Rune Seeker

“Achievement Rewards,” Hiral said, and a slew of notification windows sprang to life in front of him—and the other party members, judging by the way their eyes went distant.

Achievement: Water Walker

Class Reward: Class Modification – Walk on Water

Walk on Water – You can move across water and many other liquid surfaces as if they were solid.

Simple, yet effective. I wonder how that would work with something like the EnSath River and its rapids. Not sure I want to test it out. Still, as long as we’re in the swamp, I won’t have to worry about wet feet. Next.

Hiral dismissed the first notification window and went right on to the next.

Achievement: I Got This!

Class Reward: Class Modification (Conditional) – One Man Army

One Man Army – When you have no allies within fifteen feet of you, you deal additional damage to Elite or above enemies.

Note (2): Damage bonus can be increased by defeating Elite or above enemies of your rank and level (or higher) without any assistance.

Any sort of damage bonus is good. I’ll need to test to see how it interacts with something like Nature’s Blade. Are they additive? The Lizardmen Seena is talking about farming will be a good chance. Hrm, no allies in fifteen feet of me? That’s pretty easy to do with the RHCs. And it levels up! Assuming I want to fight more Elite enemies by myself.

Ugh. Do Left and Right count as “myself”?

Hiral’s eyes lingered on the notification despite his curiosity to see what was next. Was there a way he could game the system to take on Elites without actually doing it by himself? Probably not. But, he could also give it a try and have the others handy to back him up if things went wrong. Seena would call it reckless—and she’d be right—but depending on the damage increase, it could be worth it. Something to talk about when they got out of there.

A flick of his hand closed the window, and he moved on to the one he got from killing the King from the inside, a shiver running down his spine at the memory of how yucky that had been.

Achievement: Belly of the Beast

Class Reward: Class Modification – Internal Injuries

Internal Injuries – Your attacks and abilities ignore some of an opponent’s external defenses and inflict damage directly to their internals.

Note: The amount of external defenses you ignore increases with Rank.

Okay, whoa. Ignoring armor? Obviously applies to something like the King’s scales, but would it also work on worn body armor? Heh. I’ll have to ask Nivian if I can test with him. Poor guy. Actually, it doesn’t even specify “armor.” It says defenses. Why? What else is there? The spines or quills? Or, is there something else? Something to do with the Enemy?

We really need more information about them.

He pushed thoughts—and questions—about the Enemy out of his head. He wasn’t getting any answers there in the dungeon anyway, so he closed the notification window for the next one to come up.

Achievement: In the Prescence of Royalty

Class Reward: Class Modification – I Bow to No One

I Bow to No One – Mid-Boss and above Rank enemies deal slightly less damage to you.

Slightly less damage? What’s slightly? I guess any is better than none. Too bad it doesn’t apply to Elites as well.

Easy enough to understand. He closed the window and brought up the next one quickly.

Achievement: Trial by Fire

Class Reward: Class Modification – Elemental Resistances

Elemental Resistances – Damage based on the elements (natural or magic) is reduced by 10%.

Another defensive improvement. That’s good. We took a beating in the dungeon. And ten percent… is that good or bad? Ugh, I don’t know if I prefer knowing the percentage or seeing “slightly less.” Ten percent of what?

Hiral’s fingers drummed against his arm as he read the notification a second and third time. It didn’t do any good, so he swiped it aside and moved on to the next one.

Achievement: Sleepy Heads

Class Reward: Class Modification – Beauty Sleep

Beauty Sleep – Based on the amount of good rest you get, you gain double experience from combat for up to eight hours.

Bonus experience? Easy to understand and useful. Just one more reward left… and not a single active ability yet. Well, let’s see what it is.

Hiral pushed aside the notification and opened the last one for the dungeon.

Achievement: Lizards, Snakes, and… Hydras? Oh, my!

Class Reward: Class Modification – View (upgrade) – Enemy Health

View (upgrade) – Enemy Health – Along with name and rank, View now shows estimated health of opponents as a red bar above the opponent’s head. Damage inflicted to enemies will reduce the red bar’s length.

A passive upgrade to View, huh? These health bars could be useful to help us figure out how much damage we’re doing, and how tough our opponents actually are. Nice.

“How’d you guys do?” Hiral asked, closing his last notification and looking up to see the others staring at him. “Uh… what’s wrong?”

“Just how many achievements did you get?” Yanily asked. “We’ve all been done for ages.”

“Uh… seven?” Hiral said. “You guys?”

“Four,” Seena said. “The extras from that snake you killed at the beginning?”

“Two from that, and then one from how we killed the King,” Hiral said. “Did you all only get passive class modifications? Did anybody get an actual new active ability?”

