by Dakota Krout
“How could they think that a Dwarf saw through the grand illusion? I refuse to put those mongrels in my eyes!” A high-pitched, arrogant voice echoed over the empty space. “Even if they had broken through into the tunnels, there’s no way they could have come through here. They’d have been caught staring at the shifting patterns of the lava on the ceiling by now!”
“The Lady Elfreeda is gnashing her teeth over this failure, Journeyman.” Another voice cut off the first. “We should have closed the way to the caves a week ago. We have plenty of test subjects, and the illusions have proven to be perfect. The only reason they stayed open is the rank lethargy of the ‘Helper’ she found. Who forgets to close the abyssal door when we are this close to a successful strike at the heart of the short ones?”
“I still say that the Dwarf in that cave must have incinerated itself. The entire room was practically melted, as was the opening and path in a straight line. The wall to escape was still closed, and the Dwarves have no idea how to use any travel system other than the option provided by the fortresses; that Dwarf is long dead,” the first voice petulantly complained.
“Still, her orders aren’t something we can ignore.”
There was more to the conversation, but they had been moving fast enough that Joe had needed to strain his ears just to hear everything that he had. His progress had come to a complete stop; he wasn’t sure if the earth elementals would be able to detect him if he was moving and causing vibrations. Eventually, Joe had no choice but to start crawling again and hope the thick coating of ash prevented the elementals from detecting him. He was close enough to the unmanned wall at this point that he doubted anyone would expect him to be here, but if they were searching carefully… they would eventually find him.
Issue resolved!
The human had to grab his mouth and throat to prevent a scream from spilling out when the random fanfare and bugles started playing in his head.
Your complaint about the new ‘intent’ system factoring into kills has been resolved in your favor! After extensive review, it was shown that the deadly rituals you use instead of commonplace effects are more similar to a trapmaker or rogue’s ability to use environmental effects. No longer will you need to worry about variation rituals; just clean or murder, all in one, to your heart’s content!
While future actions—or wide-scale devastation released upon a Zone—may result in a different outcome or secondary analysis, you will be rewarded for finding and reporting this issue upon completing any future quest.
So long as the reward meets the certain criteria, it will be applied multiple times. For instance, a quest rewarding you with a thousand experience may also give you a thousand class experience!
Breathing heavily, he dismissed the notification as quickly as possible. There was nothing he could do with that information right now, but it still gave him a small thrill to see something resolve in his favor when it came to the system. Looking up at the wall he was practically huddled against, Joe raised himself to a crouching position and shifted around until he was fairly certain that no one would see him.
The gate was a solid distance away, and he hadn’t seen a single Elf walking the walls. That may have changed since they had gone on alert, but he was going to have to chance it at some point. Now was as good a time as any. Eyeing the wall, he got into the proper position and jumped. He blew out nearly a hundred mana in an attempt to make a smooth landing, but he ended up only reaching a third of the way up the forty foot wall.
He fell and landed in an ignoble pile, kicking up a cloud of ash with his impact. “Well… plan B. Been wanting to try this for a while, so why not now?”
Joe pulled a single Ritual Orb out of his ring, and tossed it into the air. Up, up… he stopped it about five feet under the height he had reached last time, which was marked by a streak of black soot. “Okay, keep the orb in that spot, land on it, and jump again. Don’t think, just do!”
Air rushed past his face, and he kept his eyes locked on the orb as he sailed up. His right foot landed on the orb, which started to drop almost instantly, but he managed to kick off it hard enough to get another third up toward the top of the wall. Another orb was summoned under his foot, and he kicked off that as well. Over the wall he went, rolling to be as flat as possible. Just as he arced over the peak of the barrier, he managed to lock his eyes on the orbs before they hit the ground and were buried in ash. In a moment, both orbs sailed up to his hand and into his ring.
Skill increase: Aerial Acrobatics (Beginner III).
“Haven’t seen you in a while,” Joe whispered at the notification with a massive grin on his face. That had been a rush. He glanced around the battlements to ensure there wasn’t a patrol coming, then turned his gaze down into the unexpectedly massive interior of the fortress. “Oh, celestial feces. This is a major fort, isn’t it?”
Chapter Forty-Two
The fort below was filled with a variety of ‘buildings’ Joe had never seen before. Only the wall that he was crouching on seemed to be made by hand, while everything else within the confines seemed to be some variant of a plant. Even so, the general layout fit with what he had been expecting to see.
“That must be sleeping quarters, that has to be a dining facility, and that…” Joe’s eyes locked on a building that radiated a literal rainbow, which shot up and shifted into an aurora that couldn’t be seen from outside the walls. “That’s gonna be the illusion generation area. Oh, look. It’s right next to the Guardian. What a shock; the most important thing is in the most protected area.”
