by A F Kay
“It’s called Consecration, and it doubles the weapon’s damage. Quadruples it against creatures that are dark or death type,” Hamma said.
“Nice,” Ruwen said.
Hamma leaned the staff against her shoulder, crossed her arms over her chest, and chanted a short prayer. A moment later, a white column of light appeared beside Hamma. It was as thick as Ruwen’s leg and around five feet tall. It hovered silently, and Ruwen figured that must be the Light Guardian ability Hamma had described.
Now that they were about to start, Ruwen didn’t want to put off assigning his last spell point. His own recent experiences, combined with what Big D had said, convinced him he needed to add the healing spell. He quickly pulled out his Worker textbook to look at the spell details and memorize the symbol.
“Reading? Seriously?” Sift asked.
“I just need a second,” Ruwen said.
Ruwen quickly found Massage. The spell was Mana efficient, especially for a non-healer Class, but it was limited by the long duration of the spell and the contact requirement for casting. On the other hand, from what Big D said, no other Classes but Order even had a heal at this level. That alone made it really valuable.
Spell: Massage
Level: 1
Class: Worker
Effect: Heals 2 Health per second for the duration of the spell.
Cost: 30 Mana
Type: Heal Over Time
Casting Time: 2 Seconds
Duration: 30 Seconds
Restriction: Physical contact required to cast.
Description: The Worker’s touch relaxes muscles and promotes healing.
The icon had a head and torso with two hands resting on the shoulders. Ruwen focused on the icon, and a moment later, he shivered as his brain and upper spine grew cold. The sensation disappeared after a heartbeat, and Ruwen closed the book and put it back in his Inventory.
“I’m ready,” Ruwen said. “Sorry.”
Sift walked to the wall and touched his wrist to it. “Five.”
A portal appeared, and Sift stepped through it.
Ruwen looked at Hamma. “Ready?”
Hamma nodded, pressed her lips together, and followed Sift.
All their talking had wasted an hour, and his clock read 4:27 AM. The addition of Hamma made this feel more like an adventure and less like a desperate need to reach a certain level. Ruwen had also made great strides with his fighting skills and felt better prepared. For the first time, he actually looked forward to fighting. As terrible as most of his experiences had been inside Blapy, he smiled as he stepped through the portal. This time, he almost felt ready.
As soon as he exited the portal, a notification appeared, and he opened it.
Ting!
You have received the quest…
There Can Be Only One
A maze like every other,
with one tunnel after another.
Left or right, right or wrong,
the sum results in short or long.
The shortest path is what you seek,
so the route must remain unique.
The key is here, no time to waste,
now take the clues and make all haste.
Reward: 20,000 experience minus 10 experience per second
Reward: Reach the final room to find an item created just for you. Quality will be based on experience gained:
0 experience – Common
Between 1 and 999 experience – Uncommon
Between 1,000 and 5,999 experience – Fine
Between 6,000 and 8,999 experience – Rare
Between 9,000 and 13,999 experience – Special
Between 14,000 and 17,999 experience – Epic
Between 18,000 and 20,000 experience – Legendary
Accept or Decline
Twenty thousand experience! Ruwen did the math, and his excitement dissipated. Losing ten experience a second, the reward would reach zero in just over thirty-three minutes. To get the legendary item, you’d have to complete the maze in around three minutes.
“How long does it usually take you to reach the exit?” Ruwen asked,
“Maybe an hour or two?” Sift responded.
Hamma looked at Ruwen. “Did you get a quest called There Can Be Only One?” Hamma asked. When Ruwen nodded, she continued. “How long until the experience reaches zero? Math really isn’t my thing.”
“Thirty-four minutes,” Ruwen said and then turned to Sift. “Why does it take so long?”
“There are a lot of tunnels,” Sift said.
“There’s no pattern?” Ruwen asked.
Sift shrugged. “There are symbols and numbers on the walls. But it just looks like gibberish.”
