He remembered his own excitement only a week ago on breaking past the prison of level zero. He couldn’t help but want to celebrate for Gianna. When he stepped forward to congratulate her, the room started to spin. Suddenly up was down and down was up.

  A moment later, he found himself on his back, and his three companions were all leaning over him. “What’s wrong with him?” someone asked.

  Another voice, sounding annoyed, said, “Don’t you think I’m trying to figure that out?”

  He kept losing focus but saw a flashing red dot in the corner of his eye. He tried to think about that and saw a new notification.

  You have been poisoned by scree-leech poison. Damage per tick: 4. Duration: Until cured or purged. Secondary effects: Dizziness, fever, nausea, hallucinations.

  Jackson sensed his body trying to fight off the effects, but it wasn’t enough. He didn’t want to die. He managed to mumble, “Poisoned.”

  Leveling up had restored his health to full, but apparently, it hadn’t removed the poison spreading through his body. If the room wasn’t spinning, the gamer in him might have been interested in that difference. As it was, the last thing he managed before losing consciousness again was to assign three of his available stat points into Constitution.

  As he came back to consciousness, he felt hands upon his chest. Milessa was kneeling beside him and casting something. As he opened his eyes, he heard Tabor yelling, “Is he waking up? I can’t hold them back for much longer.”

  Milessa replied, “I think so. My magic is helping his natural resilience, but the venom was trying to do something to him. It was like it was trying to change his body, not just kill it.”

  Jackson managed to croak out of his dry throat, “I’m feeling better.”

  “Sure you are. Drink this,” Milessa said as she shoved a waterskin into his face.

  After gulping a bit too much water, he sputtered, then managed to stand. His muscles all felt tight, like they had all been cramped up, but a quick stretch got him feeling better. There were notifications flashing in the corner of his eye.

  He ignored them when he heard Tabor say, “If you are done lazing about, maybe you could help me for a minute.”

  Taking stock of the situation, it was evident that he must have been out for a while. His friend was fighting two of the creatures, but three other corpses were lying behind them or in the still partially frozen stream of water.

  “Be careful. Those things have some wicked venom,” he said.

  “Luckily, I have that ring I got in the dungeon. It boosts my poison and disease resistance. Didn’t know it would come in handy this soon. But my arm is getting tired from holding back these things. It takes forever for me to chop one apart. If it weren’t for Gianna’s wands, we would have already been overrun.”

  “Let me take over again, then, while you rest for a minute,” Jackson said.

  “Not gonna argue, but do you have a way to protect against the poison?” Tabor asked between labored breaths.

  “I guess we will find out.”

  With that, the two friends seamlessly switched places just as Tabor took one last attack against his shield. Their time in the dungeon had taught them how to work together, and it paid off here. Jackson triggered the air shield function of his Air Core and centered it on his left arm like it was a regular shield.

  This fighting style was different for him. But he managed to catch the blows with one arm while swinging his axe with the other. The two left in front had already been wounded, and a few quick slashes finished them off. His attacks came even faster, as twice his counterattack skill triggered from the deflected blows. He kicked their remains into the water.

  Then, not seeing any more of the creatures on the walls or ceiling, he turned to his companions. “Defense isn’t getting us anywhere. We need to get on the move towards one of the ladders.”

  The expressions he got back ranged from terrified to exhausted. Tabor finally said, “My other ring will give me ten minutes of a substantial physical boost, but I was saving that as the final ace up my sleeve.”

  “Okay, and I can only trigger the air shield twice more. This one is half beaten up at this point. How about you two?” Jackson asked the girls.

  Gianna put on a forced smile and said, “I know that we aren’t happy about being stuck down here, but this is even better XP than what my plan was. I’m almost level six.”

  “Have you gained any skills yet to help with the fighting?” Tabor asked.

  “No, I’m saving up all my points for now, but each of my wands has at least ten more charges on it. So I can still hold my own as long as they don’t get too close to me.”

  Milessa added, “Curing Jackson took up half my mana, but I’m okay. I have a couple of mana potions if it gets too bad. And as awful as this is, I’ve gained two levels too.”

  “Any idea how many more of those things are down here?” Gianna asked.

  “When I originally used my esoteric sense, there were dozens of them. I don’t want to use the mana it takes to check again unless I have to. I still remember the way to the closest ladder.”

  “Okay, so what’s the plan?”

  “Tabor and I alternate taking the lead, and we hit stuff as fast as we can. Even crippling them is okay; don’t actually have to finish them off. We just need to get them out of our way.”

  “But will we get XP if we don’t finish them?” Gianna asked.

  Jackson could only sigh as he rolled his eyes. “You don’t get XP when you are dead, either.”

  “Fine,” she replied.

  While Jackson understood the desire to level, and these things were admittedly good XP, it simply wasn’t safe. He wondered if he had been that impractical while trying to get his dad to level him.

  “Besides, we have a duty to let the king know about these things. Left unchecked, they could become a real problem for the city,” Tabor added.

  Jackson smiled grimly and said, “Okay, and we are moving.”

