A Deal Is Made

Fluids dripped from the walls and collected in puddles descending slow draining grates. Chunks of ice gripped the edges of the walls melting the lower they crawled. In other cells malformed creatures shivered. Some looked like they were once goblings. A few were frozen solid. A single guard paced by the cells. It wasn't a plebe or a youngling. This creature was like those in the cells only functional.

"They seem confident you can't escape." I said. With some quick calculations, I took the measure of the guard. Killing it with my bow would be easy. That is if my bow wasn't a twisted piece of scrap metal now.

I winced when I thought of the string Star gave me. I'd left it in the dirt with my bow. Then I'd taken the flail. I rubbed my temples. A headache was forming. That was a detail I wouldn't share when I asked for a new one.

Gwen didn't look so certain. "It isn't the seals or the chains that bind me. Dol has an item that took most of my power. I think he plans to use it for his own rank up." Gwen said.

"Will you be able to recover your power?" I asked. She was covered in poorly stitched wounds. Purple splotches styled her talisman wrappings. Even her normally bright black eyes seemed to droop. The energy was sapped from her.

"Maybe, that isn't important. I performed a ritual in the town of Tensmith." I raised an eyebrow. Her tentacles moved in a familiar twirl of annoyance. "The gobling town."

I recalled feeling a massive source of qi within the town. Getting ahold of that power could raise my base to the next level and then some. By her tone that wouldn't be easy.

I tapped her belly. "You ate the minds of hundreds. Why aren't you fat?" I asked.

Gwen glared hard at me. "I summoned a blessed ancestor. Its what animates the empty shells I left behind. I don't know if you can stop it. Did you open the door to the town?" Gwen asked.

"Yea, I wasn't expecting the town to be full of undead. Why didn't you warn me through those three?" I asked.

"I left a message to dissuade you. Their only other commands were to keep anyone from opening the doors to Tensmith." Gwen said.

There wasn't much time left. I stood up and tried to place myself firmly in this dream. "Maybe a warning about what was inside the town would have been better. So how powerful is this blessed ancestor?" I asked.

"If it can gather enough brains its power could be endless. Maybe you should run." Gwen suggested.

"Where would I run to? Should I go above where the world is covered in ice or below where your kind want to enslave me. I'll rank up and deal with this creature. Then, I'll free you." I said.

"It will change the world around it. Don't trust anyone. It will use your own thoughts against you. If you look at its third eye, it's over." She said.

I was waking up. I slapped her cheeks between my hands. "We'll meet again face to face." I promised.

…

Ping!

Quest: Save Gwen

Reward: +10 INT +10 END

My eyes snapped open and I tried to move. Straps of leather stretched but held firm. I shifted and fell over. Trying to move my legs revealed they too were bound. They had taken advantage of my weakened state. I turned my head to see one of the goblings staring at me.

"Did you think we'd be stupid enough to trust a Darkling? I know you plot to kills us. You'll feed our brains to your dark master." Tol said. Kor held the flail in both hands hefting it with both hands. Kem the red head looked on in silence.

After a moment, I realized they hadn't gagged me. If I started shouting spells and failed to kill them, I'd be gagged soon enough. Some of my aura was back but it was recovering slower than normal. A byproduct of Dol's spell. On the other hand, the qi was rich. Every breath was worth ten to my technique.

Technique: Dark Seeker's Breath

Cultivation: Refinery I

To Next: 8k/10k

It took roughly thirty seconds to complete a full cycle of Dark Seeker's Breath. If I focused solely on the breathing technique, then reaching the second rank of refinery was only an hour and forty minutes away.

Kem slid open the hatch and looked down. "They are watching the ladder. If we try to fight our way down they'll surround us." Kem said.

A heavy kick rocked smashed into my side from Tol. "We have time. This one might be a little gammy, but I'll eat him raw if I have to. We can throw a party out of it." I stared at the gobIing. If they came at me, I'd kill him first.

"I'm guessing the guard house rations are running low already. Maybe running for it would have been a better idea. What are ya going to do? You could toss me out, but they have more than enough bodies to surround us hundreds of times over. Do you have a plan that doesn't involve eating each other until no one's left?" I said.

Tol punched me hard falling to his knees in the process. "Enough of your silver tongue Darkling. Speak sense or I'll cut it out." I leaned my head to the side and spat a wad of blood to the floor.

"I'm ready to rank up. I can rank into something that flies and carry us to safety." I said.

All three goblings laughed. "You can't expect us to trust you. Kor said.

He hefted the flail. "You killed our chieftain and opened the gates just when we could have gotten down." Kor said.

Kem shook her head. "He'll be weak after he transforms. One of us will stay close to him with a knife at his throat. If he tries anything, we'll kill him." Kem suggested.

Tol glared down at me. "He's a darkling, he'll try to escape or kill us every chance he gets." Tol said. I wondered if any of them had seen a darkling besides myself. By the reaction from others, I wasn't sure if I wanted to ever see another member of my race. Were we really that bad or was it rumor and envy?

Why didn't Illithids have that reaction? They literally ate brains and turned sentients into mind-controlled livestock. I reasoned it could be because we weren't in power anymore and were a safe target.

Kor pulled out a familiar knife. It was just like the one I'd owned previously. "Let me do it. I don't have any good options for ranking up. At least if he betrays me, you two still have a chance." Kor said. Killing any of them at this juncture would be inconvenient. I continued to slowly work through the Dark Seeker's breath.

Ping!

Quest: Escape with the three Goblings

Reward: Increased Trust from Goblings, +3END

"I'm assuming we have a deal." The three looked to one another before giving their agreements. "Then stand back while I rank up."

The first thing I did was focus on my technique. Ranking up would be great but I'd need every bit of power I could get. In less than two hours I felt my qi reach its zenith.

A pressure had built within me and I couldn't absorb anymore qi. Gwen had instructed me on this point of cultivation. Refinery was all about refining the qi within. This breathing technique gathered it and refined it through breath and body. By using up my aura and replenishing it, I also put pressure on my qi refining it.

I watched my aura pour from the qi. It dribbled out lazily. This wouldn't do, it couldn't do. If I allowed this to continued, I'd never be able to restore my aura quickly. There was an answer that came with the second state of qi refinery. The answer was pressure.

Perception wasn't just to feel the power of heaven and earth to pull in qi. It was also used to inspect the qi within me in its entirety. The next step was to use my Intelligence stat. "Purple Thoughts," I whispered the spell and felt it activate. A purple aura surrounded my body.

The goblings scattered to the other side of the room. "The Darklings betrayed us. I knew it would." Tol yelled.

"This is part of the process of ranking up." I said. That seemed to calm them down. Tol didn't look so sure.

I focused solely on m qi from that point on. With increased intelligence if temporary, I began the process. The intelligence stat didn't make someone smarter. That was a little misleading. What it did was increase consciousness power. That's the force behind controlling magic. It also had something to do with aura. Why did it increase aura?

Check my pockets, I didn't have the answer. More intelligence equaled more control over mystical stuff. It made spells form faster and made them more substantial. I guessed that's why INT increases spell damage and effects.

Once my focus was solely on my qi, I focused on a single point and pushed.