Darren Burnstock

“Your son will be enrolling soon,” The Mathemancer said. I gave him a slight smile as we sat on the balcony of the highest tower overlooking the Ice Capped Mountains just before dawn, enjoying some wonderful tea.

“He is quite capable for his age,” I replied neutrally. There was one question I wanted to ask but didn’t dare to. Ripping off the veil of civility was quite dangerous.

“Don’t worry. He will be protected while at my College. The same for all my students. Despite the flames of war will be reignited once again. You will not make this your fortress. This is a place of learning,” he said while staring at me.

“But you don’t mind me recruiting?” I asked.

“Words are wind. But anyone who tries to change this place after I leave will be in for a nasty surprise. Even someone of…your skills,” he replied. I set down my teacup.

“You know,” I replied.

“That you are a soul mage that cast aside most of your skills to be reborn. Yes. As for your true identity, I have a couple of guesses,” he said. As expected of a Supreme Legend.

“And are you going to expose me?” I asked.

“I should. But I will not. The affairs of the surface will soon be a distant memory,” The Mathemancer said while looking outwards towards the rising sun.

“Even if you could live longer?” I asked.

“Your method isn’t stable. There are cracks in your soul. While you have tried your best to fix them, there are still cracks,” he said, and I winced at this. I knew this. Even with the increased levels Elena had given me from power leveling, I had changed bodies too many times. The current one was highly compatible, but it wasn’t as perfect as the body I had been born with over two millennia ago.

“Any suggestions?” I asked.

“Even with my knowledge of Soul Magic, you clearly used a tier 6 skill of some kind. Let me guess, hmmm, ripping out your skills to shrink your soul. The damage to your mind must be extensive,” The Mathemancer easily pinpointed the weakness of my skill. I waited for a suggestion to fix the problem.

“Oh, you can’t fix it yourself. You need someone else. Your son?” he asked while staring intently at me.

“One option,” I replied.

“You pushed Elena to use soul fruits and her child, setting him on such a path. A very long gambit. I can feel my divination skills tingling,” he said.

“Which is the problem. Despite my best efforts. The Dark Cabal is going to cause trouble,” I replied. I disliked divination skills, but they were quite useful for knowing when something big and dangerous was about to occur. That was why I was having some excellent tea with The Mathemancer. Everything was moving to a point of climax and confrontation.

“I am prepared. Timing is everything. Undercraft will be no more unfortunately, but that is why underground building is so dangerous. No room to escape, and it could all come crumbling down,” The Mathemancer said casually.

“The Dwarves should have been wiped out long ago. Nothing but troublemakers, those sub-human races. The Elves created the Dark Library and founded the Dark Cabal. Bah!” I complained.

“Their leader Xanatos is a human and the other races are not sub-human. The Dark Library is quite the achievement. Binding a pocket space with an intelligence to keep it hidden. I believe they were wiped out three times in the past but like a curse, it just doesn’t go away,” he said.

“Like I said, it should have been wiped out long ago. Who is the new Dark Lord of the Cabal?” I asked. Since we were having a candid conversation, I wanted to know who was the deranged madman running things.

“The Dark Lord Xanatos. I am guessing soul and poison skills,” The Mathemancer said.

“My son,” I replied with a frown.

“If you remove all other possibilities only one remains. Your wife went to see Blood Gore and should be returning shortly,” he replied, and we both sipped our tea. My mind was racing. Everything was converging, which was why I felt future tremors through my divination skills. “The Dark Lord seems to think he can use my College as a battleground. He will be sorely mistaken. I created this place from the ground up to see further than anyone else.”

I knew he wasn’t referring to the view from his balcony. The enchantments protecting this place were insanely impressive, even by my standards. We only had a slight breeze of cool wind, instead of a bone cutting blizzard. It wasn’t the weather protection that was impressive, but the scale and how everything was perfectly balanced.

“So, you are going to make your tomb in the dungeon, a shame,” I replied.

“Better than dying in bed. Or clinging to a half-life, or should I call it a quarter,” he verbally jabbed back at me. That was a fair critique.

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“Perhaps there is an opportunity. You won’t mind me taking action?” I asked.

“You agreed to teach for a year. That is the cost of trying to create trouble for the world by recruiting legends from my College. And if you aren’t in the College when we depart, then you will be left behind and I would be unhappy that you broke our agreement,” The Mathemancer said.

“Ah, no worries. I don’t plan to leave. Just a couple of discrete skills,” I replied. They were skills I had grasped onto and didn’t let go of, during my rebirths.

“You are a dangerous man Edric,” The Mathemancer said, guessing my true name.

“I guess I did leave behind too many clues, but it is Darren now,” I replied.

“My mistake. So how deep did you go?” he asked.

“The 29^th layer,” I honestly replied.

“A shame you didn’t go one more,” he replied.

“I prefer living. When the monsters start using soul magic and other esoteric nonsense, it becomes suicide,” I replied.

“Perhaps, but I believe there is something at the bottom,” The Mathemancer said.

“Infinity is a concept many fail to grasp,” I replied.

“True. Very true,” he said, and we both sipped our tea again. The sun was almost fully past the mountain peaks.

