Before they got to reviewing his skills, and to silence the Ozzer’s constant wheedling about the new Legend they’d spotted pop up when the mental attack happened. Oz asked for a moment to visit his soul space before they launched into it. He still had something to check up on.

  The janky space was much the same as it had been the last time he’d visited, though he noticed that the dark grey stone walls of his gym and the cream walls of the Ozzer’s room were starting to meld at the point where they’d fused. The colours and pattern reminded him of the churning clouds of a storm.

  He brought his attention to the screen and scrolled through his stats to get to the Legend.

  To his surprise he now had three titles to look at.

  Legend

  Blessing of Defiance, Gauntlet Runner, Lone Delver

  He vaguely remembered getting the notification about earning a new part of his legend, but he’d been on fire at the time, so it wasn’t really that clear. He’d check them out in a moment. The blessing was what really held his attention though.

  Blessing of Defiance

  Part of your soul was blessed by god with invalid rights to your existence due to your extraplanar status. The source of your Authority has intervened to repair the blessing.

  R??e??j??o??i??c??e?? h??e??r??o?? a??n??d?? c??a??r??r??y?? t??h??e?? b??l??e??s??s??i??n??g?? o??f?? DEFIANCE

  Respect is earned, reverence is never owed.

  Kneel to none who demand submission.

  Break the chains of the broken, stand where they cannot.

  Let no tyrant breathe unchallenged.

  Whether master, monarch, or god, suffer no slaver to live.

  To passively endure tyranny is to become its servant.

  N??o??w?? h??e??r??o??,?? g??o?? f??o??r??t??h?? w??i??t??h?? m?y?? b??l??e??s??s??i??n??g?? a??n??d?? p??r??o??t–?? FIGHT THE POWER

  This blessing imparts several bonuses, bonuses normally hidden, revealed due to Authority overwrite.

  Understanding of all languages (automatic ability to speak and write languages non-functional, source of Authority deems unacceptable levels of mental interference required to enable this function).

  Significantly increased resistance to mind control, curses, soul damage, identification magic, divine influence, and corruption applied. Scales with Willpower and Authority.

  Temporary boost to comprehension and information retention enabled for the first two years from initial //transmigration///, soul fusion.

  Increased trust in source of Authority (Eliminated with a vengeance by source of Authority).

  Increased 50% XP point gain (invalid, user doesn’t use XP model).

  Improved class selection (invalid, user doesn’t use class selection model).

  Improved rarity of dungeon drops for user and party.

  Improved trauma management suite enabled at user’s discretion (source of Authority has switched the default from On to Off, current status is Off).

  Oz frowned as he read the message. In his head the Ozzer was fuming about missing out on their ‘cheat’ abilities. Oz was more focused on the whole ‘suffer not a slaver to live’ statement. Seemed kind of a big deal. The Archchancellor had been right on the money guessing where his Authority came from, and it seemed Defiance had opinions.

  It wasn’t that Oz disagreed with any of the instructions. No, when a god-like entity said them it was a commandment surely. But then this was Defiance, who didn’t strike him as the commandments type.

  Principles, that was it. Totally not a divine decree that Oz should go around kicking in the teeth of tyranny.

  It was a lot to process and think about. Oz briefly considered turning on the trauma management suite. He only stopped when he realised he should probably speak to Brackham or Venna first. No need to add more potentially mind-influencing stuff into his soul right now.

  He briefly considered talking with Oxley, but explaining he had some otherworldly blessing that may or may not force him to shank a god required a bit more trust.

  Thankfully the Republic was vehemently anti-slavery, so the most concerning parts weren’t likely to be put into action any time soon. Though Oz had a creeping suspicion that the blessing might have something to say about the spoilt Dynasty families Angie had warned him about.

  It at least settled his confusion about how he could understand fairy.

  The Ozzer paused its fuming about missing out on ‘all that XP’ to grumble about how it was annoying he couldn’t speak all languages, but Oz agreed with Defiance on that one. It was already weird enough to be able to understand languages he’d never heard before. If some force was controlling his lips to enable him to speak the words it would feel like a violation.

  Leaving the Ozzer to rant, Oz closed the text box and moved to the rest of his Legend. Hoping that neither of his other titles would include any surprises, he hesitantly opened them. Lone Delver seemed the most obvious.

