by Edward Brody
All the spikes within reaching distance grew fairly bright, but it was clear when I placed the rod near one particular spike, the light was the most intense—almost blinding. “It’s this one, I said.”
“Now what?” Liam asked.
I smirked, feeling a little bit good about myself, now that I, instead of him, was the one who was showing off. I turned the rod around and slid the cone-shaped hole of the rod over the spike. When it was pushed on as far as it could go, I stood back, and nothing happened. At first, I thought I might have been mistaken, but then I gave it a good pull, and spike sprung down just like a lever.
There was the dull sound of dirt breaking apart and stone scraping against stone. A part of the spiked wall in front of us fell back and into a doorway pattern. When it was several inches defined, it swung back and opened. Small dirt and debris fell onto the ground below.
“Hell yeah!” I shouted.
Adeelee took a deep breath. “As much as I’m glad you found something, I was kind of looking forward to getting out of this place. I’m rather hungry for some elven pie.”
I chuckled, but Liam didn’t seem to pick up on Adeelee’s poor attempt at humor.
When we stepped into the hidden doorway, it was like we entered a completely different world. The floor, ceiling, and wall were no longer covered in dirt or rock, but was covered in what seemed to be a black and purple resin. It was hard, but seemed to have a slight, unnatural give to it each time we took a step.
The thick smell of lavender filled the air of the strange hall, and it seemed like light was bouncing off the walls, though there was no sign of a light source.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” I said as I crouched down into sneak mode.
“As do I,” Liam said low. It was the first time I had seen him show a hint of real discomfort. “As do I…” he repeated.
Adeelee grabbed her sword and held it out in front of her as we gradually crept down the hall.
The hall curved widely, and we didn’t have to go far before it led to a small-sized room. We all paused and tried to stay hidden around a corner when we heard and saw a gnoll inside.
Unlike the other gnolls, this one wore a long, purple robe and had an odd wooden staff strung on its back. The staff looked like a two-sided rowing paddle or like any other staff but with two racquets attached to both ends. A thin weed or piece of grass was dangling out of its mouth, and a permanent smile seemed etched across its face.
A small, green lizard—much like a gecko—was perched on its shoulder and seemed to be sleeping, but only seconds after we arrived, its eyelids flipped open and it turned its head from side to side rapidly. It looked up to its master and appeared to be trying to communicate.
The robed gnoll hammered a butcher knife down on a table, splitting a bundle of onion-like herbs. It made the same strange laughter sound that the other gnolls made, but it surprised me when rough English words came out of its mouth. “What?! I-I-I’m b-b-usy here!” the gnoll stuttered then let out another laughing sound.
The lizard bounced on the gnoll’s shoulder a little then scratched its tiny paw across its master’s neck.
The gnoll paused, as if finally taking the lizard seriously, then raised its eyes from the herbs it was looking at. We all fell further back behind the corner to avoid getting caught.
“Screw this,” I hissed low. “Don’t let him see us first! Let’s go! Initiative!”
Liam stood up, grabbed his staff, and tapped it on the ground. “That might be the most sensible thing I’ve heard you say, Gunnar!”
The beginnings of an ice elemental began forming in front of Liam as Adeelee ran out from behind the corner and charged wildly at the gnoll.
The lizard jumped in place, and a strange beady sound left its mouth when it saw Adeelee quickly approaching.
The side of the gnoll’s lip lifted, and it made a slight growl when it saw us. I stepped forward, lifted my staff, and released an on-cast towards him, then followed up with a Fireblast.
The gnoll strafed to the side to avoid the energy from my staff, but my Fireblast smacked into its elbow. It jerked its arm, and the Fireblast left a mark, but it didn’t ignite its fur into flames or cause any significant damage as I would’ve expected. I could only assume it had some sort of fire resistance.
It swiftly grabbed its unusual staff, stepped back, and blocked Adeelee’s first attack when she swung her sword at him.
The lizard slid down into the gnoll’s robe for protection.
