Elsewhere

When Duke woke up, he had the expected slew of notifications.

***

Oh my, did you have a busy day yesterday! That was thrilling to watch. We are quite pleased with your performance. Let’s get some of the sundry out of the way right off the get go.

First off, you killed a number of Umbral creatures and destroyed the Umbral Gate that was the known source of evil lurking in the forest. What else could be out there? We wonder. Did you think you got all the Umbral creatures that came through the gate? Really? Intriguing.

Secondly, you had that near-death experience with the forest giant. Let me give you a small hint on this one. If you use your one lifesaving item up in the opening blow of a fight, you probably shouldn’t stay and fight. And yet, you managed to kill the thing with one massive blast. That reminds us of something about an orc or some such creature. Is this how you are going to approach your life from now on?

Regardless, you entertained us greatly and are to be rewarded. How does 35,550 experience sound? Not enough? Tough. That’s all you get. You have rapidly climbed to level 11 and now have 24 Characteristic points to spend. Think carefully about how you want to approach the rest of your life as you spend these. Some decisions have lasting consequences.

You used a smaller set of Skills and Abilities today so your advancement will become more focused if you keep this up.

Your REGENERATION has increased to Practiced level 25.

Your TELEPORTATION has increased to Practiced level 24.

Your LIGHTNING has increased to Initiate 13

Your OVERCHANNEL has increased to Initiate 2

Your IDENTIFY has increased to Novice 2

Your SENSE MAGIC has increased to Novice 2

Your SIMULCASTING has increased to Initiate 12

Now that you are taking active steps to level yourself up, things will get far more fun!

***

Duke sat in bed for a bit processing all the new information. With the new levels, his Health was approaching 1,000 and his Mana had passed beyond that mark. He was feeling good about his progress but there was something in that message that definitely bothered him. It was also something that Baslin had pointed out – he was quickly becoming a one-trick pony with only one way to take out an enemy. If he ran into something resistant to LIGHTNING, he might be in trouble. He also recalled something from an earlier message about learning how to use TELEPORTATION offensively. He could use it to steal an opponent’s weapons or send them falling but both of those required him to overpower their will. I guess that tells me where I need to focus my Characteristic points.

Duke pulled up his Character Sheet and put 20 of his 24 free points into Psyche to bring it up to 49. He paused for a moment and added another point. This left him with three. He added one each to Agility, Reason, and Intuition. The boost to his stats had pushed his maximum Mana to nearly 1,700. He came to a sudden and unwelcome realization as he reviewed this Abilities, Characteristics, and other information – his Ability damage output was not keeping pace with his Health. If everything out there leveled like he did, he was going to have to OVERCHANNEL every shot just to be able to take something out with his same Health. He had some serious thinking and experimenting to do.

He found himself musing about different tactics and approaches as he found his way back to Baslin’s labs. The man was still deeply involved in all the various crafting projects he had jumped on after Duke’s return. Right now, he was using some sort of glowing magic to reshape one of the giant’s teeth. The energy seemed to be condensing and shaping the tooth into an oval shape with a concave front. Duke’s first impression was that he was making it into some sort of shield.

“What are you making there?” Duke decided to skip all the conjecture and just ask.

Baslin looked up from his project with wide eyes, apparently startled by Duke’s interruption. “I…I’m making a shield. The giant’s teeth are extremely dense so compressing one of his front teeth into this shape will make for an extraordinarily strong shield. It will need enchantments to reduce the weight but that is a fairly pedestrian enchantment for a shield.”

Duke watched as Baslin used some form of magic to send the shield over to a pile of other crafted items. There had to be dozens of things in the pile, and he was pretty sure that pile wasn’t there when he had last seen Baslin.

“Have you been crafting all this time?” Duke asked, his voice tinged with concern.

“Of course. But it’s only been a few hours.”

“Baslin, it’s been more than a few hours. Maybe ten or more hours since I got back. I am getting ready to head out again and see what trouble I can find today. Any goblin warrens or monster strongholds you know of that are close by?”

Baslin responded absently, “No, I wiped them all out when I built the tower. Not good to have such unruly neighbors, you know.”

“So, what was in the area before you took over?”

“Oh, there were some goblins in the hills to the north, but they all ran when I showed up.” He paused on his latest project with a passing thought. You know, there was a passage to the underworld in the hills too. I never bothered with it as nothing dared come out and bother me in the early days. There might still be something there and this close to the surface, it shouldn’t be anything too terrible. You should go check it out.”

Duke smiled at the thought and started to leave the room before Baslin called him back. “Do you even know where you are going, idiot?”

“I, um, was going north to the hills. It shouldn’t be that hard to find, right?”

Baslin huffed, “Come on over here. Let me share some map information with you.”

