by EA Hooper
Solid Elemental – Monster Class: C+ | Age: 125 | Sex: None | Personality: Lonely
“How do you kill these things?” Vincent asked.
“I don’t know,” Jim replied, panting. “I shot him, cut him in half, and even tried my void attack. He just remakes himself from different rocks. There’s no weak spot.”
Vincent watched as the water elemental floated from the pool. “I’ve noticed. There must be some kind of magic holding them together, though.”
The two elementals approached from both sides, and the men readied themselves to fight. Vincent eyed the water elemental, noticing it hadn’t rebuilt itself to its full figure.
The liquid elemental charged at Vincent, and he knocked it away with Zero Field. “Jim, they constantly use mana. That’s how they reshape themselves.”
Jim equipped a shield and blocked a strike from the solid elemental. He unleashed Mana Volley at its chest, knocking the monster backward. “Explains why the rock guy is missing his lower half. When I found him, he was more fully formed. So, this is just a battle of attrition?”
The solid elemental retreated toward the pool with Xan. The two men tried to chase after it, but the liquid elemental stretched its arm and swiped their legs to trip them.
The solid elemental jumped into the glowing pool, and it slowly rebuilt its body from nearby rocks. When its hands grew into more articulated shapes, it grabbed Xan and dunked her into the glowing pool. Sparks of white mana flew from Xan’s body and hit the nearby rocks and rain clouds.
A cloud took a human shape, and another solid elemental rose from the ground where the white mana had struck.
“Oh, my god,” Jim said. “That pool must be world magic leaking from the world’s core. I’ve heard uncontrolled world magic can destabilize the physics of the game. One elemental must’ve spawned by chance, and then it set out to make more.”
Xan gasped as her head raised above the white mana pool. She struggled to break free of the elemental’s grasp, but it proved much stronger than her. Its body continued to grow while absorbing mana from the pool. The smaller, newly born elementals joined it at the pool to absorb more power.
“We should all use Lotus Capsules!” Vincent shouted. “We can’t win this fight. The elementals can’t leave the mana pool for extended periods of time, so they’re not a threat to the city. We’ll just have to warn people to stay away from this dungeon.”
Xan equipped a Lotus Capsule and tried to move it to her mouth, but the solid elemental knocked the capsule from her grip. It dunked her back into the pool, and mana lashed out, creating another elemental from a nearby cloud.
When it pulled Xan from the pool, she gasped and released multiple Light-Drain Butterflies. “Let me go!”
Her creations ripped light from the solid elemental, and its arm broke into pieces, dropping Xan into the pool. The young woman stood and held her arms out as she released more of the ghostly butterflies in all directions. She kept going, making more than she could even control, and then more beyond that.
The world magic is restoring her mana at a rapid rate, Vincent realized. That’s the only way she could make so many of those butterflies at once.
The butterflies drained the mana from the solid elemental that had been holding her captive. It crumbled into pieces until no moving parts remained. The butterflies swarmed the other elementals, and their bodies fell apart. The water elemental that Vincent had been fighting dove into the pool, but the Ranger tossed it back into the cavern with Zero Field.
Xan’s butterflies swarmed the remaining elementals until none remained, and then her creations disappeared. She stepped out of the pool, but looked down at her hands as the white mana slipped through her fingers. “So, this is world magic? Powerful stuff.” She glanced at the two men. “Where’s Quinn?”
“She bit the capsule,” Vincent replied. He approached the pool of world magic and stared into the white light. When he reached toward it, the white mana pushed away from him where his Gravity Shield started. He could feel pressure as the world magic fought against him. “This really is the opposite of my void magic. I wonder why it’s leaking out of the world’s core like this?” He glanced around at the rain clouds in the cavern. “Maybe that’s why the world is barren? Its magic is leaking out and disturbing the natural cycle of this world.”
“What do you think could’ve caused this?” Xan wondered.
Vincent shrugged. “No telling, but maybe we can fix it.”
