by Dakota Krout
“Hey!” Dale shouted in surprise. “What the hell are you doing?”
The startled man looked up, eyes narrowing. His information had specifically said that Dale would be in the dungeon by now. Ah, well. He was probably going to have to kill him later anyway. The masked man pulled out a long knife and lunged at Dale.
His reactions trained from months of battle, Dale jumped to the side, barely avoiding a slash at his throat. His mind whirled with options, but he was without weapons or armor so he froze up, earning a brutal kick to his knee. Knocking Dale to the ground, the masked man raised his dagger to deliver a coup de grâce, ending his existence. Panicking, Dale screamed the first thing that came to mind.
“Get off my mountain!” Dale ordered with a frantic squeal. Mid-swing, the man turned and started jerkily walking away, his dagger flying from his hand at the unexpected and unwanted movement.
Dale, relieved, shouted after the angry and confused man, “To anyone who sent you, anyone who was sent by the same person, and anyone who knows what you were doing, leave! And never come back!” Dale had no idea if that would work, but he figured it was a good idea to at least try to get rid of other potential problems. There was now nothing he could do than just to watch the would-be assassin make his escape, so he stood up, shaking with reaction. Dale glared as he watched the man go. He was sprinting away now, obviously trying to outrun anyone Dale might send to find him.
Dale rushed to put on his armor, not feeling safe until he had every piece properly equipped. He then moved to find his group and tell them the events of his morning. At his rushed words about the assassin, they pulled him along to the Guild Master, making him repeat his story.
Frank tried to be sympathetic, but it was obvious he was preoccupied and not actually worried. “Dale, he was probably a thief that panicked when you showed up. It sounds like he didn’t try too hard to kill you if he just... ran off.”
“No, I ordered him off the mountain right before he could kill me!” Dale stated passionately. “He had me dead to rights, it was the only thing I could think of! I was about to die, Frank!”
“That was smart, good work thinking on your toes, kid.” Hans soothingly stated, slapping Dale comfortingly on the back.
Frank shook his head and sighed in exasperation as he looked over another requisition form. “Still, while I am sorry it happened, there really isn’t much to be done! He obviously wasn’t in the Guild if he tried to attack you, so I have no legal right to hunt him down. Actually,” Frank paused and mused a moment, “banishing him was a solid punishment. After all, he is now several hundred miles from any real civilization with no food, water, or equipment.”
Dale was taken aback. He hadn’t really thought making people leave would have such deadly consequences for them. Living off the land was easy around here, wasn’t it? His family had done so for generations… Calming down a bit, Dale recited the rest of his story. “Some other things happened this morning as well.” He relayed his conversation with Father Richard, telling them of the cursed earth gazebo, and the massive Runescript that had appeared on the quartz. Runescript being the proper term for many Runes that interlocked together to form a larger Rune, of course.
“Amazing!” Frank actually seemed interested in this story, Dale thought cynically. “That one chunk of quartz would be worth the yearly economic output of a city! That was before it was inscribed! To think, all of these amazing events happened up here, in the middle of nowhere! And, well, the cursed earth is concerning of course, but we will have to study it before making any decisions.” He shooed the group off when they had nothing else to report, telling them he would be busy for a few days, looking into these matters.
“Well, that was certainly interesting.” Craig looked at Dale, whose face still drawn from the stress and sudden events. Taking pity on him Craig continued, ““Let’s go kill some Mobs, shall we? That’ll calm your nerves a bit.” He punched Dale on the arm, getting a weak smile back for his camaraderie.
“Anything you say, Craig. It has been one heck of a morning, you know?” Dale sounded exhausted already.
A cheerful Hans came to the rescue, “These things happen, and the longer you live, the worse you’ll see. That’s why we’re training you up, so you can take care of yourself when we all move on. Ya can’t stay here forever, right?”
Dale’s face clouded. “I hadn’t really thought about it. I’ve never been off these mountains and I… You know what? Yeah, let’s go kill something.”
“That’s the spirit!” Hans shouted, “To battle!” Taking off at a run for the dungeon, the others had to hurry to catch up. They couldn’t let him have all the kills after all.
~Cal~
“More likely they were looking at the new building and the giant window you made into here.” Dani muttered reproachfully, making me look up at the growing crowd of people above us. They sure did seem excited to see my room. Hard to blame them for looking at my beautiful work after all. I was preening under all of the attention I was getting.
“Voyeurs.” Dani muttered, hostility coming off her in waves. “I gotta stay invisible all the time now.”
She huffed at me. “Fine. You’ll miss my pretty colors soon enough. How is Dale’s group doing? I assume… I mean, it is them again, right?”
“Did I just pick the wrong path?” Dale was asking, “I thought I could just watch the Essence. Were you guys just testing me?” He looked around at the stony faces, “I swear I am using the technique!” He finished desperately when no one talked.
