by Ryan Rimmel
“Didn’t I grab you by the neck last time?” I asked, grabbing for Badgelor’s tail.
“Last time wasn’t solid rock. It was mostly dirt,” he complained and began to dig in earnest. Sharp, hard bits of stone bounced off my skin, as Badgelor slowly carved a hole into the stone ground.
“Can’t you dig any faster than that?” I asked, causing the badger to grunt in an irritated fashion. The request proved to be a mistake, as the small fragments of rock began coming in far greater amounts. I was suddenly and quite viciously tugged under the stone floor with Badgelor. A rock chip wedged itself underneath my eyelid, and, for an instant, my grip slackened.
Badgelor was not exactly excavating a tunnel. He was making a pocket, of which he was the center. I was directly behind him. If I got dropped, I was getting buried in a hole full of sharp rock fragments with no real hope of digging my way out. There was so much noise that I couldn’t yell for him to stop. The only way to survive this was to travel with Badgelor.
My hand lurched forward, and I managed to strengthen my hold on Badgelor’s tail. I squeezed harder. Now that I had a good grip, Badgelor began digging faster. The increased speed caused even more chunks of rock to hit me. I squeezed harder again. By that point, we were in full turbo mode. I didn’t know how far away the cavern was, but we were out of the rocks in record time. We exploded from the floor and slammed into the ground three logs away from the hole.
“That was not my tail, ye bastard!” screamed Badgelor.
“Uh, if you and Badgelor need a moment...” Shart trailed off.
“Worst hand job ever,” hissed the badger.
Chapter 32 – The most terrifying of monsters
The cavern was a magical place, in that I could sense magic in all directions. The walls were pulsing with enough magic that the entire area glowed a faint seafoam green color. My Perception skill went into high gear, trying to use the dim light to let me see around the cavern. It only took a few moments for me to realize that this cavern was some sort of ancient town square. There was a fountain in the center, along with some mostly destroyed temples to gods I didn’t recognize.
Mind you, there were some more subtle differences between this square and the ones I was accustomed to. The most significant was that there was a cave roof about thirty feet above me. This gave the whole square a dangerous feeling, as if you could be crushed at any moment. I could see some portions of the ceiling had collapsed over the years, filling parts of the square with debris. Also different were the monsters liberally scattered throughout the chamber. Finally, and most seriously, was the lack of meat pie merchants.
After that last battle, I’d worked up a powerful hunger.
“This place sucks,” I groaned.
“Better than the alternative,” replied Shart. I nodded and looked around. I realized one of the monsters was entirely too close to where Badgelor was sprawled out, piteously groaning about his two best friends. He was not talking about Shart and me.
● Ghoulster, Undead 25
● HP 60/60
I didn’t get anything else. I still had the enhanced Woodsman’s Lore from my time as a Woodsman, but it wasn’t quite as detailed as when I had class levels in Woodsman. I decided that, with Badgelor occupied with his testicular troubles, I’d just kill this monster and make the area safe again.
I quietly hissed out the words of power, a feat in this super quiet room. The small, glowing portal appeared, unnoticed by the Ghoulster. Upon reflection, Badgelor was not being particularly quiet with checking his bits, and we had just exploded through the floor. Maybe this Ghoulster just wasn’t paying that much attention.
I’d lost my sword when the world collapsed on top of me. I still had my whip, but experience told me that an undead was going to be far from impressed with a whip. I checked my Storage tab and groaned. Weapons had not been a massive priority in my Storage. I unexpectedly found Grebthar’s Sword, the weapon I had used to nearly kill the bastard.
● Grebthar’s Sword, a sword magically enchanted by the great hero Grebthar to defeat a Great Threat. The weapon has the Broken condition.
Well, at least I’m a threat.
Unfortunately, the sword was Broken and not usable. I quickly searched through the rest of my inventory. The battle with Charles had badly damaged all my gear, including my armor, bracers, and anything else that might be useful in this situation.
