****Ariel****

I had been both anticipating and dreading this eighth level, hoping like hell to get the same offer Susan had gotten...Paladin of Telina. So when I suddenly found myself sitting in the Burning Mage tavern, at what everyone called Loser's table, I was more than a little confused. A half-elven woman stepped in, waving at Mary who was behind the bar, and walked over to join me. She had white hair, dusky skin and the blue eyes like Jake had, and pretty much defined the word gorgeous.

She smiled as she sat across from me and said "Ariel Tanisdaughter, eternal warrior. I am Telina. As my priest has said, I am normally constrained from directly speaking to the people of Tarinath except in certain circumstances, with this being one of them"

She took an ale from Mary with a soft 'thank you', then turned back to say "Eternals are an odd people, and except for the rare few, act as if they are part of a dream life. This is not a problem as long as they do not treat my people as if they too were figments of someone's imagination. My priest has begun moving to limit the excesses of the violent eternals, something I support fully. I am offering you an opportunity to become a Paladin of Telina, but must make clear that my priest is my representative on the land, and you are choosing a path that you may find restricts your choices over the coming millennia"

The flood of words took me a while to work through, but it summed up to, Jake was in charge, I would be expected to fight other eternals to defend the locals, and that Telina considered herself my boss. What it really all meant though, was that I would be living my life with a purpose and a job.

I nodded and said "Understood. I agree with Jake that since we expect to live forever, our lives will have no purpose outside what we decide. I have decided that being your Paladin is a worthy purpose"

"Excellent" Telina said with a smile "Where my priest is my voice upon the lands, my paladins are my sword. Your life is given to those who live to support life, and to those who are in need. I have chosen to represent those who are not strong enough to stand alone. Those who strive to serve others, and those with little, who suffer the hardships that survival requires. The Cursed Ones have chosen to see all others as having no value except as they serve the cursed one's purpose. Loser and Maria have shown the way on this, and you must work with them to continue the changes being enacted within the empire" her face hardened before she said "The people are real, and they suffer as much as you or the eternals do"

She sipped her ale and let a smile come back "Each paladin is different, and the choices given to you as you advance in level will be different than what is offered to Susan or BigBob. As Loser has learned, those who seek the simple path to power may find that they are traveling down a path that leads away from their true goal. Learn to enjoy life from my ranger. Listen to my priest and see if you can understand why he wishes only to live quietly in his small town, but so rarely does"

She leaned in a little and added "The Mage, Sienna is struggling to find her place, and I have given her items of power to aid her in this, but you will need to work with my ranger in ensuring that Sienna does not allow her hate to make her cruel or unfeeling" she stood up, waving for me to do the same, then reached out to touch my forehead as she said "Charity is not in giving of your wealth, it is in offering to do without so others can have something they need"

When her finger touched my head, there was a flare of light, and I was back in the hallway, with a message

You have chosen to become a Paladin of Telina.

+2 Strength

+2 Dexterity

+25% magic resistance

Double hit damage to undead

+5 health/level

80 Mana (Mana is restored once per day. Mana increases 20/level after level 8)

Shield Strike

A hit with a shield inflicts 5 + 2/level damage

Telina's Might

Heal 100% of existing damage for party upon casting.

+5 Strength

+5 Dexterity

100% hit chance and +25 Holy Fire damage for Paladin's weapon strike

Duration 10 minutes.

Once per day

Choose 2 powers

Telina's Fire

+5 fire damage +1/level from any weapon wielded

Telina's Gaze

20 + 2/level healing to yourself or another

20 Mana

Telina's Shield

Blocks any magical attack

Duration: One magical attack

40 Mana

Cure Disease

Cure any disease

Once per day

Telina's Word

Prevents a mage from casting spells

Duration: 20 +4/level seconds

80 Mana

I had expected to see the thing that Susan did, where she called down fire, but it wasn't there. And I was pretty sure she wasn't offered the Gaze thing, so Telina's words about getting different choices was pretty clear. At this point I thought the choice was pretty straightforward, but I looked up at where Jake was standing with me and asked him his thoughts. I was a little surprised by his take on it.

