'In the morning I sent Maria a message and told her I would be in Riverbend that evening and wanted to meet with her. Dalmar and Ariel joined me at the arch with half the town watching, so I could do the first portal approval blessing. Darn thing wouldn't even do it as a group, it made me do it twice, once for each of them.

I followed that by doing the first blessing on the second arch to prepare it to become the portal to the imperial capital, then kissed Mary and took the portal to Riverbend.

"That is going to be so nice" Dalmar said with a grin as he joined me in Riverbend. Maria wouldn't meet us until the next day, so we took rooms at the same inn and went to buy three horses.

"You'll need to think about buying a house" Dalmar said as we stabled the horses at the inn "If you don't keep a room here, the horses will disappear when you leave the city"

"Damn things are too expensive to be just discarding them" I said "how much does a house cost?"

"20 gold" Dalmar said "less or more depending on the place, but you need one with stables, so figure 20"

"Crap, that's a lot" I mumbled, surprised at the price. The words got a laugh from Dalmar as he said "you don't do enough dungeon crawls man. You should have hundreds of gold stashed away by now"

"Or if I could sell potions" I answered grumpily "and not pay for city upgrades"

"Why can't you?" Ariel asked. I let Dalmar explain the whole goddess wanting me to be poor thing as I considered when I would be able to do a dungeon crawl or two. Maybe it was time to rent my services out as a healer to other players. Then I could set a base fee, plus whatever we find.

Thankfully Maria was waiting the next morning, so we got together over coffee served by a teenage girl named Gina. Gina was super shy, but had gotten to where she would laugh at a joke or when Dalmar played his gruff dwarf role. I was pleased when Maria walked in and breezily called out "Gina sweetie, get this priest another coffee please, he's such a grump until he's had two" and Gina giggled and said "Yes milady" in a laughing tone. Maria stuck her tongue out at the girl before plopping into the seat across from me and saying "Sup Loser?" Then breaking into the giggles that had become one of the true bright spots on this world.

"You know me, just wandering around, trying to stay out of trouble"

That got a laugh from Ariel, and I could see Maria studying the girl out of the side of her eyes, an approving look on her

face. "You doing ok? These guys show you all the tourist spots? I hope Jake didn't plop his butt down at the inn and annoy Mary the whole time. That girl is a real angel, letting Jake think he's all that and a bag of donuts"

I couldn't help it, breaking into a belly straining laugh at the weird saying. Dalmar ended up slapping my back when I got choked, but I eventually wiped the laugh tears away as Ariel said "No, it was good. Fun really. Mudtown is really nice, despite the name" she looked at me briefly, sort of gauging my feelings I think, then said "people were so friendly. It felt...real"

Maria waved a dismissive hand and said regally "You listen to me girl, this is real. These guys are kind of boring, but you hang with me a while and you'll see. Me and the goddess are like besties, so I'll put in a good word for you and we'll get you set up right" Maria had the gall to wink at me as Telina laughed in my ear.

I leaned back, holding my tankard absently in my hand as I said "I'm planning to place a portal in Mairisian, so I was thinking about making the trip more useful. I imagine there are a lot more eternals there than anywhere else, so it would be a good place to clear up their cursed problems, and maybe get the empire on our side. I was also thinking we could all go, and maybe do a dungeon or two for leveling experience for Ariel and Sienna"

Maria and Dalmar exchanged looks before Dalmar said "Hundreds. All the original groups were placed in the capital, but no one stays in the city if they can help it"

That got a nod from me as I said "Great. That means we'd probably only be dealing with the assholes staking out spawn points"

***Sienna***

The world doesn't work anything like the normal games beyond some superficial items. The mage thing really didn't and I had wondered if I was going to be able to survive as one. I was used to casting times, but the spells here had gestures and words you had to say and do. If you didn't memorize them, you had to pull up the spell and follow its instructions. Yeah, that was super slow. So I spent a lot of free time practicing, since it wasn't like simply pointing a finger and saying "shazam!"

No, it was curl two fingers on your right hand while focusing your gaze on your target, then saying "Beltrith gol morgan" at the same time you raised your left hand to waist level. And it was picky! Not curled enough? Fail! Stress the wrong syllable? Fail!. If you pulled up the spell and did it, it wasn't nearly as picky, but it had you doing it at a slow pace, so you paid a big penalty.

You also didn't get as many spells here, so you had to be picky as you went along. I was level 6 and had 7 spells, with two of them being given at the start. You could also enhance a spell rather than choose a new one.

