Aliandra

  “So, what do you all want to do?” Ali asked, h by the stairs as Mato shoved the heavy Adventurers Guild doors open. A delicious aroma wafted over from the food cart parked beside the guild and Ali waved at Sabri and Brena who were chatting amiably together. But her stomach tied itself into a knot when she caught sight of what they were served – roasted bd green sticks that looked suspiciously like Tunnel Weaver legs. The obvious relish with which they tucked in, and the gruesome g noises didn’t help settle her stoma the slightest.

  “I’m going to leave you here,” Malika said. “I want to go talk to Morwynne about these essences and see if she craft us a new potion to unlock the Rune of Inferno.”

  “Ok,” Ali said, grateful for the distra.

  “Me too,” Mato added. “I have a batch of fire flowers for Eliyen and Basil, and then I want to visit Thuli for some maintenany armor.”

  “Don’t fet to get the job for those flowers from the board,” reminded him.

  “Got it already,” Mato said, waving a big hand. “See you ter!”

  Ali waved as Mato and Malika headed off and headed indoors with , a little bummed that all her friends had things to do, and hers would require waiting. At least it was important work – they needed a steady supply of elixirs to ward off the ridiculous fire damage.

  “Ok, see you in an hour,” said and darted off toward the stairs and the raid strategy css he was scheduled to run.

  “Bye,” Ali said, making her way over to the reception desk. She probably wouldn’t have evehe library, but for the fact that the Guildmaster had asked her to stop by and discuss details for another, smaller group she wao send to the shrine.

  “Is Vivian avaible?” Ali asked.

  “She’s waiting for you in her office,” Mieriel said, gng up from her work momentarily.

  She seems preoccupied. I wonder what’s going on?

  “Thanks,” Ali said and headed off to her meeting.

  ***

  Ali plopped herself down on a cou the guild hall. It was getting much more crowded now, just as Vivian had observed, with many new faces. It really is growing. To her surprise, Vivian had credited Malika with much of the guild’s new success in recruiting – and her own performa the Town cil meeting, and as she surveyed the gathered novices and recruits, Ali could see what the Guildmaster had meant. It wasn’t all of them, but many of the members were obviously from the poorer parts of town, just gauging from their appearances and the ck of new clothing.

  Even among the adventurers with csses, the armor and ons seemed scuffed and worn, hand-me-downs from those who had outgrown them, or items that had been bought and resold through the guild store several times. Well used.

  Her meeting with the Guildmaster had gone smoothly – it hadn’t taken too long, and now Ali found herself with nothing to do until her friends returhere was nothing of particur i on the jobs board – or at least, nothing she hadn’t already seen several times.

  Havok seemed to be enjoying a drink with his teammates and gave her a toothy grin. Ali waved, but she didn’t feel like intruding. I wonder where Seth is. She had been hoping to che with him, but she hadn’t seen him yet. Perhaps he was doing a solo job somewhere, he had mentioned liking to do that.

  Ali’s eyes dropped to the coffee table; her gaze caught by the sight of something she had not expected – a book. Curious, she reached over and picked it up, quirking an eyebrow at the roughly peitle ‘Dungeon Manual’.

  She flipped it open to the first page and was greeted by aended Identify, painstakingly copied down in the , pact handwriting of someoh a writing or calligraphy skill. Following the identificatioails was what seemed to be a detailed strategy guide.

  Toxic Slime – Ooze – level 5

  Category: Dungeon BossThreat Level: GroupMoype: OozeDamage: Physical, PoisonRespawn: 4 hours. First Kill: Belmar’s Team.

  The Toxic Slime boss is exceptionally difficult to avoid, even for those with good stealth skills, and substantially tougher than all the regur slimes in the sewer. Reend tanking it between the wall and the water el, giving enough room for the whole group to set up behind the boss. The tank should have anti-venom or antidote potions uhe team has a cure poison spell. At least one full-time healer is reended because the boss will occasionally strike randomly and hit the melee damage csses. Loot: There are several det low-level daggers, swords, and some arrows strewn around the chamber which all respawn with the boss.