Again, the gnoll blocked an attack of Adeelee’s swords, then ducked a swing towards its neck. While crouched, it stuck its hand out towards us. A strange, nearly-supersonic energy accompanied by a deafening, loud sound was released.
Adeelee was so close that she felt the brunt of the soundwave and fell back several feet and onto her back. I was far enough away that I wasn’t knocked down, but I felt enough push from it that it caused me to step back. The sound, however, was loud enough that it almost left me in a daze. I instinctively grabbed my ears.
I shook my head, trying to clear the ringing left behind from the intensity of the sound, then focused a Clumsy spell on the gnoll. It made no immediate indication of being affected, but I heard the usual twanging sound in my ears, indication that the spell worked.
Liam’s ice elemental stormed into the room, its icy legs crunching with each step it took. It threw its fist at the gnoll as soon as it was in range, but the gnoll backed up and dodged to avoid its strikes.
When the gnoll was almost against the wall, it ducked swings from the ice elemental, hopped to the side, and stomped its foot on the ground. Three waves of fire sprouted out from the ground around its foot and pulsated outward in a half-circle.
Each wave of fire only rose a few inches off the ground, but when they hit the ice elemental, it instantly melted a bit off its legs. After the third wave hit, the elemental was down to its knees and swinging helplessly on the ground.
Adeelee ran forward and jumped over the waves of fire as they moved outward, and she fell into a roll near the gnoll’s feet. She was about to raise her sword in an upward motion to strike when the gnoll instead lifted one of the flat ends of its staves and smacked her hard under the chin. When Adeelee fell back and onto the ground, it held his hand out as if about to cast a spell on her but was interrupted when one of my Arcane Missiles struck it in the side of the neck.
The gnoll whined when the missile hit, grabbed at the point of impact, then turned towards me. It grimaced then swung its staff in a circular motion.
There was at least a second where there was no effect from the swing and appeared as if the gnoll had merely swung at the air, but a delayed, invisible pulse of energy struck my upper torso and face. The impact didn’t hurt but was forceful enough to make me fall back on to my back, and as it passed, it released a loud reverberating sound that had me grabbing my ears to shield from the pain.
I turned while on the ground and saw that Liam had also been knocked down from the blow and was holding each ear with his fingers. Adeelee hadn’t been hit by the attack and was attempting to get back to her feet.
A relaxing feeling overcame me, and I glanced up to my status bars to see that Adeelee had cast her healing spell. I stood and took a step back then began unleashing Arcane Missiles and on-cast attacks from my staff. I considered using a Fire Curtain, but the room was just too small to risk damaging our group in the process.
Adeelee slashed her sword violently towards the gnoll, but the gnoll blocked each attack with its staff. Each slash, however, knocked a chunk of wood off the gnoll’s staff, however, and I was expecting it to break at any moment.
Liam joined in and began shooting his ice magic at the gnoll, and the gnoll’s ability to dodge, duck, and block all of our attacks at once was impressive. When one of Liam’s ice blasts finally hit the gnoll in the chest, it stumbled back, took an Arcane Missile from me in the stomach, and then barely managed to block a swing from Adeelee with its staff.
The
gnoll stumbled back and down to the ground before swinging its staff and releasing another deafening blast of sound. When we saw the motion, we all instinctively put our fingers in our ears, hoping not to get harsh blast to our drums.
I felt some of the pressure, and through my fingers I still heard some sound, but I wasn’t sure the gnoll’s intent was to harm us more than to get us to pause our onslaught.
The gnoll reached into its robe, grabbed the tiny lizard, then cupped it in both hands as if shielding it from something. The gnoll closed its eyes, and a bright orange light emanated from its closed hands. I had been around long enough to know that it was channeling something.
I shot another Arcane Missile and on-cast at the gnoll, and Liam shot two magic attacks at him at the same time. Each attack landed square into the gnoll’s face, causing it to jerk back wildly, and the gnoll was finally finished off as Adeelee lunged forward and slammed her sword across its neck, nearly severing it off.
