“Come on, Janus, open your eyes.”
Taking a deep breath, I opened them. Straight away, the air was sucked out of me. I looked at the field in front of me and saw not a collection of parts, but a fully-formed airship. It stood twenty feet tall, and the bulbous ballonet swayed slightly in the wind. It looked nothing like the zeppelin I had seen above the city walls, but it was a thing of beauty none the less. I couldn’t believe that I had created it.
I couldn’t help the wide smile that stretched across my face. I wanted to walk forward and touch the zeppelin, but I was worried that if I did, I’d find that it was made of mist and would just fall apart.
Ozreal put a bony hand on my shoulder and squeezed.
“Well done, Tinker. You’ve done us proud.”
Achievement unlocked: Your First Airship
Construction skill increased by 50% (50% until level 2)
Chapter Twenty
The ballonet of the airship billowed in the wind. I still couldn’t help but stare at it, and I found it hard to believe that I’d made it. And to think that a while ago, I’d been disappointed that I had to be a tinker. I was beginning to think that even if I could go back and change my class, I’d stick with the cards I’d been dealt.
Feidan, Ozreal, Smoglar, and Derick the Tailor stood by the guild house door with their inventory bags in front of them. The airship would make our journey across the land quicker, but we knew we could still be gone a while. Feidan had brewed potions for us all. He told us with a proud smile that they were better than the measly health potions we could buy from shops.
Brian stood with me in front of the airship.
“You sure you’re not coming?” I said.
He nodded. “Someone needs to stay and watch the guild.”
“It’s looking pretty empty right now,” I said.
“I sent a message to the NPCs in Blundow. Pretty soon I imagine we’ll get a bunch of level 5 newbies headed our way. I told Percy to only send the newbies who weren’t looking to join the Serpents.”
“We should think about sending an ambassador to Blundow when we have the manpower,” I said. “All the other guilds do it.”
Brian put a giant hand on my shoulder. “Keep an eye out for Smoglar,” he said.
“I think even one-handed, he can still look after himself.”
“Just make sure he doesn’t start a fight with the Greyes.”
“Take care of yourself, Brian. Don’t blow up the guild house trying to learn alchemy.”
The giant grinned. “And you too. Remember not to blow up any bombs while you’re on the zeppelin. I hear it’s not a wise thing to do.”
Two hours later, we were in the air. I stood at the wheel and steered us on course. We had built a compass into the base of the wheel, and I fixed a world map to a wooden pole a foot away. It was strange, being on the airship. I hadn’t expected how deafening it would be; the roar of the engines when we needed to accelerate, the flapping of the ballonet when a strong wind current hit it.
Smoglar spent the first few hours leaning over the rail and sending a spray of vomit over the sides. “I’m airsick,” he told me, his face growing pale.
Ozreal leaned against the rail and watched the landscape below us as it flew by. It was only a level 1 zeppelin, which meant that it was too small for Brian to join us. As a level 1 it wasn’t the fastest of airships, either, but it still beat walking.
From time to time I took a moment to watch the scenery below us. We crossed overcrowded forests and hilly plains. At one point we flew over a town that was full of sharply-spired buildings.
“That’s Archminster Mage School,” Ozreal called over, his voice barely rising above the sound of the wind.
Over the next few hours, we passed rivers and streams, mountains and hills. The landscape of Re:Fuze was more varied than I had imagined, and at some points I just wanted to land the airship and go and explore.
We couldn’t do that, though. Time wasn’t on our side, and we needed to get to the home of the Greye guild. As well as that, I was always aware that I had another obligation to fulfil. Dereck paced over the wooden decking of the airship for hours, until the steady rhythm of his footsteps became as much a part of the sounds of our travel as the rippling of the ballonet against the wind.
Smoglar pulled away from the railing and walked across the deck to join me. His face was still pale, but a trace of colour was returning to his cheeks.
“Feeling better?” I asked.
“Don’t suppose we have any beers stowed away on this thing?”
“We’re heavy enough already. I was worried that it wouldn’t be able to carry us, and that we were going to have to throw you overboard.”
Smoglar. “Listen, Janus. I wanted to say thanks. Back at the guild house I was feeling pretty crappy, and truth be told, I thought about leaving the game. I mean, what use is a dwarf with one hand? But after we spoke, I realised I can still do what I want; it’s just going to be a damn sight harder.”
“Don’t mention it,” I said. “You want to take over for a while?”
Smoglar grabbed the wheel with his hand and turned it, keeping us on a steady course. I knew that soon, the Assipian peaks would loom into view. Before that, though, was Smogashe Valley, a hostile land where even the air was toxic.
I walked across the deck toward Ozreal. The airship hit turbulence, and Smoglar steered to the side to steady it. I almost lost my balance, before managing to catch myself. I needed to increase my agility at some point.
