by Aleron Kong
Sion was in the middle of his ‘a dwarf, a goblin, and an elf’ walk into a bar joke when Yoshi called out to get their attention and then waved them over. Richter was hoping it meant they could start moving again, but he really had wanted to know why the dwarf had looked so triumphant and why the goblin’s butt was sore.
“You figured it out,” he asked Yoshi. The sprite told him to kneel down and then pointed to a small square to the side of the circle he had been studying.
“The release mechanism is here,” Yoshi said pointing at the square. “That’s why it took me so long. I was examining the circle meticulously, but couldn’t find any way to disarm it. Then it occurred to me that if one symbol triggered the trap, maybe another disarmed it. Watch.” Yoshi reversed his two tools, pointing the needlelike ends of both picks downward. He placed them at opposite corners of the square. They slipped into barely perceptible holes. He pushed both down, and with a soft click, one side of the circle popped up. Yoshi carefully pried it up further, and a mechanism could be seen underneath. A bar was underneath the circle, and it was connected to a small spring. That was in turn connected to a bar of metal which disappeared down into the floor past the point that Richter could see. With a grunt of satisfaction, Yoshi used the hook end of one of his tools and detached the spring from the lever that was apparently the trigger for the trap. He then put the circle back into the floor and stood. He cracked his neck and then arched his back, stiff from squatting for such a long period of time.
“Is it disarmed,” Sion asked.
Yoshi waved Sion closer, and then put a hand around the younger sprite’s shoulders once they were standing next to one another. The adept looked at Sion and said, “What do you think?” At the same time that he asked the question, he stomped down on the circle.
Sion shouted in alarm and leapt back. Yoshi just stood there with a manic grin on his face.
“So, are like, ALL sprites assholes,” Richter asked his heart racing. Yoshi just chuckled while Sion cursed under his breath.
Richter looked at the sword adept, “Okay. So I’m glad that you’re having a good time, and that you disarmed that one trap, but it took you an hour.” He looked out at the sea of small shapes that comprised the floor of the large room in front of them.
“That’s why I’m going to need your help. Did you follow what I did?”
Richter checked his prompts and saw:
Congratulations! You have learned the subskill: Trap Disarm. You have learned how to disable the mechanism of traps. Through careful application of your new subskill, you can make the world a safer place. This is a subskill of Traps. As you have learned this subskill, you have also learned the skill Traps.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Traps. You can set traps that will harm unwary enemies, but use caution lest you harm the innocent as well.
“I guess I did,” Richter said. “Let’s get to work.” Yoshi handed him a pair of lock picks.
You have received: Lock picks. Durability 5/5. Item class: Common. Quality: Average. Weight 0.01 kg.
Before getting started, Richter pulled out and activated his Wand of Magic Illumination. The blue beam of light didn’t show anything on the floor though, thankfully. Even with having been shown how to disarm the traps, it still took Richter at least fifteen minutes to disarm the next one. Unfortunately, the shape that hid the disarming holes varied. The release mechanism that Richter found was under a triangle. The only hint seemed to be that it needed to be near the circle. One of his picks also got caught when trying to withdraw it because Richter was moving too fast. The durability decreased by one. When he asked Yoshi if he had any more picks, the sprite told him no and called him a gyoti. Richter thought about snapping back but decided distracting Yoshi while he was disarming deadly traps was a bad idea. At least while Richter was still working next to him, that is.
Richter realized he would have to slow down even farther. If he messed up too many times, half of their total number of lock picks would be gone. He looked out at the hundreds, no thousands of small circles set into the floor and sighed. He got back to work. Hours passed as they slowly made their way across the floor. The good news was that Richter got a small amount of experience for each trap that was disarmed. His skills with Pierce the Veil, Traps, and Trap Disarm improved as well.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 2 in Pierce the Veil. +1 to perception.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 3 in Pierce the Veil. +1 to perception.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 4 in Pierce the Veil. +1 to perception.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 5 in Pierce the Veil. +1 to perception.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 6 in Pierce the Veil. +1 to perception.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 2 in Traps. All traps 2% more effective.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 3 in Traps. All traps 2% more effective.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 4 in Traps. All traps 2% more effective
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 2 in Trap Disarm. +2% more likely to disarm trap.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 3 in Trap Disarm. +2% more likely to disarm trap.
Congratulations! You have reached skill level 4 in Trap Disarm. +2% more likely to disarm trap.
Richter could only reason that Pierce the Veil leveled faster than the other two because he was using that skill directly, whereas all of the points going towards Traps were actually coming indirectly from leveling its subskill, Trap Disarm. It meant his Trap Disarm skill might have risen higher, but its growth was limited by the fact that subskills could never be a higher level than their main skill. He thought about examining the logs to see exactly how much his Traps skill leveled in proportion to his Trap Disarm skill but then decided that would be about as interesting as watching paint dry. He got back to work
As they had moved deeper into the room the level of the traps had increased as well. This was initially a problem because the mechanism was more complex, but Yoshi was again able to show him what to do. After that, it was just back to rinse and repeat. The good news was that the higher level traps gave a commensurate higher level experience and seemed to level his skills faster.
