Into the Darkness: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Axe Druid Book 4)

by Christopher Johns

  Maebe spoke from the entrance. “Get to the front and lead us from there. Bokaj, Jaken go. I will be the rear guard.”

  I nodded once and beat feet to the front where Fainnir panted and gulped down a mana potion. Then I noticed the blood pouring from his nose and cast Regrowth to help a little.

  “I got it kiddo, take a moment.” I touched the wall, willing the path to angle down, hoping to reach the Great Below soon. “I need you to send either Grav or Pebble into the earth around us so that they can tell us how far we need to go and which direction.”

  Fainnir glanced at Grav and blinked. “Pebble, I need you.”

  Pebble popped out of the ground where the other elemental had disappeared and instantly melted into the ground. I glanced at Fainnir in alarm, but he pointed away toward our path. I got busy, the sound of battle reaching us from the front as we moved.

  Well, the sound of Maebe stacking bodies so high that the kobolds couldn’t get through gave us a little bit of breathing room. Even if it did smell like death, it was appreciated.

  Pebble guided us down to the point where, after a few hours, we were able to make it to a natural cavern. Not the Great Below that I was aware of, but hey, it was a start. I made sure Kayda was good as we went, her parrot-sized body resting on my shoulder.

  Once we were in the area, I had everyone guard their eyes and cast Exposing Flames. As the light radiated through the area like sunlight, I added mana to it.

  Something shifted in the far corner of the room, and everyone just turned and blasted the absolute hell out of it. We watched, exhausted, starving, and angry as the creature fell to the ground dead. Some kind of beast with tentacles and craggy, stone-covered skin. I didn’t even know what level it was, but as I cast Life Sense, I could tell it was gone. And the miserable amount of experience it gave us was telling, too.

  The area was filled with mounds of stone, bones, and nothing that looked to be of any material value, though we took some bones just in case. The gamer in us really called for it.

  “I have an idea that will help make this all a lot easier if you have the time and brain function to enchant later.” Balmur patted me on the shoulder, his soft smile and tired eyes making me laugh at the attempted joke.

  “You got it bud, just let me nap for forever.” I yawned; the headache that comes with too much mana use almost blinding me.

  Cool hands slid over my temples. “Let me help soothe that, my love.” I smiled despite the pain. I’d never get used to Maebe calling me that.

  What about the others? I glanced around and checked on them. Each of them looked to have stopped and taken out their bedrolls. Except for Yoh and James, who rested on a blanket that Muu had laid out. They had woken up briefly, but Jaken had mumbled that they should rest more in case there were head injuries.

  It had been a while since my first aid training, and even I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea, but if someone with access to a goddess who allowed them to heal people said it was okay—who was I to argue?

  Fainnir was passed out on the floor close to Muu, who had fallen asleep sitting up. Conserving mana had been an instinctive idea for all of us it seemed. Though our, “Oh shit” buttons like Summon Celestial or Jaken’s big heal could have helped. We just hated to use them if mana was needed because they took everything.

  “All of you will rest, and I will keep watch,” Maebe ordered gently as the cold from her hands radiated into my skin and soothed the ache more and more. “I am proud of your work leading our friends today, Zeke. You did well, given the circumstances. Rest.”

  The cool touch of her hands kneading my flesh numbed my mind enough that I was finally able to fall into a fitful slumber.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “..u must awaken.” Maebe’s voice entered my dreams as she shook me. “Zeke, wake up!”

  I came to, looking for danger and found my friends waking up. I blinked at Maebe, her concerned glances around the room made me panic even more.

  “What’s wrong.” I yawned despite the fear.

  “Something is amiss.” Her eyebrows arched inward, and her frown was pronounced. “I can’t tell what it is, but it feels almost as though there is an awareness in the darkness that is foreign to me and the void. And there is something large very close to us.”

  “It smells like acid in here.” Yohsuke groaned like he tasted bile.

  The scent hit my nose, faint at first, but building. Shit. “Maebe, can you cover us all in shadow?”

