by Ryan Rimmel
Next, I examined all three runes of the Fireball spell. I studied them from all sides, until I was comfortable with them. Each rune was like a three dimensional letter. For example, the ‘ball’ part of the Fireball spell was a cube with thick and thin lines connecting it. The lines didn’t follow a pattern that I could recognize, even with Arcane Lore, so I didn’t know what would happen if I got the rune wrong. I assumed it would go poorly.
Combining the runes involved little more than sliding them together mentally. That had to be done in just the right way, so that all the parts connected correctly. Eventually, as I fiddled, something clicked.
● You have crafted Advanced Rune: Fireball. The Fireball rune combines Fire, Launch, and Ball runes.
I stepped out of the circle and walked along the bridge a bit. After doing a quick Puma check, I found a good spot to practice. The bridge hadn’t come straight out of our side of the wall, so I’d found a nice spot near the edge, where a stalagmite had given up the ghost a long time ago.
The nearby wall seemed off, but a quick glance didn’t reveal any threats. I could investigate it in a little bit. Right now, it was magic time. I could sense Shart but not clearly. I was just at the edge of him being too far away. Holding my hand up, I prepared to cast my new and improved Fireball.
● Word of Power is required to cast the spell.
I considered for a moment, but there was really only one choice. “Spaghetti!”
The spell formed into a pea of pure fire, just like a regular Fireball spell. I gestured, and it launched forward and exploded into a pile of rocks for 20 points of Damage. I grinned. Now for the hard part. Hoping my Flameology was up to the task, I started stacking Fireball runes, until I reached my limit of six. The Fireball was the size of a grape and thrummed with power. I gently pulled my hand away, after I finished casting it. The small orb of fire hovered, waiting for me to Will it at a target.
As I looked around for another target, all I could see was a rock. Hatred burned in my heart for that one foul object. “Fuck you, rock.”
The second spell was far more powerful, causing the offending rock to be blasted to bits. It was also much louder. I heard a voice in my head. “Dum Dum, would you mind telling me WHAT THE FUCK YOU ARE DOING?”
“Hey, Shart,” I replied, “Killing rocks?”
“Well, that is always a worthwhile endeavor, but do I smell advanced rune?” asked Shart. I felt him begin to root through my mind.
“I made an advanced Fireball rune,” I replied.
“Of all the stupid, moronic. . .” began Shart, as he glanced at it. Then, he peered out from my eyes, taking in the blasted bits of stone that had made up the rock. “Um, you actually didn’t do that bad a job.”
“That’s high praise from you,” I said.
“I realize that. After that BioLightning you made, I was concerned you’d have gone off half-cocked again. This is fairly decent work,” stated Shart.
Aw, he can be nice.
Drawing into my Mana reserves, I went to cast the spell again. I was unpleasantly surprised to discover that the Mana and Stamina cost of BioLightning had skyrocketed into something obscene.
“You are still on cooldown. Advanced runes take a lot longer to cool down in your Mana network, especially if you stack them,” said Shart.
“Why didn’t you say so?” I asked, flipping over to Sorcerer and preparing the spell again. The Mana cost was normal, and it was worth experimenting with. I yelled out the word of power and blasted the bits of rock into powder.
“Clever,” said Shart, nodding. “I really hadn’t thought about the advantages that having two Mana networks would give you. If you flipped between them, you could probably do some things that would be rather impressive.”
I generated a Fireball in each hand, straining as I got to the last rune. I tried to pull my hands away, but I couldn’t Will myself to do so. Instead, for a long moment, I held both Fireballs together in an outright anime-style pose. Then, I thrust my hands out into a double Fireball.
“Well, the cooldown on that is going to be forever,” I chuckled, flipping back over to Sorcerer. That Fireball had just come off cooldown, so I generated another one at half the strength and held it there.
“Are you trying to cook your hand?” asked Shart. I pulled my hand away and looked at the glowing ball of fire. The Fireball flickered for a moment, as I tried to reinforce it mentally. After a minute, it stabilized.
