ACHIEVEMENT: [DUNGEONEER I] UNLOCKED

SKILL INSIGHTS GAINED

EYE FOR FLAWS

ACROBATICS

ENDURANCE

BASIC MAGICAL ART THEORY

PROCEED TO THE GATE TO RECEIVE ADDITIONAL REWARDS

A terrifying moment in the void while the System gave me information that I couldn’t use, and then I was back in reality, standing over the shattered remnants of the skeletal mage. Only the staff was even vaguely interesting - and I could already tell that it wasn’t of much use to me.

Maybe to sell. Memories that weren’t mine indicated that it was basically a fuel rod, similar to my scalpel, but… it wouldn’t be good for a person to use the power directly. I found it good to lean on.

Now that the fights seemed to be over, my limbs were beginning to shake, and my eyes grew heavy. It was weirdly quick, at that. It made reaching the softly glowing Gate annoying.

And then I stepped through the gate, into… an office?

“Simon! How nice of you to finally join me.” There was a man sitting on an extremely comfortable looking chair. “I thought I’d catch you up on one or two things before you go back to that lovely new Deathzone of yours.”

There was a man, so aggressively plain and obviously fake sitting on a chair that practically oozed comfort, in a room that was aggressively office shaped. I felt a tear run down my eye as all the Flaws in the illusion briefly jumped out at me - and then everything solidified.

“None of that now.” The man said, jovially. “It’s rude to peek.” I shuddered, uncomfortably.

“What… What do you want?” I rasped. The man grinned. “I just want to ensure that we are very, very clear to whom you your first debt, between my master and the Lords and Ladies of the Third Sky.”

“Your… master?” I hated how weak and breathy my voice was, but my vocal chords had gone through some abuse lately - I would have to live with it.

“The Devil!” The man exclaimed, cheerfully. “After all, a Knight of the Third Sky will happily kill a Dwarven Necromancer at any time, but someone had to tell him where one was…”

He suddenly frowned, angrily. “And then, you go and become a Hero of Chaos, after all the effort we went through.” Then, all smiles again. His face changed instantly, as if he was swapping masks.

It was yet another creepy encounter, but at least he wasn’t actively trying to kill me… yet.

“So, Simon-my-lad. Here’s what’s going to happen. You owe us your life, or at least your bodily integrity. We have a variety of servants in the Upper Planes. When they ask, you will help them, so long as the matter they need help with doesn’t require bloodshed. That, and when I or one of my colleagues asks, you will end a life for us - not your own, and no more than three times a decade.”

I stared at him. He looked at me, smiling jovially. “Or we can just take your soul?” He offered. I vigorously shook my head. “I’ll take the other offer” I said, quickly.

“Exc~ellent. Please note there is no escape clause, beyond the obvious. Now then… toodles!” He waved, the fake world fell apart, and I was hanging in the void, blue fire drawing itself together in front of me.

SKILL INSIGHT SUMMARY:

EYE FOR FLAWS - YOU SEE THE GAPS BETWEEN BREATHS, THE MISSING NOTES IN A SONG, THE SNARL IN THE WEAVE. SKILL EFFECTIVENESS INCREASED WHEN DETECTING FLAWS IN EPHEMERAL THINGS. SKILL EFFECTIVENESS DECREASED AGAINST INANIMATE OBJECTS.

ACROBATICS - YOU MOVE TO LIVE, YOU LIVE TO MOVE. DECREASED BODILY STRAIN ON SKILL USE.

ENDURANCE - ALTHOUGH YOUR MUSCLES TEAR, YOUR BONES BREAK, AND YOUR BLOOD FLOWS LIKE A RIVER FROM YOUR BODY, YOU ADVANCE. SKILL EVOLUTION TO JUGGERNAUT UNLOCKED. IT WILL BECOME AVAILABLE WHEN YOU NEXT ADVANCE YOUR CLASS.

BASIC MAGICAL ART THEORY - YOU SING, YOU PRAY, AND YOU CARVE. YOU DRIVE AWAY THE DARKNESS, AND YOUR WORDS UNMAKE THE FOUL THINGS THAT CRAWL FROM THEIR GRAVES. ACCESS LOST TO NECROMANCY AND DARKNESS MAGIC. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON COUNTERMAGIC, MONUMENTAL MAGIC AND SACRED MAGIC PROVIDED.

PARTIAL RESTORATION GRANTED: RIGHT AND LEFT LEG, RIGHT AND LEFT ARM, ABDOMINAL MUSCLES, NECK MUSCLES RESTORED TO SUFFICIENT FUNCTION TO SURVIVE ORDINARY G-FORCE IN PLANAR DEPTH 0. HEART RESTORED TO FULL FUNCTIONALITY. NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF AGING REMOVED. REMOVED 2 POISONS.

THE MOTHER OF ORPHANS SMILES ON YOU. THE LADY OF SINGULAR KIND SHIPS SMILES ON YOU. FOR ONE JOURNEY OF YOUR CHOICE YOU WILL BE IMMUNE TO SEA-SICKNESS.

And then I was on earth, next to the Gate that had originally killed me. A moment later, a bolt of energy twisted past my ear, and detonated inside the head of a zombie. I dodged the gore splatter with the judicious use of [High-Speed Reflexes]. Pain flickered through my legs, and suddenly darts of power were coming my way from both sides.

I found the many flaws in the attack pattern, and stepped into the gap they created, and looked about. Corpses that were slowly dissolving into a weird fog were scattered about the place, four guardian pillars around the gate I had just stepped out of…

A group of colourful looking Gate… whatever the hell. Big man with a hammer and a glowing spherical shield, two women in combat clothes, a man in a business-suit with a sword in his arm.

And a group of fuckers covered in skulls.

I glared at them, and pulled the plate out of the satchel with my free hand, leaning on my pilfered staff with the other.

There was a veritable boneyard around me, after all.

“[ANIMATE DEAD]” The skull-heads exclaimed. Skeletons rose. Zombies stirred.

“Kendra… when… emanation?” I heard the big guy behind me say. “5…”

“The progression of all things towards the Final State is as the rains of Spring, and the winds of Autumn - it touches all things” I declared, as I rapped on the plate, and Synthesised a Spell.

Transmutation, Corpses>Earth, Destructive Matrix: Vortex of Returning Earth flashed through my vision, and I grinned.

The corpses that hadn’t been animated began crumbling into black earth. Resource denial was important, after all. The animated corpses also began to stumble - the animations weren’t all perfect, so some of them lost small bits here and there.