The Pinnacle Warrior

“I always loved singing for my family growing up, but the first time I performed in front of people, my voice squeaked and I got too embarrassed to continue. The girl I liked was there, and she laughed at me. I tried to get over it, but the next time I tried to play in front of a group, the flute had a little problem with one of the connections between the different parts. I know and knew it wasn’t my fault, but it stuck with me.” Benedict flushed, grimaced, and generally looked really embarrassed. Even so, he didn’t pull back from it once he was admitting his “secret shame” and its origin.

“That is foolish.” Muti shrugged and turned away, obviously uncaring about what the reasons for Benedict’s fear were. As soon as she realized the story wasn’t nearly so gory (literally or otherwise), she’d stopped paying any real attention. Considering her approach to any non-martial Class, it wasn’t surprising, and she’d always seemed generally unconcerned with the rest of the world’s perception of her… Astrid stopped listening or paying attention to the Barbarian, instead looking at Benedict, who was obviously putting on a front of unconcern. 

“And you haven’t gotten over that?” Astrid asked, keeping her tone as non confrontational as she could manage, though she couldn’t help but feel disappointed in his weak will. “You’ve got a Class that’ll let you catch up, and even surpass your delver peers. Frankly, it’s pretty stupid to me that you haven’t pushed yourself to be able to get over—”

“I know.” The unconcerned visage that he projected fell away in its entirety as Benedict hissed his response. “I get it. It’s petty and dumb, and it’s still a part of me.”

Astrid put both hands up, trying to manage her own frustrations. He had a point. If the Bard could help it, he wouldn’t be struggling with it, and masking that frustration with humor was enough of an indication that Astrid needed to get over herself and cut him some slack. 

“You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s a little humorous, considering all the rumors and jokes about Bards, but I shouldn’t have been as unhappy with you as I am. How close are you to level 8?” Astrid changed the topic as smoothly as she could manage, but it was obvious that her attempt was stilted. Even so, Benedict smiled faintly, squared his shoulders, and smiled in a bit of a self mocking way as he said, “Newly level 7. Almost all of the experience I have is from today. You, Felix?”

“Same. Less than a thousand, which ain’t much.”

“Then we’ll be hitting level 10 before you two hit 8.” Astrid answered as she pulled her helmet off and sank onto a nearby stool. “That’ll help a little with delving these lower floors, but it’ll come down to you two, honestly. Mostly you, Felix. You’ll need to get your attributes up so you can take on these larger packs. If you don’t you’re just going to be overwhelmed, and we’ll be stagnating much as how we have been until now.”

“I agree,” He answered with a shrug, “but what do you want me to do about that? I’m not a finisher, so we can’t have me be outside of the party and take every kill, so how do you expect me to be able to stockpile the experience?”

Astrid shrugged. “More than as a time for me to offer up a solution, I just felt like it needed to be said. If any of you have something that can work, I’d be happy to do it, but it’s something that needs addressing.”

“It won’t matter at higher levels.” Skandr was the first to say something. “In Bronze, it’ll still affect us, but even in Iron, the first level is what, 50,000 experience? The difference we have right now is… about 30,000 experience. That’s a lot, but even at level 19 and 20, we’ll be all the same level at the same time, even if we don’t close the gap at all. It’ll be annoying while we’re in the lower levels, but I bet we could get something figured out once we three are level 11 and these two are level 9, right? Help close the gap, even if we don’t get it totally sorted out?”

“I guess, I just don’t want Felix here to get overwhelmed. I’ve seen it happen, and it’s a lucky day that the overwhelmed frontliner isn’t killed, much less maimed.” Astrid mentally, and entirely against her will, relived the moment of Petr’s death. She no longer blamed herself, though she knew that she should have been better with her activation of the talisman, that she should have stayed in practice of manipulating her mana. His screams of agony still filled her head as the consequence of a frontliner being forgotten or overwhelmed. She refused to have that happen again, especially when she stood in a position where she could help to prevent its return.

“That’s pretty bleak.” Benedict said, his lips pursed in displeasure. “But I guess it makes sense. If we allow the monsters to get us, they’ll do what all monsters do with people. For now, though, I think we’re fine on the attributes front. What do you think, Felix?”

“Bodyguard is more of an Alacrity focused Class than most frontliner or defender Classes,” Felix shrugged as he explained, “so I benefit a lot more from Benedict’s Quickened Step than most frontliners. That paired with your spell, Skandr, I think I’ll be fine.”

