By the time the wyrm smashes into me from underneath, my health bar is full. The damage from the impact disappears almost as quickly as it happens.
Getting up, my rage meter is full and my blood pumps with righteous fury.
I have thirty seconds of near invincibility. Please don’t let me screw this up.
I throw myself at the wyrm just as it releases a jet of flame. The flames graze me, but aside from the burning pain, it’s almost like I was never attacked. I use Sweeping Slash. It doesn’t knock the wyrm off balance, but it does do a sliver of damage. Then I use Claw with my free hand and cast Bite, sinking my teeth into its scaly flesh. A tail-smack knocks me down, but just as quickly, I am on my feet and attacking once again. I hack, slash, bite, and claw, all while taking a massive beating that could have killed me ten times over. Every inch of my body is burned and regenerated, but still, I fight. A final tail-whip knocks me through a tree, its burning branches igniting the pine needles that cover the forest floor when it collapses.
The wyrm burrows underground just as my Berserker Rage fades away. I’m able to catch a glimpse of its health as its tail sneaks below the surface.
Ninety percent.
It still has ninety percent health. I hit it with everything I had and barely did any damage.
Fire rages all around me. Without my increased regeneration, I’m as good as dead. Not knowing what else to do, I jump in the tunnel the wyrm left behind. At least I won’t burn to death down there.
The sides of the tunnel walls are slick with the wyrm’s toxic sludge and I have to focus to hold my footing. It’s only a matter of time before it attacks, and I have about zero ideas for how to get rid of the rest of its health. My best bet might be to run away and regroup. Maybe I can think of a plan while I level up in the surrounding areas.
I don’t know if the trolls have that kind of time, though. Glenn has already had three days to regroup. How long will it be before he manages to gather forces for another attack?
I have to find a way to end this now.
Isle of Mythos isn’t like any other game, where everything runs on a script. It is based on action and reactions. Every action sets a new course of events for the game. If I want to beat this monster, I can. I just have to figure out how.
The ground rumbles nearby and I know the wyrm has just resurfaced. A shrieking roar tells me just how close it is. Everything that has happened in the battle crosses my mind as I try to piece it together in a way that might help me. The crackle of fire lets me know the wyrm has just attacked. In about five seconds, it is going to burrow.
I jump out of the tunnel and pinpoint the monster. It has just sprung forward, and I think I know the spot it is aiming for. I take position right in front of it.
Instead of clamping its mouth shut and using its pointed snout to burrow underground, the wyrm reacts to my presence and opens it jaw, expecting to take a bite out of me. I’ve got other plans.
“Eat me,” I say, lunging at the monster and targeting its throat. I don’t aim for its exterior throat, the part on the scaly underbelly. No, I aim for its actual throat, the part behind its enormous and extremely sharp teeth. The part that spews fire.
I land on its sandpapery tongue as its mouth closes and claw my way down its throat. Everything is warm and dark and clenching all around me. I imagine this must be what it feels like to be born. Inch by inch, I claw myself deeper into the wyrm, biting and clawing and jabbing with my axe. Notifications of critical attacks fill my vision. The wyrm continues to thrash and heave, but with my claws stuck deep, I refuse to leave. I’m stuck in its throat like the sharp edges of a broken tortilla chip it just can’t swallow.
Minutes pass as I attack the monster from the inside. Slowly, its fight begins to fade, until finally, it moves no more.
Notifications flood my vision, but I push them aside. Right now, I need to get out and find Limery. We need to destroy those eggs ASAP. I’ve seen enough horror movies to know what can go wrong if those things are allowed to hatch.
Unable to cut my way out, I have to climb out the same way I came in, but it’s a whole lot harder going feet first down a slimy tube. Eventually, my feet hit against something hard and I know I’m in the creature’s mouth.
With a heave, I lift its mouth open and flop my slime-covered body on the ground.
There’s an explosion next to me and I look up to see Limery hurling fireballs at the dead wyrm. Tears stream down his face.
