“Whatever they are, they’re really loud, and I want them all to die,” Constantine grunted. “I don’t think I’ve managed to get more than an hour of straight sleep before another round of screeching wakes me up.”
“You and about half the group,” the scout replied. “But strangely enough, I don’t hear them complaining. If they are, then at least they’re polite enough to do it inside their own heads.”
“If that isn’t a ‘shut up, Constantine’, I don’t know what is,” I said, glancing over at the rogue who promptly made a rude sound in my direction and walked away from Kilgore and me while continuing to grumble.
“Hopefully, that’ll buy us half a night,” the elf said to me wistfully as our eyes locked briefly. “Maybe more if we set a hard pace and keep him winded.”
“Do what you need to do to give us peace, Kilgore,” I replied, this time unable to stop a yawn from crossing my face. “I don’t think anyone is going to complain.”
“Then let’s see if we can make it to Khudazal before the sun comes up,” he said as we turned to finish our final walkthrough of the chamber and get ourselves moving.
It had been an all-too-brief rest at the lakeside ruins for each of us, the last nine hours blurring by in a mix of much-needed sleep and what little exploring that we could manage of the place. Or at least everyone else did. Thanks to my ability to be able to see magic, my time was largely spent with Theia inside the nest as we sifted through all the countless bones in search of the hidden items we knew were buried within. Proving to be an even grimmer task than I’d originally thought it would be, our efforts were thankfully rewarded with a dozen more of the shattered bone weapon relics, enough to give more weight to Cassius’s theory that the behir had once preyed upon a group of orc or arakissi.
Appearing fairly similar in craftsmanship to one another, each of the relics appeared to be made of crudely worked bone with faint symbols and lines carved occasionally into their surfaces. Yet despite their more primitive and rough appearance, the magic empowering the weapon fragments was anything but, having outlived their previous owners, as well as survived a trip through the giant lizard’s digestive system. It would only take a bit of work once we got back to Aldford to give the weapons a new metal edge, the bone one they currently had looking too damaged to salvage it entirely. In either case, there was little doubt that the weapons would give us a much-needed edge for the future.
If only a workshop or a forge managed to survive whatever destroyed this place, I thought wistfully and not for the first time as I continued my final inspection of the room. Then we could have repaired a few of the relics here and now, then had them for our upcoming raid. At least we found the rings, though. I have little doubt those will be useful.
At the thought, I looked to my left hand and onto the Ring of Force that now sat on my ring finger, the dark metal band still cool to the touch despite having been worn for the last few hours. I’d managed to win it after a particularly intense rock-paper-scissors battle between Constantine and Cassius, the three of us dueling in a best-of-seven match to determine who would be able to claim it. Citing that he already had a similar sort of ability already, Berwyn had chosen to opt out of the battle and instead had chosen the Ring of Shielding, feeling that it would be a useful tool to add to his repertoire. Then lastly, and also by virtue of being our lone healer, Theia had taken the Ring of Healing, the lizardwoman having no doubts that its ability would prove to be useful in the days to come.
Of course, beyond the use of the rings themselves, we’d all been excited to finally figure out just how the ring system worked in Ascend Online—something that had been a curious mystery until now. Armed with a total of eight slots, we potentially had the ability to adorn ourselves with a truly gaudy amount of jewelry across our fingers, or at least so we’d thought. After seeing the descriptions of the latest rings we’d found, we’d realized that there was a level of nuance that had been hidden from us by virtue of our lower levels. With more powerful rings requiring multiple open slots on a hand to function, they effectively forced a player to strategize on what to wear at any given time, depending on what they expected to encounter. There was the option of choosing either a simpler, flat-attribute bonus ring that took up a single slot, such as the one ring that I had, or a situational, utility-based one that granted the use of an ability not otherwise available. I was sure that in the future, a ring’s worth would be judged not only on the ability they provided but also on the total slots they occupied on a single hand, with those requiring fewer being valued much more dearly.
“Okay, everyone,” Kilgore called out as he and I finished our final check of the room, finding that we’d left nothing behind. “It looks like we’re good to go here. Did you guys manage to finish up with everything in that ritual room downstairs?”
