Saga of the Soul Dungeon

“He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.”

-Aeschylus

==Sevso==

=Several days prior=

Laughing while doing a handstand was not the most subtle of actions.

“Glad to see you are having such a good time,” said Gnaeus, his voice amused.

I flushed, and flipped my body back around so I landed on my feet. I grinned at him.

“Perhaps I got a little carried away,” I said.

His eyes flickered over my body, and an eyebrow rose.

“Some changes, I see, and a new class. Sounds fascinating,” he said, “tell me about it.”

We sat down, and I do just that, mentioning my new abilities and titles. Afterwards, I ask for his thoughts.

“Let’s start with the easy stuff,” he says. “Trailblazer, that is a great title, well known. And it helps you with just about everything. And it sounds like you are halfway to the next level of that title already.

The ability Inexorable is much the same. Haven’t heard of that particular name for it, but upgraded skills are known. They usually happen as a result of sub-classes, but people can get that far in other ways.”

“What is a sub-class?” I asked.

He looks at me, his eyes having wandered away.

“Hmm? Oh, I suppose you wouldn’t know,” He said. “Not much use in the slums, except perhaps for the slumlords, and I doubt they would share.”

He sighed.

“The nobles hoard knowledge too, just the way of things. Anyway, to actually answer your question, people can get a sub-class around level fifty.”

“Fifty?” I said. I tried not to sound too incredulous, but it was hard. I couldn’t imagine getting to that level.

There was a trace of mirth in Gnaeus’ answer as he replied with a small smile.

“Yes, fifty,” He said. “Skilled adventurers will usually get there if they survive long enough. Many of the nobility get there, especially the more powerful families. Not as hard as it seems, I assure you. You are a good candidate to get there yourself, eventually.

“Me?” I said, bewildered, “I-”

“Don’t interrupt boy,” he said, his left hand and index finder rising in front of him. He waited for a moment to see if I was going to keep talking and then resumed.

“Yes,” he said, “you. You have a good title, and a superior ability. Those are advantages. You also have a new class. When you get a new class it usually lets you level it more quickly. I know you have had a number of classes already. Firstly, your birth-class doesn’t count. Also, all your classes after that were just for survival, but even your Street Tough class involved little actual fighting. Surviving gives you some experience, but not much.

“Sadly, your surroundings mattered, too. All of your abilities would have been used on people in similar circumstances to yourself. People who were low level. And that matters.

“Now you have a new class. It is what would usually be called an artisan class. You don’t really make anything, I know. It is an imprecise appellation.”

I didn’t say anything, but he must have noticed my confusion.

He sighed, “Well, ask your question.”

What is an appellation?” I asked.

Gnaeus gave a small smile and ducked his head.

“Ah, forgot my audience for a moment, didn’t I?” He said. “It means a name or label. Where were we…

Ah, yes!

So, you have the benefit of gaining experience in new ways. And your class is lucky enough to give you experience for multiple things.

Also, the inexorable skill was added to your class. I know the description of your class doesn’t say this, but you gain experience from improving the skills that come with it. So, anything you are doing to push your body is going to grant you experience.

And don’t even get me started on your Lucky Fool trait. Luck is one of the most powerful things you can have on your side. And traits are important, boy. Another little secret, I’m afraid. They help you get better classes.”

“Just wait,” he said, “I’ll make you something to help train your body.”

I watched as he pulled a small bronze necklace out of his storage; it was followed by some sort of drawing implement.

“Be quiet for a while,” He said, “this will take some concentration.”

I obliged, of course.

He sat on a rock and carefully drew tiny lines of white on the metal. The language he was using meant nothing to me, but I knew enough to know that he had to be making an emblem. His hands held the small inscriber and made dexterous motions, tiny symbols appearing in a neat sequence. A few minutes later and Gnaeus was finished. He went over the emblem a few times, humming to himself.

He stood up and carefully put the necklace down on a nearby rock. He pulled out a small chunk of metal from his storage. He spoke, his voice resonating into the air, and the small symbols burned with fire, engraving the lines down into the necklace. Tiny threads of metal poured into the necklace from the lump in his hand, filling in the new empty spaces. He chanted and light erupted from the tiny lines. It shone up and around, painting him in sharp contrasting light and darkness. A sense of pressure was heavy in the air. I could feel the magic as it pressed in on me. And then it was over, and everything was the still twilight once again.

I was struck by the wonder of the moment. He had told me what he did, but this was the first time I had seen him actually do it.