  “Yes, gather close.” A flood of viscous liquid secreted from the walls.

  “Ice too,” Bokaj grumbled as the liquid rose from the ground beneath us. The noxious fumes gathering and building.

  A sheen of ice formed over the acid, and we made our way to the wall.

  “Let’s blast through this.” Muu growled with his short spear out and at the ready.

  I agreed and closed my eyes, reaching for the shadows, flames, and earth at my disposal and poured my mana into the spell. I wasn’t sure it would work, but I wanted the fuck out of here in the worst way. I spiraled the magic like a drill and shoved it savagely into the wall in front of us, a rumbling screech shook us, and my mana depleted rapidly as it dipped in.

  Once it was through and my mana close to bottoming, I stopped the spell. “Yohsuke, Balmur, use the shadows to tear the lining apart so we can bounce!”

  “On it,” Balmur snarled, his hands up with shadows wreathing around them violently.

  “Got you!” Yohsuke stood with his eyes closed.

  “Now!” Maebe groaned as her arms spread out as if to keep us from being crushed.

  The two of them grunted and growled as they cupped their hands and tore at the edges of the hole I had made. It seemed like we would be crushed by the pressure of it as we eked our way through the hole in the side of whatever creature this was. Slowly, so painfully slow, we made out out into cool air and then we were falling. Falling for so long. What felt like an eternity and then we came to a screeching, bone-rattling halt in water that froze instantly on contact with Maebe’s magic.

  “We need to get out of here.” I cast Life Sense, a large blip of crimson red appeared over top of us, even as Bokaj muttered those words.

  Pebble sank into the ground and popped out again. “North, forty feet then down at a slight angle. Go!”

  He was gone again, and we ran, the ball of ice and shadows spinning around us like a hamster wheel.

  “What the hell was that thing?” Muu gasped as a slithering sound crashed into existence around us. I could just make out a large tentacle.

  “The mother of whatever we killed?” Yohsuke guessed. “Less jabber-jawing and more hustle!”

  As soon as we reached the wall, ten feet of stone peeled aside thanks to Fainnir, and I began to work the next. We alternated as we went, Maebe and the others fighting to cover our escape.

  “Fuck this place!” Jaken roared, an almost blinding light flashed against the stone ahead of us as he sent some kind of spell at the creature.

  “Move, move, move!” The words left me in a rush as I forced the others to pass me.

  A somewhat bleeding and mangled tentacle came close to grasping me, but I managed to dismiss the section of stone it entered and crushed it. The creature screeching in pain and outrage that prey had escaped.

  “We need to move, air won’t last,” my warning made me break out in a sweat. I hated confined spaces like this. Claustrophobia has plagued me my whole life, and here I was, under thousands of tons of earth and stone.

  “Zeke, chill, you’re hyperventilating.” Yohsuke’s voice sounded so far away.

  Maebe’s cool hand found mine and dragged me closer to reality. Fainnir had lengthened our escape route significantly in our time away, so I did the next section. On we went for another ten minutes, the air growing more and more humid and uncomfortable. Dots swam in my vision, and I was worried we wouldn’t make it when Fainnir broke through into fresh air. Well, oxygenated air at least.

  The sudd
en rush of oxygen into our bodies was almost like getting a buzz. It felt good, but suddenly the room spun, and all I could think of was resting.

  How were we supposed to fight the minions and generals of War, if the dungeons and nature gave us such a huge problem?

  “None.” James panted, caught his breath a bit, and continued haltingly, “Of that… was in... my books.”

  “They probably didn’t survive,” Balmur grumbled, and he was decidedly less breathless than the rest of us, but he had been held captive by demons and our enemy. Who knew what he had been through?

  We needed to rest. Really rest.

  “What was it you had in mind, Balmur?” I yawned tiredly. My mana was recovering quickly enough, and if it would help, it would be worth the mana headache.

