DD1 ASC - Chapter 18 - Return

*Congratulations, you have reached level 5. You must now rank up your Sorcerer class before you can absorb any more experience.

Sorcerer - You possess a potent magical bloodline, and as a result, you are given the option of strengthening your natural talent with mana.

+1 Vit, +1 Int, +1 Will, +1 Cha, +3 Free Stats at each interval, mage tagged.

Will become...

Mind Mage - You have proven your skills at mental domination, forcing a creature to act outside of its nature. As a result, you are given the option of further strengthening your mental manipulation spells.

+1 Vit, +1 Int, +2 Will, +2 Cha, +3 Free Stats at each interval, mage tagged.

Runic Sorcerer - You have displayed excellent knowledge and understanding of the runes that underpin Creation. As a result, you are given the option of further strengthening your natural talent with runes.

+1 Vit, +3 Int, +1 Will, +1 Cha, + 3 Free Stats at each interval, mage tagged.

Warcaster - You have proven to be highly skilled at bestowing great destruction with arcane magics. As a result, you are given the option of further strengthening your offensive spells.

+2 Vit, +2 Int, +1 Will, +1 Cha, +3 Free Stats at each interval, mage tagged.

As he made the mental decision to rank up the Great System’s words poured into his head with an abruptness that he hadn’t truly felt since he had taken his class from the dungeon core. He had finally reached the first branching point for his mage class, and it was time for him to take a tangible step forwards in guiding its growth into something more complementary to his primary species class. Rather than the dozens of options he had before, or the complete lack of them when it came to his species class, now he had three rank ups to choose from, each one leading him on a very different path to personal power.

Classes were so misunderstood by humans that they seemed to believe on some fundamental level that the Great System could be gamed to select the best option, but he knew better. Taking a class was like opening up a part of your soul to a living, breathing bit of magic that grew with you, the class influencing your attitude and disposition with just as much efficacy that you could alter its growth at every new rank. Warriors felt the need to fight things, mages to cast magic and healers to heal the injured. It was simple enough to understand but hard to really appreciate how profoundly subtle the changes could be, and while his primary dragon class would lessen the effects of his mage class on his psyche, at the end of the day, he was still being asked to choose how he wanted to change by the Great System.

His choices essentially boiled down to the manipulator, the scholar or the warrior.

Despite the allure of its power, following the path of a mind mage wasn’t something that Typhoeus was particularly interested in. While mind magic certainly was powerful, it wasn’t a branch of spellcraft that he was particularly comfortable using, even on bestial creatures like the spidersnake. It would doubtlessly help preserve his disguise. Perhaps even allowing him to paper over the mistakes that he had already made, but overriding the agency of others was something that he knew to be fundamentally wrong, regardless of how easy it would make his life.

The runic sorcerer class was an interesting option, and while it certainly had potential, as a sovereign dragon, his inherited memories had already granted him more runic knowledge than most species could ever dream of. While there was always the possibility that he could receive a powerful skill that would improve his ability to exploit his runic knowledge, he disliked the scholarly bent that he was getting from the class. Already his runt trait forced Typhoeus to be more intellectual than he would necessarily like, and he was worried that it would lead his class away from the combat orientated skills he fundamentally needed to survive.

Which left him with warcaster. Just from feeling it out, he could already tell that it was a niche, ugly little class. It lacked all of the potential for artistry and discovery that runic sorcerer promised, but in his experience, violence was usually an ugly thing. He was under no illusions about his place in Creation. As a runt, he was not welcome amongst his own kind, and humans would never see him as anything other than a trophy to hunt, or worse, a reusable incubator for them to carve valuable magical reagents out of.

In many ways, warcaster was a perfect fit, an ugly little class for an ugly little dragon, both of whom were destined for a life of violence regardless of their best intentions. He made the decision, relishing in the euphoric sensation of his increasing stats, the new points from his ranked up class applying retroactively to his status and body.