“All passives for me,” Seena said. “Upgrade to View, elemental resistances, less damage from Mid-Bosses and above, and then an interesting upgrade to Lashing Vines. I can choose between how it normally is, or give it an element. Fire, lightning, or that fiery lightning. You guys?”

“Same first three,” Nivian said. “My fourth was an upgrade to my Thorn Whip. Ah, just easier to show you.”

He grew his whip out of his right hand. This time, however, instead of the single barbed whip, three connected lashes grew out of his hand, each sparking with one of the elements from the hydra, and the ends even snapping with small, plant-like mouths. As he held the weapon still, the whips writhed around as if seeking prey, jaws nipping at the air.

“Uh… do you need to feed them?” Yanily asked, gently poking at the lightning one with his spear. The plant-mouth snapped out to bite the spear blade, and Yanily jumped back, shaking his hand like he’d been shocked. “Ouch. Little bastard. I’ll show you,” he said, taking his spear in both hands.

“Down, boy,” Seena said, chuckling. “You provoked it. What about the rest of you? Same passives?”

“I actually got an increase to the range of my healing abilities, and then the same first three as you,” Wule said. “Nothing as creepy as what my brother got. Then again, I always was the good-looking one.”

“What do looks have to do with anything?” Nivian asked, twisting to look at his twin. His three whips crawled along the ground toward the healer.

“I got some kind of damage-over-time effect added to my strikes,” Vix said. “Starts out small, but the more I hit, the more it stacks up. Like your Lashing Vines, I can choose which element the damage is.”

“That’s good. We need more options for heavily armored enemies,” Seena said. “Yanily, what about you?”

“A ranged attack I can use with either of my spear styles. Longer-range single strikes if I use it with Reed Spear Style, and more area of effect with Dancing Spear Style. Same as you guys, different elements.”

“Also great. It can get pretty crowded up front with Left and Right in the mix as well,” Seena said. “What about you, Hiral? Adding different elements to your shots or something from the Prince achievement?”

“Nothing like that at all,” Hiral said. “I get bonus experience after getting a good sleep. No elements, and no modified abilities other than View.”

“Hrm,” Seena said. “Well, once we get back out, and after we explain the situation to Seeyela and the others, we’ll take an inventory and get some practice in.”

“I think you’re forgetting something,” Yanily said, standing right beside the dungeon interface. A wave of his hand over the crystal, and a smile lit up his face. “Rank Evolution.”

A streamer of glowing smoke extended out of the interface crystal and connected to the center of Yanily’s chest, right about the same place where Hiral had his crystal embedded. From there, the whole man’s body pulsed with an internal light, a dark shadow within the glow like a series of roots growing through his limbs. As the light pulsed again and again, the roots grew longer, reaching more toward the surface of his skin, then stopped, and the light vanished in the blink of an eye.

“D-Rank!” Yanily said with a fist pump. “How’s that? Huh. Bet you wish you were me right now.” He gently elbowed Vix in the side.

“So, you guys really do have roots growing inside you?” Hiral asked Seena. “That’s your PIM?”

“We do. You’re probably the only Islander to see one of us evolve. Ever. I’m kind of relieved, though. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to evolve without the Grandfather, despite what the interface suggested.”

“The Grandfather?” Hiral asked.

“The big tree on the elders’ island. It’s where we get the seeds for our PIMs, and where we normally do evolutions.”

“Like our Measure up in Fallen Reach,” Hiral said, tapping the center of his chest. “It’s where we get the crystal we embed in our chests.”

“A crystal, huh?” Seena asked. “And then your PIM is the tattoos? No, those would be abilities.”

“The Meridian Lines,” Hiral said, pointing at Left and Right. “The thick lines connect to all parts of the body, and like the tattoos, they need to be inscribed by Artists. Pretty sure those are what you’d call a Shaper’s PIM. For me, I think it’s these.” He ran a finger down the strange script making up the double-helix pattern on his skin.

“How are you two not even paying attention to this?” Yanily called at them.

“Yes, yes, you’re D-Rank now. Congratulations,” Seena said. “We’ll ask Balyo to make you something special in celebration when we get back.”

“Ugh, please no,” Yanily said. “I’m pretty sure our Gourmand ability would give me a debuff from her cooking.”

“Says the guy who’s been chasing her since you were both kids,” Vix said.

“Balyo is a lot of wonderful things, but a cook is not one of them,” Yanily said. “It shows my true feelings for her that I don’t only talk about her good qualities. Still, uh, maybe don’t mention I said that?”

“Only if you behave yourself,” Seena said. “Nobody else is ready to evolve yet, right? No, okay. Let’s head back and start getting ready to farm this dungeon. We’ve got to catch up to Yanily before the power goes to his head.”

With that, she passed her hand over the interface crystal. “Exit Dungeon.”