by Edward Brody
I nodded, and Adeelee began reaching for her bow and arrow.
The Princess kneeled into sneak mode and carefully sauntered back to get a good look around the corner. Liam and I followed close behind.
Adeelee was only a few feet from the corner when a gnoll suddenly rounded from the direction we were heading. The constant chatter from further within must have hid the sound of its footsteps. It wore a thick leather chestpiece and what appeared to be small, brown leather shorts far above its knees. No weapon was in its hands.
The gnoll looked startled when he saw us crouching down so close to him, but Adeelee acted first, letting her arrow fly without taking any deliberate aim.
The gnoll screamed when the arrow pieced its gut, stumbled back, and slammed its back in the wall as it grabbed on to the arrow’s hilt.
Adeelee fastened her bow, and the chatter from deep within the cave went silent. Liam and I both sent blasts of magic towards the gnoll, both freezing and burning it at the same time.
Adeelee pulled out her sword, and we all rushed around the corner to strike down the stunned gnoll and confront the incoming attackers.
The gnolls running towards us looked like a wave of brown rage. There were at least ten that I counted—more than Adeelee had warned us about.
I instinctively raised a Fire Curtain in the running path of the gnolls, covering the entire length of the small path. Only one was stupid enough to continue running, falling through the fire, and rolling on the ground in in front of us as it tried to extinguish the flames.
Adeelee slammed her sword onto the gnoll we had earlier downed, ending its life, and with the other gnolls being subdued, we quickly tried to form a plan.
“Too many?!” I asked. “Should we run?”
“I can take two or three,” Adeelee said.
“Liam?” I asked as I turned to him.
Liam’s eyes were closed, and he held his staff out in front of him with both hands. An invisible, cool, energy seemed to be radiating off his body. His eyes snapped open, and he slammed his staff on the ground.
A few feet in front of him, a circle in the ground seemed to instantly become wet, then it froze to ice and began to quickly build up higher as if particles in the air were freezing and sticking to it.
“We have help,” Liam said strongly.
The gnoll on the ground had cleared the fire from its fur and my Fire Curtain expired right at the same time. All the gnolls were rushing towards us again.
There was no time for any more talking or planning—we had to fight or run—and it was clear that Liam didn’t want to run
I cast a Clumsy spell on a random gnoll, shot a blast from my staff, then immediately flung a Fireblast at another, while trying to keep an eye on the strange spell that Liam had cast.
As gnolls closed in, the ice continued to materialize until there were thick arms and legs. The entity started trudging forward even when its round almost-humanoid head had yet to populate. The sound of ice crunching filled the air with each step.
Liam joined in the fray, creating pancakes of ice the ground, causing some gnolls to slip. He lobbed shards of ice and released blasts from his staff as quickly as he could.
Adeelee rushed forward, slashing her sword at one gnoll, dancing in different directions, and slashing her sword at others.
The ice elemental that Liam summoned slammed its icy fist into the jaw one of the gnolls, spun, and whacked another with a backhand fist. It had grown taller and bulkier, but it was only about half the size of the sand elemental that I had battled in the Sands and was nowhere near the size of the elementals I had seen battling outside the Wastelands. It was closer to the size of the Shadow Elemental Adeelee and I had fought inside the orc camp in my early days of Eden’s Gate, but regardless of its size it was doing as much work as an entire new party member.
The gnoll were all armed differently. Some had spears, some had large butcher knives, and at least a couple of them were comically wielding fishing poles. I’m not sure what the gnolls carrying the poles were thinking, but Adeelee had no trouble ducking each time a rod was swung her way, and it only took a few blasts of magic to knock them to the ground.
Their spears and knives chipped bits of ice off the elemental when they struck it, but the odd creature seemed to completely ignore the attacks and swung wildly at anything that was attacking it.
