recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Ahbahabam

**Ahbahabam, Greater Hababa Shaman King**, was a Hababa-type essence monster that made its residence in the Ashen Jungle, where it ruled over at least sixteen Hababas who lived in a colony there. Ahbahabam was level 24 and apparently revered by all the regular Hababas in their semi-society, as they paid tribute to him, like fatbirds they had hunted down.

## Appearance, abilities and history

The monster-king was tall and skeletal, with atrophied muscles. Its face was animalistic but also regal, as it wore an ornate silver crown. Like all Hababas, it had four arms, but they were slimmer and disproportionately long, almost dragging on the ground despite its great height.

In fight, Ahbahabam stayed airborne with an antigravity ability, whenever it did not stand on the ground and was ready to void-tunnel himself out of danger. It manipulated gravity to throw rocks around or shield iself with large boulders. The intelligently used magical attacks were mostly based on the gravity-aspect of the arcane element, but the king also varied with void spells and sonic attacks that had a force/mental component.

Ameliah injured Ahbahabam with fire-element spells, while Tallheart threw broken adamant swords from the fallen Hababas at the monster, for great effect as well. Ahbahabam only tried to flee the battlefield when its mana reserves were empty.

Ahbahabam dropped an Arcane GranCryst, lots of tel and arcane crysts, and a huge crown that was 10% silver, 25% valis and 65% lead.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 147
2. ↑ Chapter 148
3. ↑ Chapter 149
Myth

**Myth** is an Alchemist and founding member of Ascension. He is partners with Reason.

Meloni calls him Bip.

## Appearance and Personality

Myth is a tall and lanky figure with striking blue eyes and neat blond hair. His outfit follow Regalia tradition by keeping his nose and mouth obscured by the high circular collar of his white coat. He was dressed all in white, in fact, the coat falling to his ankles. It flared out at his hips, revealing the pair of white pants and white boots beneath. The coat buttoned up along the left side of his chest, rather than in the center.

He tends to form clear-cut, analytical sentences. Myth, like Reason, is not very good with business.

## History

Myth and Reason are from Rellagia, and come from a part where they speak Vejik as mother language. Still, they are fluent in common as well. They have been part of the *Ten Thousand* in Ter'karmark but eventually left when they couldn't get up in society.

They eventually settled in Fel Sadanis, opened a combined alchemist & chemist shop called Myth and Reason. Due to their lack of business acumen, including a refusal to charge inflated prices, it was kept afloat by their more business savvy assistant Meloni as well as credits from the Bank to which the pair was indebted.

The couple is kept together by some very private, personal secret that makes them undesirables in most societies but they keep a close lid over *whatever* secret they might hide.

Their shop got ruined during the calamities that befell Fel Sadanis, but they joined the efforts to get the situation under control, by creating more Evertorches and Everfluid and investigating the noxious chemical moss that overgrew the city after the Shift.

They joined Ascension to get away from the mess in Fel Sadanis. They contribute a lot by doing the craftsmenship within the company, and offering al/chemical knowledge as well as knowledge from Rellagia, but they had declined the rank of "Entrusted".

The couple brewed *Ald's Wondrous Waterbreathing Potion* in Three Cliffs, based on a tried recipe.

At the camp near Yelfenn, Myth and Reason approached Rain to become Entrusted members. However, Reason also tested Rain on his willingness to let people leave Ascension, and was surprised Rain had no problems with letting him and Myth go if that was what they desired. Since the pair were on a pre-approved list, they were immediately made Entrusted on the spot.

## Abilities

Myth is a level 6 Alchemist. His known skills include Decohere, Stabilize, Fuse and Nonreactivity. In Fel Sadanis, Myth was the only one to be able to brew *arcane resistance* potions.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 109
2. ↑ Chapter 72
3. ↑ Chapter 103
4. ↑ Chapter 113
5. ↑ Chapter 173
6. ↑ Chapter 192
7. ↑ Chapter 220

Myth had Point of View paragraphs in #100 and #106. See the full list of chapters which includes PoV breakdowns.
Rats

Several Monsters are based on the animal form of rats.

## Known Types

* **Plague Rat** (encountered in The Fells): *plague* variant of the rat monster with infectious bites. These rats have patchy coats of matted fur with diseased-looking bare skin showing through. Has some more subtypes:
	+ **Plague Rat Swarm**: a level 5 Swarm-type version (not a single monster, but less than a dozen cat-sized versions, more vulnerable bodies)
	+ **Venomfang Plague Rats**: even more poisonous than the base Plague Rat, a fast-moving variant
	+ **Plague Rat Trundlers**: a level 6 or level 7 individual variant, the size of a black bear. Heavier and slower.

* **Dire Rat**, a level 3 dog-sized (labrador) variant

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 85
2. ↑ Chapter 86
3. ↑ Chapters 131, 132
Falking

**Falking** is a city of the DKE. It has reported direct road connections to the neighboring cities of Kinepeak to the southwest, Shinevale to the southwest and Westbridge in the north. Other neighbors are Lenleah directly to the east and Greenfield to the northeast.

Like all capital cities of the DKE, Falking was the former capital of an Ekrustian kingdom, until the DKE was founded. Falking appears to be landlocked, or located at a larger lake.

