You have discovered a new ability, Focused Mental Attack. Damage 75 HP (resistance depends on the Intellect score).
…
The smoky tendrils intertwined, forming the huge and creepy otherworldly figure of the wolf.
“Run, Dan!” Jeb screamed. A fireball pierced the ghostly mob but the damage inflicted was ridiculous, only 10 HP.
The haze billowed and suddenly spread out along the ground again, like the wall of a blast wave.
…
You have discovered a new ability, Mental Attack Over Area. Damage 55 HP, radius 7 meters, negative effects: Stun 3 seconds, Aura of Fear 5 seconds.
…
I lost my balance, fell and rolled down the slope, barely finding the strength to get back on my feet.
“Jeb, heal me!”
I wasn’t far from the tree where he had hidden with Weasel. The mist crept back, coalescing into the shape of the phantom wolf again.
The minor healing restored some of my health but I had absolutely no idea what to do next.
“Dan, attack him and withdraw immediately. He’s exhausted!”
Why would that be? Why would Jeb think that?
I bounded up the slope again. I kept having the nagging feeling that a melee fighter had little chance to stand against the ghostly creature unless you had special equipment or buffs that gave you high resistance to mental attacks. I also needed special weaponry...
The mob grew indistinct again, phantom tentacles shooting towards me. I dodged them with swift rolls. One of them brushed past me. My Life bar dropped disturbingly.
“Retreat!” Jeb hollered.
Again, I went head over heels down the slope, followed by the Mental Attack Over Area.
“Yes! It’s done. I told you that he’d run out of steam soon!” Jeb screamed exuberantly.
Before I could even catch my breath, I climbed up the hill again. A fireball flew through the air ahead of me.
The phantom disappeared. Only shreds of darkness could still be seen here and there, while the leader of the pack stood in the flesh beside the portal.
His fur was smoking — Jeber_Arium hadn’t missed his chance and had fired several times. The wolf’s Life bar was shrinking in spurts and a Confusion debuff hung over him.
I took advantage of this and showered him with a barrage of strikes enhanced by Rage. I gave it my all.
The smoky wolf howled imploringly. Blood poured from his wounds and the burned parts of his skin blistered.
A second more and he fell to his side, shuddered convulsively several times and was still.
* * *
I sat on the flattened grass, breathing heavily. Weasel scampered up to me, sniffed the air and snorted. He clearly didn’t like the smell of blood.
Jeb followed him up the hill.
I was consumed with pain. My Life bar was almost empty.
“Just a second!” Jeb quickly cast several minor healings in a row.
“How did you know that the wolf would resume his usual form?” I asked hoarsely, feeling the pain ebb away and my muscles ache with fatigue.
“He was expending mana at a huge speed and not replenishing it. The ghostly appearance and the mental attacks were gobbling it up! He’s an Abyss mutation and was previously drawing energy from the portal. But now that the portal has become a normal one, the leader was left with no way to recharge.”
It was a logical explanation, proving once again that levels were one thing but without normal weapons, equipment, potions, and most importantly, without the ability to obtain and level up combat skills, we would not last here long. Twice, we’d won by the barest of margins, had nearly been sent into respawn and back to the dungeon.
“Let’s loot him and get out of here.”
The smoky wolf gave us two vials of blood marked as a ‘rare alchemical ingredient’ and a ring made from an unknown alloy. I was immediately alarmed by its rippling outline.
…
A metamorph ring. Item from the Abyss.
Strength +5.
Dexterity +5.
Special feature: The wearer of this ring is endowed with Level 1 Metamorph Ability. Effect: You can transform into a disembodied form. Conventional weapons (dealing only physical damage) pass through your body without causing harm. Duration 20 seconds. Cooldown/recharge 1 hour.
Restriction: Can only be used by a Warrior of the Abyss.
…
Such a ring would be so handy for me right now! Perhaps I would be able to ignore the class constraints at high levels of Adaptability but who knew when that would happen?
Jeb showed little interest in the finds, glancing at them briefly and then going to study the portal.
“Any luck?” I placed the ring and vials in my inventory.
“The standard interface is working again now!” Jeb declared happily. “There used to be access to five destination points from here but now only two are active. We don’t really have much choice. But now we know the name of the town that the Ifrit burned down!”
Looking at the portal interface, I understood what Jeb meant. A menu bar appeared before my mind’s eye.
Flooded Mine Teleport. Active.
Select a destination:
Cloud Shelter (no response).
Griffin Breeding Grounds (no response).
Dungeon of Noogard (active)
Noogard’s Pass (no response).
Rabbit Junction (active).
