Chapter Nine: Ziggurat

I came to to a Ding!

[You have killed one level four Champion Contestant without assistance. You have killed one level five Champion Contestant without assistance. You have killed one level six Champion Contestant with assistance. Your Experience Earned has been slightly reduced.]

[You successfully deduced and stopped an enemy Champion Contestant’s plan to usurp your entrance to the Second Stage. For this, you have received one Flair Tally Point.]

I felt surprisingly good for being exploded forty feet in the air and then falling back down again. By this, I mean that I felt completely fine. A bit tired, but fine. I wasn’t hurt at all. Given that I was pretty sure I had broken bones (I mean, come on) this was a surprise. I didn’t think that Renee could fix broken bones. That meant there was only one person who might have been able to do it: Dad. His Paladin class must be significantly more powerful than the game version of the same.

Besides that, though, I’m pretty sure the fall would have killed me if the air hadn’t suddenly gotten thicker like that. Only one of us could use wind magic, which meant I owed my life to our birdman friend. He was probably also the one who finished off the man I was fighting. The man who somehow blasted me into the sky when I was still mid-cast. A part of me was glad that I didn’t have the chance to kill the man.

It was different, killing someone who was within arms reach, as opposed to shooting them with a bow. More personal. I should know.

I opened my eyes. The flickering of torches was my only light source, and my vision ended in darkness above. There were no stars. The murmurs of quiet conversation echoed oddly around me.

I’m inside the ziggurat, I realized. Had the second stage of the Trial started?

I sat up, causing the conversation to cut out. I turned my head, taking in my surroundings. The entire group was inside a relatively large stone chamber lit only by torches along the walls and on the sides of pillars. To the west was what I was positive was a closed door with no handle – the entrance, which was sealed behind us. To the east was another statue like the one we had seen when we were first kidnapped from Earth, complete with rune writing on a plaque attached to it near the base.

“Good, you’re awake,” my father said, relief in his voice.

My mother rushed over, crouching beside me.

“How are you feeling?” she asked in concern. “Your father said that you were completely healed, even your broken bones, but… it’s hard to trust magic when it didn’t exist on Earth.”

“I’m fine,” I reassured her. I stood up. “See? Perfectly fine. Thanks to Dad and Kekir.” I nodded to the birdman. “I owe you my life, Kekir. If you hadn’t slowed my fall, I would have died on impact.”

Kekir nodded in return. “I only did what was right. I followed you when you ran for the pyramid, and when you were blasted into the sky, I knew I had to act. Once you landed, I finished the man who had nearly slain you with an arrow.”

“After the celestial monsters slew the hellish ones, I immediately came over to heal you,” Dad said. “I had to spend a lot of points to get my Restoring Touch powerful enough to fix broken bones.”

“How did you know that would work?” I asked.

“I didn’t. I just went by the name.”

So we lucked out, basically.

“But we don’t have a lot of time to talk.”

“What do you mean?”

My brother answered in my father’s stead.

“We saw another group of people approaching, so we decided that if you thought we needed to get into the ziggurat first then we should do it before they got there. We all entered and it closed behind us. The moment it did, a one hour countdown started, just like before. We were afraid that you might not wake up before we ran out of time. You need to read the writing at the statue.”

“Okay…”

I walked over, Shadow padding along beside me and Rusty landing on my left shoulder.

“Welcome to the Second Stage of the Trial of Champions. Where the First Stage had you begin alone, the Second Stage allows you to start as part of a group. The Second Stage focuses on puzzles and traps, so you will need more than brute strength to survive. Each group can have no more than three people. You have one hour to select how you will be grouped. If the Party Leaders among you do not decide before the time limit is up, your distribution will be decided randomly.”

I frowned. We were going to get separated again? That was completely unfair. It was practically a miracle that we were able to find each other as it was. And the Party Leaders – that is, me and Kekir – had to make the decision of how to split up?

Grr…

“How long do we have?”

“About a half hour. That’s roughly how long you were out,” Todd said.

“What do you guys think? I mean, I hate that they’re splitting us, but we have to figure out how to group, or we could be stuck in dangerously sub-optimal groupings.”

“I want us to have the family as together as possible,” my mother said immediately.

