by Sarah Lin
They returned in silence, Bloodwraith beginning to feel the exhaustion as well. He checked the wards while Danniah set up a fire and a trip line, just in case the deeplings overcame the repulsion ward. While they had been fighting, he hadn't noticed the temperature of the caverns, but they were rather cool.
Bloodwraith pulled a blanket from his Extra-dimensional Bag and sat down against the wall, still fully equipped. Yet as he pulled the blanket around himself, he noticed that it seemed to be one thing that Danniah hadn't thought to bring. She shivered in her armor, then wordlessly came over to sit beside him.
After only a brief pause, Bloodwraith shifted the blanket to wrap around her shoulders as well. Danniah took off her helm and then leaned against his side, her hair splaying over his chest. She was asleep almost instantly and he wondered just how hard she had pushed herself.
As he sat there with an arm around her, he wondered why the boxes hadn't shown up to announce an "Affection" change yet. Surely this moment, or telling her his real name, should be worth something. Then again, the box gods seemed to have a very limited understanding of relationships, so perhaps it was to be expected.
Thinking about it as he went to sleep, Bloodwraith decided that he preferred it this way.
Chapter 22
When Bloodwraith woke up, he found that Danniah was drooling all over his armor. Though he felt fully rested, she seemed to need a little more time, so he took a moment to consider the day.
Even if this night had passed without incident, he didn't want to spend another night in the elven ruins. Though he had been able to spend time on various quests, there was still too much at stake in Cresthaven to be away from it for long.
Fortunately, he thought it was realistic for them to find a way out that day. According to his mental map of the area, the elven structure had been very reasonably laid out in a square. Exploring it was complicated by various cave-ins and deepling tunnels, but he thought they had explored a decent percentage of the entire structure.
Thinking of percentages reminded him to check his personal box, but no more EXP had been granted. Apparently a "marathon" could continue even through sleep. He wondered if this was a rule the box gods created out of a sense of fairness. Though Danniah had undoubtedly learned some tricks and trained her body in the ruins, she wouldn't be able to take advantage of it until she had time to recovery fully.
At that moment she finally woke up. After blinking sleepily for a while, she realized that she was resting against him, released a squeak, and then scooted away, blushing furiously.
To give her some space, Bloodwraith got up and began preparing for the day. He was already wearing his equipment, but he checked how damaged it was and sharpened the edge of his sword. It had taken a bit of a beating, striking stone instead of deeplings.
"Okay, I'm ready!" Danniah had quickly washed her face and collected her things, and now joined him near the entrance to their room. "Do you think we can get out today? I've got a really nasty kink in my back now..."
"I think we have a reasonable chance of finding all our objectives."
Danniah blinked and followed him as they headed back into the corridors. "All our objectives? Don't we just need to find the pool?"
"That's one. We also need to find an exit, because I don't think we're getting out the same way we came in. And finally... don't mention this to the elves, but I'm here because I think there might be a particular piece of armor here."
"Ooh, really? What does it look like? I've seen some elven armor here, but it didn't look very useful."
"The suit of armor is heavy and black. We'll probably know it when we see it."
They continued forward, fighting through another group of deeplings. But the creatures seemed a bit sleepy as well, defending their territory without any particular viciousness. Bloodwraith gave them no mercy, since their deaths only fed his power, but he kept that thought from Danniah.
It was anticlimactic, but they actually discovered the path back up first. At least, he was fairly certain that the cut staircase was part of the original construction. Danniah clapped her hands when she saw it, then hesitated as if uncertain if she should be happy. "This is it, right? That was easy!"
"We should check if it isn't entirely blocked off, but yes."
They traveled up quite some distance, the stairs occasionally broken by deepling tunnels. But they were navigable until near the very end, where they discovered the path buried in rocks. Not so deep that they couldn't be cleared, he thought. Better to make the elves do their share of that work, though - they had more important things to be doing.
Instead they explored one of the tunnels they'd ignored before... and this time, they finally found what he'd been hoping for.
He felt a thrill of mana wash over his skin as they entered the chamber. Unlike the others, this one was in nearly pristine condition. The entrance gave way to a warded hallway, and on the other end he saw a shrine. Much of it was filled with holy symbols, but there was also an elegant case that reeked of magic. Even the boxes seemed to agree, highlighting it as a "Rare" item.
"Wow, that-" Bloodwraith shot out a hand and stopped Danniah from walking into the wards. "Huh? Is it guarded?"
"Definitely. Not with a guardian, but these wards are designed to kill." He pointed to a dark stain on the floor by the first ward. "Do you see that? I think that was once a deepling."
"Oh. Oh dear." Danniah took several more steps back and eyed the corridor nervously.
But though the elves had gone all out with the wards, they weren't master sorcerers or anything close to it. And over the years, the wards had frayed and weakened. There would be multiple ways through them, but the easiest would be to dismantle them.
He bent down next to the first rune and examined it carefully. Though this exact magic was unfamiliar to him, all power followed the same universal rules. Looking at the ward holistically, he could slowly grow to understand it, like learning a foreign language from scratch. Fortunately, he didn't need to express himself elegantly in that language, just shout commands.
