The Land: Forging (Chaos Seeds Book 2) (27 page)

That made Richter wonder about the bonus from his Herb Lore skill. Herbs were supposed to be 3% more effective per level, so he should get a 114% bump now. He pulled a sprig of forest sage, one of the common healing herbs that grew in this region of the forest, out of his Bag.

Forest sage: Ingesting this will restore 21.4 health points over 30 seconds. You also get the feeling that this is a component of cure poison potions and will make a savory dish to boost stamina.

Still not as good as potions, Richter thought, but a definite improvement. The restoration potions were all useful, but not what Sion was excited about. He handed over two more to Richter.

You have received: Potion of Bottled Fire. When smashed, this
potion
will create a 5x5 foot circle of intense flame. Anyone inside the AoE will suffer thirty health damage per second. Duration: 20 seconds.

You have received: Bottle of Pure Light. Shake potion vigorously to activate. Will emit an intense light that drives back creatures of negative alignment. Activation will render
potion
inert. Duration: 10 minutes.

Richter congratulated Sion profusely. The sprite looked embarrassed for the first time Richter had ever seen, but was clearly pleased as well. He warned Richter that he wouldn’t be able to make other
high-level potions
unless they found more crystal. Richter just looked at him in confusion, and Sion explained that powered crystal was an important resource in making magical equipment and arms. Richter shook his head. It meant just one more thing that he would have to take care of when they got back. He would have to ask Randolphus about it. How was he supposed to remember all of these things? Just then, Futen caught his eye, though.

“Futen, remind me to ask Randy about finding more crystal when we get back to the village.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

Ha! I may not be Master Chief, but I do have my own Cortana, he thought.

Alma glided above them, often flying off to hunt squirrels or other small animals. The dragonling never seemed to get enough to eat. She would then come back to circle above their heads or fly down to perch on
Ricther’s
shoulders.
At least
the familiar was fastidiously clean, Richter thought, happy that he wasn’t getting bloody bits all over him. He was walking along letting his mind drift when he noticed a change in an icon at the corner of his vision. The black
dragon indicating Alma had a small gold cross affixed to it. He focused on it and her status window popped up.

The screen was different from his own status page. For one thing, it
was lacking
all of the characteristic points that were on his or Sion’s pages. It also looked like he could invest in his familiar’s abilities. The question was, which ability to invest the points into? He thought about each choice.

The Psi Bond was already useful in that it let him speak with Alma. Who knew what further benefits there could be to deepening the bond? The value of the Psi Blast was obvious as well. During the attack by the bugbears, Alma had been able to break up their lines of defense. The battle could have gone very differently if not for her.

Richter had always been one to play the long game, though. When he was gaming in head to head matches, while other players skirmished and scavenged for as much territory as possible as quickly as possible, he had always built up a solid and defensible base. From there
he would strategically increase his holdings
while keeping his defenses intact. The ability that gave him the best chance of a
long-term
yield would be Brain Drain. Even though he didn’t know exactly what would happen when the ability increased, the extra experience would make leveling a lot easier.

He allocated one point to
Brain Drain
.

You have chosen to increase your familiar’s ability: Brain Drain to level 2. Successful kills will now give 2% of total experience to both you and your familiar. Drain occurs faster. Stun can occur on enemies level 6 and below.

Richter had been right, this was going to come in handy, he thought with a smile. The next level up for
Brain Drain
would require two points. So he left one point unused. He also chose to be notified by prompt of any increase in his familiar’s level in the future.

They traveled until about midday and then Futen stopped. Yoshi and the other sprites stopped walking before
Richter
who had been lost in his own thoughts. He
bumped
into a tree before he noticed that no one else was moving. When he looked
around though, he didn’t see anything except more trees and some ivy-covered rocks.

“So where are we going now,” Richter asked.

“We are here, my Lord, the entrance is hidden behind the rock in front of you.”

Richter and Sion walked up to the vine-covered
rock they had stopped by. He started pulling at the thick vines. The strength of his new body was enough to pull them off easily. Yoshi and Daniella joined them. Richter used his dagger to cut through thicker vines and roots.
Nothing was seen except for bare grey stone
until Daniella called him over. A small circle of clear glass had been set into the rock. Smiling Richter raised his left wrist willing his Mark to show. Then he thought about how he wanted the entrance to open, just as Yoshi shouted, “Wait!”

That was the last thing Richter heard before the ground dropped out from under their feet and they plummeted down into darkness.

Richter came to with a knot on the back of his head and a throbbing headache. The only
light
was from the hole thirty feet above them and from Futen’s soft white glow. It was just enough to illuminate Yoshi’s angry face.

“Stupid gyoti!”

Richter looked over at him, “You kiss your Hearth Mother with that mouth?” Yoshi just started pacing and muttering under his breath. ‘
Gyoti’ was sprite speak for irritating
fool. Sion had called him that
a time
or two. “Is everyone okay?”

