by Dakota Krout
That was all the confirmation that Joe needed to understand that the illusion he was trapped in could impact most of his senses. Unless the pain he was feeling was part of it, at least it was only light and sound? He took a deep sniff, but the air was filled with sulphur and ash. He couldn’t use his senses to get out of this, he needed to find something clever… or he was going to lose everything and be trapped here until the war was over. Who knew when that would be?
“Ay, look at that! You got his shoes!” Joe’s new shoes were caught by Eli and directly thrown into the magma. Joe looked at his feet that hadn’t come off the ground. He had no idea how the gear had been removed. “That’ll slow ya down; the rocks around here are pretty sharp, hey, Theo? Ya know, I won’t break it if you just—what the—?”
There was a flash, some screaming, and what sounded like a small explosion. Eli glared at Joe, his previous levity nowhere to be seen. “I suppose I should have expected there to be a golem somewhere in the gear carried by a student of Havoc. I bet you don’t even know what that thing could do to you, do you? If he wanted, he could have that thing wearing your skin while you slink around thinking you’re an original.”
“What does that even mean?” Joe slammed his mouth closed, but too late. Eli’s eyes crinkled in pleasure; it seemed that he needed Joe to speak for his skills to work on him.
“Let’s not worry about that. Just tell me, how many golems did you have on you?” Eli’s words elicited an instant reply, and Joe could have screamed in frustration as he gave a concise answer.
“There aren’t any more.”
Eli nodded and grasped Joe’s shoulder. “I believe you, Theo. Thank you for telling me. Ooh! Check out these glasses!”
Joe’s Spectacles of the Scholar had landed in Eli’s hands, and after a bored glance, the Elf smashed them and chucked them into the magma. “Ya know, Theo, eventually we’re gonna get to something you really do care about. When that happens? This is gonna really start hurting. Hey, while we’re talking, how did you find us?”
“I accidentally blasted a hole in-” Joe realized what was happening, and shook his head hard enough that it hurt.
“Oh… that’s so great to hear.” Eli’s smile was far more natural now, as he realized that Joe just needed to be contained and they wouldn’t need to worry that the Dwarves would be coming for them. “I think we can have a more relaxed conversation now. Oh, that looks fun.”
Eli grabbed something that was flashing indigo out of the air, pulling it in close to inspect it. In under half a second, he and another voice were screaming as the light spread out and trapped them both in a pillar of purple flame.
Caution! Direct contact with aspects has dangerous consequences! Pulling aspects into the open air without proper preparation will result in the at fault party interacting with the aspect to become immolated!
Current aspect removed: Unique aspect x27.
Quest update: Go Away For a While! Level gained: 0/1. Elves killed: 8/100. Important information gained: 1/1.
Joe winced as his friend Eli burned. He remembered exactly how bad that had hurt when he had touched the Trash aspect, and… his eyes widened as his mana came back under his control. Eli must have perished. Joe was as free as he could reasonably be for the next while; at least until Eli was respawned in the major fort.
The human turned and dove into the magma, barely getting his Exquisite Shell in place before he slipped beneath the surface of the liquid earth.
Chapter Forty-Five
The magma was thick, at least thicker than water, which made it harder to swim through. The density helped with the issue of sinking, allowing Joe to remain at a fairly level depth. He didn’t dare to go above the surface; not only would the Elves be looking for him, but there was a chance that he would touch the barrier and get tossed back onto one of the islands.
He was keeping a sharp eye on his Exquisite Shell, but he thought that it was lowering at a reasonable level. Joe’s strength was at one hundred and thirty-three, and there was practically no comparison to a human fresh off Earth. He clawed through the magma with the same force that a high-end front-loader would use to scoop a hole in the earth. Needless to say, he was moving fast. Far faster than he had ever expected he would be able to manage.
