by A F Kay
“It’s okay. You’re just ignorant.”
Ruwen tensed at the insult, but he realized Sift hadn’t meant it as one. It was just a fact. Ruwen forced himself to relax.
Sift slapped his thighs. “The reason it’s important is that it’s your foundation. It strengthens your legs and core. If your foundation is good, you can build your mastery on it. If not, your Steps will falter, and you will fail.”
Sift pointed to Ruwen’s feet. “Your feet are about shoulder length apart, which is good. But your left foot is angled inward and is slightly closer to your center. You are out of balance.”
With his index finger Sift touched Ruwen’s side, just under his ribs, and gently pushed. Ruwen immediately fell over. “Your foundation is weak.”
Ruwen stood to regain his balance and squatted again, trying to mirror Sift exactly.
“Better,” Sift said and then used his finger to topple Ruwen again.
Ruwen quickly realized how incredibly hard it was to just squat. It amazed him how many things could be out of alignment. After ten minutes, Sift stood.
“I don’t want to overdo it today. Your legs need to be fresh for the third level,” Sift said.
Ruwen’s stomach twisted in anxiety.
Sift opened his bag and pulled out a lump of white wax. He twisted off a chunk and handed it to Ruwen.
“There will probably be Shriekers, so we’ll use the wax to plug our ears. Do you have a scarf?” Sift asked, pulling out a Scarf of Freshness.
“Yes,” Ruwen said.
“Also, make sure you’re wearing tight underwear. You don’t want them getting in your body down there.”
“What?”
“Shriekers like holes.”
“Can we skip this level?” Ruwen asked.
“You’ll be okay. But I need to teach you some Shade Speak so we can communicate without having to hear. It will look like this.”
Sift made three small gestures with his hand. Stop. Danger. Forward.
Without thinking, Ruwen responded. Understand.
Sift raised his eyebrows and quickly flashed. You. Know. Speak.
Ruwen had never tried to communicate nonverbally using his Hey You Ability. But the description had said communicate, not speak, so he guessed that included signed languages. He looked at his hand and then back up at Sift.
Know. Some Ruwen signaled back.
Sift smiled. Good. Easier. Journey.
Ruwen pulled another pair of underwear out of his Void Band and pulled them over the pair he was wearing. He was considering adding a third pair when Sift laughed.
“One pair is enough,” Sift said and then grew serious. “The problem is when they get in your ears.”
Ruwen knew Sift was thinking about Lylan and changed the subject.
“Can we get something to eat before heading down?” Ruwen asked.
Ruwen wasn’t really that hungry and knew he was stalling, but he had a bad feeling about today. There was a lot to lose. Blapy had made it clear she hoped he died, and he was in no hurry to give her a chance.
Chapter 32
They walked down a tightly spiraling tunnel on the way to the third level. Ruwen had stuck so much wax in his ears they hurt from the pressure. He didn’t care, though, he didn’t want to end up like Sift’s girlfriend. His Scarf of Freshness was tied securely across his nose and mouth, and his belt dug into his side from being drawn so tight. He glanced down at the hem of his black Shade pants. Sift had given him some string and Ruwen had tied the pants tightly to his ankle.
A notification pulsed in the bottom of his vision and he opened it.
Ting!
You have received the Black Pyramid quest…
Lend a Hand (Level 3)
Occupants will appreciate your helping hands as you find and destroy five Exploding Burrower nests.
Restriction: Must complete in 120 minutes or less
Reward: 15 Black Pyramid tokens
Reward: 1,250 experience
Accept or Decline
The quest text made it sound like people on this level needed assistance. It would be nice to have extra fighters when clearing the level. They just needed to find whoever wanted a hand and help them. Help would be especially welcome since this quest had a time restriction. He hoped two hours was enough.
He had cast Bleed and Backstab on both his staff and dagger as soon as he’d entered the dungeon. It had cost him one hundred and fifty Mana, almost completely draining his bar, but now, just over five minutes later, his bar was nearly full again. The full bars made some of his nervousness disappear.
