The Conduit

by Erik Anderson

  Unsticking ourselves from the webbed walls, we stood up and continued deeper into the cave. What looked like a doorway made of webs had been torn to pieces, and I surmised that this was done by the shadow spider that had successfully fled our last battle. We stepped through the threshold into a large chamber filled with egg sacs. Crawling around the walls and ceiling were newly hatched spiderlings about the size of squirrels. In the center, the wounded shadow spider was chittering away with a level 25 spider queen. She turned to us, her eyes blazing with mindless fury. She heaved, preparing to send a command to the spiderlings, but I pre-empted her with my own shout.

  “Arachna!” I was prepared for the headache, but as the last of my Psi points bar became greyed out, Jimmy’s form shattered and I felt his presence in my mind once again. The spider, now displayed as Arachna, level 25 spider queen, suddenly stopped, and spoke.

  Her voice sounded inhuman and mangled, but I could discern her words. “What have you done? Approach. You will not be harmed. Yet.” Cautiously, we moved further into the chamber. “My children.” Each of her eight eyes narrowed in anger, as she hissed. “You killed them. Why should I spare you?”

  Quest updated: Reach an agreement with Arachna.

  Emera touched my arm, whispering. “I might be able to revive them.” Not having realized that was an option, I was filled with a cautious hope.

  “We have a healer who might be able to revive the ones we felled. If you bring one here, and wait for her ability to recover, we can try.”

  Arachna chittered at the shadow spider, which raced to the entrance of the chamber and disappeared the way we’d come with a flurry of clicking legs. “Very well, your healer will have her chance. If she fails, I will have you all as a meal.” Hearing that, I shuddered involuntarily. By the time the shadow spider returned with one of its fallen brethren, Emera’s ability was off cooldown. We all waited tensely, our hands on our weapons, as Emera recited the words. At first, nothing happened, and I was certain we were all dead as doornails, but slowly the spider’s legs unfolded, and it shakily rose. It saw us and raised its talons, but after a quick round of chittering from Arachna it dropped them, eyeing us warily.

  Another quick bit of communication between the spiders, and both shadow spiders ran back to where our prior enemies had fallen. Arachna turned and focused on us. “I will spare you if you raise the rest.” Remembering that we had a quest to complete here, I tried to get a better deal than that. Before I could speak, Alicia grabbed my arm.

  “Ersuasion-pay, emember-ray?” It had been a while since I’d heard pig latin, but I got her meaning. It would be best to let her do the talking. At the end of our negotiations, I was certain that her skill had made a difference. Arachna would provide spider silk for the wood elven tailors, as well as a force of spiders in case the village got attacked. They would also limit their meals to animals present in the forest. In return, the village would provide guards to warn any adventurers away from the cave. We also agreed to revive any spiders that fell either in battle or while hunting in the forest. When all parties agreed to the terms, a notification appeared.

  Quest completed: Reach an agreement with Arachna.

  You have reached level 11! You have gained 1 Int and 1 Str. All words gain 3% mastery, all combat skills gain 0.5 points proficiency. To allocate free points, open their respective menus.

  50 PP freed for use. 100 PP remains locked.

  Chapter 13: Return to the Village on the Lake

  Finally! I checked my attributes. My Str and Int had increased automatically. For the extra three points, I put another into Int, one into Con, and one into Wil. I used mana extensively, so I wanted to increase the size of my pool to cast more spells each encounter. There was something wrong with increasing in level without an increase in HP, so a point went into Con. I was very interested in developing my psionic abilities, which were controlled primarily by Wil, so that got a point too. In addition, every point in Wil increased my MP regeneration, which would become more important during lengthy battles. After I was done allocating the points, I looked at my new resource pools and regeneration rates.

