In contrast to the sword’s bright light, the glow of the bone pile seemed to dim a bit.
Vic tracked my gaze and explained, “When we discovered that the bones hurt that Mastiff, I guessed that there might be something inside that powered up the bones, that’s why I dove in there. I found this skeleton at the very bottom of the pile, holding this sword in its hands. It seems to be some sort of blessed anti-darkness sword. My guess is that the wielder battled those beasts a long time ago and was eventually defeated. The dark creatures probably couldn’t bear to touch the sword, so they simply piled the bones of their other victims on top of it, probably in the vain hope of extinguishing it with death and darkness. But this sword,” He took it off his shoulder, and caressed it affectionately, “Couldn’t be quenched so easily. Instead, its powerful blessing hallowed the bone, making them a bane of the darkness. Anyway, there was no way I could extract the sword, so instead, I tried possessing the skeleton, and it worked! I found myself controlling this body. I kinda like it.” He added with another grin.
It was really disconcerting to be having a friendly skeleton grin at you through an emaciated skull.
“You did well Vic,” I commended him. Anything you can tell me about who that skeleton used to be?
He shrugged, “This possession alone raised my skill by 4 points, but it's still not enough to allow me to access the logs so far into the past. I can tell you something else however, this skeleton was not a normal NPC.”
Given its size, it was obvious. “What type of creature was it then?”
“It was a divine messenger, an Outrider.”
I looked at him with puzzlement, “I know that the gods have servants, but I have never heard of any such entity interacting directly with our realm. They’re only supposed to guard the spirit of dead NPC and stuff like that, no?”
He nodded, “that’s true now. But prior to the game’s official release, there were a few divine messengers who walked upon the earth, performing their godly given errands. The Outriders were amongst the strongest of them. But they were disbanded by dad not long after. Something about them being too powerful and unbalancing to the game’s equilibrium.”
“Alright, so what does this information tells us?”
“Something here was powerful enough to kill it.”
That grim proclamation gave me goosebumps. What could be more powerful than a servant of a god? I wondered apprehensively to myself.
I realized that whatever took down the Outrider was probably the source of the darkness I saw in my vision. And I still had no clue how all that we’ve discovered so far connected to my new Chief’s House. I sighed in resignation.
“Was there anything else down there in the pile that can be useful to us?” I asked.
“Almost all the bones belong to animals and simple mobs, so... not much.” My face fell. “Well…” he continued brightly, “except this thing.” He reached inside his rib cage and withdrew a silver bracelet. I took it from his hand and analyzed it.
Outrider bracelet
Description: An exquisitely crafted bracelet made of electrum, symbolizing the camaraderie of an Outrider sect.
Type: Single use item
Rank: Artifact
Durability: indestructible.
Effect: Summon an Outrider ally.
I whistled softly in admiration. An artifact! That little beauty would fetch at least a few hundred thousand gold coins in an auction. I was holding a digital item with the equivalent cost of a sports car. Sure, in my past life I had in my possession even more expensive artifacts, but this one was extremely rare. Probably the only remaining evidence of a power that existed in the early stage of the game. Regardless of the actual cost, game fans would kill to possess it.
I quickly added this tasty morsel to my inventory. A trump card for rainy days.
The previously huge Mastiff was reduced to a shallow pool of liquid shadow, mixed with some earth nuggets. I gingerly prodded its remains and actually managed to open a loot menu.
Vial of liquid darkness
Type: crafting component.
Shadow touched ore X 7
Type: crafting component.
It could prove to be very interesting to craft something that was partially made of shadows. Those components were very rare, that beast was way too strong for its level, even with Vic’s newfound blazing sword we just barely managed to take it down. It was doubtful we could take down more than one or two of the beasts before they inflict enough damage to destroy Vic’s new skeleton body completely. Heaven forbids if we encounter a group of them. That notion also made me realize how precious Vic’s new body suddenly was, as none of us would even be able to lift the sword without him.”
“Vic, how long can you maintain control over that body?”
He hesitated for a split second before answering, “About another 45 minutes.”
I would rather it be longer, but you can’t look at a gift horse in the mouth. “Then let’s make best use of the time we have. Let’s continue scouting the cave. Vic, you are officially promoted as our group’s secret weapon.”
He grinned at me again, he really seemed to enjoy grinning as a skeleton. “Sure thing boss,” he replied.
We performed a quick search of the chamber to make sure there were no other passages. Then we walked back to the tunnel that brought us here. We chose to forgo formation and walked briskly along the tunnel all the way toward the main entrance chamber.
Here I had two options to choose from; scout the smaller left tunnel first, or the main big circular one. I had no doubt that whatever we’re looking for was through the middle passageway, but I had a hard time to simply ignore my gamer instincts that insisted that side passages and backdoors should always be checked out first. That was the smart move, first verify there were no surprises to attack you from behind once you had finally reached your destination. I hesitated for a second longer and then decided to follow my instinct and to check the small tunnel first.
This tunnel walls were oozing darkness right from the start. The deep shadows drowned whatever light source we had, so we could only see a few meters ahead. I activated my Mana Shield and entered first this time. We were in a hurry and it was the most logical defense when speed was an issue. Walking in a formation was simply too slow.
