Seating himself behind the altar, Alan had to pick which class to upgrade first. He could upgrade either his seeker, hunter, or fighter class. Each had an uncommon stone and he met the requirements for all of them as well. He didn’t see how it could make a difference, so he went with the Inquirer class since it was top of mind.

  Holding it in his lap, Alan willed his acceptance to the network and was inundated with information. It wasn’t quite as much as he had received from his rare stones, and he realized it was because he hadn’t gotten a class ability, only a new talent. That was unfortunate, but not unexpected. It had been a great boon already, to receive three new talents and class abilities with his other classes. He shouldn’t get greedy or Tamee would make more comments about spoiled brats..

  The talent he received was called Soul Probing, and he wasn’t sure what it did other than help him poke souls. Tamee was also unhelpful, but he could tell that this time it was because she didn’t know the answer, not because she didn’t want to tell him.

  Alan’s mentor had told him to wait some time between upgrading classes, but the process didn’t seem to affect him much anymore. He was easily able to handle the slight changes to his aura, and he felt no mental strain whatsoever. There was no sense in dilly dallying, so he took out his Dimachari stone.

  This was the stone he had gotten from the arena he had fought in. It was supposed to focus on two weapon fighting, which certainly seemed to fit his style at the moment. Another short burst and he was now more than halfway to upgrading his classes to opal. This one had given him an ability, Twin Slash.

  This attack would allow him to attack with both of his weapons in rapid succession, each of his attacks slicing the same place on his opponent. He could use it as often as he wanted, but it required a decent amount of stamina to activate. He wasn’t sure how much of an improvement it was over him just doing it himself, but time would tell.

  Both upgrades had also given three more points to their respective stats, so at least the rarity had no effect on that aspect of leveling. He had one more class to go, it was the stone he had earned from the previous dungeon. Time to figure out what kind of stalker he was.

  Once again he received a talent, this one was Predator’s Focus. Alan wasn’t sure whether talents or abilities were better, but it did seem like his talents got more use than his abilities. Maybe that would change now that he had one for attacking in addition to his mana recharge.

  Tamee was also finally able to help with one of his talents. “I know that one! It increases the effect of your perception, but only as it pertains to a single target. If there is a single opponent or being that you are fighting or tracking, all of your senses will operate at a higher level, but only for that one thing. If you were trying to shoot a single bird in a flock, you would be able to see and anticipate its movements better, but the rest of the birds would seem normal to you.”

  That did sound like a great talent, and he had often found himself fighting single opponents. Perception was great, so better perception must be greater. That sounded close to right, anyway.

  Now that he had upgraded all the classes he could to opal, he still had about fifteen hours left to kill. This curse was a real bummer. Alan had two more classes that were still quartz, but no stones with which to upgrade them. He could do some tai chi or yoga he supposed, but he wanted to feel more productive than that.

  Then he realized what he should be doing. Alan never had enough time to deal with all of the things he wanted to improve, and here he was sitting on a good chunk of time, where he couldn’t leave this room. It was time to work on his spells.

  With his new sorcerer class, he had gained a greater ability to weave spells, and he could also now detect new types of mana. He hadn’t had a chance to try and exploit this yet to make better spells. This was finally his opportunity.

  The first thing he wanted was something like a magical wall. It could be fire, water, or blood for all he cared. The fight with Gleena had shown how effective such a wall could be, as she barred him from fleeing by setting the books on fire. Alan was the type of fighter that thrived on mobility, so he could see how limiting the movement of an opponent might be important.

  Creating this new spell was going to be a definite challenge for him. There were two ways in which this would be completely different from any of his other spells. The first was duration, this wall would have to last a long time, preferably without his attention. Come to think of it, he did have a spell like that. His light spell had an indefinite duration as long as he had mana to feed it.

  The second challenge was going to be the size. His conjure water spell could create a very large ball of water, but it was limited to a ball, and a useful magical wall would need to be even bigger than his largest conjuring.

