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  “I have a family to protect,” Heorghe stated. “That’s why we’re staying. I saw you fight for my people, Edward Wright. I saw how you stood against the spider Queen—risking your life for my family. Throw me as many eldritch glances as you want, but I know people, and your Witch has more evil intent in her than you do.”

  “Thank you,” said Lavy, genuinely touched.

  “Mindbroods attacking out of nowhere, the eyes of the Inquisition on us, even kaftar cackles roaming around,” Heorghe went on. “The clouds of war are in the air, Edward, and in war, the first to die are the farmers and the peasants. The powerful care not about us when they have armies to feed. No, in my opinion, we have a better chance to survive if my family sticks with you.”

  Heorghe had been the first Ivalian man who had actually believed Ed when he had explained he had no ill intentions. He hadn’t even asked for a pact to make sure Ed spoke the truth.

  A few days ago, before Burrova’s fire—before the mindbrood—Ed would’ve only dreamed of inspiring that kind of confidence in anyone.

  But now, after knowing the kind of beings that he was up against… Ed found Heorghe’s trust bittersweet.

  “If I let you stay temporarily,” he said, “you’ll all have to earn your keep.”

  “I was of the idea,” said Zachary, “that the forsaken minions of Dungeon Lords received a salary for their services.”

  “Don’t push it, damn you,” Brett chastised him.

  “You’re not my minions,” Ed said, and this time he allowed no discussion. The Inquisition had diviner spells that detected the pact presence in anyone, which the Inquisitors considered problematic, and their favorite way to solve problems was… “Let’s just say you’re guests. We’ll find a way to get Brett and Zachary back to Heiliges, then wait until the Inquisition passes by Starevos so Andreena and Heorghe can leave safely. In the meantime, you’ll work hard and abide by our rules. Is that understood? I am not playing around, Zachary. Try anything funny and you won’t like what happens next.”

  In any case, Ed had already asked Queen Laurel to place spiderlings to watch the old priest.

  “I wouldn’t expect anything more from the likes of you,” Zachary said. “Don’t worry, friend Edward, this is the right decision for your soul.”

  “Thank you, your Accursedness,” said Brett, standing up. He seemed to be in a hurry to leave the room, most likely so Ed wouldn’t have time to change his mind. That, or to escape before the Dungeon Lord could think of what work to assign him.

  The four villagers left shortly thereafter, leaving Ed, Alder, and Lavy alone to discuss the situation.

  “Just what we needed,” Lavy said. “More mouths to feed.”

  Alder scratched his chin, deep in thought. Finally, he looked up. “Minions get paid? Hell, here I was doing this for free!”

  Lavy raised an eyebrow. “Alder, you were Kael’s minion too,” she reminded him.

  “Wait, you’re saying that Kael paid us?” Alder said indignantly. “No one told me that.”

  Neither Ed nor Lavy were sure if Alder was joking.

  Once Ed had promised the Bard that he’d get paid as soon as Ed figured out how to earn any money, they left the chamber and headed to meet with Kes.

  The dungeon that Ed was building over the ruins of Lord Kael Arpadel’s old outpost was beginning to outgrow the caves it was situated in. A small web of tunnels connected the different sections of the dungeon: the Seat room, the entrance, the chamber they had just left, the storage cellar, and the living quarters. In addition to that, Ed had used his drones to build a temporary encampment outside the cave, clearing a small area of the surrounding forest to do so.

  Instead of heading up toward the exit, Ed and his friends took a short tunnel lit by torches. The tunnel brought them into a new section of the dungeon constructed under the instructions of Kessih of Greene, who waited for them at the room’s midsection. Klek the batblin waited next to her and waved at Ed when he walked inside.

  “Oh no, absolutely not,” Lavy muttered when she realized what had she walked into. She made for the exit, but Alder intercepted her.

  “If I’m going to suffer the indignity of physical labor,” Alder told her, “you certainly are, too, my dear Witch.”