“At least I can understand why my armor is in my storage,” I said to Shart. “I was wearing it when I was thrown through the Demon Door. Since not all classes can use all equipment, it got teleported to my inventory.”
“That is correct. Gold star for you,” stated Shart, and I could tell he was grinning. “You aren’t a complete, total, absolute, dingus, after all.”
“Dingus? That’s new,” I said.
“Trying to expand my vocabulary of stupid human terms,” replied Shart. “Anything to occupy my poor, bored brain.”
I nodded, “What about the sword? I wasn’t even holding it when I went through.”
“You attuned to it, remember?” stated Shart. “You get to bring attuned weapons with you, even if you aren’t holding them at the time. There are some serious limitations to that, though. If another person controls the attuned weapon, then it doesn’t just magically go with you. Also, if the
I supposed that kept equipment from being lost forever. When someone died with that ultra-special, rare staff, it wasn’t really gone. You could hunt and pick through dungeons until you found it. Given that Charles hadn’t just reached into his inventory, I guessed that the system had dumped his crap into random chests long ago.
After a few more moments of continued searching, I found the handful of daggers that I’d stored. They, sadly, wouldn’t help here. Now that I knew what to look for, I recognized the fact that Logan's Clerics did not use traditional daggers. They used some weird, exotic clawed gauntlet, of course, which I didn’t have time to make. It didn’t look that effective anyway. Finally, I found a training sword that Glorious Robert had given me.
The training sword was blunt, a bit short, and weighted slightly differently than I liked. However, the target only had 60 Hit Points. I could probably still deal 60 points of Damage with a training sword, if I had to. Glorious Robert certainly hadn’t had any trouble doing that. I couldn’t imagine anything called a Ghoulster being that threatening.
I crept up behind the creature, which was focused on some small object on the ground. I needn't have bothered, as the beast didn’t seem to be interested in me at all. Now that I was closer, I could tell that the creature was kind of hideous. It had a head similar to a plague doctor's mask attached to an oddly misshapen humanoid's body. My Lore was having trouble with it; I couldn’t even spot any weak points like I typically did, due to a lack of anatomical knowledge.
“Shart, anything weird going on down here?” I asked.
“From what I can hear, I assume whatever Badgelor is doing could be classified as weird. Other than that, no. Super quiet,” replied my demon.
Well, then. I drove my sword into the creature’s back, where I guessed the beast kept its organs. Even on Ordinal, undead creatures required a semi-functional organ structure, unless they were animated purely by magic. This one appeared to be one of the more mundane varieties that could be wounded via their organs. Even if your initial blow didn’t kill them, they would eventually perish from their injuries.
● Sword Thrust: 0 Damage
Shit. I checked the menu to verify that my Swordmaster perk was active, it was. It all but ensured that I did two advanced Damage points per strike. This sword should have done some Piercing Damage, or maybe Bludgeoning. I hadn’t expected zero.
The creature’s head snapped around. Suddenly, I felt the edge of something assault my conscience. It was using a fear-based attack on me, like some sort of aura. Fortunately, my Mental Resistance skill was strong enough to overpow
er it, but the fact that I felt it at all was slightly troubling.
Enough of this. I cast Smite and went all out!
● Smite Sword Hack and Slash: Damage 5 x 0
Double Shit. Now, the creature was standing up. I backed off. Smite had a slight, holy light component. In the glow from the attack, I realized that several things I’d registered as debris on the ground were, in fact, more Ghoulsters. That disconcerting aura of fear pushed into me again, stronger this time.
The Ghoulster lunged, it's beak attempting to pierce my gut. I dodged away. It was frighteningly fast, but not as fast as I was. I was able to keep away from it, not that it mattered. Its friends were starting to turn up to the fight.
“Jim, there is a problem,” called out Shart, as I dodged the second and third creatures. The aura of fear kept assailing my Mental Fortress perk, but I was able to overpower it. It cost me 50 points of Mana, but I considered it well worth the cost. Still, I was getting pressed.
“No shit? I know there’s a problem,” I screamed, leaping backward.
