POV: Elly

I look up from the notes about classes and skills Karen gave me to read, "Do you have any idea how much trouble we'll be in if I tell you that, Karen?"

The bunny girl folds her hands above her head and pleads, "Pretty please? I won't tell a soul, promise!"

I sigh, "What will you even do with the secret of how I linked myself to a spirit body?"

She looks at me incredulously, "Huh? What would I do with it? Dunno, I'm a researcher, my main goal is to attain new knowledge. Figuring out what to do with that knowledge comes second."

"Karen, just researching for knowledge's sake is a luxury we don't have!"

She twiddles her thumbs, "I guess I could figure out some use for it but nothing comes to mind currently."

"Goddamnit... Please think of a very good use for that before asking that again. We'll be in very serious trouble if the wrong people find out that this secret was leaked and in even much bigger trouble if it falls into the wrong hands. Sorry, but we only know each other for three days now and I appreciate that you let us copy your research notes for classes and skills but I'm not willing to trust strangers with secrets of that level. Not that you could even use it. You would need a genuine AI that is used in World Navigator, without that it is useless."

She hangs her head, "Fine... Anyway, did you find what you were looking for?"

I shake my head, "No, not really. I didn't find any new skills for Jared to strengthen his summoning skills or anything else of major interest. And pretty much as expected there was nothing about familiars at all."

She tips her chin, "Yeah, why would we have anything on that? Vampires were never our allies before, lords are rare and certainly not in a mood for an interview."

"Yeah, I can see that... Well, it's getting late and tomorrow is again time for a dungeon crawl. I'll head back, so see you tomorrow."

Karen agrees, "Yeah, no problem. And don't worry about keeping the spirit trick secret. You've already helped us plenty with the formula for stat requirements, the rundown of vampire abilities and the cheesecake recipe."

"Yeah, yeah. Just when anyone asks you don't have that from me", I stash away the documents and leave. We wave to each other goodbye.

I'm finally back home.

I've slept the last couple of days in a plain tent down in that underground area, I want a proper bed again. But first...

Jared is in his office alone, it seems Lucia is busy elsewhere.

"Hey, I'm back."

Jared looks up, he was looking at a map, "Hey, Elly, learned anything worthwhile from your time with Karen?"

"No, not really. I can tell you what a few of your unknown level 15 skills will be but not much more. Where's Lucia?"

He leans in, "You don't have to worry about her today, she's out with Iris visiting the orphanage."

I sigh, "I hope she doesn't see it as dinner..."

"Funny", he sighs, "I know you're suspicious of her. Admittedly I don't fully trust her either, she was transformed into a vampire after all, and her skill only said that it prevents further change but not that it undoes any, and who knows what damage was already done by the time she got it. But... I still can't imagine her doing anything that would cause us harm."

"I understand you but..."

Jared scoffs, "What, are you afraid she's planning world domination or something? Elly, we both know that her goal is to get back at the church for denying her freedom and self all those years. I can't fault her for that, and as long as she doesn't go overboard and mostly keeps it to those that are actually at fault I'll support her."

I slam my fists on the table, "But what if she really is up to something like that!?"

He grabs my hand, "And would that really be so bad? The fortresses clearly work much when they are ruled over by a lord, so uniting all remains of mankind under us would certainly not be for the worst for everyone. If Justo was right about the potential teleportation between fortresses owned by the same lord, this would make defending against the flood easier, we could move elite units to whatever area is under the most pressure at a given moment. Especially with those Glitch Zones around, any form of stability should just be welcome, we can't afford to lose a single fortress connected to a major dungeon. Just consider, the deva even gave me explicit permission to rule the world as long as we don't join forces with the demons. But until I know what really is going on, I won't even really rule out that option."

I can't believe what he says, "Jared..."

He continues, "Let's just hope we'll never have to make that choice, Elly. I'm not really looking forward to that possibility either, but considering the shady stuff I've witnessed about the devas, it is very unlikely to be a simple black and white situation. Or can you explain to me why 'demons' are supposedly the ultimate evil but reincarnating as a demon lord was even a sanctioned option and obtaining the demon lord title is a-ok? No, of course not, it doesn't add up. So I'll say saving my new home and family should simply have priority over some ideological bullshit I don't care about."

"I can't really refute that, I don't know what's really going on either... Please promise me that we won't side with the demons. I don't want to go against what remains of my family."