“I agree,” my father said.

I thought about it. My father should be in one of the groups and I should be in another, since the two of us were probably the most powerful. Mom and Todd should be split up, too. Mom should be with Dad, and I doubt they’d want all their children in a group separate from them.

“Mom, Dad, and Renee in one group,” I said. “Me, Todd, and one other person in another. The remaining three in the last group.”

“I choose your group, Rabbit!” Svenia said decisively.

“I thought you were calling me Yuan now?”

“I changed my mind. Rabbit suits you better. You run so fast!”

“…I’ll do my best to re-earn my name,” I said dryly.

“Then my group will have Aguin and Lartha,” Kekir said.

My parents looked at each other.

“I think that we—”

“No,” I said. “The two of you are in the same group. I’m not splitting my parents apart. Todd and I are both adults; we’re both smart, and with Svenia in our group we don’t need to worry about strength. This way, each group has only one noncombatant as well. This is how we’re doing it. I’m the one with the power to decide, and that’s what I’ve decided. Now, we should spend the rest of the time we have figuring out our points purchases.”

Dad looked like he wanted to argue with me, but he could tell from my expression that he wouldn’t be able to change my mind, so he backed down. I don’t think he was happy about me being the Leader; it was a whim of fate that I had gotten the role. I wasn’t pleased about it either, honestly; I didn’t want that kind of responsibility. However, it came with perks that made our accomplishments so far possible – I would never have been able to team up with Lartha or Svenia without being a Leader, and I wouldn’t have survived without either of them. Without me, Mom wouldn’t have rejoined with the rest of the family, even if Renee had found her way to the ziggurat. And without Svenia, me, and Aguin, the Guardian would have been impossible to defeat.

So really, it had worked out for the best.

I turned my attention toward my advancement options.

Yuan Rivers (Sorcerer/Ranger Level 15)

Sorcerer Class Points: 69

Energy: Low

Condition: Healthy

Ranger Class Points: 39

Mana: 4/27

Sorcerer Advancement Options

Enhance Spirit Animal, New 0th Circle Spell, New 1st Circle Spell, Upgrade Magic Missile, New 2nd Circle Spell, Magical Augmentation, Upgrade Lightning Grasp, Upgrade Burning Blast, Upgrade Fire Beam, Sorcerer Self Enhancement

Ranger Advancement Options

Enhance Animal Companion, New 1st Circle Spell, New 2nd Circle Spell, New Weapon Art, Increase Weapon Competency, Terrain Mastery, Foe Bane, Ranger Self Enhancement

Miscellaneous Advancement Options

Enhance Self, Extra Talent

Given that the next Sorcerer advancement would cost twelve points, I could only choose four of them. So many things to upgrade, though. It was frustrating. Magical Augmentation had a lot of options, but many they weren’t obvious what they did. I checked the Sorcerer Self Enhancement list.

Oh my. Some of these were quite useful. Elemental resistances? Extra Mana? Increased resistance to hostile mental effects? Other magical resistance? Interesting stuff.

Before I went wild and spent all my points on things I would regret, I refreshed my memory on the options for enhancing Shadow.

Spirit Animal Enhancements

Increase Intelligence

Increase Defenses

Increase Robustness

*Speak with Like Animals

*Spellbond

*Resistance to Magic

*Telepathy with Sorcerer

*Sensory Link

*Spirit Connection

There were two of those that I had no clue what they did: Spellbond and Spirit Connection. So, naturally, I impulsively purchased both of them.

[You Spirit Animal has gained the feature “Spellbond.” By drawing on your mana, your Spirit Animal can now cast any spell that you know. Additionally, your Spirit Animal gains the benefits of your Magical Augmentation features.]

[Your Spirit Animal has gained the feature “Spirit Connection.” You have gained access to the following Connection Spells, which alter, improve, or otherwise effect your Spirit Animal for a limited time when cast: Polymorph Spirit, Augment Spirit, Spirit Transposition. Additionally, any spell you cast on yourself automatically affects your Spirit Animal as well.]

Very useful! I checked the list again.

