Rune Seeker

After a few more threats—and promises—Hiral and Seena rejoined the others to take their places in front of the treasure chests.

“Let’s see what we’ve got,” Seena said, crouching in front of her large, square chest.

“Still think there’s a good chance it’s a fishing rod,” Right said at Hiral’s side.

“Don’t think I’ve ever gone fishing,” Hiral responded at the same time he opened the long chest.

It definitely wasn’t a fishing rod sparkling within the chest. Blades of sleek, curving crystal sprang from each end of the weapon’s four-foot-long haft. Small indentations in two sections of the haft showed where he could separate the weapon into three parts, and Hiral stared at it for a few seconds until View activated.

(Lost) Sho-Val of the Valley – A-Rank

Effects: When using any two pieces (or more) of the Sho-Val together, grants user access to Ability (Passive) – Wind Steps and Ability (Passive) – Crescent Wind

Ability (Passive) – Wind Steps: Boosts user’s movement speed by 30% and reduces chance to be hit by ranged attacks by 10%.

Ability (Passive) – Crescent Wind: Strikes and swings from the bladed ends of the Sho-Val produce cutting winds.

“What’s a Sho-Val?” Right asked.

“Apparently this,” Hiral said as he gently lifted the weapon out of the chest. As soon as his fingers had touched the crystal haft, his passive ability In the Hands of the Duelist told him everything he needed to know about the weapon style to wield the Sho-Val. “It can be separated into three pieces and reconnected in slightly different configurations: This long double-spear form, the two ends—like a pair of swords—a shorter double-spear, a single spear, or I can even use this middle part as a blunt weapon.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it on the island or in the books you read,” Left said.

“It’s A-Rank, so it must be a Progenitor weapon,” Hiral said.

“Either way, those abilities seem almost custom made for you,” Right said. “Movement speed, and another ability that’s based off your dexterity and attunement.”

“Yeah, I like it.” Hiral stood, spinning the weapon through his hands as he took a few experimental steps forward. Doing that, In the Hands of the Duelist told him just knowing the styles wouldn’t be enough to completely master the weapon. Apparently, there were twelve different variations he’d need to practice with.

Something to experiment with later, he thought before threading solar energy into the Ring of Amin Thett to pull the spear in.

“How’d you two do?” Hiral asked the sisters.

“I finally get to join the cool-armor club,” Seena said, holding up a suit of armor that looked to be made of green and red scales. No, looking closer at the familiar pattern, the metallic-looking components weren’t scales or metal—they were feathers.

“Roc feathers?” Hiral asked.

“Got it in one,” Seena said. “It’s A-Rank and has some good synergy with my other abilities since Rocs are descended from phoenixes. Sis?”

“Hand crossbows,” Seeyela said, holding up a pair of similar—but not exactly identical—weapons. “Made from the carapaces of different kinds of spiders. Each one has a new kind of venom. Should give me a ranged option… which would’ve been really useful against the damn squid.”

“Probably the reason you got them,” Hiral pointed out.

Seeyela seemed to think about it for a second, then nodded. “Probably.”

“What do the venoms do?” Seena asked.

“One just does a chunk of damage all at once. No delay to it like my Ghost-Web Venom. The other applies a debuff that lowers all kinds of things. Not by a lot, mind you, but it covers everything.”

“A debuff, you say?” Hiral asked.

Seeyela pointed one of the crossbows at him. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll shoot you later. You’re such a masochist.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Hiral mumbled. “More debuffs are useful.”

“Do you need bolts for your crossbows?” Seena asked, though she was chuckling again.

“No,” Seeyela said, “they make their own through solar energy. Bit of a cooldown on each shot, but they’ll help round out my damage.”

“Going to keep them in your ring?”

“No need; they come with little plates like Hiral’s RHCs,” she said, pulling small discs of white material out of the chest. A quick motion attached them to her armor on the backs of her shoulders, and the crossbows followed a second later. A few snappy practice motions drawing the weapons, and she nodded. “I like them.”

“You want to get changed?” Hiral asked Seena, pointing at her armor.

“I’ll do it after we get out of the dungeon. Not like there’s a changing room in here or anything. Left, Right, did either of you check what was in the group chest?”

“Ah, sorry, no.” Right thumbed towards Hiral’s open chest. “Wanted to see if it was a fishing rod.”

“I’ll get it,” Left said, going over and popping the top open. “More currency. A lot more.”

“Good,” Hiral said. “Was a bit worried we wouldn’t have enough to fix all eleven towers.”

“Great,” Seena said. “Let’s get our achievements, and then we should get back out of here to find out how much time has actually passed.”

