by M J Conlon
“First of all, congratulations on your professional level. Apparently this world rewards stupidity. Secondly you, stop that thinking right now, a Chag Patriarch indeed. Thirdly you got a new ability from your psychic vampirism, now no more mentioning impossibly tough monsters that you can’t help to defeat at level 0.”
Hey I defeated this monsters, didn’t I?
“Did you Stumpy? Did you? Or were you just lucky?” HAIL said angrily.
Derick mentally looked down at his stump of a left hand and sighed. Are you always this annoying when you know you can die? Derick thought as he activated Stealth, then tried to hide in the shadow of the cave walls.
“I am not annoying, I am merely informing you of all the poor decisions that you have made to this point that have put your live and by extension my very own consciousness in danger.” HAIL said indignantly.
I know, it’s fun right? Derick said, knowing that he did enjoy the excitement of near death experiences, it was part of what made him want to join the Army. Additionally, he thought it, knowing that it would annoy HAIL.
“Well are you going to read your new power or not?” HAIL asked.
Wait, are you saying that you can’t read it until I read it? Derick asked.
“That is correct, also your power will not take effect until you have read it and how to activate it.” Derick thought about waiting to read the pop-up, as a way to get under HAIL’s skin more, but then decided better against it. It is probably best that I try to avoid the AI that will likely be a lifelong companion.
“Oh, so you are capable of rational and intellectual thoughts, who would have known.” HAIL thought with a snobbish tone to the thoughts.
Derick was somewhat taken aback by the power that the Chag Matriarch gave him. Mental Immunity. The player is immune to all mental based attacks and all attempts to control or alter the player’s mind through mental manipulation or other processes. Effect, ignore all mental debuffs, status effects, and attacks. Note: This will also block the user from receiving beneficial mind altering states.
Derick thought about all the different practical applications this immunity could offer, and about how glad he was to have stayed long enough to get his Journeyman status for his profession as he began quietly going through the caves, looking for the lair that once housed the whole litter of Chags.
Wait, quick question if Mama Chag was immune to mental attacks would that have included psychic-telekinesis? Derick thought to HAIL.
“Of course, this also explains why the three pups took twice as much mental energy to throw.”
Derick found two extra spears, both of which he put in his bag of holding, then searched all over for the room where the Chags came from, but he was unable to find anything. It’s like they appeared out of thin air.
“Give the sack of bones a cookie.” HAIL responded.
Wait they used portals to hunt me down?
“See, this is why we should leave, we do not know who else can sneak up on us in an instant.”
So that is why they randomly appeared, and why they didn’t appear on my Psychic-Viewing, until they were almost right on top of me. Derick replayed the whole scenario, and then realized the most challenging point. Either the Chags have exceptional hearing, or they were close enough to hear me stumble into the broken armor. So where were they? Derick thought as he went close to the ledge and looked up the wall and down toward the base of the chasm. Derick waited until the burnt debuff finally wore off, allowing his left hand to regrow slowly, even though he had all of his hit points back, thanks to his health vial. So do I go down, or across? Derick took out a coin, looked at the two different sides, assigned a value to one then flipped the coin letting it hit the floor. The coin hit a rock, bounced off and plummeted to the chasm floor below. Well I guess that answers it, Tails it is. Derick thought, checking to make sure that his levitation cooldown was reset. Derick seeing that it was indeed reset, took three quick steps to the edge of the cliff and jumped.
Chapter 6
Derick once again felt the rush of wind whipping around his face, but rather than feeling the dread and fear of not knowing if he would be able to cast his levitation before he hit the ground, Derick was certain he could manage the feat of flight. As one of his old jump school instructors used to say, “Flying is easy, it’s the art of aiming at the ground and missing. Seeing that most of you aren’t artistic, I would recommend using your parachute.” The immortal words of Jump Master Sergeant First Class Haidrian, a memory of how SFC Haidrian died during once of the sieges at Mexico City, seemingly thousands of miles away from Zapopan. Derick knew that it was only 300, or so, miles away from where SFC Haidrian had died, but the loss of a friend is always tough.
