The Wanderer's Rebirth: Other Paths

“You’re sure he came this way?” Myra asked, looking both determined and nervous.

“He’s not hard to track,” Reldan replied wryly. “Between the obvious passage of the goblins and the tracks left behind by his weird [Summon]s, I’d have to be blind and lame not to be able to follow all this.”

“Less talking, more tracking,” Asami said, her eyes never stopping on one place for long.

“If the Hall wasn’t able to deal with the goblins, what makes any of you think that we stand a chance?” Theril asked, looking a bit glum.

Myra could understand his hesitation. Leaving his how homeless wife to go off on a suicide mission wouldn’t earn him any points. But she was still glad to have the steadfast [Guardian] with them.

“Rude,” Asami said, not bothering to look at them when she spoke. “Between the Dungeon emptying yesterday and Joram’s efforts, we should at least do better than those complacent pups,” she finished, shaking her head slightly.

“Well, let’s hurry. I don’t want to be away for too long,” Theril said as he picked up the pace.

Everyone followed, including a good hundred spirit foxes who wouldn’t be left behind. She was so proud of her little friends who’d decided to help them.

She just wasn’t sure for whom they came; Asami, her, or Joram.

* * * * *

“Damn,” he muttered, just now finally getting a solid range on his [Pyrokinesis] as his attack fell short, dissipating into nothing.

The range seemed to be his Skill ranks plus the key ability modifier for the Skill, which happened to be Intellect. Added together, that gave him 14, which was how many metres his attack had gone. If it was a coincidence, it was a mighty far-fetched one. So, daggers it was.

He’d gotten even further into the ruins, finding that the buildings seemed to either have been constructed better, or they’d just managed to weather the passage of time better. Because of that, the number of places one could hide, and ambush him, had greatly increased.

“I wish I had [Cloudkill], or something, to sweep them out of their hiding places,” he muttered, wondering where the next attack would come from.

‘Why not use [Ectoplasmic Shambler]?’ Avi asked from where she stood out in the open.

“…”

Joram just about kicked himself for having forgotten that Power. It would have come in incredibly useful during the siege, let alone earlier. Setting D3 to guard him while he reviewed the Power, Joram closed his eyes to concentrate.

It was a 5th level power, making it “as hard” to learn as [Delve]…. But not really. After [Delve], everything seemed so much less complicated. Which meant that he had a decent grasp of it, but not quite the augmentation that Altaea had later added, though. But it was enough.

He looked over to the skeletal buildings that flanked his current path and set the target of his first use to the one on the right, just opposite of where he was hiding.

The shamble came into being a couple of seconds later, three metres tall and thrice that wide and long. It was a bit disturbing to watch as it made its way into the building, both flowing and skittering on hundreds of centipede legs as it went. Then he set another to enter the building on his left, on the same side of the “street”.

Not long after, he began to hear the shrieks, screams, and yells of tortured goblins. Instructing the semi-live creations to first kill any goblin they found, loot them, then to proceed onwards until they found more prey. He then began skulking his way forward, taking care to keep to as much cover as he could manage.

He didn’t know if it was because of his mental connection to the [Astral Constructs], as well as the [Ectoplasmic Shambler]s, but he was once again glad that they could all loot for him.

* * *

“Why’s it so quiet?” Myra asked in a whisper as she looked around warily.

“Probably because Joram killed everything on his way through,” Asami replied, but just as quietly as Myra.

“He passed by not too long ago,” Reldan said, checking the tracks.

“Just keep an eye out for respawns,” Theril warned, doing just that.

“Do you think he knows about respawns?” Myra asked, suddenly worried.

“If he doesn’t, he’ll find out sooner or later,” Asami replied before urging them onward once more.

* * *

‘You’re getting better with your control,’ Avi said from beside him, watching him as he played with fire.

‘I always loved the [Pyrokineticist] prestige class,’ he replied, using [Clear Mind] to help him force the shape of the flames he was playing with into a whip.

‘You’ll likely unlock a Path related to that now,’ she said, smiling.

‘That’d be fun, but not something I’d likely take, unless it was just handed out as a freebie or something,’ he sent back before just focussing on the charging hob and setting it on fire with [Pyrokinesis], once more using [Clear Mind] to help him bend the Skill to do what he wanted it to.

They were now just outside of a surprisingly intact building from which more goblins emerged. He’d been stalled there for several minutes, long enough to have to reapply his buffs. It also allowed a fair chunk of his resource pools to regenerate. He wasn’t completely sure, but he felt as though his pools were regenerating at a slightly faster rate than they had been, which was a good thing.

He still hadn’t had time to check his notifications, but he could nevertheless feel the changes in his Skills, like [Pyrokinesis]. If anything, raiding the dungeon had at least done well in advancing his Skills. Which was, once again, welcome.

