043 Statuseses

“We need a plan.”

Nicola and Paz glanced up at me, from their spots around the table.

I’d convened the first official meeting of our party in the inn I’d rented. Nicola didn’t have a place to stay anyway, and Paz seemed keen to follow along.

The innkeeper had eyed us with suspicion at our initial appearance, but he kept his nose out of our business, choosing instead to focus on the other patrons in the room.

Paz emptied his tankard of its contents, then slammed it hard on the table. “What’s there to think about? We enter the Labyrinth when the games begin and go after Byron.”

“If we do that, we’d die,” I said. “In case you didn't notice, there’s a steep power gap between Red Wyrm and us. Byron himself sits at level 25, Beelith at 24, and two caster siblings aren’t far behind. In comparison, Nicola’s the strongest of us at seventeen, and you’re the weakest at thirteen.”

“I told you, this isn’t my final form,” Paz growled. “I should be much stronger than this.”

“Okay, what’s your real level, then? Because my discernment skill has never been wrong.”

Paz scrunched his features. “I’m not sure . . .”

I shot him a dry look.

Nicola looked up from her drink. She hadn’t taken as much as a sip, lost in thought as she was. But, a cold fire burned in her gaze.

“Whatever we do,” she said, “we must ensure we don’t face them on even footing. The members of Red Wyrm have worked together far longer than we have and are very experienced in dungeon dives. There is a reason they survived the last one intact.”

“So, we isolate them?” I said. “Force each member to fight three of us at once?”

“In theory. But, this is one tactic rankers often employ against stronger foes. Anyone with half a brain knows to expect this and would prepare countermeasures.”

“Which means we just need to be more unpredictable than they are.” I could work with that. One benefit my reincarnation granted me was a wealth of foreign knowledge this world’s denizens wouldn’t see coming.

But, the benefit also applied to the enemy party. I needed to brush up on common ranker tactics, to avoid being blindsided by problems everyone else in Vizhima could solve.

“I say we take out the casters first,” Paz said, relieving Nicola of her drink. “One of the brothers is a Mage; the other a Warlock. Both classes can cause us all sorts of problems in the tight corridors of the labyrinth. Remove them from the equation, and we’d have an easier time killing the other two.”

K-kill?

Nicola didn’t flinch. “Agreed. It’s always better to target the glass cannons. Byron’s a Guardian, leaving Beelith as the primary damage dealer in the absence of the casters. We’ll need a way to incapacitate him before we pile on the others. Guardians are never easy to deal with.”

I looked between the two of them, feeling a bit out of sorts. I wasn’t dumb. I’d avoided giving voice to it, but I’d known within me that a quarrel like this could only be resolved with death.

It just felt weird to hear good-natured people plan murders so casually. A side effect of their brutal world, to be sure, but what did that say about me?

I forced my thoughts back into the barrel. “That sounds like a good starting point, but we can do better. We have one week till the start of the festival. I suggest we engage in aggressive grinding. At a minimum, we should all be level eighteen by the time we enter the labyrinth.”

“Unlikely,” Paz said. “This part of Vizhima is notorious for a dearth of strong enemies. We stand a better chance grinding in the Labyrinth.”

“But, we’ll still do it anyway,” I mused, unable to fully come to terms with the fact that Vizhimans understood gaming lingo. “The stronger we are a week from now, the better.”

Nicola tapped her fingernails against the table. “It’s considered prudent for weaker adventurers to form temporary alliances before a dungeon run. They go out in large groups into the wild and try to eke out some last-minute XP.”

“Inefficient,” Paz said. “Beating monsters in groups larger than four leads to diminishing returns. And, in a party of five and above, a handful would always be slackers. You gain more XP and more combat intelligence sticking to smaller groups.”

“Well, yes. But, smaller groups require a longer resting period between fights. Even if we go crazy with grinding for a week, I’d probably only rise by one more level. And, you both would be lucky to do so thrice.”

“There are strong monsters in the Labyrinth, right?” I said, enjoying the discussion. “We can hold off on attacking Byron till we’ve grown in power.”

“He won’t be sitting idle,” Nicola said. “He’d be progressing too.”