Sift pulled two pairs of alchemical lab goggles from his belt and handed one to Ruwen. They put them on, and Sift touched the wax in his ears. He moved his hands in Shade Speak, tilting his hand to indicate a question. Quest?
Yes, Ruwen responded.
Good. Hope. Keep. Hands. Then gave the sign for laughter.
That was a weird thing to say, but maybe Ruwen had misinterpreted Sift’s signs. The tunnel stopped spiraling and straightened for about ten feet before opening up into what looked like a jungle. Sift approached the edge slowly, and Ruwen followed.
The trees looked to be about sixty feet tall and had large oval-shaped leaves. Twenty feet up each trunk, branches grew and intertwined with the branches of nearby trees. In some places, they were so thick you couldn’t see past them. Light filtered down from some invisible source. The air felt warm, and because of the scarf, he couldn’t smell the dead leaves that littered the ground.
A tiny butterfly, only an inch long, landed on Ruwen’s hand. The wings were iridescent, and they folded flat against the little bug's body, making it almost look like a worm. To his shock, as he focused on the creature, information appeared above its body.
Name: Exploding Burrower Drone (Level 2)
Health: 24
Mana: 0
Energy: 10
Spirit: 0
Even though he didn’t know how to use his Spirit power, his Cultivation Stage had increased his Perception enough to see basic information. He wondered why it hadn’t worked on any of the people he’d seen since his Cultivation incident. Then he realized everyone here at the Black Pyramid were experts at hiding, including their attributes. Still, this made him super happy. It showed that as painful as the last day had been, he had made some progress.
Sift’s hands slapped together, crushing the beautiful little creature. Ruwen looked up at him in confusion. Sift made the exploding head motion. So these were what Sift called Shriekers. A timer had started in the upper-right side of his vision, just under the quest for this level. 119:54, 119:53, 119:52…
Another Burrower landed on Ruwen’s arm. Pulling his scarf up, Sift spit in his hand and then quickly replaced the scarf over his mouth. He moved the hand near the Exploding Burrower that had landed on Ruwen. He watched as the little bug twisted its body toward the fluid. Even through the wax, he heard the little bug’s scream and then it launched itself at Sift’s hand. As soon as it touched the spit, it tried to burrow deeper, and then it exploded in size. The inch-long butterfly expanded into a ball a foot across.
Sift dropped his hand suddenly and then brought them together in a hard clap, smashing the now huge Burrower. Pieces of bug flew everywhere, and Ruwen wiped bug guts off his goggles. Both he and Sift were covered in grey slime like some giant had sneezed on them.
Sift cleaned his goggles as well and then signaled. Sorry.
Ruwen just shook his head. Now he understood why you didn’t want them in your body. Body fluids seemed to make them greatly expand. He needed to find five of their nests and destroy them, and he had less than two hours to do it now.
He activated Detect Temperature, and the flying Burrowers appeared like floating embers. They all had information now and varied between levels two and three. The Burrowers seemed to be coming from his left. He pointed that direction and Sift nodded. They moved slowly along the cavern wall, watching the jungle intently. They traced the line of Burrowers
to a cocoon about the size of his arm. It hung from the lowest branch on a tree about thirty feet from the cavern wall.
Sift signaled. Quest. Destroy. I. Locate. Next.
Okay.
Sift continued down the wall and soon disappeared. Ruwen studied the trees and surrounding area. The quest made him think there might be helpful people here, and he didn’t want to ruin that by accidentally attacking someone if they surprised him.
He slowly walked to the hive until he stood almost under it. It had the same grey-brown mucus color as the inside of the Burrower Sift had smashed. The hive hung by a stem about the thickness of Ruwen’s wrist, and Burrowers fluttered around and on it. Ruwen couldn’t see the entrance so he assumed it must be on top.
What would be the best way to do this? His dagger would be useless from down here. If he wanted to use it, he would have to climb the tree and cut the stem. Leaving the ground was always his last resort, so he thought of other ways to do this. His staff seemed like the logical choice. He could reach the hive from the ground, and the staff did a lot of damage. The issue though was what happened after that. He assumed the Burrowers would be upset and fly around. Striking them in the air with his staff would be ten times harder than hitting chickens, and that had taken him ten minutes.
