by Dakota Krout
Craig looked up from the dead Basher, “Dale, you didn’t penetrate its brain, how did you kill it?”
“Craig.” Hans had a serious tone in his voice, which made everyone look at him. A serious Hans made everyone nervous. “This is a Demonologist blade.”
“Are you certain?” Craig inspected the blade as well. “I see no infernal Essence on it...?”
Hans shook his head, “infernal Essence doesn’t hold well in Inscriptions, it pulls its energy from its victims to power itself. I am... unsure what this Rune does, but we should get it to a Spotter immediately.”
Hans turned toward Dale, “The life Essence in that Boss Mob was ripped out. Good job with those reflexes, but you should never use an unknown weapon, especially one with an obvious Inscription like this.” He held up the dagger, it was plain to me that the twisted pattern nearly screamed its hatred for life.
“I didn’t even think about it.” A downcast Dale kicked at a loose rock, “I was so caught up in today…”
I was watching that dagger. A new Inscription was something I dearly wanted to eat. Especially if I wouldn’t have a chance later, them giving it away and all. I had planned on giving them just standard loot, but I wanted a distraction. I generated a shower of silver coins to catch their attention, and dropped a massive metal tower shield behind them when they looked toward the money.
The resulting boom, clatter, was enough for them to jump, badly startled. Jumpy aren’t they? At the same time as the noise, a Glitterflit I had been directing smacked into the hand Hans was holding the dagger in, sending it flying. The distractions provided me with a brand new dagger and Inscription which I would be sure to study. Only Hans saw a flash of gold as the Glitterflit sped into hiding again.
“Son of a-” Hans began shouting.
“What happened?” Steve whirled around as a joyful *Whoop* sounded from Josh.
“It’s beautiful!” Josh stated, voice somewhere between a whisper and a scream. “Look at this pattern! These Runes are immaculate! I can’t wait to use it!” He was holding the inscribed, massive shield with his non-mangled arm, the other bent at odd angles which he ignored. “So pretty!”
“Something took the dagger!” Hans tried to warn the group.
“Can I keep it?” Josh was asking, looking around at the others wildly. “Please?”
“None of us could use it, Josh.” Craig moved toward him, speaking softly. “It is all yours, ok? How about we head back now?”
“So I can keep it?” Josh again begged.
“Of course you can.” Craig promised soothingly, looking into Josh’s eyes. “I think you have a concussion, my friend.”
“No, it’s a shield.” Josh assured him, holding it a little higher.
“I know it is, how about you look at it for a while?” Craig turned toward the group, “We need to go, an injury to the brain is one I do not feel... ready... to heal.”
“A moment please.” Steve gathered the fallen coin, looking for any other dropped things. What a greedy adventurer! I had no intention of giving them anything else. After all, I had not regained any of Raile’s lost Essence thanks to my new knife. “Let’s be off.” Hans nodded as he finished his search.
They turned to go, so I dropped a rock near the hidden stairwell. They turned, weapons drawn, to look at the disturbance. Hans flew forward, hoping to catch whatever it was off guard, and so was the one to find the stairs.
“Over here! A stairwell!” He waved them over to this unknown obstacle.
They looked at the stairs and almost ignored them, nearly leaving for the known route when the lolling head of Josh convinced them to move upward. After the first few steps, the door behind them swung closed, the only light in the area being the Essence in the stone around them.
They reached the top after a few minutes of huffing and puffing, three hundred eighty steps wears anyone down I’m told. I wouldn’t know. No legs. As they touched the wall, it swung outward, revealing a cheering crowd who were describing the battle they had just witnessed. The cheering got louder as the raucous crowd noticed the famous fighters had suddenly joined them.
