The Land: Forging (Chaos Seeds Book 2)

by Aleron Kong

  “Well, that leaves me,” he said. He explained what he had figured out about swimming underwater, and they had all made the same natural conclusion. Yoshi argued that he would make the swim, but even if their stats had been equal, Richter would have gone instead. He was immortal, after all.

  He took off almost all of his armor and clothes, not wanting the drag. Outside of the practical concerns of swimming encumbered, his light armor imposed a 3% penalty on his movement speed per piece. The only thing he kept on were his greaves. They provided a 10% boost to movement speed, so by his reasoning he should still get 7% bump. That might be the difference between life and death.

  Upon Yoshi’s suggestion, he attached the sheath of his glass dagger to his thigh with a two thin lengths of cloth. He tied his wand to the other leg. He then tried to leave his Bag of Holding, but just couldn’t for some reason. He had never actually been too far from it since he bought it from Hafiz, so this had never been an issue before. He tried to hand it to Daniella, but again he couldn’t bring himself to do it. A prompt showed up.

  It seems you are trying to leave behind a Soul Bound item: Bag of Holding. Do you wish to relinquish ownership? Yes or No?

  “NO,” Richter said. He hadn’t even meant to speak aloud; it was just a visceral reaction. The Bag was one of his most precious possessions. He selected ‘No’ on the prompt. Another appeared.

  You have a Companion nearby. If you choose to leave your item with your Companion, they will be able to access your inventory. Would you like to leave your Bag of Holding with your Companion? Yes or No?

  That sounds better, he thought. He selected ‘Yes’ and handed the Bag to Sion.

  *Stay here*, he thought to Alma. He projected an image of the crystal, *Danger!*

  The dragonling couldn’t speak in two-word sentences, but by the tone of her ‘Yes’, she was basically saying, *No duh.*

  He walked to the water with only his legs covered and said, “Don’t act like you’re not impressed,” and then dove in. The water was freezing! He was glad Daniella had seen him before he had jumped in. He swam above the water until just shy of the first crystal, then took three breaths. The first was shallow, the second and third normal. With that last breath, he began his swim. His arms moved in a modified breast stroke and his legs beat a strong, steady dolphin kick. He didn’t rush. That was one of the most important things to know about swimming. Panic increased heart rate, which increased other autonomic processes, which increased oxygen consumption. If he ran out of air before he reached the island, then that would equal deep fried Richter. The other mistake people made when free swimming was to exhale underwater. It wasn’t just carbon dioxide that leaked out, it was oxygen as well. Knowing these tips was why he had come in first, three years running in the swim competition at Camp Crystal Lake. Well, that, and all the mysterious machete related deaths.

  He just kept up the stroke watching the rock island get slowly closer. He tried not to think about what would happen if he broke the surface. Even if he ducked right back down that lightning would hit the water and… you guessed it, deep fried Richter. When he was thirty yards away from his goal, his stamina bar began to decrease. It was slow at first, but then it began to drop faster and faster. He could see the rock in front of him, but he was starting to get lightheaded and his limbs were getting sluggish. He wasn’t going to make it!

  He flailed forward under the water in a panic. He was kicking forward in frantic bursts, struggling to reach the safety of the small spit of rock. Kick, stroke, kick, stroke, the green bar of his stamina was running on empty!

  His hand hit a rock. He was getting ready to kick again when his mind registered what had happened. The island! He grabbed it and threw himself forward. His lungs drew in an ever so sweet breath of air. It was better than the coldest brew on the hottest day! He heard something from behind him, but couldn’t make it out over the now louder sound of the waterfall. Besides, that was when the lightning hit him.

  Blackness. More indistinct sounds, and then he became aware of a red flashing light. Cops? He had to flush his stash! Why hadn’t he moved to Colorado? Wait, what?

  As his head cleared, the sounds became clearer and resolved into Sion shouting, “I have to get to him,” and Yoshi shouting back, “You can’t help him!”

