by EA Hooper
“If you trust them, go ahead and tell those devs about the Jump Gate,” Vincent said. “I already posted about it on the guild page.”
“What if it gets destroyed?” Xan asked.
“It’s a big risk, but I want people to have some chance of escape,” he said.
“We can always take the trunk,” Juniper added. “I mean, I’ve never survived a trip along it, but once you two have power-leveled, even the trunk wyrms shouldn’t stand a chance. Right?”
“That’s right,” Vincent said. “One way or another, we’ll stop Isaac.”
The Daiglass Tower sat between the marketplace and the gated gardens before the king’s castle. Vincent stopped several times to check out the large variety of items offered at NPC-ran shops. They carried almost every kind of plant he’d ever seen on the World-Tree, even some rarer ones, although the prices seemed a little high. They found a blacksmith that made basteel items—also for a very high cost—and Juniper said she’d be back later to buy tools from the man.
Vincent spotted a caravan of armored men and women sitting around lazily near the Daiglass Tower. He talked to them, discovering they offered various adventuring services. He found he could even hire them for off-world journeys at a cost of 100 gild a day per person, or 200 a day for one of their elite members. Vincent thought it a decent price, and he told his comrades that might be something to look into once they had extra gild.
All three players touched the Daiglass Tower and set their spawn points. Juniper grabbed equipment from storage to build a new forge, and she took whatever gild she had to buy extra tools from the local blacksmith.
Vincent tried to approach the gate leading to the castle gardens, but basteel-armored guards blocked his path.
A Respect Rating of 500 is required to enter the castle grounds.
Crownkeep Respect Rating: 100
“Get out of here,” one guard grumbled. “Just cause you’re a hero doesn’t mean you get to waltz right into the castle.”
“Sorry, my bad,” Vincent said, stepping back to the Daiglass Tower. He looked up at the curvy tower, which reminded him of the trees they’d passed on the way to Crownkeep. “Hey, Juniper, would it hurt my Respect Rating to damage city property?”
“Yeah,” she answered. “The more important the property, the more trouble you’d get into.”
“Don’t get any ideas about breaking the tower for a daiglass shard,” Xan warned.
“Darn,” Vincent said. “Too bad you gave ours to your sister.”
“I sent my family a message about our situation,” Xan said. “Maybe Valery can teleport them to Lavrin to help.”
“I hope so,” Vincent said. “We’re going to need all the help we can get.”
Chapter 26 | Year 93
Player: Vincent the Builder
Location: Lavrin (World) | Bloodrun Maze (Region)
Class: Ranger
Subclass: Mage
Vitality: Lv 186
Spirit*: Lv 196
Resolve: Lv 178
Perception*: Lv 201
Agility: Lv 186
Strength: Lv 185
Vincent, Xan, and Juniper took the new Jump Gate back to Lavrin, then made their way across the acid pits and through the maze. With Vincent so low on Builder Points, it took them half a day just to return to the start of the maze. They slew dozens of hell ants along the way, and all three had come close to dying at least once. Several of the ants dropped soma, an alchemic material that Juniper said would come in handy once she set up an alchemy lab and a forge.
The trio journeyed down a different path, fighting through a few more hell ants before they reached the outpost Vincent had spotted when they’d first arrived. The run-down building looked like it’d been abandoned decades ago, but Vincent noticed a few of the runes carved in a circle around the perimeter still had a faint glow to them.
“Monster-control runes?” Vincent questioned, looking over them.
“To keep the hell ants away,” Juniper said. “They probably have just enough magic keep this place off their radar, but the runes won’t help us if we’re spotted. We’ve been good about killing every hell ant we come across, but if we’re in a situation where we need to escape, they’ll track our scent for miles. It’d be smart to remake the runes with enough power that the ants won’t cross while pursuing us.”
“Do you know the frequency for this kind of rune?” Vincent asked Juniper.
