Crystal Shards Online Omnibus 1
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+200 Favor Brookrun Village
Level up! Your Favor Level in Brookrun Village is now 3.
You gain 100,000 experience points.
You have gained a Level!
You are now Level 78!
Gilly has gained a Level!
Gilly has gained a Level!
Gilly has gained a Level!
Gilly has gained a Level!
Gilly has gained a Level!
[You may now claim Brookrun Mines.]
[Do you wish to claim? (Y/N)]
Holy crap!
“We did it!” Gilly shouts, jumping into the air.
A smile of elation breaks across my face as I focus on yes.
[You have claimed Brookrun Mines.]
And then the arrow at my feet explodes.
I lose a third of my hit points as a wave of heat engulfs me in a fireball and the ground collapses beneath me. I tumble downward into pure darkness, flipping and falling as I cry out in shock. The only thing I can hear as I plunge downward is the fading sound of Gilly’s panicked scream as she vainly calls my name.
Chapter 10: Falling
I fall endlessly, my heart racing as I scramble to grab at walls I can’t see. I use Sprint and Wall Run to try to break my fall as my feet briefly touch the mineshaft. I crash into something hard and lose another third of my hit points, pain exploding throughout my body.
Arrgh!
Light engulfs me, accompanied by the sound of breaking rock as I burst through what I think is the floor. And then I’m falling again, but I can see this time. I’m a hundred feet in the air!
The world is full of iridescent light.
I can’t make sense of anything.
My heart stops as I flip and scream, plummeting for a second time toward the floor below. Instinct takes over as I struggle to find some way to survive. I catch sight of a large, crystalline pillar close to me and target it using Charge Strike.
My body zooms toward it. My sole kunai slams into the pillar and slides through the crystalline surface as it breaks my fall. A second later, I stop, hanging off the pillar, held in place by my weapon. Thank goodness that worked!
I’m still in a daze. My heart races as my body aches. I’m disorientated.
I need to focus.
What the heck just happened?
I get my bearings and start to take in my surroundings. I’m in an enormous underground cavern. I think. The ceiling above me, as well as the floor below, is covered in a crystalline substance that sparkles and glows. In between the ceiling and floor are thick pillars of the same crystal substance. Each one looks a good thirty feet wide and a hundred feet tall. I can’t count how many of them there are. It’s like a forest of trees made of crystal. Soft light emerges from them and illuminates everything without shadow.
What is this place?
My bones ache as my HP slowly recovers from my fall. But then my hit point bar flashes and I take a point of damage. What the heck? Am I bleeding or something? Internally, perhaps? I check my damage log.
You take 354 Fire damage.
You take 312 Fall damage.
You take 1
Type unknown?
I look up and see the hole in the ceiling I just made—a patch of darkness next to the top of the column I’m hanging on to. I study the column itself next. I brace against it with my feet, making good use of my Ninja boots to take the strain off my arm. I touch the hard surface of the pillar and a strange message pops up onto my HUD.
[Node Terminal 32AF: NULL_ERROR_541]
What the heck? Okay, this is really getting weird now.
I scan my surroundings again and in the far distance, I see lumbering shadows maybe a half mile away. I can’t see what they are, but they must be huge. They’re close to half the height of a column!
Beyond them, I see the outline of something even bigger: as wide as five columns spaced apart and almost touching the ceiling. I can’t make out the shape, but it’s moving. The thought of something that large being alive drains the blood from my veins.
Closer, I see that the other figures, the ones moving about, are roughly humanoid in shape. Their arms swing in a slow gait as they stroll through the crystal forest. I count about a half dozen of them. And then my heart stops when I notice that one of them is standing still, about a hundred yards away.
And it’s staring right at me.
My blood turns to ice as the massive being studies me with its lifeless black eyes. Its face is a bone-white skull, and its body is a mass of living shadow. Its jaws come apart, revealing a gaping maw filled with multiple rows of needle-like teeth. Its throat is like a furnace, red and broiling with heat. A shriek emanates from it, the furnace reverberating with a high-pitched wail that makes me want to cover my ears.
