Cryo Knight

by Tim Johnson

  “Let’s review the items we need to release the witch,” Christian said. “We use her to fix the stones, use the stones to get my uncle and then my uncle can get us home.”

  Alexia crossed her arms at the mention of the witch but nodded.

  Christian pulled up the item list:

  The pair of Golden Shears requires:

  1 x Golden Ingot

  1 x Celestial Diamond

  1 x Regular shears

  1 x Level 4 Soul Crystal

  “I picked up a Soul Crystal from the Goblin Savage,” he said.

  “Perfect. Soul Crystals are a special kind of gem which can be imbued with a soul. Now that you’ve got one, you’ve got to load it up with the spirit of something or someone that’s at least level 4. You need to kill them, then hold the crystal over their body and it will absorb their power. My guess is that the master blacksmith would need this to infuse a spell into the Golden Shears.

  “That’s probably the easiest item for us to get, by the way. Soul Crystals are common and can be bought cheaply in Beaverton. We’d just have to get one then go kill something that’s level 4. Given we are both higher levels now, that shouldn’t be a problem. What will be a problem is the Golden Ingot and the Celestial Diamond. A Golden Ingot is literally a bar of gold and worth a hundred gold pieces. That’s like 10,000 credits back in New London. To give you an idea, to rent a house in Beaverton is a gold piece per month. Celestial Diamonds too are incredibly rare and equally valuable. They are used to magnify mana.” She sighed. “Christian, I don’t know how we will get our hands on that stuff. It’s rare and expensive.”

  “Doubt we’ll find one in here,” Christian said. “This place is called the Astral Caves, not the Celestial Caves.”

  “The Astral Diamond, is a named celestial diamond,” Alexia said. “Near mythical – it has an entire cave system named after it and if it even actually exists it’ll be heavily guarded.”

  “So, you’re saying we just need to beat Sulfur to it?”

  Alexia let out a laugh. “We are about to go blindly into a tiny tunnel, that could lead anywhere and you’re hoping to beat Sulfur – who is level thirty – to capture a potentially mythical diamond which is being held by a Goblin Lord.”

  Christian smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”

  “And we are lost.”

  “No,” Christian said. “I’ve memorized the map. I’ll be able to get us orientated sooner or later; we just need to keep exploring.”

  He crouched again and investigated the tunnel.

  Alexia sidled up next to him. “Well, I guess that’s it then. Ladies first,” she took the torch from him and crouched down, inspecting the space, then she spread herself out flat and wriggled forward into the hole.

  “It’s tight, but you’ll fit,” Alexia called back. “Let me know when you’re in so I can un-equip the torch.”

  He pushed himself into the hole, crawling commando-style behind Alexia. He looked ahead; the torchlight danced along the curves of her leathers in an appealing way.

  From fighter, to scientist to strategist. It’s good I am with her, he thought.

  “Alright, I’m in.”

  Alexia unequipped the torch and they began to crawl through the dark.

  13

  They continued crawling in the tight tunnel, farther and farther. The rock scraped against his armor.

  Those damn Goblins are half the size of me.

  “You still back there?” Alexia called.

  “Yeah,” Christian said. But it was hot and too tight a fit. Sweat dripped off his nose and his palms slipped on the rock. He tried again, fingernails digging in as he attempted to pull himself forward, but his suit of armor was caught-fast on the craggy tunnel.

  He tried to wriggle backwards to get free, but instead seemed to wedge himself further in.

  He was trapped.

  Christian took a calming breath but when he breathed in, he found he couldn’t exhale properly.

  “Dammit!” He thrashed and smashed his head on the rocks above.

  “Christian,” Alexia said ahead. He could hear the fear in her voice. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” he growled. “Just stuck. The rock is pressed against my chest. I can’t move.”

  Alexia worked her way back. “I’m here. Small breaths, in through your nose. Expel in two short breaths through your mouth.”

  Christian shut his eyes and tried to do it.

  “Christian, we need to keep going,” Alexia said quietly.

