ER: Chapter 65 - Leveling Savant

Day 131, 11:15 AM

“Welcome to the dungeon,” we’ve got fun and games. My voice is much more normal than the words might imply as I step onto the first floor, leading Millie and Elie.

“Millie, I need to know your class, level, agility, physique, wisdom, intellect, and the number of attribute points you have available.”

The girl is a level zero mage’s apprentice, which is good. Her agility is eleven, physique twelve, wisdom ten, and intellect nine. Very suboptimal stats for a mage, but I guess not everyone is like Gila, a natural leveling monster, or Lucy, a bright young woman interested in a myriad of topics which could help her leave her home and stay safe in the wilderness.

“Well, at least you have four attribute points. Your first task is to bump your intellect and wisdom to fifteen each, and try to increase them evenly. Physique we will ignore for a very long time, as for agility, we can work on it once you have fifteen in your mental stats.”

I turn towards Elie. “Same for you, fifteen in everything, then we push your mental attributes to twenty, followed by agility. Twenty agility is more than enough, and after that the attributes you will invest in are wisdom and intellect…”

I zap lobsters with my eyes closed while lecturing on the importance of attributes, and we head down to the lower level. Hours pass, followed by days, and the girls steadily increase their levels. By the time we reach the seventy-fifth floor, Elie has received a bonus attribute point, Millie four, and I got none for my effort.

Seven days after entering the dungeon, we leave it. “Once you are journeyman mages and reach a high enough level, I will allow you into the dungeon on your own. Until then, you will follow me. Enjoy the free attribute points while they last, later you will have to work for them, and clearing the dungeon is our obligation.”

“What about the treasures?” Elie asks.

“We don’t need them, but we could bring people from Deephorn to harvest after us, we can ship a couple of handcarts every two weeks.” I lead them down the road towards Hadriuse’s mansion. “It’s time you see our base of operations. We have appropriated an abandoned archmage’s residence. The mansion has all the facilities needed for a crowd to live comfortably. There’s a library and a number of other amenities. Are you literate?”

Elie nods, but Millie shakes her head. Just as I figured.

“You went to pick up an old man and returned with a girl and an old woman.” Edna appears out of the foliage, startling Elie and Millie.

Scanner picked her up, so I’m as cool as a cucumber. “Greetings, Edna, Harlos refused to leave and volunteered his granddaughter Millie instead. Eliesandra wished to learn, and, since she’s competent and reliable, I brought her along.”

“And the man surrounding himself with women says he’s not building himself a harem.”

I pretend I didn’t hear her mutters. “How’s the army of wood soldiers you’re surrounding yourself with doing?”

“I’ve made one hundred and fifty so far, but I will need at least two thousand for my purpose.”

Everything in first person, what was once a “we” has now become an “I”. I guess her mind finally snapped. Visions of Reality tells me Edna is only thirty percent human now, and I finally connect the dots.

“Edna, did you augment yourself after becoming an archmage?”

“You noticed the improvement?” She beams at me. “Yes, I have made some improvements. I have completely eliminated the need for sleep and food, they were so inefficient. I feed on mana now. Once I get rid of the church, I will see what to do with all the extra space I can get by removing the unnecessary organs.”

I nod, realizing I have destroyed Edna.

“I’ll try to help you once I’m powerful enough.”

“No need,” she naturally misunderstands my intention. “I can make all the changes on my own, and besides I will perfect my body years before you become an archmage.”

“Take care, Edna. I’m going to show Elie and Millie around the mansion, and explain which areas are off limits. Don’t worry, nobody will intrude into…” I trail off, since Edna has left without saying goodbye.

My short, disturbing reunion with Edna has taught me two things. I now understand how wormlords came to be. More importantly, I must under no circumstances give in to any desires to change my body. I already knew minute changes might have colossal consequences, but seeing the consequences first-hand makes all the difference.

We enter the mansion in silence, and as soon as the door clicks shut, I turn towards the newcomers. “I’m sorry you had to see that, and I’m even more sorry such a fate has befallen Edna. She was a good woman, and I think she still is, somewhere in the mass of dementia and insanity. I mean what I said, I’ll try to help her when I have the ability to tackle her.”

I needed to say it aloud, more for my own sake than Millie’s and Elie’s.

“Come on, I’ll show you around.” I lead the women on a tour, showing them the baths, the servants’ quarters, and finally the kitchen. There’s no sign of the girls. A heavy feeling wells up in the pit of my stomach. What if Edna came in and snatched them? What if she’s turned them into monsters of some sort? Can I wind back time and save them?

“Let’s head to the library.” My voice trembles, just the tiniest bit, and I rush for the room I’ve spent decades in. I open the door, and Gila and Lucy are there, sitting and reading quietly.

“Griff!” Lucy exclaims, then calms down when she sees the women behind me. “Captain Elie.”

She doesn’t recognize Millie, but Gila breaks the awkward silence.

“Griff! It’s so good to have you back! I tried to talk with Mistress Edna, but she scares me now. The way she looks at me seems distant, and her eyes are each moving on their own, like she’s some sort of bug.”

I didn’t notice that one. She must have decoupled them.

“She ignored me, just focusing a single eye to size me up from head to toe before shifting it back to the tree she was touching. She looked at me the way I would watch a flea. And what’s happening with the jungle? Every time I look out, it’s receding from the front size of the house.”

I’m not sure what I should say. Edna is entitled to her privacy, but does it even matter at this point? It’s not like it’s difficult to notice that her mind has cracked.

“Edna advanced to archmage, and I think the years of solitary life and making tiny adjustments to her body have taken their toll. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but her body is built unnaturally. She redesigned her legs, and probably other things even when she was a normal mage…” I repeat the conversation I just had with Edna, and watch the girl’s terrified faces.

“That should be a lesson for all of us. We should not tamper with our bodies beyond a certain point. Removing the damage brought by age is one thing, recalibrating our brains, removing natural needs for food and sleep, and probably many other things should be off limits. But don’t worry, I will do what I can to help her.”

The conversation dies, and everyone just stays silent, thinking about the dangers of magic.

“Right, I haven’t made the official introductions. Gila, Lucy, meet Elie and Millie, my apprentices. Elie, Millie, these are Gila and Lucy, we were Edna’s disciples together. They should be high level journeyman mages now, close to becoming mages themselves.”

Gila gives me a smug look, and Lucy suddenly shrinks into herself. I know the girl well enough to tell she’s awkward for some reason, but I have no clue why my introduction would make her awkward.

“Griff, do you want to see a magic trick?” Gila asks with a smirk.

I sense a trap somewhere, but I’ve been away for some two weeks, I’m not sure what she can entrap me with.

“Sure?”

She plucks a needle from her clothes, and scanner tells me she has two dozen of them scattered about her person. She also takes a length of thread from her pocket.

Gila places them both on the desk before her and starts a wordless song, her hands moving as if she’s threading a needle. The song is of squinting in a dark room, candlelight flickering and dancing, shadows twisting around me as I’m trying to thread a needle. The second image is of a surgeon, making careful incisions in a brightly light operating room, which makes for the stark contrast compared to the dingy seamstress’s nook.

The thread writhes on the desk, then passes through the eye of the needle.

I look at Gila, impressed that she managed to find a book of spells somewhere in the mansion.

“Where did you find that spell?” I ask.

“She made it,” Lucy whispers, while Gila beams at me, smugger than any creature I’ve ever seen in three lives.

“I’m a level nine journeyman mage.”