I would have said forming a diplomatic treaty in what was essentially a VIP room at an extraordinarily exclusive dance club was an odd sort of affair, but it didn’t even make the top three for weird shit that week. Ishi was very professional, and even when a dozen of Etja’s new friends joined us in our private room, she didn’t let it distract her one bit. In fact, she was able to subtly guide my attention back to where it needed to be every ti my own focus drifted to one or more of the peculiar newcors.
I was a bit chagrined when the subject of Closetland’s population ca up, and I was forced to look away from a very complicated sort of beer pong being played between Etja and a bird-moth-woman in a leather three-piece bikini.
“We haven’t done a census, and I suppose it depends on what counts as a mber of the population,” I said. “Less than a thousand?”
For a second, I was expecting the concept of Closetland as a nation to end right there in Ishi’s eyes, but the princess simply nodded, and the scribe marked that figure down. Apparently, having a country with very few inhabitants was not that strange for Dragons.
“Fermantalus has only one citizen,” said Ishi, noticing my curiosity. “Although they have several million bodies. We are more concerned with a nation’s ability to secure and maintain its own borders than the size of its population, which a dinsional kingdom should have no trouble doing.” She glanced up from the docunt and t my eyes. “You did resist an avatar’s invasion, after all. That’s better than most can say.”
Before everything was formalized, Ishi asked to be shown where she could establish an embassy. I then spent the day giving the princess a tour of our very little kingdom, while everyone else in the party enjoyed their ti at the club. She’d obviously gotten the sense that Closetland was not particularly large during our discussions, and the princess gave no sign that she felt our micronation was inadequate in any way. In fact, she was full of complints when she saw how we were converting ambient dinsional mana into natural resources and had several valuable thoughts on the Closet’s self-perpetuating nature and how it might be improved.
She also planned on bringing a team of her own people to construct the embassy and maintain the grounds, which introduced a wrinkle that I’d been contemplating, but hadn’t expected to crop up just yet. If we wanted to take this whole ‘being an independent country’ thing seriously, I was going to have to get used to having at least so randos in the Closet at any given ti.
Border control was easy, since I literally controlled the borders, but my experience with the Hiwardian delegation may have made a bit paranoid. Not everyone would appreciate the Big Brother levels of surveillance Grotto tended to subject visitors to, and an embassy would technically be land belonging to the Rulers. I didn’t think spying would be taken particularly well.
Was this the best idea? Anxieties aside, if it encouraged a group of ancient and powerful Dragons to help us out with the avatars, then fuck yeah it was. Also, by allowing for an embassy, the Dragons granted permission to place one of my Checkpoints in their mountain. The portal could only be used from within their embassy, and Ishi would have final say over when and if the Checkpoint could be used. Legally speaking, that is. I could still open it whenever I wanted and from anywhere in the Closet, so long as I didn’t mind violating the terms of our initial treaty. I wasn’t planning on ever doing that, of course.
But I could, and everyone knew that I could. They also knew that almost nothing could stop from opening that portal, so the Rulers were taking a pretty big security risk. I didn’t mind ceding so control to get relatively instant access to a civilization of mythical creatures and a host of delicious cocktails.
In the end, Closetland was formally recognized by the Rulers and assigned the status of “friendly”. That was a step up from neutral, since it ant we weren’t on the list of nations they might unilaterally invade without warning. However, it was not to be mistaken for “allied”, since they made no promises whatsoever to help us out if soone else started shit with us. That was more than fair, and it went both ways.
This was technically the first official recognition of our fledgling nation, although Zenithar Zura was working on sothing for us from Eschendur’s end. The Littans had so paperwork that gave our party the opportunity to declare an affiliation prior to our upcoming joint Dungeon diving, but I’d been on the fence about going down that rabbit hole with the empire.
I was also pretty sure I could call up King Filix and have the man ratify sothing for us if I felt like it, but dammit, we didn’t even have a formal constitution. I was sort of waiting for us to at least have farrs or sothing before proclaiming “We the people” to the wider world.