The girl shook her head. “I don’t know a damn thing about monster-control runes.”
Vincent hovered his palm over one that still had a sliver of magic inside. After a few seconds of studying the frequency, he equipped the Rune Chalk he’d gotten from Archie and tried to replicate the symbols. Anything he made with the chalk would only last a day, but at least it would let him practice without leaving a permanent mark on the ground.
“Is this right?” Vincent questioned. He had an idea and equipped his tuning fork to see if it could check the frequency.
Monster Frequency – 2%
“That’s terrible,” Vincent admitted. “Xan, you have better practice with stuff like this. Do you think you can copy these runes?”
Xan crouched beside Vincent, eyed the runes, and then carved a copy with mana coating the tip of her finger. Vincent held the tuning fork to her imitation rune to check it.
Monster Frequency – 36%
“That’s way better than mine,” Vincent said. “I’m not sure how effective it will be, though. You might want to straighten up the lines a bit next time. Also, put a little more mana into it. I think these runes are designed with a pretty large capacity in mind.”
Xan nodded, then practiced drawing more runes.
“Vince, come check our new place,” Juniper called, having already entered the outpost.
Vincent opened the basteel-barred gate, noticing latches on the inside that might come in handy if a swarm of hell ants got past the perimeter. The building looked to be mostly made of marstone, a material as difficult to work with as it was strong. Vincent recalled his shoddy construction on Eramar, which only made him more impressed by the Great Vanguard’s work.
“It looks like they put a lot of time and work into this place,” Vincent noted.
“For real,” Juniper said. “It’s tough building anything from marstone. Unless you have a handy-dandy tome that does all the hard work. I’m thinking we’ll build the forge underground like my one in Risegard—you know, once you get enough Builder Points. You can take the soma I’ve collected to add to your tome. I was going to save it for the lab, but the tome seems like more of a priority.”
Vincent took all the soma they’d collected and added it to his Builder’s Tome.
Builder Points: 6,307
“I have enough to start a basement,” Vincent said.
“Hang on,” Juniper said. “Don’t waste it yet. We might have a better use for it.”
“What would that be?” Vincent asked.
“I know the World Boss drops a ton of soma, but it’s normally impractical to farm her because you have to cross the densest part of the maze,” Juniper explained. “However, you could use your Builder’s Tome to create shortcuts.”
“Will her soma be worth using what I’ve already collected?” Vincent asked.
“Definitely,” she replied. “Killing her is a huge payday. I remember Worldly Ryker kept putting together twelve-person teams to farm her—I even joined a few, but we didn’t even reach her most the time. Even when we did, no one but Ryker ever survived, and he only finished her off every other battle. He still thought it was worth it, until all his best people quit.”
“Does this outpost point us in Narak’s direction?” Vincent asked.
“Nah, you have to take the opposite path from where we landed,” Juniper said. “The Great Vanguard built this place before anyone knew how to reach the exit. Everyone assumed this was the right way, because this hemisphere is more dangerous. The other hemisphere has fewer hell ants, but the maze bec
omes denser and more complicated the farther you travel. Eventually, the handful of correct paths converge on Narak’s instance.”
“I see,” Vincent said. “So, my tome will make it easy to reach her?”
“I wouldn’t say easy, since there’s still plenty of hell ants along the way,” Juniper replied. “I’m honestly surprised by how few we’ve seen so far. I’m guessing Isaac and the Demon Lord rounded up a bunch of them before springing their trap.”
“What do you mean few?” Vincent questioned. “We’ve already killed dozens.”
“Yeah, I’d have expected to see hundreds by now,” Juniper said with a shiver. “There’s a reason people stopped coming here. This world is relentlessly difficult. When the hell ant population gets back to normal, then we’ll really need those runes out there to work.”
Vincent nodded, and then they went outside to find Xan. The Cleric had made a dozen replicas of the monster-repelling rune, and each one looked better than the last.
