“Let me check, Sir.” Jeeves’s golem entered their room and climbed down to where Breck’s opal was located. He placed a hand against it and reviewed its surface. “It does appear you are at near full capacity, Sir. And you don’t have many imperfections left on your surface.”
“That’s great! Soooo… how do I do this?”
“That’s a brilliant question.”
There was a long, somewhat awkward, pause.
“Jeeves. I’ve told you many times before, when I pose a question, I expect you to answer and not need me to ask twice.”
“I remember, Sir, but I’m afraid I don’t have a great answer. My database doesn’t point to a straightforward answer. In theory, you need to condense your essence, while perfecting your opal and making a breakthrough with your essence type. Those are the methods you’ve used to make it this far, so it’s likely how you will advance.”
“Likely how?”
“I wasn’t exactly given a manual. This is the best information I can provide at this time. I’m sorry, Sir.”
Breck sighed. I should take it easy on him. He’s doing the best he can and in a short few months I’m ready to hit the intermediate ranks. I should be transcended by the end of the first year at this rate. Haha. I guess I need to start condensing all this essence, but that’s soooo boring.
Breck looked around to distract himself and found a familiar face. One of the few people to delve into the dungeon for a second time and he brought another familiar face from the first group to ever enter his depths. The skinny homeless looking man and the youthful women with the massive pack. What was her name again… Was it, Thao? Might as well watch them while I condense essence.
“Wait a second.” Zach held the group up. “Weren’t we supposed to take Dustin down here? Did he ever end up showing up to the shantytown?” We really need a new name. That's going to the top of the to-do list.
“He showed up as expected but after seeing you and Droknal in such a state, he started studying the dungeon on his own. He hasn’t gone in yet, just collecting a lot of samples from the surface and bringing them back to his field lab,” Thao answered.
“Field lab?”
“Yeah, he set up a big tent to study the dungeon. It’s on the opposite side of the market. I could go get him if you want.”
Zach shook his head. “I’m still a bit sore. It’s probably best not to take him down here until we’re all at full strength. It’s hard enough to survive down here without having to worry about a non-combatant. We can bring him some of the corpses to study.”
“Zach is right >>click<<. We need to heal ourselves before worrying about others. Shall we get started now >>click<<?” Droknal gestured toward the room in front of him. “There are beetles to slay.”
The group proceeded into the dungeon for the delve. The first room didn’t offer much resistance, especially with the addition of Thao tossing them potions and items when needed. After slaying all the beetles, they strapped one of the corpses to Thao’s bag and moved on.
The spiders proved to be more of a challenge for them, but Droknal was able to use his fire essence to clean up the room. Zach, Thao, and even Droknal, took some damage from the monsters, but none of them were out for the count. When the spiders were slain, they collected and divided up the loot, happy with their spoils. It wasn’t until they reached Sting did they stop.
Breck was focused on condensing his essence and couldn’t spare enough attention to take control of his boss. It was one thing to view them fighting, but taking control of Sting would take all of his attention. Because of this, Sting was just hovering in the center of the room waiting for them.
“That’s one large bee.” Zach pointed at Sting.
“That appears to be a wasp >>click<<.”
“Bee, wasp, does it matter? There is a giant… thirteen-foot monster in front of us. The dust in the room is being blown out by the sheer force of its wings.”
“Are we going in?” Thao sheepishly asked.
Zach looked at her like she was speaking in tongues. “Are you nuts? Sure, we made it this far but I’m running on empty here and I still have pain all over my sides. Let’s get topside, give the spider and beetle corpses to Dustin and get some food. We can tackle this… this thing when we fill up our party.” Droknal stared at Zach in shock. “What?”
“You have grown in the past weeks >>click<<. Normally you would be pushing us to continue.”
“What can I say? When a homicidal, evil, crazy woman almost ends your life, you gain a little perspective. I’m not ready to die. Believe it or not, I do have some dreams I want to see come true.”
