Fight or die, he told himself, sounding a lot like Saturnyx would.
His improved Healing spell removed the poison from his system as he blasted the charging bear with Elemental Strike, spending half of his remaining Mana in the attack. Solid light tore a hole clear through the beast; it didn’t kill it, but slowed it down enough for Hawke to finish the job with a dual-cast Hammer of Light enhanced with both Celestial and Order energies.
Tava screamed in anguish when Rabbit collapsed at Hawke’s feet, sounding for a moment like her normal self, grieving for her beloved companion. He overcame the burst of irrational sympathy he felt for her, and used Dark Step to teleport to a shadowy area behind a pillar, too far from him to strike her, but that wasn’t his goal. For a moment, Tava didn’t know where he was, and that was what he wanted. He blindsided her with Burning Light, and closed the distance before she could bring her bow to bear on him.
When Tava was only a Ranger, she hadn’t been much of a melee fighter. But she was also a Slayer now, and the new class had let her take her father’s lessons with daggers and short swords and put them to good use. She replaced her bow with those weapons, snarling at him while she struck. Her speed and ferocity surprised Hawke, and he gave ground, blocking with his shield. His Mana was almost exhausted, and when he tried to summon a potion, he discovered he didn’t have any in his inventory. His Mana Shield would be exhausted in a few seconds. He would have to finish this fight like he had the first one he had endured in the Realms, with his weapons, his sweat, and his blood.
It was the hardest thing he’d ever done. He bashed her with his Shield of Order, burning her with its energies, and delivered a killing blow to her neck. Her head rolled off her body as the rest of her dropped limply to the ground.
The last thing he saw through the tears in his eyes was her disembodied head, mouthing silent curses at him.
Forty-Four
Quest Complete: The Pool of Fear
You have earned 2,000 Experience (250 diverted towards Leadership; 250 diverted towards Node Mastery).
You have gained +2 to Willpower, Intelligence and Spirit. You have one new Perk to select.
Current XP/Next Level: 67,639/100,000. Leadership XP/Next Level: 47,066/50,000
Current Node Mastery XP/Next Level: 22,978/25,000. Current Guild XP/Next Level: 3,1292/5,000
Hawke wiped his eyes. His Mana pool was near zero, he was bleeding from several wounds, and he was certain that he had murdered the woman he loved. It took him a few moments to understand what had happened; the sight of Tava’s severed head cursing him out was still fresh in his memory. The damn pool had muddled his mind, made him think that everything that happened had been real. That had been the worst experience of his life, which was saying a lot.
He looked to his left and saw that Grognard had fallen on his ass and was staring off into space, with his hands raised as if he was holding a rifle. Nadia wasn’t on his right side, where she had been when they took the challenge. He checked his Party interface and saw that she had just respawned at the Dungeon’s entrance. The pool had killed her. Damnit. He used Saturnyx to reach out to her.
Are you okay?
I’ll live, she sent back. But I think I’ll wait for you outside. I’ve had enough of this Dungeon.
She didn’t sound okay. More like someone who’d lost a loved one. Grognard struggled to his feet but avoided looking Hawke in the eye. Whatever the veteran had experienced in the pool had been as traumatic as what Hawke had gone through, or worse. But he had survived it, so at least he had gained something out of it. Nadia had ended up with lower Attributes for her troubles.
Tava walked toward him. “Are you all right?”
He grabbed her and held her tightly in his arms, trying hard not to break out into tears. That just wasn’t how things got down in the Realms. Instead, he hugged her until she started to complain.
“Are you trying to squeeze the life out of me, darling?”
“No. Just making sure you’re here.”
He let her go and she looked at his face. “It was bad, wasn’t it? The challenge.”
“It killed Nadia. Almost broke me. Yeah. It was bad.”
“It’s over, Hawke. You prevailed.”
“It wasn’t worth it,” he replied bitterly.
He claimed his reward anyway, going through the list of Perks and selecting Sorcerous Aptitude, which allowed him to learn two new spells. He selected the Major versions of Nature’s Guardian and Death Cyclone. After he was done, he gently ran his fingers down Tava’s cheek. He prayed that he would never have to face that nightmare again. No more dealing with demons, he told himself. From now on, he would only communicate with them via sword or spell.
Blaze flew over and dropped on his shoulder. The Drakofox was getting way too big for that, but Hawke didn’t mind the sudden weight. He petted the not-so little monster as he nuzzled his face, and put his free arm around Tava. It was good not to be alone.
“Let’s check the altar, and send this shithole back to hell.”
* * *
You have been offered a Quest: Bring the Altar to Holy Ground
The Celestial Altar should not be allowed to disappear with the dying Dungeon. The holy structure can be removed and placed on hallowed ground, where it will enrich the area with its divine energy.
Quest Objective: Place the Altar on hallowed ground aligned with the Celestial, Life, Light, Nature, or Order Elements or Forces. To remove the Altar, you need four free slots in your Bonded Vault. If the Altar is placed anywhere other than hallowed ground, it will return to the Higher Realms and be lost to you.