“No, just seeing how long I can maintain it,” I answered.
“Should be a long while, but it's not smart to leave magic like that out. Someone could hit it with an arrow and detonate it in your face,” stated Shart.
I reached up and grabbed the floating orb, holding it in my left hand. Looking at my right, I shrugged and began gathering up more Mana.
“What are you doing now?” asked Shart.
“This,” I said, trying to cast BioLightning. Instead, I caused the spell to fizzle and pop before fading. I had to mentally reinforce the Fireball as well.
“Don’t do that,” said Shart. “You already have a link to your Fire Core going. Linking in your Biological Aeromancy core is going to cause feedback on your Mana network.”
“Really,” I said, flipping back over to Mage. Shart’s eyes got buggy, as I was able to draw in my Mana and Stamina to form a BioLightning spell.
“Easy peasy,” I said, chuckling. I held both hands up for Shart to inspect.
“Well, I’ll be! I’ve never seen that before,” stated Shart, as he moved his head closer to examine the spells. A small current of electricity shot out of the held BioLightning, but Shart was nearly invulnerable to magic. He ignored it. Next, a wisp of flame shot out from the Fireball. Shart paid it even less attention.
I remember the exact moment those two streams of magic collided. They seemed to wrap around each other and then pull, like they were somehow entwined. I didn’t even have a moment to react before my wrists slapped together with bone-bruising force. The Fireball and the BioLightning merged into a singular point of energy only a few inches from Shart’s face. The demon screamed, as a flash of something that was neither fire nor lightning flickered away from the ball.
● Shart has suffered 27 points of Plasma Damage. Shart has suffered Critical Damage. Dimensional storage compromised.
Shart screamed, the sliver of plasma having cut through him like a hot knife through butter. Even as I felt the ball of plasma start to wobble, a streak of fluid slipped past my fingers and through my wrist.
● You have suffered 58 points of Plasma Damage. Your ulna has been severed, Mitigate inapplicable. Wound will take 40 Hit Points to recover.
Iron Will had nothing on this. I screamed but forced myself to stay standing, as I tried to hold the bolt in place. I was able to direct most of the plasma away from me, but even the slightest bit would cut through anything it hit.
“Counterspell it,” cried Shart, his left eye missing entirely from where the plasma had gotten him. “Plasma is the highest form of magic! It will overload anything it touches. You have to get rid of it!”
Reaching out with my mind, I grabbed at my own spell and began to leech the power out of it. For a moment, it appeared that draining the plasma might work. Then, one of the bolts of plasma nearly cut off my hand. I decided to leave it in place by yanking my hands back. That was a mistake. If you take your hands away from an existing spell, that spell becomes harder to maintain. It was everything I could manage to contain that ball of plasma.
That’s when I heard the claws fervently clicking. “Jim, ya daft bugger!” Badgelor leapt past me and slammed bodily into the ball of plasma, his inertia carrying him over the side of the bridge. He sailed down for a long moment. Then, there was a blisteringly bright flash of light, right before a wave of searing heat hit me.
Half-blind and in agony, I stumbled backward, falling down. I frantically reached out toward Badgelor. My heart jumped into my throat at the realization that I couldn’t sense him at all.
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br /> Chapter 38: And Then There Were Two
I don’t think I passed out, but I had to check the logs to be sure. I had been temporarily blinded from the explosion. Once I recovered my vision, I slowly got to my feet. My wrist was ruined. A dark, black scar cut through the flesh. I could see two blackened hunks from my ulna, the main bone of my wrist destroyed.
“Badgelor,” I croaked, stumbling back over to the edge of the bridge. With all the spots I was seeing, I couldn’t find him.
“I’m sure he’s fine. Your magic can barely hurt him,” stated Shart, plopping back down on my shoulder. He was glaring at me with his one eye. “Where did you see him last?”
