I stumbled out of the dungeon and made my way over to the line for turning in items, and all around me conversation died. I couldn’t really blame them, as I must have looked terrible. My fantastic armor was slashed and torn, even burned in some places, and I was covered in dried blood.

“Hey there Mister Sean.” I turned to see one of the messenger kids I usually talk to standing there looking concerned.

“Hey. Can you grab two other friends for a quick job?”

“Sure!” He said, scampering off for a bit. A few minutes later and he was back.

“Right. I need one of you to head to the Red Rooster Inn and see if Elendria, D’Vorak, and D’Vaen will meet me at the guild. One needs to head to the craftsman district and see if masters Lothian, Lucien, and Robert will agree to meet me at the guildhall for an important meeting. The last one needs to head to the guildhall and see if the guildmaster is willing to have a meeting with me on short notice.”

“Got it Mister Sean.” The leader nodded, and I gave them each a silver coin. “Hurry up.” I said, and they took off like rockets.

“You know you are overpaying them.” The clerk nodded.

“Eh, they do good work and this way I get priority. Nothing I will complain about.” I said. “Sorry to be a bore, but I think I will be saving most of my loot to deal directly with the craftsmen and guildmaster.”

“That’s fine.” The clerk nodded. “There is still the guild tax to go through.”

“Crap.” I moaned. “I have a few things that I am not wanting to disclose out here. . .” I trailed off.

“Understandable.” The clerk nodded. “I’ll have to accompany you until you speak to the guildmaster, but that’s not a problem. I was looking for a reason to shut down anyway.” As he spoke, he packed a few things up, taking special care with a ledger and quill pen. I waited calmly, using the table for a bit of support. “Right, follow me then.” He said, leading the way. It was nice crossing the plaza, as the clerk got a quite a few nods of recognition as they gladly made a path for us.

“Afternoon Hides-in-Reeds.” He said to the receptionist as we passed through the guild. “Sean has requested a meeting with the guildmaster about dungeon loot, we will be waiting in the conference room. Please send Sean’s companions and the master craftsmen our way when they arrive.”

“Of course. The guildmaster will be in momentarily.” She nodded, then took in my appearance. “Would you like me to summon some medical care Sean?”

“I’ll be fine.” I waved her off. “I can already feel the guilds enchantments working.”

“Pfft.” She snorted. “I guess I’ll have to be a bit more direct. You are leaking sir. Don’t sit on the furniture until medical patches you up, unless you wish to buy replacements.”

“Oh. OOOOHHHH!” I groaned at my own stupidity. “I’m sorry, getting looked at by medical sounds like a wonderful idea. Thank you for being so considerate.” I slipped her a gold coin and mouthed thank you, then followed the clerk back to the conference room. I watched enviously as he slumped into a chair and started setting up his area.

“Medical here, where is the – oh, nevermind.” The nurse chuckled as he walked in. “Here, one moment.” He spread a rather thick cloth on the table. “Damaged armor here if you would please. Mind if I ask where you got these wounds and from what? I need to assess for possible poison.”

“Not at *urk* all.” I grunted in pain as I took off my chest armor. It seems like a few ribs were sore. “Dungeon diving, most of the damage is from levels 14 and 15. Golems, if you aren’t familiar. No poison from what I have seen.”

“Ah, that’s a relief.” He said, sizing up my injuries. “I see some tender bones, but most of it is flesh wounds. That’s good. We’ll just clean them up a bit first, and a few well-placed bandages should do it. Just don’t do anything too stressful for at least 12 hours.” He got right to work, and like all good nurses completely ignored my hisses of pain as he was making sure that the wounds were properly cleaned. As he moved on to the third cut on my arm, he finally got exasperated. “Look, I know adventuring is dangerous and all, but what were you doing? Rolling around in a fireplace? You’ve got ashes everywhere in your wounds.”

“Actually it was in a volcano, but close enough.” I shrugged, concerned when the nurse paused.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously Greg.” The clerk said. “The bottom levels of the dungeon are set in a volcano. Most don’t go far enough to challenge the golems, they are quite a bit more difficult than the earlier creatures.”

“Huh. Thanks Paul, that’s good to know. I’ll stock up on burn ointment then.” He turned back to me. “Anything else you would recommend for treating wounds?”

“The lower levels are fairly well rounded, and there are six elemental guardians. Probably expect to see some broken bones from the earth guardian. The air one is most likely to outright kill people, and the light and shadow prefer blades and blunt attacks so more cuts and broken bones.” I said, thinking. “The boss will add in some piercing attacks, like the punctures on my legs.”

“Sean, I came here as BY SHALORA WHAT HAPPENED?!” Elendria shrieked as she entered the room, rushing to my side as the demons entered and smiled at the scene.

“Eh, some of the dungeon was a bit tougher than I anticipated.” I shrugged.