  Richter opened his eyes, the pain racking his body was horrendous. It felt like his nerves were on fire. He would have screamed if he had any control over his body, but in addition to his pain, his stamina was almost depleted. The green bar slowly refilled, but his red health bar continued flash. The reason was clear enough, since only the thinnest sliver of red could still be seen. When his stamina bar had recovered to a certain point, a wretched scream poured from his throat. He could feel his vocal cords tearing from the stress of it, and then he tasted copper.

  Richter heard Sion shout, “He is still alive! I’m going after him!”

  “You won’t make it,” Daniella screamed back.

  Richter couldn’t let Sion chance the swim. Daniella was right, he would never make it. He rallied his mental faculties, and cast Slow Heal. He tried to anyway. The pain made him clumsy and he fumbled the simple hand movement. He used his Ring of Healing, which provided a minor abatement in the pain. He accessed the Ring a second time, the last time he would be able to use it for 24 hours, and again the pain subsided minimally. With a now greater ability to focus, he cast Slow Heal a second time success!

  Over the next sixty seconds, he regained another thirty health points. With the two uses of his Ring of healing, the flashing sliver of red stabilized. The debilitating pain abated to a level that could be called merely horrendous. He sat up and looked towards the ledge. He saw a naked Sion struggling against Daniella and Yoshi. He held up his hand, towards them and said, “Ssstop.” He repeated himself a bit stronger, “Stop!”

  The sprites took notice of him, and stopped struggling. He flapped his hand twice, indicating Sion should stay put, and then lowered himself back down to the ground. He cast Slow Heal again. He didn’t waste any more thought about his argumentative comrades and just followed a simple pattern. Cast, breathe, wait for the pain to slowly abate as the cool down for Slow Heal elapsed, then cast again. Once his health had recovered past 50%, the worst of the pain was gone. He finally could think straight, and ponder deep thoughts like, how was he still alive?! And why didn’t Vicodin exist here!?!

  He pulled up his combat log:

  Richter hit by Red Lightning for 723 damage. Damage Type(s): Air Magic (90%)/Earth Magic (10%). Air Magic damage 650.7 reduced by Air Resistance (50%) to 325.35. Earth Magic damage 72.3 reduced by Earth Resistance (20%) to 57.84. Total Damage: 383.19.

  Knights of Columbus! 723 damage?!? If it wasn’t for his resistances, he would be done! If he had been wearing armor on his back, which is where the lightning bolt had struck, maybe the damage would have been decreased. Then again, depending on how conductive his armor was, maybe not. After such a powerful strike, it was no surprise that his body felt like it had been dipped in broken glass and lemon juice. He continued his pattern of healing. After several more rounds of this, he was back to full health. He intellectually understood that once his body was completely healed, then the physical pain must be gone. It seemed his subconscious mind, however, still remembered the trauma he had just gone through. He would swear he could still feel his nerve fibers being overloaded by the bolt of electricity, and every part of him felt tender. Despite the pain, he centered himself and then stood up.

  As soon as he got to his feet, there was a cheer from the ledge. He looked over and saw Sion and Daniella waving their hands in the air, shouting in joy. Even Yoshi stood there with a smile on his face.

  Sion cupped a hand to his mouth and shouted, “Did you see the size of that lightning that hit you? It was huge! You took it like a man!”

  Richter laughed weakly. Sion’s exuberance let Richter shake off his phantom pain. His Companion’s communication skills had definitely unde
rgone an evolution. “Put some clothes on,” he shouted back, “nobody wants to see that!”

  He took stock. There didn’t seem to be anything else on the island except for the chest. No red patches appeared so he felt reasonably sure there weren’t any traps. Loosening the ties on the wand, he cast its blue light all across the rock and the chest, but nothing flared white. He took a deep breath, hoping he wasn’t about to spring a high-level trap that his Pierce the Veil skill was too low to detect, and opened the chest. Nothing jumped out to kill him. He exhaled in relief. Looking in the large chest though, he was somewhat disappointed that there were only two items inside.

  You have found: Bone handle. Weight 0.9 kg. Durability 50/50. Item class: Common. Quality: Average.

