by Trey Myr
"Miss Bradshaw, it says here you're an Elementalist, with Firebolt as your primary skill and something called 'Chromatic Storm' for aoe, that right?"
"Yes ma'am," Lucy nodded.
"I am familiar with multiple version of the Storm skill, but chromatic is most certainly not one of them. You will give me any relevant details about this skill so I can know how to utilize you."
"Ma'am, Chromatic Storm is similar to the other Storm spells. It's a tier two skill, has a ranged AoE, and can be maintained as long as I have the mana. The main difference is that it deals damage based on the target's weakness. As far as I can tell, it can deal damage in any of the four basic elements."
The arms master tilted her insectile face to the left regarding Lucy with her unblinking multifaceted eyes. "That is a very powerful skill for tier two. Is it an extremely rare drop, or something my other armsmen can use?"
"It's a combo, and Dr. Bjørnson knows how to get it, but…"
"It's a secret and she'll tell the rest of us when she decides to," the mantis-kin said sourly. "Naturally."
Putting down Lucy's information sheet, she picked up Ed's, and skimmed it for a minute, and then turned her cold gaze on him. "Mister Fergusson. A Summoner, of all things, and everything other than Lightning Field is marked as classified, even from me. I want you to know that the only reason I am even contemplating accepting this is that I'm told you will be permanently assigned to Mistress Ingrid's Labyrinth party, and are therefore not really my problem."
"Erm, I can definitely understand that, ma'am."
She kept her eyes on him for another minute, and then seeing that he had nothing more to say she placed the sheets in a folder marked 'Ingrid Bjørnson', which she then put in one of the drawers in her desk. "Very well then. Ordinarily, armsmen of House Bjørnson, are expected to serve one shift every three days on guard duty, and the rest of the time they are free to delve or rest as they see fit. As you are both permanently attached to Mistress Ingrid, you will not be on guard duty, and therefore I will not bore you with details regarding payment for active duty, but you will be expected to defend the House in cases of emergency. You must remember at all times that you are now representing the House, and must behave accordingly. I will not tolerate slovenly armsmen, even irregulars like the two of you. As armsmen, you have free access to the house quartermaster, who will pay you better rates than the bazaar merchants for anything you find in the Labyrinth, and will sell you equipment, consumables and Shards at twenty percent lower than market rates, as well as access to the House healers. Do you have any questions?"
"No ma'am," Ed and Lucy said in unison.
"Very well. One last thing before I release you. What you are about to hear is a House secret, and is not to be told to any outsider. House Bjørnson maintains a permanent presence in floor eleven of the Labyrinth. We have a fort connected to the Arctology by a portal, and a detachment of armsmen guarding it at all times. As you can probably expect, the fort is regularly attacked by Labyrinth denizens. Most of the time, the armsmen on watch can repel the attackers readily, but on occasion an attacking force is large enough to require reinforcements. I expect that the two of you will do your utmost to gain access to floor eleven as soon as possible so you can assist in the defense of the fort when necessary. Is that understood?"
"Wait, a permanent fort in the Labyrinth? How does that even work?" Lucy asked eagerly.
"We still don't know if the Labyrinth constantly creates and destroys areas, or if it's just that vast that we can't find the same location twice. But either way, if there's at least one person inside, the area still exists. And if that person carries a beacon, we can open a portal to it and get more people to the same location."
"And do the other Families have forts like this?"
"I'd bet my Shards on it, but we have no idea where, and with the Labyrinth enforcing a five person per location rule, there's not even a chance that we'd stumble on it without access to the proper beacon. Be that as it may, we are done here. My aide will give you your room assignments. Dismissed."
Chapter 10:
Back to the Swamp
Ingrid's shout rang out in the low ceilinged goldmine, causing the four dwarven miners and their foreman to shout back at her in rage and charge her, swinging heavy picks at the heavily armored hobgoblin. She caught three of the strikes with her large shield and parried the fourth with the short spear held in her right arm. The last pick struck her armored shoulder, clanging loudly but doing little actual damage.
A spotted cat-kin pounced on the enraged dwarf from behind, striking rapidly with two crude daggers, barely piercing through the heavy leathers protecting the stocky miner, but still delivering a nasty electrical shock from Ed's Lightning Field Shard, and quickly jumped away before the expected retaliation. A green bolt of acid appeared from the disoriented dwarf's left flank, the magical projectile splattering over his face.
Acid Bolt
Tier 0
Level 1
15/100
Shoots a bolt of acid at a single enemy within 10 meters of the caster, dealing 1-6 damage on impact
Mana cost: 2/bolt
A sixth dwarf charged at the wounded miner, swinging a large wooden mallet and hitting him squarely on his helmeted head, delivering another dose of lightning. Finally supplied with a more or less stationary target, the miner swung his pick, hitting the hammer-wielding dwarf's arm, but green light almost instantly covered the wound, and it closed as quickly as it opened, and another attack by the dagger-wielding cat-kin finished off the nearly dead dwarf.
"I never thought I'd say this inside the Labyrinth, but this delve is like a metal circle around a Japanese quarterstaff."
