timewalk

  Aliandra Ali stared down into the yawning darkness of the ventition shaft, shuddering at the memories, vertigo, and the disturbing sense of the dark void pulling her downward as if callio cast herself in. She pulled her eyes away; she kly what falling in there felt like and she had no desire to repeat the experience.

  Still visible on the grouhe scratch marks where Mato’s cws had desperately sought purchase on the hard stone and packed dirt, a long trail that extended from where he had bounced all the way to the unprotected hole in the floor. Ali’s eyes widened slightly at the sight of a Fae-sized outline in the dust on the far wall right above the hole where the impaato’s heavy, flying body had tossed her.

  Her mind repyed the panic, her frantic scrambling for anything to halt the fall to their deaths, the bone-jarring impacts of striking her barriers, the tinkling sound of her magic shattering, and the bursts of glowing shards and splinters strobing their light down the dark shaft. The crushing impact of the ground, and then… the angry red glow of fire in the darkness.

  She g her Kobold mage. Things will be different this time, she told herself firmly. She took a deep breath to steady herself. Nearby, she heard Mato expining to Malika and how they had survived the fall while drove a steel spike into the rod attached a long, knotted rope to it.

  Yes, it will be different. She drew in another long, steadying breath a out slowly. There were four of them now, and they were all signifitly stronger. She gnced back at the reassuring sight of her Bugbears and Kobolds. And I have them, too.

  She stared down the shaft as Mato and desded hand over hand down the rope, watg them grow smaller and smaller as ’s floating orb of light followed them into the depths.

  “That’s… really far,” she whispered.

  “I ’t believe you guys survived that fall,” Malika answered, also staring down the hole.

  As the tiny pinprick of light stopped moving, Ali collected herself. “Ok, you guys ,” she said, her throat struggling to produce the harsh, guttural Goblin tongue. “O a time.”

  It took a while for the Bugbears to desd, but, with their enormous weight, she didn’t want to risk more than one of them on the rope at a time. Ohey were safely down, Ali sent her Kobolds scamperierously down the rope before she turo Malika.

  “You go ,” Malika said. “I’ll e st.”

  “Ok,” Ali said, levering herself over the rim and beginning her dest. Holding herself up by the rope was not a pleasant experiehere was a great yawning nothingness below her feet that reminded her sharply that the only thing preventing her from falling was her minuscule strength attribute. Her mind provided extremely unhelpful fshbacks of hanging from her barrier dizzyingly far above the cavern floor when she had released the river and it had exploded in her face. Or worse, the memories of falling.

  Every few minutes, she summoned her barrier magic to stand on a her tired arms. A few Bed Deathcap mushrooms grew out of the walls, but the dungeon mana seemed surprisingly attenuated within the shaft, almost as if it were being stretched out to the extreme in order te the gap.

  I wonder what happens if I break the e?

  But she decided she’d rather not experiment and perhaps risk something as dangerous as the dungee while suspended on nothing but a rope.

  I’m trying to distract myself. But none of her mental tricks were able to diminish the burning in her arms and the fear of plunging to her death.

  After what seemed like forever, she finally felt the reassuring security of solid rock beh her feet, and she let go of the rope and gazed around, trying to quell her rag heart by using her breathing exercises.

  “Wele back,” Mato said wryly, gesturing to the room as he stood quietly among her minions. “Another beautiful day in the underworld. I still smell the char.”

  “Where’s ?” she asked, smiling to vey how much she appreciated his trying to lighten the mood. The radiant mote of ’s magic still hovered up he ceiling of the chamber, filling it with bright light, but there was no sign of him.

  “He went outside to scout,” Mato answered, pointing to the door.

  Ali sed the small room, taking in the familiar stone struarred by scorch marks on the walls and floor. Even the doorway still bore the scratches of her heavy stone blockade that had protected them from the Kobolds while they recovered. Her eyes were inexorably drawn to the horrifyingly rge dark stain on the ground, a sileament to how close she and Mato had e to dying right here. She met his gaze and knew without words that he was thinking the same thing. It could so easily have gone differently, and then there would have been two corpses – a rge one and a small one – food to feed the duhat had ed the remains of her home.

  “What happeo the Kobolds?” Ali asked. She could hardly fet being ambushed dowhe moment they nded. More than enough time had passed for the duo respawn them.

