“Well, I say we take a quick rest, build up our Mana and Stamina reserves, get some food and water in us, and then head down to see where this waypoint leads,” Deia said.
“Sounds like a good idea.” Suzy sat on a rock heavily.
“You can let your metal golems down and I’ll put up two Fire elementals in the corridors,” Induca said as Dave and his group moved to the semicircle.
“You sure?” Suzy asked.
“You haven’t held up summoned creations for this long and it’s wearing on you. I can hold elementals up for hours on end. I’ll be fine,” Induca said.
“Thanks,” Suzy said as the metal golems froze in position, their metal bodies ceasing to move.
“Okay, there are a bunch of different circles under this one, with sections that move up and down to change it. I’m thinking that it is the system for picking different locations and the rest of the magical formations are for power and other calculations that don’t need to be changed.” Dave gestured to the different parts of the room as he talked.
“Eat something as you work.” Deia looked over the dead kobold.
“Yes, dear.” Dave pulled out a bread roll and munched on it.
She snorted and continued to loot the kobolds. Due to their high level, they had some interesting drops on them and more than one had a length of gold that they had carved from the Aleph runes.
Dave moved to the runes on one side while Malsour moved to the other side. They had divided who would look at which runes, Malsour with his metal sense and Dave with his Touch of the Land. As they copied the runes, they sent them into a group chat with Anna. She explained what each of them meant and related them to other runes that Dave had copied down.
His collective notes were looking like a spider web, highlighting what runes should be used in what case. It took a good hour and a half to get all of the runes down. Once complete, Anna started deciphering them.
“Well then, shall we go and see what other mysteries of the Aleph we can start figuring out?” Dave asked.
Suzy stood. Her metal golems came to life once again and advanced to the front of the room.
“So, left or right?” Induca asked.
“Left looks like it’s better maintained,” Dave said.
“Left it is,” Deia said.
Anna moved to the front with Dave beside her. The golems stayed back between them and the mages. Deia stayed with them as well, holding her bow out instead of her two swords.
Dave shifted in his armor, a large Dwarven war shield on his left arm and a Soul Reaver sword in his right. It was rippled with images of people crying out in pain, as if souls were trying to escape the actual sword.
They advanced down the large corridor. Every twenty steps or so, it came to a landing that extended outward into different rooms. They continued down, the stairs wide enough to fit ten people across.
“Incoming!” Dave said as he sensed kobolds coming toward them.
The kobolds announced their presence with their mages firing all manner of Earth and Air attacks at them. Anna fought off the Air attacks while Dave’s shield extended to three times its size, blocking any attacks from hitting the mages behind him.
“Dispel Magic!” Malsour yelled, his voice filling the room. Earth magic spells disintegrated as the kobold mages continued to chant and try to unleash their Earth golems, spears, spikes, and walls.
“Fire storm!” Induca called out. Her eyes blazed with hidden fire as the charging kobolds were greeted with clouds of burning fire.
Dave’s shield shifted to a short bow as he released his sword. It floated to his side as he fired arrows into the kobolds.
The Earth mages were suppressed with Malsour’s Dispel Magic, meaning that none could use Earth magic at less than a level 8. Anna was still able to defeat the majority of the large Air attacks.
A cyclone started in the middle of the formation, centered on the metal golems that had melded together into a living metal shield wall.
“Circle of Power.” Malsour’s voice reverberated through the room with power as a blue orb floated around him. “Augment.” The sphere moved forward, covering five feet behind him and fifty-five feet ahead of him in a cylinder.
Air magic barely affected them as Deia moved beside Dave. “Plasma cannon?” she asked, still firing her bow.
“I’ll support.” Dave released the bow. It turned to shadows, revealing the rods underneath and floated back to his belt. “Field of souls,” Dave muttered, looking out over the kobolds. A purple light briefly surrounded them.
Deia threw her bow in her pack and started to chant; layers of different colored fire appeared. They created solid sheets of flame as the air in the room seemed to be sucked into the contraption.
Dave closed his eyes, seeing the different elements of the spell. He infused it with his own Mana, solidifying the construction of the spell.
Flame-created parts started to spin and connect, coming together into what looked like a floating barrel cannon. A capsule of plasma entered the tube.
Deia’s eyes snapped open. Fire burned in her eyes as her hair blew in the wind being directed into the plasma cannon. Deia’s words flowed with incantations as the cannon’s sheets of fire brightened.
The first kobolds made it through Induca’s flames. Looking at the flame demon and its weapon, fear gripped their hearts. The very air in the room seemed to fall away and stop.
“Plasma Cannon.” Deia’s words sounded like a soft promise.
The cannon bucked in her hands, launching the plasma round. Dave grunted in effort as they were both pushed back. The cannon evaporated, its job and Mana spent, as its fiery components fell away. The plasma capsule increased in strength as it raced down toward the seventy or so kobolds.
Dave closed his eyes trying to cover them with his forearm, as the plasma bolt struck a kobold as it exited the firestorm.