Then something caught him. Not a monster, more like a convection current. All of a sudden he was in a downward suction of magma, dropping a dozen feet in an instant. It hit just before Joe had planned to surface for air, so he had to work hard not to panic. Then he recalled that he had a spell that could help in situations like this. He cast Neutrality Aura in the next moment.
The tightness in his chest didn’t vanish, but his darkening vision fixed itself. Joe was glad not to pass out while boiling rock pressed in on him from all sides, but now he had another issue: he had not a single clue where he was. The flowing danger zone had tossed him around to the point where he wasn’t even sure which way was up, and he was running out of time. Joe pulled himself out of the current fairly easily now that he was expecting it, breaking from the undertow in an instant with a solid pull and kick, but…
Exquisite Shell: 1,836/3,586. You are taking 25 heat damage per second!
“It’s only been a full minute since I started?” Joe wasn’t foolish enough to speak the words aloud; he wasn’t going to let his breath escape that easily. He kept swimming as hard as he could, paddling for another thirty seconds before he ran into something solid.
Exquisite Shell: 961/3,586. You are taking 25 heat damage per second!
Joe was going to attempt to climb up the solid rock, but his forward momentum had been arrested. Since he had come to a stop and didn’t continue moving for a moment, the undercurrent grabbed him and sucked him deeper into the magma. Joe scrabbled for purchase on the stone, but his grip caused the superheated stone to *squish* instead of stopping him. The current sucked him into a volcanic vent, and suddenly, Joe was moving even faster than when he had been when swimming at full speed.
He was in freefall.
Joe’s vision cleared up, revealing a massive, empty room that was only solid due to being mostly a mix of obsidian and a metallic substance. He landed in a pool of magma that was slowly increasing in height. Apparently, this cavern had only recently been melted into, as it was neither filled, nor even close to it. Still—Joe watched the magma get higher—it wouldn’t stay empty for too much longer.
He swam through the magma pool, moving so fast that he left a wake behind. Joe pulled himself out of the pool, amazed that his Exquisite Shell had managed to keep him alive until this moment. Checking the remaining strength of his protection, he blanched and hurried to get to a ‘safe’ spot. Just as he got to the top of a small hill, his shell broke, and Joe felt the full heat of the room.
Health: 80/1,642
You are taking 20 damage per second!
“Mend!” Joe frantically slapped his chest, sending his health rocketing upward, as well as healing dozens of internal stress fractures and wounds. That much damage per second just by standing in the hot air really showcased how effective his shell had been at saving him. “Lay on Hands!”
With those two spells, his health rose by a full five hundred points. This gave him a comfortable amount to work with, so he cancelled Neutrality Aura to maximize his mana. He started choking in moments; clearly, the air was utterly tainted with harsh chemicals and fumes. Joe slapped on his Exquisite Shell, followed by his aura once more, taking a breath and waiting in place only long enough to gather enough mana to heal himself up the rest of the way.
Skill increase: Mend (Journeyman I).
Skill increase: Lay on Hands (Student I). Sometimes it pays to almost die and bring yourself back from the brink!
Skill increase: Exquisite Shell (Student II). Even lobsters boil in their shells, yet you just dove right on in and made it through. Impressive.
Skill increase: Neutrality Aura (Student I).
Title Gained: …Student of Defense. When focusing most of your efforts
on surviving, you have found that you are better at it than expected. Increases a single defensive skill or spell effect by 10%. Once chosen, the effect cannot be transferred.
You have gained a broken title! You currently have the maximum number of titles. You can either replace one with this new title, or apply this title to another! You have five minutes to decide before this title is dismissed.
Joe looked at his titles quickly, a smile lighting up his face even though his circumstances were dire. Gaining titles was rare. He couldn’t think of the last time he had gained a title out in the wild, based purely on his own effort over time. He scanned the list, dismissing them one by one. Joe didn’t want to weaken an effective title, and didn’t want to empower one that wouldn’t be sticking around if he got something better. There was really only one choice, and he made it while laughing.