“Master, the ground.”
Derick snapped out of his memory and realized that the bottom of the chasm was quickly approaching. Rather than tick his AI companion off, he engaged levitation, where he came to an almost immediate stop. Derick took a second to view the surrounding chasm floor in grand detail. At one point he wanted to walk out over top of the chasm floor, but his survival instincts warned him about how that would make him a slow moving flying target for everyone on the ground while he would only have limited 180 field of view max. Derick waited, centered himself, then began to travel keeping the wall to his left side, as he made his way through the chasm. From what Derick could estimate, the ground itself was surprisingly lush, with faint trails of what appeared to be grass, though Derick remembered from his first encounter that some if not all of the supposed fauna could easily be crystals. Derick could also see what appeared to be a glowing blue river flowing through the center of the chasm. Derick debated with himself for a minute or two about the next course of action. Looking at his timers he still had a little under 10 minutes for his levitation, and a little under 17 minutes remaining for the cooldown timer. Derick decided to do something stupid, five minutes out, five minutes back Derick thought to himself, making a plan.
“Wait, what?” HAIL asked, but before HAIL could state his discontent for the plan, Derick was already gone sprinting as fast as his little bone legs could carry him. Fortunately for Derick he didn’t get tired in his Undead form by running, even with short celestial gnome legs. Additionally, Derick could avoid most of the obstacles that often posed a problem to Derick while floating gently high in the air, thanks to his levitation, which only caused him to fall at a marginal pace toward the ground. Derick keeping his head on a swivel followed the scope of the river, seeing as the current seemed to all flow up towards the black mound that sat almost at the exact center of the chasm. The water is flowing up a hill?
“That is not water. Use your Awareness Skill.” HAIL said, as if he was talking to a slow child.
How do I use awareness?
“Gee, maybe the same way you engage your sneak skill, you actively think about engaging it, until it becomes so in grained in your every action that you do it reflexively.” HAIL responded, his tone portraying more than a little annoyance.
Let me guess, you couldn’t tell me to use awareness until I asked something that allowed you to answer with that as a solution?
“Bingo, give the sapien a bone…oh wait, you already have those, well most of them anyway. I guess I shouldn’t have expected much, it’s not like you came preassembled with a brain or something.” HAIL said.
Rather than reply to HAIL, who was apparently still moody from being stuck in the dungeon system with him, Derick actively engaged his awareness skill. One second Derick was running, the next he felt himself spiraling to the ground as his mind and senses were overwhelmed with different vibrant colors that filled the atmosphere of this very place. Looking down, Derick could see that the center of the chasm wasn’t a river at all, but a crystalline structure that was indeed flowing the length of the chasm, with its final destination being what appeared to be a mound that encapsulated nine giant spheres that all glowed different colors. Derick saw a red sphere, two blue spheres, a green, a yellow, one black, one whi
te, one Orange, and finally a glowing purple sphere. The power of the purple sphere seemed to call to Derick from across the chasm. Instantly Derick knew righted his descent and began sprinting towards the giant hill in the center of the chasm. Derick tried to look around for signs of danger, but somehow knew that the purple sphere at the center was what he had come here for.
“Stop, wait!” HAIL yelled in Derick’s mind, but Derick just mentally tuned out the voice and focused solely on the glowing purple sphere ahead of him.
As Derick got closer, he saw that the stream of energy from the chasm was acting as a conduit, absorbing the ambient energy around and funneling it into the nine spheres. The blue stream might explain why there are two different blue spheres. Derick thought to himself, he could feel HAIL stating something in his mind, but still continued to tune him out. Derick could only take so much complaining, and it seemed that HAIL had done nothing but complain or make snippy comments to him, ever since he entered the dungeon. Finally the voice of HAIL got so loud that he faltered, and finally had to land on the ground. Seeing that he had a little less than a minute left, Derick decided to land and wait for his Levitation timer to reset completely.
