Level One God

The sound of creaking and groaning wood filled the chamber. After granting my fusion class, the massive bone tree rumbled and began to vibrate. To my disbelief, the tree seemed to be growing in reverse. The thick, dark-mana-studded branches withered, shrank, and retreated into the main trunk.

In less than a minute, only a bony white twig protruded from the ground where the great tree had been.

“I guess nobody else gets to use the altar,” I muttered to Pebble, pulling my gaze from the bone twig.

My blood was pumping with anticipation to read my new abilities. Before I could properly dig into the list, I noticed Voidgaze had gained another little perk now that I had reached Iron. There was now a text description for abilities with a Tier 3 evolution. I cheated ahead, scanning the list to identify which abilities had fused before I dug into any details.

Four abilities had combined to become two new “fusion” abilities. Elemental Projection had been fused with Chain from my Soul class, and Mana Surge had fused with Mana Leech from my Heart class. In both cases, it was an active merging with a passive.

I also gained a new active and passive ability unique to my fusion class, but I saved those for last as I began reading to Pebble.

Thankfully, he was still rolling around as if nothing had ever happened. I was glad for that. I wasn’t sure if I would’ve forgiven myself if this fusion had messed with my ability to summon him. He was, after all, my solo partner and my one and only rock friend.

[Rare] Active Skill: Forge Echo. [Tier 3] Summon a spectral echo of your weapon that mimics your attack patterns.

[Forge Echo Evolution(s)]

[Sentient] Forge Echo acts of its own volition and may or may not follow commands.

“See?” I said. “My tooltip agrees you’re sentient. I still can’t believe they referred to you as an inanimate object.”

Next, I read my first fusion skill.

[Rare] Active Skill: Elemental Chain. [Tier 3] [Fusion Skill] Release a portion of your current weapon’s elemental aspect. Upon impact, the skill may chain to nearby targets of your choice. This chain effect can occur up to [three] times.

[Elemental Chain Evolution(s)]

[Cloudfall] Form a cloud that rains down your current weapon’s elemental aspect upon an area of your choosing.

“Woah,” I said. “First of all, it agreed that Cloudfall was the right name. I also got to keep my Tier 3 evolution, which was awesome. Or are these new tooltips just… recording my own thoughts and observations about my skill evolutions?”

Pebble was motionless as if the question went straight over his round and bumpy head.

I wondered about it for about half a second before my urge to think about the new fusion skill overpowered my curiosity.

I focused instead on the new fusion ability. “So… if I can figure out how to use Elemental Chain correctly, I think I can make this new version of Elemental Projection bounce from enemy to enemy. That could be amazing. I’m sure there are some more nuanced ways I could take advantage of that, too. Like… it doesn’t say I have to target a living thing, so I could do trick shots off walls and such.” I used my hands to demonstrate to Pebble, because he looked confused. I held a palm up, traced the path of my imaginary spell with a finger, and then made it bounce off the obstacle indicated by my hand. “Get it? They think I missed, then boom. Poison in the back. Or bomb juice. Or whatever I want to spray them with. Or maybe I could just make it chain all over their body? Extra coverage, or whatever.”

I wasn’t sure Pebble understood, but he gave a bounce of approval anyway. A real friend was enthusiastic for you, even if they had no idea what was happening. Then again, I wasn’t sure if most people would agree that the magical ghost of a Pebble could be a “real” anything, let alone a friend. Most people could suck it, though.

[Common] Passive Skill: Elemental Body [Tier 2] Become more resistant to negative elemental effects.

“Same as before,” I muttered, as much to myself as to Pebble.

[Rare] Active Skill: Elemental Spike. [Tier 2] Summon an elementally charged spike of energy to your hands. Striking an enemy with the spike will immediately apply a [moderate] portion of the elemental effect. Note: The effect must be applicable to the target.

“Same. And I really wish this one would hurry up and hit Tier 3.”

I noticed the next three abilities were also unchanged.

[Common] Active Skill: Devour Mana. [Tier 2] Cause your target to devour their mana in exchange for health.

[Rare] Active Skill: Mana Shield. [Tier 2] Create a barrier of pure mana.

