The sun was setting, we were exhausted with cuts and scrapes on our hands and knees. The others dragged their feet on the march back to the house while I on the other hand bounced up and down.

“We did it, Lin. I’m level two now with some progress to three already,” I said.

Current Experience : 350/300

Apparently life threatening situations and setting half the tower on fire had banked me a ton of points. As soon as we had time to sit down I was going to read over my options and try to take the most valuable talents.

“Not to mention we filled our bags with enough gold to set us up for winter. I’ll just have to find a way to get stuff to us outside of Dastow,” Lin said. She had a tired look to her with bags starting to form under her eyes. “After we spend your skill points I’m going to bed.”

“Aye I’m ready to hibernate like a swamp bear after a buffet,” Sten said, arching his back and letting off a spree of cracks. “I’m going to be sore tomorrow.”

Rolada was hanging back from the group and kept stealing glances at me. Maybe she was interested in the book I had shoved in my bag from the tower, or perhaps she wanted to try on the cloak.

“I thought you only had two spells Josh, what was that wind magic?” Lin asked.

“No clue, when we were falling something popped up and it took a mana point. I’m not going to complain, it was either that or end up as pancakes, or worse,” I said.

“One of my closest calls, this stupid luck bonus only ever seems to kick in when I’m playing cards,” Lin said. She squinted her eyes as if reading something and her face broke into a tired smile. “Good news, I’m nearly level five myself.”

A round of congratulations was exchanged by everyone lifting our tired spirits. It gave us the drive needed to finally find our way back to safety and to our home. A trail of pop ups appeared to remind me to command the minions back underground in case my sharp eyed companions spotted them.

“Are the undead going to be a major issue?” I asked. “We kind of just left without really dealing with them, and that knight guy looks like trouble.”

“Bah, undead swarming ruins are a dime a dozen ever since the Haldrog’s empire collapsed. Dastow or one of the other large towns will probably send in a squad of clerics and paladins for the easy experience points,” Sten said, dismissing my concern.

He tugged on his beard and looked over his shoulder, mumbling. “Might still want to post a watch in the coming days.”

Rolada’s bushy tail wagged behind her in a frenzy as she ran ahead. “We can have a real roof over our heads tonight!”

Sten had a more critical eye and looked over the damaged houses looking far less enthused. Lin and I led the team to the water pump letting everyone get a drink and wash off the dust we had gathered on ourselves. As I finished drowning my thirst I felt it was time to put on a little speech to discourage anyone from poking around too much.

“When I first came here I reclaimed one of the smaller homes and patched the place up. I didn’t try to fix any of the other buildings yet because they seem quite unstable so I recommend against sticking your nose around,” I said.

“The one with the shoddy ladder?” Rolada asked, pointing to the house in question.

“That’s the one, our resident mage might even try to be a carpenter some day,” Lin said, elbowing her. “Don’t worry the roof patching was done way better.”

Clearing my throat I continued. “I am worried a bit about the undead so I can take the first watch while you all tuck in for bed. Any volunteers for the second shift?”

“Pick me!” Rolada said, shooting up her hand. “I have a spell to help me see in the dark and I have six ranks in perception.”

That might be an issue, my stealth was abysmal compared to that and I would need to make sure she was fast asleep before I could sneak out tonight. Sten offered to go third and Lin just yawned. I was less worried about those two, I had already had one successful mission sneaking out after dark with Lin around.

“That settles it then, welcome to my humble home,” I said.

There wasn’t a great level of enthusiasm from our guests when they first entered the house. Sten tossed his bag by the fireplace and unrolled his bed mat while Rolada did the same with a bit more care. Lin cooked up more of the remaining stag hare meat leaving us with only enough for breakfast. I would have to fetch more food from the dungeon’s kitchen.

“It won’t be much, but it will be hot,” Lin said.

As she put the plate with the meat onto the table Rolada brought out from her satchel a bundle of dried fruit. It gave some more flavour to the sparse meal and did its job filling our bellies after the draining day.

Lin was the first to finish and clapped me on the back, shaking the table. “Alright egghead, let’s toughen you up.”

Current Experience : 350/300

Do you wish to level up?

Yes/No

Eagerly I hit yes and watched as the skill points came in. There were new options this time as well as upgrades to my current magic talents. I took a quick view of them and saw a request for Lin to be able to see my options. The secret keeper page was a problem, but it had an option to hide it and I hit it before accepting Lin’s request.

Unallocated skill points : 3

Currently available to you.

