by Eric Ugland
“We will discuss this,” Nikolai said to me, acting the teacher again. “And know that I am deeply worried about it.”
I put on my biggest smile, turned and walked out of the room.
The hallway was just another fucking hallway. I was completely over hallways and being inside. I wanted to be outside in the natural world. And I wanted to know how long I’d been away from that world. There was a single turn, and as soon as I went around it, I saw the real world again. Or, some of it. I saw a little daylight and a huge fucking tree.
Chapter Fifty
The hallway ended in the middle of a cliff. It was about four or five hundred feet down to the flat ground. And looking up, I couldn’t see a spot where we could get out. Over to the north, I saw Osterstadt. Just a tiny sliver of it, but I saw it all the same. We were a goodly distance away from the city, and from where the elevators were running for the lumberjacks, but not even a day’s hike. Once we could get to the forest floor, it’d be a leisurely walk or a moderate jog, and then, Osterstadt.
Unfortunately, getting down was going to be an unpleasant adventure, as there were no stairs cut into the cliff, no attachment points for a rope or a ladder. The hallway just ended at the opening, straight sheared off. Wind blew across from north to south, feeling like it was in a swirling sort of pattern. I couldn’t see much of the sky since my view was largely obscured by the massive trees everywhere. The main tree, the one directly across from the opening, was some sort of pine or redwood. A conifer. Thick bark, large pine cones, huge green needles. A thousand feet tall at least, likely more. And all its neighbors were similar in size. Looking down to the ground, I could see greenery. But it was too far away for me to determine if it was grass or shrubbery.
“Not going to be easy,” Nikolai said from right next to me.
I almost jumped off the edge.
“Stop sneaking up on me,” I replied. “Hey, did you gain some levels?”
“I did. Thank you.”
“It’s what I do. I think.”
“Kill thousands of intelligent creatures without a second thought?”
“Thousands?” I asked, staring at Nikolai.
“Not checked your notifications, eh?”
“Nope. Little busy keeping you alive.”
“Which I do appreciate, but I believe you will find a few surprises when you look at what you have accomplished.”
“Okay.”
“How much rope do we have?” Ragnar asked.
“I don’t think we have five hundred some odd feet of it,” I said. “And where’s Barry?”
Skeld shrugged. “When I woke up, he was not with me. I fear he was left behind as part of the dungeon.”
“Motherfucker.”
That sucked. Barry the mimic would’ve been a good little pet. He was cute. Fun. And I probably could have negotiated with Typhon for him, but I’d just forgotten. Which made me feel like I was an asshole. Well, more of an asshole. I suppose the being responsible for the death of thousands of creatures already put me pretty high in the asshole range. Oh well. He could go back to being among his kind.
And, thinking about it, was killing creatures who were part of a dungeon really killing creatures? Didn’t their life force, or whatever, just get recycled back into the dungeon? Questions for later, I decided.
We stood on the edge as a group, enjoying the sliver of sunshine, theoretically all trying to come up with some sort of solution that didn’t involve falling to our deaths. Five hundred feet is an intense distance to go down.
I reached into the bag, and I thought of rope. I felt something, and pulled it out. It was a coil of hemp rope, the rough stuff that pricks your hands when you’re using it. At most, it was a hundred feet. I tossed it behind me into the hallway. Back into the sack, grabbed another coil. This one was delicate. Perfectly white. Fifty feet? Over and over, I pulled out rope. None of it was perfect, most of it wasn’t close to what we needed. The rope was short, weak, slippery, spiky, painful, or made for more intimate occasions (which, frankly, I’m not sure where I got or why I had it but whatever). By the time the bag stopped providing for me, I had an impressive pile of rope and rope like things.
“This might work,” I said.
“To do what?” Nikolai asked.
“Climb down.”
“What are you going to tie it to?” he asked.
I looked around the entrance, then back in the cave, and the room. There was nothing.
“Okay, well,” I stalled, “that is definitely a bit of an issue.”
Back to the front, I looked over the rope, and started tying ends together.
“What is the plan?” Nikolai asked.
“Dude,” I said, “I liked it a whole lot more when you had some plans and made some decisions. All this asking me for everything is, like, aggravating.”
“You are a duke now, asshole. Get used to it. I do this to prepare you for your position, not because I do not know how to get down.”
“Then how do we get down?”
“This does nothing to help you learn how to think on your own.”
“Let’s just pretend I’ll do some lessons later, once more lives aren’t on the line.”
“And when will that be, Duke Coggeshall?”
I wanted to punch Nikolai, but I was worried it might kill him. Which, at that moment, wouldn’t have been the worst of possible outcomes.
