New Mines of Pruzonia 8: Game's End Review

Verida wasn’t sure what she liked more: the sight of her friends succeeding or Fortuna seething that her game had ended in such a one sided manner.

‘I feel I should take the high road, but Fortuna getting a taste of humility is just too good to not enjoy,’ she thought, unable to keep a grin off her face.

“Seems your game design is a little rusty,” Gaia remarked in a teasing tone. “Was your plan for them to slowly reach the final chamber in smaller, staggered groups to run the timer closer to the end? To make the final push a **** gambit win?”

Fortuna grumbled and Gaia pressed more, “What was that? I couldn’t make that out.”

“Fine! I wasn’t expecting them to hit the boss as a group like that! Happy?” Fortuna shouted.

Gaia grinned. “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Fortuna shot Gaia a heated glare before turning her gaze to Verida. “It’s her fault everything went off the rails,” she complained.

“You didn’t foresee that Teri could draw upon my powers to the extent of being able to summon a manifestation?” Verida asked in a smug tone. “I may not know a lot about gaming, but I would think that’s something you should have been able to account for.”

Gaia laughed heartily as Fortuna glowered, her head snapping between the pair of happier goddesses before she focused back on Gaia. “You did something, didn’t you? Couldn’t help but play favorites?”

“Are you not the goddess of fate?” Gaia retorted, seemingly unbothered by Fortuna’s accusation. “Surely you could feel another’s efforts to tilt the flow of fortune, especially when you’re paying attention to what’s going on, right? Or should I expect a new god or goddess to pop into the world in the next few years?”

Fortuna sputtered before clamping her jaw shut. Gaia winked at Verida before continuing, “Honestly, I think you just underestimated them. It has been a while since you’ve run a game like this. Separated and under prepared, I wouldn’t have bet on them pulling it off if I didn’t know just what they’re capable of pulling off.”

Fortuna remained quiet and Verida wasn’t sure what was going on in her head. Her eyes flicked over to the display on the wall, which showed the group going over the spoils from the boss. Verida smiled at the sight of them not too badly wounded and relaxed. But she wasn’t entirely relaxed herself. She glanced at Fortuna out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t trust that she wouldn’t pull some last minute twist and drop some more enemies on them. Especially now that she was annoyed with how the boss fight went.

‘I hope I’m just worrying too much,’ she thought. 'Surely, if Fortuna does try to change things, Gaia will step in. She basically assented to this game for us and is the only one that can bring Fortuna to heel.’_

Shoving away her misgivings, Verida went back to waiting for the game to end so she could reunite with her friends.

Beth was still a bit sulky after having her kill stolen, so John pulled her into a hug when she reached the group.

“You did do the most damage to it,” he told her as she settled against him. “How, I have no idea but I doubt we’d be here if you didn’t rip it apart and fuck with its movements.”

Beth’s mood lightened a bit and she grinned as she held up one of her orbs. “Not sure how I was able to do that much, but you won’t hear me complain about it. Sucks they broke when they hit though.”

“That’s on me,” Estelle said sheepishly. “I didn’t make those to be of the same quality as my main sphere. Though I’m not sure, if you really tried to throw it, that it’d survive.”

Beth frowned. “Any chance you can make something that can? I really like these.”

“I can try,” Estelle answered chipperly. “I think metal would work as a better medium and we should probably look into just what exactly you were doing when you threw those. I don’t think that was wholly your own power.”

“What do you mean?” Vivian was the first to ask, but everyone was looking at the witch with curious eyes, minus Teri’s clan members who had no idea what they were saying.

“Are you familiar with feng shui? The concept of placing furniture in specific places to promote good energy in a house?” Estelle asked. When she got a few nods, she continued, “Well, the idea is sound when dealing with the natural flow of the world’s mana. For mundanes, they can’t really get more than a small amount of ‘good luck’ from it, but with the right magical materials and input of some mana, you can really get some good boons if you know what you’re doing.”

“And you think Beth tapped into something like that?” Senka asked.

Estelle nodded. “I believe so. There are a lot of magical undercurrents that flow around us, and most are very subtle and need specific conditions to be observed.”

“So I’m just awesome and stumbled onto something super rare and powerful?” Beth asked, a grin spreading across her face. “Fuck yeah!”

“We’ll need to do some more research,” Estelle added. “We don’t know if this is a phenomenon localized to these caves, Pruzonia or a universal constant. I’d hate to get you all hyped up for something that can’t be used everywhere.”