  Ali’s eyebrows arched in surprise. That’s my Toxic Slime boss! She flipped the page, only to find another, even more detailed description of her Tunnel Weaver boss. There were a few things that were not quite accurate, but the description seemed to be quite well written. The first kill credit was attributed to Brena’s team.

  The Kobold Warrior boss was , listed as a raid boss, with two pages of detailed strategy written out. Aiden and Teagan’s group were listed together as having achieved the first kill.

  I didn’t realize they were so petitive.

  Ali turhe page, disc that her Forest Guardian was listed . There were a few ideas for strategy listed, but they were presented more as ideas or observations than a coherent strategy. First kill credit was given to ‘Rezan’s Disciples.’

  Whoever wrote this manual must not have had enough experieo formute a pn. Perhaps they had not evehe fight – the information had the feel of a colle of hearsay observations.

  Ali turhe page, and her breath caught ihroat.

  ??? – Eldrite – level ?

  Category: Dungeon BossThreat Level: Unknown.Moype: EldriteDamage: Unknown.Respawn: Unknown.

  Nothing is currently known about this boss, other than it appears to be a book. It was observed driving an assassin into the Forest Guardian boss before vanishing. Identify appears to be glitched on this monster, showing an uifiable single mark. Assumed very dangerous. Do not engage.

  ce?

  Some of the guild adventurers must have seen ce at some point. It was the only expnation that made sense – but what had he been doing there? And why the mention of the assassin? She recalled a kill notification from her Forest Guardiaed to some assassin, but she hadn’t known ce had been the instigator.

  They think he’s a boss. Ali chuckled to herself. It made some sort of sehough, not even she could identify the Eldrite’s level. It feels so odd to have a manual written about me.

  The rest of the dungeon manual had several inplete but retively detailed maps of the Forest Cavern and the sewer, depig the locations of the bosses along with discussions about how to handle Ali’s other monsters and which mushrooms and pnts were worth harvesting.

  She put the book ba the table ahe babble in the room wash over her. Then, on a whim, she summoned her Grimoire and copied the dungeon manual, st it in her ring to give to Ryn ter. It might be fun to have the manual in her library.

  “Hi Ali, what’s that?” said, approag and sitting beside her, his eyes shifting curiously to the book.

  “It’s a dungeon manual,” she answered, amused by his expression of surprise as he opehe manual and saw what was inside.

  “This is your dungeon?” he asked, frowning at the map of the sewer, while tilting the book sideways.

  “Yup.” Her dungeon was important enough, at least to a few people, that they had piled a strategy guide fhting it. It gave her an odd feeling of aplishment. She would definitely have to resist the urge to meddle with the yout and monsters just to irk the writers of such manuals, she reflected. Mischief definitely called to her…

  At least for the training areas, she amended. Keeping her most important protectors uable seemed like a smart strategy.

  “Ali, Mato and I are going to help the bronze adventurers do some scouting,” he said, repg the book. “They caught sight of one of the Blighted Patchwork Horrors he southern road and it’s blog their quest to dei.”

  “ they kill it?” she asked, surprised that and Mato would offer to join in.

  “No, they’re all around sixteen aeen at this point, and the abomination spreading the blight is probably close to forty, it’s a bit too much even froup,” said.

  “Do you wao get Malika, and we all go?” Ali asked. While she recalled tag some bosses at a severe level disadvantage, she knew even they had tempted something that extreme. And, acc to what Seth had said, those horrors had a deadly miasma.

  “If you want to, but I don’t think it will be necessary for all of us to do it,” answered, and then he gnced back at the dungeon manual before tinuing. “Both Teagan and Aiden brought up a bit of a problem during our strategy discussioing today. They’re all too low-level to clear the abominations, but not many of the other zombies in the forest are high enough level to give them det experience. Killing the wolves in your dungeon has slowed a lot for them too. They didn’t ht ask – but I was thinking – do you have enough mana to make a few higher-level challenges for them while we’re out? If they could level to about twenty-five, they probably tackle everything in the blighted forest on their own.”

