by John L. Monk
I splayed my hand on the cool rock floor and placed the base of the knife just over the middle knuckle of my pinky. Then I started to sweat. At the last second, I dropped my side of our Mighty Group Shield, but left Aspect of the Swami in place.
“You’re gonna wanna hit it hard,” I said shallowly.
Rita raised the rock.
“On the count of three,” I said. “One—”
Not waiting for two, Rita smashed the knife and chopped off my goddamned finger.
Yes, I’d felt worse pain in my time in Mythian, but almost none of it was self-inflicted. That and the psychological torment of the amputation had me howling like a baby.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she said over and over again.
I cradled my bleeding hand close while Rita plied me with calibrated whiskey. She tried making me take a healing potion, but I refused. For so much pain, the damage was low—6 health points, and a 45-point penalty for “Dismemberment.” Healing potions had a 3-hour cooldown, and I might need one later.
“All right,” I said, a few sips beyond tipsy. “Time to give Mythian the finger.”
The summoning required that I burn the finger and say the name. The diamond would then disappear from my pocket, and the demon would appear.
My poor finger was still on the ground. I might have used Flame Lance, but I didn’t have the required staff. Mighty Fire Whip seemed too, well … mighty. The normal version would work, though, so I applied a free skill point and acquired it.
“Here we go,” I said. “Fire Whip!”
A lash of low-level flame flicked through the air along a four-foot section of ground and across the finger. The tunnel filled immediately with the smell of sizzling meat, reminiscent of a cookout.
Rita gagged.
“Chadruzhak! I summon you!”
The finger disappeared, along with my diamond. The spell also used 1000 mana, but with almost 19,000, the cost was inconsequential.
Chadruzhak, on the other hand, was very consequential.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The demons at my disposal came in numerous shapes and sizes, each with at least one primary style of damage. Fire demons caused fire damage, and ice demons had icy breath that could freeze creatures in place. Chadruzhak’s method of attack was more primitive in nature. It sported powerfully muscled arms and razor-sharp claws. It also had use of reticulated insect wings for flight. Not much use underground, granted.
Like my other demons, it didn’t talk. It was also the largest one I’d summoned yet, easily seven feet tall, and it had to stoop to stand upright.
“Chadruzhak,” I said, “bust through the ceiling and kill whatever’s jumping around up there.”
The big demon roared in hatred—for me, I supposed, and anything jumping around up there, hopefully. Then it slammed a clawed fist into the ceiling, showering the area beneath it with rubble. It slammed again with its other fist, then again in quick succession. With the steady force of a hydraulic battering ram, it continued to pound for several minutes while rocks rained down, sapping away the creature’s health with each hit.
Sudden tremors shook the tunnel.
“Back!” I shouted.
We barely made it twenty feet when the ceiling fell in, prompting a game notification:
YOUR MINION HAS DIED: Chadruzhak
“Look out!” Rita shouted, jumping in front of me.
Three massively long tentacles shot through the void left in the ceiling and grabbed her.
“Rita!” I shouted as she was pulled from sight.
I flew after her and found myself in a massive cavern nested in the living earth, easily a hundred yards at its widest diameter. My light runes twinkled from the rubble below, refracting infinitely through the scintillating amethyst crystals studding the walls. In true Mythian form, this beauty was offset by the most disgusting creature I’d seen since coming to the game world—grosser even than that skinless fiend, Bite, and that was saying a lot. In form, it was a colossal scaffolding structure of glistening tube worms held aloft by chitinous hooks in the walls and ceiling. Each of its twenty or so heads had nightmare human faces, glasslike teeth, and dripping mouths. This was the source of the slime, and Rita was caught in the middle of all that.
Her arms and legs were bound tightly in tentacular manacles that held her in place. Unable to land any blows, Rita could still fly a little, and she managed to jerk and weave whenever a head zipped in close for a bite. With so many of them, it was only a matter of time before one slipped past her guard.
“Look out!” Rita shouted.