“Hopefully less than three hours,” Hiral said. “The entry notification said something about providing energy to keep the clouds away if we could beat the dungeon like that.”

Seena nodded and waved her hand over the interface crystal. “Achievement Rewards.”

A chain of notification windows sprang up in front of Hiral’s eyes, and he got started on the first.

Achievement: The Legendary Rat Pack

Reward: Class Ability: (Lost) Echo Aura becomes Class Ability: (Lost) Echo Aura+.

(Lost) Echo Aura+: When you successfully evade an attack, have a chance to leave behind an exploding Lost Echo+ afterimage in your position.

Note: (Lost) Echo Aura+ is a continuous effect requiring no ongoing investment of solar energy, and a minor investment for each explosion.

Note (2): Damage of explosions caused by (Lost) Echo Aura+ is based off Atn, with damage for each subsequent explosion against the same target increasing by 10%.

Note (3): User of (Lost) Echo Aura+ and party members are unaffected by explosions.

Note (4): Explosions. Explosions. Explosions. More upgraded explosions.

Of course it left Note (4) in there. Aside from the snark, let’s see… What’s different? No more ongoing solar energy cost for keeping the aura up, and the actual explosions cost less. Not bad, though I wasn’t really having trouble with that before. What else? 10% more damage per each explosion after the first against the same target. That would’ve been insane against the squid. Hrm, it doesn’t list a cap. Is there one?

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Right is going to love testing this with me. Next.

Hiral closed the notification window for the second one to spring up in its place.

Achievement: The Root of the Problem is the Solution

Rewards increased for completing bonus and hidden objectives.

Reward: Class Ability (Active): Eloquent and Class Ability (Active): Enraged have combined to become Class Ability (Active): Eloquently Enraged+.

Eloquently Enraged+: Increase all mental and physical attributes by 75% for 180 seconds (Cooldown: 30 minutes).

Note: After Eloquently Enraged+ fades, all mental and physical attributes are reduced by 25% for 180 seconds.

No way I can complain about a bonus to these abilities. Combining them into one ability doesn’t really do anything… Oh, wait. This means I can use Double Troubleand get the benefit for both of them. Nice. Side effects are still there, but at least they’re reduced. Cooldown is reduced by half too. All around great reward. What’s next?

The notification window vanished for the next one in line to take its place.

Achievement: Up, Up, and Away

Rewards increased for completing bonus and hidden objectives.

Reward: Class Ability (Passive): (Lost) Regeneration+ has evolved into Class Ability (Passive): (Lost) High-Speed Regeneration+.

(Lost) High-Speed Regeneration+: Passively regenerate 3% health per 10 seconds as long as you have solar energy to power the ability.

While under the effects of passive High-Speed Regeneration+, deal bonus damage proportional to the amount of health missing from maximum.

Note: Passive healing can be supercharged for a burst of active health restoration (Cooldown: 4 minutes).

Note (2): After using active health restoration, passive Regeneration is reduced to 5% per minute until cooldown expires.

Note (3): Bonus damage increases relative to health lost and Rank.

Hiral’s jaw dropped as he read the notification window.

Another upgrade to Regeneration? Yes, please! And… 3% per 10 seconds? That means just over five minutes to go from no health to full. Not that I want to get to no health, but… wow. I didn’t really get to take advantage of the damage bonus from having lower health against the squid, but I wonder if this is the same, or if it got upgraded too? Probably upgraded, but I can’t even test it to figure it out. Ah, well. The passive healing and the active healing are both just so much better. This is an amazing upgrade.

He read over the notification window one more time before closing it, then dove into the next one.

Achievement: Bearing Witness

Reward: Class Ability (Active): Domain

Through combined usage of runes, create a domain that empowers you and your allies.

Domain: Grants the following bonuses to user (members of user’s party gain bonuses at half listed value) while within the bounds of the domain:

Cooldowns and damage taken reduced by 10%

Attributes, movement speed, energy efficiency, and damage increased by 10%

Critical hit chance increased by 5%

Critical hit damage increased by 15%

Note: Diameter of domain is 100 feet from central point at time of creation.

Note (2): Domain does not move once created.

Note (3): Domain can take on aspects of other lasting area-of-effect abilities with a fixed range and duration.

Note (4): Duration—1 minute per Rank

Note (5): Cooldown—1 hour

It took Hiral a moment to read the whole window, and then another minute to go over it a few more times.

Same thing I did by combining the effects of my runes. Even using the same name I had in my head. I see what you’re doing, Mr. PIMP, but I won’t complain. Solid all-around bonuses, and the party even gets buffed by them as long as they stay in it. Cooldown is a bit long for dungeon runs, but maybe I just save it for the Boss.