  “Yes, I think so,” Ali answered, running through her menagerie of monsters mentally. She had just reached level fifty-nine, and they had been leveling really quickly down in the mines, but their progress was on the back of several substantial jumps that came from having a dungeon with bosses that were higher level than she was – and, most importantly, beatable with hard work, lots of crafter support, and pnning.

  Boosting two groups of guild adventurers above the level twenty threshold would be an incredible boon for the town – even beyond the urgent quest to open the southern road and se the blight and undead from the forest. Vivian had pihat many more difficult jobs had been cropping up retly, but Ali and her friends simply didn’t have the time to take most of them.

  I think I afford to give them something to work on. And, as usual, it would serve double duty, defending her domain from incursions by random monsters, and even assassins. She had the perception enha, and several rather exg ideas already.

  I really o go monster hunting soon, she thought. She had some great domain skills now, but she cked higher level monsters, bigger monsters, flying monsters, and monsters with iing affinities or useful skills to bolster to her repertoire. How dur dungeons deal with this? If she were the type to just hunker down and wait for them to e to her, she would be limited to zombies, skeletons, kobolds, and perhaps a Toxic Slime.

  ***

  “e on, ce,” she said, trying to cajole the book to let her open it. It was being difficult again, boung around the table – pyful, but not particurly cooperative. “I want to read the se on mana efficy before I go create a boss.”

  At that the book finally stopped boung around and turoward her for a moment, with what Ali could swear was a curious g’s a book, it doesn’t even have eyes! Then it scooted up to where she had been trying t it and popped open to the exact chapter. A broad red silk bookmark stitched into its spine popped out and id itself dowter margiweewo open pages.

  “Why, thank you for the fancy wele,” Ali said, a little exasperated with the book, but she couldn’t very well ighat it had finally uood her and would presumably allow her to read. She gnced about, but nobody was around to see her arguing with a book, so she settled in and slipped into her study trance, beginning to read the dense and heavily teical text.

  The lights and the ambient space of the library slowly crept bato her awareness as she surfaced from the depths of her studies. She massaged her temples and the back of her neck, a futile attempt to ease the headache she had earned from her efforts to uand her mother’s work. Her left wing prickled with pins and needles – somehow having gotten squished up between her and the chair back while she studied. Nearly all her free mana had been gobbled up by Sage of Learning, and even with the bonus from being in the library, she still felt she was barely scratg the surface of what was written in this chapter. But it had given her a few ideas and she was eager to try them out.

  “Would you like some tea, Aliandra?” Lira said, maing her body from withihick branch of the library tree.

  “No thanks,” Ali said. “I’m going to go out and try to make another boss.”

  “Ok dear, have fun,” she said.

  Ali scooped up d hopped onto her barrier and began to fly up and out of the library, but the unruly book writhed and wriggled in her grasp until it slipped out of her hands and fell. But it didn’t fall very far, and immediately banked around and flew circles around her as she levitated upward and into Lira’s Forest.

  “Ok, I guess you don’t want to be carried,” she said, but the book dutifully followed along as she made her way through into the forest cavern, flying over the Grove with the patrolling Forest Guardian, and across the glowing blue ke until she finally reached the ravihat she had fashioo funnel any zombies entering from outside. Littered about were several zombie corpses, a few broken bamboo crawlers, and a couple of wolf corpses that her trash collector Kobolds hadn’t ed up yet. It seemed like this area was a stant battleground of zombie and skeleton incursions, and she had ao solve several problems with one new boss.

  First up, she summoned a level twenty-six Timber Wolf, studying the mana flow used to create it while trying to apply some of what she had learned from her mother’s book. She wasn’t quite sure if she succeeded at improving her mana efficy at all, but the Timber Wolf appeared – taller at the shoulder than she was, with a shaggy bck coat and gleaming intelligen its green eyes.

  Domain Respalied to Timber Wolf.Raid Domain Enha applied to Timber Wolf.

