By the time Dix finished the next three fights Thunk and Error were ecstatic. The new arrival had only a small number of spells, but managed to be nearly as deadly with them as he was with his weapons. Adding in the Risen, including a fourth larger rat that Dix named Emilia, was complete overkill. The final fight he volunteered to do without any spells, skills, or Risen.

Just like the previous fights, Dix tore through the rats like a man possessed. Sadly, without his skills, particularly Empower, he didn’t manage to escape unscathed. Empowered didn’t just make him hit harder, it also made him tougher, as well as faster. And the speed increase wasn’t limited to just movement, it increased his speed of thought and his reaction time. Without it he had a much more difficult time adjusting to the rats.

The fight started well, but quickly went downhill by Dix’s normal standards. As per his usual, he threw a couple of knives at the rats in the rear corners, and followed up by charging towards the central rat. Unfortunately, without Enhanced Throw and Empower, the knives didn’t have the power to punch through even the weaker bones of the skull surrounding the eye socket. Subsequently, both rats survived, although one was blinded in one eye. The other knife actually missed by a small amount, simply slicing open a gash along the side of the rat’s skull as the blade glanced off the bone. Perhaps worse, without the boost from Empower, he was too slow on his charge and the central rat managed to not only notice him, but leap to the attack before he could get within range.

Realizing that he wouldn’t get the drop on the central rat, he pulled up short as the rat used its signature attack and jumped at his face. Bracing his spear against his boot, he leveled it straight at the idiotic beast. While waiting for the rat to impale itself, he flicked a couple more knives out towards the two rats coming from the corners nearest the door. Once more the lack of skills showed, as the blades failed to cause their normal massive damage. Instead, he only managed to slow them down as the knives sunk into shoulders.

His passive skills were still active, so he didn’t need to look to know where any of the rats were. One about to die on his spear, two stumbling a little as they continued their run at his back, another snarling in rage as it poured everything it had into charging the thing that hurt it, and the last staggering around with a knife in its eye, still disoriented. His mind raced, laying out different plans and contingencies. He knew he would take some damage from this fight, and while charging into the middle of the room might not have been the best plan, he still had some options.

Dix clamped his second hand to the spear just as the leaping rat’s momentum drove it chest first onto the spear. With barely a pause, he shifted his grip and used that same momentum to help him increase the speed of his swing as he used the impaled rat as a hammer head. With its jaws still gaping wide in an attempt to bite him, the central rat was slammed into the one coming from Dix’s left rear. He was unsure if it was a last ditch effort to kill him, or simple instinct, but the rat slammed its jaws closed on impact. It might not have killed the other rat, but it took it out of the fight for a little while along with his spear as well.

Despite his attempt to pivot out of the way while hammering the left rat, the right one still managed to attack him during its leap. Thankfully he had managed to move far enough to the side that the rat couldn’t bite him, but it still managed to claw along his shoulders. As Dix dropped his spear turned rat hammer, the rat’s claw managed to snage on his harness. Already oddly positioned from his swing, the sudden addition of the rat’s weight and momentum tugged him off balance, dragging him down to the ground. The sudden change in position affected the rat as well, causing it to twist around mid air before landing on its back. It would have recovered from the hard landing in short order if Dix hadn’t crashed into it shoulder first, driving its skull into the stone of the floor. It wasn’t dead, only unconscious. Not that Dix would give it a chance to wake back up.

Plans to kill the vulnerable rat aside, Dix had more important things to do for the moment. The pissed off rat with the head wound was mid leap for his back, and he was on the ground. Only one of the rats was dead, with two more incapacitated, and the half blind one was starting to figure out what was happening. The tiny rage monster was his next target. Once more a rat slammed into his back, but this time it claws found purchase on the back of his neck, and under his outstretched arm. Rolling with the impact, Dix managed to toss the rat off his back, but it took some chunks of him with it. Completing his roll into a kneeling position, he snapped out a hand full of knives, one after the other, into the tumbling rat, only missing once. This time the knives sank into its unprotected belly and chest. It wasn’t an instant kill, but the rat would bleed to death in short order.

