Chapter 5: Book 1: Chapter 3 (Part 2 of 2)

“Like I said, it’s already done and there are no redo’s, not for you. There is plenty more to see,” he added and waved his hand again.

Species Abilities and Benefits

Acheronian: Physical stats +20%, Social Stats +20%, Health +5, Dominance +5, HP +150 (+15 per level), Armour Slots +3, Weapon Slot +2, Item Slot +1 Affinity for Dark and Chaos Magic. Aversion to Light and Harmonic magic. Frost Element Harmonisation: Affinity for Frost Magic. Spells, Effects, or Gear that utilise the Frost element are 20% more effective. Frost Blade Generation: You can form bladed weapons made of Impervious Ice from refined mana. Frost Resistance: Damage that utilises the Frost element reduced by 50%. Mana Capacity and Mana Absorption +10%, HP +50, Item Slot +1   Path of the Binder: Soul Binding: This person can bind the souls of others to their own. Those bound become devoted servants and gain benefits from their Binder. Soul Sense: You can sense the potential and abilities of those you encounter Social Stats +10%, HP +50, Dominance +10, Item Slot +1

 

“This bit details what being a Frostbinder Acheronian does for you. You’ve seen most of the effects earlier in your sheet. You have a harmonised element and are already on a path of power. Very few, outside of the other creators with pre-generated characters, will start with a Path or Harmonisation. Soul Sense is crossed out as it synergises with some of your other abilities to provide something even better. And you can make Ice Blades which is cool,” he chuckled. “As long as you have mana, you are never unarmed. And you are already on a path of power and can bind others to you, making you even stronger than before.”

The sinking feeling overwhelmed me again. I had thought my stomach couldn’t drop any lower. When Fred had given me the character, I’d thought playing a demonic slaving pirate might be fun, but that doesn’t mean I wanted to live that life.

Despite the Dean telling me to stay quiet I couldn’t remain silent. Maybe I might lose some time here, but I needed to say my piece.

“No. Absolutely not. This has gone too far Dean. I refuse to fucking enslave people,” I interjected angrily.

He gave me a withering look and then his face softened as he relented.

“Torin, I can’t change what you are. Ultimately, the choice will be up to you. You can refuse to play the part you’ve been given if you want. You’d be a fucking dickhead if you do, but you have the choice, as all sentients do. I will tell you this, you may start out much stronger than those around you but that won’t last. When others start levelling, you will become deadweight and dependent on them for your survival. I’ve watched thousands of worlds before yours go through this and not all of them made it,” he commented seriously before continuing.

“That’s right, the extinction of all sentient life on your planet is a very real possibility. And Earth is going to have it harder than most due to your proximity to the Aperture. We’ve had to site a lot more spawning crystals and dungeons than any other planet to handle the increased volume of magical energy bypassing the shielding. Not to mention that the reactions in nuclear power plants don’t just switch off and continue to generate masses of energy, 99.9% of which is being transformed into the magical head exploding variety. We’ve had to account for that too. Another bit of advice, I’d avoid those areas until you’re a lot stronger.”

“We’ve placed the crystals and cores away from the population centres to prevent insane levels of carnage in the first few weeks. This may lull some into a false sense of security, but within weeks, months at most, the unprepared will be fucking overrun, and it’ll be a God’s damned slaughter.”

“Which believe it or not will be the least of your worries when food gets scarce. Which it will, much quicker than you’d imagine. Even the most civilised people turn into rabid fucking animals when their backs are against the wall. Those that survive are the ones who adapt to the new normal quickest. Your world has changed and it’s not changing back. You’ll be surprised by how quickly those who are ‘enslaved’ change their tune from ‘fuck you, for what you’ve done to me, you monstrous tyrant’ to ‘thank you for protecting me, feeding me, and keeping me alive, Master’. Besides, soul binding isn’t technically slavery, and the bound get considerable benefits from the arrangement.”

 He went quiet for a moment. My mind was in turmoil. That I was unconvinced by his argument must have been plainly showing on my face as then his mouth split in a sly grin. “What it boils down to is are you willing to be a victim?”

The sneaky motherfucker, he had been reading my thoughts during my confrontation with Victor.

He had me by the balls, though. I could argue all day long about what I wouldn’t be willing to do, what lines I wouldn’t cross, but there was that little voice in the back of my mind that whispered, liar, liar, pants on fire.

How many people truly valued the lives of others more than their own? We all like to think of ourselves as better than our baser instincts, human history, however, begs to differ.

He interrupted my dark musings. “Don’t worry about it, Torin. You’re a smart guy. I’m confident you can find a way to flourish without becoming an unforgivable tyrant and monster. There will be plenty of spawned mobs you can raid and plunder. Time is short and we have more to see.”

 

Class Abilities and Benefits

Dungeon Corsair Captain: Levels in class = 1 (K grade notorious class) Level up grants all stats +1. All social stats another +1, Willpower, Mental Resistance, Leadership and Dominance another +1, HP +160 per level.   Treasure Sense You know the value of items, land, and people you encounter.   Claim a Dungeon Core 1 The Dungeon Corsair Captain can bind the core of a dungeon they have completed. The core crystal can then be removed from its current location and physically bonded to a vessel. The ship now becomes a mobile dungeon under the command of the Captain. The dungeon avatar will level with its owner. Armour Penalty Offset: -1 Dungeon Sense Knows the location and strength of all dungeons within a 50-mile radius.