“What spell?” Skandr asked. “Or do you mean Lightning Reflexes?”

“Is that the thing you did to make people faster?” Felix clarified.

“Yeah.”

“Then yes.” 

“OK. That’s a Skill. I know that doesn’t really matter, but it’s a little different from a spell.” Skandr allowed himself to slowly drift into an explanation regarding what exactly the difference was, saying, “a spell is self-developed and requires the Spellcraft Skill. Any Mage, Wizard, or casting Class will make sure they take that as early as possible. The Skills are quicker and inflexible, so for things like a quick buff before we go into a fight is a good option there. For things like my lightning curtain spell, I can tweak it to better suit my needs in each fight—if we’re fighting two irregulars, I can make it a lot more heavy hitting, focusing on damaging and stunning just a couple enemies, but if there’s a dozen gnolls coming towards us, I can spread the individual strikes and make them significantly weaker while focusing entirely on just slowing the enemies. As I understand the spell form for the lightning curtain better, I can make it spread further, do more, and continue to improve it every day. The only thing holding me back from that is my own understanding and effort.

“On the other hand, Lightning Reflexes, as a Skill, can only do exactly what the Great One’s decided it will do. In my case, it’s currently Untiered, and can boost two people for a moderate mana spend for a total of two minutes. I know exactly what it’s going to do every time, there’s no chance for failure, because I give the Skill the mana, and it happens. For my spells, as I experiment, I can create something that’s an entire failure that doesn’t even accept my mana, or something that accepts it and does nothing. If I channel the spell incorrectly in a fight, then I can lose the mana and still have nothing happen. It’s…”

Skandr went to continue to speak, his actions growing more excited and his face more animated before he caught himself, paused, and bowed his head. “Sorry about that. Basically, I think it’s really interesting, but what you were talking about wasn’t a spell, but a Skill.”

“Nothing to apologize for, I enjoyed hearing about it.” Felix smiled as he said as much. “It also means that Lightning Reflexes has a definitive recovery period while the lightning curtain doesn’t, right?”

Skandr nodded, smiling happily as the Bodyguard listened and learned from the excited Lightningmage. He didn’t say any more, though, and instead, he turned to the rest of the party. “So, we’re delving tomorrow? Back on the third floor?”

“Yeah.” Astrid answered. “Getting to kill as many as we want is going to be nice. We’ll make sure to stock up on draughts, just in case. Do you have any, Benedict?”

“Maybe two?” he said as he settled back into his confident, unbothered persona. “I’d have to check. They’re pretty expensive, though. Why would we need one?”

“Not one. Some.” Astrid corrected. “If you or Skandr get too low on mana, we’ll stop and allow you to take a draught and get back above half. Your abilities to bail us three on the front out of sticky situations means I’m more than happy to take some of our communal funds to make sure you’re always ready to help when necessary. Better to spend 50 copper we didn’t need to and not have anyone losing a limb or their life. So, I’ll go buy some tonight so we can leave without delay tomorrow morning.”

Benedict’s eyebrows rose as he heard her explanation. He opened his mouth, and Astrid got a flash of inspiration as to what he was about to say. She cut him off with, “And if you’re about to ask that we three pay for your draughts, just know that the payment is taken equally from the pot before it’s distributed.”

The Bard squinted a little, then acted as if he’d believed that all along, “Of course! It’s community funds, of course!”

Astrid smiled a little before turning to her allies and checking her pockets for money. She’d have to put off paying off the interest today to ensure they were all completely outfitted for the next day’s delve, but Astrid had high hopes.

***

Pyra

“What do you mean there’s no opportunities to get them hurt? It was weeks you had, and there were three of them on the third floor all alone! You couldn’t kill the golden wretch and bring the other two out? It’s one damned Barbarian and none of them are even level 10!”

Pyra said nothing as her boss screamed at her and her team. She’d been pulled into service under the Marchioness recently, and she enjoyed the benefits that came her way ever since. Her party had abandoned her to her debts, the ones they filed under her name to keep the rates down. It was the whole party that decided that Lirian needed that armor as their frontliner, but then they all abandoned her. She was going to be thrown into prison for them defaulting on their loan, but instead, the Marchioness had blessed her with another better option: Join one of her delving parties. In the past four months, she’d gained five levels. Five. That was unheard of! Now, she was almost level 11, and she’d be moving on from this part of the Dungeon to better places. 