A cleric ran over, healing light flowing from his hands as he reached for Josh. A few less interested people tried to force their way into the stone gazebo I was closing. I didn’t try to stop them. A few made it in, cheering at their good luck. Those few ran down toward the Boss room while the door closed behind them. Little did they know it wouldn’t reopen. I guess this battle wasn’t an entire waste for me today! I’m sure their constant crying will be annoying for a few hours, but I’m also sure it won’t last too long. Not much air in the stairwell after all.
I turned my mind to the knowledge I had gained that day, thinking over the concepts and ideas that were flowing through me. The Inscriptions were very interesting, but I was very curious as to what I could do with inverted runes. It reversed the effect of the Rune Craig says, hmm? I drew an inverted Rune on the ground in a small room and powered it with a tiny burst of Essence. This was the Rune that would increase the strength of armor when applied normally, so I was unsure of what would happen when it was inverted.
I dropped a boot on it and watched it glow, though seemingly nothing was happening. After a few seconds, the boot sagged and fell apart, the leather falling into scraps! Already joyfully thinking of the applications, I tried again, this time with a metal helmet. I carefully watched it, as apparent stress fractures made their way along the metal. Anywhere it connected to another piece of the metal, it quickly corroded, until it finally clattered apart. What remained on the Rune for a while longer fell apart further until only oxidized, rusty metal scraps remained.
“Holy cow!” Dani breathed. “It looks like what you do to anything that doesn’t have an aura when you absorb it! This could be a way for you to get patterns for armor even when you don’t take down the person wearing it!”
“Yeah?”
~Twenty~
Dale walked out of the gazebo, and was so stunned by the sudden noise and crowd that he couldn’t stop the people who pushed past him into the waiting tunnel.
“That’s a terrible idea!” He shouted as they rushed downward, the door seamlessly grinding closed behind them.
Craig just shook his head and waited for the cleric to be finished with Josh, who had focus returning to his eyes as the celestial energy flowed around his brain, clearing the built up blood and reducing swelling. Josh blinked a few times as the cleric moved back a step, then thanked him.
“Ow!” Josh suddenly shouted, “Ahh! My arm!” The very bent arm by his side was apparent to all, a few weak stomached people were noisily sick as they noticed the ruined flesh. More were sick as they watched the arm get pulled on by the others to straighten it as Josh screamed in pain.
“Pull it straight you heartless bastards!” Josh was shrieking, “Do it! Ahhh!” The flow of celestial energy appeared again, quickly soothing and strengthening the proffered arm.
“You missed a kink there.” The nameless cleric noticed, pointing to a knot on Josh’s ankle. Hans looked at the spot and before Josh could tense up he quickly twisted the foot, the grinding of bone audible only until the retching sounds drowned it out. A burst of Essence set him right, the ankle healed again, if tender.
“Well that was unpleasant.” Josh panted in an attempt to seem nonchalant. His face pale with tears streaming showed that he was not immune to the pain. “Luckily it won’t happen again.” He held up the new shield, flaunting it for the onlookers, then reached out and bound it to himself with a burst of Essence. “Just in case.” He winked at Dale.
Turning to the cleric, Josh motioned him close, “Thank you for your timely assistance, brother. Please, accept this, a token of my thanks.” He handed the man several silver coins, his portion of the day's dungeon dive.
The dumbfounded cleric stammered his thanks as his team pulled him aw
ay to begin their day in the dungeon.
“Why would you give him so much money?” Dale scoffed quietly at Josh, who was looking fondly after the retreating cleric. “That is enough to live comfortably for a month!”
“A good healer is a man you curry favor with! You see lad, there is a very important lesson to be learned here. When you are able to be generous, do so! There will always come a time when you cannot afford what you need. People will be far more likely to help you when you fall on hard times, if you are free with money in the good times.” Josh smiled a bit painfully at Dale.
“Go out of your way to be respectful to the one who brings you your food, holds your money, and most importantly, those who work to heal you. That cleric expected nothing for his service, now goes into danger with less power because of me. How could I do less for him?”
