A hooded figure appeared in front of him. Seven feet tall, Fae-skinny; his or her features were obscured by a hooded cowl. Whoever it was, Hawke had a sense it was someone important. Not quite goddess-level important, but a lot higher-up than a twelfth level noob.
WHAT DO YOU SEEK?
The mental voice was loud as hell. Hawke swallowed back several smart-ass responses. This wasn’t the time to be playing games, not unless he really wanted to go back empty-handed and with an Identity of 13. He had been thinking about his answer for some time, trying to balance the unique opportunity with the chance of getting nothing. A new Element or School of Magic would be nice, but he decided to shoot for something with long-term applications:
“I want a better understanding of Mana, to the limits of my potential.”
THEN FIGHT ME, FOOL.
Hawke drew his swords but couldn’t feel Saturnyx’s presence in them. He was fighting alone for the first time since he had found her. That was all he had time to think before the hooded figure transformed into Desmond the Destroyer and came at him like a demon from hell, swinging his oversized sword.
“Cheater! Thief!” the Warrior shouted as he tried to slice and dice him. “You’re dead!”
He tried to activate Twilight Step but the spell failed, and only a desperate backwards somersault that ended with him rolling down the slope saved him from a slash that would have cut him in two. A massive boulder stopped his fall; the brutal impact left him dazed and breathless. Hawke realized he couldn’t see his own stats, let alone those of the armored figure running down towards him. No ‘gaming’ interfaces anywhere, no prompts, no Health or Mana counters. It was like fighting on Earth, where you only knew how many hit points you had when they went to zero and you dropped. No magic, either. Just two people, fighting each other to the death.
Struggling to his feet took him precious seconds. The pain of cracked ribs and a sprained ankle slowed him down; he hadn’t realized how much he had taken the pain-killing effect of his healing spells for granted. By the time Hawke stood up, the Warrior was almost on top of him. The big sword sliced through the air and he barely ducked under the blow; the move sent another stab of pain from his upper chest, but he pushed through it and struck back, two quick jabs with the points that pierced Desmond’s breast plate. He felt the tip of one blade catch on a rib instead of driving through the Warrior’s heart; the other barely drew blood. His skill wasn’t enhanced, either; without Saturnyx guiding his blows, his moves felt sluggish and clumsy.
“You. Can’t. Take. Everything!” Desmond gasped between slashes and thrusts. Hawke was forced to go on the defensive, using his smaller blades to deflect the powerful attacks rather than meet them head-on. A couple of near misses cut him through his armor. He could taste blood in his mouth, and didn’t know where it was coming from. A bitten lip or a perforated lung? He’d find out if or when he dropped dead.
The pain and exhaustion as he fought for his life weren’t the worst parts of the duel. What almost got Hawke killed was the feeling that he deserved to lose. That he had taken someone who could have become a friend and carelessly set him up with a one-night-stand of his, knowing what would happen if the truth came out. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. He had grabbed more than his share of the loot and let Desmond get killed during the first Drakeling fight when he could have waited to try and tame the monster a second time instead. He had screwed things up. Maybe he didn’t deserve to live.
You can’t do better if you are dead, the part of him that refused to quit replied.
Desmond’s next swing was aimed right at the junction between Hawke’s helmet and breast plate. He dropped to one knee as the massive blade whizzed by like an angry wasp. The Warrior spun almost all the way around, driven by the momentum of the missed attack, He tried to turn around but didn’t quite make it before Hawke slashed at Desmond’s hamstrings, cutting them to the bone. The Warrior toppled like a felled tree, and Hawke pounced, driving his swords into his chest until Desmond stopped struggling. It wasn’t heroic; he crippled the big guy and then murdered him before he could defend himself. Real violence was like that, ugly and without glory or dignity.
Hawke stood up, feeling like crap. The fight had been an illusion, but he had a sickening feeling it might be a preview of things to come.
YOUR PRIZE IS GRANTED.