Then again, if we were on the lookout for distressed populations in need of a new ho, we had several options. The Wastes had plenty of outcasts who chafed against the rule of existing power structures. Ayama was a popular destination for refugees and other wayward travelers who’d abandoned their holands for whatever reason, and was pretty selective. There was always a boatload or two worth of people hanging out off her shores with no great place to go. Timagrin was also seeing a light exodus as people sought to distance themselves from the recent tragedies there. We weren’t hunting for holess masses to take in, but they were out there.
As for what Silver ant when she implied Ishi might join up with so Closetlanders to go Delving, there was more rit to the idea than I’d initially thought.
Joma was Level 20, which made her a pretty good match for Ishi at Level 21. Joma had exclusively done Gold Delves, but Grotto didn’t think she’d have any trouble with so plats. The Yeti’s Animal Handling skill, combined with the bond she’d rapidly developed with Nottagator were–according to Grotto–enough to let Joma take the big girl inside a Delve as a fucking animal companion, which was outrageous. Only about as outrageous as my own ability to bring Shog into Delves, but that was still pretty outrageous.
For so reason, Grotto was okay with this, but not with taking Nottagator wherever I went. I think my Familiar was getting a soft spot for the furry little Mittan, but I let it go without comnt.
Between Ishi, Joma, and Nottagator, we had very strong starting seeds for Team Princess. I could even officially declare Nottagator as royalty to keep the the going. But the fun didn’t stop there. Vaulty was technically a Delver. Or, he was several Delvers at once. As it turned out, every undead mber of the Zng army in Throne’s Delve had been a Delver in life, and Vaulty was the spiritual composite of several such entities, harnessed and modified by Throne herself.
With a bit of System massaging and by spending so of our System Rep, Grotto believed he could get Vaulty reassigned from a monster back into a Delver. There was nothing saying an undead couldn’t be a Delver, and the not-quite-a-construct had both the free will and the appropriate mana matrix to take advantage of a Delve’s mana injections.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
What Level would he be? I had no idea. Vaulty was the composite of a dozen Level 15s, but the System would probably do so batshit calculation to figure it out. I’m sure there wouldn’t be any oversights there, and that Vaulty’s capabilities would be entirely fair for whatever Level might end up being assigned.
That gave us three of five party mbers, with an animal companion that basically made up a fourth. There was also the possibility of having Shog fill out the team. My summon had been categorized as a “Hidden Delver” towards the end of Deijin’s Descent, so if I didn’t need him with , I could send the guy on missions while I was busy doing other stuff. Everyone’s favorite c’thon was still on leave for another six months, but Ishi wasn’t in a huge rush to start smashing Delves. Dragons worked on fairly long tilines.
Speaking of which, I discovered that Ishi was eighty-six years old. She looked really good for her age, but that’s no surprise since I hear that immortality is great for the skin.
Next, I rubber-stamped so blueprints Grotto had going for the continuing expansion into unused parts of the Closet. Notably, there was a spoke and wheel design he called the “Five Harbingers,” which incorporated five sub-obelisks that would be slaved to the main obelisk. They would each be housed inside a tower that was technically its own Delve, but which would be set for lower Levels and easily managed. That was the pitch, anyway.
The towers would move as the Closet expanded, continually adjusting the influence of each obelisk and the radius from which it could gather mana as they were upgraded. This would help us get back on track to exponential growth, plus they could be customized so that each mber of the main party could use one as their dark lair when plotting and scheming. It would be Throne’s project, but Grotto would supervise. I was assured that no undead or ntal slavery of any form would be involved.
I also had to approve so expenditures for labor that Grotto wanted to hire in from Eschendur. This imdiately caused to appoint Nuralie as Closetland’s Lord of Coin, since she was more than happy to spend my money for , and I didn’t want to deal with all of that.
Then I had to address so missives sent from various parties across the globe. There were several from Hiwardian officials with follow-up questions about the king’s kidnapping, alongside dozens of inquiries and invitations from the various major houses. Those questionnaires got pushed off to Varrin since he spoke fluent noble.
Beyond that, there was a letter from Seinnador requesting that I send him so more poison essences. The term of our agreent to sell him all the poison essences he required for two years had been extended since I’d technically breached our original sales contract by disappearing from the face of the planet for a year before the term was up. The letter was filled with friendly ribbing.
I took my agreents seriously and set aside a hundred to send his way, along with an order for a dozen of his upgraded Dazzlers. I had so ideas for those I wanted to explore.
