My gifts were still in midair when a powerful mental wave bowled me over. And a moment later, my conscious mind was submerged in darkness.
What happened next is spotty in my memory. Something sniffed me. Then dragged me somewhere. I had seemingly asked for my body to be put in water. My wish soon came true. At first, I was very cold, but then I activated a spell and felt warm and comfy.
A little while later, I felt my body be pulled out of the water. And as I did, I heard distantly familiar voices. Then I was gingerly carried off somewhere. I felt warm. I could smell water again, but it wasn’t stagnant like before. From time to time, I felt hot breath on my face. Dimly familiar. Then the bumpy ride came to an end, and I could finally rest…
* * *
I came to my senses in an instant, like coming up from underwater. After opening my eyes, I first squinted a bit but a moment later opened them again. I looked around and immediately realized I was inside a huge tree.
“So I’m in Foreston,” I rasped with a parched throat, looking around at the woven wooden arabesques on the walls and ceilings.
I coughed and shook my head. Next to my bed, a mushroom-like table was growing right out of the ground.
When I saw a pitcher on the tabletop, I rasped out in delight.
“Wa-a-at-e-e-e-er!”
Finding it surprisingly easy to sit up, I grabbed the clay vessel with two hands and started to drink greedily.
“I see you’ve come around!”
When I heard the familiar voice, I pulled away from the pitcher and turned toward the front door.
Pinebogey was standing in the doorway beaming.
“Gorgie?” I asked instead of greeting him.
Pinebogey wasn’t bothered by my lack of courtesy though. More the opposite ― I could read understanding and approval for my amiable concern in his eyes.
“What’s the worst that could happen to him?” he laughed. “If that glutton isn’t in the kitchen right now, I’ve still got last year’s foliage in my armpit!”
I breathed a sigh of relief and sat back on the soft cushion. Praise the gods I’m alive!
After that, shakily, I got up again.
“Lay down,” Pinebogey calmingly waved a hand, taking a seat on a wide armchair opposite my bed. Based on his movements, he had grown used to this armchair already. He must have sat there often. I quickly looked around. And that heap of rags over in the corner must have been Gorgie’s den. How long was I out? No matter. That would come later. Now on to the main event.
“The portal is sealed. We fought back the attack on the city.”
Pinebogey was perceptiveness in the flesh.
I breathed another sigh of relief.
“Losses?”
“There were some,” Pinebogey responded sullenly. “The beasts were too many. At a certain point, we started to think they would get through the walls but then, in the blink of an eye, everything changed.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Despite the fact we couldn’t see a single Momma, the blackbloods were perfectly coordinated. Then something happened and they suddenly started to disperse. Some went so far as to start devouring the corpses of their brethren right beneath the city walls. And that was not all… They started slaughtering one another down there. Heh… You should have seen our faces.”
“So I guess…”
“Yes,” the woodsman nodded. “It’s all coming together. Obviously as soon as you took down the mothers, the blackbloods all went and turned tail. By the way, I saw two of them dead and a big pile of ash next to the portal. Were there three Mothers there?”
I winced and started to speak. When I finished, Pinebogey, having listened to me closely all that time, drawled out pensively:
“A-haaa… I see you blame yourself for much of it.”
I lowered my head.
“Correct,” said the woodsman. “But don’t open your heart to despair either. You’re still alive ― be happy. Most importantly ― learn from your mistakes. You have many more battles ahead of you. If you keep going like this, you’ll get yourself killed and lead everyone who believed in you to an early grave.”
He wanted to say more, but the harn burst into the bedroom like a whirlwind of destruction and jumped straight on me. In just one moment, I was licked and sniffed all over.
I hugged my friend’s hefty neck and mentally said:
“Thank you! You saved me again! And I’m sorry for being so stupid and reckless…”
In response came a loud purr.
After that, I mentally thanked my little saviors, promising to find them the very best keepers and places that would be chalk full of tasty energy. Impatient questions immediately rained down on me. I had to hurriedly wrap up the conversation before it outgrew itself into a dense monologue of complaints and demands.
“I can’t imagine how you were able to handle them,” Pinebogey stroked his beard. He could seemingly sense my wards’ impatience and hunger perfectly well.
I just breathed a heavy sigh.
“Very soon this burden will be too heavy to bear. But now I am perfectly happy to keep them with me. If not for their timely intervention, that beast… By the way, what could that have been?”
“Based on what you’ve told me, my guess is that it was a spirit of darkness. Very powerful. The spirit you encountered in the citadel of chaos would be no match for it. The brute has spent many years growing fat on the largess of these lands. The patriarch and his wives must have fed it unfailingly.”
“Why?”