“Yeah that would suck,” Beth muttered. “Really like having something that really works with how I want to fight. I don’t want to just be stuck sticking things down.”

“I’m sure we can make something work even if we can’t replicate what happened here elsewhere,” Vivian interjected before biting her lip. “An array to build up kinetic energy should work. Can probably send some of that energy back into it to make it more resilient.”

Beth smiled at Vivian. “Thanks, Vi.”

There was a slight pause, followed by Anita pointing at the pile of loot. “So, what’s that? The things we beat didn’t drop stuff.”

“It’s part of my ability,” John said. “The creatures and things we fight leave behind hopefully useful items and money when we beat them. And the stuff from anything you guys beat will probably show up when the quest actually ends. So for now, it’s just the stuff from the boss, and the loot I got from the things I faced before.”

Aeolia looked over to the doors. “Don’t think we have time to go over whatever you got before the boss. Don’t want to get caught with our pants down when that bitch goddess shows back up.”

“You have to take off your clothes to look at loot?” Anita asked, her hands already moving to disrobe.

“It’s a figure of speech,” Vivian quickly said, her hand latching onto Anita’s before she could make any headway. “It means getting surprised by something and not being ready for it.”

“Oh, okay,” Anita said in a downbeat voice.

John, not having the brainpower at the moment to deal with Anita’s emerging nudist tendencies, decided to pick up the one item on the pile that was likely the most valuable. The pink poker chip stood out garishly and John flipped it through his fingers. An ‘F’ was etched into each side, one inlaid with gold, the other bronze.

“Didn’t you get something like that from Gaia?” Aeolia asked as she looked at the chip.

“Yeah, the Skill Enhancement Tokens,” John answered. “Somehow I doubt this will just upgrade one of my skills.”

Token of Fate: An artifact that carries the power of Fortuna, the goddess of fate. This can be used to refund 7 levels worth of stat points.

“It seems the token line of rewards might revolve around giving you ways to tweak your build beyond just gaining levels,” Senka remarked as John finished reading out the display.

“Yeah,” John muttered, contemplatively. Being able to move around thirty-five stat points was a powerful tool, even if only once. For the most part, that was an endgame power or cost a lot of in-game resources. The question was if he felt he needed to move around any of his stat points. A glance at his sheet showed that the stat he needed a greater investment in, Intelligence, was already the most invested and he would have to pull from physical stats to get the biggest boost there, which was not the most appealing prospect given how often he found himself in melee range.

“Doesn’t seem like this is something you think is a good thing?” Estelle spoke up, her eyes studying John’s face intently.

“It’s a great thing, if I was in a position where my build was greatly away from where I wanted it to be,” John sighed. “I need Intelligence for mana, but I can’t really cut anything else to boost it.”

“Still, it’s a good thing to keep in our back pocket,” Vivian interjected. “Gives you some room to experiment with putting points into wherever for a few levels then fixing them if the investment doesn’t pan out.”

“Fair point,” John agreed, stowing the token. “I might just put the next few levels into Intelligence and see how I fare. If I’m falling too far behind in the physical stuff I can cash it in and even things out.”

“So, what’s next on the reading list?” Aeolia asked.

“Might as well go up in size order,” Teri suggested.

When no one protested that suggestion, John picked up the gem seed. It was roughly the size and shape of a football, oblong and smooth to the touch. It was completely see through and clear when John picked it up, but it slowly darkened into black with small sparks of color appearing like stars, the inkyness spreading from where his fingers touched the gem.

Electing to test a theory before checking the item’s info, John passed the gem to Beth. The moment she touched it, the color shifted, black fading into a blue-green mix.

“Anyone want to bet this thing can become something like the boss?” John asked, grinning.

“Don’t think you're going to get any takers on that, John,” Senka said with a laugh.

“Was worth a try.” John chuckled before hitting the seed with Observe

Gem Seed
Rare
A large luster crystal noted for its ability to adapt to mana around it. This particular cut was enchanted to grow a guardian golem after being planted in mana rich soil.

Attributes: Mana Adaption, Programmed Pattern, Growth Protocol

“Well, that’ll be a good deterrent if anything attacks us,” John said.

“Who’s going to attack us?” Anita asked innocently.

There was a moment of silence before Aeolia cursed, “Fuck. We never really told you the mess we’re in, did we?”

“Nope,” Anita answered chipperly.

“T-there are bad people that hurt us in different ways,” Kiera spoke, her voice small and quiet. “They’ve got bad things planned and we’ve ended up in their way. S-so they might attack us.”

