Mage Tank

Chapter 86: The Why

[The concept of virtue–a dubious quality, if it exists at all–is invalidated by its wanton pursuit! You’ve sacrificed might in exchange for nothing but empty self-platitudes!]

[Uh, hey Grotto.]

[Perhaps we should call upon the gods to examine your karmic worth. I would wager that it has risen three entire points from this blunder. It is unfortunate that morality is weighed upon an infinite scale with no beginning or end.]

[Did you… need something? We’re busy talking about our skills and shit.]

My party members watched me, picking up on the signs of my silent communication with the bonded Delve Core.

[Yes, I have also chosen an evolution. I wished to share it with you, such that you might be apprised of the value I bring.]

[Oh, so you wanted to be part of the group?]

[That is not what I said.]

[It’s ok to come out of your room from time to time, Grotto. You don’t have to ask permission.]

He was gone as quick as he came.

“What was that?” asked Xim.

“Grotto wanted to say that he’s disappointed in me, but that I should be proud of him.”

“Sounds about right.”

“He got some evolution to Dungeoneering. I guess he finally cracked level twenty with it.”

“I wish my frogs could advance my alchemy skill,” said Nuralie. She pulled one of the amphibians from her inventory, which is something I still didn’t know how she did. My inventory wouldn’t let me put anything living inside of it.

“His work advances my Dungeoneering skill,” I said, “but he chooses all the evolutions, and he’s the one who uses all the benefits.”

“I would be fine with that,” said Nuralie, leaning down to touch noses with the housecat-sized frog. “You’d pick good evolutions, wouldn’t you, Bertegog?”

The frog replied with a mighty croak

“It’s like having an intrinsic slot occupied by an annoying roommate,” I continued, “instead of a skill.”

“What’s the evo?” asked Xim. I brought up my list of skills, read it over, then shared it.

Engineered Terror

Fear and intimidation checks performed by allied entities within a Delve, dungeon, or labyrinth you control are 1% more effective per level of Dungeoneering.

“I’m sure the hounds will like that one,” I said.

[They will remain ineffective so long as you continue to bring them steaks to consume. A starving beast is much more dangerous than a well-fed one.]

“Welcome back, Grotto. Done with your ‘important matters’? That was fast.”

[I have dedicated a subprocess to managing my ongoing projects.] The others at the table made varying expressions, telling me that Grotto was now broadcasting to everyone.[I feel that it is important I monitor the party’s build planning, now that you’ve committed such a blunder with your evolution choice.]

“I can literally have my heart ripped from my chest and grow it back now. I thought you’d be happy about that.”

[It matters little if the damage dealt by the blow reduces your health pool below zero.]

“Then I’ll get more health. Look, I’m not going to turn into one of your monsters and-” I hesitated, realizing that there were some topics that shouldn’t be discussed openly in a crowded tavern. I’d been a bit liberal with my ‘free the knowledge’ philosophy so far, but intimate party secrets were a different matter from mana shaping or restrictions, which I believed every Delver should be equipped with. I swapped to telepathy.

[I’m not gonna’ stalk the Pocket Delve, eating the corpses of people who enter.]

[You also had the opportunity to attain eternal youth, yet eschewed that option with little regard. It is one of the few items that I have added to your ‘List’. Item number three! Attain immortality!]

[Yeah, right after ‘Accrue Power!’ and ‘Dominate our enemies!’ I feel like I’m kicking ass at those first two.]

[Two of three is barely a passing grade, Arlo.]

[D’s get degrees, baby!] I shot finger guns into the air. [I made all A’s in school, though. Except for ethics. Made a B in ethics.]

“This is still very strange,” said Nuralie, holding a hand to one ear like she was starring in a spy-thriller, listening to her commlink. “You aren’t talking, but it is like you’re all around me.”

“Eh,” said Xim. “I’m used to this sort of thing.”

“It’s what some of my memories are like,” added Etja. Varrin grunted.

“Now that our sixth party member has joined,” I said, “any other important evolutions we should all know about? Etja?”