Enhancing spells was new to me, and I spent a lot of time talking about it with Mirabeth. I tried using the interface, but it doesn't give you any behind the scenes kind of details that allow you to plan long term.

The magic missile was my first attempt at enhancing, something that a player mage named Merlin (guy was a total dork) had scoffed at and said that it only offered a couple extra missiles and once you went elemental, the magic missile enhancement disappeared, so enhancing the fireball was better. He was pretty secretive about shit, but seemed kind of scared of Maria, which at least made him a little more talkative to me.

Mirabeth explained that the magic missile wasn't an elemental spell, so by specializing as one stripped it of its enhancement. So, spells could be enhanced, the benefit varying depending on the spell and the specialization path, and the number of enhancements varying by the mage and her attribute points.

Jake's talk about going defensive was something I was dead set against at first. It was easy for him to talk about not building up strong offensive spells since he was a walking health factory, but it would be hard to keep me caged if I could throw fireballs at you.

I really hated him at first, the smug way he casually wandered through that goblin dungeon as if it was a Sunday stroll, or the way we were all reliant on him for healing and his health potions. The guy fell into the best class in the game and he acted like it was something he didn't like.

Maria ended up getting me to admit I might have been a little quick to judge. I think she really loved the guy, though she was subtle about it, to the point the guy seemed oblivious to her feelings. But beyond that, she liked and respected him, and said I would be a damn fool if I didn't listen to what he had to say and at least consider things.

Her words being "Don't be a dumbass. Jake's right, the last thing this world needs is another eternal elemental mage. As a group they are the most useless bunch you'll ever meet, and they'll screw up and blow their own people to hell with a fireball every time. You know why Jake's the only Healer? Because everyone thought it was a weak ass class, exactly what you're thinking about the Defender Mage class. I like Mirabeth because she was born with this stuff and knows how to use her magic, eternals, not so much. This world is all about friends and having the skills to be of use to those friends"

She was an expressive person, so her hands were waving as she glared or grinned at me through the explanation "A tank like Dalmar, a ranger or rogue for traps, a healer, and a ranged specialist. That's the team everyone wants. Well, Jake is the only healer, and probably has the most versatile class available, being part tank, ranged, and spells, but a mage can't use the weapons necessary to tank at any level. That leaves trap specialist and ranged attacks to go with their spells. Mirabeth says mages have a find traps spell, but I'm sure eternals never pick it because which mage will choose that over another kind of spell that blows things up? Find traps and magic missiles does exactly the same thing I do"

She gave me a pointed look as we rode beside each other "You want to be safe? Go live in Mudtown. Jake and his people will keep you safe even if you never do anything else. You want to be useful..." she waved her hand around to encompass everything "then don't think about how to make yourself strong, think about how you can make your friends stronger"

She was a talker, that was for sure. She probably said a million words for every one Mirabeth said, though that mage could get pretty loud and expressive when her and Susan had alone time. Lot of passion hidden under that stern face and mages robe.

Maria let out a couple of her patented giggles, the ones that made that guy Jake grin every time, then she yelled "Hey Susan, tell Sienna about how proud Jake was when he killed that gnoll assassin guy"

I blinked in surprise when Susan, a nice but quiet person, burst into laughter. She tried to speak a couple of times, but was laughing so hard nothing came out. Of course Maria was laughing just as much, so it took a minute before Susan finally was able to say "Oh man, you should have seen his face!" more giggles before "gnoll had stabbed him in the back, nearly killing him, but he survived and started fighting it using that old mace he had, the one that did like 2 points of damage or something. He finally killed it, and he was sort of standing there, all puffed up and proud he finally managed to kill something on his own, and Maria..." that was it for her, she started laughing and crying until she just waved a hand and rode ahead to get control.

"I mentioned how assassins were like killing kittens" Maria said with a giggle "he got this grumpy look, like I had just kicked his puppy, then he stomped around scowling at us as Susan and I described how weak a kitten it was. God, it was so funny. Next time you fight beside him, ask him if something was as strong as a three legged, blind kitten that has seizures"

I had to laugh at how pleased she sounded, totally picturing her teasing the guy. I had a hard time picturing him having trouble killing something, but could see Maria puncturing a guys ego pretty easily.

She shrugged, moving on, and said "So, friends. Find them, keep them, and look out for them"

Maria's other side came out when we found the guy, Gram, that she had been hunting. He was camped out in a small farming village, lording it over them, and abusing the women like the scum he was. The grin on Maria's face when he came out of a building and saw us standing in the street, was as evil as any I had ever seen.

