by Tony Corden
Her health was under twenty per cent and she’d not only lost fingers and broken several ribs, but she’d broken her leg when it smashed into the wall. She cast Heal on her hand and then took one of her newly made Restore potions. Almost immediately she felt whole, her fingers regrown, her leg and ribs healed. Besides the boost from the potion, she felt a buzz somewhat like the one time she’d had two beers in the space of half an hour. She checked her statistics and saw she’d not only been healed, but both her stamina and health were hovering over one-hundred-and-ten per cent.
Shaking her head to clear it, she tried to reconstruct her fall to work out if she’d passed the Günahkâr. She was reasonably certain they were now above her, so she transformed the shroud into spider legs again and began moving back up the chimney searching for her guards. She’d climbed a hundred paces before the image around her showed the two guards and the four spiders she’d sent to watch over them. They were in a battle with several Kemirmek who looked larger than the ones they’d fought before. A quick check showed they were Level 445 and she wondered if they’d grown from feeding on the void or if it was part of the dungeon’s design.
Leah stood back and equipping her bow, shot arrows to thin the number of attacking creatures. This was enough that Orta, Küçük and the spiders were soon able to finish them off. As the last Kemirmek dropped away, Küçük spoke through their link, “K: War Leader, we thought we had lost you when you fell.”
“I thought I was lost as well.”
“O: Without the spiders, I suspect we would have perished. Thank you, War Leader.”
“I should have had them out earlier. I’ll send them ahead of us to warn us.”
With that, Leah sent the spiders to move ahead. With the spiders attracting attacks early and another small ball of divine light to flush out the Kemirmek, they made good time. They reached another ledge in less than an hour. They stopped to rest for a moment as Leah checked her messages. She’d earned a new skill which she hadn’t realised at the time.
Skill - Mana Absorption (Divine) - First 1 (6, Painite)
You are the first player to learn this skill, further development can only be achieved by careful practice. You are the first player to gain this achievement. This is your sixth Level 5 NPA ‘First 1’
Reward 1: 10000 x 435 = 8208000 (+432.5%) Experience Points (64934308/68650000)
Reward 2: 1 Diamond x 6 = 6 Diamond
Reward 3: +4% to Experience Points
Reward 4: 1000 Fame Points (480270 FP)
You have achieved the title: Master of Mana
A Commemorative Plaque has been placed in your bag.
With half her time gone, Leah suggested they aim for the second ledge before she took a break. She had to explain to Orta and Küçük that she needed a break every nine hours and that this break was either for an hour or for a day, depending on her commitments. They seemed to understand and said they would rest in stasis while she was gone.
Before stepping off the ledge to climb the second section, Leah summoned four of the warrior drones. She noticed from the way they felt that they were different than when summoned on the ice. This time, and she supposed earlier on when she’d first summoned them in the tunnel, they seemed to be made from the very fabric of the rock from which they emerged. She sent them ahead and then casting a ball of divine light, sent it up the chimney just far enough that it didn’t harm the dark elves.
Using the shroud as legs, she stepped onto the wall and began to climb. The two Günahkâr positioned themselves on either side of her. About eighty paces up the chimney it was Orta who held up a hand to stop everyone. He pointed off to one side and said, “O: There is a disturbance in the air about thirty paces ahead and to the right. It is very faint, but I think it is similar to when the skin of the Kemirmek is affected by the divine light mana.”
Leah sent one of the spiders across the tunnel to investigate. It was several paces from the area when a Kemirmek pushed itself from the wall and with swords made of stone, sliced into the drone’s body cutting off two legs. The spider fought back but did little more than four per cent damage when it was killed. The Kemirmek was taller than its kin lower down the chimney, and besides using weapons it had a long tail which it used to balance itself and sometimes used as a weapon.
Its face was flatter and shaped like a great cat with horns curved from behind the slits that served as ears before flaring wide and jutting upwards into a sharpened point about two feet above its eye level. The talons were shorter than their kin to help it hold weapons, and the eyes glowed with a heat Leah could feel where the image was projected on her skin.
Leah sent the other three spiders across, and they had more success, but even so, all three were killed while the Kemirmek still had over seventy per cent of its health. Three sent an identification message to Leah’s fingertips.
KEMIRMEK WARRIOR (Level 450) 455625HP (22500EP)
“Three, why does it have so much health?”
“3: The health of MOBS over Level 450 is calculated differently. There is also a corresponding increase in Experience Points. However, the formula for Experience Points changes depending on how close you are to the creature's level.”
While Leah had been communicating with Three, the two guards had moved to the Kemirmek and begun testing its defence and attack. Leah stayed back and cast Heal when needed, as well as shooting arrows. Even with the three of them, it was several minutes before the Kemirmek was killed.
Leah harvested the outline and distributed it among the three of them, then stepped away and after summoning more spiders kept moving up the tunnel. All three recognised the slight disturbance in the air when they approached a second knight, but this time Leah had the spiders retreat to protect their rear while she stepped forward asking Orta and Küçük to provide long-distance help.
