by Jez Cajiao
4) ?
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Common
No
100/100
N/A
Milk Thistle
Further Description Yes/No
Details:
The seeds of this flower have many undiscovered uses.
Uses Discovered:
1) Cure Disease
2) ?
3) ?
4) ?
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Common
No
100/100
N/A
Chamomile
Further Description Yes/No
Details:
The seeds of this flower have many undiscovered uses.
Uses Discovered:
1) Tranquilizer
2) ?
3) ?
4) ?
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Common
No
100/100
N/A
Finally, after working my way slowly through the notifications for the plants, I took a few handfuls of the ingredients, making sure I had ten of each, and stashed them in my bag of holding. I moved onto the next notification, reading the acknowledgement for killing the Sporeling.
Congratulations! You have killed a level 3 Sporeling. You have gained 40 Exp.
“Hell yes!” I muttered. I was getting slowly closer to the next level. I was determined to get there, and hopefully soon. I returned to the edge of the balcony with a much heavier bag and looked down at the base of the tower. I didn’t know how it was possible, but the damn thing looked to be at least a mile high, maybe two, I know Sinatra and the Baron had said they were up to three miles high, but it just didn’t seem possible! From my vantage point, I could make out hundreds of windows and dozens of other gardens and balconies before the base disappeared into the trees. I decided to try to clear another few floors, then head back up to the safety of the Pearl room no later than early afternoon. I’d be exploring the tower by daylight whenever possible from now on, and I needed some decent sleep tonight!
Before I could explore the rest of the tower, however, I needed to finish exploring this level. I moved back inside cautiously, searching the alcoves to make sure there was nothing hiding in them, and then I started to examine the items that filled each recess. My earlier assessment was right; they were altars, and each was different. As I moved to inspect the nearest one, a notification began to flash.
Scalable Quest discovered! ‘Bring back the Old Gods.’
Choose a patron deity and reawaken the Gods of Old to begin this quest.
Mana tithed to chosen Deity: 0/1000
Reward: Unknown.
“Okay, that’s not fucking freaky or anything…” I said, backing away. “Why the hell would I bring back the Gods? Didn’t one of them fuck this world over once already?” I stopped myself, realizing that the only source I had on anything in this world so far was the Baron and his retainers. “Besides,” I argued, “I’ve decided to be an optimist, remember? Also, stop talking to yourself Jax, it’s getting weird.” Shaking my head, I moved back to the small altar and examined the patterns engraved into it. Rays of sunlight shone down from a cloudy sky to rest on a woman walking across a field. A name carved below her feet read ‘Ashante.’
You have discovered the Altar of Ashante, Goddess of Nature and Life. Will you choose her as your patron Deity? Yes/No...
I examined the altar from every angle, rereading the notification a few times, but there were no further details, no indication of what the quest reward would be, or whether she was a Goddess that would suit me at all, so I moved on. The next altar to the left of Ashante was covered in carvings of flames dancing, with the name ‘Jenae’ carved below the image of a figure wreathed in fire. I continued circling the room until I’d gained prompts for each of the altars.
You have discovered the Altar of Jenae, Goddess of Fire, Exploration, and Hidden Knowledge. Will you choose her as your patron Deity? Yes/No...
You have discovered the Altar of Cruit, God of Earth and Stability. Will you choose him as your patron Deity? Yes/No...
You have discovered the Altar of Nimon, God of Death and Destruction. Will you choose him as your patron Deity? Yes/No...
You have discovered the Altar of Sint, God of Light and Order. Will you choose him as your patron Deity? Yes/No...
You have discovered the Altar of Tamat, Goddess of Darkness, Assassination, and Larceny. Will you choose her as your patron Deity? Yes/No...
You have discovered the Altar of Vanei, Goddess of Air and Change. Will you choose her as your patron Deity? Yes/No...
You have discovered the Altar of Lagoush, Goddess of Water, Healing and Alteration. Will you choose her as your patron Deity? Yes/No...
You have discovered the Altar of Svetu, God of Invention and Creation. Will you choose him as your patron Deity? Yes/No...
You have discovered the Altar of Tyosh, God of Time and Reflection. Will you choose him as your patron Deity? Yes/No...
I moved back outside and sat on the grass to think. After all, a God could grant some awesome gifts, if it wanted to. Plus, it was a quest, but I had nothing beyond a basic description for information. There were some that I liked the sound of, like Svetu, a god of invention and creation? A craftsman’s god, clearly, so that could work out well for me. If this was a game, I’d have chosen his altar immediately. After all, I’d survive the early game, and the gear I could craft for myself was always the best.
Thing was, it wasn’t a game. I needed something to help me survive now. I moved on, considering Nimon. A god of death and destruction would likely have some awesome spells, but a creature who basically lived to destroy was never going to be a great match for me, plus He’d probably have some really shitty quests later on. Sacrifice this, murder that, and so on, blah blah blah. Never going to happen, plus the dick had already basically destroyed the world, so he was out. I dismissed Tyosh, Lagoush, and Vanei quickly as well, since Time, Water, and Air just didn’t feel that interesting to me. Tamat was basically a thieves’ and assassins’ Goddess, so nope, moving on. Cruit for Earth did make me pause; stability I could do with, but if you let yourself get too stable, you never changed, and change was life. Nope.
