Seasonal Quest Complete!

Top 5 contributors

Lin : 32 points, 0 hits received

Sliva : 32 points, 1 hit received

Josh : 22 points, 5 hits received

Yara : (21 points), 3 hits received

Bent Plate : (21 points), 10 hits received

You have gained 75 XP!

“Not a lot of gains,” I said, kicking back in my chair in the mess hall.

Sten held a steaming cup of tea and sipped quietly to himself. He grunted and let out a low chuckle as melting snow droplets ran down his armour, glimmering in the dungeon lights. “Seasonal quests get diluted over thousands of villagers. It’s mostly for the fun of it.”

Sliva frowned across from the poet, her ears flat and her tail angrily thrashing behind her. Rolada winced and cautiously approached her mother with a fresh mug of tea. When Lin arrived with a small coin bag in hand I could see Sliva close her eyes, sip her tea and calm herself before giving Lin a sweet well meaning smile.

That worried me even more.

“Fair is fair, we did make a deal,” Lin said, taking out half the bag, and sliding it in a pile towards Sliva. “As long as Josh is okay with it.” She gave me a warm smile that reached her eyes, and I thought back to what she had told me. I tipped my head in understanding and Lin clapped her hands. “That was a lot of fun, and I see Yara and Bent got to aid their points together by working as a team.”

If this was one of the ways to avoid the grip of her goddess then so be it, a little money wouldn’t be that missed from the treasury. Besides, maybe I could tax her on that money later to get some of it back.

“Is that what the brackets mean?” I asked. I looked towards Burn who was holding his hands up to a heater. “How much did you guys get?”

“Yeah, Sten, the minions and I got around 15. I think the bigger the team the slower the points roll in,” Burn said.

A gleeful minion let out a “merp” from the kitchen and I craned my neck to see two minions, one standing on the shoulders of another. They reached up into a cupboard to fetch a pan while another dragged a stool over to the stove to start cooking up a meal. I watched as the minions started grabbing washed vegetables, attempting to take the skins of them, while others were using a clay heater to quickly defrost a slab of meat.

“I see the meal is in good hands, quite a few hands really. I’m quite interested to see what they do. I shall be in the bath, if there’s an emergency you know where I am,” Sliva said in a poised tone.

She finished her tea, rose and swiftly left. Rolada took Lin to the side to question her, and the others tried to look busy. Yara peeled off another jacket and shivered, excusing herself to go take a dip.

Bent picked up Burn under his arm and waved. “I’ll be running laps. I saw Burn trying to stay in one place, so I’ll get his cardio in.”

Burn protested but was unable to slip out of the ogre’s imposing might. I shook my head wondering how he still had the energy to work out after sprinting around our town for so long.

Dan pulled at my hand and waved a claw, causing a notification to appear. He wanted to summon the newest minion to our dungeon, and wanted my approval.

I hopped back to my feet and told everyone they could find me in the library. I walked beside Dan and checked over the menus. “We definitely want to get the upgrade for him, but that’s a lot of material. I hope the caster type is strong.”

Dan shrugged and tapped the air. I got a sprawling update about our stockpiles, with our metal resources and stone kicking up into the thousands. We even had a few hundred mana crystals of similar grade that I had been using to make into heating crystals. I let out a low whistle, we had quite the haul on our hands.

“Let’s make a new friend,” I said.

The keeper crystal was secure in its room and gently hummed along. There was a bright glow coming from it, more than likely from the incredibly high capacity of power we had on offer. The thought had jumped out to me like it was fact, and I got a small passage that appeared beside it confirming it.

I rubbed my forehead as I felt a headache starting to grow. It was going to take some getting used to my new knowledge talents.

Dan had already ordered the supplies, and standing at the base of the pedestal to the keeper crystal was George and Scott, along with Melvin our metalcrafter. There were more uneven metal ingots and sheets than we needed, and I saw Melvin pick around them, separating them into piles. He was attempting to only use the low grade material we had.

I placed a hand on the pedestal and leered down at the crystal, catching my distorted reflection in the facets of its surface. My face had grown lean, my cheekbones more prominent, and my jaw line was slightly more defined as the lack of sugars in my diet had caused me to burn off fat. My hair was unruly and I looked unlike the man I had once been. But there was a light behind my eyes, a curiosity to poke and explore this odd world. It looked like I wanted to bore into the depths of the crystal to understand it.

