I don’t know whether I should feel proud or ashamed of what I’ve done. It’s not like I couldn’t have escaped from the sleeping bear. On the other hand, considering I started from nothing, the items it drops could likely help me get started making a name for myself in this world.
Searching through the remains of the bijou bear, I find two obsidian eyes, several crystal bear claws, and a crystal bear hide. I fit them in my pack as best I can and they take up ninety pounds of my one-hundred-and-fifty-pound limit.
With my sword broken, the enchantment breaks as well. It makes me nervous not having a weapon and knowing that more than likely, there are other monsters still waiting somewhere in this cave.
My mana pool has grown by twenty-five and is now at two hundred and seventy-five. My mana is still low from all of the action with the bear, but the increase to my mana pool shows up immediately. The extra mana can go a long way with temporary enchantments.
With my new items in tow, I set off once again along the tunnels. It feels like hours pass as I travel hopelessly through the labyrinth.
My eyes begin to glaze over from the constant swirl of light bouncing around the cavern. I dull the light on my shield, but there are so many crystals that it is impossible to negate its effect.
It feels like I’ve been walking in circles when an idea crosses my mind. I focus on my boots to see what possible enchantments they have.
Fleetfoot: grants flight at a rate of 100 mana per minute.
Very cool, but the price is steep and I don’t see any need to go flying through a cave. I’d likely impale myself on a sharp crystal.
Speed demon: grants X% increased speed at a rate of X mana per minute.
Nice! With my current mana regen, I can increase my speed by 20% and it will balance out the mana cost. I accept the enchantment and immediately my feet move faster. I walk faster. I run faster. It’s amazing. And I use the same amount of Stamina that I normally would. I zoom through tunnels and finally, it feels like I am making progress. Probably in the wrong direction, but at least it feels like progress.
Wind swooshes around my hair and despite being trapped in a never-ending maze, I feel free.
I come upon an intersection of tunnels when something smashes into my side, knocking the breath out of me and sending my shield skidding along the tunnel. It comes to a stop face-down. Light barely escapes from underneath it, casting the cavern in eerie darkness.
Chapter Twenty
Seven hells!
My head spins and I try to suck in air to fill my lungs that have just been deflated by whatever wrecking ball took me out.
“What…the…hell?” a voice gasps next to me.
I can barely make out the shadow of a man in the dim light. Pulling my broken sword, I point it towards the man’s face while I wait for my breathing to normalize.
“Don’t move,” I say. “I don’t want any problems, but I’ll hurt you if I have to.” Hurt him with what, I have no idea.
There’s a soft fluttering sound like a whip just before it cracks and then something tightens around my legs, cutting off the circulation. It pulls me with great strength, jerking my legs out from under me and tossing me to the ground. A sharp pain shoots up my backside.
“Florian, stop that right this instant!” Carter’s voice is hoarse but still commanding.
“Carter? What are you doing here? Why the hell did you run into me?”
He walks down the tunnel with a limp, using his trident for leverage, and retrieves my shield. The light bathes the cavern once more and I’m able to see the source of my most recent injury. Florian stands several feet away from me. Tiny vines unwind and retract into his hands. He’s almost doubled in size. His arms and legs are no longer the tender leaves and roots, but have morphed into tougher, more branchlike appendages. Even his flowery head has blossomed. Where he was once a small flower, he is now a larger more bush-like creature with a few red flowers dotted throughout.
“After I learned my magic, the orb that was leading me disappeared. I’ve been wandering these tunnels in darkness ever since. I saw the glow of your shield from down that way and took off running. Little did I know that you would be racing through like a horse at high noon.” He rubs the back of his head and I notice his eyes are their normal gray. Whatever magic he had from Priscilla is long gone.
“And what about Florian here? Did he learn magic too?” Something must have changed his appearance.
“Not quite. My branch of magic, pardon my pun, has allowed for him to evolve.”
“Your branch? What is it?”
“I’m a druid. Specifically, plant magic. I can use plants to fight for me.”
“That’s interesting.” It’s funny that the game gave Carter that brand of magic since he spent his entire life as a farmer. It makes me question even more why I was chosen as an enchanter.
Carter hands me my shield and I slide my arms through the straps, once again lighting the tunnel before us.
“I’m guessing by the fact that you were blazing through here with a light-up shield that you found your own magic as well.”
“You’re right.” I can’t help but smile. “I am an enchanter. I have no magic power on my own, but I can give normal items magical properties.”
Carter’s eyes light up at the news.
“Really? That’s awesome!”
“Yeah, I think so too. So, Florian evolved? How’s that work?”
He rubs his fingers on his chin, deep in thought.
“It’s hard to explain. It’s kind of like once I had this new magic, I suddenly knew stuff about how to use it. Not everything, but some things. And I feel like the better I get, the more I will know. I looked down at Florian and I had the feeling that I could make him stronger if I wanted. So I asked if he wanted me to and well, here we are. He’s a lot less likely to be trampled or float away in the wind. Plus, he’ll come in pretty handy in a fight.”
Florian takes a fighting stance next to Carter and raises his wooden fists into the air like a boxer. I can’t help but laugh at his spunk.
