The volunteers that would be joining them were in Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. They were splitting up the planes, Kira taking the faster, smaller jet to pick up the three northern states’ volunteers, while Gene hit the southern states. The Texas Stronghold was sending three people, and Tennessee was sending two. Michigan was also sending two, but with just Kira, Allistor, Amanda, Nancy, and Prime from Allistor’s group, there was room enough on her plane for the others.
Gene’s plane was going to be full. But, besides its eighteen passenger capacity, it could carry significant cargo weight. So, a few folks might have to sit on the floor, but the plane could handle it. Gene and Helen were in the cockpit, with Sam, Meg, Lars, Logan, Ramon, Bjurstrom, Campbell, McCoy, Goodrich, Dawn, Virginia, Richard, Andrea, and two volunteers from Denver named Pete and Norm in the main cabin. Fuzzy was there as well, curled up on the floor in the back, because Gene wasn’t about to let him scratch up or dirty the custom leather seats.
The cargo holds of both planes held cans of extra gas, though neither expected to need it. Gene’s plane also carried one of the regeneration machines. And everyone’s inventory rings were packed with weapons, rations, potions, everything they could think of. Allistor even had three five-hundred-foot lengths of rope. Cuz one should never go adventuring without a friggin’ rope.
Allistor had purchased another teleport pad, intending to install it the moment they claimed Fort Knox so that reinforcements could be brought to bear quickly if needed. It meant exposing his secret to the others, but the Stabilization period was ending anyway, and they’d be able to use their billions to buy a hub for themselves, so they presented no real danger to Allistor at that point. And if they failed to clear the dungeon… well, his secret would still be safe.
He also purchased more battle droids. Two more battalions. His intent was to have them help defend Fort Knox after he claimed it, and possibly to lend some troops to others in the coming days.
Allistor purchased something else on the market that evening, selecting inventory belts with five hundred slots’ capacity for every volunteer that was going to fight, including those from the other groups. He also bought an extra twenty for his advisors. They weren’t expensive, at least not for him, at ten thousand klax each.
PPD Belt
Quality: Exceptional
Capacity: 500
This personal pocket dimension belt will store up to five hundred individual items in a secure private dimensional space. Items stored within will be preserved in a dimensional lock, unaffected by time. The physical weight of each object stored will be reduced to .01% of normal. Identical items such as currency or mass-produced items will stack within a single storage slot. Items within the storage inventory may not be removed by anyone other than the user. The item itself cannot be bound to the user, and thus may be stolen.
While he had the market interface open, he received a message like no other he’d seen before. It flashed red and gold to get his attention, and when he looked at the sender name, it was just a series of question marks.
Curious, he opened it. The message was short, and to the point.
He waited until he reached his room, then pulled out the Prince’s Seal and Examined it. He had assumed it was simply a symbol of office like the Baron’s Seal, used for official functions or to certify documents and such. What he saw sent him ass over teakettle.
Prince’s Seal
Item Quality: Legendary
Attributes: +2 to all Attributes when equipped.
This Seal symbolizes the power of a Planetary Prince. In addition to granting two points to each of the Prince’s attributes when worn, it awards a morale boost of 10% to each of the Prince’s citizens. All of those invited into a combat or raid party with the Prince receive a buff of +1 to all Attributes until the party is disbanded.
That buff was simply amazing! With a total of ten attributes, this buff gave him the equivalent of ten levels’ worth of points. And the additional boost to morale and the party buff were nearly as exciting!
After petting the Seal for a while, he put it back in his bag. He’d make a show of putting it on before they entered the dungeon and give his people a boost.
The second part of the message had him digging through his inventory. “What scroll are they… oh, shit!” He grinned as he realized what the message meant. With his new levels and the points that went with them, he was more than capable of using it now. Opening the scroll, he learned the magic, the grin never disappearing from his face.
