by Kaden Reed
“Jax told us not too,” I turned my head to find my friend standing on top of the corpse of the cave lion, “you should be able to stand soon. The healing is almost finished.”
Scanning myself with my mana, I was surprised to see that he was right. From knocking on death’s door to back in action in a few minutes. I love magic.
I got to my feet, feeling jubilant at the power I felt coursing through me and looked around. Noticing for the first time the adornments my teammates were sporting, I stopped in appreciation.
Although somewhat utilitarian, the dull gray armor and shield Glazmir was wearing were emblazoned with a hammer and ax inlaid with gold, crossed with a mountain set as their backdrop. In stark contrast, the hammer resting on his shoulder was nearly half as tall as the stubby dwarf with jewels and beautiful scroll work running down the length of its haft.
Marty was clad in a simple blue gambeson with silver thread in a diamond pattern stitching set over simple brown leather pants. Clutched in his small hand was a wooden rod about a foot long with a shard of quartz that faintly glowed gold.
The only weapons I could see on Jax were the twin short swords that he was armed with earlier, but he wore an onyx form fitting boiled leather jerkin and trousers, “where did the weapons and armor come from?”
Jax gestured to a couple of racks of equipment that lined the hallway that we came from, “while you decided you wanted to play the mouse with the big cat, I had the others stop to equip themselves. Go and grab what you need from the rack.” As I hurried off to inspect the items, he called from behind me, “and don’t worry about sizes. Akashi will adjust anything you want to fit you perfectly.”
As I approached the racks, I saw dozens of different outfits. Everything from cloth robes to sets of thick steel plate armor. Running my hands over all of the beautifully crafted items, I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to make a selection so I had to make another mostly uninformed decision but I assumed that I could change this one in the future if I needed to…hopefully.
Thinking back to my fight with the cave lion, I had to get in close to attack it, so I need something sturdy enough to take a blow. But I also need it to be flexible enough to allow quick movements since dodging will probably be my primary form of defense.
I quickly discarded the plate armor because it was too heavy and cloth because it offered no protection was ruled out too. That narrowed it down to leather or mail armor. Scanning the row of leather and mail items, my eyes fell on a set of armor that seemed to have protrusions coming out of it every few inches. Examining it more closely, each segment of thin metal seemed to be sewn together in an overlapping scale pattern. The chest piece was arranged with the segments overlapping across the front and back which connected with a metal gorget that would frame the neck. The shoulder portions were made of a solid piece of boiled leather with bands of metal running throughout.
Seeing as how the outfit was supposed to be multiple layers, I slipped on the padded jacket which the jerkin went over and found the portions were tied together using leather strips that allowed for great flexibility and movement. A set of boiled leather trousers went on next, with the greaves going on over that. Slipping on the arm guards and the helm completed the set. Walking over to the mirror set in the wall, I realized that this was the first time I’ve looked in the mirror since the morning before the Trials.
Before I became a Khanri, I was by no means a small guy, but I have never been accused of being particularly strong or imposing either. I wasn’t sure if it was the armor that was accentuating my physical appearance or if the transition had bulked me up, but I noticed a distinct difference in the look of my shoulders and the definition of the muscles I could see under my clothes. I had to admit, I really liked the change.
As I watched, the armor made slight automatic adjustments to fit more snugly. Once it was done, the color changed from the universal dark brown to the colors of my class. The overlapping segments on my chest and back were now the dark red, almost rusty color of blood. The metal of my gorget and shoulders was a snowy white with black accents found throughout the armor, framing the red and white colors.
The helm that I had selected was a basic leather piece that lacked ornamentation. I had selected it for function rather than form. As I watched my armor change in the mirror, the helm morphed to wrap around my face. A circle of black made a small ridge that wound around my brow, flaring slightly at the edges. The top portion was smooth to the touch and colored in blood red. White leather scales grew to overlap below the ridge and extended down to connect with the gorget. Only a narrow slit opened across my eyes, with a small piece for breathing that connected at a perpendicular angle.
