would bring me, hoping like hell it was something better than more healing things or those slow ass runes. I needed to add a big punch to my repertoire if I wanted to quit being just 'the help'. Meeting Bob and thinking about things Maria had said, had started me thinking about some long term plans that would need me to be stronger to accomplish.

Maria halted us on the third day, signing for us to be quiet as she strung an arrow and said softly "Couple creatures ahead, probably the cave entrance" she moved totally silently, while both Susan and I were making some noise. I wondered if it was a skill or just natural for her. She was right about the entrance, and there were two gnolls standing guard just outside of it. They didn't have any armor other than a set of gauntlets, and they were both holding a six foot long pole with an axe on the end. It had a curved blade on one side, with a hook on the other. I saw what Maria meant about not getting snagged and held by the weapon. They stood a little taller than six foot, and had bushy tails, back bent knees, and doglike muzzles. Overall they gave an impression of savagery.

"Susan, you step out and pull aggro" Maria said softly "when they engage you, I'll start shooting" she looked my way and said "watch and heal this time so Susan can get a feel for how they fight. This one is to learn what works and what doesn't"

I was pleasantly surprised by the mature planning on the part of my emotional partner. I nodded and waved for them to start. Susan set her shield, raised her sword slightly, and stepped into the open area in front of the cave. Both gnolls growled what sounded like words in dog, then raised halberds and stalked forward. Both of them swung at the same time, with neither hitting Susan as she used her shield to block the strikes. She swept up and away with the shield before stabbing one of the gnolls before covering with the shield again. Maria watched calmly, arrow set, but didn't shoot as Susan slowly stabbed and sliced both gnolls into pieces. I was really impressed with her shield work as she only took 35 points of damage while killing two level 6 gnolls.

"Nice" I said as Susan picked up a handful of copper coins. She tossed me a quick grin before saying "They're pretty predictable, and the halberds actually interfere if more than one is attacking"

We moved into the cave following the set up we used with Dalmar. Maria scouting ahead, Susan behind her, and me close to Susan. The cave was probably ten feet wide, with stone floors that sloped gently downward and were periodically interrupted by stairs carved into the stone. We went down at least 4 or 500 hundred feet before reaching a doorway with another two gnoll guards. Susan pulled aggro again, but Maria joined in and killed one with arrows before it got in more than a single swing. I went ahead and healed Susan's accumulated damage, 48 points, then had everyone wait while I did a blessing on each of them before doing my aura spell to up my armor. I restored a couple of times while I did this, and Maria used the time to pick the lock and disable a trap on it.

"Wow, that's a nice boost" Susan said quietly, her eyes looking up slightly as she looked at her interface "And you can regain your mana that quick?" Her approval felt good for some reason...probably because I was feeling kind of useless, but I just said "Priestly benefits"

"Ok" Maria said "time to get to work. This place is going to be huge, so let's get the upper levels knocked out as quick as possible since the lower ones will get slower as they spawn higher level creatures"

This level seemed to be mostly guards and storage rooms. Seven rooms altogether, and a couple close enough that we drew gnolls from them as we attacked the room next to it. I ended up exchanging blows with a gnoll in the hall while Susan and Maria were killing three of them in the room. I was able to do the Fist every time, as the pause between thrusts or hacks from the halberd was long enough to give me time. These guys were all in 60 to 80 range for health, so I killed him with three Hits, which equalled five swings. My hit rate was getting better, which made me feel a lot more confident. Of course he did as much damage to me as I did to him, and I did a couple healings on all of us before doing a restore.

Money was all of the copper and silver type, but Susan had picked up a couple of magic items. Nothing usable by a priest of course, and nothing the girls didn't already have something at least as good of.

Maria's point about what the gnolls ate was true, and I was disgusted to see actual human body parts over fire pits. People can say what they want about us doing the same to other animals, and it was just natures way, but I'm more the 'study them after you kill them type' when it comes to creatures that think you taste good with a dash of salt. And I have zero mercy for anyone who can deliberately harm a child.