During the Empire-DKE war, Falking was one of the major Guild branches that contributed in the war, on the side of the DKE. The city was reported as conquered by Lightbreaker in the name of the Empire, around the time of the creation of the Maelstrom. However, at least some rural inhabitants of the kingdom remained unaware of that conquest or even the disappearance of the Citizens (as they were still waiting for a petition response from Citizen Falking), when they found the mindwiped Lavarro in their stable.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 191
2. ↑ Chapter 193
3. ↑ Chapter 220
4. ↑ Chapter 225
Lago (animal)

A **lago** (derived from ancient Greek: λᾰγῶς ("*lagos*") meaning "hare") is a large animal in the world of *Delve*.

Like the name suggests, lago resemble rabbits in shape, but may reach the size of boars (Rain first called them boar-rabbits). Fast as they might be, for awakened they are easy prey and one of them is quite sufficient as a meal for a group of three, and then some. It is unclear whether or not a biologist from Earth would actually classify them as *lagomorphs*.

Lago are moving with a hopping motion, similar to rabbits. Lago also undergo rut.

Their fur may be used in clothing, like Ameliah's cloak.

## References

1. ↑ Chapters 4, 13, 27, 32
2. ↑ Chapter 139
3. ↑ Chapter 80
Melka

## Officer Melka

**Melka** was a member of the Watch of Fel Sadanis with a friendly disposition towards adventurers.

She was described as quite beautiful, and preferred to be called Mel.

## History

She was an orphan taken in by the Watch, trained alongside the future Sentinel Talasa, under the tutelage of Officer Bartum. She grew to question the Watch's policy on adventurers when she got older.

She met Rain during his request to purify the Watch stronghold.

She was decapitated by *the Usurper* during the DKE's occupation of Fel Sadanis, but was then healed by Citizen Westbridge before it was too late. That left her traumatized over the experience of having been near death.

Having been assigned as Rain's protector and watch dog, she quickly developed a friendship with the adventurer after a drunken spell -- the two of them confided to each other their individual traumas.

After the expedition into the Fells, she was slain once again by Citizen Sadanis during the Watch's failed attempt to reclaim the city. Her plate was found by Rain, and handed over to Bartum, when they commiserated about the tragedy of her life and the others.

## Skills

 Non-systematic skill of the Watch, its mechanics and the method of learning it forbidden to outsiders.
Bestows perception of the soul and the layer that surrounds them-- their *paling.*
Perception of the soul is non-standardized, interpreted differently by outsiders and even among Watch members.
The paling has many names, followers of *Dystees* call it the ‘Divine Envelope,’ and in *Ter’karmark*, its known as ‘Me’ke-Tar Tek,’ meaning ‘the barrier which divides’ when directly translated.
Allows users to tell whether others are lying or not.
High leveled awakened are hard to read due to how thick their palings are.
Not found in any of the 144 skill trees due to how its not a skill of the system, but one that anyone could technically learn with the proper training.
I.e. You need *Asp Kata*to gain access to the system's library of dagger moves, but unawakened can still learn how to use a dagger for combat regardless.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 83

Melka had two Point of View paragraphs in the following chapters: #82 and #89. (Full list of chapters includes PoV breakdowns)
Graymond

**Graymond** is the former mayor of Vestvall.

He is a round-faced man and also a noble. Unlike the nobles and wealthier merchants who put him in charge of running Vestvall, Greymond is not awakened. He is elected by the Vestvallian council (which seems based on nobility and money), and not the popularity at large. Mayor Graymond was not elected on personal power, but on a platform of being not a member of either of the awakened families, but instead being a clever politician in nature.

He is, for an Unawakened, a strong-willed man who didn't initially deal with Ascension by shows of force, but coming to their camp alone and then stubbornly negotiated mostly with Vanna. Rain gave him credit not only for that bravery, but also for doing his best to keep Vestvall organized during the Shift, during which most other councilmembers had died. Graymond quickly turned up for renegotiations on a done deal with Ascension after realizing that they were capable to hunt much more monsters than he'd expected. He also protested the idea of evacuating Vestvall, hoping instead for his city to survive in the low-ranked zone and becoming a new city of lights, seeing the miraculous light bulbs powered by Ascension's generator. Rain disabused him of the notion, but later reconsidered handing over a generator to Vestvall for the city to operate.

During Rain's absence and his delve in the depths, the nobles of the Urs and Hakim families concinced Graymond to blockade Vestvall for Ascension, only allowing the healers Mereck and Tahir through, as well as permitting food deliveries. Rain and Ameliah needed to show up in persons and solve the made-up problem that the nobles presented, and confirmed that Ascension would back Mayor Graymond up when facing the nobles, thus shoring up his powers.

The whole plan to make Vestvall survive and prosper in the ranked zone, fell through when it became apparent that the Empire of Adamant was going to occupy the area. Vestvall was evacuated and Graymond left together with Ascension and the whole population on Breaking 1, the first day of the year 3061. During the evacuation march, Graymond was rallying the common Vestvallians who didn't have closer connections to either Ascension or the city's nobles, around himself; thus he was distancing himself from his former backers. He also organized travel groups and work teams, collaborating with Vanna a lot.

