The Sleeper Must Awaken

by Kip Terrington

  You have created your first unique portal spell!

  L8 Idiot Stowaway- This spell allows a Portal Mage to bypass the defensive blocks on any closed portal network. Closed portal networks all have a similar mechanism for keeping their networks exclusive. If the Portal Mage does not know the correct mind-key, they will enter the network sane and exit insane. This spell is able to bypass those dangers because the Portal Mage enters and exits the portal network with a completely and utterly vacant mind. Sometimes stupidity is an impenetrable shield. Note: due to the unconscious state of the caster during use of this spell, the destination can vary greatly.

  Congratulations!

  One hidden Master Prerequisite met!

  You have created your first personal spell. The journey to becoming a master in any magic is long and arduous, and it requires an extremely studious heart. Unless, of course, you choose to apply the blunt force of blind luck. Whatever your path, whether or not you reach the destination is up to you. Note: not every prerequisite has been met to become a master or access master-level spells.

  ***

  Zoya flew around the army as they marched. She was amazed at how quickly their soldiers had been able to train for this raid. On Earth, it took people much longer to get into shape. But, each and every one of these soldiers had fought in the dungeon and gained multiple levels. Something about the process of leveling through the UI seemed to improve one’s cardiovascular system, muscle density, and overall fitness in a way she had never witnessed before.

  The introduction of the UI on the Moon, in Zoya’s estimation, had ensured that the vampires were no longer an unbeatable foe. However, there was a part of her that wondered if the UI would end up being beneficial to the Moon in the long run. It wasn’t a guarantee. If the troubles ended up outweighing the blessings, should she then feel responsible? When had the moment been that she had become real? Had it been when she was summoned? Or had it been later when some type of soul had been kindled in her? That’s where it became uncomfortable for her… Did she even have a soul? Were souls real? She knew Joe believed they were, but what did she believe?

  Then, disrupting her thoughts and bringing her back into the present, Zoya’s sensors detected vibrations in the distance. As the vibrations continued, she sped forward in her flight, measuring the sound from as many positions as possible. By the time the rumbling finished, she realized she had left the army in the dust. With just as much speed, she flew back.

  Bork was conferring with Bridcha and Molasses. Zoya flew to the already open map on the ground between the three. She pointed to the tunnel Joe had taken.

  “That's where the collapse happened, but I have received no notification about Joe's death, so somehow he must have made it,” Zoya asserted, more out of hope than her analytical processes.

  “That might be because of distance, or the UI may have decided that during the raid you won't get those notifications,” Bork hypothesized, more out of worry than logic.

  “We can't know, but I'm halting the army here for now. If they have the ends of these tunnels rigged to collapse, we could lose every NPC in one cave-in. That is an unacceptable risk,” Zoya insisted and both Molasses and Bridcha looked as if they were going to object, but Zoya cut them off.

  “I'm not sending the NPCs home, but we must be cautious. I'm taking all of my angels and we’re going to scout ahead. If there's a cave-in, I’m dead. So, if you hear another cave collapse, my orders are that the army head back to our forward base of operations and prepare for a counterattack. The good news is, my angels and I are fast. What would have taken the army well over an hour, should take my angels and I less than fifteen minutes,” Zoya declared, as she rose into the air and joined the formation of flying angels who were already rapidly accelerating down the tunnel.

  During her flight, Zoya fully expected to have the sky fall down upon her, but it didn't happen. As she burst through the exit and into the city full of slaves, she was surprised when no vampires attacked. Prioritizing information gathering over safety, Zoya instructed her angels to fan out and conduct a sweep of the city—specifically in search for vampires. She wondered if they had hidden themselves in a clever hide-away.

  As she continued to cycle through the vision of her angels, she realized that the vampires must have abandoned the city. There were ten tunnels that led deeper into vampire territory, so she sent one of her angels into each of them, but the angels did not have to go far before a wall of rock stopped them.

  Leaving her angels behind, she maxed out her speed so that she could retrieve her army and they could gather up the slaves in this city. Unfortunately, going any further meant they were going to need more than just a few individuals who could mine.

  ***

  Joe shook his head. He was lucky he hadn’t destroyed his ability to use magic. The UI might be treating this reality like a game, but Joe knew it was real. These magical forces contained within his body were powers he did not understand. He had to be more careful. As he sat in the shelter, crouched beside Obsidian One and Two, he noticed he no longer felt a sense of foreboding. In fact, in this moment, he felt hidden and he just hoped it wasn't an illusion created by his exhaustion.

  Looking around at all of the sleeping halflings, he noticed that at least one of them was awake. A big-eyed little halfling girl looked up at him. She had to be quite young, but Joe couldn't yet determine the age of a halfling child. He figured, however, that she couldn’t be much older than six. He was surprised at her lack of fear as she observed him. Hoping he could keep her from startling, he silently began to converse with her in the language of gesture.

  “Hello, little girl. I hope I'm not disturbing you and your family,” Joe signed, and after a moment, she replied.

  “Hi, funny face. I’m Isla,” the little girl responded.

  “Nice to meet you, Isla. I do have a funny face. Thank you for noticing. But, what do you find so funny about it?” Joe asked.