"The fire sounds neat, but is that something you really need right now? An extra thirteen hit points won't make a huge difference at this point since the hammer is already giving you that benefit. The healing is a no brainer, since tactically its the most versatile asset you can bring to these fights. I'd stick with the disease potions for now. For the others, you have to look at what the real threat to the people of Tarinath is at this point, and that's us eternals. If you end up fighting them, your biggest threat is the mages, since any tank isn't going to be able to kill you faster than you can drink a healing potion. We have to be leery of the big hit, the one that can kill you faster than you can heal. Right now, Sienna could stand back and kill you with her missile spell, and that's only going to get worse as she levels up. The elemental mages are probably pretty much the same, so you meet an elemental eternal at level 20, he could probably kill you with one or two fireball spells. Keep in mind that you need to plan to win, not just survive, so does it make more sense to use the shield spell and still be able to do a heal, or use everything for a one shot at keeping the mage from attacking at all?"

I did think about it, trying to picture fighting a few eternals, and finally said "The shield I think. I can cast it at the start, and if necessary do another, but if not it allows me to heal someone who needs it" Jake nodded and said "I agree. Gives you the most options until you get more mana"

That's what I did. I had been loading points into wisdom after talking to Susan since she thought that having a ten there was a requirement and she had done that. I had also begun adding points to stamina since you needed to push that up to get enough health to survive more than one hit.

Ariel Tanisdaughter

Paladin of Telina

+2 Strength

+2 Dexterity

+25% magic resistance

Double hit damage to undead

+5 health/level

80 Mana (Mana is restored once per day. Mana increases 20/level after level 8)

STR 15(21)

DEX 15(20)

STA 15

INT 5

WIS 10

150(190) Health

80 Mana

200 Endurance

Shield Strike

A strike with a shield inflicts 5 + 2/level of holy damage

Telina's Might

Heal 100% of existing damage for party upon casting.

+5 Strength

+5 Dexterity

100% hit chance and +25 Holy Fire damage for Paladin's weapon strike

Duration 10 minutes.

Once per day

Telina's Gaze

20 + 2/level healing to yourself or a party member

20 Mana

Telina's Shield

Blocks any magical attack against party

Duration: One magical attack

40 Mana

Ring of Evasion

+3 Dexterity

+2 Armor

Ring of Ogre Strength

+4 Strength

Dragon's Claw

21-29 damage

+15 Fire damage

+6 Armor

Dragon's Breath

75 points fire damage upon successful hit once a day by bearers choice

Not usable by: Mage

The boost to strength and dexterity from this and my rings meant I would be doing full damage when I hit, something Jake struggled with. My chain mail was all normal, but it gave me a base armor of 30, so 38 with items. That was low, but magic armor was hard to come by unless you hit these higher level places by having someone like Dalmar along.

The shield didn't count toward armor numbers, but instead used a skill called Block that reduced or eliminated hit damage. It was probably one of the skills that was the most intuitive since it worked just like it sounded. If you blocked the swing, you got less damage. Most people didn't like shields because they reduced your hit damage by doing some weird percentage reduction to strength when swinging a weapon, but Susan had shown me how versatile they were in an attack. We used them to both block and stagger an opponent, setting them up for a weapons hit. With the new Shield Strike thing, I would now be doing damage while staggering them. It was perfect for my fighting style.

Jake giving me Dragons Claw had really given me a big increase and I was still in shock that he had done so. Maria laughed all the time about how much Jake wanted a big weapon to compensate for his...low stats (she always paused and laughed), and here was a seriously powerful one.

The neat thing was, by calling on Telina's Might, using Dragon's Breath, and one of Jake's flame runes, I could possibly do close to 300 points of damage in one hit. I don't think there were many eternals that could survive that!

Sienna had a new magic item, a tiara or something, and I thought it looked pretty cool with the new robes. Finding out Jake envied her magic missile spell seemed to have given her something, a new confidence or appreciation maybe, and you could see it in how she stood. She looked like a mage now, not someone acting like one, and the look in her eyes made me see what Telina had been talking about. She was feeling powerful.

"I guess you got your paladin?" she asked when Jake and I joined her and Dalmar "will you have that cool fire sword thing Susan does?"