“I got my Fortitude to twenty!” she said, her demeanor moving back into its normal exuberance. She rarely sulked, and when she did it wasn’t for long. “I was offered Mana Barrier. Since it’s one we discussed, I went ahead and picked it.”

Mana Barrier

You may choose to have 50% of the damage you take be dealt to your mana pool instead of your health. Damage dealt to your mana in this way is doubled.

“Nice,” I said. “Now you can really lean into WIS and CHA for a while. Nuralie?”

“My Archery intrinsic went to twenty,” the loson said. “Now I do extra damage when I take a few seconds to aim.”

“Makes Hunger Shot even more potent. Solid. Xim?”

“Charisma and Fortitude are now both at twenty,” said the cleric. “When I heal myself, I also heal my stamina, and enemies hit by my Divine damage get feared.”

“You heal your stamina?” I asked, feeling my inner resource hoarder twitch. “How much?”

“A percentage of the healing equal to my Fortitude.”

“Damn, that’s useful.” She gave me a single, exaggerated nod.

“That’s why I picked it!”

I turned to the big guy.

“Varrin?”

“I picked up Damage Analysis,” he said. He was rubbing the side of his chin with a thumb.

“Finally decided on your Intelligence evo? You’ve been mulling that one over for weeks.”

“Yes, I regret waiting so long. Being able to discern The Mimic’s resistances whenever I dealt it damage may have saved us some grief.”

“Resistances,” Xim spat. “More like immunities. The gods forsaken thing couldn’t be stunned, bled, poisoned, immobilized, or crit!”

“Couldn’t grapple it either,” I pointed out. “Immune to physical, resistant to dimensional, selectively resistant to spiritual. At least you could pray for it to ignite.”

“It’s all I was good for!” Xim said, raising her arms.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

We spent another hour or so going over different abilities the party had picked up over the last couple of levels. It turns out that Xim had an ability that let her choose not to deal fire damage to her allies with her divine abilities, and to cleanse them when they were touched by the flames instead.

She’d let me burn when she cast Judgment mainly because she wanted to see what Sam’lia’s current feelings toward me were.

I didn’t know why she couldn’t have just communed with the goddess…

Overall, we were in a good place. Our skill diversity was broad, our survivability was high, and with Varrin’s entire focus being on turning enemies into grease stains, our damage output was respectable. The only thing we hurt for was someone who could exert some social control abilities–sleep, charm, dominate–but with Xim’s recent pivot into fear, we had a little something from that category, and the cleric assured us that fear was something the Xor’Drels were good at.

We also briefly touched on loot, and made the formal decision to give Etja The Staff of Archon’s Maker that we’d acquired from ‘defeating’ The Mimic. The staff was six feet in length, several inches taller than Etja, and made of a dark metal that matched the material that many of the Delves were constructed from. The top flared out into an oval intersected by ten thin bars, with a ruby gem set into the tip of each. The former golem was pleased with the item, to say the least.

Staff of Archon’s Maker

A staff of office for the Archon of the Fifth Court, crafted by the scorned lady known to you only as The Mimic. It would eventually come to light that the Archon himself had also been crafted by The Mimic, a treachery that led to the collapse of the judiciary and enabled a violent coup against the realm’s emperor. This staff may serve as a symbol of your strength, or a promise of retribution to those who would oppress you.

Requirements: WIS 20, Divine 10

Effects:

1) Stored spell: Seek Alignment.

20 mana per charge.

Max charges: 5

Seek Alignment

Divine

Peer into the history of a target and discern what wicked deeds they have performed within the last 7 days. Target may resist this effect by passing a CHA check against your WIS. A target that has resisted cannot be affected by this spell until the next dawn.

2) Archon’s Faith: While wielding this staff, your Divine Magic skill is considered to be 5 higher.

3) Spells you cast may originate from the head of this staff.

“On to the next topic,” I said. “Unless anyone has anything else?” I waited, but just got a couple shaking heads in reply. “Alright, future planning. Our initial goal was to reach level six. Well, here we are.” I sat back and looked around the table, giving the statement a second to sink in.