“I think I’m getting the hang of this,” Xan said. “Although we won’t know for sure until hell ants wander this way.”
“You’ll have plenty of practice later,” Vincent said. “Juniper thinks we should kill the World Boss. Apparently, Narak drops a ton of soma that we can use for building, alchemy, and potion-making.”
“You’re saying I beat Captain Lamont for nothing?” Xan asked.
“No, that was still a good idea,” Juniper said. “There’s no guarantee we’ll survive this fight. If we can get a good strategy for fighting her, though, we can farm Narak monthly. Not to mention, anyone that Valery brings here will need the Mark of Heroes to set their spawn at Crownkeep.”
“Makes sense,” Vincent said. “Juniper, lead the way.”
Juniper nodded, then led them back to the Jump Gate. The hell ants had changed the paths with world-shaping magic since they made their way there, but the girl knew an alternate route. Two worker ants tried to jump them near the gate, but Vincent stopped their acid spit with Zero Field, and his teammates took them down at close range.
They passed the Jump Gate and followed the passage to the left of the one they’d followed before. The path cut downward through the earth, causing the walls to look taller and more ominous. Juniper had to stop and redirect them at several splits in the passage, but they didn’t see any monsters in that time.
“You know this world so well,” Xan said, sounding impressed.
“Not exactly,” Juniper said. “I bought a World-Mapping Crystal made by Ryker, which he originally copied from Noah of the Great Vanguard. Noah knew this world like the back of his hand, so there’s a lot of alternate routes listed.”
“You can’t share the map?” Xan asked.
“No, World-Mapping Crystals are one-use only,” Juniper explained. “One player imprints their world map onto the crystal, and then the player that uses it gets everything added to their map. I even have six dungeons listed, which we should run eventually. The best mining locations typically branch off from dungeons. That’s something we still need to do if we want to outfit ourselves and anyone that will help.”
“You can’t make basteel from alchemy?” Xan asked.
“I mean you can, but it’s frigging hard,” Juniper replied. “We’re way better off mining for raw basteel and using the soma to make everything else we need.”
“You know, I’m kind of looking forward to mining again,” Vincent said. “It was always relaxing on Eramar.”
“You just like single-mindedly chipping away at a grueling task,” Xan teased.
Vincent shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that.” Their path led to the opening of a dark tunnel, and their local map updated to Darkhive. “So, we’re going down there?”
“Nah,” Juniper said, eyeing the spiked wall above the tunnel’s entrance. “We’re going over. Build a person-sized opening about two-thirds of the way up. Low enough that we can jump to it.”
Vincent equipped his Builder’s Tome and created an opening just large enough for one person.
“Okay,” Juniper said. “Now, you go first. You’ll see a field of thorns, making it impossible to continue. My plan is for you to create small platforms for us to cross. Try to make them small enough and of a cheap-enough material that you won’t use too many Builder Points.”
Vincent nodded and leapt to the opening. What he saw beyond seemed more like an ocean than a field. The black plants looked like bundles of razor-wire, as opposed to thorn bushes, and it covered everything in his line of sight. Out of curiosity, he Scanned the nearest bush.
Blackthorn Razorbush – Total Rating: 400 (Material: 200 | Magic: 200)
“Jesus Christ,” Vincent said, glancing back at Juniper. “You sure about going this way? I’ve died in a lot of gruesome ways, but this is giving me chills.”
“It’ll be fine!” Juniper said. “Also, if this works, it’ll save us about twelve hours of wandering Darkhive. My map is a jumbled mess down there.”
Vincent sighed and used his tome to make a small platform a few meters ahead. The stone rose halfway through the bushes before getting stuck. “It didn’t work,” he told Juniper. “The bushes snagged it.”
“Huh,” Juniper said, thinking. “Try to clear it off with Impact Blaze. It should be weak to fire.”
