Thirty-Five
The statue room was barely big enough to accommodate everyone, but Hawke moved all the groups there anyway. They weren’t going to stay there long, and the Volunteers would be safer inside than out in the open. He doubted the Necromancer’s minions would follow them into a Labyrinth.
“Our team and Korgam’s will make the next room entry,” he said. “After that, we’ll see. I would like to help level up the new Adventurers, too, but I think sixteen people is a bit much to bring into a chamber.”
“Some encounters in a Labyrinth or even a Dungeon can require large numbers to overcome,” Korgam warned. “Let us see what awaits us next before making a decision.”
“Good point. Did anybody else take the Restore the Seals Quest?”
Egg, Gosto, Nadia and Taggan were the only ones who had been offered the quest. It must be a spellcaster-specific mission, Hawke supposed, and with a minimum level requirement. The five of them gathered around the diamond-shaped tile on the floor. It appeared to be made of simple stone, and was rather plain beside the engraved patterns on its surface. They were very intricate, the kind of thing that would have required computer-guided lasers back home.
“Anybody heard of the Hierarchs of Order?” Hawke asked, wishing he had invested a few more points into the Lore Skill.
“Only what the Quest mentioned,” Nadia said, and she had a higher Lore than he did.
“Some ancient legends mention them,” Egg said. “Dating back from Second Ragnarök. The Hierarchs arose in the Realm of Strife, commonly known as Valhalla in the Northern Tongue, a place where the forces of Order and Chaos are in continuous conflict. The holy order served no gods but instead followed the Maker known as the Architect.”
Sounds like someone who wouldn’t care for the Laughing Man, Hawke thought.
“If the old songs are to be believed, the Hierarchs counted both Demons and Fae as their foes,” the Priest continued. “It makes sense that they would use their magicks to close any paths leading to the Realm of Tartarus. If we had an adept of the Force of Order, restoring the Seals should be easy enough.”
“But we don’t,” Nadia said. “I only got a choice of an Element at level one, and an additional one at level five. Picked Water and Fire. Forces weren’t even an option.”
“They are only available to some Elite Classes at the fifteenth level,” Taggan explained. “Most Adventurers cannot unlock Primal Forces until they advance to the twentieth level in the Path. But anyone who can manipulate Mana should be able to awaken the magicks bound to this stone, I would think.”
Hawke spoke up: “If it was as easy as pouring some energy into the pattern, I don’t think we’d be getting the sort of reward the Quest was offering. There has to be some risk involved.”
“Such truths cannot be denied,” Egg said.
“I would like to use Blessing of the Martyr on each of you, and then examine the Seal before anyone else takes any actions.”
Neither of the Dwarves looked thrilled with the idea of letting Hawke have the first go at the Seal, but they grudgingly agreed. Hawke made sure that if any of them took damage, it would be sent to him, waited until everyone was buffed up, and the turned his Mana Sight before sending a little trickle of energy into the Seal, ready to shut it off if he saw anything dangerous. At first, the Seal rejected the energy. It was like trying to push a stream of water through a solid wall. Hawke pushed on, spreading out his Mana and looking for a way in. Water always found any crack in a pipe or a floor; he followed its lead, putting pressure all around the Seal.
His power found an opening, a magical version of a keyhole, and he turned it. His perspective changed. Hawke found himself hovering over a clockwork Realm of endless gears and shafts, all moving in perfect harmony. Machinery filled everything from one end of the horizon to the other as he watched from an impossible height. The curvature of the planet below was visible, which meant that some of the mechanisms he could see were larger than entire cities, larger than the tallest mountains on Earth. And he knew that everything in that Realm had a place, and that it never changed. That was the ultimate meaning of Order. He didn’t find it appealing at all.
The dizzying vision faded, thankfully; experiencing pure Order for too long could drive someone insane. He pushed the memories aside as a notification demanded his attention:
Unlocking Order Magic: Failed!
Level Requirements Not Met.
That sucks, he thought, but concentrated on the issue at hand.
He had reached the Seal, and he could see how much power he needed. 800 Mana (reduced to 480 as long as he was the ritual leader) would do the trick. It wouldn’t be as simple as awakening the Sidhe Prince, however. Hawke could see the pattern was a test of the participants’ strength and ability to focus. Those who came up short in either department would fail and their energy would be rejected by the Seal. The simplest thing would be for him to do everything himself, but then the others would not get any credit towards their Quest. He couldn’t leave them out.
“We should all try,” Egg said after Hawke explained the situation. “You have done the most difficult part, unlocking the Seal. I believe we are all strong enough to do what is required, but if any of us falter, then the rest must press on, and those who fail will have to try their luck on the next Seal we encounter.”
Everyone nodded. Hawke set up a ritual, had everybody throw in 96 Mana into it, and got started. The Seal accepted their energy and assigned each participant to a section of the pattern. Hawke got a piece by the center, the heart of the Seal’s complex magical circuitry. Empowering it took some effort and concentration, but it wasn’t a problem; with his Mana Sight, he could tell what was working and what wasn’t right away. He finished his piece of the puzzle in a few seconds and then turned his attention to the rest of the ritual.
