Dungeon Myst

"Power, riches, women? I should have known there'd be a catch," Myst muttered as he skimmed over the various options on the translucent screen floating in front of him, trying not to think of the other version of him that 'bought' his life for a couple of wishes or the genie that connected him to a dungeon core because of a badly worded wish. 'Screw it, it's just a tutorial. I have enough mana to create an imp or a goblin spawner or create a crappy treasure chest that will probably get me killed.'

Myst double checked the description on the spawner. 'One minion, thirty minute respawn and no mana cost per unit.' He glanced at the stone stairs that led up to the second story of the tower where the dungeon core was. "Might save some mana eventually but I doubt the goblin could kill a cat and thirty minutes is more than enough time for something to eat the core."

He selected the imp and looked over the imp's less than impressive stats, not particularly impressed by the creature's strength, vitality or even the creature's magic. 'Then again, if nothing can hit you and you have magic, you don't need strength or vitality, they just help.'

He glanced down at the imp's only spell. 'Firebolt, a weak attack that deals a small amount of fire damage on hit, can set things on fire. At least I'm starting in a stone tower.' He looked at the button that would let him reroll the imp. 'I don't see a mana cost, probably because I could just exit out and try again.'

He glanced at the ten gems that were floating around the imp, noting that nine of them were normal looking while the tenth was glowing. "One glowing red gem and a fire spell?" He reached up and touched the black gem and frowned when he heard an annoying beep and the cost went past the amount of mana he could afford. "I'll have to save that for later."

Myst hit the reroll button and noticed that the imp's strength was slightly better while its magic was slightly worse. He glanced at the orb that indicated his mana level and noticed that it hadn't moved when he rerolled. 'That seems to have reset all of the choices and it didn't cost anything, let's try that again.'

He tapped the button again, causing the picture of the imp to change slightly and for the stats to shift, getting a better agility but a worse strength and a slightly better magic rating. He pressed the button a couple more times, trying to see if he could get his magic up to something more impressive and paused when he noticed that the imp's spell had swapped from Firebolt to Water Globe along with the red gem being dull while the blue gem was glowing. "That probably indicates their affinities," he muttered under his breath, wishing the options came with more descriptions.

Myst played with the reroll button, going through fifty or sixty different imps before finding something interesting. "Life drain?" he mused as he looked at the black gemstone that was a midnight black rather than a dull black. "Not the worst idea, he'll heal a fifth of the damage he drains which might let him stick around a bit."

Myst tapped the icon for adding spells and looked over the collection of spells that he could add. "Life Tap or Curse?" he mused as he glanced around the page, looking for buttons or icons. He tapped the icon that said, "Safe Spells Only!", turning the filter off and bringing up a bunch more icons with pictures that sort of matched the spell names.

"Water Globe, conjures a globe of water that you can hit people with, causes the wet condition and does a small amount of damage. Looks the same as the other spell, that probably means the caster needs water affinity to cast it safely." He looked through the collection, looking for anything that jumped out at him as broken or particularly useful. 'Curse Object? Allows you to place an enchantment on an object to annoy invaders?'

"Might as well," Myst mused as he bought the spell for his imp then did the same with the Life Tap spell. "So much for having mana," he muttered as he purchased the upgraded imp. He glanced at the small doll on his HUD then looked at the shelf over the fireplace.

"Might as well," he muttered as he reached into his HUD and grabbed the doll. "Yeah, because that's not disturbing," he muttered as he pulled the image out of the floating window and it turned into a six inch flesh and blood humanoid creature with purple and black skin, long pointed ears and a pink mohawk. "Huh."

The imp looked around then focused on Myst. "Zork?"

"Can you understand me?" Myst asked, curious if the creature was intelligent.

"Narble," the imp replied then tried to naw on Myst's hand.

"I'll take that for a no," Myst replied as he walked over and set the imp on the shelf, glad that he couldn't feel any pain from the creature's teeth and that he didn't have a mark on his hand.

"You have placed a minion, would you like to start?" an ethereal and female voice asked, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere.