  Alan was limited at the moment to making a wall that was twenty meters across, due to the size of the room, but that seemed like a good start. His next decision was what to make it out of. There was a good chance he would be able to modify the spell to accommodate a range of options, once he’d mastered the original, but what would help him make that first wall? He decided against something like air, light, or dark, those seemed too ephemeral and would be challenging to contain. When he started thinking that way, it seemed like the answer was obvious.

  He could experiment with newer types of mana later, but for now he would stick to one of his original six. An earth, or possibly stone, wall would do nicely to limit someone’s mobility, and it wouldn’t burn down all of the valuable books, either.

  Stone spear was a spell that created shafts of stone from the ground. It was a decent place to start when building a wall, except the spears disappeared back into the earth after a short amount of time. He wanted these to endure.

  Light was a spell that would last. Once Alan chose a target, the light would continue until he cut off the flow of mana, or lost concentration. It didn’t require his full attention, but a part of his mind needed to keep feeding the spell mana. Now what he needed, was to incorporate this aspect of the spell into his stone spears.

  Alan was nice enough to warn Tamee, this time, that he was going to be boring for a while. She said she was going to go watch a movie. True to his word, Alan spent a very long time mostly staring at the rock he had placed in his hand. There was nothing special about it, he simply needed a target for his light spell.

  Time and again he would form the spell and the rock would glow. Then he would deactivate the spell, think about what he’d learned, and do it again. The key was in identifying the different parts of the spell form. This spell was actually more complicated than a basic light bolt, but by comparing what he knew of the bolt with what he was seeing now, he was finally able to isolate the proper component.

  The next chunk of time involved Alan trying to incorporate that element into the stone spear spell. It was extra difficult because he also had to modify it due to using earth mana instead of light. It was a good thing both his aura reading and mana handling had been high to start with, and his mana drawing skill was helping too.

  Drawing a magical diagram wasn’t quite the same as creating a spell form, but they had many parallels, and the skill helped with both. Finally he had success, and created a stone spear that went from the floor to the ceiling and then stayed there. It was more draining than the light spell, using about four mana per second. Once he cut off the supply, the stone collapsed and seemed to melt into the floor.

  This was progress! The next part was probably going to be the hardest one. Instead of a spear, he wanted a long, solid wall. Tamee must have finished her movie, because she was having a good time mocking his efforts as he tried to modify his attack spell into something it was never intended to be.

  His first trials ended up causing the spell to fail to form at all. Thankfully this simply wasted mana and didn’t result in something more explosive. The next stage involved forming spears that were a variety of sizes. His first successful attempt was actually a tiny spear, but then by making a small tweak nis next effort ended up with a spear that was over three meters wide.

  Tamee of course had a comment, “Overcompensating are we?”

  Alan didn’t even dignify that with a response. He was then able to make the spear even wider, but he could tell that what he was making was still a spear. If he had been out in the open it would have been over twenty meters tall. A worthy accomplishment, but not what he was going for. He needed to not just change the size, but the shape as well.

  After much laughter and many snide comments, Alan was finally happy with his efforts. With an empty mana pool, he admired his new spell.

  Spell: Stone Wall (Uncommon). Create a wall of stone up to thirty meters long, four meters high and half a meter thick. Durability scales with intelligence. Mana cost: 100 mana

  That endeavor had taken about half of his remaining time on the curse, and rather than working on modifying the wall with other types of mana, he decided to try and create another new spell. This time it would be a direct damage spell. The holy orbs the cherubs had used had been impressive, nothing he had would have done as much damage.

  Forming a similar ball ended up being relatively easy. The hardest part was identifying and then learning how to handle the holy mana. Thanks to his experience with fighting the fallen cherubs, he had a head start. He was already able to identify this new mana, and he had the cherubs’ own manipulations as a guide.