Are you certain that you want to apply ‘…Student of Defense’ to ‘Baldy II’? ‘Baldy II’ is a curse, and adding onto it may make it harder to remove if a cure is found. Yes / No.
“Yes. It’s a part of me now, practically a calling card. I’m the hairless human mage that’s going to take down the Elves, and I like it.” Joe got ready to adjust the wording of the title, but the notifications shifted before he could get to it. The change and new wording startled him greatly as a strange choice was offered.
Hidden requirement met! You have accepted a cursed title and made it a part of who you are. You have proven that you are not willing to become a victim to circumstances, and you have earned a reward from CAL. Title has changed into a permanent effect: Boon and Bane.
Boon and Bane: choose a spell or skill to empower by 10%. Remain permanently bald. Cannot wear hats, but no longer lose your stealth ability in direct sunlight. Or, you can dismiss both the positive and negative effects and regrow your lost hair.
Joe looked at the options and ran a hand over his bald head. He had really come to enjoy his current look, and he didn’t think that he was going to let it go now. “I’ll take it. Empower… Retaliation of Shadows.”
Boon and Bane applied!
Skill updated: Retaliation of Shadows (Journeyman I). 45.1% damage returned when attacked, with a maximum return of: 451 dark damage.
“Neat.” Joe looked at his titles, and saw something that he hadn’t seen in a long time: an empty slot. “Guess I gotta do some awe inspiring things to get a new title.”
He had considered boosting Exquisite Shell, but ten percent just wasn’t enough to really help at this stage. Joe was getting his shell broken constantly by the potent enemies he was running up against, and he needed more ways to hurt them. Neutrality Aura had been a close second, but again, he needed something that was a bit more of an active defense. With that out of the way, he turned to the problem at hand; he was trapped underground in a room that was slowly filling with lava. Magma. Whatever.
“First thing to get out of the way…” Joe sent a pulse of mana into the manacles he was still wearing, and in just a moment, the Uncommon-ranked cuffs crumbled into rubble that he didn’t even bother to sift through. “That would have been an issue if they had respawned Eli before I got those off.”
Next, immediate survival was the priority. Joe needed to either block the flowing lava, or get himself out of there. Well… both, really, but he didn’t know if tunneling out would just let more lava in. Joe hadn’t had this issue since he had been searching for diamonds back when he’d tried minecraft. Now, he was planning on using the same tactics to deal with the problem. “I need to put a block in front of that flow so that the hole is plugged. How to do that is the question.”
Joe opened his system notes and looked over the rituals that he had previously worked with. “This… the mana-sapping one; that doesn’t need to be mana, does it? It could easily be invoked as energy. Heat is energy. Kinda. Okay. I can convert this to a heat-sapping ritual, but what is that heat going to do? If I just collect it, I’ll melt the ritual and likely my face. I need to repurpose it. I can send it… down, if I pull that part from that ritual here, but there again, I run into the issue of breaking the ritual.”
He pondered over the issue as the entire, massive cavern floor raised another six inches thanks to the magma. “What if I modify the Gravedigger’s Requiem to move horizontally instead of vertically? Disperse the effect, then have it ‘dig’ through a wall using the heat instead of vibration? Do I have that kind of time?”
Eyeing the rising lava, Joe gulped. “I might not have the time… but I can’t think of anything else that I could do instead. Time to do or die.”
He really hoped he could do it. If this failed, he was going to die within range of the major fort again. Joe was not looking forward to another escape attempt.
Chapter Forty-Six
The first issue that Joe ran into was reworking the ritual itself. Just because he had an idea, didn’t mean that he could flawlessly put it into practice. The ritual he finally came up with was only at the Beginner rank, because it had to be. After being robbed blind, Joe was down to a single Synthetic Common Core, and he had only found that after desperately searching through his ring.