Name: Typhoeus

Species: Sovereign Dragon (True)

Age: 54

HP: 4820/4820

SP: 4820/4820

MP: 5080/5080

Strength: 120

Dexterity: 80

Vitality: 84

Intelligence: 124

Willpower: 122

Charisma: 82

Free Points: 3

Class: Young Adult Sovereign Dragon - Level 199*

Alternate Form - Level 38

Sovereign's Arcana - Level 192

Sovereign's Aura - Level 194

Sovereign's Body - Level 199

Sovereign's Breath - Level 186

Sovereign's Perception - Level 176

Class: Warcaster - Level 5

Sorcerers Reservoir - Level 4

Sorcerous Empowerment - Level 4

Unassigned ability x1

Traits: Runt

He split the 3 free points between vitality and willpower, bringing the former to a more round 85 and raising the latter to match his intelligence at 124. Satisfied with his new numbers, he chose another skill for his newly ranked up class.

*You have one unassigned class skill.

Choose once from the listed abilities below…

Warcaster’s Abjuration - This skill improves your effective intelligence by this skill’s level for determining the efficacy for all of your personal protective spells and created wards.

Warcaster’s Evocation - This skill improves your effective intelligence by this skill’s level for determining the efficacy of direct damage from your spells.

Warcaster’s Recovery - This skill improves your effective willpower by this skill’s level for determining the rate of your mana regeneration.

All three abilities were powerful enhancements to his magical strength, each one capped only by their skill level. Typhoeus wanted them all, but alas, he could only choose one. Of the three, [Warcaster’s Evocation] spoke most to his deeper desires for more offensive potential but it was largely redundant with [Sorcerous Empowerment], a skill that he had yet to rank up and improve to meet the new tier of his mage class. [Warcaster’s Recovery] was tempting, but he had other needs that were much more pressing than another increase to his already obscene mana regeneration. So after much anguishing, he chose [Warcaster’s Abjuration], finally gifting himself with a defensive ability that would remain active in his [Alternate Form].

He checked his false status one last time and opened his eyes.

Name: Typh

Species: Human

Age: 18

HP: 380/380

SP: 380/380

MP: 5080/5080

Strength: 38

Dexterity: 38

Vitality: 38

Intelligence: 124

Willpower: 124

Charisma: 82

Class: Warcaster - Level 5

Sorcerers Reservoir - Level 4

Sorcerous Empowerment - Level 4

Warcaster’s Abjuration - Level 1

Typhoeus turned to face Arilla, who seemed eager to divulge the changes to her class. "So what did you get?" she asked, practically vibrating with energy.

"Warcaster, an offensive mage class and a skill that empowers my defensive spells. You?" Typhoeus said.

"Sworn sword. It’s an oathbound melee warrior class, and I chose a skill that grants a conditional empowerment to, well, everything really!" Arilla said, beaming with delight.

"How does that work?" Typhoeus asked carefully, concerned by the use of her word ‘conditional’.

"I need to test it, but I think it increases all my stats by my charisma so long as I'm explicitly in good standing with whoever I swear my oath to," Arilla said.

Typhoeus frowned. He knew about those sorts of abilities; they were undeniably strong but very exploitable by whoever held the oath. A week ago, he would be trying to worm his way into getting her to swear fealty to him, but now the very idea of it made him uneasy.

"I thought you were going to pick a defensive skill?" Typhoeus said, still frowning.

"I was going to, but the only one I could pick involved intercepting HP damage for my oath bearer,” she said, looking disappointed. "Don’t look at me like that. It's not all bad, I'm sure [Warriors Strength] will rank up into something defensive."

"It might, it might not, it might also give you a much better offensive option that you can't take now without putting your life at great risk until your next skill at 20," Typhoeus said disapprovingly. He paused, realising that he was perhaps being a bit harsh. Her build was hardly broken, but it was definitely leaning a bit too heavily towards offence for his liking.

"You realise that whoever you swear your oath to will have a lot of control over you for the rest of your life,” he said. "You'll struggle to raise your abilities without their explicit consent, and if they ever turn on you, you'll be defending yourself with both your hands tied behind your back."

"I get it. Any other words of wisdom?" she asked, sounding annoyingly carefree.

"Yes, pick the most powerful person you trust; their classes will likely impact the options you get at 20,” he said.