“Tough guy act. Points for smoothness, though your right hand is shaking as they are irrigating your leg there. Gotta find a way to fix that.” D’Vaen nodded. “I take it you cleared the dungeon?”

“Wheeeew.” D’Vorak whistled, having picked up my armor as Elendria was checking all the work Greg was doing. “You took quite the beating down there if your armor is in this state. I saw some of the stats on that.”

“Yeah, it was tough. Then again, I went ahead and did the toughest route possible without any prior knowledge. Had I gone the easier route, I probably wouldn’t be hurting this bad.”

“How close?” Elendria whispered.

“Quarter life.” I shrugged, feeling her hand clench on mine. “It’s ok though. I came out on top, and now I can go back and evolve. I just wanted to make sure the three of you wouldn’t have to worry about contribution points for a while. I’ve been meaning to ask, but what have you two been up to?”

“Small excursions with selected people.” D’Vorak shrugged. “Our fighting isn’t too bad, but we do need someone who can stand on the frontline and hold for us. I was thinking about trying to grab one of the Golden Lions, but they are still mourning their loss and will likely try and fill their missing slot rather than disband.”

“Any luck besides that?” I asked.

“Nothing really stands out. Since you don’t mind unconventional, we tried a few dodge tanks. Unfortunately, they were flipping around so much we had trouble getting a clean hit in. We would need a lot of practice before I would be comfortable adding in some of your magic attacks. Most of the rest of the tanks all have similar skills and gear.”

“Greetings!” The guildmaster said as he walked in. He turned to look at the scene, his eyes flashing purple for a second. “This is going to be great!” He chuckled, bouncing on his feet like a kid about to receive a king sized candy bar on Halloween.

“There we go.” Greg said, hauling himself to his feet. “Most of this will heal by morning, but your ribs and the bones in your left forearm are going to be fragile for a few days. I know adventurers don’t like to hear it, but I recommend staying out of the dungeon for at least three days, preferably a week. No intensive training, especially with those berserker brothers!”

“No worries.” I said, slipping him a silver coin. “Thanks for the treatment and advice.” He took the coin with a smile, shaking his head and muttering something under his breath on the way out, letting the master craftsmen in as he left.

“What the hell have you pulled us up here for this time?” Lothian grumped.

“Ah, now that we are all here, let’s take a seat and I’ll get started. I have some important things that will need you four to determine the value of, and we will likely need to barter hard for it. As of right now, I only really need contribution points for my friends here for a week. I’m planning to evolve after this and will be leaving the city soon.”

“Evolve? Does that mean you beat it?” Brian leaned forward.

“I did. And I remember the guild’s offer for information on evolutions, don’t worry. I’m certain there will be at least one that you don’t have in your loremaster’s books. But for now, here is some of the lesser items that I need appraised.” I pulled the barbed arrows and metals out of my ring, as well as one ingot each type I had gotten from the safe. Just so that Lucien wasn’t the only one examining things, I pulled out the crafting materials I had gotten from the sub bosses as well.

“These arrows aren’t too special.” Lucien said. “Powerful, and likely to cause a good bit of damage when removed, but I would only rate them at 50 silver per quiver. I’m far more interested in those ingots.” He made a quick gimme motion, and I slid the elemental mithril ingots across to him. “How many?”

“Twenty of each except the platinum.” I said.

“Twenty! Boy, this is elemental mithril! Do you know just how powerful it is when worked into weapons and armor? The enchantments would be powered by ambient mana, and would be gold tier at least!”

“And I have twenty of each basic element, along with twenty unaligned of high quality to spare. Oh, and before we go any further, I need armor repairs. I need to thank all of you, as without this I definitely wouldn’t be here today.” I slid the armor across to them, getting gasps in response.

“Boy, what the hell! That was some of the best armor we have ever created! How in the hell did you get it torn up so quickly?” Lucien hollered.

“I’m not sure the enchantments will survive.” Lothian said, shaking his head as he held up the chest armor. “I used a lot of the natural mana channels, and they have been shattered. I would need to painstakingly extract all of them by hand, hoping I don’t damage the material any further, and then thread new channels in the same spot, praying I don’t break them. Robert?”

“It’s leather. I could easily stitch it back together with a few reinforcing patches, but it would lose a bit of its flexibility. What did you fight?”

“Six elemental sub bosses, golem factories that replaced any killed from the roving patrols, and the final boss was the mad scientist that created the golem cores. He had fused his soul into a golem about twelve feet tall.” I said as nonchalantly as possible. “Like I said, with that many enemies coming at me, I was bound to take some damage. Your gear saved my life, no question. I was hoping that it could be repaired, but I guess not.”

“To think it held up against those kinds of odds.” Lothian said. “Sorry about jumping to conclusions Sean. We just aren’t used to the boss of the dungeon being so powerful.”

