by Tao Wong
We almost made it.
The explosive spray covered ground fast, swamping the Templars first. They, unlike us, were ready for the assault, however, each of them clutching a cross around their waist that glowed with mana. The radiance from the cross covered their body, pushing against the spray and its noxious vapors. A part of me wondered how that spell managed to separate air from the spray itself—if it did. The rest of me was gagging, the vanguard of the spray reaching us already.
The door was thrust open by Alexa, and I was hauled in before it slammed shut. Not before the first wave of the spray entered though, causing the pair of us to bowl over, retching from the smell as our eyes watered and our skin prickled. Together, we staggered away from the door which was slowly allowing even more of the pervasive smell in.
“Henry…” Alexa croaked helplessly as we stumbled deeper into the abandoned orphanage. I understood her point. This smell from the spirit was more than just offensive; it was directly affecting the mana uptake and disbursement that occurred naturally. It had, basically, corrupted the mana all around, the direct effect of its earlier mana corruption multiplied a hundred times.
“The gym.” I hacked and coughed as I dragged Alexa to the room. Together, we burst through the double doors and felt relief almost immediately—at least from the mana effects, though the spray that stayed on our skin continued to irritate our bodies.
“First-aid kit…” Alexa said as she stood, stumbling away. I ran my mana in a simple Heal spell, pushing the edges of the irritation away, but as I sat up, I could not help but consider how bad things were, out there.
“We can’t stay here,” I announced even as I fumbled my bag off my shoulder. After pulling a block out, I began the frantic process of empowering it. Thankfully, the work around the fences and the gym had provided the blueprint for the enchantment I was casting.
Empower Cast
Synchronization Rate: 82%
Cleanse Cast
Synchronization Rate: 72%
Yes! I tossed the block out, directly through the open doorway and watched as it landed in the hallway. The pair of linked spells began to work immediately, slowly grinding away at the corrupted mana. I watched for a moment to ensure the spell worked, watched the fluctuations in the spell formulas and then nodded.
Right. If I adjusted the third and eleventh line with Gaspard’s Second Elemental Rune, it should stabilize and increase the speed of the mana cleansing. Lips parted, I began the process of empowering the next wooden block.
As I tossed the second block away and reached for another, I was stopped by a hand on mine. I frowned, my eyes bloodshot and my nose clogged and snotty as I stared at the blonde faith healer who had a rag and pail in hand.
“What?” I said.
“Stop. You’re already low on mana. Take a few minutes, let me clean you up,” Alexa said, holding the rag up. Rather than protest, I sat quietly as she quickly worked me over, swabbing me with the sharp-smelling, slightly soapy rag.
“What is that?”
“Hydrogen peroxide, dishwashing liquid, and baking soda,” Alexa said. “I had to run out to the kitchen to get the last two, but luckily the kitchen is well insulated.”
“How…”
“Faith healer, remember? My ability let me push the miasma away. Now, hold still.”
When I tried to take the rag away, Alexa glared at me and I gave up. Rather than fight her on this, instead I focused on the next step. Two empowered cleansing blocks should be enough for the building, eventually. Of course, more would be better, but at least the doorway itself was fixed. The concern was the miasma that had spread—was spreading—throughout the neighborhood. It needed stopping.
Which meant…
Pendants. Or at least something to increase our resistance again and shield us against the miasma. I drew a ragged breath, testing my mana limits once again. The time resting while watching the skunk eat had allowed me to regenerate most of my mana, but it had taken a beating when the Templars had done their drum act on my channeled Force Shield.
If we could contain more of the miasma, the blocks I had contained and the runes around the gym would eventually deal with the mana taint, but—
“You’re frowning harder than Father did when we brought back the Evil Dead II movie,” Alexa said, prodding me sharply. “What is it?”
“That’s…” I shook my head and pushed it aside. No. Not right now. “I don’t have the mana. We need to fix the fence, but I don’t have the mana to fix the pendants and the fence.”
“Then don’t,” Alexa said, offering me a hand up. “I can shield us both.”
“Can you?”
“Yes. I might not be an initiate, but my faith has not changed. Nor our Father’s favor,” Alexa said confidently.
I drew a deep breath but nodded, grabbing my trusty backpack. “Then, let’s do this.”
We didn’t have time to wait.
Chapter 19
Outside, almost immediately, we were assaulted by the miasma. It attempted to cling to our bodies, to our skin, but the low, brilliant glow of power covering us pushed the miasma back and kept it from sticking. On the way, I scooped up the pair of blocks and dropped one off as we exited the building.
Outside, the effects of the miasma were already telling. The grass had taken on a slightly greyish tinge, the leaves on the tree curling up slightly. All around, I heard the hacking and coughing of individuals caught in the cloud, their bodies weakening as the mana they unconsciously circulated was slowly corrupted further and further.