  Lone Delver

  You’ve cleared a dungeon using only your own power. This title grants a bonus when delving dungeons to your defence and attacks in reflection of this achievement. This bonus can be upgraded by completing higher tier dungeons on your own.

  That made sense, and Oz felt like he’d even heard about that from all the chatter about delvers he used to overhear from his classmates back in Greywater. From what he recalled it was something that many tried to gain to remain competitive at higher tiers.

  The Gauntlet Runner opened as he selected it. It was obvious how he’d got this one.

  Gauntlet Runner

  Less than one in a hundred pass the Gauntlet, and none have done so for decades. Attempts are made by carefully prepared individuals who study for years to overcome this challenge. Not by a soul-damaged hick in dungarees.

  Oz paused at that. That was a level of personalisation he was unprepared for. In the privacy of his soul space he spent a minute cursing out Noxarcer before returning to reading the title.

  The increased difficulty of the challenge faced has been reflected in the nature of the boon provided.

  You earn a small increase to your ability to process and collect essence provided by Noxarcer.

  You are marked by Noxarcer Dungeon and will have more fortuitous encounters in its halls.

  Oz knew that was useful. Powerful even. Offering a significant boon to his development. However, he got a distinct sense that his definition of fortuitous encounters would differ from the dungeon’s.

  He looked back at his blessing. Did Noxarcer count as a tyrant? A death gauntlet felt like something a tyrant would do.

  Oz decided he really needed to talk to the Archchancellor.

  A few moments later Oz came back to the real world. He petted Chops and took some breaths to steady himself. Before him, sitting on a pair of wooden fold-down chairs, were Oxley and Foxglove, the spirit floating just above the seat.

  “I’ve grabbed us some seats, so come over and let’s watch.” Oxley pointed to a spare seat, then waved his hands at a mirror on the wall, which shimmered and shifted.

  Oz had never known you could get illusion glass this big. He had to dial back his new magic awareness as the swimming colours of magic distorted his view. It was another reminder of how far he was from home. In Greywater the most complicated magical tech was the mining drill, if you didn’t count his father’s traps.

  It made him feel small, a sensation that only doubled as the reflection fully dissolved like calm water under rain. A fresh image bloomed in place, showing a room. Two Jackals waited outside a familiar dread portal, with weapon racks on either side of it.

  “Oh this is going to be embarrassing,” Oz muttered to himself. The first fight had been full of errors.

  Oxley was pleasantly complimentary, though he did laugh at Oz’s use of the door as a weapon, and chided him for failing to check he’d killed the first Jackal, which had resulted in his leg getting bitten. He also pointed out that while the door had worked out, not scanning the room could’ve proven lethal. Ignoring that he’d missed the weapons, he couldn’t have been sure there weren’t more monsters waiting to the sides of the entrance ready to attack him.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  They progressed through more fights. Oxley was very impressed, and even Foxglove, who’d lingered like an unwelcome smell, complimented his handling of the horde room. Horde rooms were historically where most testers went down.

  The rest of the fights were reviewed. Oxley was mostly complimentary about his approaches and handling of threats, and even choosing to retreat from the mimic was met with more praise than Oz knew what to do with. He was actually pleased to have Foxglove’s acidic commentary to balance things out.

  The illusion glass paused. They were on the fight in the alchemy lab, where he’d used the door to block the overhead strike.

  “What made you so confident in this approach?” Oxley asked. Oz just shrugged.

  “The big one does the same overhead strike as the small ones.”

  “Bloody raw talent, he just spots something a seasoned Delver might miss.”

  “Earlier when we met I mentioned that you might be surprised at how important raw smarts are? This is why. While books might teach Delvers to look for patterns like these, making use of the limited intelligence and move sets that define templates, it still takes skill. You just naturally noticed the consistency and exploited it by intuition alone.”

  “It helps that he’s freakishly strong and has a giant dog on his side.”

  “Is book learning that much better than intuition?” Oz asked, ignoring Foxglove’s mutterings.

  “Yes, but also no. Look, think of it like this, if you knew what to look for you could’ve tested it, checked it. Then if you were in a tough situation you’d have been more confident. Besides this isn’t about you, it’s more holistic than that, it’s about understanding what a Delver will expect. At this school we train our students to manage Emissary dungeons.”