I had only walked for another 5 meters or so, when I hit a barrier. The walls of the tunnel become narrow at one point, their oozing darkness became close enough to touch and form a wall of pure darkness.
“Here, let me boss,” Vic volunteered as he moved forward, raising his sword in the air.
I stepped aside and let him pass. When he reached the black barrier he swung his blazing sword, cutting at the darkness like a knife cutting through butter, parting it to the sides and revealing the tunnel ahead. Only it was still blocked.
The vanishing shadows revealed a stone doorway, ancient by the looks of it. It was roughly hewn and seemed as if it had been built by some cavemen, as it appeared to be almost like a natural part of the stone that surrounded us. It was a door, however, though there was no keyhole. Instead, it had a pentagram shaped indent in the middle. A socket, no doubt, meant for a specific key.
I half-heartedly attempted to force it open and, as expected it wouldn’t budge an inch. With a shrug I let it go. It was for the best, really. Now I knew nothing would surprise us from the back, we could move forward at the main tunnel with impunity.
Well, I thought with dark humor, at least I can relax knowing that our death would come in full view from the front and not sneak on us from behind. I chuckled and waved my party to follow me.
We finally stood ready to venture into the main tunnel.
We reassembled our formation again. Seeing how large the tunnel was, we could have moved unhindered, so it didn’t cost us any extra time.
As I mentioned before, the tunnel shape was that of a perfect circle. As we walked its length, it curved downward, taking u
s deeper into the bowels of the earth.
After a few minutes of walking, a glint of light reflecting Vic’s sword caught my eyes. It was something embedded in the tunnel wall. I waved my group to stop and approached it. It was an Opal as big as my fist! I eagerly drew my dagger and tried to dig it out of the wall, but unfortunately, I was unsuccessful. Instead, a small message alert blinked at me.
Minimum required skill level: Mining 30
That was a shame. Even our miner wouldn't be able to extract this opal, he’ll have to reach level 19 before his physical attribute will be high enough to raise his Mining skill cap to 30.
I let go of the Opal reluctantly, and we continued our descent.
My regret for losing it hadn’t lasted long, as soon after I found another one, loose on the ground. Though it was a much smaller gem than the one I saw earlier, I happily collected it and stored it in my inventory.
As we descended, the tunnel walls around us that up until now appeared to be a normal stone, changed. As we progressed further and further, the same oily oozing darkness started to appear, coating the walls with its black substance. The residue was thin at first, but it became thicker and thicker as we moved on forward, deeper and deeper underground.
“Vic,” I said after a while, “How much longer can you maintain this body?”
The Vic controlled skeleton shrug, “About another 20 minutes or so.”
That was not good, we were losing too much time on moving carefully and as a result, we had already wasted over half of our special anti-darkness weapon’s duration.
“Ok, let's pick up the pace,” I told everyone, “We’ll run at a steady pace. Keep watch all around us!” We started jogging down the tunnel. If it had been a castle dungeon or any other man-made construction, this order would have been nearly suicidal, as it meant that we’d probably miss spotting any possible trap in the area. But from what I could see, this place was some sort of monster-infested naturally occurring lair, without any technological devices. It was a calculated risk.
A few minutes later we heard the sound of flowing water and soon after the tunnel finally reached another chamber. It opened up into a large underground cavern, where a wide stream of water was gushing from our left, flowing to our right, dividing the chamber. On the other side of the stream, I could see the tunnel continued further down, still at the same perfect circular shape.
The stream wasn’t too wide, about 3 meters from side to side. The problem was with the water itself. It was tinted with darkness.
It appeared that whatever caused the darkness to ooze all around the place affected the water as well. I carefully approached the stream and observed the water closely. I could see normal water streaming, but it was tainted with thickly laced streams of blackness.
Though I didn’t know exactly what contact with the fluid would do to a goblin, the notion of “Don’t go into the dark infested waters” was a very clear in my mind. I half expected seeing it written on the wall next to an old pile of bones belonging to the last poor bastard who had tried to cross them.
So how can we pass to the other side? I wondered, still leaning down toward the water.
Before I had the chance to do anything else, the waters near my face started bubbling. I quickly retreated, in my haste almost tripping over my own legs as I put some distance between me and the ominous bubbles. More and more black bubbles appeared and they made their way toward the edge of the water.
As the bubbles reached the edge of the stream, a huge black maw of another Mastiff appeared. A large paw emerged from the water next and splashed heavily on the ground, quickly followed by another paw. It didn’t exactly seem like the beast was emerging out of the water. It looked more like the shadowy substance of its body was forming up by gathering the darkness from the water. Its body continued to form, as it slowly came out.
“Shit. Vic hit it!” I yelled.
Vic immediately swung his huge blazing sword, took a few quick steps toward the almost fully extricated monster and delivered a massive blow.
Half of the beast’s front body simply disintegrated from the blow, but as we watched, more and more darkness oozed out of the water, climbing up the lower half of the beast’s body, reconstructing the damage Vic had caused, while simultaneously continuing to form up the rest of the beast’s body.