Spirit Animal Enhancements

Increase Intelligence

Increase Defenses

Increase Robustness

*Speak with Like Animals

*Sorcerous Ascension

*Resistance to Magic

*Telepathy with Sorcerer

*Sensory Link

*(Locked)

Huh. Each time I took one, a new thing became available. One of them was currently locked, but… Okay, what did Sorcerous Ascension do? I had to know.

[Your Spirit Animal has gained the feature “Sorcerous Ascension.” No longer needing to draw on your mana to cast spells, your Spirit Animal has become a spellcaster in its own right. Your Spirit Animal now has its own pool of mana equal to one half your mana pool.]

SCORE! That was absolutely astounding! Checking the list again, that slot was now empty. So there were limits, but that was just simply too good. Absolutely worth the points I just spent. However… Shadow was kind of dumb. She had a fairly low intelligence for a person, which I should probably rectify if I wanted to be able to count on her casting spells in combat with me. We didn’t exactly have visible Intelligence stats so that I could gauge her intelligence, which was unfortunate, but… it was probably worth the investment anyway.

[Your Spirit Animal has had its intelligence increased. Your Spirit Animal requires 1 more intelligence boost to reach the human average. Your Spirit Animal requires 3 more intelligence boosts to reach your current level of intelligence.]

I… really wasn’t sure how to take that. I was two boosts beyond average? Well, I did consider myself fairly smart; I was valedictorian of my high school graduating class. In the game, ten was the human average and six was the starting score for a familiar, which was the equivalent of the spirit animal, while normal animals started at two. I didn’t remember it giving me a message like that when I boosted Rusty’s intelligence. My sister had boosted Sheena’s intelligence twice, I’d have to ask her whether it did something similar the second time.

Actually… let’s do that now.

“Hey, Renee?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you get any kind of special message when you boosted Sheena’s intelligence?”

“Not the first time. The second time, it told me that her ‘mind has transformed,’ but didn’t elaborate.”

“Hm…”

In the game, three was the “this is a really stupid, not really functional person” cutoff, but what if instead one intelligence boost to an animal companion made it a smarter animal, and a second intelligence boost transformed the mind into a kind-of-dumb person, such as what Shadow started out as? I had no proof, but if it gave Renee a message like it just gave me on her next intelligence boost to Sheena, then it would be very strong evidence for that theory.

But anyway, back to my point spending. No more Sorcerer upgrades for the moment – I needed sixteen points and I only had fifteen left – so on to Ranger.

I could do up to four upgrades here, too, though that would leave me with only one point, making it impossible for me to do any miscellaneous advancements. With access to second circle Ranger spells, I decided on one called Animal Prowess. I had a hunch that it would increase my stats as a basic augmentation spell, but I wouldn’t know for sure until I cast it for the first time. Hm.

There was a first circle spell that I could take that Renee already had as a Druid spell: Animal Speech. It would let me talk to animals. Until such a time as I could bring Rusty’s intelligence up to the level of an average human and teach him language rather than just the few commands that he somehow intrinsically knew, like Fly, Scout, and Attack (giving him “Extra Training” would presumably increase these), Animal Speech would be a good way to communicate more complicated concepts. With his current boosted intelligence, he would probably be capable of understanding them.

Okay, Animal Speech taken as well!

All right… should I try to focus on myself, increasing my combat abilities? Should I take one of the (small number of) Ranger Self Enhancements? Or should I just boost Rusty, who was basically useless in a fight?

…Okay, that wasn’t really fair. He was a hawk the size of a bald eagle; he was actually a pretty strong bird. But… he wasn’t really powerful.

What were my options again?

Animal Companion Enhancements

Increase Robustness

Increase Combat Prowess

Increase Defenses

Extra Training

Extra Talent

Increase Physical Prowess

Increase Intelligence

*Avoidance

*Unlimited Sensory Link

Let’s keep the feathery dude alive. Avoidance!

[Your Animal Companion has gained the feature “Avoidance.” Your Animal Companion now excels at dodging attacks, even going so far as to be capable of supernaturally avoiding area of effect attacks that it is completely inside of.]