“No, not whatever you’re doing. I mean, and I’m loath to mention this...” stated Shart. I flipped over two more. Now that more creatures had joined in, the aura was costing me 70 Mana to resist them. “How attached are you to Badgelor?”
“WHAT?” I looked over. Badgelor had hunkered down. He was terrified. I tried to figure out what was happening. Our Path allowed most of my old Woodsman perks to work on him, including Improved Spiritual Bond. That one allowed him limited access to my skills, and I knew Mental Resistance was a shared skill.
The bond didn’t allow for the sharing of all my perks, though. Mental Fortress was a Mental Resistance perk. That was all that was keeping me afloat, and Badgelor did not have that. As Mental Fortress effectively doubled my skill level against certain kinds of mental attacks, including this kind of fear, it meant that I was able to resist what Badgelor could not.
That suddenly mattered a great deal, as two additional Ghoulsters spotted Badgelor. They moved toward him rapidly. I activated my Flash Steps perk, expending my Stamina in a burst to get some space from the creatures coming for me. I darted over to Badgelor quickly. I had him scooped up, and we were on our way before the monsters had a chance to attack him.
“Is there a way out of here?” I yelled, as another Ghoulster rocketed toward me. The fear aura was slowing me down. Without my Flash Steps, some of them were quick enough to catch me.
“None that I can see,” replied Shart, as I narrowly avoided a strike. I decided to risk it and smashed the creature with a headbutt. It caused no Damage, but I did knock the creature backward. I managed to skirt its fear aura.
“Badgelor, snap out of it,” I yelled, rolling and diving away from two more of the creatures. He sat immobile on my shoulder, his claws digging deeply into my skin, causing streams of red blood to spill out. “Use Badger’s Rage!”
“He already is, you dolt!” replied Shart, as another creature grabbed me by the ankle and dragged me to the ground. His mouth opened like the petals of a demented flower and exposed thousands of razor-sharp teeth.
I grabbed a fist-sized rock and lobbed it into the creature’s mouth. The opening snapped shut around the intrusion, and I managed to kick free.
“How are these things so tough?” I cried, looking around.
“I don’t know,” replied Shart. “There are
“They are resistant to Holy Damage,” I growled, running past another one. I skirted around a large stalagmite near the fountain. “Undead aren’t supposed to be resistant to Holy Damage!”
“They aren’t resistant,” said Shart, pausing for a moment as I dodged another one. “Oh, something is flooding the area in UnHoly Magic!”
“Like Shadow magic?” I asked, nimbly avoiding yet another swipe. More Ghoulsters continued after me.
“No, ye daft bugger,” yelled Badgelor, my innate stupidity breaking through his shocked state. “He said UnHoly!”
“How is that different?” I yelped, leaping up onto a shattered wall. I rushed down the top of the wall, away from yet more of the creatures.
“Shadow is the power used by Evil Clerics. UnHoly is just the opposite of Holy,” said Shart, not having the time to get into his usual condescending tirade. “UnHoly magic cancels out Holy magic. If you were a 20th level Cleric, you could cast some spells to overpower it, but you aren’t”
“Feck,” I muttered.
Badgelor slapped the side of my face and pointed. “There, that’s walled off.” He was indicating a section of the wall that the old Zelda player in me should have noticed. Maybe if I wasn’t running for my life. That part of the wall was a patchwork of rocks and tiles that clearly pointed to the outline of a door.
I dashed toward it. “That looks thick.”
“I’d imagine so,” replied Badgelor.
“Any chance you could go Ultimate Badgelor and smash through it?” I asked.
“I’m using every bit of my concentration to overcome the fear effect,” replied the badger.
“Just checking,” I said, lowering my shoulder and increasing my pace. With my Sprint at full speed, I could get up to nearly 60 miles per hour over a very short distance. It would cost a great deal of Stamina, but it was worth it. I lowered my head, remembered what Coach said, and brought my shoulder into line with the wall.
He said, “Whatever you do, don’t run into a wall.”