“How do you figure we get out of here?” I ask. “It feels like I’ve been walking for hours. Not to mention where the hell Kindra might be.”
“Hmm, I don’t really know. I’ve been lost myself.”
Maybe this is why magic faded out. Because everyone who found their way in here died while trying to find a way out.
Not us, though. I refuse to rot away inside of this mountain while there is a wide and wild world waiting to be explored. There has to be a way to get out of this glittery prison.
“Let me think.” I sit down on the cold floor and close my eyes. Without knowing our path in here, how can I possibly get us out? The map is useless. We don’t have a compass or anything to tell us which way we are even facing.
Wait! That’s it!
I search the floor for a piece of stray crystal, but I don’t find any. Taking my broken sword, I slash hard against a long thin crystal until a piece of it breaks off.
“I have an idea,” I tell Carter, who looks at me like I’ve just gone mad.
Holding the pink crystal in my palm, I focus my mana into it, concentrating on making it a guidestone.
You have created Guidestone (Cave of Enlightenment) Initial cost: 250 mana, then 20 mana per minute. Do you accept? Y/N
It’s a steep price, but considering its use, I didn’t figure it would be cheap.
Dammit! That means that as long as I’m carrying the guidestone, I won’t have enough mana to enchant anything that costs over five mana.
Why does everything have to be so difficult?
“What is it?” asks Carter, sensing my unrest.
“I’ve found us a way out, but the mana cost is so high that I won’t be able to enchant any other items. And my sword is already broken so that will leave me little in the way of damage. I don’t know what to do.”
“Do what you need to do to get us out of here. Florian and I can handle any trouble that comes our wa
y.”
I accept the enchantment and the crystal hovers in the air inches from my palm, pointing forward.
“Take us out of here, please.”
With the crystal hovering above my palm, we journey down the tunnel. At the first fork, the crystal changes direction and points us to the left. I let out a deep breath, relieved that my plan is actually working.
This is a good time to find out as much about Carter’s new magic as possible. If trouble does go down, I’d feel more comfortable knowing what kinds of spells he has.
“How exactly does being a druid work? Can you cast spells of your own or do you have to be around plant life?”
The leaves of Florian’s new form swish against each other as we walk, breaking up the otherwise eeriness of our footsteps echoing around us.
“I imagine it is similar to your own abilities in a way. You can’t cast spells without an item and I need plant life in order to use mine. We haven’t passed any other plant life in the tunnels. It seems this place is solid rock. Luckily, for us, I have Florian. I can raise his abilities with my own magic for a limited time. I can even give him new abilities by using some of my own energy as well.”
“Do you mean mana?” I ask.
“What is mana?” His eyebrows arch in confusion.
“It’s the energy that flows through me and allows me to cast enchantments. When it is low, I can’t do magic anymore.”
“Hmmm, then that must be it. I can sense the energy inside of me and am able to gauge how much a particular spell will cost. Some take a great deal of energy, I mean mana, and others very little. I think it depends on the effectiveness of the spell or how useful it will be.”
“That sounds about right. I’m running very low on mana at the moment myself due to this guidestone. Once we are out of the cave, I can discard it and my mana will begin to replenish once again. Then I’ll be more than a glorified map again.”
“Lead us out of the cave and leave the fighting to us.” Carter grips me on the shoulder, reaffirming his word.
We walk in silence, following the mystical compass in the hope that it will lead us out of the cave.
It doesn’t take long for Carter’s word to be put to the test. Around the next corner, a crystal golem blocks our path.
A smooth, pearlescent being with sharp, rocky edges around its joints and hands that threaten to rip anyone foolish enough to do battle. The guidestone points in the direction past the golem, so we have no other choice.
“Carter…”
“Don’t worry, leave it to us. Florian, show this rock what you’ve got!”
The golem sways back and forth, oblivious to Florian running full-speed at him. He’s taken by surprise when Florian reaches his vines out to the cave walls and slingshots himself into the golem. Florian pulls himself into a bushy cannonball and collides with the golem. Leaves flutter in the air at the site of the impact. The golem tumbles to the ground, pieces of crystal breaking off and scattering along the tunnel floor.
The golem rises in anger, arms swinging wildly, but Florian has already retreated out of its reach. Carter steps up, his trident pointed forward.
“Thorn attack,” he orders. The tip of the trident glows a vibrant green and Florian charges at the golem. Dozens of thorns erupt from his barky skin and detach. They swarm the golem like angry bees, bouncing off the golem’s rocky skin, but not before dealing damage. It must be magical damage, otherwise I don’t see how it could hurt the creature.
Before the thorns have even disappeared, Florian has his vines wrapped around the golem, squeezing tightly. Tiny cracks form where the vines constrict.
“Poisoned lotus,” shouts Carter, and Florian retracts his vines, pulling himself closer to the golem. The red flowers that run along his body blossom and glow. A glittery pollen floats through the air and falls all around. The golem thrashes and writhes in pain as the pollen covers its body. The creature’s health bar ticks down rapidly until it is nearly dead. “I’m out of mana. Time to finish this.” Carter joins Florian and stabs his trident against the golem repeatedly, flaking off crystals in large chunks until eventually nothing more than a rock pile remains.