  You have found: Red Key

  Richter was a bit disappointed by the meager haul. He had just been barbecued trying to get here after all! The bone handle was shaped like capital “L.” The longer portion had an iron cap at the end in the form of a square. Near the bend, the longer portion had a circular groove worn into it perpendicular to the bone. It was pretty clear what this was meant for. The key was about the size of Ricther’s hand and was made of a blood red metal. The bow of the key was a hollow square.

  He lifted his hands to close the lid, but then the faintest of blue glows caught his attention. Opening the lid back up, he stared at the underside and the blue glow strengthened. The bottom of the lid was lined in black cloth. Hoping that his skill Pierce the Veil skill color coordinated traps as red and secret compartments as blue, he ran his hands around the lid and found a loose corner. He pulled at the cloth, tearing it back stitch by stitch. Getting impatient, he used his crystal dagger to cut the edges. Once the fabric was cut free, all that he found was a piece of yellowed hide. He turned it over though, and saw the markings of a map.

  You have found: Map. Would you like to add this map to your Traveler’s Map? Yes or No?

  Richter selected ‘Yes’ and then accessed the map icon at the corner of his vision. The initial view was of the forest. The Mist Village was marked prominently and the dungeon they were in was marked as well. He focused on the dungeon icon, and the forest view disappeared. In its place was a multilevel view of the inside of the dungeon. Richter could see the antechamber, the long hall, the trap room, and the room they were all currently in now. The map showed even more though. As yet undiscovered tunnels, rooms and lower floors were now visible.

  Every time he used the Traveler’s Map he was blown away. The areas he had traveled through were portrayed in accurate colors; the long hallway was grey, made more so by what Richter thought of as the ‘fog of war’ effect. The map would only show in real time what he was currently looking at. The room he was now in was red contrasting with the blue water of the lake. Unexplored areas were only black and white. He zoomed in on the room he was in now. He saw the ledge his other party members were standing on, the lake with the rock island in the middle and the waterfall at the end of the room. The figures of Yoshi, Sion and Daniella were frozen on the map, but when he turned his head to look at them, the map adjusted their movements real time. This was awesome, he thought! Even more fascinating, was that behind the waterfall was a hidden room portrayed in black and white. At the back of that room, was a second large chest.

  Ohhhh, FML, he thought. Sion was already waving for him to come back. Richter looked the other way towards the waterfall. Just after the end of the island, the crystals resumed on the walls. They stopped at the waterfall, but the distance was at least 20 or 30% farther than the distance back to the ledge. Also, the room was black and white, who knew how old that information was? The hide map was old and the ink was faded, there might not even be anything back there… then again, that chest was big! And the fact that it was hidden behind the waterfall probably meant that whatever was still inside was important. This dungeon had already almost taken his life several times. His party would need all the help they could if they were going to get to get out of here alive. Well, he thought to himself, am I an AmeriCAN or an AmeriCAN’T? Richter made up his mind.

  He shouted to the sprites what he intended. Sion responded with several questions ranging from the quantity of fecal matter between his ears to whether Richter’s parentage involved one or more farm animals. Richter just gave him a thumbs up and got back to work.

  He secured his wand and blade again. He put the map, bone handle and key back in the chest. If he survived, he would grab them on the way back. Hoping that whatever was behind the falls was worth it, he dumped all six unused characteristic points into Agility. He needed to be faster.

  He wished he could make a running dive into the water, but the crystals started right after the rocky island he was standing on. He slid into the water and went through his breathing ritual again. After his third breath, he dropped fully into the water, braced his feet against the side of the rock and propelled himself forward at an angle.

  He kept up the same stroke as before. Many people would outsmart themselves trying to take shortcuts. They would try something new on the fly, hoping for a better result. Disciplined people knew outcomes were always up in the air to a certain extent. They relied on tried and true practices to see them through. Or put another way, you don’t run a new play at the end of the big game. Stroke, kick, stroke, kick. That was all he thought about.