“It’s why the Order met with us,” Senka smoothly added as she moved over to Kiera and gently wrapped her arm around the bluenette's shoulder. “Well, more or less. We did sort of lead them to the scent of something fishy going on.”

“They weren’t completely sitting on their well armored asses but they weren’t exactly on the ball,” Aeolia muttered. “But yeah, we’re not exactly in peace time. It’s why we’re trying to get the Kingdom up and running.”

“Which this guy should help with,” John said. “Not only because it’ll be a big dude attacking anyone who tries to attack us, but it should be a good thing to show the dwarves that we’ve got valuable stuff.”

“It may be a bit presumptive to think we can obtain more of these things outside of your ability to spawn more of them to fight,” Vivian cautioned. “But we should be able to collect some things just from the caves to show them.”

“Figuring out how to explain the already carved entrance might be hard,” Beth remarked, looking around at the buildings around them.

“I think that’s a bit low on the list after the whole ‘new Kingdom that came out of nowhere’ thing,” John said. “But we should get back on track and get the particulars for this thing.”

Mana Adaption: This material rapidly takes on qualities from nearby sources of mana, growing resistant to that source

Programmed Pattern: This material was infused with a form it can change into, once the conditions are met.

Growth Protocol: This material will undergo its metamorphosis when buried in mana rich earth. It is recommended it be buried deep to ensure room. Quality of the final form will depend on the quality of the mana around it during the incubation period.

“Pretty much what the description said,” John said, stowing the gem. “We’ll have to ask Verida if we can bury this by the World Tree. And now the last thing.”

John picked up the last item. It was a perfect recreation of the boss’ round shield, just scaled for an average humanoid. The only bit that wasn’t clear crystal was the pair of leather straps that would affix it to someone’s arm.

Diamond Shield
Uncommon
A shield made of luster crystal purported to be unbreakable. It has been treated to only react to active magics that hit its face.

Attributes: Adamantine Structure, Reactive Defense, Charge Hold [0/10]

Evocation: Returning Blast [8/8]

Adamantine Structure: This shield is highly resistant to damage. In addition, it diffuses the kinetic energy of impacts against it, reducing the amount transferred to the wearer.

Reactive Defense: When hit by a mana based attack, the shield will quickly adapt to become more resistant to attacks with the same signature.

Charge Hold: When magical attacks hit the shield, a charge is added (up to10). Each charge provides a 5% resistance to attacks matching the stored signature. Charges fade after one hour.

Evocation: Returning Blast: Converts the store of Charge Hold into a blast that homes in on the one that matches the stored signature. The greater the charge, the more potent the blast. Cost: 30MP.

“If I used a shield, that could be a useful Evocation,” John mused.

“Maybe you can use that while trying the heavy Intelligence investment?” Estelle suggested. “It would give you a nice boost to your defense and still be an offensive tool.”

John hummed as he equipped the shield, somewhat pleased both by the weight on his arm and that it didn’t displace his glove, leaving him able to keep using Fiery Pursuit for ranged attacks.

“Yeah, think I’ll try this for a bit,” John said before stowing the shield. Then he looked up at the doors. The runes on them were nearly all lit up. “Looks like the timer’s just about up. Anything else we want to say before whatever happens, happens?”

“We should probably think up what to tell the elders,” Teri answered in a flat tone. “Not sure ‘we got kidnapped by an annoying goddess that wanted us to play some game’ is going to go over well.”

“I’m sure Verida will s-speak to them about it to help smooth things over,” Kiera said.

Teri offered the bluenette a sad smile. “Not sure how well that will go over. They haven’t been too keen about working with her. They sent us on this wild goose chase to basically spite her.”

“No chance you can just lie to them?” Aeolia asked, her eyes flicking over to Teri’s clansmen.

“I can’t say my newest subordinate won’t reveal what’s happened today,” Teri replied after a moment of thought. John suspected the pause was more for her to answer in a way that didn’t tip off the unfamiliar goblin that they were talking about him.

“I think we’re in a no win situation with this,” Vivian spoke up. “We had an outside power invade and whisk us away. That it was a goddess with likely more raw power and experience than Verida won’t matter to them. Coming clean might be the least damaging option. At least we managed to beat what Fortuna set up.”

“Hopefully Verida has been thinking about how to explain this to them if it came up,” John added. “And it looks like we might find that out soon. Door’s almost all lit up. We should get ready for whatever’s going to happen.”