“Lead them around in a circle!” Forian was first to react. “Hit them with darkness. Let’s go!”
Finally, Tailyn was back in the saddle. The dragon banked hard to the side, leading the mekbars away from the group. But Li-Ho-Dun couldn’t take a shot. It would have been pointless against that many opponents, and stopping to turn around would have been a fatal mistake. Losing the dragon would have left the horde free to rush the group, too. And so, the boy followed his mentor’s orders, leaving the group to show off what a few mages with the right cards could do. One after another, the mekbars dropped, never to get back up. Nobody paid any attention to the mana leaking out of them like a sieve. Nobody, that is, except Forian Tarn, whose long-standing habit of always keeping at least half his mana in reserve pushed him to polish off all the flasks Tailyn had given him.
“Put your cards away!” Forian barked when there were just five mekbars left. “Tailyn, lead them away and take them out with the dragon. Can you handle that?”
“Sure,” the boy replied as he got to work. Li-Ho-Dun had no problem with the quintet, heading back over to its master a couple minutes later.
Your companion reached level 5. 590 experience until next level.
New ability unlocked:
Taunt (active ability). Description: your companion lets out a terrible roar that forces all monsters within 100 meters to attack it, forgetting all other targets for companion level seconds. This ability works on all monsters regardless of how they’re being controlled (independent or remote). Time between ability activations: 2 minutes.
***
You destroyed more than 10 creatures at least 10 levels above you.
Hacking +1 (2).
***
You spent a free attribute point.
Scanner +1 (7).
“We did it!” the boy shouted, though he fell suddenly silent when he saw his mentor’s glower.
“You just about got us killed,” Forian shot at him. “Why did you lose control of the situation?”
“I leveled-up,” the boy replied quickly, not even attempting to whine or come up with an excuse. “That was my first time, and I didn’t know it would feel like that.”
“That’s no reason to put the whole group at risk.”
“Easy, Forian,” Valanil said. “That was his first level-up, and it happened at twelve. Just imagine how painful it must have been — he had no idea. Why don’t you just tell us what a stash is? Something else having to do with local missions?”
“Yes, it’s a spot where participants can get extra loot. The guards say they only show up in ten percent of cases, though I have a hard time believing that. If you ask me, they’re just saying that to make sure mages don’t try to take their local missions.” Forian looked over at his student. Tailyn was angry, not sure how to respond to his mentor, and that suited the mage just fine. He was even happy the dragon had gotten itself into a situation where it had to turn tail and run. Quite possibly, Tailyn would be more careful in the future.
“So, what are we just standing here for?” Valanil asked, practically rubbing her hands together. “The loot is there; we’re here. Isn’t something off about that?”
The path the monsters had beaten down with their feet led straight back to their lair. Valanil was the first to dash off, leaving the rest to follow her — she couldn’t wait to get her hands on the loot. Actually, she hadn’t been completely honest when she’d asked what local missions and stashes were. With plenty of them near the school in Crobar, she knew better than anyone, just the fact that she’d been sent off to the academy precluding her from ever experiencing them firsthand. She’d had to suppress a smile — Forian was such a big fan of himself and his own voice that he took any opportunity to show off what he knew. The pompous peacock... Of course, he was a smart peacock, something his observation about Tailyn’s dragon had told her, though his smarts were more academic than anything.
Mekbar Queen (monster). Artificial creation. Level 81.
The mekbar leader turned out to be an enormous hulk wrapped around the trunk of the tree like a black abscess. It pulsed constantly, the flesh rippling with each new charge, and the gaping maw large enough to swallow Tailyn whole was on the hunt for more prey. Suddenly, the boy shivered in disgust — the creature didn’t have any teeth. If anyone was unlucky enough to find their way into the thing’s mouth, they would have been eaten away by the acid inside it. Having already been through something like that before, it wasn’t a death Tailyn would have wished on his worst enemy. Well, perhaps with the exception of Halas.
“Valia, you’re up. Let’s see what you can do. Just remember that you need to take out the whole brood it’s going to spawn as well as the queen itself. Get to it!”
“Yes, Mentor,” the girl replied as she felt a rush of nerves. Killing beasts was one thing. That was work. But taking out unborn children was different — murder, even. Was she prepared for that?
Incredibly, it never crossed her mind that she might be doing something wrong when it came down to it. If the spawn had been allowed to live, they would have continued terrorizing the forest, hunting new prey for their mother. And they weren’t even animals. They were artificial creations, their purpose simply to give people experience and new levels. There was no point feeling pangs of conscience.
A wave of fire rolled off in the direction of the queen. The girl knew all too well that it wouldn’t do any damage, though she didn’t have any desire to go to work in the dark. And just as the creature’s head turned toward the humans, a clump of darkness slammed into it. The clearing resounded with a hysterical screech as the queen called on her protectors only to find that nobody was there to answer. Dead bodies were no help. At least, not in that world.