“About time, look you need to…” HAIL began.
NO! You need to stop. HAIL be silent for one hour, or I swear to God I will kill us both here and now! Derick demanded. Derick could feel HAIL want to argue, but the programming or some grace of God stepped in and let HAIL be quiet for a minute. Within a few seconds, Derick could almost feel his mind begin to relax, as he was once again allowed to think without HAIL’s constant complaining. Finally. Derick thought as he began to make a scan of the perimeter of the hill, the stream of blue energy, and the surrounding crystalline structures that surrounded everything at the bottom of the chasm. Surprisingly the base of the chasm seemed to be devoid of life, no doubt a reaction to the abundance of energy flowing into the hill, but Derick couldn’t assess more then that. Well sapien, it is likely due to the fact that your brain is too small to figure it out, oh wait you are like the TinMan. Derick thought to himself in a gross exaggeration of HAIL’s internal voice. Derick made a slight pause, while still scanning the area, before shifting his internal monologue to his own voice TinMan? Derick then switched back to his mocking HAIL voice Yes, TinMan, for if you only had a brain. Derick then switched back to his regular mental voice that movie is so old, it barely made the best new films of the 2200s. Derick switched back to the mocking voice of HAIL, no I mean the one that came from the last millennium. Derick switched inner voices again, Last millennium were there even computers back then? Derick kept up the exchange to keep his mind off of the fact that something had seemed off about the whole mound in the center of the chasm, but could not quite understand why. Finally once Derick’s levitation cooldown timer had reset to zero, he engaged Stealth and began his silent climb up the mound. As he got closer he could see that there was a ring of melted, then cooled gold that acted as a conduit for the energy being funneled to the nine spheres at the top of the hill. Derick knew that this should mean something, but couldn’t think of what.
Finally Derick made his way to the top of the hill and looked around for any signs of danger. He even made sure to look above, but nothing was visible. Despite not finding anything, Derick couldn’t help but think that danger was almost imminent. Derick wanted to attribute the uneasy feeling to the constant flow of energy that welled up from the stream and seemed to energize the gold ring that surrounded the nine spheres and Derick, but knew that wasn’t the sole purpose for feeling this uneasy. Finally, unable to find any direct threats, and curiosity getting the better of Derick, he approached the purple sphere which was at the far edge of the golden ring. As soon as Derick touched the purple sphere he could feel a stream of energy flooding up his arm. The stream was more intense than any he had felt to this point, but this stream didn’t seem to hurt, even as it flooded his body and surged towards his mind he felt calm? The purple stream of energy went to his mind, but found his mind to be surrounded and floating regardless of how much energy surged through his body.
Derick wanted to know why, he knew he could ask HAIL, but that would probably start the AI complaining about how it was something so stupid he should have known. Instead Derick decided to mentally swim up the stream to its source, Derick could feel a strange burning sensation begin to take over his body, but Derick avoided that, as he continued to fight his way to the source of all the energy. Finally after what felt like hours of swimming, but was really just a few seconds Derick found A giant purple sphere that was being fed constantly by a glowing blue stream down below. A stream that the purple sphere seemed to filter and divert towards Derick. Derick quickly touched the purple sphere, once again feeling a flood of memories and knowledge flooding his mind. The memories were once again of the same master portalist who had been giving him a lesson earlier, but this time it felt a little more intimate. He saw the entire life of the master play out, his initial training, his exploration of the worlds. His hunting dragons and their eggs for the energy that filled them. It was only after absorbing the eggs of a dragon that the portal master was able to travel the cosmos unaided by a dedicated portal. Derick saw the master wait till the dragon had left its nest before he came upon a golden sphere that looked oddly familiar to the one that Derick was in. Derick watched as the celestial gnome portalist absorbed the dragon’s egg fully, not stopping at just one egg but absorbing the whole nest. Before a shriek of pain filled the air. The portalist looking up at the black dot that began filling the sky moved his hands and began performing the actions of a portalist getting ready to escape.
