by Sarah Lin
"We've gotta get you one of these too, huh?" Danniah smiled up at him as she helped pull off one of his gauntlets. "I could never go back to taking off and putting on all that armor again. It is so much easier this way."
"It's also more secure in the case of surprise attacks," Bloodwraith said, which prompted a smile.
"Yes, that's true too." She leaned in to kiss him just briefly and Bloodwraith was reminded that though fleshly bodies had their inconveniences, they weren't entirely negative. But as Danniah pulled back and looked at the gauntlet she'd removed, she shook her head. "Wow, that horse actually crumpled the metal a little... that's a bit scary. Is your arm okay?"
"I'm too tough for it to break my arm." When he pulled off his enchanted gloves, however, he found that there was a bruise on his arm. It was only a mild pain, however, and he was more concerned about potential damage to his equipment. The Armor of the Tyrant was filled with powerful enchantments that were a significant boost to his overall strength, so he needed to keep the set intact.
After a gentle touch to his arm, Danniah headed over to the fire and began consuming all the food Meara would hand her. She needed to restore her reserves, after all. Though Bloodwraith felt a surge of hunger as well, he paused as he considered the fact that he had multiple different needs at the moment. Now that he had noticed the bruise it irritated him, so the question was how best to deal with it. A health potion would take care of it, but perhaps...
Leaving his armor behind, Bloodwraith instead walked to where Izzy's body sat. She was already regenerating and her left arm was intact again, but she remained a cheerful severed torso. Before he arrived she was watching the others eat with bright eyes, but when he got close she beamed at him.
"Hello, Da! Is your arm okay?"
"It will be fine. I just wanted to give you what I collected for you before I forgot." Bloodwraith reached into his Extra-dimensional Bag and began to pull out the skeleton corpses.
Levering her torso over to them, Izzy grabbed a femur and began to chew on it, her sharp teeth easily tearing up the bone. Though she didn't currently have a functioning digestive system, she didn't need it: her body operated off the raw power in the bodies. That was true of normal necromancy and doubly true of Izzy's "Necromancy Points", as the system termed them.
When Bloodwraith pulled out a severed leg from one of the final wights, Izzy's eyes went wide. "Ooh! Gimme, gimme!"
Had she been an undead minion he had created in the old days, Bloodwraith would have reprimanded her for such insolence. But... Izzy was his Izilthor, Great Devourer of Flesh. When he handed her the wight corpse and saw her begin tearing away strips of undead flesh eagerly, he found himself smiling fondly.
"Ugh. Izzy, do you..." From across the fire, Danniah looked like she was going to be sick. "Can you eat somewhere else?"
"Okay, Danniah!" Izzy beamed, her smile cheerful and bloody. She then lifted herself up onto her arms and awkwardly tried to shuffle around to face the other direction. Though she was strong enough to do so, she tried to carry her current meal with her and ended up off balance.
Sighing, Bloodwraith bent down to pick her up underneath her arms. He kicked a log into position and sat down on it, facing away from the fire with Izzy in his lap. After squirming into a comfortable position, she went back to consuming all the undead flesh and bones put before her.
"Da..." She looked up at him seriously, despite the fact that she was talking with her mouth full. "What were those things?"
"I don't know, Izzy. We've never seen anything like that before."
"I bit some of em, but I couldn't eat em." Her face screwed up in disgust at the memory. "Their bodies tasted wrong, so I spat them out."
Though he kept his concern off his face, Bloodwraith began examining Izzy as carefully as he could, both with his senses and via the boxes. But she appeared to be the same as she had always been and the boxes warned of nothing unusual... though they didn't quite behave when it had come to that encounter. Still, Izzy seemed as cheerful and healthy as usual, so he felt slightly reassured.
"Oh!" She caught a glimpse of the bruise on his wrist and immediately swallowed her current mouthful. "You're still hurt! Let me help."