There were also hundreds of Elves milling about. There was no chance that Joe was going to be able to sneak through, and trying would end with him being caught and thrown into a prison. There was really only one option, but the chances of it succeeding were… slim. He reactivated Neutrality Aura and waited until his clothes were clean and sparkling again. Checking that his mask was in place, he stood up and calmly walked to the first set of stairs he could find, drifting down them in a careful yet grand fashion.
Then he just… strolled into the open area. He didn’t look around, having already plotted out where he needed to go thanks to his previous vantage. No one said anything at first, but by the time he had passed the second building, he was starting to gather stares and hear whispers.
“Just don’t talk to anyone…” Joe reminded himself, hoping that keeping his mouth shut—combined with his mask and confident manner—would stop anyone from realizing that he was not supposed to be there. Maybe Havoc had taught him something, after all. When he was over halfway to his destination, a young-looking Elf blocked his path. “So close.”
“Yo, who ah’ ya?” The Bostonian accent was extra thick with this one, and if Dwarven traits were at all similar, that meant that this Elf was fairly low-leveled, or at least low-ranked. Joe said nothing, simply continuing on in a straight line. Just before he would have run into the Elf, the long-eared androgynous male got out of Joe’s way.
Small conversations rose all around them. “Hey, he gave Tony zero face there.”
“Whoa, look at that big shot, he must be some kinda wise-guys or somethin’.”
“Quiet down; that must be the Helper that the Lady called in. No one normal is gonna ignore Tony.”
The Elf that Joe almost ran into, Tony, looked as though he was about to start a fight until the last comment rang out. Then he seemed to deflate slightly and called after Joe, who was still moving at a sedate pace. “Hey, youze the Helper? I got a bone ta pick with you.”
Joe ignored the Elf and kept going, sealing in their minds that he was someone they shouldn’t mess with. Still, he couldn’t bear the pressure of their stares, and only went another block or so before turning into a storefront. He didn’t go inside, merely pretending to peruse the items in the… window equivalent. It was some kind of translucent leaf, he was almost certain. He waited there for only a minute, then continued toward the illusion-generating area.
He almost made it, too.
Joe calmly turned into the first completed building he could find, opening the door and closing it gently behind him. He pulled out the Ritual Orb that had Cone of Cold assigned to it, gripping the weapon tightly to help ease his nerves, as well as to better prepare himself. Another orb popped into his left hand, and he tried to run through any combat spells that might be useful. Before he could get far, he heard musical voices arguing, slightly further within the building.
The human pushed himself up against the wall, slowly approaching the room full of people that were clearly arguing. The door was open, and he could hear that they were debating over whether to join the search for the intruder or not. Not wasting any time, Joe peeked his head around the corner and cast Dark Lightning Strike at the loudest voices, wincing as he saw that the room was full of Elves sitting around a table.
As the lightning struck, Joe tossed The Ritual Orb of Cone of Cold in as well, hitting an Elf in the head as his back arched in pain from the shock of dark energy. Cone of Cold washed over the room, and not a single one of the… six Elves managed to escape the icy clutches of the spell.
Experience gained: 1,105
Quest update: Go Away For a While! Level gained: 0/1. Elves killed: 6/100. Important information gained: 1/1.
Just the Dark lightning Strike alone had killed the Elf it had hit directly, the splash damage and Cone of Cold had finished off the others in the next instant. Joe looked around the room in surprise; that had been way too easy. “They… oh. They didn’t have any protections up. Why would they? They’re in a ‘safe’ area. Solid reminder to me; shield up at all times. Now… what were they doing?”
Something on the table was calling to Joe, an oversized briefcase that was practically singing to his senses. He reached out and picked it up, undid the latch… and someone banged on the door he had come in through. Joe slammed his hips forward and pulled the briefcase into his codpiece just as a voice screeched through the door. “Honorable Shapers! I am so sorry to intrude upon your discussion. There’s an intruder, and we’ve been sent to evacuate you until they have been found!”
Joe thought that this might be a good time to book it, so he frantically hurried through the small building. There were no extra doors, but there was a waxy leaf-window at the back. He grabbed at it, but the leaf demonstrated surprising toughness. He kicked it instead, and thankfully, his foot went through. Joe was able to tear a way out after that, but resolved to carry a knife or something the next time he left the protections of the Dwarven domain.
Now that he was behind the building, away from the streets, he found that he was also almost directly adjacent to the Illusion building. It was… really, the entire thing was a work of art. The building was almost the same size as the exterior of the Mage’s college back on Midgard, but this structure was shaped like a massive pine tree. Every ‘pine needle’ acted as a relay for the light that was generated in the ‘trunk’ of the tree, flashing colors of varying intensity that added to the rainbow that spread along the ceiling.
He had no idea if the building itself was generating the illusion, or if it was just the shell acting as protection for the magic being worked within it. Either way, Joe was fairly certain that destroying one should get the other as well. He walked to the edge of the building and peeked around… to find the streets swarming with Elves. He could hear them from here:
“Humph!”
