The midday sun was high overhead as we approached The Plains of Eidolon. We hiked down the familiar path alongside the Ancestral River of Purity and passed through the space where the blue over-shield covering my land should have been. It was, however, nowhere to be seen. Jasmine, on the other hand, was very visible standing there awaiting our return near the river’s edge. Normally on these types of excursions she’d probably have gone with a small group of her most trusted guards, but today she was alone. I imagined the arguments some unlucky subordinate likely made in favor of her having guards with her at all times, and then I imagined the death stare he probably received before remembering he had urgent business elsewhere.
“Hey, gorgeous!” I called out, waving. She turned to us and gave a small wave in return. Her face was slightly troubled as we approached, something she tried to hide beneath a big smile. Jasmine didn’t fail at many things, but she was unable to keep the worry from showing in her eyes. Shrek approached her first and held out his hand to greet her as a fellow warrior – a gesture she promptly ignored in favor of pulling him into a tight hug.
“You’ve grown,” she said, looking him over as the two of them separated from one another. “Just look at you. Ten whole levels from a single dungeon! Ah, to be young again. It must be nice to progress so quickly.”
“It really is,” Juniper said as she took her turn greeting Jasmine with a light embrace.
“She would know better than any of us,” I said from the peanut gallery.
“Don’t be jealous, dear. It doesn’t suit you,” Jasmine admonished as she stepped away from Juniper in my direction.
“It definitely does,” Juniper said.
“Absolutely,” Shrek chimed in. Even I couldn’t really deny it.
“Yeah,” I said, after a quick peck on the lips that elicited a grimace from Shrek. “But it’s part of my charm.”
Jasmine smiled at that before her grin turned teasing.
“Is the new look part of this supposed charm, also?”
“You like it?” I asked, giving a little spin to show off my new equipment.
“The clothes are very stylish dear…but where are your eyebrows?”
“My…what, now?” I felt my face and, sure enough, I was bald where my eyebrows had been. I suddenly recalled the stoat’s little fireball exhibition while we were all showing off our rewards for clearing the dungeon. I slowly turned to look at Shrek and Juniper who couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out at the same time, doubling over and nearly hyperventilating from laughter while clinging to each other for support.
“I swear to god I will get you two for this.”
Jasmine, full of amusement at the situation, led us down to the river where she had lunch waiting for us. She’d set up a small picnic area with boar meat sandwiches and various fruits. As we ate, we filled her in on the events of the dungeon. Her eyes became even more troubled when Shrek told her about the revenant gauntlet he’d endured, but they softened when he told her how I’d used a Supreme rarity healing potion to bring him back from the brink of death. After appropriately chastising Shrek for not allowing his teammates to help him in a fight of that scale, she turned to me and promised to repay me for the expensive item her son had cost me. I assured her I didn’t need money for helping a party member survive, and she assured me that she wasn’t talking about money. Shrek decided it was a good time to go find a tree to hydrate. The stoat, smelling the presence of tasty treats, decided it was a good time to pop out of my jacket.
“Oh?” Jasmine said, “I was wondering if your new pet was going to make an appearance.”
I plucked the stoat out of my jacket and held it out for Jasmine to inspect, and vice versa.
“I wouldn’t really call it a pet,” I said. “It’s more of an actual party member. Also, we don’t really know if it’s male or female. The System didn’t specify, even when I used Threat Assessment on it.”
“I see. The way you three went on about its power, I thought it would be bigger. I never imagined it would be so small that it could fit in the palm of your hand.”
“That’s what she said.”
“Who?”
“It doesn’t matter.” I said, setting the stoat down on the picnic blanket so it could pick out a piece of fruit for itself. It chose my sandwich instead. “Anyway, have we missed much since we’ve been gone?”
“About that,” she said. “Have you gotten any notifications today? You should probably have a look. I know you have a tendency to ignore important information, but it’s time you outgrow that particular habit, I’m afraid.”
I raised an eyebrow at her and pulled up my UI. I did indeed have some notifications, but one stood out above all others:
That sounded legitimately awful. I couldn’t imagine a scenario in which I would want to sap my friends’ and allies’ health to feed an ability that basically amounted to surrounding myself with bubble wrap. Also, what was this about me having over 200 points in Influence? I did a quick check of my stat sheet, and I did indeed have exactly 212 points there. I cross referenced that with my property stats and found that my little Homestead had grown to a population of 210. When had that happened?
“I had to reposition some more of my subordinates from Slagfall to the outpost. We’re more or less at capacity, now,” Jasmine explained. “I didn’t want to, you understand, but circumstances have arisen that necessitated the move.”
“It’s fine, I guess. It’s your outpost and your people, so it’s none of my business, really. It’s unlocked a weird ability that I’ll likely never use, but I mean…it’s not that hard to ignore one ability. Look how often I ignore system notifications. I’m basically an expert.”
