by N H Paxton
“Sound like skin on stone. Also bad lungs.” I tilted my head as I looked into the darkness that lay beyond the chamber we were in.
“Yeah, much the same.” Garret kicked at a hand, which snapped at the wrist, the hand flapping about in the air as it continued to try for his legs.
“Oh shit.” Eberand crushed a hand with one of his boots while looking into the darkness.
A long, serpentine snout poked its way around the corner, followed by an enormous rotting head. Attached to the head was a terrifying drake, literally falling apart as it waddled and slid its decaying carcass into the chamber we were accosted in.
It huffed and snarled and sounded like it was having a hard time breathing. Portions of its skin sloughed off with every step it took, slapping disgustingly to the ground. Pus and ooze puddled wherever chunks of skin fell from it.
“That’s a drake.” Garret’s eyes were wide as he struggled with renewed effort to get himself free from the hands.
“Not just any, dude.” Ken was dancing among the hands, still remaining unafflicted. “It’s reanimated.”
“Thanks for explanation.” I pulled Gamma from my back, taking aim at the undead drake now hastily scuttling toward our party.
I quickly fired off a pair of ShadowFire Bolts. They shot through the air, shifting their positions as they zigzagged across the room. On impact, they imploded, then exploded, releasing chunks of fetid flesh and scale that spattered the walls of the cavern we were in.
“Damn, that stinks!” Eberand managed to free himself from the hands and rushed the drake.
He skidded to a stop about a meter from the beast, then began backpedaling. “Oh shit oh shit.”
“What’s going on?” Garret grabbed a hand from the ground and pulled with all of his might, ripping it from the ground, bringing an entire zombie with it.
He punched it in the face repeatedly until its neck snapped from the impacts. He shoved it to the floor and gave it a kick.
“Two drakes! Two drakes!” Eberand shouted a word in a language I couldn’t understand. The air around us all shimmered, vibrating gently as we were buffed.
<<<>>>
Buff Added
Forge Born’s Blood Call: A Lore Warden can call on the blood of the ancient gods to empower their party. With Forge Born’s Blood Call, the Warden’s party is protected from necrotic damage, and they regenerate their Health at an increased rate.
Effect 1: 30% Reduction in necrotic damage from all sources. Duration, 2 minutes.
Effect 2: 15% Increased Health regeneration rate. Duration, 2 minutes.
<<<>>>
The world suddenly grew lighter as the buff took hold. An aura of light surrounded me. I looked at the drakes, my mind desiring to collect more data on the subject. A tag popped up above their heads: [Redead Drakeling].
“What is redead?” I asked as I fired off another two rounds at the drakelings, who were shambling toward one another.
I wasn’t sure what would happen when they managed to come together, but there was no chance it was a good thing. The bolts struck home and followed their usual patterns of implode/explode, spattering the space with disgusting chunks of rotting flesh.
The drakeling I had fired at erupted in flames, its huffing changing to a high-pitched squeal that reminded me of a—oh no.
“Everyone down, will explode!” The drakeling ballooned to twice its size while small places all over its body spouted small geysers of liquid flame.
It exploded, launching Eberand backward. He tumbled through the air, coming to a stop as he slammed against a bare wall of the cavern.
Garret was close enough to me that the impact wasn’t as intense. It still threatened to knock him off his feet, and he rocked to keep his balance. The ground around the drakeling caught fire as its guts spilled across the stone and dirt, the rotting interior of the beast oozing in every direction.
I managed to stand my ground, but I didn’t see Ken anywhere. Had he vanished, or been blown away by the explosion?
“Twice in two days, Vlad!?” Eberand struggled to stand from where he was unceremoniously dumped after the explosion. He grasped at the stone wall to lift himself from the ground.
“Am sorry, did not expect explosive reaction.” I had to shout over the sound of the burning refuse that was spreading across the floor, the moaning of the undead that were undoubtedly beneath our feet, and the intense huffing and labored breathing of the remaining drakeling, which was also now beginning to catch fire.