But the last gnoll on that floor gave me enough points to level up, something I had been looking forward to.

Level 8

Specialization Choices

Healer Priest class may choose one of the following specialization paths:

Defender of the Faith

Priest focuses on aiding those in need and protecting the oppressed. Spells will focus on group and individual protection and aid, while the priest's personal aura will become a healing channel for your goddess's will.

Blessing spells now apply to all allied creatures within ten feet of priest

Healing spells cost half mana

+10 points health/level

Armor spells 30% stronger

Priest's aura does following for allies within 10 feet of player:

+5% stat boost to party members

10% damage reflected back on attacker

+25% mana restore rate

Wrath of the Goddess

Priest focuses on punishing evil and leading in battle against those who oppose the will of your goddess. Spells will focus on delivering damage to your enemies and your aura will deliver your goddesses wrath on to her enemies

Damage spells now do 30% more damage per hit

+2 Strength

+3 to hit

Holy Flame may be used once a day with no mana cost

Priest's Aura does following:

5 points damage/second to attackers

+15% hit damage all party members

+1 Strength to all allies

Your choice?

Wow, this is what I'm talking about. Asskicker, you bet! I took a few seconds to be sure, but there wasn't really any doubt before I said "Wrath of the Goddess!" I could see Maria and Susan watching me grin like a fool as I yelled those words but didn't give a rats ass at the moment.

Player has chosen Defender of the Faith

I was still blinking in shock at the message when it disappeared and a different one showed up.

Hey dickhead, I left you a little Easter egg to pay you back for that kick in the balls. It probably felt just like you do now....Tennant

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I screamed, then began throwing the left over armor and other trash into the walls before moving on to punching the wall as hard as possible, then healing myself to do it again. Maria and Susan just stood at the other end of the hallway with weapons drawn, watching me warily as I screamed hysterically for ten minutes.

Absolute rage can only last so long, so when my endurance ran out, I finally laid on the floor, glaring at the ceiling as I read the message floating in my vision.

Two spells added

Resurrection

Cast on self or other player

Allows player to return with no loss of level to the place the player was killed

Or

Allows player to choose new spawn point

Group Heal

Heals completely all allies within 100 feet

Once a day

140 mana

Whatever. Like it made a goddamned bit of difference. I allocated my wisdom point and closed the stupid interface before I started crying in frustration.

I hated every living thing in the universe for ten more minutes before standing up and telling Maria to quit wasting time, we needed to go kill something.

Loser

Healer Priest

Level 8 (0%)

STR 10

DEX 10

STA 20

INT 10

WIS 13

Health: 280

Mana: 130

Endurance: 200

Armor (+30%): 28

Defender of the Faith

Priest focuses on aiding those in need and protecting the oppressed. Spells will focus on group and individual protection and aid, while the priest's personal aura will become a healing channel for your goddess's will.

Blessing spells now apply to all allied creatures within ten feet of priest

Healing spells cost half mana

+10 points health/level

Armor 30% stronger

Priest's aura does following for allies within 10 feet of player::

+5% stat boost to party members

10% damage reflected back on attacker

+25% mana restore rate

Spells:

Telina's Gaze (100%)

Applies 55 points (+20%) of healing to the user or any creature selected

10 Mana/use

Telina's Fist(+75% activate)

Applies 55(-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

40 Mana/use

Telina's Holy Blessing

On creature: 55% increase in base stats

60% increase in healing rate

Duration: 6 hours

(+5%/level to level 10)

On flora: 65% increase in growth rate

70% crop amount

(+5%/level to level 10)

40 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 115 points damage to creature chosen

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

Double damage to undead

(+5/level to 120 damage)

75 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 3 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 (+30%)

(Does not stack)