[Rare] Passive Skill: Sense Mana [Tier 2] Your perception of mana deepens. Detection of hostile magic moderately improved.

The next ability was my second fused ability, and I very much liked the look of it.

[Common] Passive Skill: Leeching Surge [Tier 1] [Fusion Skill] When mana-fueled attacks strike you or nearby allies, [Mana Surge] will activate, temporarily boosting the victim’s mana regeneration speed by a portion of your own.

“Well, well, well…” I said, smiling to myself. “That takes two underwhelming skills of mine and turns them into one kind of awesome skill. Just think about it, Pebble… I could gently spray Lyria with some fire… or maybe something less painful. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure all my spells are painful. Damn. No wonder I got that masochist boon. Anyway, I could just softly, ever so slightly hurt her with a magic attack, and boom. Mana Surge. Then she’s got boosted mana regeneration! Not to mention it’ll probably trigger on its own all the time in fights.”

Pebble didn’t look so sure about me attacking Lyria, gently or not.

“I know,” I said. “But the ability doesn’t say it has to be a big attack. I’m sure we can figure something out that’s not too unpleasant. I could just… whack her with a Mana Shield, or something. How is it going to define an ‘ally’ though? I guess it’s just a feeling? It’ll get pretty awkward if I’m ever grouped up with somebody I don’t like, and my feelings prevent this ability from working on them. That’ll be tough to explain.”

Whether Pebble agreed or understood anything that was going on, I was excited as hell. I had just taken two active abilities and two passives, combined them, and turned them into a single active and a single passive. In addition to the new active and passive slot I earned, that gave me way more potential to slot in new abilities and use them. I also happened to like my fusion abilities more than their former non-fusion counterparts, too.

It was a win-win, as they say.

Then, I reached the new abilities that were unique to my fusion class.

[Epic] Active Skill: Awaken Mana [Tier 1] Awaken a portion of your mana, forming a low-intelligence, magical entity based on either a Sword, Shield, Heart, or Soul class.

My first Epic skill… and wow. I loved it. More weird little combat friends? It was basically a dream come true.

Sure, I imagined the strain of keeping Forge Echo and this new Awaken Mana skill up at the same time would take getting used to. But I didn’t care.

“I think this means I could make a healer elemental, a tank one, a damage one, or a utility one. That just seems… awesome. Combined with my Forge Echo, I’ll have a small army of two.”

This time, Pebble did understand, and he was just as hyped as I was. I grinned as he celebrated.

“Man,” I said, smiling to myself. “The only tough thing is going to be deciding which class of little friend to bring to each fight.” I was tempted to try out the spell right then and there, but decided to wait just a little longer.

I read the final new ability for my fusion class.

[Rare] Passive Skill: Mana Drain [Tier 1] Causing damage to targets drains a [small] amount of their mana to yourself.

“Oh, my, my,” I said. That was a spicy one. “Do you realize what this means, Pebble?”

He did not.

“Shooting somebody with a Silver Scream arrow is going to double as a mana drain tool, too. I don’t know if the mana drain increases in proportion to the damage, but still… it’s only Tier 1. I imagine it’ll just keep getting better as I improve it, and this one will be easy to rank up. All I’ve got to do is damage stuff.” I rubbed my hands together, smiling briefly before my excitement faded slightly.

Even with all this new power… was it going to be enough? Rake had been Iron since our first clash in the Dark Wood. Worse, he had a mad Forsaken and another Iron ally with him.

I thought maybe we had a chance against Rake, assuming I could properly utilize my new abilities. But it wasn’t only Rake out there.

If we found ourselves in a direct fight with Rake and both of his allies, I was almost certain we were doomed. It wouldn’t matter that I had reached Iron, unlocked a fusion class, and touched my core with dark mana. Maybe we’d have a shot if I could shut myself in a cave and train with all this new stuff for a few months, but I wouldn’t have that luxury.

I needed to think of another option. There was one idea in my mind that would even the odds considerably, but it relied on an assumption I was making about the secret tunnels and… well, several other considerable obstacles.