Some options have requirements that are not met.

Purchase a skill rank

Ranks I-V requires 1 skill point per rank

???

-Strength requirement 10

Martial talent

Requires 2 skill points

This talent provides the immediate knowledge of how to effectively use armour and weapons. In addition you get one free novice level martial ability of your choice. Martial talent can be purchased again for one skill point to gain one novice level martial ability.

-Intelligence requirement 13

Spell casting rank II

Requires 3 skill points

Further improvement of spell casting potency, and the ability to cast tier II spells. Choosing this talent grants the knowledge of two tier 2 spells from your benefactor.

Requires level 4 of a spell casting class.

Spell casting pool rank II

Requires 2 skill points

Further improves the amount of mana points a spell caster has. Current mana points is 5, the purchase of this talent raises total mana points to 7.

Requires level 3 of a spell casting class.

Efficient Casting rank 1

Requires 2 skill points

Tier 0 spells no longer require 1 mana point to cast, instead costing a small amount of stamina. Mana blight can still affect the user with excessive magic use.

Requires spell casting rank II.

Lin had already persuaded me into going down the path to get toughness, but the upcoming improvements to my spells were juicy. The one I looked forward to the most was efficient casting which would allow far more use of my fire spell. I was hoping I could bank up skill points for later, and didn’t see any reason I couldn’t.

Lin smirked and I saw her wink at Rolada and Sten. A pop up appeared telling me Lin was showing them my options and I felt like I was standing in front of them with nothing but my underwear.

“I expected you to have more options than this, but we can either save up your spare skill point, or I can make another recommendation,” Lin said, trying to slow her growing smile.

“Aw it’s such a cute upgrade sheet, I wish mine was like yours. When I level up I feel like I’m getting a headache and I’m sitting down for an exam,” Rolada said. She hugged me from the side and cooed. “Joshie has such a little sheet.”

I felt my face get hot and my voice cracked. After clearing my throat I asked, “why do I have so few options then?”

“City life, you haven’t been exposed to enough things for it to prompt you for choices. Don’t worry though it makes your choices really easy then. Let me show you one now,” Lin said, waving her hand in front of her.

New talent option.

Constitution requirement 10

Kindled - Disease resistance I

Requires 1 skill point

Vastly improves your body’s immune system against non-magical diseases. When exposed to a disease your body makes a constitution check as if it had a constitution of 18 instead.

“Whoa,” I said, “that seems really good for just a single skill point.”

“Used to cost two and was less effective, but decades ago some dwarf wizard crawled out of a dark hole saying he found a way to make this skill easier to get. Next thing you know every merchant and traveller was showing it off to people, saving them a skill point,” Sten said. He thumped his chest with his fist and then held it up into the air. “Just goes to show you this world would fall apart without us honest dwarves carrying it on our backs.”

Rolada held a hand to her mouth and whispered to us. “It actually was an elven explorer who found it in an ancient skill book, she sold it to the dwarf for a portly sum and then he shared it with the world as an act of charity.”

I did worry about the water here, it wasn’t filtered or treated meaning the threat of things like dysentery was always there. Yet despite that I had been feeling better than ever. I chalked it up to the fact I had walked more in the past few days and the exceptionally fresh air. Not wanting to take a chance I spent the point on disease resistance, at least I would probably never get a man cold again.

Kindled - Disease resistance I talent added!

“Come on, let's see those cute little marital talents you are offered,” Lin said, tickling my side.

“Now ladies, every gentleman starts somewhere, and I would like to remind you all that we are alive because of this fine fellow,” Sten said. He smoothed out his beard and looked down to read something. “Oh, that is a pretty small list. At least you won’t have choice dilemmas.”

Sighing I tapped on the martial talent skill, and before it took away my points it gave me three options.

Power strike I

Requires a small amount of additional stamina.

When making a melee attack against a target you are able to expend additional stamina to improve the attack. If successful the attack deals more damage as if your strength was 2 points higher.

Combat reflexes I

Passive/Active

Gain faster reflexes in combat allowing the ability to dodge low skill opponents attacks. When activated the user improves their dodge chance and their senses in exchange for rapid depletion of stamina. Further investment allows dodging of some spells and efficiency in stamina use.

Toughness I

This talent grants a minor damage reduction from physical attacks.

The other two talents were promising, but the toughness talent was deceptively powerful. Especially because Lin with the improved version of it had some resistance to stunning abilities as well.