But that was when the girl’s opponent fired back.
You received a permanent Mana Burn debuff: your mana level was permanently reduced by 100.
“Tailyn, Valanil, hit it as hard as you can!” Forian yelled when he saw the new attack the guards hadn’t mentioned. Finally, he’d figured out why local missions weren’t recommended for mages. They could easily lose much more than they gained.
You received a permanent Mana Burn 2 debuff: your mana level was permanently reduced by 200.
“Tailyn, send in your dragon. Burn that thing up!” Forian was worried. The queen’s second strike had landed just thirty seconds after the first, and his quick calculations told him he only had enough mana to last ten minutes. Then, he could go ahead and forget he was ever a mage — there was no sense going back to the academy without mana. The other mages would have killed him on the spot just to make sure he didn’t spoil the academy’s good name.
You received a permanent Mana Burn 3 debuff: your mana level was permanently reduced by 300.
“Retreat!” Forian shouted, pushing his students out of the field. Their surprise attack hadn’t broken through the level eighty-one creature’s armor, and the mage decided against risking it any further. It was costing them too much. Even the dragon’s fire just cut deep gashes in the creature’s body without actually killing it.
“I’ve got this, Mentor!” Suddenly, Valia pulled herself away from Forian and dashed back the way they’d come. “Alchemical fire. I have time!”
“Get back here!” Valanil yelled, dashing off after the girl, and Forian permitted himself a curse. Valia’s move was a terribly one — the queen obviously blocked all non-physical kinds of damage, meaning that potions would just anger it. Everyone in the group had already lost 600 mana, and Forian couldn’t eat another 400 or even 900 if the attack had to be repeated. That was especially true given the issue with his mysticism. Still, he couldn’t give up on a student he’d sworn to protect.
You received a permanent Mana Burn 4 debuff: your mana level was permanently reduced by 400.
A few flasks flew through the air, though Valia had had to get right up next to the queen to make sure she landed them directly in its mouth. There was a sound of breaking glass, a choking noise, and a
column of flames that shot into the sky. For a few moments, the queen turned into a fire-breathing dragon, though its mouth suddenly slammed shut. Its innards filled with a red color, the vibration disappeared, and the body began to expand.
“It’s going to blow — hit the ground!” Valanil had finally gotten to the insufferable girl, having grabbed her by the arm and started back. She couldn’t get away from the dangerous creature fast enough. Running out onto the field, Forian reacted instantly. He leaped onto Tailyn, knocking the boy to the ground and protecting him with his own body.
Just then, an explosion made them all regret the moment they’d decided to go mekbar hunting.
Local mission complete: Clear Mekbar Nest.
All group members receive +1 level.
***
Your companion was destroyed. Dragon card charges remaining: 4.
You spent a free attribute point.
Wisdom +1 (11).
Forian looked up to see that there was really nothing left of the clearing. The tree had been reduced to an ugly stump jutting out of the ground, and while Valanil and Valia were buried under a pile of earth and branches, they were both alive. Her shield reduced to zero, the herbalist was unconscious, the girl underneath her. Forian tried to stand up. It didn’t work, however, and he looked down to see that an enormous piece of wood had landed on his leg. His shield was intact, but the impact had still shattered the bones. Pulling himself into a seated position, he eased his leg into a more comfortable position. He wasn’t going to be walking any time soon.
“My dragon... It... It...” The boy tried to express what was going through his head, but nothing came out. Forgetting he’d promised not to cry again, the emotions overwhelmed him, and he burst into tears. There was no holding them back.
“If you don’t help Valanil, she’ll die,” Forian wheezed. His back had been hit, too, and it was hard to tell if it or his leg was worse off. At least, the fact that he could breathe meant it wasn’t too bad. Tailyn didn’t respond as he wallowed in his grief. Pulling himself together, the mage reached out, grabbed the boy, and dragged him closer.
“Tailyn Vlashich!” the mage yelled in the boy’s tearful face. “You can get your companion back; you can’t get your trainer back. Get over there and heal her. Now!”
That did the trick. Tailyn wanted nothing more than to yell right back that Valanil’s regeneration meant she’d be fine, only something inside restrained him. The boy stood up and ran off, still sniffling. Pulling back a few thick branches, he swallowed hard. Valanil was badly hurt. If her regeneration was working, it was working on something else, as the woman’s back was one mess of meat and bone. The boy couldn’t even turn her over to pour potions into her mouth — she was pinned by the earth and branches. Suddenly, his tears dried up as he sensed the life draining out of the woman. Her regeneration was only slowing the process. It wasn’t able to heal the damage that had been done.