I moved, bent and jumped in the new equipment and was surprised to find that it fit like a second skin. Overall, I was exceptionally happy with the appearance of the armor.
I turned to the racks of weapons. Scanning the armaments, I quickly dismissed all of the larger and heavier weapons, preferring to stick with my quick agile attacks. After some consideration, I realized that my mana abilities were able to cut through the flesh of the cave lion like I was tearing through paper. Deciding that Akashi likely intended that to be my primary weapon, I resolved on bringing backups just in case I ever found myself in a position that my mana abilities weren’t as effective.
I scanned the racks and eventually settled on a pair of simple short swords in black scabbards. I fastened them in a cross pattern on my back, hilts sticking above my shoulders and returned to the group.
“Lamellar armor,” Jax said approvingly, “good protection and still allows for decent movement. Not as flexible as mail armor but offers a wider range of effective counters to weapons. Good choice.”
I nodded in acknowledgment of the small praise and asked the question that had been nagging on me, “how do the monsters get here?”
“They come here by portal from other Dungeons,” Jax gestured around him, “from what we can tell, the perimeter of a Dungeon can be accessed by another along special paths called ley lines. We don’t know how they are formed or even how the lines work. All we know is that in certain areas of the Dungeon, if we use specific combinations of mana, a portal will open that goes to another Dungeon.”
Marty asked curiously, “is it possible to open a portal back to this Dungeon from another?”
“Yes,” Jax nodded, “it has been done, but well before my time. It is incredibly dangerous to invade another Dungeon. Besides, we have more than we can handle just trying to defend ours.”
I thought I was seeing things when the body of the giant cat slowly faded away to nothing, to be replaced by a small orb that was glowing red and floating at about chest height. Supremely confident that I was losing my mind I pointed at the floating ball and asked Jax, “okay, what is going on?”
“The bodies of the monsters are absorbed by the Dungeon after all combat has ceased and that,” Jax announced as he walked up to the orb, “is how we get the runestones.” He touched the orb and it slowly morphed into three stones with various runes on them.
As he slid them into the pouch at his waist, I asked, “what type of runestones are they?”
Jax answered, “there are loot orbs from every type of affinity and all of the runestones you are used too from your civilian lives come from one of those loot orbs.” He gestured at where the body of the cat used to rest, “the relative weaker opponents we will be fighting won’t generate that many stones. The three we got were just low power chargestones, only worth a handful of silver each.”
I shook my head when I realized I was almost eaten alive just for the equivalent of a couple of day’s wages for a basic laborer.
Glazmir banged his hammer on his shield and asked eagerly, “so are we off to find another enemy? I want to test me abilities.”
“This is what we call the training section of the Dungeon,” Jax turned towards the passageway opposite of the one we entered from, “the term may be misleading though. The enemies we face are invaders from other Dun
geons. However, the Dungeons connected to this portion of Akashi are found to be generally weaker than those in other portions.” I watched as a ripple of energy pulsed from Jax and raced down the hallway, “We find it is a good place for Kits and our other less experienced Hands to train.” A faint echo of energy came back down the hallway, “another monster is down here. Glaz, you take point with Afton following. Marty stay behind me.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Marty announced, as he fell in behind the group when we started off down the hallway at a slow jog.
Jax’s voice came from behind me at barely above a whisper, “whatever it is, it should only be a few hundred yards ahead.”
As we jogged on, the outlines of what appeared to be another large room gradually became visible ahead. Although the area was brightly illuminated, I couldn’t see anything that would indicate something was there.
We began slowing as we neared the entrance to the room. Straining my ears, all I could make out was the sounds of our own passage. Gradually, we came to a halt at the end of the passage.
I slowly crept up beside Glaz and scanned the room. Whispering over my shoulder, “I don’t see anything.”
Glazmir nodded his agreement as he peered in every direction, “aye. I think it be empty.”
