The Land: Forging (Chaos Seeds Book 2) (37 page)

The motion reminded him of one of his first fights in The Land. He had killed a wolf that had been inches from ripping his throat out. After he had stabbed it to death, he been left lying on his
back.
Richter had thrown a fist into the air in celebration, just like he was doing now. Immediately
afterwards
however, he had been torn apart by two more wolves that he hadn’t seen. Sion might have been able to save him, but the sprite had just stood by
let
him be killed.
Even though the sprite was physically nearby, Richter had died horribly and alone. That wasn’t the way of things anymore, though.

Looking at the three sprites who had just saved his life, he knew he wasn’t alone, and as long as Sion lived, he would never be alone again. He locked eyes with his Companion and nodded. The sprite nodded back, a sure smile on his face. Richter looked back at the ceiling and laughed again, “My name is Richter you buttheads! You mess with me; you mess with my boys!”

Richter healed himself over the next five minutes. By the time he had gotten back onto his feet, Daniella had healed Yoshi from his cold burns and Sion from a swipe he had taken across the abdomen. The blow must have been hard because it had scored the sprite’s is armor and punctured it in one place. Sion didn’t seem any the worse for
wear though and was walking around to the piles of dust the fades
had left. He sifted through the ash and scooped a pinch of
a sparkling
purple powder into an empty vial.

Richter looked at the pile of ash at his feet. Slowly sifting through the dust, he found a small amount of the purple dust as well. Examining it, a prompt appeared. His rank as an apprentice in Herb Lore came into play, teaching him three potential uses.

You have found: Spectral Dust. You have the feeling this could be used in an invisibility potion, a spectral poison, or the component of making a Blur item.

He examined the other prompts that came up during the fight.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Dual Wield. You can use a weapon
in
both hands. Accuracy decreased in both hands, worse in nondominant hand. At least one weapon must qualify as a light weapon until
skill
is leveled appropriately. Ignoring this constraint will greatly increase drop in accuracy.

Richter looked closer at his combat log from when he was fighting with both daggers. Accuracy was decreased 25% in his right hand and 50% in his left! No wonder he had been missing so much!

Congratulations! You have reached level 2 in Small Blades. +2% attack speed. +2% bonus to damage.

Congratulations! You have reached level 4 in Life Magic.
New spells are now available.

The bump in attack speed was nothing to sneeze at. All things being equal, daggers and short swords would likely never completely match longer weapons in raw damage potential, but if you were able to make twice as many attacks in the same amount of time, then who cared?

Richter let Sion collect all of the spectral dust since. He made sure to tell the sprite about the three qualities he had identified. The fades hadn’t dropped any other loot. Alma dropped down to his shoulders. He had told her to remain above the fray with Futen. The temperamental psi dragonling
had of course
ignored him, and he had seen her sweeping down to use her psi blast.
Unfortunately,
it had no effect on the fades, perhaps because they were pure spirits. She had narrowly avoided being caught
on
razor sharp claws. After
that
she had decided the smart move might be to hover above the fray.

The party gathered and looked at the open skeleton doorway. Richter convinced the others to remain behind while he scouted ahead. The plan was for Futen to turn invisible, and lead the way. When Futen had first been summoned, he couldn’t be more than one hundred yards from Richter if they weren’t in the village. That range seemed to have expanded to more
than twice that. Either way, Richter didn’t want the remnant more than one hundred yards ahead. If there were any more lightning crystals or other magical traps, Futen could come to a bad end.

Richter moved to the doorway, cast
Night Vision
, and then walked into the dark hallway. He tried to activate his stealth
skill,
but was unsuccessful. More accurately, he could
Stealth
but the “eye gauge” remained wide open. When he was in stealth mode, if he was successfully hidden then an icon with a closed eye appeared at the corner of his vision. The less effective he was in concealing himself, the wider the eye grew until it was fully open. The eye was still green meaning he
wasn’t being
directly visualized by an enemy, but he was a bit concerned that his ability was on the fritz. Suddenly he realized there was more light in the tunnel than there should
be
. Slapping his hand to his forehead, he dismissed
Minor Life Aura
. After
that,
he was easily able to cloak himself in shadow. Between Futen as his early warning system, and the shadows hiding him from view, he felt well protected.

The hallway was made of long bones. Richter had to be careful of his footing, the knobs at the end of each bone made walking somewhat treacherous. He walked
slowly though
and avoided any noisy falls. He continued walking straight for a bit less than half an hour, and then the hallway opened up into a large stone room.

Horizontal alcoves were carved into the walls. Any given section of wall had three stacked, floor to ceiling. Most were filled with corpses or skeletons. What captured Richter’s
attention though, was the mass of fades
in the room. There were multiple
dooways
leading off at odd points from the chamber. The
fades were slowly moving in and out of the room and into
the adjacent corridors. At most there were fourteen or fifteen in the room at one time, but sometimes there were only five.

Richter mentally summoned Futen back, and then made his way back to the rest of the party. He related what he had found, and a quick discussion ensued. They didn’t have a sure way to attack the creatures since they could phase in and out. The best option would be to draw them back into
the
central chamber, and into the light of the column. Richter had the best movement speed, and so it was decided that he would draw the
fades
. The other three situated
themselves
in the light of the column at the far end from the skeleton door.