40 Mana/use

Resurrection

Cast on self or other player

Allows player to return with no loss of level after next death at the location the player died

Or

Allows player to choose new spawn point

(Cool down 7 days)

Group Heal

Heals completely all allies within 100 feet

Once a day

140 mana

+20% Healing Spell

-15% Spell Damage

+ 1.2% hand to hand

+ 65% light armor

+ 45% Blunt Weapon

+ 70% Concentration

+ 55% Faith

+ 48% Cooking

+ 61% Repair

We went down to the second level, encountering some kind of weird gnoll Mage who threw a fireball as soon as Susan stepped into the hallway to attract attention. There were four halberd bearers moving toward us when the fire exploded against Susan's shield. The explosion knocked Maria over, staggered Susan, and startled me.

Fireball

65 damage (-50% faith)

The aura thing kicked in for the first time and I saw a burst of flame engulf the Mage. I did two quick healing spells, one each for Susan and Maria, watching it restore all the health they just lost. With all that done, I pulled out my mace, called on Fist, and waded into the fight. The Mage seemed stumped since he didn't send another fireball, and he ended up dead after two arrows from Maria's bow hit him.

Being angry didn't help me kick any ass, but it did feel cathartic to hit a gnoll in the head with my mace. With the Mage down it turned into a simple slugging match with me standing next to Susan while Maria shot arrows indiscriminately into the gnolls. I topped off Susan's health after the four gnolls were dead, then listened to Maria yell at me for a time.

"What the hell Jake, you freak out upstairs and now you go all Rambo on us. And what the hell happened with that gnoll shaman? Did you get some new spell" she waved an arm in frustration as she added "and speaking of new shit, what's up with the 280 points of health?"

I snorted at her histrionics but said "I just got 8 and specialized" I gritted my teeth in anger as I said "or I should say Tennant specialized me. He pre-picked some weak ass defensive priest specialization" She gave me the big eyes and said "no effing way! What an asshole"

I waved a hand in dismissal as I said "So, I got a health boost and some kind of aura thing that reflects damage back. Supposedly anyone in ten feet benefits from it, but that might be bullshit"

"Easy enough to check" Susan said, joining us after finishing gathering coins and magic items "stay back so they can't hit you, then watch to see if they take damage hitting me"

That got a shrug from me before I said "I need to be able to take some swings or I'll never up any of my skills. As long as we're dealing with these grunts I need the chance to be involved, so it'll have to wait until we get lower"

Susan gave me a frown and said "Your not here to..hey!" She yelled when Maria punched her in the arm, and she started to say something else, only to be cut off when Maria said "As Susan was about to say, your not here to listen to us say stupid shit, so we'll let you tank a while. If the situation needs a change I'll call it then"

Maria wasn't an idiot because she knew Susan was about to dig a hole she would have never pulled her ass out of. I just nodded my thanks to Maria and waved her forward.

I might not be a warrior, but I had a crap load of health and the ability to heal with a thought, so the next level was spent with me up front getting cut up and beat down, but I also stood and took it until Maria and I killed every thing coming at us. This level was essentially a repeat of the last one, but with archers thrown in randomly. Another shaman showed up in the last room, but Maria called it before we entered, and Susan lead the way while I bounced some of his fireball back, then cast a couple heals to fix Susan and Maria. When we were down to just one halberd guy and one archer, I went ahead and got a finishing hit on the halberd guy.