  She replied by pointing to her eye.

  Joe nodded. “You like my blue eye? I do too. Here, let me see if I can make it spin,” Joe said as he began to concentrate. Nothing happened. Focusing his thoughts, Joe began to plead with the little animal who was his symbiont. Finally, after some cajoling, the eye began to spin—slowly at first, but then building in speed.

  The little girl smiled wide and clapped as his eye danced.

  Successful trust check.

  With the silence broken, a few of the adult halflings woke up. Seeing the strange man in their presence, they immediately dropped their gaze. A male halfling, sitting next to the girl, looked between the new man and the girl and carefully grabbed the girl’s forehead and tilted it downward, causing her to have to break eye contact.

  Joe assumed this must be the girl’s father who, in his fatherly duty, was instructing his daughter on how to properly survive. Joe’s anger built—not at the well-meaning dad, but at the system that had kept these people in bondage. None of them were going to look at him. So, the language of gesture would no longer be useful. He didn't know if any of them would know, or be able to speak, the halfling language, but he gave it a try anyway.

  “I'm sorry to intrude upon your sleep. I will be leaving in a few minutes. It's probably best you forget that I was ever here. I hope that someday soon you'll remember this moment as a foreshadowing of your freedom,” Joe said in halfling and then fell silent.

  He sat, waiting until his mana began to regenerate. Then, without saying goodbye, Joe left the depressing living quarters of the slaves. With one look back, he noticed the little rebellious girl secretly sign him.

  “Good luck, funny face,” she said.

  As the door closed behind him and the automatons, Joe regained his footing and looked down the alleyway. The generous farewell the child had given him had done nothing to dampen his anger, only pour more accelerant on it. The mistress would pay and he would be the one to collect every blood-spattered cent. As fury seemed to course through his veins, his mana pool began
to rapidly refill.

  Congratulations! New Skill Discovered!

  Righteous Anger- When your eyes see the victim and your heart knows the perpetrator, your righteous anger will illuminate your path. Plus 200% mana regeneration and plus 29% strength while your fury burns. Note: you cannot utilize stealth when Righteous Anger is activated.

  For a moment, Joe allowed himself to imagine all of the citizens in his kingdom who had been brutalized by the vampires. He dwelled on their pain and his fury toward the mistress. Once his mana reached full capacity, he took a deep breath and calmed his heartrate down. He needed both stealth and self-control if he was going to move around the vampire’s capital. It took him longer than he would have anticipated, but eventually his Righteous Anger disengaged.

  He covered himself in his cloak and carefully walked to the end of the alley.

  Sticking his head out, he looked around the corner and was shocked at how easily he found his final destination. The mistress’s capital city did not hide her palace. In fact, all the roads led to it. Joe activated his Ley Line Sight and saw that a few major ley lines met at the top floor of the palace. He could feel the small place of power from where he stood. That was where the mistress would be. He considered jumping on one of the lines, but his Ley Line Sight highlighted a few disconcerting energy structures around the palace.

  ***

  8 of 9 and Vespera rushed into the presence of the mistress and bowed their foreheads low before her.

  “Rise. Have you collapsed the tunnel on the invading army?” the mistress inquired from her shadowed throne.

  “Great Mistress, we have collapsed the tunnels as you instructed, however, it is unlikely that we killed every invading mage. We have abandoned the city of Sibiu and have collapsed all tunnels leading further into our territory from it,” 8 of 9 reported. The mistress took a calming breath.

  “Good, that gives us some time. Even with magical assistance, that should take them months to clear the tunnels well enough to send an army through. They will take no more cities from us. If we're careful with the slaves in the capital, we can survive here for hundreds of years. Obviously, we’d have to prune down our ranks if it came to that… but, they shall never reach the capital,” the mistress vowed.

  “Great Mistress, I apologize for not speaking clearer earlier. There has been an anomaly. At least one of their number somehow accessed our portal network and jumped straight to the capital. He, or they, have already been here for a few hours,” 8 of 9 confessed.

  Quick as lightning, she reached out from the shadows and grabbed 8 of 9 by the neck and lifted him high in the air.

  “Are you saying we have invaders in the capital and this wasn't the first thing you reported?” the mistress seethed.

  “Apologies, Great Mistress! We have a tracking spell on him. 74 of 101, here, can find him,” 8 of 9 pointed down at Vespera, who was once again bowing low before the mistress, clearly terrified.

  The mistress let go of 8 of 9 and, just as quickly, reached out and grabbed the head of Vespera, holding it tightly.

  “Locate him now! I will see what you see. Whoever this invader is, he’ll soon be dealt with. What are you waiting for? Find him!” the mistress commanded.

  Vespera closed her eyes and attempted to focus, despite the fact that she was being held in the air by her head. As fear was an effective motivator for her, she found Joe almost immediately. He was climbing the outside of the palace wall, covered in a robe that made him extremely difficult to pick out.

  “Yes, there he is. The little bug thinks he can climb up to my web... How is he not tripping the alarm though? If he's touching the outside of my palace, I should be able to feel it,” the mistress wondered. Then the climber seemed to freeze for a few moments before he threw a bar with a rope attached to it straight up. The bar froze before it could fall and the man climbed up the rope to the bar and waited.

