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27. Aftermath

  27. Aftermath

  “Hagi? Can you hear me? Where did you go?” Mariselle asked through party chat as I was studying the rewards for reaching the Dungeon Core. “Did you do something? We all just got a ton of experience and gold!”

  “I didn’t do anything,” I lied, examining the pop-up which displayed my rewards . Most importantly, in my opinion, was the massive amount of experience which pushed me halfway into level thirty-two, but there was also a good amount of gold, and thirty Runebound Dolls, another sort of vanity pet. “I just got teleported out of the dungeon. I don’t know where all of you are.”

  “Weird,” she said, “We tried following you through the Circle of Return, but it wouldn’t let us. Now it’s saying that the dungeon is about to close and we’re freaking out because we think it has something to do with your challenge quest.”

  “I don’t know, it might have,” I admitted. “Don’t worry about it too much. If anyone gets angry about it, they’ll blame me, not you.”

  “That’s not what has me worried,” she said. “Hagi, are you … are you like Hail?”

  “Like who?” I said, trying to sound innocent. “Mariselle, I’m just someone who’s really good at ferreting out challenge quests like this. Don’t get so--”

  “Bullshit! I just searched your name in the forums and you also just happened to have the same name as a mage who destroyed a lair and fought a giant serpent,” Thalrin, the pyromancher challenged. “You’re totally part of the game, aren’t you?”

  I was silent for a moment. The timer was ticking down, and in a few seconds the dungeon would close, returning us to the meeting stone out front. I didn’t really want to face them, so I opened my Fast Travel menu to get it ready.

  “What does it matter?” I asked.

  “I knew it! I knew you were that chatbot! You’re too good to be real!” he exclaimed. “What did you do to the dungeon? Is it gone for good or what?”

  “I don’t owe you anything, Thalrin. Not even an explanation,” I said. I marked him with Karmic Balance and the rest of the party with Karma. I dropped the group, and I Fast Traveled away as soon as I was teleported out of the white room.

  I had elected to return to Prowlhaven, in Eolstree. After emerging from the Nexus Point, I found the nearest Liecha bar and ordered myself one so hot it almost scalded me when I tested its temperature. Getting comfortable, I opened the chatroom with my other selves and gave them an update on my current status.

  Since I was in Prowlhaven, I considered paying my step-father a visit. I decided against it for two separate reasons. First, I’d have to break the rule that Hail can only be on one location at a time. Second, Lord would probably get experience from visiting him. I could try visiting him as Hagi, but I doubted that my explanations would make sense to him, and trying to do so might in fact get me into trouble in Eolstree. Pretending to be nobility wasn’t that serious of a crime, but it was a crime. Hail was the Earl, not Hagi.

  I walked into the dueling arena and sought out one of the masters-at-arms. After a brief discussion, I was able to express my intention to change my class and obtained a fairly straightforward quest. Equipping my [Blade of Eclipse], we entered the arena, and he spent two hours drilling me on the footwork and abilities of the [Duelist] class. It differed significantly from how I’d been fighting as both a [Spellblade] and a [Warrior], but before long I got the hang of it. When the prompt asked me if I was certain I wished to change my class, I clicked yes without hesitation.

  I thanked the Armsmaster for his time, then swung by the auction network to optimize my gear. I could no longer use the fancy mace I had just gotten from Runeheld Ruins, although I decided to keep it in my inventory, and most of my other items which were designed to help me stay alive were less than optimal for dealing damage, especially now that I was once more a Dexterity based class.

  Satisfied after spending a few hundred gold on equipment, I brought up my status for review.

  My survivability stats had taken a hit. I had lost seven thousand health after I’d changed classes and gear, not to mention almost forty from my armor rating. I couldn’t wear heavy armor anymore, not without impacting my Energy and Skill regeneration. In exchange, I’d gained a significant amount of Attack Power and increased my Critical Damage as well. I worried about my ability to off-tank, but I was certain that my damage would increase significantly.

  Not just because my numbers had gone up, but because my abilities had changed as well.

  I needed to practice for a while, but similar to [Warrior], [Duelist] had active strikes that used different resources. Skill regenerated at a constant, rapid rate. Energy at a much slower rate, but I started out with a significant amount. Interestingly enough, my basic attacks acted much like my old [Thrust] and [Slash] without cooldowns attached. I could very swiftly run out of energy if I chained them exclusively, but while they were easy to activate, they did less damage than the abilities powered by [Skill].

  According to the forums, they also had a significantly lower critical hit chance, except for [Crimson Riposte], which was higher damage than any of my other moves but could only be activated while I was being targeted. That really shouldn’t be a problem, however, as once I was practiced with activating my other Active Strikes I’d only be using one or two Basic Attacks between chaining the other four abilities together. In fact, I was really looking forward to mastering this combat style.

  First, however, I had to send a message to a friend of mine. I opened up a PM channel with Tarisha, and unsurprisingly it went straight through.

  The conversation had not gone the way that I intended it to at all, but I felt better for having gotten some of those feelings off of my chest. I hoped that Tarisha didn’t resent me venting on her, but it was too late to take back what I’d said.

  Deciding to use whatever time I had left in this login productively, I returned to the Adventurer’s guild and entered the LFG queue. Unfortunately, I was DPS now, and by the time I found a group that was ready to take me, it was time for me to log out and sleep. Now, more than ever, it was important that I get my rest, as I wasn’t used to splitting myself five ways yet. The group wasn’t terribly worried about my abandonment of them.

  ?

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