“You can find the exit of a maze by always turning the same way,” Hamma said. “But that usually takes a while.”
“That’s a good idea,” Ruwen said and then faced Sift again. “You usually just wander around?”
“Yes, but my way and Hamma’s way will be dangerous,” Sift said.
“Why is that?” Ruwen asked.
“The wrong way usually leads to an ambush or trap,” Sift said. “That’s how I get to the exit. If nothing tries to kill me, I know I took the right tunnel.”
“Speaking of danger, we need to try and make a group, so it’s easier for me to target my heals,” Hamma said.
“I’ve never been in a group,” Sift said.
“It’s because you’re always down here with people in the Observer Class,” Ruwen said. “There was no benefit to grouping. And it didn’t matter since Blapy groups you automatically for experience, even if you don’t see it. I read about it in the rules. Blapy groups people to prevent power leveling. That’s why my experience was reduced before.”
Hamma nodded. “Some Class Specializations can form parties. But, we’re all too low level to have those abilities. They told me at the temple that if the dungeon is powerful enough, it can create one for you.”
“I wish to form a party with Hamma and Sift,” Ruwen said.
Ruwen’s quests all collapsed into a single entry that read Quests under his map. Below that, a round picture of Hamma appeared, and next to it was her red Health, blue Mana, and yellow Energy bars. The box containing all her information was outlined in white, and the symbol for Order, a heart, was at the top of her portrait.
Sift’s Health and Energy bars were full, but instead of a blue Mana bar, he had a white Spirit one. His information was outlined in blue, and the Fighter’s symbol, a shield with sword arms, was above his picture.
Sift laughed. “Your picture has your sour face.”
“I don’t have a sour face,” Ruwen said. “How many bars do I have?”
The last thing he needed was a conversation about his Spirit.
“The three normal ones,” Hamma said. “Did you expect something different?”
Ruwen quickly shook his head.
Hamma stared at him for a few seconds, and then her eyes unfocused as she looked at her interface. “Sift’s Mana bar is the wrong color.”
“He doesn’t have Mana, just Spirit. I think Mana is something you get once you Ascend,” Ruwen said.
Hamma nodded. She reached into her bag and handed Ruwen and Sift a cracker and then passed a jar to them. It was the same blessed food she had given them earlier.
“Save the ones I gave you for later,” Hamma said.
He consumed the food and water, and buffs appeared at the top of his vision next to the damage buff from Judgement.
Judgement: +5 damage
Blessed Unleavened Bread: +2 Stamina, +1 Strength
Blessed Spring Water: +2 Wisdom, +1 Intelligence
Sift and Ruwen nodded their thanks.
“Are we finally ready?” Sift asked.
Hamma spun her staff, and Ruwen unhooked his Baton of a Thousand Uses from his belt. Finding the knob he wanted, he unfolded his weapon.
He quickly cast Backstab and Bleed.
“I’m ready,” Ruwen said.
Sift sho
ok his head.
“A shovel?” Hamma asked.
“It’s surprisingly useful,” Ruwen said. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 32
As soon as Ruwen, Hamma, and Sift entered the maze, the walls glowed, and the experience counter ticked lower. The experience value blinked next to Ruwen’s map, and as he watched the experience drop, his heart raced. He had the sudden urge to run through the maze to try and save as much experience as he could. But he knew that would be counterproductive, as any decisions made without a plan would inevitably result in it taking longer than thirty-four minutes to find the exit.
The maze itself looked like the inside of a cave. The ceiling and walls were irregular, and only the floor seemed to have been flattened. Even it had stalagmites, though.
They came to a stop as the tunnel they were in split into two. Just inside the left tunnel, at head height, columns of numbers were listed.
“See what I mean, most of it is nonsense,” Sift said.
Hamma ran her hand over them. “Only the third column makes sense to me.”
Ruwen looked at Sift and Hamma and then back at the numbers. There were eight columns, and they all repeated the same set of six numbers going down. His Hey You ability must be allowing him to decipher the other numbers.