  “It was empty whe here,” Mato said, gng around. “ thinks it was a wandering patrol and we just got unlucky. That’s why he went outside to take a look.”

  As soon as Malika joihem, they all stepped through the stone archway and out into the narrow street beyond. stood atop one of the ruined buildings sing the horizon, making rapid notes and apanying sketches in his notebook.

  Ali shivered at the distant sounds of Kobold hunting chirps and the memories they ierrifying ambush attacks by bck-scaled rogues, and the burni of fireballs.

  Just gd I didn’t have to deal with one of those sneaking up on me in the darkness, she thought, studying her giant Bugbears as they ducked into shadowy doorways and ers, fading from view, just like her Kobues.

  Ali gnced around, trying tain her bearings. She and Mato had spent over a week down here, but everything looked so different now that she could see mana. In every dire, dark and ominous dungeon mana swirled and flowed like an eddying river, before settliween the buildings like a ground-fog miasma. She carefully oriented herself by the enormous stone pilr at her back – the one she knew reached all the way to the rocky roof of the cavern – taining the ventition shaft down which they had just desded. Thousands of years ago, this area had been a wealthy residential district, illuminated by tless floating orbs of light magic that were timed to simute night and day in the depths of this underground city. Now, Ali could barely see the end of the alleyway, all else lost to the pervasive darkness.

  hopped down into the street beside them. “There’s an enormous tower off in that dire,” he said, keeping his voice low as he pointed. “Is that the library you mentioned?”

  “Yes,” she answered in a whisper. The dark bck mana seemed stronger in that dire. Brighter? Again, Ali struggled to describe how bess could appear brighter, but that was just how she saw it with Are Insight. Certainly, was right, the way to the library cided with the dire of the stro mana. Why was that?

  “I ’t see much of anything down here,” Malika said. “We’re going to have to rely on your eyes for scouting.”

  “Anything in particur I should be looking out for?” asked.

  “Kobolds and skeletons,” Mato offered. “Stealth patrols.”

  “Traps,” Ali added. “Tripwires across the streets and switches under loose fgstones ected to deadfalls.”

  “Ok, I’ll go ahead,” said, hopping back up on top of the nearby building with an agile jump off a cracked windowsill, and then vanished from sight.

  Ali walked on, quietly following behind Malika and Mato for several minutes with two Kobold Warriors and her Fire Mage, trying to remember the way they had gone before. But she had been so scared, all the streets and buildings had melded into one giant dizzying blur in her memories.

  Suddenly, an urgent whisper pierced the silence from the darkness above, “Kobolds up ahead!”

  Ali’s head snapped up, and she caught the dim outline of ’s form shifting in the shadows along the broken stoiled roof, and a few seds ter the familiar yipping and chirping sounds of hunting Kobolds echoed from the stone walls up ahead.

  An angry red glow suddenly illumihe alley ahead, casting ominous dang shadows across broken fgstohe thrill of fear caressed the back of Ali’s neck, making the little hairs prickle as they stood on end. The fiery glow showed Ali the malevolent gaze of a Kobold Fire Mage staring back at her from behind his juring. With the paranoid instincts that came from a week of desperately struggling for survival down among these ruins, Ali’s barrier sprung up instantaneously, c her entire body from any attacks that might e from up front.

  An orb of pristine luminance fred up in the ter of the alleyway, and two sprinting enemy rogues appeared out of the shadows as ’s magic dispelled their stealth.

  Mage – Kobold – level 9 (Fire)Rogue – Kobold – level 8-9 x2

  Ali let out a sigh of relief as the rogues were exposed, but she didn’t let her guard down. A roar filled the alleyway as Mato engaged, and Ali dropped the rogues from her mind as she sed focus entirely onto the mage – a habit she and Mato had practiced at length.

  With a muffled thump and a whooshing he mage’s Fireball flew, growing rapidly rger as it approached. Ali split her magid cast a sed Barrier in its path. Her aim wielding two barriers simultaneously was still clumsy, and the Fireball struck the edge, careening off to the side aonating harmlessly against a nearby building.

  “Kill the Fire Mage,” she anded, direg her rogues. By the light of raining gobs of fire magic, she unleashed her Are Bolts, joining ’s brilliant arrows in an assault on the Kobold mage. She ighe gs of steel and the booming crashes of her Bugbears, as they unleashed their fury beside Mato.

