But honestly, Nimbus’s idea of a banana break wasn’t a bad one. Not that Ruth, Jonah, or I needed bananas, but rather I needed time to sit down and distribute the Words I had gotten before Wolfbrand attacked. Unlike normal Codexers, I had to manually distribute my Words between my Casting Pool and my Banked Progress.
When I explained that particular quirk of my Discipline to Ruth and Jonah, Jonah asked me, “Does the Codex hate you or something?”
“That’s what I said when he told me about his Discipline for the first time,” said Nimbus through a mouthful of banana. He sat at my feet, happily eating his banana. “And nothing that has happened since then has convinced me I am wrong.”
Even Ruth expressed sympathy at how difficult this had to make progressing for me. She was a lot nicer about it than Jonah or Nimbus, but I could tell that she felt just as terrible about my Discipline’s unique quirk compared to how Page turning typically worked for other Codex Disciplines.
Frankly, I didn’t appreciate either Ruth or Jonah’s reactions to learning about my Wordcasting ability, but I also felt like they needed to know if we were going to work together to complete this dungeon. They promised to tell me about how their Disciplines worked, too, but they apparently had some preparations they needed to make before we officially formed our Dungeon Party and headed into the dungeon itself. I doubted that their preparations involved having to choose between the ability to cast spells or the ability to progress through the Chapter System, but I kept such comments to myself.
Instead, I sat near the Dungeon Node while Ruth and Jonah went off to different corners of the room to make their preparations. I noticed that Jonah was still picking at the bandages around his arms, which made me worried that he might not heal up in time for us to enter the dungeon.
But even though the dungeon had given us a week to complete the first floor, it didn’t force us to enter the dungeon. Jonah mentioned that it was pretty typical for dungeon parties to take a couple of hours to plan an excursion into the deeper parts of the dungeon when they first entered, though in our case we would probably be heading in much sooner because we didn’t know what to expect. If this had been a previously explored dungeon, we probably should have spent more time planning, but we didn’t know what to expect so planning would have to be limited.
Regarding food supplies and stuff, Ruth and I had already packed along a few days’ worth of food when we left the village with the research party. It turned out that Jonah also carried food on him because he and Sheminith had apparently been traveling for a while. Jonah had also mentioned that we might be able to find food in the dungeon, such as hunting and killing certain types of mobs, though apparently most Codex mobs were inedible. Nimbus expressed hope that we might find bananas within the dungeon, but Jonah shot down that idea right away, as fruit was apparently rare in Node Dungeons, and if you did find fruit, it was probably poisonous or part of some kind of test created by the Codex and would most likely harm you. It was usually safer to bring your own food in the dungeon, especially for long-term dungeon excursions.
What became clear to me was that Jonah was the actual expert on dungeons here. Ruth seemed to know quite a bit as well, but she always prefaced her statements about Node Dungeons with modifiers about reading it in a book or about what researchers had written about it and apparently had little practical experience dungeon diving herself. Jonah always seemed to be speaking from personal experience, though I found both of their insights helpful for different reasons. I still intended to find out more about Jonah’s background and the Silver Swords Guild he was a member of, but for the time being, I needed to focus on my progression.
So, sitting down in the cool dungeon entry room with my hands on my knees, I tapped my portable and navigated over to my Codex sheet.
I still had 200 unspent Words in my Codex sheet. That was easily the most amount of Words I had ever gained in one go at this point. Ruth had gained a similar amount because we had both gotten the same achievement, but Ruth didn’t need to worry about how to distribute them because her Discipline was normal and mine wasn’t. All of hers just went straight to her Page.
I currently had 76 Words in my Banked Progress and needed 250 to reach the next Page in my Codex. But I only had 12 Words in my Casting Pool, which seemed pretty strange because I thought I had more than that until I remembered using Splinter Glyph against one of the Codex Wights when we had been running away from Wolfbrand. That explained the discrepancy, but it didn’t actually make my decision any easier.
On one hand, if I dumped all 200 Words into my Banked Progress, then I would easily reach Page Two in my current Chapter, which should come with a boost in power and stats.
But that would leave me with only 12 Words in my Casting Pool, which was barely anything. Splinter Glyph alone cost 4 Words to cast once. I had other spells with lower Word costs, but that still limited my ability to cast spells.
And I would be stuck here for a week. That meant I could easily use all of those Words in my Casting Pool in one day. I didn’t know what would happen if my Casting Pool ever reached 0, but at the very least, I would not be able to cast spells anymore, which would make me deadweight until I earned more Words somehow. Thankfully, Words were much easier to come by in a dungeon than outside, but there was still no guarantee I would get enough Words to make up for what I spent from my Casting Pool. I couldn’t rely on regenerating spent Words either, which was another drawback of my Discipline.