They stared at each other in silence for several long moments.

"We both know that I'm picking you," Arilla said, matter of factly not breaking their eye contact.

"Yes, but I feel the need to remind you that I lie a lot and have secrets that might make that a horrible idea," Typhoeus cautioned before taking a deep breath. “A truly horrible idea that you should strongly reconsider,” he added, looking away from her as he spoke his warning. Finding a stray hairbrush on the floor which had managed to work itself free of his bulging haversack to occupy himself with as he tried to avoid her reaction.

"That doesn’t worry me, I can tell when you're lying, and while you’ve been an ass about it, you've also done nothing but help me. You've done more for me in the week and a half that I've known you for than anyone else has in my entire life," Arilla said passionately as she watched him finish packing their campsite up from the forest floor.

"That sounds hyperbolic," Typhoeus said dismissively.

"It's not,” she said.

"You should have picked another class rank up,” he said.

"I like this one,” she said, turning her head upwards.

"...I fear that you'll come to regret this decision,” he said with a sigh, the guilt of his lie eating away at him as he couldn’t bring himself to warn her fully.

"I won't,” she said, her eyes full of hope when she looked at him. A despairingly certain look to them that told him he wouldn’t be able to dissuade her from pursuing this ‘oath’. At least, not without telling her things that would ruin everything.

"You can't possibly know that," Typhoeus scoffed, trying to make light of her resolution to trust him.

"I do,” she said knowingly, causing him to audibly groan in frustration.

"So, are you at least ready to go?" he asked, trying to move on from the uncomfortable conversation.

"Yeah, I'm ready. Help me up,” she said, extending her arms as Typhoeus bent down to pick her up, taking care not to jostle her injured hand or ankle as he slung her unceremoniously over his shoulder and started walking.

"You know I feel like you could probably carry me in a more dignified manner if you really wanted to," Arilla pouted, her heavy copper necklace now dangling precipitously in front of her face as she was essentially upside down.

"I could, but like you keenly pointed out, I don't want to." Typhoeus smirked, taking a moment to admire his perfect view of Arilla's ass before gathering his haversack already filled with the rest of their possessions and setting off at a brisk pace. "Consider this your punishment for breaking both your hand and ankle."

"It will heal!" she protested.

"In what, two months? You realise we're going to have to spend most of our silver on a healer," Typhoeus complained miserly.

"Sorry…" Arilla said, the sadness in her voice making him immediately regret his choice of words.

"Don't be, it's fine. Between the goblin ears, the ogre tusks and the jewellery we looted, we'll be okay. Our room at Julian's is paid up for months yet, so we only really need the money to upgrade your gear,” he said, trying to cheer her up.

“Don’t you need any equipment? Most mages get a staff, right?” she asked.

“Not really, I might get one eventually, but it would be for blending in rather than me actually needing it. So long as we have enough coin to keep me in dresses, I’m happy,” he replied.

"I just wish we didn't have to walk all the way back to Rhelea with a big bag of severed ears. They're dripping blood everywhere and already smell like the grave," Arilla complained, wrinkling her nose at the bloody sack tied off from Typhoeus’s haversack hanging suspended only inches away from her face.

Typhoeus smiled, content in the moment as he carried his lover and the wet sack containing their shared albeit disgusting bounty. Arilla's class was a complication he could do without; the likelihood of her getting a dragon-related rank up at 20 was suddenly much higher. While the Great System rarely exposed people's secrets directly, he knew that it wouldn't allow an oath of service from a human to a dragon to go unremarked. He would have to find a way to tell her the truth, or at the very least, warm her up to the idea of it before then. At their current pace, they could go on as they were for months yet, maybe even a year or two if he really dragged his feet before they both reached level 20.

Of course, there were issues with dragging his feet too, he wanted Arilla to live for a very long time, and humans had the unfortunate habit of dying from old age. While he was already more than twice as old as her, by dragon standards, he was likely her junior, with dragons only being considered adults after half a century, whereas humans seemed to reach majority at around 16 or so. The thought that her life could be over naturally before he was even considered 'mature' frightened him, and without a life-extending skill, he would have to ensure that she levelled frequently and invested heavily in her vitality. Something that would likely aid her in her career as an adventurer if she continued to get injured as often as she had done so far.