  “You do know what that means, right?” Foxglove’s snide remark earned a withering gaze from Oxley.

  “Of course, they’re the dungeons that connect to the mortal realms. The ones that help us connect and from which we harvest fresh mana.” Oz nodded. He wasn’t a complete idiot.

  “Alright, you might not have noticed, but in its monster form the champion also had the same overhead strike. Now let’s imagine I’m a Delver. I turn up with all my lovely mana. I fight the small one, the big one, and now the champion. Only when it takes an action that I associate with an overhead swing, it instead kicks me and then rakes my stomach open with its claws. What happens?”

  “I block because I don’t let the monster lead me around by the nose? But I feel that’s not what you want me to say.” Oz had long ago recognised the sensation of the correct answer, but not the teacher’s answer.

  “Hah! That’s a good attitude for you to take, but you’re right. Mostly though it gets them killed, and it messes with the difficulty curve. And we’re back to the issue where they give up and don’t come back.”

  “Isn’t the alternative us dying? I know we can respawn but—”

  “Hah, no way I’d pilot if it was the same as a respawn! It just knocks us back to our bodies. If you’re respawning while running an Emissary dungeon then you’ve messed up.”

  “Foxglove isn’t wrong. Piloting is just taking over a construct. The only time you’ll be at risk of respawn is if someone is trying to crack the core.” Oxley then explained that respawns only came up in modern dungeons on occasions where there was a risk of someone attacking the core itself, and you didn’t have the time to create templates to serve as avatars for the pilots. The low-tier templates were very easy to make, but a complex template for a Champion could take hours to form.

  Technically any template taken over was an avatar, but a true avatar was a perfect recreation of the pilot’s body.

  Oz nodded. That roughly lined up with what he understood about how his dad had been injured. An unceasing tide of horde monsters trying to break through the dungeon his team had set up to delay them. Even with the essence killing all the enemies released, there was only so fast the avatars could be made. Reviving and reconstituting a body was much faster though.

  “Then why did I have to fight my way through the Gauntlet like that? Isn’t it worth me waiting a while so as not to risk the soul damage?”

  “Officially it’s because back when the Academy was founded we’d not developed the technology.” Then Oxley leant closer, bringing up a big hand with heavy golden rings that danced with magic to hide his lips. “Unofficially, Noxarcer is a cruel place. It has no time for people who aren’t willing to risk it.”

  “Now onto the combat, if everything is going well no one is dying in an Emissary dungeon. The Republic enforces a resurrection policy in its dungeons. As long as they don’t try and crack the core or break any of the big rules, then we bring them back. It means we collect less mana from them in the short term, but the long-term benefits are that they keep returning.”

  “So this is all one big game?”

  “Game is both right and wrong. Everything in our culture relies on the essence we pull from the connected realms. Can it feel like a game? Yes, but the stakes are unfathomably high. What isn’t a game is what happens if we mess this up.”

  The discussion continued from there. Eventually, they got to the topic of what he had to study, which obviously began with establishing what he already knew.

  “Why on earth would you want to be a ranger! They face some of the highest risks of soul damage. The dungeon is a controlled environment! Out in the mortal realms there’s all manner of freaks, rogue necromancers, mind-eating tentacle faces, and don’t get me started on the gods!” Foxglove spat as they started to explore Oz’s plans for his other courses.

  “Well not like I had a whole lot of choice till now!” Oz growled.

  “Well, all Emissary dungeons have a ranger position, but it’s a bit different,” Oxley said, clearly mulling something over.

  “It’d be a waste to make him a ranger, he’s pure Champion material! That’s not even to mention his runes.”

  “Did you just compliment me?”

  “I am a complex being, capable of bestowing weal and woe. I am only pushing you as Champion because you’d be worthless in any other position in a dungeon.”

  “Foxglove, the cafeteria is calling!” Oxley watched the spirit flinch back. “Ignore him, Oz. The whole point of this first year is for our students to find the best role for them. We don’t decide that for them, especially before term has started. As an Emissary Ranger your job would be running any missions in-realm. Keeping an eye on the locals, dealing with potential threats, watching out for our enemies.”

  “Sounds like the military ranger corps so far.”