After the arrival in Three Cliffs, Graymond didn't leave the new town on the ships with the former Vestvallian nobles but instead stayed in the city (*speculative: possibly after elevated by Rain into a leadership position in the new Three Cliffs council*). When Ascension fled the city on the *Temerity*, Graymond was notably one of the people they left behind, to deal with the Empire on their own.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 126
2. ↑ Chapter 130
3. ↑ Chapter 165
4. ↑ Chapter 170
5. ↑ Chapter 172
6. ↑ Chapters 175 and 179
7. ↑ Chapter 194
8. ↑ Chapter 201
Everiss

**Everiss** is the Guild's leading official in Barstone, and in charge of a prospering guild branch intended for low-level members. Within Barstone, she is also the reigning champion of its arena, and bears the nicknames **Wolf of the Valley** and the **Flickerspear**.

## Description

Everiss is a muscular woman with high synchronization. She wears her auburn (and partly grey) hair swept back. She likes to present her scar-covered arms in the open, by wearing a sleeveless jacket. When fighting, she prefers to wear a suit of heavy scale-mail, likely of high quality. The suit is completed with a helmet, sabatons, gauntlets, and other protective plates. She wears a silver-plate of the Guild.

## History

Upon hearing the news of Three Cliffs' demise, she ordered every adventurer out of the Barstone delving and went down herself to get everyone out. She gave out a Guild quest for spreading the news all across the city and ordered Trackers and Diviners to go and scout the area south of Barstone, also in order to confirm Rain's news. She also challenged Rain for a duel, as an offer to fix his guildscore, an offer that he did not take on at that moment.

She was kept apprised by Ameliah about the appearance of Warden Vatreece on Ascension, although she didn't believe her.

She tracked down Rain in Eastspar to renew her challenge on Light 5, and achieved a duel in which Rain defeated her quite easily. Despite being a bad match for Rain, she desired a rematch at a later point.

Among her subordinates are:

* Twoah (vice leader or confidante?)
* Tiller (door greeter)

## Quotes

She seems well aware of public relations, and delivers easily memorable quotes. Among them were:

* Fame is its own reward.
* For Guild and glory!
* Let’s give them a good show, yeah?

## Build

She has both Heavy Armor Inventory and Melee Arsenal. Her spear attacks are able to reach the damage limit. She has something quite similar to Quickstep, but it appears to have a greater range. In a duel, her gear and skills in dodging and melee combat were no match against Rain. She lacks piercing skills.

Rain had trouble estimating her metallic-red soul's power, but puts her on par with Ameliah.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 204
2. ↑ Chapter 207
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Chapter 215
Face Stabbing Face Stabber

A **Face Stabbing Face Stabber** is a scarecrow-like monster with daggers for hands.

The killing of one such creature, an Essence Monster of Level 12, led to the awakening of Jamus and Carten, as well as two other team members. However, four more died in the encounter, which happened in the Badlands. It is unclear if other members of the party were already awakened; the group was taking a huge risk in traveling in a Rank 10 zone, but at least Carten and Jamus were at the time willing to risk anything.

That Essence Monster had the same name, Face Stabbing Face Stabber, as the common variety of the monster.

The adventurer who first named the Face Stabbing Face Stabber, likely had a bizarre sense of humor.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 178
2. ↑ Chapter 173
Kip

**Kip** is a former worker from Fel Sadanis, and a founding member of Ascension.

Kip had been working for Rain already when Rain made the bathhouse of Fel Sadanis his temporary headquarters, before the Shift. He was among the workers who handed out barrels of purified water, and teased Rain.

Kip then joined Ascension when Rain founded the company. Rain noticed him for snoring.

Kip was blown overboard the *Temerity* during the second imperial attack on Three Cliffs, and was already dead when Rain could finally detect him. He was too deep to be retrieved, but Rain destroyed his body so it wouldn't be eaten by sharks, as he told Belson later.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 99
2. ↑ Chapter 113
3. ↑ Chapter 199
4. ↑ Chapter 200
Delve Wiki

## Synopsis

Delve is an isekai litrpg that follows an average guy who just happened to wake up in a forest one day. He wasn’t summoned to defeat the demon lord or to save the world or anything like that, at least as far as he can tell. The only creature there to greet him was a regular old squirrel.

Soon enough, he meets other people, only to discover that he can’t speak the language, and that not everybody immediately trusts random pajama-wearing strangers they met in the middle of the wilderness. Things generally go downhill from there, at least until the blue boxes start appearing.

Delve is a story about finding your way in a new, strange, and dangerous world. It’s about avoiding death, figuring out what the heck is going on, and trying to make some friends along the way. It’s not about getting home, so much as finding a new one.

Did I mention that there will be math?
Bellost

**Bellost** is the big continent east of Ekrustia on the the world that is the setting of Delve.

Similar to Ekrustia, Bellost has large swaths of untamed wilderness that are a challenge to adventurers. Probably the most famous city in Bellost is Xiugaaraa, the City of Lights that resides deep in a ranked jungle zone; but there are plenty of other cities in Bellost as well. Far away from the war between DKE and the Empire of Adamant, Bellost has been discussed by Rain, Ameliah, Myth and Reason as something of a (not really) "safe place" to start over.

Mensis is a port city on the north coast of the continent, and Sadiir which is also in the region, is the home place of Staavo.

World trade from Bellost is mostly routed via Splendor, which connects the northern ports of Bellost to their counterparts in Rellagia and Ekrustia.