Standing behind Ingrid's broad back, Ed and Lucy watched the battle without interfering. The party was fighting in the third floor of the Labyrinth, and the three could end the fight in a matter of seconds, but instead let Ingrid hold the enemies while Ed's new summons slowly wore them down. The goal for this delve was to level up the new Shards, and if the three killed the enemies themselves, the essence gained by the far weaker summons would be greatly reduced.
This was the second group of dwarves the party encountered, and the summons were so far managing to kill them off at a decent pace. Ed hoped that by the end of the day his new nymph would Seal her Cure Lesser Wounds Shard, and his dwarf and cat-kin would reach level three in their classes, enabling them to Slice another Shard. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the fox-kin, who was reduced to gaining essence at a quarter of the normal speed due to the breach condition it gained when it Sliced the Acid Bolt Shard.
The plan was to farm the third and fourth floors of the Labyrinth for a couple of days, enough for the new Shards to hit tier one of their classes, and then attempt the fifth floor again.
"I honestly have no idea what you're trying to say," Ed answered as his summons methodically killed another dwarven miner.
"I mean that it is bō-ring!" Lucy smiled at her favorite straight man.
"I think we need to get you out of the Arctology. Old Man Bjørnson is starting to rub off on you."
"Ugh. That is not the Bjørnson I want rubbing me," Lucy made an exaggerated disgusted face, causing Ed to groan at her antics.
"Hey, don't blame me. You can't expect me to ignore such a perfect straight line!"
"I'm glad you two are having fun," Ingrid walked over to them, the last of the dwarven miners having fallen to Ed's summons, "but you're somewhat distracting, and I need to concentrate to manage our enemies long enough for the summons to kill them."
"We have to pass the time somehow," Lucy said. "At least you have something to do here, and you and Ed are gaining at least some essence. I'm just watching."
Ingrid dismissed her helmet and gave Lucy a short kiss. "We'll make it up for you when we get back to the Arctology Luce."
"I'll hold you two to that promise."
The three quickly looted the bodies, finding that the foreman had a steel pick of a
decent enough quality to be worth carrying and a small sack containing mined rocks embedded with small clear crystals. Found in every floor of the Labyrinth, the crystals were charged with essence, which could be extracted and refined by alchemists. They were also one of the primary resources used by the tinker line of classes to create their magitech equipment.
"This is going to get really heavy, really fast." Ed said as he added the sack to the one they found on their first encounter of the day.
"Worth it though," Ingrid said as she set off towards the next part of the mine. "We're using those at a frightening speed, and the quartermaster always pays better for them than for other essence drops."
It took them three more hours to clear the floor, and Lucy had to join in the battle against the boss, since the dwarven shift manager was wearing heavy leather armor, and seemed to shrug off the summons' attacks with ease. Loaded down with sacks of crystal-bearing rocks, the three left the Labyrinth and headed to the Arctology to unload their loot and grab some lunch.
Unseen, the door leading out of the Labyrinth opened again behind them, then closed again a few seconds later.
The second run through floor three went without any hitches. The party found themselves in a forest, fighting a combination of elven rangers and their trained wolves. The lightly armored enemies were much easier for the cat-kin and dwarf to hurt, especially after their Classshards reached level three, enabling Ed to Slice them with tier one Sharpness and Impact Shards, respectively.
Impact
Tier 1
Level 1
0/1000 essence0
Passive skill
+2 damage to all crushing attacks
Once resummoned, the dwarf was sporting a high quality steel warhammer, and the cat-kin was wielding a couple of wicked looking long daggers, and were doing far more damage with each hit.
The boss, an elven druid guarded by a group of rangers and wolves, had an entangling spell that she used to hold the party in place, but once Lucy and the kobold took her down, the vines holding the party were dispelled, and the rest of the fight went smoothly.
The day after, the party was fighting slimes in the fourth level of the Labyrinth. The physically resistant slimes would have been an issue for the dwarf and cat-kin to handle, but with Ed's Lightning Field active, the slimes weren't any harder to kill than the previous day's wolves.
About halfway through the floor, a blue message screen appeared in front of Ed.
Your Phantasmal Spinner Shard has leveled up!
+2 Intelligence
+1 Living Phantasm
"Luce, my spinner class just leveled," Ed said as soon as the fight was over. "And the kobold has zero open Shards. If you really want to become a living phantasm, now's a good time."
Lucy grabbed the back of Ed's head, gave him a deep kiss, and stepped back, spreading her arms and saying "hit me!"
Ed reached for his kobold, and it quickly turned into a ball of blue light and then reformed into a large icy blue Shard. "Are you absolutely sure about this?" Ed asked Lucy.
Instead of answering, Lucy grabbed the Shard, placing its tip in the middle of her chest, and immediately pushed it in. Ice blue scales started to spread over Lucy's brown skin, covering her shoulders and upper arms, stopping just before her elbow. More scales spread over the sides of her neck, tracing her cheeks and framing her face, and two small horns sprouted from just below her ears, sweeping backwards. It was impossible to see if any scales appeared below her shoulders, since the mages robe she wore covered her down to her ankles, but the robe rose up at her lower back, indicating the presence of a short, thick tail.