 

“This section defines your class abilities. The top bit is what you get every time you level. You will occasionally get additional abilities when you hit certain milestones. Claiming a dungeon core is the key ability of this class. Without it, the class is bloody redundant. Now, claiming a dungeon core is how you get your ship, but there is a tiny wrinkle you will need to overcome, and as I said earlier, overcome quickly.”

“Most sentients don’t start with a K-grade class; you truly are exceptional in that regard. Unfortunately, to claim a dungeon core you have to defeat a dungeon first. Not usually a problem for most sentients who rise from being a mere Dungeon Corsair to a Captain as they usually already have a crew and a shitload of levels under their belt. You have neither. As I said you only have a couple of weeks before your notoriety is going to plummet, and you don’t want that happening if you want to survive.”

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“What I’m saying is you can’t sit around moping and bitching about how life is unfair. You need to get out there, find a low-level dungeon, there aren’t many by the way, and find a way to fight your way through and claim the core crystal. Dungeons are meant for groups of ten or more, so it won’t be easy to accomplish solo. And any dungeon above level one will be well beyond even your impressive starting position.”

I nodded my understanding, though I was still conflicted on what I should do. This wasn’t an easy choice.

“The armour offset reduces the slot cost. Cloth/Notional armour will still cost a slot, but it reduces all the others by one. Leather/Light armour will take up one instead of two etc.”

Plate would still cost me three slots to equip, but if I was supposed to be some kind of high seas pirate, wearing plate wouldn’t make a lot of sense. You’d sink pretty quick if you fell in the sea.

Miscellaneous Abilities and Benefits

Quest Imp: Imps will generate notoriety-based quests for the owner to complete. The completion of any quest can be verified by the imp, not just those it generates.   Sense Synergy: Your three sense abilities, soul, dungeon, and treasure combine to become greater than the sum of their parts. You may analyse people, objects, dungeons, and their denizens. The range of your dungeon awareness is doubled to 100 miles.

 

“Almost done. You can see your three sense abilities have combined into a single multi-purpose analyse ability. Another big advantage for you. However, the quest imp is your golden ticket. Unless you want to grind out the XP killing mobs you are going to need to complete quests. Most people will have to pick theirs up at a town podium and hand them in there. Your imp can interface with the local podiums allowing you to accept and hand them in remotely as well as generate custom quests just for you.”

“You won’t understand why this is so useful yet, but you will. Quest imps are a highly sought-after commodity. Unbound imps literally sell for millions of fucking Gold. I can’t overstate what an enormous windfall starting with one is, and no you can’t unbind the imp to sell it. The binding lasts until you die.”

He looked at me thoughtfully then.

“Actually, that brings up a good point, probably best not to advertise that you have one. When people figure out how useful they are, they will kill you for it,” he warned.

“Fucking fantastic, more good news,” I groused, my voice dripped with sarcasm. “I also see the quests it provides are notoriety based.”

“Yeah, it’s a fucking imp, not a fairy,” the Dean uttered with a shrug. “Here we go, the last section.”

That wasn’t the point I was trying to make, but I let it slide for now.

Miscellaneous Negative Effects

XP Requirement Doubled: To power the levelling of your bonded dungeon core the experience points required for each level of the Dungeon Corsair Captain class is double that of other K-grade classes.   Species Progression Lock: Your species is locked as Acheronian. You may not change this except for a higher tier Acheronian option.   Class Progression Lock: Your class is locked as Dungeon Corsair Captain. You may not change this except for a higher grade Dungeon Corsair option.

 

“Nobody’s favourite part, the downsides. You can see that under normal circumstances a K-grade class only needs thirty-four thousand in XP. Yours is double as you are collecting for two. Yeah, it’s a pain in the ass, but you’ll get over it when you figure out some of the cool shit you can do with your dungeon ship. And the last two bits, well, all these bumps to make you a fucking machine of awesomeness have to come with some kind of cost. For you, that means even if you earn the upgrade points you can only use them to keep going up the branches you are on. No jumping ship,” he laughed with a wink at his joke.

“That’s a lot to take in,” I mumbled.

“Yeah, but you have the rest of your life to figure it out. When you flip back to the world you can view your status at any time just by thinking about it,” he stated.

“I suppose I should thank you. Um, I’ve just realised you never told me your name,” I confessed, a little embarrassed to admit it had taken this long for me to ask.

“Oh, yeah it’s Administ…” he started and then stopped, a look of consternation on his face.

“Were you just going to say your name is Administrator?” I teased.

“Fuck no, that would be lame. I just didn’t feel like telling you alright,” he answered stroppily.

“Well, I’ve been thinking of you as the Dean of Admissions this whole time so why don’t we stick with Dean?” I proposed, extending an olive branch.

“That’s not terrible and will do I suppose,” the freshly anointed Dean said.

“What now?” I said.

“Now you go back, but don’t worry, you will see me again. Every time you level up. And never fear, you won’t have to liaise with my lame ass…istant again, you have a direct line to my office. Good luck, I’m sure you’ll have a blast,” Dean pronounced.

With that, I suddenly felt a bit woozy, and my eyes closed. I thought I heard Dean whisper under his breath “I know I will,” but couldn’t be positive.

When I opened my peepers, I was back in my apartment with Victor and Shana. They seemed to be similarly disoriented, presumably having gone through something akin to what I had.

Victor shook his head to clear the cobwebs and then stared at me, his mouth gaping wide in shock.

“Monster!” he shrieked girlishly. “He’s one of those monsters we were warned about.”

Bollocks.

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