“You know why. They gave it fresh blood, and it lured powerful beasts from another world. After all, the daddy and mommas needed to bring their levels up somehow. By the way, what level was the patriarch?”
I quickly opened the notification archive, saw the victory message and snorted in surprise. I thought it would be higher.
“Eighty-seven,” I said.
“Like I’m saying. They got fat. What about the spirit?”
I skimmed through the messages and shrugged my shoulders.
“Dunno. The Great System never said a word about it.”
“It must have managed to flee back to its dark world before you sealed the portal. And the fact the system didn’t recognize it makes complete sense. It has yet to take power in that world.”
I nodded, agreeing. I had seen such a thing before.
“Have I been out long?” I changed the topic.
“It’s been four days since we found you lying in a dirty puddle at the bottom of an old ravine. Add to that a couple days underway to the portal. So call it nine.”
I just whistled.
“The most important thing is that it all worked out!” Pinebogey smiled. “And actually, would it be premature to congratulate you? Has the dead order finally gained a new magister?”
I read through the archive again and, a few seconds later, felt my mouth stretch out into a satisfied smile.
“Then my congratulations to you, good sir Magister!” Pinebogey came again and, standing up, extended a hand.
I responded absentmindedly to his handshake, continuing to read the text before my eyes.
Pinebogey snorted and said:
“I see you have to get a handle on your thoughts. I’ll leave you to it for now. I’ll tell the others not to bother you either. But don’t take too long. We have lots to take care of.”
Already by the door, he stopped, turned around and said:
“I almost forgot. Your bag is under the table… We put all the loot we could gather from the mommas into it. We dug through the ash pile as well of course, but I’m sure you realize we didn’t find anything… I’m afraid to even imagine what you blasted the patriarch with.”
As he said that, he closed the door. And I, distractedly slapping the leather side of my travel pack, got back to reading notifications.
First of all, I dug into the notifications about my rank. A-hem… So then, in one fell swoop I jumped up the order’s entire hierarchical ladde
r. And that was no more and no less than five rungs, including regaining the rank of senior hunter.
The last two rungs, “senior prior” and “magister” could not be reached without induction by the order’s council of magisters. But in my case, just like before, the Great System first spat back an error but then, after dismissing a message about my uniqueness, nevertheless ordained me first a Senior Prior, then a Magister. From that point on, I had the prerogative to induct new hunters, assign ranks, and much more.
Every step up also came with a generous bonus in the form of tokens, discounts and artifacts. Vanquisher of Darkness also came up to level five, as well as the corresponding abilities. Now I would get a significantly greater number of sparks and orbs. The chance of successfully altering an object without damaging it had gone up significantly. My hands were already itching to get to work, but I had more important matters standing in my way.
From then on, most of the items in the armory were available free of charge. There were just a few unique items I would still have to purchase, but I still got a ninety-five percent discount. Practically free.
I received access to all the order’s facilities and secret caches as well. When I opened the map I got in the snake den, which depicted all the order’s citadels, fortresses, cities and guard towers, I was breathless. I couldn’t even imagine the scale of how many troops the hunters could have fielded in their day. Understandably, most of what the hunters had built was already long since in ruins, but the fact itself struck my fancy.
Beyond that, I now had remote access to the order’s main storehouse which, by the way, was right here in Foreston. There were also hints blinking over every structure indicating the year, month and date their construction had been completed. And most importantly, there were vast landholdings and a number of sale or gift deeds attached. Every such hint also indicated that the sale or gift agreements had been signed in blood. A chill ran down my spine. Blood magic. Yeesh… Leaving even a little droplet on a document to prove one’s intentions ― there’s no more powerful signature.
My throat ran dry again. I finished off the water in the pitcher and cast a fleeting glance at Gorgie, sleeping peacefully at my feet and again immersed myself in the long message texts and symbols on the map.
As it turned out, all the order’s buildings were linked together through a shared network of portals, which were hidden from outsiders in special rooms. Even Stonetown and Fort Stout had them but, due to my low reputation at the time, I could not access them.
I closed my eyes for a moment and breathed a heavy sigh. Just think how many dangers I could have avoided if I’d been given access earlier. Now, being a magister, if the portals were still operable, I could reach practically any corner of our world no problem. And importantly, I could take others with me. It all hinged on mana.
The flood of new information made my head swell. I realized my Mind was simply not high enough to get a handle on it all.
Closing the map, I wanted to start sifting through victory notifications from the blackblood fight, but an insistent knock came at the door.
“Enter!” I shouted in a dismayed tone.
The door opened and a foxboy appeared in the doorframe.
“Good sir Magister!” he squeaked. “The house leaders await you in the council hall.”
