Ty pulled up his ability chart. He was level Eleven and had powers to pick—both for level eleven, and the level ten ability he hadn’t taken for his elf heritage, which had to be from Wyld or Soul magic. His chart had an insane number of options—powers from three magics that he could pick, as well as additional powers specific to his status as dungeon lord of the Dryad Dungeon.

  Ty glanced up to see that Saelenia’s eyes were fuzzing out. “Can you see my chart?”

  “Of course I can. I saw it the first day you made the dungeon, when you picked you branching paths,” Saelenia said, then tutted. “Sheesh. And they say us old folk have memory problems.”

  Ty flushed. “What do you think?”

  They stared at the chart together for a moment.

  Saelenia refocused on Ty. “That’s a whole mess of magical abilities, youngling. What were you thinking is the important question.”

  Ty tapped his teeth. “Well, I’ve taken a ton of damage and protection abilities lately, and with Helryn gone, I think that I’ll have a chance to work on my dungeon powers. I was thinking of taking Dungeon Passage, rank II and The Web of the Dryad’s Grove… and I’m curious as to what the effect in the world will be from the dungeon passage.”

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  “You didn’t get any special powers at level ten?” Saelenia asked.

  Ty grimaced. “No… I’d hoped with all the odd combinations of unusual abilities that I’d get offered something insane, but no dice.”

  “Maybe Magic Wellspring?” Saelenia asked. “That sounds like the basis for some extremely powerful abilities.”

  Ty hesitated. He had wanted the extra Magic stat from Web, and he wanted to see the effects of Dungeon Passage, Rank II. Saelenia had a good point, probably… but still.

  “I’ll wait and give that a go when I hit Level Twelve. For now, I’ll take the other two options.”

  Ty made his selection of abilities, then also selected his stat increases—entirely in capacity—and brought up his chart.

  “I can take about three times the damage a normal mortal does to kill—and about four times what a normal elf takes,” Ty said musingly. “And I can throw lightning and hold shields for a huge amount of time as well, thanks to my insanely high essence.”

  “Impressive,” Saelenia said sardonically, and Ty flushed. His Level Eleven was nothing to her Eighty-Eight, and given the nature of leveling and how abilities stacked, she was vastly more than eight times stronger than him.

  He scratched the back of his head, a gesture copied from his liege. “Yeah, yeah.”

  Salenia chuckled. “So what now?”

  Ty beamed up at her. “Well, first, I’m going to run the dungeon. Since everyone in the party is Level Nine or higher, and it’s up to Level Seven, I think we can easily handle it and make a tiny bit of experience. I’ll also be learning what’s in the dungeon.”

  “Bet someone in your group gets mauled after that dismissive speech,” Salenia said. “I vote it’ll be Dalryn. He’s cocky enough without you feeding it.”

  Ty flushed. “Probably Dalryn. I’ll take it seriously though. Besides, we’ll be fine, we have a healer.”

  Saelenia raised one green eyebrow.

  Ty rolled his eyes but continued. “After running the dungeon I’m going to go back to my home. I’ve got to start settling people now that I’m officially Baron Tywyndyll ap Belmoria—and I’d like to take a bit of time to scout my future barony, and see what it has to offer and how to build it. And spend some time with Ivy and Forli as well.”

  “How is little Forli?” Saelenia asked.

  “Still a bit shook-up from the experience of being an adventurer,” Ty said.

  “Got her stabbed, did you?” Saelenia asked.

  Ty winced. It had been considerably worse than that, although he didn’t feel “he” had done it. “Well, she’s very happy. She’s growing a daughter—um, seed—and happy about that, and she loves running the household. And she always has ‘the daughter that saved the Crone and made the first of the new generation of dryads’ to tout to everyone.”

  Saelenia smiled. “I’m glad to see my daughter doing well. Given the tree she was born from, I had few hopes. But it is pleasing. Anyway, you were talking about your plans?”

  Ty nodded. “Yes… I need a second dungeon for the build I took, my branching paths, to work—when I say I want to be a dungeon master, most people don’t understand the half of it. The tree of Worlds opened a path to a freezing dimension of advanced magic—Ice Pines. That’s my next plan, to see what I can find in that world.”

  Saelenia glanced at Ty skeptically. “You don’t look like you take to cold well.”

  “Still.”

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