by Dakota Krout
Bob chuckled at my vehemence. “I look forward to it! I am unsure what the difference between the tiers are, but I don’t know why it matters. All are still ranked in the normal way. Also, on an unrelated note, you should keep an eye on the walking armor. They have gathered quite a kill count, though a few of them have stopped functioning.”
“More that they have a… unique way of moving during combat. I think that it will pique your interest.” Bob allowed a frightening smile to cross his face.
“Not yet, though your ritual for digging has been throwing odd things into the room that you have not been able to absorb. I’d suggest you clean that out soon, it is going to start overflowing otherwise,” Bob informed me with a grimace. “It also smells terrible.”
I looked into the makeup of this crude oil–for that is what it was–and was amazed by what I found. Every bit of it was slightly different than the rest! It was an amalgamation of concentrated life! There were plants, animal tissue, and various minerals. I poured a small amount of celestial Essence into the room to see what happened, and it was instantly sucked into the fluid! Had I found the best absorber of celestial corruption? I think so! I played with it for a bit, trying to find a way to turn it into a solid form. I was startled when I noticed something. I was wrong. Rare, I know, but it does happen. Ask my wife. I mean, my Wisp.
The oil was full of celestial Essence, yes. It absorbed more when offered Essence, correct. But, oddly, there was an issue with my earlier supposition that it was a celestial Essence gathering device. Lurking under the celestial Essence was something that should have been impossible and had been impossible for all of known history: Infernal Essence. I was looking at a source of chaos Essence! While these two were the main types of corruption present, every type of Essence was contained in this amazing solution! I tried a few experiments with it. I solidified it by adding earth corruption, creating a sticky tar. I poisoned water with it, creating a dangerous liquid that could likely kill via prolonged skin contact. For fun, I burned it. This released actual chaos Essence into the air! What could this gas do to a person? Was it poison? Would it affect their mental state? I needed to know! I needed more.
I followed the hole in the floor downward, extending my influence swiftly. I kept going and going. I was amazed by the depth of the hole; that ritual was worth every bit of Essence it drained from me! I finally found the source of the oil, a massive cavern over forty thousand feet below me! That’s twelve kilometers! Seven and a half miles! Why am I converting between Dwarven and Human standard measurements? Because I am in shock! I felt around the cavern, and as far as I could tell it stretched for miles. The crude oil was also swirling in a massive whirlpool. I was confused for a moment, until I looked for the source and found the disk of spinning Essence from the boring ritual.
Huh. It seems to have stopped digging after finding nothing solid for a while. It was a fail-safe I had built in, but I had not expected this scenario. I figured it would have stopped after finding a lake of lava. Magma. Whatever. This worked well for me right now though. I could not make this cavern a part of my dungeon yet; there was too much distance between my main area and this huge space. The hole to get down here was now a part of me, but I would need to be much more powerful to hold the entire area as my own. For now, I relaxed and allowed the flow of oil to continue.
I settled back, thinking hard. I was feeling bad for being so excited without Dani here, but I needed to get stronger in order to get her back. Quite the conundrum. With the source of Essence and corruption I had just found, it was time to start putting my plan into action. It was time to start writing Runescript.
~ Chapter Nineteen ~
“Can we go?” Dale elbowed Tom in the hip. This most recent meeting was dragging on, as various groups were trying to leverage for better deals.
“I wish to adjourn as well, but the treacherous Amazonians are speaking currently,” Tom ‘whispered’ in reply, his voice loud enough to garner nasty glances from the supremely muscular women.
“We are not treacherous! Who let this filthy brute in here anyway?” one of the Amazonians spoke loudly in response. “I think it is shedding.”
Tom reddened. “My most sincere apologies. You were not meant to hear that-”
“Well, I did! I think that recompense is-” he Amazonian was cut off by Tom’s next words.
Tom calmly finished his small speech, ignoring her interruption, “-because I was sure that you would try to find a way to twist my words like the filthy liars you are.”
The Amazonian threw herself across the table, hands grasping for Tom’s throat. “You are little better than breeding stock, you disgusting man!”
“You don’t even make my top one hundred list for potential breeding companions!” Tom laughed in her face as Dark Elves appeared to hold back the furious Amazon.
“Tom, I think it is time to go,” Dale firmly stated, standing and lifting Tom from his seat. Tom tried to resist, but much to the mirth of those around the table, Dale easily carried the huge Barbarian away. Cultivation was everything.
The Amazonian laughed spitefully as she was led back to her seat. “Hah! And he is so tiny. Like a doll.”
Dale set Tom down when they reached open air, assuming the blowing snow would at least cool the huge man down. “What the abyss was that about, Tom? That is a table representing one of the largest diplomatic deals in known history!”
Tom stood and brushed himself off unnecessarily. “You cannot trust them. Do you know what they did to get around a treaty they had made with the Kingdom of the Wolf?”
“Obviously not, Tom,” Dale spoke in a hard tone.