Daniella spoke up saying she was fine. Sion groaned and then questioned Richter’s parentage. He took that to mean that his Companion was fine. Yoshi’s pacing back and forth was coupled with a quiet monologue that had a fair amount of
cursing. At the very least, it
reassured Richter that the sword adept had avoided serious damage as well. Richter had lost eighteen points of health, but it could have been a lot worse. Where was Alma?

A gust of air right in his face answered that question. *
Dumb
*, she thought at
him. He couldn’t really disagree with her statement.

Yoshi turned and verbalized his ire directly to Richter again, “You don’t just push buttons and activate magical locks. They can do anything! Do you realize there could have been spikes at the bottom of this pit?”

Richter nodded to show he had heard and then apologized. Yoshi just repeated, “
Gyoti
,” and then started muttering and pacing again. Richter looked around. A new prompt stated:

You have found: Timeworn Dungeon

“Futen, give us some more light.”

The grey
orb increased its inner light until it was easy to see the details of their new surroundings. The prompt had said ‘timeworn.’ That meant the dungeon they were facing was anywhere between 1,000 and 10,000 years old. This was not going to be easy.

They hadn’t just fallen into a sinkhole; they had dropped into an antechamber of some sort. The floor was made of square blocks of
brown stone
. The walls were made of the same material, but the blocks were more rectangular. The surface of each was rough like sandpaper, and the stone had a porous appearance. Crumbling mortar filled the cracks between the blocks, leaving all surfaces pockmarked with holes. Along one wall was a doorway.

The double doors and the doorframe
were made of black iron, and were almost completely corroded through in spots. Despite that, the door was solid and rang loudly when Richter rapped it with his fist.
This of course
earned him another glare from Yoshi, which he ignored. When he started examining the clear circle set in the center of the left
door though,
Yoshi half drew one of his swords. Richter decided there were other things to examine in the room.

Sion was looking at the wall opposite the door. Loose rocks were strewn around on the ground and a series of protruding bricks could be seen in a rising line along the wall. They almost looked like… stairs. Richter realized with a drop in his stomach that long ago a staircase had extended out of the wall. All that was left
now though
was the rubble on the ground. From the resigned look on Sion’s face, he had come to the same conclusion.

“We won’t be leaving this way,” Sion said.

They all just looked at each other. Richter pointed
at the door, “We need to go forward then.”

“No,” Yoshi said sharply. “We are in this hole because you acted rashly. After the attack on your village, I would have thought you had learned your lesson.” Richter opened up his mouth to angrily retort, but the truth of Yoshi’s words and the guilt from his latest mistake combined to keep him silent. Yoshi continued, “There are cracks in the walls. With the climbing boost in our armor, we can reach the top.”

Richter looked at the walls doubtfully. He had seen Sion scamper up a tree like a squirrel, but he had yet to test the climbing properties of his own enhanced armor. He was also lugging a lot more weight around than the three and a half foot tall sprites, and even more then Yoshi with his half-human frame.

“We are here to beat this dungeon,” Richter said. “We can’t turn back at the first little bump in the road.”

“I am not saying we give up,” Yoshi said. I am saying that we get to a safe place, ideally outside and thirty feet above our current position. Then we can approach this quest from a position of strength. At the very least, we can tie off a rope and climb back down. Then we would have a ready escape if we needed it.”

Richter was about to concede the point
when Daniella shouted and pointed behind Yoshi. Faster than Richter could follow, the sprite had one of his swords out and slashed downward. The creature that had jumped at him from one of the holes in the wall fell in two pieces. Yoshi leaned over to look at it and called out, “More light.”

Futen was in another corner in the room
and did not move. Sighing Richter said, “For the duration of this mission,
do
as they say, Futen.” Richter didn’t wait for the
remnant, though, and cast
Simple Light
. A white ball of light appeared
about
his head.

The insect, because it was clearly somewhere along that particular branch of the genetic tree, was about one-foot long. The black carapace reminded Richter of a
cockroach,
but it was split into three distinct segments. The mouth was framed by serrated pincers and sharp teeth could be seen lining its jaws. It had six thin legs, and its blood was green. The fluid steamed slightly where it
dripped
out along with white viscera. Yoshi swore as soon as he saw it.

“Open the door!” The sword adept had
drawn
both blades. Once Sion and Daniella saw the bisected insect, they cursed as well and nocked arrows.

“Why,” Richter asked. “What’s going on?”

“Open the door!”

“What’s the problem,” Richter asked confused. This bug thing had been easy to kill.

“They are coming! Listen!”

All Richter heard was a low buzz. It was getting
louder,
though, and pretty quickly… and it didn’t sound like a buzz anymore. It sounded like… scratching… like maybe the scratching of countless sharp legs on stone…

Richter ran over to the door and held his Mark to the glass circle willing the portal open. The doors started opening inward, but then they ground to a halt. A squealing of gears created a head splitting racket. The horrible noise had to compete with the skittering and scratching sounds that were now horrifyingly loud. Then the holes in the wall exploded with the bodies of hundreds of the foot-long bugs. The squeezed through the small spaces like roaches through a small crack in the floor. They looked exactly the same as the last one, and they were swarming towards Richter and his comrades!