Gnaeus let out a breath.

“There we go,” he said. “I will have you wear this tomorrow for a while, I’ll tell you more about it then.”

I had a sense of morbid curiosity, so I asked a question.

“What would that even cost, usually?” I said.

“About forty gold from a decent creator,” he said. It went unsaid that he was more than merely decent. I didn’t bother asking what it would normally take to have him make it.

I wasn’t sure if it ruined or enhanced the magic to know that what he made would cost, at least, forty gold.

He smiled a little smile at me.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “To me, your money is just some spare change.

“And now,” he grinned, “you have me to help train you.”

I should have taken that grin as a warning.

=Now=

I groaned, my muscles more sore than I could ever remember, except perhaps the day before.

“Remind me why I’m doing this again,” I huffed out.

Gnaeus looked at my smugly.

“You tell me,” he said.

I wanted to glare at him, but it wouldn’t do me any good. I didn’t answer him but my mind went over the reasons anyway. Firstly, when he mentioned training, I accepted his offer. Secondly, I was working my body heavily, and that was bound to help my skill improve faster, even if it was less than pleasant. Third, he had explained that my skill was multiplying the strength, dexterity, etc... my body already had. The skill would maintain my body to a certain minimal level of fitness, but it was better to push my body itself, rather than just use my current capacity.

Ultimately, there were plenty of good reasons to train.

The small medallion lay on my chest; It was the source of all my misery. As long as I wore it, it made every movement harder. It wasn’t a weight pressing down on me, it just made my muscles work more. Every movement had resistance. He had only put it on me for the last hour of traveling the first day, but the second he used it for two, and today I had been wearing it for three.

After the first day the soreness made me want to argue that this had to be bad for me. However, my health remained at a stubborn hundred percent in my status. It hurt, but I couldn’t say it was hurting me.

“Okay, this looks like a good place to camp,” he said.

I threw the wretched amulet at him and collapsed. He caught it with a chuckle.

“You should be careful with that, it’s expensive,” he said.

“Yeah, yeah,” I gasped out, “if I pay you the forty gold for it, can I throw it away?”

He only chuckled more.

“Such a good thing that your body is enhanced,” he said. “If it wasn’t speeding up your healing we would need to have you wear it for shorter lengths of time. Plus, we would need to wait at least a day between uses. At least at first.”

He laughed harder as I cursed at him between heaving breaths. I really wished I could gainsay him, but I had managed an hour more each day so far. I felt more sore each day, but I also knew that I couldn’t have done three hours just a few days ago. If only he wasn’t so amused by my suffering.

We were still near the cliffs, little had changed as we traveled northward.

I had collected samples of everything that I could. Sometimes it felt like I was drawn to almost everything. I was heavily drawn to the medallion on my chest, but I had never seriously considered putting it my storage. Okay... maybe once… or twice.

Pieces of plants, twigs, berries, chunks of wood and bramble, all went into my storage without issue. The corpses of monsters that had attacked us on the road were no trouble, either. They would have been difficult for me to deal with, but Gnaeus killed each one we encountered with a single spell.

Apparently there wasn’t anything he would consider dangerous this time of year. The monsters we encountered were all in the range between levels five and ten. They were more than enough to be dangerous to me, but even if he hadn’t said it, I suspected that there were never, monsters on this road that could threaten him.

I had a vague sense of my storage. It was not even close to full. I had only included a single monster or animal corpse of any given type, even so. I didn’t want to run out of space, though I had felt drawn to various small rocks and other things. So they ended up inside.

I had gone down to the edge of the water the other day. I had put handfuls of sand and seawater into it as well little bits of shell.

I heaved myself up. I went through stretches that Gnaeus had shown me. They helped prevent my muscles from seizing and limbered up my body as whole. I was much more flexible than I used to be. I still wasn’t as strong or flexible as Gnaeus though.

He joined me and made the stretches look like a dance, his form silhouetted against the light of the fading day. He looked like a piece of worn leather most of the time, but I had to admit he knew what he was doing.

We finished stretching together. The light of Shurum and Otga moving closer to the horizon.

“Looks like Thaw is finally here,” he said.

I looked up to see a tiny billow of faint light stretching from Shurum, and I smiled. I was ready for the cold to be over.

I breathed in the air, relishing the feel of the salt in my lungs. I had grown used to ending the day by the ocean. I looked down at the waves, but I saw something odd…

“Gnaeus,” I pointed, “what is that?”