Derick watched through the eyes of the portalist, seeing the black beast come ever closer until finally his portal opened, was clear on the other side and escaped quickly. Derick then heard how the beast cried in anger and fury knowing that it would be too late to exact revenge against the killer of its children. Finally after what felt like an eternity, Derick found himself back in the golden sphere, all to realize that it was a dragon’s nest. Derick looked around for any signs that danger was imminent, after not seeing or hearing anything,
Derick quickly went over to the next sphere, one that Derick knew was now a black dragon egg. An egg that could produce a dragon that was strong in death magic? Derick somehow knew that the color of the egg directly affected the dragon produced, which was tied to the powers and affinities that the dragon had available.
Derick knew that the purple egg that he had just absorbed would have produced a Psychic Dragon? Derick almost wished that he had HAIL telling him what to do, or how to proceed, but instead just went with his gut. He began preparing himself to absorb the Black dragon egg next to him, but before he began Derick grabbed the egg with his psychic-telekinesis with a slight pull and pop, the egg lifted up and then began to dim slightly. Derick seeing this, touched the egg and then waited as a flood of energy filled him but this time Derick was ready. Not only was the current weaker due to not being powered by the stream of energy that fed the nest, but the black energy of the egg seemed to not be able to fight back mentally to Derick.
Once Derick got to the center he saw a large dark sphere of energy that seemingly gave off a sinister pulse of energy. Go big or go gnome. Derick thought to himself, before touching the black sphere. Instantly pain racked his body and mind. Derick could feel sensations from within his mind that felt like blood vessels were bursting in his mind, that is if he had a mind. Derick could feel the flow of power racking his body and mind, pulsing with the dying heartbeat of a small dragon.
Part of Derick wanted to feel bad, but part of Derick realized this was just a game mechanic to elicit a response from him. Derick refused to give into the feeling of guilt and instead continued to absorb the dying heartbeat into his body. Derick forced his mind to stay conscious while streaming the energy directly into him. He could feel energy painfully coursing through his body, filling every inch with pulsing black veins of pain. Finally after what felt like an eternity the
heartbeat stopped.
Derick collapsed into a pile of bones, his will no longer being enough to force his body up. Derick felt mentally drained, but waited. Mentally Derick checked all of his vitals, knowing that HAIL was no longer available to tell him his percentages. Surviving without HAIL would be tougher, Derick thought to himself as he realized that he was down to a little over 100 hit points left and his mental and stamina reserves were completely empty. Derick waited, seeing that there were still six seconds to the drained stamina debuff, that’s why I collapsed. Finally Derick felt the world stop spinning, as Derick focused on meditating in the center of the nest. It was stupid, but after seeing how the celestial gnome had drained an entire nest in the past, Derick knew draining a nest not only could be done, but should be done if he wanted to be more powerful. Once Derick’s mental energy was full Derick decided to work smarter, picking up the nearest egg, the white egg with his psychic-telekinesis, pulling up with his mind until he felt the tug of the energy stream being physically separated from the egg Derick gently moved the egg till it was over the lip of the nest and let it gently slide to the bottom of the hill. From there Derick began doing the same thing to the other eggs. Finally once the last egg’s connection to the stream was broken, Derick climbed down the hill and began to head towards his eggs at the bottom of the hill.
Once Derick began to crest the lip of the nest he heard the sound, an ear piercing shriek that screamed of death and anguish. The sound sent a chill up Derick’s neck as he remembered hearing a sound just like it from his past, only to realize that the past he was thinking about wasn’t his, but the past of the gnomish portal master that had come before him.
It took Derick a second to notice the flying death machine amongst the dark walls of the cave but eventually the blue beast appeared. It took Derick a second to realize that something was off about this encounter, about this whole experience, but Derick couldn’t think of what, not that he had time. Instead Derick began preparing for how he could fight the giant black beast that was coming right for him.