"Would Telina have a problem with you hiring out as a healer for dungeon crawls?" Maria asked quietly as Susan did her scavenging thing. I sent a mental 'so, you got any issues?' Telina's way, and got the emotional version of a shrug of assent. "She doesn't have a problem with it" I said after a moment "but my ego has issues with being the caddy. I don't take orders very well, and have zero interest in listening to some dickhead tell me to stay out of the way"

"I get that" she said with her irrepressible grin "but having you along changes everything about this. Do you know I haven't died once while with you? That's freaking crazy compared to the way things were. We've done three levels of this place in as many hours, something that would have taken a couple of days because we had to rest and heal" she jerked her head Susan's way and said even softer "She's young, probably early twenties. Her spawn point is like yours, in the middle of the city square, but it's a city, so she can't buy the land to protect it. Jessie and his butt buddy Gram happened to be in town hunting me and caught her on her first spawn" Maria's face hardened as she said "It was really bad. Dalmor and I killed them and set her free, but her head is still wrapped around what happened" Her eyes met mine as she added "you're a guy, so she's having problems with that"

I sighed and rubbed my face as before saying "dammit Maria, can't a guy sulk around here without you screwing it up?"

She patted my arm, then surprised me by giving me a hug and saying "Just be you and things'll work out"

The fourth level had something new, a magical trap that Maria couldn't undo. The first room that the stairs led into had a trap on the floor that she had no way of stopping, and had no idea what it did.

"You think it's a one time thing?" I asked. She gave a squint eyed sideways nod of her head and said "Likely. It would take an uber amount of magic to make it repeating, so it will probably only kill us the one time" the last part was said with a grin.

"Seems like it's fairly straightforward" Susan said "Choice 1, I go in and trigger the trap, hoping it doesn't kill me and Jake fixes me after" she shrugged before saying "Choice 2, Jake goes in hoping that high health handles it. Or choice 3, we call it quits"

"Choice 2" I said "my spawn point is safe, and this is..." I faded away as a thought occurred. I turned to give Susan a contemplative look, getting her to look nervous and irritated. I finally nodded and looked between the two of the to say "I received a new spell when I leveled. It's so perfect for this that I almost think a goddess might be involved" I paused again as I considered that, but got the impression from Telina that it wasn't her doing. Maria was looking impatient, so I said "It's a resurrection spell. I cast it on you and it allows you to respawn at the place you die that one time with no loss of levels" I drew a deep breath and said "or it lets you change your spawn point"

"Holy effing shit" Maria muttered, she blinked and reached out to put a hand on Susan's arm, keeping the woman from saying anything, then Maria said to me "That's some dangerous shit Jake. I'm beginning to think Tennant didn't hate you, I think he had the hots for you. Being able to hide your spawn point, or putting it in a defensible location is a goddamn super power" she pointed at Susan and said "You'd do it for free, I know, but you do it for Susan and you can have 100% of the take on this crawl"

Susan turned to face away from us, but we could hear she was crying as she said "Anything. Everything"

I waved a hand dismissively before saying "I was going to offer after I had a chance to consider things. But I can only do it once every seven days, so we try it now, and it gives her or me a choice, what do you want to do?"

Susan wiped her eyes as she turned back, but she was probably going through the same options I was. I step out and die, they have to wait until I return. If I use the spell on either of us to pass this barrier, then it wouldn't be available for worse situations on lower levels. Or do we say to hell with the dungeon and set her free.

"It's your life, but it seems important enough to blow this off and come back later" I said "I mean this is all just for experience right?"

Susan looked at Maria, who just grinned and said "Don't be a goof. I say we decide where to set your spawn point and go"

So that's what we did. Susan had already picked up anything of value, so we just turned around and left. We set up camp at the same place we set up the night before we got to the dungeon. We did repairs to build up the skill, all of us repairing the same things, just in ascending order of skill level, and discussed our plans as we worked.

"Maria has guards on her point" Susan said thoughtfully, looking back and forth between Maria and me "is that better than hiding it?"

Maria shrugged and said "I'm planning on hitting Jake up to let me do it too. The house is good, but there are better and more defensible places"

"If you don't mind telling me, what did you do Jake?" Susan asked me

"I'm friends with the townspeople, and I've paid them to add more guards" I said "and I've recently set up a shrine to Telina, Her presence should keep anyone from trying to put a trap there, or sit around waiting on me"

"You paid for town guards?" Maria asked dubiously "How did you even manage to do that?"