There had been so much going on since the fight that I hadn’t even checked my map. I internally kicked myself as a stab of panic took hold. Rake and his group could have been closing in on my allies while I played around in the boss chamber.

I quickly scanned the map.

The first thing I saw was that my allies, who were in a clump just outside the boss chamber, were alone, and no enemy dots were even left in this section of the dungeon.

In fact, the picture on the map had changed dramatically since only a few hours ago. There was one Iron dot waiting at the dungeon's exit and the half-Forsaken dot had separated from his group to join up with the full Forsaken dot. Thankfully, they were both in a random tunnel together, and something made me suspect neither of them would be an issue for us.

There was a chance the half-Forsaken would be trying to recruit another ally, but he had seemed far too mad for any intelligent task. Chances were, if he was on his own, it was because he had gone rogue. The full Forsaken I had noticed when entering the dungeon had hardly moved the entire time. Maybe they weren’t as strong as the lich in the infested ruins, and were simply lurking about, waiting to feed in the aftermath when nobody was around to stop them.

But the situation I saw on the map was odd. There were absolutely no red monster dots left in the dungeon. It seemed like every last adventurer in the dungeon had joined the fight to reach the spawning room, which left very little doubt that somebody from Rake’s party had gone missing.

I could see the Woods from my party outside the boss chamber, the two Forsaken, and a single Iron dot by the dungeon’s exit. I was relatively sure that dot was Rake, so where was his other ally?

Maybe their failure to catch me had frustrated the man with the dark hair in Rake’s group? He could have given up the hunt for us after we escaped, heading back for Thrask and leaving Rake to deal with his vendetta on his own. I supposed it wasn’t the craziest idea. The man with the dark hair hardly seemed motivated to join the fight in the first place.

I didn’t have any way to know for sure, but I did know Rake wouldn’t give up after everything I’d seen from him. If one of the Iron dots was gone, it was most likely the dark-haired man had left, leaving only Rake to guard the exit.

It was a small victory. One way or another, the number of obstacles standing between us and escape had narrowed to one, assuming the Forsaken continued to stay put.

Every other adventurer in the dungeon was clogged together, apparently making a final push for the spawning room. There were so many of them in the passage that it looked like someone had colored it in with brown and the occasional iron-colored dot. The rest of the tunnel was filled in with red, all the way back to the bulbous spawning room, which was pure red.

I studied the map for a little while and came to a few conclusions.

One, walking back toward the entrance would be possible, but it would mean passing by the area where the Forsaken were gathered. I didn’t feel like they were going to come hunting us down, but would they really pass up fresh meat if we tried to walk past them?

Two, Rake would stay at the dungeon’s exit because he couldn’t know which tunnel we would emerge from. As long as the Forsaken stayed put, that meant we at least didn’t have to worry about him sneaking up on us for the time being. I’d just keep my eye on the map and make sure nothing was changing while we devised a plan.

Three, the only possible allies we could recruit to our cause and improve our chances of survival were currently clogged in a single passageway. The only way to reach that tunnel was by passing the Forsaken and the Iron dot at the dungeon’s entrance. Besides, I doubted any of them would give up the battle for that spawning room to help us so long as it was a problem. If we wanted their help, we probably needed to find a way to put a stop to whatever was pumping out red dots in that chamber.

I scratched my chin in thought, taking a slow, careful look over the map to search for anything I had missed. I squinted, noticing something I had missed before.

Before, I could see the faint outline of the secret tunnels, but I had never seen any colored dots within them, except when Thorn and his party had used one.

Now, though? There was a cluster of brown dots I had almost missed because they were a similar color to the secret tunnel. Was seeing these previously hidden dots another benefit of my new and improved Iron ability to utilize Voidgaze? If so, it implied ranking up further would continue improving my map.

But the brown dots and the secret tunnel were close. Very close. In fact, they were just beyond the edge of the boss chamber, as if they had wrapped a tunnel around the edge of the room and were gathered just beyond the walls at this very moment.

My heart started to beat faster. I was almost positive I knew exactly what that meant, and I was also fairly sure it was the key to untangling this whole mess.