Ruwen looked down at his Baton of a Thousand Uses for a few seconds and then removed it. It took him three tries to find the correct bump that magically pulled out into a shovel. It seemed ludicrous to start a fight with a shovel, but the surface area would give him a massive advantage when trying to hit the tiny flying creatures. It just felt wrong, somehow, to be in a dungeon fighting this way. To be fair, the Rod Spiders had been mostly desperation. But this time it was deliberate.
“Oh well, you don’t get experience for style,” Ruwen said.
He took a few practice swings with the shovel and then studied the hive again. It didn’t seem worth it to spend Mana on Bleed or Backstab. This seemed pretty simple. Knock it down. Smash it. The few Burrowers that survived shouldn’t take long to finish off.
Taking two more practice swings, he let himself relax. This would be easy. Taking careful aim, he swung his shovel at the hive.
The stem attached to the tree was stronger than Ruwen thought. Instead of the hive falling nicely to the ground, it exploded. He stared in shock as thirty Burrowers shot into the air from the force of his blow. Screeching made it through his earplugs, and he turned to see all the Burrowers that had left the hive come flying back. All of them headed directly at him.
He swung his shovel around in a panic and managed to kill a few. But it didn’t take long for almost fifty Burrowers to be crawling all over his body. He smashed them against his body, but there were too many he couldn’t reach. The feeling of them crawling on his skin made him panic. His heartbeat thundered in his ears, and he did the only thing he could think of. He dropped to the ground and rolled around, trying to smash them into the ground.
Ruwen didn’t know how long he’d been rolling and smashing when he caught sight of Sift above him. It was enough to calm Ruwen’s mind, and he stood up. About ten Burrowers crawled on Sift, and another twenty or so were still on Ruwen.
Sift signaled. Serious. What. Wrong. You.
What?
You. Hopeless. Sift flicked a Burrower that had crawled on to his nose. I. Demonstrate. Before.
Thought. Plan. Work.
You. Think. Extra.
Ruwen guessed Sift meant he overthought things. Something Ky had told him as well.
Sift pulled a water-skin from his belt, pulled the stopper, and quickly spit in the top. He tucked the scarf back down, placed his thumb on the top, and shook the water-skin. He walked to the tree and dumped a little of the water down the trunk. He pulled a Burrower off his arm and stuck it on the wet area of the trunk. It started shrieking, expanded, and then fell to the ground. At the sound of the shriek, all the Burrowers had raced for the tree. In moments, all the remaining Burrowers were a foot big and nestled like giant seeds around the bottom of the tree.
Shaking his head, Sift stoppered the water-skin and handed it to Ruwen. He took it and placed it in his Void Band. His cheeks burning, he picked up his shovel, and in less than a minute all the Burrowers were dead. His timer read ninety-seven minutes. Now that he knew the trick to killing them, the others should go much faster. Ninety-seven minutes should be plenty of time.
Just to make sure this wasn’t all for nothing, he opened his quest. It now had a counter that read one of five complete. Closing the quest, he wondered if Sift and Ky were right. Did he overthink? His plans had mostly been disastrous here, but a lot of that was because he had never fought before. He still had trouble controlling his fear, and it made him do dumb things like drop his weapons or roll around.
The problem might be he wasn’t leaning into his one advantage, Intelligence, enough. He hadn’t taken the first plan that came to his mind, but he also wasn’t thinking things through or getting more information before acting. That might still happen, as many things happened too quickly to think about. But if he did have time, he needed to think more, not less, if he wanted to survive. The more information he had, the better the plan he could execute. Intelligence was his real advantage, and for the most part, he’d been ignoring it.
Sift tapped Ruwen’s forehead, and Ruwen focused on Sift.
Ready? Sift signaled.
Ruwen nodded and followed his friend.
Using Sift’s water-skin, the next three hives went much faster. When they had finished the fourth one, Ruwen still had forty-two minutes on his countdown clock.