  LVL 11

  Base

  Mod

  Total

  Str

  11

  2

  13

  Con

  11

  0

  11

  Agi

  10

  0

  10

  Int

  12

  0

  12

  Wil

  11

  5

  16

  Cha

  10

  2

  12

  HPMAX

  110

  HPR/min

  1.3

  MPMAX

  120

  MPR/sec

  1.6

  EPMAX

  130

  EPR/sec

  1

  PPtotal

  160

  PPR/min

  1.2

  PPlocked

  100

  PPMAX

  60

  All in all, I was marginally stronger than I had been previously. The largest change I noticed was that some of the PP I had spent imbuing sentience on Emera, Grith, and Arachna had been unlocked. The more exciting aspect of leveling up was that I had gained enough proficiency points from combat and leveling to push two of my skills up to 5, unlocking a new ability for each of them. I decided to keep some proficiency points in reserve in case another skill reached the point where I could push it over the edge. I spent the points and checked my skills.

  Skills

  Proficiencies

  Current

  Max

  Swordcasting(Int/Str)

  5.0

  9

  Architecture (Int, Cha)

  2.8

  8

  Leadership (Cha, Wil)

  3.8

  9

  Swordsmanship (Str, Agi)

  5.0

  9

  Shield Use (Agi, Con)

  2.8

  7

  Heavy Armor (Con, Str)

  3.5

  8

  Psionic Sight (Wil, Int)

  1.3

  10

  Psionic Lash (Wil, Agi)

  1.7

  10

  Combine Elements (Int, Agi)

  1.3

  8

  Imbue Sentience (Wil, Con)

  2.5

  10

  As soon as I spent the points, two notifications appeared.

  You have unlocked a new Swordcasting ability!

  Store spell: You may pre-cast a spell, storing it in your sword such that you can cast it instantly later. Costs 10 mana in addition to the spell’s own cost. Mana spent storing spells will be locked, and cannot be regenerated until the stored spell is released.

  You have unlocked a new Swordsmanship ability!

  Disarm: You can attack an opponent’s weapon for a chance to disarm them. Deals no damage. Costs 10 EP.

  Disarm would be useful if we faced weapon-wielding humanoids, but I was more interested in storing spells. I usually pre-cast shields before combat, and if I combined that tactic with storing a strong attack spell then I would be able to get the jump on any opponent I faced. I was still musing when an interruption came from inside my own head.

  Jimmy: All right jackass, let me out.

  Alex: Oh, right, sure, one second.

  Now that I had regained access to my psionic abilities, I summoned the Crystalline avatar. Jimmy’s consciousness immediately traveled along the crackling red line of energy connecting me to the avatar, inhabiting it and clothing it in the appearance of a monk. Our party gathered, we ventured forth, assuring Arachna that we would hold up our end of the bargain. We decided to leave Emera at the camp we’d built near the cave’s entrance. It would take her a few hours to revive all the spiders we’d killed, and she could join us in the elven village when she was
done. As we walked, Alicia looked through her bag, stopping suddenly.

  “One of my asses is gone!” She frantically searched herself, looking panicked. “It was right there, I had a perfect little shadow spider ass and now it’s missing!” I had a hunch I knew what was going on, so I broke the bad news to her.

  “I think when Emera resurrected the spider, it got its ass back.” I said somberly.

  “That’s so lame! I had big plans for that ass, tremendous plans, you’ve never seen a plan so good.” Alicia looked despondent. However, a moment later she was riffling through her pack with excitement. “Aha! Found it!” She pulled out a wooden mortar and pestle, sat cross-legged on the ground, and immediately started grinding up spider bits with other pieces of flora and fauna that she’d gathered.

  Intrigued, I asked. “Where did you get that?”

  Without looking up, Alicia replied. “Made it.” She spared me a quick glance, continuing. “You think you’re all fancy designing houses. Well, I spend my time making useful stuff.”

  “Houses are useful.” I deadpanned.