I gestured off the side of the bridge and into the vast cavern beyond. The bridge was hundreds of feet up, and you had your choice of jagged rocks or whitewater to land in. Shart paled.
“Oh,” said Shart, waving his hands about. “That is unfortunate.”
“Did you find him?” I mouthed, pulling out a healing potion.
“No, but I did find them,” stated the demon, gesturing toward a swarm of bat-like creatures. They were heading right for us. As they closed, I realized they were enormously large.
“Bats eat bugs, right?” I asked, considering the massive size of the insects we had just fought.
“Oh, you are so screwed,” stated Shart, looking around. “We should probably find a way out of here.”
A quick glance at the safe zone and I knew, somehow, that it wasn’t safe anymore. If I had to guess, it was because I killed my companion or aggroed the entire room. In either case, I needed to find another way out.
Across the bridge was much too long, and back the way we came was still full of the giant insects. Somehow, I doubted those wide caves would be too much trouble for the bats.
“What about that?” asked Shart, gesturing at the wall behind me. Where I thought I’d detected something before, I could now see an open door, leading to somewhere. I nodded and started to chug a healing potion. Shart stopped me.
“Let me see that,” he said and grabbed my arm. Even through Iron Will, the pain was intense. He poured the potion into the wound, causing the two halves of bone to fuse. The flesh around it knit back together.
The pain of it dropped me to my knees. “When Jarra the Healer does that, it doesn’t hurt.”
“Jarra the Healer probably knows what she is doing,” replied Shart. “It’s right in the name. Jarra the HEALER.” I stumbled through the door and closed it behind us with a click.
It was dark for a moment, as the door shut. I flicked over to Mage and sent Mana through my eyes, bringing the room into stark relief. We were standing in a stairwell, heading down. My Tracking skill picked up goblin footprints.
I’d killed Badgelor.
“It appears so,” said Shart, answering my thought. “All because you were fucking around with magic.”
“All he ever wanted to do was eat, swim in corpses, and kill Charles,” I said, reminiscing about my homicidal little companion. I leaned my back against the door and slid to the floor. That promptly caused the door to open up, and a massive bat the size of a horse reached in and grabbed at me.
“Guyver,” I muttered, sending a bolt of BioLightning at its face, causing it to release me. I pressed a button, and the door closed again. I turned to the side and slumped down.
“I didn’t think anything could kill that little idiot,” I said softly.
“You are in a dungeon. People die. Companions die,” said Shart.
“You said you could raise me from the dead once. Could you do that for Badgelor?” I asked.
“Assuming you could find some of him, I could. I won’t, but I could. I need that spell to help defeat the Dark Overlord, and Badgelor isn’t going to be doing that,” said Shart. He bowed his head slightly before continuing, “Sorry. I know we got on your nerves, but he was a good badger. Very homicidal.”
“He’d appreciate that,” I muttered, then stood up. Mourning over lost loved ones was old hat for me anymore. Once you lose the love of your life, along with your whole family, nothing else bites quite as deeply.
“Hey, at least your Plasma Control skill leveled up. If you ever accidentally generate another ball of plasma, you’ll be slightly less likely to kill yourself and those you love,” said Shart.
“So that was plasma?” I asked.
“BioPlasma, technically,” responded Shart. “If you’d meant to do what you did, it would have been very impressive.”
I looked down for a moment, “Let’s go.”
Chapter 39: …Beyond the Pale
We wandered down the stairs for a long while. The nature of the dungeon was that, despite the stairs feeling like they were going down, we could have been going anywhere on the map. Who designed this, Willy Wonka?
When we finally got to the bottom of the stairs, I stopped.
“Traditionally, one climbs off the stairs,” said Shart.
“Goblin trap,” I responded, gesturing toward a well-concealed trip wire before stepping over it.
“Lots of goblin markings around here,” said Shart, as we looked around the bottom of the stairs. It was something like a natural cave that had been worked on. There was also a small fire and the faint smell of smoke. “Wait a second. . .”