  If only I could take off this stupid suit of armor. The image of being naked and then dressed passed through Christian’s mind.

  I can take off this stupid suit of armor, without needing to move a muscle.

  He opened his Status Screen and selected his armor.

  ‘Unequip?’

  He clicked Unequip and the armor vanished from his body. His hot body rested on the cool rock. The relief was immediate.

  How did I not think of that before? This is a game world, Christian. Get that into your head.

  “I’m okay,” he said. “I’m free.” He pushed himself forward, finally mobile again.

  Together, they crawled onwards. Moving through the tunnel without the suit of armor was night-and day-difference. Christian’s sweatiness actually helped, and he slithered forward like a Goblin through the tiny space.

  Finally, they made it out of the tunnel. It was pitch black. Christian stood up in the darkness.

  He leaned against the tunnel wall and breathed a sigh of relief. Alexia re-equipped the torch and looked his naked body up and down with an eyebrow raised.

  “Wow. So, you were crawling naked behind me?”

  “I was stuck,” Christian said. He noticed she hadn’t averted her eyes and he re-equipped the suit of armor.

  “Sure, creep,” Alexia said with a smile.

  Christian took the torch from her and held it up, drawing his sword. They were in a corridor, it was small, but the ground was smooth, and they could both stand and move around comfortably.

  Christian walked a few steps each way and saw how the tunnel switched back on itself.

  We’re in the escape tunnels, he realized.

  It was clever; the tiny escape route the little Goblin had scampered into would link into a bigger network. Perhaps these Goblins were smarter than Sulfur gave them credit for.

  Christian pulled the copper coin from his inventory and laid it on its edge on the ground. It began to roll, showing the way the tunnel edged down in one direction. He snatched the coin back.

  That would be the way to where he believed the Goblin Lord’s treasure would be.

  “It’s this way,” he said.

  “How can you possibly know that?”

  “I memorized Sulfur’s map. The shape of this corridor matches one of the tunnels. Trust me.” Christian pointed with his sword. “This is the way to where I think the treasure is. However, I bet our little friend has warned the rest of them by now.”

  “Hopefully Sulfur is running into them right now.”

  If he is, he’ll be causing a mighty distraction that’s for sure. Christian thought. Hope glimmered inside.

  “Alright, let’s go,” he said.

  With their weapons at the ready, they crept further down the tunnel. Every fifty feet or so it turned a sharp corner, cutting off from the direction preceding it. They had gone down a few of these switchbacks when they saw a flicker of light up ahead and heard the scratchy speech of Goblins.

  Christian immediately unequipped the torch and peeked around the corner to see a group of three Goblins ambling up the slope, all level 3’s. Their weapons were cradled in their arms and one swung a lantern. It looked like they had been walking for a while and seemed relaxed.

  He exchanged a look with Alexia in the gloom and numbered three with his

  fingers. She nodded and leant in close, her lips to his ear.

  “Magic first, then weapons,” she whispered.

  Christian nodded in
agreement. “You take one on the right, I’ll take the left. We hit them with magic first. Then we finish off the one in the middle.”

  They waited together, crouched behind a corner of the corridor until the Goblins

  got closer.

  Christian held out his palm and watched as a swirl of glowing ice-magic began to solidify in the center of his hand. There was a graceful beauty to the ice-flakes as they bonded, and he could feel the cold energy radiate from them. Next to him, he could see Alexia’s face lit with a burnt red glow as her Blight spell slowly formed, red and grotesque, like watching a cancerous tumor grow on fast-forward.

  She smiled as she watched its progress, then flicked her dark eyes towards the sounds of their approaching enemy.

  As one they moved out into the open. Christian unleashed his Frost Bolt and Alexia threw her Blight spell. Both spells found their targets, Christian’s Goblin was blown off his feet like he had been shot point blank with a shotgun.

  Frost Bolt I

  Damage: 60

  Mana Cost: 30

  Mana: 70/100

  I’ve really increased the power of my magic, Christian realized.

