This was not a battle like the combat action he was forced into with Gnarl Tooth and the grass rats. They had only come at him a few at a time, like in this battle, but the grass rat swarms had come at intervals. These bastards never relented. They continued to attack and did not seem to have grown tired to any great degree. Their numbers were starting to thin, but there were still far too many of them.
Scott continued to push them back whenever they reached his position, but it was a hard thing to accomplish. The rats were actually the most difficult opponent that he could face in this way due to their body shape. He could not just kick them in the chest. He was forced to lift and push them, or something similar. It was always a struggle to keep them back. More than once he had used his freeze spell just to be able to get his hands on a particularly insolent rodent.
Why were these damned things so persistent anyway? They just kept coming! It really was like an old school role playing game. The monsters kept fighting till they died, no matter what. It made no sense in real life, but in a game it was perfect logic. The monsters were designed to be obstacles and to kill the player. Was that all these things were? Did they exist solely to kill him, to eat his sweet meats?
What could he do, though? There had to be another sixty or seventy of the things, and more trickled in over time. The battle would never end at this rate. If he’d had more tonics he could have spammed his spells and killed them all. As it was, even if he drank his final tonic he could use freeze four times or his other spells three times.
Scott rammed his knee upward into a goblin’s chin before slamming his hands forward to knock it back. It fell over the top of a rat and rolled down further to knock over a few other monsters. The other goblins slapped the fallen one around a little without doing much damage then they all got back in place and continued to mill around like they were waiting for their turn.
The sorcerer caught a rat that leapt toward him, it was a smaller one, and tossed it back. It knocked several goblins over and they began to stab at it with more force than they had done with their comrade.
If only he could coax them into all-out war with each other like he had done with the spiders and bats! They had refused to do that, though. He had tossed, burned, flashed, and frozen them in all manner of ways. Yet, they would not turn on each other for long. Was that he effect of higher intelligence in specific monsters, or just bad luck on his part? He was uncertain, but desperate to find some method of ending the battle that did not include his untimely death. Thankfully, it would not be long before he was granted the chance that he desired.
A noise caught his attention, a hard thing to do among the cacophony of the current combat scenario. It was the sound of metal straining, groaning. Scott stabbed a goblin in the chest then sent it flying back to knock over a few more monsters. His attack caused the ramp to groan loudly once more.
Scott spared a quick glance to the side. He saw that the moorings for the ramp were no longer connected to the rock face that it had acted as an anchor. It was just a metal ramp designed for a handful of people to cross at any given time. It was only supported by the rock wall and the bracing that had held it in place.
Scott slammed his fist forward and impaled an overly large rat through its beady little eye. It dissipated into motes of light and he was forced to immediately fight the next monster. The aggressive movements of the monsters as they tried to pile over each other to get to him caused the unanchored ramp to groan and sway.
Somehow, he felt that this was a chance! If the ramp gave out, the bastards could not get to him and he could rest for a while. Sure, it was a long way down to the bottom, but that was fine. He did not care about that as much as a normal person would. If he was careful, he might even make it to the bottom without taking a serious injury. His agility, health, and armor would mitigate some of the damage. He would certainly be hurt, but if he was lucky he would survive.
The current level of destruction was not enough for his needs, however. More force, more damage, needed to be inflicted to the metal ramp. It was not until a rat managed to crawl over the top of all the other monsters and come close to reaching him that he realized what he needed to do. Over the top, he needed to be over the top.
Scott delivered a rising elbow strike to the jaw of the closest goblin. When it fell back he jumped as high as he could and thrust out his palm toward the center of the ramp. “Burn!”
The explosive force rocked the ramp and sent several monsters hurtling toward their deaths. It was not long before a loud groan erupted from the over-stressed structure and it started to buckle. Scott had thought that it would simply come loose from its connection to the two platforms, thus causing it to sway and become too dangerous to cross easily. But to his surprise and delight it broke near the center at the point of impact.
The ramp was attached via a linchpin system so that it could be taken up later, though the company that ran the mine had never bothered to do so for unknown reasons. When the ramp broke, both of the newly formed sides instantly fell straight down at great speed. Dozens of monsters had piled onto the bridge between platforms and the hapless creatures plummeted to the earth below. Most were so badly injured from the constant fighting that they exploded in a shower of light the moment that they hit the ground.
A loud outcry from the remaining creatures reached him, but they could not come for him. There were no more bats, slimes, or spiders in the area and neither the rats nor goblins could scale the walls. The rats were too big despite the typically agile nature of rodents in general. The goblins were either not smart enough, or not skillful enough to climb all of the way to his current location. Had either of them had that capacity he would have been dead already.
Scott breathed in and out for a moment catching that long desired breath that he had wanted. He looked at the frustrated monsters on the other side of the gap. An absurd thought occurred to him. He brought his feet together and raised his hand to his brow in a smart salute. The monsters across the way did not seem amused by his action. They were strangely aware of the fact that he had just mocked them.