That left me with three: Ashante, Jenae, and Sint. Sint was God of Light and Order, I could see an immediate use for Light magic here, but Order was a bit boring. I kind of liked disorder and chaos, so I doubted we’d mesh well.
It was down to Ashante and Jenae; Life and Fire, respectively.
Life magic would be awesome. I had one healing spell, and that was literally saving my life whenever I got injured here, but Fire….
I didn’t know why, but I liked it. Always had. The comfort of sitting in front of a fire at the end of the day or in winter was tremendous, as was watching things burn. I’d always been a pyromaniac at heart. Most of all, though, I had two spells that were fire based, so if it gave me a boost, that would help immediately.
I shrugged and walked over to Jenae’s altar and chose ‘yes’ when I was given the prompt. Besides another notification, nothing else seemed to happen.
You have selected Jenae, Goddess of Fire, Exploration, and Hidden Knowledge as your patron deity. Tithe currently gifted: 0/1000.
I took a deep breath and looked around. After a minute of nothing happening, I grimaced and decided to move on. Clearly Jenae wasn’t about to give out any freebies right away. Dammit. I guessed I had to fulfill the minimum part of the quest before I got anything, even an acknowledgement from the Goddess I’d pledged myself to.
Chapter Twelve
The whole swearing, soul searching, and choosing a God had taken only a few hours, including all the thinking, so I took the time to return to the garden and eat and drink my fill. There was no need to waste my stored food, after
all. I sat back on the grass that covered the ground, enjoying the breeze, the sunshine, and the sounds of the birds surrounding me as I finished my second apple.
As I relaxed, I let my mana refill, then channeled it to the Goddess for a while until I was almost out, then allowed it to refill a bit again. I did this constantly for the better part of an hour, figuring I’d better get on Jenae’s good side, until I grew too bored. I heaved myself to my feet and headed back inside, confident that at least this level would remain clear of the Sporelings and DarkSpore-possessed creatures, thanks to the light. I still scanned the room carefully before I moved inside, but that was more common sense than a belief that I’d be attacked.
I set off across the hall and down the far stairwell with more confidence than I’d had before. Passing the blackened windows as I went, I stopped and took the time to try and clean one. I found that the muck that coated it was deeper than I’d thought at first.
Poking and digging at it, I managed to get a few flakes free, but that was all. I leaned my naginata against the wall and drew a dagger, chipping at the substance until a solid chuck came free, letting sunlight stream in. I looked at the bit in my hand and couldn’t figure out what it was for the life of me.
It looked like a thick wedge of mud, dried and baked until it was as nearly as hard as brick, but how it had ended up covering the window, I didn’t know. I put it down to the creatures of the tower’s hatred of the sun and resolved to start clearing them as I went. Not all of them, and not properly; it’d take months for a start, but some now and then would create issues for the Sporelings at least.
I sheathed my dagger after clearing as much of the substance away as I could in a few minutes, then gathered up my naginata and set off. The next floor flew past, containing a dozen or more rooms on either side, and the hall was big enough that there were seats and planters on each floor, though whatever had once filled them was long dead and had crumbled to dust.
As I jogged down the stairs to the next floor, I resolved to turn back in another two floors. I knew I wasn’t far from the Hall of Memories now, but I needed to find somewhere safe to rest and spend the night. If I didn’t find anything soon, I’d need to turn back and return to the Pearl chamber. At least I knew that room was safe.
I reached the next floor, but just as I was about to step out onto it, I saw movement. I dove back out of sight into the stairwell, readying my naginata and returning to peek around the edge of the doorway. There, in the middle of the hall, steadily plodding towards me was a creature from a thousand horror films: a desiccated, armor-clad skeleton. Its left arm was missing from the elbow down, and its leather armor seemed to have rotted into place. Small flakes fell off it as it moved toward me, holding a spear in its remaining hand.
I looked around but couldn’t see anything else on this floor, so I took a deep breath and stepped out to meet it. It saw me instantly and crouched, extending its spear and clacking its teeth menacingly. Tiny red balls of hatred winked at me from the bony eye sockets, and I grinned back at it. We might have had similar weapons, a spear against a naginata, but I had both hands, and magic!
I lunged at the thing, covering the distance quickly as it stabbed out with a spearhead so covered in rust, it was more dangerous from the risk of tetanus than anything else.
I batted it aside easily and whipped the bladed end of my weapon through the bone soldier’s neck, severing its head and causing it to collapse. I froze for a second, waiting for something else, but besides the head continuing to clack its teeth at me, nothing else happened. I straightened up and walked across the floor to the skull and put my naginata down, picking the skull up to rest on my left palm. I took a deep breath and, staring into its hate-filled eyes, I began to speak.
“Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him…. WHAT THE FUCK!” I cut off from my ill-advised and poor attempt at Shakespeare as the skull began to bleed black smoke that tried to enter my hand. I dropped the skull to meet my upcoming foot and punted it across the room. The bony projectile trailed smoke before smashing into the far wall with a crunch of breaking bone. I used Identify and found out how stupid I’d been, picking the skull up in the first place.
DarkSpore
This creature is a parasitical form of life, acting as an extension of the SporeMother that birthed it. Although weak individually, and incapable of survival for long without a host, a single DarkSpore has been the downfall of cities. The queen sees all that her drones do, and she hungers.
Level: 5
HP: 5
Mana: 0
I glanced at the smoky mess that gathered and bunched around the skull before inching its way back towards the rest of the corpse. Grimacing, I fired a firebolt into it, sending the skull careening across the room. I hit it again, detonating it in a small cloud of flying teeth and bone fragments.
I saw a notification flashing. Thinking of the way I’d managed to alter the HUD to my tastes so far, I concentrated, and a small black skull appeared, outlined in red, which floated up from the corpse towards to disappear out of the top of my vision. Cool. I now had a death indicator.
Congratulations! You have killed a level 5 Decrepit Skeleton Warrior. You have gained 25 Exp.
Congratulations! You have killed a level 5 DarkSpore. You have gained 50 Exp.
Dismissing the notifications, I grinned, hoping that essentially killing two creatures in one would help me level faster, what with the DarkSpore being inside the skeleton and everything. I realized I’d passed the halfway point to my next level. At this rate, it wouldn’t be long...
As the thought crossed my mind, I began to turn around to search the corpse for any loot, when reality caught up with me. It came in the form of a bony fist exploding into my jaw and hurling me from my feet, my weapon clattering away into the distance.
You have been critically struck by DarkSpore Wandering Guardian for 20 points of damage.
You are stunned.
As I rolled to a halt several feet away, I I tried to work out what had happened, shaking my head to clear it and spitting blood onto the ground, I saw the notifications obscuring my vision, and I shook my head again, wanting rid of them while I tried to rise to my feet. As they disappeared, the second skeleton of the day jumped onto me, bearing me to the floor and sinking its teeth into my defensively raised forearm.
“Arghhhh! What the hell!” I screamed as I felt its chipped, sharp teeth biting into the muscle, chewing deep as it could while landing repeated blows as I tried to curl up and cover my head reflexively.
Thankfully, the notifications didn’t appear this time, but my health bar was dropping at a considerable rate. Between the bites, the hit that had laid me out, and the punches that were coming in thick and fast, I was already at half my health and it was shrinking faster by the second.
The creature tore a chunk of my arm free with a savage jerk. As blood and several teeth rained down on me, I felt the world change, and my animal side took over.
Screaming in fury at my attacker, filled with the pain and fear of the last day and previous night, I grabbed it with my left hand and swung with my right, punching it in the jaw and knocking its head askew. Twisting underneath it, the realization of how light the creature was faintly permeated my panicked and rage-filled brain. I grabbed both its arms, straightening them out and twisting the elbows inward to lock them, giving me the breathing room I needed. Shoving the creature back, I planted my left foot firmly on the floor, then swung up and hooked my right foot under its chin. Using the leverage I now had, I straightened my right leg as fast as I could, twisting the skeleton around and driving its face into the floor with a satisfying crunch of breaking bone.
Quickly releasing my grip, I rolled to my feet and began casting the Firebolt spell with both hands. Concentrating first on one hand, then the other, I roared out the spell again and again, pounding it into the ground with the force of each impact. Each hit smashed its skull back into the ground as soon as it rebounded. As the Skeleton broke apart, I continued the b
arrage into the inky cloud as it tried to escape the exposed skull. Two further spell impacts were all I managed as my mana ran out and a headache flared to life, but it proved to be enough as the death notifications appeared in my vision. I allowed myself a split second to confirm them before staggering fully upright to check the rest of the room.
Congratulations! You have killed a DarkSpore Wandering Guardian. You have gained 25 Exp.
Congratulations! You have killed a DarkSpore Parasite. You have gained 25 Exp.
Scanning the room, I saw no other creatures nearby, but a third skeleton was emerging from the stairwell. I lunged forward and swept up the first skeleton’s spear from the floor in both hands, running at the latest arrival before it could make sense of the destruction in the room. It began to raise its spear, a copy of the one I held, but I closed in before it could complete the movement.
I lashed out with the base of the spear, knocking its weapon aside as I brought the weighted butt back around and up, hitting it in the cheek. As it stumbled, I took the opportunity to bring the spear around to hook its knee as I shoulder charged it back into the stairwell.
As we tumbled down the stairs, I could hear bones breaking. I lost my grip on the spear, my head colliding with one wall and stars exploding across my vision for a second before I managed to catch myself. Shaking my head and seeing blood splatter from a gash, I tried to stand and staggered, reaching to brace myself on a recessed windowsill to keep from falling further down the stairs.