Wouldn't you know it, the first question out of the gate. I sighed and said "No, each of us gets a different choice. No weapons flame, but I got a nice boost to a lot of areas"

"Was it worth it?" she asked as we took a break. Jake was restoring his mana, and wanted to let Sienna get as much of hers back as possible. I grinned at Sienna and said "Absolutely. I'm one of the good guys Sienna. I'm part of a family now, and I like that...a lot"

She shook her head slightly and gave me a sideways look as she said "That's nice I guess, but I think we should be focusing on being strong enough together to keep any eternals from ever being able to capture us again"

"Won't work that way" I said, sliding down to take a seat, pulling her with me "It's to easy to get killed here. Look at Jake and Maria being killed by that dragon. The four of them were about as strong and versatile a group as I've heard of, and they still lost two people. We go against some of the smarter eternals and some of us are going to die and have to respawn"

I gave her a serious look and said "What we need to be focusing on is being strong enough to help our friends when they need us, so they can help us when we need them. You heard what Maria said about this, and it made a lot of sense. You get up to level 20 and you're looking at a two level loss every time you die. Everyone is going to max out around that range because they risk to much if they die, so they'll stop taking risks. They'll start teaming up, forming the whole guild thing like in the games. Probably sharing experience and trying to keep other eternals from getting to high"

My hand wave kind of encompassed everything as I said "This is all going to be about having the right friends if you want to enjoy life any. And you need to keep in mind that the goddesses are real here, and they represent a group like the eternals. Telina said she arranged the enchanted items you just found to help you out, so I would guess they can put obstacles in our paths just as easily"

Sienna sighed and laid her head back against the wall, closing her eyes and saying in a frustrated tone "I don't want to be reliant on other people"

"Sienna" I said softly "you know you could go live in Mudtown and be safe right? You don't have to do any of this if you don't want to. Everything Jake and Telina are doing is so that eternals don't have to spend their lives getting strong enough to fight each other off"

"This world is what everyone in the old one thought they wanted, absolute freedom" Jake said. He and Dalmar had walked over while we had been talking, and they took a seat by us

"You are only limited by your own power and ethics here, totally free to do as you please. What you don't have is security. The dickheads back home who talk about freedom not being free, and how its paid for in blood were morons. Security is what costs so much, since you have to give up some freedoms to have that security. Every eternal here is searching for a way to make their spawn point secure. These asshole eternals are forcing us to form a damn government just to keep them from attacking us, and since I have no intention of being part of a government, we need something else. The golden rule seems to be the least restrictive way to do that. You don't want it done to you, don't do it to others. What the goddess is doing is drawing a line in the sand and allowing people to show whether they want to be able to oppress people, or to allow everyone to live without a bunch of rules. It really pisses me off that I have to waste time planning a defense against people who should be happy with what they have"

He did sound pissed off by the end of that, and I was grinning by the time he wound down. He saw my smile and chuckled before shrugging and saying "So, a bit of a sore spot"

"But you are basically setting yourself up as a ruler" Sienna said suspiciously "do it Jake's way or be trapped in your spawn point"

I was surprised when Jake actually laughed, a sharp bark that made Sienna mad, but he waved a hand to hold her off and said "Whoa, not laughing at you, but you are seriously confused about what's happening here. I'm helping Maria and Telina right now. Maria wanted to stop the assholes in Riverbend, so I helped her with that. I'm pushing to free the locals from the eternals abuse because that's what Telina wants and I would do it if someone else asked, but I sure as hell wouldn't have drug my ass away from home just to look for trouble. I have every intention of fading into the woodwork as soon as possible, so you want to go around fighting eternals, more power to you. But if you want to abuse people, then expect me to feel free to abuse you back"

He nodded toward me and said "Telina's Paladins? If done right, they'll be a reflection of your actions. You want to abuse people, they'll be there to show you it works both ways. You want to help people, they'll be there to point you towards people who need help. You need help, they'll be there to give you help. They aren't the police, and they aren't soldiers, they're here to be examples"

"Jesus Jake" Dalmar chuckled "feeling a little preachy today?"

Jake looked embarrassed as he knocked his knuckles on his own head and said "Yeah, guess so. Hopefully that's out of my system because that little speech did make me sound like a preacher, and I'd have to kill myself if that ever happened"

"Um, you are a priest" Sienna said with a sly grin.

