Ka-Do-Gir had never heard of enhancement, not from his trainers, not from the shaman, not from the lixes under him. But he liked the description, and so he decided to address the god directly. It was much easier for lixes—they didn’t need to stop by the temples. Even shamans were just sources of knowledge and unique items rather than serving as intermediaries.
Unlocking new attributes costs 1000 gold. You have 0.
“The god would ask a lix for gold?” a shocked Ka-Do-Gir said as he read the answer to his request. “Where am I supposed to come up with it?”
The lix’s surprise was so genuine that Tailyn was taken aback. A thousand gold was the kind of sum he’d only ever been able to dream about, but he had the opportunity to do something nice for the lix in that moment. He could show how useful he was. And why not help his partner get stronger? That would give them both a better chance at surviving and getting home. The decision was made.
“Here you go.” Tailyn moved the slider into position and materialized one large coin. Master Forian was going to kill him when he found out, but there was nothing else the boy could go. Partnerships were more valuable than gold.
To say Ka-Do-Gir was surprised would be to say nothing at all. The lix understood that he and the mage were only partners while they were down in the metro, that they would resume their enmity when—if—they got back. And since he knew that, he assumed the mage knew it, too. Still, the boy was willing to make his sworn enemy stronger. The amount of help being provided was growing even more lopsided—four to one in favor of the human. Ka-Do-Gir couldn’t return saddled with that kind of debt, so he was going to have to find a way to repay it.
While the lix was busy with his doubts and new attribute, Tailyn finally got over his timidity and pulled on the OGM-II suit. He did have to give up his rough leather boots, of course, as they refused to go on over top. But the suit fit the boy’s body perfectly, not impeding his movements in the least. Actually, it looked like something an advanced hunter might wear rather than giving away its connection to the ancients. The belt he’d already gotten matched so well that it felt like it had been made for the outfit, and there was even a separate spot for empty alchemical retorts. The description called them “quick access slots.” Tailyn was worried that just moving around would reduce the retorts to piles of broken glass, but he frowned when he tried to pull them into his inventory. His sleeve passed through them as if meeting a ghost. And while the glass felt completely real to his touch, his sleeve wasn’t unique—stones, the wall, and even the lix, who Tailyn asked to give it a try, just passed right through the retorts without hurting them in the least. The only person who could interact with the quick access slots was Tailyn himself. Or rather, his hands. The boy’s breath caught in his throat as he realized that he could make himself shield potions as another way to survive when he was in a bad spot and his cards had run out of charges.
Without showing much care, Ka-Do-Gir grabbed the useless body of the ancient, hauled it over to the pile of monsters, heaved it onto the top, and looking around. There definitely wasn’t anything that could burn. And that meant he was going to have to ask the mage for help yet again.
Tailyn pulled out his wave of fire card but took a long time making up his mind to do what the lix was asking him to do. It was one thing to burn monsters; it was quite another to burn a human, even a dead one. But the god hadn’t given him a choice—it wanted all the bodies turned to ash. So be it.
You used Wave of Fire-I.
Charges remaining: 49 of 50.
***
Partners destroyed the remains of 34 inferior monsters, 2 superior monsters, and 1 ancient human, receiving 254 coins (34 coins for inferior coins, 10 coins for superior monsters, 10 coins for the ancient human, 200 coins from Kili Argal).
Dividing loot…
Ka-Do-Gir receives 0 coins. Lixes do not have the ability to store coins. Compensation received: one random attribute improvement.
Ka-Do-Gir receives Enhancement +1 (2).
Tailyn Vlashich receives 254 coins.
***
Store functionality unlocked. Visit any temple to receive access.
Tailyn quickly pulled up his status window to see the changes.
Status table
General character information
Tailyn Vlashich
Alchemist
Level
1
Age
10
Yearly tax (crystals)
1 (beginning at age 16)
Coins
254
Gold
2185
Main parameters
Shield level
515
Mana level
560
Physical attack
30
Magic attack
65
Attributes
Enhancement
4
Mysticism
2
Intellect
1
Armor
1
Wisdom
2
Skills
Alchemy
Points invested:
9
Herbalism
Points invested:
7
Linguist
Points invested:
1
While he was still a level one human, the ancient’s gift had pushed his shield and mana levels up on par with level ten. His magic attack was lagging slightly behind, but even that value was enough for him to take out any other level one creature with one electricity strike.
But the boy wasn’t permitted to enjoy looking himself over for long.
“I don’t understand why the god asked for a thousand gold from me, though it didn’t ask you for it when you unlocked linguist,” Ka-Do-Gir said to Tailyn as if the latter should have known the answer. The boy blushed and frowned—he didn’t. He really wasn’t sure why the crystal came with a cost in one case and not in another, and “because you aren’t human” didn’t strike him as the reason.