To the south of Sadiir are the Bellosian plains, framed by three notable mountain ranges, to the southeast of one of them lies the Shadowvale Dominion.

Bellost has been mentioned as the home place of an exile community of Cervidians - all of them slaughtered by agents/hunters in the employ of the Empire of Adamant, except for Snowlilly and Tallheart.

Coffee is growing on the southern tip of Bellost. Sasu also originate from Bellost. The southernmost tip of the continent marks the start of the Southern Islands archipelago.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Based on the world map of Chapter 191
2. ↑ Chapter 109
3. ↑ Chapter 139
4. ↑ Chapter 60
5. ↑ Chapter 64
6. ↑ Chapter 144
Limit Spiker

A **Limit Spiker** is a weapon and a reknowned product made by the Monarchs of Rellagia.

Even Rellagian natives are not familiar to Limit Spikers, as they are rare and not for sale to anyone. They may not be used in the conventional warfare that the Rellagian Monarchies enforce among themselves. The manufacture of Limit Spikers is shrouded in secrecy, but they are said to have been developed in the "Third Mage War". Their use is restricted to defense against foreign powers and against the few members of the Guild that are granted permission to set foot on the continent, should they exceed their bounds.

## In Vestvall

Somehow, Lady Sale possessed a weapon that she called a "Spiker", and Myth and Reason confirmed that this could have been a Limit Spiker after the remnants of the weapon were retrieved.

This instrument has been described as a harpoon-looking spike, ejected noisily from a metal tube-like object by an unknown mechanism - possibly incendiary charges, since it is supposedly non-magical. Rain suspected the device to be similar to a bazooka.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 170
2. ↑ Chapter 169
Glavin

**Glavin** was a Translocationist, working for the Guild as a mobile teleporter. He was an older, grey-haired silverplate mage, wearing a silk green robe at work.

Glavin was the mage who transported Lavarro to a location near Westbridge in 3060; and who transported Halgrave to Three Cliffs (with three teleportation jumps, arriving on Ekrustia via teleport platform in Barstone). Both of them thought of him as pathetic for having problems to cater to their exact demands, while Glavin always counter-argued with them about the restrictions of teleportation magic in general, as well as his mana-pool.

Glavin is careful not to enter combat, and refuses missions that would endanger him. The presence of Empire soldiers in the region was reason for him to not transport Halgrave to Vestvall after Mahria had been reported to have left Fel Sadanis.

The mission to Three Cliffs proved to be his end, however. He was a priority target for a team of Knives from the Empire of Adamant as they invaded Three Cliffs and murdered him in his inn on the upper cliff.

## Build

His exact skills were unknown, but his class and specialization is considered very rare.

Glavin was at least level 25 and may be the most skilled Translocationist of the Guild, or at least in Xiugaaraa. He had a very deep mana pool, and had to combat bad headaches after taxing journeys, which hints at his build emphasizing focus over clarity.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 88
2. ↑ Chapter 193
3. ↑ Chapter 196
Area Rank

An area's rank determines the level of monsters created within that area. Those ranks are normally very stable and can be measured via a magical device called a Depth Gauge.

## Rank Shift

A **rank shift** is when this level changes and such a shift can have disastrous consequences, from short-term (dramatic increase of monster levels overwhelming the population) to long-term (the Kingdom of Osar fell a long time after a decreased rank in the Badlands no longer allowed their armies to reach the high-levels they had in the centuries before).

Because a monster can spawn anywhere in a ranked zone, cities are often located just outside such zones. If an Unranked Zone with a city undergoes a rank shift, it can have disastrous consequences.

### Rank Shift of 3060

In the winter of 3060, a rank shift occurred that was dubbed *The Shift* by the residents of Fel Sadanis, and was also referred to as such by the Warden, as such major shifts occur only rarely. The Shift enveloped a wide area, including the cities of Jarro, Vestvall, and Southguard, though none of those cities had been hit nearly as hard as Fel Sadanis, which was additionally suffering from the conflict between DKE, Empire of Adamant and the Watch, which had left almost no awakened in the entire area.

When the Watch had not yet regained control of the city, the magnitude of the Shift was still being measured, but Rain's depth gauge proved at least parts of the city to be a rank 11 area.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 049
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 106
3. ↑ Chapter 112
Greater Slime

**Greater Slimes** are the bigger version of the base Chemical-aspect Slimes.

They are a somewhere in-between the size of a large dog and a house. Level not confirmed. It's presumed there are 'greater' versions of all elemental variations of slimes.

Greater Slimes, like the base variants, have an instinctive hate towards Crystal Slimes.

Rain confirmed their level as 4 (double that of the regular level 1-2 Slimes, but still smaller than the level 7 Mucus King. They may drop between none and three Tel upon killing them, and additionally a chem-cryt sometimes. They have a variable health around 400 HP.

Regular Greater Slimes are weak against Heat damage, and have a resistance of ~3 towards Cold damage. They may well be immune to Force damage, given that they are able to suck in all objects that approach them. Penetrating weapons may do more damage than blunt ones.

Rain has experimented with Purification and found that it is possible to turn them into Greater Crystal Slimes; however controlling them after they become non-aggressive towards non-monsters is another thing.
Mattem

**Mattem** is an elderly officer of the Watch in Barstone, serving there together with officers Sana and Fields.

Mattem has a wrinkled face and long white hair which he loosely ties. He wears a heavy lamellar hide jacket and wields a sword. He has been stationed in Barstone for over twenty years.