Together, we hurried toward the fence. I found myself turning my head constantly as I attempted to locate both the Templars and the spirit. I noted neither were present, which was for the better at least. Hopefully, the skunk spirit had managed to get away. Otherwise, all of this had been for nothing. Then again, considering the amount of damage it had caused by its defensive measure, perhaps the Templars were right. Of course, that would be a better sell if the Templars hadn’t triggered the entire incident by being obstinate asses, so the entire incident could be considered as wash.
At the fence itself, we quickly found the first break in the runes. I frowned at the hastily scratched out rune and grunted. Fixing it with Mend—the physical portion anyway—was possible. It would just require delicately adjusting the spell formula while it worked, a slight alteration from my usual, almost careless use of the spell.
Mend Cast
Synchronicity 64%
Minutes later, I finally had the rune fixed. When I opened my eyes, the rune was indeed fixed if slightly worse off than before. With my practiced eye, I could see where the rune had not been mended correctly, where the lines were off, but as they said, it was good enough for office work.
“Next,” I said out loud.
We moved, shifting from spot to spot on the fence until we found another broken rune. Thankfully, there weren’t many, and they were mostly clustered close together. Each of them required Mend, but luckily that was not a mana-intensive spell, especially since the fixing I was doing was relatively minute. Still, toward the end, my head was throbbing again.
“How much longer?” Alexa asked, pushing against my arm slightly to get my attention.
“Just have to restart the spell,” I said softly, wincing as my head throbbed. When Alexa opened her mouth to ask, I just shook my head. Instead, I suited action to my words and raised my free hand and pressed it against the runes.
Restart the spell. It was easy, since most of the runes were already enchanted. I just needed to feed enough mana into the rune structure, fill the empty spots with the actual correct spell formulas, and blammo. Containment ritual complete.
Simple. If I wasn’t already running on fumes. If my head didn’t throb like a jackhammer. If the mana around me wasn’t corrupted and impossible to refresh myself from. Simple. I shuddered as mana flowed from me, drawn forth and pushed ahead by my will. My head throbbed further, my vision greying out as the light that encompassed us dimmed slightly, Alexa struggli
ng to protect us. Simple. I licked my lips, a slight warmth and iron taste appearing on my tongue as the liquid flowed away. I reached out with my other hand unconsciously, wiping at the nose bleed even as the spell formulas danced in my mind and runes slid into place.
Simple.
With a thrum, the ritual burst into being around us. The press of mana on the ritual, a spell so intimately connected to me, made me waver. I frowned, noting how the world was leaning backward slightly and realized I was losing my balance. With a sweep of her feet, Alexa dropped me into her waiting arms and the princess carried me back into the orphanage.
“Block,” I managed to cough out, waving despairingly at my bag.
After a moment, Alexa pulled the second block out and tossed it onto the grounds before dragging my limp body into the gym. Inside, she sagged to the floor, sweat matting her pale hair.
“Lily’s going to kill us,” she said with a groan, obviously imagining how the jinn was going to complain about my mana overdraw. I wished I could answer her, but lying on the comfortable floor, my eyes decided it was time to close.
When I next woke, it was to the insistent prodding from Alexa hours later. With the major concentration captured within the fence, the remaining escaped mana had slowly dispersed or been cleansed. That left the pair of overworked empowered blocks to finish up the job on the inside. Unfortunately, I had also left the orphanage staff with pendants, which is how the abbess had managed to make her way back to glare at us.
“I know, I know. Leave,” I said with a huff.
“You and Ms. Dumough are no longer welcome,” the abbess pronounced, and I sighed. Well, duh.
“Of course.” Alexa bobbed her head in acknowledgement. “And I apologize again about the damage… and failing the orphanage.”
“Yes, you should be.” The abbess paused, then continued, her voice softer and slightly kinder. “However, the Templars have informed us that they have ensured we will be given the requisite time to complete the projects. And made a sizeable donation to deal with the inconveniences we have faced.”
I paused, my eyes wide. “Wait. They could have fixed this? Then why didn’t they?”
“This was a test,” the abbess said, her voice calm.
“But—”
“Henry.” Alexa placed a hand on my arm and shook her head.
“Why aren’t you angry about this!” I said, waving a hand around. “This, this was garbage. We went through all this for nothing!”
“Garbage?” Alexa asked softly, then shook her head. “We freed a spirit that was imprisoned for decades. We helped slow the spread of a dangerous drug. And… Okay, the mushrooms weren’t particularly useful.”
I snorted.
“But I also learned something about myself. And them.”
“What? Self-knowledge is the best knowledge?” I asked sarcastically. Sure, the test itself probably never placed the kids in any real danger, now that I knew what had been kept below. The skunk spirit might have been angry, and we might have ended up fighting it, but the abbess would never have let the children be around during such a battle. Even the mana poisoning had been a slow process, one that could easily have been fixed with a trip outdoors, but still—
“Yes,” Alexa said serenely.
I glared at the ex-initiate, but in the last six hours, she seemed to have gained a sense of peace over her decision. I opened my mouth to prod her further before I shut it. There had been flash in her eyes when I was about to speak. Perhaps she might have accepted her decision and the consequences, but the pain was still there. In the end, it wasn’t my place to prod her.