Izzy leaned close to his forearm and her teeth snapped in the air, immediately drawing away his pain. Though Bloodwraith was still a bit uncomfortable with spending Necromancy Points on the "Consume Injuries" trait, he had to admit that it could be effective. Since that was the path Izzy wanted to follow, they'd continued to invest her points in related skills.
Soon her body began to regenerate faster and she had a lot of corpses left to consume, so Bloodwraith left her to her meal. Instead he moved to the western side of the fire, where Gharavi was split between eating and examining her bone necklace. She nibbled delicately on a piece of meat, quite at odds with the stereotypes of her people, but it was obvious that she was mostly distracted by her magical concerns.
Bloodwraith sat down beside her and grabbed a hunk of meat heating over the fire. He chewed it for a while, but Gharavi seemed entirely absorbed in her thoughts, so eventually he spoke up. "Have you uncovered anything about them?"
"Hmm?" Gharavi glanced up toward him as if just seeing him and smiled instinctively, but then frowned back at her necklace. "I'd need more encounters to be uncertain, and the remnants we took aren't putting off enough magic. I'm sure there's a source of power from outside our world, but not sure where precisely it came from."
"It's not from Raigar's world, I'm sure of it. Everything in this 'AdventureCorp' system has always been identified by the boxes."
"They also identify everything in our world, don't they? I assumed they included general perceptive capabilities."
"That's likely true, but they didn't seem to work in the previous encounter. Perhaps the boxes aren't capable of understanding other magic that works between worlds."
Gharavi shook her head slowly, her food now entirely forgotten. "A good theory, but I'm not sure it entirely fits the evidence. Your boxes identified my manipulations, after all. But though there must be another detail we're missing, I think your general idea is still correct. Whatever infected those merchants and the horse, it came from outside our world and it was designed to have some effect here."
"Infected?" The latter part of her statement was more important overall, but he had presumed as much. Her choice of "infected" made him more apprehensive.
"Right, I asked Danniah more about what happened. It seems that originally only one person in the caravan was acting unusual, but after he exploded, all of them began attacking. The most logical explanation is that the Outsider magic infected them in some way."
"Troubling." Bloodwraith paused for a time to wolf down more meat as he considered the problem. His largest concern should have been the exact magical methodology behind the effect, yet he found his mind wandering in another direction. "Is there a chance that any of us could be infected?"
"We should stay on our guard, but I don't think so. Meara doesn't think she has lasting effects and I checked Danniah carefully. But I wanted to ask you if Izzy was clear of effects, since she's not really my specialty."
"I confirmed that nothing is wrong with her." Having some sort of enemy infection that spread via unknown vectors was deeply uncomfortable, but he had no choice but to move forward until they could acquire more information. Part of him hoped that he would never again encounter a strange silver-eyed creature, but the rest of him doubted that could happen.
They sat and ate for a while, their minds going over the problem even though they knew they wouldn't solve it in one night. Once the edge was taken off his hunger, Bloodwraith reached around the fire to pick up his damaged gauntlet and examined it himself before he showed it to Gharavi.
[Gauntlets of the Tyrant
Armor: 7
Might +1, Quickness +1
Durability: 31/50
Rarity: Rare
NOTE: This item is part of a unique set.]
When the bo
x flickered in his vision, he was surprised to note that the item's "Durability" rating had dropped so much. Some of his more primitive equipment had deteriorated over the course of battles, but his heavily enchanted armor had barely been damaged. In fact, he was almost certain that it had been rated 46/50 before the battle.
Regardless, he extended the gauntlet in her direction. "Though the boxes say it's still intact, it has clearly been damaged. Can you repair it?"
"That might be difficult." Gharavi took the gauntlet from him and ran her fingers over the crumpled metal. "There's some damage to the enchantments and I can definitely repair that, but I'm no blacksmith. Since the enchantments are holding, I think the damaged shape is actually the biggest problem for you."
"I can handle that." Meara spoke from across the fire and they both turned to look at her. Though Meara had been in a speculative mood ever since the encounter, now she seemed fully present with them.