“The other is lit.” Garret sighed as he slammed the haft of his greataxe into the ground. He gripped it like he was going to use it to hold himself in place.
“Nope!” Ken appeared from the shadows and ran his blades through the neck of the drake, severing its head entirely.
It flopped about on the ground, still hissing and huffing, its mouth opening and snapping shut on reflex. Ken stomped out the fire that was starting to catch on the tail of the second drakeling. “No. More. Explosions.”
The undead that were beneath our feet stopped their continuous grasping, and their hands retreated into the earth. I looked around for further threats, my eyes searching the shadows for anything that might decide to sneak up on us without warning.
“Finally.” Eberand had managed to raise himself from his impromptu chair of stone. “Ken, where the hell did you disappear to?” He uncorked a Health regen potion and downed it in a single gulp. The glass vial crashed on the floor when he dropped it. “Bah, last one.”
“Scouting, dude. I figured you guys had this under control.” Ken kicked at the bloated corpse of the second drakeling.
His foot crunched through the skin, and his boot got stuck inside the carcass. “Ewwwwwww! It’s not coming free.” He pulled and shifted, but his foot was stuck solid inside the creature.
“Oh man.” Garret chuckled. “That’s funny as hell. Here, lemme help you get out.” He walked over to where Ken was stuck.
“No, no, I got this.” Ken struggled for a moment longer before Garret arrived. “Dude, I’ve got it.”
“No, it’s cool, let me help. Nobody’s going to judge you, dude.” Garret grasped Ken’s leg with both hands and gave it a quick pull. The stinking flesh of the drakeling gave way, and Ken’s foot came free.
“I said I had it handled.” Ken’s face was an angry mess for a second before he looked away, his features softening. “But thanks, man.” He nodded gently as he took a couple steps away. He pulled a potion from his belt and drank it with haste. “And now I’m out.”
“Any good loot?” Eberand had arrived at the piles of dead dragon things.
“Nah, just some skin. Anything you can do with this shit, Lord Vlad?” Garret held out a few chunks of drakeling skin covered in thick scales and hard plates.
“Will give effort, improve something down line.” I looked at Ken’s armor, then to the skin Garret had in his hand. An idea was forming.
“It’s alright if you can’t, just curious.” Garret handed me the slop of skin, and I carefully tucked it into my inventory.
It smelled terrible, and I hoped it wouldn’t taint the rest of my items.
“Oh, hello.” Eberand’s voice cheered up as he found a pair of heavy metal boots in the belly of the exploded drakeling. “Looks like they’re still mostly intact. And they’re an upgrade.” He fished them out of the offal and generally disgusting pile of entrails.
“Dude, nice.” Garret looked at the boots with a sly smile. “So, you’re going to give them to me, right?”
“Ah, no. You just got a chest plate upgrade after we dealt with that crazy knight demon thing.” Eberand shook his head then pulled the boots, covered in blood and gross, to his chest. “They’re mine.”
“Fine, fine. You’re right. This thing is awesome.” Garret knocked a fist against his chest plate, which looked more like a brigandine than actual plate armor. It was a series of interwoven panels mixed with small plates of metal.
“Good, glad that’s settled. Now,
we need to get moving.” Eberand equipped the new boots, taking a minute to clean the terrible mess off of them.
“Wait. Need to do one thing.” I collected a few more pieces of the skin and scales of the drakelings, then put my hands out to Ken. “Take off armor.”
“What!?” Ken recoiled like I had asked him to walk through fire, naked, while coated in high-flashpoint oil.
“Will improve armor, but cannot do while on body. Take off armor, give to Vlad. Time is short, da?” I flattened my hands in a “Give me that” motion.
Ken sighed and slowly disrobed, handing me the chest piece he wore. It wasn’t impressive, but I would make it better.
“Alright, but hurry up. It’s cold down here.” Ken hugged himself as he paced in a circle.
I placed the chest plate on the floor, then covered it with the drakeling skin. I placed my hands on the pile of things and said a small prayer that it wouldn’t explode.