Ozreal turned to face me when I joined him. “I tried to join the Greye guild once,” he said.
“I thought you were with the Halons?”
“I was, but they were my second choice. The Greyes appealed to me more; I think it was the mystery. Problem is, I had no idea how to join them.”
“So how does anyone become part of their guild?”
“There’s something special about them,” said Ozreal. “The magic the Greyes use, it’s not like most mages. Any conjurer can shoot a fireball or an ice blast. Even arcane magic isn’t too difficult to master, as long as you put the time into levelling up. But the Greyes have something else, some other elemental force.”
“And what is it?”
Ozreal shrugged. “Wish I knew.”
“Guys, we have guests looking to come aboard,” called Smoglar.
I turned around and saw what he meant. In the sky surrounding the airship, five winged creatures hovered. They looked like overgrown dragonflies, except they had tails that stretched out to double the size of their bodies. Their wings looked thicker than the material of our ballonet, and their eyes were black and stuck out from their heads. The buzzing sound they made cut through the noise of the wind and the hum of the engines.
One of them floated up to the ballonet, using its tail to steer through the air. When it was level with the ballonet it raised its tail, and I saw that it was pointed at the end. This wasn’t good. As I sprinted across the deck, the creature jabbed its tail into the ballonet. I heard a hissing sound, and I felt a sense of dread spread through me.
“They’re going to take us down,” I said. “Smoglar, try and steer us away.”
The dwarf turned the wheel, but a sharp current of air hit the ship. He grunted as he tried to manoeuvre us in a different direction, but the wind was too strong.
“We need to knock them out of the air, but I can’t use my bombs,” I said.
Ozreal held his palms in front of him. A shimmer of purple light gathered. With a grunt, he cast it out toward the winged creatures. It blasted one head-on and charred its wings, but the others moved out of the way.
All of them hovered by the ballonet now. They raised their tails, and one by one they struck the bulbous material. I heard the sound of the ballonet popping.
The airship lurched and then started on a steep decline. I felt wind rush against my face. Trying to keep my balance, I joined Smoglar at the wheel. As much as we tried to steady it, it spun out of control. The
airship slanted downwards and began a descent toward the ground.
I tried to steady the airship, but it was no use. The engines roared, and then one by one the noises faded, and I realised that they had broken. It was no use; we were going to crash. Going at the speed we were, we’d be dead as soon as we hit the ground.
As the ground rushed toward us, I looked around. There had to be something I could do, but the wheel didn’t respond to anything.
Just as we plunged toward the surface of the land, I saw a yellow light envelope us. It spread around the airship. I turned and saw that Feidan held his hands out in front of him, and his face was set in concentration.
I realised that he’d cast a shield over us, but I didn’t know if it would be enough to save us on impact. I didn’t have time to wonder any further, because the ground loomed into view, and I heard an almighty roar as the airship crashed.
Chapter Twenty-One
The wreckage of the airship was strewn all around us. I heard a ringing noise in my head, and my temples thudded. At first, I thought that I had died and that I was viewing the wreckage through the afterlife, and that soon I would wake up in a pod outside the game world. When I heard Smoglar groan, I knew that I had survived.
I checked my stats and saw that my health bar was barely a quarter full. Feidan’s shield had kept us alive, but it hadn’t been able to save the airship. The ballonet laid spread across the ground a few yards away from me. It was deflated now, and it looked like a skin that had been shed by some enormous snake.
One by one, my friends climbed out of the wreckage. I was relieved to see that we’d all made it, but that quickly turned to dismay when I looked around us. The landscape that surrounded us was gloomy and grey. The surface was made of cold stone that rose and fell, with crags sharp enough to tear through bone.
I took a deep breath. As I did, a message filled my screen.
5HP lost (Total: 30/ 152)
The air was damaging me when I breathed it, and that meant one thing; we had crash-landed in Smogashe Valley. I opened my inventory and took out my healing potions. Feidan had given us 3 each. The liquid inside looked like a normal potion, except that flecks of silver floated in it. I drank it back and watched as my health bar rose to 152. No sooner had I done that, than I received another message.
5HP lost (Total: 147/ 152)
At this rate, we’d burn through all our health potions in less than thirty minutes. After that, we’d be able to do nothing but wait as our health slowly drained, burned away by the toxic air around us.
“Drink your potions,” I told everyone.
Ozreal had a graze on his forehead, and blood trickled down one of Feidan’s nostrils. Smoglar seemed unhurt, but I looked at his hand and saw that he held an empty vial of potion.
“I’ll give you props for building the airship,” he said. “But the landing was a little bumpy.”
“What now?” asked Feidan.
I looked around me. It was a barren landscape. Thirty metres away, I saw red globules of lava spit into the air. Cracks ran through the stone in places, no doubt made by an eruption of the volcano somewhere beneath us.
