After a minute or two of his discomfort slowly ratcheting up, he finally pushed the other two away. “Look guys, I’m not much of a hugger to begin with, and while I’m working on accepting myself, I’m not all the way there yet. So how about we have some tea and a chat? I got Mr… errr… someone to help me find a plant that can counter the effects of the spores when made into a tea. I haven’t tried it since I’m personally immune to the effects more or less, but I trust my source.”
“Hmmm? Oh… uhhh, sure…” Rheagan said distractedly. He definitely looked more tired and emaciated up close, the toxic spores continuing to do their job as well as their less lethal brethren. Xander led the two around the throne towards the exit door, commanding Carl Jr. to drag Augustus along behind them. There were some muffled thumps as they went, but instead of groans, Augustus just giggled. A few hallways and a hidden door later the group made it into Xander’s small garden.
He really wanted to trust them, but it was far too dangerous to reveal his grove’s existence and location to them even now, especially with Augustus there. Who knew how much memory the man would retain when he recovered, or what kind of grudges he would hold. The garden wasn’t nearly as large or well accommodated, but there was enough space that Xander could reach out with Nurture Vegetation and grow three comfortable chairs for him and his guests. Augustus could chill out in the corner where Carl Jr. dragged him.
“So uh, I don’t have much in the way of glasses or silverware or anything, but I can make you some bone based cups and saucers if you want?” He offered hesitantly. Rheagan and Sibil both shook their heads, and took some basic camping gear out of their packs. “We’ll make do with what we have. Can we start a small fire?” asked Rheagan.
Xander nodded, “Sure, just keep it small.” He used Control Plants to have one of the antidote plants lift itself out of the soil and crawl over to them on its multitudinous roots.
They all sat around the small fire quietly; Xander feeling awkward and his two guests lost in whatever wandering thoughts occupied them. A few minutes later, and some collected rainwater was boiling in a fairly plain looking pot that had seen a lot of use. “What’s the deal with that?” Xander asked Rheagan “I thought you were a noble, couldn’t you afford nicer gear?”
The other man took a sip of the fresh tea, then shook his head “Technically yes, but we Heintfeld’s pride ourselves on practicality. Why bring unnecessarily fancy and expensive gear into a dungeon when it will get damaged almost without fail?” Xander had to admit that he had a point, but was also pretty sure that people with power and money rarely thought that way. Sibil couldn’t seem to sit still and was wandering through the rows of plants with her tea in hand. “Sooooo…” he said, drawing out the word, “You guys wanted to talk? Can you think straight enough to manage that?”
Rheagan considered the question, then shrugged “Ehhh, maybe? Can I have another hug first?” Xander rolled his eyes “No, you may not, jeeze. Are you trying to hit on me or something? I know what I look like but I’m still a guy inside.”
The other man had actually started to look a bit embarrassed and was shaking his head vigorously. “No no, it's nothing like that! It's just that there are so many colors and everything looks so pretty and I just wanted to… ermmm… hug… things…” the warrior looked so mortified that Xander actually giggled, not even flinching at the sound of his own voice this time.
“Oh be quiet,” Rheagan said, coloring slightly and shoving Xander, “It’s all your fault anyway… I can’t think straight. It’s just not proper for a scion of a noble house to go around asking to embrace random people. My father would be absolutely livid if he knew. You can’t tell him, promise me!” He seemed so genuine and concerned that Xander giggled even harder before managing to make out, “Okay okay, I won’t tell him, I promise. I mean it's not even like I could unless he came to the dungeon or something, but your secret is safe with me.”
That got Rheagan to relax, and also piqued his interest. “What do you mean? Can you no longer leave since becoming the Dungeon Lord? And how did you even do that in the first place? And why do you seem so much stronger than you were before?”
“Whoah easy dude, one question at a time please, and I can’t answer all of those for you anyway. There are some secrets I really have to keep.” Xander said, wiping at non-existent tears of laughter. “But I’ll answer what I can. First off, yes I can technically leave, but there are some real good reasons why it’s very dangerous to do so.” Rheagan leaned a bit closer with interest, but Xander shook his head “Reasons that I can’t tell you, at least not yet. This whole Dungeon Lord gig is really a mess.”
