The Classless Sorcerer's Self-Stealing System

"We were here first. Back off!"

A vocal commotion up ahead began to stifle the budding party pleasantries, as Bold Arrow finally made its way into the second floor wayshrine chamber. The vault guardian had capped off a rather arduous day of dungeon delving, and so everyone but Xander seemed to be dragging their feet behind them, Bly included. Which, as it happened, didn't appear to be the worst decision. For as Blychert followed the rest of Bold Arrow's stragglers into the wayshrine chamber, he immediately noticed the somewhat large gathering of people standing by the massive, vault door on the far side of the room.

Or rather, he immediately noticed their outward aggression towards one another.

"Hold on…" Xander murmured, his voice now completely devoid of that cheery 'let's all get dinner, I'm buying!' tone he'd been using just a few minutes ago. Bly couldn't help but notice that the swordsman had his blade halfway drawn from its sheath too, as he added, "Something's up with these guys."

Glancing past his party leader, it was obvious to Bly that that two, possibly even three adventuring parties were locked in a serious argument of some kind. There must have been at least a dozen onlookers too—other adventurers, no doubt—scattered around the chamber, but mostly bunched up by the wayshrine, all of whom simply looked on. Narrowing in his focus, Bly targeted the two individuals standing at the heads of their respective parties and resigned himself to watch carefully.

"Come now, Reingard." Said the taller of the two. He was donned in a spectacular, auburn colored armor, accompanied by dark chainmail, through which massive muscles flexed. His skin was a brownish-green, and Bly was certain that there were horns sticking out the back of his head. The large man leaned forward on the end of his battleaxe, gesturing toward the other man, Reingard, and said, "Just because you happened to be here when the boss respawned, doesn't mean you're worthy at all to challenge it. You know, any single member of Askarnol is worth double one of yours, in terms of experience. You ought to be thanking me for taking this burden off your hands."

"You hear that?" Reingard chuckled loudly, though Bly got the distinct impression it was a bitter, sarcastic gesture. He was a slender, pale-skinned man with ruddy, unkempt hair similar to Bredic's, though he was wielding two shortswords in place of fire magic, "Nazojan thinks his bog standard, brain dead, meat cleavers have some kind of an edge over the Glumgully Ghouls. Just like a qith to come to our city and make a fool of himself. No? Well, if you want to spill blood over it so bad, you should have just led with that. Send a duel request and we'll let our blades decide this story."

A series of gasps and murmurs filled the chamber suddenly.

Duel? Bly thought worriedly to himself.

That certainly wasn't a word you heard every day.

Killing other classed for experience was strictly off-limits in so far as Sage seemed to allow. Or rather, until you did it enough times to the point where the system had no choice to but accommodate you as on out-and-out slayer. However, the dueling system was highly regarded as a means to do exactly that, and without any of the downside; a blatant workaround, as it were. Bly had only ever witnessed one duel in his entire life, between two travelers in Darskaart one summer some few years ago. The one thing that stood out in his memory was how seriously they'd tried to kill one another. The victor, assumedly, had won his fair share of experience.

A shiver ran down Blychert's spine.

Duels weren't something people flirted with lightly, if at all, since almost anything Sage could reconcile with appeared to be fair game for wagering as part of the dueling terms, that and that they allegedly were always to the death, if Irvin had anything to say about them.

It was a way to settle scores, no doubt about it, but at what cost?

"Come on, we'd better get out of here." Xander shook his head, looking back over his shoulder, "If the Hall Keeper catches wind of this, we won't want to be associated with it in any way. Let them fight it out."

The rest of the party seemed to agree, and Bly offered his own approving nod in response. Xander was right, nothing good was going to come of this if it was allowed to move forward. If it was true that the boss on this floor had respawned, and Bly had no reason to believe it hadn't due to the faint glowing edges of the vault door itself, it didn't seem like something worth dying over just for the chance at fighting it.

Though, he would have been lying to himself if he said he wasn't at least a little interested in seeing a boss of this dungeon's caliber in action.

A flash of white light filled the wayshrine chamber suddenly—the familiar glow of the activated teleportation device itself. Sure enough, multiple figures appeared at the center of the chamber a few moments later, and were already stepping towards the conflicting parties up ahead.

Bly felt the color in his face drain a little.

That was Lanelc. And moreover, he was accompanied by the rest of Silent Stray Blade. There was simply no mistaking them, not after Bly's encounter with them nearly two weeks ago.