He struggles with the Watch's reading ability. He is not too proud to openly beg Guilders for money, tel or items they might spare, in to provide charity to the poor. He did so with Rain, when they met, but directly recognized him as Custodian, and brought him to the outpost of Barstone.

There, Mattem and Sana took the message of the Empire's assault on Three Cliffs. Mattem left Barstone via Teleportation platform to Estervale where the Watch maintains a Mindcaster, to spread the news.
Razorspine

The basic **Razorspines** are giant bugs with slashing blades and quills, and in the ranked zone of Fel Sadanis after the Shift, they were at the top of the food chain, with the Razorspine Dissolver as the most dangerous, reaper-class variant, nominally of Level 15.

Regular Razorspines were lower-level than that, without the acid attacks. Rain compared their appearance towards that of porcupines or sea-urchins, though nobody in Fel Sadanis seemed to know either of those animals.
Estez Allensten

**Estez Allensten**, aka Leftbeard, is an Entente soldier who works under Mora. His fraternal twin brother is Henton Allensten.

## Abilities

Estez is likely some form of Defender, as he wears heavy armor and carries a massive shield.

Estez has the skill Melee Arsenal. He uses it to summon shields that absorb more of the damage from an attack by intentionally breaking.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 241
2. ↑ Chapter 237
3. ↑ Chapter 242
Bound items

After crafting, **items** can be **bound** to a person's soul.

A bound item appears mundane to everyone but its owner, and its enchantments cannot be used. This security feature prevents the usage of the item against its owner. Furthermore, knowing that an item is permanently bound also discourages killing the owner for the loot: Many bound items eventually become unbound after their owners’ deaths, but this process may take months or years. Permanently bound items cannot be used after death, but creating such a permanent binding is much more difficult.

Ammunitions can similarly be bound to the user. Binding ammunition without a certain skill renders it useless, as weapons won't do damage after leaving the domain of the user. It is possible to bind an item to more than one person, or to enable damage-effects upon hitting the target, but this requires binding skills which Tallheart doesn't have. The Havenheild enchanters bind all their good ammunition to the users, and charge extra if they want their ammo unbounded, or reusable, or rechargeable (this is done mainly to increase profits).

The binding rune has a cost in tel to be placed, but after placed, the enchantment doesn't have a mana cost.

The Equipment Use tree has the "Smell Bound Item" skill at Tier 2. The skills of Tier 3 and 4 require this as the basis for "Repair Bound Item", "Recharge Bound Item" and "Equipment Mastery".

There are two known ways of binding an item to someone. The first is by using blood, which for a set of armor has a cost of 1 to 2 liters. The second known way is through the skill Mana Manipulation.

## Examples of Bound items

Most items produced by Tallheart are (permanently) bound, especially all special equipment for himself, Rain, Ameliah and Jamus; only general Ascension equipment is unbound. For that reason, Tallheart's items (like the various Malleable Rings and Armors) are not listed below.

* Anton's bow - still bound several months after his death
* Hegar's rapier - still bound several months after his death
* Rain suspected most weapons left in the aftermath of Velika's battle against her would-be assassins were bound, including a pick and metal war hammers.
* Bosco Deitrich had a bound spear.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 94
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 154
3. ↑ Chapter 153
4. ↑ Chapter 55
5. ↑ Chapter 179
6. ↑ Chapter 87
Argle Thrast

**Argle Thrast** is an adventurer in Three Cliffs and was for a while the strongest awakened in the Guild branch of this port city.

## Description

Argle Thrast was introduced as wearing full plate armor without a helmet. His armor was painted garishly in red and yellow. He wielded a regular-sized longsword in a two-handed grip.
He has a wide-jawed face, and had a stubbly beard. He *had* full hair before getting burned bald by Rain.

## History

After the ship of the Empire of Adamant bombarded Three Cliffs, Thrast boasted to have been the one who sunk it, but not even unawakened in the town believed him. He has been eager since to earn lucrative bounties for Adamant agents.

He met Rain, Jamus and Nails soon after they started their recon mission in Cliffs, accusing them of being Adamant spies but relaxing when he noticed their bronze guild plates. However, his suspicion flared again when he met them again in "his" Guildhouse soon afterwards, and challenged Rain to a potentially lethal duel, which he lost dramatically. He showed his skills as a swordman as well as a lack of temper in that fight, but after the action he was outwardly a pretty good sport about being handled like a novice.

One day later however, he began making a fuzz again, climbing to the plateau above Three Cliffs where Ascension had set up camp, and trying to force Tallheart to fix his armor. He reconsidered and offered to pay for the work, but his impolite demeanor still led to Tallheart thrusting Thrast into the ocean. Thrast survived the incident, but fruitlessly complained to Ascension. For badly injuring Tristin and assaulting Tallheart, Thrast was sentenced to community service/hard labor by Ascension's peacekeeping tribunal, presided over by Rain. He tried to complain again, but accepted the sentence when he noticed Rain's power.

Argle Thrast joined the fight against the second Adamant invasion as well, and found refuge on *Temerity* together with Bakal and Cessa. He was tolerated after the ship made it to Barstone and given another chance to prove his worth, despite his apparently baseless boasts that he was able to withstand two of three Commands given to him by Warden Vatreece to shut up.