Her class was shaping up to be primarily based on boosting her effective strength score, with charisma coming in to provide an additional all-around boost. It wasn't weak, nor was it overly specialised as many human classes tended to be. Typhoeus knew that it wouldn't be long until Arilla was physically stronger than him whilst he remained in his [Alternate Form]. Still, despite her rapidly increasing strength score, he was uncomfortable with how reliant she was on him for her defence. He was glad at least that she was investing in charisma, as lacking a strong sense of self was a weakness that he had often exploited in high-level adventurers. The realisation that charisma is not a dump stat often coming far too late for some. He should be happy for her, she had chosen a strong class with good options, but all of it would leave her painfully exposed to betrayal by him. And while he had no intention of ever hurting her, the unavoidable fact was that no matter how hard he tried to prepare her for it, Arilla's reaction to the truth about him wasn't something he could control.

The three days it took for them to return to Rhelea were unremarkable, although there was a pleasant calmness to their trip now that they were committed to returning to civilisation. As before, they camped out beneath the stars, eating the meat that Typhoeus was able to provide with his magic and talking late into the night. Arilla steadily grew more and more frustrated with her own helplessness, but the promise of a healer on the horizon kept her calm and in a relatively good mood. When they made love, Typhoeus was gentle with her, much to Arilla's consternation as she seemed to prefer a little more vigorous enthusiasm in her lovemaking. Whereas Typhoeus was too afraid of aggravating her injuries any more than they already were by the day's customary long journey.

With his abilities all being mana related, he was able to quickly grind them to level 5 by once again abusing his large mana pool while they walked. Typhoeus took to practising complicated spell forms to distract himself from the monotony of the journey, and he was surprised to see that [Sovereign's Arcana] levelled to 193, a level up that he felt was a long time coming.

*Congratulations, Sorcerer’s Reservoir has reached level 5. You must rank up the skill to progress it further.

Sorcerer’s Reservoir - This skill allows you to imbue objects with a mana supply separate and distinct from your own. This mana can be recalled at will. Stored mana exceeding 10 * this skill’s level will dissipate naturally over time.

Choose once from the list of modifications…

Deep Reserves - Mana that can be stored without dissipating increases to 100 * skill level.

Imbued Aura - You may imbue your aura with mana, additionally mana stored in this way can be used to fuel your aura’s active effects.

Ranged Retrieval - Stored Mana can now be retrieved at a range of 1 meter * skill level.

He chose [Imbued Aura] immediately and received another system prompt.

Sorcerer’s Reservoir level 5 is now Warcaster’s Reservoir level 5.

Warcaster’s Reservoir - This skill allows you to imbue objects and your aura with a mana supply separate and distinct from your own. This mana can be recalled at will and used to power your aura’s active effects. Stored mana exceeding 10 * this skill’s level will dissipate naturally over time.

He smiled in satisfaction before moving to his next skill.

*Congratulations, Sorcerous Empowerment, has reached level 5. You must rank up the skill to progress it further.

Sorcerous Empowerment - This skill allows you to expend equal amounts of health and mana in order to add this skill level to your intelligence score for determining the potency and finesse of your magical effects. The amount added by this skill is capped by your vitality.

Choose once from the list of modifications…

Retributive Empowerment - Whenever you take HP damage the next spell you cast will benefit from this skill, provided the mana cost does not exceed the damage taken.

Uncapped Empowerment - This skill is no longer capped by your vitality. Instead, this skill’s level will be added to your intelligence for all empowering effects.

Vital Regeneration - When your Mana pool is full, additional regeneration will instead be directed towards your HP.

He smiled even wider, choosing [Vital Regeneration].

Sorcerous Empowerment level 5 is now Warcasters Empowerment level 5.

Warcasters Empowerment - This ability allows you to expend an equal amount of health and mana in order to add this skill level to your intelligence score for determining the potency and finesse of your magical effects. Additionally, while your MP is full, your MP regeneration will instead regenerate your HP. The amount added by this skill is capped by your vitality.