It grows louder and louder, to the point of scrambling my brains, and then stops.
In the deafening silence, the boom of the giant’s footfall accompanies the shaking of the column as the thing comes my way. My heart is in my throat. The other ones react to it, heading toward me with wails of their own.
I’ve got to get the heck out of here!
Sweat slicks my palms as I struggle to free my kunai from the column. I glance up at the ceiling, and to my horror, I see the crystalline surface re-growing, slowly covering my exit from this nightmare place.
I pull with all my strength and manage to free my weapon just as the giant shadow-thing gets within arms’ reach. I sprint up the column’s surface, using Wall Run, crying out in terror as the opening above gets smaller and smaller. I risk a look behind and see the giant monster crash into some kind of invisible wall; a faint hexagon pattern appears as it does so.
I don’t have time to process that fact as I dive through the ceiling of the crystal cavern. My body scrapes the edges as I fly through, and I land on the floor of the mine in a heap. A few seconds later, the light disappears as the hole seals itself, leaving me in total darkness once more.
My heart is pounding. I can barely catch my breath. I’m breathing so hard it’s giving me a headache. What did I just see? What the heck were those things?
I don’t think it even showed up on my HUD. Although, admittedly, I was in too much of a panic to even focus on it. Was that an Omega? It crashed into the wall just like those sentries in the wild zone did when we first arrived. Does that mean that down there is part of the wild, too? And what was that enormous thing in the distance?
Could it have been a Builder?
Too many crazy questions plague my mind. For now, I should just be thankful I’m alive.
Oh crap! Gilly and Rembrandt must think I’m dead!
I’ve got to get back to them.
I cast Shadow Tendrils to give me some semblance of light. I’m in the bottom of a mine shaft, but looking at the walls, it appears that I should be able to climb them. But I don’t know if I have enough Stamina to make it all the way to the top using Wall Run.
I’ve got to try.
I charge at the wall and Sprint up it, vertically. I feel myself tiring as my Stamina depletes. Oh crap. I’m just about to run out when I make a desperate jab at the shaft wall with my lone kunai. Thankfully, it holds fast and I hang from it to catch my breath and replenish my Stamina. I repeat the process once more, and finally see light at the top.
I run out of the shaft and land on the floor of the Goblin Queen’s throne room gasping for breath.
“Reece!”
Gilly comes running at me with tears in her eyes. She crashes into me on the floor, sobbing. “Oh my God! I thought you were dead!”
I can barely speak as I try to catch my breath. “I’m all right, Gilly. I’m here.”
“Thank the stars, mate.” Rembrandt joins us, and I can see that he’s visibly relieved, as well. “I thought I was going to have to jump down that shaft right after you to spare me from your brother’s wrath.”
That manages to get us laughing, and relief washes over me. I’ve never been so happy to be alive and to
see my friends. Gilly presses her lips to mine in a soulful kiss that I’m totally not expecting. But I welcome it, nevertheless. When she breaks away, she buries her head in my shoulder. “Please don’t ever do that to me again. Ever.”
I can understand how she feels. The anguish of seeing her about to die during the battle nearly killed me, as well. This dying for real stuff is crazy. I don’t know if I’ll ever truly get used to it.
“I won’t lie . . .” Rembrandt crouches down to look me in the eye. “I was scared something wicked, mate. We couldn’t reach you with party chat. Or PMs. You left the party completely. I didn’t know what to think.”
Frankly, I don’t either.
“I . . . I was . . .”
I’m about to tell him what I saw, but then something makes me hold my tongue. Maybe it was that conversation we had with him earlier, about what he and my brother were really fighting for. It’s a reminder that although we’re all on the same team—I think—we’re not exactly aligned when it comes to goals.
