He turned away, and as he did, a bright reflection caught his eye. On the opposite side of the cavern, a disk-shaped object leaned against something. Moving forward and leaning out over the slope, Kalmond squinted hard at the object, trying to make it out. It was a shield. He could see the lines of a skeleton behind it, its skull peeking up over the rim.
A mirrored shield, Kalmond thought. That must be it. If he could wake the queen and get her to stare into the shield, that might take her down. Could it be that easy?
Kalmond lost track of time as he cast sneak over and again to circle around the outside of the cavern and up the slope at the opposite end. One misstep meant certain death, so he waited for his mana bar to regenerate fully before moving. Even after seeing no sleeping monsters on the slope up to the ledge where the skeleton lay, he used sneak to proceed.
He found the skeleton was fully armored in reflective plate mail, but the armor wasn’t as mirror-like as the shield. When he picked up the shield, he saw his reflection as if he was cast in gold.
Examining the plate mail before he picked it up, he found the full set was humbly named Mirrored Plate Mail. Its qualities, though, were anything but humble. The armor gave +20 against basilisks, +10 against fire weapons and +20 damage to all attacks when fighting with the sun at his back. The catch was that he had to use the shield, which provided another +10 damage resistance. The base armor rating was +10 against all other attacks. The armor was fair to middling as general protection, but became extremely powerful in the right conditions.
That was just the body armor. The winged helmet gave +5 base damage resistance rating plus +3 to intelligence, which boosted his mana considerably. Adding the shield to the whole package gave an overall damage rating of +15 protection against ordinary attacks. Wearing this armor would make him practically invulnerable to fire and a raging hell beast while fighting in direct sunlight. The gauntlets though were fairly ordinary. They gave another +5 and had two enchantment slots open.
Kalmond took up the armor with a grin that felt permanent. Putting it on though, meant that he had to remove his boots of the ox, which nearly maxed out his carry capacity. He also opted to keep wearing his original steel gauntlets as they held the speed enchantment that gave him a critical edge. Losing some carrying capacity was a small price to pay.
He had to temper his excitement as he wielded cloudsplitter in his right hand, keeping the shield on his left arm. Opting for the one-hand wield ability proved to be one of his best decisions by far. Even with all the advantage, he still had to be careful. The armor was fantastic, but it didn’t make him immortal, and plate armor reduced his sneak effectiveness considerably.
Now, the only question was whether to wake the basilisks on purpose or try to sneak in and grab the egg without disturbing anything. Thinking about this made him realize that previous armor’s owner died in it. The fact was not reassuring.
What was the adventurer’s flaw? It looked as if he was in a defensive position. The basilisks skeletons surrounding him looked as if they had circled up and took him out with overwhelming numbers. Something else occurred to him. Where was the weapon? The skeleton gave up a complete suit of armor, plus shield, but nothing else. Kalmond decided not to repeat anything like the mistake of the dead one he’d looted.
A plan occurred to him as he used sneak to walk back down the slope and stand before a field of basilisks. He would pick his way through the crowd, laying two fire potion traps along the way. He’d save the last fire potion in case he got in trouble.
He decided to lay the traps on the exit side of the cavern. If things got bad, as they were likely to do, he would fall back to the exit with the hope that he could create a bottleneck for his attackers. Because his strong fire protection, he could afford to detonate the fire bomb under his feet if he had to. He would lay the first trap at the base of the slope leading to the exit. The second bomb, he would place right next to the queen herself so that as soon as she moved—boom.
Just to be on the safe side, Kalmond downed a rejuvenation potion. The surge of energy warming his skin improved his mood immensely and cleared his head. It also gave him an idea. He planted the first firebomb at the base of the slope, reactivated sneak and tiptoed back over to the closest basilisk. He placed the edge of the shield inches from its beak and leaned the shield against his shoulder so that only his head was peeking around the side.