When he understood, Bloodwraith carefully reached down and-
[Unable to create new skill!
Intellect level inadequate.
Wisdom level inadequate.
Spellcraft level inadequate.
Wardcraft level inadequate.]
Hissing in frustration, Bloodwraith smashed his hand down against the stone. So the boxes would absolutely forbid him from this. They hadn't been able to truly hobble his intelligence, but in some sense, the laws of reality thought he was the barbarian he appeared to be.
"Are you okay?" Danniah came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. "You were... trying to do a magic thing, weren't you? But you couldn't?"
"Don't rub it in." He snapped at her, then regretted it when he saw her flinch back. "Sorry."
"No, I understand. Well, I don't understand, but you looked really sad." She shuffled awkwardly beside him for a while. "So, is there any way to get through?"
"I have a theory."
Trying to push aside his anger, Bloodwraith headed back into the corridor and gathered several rocks. Returning with them, he began hurling them over the ward. If they passed, he might be able to damage - no, the rocks fell with a hiss of raw mana. Weakened by the years, the wards wouldn't be able to last forever.
"Oh, can we break through them!" Danniah smiled and moved into the corridor to gather as many rocks as she could carry, then began eagerly chucking them at the wards.
That worked well enough for several of the barriers, but then they encountered a more sophisticated defense that refused to discharge energy for mere rocks. The runes themselves were reinforced as well, so they couldn't chip away at the physical aspect.
"No luck on this one?"
"It will only discharge for a living creature trying to pass." He stood back, considering carefully.
"Could we throw a deepling in, maybe? It'd hurt carrying it over, but that ought to work."
> "Too risky." Before he could think better of it, Bloodwraith stepped into the ward himself.
His world filled with pain... but only pain. He stumbled back, feeling as though his body should be scorched and broken, yet he reminded himself that it had been illusory. The ward had weakened significantly, though its power wasn't exhausted yet. Stepping in again, this time he struggled to stifle his grunt as the pain rushed through him and he refused to step back.
When it faded he dropped to one knee. Danniah hurried to move beside him. "Bloodwraith, are you sure that's a good idea? Is whatever's at the other end really worth it?"
"I hope it is, because I'm not stopping." He did take a moment to recover, however, shedding the pain that had been forced through his mind.
Before he could make his next attempt, Danniah walked into the ward.
A burst of flame sprung up around her and she cried out. On instinct Bloodwraith grabbed her by the back of her armor and tugged her away from the ward. Yet to his surprise, Danniah seemed a bit stunned, but not really injured. Her armor had heated up on the outside, but the flames hadn't lasted long enough to hurt her.
"Uh... maybe that was a bit dumb?" She stared, not quite at him, as her eyes struggled to focus. "Did I at least help?"
"You did. Let's try a bit more carefully next time, alright?"
With a combination of rocks and their own bodies, they slowly battered down the aged wards. Such a strategy wouldn't have worked very well with maintained wards, but the existence of such a strategy bothered him a bit. If he could think of it, there were probably adventurers who would try the same thing. If he ever had another base of his own, he resolved to make the defensive wards less vulnerable to brute stupidity.
Eventually they made their way through and stood on top of the last runes, aching and smoking faintly. Bloodwraith took out two health potions and handed one to Danniah, who drank it eagerly. It had taken several potions to sustain them through the wards, but this one tasted much sweeter because the ordeal was over.
After a moment's thought, he also took out two of Meara's unique potions. His tasted fantastic, sizzling through his body and burning out some of the weariness from it. Danniah tried hers without complaint, but immediately made a face and held the potion away from herself.
"Eww! What is this?"
"An... experimental potion." Bloodwraith took it back from her and replaced the stopper. "Are you feeling alright? I thought it might help, but I hope you don't have any negative side effects."
"I just feel... kind of tingly." Danniah looked down at her fingers, wiggling them strangely, then shook her head. "Well, I don't think it worked, whatever it is. But I feel pretty good. Can we go check out the stuff we did all this work for?"
"Indeed we can."
Most of it proved to be unimpressive icons of little value, but he had been expecting that. He was slightly disappointed that there was no piece of armor anywhere to be found, but it wouldn't have been very logical for them to place such a thing here. No, this shrine was for consecrated items related to the elven pool... such as the dark case.
Bloodwraith opened it carefully and discovered that the interior was lined with felt, designed to hold potions. Five of the spaces were filled, burning so brightly that he could barely read the boxes as they tumbled out in front of him.
[Potion of Might
Permanently increases Might. Effect decreases with more powerful attributes and subsequent potions.
Rarity: Rare]
[Potion of Quickness
Permanently increases Quickness. Effect decreases with more powerful attributes and subsequent potions.
Rarity: Rare]
[Potion of Intellect
Permanently increases Intellect. Effect decreases with more powerful attributes and subsequent potions.
Rarity: Rare]
[Potion of Wisdom
Permanently increases Wisdom. Effect decreases with more powerful attributes and subsequent potions.