  “A levitating bar? I need to see his face, closer,” the mistress said.

  “Great Mistress, the closer I get, the more likely it is he will feel our presence,” Vespera risked telling her.

  “So be it. Closer now!” the mistress commanded and immediately the vision began to shift.

  Joe's sense of foreboding became almost overwhelming and he turned his face toward the direction of the ominous presence.

  “Oh my! What a wonderful turn of events!” the mistress leered with glee as she dropped Vespera who fell to the ground and lost the vision.

  “My suitor has finally come to accept my invitation. I want his path cleared. Empty the top floors of the palace. We are going to need some alone time. Wait, no, 74 of 101, you stay. In order to mark him, you must have seen my man in action. It's time for girl talk. I want to know every little detail,” the mistress crooned.

  “Your Majesty, what if he brought more of his army with him to the capital?” 8 of 9 asked.

  “Pretend you don't know they're here, unless they make a ruckus. Then, of course kill them, but leave the Champion to me,” the mistress beamed.

  ***

  Those in the Clan of the Unchained who had once been captives of the vampires themselves, went through the city of Sibiu and gathered the slaves so that they could be transported out of vampire territory. There was no talk of freedom. The slaves were simply told they were required to follow the instructions they were given.

  Bridcha stood by Molasses, watching as his people helped funnel the slaves out of the city. He looked at his fellow clan leader and decided he would ask the question.

  “Why hide freedom?” he asked in the trade language.

  The troll-kitsu hybrid extended one of her claws and tapped it on the middle of her forehead.

  “Mark is prison. Freedom thoughts impossible,” Molasses said.

  Zoya flew up to the two talking leaders.

  “I have some bad news for you guys. I've decided all of the NPCs in the army will be taking these slaves back to our castle and remaining there…” Zoya began and then flew right in the yeti chief's face when it was clear he was going to object.

  “No, this will not be a discussion, Bridcha. I am not asking for your input, but I've learned from Joe that if you trust someone, you don't hide things. So, let me explain,” Zoya said and Bridcha clammed up.

  “There are well over 1,000 slaves in this city, and with the ones we've already sent back to our forward base, it's going to be close to 1,300 people sent back to the castle. That means our citizens, those who have chosen to serve Joe and I, will be vastly outnumbered. These people have been tortured and Moes will not be able to help all of them.

  “That means when they get their freedom, we don't know how they'll react. I trust that the Beacon of Freedom will free them, but I don't know how long that will take. When their slave marks break, it would be good if we had a significant number of our citizens there to help them make that transition. All of you will have to teach them what freedom is. To help them understand that the Five-Sided Castle is safe and that we are all working together to make a place for people like them, where they can succeed. Somebody has to be there to help make that happen and because of what I have planned for the army, it has to be the NPCs who go,” Zoya said.

  Bridcha hung his head, feeling defeated.

  “Even me?” Bridcha asked, knowing her mind would not change.

  “Especially you. We're not gonna have any fun anyway. I want to get to Joe and the only way I can see that happening is by moving rocks. We’ll have to climb through dusty tunnels and every time we break through, there's a chance it will cause another cave-in. It will be slow progress and high-risk.”

  “Enjoy tunnels,” Molasses accepted. She gestured toward the long line of slaves walking, or being carried, out of the city, “We help them,” she finished.

  Chapter 46 - Bless Your Heart, Sugar Pie

  Underground capital city of the Wild Mountain Vampires.

  Just outside the top floor of the Mistress’s Palace.

  Day forty-seven, late evening.


  The impossible climb had taken both patience and some out-of-the-box thinking. Joe had thrown his MIL Bar straight up and then locked it in place. The trick had come after he had climbed to the top of the attached rope. If he had just unlocked the MIL Bar, then he would have fallen down, but his new skill took care of that problem. Each time he made it to the top of the rope, he activated his Negation Sphere. Because of this skill, no force—not even gravity—could affect him. During the four heartbeats of invulnerability, Joe quickly threw the bar straight up and locked it in place before the sphere disappeared. By the time he made it to the top of the rope again, a hundred heartbeats had passed and he could use the Negation Sphere once more.

  Hanging from a harness attached to his MIL Bar, Joe was almost to the top of the palace. He looked out over the subterranean city and waited. Pulling out the telescope Zoya had made him, he looked in the direction of the city where he had left Obsidian One and Two. As the minutes began to pass by, he worried that he hadn't been clear enough in his simple instructions.

  Finally, in the distance, he saw what he had been waiting for. On the top of one of the buildings, Obsidian One and Two began to throw sharpened spears of Hammered Acer Saccharum at a halfling vampire escorting a group of slaves. Though none of the spears hit the vampire, the escort screamed in rage and fury.

  Joe watched as the cry of the vampire brought the city to life. From his vantage point, the speed and chaos of the vampires gave the appearance of a beehive freshly struck. It was difficult, but now was the time he needed to wait. He forced himself to count to twenty, then he extended his claw, grimacing at the pain, and used it to open the window to his side.