  The Timber Wolf filled with a rush of mana, growing substantially in size and physical power with just the infusion from her domain. She po create a sehat could defend against most of the incursions that entered via this path and provide a barrier against assassins and stealth. At the same time, it should serve as an early warning system and be a reasonable challenge for the guild adventurers. Timber Wolves had great trag, a potent sense of smell, and pretty good eyesight, so they would be able to easily find their prey. All she had to do was give it a bit of a boost.

  Attribute Enha (Perception) applied.

  For her sed Domain Magic, she decided that a pack monster would best be suited by having several like-minded minions.

  Select or create minions: 104 levels remaining.

  She opened her Grimoire and created a pack of wolves for her boss, again studying the magitinuously and trying to make it more and more effit by following some of the theories she had just studied, struggling a little to transte from the abstrato practical application. This time, she was certain that a couple of her summons cost a few points less than she had expected – at least the initial cost.

  Timber Wolf – Wolf – level 17-25 x5

  Minions assigned.

  The magiations swirled and built as she pleted each step. Each time she updated and adjusted the formatioed to be making even a little progress applying the principles from the book. She felt like she was doing something, but whether it would have a worthwhile effe her mana usage remaio be seen. Even just a little mana saved is something.

  For her final Domain Magic, her boss o provide a substantial challenge for the bronze-ranked adventurers – if they were to grow, at least. And she had just the thing for that.

  e applied.

  Domain Enha plete.

  Your reserved mana has increased by +714.

  She frow the reservation notification – it was exactly the predicted value, and it seemed that none of her tweaks and adjustments had had any noticeable effe the reserved cost. I guess there’s much more I o learn. She could afford it now that she had leveled up, but it would put her ba the same pce as before – struggling for mana all the time.

  But she’s beautiful, she thought, looking at her powerful new boss, presiding over her pack. The Timber Wolf sat down on her haunches and howled, and the mana of her domain answered, surging through the monster like a torrent. Ali instantly reized the ability from the formation, even though it was her domain this time and not the fire mana of the Emberfe Mihere was a giant fsh, and a sed Timber Wolf appeared, followed immediately by aire pack of its minions.

  She ed herself, and her minions! Phew! While Ali certainly reized the formations of magi the battle against the ed Living Fmes, she had never actually seen the spell in a, and it was ahing altogether. There was a vast gathering of mana in forms reizable as reted to her own Grimoire’s summoning magic. She had ly beeain about the minions, but it seemed her ed boss ed all its attributes, including the wolf pack she had created for it. ce darted out of the way, swooping above the pack she was suddenly surrounded by a crowd of ten powerful Timber Wolves.

  But then the ed Timber Wolf sat and howled, and the domaied a sed time, surging with the vast summoning magic. Ali stepped back, and suddenly there were three bosses and fifteen lesser Timber Wolf minions.

  Oh hile she had expected the raid version of the spell to make three copies instead of only the two – it was in the description of her e domain magic after all – seeing it in a was quite breathtaking.

  Hmm, this might be a little hard, she thought, studying her new creation with a frown creasing her brow. It was being a habit for her – making bosses that seemed to and required her to run off to warn the guild before someo seriously hurt. I wish I had the mana for a lower-level one, she thought. A bit of a ramp-up might be smoother.

  It was a tough trade-off to make, but the wolves would certainly present a much more reliable defense of the lower entrao the dungeon. She spent a while clearing out the area, f a broad open depression in the rock wall for the wolves to use as a den, and then boosted the static defenses around the dungeorance by ying several powerful Are Bst runic circles, careful to keep the level of the traps approximately the same as the boss itself – strong enough to be effective against the intruding zombies, but not high enough to instant-kill a bronze-ranked adventurer. Uhey are idiots with their attributes. It was a delicate bang act that she was certain most dungeons did not even put any thought into, a she felt the powerful satisfa at the thought that she had found a way to use her feared css to help her friends at the guild grow stronger. Ohey quered this boss, and added a new first to the dungeon manual, they should be strong enough to mahe undead abominations without help.

