by Ivan Kal
CHAPTER NINETEEN
One moment Morgan was taking a step forward into the dark tunnel leading down into the depths of the earth, and the next he was outside in the sun standing on grass.
“Uh…guys?” Morgan said to his friends, who were standing next to him. “What just happened?”
“I…” Vall started. “We were in the dungeon, and now…we are not.”
“Really? Are you sure?” Morgan asked. He looked around, seeing that they were in some kind of a grove. There were trees surrounding them, a large boulder and rocks to one side, and a small stream flowing from between them.
“We were just about to step into the spawning point,” Ves said. “And then we were here.”
Lucius knelt and touched the grass. “Could the spawning point have been a teleporter of some kind? The great Guilds have them.”
“I don’t see how,” Vall said. “Aren’t those supposed to be large and fixed to the ground?”
Lucius nodded. “Aye, this is most bizarre.”
“Who cares, we’re free!” Morgan cheered, then turned around and picked up Ves and spun her around. She giggled and then when he stopped and put her down, he put his hand on her head and gave her a kiss. “We’re alive!”
Then he noticed a flashing symbol in the corner of his eye. “And I think we just got our experience for the dungeon.” Morgan grinned. He focused on the symbol and entered his soul space.
“Welcome back, master. That was a very interesting dungeon dive,” Sabila said as a greeting. “But I must inform you that I am detecting a discrepancy of one hour and seven minutes between the moment we entered the spawning-point tunnel and the moment we arrived here.”
Morgan blinked at his soul implant-thingy. “Say what? What kind of discrepancy?”
“Unknown. I have no memory of that period of time.”
“So like us… Something must’ve happened.” Morgan wasn’t sure if not knowing was a good or a bad thing, but he was alive, so he wasn’t overly worried.
Instead, he turned his eyes to the message in front of him.
DUNGEON GROUP EXP GAINED! (DUNGEON GROUP CHANGED TO GROUP)
76 Kobold Warriors killed = 3420 exp
37 Kobold Miners killed = 1295 exp
16 Kobold Scouts killed = 640 exp
2 Kobold Mages killed = 120 exp
1 Manticore killed = 840 exp (280 x 3; first kill in two decades)
G.F. bonus — Completed Mountain’s Heart dungeon = 500
G.F. bonus — Kill the Boss! Quest accomplished = 800 exp
G.F. bonus — Survived the Betrayal = 200 exp
Morgan Newton LVL 6 — EXP 7815/700 (ascension possible)
Fuck yeah! Morgan was ecstatic at the amount of exp that they had gotten. He pressed the ascension button and waited to see how many levels he had gotten.
Morgan Newton LVL 11 — EXP 2415/3000
Let’s gooo, level 11! Never been easier! I only almost died again, but who cares! Already Morgan was planning how he was going to get his revenge on the villainous Emily. Emily! Just you wait, I’m gonna show you my wrath!
Morgan put his plans for revenge aside, and took a look at his tables. He had 12 attribute points, 9 skill points, and 8 ability points to spend. But before he did that he took a look on his skill list—he had a lot more of them unlocked. Then he realized that he didn’t really need to buy skills, as they could be unlocked the regular way, by training, so he decided not to purchase any of the new ones in favor of upgrading his current skills. Upgrading from I to II for any skill cost 1 point, and from II to III cost 2 points, and so it went for each following level.
He noticed that his Archery, Skinning, Elemental Alignment-Nature and Enchanting skills had upgraded on their own, probably because of his shooting and enchanting in the dungeon. Even some of his abilities had been upgraded. That meant that he had wasted those early points; although, perhaps not. Those early skills had helped him a lot. He decided to only upgrade those skills that he thought would be harder to upgrade by practicing—so he upgraded his Inspect skill to III, spending three points, and his Monster Lore to III by spending another three. The last three he left alone for now.
His abilities seemed to require two points to upgrade no matter what level they were, so he raised his Power Siphon to II and his Power Infusion to IV, leaving two points for later. His Enchantment abilities seemed to be separate from his main ones, and seemed to improve only by practice. Lastly, he took a look at his attributes. He put in seven into Will—he wanted to be better at magic—and he put another three into Intellect. The last two he put into Agility. His super dexterity had come in handy during the dungeon dive, so he would try to go for a hybrid archer-enchanter class. With that, he took a look at all of his screens.
STRENGTH
13
AGILITY
(20+2) 22
CONSTITUTION
15
INTELLECT
(14+3) 17
WILL
(13+7) 20
WISDOM
13
CHARISMA
10
LUCK
10
SKILLS
Hand-to-Hand Combat II
Weapons I
Language-Basic
Elemental Alignment-Nature III
Archery V
Hunting I
Monster Lore III
Skinning II
Herbalism I
Enchanting III
Inspect III
ABILITIES
Scatter Shot II
Piercing Shot I
Nature Sight II
Nature Sense I
Power Infusion IV
Power Siphon II
That looks good. “All right, Sabila, I think I’m done,” Morgan said, and accepted the changes. A moment later he felt the same shiver pass through him as last time when Sabila upgraded his body and mind. This time he felt slightly different—he felt as if he had something inside of him. And on further inspection he noticed something that very much felt like a sphere of glowing stuff inside of his stomach.