  The final spell, while useful, was not as good as what he had experienced. Either they had a higher affinity for the mana, which was probable, they had a more complicated version of the spell, also possible, or it was just something about their Angelic being. Whatever the explanation, he was disappointed in the result.

  Still with plenty of time on his hands, Alan decided to get crazy again. The spell that had won him his Mentor, had not been impressive because of its damage. In fact it did no damage at all. What had made it impressive, was that it combined multiple types of mana. It was time to try that again.

  What mana could possibly go better with holy mana than infernal mana, of course. This was doubly ambitious because he did not have as much experience with the infernal type, and opposite types of mana often were harder to combine. Or at least, that was what his magical primer book was telling him. He had decided to get a little help with his project from the study guide.

  Identifying infernal mana wasn’t that hard as he had already seen it in the horn tips he had collected. What he hadn’t experienced, was how to properly handle it. Fortunately, he had lots of experience playing with untamed mana, and his mana lacing talent was undoubtedly lending a hand as well. He also got a sense that his sorcerer class itself contained some information that was helping him.

  His first infernal spell was the most basic version he had for most of his mana types. He had thought it would be an infernal bolt, but it ended up being an orb. It was perhaps not that surprising that it had parallels with the holy version.

  Alan half expected the orb it formed to be a black void to counter the holy light. Instead it was black and red mixed together. It almost looked like lava consuming still solid stone. There was some heat that came off of it, but not as much as a fire bolt, even.

  Tamee had few comments as he got about the task of combining the two. Alan thought she might have been impressed with his progress. That, or she had found another movie to keep herself entertained. It was in the final hour of the curse that he finally had his new spell.

  Spell: Meteor (Rare). Create a small meteor that impacts the designated target with great force. Deals damage in an area around the impact site. The damage at the epicenter is high and tapers off as you move away, effectiveness scales with intelligence. Mana cost: 200

  Not only did it combine the two mana types, but it was much more powerful than any of his previous spells. Another bonus was that the meteor didn’t originate with Alan. When fighting the soul guide, it had been able to trace his bolts back to him, forcing him to stay on the move. Stone spears, and now his meteor spell would instead appear at the target. There was a mana link between him and the spell, but that would require a special skill for people to see.

  The casting cost was high, but the damage was incredible. He hoped that he didn’t need to summon anything to finish dealing with the chained succubus, because the circle was now a melted and blasted mess after his successful test.

  He hadn’t had a meteor in mind when he set out to create the spell, but it had a kind of poetic symbolism to it. A fiery rock descending from the sky, created from the combination of mana derived from Heaven and Hell. However he got it, he was thoroughly pleased. Alan had made a lot of progress in this dungeon, and he took a moment to take in how his status sheet had changed.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Alan Taylor

  Race: Human [W]

  Class:

  Dimachari (0%) Opal

  Guardian (100%) Quartz

  Inquirer (0%) Opal

  Medicine Man (0%) Opal

  Phantom (0%) Opal

  Scholar (100%) Quartz

  Sorcerer (0%) Opal

  Stalker (0%) Opal

  Health: 372 (37/hour)

  Stamina: 342 (68/minute)

  Mana: 351 (35/minute)

  Dungeon Points: 2155

  Stats:

  Strength: 23

  Dexterity: 23

  Perception: 21

  Focus: 19

  Intelligence: 22

  Wisdom: 24

  Constitution: 19

  Spirit: 18

  Skills:

  Alchemy: 19, Archery: 10, Aura Reading: 158, Blocking: 20, Blunt Weapons: 48, Cooking: 14, Daggers: 92, Dodging: 50, Farming: 23, First Aid: 27, Harvesting: 12, Herbology: 20, Identify: 42, Mana Drawing: 67, Mana Enhancement: 42, Mana Handling: 120, Mining: 3, Running: 38, Sneak: 47, Spears: 4, Swords: 24, Tracking: 35, Two Weapon Fighting: 66, Unarmed Combat: 38