THUD.
● You have successfully broken through the wall. Damage: 102 points. You have reduced the wall’s Durability to 0. You have suffered the following effects: broken shoulder, broken collar bone, bruised spine, orbital fracture, compound fracture of the left humerus, popped eyeball…
Chapter 33 – Rock Bottom
● … dislocated ribs, bruised appendix, and a lacerated spleen. You also suffer 23 points of Falling Damage.
“You didn’t say there was a deeper hole after the plug,” I groaned, flipping over onto my back. The action caused several odd grating noises from inside my body that I didn’t consider to be at all good.
I cast Regenerate.
● Spell Failure: You are in an antimagic field.
Of course.
I groaned again and sat up. Badgelor was next to me. He stood shakily and started sniffing the air. I inhaled as well. As I was close to Badgelor, my Scent skill activated. I caught whiffs of various unknown scents. My Explorer’s Nose also kicked in, and I was able to identify something metallic in the air.
“Where are we?” I groaned mentally to Shart.
“I’ve got a working map of the region. You are in some ruins that are under a city of other ruins. There is an anti-magic field set up over the entire area,” stated Shart.
“Then how can I hear you?” I asked, grabbing at my arm. It was oozing blood from where a bone was slightly protruding from the skin.
“What do you mean?” replied the demon, communicating to me from Limbo. “Oh, this isn’t magic. I’ve just bonded to your soul. That allows me to communicate with you telepathically over any distance.”
“Oh, when you say it like that, it makes sense,” I stated.
“Hey, he’s starting to get it,” smiled Badgelor.
“Nope,” replied Shart, “Let me tell you about his latest rant.”
“Not now,” I hissed, grabbing my arm and setting the bone with a loud crack. Thankfully, skills and magic were different. Even with all the magic blocked, my First Aid skill was still functional. Not that I could do much with it. First Aid was a profession-based skill. While there was a bit you could do without tools, it would be like a Blacksmith trying to make a sword without his hammer.
“Wait,” I chuckled, checking my Storage. I had been holding a spare healing kit in my dimensional storage, just in case we needed it in the Dungeon. I was holding the spare for Jarra. The kit contained all of the bits and bobs one would need to patch up small injuries. Groaning, I realized it was in my dimensional storage, which required a spe
ll to access.
I rubbed my arm and looked around. Everything hurt, and I lacked the enhanced Regeneration I used to enjoy. Without magic, it would take a while to recover. I activated my Ignore Injury perk and tried to make the best of it. I didn’t have the Stamina to run the perk perpetually, but, hopefully, I could find a place where magic worked again. The sooner the better.
“Can you find the source of the anti-magic?” I asked, checking around the room. It was some sort of large temple, I guessed, based on the altar. I walked over to the dais to see if I could recognize the god. Of course, none of the symbols seemed intact.
“I don’t think anyone claimed it,” said Shart after a while. I placed my hand on the altar, but, without magic, I couldn’t perform any rituals to claim it, either. “And I can’t find where the anti-magic field is emanating from. Probably a relic.”
“Relic?” I asked, scanning around. The room was picked bare. If there was a relic nearby, it was well-hidden.
“They are magical items for buildings,” stated Badgelor, as he began sniffing the edges of the room. I glanced up at the hole in the ceiling we had fallen through and spotted the faint outline of a Ghoulster. It seemed less than eager to follow us down, judging by the way he was peering inside the hole. That meant I was somewhat safe down here.
Or there is a much larger monster lurking about, and they don’t want to disturb it.
I recalled the metallic smell and started walking around the main chamber. It took a couple of minutes, but I found a small doorway in the back. I signaled to Badgelor, and he shuffled over. Due to the lack of magic, he was unable to increase or decrease his size.
“I thought that was a perk,” I said.
“It is a magical perk,” replied Badgelor. “I have to do some Badger Magic to expand in size like that.”
We both walked through, looking carefully, but nothing was alive back there. We did find the blacksmith’s shop in the back. I pointed to the wall.