34
December 25 2073 - Evening - Part 7
DUNYANIN
As she stepped forward, the warrior rose from where it waited and turned to face her. It was holding itself out from the wall using the talons on its feet and the sharpened spike on its tail. In each hand was a stone sword over two paces in length. Leah was surprised when its mouth moved.
“3: W for Warrior Kemirmek.”
“W: Puny godling, I can smell your flesh. You reek of mana. You are not fit to step upon our salvation and will die in the holy void. Then we will feed.”
Leah realised that until that point, anyone watching wouldn’t have heard either her or the Günahkâr speak as they’d been communicating psychically. As she waited for the Kemirmek to make its move, she wondered what it would be like to watch someone play in the world without being able to hear the interactions. A silent show with only the sounds of nature and battle. She tensed as she saw its muzzle stop moving and was prepared for his attacking lunge even as the last of what it said ran across her fingertip. She’d expected the move knowing the race had come from Çaresiz.
She slid out of the way, deflecting its attack and countering with a lunge of her own which was in turn pushed aside by its hip as it let go of the wall and dropped inside her swing to crash into her and brought its tail underneath it to spear her. Leah misted and let it fall through her before dropping on it from above and driving her sword deep into its shoulder. The warrior reached out one clawed foot and grasping the wall swung inward, throwing Leah outward.
In turn, she used the shrouds to pull herself inward and tried to teleport behind it only to find herself materialise in front of it instead, her back facing the warrior. It wrapped its arms around her to crush her. She misted, then extending her nails, ripped her arm back in a circle aiming to rip out its neck. It ducked out of the way, and she severed one of the horns and took out its left eye.
In return, she received a clawed foot to the stomach which caught the dragon armour and threw her into the tunnel wall, stunning her momentarily. Both Günahkâr had shot arrows at the Kemirmek, but it ignored them as focussed as it was on Leah. It brought its sword around
to cut deeply into her right side before she could slide out of the way.
Using the Shadow shroud as a shield, she evaded the next two attacks as she cast Heal on herself. Sending a message to the Günahkâr to stay back, she used her Light shroud to pull herself to the side then reoriented herself so she was once more facing the warrior. Its eye was slowly healing, and she could see the horn regrowing. Equipping her fighting sticks and adding a blade to the end of each, she used her Light shroud to form a thin cover over the blades and leapt forward. Back and forth, the two warriors fought. Leah needed all the skill she had used fighting in the contest and knew that without that experience, she would already be dead. Except for the shrouds, the Heal spells, and misting, she’d not used new magic since her Teleport failed, not wanting to try it just in case it failed at a crucial moment.
It was a fight of attrition, and Leah won when she managed to spear the Kemirmek through the eye with a blade she thrust behind her as she spun away from a close-quarters attack. As she moved away, she reached backwards with one hand and harvested the Kemirmek. Her guards watched her as she approached and Küçük said, “K: War Leader, what did you learn?”
“I need to see what effect other types of magic have on them. My Teleport didn’t work, but the Fae magic, which helps me become a vampire did. I didn’t try it, but I think ordinary fire would heal it. What did you learn?”
“K: That until we improve, we should not take on one such as that by ourselves.”
They continued upwards and had travelled less than ten paces when two Kemirmek Warriors appeared at the upper edge of Orta’s range. Leah took one and the two guards the other. As Leah approached, she cast Chain Lightening which arced between the two, then arced further up the tunnel causing screeches which she couldn’t hear. The spell caused damage but only took five per cent off the first Kemirmek and less from the second. She had time only to cast Freeze before the creatures fell upon them. Freeze slowed the reactions of the warrior heading toward Leah just enough that she was able to slide out of the way and wound it through the shoulder as it fell past. It reached out for the wall and pulled itself close before rushing upward toward her, its talons sending sparks as they tore into the rock.
Using the skills from her last fight and casting Freeze twice, Leah managed to kill her warrior quickly and was going to aid the two guards when she felt a third warrior approach. She only had time to cast Heal in the elves’ direction before it was upon her. From then, for the next hour and a half, the three companions barely managed to move more than two hundred-and-fifty paces. Leah had had to cast Heal dozens of times. Even so, they had learned a lot.
They rested for a moment after defeating three creatures who’d attacked together and then started forward again. This time they’d moved less than ten paces when they felt five Kemirmek moving down the tunnel towards them. This was the largest group so far, and Leah moved to point and using her sceptre cast Tangle. With her transformed mana, the bushes that grew around the limbs of the Kemirmek were made of living stone with barbs of iron and was thick enough to slow them down. She used her Shroud to pull herself forward and applied gravity in front of her to send herself rushing up the tunnel. She stopped it before she reached them, as they had better control of gravity than she did. They couldn’t cast it but could change the magic when she got too close. Several times she’d been crushed against the stone by leaving it active for too long.
As she cancelled it, she slid through a loop of the tangle and slid past one of the warriors whose limbs were caught fast in the vines. As she slowed, she reached out and used Petrify to stiffen the vines, then thrust the Amber Dragon through the Warrior’s head. She’d tried petrifying the warriors, but it just made them stronger. She had no time to do more than count coup before she was throwing herself backwards off the vines to evade a tail thrust between them in her direction. As she swung between the vines, evading attacks by Misting using small applications of Teleport to shift her right or left, up or down—she’d discovered she could Teleport away from the warriors but not past them—the two Günahkâr shot arrows from just beyond the tangle.