  Titles: [Apprentice], [Gladiator], [Top Recruit]

  Class Abilities:

  Dimachari: Twin Slash

  Medicine Man: Healer’s Mark

  Phantom: Fade

  Sorcerer: Mana Lode

  Talents:

  Dimachari: Fury, Parry, Slash

  Guardian: Hammer Blow, Taunt

  Inquirer: Inspiring Presence, Sensitivity, Soul Mending, Soul Probing

  Medicine Man: Cure, Mend

  Phantom: Backstab, Dodge, Quick Hands, Stealth

  Scholar: Critical Hit, Fast Learner, Understanding

  Sorcerer: Air Bender, Dark Spreader, Earth Mover, Fire Starter, Light Spinner, Mana Lacing, Water Weaver

  Stalker: 6th Sense, Charm Animal, Predator’s Focus, Track

  Spells: Cone of Steam (Common), Conjure Water (Rare), Fire Bolt (Uncommone), Gust (common), Light Bolt (common), Light (common), Meteor (Rare), Minor Healing (common), Minor Regeneration (Uncommon), Prismatic Orb (Rare), Shadow Bolt (Uncommon), Stone Spear (common), Stone Wall (Uncommon), Healing Waters (Rare)

  It was amazing how far he had come in a month. Most people would have considered the Alan who was trying to blow up the international space station to be a badass, but the man who was sucked out into space was nothing like the Alan standing in the dungeon now. Even his body wasn’t the same flesh. The improvements had come with costs, however, and he could only hope it would all be worth it in the end.

  Enough nostalgia, it was time to be done with this place. Anthema had finally finished its countdown, and he was free to see what would happen with Ireen. Thankfully this bottom floor wasn’t very big and it was a quick walk back to the bedroom. The succubus was still unconscious when he came in.

  Alan tried to think of how to wake her safely, still unsure of how she would react. This would be a great time for a ten foot pole, although being woken up by somebody poking you from across the room would probably not do good things for your temperament. Summoning a ball of water to splash her face was probably not a great idea either.

  With no other choice, he walked over until he was a couple meters away, and tried calling out her name. He slowly got louder, like one of those zen alarm clocks, but wasn’t having much success. Alan was almost shouting before he made the command decision to ‘screw it’, then he walked up and shook her awake.

  “What now you insuff…” were her first groggy words. When she saw that it was not Gleena, but a man who had awoken her, she abruptly cut off her cursing.

  Alan decided to get the ball rolling. “Hello, no, I’m not with Gleena, and I’m not sure how to proceed from here.” Alan was really a much better man of action than words.

  She stared at him for only a moment before taking charge, “Well, if you’re not with Gleena, then you could see about unlocking these manicals.”

  Alan winced, “I could, except I don’t have a key. Also, there’s another problem.”

  “What else…oh”

  “Yeah”

  “You’re concerned that I’m a succubus.” She actually smiled as she said that.

  Alan smiled back, “I’ll admit I haven’t met many succubi, but I’ve heard things.”

  She winked at him, “you can’t believe everything you hear. Although, the part about us sucking your soul dry as we ride you is mostly true. It doesn’t kill you, that would be wasteful, but the recovery time is something else.”

  Ireen laughed as he took an involuntary step back, “Oh, I’m just teasing, a little. Besides, I’m not really sure if I can call myself a succubus anymore.”

  Alan had to ask, “Is this about the whole penitent thing? Anyway you can clear up why the Network considers you an Angel?”

  The sexy now-Angel winced, “Well, stealing the bond from Gleena didn’t go exactly according to plan. Somehow, instead of severing it, she managed to cloak it, and when I tried to form my bond with Thomas, things got crossed.”

  This was way above his understanding, but he figured this was a good person to learn about bonds from. “Was Thomas the priest you tried to bond with?”