  A flicker of fme beside her signaled her own Fire Mage’s terattack. The Fireball leapt out across the alleyway striking the wall beside the enemy mage. There was a low thump that shook the storeet, followed by a fsh of brilliant fme and a tremendous bang. The enemy mage’s body flew sideways, smming into a cracked stone wall on the opposite side of the street before sliding down, leaving a gruesome smear in its wake.

  Three simultaneous chimes sounded within her mind as the acrid odor of brimstone overpowered the softer uones of burnt flesh. A sudden silence desded upon the alleyway.

  What? Is it over?

  Ali’s memories of her first battle had had a powerful effe her, driving a sense end desperation. After all, this group of Kobolds was remarkably simir to the first group she had faced. But the oute couldn’t have been more different. I almost died in the first battle, she thought, shocked by how trivial the same fight was now that there were four of them and had all grown substantially.

  “I guess that’s the differeween being level twenty instead of level five,” she breathed.

  “Heck, yes,” Mato growled through a fierce grin as he dragged the twue corpses over to her for destru.

  Ever since he had been old enough to read, had been fasated by stories of discovery. Archeologists, lore hunters, treasure seekers, pathfinders, and dungeon explorers, he had devoured every story he could find. In his childhood daydreams, he alyed the role of the explorer, delving through the a ruins of long-fotten civilizations, mapping out dangerous dungeons and caverns, and sneaking past monstrous guardians to uh areasure and are lore.

  And here he was, standing in the middle of the a and long-buried ruins of the legendary city of learning. Dal’mohra. Untouched for over three thousand years. Most scribes and schreed that the location of the city had been lost forever – if it was ever even more than a myth.

  He gnced over at Ali as she used her strange magic to dispose of the dead Kobolds. And she was born here.

  He sed the ruins from his vantage point on the rooftop. At his back, the enormous stone pilr rose over a hundred feet to the rocky cavern roof above. They had e down on the southern edge of a giant ierraced area, densely poputed with what must have once been residences – surprisingly rge houses. Perhaps a wealthy district? Beyond the terrace, the city ruins sprawled out in an enormous circle filled with roads and stone buildings.

  He could tell it was almost pitch dark, but his Eyes of the Ar skill still showed him the eyscape in exquisite detail, only in shades of gray and bck. To the northeast and northwest, twiant pilrs rose from out of the buildings reag the cavern roof. He carefully memorized the locations of all the major features he could see, roughly sketg the main reference points in his notebook, paying particur attention to the circur, ordered arra of the rings of buildiending outward from the terrace, and the enormous radial roads that cut through it all extending the full length from the ter to the edge of the city. It would take some time to do it justice, but he would be the first to map these legendary ruins.

  He marveled at the exquisite craftsmanship of the a stonework, still almost perfect after several thousand years. This must be the work of the a Dwarven stonemasons. Dwarven history was filled with stories of a stone ah mages of stupendous skill araordinary training, produg marvels that would be impossible in the me. Many schors disted this as the typical inftion of prowess that occurred when history transitioned into legend and myth, but could see the evidence right before his eyes.

  Evetlements in Myrin’s Keep – crafted by the best earth and stone mages the kingdom could muster – paled in parison to the a craftsmanship that y everywhere he looked. In the distanearer the ter of the city, he could make out enormous stoatues of presumably important people – kings perhaps, es.

  Far to the north, an enormous k of the circur city was simply missing, a yawning bck hole being all that he could see in its pce. Like a Leviathan took a bite out of it. Given the quality of the craftsmanship, could scarcely guess what disaster must have befalley to destroy such a rge swath of it. His heart, his curiosity drew his attention toward the se of such destru, hoping to uh a clue as to what might have transpired, but he rei in.

  There will be time enough to explore everything. It will be a lot easier once we dispatch most of the monsters.

  Ali was done clearing the battlefield, and his friends were down there waiting for him. He spent a little of his preana, summoning a floating orb of light with his skill and sending it out to drift above their heads, attag it to follow Ali. His skill had been leveling slowly. Hopefully, this delve would be an opportunity to grow it. A seote would be really handy down here. Given Ali and Mato’s reting of their experiences, and the stealthy rogues i group, it robably safer to keep the lights around. He would e a little further afield to use his Eclipse skill, and it might mess with Ali’s rogues and Bugbears, but the extra safety robably worth it.