"Hey Cram!" she half yelled, waving like they were friends "Susan and I are here. You want to see if you can take us again?" He was the big warrior type, looking a lot like Jess, but with chain mail and a battle axe. He took the axe in hand, but looked worried for a second until four guards followed him out of the building.

"I just might. Seems like I remember how to shut you up, and ole Susan was a lot of fun" Bad, bad thing to say. I could tell just by looking at the hate that spread across Maria's face before she said "Sleep em"

Mirabeth had her thin lipped smile on as she pulled out a gem, held it out, and put the four guards to sleep with a spell. I blinked in shock, realizing the gem held a sleep spell in it, something I had been told didn't work. Gram froze, looking down at the four guards sprawled out around him, then looked up to see Maria looking down an arrow at him.

He stared back at her and said "You think you can keep me from killing you before those weak ass arrows can stop me?"

"I've got a special delivery for you Cramit. Something a friend gave me" and she released. I wasn't expecting an explosion that blew the guy straight back and into the side of a building. He kind of slammed into it, flames running along his body as another, regular arrow hit him in the head.

Mirabeth and I watched Susan run forward and begin stabbing and slashing as the guy struggled upright. It wasn't even a contest. Susan played with him, letting him hit her periodically, then laughing and drinking a heal potion. Maria started giggling as the guy yelled "Hey, where'd you get that?" and she shot him in the head again. Susan was laughing hard as she went all out, killing the guy with an overhand slice a few seconds later.

No one said anything for a time, Mirabeth and I staying where we were as Maria walked over to stand beside Susan and look at where the guy had died.

"He's going to be having so much fun soon" Maria said finally, laughing as she and Susan came back to join us.

"So what's up with the gem?" I asked that evening as we sat around the fire. Everyone seemed to be expecting someone else to answer, so Mirabeth finally said "Loser creates them"

"Oh Man!" I groaned in frustration "what the hell is up with that? Why does everything seem to be his?"

"It is because he is a good person" Mirabeth said "I have met enough eternals to know that no other would have created and given away such powerful items. You envy his power, but it is doubtful you would have served the goddess as well, or cared for the people of Tarinath as much. Power allows one to have choices, and those choices speak of who you are. Some people, in fact most, should never be allowed to make such choices"

"You chose not to have that power" Susan said in her quiet voice, kind of eyeing me doubtfully "all of us had the choice, and all of us chose something else" she looked at Maria for a second, then back at me to say "and who knows if you would have even had the same options. Telina adores Jake, so I don't doubt a lot of these things would never have even appeared for someone else"

That kind of pissed me off, though I wasn't sure what part irritated me, so I said "So what makes him so special, huh?" I frowned at the group and added "you think he had to go through what we did? You think he could have handled it?"

"Probably" Maria said with a shrug "when I started the tutorial, I got a knife to fight that weak ass wolf, then a sword to kill that scrawny goblin"

She looked in question at us, getting a nod from the group other than Mirabeth "Now Jake, he said he shows up and has to fight a 60 health wolf with his bare hands. Dies a dozen times making it happen. Fights a 60 health goblin that has a knife, using a weak wooden club. Died ten more times doing that, eating the wolf raw to keep his endurance up. When he got to the courtyard, Tennant had a new player waiting to kill him with a sword ten more times. Jake will be the first one to tell you he had it great compared to us, but don't be thinking he came here all pampered and shit. The priest thing was a punishment for kicking Tennant in the balls, and Jake just managed to turn it into something useful"

She was a little angry by now, something that didn't happen often "You know what he really wants to do? do you? He wants to settle down and have kids. How screwed up is that. Dalmar and I found him just sitting in that town of his, friends with the locals, maybe level five from killing rats and shit to keep the locals safe. You've met Mary right?" Maria was seriously pissed by the time she quit talking, but she didn't continue, just got up and stomped away.

"She's ok" Susan said with a shrug "talking about Jake irritates her sometimes. What you need to do is quit focusing on what everyone else does or can do, and focus on what you can do. You have thousands of years ahead of you Sienna, so you need to start taking the long view" she held up a hand and gave me a serious look before adding "and don't underestimate Jake. He's quiet and not into the ego games, and I know Maria talks like he's a sweetheart, but he's Telina's priest, and he takes that seriously. You find yourself working against him and he'll end you without a thought"

I sighed, realizing she was right, but...angry all the same. I laid back, staring up at the stars and the twin moons and said "it's all just so strange"

So, all that was sort of the background to me deciding at level six to enhance the magic missiles and plan to move toward mage defender specialization.

