Rune Seeker

Dynamic Quest Complete

You’ve successfully passed the first trial of the Lost Forge of Ur’Thul.

Congratulations: Achievement unlocked – Love that Energy!

You’ve mastered the Lost art of Cycling (at least, you will, when you reach the next dungeon interface).

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

Hiral quickly read through the notification. Well, at least I have a pretty good guess what the reward for this achievement will be. Honestly can’t complain.

“You all got the quest complete?” he asked as his platform settled gently next to the bridge, the other five arriving at the same time.

“Sure did,” Yanily said. “No bonus achievements, though, which is a little sad.”

“What did you think you’d get a bonus for?” Seena asked.

“Maybe on the next one, Yanily,” Hiral said, comforting the spearman.

“Speaking of the next one…” Seena said, looking towards the door. “I think we should get some sleep before we go through that door.”

“Like this trial, the next won’t start immediately when you pass into the room,” Odi said.

“Maybe not, but, no offense, we know what’s in here,” Seena said. “Will that door close if we don’t go through right away?”

“Well… no,” Odi said. “I guess it doesn’t matter if you rest here or there. The result will be the same.”

“Tents or sleeping bags, whatever you want,” Seena instructed. “Six hours, then we’re moving on to trial number two.”

Hiral stretched and yawned just at the thought of getting some sleep, some of the adrenaline from running the trial leaking away. He wouldn’t be able to fall asleep just yet, but it was coming.

“Saw you run that course,” Left said, coming over with Right to Hiral while the others started setting up a makeshift camp right there. “You’ve gotten better with the runes.”

“Thanks. I have,” Hiral said. “I can use them more without thinking about it, almost like muscle memory. It’s nothing huge, but it makes a small difference in all my movements. A little faster, a little sharper.”

“Pairs well with your dexterity and attunement,” Right noted.

“It does. Speaking of which, I got another base point of attunement from figuring out the trial. Let’s join up real quick.”

“Oh, I won’t say no to more attunement,” Left said, and he and Right took Hiral’s hands. A quick absorption and Foundational Split later, and his doubles were back out. “Oh, there’s that twenty percent bonus. Excellent.”

“Twenty percent of nothing is still nothing,” Right grumbled.

“You get the plus three from the ring,” Left pointed out.

“The twenty percent rounds down, so it’s still not enough to get me to four,” Right grumbled.

“If it makes you feel better, it’s not enough for us either,” Hiral said.

“Doesn’t really make me feel better,” Right said.

“Then why are you smiling?” Seena asked, joining Hiral and his doubles.

“No comment,” Right said, spinning on his heel and walking over to talk to Wule and Nivian.

“We’ll keep an eye out while you all sleep,” Left said, his eyes darting to where Odi sat.

“Thanks,” Hiral said.

Left nodded and also walked off, this time to talk to Seeyela.

“You think he might be up to something?” Seena asked quietly.

“Not really,” Hiral whispered back. “Just better to be safe than sorry. And we don’t have a lot of time to split watches.”

“If the second trial is as tough as this one was, we’ll want to be in top shape, too,” Seena agreed.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Hiral said. “Twelve hours, give or take, to get through. Compared to months, I think we practically raced through it.”

“Yeah, well, apparently our competition were toddlers,” Seena chuckled. “Still, twelve hours is three or four times longer than we expected to be inside a dungeon. I sure hope we can actually get out.”

“We got the dynamic quest, so the PIM system must still be working in here,” Hiral said. “A portal will open when we clear the dungeon. I’m more curious about this Urn, and whether or not it can help us with the Enemy.”

“You think we should make a play for it?” Seena asked.

Hiral seriously considered the question, and Seena saw that. “I don’t know. This is a dungeon, right? This is probably all from some time in the distant past. Odi is likely long-since dead, with this crisis his people are facing over and finished.

“On the other hand, this is a Wild dungeon, like The Buried City. The rules in here might be totally different. We were able to take Seeyela’s daggers with us when we left that one. Maybe we can do the same with the Urn? But… but… what if the rules are really different? What if this is now, with Odi alive, and the Urn is his solution to freeing his people from being undead?

“I know it sounds crazy, and goes against everything we’ve seen in dungeons…”

“You think maybe this isn’t the past?” Seena asked.

“I think I don’t know,” Hiral said. “Even if it is now, though…. Even if he thinks the Urn can save all those people… Odi’s city is… dead.”

“And the Urn, if it’s really that powerful, might also be able to save Fallen Reach, and all my peoples’ islands,” Seena said. “Trading one already-dead city for one… two… that are still alive. Seems like a fair trade.”

“Fair, maybe, but why do I feel so dirty even thinking about it?” Hiral asked.