"Fuck me…" Lanelc groaned, scratching at his chin, "What in the hell is all this racket? Hm? Mommy and daddy fighting again? How typical…"

"Stay out of this, Lanelc." Nazojan huffed, "Nobody asked you here. Why don't you run off and play bounty hunter some more?"

"Could." Lanelc shrugged, his indifferent expression shifting with just the slightest of grins, "Don't want to though. What? You seriously think you're the only ones to have heard about this respawn?"

That seemed to elicit a disgruntled reaction from both Reingard and Nazojan at least, both ow whom snarled, though held their tongues.

"Brokers say the volatility's spiked nearly five percent in the last hour," Lanelec announced to the audience of the chamber, "And you thought one of you would get to have the honors… Xander?"

Blychert's brow furrowed, as he glanced across to where his party leader stood motionless.

"We were just leaving, actually." Xander insisted, though the tone in his voice seemed uncertain, "Don't mind us, if you will."

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"Is that so?" Lanelc replied, crossing the chamber as he did. The short distance between him and Bold Arrow was reconciled quickly, and soon he stood face to face with Xander, "Lost your edge already? Or was it the dungeon? Too highly rated for you? That it? Can't stomach this after your little field trip to Kelvalder? I know these things tend to get a pretty scary for low-level parties—"

"I—" Xander stammered. Despite his normal confidences, the swordsman seemed to be thoroughly rattled.

Well, Bly for one wasn't going to let that slide.

"Hey… Zanka?!" Blychert called out to the dwarven woman that he recognized, "Can you come handle your party leader? He's not worth the dirt on our boots, right? That's what you said. Tell him to back off."

More than a few gasps echoed across the chamber, and an amused sort of grin etched Zanka's expression too. Lanelc's own features twisted angrily, as he turned his gaze on Blychert.

"The hell did you just say…?" Lanelc hissed, taking a step to the side. Blychert raised his chin in defiance, silently drawing a bit of mana to himself. However, the rest of Bold Arrow braced itself as well, and Bjadir even put himself between where Bly stood and the leader of Silent Stray Blade. Lanelc's eyebrow raised curiously, as he asked, "Who the fuck are you, kid? Do I know you from somewhere?"

Oh crap, that's right. Bly thought to himself, mentally smacking himself in the face. He'd totally forgotten until now that he'd disguised his hair and eye color that day. What he'd just said must have sounded completely cocky without any context.

"You want to say that again, huh?" Lanelc badgered, "Go ahead, say it."

The tension was tenfold almost immediately.

Lanelc had one hand on his dagger, Xander's sword hand was quivering, and Bly could sense the buildup of mana around him, no doubt Vineta's magic aura.

However, before any of it could be resolved in any sort of meaningful way, the wayshrine chamber began to quake violently. Pieces of stone broke away from the ceiling, crashing down into the floor below and splintering into dozens of smaller pieces upon impact.

Suddenly, one of the huge pillars on the far side buckled, collapsing in an instant. In response, one of the spellcasters from Reingard's group paired off with another spellcaster from Nazojan's party to slow its fall. Blychert quickly jumped at the action too and lent his own magic to the cause, pumping two barrier spells at the falling pillar: one at the base and another towards the top to allow the structure a place to rest. The strain was intense, but the three of them settled the huge piece of stone as gently as they could, as the rest of the chamber around them exploded with panic.

"Everyone, through the wayshrine!" Nazojan roared, "Now!"

By twos and threes, flashes of white light whisked people away in the blink of an eye. Blychert rejoined his own party members amidst the chaos, and together they headed for the teleportation device.

"Regroup on the west side of the plaza!" Xander instructed, and he was gone in a flash, right behind Bjadir and Rosayn.

"Go." Bly huffed at Lisel and Vineta, "I'll be right behind you."

Nodding, Lisel joined Vineta and the two of them were blinked out as well.

In the momentary cooldown, Bly glanced across the chamber, noting the few remaining individuals still yet to leave. It was no surprise that Silent Stray Blade lagged behind. If Bly didn't know any better, he would have said Lanelc was trying to weasel his way into that boss lair while no one was looking. Regardless, the chamber wasn't stable, and so Blychert didn't need much more of a reason to bail.

Let them gamble with their lives, if they wanted. Bly wasn't sticking around to watch.

A flash of familiar, blinding white light engulfed Blychert's body, as it had so many times before. In in instant, he would be outside the Silver Vault, and it was a good thing too. Bold Arrow's day of delving had certainly taken its toll on his resource pool.