I continued standing back as far as I could, lobbing Arcane Missiles and casting Clumsy on any and every gnoll that I saw. I cast energy from my staff any time a gnoll looked like it was going to close in on me, but I generally stuck to casting missiles and Clumsy—trying to avoid damaging the elemental with my fire and trying to conserve charges in my staff. There was no telling how much further we had to go to reach our destination.
You have reached level 8 in Mentalism!
When there were only a few weakened gnolls left on their feet, I rushed in, unable to stand back any longer, and swung my staff at each one. My blows felt slow and awkward—I was clearly nowhere near as strong fighting with a staff than a sword, but the blows were still impactful enough to damage the gnolls.
With a few more bashes and slashes, the gnolls were all down. The ice elemental was turning its head looking for something that wasn’t there.
Adeelee yanked her sword out of the last whining gnoll, then began sliding her sword across its armor to free the blade from as much of the blood as possible. “Well done,” she said.
Liam raised his hand, and the ice elemental seemed to both crumble and melt at the same time. “Well done, Princess.”
I smiled and felt a bit embarrassed that I had doubted the situation. Liam did have more tricks up his sleeve, and maybe I was underestimating our power as a group entirely. But… the fact that a couple of the gnolls were wielding fishing poles did help quite a bit.
My breathing was still heavy as my heart rate slowly started returning to normal, but I took no time for rest or meditation this time. I immediately kneeled and started looting the nearest gnoll. If I wanted to have any shot of bringing anything home from our outing, I needed to get ahead of Liam.
Chapter Fourteen
2/10/0001
I pocketed 400 gold from the gnolls and a few gems. Their weapons were crude and useless, but I also placed both fishing rods in my bag to bring home. Despite them being used as weapons, they appeared in decent condition. I had no idea if they had any value, but it might be fun to see if they’d work to catch any fish someday.
“300 gold and a few gems,” Adeelee said.
“Nothing important over here,” Liam added as he dropped something into his bag.
Once we finished up looting, we entered the room from where the gnolls had run from, and it looked like some sort of crude meat or food processing facility. There were several tall wooden tables with no chairs, and all of the tables were covered with raw animal flesh. There were dead carcasses on two of the tables, and the rest of the meat was chopped up into various shapes and sizes. One table was covered in fish, and on the wall were knives, mallets, and even more fishing poles.
Liam groaned as we searched the area. “Smells terrible in here.”
“Over here is something,” Adeelee called out as she pulled a parchment out from a slot at the base in one of the tables. She unrolled the paper and studied it. “A recipe.” Her eyes caught something else in the same are, then again pulled something out of the same slot. “And another.”
“Crafting recipe?” I asked.
“Cooking,” Adeelee said, unraveling the second. “A basic meat stew of some sort, and a fish kebab offering a higher breath-holding capacity.” She looked up from the recipes and held them up. “Either of you cook?”
Liam snarled. “Worthless to me, but I’ll gladly sell.”
I shrugged. “I don’t cook, but I can give them to Keysia. She’s started working on her cooking skills.”
Adeelee’s jaw tensed. “Keysia? Is she the dark elf in your guild?”
I nodded.
Adeelee swallowed and paused a moment as if she needed a moment to consider her decision, but then she handed the recipes over the me.
You’ve received: Schematic: Thick Lard Stew. [Foodstuffs. Satiates when eaten] Requires 15 Intelligence. Requires Cooking Lvl 5. Requires: 1 Animal Fat, 1 Animal Steak, 1 Green Vegetables, 1 Seasoning. Durability: 7/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.1 kg
You’ve received: Schematic: Salty Fish Patty. [Foodstuffs. Satiates when eaten. Allows underwater breathing for 5 minutes] Requires 25 Intelligence. Requires Cooking Lvl 15. Requires: 1 Deepbiter Fish, 1 Shallowfin Fish, 1 Seasoning. Durability: 9/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Epic. Weight: 0.1 kg
Liam snickered. “You’re guilded with a dark elf? How odd.”