Thao laughed. “You would have some dreams seeing that you spent the last few days passed out on your cot.”
“Well… that spoiled my pleasant mood.” Everyone chuckled and headed back through the dungeon toward the exit.
“Hey Droknal. Do you want to change your robes? I brought some spares. You have a lot of holes in your current one and someone might notice you.” Thao opened her pack and rummaged through it.
“That would be sublime >>click<<.” Droknal removed his robe and handed it to Thao.
It was the first time he hadn’t worn his robe in several days, so he stretched a bit before donning the new clothing Thao handed him. As soon as Breck got a glimpse of him, his mental mouth watered.
“JEEVES! JEEVES! LOOK!” Breck pointed Droknal out. “I need it! Don’t get me wrong, the Boneless Tribe is amazing, but look. That’s a fully humanoid creature with no bones. I could create an entire new floor of those. Hell, unlike the kobolds, I could feed the pattern with essence and create any rank of them I want. I could even change them to create sub-races and modified monsters. I have to wait for the kobolds to give birth to replenish their ranks. I need to have that pattern, Jeeves.”
“Calm down, Sir. I agree that you should absorb that pattern, but I can’t read the creature’s rank. They must be higher than you, so I doubt you could kill them. Besides, you can’t just randomly kill an adventurer. You have to let them make their own mistakes and this group seems to be taking things easy and safe.”
“Shit, you’re right. Well, every time they enter the dungeon I’m going to control the monsters to increase their chances. Whatever it takes, I will kill that humanoid bug and take its pattern. He, or she, or whatever, just became my number one target. I will focus on ranking up for now, but if you see any member of that group enter the dungeon, you let me know. Aside from ranking up, they are my number one priority. Is that clear?”
Jeeves nodded. “Yes, Sir.”
“Good. Now to rank up.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Unexpected
Zach and company left the dungeon through its entrance and were greeted by an angry scientist.
“Zach! You said you would take me into the dungeon. First you’re sleeping for a few days and then I get word that you’re going into the dungeon without me!? What do you have to say for yourself?” Dustin pushed a finger against Zach’s chest, pushing him as he spoke.
“I’m sorry?” He apologized, but it sounded more like a hesitant question.
“Hey, Dustin.” Thao waved. “Sorry we didn’t come and get you but we brought you gifts.” She turned to reveal the spider and beetle corpses strapped to her pack.
“Thao. You are always a welcome presence. Are those from the dungeon?” Dustin squealed in delight as he ran a hand over the deceased monsters. “Bring them to my lab. I can’t wait to crack them open. Come, come.” Waiving them along, he proceeded toward his lab.
They followed Dustin and were inside his lab within a couple of minutes. The large tent was full of everything a scientist would need: tables of full and empty beakers, vials, testing equipment and books galore. Just like his tower, there were books on most of the surfaces.
It must have taken him a hundred trips or more to get all these books here. That or a ton of gold in transport fees. “Did you bring all your books with you?” Zach questioned.
“Haha. Not even a small percentage of them. These are just my volumes and notes on dungeons and their impact on the environment. I have more books coming that speak to the history of dungeon cores.” Dustin walked to a large rectangular table and pushed the books onto the floor. “Place the specimens here.”
Thao did as instructed and unstrapped the monsters from her pack. As she placed them on the table, Dustin retrieved a silver platter with a variety of dissection tools on it.
As soon as the bodies were on the table, he went to work. Pushing a large knife into the underbelly of the beetle caused a splatter of blood to spurt out and cover Dustin. Instead of becoming disgusted, the normal human reaction when being covered in monster gore, Dustin smiled. He grabbed a nearby empty vial and scooped the guts into it before placing it on a shelf.
“This is a beautiful specimen. I can’t wait to run some tests on it. And the spider! Look at how large it is. I bet it has two, no, maybe three venom sacs. EEEEE.”
