After the End: Serenity

As they walked to the doors, Serenity queried the Voice.

Am I remembering correctly that XP from actions in a dungeon awards at the end of each level, not just at the end?

Ever since he’d come back in time, the only multi-level dungeons he’d been in other than the Great Tutorial Dungeon were either on Tzintkra, where he hadn’t paid that much attention or Aki. Experience he’d accrued while inside Aki’s dungeon didn’t seem to have the normal dungeon delay, which was probably because he lived there and didn’t need to “complete” anything.

[It is possible for a dungeon to change the normal experience accrual pattern, but most do not choose to do so. Earth’s dungeons are currently operating using a limited feature set to soften the learning curve]

This is a Field Dungeon. Does it have levels? I don’t remember that sort of thing from other Field Dungeons.

[Progressive Field Dungeons usually have waypoints or defined difficulty increase points that serve the same purpose as a level increase in other dungeon types]

Serenity grinned. He was fairly confident that the Voice’s answer meant it wasn’t allowed to give specifics about a particular dungeon, but that it had still answered what Serenity needed to know. He’d be able to level a Path while still in the dungeon.

Andarit was quiet at first while they walked towards the exit, but once they were past the worst of the gore she seemed to relax and asked the question that had clearly been bothering her. “Something else?”

Serenity picked a spot next to the door out of the room and sat down; it would be as safe as anywhere. “Yeah. I need to replace the spells I evoked during that fight, maybe infuse a couple others for utility. First, though, I need to pick a new Path. I should’ve done that before we came in here. Wasn’t sure what we’d need.”

“A Healing Path,” Andarit immediately responded. “Neither of us is a healer; I have a hair ornament that gives me a really low out-of-combat healing rate, but you don’t have anything. I can lend it to you if you get hurt, but it’s pretty slow if the injury is large.”

Serenity smiled at that and shook his head. “I have excellent self-Healing. Almost certainly better than your hair ornament. I can’t heal anyone else, and I very much doubt I’ll get a true Healing Path. One of the odd specialties, maybe, but not true Healing.”

Andarit frowned. “Why not? You said you’re a mage, a lot of mages pick up some sort of minor healing spell.”

Serenity smiled slightly and shook his head. Even Vengeance hadn’t had a true healing Skill; he’d picked up a bodily repair Skill that worked on the undead instead, and Vengeance had had the Life Affinity at that point. “I don’t have the Healing Affinity or the Life Affinity. Healing isn’t in any of the Affinities I have. The closest I could get ... well, it might be possible but it wouldn’t really be healing.”

He might be able to find a Path that would let him turn back time selectively; that might “heal”, though there were potential complications depending on exactly how the Skill worked. Or something that let him shapeshift another; that seemed plausible for a shapeshifter. He doubted he’d take either Path, even if he did want a Time-based Path at some point.

“Still, that’s not what I think we need. You do have your hair ornament and I have my healing. What we need is a better way to deal with swarms; either a control ability or an area attack. So I figured I’d see if I could pick one up in my next Path. I need some ranged attacks, too; I only have one. It’s powerful but I’d really like some more flexibility.”

Andarit took a seat on the ground facing Serenity. “I should get some control Skills at some point, but it’s true I don’t have any yet.” She frowned, staring at the ground. “I should’ve used my enhancement Skills. I mean, I should’ve used them on you. I did have them on myself. They do more on me but they can be used on other people. I don’t think they’re as good on other people as the one you used, but they worked together really well with yours.”

Serenity could see why she’d think of the Quickness spell as an enhancement; it was. Still, thinking of what she should take wasn’t helpful unless she was at the end of a Path as well. As he thought about it, Serenity realized that they’d shared in general terms what they could do, but not where they were on their Paths. “Are you ready to take another Path, as well?”

Andarit laughed. It sounded bitter. “I would be if I had a good Path to take. I only have two Paths available, and neither of them is worth taking. Father wants me to take one about managing the Dukedom, but for some reason none of the ones he knows of will show up.”

As far as Serenity was concerned, the only Path that wasn’t worth taking was one that would be hard to level; you could always take another Path later, once you finished your current Path. There were Paths he’d never take because of the direction they’d take him, as well; those were easy to think of, but he’d have called them repugnant instead of “not worth taking”. Still, Serenity knew that many people tried to have their Paths lead them on a narrow route instead of a broad one like he’d followed. It was faster to Tier up, and that was important if your leveling was slow.

Most people didn’t have infinite time to level, after all.

Come to think of it, his current history of about two Paths per Tier was fairly close to some of the faster people he’d seen. They usually developed weaknesses he thought he was avoiding, but he had the advantage of experience and of his attributes growing through a different method.

The reason for Andarit’s issue was probably quite simple. “Have you ever managed the Dukedom?”

Andarit looked puzzled. “Only when Father was away, as a caretaker. Why would he have me manage anything until I was ready and had the Path?”

Serenity shrugged easily. “How does he expect you to get a Path for something you’ve never done?”