“Uh… Sabila? The hell is this thing?” Morgan pointed at his stomach.
“You’ve crossed the threshold of Will. Your energy supplies have increased and your connection with your power and alignment has increased.”
“And why do I feel like I have a ball inside my stomach?” Morgan asked.
“That is the representation of your power.’
Morgan shook his head. Crazy soul-implant thingy. “Never mind that, then. I am ready—send me out.”
“Of course, master.”
A moment later Morgan found himself back in the real world, or a world—he still wasn’t convinced that he wasn’t in a coma. The rest of his group had a faraway look in their eyes that told him that they were still in their soul spaces. A moment later they slowly blinked their eyes and came out of it.
“Level eleven, I can’t believe it,” Vall said wistfully.
“I’m almost there, level ten with barely a hundred away from the next level,” Lucius said.
“I can’t believe that we are alive,” Ves said.
“What did I say?” Morgan grinned at them. “Now I need to find me that Annie Leonhart traitor and put an arrow through her eye.” Morgan closed his eyes, imagining it.
“Uh… Morgan?” Ves said. “Her name is Emily.”
“What? I know that,” Morgan frowned at her.
“But you said a different name,” Ves said slowly, as if she were speaking with a child.
“It’s… Urgh, never mind.” Goddamn ignorants. This is torture—no one gets my references!
Vall put his sheathed sword point to the ground and leaned over it. “You do realize that you can’t kill her?”
“Uh… Yes I can, I just pull back the string, let an arrow fly, and poof! It goes right through her eye. Boom, the traitor is dead!”
“No,” Vall said slowly. “I mean, you could, although even if she wasn’t fifteen levels
above you and far stronger than you, it wouldn’t be a good idea. The Guiding Force does not allow killing among the ascendants. If you killed her, she would punish you, which is as good as killing you.”
“Say what now?”
“If you kill someone directly, the Guiding Force will give you a red glow that would mark you as a murderer… And the only people who can be killed without consequences are those with a red glow. You would be dead within a day.”
“But…” Morgan blinked. “Why would anyone want to kill me?”
It was now Vall’s turn to blink slowly at Morgan. “It doesn’t matter who you are; redmarked are fair game. Killing them gives you exp, and you are entitled to their gear.”
Morgan’s mouth opened, but no words came out. That can’t be right. I can’t get revenge? “But… I can’t kill her?”
“Not unless her Guild and the Guild you are in are in a declared war with each other. Only in those circumstances is killing between the ascended permitted.”
“Well that is a shit rule!” Morgan said angrily. “You are telling me that there is no way for us to get our revenge?”
“Not unless you join a Guild that is going to war with Glitter Force,” Vall said.
“You know what? No, nope, no, no, no, nope, I ain’t gonna let her get away. No one leaves me to die and then gets away with it. Especially not my nemesis,” Morgan said resolutely.
Lucius was standing near them, with a strange look on his face. Right, the Roman was crushing on the orc. Finally, Lucius spoke. “I do not think that it would be wise to pursue her, not only because of the rules, but because she is far above us in terms of strength as well.”
“We just fought off a manticore which was twice our level. One no one had managed to defeat in decades!” Morgan said.
The looks on the others’ faces was priceless. It was like it had only just occurred to them that they had done that. “Level isn’t everything,” Morgan said. “And I ain’t letting my nemesis get away!”
“Nemesis?” Ves asked.
“You know, sworn enemy? The bane of my existence?”
“I think that you are blowing this a bit out of proportion, Morgan,” Ves told him. “She didn’t come out specifically to kill us. She doesn’t care about us.”
Morgan pretended not to hear her. “Oh, I’ll get her one day!” He waved his fist at the sky. Wait. “Where the fuck are we?” Morgan said as he realized that the grove surrounding them was about a hundred meters across, and that there was a cliff just a bit further ahead.
The others looked around and then all of them walked over to the cliff, looking out at the forest spreading in front of them, and a large mountain range on their left to the east.
“Look!” Vall pointed in the distance. “I think that’s Terbon.”
Morgan squinted in the same direction, but he couldn’t see anything. “Where?”
“There to the southeast, and that means that over there”—Vall pointed to the mountain range and what looked to be a small cut in the mountain—“is the Howler Pass. Which means that we are on Reach.”
“On what now?” Morgan asked.
“Reach. It’s a volcano.”
“We are on a volcano?” Morgan yelled out, making the others grimace. His voice echoed all around them.
“Please, Morgan…” Lucius started. “I know that it is hard for you to act like a normal person, but please try.”
Morgan did a double take. Did…did the Roman just throw shade at me?
Ves put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. Reach has been inactive for a long time.”