A calm settled over Tailyn. Closing his eyes and placing his hands on the woman’s injured back, he watched the night and forest give way to the familiar mountain range and smithy. The boy’s eyes widened in surprise — Valanil’s statue turned out to be even more damaged than Valia’s had been. In fact, there were so many hollows inside that it was really just one big empty space. If his trainer was going to have a shot at surviving, he was going to have to hurry up and heal all the damage. He activated the bellows, noticed with a frown how little mana he had, and placed the statue on the coals. There was a lot of work ahead of him.
The exhausted boy leaned heavily on the work bench. The main problem areas had been restored. Finally, Valanil’s regeneration kicked in, and Tailyn watched as the little gashes and hollows in the statue disappeared on their own as if at the beckon of a magic wand. Valanil was definitely going to make it. And she didn’t need any more help. The boy’s mana had run out long before, and he’d had to spend some of his health to make sure the woman didn’t die. Finally, he could relax and head back out into the real world. All he had to do was leave the smithy, but instead he stood there staring thoughtfully at the statue.
What had made him think tempering and forging were all he could do with bodies? What about improving them? Changing them? Enhancing them? Valanil’s statue’s last hollow was in its hand, and Tailyn decided to experiment. His mentor wasn’t going to have any reason to tell him he wasn’t capable of making a decision. Right there, he’d made one. Tailyn realized the flames needed to be as hot as possible, so he worked away at the bellows to turn the steel statue into malleable clay. But it was overwhelming — the boy’s nose began bleeding, and stars danced in front of his eyes. Just barely staying upright, all he could think to do was grab a few coals from the fire and thrust them into the statue, aiming for the hollow. He yelled like a banshee as pain shot through his palm. His brain gave the order to stop, to throw away the scalding stones and shake his scorched hand, but the previous order was in no hurry to give way. As his hand buried itself in the glowing statue, the pain intensified. Tailyn lost all connection with the world he was in, everything in him wanting nothing more than to make the pain stop — even death would have been better. From somewhere off in another world came another scream, that one from Valanil. The moment it took for the fire to take hold seemed like an eternity to Tailyn, and he toppled lifelessly to the ground as soon as it was all over. The messages that popped up were going to have to be read later.
You modified player Valanil Revolt, adding resistance to fire.
Attribute received: Frankenstein (1).
Modifying character.
Frankenstein. Description: an attribute given by the god in rare cases where someone is able to throw off limitations and experiment on other living creatures’ bodies. For each 50 attribute levels, the number of upgrades you can give to another person increases by 1. Cannot be used on yourself. Integrates with Enhancement.
Chapter 7
TAILYN WAS JOLTED awake by someone next to him cursing.
“I was following orders!” That screech belonged to Valia. “You told me to take that thing out, and I did. What’s the problem?”
“You just about killed us all,” Forian replied calmly. “Sure, you killed the queen, only you didn’t think about the consequences. And that’s unacceptable for a mage.”
“You think we had a choice? That monster already blocked a thousand mana! If I hadn’t blown it up, it would have been even worse — do you know what its radius is? By the time we would have made it out of the forest, the queen would have hit us all another three or four times. We wouldn’t have been mages anymore.”
By the time she got to the end of her little speech, Valia was yelling. It hurt to be reprimanded by her mentor rather than getting praised the way she’d been expecting. Meanwhile, Valanil said nothing. After Tailyn had healed her, the woman had just sat there staring at him with an unusually thoughtful expression on her face.
“Tailyn, care to tell me what you did to me?” she asked gently as soon as she saw the boy was awake. Only there was a steel masked behind the gentleness, and it was enough for Forian and Valia to shut up and turn toward her.
“I enhanced you,” Tailyn said, pulling up his logs. Yes, they were great to have. He opened his eyes, though the first thing he saw were rainbow circles and dots that made his stomach churn. Closing his eyes again, he waited for his head to stop spinning.
“Did someone ask you to do that?” That time, the steel cut right through the soft cover.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Tailyn replied. He’d decided to stretch the truth a bit. “You were so badly hurt that you wouldn’t have made it on your own. And when my mana ran out, I had to give you part of me. There was no way to make you drink potions, either — you were pinned by the soil and branches. It was touch and go. So, I took a risk...”
“Do you have any idea how painful it was?”
“Of course... I had to do it with my bare hands.”
“What are you talking about?” Forian asked.
> “This,” Valanil replied. There was the sound of glass breaking, Valia gasped, and Tailyn once again opened his eyes. Inquisitiveness had won out over weakness.
Valanil’s hand was on fire, though she was just holding it up in front of her, turning to look at it from different sides. And with the special color alchemical fire burned with, Tailyn knew it wasn’t an illusion. The woman had no problem holding the flames in her hands.
“Mage, hit me with a fireball,” Valanil said, rocking back a second later. Forian had obliged her immediately. After hitting the woman’s shield, the magic plasma flew in all directions, raising the temperature of the surrounding area.
Tears of Alron (The Alchemist Book #3): LitRPG Series Page 9