by Jamey Sultan
“Look!” James exclaimed excitedly. He pointed up ahead where the tunnel suddenly ended at a translucent barrier. He could tell that the barrier was the source of the energy.
The tunnel had widened progressively as they’d gotten closer to the end. It was now wide enough for at least twenty people to walk abreast and probably close to fifty feet high. The air around them hummed with energy and ethereal sparks floated off the barrier and burst into clouds of the purple motes of light that flooded the tunnel.
Runes decorated the edge of the barrier, constantly moving, constantly shifting.
“Hang on.” James held out a hand. “We don’t know if this is safe to go through.”
“It’s safe,” Karim assured him. “This is The Great Barrier. It keeps undead from entering the tunnels from this end.”
“Real imaginative name…” Nidra chimed in sarcastically.
James ignored them and took a closer look at the runes. He recognized Heiye, and Artyn, the runes for repelling and draining, but there were another two runes that he didn’t recognize. He assumed at least one of them was a rune symbolizing the undead.
He still didn’t have magical pen or paper, so he pricked his finger with his dagger and used his blood to sketch out the two new runes. The paper burned immediately, but he still felt the rush of power as each new rune cemented itself onto his brain. The result surprised him.
You have learned the Rune: Khal - Not.
You have learned the Rune: Vydor - Alive.
He’d expected one of the runes to mean undead, instead both together meant not alive. When he examined the barrier closer, he realized that there was a line between the two runes, connecting them. In fact, there wasn’t a single place along the barrier where the two runes weren’t next to each other.
“I have to say, I’ve never seen anyone try to learn runes that way…” Karim laughed. “I guess it saves you from having to purchase expensive magical writing supplies.” His face grew serious. “It’s a lost cause though. Many before you have tried to learn the runic language, but knowing the language and being able to use it are two different things.”
“What do you mean?” James asked. “I figured I’d just write the runes I wanted to use in an enchantment, then the system would figure the rest out.” He was only half joking. He hadn’t really thought about how he was going to use the runes, but he figured the system would help out.
Karim sighed. “Learning the runes isn’t the difficult part. At the end of the day, all you need to do is visit a bit of old magic and copy it down. Old magic is everywhere. It’s not exactly difficult to find. The hard part is actually enchanting with a rune. To enchant with a rune, you need perfect control of your Mana. You need to place exacting amounts of the different aspects. Most enchanters can only use one or two runes per piece of equipment. Grandmaster Mages have spent lifetimes pursuing the study of runes to perfect single phrases. Not only is it difficult, it’s dangerous too. If you mess up, you could blow us all to bits.”
Outwardly, James put on a horrified expression. “It’s just interesting. I’m not going to do anything stupid, I promise.” Inwardly though, he was ecstatic. He had something that he hadn’t seen anywhere else. Pure Essence. As soon as he got a chance, he’d use some of his spare equipment and try his hand at enchanting.
Satisfied that he’d scared James enough to keep him from trying something stupid, Karim stepped toward the barrier.
James grabbed his wrist. “Hang on.”
Karim glared at him. “What now?”
“I know you say it’s safe,” James said, holding up his hands in a placating way. “But we’ve been pretty stupid about stuff like this in the past. I’ve personally fallen into too many traps to count from dumb mistakes. I just think we should be smarter about this.”
New Achievement: Not a Moron
Not a Moron:
+ 1 Wisdom
You… you thought something through. I didn’t know you could do that.
James chuckled at the message while he waited for Karim to respond. It took a second—the Dwarf was knowledgeable, and didn’t like being challenged.
Finally, Karim nodded. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt. What did you have in mind?”
James grinned broadly. “I had an idea…”
Chapter 25
“This is a stupid idea,” Nidra said for the third time.
James shrugged. “If it works, it works.”
She rolled her eyes, but her focused gaze suggested she was just as interested as he was.
In his hand, James held a struggling creature by the tail.
Hexla (Level 3)
The Hexla looked like a hybrid between a mouse and a spider with a single eye mounted in the center of its forehead. It was covered in hair rather than carapace and seemed to be a mammal.
It had only taken James a few minutes to find and capture a small creature to test the portal. It might have taken him even less time, but he’d flat out refused to pick up any insects.
The small mammal squeaked in terror as James flung it through the portal. Beside him, Nidra closed her eyes, but he could see her peeking through a crack in her eyelid.
When the Hexla hit the barrier, James tensed, but the creature flew through without issue and landed on the other side unharmed. It quickly got to its feet and scampered further away from James before it turned and chattered angrily at him, then disappeared into a small crack in the stone.
James grinned, relieved that the creature had exploded into flames. “Seems like it’s safe,” he said and stepped through the barrier, followed by Karim, Arik, and finally a sighing Nidra.
***
“Holy shit,” James breathed. They’d passed through the barrier and emerged onto a platform thousands of feet above the valley below. They were so high that James could see the entire valley embedded deep within the mountains towering around on all sides.
The valley was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. He’d expected a ruined city, completely overgrown by plants. Instead, the valley seemed to be divided into three separate areas. They seemed to be close to the border between two of the territories.