  “Needs a little… more, don’t you think?” Ali asked. ce bobbed up and down and swooped around a few times in response. “Some trees. Obviously.” Wielding her Grimoire like a on of mass summoning, she grew a grove of apple trees. Nearby she pnted ahis time cherry trees, mostly because she loved the pretty blossoms, but they would serve as excellent cover for the wolves during a fight. She filled the back of the den, hidden among the rocks, with an assortment of Brown Stonecap mushrooms, and out among the trees she grew several patches of Mystic Bluebells, enjoying the act of beautifying the area with the pretty blue flowers – they shimmered creating quite ag effeestled among the trees.

  I hope Basil likes this. Humming a happy tuo herself, she wove in several patches of Malika’s Pea flowers, adding a simple white at to the blue. And then finally, she created a small sliver of nature affinity magicite and put it in the den. At about the size of her pinky finger, it would likely be enough for two or three wands if sold to the Novaspark Academy artisans. It was a matter of a few seds to imbue everything with her automatic respawn entment. That should be more than enough iive, she decided. Just the magicite should ence the adveo try their skills against the boss, but there were plenty of things for the herbalists to collect after defeating the wolves.

  She had no idea how they were going to fight so many wolves with their racial bes to pack tactics, but she trusted the bronze-ranked adventurers were experienced enough now that they wouldn’t attempt it without a solid pn or at least an escape route. My Kobold boss should have ehat.

  I wonder what they’ll write in their manual, she thought when her notification suddenly chimed. Oh, what’s this?

  Grimoire of Summoning has reached level 32.Domain Mastery has reached level 25 (+2).

  Requirements met for skill adva.

  Mentor: ain Mastery has reached at least level 25.Intelligence has reached at least 250.Synergy: Are Recall has reached at least level 10.Has made at least five bosses.Has made at least three raid bosses.Has reached 80% mana reserved for minions. Has studied advaheory of magical efficy.Has lear least 10 Domain Magic spells.Has more than 100 minions supported by the Domain.

  Domain Mastery gains Mana Efficy.(The mana reserved for domain-enhanced monsters is reduced by 3% per skill level.)Domain Mastery – level 25You manipute the structure and mana of your domain. All yic within your domain is empowered by the domain itself. The mana reserved for domain-enhanced monsters is reduced by 53.3% [3% redu per skill level].Mana: Adjust the shape and position of any non-living material that is part of your domain. Range: Domain.Mana: Permaly attaything you have made to your domain. Its mana signature is imprinted onto the domain allowing it to be automatically respawned when killed or destroyed. Domain-attached minions may not leave the area of attat and may be further enhanced with Domain Magic. Raouhas: Domain, Boss, Raid.Nature, Are, Mastery, Domain, Intelligenbsp;Accept this adva?

  Ali did not hesitate, immediately accepting the adva. Not only was it her first mentor-influenced skill adva, but she had studied specifically for something – anything – like this to relieve the pressure on the vast mana reservation cost to defend her domain. Although she hadn’t expected it to be quite so impressive. The instant she accepted the adva, she felt the enormous amount of mana she had reserved to maintain her dungeon defenses halve. While it did not affect her Empowered Summoner reservation, nor the personal guard and the army she had created for expl the Emberfe Mines, every single mohat had been domain enhanced with domain respawn suddenly received a drastic cost redu – and the biggest among them were her bosses.

  Maybe I afford a few more! Yay!

  Suddenly, the odd – make that dht suspicious – venience of the adva struck her afresh and she gnced acgly at ce. The book bobbed ily along, apparently examining one of Malika’s favorite pea flowers.

  “Oh, is that so?” she whispered.

  Just how intelligent was ce? And what other secrets might her mom have hidden within those pages?

  Malika

  Malika was about to bypass the food cart right outside the Adventurers Guild, after all, she had seen the spider legs Tabitha had been serving, but the delicious smell of roasting boar meat made her stomach growl.