  His increase in Agility did make a noticeable difference. He moved a bit easier through the water, and each kick took him slightly farther. It compensated for the extra length he was swimming. It just didn’t compensate enough. He was at least forty yards away from the frothing water of the falls when his stamina bar began dropping. He kept swimming, though. Kick, stroke, kick stroke. The effects of his decreasing stamina made him clumsy again. His rhythm was disrupted and his forward movement stalled. With his stamina was almost completely gone, it felt like he was moving through quicksand, and he was still at least ten yards away! He couldn’t go back to the surface, though. For all he knew the injuries he had received from the red lightning might have been on the lower end of its damage range. He had to keep going!

  Then his stamina fully depleted. The waterfall was right in front of him! With the lack of stamina though, he could barely move and his efforts seemed to do nothing at all. His health bar began dropping. It wasn’t steady decline of his stamina bar, though. It was better described as a red plummet towards death. At the rate it was decreasing, his entire 430 health points would be gone in less than ten seconds. And of course, the predictable pain came as well. The vice like grip on his lungs made him feel like he was being crushed in the fist of a vengeful god! The pressure in his lungs built and built. Rational thought left him, and despite his depleted stamina, and animal instinct deep inside of him awoke. He thrashed and kicked not even knowing if he was going in the right direction. He only knew he needed to live! A final kick moved him forward a meager foot, and then he was pushed down and forward by the force of the waterfall. He grabbed a rock on the cliff face in front of him and pulled himself upward, past the surface of the water and into clear air!

  Richter passed out.

  When he came to, he was laying on in a shallow pool behind waterfall. He screamed for the second time in an hour. His health bar was not as low as it was from the lightning strike, but still, the pain was horrible. He cast Slow Heal and resigned himself to the agony of the next ten minutes.

  When he finally got up he was standing in near complete darkness. The waterfall blocked almost all light from the outer chamber. He cast Night Vision and everything took on shades of green or black. The chamber he in was about five by fifteen yards. Looming above the level of the pool he was standing in was a ten-foot tall wall. It was only two yards in front of him and it ran the length of the room. In the middle of the wall was a set of large stairs leading up to the chest. The top of the wall formed a ledge the same elevation as the chest.

  Richter saw all of this in an instant, but was distracted by a skeleton that lay at the bottom of the st
airs. It wore moldy clothing and various types of armor.

  Three thoughts went through Richter’s mind:

  1) Oh goodie, the treasure is still here.

  2) Oh shit, whatever killed that guy is probably going to kill me!

  3) Is this thing going to come alive and kill me?

  Poking it with his dagger pretty much ruled out the third point, but that didn’t completely set his mind at ease. If there is one thing that everyone who has played a dungeon crawler knew, it was that if you start seeing random skeletons, something deadly was in the neighborhood. He examined the room more closely. The skeleton was laying right in front of him. The stairway leading up to the chest had five steps total. As he looked at the steps, a red glow developed in front of the first step. Soon two more spots glowed red on the top of the second and the fourth step. There was no red glow on top of the first step, so it looked safe, but if when Richter examined the position of the skeleton it had one foot on top of the first step. Richter was missing something.

  He raised his wand and shone it in front of him. Just above the first step, a white glow appeared. It was strange seeing a white light when everything else was green from his Night Vision spell, but as long the wand warned him of danger, Richter wasn’t going to complain about the color scheme. A thin white line extended across the step like a laser. Leaning in, but staying well clear of the traps, Richter could see a small divot in the stone. Inset into that divot was a smaller version of the lightning crystals that lined the wall of the outer chamber. If it wasn’t glowing in the light of Richter’s wand, he never would have seen it.

  Tricky, tricky, Richter thought. Anyone seeing the first trap would jump over it and try to either disable the second trap or jump over it as well to the third step. Richter kept scanning the steps with the wand. If the booby-trappers were extremely crafty and devilish, they would put another lightning crystal rightttt… there it was! Embedded in the wall to the left of the third step was another lightning crystal. It sent a white line across that length of the step too. Richter was sure the fifth step was trapped as well.