Using the spiked end of his axe, he brought the point right up to the basilisk’s neck and gave it a sharp poke. The creature’s eyes popped open and met its own reflection. Its beak opened wide, and it twitched once before dying. The XP bubble drifted away towards the ceiling silently announcing 242 points.
The move was brilliant. He could wipe out all the basilisks one-by-one without swinging his axe once. If he was careful enough, he thought he could even take the egg without waking the Queen. If he did, he felt it would be no problem to get her to stare into the shield right away.
Kalmond found his next victim close by. He activated sneak and repeated the first move. As soon as the sharp axe tip poked through feathers, the creature opened its eyes and died within seconds, earning him another 240 XP.
Gong! A flash of light lit up the cavern and bold, block letters announced Kalmond had reached the next level.
Kalmond the stone dwarf
Level 14
XP 16009
STA 33
STR 31
INT 30
AGI 31
CHA 31
MAN 28
MLVL 774
Hit Points 11886
Every basilisk twitched when the gong sounded. When the light flash came, they all raised their heads in unison and pointed their beaks at Kalmond the level 14 Stone Dwarf.
Kalmond had no time to wonder why they reacted to his level-up. The basilisk stares felt like hands grabbing him by the breastplate and pulling him forward. There were so many that he couldn’t avoid a fractional second of eye contact with several before ducking behind his shield.
Kalmond backed away, crouching down behind his shield while bodies bounced off it. He swung his axe blindly, and as the shield came around, he found three basilisks dead on the ground. He didn’t bother to read the XP bubbles. Fighting for his life was more important.
One jumped behind him and raked its claws across his back and managed to get between the armor joints to stab him in the right calf with its sharp tail. Kalmond whirled, using the shield to score some damage and send the creature into retreat. But he’d impulsively turned his back on the majority of the monsters. Realizing his error nearly too late, Kalmond spun like a top, axe held by the very end. He scored hits on three basilisks, killing one and seriously wounding two others.
That gave him just enough time to run, and he did so, aiming for the ramp back up to the entry passage and the place where he laid the fire bomb. He slowed on purpose to allow the pursuing monsters to catch up and trigger the trap. The blast nearly knocked him down and took more than 1200 points, but caused very little fire damage, thanks to the excellent fire protection offered by the plate mail.
The trap killed three basilisks and bought him enough time to run up the ramp in a sprint, then turn to face his pursuers. The shield was nearly as large as the passage opening, so he planted it firmly in the dirt and had just enough room to peek around the side. He put away his axe in favor of the level two water spell. Two basilisks charged at the shield, saw their reflections and died. A third used its claws to grab the shield, and it was all Kalmond could do to hang on before blasting it full force with a cannonball of water, sending its broken body down the slope for the kill.
He’d killed nearly half the smaller basilisks, and the remainder circled up around the queen, who was too large to fit through the passage. Kalmond used the opportunity to throw his last fire potion as a grenade. He sprinted down the slope, and just before the basilisks charged, he threw. The firebomb shattered in front of six monsters who instantly caught fire and ran in every direction.
Kalmond brought the shield around, but the ruse didn’t work. The queen had already withdrawn to be replaced by four of her children. Kalmond took them out one-by-one in the narrow passage, using axe and shield.
Gong! Another flash of light announced level fifteen.
Kalmond the stone dwarf
Level 15
XP 17924
STA 35
STR 33
INT 32
AGI 33
CHA 33
MAN 30
MLVL 858
Hit Points 13073
This quest was turning into a goldmine and wanted to keep up the rhythm. Kalmond charged back into the cavern with axe and shield to discover just two basilisk children remaining. He kept the shield held out to the side and away from the first charging monster. When it reached arm’s length, Kalmond took a knee behind the shield, and the basilisk was dead before it reached him, bouncing harmlessly off the mirrored surface.
He lead the last child around one of the stalagmites, then quickly doubled back the other way. He took off its head cleanly, and shattered the column of rock. The dwarf quickly found another stalagmite to hide behind as the queen flapped her wings and shrieked at the death of her children.