“At a much slower rate than us—”

“But, equipped with more loot than he’d know what to do with. I don’t want to take that chance. We need to blindside him before he hits his stride.”

“Or hope that something strong enough does it on our behalf.” I scratched my chin. “Let’s focus on the stuff within our power now—”

“Gaining levels,” Nicola said.

“As efficiently as we can,” I added. “Which brings us to the next issue . . .”

The two of them looked up at me.

“I don’t know how things are done here,” I said, rubbing the back of my head. “And, I apologize if this comes across as offensive. Seeing as we are a team now, I was hoping we could share our status sheets, to get a better idea of our capabilities.”

Nicola and Paz exchanged glances.

“It’s not unusual,” Nicola said. “But, most parties start by sharing their techniques. Status screens are rather personal. You don’t want to share that unless it is with people you trust.”

“I’d share mine,” Paz said, “if you promise to reveal everything in yours, including your Traits.” He leaned forward as he spoke. “You hide your secrets well, elf, but you’re special, aren’t you? Just like me.”

I took a sip from my tankard. Was Paz implying that he was also a migrant from another world? That could be the case, but I best keep some cards in reserve until I ascertained his angle.

“I appreciate the gesture,” I said at last, “and I will reciprocate in kind. All values available to me are yours to inspect.”

Nicola sputtered. “D-Damien, what the hell? You might want to think this through. I can say with full confidence that you have earned my trust, but we know next to nothing about this guy.”

“What’s there to know?” Paz said.

“Your nationality, for one. You are definitely not from Bargheria. It’s also hard to believe that you made it to Skeelie for the festival without any teammates whatsoever.”

“Hey! I don’t know where you hail from either, but you don’t see me asking. What does that have to do with fighting monsters?”

I hummed into the ale to drown out their screeching.

“Anyway,” Paz said, crossing his arms, “Distrusting your teammates right off the bat seems like a piss-poor way to run a party. If you can’t trust me enough to share your status, why then are you comfortable believing I’d have your back against Byron?”

Nicola bit her lip.

“He’s right, you know,” I said.

“Oh, whatever,” she groused. “If we are doing this, best to take it elsewhere. Too many eyes.”

We withdrew to my room, though not before requesting quills and parchment from the innkeeper.

The three of us took separate spots and scribbled on the sheets.

I summoned my status screen for the first time in what felt like ages.

Damien Njoku

Race: Dark Elf

Level: 15

Class: Assassin

Affinity: Fear

VP: 38/38

MP: 40/40

Attributes:

STR 7, PER 10, END 10, DEX 20

INT 5, WIL 10, V.F 2, MGK 3

Free Stat Points: 0

Traits:

[Born of Fear], [Against the Odds], [Migrant Soul]*

Skills:

[Map], [Identify], [Meditation], [Knife-fighting], [Stealth], [Decoy]

Abilities:

[Scaredy-cat], [Fear Aura], [Dark Stalker]

I knew most of the information on it offhand, but I consulted the screen regardless. The only change I had made in the last few days involved rounding out [DEX] for consistent damage.

I penned down everything on the screen except for [Migrant Soul]. The Trait wasn’t available to me, which meant I didn’t break my word.

I also wasn’t comfortable revealing my origins outside of Harkonean. The city was much bigger, and Damien from Dreadwood provided a safer identity than Damien the Hero.

Finally, we presented our parchments.

I studied Nicola’s first.

Nicola Ainsworth

Race: Human

Level: 17

Class: Mage

Affinity: Pleasure

VP: 42/42

MP: 60/60

Attributes:

STR 5, PER 10, END 10, DEX 3

INT 20, WIL 10, V.F 2, MGK 11

Free Stat Points: 0

Traits:

[Born of Pleasure]

Skills:

[Meditation], [Spellcasting]

Abilities:

[Ecstasy], [Eros Collector], [Eldritch Eyeball], [Summon Tentacle], [Bloom of Crimson Desire]

Nicola caught the look in my eye and buried her face in her hands. “Stop. I know it looks bad.”

“It’s intriguing,” I said. “Seems like a pretty great moveset.”

“It’s mostly support stuff. I have only one real damaging ability.”

“The [Bloom of Crimson Desire], huh?”

