Hellbound

I saw Anna's face turn from a firm but encouraging smile, to a restrained stare, to a mask of agony. She was strong. By the time she started screaming I had grabbed the key. As it turned out, however, the key was attached to the damned table cube, and I wasted precious seconds trying to pick it up. I swore and moved the hand, and simply pushed the table towards the portal. I also felt amazing, which was, of course, a part of the curse. Several of my stats were boosted to the point where I felt stronger, clearer-minded, more limber all at once, and even through the anguish there was a primordial part of me that reveled in the power. I shut it off along with most of the rest of my conscious mind and focused on pushing the key and the table through the portal. It fit, and it came through.

At least it hadn't all been for nothing. As the cube and the key entered the room where we were, the portal immediately disappeared and I snapped the connection between myself, Anna and Hell itself. She whimpered and started shaking. I knelt next to her.

"Thank you. I will never forget what you did for me," I said. What else was there. It took her a few moments, but the pain was entirely magical. It didn't linger or reverberate, except in memories. I remembered the sudden lifting of the pain from when I had experienced it, and the relief of it being over had been significant for me.

"Damn. Some curse you have there," Anna said. "Will you be alright?" I said. "I- Shit, yeah, I guess I will be. You did this to yourself before?" Anna said. "Well yeah, I did try to warn you," I said. "Obviously it was worth it. Just, ouch, y'know," Anna said. "You're one bad bitch," I said. "You're goddamn right," Anna said.

"Congratulations! You have learned the power of hurting your friends and exploiting your relationships for personal gain! I'm talking to Alex, of course, Anna, I'm disappointed in you, but you pass by default, I guess. But hey, if dumb luck wasn't a part of this challenge, what would be the fucking point. Many of the greatest heroes of the multiverse are big, dumb, lucky brutes!

How far you have come! More than half of your final tests completed. And I have a very special reward for you. Most of your fellow graduates won't even know about it until tomorrow! Though I fully expect you to spoil it via that Artemis woman. The gall. Regardless, arbitrary, self-serving rules are rules! Check your Journal for a reward! Oh, and Alex, that table should work for what you're thinking, yeah.

And, please, try not to die!" The Archmage said.

"He's talking about your healing ability?" Anna said. "Probably. Or he thinks I like IKEA furniture," I said. "Get yourself healed, I didn't actually take any damage. I'll try to figure out this reward," Anna said. "Hey, wait for me. Tower etiquette," I said.

I squeezed myself into the weird little box, healed myself and reset my per-heal abilities. There was a psychological breakthrough involving celery in there too, but that's personal.

I found Anna taking a nap, presumably for entirely non-Tower related reasons. We were all tired, and probably around the eighth or ninth hour of more or less non-stop action in the Tower. I was holding up surprisingly well, considering that I'd slept less than four hours last night, but I think the meditations with my recovery ability really helped.

"Anna," I said. She sat up, swinging her fists in front of her. I kept out of her reach for the second it took her to get her bearings.

"I didn't look. Damn curious though," Anna said.

So, we both opened our Journals.

Log

Even Level Reached! Wizard Class ability unlocked. You have 1 attribute point to spend. Level 12 Reached! Warning: Planar Alignment (Aeonic) Sealed Warning: Planar Alignment (Fey) Sealed Warning: Planar Alignment (Empyreal) Sealed WARNING: Further Planar Alignment (Infernal) advancement sealed. Proceed to Challenge #2 to continue. 10% infernal alignment reached. Hellbound! Rank 3 Conjuration Spell: Summon Devil (Imp) learned! Friend harmed with infernal magic 2% infernal alignment gained Infernal Curse Used x2- 4% infernal alignment gained Infernal Pact Entered - 2% infernal alignment gained Infernal Familiar Bound- 2% infernal alignment gained Interplanar Alignment Page unlocked. Experience to level 12 12 033/12 000 Quest: Make Up Work: Psychopathy completed!

"Uh, what did you get?" I said. "Err, it looks like I just unlocked a new page in the Journal. Planar Alignment. Don't know what it does, it's just a sheet divided in four equal sections. No, hold on. I have like 2% in… something? Other than that, just a bit of experience for my title," Anna said. "Yeah, it kind of looks worse for me. I've got 10% infernal alignment already. I guess I have been dealing with a lot of devils in here," I said. "Anything immediately dangerous?" Anna said. "Not really. And it does kind of imply that it's going to be useful stuff. Like a second advancement path sort of. It's just, you know, Hell. Doesn't seem like a good idea," I said. "Yeah, can't say that your curse ability doesn't sort of scream evil wizard," Anna said.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. "That said, I did get something I'm kind of excited about. I want to introduce you to an old friend. It'll just take a minute," I said. "Well that sounds ominous," Anna said. "Don't worry, Chum's harmless. Just don't let him tempt you with promises of infernal power," I said. "Whatever you say, Mr. 10% infernal champion," Anna said.

The spell was a little bit more involved than the usual standard casting procedure, but it was clearly described in the spell description that had appeared in my Journal. I drew the circle in sharpie I'd found somewhere in the first two days, sprinkled a bit of salt, and left the five golden coins inside. I took out Chum's business card and found it perfectly preserved- black and gold with his incomprehensible True name on it. I chanted the incantation and I fit his name in the place that the spell description mentioned.