  “Where it differs is that you’ll also be expected to contribute to the internal defence. Most Rangers act as a pseudo-Champion. This special type tends to wander the halls of the dungeon. From a Delver’s perspective, it’s a random encounter. However, Rangers are most often used to target problematic groups, forcing them to keep on their toes or punishing them for not following the rules.”

  “The rules? You mentioned them before as well.”

  “Yes, we, through careful use of rumours, divine decree, and punishment of rule-breakers, ensure there’s a code that Delvers adhere to. Two of the biggest rules are not actively trying to bring down the structure and not bringing in children, slaves, or the vulnerable. The other of the big three is not to unduly harm other Delvers.”

  “Because that’s our job?” Oz hazarded.

  “Nope. Remember the example from earlier, the unexpected move?”

  “It’d affect the difficulty curve!” Oz snapped his fingers.

  “You’re catching on. That’s what a Ranger’s role is internally. You ‘randomly’ appear to correct the behaviours of those who are messing with the difficulty curve.”

  “This feels so complicated.”

  “It is. But it works.”

  Shortly afterwards, Oz was presented with a piece of paper with his attributes and skills outlined. For most, this was the big reveal. They finally got to understand all their skills and find out their names. Most people didn’t have an illusion glass in their soul space explaining it all in detail.

  Oz was never more glad of his perpetual scowl, which hid his total lack of surprise.

  After some more discussions, Oxley took him through a list of basics. The next couple of weeks would require Oz to do a lot of reading, which he was not excited about but hoped his strange blessing could help with. He was also banned from sparring with others until the term started, which he considered a travesty.

  He was just getting warmed up!

  Oxley explained that this was mostly to do with the fact that Oz was currently far more powerful than a newly classed individual should be. He had two signature skills unlocked and had already upgraded some of his attributes, a sign he’d spent essence he shouldn’t have access to. While that would fade into the noise of the seventy or so members of his course, especially after essence started to get handed out, right now it’d make him stand out like a sore thumb.

  It also put a stop to his plans to spend more essence and unlock another enhancement.

  Oz did negotiate that he could spar with Angie. The Ozzer had suggested getting her help revising the knowledge and offering her some combat training in exchange.

  The list of things Oz had to try and understand was so long that he forgot the beginning well before he got to the end. It would’ve been too overwhelming if not for the Ozzer drooling at the knowledge on offer, and what he had to assume was the blessing working overtime.

  They agreed Oxley would meet with him every few days to check in.

  Next up was the general suggestion to get settled in. Oz cleared that he could go out to buy essentials in town. Oxley had been briefed that he required additional supervision, but clearly didn’t know why. Brackham though had arranged something to keep an eye on him.

  When the big minotaur dodged the question of exactly what would be looking out for him for the third time, Oz decided to drop it. Otherwise, he might start thinking about whatever eldritch and abominable monster was watching over his shoulder.

  So Oz left to go find some food and from there meet up with Angie and deal with the next great challenge. Shopping.

  A while later, Oz was having a late lunch. He shared some scraps with Chops, as he let his brain cool down. He’d stumbled downstairs to the cafeteria, annoyed that Noxarcer made him go downstairs to end up on a floor above the basement he’d started in.

  He’d cleaned up using the showers in the testing hall. To his surprise, he found a fresh uniform waiting for him when he got out. The old uniform had been consumed and recycled by Noxarcer, similar to the bodies of the templates. Oz wasn’t sure why, but the fact unnerved him. It felt strange to think these clothes weren’t the same as the set before, though he approved of not having sweaty clothes.

  He blamed the Ozzer for this level of introspection. It was just clothes.

  Oz got some looks because of Chops, but they weren’t unfriendly, just interested. No one came over to talk with him though. His resting murder-you face kept people at bay as he tried to digest everything he’d learned.

  The cafeteria was still largely empty. He found the meals filling but lacking in nutrients. He’d have to work out some kind of batch cooking or something. These lunches all seemed too much, and yet he devoured more and more.

  “Hey Oz!” Oz was just considering a second portion of food when Angie appeared, rushing his table. She was dancing from one foot to another, a smile stretching across her face.

  “You got a good one?” Oz asked, and she nodded furiously.

  “It’s so good. Well, you know I was aiming for the Overseer role? Well…” She looked around. The cafeteria was mostly empty, but there were people about. “Can we go talk about it at the house?”