  He hopped along the surprisingly intact ste roofs as the group moved northward, following the twisting alleys and winding streets with him guiding them in the general dire of the ter of the city. A brief gleam caught his eye and he quickly called out.

  “Mato, tripwire.”

  Ali and Mato had talked about the ubiquitous traps the Kobolds were so fond of, so he made a mental o keep a sharper lookout. Even from above, and providing them with light, he probably still had the more acute vision. At least they were not magical traps, and simply seeing them was enough to entirely avoid the danger.

  He led the group deeper and deeper into the dungeon, pausing briefly to kill each patrol they entered. The groups of two or three Kobolds were easily dispatched by their superior numbers and higher leveled bat skills, and even the occasional skeletons were no trouble at all. He tio point out the tripwires, dead drops, and loose fgstones with uny ease. So accurately that he was beginning to suspect his two perception skills – Eyes of the Ar and Explorer – were synergizing somehow to identify the danger. It feels almost like I know where the traps should be.

  A dark silhouette lurked in the shadows on top of one of the houses to the left, crouched beside a surprisingly intact stone ey. Carefully, drew his bow and fired, releasing his magic at the st possible moment. I’m gettier at that, he noted happily as the magic lit up the rooftop, and the Kobue hiding on it, right before it struck him in the upper thigh. The Kobold slipped and crashed down the back of the building calling out with an anguished yipping. Immediately, two green-scaled Kobolds charged into the street. Warriors. fired a sed arrow, threading the needle between Malika and one of Ali’s Bugbears, taking the lead enemy warrior in the chest.

  The two warriors fell quickly to the onsught of axes, daggers, and flying Bugbears with massive maces, but there was still no sign of the rogue had shot off the roof. Quickly, he activated Eclipse, blending bato the shadows. Using one of Ali’s Bugbears as a stepdder, he quickly hopped up onto the roof of the building on the opposite side of the street and sed the area.

  There!

  “Ining from the left, up ahead!” he called out to his friends below. Blending in with the shadows, he nocked an arrow and waited till the patrol of six Kobolds charged around the er.

  There’s the mage.

  was being profit at pig out the red-scaled casters in the group. It wasn’t so much the civen that half the time he was seeing in bd-white – but these Kobold Fire Mages wore tattered robes that looked like an academy magister who was down on his lud had been homeless in the slums for several months. They also didn’t carry ons, preferring their potent fire magic.

  His arrow flew silently down into the fray, suddenly igniting into brilliand illuminating the mage as it struck. Ali obviously noticed because her magic bolts immediately arced across the battlefield to strike the same target. He fired again, carefully avoiding the enormous Bugbear leaping over the eo nd among them with a crashing mace strike.

  This is just overkill.

  The Kobolds were simply under-leveled and outnumbered. Ali’s new Bugbear minions seemed to be extraordinarily effective, crushing and sshing their way through the much smaller Kobolds, often sending the small monsters flying with the power of their strikes.

  kept to the rooftops as much as he could, hoppily across the smaller alleys and closely spaced houses, dropping to the streets only when they crossed a major ohe Kobolds and skeletons were easy to pick out, and the traps were still unsophisticated traptions clearly visible with his perception skills. However, when he reached the tric main road, he stopped in his tracks, sing the buildings oher side of the street, finding them to be misshapen, gray, and lumpy, a rather stark trast to the -cut stonework he had gotteo. There were no obvious Kobold patrols on this road, so he decided to wait for the others to catch up.

  “There’s something strange up ahead,” he said. “The buildings lour and gray.”

  “That must be the se with all the bone,” Mato said.

  “Yes, it was very strange,” Ali said as she peered around the st house. “It rayed out from some enormous bone monstrosity we found. And the mana is all weird around here.”

  They all quickly crossed the road in silence, and immediately saw what Ali had meant. All the houses were encrusted with a lumpy grayish substaning ridges and ptes. Many of the buildings looked like they had been draped in a thick yer of heavy gray cobwebs that had ossified. It looked like it had all frozen while flowing around the stohere were occasional real bones embedded in it, stig out haphazardly.

