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His mind numb, Anton accepted the level. Kelsey was shouting something, but he ignored her.

You have reached Level 14.Applying Benefits for Level 1

Strength + 1Toughness + 1Agility + 1Dexterity + 1Perception + 1Willpower + 1Charisma + 1

Assign 2 free Ability points:

He had to think about where his stats were… or rather, he had to see.

Anton Nos, Heroic Liberator, Level 14

Overall Level: 29

Paths: Delver/Adventurer/Heroic Liberator

Class: Heroic Liberator

Strength: 43Toughness: 43Agility: 36Dex: 34Perception: 31Will: 29Charisma: 24

Traits:

Delvers Discernment, Leaping AttackStone Skin, Uncanny Evasion, Sense Mana, Spider-climb, UnwaveringSense Destiny, Quick Attack, Chainbreaker, Aegis, Voice of Rebellion, Active Instinct

Charisma for both, he thought. What had been vanity was now necessity. He couldn’t be King without a high Charisma.

Please select a new Trait:Exemplar of Victory | Hero’s Fortune | Final Blow

Part of Anton was happy that he had the choice of three Traits he’d never heard of. He was pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. The other part was annoyed that he had no idea what these Traits did.

Well, not no idea. Final Blow and Hero’s Fortune seemed reasonably self-explanatory. Exemplar, though… that sounded like leadership.

Kelsey was beside him now, holding his hand up for the crowd.

“Your champion, Zamarra!” she yelled. The crowd responded—half of it, anyway. The Elitran half looked stunned, staring down at the corpse at Anton’s feet.

Anton knew that he couldn’t take his time choosing a Trait. Unlikely as it might seem, he could feel that the System wasn’t done with him today.

Exemplar of Victory, he chose. As soon as he did, he felt a tension. A little more experience poured in, but there was a sensation of pressure backed up. Waiting.

Kelsey had turned to the head of the Elitran delegation. Orhan al-Demir, the same Tier Four Admiral that had chased after them out of Rused, stared down at the pair of them.

“Well?” Kelsey challenged, speaking into her… what was it?

Rock the Mic: Microphone, Ribbon-type, Tier 3, Enchantments: None.

Anton blinked, none the wiser. He looked up at the Admiral, who looked furious.

“He’s fighting it,” Kelsey said, without speaking into the microphone. “He doesn’t want to go back to the Empress and tell her that he promised three years without raids.”

That had been a part of the deal, Anton remembered. If he won… and he had.

Three years…

It sounded amazing, and would be an enormous help in getting the kingdom back on its feet. If it held. Only Orhan and some of his staff were bound; the Empress could replace him and send the fleet again. But Tier Four personnel were hard to replace.

“I’m not too worried,” Kelsey confessed softly as they watched the courl struggle to keep his expression in check. “The safe passage is part of the deal too, so if he breaks it…” She shrugged.

Anton shuddered. That was a terrible way to express the murder of two hundred people, but it was in character. Had she not mentioned that because she wanted the Admiral to break the deal?

Before Anton could open his mouth, Orhan lost his fight with whatever demons trying to break the deal had summoned.

“We will return,” he grated. His subordinates looked at him in surprise, but Anton could see the weight lift off the courl when he said the words. At the same time, a rush of experience flooded in.

You have reached Level 15.

Dazed at the intense feeling, Anton accepted the level.

Applying Benefits for Level 15

Strength + 1Toughness + 1Agility + 1Dexterity + 1Perception + 1Willpower + 1Charisma + 1

Please allocate 2 free Ability points:

Charisma, Anton thought automatically. The Elitrans were filing out. Kelsey was watching them with a disappointed expression, but Anton couldn’t focus on that. It was all he could do to keep standing straight.

You have completed Level 15. Please select a new Class.

Anton let the lower Tier options pass by. The first Tier Four Class that came up was entirely expected.

Hero-King (Tier 4, Unique)

As a legitimate King on a Heroic path, this fusion of the two paths was a well-known, if not common, Class.

Champion of Zamarra (Tier 4, Unique)

Anton frowned. That was al-Kadir’s Class, wasn’t it? He supposed that fighting a duel in defence of the Kingdom, according to Elitran custom, was enough to qualify for an Elitran Class.

Ascending Liberator (Tier 4, Epic)

This would be the successor to Heroic Liberator. Anton wondered what Ascending meant, but he moved on.

Dungeon King (Tier 4, Epic)

That was an improvement over Dungeon Wife, but Anton would still pass. Suliel could keep her position.

King of the Two Gates (Tier 4, Legendary)

Anton blinked. What?

“Have you ever heard of the King of the Two Gates?” he asked Kelsey, who was waving his arm at the crowd.

“Nope! Is that a Class you’ve been offered?” Of course, she knew he’d gone up levels.

“Yeah. A legendary one.”

“Well, take it! It’s gotta be some kind of metaphorical thing, unless…”

She paused for a moment. “Suliel says that she’s never heard of a special pair of gates in Bures, and neither has Elara. So, metaphor.”

“A metaphor for what, though?”

“I unno,” Kelsey said. “We’ll find out sometime after you take it.”

“But…” Anton started to say, but he stopped himself. There wasn’t really any good reason not to take a Legendary Class. Unless you knew it was going to be hard to get experience, but Anton would always have monster slaying to fall back on.

He took the class.

King of the Two Gates (Tier 4, Legendary)Stats: 11: STADPWWCC (2 free)

You have reached Level 1.