“Try your negative energy,” Jim said. “They’re opposites, right? It might be like putting a fire out with water.”
“Or it’ll react explosively, making things worse.”
“Well, if it kills us, we’ll just respawn and think of something else.”
Vincent sighed. “Alright, I’ll see.” He held his hand over the pool and cast Zero Field.
The white mana reacted instantly, pushing itself away from the distorted spatial field. Vincent felt a strong pressure fighting him, so he shoved even harder. The entire pool spiraled downward as though he’d pulled the plug at the bottom of a drain. The world magic disappeared into a fracture at the bottom of the pit, and he pushed the field as far as it could go. The light of the fracture flickered, and then vanished. He stared in shock as the fracture sealed itself as if it’d never existed at all.
Vincent exhaled with relief. “It worked. Guess I’ll go plug the other fracture at the bottom of the pool.”
“Then how’re we getting out of here?” Jim asked. “We can’t make the jump back to the crevice over the pool.”
“We’ll give all our items to Xan,” Vincent told him. “You’ll throw her as high as you can, and then I’ll send her the rest of the way with Zero Field. She’ll climb out and meet us when we respawn.”
Jim looked at the Lotus Capsule in his hand and gulped. “You three have done this a lot, haven’t you?”
“You’d better get used to it,” Vincent replied. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my travels, it’s that dying is a big part of this game.”
Chapter 20
Player: Noble Vincent
Location: Valahym (World) | Midrun (City) | Town Center (District)
Class: Ranger
Subclass: Mage
Vitality: Lv 58
Spirit*: Lv 68
Resolve: Lv 61
Perception*: Lv 73
Agility: Lv 62
Strength: Lv 58
Vincent and Jim respawned near the crooked Daiglass Tower. Within seconds, they spotted Quinn and Xan, and the party regrouped. Xan, who had kept track of their time of death to meet with them as they respawned, returned all their items, and then handed Jim a dozen containers of liquor.
“Found a box of drinks on my way out,” Xan told him.
Jim grinned. “This looks like good stuff. Maybe we should hit up the distillery again for more.”
“Xan was just telling me she wanted to go back,” Quinn noted. “She did a little studying on this world while we were dead. Tell them, Xan.”
“So, the last people that ever saw the World Boss fought it right before the drought started. They were a team of four players called the Great Vanguard.”
“Oh, I know of them,” Jim said. “I’ve seen dozens of their videos. They’re making bank off this game. All of their videos combined had tens of billions of views before the update.”
“That’s right,” Xan said. “It just so happens that one of their members is in this city. I heard they split up after the update, and Ice Knight Zhang ended up here.”
“No way!” Jim shouted. “Zhang is in this lame city? Where’s he staying? I want to meet him.”
“Wait, I think I heard that name when we were at the wall,” Vincent noted.
“He spends most his time there,” Xan explained. “I actually sought him out and talked to him briefly. It seemed strange to me that the drought started after they fought that boss, and no one else has seen it since.”
“What’d he say?” Vincent as
ked.
“Well, I wasn’t the first to ask him about it,” Xan explained. “In fact, he seemed annoyed because so many people have questioned him about various bosses and things he’s done. He almost ended the discussion until I mentioned those two world magic fractures we found. He told me he’d check it out on his own.”
“You didn’t ask if we could join him?” Jim said with a groan. “It would’ve been so cool to adventure with Zhang.”
“I tried, but he didn’t want to wait for you three to respawn. He left a week ago, but strangely he hasn’t returned.”
“That’s odd,” Quinn said. “You think he died?”
Jim huffed. “You think Zhang would die on such a low world? This dude is one of the best players in this game. Out of dozens of boss-battle videos I watched of his team, he only died once, and that was on a Dead-World.” Jim shivered. “By the way, let’s try to stay away from those.”
“I don’t know,” Vincent replied, glancing at the small Dead-World among the worlds above. “That one up there caught my interest.”