"Yes," Myst replied, having already tried and failed to get an actual response from the voice when she'd explained that he was in a tutorial. 'Might as well start.'

"Defeat the invaders," the voice ordered.

"Whatever," Myst replied as he walked over and leaned against the wall, curious how long he'd have to wait for the monsters or adventurers to raid the tower. Thankfully, it didn't take all that long before a child sized green skinned goblin poked his head into the room and looked around, causing the imp to freeze and pretend to be a toy.

"Parley?" Myst asked on the off chance that the goblin could actually see him. He wasn't particularly surprised when the goblin ignored him and carefully walked into the room, obviously trying not to make any noise. "Yeah, so much for being able to interact with people, hopefully that's just a problem in the tutorial."

The imp gestured and cast its Life Drain spell when the goblin started sneaking over to the stairs, causing a dark purple and black rope of energy to jump out of its hands and strike the goblin in the chest, causing the goblin to shriek and charge the imp.

Myst frowned slightly as he watched the goblin try to jump up and grab the imp while the imp drained the life from the goblin, not even coming close to being able to grab the shelf. He stared at the goblin as it collapsed and stopped moving, fairly sure the actual monsters he was going to have to deal with weren't that stupid. "Is it dead?"

"Zork!" the imp replied.

"Do you say anything other than Zork?" Myst asked as he glanced at the globe shaped picture for his mana pool. 'At least killing monsters gives me a small amount of mana or it's just regenerating.'

The imp looked at Myst. "Narble."

"Whatever," Myst muttered as he walked over and poked the goblin with his foot, causing it to shift slightly. "Huh…" he trailed off as he found himself in a stone room with a training dummy in the corner, an old fashioned and solidly built desk pushed against the opposite wall and a wooden chest that was sitting next to the chest. He turned and looked at the solid wooden door set in the stone wall then walked over and looked at the desk covered in eldritch symbols.

"Minions with enchanting skills get discounts for using a proper lab, when you're done experimenting, open the door," the voice told him.

Myst glanced at his minion bar and noticed that an image of his imp was in the first slot. "Is this because of the imp's curse spell?" He waited a couple of seconds for a response then pulled the imp out of his HUD and set it on the table.

"Narble!" the imp complained as it looked around.

Myst reached down and opened the chest and stared at the collection of random doll sized clothes and cheap looking jewelry. He picked up a copper bracelet and set it on the table, causing the imp to quickly grab the bracelet and get to work. He glanced at the progress bar floating over the imp's head that was filling up. "This would be easier if I had some idea what it was making."

He reached out and tapped his minion's icon on his HUD and smiled when a translucent window appeared showing the details for his minion. "Same stats and spells." He tapped the Cursed Object icon with his finger and read the description, curious if it would give him more information now that his minion had used it. "Nope, nothing new."

Myst glanced at the imp's mana pool, curious how long it would take to regenerate. "One point of mana a minute? Yeah, that's basically useless in combat."

"Congratulations on enchanting your first item. Your minion's experience award has been reduced by 90% and it has been afflicted with a random curse because it lacks the Arcane Affinity," the voice announced.

Myst scowled when he read the description of the curse his minion was afflicted with. "Mana regeneration has been reduced by half? That's annoying…" he trailed off when he realized he couldn't find a duration or any indication of how long the curse was supposed to last. "That would explain why it was in the useless pile."

He glanced at the bracelet and smiled when a small transparent window appeared floating above the bracelet, giving a description of the item and the enchantment. "Reduces the walking speed of anyone that puts it on by ten percent. Not sure that's worth screwing over my imp's mana regeneration."

"Nargle!" the imp complained.

"Use your Life Tap spell," Myst ordered as he turned his attention to the imp's life and mana bars as the imp cast the spell. "Okay, that dropped your health by a fourth and increased your mana by a sliver which makes sense considering your magic is better than your vitality and the curse. Try it again."

"Narble!" the imp complained.

"See if you can use Drain Life on the target dummy," Myst suggested, causing the imp to use the spell on the practice dummy which quickly started regenerating its health and caused a translucent damage meter to appear over the targeting dummy. 'Pretty sure a house cat would eat you but at least you follow directions.'