“Oh, he isn’t unless you beat all the elemental bosses first.” I said. “That was fun once, but I’m not about to do that bit of madness again.” I shuddered, thinking about what the air boss could do. “Anyhow, what do you think of the rest of the stuff?”

“Feathers could make some decent enchantments, but the power will be greatly reduced since they are so damaged.” Lothian said, looking things over. “I would almost prefer to send them to be used as fletching. Lucien?”

“Aye, they could be good for that.” He nodded. “I can go a silver apiece.”

“I’ve not seen leather like this.” Robert finally said. “Sorry, but I can’t give a definitive evaluation until I do some research.”

“That’s fine. Paul can note down how much of everything I have, and I guess we will have to delay the guild tax.” Brian said. “Can you bring out the cores? We should do those next, as we know how to evaluate those.”

“Sure.” I said, setting out a variety of golem cores. “But what makes golem cores so valuable? I’ve not seen any golems around.”

“Oh, that’s because we can only make the most basic.” Lucien said. “We keep ‘em small, and give ‘em the dirtiest jobs. Most clean out the sewers in the larger cities. From what you have here, I would say the cracked and damaged ones would be enough to give your friends their week of contribution points, guild tax included.”

“Agreed.” The other craftsmen nodded.

“Now, these bigger ones. Can you describe the golems?”

“Sure.” I nodded. “The civilian model had some basic weaponry and was fairly adaptable in combat. The military level 1 uses basic tactics and understands one word orders. Level 2 can coordinate with each other, level 3 can command. Level 4 is for most of the sub bosses, and allows basic magic of one school. Level 5 is a lot more powerful, but it has a dark side.”

“Dark side?” Lothian asked.

“Yeah.” I sighed. “According to the creator, these cores are fueled by trapped souls. Monsters for level 1 and 2, level 3 and up use sentients. Level five cores were powered by summoned elementals.” Everyone recoiled at that idea, and I felt a bit better. It also let me know that I could trust them with the books I slid across the table.

“Sean?” Lucien asked as he picked up a book. His eyes got big, and he silently handed it to the next craftsman. Robert did the same, and Lothian just stared at me.

“I don’t even know.” Lucien said after a minute. “They aren’t skillbooks as we know them, so theoretically anyone could read them and try and follow directions. But if the golems are powered by souls-“ he trailed off.

“And that reaction right there is why I am trusting you guys.” I said. “Oh, here’s one for your enchanting that has no repurcussions.” I said to Lothian, sliding him the book on the righteous rune. His eyes lit up at it, and his mouth was gaping like a fish for a few moments.

“I think I might have a possible solution.” Brian said after a moment, and I noticed his eyes were glowing purple. “This knowledge is too useful, but also too dangerous. So here is what we will do. The masters will memorize the books, then destroy them. Anyone wanting to learn from them will swear a soulbound oath not to misuse the knowledge, and to never use souls in the construction of golems. Training will have to be done in person, and notes never taken down. In exchange for the books, and the one on the rune which will be unrestricted, the craftsmen will work with Sean to craft new gear for after his evolution.”

“We’re ok with that.” The craftsmen immediately replied.

“Fine with me.” I said. “We can use some or all of the materials I took from the dungeon, but what about the guild taxes?”

“Consider them covered with the books. Was there anything else?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Mostly golem cores and crafting materials. There was one book I was going to keep myself, a guide to the astral plains. One of the spirits trapped by the psychotic bastard seemed to be from a religion from my home. Hopefully I can use this to find a way back.”

“Keep it, I have a copy as well.” Brian said. “It’s a good resource, but you will need intensive training in summoning if you really want to make use of it.”

“Great. Another form of magic to master.” I muttered. “Ok, well let’s do it like this then. I’ll leave my storage ring with everything in it with Elendria. The books are yours, and we can discuss new equipment after I evolve. Sound good?” The room chorused with yes answers, and I smiled. “Thank you all for coming, and once again thank you guys for creating the armor that saved my life. I look forward to what you can do with these new ingredients.”

Everyone started shuffling out, and I felt Elendria’s hand on my shoulder. I waited for everyone to leave before turning to look at her.

“Be careful. I can’t say much about the process, but know that it will be uncomfortable.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I said with a smile. “Here, take the ring. Do you want to walk me to the dungeon? I could use the company.”

“Thanks.” She said. “I. I’d like that.” By the time we made it out of the meeting, the vast majority of the crowds had cleared out. I made my way over to the tower, palm getting sweaty in Elendria’s hand. She tried to give me a reassuring squeeze, only it sent my hand sliding out a bit.

“Sorry about that.” She chuckled.

“No, it’s my fault.” I replied, wiping my hand on my pants. “I get sweaty palms when nervous.”