Avoiding her eyes was difficult. Her gaze seemed like a voice in his head urging him to look. He followed her feet instead, moving from rock to rock for cover. When she charged, Kalmond was ready with his shield. At least, he thought he was. He wasn’t quite fast enough, and her spiked tail went right through a stalagmite, hit him on the right side and sent him flying. He came to an indignant stop against a boulder, bounced off and landed on his belly.
Pounding feet alerted him to impending doom, and he rolled over onto his back and held the shield over his head. The queen made a choking noise and stopped short. Kalmond rolled away as her body came crashing down in the spot where he lay.
The XP bubble announced a full 1150 XP for killing the queen with her own reflection.
The dwarf stood trembling and tired, hands to knees. The bodies of basilisks littered the cavern. Looting would be a chore. He started with the queen. When he saw the list of items she carried, the mystery of the missing weapon was solved instantly.
The first item the dwarf noticed was the Great Axe of Warding. The head was single bladed with a vicious-looking curved spike on the other side. The handle was bonebark. Base damage was +10 with a 20% chance to defeat armor on a back swing and a 10% chance of reflecting any attack to the enemy when blocking, including spells. The warding enchantment took up the only available slot. The very particular abilities gave the axe interesting possibilities, but he’d have to be conscious of his attacks. The backswing ability Kalmond found most interesting of all.
She also held two spellbooks, one was for a level one speed enchantment, a rather ordinary spell, but the other was the kicker because it provided level 2 invisibility. Kalmond read the invisibility spellbook immediately, earning him 35 XP. He couldn’t wait to try it out.
“Hell yes,” Kalmond said. “Finally, a big score.”
Now for the looting, Kalmond thought. He pried as many spheres from the stalagmites as he could carry, ending up with fifteen. The basilisk children gave up sixteen precious gems and more beaks and feathers than he could carry. He looted bodies until he came to the egg, which sat in the center of the cavern. Now that the basilisk was dead, he could access the passage at the opposite end of the cavern. He found it lead directly up to a long, steep passage to the mountain ridge.
Kalmond exited the basilisk cave and into bright sunlight. He filled his lungs with warm, fresh air and stretched out sore muscles. After all that work, he’d need more rejuvenation potions, so he collected more kindlebloom and purple flowers on his way back down the mountain.
Chapter 16
He found the village of Darkwell active with NPCs and to his surprise, several adventurers. To be on the safe side, Kalmond equipped his new shield and axe. He pulled up a chat window and checked to see if any of his new friends were online. None were.
As he approached, he didn’t notice any horned Mylos icons in the chat bubbles he observed. He counted six adventurers. Two spoke with NPCs while two pairs spoke with one another as they moved around the town. Kalmond avoided them and instead headed to Driskroll’s shop.
Inside, he found that Driskroll had assigned the shop to a female NPC named Enen. She stood behind the counter wiping down the wood with a rough cloth and greeted him robotically. He thought it would be a standard NPC exchange until she spoke.
“I’m glad to see you again, Alder Bear Dwarf,” Enen said.
“Nice to be here. How is the town?” Kalmond asked.
“We are very busy recovering and rebuilding our old lives. Many of us are worried that the demon may come back,” Enen replied. “The Village Council is talking about forming a defense force.”
“This is exactly what I was thinking,” Kalmond said. He didn’t think it was a coincidence. “You will need weapons and armor. I have cleared the basilisk cave in the mountains above. You can find ore there.”
“But we have no forge,” Enen said. “We will go to the mountain for ore, but our blacksmith was taken by the demon first, and we have not seen him since. If you could find him, he can build all the weapons we need.”
Quest: Find the Darkwell Blacksmith. Do you accept?
“I will find the blacksmith,” Kalmond said. He pulled up the map instantly and followed the quest marker that appeared suspiciously close. Keeping the semi-transparent overlay in front of him, he headed back outside. Just as he feared, the marker led him straight to the well. The villagers had cleared away all the vines but had placed a large boulder atop the opening.