“Let’s go. We need to find a way out.” The lix understood what the boy was trying to say without him saying it. The bonfire had burned out without a trace, leaving nothing behind of the monsters or the ancient. There wasn’t even any ash to remember them by. Not having found anything else interesting, the lix tossed Tailyn up onto the boulder and climbed up behind him. They passed the fork, got to the next window, and looked down. There weren’t any of the black monsters to be seen.
Tailyn was thrilled by how easy the going was. His new outfit balanced the load, turning hard where it needed to and soft where that was better. But the gloves were the best. The boy couldn’t have imagined how soft and comfortable they would be, and he no longer had to worry about the dust, sharp rocks, or the remains of the countless snakes. Also, they weren’t too thick. When Tailyn picked up a stone, the sensation was the same as if he was holding it in his bare hand.
They made their way past niches with hatches a few times, but they were all closed. Every time, Ka-Do-Gir yanked on the handle; every time, it disintegrated. There was no way down. And with no tunnels leading off to the side, their only option was to keep crawling forward into the pitch darkness—there were no more windows. Lighting their last torch would have been a mistake, so they had to crawl ahead by feel. An hour later, the lix stopped Tailyn suddenly.
“Careful, there’s something up there. I can sense it.”
Ka-Do-Gir’s instinct was on the money—there was in fact something up ahead. A few meters later, Tailyn felt his head bumping up against a barrier. His stomach fell when he realized they’d traveled so far through the maze in vain. As he felt his way along the barrier, he found that it was a single impenetrable wall. Any attempt to give it a shove came to nothing. The stone had passed the test of time, remaining as solid as ever.
“Check the snakes,” the lix said. “Do they lead straight?”
It was a smart idea. The walls on either side were still there, but there
weren’t any snakes on them. And when Tailyn checked the floor, all he found was an enormous pile of dust. It was all that was left of the endless cords. But something didn’t make sense—there was too much dust. The boy checked again, and it really did feel like his hands were drowning in it even as there hadn’t been nearly that much just a few meters back. Confused, Tailyn stood up, completely forgetting that he was in a small tunnel. And just as might have been expected, he banged the back of his head, only it was against something behind him rather than above him. He rubbed the spot and started exploring the area. As it turned out, the tunnel turned sharply upward.
“Can you climb that?” the lix asked, the only reply being an unintelligible squeak. No, the boy couldn’t—he definitely didn’t have the strength. Grabbing Tailyn with his middle limbs, Ka-Do-Gir wedged his back against one side of the shaft and pushed against the other with his free limbs. It wasn’t difficult going, even if it was dangerous.
Their ascent was over just a couple minutes later. The next tunnel was horizontal, though there was something new. Off in the distance, there was light filtering through another shaft. The pair perked up, both tired of crawling through the darkness. And when they got to the light, Tailyn peered up cautiously to find that the shaft ended five meters up before taking a turn to the right. And he especially appreciated seeing how bright and green the light was. It had to be the ancients’ lamps.
After just ten minutes, Tailyn and Ka-Do-Gir got to the edge of the next tunnel. A grille had once stood there, though it was no more than a memory at that point, and the open area on the other side was so enormous that the boy’s head spun. He would never have imagined that there could be such a big cave underground. And the ancients hadn’t even made it, at least, they hadn’t made all of it. There was plenty right outside the tunnel exit that pointed back to them—the usual green light, columns holding up the ceiling, a narrow area two well-lit corridors opened into. One was below them; the other was off to the side. The lix growled when the boy tried to crawl out and get a better view of the wall, yanking him back in. They could have been spotted.
There was no doubt about that.
And if they were going to be spotted, it was most likely going to be where the ancients’ structure ended, and the giant cave began. It looked unnatural, superfluous, and almost as though it had appeared there accidentally. But it was there.
The cave housed an entire city.
Chapter 10
You discovered City of the Dead. A picture of the city was recorded in the Locations section of your journal (you will receive access to your journal once you complete your initiation).
TAILYN HAD NEVER seen such a glorious city. Culmart, where he’d spent all of his ten years, looked like an abandoned village next to that wonder. Just the walls were incredible to look at. They were bright, shimmering, gleaming with all the colors of the rainbow. But what about the tall towers, the enormous buildings, the long bridges held in place by magic? His breath caught in his throat. Never in a million years would he have thought that the mountain the abandoned city of the ancients was built on hid such an incredible location. And how did none of the adults know about it?
Unlike his partner, Ka-Do-Gir cared nothing for the city’s charms. It was just another handmade structure there to be looted. Lixes never cared much for beauty or grace, and he was focused instead on details that were much more important to him. The city was right about at the level of the metro, perhaps a meter lower. And the space it was set in wasn’t exactly even. Instead, there were boulders strewn about, and the lix growled even frustration even as he saw how easy it would be to get to the wall under their cover. The problem was that he didn’t see a way over the three-meter barrier. The city itself wasn’t that big, either, smaller even than the one his partner was from. But while everything in his city had been spread out, there everything was much more compact. The cave housing the city was perfectly round. And the space had appeared there rather than being created—the fact that the tunnels were abruptly cut off spoke to that. Far off in the distance, over at the other end, they continued off into the unknown. The ancients couldn’t have been wasteful enough to destroy their own buildings, and so they weren’t the ones who brought the city there. But in that case, who had?