You have gained 11000 XP!
Just as the gnoll was delivered a death blow, the lizard sprung from out of the gnoll’s hands in the direction of Adeelee and was growing before our eyes. While mid-air, the lizard grew to the size of a small dog, and its face was beginning to twist and contort. It knocked Adeelee down as it landed on her, and its sharp teeth bit hard into her shoulder.
Adeelee screamed and dropped her weapon.
The beast continued getting bigger—its legs growing thick, its scales thicker, and horns sprouting out of its head. Though it looked terrifying, I didn’t waste time, as Adeelee’s scream threw me into panic mode.
I cast a Fireblast, Arcane Missile, Clumsy, an on-cast, and then a Fire Curtain. Liam was also casting spells, and the beast was being pummeled with magic as it grew. It flinched, released its bite and let out a strange, otherworldly howl as its body continued shifting.
I ran forward, slid across the floor, and lifted Adeelee’s sword off the ground. I jumped on top of the beast, burning myself from my own Fire Curtain in the process. I threw my staff to the side and jabbed Adeelee’s sword down into the back of the contorting beast repeatedly, and after only a couple hard blows, it moaned and started going limp. Its body kept contorting, but it seemed to be growing smaller now.
You have gained 3500 XP!
Advancement! You have reached level 27 and gained 3 ability points. To assign your ability points, open your status page. You can also increase any of your known skills by 1 level. Choose wisely, as your choices cannot be undone.
You have gained 10 MP!
I rolled away and pushed the dead beast off of Adeelee. Blood was pouring out of where she had been bitten, and she was badly burned from my Fire Curtain.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I looked down at her. “I didn’t want to burn you too, but it was getting bigger. I had a feeling we had to kill it before it fully grew to whatever it was becoming.”
Adeelee gulped, blinked weakly, then grimaced as she reached for her wound. I looked up to her status bars and could see she had been knocked down to only 20% of her health.
“Damn…” I groaned.
“You made the right choice, Gunnar,” Liam said as he approached.
I started rummaging in my bag for a potion as I looked up to him. “Maybe…”
Liam kicked the dead thing that we had just killed. It shrunk significantly and looked only remotely like it had when we had first seen it. Its head was distorted as if had been melted, and two of its legs had fur growing around them. Its back was hunched, and its appendages just didn’t seem to match the rest of its body.
“Transmutation magic…” Liam explained. “Who knows what he was transforming this thing into. It would’ve been a problem, whatever it was.”
I popped the cork of my health potion and began pouring it down Adeelee’s throat. This time, she didn’t protest or say she’d rather use her healing spell. She willingly drank and started perking up almost immediately.
Adeelee sighed loudly when she finished drinking the potion, grabbed the empty vial, and tossed it to the side. “Thank you.” She sat up, and while she looked tired, she began looking for a bandage to take care of her bleeding.
“What was that magic he was using?” I asked. “I haven’t seen anything like that before.”
“A rare Arcane spell, I believe” Liam said. “It’s the first time I’ve seen it used myself.”
“Me too,” Adeelee said as she began tying off one of her wounds. “It was quite effective, whatever it was.”
“Powerful,” I agreed.
“Indeed,” Liam said. “An Arcane, Transmutation, and Fire Magic user.” Liam turned towards the knife and herbs that the gnoll had left on the table. “Looks like some sort of herbalist as well.”
I dismissed Liam’s comments and looked down at Adeelee. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Adeelee said.
I stood, offered my hand, and helped her to her feet. Adeelee began to brush herself off.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Liam pull a drawer open from the table where the gnoll had been working. I knew he was going to start looting, so I needed to act quickly or else he’d take everything for himself.
The room was one of the strangest things I had seen thus far in Eden’s Gate. It had the same resin floor, wall, and ceiling as we had seen when we were on our way there, and around the room were several notches carved into the wall. In each notch were heavy looking metal statues alternating with notches holding wide candles.
