Chronicles of the True Wizard

When Felix woke, he ran faster than he had any of the days prior, or at least that's how it felt. He had just 19 rooms left on the map and he intended to complete them all as fast as he possibly could. In reality, it took him about 12 hours netting him a final 3 levels for his profession. The loot was boring, at least to Felix with nothing of particular noteworthiness.

He ran back to the rest room, bathed one last time then headed for the exit.

Puzzle Dungeon B

Would you like to leave the dungeon?

Warning: You will be unable to retry this dungeon.

Yes

No

Yes.

Congratulations!

You have completed Puzzle Dungeon B.

Calculating Rewards.

[E - Epic] Mana Battery Blueprint

25,000,000 Tutorial Credits

You will be returned to the entrance in 3 seconds.

The screen is different, there are no bonus rewards at all? No experience? Is that because it was a different kind of puzzle dungeon? The layout was different. That is a lot of credits though. Also score on the blueprint.

Congratulations!

You have completed all of the dungeons.

Rewards:

[E - Legendary] Charm of the Boss Conqueror

You will be returned to the entrance in 3 seconds.

Outside the dungeon, Felix was surprised to see Benjamin standing watch with both Alan and Will sleeping at his feet. They both seemed to have gained almost 20 levels from the puzzle dungeon, though he expected more considering his own monstrous 41 levels.

[E - Common] Human (Lvl 43)

[E - Common] Human (Lvl 43)

Benjamin spotted Felix and jumped to his feet with surprise. He hurried over so that he wouldn't wake Alan and Felix and whispered to Felix, "You know, it's funny. I though Emma would become insufferable with the orders now that she finally surpassed me in level, but instead you showed up. I'm hoping it was the best thing to have happened to me in the entire tutorial."

Felix cocked his head and looked at Benjamin for a few moments before Benjamin continued, "If it's alright with you… we were talking and uh… we want to move to Tri-Peak for the rest of the tutorial, or at least see what other forts have to offer."

Felix simply nodded and smiled, slightly worried about waking Alan and Will.

Benjamin let out a breath of relief before he asked, "By the way, you're hiding your level aren't you?"

Felix looked at him with surprise.

"Your level didn't change in the dungeon. Don't worry about it, I get it. But uh… is everyone in Tri-Peak as much of a monster as you are?"

Felix snickered involuntarily before catching himself and shaking his head.

I knew I forgot something, damn.

He quickly increased his level to 50 so as not to advertise the existence of his disguise to Alan and Will.

"Huh, that's convenient." Benjamin said.

Felix just shrugged.

I don't want to head back through the caves if I don't have to. Time to try and find a way to the surface.

Felix gestured for Benjamin to wait a few minutes then ran around exploring the nearby caves. He wasn't sure, but Felix was betting it should be possible to access without going through the fort, in case they were hostile or blew themselves up. Sure enough, one of the caves near the dungeon led to the surface.

Felix headed back to Benjamin spotting a quick twitch of relief when he saw Felix had come back.

"Should I wake them?"

Felix nodded.

Benjamin knelt down and lightly shook Alan's shoulder gently waking him then did the same to Will. However, Will didn't wake at first so Benjamin had to shake harder and harder until Alan just kicked Will in the leg harder than Felix expected.

"Oi, what was that for?" Will awoke with a start.

"Sorry, you sleep like a rock. Impossible to wake you." Alan apologized.

"Ah, yeah. Bad habit I picked up from by deployment. Helped with all the babies crying through the night and many toddlers jumping on me while I slept later on though. Oh hey, you're back. I take it Benny filled you in?" Will explained.

Felix nodded.

"Damn, you made out well in there. I knew we would get a lot out of it having not done any puzzle dungeons yet, but do they get more interesting?" Will asked.

Felix wiggled his hand gesturing ‘kind of' to Will.

Will pumped his fist in celebration which caused everyone to stare at him for a few moments before he noticed and explained, "It was reeeeaallyyy boring."

They all chuckled and Felix led them to the surface. Outside, the sky was dark with barely a hint of the sun on the horizon.