She had used that against the Primal Dread Monkey, a pretty wicked ability.

Paz read the parchment from over my shoulder. “The Pleasure affinity leans heavily toward summons, eh? And, of the eldritch nature too. Summons tend to snowball around the mid-ranks, but you need to keep your build in mind or you will be outpaced by everyone else in the endgame.”

Nicola snorted. “I’d be lucky to reach Silver in my lifetime. Anything beyond that is a pipedream.”

“You lack ambition.”

“Hey. I won’t take that from you—”

“You haven’t unlocked any other skills?” I asked before our meeting could derail.

“A big weakness of caster classes,” Nicola replied. “We’re pretty much sitting ducks once we run out of MP, at least up until Magic Hand or Mage Armor becomes available. But, if you think that's bad, just look at this guy’s sheet.”

Gordo Sangrepaz

Race: Human

Level: 13

Class: Skirmisher

Affinity: Retribution

VP: 34/34

MP: 31/31

Attributes:

STR 20, PER 10, END 10, DEX 10

INT 4, WIL 4, V.F 4, MGK 1

Free Stat Points: 0

Traits:

[Dragon Touched]

Skills:

[Draconic Aura], [Meditation], [Polearm Mastery], [Overpower]

Abilities:

[Sanguine Return]

“That’s a fair handful of skills,” I said.

“And just one ability,” Nicola added. “Retribution is one of the rarer, more powerful affinities. This guy wins the lottery with it, and then what does he do? He decides to be a Skirmisher.”

“Hey,” Paz said. “Affinities are chosen after classing up. Besides, what’s wrong with Skirmishers?”

Nicola shot him a weary look. “You need to ask? In a world where magic is known to be strong enough to reshape continents, the Skirmisher instead pursues physical might.”

“Sounds great to me.”

“It isn’t. You’re sacrificing magical power for a less effective, physical one.”

“No. I’m sacrificing an overreliance on abilities for more consistent melee damage. Mages could never understand.”

“It’s Retribution. People would kill for such an affinity.”

“And, it synchronizes well with my class. I’m not about to prance around in mage robes and a hat.”

“What does Retribution do?” I asked.

Nicola pinched the bridge of her nose. “Grants control over blood. It’s usually an impressive affinity, especially when combined with Mage, Warlock, or Assassin.”

Oh, that sounded incredible. A tad horrific, but most affinities were. I was more intrigued by another item on the list. “[Dragon Touched]?”

“Oh yeah, I’ve never seen that,” Nicola said, casting a wary look at our resident redhead. “What does it mean?”

Paz smirked. “Exactly what it says.”

“You’ve met a dragon?”

“I have.”

He didn’t elaborate further, bringing an end to the discussion. But, his brevity only heightened my curiosity about his Trait.

Finally, we moved on to my parchment.

Paz’s features went through a myriad of changes as he scanned the list. His expression switched from curious to stunned, and then to elated.

He clapped his hands and pointed at me. “Hah! I knew it. I knew you were special.”

“Because of my affinity?” I asked.

“Well, that too,” Paz said. “But, look at all of these. Two Traits, a [Map] skill, and [Identify] on a Rogue. No way you’re some ordinary chap.”

“Damien’s just blessed,” Nicola said, but even her eyes looked doubtful.

Paz narrowed his eyes at me, as though trying to peer into my soul. “[Map] is a high-tier skill usually available to non-combat classes like Tactician. And, most people consider having one Trait to be a feat. You have two.” He shook his head. “Why did you pick Fear? Every kid in Vizhima knows the story of the Lord of Terror. You got a death wish or something?”

I frowned as the [Scaredy-cat] notification popped up again at the mention of the name. My heart thumped wildly in my chest. “I . . . didn’t know of that name until a few days ago.”

Paz and Nicola exchanged stunned looks.

“Damien, my friend,” Paz said. “If you continue showing balls like you did today, I don’t think we’d ever run out of adventure.” His eyes glazed over as he spoke. “You might just have what it takes.”

I shifted my feet, uncomfortable with my turn in the spotlight. “What do we know about Red Wyrm’s abilities?”

Nicola sighed. “We best settle in.”