For now, though, this moron of a leader had somehow lost the Marchioness’s favor. Maybe he said something, maybe he failed to deliver, but whatever the case was, the Pyra’s party of two Assassins, an Archer, a Guard, and her, a Physician, had been commanded to take Astrid’s party into control. The woman was huge, and her Barbarian pet even more so. How their commands were given wholly unaware of how exceptional the party was without a noble Class’s support had to be from her boss, not the Marchioness. She was too smart for all this.

Regardless, all of her bosses in the city were tied up and couldn’t move themselves, or else this all would have been sorted out already, regardless of their stupid commands. Her party’s failure in ambushing Markus’s party was a blemish on their record, the Assassins unthinkingly going for the fatal blows instead of incapacitating. It was infuriating, but it was also life. Pyra forced herself not to think of the look in Bogdan’s eyes as he died of the poison. Overdosing on the paralytic combined with him taking the arrow where he shouldn’t… it was a shame. That they’d gotten so much experience from their fellow delvers’ deaths was a strange feeling.

“Now, they’ve got two more delvers and they’re a full party! Full five! A balanced party too!” In front of the party, their boss continued raging, pacing, and generally playing the fool. Pyra deliberately kept her teeth together as she watched the display with dispassionate eyes. After being harangued about things beyond her control, Pyra watched as her angry commander finally calmed down and sat with a heavy thump.

“Kill the Barbarian. Paralyze the others. Practice, because there’s only going to be one opening to get back into the Dungeon itself, and you’ll have to be perfect when that time comes. If not, you’ll all die.”

Pyra nodded in agreement. She hated this part of being one of the Marchioness’s delvers, but she would do it. Instead of saying something and setting the seething people off again, she cinched her bag more securely around her waist and led her party out of the office and into the outside world. Georg, the Guard, strode alongside her and asked in a quiet voice, “How are we practicing today?”

“On the fourth floor.” She answered simply, leading the way out of Kznietch. Her party followed in step, each with their hands on the their pouches and weapons, ready to practice how to kill who they needed to, and capture those who needed to meet the Marchioness.

***

Astrid leapt forward and smashed her hammer into the base of the gnoll’s skull. It groaned as it fell, and the kill notification flashed in her eyes. Muti had already finished off the single ranger in the pack, and Felix had requested that he be allowed to attempt to take care of the sole remaining gnoll, a shaman, by himself. Now, by himself did mean that he was buffed by Quickened Step and Lightning Reflexes while the shaman had been bombarded by several Lightning Bolts and a lightning curtain, but he was still taking care of the monster by himself. Now that it was slowed, the monster couldn’t keep the Bodyguard from punching it repeatedly in the throat, and as it slowly succumbed to the dozens of blows it received, the time finally came for Astrid to mentally disband the party while Felix pulled out his knife. It was over 30 centimeters long, and as he buried it in the gnoll’s eye, it immediately died. Sure, Benedict didn’t get any experience, but all five members of the party had agreed that it would be better for Felix to get more experience than anyone else.

“I’m less than 500 away now.” Astrid said as she checked her Status while the party looked to Muti to confirm that there were no more gnolls in their surroundings. The Rogue signalled the all clear as Astrid set about cutting the ears and fangs from the gnolls in front of her.

It’d been a very busy day, and both Skandr and Muti had ended up getting their next levels already. Each party member’s pouches were heavy with ears and fangs, and the delvers had killed… Astrid had gained over 1,000 experience, and they were splitting it basically five ways. So, with her getting 4 experience per kill on average, that was over 250 gnolls dead, probably closer to 300. 

“Duchess above.” She whispered, only then realizing what they’d done in a single day. Sure, they were exhausted and more than ready to return home, and they’d left before dawn to return after dusk, but that was at least 25 silver! No irregular, nothing more valuable than a dozen or so shaman totems worth an additional silver. Astrid grinned, ready to make solid progress on paying off the debt, and watched as Skandr and Benedict slumped to the ground. They’d run themselves ragged today, and Astrid was the only one who wasn’t all worn out at this point. Even Muti was resigning herself to merely watching what was happening while Astrid did the bulk of the resource collection. As she looked at the rest of her exhausted party, Astrid came to a decision that pained her.

“Everyone, let’s go. I’ll get the level tomorrow.”

Four weak cheers answered her, and they stood together as they took a moment to recover and make their way back to town.