The Land: Catacombs (Chaos Seeds Book 4)

by Aleron Kong

  “You just can’t stay out of trouble, can you?” Sion asked. He walked over to the aberration’s mutilated body as he spoke. “It looks like you won, though.”

  Richter shrugged as if his victory had been no big deal. “Some muthafuckas always try to ice skate uphill.” Futen floated up and hovered above his Master. Alma flew up into the cave and settled on his shoulders. She licked a clean section of his face in affection but then nipped his ear hard enough to draw a drop of blood. When he recoiled, she spoke in his head to make sure that he had received the message.

  *Where have you been?* she thought at him with consternation. *You stay with me! I keep you safe!*

  Richter chuckled at his protective little familiar. *You do know that I am the master here, right?*

  Alma just sniffed at him and tightened the grip her tail had on his arm. The message was clear. Master or not, she was going to be watching him closely for the next little while. Knowing the futility of arguing with self-righteous women, he just smiled again. Richter looked over at his captain and said, “Terrod!”

  “Yes, Lord Richter,” the man replied with his fist clapped to his heart. The other men followed suit. “I am so sorry about the danger you were just in. From now on you will have a guard with you at all times. I will need you to let me know if you plan to do any more exploring. Then I will…”

  “Hey,” Richter said loudly. He could just see his future. If Terrod had his way, Richter would be Lo-jacked. “We live in a dangerous world. Shit happens. I appreciate your concern, but I won’t be coddled. I am in charge here and you do what I say. Capish?”

  Terrod looked somewhat confused by the last word, but Richter’s general meaning was clear enough. Seeing the steely determination in his liege’s eye, he dropped the issue, but not his salute. “I understand, my lord.”

  Richter relaxed. “Good. Now don’t worry about what just happened in here. Let’s focus on what we need to happen now. Start searching the cavern with your men. No one goes out alone though. Teams of five. If anyone encounters a hostile, come back here and we tackle it together.”

  Terrod nodded and started snapping orders. He took charge of one group and Caulder took over the other. It worked out well because there were two main exits from the entrance cavern they were in, a small one on the right and one on the left that led downward slightly. Richter took a couple of minutes to make two more mist lights and gave one to each group. He also ordered Futen to move around the caverns and make enough mist lights to illuminate the entire system. The two parties and the remnant moved off into the side caverns while Richter and Sion examined the remains of the aberration.

  In the mist light, several components of the slaughtered monster caught his eye.

  You have found: Tentacle of the Dark Aberration. Centuries of Dark magic have coursed through this beast until its flesh is almost pure Element. The concentrated Dark magic can be distilled from its flesh. You feel that it could make a potion to greatly increase the strength of Dark spells for a short time. It could also be added to certain items to add Dark damage or defense. Only experimentation will tell for sure.

  They were able to recover fourteen complete lengths of those, each ten to fifteen feet long. The rest were badly charred or chopped into bits.

  You have found: Flesh of the Dark Aberration…

  The description was the same as the tentacles. Richter was only able to find sixteen pieces large enough to register as “Flesh.” The rest of the mutilated carcass didn’t provide a prompt.

  You have found: Blood of the Dark Aberration. You feel that this could be a component of a Potion of Dark Resistance or a Dark poison. It could also be used to hide from means of detection reliant on Dark Power.

  There was more than enough to be found in puddles around the body. The chunks of flesh and the tentacles still dripped blood as well. Richter filled several dozen vials and resolved to collect more later. He stopped when he found a black gem shining dully in the light.

  You have found: Dark Gem. This is a Quest item.

  You have unlocked a Secret Quest: Who Will You Be II? Hundreds, if not thousands, died in the experiments that created the dark aberration. Some gave more than their lives, however. Their very souls were trapped by the energies unleashed. The prison for one of these souls is the Dark Gem that you hold. Find nineteen more and take them to a Light master if you wish to free these souls. If you do not, these Dark Gems can be converted into filled special-level soul stones. Do you accept this quest? Yes or No? Reward: Unknown.