I’m still not even certain what I saw, or what to make of it. But one thing I do know: if I tell my brother, or even Rembrandt, what I saw down there, there’s a good chance they’ll change their plans of helping Val Helena to come back here and explore. And I probably couldn’t blame them. Heck, I could have just uncovered a pathway to Citadel or something. Still, I need some time to think it through first. Or at least to talk it over with Gilly and Val Helena, alone, to see what they think.
“I’m just glad I made it back up that shaft,” I say with a forced smile. “Come on. Let’s get back to the village. And, ah . . . maybe we shouldn’t mention this to my brother, huh?”
“You mean the fact that you and Gilly both nearly died under my watch?” Rembrandt laughs as he stands to his feet. “It’ll be our little secret, mates.”
“Right!” Gilly says. “What happens in the mines stays in the mines.”
She laughs her joyous, innocent laugh. A laugh that would seem right at home back in the mines of Crystal Shards. But now, the word mine holds a much different connotation for me.
“Yeah,” I say as the images of those nightmare things come back into my head. “What happens in the mines stays in the mines.”
Chapter 11: Friend or Foe
I’m almost feeling back to normal by the time we reach Brookrun Village. During the walk back home, we go over the loot from the run and it lifts my spirits a bit. We nabbed a total of 90 Nano-Fragments from converting all the goblin corpses, and a bunch of spears and rapiers in fairly good condition. But the best were the awesome drops from the queen.
I check them out on my HUD log.
You convert the Goblin Queen’s Corpse.
You find 20 Nano-Shards.
You find a Scroll of Great Miracle.
You find a Goblin Queen’s Spell Bow.
You find a Goblin Queen’s Necklace.
It’s all Level 80 mage gear and totally fit for Gilly. I take a closer look at each one.
Scroll of Great Miracle
Teaches the Celestial Magic Spell: Great Miracle
Level 80
Revive all defeated party members and restore them to full health.
Cast Time: 15 seconds
Recast: 3 minutes
Cost: 600 TP
Goblin Queen’s Spell Bow
+20 DEX +30 MND +200 TP
Goblin Queen’s Necklace
+20 MND +100 TP
“You got some good drops, Gilly,” I say, smiling at her, and admire how great she still looks in her adventure-worn mage robes. “What level did you reach in there?”
“42,” Gilly says as we enter the village perimeter. “Pretty much halfway. But I can’t wait to try out this bow. We need to go find some place for me to level up some more. I gotta hit 80!”
I laugh at her enthusiasm. “Me, too! Still 8 levels away from max.”
“If you’re planning to use that bow, you’ll need to learn how to shoot, too, little lady,” Rembrandt says, twirling one of his pistols. “I could probably give you a hand with that.”
I’m puzzled at that one. “Can she learn a new skill like that? I don’t think bow use is normally part of a Mage class. Is it?”
Rembrandt shrugs. “This is still the real world. A lot of the game’s constraints don’t apply here like they do in the Shards. You can gain skills by doing things; you just won’t have any special abilities to back them up. Not unless you earn some extra ability slots.”
“Ability slots? What are those?”
“Once you hit 85, you can use your XP to buy them. Then you can slot in abilities from other classes you have.”
“Ah,” Gilly says. “Like cross-class abilities. That’s pretty cool.”
Pretty cool, indeed. I ponder over being able to use Power Attack as a Ninja. That would be awesome!
“I wonder if I level up Ranger and Celestial Mage, if I can unlock Arcane Archer,” Gilly says.
“That’s a class?” I ask.
She nods. “An advanced class. I guess I won’t be able to do it here, though, since I can’t switch classes.”
“That’s the main benefit of the Shards,” Rembrandt says. He waves to a few villagers as we pass by. “It’s like a prep area. A training ground for the real thing.”
I laugh. “A few days ago, I thought going up against a world boss was the highlight of all existence. Now, I’m finding out it was just the tutorial.”