One of the heads screamed at me, and three tentacles flew my way. Quickly, I cast the mighty varieties of Lightning Bolt, Bane Strike, and Ice Bullet:
“MLB, MFL, MIB!”
The spells hit their marks, destroying the appendages.
“Discern!”
NAME: Awful Calamity
CLASS: Minor Champion
LEVEL: Unknown
BASE DAMAGE: Unknown
HEALTH POINTS: 4,000,000
“Get out!” Rita yelled. “It’s too big!”
One of the heads opened wide and bit down on her. Though it should have taken her head off, she was only grazed by its glasslike teeth. This, thanks to the Mighty Shield, along with Mighty Group Shield, which was still active for her. I’d pre-cast both outside their cooldown windows. A good thing, because that single bite had destroyed them.
YOUR SPELL HAS EXPIRED: Mighty Shield
YOUR SPELL HAS EXPIRED: Mighty Group Shield
“Mighty Shield!” I yelled, protecting her again as the mouth sprayed slime at her. The shield flared, slicking it away—and held.
“Mighty Group Shield!” I cast, protecting both of us.
Somehow, Rita managed to free an arm, which she used to smash the attacking head to a bloody pulp. The entire scaffolding of the creature shook spastically, and each head issued a piercing howl of rage and pain that reverberated around the cavern. In that brief respite, Rita snapped the tube gripping her other arm.
“MSB!” I yelled, aiming for one of her foot restraints. The shadow beam hit solidly, and now she had three limbs free.
“Get down here!” I shouted.
“I’m trying!” she yelled back.
I cast my remaining mighty spells, then started on my majors, then greaters, quickly gunning down each spell series whenever new tentacles came my way or threatened to ensnare Rita. Things were going good until one snuck in behind me and snagged my foot. Immediately, one of the heads zoomed in on a prehensile stalk and sprayed me with slime.
Mighty Group Shield sucked up most of the damage, and Aspect of the Swami limited the rest. The slime, however, didn’t stop being slime just because I hadn’t died. It stuck like glue and continued to digest me. The pain, of course, was excruciating, but the combination of adrenaline and alcohol made it bearable.
Freed from her restraints, Rita’s small form slammed into me, carrying me from the crystalline cavern and into the tunnel below. There, we landed in a jumble of elbows, knees, and profanity. A second later, she was pouring something sweet-tasting into my mouth. The pain vanished, my health returned to 100%, and my finger grew back.
Rita tossed the bottle away, dragged me to my feet, and shouted, “Run!”
“Not yet,” I said, staring up at the hole. No tentacles had followed us. No slime. “I think it’s scared.”
“Don’t be stupid. We can’t win.”
I shook my head, trying to think.
The area up there was smaller than a battlefield, but bigger than that demon’s room in Jaddow’s castle. After our hopeless fight, the Awful Calamity had less than 4,000,00 health points. Definitely too many for Rain of Fire to kill it … but Greater Rain of Fire might.
I selected the spell from the list of free ones.
“You’re gonna want to back up,” I said.
“Why?”
Quickly, I sketched out the plan.
“Are you sure about this?” she said.
“I haven’t been sure about anything in weeks,” I said. “Let’s just see.”
Rita dashed twenty feet down the tunnel.
“Farther!” I shouted.
“What about you?”
“Trust me!”
She ran a little more and stopped. I wanted to tell her to keep running, but the creature was sending tentacles through the hole now, probing gingerly before committing to an attack.
“Greater Rain of Fire!”
Just like in Jaddow’s castle, a green overlay lit up the immediate tunnel around me. When I focused my sights on the area beyond the hole, the overlay moved there.
“Greater Rain of Fire!” I shouted again.
An explosion of light and sound fried 20% of my health and mana away. The force of the blast shot me like a cannon down the tunnel toward Rita, slamming me into a wall for another 20% health, and the rest of my mana. Once again, the snake charmer music kicked in, telling me Aspect of the Swami had saved me.