"Oh… I was kind of hoping to try and convince others to come with us, or at least explore other forts. It's alright though. Let's go."

Felix spoke for the first time since he had spoken to himself in the dungeon, not entirely intentionally, he just didn't see the need to speak until now, "We can head back to the shack and you can talk to people then we head out. We have to find a way across the sea anyways. Either we make a raft, or I try to make a spell that makes a giant boat."

They nervously looked at each-other then shrugged.

Felix led the way as they ran back to the lonely building marking the entrance to the caves below.

"Just so we're clear, you are welcome to travel with me back to Tri-Peak, but I'm not gonna set you up or anything. You guys are all on your own when we get there. Also, make sure anyone else you convince knows that."

"Of course, if what you say is true and they let anyone in, which it still says on the map anyways, then it shouldn't matter." Benjamin answered.

They arrived back at the building in just a few hours due in large part to Felix pushing everyone along with a strong tail wind.

"Alright, I'll wait here for 2 hours, if you aren't back here by then, I'll assume you changed your minds." Felix said as he knocked on the front door.

He noticed multiple voices from inside that all vanished when he knocked. A few moments passed before someone opened the door.

[E - Common] Human (Lvl 35)

It was neither James nor the other guard Felix had met before though, he suspected their shift was over, instead, there were many more people inside the room than he was expecting. There were seven people in total with two of them sporting mismatched armor and levels in the mid thirties, one of which was holding the door open.

Three of the other people were wearing fancy armor, two in ornate steel plate and the other in a dark banded leather. All of their armor sets were cohesive as well, making them appear much stronger in comparison. Their levels were also in the low forties. The last two individuals had levels in the mid forties and wore beautiful clothes. They were colorful and appeared to be made of silk with shiny jewelry to complete the whole ensemble.

Felix was stunned for a few moments by the odd assortment of people and one of the two in the fancy robes were the first to speak.

"Hello, I assume you are a denizen of this fort? We come in peace, I promise." He said with a charming smile.

The one holding the door spoke up, "He's not one of ours."

At this point, Benjamin had walked up behind Felix to see what was going on and made eye contact with the man holding the door open.

"Rich? What's going on? Who are these people?"

"Benjamin? How'd you get out? Oh uh, not sure exactly, they say they are here to trade?" He looked back at the two in the fancy clothes for confirmation.

They both nodded and the one who had spoken early responded, "Among other things, yes."

Rich turned back to the door and shrugged before stepping aside and letting everyone inside.

With all seven of the previous individuals as well as Felix, Benjamin, Will and Alan, the little cottage's living room was rather cramped. Most people were standing with the fancy robes sitting on one couch and Benjamin along with the one who opened the door on the other.

One of the people in the fancy robes spoke first with his ever present warm smile and silky, charming voice, "We are from Tri-Peak. As you may know, we are mostly a profession focused town and we rely pretty heavily on trade. With the System tax rate on the auction house and prices on the marketplace sky rocketing, we decided to try and open trade routes with the other towns. We already have multiple regular trade routes between 5 of the forts around us. The rest of the forts were harder to access, but our shipyard and docks are now up and running so this was the maiden voyage of a vessel dedicated to trading with your fort, if you would be willing."

The one next to him added, "Anyone is welcome to travel by ship or trade caravan as well if they would like for the flat fee of 10 credits per vehicle. Those numbers are subject to change, but we think that should cover the cost to maintain the ships as they wear out."

HAH, well that's convenient.

The first one spoke up again, "In terms of goods, we carry food, materials, weapons, equipment and more both crafted by residents and looted from dungeons. We carry much more than just that though and are more than willing to take requests if you have something specific in mind."

The second one spoke up, "Lastly, both Tri-Peak and Tiki-Kahuna are completely open to visitors and we have a care package for each town which we can bring inside or leave outside if you are cautious. It's mostly food, alcohol and some samples from ambitious crafters."

Felix looked over at Benjamin, Alan and Will one by one with a mirthful smile on his face. They all nodded at him in response except Will who saluted for some reason.