"Talked to the guard captain, he handled it. You gave me the idea, but I figured it would help everyone if they were town guards rather than just working for me"

"I saw that shrine" Maria said suddenly "The one with coins right? It buffed my stats after I left a donation" I shook my head and said "it would have done that without the donation, but it didn't hurt"

"You talk like the goddess is real" Susan said doubtfully.

I laughed at her tone, then told her "A real pain in the butt is what she is" getting a goddess giggle in my ear. I grinned as I added "She's good people and other than not wanting me to get rich, we're in agreement on everything else"

"See, that's what I mean, you act like you actually talk to her"

"Mostly just emotional tones" I said "but she stopped by once and we had a good chat during the tutorial. She's real and she cares about the locals, and I support that completely"

"You are one strange dude Jake" Maria said with a laugh, before getting serious again to say "but I trust you and I think Susan should set her spawn point close to yours"

I shrugged my acceptance thinking I might try preventing some asshole from setting up in Mudtown, but Susan, while kind of irritating, wasn't a bad person. Susan gave me a questioning look, so I said "I don't have a problem with it, and I'm sure Andulin and his people would look out for her"

We called it a night at that point without committing to anything specific. I got a visit from Telina in a dream that night, a dream where I was sitting at my table at the Burning Mage inn, watching Mary do a strip tease.

"My, my" Telina said as she walked in the front door. She stopped to give a half naked Mary a good look before giggling and joining me at my table. Mary faded away, getting me to lean back in my chair and say "If you start dancing it'll get weird between us" she laughed a full throated laugh before saying "This may be a dream Loser, but it's not that good a dream" Damn, there's that loser thing again. She smiled at my obvious irritation before reaching out to pat my hand and say "I am sorry these things were done to you, but the overmaster did much good in his evil, and it is time you begin to accept what has been done and strive to use these gifts to aid our people"

"Time" I said with a grin "it will definitely take time. I've made a start here, and Maria and Dalmar will be working for our cause within a year. Andulin has begun to adapt, and having Susan there will let him start seeing that not all eternals are evil" she smiled back and said "and I thought you were just being lazy as the archer said"

"I'm lazy, but I'm nudging things in our direction" I said "we need to come to some agreement about the money though. If I have to be a healing caddy for dungeon crawls I'm going to charge for it. And I'm not changing people's spawn points for free unless there is a need to do so. If someone wants to move it for convenience, I'm going to charge a fortune"

"All acceptable Loser" she said "I will only object when to charge for an item or service is a hardship upon the buyer. One who needs a potion of healing or for curing a disease will use it to reduce suffering. To make one pay because it is bought to prevent future suffering would be an evil even should the buyer do well because of his planning"

"Yeah, I got the gist. An example of charity, even to those who do not deserve it"

"Yes. The overworld is no longer sending eternals to Tarinath, but there are two thousand and twenty-nine already here. This is a minuscule number compared to all that our world encompasses, but they will begin to draw power to themselves, and as you surmised, wars will be fought to control the spawn points. What the woman, Susan, has suffered through has been done to others. In the places that eternals have chosen to rule, the locals as they are called by eternals, are treated as slaves. The ones who act this way will need to be dealt with, but you must strive to prevent knowledge of your spell from spreading, as it will focus interest on us before we are ready to forward our own agendas"

"No shit. I knew it was going to be a major pain in the ass before I suggested it, but Susan and the eternals like her have suffered enough" I gestured to indicate the tavern "the locals have to begin living for themselves if we ever want to keep the eternals from ruling everything. If the locals begin thinking on their own, this area is going to become public enemy number one on the eternal's hit list"

She stood, patting my hand as she did so, then walked to the door, but stopped and looked back to say "You are unique upon this world my priest, and it gives me great joy to have you walk this path with me" then she gave me a sly grin as she left and Mary came back.

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