“No way, man,” Jim said. “I’m not traveling to a world where I’ll die horribly in the first ten minutes.”
“Shut up about Dead-Worlds,” Quinn said. “I’m more curious about what Zhang found. If he didn’t die, what do you think happened, Xan?”
Xan shrugged. “Maybe he got trapped underground. There’s a huge, open cavern near the distillery where the World Boss spawns. That’s where they originally fought it. He said he’d check out the underground tunnels under the distillery too.”
“Let’s try the open cavern first,” Quinn said. “Then the distillery again.”
“I brought rope and climbing gear,” Xan told them. “In case we need to go into that spriggan nest again.”
The World Knights headed to the outskirts of the city, informed the guards where they were heading, and then set out across the barren world. They traveled through the narrow canyons once more, but continued past the distillery. The land became even more distorted beyond that point, and sometimes the landscape reminded Vincent of swiss cheese.
“So, what kind of World Boss are we looking for?” he questioned, staring at the gaping holes in the canyons.
“Zhang described it as a mosquito crossed with an eastern-style dragon—and a dash of squid,” Xan replied. “Basically, a long, wiry monstrosity that stabs players with needle-like appendages and sucks the lifeforce right out of them.”
“Could it be the thing leaving those fractures?” Vincent questioned. “Maybe it got tired of draining players and is attacking the world magic directly.”
“That’s what Zhang thought,” Xan replied. “He said their battle with it happened deep underground, and they accidentally damaged the world badly enough to expose a small amount of world magic. The monster must’ve remembered after it respawned and poked around for drinking spots. Few players were on Valahym at that point, otherwise it might’ve been hunted too frequently to harm the world this badly. Zhang thinks if he kills it once or twice a year, the world will eventually return to normal.”
“Maybe he hasn’t found it yet,” Quinn said. “It’s only been a week. He might’ve checked these locations, came up empty-handed, and started searching the rest of the world.”
“Yeah, I doubt Zhang would get trapped or killed,” Jim replied. “Although, it doesn’t hurt to check. Plus, if we find any more fractures, Vincent can patch them.”
They continued through the narrow paths until they reached the massive, open cavern Xan had told them about. It stretched about three hundred meters across and went five hundred meters down before turning into branching caves. Near the canyon’s entrance, they found old campsites and trash left behind by players over the decades.
“Looks like other people have tried to find the boss to no avail,” Vincent noted, kicking over a withered chair.
“What are the odds we find something no one else has?” Jim asked. “Seems like a waste of time.”
“No one else knew to look for glowing fractures,” Xan replied. “Even if they saw them, they wouldn’t guess it had something to do with the boss.”
Jim sighed. “If I go down there, I’ll have to use another Lotus Capsule, I just know it.”
Vincent used his HUD to take a picture of Jim sighing in front of the canyon. He sent the picture to everyone in the party, and the two women chuckled.
“Oh, come on,” Jim replied. “At least warn me first.”
“I have to get some good pictures with you,” Vincent told him. “Xan and I have been snapping pics of the three of us for twenty years. She likes to show her family what we’re up to, and I enjoy having the pictures of fond memories. Want me to send you the collection?”
“Maybe later. Just get one of me looking cool.” Jim crossed his arms and gazed over the canyon in a stoic pose.
Vincent rolled his eyes and took the pic. “Now get one of us three.” He stood with Xan and Quinn in front of the cavern.
Jim snapped the picture and sent it to them. “Alright, let’s hurry and go down there. Who has boots with Wall-Walking? I still only have limited Wall-Walking, but unlimited would make this a lot easier.”
“I used to have a pair, but I lost them when we wiped a while back,” Quinn said.
“I brought the Lich’s Cloak that Vince gave me years ago,” Xan said. “I’d forgotten about it for a long time, but I found it when looking through storage for climbing gear. If you give me your Wall-Walking boots, I’ll fly back and forth across the canyon with a mapping rune.”