I fired Scorpow at the goblin hiding in the corner, the webbing splatting all over her. She had effectively been pinned against the wall.
● Mucky’Puck, The Last of the Weird Sisters.
“Kill me,” she begged.
“Try harder,” I returned, glaring at her.
● Intimidate vs Mucky’Puck: Your check is successful
“Slay me, you genocidal maniac, or I’ll crush your craniac,” she spit out, seeming to deflate.
I walked over to the stew pot she had been cooking in. It was full of fungus and rat stew. Sadly, it was the only hot meal I’d seen in a while, so I spooned out some into a nearby cup and started to eat. Mucky’Puck hissed.
“And my food too? Kill my friends and eat my stew,” she half-choked, half-wept.
“Why are you down here?” I asked. “I figured the Wargs would have killed you.”
“Traitor dogs came at us fast, but Mucky’Puck was built to last,” she said, a tiny hint of pride edging her voice.
“You know, I used you to find out where your final warren was. If I had just let you drown, your people would still exist,” I stated conversationally. I was in a bad mood, but maybe not that bad. Not bad enough to mask the slight guilt I felt at the expression on her face. It was one of ultimate failure.
“Failed, I did, when it mattered most. Through me, the death of all the host,” she murmured quietly.
“Why are you down here?” I asked again. For an instant, I saw a fragment of defiance in her eyes, but it just as quickly collapsed. It was not often that one was confronted with the fact that you, personally, were the instrument of your people’s demise.
“Tomb is nearby, where power we draw. So, throw myself into its maw.”
“Is there a way out of the dungeon there?” I asked.
“Your journey will end at that terrible place, but there is a way out of this waste,” she said softly.
I finished my cup and stood up, turning to face her, my crossbow drawn and leveled. No need to draw this out. Suddenly, she was gone. In her place, the webs had assumed her shape. The lips made of rope were still moving.
“A pox upon thee, Jim of Windfall. Mucky’Puck will be your downfall.”
With that, the webbing caught fire, burning away to nothing.
Chapter 40: Tomb Raider
The remaining path was not long. The amount of goblin tracks were overwhelming. It looked like generations of them had been coming to the tomb, drawing from its power. My Tracking was high enough to see that the ones going in were lighter than the ones coming out.
My Hit Points had mostly recovered through my significant use of healroot. The time it had taken to arrive at the tomb had also helped. I drew my sword and made
sure my Mana and Stamina pools were topped off. I stepped out of the small hallway and into another world.
The floor was made of perfectly cut stone, unblemished by any dust or debris. The goblin tracks ended abruptly where the natural stone of the floor ended. There seemed to be some enchantment going that kept the floors clear at all times.
The chamber itself was circular, with a small bump where the pathway entered. The room looked odd to my Mana-infused sight. I stopped feeding Mana into my eyes and held up my hand, causing it to glow brightly. I’d seen this room before.
“This is the Chamber of Heroes,” said Shart, gesturing at the walls. I looked at them for a moment and was shocked. They appeared to be out in the deepest part of space, with only the tiniest amount of starlight breaking through.
It wasn’t a perfect copy, though. The actual Chamber of Heroes, which apparently was the name of the selecting room at the Citadel, had statues in it. Here, those statues were noticeably absent.
Shart appeared and flew over to a spot right inside the door. He placed his hands straight out, palms down. Then, he frowned. “I suppose that was too much to ask for.”
“What’s that in the middle?” I asked, gesturing toward a dark orb that seemed to be receded into the floor. I activated my Arcane Sight and examined it. Aside from its obvious power, I couldn’t determine much.
“The entire Source is being used to power this,” whistled Shart.
“I thought that the Source was powering the barrier?” I asked.
“It can do more than one thing at a time. It’s not you, “ said Shart, while he examined the area. “The Source is not like your electricity. It's more like water, flowing out of a river. As long as it's properly channeled, the same Source can do many things.”
That wasn’t quite true about electricity, but I decided to let it go. “Can we open the barrier or divert the Source?”