Ruwen went to the tunnel on the right and found another eight columns. These numbers were different than the tunnel on the left. The numbers from both tunnels were all under one hundred, and there were six per column.
“The columns inside each tunnel repeat the same set of six numbers,” Ruwen said. “It’s just being provided in eight different languages.”
“But each tunnel has a different set of six numbers?” Hamma asked.
“Exactly,” Ruwen said.
“The quest mentioned the shortest path. Maybe the correct tunnel is the one with the smallest number,” Hamma said.
Ruwen brought up the quest again.
There Can Be Only One
A maze like every other,
with one tunnel after another.
Left or right, right or wrong,
the sum results in short or long.
The shortest path is what you seek,
so the route must remain unique.
The key is here, no time to waste,
now take the clues and make all haste.
“Good idea. But it mentions a sum as well. Maybe it is the smallest sum,” Ruwen said.
Ruwen did the math in his head. The left side had 1,6,23,44,57,89 which equaled 220. The right side had 11,24,56,87,90,99 which equaled 367.
“It doesn’t matter, both are the left tunnel,” Ruwen said.
Sift moved immediately into the left tunnel, Hamma followed, and Ruwen brought up the rear. They had walked for about twenty seconds when Ruwen’s Keen Senses triggered.
“Stop,” Ruwen said. “Something is wrong.”
“I feel it now, too,” Hamma said.
Ruwen didn’t see any creatures, and there wasn’t really anywhere to hide. Another thought struck him, and he channeled two Energy per second into his Find Trap spell.
He wanted to just dash back the way they’d come, but he wanted to be sure. After ten seconds, when he was about to give up, the first red splotches appeared. In moments the tunnel was covered in them.
“Traps,” Ruwen said.
He slowly turned and looked back at the way they’d come. Traps were on the floor, walls, and ceiling. In fact, he was standing on one right now.
“We passed a bunch of traps, and I’m on one right now. Why haven’t they triggered?” Ruwen asked as his heartbeat thudded in his ears.
“Oh, I hate these,” Sift said.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Hamma said.
“This tunnel will eventually dead-end. All the traps are set to trigger on the way out,” Sift said.
“That is evil,” Ruwen said.
“That’s Blapy,” Sift said. “Tricky.”
“So, if I move toward you off this trap, it won’t trigger?” Ruwen asked.
“Probably not,” Sift said.
Ruwen saw Hamma’s Energy bar dip on her portrait, and a shield appeared around her.
“Okay, I’m moving toward you,” Ruwen said.
Ruwen gritted his teeth and stepped off the red disk under his feet.
Nothing happened.
“Is there anything under us?” Hamma asked
“No, you both are good,” Ruwen said.
They had been striding at a good pace and had moved one hundred twenty feet into the tunnel. The way back was covered in red. Sift had mentioned traps in the beginning, and Ruwen should have had his Find Trap spell channeled from the start. He had Energy to spare, and there wasn’t any excuse. He could beat himself up later. Right now, they needed to get out of this tunnel.
Hamma looked at Sift. “What do you usually do?”
“Run really fast,” Sift replied.
“Can we disarm them?” Hamma asked.
“I don’t have that skill yet. Even if we could, it would mean a delay of hours,” Ruwen said.
“In these first tunnels, Blapy generally only uses one kind of trap,” Sift said. “The later tunnels get bad because she starts varying them. But in general, she is just trying to slow us down, not kill us, here in the beginning.” Sift pulled out his Scarf of Freshness and wrapped it around his nose and mouth. “We should prepare for what we can.”
“Do you still have the one Ky gave you in The Fainting Goat?” Ruwen asked Hamma.
She nodded, retrieved it from her Dimensional Bag, and put it around her lower face. Ruwen did the same and pulled his hood over his head. He really hoped it was gas, as they were prepared for that.
“You two stand back here. I’ll trigger a couple to find out what they are,” Sift said.