  “Oh, we bonded, in so many, many ways.” Her voice trailed off briefly and she got a wistful look in her eyes, “But a mortal can’t bond with more than one Ascended being at a time. Gleena’s bond was broken when we forged our new bond, but there were repercussions and I was left with some strange feelings about the whole ordeal.”

  Ireen seemed rather level headed, so Alan chose to take a risk. “You know Thomas is dead?”

  She choked up a little before answering, “Yes, I knew as soon as he died. Our bond was cut the moment that satkarring punched a hole in his chest.”

  Time for the million dollar question, “so, where does that leave us?”

  She smiled at him again, she seemed to go through emotions quickly. “I don’t suppose I could interest you in a bond?”

  He wasn’t interested, but he was looking for information. “What would that entail?”

  “Well, to form the bond, you and I would first…”

  Alan cut her off quickly, “Not that part, I mean what happens after we’re bonded.”

  Tamee broke in, “Alan, don’t spoil the good parts.”

  “The priest’s journal already described that part, I don’t need to hear the details again.”

  “Prude” said the two women in perfect synchronicity, which was impressive considering the succubus couldn’t hear Tamee.

  Alan coughed, “so, about the bond itself.”

  “Well, your aura would get a significant boost as your soul would be able to produce more energy. In addition, you would gain some abilities related to me as your Patron. The most notable would be an increase in the power of your Presence, and it would add a beguiling nature to it.”

  Alan didn’t like the word she used. “When you say Patron, it sounds like you would be able to order me around.”

  “Oh, nothing like that, dear. A Patron does have some effect on your actions, but it is more passive than that. You would find yourself more likely to act in a manner similar to my own. Kind of like how pet owners always end up looking like their pets.”

  He didn’t even think before he asked, “Would I be the owner in that situation?”

  “Baby, you could take me for a walk anytime.” The last was said in a very sultry tone.

  Alan’s cheeks were doing their best cherry impersonation, and Ireen laughed. “I can see you and I wouldn’t work as a pairing. Bonds are mostly beneficial, but if the two entities aren’t compatible, bad things can happen.”

  He hadn’t planned on forming a connection with her anyway, he was just curious about what it meant. Tamee hadn’t been able to give him any real details. With a bond off the table, this left them back with the original question of what to do now.

  Alan decided to move the conversation along. “If I get you out of these chains, what then?”

  Ireen considered him a moment, “Well, if you really killed Gleena, then I guess I owe you my thanks. It would be rude of me to kill you, then. I suppose if we aren’t going to bond, I could still give you a boon.”

  It might be rash, but a boon sounded nice to Alan. Taking out his spewn, he had Ireen turn away as he swung at the chain binding her right arm. It didn’t sever the links, but it did leave a large notch. Two more swings and he was able to cut all the way through.

  “That’s quite the weapon you got there to be able to damage these restraints. Simple iron wouldn’t have been able to hold me.”

  If he ran into Helge again, he would have to thank her once more for this incredible gift. That reminded him to check on the dwarven dungeon when he was done here. The message had said it would take a week to reset, but he didn’t know when that timer had started. He had spent more than a week in the dungeon itself, so it was possible he could get in now.

  “Umm…Sweety, any chance you could get the others?”

  After apologizing for his daydreaming, he hacked off the other chains. She still had the manicals attached, but at least she wasn’t connected to the bed. She laughed gleefully when she was finally free, and gave Alan a long kiss. Tamee wolf whistled in his head.

  “Thank you for that, and now for your boon.” She stared at him for almost a minute before she produced a small wooden chest. It was about thirty centimeters square on its base and half that in height. When she opened it for him he was met with a large collection of small red gems.

  Item: Blood Gems, rarity Rare. These gems are actually crystalized blood from an Ascended beast. Can be used for a variety of purposes.

  Irene saw his confused face and told him what they were, “These are Blood Gems. I can tell that bonding with an Angel or Demon might not be for you. These could help you contact an Ascended Beast instead. Or you can grind them up for a really powerful aphrodisiac. Up to you.”