White light tore through the stairs as Dave was blinded for the second time that day. Even with his eyes closed, he could see the light of Deia’s shot. His Touch spread out even as he was blown off his feet. He grunted as he hit the floor and went sliding. He checked on everyone; no one seemed to have anything more than minor injuries. His eyes still blinded by light, Dave stood.
Not one kobold was left standing in the wake of that attack. All of them had been over level 170 and Deia had wiped them out.
She was out cold from the Mana use. Her plasma cannon, although a one-shot, was almost as powerful as two magical artillery spells, which took anywhere from four or more mages to cast.
“Dave?” Anna asked.
“They’re gone. Just bam—gone,” Dave said.
“How are we looking?” Anna asked, still blind but knowing Dave’s Touch of the Land would allow him to see.
“Everyone’s good. Deia is out, probably from the Mana use. I think I’m getting some sight back. Being so close to that damned cannon made me blind as hell. Going to need to make some shades to go with that thing. Also, don’t think that people should be shooting that more than a few times a day. The air pressures going on with firing that thing are intense.”
“Well, at least we know that it works now,” Induca said.
“I’m going to say it would be a good idea to keep that little spell to ourselves,” Suzy said.
“Yeah,” Malsour agreed, sounding a little shocked.
Dave blinked and moved over to Deia, a massive spot on his eye. He started to cough with all the dust that had been thrown up.
Deia groaned and then coughed.
“Hey babe, how you feeling?” Dave knelt next to her.
“Like it’s the Feast of Thanks again and you brought the Dwarven whiskey. Holy crap,” she said, groaning as she sat up and leaned against Dave. A glow came from around her as she started doing some self-healing. “Well, I guess we should go and see what the hell that did.”
Dave helped her to her feet as they looked at the destruction. She used Dave to hold herself up; the Mana drain had taken a large to
ll on her.
“Well, I hope the Aleph don’t mind having a longer corridor,” Induca said.
There were burn marks from where the firestorm had been. Charred remains of kobold and their gear were all over the place. The plasma cannon had been so powerful it had made outlines of the kobolds as it slammed into them. Down at the bottom of the stairs, there was a big crater left behind. Magical lights were flickering; more than one set were broken. Dust from the explosion filtered down to the ground.
“By the Fire.” Deia looked at the destruction she had caused.
“I think next time, scaling it down might be an idea,” Suzy said.
“Ah, but where is the fun in that?” Induca shot back. Dave could see enough to see the wide grin on her face.
“I’m definitely going to try to tone that down a bit.”
“Yeah, overkill does seem to just pop into my mind when I see it.” Anna’s voice was dry as they all stood there looking at the destruction for a time.
“There is no overkill—there is only open fire and time to reload.” Dave grinned. Silence reigned for several moments; nobody said anything. “You guys are no fun.”
“Well, I say we move on before we have another group sent to find out just what the hell is going on.” Deia stood on her own feet, without Dave’s help.
“Well, daylight is a burning.” Dave headed out to the front with Anna.
They moved down the stairs, leaving the kobolds alone.
Dave checked out his blinking notifications.
Active Skill: Spell Formation
Level: Expert Level 2
Effect: You understand magic on a Mana formation level. Your spells aren’t just incantations and messy emotions. They’re refined tools. You use 20% less Mana and your spells are 67% stronger.
Level 67
You have reached level 67; you have 320 stat points to use.
“Holee crap.” Dave stopped looking at the level jump. It had taken him ages to go up different levels but now he was jumping through them like crazy. He quickly checked his armor to see its state after the mass AOE soul trap spell he’d laid.
Abscondita Armor
Forged by Dave Grahslagg, this armor is more than meets the eye.
Quality: S
Defense: 981 + (Mana Barrier with enough power)
Abilities: Magical Shield.
Automated Mana Siphon.
Automated Soul Siphon.
Automated Self-Repair.
Automated Self Heal.
Increased Agility and Strength (base 15%).
Grows in strength with user.
Manipulation possible (Associated values liable to change due to creator’s changes and level of charge).
Armor Link (Users of this armor can share their power and link capabilities. If one armor is fully charged then it will feed power to the other to charge it).
Charge: 94,585/2,000,000 (Linked Armor 119,019/8,000,000)
Durability 531/531
“What?” Anna asked, the only one in earshot as they continued down the stairs.
“My levels just jumped up three spots and my armor’s charge is at like one twentieth!”
“Well, you’re still rated as level 3 and you were helping out with the cannon that defeated like seventy level 170s. Killing creatures is the fastest way to gain levels. I know that you’re trying to grow it all organically and then use them together at a later date, but why not use them? You know you can claim your class at level 10, right?”
“Well, I’ve heard about it, but I don’t know. There’s a lot of stat points that I can use,” Dave said.
“Look, claiming your class will allow you a lot of different choices. I would suggest waiting until you got to your Journeyman level in all of your melee classes but the boosts that it can give you are well worth it taking longer for you to gain stat points.”
“What class are you?”