“How dare a toad look at swan flesh?”
“This intruder is a thousand years too early!”
Joe felt sick to his stomach at the sheer cliché arrogance that was being tossed around. “I really need to get outta this place. So glad I chose the Dwarves.”
He jumped through the open space between buildings, front-flipping as he did his best to move as rapidly as possible. Joe got closer and closer to the strobing building, and was finally close enough to run a hand over the strange wood, no… crystal? It was a crystal grown to look like wood and pine needles, practically a christmas tree, but why?
Without a single sound, a ritual paper appeared in his hand, and he slapped it against the side of the building; a Ritual of Raze, ready to go. He hesitated, almost activating it right away, but that would give away his position immediately. Should he try to hide in the foliage? His hand brushed against a needle, and his shield took penetrating damage in an instant. Going up was not going to be viable, so that meant he needed to go inside if he wanted to activate his ritual in a semi-safe location. Since there were no windows that he could see in this building, the entrance was the only point of ingress.
Joe slunk around the wall, the bright colors flashing from the walls actually helping him as he went. He thought it would highlight him, but all it really did was keep Elves from looking directly at him and his reflective head. He had the door in sight when he heard someone call out, “Get two guards on the Prismatic Evergreen! I want no mistakes while the Lady is here!”
Giving up all pretenses of stealth, Joe dashed to the door, fearing that he would hear shouts of alarm. He reached for the handle, instead falling directly through the ‘door’. “Of course the door was an illusion. Abyssal Elves.”
The building he found himself in appeared to be a massive, open cone that twisted as high as a redwood on earth. The wall opposite him was so distant that it would have been hidden by shadow, had the light in the area been less intense. Either the space was an illusion, or the building was bigger on the inside. Spatial magic, again? He really shouldn’t have been surprised, as this was clearly a powerful and rare building.
Joe’s main concern at the moment was the cadre of Elves in the center of the room, a football field’s distance away from him. Again, their distance had to be attributed to either an illusion or space-bending. Music, soft and entrancing, was flowing through the room, expanding outward from the Elves that were dancing in the central area. The rapid, pulsing strobe light of various colors was completely out of time with the music, but somehow the two interfaced and seemed to be whispering secrets of magic and forbidden lore to Joe. If he would just look closer, if he would just follow the light to… Joe blinked as a notification appeared.
Illusion Breaker’s effect successful! You have been caught in ‘Fae Beckoning’ for four minutes and five seconds.
Joe was standing in a corner of the building with his nose pressed into the smooth surface of the wall. He stepped back and looked around; somehow, he hadn’t been noticed during all of that. A glance revealed no enemies near him, just small growths of crystal slabs with shaped crystal ornaments displayed on them. Oh. A random dais as well; just to be consistent with the fantasy setting, he was sure. Beams of light reached from the pulsing glow in the ceiling, filtering down to each of the shaped crystals.
They had a look to them that Joe was familiar with, and if he was correct, it meant the crystals were stabilizing mechanisms for whatever spell was being continuously cast from this place. “I bet those are important for the continued successful camouflage of this place. Right, well, enough of that!”
He pulled out the Ritual of Raze that he had decided against using outside and stuck it in the corner. “If I get trapped here, I need to make sure that the Dwarves can figure this out. Activate.”
A ring of light expanded from the pre-charged ritual, moving to surround the building and commence destroying it. A secondary ring appeared under Joe, indicating that that ritual was stil
l active. Joe turned his eyes on the patterns etched throughout the walls as cries of alarm rang out. “I need to do more. I need to fully sabotage this place.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Joe sprinted to one of the many strange objects that were scattered through the room on the crystal slabs and small plinths, skidding to a halt and slapping his hands on the perfectly triangular crystal. A flash of mana seeped out of him, and information appeared in his mind.
Item: Illusion Prism Focus.
Reduction value: 99 Rare aspects, 129 Uncommon aspects, 910 Common aspects, 7,991 Trash aspects.
Reduction cost: 125 mana per second.
“Yes please, and thank you. I wonder if it has no damaged aspects because it’s in a perfect crystalline form? I really need to learn more about my abilities and what each aspect does.” Joe let his mana seep into it for one second, two, then intentionally let go. He didn’t want to fully destroy these, since that would be noticed. If he could weaken a bunch of them, then even if he were killed and his ritual was stopped, Joe would be able to feel secure in the knowledge that the illusions would break at some point. He hurried to the next one, then crossed the room after heavily damaging it. On the tenth, his reduction went too long and accidentally fully destroyed the prism.
The room strobed red as the beam of light that had been attached to the prism recoiled up into the mass of pulsating illumination. The lights that were attached to the other prisms thickened slightly, the surviving crystals needing to handle slightly more energy. Joe heard an Elf shout, “I don’t care what the orders were, if this goes down, we’re all abyssed! Just try not to kill him until it’s ready!”