Dungeon’s Path

{Name: Ally Huxley

Race: Autumn Court Dungeon Fae

Soul Bound: Doyle Huxley

Paths: [101] True Dungeon Companion II 10/10, Primal Magic I 10/10, Limit Breaker I 1/1, Autumn’s Jester 3/100

Level: 10

S[12] A[9] C[12] I[17] W[8] P[15] D[13] K[24] L[16]

Skills [5/5 Class, 1/5+1 General]: Tutor lv25 > 31, Primal Glamor lv2 > 7, Courtly Manners lv5 > 9, Telepathy lv19 > 58, Soul Sight lv14 > 15, Scry lv21 > 36}

Doyle claps a couple of stone blocks together. ‘Congratulations, you’ve done a pretty good job.’

Ally opens her eyes and looks the panel over. ‘Huh, I am honestly shocked by that. My growth is at least double what I would have even dreamed of. The glamor and manners growth, while small, likely is related to having literal gods pop into my room. Maybe soul sight as well? That one is honestly a little bit of a mystery to me, could also be from that short bit of interaction with the kobold boss. We’ll know once I interact with her more. Though I guess it would make sense, she is the only other creature with a soul in this place.

‘Scry of course is going to keep growing as I use my abilities to display what is happening in your influence and I use telepathy for basically all my communication now. All I’m confused about is Tutor. Well, all I’m confused about besides the massive amount of growth in general.’

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘Well, as far as tutor is concerned, you’re doing a lot better when telling me about stuff. While you can still get a bit wordy about stuff, it feels less like some bot reading off of an encyclopedia page. You are actually teaching me stuff instead of saying things in my direction. Of course, you can still work on it, but that alone is a good improvement and that is what skill growth is about. Now let’s see how your paths are doing.’

Ally nods and pulls that up as well.

{Points: 101

Class: True Dungeon Companion II 10/10, Dungeon Companion I 1/1

Completed: Fae Magic I 10/10, Scryer 10/10, Limit Breaker I 1/1

Started [2/3]: Autumn’s Jester 3/100, Dungeon Fae Legacy I 23/120

Available: True Dungeon Companion III 10/100, Royal Tutor 0/25, Primal Magic II 0/100, Hidden Advisor 0/15, Fount of Knowledge 0/30, Soul Chanter 0/100, False Dungeon Companion I 0/1, Godly Friend 0/75, Redeemed Dungeon Companion I 0/1}

Reading down the list of available paths, both of them freeze for a second at the false companion class path only for the redeemed class path to cause Ally to tear up a little.

With a sigh and a nod, Doyle congratulates her, ‘It looks like the system has decided you’re well on the path to better yourself. Mind you, I can still feel that our connection isn’t some gleaming wire of gold between us. The thing is still scuffed up, but keep up the good work.’

Ally lets out a long breath, ‘I definitely still have a lot to improve. The fact there are only a couple new paths available for me shows that. I’m not doing enough new stuff or maybe not putting enough work into current stuff, for new options yet. And you don’t have to say it, I understand that no matter what the system might say, in the end what matters is our relationship.’

Doyle nods again, ‘Last I checked, free will was still a thing so the system can’t force that kind of judgment on us. Still, I’m not going to put all the responsibility on your shoulders as I need to work at it myself. We don’t really just chat. Every time I come to you it is with a question. I recognize this because it is honestly one of my greatest failings.

‘While my goose egg of karma as a human didn’t help, I tended to not keep up conversations with people. Right now because I do keep needing to ask you about things, I talk to you relatively often. Once I get my feet under me, though, I’m going to have to keep up on things. This isn’t like when I drifted away from the few high school friends because I never contacted them. We’re stuck together and I don’t want to end up spending thousands of years with us basically in rooms across the hall from one another, yet never talking.’

‘Now, do you have any ideas on how you want to spend your path points?’

Ally pauses for a second as she looks over the list again. ‘I think I’m going to double dip on my class paths this time. I have more than enough points to both buy and complete the third path and the redeemed one path. As it is, while some of the other paths might sound interesting, those should give me the most benefit. Looking at it, I could even afford the second step of the redeemed path if I wanted. Though it might be better to hold on to a few points just in case. Ten will be enough to buy any situation paths that might pop up.’

Doyle laughs, ‘Sounds like a plan! I honestly don’t really have any idea how your paths should go. If there had been something to help with scrying, it might be worth it, but that doesn’t seem to be an option.’

Ally frowns, ‘I really should have another scrying based path. Sure, I already have Scryer, but I spend most of my days working on it.’

Doyle tilts to the side, ‘Meh, maybe it just hasn’t judged what you’re doing as stretching anything. After all, as it is, you’re only using the ability for about the most basic thing you can, a flat screen from a fixed perspective.’

Ally’s eyes go wide, ‘I. I think you might be onto something there. That can be something I try to stretch myself with. The skill has seen some decent growth, but that isn’t a good reason to think I’m following it perfectly. Plus, it is something I can do and really help with.’