Vincent aimed his hand and fired the spell at the top of his half-built platform. The explosion shredded the branches it touched directly, freeing the stone. He used his tome again to raise the platform the rest of the way.
“That worked,” Vincent told them before jumping to his new platform. Once again, he tried to raise a pillar of stone, only for the thorny bushes to hold it down. He struck the bushes with another Impact Blaze, but this time it took two tries. After completing the pillar, he jumped to it, then turned back to see Juniper on the first platform and Xan at the opening in the wall.
“Which way are we heading?” Vincent asked.
Juniper stared off at her HUD. “Ugh, that way.” She pointed off slightly right of Vincent’s current trajectory.
“I don’t see anything over there,” Vincent noted. “You sure we’ll make it before I run out of Builder Points?”
“Yeah, probably,” Juniper replied. “Once we’re over that hilly area, you should be able to see the exit. Normally, Darkhive goes down in the other direction, then circles back around after a long, complex maze. This is way, way faster. Plus, once you have these pillars in place, we’ll always have this route.”
Over the next hour, Vincent continued to raise pillars and blast away razor-like branches. All three players scraped themselves on thorns at various times, but they were hesitant to wear even light armor when jumping across platforms in Lavrin’s high gravity. Vincent grew worried about running out of Builder Points, so he spaced the platforms out as far as they could safely jump. Just as Juniper had claimed, once they reached the top of the incline, Vincent saw a large wall like the one they’d first passed through.
Vincent placed the platforms a little farther apart as they jumped down the incline, but he still found his Builder Points nearing zero only two jumps from the wall. “I have just enough left to open the wall,” Vincent called back. “I might need to sacrifice some of my items for Builder Points, but the only thing I have that’s highly alchemic is Skytorn.”
“No, don’t waste that!” Juniper shouted. “I think I can get us the rest of the way.”
Juniper leapt through the air, past Vincent, and toward the bushes. A barrier appeared over her that ignited with an intense flame, and the girl smashed through the branches, sending out a wave of flames as she connected with them. Vincent Scanned the spell as Juniper charged through the bushes and carved a path.
Inferno Ram (Requires Inferno Slam | Requires Shield Ram) – Mana Usage: High | Magic Rating: 600 | Creates a barrier over the front of the user that knocks back objects and enemies. Intense flames spread from the barrier, but do not hurt the user or teammates. This spell lasts up to ten seconds.
Vincent and Xan
followed Juniper until her spell ended shortly before the wall. When Vincent glanced back, he saw the razorbushes twitching and growing.
“Open it! Hurry!” Juniper shouted. “These bushes regenerate crazy-fast.”
Vincent held up his Builder’s Tome and spent the rest of his points to make an opening, although it came out smaller than the previous one. The two girls went first and had to crouch through the entrance. Vincent jumped after them, but he struggled to squeeze through.
After a few seconds, he made it and fell to the ground. Vincent barely had time to stand and dust himself off before he heard Juniper shouting something about hell ants. With a flick of his wrist, he swapped the Builder’s Tome for Skytorn and readied himself.
Four ant knights and two workers charged toward the players. Vincent downed the first ant with three Void Guns, and Xan struck one with two Light-Drain Longswords.
Juniper focused on fending off ants with her hammer. She held her ground well until a worker struck her in the arm with acid spit. Her Titan Shield sizzled away, and the acid even burned through her skin before it stopped.
In that time, Vincent had decapitated one ant with Skytorn. He hurried to defend Juniper as she stumbled back with a pained yell. His sword’s edge caught the chitin blade of a knight trying to finish off the young woman. Vincent attempted to push the ant back, but it overpowered him and knocked him aside.
Juniper must’ve seen a brief opening, and she dove forward, cracking the ant’s head with her basteel hammer. The ant stumbled away, but Vincent charged after it and drove his blade through the cracks. He slashed upward, splintering the ant’s head, but then he paused to block another knight’s strike. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Juniper finish off the injured ant with Mana Cannon.