Me, Ariel, Dalmar and Jake did the first crawl after we left Riverbend on our way to the captial, an abandoned castle in the middle of the woods. It was just barely visible when we topped a rise, but Dalmar said it would be a good place to mess around. The place was mostly crumbled and broken, but the main part still appeared to have two levels intact, with a tower sticking up another two.

The main entrance, double doors, wouldn't budge, but we found a small entrance on the side. Dalmar had us all do our prep, which meant Jake casting his blessing spell (It was pretty nice), and he and I both cast armor spells. I followed that with my find traps, which left me with about 80 mana. The door immediately glowed in my sight, showing it was trapped, so I waved for everyone to wait and deactivated it. It was a weird sort of thing, where spots would light up showing I had to press them, or light lines that I had to trace with my fingers, or a combination of both. Whatever, it worked, and the trap kind of disappeared, leaving it so the door could be opened. It also worked on locks, but the stupid description didn't say any thing about that.

Dalmar had said a bunch of times that he and Ariel opened doors, Jake and I kept them alive when something came out of them. So after unlocking it, I stepped back from the door and waited as Dalmar and Ariel got positioned. Dalmar gave the impression he was carved from stone he was so strong and calm. That big hammer of his seemed light in his hand as he looked over at Ariel as she raised her shield slightly and raised that flaming hammer to shoulder level. At her nod he flicked the door handle and stepped in to block the door. There was an immediate reaction as something let out a growling type scream, and something large and hairy jumped on Dalmar and started clawing and biting.

"Werewolf!" Dalmar yelled out as he shoved his hammer out to knock the thing away, then stepped forward to take a swing. Ariel followed him in as Jake muttered "There wolf!"' Drawing a surprised bark of laughter from me. We stepped forward to find Ariel and Dalmar each fighting

Werewolf

Level 12

Health 180

Ariel was a lot stronger than she looked, so it wasn't as uneven as it appeared, but the thing was twice her level and doing a lot of damage. Jake raised his hand and did one of his healings, causing Ariel to glow slightly as she regained a big block of health back. I was really shocked to see a big grin on Ariel's face when she turned enough for us to see her. She slammed her shield forward suddenly, catching the thing in the face, knocking it on its ass as she hit it with her hammer, the fire flaring at the point of impact.

It was a loud fight, with the werewolves growling constantly and our people grunting and cursing as they fought. Dalmar finished his fairly quickly, his hammer tending to knock the thing flat, or into a wall when it hit. I had expected him to help Ariel, but he just watched as Jake sent another heal her way. I must have shown some expression because Jake said "New creature, so we use the first encounter to let our tanks learn what to expect. Something Maria showed me"

Dalmar was nodding approval as Ariel forced the thing into a corner, preventing it from moving away as she started hitting it with her shield and hammer. A moment later she had killed hers and turned her grin on Jake to say with a laugh "There wolf? You did not just say that?"

Dalmar chuckled as he looked through the corpse drops, then said "can't waste a straight line like that. I'd have been disappointed if one of you hadn't said it" he straightened up and looked at the door on the other side, then back at me in question. I shook my head to tell him no traps, getting him to say "Never run into them before. Not sure if you can turn into one, so pay attention to any messages and your stats. Take a disease potion if you think anything is hinky"

"These things are wicked fast" Ariel said to me "watch your ass if they get past us"

I checked my mana, thinking I'd use some missiles next time and realized my mana was higher than I expected. I had done this enough to have a good sense of how long it took. Base restore was about 10 points a minute, plus a couple extra because of my items, but I was up a couple from even that. This was pretty important considering most fights were over in less than five minutes.

"Problem?" Ariel asked when I got vague as I checked my interface. I shrugged and said "mana is coming back quicker than normal. I wonder if it's something about this castle"

"Nah, it's me" Jake said with a sigh "25% increase if you stand close to me. Part of the Loser Dungeon Escort benefits you receive if you hire me and mention that you read our ad in the empire newsletter"

"What?" I mumbled, not quite sure what he was rambling about. Ariel let out a soft laugh before saying "How about referrals? Do I get a discount if I refer people?"

Jake chuckled as Dalmar opened the door to show three more werewolves standing in a long hallway. "We'll hold the door" Dalmar yelled over the growls and animal screams "Sienna, time for some ranged attacks"

Magic missiles is like the default Mage weapon and it is one of the faster spells, needing only a gesture, sight of your target, and saying "Arzolth Ras" 5 missiles left my right hand and kind of swooped up and over Ariel and Dalmar to slam into the wolf in the back of the pack. At level 6 I was doing 11 points of damage per dart, so 55 with 5. I was surprised when Jake had mentioned it did as much damage as his one weapon enhancing spell. When I had enhanced the spell it actually reduced the mana cost by 10 points, something I appreciated as I sent another set of darts into the lead wolf. It had taken a beating from Dalmar and Ariel, so the darts killed it on impact.