For a full-grown man, he sure does squeal a lot. “I’m glad you’re happy. We can take you into the dungeon with us tomorrow if you want. I should be close to a hundred percent by then. Do you think that's ok, Droknal?”
Droknal nodded.
“Splendid! This should tide me over until morning.”
The group headed for the door, but Thao turned around before leaving. “We’re going to grab some food if you want to join us?”
Dustin was so engulfed in the task at hand that he didn’t even hear Thao’s question. She smiled and departed with the others. They all headed for the improvised inn where they shared a meal together. Before retiring to their tent, they stopped at Stoneaxe’s establishment where Zach was told to return at first light for his fitting.
Zach thought it was a great night, overall. A successful dungeon run, some extra coin in their pockets, a happy scientist and a great meal. That being said, he was exhausted and happy to be back in his tent. Without saying much, he removed his armor and crashed hard onto his cot. His entire party following his example, the group was out within minutes.
A rustling outside stirred Zach awake. He opened his eyes to see the hilt of a blade connect with his face and he was out again. When he came to, he was being dragged by his arms across a rocky ground. He tried to pull his arms free, but someone punched him in the gut. It was a hard enough blow to knock the wind out of him.
“You just don’t get it, do you, Zach? I told you I would find you and end you. Well…” Noelle’s visage came into his view from the shadows of the room. “Here I am.”
“Noelle?” Zach choked out.
She held his face up by his chin so their eyes could meet. “Miss me?”
Looking around to get his bearings, he saw that her group of mercenaries was with her. Each one of the muscular men was holding one of Zach’s arms while the other had an arrow pointed at his center mass. He also noticed cobwebs and dead spiders around him.
“Are we in the dungeon?”
“Well. You’re not all stupid, I suppose. Let’s move.” She gestured toward the men and they all started moving.
After they made a few turns they were in-front of Sting’s boss room.
“Hold him up.” The men carrying Zach followed orders, holding him up by his wrists. Noelle walked behind him and out of sight. “That’s the end of the road for you, Zach. I’m going to let that creature have its fill. Then it’s not on me, right? You died on a crazy grab for power on a solo dungeon run.”
“That’s ridiculous. No one’s going to believe that. I would never go into the dungeon alone.”
Noelle chuckled. “Honestly, I don’t care. I win either way. I get rid of you and I piss Alcot off. Both of those things will make me happy. But first…” Zach heard the familiar sound of her whip’s tail hitting the floor. “First, I’m going to savor the moment.”
Without further warning, the crack of a whip echoed through the chamber. The thick leather lashed at Zach’s back. It cut through both the fabric of his shirt and his skin as if it was wet tissue paper. A wide and long cut ran down his backside as blood stained the rest of his shirt. He screamed out in pain, but the sound of another whip crack muffled his screams.
Another scream and another crack. Noelle was laughing like a crazy woman the whole time. A cackling witch would be a more accurate description to describe the vindictive woman torturing him.
This continued on for what seemed like ages to Zach. In reality, it only lasted ten or fifteen minutes. Noelle whipped him more than ten times until his entire back was bloody and mangled. When she had her fill, she nodded her head and her thugs threw Zach’s limp body into Sting’s boss room. She gave Zach one more look before blowing him a kiss and departing with her party.
“Jeeves… I feel kinda bad for this guy. I mean… look at him.” Breck brought their focus onto Zach.
He was barely conscious and trying to stand. Putting all of his weight on a nearby wall, he was just able to hold himself up.
“He definitely is a fighter, Sir. Do you think the bug person will come looking for him?”
“Based on their conversation, no. It sounds like he's all by himself. Which means he's my next essence meal. I’m going to take control for this one. With him so weak, I can get some excellent practice in controlling Sting.” Breck moved his mind into Sting and landed near the center of the room. Let’s try a ground fight. There will be fights where Sting loses his wings and I don’t think I need the aerial advantage on this one.
“Oh? Taking it easy on me are you?” Zach shambled forward on incredibly weak legs.
