The Pinnacle Warrior

I added a couple passages but haven’t had time to fully edit them for fluency. Let me know if there’s something that just doesn’t make sense in the alternate POV.

Today’s the day, right?”

Astrid turned to Felix and nodded. “I’m going to be level 11 before dinner.”

Through the rest of the day before delving, the party had continued to work together better, taking out every pack of gnolls they came across without any struggle. In fact, with Skandr and Muti’s growth and attributes, there wasn’t anything that the monsters could do but provide experience to their killers. More and more, Astrid was glad to have come down and forced the party to push themselves further, though it really wasn’t “forced”. Though Felix was the only one who had an open skill slot, the rest of the party still wondered what kind of benefits they would all see from having this been a large part of their growth to level 11. Too bad most of them wouldn’t see any returns on that until Iron, but that wasn’t a problem, given that Iron wasn’t too far away, comparatively. Maybe another year? Just thinking of that being a short time was strange to Astrid, but she wasn’t going to lose herself in such strange considerations in the middle of the Dungeon.

“Do you think it’s gonna change anything about how you fight?“ Felix asked as the two of them cut the ears free from the gnoll corpses before them. “I mean, are you going to take more risks, get closer in the middle of the fight?”

“I don’t see why I would.“ Astrid shrugged. “I’m not a frontliner, so there’s no reason for me to open myself to more injuries. There’s no reason to take hits when I don’t have to, though this upgrade’ll be something that lets me better get through any fight we get into.”

Felix nodded slowly as he continued working, and Astrid thought the conversation was over until, maybe a full minute later, he asked, “Do you ever think about delving by yourself? What little you’ve told me about your experiences in your last town, you did delve by yourself quite a bit. Are you wanting to do that long-term? Because Quick Recovery seems like one of the best ways to be able to do that.”

“I could,“ Astrid answered as she shook her head, “but it’s not something that would work long-term. After all, I’m not so stupid as to think that I’ll be able to keep up with monsters’ attributes as they keep scaling upwards. Did you know that in Mithril tier, monsters gain, on average, twice as many attributes as people per level?”

“I didn’t know that in so many specifics, but everybody knows the general idea. That’s why parties are needed, but I just wondered…”

“If I’d prioritize getting levels faster than you and then push onto higher levels as fast as possible? No, that’s not the plan. If I don’t know how to work alongside my party, it’ll be nearly impossible for me to learn how to do so at higher levels. Plus, have you ever heard of a Steel tier party that’s looking for another finisher?”

“You’ve met every Steel tier party that I’ve met, Astrid.” Felix scoffed helplessly. “In case you forgot, most of us never spoke with a Steel before Klara.”

“Well,” Astrid said, ignoring the slight flash of shame from her assumption being challenged, “frontliners and healers or supporters are always in demand, but finishers are not. That holds through from Bronze all the way to Arcanite, so far as I know. Parties that lose a party member aren’t going to just let some random newcomer join in when they get back to town, too. So, I’d have to look for a party that was either splitting or was entirely changing their organization, and that doesn’t seem like the kind of party that I want to be throwing in with, anyways. Plus, I like my party, and I figure it’s better that we all get stronger together, knowing each other well.”

Felix nodded, not saying anything more as Astrid finished making her point. Once they were done with cutting their trophies free of the dead bodies, Astrid took the full bag from Felix and put it in the sled. It was far from full, but that didn’t matter. The slide was mostly for carrying larger things than bags of ears and fangs. Once they finished delving tomorrow, they’d see if they couldn’t stuff two irregular corpses in there and drag them back to town. For now, though, they just needed to keep on killing. Fortunately for Astrid, she didn’t mind continuing to do her job. As soon as she thought as much, Muti whistled low in a sign to the rest of the party that she’d found their next target.

“Benedict, Skandr, how are you feeling?” Astrid asked.

The Lightningmage nodded, rolling his shoulders with a smile while the Bard sighed but gave a thumbs up. With confirmation from every party member, Muti strode ahead to take them to the next enemy.

***

Klara 

Despite everything else, Klara couldn’t keep her face from twisting as she was forced to confront reality. She’d always suspected who the guilty party was, but now she finally had proof of their wrongdoing. Today was the day that the moles were going to be captured, though it wasn’t going to be the day of their deaths. No, the Guild would make sure that day didn’t come any time soon. The nobles needed to get every reminder that their agents could infiltrate the Guild, but once they were caught, only terrible ends awaited them. Of course, the nobles didn’t care, because everyone they used for infiltration was an expendable, but maybe that would help dissuade some of the prospective bastards who would throw in with the nobles and weaken humanity as a whole.