If we weren’t going to be stuck in this dungeon for a week, I would have immediately dumped all 200 Words into my Banked Progress and called it a day. No reason not to. It would make me stronger and give me access to stronger spells. I would have been able to get more casting Words from completing daily quests for the North Forest Node, allowing me to gradually build up my Casting Pool over time.
But we were going to be stuck in this dungeon for a maximum of a week. Even if we completed it sooner than that—say, within a couple of days—that was still a long time to go with limited or no casting power inside an undoubtedly dangerous dungeon. I suspected that Jonah would be our main fighter while Ruth would be our support, so I might not need to fight that much, but I also didn’t want to be a drag on the rest of the party. Both Ruth and Jonah seemed like nice people, but I didn’t want to be a burden on them and test their niceness that way.
What if we ran into some dangerous mobs that we had to fight? My Stylus wasn’t much use in physical combat—unless I wanted to write the mobs to death, though that didn’t sound particularly practical to me. Unlike Jonah, who had his trusty trident, most of my combat potential came from my spellcasting abilities. I intended to get a proper weapon at some point, but for now, I’d have to rely on my spells.
So I certainly needed to put some of my Words into my Casting Pool just so I could be at least somewhat self-sufficient.
And yes, it was true that I could always borrow mana converted into Words from Nimbus via the spellchain, but as we learned during training, the mana-to-Word conversion rate was pretty poor. Nimbus only had 38 mana, meaning I could at most borrow an extra 3 Words from him or so, which would be barely enough for one of my weaker spells. While Nimbus may have been willing to share his mana with me, I figured that he needed it even more than I did. He was, after all, a small, fragile cloud rabbit. It was impossible to know for sure what kind of mobs we would run into once we officially entered the first floor of the dungeon, but I suspected they would be much more dangerous than a cloud rabbit. I didn’t want to endanger Nimbus’s life unnecessarily, though I kept the spellchain in the back of my mind nonetheless. Could be a good backup in a pinch.
In the end, I decided to split the difference between my Banked Progress and Casting Pool. Rather than putting all 200 Words into my Banked Progress, I invested 174 Words into my Banked Progress and dumped the remaining 26 into my Casting Pool.
Adding the 174 Words into my Banked Progress with the 76 already sitting inside it brought my total Banked Progress to 250, which was enough to turn the Page in my Codex to Page Two. It meant I was starting with no Words in my Banked Progress for Page Two, but at least I was no longer a Chapter One, Page One Codexer. I was probably still the weakest member of the party, but no longer the weakest possible member, at least.
The 26 Words that went into my Casting Pool brought my total Casting Pool to 38 Words. Compared to the maximum amount of Words in my Casting Pool of 250, that wasn’t much, but it would definitely prevent me from immediately running out of Words after casting a handful of spells. I had to admit it was a bit painful to divide Words that way, but given the current situation we were in, I felt like I had no choice. I didn’t want to be a burden on my allies, and anyway, it was good to have casting power. Maybe I could earn some more Lines for my spellcasting ability.
But I was finally on Page Two of my current Chapter, and when my Codex turned to Page Two, I received the following notifications:
Codex Achievement: Turning the Page
Category: Progression
> Description:
> Congratulations on turning the Page in your current Chapter for the first time! Every Page you turn brings you closer and closer to the end of your Codex and deepens your understanding of your Discipline and your very self.
Continue to turn the Pages to gain both greater power and insight.
Rewards:
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
-
+10 Words
-
+20 Insight
-
+4 Intelligence
-
+1 Strength
-
+5 Health
-
+5 Stamina
-
+3 Defense
-
+4 Dexterity
-
+2 Constitution
-
Access to the Codex Spell Library
Codex Note:
>This is a first-time achievement. Subsequent Page turns will give out only the standard Page turn rewards.
This was then followed by another notification from earlier, one I had dismissed due to the chaos at that time:
You have successfully altered a structural glyph in a dungeon barrier! +50 Lines to Runic Knowledge.
I had to admit that both of those notifications and the rewards they gave me were nice. I appreciated the stat boost across the board for turning to Page Two in my Codex, even if it was just a one-time achievement that wouldn’t be given out again. Stat boosts were a common reward for turning the Page in your Codex, so I expected this to happen again when I got to Page Two. The 10 Words were especially nice, so I put half of them in my Banked Progress and another half in my Casting Pool, giving me 5 Words toward Page Three and 43 Words for casting.
The last reward about access to the Codex Spell Library was interesting, as I hadn’t heard about the Codex Spell Library before, but I would ask Nimbus about it later.
But I will admit I was surprised to earn 50 Lines to my Runic Knowledge for messing with the dungeon barrier. That seemed like a lot, especially given how it didn’t even really work the way I wanted it to, but perhaps my Codex Bond effect with Nimbus had helped.