  “Boar?” she asked.

  “Aye, it is,” the old woman said. “With some new spices that Mato bought in the market. Nice boy, that one.”

  “This isn’t the chef’s special, is it?” Malika asked, eyeing the sizzling skewers skeptically.

  “abitha answered, with a wicked grin. “You’re safe, this time!”

  Malika didn’t bgling and handed over a few s in exge for two skewers. Not quite trusting the old e, she s it and then bit tentatively. She let out a quiet moan as the exquisite blend of aromatic spices and suct meat juice burst across her taste buds.

  “Goht?”

  “Oh, yes! Thank you!” Malika dropped a few extra copper pieces into the tip jar and headed across the way to Morwynne’s Pretty Powerful Potions store, dev her breakfast before she got even halfway there.

  She had decided to hold on to all of the Essences of Inferno for now, but she had unloaded most of the other esseo Weldin, almost causing a riot among the crafters lined up and waiting at the guild store. Malika was half vinced some of them were camping in the guild hall just waiting for her to show up.

  Apart from the terror of the Elemental Storm, Malika had rather ehe fight against the giant elemental Inferno. But anything that did fire damage had suddenly bee something of a sweet spot for her, due to her now-ridiagical defenses. If she couldn’t ht dodge the damage, her Soul Armor, hairpin, and the elixirs would cut it in half. So nice.

  It didn’t hurt that she had been rewarded well for the difficult fight. Ali’s css level had pulled ahead during her vales Kezda, and Malika was happy for her. But she never wao feel like she was holding the team back, and so she had beeed to see that her tribution to the fight – presumably because she was lower-level – had been worth five levels rather than the four Ali had earned.

  Soul Monk has reached level 53 (+5).+50 attribute points.

  Hmm… Fifty points could make a huge differehe ime they attempted the mines. With her advao Soul Armor, wisdom now served as a direct way to boost her resistances, so she started by allog ten points there. She followed that with ten points in endurance, and sixteen for dexterity. With her primary attributes taken care of, she added six into vitality – essential now that she was tanking more. Five points went to perception to enhance her Soul Sight. The hs of Ahn Khen had firmed Rezan’s advice, so she spent her remaining three points boostirength attribute. Yes. That should do it. She read on.

  Martial Artist has reached level 27.Soul Strike has reached level 33 (+4).Healing Mantra has reached level 33.Perfect Body has reached level 20.Soul Armor has reached level 26.Sed Wind has reached level 16 (+2).Crity has reached level 13.Soul Sight has reached level 12 (+2).

  She had almost exclusively used Soul Strike’s mana drain ability, and it had clearly had su impa the fight that it had leveled four times. But theook in the line and her heart skipped a little faster. Yes!

  Requirements met for skill adva.

  Ior of an awakened Ahn Khen bloodlior: Rezan Jin.Healing Mantra has surpassed level 30.Synergy: Crity has surpassed level 10.Heal your allies through a fight sting more than 30 minutes.

  Healing Mantra gains A Touch of Crity.(Your healing grants your target Crity for [skill / 2] seds.)

  Mentor: Rezan Jin.Healing Mantra has surpassed level 30.Synergy: Enlightened Evasion has surpassed level 20.Heal your allies through a fight sting more than 30 minutes.

  Healing Mantra gains A Breath of Enlighte.(Your healing grants your target Enlightened Evasion for [skill / 3] seds.)Choose one adva.

  Wow, not bad! She studied her advas carefully. Her options seemed simir – an enhao Healing Mantra that would grant a temporary buff to the recipient. The sed option – A Breath of Enlighte – seemed clearly superior, at least for bat. A little more than ten seds of enhanced evasion would be quite a nice boon – especially for a tank, giving them mueeded breathing space.

  But… Crity has a bloodline synergy. Rezan had expined a lot of things about developing her bloodline while she studied alongside Basir and Ha; among the many approaches, choosing bloodline synergies whenever offered was sidered to be a highly effective way to develop the overall bloodline’s power, and something she couldn’t afford to ig’ll be niato, she thought. He often runs out of mana wheanks during long fights. Not as good as the dodge bonus, but it would help him maintain his healing spell. Crity did have the additional be of being useful for non-tanks, so it had wider utility.