“You killeds our friend. You killeds Chods.” He runs up to the wyrm and claws and punches the dead monster. His desperate cries fill the air. He pounds his fist until he falls into a crying heap on the ground.
I had no idea he was so attached to me.
“Limery…” I say, but he doesn’t look up.
“Limery, it’s okay. I’m fine.”
He looks up and recognition dawns on his face.
“Is okay?” He stands up. “Chods is okay!”
He leaps onto my body and gives me the biggest hug his small arms can muster. I hug him back. This might be the first time in my life someone has cried over me. Mom and Dad never have. Not even when they found out about my sentence. As I hug the small creature, I can’t fight back the tears that creep into my own eyes. Perhaps for the first time in my life, I feel loved. And it’s by a creature that doesn’t really exist.
“It’s okay,” I whisper. “It’s okay.”
When we end our embrace, I clear my eyes and focus on the remainder of our quest. The eggs.
“Did you destroy the eggs?” I ask.
“We dids not. Eggs too strong, they only crack.”
That’s when I notice the cracks forming along the edges of several of the eggshells. They look almost like they’re moving. Vibrating. A piece of shell cracks and breaks off, and I realized that it’s because they are. A massive black snout pokes through the hole and a tongue licks at the air.
“Limery, we have to destroy those eggs now!”
I’m off and running before I even finish the sentence. I leap down into the cavernous nest just as the first wyrm hatches. It slithers by me and into one of the tunnels before I have a chance to kill it. Another one hatches, but this time, I’m able to lop its head off before it escapes. Limery tosses fireballs all around me, but it only increases the rate at which the eggs crack. The fire must be forcing them to hatch.
There’s no way I can get them all. I need to attack the eggs themselves and crush them if I have too.
I use a Sweeping Slash and shatter the eggs closest to me. Bloody wyrm babies spill out and onto the ground. It’s gruesome, but I have to do it. I prepare for another Sweeping Slash when the entire pile of eggs explodes, and I’m engulfed in a ray of bright blue energy.
For a moment, it’s all I see. The energy washes over me. Through me. Nothing exists except for the purity that surrounds me. Then everything fades black.
17. Summoner
Blue skies. That’s all I see for such a long time.
The blue skies fade, and I feel two tiny hands push at my shoulder. My ears ring, and I try to remember what just happened. There was the wyrm, the eggs, an explosion. Then everything went blue. Did I pass out? If I died, I wouldn’t be here right now.
I open my eyes, but there are no blue skies. Just charred branches and smoke. The fires no longer rage, but the damage has been done. Two pointy red ears cross my vision followed by bulging yellow eyes. Limery’s mouth is moving, but the ringing in my ears blocks out everything he says.
I turn my head and the ringing fades a little.
“Chods, is you okay?” His words come in and out of focus. “Is you okay, Chods?”
The concern on his face forces me to smile.
“Yeah, I’m good.” The truth is that I do feel good. It’s like all my wounds from fighting the wyrm just disappeared. Aside from the ringing in my ears, everything feels fine.
“You dids it!” He jumps in the air. “You fixed the magics!”
I sit up and go to wip
e my brow when I notice something strange. My skin is blue. Well, bluish-green. It’s almost like there is an aqua-blue aura surrounding me. Not just my hand, but my entire body. Did the raw magic cause this?
“What the—What happened?” I stand up to get a better view of the canyon where the eggs were nesting. A stream of blue energy flows through the canyon. There’s no trace of the eggs or the wyrms.
So that’s what magic looks like. It’s just flowing through the ground like an underwater river. The wyrm must have burrowed in it somehow, causing it to become mana-infused. Those eggs, though, I wonder what happened to all the babies. There is no way we destroyed them all.
“What happened?” I ask again.
“You smashes eggs, they goes boom.” Limery mimics an explosion with his fingers.
“And what about me? How did I get up here? How long was I out?”