ENEMY DEFEATED: Awful Calamity, 3,500,00 Experience Points (SHARED)
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rita had two potions left and drank one down. I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of envy. In three hours I could have another, but I would have healed by then.
“After we get the treasure,” I said, “we’ll stock up on more potions. Wish we’d had them when that hruuk blasted your arm. Sorry.”
“That was my fault, not yours.”
“Technically true,” I said. “But with women, I always find it useful to apologize anyway.”
Rita smiled.
Upon reentering the crystalline cavern, I noticed many of the amethysts studding the walls had broken free. There were literal tons of them lying everywhere, just waiting to be picked up.
Rita laughed delightedly. “You’ll never run out of purple gems again.”
“It’s a secondary component to a number of good demons.”
“Let’s see what else there is.”
Of the Awful Calamity, almost nothing was left except a few blackened skulls and what looked like burned-up rolls of leather.
I waded farther into the cavern and smiled at a new discovery.
“Rita! Over here! A chest!”
She flew over and landed softly next to me. “Oh my, would you look at that beautiful thing?”
Really big monsters—bosses and the like—guarded chests, and the quality of the loot inside corresponded to the material the chest was made of. Back in Ward 1, upon defeating a minotaur chief, we’d received a simple wooden chest. The Ward 2 bridge guardian had awarded me one made of bronze, and the dragons had chests of iron.
This chest was fashioned entirely of silver.
I reached for the lid and Rita stopped me.
“What if it blows up?” she said. “Let me. I have a short-term ability I can use once a day. Makes me invulnerable. Stand back.”
I stepped back, and Rita touched her fist to her palm. The air around her grew a few degrees cooler, and her body and clothes turned black as coal.
Invulnerable or not, she nudged the chest open with her foot. It opened easily, without incident.
“Stay there a moment,” she said, then proceeded to kick the sides, jostling whatever was inside it. A minute later, her coloration returned to normal.
“Oh well, guess I wasted it,” she said, angling for a peek inside. “But wow, what a haul. Come look!”
Though normal-sized on the outside, the chest was wider and deeper inside than should have been physically possible. And it was filled nearly halfway with gleaming treasure of all sorts: swords, shields, rings, amulets, and various other weapons and types of equipment. The biggest surprise was the gems. There were hundreds of them: rubies, diamonds, emeralds … and something else.
Six something elses.
“What are these?” Rita said, picking up a strange black gem that glowed like a blacklight. This was most visibly apparent with the messy remains of the Awful Calamity, which showed up fluorescent purple.
Rita’s eyes unfocused the way everyone’s did when checking their game log, which tallied everything we acquired or lost.
“Ah,” Rita said. “So this is mythereum! Here, have a look.”
She handed it to me.
Hefting its weight, I said, “That guy, Chuck, said it was worth half a million. In my hands, I could summon a demon lord … I mean, if I knew a demon lord’s name and was the right level. Wouldn’t happen to be any scrolls inside, would there?”
Rita rooted through the chest, then shook her head. “Getting good loot’s part of the grind, too.”
I nodded. “We need to pack this stuff and get out. If the other miners heard that blast…”
Rita gasped. “That’s right! I forgot about them.”
Quickly, we scooped the gems and other treasures into Rita’s bottomless bag. In case we needed a demon anytime soon, I shoved a ruby, a diamond, and a couple of amethysts into my pockets. Then, after storing as many amethysts as we could easily reach, we descended through the hole to the tunnel below.
Before heading to the train, we each picked up a slime bucket and carried our picks over our shoulders—to keep up appearances. If we got out and found no one around, we’d close the tunnel the way we’d found it.
Between the creature’s death and now, I’d regenerated close to 4500 mana. Enough, I hoped, to serve useful if needed.
“Crap,” Rita said as we rounded a bend near the end of the tunnel.
Voices. Lots of them.
“Shield yourself,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”
Not bothering to argue, I cast Major Shield on me and Major Group Shield on both of us. Aspect of the Swami was helpful in that the damage was clocked at 20% of total health. But I’d still take the damage, and damage hurt.