  She pursed her lips, mulling over the options. A strong tanking buff, or a more versatile utility buff? In the end, it was Rezan’s advice about cultivating her bloodlihat tipped the ban favor of A Touch of Crity.

  She accepted the adva, and immediately pulsed her Healing Mantra on herself. To her surprise, nothing happened. She g the skill description, but nothing seemed amiss.

  Healing Mantra – level 33Mana: The e between your body and soul is strong. Instantly regee mortal wounds aore health to anyone you touch. Your healing grants your target Crity for 16.5 [skill / 2] seds. Raouch.Soul, Melee, Healing, Wisdom

  She puzzled over the drum for a bit, but then she had an idea. Retrieving an Essence of Inferno from her ring, she held it cupped in her palm for a few moments while her skin began to blister and burn. After she was down several health points, she healed herself again.

  You have gained Crity.The path to rest your energy begins with a calm mind. +235% to mana and stamina regeion.Buff – Duration: 16.5 seds.

  Sweet, she thought. Her new adva worked on herself, and with a quick check, she verified that she was effectively doubling the bonus teion she received from her Crity skill. It was as if she had sat to meditate. But it requires actual healing. Casting the spell on someo full health doesn’t work. The implication was clear – likely it would be less useful to Ali or because, in a well-trolled fight, they shouldn’t be taking any damage. But for herself and Mato, it would be a pletely different story. Although, down in the mines, everyone was taking damage all the time, so it was a moot point.

  She stopped studying her skills as she approached Pretty Powerful Potions. This had been the pce she had first truly experienced how different her life could be with her css – the day she and Ali had killed her tormenters, Adrik and Edrik, and saved Morwynne Fizzlebang’s life. It was hard to put them into text – at the time they had been unassaibly powerful at level twenty-three.

  I just reached fifty-three. The differen her power was not even parable.

  Malika pushed open the door aered Pretty Powerful Potions and instantly threw up her hands and caught several flying shards of gss as she was weled by an explosion instead of the normal door chime.

  “Sorry!” Morwynne yelled as she untangled herself from a fallen stool and some uifiable apparatus of tubes and valves that had nded on top of the etrie. She swore a few times while standing up and brushing herself off, but it sounded casual, like she was doing it more out of habit than anything else.

  “Well, I guess that didn’t work…” Morwyuro Malika, “How I help you today?”

  Malika answered by pulling out an Essence of Inferno, bang the intense fme on her hand while she healed herself against the moderate damage it was causing.

  You have gained Crity.

  That’s not going to get old, she thought as her regeion accelerated.

  Even through the dark, bronze-rimmed goggles Morwynne was wearing, Malika could see her eyes growing round with surprise. She said one fancy-sounding word in a nguage Malika didn’t uand. Elvish maybe? Ali had a theory that the Gnome liked swearing in multiple nguages, and she even had a rather plex and sophisticated table for what mood matched whiguage.

  Morwynne rao examihe essence. “My goodness, there’s a thing!”

  “You said you would be ied in any other puzzles like the queng potion you made,” Malika started, but Morwynne didn’t let her finish.

  “Of course, I will make oh this!” Morwynne was literally dang on tiptoes. “Do you have any of those ice essences left?”

  Malika retrieved one and handed both the esseo the pink-haired Gnome. I hope she doesn’t blow this one up.

  Morwyn over to tinker with a small devi a desk. “Do you think you pop over to the Adventurers Guild and ask Serendipity Puddlecrash to e over for a few minutes while I set things up here? I’ll need her water magic for this.”

  “Should I e back ter?” Malika asked.

  “No need, it will take twenty mio make, tops. Last time I needed a day because I had to track down that silly eo dismahe gear. He’s a bit of a recluse, so he was hard to find.” While she babbled on, she pulled beakers and vials off shelves and out of cupboards with a frenzied energy. Malika was rather surprised to see how athletic she was; she quite happily leapt up onto the desk to find an ingredient that was high up on a shelf.

