Legacy of the Fallen

by Luke Chmilenko

  And then, after several hours of work, it was finished, the item description appearing in my vision, followed by a notification.

  Ætherwarped Oak Blade

  Item Class: Magical

  Item Quality: Mastercraft (+20%)

  Durability: 160/160

  Weight: 1.3 kg

  Your skill in Carpentry has increased to level 18!

  “I did it,” I breathed numbly as I straightened myself from my crouched over position and felt muscles in my back protest. It had taken much longer than I had thought it would, but I had managed to turn the Ætherwarped branch into an actual blade, the entirety of it having maintained its dull azure glow throughout the crafting process.

  “Just one last thing to do,” I whispered to myself as reached for the glowing blade with a shaky hand and pulled out the hilt that I had fashioned earlier with the Æthertouched Iron, carefully attaching the two pieces together. Fitting perfectly, the blade locked itself into place and then somehow settled into the hilt as I began to wrap a length of snakeskin around the hilt. The moment that I finished my work, I saw a prompt appear in the center of my vision, causing my heart to skip a beat.

  You have successfully crafted a new item!

  You have the opportunity to name this item!

  Please enter a name:

  There was no hesitation on my account as I entered a name, one that had popped into my mind the moment that I had begun working with the wood. I paused for the briefest of moments as I confirmed my choice and then accepted it, watching with wide eyes as my newly crafted sword’s description appeared before me.

  Splinter

  Slot: Main Hand

  Item Class: Magical

  Item Quality: Mastercraft (+20%)

  Damage: 35-50 (Slashing)

  Strength: +7 Agility: +7 Mana: +100

  Durability: 200/200

  Weight: 1.5 kg

  Class: Any Martial

  Level: 17

  Special: Æthertouched – The potency of any magical spells or magic based traits channeled through this weapon are increased by 12%.

  My already wide eyes grew even wider as I read through the item’s description until they finally landed on the Æthertouched special ability. My mouth then fell open slightly as I considered the wording.

  Magic based traits, I thought, reading and rereading the wording carefully as I looked down at the single edged weapon, its length slightly shorter than its predecessor but possessing a thicker and heavier blade. Does the channeling part of that work both ways I wonder? Would this weapon allow me to mana drain a target every time that I hit them?

  I felt a surge of excitement course through my body as I considered the implications if it were possible. Grabbing hold or touching someone with a hand wasn’t usually difficult prospect during a battle, but it also wasn’t always the most feasible, especially against more melee oriented casters like Mozter or Carver. Having the ability to drain their mana just by hitting them would be a huge advantage.

  Or in Carver’s and his wolf’s case, equalize the playing field.

  “Ahem.” A patient voice interrupted my thoughts from behind me. “Are you done crafting yet, Lyrian? Or perhaps I should come back a third time?”

  I spun around, my heart leaping in my chest as I recognized the voice, seeing a familiar figure leaning against the doorway.

  “Léandre!” I breathed in sudden relief, the man’s face grinning as he met my eyes then dropped down to the sword in my hands.

  “So,” he began, nodding in appreciation at my work. “What did I miss?”

  Chapter 30

  “My risks were exceptionally high going into the treatment,” Léandre told us as we all listened in rapt attention to the man’s story. “And there were several complications during the process, more than were anticipated. I was forced to be put into a coma for several days while they tried to manage everything.”

  Everyone from both my group and Freya’s - save Drace, who was still out digging at the ruin - had come running the moment that I had sent out a message that Léandre had returned. We had crowded around the man in the Crafting Hall before we decided to move our impromptu reunion to the Town Hall, taking over a pair of tables in the corner of the room, far away from where any of the other Adventurers or Townsfolk were sitting.

  “I was told that it was a close thing, my surviving that is, and I am far from being out of the woods yet,” Léandre continued in a small voice as he looked down towards his hands. “I won’t bore you all with the medical details, but it was decided that my chances at survival would be better if they put me back into Ascend Online, rather than risk sedating me once more.”

  “Put you back?” Sierra asked in confusion. “Why would that matter? And why would they even think of doing that in the first place?”

  “At my age, in my condition,” Léandre replied. “I likely wouldn’t come out of that kind of sedation a second time. But as for putting me back into the game…somehow CTI learned of my situation and took an interest in my treatment. Apparently, they believe that cases like mine are only going to become more common in the future and want to develop a treatment process that can be done ‘in-pod’, so to speak, over a longer treatment period.”

  “So right now, they’re still…uh, working on you?” I asked hesitantly, unable to help but feel concerned about how such a treatment could affect Léandre’s overall health.

  “That’s my understanding,” Léandre replied with a nod. “And they will continue to do so, assuming I don’t suddenly fall over dead that is.”

  Everyone gave Léandre a panicked stare, causing the feline man to raise his hands in a placating gesture.

  “I will be fine,” he soothed, before waving a hand dismissively through the air. “But please, enough of this. What will be, will be. I have long since accepted this and learned that one must make the best use of the time that they have in the moment. Tell me more about what I’ve missed, I have yet to fully sift through all my new memories, and it seems to me that it’s been quite an eventful week, yes?”

