by Aleron Kong
Was the life of these animals any different from the life of the eaters? Did the minute of pain they had to suffer before the end really make any difference? Hearing them cry out in pain evoked sympathy in him, but did that kind of sentimentality really belong here in The Land? Was he actually just a hypocrite for even considering these questions, when he had executed helpless men for the sake of expedience and butchered retreating bugbears in the name of vengeance?
Richter rammed his sword into the fourth carnasid he had crippled. A rainbow of light rose into the air, and Alma shot into the air with a savage cry. She flew up ten feet and then locked eyes on the two carnasids the adder had immobilized. Both were close to death, one from asphyxiation and other from blood loss. The creature the adder was biting had struggled to get free. It had failed to escape the snake’s powerful bite, but as it struggled, it tore a large hole in its own neck. By the time Alma cast Soul Trap, it was barely moving and was nothing more than a light mental snack for the dragonling.
As he pondered his own morality, Richter looked at the snake he had enslaved that was now killing in his name. He looked at the faceless grey automatons holding the young carnasids he hoped to train into obedient killers. He looked at Alma, his familiar, who killed with wanton abandon, and possibly even with brutal joy.
He looked at what he had wrought, and a faint smile worked its way onto his face. He realized that he had been asking the wrong questions earlier. It was not a question of if he would kill in a given situation, or even if he would risk the suffering of innocents to further his own ends. The question was ‘Would he go as far as was required to secure his kingdom in The Land?’
Richter drew back his sword to thrust into another helpless creature and answered himself, ‘Of course he would. After all, blood had always been the mortar for the foundations of an empire.’
CHAPTER 15 -- Day 112 -- Kuborn 2, 15368 EBG
They finished with the carnasids and, between Richter and Alma, another four mist workers were summoned. The workers carried the bodies of the pack back to the village. Before he sent back the two holding the carnasid piglets, Richter penned a short note to Randolphus, instructing him to get the twins to come check on the young animals. He gave the letter to a worker with instructions to pass it along to the gate guard.
Going after the animals had forced Richter to detour from his initial objective of the ruin, but not too far. He stealthed again and started moving east. Less than ten minutes later, they were within range of the ruins. Nothing so far had given Richter any indication that there was an enemy encampment close by. He had approached as quietly as possible and didn’t think anyone could have noticed him. Still, he decided not to be cocky.
Maintaining Stealth, Richter stalked forward towards the location of the ruins on his map. He sent Futen ahead to scout and pushed through the trees to get his first view of the ruins. Before arriving, he had zoomed in on his map and examined what the Traveler that had made it had seen. On the map, there was a compound about the size of a soccer field. Twelve buildings dotted the area. From what he could see, it looked like this had once been a small village. Richter tried to zoom inside one of the buildings, but apparently, the Traveler had not explored inside them because all he saw on the map was blackness.
Richter had never gotten a good answer as to how long ago it had been since the unknown Traveler had made this map. As he had walked through the forest and saw rivers deviate slightly and trees that were much larger than depicted, it had become clear that--at the very least--hundreds of years had passed. This village was no exception.
Not one freestanding building stood where the map had depicted them. All he saw where the buildings should have been was a nest of bracken and the decaying forms of fallen trees. Other trees even grew amidst the compound. If he hadn’t had a map to follow, Richter could have passed by this area without a second thought. It was just another patch of forest.
Futen came back and spoke quietly while still invisible, “I was not able to detect any hostile creatures, my lord.”
Richter sent a mental query to Alma who confirmed that she couldn’t sense any monsters or dangerous animals in the immediate vicinity. He looked out over the area the ruins were supposed to be in and drew his swords with a sigh. It was time to get to work.
The good news was that between his Strength of thirty-three and the power of his elementum blades he was able to cut through the undergrowth without too much difficulty. The problem was that the bushes and thorns were springy new growth and gave before his blows, so the process was still time-consuming. Part of him wanted to cast Flame to burn through the undergrowth faster, but he resisted the temptation. In an ideal world, it would burn off the leaves and make his work go faster. If the fire got away from him, though, he had no way of stopping it. He wouldn’t risk a forest fire endangering his people just for the sake of expedience.
It took more than an hour, and the sky was starting to lighten, but he was able to clear a path to the closest ‘building.’ Things went a great deal faster after he started summoning mist workers. Embarrassingly, it was Alma who came up with that particular brilliant idea. He was cursing at a particularly stubborn snarl of thorny vines when a worker just reached past him and pulled it taught. With the tension provided, it was easy to cut through. Richter looked up at his familiar, who was lazily circling above him. She sent a mental chuckle to him through their Psi Bond and then let loose a trumpeting toot to praise her own superior intelligence. Richter mentally called her a brat in mock irritation, but she just flew off, still laughing and praising her own magnificence. The worker continued to pull at the thicket.
Richter took a step back and summoned several more workers. While they worked, he reflected on why he hadn’t come up with the idea himself. In retrospect, summoning help was an obvious idea, but he had fallen into the same trap that he always did. He tried to do everything himself. Richter had been raised to be strong and independent. It was a trait that had served him well back on Earth and, if he was being honest, had served him well since coming to The Land. He realized that he couldn’t keep thinking like that, though. He couldn’t just be an army of one. Even coming out here on his own this morning had been a mixture of wanting a bit of freedom and honestly thinking it would be easier just to explore by himself. Richter resolved to do better.