In the distance, rising tall over the grey stone, were the peaks of a mountain. It was hard to make out clearly, but I was sure I saw a building on top of the mountain. Below it, leading a trail through the stone, were steps. It must have been the Assipian peaks, and the building above was the home of the Greye guild.
“How far away do you think that is?” I said.
“Ten miles, as the crow flies,” answered Ozreal.
“And how far away is it in dwarf steps?” asked Smoglar.
5HP lost (Total: 142/ 152)
“A hell of a lot longer,” I said. “We need to move. Now.”
The rough terrain made travelling difficult. We walked for hours over rocks that dug into our feet and crossed hills of hard stone that rose without warning. My stamina started to wear and I heard Smoglar grunt beside me, but I knew that we had to press on. After two hours I had used all of my potions and my HP had started its decline. There was no going back now; we either made it to the peaks, or we died in Smogashe.
“Don’t suppose you could whip up another batch of the old elixir?” said Smoglar, looking at Feidan.
The healer had found the walking more difficult than the rest of us. His cheeks burned red, and he looked like he was struggling to breathe. Looking at his HP bar, I saw that it had almost fallen to halfway.
“It’d take me hours,” said Feidan, panting. “And we have barely one hour, at most.”
Dereck seemed to be the most resolute of us all, and the walking didn’t tire him. Although his health bar drained, he made no complaint. That said, I did note that his health dropped slower than the rest of us. He was levels above us, so the damage he lost had less of an effect. I wondered how a tailor would get to such a high level. He told me that he’d once been an adventurer, but I found it hard to imagine.
Soon, we reached the steps of the peak. They were square steps cut into the stone of the mountain. Some were uneven, but they were in a perfect condition. It seemed that people rarely climbed the steps that led to the Greye guild base.
“This is it,” I said, as another message flashed on my screen and told me I’d lost HP. “At the top of here, we’ll find the Greyes.”
“How many steps do you think there are?” asked Smoglar.
“Too many,” said Ozreal. “But the longer we wait, the harder it will be.”
As I put my foot on the first step, I heard a noise. From somewhere nearby came the sound of footsteps on the stone. The noises grew louder until I heard something else; the gnashing of teeth.
“Looks like we’re not the only ones who want to find the Greyes,” said Smoglar.
A pack of creatures approached to our right. They looked like overgrown lizards, moving on all fours in such a way that they seemed to slither over the ground. Every so often one of them would open its mouth and show us teeth that looked like they could bite through metal. Their skin glowed red as though it was aflame. I stared at one of them and appraised it.
Lavaguana – Level 45
HP: 2360 / 2360
Strengths: Fire
Weakness: Ice
“Anyone got any ice cubes with them?” I asked.
One of the lavaguanas picked up its pace and slithered toward us, covering the ground at a speed I hadn’t thought it capable of. It was clear they weren’t here to wish us a safe journey. I equipped a screw bomb in one hand, though I suspected that since their strength was fire, there was a little chance an explosion would have an effect. I readied my dagger in my other hand.
“I’m sweating HP here,” said Derek. “And you lot are worse. One bite from one of those things and you’re done for.”
“I don’t mind a fight,” I said, looking at everyone. “But this is one we can’t win.”
“So what, then?” asked Smoglar.
Ozreal answered him. “Isn’t it obvious, dwarf? We run.”
As the lavaguanas closed in on us, Feidan held out his hands and covered us with a shield.
“I can’t keep this up for long,” he said. “That’s why I didn’t use it earlier; I have less mana left than a forest imp. It should be just enough to get us to the top.”
A race began, with Derek and Feidan leading the way, and Smoglar, Ozreal and I following. We sprinted up step after step with the sound of the lavaguanas’ claws scraping behind us. My stamina started to drain. Looking up, I saw that we had barely covered a quarter of the stone staircase.
The creatures behind seemed unaffected by their pursuit, and they gained ground on us with each step. Feidan grunted, and the shield above us began to flicker.
“I’m down to the last dregs of mana,” he said.
“Keep going,” I yelled.
We carried on running. Smoglar leapt up the steps like a dwarf possessed, while Ozreal took two steps at a time with his long strides. The pattering of claws on stone followed us all
the way.
Feidan let out a sigh, and the shield above us disappeared completely.
5HP lost (Total: 70 / 152)
With the shield gone and no potions to drink, I knew that we were done for. I probably had enough HP to make it to the top of the steps, but the creatures were catching up to us, and one bite would finish me off. I had to do something.
I stopped and turned to face the lavaguanas.
“What the hell are you doing, tinker?” said Smoglar.
“Keep running,” I told them.
“They’re going to mince you up,” said the dwarf.
Tinker, Tailor, Giant, Dwarf ( LitRPG Series): Difficulty:Legendary Book 2 Page 19