Safe for the moment, the sorcerer backed away. That had been quite a hectic battle! If he had been just a little stronger, if he had a slightly higher level or better equipment, he could have fought them down on the area below in a massive melee. Unfortunately, they were too close to him in overall ability.
He was better than them individually, and that had saved him for most of the fight. By limiting their avenue of attack their greatest asset had been defeated. It was a simple and ancient battlefield tactic; the sort of thing that any gamer, soldier, or student of history might think of when faced with a similar situation.
As a massive unit, however, they were quite capable of destroying him. Their varied natures and unrelenting assault had taken a toll on the man. He walked away from the edge and turned away from the monsters waiting for their meal.
Instead of worrying about them, he opted to search the office area more. He and Rhea had discovered it on the second day, but they had only performed a cursory look through it. There had seemed to be nothing of use that they could see at the time. However, there was something in that small building that Scott wanted desperately.
Scott opened the office door and strode through the entranceway. It would be a nice place to rest for a while, if nothing else. At least it would protect him from wandering bats and spiders if any of them decided to crawl or fly out of the tunnels.
The office was spacious, if you considered its purpose. There were three rooms. One room was a main foyer that seemed to double as a work room. Another was a place that seemed empty, only a busted file cabinet and a few scraps of paper remained. The final room gave the impression of a small dayroom, or lounge for whoever worked in the office. There was a simple cot and a small table inside.
Scott sat down on the cot and sighed loudly. He was tired, weary to his bones. His low mana state had caused him to feel sluggish, and his health was not doing too much better.
“Huh?” said Scott, before leaning forward to check it out. There was a section of floor that seemed to be a slightly different color. It was a tiny difference, but it was there.
Curious, he rose from the cot and tried to look under the bed. He could not see anything in the darkness. He reached up and grabbed one of the torch stones that had been following him around. They were hot to the touch, but bearable. He placed his hand under the cot and let the little ball do its work.
He saw nothing of interest at first. There was a bit of trash strewn about, and a few spider webs, nothing useful. However, after looking at the floor he noted that there was definitely a tiny color difference in the wood.
Scott released the torch stone and grasped the cot. He pulled it away from where it had rested for decades and looked at the floor underneath. “A circle?”
He tapped the wooden floor in a few spots near that circle and received a similar sound. He tapped the slightly discolored circle and he heard a different sound, the floor rang hollow. Scott’s eyes widened slowly as he exhausted mind realized what that probably meant. There was empty space underneath that circle!
“Interesting.” He stabbed at the floor a bit with his gauntlets, but the tough old wood resisted his efforts. It was dry in this part of the mine, the wood remained solid.
Scott stood up and started to kick downward with his heel, several hard strikes was all that it took to break through the floor. It did not take long before the wood succumbed to his assault. He tore it away afterward then snatched at a torch stone. He shoved his hand down into the space below and used the light to see what he could find. There was some sort of hatch inside!
He released the stone then climbed over the edge of the shallow drop-off and lowered himself down. His light source followed him and he was able to see the space more clearly.
The hatch did not have a lock on it, which defeated the purpose of a hatch in his opinion, so he pulled it upward and discovered something even more interesting. He could see a light shining down below.
The intrigued sorcerer walked down the newly revealed stairs and saw that there was a treasure room hidden under the floor! At least, that was what he had hoped to find. What he actually discovered was a crudely hacked out corridor lined with glowing fungus.
He followed the corridor a short distance and entered a wide room filled with rusty metal crates and cracked barrels. Maybe this place really had been a treasure room at one time, but now it was a dump. “Who would bother to hide this crap?”
Several uninterrupted minutes passed as he slipped among the crates and barrels in search of scraps. He found only an old cracked plate and six Fayth scattered around the room. “Seriously, why hide this?”
At least that answered the reason for having a secret hatch with no lock. Maybe the old mine foreman had hidden things down here and did not want to be caught after the company pulled out? Who knows, he had probably come back to get whatever he had left behind.
It seemed logical, but Scott was not satisfied with that answer. He began to move the boxes and barrels around. His old gaming instincts told him that a room full of boxes always held something good. Even if it was not necessarily the most awesome thing imaginable, there would be something useful. There had to be more here than six Fayth and a cracked plate here, otherwise nothing about the place made any sense.
Due to his exhaustion, and the low light levels, the progress was slower than he would have liked. Nearly an hour passed before he moved a crate that was hiding something useful. Beneath the crate he discovered another discolored section! He immediately started tapping around the area and found that this section of wood also sounded hollow. Scott kicked his way through after several hard strikes.
“Oh, this time it’s a metal ladder...” He cleared the debris, but before he was able to climb down he heard the background music fade out. It was replaced by a loud fanfare reminiscent of the type of music one might hear when discovering a secret in an old school RPG.