“Yeah, we got everything noted down and managed to seal it for good this time,” Halcyon replied as the scout turned to look at him. “No one is getting in there without digging through a literal ton of rock, and even if they did, they aren’t going to find much anyway. Caius and I scarred all the runes beyond readability.”
“Good,” Kilgore replied with a sharp nod. “At least now if this whole mission goes bust, we can console ourselves with knowing that we potentially headed off something that could have bit us in the ass later.”
“Amen to that,” Cassius said, the rest of us echoing a similar sentiment as we finished the last of our preparations, which ended with a series of attribute enhancing buffs from Theia followed by the ever-useful Spirit of the Wild.
“All right everyone,” Kilgore said once all the spellcasting was over. “With any luck, we should make it to Khudazal before the sun starts to rise. I’m thinking if we can make it there in good time, maybe we can treat ourselves to a nice round of murder and mayhem then see if we can’t start our trek back home. What do you all think?”
“Oh, yes, please!” Cassius exclaimed as everyone, save for perhaps Constantine, enthusiastically echoed out in agreement. “Today will be a day that they’ll never forget.”
“Well, then,” Kilgore said with a smile. “In that case, let’s get going.”
Then just like that, we were off.
Exiting the ruin that we’d camped out in for the day, we resumed our journey without another word, the nine of us falling into a loose formation around one another. Well used to traveling through the forest by now, it didn’t take long for us to find our speed, the wild landscape around us scrolling by steadily with every step that we took. Thanks to the behir’s hunting efforts in the area surrounding the ruins, the first hour of our journey passed with little note, the few Hartwyld vipers and smaller creatures that crossed our path being easily avoided. It was only when we were a fair distance away from the place that the regular press of wild animals finally began to return around us, forcing us to adopt a slower and more measured pace. However, it wasn’t just the reappearance of the creatures alone that caused us to move with renewed caution, but rather the challenge that they themselves posted.
Ranging now from the mid to high twenties as they slowly began to reappear, it didn’t take us long to realize that we’d managed to cross into a new sub-region within the forest filled with some of the highest leveled creatures that we’d ever seen. The result was us being forced to stop and fight almost constantly in order to deal with the random attacks, our relatively large number as a party making up for what we lacked in levels, if at least at first. It wasn’t until after a particularly close battle with half a dozen venomous snakes, two owlbears, and a giant beetle, that we realized that we were in too far over our heads and were forced to backtrack slightly. If it hadn’t been for our rush to make it to Khudazal, this particular part of the forest would have been the perfect place for us to spend several days grinding in and push our way towards level thirty. But given our circumstances and our pressing need to keep moving, we didn’t want to risk getting anyone accidentally killed and decided that it would be best to instead skirt the edges of
the region until we found a safer path.
Or at least that had been our plan until fate decided that it had other ideas for us.
“Hold up,” I said as we crested over a rough hill that rose up from the forest floor, a sudden scent in the air tickling my nose through the link I shared with Amaranth. “I smell smoke and…something burning.”
Reacting quickly to my words, it only took a second for everyone to grind to halt around me, the warning causing several sharp inhalations to echo out in sudden excitement. As the old adage went, where there was smoke, there was fire, and where there was fire, there was more than likely something or someone that had set it.
“I think I smell it too,” Kilgore replied in a faint voice, the elf’s eyes scanning the forest ahead of us for any clues of its source. “It’s faint, though. We must be pretty far away from it still.”
“Amaranth actually thinks it isn’t,” I replied with a shake of my head, going on to repeat what the cat had told me. “In either case, this is the first sign that we’ve seen that someone could be out here. We should probably check it out and see if we can’t find what’s causing it. It could be orcs.”
“Absolutely, and that’s what I was thinking too,” Kilgore agreed, taking my familiar’s correction in stride and simply nodding at the cat in acceptance. “If Amaranth thinks the smoke is close by though, we’ll have to slow down and pace our way forward carefully. At least until we know more. The last thing I want to do is blunder into another battle like that last one and send this last day of traveling down the drain.”
“I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we all heartily agree with that,” I said, turning to look back towards the group, everyone either nodding or sounding out in agreement.