The one eyed rat was just about in jumping range, so Dix pulled his hammer, reversing it to use the pick. As the rat leapt at him, he lunged to his feet, unleashing an underhand blow that caught the rat in the chest and redirected its suddenly dead body over his head as he carried through with the swing. Without warning, the only rat not dead, dying, or unconscious attacked. Ignoring the dead rat attached to its body, it surged forwards, lunging instead of leaping for once. With his feet solidly planted to help him redirect the rat impaled on the pick of his hammer, Dix had no way to dodge. Releasing the hammer, Dix grit his teeth to strangle the scream that was torn from his throat as the rat clamped its teeth closed on his calf. Again he had a rat driving its incisors through one of his limbs. Without many other options, he was forced to throw his last few knives straight down into the exposed portions of the rat to avoid tearing his muscles apart on its teeth.

When it finally died, he carefully bent at the waist to pry the jaws open with his fighting knife. Sighing, he looked to the dwarf and elf watching his sloppy fight, saying, “Well, while I could finish off this last one without any skills, I’m going to use Touch of Death instead. I really don’t feel like bleeding all over the place until we find another pack of rats for me to kill.” Seeing Error’s consenting nod, that was just what he did. Once he was mostly topped back up, and healed, he commenced gathering his weapons. Figuring they had time while he gathered everything up he asked a simple question, “Well?”

Dix had seen Error making notes after each fight, and was eager to hear what that man had to say. It wasn’t that he thought he had done badly, but more that Error actually had experience dealing with this sort of thing. Dix actually thought he hadn’t done all that great, particularly during his last fight. To him, he only managed to kill all of the rats he had because they were weak and stupid.

Error chuckled while Thunk just shook his head. Done laughing at the absurdity of the man, Error replied, “It’s obvious that while your skills make a difference, they aren’t the reason you are so deadly. You fight a lot like an assassin, always aiming for weak spots, something your skills help to emphasize. I do have one question though. Why didn’t you fight from the hallway entrance?”

“Yeah, that would have made this a lot easier, but I figured I might as well give you a fair assessment of what I can do. The hallway would have definitely reduced the number that could attack me at once, as well as restrict them from hitting me from behind, but I won’t always have a hallway available to help. As you intend to train me, I figured a better assessment of how well I can fight without any other advantages would give you a better baseline than a fight where I only have to deal with enemies in one direction. I figured I’d get hit a couple times, but I knew I’d live. The only real wound I took was that last one, which was my own fault. I wasn’t watching him close enough to realize it had given up on fighting off the other rat.” Dix shook his head as he admonished himself. He really was disappointed in himself for not catching it.

With another sigh, he went back to collecting weapons and tails. He was using some of the rags from his old duster to clean the blades of his weapons as he drew them from the rats. Close inspection of his knives, and spearhead showed that they wouldn’t last forever. There were a few chips and knicks in the blades. His hammer, however, looked fine. One of the first things he planned to buy with his money from the rat tails was a whetstone, so he could keep his weapons sharp and functional.

Error and Thunk were both impressed to see a man recently come from another world caring for his weapons so well. Error had been trained since birth to care for his weapons, but Thunk learned it the hard way when his axe broke mid fight. Without his abilities as a priest, he would have lost his life that day. Both men had seen too many rookie adventurers lost to lack of proper care for their weapons, but it was difficult to get them to listen to such things as basic care for their tools. Experienced adventurers, on the other hand, were almost superstitious in their upkeep of all of their gear, most having had close calls similar to Thunk’s during their careers.

With a glance the two old friends reaffirmed their decision to train Dix to their utmost, as well as their original plan of what to do next. They had skipped a couple of the early steps, but this would actually work out much better than they originally planned for. Thunk turned to Dix, and passed on their plans. “So, now that we’ve seen what you can do, let’s all head back to the cathedral. If you give me the rat tails you gathered, I can hand them off to the guards at the exit on the way out, and you can just use Return. Error will go with you, and show you where you can get cleaned up before we speak.”

Dix raised an eyebrow quizzically, but still shrugged in acceptance and handed over the bundle he had made of the tails. “Sure thing, here you go. 36 rat tails.” He paused in thought for a minute before asking the questions that were bothering him. “You have any idea what happens to my Risen when I use Return? And how is he supposed to go with me, anyways?”

The two shared a look again, before Thunk waved and started heading back to the entrance. Error spoke up, “Well, your Risen should be able to be stored within you. Just put your hand on them and think ‘Store.’ As for me, I have a skill that lets me attach to the transport spells and skills of others. You’ll actually want to pay close attention to your ability while you are activating it, so that you can see when I use my skill. It might take a few tries before you get it, but Latch isn’t all that uncommon among assassins, so it is an important thing to learn. Latch basically uses my mana to follow whatever transport ability someone else uses, and does the exact same thing to me.”