  He handed me a small item made of platinum that had been hammered into a round shape with a beautifully cut diamond set inside, kind of like a doorknob with a lock at the center. There was an engraving already set into it. Complex lines and symbols with what looked like simple and complicated-looking runes in different places.

  It was foreign, and yet everything I thought enchanting could be. What with the level of complication I had expected from all my gaming and reading this looked to be exactly what I had expected to learn my first day training to enchant things.

  “What the hell is this?” I looked over it some more, but I couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to do.

  “It’s a component necessary for a spell I learned.” He took me through the different symbols and runes. “These are spatial glyphs designed to create, maintain, and control an extra-dimensional space. These lines are the dimension limiters and boundaries, and then the diamond acts as the focal point and ‘locking mechanism’ for the doorway. I didn’t have time to finish it until a little bit ago before we turned out to be in a creature’s stomach.”

  “Damn, Balmur, that’s in-depth.” I raised my eyebrows and whistled at his explanation. “What do you need me to do?”

  “I need you to add a component that you are familiar with to give it structure inside, and to feed it the proper amount of mana.” Balmur clapped. “Otherwise, the rest is up to you. I don’t know much about enchanting really, but Nic said that if I give it to an enchanter, they would know what to do.”

  “I mean, in theory, I do.” I scratched my head; I didn’t really want to bother the other enchanters. “I can give it a shot, sure. If it doesn’t work, I’ll just repay you for the components.”

  He just nodded and sat back before I waved him closer. “I’ll need you to tell me about the spell. It’ll help me with my intent and will.”

  “Well, that doorknob will open the way for us to enter an extra-dimensional space. The inside will be pretty much whatever we need. If I were to add more components to it, I could make it nicer, and I might eventually, but I think for now, being out of here would suffice.”

  It was hard to argue with that logic. I gave the item another once over, handing Balmur a mana potion to feed me if I needed it, then closed my eyes.

  The engravings were there. The intent was there as well, I just had to tell my mana what I wanted it to do. I took out a small sack of my desired component and kept focusing. I wanted this item to open the door to whatever spell Balmur had in mind. Keeping that in mind, I fed mana into the item, ensuring that each of the runes, symbols, and border lines were filled as much as was needed. A little over halfway through, I dipped into Mage’s Well as I sprinkled the fairy iron dust over the item. A hundred mana and closing in on the end, I tilted my head back and opened my mouth.

  Balmur poured the mana potion into my mouth. I held the position. Another potion. Both of them had given me about 50 MP each and I still needed more. Another potion. Another. Finally, it was done. Jesus.

  Maybe it was time to up my intelligence again?

  “Here you go, man. And sorry about using your potions.” I grumbled and rubbed my aching head.

  “It’s going to be worth it; I think. Let’s give it a try.” He looked out into the yawning darkness beneath us. “Looks like the floor is a good ten stories down. Think we could figure out a way down there?”

  Maebe stepped forward, her shadows surrounding us all, and I felt a shift in the world around me, and then we stopped. She glanced at Balmur and nodded once. “Do what you must. I must rest soon.”

  I stepped over to her, pulling her against me so that she could begin to wind down. Her body felt feverish almost. Cold and hot all at once. Her skin clammy and moist. What the hell was going on?

  Balmur looked wildly around the large cavern we had appeared in and finally found a stone wall. He pressed the doorknob into the stone and turned it like one might open a door, and a seam appeared in the stone, large enough for people to walk through.

  “Come on!” He called back excitedly and whipped open the door, warm light spilling into the space before us all.

  I didn’t need to be told twice. I had lifted Maebe up into my arms so that I could carry her inside almost as soon as the door opened. She felt so faint against me, and she didn’t struggle.

  The inside of the spell was simple, almost like a home with an unfinished interior made of green walls. Couches and cushions sat around low tables made of wood a shade of brown so deep, they looked black.

  As soon as Balmur was through the door, he shut it, and it sealed shut with the knob on the inside, he then spoke out loud, “I require enough rooms for all present, fully furnished, and customizable to the individuals’ needs within reason for the spell.”