Then again, after we save Fallen Reach, when’s the next time we’ll be in a dungeon…?

Without an answer to that question, Hiral closed the window and moved on to the next.

Achievement: Just Not in the Face

Reward: Class Modification: Vengeance becomes Reward: Class Modification: Vengeance+.

Vengeance+: When taking damage or being debuffed by an enemy, or when dodging, blocking, or parrying an enemy, gain stacking +3% critical hit chance and critical hit damage.

Note: Vengeance+ can stack to a maximum of 10 times.

Note (2): Vengeance+ can apply to multiple enemies at once.

Simple buff to the ability. I think the description is actually shorter than the original. More crit chance per stack, and new crit damage along with that. Looks like it also reduced the limitation the benefits only applied to the target that’d generated the most stacks. So, against a group, I guess this means I can have different Vengeance stacks active against each of them. Great if there are adds.

That just left one more achievement, and Hiral closed this window to bring it up.

Achievement: The Chosen Few

Reward: Class Ability (Active): Double Trouble becomes Reward: Class Ability (Active): Double Trouble+.

Double Trouble+: Double the cooldown on any ability to increase the effects by 100%.

Note: Abilities with no cooldown are unaffected.

Note (2): Abilities can transcend traditional limits through the use of Double Trouble+.

Hiral’s jaw dropped for the second time. This ability upgrade actually doubled the effect of any ability with a cooldown, which on its own was amazing. Combined with his new Eloquently Enraged+, though?

Insanity. Pure insanity. Using the two together will increase my attributes by 150%! Heh, that’ll still hardly make most of my stats worth talking about, but Dex and Atn? Ho, ho, ho, I can’t wait to test this out.

“Somebody’s happy.” Seena’s voice cut through Hiral’s imagination running wild, and he closed the window.

“I… can’t complain,” he said, fighting to wipe the stupid grin off his face. All it took was remembering what it had cost them to get the achievements, and the smile faded like it was never there. “How about you?”

“Really good, which kind of pisses me off,” Seena said.

“Yeah,” Hiral agreed. A quick look at his status window before closing… and he paused. “Hey, guys, did you look at your level?”

“No,” Seena said. “Figured our experience would still be on hold until we got out.” Her eyes glazed over as she most likely checked her own status window—then widened so much they practically bugged out of her head. “Level twelve? We’re level twelve now?”

“Wait, what?” Seeyela asked, obviously opening up her status at the same time. “We gained ten levels in here?”

“Looking at the notifications, we got a lot—and I mean a loooooot—of experience for the two Enemies. Even the big one Yan… Even the big one,” Hiral amended. “The small rats and bats were worth really good experience too.”

“We did kill a ton of them,” Seena said. “Hold on. Hiral, what level are you? With Killing Spree+ going for those rats…”

“Level thirteen,” he said. “Almost fourteen. Apparently, I had the Beauty Sleep buff going for some of it as well. I think there is a maximum amount of experience I can get from it, since it dropped off while fighting the rats at the beginning.”

“Either way, OP,” Seeyela said.

“Make sure you share that Killing Spree+ more next time,” Seena grumbled before punching him in the shoulder.

“It didn’t do anything for the squids, and we got almost four levels for each of them,” Hiral pointed out.

“Don’t argue. Share,” Seena said.

“Got it, boss.” Then Hiral allocated his attribute points. Sticking with his usual distribution of Dex and Atn, he looked at his stats when he was finished.

Attributes

Strength (Str)—18 (3+6) = 28

Endurance (End)—18 (3+6) = 28

Dexterity (Dex)—20 (3+153) = 230

Intelligence (Int)—18 (3+6) = 28

Wisdom (Wis)—18 (3+6+18) = 49

Attunement (Atn)—20 (3+153) = 230

Considering I only had 20 Dex total when I first came down to the surface, this is… uh… pretty good. The straight-up 20% bonus to Dex and Atn from having 20 in the base stat, plus the 15% bonus from Life of the Party really adds up too.

“If we’re all done distributing our stats, let’s get out of here,” Seeyela said. “I haven’t seen my daughter in a year, and after all this… I really need to give her a hug.”

Seena swiped her hand over the interface crystal. “Exit Dungeon.”

The red-rimmed portal spun open as usual, but nobody moved toward it immediately—not even Seeyela. Instead, all five of them turned around to once more look at the scar stretching across the sky.

“Thanks, Yan,” Seena said. “Don’t worry. We’ll take care of things from here.”

Then, as one, they turned and strode through the portal.