“They killed their own Princess!” Tom roared, slamming his Warhammer into the frozen earth. The ground shattered, throwing a huge amount of dirt and snow into the air. “She had been the one to sign the accords, and the Mana of the contract enforced all oaths! Her people moved without her knowledge, on the Queen’s orders! Her mother’s orders! As soon as they struck, the Princess withered! She died screaming as her body was ravaged by Mana! That is the honorless people you are making a deal with!”
“When was this?” Dale was shocked by the fury in Tom’s voice. Wouldn’t he have heard about this somehow?
“Four hundred years ago!” Tom spat to the side. “It has not even passed from living memory yet. It will not, so long as I, my brothers, or my father continue to survive.”
“Four hundred years…?” Dale shook his head at the vast time scale. “Why is it so meaningful to you? You are not even close to being that old.”
Tom tried to calm down, his hands shaking. “It was my mother. My father’s first wife. No, not the woman who bore me, but all of my Father’s wives are my mother. We are given the memories
of all the male children my father has, to tie us together as siblings. You know the power of memory stones. The memories become your own.”
“How many childhoods do you have in your head?” Dale was astonished by this revelation.
“Fifty,” Tom stated bluntly. “It is needed. To help us train faster, to see the folly of weakness and lethargy. You want to know why we train so hard? One of us… the happiest of us… was allowed a pampered childhood, filled with love and lavished with toys and gifts. That is the first stone we are always given. We are then given memories of how that one died, how weak he was. Then we are trained as true Northmen. Failure is allowed, but weakness is not.”
“That sounds terrible,” Dale admitted softly. “I am sad to say I do not know my companions very well.”
“You know me now.” Tom shrugged his broad arms. “I would have held my words, but I needed you to know what you are getting into. Their ruler will never sign a contract herself, just in case she decides to break it. She will sacrifice anyone, obviously even her own daughters, to attain her twisted goals.”
Dale was silent for a bit as they walked toward the tavern. “Thank you for telling me this, but I cannot restrict them entirely if I want this to work. I will keep a close eye on them, I swear to you. Why did they break their treaty?”
Tom huffed at the memory. “They killed off all of their men. By accident or design, I am uncertain. The treaty was a way for our people to be joined, slowly. Then they got sick of allowing men to have any rights whatsoever in their society, so they attacked us, trying to capture ‘breeding stock’. The only reason they failed their cowardly assault was the onset of the Great War. The necromancers seemed to focus on their front. We have never learned why. I dislike the thought, but in truth, I am grateful for necromancers.”
Hans walked out of the tavern just as they were walking up and caught the last bit of the conversation. “They have their uses. Tend to go insane though.”
“I thought they were the worst thing ever?” Dale looked between the two.
“I’d say they get… led astray. No one starts as a bad person.” A dark look crossed Hans’ face. “If you ever have the misfortune to chat up a demon, you will understand. I’ll try to get you free of them before you start killing too many people.”
“...Thanks?” Dale had a lot to think about as they went to dinner.
Later, as night was falling, Dale sprinted away from his Essence control class taught by Craig, who was eying him oddly and greedily. No matter how Dale phrased his question, Craig wouldn’t say why he was acting strangely. Not pressing the matter, Dale had decided to hurry away. He was fretting about the next round of tonight's training, as he had been told that his Moon Elf instructor had something ‘special’ for him. ‘Nervous’ could not fully explain the way Dale was feeling. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he didn’t have to wait long to find out what was awaiting him.
“Good! You are early, that should make this easier for you. Smart move.” The Moon Elf appeared with his customary abruptness. “Tonight is special because we get to see if you have made any actual progress. Tonight, we test your ability to shape Essence under pressure, as well as how devoted you are to surviving!”
Dale nodded, bracing himself for combat. “What do you want me to do?”
The Elf’s eyes twinkled as he walked towards Dale. “Isn’t it obvious? I just said it! Survive, brat.” He grabbed Dale, and threw him, hard. Dale twisted himself, preparing for the impact of landing. He was terrified as he turned and saw that he had passed the edge of the cliff face a dozen feet ago.
“What the abyss!” Dale screamed as he entered free-fall. He tried to ‘swim’ in the air, attempting to get closer to the sheer rock face he was falling past. As he got closer, he realized he was falling too fast to grab the passing rock without the potential of seriously injuring himself. He looked at the ground far below him, trying to ascertain a place he could land without dying. The chill winter was not as bad at the base of the mountain, which was moving toward him unpleasantly rapidly. This was good and bad. The milder temperature meant that ice wouldn’t be as thickly set into the earth but bad as the snow would not have deep drifts to soften his landing.
He eyed the lake, which was frozen over. If he was going to smash into it, he needed to time the use of his Essence correctly. Or he would die. At least he knew better than to let the Moon Elf ever get near him again. Dale started trying to form his Essence into a pattern, but his new, strengthened aura kept blocking his attempts to send out a Chi thread. Dale began panicking, was he about to die because his aura had gotten too strong? Because it was blocking him from using his own Essence?! In desperation, he reached into his bag, and pulled out a Core. If he was too strong externally, he needed to boost his internal reserves to match it! He crushed the Core in his hand without looking at it.