Jared asks, "But throwing our hats in with the lich is okay?"

"Probably not, what can we do about that?"

He smirks, "I might have an idea how to deal with that. But anyway, what did you find out about classes? Anything to look forward to or do we just stick to the original plan?"

"If you're that unconcerned about it...", I sigh, "So Summoner will get [Elite Summoning] as I guessed, that's this skill."

Jared nods, "Yeah, you guessed that without much proof, could've still been anything else."

"Yeah, I may have taken that for granted. Anyway, that means we need one class for you to get the most out of your whole spirit-slash-familiar link. Well, the next thing I learned is that Lore Seeker will get [Magic Sense]."

Jared reads the description thoroughly, "Guess I shouldn't be using that around Basluth then. But since technically everyone can use rank zero magic wouldn't it also work as a people radar?"

"Maybe, but I think it would only count if they can actually use it. For example, Geoffrey doesn't have the MP so he'd probably go under the radar."

He answers, "I guess that makes sense. So what else do you have?"

"Well, we already know what Survivor and Dread Lord will have and that leaves Blood Mage, there was no info on that. So that was already everything on that front."

Jared responds, "Got it. So no need to change our plans there. Bring all main classes to level 9, then Vampire Lord to 10 for the familiar count, and after that Summoner to level 15."

I nod, "Yeah, no objections there. Did you bring Dread Lord to level 5 in the days I was around Karen? Did that work out?"

He shakes his head, "Not yet. I was considering putting it off until the contamination is cleared to prevent the skill from getting messed up. I think [Life Eater Armor] is too important to risk that."

"I understand that worry. Well, I'm not aware of the details but I can tell you that all skills of a given class get already added when you obtain the class, they are just hidden or disabled until you reach the relevant class level. So it really doesn't matter when you bring Dread Lord to level 5, if the accident did anything to the skill it is already messed up, you would just get disappointed later."

Jared grabs his forehead, "Is that so? Then I might as well get it over with. ...shit."

"Don't tell me..."

He frowns, "Then I won't."

Instead, he shows me the description.

No more split damage, but at least the general retaliation is still there, and the fire affinity, too.

"Could've been worse. If you ask me, for keeping us alive this is even better than it was. Before you would've gotten healed for 15% of your FTH at best, or maybe a bit more if the attacker is weak to fire or dark. Now you get 25% instead. Add your [Supernatural Toughness] to heal back about a quarter of the taken damage over 2 minutes and you're way on track to becoming a glass wall! ...but do I even want to know if the second affinity gave you new magic skills?"

Jared shakes his nod, "No, you don't, but I looked anyway."

Of course, he got it...

"Promise me, you won't even think about using that one, it just screams that it'll kill us all..."

Jared frowns, "You don't have to tell me that. Really if shit continues at this rate my status will look like Jack's in about a year..."

"Can I call you 'Lord of Glitches' when you get your divine class from the lich?"

He collapses on the table and sighs, "Don't jinx it, Elly. I didn't sell my soul to the devas just to end up as a division by zero error..."

"Wouldn't you need to sell it to the devil to get screwed over like that?"

He scoffs, "Devil, deva, where's the difference? I'm just a meaningless statistic either way."

He buries his face in the map.

"Maybe to take your mind off that, what were you checking on the map when I interrupted you earlier?"

Jared looks up again, "Huh? Oh, I was just thinking about where we go first once the flood ends."

I look over the crudely drawn map, "Doesn't that still have time? I thought the flood lasts a couple more months."

He explains, "Yes, but we need to prepare troops, supplies and carriages at least. And depending on what we'll have available that changes where or how far we can go. If the map is up to date enough, the south has only one fortress with a major dungeon, three fortresses with minor dungeons and aside from that just villages or outposts. The major fortress is too far away to safely reach with what we have available. We could reach only one of the minor fortresses and grab a couple of villages on the way. According to Karen's notes, when they last had contact with the closest fortress, it still had a lord, so this kinda moves it down in the priority list, and truth be told, the villages hold no value for us, at most we could evacuate any survivors and have them settle down either here or in another fortress."

"Yeah, especially with those Glitch Zones around, we need to secure more fortresses, either by forging an alliance with a different lord or taking over the place if it is unoccupied. In the latter case, we can find out if Justo's theory about teleportation gates between fortresses owned by the same lord holds water."