I closed my eyes and focused on fusing the items, reconstructing them with the drakeling skin and scales. I felt the trickle of Spirit leaving my body as the ability triggered, followed by a pop inside my head as the process finished. I looked down and saw a brand-new item sitting on the ground in front of me.
<<<>>>
Rogue’s Gambeson of the Slaughter (Augmented)
Armor type: Leather; Unnatural; Enchanted
Armor Class: Medium; Epic
Base Armor: 67
Primary Effects: +15% critical chance on first strike
+15% damage output from bladed weapons
+15% bleeding duration from abilities that cause Bleed status
+10% improvement in Stealth
Secondary Effects: 5% chance to proc Elusive Shadow Elusive Shadow causes the individual to vanish upon taking damage from any source for five seconds. During this time, Health, Stamina, and Spirit regeneration is doubled. Cannot trigger more than once every minute. This does not count as Stealth for purposes of determining backstab damage.
Repel Undead Aura: 1.5 meters
5% chance to proc Slaughterer’s Gambit Slaughterer’s Gambit causes all attacks to produce mild bleeding effects on the target while also draining the Health of the wearer. This effect lasts ten seconds. Bleed damage applied: 2 HP/sec, up to twenty stacks. Health damage accrued: 2 HP/sec, continuous. This effect cannot be applied more than once every two minutes.
Soul-Emblazoned: This item has been crafted as a soul-emblazoned piece of equipment and as such will be permanently bound to the individual who first equips it. It will not decay over time, nor will it lose value. It will retain a portion of the user’s XP upon death, refunding it upon resurrection (1%). The Soul-Emblazoned status of this item may be revoked by an Alchemic Weaponeer, the owner, or a Keeper, at the request of the owner.
The Rogue’s blade is a double-edged sword—it takes lives while also defending them. Perhaps they are the embodiment of slaughter after all.
<<<>>>
I had done it, despite not being able to make clothing or leather armor. I had used my abilities, again, to improve the gear of my teammates. Being an Alchemic Weaponeer, and now a Keeper, was becoming an incredibly helpful thing.
“Damn, dude, that thing is awesome.” Ken was standing over my shoulder when I finished the reconstruction.
I stood and recovered the piece of armor from the ground.
“Is yours, good quality.” I handed it to Ken, who took it quickly and slipped it on.
“Damn, fits like a glove, better than my old one. I lose some bonus Dex, but those procs. Damn.” Ken turned about , his arms out like a propeller.
“Great, can we get rolling now?” Garret was leaning against a wall, an empty glass bottle in his hand.
He kicked off of the wall and threw the glass bottle on the ground. It shattered into tiny fragments. “Better find some Health regen potions quick. That was my last one. Lord Vlad, how’s your stash?”
“Ah, have two left. Do not have raw materials to make more, either.” I shook my head, worried about how much farther this ridiculous dungeon would take us.
“Yes, yes, time to be going.” I started forward, but Ken grabbed my shoulder. His face was shadowed as he handed me a book. As soon as the book left his grasp, he was ahead of me, keeping up with Eberand and Garret.
“What odd giving.” I shrugged as I flipped through the book. It was titled Those Things Beyond, In Between, and Behind. The first line shook me so hard I stopped walking.
Vlad, when you read this, you’ll be nearly ready. Best of luck, Alvinoth.
It was handwritten, the ink so wet it smudged when I rubbed my thumb against it. It had been written, at most, minutes before. I looked around the cavernous chamber we were in, with its flat earthen floor and the concave walls. There were only two paths into or out of the room, and we had been occupying them since we entered.
“Sneaky ublyudok.” I had to laugh at how Alvinoth managed to place things in my life at random intervals and in places that were least expected. I smiled as I looked at the rest of the book.
The In-Between, a place where existence is and yet isn’t. Therein, contained, is the Vault. A place of immense power and mystery. Within, nothing may escape. Without, nothing may enter. The Vault is held in place by the power of infinite space—that which cannot fail required it created so as to hold exceptional things.
I squinted at the phrase. What the hell did the book mean by “that which cannot fail?” I continued to read.