  Alicia shooed me away. “Shut it, I’m busy. Go to the elf village, I’ll catch up later.” Shrugging, we left her to her ass-centric alchemy and returned to the village. Most of the NPCs were idly wandering around the town. I remembered drafting improvements in the illusion, but none of them were made in reality. Well, not reality, but the non-illusionary aspect of virtual reality. You get the idea. I decided to offer Nareth my services.

  “Hey Nareth, do you want me to draft some improvements for the village? I have the Architecture skill.” He looked surprised for a moment, but recovered quickly, nodding. I walked around with him, and he pointed out buildings he wanted improved or built. He liked my idea of tree stands for the scouts, and I also laid the plans for upgrading the huts to cabins. The villagers immediately got to work, and I enjoyed a healthy boost to my Architecture proficiency. After I finished going around the village planning improvements, I noticed Alicia saunter into the village. She was beaming.

  “I made some potions! I don’t know how many of those spiders Emera has resurrected so far, but it looks like I was able to grind their asses up quickly enough that they didn’t disappear.” With a grin, she showed us what she had made.

  Flask of spore cloud: Throw to create a spore cloud with a diameter of 2 meters on impact. Targets that are exposed to the cloud will suffer a fit of coughing and sneezing. The cloud and its effects last 10 seconds.

  Potion of spider’s agility: Increases Agi by 4 points for 10 minutes.

  She rummaged through her bag a little more. “I made these too, though they are way less exciting.” As she revealed the other potions to us, I disagreed vehemently.

  Potion of healing: Recovers 20 points of HP over 10 seconds.

  Potion of mana recovery: Recovers 20 points of MP over 10 seconds.

  She had made enough for all of us to have two healing potions each, while Emera and I would have 5 mana recovery potions each. Alicia held onto Emera’s potions until she returned from reviving the spiders. While we waited, we discussed our next move with Nareth.

  “I think we should try to get to the village at night, just in case anything has changed, and Frank has surprises in store for us.” He said.

  “Not only that, but if he doesn’t want to tell us what happened to Silas, we could probably get him out of the town and try to get more information somewhere private.” Grith added. Nareth nodded in agreement, and I couldn’t believe they were discussing it so calmly.

  “You really want to kidnap him?” I considered the idea and addressed Nareth. “If that’s the case, I think we should act as if all you want is closure. If he knows Silas could be alive and talking, he might be less inclined to cooperate.” Nareth agreed readily. We decided that we’d approach the Village on the Lake from the forest, and Alicia would sneak in to do reconnaissance. After we’d worked everything out, night was falling, and Emera returned. Alicia handed her an allotment of potions and told her about our plan. We decided that a small group was best, so the only ones with us were those that went into Arachna’s cave. With our plan finalized, we entered the forest and traveled towards our confrontation with Frank.

  The trip was uneventful, and night had fully fallen by the time we reached the tree line outside the village. The watch towers I had drafted previously were completed, and torchlight flickered within them, revealing the guards I’d previously hired. The villagers had placed torches throughout the field that had been created by pushing the tree line back. This made Alicia skeptical of being able to pull off a clandestine entrance, and she grumbled as she picked through her backpack. She pulled out one of the agility potions she’d made and downed it, gagging. I couldn’t help grinning at her.

  “So, how does that potion taste?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  She glared at me in response. “It tastes exactly how you’d expect a spider’s ass to taste.” Having only 10 minutes, she immediately started creeping through shadowy paths cast by the torches. Within a few moments she disappeared into the village. We waited patiently, and just as her 10 minutes were up, she returned. “I have good news and bad news.”

  I always liked hearing the bad part first, so that the good could take the edge off. “Give us the bad news first.”

  Alicia went on, chewing her lip and looking troubled. “The bad news is that Frank works fast. Apparently one of those crystals appeared just outside the village. Frank must have done something with it, because when I entered the village I got a message that I was entering ‘Frank’s Village’.”

  That wasn’t good at all. I had been worried that Frank might try to take over after I left, but I didn’t expect him to make his move so soon. “What’s the good news?” I asked.