“Heh, neat.” he said. Scott climbed down further into the darkness of the earth.
Once he reached the bottom he found that he was in a natural cavern. The glowing rock fungus from before was evident in far greater amounts. He stepped forward and received a message.
<<< * >>>
You have entered a Fairy’s Grotto.
<<< * >>>
<<< * >>>
Fairy’s Grotto!
The home of a fairy who lives at a sacred spring. They keep the water of life pure and allow those of good heart to drink without limit.
<<< * >>>
“A sacred spring?” Scott was suddenly quite excited. He did not know if it was true here, but a sacred spring in most games equaled free health and magic restoration!
“Oooh, who’s that?” asked a sugar-sweet voice.
Scott turned to see where it was coming from and came face to face with a tiny naked girl. She was small enough that she could have stood on his hand without any issues. She was also completely nude, and radiated a powerful blue light. “Hello...”
He wanted to sound calm and collected, but he was seeing an actual fairy. She was quite pretty, for a tiny naked girl.
“Hi! OH Gosh, a human! This is... Goodness, a human visitor!” The girl started to babble then began to flitter about in an agitated manner while talking to herself in a rapid-fire manner.
Scott blinked then asked her if she was alright. She seemed quite upset. Had he come at a bad time? Did she not like company coming without warning?
“Well, yes. I am. Thank you for asking! I was just excited because I have not seen a human in ages.” replied the tiny, but perfectly formed, girl.
“I’m sorry if I have come at a bad time. I just discovered this place while waiting to see if a bunch of monsters will run off and leave me alone.”
“Oh! I see. That is a problem isn’t it? You’re not strong enough to fight them?” she asked.
“Well, I managed to defeat a few hundred of them I guess. I’m almost at my limit, though. I need to take a break.”
“Ooh, so strong!” The fairy started to flitter around him in an excited manner. As she did so, she would occasionally make approving and disapproving noises.
“You do seem a bit beat up...” said the fairy. She pouted in a cute way then shook her head.
“Just a little.” admitted the sorcerer.
The fairy’s glow intensified for a moment then it died down. She looked down at the ground and her tiny little cheeks took on a reddish tint. “If you want... You can have a little of my sacred water. OK.”
The fairy looked up at him briefly then hid her eyes behind her hands. She tilted her head back down almost immediately.
“I don’t really know what sacred water is...” The way she was acting about it made him wonder what it was made of, why would she be so shy about offering a sip of water?
“Oh, you don’t? Uhm... Well.” The fairy’s face turned bright red and she shook her head.
Scott was vaguely concerned for a moment. Why was she stretching this out? Should he be afraid to find out what her sacred water really was?
“Fairy’s, we are the handmaidens of the gods and goddesses. The sacred water is formed by our sadness from being separated from them while we exist on the mortal world. Even though it is not really made from out tears, sacred water is also known as Fairy Tears.”
“OK... Why would I want to drink your tears?”
She slapped her hands out and pressed her palms toward him then started to wave them around. “N-no, no... Don’t say it like that. A fairy’s real tears are special, too special to give away like that.”
“I don’t doubt that...” said Scott. He really did not know if that was a big deal or not, but he thought that he would humor the girl.
The nameless fai
ry flittered about the area a little then beckoned for him to follow her. He did as directed and soon reached a glowing pool of water that was pristinely clear.
“Sacred springs are a gift from the gods to help mortals and show their love. If you’ve never drank from one before, you can sometimes receive a special gift as well.”
“What kind of special gift?”
The fairy shook her head. “It is different for each person. If you need a gift just think strongly of your desire and the name of a god who you have a connection with. If they hear you, find you worthy, and believe your need to be just, you’ll receive a gift.”
“Really? That sounds nice. Shall I give it a try?” asked Scott.
“Sure! Go ahead!” exclaimed the fairly with great excitement.
The sorcerer knelt down and thought deeply about his current situation. He was not sure if it would work, but he apparently did have a connection to a deity. He was supposedly the champion of one of them.
Scott dipped his hand into the water. He lifted it to his lips and drank deeply. As he drank, he thought strongly of his current situation. He clearly envisioned the monsters waiting beyond the gap, and then thought of the goddess Origin. He visualized the statue of her that he had seen and spoke her name and his need within his mind. ‘Origin, goddess of love... I do not know if you truly know me, or even care to do so. However, I am here at this sacred spring thinking of you and imploring your aid. Somehow, I feel that I am connected to you. If that is true, and you wish to help me with my current situation, I would appreciate it.’
He was not sure if that was an appropriate prayer, or request, whatever it was supposed to be. Still, it was answered quickly.
In fact, it was answered at such a rapid rate of speed that the fairy exclaimed in surprised. “Wow! Whoever you prayed to must really like you to answer so quickly.”
Scott smiled softly. So, there was a connection after all... That was good to know.
Origin ARS (Origin A.R.S. Book 2) Page 9