He closed his eyes and focused on his inner essence. Pushing and flowing, he moved it through his sacral chakra point. The sacral point was the center of fluidity and emotions. This made it the easiest chakra point for Zach to manipulate because of its connection to water and ice.
I can do this. I need my essence. I need to control it. I need to live! Ice formed and covered his back, not in one solid piece, but in segmented chunks. It was broken up enough to allow him to still move freely. He could feel it. He could feel his chakra point bending to his will. No, it broke open to him. Zach unlocked his first chakra point successfully.
The euphoria of opening a chakra point washed over him. It granted him temporary mastery and control over his essence. Although his overall essence pool was still small, the sheer opening of a chakra point rocketed him into the basic ranks.
If I live through this… I’ll have to thank Noelle… personally…
“Well, that was impressive,” Breck commented. “The guy just gained four ranks and jumped into the basic tier. Now I kinda feel bad killing him, but it definitely makes him more worthwhile to absorb. I should kill him quickly before he uses too much more of that essence of his.”
Sting moved forward and thrust his massive stinger at Zach. Dodging was impossible, given his current state, so he fell to the ground instead. The stinger barely missed his head as he fell to the ground.
He hit the rocky surface with a hard thud but fought through the pain in order to roll over and grip the stinger with his hands. With his newfound control over his essence, he froze the stinger in a solid block of ice. The added weight made Sting stumble backwards, disoriented.
Zach took this opportunity to get to his feet. More… I need more… The rush of essence was intoxicating but dangerous. He was still at lower ranks and didn’t have a lot of essence to work with. What little he had, he was quickly burning through. The icy chill may be dulling his pain and the adrenaline might be keeping him on his feet, but when his essence was used up, he would collapse. No amount of willpower, adrenaline or force would keep him alive when his essence was gone. Worse yet, he knew it.
Sting spun around and his stinger broke off, rolling across the room. “That’s unfortunate.” Breck took flight, but the room was slowly becoming enveloped in a chilly mist.
The chill was frosting over Sting’s wings. Breck increased the speed of his flapping, keeping them warm enough to remai
n air bound. The mist still slowed his overall movements and attacks. It was just enough of an edge to keep Zach alive as Breck launched a volley of attacks.
I can’t keep dodging forever. I need to go on the offensive, but I don’t have a weapon. I need a weapon.
Sting swung downward with his top two legs. Zach held his left hand up, closed his eyes, and screamed in protest. He thought the screams would be in vain, but the attack was stopped before it made contact. Opening his eyes revealed the answer. A katana made of solid ice was holding the venomous legs at bay.
“That’s new,” Zach muttered.
Unfortunately, the sword didn’t hold back the other two legs that skewered Zach’s chest. As the legs entered his body, ice formed around the wounds and stopped the legs from entering too deep.
“Still impressing me, but you need to die now.” Breck launched into a flurry of attacks.
Zach parried each incoming strike, but they were all still grazing him. The fact was, he was in no shape to fight.
More… I need more… He focused on what he needed, pulling up the image in his mind, the image of a sword. Giving it his full attention, he forced his essence to take shape. Chilly air collected and froze around his free hand. It coalesced into a glimmering icy blade.
As Sting's next attack, an overhead downward strike, came crashing down, Zach intercepted it with his twin blades held in an ‘X’ formation. Before Breck could withdraw the limb, Zach pushed his blades together and lopped it off.
The arm fell to the ground with a sickening thud. Blood splattered over him, but he didn’t flinch. His life was on the line and his energy tank was on the barest of fumes. Digging deep, he mustered all the energy he had left. Leaping forward, he went on the offensive with his own flurry of blows.
Breck wasn’t going to go down easily. He fainted left, but at the last minute, he swung right. One of his claws cut open Zach’s side. The wound was deep and blood gushed down Zach’s leg as he fell to a knee. He was fortunate enough to land a counter attack that sliced open Sting’s abdomen.
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