Quest Rewards: Celestial Altar: Provides all its current benefits. If placed in a Temple, it automatically adds an upgrade to it and provides 50 Structural Mana to the Fortification or Settlement the Temple is attached to.
Penalties for Failure: None.
“This is going to Nadia’s new temple,” Hawke said. “It the least she deserves after what happened at the damn Pool of Fear. Anybody object?”
Nobody did. He tried to let Nadia know through Saturnyx, but the sword told him she wanted to be alone.
Let her know that I’m here for her whenever she wants to talk.
More than a vision. It was real enough to kill her. Almost killed me, too.
“Well, they got what they want,” Hawke said. “But they made it personal, and they may not like what comes out of that.”
He hadn’t hated demons, not really, until now. Maybe the bastards had done him a favor, because now he and the Fury had a lot more in common than they had before he’d looked at the Pool. He had worked alongside demons for the last time. If he had the chance, he would deliver some payback all the way into Tartarus.
Saturnyx didn’t say anything, but Hawke picked up a sense of grim satisfaction coming from the sword. He pictured himself wielding her and chopping Magoth’s head off and, for the first time since he’d completed the Pool of Fear quest, he smiled.
It wasn’t a very nice smile.
* * *
The diminished group stopped at the desecrated grove and helped Gosto use his Mana Node Seed to sanctify it again.
The Druid carefully placed the construct at the center of the broken circle and led a ritual with the help of all the mage and priest types in the party, including Hawke and the two Drakofoxes. The massive influx of Mana washed over the broken patterns, restoring some of them and realigning the rest toward Nature and Life instead of Death. Akaton’s influence was erased, and if the big bear-centaur guy di
dn’t like it, that was too bad. The Grove would be dedicated to Cerunnos, but followers of gods who espoused Life, Light or Order would be welcome there as well. The unborn Mana Node was bound to Gosto, who would become a first-level Node Master when it finally hatched. Since the Grove was feeding the Seed a good five hundred Mana a day on top of the hundred or so it absorbed naturally, it wouldn’t take long for it to happen.
At the end of the process, Gosto reached level sixteen, thanks to three personal quests that were fulfilled by the restoration of the holy site. Hawke couldn’t call him a kid anymore. Gosto’s face had become slightly leaner and more defined, making him look a lot like his grizzled father. His eyes were also a bit narrower, less innocent. Fighting for days on end against inhuman monsters had a way of doing that to you. People grew fast on the Path to Power, or stopped growing at all.
The Druid Warden went down to one knee in front of Hawke. “I request to have this Grove join your Domain, Lord Hawke. I pledge to serve the land and its people. I swear to use the powers of this holy place for their betterment and protection. Three times, I swear, and Cerunnos is my witness.”
“I welcome the Grove of Cerunnos to the Sunset Valley Domain,” Hawke said. “I recognize Gosto Kintes as the master of the Grove and its surrounding lands, as far as the Grove’s power reaches. Gosto Kintes has my permission to build and settle those lands as he sees fit. Three times, I swear this, and may the Triune Goddess be my witnesses.”
There was stirring in the air, and Hawke had a vision of the map of the Domain. Its borders had spread to include a rough triangle that protruded into the Shadowy Foothills. It sort of looked like the beachhead of an invasion, one might say. He hoped that the young Druid would help him come to an agreement with the Evergreen Circle that until recently had ruled all the Foothills. The Circle had been allied to Akaton, but the Death god was no longer the dominant power of the land. The Undead plague afflicting the foothills was retreating, now that there was no Dungeon Core fueling it, but it wasn’t completely gone. Removing the taint would take a lot of work, and when it was over, maybe the Circle would be open to negotiations. Hawke suspected that would involve quests, lots of violence, and possibly a new addition to the Domain.
Gosto rose. “I am in your debt, Hawke.” His expression lightened for a moment, making him look like his teenage self again. “But I will continue to give you a hard time about my sister.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Hawke replied with a grin.
He had given out two other Node Seeds. Olaf would be using one to bind it to the Temple of Shining Father, which would eventually add a bunch of improvements and would make him co-leader of the temple, along with Patros. The local priest could use the help, and between the two of them they could train more priests.
Nadia would do the same with the chapel, using the Node and Hawke’s help to upgrade it to a full temple of the Triune Goddesses. After that, attracting a resident Priest should be easy enough, and in turn more students could be inducted into the ways of the gods. Some of those initiates would become Adventurers, while the rest would simply have an Arcane Vocation that allowed them to use magic but didn’t grant them the physical benefits Adventurers enjoyed. Both types were needed in the Domain.
Hawke wanted to create roving teams of healers that visited all the villages and settlements in the valley, fixing injuries, doing dental work, and generally improving life. Health care for all. He’d seen that in Akila only those with the means to give generous donations to temples or pay secular healers could get medical attention. That wouldn’t be the case in his little corner of the world, not if he had anything to say about it.