Keepers were chosen as a last line of defense to protect against the things from the In-Between escaping. Given power and authority over the dominion within and without, they were tasked with keeping that which should not from falling into the wrong hands.
More information about these wrong hands. I was starting to understand less and less about the entire situation. Alvinoth had told me about the Vault, and he had said some things then that didn’t make sense either. How could there be a place inside and also outside of the world? Was it referencing transdimensional space?
I didn’t have answers to these questions, and that made me angry. I kept reading, hoping that information would come to light.
Make way, oh Keepers, for the Lord of the Vault comes shortly. He will arrive in a great thunderous way; he will come with a million travelers, spread out across the world like a plague. He will travel to the far corners, to the south, to the west, to the east, and to the north. He seeks the passage. He alone holds the key. Those who would stand in his way are incinerated, are crushed beneath blades of ice, scattered to the four winds that he so eagerly hunts.
If I was reading it correctly, there was a Lord of the Vault, who would go about destroying people until they gave him the information that he desired.
“Kinda sounds like you.” Ken’s voice was quiet, troubled. He somehow appeared next to me without my knowledge.
“What is meant?” I narrowed my eyes at him as I snapped the book closed, tucking it away in my inventory.
“You blow shit up, things get impaled by the elements, you’re a Keeper now.” He shrugged, his face falling.
“Is true that Vlad use unconventional techniques, but am not tyrant. Will not crush all who oppose. Seems insane.” I rolled my shoulders, trying to work out the tension that was beginning to build there. I was stressing over this more than I needed to.
“I don’t know, dude. It sounds an awful lot like Lord Vlad material.” It was Ken’s turn to roll his shoulders, giving me a glance as I picked up my pace to catch up to Garret and Eberand.
“Cannot be same, Vlad is Vlad. Am not all-powerful tyrant of weird time-space error thing.” I smirked, but when I looked to see Ken’s reaction, he was gone.
“I’ve got light ahead.” Ken’s voice echoed from ahead of the group.
Who the hell had I just been talking to? They’d looked and sounded just like him. I clenched my fists, trying to figure out what was going on. I hated being confused.
“Looks like a clearing of some kind.” Garret’s voice c
arried back through the tunnels toward me.
I could hear the clanking of boots on stone.
I arrived to a strange scene. There were the rotting corpses of wolves and a couple unidentifiable creatures scattered about the small chamber. It wasn’t much bigger than a motel room with solid stone walls carved to resemble a battle amongst what appeared to be humans and giant beings wreathed in halos.
“Oh, gods.” Ken leaned over in a corner and puked, the vomit splattering against the stone.
“Damn, it smells like the ass end of a forgotten deer kill.” Eberand turned his head and covered his mouth with a gauntleted hand.
“Is worse than sewer overflow in middle of summer in Russia.” It took everything within me to prevent me from following Ken’s example and emptying my stomach of the random assortment of dried meats I had eaten earlier in the day.
“Can we not talk about it, please?” Garret was rubbing his temples with his fingers, his eyes closed, humming gently. “It’s terrible.”
“Okay, Vlad will loot, see if anything of value.” I progressed around the room with some difficulty, my head spinning when I got too close to any of the corpses.
I had to hold my breath in order to deal with the stench. The looting was worthwhile though, gaining us a total of six gold, eighteen silver, and nine copper. There were a couple items as well, including a set of [Spaulders of the Mighty Guard] and a [Chest Plate of the Broken Reaver]. Those I handed out to Garret and Eberand respectively.
Ken had to leave the room while I worked, his nausea becoming more severe as we remained. I was lucky enough to find a few rare alchemy ingredients. Things like [Powdered Ancient Bone] and [Soul Shards]. I knew those would be beneficial in the future, once I had an idea of what to do with them.
“What is this?” I was just about to leave the final body of an unidentifiable creature when I spotted something within the pile of offal shimmering slightly.
I picked it up, the weight of it surprisingly heavy. It was a massive bone, hollow through the middle. Attached to the bone was a tendon, which was then attached to what appeared to be an enormous scapula. It looked like an axe with a rubber tie on it. I examined it further.