“Fine,” I grumped and then looked at the abbess who just stared at us serenely. I sighed and waved a hand goodbye at the woman, tromping outward. “Let’s go, partner.”
“Coming.” Even without looking around, I could hear the smile in her voice.
Epilogue
Of course it wasn’t that easy. Once we got back, I had to explain the new situation to my other watcher. Caleb was less than impressed with my various explanations and the fact that I overdrew my mana, again. In fact, after some testing, he relegated me to a two-month period of convalescence and book study. It seemed my constant abuse of my body had damaged my mana channels.
As for Caleb’s thoughts on Alexa? The mage did not deign to inform me.
Alexa, on the other hand, had a more arduous time of it. She had a number of belongings still at the camp which had been returned to us. In turn, Alexa returned a number of smaller items I had never noticed her owning till then, including a surprising number of explosives. Interestingly enough, the Templars allowed her to keep her spear and armor. As a mostly secret organization, none of her materials had designs on them, so they did not require cleansing.
Perhaps the greatest shock of all for the ex-initiate was the closure of her bank account and the return of a small portion of funds within it. Once I was back on my feet, I helped Alexa run a number of “adult” errands including opening a bank account and applying for a credit card. As a former ward of the Templars, she had never needed to do either herself.
Without the salary and funds provided by the Templars, Alexa quickly began running the various quests on the board that she could handle while I convalesced. If I didn’t know better, I would have said she was distracting herself from the abrupt change in her. But I did, and late-night sobs from her room indicated that, newfound serenity or not, Alexa still had much to work through.
As for myself? The longer I existed in this strange new world, the more I realized how simplistic my earlier perceptions on it had been. There were deep currents, not only among the organizations that existed here but within those currents. A single misstep could pull me under. As it stood, I knew the Templars were waiting. And now, I could not help but wonder, who else?
###
The End
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading my attempt at an urban fantasy GameLit world. This book was a struggle to write as I wanted to focus on Alexa and the choices she had to make along with Henry’s growing understanding and comfort in the supernatural world.
As always, if you enjoyed reading the book, please do leave a review and rating. It makes a big difference in sales.
In addition, please check out my other LitRPG / GameLit series’, the Adventures on Brad and the System Apocalypse. Book one of each series follow:
A Healer’s Gift (Book 1 of the Adventures on Brad)
Life in the North (Book 1 of the System Apocalypse)
For more great information about LitRPG series, check out the Facebook groups:
- LitRPG Society
- LitRPG Books
If you’d like to support me directly, I now have a Patreon page where previews of all my new books can be found!
Tao Wong Patreon
About the Author
Tao Wong is an avid fantasy and sci-fi reader who spends his time working and writing in the North of Canada. He’s spent way too many years doing martial arts of many forms, and having broken himself too often, he now spends his time writing about fantasy worlds.
For updates on the series and my other books (and special one-shot stories), please visit my website: http://www.mylifemytao.com
Or sign up for my mailing list: http://eepurl.com/c35JS1
Or my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/taowongauthor/
Life in the North – Sample Chapter 1
Greetings citizen. As a peaceful and organised immersion into the Galactic Council has been declined (extensively and painfully we might add), your world has been declared a Dungeon World. Thank you. We were getting bored with the 12 that we had previously.
Please note that the process of developing a Dungeon World can be difficult for current inhabitants. We recommend leaving the planet till the process is completed in 373 days, 2 hours, 14 minutes and 12 seconds.
For those of you unable or unwilling to leave, do note that new Dungeons and wandering monsters will spawn intermitte
ntly throughout the integration process. All new Dungeons and zones will receive recommended minimum levels, however, during the transition period expect there to be significant volatility in the levels and types of monsters in each Dungeon and zone.
As a new Dungeon World, your planet has been designated a free-immigration location. Undeveloped worlds in the Galactic Council may take advantage of this new immigration policy. Please try not to greet all new visitors the same way as you did our Emissary, you humans could do with some friends.
As part of the transition, all sentient subjects will have access to new classes and skills as well as the traditional user interface adopted by the Galactic Council in 119 GC.
Thank you for your co-operation and good luck! We look forward to meeting you soon.
Time to System initiation: 59 minutes 23 seconds
I groan, freeing my hand enough to swipe at the blue box in front of my face as I crank my eyes open. Weird dream. It’s not as if I had drunk that much either, just a few shots of whiskey before I went to bed. Almost as soon as the box disappears, another appears, obscuring the small 2-person tent that I’m sleeping in.
Congratulations! You have been spawned in the Kluane National Park (Level 110+) zone.
You have received 7,500 XP (Delayed)
As per Dungeon World Development Schedule 124.3.2.1, inhabitants assigned to a region with a recommended Level 25 or more above the inhabitants’ current Level will receive one Small perk.
As per Dungeon World Development Schedule 124.3.2.2, inhabitants assigned to a region with a recommended Level 50 or more above the inhabitants’ current Level will receive one Medium perk.