Jake rolled his eyes and said "Yeah, Tennant that dick. But that doesn't mean I'm going to be acting priestly. You want to be all worshippy and stuff, you'll need to find someone else. And anyone who says they're only doing what the goddess told them to is on my kill on sight list. Telina's good people, and she wants what I want, so I like being her priest. But I do it because I want to, not because she tells me to"

He looked at me and added "you guys keep that in mind. If you ever find yourself doing something you don't like, you're doing the wrong thing. If Telina ever comes to you and says to kill all the first born in the land, you better expect I'll be doing my best to have you doing the pit yo-yo if you agree"

"Pit yo-yo?" Dalmar said with a chuckle as he stood up "nicely descriptive"

I could see that Sienna had some questions floating around in her head, but I agreed with Dalmar that it was time to get Jake onto something else. He actually sounded frustrated that he had to even discuss this stuff, and I could tell he really did want to be back 'home' as he called Mudtown. I wondered if it was Mary, or just the quiet environment.

I also had to feel it was lucky Dalmar and Maria found him or things might have never changed. Susan said Jake hadn't tried advancing much at all at first, and was just sitting around Mudtown killing rats and bandits when Maria and Dalmar found him. I shook my head at the town's name, wondering why anyone would name their town like that.

There were three doors out of the room, but Dalmar was pretty sure the hallways formed an H shape, and the other doors just took us back into the hallways. We decided to finish the first hallway before messing with the others. We still had two doors on the left, and one more on the right, so Dalmar and I moved cautiously to the cross hallway and made sure it was clear, before he covered my back and I took the door this time.

The room had a wolfman and two direwolves, all of whom immediately charged. Dalmar needed to keep guard behind us, so I crouched and took the first direwolf's charge on my shield, slamming it into him as he hit me.

I'm immensely strong on this world, way beyond what my size indicates, so the shield hit knocked the wolf flat with a small white flare of energy. I hit it with an overhand hammer strike before blocking the next wolf. They got tangled up, allowing me to get two free hammer blows in while preventing the wolfman from getting close enough to attack.

One of Jake's holy flames formed above the wolfman and flattened him before splashing out to engulf the two direwolves. One of the wolves had gotten a quick bite to my leg, but I finished him with a hard hit after Jake's flame knocked off about 30 health.

I stepped forward and slammed the wolfman with my shield, knocking him backwards as I hit the direwolf. I immediately stepped back and swung on the wolf again, finishing it off before it could get to me.

That left the wolfman, so I stepped into his own charge and began exchanging blows. He was a level 13 with 180 health, so it took a short time, but Jake's flame had taken it down over half way. I actually killed it with a shield strike and found myself alone in the room with a bunch of wolf pelts scattered around.

"Somebody has become a bit of a bad ass" Jake said as he followed Sienna over for her to unlock a chest. Sienna nodded as she worked on the chest and said "You looked faster and stronger and you must be doing more damage"

With the increased strength and dexterity I was probably getting max damage benefits, so with the Claw I was probably doing around 45 points of damage, and a shield strike would add another 30 or so. Probably close to what Dalmar was doing with his hammer. I hadn't considered that when I was looking at the Holy Might spell.

The added strength and dexterity would really add to my damage potential and make that one shot kill really possible even without Jake's rune. No one knew how the background numbers really worked, but Dalmar was pretty sure you got bonus damage when you got above 18 or 20 in both strength and dexterity.

After we gathered up the coins, we headed to the last two doors in the corridor. We decided to put Sienna and Jake's backs to the end wall, with me in front of them as Dalmar opened the last door on the right. When Dalmar opened the door, he found four more wolfmen waiting, but the door behind him popped open too. As soon as I saw it opening I stepped forward and blocked it, yelling out "Six in here!"

Jake took over from there, yelling for Sienna to back me up as he called fire down on Dalmar's wolves. The wolfmen were all wearing chest plate armor which made a difference in these fights, and they did something new, they pulled me forward.

If Sienna's vine spell hadn't hit I would have been in serious trouble as they pulled me forward into the room and surrounded me, but the spell gave me a few seconds to pound the hell out of two of them. Having unrestricted swings, I killed both with three hits each, then regained the door as the vines disappeared.

They were some pissed off wolves and they were focused on Sienna behind me now. I used a heal spell on myself for the first time, gaining almost forty points back as the spell worked with just a quick concentration on Telina and the spell.