  Seventeen lesser scree-leeches and an hour later found them entering an apparently open room. The ladder up was in the far corner. Jackson spent the last of his mana on a one-second burst of esoteric sense. He wasn’t able to detect anything close but still had a sense of dread.

  The only thing greater than his worry, though, was his exhaustion. All of them but Gianna had cuts and scrapes. Even with level-ups to refill their health and mana, Milessa was almost out of mana. She couldn’t waste it on heals and had to save it for curing the debilitating venom, which was the monsters’ greatest weapon.

  Once in the room, they found two massive cocoons on the wall. These must be the source of the mixed life force that Jackson had detected. Milessa hissed at him to leave them alone, but he just had to know. When he walked up to one, he used his belt knife to slice it open partially.

  He almost wished he hadn’t. Inside was an incredibly desiccated human. Male, if he had to guess. It was no longer fully human, as its body had started to mutate. It looked like some kind of sick blending of a human and the creatures they had been fighting.

  Just as he was about to move away from it, the thing’s eyes came open. It croaked out a single word, “Help.” It was barely more than a whisper, but Jackson couldn’t unhear it.

  “Guys, this thing is alive in here. I think it used to be a person.”

  “What? Eww… that’s so disgusting,” Milessa said.

  “It isn’t his fault,” Jackson retorted.

  Gianna stepped between them. “She knows it is awful and sad, but you have to admit that it is rather repulsive.”

  Jackson nodded. Before he could say anything more though, a black doorway opened up in the wall. Out of the shadowy portal stepped a man. He was wearing a heavy black cloak with the cowl up, effectively hiding his face.

  A voice that sounded familiar said, “He advised you would find your way down here. I don’t know why I doubt him anymore. He hears directly from the Master. Still, it seemed so unlikely. Now all the trouble I went to back at the academy will go to waste. Tsk-tsk.”

  Startled, Jackson asked the most unoriginal thing that came to mind, “Who are you?” The more he listened to the man, the more convinced he became that this was the same stranger who had been talking to Michael in the dining hall.

  “That isn’t really important. I am just a servant of the Master’s vision. We all are, really. Some like me simply serve knowingly in hopes of a reward. While others like that fellow over there are more unwitting servants,” the stranger said. He briefly cackled as he pointed at the cocoon Jackson had just been examining.

  “You mean that you are responsible for doing this to that man?” Jackson demanded.

  “What if I am? It isn’t like you will be telling anyone or that you even know who I am. As it turns out, though, I am not the one who did that. I will be happy to introduce you to that one, though. She is rather put out with what you have done to so many of her children. Still, I’m sure she will be quite happy to turn you into her newest brood. Just think of the chaos that a royal and three nobles shall make as monsters razing the kingdom.” The stranger laughed as he finished speaking. Then he stepped away from the shadowy door as though to make way for another.

  A creature large enough that it could barely fit through the door pushed forward. Stretching up to its full height, it had to be a good eight feet tall. It was bulbous and looked like a man, but with legs that bent backward at the knee. Its feet were taloned, just like the other creatures’, and its hands had the same talons, while leathery webbing stretched from its arms to its torso.

  The face was not human at all, though. Four hooked mandibles made up its mouth. As it exited the doorway, it roared, spreading wide its cheeks. They split into four and revealed a wide gullet with serrated teeth spiraling down. Both its tongue and tail flipped about as it screamed its challenge.

  Strangely, just as intimidating was the fact that the inner voice, which usually urged Jackson to attack, said, “Wait and take its measure.”

  Tabor didn’t wait, though, and as the creature came forward, he sliced down his sword to meet its outstretched arm. The blade bit deeply into the forearm, but the beast reacted by swinging the arm wide and hard. Tabor took the blow on his shield but was sent rolling into the wall, dazed.

  Before Jackson could even move, the creature turned towards the girls. For its trouble Gianna fed it a stream of magical fire first. The black leathery skin started to sizzle as blisters rose across its already deformed shape.

  By the time the flames died down, Gianna had called out another magical word and triggered her electrical wand. The lightning bolt was familiar to him from watching his dad cast it. The force of the bolt was no less impressive from the wand and charred a considerable spot on the creature’s chest, sending it stumbling backward.

  Jackson saw an opening and leaped forward. He brought his axe down with both hands on the creature’s outstretched leg. Once and then twice, he hacked at it like a log and finally severed the foot. The creature screeched in pain and, while sitting up, swung a backhand aimed for his head. Jackson ducked underneath it but got impaled by the spike on the creature’s knee.

  He jumped back and felt the stabbing pain in his side as he instinctively put a hand there to staunch the bleeding. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the cloaked man draw a short sword and move towards him, but a beam of light from Milessa blinded him.

  By that time, Tabor was back up and thrust his sword into the man’s hip before knocking him through the shadowy door with a bull-rush shoulder tackle. Once he disappeared through the portal, it blinked out of existence, and the creature screamed again. Its form wavered as it was cut off from whatever dark realm it had come from.

  Still, it managed to lumber up to its one uninjured foot and supported itself against the wall with its other arm. The hand touched the cocoon and then started to undulate as though it was draining the cocoon. As it did so, its wounds began to heal.

  Gianna screamed, “Cut off its hand.”