I went back and forth with the Zenithars on what we’d learned from the Dragons, facilitated etings with delegates from both the Littan Empire and Hiward on Ishi’s behalf, and even took the ti to et with so Timans who I’d first thought were governnt officials but turned out to be a group of minstrels. They wanted to know more about how I killed a living mountain by pile-driving it from space.
After so initial confusion, I realized that these troubadours were getting the lore mixed up between two different Fortune’s Folly escapades–both of which involved destroying a mountain while falling from great heights–so I set the record straight and sent them on their way. Afterwards, I wondered how they’d heard about any of that shit, but my boa had an effect that boosted my renown so I didn’t think about it too hard.
In between all of this, Varrin invited to join him for so Smithing lessons from Hep’s Elental Rembrance. That guy was a hell of a teacher, but gods above, was it hot in that caldera. I eventually broke down and asked why I was the only mber of the party whose hair was constantly at risk of catching fire, which was t with the following responses.
Nuralie: “The oil in that fireproofing salve was developed from the natural oils my scalp produces.”
Kind of gross, but neat.
Varrin: “I am Hiwardian.”
Congratulations on your superior genes, Varrin.
Xim: “It’s really not that hot.”
I chalked that one up to Third Layer shenanigans. She’d ntioned there was a lake of fire down there once.
Etja: “My hair isn’t actually made of hair!”
Blessed golem magicks, how can I learn your ways?
I also convinced Ishi to give so Wandmaking lessons, which were quite hot as well, but in a different kind of way.
Overall, I was a busy fucking man for three months. Almost like I was trying to help coordinate a global information exchange and oversee a hundred square miles of land developnt, both while constantly increasing my capacity for ass kicking. While the workload was stressful, it was quite good for my skill levels.
Your Smithing skill has increased from Level 17 to Level 20!
Your Wandmaking skill has increased from Level 11 to Level 20!
I just barely managed to get both of those to Level 20 for the next evolution before I was out of ti to train them up. I had to sacrifice working on a few other things, but I was ready to smith up so new prismatite gear to replace my verdantum, which had beco fairly obsolete. My Demon Bone Cuirass of the Descent was still pretty good compared to normal gear of my tier, excluding outliers like Varrin’s helm, so I just needed to replace everything else. Easy enough.
For Smithing, my evolution let squeeze in 50% more defensive mana weaves onto a piece of gear than I’d normally be able to. It was creatively nad Defensive Specialist. However, I wanted to wait to craft new armor until we’d cleared the rest of the Delves we were aiming for prior to eting with the Littans. Mana weaves were limited by stats, and I’d have more stats after a few more Delves. The delayed gratification would lead to a superior product.
For Wandmaking, I picked Double Barrel. That let put two spells on a wand instead of the normal max of one, and four spells on a staff instead of two. It also let use wands as a focus when casting any spell, not just the ones stored within it, which had so advantages depending on the wand. My spell-sticks now had a mana capacity of 45, which was really starting to get sowhere.
Ishi also introduced to a few exotic wood types that added so bonuses when used to make wands. I bought so Dragon-grown Acacia and crafted up a pair of these bad boys:
Acacia Wand of Elental Reservoir
Requirents: INT 20
Effects:
20 damage to elental spell attacks made while using this wand as a focus.
Mana Capacity: 45/45
Spell Slots: 2/2
Stored Spells:
Explosion!
Elental Barrier
Sonic was an elental damage type, so the wands would enhance both spells.
All the wheeling and dealing I was doing also led to so Diplomacy levels.
Your Diplomacy skill has increased from Level 17 to Level 21!
Naturally, I picked an evolution that would encourage people to pay more attention whenever I opened my mouth.
Executive
You exude a presence of authority, generating trust in those who converse with you. Other entities instinctively understand your expertise, causing them to trust your opinion over their own in any topic involving an intrinsic skill you possess, as long as their level in that skill is lower than yours.
Then, finally, there were the Delves, which delivered more skill levels and so juicy stat growth on top of everything else. Of course, there was sothing about these next Delves we’d forgotten to consider: one of my recent evolutions had co with an unusual and lightly foreboding System ssage…
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