Yep, that’s pretty much exactly what I thought that did. It’s actually probably a little stronger than the game equivalent, because I thought it also affected dodging other stuff too. One more enhancement, and then I’m done spending points. Hm… Robustness probably was how much resilience to damage he had. Defenses… not entirely sure. Either damage reduction or skill in mitigating damage, probably. Combat prowess – attack and damage. Physical prowess – erm, physical stats?

Or I could just go for another intelligence boost. Or maybe a Talent? What were my options for Talents?

Oh, wow, that was a long list. Huh. Yeah, I did not have the time to sift through that. Let’s just go with increasing intelligence again.

[Your Animal Companion has had its intelligence increased for the second time. This has triggered a qualitative change in its cognitive capabilities and emotional complexity. Its mind has transformed.]

And there was the message my sister told me about. It didn’t explain much, but it supported my theory.

Anyway, that was it for my upgrades. Next time I’d focus on myself more.

[Five minutes remaining.]

Wait, what? I spend around twenty-five minutes pondering over all that? I thought it was ten minutes, tops.

“Hey, Todd, are you done making your selections?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“And thank god for that,” squawked the ever-present white raven on his shoulder. Albee, I think he named it? I’m betting he enhanced the raven’s intelligence.

What choices did he make, anyway? Let’s take a look.

Todd Rivers (Wizard/Artificer Level 10)

Wizard Class Points: 1

Energy: High

Condition: Healthy

Artificer Class Points: 0

Mana: 0/19

Wizard Features: Spirit Animal (Avoidance, Empathic Bond, Speak English, Sensory Link, Resistance to Magic, Intelligence (2)), Teleporting Step, Telekinetic Assault

Artificer Features: Magic Imbuement, Sculpt Mana, Material Fabrication, Cannibalize Item, Swift Assembly, Spell Mimicry (2)

Miscellaneous Features: None

Wizard Spells: 0th (Magic Sight, Lux, Decipher Script), 1st (Force Disk, Silent Illusion, Identify, Understand Languages) 2nd (Omniglot, See Invisibility)

Artificer Skills: Woodcraft, Metalcraft, Tailoring, Glassmaking, Gears

Proficiencies: Spells

“Before you ask,” he said, raising a hand as he saw my expression, “I have zero offensive spells available to choose as a wizard, and I am highly annoyed. Telekinetic Assault is my only offensive ability right now, which allows me to throw things around. Once I actually get the opportunity to make magic items, I should be able to make tools that replicate your attack spells, but until then, I’m still a noncombatant. I was glad that Omniglot, which annoyingly required Understand Languages, was only a second circle spell. Wasn’t it third level in the game?”

“For wizards, yeah. For bards it was second, and I think that all spells are at the lowest possible regardless of class. Which reminds me – I’m an idiot for not choosing a healing spell. We won’t have any healers in our group.”

“Mom gave me all of her healing potions, since they’ll have two healers,” Todd told me, holding up his hand again, this time to show me his ring. “That’s still not that many – just six – but it’s better than nothing.”

Everyone in the family gave everyone else hugs as we prepared for our second separation. Just as our reunion only hours earlier was tearful, so too was our farewell. I swore to myself that I would see my parents and sister again. I didn’t really mind if I never saw Lartha, Aguin, and Kekir again, but I hoped that they would survive until the end. They were good people. Well, Kekir was a good person. Lartha was… decent, and I was glad that she never betrayed us. Aguin was a mercenary, and I just hoped we’d never end up as enemies, because he was pretty damn powerful. That water spell he used to turn the air into water for a fraction of a second to put out the fire was terrifying.

The ziggurat rumbled, and we quickly got into our groups and linked hands, just in case. The countdown was in the seconds now. Soon, the second stage of the Trial of Champions would begin.

The rumbling grew louder, and the floor began to shake. Dust fell down from the darkness above.

“This is quite exciting, Rabbit!” Svenia said with a grin. “It is like a delve into an ancient magical tomb!”

“Dungeon delve,” my brother muttered, and I could hear the nervousness in his voice. “Yeah, this is a real-life dungeon delve.”

“Well, so long as it’s not our tomb,” Albee squawked.

“Tell that bird to be quiet,” Shadow hissed at me from on my right shoulder. She was already more eloquent than before.

Rusty shuffled his wings.

My stomach lurched.

And then there was darkness.