Was I a mad man or a perplexed lost soul? Then my reflection winked, and I wondered if the crystal was examining me. An information sheet appeared over the crystal, and I felt my breath catch.

Keeper Crystal, tiny size, Level 3 Crystal

4850/1565 XP

0/5 Minor magical items (Tier 0-1)

0/1 moderate magical items (Tier 2-3)

Skill Bonuses…

Builder 8

I checked the logs and to my dismay it seemed every time the minions had made a large structure, room or an item the crystal got a cut of the experience. It was levelling up extremely fast, even more than I was, and I felt a sense of dread. I had to keep ahead of this thing, before it got out of hand and tried to push me around again.

The minions crowded around me, curiously reaching up to touch my hands and tap me on the side. I let out a long pent up breath and gave each one an affectionate pat on the head. While the crystal might be out to get me, the minions always had my back.

“Let’s summon our new friend,” I said.

A 50% increase in cost has been added, the new minion will start as a level 1 commoner! 23 food, 38 wood, 8 metal and 2 mana crystals have been consumed.

Two tendrils came out of a slot at the base of the pedestal and tapped each resource. Slabs of ham, bacon, and a basket of berries vanished, turning into smoke. Then cracked and warped planks, corroded ingots of copper and two thumb sized mana crystals were added to the smoke cloud, causing it to expand. A portal of viscous shadow tore open beside the crystal, and the air in the crystal room grew cold.

The portal was hazy and hard to see through, but I could pick out a handful of details. Moving shapes of creatures taller than me shuffled between tall spires, ethereal light cast vague silhouettes and at their feet were smaller creatures, minions.

The portal solidified and the dark film over it was peeled back. There was a window, and outside I saw the sky of the Nexus with its floating islands, a table stacked with our offering and a tall slender creature between tall rows of bookshelves. It wore long multi-colored robes that reached the floor, had four arms and a long face that ended in a snout like a wolf, with white demon horns on its head beside wolf ears and piercing blood red eyes that lacked any sclera.

A small minion with grey fur, floppy ears that reached its shoulders and fangs that stuck up from its lower lip approached the portal. There was a rippling sensation over the surface of the portal and the minion changed. It now wore a black and red shirt, had a name tag and the black fur with red eyes of my minions. Shadows collected around its shoulders and condensed into a flowing black cloak with lots of pockets. It looked in awe of its new garb and turned around to show off to the taller creature.

The taller creature nodded in approval and looked off to the side as if inspecting a pop up. It raised an eyebrow and pulled out a wand that it used to tap the head of the minion at its feet. It spoke, but no sound came through the portal and it reached into the folds of its robe to produce a floppy wizard hat with black cloth and red stars. The minion excitedly put it on and ran through the portal arriving on our side before the portal closed behind it.

Caster Minion 1 has arrived.

“Merp!” Caster 1 cheerfully said, reaching its arms out to rapidly shake the other minion’s hands before getting to me. The minion held out all four hands and gasped when it saw my ring. “L-Lord! Merp!”

I shook its little clawed hands and smiled back. “Welcome to the dungeon.”

Another pop up appeared over his shoulder. It was a large wheel with four words on it, each with a different flare, asking me to set the caster’s type. Arcane had a smattering of stars, fire and ice. Primal had plants under it and stinging insects above it. Divine had a glowing aura around it, with feathered cherubs above it, and small impish creatures below. Occult was something else. Books, bowls full of bubbling liquid and a sphere around the word with eyes, too many eyes.

“Is there a time limit on this?” I asked.

The caster shook his head no, and he showed me the rest of his character page.

Caster Minion 1, small size, minion, Level 1 commoner

Strength 6

Constitution 6

Dexterity 6

Intelligence 8(+?)

Willpower 8(+?)

Charisma 8(+?)

Skills

Minions rely on the dungeon crystal’s abilities.

Caster class has +1 magical crafting and +1 research

Talents

Shallow Mana Pool 1

(Spellcasting type not yet chosen)

They were around the same build as the drones, with their physical capabilities matching them. I got the vague sense they were also male, like the rest of my minions, and I wondered if they were all like that. I reached out and patted his head, and the minion’s small tail wagged.