Still, he had to raise an eyebrow. "You can restore damaged metalwork? That's going rather far outside your capacity as an herb-gatherer."
"Ah, but you forget I have a skill called 'Repair' - with such a vague name, I'm pretty sure that it can operate flexibly." Meara caught the gauntlet when Gharavi tossed it to her and began to turn it over in her hands. "Yes, I should be able to restore it, though I'll let you handle the enchantment. Just give me some time."
"Why would the box gods set up such a system?"
"Your guess is as good as mine, but my guess? If the Outsiders are like Raigar, they don't want to deal with complicated details."
"Except when it comes to managing inventory and acquiring arbitrary points."
Meara's smile flashed from across the fire. "Yes, they clearly love those. But I don't think they want to go to multiple stores, they just want all their equipment repaired simply and easily. Anyway, give me time to consider the details and I should have your gauntlet as good as new."
Bloodwraith nodded, satisfied that his unique equipment wasn't in serious danger. Unfortunately, that left him with nothing to think about but the core issues before them. "Have you learned anything about them since the fight?"
"I'm afraid not." Meara stuck the gauntlet into her cloak and sighed. "I think you're both right that they come from outside the boxes, because the fragments of the system that remain inside me just don't react to them in a normal way."
"Yes, that seems to be consistent."
"Not entirely. Did you get 'Experience Points' when you defeated them?"
Abruptly Bloodwraith realized that he hadn't even received a victory notification. They had annoyed him so much for so long, it should have been a relief, yet he found himself discomforted. It had been a difficult battle, yet if he had received no reward... that would make these foes more dangerous in a completely different way. He hastily raised his personal box again and examined the relevant section.
[Level: 15
EXP: 301,376/437,400]
Bloodwraith realized with dismay that he had become reliant on the boxes to handle all such tedious numbers for him and couldn't remember his exact EXP value from before the battle. He hadn't entirely turned his brain over to the boxes, however, and he had a mind that soaked up numbers. So he was fairly certain had received a reward, yet there had been no box to declare it.
"What does that mean?" Having finished her meal, Danniah now looked at them from across the fire. "Did Bloodwraith not get any benefits from the fight?"
"I did, but they weren't announced." Bloodwraith folded his arms across his chest and scowled. "This is unacceptable."
To his surprise, Meara laughed. "You're disappointed you don't have enough boxes? Clearly, some terrible Outsider magic has taken control of our dear Bloodwraith."
"Hmph, I only want the system to display accurate information. If the power of the boxes is one of our greatest assets, then I want to take advantage of it efficiently."
Though it looked like Meara might be ready to snark at him further, Gharavi appeared more thoughtful and spoke in a soft voice. "That's evidence in the opposite direction of what we were considering earlier, pointing to the universality of the system set up within you. I'm not sure what to think of it."
Bloodwraith wasn't sure either, so he kept silent. None of the others said anything either, leaving Danniah shifting uncomfortably. "So... what do we do now?"
When no one spoke up, Bloodwraith realized that someone needed to take the lead. Despite the ways that the encounter had made him uncomfortable, their path was obvious.
"The plan doesn't change: we need to find locations where people attempted to use magic to pierce between worlds and absorb the power they left there. Our secondary goal was always to gain more information about the box gods without drawing their attention directly. Now we just need to gather information about whatever this phenomenon is as well."
That statement seemed to comfort Danniah, while Gharavi nodded at the basic logic of his plan. He left unsaid that they likely needed to gather power in order to have a chance against beings who could manipulate the world to such an extent. They all knew that... especially Meara, who had withdrawn into herself again.
"Hey!" Izzy popped up beside the fire, having regrown her body and pulled on a new robe. "Can I eat with you?"
Danniah's smile wobbled uncomfortably. "Uh, Izzy, I like you, but the way you eat..."
"No, can I try to eat your food?"