Nimbus confirmed as much when I asked him about it after I told him about my growth and the Lines I had earned. He said that when I altered the structural glyphs of the dungeon barrier, it had instantly activated his Codex Bond effect that auto-stabilized a glyph I created or altered once a day. Intrigued, I asked Nimbus how he had gotten that Codex Bond effect, and he explained that Codex Bond effects were not the same with every synced pair of Codexer and Codex Beast. That is to say, Nimbus’s ability to auto-stabilize glyphs I altered or created on my own only worked because I was an Inscriptionist.
“But if, say, I was synced with Ruth instead, I would probably gain a Codex Bond effect that would work better with her Harmonic Healer Discipline,” said Nimbus through a mouthful of banana. “That might be something like, say, the ability to enhance the radius or duration of a healing spell of hers or something like that.”
I nodded when Nimbus said that, my eyes briefly darting across the room to Ruth. She was kneeling on the floor, digging through her backpack and sorting glowing potion bottles and various other medical supplies that I couldn’t identify. She had said she needed to get her medical supplies sorted for easy access once we entered the dungeon, though I didn’t understand how her bag could hold so much despite being so small. Jonah, meanwhile, was doing push-ups and crunches, which seemed like a great way to tire himself out before the dungeon, but I didn’t say that aloud.
Regardless, it was good to know about that. It meant that I didn’t have to worry about teaching Nimbus other abilities to support my own. Nimbus also indicated that he thought he would get more and stronger Codex Bond effects the longer we remained synced together and the stronger that he got, though he said it was impossible to predict exactly what kind of Codex Bond effects he might receive until he reached the next Chapter in his Codex. I wished that I could know ahead of time what kind of Codex Bond effects Nimbus would learn, but the ones that he currently had, such as the auto-stabilizing glyph feature, were useful as they were. He had another ability that would increase the radius of one of my spells by 10 feet, which I could definitely see coming in handy in the dungeon at some point.
After I finished distributing my Words and reviewing my Codex sheet, I rose to my feet and made my way over to the entrance to the first floor of the dungeon with Nimbus hopping by my side, having finished his banana. Coincidentally, Jonah and Ruth had apparently finished their preparations, too, and were coming over to join us. Ruth, however, was still digging through her pack like she was looking for something at the last minute, though when I asked her what she was looking for, she was pretty vague about it. I don’t think she actually heard what I said, however, so I didn’t push the subject. She would probably tell us whenever she found it.
The entrance to the first floor of the dungeon was identical to the wooden entrance of the dungeon itself, except with the numeral ‘1’ etched into its surface.
I reached a hand out to grab the door handle, but Jonah caught my wrist and said, “Wait. Before we enter, we need to form a Codex Party.” He gave me a hard look. “Do you know what a Codex Party is?”
I hesitated for a moment but nodded. I wasn’t sure why Jonah was acting so intense all of a sudden, but he seemed like a pretty intense guy in general. “I’ve heard the term before. That’s just what happens when multiple Codexers get together to complete quests and stuff together, right?”
Jonah let go of my wrist but continued to look intense, though significantly less judgmental now than he had before. “They are good for a lot more than that. But at least you’ve got the basics down. That’s better than I expected from you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“Jonah just means that it’s good that we all understand what a Codex Party is,” said Ruth, still digging through her pack for some reason, though she was still paying attention to the conversation. “Honestly, I almost forgot about forming a Codex Party ourselves. But if we are going to get through this dungeon, then we definitely need a Codex Party.”
Jonah nodded and tapped his portable a couple of times. My portable pinged and this notification appeared in my vision:
NodeLink contact Jonah Uri is inviting you into a Codex Party! Accept? Y/N
Curious, I hit accept and received another notification identical to the previous one:
Congratulations! You are now a member of Jonah Uri’s Codex Party! Your synced Codex Beast, Nimbus the Cloud Rabbit, is automatically included in Jonah Uri’s Codex Party due to its bond with you. You now have access to the Party Page in your Codex sheet in your portable Node! Use it to track shared quests, map data, achievements, and more.
Beside me, Nimbus wriggled his nose in disapproval. “Jonah Uri’s Codex Party? Is that the official name of our party? It’s very boring if you ask me.”
Jonah grunted and turned toward the door. “The name is irrelevant. Because I formed the Codex Party, that means I am the team leader, which means I get to name it. And if you keep pushing the subject, I’m going to change our name to the Horn-Shoe Bunny Kickers.”
Nimbus gasped. “Bunny Kickers? That’s not very nice. Aaron, I’m starting to think that joining up with these people was a mistake.”
I would have pointed out the irony of Nimbus, not known for his graceful and compassionate nature, complaining about someone else being mean, but I was more distracted by the new Party Page under my Codex sheet. It didn’t have much at the moment, but it was still interesting. “So Codex Parties get their own page to track things? That’s really convenient.”