  Ed couldn’t fault Lavy for trying to run. The room was intimidating, partly because it was the biggest section of the dungeon yet, and partly because of its intended function.

  Back on Earth, Ed had vowed many times to work out religiously, usually as his New Year’s resolution. Every time, he ended up going to his university’s gym for about two weeks, and then he forgot all about it until the next New Year.

  So, the place he arrived at didn’t look entirely alien to him. Some apparatuses he could recognize, except these versions were built out of wood, iron, and stone in the crude manner of his own drones. He saw benches, rough weights for exercise made of stone, and even a climbing wall fashioned out of wood stakes fixed to the wall. The contraptions dominated a third of the room.

  Kes had also added a row of training dummies and punching bags in the opposite end of the place. The punching bags were built out of tanned leather and filled with dirt. They looked like the natural enemy of human hands. A couple more stamina-building tools closed that section. Finally, in the middle was a great circle on the ground, made of compacted sand and with stakes surrounding its edge, each of those stakes connecting to the others next to it by thick ropes.

  Ed realized he was seeing a crude battle ring. The training weaponry that was neatly placed in stands around the ring confirmed his suspicion.

  “Welcome, Lord Edward.” Kes greeted him with a curtsy. Bowing was extremely out of character for the mercenary, and it immediately put Ed on high alert. “What do you think of your new Training Center?”

  “It looks like you enjoyed building it,” Ed said dubiously. He flashed his Evil Eye around the place and used his Mantle to copy the room’s schematics into his own dungeon-building magic.

  “I did,” Kes said as she raised her own training longsword as a challenge to Ed. “Oh, I did.”

  3

  Chapter Three

  The Line

  “She looks awfully happy that she gets to fight you,” Alder whispered to Ed. “You don’t have to do this, you know. You’re the boss, tell her to go easy on you.”

  “Actually, this was my suggestion,” Ed said. He gestured around the Training Center.

  “You’re insane,” Lavy told him. “Why waste your time with physical training when we can do magic?”

  Kes overheard that remark. “I’m sure people fear your arcane might, Lavy, for about two spells a day. After that, no offense, but you’re but a glorified peasant.”

  “I do take offense,” Lavy snapped back. “There’s more to witchcraft than combat! Research, building magical items, developing magical traps, raising the spirits of the dead… Just wait until I get a couple more skill ranks to my name and you’ll see. You’ll all see!”

  “Okay,” said Ed, “but we do need to survive until then, right? This is how we do it. Fact is, we need to learn how to defend ourselves. There’s a dangerous world out there, and we don’t exactly have any allies.”

  Lavy sighed and made another pout. Then she said, “You know what? Go ahead and fight her. I want to see how that goes.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Kes said.

  It took a small effort of will for Ed’s smile not to falter. He wandered over to the rack of training weapons and selected a longsword. It was heavier than he’d expected. He stowed his iron short sword in the space left by the training weapon.

  “See, Lavy, this is the reason I insisted neither you nor Alder spend all your experience points,” Ed said as he walked into the ring. “Our talent options are limited by our skills and attributes, and if we don’t take care to grow as much as we can, we’ll either waste experience points on non-optimal talents, or have to let the points go unused… which makes us easy pickings.”

  Be
fore being whisked into Ivalis, Ed had been a gamer. In fact, he had played as a Wizard in Ivalis Online, a mysterious indie videogame that, as it turned out, had real consequences in the world of Ivalis.

  Magic in the real Ivalis didn’t work the same way as in Ivalis Online, for reasons he hadn’t yet figured out. Ivalis’ magic system was called Objectivity and, as far as Ed could tell, was a pseudo-intelligent set of regulations that dictated the way people could and couldn’t use magic.

  The rules were set in stone. You could bend them—as Ed was fond of doing—but if you went too far, the results were immediate, absolute, and spectacular.