*****
He passed out the belts before they boarded the planes, saying, “These are for the gold! We’re going down there to kill this elite creature and hopefully clear the dungeon, but if we can’t do so, I expect each of you will want to grab as much gold as you can carry. These belts reduce the weight of a twenty-five pound gold bar to less than an ounce. So, if we have to stop, I’ll give the command to load up and retreat. But, let me be clear. Anyone caught looting gold before then will be dealt with harshly.” He looked around, and none of the faces seemed to object.
“If we manage to clear the place, you can fill those belts with monster loot. For those of you representing other Strongholds, we’ll work out a number of gold bars each of you can take home to get things started. Each bar is worth about half a million klax, less if we flood the market. So maybe each of you goes home with a half billion worth of gold, and we can work out the transport of the rest.”
With everyone boarded, they took off without incident. Allistor piloted Kira’s plane for the take-off, and Helen tried her hand with Gene watching over her. With no flight plans required they were able to fly directly to each location, pick up their volunteer, and take off again without delay. Kira stopped long enough to refuel the plane in Pennsylvania because the pump was right there.
By noon, both planes had landed in Kentucky. Allistor had picked up two more points in Aviation by flying the jet under Kira’s supervision. Helen had picked up the skill plus two levels as well.
Captain Taylor met them at the airstrip and escorted them as they walked toward the depository. Allistor gathered together the new volunteers and handed out belts, giving them the same speech regarding loot. They all agreed without hesitation. Half a billion sounded like a lot of klax, after all.
It was a warm fifteen minute walk to the depository, and when they entered the Outpost next door, Taylor offered them all cold bottles of water. There was a short discussion during which he related the details of what they’d found down below.
“The monster is basically a huge head with tentacles that it uses to move around. The thing is fast, it crossed the room in just a few seconds. It has more eyes than I could count. Different colors. The red ones shot laser beams at us. The blue ones fired plasma. I saw green and black eyes as well, but we didn’t last long enough to see those in action.”
“Were you able to damage it at all?” Allistor asked.
“The plasma rifles did a little damage. But the thing was still at about ninety percent health when we bailed.” Taylor’s voice was hoarse as he pictured the disastrous battle. Andrea began handing out plasma rifles to each of the volunteers who didn’t have one. She also handed them each two reload battery packs, in case they depleted the rifle’s charge.
“Alright, before we go down, how many of you volunteers have healing spells?” He watched as just three of them raised their hands. “Attack spells or stuns?” This time four of them raised hands.
Ramon didn’t even wait to be asked. He pulled them all off to one side and began handing out scrolls for Restore, and Flame Shot. He asked each of them about their stats, then handed a few of them Restraint, Erupt, and Mind Spike scrolls as well. While they did that, Allistor sent out party invites to everyone, including Gene and Kira, who would be staying behind. When the group returned, one of the volunteers from Michigan hugged Allistor.
Letting him go, she said, “This is incredibly generous of you.”
�
�I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?” Allistor asked awkwardly.
“Anneliese. And this is Frank.” She motioned toward her partner.
“Anneliese, I’m counting on you, all of you, to help keep us alive. If we beat this thing, that’s awesome. But my priority is to preserve our lives above all else. And I need each one of you to be as prepared as possible. So these spells are basically my way of protecting my own ass.” He grinned at her as the others chuckled.
The woman from Tennessee, whose name was Lisa, spoke up. “I have a spell that I got from a scroll, too. Not sure if you guys have it, but I thought I should let you know it’s available. It’s a simple freeze spell that I can either cast as a bolt that coats the target in ice and slows it down. I can channel it until the target freezes solid, or I run out of juice.”
“Good to know. Anybody else?” Allistor asked.
The man from Virginia said, “My name’s Charlie. And I can go invisible. For up to one minute.”
Andrea spoke up as well. “I can use that Dissolve spell now.”
“Alright, cool. We’ll keep those in mind. We haven’t fought together yet as a group, but I’ve fought with most of my people. We’ll figure out how to coordinate as we go. I’d prefer to run another dungeon somewhere else first, but we don’t have the time. Also, I’ve got one more little surprise for all of you.”