As my hand neared his head I saw the wheel was still there, and it shifted towards my finger. It seemed the bonus to a mental ability and what spellcasting talent it got was tied to the type of magic I gave him. I looked at each of the types and books worth of text appeared in small windows, each having hundreds of passages.

“Let’s go find Rolada,” I said as I felt a pounding headache come to me.

The minions all exchanged a goodbye, and Dan nodded in approval as he added the caster minion to the queue. They quickly took new jobs and hurried off, and I wondered if I should slow them down before the crystal ran away with even more experience points.

I checked on the Golden Knowledge tab and found a message left for me.

Note by Scholar Livy

There’s been an emergency in South Astrallan. It seemed someone found a dried out lakebed with several lost mage towers from the last age. As such the ten adventurers are being assisted by all scholars to record as many texts as they can as the air is causing them to rapidly decompose. We might be a day or two, my apologies, but this knowledge is irreplaceable. We wish you well, student. Press the lower button in a life or death situation.

There was a large red button below the message, and I tabbed out of the page. I got a second notification with a darker border giving me a brief overview. South Astrallan was a landlocked country with a rich history of using magic to manipulate the weather and augmenting their crops with it. They grew luxury goods, mined mana crystals, and enchanted sails on airships letting them fly through the air with ease. At a high cost of course. When the mines ran dry the ease of spell use went with it, and the trade vessels could no longer sustain the trips causing a sudden collapse into violence struggles for the limited resources.

“Good luck Livy, and share some of that research with me,” I said.

I found Rolada in the library with Lin. It looked like Rolada was helping Lin make some kind of card. As we approached the caster minion gasped and looked around with keen interest at our small library. He sprinted off to inspect the journals and books we had.

Rolada spied me and ruffled Lin’s hair before waltzing over to me. Rolada put up a hand to her mouth and leaned in, dropping her voice low. “She’s making an apology card before my mom pranks her back. Apparently the threat of getting turned into a regular house cat by a divine curse spooked Lin.”

“Ah, let’s chat and let her focus.” I took Rolada to a pair of chairs with a side table and waved to the caster bringing him over. “Think you can give me the quick rundown on these four?”

“He’s so cute, I just love the hat,” Rolada said, dropping down to the minion’s level. “Hi, I’m Rolada, the head scholar here. Are you here to be my little buddy?”

“Merp!” the minion said as he rapidly opened three books, pointing things out to Rolada. “Mer-merp, f-fire and boo-oom.”

“Uh oh,” I said, leaning over to see what he was doing.

He had several damaged books taken from the fire priest’s bodies after the siege from Lord Gastov. He was showing off thick blocks of text, designs and sketches of the staff they had wielded. The text was mostly in Igni, and I picked out the ones that described spellcraft and refining mana to cause combustion.

Staff of the Fire Snake : 0.5% Complete!

Rolada tilted her head and hummed to herself. “I think if we give him some of the broken ones we have it can help him. He might even be able to fix them.”

The minion sat down and carefully poured over the texts in a loose circle around him while Rolada returned to her chair. She examined the air beside her and posed her head in thought.

“The best short and sweet way I can put these huh? Arcane is what you and I do, we use mana and turn it into things, sensations or applying raw power. I like to make illusions, you can make fire, that kind of stuff. Primal magics deal with nature, it creates life for simple creatures like plants or beasts if you have parts of them, like the wings of a bee lets you summon a swarm of them. Primal magic also lets you manipulate natural forces, fire and air magic like you use has some crossover with primal.” Rolada wove her hand through the air, creating little illusionary images between us to show me what she meant. They were mostly translucent with pink highlights.

A flowing swarm of bees transformed into a plant that was buffeted by the wind. I got a few windows of text that broke it down. Arcane users were typically wizards, sorcerers and bard types, like the two of us, with a few outliers. Primal magic was mostly for druids, most types of rangers and some barbarians.

“How does the class system work?” I asked. “When I started out I was just a keeper, but once I had a fight under my belt and a magic talent I turned into a battlemage.”

“Hush,” Rolada said. “All in due time, one thing at a time Josh.” Rolada stuck out her tongue and laughed. “You really are inquisitive. We can always have these chats over dinner.”