  There was a slight pause as everyone glanced between one another, then back to Léandre, still concerned about the ordeal that he had faced. Personally, I couldn’t help but feel confused by CTI’s interest in his treatment. To me, it seemed easier to let the already established businesses handle it, rather than attempt to integrate what had to already be a complicated process into their own technology.

  They must think that they make money off it by targeting the older generations. Or maybe it will somehow help them manage our health better in the pods? I considered, before shrugging the question away. I didn’t know the first thing about any of the technologies involved to create Ascend Online or the Age Regression process. If CTI thought that they could somehow improve the playing experience for us, I wasn’t about to complain what they spent their research budget on. Maybe they’ll be able to get rid of the ‘VR Diet’ side effect that we currently have; I don’t think I could stand to lose any more weight back in Reality.

  “—ambushed us few a days ago.” Freya was in the middle of telling Léandre about Carver’s attack when I tuned back into the conversation around me. “We fought a pitched battle against one another, but at best, it was a draw, and we were both forced to retreat.”

  “I see,” Léandre said with a heavy sigh. “I remember Carver all too well from Graves’ march. I had hoped that we had seen the last of him.”

  “I think we all did,” Thorne grunted. “But it looks like he’s put down roots to stay.”

  “And found Orcs to work with too,” Constantine said bitterly before going on to recount Sierra and his portion of the encounter with Carver. “As of yet, we haven’t had much luck in finding any sign of them, and we’ve scouted as far as two days north and northeast of Aldford on horseback.”

  “The best guess we have at this point is that they’re based somewhere in the forests to the east,” Sierra added. “But given the sheer size and density of that forest
, exploring it quickly is impossible, even if we had several dozen people scouting at once.”

  “Getting more guilds out here is looking more attractive every day isn’t it?” Halcyon asked in a whisper, elbowing me in the side as Constantine and Sierra continued updating Léandre. “We’re drowning out here with all the space we need to cover and having more bodies would go a long way.”

  “No argument from me, Hal,” I replied, having long since come to that conclusion myself. “Soon as we can get our house in order here, we can start reaching out, but until then…it might be premature.”

  “We can’t wait too long,” Halcyon warned. “Else all the shit going down in Coldscar is going to make the decision for us.”

  “I know, I know,” I acknowledged, having heard this argument several times over the last few days. “Let’s just see where we are in a couple days and go from there.”

  “Well, at least now the memories I have about the palisade make much more sense!” Léandre exclaimed, his yellow, feline eyes focusing on me as he spoke. “How has construction proceeded overall?”

  “Good as a whole,” I said, realizing that it was my turn to update Léandre. “We have enough housing now for everyone to have their own privacy, but nothing extra should anyone new arrive. Once everything with Carver became public, all of our building efforts shifted practically overnight to defenses.”

  “Understandable. And given what you’ve all said, likely a wise decision,” Léandre agreed with a nod. “But did you manage to come up with a consensus for the design? The last time we spoke about the defenses, Drace and Jenkins were rather…disagreeable.”

  “Yeah, they definitely were,” I said, remembering the arguments we’d had about what to do with Aldford’s defenses and just how necessary they were. “But they’re also far too busy to do the work themselves, so I made an executive decision. We’ve started on the heavy fortification design that you and I came up with, the one modeled after a Roman fort.”

  Léandre went completely still as he processed what I had just said. “A-are you sure about that, Lyrian? As I recall, that plan was…exceptionally ambitious, even for me. The amount of work and materials it would take…there is also the matter of, well...”

  Léandre made a subtle downward pointing motion towards the ground.

  “Right now, we need ambitious,” I stated firmly, despite understanding Léandre’s concern about the Ley Line below us. “Everyone is afraid of an attack by either Carver, his bandits, or the Orcs, and are willing to work hard in order to feel safe. This makes the best use of that energy and will set us up for the long term, assuming our other problem sorts itself out.”

  “Plus, it makes sure that people don’t suspect that something is wrong,” Sierra added in a faint whisper, Léandre’s eyes shifting over to the red-haired elf. “If we stop building things and start preparing to abandon the town…”

  “Then people will panic,” Léandre finished with a shake of his head as his eyes glanced downward in memory. “I know. I have seen it first hand during my volunteering days.”

  There was a slight pause, as the man thought for a moment before he nodded to himself. “Very well. I can work with that for the time being. However, how is Drace proceeding on that particular front anyway? I would hate to see all of our hard work go to waste.”

  “Very well, last I heard,” I replied, taking a moment to check on the man via Party Sense. I found myself surprised to realize that during the time we had been updating Léandre, Drace had managed to leave the Lakeside Ruins and was now walking through the town towards us. “He’s actually on his way here right now. Hopefully, with good news.”

  “He did mention that he thought could break through today,” Constantine said, turning his attention towards the open doors of the Town Hall. “Maybe he did.”

