Mostly.

You follow Markus to his cottage. He gestures for you to wait as he opens the door, and a series of arcane sigils begin to unravel. You jump through and the glowing barrier reforms behind you.

Author’s Note: I’m beginning to create my own system that may someday lead to a story of its own.

The current grid is

Origin:

Inherent, attained, bestowed

Application:

Defender, striker, support, control

Type:

Brawn, Finesse, Nature, Arcana, Purification, Corruption, Artifice, Mental.

In this system Priests/priestesses are support purification bestowed. Mages would be Control, Arcana, Attained. This system is not yet relevant and subject to change.

Resuming story.

He pulls up a chair for you on the other side of a small table before producing a magnifying glass,

“It’s the scan tool. The zoom tool is a spyglass. This won’t hurt a bit and it doesn’t have any side effects that I’ve ever heard of.”

A menu pops up in front of you. You stand up and walk around behind him. He’s sitting so you can read over his shoulder. It seems to be similar to the readout you get when you pull up your own character info but much of it is greyed out. You pull up your own readout and take the opportunity to rest your chin on his shoulder.

“Can you see this?”

He drops the magnifying glass and it disappears,

“Yes. You’re a Wandering Boss? I figured the abandoned house would have counted as your lair?”

“Afraid not. It technically belongs to the quest giver.”

He pauses and rummages through his bag before producing a small key and a piece of parchment. The parchment is blank at first until he pastes text onto it.

“This paper is a tenant agreement. You manage the property and in return, you get to live there. Normal people would apply that to a farm or something not an attic but I want to see if this is enough to set your lair. I’ve never heard of a boss who has to rent their lair but it’s worth a shot.”

Tentatively, you sign your name on the paper. It’ll be a welcome change from having to respawn several hours away at the fiendish incursion event site and walk all the way to the least visited part of the map. A prompt appears:

Set lair? Argent Chroniclers Guild Cottage #29 attic.

Confirm. Your respawn point has changed. Applying Lair effect (Corruption) to the territory. New minion options now available.

Milestone reached: Claim your first lair.

Level Up 8/999.