Jim handed her an item crystal, and Xan equipped the boots and cloak. She ran up the side of a wall, leapt off, and glided to a ledge on the other side of the canyon. Vincent watched the area map fill up as the young woman flew and climbed to different points around the canyon.
“Let’s check out some of those caves,” Quinn said, dropping fifteen meters to a ledge.
Vincent and Jim followed, and everyone searched the open cavern. They tried to stay within sight of one another as they worked their way down. After an hour of searching, they hadn’t found much besides more trash left behind by players.
Jim smiled as they regrouped on a ledge before the cavern split into narrow passages. “Hey, I found a half-full bottle of rum.”
“I found ether in a canteen,” Quinn said.
“I flew over some of those steeper caverns, and then ran back up the wall,” Xan told them. “You can see where I mapped them on your HUD, but I saw nothing of interest. No light fractures, anyways.”
“They’d be much deeper down,” Vincent said. “The ones we found were below a spriggan nest, under a massive drop off, at the bottom of a long, winding canyon, below the lowest part of an underground dungeon. That’s by far the deepest I’ve ever traveled into a world. Even then, there’s no guarantee that world magic is uniformly spread throughout the core of the planet. It likely branches out like veins. The mosquito boss probably found out about it during its fight with the Great Vanguard, and then poked around deep passages for more.”
Jim eyed one of the steep, narrow caverns and gulped. “If we drop down there, it’ll be tough to get out, even with climbing gear.”
“Then we’ll give Xan our stuff and bite the capsule again,” Vincent replied. “With climbing gear, your boots, and her Lich’s Cloak, she’ll make it out.”
“If killing yourself really bothers you, I’ll give you the equipment to escape,” Xan told Jim. “They’ve always been nice about letting me survive, but I’ve gotten used to these scenarios.”
Jim shook his head. “No, you keep that stuff. I need to get used to this if I’m traveling with you three. I should’ve known Vince would drag me into all sorts of trouble.”
Quinn patted Jim on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Vince won’t cause you too many problems. That’ll probably be me more often than not.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him over the ledge with her.
Jim screamed as they slid down a steep, angled cliffside. They fell about t
hirty meters, and then tumbled onto a ledge. Vincent slid after them, but Xan used the Wall-Walking boots to run down the side.
“Any reason you chose this cavern?” Jim asked, eyeing the narrow, black pit below.
“Yeah,” Quinn replied. “It looked the deepest.” She shone a lighting rune into the pit, spotted another ledge, and jumped to it. The other three players followed her to find Quinn already leaping to another ledge.
“Slow down!” Jim shouted. “Some of us don’t handle heights all that well.”
“Don’t worry, Jim,” Xan said. “If you miss a jump, be sure to have a Lotus Capsule ready. Instead of breaking your neck, you can be dead in an instant.” The young woman snapped her fingers to demonstrate.
Jim stared with wide eyes. “Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind.”
>Quinn: Uh, we have a bit of a problem.
The other three dropped to her, but found the stone walls closing in around them. Quinn flashed her lighting rune into the small gap below. It looked to be a straight drop into complete darkness.
“There’re no more ledges?” Vincent questioned.
Quinn equipped the canteen she’d found earlier and dropped it into the darkness. The three players listened to it clank against the walls of the cavern.
“Did it land?” Jim asked after a brief silence.
“I don’t know,” Quinn replied. “Old movies always made that trope seem so definitive. You either hear it hit the bottom or you don’t.”
“Yeah, that was a waste of ether,” Jim said. He aimed his hand at the cavern and fired a Mana Volley into the darkness.
Their group watched the sparks of mana fly into the black cavern. The bolts spread outward and continued for at least a hundred meters before striking the ground.
Jim peered into the depth of the cavern. “So, it’s a dead end?”
“No, we need to search it,” Quinn replied. “That cavern is massive. There’s got to be more passages and maybe even several fractures down there.”
Jim slapped his forehead. “Aw, come on. How’re we getting down there? Unless Xan has the World-Tree’s longest rope on her, this is a dead end.”