“That is sealed that for a reason,” came a voice from behind. Kalmond turned to find a wizened old woman holding an odd wooden pitchfork with just two tines.
“That’s a shame,” Kalmond said, “because your blacksmith is down there.”
“There may be another way into the well,” she said.
“Can you tell me?” Kalmond asked.
“No,” the woman replied. “But I can show you.” She turned away, and Kalmond followed her through the town and into the woods where there was no trail.
They hiked on through the woods quite a way before Kalmond stopped and asked, “So where is the entrance to the well?”
The woman turned slowly and leaned on her pitchfork with a kind smile. “You see,” she said. “There is no entrance. I just wanted you far from the town when we kill you.”
Before Kalmond could raise his shield or grab his axe, the woman put away her pitchfork and deployed a chain weapon that wrapped around his neck and pulled him to the ground. The woman kicked him in the head and whistled. The forest exploded as assailants jumped out from behind trees and beneath leaves.
Kalmond rolled away and to his feet, avoiding another savage kick from the old woman who struck out at him again with her chain weapon all the while wearing the same kind smile. The expression remained frozen on her face even as she told him, “Lord Mylos wants you dead, so now you die.”
She hit him twice more with the spike on the end of her chain, and an arrow speared him through the right shoulder. He was down half his hit points and he hadn’t scored a single blow in return. He aimed to change that.
Kalmond deployed his new axe and used both hands to execute a rage swing on a human paladin who lunged at him with a bastard sword. The axe buried itself in his left shoulder nearly to the haft. Rage made it easy for Kalmond to swing it again, and when he did, a great fan of blood followed from the paladin’s chest. He finished the human with a backswing
that scored a critical with the armor-piercing hook to the ribcage.
“You all made a big mistake!” Kalmond bellowed. His six attackers were all adventurers working on behalf of the NPC who was obviously the quest giver.
Next at bat was an elf mage who cast a very powerful lightning spell. Kalmond raised the axe of warding, and the lightning hit the axe and flashed back to its caster, knocking her flat on her back. Kalmond lunged forward and tried to chop her down like firewood, but she rolled away, and his axe became a backhoe. Pulling it back out of the ground cost precious seconds.
Another attacker, this one a dwarf warrior, struck Kalmond with a two-handed sword. The plate mail absorbed most of it, but he lost 3130 points and was below the halfway spot on his health bar. He simply wasn’t making enough progress against so many high-level attackers. He used his water cannon spell to blast the dwarf back for 1200 points of damage, then Kalmond ran.
Bright sunlight through the trees ahead gave him inspiration for a winning strategy. Two arrows pierced his back as he turned to run. He caught flashes of arrow shafts in his peripheral vision as he ran, activating sprint until the endurance bar disappeared. The arrow shafts twanged from tree trunks as he sprinted past. Kalmond found himself in the middle of a clearing facing the sun. He turned towards his attackers as they emerged from the woods. Now the sun was behind him.
Kalmond exchanged axe and shield for his crossbow and loaded a bolt quickly. He took a knee and spent sweet time aiming for the first character that emerged from the woods. That happened to be the mage who shot him with lightning. She had a bow now, and she used it to fire a magic missile.
Ting! The arrow simply glanced off Kalmond’s plate mail armor. With the sun behind him, his armor gave him all the protection and attack strength he needed. Kalmond fired. The mage dropped dead with a crossbow bolt through the forehead. The double-critical kill earned him 250 XP.
Then came the dwarf, who Kalmond turned into a pincushion with three bolts before he had to swap the crossbow for axe and shield. He used the axe of warding with one hand while still in a crouch to sweep the dwarf’s legs away. Kalmond finished that one with an overhand swing, using the hooked spike to defeat armor for the kill, earning him 500 XP.
Realm of the Nine Circles: The Grind: A LitRPG Novel Page 19