  Richter’s mind was spinning by the time he finished reading the prompt. Secret quest? And he was on part two? What had been part one? He looked at the small jewel in his hand. The Dark Gem looked like a shard of obsidian about four inches long and as big around as his thumb at one end. The other end tapered to a dull point, and it had four flat smooth sides. It was amazing to think that this thing could become a special-level stone. According to the quest prompt, there were nineteen more!

  He told Sion what the prompt had said, and they started searching the rest of the blood and flesh. They quickly found five more. One of the search teams came back while they were searching. Caulder and the other men looked with revulsion at the sprite and their chaos seed Lord rooting around in the foul smelling black blood and flesh, but that revulsion turned to dread once Richter gave them an order to help. The men just stood there until Caulder snapped some orders of his own.

  “You hear the lord. Get your asses over there and find those gems. What? Do you think you’re too good to get in the muck? I swear to the banished gods, the last person over there will clean out the latrines with their hands! Move your asses!”

  The soldiers lost their reticence and dove into the task with gusto. Whatever reservations Richter might have had about Caulder disappeared at that moment. The sergeant kept strict discipline. Richter knew that his people would need that if they were ever going to transition from a militia into a true army. The soldiers took out knives and started inspecting the pieces of the aberration. More than a few retched, and one actively started vomiting when he reached a hand inside a body cavity, but they still did what was required. Before Terrod’s group returned, Richter had all twenty crystals in front of him. Seeing as how the soldiers were already soiled, Richter took out several hundred empty vials and had them start collecting blood. A simple “You heard him,” from Caulder got them moving again. Richter asked the sergeant if he had found anything while searching the caves, but the answer was a succinct “No.” When he saw that Richter didn’t have any follow-up questions, Caulder stooped down to help his men.

  As the guards worked, Richter examined the notifications that had appeared and been auto-minimized since he had been attacked.

  You have trapped the soul of a Dark Aberration! Soul level: Special.

  Richter couldn’t keep a smile from creeping onto his face. He didn’t let himself get too distracted by his new swag, though, and kept going through the notifications.

  Congratulations! You have reached subskill level 5 in Focus. Zoom increased by 0.1x.

  Congratulations! You have reached skill level 7 in Small Blades. +2% attack speed. +2% bonus to damage.

  Congratulations! You have reached skill level 8 in Small Blades. +2% attack speed. +2% bonus to damage.

  Congratulations! You have reached skill level 11 in Light Armor. +2% to defense of all light armor.

  Congratulations! You have reached skill level 7 in Dual Casting. The spell power of a dual casting is doubled at skill level 1. Advancing in this skill will increase this bonus by 2% per skill level. At this level, total spell power increased by 228%. Mana cost of dual casting a spell increases used spell points by 300% (Cost decreased by 4x skill level). At this level, mana drain increases by 272%. Chance of spell miscast decreased by increasing this skill. This number is affected directly by spell level and caster’s proficiency in that branch of magic.

  Congratulations! You have reached skill level 7 in Fire Magic. New spells are now
available.

  Congratulations! You have reached skill level 8 in Fire Magic. New spells are now available.

  Richter cycled through those prompts quickly and found what he had been looking for.

  You have unlocked a Secret Quest: Who Will You Be I? You have found a cavern that was once a sight of sacrifice. Countless lives were extinguished in these dark caverns, far from the light or any hope of escape. The pain and magic unleashed here created a Dark Aberration. Trapped within it are the crystallized souls of some of these sacrificed men, women, and children. Kill the aberration to find the Dark Gems that contain these souls. Reward: Unknown. Do you accept? Yes or No?

  Richter had never finished a quest before he had accepted it. He wasn’t sure exactly what would happen, but he chose “Yes” anyway.

  You have completed the Secret Quest: Who Will You Be I? You have slain the dark aberration.

