Apostle of the Sleeping Gods

by Dan Sugralinov

  Taking shelter under a nearby outcropping of rock, we said goodbye for the night and left Disgardium.

  Chapter 21. Unforeseen Circumstances

  FATHER AND MOTHER didn’t come back last night, sending a video message via comm that they would be staying in New Zealand overnight. And they looked happy as clams. Seemingly the shooting was going well.

  I quickly filled my stomach and collapsed into bed and, while drifting into a dream, thought about the fact they were taking trips together more often, even if it was for work. Were they spending the night together? It would be nice if they made up. When I thought about that I gave a somehow stupid chuckle and it wasn’t about my studies or their citizenship status. I just really wanted them to stay a family.

  And the first half of the next day showed me the importance of studying hard for exams. I was sure I was prepared, but...

  Sometimes I got the impression that my brain was slacking on processing new information, and simply writing over old stuff. I got a series of questions wrong, even though I was completely sure I knew the answer. Maybe I eventually would have found the right answers but time was ticking away inexorably. We were given just twenty minutes per sixty-question section, and they all took time to read as well as answer. The captain of our soccer team, Tim, was always getting bit by that. He just couldn’t grasp the questions fast enough.

  Disgardium was squeezing out my real life more and more, and that was starting to scare me. I answered only seventy-two percent of the questions correctly, which was dangerously close to the bar I had to clear to avoid more serious problems. If I got less than seventy percent on the graduation exam, it was possible I wouldn’t even be allowed take my citizenship tests!

  On my way back home after school, I was thinking through all that anxiously. On the launchpad, I saw Eve and suggested we fly together but she just shook her head and got in a different flying car. As I took off, I saw that she was going a totally different direction than me, not toward our building.

  Back at home, mom was in complete housewife mode in the kitchen. Humming, she was cooking lunch with a towel on her head while dad whistled the same tune, butchering it. It must have been something they heard while flying.

  Over the meal, they told me about New Zealand, which was now one of the most respectable places on the planet to live because of its untouched nature. I told them about today’s test. Father, as before, teased mom with guesses about how their son spent the night and, for an instant, it seemed they were doing okay. But only for an instant. Mom got a call and she went into the other room. That meant it wasn’t about work.

  I was already getting undressed to get into my pod when Tissa called to make sure I wouldn’t be late. And three minutes later she, I and the others were in Dis standing face to face.

  “I went through yesterday’s loot,” Bomber said. “Two blues, three stacks of reagents for alchemy and blacksmithing. We don’t need any of it, so I’m gonna trade it to you and you send it to your huckster girl.”

  It hurt to hear him call Rita that, so I said:

  “Let’s agree. Trader, Rita, Overweight, Wood. Call her any of those.”

  “Peddler?” Infect asked.

  “No.”

  They exchanged glances.

  “Okay,” Tissa answered for everyone and added some poison: “I like Overweight. It does a very good job conveying her... distinctive features.”

  I decided to keep silent. I didn’t want to fight with my friends.

  Sending it all took a bit of time. I could only accept two items at a time from Bomber, because my third slot was occupied with the Respawn Stone. To speed things up, I gave it to Hung until we were finished.

  Getting to the Goro Gorge took around an hour. I walked in front, gathering a pack of gnolls, which first were succeeded by kobolds, then ogres. Every squadron had a mage, which somewhat complicated the tanking process, but not severely. It just meant that, after I was done with melee, I had to use the bow Overweight gave me before the mini arena in the tavern.

  Archery skill improved: +1.

  Archery damage increased by 20%

  Accuracy increased by 20%.

  Current level: 2.

  Improve this skill by fighting enemies of your level or higher for additional bonuses and new special attacks.

  Quickshot improved: +1.

  Cost to use: 2 mana points.

  Deals 200% of normal damage.

  Ignores 1% of armor.

  I didn’t use curse of the undead, afraid that someone might see, but Resilience and Stoneskin were plenty. None of the packs gave us much experience but, at that time, every point mattered. At the entry to the gorge, we changed our respawn points from Tristad Cemetery to Goro Gorge.

  And five minutes later, we’d reached the ins entrance. Crawler was the first to approach it.

  “Damn, occupied!” He kicked one of the stone pillars that framed the flickering instance portal in disappointment. “They’re on boss five. The whole group is alive. Should we wait?”

  “How many are there, eight?” I clarified.

  “Nine,” Crawler answered. “If they take down the first eight, they can summon a ninth, but it is possible to skip.”

  “How long would that take?”

  “Two hours at least,” Infect threw out.

  Crawler read the list of friends and said:

  “It’s the clan In Vino Veritas. I know them. Their main static is almost all level fourteen. The tank is fifteen. They’re gonna be in there a long time...”

  “If they don’t get wiped,” Bomber noted. “Any ideas? Scyth?”

  “Are there any places nearby where we can farm high-levels? Lots of them and not far away?”