  Looks like Kobold bones. ’s natural caution deepehe Kobolds were easy. This has to be more of a challenge – whatever it is.

  Throughout her book, Lyeneru Silverleaf emphasized caution – to beware of a dungeon’s proclivity for serving up deadly surprises. There was a creepio this pce that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. It felt like he was being observed, but the sensation hovered just out of reach at the back of his mind.

  A sudden movement in the er of his eye caught his attention and he snapped his head around to see, drawing his bow. A small dark gray creature was crawling up the wall. It was about the size of a small fist and had eight legs with a round carapace. Looks a bit like a crab. Despite himself, he shivered.

  Bone Skitterer – Elemental – level 1

  As soon as he moved, it scurried away darting sideways across the wall with a skittering, scraping sound.

  Explorer has reached level 10.

  Silently, they pressed on through the strange bone-covered alleyway. noticed that Ali’s description of the bone substance was quite accurate. It really did look like it had been sprayed on and simply hardened. He found many cases where isoted rib bones, rocks, or skulls were stig out of the bone like they had been trapped and frozen in pow and then he heard the skittering sounds of tiny legs scurrying away or saw the sudden darting movements out of the er of his eyes. The creepiness was really beginning to put him on edge.

  “Mato, trap,” he called out, easy to see from his vantage point up on the roof, and immediately heard Kobold arm calls barking in respohree Kobolds sprang from their cealed hiding spot in a bone-encrusted house behind the tripwire trap, brandishing steel bdes that gleamed a dark reddish b their taloned grasp.

  Warrior – Kobold – level 18Rogue – Kobold – level 16Mage – Kobold – level 19

  Higher levels. Aer gear, he noted, drawing his bow and firing instantly. As his arrow sped toward the Fire Mage, it fred with the brilliant illumination of his light magifusing it with power. In the brief moment of light, his enhanced vision showed him unnatural ridges and ptes of bohat covered the mage’s red-scaled hide.

  What is that?

  His arrow struck the mage hard, ricocheting off, and crag a bony protrusion on her neck. Before his very eyes, the cracked pte began filling in and sealing up the damage. He fired two more arrows in quick succession as the mage looked upward, fixing him with her glowing red eyes. His attacks had no more effect than the first ohe mage’s scaly lips peeled ba what looked like a mog feral grin, baring her fangs. With a sharp gesture of her outstretched hand, her fire mana began to deo a Fireball h above her cws.

  With a sudden chill, he realized how exposed he on the roof with no cover, and immediately began running. The mage tracked him easily, releasing the Fireball which shot across the distan a fsh.

  I’m not going to make it! His eyes widened in shock, and he felt the seari singe his skin.

  But, right in the nick of time, a golden disk of magic popped ien front of his face, taking the full impact of the Fireball. A deafenionation and fsh of fme enveloped the entire roof. crashed into the ste tiles, knocked off his feet by the cussion of the bst, while dislodged and shattered stoiles from the other side of the barrier rained down into the street below. Even just the little energy that flowed around the barrier magic caused his skin to blister as he caught the whiff of his own singed hair. He could only imagine how destructive that would have been if the barrier hadn’t blocked the explosion itself. He shot Ali a grateful gnce, but she was already focused on firing her Are Bolts at the deadly mage.

  “Use magic to crack the bone armor!” Malika shouted, her yell sharing her discovery with the rest of them.

  Not so useful for me, thought, realizing his magic required the arrow to hit for it to be effective. I should have taken Armor Pierg, he thought, realizing Ali was their only pure magic user. He studied the battle below. Malika and several of Ali’s rogues were fighting the enemy rogue. Ali’s Bugbears and warriors were helping Mato with the warrior, and the remaining rogues materialized right behind the enemy Fire Mage, stabbing viciously. However, could clearly see their dagger strikes were iively boung off the dense boes and ridges, hardly b the Kobold at all. An intense aura of fme sprung up around the Fire Mage, filling the battlefield with the stench of burning scales and flesh as the Kobolds caught alight trying to attack through the wall of fme.