The white light subsided, and Blychert squinted, steadily opening his eyes to the adjustment. They must have spent much more time down in the dungeon than he thought, because it was completely dark outside.

But then... where were all the plaza lanterns? The shop window lights? Where were all the voices and sounds?

Suddenly, Blychert realized that there were others with him—around him, rather. Some were coughing, others breathing heavily, and others mumbling amongst themselves.

"Is everyone alright?" The familiar, stalwart sound of Nazojan's voice echoed. Wherever they were, it didn't seem like the dungeon plaza, there voices carried about as if still underground. "Is anyone injured?"

"Falko's leg—" Someone said, and she continued hurriedly, "Piece of stone fell on him."

"Where are we?" Someone else asked worriedly, a thick Calvergian accent, "Why didn't the wayshrine take us outside?"

So, they weren't out of the dungeon after all?

A series of unintelligible voices jumbled together thereafter, as everyone present tried to comprehend and rationalize what was happening, each trying to be heard above the next. Blychert didn't feel compelled to add his voice to the mix, and so simply mumbled an incantation beneath his breath. There was no point in panicking, it wasn't like this was his first time dealing with a stubborn dungeon.

Brandishing his hand, Bly prompted a 'Light' spell to flourish in the air above the group.

Immediately, it was evident that they weren't at any wayshrine at all. In fact, they were standing in a narrow, seemingly random corridor, more of a crude tunnel really, as opposed to anything familiar whatsoever.

There seemed to be a number of them, a motely assortment of the members of Reingard's party and Nazojan's, and perhaps one or two of the onlookers. None of Bold Arrow were present, which sent a wave of worry down Blychert's spine. However, Nazojan was here, and the two casters Bly had helped settle that falling pillar with. That gave him some confidence that the others were not alone, but it didn't do much to alleviate his fears.

If this "anomaly" was anything like the last one he'd experienced, it wasn't going to be an easy matter to resolve.

"Names." Nazojan ordered above the noise, "Quiet. Everyone call out their name and their party designation. I will go first. Nazojan, Askarnol."

"Uhm… Merlind, Glumgully Ghouls." The caster that Bly recognized said, "And Falko, also with the Ghouls."

"Taren, Askarnol." The other caster that Bly recognized said readily.

"Hugo, Bluemantles." Another man said.

"Ilhrae, High Foxes." The last woman replied, "Let me see Falko, I have healing supplies leftover from my party's delve this morning."

"Oh, and I'm… Trelen, Bold Arrow." Blychert chipped in last, and Nazojan nodded approvingly.

"Hm. Then that makes seven of us." Nazojan contemplated, as his attention turned down the corridor, "This could be the Sunken Reaches. Looks familiar enough to me. Though why the wayshrine on the second floor would bring us down to the sixth floor, let alone only some of us, is not known to me."

Sixth floor? Blychert gulped.

He'd barely survived the third floor in a D-rated dungeon. And now he was suddenly thrust onto a floor twice as deep? In a B-rated dungeon, no less? What the hell was going on here? It couldn't really be…

Blychert shook his head.

He didn't even want to entertain the idea that the Pale Lady was involved. However, he couldn't outright deny the possibility. Not after everything he'd been through. This wasn't like anything they'd experienced back in the Gleaming Caves, but there had been a point when the wayshrines had stopped working. Hadn't there been? Who was to say that this wasn't something similar?

"We can't stay here, not with spawn risks." Nazojan spoke up again, "I will carry Falko. Taren, you take the rear and mask our movements. As for the rest of you… we are not a party, and I am not your party leader, therefore I cannot demand you follow me. However, I will be leading this group forward, nonetheless. If you would like to find your own path, do so freely. But know this, if we are as deep in the dungeon as I believe, then most of you will struggle. Alone, you'll die for certain. Now, let's move."

Bly didn't need much more convincing than that, quickly falling into the marching order as the group started forward. Frankly, if any of his suspicions were true, he wasn't certain they stood much of a chance as a group either. He was hopeful to be wrong, but in the meantime, he wasn't taking any chances. Not with their lives on the line, and not with an unexpected turn of events like this. Hopefully someone up on the surface would notice, there was an entire adventuring organization at play in Frostwall, after all. They wouldn't be left to die down here, surely?

This was the dungeon, though, there were simply no guarantees.

Well, except for one.