  The rest of us blinked at him, thinking, ‘what the—’then it happened. A small pop like a balloon exploding, and doors appeared around the room. Enough for each of us to have our own, but Maebe and I would be sharing. I needed to take care of her.

  I rushed her into the room closest to us on the right, having to actually open the door with the handle because I didn’t want to just break in the door. The room had been fully furnished with a single person bed, a small nightstand, and a pot for the business.

  “I need a larger bed, with the moon and stars above us.” It was wishful thinking, but I had to try.

  The bed grew larger until I felt it was good, and the room seemed to just know when I wanted it to stop. Pillows appeared on it to make up for the space and a down comforter. I lay Maebe on it, pulling the blanket back and putting her underneath.

  I had been about to call for Jaken when a popping sound caught my attention, and a tap on my door grabbed my attention. I turned to find the paladin standing in the doorway. “Let me take a look at her.”

  I nodded and stood aside as he went through the process of checking her out. To do so, he had to pull the blanket back and look her over. He lifted her arms, her hair, and even her shirt. I knew that this was all professional, and I wanted to help how I could, so I stayed quiet.

  “Found it.” He pulled her boot off and took out a knife, cutting her breeches away so that he could get to her left leg.

  He lifted it, and she didn’t even so much as wince, she was so delirious with fever.

  “Can we get some cool water and towels in here?” Jaken called. Another popping sound, and a matronly woman in green bustled into the room, her features almost unfinished, but she carried a bucket of water and linens for us to use. She patted Jaken on the shoulder to let him know she was there, then he grabbed the linens and soaked them in the water before cleaning Maebe’s forehead and leaving a cool one in place to help the fever.

  “I don’t know what the hell this is, but it looks bad.” Jaken swore under his breath. “We need to get whatever the hell that is, out of her.”

  I looked at where he pointed and to what could have easily been a gash in her leg, except for the small tentacles wriggling outside and just beneath the skin.

  I held Purify for as long as I could, using Vulpine Cunning to halve the cost of the spell and blasted the parasite with it. I thought it moved a little slower, but it didn’t stop.

  “Do we call for divi
ne intervention here?” I asked, worry edging my voice.

  “Do we risk it?” Jaken scratched his head. “Yeah sure, they could possibly heal it, or they could be warriors who answer and just amputate her leg, and we would be stuck with the aftermath of that.”

  Fuck. That left me with little choice. We needed an actual healer. Someone possibly loyal to Maebe, who could help her. Cost be damned.

  Time to use the Calling. “Jaken, thank you, buddy. I appreciate you being so ready to help. I need you to step out for a moment.”

  He eyed me as if I were daft for a moment before he nodded, “You call me if you need me. I’ll be up.”

  I watched him go, and he shut the door softly behind him. I waited until my mana was full once more before I uttered under my breath, “Milnolian.”

  This time, it only took all of my mana and 300 MP from Mage’s Well before his voice greeted me. “Majesty.”

  “I’m sorry Servant, but I don’t have time for niceties.”

  His eyes flitted to Maebe’s sweating form on the bed and then flicked back to me, the golden slits narrowing.

  “What would you have of me?” His form, that of a large black cat blurred, and a handsome elven man made of pure darkness stood before me.

  “I need you to go to the Fae Realm and bring me the strongest healer the Unseelie have.” The golden eyes widened significantly.

  “And what price are you willing to pay?” Servant’s voice was almost too quiet.

  “I don’t know, but I know that I need to be careful.” I growled and shut my eyes. “Bring them to me, by order of the King, and they can barter with me themselves.”

  “As you wish, your Majesty.” The elven form bowed and stepped back, fading from sight.

  There I waited, doing my best to take care of Maebe how I could for more than half an hour when I felt a tug on my mana. Then a larger pull. All of my reserves, and then some to the point where my health dropped down to five points and I lay bleeding and foaming from the mouth on the ground.