“Probably the same reason I do,” Seena admitted, blowing her breath out. “Even if it’s not real, it feels like it is. Like back with Livik and his mother. I know we weren’t actually helping them—not really changing anything—but at the time? They felt just as real as somebody I’d meet back home. I wanted to—needed to—help them.”

“Could be part of the magic of the dungeons. They seem to see us as something other than what we are—Odi thinks we’re Lizardmen—so, maybe it does something in reverse too? Something to help motivate us to complete the quests.”

“Not like Yanily needs any more motivation,” Seena said.

“Experience and loot are pretty good drivers for all of us, if we’re being honest here,” Hiral said.

“True,” Seena said, sighing. “I don’t know, Hiral. We don’t know enough about the Urn, or even about what turned all the Lizardmen into undead, to make any decisions now. Like you said, this is probably the past…”

“Probably,” Hiral agreed.

Seena nodded. “For now, we’ll play it by ear. We’ll consider all our options, even if one of them is condemning an entire nation to being trapped as undead.” Seena grimaced at her own words. “Just saying it makes me hate myself.”

“You’re right, though,” Hiral said, despite it feeling like a brick in his stomach. “It could be the Urn is the whole reason the PIMP sent us here. Maybe it knows we can use it against the Enemy.”

“A very real possibility. Or, the dungeon really was corrupted and we just happened to end up here. See if you can’t get Left and Right to get some more information from Odi while we’re working on the next trial. Maybe he’ll tell them something that’ll help make our decision for us.”

“Yeah, I can ask them to do it. I’m sure Left can be subtle about it.”

“And, worse comes to worst, Right can punch him until he talks,” Seena joked.

“He is feeling a little cagey, not being able to contribute directly to the trial,” Hiral admitted. “Okay, enough about that. How’d everybody else do?”

“Sis learned how to do a short-range teleport,” Seena said while shaking her head in disbelief. “No portal… just…”

“Bamf?” Hiral asked.

“That, yeah,” Seena said, pointing at Hiral. “Energy cost isn’t too bad, I guess. She says it’ll make her extra stabby.”

“Ah, right. I need to spend some time with her before we leave this dungeon. I know a couple of dagger and knife techniques that should work for her until she gets one of your cheat weapon styles.”

“Says Mr. Overpowered himself,” Seena said.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, don’t start sounding like Yanily,” Hiral said, and Seena actually looked insulted. “How about Nivian and Wule?”

“Wule’s practice ended up giving him an ability evolution that reduced the cost of his healing abilities. Even works for his defensive skill, so all around plus there. Nivian didn’t get an ability evolution himself, but he’s got way more control over his movement ability.”

“Can he turn corners?” Hiral asked.

“Not quite, but he thinks he can actually chain the technique to hit multiple enemies in a row without stopping now,” Seena explained.

“Oh, wow. That would’ve been useful against the Scholar back in The Mire.”

“Wouldn’t it?” Seena agreed. “And, before you ask, Yanily got an ability modification. He can use his movement ability without his spear, and it costs less now.”

“Wow. So even without the achievement, that wasn’t a bad gain for everybody just by basically training.”

“Yeah,” Seena said, looking back at trial one, her mind obviously deep in thought over something.

“What is it?” Hiral asked.

“Just thinking how great a training room this would’ve been if we weren’t on a time limit. You know, switch up which trial we were each working on… Who knows what we could’ve gotten?”

Hiral turned to follow her line of sight, and he was nodding before he knew it as he looked at the other challenges. How would he have tackled them…? Then he shook his head at the same time Seena did.

“No time,” they said in unison.

With a shared shrug, they looked back at the party. Yanily was already asleep, Nivian—predictably—had sandwiches out for when people got hungry, and Wule was climbing into a sleeping bag while rolling his eyes at his brother.

“Hey, you two,” Seeyela called over to Hiral and Seena. Then, without another word…

Bamf! She appeared right in front of them, small embers of purple, infernal fire licking off her white armor, and both of them jumped back a step.

“Damn, Sis, you know Wule can’t heal heart attacks,” Seena said, bringing a hand to her chest.

“She’s right; I can’t,” Wule said. “Then again… keep doing that, Seeyela, and I’m sure I’ll have some opportunities for an ability evolution.”

“Sorry, couldn’t help myself,” Seeyela said, though the full facemask hid her expression.

“What did you need?” Hiral asked, forcing his own breathing back to normal after the startle.

“Get some sleep,” Seeyela said.

“You teleported over here and almost scared us both out of our skins to tell us to go to sleep?” Seena asked.

“Yup,” Seeyela said, and Hiral was sure he could hear a smile in her voice. She was enjoying the teleporting far too much.

To be fair, Hiral would too.

Actually… if it’s just an application of gravity…

“Hiral, stop right there,” Seeyela said. “I know that look. Sleep now, test reckless plans later.”

“It wasn’t reckless,” Hiral said, scowling, but he nodded and headed for his sleeping bag.