…
Yes, that certainly wasn’t much choice. I’d have to look up information about Noogard but now we had to be on our way.
Jeb nodded to me, confirming that he was ready to travel. Weasel had crawled under his shirt and was peeking out of there.
With a flicker of my pupils, I selected the destination and reality became distorted for a moment.
…
You have discovered a lost stone teleport (+1 to Fame if you list the coordinates on a public map).
You have discovered a lost location, Dryad Stow.
…
“Jeb, stay on your toes!”
I gazed around with surprise and concern.
The place looked nothing like a junction. Nor like an ordinary forest. It was hot and humid, as if we were in a jungle. The trees around us were mighty and gnarled like old oak trees but they were all dried up... The sky was gloomy with low-hanging storm clouds promising imminent rain.
Thick grass pushed through the traces of an old fire. The area was covered in narrow flooded ditches, connecting small ponds covered with swamp duckweed. Streaks of thick fog floated over the canals. The whitish haze severely hampered visibility due to the lack of wind.
The teleport stone must have shifted here when the Abyss invaded, and was stuck obliquely in the ground and covered in withered leaves. Not only had it changed location but it must have served as a conduit for harmful mutations for a long time.
The magic symbols on it were barely glowing. The normal sequence was working now and I called up the interface, hoping that it would show new destination points.
…
Rabbit Junction/Dryad Stow Teleport (change or confirm the name).
Select a destination:
Northern Frontier (no response).
Mercenary Tavern (no response).
Flooded Mine.
Snake Catcher Oasis (no response).
Unicorn Forest (no response).
…
Was this a dead end? This portal could bring us back to the mine, but no more than that…
I wondered what ‘stow’ meant. It sounded ominous but I wanted to find out the exact meaning.
A search produced immediate results. It turned out that a stow was a natural boundary, such as a swamp in the middle of a field, a rock ledge or a ravine that separated parts of a forest. Although, I suspected that it had another meaning here...
Weasel dropped down to the ground and disappeared into the fog, but then came straight back and clambered up Jeb’s clothes to his shoulder, as if scared of somet
hing.
“Come one, let’s look around and try to find a respawn circle,” I wasn’t in the mood to stand around.
It was muggy. The canals were shallow, only knee-deep. We crossed several of them easily and reached the nearest pond.
“Dan, look,” Jeb whispered shakily, pointing to a tree torn out with its roots. Only a fragment of its massive trunk remained. What kind of strength was needed to pull such a giant out of the ground?
“Shh!” I felt a regular vibration in the soil. Someone enormous was stomping around nearby.
There were muffled sounds of creaking, sighing and rustling.
We hid behind the remains of the fallen tree and watched but the mysterious creature didn’t appear, hidden by the fog.
Lighting flashed in the distance and thunder rumbled. The heavy clouds released their first drops and soon the rain was bucketing down.
It grew much darker and the rising wind chased away the mist. The rolls of thunder drew closer and closer, becoming clearer and more deafening.
We had nowhere to hide and were instantly soaked to the skin. There was nothing to do but to keep going, since we didn’t know when the downpour would stop.
A branched lightning lit up our surroundings, revealing an enormous mossy figure.
…
Wood Giant. Guardian of the Stow. Level 105.
…
He was stomping around in one place, packing down the soggy earth and paying us no attention.
“Get lost! Get lost! Get lost!” his creaking voice was even louder than the thunder.
Something was moving beneath the giant’s feet!
I took a closer look when the next lighting flashed. The ground and fallen tree trunks were completely covered in a carpet of insects. I focused on one of the frames,
Black Woodborer Beetle. Mutation of the Abyss. Level 35.
…
There were hundreds of them! So that’s who had turned the uprooted trees into dust. The insatiable horde was probably slowly migrating from the portal.
“Jeb, could we help the giant?”
“Are you crazy? We still haven’t changed our anchor point!”
He was right. The massive beetles look menacing. Their shells were black and glossy and were probably as hard as armor. Their powerful mandibles easily bit through branches as thick as my arm.
“Fine. We’ll go around them for now. There must be a respawn point here!” I turned around and spotted the squirrel hiding in my companion’s shirt. “Weasel, scout it out, off you go!
The animal didn’t listen to me but Jeb’s request had the desired effect. Weasel briskly leaped to the ground and disappeared among the inclement weather.
“I see him on the map.”
“Does Weasel uncover the map for you?”
“Yes. Let’s follow him. Keep up, Dan!”
* * *
The downpour continued and the ground beneath our feet turned to slush. The shapes of dead Wood Giants appeared out of the haze — they had held the line of defense but had lost the battle. The giants had literally been gnawed away. Their bark was completely gone and their gnarly branch-like arms had gone black in the rain.