There was a puff of smoke and the stench of rotten eggs, coal smoke and flatulence, and then there was a two foot chubby devil in a pin stripe suit and a fedora, just like I remembered him.

"We'll I'll be damned to a nine to five, you're still somehow alive," Chum said.

"Ha, he's cute," Anna said. "So are you, sweet cheeks. What say we leave this loser and go and grab a drink," Chum said. "Contract," I said. "What? I could ask you for permission to go. The contract allows for that," Chum said. "Chum, this is Anna, my friend and Sorceress supreme," I said. "And you're hanging out with this Useless Coward?" Chum said. "What the fuck did you just say?" Anna said. "Anna, this is Chum. When we met I was crying and hiding in a library. He really helped me out for a lot of the first two days," I said. "Oh right, he did get rid of that Useless title. Still though, a Sorcerer and a Coward, that's a weird party," Chum said. "Check your Journal, Chum," I said. He did so, and let out a sharp whistle.

"Well well well, looks like the good advice of your buddy Chum really worked out for you, huh? Sentinel Wizard, that's a damn good low level combo. And Hellbound too! We'll make you a proper infernalist yet," he said. "I'll still pass," I said. "Looking good though, nothing really stupid in the attribute selection, decent items, hey, why aren't you with your party members?" I said. "We just mostly use it for the chat feature. Helps to be able to check in with friends in far off parts of the Tower," I said. "Right, right, your pals. How is everyone, Artemis and the zombie chick and whatever," Chum said. "Nobody's having fun, but we're still here," I said. "Not having fun? Why? You've got all the juicy powers now, it's time to make this tower your bitch!" Chum said. "Lots of people have died and we're in constant struggle for our lives," I said. "Yeah, exactly! The good stuff!" Chum said. "When we die we don't poof back into our home office," I said. "Well you poof back somewhere. Or, I mean, you will once the planar seals are removed, which I'm sure won't be longer than a few centuries it takes for the wards to decay," Chum said. "Not to interrupt the reunion, but how can he help?" Anna said. "Loads of ways. Your old Chum here has all sorts of knowledge about Demiplanes of Heroism, and now that the magic's had a bit of a chance to ripen I can cast a few more spells. Still nothing super combat related, but I could turn you into a rat or a toad and you'd still almost have some of your old mind in there," Chum said. "It's been going really off the rails these past dozen or so hours. We're moving to this exit place, and getting some really odd challenges. The maker of this place is also regularly talking to us, maybe in recorded messages, maybe for real. So, we figured an extra head with some understanding of contracts and arcana would be really useful," I said. "You're damned and right. Advice number one, use your damn level up. And stop putting points in strength. You should get more Arcana, or, if you insist on something more rounded, Willpower," Chum said.

Well he was right about that. The leveling up part, at least. Anything could always go wrong at any moment, and I'd rather have the power boost when it inevitably did.

I followed Chum's advice, more or less, and put the point in Willpower. It was now at 4, making it equal to my Mind stats. I still kind of thought it fit in the Mind category anyways. I felt like I needed it, just to offset the unceasing onslaught of trauma and difficult decisions, and was also pretty sure it helped with my mana recovery and actually certain it helped me focus on spellcasting when in pain. Since my only Wizard ability so far was focused on the very painful act of casting from hitpoints, it seemed like an obvious fit.

As for the abilities,

Level 12 Wizard Abilities available

Versatile Tools: When using spell storing tools, you may replace a stored spell with another by focusing on the tool for 30 seconds. The spells have to be of the same tier. You cannot replace a spell with a spell you could normally not fit in the item due to differences in school, effect, or target.

Wizard of the Tome: When using a grimoire, tome, or other book-based focus to aid with spellcasting you gain the following benefits. You may store twice as many spells in a spellbook. Spells cast from the spellbook use 20% less mana. Transcribing spells will be slightly easier. The first spell cast from your spellbook per short rest will act as if it was stored in the spellbook

Quickened Spell: Choose a spell in your Journal. This spell incantation will require 1 fewer syllable to cast per rank of the spell. This effect stacks with other syllable reducing abilities, items and effects to a minimum of 0 syllables, at which point you may skip the incantation step of the standard spellcasting procedure.

Not the easiest choice in the world, but what helped me make my choice was that my spellbook was already a very convenient and powerful item. With the many powerful boosts it would give me, it'd be worth casting all spells, with the exception of those stored in my items, from the book. Since I could use it hand-free and will it to the right page, there was really very little reason not to do that in just about every situation. I turned my attention to Chum and Anna, who were talking. Or, rather, Chum was telling some story to Anna who had a bemused look on her face.

"So, anyways, I died and went back to Hell. It wasn't so bad, I'd made some gold working with your boy here, so I figure, what the hell, I'm back in the City of Adamant, and nowhere- listen, doll,- nowhere has drugs like Hell. So I make my way down to the hellfire district and- Oh, Alex, back with us?" Chum said. "Didn't mean to interrupt," I said. "Oh, nevermind, the flow's ruined anyways. Ready to get the show back on the road?" Chum said. "Let's go see if Alex gets vaporized by stepping over this threshold," Anna said. "Two quests left. We're getting out of here," I said. "That's the spirit, boss," Chum said.

And we walked to the door leading to the next hallway.

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