“This is serious, Rocky. The circumstances I spoke of concern not just you, me and my outpost. It effects the entirety of the region and perhaps beyond, including the Eidolon.”
Juniper perked up at the mention of the Eidolon. She had been getting the latest gossip from a rather talkative bumble bee until she’d heard that there might be an issue that impacted the entire region, including her people.
“Alright, lay it on me,” I said.
Jasmine told me the entire story of Brakk Furyborn. She told me about his instant infatuation with her and how he’d harbored that obsession for decades. She told me how he bided his time after her previous husband died, waiting for just the right moment to act – and how he had recently shown up to one of her council meetings bearing the head of an undead pachyderm wizard as a courtship token. Then, she slowed down to make sure that I understood exactly what Brakk had said as he left the meeting. He swore a blood oath to end my life, believing that to be the only way to restore the honor of both Jasmine and Slagfall itself. The worst part, however, was when she explained to me that the shields that had surrounded my safezone were gone, permanently. They had a grace period of a few days once the land upgraded, and that time had passed while we were in the dungeon.
“Well, shit,” I said, dumbly. I had terrible luck with orc males, it seemed. First Shrek and now this new guy. The difference, of course, was that at least Shrek sort of came around in the end and while we might not be best buddies, he at least acknowledged me as an ally. Brakk was a zealot, from the sound of things. He was a true believer in the orcish way, in his own abilities, and in the fact that Jasmine was truly destined to be his. When it was another orc warrior who stood in his way, he could at least stomach the indignity. A lowly human being the barrier, however, that he simply could not abide. Never mind the fact that Jasmine herself had made it very clear that she had no interest in the man – that part Brakk likely saw as part of the conquest. But me, I was a pest. An obstacle to obliterate before his courtship could continue.
“I am sorry to have brought you so much trouble,” Jasmine said, a bit sadly. “I wish I could do more to protect you from him, but we are still firmly in the wake of the fallout from the clan wars. He is one of the leaders of his clan. If I move against him, it could cause the fragile alliance we’ve built to crumble completely.”
More wars that were above my paygrade that kept my strongest allies from helping me to fight on their behalf. First, I signed up for a holy war without knowing any of the major players aside from the god who’d conscripted me. And now this…creating enemies of men I had never met because I accidentally married the woman they had their heart set on for longer than I’d been alive. I was beginning to regret letting The System talk me into taking the Infiltrator role. It felt very targeted. Very intentional. Like I’d been set on a path with the illusion of having chosen it myself, but then I remembered the words I’d said to The System right before I died. The words I repeated to Shrek the day we met. No. There was no denying it. As much as I would love to blame The System or Seredh, I’d brought this on myself. They just herded me down the path I was already walking.
“What is Brakk’s level?” Juniper asked.
“He is currently at level 74, but he will likely broach 75 before the year is through,” Jasmine said, never taking her eyes off me. She watched as I did the mental arithmetic. How quickly could I gain levels to be able to contend with this new threat? Right now, he’d squash me like a drain fly. There was clearly no way I’d be able to catch up to his level, but where did the real levelling grind begin and how badly did it slow down your progression? I decided to ask these things aloud to Jasmine instead of just guess at them.
“It depends, but on average, you start to slow down right around level twenty. Not dramatically, mind you. It’s a gradual slope until you hit fifty. Then it starts to take a fairly dramatic dip every ten levels you gain. If you did a dungeon every week, you would likely reach level 50 in a decent amount of time. Maybe half a year, give or take. The problem is that your first dungeon likely gives you far more experience than any other, unless you enter one that’s far above your level.”
“I guess I have my work cut out for me,” I said, quietly.
“Us,” Juniper said.
“What?”
“WE have our work cut out for US. You don’t really think I’m letting my best friend fight some over-leveled hot head by himself, do you?”
“Juniper,” I started, but was cut off by a series of tiny squeaks. The stoat put down the piece of boar meat it had been eating and climbed up to my shoulder. Jasmine smiled.
“It’s bad enough having you and the matriarch acting like lovesick puppies all the time,” a deep voice called from behind us.
“I will not allow some obsessed lesser-clansman to try to stake a claim on my mother, as well. We will fight him together.”
I went to protest but instead watched as Juniper walked over to Shrek and stood beside him…followed quickly by the stoat who, to my astonishment, scampered up Shrek’s body and perched upon the top of his head. They stood there defiantly, almost daring me to deny them. Jasmine walked over to stand behind them. A full head taller than Shrek and completely dwarfing Juniper, she put a hand on her son’s shoulder and another on Juniper’s.
“It looks as though you’ve accidentally managed to put together a loyal party here, dear one.”
Not going to lie – I was a little choked up. So I did the only thing I could think to do: I reached down, sniffled, picked up what was left of my sandwich and took a bite. For the remainder of lunch, we opted to forgo any further discussion of Brakk Furyborn. I suspect that, were he within earshot, that would have likely infuriated him. That felt like a small win in and of itself.