Pulling his Seal from inventory, he held it in his hand so the others could Examine it while he opened his interface. Pulling up his status sheet, which had his likeness as an avatar to one side, he equipped the Seal. It appeared on his left breast, opposite the Vindicator’s Seal on his right. It depicted an image of Earth’s western hemisphere drawn in fine gold lines, with a star over the Rockies to identify his territory.
A thrill ran through him as all of his stats boosted by +2. He heard gasps and mutterings from the others as they all got +1 across the board, and their morale got a little boost as well. He noticed that everyone in the party was now sporting a simpler version of his Seal drawn in silver over their hearts as well.
“Alright, we’re set. Let’s go kill this thing.” They left the Outpost and walked to the main entry on the ground floor of the depository. It was a simple, square two-story stone building positioned in an open space for security purposes. Once inside, they found several dozen of Taylor’s men armed with automatic rifles. They were clustered mainly around the stairways at each corner of the building.
Taylor pointed to the right. “We went down this way.” He led them to the stairwell, and his men parted to make room. One of them put an ear to the door for several seconds, then nodded and opened it for them.
Allistor put a hand on Taylor’s shoulder to stop him from advancing. “Let me lead the way. I have three or four times as much health as you. And a magic shield.” He cast Barrier in front of himself, and began to descend. The others followed silently, except for Fuzzy, who was sniffing everything. In all, twenty-eight humans, a bear cub, and a battle droid passed through the door into what Taylor had described as hell.
When they reached the next level, Allistor paused and put an ear to the door. He probably needn’t have bothered, as there were several holes burned through it. He could see from the holes that the door was three inches thick and almost solid steel. There were burn marks on the concrete wall opposite the door as well.
He whispered to Taylor, who was right behind him. “These holes from the monster? Or plasma weapons?”
“Monster. Half the guys I brought down are dead in that hallway.” Taylor looked grim.
“Any smaller mobs?”
“There were, we cleared them before that thing found us. It was down the hall, around the corner to the left.”
Taking a deep breath, Allistor nodded to the group bunched up on the stairs behind him, and yanked the door open. It squeaked slightly, mainly because of a partially melted hinge. He motioned for Taylor to hold the door, and he passed through. The first thing he saw was a pile of corpses just inside the door. Four men with so many holes in them Allistor found it hard to look. All of them had plasma rifles still in hand, but Allistor left them there. They could retrieve the weapons and check them for damage later. One thing he remembered his father saying was “Never go into combat with a weapon you’re not 100% sure of.”
Moving slowly and crouched low, Allistor kept his plasma rifle aimed toward the corner Taylor had mentioned. He glanced into each open doorway that he passed, finding all the rooms empty. Three quarters of the way down the hall, he heard the stairwell door close gently behind him. They were in it now. The whole group had joined him in the hall. Turning to glance back, he saw that General Prime had taken the position directly behind him.
Allistor nodded, and continued forward, motioned to the rooms on either side. He heard footsteps shuffling as his people checked and cleared the rooms he’d only glanced at. While they did so, he proceeded to the end of the hall, pausing and hugging the wall just before the corner. He listened carefully for any sound other than his own people, and could detect none.
Curiosity was killing him, and he was dying to peek around the corner. But if the thing had even decent hearing, it knew they were there. And he didn’t think he’d survive a laser to the face.
Turning back, he pointed to Charles and crooked a finger at him. The man crept forward with admirable stealth, his boots making no noise on the concrete floor. Allistor leaned in and whispered directly into the man’s ear. “Think you can do a little invisible man recon?”
Charles gave him a thumbs-up, and, a moment later, faded from view. Allistor knew where he was, but couldn’t detect him at all. He felt a tap on the shoulder as the man passed him by, rounding the corner. Allistor held his breath, fighting the urge to peek again.
Half a minute later, Charles reappeared in exactly the same spot. He leaned in close to Allistor, keyed his throat mic and whispered, “It’s in the room at the end of the hall. Big ugly thing. ‘Bout the size of an elephant, but round. Squiggly legs. About a million eyes. Level 30 elite with sixty thousand health. Scary as hell.”