When Ascension reached Eastspar, Thrast was among the passengers instructed to find an Ascension member to sponsor them or else be left behind. It is suspected that he was unable to find a sponsor before Ascension departed the city.

## Build

Thrast is a swordsman focused on dealing damage and has reached silver plate level. He has demonstrated the Starling Frenzy skill, along with elemental skills that coated his sword in Fire and Dark magic. He has demonstrated sword forms from the Sparrow Kata, Egret Kata, and (possibly) Hawk Kata skills.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 183
2. ↑ Chapter 184
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 185
4. ↑ Chapter 190
5. ↑ Chapter 192
6. ↑ Chapter 198
7. ↑ Chapter 200
8. ↑ Chapter 207
9. ↑ Chapter 211

Thrast had a first PoV paragraph in chapter 192. (Full list of chapters includes PoV breakdowns)
Lauger

## Lauger (Lago)

**Lauger**, always called by his nickname **Lago** (probably named after the animal) is a founding member of Ascension.

## Appearance and Personality

He has dark hair. His exact features are unknown, but he likely has pale skin due to being a native Fel Sadianian. He is known to wear a heavy steel breastplate painted with the image of a lago, and he carries a shield and sword.

Though he hasn't appeared often in story, Lago appears to maintain a calm focus. When mistakenly attacked by a militia soldier in Vastvall, he easily de-escalated the situation.

## History

Lago was a chandler by trade in Fel Sadanis, until he joined Ascension as a founding member in late 3060.

Lago was awakened in the Essed Frostbarrows. By the time Ascension had arrived in Vestvall, Lago was used to wearing a heavy steel breastplate, but had yet to take the class. When moving Ascension's camp from outside Vestvall to The Crack, Rain sent Lago along with Jamus, Val, and Tahir to stay the night in the city to assist in its defense and to keep an eye on the Crimson Swords.

Lago was part of the forward team of Ascension that Rain sent to Yelfenn.

## Abilities

Lago chose to specialize in heavy armor usage, and his stats lean towards Endurance. His likely class is Heavy Armor Defender, and his level cap is 9.  None of his Skills are currently known.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Chapter 131
2. ↑ Chapter 33
3. ↑ Chapter 113
4. ↑ Chapter 124
5. ↑ Chapter 130
6. ↑ Chapter 215
7. ↑ Chapter 173
Party

A **party** is a grouping of eight or less individuals. A party is formed automatically based on intentions when eight or less people are working together on something. Members of a party are joined by links between their Souls.

There is no range limit on parties, as far as Rain is aware.

Within a Lair, the party display is added to an awakened's interface. It displays the Health, Stamina, and Mana of the person's party members relative to their caps, not as absolute numbers. If a person's name disappears from the party display, it means they have left the lair.

## Contribution

Contribution is how the System determines credit for Monster kills within a party. If multiple parties are involved in a fight, only the party that scored the killing blow will receive credit.

Contribution determines the percentage of experience received from a monster kill. When killing an Essence Monster non-zero contribution is required to receive an awakening or a cap raise.

Inside of a lair, contribution is determined purely by damage done to the monster. Nothing else will affect it at all.

Outside of a lair, the rules for contribution are much more relaxed. Even simply attracting a monster's attention can count for contribution if it leads to the monster's death. However, being in the party by itself is not sufficient for contribution.

Inside a lair, the system displays notifications for monster kills for each member of the party, even those with zero contribution. Otherwise, only party members with positive contribution are shown kill notifications.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 113
2. ↑ Chapter 201
3. ↑ Chapter 130
4. ↑ Chapter 40
5. ↑ Chapter 101
6. ↑ Chapter 45
7. ↑ Chapter 144
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 141
9. ↑ Chapter 88
Everdeep Fortress

The **Everdeep Fortress** was a dark-aspect lair located a couple days of foot travel away from Fel Sadanis, inside a mine that belonged to the Vekuavak noble family.

## History of ownership, and claims

Its existence was determined by several persons, after an adventuring group led by Lavarro had fought an infestation of Dark Hounds in the mine: Jamus and Carten had suspected it and brought as their party Rain, Val and Ameliah. Lady Velika Vekuavak also had concluded that there must be a lair, and prepared to claim it for herself; while Lavarro also suspected it would exist, and went to harvest it as well.

While Rain's party, including Tallheart and Velika's scout Stint, was ultimately successful in killing an essence monster there and harvesting its core, Lady Vekuavak arrived very shortly after the party had tried to abscond into the hinterlands. Meanwhile, Lavarro was again too late to claim anything within the mine, especially given the presence of Velika in the area. The latter was able to follow Rain's party, but dealing with Velika prevented her from dealing with Rain's party trespassing. In the aftermath of the affair, Lavarro tried to punish Rain's party as well, which lead to a confrontation with Halgrave.

## The lair

The lair's primary feature was that it consisted of a labyrinth of pitchblack walls beyond the entrance area. Those walls were constantly shifting, while the lair's primary monsters (Dark Hounds of Level 4) attacked the challengers. It was possible to overcome the shifting walls by creating a remotely observable fixture (that were, Lunar Orbs) and move forward from there without falling for the trick hallways of the lair.