She wondered what excuses she was going to get this time, and after just a few seconds, she realized that she didn’t really care. Betrayal was betrayal, and it never came from a stranger. No, it came from people you trusted, otherwise it wouldn’t be so damn painful. For weeks and months, she’d hoped that her instincts were incorrect, but they almost never were and, of course, this time was no exception. She took several deep breaths and thought about what questions she might ask when finally she could confront the betrayers, thoughts about how she could try to twist the knife in their hearts and souls, but she eventually turned away from that thought process. No, not because she wouldn’t relish tearing something away from the nobility, but because she knew that someone who was betraying the Guild, stealing from delvers, and then kidnapping and killing delvers wasn’t going to care about her words. She’d just have to make sure that it wasn’t an easy end that came their way.

Sitting in her office, she wanted to just have it all be over already, but she wasn’t going to go out and spook them out of her den. The group, under their bosses, knew that she was looking for them. She made no secret of it, but she hoped they did still believe she’d been lost on that false trail they laid. After all, it was more than plausible for the Kin to have murdered and kidnapped delvers, it was nothing new for them to, successfully or otherwise, twist the laws of another nation to their own benefit. It was one of their greatest strengths. Also, it was be no surprise if they, when thwarted, would resort to more animalistic forms of “convincing” others to follow their plans. But no, Aarta hadn’t broken any of the Guild’s codes. Was he conniving, sneaky, and willful, yes, of course. He remained a Kin, but it was also quickly apparent that the trail was one deliberately set up for her to follow. Even so, she needed to report having found it, and now she was continuing to follow it in an attempt to find the origin of the false trail.

Despite her age and level, Klara paced in her office, her boots clacking on the wood floor. Most people wouldn’t realize that she was fully equipped, but for her robes, which she could don with a thought. A pretty necklace, soft boots, a line of earrings? Nothing noteworthy to most, but each one pulsed with mana like a heartbeat. Those who would realize what Klara was wearing were also those she was about to confront. But were they in the inn yet? She hadn’t seen them, and a Bodyguard couldn’t sneak into her territory without the Lightmage realizing. So where were they? She hadn’t seen them in town for a while, but that—

Klara forced an easy smile on her face as she watched them make their way towards her. Just a few more steps and they would enter the location of their demise. Two, a traitor and his Bodyguard walked through the front doors and kept their heads down. Klara walked out of her office and down the hall, just in time to run into Maria and Anders as they walked towards his office.

“Guild representative.” Anders bowed with his usual effusive formality.

“Anders, please, there’s nobody around to care about how you refer to me.” Klara Answered with a smile. “And how are you, Maria?“

“Sick of the additional quest we have to go on to find these traitors, but hopefully you’re close to getting the evidence you need to stop these Kin?“ She flashed a hopeful smile as she said as much, but Klara had to shake her head in denial.

“They’re cleverer than you might expect. Especially considering how easily I found those first clues that led me to them. Even so, it’s just a matter of time. Actually, I have something I want to show you, the closest thing to damning evidence I’ve gotten so far.“ She gestured towards her office, hoping to get them to go in so she could move on to her real target already.

“I simply need to place my things back where they belong. I’ll be with you shortly.“ Anders spoke with his usual tone, and Klara nodded good–naturedly while she continued to instruct her magic to sweep through the building. Where could they go?

Klara walked into her office with Maria standing just in the hallway between the two doors. She always did that, accustomed to her assignment of caring for Anders and the rest of the members of the Guild. Her steady presence had been missed in the past weeks and months as they fought to uncover what was happening in this town. Or, more correctly, while Klara did and Anders took care of the regular dealings of the Guild. That had been the key, giving him free reign after all. When he walked into the office, Maria closed it behind him and stood in the corner.

“So, tell me, Klara, what have you found?“

“More than anything, I’ve found that I’m sick of doing this cloak and dagger idiocy. What was it worth? What was it worth to kill those children? To kidnap the others? It’s two damned Bronze tier delvers! They’re not worth the dirt under their feet, and you’re murdering for that? I’d pray for the Duchess to torture you for eternity, but it’s gonna be a while before you get there.”

As Klara spoke, the various enchantments she’d placed throughout the room burst into existence, making seven identical copies of herself appear on every wall. “I’m not gonna enjoy this, at least not too much.”

Hundreds of bars of light as thick as a finger exploded from the walls and smashed into both of the forms, and immediately, Klara realized what her mistake was. When the nobles sent somebody to integrate themselves into the Build, why would they tell the truth about what their Classes were? With the previous flash of light, nothing unexpected had happened, but when the light touched the two people, they both dissolved into black smoke. Klara burst out of her office and smashed through Anders’s office’s door. As the splinters flew all around her and her robe materialized on her body, Klara saw the hole that the traitors had dug under his desk. It all came together at once.

Maria was an Assassin, one who specialized in mirages and darkness magic. And they’d left a present behind for her.

Whatever Anders’s real Class was, he’d created a hulking golem of white paper that slammed its fist at her. She crossed her arms, a glowing rune appearing over the arms and keeping her arms from breaking as the beast’s fist made contact. She flew through a wall and grunted.

Klara cursed sulfurously to herself again and again as she sent hundreds and thousands of star pricks of light flying into the dark tunnel while trying to deal with the golem. It turned its attention to the rest of the inn, and Klara realized she couldn’t go help with the two traitors. Her mind raced as she thought through the paths the bastards had been through to avoid her approaches and the steps they’d taken to avoid her attention until now. Even as they left, they tied her hands by threatening these other young delvers while making their escape. 