Before Ruwen could say anything, Sift jumped down the hall. Even before he landed, traps triggered. The traps were able to sense Sift’s body and didn’t have to be physically triggered. That meant they couldn’t avoid them by being careful.
Four nets struck Sift, forcing him to the ground. A green gas pooled around him and the area he’d jumped through.
Sift pulled Io from his sheath and cut through the nets. Sift returned to them in under ten seconds.
“Io says that vapor felt like acid to him,” Sift said. “I have never seen two different kinds of traps in the same tunnel this early in the maze. Blapy must be making this more difficult because there are three of us.”
“Great,” Ruwen muttered.
“Depending on how strong the acid is, it might destroy these scarves,” Sift said. “I made sure not to breathe to avoid damaging the scarf.”
Ruwen stared at the hundred twenty feet they needed to travel. There were at least thirty traps visible to his spell. He had hoped to rely on the scarf for protection, and he still would, but as a last resort. His Worker Class gave him a method to deal with both these problems, and he hoped it would be enough.
Ruwen turned to Hamma. “Do you have a dagger or a knife?”
“No,” Hamma said.
Ruwen handed her the Fastidious Blade. “Just take it, I have something else. This blade’s vibration will increase the dirtier it becomes. My guess is if you rub it on the floor and then hold it against the nets, it will slice right through them.”
“What are you going to use?” Hamma asked.
Ruwen folded his shovel away and pulled on a protrusion three down. He had spent time memorizing what all the bumps and protrusions did, and that paid off now. He unfolded a saw two-feet long.
Sift stepped up to them. “Wow, nice saw.”
Ruwen agreed. When he’d seen a band of Workers collecting firewood at camp, he’d watched them for five minutes, fascinated by what their batons could do. What his baton could do. He probably would have never figured it out on his own.
Ruwen smiled. “Watch this.” He channeled five Energy per second to his baton, and the blade rapidly moved back and forth.
“What! It
moves?” Sift asked.
Ruwen nodded. “I’ll show you some other stuff later. But we’re wasting time. I’ll go first. I’m hoping this saw will make short work of the nets. You each have a knife for any nets that get by me. If you need help, yell. Otherwise, I’m making straight for the entrance.”
“I sure hope our scarves are enough,” Hamma said.
“I have an idea for that, too. All thanks to those stupid Octorse,” Ruwen said.
Ruwen immediately moved down the tunnel as he funneled Energy to his Void Band. He was channeling two Energy per second to Find Trap, five Energy to his saw, and the items in his Inventory consumed another seven Energy per second. That left him fourteen Energy per second before he dipped into his pool. He opened his Void Band to a ten Energy per second size, tilted it, so it faced the entrance, and then sucked air through it with another ten Energy per second.
Ruwen stepped into the green vapor, and his Void Band sucked it up. He pushed the air he’d consumed out the back of the opening, and his cloak billowed behind him from the force of it. Ruwen kept the acid trapped in his Void Band, which made the air swirling behind him pure.
Ruwen held the saw parallel to his body, and he sliced downward as the first net struck him. The saw cut through the net easily. Green vapor exploded around him, but his Void Band consumed it like water down a drain.
Thirty seconds later, Ruwen exited the tunnel, and Hamma and Sift stepped up next to him. He had used one hundred eighty Energy from his pool, despite his insane regeneration. He closed his Void Band and stopped powering his saw, but left his Find Trap spell active.
“That was amazing,” Hamma said as she handed the knife back to Ruwen. “I didn’t even have to use it.”
“I have to admit that was impressive. Much better than normal,” Sift added.
Ruwen’s cheeks grew hot as he placed the Fastidious Blade back on his belt.
“Thanks,” Ruwen said.
He closed the saw and opened the shovel back up. Out of curiosity, he opened his Inventory and looked at the gas.
Name: Minor Acid of Dissolving
Quality: Uncommon
Quantity: 20 Charges