Lucy Bradshaw
Race
Kobold
Class
Sorcerer
Elementalist
Shards
2/2 (6)
Strength
4
Dexterity
5
Wisdom
11
Constitution
5
Agility
6
Intelligence
15
HP
7
Mana
77
HP regen
0.2/hour
Mana regen
57/hour
Shard
Level
Essence
Living Phantasm
NA
Sealed
Kobold
5
Closed
Sorcerer
Mage Armor
5
5
Closed
Closed
Elementalist
Manaflow
5
2
Sealed
1300/2000
Flameweaver
2
400/6000
Icebolt
5
Sealed
Firebolt
5
Sealed
Chromatic Storm
1
100/10000
A gasp from the walls of the cavern distracted Ed from Lucy's status screen, which appeared in front of him as soon as the transformation was complete. "Did you two hear that?"
"Oooh, what a rush," Lucy moaned, stretching and shaking her arms to get used to her new body. "Hear what?"
"I thought I heard someone gasp, from over that wall," Ed pointed.
"Sorry love, I think a storm giant blacksmith could have forged a sword a meter away from me and I wouldn't have heard it while transforming."
"Love?" Ingrid raised her brow at her. "I don't think I've ever heard you refer to anyone like that."
"Did I say that?" Lucy closed her eyes in concentration for a minute. "I think the kobold is dragon enough to get possessive about the two of you."
"We are going to have a long talk about this when we're back in the Arctology," Ed interrupted, "but right now we need to find out who or what made that sound."
"Mmm. I love it when you get bossy," Lucy said, giving Ed's cheek a light lick from a tongue that was much longer and more prehensile then it was that morning. She then went over to the walls of the cave, looking for anything that might have made a sound.
The three spent half an hour looking around the cave, but eventually had to admit defeat. If there was anything in the cave with them, it was now long gone.
The fifth floor felt almost anticlimactic to Ed. Ingrid's spear pierced scales, flesh and bones unimpeded, each strike running a lizardman through with ease. The Lightning Field Ed imbued her with seemed almost like overkill against the water-aligned enemies, and what return blows they could land she barely felt against her heavy armor. Next to Ingrid, and taking on one lizardman at a time, the dwarf swung his hammer, crushing limbs and shocking the monsters, his new Stoneskin Shard mitigating the damage enough for the nymph to heal him easily. The cat-kin worked in tandem with the dwarf, striking the lizardmen from behind as it was focused on the Hammerman. The three melee attackers were good enough at their job that they needed no aid from the ranged members of the party, leaving them free to deal with the blowgun wielding hunters.
Acid Bolts cast by the fox-kin peppered the lizardmen hunters, alongside lightning charged bolts from Ed's crossbow, and precisely fired arrows from the newest addition to the party.
It turned out that Ed was wrong about how his Conjure Phantasm skill worked, and as soon as he had five different phantasms, the Phantasmal Worker disappeared from his summon list, leaving him unable to create more. With the phantasmal kobold now merged into Lucy, however, Ed had a free spot for a new phantasm, and Ingrid's tusked smile as she came back from the quartermaster the day before was wide enough to terrify small armies. "I've got a small surprise for you two!" She said enthusiastically while the three were waiting in her rooms for lunch to arrive.
"A surprise?" Lucy asked, "I thought you were just going to get Elf and Bowman Shards."
"That was the plan, but one of my cousins had a lucky drop in floor t
wenty, which she brought to the quartermaster at the same time I got there."
"It's not like you to spontaneously change plans like that," Ed pointed out. "What was so good you just had to switch?"
Ingrid handed Ed a copper colored Shard, her smile growing even wider.
"What is this?" Ed said as he read the information screen for the new Shard. "I've never heard of this Raceshard."
Clockwork Automaton
Tier 0
Level 1
0/500 essence
This artificial humanoid being is made from a bewildering array of cogs, flanges and pistons. The clockwork automaton excels at everything requiring exacting precision.
Clockwork precision: eliminates the luck factor from all precision based actions.
"Yeah, it only drops for high tier Tinkers," Ingrid told him. "Which mostly mean that it only drops for House Bjørnson, since very few outsiders use Tinker."
"If it's so rare, why didn't your cousin use it?"
"Well, Cousin Astrid is already a gnome, so she can't use it herself. And most people don't like to use them. It's the same issue with constructs and undead, they dampen your emotions too much for most people."
"And you think it'll work better than an elf for our ranged weapon summon? It doesn't seem to have any stat bonuses." Lucy asked curiously.
"Yeah. It'll get less dexterity than an elf, but the unique buff makes up for it for a ranged attacker."
An arrow whistled by next to Ed, flying with uncanny precision into a lizardman hunter's eye, scoring an instant critical hit. The whir of spinning cogs sounded as the gleaming bronze and copper figure next to him slowly pulled an arrow out of its never-ending quiver, placed it methodically on the string of its bow, and pulled it back, sending another precise shot into another lizardman's eye.