Having let his power pool regenerate sufficiently, he manifested [Ectoplasmic Shambler] again, setting it at the egress point of the building. Then he sent two more in, one after the other. He wasn’t completely sure, but he thought that they were doing more damage than he recalled of the description of the power from his gaming days. And, yet again, he was glad for it.

Once the shamblers were inside, he quickly made his way up to the maw-like entrance. It looked as though it had been the doorway into the large building at some point, but not only had the doors long disintegrated, it looked as though things had been chipping away at its edges, leaving jagged stone behind.

The whole building, what remained of it, was built of the moss stone that Celys was so fond of. Given how hard the stuff was, he wondered how long it would have taken for something to do that kind of damage to it.

Then he was up against the wall, just a half metre from the opening, and listening. The shamblers seemed to have pushed the goblins back, and even killed more if the new notifications were any indication. Then he took a few breaths before storming around the corner as a new notification popped up front and centre.

Welcome to the Dungeon: Goblin Home

Details:

- Minimum recommended level: 24

- Minimum recommended participants: 8

- State: Overflow

- Rewards: Highest

Huh, that doesn’t look good…

*Warning*

Entering a dungeon as a Pathless is almost always lethal.

Please leave the dungeon before you expire.

And that’s even worse, he thought as he quickly got rid of the notifications and took cover behind his shamblers. Then he noticed a very video game-like HUD overlaying his vision.

‘Are you kidding me?’ he asked Avi, feeling an even greater sense of unease.

‘What’s wrong?’ she asked as she looked around, occasionally shooting something that she could see with his shoulder canon.

‘Can you not see the HUD that appeared for me?’ he asked, using [Telekinesis] to toss a hob who’d made its way through the shamblers back into the thick of it.

‘I cannot,’ she replied, sounding both curious and concerned.

He didn’t bother explaining further as he called six of his tentacle models into the building to handle any more escapees. He then set the other five to guard the entrance from goblins in case he’d missed any on the way in.

Nodding to himself, he started following his ectoplasmic vanguard, sniping goblins with fire and dagger as he was able to.

* * *

“Uh, are you sure those are… safe?” Reldan asked, looking at the huge, silvery creatures with altogether too many tentacles as they stood in front of what had to be the entrance of the dungeon.

“Joram makes them, so it should be fine,” Myra said, not sounding half as confident as she’d have liked.

“Who wants to test out that theory?” Theril asked, looking as though he already knew that he’d be voluntold to do so.

“Just go,” Asami said, giving him a little push, making the man look as though he’d been sent to hold the south gate all by himself.

Shield up, he edged forward slowly. When he was close enough that she was sure that the tentacle monster could reach out and snatch him up, nothing happened. He stepped a bit closer, still on edge and trying to keep track of its dozen or more tentacles.

After a few more seconds of nothing happening, he relaxed a bit, his shield lowering as he turned slightly to address them. Then a tentacle shot forward, passing him so closely that it brushed his leather armour. Everyone’s eyes widened when the tentacle latched onto a goblin that they’d missed sneaking up on Theril.

What was worse was what happened next.

Myra averted her eyes as she tried not to gag, the sight already burned into her mind. Steeling herself, the turned to see if the tentacle monster had become hostile towards them and was stunned to see that the blood and gore had vanished as though it had never been.

“Was that an [Illusion]?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.

“No,” Asami replied, then stepped forward, walking past the tentacle monster without it so much as swaying in her direction.

Thus encouraged, the rest of them followed Asami, but then they all stopped just inside of the wall, staring in shock.

“It’s in Overflow,” Theril said, sounding as though he’d already known.

“We don’t come anywhere near the level requirement,” Reldan stated, then brought up the second notification from the Great Protector. “Our chances of survival are very low,” he finished, his lightly tanned shin turning a few shades lighter.

Myra was also shocked, and more than a little disturbed. How was she going to be able to help Joram now? Was she really so weak? Would she never be able to fully stand on her own? She still lived with her parents. She hadn’t even been able to do much when they’d been attacked at Joram’s, nor during any of the other attacks that had come to Kirkwall.

Even in yesterday’s attack she’d been held back and kept safe, only able to throw off a few [Fireball]s in between healing people. And while she was healing people, she could only watch as Joram had fought on the wall.

Doing something to end the casualties.

To protect them all, to protect a village of strangers.

She wanted that. She wanted to be able to protect those she cared for. She wanted to be strong enough to stand and fight.

“You all should wait outside,” Asami said as she continued to stare into the depths of the dungeon.

Myra wanted to argue, but saw that Theril and Reldan were both nodding. What?

“No, I’m going,” she said, shaking her head as her jaw set stubbornly.

“No, you’ll die,” Theril said, shaking his head. “Even I don’t have the confidence to survive in there, even if Joram has managed to kill most of the denizens already,” he said as he gave her an intense look.

“We might be more useful staying out there helping to keep any goblins from coming in,” Reldan said, looking back outside at the tentacle monster, putting the lie to his words.