“Hey that’s not too bad, I have ranks in combat reflexes too and I can’t begin to tell you the close calls I had where it saved my ass,” Lin said. “You sometimes manage to impress me Josh.”

“Take the toughness lad, if not for yourself but for the piece of mind of us. That way we don’t have to save you every time you get a paper cut from your spellbook,” Sten said. He lifted a hand and yawned again. “Get on with it so we can all finally sleep.”

I knew this was arguably my best option to continue living, not to mention I needed more levels before I could grab anything else pertaining to my spells. The keeper talents were nice too, but lacked the immediate punch of the physical talents. If I ever got extra points I might consider them, but for now it was time to worry about myself.

Martial talent added!

Toughness I added!

A sudden surge of strength flooded my arms followed by an immediate feeling of exhaustion as if I had just had a good day at the gym. Images of myself holding a sword and performing drills hammered the ideas of how to handle various weapons without harming myself. My skin started to grow warm and felt tight around me like something deep below was stretching it. Then it returned to normal feeling the same but still somehow more, when I rubbed my palms together I didn’t notice any changes.

Curiously I drew my dagger and touched my thumb down the blade feeling it lightly catch against my skin. I pushed a tiny bit harder and felt a light prick, when I drew my hand back I saw only a dot of blood.

Lin plucked the dagger away from me and slid it back into the sheath. She clicked her tongue and patted my side. “Let’s not experiment too hard now you masochist.”

Rolada yawned and leaned into my side, her ears flopped down on her head making the poor girl look tired enough to sleep on her feet. Sten gently led her to her own bedroll and after helping her down he flopped down on his own mat falling asleep before he even hit the ground.

Lin pulled me into a hug and leaned her head on my shoulder. She ran her hand on my back and I could tell she enjoyed the soft texture of my new cloak. Her voice came out in a whisper on account of our sleeping friends. “Sorry I’m a bit spent hun, I’m just going to bed so you have fun on watch.”

I gave her a gentle squeeze back and whispered into her ear. “Sweet dreams, I’ll try to scream before I get shanked by evil skeletons. Thanks again for everything Lin.”

The cat girl let out a soft purr and reluctantly broke the hug. She swayed while walking towards the bedroom and I heard the bed frame squeak, followed by a familiar snore.

I put my hand on the door and kept an eye on Rolada. In the dying fire I could see her eyes were closed and she was gently snoring telling me she was in a deep slumber. Praying that her perception wasn’t active during rest I opened the door and returned to the outside world.

The night had settled in and the beautiful moons were rising on the horizon, which would have been breathtaking, if I wasn’t already freezing. I pulled the cloak around me tightly and felt much warmer with the soft fabric surrounding me in its comfortable embrace. I stepped carefully over the frozen ground and made my way towards the dungeon.

Stealth increased to rank II!

+2 XP gained.

That was promising. I reached the trap door and it popped open with Guard 1 greeting me at the secret entrance. After closing it behind me I started to check on the notifications seeing a bundle of successful orders and a lot more failed chairs. As I started to dig down into it I saw a very curious one.

Minion crafting rank I!

+1 XP gained to Keeper Crystal.

Right after minion management the new skill appeared, and gave me hope that I would be greeted by a functional chair. As we walked down the stairs I was delighted to see a perfectly made little chair sized just for the minions. Then I saw another, and another….

“Why are there twenty chairs in the main room?” I asked.

Drone 2 and 3 ran around the main room holding a chair over their head with Scout 1 standing on it. They turned and twisted around the obstacle course of furniture while Scout 1 tried to keep his balance. When they made it around the final one they saw me, and in their panic they dropped Scout 1 onto the ground.

Scout 1 did an impressive flip mid air and landed on his feet, the minions then fell into line saluting me and waiting for instruction. I took one look around the room and seeing the manager was missing I crouched down and clasped my hands together with a look of concern.

“Why do we need so many chairs?” I asked. “Have you guys been building other stuff too?”

They shook their heads no and I rubbed my eyes thinking about the wasted resources. I continued to look at the list of notifications and saw a startling number of them pertaining to chair production. We were probably flooded with chairs.

I took a peek into the storage room and workshop, as I feared we had a great surplus of bricks, clay tiles and chairs. If I could tell the others I was a keeper maybe we could build a great wall of chairs and keep the undead out.

“Where is Drone one?” I asked, trying my best not to trip over the abundance of tiny seats. “Can we get all these into storage please?”