The hours of focus required to get to the middle of the room had taken their toll. Richter was mentally fatigued. His actions were getting sloppier as well, and he had fumbled disarming another trap. Thankfully he didn’t trigger the trap, but it did remove another point of durability from his other lock pick. He told Yoshi that he thought they should rest. He had expected some ‘Goonies never say die nonsense’ from the sword adept, but instead the swordsman agreed. At seeing Richter’s confused expression, he said, “There is no honor in pushing through a bad position.”
As they were walking back to the hallway, Richter muttered, “Yeah, that’s why I always put their legs in the air.”
CHAPTER 17
Richter was about to lay down when a stray thought that had made his heart pound in fear. He called out to Futen, and asked what would happen if neither of them was in the village to pay the upkeep for Confusing Mist. Richter was already recriminating himself for putting his village at risk again. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t foreseen being gone so long. He should have! He was ready to risk running across the trapped floor when Futen soothed his panic. The remnant told him that the upkeep was automatically paid as long as there was enough mana. Since neither of them were accessing the village’s mana pool, the spell would continue with no issues. Also, the remnant reminded his Lord that they were still within the boundaries of his domain even though they weren’t in the village proper which meant Richter could still access the village’s mana.
Richter had breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t been thinking clearly. His mental fatigue had combined with physical exhaustion, letting panic take over. Once he let go of that worry, though, he lai
d down on his bedroll and passed out almost immediately. He didn’t sleep long, though, thanks to a boot nudging his ribs. Yoshi was waking him to stand watch. Richter made the argument that they didn’t need to keep watch as Futen could hover in one part of the tunnel and the other part was protected by the trap floor. Yoshi wasn’t hearing any of it, though, and they all spent one shift awake.
When everyone had slept, Richter and Yoshi got back to work. Walking back to the center of chamber, they had a decision to make. The room wasn’t perfectly round, and the angle of one wall meant that the bone door closest to them. Richter wanted to keep going straight to reach the metal door. Yoshi, on the other hand, argued that if their picks broke before they got to a door, then they would have to try to run the gauntlet of the floor. Better to reach any door than to get stuck, the adept reasoned.
Richter didn’t have any better counterargument than, ‘Good god! Not the bone door. It’s creepy!’ or ‘Why is it a shit idea to go towards the bone door, you ask? Because it is so OBVIOUSLY a shit idea!’ Needless to say, they ended up disarming traps towards the bone door.
It took another day and a half to disarm the increasingly difficult traps, but Richter took his time and didn’t lose any more durability on his lock picks. While they were working, Richter asked something that had been on his mind for a while, “How did you become a Warrior? How did you get your Profession?”
Of course, the adept didn’t answer at first. That would have been too easy, Richter thought. He did end up answering, though. “If you have reached level twenty and have a journeyman skill level in a combat skill, you are given the opportunity to prove yourself. If you so choose to take that opportunity, you will be taken… elsewhere. There you must defeat the challenges set before you. If you succeed, then you will be assigned a Profession.”
“What if you don’t defeat the challenges,” Richter asked.
“Well then you come back,” Yoshi replied irritably.
“There aren’t any consequences?”
Yoshi gave a long-suffering sigh and looked at the ceiling as if begging for strength. When he spoke, he enunciated each word like Richter had a mental deficit. “If you do not pass the challenges, then you lose a personal level and one skill level in every skill you have.”
Trying not to let Yoshi’s attitude get to him, he just reflected on the information he had just learned. Soon, Richter would reach personal level 20. Except for Herb Lore, though, he was far from a journeyman in any of his skills. He would have to start skill grinding sometime soon. He knew he was pushing it, but decided to ask another question, “All Professions require you to be a journeyman and reach level 20?” He was remembering that Gloran had the Profession of Crafter despite being only level 14.
“Yes,” Yoshi snapped. He went back to disarming his traps but then picked his head back up. “Except for noncombat Professions. Those you can reach at Level 10, but you still need to be at least a journeyman in a related skill. And in answer to your next questions, Yes, you are a gyoti, and no, I won’t kiss you for a copper.” Yoshi gave a bright garish smile, which swiftly fled his face leaving behind only a cold glare. Richter took the hint this time and got back to work himself.
By the time they reached the bone door, he had reached level ten in his trap skills and level eleven in Pierce the Veil. He got the normal bonus experience from reaching level ten (plus the 25% bonus), but unfortunately only received half the experience for leveling his subskill. Total, it was 6,250. He deserved every point, he thought, massaging his aching back.
While Yoshi went back to lead Sion and Daniella through the disarmed traps, Richter looked at his status page.