  After Alan took the chest and thanked her for the gift, she nodded once before telling him to stand back. Suddenly a portal opened behind her and she stepped through. Before Alan could even think of following, or seeing what was on the other side, it snapped shut.

  Bonus Quest Completed: Profaned Temple

  [You have released the prisoner from her chains and made an amicable parting. Reward: Choose one reward.]

  Bonus quests were always nice, and being able to choose his own reward was good. In front of him were three glass chests, similar to what he had seen after finishing one of his first quests. Chest one had a scroll in it, chest two contained a ring, and a stone rested in the final one. Getting closer, Alan focused on each in turn.

  Item: Communing Diagram (Uncommon). This scroll contains information and a diagram that can be used to contact an Ascended beast. Reading the scroll will give the user knowledge of how to construct such a circle. The scroll will be consumed after learning the diagram. Can only be learned outside of combat. Requires: Mana Drawing 50.

  Item: Ring of Spirit (Uncommon). This ring can be worn on any finger, it will increase the wearer’s spirit by four points.

  Item: Opal Inquisitor Class Stone, rarity Rare. This stone can be used to upgrade the seeker class to the opal class Inquisitor, a spirit based class that specializes in rooting out corruption in the soul, they stop at nothing in their search for perfection. Requirements: Soul Mending Talent and Dominating Presence Talent.

  After seeing the last item, Alan stared up at the ceiling, and Tamee could feel his eyes trying to burn through whatever was separating them. She felt the need to defend herself. “Well, how was I supposed to know you’d get a bonus with a rare stone? Besides, you couldn’t have used that one yet anyhow.”

  She wasn’t wrong, and if he was being honest, he liked the feel of his class better than the new one. Without actually using the stone, Alan could only go by the description, but it sounded foreboding. And, besides, he had absorbed his inquirer stone, so there was no going back, and the class seemed to fit him well. He had always been a mostly passive atheist, which fit a questioner well.

  That just left two choices, the diagram or the ring. The diagram could be useful, even though he already knew many magic circles. He had some items now to help him craft such a thing, but a communing circle wasn’t one of the specific ones he’d learned. He did know one for speaking with a far off person, but that was to a known entity. This was more for a type of being rather than a specific one.

  Alan still didn’t think he was ready to mess with this bond thing. It seemed like a serious commitment and he just didn’t know enough about it yet. His second ex-girlfriend would have said it was his commitment issues, but this was an important thing. He could feel her eyes rolling. That left the ring.

  Opening the second box, he pulled the ring out and slipped it onto his right ring finger. Either the Network knew his finger size, a definite possibility, or the ring was able to adapt to the user. Once it was in place he felt it link with his aura. He still wasn’t quite sure what the spirit stat did.

  Alan reached out to his suddenly helpful advisor. “Hey, can you tell me what the spirit stat does now?”

  Tamee answered in a sultry voice, “Sure, sweety.”

  It was Alan’s turn to roll his eyes, “Don’t you start that.”

  She laughed as she began to explain, “Your spirit stat is related to how well your aura is bound to your body. It also relates to your soul. By increasing your spirit stat, you make yourself more resistant to debuffs and it can make friendly buffs more effective. For example, it can help you resist things that affect your aura, like curses.”

  That would definitely be useful. That anathema curse had been a pain, he didn’t need anything else like it. This dungeon had been a little weird, a little fun, and very profitable, but it was time to get going. Alan jogged back to the ruined church and paid his respects to Thomas before leaving the dungeon.

  Once more back in his valley, he didn’t need to contemplate his next move. Alan set course for the dwarven dungeon, and set out at a fast pace. The last two upgrades to this dungeon had only taken a day, the fact that the latest one was supposed to take a week suggested it would be significant. Alan wasn’t sure how it would be able to top a prison rescue and a fighting retreat through kilometers of tunnels, but he couldn’t wait to find out.