“Come now Xander,” Rheagan wheedled, “Surely you can tell me more than that? I thought we were friends by now!”
Xander felt a bit of warmth in his chest as the noble said they were friends. He had been hoping for as much, but there were lots of reasons why Rheagan might have believed otherwise. “Oh, we are friends,” he replied hastily, “Or at least I really hope so. But there are still some things that I really can’t tell you for both my safety and yours. One of the things I think I can say is though that Dungeon Lords get a whole bunch of extra ability points to spend, which is why we are so strong. I mean, I get a whole five ability points per level instead of just two!” When his friend just blinked and looked a bit hesitant rather than shocked, Xander got a sinking feeling. “Rheagan…?” he asked slowly, “What is it?”
“That’s… ermm… do you mean five additional points or five total?”
“Five total of course…” Xander said with a bit of confusion.
“Do you not know how races work?” Rheagan asked carefully.
“Well I know that I got some features and stuff that were exclusive to being a dryad, or at least it sounded like it was exclusive. So?”
The other man paused, clearly trying to think of how to phrase his answer, then said, “Each race has a different blend of features, ability points, and other factors. Most humanoid races are relatively balanced against each other, but some are considered better than others, and that’s not even taking into account certain outlier races or monstrous races which can be incredibly unbalanced if you go simply by level.”
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Xander frowned slightly, considering that. Back on his world in RPG’s the races were usually as closely balanced as the creators could make them, though even there some races were considered better than others. He had a feeling where Rheagan was going with this and nodded for him to continue.
“Well humans are considered to be one of the most… variable of races. We don’t get much in the way of innate features, but instead get five ability points per level and can usually obtain whatever kind of class we want.” Xander gaped at him, shocked to hear that what he thought was this massive power boost as a Dungeon Lord only got him up to the level of a regular human.
“How is that even fair?” he demanded, a bit irked that he was reincarnated as such a weak race. He could have just been reborn as a human and not had less than half the ability points or been forced into a female body!
Rheagan was unfazed though and just shrugged. “Well, you don’t have as many ability points, but I literally saw you pull a piece of bone out of your throat and recover your missing hands in a matter of minutes. You don’t even seem to have a scar. Plus dryads have innate magic from the start, which is impossible for humans. We’re lucky to get our first spell at level 5 if we can manage to take a casting class early.”
Xander was taken aback for a moment, but had to admit that the noble had some points. “You said something about a bloodline too, right? I haven’t heard of anything like that for dryads.”
“Ah well that isn’t only for humans, anyone who gets to a sufficient level can take those features. Bloodlines aren’t very popular choices because other options are stronger in terms of immediate personal power, even though the bloodlines offer obvious benefits for their offspring. Also, I thought I was supposed to be the one doing the questioning.” Rheagan said sardonically, seeming to have mostly recovered from the effects of the spores by this point. Even Sibil had given up her wandering and was relaxing in the chair he had made for her.
With a shrug, Xander said, “I thought we were just friends having a chat, not that this was an interrogation.” It came out a little harsher than he had intended perhaps, but he was still struggling with the fact that he had been robbed of certain choices. If he had been born a human, he could not only have been a man, but also picked what he wanted to do instead of being shoehorned into some weird nature mage.
His friend sighed. “So we are, I didn’t mean-”
Xander cut him off with a wave of his hand. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t really mean what I said either, it’s just… I’m still having a hard time adjusting to everything.” The noble looked curious, taking a sip of his tea contemplatively while waiting to see if Xander would add anything more, but he didn’t want his background as someone from another world to be general knowledge.
After the silence turned awkward, Rheagan nodded slowly. “Alright, well, I suppose we should move on then. The biggest question I have for you isn’t really any more comfortable, but I must ask it anyway. What are your plans and intentions as a Dungeon Lord? Everyone in the city is running scared right now because from what little we know about Dungeon Lords they are incredibly powerful and bring wealth and opportunity, but also death and destruction.