"That's a damn strong spell for your level" Jake said as he healed Dalmar and Ariel "if you were fighting 5th or 6th level creatures you would probably kill them with one shot. Does that get stronger as you level up?"

It was kind of surreal to be having a casual conversation as a couple of werewolves were savagely attacking our friends. I shook the thought off and said "Maximum of eight darts, but the damage keeps growing a point per level. I'm doing 11 points each now, not counting the ten or fifteen percent from items"

He didn't say anything for a moment, then as Ariel killed a wolf with an overhand swing, he said "so at level 15, say you have 8 darts, they would be doing 20 points of damage each for a total of 160" he gave me a quizzical look and asked "how many times can you do that?"

"7 right now" I said slowly, really thinking about what he was saying

"Son of a bitch" he muttered "I'm glad the rest of those asshole eternals went elemental because that would be a real problem" Dalmar and Ariel killed the last one as he said "It doesn't make any sense. Why the he'll isn't everyone using that spell?"

"Because of how the system offers us our choices" I said, considering my own choice. At the time I decided to enhance the missiles the choice had seemed pretty stupid "the basic spell has a 5 dart, 10 point damage limit. The choice to enhance the spell only tells you it will add three darts to the maximum, it doesn't tell you it will be removing the damage cap. It seems stupid to waste the enhancement for something that gains so little"

"Wow" Jake said "this whole world seems to be designed to lead people down paths that keep them weak. I'll take one or two fireballs all day over being hit by 56 of those things doing 20 points each. Jesus you could damn near kill a dragon with that!"

He actually seemed a little angry about it, but I had to say looking at it that way made me feel pretty good, though I had yet to be in a fight that lasted long enough for me to cast seven spells.

We took a couple minute breather as Ariel scrounged the bodies and I got a little time for some mana to restore. The hallway went about a hundred feet and ended at a stairway leading up, but there were four doors scattered along the length before we got there.

The first room on the right was empty, but the one across from it had two level 12 werewolves, and they had a partial armor covering that made them tougher than the others. The level difference meant Ariel took a lot of damage, though Jake kept healing her as fast as the wolf could hit her. I swear the werewolf snarled at Jake in frustration. I did a missile attack on Ariel's which knocked a third of its health off. I was going to do it again, but Jake said "Wait for tougher fights. These no risk fights are good for her and Dalmar since it builds different skills they need, like shield and armor"

"Oh" I mumbled, still having trouble seeing snarling man wolves attacking people and not seeing it as threatening. He shrugged and tossed a healing at Ariel as she killed her opponent. Dalmar's fell a second later as Jake said "Watch for groups or ranged attacks. Groups, if you can do something to keep them from overwhelming our tanks, go ahead and do it. Ranged attacks, you need to do what you can to take them out"

I had to undo a trap on a chest that garnered some gold and a enchanted bracer none of us needed or could use.

The last two doors opened as we headed down the hall and a flood of armored werewolves came charging out "Stand your ground" Dalmar yelled, stopping Ariels instinctive step back "Jake!" He yelled again as he and Ariel were both hit by multiple wolves. There appeared to be about ten of them, and they were temporarily piled up against our tanks.

I was frozen in shock and fear as Jake raised his mace and yelled "In Telina's name!" As a blinding white column of flame came down from the ceiling to impact right on top of Ariel and her attackers. The fire knocked the four wolves on Ariel and Dalmar straight down, then splashed outward to knock a couple more backwards. It didn't kill any of them, but I could see it did a lot of damage to one of them as Jake said intensely "All yours"

I blinked in confusion and started to gesture for missiles when I realized how useless that would be on this horde. I almost did sleep, then realized they were too high a level, before doing the gestures and words to call up the slow spell. The practice showed since I got it off about the time Jake gave me a questioning look. All the wolves except one that Dalmar killed were up and attacking when my spell hit. Jake tossed out two healing spells as my spell flared around the wolves and they...slowed. Jake actually started laughing as the wolves all looked like they were doing some weird mime thing, bodies moving slowly as even their snarls came out at half speed. Ariel and Dalmar attacked hard as I yelled "15 seconds"

Jake did one of his restores as I considered my mana and sent missiles at one who was at less than half health behind the two our tanks were attacking. A few seconds later the slow spell faded, but five of the creatures were down, and Jake dropped another flame thing on them. I waited to see if I needed to do another slow spell rather than use more missiles. When it was clear our two could handle the rest, I sent a face full of missiles at the one in front of Ariel, damaging and distracting it enough that Ariel killed it with a hard hit with her hammer.