The other drones set to work moving them out of my way, taking one or two at a time while Guard 1 picked up six just to show off. The other minions were in awe of his strength, watching him carry them with ease. Scout 1 took me by the hand and went towards my bedroom.

I saw in the once empty room across from my bedroom they had started to set it up as a rest area for the minions. Cleaned blankets and sheets were stacked up for comfort while beside them I saw little trinkets. I was fine with them having their own space and having their own little treasures too.

I was taken back to the crystal room, finding scattered on the floor a broken box and coins. Drone 1 was locked in a tug of war with a crystal’s tendril fighting over a coin. As he slid towards the crystal his strength failed him and the silver coin touched the clear crystal and vanished.

Silver coin converted to experience.

+1 XP gained to Keeper Crystal.

30/100 XP

“Drone one!” I cried.

Drone 1 fell to my feet, trembling in terror and holding his hands over his head. I crouched down and helped him back up to his feet, shaking his shoulders as I grinned.

“Drone one you're a genius, we can level up the crystal,” I said, taking out the treasure I had gotten. “Quick, just give it the silver coins.”

So far the only experience it had gained was when we killed the stag hare inside the dungeon, and I wasn’t exactly looking forward to inviting creatures down here for combat if I could help it. The crystal greedily gobbled up any coins we put close to the base of the pedestal. I kind of felt like an idiot now, I could have scored an easy level on the crystal by now.

Keeper crystal, tiny size, Level 2 crystal

0/900 XP

0/2 Minor magical items

Unallocated skill points : 3

Skill bonuses…

None

Current Mana Power Generation : 10

Current Mana Power Consumption : 4

Conversion rate of coins to experience has diminished. Two minor magical items must be sacrificed to upgrade the crystal to its next level.

Now there was a problem. The only magical items I had were my spellbook and the cloak. There was no way in hell I was going to give them up which meant I would have to seek them elsewhere. I took a look at our gold reserves too.

Current treasure hoard value : 20 gold 11 silver

No notable items

No magical items

Still a far cry from the needed small fortune for the shrine. Which meant I would have to do a lot more dungeon delving. The crystal hummed with power, drawing me closer and almost as if it was asking me to stay here. It was safer here with the minions, but I was still weak, and locking myself away meant I would learn little else of this world.

With the crystal able to level up as well I tried to see if it had a similar page to me and I was greeted with a black slate coloured pop up. The writing on it was alien and made my head pound as I tried to look at it, but I focused on it making the letters I could understand appear.

Currently available to you.

Minion enhancement I

Require 3 skill points

Change minions so that their skills instead scale relative to the level of the keeper crystal instead of the keeper. Minion’s gain skills based on their type and at higher ranks of this talent gain additional talents.

Crystal of the Magi

Require 3 skill points

Improve mana power generation and give the crystal its own mana casting pool. The keeper is able to draw on mana held by the crystal while in their territory.

Boon granted from Ishaka

Gateway of the Keeper

Requires 3 skills points and 10 gold

Augment the crystal with golden power allowing it to serve as a connection point to the keeper. When above ground the keeper is able to open a portal for a fee based on distance. This allows passage for up to ten creatures and the fee must be paid for each creature entering the portal. After opening a portal this talent cannot be used again for 7 days.

Further crystal talents are obscured because of low keeper crystal level.

So I had two major routes to choose, improve my minions and allow them to flourish despite my lack of skills or double down on spell casting. The third option was also very appealing, allowing me quick travel back home in case of emergency. It was the most expensive, had the downside of a one week cooldown and meant I couldn’t do the other two.

I picked the Crystal of the Magi. It was the most versatile, allowing me to build more traps, have an extra pool of resources and meant I could punch above my weight class if a fight broke out here. I couldn’t afford the gateway and if the minions could only scale with the crystal I would have to pool money into improving the crystal and them too.

The minions had gathered in the crystal room and watched with amazement as the crystal glowed. It seemed to be enhanced, looking clearer with more inner light coming off of it. The excess power seemed to condense around us as the crystal drew it to hold for later use. A whisper came from somewhere, and I swore I heard the words ‘more’ over and over again.

“See I told you!” Rolada said from behind us. “He’s a keeper!”

I spun around seeing the others stare me down, their expressions unreliable. Lin was the first to move, her ear twitched and she cracked her knuckles as she strutted towards me with a vicious glare.

Lin’s voice came out in a low growl. “Josh, you better explain yourself and do a really good job of it. Because kitty is only ten points away from a level up.”