I shrugged. “I have a lot on my mind so I’ll take a rain check on that. So divine magic is…”

“Tricky to break that one down. It really depends what god the caster serves and what they do, because they share their powers with their followers. Most divine magic is helping or hindering living beings, those spells tend to fare poorly against constructs. There’s always the healing and cure spells like you have seen. Then there is banishing spirits, summoning them, or cursing people. All that fun stuff,” Rolada said.

“Occult gives me…an ominous feeling,” I said, scratching at the back of my neck.

Rolada shrugged. “Occult magic is pretty old and cryptic. It deals with hexes, curses, and rituals. It's not as simple as throwing a blob of fire at someone, it's more nuanced and pretty terrifying how strong it is. Heard of fables with people inflicted by terrible curses from a witch? That’s occult magic. At the same time all occult magic tends to have a counter, something that pins it to the target. Find that weakness and you can cure it, usually completely.”

There were more pop ups. Divine magic was for clerics and paladins, just like I expected, while occult had a huge swath of users. Hexers, warlocks, witches, sages and more. There were a lot of ‘usually for’ and ‘typically used by’ hovering next to class names and when I clicked on one it broke down into long lists of class types.

“As for class types we can talk about that when you level up in the future,” Rolada said. She crossed a leg over her knee and winked at me. “Notice anything different?”

Rolada was in her normal type of attire, a long sleeve sweater that clung to her form, a skirt, long socks, and her long red hair was up in a ponytail. I did see the leather hair tie she used had three rings binding her hair together, each one glimmering with an enchantment. Her playful green eyes inspected me back, taunting me with wanting to know more.

The magnifying glass appeared and it compared what I knew about her before to now.

Rolada, Fox beast-kin, Level 5 Golden Fox Scholar

“Oh wow, you already hit five?” I asked. I could feel the hairs rise on the back of my neck. “What tier of spells can you use now?”

Rolada cheerfully laughed. “I did! I also picked up a research talent that helps me understand cryptic writing, hidden messages and more. Now I can read up on the cult stuff way easier. I even got to customize my class, giving it my own name and changing how I get talents. Oh, and watch this.”

She took out her flute and a vial full of crushed glass or crystal that glowed. She played on her flute, and I felt the magic rise into the air. The library blurred away, and I was now sitting beside Rolada on a grassy knoll overlooking the sea. Ahead of us was a white sand beach, little boats on the water and bright tropical birds flying around us. There was wafting food smells and I felt content, sinking back into the grass. I closed my eyes, the headache receding for now.

Wisdom Save : Success!

Then my mind picked up on something, and my eyes shot open. The sun had been low in the sky but the light suggested it was midday, the boats were going into the breeze, not using their sails to get powered by it, and the birds were circling around not flapping their wings. There was a breaking sound and I was back in the library with a slightly winded Rolada who was getting fanned by Lin.

“Sorry, tier three magic takes a lot,” Rolada said.

“Tier three already? I only hit two at level four,” I said. I bolted upright and felt woozy. “Damn, I need to work harder.”

“When you level up you can change how your progression works. If you slide more towards magic you can get it faster, but then you might not get your sword skills,” Rolada said.

“Sorry Josh,” Lin said, giving me a sheepish smile. “I made you too good at fighting, Ewyernar thinks you are half fighter half wizard and I slowed you down.”

I tried to stand and the feeling I was about to topple over doubled. I checked my status page and saw vanishing tags blink away. Charmed, major reduced speed, reduced reactions and more. It looked like one hell of a spell.

Rolada put away the vial and it looked like she recovered. “It’s an area of effect spell that uses illusions to trick creatures into letting down their guard. If they wake up early the effects linger for a few seconds. I figure if I can’t fight as directly as you two I can at least limit how many people are attacking my friends at once.”

Lin and I exchanged a glance and nodded enthusiastically, keenly asking how the spell worked. Rolada showed us her spellbook and the accompanying tune it needed. It had a huge range, well over a hundred feet to set a target area and it created a sphere that she could make a few feet across to about thirty. It only lasted a minute, but anyone that failed would stand still, lost in a dream like state. If they did get shaken out of it they were usually groggy for a moment or two. Anyone that critically failed could be lost in the illusion for ten minutes or more.

“I need to remember other casters are probably good at shaking it off,” Rolada said. She glanced down and put a hand over her mouth. “Or maybe not.”