  Alicia looked pleased as she answered. “His murdering, double-crossing ass is asleep.”

  Chapter 14: The best laid plans

  We decided that Nareth and Alicia, the stealthiest of our group, would sneak back into the village to grab Frank and secret him away. Alicia had gathered the reagents required to make a poison that would keep someone asleep, or knock them out. She even had hollowed-out needles with which to deliver it quietly. That seemed like a great tool to have, so I asked her how many she had on hand.

  “Not as many as I’d like. Your snoring is awful, so every night I stab you with a couple of these, which quiets you down.” Alicia stated calmly.

  With a look of abject horror, I replied. “That sounds like it could kill me! Besides, my snoring can’t be as bad as yours.”

  Alicia shrugged. “I’ve never heard myself snore, so it can’t be that bad. Besides, even though you only take a handful of breaths a minute after I stick you, you haven’t died yet.” I was already mentally drafting where I wanted my own cabin in the village when I felt something sharp prod me in the back.

  “Alicia.” I said, turning around. “That’s not funny.” Unfortunately, Alicia wasn’t the one poking me. Somehow, a group of cutthroats had sneaked up on us, and had daggers pressed against our vital points.

  One of them spoke up. “It sounds like they was planning on kidnapping Frank.”

  Another replied. “That’s what it sounded like, yeah.”

  A third chimed in. “No funny business, just come with us and nobody gets hurt.”

  The first said something unnerving. “I don’t think we need all of ‘em, maybe just one or two.”

  The second turned to him. “Why would you say that out loud to ‘em? What if they tries to fight?”

  The third one, who had been threatening Alicia, promptly fell to the ground with a needle sticking in his arm. The bandits turned to each other, and I finally noticed with my psionic sight that all their eyes were glowing red with energy, and they had tethers of psionic power attached which converged somewhere just beyond the village. While they were distracted, I attacked the tether connected to my assailant with a psionic lash. The cord snapped back into his head, stunning him with the feedback. In one
swift motion, I drew my sword and decapitated him before he could recover. A loud “HROOOM” sounded next to me. The bandit near Alicia had pulled out and blown into a horn, alerting the village to the threat we presented. My allies drew their weapons, and I rapidly lashed out at the tethers streaming from the four remaining bandits. Each lash used 10 PP and I was reeling from the use of most of my power, but it gave the rest of our group enough time to deliver a coup de grace.

  Torches were glinting off swords and armor as reinforcements from the village made their way to our position. Alicia grabbed my arm, pulling me deeper into the forest, shouting. “RUN!” I shook her off, casting rapid force shield bolts in quick succession against the enraged villagers running towards the treeline. My casts came quicker and quicker, but my mana depleted rapidly. Several of the villagers were thrown to the ground by my spells, but the rest came thundering on, and I followed Alicia into the forest. I started out at a sprint, but my heavy armor combined with low agility consumed my endurance at an alarming rate. Still, I managed to catch up to Alicia, and without a word she handed me a potion. I chugged it, miraculously keeping it down. Alicia had mentioned that the flavor was bad, but the sensation of spiders crawling around in my stomach was almost too much. Despite its nastiness, the four-point boost to Agility was welcome, and my EP was no longer draining so quickly. Ahead of us, Emera tripped over a branch and fell, crying out. She looked terrified, and was clutching her ankle. I grabbed one of the health potions Alicia had given me.

  “Here, drink this, we need to keep moving!” Emera took it from me gratefully and quaffed it. As her HP returned, her sprained ankle recovered as well. I helped her up and we continued. It felt like we’d been running for hours, and when we stopped to listen for our pursuers all we heard were the sounds of the forest. Exhausted, we waited until our EP recovered before going the rest of the way to the elven village. Fortunately, we’d all made it back, but I felt that while we’d escaped the immediate danger, more trouble would be coming our way. I addressed the rest of the group.