I was expecting Sienna to start launching missiles, but both the wolves and I were surprised when the vines appeared again. I was pleasantly surprised, them, less so.

I started laughing as I began swinging hard while bashing with my shield. The vines must do a fair amount of damage themselves because I killed one wolf with two hammer blows, and the other with two shield strikes and a follow up hammer blow. My endurance was getting pretty low, so I moved back to the door as the vines began fading again.

One of the wolves got a good claw strike across my face when they attacked, but Dalmar and Jake must have finished theirs because I could feel one of Jake's spells hit. My return blow with my shield, followed by a hammer hit to its head turned it into a fur pile, leaving me to exchange blows with the last one. Jake sent another healing my way, though I probably didn't need it as a series of hammer strikes put the wolfman down.

I sagged a little, leaning on my hammer as I turned to face the group. They were all grinning at me, so I said "What are you slackers doing standing around, you can't let a weak little group of werewolves slow you down" Sienna laughed, making a point of counting the fur piles before saying "Yeah, it was only ten of them, I probably shouldn't have wasted the spells but I needed the practice"

"Thanks for that" I said seriously "they surprised me by pulling me forward. I was in the middle of the whole group when the vines hit"

"You're getting too aggressive with your shield" Dalmar said in his deep voice "you've got your weight forward on your feet to allow you to swing with the shield, makes you easier to pull forward. You fight more like one of the guys who use a sword and dagger, and if you plan to fight like that you need to adjust a little"

Damn, he was right. I hadn't even realized it but I hit people with my shield about half as much as I did with the hammer. I was always finding myself moving forward as I swept with the shield and followed it with an overhand hammer blow. I nodded to him and said "You're right, thanks"

"Using a hammer instead of the sword, you're way probably works better since thrusting with a square stance is the most powerful damage you do with a sword, but you don't have that option. You should train the way you're doing now, but practice standing square when holding a spot like the door. Took me a while to learn to hold ground while swinging this hammer. First month it seemed like I was following it around the room as I stepped forward on every swing" Dalmar grinned at the memory, and I chuckled at picturing exactly what he was talking about. It was easy to find yourself following the hammer as you swung forward. It took muscle to swing hard without stepping into it.

"Aah, the joys of a little shop talk at the end of a work shift" Jake said with a laugh as he started scrounging through the treasure drops.

"I don't want to sound like an ass" Sienna said hesitantly "but what makes this any different than attacking the locals. I mean, I wouldn't attack locals, but this seems..." she kind of petered out, and when I looked over she was kind of looking around the room with a lost expression.

"Pointless?" Dalmor asked. Jake nodded, standing up from where he had been picking up gold coins, and said "To me, this is sort of like our job. This world was designed with the idea that adventurers would travel the world...adventuring"

He grinned at the made up job title, but continued "Monsters like these werewolves were put on this world to give adventurers something to do, just as the locals were put there to provide support while we did it. Now though, it isn't just a game anymore, and the locals aren't just support, they're people with potential. It's possible that the monsters could be set free like the locals, but that seems really dangerous to me, though I wouldn't argue its wrong to try. Just, you know, kind of stupid"

I laughed at the addendum, but said to Sienna "I think you're asking if what Dalmor said is true, is all the violence pointless and cruel? I'd say no, because the world is designed for this. Things went off the rails when they removed admin controls and allowed the eternals to abuse people, so we have to put that back ourselves. The rest, in my mind, this is the nature of things"

We kind of tabled the discussion after that, then decided to use the door on the opposite side we came in to put us in the parallel hallway. This hallway was a mirror of the other one, with three doors on the far side. We moved into the hallway with Dalmar facing down the hall and me stepping up to the first door.

Sienna and Jake stood behind me as I pushed it open. I had time to see four wolf men in chest armor turning to look at me when both Jake and Dalmar said "Oh shit" simultaneously. It said something about my getting used to things that when Jake followed the curse with "Hold that door Ariel, we've got ten coming this way" and I just grinned and yelled back "no problem"

I was faster and stronger than the 2 extra points of strength and dexterity would lead you to believe, meaning there had to be a serious bonus associated with going above 20 on both of them.

I hit the first werewolf with my shield, the white flame spiking at the point of contact and knocking him back into the group, giving me a chance to bring the hammer down on his head as he struggled to get up. The flare of red dragon fire and heavy impact drove it back to the ground, with the combination dropping the 160 health wolf to half health.