Duke joined Baslin feeling somewhat confused. Map information? He continued to be confused when Baslin placed a hand on his forehead and concentrated. He then paused, puzzled and tried again.

“Do you not have a personal map?”

“A personal map? Wow, that would be a great thing to have, but no. I have nothing like that. Everything is just based on my knowledge of navigation from my past life. I have a generally good sense of direction so that helps.”

“Well, this complicates things again. Hold on a moment. I think I have a…” He trailed off as he appeared to be looking for something in a storage item. “Ah yes, here we are.” He handed Duke a scroll case.

Duke opened it up and took the scroll out. It was not, as he anticipated, a spell scroll. It was, in fact, a map of the surrounding area. He looked quizzically at Baslin. “If everyone has a personal map, why do you have this hardcopy?”

“Hardcopy? That is an odd word but accurate enough for this purpose, I suppose. Let me ask you a question. What happens to an individual’s personal map when they die?”

“It…goes away?” Duke responded after a moment of thought.

“Indeed, it does go away. There are a few methods to retrieve such things if you have sufficient magic and are relatively quick about it but for the vast majority of people, it all goes away in the end. That is why maps and other important documents are drawn up physically as well. You can use this map for now and update it as you go along. The entrance is clearly marked so you should be able to find it relatively easily.”

“Thanks. That’s a big help. Duke studied the map carefully before placing it in his storage. “I am wondering if I can use the map as a guide to TELEPORT to a location I haven’t been to before.”

Baslin seemed to ponder the question for a minute before responding. “It is possible, I suppose, but I would caution you against trying it unless you are in trouble and need to do so to get out of somewhere. The consequences of TELEPORTING into the wrong spot could easily be fatal.”

Duke shook his head wistfully. “I don’t think they would be for me. My Ability seems to shift me to the closest safe position when I use it. But, just to be safe, I’ll only try it in a safer setting, like into a meadow that I don’t know or something like that.”

“Just be careful. I know risk seems to be something you seek out but don’t take too many unnecessary ones. I’ve grown fond of having someone here to entertain me and you certainly fit that bill.”

“Right. Time for your entertainer to head south. Wish me luck!” Duke headed out of the lab and worked his way through the tower and out the doors. Recalling what he saw on the map, Duke started his TELEPORT hopping to rapidly cover ground towards his destination.

With his increased Mana pool, he was able to TELEPORT more than a hundred times before his pool started getting low. Even then, his Mana regeneration was insane with his Psyche cranked up so high. It only took a matter of minutes to refill his pool from nearly empty. It wasn’t fast enough to recover much mana across the span of a fight, but afterwards, it would come back quickly.

It took him less than an hour to reach the area of entrance marked on the map. He spent the next hour scouting the area as stealthily as he could because it was crawling with strange creatures. They were tall and lean with pale, mottled skin, but what stood out most sharply were their eyes. Their eyes glowed with fiery orange-red light that almost seemed like they had flames dancing in their pupils. They wore scraps of clothing, some even having some sort of armor. Few carried weapons but their talons seemed deadly enough to not need supplementing.

The creatures moved in groups of three which seemed to correspond to their three-fingered hands. They spoke in low grunts and growls that slipped through their fanged teeth at barely above a whisper. Duke studied the dozen groups of three he had spotted from his perch up in the trees for a good while. They never looked up which Duke found odd but was eternally grateful for.

Eventually, one trio came close enough to his tree that Duke was able to IDENTIFY the creatures. They were called Twilight Stalkers and they did not seem particularly tough. He decided that it was high time that he started experimenting again. As they passed by, he reached out and focused on one creature in particular. This one was slightly taller than the rest of its trio and was one of the few that wore any armor. It had an ill-fitting chain shirt that seemed draped over its frame as if it were made for someone with considerably more girth.

Duke watched the Twilight Stalker as it moved away from the cave with its two companions. It occasionally hissed at another trio who all seemed to shrink away from its presence. His conclusion was that this was the leader of the group. If not by talent, then by brutal presence. Duke watched it closely, plotting the perfect time to strike.

The creature moved further away from the mouth of the cave and Duke prepared his attack. He gathered his energy and began to OVERCHANNEL a POISON DART to send at his target. As his concentration hit its peak and he had his strike precisely aimed, his concentration was interrupted by an intense stab of pain in the back of his head as a trio of talons sliced deeply, scraping on bone.

Duke spun his head around, spraying blood behind himself, to see a pair of glowing eyes staring back at him while the creature that had snuck up on him hung down from a nearby branch by its taloned feet. Duke released his POISON DART at the creature despite its near disruption. The dart struck true, causing the creature to hiss in pain and spasmondically release its grip. It plummeted out of the tree, striking numerous branches as it fell to the ground twitching as injury and poison wracked its body before finally stilling.