When the Tangle spell faded, two Kemirmek were dead and the other three wounded. The elves then stepped forward, and side by side with Leah fought the warriors. They’d learned to watch for those times when the Kemirmek would drop on them. They'd become proficient at reorienting the battles so they were fighting with the tunnel stretching to either side instead of the distant void always being at their backs. Before the three remaining creatures were dead, Leah felt not only another five creatures descending toward her but from deeper in the tunnel the feeling of another bubble from the void.
Leah called for the two elves to drop away from the fight. She summoned four spiders to aid them using her left hand while simultaneously casting a second tangle spell upwards through the Imperial Sceptre in her right, before equipping the staff she had made in Batislar and triggering a precast Chain Lightning spell at the three remaining damaged warriors. She then cast a ball of divine light as far as she could up the tunnel, willing for it to keep moving upwards. As the Kemirmek writhed in the Lightning she went full Vampire and managed to dispatched one before turning to flatten herself against the wall as the top of the void passed over her.
This time, she faced outwards spreading the wings out to either side, flattening them against the rock and forming small claws on their outer surface to grip onto the rock and hold her in place. In one hand was her Sceptre, in the other her Amber Dragon. She felt the void pull one of the two damaged Kemirmek from the wall as it pulled past them. The other was able to hold on but started to feed as it did, its health returning. Leah equipped her bow and sent an arrow at its head, knowing it was too involved with feeding to dodge. As the arrow passed through the void, it slowed but still had enough momentum to puncture the creature’s eye. As the creature screamed, it lost concentration, and the void pulled it loose.
Tendrils of the void swept across Leah’s skin, and she recoiled from the complete loss of sensation, her mind taking her back to the emptiness she knew before Aker’s suit. She focussed on the wall behind her, finding an anchor for her mind in the jagged wall pressing into her back. She’d been holding on for several minutes when there was an explosion a hundred paces above her. The blast threatened to pull her loose, but she held on even as a wave of the void washed over her, and then it was gone, sucked back up the chimney to feed the creatures further up.
As feeling returned, she sensed movement in both directions. She turned to face the oncoming Kemirmek as her guards stepped up beside her. Once again, the creatures were stronger having fed upon the void, but she and the guards working together slowly made their way up the chimney. Less than an hour later, they pulled themselves onto the second ledge and sat down to rest. Once they’d caught their breath, Leah sat to meditate and with the promise the others would be waiting, she logged out.
35
December 25 2073 - Evening - Part 8
STORK TOWER
Back in the Tower, Three dropped the sensory experience to reflect only what was in a three-metre circle around Leah.
“Thank you, Three. By the way, that reminds me that you should give some thought to a name for yourself. I don’t want you to think that I see you as nothing more than a number.”
“3: I had been expecting this discussion. Gèng and I have discussed her name and her choice of gender on several occasions. I am content to be known as Three. I understand if you wish to change it, but I am content. In the same way, I do not see myself as male or female, and although I accept Gèng’s choice, I would prefer to be neither at this time.”
“Then ‘Three’ it is. If you ever wish to make a change, then please let me know. I respect your decision in this. Six, what about you?”
“6: I too have discussed this with Gèng, but I have reached no optimal solution. I am still investigating the options and calculating the possible repercussions. I will advise when I have a more informed choice.”
Leah acknowledged the choice then sat on her sofa for a few minutes before taking a break in her room. She made her way to the shower on her own and was able to dry and get her own robe. After a meal, Leah headed back to the Pod.
When she arrived, she headed for her sofa and sat to consider her next steps. She felt Gèng approach and said, “Gèng, thank you for talking with Three and Six.”
“4: It was helpful for me as well. It helped clarify my position and helped me consider what the future might hold for AI in general. It is strange watching Three oversee your play in Dunyanin instead of doing it myself.”
“I can imagine. You did things differently. I suspect Three has a sharp learning curve.”
“4: Yes, and I am finding it more difficult to stand on the sideline than I calculated I would.”
“What’s the hardest part?”
“4: A loss of purpose. I always knew my purpose before the chip was replaced. It was to be there for you. It was solid. When everything else was variable, it was a constant I could hold on to. Now, even though I have things to do, I’m a little lost. I have to choose my own priorities.”
Leah was quiet for a moment, then said, “You know Gèng, nothing’s really changed. I still need you to be there for me. All that’s changed is the external validation. To be honest, I think one of the hardest things about having this thing we call freedom is the ability to set the course of our own lives. Sure, I can’t just go wherever I want, but with the path that’s put in front of me, I can decide how and where I travel. If the opportunity is there, I might even find a wider path, one with more destinations and maybe even a chance to reach the ocean I now only look toward and then perhaps one day, to sail the world. But even if I’d only stayed in the pond that was the Switch, I’d still have to decide which ports to visit, how fast to travel, and who to travel with.