  Ed had given much thought to the way his progression would go—assuming he lived. Dungeon Lords were natural spellcasters. The obvious strategy to become a powerful spellcaster was to “min-max” his spell-related talents, which meant focusing exclusively on his magic and ignoring everything else.

  But that was a trap. “Min-maxing” worked in videogames, where mistakes didn’t mean you’d die in real life, and where you could guess what kind of challenges awaited you in the future… or just Google them. Besides, despite the spellcasting affinity, Dungeon Lords weren’t Wizards. Wizards were a different class altogether, and had different spells.

  So, instead of min-maxing his spells, he planned to grow as much as he could, and then he’d figure out the best way he could invest his experience points.

  Besides—and this was something he didn’t plan on sharing with his friends, or even acknowledge aloud—he had been transported to a magical fantasy world and now he had the opportunity to train with a cool elven-ish swordmaster. It was a chance many geeks would’ve killed for, and he’d never forgive himself if he let it go.

  He faced Kes with his training sword held tightly with his two hands. Kes was wearing her full mercenary outfit: a better version of Ed’s leather armor, with more metal and straps, pouches and pockets filled with unknown materials, and a veritable array of throwing knives. The hawk-like features of her tanned face looked downright intimidating when she was geared like that.

  Kes followed his gaze and read his concerns. “Don’t worry about the knives, I won’t use them. I prefer to train in my full gear, so I’m always used to the weight. It helps build and maintain Endurance.”

  “Got it,” said Ed.

  “Before we start training,” Kes went on, “I must know in what areas you’re lacking and what your strengths are. I have a decent idea from seeing you fight the spiders and the Bane, but I need to be sure.”

  Klek the batblin stepped briefly between them. Batblins were child-sized humanoids, covered in coarse gray hair, with pig-like snouts, veiny ears, and tingling black eyes.

  “I want a clean combat,” Klek declared with his nasal intonation, “no spells, no offensive talents. And no droning up, Lord Edward.”

  There goes my main advantage, Ed thought. Both he and Kes nodded to acknowledge the rules.

  “Well then, you both do your best,” Klek said, then immediately ran out of the ring.

  “Ready whenever you are,” Kes told Ed, settling in for him to take the first step.

  Ed activated his Evil Eye and scanned the mercenary’s stats sheet.

  Kessih of Greene

  Species: Half Avian

  Total Exp: 482

  Unused Exp: 42

  Claims: Peregrine of the Cardinal Command Army (Revoked), Citizen of the Volantis Enclave (Former).

  Attributes

  Brawn: 15

  Agility: 14

  Endurance: 14

  Mind: 11

  Spirit: 10(+1 Minion of Dungeon Lord Edward Wright)

  Charm: 8 (+1 Minion of Dungeon Lord Edward Wright)

  Skills

  Melee: Improved (V) - Martial skill, represents the user’s fighting technique. Allows access to some martial-related talents.

  Swordsmanship Focus: Improved (IX) - Represents the user specialization as a swordsman. Improves the efficiency and damage of martial talents that require swords to operate.

  Survival: Improved (V) - Represents the owner’s capability to survive when far from civilization. Improved ranks imply they can withstand challenging environments and situations.

  Military Discipline - The user has received military training and can access temporal Tactics talents when fighting in a similarly trained group.

  Knowledge (Volantis Enclave): Basic (VI) - Pertains to the user’s knowledge of a geographical location. Gives access to talents exclusive to the citizens of Volantis.

  Flight: Advanced (VI) - Represents the user’s dominion over flight maneuvers, air currents, and tactics. Advanced status grants access to aerial combat talents and removes Agility penalty during air combat.

  Drill Instructor: Improved (III) - The user has experience as an instructor and can teach martial skills the user already possesses. Improved status allows the user to teach martial skills up to Improved status, limited by their own knowledge of said skill.

  Hunting: Basic (IX) - Survival skill, the owner is proficient in hunting and foraging.