Dale hung his head a bit, “I had not considered things that way, sorry Josh. I wasn’t trying to sound like he didn’t deserve it, I think I’ve just had a bad day and my manners have gone to trash.”
“I know, lad.” Josh had never looked so uncomfortable, including his recent bone-shattering. “You’re a good man, just… Remember that you have had some very lucky breaks, and life is still pretty hard for other people. Try to give back, people will appreciate it if they know the person they depend upon is good-hearted.”
“I’ll try. I’m going to go catch a nap before lunch, I think.”
Hans scoffed, “Smelling like a sweaty rabbit turd? How about you go bathe instead?! Nap he says! Nap indeed!”
“I need to go give my report to the Guild, and get some guards and a scribe over to this new exit.” Craig announced, already walking away from them. “The Guild needs its taxes.”
~Dale~
Roughly a month passed, with the team settling into their routines. Dale had just returned from bathing after dinner when a shout rang out, “They are going to open the portal!” Anyone not engaged in serious tasks started excitedly moving toward the stone obelisks standing proudly on the small hill. Dale decided this may be fun to join, as he had never even seen a portal before, the anger James had for him kept him away from the site they were building on.
A sonorous chant was swelling, energy like static was flashing along the paired standing stone obelisks. Dale moved into his Essence enhanced sight, trying to understand what was happening. Mana was thick in the air, though it was normally invisible to the naked eye. With the activation of his analysis ability it was readily apparent. He had thought that all Mana would look alike, like Essence did, and with a group working together like this he had expected a harmonious linking of energy as they meshed their sympathetic energy toward a single purpose. In his mind, Mana was going to be beautiful.
The reality was almost… disgusting. It was a clash of primary colors and a visionary cacophony. As one man directed his words, his chant, Dale saw it as a polka-dotted scroll that unraveled and wrapped around the stone. One woman, singing, seemed to have inky bubbles roiling from her mouth which burst in a sequence of light, filling precious gems with power. Amber had the most terrifying Mana moving away from her, the oily coloration roiling in light and impressions, unrefined chaos that the mind interposed its own images on.
Dale shuddered, looking past the Mana, instead trying to look at what they were putting Mana into. The twin obelisks stood, one exactly the same as the other, though in reverse, as they were mirror images of the other. Slowly, brightening Runescript flowed up and around each, in so many varied and opulent ways that it was nigh impossible to find where each began and the surrounding Runes stopped. Each Inscription was filled with gold that had been poured in a single sitting, leaving not a single break, weld, or splatter along the glowing lines.
Exactly the same amount of power went into each stone and they began to hum to their own song, dulling each time the Mana reached a new gem set into the patterns. At precisely the same time on each standing stone, the gem would grow nearly too bright to look at, then darken as the Mana continued up the flowing, golden pattern. The crowd was silent, completely awestruck as enough energy was accumulated into this one spot to begin to punch through the dimensional boundaries. The power became audible, snapping and hissing, the sound of a star detonating and being reborn as a furious and colossal terror of the void.
The opening expanded, a hole of pure darkness was pulled torturously to the artificial terminus represented by pure, glowing energy. The edge of the hole in the universe extended, straining to this glowing end, finally hooking like a fish taking bait. That is, furiously and with dark intent of escape. The chanting increased, the ventablack interior shuddered before finally relinquishing to the Mages control, shimmering into a vision of another locale in the world.
Silence reigned for but a moment as the crowd tried to comprehend what they had just witnessed, some hardened men shaking in terror, before a roar of approval tore from the throat of an astonished onlooker. Then, cheering, shouting, the men praised the makers of this wondrous relic. The exhausted Mages beamed as a festival air took hold, people rushed to enlist the services of these esteemed experts.
“I want to get to the capital of-”
“I have important-”
“Please! I haven’t seen my-”
“Get out of the way! I’m-”
The rush of noise, and soon violence, was shocking to Dale. This entire event reminded him that there was more to life than training and fighting, but also the spectacular end goal you could achieve when you had been training. It was a paradox that made him freeze up, torn between rushing back to the dungeon, or just joining the melee that was rapidly spiraling out of control, just to feel alive.