"Zork!" the imp exclaimed cheerfully as the pain from using the Life Tap spell started fading.

"When you're full, use life tap then alternate to refill your mana so you can work on your enchanting," Myst ordered.

"Narble," the imp complained, not particularly happy about the boss's idea.

"Are you saying you don't want to be an Archmage of Enchanting?" Myst asked, hoping he could talk his minion into using his spell.

"Narble!" the imp replied, shaking its head.

"Fine," Myst muttered as he tapped the possession icon on the minion bar, happy that it didn't actually cost him any mana to possess his minions. He blinked a couple of times when he found himself in a giant version of the room, finding it a touch disorienting. He looked down at his purple and black hands and wiggled his fingers, finding them just as responsive as his own. He jumped in the air and spun around.

"Nice!" he exclaimed as he looked around the 'giant' room. He glanced at the icons for the imp's abilities on his HUD. "That should be easy enough." He reached up with his left hand and tapped the icon for the Life Tap spell and instantly regretted it as it felt like he'd just been punched in the stomach, only the pain was all over. "Fuck!"

Myst look a couple of seconds to let the pain sort of decrease in severity. "Yeah, the imp might have a point," he admitted as he pointed his right hand at the training dummy and tapped the icon for the Life Drain spell with his left, causing a black and purple beam to jump from his right hand to the training dummy. He sighed in relief as the pain from his Life Tap started fading and his health pool started to increase.

"We're going to have to work on your damage," Myst mused as he waited for the imp's health pool to fill up. He glanced at the globe that showed his mana level, trying to figure out how long it would take to refill his mana pool so he could recast the Cursed Object spell. 'This is going to take forever. Is the pain worth it? It might unlock something, might not.'

"Just hit it twice and be done with it, it's just pain," Myst muttered as reached up to touch the Life Tap icon. 'Just think of it like training,' he told himself then tapped the icon before he could change his mind. He ignored the pain and hit the icon again, causing him to collapse in pain as his knees gave out.

"Fuck!" Myst cursed, feeling like someone had taken an ice pick to his head and kicked him in the nuts for good measure. He spent a couple of seconds curled up on the table before the pain faded enough that he could think straight. He pointed his right hand at the training dummy and tapped the icon for the Life Drain spell with his left, causing another beam of black and purple energy to hit the target.

He did his best to ignore the pain as the beam fixed the damage he'd caused the imp. He stayed on the ground until the damage was completely healed and he felt like he could move without seeing stars. "This is going to make fighting a pain in the ass," he muttered as he got to his feet, feeling perfectly fine now that the damage was healed.

Myst glanced at the globe that showed his mana level then looked at the actual numbers, noticing that his Life Tap only gave him about a fourth of the damage he caused himself. 'Okay, that's roughly another thirteen or fourteen Life Taps before I can try to enchant something. This would be easier if I could get the imp to do everything.'

"And evil," he muttered as he tapped the Curse Objects skill icon on his HUD and got a rather simplistic translucent window where he put an item in the box and a button that would enchant it with a random curse. "So much for getting an actual Enchanting window out of it."

He glanced at the door, wondering if it was worth dealing with the pain to make a couple of random cursed items that he probably wouldn't get to keep. 'Fuck it, it has an experience bar, that means it can level up.'

He closed the page then hit the Life Tap icon, trying and failing to brace himself for the pain. He took a breath then let it out slowly as he waited for the pain to fade to a manageable level. 'I'm starting to think the imp doesn't have much of a pain tolerance. Fuck it, let's see if we can get a skill for ignoring pain.' He tapped the icon for the Life Tap spell again, ending up on the ground, curled up in pain from the agony.

Myst waited until he could sort of see straight then tapped his Life Tap icon, driving a spike of pain through his brain and causing him to dry heave as his health dropped to a quarter of its total. He spent a couple of minutes in agony before the pain decreased enough that he was able to lift his hand and tap the icon for his Life Drain spell, sending a black and purple stream of magic at the training dummy.

