As it turned out, the decision to not cry for a third time was a stupid one. Misa decided to give herself a pass. Her mother was holding her again, sobbing into her shoulder, and as much as she hated seeing her cry, she was alive.
She never thought she'd be able to hold her mother again. Of course, she'd never ...
2022-04-25 02:55:35 +0000 UTC View PostMisa hadn't actually spawned very far away, and it took only a minute or so of walking for her to reach the walls of her village. She felt her heart tightening as she approached — there were guards stationed near the gates of the village. Those guards had been the first ones to...
"Name and purpose, miss?" A guard ask...
2022-04-24 04:24:11 +0000 UTC View PostDerivan would have frowned, if he could have. The eyelights in his armor dimmed to show his worry.
Helping Misa was, of course, easier said than done. None of them had any idea how they could get to where she was, and Kestel was frantic through the telepathic connection, telling them to find the delve team.
That t...
2022-04-23 04:32:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe Aberrant seemed to regain any confidence it had lost. It swept itself in a dancing circle, creating a blast of arcane energy that knocked back every one of the delvers that were lunging at it; while they staggered, off-kilter, it lunged itself at one of them and slammed him into the ground. There was a shout, half panicke...
2022-04-22 02:55:05 +0000 UTC View PostAs a general rule, almost all skills had some sort of range limit, even if that range limit wasn't stated. A fireball's range depended on its strength; the further it traveled, the more the fire or the magic that maintained it would dissipate, and the weaker the spell was. A melee skill's range depended on the size of the wea...
2022-04-21 04:41:07 +0000 UTC View PostMisa frowned as she looked at the screen. There was something bothering her, and it wasn't the strangely menacing orb, floating in the middle of the room — which in and of itself was rather concerning, considering it should really have garnered all of her attention.
There was something else. She couldn't quit...
2022-04-20 17:08:45 +0000 UTC View PostIt was technically Vex that noticed it.
The scrying screens displayed the delve team going through and mapping out the dungeon. Each screen showed them from a slightly different angle, keeping track of both the team themselves and what they were surrounded by. A [Mass Telepathy] spell kept the team hook...
2022-04-20 06:43:54 +0000 UTC View PostIt was decided that Jerome would be sent back to the Guild, along with the sleeping members of his party. The Guildmaster would personally debrief them later, once the paladin and his team had a little more time to absorb what had happened to them. Sev understood this to mean that the Guildmaster would stand in the corner of ...
2022-04-19 03:42:42 +0000 UTC View PostHistre hung in the air, vibrating with fear and paranoia and anger.
Derivan wasn't sure how he knew. Physical Empathy, likely, though he couldn't begin to guess at how he could read the body language of a creature that was more windchime than person. Histre floated in the air in front of them, wings spread in a way that...
2022-04-17 16:59:13 +0000 UTC View PostSev was surprised the plan was going as well as it was.
Always plan for things to go wrong — that was his motto, though he couldn't remember when he'd decided on it, or why. He preferred his plans to have backups on backups, and for the longest time his final backup had simply been [Divine Communion]....
2022-04-17 04:32:27 +0000 UTC View PostTo think they had the gall to tell him they wanted to meet him alone.
He'd already been kind! He'd offered them a thousand gold in exchange for some information on a dungeon! Dungeon scouts didn't even get paid that much. He wouldn't have considered paying that much for it at all, but it was s...
2022-04-17 04:31:51 +0000 UTC View Post"So!" Max clapped her hands together. "Let's get planning, shall we?"
"Wait, wait, wait," Sev said. "How long have you been — what? Why are you level 81? What kind of class is [Adventuring Clerk]? How did you even get — Okay, I know I shouldn't ask that question, but also I have so many question...
2022-04-17 04:31:20 +0000 UTC View PostThe four of them tried to speak for a while, but it didn't take long for them to lapse into silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Vex was still trembling slightly, clearly upset, and so without a word Derivan went to do what Vex had done for him, not so long ago — he sat down next to the lizardkin, offering a quiet show...
2022-04-17 04:30:44 +0000 UTC View Post"Uh," Sev said. He glanced at the rest of the team, and they all seemed equally stumped. Except for Misa, but the expression she was wearing was her 'punch this problem until it goes away' expression, which more or less translated to being stumped. "I don't suppose I can convince you you have the wrong room?"
"With a ma...
2022-04-17 04:30:18 +0000 UTC View Post"Your truth spells were fooled," Derivan interrupted Tarilex. The lizardkin stopped mid-sentence, turning his gaze to the armor and staring for a long, uncomfortable moment.
"Explain," he said. His voice was hard.
"You have been running some sort of truth spell this entire time," Derivan said. "I wondered why you ...