  Alexia’s Goblin was crouched over double, no doubt the dreadful pain of the Blight spell causing it to suffer.

  The one in the middle stood stock-still for a second, not knowing whether to run or attack.

  Christian ran at it and felt the thrum of an arrow pass by his ear. The arrow struck the Goblin in the chest, sending it stumbling back.

  Christian chased it down and killed it.

  Level Up!

  Congratulations you are level 6!

  New skill unlocked: Arctic Gale

  The other two were still alive, just. The Goblin Christian had hit with the Frost Bolt was clutching its side, trying to stand. Christian swung and killed it.

  He spun to face the final Goblin, but it was already dead, with several arrows sticking from its torso.

  Alexia smiled at him and lowered her bow. “We made short work of them. Let’s loot the bodies.”

  But it all seemed to be junk. The descriptions of the armor let him know that it wouldn’t fit him, and their weapons seemed to be low grade.

  He also couldn’t use the Soul Crystal on them, as their levels were too low.

  But it wasn’t all bad news; he’d leveled up again.

  He smiled at Alexia. “Guess who is a level 6.” As he opened up his Status Screen, he felt a rush of achievement.

  He quickly attributed his five points, one to Stamina and the others in Intelligence and Dexterity. He felt a grim satisfaction knowing his health would now be 220, enough to withstand a single blast from Sulfur’s sword laser.

  He checked out his Status Screen and looked at the new skill.

  Christian Lawson

  Level 6

  Build: KnightAffinity: Ice

  Health: 70/200Mana 73/100

  XP: 1525/1900

  Stats:

  Points to Distribute: 0

  Strength 7 – Stamina 11 – Intelligence 15 – Dexterity 12 – Willpower 5

  “I have a new skill too,” he said. “Another spell called Artic Gale.”

  “Read the description,” she said.

  “Arctic Gale I: Drawing on the coldest mountain air, you channel a freezing wind from your hand, costing 25 mana per second. Each second this spell is channeled, Artic Gale will travel in an expanding wave, causing powerful ice damage and applying a slow debuff to all targets, reducing their speed by 40%.”

  “That will work really well with your Dexterity,” Alexia said. “But,” and she gave him a cheeky smile, “it won’t work so well if you continue to try and complete quests butt-naked. You could get some unfortunate frostbite, you know.”

  Christian rolled his eyes. “Very funny, Alexia. But just so you know, I have the Cold Stoic ability too. Cold regenerates me. So, I might just complete a quest butt-naked just to prove you wrong.”

  She snorted in response. “Cold Stoic. Typical. Okay frosty, that’s enough.”

  They continued down the corridor picking up the pace. It continued to curve back on itself, but ahead they could see the glow of something much larger.

  They slowly crept to the end of the corridor. What Christian saw made that glimmer of hope vanish.

  “Oh, good lord,” Alexia whispered. She gripped his arm and tried to pull him back into the darkness of the tunnel. “Christian, we’re done for.”

  Even as they retreated, Christian couldn’t tear his eyes from the scene that lay beyond.

  14

  Alexia pulled him further back down the tunnel, away from what they had just seen.

  “We can’t go in there, Christian. Let’s just turn back. Escape. Go back to the entrance. Steal a horse, get away from here.”

  Sulfur had a camp up at the entrance. Even now, they were only at level 6 and 7, and Christian knew Sulfur’s men would smash them if they tried to escape. It wasn’t just that though. He wanted to beat Sulfur and try to find this mystical diamond – they needed it. That was their mission and he wanted to finish the mission. Even if, somehow, they managed to escape, he knew that in this dungeon, he and Alexia could continue to level-up and get items faster than if they were out on the run, hiding in towns and camping in the open. It was dangerous, but it was worth it.

  “We can’t leave,” Christian said. “We have to go on, but we can be smart about it. Come with me and look again.”

  They went back to the edge of the corridor. Shielded by the darkness, Christian and Alexia surveyed the scene beyond.