The area closest to them on their left was a patchwork of different environments. There was a forested swamp that glowed an eerie green color, a field of metal constantly bombarded by lightning, a burning wasteland, an icy ravine, and a deep hole filled with pillars of stone. The only similarity between the five environments was that they didn’t fit in anywhere else. There was a clear border between them and the other two territories.
Further away, on the opposite side, was a thick forest, marred by a dark gorge and cut in half by a thick river that passed through the territory to mark the border between the two territories closest to them.
The territory closest to them on their right side was a foggy graveyard filled with dead trees and countless gravestones. Mausoleums and crypts dotted the landscape, breaking up the endless monotony. In the distance, a massive marble structure rose from the fog, high into the sky.
Each of the territories by themselves were larger than the Old City, and it was hard to make out any distinct individuals down in the valley from their perch high above, but there was a large cluster of dots at the border between the graveyard territory and the forest territory. A gust of wind brought the faint sound of clashing metal up to the adventurers, but something about it was wrong. It took James a second to realize what had him on edge.
There were no screams.
In a battle, there were always screams of pain, cries of joy, the bellowing of generals. To hear a battle that was completely silent except for the clash of weapons… Well, it was unnatural.
Arik sidled up next to James. “You know, I bet you’d get a better view if you got closer to the edge.”
James shook his head. “I’m good here,” he said from where he stood at the center of the platform. Heights were bad, but the fact that he was in a pre-railing time made everything worse. He’d stay far away from any edge
s.
“Suit yourself.” Arik shrugged and leaned over the edge to get a better view.
James shuddered and almost jumped out of his skin when Karim tapped him on the shoulder.
The Dwarf laughed. “Not a fan of heights eh?”
James shook his head. “Not particularly.”
“Well then, you’ll hate this next part,” Karim said, gesturing to a set of stairs cut into the rock wall that descended down into the valley below.
Before James could reply, Karim pulled out an old, yellowed map. The parchment crackled as he unfurled it and a cloud of dust blew into the air. Karim ignored it and weighed down the four corners of the map with stones before gathering everyone to take a look.
The first thing James noticed was that this map had four quadrants marked off. The layout on the map was different than the valley. The actual valley was missing the quadrant labeled The Old City. The other three quadrants were named The Boneyard, Serpent’s Den, and Six-Eye Sanctuary.
“As you can see, my map is a little old,” Karim said, addressing James’ concern before he said anything. “The valley below used to be divided into four kingdoms, each ruled by a powerful Undead. During an expedition into the Old City, my great-grandfather defeated the Cracked King, a powerful Banshee Lord. His gift of the Cracked King’s shield to King Aelin was what elevated House Fractus to our current status as a noble house.”
“Hang on,” James interrupted. “Was that the shield they were offering up as a prize for the tournament?”
Karim’s mouth thinned. “Remaksta offering that shield as a reward was an insult to everything my house stands for.”
Sensing the awkwardness, Nidra chimed in, “So it looks like the Six-Eye Sanctuary and the Boneyard both grew and took over where the Old City used to be?”
Karim nodded. “It appears that the other Undead leaders took advantage of the Cracked King’s death and expanded their territory.” He pointed to an X marked on the map in the Six-Eye Sanctuary. “This is where we are now.” He tapped another X, this one in the Boneyard. “And this is where we need to go.”
“So, what, we just waltz through?” James asked. “Do we have a plan?”
Karim shrugged. “As long as we stick to the edge of the territory, we shouldn’t have any problems. The really dangerous monsters are deeper in the territory, close to the dungeons.”
“Dungeons?” James asked excitedly. “Do you think—”
“No,” Karim said with finality. “Even I would hesitate to go into the weakest of these dungeons without a raid group full of high-level adventurers.”
Curiously, James asked, “How strong are these dungeons?” He knew the only reason he’d gotten out of the Prison of the First dungeon alive was through a combination of Ozure’s interference and an overpowered combo ability, but he was still curious. Maybe he could return when he was stronger.
Karim chuckled. “Well, the weakest boss would be the Desperate Hollow.” He tapped a square building on the map in the Boneyard marked as The Mausoleum. “The Desperate Hollow rules the Boneyard from the Mausoleum. The last time it was explored,” he gestured to the crumbling map, “which was a while ago, it was a level 90-plus raid dungeon. But dungeons get stronger the longer they aren’t cleared, so it could be closer to level 150 by now.”
“So why didn’t anyone clear it?” James asked. “You guys cleared the Cracked King’s dungeon.”
“That took years of planning and hundreds of deaths,” Karim said. “And at the time it was a level 50 raid dungeon.”
“I don’t understand,” James said. “Shouldn’t the entire Dwarven nation have been able to take out a level 50 dungeon?”
Karim shook his head. “A raid dungeon is much more powerful than a regular dungeon. Regular dungeons can vary in difficulty to the point that a level 10 dungeon could be taken out by one level 10 adventurer, or a party of five, depending on the dungeon’s difficulty and the adventurer’s strength. A raid dungeon requires a group of 100 to even enter, and the boss is generally at least double the level of the rest of the dungeon.”