I huffed and scowled. “She’s a great girl.”
“A great girl?” Liam laughed. “It sounds like you might have a thing for her.”
I took a deep breath and almost tried defending myself, but I didn’t want to lie. I did have a think for Keysia. But then I also found myself in an uncomfortable situation by not denying it in front of Adeelee. I kinda wanted Liam to just go away already.
“Let’s move on,” I said.
We traced our steps back to the room with the three separate routes and started down the final opening that was furthest to the right. Like the other paths, there was little of interest during the first few minutes down the path, but as we continued further, the ground seemed to become flatter, harder, and there were many more gnoll prints on the ground. It seemed as if that route had been used quite a bit more than the others.
There were no enemy encounters the entire length of the path, and it ultimately ended in another large, circular room which also seemed to be unguarded.
At the center of the room was something that looked like a rusted bell resting on the ground. It stood nearly ten feet tall and twenty feet in diameter. At its top was a thick, rusted chain that held on to it loosely from the ceiling above.
“Looks like this fell or something,” Adeelee said. She pointed toward a lever, similar to the one we had seen earlier sitting near the bell. “Perhaps this was an alert system of some sort before the bell mechanism broke.”
Liam paced around the bell before stopping at the lever. “There’s nothing else of interest in this room. We might as well try.”
I had my reservations, but I gave a nod. I was gaining some confidence in our ability to fight the creatures we had been battling with my two companions, and he was right. There was nothing else to try.
“Get ready,” Liam said before he yanked hard on the lever.
When the metal lever was pulled back, the heavy chain attached to the top of the bell quickly pulled upwards and grew tense against the weight of the bell. My eyes followed the trail of the chain as it ran across the ceiling, and it ended at two large metal gears attached to steel pegs. The gears didn’t move, nor did the bell or anything else of interest change in the room, however.
Adeelee grabbed her sword, and we all waited patiently for some sort of reaction from the lever pull.
I turned around searching for a sign that something significant had changed, but I saw nothing. The only other notable feature in the room was a small board on the wall with six holding pegs. In one of the pegs was a poor-quality spear like the ones that gnolls had been using, but the other five were empty.
“Whatever this was, it appears to be broken,” Adeelee said.
“So either the chest in the other room has all the magic that the Omnicron was sensing or this wasn’t the right place after all,” Liam said.
I sighed, but then I noticed a very faint sound in the air. It was almost unnoticeable—a ticking, like that of a small timepiece. I held up my palm. “Wait.”
“What is it?” Adeelee asked.
I put my finger up to my lips and concentrated on the sound. “Do you hear that?”
“Yes,” Adeelee said. “A slight ticking.”
Liam frowned. “I don’t hear anything.”
I listened closer. There was no discernible place where the ticketing was coming from, but when I looked back down to the lever Liam had pulled, it was almost in a center position. I glanced back up to the gears on the wall and then back down to the lever and smiled.
“We might still be in the right place,” I said.
“What do you mean?” Liam asked. “There’s nothing here but this bell.”
“No,” I said as I rushed over to the lever. “This is some sort of security mechanism.” I waved my hand in a circle in front of me. “Or something like it. That ticking. It’s a timer. And look closely… The lever is slowly moving back to its original position.”
“So what?” Liam asked. He grabbed the lever and tried to pull it again, but it didn’t move.
“Wait,” I said. “Wait until it’s back in position, then pull it again.”
Liam took a deep breath and crossed his arms but waited a little while longer ‘til the lever snapped back in position. There was another clank from overhead, and when I looked up, I noticed that the two gears that were previously together were now spaced several inches apart.
As I thought, the ticking stopped as soon as it was in place.
“Now,” I said and stepped forward, pulling the lever myself.
Again, the chain connected to the bell tightened, and this time I noticed the spaced gears move back into the connected position. Still, nothing else in the room changed other than the ticking sound starting again.