Between the chaos seed and the dragonling, they soon had twenty mist workers pulling the trees and bracken away. The workers couldn’t form their limbs into blades nearly as strong or as sharp as Richter’s blades, but they made up for that with numbers and single-minded devotion to their tasks. When Richter saw that he wouldn’t be back to the village before everyone started waking up, he wrote another note and gave it to a mist worker. He detailed where he was, what he was doing and that he would be back soon. Richter could already see the look of disapproval on Randolphus’s face, but hey, sometimes a man just needed a nighttime walk through a monster infested forest to explore long-forgotten ruins. The chamberlain would understand that, right?
Richter chuckled to himself and thought, yeah right, and if toads had wings maybe they wouldn’t bump their asses when they jumped. Then he thought, damn Tia Carrere was hot. Richter looked out at the now relatively clear space and was somewhat disappointed. He still didn’t really see anything that would indicate the ruins that had once been here. Not knowing what else to do, and not ready to give up yet, he ordered the workers to start digging. He himself sat on a nearby rock and took a bit of trail mix out of his Bag. Munching on the local equivalent of a cherry and some nuts, he summoned a few more mist workers and set them to help out. After that, he took out one of his short swords and started going through sword forms.
The next time he saw Yoshi, he intended to ask for instruction in the half sprite’s dual wielding style. He knew that if he neglected what Yoshi had already taught him, though, then the chances of learning more were next to zero. When he thought of the sword adept, cuddly and easygoing were not the words that came t
o mind.
As he practiced, he continued to get periodic notifications about Alma using Brain Drain. Each time they were accompanied by a ribbon of light. The kills were all simple animals, yielding only weak or poor souls. Alma continued to summon mist workers as needed but had them bring the kills back to where Richter was training. He, in turn, put them to work with the other workers to start digging.
Another hour-and-a-half passed, and Richter was getting to the point of giving up, but then he heard a loud crash. One of the teams of diggers had collapsed into an underground space. The other three teams kept digging without pause. Richter called out and stopped the other groups and then ran over to the collapse. A hole about twenty feet across had been exposed. The northern aspect of the collapse had created a rocky slope down the newly-exposed floor, ending ten feet below where he was standing.
Excited, Richter half-walked, half-slid down the slope. Alma flew down to land upon his shoulders, and he sent out two mental calls. One, for the adder to stay above and two, for Futen to become visible and to join him. Two of the mist workers had landed safely and were even now still digging into this new floor. Another was leaking mist from a large rent in its side. A quick use of Analyze showed that its health was down to 10% and was dropping another percent every few seconds. Of the other two, there was no sign. Richter assumed they must have been destroyed by the collapse and dissipated.
The morning had advanced enough that seeing what was around him was no problem. He dismissed the injured mist worker and ordered the other two to stop digging; then he looked around. Richter was standing in a cellar made from square blocks. The stone was almost completely covered by dirt, but a falling stone had scraped a wall, and he could see grey stone underneath. Other than a large hole in one wall, he didn’t see anything else.
Richter cast Simple Light and looked around further, but still didn’t see anything. He was preparing to go back up and when he got closer to the hole in the wall.
You have found: Mature Dungeon.
Everything stopped for Richter. He had never gotten a confirmation that the age scale used for dungeons was the same as it had been in the game, but mature dungeons had meant they had been around for anywhere between one hundred and one thousand years. It didn’t necessarily mean that what you found inside was going to be more dangerous than any other dungeon, but it was enough of an indication that Richter seriously considered getting the fuck out of Dodge.
He backed up and looked around, expanding his senses, but didn’t detect anything dangerous. Richter looked at his familiar to see if she had anything to add, but the dragonling just looked back at him, waiting for his decision. He came to a decision. Whatever had been down that hole might be long gone by now, but even if there was still a danger, it would be best to do some scouting. This could very well be the reason that the village had given him a quest.
Another point was that his quest counter for Know Your Backyard I was still at a disappointing 0/3. As of right now, all he knew was that he had found a big hole in the ground. If he didn’t explore further, the last several hours would have been a waste. No, he had to figure out what had happened here or at least what type of threat it might pose now. If he was going to go exploring, though, he was going to put his best foot forward.
He called the adder down to join him and sent Futen to scout ahead invisibly. Richter looked at his Ring of Spell Storage and decided that Weak Sonic Wail might not be the best spell to place there. He was here for reconnaissance more than anything else. He didn’t need or want, to get into a knockdown fight. He actually needed a way to avoid one. Thinking about the possible tight spaced underground he made his decision. Richter dismissed the previously stored spell and the gem on the ring reverted back to a clear crystal. Then he started the cast of Weak Rending Talons. Rather than manifest the spell, however, he channeled it into his ring. The inert stone set into the band started to glow with a soft green radiance again, showing that the spell had been captured.