The caster minion was splayed out on the ground near me, reaching into the air as if he was holding something fragile and gasped with awe. The sensation of magic in the room lessened as Rolada’s spell came to an end, and the minion sat up in a state of confusion.

“Arcane is probably best for him if you want him making magical items since we are the same type and can pool our strength together,” Rolada said. Her fox ears shot up as she pointed at his hat. “He has the headwear for it.”

If it meant we could work together then it was better he was on the same page as us. I tapped on the arcane type, and there was a flash of purple light above the minion. A spellbook dropped into his lap, and the minion was instantly set on reading it. I saw his character page open up and his intelligence jumped up to 11. I saw a warning under his page I hadn’t noticed before and checked on it.

Magical crafting and research are rare type skills and receive reduced bonuses from the keeper crystal levels.

That was a shame, but regardless he had a head start to it and I wanted to know what he could make. The minion was on the first page of his spellbook and he showed us the page, and I recognized the spell. I had been on the receiving end of it.

“Jolt, that’s what the gnomes used. I’m looking forward to giving those red capped jerks a taste of their own medicine,” I said.

The minion looked at the spellbook, then at the work order queue. He requested a small wood rod, a small piece of copper, paper, magical based ink and a cracked mana crystal. Along with it was a handful of tools and a bowl. He ran to a wide reading table and the objects were brought in by other minions, including a box wrapped up with a bow.

Lin picked it up and read the tag. “To Josh, from Icharn.” She popped it open to find a large dark purple mana crystal, shaped just like the one set in the gust cloak with a small note. “This mana crystal can hold up to three mana points and can be used to make a fine magic object once you gain a rank in a skill. Enjoy your boon.”

I held up the note feeling embarrassed I had forgotten about it. “Thanks Icharn!”

Icharn has received your thanks.

The caster minion looked at it with wide eyes and I cautiously put it in my new magical bag. It would get glitter coated, but I would rather save it for a big project. The minion then gathered its material and set to work.

It crushed the damaged mana crystal and put it in a bowl followed by some ink. As it dissolved he took a small knife and started to carve a hollowed out space into the wood rod. He marked the spot, pointed at the small copper block the length of my thumb then the wood rod as if he wanted to put it inside it. Lin took over carving into it, while the minion showed us the spell page. He tore strips off a blank page and left the quills for us while he used the rest of the page to write down new runes I hadn’t seen before.

My keeper knowledge skill kicked in and listed them as active spell components, focusing point and magical focus. I shrugged and followed Rolada’s lead as we copied down the spell. It was made more difficult by the fact the spell runes under the spell's name was one I was unfamiliar with, yet my hand still guided me like it knew what it was doing.

Rolada and I ended up with copies of the spell, and I couldn’t pick out any mistakes. Lin finished making the space and set the copper piece in it, slotting it in. The minion took the wood rod and wrapped his paper around it, ours and then requested some leather. Dan hurriedly arrived with a piece of tanned boar skin and the caster minion cut off a long strip that he used to make a grip over the papers.

The wood rod smoked and condensed, turning into a gnarled, jagged piece of wood with dark cracked lines. It looked like the wood had been forced into a lightning bolt shape. I smelled ozone coming from it, and we were left with what I would call a wand.

“Boo-om,” the caster minion said, setting it in my hand.

I picked it up and got a warning that the wand was empty of charge and had a max mana point limit of one. There were a few question marks in the window that appeared beside it, and all I could make out was the spell name, ‘Jolt’. I got an option to charge it with one of my own mana points and I did so, feeling it warm up in my hand.

We had put a spot on the far side of the library to test spells, and I went over with my allies close to my heels. It was a cut out stone hall that ended with a few blocks of wood with targets over them collecting dust.

I held the charged wand and pointed at a target. “Jolt!”

A bolt of energy the length of my arm shot out of the end of the wand straight at the target. It lit up the hall and burned my sense of smell as the overpowering stench of ozone mixed with rain filled the air. The bolt hit a few inches off the bullseye and blasted out a chunk of wood before bouncing back to the floor, then the ceiling knocking down a clay tile. The end of the wand glowed white and faded leaving the wand intact.

The Wand of Jolt has been created!

+25 XP divided to all creators!

Magical crafting has increased to Rank 1!

+25 XP gained.