Name: Richter
Age: 24
Level: 14, 60%
Health: 390 Mana: 300 Stamina: 200
Strength: 29
Agility: 18
Dexterity: 34
Constitution: 25
Endurance: 20
Intelligence: 23
Wisdom: 21
Charisma: 24
Luck: 15
Abilities:
Limitless
Gift of Tongues
Fast Learner
Psi Bond
Skills:
Herb Lore Lvl 38; 43% to next level
Alchemy Lvl 1; 0% to next level
Analyze Lvl 5; 31% to next level
Pierce the Veil Lvl 11; 71% to next level
Stealth Lvl 4; 76% to next level
Traps Lvl 10; 5% to next level
Trap Disarm Lvl 10; 7% to next level
Archery Lvl 9; 18% to next level
Imbue Arrow Lvl 4; 62% to next level
Focus Lvl 3; 11% to next level
Double Shot Lvl 3; 31% to next level,
Drill Shot Lvl 2; 40% to next level
Swordsmanship Lvl 2; 15% to next level
Small Blades Lvl 1; 11% to next level
Unarmed Combat Lvl 1; 10% to next level
Pressure Points Lvl 1; 15% to next level
Light Armor Lvl 7; 38% to next level
Grace in Combat Lvl 4; 88% to next level
Air Magic Lvl 3; 82% to next level
Life Magic Lvl 3; 71% to next level
Earth Magic Lvl 3; 32% to next level
Water Magic Lvl 1; 19% to next level
Dark Magic Lvl 3; 64% to next level
Light Magic Lvl 1; 34% to next level
Map Making Lvl MAX
Trade Lvl 14; 86% to next level
War Leader Lvl 2, 43% to next level
Enchantment Lvl 1; 7% to next level
Marks:
Master of Mist Village
Blood Oath
Resistances:
Air 50%
Earth 20%
Mental 15%
Spiritual 15%
Race: Human (Chaos Seed)
Reputation: Lvl 3 “You seem like someone worthy of my attention.”
Alignment: Neutral
Language: All
He still had his six characteristic points in reserve. After seeing the devilish trap floor, he decided holding off was the right choice. Who knew what the next challenge would be?
He had also received three noteworthy prompts during the past few days.
Congratulations! You have advanced from Novice to Initiate in: Pierce the Veil. In addition to hidden traps, you can now find hidden compartments.
Congratulations! You have advanced from Novice to Initiate in: Traps. You can set traps with proximity triggers in addition to simple pressure triggers.
Congratulations! You have advanced from Novice to Initiate in: Trap Disarm. You can now retrieve some of the traps you disarm for your own future use.
Hidden compartments? Had he been missing hidden treasure?! Richter looked around but didn’t see anything new.
The three sprites walked up. Sion was protesting, “Of all the doorways here, are we sure that we want to go into the bone doorway?” Richter was just about to chime in, ‘That’s what I said!’, when Yoshi made an abrupt swipe of his hand.
“This was the most efficient option,” Yoshi said. “We have limited resources and without further information, each choice was the same as the others.” Looking at Richter, he asked, “Do you sense anything?”
Richter shook his head. Even though the bone door was weird, there was no red glow coming off of it. Similarly, the wand didn’t show anything. “Futen, any magical wards or traps that you can detect?”
“No, my Lord.”
The door had a small hole in it where a door knob would be. Looking inside the hole, he saw a metal circle with the impression of a square set in its center. The circle was set about a foot past the door. It could be easily reached if you decided to stick your hand in the hole.
“Okay,” Richter said, “So one of us is supposed to stick our hand in that hole to reach that circle, but then it’s going to be all like, ‘Oh no! Something grabbed my hand. And where did that monster come from? Oh, curse this completel
y unexpected twist of fate! Oh, the humanity!”
Richter was really getting into the role and was doing his best Sterling Archer by the end of it. The sprites just looked at him with unamused expressions. Tough crowd, he thought. He tried another tact. “The point is; this is an obvious trap. And I don’t think any of us wants to lose a hand to prove it.”
“Well, what do you suggest,” Yoshi asked annoyed.
“We go to the metal door, which incidentally, unlike this bone door, doesn’t have the obvious promise of sure death attached to it,” Richter said.
“We do not have time to go to another door!”
“Then be my guest,” Richter said. He swept his arm towards the hole in the bone door.
Yoshi stared at it for a minute and then said, “I need some time to think this through. Until I figure out a solution, though, we should keep working on the other traps. We might as well go in that direction,” he gestured loosely towards the metal iron door. He turned around and walked towards the middle of the room again.
Richter’s eyes opened wide, “Really dude? Really?”
Yoshi just kept walking.
Shaking his head, Richter led Sion and Daniella back through the traps so they could wait safely in the tunnel. He was walking back to join Yoshi when Alma shrieked unhappily. He handed her some dried meat out of his Bag, which she sniffed at in disdain, but ultimately took. She had made her displeasure at the lack of fresh meat clear the first time he had offered it. All he got in return was a stream of air into his face.
The two men got back to work. Something interesting happened as they were making it to the metal door. After he disarmed a trap that at first seemed no different from the others, it had started glow a reassuring green. None of the other traps had ever done that before.
He kept staring at it hoping a prompt would appear, but he had no such luck. A little voice whispered in the corner of his mind, but he shushed it. It was talking crazy. He kept staring at the green glow, and the voice whispered again, louder this time.