Level six was a marked achievement for most Delvers who reached it, since it was Hiward’s average Delver level. It sounded low, but most Delvers pursued silver Delves which gave them a soft level cap of eleven, and a lot of silvers dropped out of their Delving career early for safety reasons. They were rich and powerful already, and, according to most, there was little in the ‘real’ world that could threaten them anymore. It was a valid choice, although I didn’t agree that the world was a safe place for lower level Delvers.

The next largest group was copper, which had a soft cap of level three and they really dragged the average down. Golds and platinums had a much higher potential maximum, but golds were rare and platinums practically non-existent. Even then, reaching level eleven or higher usually took a gold Delver around a decade, and most plats died before making it out of the single digits. Thus, once your party reached level six, you started to get a little more respect around the block.

Our group’s reaction was muted. We’d had a hard year of endless training, drills, and mortal danger. We were tired, needed a break, and, beyond that, had a much longer road ahead of us than behind. Making it to the middle of the pack was an achievement, but not one that any of us felt like celebrating. Toxic attitude? Probably, but none of us had ever questioned the ambition that drove us. What that ambition was, however, was in need of some clarification.

“Before I can really dig in to what my advancement looks like,” I said, “I need to know why we’re Delving.”

“You don’t know why you’re Delving?” asked Nuralie.

“No, I think I know why I’m Delving, but why are you Delving? We’ve been running this party with the assumption that everyone wants to do what we’re doing. It looks pretty clear that that’s true, but we’ve never really sat down and talked about what aligns us, beyond getting big-strong.”

“It’s fun!” said Etja, then she looked back down at her plate as she muttered the next words. “And there’s Orexis.”

“The avatar that threatens the world,” I said. “Or, does he? We haven’t heard a thing about the guy since we kicked off our marathon.”

“A creature like that,” said Varrin, “does not simply walk away from what it seeks.”

“He sought his sister. She’s loose, and maybe they’ve already met up.”

“He won’t stop coming after us,” said Etja. “After we defied him and let Fortune take Anesis… He’ll find us. One day.”

“Amass power to defend ourselves,” I said. “That’s a legitimate reason to Delve.” Etja nodded.

“Protect Eschendur,” said Nuralie. “I need the strength to return, and the strength to push back the Littans.”

“Defend others. I think that’s also good.”

“I just wanna know what’s up with the Delves,” said Xim, shrugging. “I don’t think too hard about it. There’s clearly something going on with platinum difficulty that’s different from the others. We get all sorts of hints that you never hear about from gold or lower.”

The table agreed with the sentiment, and we turned to Varrin. The warrior had gone back to staring into his horn of ale, though he didn’t take a drink. His expression was dark, and there was a lot more weight behind the anger that smoldered in his eyes than a guy his age should have to bear. His eyes flicked up to meet mine, and he passed his gaze between the rest of us.

“In the Creation Delve,” he said, voice low, “I was overconfident in my abilities. If that Delve had been a normal platinum Delve, I believe we would have conquered it without any losses. What I learned that day, and what I’ve learned since, is that there are no normal platinum Delves. It was arrogance to expect the Delve to cater to my assumptions, and people died under my watch.”

He sat back, looking over the crowd of people in the tavern and I followed his gaze. The room was full of mundane humans, but there were a dozen other Delvers mixed in, some in groups, others with what looked like friends or family. Most of them were below our level.

“I took that lesson to heart when I went back to Ravvenblaq. I decided that I would make sure I had the skill to carry my party through, if another… difficult… situation arose. I discussed with my parents, my grandparents,” he gestured at Xim, “Drel and Xorna, as well. Their wisdom matched much of what I’d learned firsthand. They were lessons I’d already been taught while training for Creation, but lessons that required a hard kick to settle into my mind, it seems.

“And then, I made another mistake.” His eyes narrowed. “I assumed that my parents were almighty. Thundralkes of the most powerful nation in the world, blood of one of the most powerful Delvers. Platinum, and nearly as fearsome as the highest echelons that can be reached by gold. They, too, were swatted like insects by an enemy with power outside the bounds of what is to be ‘expected’. My father was murdered, my mother…” He trailed off.