Even though Lyria had given me a hard time for taking so long in here, I suspected the others were using this opportunity to sleep. After all, they didn’t have magic bedrolls that let them get by on one hour of sleep per night. They were also probably hungry, like I was. I just didn’t have time to eat right now.

Speaking of hunger…

[Hunger 1%]

I smiled to myself. It was possible all the munching on dark mana roots had fed my bedroll, but I had also slept for an hour since then. It should have at least been a little more hungry than that. In other words, it seemed like my bed had indeed been able to use the dark mana in my body to feed itself fully. I still needed to sort out all the details, but it was a good start.

I picked up the talking stone and used it to call for Lyria. “Hey,” I said. “I need you guys to meet me back in the boss chamber. There’s something I am planning to do, and I think we should all be here for it.”

“Is it something weird?” Lyria asked after a brief delay.

I grinned. “Actually… yeah. It’s probably going to be weird if I’m right about this.”

She sighed heavily. “Just a minute. Let me wake the others up.”

I took the last moments of silence to gather myself. I spared a brief thought for how insane this all was. In my mind, it felt like it was hardly that long ago when I was worrying about bills and making it to work on time. Now, I was hoping my magical abilities would be enough to save myself and my friends.

I smiled a little at the thought. If nothing else, dying in a blaze of magical glory was better than a slow death to boredom back on Earth. Even if this was the end, I didn’t know that I would go back to my old life right now if I could. Something about the stakes here felt right. The higher the challenge, the more alive I felt.

The more I felt the responsibility on my shoulders, the more I could feel myself rising to face it.

It was an electric feeling, and I closed my eyes, drinking it in.

I could do this.

A few moments later, I heard approaching footsteps. I opened my eyes to see my party entering the boss chamber again.

Lyria stopped short when she saw me, tilting her head. The others all slowed as they came into view, giving me equally confused looks.

“What?” I asked.

“Did you… did you just casually advance to Iron after we left the room?” Lyria asked, incredulity dripping from her tone. “What the hell, Brynn?”

“Uh… maybe?” I said. “How did you know?”

“You look different…” she muttered.

Ramzi approached, clapping me on the shoulder with a broad smile. “You are taller, my friend. You look more powerful, and dare I say, even a little more handsome.”

Thorn rolled his eyes and gave me a punch. “All we need is the more deadly part. You can look good on your own time. Did you have an ascension token this whole time? Is that why you stuck behind? Wanted to surprise us, eh? You crafty bastard.”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling halfway. There was no use admitting I had blindly fumbled around and advanced on my own, even if Lyria would know I had.

The slightly awed way Lyria was staring at me said she definitely knew I hadn’t used an ascension token. “I just don’t believe it…” Lyria muttered.

“The eyes are an unlocked doorway to belief,” Ramzi said happily. “My eyes say we now have an Iron in our group. This is good news. We should rejoice at his newfound power!”

Thorn nodded. “Agreed. Fresh Iron or not, you were fierce before. With the right boons, you could be a true nightmare.”

I noticed Sylara still looked apprehensive. No doubt, she was thinking about how I had nearly squashed our group in a spiked cage while possessed by dark mana. To her, maybe advancing to Iron only made me a bigger potential threat if I was on the verge of madness.

Zahra scanned me up and down with her eyes, as if trying to catalog what had changed like a curious scientist.

I wondered if they were exaggerating. I would notice if I had grown more muscular or taller, right? Then again, I had been unconscious for a moment when it happened. Maybe I could’ve missed it.

“We may have to save the grab assing for later,” I said. I’ve got a bit of a plan forming. But it all depends on whether we will find what I think we will behind this wall.”

Lyria raised an eyebrow. “Do you think there’s another secret tunnel we could use?”

“Something like that…” I said, slowly approaching the wall as I referenced my map, making sure I was in the right spot.

As I got closer, I heard shuffling movement from within the wall. I noticed a small opening in the dirt, no bigger than a fingertip. When I leaned closer, I saw movement through the hole.