“Go,” Asami said, still not looking at her. “Joram would be sad if you died.”

Myra’s chest filled with both fire and pain at that thought. Pain because the thought of causing Joram any anguish really did cause her pain. Fire…. Fire for the thought that she mattered to Joram. But even more than that, fire at the thought of being so useless that her only recourse was to leave and wait outside.

Chest burning, she stepped forward, jaw set.

“I’m going,” she said, then kept on stepping forward, one foot at a time.

Asami simply kept pace with her, the two women walking side-by-side as Theril and Reldan watched, dumbfounded.

“Is that what love does to a woman?” Reldan asked, at a complete loss for what to even think.

“That’s nothing,” Theril said, snorting out a laugh. “Wait until you’ve tracked muck onto her newly washed floor,” he said, then shuddered.

* * *

‘Is that an actual troll?’ he asked Avi as he watched a massive gangly green humanoid attack his tentacle models with little regard for its own safety.

‘It appears to be the case,’ Avi said as they watched it rapidly regrow a torn-off arm.

They’d gone down three levels already, clearing out everything they came across. The first sublevel had contained more [Hobgoblin Elite]s, making it both a danger and a pain to get through. The next sublevel had been a combination of those elites and [High Shaman]s. He’d needed to recreate the shamblers a few times for them, mostly to block their line of sight. Otherwise, he was sure that he’d have already been roasted and eaten.

And now they faced [Enraged Troll]s. This wasn’t the first one, though. But their forms changed enough that he had needed to [Analyse] each one they came across. They had ranged from what he now saw in front of him to looking like living roots to stone-skinned things. One had even looked like a damn bloater from that fungus-zombie videogame he’d loved playing.

But for each one the answer had been fire. So, while using [Clear Mind], he called upon his [Pyrokinesis] again and focussed on the troll. He once again tried to incorporate what he knew of [Heat Death], infusing the troll with heat and fire. Trying to get its very blood to boil in its veins.

Then he felt something… click at the same time another notification pulsed in the corner of his vision. And the troll began to howl shortly before steam, then fire erupted from its skin. He instructed the construct to toss the troll away as he kept his focus on the troll, keeping the fire going until it was a burnt-out husk.

Then he turned back to where they’d been heading and set his jaw. He didn’t know how much farther he could go alone. Already he’d need to remake his tentacle models three times on this floor, redesignating them as his [Astral Ally]s each time. He was getting tired. The mental strain of constantly directing his constructs, using various powers to kill and renew buffs, not to mention using [Telekinesis], and [Pyrokinesis] to help take down the various enemies he’d run across.

If the next floor wasn’t the last one, he would need to find a way to rest for a few hours before continuing on. Perhaps he could try [Psychoportive Shelter], but he hadn’t much studied Psychoportation yet. But since it was a low-level power, he had hopes that he could use it quickly.

After looking around a bit more, and having his astral constructs loot every corpse they’d left behind, he made his way to the stairway in the distance, thinking. If they’d already seen the elite hobs and the [High Shaman]s, then the next wave would likely have trolls in it. Which would spell doom for Kirkwall.

Clenching his jaw, he sent the shamblers down first, closely followed by the tentacle models. He was hot on their heels, though, as he was now even more anxious to get the dungeon cleared and destroyed. But he still didn’t know how to do that, making him metaphorically kick himself for not asking about it before he’d hared off half-cocked.

He was only halfway down when he felt his first shamble engage in combat, then frowned when it vanished. Then the second shamble started, then soon vanished as well. When the third one also vanished shortly after engaging, Joram commanded the tentacle models to halt.

‘Geeves, sneak up and have a look, would you,’ he sent to his psicrystal, then watched as it hopped off his other shoulder, scuttle up a wall, then along the ceiling.

‘I hope that none of your girlfriends are arachnophobes,’ Avi said, shaking her head.

Choosing to ignore that comment, he waited for Geeves to report.

‘Master, this might be a problem,’ Geeves sent, sounding for all the world that everything was all right and proper in the world.

Frowning, he began sneaking up as best he could while in a broad stairwell. A few seconds later, he saw the problem.

It looked very similar to his shamblers, though more of a nightmarish version. This thing looked like a living fog with faces that came in and out of focus along every part of its… body? Surface area, for sure. Then there were the multitude of maws. They sometimes appeared with the faces, distorting them to the point where those faces would turn into the unholy union of Pac-Man and a shark. Rows and rows of sharklike teeth lined each and every maw. But most of those maws formed independently of the faces.

As he crept closer, he noticed that it would slide to and fro, as though tasting the air for food as it left a layer of frost anywhere it passed. Upon further inspection, there seemed to be a radius around it that was affected by its… frosty aura, he’d call it.

‘That’s an Ethereal Haunt,’ Avi said, sounding annoyed. ‘They are only found on the Ethereal Plane; so, what is it doing here?’ she asked, raising a very good point.