As the group got ready to head on home, Hawke took a last look at the forests to the north. A thin mist obscured the ancient trees of the Evergreen Circle, but he knew they were still there, probably conspiring against the human Druid who had dared encroach in their territory. After the trip to Akila, he would head out a diplomatic mission. Assuming that Gosto didn’t beat him to the punch, since the Druid Warden wasn’t coming along.
“I’ll be back,” he said before turning his back on the Shadowy Foothills.
Forty-Five
On their last day camping out, Hawke took care of some personal admin stuff he had been neglecting.
First, his Node Mastery. It had risen to level eight, giving him three more abilities to pick. The list of options had grown as well.
Create Guardian: You can appoint a Guardian of the proper Element or Force to defend the Node against those who would try to take it. The Guardian will be an Elite entity with a maximum level equal to the Node Level plus your Node Mastery level. Cost: 1 Mana per level of the entity, sacrificed.
Ley Line Tapping: Once per day, you can draw power from any Ley Line within a hundred feet from you, to a maximum of 125 Mana per Node Mastery level. This is increased to 250 per Node Mastery level at a ley line confluence.
Node Builder (Prerequisite: Arcane Steward or Warlord level five): By permanently sacrificing five Mana, you can increase the amount of Structural Mana a Node provides to 30 Mana per Node level.
Node Empowerment: Once per day, you can draw power from your Nodes, increasing your Mana Pool by twenty Mana per level of all the Nodes in range. The range of this ability is one mile per Node Mastery level.
Remove Node: You can remove a Mana Node and place it elsewhere, provided the new site is on a ley line or no farther than one mile away from one. Doing this requires the expenditure of 100 Mana per Node level, and has a chance of success equal to 5% per Node Mastery level, minus 1% per level of the Node being removed.
Summon Guardian: Once per day, you can call upon a Node Guardian to serve you away from its Node. You must be within ten miles of the Node per Mastery level. The Guardian will serve you for one hour. During that time, it will not be available to defend the Node. Cost: 10 Mana per level of the Guardian.
Node Builder would require him to permanently lose Mana, but it wasn’t like he was running short of power. He selected that, to help increase the energy budget of the Domain. And, because having your own little army was damn useful, he picked Create Guardian and Summon Guardian. It was going to take some work, going from Node to Node and improving them as well as selecting a monster to guard them, not to mention the Mana sacrifices. but it would pay off in the long term. And if he Analyzed the new monsters, he would be able to summon them through his Monster Trainer ability as well. He could use a few new pet summons. The Darkness Guardian was getting a little too low-level to handle the threats Hawke was likely to face in the future.
Next, he turned to his Leadership Boons. He had hit level eleven but hadn’t been able to pick up new abilities while he was in a Dungeon (and, later, a Labyrinth). Might as well get that done before the group arrived at Orom and he became mired in a bunch of meetings. And sure, he could use Node Recall to teleport there ahead over everyone, except a few people he could carry along, but that wouldn’t be fair to the rest. He figured one more day on the road wouldn’t kill anybody.
“I know,” he said, and checked the available list of abilities:
Leadership Boons (Boon Level cannot exceed Leadership Level)
Charge I: Members in the Party are stronger when attacking. +10% to damage and spell effects when on the attack. Each additional level raises the bonus by 10%.
Chosen Foe II: Your Party will be stronger when facing an enemy of your choice, gaining a 20% bonus to all attack and defense tasks, damage, and effects. One species or kin can be selected. Additional levels will increase the bonuses against the same species. This Boon can be taken more than one time to choose additional enemies.
Command V: Increase the maximum number of people in the Party from thirty-five to forty-five, and remove level limits for Party members. Each additional Command level increases that total by ten.
Defender I: When standing on the defensi
ve, all Resistances, attempts to overcome magical effects, and other defensive modifiers are increased by 10%. Additional levels increase this bonus by 10%.
Eyes of the Leader I: You can see through the eyes of any Party member within a hundred yards per level of this Boon.
Generalship III: You can raise the effective level of all Party members by three. Members who are not on the Path will become third-level Warriors with adjusted Characteristics but no new Abilities or Attribute bonuses. Additional levels increase the Party members’ effective levels.
Messenger II: You can speak to anybody in the Party and they will hear you as if you were standing next to them, at up to 100 yards per Leadership Level. Additional Levels increase this range by 100 yards. You can only use this Boon to reach one member at a time.
Shared Magic I: You can share some of your magic knowledge with your Party. At level one, one Party member of your choice can cast one spell the Leader knows and chooses to share. The spell’s effects will be determined by the member’s level, who will also have to spend the Mana necessary to activate it. You must select the spell when you choose the boon. Additional levels will allow you to teach more spells or increase the number of Members who can be given a spell.
Hawke went for Generalship III and Shared Magic I. The three-level boost was too good to pass up. And Shared Magic I allowed him to grant one spell of his choice to everybody. He selected Aura of Light. The heal-over-time aura lasted a good while, wasn’t very Mana-intensive, and would help keep non-healers alive.
Labyrinth to Tartarus: A LitRPG Saga (The Eternal Journey Book 3) Page 28