Myst waited until he'd finished regenerating the imp's health pool then pulled up his possession skill. 'Allows you to control minions, also increases the pain you suffer for injuries by 200%. Yeah, that explains the mind numbing agony.'

He pushed himself to his feet and used Life Tap then swapped over to Drain Life, quickly feeling better as he started regenerating. "Yeah, that's annoying but manageable, this better be worth it."

0o0o0

Myst tossed the cursed bracelet into the box on his enchanting window and smiled when a message appeared over the box. "Unstable and dangerous results can result from stacking enchantments without enough skill." He smiled and hit the button anyway, causing his hands to move of their own accord and magic to flow into the bracelets. He had a feeling that he could move his hands if he really wanted but that moving them would interrupt the process and cause a backlash.

He relaxed as best he could, letting his hands move and the magic flow as the progress bar filled up. He smiled when he finished enchanting the bracelet and noticed that half of the name of the bracelet was garbled text. "Bracelet of z&!@#? Putting this cursed bracelet on your wrist carves a random and incomplete spell rune into your flesh and binds the bracelet to your flesh. Using the rune unleashes the dangerous spell and removes the rune and the binding."

"That sounds like a good way to get rid of annoying minions." Myst glanced at the new curse his imp had gotten stuck with from not having an arcane affinity, a touch annoyed that it still had the curse that reduced its mana recovery. 'Reduces health gained by fifty percent and increases mana gained by twenty percent while under the influence of the curse? That's going to make it a lot harder to get my mana back.'

He glanced at the testing dummy and found his gaze dropping to the thing's wrist. "Huh, can they even use equipment? They have a health pool and they count as creatures for effects. Eh, it's worth a shot."

Myst jumped off the desk and rolled forward when he hit the ground to burn off some of the momentum. He sighed in relief when he didn't lose any health or even feel any discomfort from the landing. "Right, six inches and I barely weigh anything, cool."

Myst looked up at the giant training dummy, realizing a rather large flaw in his plan, mostly the fact that the training dummy was person size while his imp was tiny. 'Screw it, I should be able to climb, I can lift fifteen pounds and I doubt I weigh three.' He walked over and started climbing the training dummy's leg, using his claws to dig into the cloth where he couldn't get a good grip.

He climbed until he reached the dummy's waist then planted his feet against the training dummy and jumped toward the thing's wrist. He grabbed the dummy's arm then quickly wrapped his legs around it, fairly sure the imp's agility helped more than his own would have. He took a minute to make sure his legs wouldn't slip if he moved his hands then pulled the bracelet out of his enchanting menu and slipped it on the training dummy.

He felt a moment of triumph when a glowing rune appeared on the dummy's wrist, at least until it started writhing. "Yeah, because that's not disturbing," he muttered as he tried to focus on the rune long enough to identify it. 'Using this rune gives the user a random skill and calls forth a monster to fight. That sounds like a fantastically bad idea.'

Myst glanced at the door, wondering if he should just leave. 'Fuck it, worst case, I'll just reset the tutorial or I'll open the door," Myst told himself. He hit the accept button on the little popup window that was asking if he wanted to use the rune. He had just enough time to see a giant with wild black hair wearing an overly large t-shirt appear out of thin air before a spike of agony drove its way into his mind and everything lost focus.

Harry looked around the strange room that certainly wasn't his 'bedroom' under the stairs then focused on the tiny purple and black creature with a pink mohawk that was curled up on the ground next to a copper bracelet screaming. "What the hell? Are you okay?"

Myst took a couple of seconds to get his screaming under control, helped slightly by the fact that the agony was already fading. "Not really," he muttered as he pushed himself to his feet. "Can I get a name…" he trailed off as the kid's lightning bolt scar exploded and black smoke poured out.

Harry screamed as he waved his hands through the smoke, causing red and gold flashes of light where his hand touched the smoke. "What the hell?!"

Myst gestured and tried to drain the ghost's life, sadly the spell failed to take form while the man was a cloud of smoke. "Shit!"

The smoke flew away from Harry and condensed into the form of a bald, flat nosed man with tattered black robes and several nasty looking burns on his body. "I'm going to kill you!" he shouted at Harry.