“That’s it,” I said. I turned around, pointing to the wooden board on the wall. “When you pulled the lever in the other room, the sound we heard were the gears in this room. Five gnolls came to attack us with spears… hence why there are six empty spaces on the wall.”
“I get where you’re going,” Adeelee said.
I smiled, feeling glad that I was adding value to the group. “The gears on the wall are only connected when the lever is pulled, but after a bit of time, the lever snaps back and the gears disconnect. The lever in the other room must be pulled before the lever in this room snaps back for it to work.”
“For what to work?” Liam asked.
I pooched my lips and rubbed my chin. “I’m not sure about that, but I’m pretty sure this is their failsafe. Neither lever does anything on its own, and the treasure chest in the other room allowed them to guard only one room while alerting them to any would-be adventurers who have no idea how the system works.”
Liam smirked as if he wasn’t sure of my assessment.
“So—“ Adeelee began before I cut her off.
“So, we need someone to go into the other room and pull the other lever before the time runs out on this one.”
“And what if that’s a trap?” Adeelee asked. “What if it raises this bell, rings it, and a whole swarm of gnolls comes from somewhere?”
“We saw no other entrances or exits, so they’d have to come from a trap door or something,” I said.
“Doubtful,” Adeelee said, “but anything is possible here.”
“Whatever,” Liam said. “We need to find out if your theory works, so who’s going to pull the lever? Gunnar, I take it?”
My head jerked towards Liam. I hadn’t even thought about who exactly would pull the lever in the other room, but the thought of leaving Liam alone with Adeelee didn’t excite me. Nor did the thought of sending Adeelee off on her own, leaving me with the cocky mage. “Ummm… How about you go, Liam?”
Liam creased his brow.
“You’re confident on your own, remember?” I raised my eyebrows, shrugged slightly, and sighed. “I’m not so sure I’m as confident as you,” I lied.
Liam glared at me a moment before turning to Adeelee. He seemed like he was waiting for Adeelee to volunteer, but when she said nothing, he lowered his hands and said. “Fine. I’ll do it.”
I smiled. “Great.”
“It didn’t take long for the lever to return to its position,” Adeelee said. “It’ll be difficult for you to get there
before the time is up.”
“I’ll run,” Liam said. “And then I’ll run back to join you.”
I nodded. “Okay. Well, we’ll wait about twenty seconds once you get going and then pull the lever. That should give you plenty of time to make it before the gears space themselves apart again.”
Liam groaned. “If you find anything good, I hope to hear about it.”
I chuckled and nodded. He was such a hypocrite.
“Alright. I’m going now.” He turned and dashed in the direction of the other lever.
As we watched Liam leave, a heavy weight seemed lifted off my shoulders. I was alone with Adeelee, and I didn’t feel the awkwardness that I had when Liam was around.
“So…” I said as I turned to Adeelee.
Adeelee raised an eyebrow. “What is it, Gunnar?”
I took a deep breath, but then shook my head. “Nothing. Just…” I wasn’t sure what to say or how to express myself at the moment. I was just glad Liam was gone. Or at least that he’d be gone for the next few minutes.
I turned to the lever, noticing the allocated seconds had passed. I leaned over and gave it a good pull. The chain tightened, and the two gears move together.
Adeelee crossed her arms. “I hope this isn’t another trap.”
“Well, we’ll find out soon enough. I could be wrong, and it could just be a broken system.”
I watched as the lever slowly grew closer to its original position, worrying that maybe we had pulled the lever too soon and that Liam hadn’t had enough time to activate the other lever, but right before I could feel it snapping back into place at any moment, there was a loud clanking noise, and suddenly gears at the top of started rotating slowly.
Adeelee and I stepped back as the thick chain connected to the bell tightened even further and as the two gears kept turning, the rusty bell began slowly lifting off the ground.
As the bell rose, a small hole on the ground was revealed, just large enough for a gnoll body. Attached to the side was a small ladder.
