by Edward Brody
Jeremy shook his head. “Nah, man. I don’t know why everything is different this time.”
“Forget about the snakes,” Donovan said. “How the hell are we going to get out of here?”
I went to the pedestal to inspect it, but again saw no visible means to activate the triangular button that was on it. I kicked it a couple times and stuck my hand in the deep depression where it had recessed, but it was too far down to access.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said. “Looks like this isn’t going to send us back up.”
“Up there,” Adeelee said as she pointed towards a large hole on the far wall that had to have been at least twenty feet in the air. It looked like it was sloping down, almost like a chute into the chamber. “That’s the only exit I see.”
We walked past the various coffins and closer to the hole, and on the ground at the base of the hole was a massive pile of bodies. Most of them were aged to bones, but there was a layer of rotten, stiff corpses on top of the bones, and then three or four fresher bodies on top of those. Some were nude, and some were still wearing their armor. It smelled terrible.
“Disgusting,” Rina snarled.
“Something has been killing here for a long time,” Jax said.
Jeremy stepped onto the pile of bone and bodies, and started rummaging, even as his feet sunk deep into the mess.
“What are you doing?” Adeelee asked.
“Looting up,” he said.
“You can’t be serious,” Adeelee said. “You shouldn’t touch that pile of rot.”
Jeremy pulled on a pair of shiny leather gloves that were on one of the corpses, and instead of the gloves coming off on one of the hands, the entire hand pulled off the body. He looked at glove and yanked out the dead hand. “Ohhh, magic gloves. I wonder what these are.”
“Gunnar can identify by touch,” Ozzy said.
“Really? How is that possible?” Jeremy asked.
“I’ll tell ya later,” I said. “Just toss the gloves to me.”
You’ve received: Adventurer’s Gloves. +5 Armor. Durability: 3/10. Quality: Poor. Rarity: Uncommon. Weight: 0.2 kg. +50 Stamina +5. Vitality
I coughed from the smell of rot coming from the gloves as I read the stats off to him, and then I tossed them back.
“Nice!” Jeremy said. “I’m not too proud to dumpster dive…er… mass grave dive, or whatever you’d call this.”
I didn’t see anything that stood out as particularly useful on any of the corpses, so I focused my attention back on the hole above the pile of death.
The hole was too far up to reach, but there was some sort of fiber that was drooping down from the bottom of the hole. It looked like a sort of linen or organic plant matter that had formed over the years. It wasn’t clear what it was, but with a boost, it was reachable.
“I wonder if that stuff hanging from the hole is strong enough to hold on to,” I said.
“I highly doubt it,” Jax said. “It’s probably moss or fungus that’s formed from the death in the cave.”
“Let’s give it a try,” I said. “Somebody hoist me up.”
“Wait a minute!” Jeremy said as he picked out a pile of slimy gold from a bag covered in rot, then slid it into his pocket. “There’s some sort of scrolls in here.”
He pulled the soggy scrolls out of the bag, and as he unrolled them, the paper was near tearing. “This one looks like a schematic,” he said as he tossed it to me. “Maybe give it to Aaron.”
You’ve received: Schematic: Reinforced Steel Tower Shield. [Steel Shield, Min Armor Limit 60, Max Armor Limit 60. +1-5% Block Level Bonus] Requires 14 Intelligence. Requires Weaponsmithing Lvl 10. Requires: 15 Steel. Requires 5 Wood. Durability: 3/10. Quality: Poor. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.1 kg
“Yeah, this is nice,” I said. “He’ll like working on this.”
He shook his head as he tried to figure out the other. “I don’t know exactly what this one is, but it’s some sort of magic scroll.” He gently handed the scroll to me.
You’ve received: Scroll: Clumsy. Temporarily reduce the accuracy and intelligence of an opponent. Requires 10 Intelligence. Mentalism Level 1. Durability: 1/10. Quality: Poor. Rarity: Uncommon. Weight: 0.1 kg
“Oh wow,” I said. “It’s a mentalism scroll. I’ve actually been looking for one of these if you don’t mind me keeping it.”