  Flickers of strange light shone from her ented goggles while she worked, and Malika was surprised to see her even using a few stamina-based skills, the white wisps of energy flickering and shifting in fasating patterns within her body. Crafter skills were unlike any bat skill she had ever observed with her Soul Sight, and she wondered exactly what it might be. Something protective, she decided, because the loud, soot-cnome was handling the Essence of Inferno without any apparent damage.

  Makes sense, she thought, recalling how many times she had seen Morwynne in the heart of an explosio without injury. She left the busy Go her tinkering and ran back to the Adventurers Guild to ihe cheerful, and now very much excited Water Mage to join them.

  The door chime souhis time as she re-ehe Alchemist’s boratory with the blonde Gnome wearing stylish robes – Lydia’s work, if Malika was guessing correctly.

  “Aah, there you are, Seri,” Morwynne said. “e over here and help me with this, the same as st time, but maybe with a bit more… oomph? Bang? Pop?” Each statement unctuated with progressively more expansive haures.

  Malika certainly hoped it was none of those sounds, they were all way too much like the normal explosions that graced this shop.

  Serendipity nodded and rao where Morwynne was doing something unreasonably plicated with three different colored beakers, a funnel, and a floating stohat bobbed in the air above whatever traption she was using. The mage immediately eled a delicate flow of water from a fsk sitting on the side of the desk beled as ‘Mana-purified water – DO NOT DRINK!’ The two of them began a rapid-fire dialog in some inprehensible jargon, which Malika barely identified as still on. She watched fasated as the two of them ducted an intricate show, bining magic, items, potent essences, and mundane ingredients.

  “Don’t freeze it yet,” Morwynne instructed.

  “I …”

  “Swirl the other way.”

  “Ok, now!” Serendipity gasped.

  “Got it.”

  “Why don’t you…”

  “Use the… thingy! NO! Not that ohe other thingy!”

  “Essence…”

  These were about the only things Malika uood as time flew by and an inprehensible work of magic was wrought. Eventually, the two of them bined a self-p stream of water with a beaker encrusted with ice crystals and a cy pot that was glowing with heat into a single fsk. The entire mixture boiled, froze, and swirled all at the same time while the Gnomes frantically adjusted flow rates and fmes, and even turhe levitating stone a few times. Clockwise, because apparently, the other dire would be an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions.

  The beaker glowed a deep blue color, lighting the table and all the apparatus and within its ter, a brilliant yellow-white fme appeared, stubbornly refusing to go out.

  “Yes!” Serendipity excimed.

  Morwynne said something distinctly less polite but with the same expression of triumph.

  “I leveled again,” Serendipity said.

  “Me too, kid,” Morwynne answered. “Awesome work!” She turo Malika again. “Only ten gold this time, I didn’t have to pay that annoying Gnome. Engineers are so frustrating to work with – I swear he’s a geling, no Gnome could ever be that obnoxious.”

  “You just don’t like that guy,” Serendipity said.

  “He’s a…” and she finished with about thirty seds of what sounded like dwarves having a drunken brawl in a bar.

  Malika interrupted her with ready payment, and the swearing vanished instantly.

  “Here’s yours,” Morwynne said, handing the nome half the s.

  “That’s… too much, Morwynne.”

  Morwynne just cocked an eyebrow at her and waggled her finger, before turning baalika. “Thanks for your business! This was a fun project, we should definitely do it again!” Then she handed over the co the two of them had crafted. Malika took note of how carefully she was handling it.

  Distilte of Queng – level 56 (Ice / Water / Fire)Apply: Quench a source of Inferno. Charges: 20Created by Morwynne Fizzlebang – “Do not shake!”Potion

  Excellent! Now we see what’s behind the sed door! Malika surprised herself with a spontaneous giggle. Wait, am I turning into ?

  ----------

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