Richter was about to start walking back down the bone hallway
when Yoshi stopped him. “I saw you recharge the wand. Do you have any spare soul stones to do the same for my swords?” Richter nodded and Yoshi handed him one of his swords.
At first it showed up as ‘Magic sword,’ but Futen flared and Richter got to see the weapon’s real stats.

Quicksilver Rapier of Frost. Damage 32-41. Durability 86/100. Item class: Rare. Quality: Exquisite. Weight 1.9 kg. +5 Frost Damage per strike (+12
vs.
Fire creatures). Charges 48/70.

Richter’s eyes widened at the weapons stats. He looked at
Yoshi,
who gave him a smug look, then closed both eyes nodding slightly. Richter just chuckled a bit. No matter how much he and the adept fought, they apparently had one thing in common. They both liked a good blade.

Richter willed one of his basic soul stones to power Yoshi’s sword. The ribbon of light flowed into the weapon, replenishing fifteen charges. Richter figured that was enough for now, and handed the sword back. He did the same for Yoshi’s other blade, replenishing twelve
charges. He could have maxed the charges out on both, but only had two basic soul stones left. He decided to use one more basic stone on his Life dagger, bringing it back up to full charge. He checked to see what the Fade had awarded him, and was pleased to see that he had captured a common level soul.

Once he was done with his enchanting duties, Richter went back down the hallway with an invisible Futen leading the way. He made his way back to the room unmolested.

When the four of them were discussing the best way to proceed, they had decided to draw the smallest amount of fades as possible. He watched for several minutes until only six
fades
were present. Not wasting any time, he shot the closest with his bow. Surprisingly, it didn’t phase out of view. It must be an active ability, Richter realized, meaning the
fade
had to will it to happen. The arrow struck and immediately they all began their horrible wailing.

The fades moved towards him, but again not overly fast. Richter retreated up the tunnel. He would run twenty or thirty yards, and then stop, waiting for them to close part of the distance. He didn’t want to lose them. He kept firing back periodically. His first shot missed as the fade phased out of sight. He learned that if he targeted the same fade again in
succession,
though, his arrow would connect. Thankfully, it seemed that their ability had a cool down period.

Once Richter made it back to the central chamber, he dismissed
Night Vision
and rejoined the sprites. He quickly recast his buffs, and then turn to meet the
fades
. The monsters didn’t even make it to the central column. Once they were within the radius of the light, they
slowed just like the previous slain fellows had. Under the fire of three bows, soon all that remained were piles of dust.

Richter repeated the process five more times. On his seventh trip down the tunnel, he watched the chamber that he had been drawing the fades from for ten minutes, but he didn’t see any more activity. Futen also didn’t see any as he invisibly searched the side rooms, so Richter felt relatively safe that all of the
fades
had been dispatched.

He collected the sprites, and soon they were all standing back in the sepulcher.

“So who is up for a bit of grave robbing,” Richter asked, gleefully rubbing his hands together. They split into two groups, Yoshi and Daniella in one, him and Sion in the other. That way each group had someone with the Pierce the Veil skill. Richter and Sion explored the right side of the room. His wand was out and the blue light swept every surface. Nothing flared white, though. They began to inspect each
skeleton
and found a collection of copper and silver coins. Every so often they found a semi-precious gem.

The doorway to the next room led to another crypt chamber with three more doorways leading off. They looted the chamber and the ones to the right and left. When they approached the doorway of the last
room
though, it wasn’t a simple stone arch like the rest. It was at least twice as wide as the others and was constructed from a type of matte black stone. Sion and Richter could easily see into the room, illuminated by Futen’s light, and the
Far Light
balls Richter cast periodically. The bodies were much better preserved than they had been in the previous rooms. There was no sign of obvious decay, the corpses just looked desiccated. Each was wearing hide or leather armor and had a weapon either at its side or crossed
over its
chest. The alcoves were also upright as opposed to horizontal. Four armored corpses
stool
sentinel on either side of a central closed crypt. Richter used Analyze.

Draugh
Elite Guard. Level 18. Health 740. Magic 0. Stamina 390.
Draugh are
warriors who willingly consign a portion of their souls to be bound to their bodies after death. All personality and individuality are gone, but what remains is a fierce determination to protect the place of their rest. For this reason,
draugh are
normally placed to protect the burial chambers of their former masters. Beware the fierce strength of the undead.

Sion was about to step into the room
when Richter grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

“Something not good is going to happen if we step in there,” Richter said.

“How do you know?”

“You mean other than the fact that there are eight undead warriors guarding a crypt which clearly has a boss inside?”

Sion looked at him sheepishly, “Well if you say it like that, then of course it sounds like a dumb idea.”

“Let’s just go find the others.”

Richter and Sion walked back towards where they had split with Yoshi and Daniella only to find the sprites were already walking back towards them as well. Yoshi had made a makeshift torch with what looked like a bit of old cloth wrapped around the head of a leg bone.