“Any regrets?” he asked as I set the empty tea cup down on the table between us.

“Countless. Since you know who I am, consider the debt repaid Matthew,” I replied.

“I appreciate the thought, but the debt was repaid long ago. If anything you are in my debt,” he said.

“Perhaps. You will just have to return to collect on it.”

“You can leave this all behind, come with us,” he said. For one glorious moment, I was tempted. Reaching the bottom of the dungeon was the dream of any true adventurer. Back when I first entered over two millennia ago, I had dreamed of finding out all its secrets.

That connection was one of many I had used to manipulate Elena. Even now The Mathemancer was being influenced by me. These powerful people could easily kill me, but they lacked the understanding of a passive tier 6 social skill.

Convergent Harmonic Mindset was incredibly powerful and dangerous. Allowing me to understand people, bringing my mindset closer to theirs, while my very presence, brought their thoughts closer to mine. The subtle ripples of energy were incredibly minute, blending in with the background energy of the world itself. The source of this content ɪs N0veI.Fiɾe.net

It wasn’t mind control, but it offered me the unparalleled to manipulate the strong. True strength was not at the end of a sword or a spell, but on bending others to your will. A shame that supreme legends could only bend so much. Their souls were too strong. I could only direct them in a way that benefited me.

“I believe I am better suited for the surface, than the dungeon,” I replied.

“With your tier 6 social skill, I would say so. It is subtle, but I have long since pushed my sensory skills to spot such things,” The Mathemancer said.

“My apologies,” I quickly said as my heart froze.

“Oh no. It is very rare to see such a skill in action. It is quite inspirational. Using the background energy to subtlety impact an individual. A touch as light as a feather. My control of energy around me is also good enough to give you false information, letting me breakthrough on Micro Mana Manipulation. If anything, I should be thanking you for the opportunity,” The Mathemancer said.

“Your forbearance is appreciated,” I replied.

“You are too linear in your thinking Edric. It was your downfall before and will be your downfall once again. That and your constant grasping for power and life. While the Eldarin Empire was impressive, it was also wasteful, ignorant, and cruel,” he said.

“Which was necessary to wipe out the demons. An intelligent race born from the dungeon would have doomed us all,” I countered.

“True, but it was what came after that. You didn’t stop at the demons. The slavery. The brutality. The death camps. The never-ending wars,” he said.

“It is easy to criticize, but those powerful people needed an outlet. The dwarves and elves sided with our enemies at the very end fearing humanities power, it is only right that they were repaid with fire and blood for their treachery,” I countered.

“And the future? What does that hold besides war?”

“A new dawn. This time things will be done right. Without the slavery,” I replied. There would still be wars and death camps of course. Nothing like a good purging to get the people in line and working effectively.

“I admire your persistence if nothing else. Also, your plays you have written throughout the centuries. Twilight of the Eldarins was quite amusing.”

“Ah, you are probably the only one left that knows my hobby,” I replied with a smile. The Mathemancer shook his head.

“Your ability to make fun of yourself was always a source of amusement,” he said.

“I find a sense of humor is the sign of stable of mind. Especially humor at oneself. Too many people take themselves far too seriously,” I said.

“And you went and had a child with Elena.” I shrugged slightly at this accusation.

“Just keeping my options open, and I believe children are the future. Giving back to society,” I said.

“The mental hoops you jump through must exercise your mental skills quite a bit,” The Mathemancer said, poking fun at me. I smiled at the joke. It was quite well done, but not enough to make me laugh.

“True. I do like making things complicated. It does create so many more options. Still, cutting to the heart of the matter has its own benefits,” I said and The Mathemancer winced slightly.

“That skill is a menace.”

“I didn’t give up all my skills. Especially not the most important ones,” I replied. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. It made my reincarnations much more difficult than they needed to be, but tier 6 skills were quite amazing, and I had three of them.

The pinnacle of social skills, replacing a soul, and the most devastating attack skill in existence. Just a single whisper could undo the even the strongest opponents. It was my ultimate trump card. Using it was insanely difficult and costly, but it had amazing synergy with all my other social skills. One just needed to time things to set the pace for victory.

“You sure you don’t want to take over as Dean?”

“My ambitions are different from yours. The skill training will help me repair many skills and there are legends I have need of,” I replied without hesitation. It was a tempting offer, but I had far greater dreams and ambitions. Taking over this world was just the start. One College of Advancement was nothing in comparison.

“A shame. I would wish you luck with your endeavors, but you will bring misery and despair to countless beings. The horrors of the Eternal Empire echo throughout eternity, bringing it back is a mistake, even without the slavery. Now, I have other arrangements. It was good to chat with you one last time, Edrick,” he said.

“If you do reach the bottom, I hope you make it back,” I said. While we disagreed, that was fine. As long as he didn’t get in my way, I would accept him stepping aside as I pursued my ambitions.

“I doubt it, but that is what makes it exciting. The unknown.” I didn’t agree, but it was regretful that I would lose one of the only true acquaintances that I had left. I slowly got up and left the balcony. Nothing else needed to be said between us.

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