One to go...

Congratulations, Warcasters Abjuration has reached level 5. You must rank up the skill to progress it further.

Warcaster’s Abjuration - This skill improves your effective intelligence by this skill level for all personal protective spells and wards.

Choose once from the list of modifications…

Improved Dispelling - This skill now also improves your attempts to dispel and counter other magical effects.

Loaned Protection - This skill is no longer restricted to personal spells.

Resistant Abjurations - The bonus granted by this skill is effectively doubled for the purpose of resisting dispelling and counterspell attempts.

He made his choice of [Loaned Protection] and checked his status.

Warcaster’s Abjuration - This skill improves your effective intelligence by this skill level for all protective spells and wards that you create.

He was quite happy with how his mage skills were turning out, the System doing a solid job of building successively on the arcane strength that his skills provided him with. With his dragon skills [Sovereign’s Arcana] and [Sovereign’s Aura], he could create powerful arcane wards hidden within his aura fueled by a reserve of mana from [Warcaster’s Reservoir]. These defensive wards could be enhanced ahead of time by both [Warcaster’s Abjuration] and [Warcaster’s Empowerment]. The dangerous nature of sacrificing his health to improve his spells was mitigated somewhat by the increase to his health regeneration that occurred when his mana was full. Something which could then be further exploited by simply keeping a large quantity of mana stored outside of his body with his reservoir skill. Eventually, he would be able to essentially empty both his health and mana pools to fuel immensely powerful defensive wards ahead of time and then immediately retrieve stored mana to bring him back to full to kick start his health regeneration. Although this potential ‘exploit’ was a distant fantasy, as right now he was severely limited by the low level of his mage skills that severely restricted the quantity of mana that he could imbue into each one of the silver teeth that he kept in his pockets.

The hungry nature of his dragon skills was a potential problem for the long term, as there was a qualitative difference between his resources depending on whether he was in his true form or that of a human. While it was entirely possible for a sovereign dragon to have as little or even less health than a human warrior of an equal level, if an attack could somehow get past a dragon's scales with the same ease that it did a human’s soft skin, then taking the same injury would cause differing amounts of damage to their respective health pools, with a single health point simply going a lot further for a dragon than it did a human. In the same way, a single point of mana in his dragon form was a lot more potent than it was when he was ‘Typh’, with his much larger dragon’s body simply having a much greater capacity to store and effectively utilise mana. If it wasn’t for his runt trait reducing his size, then with his arcane expertise he would be virtually untouchable, but being a quarter the size of his siblings meant that despite his superior mental stats, he had a quarter of the base magical might that they had, in addition to a quarter of the physical might.

He had tried to explain the nature of stat scores and resource pools to Arilla, but his efforts had been stymied by her lacklustre education. Still, as much as he despaired at dumbing things down, the message remained consistent regardless of its complexity. Size truly was everything.

Name: Typh

Species: Human

Age: 18

HP: 380/380

SP: 380/380

MP: 5010/5010

Strength: 38

Dexterity: 38

Vitality: 38

Intelligence: 124

Willpower: 124

Charisma: 82

Class: Warcaster - Level 5

Warcaster’s Abjuration - Level 5

Warcaster’s Empowerment - Level 5

Warcaster’s Reservoir - Level 5

"You know, I find it very concerning the way you check your status with your eyes closed as you walk through the wilds whilst carrying me," Arilla said, looking up at him from what had after much cajoling turned into a princess carry. "Anyway, we're here."

He looked up to see that the tall stone walls of Rhelea had finally come into sight, and Typhoeus carefully let Arilla down from the princess carry that she had been in for most of the journey. Now that they were close to civilisation, he had to go back to the act of playing the physically weak mage, and it wouldn't do to be seen carrying the much taller women in armour along with the rest of their adventuring gear.

So with Arilla leaning on Typhoeus for support, the pair performed an awkward three-legged walk as they rejoined the Old Road to Rhelea, eager for the chance to once again sleep in a warm bed.