“IT’S ACTIVE?” Morgan screamed.
Vall rolled his eyes. “She said it’s not active!”
“Oh.” Morgan calmed down—he might’ve overreacted. “Right, then.”
“Look over there,” Vall said, pointing. “I think that that’s a road down the mountain.”
Morgan glanced in the direction of Vall’s finger. There seemed to be something like a snaking path winding down the side of the mountain. It did not, however, look like anyone had used this path in a long, long time.
“We should start now. It will take us at least a day to reach Terbon,” Lucius said.
The other nodded. “Yes, if we hurry we might even get there before the Omen Guild leaves. We might even get a chance at joining now with our higher levels,” Vall said.
Morgan blinked. “What? You all still plan on joining a Guild, after what just happened?”
They looked at each other and then back at him. “Of course. We want to climb the levels and dive into the Tower, and there is no way to achieve that without the support of a Guild,” Vall said.
Morgan looked at Ves, but he could see that even she agreed with them. “We were just betrayed by one Guild, and then you said that the other is probably filled with racist douchebags—and you want to join that?”
“We have no choice!” Vall said angrily. “You are a chosen, you don’t understand. This is the way things are. If we don’t get a membership in the Omen Guild, we will just need to get through the pass and find a Guild that will have us further inland.”
“You’re right, I know little about this World,” Morgan said slowly. “But I know what a Guild is supposed to be. A place for friends, for people who help one another, not a place where those at the bottom are used by those at the top,” Morgan told him.
The Guild that he had been a part of in his world had been all that he’d had for a long time. People who he had never seen in person, but who he called friends—those people were the reason why he had gotten so far in life. Without them, he would’ve had nothing.
“And what would you have us do? Go solo? Without an adventurer’s mark we wouldn’t be given access anywhere in the continent that matters. We would be outcasts!”
Morgan looked at all three of them, and he could see that they were all in agreement. He put his hand in his BoH and pulled out an item. “Well, we have another choice.” Morgan held out the hearthstone that they had found in the dungeon.
He could see their expressions freeze. They looked at Morgan’s hand and the hearthstone as if they were seeing it for the first time. None of them had really allowed themselves to think on the loot that they had found; they had been facing certain death.
But now they were free.
“You,” Vall said slowly, “cannot be serious.”
“Why not? We have a hearthstone, and look at this place!” Morgan cast his hand around the grove, which was halfway up the dormant volcano. It was a flat surface, with a stream of water from a mountain spring; there were trees providing cover, and there was a way down the mountain side. It was a perfect place for a home—for a Guild.
“We don’t even know what kind of a hearthstone it is, what choices we will have,” Vall argued.
“Does it matter?” Morgan asked. “Look, we got some good loot down there. We got a chest full of gold, and another filled with class and ability stones.” He nodded at Ves and Lucius. “We have a hearthstone, and a good place to build a Guild Hold. A defensible place. And you said that this land isn’t claimed by any Guild.” Morgan gestured over the cliff at the vast area between the mountain range on the east and the ocean on the west, and the forest that was stretching before them.
“There aren’t many ascended here,” Lucius added.
“So what? I saw how those people live down there. We can help them, provide them with more. Some will surely want to become ascended and join us.”
“Emily was right you know,” Vall said. “Supporting low-level ascended is costly.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t want to be like her,” Morgan said.
“There is a reason why this area is not under Guild rule. Every Guild’s goal is to conquer the Tower, and for that they need to be closer to it,” Lucius said.
“Yeah, but there are dungeons and monsters all over, right?” Morgan asked. At their nods, Morgan continued. “Well, we grow here, get a good base, and then we start spreading out to the
other side of the pass. You said that there are conflicts between the Guilds? That their territory changes?”
Lucius nodded. “Sometimes Guilds trade territory, and other times they give it away as gifts. And when one Guild wants to expand but has no other alternative…they might resort to war.”
“Well, then, that’s what we do,” Morgan said.
Vall looked at his suspiciously. “Are you only trying to convince us to do this so that you can start a war with Glitter Force and get your revenge?”
“Of course I am!” Morgan yelled out. “That traitor left us to die!”
Vall’s face grimaced in anger, but Lucius put his hand on his shoulder and stopped him. “Morgan is right.”
Vall looked at Lucius with disbelief on his face. “You agree with him? He can’t go two sentences without saying some nonsense.”
“Not about going to war with Glitter Force, that is clearly a stupid idea,” Lucius said. Hey! Morgan thought in his head. “But I believe him to be right about the Guilds in general. I have heard stories from my father about them. It is hard for low-level people to gain rank and advance. The Guild takes most of what you find, and you get only a little back. Sure, there is the support structure for growth, but mostly the low levels are there to support Tower or Dungeon dives for the high-level teams.”
“So we should start our own Guild?” Vall asked. “We don’t know the first thing about running a Guild!”
“Uh…” Morgan raised his hand. “I do.”
“What?” Vall asked. “You didn’t know what a Guild was ten days ago!”