“Yeah, man. Go ahead,” Jeremy said.
“It’d probably fall apart before we got it out of here anyway,” I alleged.
Given that it was on its last durability point, I didn’t waste any time and read the scroll.
Congratulations! You have learned the spell: Clumsy!
“Thanks, man.” I said to Jeremy as the soggy scroll disappeared into a cloud of dust in my hands. The spell I learned didn’t sound particularly powerful, but I was excited to finally start working on mentalism.
“No problem!” Jeremy said with a smile. He turned to Adeelee and snarled his lips. “See? You can find a lot of great stuff if you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty.”
Adeelee groaned. “I’ll leave the ‘delving into piles of rotting flesh for insignificant gains’ to you.”
Jeremy snapped his lips and lowered his eyes as he stepped off the pile.
“I’ll give you a boost, Gunnar,” Ozzy said as stepped onto the dead bodies and under the hole. He held his hand out in front of him in a cupping motion with his back against the wall.
I stepped up to Ozzy and into his hands, then climbed up until I was standing with both my feet on his shoulders. He was wobbly underneath me, but I maintained my balance as I stretched my arm as far as I could and grabbed the dangling material that was hanging from the hole.
The material felt flaky and made a bit of a crackling noise as I squeezed onto it, but when I pulled, it didn’t break apart. I pulled on it with my full strength, and as I lifted myself off of Jeremy’s shoulders, I snatched another strand of the substance that was hanging just a little higher.
There was a rock a few inches above that strand of material that I grabbed onto, and by pulling myself up from the rock, I was able to barely get a hand on the edge of the hole.
With the hole gradually sloping, it took all of my strength to pull myself up, and the only saving grace was the fact that the strange, hanging material lining the base of the hole provided a surprisingly strong, non-slip grip.
When I was fully inside the hole, I could see that the substance was lining almost every edge, save for a few odd spots where there were tears and holes.
“Good work!” Ozzy shouted when he saw that I was fully up and in the hole.
“Whatever that stuff is, it’s strong,” I said.
I lay on my stomach, and for the next ten minutes, the team hoisted each other up and into the hole. The last two people into the hole—Keysia and Rina—were the hardest, and due to the slope, we had to form a train of us all laying on our stomach to hold their weight. When Keysia had a grip on my hand, Rina grabbed Keysia’s feet and climbed up using her body, then Keysia was pulled in.
The whole thing was a little sketchy, but with teamwork, we got the job done.
“What is this stuff?” Ozzy asked as he rubbed his finger across the strange lining of the hole. “Some sort of weird paper?”
“It could be a soft mineral of some kind,” Adeelee said. “I’ve never seen anything like it, but I don’t spend a lot of time in caves.”
We started to ascend the long, sloping path up, and we took our time to avoid any slips or falls. The lining of the cave did offer some grip, but if any of us lost our footing and fell, the grip probably wouldn’t have been enough to prevent us from sliding all the way back to the bottom of the cave.
We tracked upward for several minutes, and when the path looked like it was about to end, the lining along the wall seemed to taper inwards a little and dangled from the tops and bottom of the wall.
Jax stepped on the end of the material and yanked on a loose piece, tearing it free. He held it up to the
sky and flicked it, then his eyes went wide and scanned all around the cave and back down towards where we came. “I don’t think this is any kind of mineral or fungus,” Jax said. “This is skin. It’s molted snake skin.”
“What?” I asked as I started looking at the size of the path. “You’re telling me that this stuff came from a snake?”
“I told you!” Jeremy said and pointed his finger towards me. “I told you there was a big snake!”
“A great serpent,” Adeelee said. “No normal snake could make this.”
A loud rattler sound echoed somewhere ahead of us, and I turned my head as a chill creeped up my spine.
Looking up, I could see we were just a few meters from the ground flattening back out and opening to another chamber.
I swallowed hard, unsheathed my sword, and whispered, “Remember your positions...”