Carter picks up several crystals and places them in his bag.
“See, I told you we could handle it.” He smirks. Florian walks through the rubble of the once magnificent golem, kicking debris and watching it tumble down the corridor. Their relationship feels like it’s more than surface level. Like they actually belong together.
“You’re a pretty good team.”
Carter joins Florian and rubs his fingers through the bushy part of Florian’s head like a father tussling his child’s hair. It reminds me of Merlin and the bond that we shared. Even in Pangea, where I knew it was a game, he and I formed a bond that still holds true. If something made up of ones and zeros can have that effect on a person, how is it ever just a game?
The guidestone leads us through the cave and though occasionally we hear movement down various tunnels we bypass, we pass no other monsters.
We turn a corner and come into the tunnel where we first entered. The glowing minnows run up and down the small stream, and far away, I can make out the light from outside. Someone stands in the entryway, the light providing only a silhouette.
“We’ll take the lead,” says Carter. “Until we know if they mean us harm. With the way things have been, I don’t trust anyone whole-heartedly until they earn it.”
I understand that sentiment completely. It could be someone who is here to discover magic in the same way as Carter did, but it could also be someone with bad intentions. Someone for who magic would be a very bad thing.
“Who goes there?” Carter asks. He has his trident at the ready and Florian at his side.
The silhouette moves closer.
“What took you two so long? I’ve been waiting here for hours.”
I recognize the voice as Kindra’s and as we get closer, I can see her slender bow and arrows draped across her back.
“How did you get back here?” I ask. “And why did you leave us?”
“Leave you? I didn’t leave you. I was following along and then all of a sudden, you both disappeared. The orbs, everything, it just vanished. I imagine it was a protective spell from the cave to keep those with magical abilities from reentering. My memory fogged and the next thing I knew, I was back here. And let me tell you, there are only so many rocks you can skip to pass the time.” She pauses and stares at us. “So let’s hear it. What did you learn?” She places her hands on her hips expectantly.
“I’m an enchanter,” I say.
“And I’m a druid,” says Carter.
Kindra approaches Florian and rubs his wooden arm.
“They grow up so fast. Let’s get out of here.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“You’ve got magic, so what now?” I ask Carter. We spent all of this time focusing on obtaining magic without thinking about what we were supposed to do once we found it. There has to be more ahead of us than just blind adventure.
“We go back to Carolton. I feel a great many things have changed since we left. The world itself has changed. We will be needed, that much I know. Priscilla sent us away for a reason. Now it is time to find out what that reason was.”
Once we are out of the cave, I discard the guidestone. Without my enchantment, it is nothing more than a beautiful crystal. I toss it back inside the cave. I’m not looking to leave any clues for anyone. Anyone looking for the Cave of Enlightenment will have to search it out just like we did.
The air is cool, crisp, and refreshing as we make our way down the mountain. A wonderful change from the warm, stagnant air inside the cave. For all its beauty, the Cave of Enlightenment didn’t smell like rainbows and flowers.
From this far up, I can see for miles. Carolton is but a small dot two days away, and the Cursed Forest with its black trees seems like a small patch in comparison to the sprawling countryside. Several other towns speckle across the land. One seems large
r than most, and I speculate that that is where the castle lies. To the left, a lush green forest runs for as far as I can see. Many lakes are spread throughout, and to my right, there is a dark mountain range. Gray clouds hang low where lightning occasionally strikes. I wonder how many people live throughout The Broken Lands?
My map is viewable once again and there is a spot marked Cave of Enlightenment midway up the mountain. I assume that the map fills itself in the more I travel. The map is large, but it ends on both sides at the forest and mountain range. This mountain is the border to the south and far to the north, a jagged coastline battles with the sea. Does the world go on past these borders or is that the scope of the gameworld?
“Are there other kingdoms throughout The Broken Lands?” I ask.
“There are, or used to be, I’m not really sure, not that they pose much of a threat,” says Kindra. She has her bow strapped to her back as we scale down a particularly rocky patch of the path. She checks to make sure each foot is securely planted, rubble scattering with each step. It’d be nice to have a dragon take us the rest of the way if there wasn’t that whole problem of it eating us or feeding us to its children. “There are kingdoms on the other side of the Endless Forest and Thunder Mountain, but no one would dare bring an army across them. That’s why it’s called The Broken Lands, though. Not since the Age of Mages have the kingdoms been in contact. Some say the forest and mountain were put there by a great mage to keep us separated. I don’t know if I believe that.”
It wouldn’t be surprising to me. Just like in the real world, where people in The Boxes are separated from society. Is it human nature to divide?
“Why do they call it the Endless Forest?”
She rolls her eyes before answering. “The name didn’t give it away? The forest goes on for forever. Supposedly there is a way out, but I’ve never met anyone who has made it to the other side. Many have lost their minds and their lives trying to cross. They say that the forest has a way of playing tricks on people. And before you even ask…” She points to the dark mountain range to our right. “How do you think anyone could successfully bring an army through a mountain range that’s in an eternal thunderstorm?”
Pangea Online: The Complete Trilogy Page 40