  Reward: 25,000 (base 20,000) experience points.

  He smiled. Richter was glad that he hadn’t missed out on so much experience. Now the question was what to do with the second part of the quest. Of course he wanted to help the unfortunate souls that had been trapped for so long, but he’d have to give up TWENTY special-level soul stones as well. He could make three full sets of highly enchanted armor and weapons with them! While his elementum sword was wonderful, the potential damage could have been so much higher if Krom had had a special soul stone to work with.

  Richter stared at the treasure in front of him, more than tempted to take the money and run. He could rationalize that using the soul stones could save the people that were still living here in the village. After all, it wasn’t like he could bring back the people that were killed in the Dark experiments that had made the aberration. What was done was done, right?

  Richter stared at the gems so long that Sion asked him if he was alright. Richter shrugged the question off and kept pondering the decision he had to make. Did he owe anything to these people? Despite the fact that he was the Master of the Mist Village now, he wasn’t responsible for the actions of previous Masters, right? Richter played several arguments through his mind, but the whole time a part of him knew what he would choose… He had to help these people or what was left of them anyway. He chose “Yes” for the second quest.

  Richter placed all twenty Dark Gems in his Bag. He looked at Sion and said, “Sorry. Just had a decision to make.

  “And what did you decide?”

  “I decided to be the good guy,” he replied.

  The sprite nodded. His eyes grew slightly hooded and distant as he responded, “I know that can be a hard choice to make sometimes.” Then Sion’s expression changed. His eyes unfocused and in a surprised voice, he said, “I received a quest as well. It says that I am supposed to bring these twenty crystals to my mother.”

  Richter looked at him with surprise of his own. Sion just happened to get a quest that coincided with his own? It couldn’t be a coincidence. The only thing he could think of was that their Companion status was coming into play again. Being a Companion seemed to mean absolutely nothing most of the time. When they had first been tied together, Sion hadn’t even liked him, so it didn’t necessarily mean that you’d have a best friend for life. At other times, though, it seemed to be vital. If the Universe would give them complementary quests, what else could their Companion bond mean?

  “Should I accept it?” Sion asked hesitantly. Richter realized that he hadn’t actually told `Sion what his own quest was. He clapped his friend on the shoulder and filled him in on the complementary nature of their tasks. Sion smiled in understanding and accepted his own quest. Right afterward, Terrod walked up. His group had returned while the two friends had been talking. The guards that had followed the captain were good-naturedly making fun of the soiled appearance of Caulder’s group. The responses were predictably vulgar.

  “My lord,” Terrod said, “we found something.”

  “What is it?” Richter asked.

  “It would be easier just to show you. It isn’t far.”

  Richter nodded. Wanting to be fair, he ordered the soldiers in Terrod’s group to carry the tentacles and aberration flesh outside and to collect more blood in vials. He chuckled internally at their small groans of disgust. He had learned long ago, though, that what truly divided a community wasn’t crappy treatment. It was unequal treatment. As long as everyone had to wade through the same shit together, they’d grumble, but they’d do it and laugh together as they cleaned off later. The soldiers in Caulder’s group came along as escort to see what Terrod had found.

  Richter’s group moved along, their way illuminated by the mist lights the captain and sergeant still held. Alma continued to snuggle on his shoulders. Terrod led him through a series of interlocking caves until they arrived at a particularly large one. Water flowed down from the ceiling in a small waterfall in a corner. It fell into a small pool on the floor that Richter realized must drain off somewhere in its bottom. In Futen’s light, Richter could see that this cave was formed of marbled quartz, and not simple grey stone like the other caves. The walls sparkled beautifully. They got barely a glance from Richter, though, because what was in the floor was infinitely more interesting.