“Okay, I’m going to lower down Skeld or Ragnar, and we’re going to see if there’s enough rope. If there is, great, I’ll lower the rest of you—”
“And you?”
“Have a plan for myself.”
“Which is?”
“For myself.”
“Duke—”
“Hirð order: shut up.”
His mouth clamped shut, but I could see he was really fucking angry I’d used that power.
I got a bowline tied into the bottom piece of rope, then I watched Skeld and Ragnar play thumbs to see who’d be first on the death ride. Ragnar won, then Skeld punched him in the face, and got into the loop. I raised an eyebrow, and looked over at the two Lutra.
“Also later,” Skeld said.
Hand over hand, I lowered Skeld. It just seemed to go on forever. It was also more difficult than I anticipated because the hemp rope hurt like hell, and the silk rope was slick as hell. It maybe slipped through my hands once. Thankfully, because Skeld was way down, I could barely hear the curses he was hurling back my way after the slip.
But on the last section of rope, there was slack. Looking over the edge, I could barely make out a little otter dude waving at me, holding up some loose rope.
“There we go,” I said. “We’ve got a way down.”
Chapter Fifty-One
It took a while to get everyone down to the ground. Nikolai went last, and that left me.
I stood there for a minute, holding the rope, trying to think of a good option. There was a chance I’d be able to climb down the cliff face. It didn’t look impossible — I could make out some handholds here and there — but it definitely didn’t look like a simple climb. And I had no levels in that particular skill. Falling might be an option. It was possible I could survive a five-hundred foot fall. And as long as I survived, I’d heal. But five hundred feet was a long fucking way, and respawning on the other side of the empire would be beyond inconvenient. Also, how would that affect my dukedom? Would I still be duke if I died and respawned? Something to ask a legal scholar later, I supposed.
Hauling the rope up, I ran through some more ideas, and finally decided on the least stupid of the stupid ones. Mainly because I only had stupid ideas.
I pulled a spear out of the bag, and then I tied the rope to it. A nice firm knot.
The closest tree was approximately fifty feet away.
Potentially jumpable, but I had a different idea.
I took a few steps back from the edge, and then, with a running start, I threw the spear. It flew true through the air and smacked into the tree with authori
ty, hitting hard enough that I swear I could hear it hum.
Then, it was Tarzan time.
I jumped up and out, then I swung.
Soaring through the air, I felt great. It was awesome, almost like flying. The spear definitely held, for a second. And then it didn’t. It popped out of the tree right around the time I smacked into the trunk. I scrabbled for a handhold while sliding down the trunk, getting covered in both scratches and sap. Buckets of sap. Stickier and stickier until I hit a big gloop of sap, coming to a stop, barely able to move. Not really able to breathe.
But once I was completely sapped (ha), it wasn’t too bad climbing down the trunk. I could basically just stick my hands and legs to the tree, climbing head down as if I was a squirrel.
Finally, as the sun was getting close to the horizon, I got to the bottom.
The others were sitting around, waiting. No one said anything to me when I got down. Instead, as soon as my feet touched the floor, they all started walking towards Osterstadt.
It was strange being at the bottom of the trees. The forest floor was remarkably clean, mostly devoid of undergrowth. No smaller trees, no bushes, shrubs. Just green grass and flowers. Positively delightful, in a Snow White sort of way. You know, if you could get over the thousand foot trees that were a hundred plus feet thick. And the giant pine cones that fell from time to time. You definitely didn’t want to get hit by one of those. They hit like freight trains smashing into the ground. You could hear them whistling first, almost like an artillery round, at least, like artillery as I’d seen it in movies. Then, they’d pound the ground with a deafening thud, often leaving a dent there. And the weirdest thing, if you stopped looking at pine cones, by the time you tried to find them again, they’d disappeared.
Our hike across the space lasted through the evening into twilight, but we managed to approach the elevator as the last of the lumberjacks were going up. It was a pretty simple affair, just some ropes and a wooden platform. I didn’t see anything down below indicating the mechanism that allowed the elevator to go up or down, but I had a feeling it was just some dudes up top who walked a wheel around. Maybe horses. Probably horses.
The lumberjacks were burly-looking women and men, and they gave us burly looks. I imagined we looked horrible. Actually I knew we did. I was covered in sap and bathed in blood. At least I’d managed a shower of sorts after the great poop chute catastrophe.
“Howdy,” I said, giving a wave.
A woman stepped off the elevator, then waved back. The elevator went up.
“Who are you?” she asked. “And be quick, there are archers watching you.”
“You think they’ll hit us from here?” I asked.
“They man ballistas,” the woman said. “And they are veterans of manning the wall. They can nail the eye on a cradwahl at six hundred yards, so I imagine they can tag you before you have a chance to hit me.”