I wasn’t certain about the state that Nola Ravvenblaq had been in since The Cage and the death of her husband, but Varrin’s careful avoidance of the topic had told me it was nothing good.

“I Delve because I must,” he said, fist clenched hard enough that the horn of ale groaned in protest. “To protect Hiward from Orexis, and whatever other unknown powers-that-may-be. To protect Ravvenblaq, to protect my family.” He relaxed his grip on the horn, and placed his elbows on the table. “But I will not lie to you, either. That is what should drive me, and it does. But the thing that sends me through those portals, what presses me forward every moment, is the thought of slaying the beast that has done this thing.”

He finally took another drink from his horn, draining it. The waitress began to approach, but he held up a hand and shook his head. He sat the horn on its rest with care, then stood.

“I would take my leave,” he said. “I- I would better serve this conversation after some time has passed.” Then, he turned and left.

We sat in silence, stunned. It was more insight than any of us had gotten into Varrin’s thoughts in months. What he said hadn’t surprised me, I’d suspected as much, but the fact that he laid it all out there so plainly was unusual. Especially the last part.

[He could have merely said ‘protection’ as well.]

[Is your goal to be as insensitive as conceivable, Grotto?]

[That would be impossible, as the thought of sensitivity does not enter my mind.]

[You say that, but I don’t believe you. Did you want to add your own goals to the discussion?]

[You are not already aware of what I seek?]

[No! You don’t tell us shit, other than some abstract commandments about strength and conquest. If you want to drop the smokescreen, feel free. Until then, I’ll put you down as undecided.]

Grotto didn’t reply, and Xim broke the silence.

“What about you, Arlo?” she asked. “I think that you’re the real mystery. Everything that happened last year made sense; you were dropped into the Creation Delve, and then got caught up in Orexis’ scheming. But, ever since, you’ve been just as enthusiastic about this as the rest of us. You’ve got enough money to spend the rest of your life hopping from one capital city to the next, staying in pricey inns and sleeping with top-shelf courtesans. Why don’t you?”

“I like travel, but I prefer my intimacy to be less transactional.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Hey, not avoiding the question, just adding some clarity. First, I’m a busy-body. Even if I retired, I’d find some other work to do. Leisure is something I enjoy in small doses, but not a lifestyle I think I’d enjoy.

“Second, the rewards from Delving are insane. It may not be anyone here’s primary motivator, but wealth and superpowers? Sign me up. I think we all feel that way to some degree.” Nuralie and Xim nodded. “I mean, we’ve got a lot more than walkin’ around money. That mimic Delve was absolute trash for rewards, and we still each got two emerald chips. You could buy a small estate for that.”

“Or a big boat,” said Nuralie. “And hire a crew for a year.”

“Where I came from, I’d have to take out a loan and then work for twenty years to pay the bank back in order to buy a decent house. I just made that kind of money in a couple of days, and it was a shit-tier reward!”

“I still can’t believe we got diamond chips for the specter,” said Xim.

“I know,” I said. “I could retire modestly on the interest those generate, alone.”

“You’re making interest?” asked Nuralie.

“Yeah. I know a gal. Can introduce you later if you like.”

“I thought you spent it all on that orphanage,” said Xim.

“No way. An orphanage that fancy would be called a prep school.”

“You literally named it a school.”

“Point is, chips and stats are reward enough in and of themselves,” I continued. “I also think I’m an adrenaline junky and never realized it. We’re dancing on a knife’s edge with our lives, but I’m usually enjoying myself inside of Delves.”

“It’s fun!” Etja said again.

“And there’s Orexis,” I said, mirroring her earlier sentiment. “Put my worry about him on the pile as well. I like the idea of protecting people, too, although you guys are the main people I’d want to protect, and each of you is hardly a vulnerable target.”

“Tanking mindset,” said Xim with a grin.

“But the core of it, the main thrust of why I’m so on board with the pace Varrin wants to set, is that I’m worried.”

“What are you worried about?” asked Nuralie.

“You have seemed anxious lately,” said Xim.

I tapped my finger against the table, organizing my thoughts.

“The state of the world… troubles me.”