  The gang all started thinking. Tissa and Crawler, based on their frozen gazes, had their maps open. Tissa called out first:

  “Little Gully.”

  “Rock Millipedes!” Infect exclaimed.

  “It’s gonna hurt,” Bomber cast doubt.

  “And it’s gross,” Tissa injected.

  “And a boatload of experience,” Crawler reasonably concluded.

  “Alright, tell me more,” I said.

  From their laconic retelling, I sussed out that, not far from Goro Gorge, there was a place called Little Gully, a narrow and very deep crevasse teeming with Rock Millipedes, which ranged in level from fifteen to eighteen and were as long as an arm.

  No one in their right mind went there, it was a guaranteed wipe. If one aggro’d, you’d immediately be fighting all of them. As soon as one millipede saw an enemy, it would give a soul-rending ultrasonic chirp, which served as a signal for the others: food here! The Dementors once stuffed themselves with defensive buffs and gulped down elixirs to give it a try, but still held out less than a minute. Axiom couldn’t do it either, even though they had all gone together and just filled the whole gully with AoE magic. The beasts had simply unbelievable resists to all kinds of magic and enhanced armor stats, so they had to be hit hard in their compound eyes, the only unprotected part of their body.

  “Let’s go,” I said, feeling no doubt. “Compared to the nasty bugs that range in the Mire, they don’t sound too bad...”

  We got up out of the gorge and went around from the south, sticking to the side of the mountain. Not far away, there was a military post of the Tristad guard. If they saw us, they’d surely attack, but we didn’t want to fight them and further damage our reputation with the city.

  I turned my head, committing the location to memory. The Nameless Mountains were behind us, capped by the majestic Eagle Peak. It’s rocky slopes were streaked with long glaciers and trails of snow, which made it look like it was wearing white scarves, while the peak was shrouded in a veil of clouds. A wide plain extended from its foot and, in the distance, the Tremitelle shimmered like a winding thread.

  “There it is,” Tissa pointed at an inky black crack below us. “Little Gully. And over to the right is Rock’s Dolmen. Wanna take a look?”

  “If we have ti
me,” Ed said. “There aren’t any mobs there, but there might be Grave Mushrooms if they haven’t just been collected recently. Respawn is two hours.”

  I remembered that Crawler had the alchemy trade and asked what recipe these mushrooms were used for.

  “Ghost potion,” he answered. “It makes you invisible to mobs for thirty seconds. It doesn’t work in battle, so I’m skeptical we’d have much use for it.”

  “Then let’s not waste the time. Alright, let’s get started,” I said. “Bomb, get out the grub. Let’s boost our levelling.”

  Hung pulled out the Roast Undead Rat Chitterlings and handed them out to everyone. No one relished the flavor, or thought about what it was made of, but they still ate it enthusiastically.

  “Plus one thousand percent to skill growth speed!” Bomber exclaimed. “I’ll be able to level stances and a couple specials with ten-x skill levelling!”

  “Eleven,” Infect corrected him. “Total speed is one thousand one hundred percent, numbnuts...”

  “Alright, let’s go,” I said, not waiting for everyone to finish chewing, or Hung to comprehend Malik’s explanation. The buff didn’t last that long, we had to squeeze it for all it was worth. “Pull one at a time, no more. Level your main combat attacks. Hung, you stay on the attackers...”

  “Go already!” Crawler barked. “The buff is ticking!”

  As I descended into the crevasse, I quickened my pace. They all kept twenty yards back. They’d get their share of experience just by being nearby.

  The crevasse ran west to east for one hundred fifty feet. From the east, the slope was relatively smooth, so I decided to enter there. The crevasse was no wider than a flying car, eight or nine feet. The edge had grass on it, but inside there was no sign of plant life. All I could smell was dead flesh and damp. I couldn’t see the bottom until I got below a whitish curling vapor that gave me an uneasy feeling.

  “How’s it going, Scyth?” From above, twenty-five feet from the bottom, on the backdrop of a bright blue sky, I saw Bomber’s head. “Just so you know, Infect checked the surroundings. All clear!”

  “Are you sure there’s anything down here?” I asked, and just then everything went into motion.

  My voice echoed several times off the towering walls, which quickly swelled and came to life. Millipedes crawled out. I yelped: something bit into my foot and it was not a good feeling. The body of a mob wrapped around my ankle. It was thin as a rope, elastic and burned my skin. And it tightened, simultaneously sinking in the greedy mobile suckers that covered its body. I quickly skimmed the creep’s stats:

  Rock Millipede, level 17

  I recoiled in disgust and quickly switched on invulnerability:

  Curse of the Undead activated: all damage taken reduced by 100%!

  This curse will remain active until you completely restore your health or simply deactivate the skill.