Congratulations! You have gained a new Perk: Advanced Mana Sight
Advanced Mana Sight: You can see every spectrum of the energy that permeates the Realms and makes magic possible. Your new senses also allow you to identify the different frequencies and ‘flavors’ of Mana as it is attuned to Elements, Forces, Schools of Magic, emotions, and even the dreams and desires of sentient beings. Being able to see the Mana in all things also gives you glimpses of knowledge usually reserved to the most devoted students of Observational Magic.
“Wow. Thanks.”
BEGONE.
Hawke returned to the spot in front of the Vault. The big metal box shimmered for a few seconds before disappearing from sight. He’d gotten a once in a lifetime chance, and he thought he hadn’t wasted it.
Quest Complete: Open the Vault of the Sidhe
You have earned 1,080 Experience (120 diverted towards Leadership).
Current XP/Next Level: 4,564/16,000. Leadership XP: 5,169/6,000
You have found: 20 gold.
He turned towards his friends, and froze. He could see the Mana flows running through their bodies, more clearly than he ever had even after hours of meditation. But it was more than that: he could see their Chakras, and the way their happiness at seeing him altered the energy coursing through their bodies. He felt Tava’s love for him and the way it linked them together, and the different quality of what he and Nadia felt for each other. Hawke looked at Saturnyx, and in a flash of understanding realized how powerful, beautiful, and terrible the Fury was. Not terrible as in evil, but powerful and deadly, someone to respect and even fear, but who also loved him with a fierce loyalty that was scary in its own right.
“Get anything good?” Gosto asked, and Hawke saw the Druid’s connection to the Nature God and even caught a glimpse of Cerunnos himself. With an effort, Hawke shut down the flow of information. If he kept it going, he would probably lose his mind. Turning his Advanced Mana Sight on wouldn’t be something he did lightly.
“You could say that. Something pretty damn good.”
Twenty-Six
“Is someone going to have to kiss him?” Nadia asked as the party looked over the still form lying on the stone slab in the middle of the clearing.
Abuxiel of the Unseelie Court was close to eight feet tall, with the emaciated physique that the High Fae seemed to favor and which made Elves look overweight. He was wearing a shirt and loose pants made of something silky that kept shifting colors whenever you moved your head, sort of like an oil slick with extra brightness. He had long copper-colored hair, a chalky complexion, and sported a short goatee and mustache. All in all, Hawke wasn’t terribly impressed, at least not until he turned his Mana Sight on and realized the guy might not be a god, but could hang out with them without looking out of place.
The Sidhe Prince might be in a coma, but his Mana wasn’t just flowing through his body at much higher frequencies than anything Hawke had seen before, it was ‘flavored’ with dozens of emotions. Anger was pretty high on the list, but also hatred, cold calculation, and a sense of anticipation for something that he identified as revenge. The Sidhe had been thinking about delivering some payback for hundreds of years. Hawke shuddered at the thought of what the ancient monster on the slab would consider a fitting revenge. And given the power levels Hawke could sense running through the still form on the slab, Abuxiel could turn most of his dreams and desires into reality.
The Fae was not in good shape, however. He had been poisoned with a supernatural substance that destroyed matter and energy on a fundamental level. The puke-green energy of the poison was so nasty that if the Prince died while it was still
in his system, it wouldn’t just remove him from the Realms. The destructive agent would remove the memory of his existence and even his actual history. Reality would rewrite itself so that nothing Abuxiel ever did happened. Hawke couldn’t begin to understand how that sort of thing was possible, but unless his new senses were deceiving him, that stuff made plutonium seem downright pleasant. Abuxiel was in the magical equivalent of a medical coma, keeping the poison from spreading while his metabolism slowly cleaned it out.
Abuxiel (True Name Hidden) (High Fae Noble)
Level ?? (20)
Health 2,600 Mana 2,600 Endurance 2,600
“I’m not kissing him,” Hawke said. “I might end up with a first husband on top of everything else, and my household is already getting crowded.”