  An intricate design had been carved a foot deep into the stone. It appeared each groove had been filled with glass. Not the fragile silicon substance that you would see in windows, but instead the impossibly hard material that certain weapons and armor were made from. There were two main symbols with small dots and squiggles coming off of them, and surrounding them was a ring of much smaller symbols. The first large symbol looked like a triangle with two circles above it. It lay inside of a second symbol that looked like a square with concave sides. Richter recognized the center symbol as the representation for “Dark Power” from his book of lore. He could only imagine that this was the seal that the aberration had wanted him to unlock.

  The men with him spread out around the seal, wary of crossing over it. He was about to walk closer to the seal when he heard one of the soldiers exclaim, “It’s a rune!”

  Richter quickly looked over and saw that the speaker was a gnome. A quick use of Analyze showed that the woman was an arcane gnome. “What did you say, Biruya?”

  The short woman looked around, clearly not having intended to draw her liege’s attention. He nodded encouragingly at her, and she spoke up.

  “I said it looks like a rune, my lord.”

  “Why does that surprise you?” he asked. “I’ve seen plenty of signs and writing since coming to The Land.”

  Biruya shook her head. “A rune is no mere form of writing, my lord. It is a spell made solid. It is magic given permanence by the spell form carved into the rock and powered by a soul stone. Only a few in the River Peninsula know any rune magic these days. I only recognized it because one of the focuses of my parents’ research was lost magic. I remember my father lamenting the lack of information about runic magic.”

  Richter’s face adopted a slightly confused expression. “This doesn’t seem complicated, though. That symbol”—he pointed to the triangle—“represents Dark magic. I recognize it from an introductory Lore book. The other one looks like it’s there to contain the Dark magic symbol. If I can discern that knowing almost nothing, how could rune magic be completely lost?”

  “It is not completely lost, Lord Richter. It is known that royal builders know some of the minor runes for durability. That is why the walls of the royal palace have such impossibly high hit points. I also agree that the basic function of this particular rune is fairly easy to surmise, but that doesn’t mean we could recreate it. All of those flourishes and marks are not for show, my lord, they are integral to the workings of the rune. I also have no idea what the outer ring of symbols mean. If there is one thing I remember from listening to my parents, it is that runic magic is exact. Everything you see here has a purpose, and removing any one would have a consequence. The material the runes are made or carved from, the size of the rune, even the depth of the etching in the
floor would affect the final spell. For this specific rune, the exact curvature of the square around the triangle would be important as would all of the flourishes that we can see. Many factors would alter the potency of the rune and countless more would render it completely useless.”

  Richter nodded in understanding. If rune magic required that level of detail, he could see why it might be hard to learn how to use it. “Is there anything else you can tell me about it?

  “I remember that every rune is powered by a soul stone. I can also tell you that the fact that this rune is made of two different types of material is beyond anything I ever heard my mother and father discuss.”

  “If you studied it, could you figure out more?” he asked excitedly.

  She looked uncertain. “My parents were the real scholars, my lord. I don’t think I could understand it.” His ardor waned a bit, but then she added, “Maybe if you found someone who understood basic spell theory, then we could learn more.”

  You have unlocked a new field of study: Basic Spell Theory.

  You have become aware of a new field of study: Runic Magic, but have not yet discovered the prerequisites for this branch of study.

  So an insanely powerful magic rune made with knowledge that was now lost to time… Richter was glad that he had been able to slay the dark aberration. Seeing what lengths had been taken to contain it, he would never have let it out. Which meant he would have most likely been tortured and worse. Richter shuddered remembering the tentacle that had wormed its way inside of his pant leg.

  Shaking himself loose from such horrible thoughts, he thanked the gnome guard for her help. He also asked her to speak with Randolphus later about the rat problem. She clapped her fist to her heart and told him that she would seek out the chamberlain soon. Richter thanked her again and then stepped forward onto the rune. The glass tracery began to glow as if it recognized him. In the center was a glass circle like on the treasury door. He bent down and aligned the circle with his Master of the Mist Village Mark. A prompt appeared.