“Enough!” A familiar voice sounded, laced with absolute authority. The sound reverberated through his entire being, insisting upon instant obedience. Sixty percent of the fighting men and women stopped, their bodies no longer their own to control, while the others looked like they were moving through thick tar, their motion slowly coming to an absolute halt. Some of the weaker people passed out, their lungs unable to pull in air. All then collapsed to the ground, breathing restored to the gasping group.
“Are you animals? Are you no better than the creatures you come here to fight?!” Frank was walking toward the new portal. “I am ashamed! Ashamed of my own people! Any Guild members who started a fight, go to the clerks and pay the fee for fighting with your brothers-in-arms. Any who protected another, go collect a bonus from them.”
“Any non-Guild members, if you ever want a chance at joining the Guild, go and make amends, now. It is standard that if you have attacked a Guild member outside of self-defense, you may not join the Guild! We will pardon you this one time as the majority were from my Guild!” Frank roared furiously, face an unhealthy maroon color. “I will not tolerate this! If any do something so foolish again, their Guild fee will be raised to fifty percent of all valuables gained for a year! A third time, and they are out of the Guild, and blacklisted!”
He stared around at the quaking people, and snorted in disgust, “Why are you still here?! You have your orders! Get moving!”
People scrambled in all directions, some would have been trampled if the threat of Guild expulsion were not hanging in the air. Hans walked over to Dale, standing by as they watched the ocean of motion.
“Well that was fun.” Hans chuckled glibly.
“What did he do to them, Hans? This has been so… Messed up.” Dale shuddered. “I just want to go to bed.”
“Never seen ol’ Frankie in action, eh? Not too surprising. Not too much around here calls for the workings of an A-ranked Mage.” Hans stretched a bit as he began walking to the portal.
“He’s a Magous?” Dale’s eyes widened in shock. He had been rude to Frank on several occasions...
“Ohhh yes. You don’t get to be in charge of things if you are weak, my boy! Those Mages can get pretty scary. How their power manifests is… mind numbing.” Hans expressed in a low, dark tone.
Dale agreed with him, “I sa
w. What was all of that? Essence seems to look pretty much the same doesn’t it? Why is Mana so different?”
“Mana is… Unique to the person who uses it. It is the true name and power of something that influences reality in the way they want it to. From what I understand, when you first say a word in that… ‘Language’ for lack of a better word, your Essence becomes a concept of reality that you have uttered.”
Dale was more confused than he had been at the start of the conversation. “How then do they do different things? Don’t they have control of just one thing?”
Hans shook his head, “Something you will have to learn is that all of reality is really one, single, event. Though the concept they interpret is different for everyone, it can affect most things equally. Dangerously. It is a terrifying power to wield, I cannot even imagine what spiritual energy looks like, never ran into an S-ranked before.” Hans nearly whispered, giving a small shudder.
“What did Frank actually do though?” Dale insisted on understanding at least one piece of this talk.
“From what he told me of the Word he uses, it seems to be the basis for movement. Really hard to explain.” Hans apologetically informed him, “Think of it like this, when you move your arm, first your muscles bunch, then leap toward your target, right?”
Dale nodded affirmative.
Hans smiled, “Right, so all of that potential movement, which builds up when your muscles are getting ready to move, is the concept that Frank’s words embody. He took everyone's potential movement away.”
“Holy…” Dale was stunned at this. “Didn’t some stop instantly though?”
“Yeah, all the Guild members he outranks. So every Guild member that was in the area.” Hans glanced at Dale, “You do understand that entering the Guild, signing that document, ensures that everyone has to follow lawful orders, correct? That is what he enforced just now.”
“Wow.” Dale shook his head. “That is just the next level up from Essence? I… cannot understand what the higher rankings would be like.”