Nadia was almost done; she had empowered her section with quick, decisive applications of her mind and will. When she learned Mana Channeling, she was going to be someone to be reckoned with, far beyond her level and Class. He left her to it and checked on everybody else. Egg and Taggan were slightly behind Nadia but were handling their part of their job just fine. Gosto, on the other hand, was having problems.
The young Druid was trying to force his power into the pattern, which worked about well as pushing against a closed door instead of turning the knob to open it. Hawke could see what Gosto was doing wrong, but he couldn’t communicate with him. In a state of total mental focus, you stopped hearing or seeing anything; talking to him would be useless. Maybe he should have introduced him to Saturnyx to establish a telepathic link, but he was already uncomfortable with having two people already in contact with his sword. On the other hand… He scanned his link to the sword: it was a complex energy pattern, more convoluted than any spell he had analyzed before. An attempt to explore the pattern resulted in a new notification:
Spellcraft Failed.
Your Spellcraft isn’t advanced enough to analyze Compound or Metamagic Formulae.
Compound Magic? Like mixing two spells together?
Could you teach me?
Hawke shrugged. He had learned a lot by himself, so maybe he could keep going without a teacher. Or he could screw up, like Gosto had. The Druid’s Mana has been dispersed uselessly and the entire pattern began to come apart. Hawke hurriedly jumped in and used his own energy to stabilize the construct, comple
ting the awakening process.
The diamond-shaped pattern blazed with silvery light in a pulse that filled the room. Hawke’s emotions were temporarily numbed as he saw everything around him in a logical, unfeeling way. It was a calculating, cold way to see the world; for several seconds, all he cared about was how everyone around him could serve his purposes. Everyone became a potential ally and enemy, a threat or asset. His closest friends were also the greatest threat because their betrayal could do the most damage. That dispassionate point of view lay at the root of Order Magic, where everything was reduced to mathematics.
Thankfully, the pulse of Order didn’t last long. The Seal remained active, however, creating a powerful field that would destroy most Infernal or Chaos-aligned creatures that dared to enter it. The chamber was now secure against demonic intrusions.
Seals of Order Activated (1/4)
Quest Complete: Learn Seal Inscription
Congratulations! You have learned a new Ability: Seal Inscription I. You can carve magical patterns into a solid surface, infusing them with power.
You have learned a new Inscription Formulae: Simple Spell Inscription.
Simple Spell Inscription: Project and imprint a spell pattern onto a solid surface and add a single Condition to it. The Condition determines when the spell will be activated. Any spell you know can be Inscribed, at the cost of 50 Mana plus twenty-five times the Mana cost of the spell. Once the spell Inscription is activated, it will erase itself. Note: Ranged spells will focus on the nearest viable target; if none exists, the spell’s energy will be lost.
Inscriptions were expensive, although the ability description was a little vague. Hawke suspected that he would have to figure it out the usual way: by trying new stuff until something worked or he got killed. The important thing was that the Seal was up, turning the chamber into a safehouse for the Volunteers. All they had to do was go through another few rooms and find the exit Saturnyx had used a thousand years ago.
It was a simple plan, except for the details.
Thirty-Six
Hawke explored the next corridor and disarmed or simply triggered a handful of traps. At the other end was a closed door; his Enlightenment spell made it glow a deep share of red. That door was bad news. He didn’t want to just trigger the traps, either. They might do something to hurt people even at the opposite end of the corridor.
“Anybody in your group knows about traps?” he asked the Dwarf. “Alba and I are the closest things to experts we have.”
Crommen stepped up. “I do. A Battle Bard’s lore includes some knowledge of trickery and devices.”
“Good. The three of us can examine the door and figure out how to open it without blowing anybody up. And just to be safe, I will cast Gift of the Martyr on both of you.”
“I thank ye,” the Bard said.
Crommen had been the closest thing to a friend Desmond had before he left. The Dwarf didn’t seem to have a problem with Hawke, but he hadn’t been particularly warm toward him or Nadia, either. Thankfully, the Sterns appeared to put professionalism ahead of drama. In fact, all the Realms natives seemed to be better at that than the supposedly more knowledgeable and sophisticated Earthlings. Maybe because they hadn’t been brought up expecting things to always work out in their favor.
The door at the end was solid metal and resembled a bank vault. The three ‘experts’ took some time just looking at it and finding hidden dangers.
“Tripwire on the upper locking mechanism,” Alba called out.
“And a pressure plate on the ground beneath,” Commen added. “Dedicated buggers, these are.”
“Hidden needle spring on the turning handle,” Hawke said, so he didn’t feel left out. “Okay, I think I can have my animated shadow set them all off. I’ll take it from here. There is a ton of magic bound up into the door, and mundane Detect Traps skills won’t be able to deal with that.”
“As you say, Templar.” Crommen hesitated before turning around. “I do have a question for ye, and Korgam’s too far away to overhear and curse me name for asking it.”
“Go ahead.”