Rarity: Rare]
[Potion of Luck
Permanently increases Luck. Effect decreases with more powerful attributes and subsequent potions.
Rarity: Rare]
"Wow! Those are... wow..." Danniah stared at them, starstruck, and Bloodwraith admitted that he wasn't much better. Literal power in a bottle. After a long silence, Danniah spoke up again. "I can tell they're powerful, but what do they do?"
"They strengthen you in many ways. Unfortunately, I think you have to drink the entire potion for them to have an effect, so I don't think we can split them in half."
"Oh, that's fine! You can have them, I just wanted to help. Maybe give me a little more of the money we earn in the end? That seems fair to me."
It was not remotely fair, but Bloodwraith considered the offer seriously. Not accepting this much raw power was so clearly idiotic that part of him screamed that even considering the question was weakness. He wasn't even damaging his relationship with an ally, since Danniah had made the offer freely. Drinking these would bring him much closer to his goal of being able to fight Daek.
Yet strangely, he found himself thinking back to the elves tricking Danniah into giving the chest of coins away.
Gradually his thoughts began to shift. He'd already accepted that investments that benefited his allies were beneficial to him as well. This had the potential not just to give an ally a new asset, but to create a fundamentally better ally. And if some weak part of him wanted to help Danniah for its own sake, he could live with that.
"I wouldn't feel right taking them all for myself." Bloodwraith picked up the Potions of Intellect and Wisdom and handed them to her. "Based on my research, how much you benefit from the potions depends on your current state. You'll make better use of them than I will."
"Are you sure?" She stared into his eyes for a while, then nodded. "Okay, if you say so."
"You deserve them and more. Let's drink these before the elves somehow show up and ruin things."
He then immediately followed his own advice, drinking the Potion of Might in one swallow. The power of it flowed through his body and he found himself grinning as he confirmed that it had really worked. That grin was likely not very comforting, but he didn't care, he just drank down the next two potions in rapid succession and felt the power fill him.
Strangely, he felt the Potion of Luck strengthen him, even though he had no idea what "Luck" accomplished. If it was actually a force in the world, that would undermine all logic or reason. Yet he suspected that it might have an impact on the systems the boxes governed, so it couldn't hurt.
Checking his personal box again, he discovered that he had gained 1 point of Might, 2 of Quickness, and 3 of Luck. The direct inverse of how high those stats had been, as the description had suggested. He hoped that didn't mean that future Potions of Might would have no effect, and he wondered if it wouldn't be more efficient to drink a bunch of potions before doing any other training, but for now he was too pleased with the new development.
"Bloodwraith... I feel strange..." Danniah stumbled into him, then collapsed. Only instinct allowed him to catch her before she hit the ground.
For a moment he felt an irrational surge of guilt, as if he had poisoned her. But these were no trap placed by the box gods: such potions were an established part of magical theory. Admittedly, he had never seen the equivalent of "Potions of Intellect" used by anyone other than established sorcerers seeking a greater mental edge.
He moved Danniah to a comfortable position and removed her helm carefully. Her forehead was hot and she seemed to be running a fever, yet he didn't like the idea of removing more of her armor in a place like this. What she needed was water, but they had relatively little.
After waiting to see if the fever would pass quickly, Bloodwraith decided that it would be unwise to leave her here. He put her helm back on and hefted her over one shoulder. In all her armor she weighed quite a bit even at her height, but his body was bursting with new strength and so it wasn't a problem.
&n
bsp; The scratching all around him as he left the tunnel was, though.
Bloodwraith had only a moment to analyze the situation, deeplings crawling from the rock all around him. He was carrying Danniah with his left arm so that he could draw his sword with his right, but it would still be difficult to fight like this. Any tactic he used to fight would lead to a battle that would be difficult for him and possibly fatal for Danniah.
He had other strategies, though. When the deeplings began to emerge around him, Bloodwraith swung his sword wildly and kicked at those beneath him, releasing bursts of force in all directions. The deeplings flinched back but he didn't let up, releasing the rest of the mana in his weapon for another cut and using a burst of force on another rushing at his side.
Finally Bloodwraith let out a roar, daring the deeplings to keep attacking. They didn't, crawling back into the rock. He breathed a sigh of relief, leaned on his sword, and shifted Danniah on his shoulder.
As aggressive as the deeplings could be, they were still animals in the end. Faced with prey that attacked so viciously, they did the sane thing and retreated. Bloodwraith drank a mana potion just in case they returned, but otherwise headed into the tunnels confident that they would avoid him for a time.
[New Skill Acquired: Shout of Rage!
Starting Level: 1
EXP +250 (deferred)]
How odd. Had his shout actually driven them away due to some spell he hadn't realized? Yet when Bloodwraith examined the skill more carefully and interrogated the boxes for more, it described this "Shout of Rage" as a spell that struck in a broad range. He was certain that nothing like that had happened to the deeplings, he had just intimidated them.
Yet it seemed that he had met the conditions to unlock something else, as far as the boxes were concerned. As he carried Danniah into the last unexplored space, Bloodwraith muttered furiously about the insanity of the box gods.