“You’ll do just fine, I have faith in you.” She said as we got to the plaque with the handprints. “Now, show me just how high you can grow.” With that, she leaned in and gave me a long, sensuous kiss. “Just make sure you come back to me.”

“Always.” I said, resting my forehead against hers. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. I promise.” With that, I turned and placed my hands on the plaque.

Evolution

Description

Bonuses

Requirements

High Human

A stronger form of human, high humans have twice the lifespan

+4 attributes per level

Clear level five of the dungeon or max out a profession

Elevated one

Midway between a tier two and tier three evolution, elevated ones are deceptively strong.

+5 attributes per level

Clear level five of a dungeon without any help and without clearing it with a group beforehand.

Devout

The devout have dedicated themselves to mastering the spirit

+4 attributes per level, +5 spirit every even level

Clear level five of the dungeon or max out a profession; have 25 spirit

Disciple

Midway between tier two and tier three, the Disciples are a half step above Devout

+5 attributes per level, +5 spirit per level

Clear level five of a dungeon without any help and without clearing it with a group beforehand; have 25 spirit

Elemental human

These beings have surpassed mastery of an element. They now embody the element.

+5 attributes per level, mana cost for chosen element reduced by 75%

Max out the corresponding elemental class, clear level 10 of the dungeon

Mana touched

Mana touched are those who have displayed a mastery over magic.

+3 int per level, +3 wis per level, +2 free attributes per level. Mana cost reduced by 10%

Master mana manipulation, know at least 1 grandmaster spell, clear level 10 of the dungeon

Adherent

Adherents have further advanced their mastery of spirit.

+7 attributes per level, +5 spirit per level

Have 50 spirit, clear level 10 of the dungeon.

Elemental knight

Elemental knights are a half step above their elemental hybrid counterparts.

+7 attributes per level, mana cost for chosen elements reduced by 75%

Max out the corresponding elementalist classes for 2 to 4 elements, clear level 10 of the dungeon without any help and without clearing it with a group beforehand

Acolyte

Acolytes are a half step above the Adherent

+9 attributes per level, +15 spirit every even level

Have 50 spirit, clear level 10 of the dungeon without any help and without clearing it with a group beforehand

Elemental Lord

These terrifying beings have unparalleled mastery over multiple elements. They are able to maintain a human form.

+10 attributes per level, mana cost for chosen elements reduced by 75%, 50% of damage done by mastered elements absorbed as mana

Max out the elementalist class for 6-10 elements, at least one must be a 2nd tier element, clear level 15 of the dungeon

Celestial one

Celestial ones are beings who have mastered magics beyond those of the simple and even combined elements. Higher elements like space and time are like clay in their hands.

+10 attributes per level, mana cost reduced by 15%, casting speed increased by 10%, Mana regen increased by 10% every 5 levels

Master a magic class not covered in the elemental series, clear level 15 of the dungeon

Mana blessed

Mana blessed are those who are so powerful, they seem to bend mana with but a mere thought

+5 int per level, +5 wis per level, +7 free points per level, Mana cost reduced by 30%

Master mana control, Master a grandmaster spell, clear level 15 of the dungeon

Apostle

Apostles have reached mastery of spirit for this world.

+10 attributes per level, +15 spirit per level

Have 100 spirit, Clear level 15 of the dungeon

Elemental king

Masters of the elemental world, only the foolish stand against them

+15 attributes per level, mana cost for chosen elements reduced by 75%, 50% of damage done by mastered elements absorbed as mana, can command lesser elementals

Max out the elementalist class for over 10 elements, clear level 15 of the dungeon without any help and without clearing it with a group beforehand

Angel

These beings contain a spark of the divine, and act as messengers between this world and the gods. Easily identified by their pristine white wings

+15 attributes per level, +20 spirit per level

Have 100 spirit, clear level 15 of the dungeon without any help and without clearing it with a group beforehand

Cosmic being

Cosmic beings are incredibly powerful beings. Not much is known about them, other than they are the more powerful cousins of the Celestials.

+15 attributes per level, mana cost reduced by 25%, casting speed increased by 20%, mana regen increased by 15% every 5 levels

Master a magic class outside of the elemental series, clear level 15 of the dungeon without any help and without clearing it with a group beforehand.

Heretic

Some of the most dangerous beings in existence. Should you come across one, do your best not to antagonize them. Though they can maintain human form, they have black wings and can unleash a stifling aura.

+20 attributes per level, +10 spirit per level

Have 100 spirit, Clear level 15 of the dungeon without help and without clearing it with a group beforehand, have injured a god or a divine avatar.

As I looked over the options, there was only one that truly stood out. I was already in a war with a god, and I would need every advantage I could get in that war. Even if being a Heretic would likely come with some issues in dealing with priests, it was a risk I was willing to take. With a press of a mental button, I confirmed that I wanted to start the process of evolving into a Heretic, and everything disappeared in a flash of light.