Allistor looked back along the hall to see if everyone had heard. “Everyone copy that?” Every head, including Prime’s, nodded once. Fuzzy just sat there looking at him.
Allistor motioned for everyone to move back a bit from the corner, then whispered into his own mic. Bjurstrom had brought radios for everyone, and Allistor sincerely hoped that the earbuds were quiet enough that the monster couldn’t hear them.
“Alright, here’s the plan. I’m going in first, alone.” He paused as Prime tapped him on the shoulder and shook his head. “Correction, Prime and I are going in first. I’m going to try to distract it. When I say go, I want everybody but Fuzzy firing at that thing. Meg, hand out three of your grenades. If you can get close enough, tag it with those. We’ll see if we can’t burn some of those eyes. Then pour on the plasma. I’ll try to stun it. Healers, you do the same if you’re not healing right away. Restraint or Mind Spike, I don’t care. Anything that might interrupt it. Andrea, Dissolve that bad boy. Lisa, freeze it. Our best bet is to pour on as much damage as possible. Fuzzy, you stay back behind cover, buddy. Questions?”
“I have one.” Prime looked at Charles. “Did you see anything in the room that might be used as cover?”
Charles looked at the ceiling, thinking back. “Some crates, but nothing I’d trust to stop lasers that could burn through that door.”
Prime nodded at Allistor, and they were ready to go.
Allistor decided his best bet was surprise, so he burst into a run as he rounded the corner, rifle held in front of him. Prime was somehow right next to him, and taking the lead. Allistor didn’t see the monster as they approached the door at the end of the hall, so he plunged on through.
That was about the time all hell broke loose.
He spotted the monster off to his right, just emerging from behind a pallet of crates that stood eight feet high. As he was moving his rifle to bear on the monster, one of its red eyes
flashed, and he felt a sting on his leg even as he was shoved aside by Prime. As he fell, he managed to cast Mind Spike on the creature.
With his new levels and the sheer number of times he’d cast the spell, it was rewardingly effective. The creature screamed and thumped to the floor as it used all of its tentacles to grab and flail at its head. Allistor heard a dual discharge of plasma rifles from Prime, and saw several of the thing’s eyes dissolve as the rounds struck. He fired his own weapon from the ground as he struggled to get up.
Occulant Sentry
Level 30
Elite
Health: 58,100/60,000
There was a sharp pain in his left ankle, then suddenly he was scooting across the floor, pulled by the droid at a rapid pace. He fired once more before the monster disappeared and the crates filled his vision. Prime let go of his ankle and used both free hands to lift Allistor to his feet. The motion was so effortless, Allistor felt like a rag doll.
“That spell seemed effective, whatever it was.” Prime observed, pushing Allistor around the next stack of crates as his eyes moved to the back of his head. Allistor cast a heal on himself as he answered, “Mind Spike. Does a little damage, causes a lot of pain. Good stun spell.”
The creature roared in anger when the spell faded, and Allistor could hear tentacles slithering on the floor. He and Prime exchanged a look, and he nodded. He shouted into his radio this time. “Hold! We’re gonna tank this bad boy and turn his back to you. When I say go, pour it on!”
Prime moved first, dashing out from behind the crate and instantly firing a deluge of plasma bolts at the monster. He moved incredibly fast, then stopped abruptly in the middle of the room. Allistor was right behind him, casting Mind Spike again. The creature screamed once more, And Allistor paused to cast Barrier in front of himself. “Go!”
Prime’s weapons appeared to be in automatic mode, as both rifles spat rapid-fire plasma bursts toward the occulant. More and more of the eyes were being burned into oblivion, but the thing seemed to have a thousand of them. Every few inches of the surface was covered in eyes, big and small. As Prime continued to fire, a devastating volley blasted into the thing from behind. Tentacles melted off as they waved about. Black goo dripped to the floor under the monster.
Shadow Sun Expansion Page 47