Maria had used her Skills to trick Klara’s detection, that’s how they were getting around her surveillance, that’s how they were able to trick her and to keep out of her notice for so long. She’d always felt that the two were too close together, that there was something about them that was off, but every time she saw them, they were acting perfectly and eventually she’d wondered if the mismatched pair were simply a couple. In the end, the single glimpse from an orphan of the two together in a part of the town that Klara hadn’t expected had started to untangle this web of lies, but Klara never connected the reality of where the threads all led—the spider that was Maria.

She couldn’t even trust her magic to be reporting correctly through the tunnel. Light and darkness were opposites, and though Klara was a mage and her Skills were made to destroy the illusions of shadow, so too was a shadow suited to snuff out light. If she’d been beside the Assassin, then she’d be able to handily destroy the illusions, but then she’d be in her grasp. Even with her confidence in her own ability to tell that the pair had passed through this path, Klara couldn’t leave the inn, in case they looped around. Just about every delver was currently in the end, it was just past dinner time, so the damage the escapees could do was limited—

“Oh Duchess above.“ Klara whispered, immediately sending a fist sized globule of light out of the inn and flying towards the Dungeon’s entrance. Tomorrow was the day that Astrid and her party were meant to return from their multiple day-long delve. They were exposed, and Klara couldn’t go to protect them while there was still the threat to the town at large as well as the delvers specifically. All she could do was send this message ahead and hope that it got to the Silver Wind in time. If not, that would be another party’s demise or disappearance on her conscience.

***

Astrid hefted her shield and smashed the edge into the irregular brawler’s neck, vertebrae snapping as it went limp and collapsed to the ground. Still not enough, but she was close. So close. The rest of the party had picked off about half of the pack while letting her to deal with the rest by herself. Skandr and Benedict were breathing deeply but steadily to meditate and attempt to facilitate their mana recovery, while Muti and Felix stood nearby, ready to jump in if it ever became necessary. Astrid had resolved herself to ensure that it never became necessary, but it was a nice thought, nonetheless. She roared as she smashed her hammer into one of the remaining gnolls, its body crumbling, though not dying. The other three quickly succumbed in the same way, the fight ending withAstrid chasing down the ranger as it fled and burying her hammer in its skull.

She checked her experience, not having felt the descent of the Great One to give her the next level.

13,998/14,000

“This has got to be a joke.“ Astrid grunted as she let her shield rest on the ground while she wiped her hammer head clean.

“That close?“ Felix laughed.

“2 away.“

Benedict didn’t need to say anything, merely smirking with a laugh as he shook his head and shrugged. The rest of the party mostly followed suit, and Astrid just grumbled. She’d promised that level 11 would come before lunch today, but despite not taking it easy, the reality was that they couldn’t control how many gnolls respawned, where they were, and what level they appeared as. It simply turned out that this time, it was a day with less experience than the day before, and they could definitely get her involved in at least one kill before they finished for the day, but being so close but not there was infuriating, to say the least.

Without saying another word, she stowed her hammer on her belt and pulled her dinner out of her pack. As she tore into the dried rations and swigged the water, the others laughed at her. For a brief moment, that old, familiar enemy, her anger swelled up inside of her, but she forced it down. Instead of losing herself in rage or feeling like they were insulting her personally, she just let the emotion wash off. After all, she was minutes away from that next level and these were her friends laughing at a single moment that was just unlucky. She’d done much the same hundreds of times in her life, and she understood the thought process. Even with that conscious thought, she realized her hypocrisy and took another deep breath. 

Then she tore back into her food. Letting her party eat and take a little break before she got back, even though she had said she was going to get the level before dinner, did not matter, it wouldn’t weaken her or take away from her the opportunity. That didn’t stop her from eating faster than ever, her rations getting washed down by judicious swigs of her water.

After days in the bladder, the water was beginning to taste a little off, but not in a way that would make her sick, but instead just a testament to how long it had been sloshing around on her hip and back.

Once she was done, Astrid stood and looked at the rest of her party expectantly, each of which, except for Muti, sat on the ground with their food in hand. The Rogue, however, had her meal in her hands and was slowly circling the party and keeping an eye out on anything that was approaching. Her ears twitched and her nostrils flared, but the Barbarian didn’t seem to pick up on any pack of gnolls, that had, miraculously, found their trail and would deliver to her the next level.

Eventually, Astrid again schooled herself and forced her anger and unreasonable emotions back down and settled onto her haunches to allow her allies to eat their meal. When Benedict opened his mouth, Astrid knew there was something stupid he was about to say.

“Who goes there?” Muti’s words cut through whatever the Bard was going to say. The party turned in unison to look at the Barbarian, whose face was focused on a point the rest couldn’t see.

A single ominous chuckle answered her, though the quiet was then broken by a familiar voice.