“Shit, it won’t work as long as it's connected to the water,” I shouted. “Let it completely out first.”
Vic obediently stepped away from the edge of the water, giving the beast an extra moment. An extra moment was all that required, the beast finished forming up its body and come out of the water.
It stood there, bigger and darker than the one we fought before, it’s body framed by darkness and pieces of rock. I analyzed it:
Shadow Touched Mastiff
level 18
HP: 150
Resistance: magic 50%
Then the huge beast raised its head, opened its mouth and just as the previous Mastiff has done, howled a terrible howl. Vapors of darkness emanated from the beast’s mouth and quickly washed over us all. But this Mastiff howl had a much more powerful effect. I suddenly felt my body weaken, as unnatural fatigue started to set in my bones. Next to me, the two warriors collapsed into the ground, panting heavily. Vrick was doing better, but not by much, leaning against his spear. Bek also managed to stand upright somehow, though the effort plainly cost him dearly. Luckily, our ace in the hole - Vic - seemed unaffected. The vapors darkness couldn’t reach him, it evaporated as soon as it neared his glowing body.
I clenched my teeth and forced myself to stand upright. There didn’t seem to be any other penalty associated with the howl debuff, other than the feeling of physical pressure, so I could still talk and use my magic.
“Vic,” I said through clenched teeth, “Destroy that thing.”
“You got it boss,” He replied merrily, raising his sword for another swing and closed the distance to his foe.
The two started battling each other, while completely ignoring the rest of us. Vic swung his sword with great and powerful arcs, but this beast seemed more intelligent than its predecessor. It anticipated most of Vic’s attacks and managed to dodge them, while occasionally delivering a counter attack which Vic just barely managed to sidestep. I could see that time was not in our favor. Despite the huge advantage the glowing sword imparted, Vic himself was no proficient warrior and he was making some rookie mistakes, leaving himself exposed too much. The beast seemed to understand that and patiently stalked his moves, waiting for an opening. When Vic finally made a significant mistake, leaving himself completely open, the beast lunged forward and managed to land a powerful strike, its nails ripping away a few bones from Vic’s rib cage, and cracking one of his shin bones. Vic began limping, which slowed down his attacks. Not good. I launched a few Drilling Arrows at the beast, in an attempt to distract it, but the damage they inflicted was healed almost instantly. After a few of those, the beast turned its head toward me with a furious snarl and I quickly abandoned that course of action. I had to be careful not to aggro it too much, or else it might target me.
Vic continued battling the monster, though it was clearly obvious now, that the battle was not going in his favor. His limping made his stance and maneuvering even worse than before and the beast had no troubles avoiding his swings now. I watched in desperation, wracking my brain trying to think what else we could do, but nothing came to mind. Everyone else was just barely able to keep on breathing. Then, suddenly, I noticed something peculiar. Vic’s swing, once again missed the Mastiff, going way over its head, but I was sure I saw the beast flinching for a split second. I watched again, more carefully waiting for the next swing, and… yes, the beast definitely flinched! It didn’t like being in the zone of illumination shed by the blazing sword! That’s why it took its time and only occasionally struck back, it was being careful not to be under the direct light of the sword! It was afraid of the light!
“Vic!” I yelled at him. “Hold the sword in
front of you! The beast fears the light!”
His beaten skeletal body seemed weary, but he did as I said. He held the hilt of the sword with two bony hands, the sword suspended in front of him like a huge bright pole of light. The beast definitely didn’t like that and took a small step away. Vic saw that too now and advanced a step forward.
“Keep advancing!” I shouted, and Vic obeyed. The beast took another step back.
Slowly and methodically Vic pushed the beast back, toward the water. Desperately it tried to jump to the side, but Vic was prepared for that and easily sidestepped to block that path, forcing the beast even further down toward the water. Finally, when it was fully submerged again, its body started to melt down, its darkness swept away by the current that had previously birthed it.
A moment later, the misty dark vapors that permeated the air vanished as well, instantly freeing us from their pressuring force. Everyone slowly got back to their feet, if a bit shakingly.
“Well that was fun,” Vic proclaimed, walking on wobbly legs, still carrying the sword. “Now what?”
“We need to cross that river somehow,” I replied.
Vic shrugged, “Now that we know these creatures fear the light of the sword it should be a breeze, climb on my shoulders, I’ll carry you to the other side.”
Now that was an interesting idea, something about it didn’t sit well with it, but I couldn’t find any explicit logical problem with it. “All right,” I agreed. Vic bent down, lowering his head, and I quickly climbed onto his bony shoulders.
“Now hang on,” He cautioned me, turned toward the waters and jumped into them with a splash.
I suddenly realized what was wrong with this scenario. I was used to carrying Vic around on my shoulder, and now the tables had turned. I was basically being piggybacked by my own cloak.
The current wasn’t very strong, nor the water very deep. Vic’s 2-meter tall body easily stood firm against the current. The darkness that tainted the water flowed around his glowing body as if it was a living creature, avoiding a direct contact.
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