“What happened between ye and Desmond?”
“We had a disagreement, unfortunately.”
“He was a good lad. A bit foolish, but we all are at his age, him being little more than a bairn of nineteen years and all. Large for his size, but all humans are bigger than is good for them.”
“I thought he was in his twenties,” Hawke said.
“Nineteen. He said as much, one night we all drank a wee too much, him most of all, and we teased him for it.”
“That foolish boy,” Alba said. “But yet I’ve known many as young or younger, all of whom had far better sense.”
Yeah, but they didn’t grow up on Earth, where they teach you all kinds of stupid notions until you get out into the world and reality beats some sense into you, Hawke thought.
He’d thought Desmond was around his age, or a couple years younger. It was hard to tell, though. Some gamers were emotionally stunted and acted like teenagers well into their fifties or sixties. Hawke didn’t know if Desmond being nineteen made things better or worse. Better, if he grew up and realized holding a stupid grudge would only hurt him, maybe. But some people only grew dumber with age, nurturing grievances until they consumed them.
“I hoped to be his friend,” he told the Bard. “But now he thinks I’m his enemy.”
“Tis a pity. If he comes back, I’ll try to talk to the lad.”
“I would appreciate it.”
With that, Alba and the Dwarf moved to a safe distance, leaving Hawke to deal with the massive door. Time for some Mana Sight. The door and the walls around it lit up in dozens of colors. It didn’t take him long to find four different energy constructs tied into the door. One was a Fireball trap, a big one, holding 600 Mana, which was the power needed to cast forty normal spells. If one assumed a tenth-level caster, that would translate to something like four hundred to four thousand Fire damage. Hawke, who was as fireproof as one could get, could survive that, but nobody else in his party would. And he would definitely not survive the second ‘bomb,’ which was tied to a Bolt of Darkness spell with 400 Mana tied into it; that was another 40-power spell, and his resistance to Darkness was a lot lower.
On the other hand, he knew both spells, which meant that, with his Mana Channeling abilities, he could disarm them. That left him with two other concentrations of energy tied to Mana tripwires, ready to go off if anything living touched the door. The spell forms weren’t familiar. At least, they didn’t look exactly like any spell he knew. As he examined them, however, he recognized some bits of the complex symbols or letters in the spells. Maybe ‘code’ was the better word. A set of instructions telling the Mana bound into the spell what to do. His new Inscription ability spoke of the pattern of spells. Maybe that was what he was seeing.
Hawke visualized each of his spells without casting them. Now that he could see Mana arrangements, each spell looked like a color-coded snowflake, a complex geometrical form, that was unique but shared common elements with similar spells. He compared his spells with each other, kind of like matching fingerprints in a cop show, and soon spotted several repeating patterns. All Light spells had an identical piece of code, for example; that had to be the Element itself. Life and Light spells that did healing shared a different pattern segment, which he could use to I.D. medical spells from any school of magic.
Armed with that information, he started running comparisons with one of the unknown magic on the door. After some experimentation, he discovered that he could superimpose one of his spells over the mental ‘picture’ of the one by the door, and rotate them until he could see pieces that matched. It took a while, since he had dozens of spells (including Abilities that were spells by a different name) in his magic list, but he got there. The first magical trap had a bit of code that matched pieces from both Twilight Step and Dark Step: the teleporting component in those spells, maybe. He set that aside, compared the rest of th
e unknown spell’s code, and came up empty. He already knew how to identify the ‘signature’ of all the Elements and Schools he knew, so whatever that thing was, it belonged to a different one.
He went back to the bit of code he had tentatively identified as ‘teleport.’ He tried to visualize it by itself, and ended up with a floating object that looked a lot like a spell. What would happen if he poured Mana into it?
Ooh, been a while since you called me that.
Okay, I’ll save it for later. Hawke turned to the other spell and did another pattern-match. That one had pieces from the Fire Element, but also from both Animate Shadow, Nature’s Guardian, and his Monster Trainer ability, Summon Monster. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what those three spells had in common. Okay, one of the unknown spells could be some form of teleport, and the other was probably a summoning spell involving a Fire-based critter.
Congratulations! You have raised your Ability: Spellcraft to Level Three.
You have learned: Identify Spell I. You can identify spells you do not know or have not seen before by comparing their patterns to those of spells you already know. Chance of Success: 10% per Spellcraft level; additional bonuses based on the subject’s similarity to already-known spells. Success will reveal some of the spell’s features, including its name. The higher your Identify Spell Skill, the more information a successful attempt will uncover.
“Well, there you go,” Hawke told himself. He tried his new Ability, Identify Spell, on the two magic traps. He ended with one hit and one miss:
Summon Hellhound (Fire, Infernal)
Time to Cast: ?? Cooldown: ?? Cost: 50. Duration: 5 minutes. Effect: Summons a Tartarus Kerberos, a deadly Infernal guardian, with Health equal to 50 plus 50 per level of its summoner.
Lord of the Dead: A LitRPG Saga (The Eternal Journey Book 2) Page 21