With nothing else left to say, we took a few minutes to refresh all our buffs before resuming our journey, this time creeping forward at a gradual and measured pace. Guided by the promise of finding something tangible since we’d left the ruins, the next couple miles blurred by as we stalked through the forest, the scent of smoke growing steadily stronger. As it did, we eventually decided that it would be best if Amaranth and I pulled ahead of the group, using our enhanced sense to both follow the scent and to also ensure that there wasn’t something unexpected lying in wait along our route.
Hearing nothing of interest, we continued to stalk forward, our eyes cautiously scanning our surroundings as we rounded yet another hill, the trees ahead of us began to clear slightly. As they did, they revealed the beginnings of a grotto in the distance, the trees and foliage parting to either side to outline the mouth of an open cave set inside the forest floor. Staring at the sight in surprise, Amaranth and I both stopped to look at the scene, the open scar in the earth not being what either of us expected.
A loud growl suddenly echoed out from the open grotto ahead of us, stopping the cat’s words cold in my mind, both of us instantly freezing in place as our eyes went wide.
Amaranth replied, his fur finally beginning to settle after the shock that had caused us both to freeze.
Placing himself directly by my side, Amaranth and I began the process of creeping forward towards the nearest edge of the grotto ahead of us. Taking pains to move as silently as possible as we crawled through the foliage separating us from our goal, our approach fortunately masked by the increasing amount of noise that we heard begin to echo out ahead of us. Beginning first as a scraping sound emanating from the cave ahead, the sound eventually evolved into that of something hard breaking, followed shortly after by a faint, keening cry that neither Amaranth nor I could place. But as we grew closer to the cave’s mouth, we realized that it wasn’t just one set of scraping and cries that we were hearing but in fact multiple. Puzzled by the strange development, we were undeterred as we continued to crawl forward, eventually reaching our goal.
Descending at least sixty feet and stretching at least twice that distance in width, the grotto that we’d slowly crawled our way to was larger than anything that we’d expected to find hidden beneath the forest floor. Filled with a variety of growing plants and even trees similar to the forest above it, it was a near perfectly contained ecosystem, complete with its own pond of water directly at its heart. Yet where the grotto differed most from the Hartwyld surrounding it, was by the unmistakable presence of a dozen massive eggs that were piled in a smoldering nest of burning embers.
A dozen massive eggs that happened to be in the process of hatching into a fresh clutch of behirs, similar to the one we’d fought the day earlier.
Appearing into view half-way through my thought, I saw a truly gargantuan behir, its size dwarfing not only the feasting hatchlings but that of the one we’d fought earlier by several orders of magnitude. Staring completely numb at the creature’s massive size and appearance as its head bent down to inspect its newest spawn, I was greeted with a single tag appearing in my vision and pointing towards it.
[Soh-Khan The Broodmother] – Raid Boss – Level Unknown
Chapter 36
“O-o-okay,” I panted heavily as I moved rapidly through the brush, struggling to get the words out of my mouth. “I-I think we can stop for a bit. And see if we can’t…catch our breaths for a second.”
“Oh, thank fuck!” Halcyon exclaimed as we all began to slow down to a stop, the mage practically collapsing to his knees the instant we did so, breathing heavily. “I don’t think I had much more in me.”
“You and me both, Hal,” Constantine wheezed from beside the man, coughing as he tried to take a deep enough breath into his lungs. “If that thing decides to follow us after all that…I’m just letting it eat me. It’ll have earned it.”
“I don’t think it’s following us,” I replied despite full well sharing the rogue’s sentiments. “Hell, I don’t even think it knew we even saw it, or that we were there at all. But it was probably a good idea to put as much distance between us and it as quickly as possible.”
“You don’t hear any of us complaining about that,” Kilgore said, shaking his head as he spoke. “I mean, damn, an unknown level raid mob? At our level, that puts it at a minimum of level thirty-two, if not higher. Anyone with a lick of sense should be running the other way as fast as possible after seeing that.”
“No kidding,” Cassius agreed, his eyes looking up to scan the forest around us, which was still fortunately quiet after the rapid pace we’d set to get as far away from the Grotto as possible. “At least on the bright side…we finally rounded that high-leveled area. I think I saw a few creatures in the low twenties as we ran.”
Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4) Page 46