Dix was impressed by how perfect such a skill was for an assassin. He also had a number of ideas about other ways the skill could be used if it was possible to modify. While it was an interesting topic, he didn’t think the middle of a dungeon was the place to discuss it. Grabbing his pack, he lifted it over his shoulder and dropped it onto its holders. Looking at Error, he was surprised to find the man studying the backpack, and its accompanying array of harness attachments.

Still staring intently at the bag, Error asked, “You found this in the equipment hall? Why would someone give this up? It seems amazing for early adventurers, or anyone who doesn’t have an Inventory yet.”

Dix smiled. “I thought the same thing, but when I found it the quick release didn’t work right, so it was just a backpack with too many straps to get it off easily. A few small modifications made all the difference. I was hoping to figure out who made it, so they could see what I did. They might have a more elegant solution than leather thongs. Either way, this sort of thing is way too useful to not be more commonplace.”

Nodding, Error said, “I’ll help you.” Looking back at Dix he continued, “But, for now, let's get back. Thunk has a travel spell too, I just hate Deadhead.”

Hearing the name of Thunk’s skill, Dix couldn’t help but smirk to himself. The dwarf had the bird brain skill, and the elf, understandably, hated it. His biggest surprise was that a dwarf had a flight based transport skill. He was convinced that dwarves hated not being on the ground. Then again, he was also convinced no self respecting dwarf would name its kid “Thunk” of all things. It was a name for an orc, ogre, or troll. Dwarven bias or not, Thunk was originally a Human from earth, and Deadhead was similar enough to be the magical equivalent of an airplane.

With a quick thought, his Risen came running. Originally he was going to wait for all of them, but he soon realized the last of the smaller Risen was still quite some ways away. Feeling along his connection to it, he managed to separate its thought stream from the others. Very carefully, he thought ‘Release’ along the path he had isolated. A moment later, he felt the rat start dissolving, just as the connection did. Smiling to himself, he waited for Ratso, Fatso, Doug, and Emilia to arrive. When they gathered up at his feet, he held out his hand, letting two rats press their noses to each hand. Thinking ‘Store,’ he watched as the rats turned to smoke and seeped into his body through his pores. He didn’t feel any different, and a quick focusing of his thoughts on his status display showed only small changes.

Raise Dead

Skill Level: 2

Using the magic of Death itself, you can bring the recently deceased back to life. Of a sort. Those raised are complete slaves to their new master. Power of a Risen is determined by many factors including the body itself, its condition, and the level of this skill. Stats and skill levels will be reduced from those the body had while living, although reduction can be reduced if the body is raised immediately. Risen remain until destroyed, or released from their master. Increased levels of this skill will raise the number of Risen it can support, the level of power they can maintain, and the level of fine detail control over their existence. Risen can be stored in the body by touching them and thinking ‘Store.’ Risen stored contribute to the capacity count.

Storage: 4/5

Ratso, Giant Rat, Level 2

Fatso, Giant Rat, Level 2

Doug, Giant Rat, Level 2

Emilia, Giant Rat, Level 2

Looking at the changes to the skill description gave Dix an interesting piece of information. He had mistakenly assumed that the only skills that would have changing descriptions would be his racial skills, but apparently not. If any skill could have hidden information, then he suddenly had a lot more experimenting to do. With skills that were fairly established, he hoped that he could simply find the information somewhere like a library. He would ask Error and Thunk about it later.

Still shaking his head at the lunacy of the world he was now in, Dix started up Return. The skill started sucking mana out of him, slowly creating a bubble around him. It wasn’t spherical, instead being almost a second layer of skin, but one that went over his clothes, weapons, and other gear. Activating Mana Sight he watched as the bubble was woven around him. Just before the skill was finished, he suddenly noticed a tiny thread of mana that was a slightly different color down near his ankle. Following it, he saw that it was formed from the base of Error’s similar bubble. Before he got a chance to comment on his findings, the bubble finally sealed over the top of him. Immediately after there was a rush of air, like someone had opened a door near him, and he felt himself falling without moving. There was a bit of a rushing feeling, and the air seemed to flow up from his feet in a ring around him. As it passed his eyes, he could suddenly see the room Thunk had given him in the cathedral. Once the bubble had finished the whole transfer process happened in an instant that only felt slightly longer. Looking to his side, he saw Error appear exactly the same distance away as he had been when the skill was used. He’d have to remember that in the future.