Both Gilly and Rembrandt laugh at that.
We approach the village center, and I spot Wilbur seated on his bench. He waves to us as we approach. “How did things go?”
“Success,” I say and shake hands with him. “We cleared the mines.”
Wilbur gives us a smile, revealing his half-missing teeth. “That’s great news. I knew you could do it. Maybe we could send a few men down there in the morning to get things set up for production.”
[Do you wish to link Brookrun Village to Brookrun Mines? (Y/N)]
“Sounds like a plan,” I say.
[You have linked Brookrun Mines.]
[Mine administration now available in Brookrun Village.]
I see an option to assign a mine administrator. Honestly, I can think of no better person to manage the place than Gilly, but I’ve got that nasty hole to consider first. “Wilbur, there’s a dangerous shaft in the main chamber at the bottom of the mines. Could you see to sealing that up first?”
“Good call, mate,” Rembrandt says.
“I’ll see to it the men know,” Wilbur says.
“Thanks,” I say. “And have you seen our companions? Are they back from the forest yet?”
“For some time now, yes. They replenished our wood stores quite quickly. I believe they’re in the Common Hall. We’ll bring by a nice meal now that you’ve returned.”
I check the wood supply and see that Maxis and Val Helena have added over 1000 units. I absently wonder how many trees that equates to. “Thanks, Wilbur.”
“Thank you, my friends. Is there anything else?”
I ponder for a moment, and then look to Gilly and Rembrandt. “You guys go on ahead. I have to do a bit of town admin to get the mine up and running.”
“Fair enough, mate,” Rembrandt says. “Let’s go, Gills.”
I smile at the new pet name Rembrandt’s given her. He’s a pretty swell guy.
“Don’t stay too long,” Gilly says, and gives me a quick peck on the cheek.
I wait for them to depart before I turn back to Wilbur. “That shaft I mentioned. Before you seal it, can you construct a means to get safely to the bottom? A ladder, or stairs, or something?”
“Anything is possible,” Wilbur says. “Plus, we have plenty of wood now. Let me know what you decide.”
A new set of options flash upon my HUD.
Construct Ladder Access: 300 Wood, 300 labor
Construct Stair Access: 500 Wood, 500 Labor
Wow . . . more expensive than I thought. Those 1000 units o
f wood could go toward building the perimeter wall for safety. Or a lot of other things. I’m still not certain how important going down there will be, but if it comes to it, having an easy means of access, or even exit, could be crucial.
“Okay, I’ll go for the stairs,” I say, and 500 units of wood get committed as the project goes into the production queue.
“What type of ore is in those mines anyway, Wilbur?”
“When we last mined it, there was coal and iron.”
That’s a good combination. From my mining days, I know that those can be used to craft steel. I check the cost for building a forge.
Forge: 100 Wood, 200 Stone, 100 Coal, 500 labor
I set that as the next item on the to-do list. “Can you see about building a forge next, Wilbur?”
Wilbur pauses a moment. “I can, but with two big projects like this, you might want to consider hiring a foreman or two. You can have both jobs happen at the same time then.”
“Oh?”
Promote a Foreman: Requires 10 Workers, 1 Gold
I check my gold from my trade with Blacktop. I have seven coins. I hand two over to Wilbur. “Okay, make it happen, Wilbur. And thanks.”
He nods. “Thank you, young master. I look forward to seeing this village thrive again.”
“Me too, Wilbur. Me, too.”
* * *
I sprint away and catch up to Gilly and Rembrandt before they reach the Common Hall.
“That was fast,” Gilly says as I rejoin them.
I shrug with a smile. “Not like we have too many options on the build queue thus far. Besides, I’m eager to tell Val about Aiko.”
“I imagine she’s going to be pretty shocked,” Gilly says.
Although it probably pales in comparison to what I saw down in the mines, it’s still a surprising development. Whether it will change our plans any is still yet to be seen. And up to Val Helena, I suppose.