Other tricks included trapped doors, larger packs of hounds arriving in waves, other monsters including lots of Tenebre Bats (level 6) and one Umbral Charger (level 10). The essence monster was a Dire Darkmonk of level 5, killed by Val in a solitary fight.

## Rewards

Rain, Jamus, Ameliah, Carten, Tallheart and Val each gained the Dark-Aspect +10 Perception Accolade. Val also got his solo-defeat of an essence monster. Stint was awakened to level 5.

All delvers into the lair became members of Ascension, which made it possible for Rain to gain (temporary) control over all six accolades from his friends for training purposes.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 15
2. ↑ Chapter 56
3. ↑ Chater 62
4. ↑ Chapters 40 to 42
5. ↑ Chapter 43 to 46.
6. ↑ Chapter 182
Kev

**Kev** is the *High King* of Ter'karmark.

## Overview

So far, Kev has only been mentioned in passing in the story. He is regarded as being Platinum-level (above level 75), making him a member in an exclusive group together with Vatreece and Fecht.

He is likely the inventor of the tiered system of Ter'karmark's Numbered, where he is ranked as the One, having gold-level Tens and silver-level Hundreds and bronze-level Tenthousands.

He has rivaled before with Vatreece, who referred to him as a "bastard" - he might have a slim chance of stopping her from taking over the world, if she ever wanted to, which she doesn't. When Vatreece tought Rain how to refine essence to match his level, and announced that he has proven interesting enough to bother with, she advised Rain to stay away from Kev.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 93
2. ↑ Chapter 106
3. ↑ Chapter 222
Dragon

Dragons exist in the World of Delve. Little is known about them though.

## References within the story

* Snowlilly died fighting a dragon in the Depths, so that Tallheart could escape with his life. That happened two years prior to Rain's appearance, who had the occasional nightmare about a dragon after hearing the tale.
* When Citizen Westbridge attacked Fel Sadanis, some frightened rumours involved the appearance of a dragon, although almost nobody believed them, given that the city was supposedly in an unranked zone.
* There are references in the Legends of the Green Wood to heroes slaying dragons
* Dragons are apparently more common in Ter'karmark.
* Dragons are usually sticking to the continent of Karmark, and usually don't land on other continents. They may (like Leviathans) generate their own mobile ranked zones to survive outside of ranked zones.
* Warden Vatreece stated her belief that dragons are not native beings from the world, but come from another world called Wix.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 47
2. ↑ Chapters 60, 108 and 133
3. ↑ Chapters 72 and 73
4. ↑ Chapter 83
5. ↑ Chapter 139
6. ↑ Chapter 171
7. ↑ Chapter 192
8. ↑ Chapter 206
Sally Struthers

Sally Anne Struthers (born July 28, 1947) is an American actress, spokeswoman and activist. She played the roles of Gloria Stivic, the daughter of Archie and Edith Bunker (played by Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton) on *All in the Family*, for which she won two Emmy awards, and Babette on *Gilmore Girls*. She was the voice of Charlene Sinclair on the ABC sitcom *Dinosaurs* and Rebecca Cunningham on the Disney animated series *TaleSpin*.
Common language

The **Common language** in the world of Delve (or possibly only on the continent of Ekrustia?) is not English, but instead a non-related language of its own.

## Other languages

There is a number of people who speak several languages, though, and Common also has dialects and accents, as evidenced in the case of Fechton Stone and the Empire in general.

Competing languages in the world are Vejik (spoken in parts of Rellagia, where some more languages are also in use), Zeelada (spoken in Xiugaaraa) and at least one language of the Southern Islands. Another ancient language is Pelendi, which is implied to not have many speakers anymore. As sign languages, there is also the Common Hand Code.

## Characteristics

To an English speaker, Common sounds like a staccato language. When still starting to learn it, Rain felt that Common was overly simplistic, and felt like learning a caveman-language: The word for ‘forest’ was ‘many tree’ and ‘clearing’ was ‘no tree’. Some words are also not derived like that, however: "Lighthouse" (a loanword from another language) doesn't contain the words of either "light" nor "house/tower".

The grammar is different from English, apparently using a subject-object-verb order: "You five slime kill, you guild five Tel <rewards ?>." This makes the Common grammar similar to languages like Latin, Turkic, Iranian and Indian languages.

## Expressions

There is not a single word of the Common language known, as everything spoken in Common in the novel is translated to English, from the viewpoint of Rain. Rain's translations are also the reason for possible mis-translations, like "Citizen" (meaning *Politician* as in "ruler of a *polity*"), or "Democratic" (meaning "voting body" in the case of the DKE).

* "Depths" and "Hells" are often-used expletives. (The only protagonist to use "Hell" in the singular form to swear, is Rain.)
* "Crack", "Orifice" etc. are available to use in Common butt-jokes.
* "hunting sheep in the farmer’s barn" is an expression meaning "shooting fish in a barrel"
* "Do not bring bronze when dealing in silver."
* "straight out of Wix" is an equivalent to "straight out of a fairytale"

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 1
2. ↑ Chapter 4
3. ↑ Chapter 182
4. ↑ Chapter 5
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chapter 130
6. ↑ Chapter 186
7. ↑ Chapter 191
Reading

**Reading** is a skill used by the Watch to discern lies from the truth.

Unlike the system-related Skills, reading is a lower-s skill based on Soul-perception that doesn't occupy a skill slot. In theory, anyone can learn it, although an Awakening is likely a prerequisite.