Ka-Do-Gir wasn’t just enjoying the local sights, however. He was looking for enemies and quickly found them—the area littered with boulders was packed with the same strange black creatures, the ones with the white beaks. Unmoving, if it hadn’t been for their bright red eyes, he would have been forgiven for thinking they were asleep. And that was where they’d all come from. Burning them all up right then and there would have been great… Only the black monsters weren’t the only unpleasantries. The low walls let the lix look into the city, where he saw the rest of that location’s creatures. Somewhat similar to the black creatures, they were much larger and completely white. Flexible bodies were hauled around on six long appendages that served as legs. They had arms, too, neither of which looked like they had any bones in them. Their movements were too supple. And the fact that they weren’t anything meant that he wouldn’t be getting any loot from them.
But even that wasn’t all the enemies the pair was up against. Both in the city and right outside the walls, there were ghosts everywhere. Different barrels, boxes, flat dishes, the works. And Ka-Do-Gir snarled when he realized they weren’t all helpless ghosts—a few of the barrels were very much real. They turned out to be able to replace the lamps. Not only that, but the black monsters always stepped to the side to avoid the denser ghosts. Or maybe not ghosts? Perhaps, they were something belonging to the ancients. It was hard to say. Grabbing one and taking it home to show the shaman would certainly have been nice—Ka-Do-Gir was sure the kind of reward he would have gotten would be—
But he wasn’t able to finish that thought as he felt a gentle vibration run through the tunnel. It was unpleasant, almost as if someone was climbing in. And as the vibrations intensified with each passing second, the black creatures standing motionless by the city wall started acting up. They ran around clacking their beaks, red eyes fixed on the tunnels. Ka-Do-Gir jumped up and gave Tailyn a shove to bring him to his senses—the boy’s glassy eyes were still fixed on the city.
Both the vibrations and the sense of danger picked up. Ka-Do-Gir didn’t know what was going on, and since that made him nervous, he kept looking around to find the foe he expected to show up at any moment. That’s why he saw the danger a few moments before it reached them.
It was fire. A red glow exploded out of the vertical tunnel, quickly to be replaced by licking tongues of flame. Slamming into the ceiling, they made the turn and brought with them a fiery torrent that swept away everything in its path. A moment later, it reached the spot where the lix and the boy were. At least, the spot where they’d been—Ka-Do-Gir had grabbed Tailyn with his middle legs and jumped down into the area below them. The column of fire burst out behind them, singed the lix, and hid them from view. The boy’s combat status didn’t change.
After he hit the ground, Ka-Do-Gir rolled, made sure to keep the boy safe, and dashed off. They could go straight—that was where the city and monsters were. The corridors, both right and left, were the same story. They were traps. Sooner or later, they would end, and the black beasts would catch them, leaving just one way for them to go. Back. The interesting thing about the space they found themselves in was that it led both forward and backward. The lix took a few steps and looked up to see that the passageway hit a steep incline. But while that looked like it could lead to freedom, closer inspection told them it was blocked by enormous boulders. There wasn’t any fresh air making its way down, either. Beaks clacked behind them—the black monsters were hurrying over to see what was going on. With just seconds to make a decision, Ka-Do-Gir saw an open doorway in front of him and ducked into it. The pair were in what turned out to be two rooms bereft of light and windows. There was nothing in the first, though the lix just about panicked when he peered into the
second. The floor was littered with black monsters. They were dead, however. Their bodies were shredded as if riddled by crossbow bolts, the holes visible even without light. As the screaming neared, Ka-Do-Gir noticed a small niche right up by the ceiling, the “snakes” coming out of the walls leading directly toward it. The ancients had apparently stored something important there. And so, with no better options, the lix tossed the boy in before climbing up himself, trying to get them both in as deep as possible.
The screaming made it to the first room. Ka-Do-Gir moved around to make sure he had a view of what was going on, and so he saw the first black monster appear in the doorway. Its red eyes darting around terrifyingly, it saw its fallen comrades and decided not to come in. More showed up behind it. The screaming intensified, and the monsters chose a victim to do the dirty work. It entered slowly, head jerking from side to side. After a clack of its beak, it hurried back out, clearly unwilling to spend any more time in danger. The rest followed it out—the area had been declared clear.
Ka-Do-Gir grinned. They’d gotten away, and he’d narrowed the rescue gap—it was four to two in the boy’s favor. The boy was still ahead, but the lix was getting closer.
City of the Dead Page 14