The next one tried to dive forward and grapple me to the ground, but took a shield smash to the face that brought him up short. I got a claw along my arm and one in my leg at that point, but ignored it to hammer the second wolf down on top of his buddy.

I used the to prone wolves to block the others while I did a quick one-two with my hammer, tapping the two downed ones in the head again. The next minute was spent standing square in the door and exchanging blows with the four werewolves before I managed to kill the first two and relieve the pressure a little. I was down to about half health and realizing Jake wasn't healing me before I risked a quick glance behind me.

There was a veritable mob of furry bodies behind me, with one of them struggling with Sienna, who was on her back with staff between them. Jake was trying to help her, but was fighting two other wolves and having a tough time of it. Dalmar was still standing, but he had the other seven wolfmen piling on to him, with a huge werewolf that had to be 8 feet tall sort of growling out commands.

I took a claw to the back of the neck then as my own two dance mates reminded me they hadn't forgotten me. Damn, this was going bad quick. I took a sudden step back and raised the Claw up as I yelled "By Telina's Might" as I called on the spell for the first time.

A huge flare of white light seemed to flash out from me, knocking every werewolf still standing to the ground stunned, and an absolute flood of power swept through me. I actually, no shit, grew a good foot in height as my health completely filled again.

A hard overhand hammer strike killed the one that was on top of Selina, and a shield strike, followed by a side sweep of the hammer killed another. The big one was my target because I figured he was the leader, and on this world the alphas and leaders buffed up the others of its kind.

"Jake cover Sienna" I screamed as I shoved through the pack surrounding Dalmar "Need some vines Sienna!" I yelled over my shoulder as the alpha werewolf and I slammed together. He was still a few inches taller than I was, but damned if I wasn't stronger.

His look of surprise as I pushed him back with my shield was priceless, but nothing like the look when I yelled "Dragon's Breath!" As I brought my hammer around to hit the side of his head. The combination of Telina's flame and dragon fire enveloped him as he was thrown sideways into the wall as 150 points of health dropped off.

My shield strike was throwing the flare of Telina's flame just as high as the hammer was, so it was only a few seconds later that he turned into a pile of furs and the other surviving wolves began panicking.

Sienna had a vine spell running, so the group behind me was being held in place as Dalmar and Jake pounded on them. Sienna had a seriously pissed expression as she appeared to be launching an endless series of magic missiles from alternating hands, right into the face of one of the wolfmen.

I slammed my hammer into the closest one and began helping finish them off. I was impressed and a little scared by how quickly Sienna killed two wolves with her missiles, then threw up another vine spell.

Dalmar was...laughing. No shit, laughing like he was on a fair ride or something. He looked like exactly what he was, a dwarven warrior as he laughed and beat down the wolves around him. The last one fell to a hammer back swing, and I found I was my normal height when I looked up at my group. Sienna was staring at me in confusion, while both Dalmar and Jake were grinning.

"I think someone opened up the extra can of whoop ass" Jake said with a chuckle, getting Dalmar too add "Can hell, that was a six pack at least. Damn girl, that is some seriously bad ass shit"

I laughed at the normally calm Dalmar's trash talk and said "Well, you guys ever need a pickle jar opened, you know who to ask" that got a giggle from Sienna at the look Jake and Dalmar exchanged.

"That was...odd" I said, giving Jake a shrug, then adding "did it restore your health?"

"Health?" Sienna said in disbelief "it restored my mana and my health"

Huh, the description hadn't said anything about restoring mana. Dalmar chuckled as he moved forward to start scavenging for treasure and Sienna went with him as Jake and I walked down the hall to peek in the other open doors, finding them all empty of werewolves and with no other exits. Appeared the towers were inaccessible unless Sienna spotted something.

It took a while for Sienna to open all the chests, and for us to gather all the dropped coins, and I was disappointed I didn't get any good magic items. Of course I had it better than Jake who almost never found anything he could use, still being stuck with a lot of his low level stuff. I wondered why Telina would give Sienna magic stuff, but didn't load Jake down with something useful. Still, this had been a lot of fun, and it made me regret missing the dragon expedition. There was something about knowing you might lose that made these fights exciting.