After saying that, the fox pup quickly hopped out of the room, and I growled in frustration and started getting dressed. My clothing was sitting on a three-legged stool, dry and laundered.
Quickly getting dressed and looking at the loot bag with pity, I headed for the door. Gorgie woke up and followed after me. I didn’t recall him. Now that everyone was used to him, he could use a walk.
The fox pup was awaiting patiently on the other side of the door and as soon as I nodded to say, “lead the way,” he dashed down the hallway to the main stairwell.
Walking after the young boy, I chuckled in my head. The thing was that, while digging through the catalogue, I had found some information about Foreston. And specifically, I had found the city’s founding manifesto, signed by several magisters of the order. According to that document, Foreston and a wide swath of land around it was property of the order of hunters. And that meant that I was currently the sole owner of the entire city. Pinebogey turned out right. Before dying, the last magister had ordered the living city to safeguard and protect the local population. Technically though, I could simply overrule that order at any time. A system message to that effect even came before my eyes. I bit my lip. I did not want to think about how the living city would carry out my order if I said yes. After turning down the dangerous offer, I breathed a sigh of relief. My new capabilities scared the crap out of me. I had only just come to fully realize how crucial it was going to be to select new hunters with the utmost care. After all, they could always bring up their reputation with the order and lay claim to a leadership role. And with that, they could also demand more power.
I was distracted from the dispiriting thoughts about my dangerous burden by my escort.
“We’re here!” he squeaked.
I took a fleeting glance at the little fox and distantly considered that I did not in fact need a guide. As a magister and in fact owner of this place, it would be hard for me to get lost here now. The living city was entirely at my disposal. I suddenly realized that I could order this truly titanic and ancient being to do whatever I wanted at any time, and that it would carry out my orders unquestioningly.
And that was how I felt when I stepped over the threshold into the council hall. Seemingly, something of my emotions did indeed slip through on my face. Just how they all tensed up.
When I came in, all four of the patriarchs stood from their seats and, some frowning while others smiled openly, looked at me. I noticed doubt and fear on Wintry Redpaw’s sunken countenance. It didn’t take psychic powers to know what he was thinking about. He was probably already feeling sorry he helped an essentially unknown boy gain even a modicum of power in his city. And how surprised he would be to find out that my power here was now absolute.
All the knots in the wooden walls were not mere decor. At any moment I could give the word and they would spring to life, transforming into bloodthirsty vines. Based on Pinebogey’s pensive smile as he sat in the far corner of the room, he had already known this for a long time and seemingly understood who was in control of the situation.
We locked eyes. I gave him a short nod, and the woodsman exhaled in relief. Was he really expecting me to pull a nasty trick up until now? And if so, how was he planning to stand against me?
Taking another look at everyone in the room, I gave an open smile and loudly pronounced:
“Gentlemen! We have emerged victorious! And let me congratulate you for that. But now is not the time to let our guard down! We have much left to do…”
* * *
“You sure?” Pinebogey asked with doubt in his voice.
“Absolutely,” I responded, staring tensely at the wooden walls of the spacious room, which had a semicircular portal arch right in the middle of it. It seemed to be growing right out of the wall.
“Hm… An otherworldly portal right in the middle of town,” Pinebogey muttered thoughtfully.
I chuckled. When I asked the map to, “show me the location of the Tomb of the Founder,” it led us to a basement right beneath the arsenal. Heh… And the woodsman thought he could access all the living city’s secrets. How surprised he would be after he was also inducted. Honestly though, my buddy was in no hurry to become a monster hunter, much the same as all the others that lived in Foreston. The only ones to express such a desire were the Fangs headed by Murk. They had nothing to lose. They were actually glad to have a new opportunity to grab onto.
Just then on the surface near the armory’s front door, a dozen soldiers were patiently awaiting their induction ceremony. To be frank, I was hoping for more but, as my mom used to say: “the first step is always the hardest.”
As an aside, we were only able to seal the d
ark portal. It had been defiled for too long. The seal would last thirty-six days. As magister, I could now tell exactly when a portal would open. I recalled that Sly Redtail’s ghost could do the same.
I touched the hunter symbol on one of the portal’s supports. Upon receiving its blood tribute, the system gave a positive response and, along with it, a requirement for those wishing to use the portal. There were just two: to have an amulet of the wanderer and be a magister of the order of monster hunters. I met them both.
Blood of the ancients, amulet of the wanderer, rank of magister and, for starters, the tomb itself was located in the otherworld ― the hunters that laid Gunnar to rest had gone to extreme precautions. But I must admit ― they worked as intended. The secret of the Steel Kings’ power had remained safely hidden away for all these centuries.
Labyrinth of Fright (Underdog Book #5): LitRPG Series Page 32