Only being able to use a two-ring ritual limited his options greatly, and it also forced him to tear out anything that wasn’t going to be producing the effect he needed. That meant limiters, variables that kept Joe safe, and most of all… control. This ritual had been boiled down to two effects: drain heat, and condense heat in a specified direction. If something went wrong, there was a good chance that Joe was going to either freeze or flash-boil just after activation.
Those risks meant that he needed to eliminate all of the physical impediments to success as quickly and thoroughly as possible. The place where he drew the ritual needed to be perfectly flat, and as similar of a substance as possible. First, he cast Acid Spray onto the obsidian, but that did nothing except make that area dangerous to sit on. The obsidian didn’t react at all… which made sense. Kind of. It was magical acid, and it worked on armor and metals… so why not this?
Instead, he set up a Field Array and reduced the glass-like stone in a set pattern, making a perfect square with the sharpest edges he had ever seen on anything. Joe took out a paper and set it lightly on the edge of the square; half of it lay flat, the other half slid down the small incline and burst into flame. “That’ll work.”
Next up was inscribing the actual ritual circle, and here, Joe finally hesitated. There were only two functions, but he did have some special aspects. He decided to prepare the circles with the aspects, both to test them and hopefully give the ritual the oomph that it needed. Placing his hand back into the Field Array after adding the ‘Molten’ aspects—no jar yet—he created a pure white Common inscription tool, which swirled a reddish brown as the new aspect was added.
Then he made a dark grey Damaged tool, which only became darker as he poured in ‘Zombified’ aspects. Gear prepared and ready, Joe began the process of actually forming the ritual circle; starting with the inner circle, the ‘drain heat’ portion. On this one, he used the Zombified inscriber and rapidly drew out the circle. Luckily, he was drawing with aspects, not ink, as ink would have spread across the perfectly smooth surface no matter what he did to prevent it.
The outer ring, designed to send the heat directionally away as a cylinder, was composed with the Molten aspects. Joe set the Synthetic Core in the center of the ritual and started inputting mana. It didn’t take much; one person was more than enough to power such a ‘weak’ ritual. His part done, the Reductionist stood back and watched as the strangely glowing ritual began performing its function. The room was filling faster now, much faster, and he realized that the magma must have eaten away a large chunk of the wall. If this didn’t work, there wouldn’t be a second chance.
Reductionist class experience gained: 50
Joe barely noticed the grey shadow expanding from the central ritual circle out of the corner of his eye, and he only dodged away from it out of base instinct. It wasn’t attacking him, per se, but ever
ywhere it touched took on a ‘preserved’ look. The stone itself lost its shine, and Joe started running out of room on the small island that his hill had become. There was another not too far away, so he jumped across the open space and quickly turned to watch what was happening.
Grey light reached ruddy heat, and a *hiss* sounded loud enough through the cavern that Joe was worried a cave-in might occur. Where the light touched, hardened stone was left behind. Still, it was up against magma on one side. The flash-frozen composite shattered, sending shards of super-sharp obsidian and hardened metals scattering through the area. Joe twirled in place, dropping to the ground and trying to shelter in the lee of the hill he was on. Constant elemental effects had created a deathtrap that he was uncertain he could withstand; flying flechettes and deep freeze in one spot, bubbling magma in the other.
At least he knew that he could survive in the magma for a few minutes, but the ritual? Joe wasn’t sure, and it was still expanding. Though… slower? There was only so much heat it could take in at any given time, Joe supposed. Another interesting phenomena was happening as well: a cool breeze was being generated from the ritual area, but the superheated air in the rest of the cavern was naturally trying to rectify the balance. He was nearly blown off his small hill as wind started surging in the cavern in the form of small tornados.
Then the second portion of the ritual seemed to reach a threshold. Joe had expected the heat to be distributed in a nice, constant stream. Instead, it rose to critical mass and sent a beam of heat against the far wall as what could only be described as a barrel-width cylinder of plasma. Thunder rang through the enclosed space, so loud that his Exquisite Shell took damage, and his Neutrality Aura had to work on repairing his ears.