Sift signaled. Danger. Soon. Hands.
Ruwen didn’t understand what Sift meant, but the quest referenced hands as well. It said ‘Occupants will appreciate your helping hands…’ so it must almost be time to offer someone a hand. It would all be clear soon. As they began walking deeper into the jungle, Ruwen thought about the abilities and spells he’d learned and tried to think of smart ways to use them. When Sift slowed and dropped to his stomach, Ruwen decided he also needed to stay focused on the present, or he might get killed.
Sift crawled forward and Ruwen followed. Half a minute later the trees started to thin. They moved forward another twenty feet and stopped as a large clearing, at least three hundred feet across, appeared. Near the center, two humanoid creatures sat next to a fire. A single tree stood near the pair, an Exploding Burrower hive hanging above them.
The sitting pair had green skin with brown ridges on their hairless scalps. Something seemed odd about them, and when the big one stretched, Ruwen saw they each had four arms. The smaller of the two had a stick in each hand. Fire shot from one of the sticks directly into the fire and Ruwen realized they were wands. The Mage pointed another wand at the base of the fire, and it suddenly blazed higher as air was forced onto the coals. Ruwen guessed the other two wands were water and earth, making the little one an Elemental Mage.
The big one clapped his hands together in some complicated pattern. Ruwen couldn’t hear it, but the Mage bobbed up and down to the beat. Ruwen named the big one Clapper.
Their mouths looked too big for their heads, and sharp yellow teeth protruded like daggers. They each wore a necklace made from bloody hands. Most of which were not green. Ruwen shook his head and reread the quest description.
Occupants will appreciate your helping hands as you find and destroy five Exploding Burrower nests.
“Damn you, Blapy,” Ruwen whispered.
He focused on Clapper and the Mage. At first, just their type appeared: Clapping Brawlers. As he continued to study them, more information appeared.
Name: Clapping Brawler, Mage (Level 5)
Health: 62
Mana: 136
Energy: 50
Spirit: 0
Name: Clapping Brawler, Chief (Level 7)
Health: 238
Mana: 0
Energy: 190
Spirit: 0
Sift pointed to each side of the clearing. Ruwen’s Detect
Temperature identified the outline of another four-armed creature on each side. He couldn’t see them as well, and the information he garnered was limited. He studied the one on the left first, and then the right.
Clapping Brawler, Fighter (Level 6)
Clapping Brawler, Fighter (Level 4)
Something bothered him about the tree in the clearing, and he studied it. The branches had a lot of foliage, as much as the trees directly above him, but that tree didn’t have others to intertwine with it. That meant someone had added those leaves.
Ruwen activated Magnify, and the tree grew large in his vision. He slowly moved his eyes across the tree until he caught a sliver of red, mostly hidden behind the trunk and leaves. He stared at the area, and after about ten seconds he was rewarded with some information: Clapping Brawler, Assassin (Level 5)
He turned off Magnify and signed to Sift. Assassin. Tree. Above.
Sift concentrated on the tree, nodded at Ruwen, and then turned and crawled back the way they’d come.
When they could no longer see the clearing, Sift stopped.
Make. Fire. Please. Sift signed.
Here?
Sift nodded.
Ruwen cleared an area with his foot and then focused on the Campfire icon. Five seconds later, his Mana bar dropped from one hundred eighty to thirty. It flashed yellow in warning as he fell below 25% capacity. He seemed to do that a lot.
Sift signed, Thanks, took off his shoes and stuck his feet, hands, and arms directly in the fire.
Ruwen managed to swallow his gasp. Sift, just like when the Roasting Lizard had set him on fire, was unfazed by the heat.
Because of his recent Cultivating experience, Ruwen had finally put enough pieces together to understand what was happening. Sift couldn’t pull energy toward himself, he needed it to touch him so he could ‘sift’ through it and make it useable. Once again, they were on opposite sides of a problem. Ruwen had absorbed an immense amount of energy and had no clue what to do with it. Sift had skills but was forced to charge himself up by sitting in a fire.