“We are here in peace,” I said. “We got lost out in the Emerald Sea, and we were just hoping to catch a ride back up to Osterstadt.”
She frowned at me, and then at Nikolai, and at the rest of the party.
“You look dirty,” she said. “What were you doing out there?”
“Trying to scout behemoths before they come to Osterstadt,” Nikolai said.
“We were sent out by Merrill Black,” Emeline piped up. “He wanted to know if there were behemoth signs to the south.”
“Merrill?” the lumberjack foreman asked.
“Yes, Merrill Black.”
The woman nodded. “He is looking to the south, eh?” she said, and signaled up to the cliff. The elevator platform came back down.
While it was coming down, the woman walked me over to a barrel and ladled this foul smelling stuff over me. It was disgusting, but the sap came right off, and I felt so much lighter.
The ride up was beautiful, seeing the massive trees. We could see the stumps that were from where the lumberjacks cut, but I could count those stumps on a single hand.
“How many trees do you cut a day?” I asked our host.
“Depends on the weather and the monsters, but a good day is five. A bad day is none.”
“I only count three stumps, so, um—”
“Are you new to Osterstadt?”
“Yes, I’m from, uh, the East.”
“The Emerald Sea is a strange place, and its mysteries have yet to be unlocked. All I know is that I have been logging the sea for coming on eighteen years, and every morning, there are new trees to replace those I have cut down.”
I just stared at the trees. The Emerald Sea. Hearing that made me feel weird. Seeing something that defied all the laws of science I had known was causing a headache to bloom. So I just closed my eyes and tried to focus on breathing.
Chapter Fifty-Two
I stepped off the elevator, finally allowing feelings of relief, freedom, and success to wash over me. We’d escaped the prison. We’d gone through the dungeon. We’d even traversed the Emerald Sea. Not a lot of the Emerald Sea, sure, but some of it. And we’d come out alive. And healthy. For the most part.
The lumberjacks eyed us warily as we stepped off their elevator, but once their foreman walked to them safe, sound, and unconcerned, they seemed to lose all interest in us.
“Thank you,” I said to the woman.
She nodded at me, then left without another word or look.
I watched the sun dip below the horizon. It was pleasant, peaceful. I just took a few deep breaths and enjoyed the moment.
I decided I should finally look at all the notifications I’d been ignoring. See what the surprises Ragnar had mentioned were there. And see how the boon and blessing I got changed affected things.
There were so many notifications that my vision was completely overwhelmed. Kill notifications were everywhere, stacked deep on top of each other. Despite how I’d felt during the battle, looking at it now, just made me sick. I dismissed all of them with a thought. I caught the bonuses I received, and it made me feel worse. Double kills, triple kills, quad kills, multiple ‘gourangas’ for killing seven in a row, executions, brutalities, gore-splosions, it went on and on and I felt like an absolute monster. Which, in a way, I suppose I was now. I only got a single quest complete notice, the Potent Rescue, and that was for rescuing Donner. For some reason, it wasn’t counting Emeline or Nikolai as rescued yet. I idly wondered what qualifications I’d yet to satisfy, thinking that, perhaps, it had to do with needing to take Emeline away to safety with me. But Nikolai? I wasn’t sure.
There were a few interesting tidbits though.
Through hard work and extra-judicious use of violence, you have unlocked the indicium SLAYER. Congratulations on the slaughter, killing over one thousand enemies in a single battle is no small achievement. As a living embodiment of death, know that you cause Frightful Presence. Your enemies now have a chance to be frightened when they are aware of you. You do an extra 10% damage to any creature below half health. Each death you cause brings you 1% of your health in return.
Hey-ho, let’s go! You’ve discovered an ability: BATTLE FRENZY. Once per day, you are able to enter a frenzied state where damage dealt is doubled and damage received is halved until you are out of combat. Be aware, in this state, you cannot distinguish friend from foe and will attack anything you perceive as a threat or a weakness.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 13! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 14! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 15! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Prepare for your Choice. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Lev
el 16! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 17! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 18! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 19! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 20! You receive 6 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Prepare for your Choice. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 21! You receive 3 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Huzzah! Against all odds, you have reached Level 22! You receive 3 attribute points to distribute in the next 36 hours or you lose them. Dare to believe you can survive, and achieve greatness. Or don’t.
Well shit. Kill over a thousand creatures, and you get a shit ton of XP. Sure, as the slaughter raged on, the XP started to dip so that, by the end, I was only hitting low double digits per kill, but still, it all added up. This was nice. Interesting note, the levels past 20, I only got three points. Not six.