This place spoke of tragedy. It was clear that this area used to be a dense forest. But who had the giants been protecting?
The realism was taking its toll. I shivered, but not from the cold. I wanted to turn around and, defying common sense, rush back to help the last defender of the stow.
“Keep going, Dan! I don’t think it’s far now, look!” Jeb pointed ahead.
He was right. Living trees began to gradually appear. Many had been damaged by something and had partially dried out but didn’t die. Soon Weasel’s path brought us the edge of a mossy thicket. The oak trees here grew so close that their canopies intertwined.
The respawn circle could be seen beside the oldest tree. This relic had survived centuries and the attacks of the Abyss-altered creatures, but things weren’t looking good for it. Its bark was peeling and the leaves had shriveled.
“Quickly,” Jeb hurried me along. His attention was focused solely on the respawn circle.
A few more steps and we left the wall of rain behind us. Only the large drops, flowing down the leaves, reached the forest floor here.
A respawn point... finally!
Another step and the long-awaited sign appeared before me,
You have discovered the respawn circle of the Dryad Stow.
Would you like to change the anchor point?
…
I answered ‘Yes’ without hesitation.
Farewell, the underground! We had finally broken free of you!
The crowns of nearby trees were suddenly disturbed as if by a gust of wind. There was crackling and rustling. The branches dipped lower to the ground, as if someone hiding among the leaves wanted to take a closer look at us.
I saw the dim outline of a being step away from the dying oak. A moment later, it turned into a gaunt woman wrapped in a dense leaf cloak.
Dryad[4], Level 152.
Her frame was yellow so she was neutral to us.
“You are too late, Guardian. It is too late to fix anything,” she said with quiet reproach, then added, “If you had closed the Abyss portal a bit earlier...”
“You are mistaken,” I didn’t want to lie to her. “We are simple travelers. We’re moving from the Dark Frontier in search of a road to the Peaceful Woods near Anchor.”
The Dryad looked at me closely. “Yes, you are not a Guardian,” she sighed in agreement. “And who knows if you will become one. Nevertheless, I would thank you for your help since one of you has closed the Abyss portal. I can feel it there is no point denying it!”
“I accidentally acquired two artifacts,” there was no point in dissembling for the Dryad could see right through us. “We restored one portal with their help,” I answered. “But it was far from here.”
“Distance doesn’t matter. There was a chain of events. I’m afraid, traveler, that you won’t be left alone. Have you seen the Abyss? Have you seen its creations and their minions?”
“Yes. We barely escaped death.”
“You are still weak. Why are you so eager to help the last defender of the Stow?”
Wow, she could read thoughts? I was indeed listening to the distant sounds, trying to determine whether the Wood Giant could cope with the horde surrounding him.
“No, he will not be able to defeat them. Our time is up. The portal has spread its pestilent mutations for too long. Nothing is precious or sacred in our world to the creatures of the Abyss. The cradle of the Dryads has been destroyed. The special trees with which we are inextricably linked have been lost. Our natural magic is distorted and weakened by the long influence of the Abyss.”
“How can we help?”
I noticed that Jeb nodded in approval since our dialogue with a high-level NPC clearly presumed a rare quest, but to be honest, I had completely forgotten that we were in the digital world in that moment. War had left a deep scar on my soul. The feelings and memories that I had tried to keep locked away suddenly stirred under the overwhelming atmosphere of hopelessness and despair surrounding us.
“Where does this bitter force inside you come from?” the Dryad flinched as if she had mentally touched something hot.
“My past.” I only shrugged because she would not understand the explanation. “How can we help you?”
“Tell me, how did you obtain the Guardian’s Amulet?”
“I found it in the Peaceful Woods. To be honest, I took it from some remains.”
“This means all the Guardians are dead.” the Dryad stared into my eyes. “Yes, you can help me. Find out who that person was. And take this,” she stretched her arm out towards me.
I saw a grain. A tiny insignificant grain.
“What is it?”
“A seed of the Dryad tree. I have no one else to turn to!” she begged. “Find a safe place where it can grow. Only then will we be reborn in this world. Everything i
s finished here. This battle has been lost…”
As if confirming her words, the earth shuddered.
“The last giant has fallen. Go!” the Dryad pointed to the path leading into the thicket. I could have sworn that a solid wall of trees stood there a minute ago. “Hurry. I’ll delay the creatures of the Abyss.”
Edge of the Abyss (Respawn Trials Book #1) LitRPG Series Page 22