Four thick wooden crates were stacked in one of the corners.
Having no idea what to check out first, I immediately headed for the for the gnoll, which judging by its power level, had seemed like a boss.
Ultimately it had a nice staff with a “deafening wave” on-cast effect, but it had only two charges and was on its last point of durability. Other than that, I found no useful items other than a small amount of gold.
You’ve received: 100 Gold Pieces
I tossed the nearly broken staff on the ground and begin heading for the wooden crates.
I was surprised when I attempted to lift the first crate to find that it was completely unlocked, but given the type of security that they had to secure the room, I suppose they thought locks weren’t needed. As I lifted the lid of the crate, my eyes grew wide. It was filled with a slew of items.
I turned back around to see Liam still searching the desk and Adeelee, who was nearby, checking one of the statues in the wall. I stuck my hand in the crate, touching one of the items, and then touched another and another. They were all magic items. They didn’t seem high level at all, but it was clear that we had found what we had been looking for.
Part of me wanted to start pocketing whatever I could find before Liam came around, but the greater part of me wanted to play fair, despite him not being much of a team player when it came to loot. I also had very limited storage. I could stuff some rings or other tiny items in my pockets, but I only had 10 slots in my bag to carry any items that were heavy or large.
“Hey, you guys,” I called out. “I think I found the stash.”
Adeelee and Liam stopped what they were doing and scurried over to the crates.
We rummaged through each crate one by one, and there were at least twenty items with magical properties. All of them were relatively low-level items, more suited for someone who was below level 20, but I did pick up a pair of woven boots that excited me. They offered less armor than my current boots, but they’d help me level faster.
Experienced Traveler’s Boots. +5 Armor. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Exceptional. Rarity: Rare. Weight: 0.5 kg. Gain experience at a 10% faster rate.
In the last crate was what could only be considered the prize item of the find. It was another staff with stats that blew away my current staff.
You’ve received: Hardened Blasting Staff of Stunning. 25-35 Attack Damage. Requires 10 Strength. 25 Dexterity. 25 Intelligence. Durability: 29/30. Quality: Exceptional. Rarity: Legendary. Weight: 2.5 kg. 3% chance t
o stun target on hit. +1 Staves Skill. +2 Dexterity. On Cast: Energy Strike: 157 Charges Left.
I read off the stats and was ready to replace my staff when Liam stepped forward and placed his hand on it. “I can use that.”
My eyes narrowed, and we stared at each other for a couple seconds.
“I could too,” I said. “In fact, I think I will.” I began to pull the staff back, but Liam held his grip firm.
“You’re a new member of the Mages Guild, and you’re a lesser fighter. Your staves level isn’t high enough to use it to its full potential.”
I gritted my teeth. I wasn’t annoyed that Liam wanted the staff, but I was annoyed that he hadn’t been interested in sharing up until I had found something that was useful to him. But he was right—though I could use the staff, I was still training staves, and he would be able to utilize it more effectively. It was only right to give it to him.
I released the staff and smirked. “Fine. You can have it.”
Liam smiled and then walked over to the gnoll’s staff that was resting on the ground. “Here. You can have this one.”
I creased my eyebrows. “What? That one is nearly broken.” I eyed the deep chips in the wood that Adeelee had caused with her sword. “Look at it.”
Liam tilted his head back laughed. “I’m kidding. You’re so testy. Here. Take my staff.” He held out the weapon that he had been using since I met him, and I lifted it out of his hand.
You’ve received: Basic Arcane Staff. 15-25 Attack Damage. Requires 10 Dexterity. 15 Intelligence. Durability: 6/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Rare. Weight: 3.0 kg. On Cast: Arcane Bolt: 77 Charges Left. +1 Wisdom
The staff wasn’t nearly as good as the one that we had looted from the crates, but it was good enough. It was a slight upgrade from the one that I had been using, especially since my current staff was getting low on charges. Liam’s staff still had a ton of charges left.