Jared nods, "Exactly. Though we could bypass that once I have flight capabilities, enough resources to reach the next safe spot, and of course massive sunlight resistance."

"Considering how the forms of flight you could obtain burn about a thousand MP and SP per minute, this is a distant dream."

He frowns, "I know. But since an increase in skill level slowly reduces its cost it might be worth taking two or three classes with the same flight skill."

"I guess, though that is also a question for the far future. Currently, you can only add one more elite class, need at least 50 levels in elite classes to change that. And by that point, we'll probably have a set of new problems."

He grins, "Yeah, you're probably right about that."

Point for me!

Jared points to some spots on the map, "Anyway, north would be the better direction if we can spare the troops and supplies. There're fewer villages and outposts around but we should be able to reach two fortresses, though the closer one of them is already further away than the one in the south. If we're short on resources we'd have to settle for the visit to the single fortress in the south over reaching two in the north."

I point to the big square far in the north of the continent, "And what's that?"

He answers, "Supposedly some kind of capital or main fortress, the royal family ruling over this continent should live there. Well, it is too far away so no one here had contact with them in forever. For all that is known, it could have fallen and the Glitch Zone under it is growing unimpeded."

"What I want to know, is if Justo's theory about teleportation between fortresses with the same rules is correct then why doesn't this king own all of the fortresses? That would just be a one-time effort and then it's done."

Jared shrugs, "No clue. Maybe they did at one point but then the succession went wrong. Add some laziness, self-preservation and the very short lifespan of people around here and they just didn't bother anymore. Or rather, who says that the king can even own the fortresses? Maybe it HAS to be a regular lord. And really, since when are nobles willing to hand over their territory?"

"It sounds stupid and human... so I'm inclined to believe that version."

I scan the map some more, with all those mountains and forests around we're kinda funneled to a fortress right in the middle.

I point to the area in the middle of the map, "I don't have a good feeling about this area. The two vampires you offed hinted at a different Vampire Noble having taken over a fortress. Considering the distance, one of the three central ones should be the most likely candidate for their beloved 'Bloodhausen'."

He rubs his chin, "Yeah, but if we want to make sure the Glitch Zones are secure we don't have a choice but to investigate. In the unlikely case that the noble submits to me as I'm technically higher ranked, we can off him quietly when his guard is down. But realistically we would just skip the place until we can deal with them. In the worst - and honestly more likely - case, Bloodhausen is the one in the exact middle which would cut us off from the upper half of the map for a while."

I sigh, "Let's just hope this year was a fluke in how long the monster flood lasts. If we don't only get to make this little progress each year, we'll need a decade just to unite this continent. Forget about even searching for the demon artifact which could be anywhere on this doomed planet."

Jared adds, "And that is even assuming the teleport option is real. Anyway, we need to take this step by step and see where it leads us. Maybe if we're lucky the artifact malfunctions tomorrow and the whole story bubble thing breaks apart. Well, that can wait, let's get our minds off of things in the dungeon tomorrow, right, Elly?"

"Yeah, let's do that. Any other changes I should dread for tomorrow?"

He pauses for a moment, "Uh, Chloe told me that Ephran finally asked her out. She accepted. That is about all."

I snicker, "Huh, so he finally found his courage."

He thinks for a moment, "Yeah, but it was a bit strange. When Chloe told me about it, I got the impression she would've rather rebuffed him but she gave him a chance anyway. When I asked her about it she pretended to not know what I'm talking about."

"I guess now you're overthinking something."

He agrees, "Yeah, possibly. Anyway, I've not yet accepted Ephran as a familiar, I first want to see how they work out. If that means he underperforms for a while, then so be it. Still better than taking on even more trouble through another non-functional relationship."

"If you say so, Jared", I yawn, "Now if you excuse me, my bed is calling."

"Sure thing. See you tomorrow", we fistbump and then I go off to bed.

3QGN73

Originally, I wanted to make the third Lore Seeker skill Levitation but considering what we've seen of the physics this would've been basically flight on a base class. Just grab a chair, sit on it and then float it around to where you want to go.

If you want to torture your eyes, here is a crude drawing of the continent's map.

Spoiler

And yes, I left in which fortress will be our problem child. Any other location just wouldn't suffice.

[collapse]

Anyway, after all those info drops lately, we're due now for a nice, relaxed set of dungeon-crawling chapters where totally nothing dramatic will happen, no sire.