## Availability

Every Watch officer is supposed to be able to read people, although some Watchmen are better at it than others. For example, Sentinel Lamida was better at it than Officers Vaast and Kellen; Officer Sana is a prodigy, while Officer Mattem is barely proficient. The aptitude of other officers of the Watch has not been stated, but all of them were able to spot lies. For readings to be valid as evidence for a protocol, at least two Watch officers are required to perform the reading.

The ability for reading is a closely guarded secret by the Watch, and most Watchmen are not aware how the Skill is developed, thanks to a Memory Cube sealing the training from memory access. Similarly, the Watch is guarding a lot of Soul-related knowledge, as the two things are related.

## Method

The skill depends on several levels of awareness:

* **Adventurer's intuition** means to be aware of danger, and is the most basic level of the skill that many Awakened develop naturally at some point. While Rain became able to perceive other souls than his own eventually, on his own, and could intuit if they were stronger or weaker than himself, he only achieved that awareness after already being a silver-level adventurer.
	+ The Watch's version of this awareness training is much more focused than what Rain eventually discovered: Sana described her training involved a Gold-level Guardian (Nem) would approach and threaten students who had all their senses blocked, while they needed to indicate his proximity - feeling a much higher levelled Soul is described as easier, and an entity that wishes harm, is also easier.
* **Feeling** is the first part of Watch Reading: when aware of other people's souls, it is possible to passively tell how the person is feeling (angry, tired, stressed, hungry) in an overall sense. (That is a reason why Watch personnel was wary of Rain after his soul was cracked)
* **Seeing** is the second part of Watch Reading: the reader needs to actively send out a pulse with their Domain to get very accurate details on the Domain of the person that gets read. The hardest part is to sense the echo of the other person's domain, and it involves developing a sense of synesthesia. In regular Watch training, this is achieved with the "Velvet Cap" potion, a hallucinogenic drug (and the milder version of "Dream", an addictive narcotic.)
* **Reading** is, in a nutshell, when Feeling and Seeing yield different results.

Unlike physical lie detectors, the Watch assures their trainees that once Reading has been mastered, it is a basically foolproof method. Things that may complicate proper Reading and require an experienced Reader, may be having a too powerful soul, or a cracked soul.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 63
2. ↑ Chapter 203
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Chapter 209
Hanes

**Hanes** is a hunter from Fel Sadanis who has become a founding member of Ascension.

He owns a pair of hunting dogs and was a good shot with the bow even before becoming awakened. Nevertheless, he was beaten by Tahir when the best shot in the company was determined. Tahir became a healer after being awakened, leaving the spot for a ranged striker to Hanes.

He has become the instructor for archery for Ascension, and got an enchanted bow.

## Build

Hanes is a pursuing a Ranger build, taking skills from the Sharpshooting tree.

His skills include Seeker Shot and he has a Level Cap of 5.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 118
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 123
3. ↑ Chapter 127
4. ↑ Chapter 139
Common Hand Code

**Common Hand Code** is a sign language that is used in the World.

It finds use among certain adventurers as well as by hearing-impaired people like Uman.

Melka and Staavo were able to use it for basic instructions only, while Ameliah was rusty but proficient in it.

Some names / call signs in hand code:

* Jamus = Soup
* Staavo = Books
* Uman = Bubbles
* Rain = gentle precipitation (warm, cleansing rain in spring)
* Tallheart = tall heart
* Ameliah = Tiger eye (the gemstone)

Rain and Ameliah used hand code frequently in the depths.
Lena

*Lena is not to be confused with Lana, the former Vestvallian woman.*
**Lena** is a founding member of Ascension.

She was an unwakened apothecary and herbalist in Fel Sadanis, and joined Ascension for the prospect of finding awakening, and getting away from home in Fel Sadanis without evacuating through the teleporter platforms.

She is the last person of Ascension with a crafting background who has not yet been awakened.

Her first in-person appearance in the story was when she was manning the auxiliary console on the bridge of Temerity.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 113
2. ↑ Chapter 225
Paul Newman

**Paul Leonard Newman** (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, producer, race car driver, IndyCar owner, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He won and was nominated for numerous awards, winning an Oscar for his performance in the 1986 film *The Color of Money*,[1] a BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award, an Emmy Award, and many others. Newman's other roles include the title characters in *The Hustler* (1961), *Hud* (1963), *Harper* (1966) *Cool Hand Luke* (1967), *Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid* (1969), *The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean* (1972), *The Sting* (1973), *Slap Shot* (1977), and *The Verdict* (1982). He voiced Doc Hudson in the first installment of Disney-Pixar's *Cars* as his final acting performance, with voice recordings being used in *Cars 3* (2017).

Newman won several national championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing, and his race teams won several championships in open-wheel IndyCar racing. He was a co-founder of Newman's Own, a food company from which he donated all post-tax profits and royalties to charity.[2] As of November 2018, these donations have totaled over US$535 million.[3] He was a co-founder of Safe Water Network, a nonprofit that develops sustainable drinking water solutions for those in need.[4]

In 1988, Newman founded the SeriousFun Children's Network, a global family of summer camps and programs for children with serious illness which has served 290,076 children since its inception.[5]