“I’m an Orikai Air Dancer class. With it, I gain a higher Affinity with Air. I also gain a larger Mana pool and the ability to see all wind attacks directed at me. With enough training, then I can get it to the stage where I can see all of the attacks sent at my party, and then all Air attacks, even those that are forming. If say you were to take the Weapon Master class, then you could have increased Strength, Agility, and resistance to physical attacks.”
“Well, Deia has two classes, Mage and Ranger,” Dave said.
“It is also possible to get classed through a ton of hard work. The people of Emerilia do not specialize or get classes—unlike the Players, who can pick theirs. We work hard to get our classes. When you are level 10, you should get the class Smith as well as Enchanter from your training and work in both areas. You are probably well on your way for also Soul Lord due to your ability to manipulate souls. Each of those will give you a large boost.”
“So, you can get classes by having a high ability within certain things or complete different programs?”
“Correct, but there are few programs that you can complete to gain a class that won’t take you several years. You will also only receive that class when you are over level 10. Everyone I know who has gotten a class has been well over the limit. I guess since you have to put your stat points into your character in order to gain a level, the same goes for classes.”
“Hmm, well, that is definitely something to think about,” Dave said as they made it to the end of the stairs. It linked back together to the opposite stairs in a massive hall. It was at least a dozen stories high and faced a massive doorway that had been pushed most of the way open.
“Are you detecting anything alive?” Anna asked.
“Well, no kobold. That doorway is runed, but since it’s open I can see inside for a bit,” Dave said. The two of them held their weapons ready as they advanced to the doorway.
Dave stepped through first, with his large shield covering his body.
With his Touch, it didn’t matter if his eyes were covered; he could still see everything around him perfectly.
“Clear,” Dave said, not really believing his Touch as he looked over his shield and looked at the area they’d entered. “What is this place?” He looked around.
“Living quarters for the Aleph. What we passed through looks to be one of their experimental areas. This is the central hub.” Anna waved to the living area. Homes lined the walls as they did in the Dwarven mountains. Here, there was more functionality instead of the beauty and liveliness of the Dwarven homes. Floating bridges crossed over and linked different levels.
Dave pushed his senses out. There were three other living areas laid out exactly like this one. In the center rested four teleportation pads that had been mauled. At the two living quarters to Dave’s right and left, there were no doors that led to other areas. Instead, there were entire walls dedicated to plants, to a multi-leveled plantation. Most of the plants had died; others overgrew their boundaries to be close enough to a magical light in order to survive.
It looked as if the place had been stripped free of its original inhabitants, replaced with different items all over the place from the kobolds and unknown others that had moved into the area.
The living area opposite the one that they had entered did have a door that Dave couldn’t see past.
“I’ve got about fifteen kobolds hanging out at the large door in the opposite living area,” Dave said softly to Deia who was just close enough to hear him.
“Mind if I get my metal golems into place? It will take them some time to climb the different levels and get over there, but could surprise the hell out of them,” Suzy said.
“Do it,” Deia nodded. “So, what are we looking at?”
“These housing units are about five stories tall, three hundred meters long. There are four of them arranged like the points of a compass. We’re at south. East and west have growing areas instead of doors. North is the only other place other than south that has a door leading anywhere. In the center, we’ve got four teleportation pads, smaller than the ones that we saw be
hind us. Got like twenty kobolds hanging out near the door in the north living quarters. I’m guessing that they have mages on the second floor because they don’t have archers. About five mages on the second floor, which will let them see us before we see them. They’ve also got traps on the floors,” Dave said.
Deia was quiet as the metal golems in their liquid form moved up the walls.
“I think it might be best if we take an idea from Suzy’s book. We move to the west and east living quarters and get higher so that we don’t get hit with those traps. Then, we hit them at range. Anna and I will run defense; the rest of you just nail them to the ground.” Deia looked at everyone who had gathered around to hear the plan.
“Well, that sounds pretty fun and I think I can try out my rifle contraption.” Dave smiled.
“Just make sure it doesn’t blow up.” Deia tapped his shoulder.
Dave smiled, not wanting to say anything.
“Let’s go,” Deia said.
Dave, Deia, and Malsour moved to the east living area to make their way up higher. Anna, Induca, and Suzy went to the west area.
Dave quickly found stairs to the third floor and moved back toward the north living block. He slowed his pace, moving slowly as he advanced on the kobolds, looking for a bridge with a good vantage of the kobolds. The rest of their party moved on their side of the living quarters.
Party Chat
Deia> This bridge looks sturdy and has some walls on either side to give us cover.
Anna> Agreed.
Suzy> Sending metal golems on the fifth floor over top of the kobolds.
The notification panel blinked lightly as it tried to draw Dave’s attention. He looked away from it, turning it from a solid bar into a misty outline. He continued forward to the waypointed bridge. He moved to the side of the bridge and went into a home.
Shadows rolled out of his armor; smoke covered his arms and touched the two rods in his hands. Soul gems in the rods became brighter as power flowed into them. His eyes glowed silver as he pulled the two rods together. He concentrated. Shadows fell away from his arms and now flowed over the two rods in his hands, obscuring them from view as the shadows grew and something solid could be seen under their smoky visage.
For The Guild (Emerilia Book 2) Page 8