Applying Benefits for Level 1

Strength + 1Toughness + 1Agility + 1Dexterity + 1Perception + 1Willpower + 2Charisma + 2

Please allocate 2 free Ability points:

Anton hesitated. He’d lost track of just how much his Charisma had gone up in the last five minutes. He took it anyway.

Charisma + 2 selected.

This was insane. Anton swallowed nervously. He was Tier Four, now. Tier Four!

“Nice work,” Kelsey said, still waving at the crowd. She didn’t need to look at him to see him.

“Thanks,” Anton said. “Do you know… why he did that? He could have surrendered.”

“He spent his whole life being a winner,” Kelsey said. “When it came down to it, he just couldn’t handle losing. Plus…”

The stairs to the upper levels had swung down again. Kelsey led him towards them.

“I’m not privy to their internal politics,” she said. “Though—I did learn a lot listening to them during the fight. Al-Kadir burned a lot of influence to get the fleet here, and then to agree to the duel.”

“He said that you lured him with a bait that he couldn’t resist.”

“Mmhm. I guess I can manage classic dungeon techniques when I try.” Kelsey cast a significant glance at an empty spot of air. “Anyway, so yeah, he could have surrendered. Fixing the poison wouldn’t have been easy, even with the antidote, but he’d have the resources… or so you’d think.”

“I… do think that?” Anton questioned. “He was in charge of an entire fleet!”

“Yeah, but consider—if he’d surrendered, that whole fleet would hate him. I mean, they still do hate him, but he’s dead, so he doesn’t care.”

“So… they wouldn’t have treated him?” Anton felt a little sick.

“I dunno if he was serious, but that other Al, the Admiral, he said that he was going to throw the guy overboard once they found a patch of sharks. I was a little worried that they were going to try and claim the body, but they were so disgusted with his failure, they just left him!”

“He didn’t have any kin to bury him,” Anton pointed out. Then his thoughts caught up. “You’re keeping him?”

Kelsey looked back at the now-dark arena and gave a predatory grin.

“Yup! Don’t worry, I’ve got far better uses for him than shark-food. He’s my first Tier Four!”

Then they reached the upper level, and Anton was suddenly surrounded by women trying to hug him without aggravating his wounds.

“Get back, you harpies!” Kelsey commanded. “Anton needs bandages, not kisses!”

“Anton, I can’t…” Elara ignored Kelsey and buried her face in his chest. “You were so… I was so worried!”

“I can’t believe you did it!” Suliel cried, hanging onto his arm. She was on the side with the worst wound, but it was fine.

It didn’t hurt that much.

“…” Anton stopped before he started, stuck for a term to use. Girls? Wives? Ladies? None of them seemed right.

“Hey,” he tried. “I won. It’s alright. But I really could use some bandages.”

“Ah! Sorry!” they chorused, and started fussing around. Neither of them knew much about bandaging wounds, but that was alright because they had people for that now. Anton sat on his temporary throne while an army medic carefully cleaned the wound with an alchemical solution. There was no rush, so it was better to let the wound heal naturally.

While Anton winced at the pain and indignity, Soraya came and knelt before him.

“My Lord,” she said. “You saved me.”

“He saved us all,” Suliel put in, trying to find a way to sit on the edge of Anton’s chair that wasn’t undignified.

“I know, but he saved me most of all,” Soraya said fervently. “If that barbarian had captured me, I’d…” She trailed off, shivering. “You didn’t have to—you could have handed me over. I come from a slaveholding family, I’m of a race that your people hate, but still… you saved me.”

Anton started to respond, but held off, letting her speak her piece.

“My life is yours,” Soraya said. “I’ll serve you however you want, for the rest of my life. Please honour me by accepting.”

“You don’t have to do that, Soraya,” Anton said. “I didn’t…”

“I know you didn’t do it for me,” Soraya said. “I know I’m not special. You would have saved anyone that was in front of you. Maybe you don’t even think fighting someone twelve levels above you—a whole Tier!—isn’t something special.”

“No,” Anton said with a wince as the medic tightened his bandage. “That part was pretty special.”

“But it was special to me,” Soraya insisted. “It meant the world—my whole life—to me. Please allow me to pay this debt back.”

Anton sighed. “I don’t want to insult you by refusing,” he admitted. “And I do trust you. That matters, where we’ll be going after this.”

“To Bures,” Soraya said.

“Yes. I need someone trustworthy who knows money. To fill the role of treasurer.”

Soraya opened her mouth to agree, but Anton held up his hand to stop her.

“Hold on,” he said. “I need you to think about this. Treasurer is an important role, but it is also a hated one. And you’ll be starting at the bottom in terms of popularity.”

“It can’t be helped,” Soraya replied.

“It can be,” Anton said. “I also have a role for you here, managing the town in my absence. A…”

He looked at Suliel.

“Senechal,” she supplied.

“Right. That. You’ve carved out a space here, and I don’t want to take that away from you.”

“But you have Syon.”

“Syon is my Chamberlain,” Suliel said. “His job is supposed to be managing my household, not my town. Seneschal would be an extension of what you’re already doing, but with less supervision.”

“I see… You’re right, my Lord; I do have friends here that I will miss. But some of them will come with us. But I can always visit; it’s not like I will be locked up in the capital.”

“It might feel that way, sometimes,” Elara warned. “Treasurer is a very demanding job.”

Soraya’s eyes flashed with determination. “I welcome the challenge, my Queen.”

“Right!” Kelsey said, clapping. “With that all sorted, and Anton all bandied up, the only thing left to do is for our new King to make a big speech to the entire town!”

“Wait, what?” Anton said. “No one said anything about a speech!”