Chapter Thirty
2/2/0001
The rattling continued and only grew louder as we trudged the final paces up the sloping path. When we were about to enter the chamber, we pressed our bodies up against the wall and peered inside, but there didn’t appear to be anything there.
Ozzy glanced at me and scrunched his brow before he rolled off the wall and stepped inside the chamber, and all of us followed behind me, turning our heads left and right, looking for the source of the echoing sounds.
“Ozzy!” Rina yelled from the back of the line.
Ozzy turned, and from high above, a massive serpent, as large as Ragul, Dryden’s Dragon, lowered its head down until it was nearly right in front of him. It was a mix of brown and green scales, and it looked like it was smiling at Ozzy as its long, tongue slithered in and out of its mouth. Its eyes were a menacing yellow gold, and two short, fin-like appendages ran across the length of its head. Its body was tightly entwined around a long stalactite that hung from the ceiling.
Name: Shashana
Race: Great Beast
Level: 39
Health/Mana/Stamina: 1400/400/800
Status: unknown
Ozzy lifted his shield as the serpent swung its head at him, but his block did little as the strength of the serpent sent him flying across the room and slamming against a wall.
“Now!” I yelled. “Everyone now!”
Adeelee, Donovan, and I ran for the serpent in different directions, and the serpent’s eyes darted to each one of us as if it were trying to determine who to strike next.
Jax kneeled down and immediately shot an arrow that pierced deep into the serpent’s skin.
The serpent noticed the shot and immediately turned its attention to Jax, but just as it was about to strike, a web of lighting rose out of Keysia’s hands and into the serpent’s body.
Rina and Jeremy were rushing to assist Ozzy.
The serpent’s rattler shook rapidly at Keysia’s shocking attack. Its eyes closed, and its body trembled a little before releasing its grip from the hanging rock. It came crashing to the ground with an earth-trembling thud.
Adeelee slid forward and drove her sword into the serpent’s side, and Donovan slashed both of his swords at the beast and spun before doing it again. I was a little closer to its back, and when I was about to slam my sword into the reptilian body, the rattler swung around and knocked me several feet across the ground.
As I pulled myself back up, I saw Jax releasing arrow after arrow, and each one was hitting the massive target. But the serpent quickly recovered from its daze and suddenly shot up into an upright position that pushed Adeelee and Donovan to the side.
I shot a Fireblast at the serpent’s underside as I stood to my feet, and it flinched and turned to me when the fire made impact. It reared its head back then jabbed forward, opening its mouth wide and flicking its two-pronged tongue at me. The tongue slammed into my chest, and it felt like I was hit with a hammer. I flew backwards and hit the wall behind me, then slid to the ground in a daze.
I heard the sound of thuds and crashes as I shook my head and tried to regain my senses. When I looked up, Donovan was lying face-first on the ground, and Adeelee was slumped against a wall but trying to pick herself up.
“Damnit,” I spat.
I looked at my health, and I was down to 50%. Adeelee was down to 30%.
The serpent reared its head back again, its attention focused on Jax, who was still lobbing arrow after arrow at its body, and right as it was lunging forward, I cast a Fire Curtain in its path that made it stop and flinch backwards.
“Over here!” Ozzy yelled. He had recovered and made his way to the back of the beast. He stomped his foot and shouted loudly, causing the serpent to swing its head around.
A glow surrounded Donovan’s body as Rina tried to heal him, and I saw Adeelee cast a heal on herself as she rose back to her feet.
I cast a Fireblast and then an Arcane Missile at the back of the beast as it was focused on Ozzy, and then I focused on casting my Clumsy spell for the first time. I heard a strange twanging sound, and I lost some mana, but I otherwise couldn’t tell if it worked or not.
You have reached level 12 in Arcane Magic!
I bolted towards the serpent with my sword raised.
“Gunnar!” Jax yelled. I turned around as I ran to see him pull a dark purple vial from his bag. “Catch!” He threw the liquid towards me, and I caught it with my free hand.