Jonah rolled his eyes. “Yep. The Codex essentially treats our party as an independent entity for as long as it lasts. I suspect our current Codex Party won’t last beyond this dungeon, but in the meantime, that means we can share Words and loot that we earn from this dungeon between ourselves.”
“Thanks for forming the party, Jonah,” said Ruth, who had finished rummaging in her bag but looked normal. Maybe she’d been rearranging potions in her bag. “Though I noticed that the Codex hasn’t assigned us Roles yet.”
Before I could ask Ruth what she meant by that, my portable pinged again and this notification appeared in my vision:
You have been assigned the Scriptor Role in Jonah Uri’s Codex Party! This is a support or utility role based on your discipline and your spellcasting history as determined by the Arcane Codex.
An icon with a quill trailing blue energy, similar to my Codex Mark, appeared in the lower-right corner of my UI, which I took to mean was representative of my role in the party.
Though I still had a lot of questions about it. “What’s a Scriptor? The Codex assigned that Role to me.”
“Sounds about right.” Jonah turned back to face me, his trident resting on his shoulders, a rather unsurprised expression on his face. “It means that the Codex has decided you would make a better support role than an offensive or defensive one. Ruth, what’s your role?”
Ruth snapped out of her focus on the notification and looked at us. “Pulse, naturally. That’s the Role name for healers.”
I nodded and looked at Jonah questioningly. “What about you? What’s your role?”
Jonah tilted his head to the side. “Anchor. Basically, I’m the party tank. I probably got that role because of my barrier powers, which makes sense because that’s the role I usually get in Codex Parties. I bet you will get the Scriptor role a lot as well if you ever end up in Codex Parties with other people. I’m also the Party Captain.”
Nimbus’s ears stood up. “What about me? How come the Codex didn’t assign me a Party Role?”
Jonah gazed down at Nimbus as if he had forgotten that the rabbit existed. “The rules are a little different for Codex Beasts. Because you are synced with Aaron, that means that you are treated as a singular entity by the Codex for the purposes of the party. So you basically share Aaron’s support role, for much the same reason you didn’t get a Party Invitation.”
Nimbus wriggled his nose again in displeasure. “How come we Codex Beasts always get the raw end of the deal? Seriously, I feel like I could do a lot more than just be support. I could be our offensive damage dealer or our scout or—”
“Drop-kicked into the next Kingdom so we don’t have to deal with your complaints anymore,” Jonah suggested. He glanced at the dungeon exit and frowned. “Though that might be hard given how we are stuck in a dungeon. Hope you have a thick skull.”
Nimbus thumped his left foot in annoyance and appeared on my shoulder. He whispered conspiratorially in my ear, “Aaron, you should start a mutiny to take control of the party from Jonah. Then we can kick him out of the party and see how he likes it.”
I shook my head, trying to suppress the grin threatening to spread across my face. “I’m not going to—Never mind. Are Party Roles always predetermined or can they be changed by the Party members themselves?”
I addressed that last question to Jonah, but it was Ruth who answered. “Generally, you get the same Party Role in every Codex Party you join or form, though the Party Captain is a unique role that only the people who form parties get. As you probably saw in your notification, the Arcane Codex itself decides on each party member’s role based on their Discipline, spellcasting history, and a bunch of other factors, some known, some unknown, to create a balanced party for completing quests, exploring dungeons, and the like.”
Jonah nodded. “Ruth is correct. But sometimes the Codex will assign you to a different role if it feels like you have changed enough to provide a different purpose in the party or if there are too many people in one particular role. So if we were a party of ten, for example, and half the party were Scriptors, then the Codex might change your role to something different but still appropriate for your skills just so that the party isn’t dominated by a particular role.”
I scratched my chin thoughtfully. “So do Party Roles limit what we can do or is it just to help keep things organized?”
Jonah shrugged and turned back toward the door. “It doesn’t limit your spells or tactics or anything like that. But it does affect system synergy bonuses along with the kinds of group quests that the Codex gives out. I’m sure that we will learn about those benefits later on.”
I had so many more questions about Codex Parties and Party Roles and how they worked together, but before I could voice any of them, a notification on glowing translucent paper with white letters unfurled in my view all of a sudden:
You must enter the first floor of the Verdant Seal within the next 5 minutes or every member in Jonah Uri’s Codex Party will suffer from the Codex Burn debuff for the remainder of the dungeon.
Jonah swore under his breath when that notification appeared. “Guess the dungeon doesn’t want us waiting around anymore. That’s all right. I was getting bored of talking, anyway. Let’s go!”
I tried to tell Jonah to stop because we still had a lot of planning to do, but he just grabbed the door handle, yanked open the door to the first floor of the dungeon, and rushed inside. With Nimbus still sitting on my shoulder, I followed as quickly as I could …
… just in time to see a sharp knife flying toward my face.
patreon.com/LucasFlint
Codex Trial sign up and download page