While he waited for Futen to return, Richter examined the hole that was the entrance to the dungeon. When he had first seen it, he had guessed that part of the falling ceiling had struck the wall. On closer examination, he saw that he was wrong. The stones around the hole were pushed outward toward him. Looking even closer he got a chill. Claw marks could be seen on the side of the stone that faced the tunnel beyond. What monster had been able to leave claw marks on solid stone? Richter had no idea, but he was starting to get an idea of what had happened to the people that had once lived above.
As soon as he had that thought, a quest prompt appeared.
You have been offered a Quest: Proper Rest I. The people who lived above fell victim to an unknown attacker. Though this incident most likely occurred long ago, these people deserve better than to just be forgotten. Find some evidence of their fate. Reward: Unknown. Optional: Put their remains to rest. Do you accept? Yes or no?
The quest seemed in line with what he was already doing and, besides, fighting the good fight and laying people to rest was kinda his jam these days. Richter selected ‘Yes’ and the prompt disappeared.
Richter started to seriously second-guess his decision to enter the dungeon on his own. The claw marks were basically a big, flashing ‘Keep Out’ sign. The only thing that would have tipped off his danger sense more would have been a sexually-repressed librarian chick saying, ‘Jinkies.’ Yeah, it was time to go. He sent a mental call to the remnant to return.
Minutes passed, but still there was no sign of Futen. Richter sent out another mental call, but still nothing. Alma landed on his shoulders and snaked her head around to look at him.
*Something is wrong, master. The irritating light should have been back by now.*
*I think you’re right, my love.* Richter’s lips firmed, *We cannot leave him down there, though. Even if he is an irritating light.*
Sighing deeply, Richter looked into the dark hole.
“Fuck.”
CHAPTER 16 -- Day 112 -- Kuborn 2, 15368 EBG
“Now see. This is exactly why you don’t go adventuring on your own,” Richter said to himself. He started a dual cast. If something had happened to Futen, then speed was now more important than stealth. It also occurred to him that his Stealth skill was most likely not going to be effective in the dungeon. The remnant could turn fully invisible. Compared to that, his own camouflage abilities were paltry. Yup, he thought, it was time for a show of force. He cast Summon Weak Saproling.
A green disc appeared in the air. It was six feet in diameter and even before the saproling emerged Richter heard a hunting cat’s roar. The forest creature dove through the green disc. Each time he used this spell, the minor forest elemental took a different form. This time, it was in the shape of a mountain lion, four feet high at the shoulder. It had six legs, and, instead of fur, it was covered in countless small, green leaves. The lion looked at Richter, and he saw that its eyes were actually red agates striped in white. It let loose another snarl and stood at the ready. Richter used Analyze to get a better grip on its capabilities.
Name: Saproling Disposition: Friendly
A low-level forest elemental, a saproling can take many forms. They are often summoned by Novice Earth mages for a variety of tasks. Though helpful for mundane tasks, they can also attack with deadly force when needed.
Level: 12
Health: 260 Mana: 250 Stamina: 270
Strength: 16
Agility: 28
Dexterity: 17
Constitution: 26
Endurance: 27
Intelligence: 25
Wisdom: 17
Charisma: 8
Luck: 11
A smile ghosted across his face. His Summoner’s Ring had worked. The creature was five levels higher than any creature he had been able to conjure before, and, more importantly, its stats matched. The elevated Agility and Dexterity meant it would be hard to hit, but its Intelligence also spoke to the possibility that it could be a caster! Richter was about to tell it to
go into the tunnel when he thought about his mental connection to the shale adder. His Psi Bond had been synergistic with his Beast Bonding skill, allowing him to psychically communicate in a limited way with the snake. Who was to say that he couldn’t do the same thing here?
Richter searched that part of his mind that Alma occupied and saw her thought pattern shining like a noonday sun in summer. In the same section, he was able to detect the adder’s mind. It appeared like an easily-seen, but distant star. Unfortunately, he didn’t see anything else to indicate a connection to the saproling. Undaunted, he reached his mind out to the forest creature, willing a joining to occur. Nothing happened.
He stared at the forest elemental, straining to use an ability that he had never consciously utilized in the past. After a minute, Richter exhaled in frustration. He might as well be trying to move rocks with his mind. At the sound of his irritation, the saproling turned to look at him. Their eyes met, and he felt a connection. Another distant star appeared in that part of his mind. It was slightly fainter than the light representing his connection with the shale adder, but it was there!
Know This! Your mental fortitude has brought your Psi Bond ability to new heights. Eye contact offers the chance to connect with other creatures in a limited way. The extent of the connection will vary based on the mental abilities of yourself and the recipient. Never forget that doors can swing both ways.
Ominous much? Richter waited for a moment, but nothing bad happened. The saproling continued to look at him with its agate eyes. Feeling like he had wasted enough time, he tried a few sample commands: move left, move right, lay down. The saproling followed each of his instructions as soon as he finished thinking them. Nodding to himself, he sent a picture of Futen with his mind. The construct didn’t give any indication that it understood, but he figured that it couldn’t hurt. Richter cast Far Light and shot a ball of light down the hole.