“It’s not that, kid, chill.” Hans waved him down, speaking in a perplexed tone. “I thought that was the right way as well. What do you think Craig?”
“No idea.” Craig’s tense voice muttered. “It’s all different today.”
Steve chimed in softly, “This may be dangerous, boys. If we can’t tell where to go, we may walk directly into traps. Be extra careful today.”
“Vigilance!” Roared Josh, badly startling everyone. A couple of them even had to force themselves to stop attacking on reflex.
With a withering glance Steve rounded on Josh, “Yes, thank you for your input. Very helpful.”
I chuckled at that.
“Losing your way can be scary!” Dani shuddered.
“You can’t get lost! You don’t go anywhere!” Dani gasped at my nonchalant dismissal.
I quickly directed her attention away,
They had made their way through the admittedly easy first floor maze, quickly ending the useless Boss, which made me explode with frustration again.
“Why not put more Mobs in there? Or a squad, and call ‘em the Boss.” Dani seemed perplexed at my dislike of the current Boss.
“I think they already know. The squad system is too strong already for most of the groups, even though they are common Mobs on the second floor. I do agree that the
first floor is too easy, a squad will be a good challenge at least.”
She was ruthless, probably sick of me complaining about it all the time. “It’s weaker than your common Mobs, how about put it near acid traps and pitfalls? Pull people into them instead of hoping they fall on their own, or use it as a sacrifice to set traps off. That worked really well with that injured basher, right? Plus, the first floor is so weak now that Dale’s group is just waltzing on through. Dale could clear it by himself now! Heck, when is the last time someone even got badly injured there?” Dani stopped my interjection with a harsh truth, “You need to devote some of your Essence to upkeep and upgrades, not just constant expansion.”
Ooh, taking them down today may come to pass! They were moving into a tunnel on the second floor that would drop a stone door behind them, flooding a small space with acid. I could hardly wait to taste that C-ranked Essence from the main group. I caught my ‘breath’ as they walked in, and with a joyful yell I slammed the door down behind them. Their shouts of fear made my excitement rise to a fever pitch as I made preparations for large inputs of Essence.
“Calm Down! There has to be a way out if we aren’t dead yet!” The ever calm Craig took control, looking around. His eyes widened as he saw the acid beginning to pour in, his mouth forming a grim line.
“Look around for a lever, an opening, a button; anything out of place!” Hans directed, the sound of pouring liquid and hissing acid nearly drowning him out. The air was starting to become toxic as the stone melted, releasing fumes. Craig was moving his hands in complex patterns, light remaining where his nimble fingers moved.
As Dale looked around wildly, his Essence infused eyes caught upon a lighter patch on the wall a foot above his head on the other side of the tunnel. “There!” He shouted, pointing at the spot. Acid had pooled between them and the button, so Steve pulled out an arrow and notched it to his bow.
“No! You may break it!” Hans shouted, pushing the bow aside.
“Josh!” Craig snapped, hands still fluttering, “Boot!”
The benefit of working as a team for a long period of time was that complete sentences were rarely needed in dire circumstances. Josh moved over and held his armored leg up, the boot next to the glowing pattern in the air. Craig moved his hand again, what was obviously an enchantment flowed into being on the bottom of the proffered boot.
“Go!” Josh ran at the acid flowing across the ground, not stopping as he flung himself at the bubbling fluid. I watched and waited for his foot to start melting when it became submerged in the hissing acid. Sadly, the Rune on his boot flared to life, making the acid recede just enough to leave a dry spot on the floor where he landed. I was horrified as the area around him cleared of all liquid, though it was nearly a half inch deep just outside that zone. The others were on higher ground, but he should have been ooze by now! He sprinted, nearly flying across the now clear ground, and leapt to meet the button on the wall.
With only a minor complaint, I saw the acid stop flowing and quickly drain away, leaving only scarred stone to show it had ever been there. Boo. These guys were resourceful. The door slowly raised behind them as the last dregs of fluid vanished; I was nothing if not fair.
“That was amazing!” Dale shouted, pumping his fist into the air and giving Hans a wild hug. “I never knew enchanting was so fast!”
“It normally isn’t.” Steve glanced at Craig with admiration. “Fast enchantments are dangerous; I highly doubt Craig would have done that if we weren’t in deep shit there.”
Craig gravely nodded. “Agreed. Let’s avoid that in the future.”
“What? That was cool! When will you teach me to enchant?” Dale excitedly bubbled.
“I may not. It depends on what you want to do when you learn all the other options. Enchanting isn’t popular because you permanently lose a bit of your cultivation base for each enchantment, and have to re-refine the Chi. Rebuilding your cultivation base is hard, as you know. When you use your Essence for other, normal things, it will flow back into your center over time.” Craig tiredly lectured. “With enchanting it is just… gone.”
“Oh.” Dale was less eager now. “You said what you did was dangerous?”