You’ve received: Minor Explosion Potion. Durability: 10/10. Quality: Average. Rarity: Common. Weight: 0.1 kg. Break to cause a significant amount of explosive damage.
The serpent thrust its head forward and buried its fangs into Ozzy, piercing his plate armor with ease. Ozzy screamed and swung his mace uselessly at the beast’s head as he was lifted off the ground and shook around violently.
I jumped on top of the serpent’s tail and slammed my sword down as deep as I could, then tossed the purple potion at the back of its upper body. The potion exploded on contact, and the serpent released his grip on Ozzy and hissed as it flung its head in pain.
I lifted my sword and slammed it down again and again.
“Help!” I heard Adeelee cry. I turned my head to see her parrying the strikes of three giant snakes that had suddenly appeared. They weren’t anywhere near the size of the serpent we were fighting, but they were human size in height and slithering upright. There was another path ahead of us where three more giant snakes were filing out of and into the chamber to join the battle as well. They were heading straight for Rina and Jeremy.
“I need healing…” Ozzy grunted as he weakly tried to pick himself off the ground. Blood was seeping from the wounds where the serpent’s fangs had pierced him, and his skin looked pale.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, I thought. Everyone was in trouble, and I wasn’t sure who to help. I yanked my sword out of the serpent’s body, and remembering that Rina’s death was the worst-case scenario, I ran for her.
I inspected one of the snakes as I approached
Name: giant rattlesnake
Race: animal
Level: 25
Health/Mana/Stamina: 300/120/500
Status: aggressive
Rina swung her staff at one of the snakes as it lunged at her, and Jeremy dashed in and stabbed his dagger into its side. The snake countered and twisted its body to plow its fangs into Jeremy’s neck. Another one of the snakes lunged forward and clenched onto Jeremy’s arm.
“Stand back Rina!” I yelled as I rushed in, swinging my sword at the three giant snakes. I slashed at both of the snakes that were latched on to Jeremy and ducked as the third snake struck out at me.
I shot a Fireblast at the third snake, rolled back, and landed another swipe against the snake that was latched onto Jeremy’s arm.
A sharp pain shot into my leg, and I looked down to see that the snake that had bitten Jeremy’s leg had turned its attention to me.
You have been poisoned and require medical attention. Poison is a weakening and damage-over-time effect.
Two arrows slammed into the side of the snake, and it quickly released.
/> You are bleeding and require medical attention. Bleeding is a damage-over-time effect.
I swung my sword at it as hard as I could, and the snake’s head flew off and fell to the ground. The body continued to writhe on the ground even after death.
When I turned my attention back around, the other snake had latched onto Jeremy, but he was jabbing his dagger repeatedly into the one that was latched to his arm. It released, just in time for me to swing my sword again and lop its head off as well.
I grabbed the tail of the one remaining snake that was latched on to Jeremy and cast a Fireblast which almost severed it and caused it to quickly release its grip. When it turned its head to me, Jeremy grabbed it from behind and slammed his dagger hard into the back of its head, causing the snake to writhe randomly and fall loosely to the ground.
Jeremy dropped to his knees. “Poison. I leveled, but I’m poisoned!”
You have been poisoned and require medical attention. Poison is a weakening and damage-over-time effect.
I looked up to my health as I felt a pulse of pain, and I was down to about 30%.
Rina had her work cut out for her, but I had no time to help with Jeremy.
My mana was running low, and knowing that I had more guild mates in trouble behind me, I cast Boiling Blood before I even turned around. My temperature rose, and when I swung around, I saw Donovan push Adeelee out of the way of a giant snake’s strike and take the fangs to his back. He spun with the snake still attached to him and scissored his swords to dispatch another of the snakes. The other one had already been killed and was lying dead on the floor.
Keysia was shooting balls of magic from her staff at the giant serpent, and as the monster struck out at her, she was surprisingly able to dodge its attacks. It was moving slower than it had before, and blood was pouring from its various wounds. Countless arrows were sticking out of its body.