  A Firebolt flew across the battlefield and smashed into the enemy mage’s chest, sending bone splinters flying and leaving broad cracks in the armor. Ali’s bolts nded in the same spot, in a much more destructive fashion. Malika was right! quickly nocked another arrow and fired it into the rapidly intensifying fgration. His arrow flew true and buried itself into the Kobold mage’s lower ribcage between the shattered boes, causing it to misfire a bolt of fme.

  I hit you now! He sidestepped the errant bolt of fme and fired again and again, carefully aiming for wherever Ali’s bolts had pulverized the dense and imperable bone armor. Ali withdrew her severely burnt rogues from the intense fmes surrounding the mage, sending them to help Mato instead. Smart choibsp;he thought. Bathed in Mato’s aura, they would recover over time. The intense fme aura seemed to diminish the impact of Ali’s mage’s Firebolts, so it was really up to him ao take out the dangerous fiery Kobold. Ali blocked a sed, powerful Fireball with her barrier, detonating it prematurely out in the open. Her barrier shattered with the force of the bst but mao tain the damage to the fgration already filling the middle of the street. The enemy mage seemed pletely ued by the bst, simply firing off more bolts of fme. dodged the o his way and, aiming carefully, fired another arrow. The arrow sped toward its target, deying the release of his light magic as a matter of habit now. The Fire Mage lit up with the iy of his bolt for a half sed before the arrow buried itself in a k between the shattered boes in her chest. The instant his arrow strue, the intense fme aura vanished, and the Kobold dropped limp to the ground.

  breathed a sigh of relief and switched his attention to Malika’s target. Her magic was fshing rapidly as she attacked the Kobue. But he could see her punches and kicks were vastly less effective than normal. Her magic relies on hitting, too, he realized. It was hard to deliver magical damage wheack skill simply bounced off the enemy’s armor. While Malika was signifitly more effective than he had been on his own, the armor was definitely a problem. Ali’s Fire Mage nded a Firebolt and was surprised to see visibly more damage tha had attacked the Fire Mage they had just killed. He nocked an arrow, firing into the newly opened vulnerability along the Kobold’s ribs before it healed.

  She’s sharp, he noted seeing Malika immediately shifting to take advantage of the same opening, her powerful magially peing and widening the gap. She ignored several dagger wounds on her arms as she unleashed a flurry of punches, her blood spraying crimson into the air with the speed and impact of her attacks. She must be low already. Taking out the rogue quickly seemed the right priority. He fired two more arrows into the gap, barely avoiding Malika. Then the dark street lit up with Ali’s golden bolts smming into the rogue and it colpsed in time with the soft notification chime going off in his mind.

  Even though Ali’s minions and Mato had been fighting with the Kobold warrior the etle, he seemed he worse for it. He focused on blog Mato with his shield, clearly reizing the danger of Mato’s magic, relying on his bone and pte armor to deal with the strikes of the Bugbears and rogues. The ringing g of their ons boung off his armor echoed through the dark street. In addition to the dense bone and scale of his hide, the warrior wore a bae vest made of the same dark reddish steel as his shield and shortsword.

  drew back the b to his ear, primed and awaiting the perfeent to fire.

  There. A Firebolt smmed into the green-scaled warrior, bsting a scorched and smoking hole in the boes along his back. Instantly, released his arrow and by the time it hit, the bone armor was already beginning to close. His sed arrow deflected off, shattering against the wall – the armor already fully regeed.

  That bone armor is crazy. shifted his aim to where Ali’s Are Bolts were striking. The warrior was signifitly more resilient thaher two defeated enemies. Ali’s Bugbears and most of her rogues withdrew. Good choibsp; approved, they were just getting in the way. Rather let Malika do some damage with her magic.

  Malika attacked one of the openings Ali had created with such immense speed that found himself struggling to track her punches. He shifted his position to get a better angle and fired again. It was fortuhat the Kobold’s ridiculeion only affected its armor, and not its health. With the addition of all their magical output, the Kobold was starting to show visible wounds and slow down, its blood leaking down the front of its armor. Still, his defensive fighting style, blog as many of Malika and Mato’s strikes with his shield as possible, drew the fight out way lohan had expected. Eventually, though, the uandoff was broken as the Kobold colpsed to one knee, and Ali’s bolts and Malika’s punches fi off.

  hopped lightly down from his per the rooftop and examihe fallen Kobold warrior. To his surprise, the bes and ptes us green-scaled hide began to shrink, pletely disappearing after a few moments, leaving a normal-looking Kobold corpse. Aside from their higher-quality gear, the other two corpses looked like perfectly ordinary Kobolds, too.