The commotion of the falling Stalker roused the rest of the creatures, especially the other two thirds of the trio who had taken up positions in trees surrounding Duke. He was shocked at how easily they had snuck up on him, reminding him that he was perhaps not the apex predator that he had thought himself to be.

He heard their hisses more clearly as they all oriented upon him and converged. Hisses of “Intruder!” and “Get him!” were intermixed with general cries of alarm and anger. Duke’s plan had completely fallen apart and he saw dozens of the creatures boiling out of the cave to swarm towards his position. Reflexively, he TELEPORTED to a new spot above the cave entrance, ten meters above the ground.

From his new vantage, he could see the tribe of Stalkers cast about themselves confused as to where their prey had gotten to. The two who had been in the trees next to his previous position leapt and slashed at the spot where he had been before landing on the tree having struck nothing.

Clever. They were checking to see if I had some form of stealth ability to hide from them. Is there some way I can use that to my advantage? Perhaps.

Duke took the momentary chaos of the Stalkers to try something he had been thinking of on his journey out to the cave entrance. He focused on his previous perch and tried to make that the origin point of a spell. He focused his mind, his will, and all his effort in having the spell originate from that point and strike another Stalker on the ground near the base of the tree. Pain spiked through his head as something clicked into place in his mind.

***Congratulations! You have crafted a new Ability – REMOTE CASTING

You are able to change the origination point of a spell so that the spell extends from a point separate from you. You must have line of sight to the casting origination point and the range at which you can remotely cast a spell is limited to the effective range of the original spell. Casting a spell in this manner triples all mana requirements of the spell. At higher levels, these restrictions will lessen. ***

Duke smiled as the headache vanished as fast as it had appeared, his REGENERATION having quickly repaired whatever damage had been done in his efforts. He set his spell origination point to where he had been hiding and poured fully three hundred and forty-five mana into a LIGHTNING strike.

The spell arced down from the tree limb, striking a trio of Stalkers before branching out and striking half a dozen more. Most went down from the strike, but a pair still stood woozily. The reaction from the rest was nearly instantaneous.

The Stalkers tore up the tree, their talons sending bark and branches exploding to the ground. They swarmed the area where the spell had originated and, in moments, the tree had been cut to pieces. The Stalkers moved with a speed and ferocity that alarmed Duke. He had thought this was just another casual encounter like the Umbral Goblins had turned out to be. These creatures, however, were far faster than him and struck with their talons with alarming power. Duke was prepared to TELEPORT away and come up with a new plan when he heard something from deeper in the cave. It was faint, but clearly not the voice of a Stalker, but rather a voice that struck him with some familiarity. His plans altered yet again.

Angered hissing turned towards him as a Stalker finally spotted him, turning the entire tribe in his direction. He hesitated, debating how to fight these beasts. They did not. The entire group charged towards him, scrambling up the cliff face at the speed of an Olympic sprinter. His hesitation cost him as he TELEPORTED away a moment too late. He received a nasty gash across his stomach, the claws easily ripping through protection and flesh alike.

He appeared on the far side of the clearing around the cave entrance, well behind the swarming Stalkers. Taking a quick look at his status, he realized that he was already down to 55% of his health and 78% of his mana. He was regenerating both health and mana rapidly at a rate of around ten points per second, but he couldn’t keep allowing himself to be ripped into like that. That last slice had nearly spilled his entrails all over the place. The cut was deep and painful, making any attempt at stealth nearly pointless with his labored breathing and rapidly forming blood trail.

Duke switched to a hit and run approach, striking with various spells as he TELEPORTED around the area. As the Stalker’s numbers dwindled, Duke found his reserves likewise dwindling. He was able to keep ahead of the claws for the most part, only being hit a few more times with glancing blows before they all were down. Despite his successes, he was in rough shape. He was down to 25% health and 20% mana.

Cautiously, he looked over the corpses of the Twilight Stalkers while he regenerated health and mana. It only took a few minutes outside of combat, but Duke was quickly coming to the realization that he couldn’t solely rely on his REGENERATION in combat. Things just happened too quickly. Sure, he could regenerate his full health in under two minutes but two minutes in combat was an awful long time. After gathering up all the loot he could find on the corpses as well as the corpses themselves, he cast REPAIR and CLEANSE to get himself back into presentable shape. Those might not be his most powerful spells, but he was rapidly growing very fond of them.

He obtained a total of 11 items that struck him as interesting, a large sum of copper coins, over four hundred silver coins, seventeen gold coins, and a pair of minor crystals. All of which were put into the ring of rooms for later evaluation. Being fully restored, he decided it was time to venture into the cave and see if what he heard was real or a trick of acoustics.