“Here goes nothing…” I said, pushing a hand against the wall. It resisted for a moment, then gave away and fell forward, revealing a small, hidden tunnel just behind the wall of the boss chamber.

A sudden chorus of frightened womp womp womp sounds reached my ears.

When the dust cleared, I saw a sea of grommets crowding the tunnel from right to left, wide eyes looking up at me in fear.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

I heard gasps from the others behind me as they got a look at what was behind the wall.

There were dozens of small, hairy grommets in both directions. They crowded the tunnel, which was low enough I would need to crouch, but high enough for them to stand easily. A sea of large, teacup-sized white eyes watched me from behind coffee-brown hair.

The grommets to my right began to part, shuffling to the side and womping softly as they made way for someone.

A grommet advanced slowly through the crowd.

The group finally parted to reveal a familiar, hairy face.

Grimbo.

“Hey ho,” he said, waving casually once he was in front of the others. His eyes were bright and wide behind his dangling, body-length strands of hair. I was surprised I could recognize him in the sea of similar-looking grommets, but Grimbo wore his hair a little more parted down the middle and kept it neater than most of the other grommets, who let theirs run wild. A grommet of culture, apparently.

“Hi,” I said slowly.

Grimbo’s noodle-like arms curved around so he could pull his face-hair aside, showing me he was smiling. “This one feels… embarrassment.”

“Grimbo,” I said, pulling the rock he had given me back in Thrask out. “Did you happen to ‘gift’ me a tracking device?”

Grimbo lowered his eyes. “Shame…”

I knelt down and patted the top of his head. His hair was stiff and stringy, just like straw. He was also giving off an Earthy scent. “It’s alright, Grimbo. I’m not mad. I started suspecting you guys were following us a while back when we found your tunnels.”

“He is wise,” Grimbo said softly. “He has been earning many tokens, yes? Hm?” Grimbo let out a wavering, creepy little laugh.

“Uh, yeah. Probably a few,” I said.

Grimbo rubbed his hands together, smiling. “Yes, yes. We will watch.”

The assembled grommets womped like happy little piglets.

“Right,” I said. “Before we get to all that, I have a favor to ask.”

I looked behind to see the rest of the group standing awkwardly. Zahra and Ramzi stared with open mouths, making it clear they had never seen grommets. Zahra looked tempted to move closer, almost as if she wanted to pet one, but she was keeping a respectful distance. Thorn and Sylara just looked bemused. Lyria was somewhere between confused and impatient.

“We came to watch… yes,” Grimbo admitted. “But, we also came to help. If he asks, he shall have. Are you feeling… hunger?” Grimbo pulled out a half-eaten root from his… body, offering it to me.”

“No, thanks, Grimbo. I’m good.”

“This one has a surprise to aid you in the coming battle…”

There was a thundering wave of womps from the mob of grommets surrounding me.

I shifted my focus around, inspecting them, but finding they were all definitely level 1 Wood ranks. Unless Grimbo meant they had brought weapons, I wasn’t sure how they planned to—

“Hero,” Grimbo whispered, his lips remaining pursed in a small “O” as he held the end of the word. “Hero,” he repeated again, voice so quiet I could barely hear.

“What?” I asked.

The other grommets took up the chant. “Hero. Hero. Hero.”

Were they declaring me a hero, or…

Nope. The sea of grommets behind Grimbo was parting again. This time, a grommet wearing a white robe with its hood up was approaching. I could only see the pointed white hood and green trim as it made its way through the crowd.

“Hero. Hero. Hero.” The chant was a collective whisper.

The crowd finally parted, and I saw a grommet a full inch or two shorter than the rest. It had coffee-brown hair like the others, but all the hair beneath its mouth was gray and puffy, like a beard. The “hero” held a plain, dirty root like a staff in one hand, eyes narrowed and wise as it looked up at me.

When I inspected the “hero”, I had to lift a hand to my face to stop laughing. It was level 3 and Wood rank. If it was a hero of anything, I suspected it was enrichment games at the senior center. Or maybe a hero of falling asleep unexpectedly on people’s couches in the middle of the day.

“Are you feeling… awe?” Grimbo asked.

“Something like that,” I said.