“I doubt any sort of intercourse is necessary,” Tava replied. “Magic kept him here. Magic will revive him.”
“I know. I’ll do a scan and see what we need to do. Stand back a ways. Maybe hide behind 3PO. Just in case.”
As soon as his friends were at a safe distance, Hawke sent a Mana tendril towards Abuxiel. As soon as he made contact, a notification opened up:
You have found: Sidhe Prince.
Revive? Y/N
Awaken? Warning: If you awaken Abuxiel, the poison will destroy him in twelve seconds. During that time, he will try to avenge himself on those who condemned him to death. Y/N
Leave? Y/N
Hawke’s instincts told him to leave or destroy the Fae, even if that meant a nasty fight they might well lose, but he had made a promise. He chose Revive.
You have chosen to Revive the Sidhe Prince.
Current Time to Awakening: Ninety-six years, three months, two weeks, and one day.
Mana Needed to Accelerate Process: 1 point to advance the Awakening by one month.
Total Mana Needed: 1,155 (867)
Hey, my Mana discount applies to whatever this is!
Which was great, but he only had a total of 676 Mana even with the bonuses from the Battle-Mage set. Hawke wondered why the Prince’s minions hadn’t been able to do it for him; they should have had more than enough Mana.
If you say so, Hawke said. He couldn’t do it alone, that was for sure.
“You can come back. I’m going to need your help,” he said, and explained the situation.
“Ritual magic,” Nadia said. “You can get multiple adepts to contribute their Mana to a spell. That’s generally a specialized ability, though. Without it, it is still possible, but only spellcasters can join in. You, me and Gosto. And it’s not going to be efficient. The ritual leader can contribute Mana freely, but the assistants can add only about one Mana for every two Mana they spend. Fifty percent wastage, in other words.”
“I might be able to do better than that,” Hawke said. “But even if we waste half the Mana you contribute, we have enough to wake him up. Let’s do it.”
They joined hands and concentrated. His Mana Sight showed him the energy flow in the two casters’ systems, and how they sort of hiccupped as they sent their power out of their bodies. He gathered the energy and aimed it at the pattern around the Sidhe Prince. The Quest itself provided the conduit for the energy: the energy flowed into Abuxiel’s body, helping remove the poison at an increasingly faster rate. It was like using a hydro-jet machine to unblock a pipe, adding pressure until a blockage was pushed out. As the process continued, Hawke realized that for every Mana point he was adding to it, hundreds more were being contributed by the Mana Node below the stone slab; the energies required to heal Abuxiel were beyond anything he and his friends could provide, but without their contribution, the cleansing would have taken years instead of a few minutes.
You have learned a new Ability: Ritual Magic I
You can now use Ritual Assistants (anyone who can use Mana to empower spells or abilities) to contribute their magic towards casting a spell. Ritual spells increase their base casting times by a factor of ten. This is reduced by ten percent per Ritual Magic Level. At first level, sixty percent of the Mana contributed by Assistants will be added to the spell.
Another thing to keep track of, Hawke sort of grumbled.
Having to stop and look at all his options before doing anything could become a problem in the future. The important thing was that the process was working. The Prince probably didn’t trust any of his fellow Fae, so he had been forced to wait for some kind strangers to free him. Towards the end, the poison seemed to react to the cleansing process. Hawke felt like it was looking at him. Like it was alive and aware, and it knew what he was doing – and didn’t like it one bit. The feeling scared the crap out of him, but a moment later, the poison was gone.
Awakening Complete
Abuxiel of the Unseelie Court sat up and looked around. Hawke felt the Fae’s presence driving into his mind. It wasn’t a pleasant process at all, but only lasted a couple of seconds. The Prince stood up, towering over everyone present, gave them a tiny bow, which was still a bigger show of respect than Hawke would have expected.
“I will not forget the debt I owe you,” he said in a deep voice, and disappeared.
Quest Complete: Awaken the Sidhe Prince
You have earned: 675 Experience (75 diverted towards Leadership).