Jax was silent a moment before ordering, “advance slowly. Be ready for anything.”
I saw Glazmir hefting his hammer and shield in preparation for what was coming. In my own preparation, I shaped the mana to encompass my hands. I hoped that it would provide some protection to my hands and allow me to parry blows without worrying about losing a finger. As an afterthought though, I extended the blade upwards about the width of my clenched fists until it abruptly tapered to a point. I reasoned the bigger blade would allow for a bigger hole when I stabbed something. Seeing no downside to my modifications, I decided that this would be my standard design.
Glazmir was first into the room, with me only a couple of steps behind him. We stopped about a dozen feet inside and nervously cast our gaze around the room. After a minute of nothing appearing, I lowered my guard and turned back to Jax, “whatever was here, I don’t think it is anymore.”
Jax just stood inside the entrance with his hand on his chin, deep in thought. Not showing any indications that he heard me I rotated again, glancing around the room.
“Are you using your mana sight?” Jax called from where he was standing.
My mouth dropped open at my own stupidity and I immediately tried to face palm but managed to stop myself before doing it. I wasn’t sure if my own mana creations could harm me, but I figured skewering myself by accident with my mana blades would only add to the level of idiocy that I was currently proclaiming to the Dungeon.
I focused my ability on my sight and blinked. The world around me shifted to hues of various colors. I could see the stones under my feet were cast with vibrant red, brown and blue. As I focused deeper, I could see every other color in the mix, to some degree or another. Deciding to file that away to ask Akashi about at some other time, I scanned the room.
Subtle hints of the various types of mana could be seen drifting on unseen currents throughout the room. Glazmir was clearly visible as a deep brown. Jax shown as a brilliant blue and black, with Marty beside him as a mix of gold and violet. Focusing on them I could see the network of channels throughout their bodies, all leading to the glowing white core in their center, just under their hearts. Seeing the mana in their cores blink slowly in my sight, I fixated on Marty’s which slowly reoriented itself to depict a glowing F1 next to his core. Realizing that I must be able to read their ranks, I glanced at Glaz’s and confirmed his was the same as mine and Marty’s. However, Jax had a glowing B6 next to his core. Curiously though, I couldn’t find a progress bar next to their ranks like I could mine.
Although I knew that Thorn’s rank was S4 and is reputedly the strongest Khanri in existence, Jax’s B6 sounded really close to that since it was only two full ranks away. Somehow though, I didn’t think the ranking system was that easy because when Akashi explained the little to me he did, he made it sound like the gulf in power between Thorn and any of us was about as wide as an unfathomable deep abyss.
Continuing to scan the room, I saw a hint of violet mana out of the corner of my eye. As I turned to investigate, I realized that it wasn’t on the floor, but on the ceiling about ten feet above us. As surreptitiously as I could, I signaled to Jax and gestured upwards, directly above us. When Jax nodded, he indicated that Glaz and I should step away a bit.
Eventually, Jax decided that we had moved far enough when a bright flash of light signaled that he had blinked into the room, quickly followed by a loud crack. When I turned back around a smoking hole was punched through whatever was clinging to the ceiling and it dropped in surprise directly on Jax.
The creature had a chitinous body that was easily a dozen feet long with what looked like a hundred legs that ended in sharp points. The bright red body reared above Jax and its wicked pincers flashed down in a blindingly fast attack for such a large creature.
“Now that is a damn big centipede,” Glazmir bellowed beside me, “come here so I can squish ya!” A burst of brown mana erupted from the dwarf and encased the monster in its aura. Suddenly enraptured with the dwarf, the centipede turned from pursuing Jax and sped across the distance to close with its newfound hated enemy.
Roaring in triumph, Glazmir swept up his shield as the pincers darted in at him and the force of the collision between the two combatants sent a resounding clang that shivered in the suddenly still air for the briefest of moments. Swinging his hammer at the exposed chitinous underbelly of the monster, it screeched in pain as several fragments broke off.