The Core had been pulled from a Wither Cat, and contained far more Essence than he had ever attempted to absorb through his gauntlet. His hand went numb as the Core shattered, and Dale was surrounded by a halo of Essence as it tried to simultaneously rush into him and escape into the environment. Dale’s eyes blazed with blue light as he formed and completed the technique he was after. Harsh screams escaped his lips as he activated the technique that had not been intended for use with water. A tower of light visible to the naked eye shot from his hand, collecting the majority of Essence from the halo around him. The bolt shot down into the ice, passing through it and detonating a dozen feet underwater. The shattering technique forced each drop of water away from any other that was near it, creating a massive cavitation bubble that shot water in the only direction it was allowed to go. Up.
A massive geyser of water, shattered ice, and somehow… steam, shot toward Dale, slamming into him and arresting his descent. He resumed falling, but now it was with multiple thousands of gallons of water. The water fell ahead of him, and with a great crash, all of the liquid slapped back into the lake. Dale was in the midst of the water as it landed, his body horrendously bruised but unbroken. Luck and cultivation had saved him, and now he was swimming madly for the surface. The water was oddly warm, most likely from all of it being agitated and forcefully moved. He burst through the surface, drawing in a lungful of life-giving air.
As he pulled himself onto land and sat, he began shaking first from reaction, then from the cold. A gust of wind reminded him that he was soaking and slowly drifting into a state of numbness. Staggering to his feet, he tried to ignore his body as it attempted to shut down from shock. Dale understood what tonight’s test was about now. It was less about ability than willpower. Did he have what it took to survive?
Dale shook himself like a dog, trying to dry his clothes before they became too icy. With a start, he realized that there was a simple solution to this problem. He cycled his Essence aggressively, then made the same motions as when he had been bathing. The water around him sprayed away in loops, and within a moment, Dale was mostly dry. His teacher’s favorite saying was ‘adversity breeds innovation’, which made sense to him for the first time.
“Nowhere to go but up.” Dale muttered, looking at the imposing hike ahead of him. He was near the base of the mountain, far from any easy path. He knew this mountain very well though, having lived here all of his life. If he climbed the sheer face there, he could cut a few hours off his trip. The climb should bring him to a trail, and from there it would just be walking. He started climbing, his enhanced body and tireless muscles allowing him to make good time. For an hour, he climbed almost vertically. Pulling himself over the edge, he stepped onto the path he had been aiming for. Dale grinned; it was good to be proven correct.
He took a few steps before a vicious roar tore the satisfied grin from his face. Dale flinched and dropped into a combat pose quickly. What was that? He saw a blurry shape beginning to rise from the snow and quietly began moving away from it. He stepped as softly as he could, making his way toward home. The form began snuffling at the air, groaning and grunting a bit. Its hea
d whipped in his direction, and a pair of reflective eyes stared right at him. Dale grimaced, preparing to fight.
The beast stepped forward, coming into view. Dale swore softly at the size of what had to be a natural Beast. As in, a minimum C-rank creature with a stable Core that grew to that rank by killing others. It looked like a cross between a rhinoceros and a bear, a Bearocerous? A Rhinobear? Its paws were large and seemed designed to keep its bulk out of deep snow, and it was heavily furred. Tiny eyes peered at Dale’s still form, and a large double horn on its snout rose above dangerously sharp teeth.
“What are you doing here?” Dale whispered to himself. The Beast pawed at the ground and bellowed, charging at him. Dale knew that he had no chance of beating this creature in a stand-up fight, so he did the thing anyone trying to survive would. He turned and ran. “Abyss, abyss, abyss!” He called over and over like a mantra as he poured on the speed. The Bearocerous was gaining ground, obviously better suited to the drifts of snow that were becoming larger and harder to traverse.
Just before the charging Beast could catch up, Dale remembered that he was not the same as he had been years ago. He was so used to relying on his physical form at this point that he had trouble adapting to situations that called for something more. He activated his earthen movement technique and suddenly shot forward on a wave of earth. The Beast behind him roared in frustration but slowed and turned around after ensuring the puny human was out of its territory. It chuffed and growled, but Dale was safe from this threat.
Dale rode his minor earth ability for a few minutes, covering ground as fast as a horse could sprint. A break was needed between uses of this ability; he was not used to using it in a continuous fashion. Riding along the wall of the cliffs, he was able to avoid a half-dozen Beasts that were wandering the mountain. Those creatures weren’t native to this area; why were they here? An hour of pure running and hiding later, the newly rebuilt wall of his town appeared over the horizon, and his heart soared as he rushed to the gate. A few minutes after being admitted to the town, Dale approached his training ground and spotted the Moon Elf patiently waiting for him.