  “We’ll find out in a moment,” Halcyon added as we all turned to look towards the door, just at the same moment that Drace walked through it.

  “Hey—oh,” Drace started to greet us the moment that he entered the building and glanced in our direction, only to find us all already staring back at him expectantly. He floundered for a few seconds in surprise at our unexpected attention, before his eyes focused on a specific member of the group. “Léandre! You’re back!”

  “Hello, Drace,” the man said with a smile, beckoning the half-giant over. “Lyrian sensed you coming and told us. How is everything going today?”

  “Great!” Drace replied, matching Léandre’s grin while crossing the distance between us. His stride paused for the briefest of seconds during his approach as his eyes briefly went out of focus, someone from the party no doubt updating him on what had happened with Léandre via private messaging and filling him in on what we were just talking about.

  “We just broke through a small section of the collapse that opens up into a chamber of some sort,” was the first thing he said in a low voice, everyone leaning forward to listen. “I decided to call a stop and block it off for the time being, but it should only take a few minutes more to break through the rest of it once we’re ready to fully open it.”

  “What did it lead into?” I asked trying not to let the sudden anxiety that I felt seep into my voice. Despite the confidence I’d shown to Léandre, I was painfully aware that we had invested quite a bit of time and energy in digging out the collapsed route in the ruin. Now that we had broken through, I really hoped that our efforts paid off somehow and gave us a way to reach the Ley Line.

  Because if it didn’t, we’d be forced to start from scratch.

  “A large room of some sort, in the same style as the ruin we dug from,” Drace explained with a shrug, acknowledging how useless that explanation was. “I didn’t want to risk shining too much light through the gap I made, just in case there was something in there.”

  “Probably a good idea,” Halcyon agreed.

  “I did find one interesting thing though,” Drace added. “The air in the chamber smelled a bit tangy, but it was definitely breathable, and there was hardly a pressure difference when I broke through.”

  “That’s…interesting,” I said with surprise, noting that Léandre’s face showed the same expression. “Can you describe the smell at all? Did it remind you of anything on the surface? I wonder if there’s another route we missed.”

  “No, not really,” Drace replied thoughtfully. “Best way I can describe it is that it smelled like mold, a little musky, a little damp, but nothing specific.”

  “Perhaps the Nafarr’s magic extended to air purifiers?” Léandre queried. “It seems odd for a chamber so long buried to have not acquired its own particular stench, especially if bodies were present when it was sealed…as I assume, there must have been.”

  “Maybe. But it also seems odd that they’d be running this long too,” I pointed out. “Shouldn’t they have run out of magic?”

  “With all the magic that we’ve seen through the Ætherscopes, they may not have,” Caius countered. “We spotted dozens of sources the last time we took a scan; there’s no telling what they could have been used for.”

  “That’s a good point,” I admitted, then shrugged my shoulders. “Beats me then.”

  “I guess we’ll have to find out,” Drace said as he cast a quick glance around the table then focused his attention on me. “Are we up for making preparations tonight and hitting it first thing in the morning?”

  “The sooner, the better,” I stated, seeing heads nod out of the corner of my eye in agreement. “We have no idea how much time we’re working with here.”

  Everyone around the table nodded at my words and exchanged glances with one another, excitement visible on all their faces despite the seriousness of our situation. The chance to explore what could be an untouched underground ruin was one none of us wanted to miss, each of us having spent our fair share of time fantasizing to what we might find once we got down there.

  Going into the ruin means putting looking for Carver on hold though, I thought, the memory of the half
-orc still at the forefront of my mind. Even with all of the Adventurers in Aldford searching for the last week, we hadn’t managed to find even a single clue to where he and his followers had escaped to, leaving me to think that he’d retreated at least a day or two’s travel away from the town. But given how much time we’ve already devoted searching for him with nothing to show for it, we need to move on. There’s no telling how much time we have to find and seal the Ley Line before it erupts, we can’t afford to sit here paralyzed until he shows up again.

  “We’re still just taking our two groups, plus Lazarus’s, right?” Freya asked, bringing everyone back to the moment. “Assuming we can all even fit down there…”

  “For the time being, yeah,” I replied, then remembered something I wanted to bring up with the group. “Though I actually wanted to add Alistair to our roster too. We’re a little light on healing as it is, and he can help with that, as well as give us two full groups of eight.”

  “Extra healers are never a bad thing in my book,” Constantine replied, earning a sympathetic grunt from Drace.

  “It would certainly make my life easier,” Theia commented from her side of the table, having been content to largely listen while everyone else talked. “Right now, I think Caius, Helix and myself are the only ones that can heal at all.”

  “And my healing isn’t exactly the most reliable,” Caius pointed out.

  “Alissstair would be a great addition,” Helix affirmed while nodding enthusiastically. “He has proven to be steady.”

  “Okay, seems like we’re all on the same page then,” Freya said with a smile, not seeing any arguments from the other guild members. “I’ll send him a message and bring him into the loop once we’re done here. We should also give Lazarus and his group a heads-up too.”