“Explosion knocks you up here. You sleeps for long time. Limmy wanted to help, but you was too hot. Magic burns Limmy’s hands.”
I guess I’m lucky to be alive. If I were any race other than troll, that blast probably would have killed me. I look at my hands, they almost glow. Could it be a buff of some sort?
I pull up my notifications to find out and am surprised to see there is a wall of text waiting for me.
You have defeated a unique monster. Wyrm (Mana-infused).
Item. Mana stone. 50% increased mana regeneration. Taken from the heart of a mana-infused monster.
Congratulations! You have reached level 8. +1 stat point to distribute. +1 Strength and Constitution racial bonus.
Congratulations! You have reached level 9. +1 stat point to distribute. +1 Strength and Constitution racial bonus. +1 ability point to distribute.
Congratulations! You have reached level 10. +1 stat point to distribute. +1 Strength and Constitution racial bonus.
Quest Alert. You have completed the quest ‘Restore the Magical Well.’ Reward: Variable. Return to Chief Rizza to claim your reward.
Quest Alert. You have completed the quest ‘Restore the Magical Well-Part 2.’ Reward: Communication Stone. Return to the Imp Cave to claim your reward.
Alert! You have been infused with mana. New class option available.
Regional Event Alert! Mana-infused wyrms have descended upon Isle of Mythos. They will gravitate towards areas of magical affinity to lay eggs. Locate the wyrms and wipe them out before they infest the island. 20/20 remaining. Rewards: Each wyrm contains one mana stone. Failure: If wyrms are not eliminated, they will lay eggs and spread out from magical sources, devastating crops and towns. 20 days remaining.
There’s so much there that I don’t know how to process it all at once. I’m infused with mana. The raw magic that the trolls described, that must be the same thing as mana. Does that mean I can cast spells now? Will I be powerful like Jira? There are new class options available. I can’t wait to see what’s available to me now. Maybe I can be a badass troll wizard or a paladin. I’ll also need to get back and claim my quest rewards as quickly as possible. Where do I even start?
Then there is the regional event. No doubt every player on the island received that notification. Twenty wyrms escaped and we have to eliminate them before they spawn across the island. I have no idea what the life cycle of a wyrm is, but if they manage to lay as many eggs as the one we just killed, this entire island could be taken over in no time if we fail. It worries me that others might not be able to kill them. I would try to warn them, but it’s no use, even after I claim my communication stone. Everyone hates trolls so much that my only hope is to get a group together from the village and travel to the most magical areas on my map.
I’ll just have to deal with that once I make it back to the village. Right now, I want to check out my new class options, so I pull up my character screen and take a look at my stats.
Chod, Level 10 Barbarian Forest Troll
HP: 1960/1960
Mana: 5000/5000
Rage: 0/100
XP: 64,153/85,000
Strength: 27 (+3)
Dexterity: 15
Constitution: 28
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 6
Five thousand mana? Wow. That must have been some seriously potent magic to do that when I had no mana at all to begin with. I have nine stat points as well as the one new ability point, but I’ll wait to see what my class options are before I spend it.
Below my stats, a blinking box says, ‘New Class Available.’
That doesn’t make sense? Five thousand mana and only one new class option? Could it be because of my Wisdom and Intelligence stats? I focus on the box and the new class description pops up.
Class:
Summoner. Magic users capable of summoning magical beings to fight on their behalf.
Sub-Class:
Elemental. Summon golems created from the elements.
Brood. Summon insects that evolve.
Horror. Summon monstrous creatures. Requires 20+ Strength and Constitution.
Techno. Summon robotic beings. Requires 20+ Intelligence.
Undead. Summon undead creatures from nearby bones.
Champion. Summon one powerful creature at a time.