Andarit’s forehead scrunched as she tried to think of an answer. “By having me do related stuff? He said one of the Paths required me to have a retainer that was loyal to me first and the family only after me. And there’s one that’s supposed to be based on doing the dukedom’s finances … I didn’t want that one. Too boring.”

Serenity wished he’d quit getting offered Paths that talked about Lordship or Sovereignty just by skipping some of the duties.

He chuckled and shook his head. “Well, you said you want a Path that gives you the ability to control a battle, right? Let’s see if we can get you that first. Combat Paths are straightforward to level, you can finish it off whenever you’re ready to look for your next Path.”

When Andarit nodded, Serenity gave her the directions he’d decided on. “So, your enhancement Skills; they’re probably for a whole person, right? Try casting one of them on my arm. Only my arm.”

It took Andarit a few tries to manage it, and it was far slower than a normal Skill activation because she had to concentrate on using the Skill differently; she couldn’t just let it follow its built-in pattern. Serenity had expected that. This was simply getting her the practice that would let her gain a new Path, not altering the Skill itself. They didn’t have time for that, but more importantly there was no reason to do it. The skill was fine as it was; Andarit just needed to know how to do the opposite.

There were several ways to alter Skills to get credit for other Skills and gain a Path, but Serenity was trying the simplest one he knew for getting a control skill of any sort. “Okay, now I’m going to throw my ax into the room. I want you to buff my arm when it seems like it’ll throw off my aim. That’s all you’re trying to do; surprise me.”

It took about a dozen tries before Andarit succeeded, which was lower than Serenity had expected. He was using his ax because he could call it back to his hand and it wasn’t as potentially damaging as punching her, which was how he’d learned. Of course, he’d started as a melee combat specialist; he’d had no trouble getting repeatedly punched by a mage. The other way around seemed less reasonable.

Serenity made her repeat it several times before he sent her in to check if there was a new Path open for her.

Andarit opened her eyes and grinned at Serenity. “It was there. Looked pretty close to what I wanted, and it’s a combat Path. I don’t think they level all that easily but in our dungeon I should be able to get through it when I need to. I’m not at the Tier Three attribute limit, I’ll need another Tier Three Path to get there. I can take the one Father wants next. So what are you going to do to get your Path?”

Serenity wasn’t sure he needed to do anything; he expected it was probably already unlocked. Even so, giving her an example of how to unlock a Path was worthwhile. “I’ll cast the spell I want a Skill for. Probably cast a few similar ones. Get comfortable; this is going to take a while.”

Serenity started with a plasma-ball; fireballs were a classic for a reason. Fire was easy to use to destroy things. His second spell was an Energy Cone; it was more or less lightning, and he had to deliberately avoid allowing it to anchor to a spot other than the one near him; keeping it jumping was part of the spell, as was keeping it from spreading too far vertically or back towards him. Different shapes were important if he wanted to get a more general spellcasting Path, and it only made sense to use lightning for the cone. Sure, it might look a lot like a movie villain, but getting lightning to spread as desired wasn’t nearly as difficult as constraining plasma.

Unlike the more physical energy types, Death Affinity could be whatever shape he wanted it to be without any difficulty, so Serenity picked a rectangle. It was hard to do corners with energy. Normally it would be done with water or earth, but Serenity’s liquid and solid Affinities were poor and he didn’t see the point. There was no visible effect other than the magic itself, but Serenity heard Andarit back up a step so she must have been able to see something.

Serenity wasn’t certain how to attack with SpaceTime or Liminality as direct damage area spells; the best he could think of was using them to trip. Perhaps Liminality could be used as the equivalent of a monomolecular wire?

It didn’t really seem right for that. He’d have to think about it more.

SpaceTime still seemed more useful for control than damage; he knew that rending space could work, as could extreme gravity, but either one was very, very mana intensive and not particularly efficient.

That left Nihility as a high Affinity that could directly do damage he hadn’t used yet. Like Death, he could make it whatever shape he wanted, so he decided to make a non-regular shape with holes. That was possibly one of the most useful shapes, since it wouldn’t hit his allies, but it was harder to create and aim.

When he triggered the spell, several of the bodies in the gym disappeared and Serenity heard Andarit gasp. He’d used way too much mana for that, and he’d taken a solid hour and then some building the spells, but he was satisfied with how it had gone.

“That set of spells should unlock a good area effect magic Path. Normally you’d do it as you learn them, and it’s probably already available for me, but I wanted to show you what to aim for.” Serenity turned back to face Andarit and found her staring into the gym with her hand covering her mouth.

Voice? I think I’d best choose that Path now.

[The Zonal Evocation Mage Path is the best match to the spells you just used]

Interesting name. I’ll take it.

[Are you certain you do not wish to advance to Tier Four first?]

I’d have to choose another Species, wouldn’t I? I’m not ready for that. I don’t want to mess up my Dhampir disguise; I’m sure I’d have to reestablish it, and that would give it away.

General