  What was that power – he blinked as a notification pinged his mind.

  Explorer has reached level 11.

  Suddenly, he ected several previously ued pieces of information in his head. The unfortable prig sensation in the back of his mind had been growing every time his Explorer skill leveled. The strange enviro with unusual boifacts. The extraordinary regeing bone armor of the Kobolds they had just faced, which faded as soon as they died. Even the creepy Bone Skitterer creatures. It all ected with the stories of adventurers and pathfinders expl the dangerous areas of the world that he had loved reading as a child.

  This is dungeon magic. He was certain of it. The ambient aura of magic that Ali said she could see would be capable of produg dungeon-wide effects that enhanced many of the dungeon’s minions.

  Explorer has reached level 12.

  Again? Before the sound of his notification chime had faded, while the glowing white text still hovered in his mind, he had the stra sensation of something akin to a door swinging open in his mind. His skill chimed again.

  [Explorer] You have entered a dungeon.Ruins of Dal’mohra – level ??Affinity: Bone, DeathAge: AKnowures: Kobold, Sewer Rat, Giant Spider, Undead Skeleton, Starving WolfKnown Bosses: Aberrant Skeletal Warrior – level 9Dungeon

  As soon as his Explorer skill reached level twelve, it reminded him that they were in a dungeon. But this time he didn’t mind the excessive noisiness as the notifications tinued and he saw the new assessment information provided by his skill leveling up.

  “I just got a skill up,” announced, and rather than expin, he simply shared the dungeon assessment. There wasn’t a lot of information they didn’t already know, but it was good to firm the affinities of the dungeon and even knowing the name of the dungeon was he level being too high to identify was rather w, as was the a age of the dungeon. Clearly, it had been here for a very long time. Maybe even lohan Myrin’s Keep itself. Time enough to grow hoary and funky and dht mean.

  “Death and Bohat’s what my skill told me too,” Ali replied.

  “I think we o be extra careful as we go further,” Malika added. “If the level is higher than we identify then something in here is very strong.”

  tinued sing the remaining notifications.

  Yroup has defeated Fire Mage – Kobold – level 19.Yroup has defeated Dagger Rogue – Kobold – level 16.Yroup has defeated Warrior – Kobold – level 18.

  Archer of Light has reached level 16.+10 attribute points.

  Radiant Archery has reached level 11.Motes of Light has reached level 6.Eclipse has reached level 9.Eyes of the Ar has reached level 8 (+2).

  tightened his hands into fists. Still, there was a reason they were down here, and it wasn’t for a pleasant stroll in a meadow. He dropped six points into dexterity, enough to hopefully improve his aim in case he o hit cracks in bone armain. Then he spent two points on intelligeo increase his magical damage, and recalling the close call with the fireball, decided to spend his final two points boosting his vitality.

  He took the opportunity iermath of the fight to pull up his sheet. He might not be at Ali’s level yet, but he was definitely growing stronger!

  Name: AveryRace: Half-ElfActive Buffs: Blessing of the Dawn

  Css: Archer of Light – level 16- Radiant Archery – level 11- Arrows of Brilliance – level 11- Motes of Light – level 6- Explorer – level 12- Blessing of the Dawn – level 10- Eclipse – level 9- Eyes of the Ar – level 8- [Locked]- [Locked]- [Locked]

  General Skills- Bowcraft – level 6- Wood Carving – level 3- Cartography – level 4

  Aptitudes- Languages: ana (Affinity): Light- Perceptive (Racial): +11 to Perception- Quick (Racial): +5 to Dexterity- Timing (Css): You have an innate sense of timingAttributes- Vitality: 24- Strength: 9- Endurance: 15- Dexterity: 117 (+41)- Perception: 82 (+29)- Intelligence: 75 (+26)- Wisdom: 20

  Equipment- on: Hunter's Bow – level 10- Body: Leather Vest – level 1: Bronze Guild Ring – level 10

  Evasion: 120Dodge: 21.12%

  Health: 240/240Stamina: 150/150Mana: 160/200 (40 Reserved)

  timewalk