I only have one new class, but damn if it isn’t awesome! There are so many intriguing possibilities for where this new class can take me. I can actually use magic and won’t be forced to just slug it out. Techno is out of the question because I don’t have the Intelligence requirement. I quickly disregard champion as well. With as much mana as I have, my power is going to come from summoning multiple monsters at once, not just one strong monster. Undead is too restricting based on the need for nearby bones. Plus, I’m already hated enough and could do without the stigma associated with necromancers. So, it comes down to elemental, brood and horror.
It’s a big choice, and I’m not sure which one is right. I don’t have a lot of ability power, so whatever I end up summoning is going to need to be able to crowd control my opponents while I still physically beat them down. With my low Intelligence and Wisdom, it won’t matter if I can summon a hundred beings if they can’t do any actual damage. I wish there was a way to see what abilities each sub-class has before I choose. There is something about the Horror class that calls to me. And the fact that there is a requirement of Strength and Constitution makes me wonder if the beings it summons feed off those stats as well.
To hell with it, my gut hasn’t let me down yet. I select Horror and a new set of abilities pop up.
Summon Horror (Passive). Ability to summon a horror. Each horror grants a unique ability. For every horror active, gain 1% increased damage and health points. Horrors decay 10% every minute outside of combat.
Horror of Power. Summon a horror with 20% of your Strength. Cost: 100 mana. Cooldown: 30 seconds. Bonus: Your next attack deals double damage.
Horror of Vitality. Summon a horror with 20% of your health points. Cost: 100 mana. Cooldown: 30 seconds. Bonus: Opponents near Horror of Vitality are slowed by 20%.
Horror of Finesse. Summon a horror with 20% of your attack speed. Cost: 100 mana. Cooldown: 30 seconds. Bonus: Your next attack heals you for damage dealt.
I definitely made the right choice. All three of these abilities play off my strengths and two of them benefit from my racial bonuses. I can’t wait to start summoning monsters, but first I need to decide which one to spend my ability point on. They all look so appealing that it is hard to decide. With five thousand mana, I could essentially summon fifty horrors if I were in a long, drawn-out battle. Especially considering my physical abilities rely on rage. I can pretty much summon my own army to take down the wyrms.
Even though I’m a big tanky troll, I was constantly running low on health in that last fight. If I were part of a team complete with healers and ranged attacks, I could probably take the power or vitality horror, but with it just being me and Limery right now, the Horror of Finesse makes the most sense. If it heals for damage dealt, then it is basically a on
e-hit potion.
After selecting the Horror of Finesse, I immediately cast it. A blue, gangly creature not much bigger than Limery materializes with a puff of gray smoke. It has long, pointy fingers, huge bat-like ears, and a dog snout. Basically a blue imp without wings.
Limery screams when he sees it and conjures two fireballs, hurling them with ferocity at my new pet.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I say. “It’s okay, Limery, it’s mine. It’s not going to hurt us.”
Limery holds another fireball in his hand, unsure of whether or not to trust me.
“Friends?” he asks, eyes full of suspicion.
“Friends.” The two fireballs took out nearly half of the horror’s health, making me wonder if it has the same weakness to fire that I do. It also makes me keenly aware of how fragile they will be in battle until I have the other two horrors unlocked. One horror is nice, but an army will be unstoppable.
Limery cancels his fireball and it disappears in a blur. He walks up to the horror and tries to talk to it.
“It’s not much of a talker. It’s here to fight and make sure we don’t die,” I say. That seems to be enough for Limery to leave the horror alone.
After the first minute passes, ten percent of the horror’s health disappears. My chances of keeping a standing army are low because they deteriorate outside of combat. I'll worry about that when the time comes.
With my new class sorted, I elect to put all of my stat points into Dexterity to help benefit Horror of Finesse even more, bringing it up to twenty-four.
Looking at my stats, even though my mana pool is massive, my mana regeneration isn’t very high, probably due to my low Wisdom. Luckily, I have just the fix. I pull out the mana stone left behind by the wyrm. It glows with the same vibrancy as raw magic, only crystallized.
Mana Stone. Would you like to equip mana stone to Peacemaker? 0/3 slots filled.
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