Blinking, Xander thought that he should really have had more of an answer ready to that question, but he had been so busy relaxing or preparing for immediate threats that he hadn’t ever bothered to really consider what he wanted to do in the middle term. His longest ranging goal of getting home to his family wasn’t something he could really discuss without getting into dangerous territory, and his shortest term goal was still just ‘survive’.
“Well, really, I just want to make some art and get stronger?” Xander finally replied, before elaborating. “There are a great many things I want to learn about the world, and certain magics that I want to obtain, but for the immediate future all I really want to do is survive and make some really cool art while I do so.”
His friend quirked an eyebrow, “By ‘art’ you mean…?”
“Paintings, sculptures, and well… my minions too I suppose. I might explore other areas of art eventually, but I’ve been enjoying working with my magical powers to make some really cool pieces!” Xander said excitedly.
“Do I take it to mean that you’ve made the various minions and… paintings that we encountered on our way here?” Rheagan asked cautiously. Xander nodded with a bit more enthusiasm than he had felt in a while, excited to hear what his friend thought of them, though he was also concerned by the man’s hesitant demeanor and the fact that he dressed how he would have expected a medieval normie to dress. “What did you think of the paintings?”
“They were… hauntingly novel.” Rheagan said diplomatically, but Sibil actually snorted. “I think what our fearless leader means to say is that they were quite terrifying. The one looked like a straight up demon of some kind, and another looked like a man being pulled apart, with scary accuracy as to what his insides looked like.”
Xander sighed heavily, thinking
Xander couldn’t help but perk back up a bit, the noble just has this generally charismatic and genuine way about him. He supposed that an aristocrat would probably be required to deal with all kinds of people and be good at manipulation, but he didn’t give off a greasy used sword salesman vibe either. The swordsman seemed to actually care.
“Getting back on topic,” Rheagan said after clearing his throat, “You do understand that more people are going to come to your dungeon, don’t you? Dungeons are dangerous to begin with, but the party before us was considered to be fairly powerful, and you killed two out of the three of them. I won’t ask how you survived being beheaded since you likely won’t tell me anyway, but are you planning on killing everyone who comes calling?” The warrior stared intently at Xander as he talked, seeming a bit on edge while he awaited an answer.
For his part, Xander also schooled his features to be serious, wanting to be as open and truthful as he could. “No, I don’t really want to kill anyone at all to be honest. I know people are going to come try their hand at defeating my dungeon, but I genuinely don’t like killing. I get that it might be a bit hard to believe with my choice of decor, but just consider that my aesthetic preference, not a reflection of my morality.” Sibil looked dumbstruck, her eyes glowing with a subtle magic that he hadn’t noticed until just now. She turned to Rheagan “He’s telling the truth. At least as he believes it of course.”
Xander felt a little insulted that they would use magic to check if he was telling the truth, but he gritted his teeth and bit down on the urge to demand to know why they felt it necessary. Of course they would want to know without fail if they could. “I thought Jhakor was all about fire, how do you even know a spell that can tell if I’m telling the truth or not?” he asked tersely. Sibil blushed “I don’t know such a spell… it was from a skill gem,” she said, holding out a hand which had some strange glittering dust in it.”
“A what? Is that some kind of one shot item?”
“Yeah, sorry, we just… y’know, had to be sure.” Sibil half mumbled
Before Xander could say anything else, Rheagan interjected. “I’m really sorry Xander, but no matter how much I like you, I still have a duty to my house, and to the city in general. I formally apologize for using such a spell, but in all honesty, I would do so again if need be.”
Xander huffed, but his friend’s attitude mollified him somewhat, and he had to admit to himself that he was hiding many things from the man as well. “Fine.” he said tersely, before adding “And if we’re all going to be honest with each other, while I don’t want to kill anyone else, I also don’t doubt that I will do so again in the future.”