“If I did it wrong, it might have exploded, or maybe just dissipated. If I made a correct Rune, but not the one I was going for, it may have had... unintended effects.” Craig hedged.
“Like if you made the inverse.” Hans spoke out in a low tone, eliciting a shudder from the others.
“What?” Dale hesitantly probed.
Josh took over, “The inverse of a Rune reverses its effects. Simple right? In this case instead of repelling the acid, it would have attracted all of it in range.”
Dale joined in the shuddering, thinking about what would have happened if the acid had completely covered poor Josh. It would have been like he never existed.
“But he made it, wouldn’t he know if it were the inverse?” Dale prodded.
“When he made it, yeah. But what if he applied it upside down in his hurry before activating it?” Hans explained.
“Oh.” Dale was quiet for a moment. “I’m glad it worked out.”
“I think we all are. Let’s go kill a Boss.” Josh rumbled. “I need some fresh air.”
They moved away from the dead end, systematically searching each area, skillfully avoiding traps until they finally found my Boss room. They were concerned at the bright light coming from the room until they saw the source, at which point they were excited by the new, bright fighting arena. I say arena, because we certainly had an audience today. People had been crowding along the area above until this group finally showed, at which point they started cheering and placing bets. Somehow the sound came in clearly from above, yet I am fairly certain they could not hear what happened down here.
My priorities had shifted a bit, while I did indeed still want some tasty Essence, I really wanted that fluid repulsion enchantment. So, when my Boss barreled out to the fight, amid cheering which filtered down from above, he charged directly at the large man, Josh. This must have surprised them; I think they expected me to go for Dale as per usual.
Raile crashed into the defiantly held tower shield, easily bending it. This was a weak, shoddy substitute for the one he had lost in here previously. Josh shouted in pain as the metal crumpled around his arm, forced away a few feet before he tripped and sprawled flat on his back. Raile bounced forward as blows began raining onto him, his massive weight landing on the sundered shield held up for protection. The tortured metal began caving in as Raile furiously attacked the only exposed area, Josh’s feet.
Clamping down, Raile shook his head like a dog tearing into steak, but he was knocked away with a powerful blow from Craig. Trying to preserve Josh, the blow had sent Raile away from Josh’s head, actually helping me pull the boot off. Thanks Craig! With an audible snap, Raile broke Josh’s leg as he was launched away, the boot flying into the distance.
I devoured the boot and the enchantment it held with a moan of pleasure, filing the information away for later use. Wow, does Craig make tasty enchantments! So much Essence! Raile returned to the battle, attempting to maul the man on the ground, but being body blocked by the others. Dale pulled Josh onto his good foot as Raile bounced high and started descending like an avalanche toward the place Josh had lain. Unable to dodge fully out of the way, both Dale and Josh went flying. Josh’s head slammed into the wall, where he slumped to the ground unconscious.
This was going far better than expected! Now two tasty people were on the ground for me to squash, while Raile had taken almost no damage yet! I bounded in
, ready to finish them. I jumped, my temporary body angling to flatten Dale when an arrow slammed into the armor of the head I was inhabiting. The force didn’t penetrate, but it did knock my/Raile’s skull forward, creating an awkward landing that pushed my head into the wall, next to Dale.
He stared into Raile’s eyes as I struggled to regain control, luckily his stick wasn’t small enough for him to swing and do damage in this confined space. Thinking I had the upper hand, I was shocked when Dale reached into a pocket and withdrew a gleaming dagger that he slammed into the eye next to him! That bastard! He had never had a dagger before! Vindictively, I angled Raile in his death throes so he would land on Dale, hopefully crushing the life out of him. As Raile’s corpse landed I could hear the breath explode from Dale’s body alongside a meaty *crunch*, which made me rather cheerful. Maybe this battle wasn’t a waste!
The others worked quickly to lever Raile’s body off of Dale, showing a non-breathing adventurer. Hans jumped over and pushed on Dale's chest a few times while furiously screaming. I am fairly certain the screaming did the trick, forcing Dale to take a breath in subliminal fear. While he coughed explosively, I sadly watched all of that Essence get away. Drat. They moved to Josh, who moaned as they removed his helmet.
“You ok, big man?” Hans probed, patting Josh on the arm.
“Yah.” Josh groaned, slowly getting up. “Powerful protection run on that helmet. Shoulda squashed me like a bug.” He spat out a bit of blood, gesturing at the giant Basher. He looked over at Dale and frowned. “How’d you kill it, lad?”
Dale was still trying to get his mind off of nearly being killed. “I, uh… I had a dagger on me, I was able to stick him before he got back up.”
“I didn’t teach you to use a dagger! Is it new? Do you have a new teacher you like better?” Hans feigned hurt at the thought of another man teaching him how to use a knife.
“No! Ha… Just nearly got stabbed this morning and decided to take a trophy.” Dale wheezed. He handed the dagger over so Hans could see it.