When the last one fell Ariel and Dalmar both sat down to gasp for breath and I got a level up message. "That was a fun one" Dalmar panted, drawing a grin from Ariel as she said "it's a little different when you're twice their level rather than half of it"

"True" Dalmar chuckled "but you kicked some ass there. That's a good combination, the shield and hammer. The shield bash thing really sets them back for a second"

Ariel giggled, really shocking the holy hell out of me, then held up her hammer and said "It's all about having the right tools. The difference between this and my sword is freaking crazy"

Jake laughed, holding up his mace, the small sparks flashing across the head as he said "Tell me about it. Until I got the mighty Bruce I was basically just handing out bruises"

Dalmar waved for me to do the treasure scrounge as he said "Yeah Jake, watching you bash old Zac with Bruce was a lot better than if you'd used your old mace of major inadequacy"

I found Jakes name for his mace to be kind of weird, but just listened to their banter as I grabbed up all the coins and magic items from the dead werewolves, then dealt with my leveling up.

You have reached level 7

Choose two spells

Fire bolt

5 points damage + 1/sec/level fire damage (maximum 20)

50 Mana

Ice bolt

5 points damage + 1/sec/level ice damage (maximum 20)

50 Mana

Lightning bolt

50 points damage +5/level

200 Mana

Entangle

Vines rise up to grasp any enemy within ten feet of selected point. Any creature entangled is held in place while receiving crushing damage.

3 points damage/sec

Duration: 15 sec + 2 sec/level, or until overcome or dispelled.

90 Mana

Drain Life

Drains health from selected target and restores caster's health. If health is full, restores caster's mana. Once cast, does not require caster to maintain concentration on target.

10 points damage +5/level

Duration: 5 seconds

**Spell is required if caster intends to follow the necromancy path

**Use of spells that transfer life force to the caster will negatively affect their relationship with any deity

90 Mana

Invisibility

Caster or target becomes invisible until they attack or use a spell

Creatures of a greater level than the caster have a 10%/level chance of detecting the invisible entity

Duration: Until dispelled, dropped, or detected

140 Mana

Silence

Prevents target mage or priest from casting a spell

Affects creatures; caster level +6 or under

Duration: 5 secs + 2 secs/level of caster

80 Mana

Great, got to love the choices that will haunt you forever. We had already discussed the invisibility, so I set that one aside. Entangle didn't show a level limitation, so it might work against even the high level people, which would be awesome...if it worked that way.

"Hold on" I said, waving a hand to get everyone's attention as I slid down the wall to take a seat. This needed some thought. I told everyone the choices as they sat down around me.

"Sounds like this is the point you kind of prepare for specialization at level 8" Ariel said

"You've already got one of the best damage spells on this world" Jake said, his eyes kind of distant as he considered his words "so those elemental spells would be pretty pointless unless you go elemental. The draining one would be a problem long term"

"Yeah, I agree" I said, waving all that away "I've already decided to do the defender path, so what I'm asking is which of the other three everyone thinks would be most useful. None of them seem to be very useful for what we're doing now since the entangle one would do less damage than my missile spell"

"Keep in mind this is what we do for fun" Dalmar said "what you need to consider is how you'll deal with other eternals. Invisibility gives you the ability to flee. If the vines thing held them in place it would protect your flank or stop a tank, and the Silence would be really useful against other mages"

"Sums it up" Jake said with a nod "and that's a good point about the vines. You said within ten feet of a spot, not a creature. So you could put it in front of you and use it as a defensive line, or in front of a door to stop the monsters as they come out"

"Ariel?" I asked. She frowned in thought, then shrugged and said "The entangle and silence. The invisibility would be great for a sneak attack, but our group just isn't oriented that way. And using it to flee might be great if you died a true death, but again, we don't have that mindset. If you think in layers, kind of like how we do these crawls, you have to deal with tanks, mages, and archers. Near and ranged attacks basically. The vines would be pretty neat for near attacks, and probably just as well against the ranged ones if it grabs a group" she paused, then grinned and said "actually, I kind of like how versatile it could be if used correctly. As for the other, we need an anti-mage thing. We have to go through their tanks to stop them, accepting damage until we do. This would give us time to get to him, or for you to take him out with your magic missiles spell"

Everyone sort of nodded when she finished, so I selected the entangle and silence spells.