He saw James about to open his mouth and continued, “I know, you’re probably going to ask why an entire nation couldn’t get together that many fighters. Well, let me ask you, what was the average level of Dwarven guard you saw?”
James thought for a second. “Well, most of them were between levels 20 and 40.”
Karim nodded. “Independent adventurers tend to level much faster than people living in a city, even guards and soldiers. Most soldiers don’t see action very often, and when they do, experience is shared.”
That was interesting. The Dwarves must’ve used life mages to make sure that experience got shared in the military. James would need to find someone to figure that out for his party if they were to stay together for much longer because right now, they weren’t sharing experience and it was a pain.
“So, what are the other two areas?” James asked. He knew they were going to avoid most of them, but he was curious.
“There’s the Six-Eye Sanctuary.” Karim pointed to the strange quilt of elemental areas. “All we know is that the boss resides in an old red manor house in the center of the territory.”
“And the last one?” James asked, pointing toward the forest in the distance.
Karim shrugged. “It’s called the Serpent’s Den, and I’m guessing the boss lives in that gorge, but as far as I’m aware, nobody’s ever seen it.”
James nodded. “Cool, so let’s stick to the edges and try not to die.”
“We do have one thing going for us,” Nidra said.
“What’s that?” James asked.
Nidra pointed to the battlefield far below. “It looks like they’re busy fighting.”
James nodded. “Good point. Just give me a few minutes and then we can go.”
“What could you possibly need to do right now?” Arik said.
James looked pointedly at Karim. “I gotta regenerate my Mana,” he said.
At this point he trusted Karim enough to tell him about his Essence, but he didn’t really feel like explaining himself, so he didn’t. Instead, he let Karim looked confused as he pulled out enough food for ten meals.
A few minutes and three cheese wheels later, he’d recovered 750 Essence. He’d stocked cheese wheels because, for some reason, each of them restored more Essence than a Weak Health Potion.
Karim turned away when James took out the fourth cheese wheel. The Dwarf looked a little green. James also felt like throwing up, but he forced the food down, his stomach roiling in pain. Halfway through, he had to stop. He groaned and held his stomach. He’d eaten so much that he was having trouble breathing.
You have been affected by the status effect [Overfed].
This status effect causes nausea and stomach pains for five minutes.
Did you really think you could recover your entire Essence pool with cheese? What kind of idiot are you?
New Achievement: Glutton
Glutton:
You get nothing for this achievement. I just want anyone who reads your status sheet to know how disgusting you are.
James ignored the notifications as pain wracked his stomach.
“Are… Are you okay?” Nidra asked.
James nodded, unable to reply. He held up a finger to let her know he’d need a few minutes.
As he lay on the stone in pain, James cursed video games for making him think he could eat ten wheels of cheese and restore his Essence without issue. He’d need to make more health potions as soon as he could.
Five minutes later, James sat up and wiped a sheen of sweat off of his face. He’d been worried all that dairy would wreak havoc on his digestive system, but once the debuff went away, he felt much better.
His class was extremely powerful, especially when combined with his race change, but he was weak against fighting in dark places. Without sunlight, the only way he could restore Essence was with food or potions. He wouldn’t recover it normally like he had when he h
ad Mana. When Essence meant Health, long drawn-out underground fights were dangerous to him. He had to keep that in mind.
James headed toward the stairs and was relieved to see if there was a chain railing hammered into the side of the mountain. As he descended, he recast Mage Armor, just in case it had been damaged in the tunnels. He had the spell constantly active unless he was in Stealth.
***
By the time they reached the bottom of the staircase, James was covered in a sheen of sweat. The air had grown progressively hotter, to the point that it was almost unbearable. He glared at Arik and Karim’s backs. Neither of the Dwarves seemed affected by the heat.
The source of the heat was the Six-Eye Sanctuary. The stairs led down to a field of fire. They’d need to pass through a sliver of the burning area, cut their way through the dense foliage of the toxic-looking environment, and circle around to the pit. Across the pit was a bridge over the river that cut the valley in half. It was also the border to the Boneyard, where they’d exit into Hedgehog Valley. Hopefully, if they stuck to the edges of the valley, they wouldn’t run into anything too high leveled.
James followed his companions off of the staircase and onto the barren earth. The ground around them was cracked, dry dirt. There were a few trees scattered around, all of them dead and burning. Other than that, they couldn’t see very far. The air was full of thick, acrid smoke. When James took a closer look at one of the cracks, he could see the dull glow of lava below.
They proceeded cautiously, taking care to avoid the cracks as much as they could. James kept a careful eye out for any enemies. He looked at the glacier to his left longingly, but the ice was much further into the territory than they were comfortable wandering.
Up ahead, there was a hissing noise followed by an explosion as steam erupted from the earth. James froze, but relaxed when he realized they weren’t under attack. Still, he kept his ears open, listening for the hissing noise.