  Nothing made me feel as much horror and disgust as bugs. Humankind was planning on terraforming Mars and founding their first settlements there, but we still didn’t have a handle on the common cold or cockroaches. Even in a building of my family’s category, nowhere near low, there was always the odd shiny-sided black beetle. When I was little, I just ran away when I saw insects but, when I got older, I started smashing them with disgust. Still, inside, I was always horrified just to see them. But in comparison with the Rock Millipede, which instantly shot to the top of my list of disgusting insects, a cockroach was a sweet little house pet.

  I barely overcame a panic attack when I realized I was literally up to my chest in bugs, which were crawling out of every nook and cranny. I scared away some with a Ghastly Howl but, much to my dismay, the effect didn’t work on all of them and expired too quickly.

  I saw flickering silhouettes up above. On the edge of the crevasse, all four of the guys were trying to take down one millipede and, by all appearances, succeeding because, a bit later, Crawler sent down a fireball, pulling another. That was nice, because these mobs were five to six levels above them, and their skill growth must have been astronomic with the boost from the chitterlings.

  I was taking damage so often that I didn’t have to save on plague energy; it was coming back much quicker than I could use it. Not waiting for Crushing Hammerfist to reset, I thrashed the stinging, seething mass of living chitin, adding extra damage to every hit to make it a sure thing. I didn’t know if I was hitting their eyes but they were dying regardless. And with how much armor I ignored, it made sense either way!

  The guys said millipedes had a very high if not complete resistance to all magic but, apparently, that didn’t apply to plague energy given the way these creatures were going down.

  From above, I heard the guys shouting words of encouragement, but I didn’t risk a reply. The mere thought that a millipede might try and crawl into my mouth had me clenching my teeth and holding my lips shut tight. I was even trying not to breathe as I beat the life out of the monstrous insects.

  By minute five, I had got the hang of it, rationally concluding that, after fighting swamp creatures in the muck, nothing should scare me. But at least there, nothing was shrieking in a near ultrasonic pitch. However, my fists flew much more effectively here than through thick muck.

  Experience flowed like a river even for me, which was to say nothing of the guys. By the time I leveled up, I started thinking this location was bugged, and the millipedes would just keep respawning forever as soon as I killed them.

  You are now level 14!

  5 free attribute points available!

  I stopped fighting for a few seconds to spend all five points as I was planning earlier, putting them into agility, my lowest attribute. Then I started doling out punches at random: no matter where I hit, there was always a disgusting insect slithering.

  I couldn’t say how many I killed but, at a certain point, it all suddenly came to an end. I blew the last millipede to smithereens with a powerful Hammer. Everything became quiet. All around me were unlooted insect remains and yellowish puddles of hemolymph, giving off a pungent smell of unearthly musk.

  I slid down the crevasse wall, exhausted. In the heat of battle, I missed a level-up of both Combo and Stunning Kick. But to be honest, I only leveled up four times. The mobs weren’t that much higher level than me, and the battle didn’t last as long as the one on that memorable day in the Mire, after we defeated Murkiss.

  Stunning Kick

  Level: 7.

  A simple but very effective move. Has 36% chance of stunning target for 3 seconds.

  Cost to use: 3 mana points.

  Deals 180% of normal damage.

  Combo

  Level: 7.

  Composite combat move, joining other moves into one uninterrupted series of attacks.

  Number of slots in chain: 3.

  Cost to use: 89% of cost to use attacks separately.

  Cooldown: 10 seconds.

  Use cost for Combo was down one percent, but the fact that I had unlocked a third slot in the series was much more significant. After a moment of consideration, I chose not to add another Hammer, but a Stunning Kick so I could use it more often. I could always change it later.

  Through my still ringing ears, I started being able to make out the screams of the Awoken. Someone, seemingly Ed, whooped:

  “Scyth, we’re coming down!”

  While I waited, out of curiosity, I checked what dropped from one of the millipedes and saw:

  Rock Millipede Bristle

  Rare.

  Extremely rare ingredient. Used in the weaving and leatherworking trades.

  Value: 1 gold coin, 48 silver coins.

  “Two levels!” Tissa said, beaming and throwing herself around my neck. When the initial wave of emotions had passed, she sharply backed off and gave a sniff: “Yuck! Woah! Sorry, Alex, but you look like a living corpse... and you’re covered in the blood of these...”

  She kicked a millipede, now utterly disconcerted. No one seemed to mind at first, but Tissa’s reaction made them all we
ird. Bomber hugged me pointedly, lifted me into the air and roared:

  “Make way for the lord of the dead!”

  “That was the fastest level up in my memory!” Infect yawped, dancing a jig on the crunching chitin of the dead millipedes. Stopping for a few seconds, he noticed: “Listen, Alex, we couldn’t even see you under the pile of insectoids, it was just a solid seething mass!”

  “Well sure, I don’t need you to tell me I look like shit,” I chuckled. Deactivating curse of the undead, I gestured at the corpses: “You loot them. I can’t stand to even look at these bastards.”