Sienna SunSeeker

Mage

Level 7

STR 6

DEX 10

STA 13

INT 22

WIS 12

Health: 130

Mana: 220 (290)

Endurance:80

Armor: (11)+(48) =59

-20% Hit damage

+32% Concentration

+19% Staff damage

+29%(items) + 16% = +45% Mana Restoration rate

Dalmar suggested a ten minute break to let my mana restore since as he said "that slow spell is great against groups. If we come against more than four, lead with that until you see what that entangle one does"

I checked the door at the end of the hall, then undid the trap on it before sitting down with the group. Ariel and Dalmar talked about fighting methods, with Dalmar describing various situations and monsters he'd dealt with. We got up and moving after about fifteen minutes and my mana was back above 150.

The door opened into a two person wide stairwell that curved up and around. I stayed up front with Dalmar to watch for traps, but it was all clear as we came to a door after one full turn of the stairs. Dalmar and Ariel got positioned, then pulled the door open to reveal four armored wolfmen in another hallway. They came at us fast, their howls being echoed from behind us. I turned just as two more wolfmen rounded the stairs behind me.

"Oh shit!" Jake yelled "Hold the front, we got the back" He stepped in front of me saying "slow the four!" He dove into the first of the two coming up, knocking all three of them back. I turned, breathless and shaking from the shock, and saw Dalmar actually punching one of them in the head as he held it back with his hammer. Ariel had her shield pushed out, semi blocking the door as she screamed in defiance at the one she was hitting with her hammer.

I fumbled a little, but got the spell off just as one of the ones behind me clawed me down the back. God did that hurt. I screamed and fell, rolling over to get my staff up. The world was just a collage of fur, screams, yells, and pain as I got flashes of what was happening. I saw Jake, a grin showing as he hit the one about to bite me on the head with his mace, the lightning causing the wolfman to spasm, then Jake looked up the stairs as he cast a healing at someone.

He got pulled back as I shoved a hand into the wolfman's face as he recovered from Jake's hit. "Arzolth Ras" I screamed just before five bolts of light slammed into it's face. "Arzolth Ras" I yelled again as I rolled upright with it, holding my hand on it's long snout, letting the bolts kill it as I panted and tried to catch my breath.

Jake had a forearm in the mouth of the wolfman he was fighting, but he still had the grin as he raised his mace and shouted "Heeere's Bruce!" just before slamming it into the wolf's head. He seemed ok as the wolf turned into a pile of fur, so I looked up and was shocked to see Dalmar on his back being mauled, with Ariel with her back to him, shield pinning a wolf to the wall as her hammer slammed into a third.

One of the wolves was gone, so I yelled "Arzolth Ras" and sent five bolts into the one on Dalmar. I felt the tingle of one of Jake's healing spells as the five bolts swept in and hit the wolf, drawing a howl of pain just before Dalmar threw it off and got to his feet.

"Save it" Jake muttered, resting a hand on my shoulder to stop me from sending another set of bolts "They've got it now and it's better to keep something in reserve just in case" So we stood and watched as Ariel and Dalmar worked their way through the last three, with Jake tossing a periodic heal at them.

When the last one fell everyone sort of stood still, the sudden quiet a little unnerving after the mass of noise and confusion.

"Nothing like a good pile on" Jake said, the grin still showing. Dalmar chuckled as he kicked through the furs, picking up coins, but Ariel sat down, still panting as she said "That was intense"

Dalmar passed me a ring

Ring of Restoration

+20% mana regeneration rate (does not stack)

+3 armor

+20% health restore rate

That damn 'does not stack' message really pissed me off. And even worse, if I still put it on, it would use the bonuses of the weakest ring and no longer count the regen from the staff. How does that make any sense? Basically I would gain 5% extra regen and lose two armor points with the new ring. With Jake around the health thing didn't matter much, but if he wasn't I could see it might be important.

I went ahead and swapped it out, but planned on keeping the 9% one in case I got a ring that stacked. The bonus regen that Jake gave me made the whole thing a lot more visible since I was nearly at 50% faster. The numbers were kind of misleading, since it didn't mean it took half as long, which would be 100% faster. You had to multiply your restore rate by 1.5 to get the 50% number. Doubling your regen rate would really be 200% or multiply by 2.

Jake made comments about how the whole world ran on spreadsheets, and I had to say, it seemed weird to me too. I didn't think in numbers unless I was choosing things normally because you just kind of got used to the time things took.

Anyway, we finally moved out of the stairs and into another long hallway, but this one had a branching hallway at the halfway point. Three doors evenly spaced on the left, two on the right matching them except for the hallway.