Current XP/Next Level: 5,239/16,000. Leadership XP: 5,244/6,000
You have found: 15 gold.
You have earned +200 Reputation with (Unknown Faction)
You have earned -300 Reputation with (Unknown Faction)
New Quest Available: Claim Your Reward
Abuxiel has been revived! Travel to the Capital of the Unseelie Court and publicly proclaim your deed to receive your reward.
Objective: Reach the Forest City of Mommur, deep in Alfheim, the Faerie Realm.
Rewards: 5,000 Experience. Unknown Reward.
Penalties for Failure: None
Accept? Y/N
Hawke picked ‘Yes.’ He had no idea how to reach Alfheim, but that was probably something that could wait until he reached a higher level. Probably in the twenties or thirties. He’d just save the Quest and take care of it when he figured out how to get there.
“Everybody okay?” he asked.
Nadia shivered. “That was one scary guy. Although it looks like we all got a follow-up quest.”
“The Lands of Faerie are beyond the reach of mere mortals,” Tava said. “We will have to advance much further on the Path before we can cross over.”
“We’ll burn that bridge when we get there,” Hawke said. “I guess we have one thing left to do, Nadia and I, and then we can blow this popsicle stand.”
“You will claim this Mana Node, then?” Tava said. “If you don’t, a new Lair may rise here, or worse, the Necromancer will take it for his own purposes.”
“That’s the plan. I’d feel better if everyone else is out of the Lair first, though. In case things go sideways and the whole place collapses or explodes or something.”
“We will wait for you back on the hill,” Tava said. “You will call me, should you have need of us.”
“I will.”
Tava, Alba and Gosto left. Nadia waited a bit, then stretched in a most distracting way.
“Alone at last,” she said with a grin.
“Business before pleasure.”
“Spoilsport. I take it you want me to do my Quest first.”
“Yeah. I would like to claim the Node as soon as I’m done. And send you out before that, just to be safe.”
“You can’t protect everybody, Hawke.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t try.”
Twenty-Seven
Hawke watched Nadia approach the stone slab where Abuxiel had lain. The Mana Node was located right underneath, where its energies had focused on healing the Sidhe Prince as well as providing magical susten
ance for his army of monsters and minions.
His Advanced Mana Sight let him notice the Sorceress’ fear as she reached out, and the way her energy flows sort of froze for a moment before she sent a trickle of energy toward the Node and received a notification. He could even see the message as a magical construct floating in front of her, although he couldn’t quite read the words on it. Not yet, at least. Hawke was beginning to suspect his new gift was going to change a lot of things for him. He was catching glimpses of the Realms’ weird ‘magical mods’ on reality. Or maybe he was seeing the code behind reality itself. That scared him a little. This was turning a little too much like those old Matrix movies.
After several minutes, he noticed Nadia’s energy change. There was an infusion of power from the Node itself, rushing through her Mana Pool and changing it in small but definite ways. She was still an Elf, but not just an Elf, not anymore. Her Health increased by a significant 35 points, bringing her up to over a hundred. Her energy channels became wider and the energy flows through them moved faster, raising her Mana Pool and regeneration beyond her previous limits. Her Chakras were still dormant, but they were closer to opening up than Hawke’s had been when he had begun working on them. He should be able to teach her how to do it faster than he had.
I hope you change your mind about retiring, he thought. You could become a major Power in the Realms.
It’s true. But we live in the Realms now. How much peace will she enjoy if someone looking for trouble comes along, and she isn’t strong enough to stop them?
Hawke didn’t like the answer, except the part of him that wanted to keep going, to keep overcoming challenges. He was itching to awaken his Sidhe heritage and then take over the Node. To become good enough to take on the Necromancer, and not just to save his fellow gamers, but to know he could do it. That didn’t say much about his character, he suspected. But without power, he would only be a victim of those who had it.
Lord of the Dead: A LitRPG Saga (The Eternal Journey Book 2) Page 15