Doyle holds up a stone block to get her attention back. ‘Don’t think you have to do one specific thing. There will be enough things for you to help with around here later on. Even now, you’re helping me by talking to the kobold boss. Really can’t wait for the naming ability, “kobold boss” just feels way too generic for her. Anyway, even if you couldn’t do anything directly beneficial, you’re the only person I can bounce ideas off of and talk to. No matter how antisocial I was, for some reason I doubt even sapient dungeons can survive without some sort of being to talk to.

‘Sure, the bosses will be able to talk, eventually. The thing is, unlike a normal dungeon I started out awakened. In the normal swing of things, the bosses will end up more developed than the core. In fact, by the time a normal dungeon does wake up, there should be a ton of bosses and most of them will be older than a normal universe.’

Ally nods, ‘That is true enough. In fact, the whole idea of a dungeon master is the result of a boss figuring out how to nudge an unawakened dungeon’s decisions. Anyway, let’s see what my paths do. [System, complete the True Dungeon Companion Three path and then complete the Redeemed Dungeon Companion One path.]’

{90 points applied to True Dungeon Companion III...

20/100 - You have earned +10 Wisdom and +2 Wisdom/Level

30/100 - You have earned the Bargain skill at level 0 and +1 Intelligence/Level

40/100 - You have earned +2 to each body stat and +1/Level to each body stat

50/100 - You have earned an upgrade to the Scry skill, Scry upgraded to Dungeon Scryer with level retained, +1 Karma/Level

60/100 - Your Soul Shell has been slightly repaired, Level limit increased

70/100 - You have earned +10 Presence and +2 Presence/Level

80/100 - Your Race has been adjusted to better fit your Dungeon, Racial Ability Spatial Slip awakened and turned into a skill at level 0

90/100 - You have earned +5 to each soul stat and +2/Level to each soul stat

100/100 - Path Complete, Deeper access to Dungeon abilities granted, Minor Dungeon terrain manipulation ability based on a percent of home Dungeon’s Territory Control skill, Dungeon Scryer improved to allow minor identification of objects within the home Dungeon

1 Point applied to Redeemed Dungeon Companion I...

Contradictory path False Dungeon Companion I removed...

1/1 - Path Complete, You have earned +1/Level to all stats, Telepathy adjust to better send and receive emotions, Soul Sight adjusted to better match current race}

Doyle whistles at the results while Ally quickly pulls up her status panel again.

{Name: Ally Huxley

Race: Autumn Court Strange Dungeon Fae

Soul Bound: Doyle Huxley

Paths: [10] Redeemed Dungeon Companion I 1/1, Primal Magic I 10/10, Limit Breaker I 1/1, Autumn’s Jester 3/100

Level: 10

S[12 > 14] A[9 > 11] C[12 > 14] I[17] W[8 > 18] P[15 > 25] D[13 > 18] K[24 > 29] L[16 > 21]

Skills [5/5 Class, 1/5+1 General]: Tutor lv31, Primal Glamor lv7, Courtly Manners lv9, Telepathy lv58, Soul Sight lv15, Dungeon Scryer lv36, Bargain lv0, Spatial Slip lv0}

Doyle picks out the racial change right away. ‘Looks like you’re a strange fae now. Not really sure if that is all that different as normal fae seem strange enough.’

Ally snorts, ‘I’m guessing by the racial skill that awakened because of the “strange” there it has more to do with getting into the spatial side of my fae heritage. Fae have always been a little off from normal realities, preferring to exist in fae realms. So much so that those realms are called fae realms, which is a little presumptuous of us as more than just fae live there.

‘Anyway, the skill basically lets me blink around without using resources when just flying or walking. Seems that because of the race change I’m a bit more outside of the regular 3d space and so can literally just slip between space to move elsewhere. Not quite at the point of slipping between time so there is a limit on distance, but it seems that those restrictions are lifted within your territory.’

Doyle nods, ‘That probably somewhat has to do with the upgrade of your scry skill. If you can already teleport, I don’t see why distance should matter too much besides maybe requiring power. You likely need to be able to sense the location you are slipping to. The dungeon scryer skill probably hooks you directly into my ability to sense my territory.

‘While my ability to sense stuff isn’t at the level of omniscience, I can get a super accurate view of anywhere within my territory without even thinking about it. The moment there is even a ghost of a chance that I might want to pay attention to a location it is in my mind. If I had to guess, the skill dungeon scryer is giving you a flash of knowledge for a location that spatial slip is taking and running with.’

Ally frowns, ‘If you can view anywhere in the dungeon with your mind, why do you keep coming to me for screens to view stuff?’

Doyle laughs, ‘You have to remember, my mind is still a good bit human and while I have always had a good spatial sense, that is nowhere near what a dungeon can do. Even if you weren’t here, I would still be using the view screens because my mind just hasn’t gotten used to what amounts to a 3d model popping into my head which I see all points of at the same time, including inside of the monsters and environment.

‘The only thing I don’t see the “full view” of is the delvers because their souls and power push back my territory. Though there is a second reason why I come to you for my viewing portal needs. At the start, it was because of how good you were at it. Mind you, you still are better than me seeing as while a dungeon can do it, we aren’t exactly set up for it because normally we wouldn’t need it. More importantly though, it seems to help improve your scrying skill. I don’t think I ever fully thought about it? But it just felt right to give you a chance to work with it.’