"These guys like to pile on, so left door first, with Ariel covering the right side. Jake, you and Sienna stay back a couple of feet" Dalmar said after I indicated there were no traps. Ariel went back to back with Dalmar, getting into the crouching stance she used as Dalmar stepped forward and opened the left hand door.

"Two!" Dalmar barked, stepping back slightly and swinging that big hammer down to hit a wolfman in the head as it surged through the door. The swing drove the creature straight down, and Dalmar hit the next one in the chest by sort of thrusting the hammer into him. Ariel never looked back as Dalmar began pounding the two wolfmen into rugs, as Jake said. Dalmar took a little damage, but Jake didn't even bother healing him as we moved into the room, Ariel staying at the door to protect our backs.

Two chests, both trapped, which gave me something to do. A couple of rings, both basic stat type, neither usable by mages or priests. (I was beginning to see why that irritated Jake so much), and an actual mages robe

Robes of Protection

20% reduction in hit damage

+10% mana renewal

+20 mana

20% chance projectile weapons will miss

Cool! Mirabeth had said mage robes were rare and to watch for them. Of course this meant my new ring got pulled off and replaced with the original, giving me 24% renewal now, and 240 mana, which was awesome. Seemed kind of like Christmas. They even looked cool, being sort of form fitting, tabard type thing compared to the shapeless cloak mages had to wear (Had to. I know, stupid as hell, but if you didn't wear mage robes you couldn't do magic. Aaagh! it was so stupid) So, this one was a layered blue and black color, tied in the middle and had a cowl, though I didn't put it up since it blocked my peripheral vision.

"What all the well dressed mages are wearing this season" Ariel said with a grin, getting me to laugh and say "well dressed definitely doesn't describe the other robe"

We formed up with Jake and I standing in the door of the room we just cleared, Dalmar in the center of the hall, and Ariel stepping up to open the door across from us. We all had a clear view of the large room with quite a few wolfmen standing in it, all looking our way.

"Back!" Dalmar yelled "We'll hold our room" as he stepped back into our doorway as Jake and I moved back out of the way. Ariel slid in slightly behind Dalmar, as I decided I'd try the new entangle spell. I hadn't had a chance to practice it, so there were eight or nine of the things howling and clawing at Ariel and Dalmar by the time I finally said "Tentis Noral Pova" and pointed at the floor in the center of the hall.

I suppose they were vines, but it really looked like a bunch of thin, black tentacles rose up out of the floor and began winding around every one of the wolves piled up at the door. The wolfmen began yelping in pain as the vines constricted, and both Ariel and Dalmar took the opportunity to move forward and start swinging at the trapped wolves. Jake called down his holy fire, as I yelled "Arzolth Ras" and sent a swarm of missiles into one of the wolves in the front.

It was a pretty awesome sight, the column of white fire hitting in the center of the group and splashing outward across the pack of wolfmen entwined in the black vines, as my five glowing darts hit one of them in the face. Dalmar and Ariel were both swinging their hammers into the creatures as fast as they could, their faces holding matching snarls of effort and excitement.

Jake sent a healing spell at our two tanks, and I sent another swarm of missiles into one Ariel had been hitting. It killed that one and she moved on to the next, as the vines faded from view. Dalmar and Ariel had moved out into the hallway and were now back to back, facing the last four of the nine wolfmen. Jake stood in the door, mace in hand, but just kept sending healing spells at Ariel, and less often, Dalmar as they fought.

At one point Ariel had just killed one, but took a hard swipe of claws to her face, so while Jake healed her, I sent another swarm of missiles into the wolve's face, getting it to howl and stagger back. She killed it two swings later, a second after Dalmar finished his two.

Eleven level 12 werewolves appeared to push Ariel into a level up, something she had been looking forward too since it was her eighth. She just stood in the middle of the hall, eyes closed, so Jake waved Dalmar and I into the now clear room to scrounge treasure as he stood guard beside her. There were three chests, all trapped, so I worked my way down the line as I heard Jake and Ariel talking quietly, but couldn't hear what they were saying.

"Your lucky day" Dalmar said, passing me something from the second chest

Diadem of Intelligence

+5 Intelligence

+5% mana restoration rate

+4 armor

25% magic resistance

Usable by: Mage

It looked like a small tiara with a blue gem in the center. It fit perfectly across my forehead and clamped behind my ears, causing the gem to look like a third eye. This was beyond awesome, because not only did the mana rate stack, the intelligence numbers added 50 more points to my mana pool.

Here I was, a level 7 mage, running around with level 12 or better type items. Teaming up with Dalmar really made a difference in the loot, and Maria convincing Jake to change our spawn point had made this life a lot more interesting.