2022-04-17 04:29:51 +0000 UTC View PostVex had told them the next morning that it likely wouldn't take long for them to be summoned — Elyra, he said, tended to try to throw money at problems instead of actually resolving them. The negotiations would reach an impasse, and they would call on the adventurers to break that impasse.
It wasn't long before he was...
2022-04-17 04:29:24 +0000 UTC View PostThe Guildmaster was only mildly surprised to hear of the abundant mana concentration, and the way the deviation had rapidly swung right towards the end; if anything, the most surprising part for her was the weakness of the monsters they had fought in the final waves. A Platinum-tier dungeon was expected to have Platinum-ranke...
2022-04-17 04:28:54 +0000 UTC View Post"...what do you mean?" Sev asked after a moment. He seemed wary.
"How are dungeons ranked, normally?" Derivan cocked his head to the side, helmet clanking against his shoulder plate. "I am afraid I am missing some context."
The Guildmaster gave Derivan a strange look, but Vex quickly took over before she could spe...
2022-04-17 04:27:56 +0000 UTC View Post"Where the hell did everyone come from?" Misa said, looking around in slight bewilderment. "There weren't this many adventurers around when we left."
"Word got out, I'm guessing," Sev agreed, frowning slightly. "Means it's a big announcement."
Vex was mostly silent — the lizardkin didn't particularly enjoy crowd...
2022-04-17 04:26:48 +0000 UTC View PostDerivan finished off the last of the polishing with a bit of a flourish. The others were working through the massive array of food that Sev had purchased, with Misa absolutely demolishing everything that was set in front of her. They glanced over at him from time to time, making sure he felt included, and that had been... nic...
2022-04-17 04:25:55 +0000 UTC View PostIt took a while to get away, for the priests wanted to question them on what happened. A nervous Misa had to fend them off and explain that even trying to talk about it was dangerous, and explaining that had taken some doing. Eventually, the priests extracted a promise from them that they could be called on from the ...
2022-04-17 04:25:24 +0000 UTC View Post"I need eight healing potions and five mana potions," Sev said. He hadn't even looked up at the vendor yet, his eyes too busy flicking over the wares they had available — surprisingly high-quality potions of all kinds, actually. The divine mana emanating from them was stable, rather than fluctuating like was common in lower...
2022-04-17 04:24:26 +0000 UTC View Post"It was a castle," Derivan began. He remembered that much. "A place of cold stone and dark skies. I did not know it at the time, but it is what I now know you call an open dungeon — the kind with unclear boundaries, that draws adventurers in without their realizing. The kind that never breaks, and only grows. The dungeon ha...
2022-04-17 04:23:56 +0000 UTC View PostDerivan could, as it turned out, absorb spells from spell scrolls just as a wizard could. He'd made an attempt to study the actual contents of the scroll, but most of what it was describing flew quickly over his head; there was a lot of runic theory embedded in the scrolls that he'd need to study for months to really...
2022-04-17 04:23:15 +0000 UTC View PostDerivan and Vex had both retreated to Vex's room. It was a mess, still, but the lizard cleared out a space on the floor for the armor to sit. Comfort wasn't a strict necessity for him, Derivan assured his friend — though that didn't stop Vex from fretting about it.
"You're sure you don't need a chair?" Vex asked again...
2022-04-17 04:22:02 +0000 UTC View Post"A slime stat doesn't make any fucking sense!" Misa groaned, throwing up her hands with exasperation. It was, if Derivan was counting correctly, about the fourth time she had made the declaration. She was pacing about the training field, wearing grooves into the dirt with her boots. "What's it even supposed to do? A slime is ...
2022-04-17 04:21:23 +0000 UTC View Post"A dungeon formed?" the clerk asked incredulously. "Dungeons don't just form without warning. Our scouts would've noticed!"
"Max," Sev said, rubbing his temples tiredly. "You're my favorite clerk but now isn't the time for this. That was exhausting. We need our pay, and like, five consecutive days of s...
2022-04-17 04:19:16 +0000 UTC View PostThe party was quiet and downtrodden, even as they began their journey back towards the Guild. They had reported the formation of the dungeon, of course. That was a necessary procedure, and it helped them, too, to engage with something approaching normal. The dungeon meant better resources for everyone in the region, possibly ...
2022-04-17 04:18:08 +0000 UTC View PostDerivan caught and strangled the flare of panic as his Skill failed. What did that tell him?
There were only a few possibilities. One, somehow, the Overseer still had access to its skills, and one of them allowed it to mess with [Consume]. Two, it was at such a high level that it could simply ignore the...
2022-04-17 04:15:20 +0000 UTC View PostDerivan knew what he needed to do.
The rest of the party had already expended everything they had. Sev had exhausted most of his mana trying to keep them all alive. Vex had similarly spent most of his mana on spells, and Misa was already barely keeping it together. She had 30% of her health left, and a direct hit from a...
2022-04-17 04:12:29 +0000 UTC View Post