After a few moments where it was apparent no one was going to speak, the first of the fancy robes to speak, interrupted the silence, "My name is Dylan by the way, we will be just outside if you want to discuss. We will stick around for another couple hours or so if anyone wants to trade, otherwise we will head home and come back in a week or so."

With everything that needed to be said, Dylan and his counterpart stood and walked out of the cabin with the three uniformly armored guards in tow.

Benjamin looked at Felix questioningly and, anticipating the question, Felix just shrugged and walked outside as well.

The five from Tri-Peak were standing around talking amongst themselves as Felix inspected them. He had noticed something in the cottage but was distracted by the conversation.

[E - Common] Human (Lvl 45)

[E - Common] Healer (Lvl 40)

[E - Common] Merchant (Lvl 50)

[E - Common] Human (Lvl 46)

[E - Common] Scout (Lvl 35)

[E - Uncommon] Ambassador (Lvl 57)

The guards as well.

[E - Common] Human (Lvl 46)

[E - Common] Fighter (Lvl 54)

[E - Common] Miner (Lvl 39)

[E - Common] Human (Lvl 46)

[E - Common] Rogue (Lvl 47)

[E - Common] Lumberer (Lvl 44)

[E - Common] Human (Lvl 46)

[E - Uncommon] Bulwark (Lvl 52)

[E - Common] Blacksmith (Lvl 40)

Is that cause they're residents of my fort?

Felix walked up to Dylan, "I'd like transport on the ship back to Tri-Peak."

Dylan turned to Felix with his warm smile that Felix suspected was augmented by an Ambassador skill, "Of course, do you know how to transfer credits? Sean over here," he pointed to the Merchant, "handles the transactions, we'll show you."

Sean walked over and held out his hand as if to shake and Felix took it.

"Now, simply think ‘Transfer Credits' and choose 10, that's the transportation fee." Dylan explained.

It was easy enough for Felix to do as it worked exactly as Dylan had described.

"You don't technically need to be touching, but it makes it easier as we've had some issues with people transferring credits to the wrong person." Dylan said.

Sean was looking with confusion at the air before he waved Dylan over and shared a screen with him. Dylan read it through then bit his lip, "Uh, I'm sorry about not telling you sooner, we want to be upfront and all… Would you mind turning off the skill you're using to hide your affiliation and intentions with us? All we care about is your intentions, we just want to try and keep serial killers and terrorists out, I'm sure you understand? Though I guess if you can hide it, you might be able to change it at will."

Dylan looked at Sean who just shrugged, before turning to Felix and looking him straight in the eyes, "Do you intend to harm Tri-Peak, it's residents, any if it's affiliated or partnered fort's or their residents in any way."

"Yes." Felix answered, mostly to see what they would do.

"He's good." Dylan said with a smile, "I can tell when people are lying, ambassador skill."

Felix shrugged and Dylan chuckled.

"I guess you'll perform all your trade back at the fort?" Sean said with a little disappointment.

"Actually…" Felix pulled out the [E - Uncommon] Frozen Wand and the [E - Uncommon] Frost Dagger and handed them to Sean.

Sean's eyes lit up as he inspected them then pulled out a notepad to jot some notes and calculate some numbers.

"Alright, I'll give you 8500 for the wand and 7000 for the dagger." Sean offered.

"How about 9000 and 7500, so 16500 total?" Felix countered.

"16k flat." Sean shot back.

"Deal." Felix said with a smile and shook Sean's hand.

Sean pocketed the items as one of the guards, the Rogue, walked up, pointed at the dagger and started talking with Sean. After a bit of back and forth, Sean handed him the dagger with a smile and shook his hand.

Felix sat down a few meters from the guards and began meditating. He entered his Mind Palace and began planning out his mana channels. He really wanted to inspect the Charm he got from completing all the dungeons, but he didn't want others to see it and he hadn't had a minute alone since exiting. He did make sure it was in his inventory though, so it shouldn't matter if he looked at it now or later. With the mana channels, he was mostly doing busy work to try and distract himself as well as kill time. . . . . .