  Tactics: Basic (VIII) - Martial skill. During combat, if the user is part of a group with access to a Tactics talent, they receive extra bonuses.

  Talents

  Cleave: Improved - The user launches a strike against a target. If the attack kills the target, the user automatically makes another against a single new target. This strike is magically guided.

  -Improved status allows the user to attack up to two new targets per activation.

  Energy Drain: Activated. Moderate.

  Power Strike: Improved - The user adds +1 to their Brawn attribute when making an attack with a melee weapon.

  -Improved status turns this talent into a defensive talent. Defensive talents do not require a verbal trigger.

  Energy Drain: Activated. Moderate.

  Shield-master: Improved - Allows the user to block magically guided attacks as if they were non-magical.

  -Improved status turns this talent into a passive talent. Passive talents have a negligible energy cost.

  Improved Sight - The user’s eyesight is improved to peak condition.

  Regeneration: Basic - The user gains a healing factor 10 times faster than their normal recovery. Regeneration triggers automatically when damage is suffered and requires 10 times the energy used during normal healing.

  Improved Metabolism - Reduces the energy costs of all talents by 25% - the caloric requirements of the user are increased by the same amount.

  Resist Sickness: Basic - Allows its owner to resist disease and sickness.

  -Basic status allows the owner to resist non-magical sickness as if they had Endurance of 15 and were in optimal conditions (clean, well-fed, rested)

  Resist Environment: Basic - Allows its owner to perform and survive in threatening environments for prolonged periods of time.

  -Basic status allows the owner to survive in extreme environments such as a tundra or a desert, even if they lack proper protections.

  -The owner will last 1 extra day in a moderate environment, 1 extra hour in a dangerous environment, and 1 extra minute in a lethal environment such as freezing waters.

  Energy Drain: Constant. Very low.

  Avian Bone Density - Eliminates the negative talent Avian Fragility and its Endurance penalty. The user loses all flight capabilities.

  Dungeon Minion - The owner is a Minion under the command of a Dungeon Lord. The Minion receives bonuses according to the Lord’s power and are recognized by all the Lord’s dungeon as an allowed entity (unless otherwise specified).

  Ed parsed the information as best as he could. Kes’ stat sheet was huge, and he could infer a bit about the mercenary’s story from it.

  When Ed had met Kes, she had been living in Burrova for a couple of years. But according to her character sheet, she had been a soldier, ranked “peregrine”—whatever that meant—from a place called Volantis Enclave. And she had been, somehow, able to fly. She had been quite good at it, in fact. But now she had lost that
ability, and she considered it a permanent loss, since she had bought avian bone density—which she wouldn’t have done if she expected to fly again.

  The nature of her exile was very much Kes’ private business, and if she wasn’t comfortable revealing it yet, Ed was happy to avoid bringing the topic up.

  Kes’ skills and talents were geared for prolonged combat, which made sense for fighting in an army. She hadn’t bought improved reflexes, which so far had been Ed’s combat talent of choice. Improved reflexes carried a big energy tax with each seconds-long use.

  This meant she preferred to fight while conserving energy. She had cleave to handle groups of weaker enemies and power strike to fight single opponents. At some point between the fight with Sephar’s Bane and today, she had improved her shield-master talent, which meant she had taken into account her new situation as a minion of a Dungeon Lord: it raised her chances of finding herself in conflict with magically adept enemies. The improved version of shield-master had no energy requirements, which was perfect for her fighting style.

  Ed put together this evidence and decided that Kes was a thoughtful, gifted fighter. Hell, she had adapted her character build to her evolving situation in a way that was congruent with her pre-planned progression path. Had Objectivity considered martial brilliance as a Mindful trait, Ed was sure her Mind attribute would’ve been much higher than eleven.

  She was stronger than he was, as well as more resilient, better skilled, and with more experience. To defeat her, Ed’s best bet was to take her by surprise using his improved reflexes and try to bypass her defenses before she realized what was going on.