  Their tunnel opened into the cavern as a high-up ledge. They were forty feet up on a walkway that curved around the cavern before sloping down. It gave them a great view of what lay beyond. It was a vast, open cavern, a hundred feet high and four hundred wide, with one side covered in construction. The Goblins had built a rickety wooden structure covering the whole far side of the wall. At the base of this, ramps switched back and forth against each other, with the higher levels connected by ladders. It was crawling in workers, all of which were armed with pickaxes that they struck against the black rock with a loud tak-tak-tak.

  At first, Christian thought they were building another huge tunnel, but then with an excited shout a Goblin waved from the top. It tossed a sparkling red gem from the very top, some sixty feet up. The gem fell and caught the light, flashing red as it dropped before it was snatched skillfully out the air by the foreman below.

  They’re mining gems.

  Several fires burned around the cavern. At one fire, a set of Goblins were busy pulling a carcass off a spit and squabbling over the meat. Christian saw the meat they were tearing at –the remains of a human. Directly to Christian’s right were their dwellings, carved into the stone. Next to the dwellings, he saw a small dark temple, fashioned from roughly-cut cavern rock. Unlike the rest of the buildings that were burrowed into the living rock, this one stood freely and was decorated with human skulls and burning torches. To the right of that was a shining, sloping wall that look like bubbled black skin, with twenty great blisters the size of cryo-pods that lay along its length. Inside them he could see curled-up Goblin embryos, fully sized. One blister the size of a car contained a Goblin Savage fetus which, as Christian looked at it, wriggled in its sleep.

  This is their main camp. We’ve found it that’s for sure.

  At the front of the cavern, furthest away, was a large tunnel that seemed to lead up. This was the area the Goblins were focused on. Two of the giant Savages lumbered about on guard duty and a group of well-armored Goblins were setting up some defenses.

  Although they were too far away to see their levels, Christian could tell they were higher levels. The way they strutted, heads up and confident and ordering the smaller Goblins around, showed that. They oversaw defense, no doubt already alerted to the intruders in their dungeon.

  Nearer to him, he saw movement by the temple, and a broad Goblin strode forward. It wore bronze-plated armor, decorated with tiny ge
ms, and around its neck was a necklace adorned with small oblong disks that looked a little like shells. On its head was a half helm which covered the top part of its face. The helmet was black and shaped to give it a permanent scowling look with a row of golden spikes that circled the center in a crown. The Goblin Lord carried a beautiful sword in its belt, in the pommel was a large, shining green gem. He was a thick-set creature and Christian could tell by his swagger he ruled the place with an iron fist.

  Beside him were four brutes in matching armor with war hammers.

  Just like Sark, Christian thought. Surrounded by his protectors. Yes, this is the Goblin Lord alright.

  The foreman with the ruby rushed to show this lord their find, and Christian saw the creature nod, and the foreman raced past him into the temple.

  That’s where it will be. Christian realized. The treasure will be in that black temple and the Astral Diamond with it.

  Getting to it, however, will not be easy.

  The Goblin Lord shouted at the creatures nearest him to get back to work. They quit tearing at the human carcass and picked up their bows. Half scampered to the front of the cavern, while the other half made their way towards the ridge that Christian and Alexia’s tunnel led out to.

  Christian felt Alexia’s hand round his arm, ready to pull him back. But they were in a good position; the Goblins didn’t go up the ridge, but set themselves on the slope, which was directly underneath Christian and Alexia. Christian peered over the side to see them chattering to each other and readying their bows, with their attention at the front of the cavern. Beside them was the mouth of another lower escape tunnel that Christian had seen on the map.

  Christian and Alexia sat crouched in the mouth in the upper escape tunnel, shielded by the dark.

  The dual escape system is a smart design, Christian thought. The archers on this top ridge can cover those below and then still escape themselves.

  Christian and Alexia had a massive advantage, having come in this back way with the whole focus of the Goblin horde on the tunnel at the front of the cavern.