  Jackson jumped in and managed to do just that with a single swing. The creature somehow didn’t feel as dense as it was before. Meanwhile, Milessa blasted it with her light spell, eliciting another scream of pain. Tabor activated his ring and charged it, hacking away while trying to keep his shield up.

  Jackson tried his best to help his friend, but each breath was becoming torture. The gut wound was bad enough, but the venom spreading in his system was making him gasp.

  Both boys moved out of the way as quickly as they could, though, when Gianna used her frost wand and froze the creature’s lower half in ice.

  From there, it was just a matter of chopping it to pieces. Laborious and time-consuming, but as long as they were careful, they didn’t take any other wounds. When he finally got the XP notification, Jackson fell to his knees and then lay on his good side while grasping his injury. He tried to block out the world while Milessa went to work on healing and curing him.

  Reviewing the notifications was the easiest way to occupy his mind. Fortunately, the XP notifications from the rest of their fights were all lumped into two.

  Your party has defeated 17 Tier 2 Lesser Scree-leeches (Lvl 12): 612 XP (after applying numerical bonus, item penalty, and racial bonus).

  Your party has defeated a Tier 3 Mutated Scree-leech (Lvl 26): 117 XP (after item penalty and racial bonus).

  Congratulations. Ding! You have gained sufficient XP to reach level 18.

  You have 3 new character points. You have 167 unspent character points.

  You have 3 new stat points. You have 6 unspent stat points.

  After that came a surprising notification:

  Congratulations. Ding! Your item Piersung’s Ringed Fighting Gloves has leveled up.

  Piersung’s Ringed Fighting Gloves

  Quality: Mythic

  Weight: 1.0/glove

  Restriction: Reduces XP earned by 20%.

  Current Item Tier: 2

  XP: 1367/3280

  Passive Effect 1: +6 added to base damage for blows made with the wearer’s hands. Now affects feet as well. (Effect improves with tier increases.)

  Passive Effect 2: Wearer may equip 2 extra rings per tier (2 extra rings at Tier 7).

  Set Piece: 1 of 4

  Bonuses: Revealed when 2 or more pieces are gained (vest, boots, belt).

  Piersung was a champion of the Imperial Tournament seven times and the creator of the Way of Thought martial arts style. In his later years, he became obsessed with creating the perfect fighting gear and turned his attention to enchanting. A portion of himself was imbued into the gear, with unpredictable results.

  Then another very welcome notification came up:

  Hidden Quest Update: Class Determination. You have previously met three of the five class requirements.

  1. Suffer repeated beatings, which might end many a man without breaking your spirit.

  2. Stand up for those unable to defend themselves.

  3. Slay a monster with only your fists.

  Now you have met the 4th requirement:

  4. Suffer the effects of a virulent poison and survive.

  In Eloria, classes are not easily earned. All have significant benefits and equally weighty requirements. Each class has seven ranks known as tiers.

  Class offered: Ironwood Monk (Rare)

  Tier 1

  Class Benefits: +30% CON, +30% END, Damage Resistance increases by 2% for every 1% of health lost. Generate an aura with varying effects based upon the damage taken. Effects are determined by further class-specific skills.

  Class Restrictions: Must fight without armor. Must keep Unarmed Combat as your highest base combat skill. Must keep CON higher than STR, and END higher than AGI.

  Class Purpose: An armorless warrior whose internal power creates a defense unlike any other for the purpose of showing that the best offense is a good defense.

  Unmet Restrictions: 1 unmet restriction—unknown.

  Despite the excitement of the notification, he lost consciousness to the venom. At least he did so with a silly grin on his face.

  Chapter Six

  “Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point…”—Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Konig, Capital of Albia, Temple of Shanelle/Royal Palace—Jackson Nelson

  Jackson woke up on what he would have called a padded cot, but his mom probably would have said was a divan. Heck, she likely would have been proud of him for remembering that word. When he opened his eyes, he saw a high ceiling in a room with very white walls.

  He did a quick mental check of his body without moving to make sure he was still all in one piece. His toes wiggled. He could feel all his fingers. There were no spots of pain in his body. In fact, he felt quite good overall. So he sat up.

  It turned out that he was in someone’s office. There was a desk with an older man sitting and working on stacks of papers. The man didn’t pay him any attention but kept doing whatever it was he was doing. The rest of the room was more or less bare. Not much on the walls. A few books on a bookshelf and a tapestry on one wall showed the scene of what looked like an angel riding a beam of light up into the sky while villagers down below looked on in awe. It was rather ornate but seemed to be the only such decoration.

  After arranging a couple of stacks, the man looked up. “I am so glad to see you are awake, Jackson. You had us quite worried when your friends brought you into the temple. I am only glad that the guards realized who young Gianna was and had the common sense to send for me.”

  The man’s method of speech and demeanor put Jackson in the mind of a principal he’d had in grade school. The man was kind enough but a stickler for the rules. “Uh, where am I?”

  “Let me assure you, you are quite safe here. You can consider this temple to be a home away from home. I have heard that things have not always been so easy for you at the academy, but I have not stepped in, hoping you would ask for help on your own. Now you ended up here today, needing help but for a very different reason.”