Studying the creature in mana sight, I saw several dozen minuscule knots of mana spread throughout its body that may crudely serve the function of a core, but nothing that was glaringly obvious like what I find in Khanri. However, after the briefest of moments I smiled in appreciation as a bright E3 flashed next to one of the knots of mana.
Lurching into motion, I darted in at the sides of the centipede as it focused on Glazmir and struck several times in rapid succession. My blades pierced its scales and sliced deeply into its body.
Screeching, the monster shifted to the side and lanced out with a dozen of its legs. Two of which managed to find gaps in my leg armor and buried themselves into my thigh.
Stumbling in pain as I reeled from the blow, I shouted out to Marty that I was injured.
Within moments I felt the familiar rush of energy and the pain vanished from my mind. I heard Marty yell at me, “get back to work minion!”
Smiling, I took a moment to quickly divert my channels nearer to the wound and waded back into battle with my blades held ready.
Glazmir was trading blow for blow with the monster, its pincers denting his shield in on itself as he hammered away at its underbelly. A small pile of broken chitin laying around him as a testament to his ferocity.
As I approached a bright flash of red streaked by me and collided with the back of the centipede. The fireball erupting to engulf its head in a torrent of fire. When the flames cleared, I could clearly see at least two of its six eyes had burst from the heat, their gelatinous goo oozing down its face as it screeched again in pain.
Bringing my blades up, I dodged its flailing legs as I darted back inside its reach and struck. Sinking each blade up to my fist, I rotated and tore my arms horizontally through its body. As my fist pulled free, a spray of green innards erupted from the wound I had created.
Falling weakly on its side, I noticed that my blow must have severed something due to its legs only working on half of its body. Standing over it as it lay helpless, I almost felt sorry for it.
Glazmir saddled up to it and pinned its head between his shield and the ground. Pincers still gnashing, he rode his shield, “well lad, do you wanna do the honors?”
Nodding I walked over and unceremoniously drove both of my blades into its head. The cen
tipede shuddered in its death throws and then fell still. The sudden silence felt foreign to my ears after the cacophony of combat.
“We did it!” Marty called to the group as he ran up to join us around the corpse, “that was a big fucker too!”
“Aye,” Glazmir nodded, “and good healing gnome. I didn’t feel a thing.”
Beaming in pride he asked Glazmir, “was that an ability you have that got him to focus on you? That was a lot easier than having to heal everyone.”
Nodding, “yeah I’m not really sure how, but when I saw big ugly here,” he kicked the corpse, “going after Jax, I just knew that if I shouted at it in a certain way, it would come after me instead.”
“That is one of the core abilities of a Bulwark,” Jax interjected somberly, “not every Bulwark has it though. It is one of the more useful abilities of all the classes.”
“So, both of you just know how to do your abilities?” I questioned, “how exactly does that work?”
“I don’t know,” Marty responded, “before when I saw you being eaten by that cat, I just knew what I needed to do to heal you.”
“Great,” I scoffed, “for whatever reason I haven’t had anything like that happen for me. I’ve had to figure out everything on the fly.”
“I think it only works when you see a situation where one of your skills can be applied. That is how I knew to use my ability and it sounds like Marty did too,” Glaz answered.
“I’ve been in two fights now and even had to hunt down an invisible enemy,” I continued dismissively, “both should have triggered something in me, but I don’t think Akashi gave me the same gifts he has given to all the other Khanri.”
Glazmir grinned, “well you seem to be figuring it out just fine.”
The body of the centipede faded to be replaced with a floating orb that was floating violet this time. Jax palmed the orb and slipped the handful of runes he got in exchange, into his pouch.
As I turned in a circle, the hair started to stand up on the back of my neck in apprehension. Instinctively, I found the hallway that lead even further in the direction we were traveling and could faintly see the glow of something approaching at a frightening pace, “hey something is coming!”