"Oh! Sure, why not?" Danniah picked up a hot piece of meat and extended it, so Izzy hopped in to grab it, then sat down between Danniah and Bloodwraith. She began munching away, going through the bone as well as the meat, but it was obvious she was making an effort not to eat too messily. Danniah examined her carefully. "Well? What do you think?"
"It tastes okay." Izzy swallowed and gave a broad smile. "It's not as tasty as corpses, but it has a nice flavor."
"That's... uh, that's good, I guess."
Since they couldn't make progress on the central mysteries facing them without more information, the five of them just relaxed and chatted for the rest of the night. Despite all the potential threats, Bloodwraith found himself relaxing in a way that he'd never been able to as a lich. Being with other people was strange and he once would have detested it, yet he found it strangely comfortable now.
Except that everything he had gained was under threat from Outsiders who wanted to manipulate his world in terrible ways. And lich or barbarian, villain or adventurer, one thing about Bloodwraith had not changed:
Those who threatened him must be destroyed.
~ ~ ~
They spent nearly a tenday traveling in search of their next ruin, and each day Bloodwraith grew less concerned about an attack and more worried about their progression overall. Before, it had taken them entire months to find another location where they could extract the necessary Outsider magic and it hadn't concerned him. Now, he became worried that there was an invisible hourglass counting down the time remaining to them.
As usual, once they got their day started, they began traveling along the little-used paths of the wastelands northeast of Manascas. His assumption had been that the unoccupied areas would be more likely to have intact ruins from the past, particularly in an area with so much atmospheric mana. It had turned out well enough and they had found several, but the dusty landscapes grew tiring quickly.
The one positive was that he could always find decent conversation with his companions. That was one thing his old life as a lich hadn't been able to provide, so he appreciated it. Currently, however, Meara was focused inward and Danniah was talking to Izzy. Wanting to leave them to their tasks, Bloodwraith sped up and moved to join Gharavi in the front of their group.
She walked carefully, her hand always touching her bone necklace in the hopes of sensing a slight hint of Outsider magic. Unfortunately, though the necklace was extremely well-crafted, it still didn't have much of a range and the feedback seemed very unclear at times.
"Nothing yet?"
"Not yet." Gharavi sighed and dropp
ed her necklace. The way she rubbed her eyes and then glanced at him suggested that she had been focusing for too long. "There's no guarantee we'd find another already, of course, but I feel as though we're obligated to find one as soon as possible now."
"Heh. I was just thinking exactly the same thing."
"Can we see about calibrating the spells again tonight? I'm concerned that they're getting off track."
"Of course." Bloodwraith glanced over at her, eyes wandering to the Extra-dimensional Bag at her waist. It wasn't as potent as his, but what he cared about was what it held... "Any progress with the severed remains?"
"Nothing at all, I'm afraid. I subjected a few pieces to tests, but they were either nonreactive or the process destroyed them. So those that remain are utterly unchanged."
"Utterly unchanged? You mean that they haven't decayed?"
Gharavi's eyes widened and her hand jammed into her bag, pulling out the jar to stare at it. "Yes, you're correct. I had been assuming... are these undead in some way? Or magically preserved?"
"You would be better able to determine if there are preservation spells, but I can confirm they aren't undead. They're alive, just..." Bloodwraith's mind didn't want to think about the magic, but his old self was too eager. He reached out to take the jar from her, observing the severed pieces of the hand. "They're stopped. As if they're separated from all normal effects."
"Oh, and that would explain why some of the spells failed! This is fascinating..." Gharavi smiled at him, but only briefly, soon submerging herself into the mental puzzle again. "It's just a working hypothesis that will require confirmation, but I think whatever happened separated the victims from part of our world. They're... out of phase, perhaps."
"Mana phasing? That's rather elaborate theory."
"A month ago, I would have told you it was just idle theory for academic wizards to amuse themselves. But this... yes, this is clearly a similar phenomenon, if not the same thing. If it wasn't potentially important to our survival, I would love to study this for its own sake."