Rita led the way. We stopped at a line of about twenty angry miners, including Chuck.
“Hey, guys!” she said happily.
I squinted the lot of them, noting their various levels and classes.
“Don’t hey guys us, you dirty sneak,” a 328th level warrior said. “What’s the big idea opening the tunnel? Whatcha do, sneak in and ninja everything?”
A woman said, “You threatened the whole mine, you idiots! What if it got out? We’re not immortal in Ward 2. Some of us don’t have a lot of lives. Selfish little shits!”
Grumbling all around. We had been selfish, though I disagreed with one thing.
“We didn’t, uh … ninja anything,” I said. “We left your gear back there. As for the treasure, you put a sign up saying to keep out. Nobody laid claim to it, not that we saw.”
In a hurt tone, Chuck said, “Because it killed six people. If you thought you could beat it, you should have told us. Heck, some of us would have helped.”
“You didn’t,” the warrior said, “because you’re a couple of lousy ninjas. But we’ll take it easy on you. Hand over what you got and all is forgiven. Gonna have to leave town, though. Can’t be trusted. And don’t think for a second you can fight twenty of us.” He laughed. “You’re tough, but not that tough.”
Rita glanced at me, and I shook my head. Then, in case my defeat wasn’t obvious enough, I bit my lip and sighed.
“He’s right,” I said. “We’re not cloud giants after all. Just a couple of ninjas, and they caught us fair and square.”
I raised my bucket and started their way.
“Don’t give it to them, Ethan!” Rita cried dramatically. “We fought too hard for all that mythereum!”
“But I don’t wanna die!” I shouted back in a voice full of despair.
Warrior-328 smirked. “That’s a good boy. Empty it right there and find your way out. Train’s off-limits to ninjas.”
A few others grinned in anticipation of free loot, and I paused in my stride.
“Is that right?” I said. “What if I do this instead?”
I swung the bucket in a wide arc, spraying most of them in the killer slime. Only a few of them appeared to have shielded themselve
s. For the rest, game notices scrolled up my field of vision registering their deaths.
Before they could recover, Rita tore into them, knocking them left and right while they shouted orders or cursed.
With gems to spare, and more after that, I called up a razor-studded abomination named Hachidian and sent that into the mix. It was even stronger than Chadruzhak, and I didn’t have to cut off a finger, either.
To me, it seemed like none of them had seen a demon before. That or they thought a different monster had broken free, because they completely lost their composure. Unlike with Rita and me, they didn’t fight as part of a team, but rather got in each other’s way trying to flee. As such, the fight was over before I got off three spells.
These were players who actively avoided battles in favor of chipping away at stone all day. What monsters they found in the earth, they mostly fled from, then sealed away with signs saying “Keep Out” and “Danger.” They’d hoped their superior numbers would protect them from us, and we’d killed them for it. For that reason alone, I felt like crud.
“Not too bad for a couple of ninjas,” Rita said grimly, breathing heavily and favoring a leg.
“You okay?” I said.
“Just a scratch.”
“Can I see your bag a second?”
She handed it to me.
I leaned over Chuck’s corpse, found his bottomless bag, and slipped in one of the mythereum gems. As an afterthought, I searched the warrior’s corpse and stole a bottomless bag. I was tired of borrowing Rita’s all the time, and the guy had been a jerk.
“You done already?” Rita said with a definite twinkle in her eye. Despite her leg, she was enjoying this.
“Yep,” I said. “You gonna fly us out at a million miles an hour?”
“As soon as you stop yapping.”
I stopped yapping, and away we went.
Chapter Thirty
Once again, Rita was carrying me through the sky at dizzying speeds. This fast, so high up in the mountains, I had to cast Ice Guard to protect us from freezing to death. We couldn’t risk the carpet because it was too slow. The whole town was probably after us. Or possibly not, given that we’d wiped out twenty of them (leveling me once in the process). Still, it paid to be cautious.